On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 11

there was the world of small-scale home and restaurant cooking, traditional crafts that had never attracted much scientific attention Nor did they really need any Cooks had been developing their own body of practical knowledge for thousands of years, and had plenty of reliable recipes to work with I had been fascinated by chemistry and physics when I was growing up, experimented with electroplating and Tesla coils and telescopes, and went to Caltech planning to study astronomy It wasn’t until after I’d changed directions and moved on to English literature — and had begun to cook — that I first heard of food science At dinner one evening in 1976 or 1977, a friend from New Orleans wondered aloud why dried beans were such a problematic food, why indulging in red beans and rice had to cost a few hours of sometimes embarrassing discomfort Interesting question! A few days later, working in the library and needing a break from 19th century poetry, I remembered it and the answer a biologist friend had dug up (indigestible sugars), thought I would browse in some food books, wandered over to that section, and found shelf after shelf of strange titles Journal of Food Science Poultry Science Cereal Chemistry I flipped through a few volumes, and among the mostly bewildering pages found hints of answers to other questions that had never occurred to me Why do eggs solidify when we cook them? Why do fruits turn brown when we cut them? Why is bread dough bouncily alive, and why does bounciness make good bread? Which kinds of dried beans are the worst offenders, and how can a cook tame them? It was great fun to make and share these little discoveries, and I began to think that many people interested in food might enjoy them Eventually I found time to immerse myself in food science and history and write On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the ... interested in food might enjoy them Eventually I found time to immerse myself in food science and history and write On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the ... section, and found shelf after shelf of strange titles Journal of Food Science Poultry Science Cereal Chemistry I flipped through a few volumes, and among the mostly bewildering pages found hints of answers to other questions that had never occurred to me...from 19th century poetry, I remembered it and the answer a biologist friend had dug up (indigestible sugars), thought I would browse in some food books, wandered over to that section, and found shelf after shelf of strange