I like cooking and try to cook at least 1 time every week. I am not a recipe follower and like to add my own touch to food I am going. I heard about this book on seenunseen and decided to give it a read. I liked tone and structure of book and in fact learned about few things that were just intution eralier.
summary of the book:
The book is divided into 8 chapters:
- Zero Pressure cooking: How pressure cookers work and the science of cooking rice, wheat, vegetables, etc.
- Science of spice and flavor: Talks about taste and flavor perception, and the science of salt, sugar, heat etc
- Brown, baby, Brown: Maillard reaction and developing flavors in any cuisine.
- Dropping acid: Acids, basics and science of yogurt, tamarind, mango powder, etc
- Umami, Soda, Rum: the science of baking soda and the usefulness of alcohol in cooking to extract flavors
- Taking it to the next level: The world of sous vide, xantham gum, etc.
- Burn the recipe: Algorithms for rice, base gravies, chapathi, chutney and raita
- The Biryani: All about a good biryani
Thoughts:
The book is funny and talks about cooking in realxed manner. There are tidbits that were totally new to me. I learned few things about salt and use of alchohol in cooking. Overall it turned out to be a good and quick read for me.