McGee on FOOD & COOKING

Everything you ever wanted – or didn’t know you wanted – to know about food.

If you have ever wanted to know something about food, an ingredient, its history, preparation techniques, the chemistry behind an ingredient, or why a recipe failed, there’s a good chance that you’ll find the answer in the ’bible’ for cooks – McGee on Food & Cooking.

Or maybe you aren’t looking for the answer to one specific question; you’re just browsing through the book, and suddenly you realize that an hour or two has passed as you’ve been fully immersed in Harold McGee’s book.

The nearly 900-page book looks deserving of respect, and it won’t be color images that will attract your attention – on the contrary. The chemical formulas may cause mild anxiety within some readers – but don’t let looks prevent you from picking up the book and diving in!

While the book is a source of information about food chemistry and physics, even for professional needs, it is written in such an easy-to-understand and interesting format that it reads like an exciting story about, say, the secrets to rising dough or cooking meat.

The book is structured clearly by topic, and information is broken down into smaller chunks, so there’s no need for marathon reading sessions. The book also contains a lot of information about the background and culture of different foods.

Many American cookbooks have a strong local perspective and approach, which can be frustrating, but not this one. You’ll even learn something about Finnish ’ropy milk’.

One of the great things about the book is that it is different for every reader. You will find what you are looking for. And when you aren’t looking for anything, you will find a lot:

Why is meat sometimes tough? What prompted people to start eating stinky cheeses against their better judgment? How do you make breads and pastries fluffy? Why does a sauce first thicken and then become thin? What is the connection between rye and LSD? What kind of sausage did the Romans make?

McGee on FOOD & COOKING

An encyclopedia of kitchen science, history and culture

First published in 1984, the book was updated and expanded in 2004 to satisfy the hunger for knowledge of curious home cooks and professionals.

The book is available in well-stocked bookstores – and if not, it can be ordered – or it can be purchased online. To date, it has not been translated into Finnish.