What Einstein Told His Cook [Paperback]

The second chapter on salt is a perfect example of the kind of misunderstandings this book clears up. More than one TV chef (and more than one cookbook author) has spoken at great length about differences in salt, giving one the impression that there is a basic difference between table salt, kosher salt, and sea salt. There is, of course, a difference, but that difference is based almost entirely on the physical differences, akin to the difference between liquid and frozen water. All salt is sodium chloride. By weight, no type of salt gives a saltier result than another. The very small additional differences between, say, kosher salt and sea salt are in the presence of incredibly small quantities minerals in addition to sodium chloride. Even differences in taste may be due to the differences in physical form. I have a sense that these considerations may be just a little too subtle to be worth all this fuss. I'm inclined to agree, until it occurs to me that if someone hears a statement that 'kosher salt' is less salty than table salt, they may use this as a reason to use more kosher salt and ignore the evidence of their senses that they are indeed eating a lot of salt. This becomes significant if one must lower their intake of sodium chloride.

This book addresses many such confusions, and addresses them accurately and persuasively. It does this so well that Alton Brown wishes he would have written this book. My suggestion to Alton Brown is that with the lesson of this book, he would be able to do a better job of it.

I may be stepping on an intellectual land mine here since I have not yet read Shirley Corriher's book 'Cookwise' so I do not know if she has already been over this territory, but here goes.

I think the definitive book on food science for the masses has not been written yet. This book covers many of the right topics and I found no inaccuracies in the science. But, the book suffers from being a collection of edited columns. Science is about theories explaining facts. For example, a full explanation of salt would involve a discussion of what a salt is, in general, and use this information to show, among other things, why salt is dangerous to people with hypertension and how chemicals other than table salt can influence body fluid volume in hypertensives.

A scientific discussion would extend the notion of salts to what it means to dissolve a salt in water. By doing so, it would clear up the most seriously abused work in cooking explanations. That word is 'dissolve' and it's various past, past perfect and pluperfect tenses. Almost every culinary demonstrator on TV and many writers in cookbooks misuse the term dissolve by applying it to the very different operations of creating an emulsion, melting, and creating a colloid.

I think what I am really recommending as some future Alton Brown project is a book that combines physics, chemistry, and physiology to give an UNDERSTANDING of food, cooking, and health. Understanding is the real goal of science, so that one can apply what one knows in one situation to cooking food in other situations. Strange as it may seem, this is an almost perfect characterization of what Herr Brown believes he is doing.

The subtitle of this book, 'Kitchen Science Explained' is a perfect representation of how this book is not science itself, but the carrying of science to the 'gentiles'. In itself, the title is a redundancy, since science itself is explanation incarnate.

This is a very good book. I found no errors (I was a professional chemist, so I would probably have found really bad errors if there were any) in science. I believe the writing is lucid and entertaining. I believe the author is always intellectually honest in saying when either he does not know the answer or if science in general does not yet have an explanation.

The only point of my ranting is that this is not the ideal book on food science which bridges the gap between the research of Harold McGee and the practical worlds of Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher. A book that comes a lot closer to this goal is McGee's book, 'The Curious Cook'.

I recommend this book to anyone with any curiosity about food. Excellent reading even if you don't cook.

The author, chemistry professor and popular food writer, explores some of the more 'controversial' ingredients such as sugar, salt, fat, and other chemicals used in the kitchen and their known effects on us. He also answers (or at least makes a good attempt to answer) some of the nagging questions about food and its preparation, such as microwave issues and MSG. Lots of not-always-useful-but-interesting tidbits (pardon the pun) are also thrown in, like the answers to "can eggs be frozen?" or even "what do you do with the wine cork when the waiter gives it to you?" to spice things up.

While the explanations in the book are scientific and accurate, they are written in an accessible and entertaining way. Minimal chemistry knowledge is required.

A great book for anyone who eats. Better still for anyone who cooks.