Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food (3 page)

This book is designed for use in a couple of different ways.

If you want to “just cook,” flip to the recipe index, pick a recipe, and skip straight to that page. The surrounding text will explain some aspects of the science behind the recipe. While the recipes in this book are chosen to complement and provide examples of the science, they’re also recipes that are fantastic in and of themselves. Most of the recipes are for single components — say, beef short ribs — without accompanying sides. This allows the various components of a meal to be covered in appropriate science sections, and also keeps each recipe short and easy.

If you’re more interested in curling up with a cup of
$favoriteBeverage
, pick a chapter based on your interests and tuck in.

The first portion of this book covers topics you should think about before turning on the oven: how to approach the kitchen and how to think about taste and smell. The middle portion covers key variables in cooking (time and temperature) and baking (air), as well as some secondary variables. The final two chapters address some of the more creative things you can do in the kitchen, either with “software” (chemicals) or “hardware” (blowtorches!). Recipes and experiments are sprinkled throughout the book, along with interviews of scientists, researchers, chefs, and food bloggers. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this book:

As is so often the case with science, what we don’t know about cooking seems to be increasing at a faster rate than what we do know. And then there’s the difference between theory and practice (in theory, they should be the same; in practice, hahaha). One research paper will find that myosin (a protein in muscle) denatures in fish at 104°F / 40°C, while another reports 107°F / 41.7°C, and yet another at an entirely different temperature. Maybe it’s the type of fish that matters (lean versus fatty does make a difference), or maybe it’s just
that fish
. Biology does not confine itself to simple models, so when you’re trying to combine the various pieces of information into a uniform picture, some discrepancy is unavoidable.

So much of cooking is about sharing, community, and discussion. Beyond this book, here are a few places to share your creations, comments, and questions.

I extend my thanks to my good friends Mark Lewis and Aaron Double. Mark suffered through the first versions of both the food and the chapters and provided invaluable feedback on both. Aaron spent too much time turning my chicken-scratch sketches into the charts and diagrams that appear throughout the book. (Aaron is an amazing industrial designer — see
http://www.docodesign.com
— and he can use Illustrator faster than I can use paper and pencil.) Barbara Vail and Matt Kiggins helped dig up research papers on everything from the aforementioned myosin proteins to average weight gains during the holidays (about 0.5 lbs — not much, but it turns out we don’t tend to lose it the following spring), while Quinn Norton fed me congee and helped in more ways than one with the interviews and text.

I’m extremely grateful to the many chefs, bloggers, researchers, and scientists who took time out of their often insanely busy schedules to speak with me. Their insights helped shape the way I think, and I hope the resulting interviews in the book are not just informative, but fun.

Thanks to all those who joined me for the weekly Book Club and Test Club dinners while working on the book, and, finally, thanks to Marlowe, Laurel, Brian, Edie, and the team at O’Reilly and the tech reviewers whose feedback has made this a better book. And of course, thanks to my parents for being so supportive and encouraging. I’ll try to not splatter duck fat on the ceiling next time I’m home.

I hope you have as much fun trying out the various ideas in this book as I did putting them together!

My first cookbook, circa 1984.

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