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Title: Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)
ISBN: 023113312X
Author:
Herv?? This
Publicate Date: 2005-12-09
Publish: 2005-12-09
List Price: $29.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $18.38
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $17.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $19.77
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| Customer Review: |
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1: interestng, but seriously flawed
This book is one of many that points to the relationship between science and the culinary arts: to the physical and chemical magician behind the curtain of delight. A book that attempts to do that has certain responsibilities and the greatest of these may be accuracy. I lost count of the mistakes, but some of the simplest are the temperature conversions from celcius to fahrenheit. The cook attempting any of the procedures in the book should double-check the temperatures recommended and the fahrenheit-based cook should just beware.
The other important duty of such a book is clarity. Molecular Gastronomy isn't so much translated from the French as it transcribed by machine. Very often it's impossible to figure out through the haze of translation what the author is actually recommending.
On a lesser level, one could ask for a bit of originality and this book does have a bit. The level of ambition is also lamentably low: does anyone really think that putting a spoon in a champagne bottle delays the decarbonation? Are blowing and stirring the only methods of cooling over-hot coffee? How concerned are you that the yolk of your hard-boiled egg be centered in the white?
For most readers, Harold McGee's splendid On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen is vastly superior.
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2: interesting, sometimes dry or explanations unclear
As a biochemist, I enjoyed reading this book. The connection of science and cooking is very interesting. Sometimes, the information is presented too dryly. The science behind the book is usually presented clearly, but I did find a couple of minor scientific errors. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a scientific explanation of cooking or how science could be used to experiment with cooking.
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3: For the scientist-cook
After reading the Italian translation a coupe of years ago, I was so much hoping for an English translation, and here it is; and it's brilliant! It's quite one thing to follow recipes and follow instructions, and quite another to understand at a physico-chemical level WHY you need to do things in a certain way. As a scientisty person- really, just as a curious person- you want to know what's happening to the meat that makes it tender and flavorful, or the cake just that right consistency.
I guess the philosophy that best suits me is to understand the science so well that the art is set free to explore. If you understand WHY, you can also figure out HOW to change it. And more importantly for someone like me, you also know WHAT to do when you make mistakes ;)
What makes the book particularly worth the $$ is the extent of the science- right down to the molecular basis of taste.
If I had a complaint, it would be that the articles are WAY too short. This book seems like the summary of what would be the Vedas of food science.
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4: Cooking related...but not a book of advanced recipes or cooking techniques
An interesting pseudo-culinary book.
I must begin by stating that I love to cook and any book, video, program etc. that involves cooking tweaks my interest; and so I approached this book by Herve This (pronounced 'Teess') with great anticipation.
This translated book (and I felt that there may have been a little something lost in the translation) has 101 chapters on various culinary topics; each chapter being no more that 2 - 2 1/2 pages long. Also there is an excellent glossary, index and a list of 'further reading' listed in the back.
I'd been hoping for some advice on French cooking techniques that I could learn and apply to my kitchen skills. And although this book did have some interesting topics and some good suggestions, the advanced cooking tips I'd hoped for turned out to be more generalities than specific instructions.
Rather than discussing how to make a dish, the author goes into great detail as to why certain things happen with certain combinations of ingredients. Initially this sounded exactly what I'd hoped for, but I quickly realized that most of the chapters involved going over cooking experiments and chemical reactions between compounds. In short, this work reminded me more at times of a PhD thesis than an actual cookbook; I felt the finding discussed here would be of more interest to a chemistry major than a chef.
Conclusions:
This is a well written, translated book that ended up an interesting read but not really what I'd being looking for when I decided to purchase this work. I felt that, although the discussions produced in the chapters were relevant to cooking, they were just not really practical for applying to home based culinary usage.
If I'm somewhat disappointed in this book I've no one to blame other than myself; after all, the book jacket clearly states "Exploring the Science of Flavor". Plus, I should have read the other reviews more closely.
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5: What's Cooking?
Not for the faint of heart, but if you want to more fully understand why food changes in flavor and texture when cooked, refrigerated, spoiled, etc., then you'll find insight here. A must read for gourmet cooks!
Kent Goldsmith
elephantvista
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