Science of Good Food: The Ultimate Reference on How Cooking Works

Introduction

Where Food and Science Meet

Cuisines change. A new ingredient, cooking technique, nutrition study, piece of kitchen equipment, or the latest dish from a trendsetting chef is enough to evolve the way we think about what we cook and eat. One of the most powerful changes in food in this century has been propelled by the transformative effect of science on haute cuisine. Award-winning chefs and cutting-edge restaurants from Spain to Singapore to the United States have become famous for harnessing the principles of chemistry and physics to create mind-blowing taste sensations. Their early innovations have already filtered down to adventurous home cooks, who are experimenting with foams and using vacuum sealers to cook sous vide ("under vacuum").

The convergence of food and science may seem new, but in fact food and science have always been closely aligned. Candy is a vivid example. The original candies were medicines made by medieval apothecaries. A little honey or other sweetener helped to mask the awful taste of the medicine. By the 1800s, candy makers abandoned any medicinal benefits and focused instead on the pure pleasure of sweetness, developing all manner of sugary confections, from multicolored lollipops to rich-tasting toffee. But you can still see the medicinal origins of candy in throat lozenges and chewable vitamins.

By the mid-1900s, the intersection of food and science was dominated by nutrition. Chefs, home cooks, and consumers became increasingly interested in how food affects our health and in ways to improve food's nutritional benefits. Heavy cream-based sauces gave way to lighter purées of vegetables and fruits. And new cooking technologies such as nonstick pans and microwave ovens allowed cooks to reduce the calories in their cooking. By the late 1900s, interest in nutritional science led to a deeper awareness of food composition and a hunger among chefs for more information about the chemistry of cooking. Fortunately, the discipline of food science had been developing for centuries. Until that time it had focused on processed foods to improve the packaging, shelf life, safety, flavor, texture, and aroma of packaged food products, as well as the technology and machinery necessary to produce food products. From early-19th-century research on canning to the latest studies on flavor perception and food packaging, food science provided a wealth of scientific information about the chemistry and physics of cooking.

In the new millennium, innovative chefs began to use that knowledge to create more exciting dining experiences. They took industrial ingredients like transglutaminase, an enzyme that binds meat into hot dogs and chicken nuggets, and used the enzyme's capacity as "meat glue" to form shrimp "noodles" and to pull pork shoulder from the bone, glue it back together, and cook it under vacuum to create a single piece of meat, richer and more succulent than any pork raised on a farm. Chefs discovered that they share the same goal as food product scientists: to create pleasurable sensations through food and to discover new ones by combining or juxtaposing flavors, textures, shapes, colors, temperatures, and aromas. Ultimately, home cooks also share the same goal of making great-tasting food. And science can help.

The Science of Good Food simplifies the complex science of food for home cooks and chefs alike. Organized from A to Z, it contains more than 1,600 entries that clearly explain the physical and chemical transformations that govern all food preparation and cooking. Entries touch on a variety of sciences and disciplines, including chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, biology, anatomy, physiology, nutrition, flavor science, psychobiology, agriculture,
animal husbandry, food safety, and food product development.

Entries on ingredients discuss the basic molecular makeup of meats, poultry, game, fish, shellfish, vegetables, fruits, grains, cheeses, eggs, doughs, and most other foodstuffs, as well as what happens when these foods react with heat, so that you can cook better with these ingredients. Entries on equipment discuss such topics as why copper bowls make superior egg foams and which kind of grill gives you the best crust on a steak. Entries on chemistry principles unravel the physical and chemical transformations that take place during everyday cooking, explaining things like aeration, caramelization, and gelatinization. Scores of charts and tables, and more than 200 photographs and drawings, help to illustrate the basic principles of food science.

In addition to demystifying the complexities of cooking, The Science of Good Food sheds some light on the confounding phenomena of everyday eating, such as why artichokes make certain foods taste sweeter and what causes some people to think cilantro tastes like soap. We also give you the know-how you need to experiment in the kitchen and solve cooking problems that may crop up. We include more than 100 recipes that demonstrate the science of good and innovative cooking, from Perfect French Fries (page 260) to how to caramelize sugar in a microwave oven (page 398). The ultimate goal throughout the book is to provide practical information that you can use to create better-tasting food. The straightforward explanations of the what, how, and why of food and cooking are intended to help you become a more skilled and confident cook. After all, cooking and science are really after the same thing: helping us to enjoy life. We hope this book helps you do just that.

How to Use This Book
The entries in The Science of Good Food are arranged alphabetically and cross-referenced like an index. An extended index also appears at the back of the book to make it easier to find what you're looking for. Entries are listed in strict alphabetical order, even when they consist of more than one word or of a hyphenated word. For example, Aldehyde appears before Al Dente.

Entries are broken into three sections, called What It Is, What It Does, and How It Works. The first section defines the item and may include a bit of historical or other interesting information. The second section discusses the item's significance in food preparation and cooking and offers practical kitchen tips. The third section explains the science behind the item, including flavor chemistry and chemical transformations that occur during cooking. Other practical tips are included in Kitchen Wisdom boxes, while more detailed science information appears in Science Wise boxes. Interesting food trivia is included in a section called Fast Facts.

The A-to-Z organization of this book makes it easy to find individual items but harder to see the connections between those items. For that reason, the entries are extensively cross-referenced. Let's say you want to know how sauces can be thickened by starch. The Sauces entry is a good place to start, but you'll find out even more by going to the Starch entry, which will appear bold within the Sauces entry. Whenever you see a word in bold, that means you can find more information about that particular item by turning to its own entry. If you don't find what you're looking for in a particular entry, check out the See Also cross-references at the end of the entry. Hopefully the A-to-Z format, the index at the back, and the extensive cross-referencing throughout the book forge these all-important connections between the individual entries.

A quick word about measurements. We have included both imperial and metric measurements throughout. In some case (particularly in the recipes) the metric measurements have been rounded for ease of use. We also included ranges of measurements to account for minuscule differences in food products and cooking conditions around the world. There are no absolutes in food because food comes from living, respiring organisms that are subject to innumerable variables such as climate, soil, and genetics. We have tried to be precise without being absolute.