Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor
ISBN: 9780231508070
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Columbia University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Food -- Sensory evaluation; Flavor; Gastronomy;

Originally published in France, This?s book documents the sensory phenomena of eating and uses basic physics to put to bed many culinary myths. In each short chapter This presents a piece of debatable conventional wisdom?such as whether it is better to make a stock by placing meat in already boiling water, or water before it is boiled?and gives its history, often quoting famous French chefs, before making scientific pronouncements. In the chapter on al dente pasta, for instance, This discusses pasta-making experiments, the science behind cooking it and whether it is better to use oil or butter to prevent it from sticking. Most of the discussions revolve around common practices and phenomenon?chilling wine, why spices are spicy, how to best cool a hot drink?but more than a few are either irrelevant or Franco-specific (such as the chapters on quenelles and preparing fondue). This?s experimentation, however, is not for the mildly curious, but readers unafraid to, say, microwave mayonnaise will find many ideas here. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Hervé This is a physical chemist of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Paris. One of the two founders of the science called molecular gastronomy, he is the author of Columbia's Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking and of several other books on food and cooking. He is a monthly contributor to Pour la Science , the French-language edition of Scientific American .

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