Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.

Nearly anything you might want to know about the history, etymology, and process of gastronomy is covered in this volume, but even that is too dry a description to really explain how fun it is. As compulsively readable and engaging as ever, the new On Food and Cooking provides countless eye-opening insights into food, its preparation, and its enjoyment. It is not a cookbook, but rather the context for all cookbooks: a stupendous compendium of how food -- every type of food -- works.For example, he describes buffalo milk as being barnyardy and reminiscent of mushrooms and freshly-cut grass. Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is the definitive treatise on this subject that both the professional and home cook will absolutely require to move their cooking forward. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. On Food and Cooking continues to be the most accurate source of information for generations of chefs. He studied science and literature at Caltech and Yale, and has written two prize-winning books, On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook, as well as many articles and reviews.

According to GnuCash, I spent more money last year on cigarettes than groceries; changing that seems a noble enough objective.From Plato’s views on cooking to electron micrographs of cheese to a description of how eggs form in a chicken’s body to the history of beer and chocolate, this book offers an intoxicating wealth of food information, trivia, and science. We cook them to draw out or disable more undesirable toxins and enzymes and to unlock nutrients, and we dilute toxins in the case of spices and herbs to the point where we find them enjoyable. This is an invaluable resource when your kids ask "does THIS cheese have mold in it" or "why does it all stick together if you cook it too long" or when you want to know what makes espresso different from coffee. McGee's scientific approach to cooking has been embraced and popularized by chefs and authors such as Heston Blumenthal, David Chang, Alton Brown, Shirley Corriher, Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Russ Parsons.

Good cooking is honest, sincere and simple, and by this I do not mean to imply that you will find in this, or indeed in any other book, the secret of turning out first class food in a few minutes with no trouble. Though other books have now been written about kitchen science, On Food and Cooking remains unmatched in the accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness of its explanations, and the intriguing way in which it blends science with the historical evolution of foods and cooking techniques. I wish it would have more examples of common mistakes in the kitchen that could be explained by theory. Now, for its twentieth anniversary, Harold McGee has prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking. So it's not about whether or not you want to eat food taken straight from the bosom of mother nature, it's about in what way and to what extent you want to modify and control the food you eat.

Throughout the book you will come across many descriptions of the evolution of techniques and equipment, the reasons for using certain techniques, the evolution of food technology etc. How does the Maillard reaction work, and why is it the greatest thing to hit the culinary art since well before sliced bread? While discussing each subject, McGee does not limit himself to the physical properties of the food at hand, or even how to prepare it. This is the kind of book that will sit next to the stove, dog-eared and grease-spattered, eternally useful, until Personal Chef Robots become fixtures in all of our homes. Harold McGee's original ON FOOD AND COOKING was acclaimed as a masterpiece on both sides of the Atlantic, and won the 1986 André Simon Food Book of the Year.