From initializing the kitchen, choosing your inputs (in the form of flavor and ingredients), and coping with variables, cooking is a lot like science. So, Cooking For Geeks, the cooking-techy manual with the pre-stained cover, can turn anyone into a good cook.
In the hands of author, Jeff Potter, the mystery rises right out of chemistry and the all-important command for “air” in baking begins to make sense.
Cooking for Geeks is loaded with recipes from the simple tweet-size lentil soup to your chance to impress your friends with slow-cooked short ribs. The recipes range from the ordinary to original, and are sprinkled with equipment and technique pages, plus interviews with well-known food experts.
This guide will help you get started in the kitchen with something more than ramen noodles by understanding the science of chemicals and equipment, also known as software and hardware.
Instead of dense chapters stuffed with too-much-information, topics are introduced as they’re needed, such as a discussion of par-boiling and proofing yeast.
There is no delete key for overcooked vegetables and no reboot for ruined eggs, so read up on simple techniques for success with these everyday foods. Everything you could want to know about eggs is included, even some surprising facts about their molecular structure, and the ‘shock and awe’ method of hard-cooked eggs.
Among the many interviews, you'll enjoy one with a C++ programmer who searched for good pizza when he moved to Atlanta. Over time he learned that this classic geek food does not depend on the flour, type of oven, or temperature, but aha... the "art" of pizza making.
If you’re a gadget geek, the “Fun with Hardware” chapter will send you on a shopping trip. If you’re not convinced you need all the magical gadgets mentioned, you’re not really a geek.
Article comments