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On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of…
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On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (original 1984; edition 2004)

by Harold McGee (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3,666423,411 (4.59)29
Educational, with a combination of scientific, historical, and practical information about food and cooking. As its encyclopedic length might indicate, this book wasn’t really intended to be read sequentially cover to cover. However, doing that I found the extreme level of detail to be often dry and a bit challenging. For a more casual (or sensical) reader the book is helpfully arranged into subjects; it would be easy to jump to whatever subject one might find interesting. ( )
  wishanem | May 27, 2021 |
English (39)  Danish (1)  Catalan (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (42)
Showing 1-25 of 39 (next | show all)
This is a MUST-OWN book for everyone and anyone who cooks. I read all of it just by having it on my nightstand. Absolutely great and indispensable. ( )
  womanwoanswers | Dec 23, 2022 |
Educational, with a combination of scientific, historical, and practical information about food and cooking. As its encyclopedic length might indicate, this book wasn’t really intended to be read sequentially cover to cover. However, doing that I found the extreme level of detail to be often dry and a bit challenging. For a more casual (or sensical) reader the book is helpfully arranged into subjects; it would be easy to jump to whatever subject one might find interesting. ( )
  wishanem | May 27, 2021 |
It is not a cookbook, but rather the context for all cookbooks: a stupendous compendium of how food -- every type of food -- works. It is heavy on chemistry (and its closing pages are a chemistry primer I wish I'd had in high school; read this first), but also patient explanations that a layperson / foodie will like: What is emulsification? Why do so many foods turn brown on exposure to air? How does the Maillard reaction work, and why is it the greatest thing to hit the culinary art since well before sliced bread? This is a reference book to be consulted often -- but I read it cover to cover, and enjoyed it lots. ( )
1 vote oatleyr | Aug 22, 2020 |
Highly recommended by David Chang
  lulaa | Apr 27, 2020 |
I love this book. Full of exactly what I wanted to know without knowing what it was I wanted. It works beautifully as a general reference and can be read straight. If you eat, read this book. ( )
  Eoin | Jun 3, 2019 |
Know all about food. ( )
  Fiddleback_ | Dec 17, 2018 |
I used this book while I was in chef school. ( )
  Bethgarvinloflin1 | Jul 2, 2018 |
This fascinating book puts food under the microscope (literally & figuratively), examing ingredients (from sugar to meat) and cooking techniques (like braising and whipping) on a scinetific level. Historical, anthropological, & etymological information.
  jhawn | Jul 31, 2017 |
This is an outstanding reference book about cooking, and the history, science, and biology of food. It is also enjoyable to read through consecutively, thanks to the author's interesting narrative formats and sidebars about etymology of food words, ancient recipes, etc. ( )
1 vote gavbuff | Nov 5, 2016 |
Absolutely classic reference book on cookery and food in general, and not only useful and informative but readable. ( )
1 vote jsburbidge | Jan 15, 2015 |
I think I will always be "currently reading" this book, because I refer to it so often (it sits with my regular cookbooks, even though it hasn't got actual recipes). But I think I can truthfully move it to the "read" shelf. This is an absolute essential for anyone who likes to cook or likes to eat, and likes knowing more about the foods they cook and eat. ( )
  lexmccall | Sep 3, 2014 |
Title pretty much says it all. McGee gives you some very digestible tidbits of food science while also telling you the history & tradition of the foods and techniques he's covering. Far from exhaustive, but not meant to be. It is fairly comprehensive, though. McGee wisely breaks the text down into small sections and gives you the skinny on a huge range of food-related topics in deft, literate prose. There's also a solid. fifteen-page bibliography for those who do go in for exhaustive knowledge on any of the topics he treats. This is a food book for folks that love food but not necessarily food books. It gives you a quick and pleasant way to satiate and stimulate your curiosity about practically any food topic. ( )
  ehines | Jun 11, 2014 |
This book tells you EVERYTHING that you ever/never wanted to know about cooking... so enjoyed it...G. ( )
  Gemma. | May 16, 2013 |
Not a cookbook. Everything you ever might want to know about how food works. How ice cream is made, why bread rises, what kind of molds are in cheese, what are the parts of an egg. And yet, readable. Brill. May however, make you annoy your friends with "well you know, cheese on the Asian steppe in the late Iron Age..." ( )
1 vote bunwat | Mar 30, 2013 |
One of the few books to look at the science that is behind the art of cooking food. This is not a cookbook though it does contain a great deal of tips, hints and instructions to help with cooking. It is really a book for looking up specific subjects, like an encyclopedia, or for reading a few pages at a time, when nothing else is available. It is an extraordinary book that every serious chef should own as a reference. ( )
1 vote icadams | Jul 26, 2011 |
This is an amazingly comprehensive study of the history, sociology, chemistry, and physics of human food and its preparation and preservation. I'd checked it out of the library expecting to read it, but it's more of a reference book than a book to be read. ( )
  dickmanikowski | Feb 18, 2011 |
A really excellent look at the underlying physical phenomena that go on in the process of cooking; this is one of Alton Brown’s top references. McGee covers the physics and chemistry at a level that should be easy for anyone who made it through high school AP Chemistry and accessible to anyone who finds Scientific American readable. In addition to the science, he also includes interesting vignettes of history and etymology, including excerpts from historical cookbooks.

