Cooking as a Science is catching on

[Mike Nolan]

The Wall Street Journal has an article up on the increased interest in the science of cooking. It notes that J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's book, The Food Lab, has more reviews on Amazon (with an average rating of five stars) than the 2019 edition of The Joy of Cooking. The article also has several quotes from McGee's On Food and Cooking.

Not sure if the article will come up for folks, but here's the link:

WSJ Article Link

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting. Kenji Lopez-Alt is more accessible than Nathan Myhrvold and his book is much less expensive than the Myhrvold multi-volume set. Plus Lopez-Alt is more fun. I still see plenty of people adding salt to their groud beef before forming patties. And I've read most of what is on Serious Eats about pie crusts.

And, I forgot, Alton Brown has been doing this for years. His wife gave me one of his cookbooks many years ago and, while there is some useful information in it, I've never made anything from it. And his way of making pancakes is opposite of KAF and yet they are both right.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[Mike Nolan]

I always have mixed emotions on Alton Brown. I thought he sold out on The Food Network, I was glad to see him resuming Good Eats, though I haven't watched it much. (I don't watch The Food Network as much as I used to, just not much worth watching.)

Some of his ideas are interesting, others not so much. I tried his popovers recipe, WAY TOO SALTY! Susan Reed at KAF was one of his instructors in cooking school, she says he knew back then what he wanted to do in the kitchen after completing his training.

Kenji is always an interesting read, and I've found very few of his ideas I've disagreed with. His take on science is usually fun, too. Wish I was an invitee to some of his experimental dinners.

[RiversideLen]

In the past year or two, Alton Brown did several episodes of Good Eats, Reloaded (not to be confused with the new episodes). In those episodes he corrects or changes certain steps. For example, in a pasta episode he did the traditional method of using a lot of water to boil the pasta in. In the Reloaded episode he changes that to a minimal amount of water, about an inch over the pasta. In fact, he puts the pasta in the pot, then cold water and brings it up to a boil. I've been doing it that way and it works like a charm. It's faster because the pasta is cooking as the water comes up to temp and there is less water being heated. The texture and taste of the pasta is no different from the traditional method of cooking, at least to me although Alton says it makes better pasta.

I couldn't find that episode on YouTube but I did find this one in which he talks about the science of cooking pasta as well as some other items.
Alton Brown

If you have a streaming device, you can view all his episodes (original, reloaded and the return of) on the Food Network Go app.

I used to love the cooking channels until they became mostly competition shows. I am not amused by the fake drama and they don't teach anything.

[Mike Nolan]

Some of the competition shows are interesting, like Chopped, if only because they come up with ingredients I've never heard of and combinations of ingredients that really challenge the contestants. But the time limits are way too short for serious cooking. I think you can learn a few things from it. But most of the Food Network shows are just silly, and I've never been a fan of Guy Fieri, who seems to be on most of the time.

Not the Food Network, but I gave up on Top Chef at least five seasons ago and Hell's Kitchen lost me a year or two ago, though I always liked the episodes where Gordon cooked something, his skills are amazing.

I am not at all a fan of the kids cooking competition shows, I think they're exploitative. I haven't been able to follow the more recent Great British Baking shows, but without Paul and Mary I think they would be less interesting.

I make my pasta from scratch, I start the water boiling then start mixing the dough, by the time it is ready the water is boiling, so putting the pasta in cold water wouldn't save me any time. And I'm not sure that procedure is as good for fresh pasta as for dried pasta.

I'm kind of surprised no TV network has tried to create a show around Kenji Lopex-Alt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I have mixed emotions about Alton Brown too. According to his biography, he and his wife were working in Hollywood and had a vision of the kind of cooking show they wanted to make. I really liked and learned from the early Good Eats. It was when he did his show about cruising along Route 66 on motorcycles anfd finding interesting food that he seemed to become a jerk. He made one of the people on his crew stand outside a restaurant in a hotdog suit "because he could". Humiliating someone who works for you because you can is never attractive. And he has continued down that path and become more so. But he still has a lot of knowledge and can be very entertaining.

I LOVE Serious Eats. SO much to learn from the people who write for it. And, like Len I started down the path of using less and using cold water because of Serious Eats but it is because of their tips for making mac and cheese that I went down that path.

[Mike Nolan]

Celebrity does strange things to many people. I can't say I've ever heard any bad stories about Julia Child, though. (She was known to be a practical joker.)

[skeptic7]

I like reading about the science of cooking and the stories behind it. I really liked the McGee cookbooks.

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