Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and fun, an enjoyable read
Review: The book "the Curious Cook" was interesting because of the little tips and bits of info you read along the way. Enjoyable and fun.
Rating: 
Summary: The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore
Review: The Curious Cook, the follow-up to the award-winning On Food and Cooking, which was called a "minor masterpiece" by Time magazine, continues to translate into plain English for home cooks what scientists have discovered about food. Harold McGee puts to rest countless time-honored culinary myths and answers questions about the hazards of salmonella in mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce, how you can retain the green in salads, guacamole, and pesto, and how to keep tender meats from becoming tough when braising, as well as the relation of certain foods to heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. Filled with literary and historical anecdotes and packed with fascinating scientific lore, The Curious Cook is a must for every kitchen library."Some works are so original they defy classification. Such a book is Harold McGee's The Curious Cook." -Los Angeles Times "A thoroughly charming and extremely useful new book."
Rating:
Summary: The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore
Review: The Curious Cook, the follow-up to the award-winning On Food and Cooking, which was called a "minor masterpiece" by Time magazine, continues to translate into plain English for home cooks what scientists have discovered about food. Harold McGee puts to rest countless time-honored culinary myths and answers questions about the hazards of salmonella in mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce, how you can retain the green in salads, guacamole, and pesto, and how to keep tender meats from becoming tough when braising, as well as the relation of certain foods to heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. Filled with literary and historical anecdotes and packed with fascinating scientific lore, The Curious Cook is a must for every kitchen library."Some works are so original they defy classification. Such a book is Harold McGee's The Curious Cook." -Los Angeles Times "A thoroughly charming and extremely useful new book."
Rating:
Summary: Curious Indeed
Review: This is an odd sort of a book. If you were expecting to be enriched by lots of kitchen lore and simple explanations (which was my original aim) you would be disappointed. This book tells you much more about tidbits of history, physics, chemistry and physiology than tips and tricks for cooking and is, in truth, quite long-winded.Now if you are also interested in the acquisition of knowledge of various sorts, common as well as obscure, and don't mind being the "most knowledgeable amateur" among your friends, this is an excellent source of information. The author spares no ink in serving up history, scientific theory and experiments (The famous oil drop experiment by physicist Millikan, a Caltech cohort of the author, was featured! Plus many of his own), findings in medicine, etc. in covering a subject, even "simple" ones like browning of vegetables by salad dressings. If you managed through the first couple of chapters, you will probably go on, and you will quickly find that the author is a no-nonsense scientist (Ah! the Caltech imprint) and his stuff is well baked, so to speak. By the time you finish the book, you will learn much more than a few useful tips to augment your cooking skills, and find your reading time quite well spent.
Rating:
Summary: Curious Indeed
Review: This is an odd sort of a book. If you were expecting to be enriched by lots of kitchen lore and simple explanations (which was my original aim) you would be disappointed. This book tells you much more about tidbits of history, physics, chemistry and physiology than tips and tricks for cooking and is, in truth, quite long-winded. Now if you are also interested in the acquisition of knowledge of various sorts, common as well as obscure, and don't mind being the "most knowledgeable amateur" among your friends, this is an excellent source of information. The author spares no ink in serving up history, scientific theory and experiments (The famous oil drop experiment by physicist Millikan, a Caltech cohort of the author, was featured! Plus many of his own), findings in medicine, etc. in covering a subject, even "simple" ones like browning of vegetables by salad dressings. If you managed through the first couple of chapters, you will probably go on, and you will quickly find that the author is a no-nonsense scientist (Ah! the Caltech imprint) and his stuff is well baked, so to speak. By the time you finish the book, you will learn much more than a few useful tips to augment your cooking skills, and find your reading time quite well spent.
Rating:
Summary: for a course in the chemistry of cooking
Review: This is the perfect basis for a fun course in the chemistry of cooking. Suggest McGee's On Food and Cooking as the real reference for the science of food preparation.
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