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chuckroReading “What If?” inspired me to find a book of food science. This one was conveniently available via KindleUnlimited.
I learned an important lesson about chemistry: That I’ve forgotten virtually all of it. Which isn’t surprising given that I haven’t needed to know anything about hydrogen bonds or polar molecules since high school, but is still somewhat upsetting. This is a decent primer if you don’t really understand the science or only half-remember it, though I’ll note that he doesn’t hold back on the 10-dollar science terms. If words like “ovomucin” scare you, you won’t want this book.
There are recipes interspersed into the book, but they remind me of a problem Cook’s Illustrated often has: They’re too fussy for the benefits they provide. One recipe involves cooking a turkey for 24-plus hours at 200 degrees after carefully sterilizing it. I can’t believe that this makes a significantly better bird than a standard 4-6 hour roasting—a roasting that takes place at a high enough temperature that bacterial growth isn’t a concern.
What I really enjoyed were the factoids:
- Marshmallows were original invented to make the marshmallow plant palatable; it’s an anti-inflammatory that was used as a remedy for sore throats. (Modern marshmallows don’t contain any marshmallow, but halva is sometimes flavored with it.)
- Trans fats occur when you make partially hydrogenated oils—that is, fats that are partially saturated with hydrogen atoms along their chains. (Also, “trans fats” are as opposed to “cis” fats—it’s whether the hydrogens are next to eat other or opposite each other along the chains.) Margarine and shortening get around the trans fat bans by fully hydrogenating some oil, then mixing it with unsaturated oil until the consistency is correct. (And a label of zero trans fats may not mean that entirely—the minimum allowed amounts are measured in such a way that there may be much more than that but the USDA still lets you call it “zero.”)
- I knew than cinnamon was antimicrobial, but apparently virtually all of the spices/seasonings we use have antibacterial or antimicrobial effects. Sage contains several effective ones. Garlic and onion can apparently kill salmonella, staph and e. coli. Rosemary prevents fats and oils from going rancid!
- Most recipes that call for scalded milk date back to before most milk was pasteurized: The scalding doesn’t actually do anything at this point.
Overall: I learned a couple of neat things and quenched my desire to read a food science book, but I don’t think this is particularly great—he gets too dense on the chemistry for the layman and also tends towards repetitiveness.
I learned an important lesson about chemistry: That I’ve forgotten virtually all of it. Which isn’t surprising given that I haven’t needed to know anything about hydrogen bonds or polar molecules since high school, but is still somewhat upsetting. This is a decent primer if you don’t really understand the science or only half-remember it, though I’ll note that he doesn’t hold back on the 10-dollar science terms. If words like “ovomucin” scare you, you won’t want this book.
There are recipes interspersed into the book, but they remind me of a problem Cook’s Illustrated often has: They’re too fussy for the benefits they provide. One recipe involves cooking a turkey for 24-plus hours at 200 degrees after carefully sterilizing it. I can’t believe that this makes a significantly better bird than a standard 4-6 hour roasting—a roasting that takes place at a high enough temperature that bacterial growth isn’t a concern.
What I really enjoyed were the factoids:
- Marshmallows were original invented to make the marshmallow plant palatable; it’s an anti-inflammatory that was used as a remedy for sore throats. (Modern marshmallows don’t contain any marshmallow, but halva is sometimes flavored with it.)
- Trans fats occur when you make partially hydrogenated oils—that is, fats that are partially saturated with hydrogen atoms along their chains. (Also, “trans fats” are as opposed to “cis” fats—it’s whether the hydrogens are next to eat other or opposite each other along the chains.) Margarine and shortening get around the trans fat bans by fully hydrogenating some oil, then mixing it with unsaturated oil until the consistency is correct. (And a label of zero trans fats may not mean that entirely—the minimum allowed amounts are measured in such a way that there may be much more than that but the USDA still lets you call it “zero.”)
- I knew than cinnamon was antimicrobial, but apparently virtually all of the spices/seasonings we use have antibacterial or antimicrobial effects. Sage contains several effective ones. Garlic and onion can apparently kill salmonella, staph and e. coli. Rosemary prevents fats and oils from going rancid!
- Most recipes that call for scalded milk date back to before most milk was pasteurized: The scalding doesn’t actually do anything at this point.
Overall: I learned a couple of neat things and quenched my desire to read a food science book, but I don’t think this is particularly great—he gets too dense on the chemistry for the layman and also tends towards repetitiveness.
