On Food And Cooking, McGee

I bought this based on some passionate recommendations on the forum. I've gotten through the chapter on milk.

Wow. I had no idea what I got ahold of...what an incredible book. Super impressed with McGee's erudition on these topics, the lucid writing, it's neither unaware of audience nor condescending.

I'm looking forward to another 750 pages of this.

Yeah I borrowed a copy, and I can't read it very much at a time before my brain gets full.

After reading the Milk chapter once, I have not curdled a single thing since. I was the only guy who could make Alfredo sauce in a tilt skillet to the tune of 5 gallons without screwing it up.

That book rocks my world. Everything I get into, it has a bit on. I am obsessed with wine lately, and his chapter on wine is awesome. Everyone says that wine with legs is caused by "a complex chemical phenomenon", but never explains what it is. Well, it's physical, not chemical, and McGee does!

There is a chart in there with flavor compounds for herbs that is two whole pages. A comparison of human milk to whale milk. A graph of how every kind of cheese is made. What more could a cook ask for??

IIRC "legs" are caused by the way the alcohol evaporates and changes the surface tension + viscosity of what's left behind...I'll look forward to the wine section in any case!

It's a really awesome book...I was expecting something that was more "popular press" and with a strong narrative structure...what I got was something at a professional level with a semi-narrative structure (if you squint). Extremely good. This is the kind of thing you could re-read every 14-18 months for many years.