I don’t do a lot of cooking (yet), but in my limited areas of experience, there were some good a-ha moments. This would be a good book to keep on hand to reference any time you work with a particular ingredient or technique to deepen your understanding and suggest new possibilities. It would also be a good book for any high school chemistry teacher to keep on hand to interest a student who knows more about cooking, or to make cooking more interesting for a science type. ( )
1 vote slothman | Sep 2, 2010 |
World's best (and possibly only) kitchen / bathroom book. Highly recommended. ( )
1 vote rrriles | Apr 7, 2010 |
This is a great book full of interesting information on food and cooking science and history. My only complaint is that it is not ideal for quick reference, it reads more like a text book than an encyclopedia. ( )
  KWallgren | Mar 23, 2010 |
This is a great reference book for anyone who is interesting in culinary field. ( )
  hsinwilson | Jul 11, 2009 |
Food and science, with literary allusion and sociology thrown in. Bit textbook-like in its presentation and illustrations - probably available in a sexed-up new edition. ( )
  Jennifertapir | May 4, 2009 |
When I want to understand the muscle fiber structure of octopus, or learn about the history and definition of pumpernickel bread, or figure out how the qualities of corn syrup differ from that of honey, I turn to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. This is an impressively extensive reference book of ingredients, cooking techniques, food history, and food science. The information is grouped in chapters such as Milk and Dairy Products, Meat, and Edible Plants, with a nice chemistry primer covering atoms, molecules and energy at the end. A staggering amount of information is packed into each chapter ranging from interesting facts, history and detailed descriptions to excellent illustrations.

McGee dedicates 68 pages to eggs, covering such topics as how a hen makes an egg, why yolks sometimes turn green when cooked, the eight different proteins that make up an egg white along with their natural function and culinary properties (did you know ovalbumin is 54% of the total protein in albumen and it sets when heated to 180˚F?), plus, a silly cook's joke about cooking eggs on a spit from book printed in the 1400s, and fourteen pages on egg foams. Whew! If you have any tendencies toward research, you will be lost in the pages from the moment you open the cover. ( )
2 vote CPeterman | Apr 14, 2009 |
Very impressive cook-book - without recipes.
Explains in fascinating (and amusing) detail what happens when ingredients become food. ( )
  Popup-ch | Feb 4, 2009 |
Science is awesome. Food science, doubly so. ( )
  snoozebar | Jan 7, 2009 |
Comparing the sections between the earlier edition and later edition of this book made me realize that they actually are complementary but written with very different viewpoints. The first book is all about the science. Some conclusions are applied to food but it always comes back to scientific information as the heart of the material. The second book is first and foremost about applying science to cooking. This may sound like a slight difference and there probably is a better way to describe it but it makes a world of difference when reading the book. Therefore the new Protein section is all about what happens to foods high in protein when heat is applied, or acid is added, etc.

This does not make the new book either superior or inferior. However, it is important to understand that it is a different book. Whether you use it simply depends on what sort of information you need and how you plan to apply it. I am still thoroughly enjoying McGee's new version and am sure it will all come in handy with practical cooking situations. However, when it comes to matters of hard-core science ... only the old version will suffice. In my view, McGee has produced a two-volume set and I plan on using both often. ( )
2 vote julied | Oct 14, 2008 |
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