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I'm Just Here for the Food
Rather than giving precise directions about how many rights and how many lefts, Alton aims to give you the lay of the land. "Cooking is not defined by seasonings ... it is defined by the application of heat." That is why the first six chapters are devoted to a single heating method each: searing, grilling, roasting, frying, boiling, and braising. This first book doesn't cover baking, or other manufactured food. Another book, in a similar vein, by a chemist, Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking , actually begins with baking.
As partial proof of the author's geekiness, I present an excerpt from the introduction to the grilling chapter:
I am typing on a Macintosh G4 Titanium Powerbook, which is roving through my MP3 collection like a digital whirling dervish. When I need to speak to someone, which isn't very often since the G4 is wirelessly connected to the Web through a device in the house, I do so on a Nokia cell phone capable of trading files with my Palm V, which I really should replace since it's so 1999.
He's got his own web site, complete with blog. Throughout the book, he describes approaches to cooking that have everything to do with good food and geekiness, and nothing to do with the manufacturer's instructions. Back to the grill, he's removed one of the plates on the side of his grill and fitted it with a piece of tailpipe. Then, when he's grilling, he sticks a hair dryer in the tailpipe and uses it to whip the coals into an inferno. Which might explain why he gets his oven mitts from the hardware store in the form of welding gloves. When talking about ovens, he describes how he builds an oven out of firebricks, and how he uses a large terra cotta pot to cook a chicken in his oven. It's all in the name of even heat distribution. He's also not above rewiring his electric skillet to provide a greater range of temperatures. You know you've read something good when the author includes a mini-disclaimer to the effect of "if you try this at home kids, I and the publisher are not responsible."
Alton encourages improvisation, suggesting you hold a refrigerator roulette party: everybody brings three ingredients and then everybody has to make something of it. Now there's a team building exercise for the daring. Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with -- you either eat it when somebody else has already prepared it, or you compile (I mean prepare) it yourself, but follow the directions exactly. This just ruins the whole point of making the source (or the recipe) available. Tinker with it, make it better, make it awful, hey, it's just food.
From Alton's Rules I Cook By: If the food is an existing hunk or hunks of something to be cooked, you can generally mess with seasonings, herbs, spices, and so on to your heart's content. The book is filled throughout with examples of Alton's own improvisations -- like the recipe he used to win a cheap chili competition he and some friends dreamed up while sitting around on somebody's porch. In this case, the ingredients were tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and salt he had in his pantry, some cheap beef stew meat and some lamb stew meat from the supermarket, and the cheapest beer available from the local taqueria and the chips and salsa that came with it. Total cost: $7.74
The end of the book includes appendices with a Critter Map, which shows where different cuts of meat come from, and The Basic Culinary Toolbox, where he describes necessary tools, from heat resistant spatulas and all kinds of thermometers to what makes a good knife. Also included are a very brief selection of suppliers for various dry goods and a selection on cleanliness that has some tips on recognizing a good meat and produce department. The one weakness of the book may be its index. Again, since this isn't really a cookbook per se, it might not matter so much that all the chicken recipes in the book are not listed in the index under Chicken, or that his great recipe for microwave popcorn is listed under M, but not P. As for the popcorn recipe itself, here's a hint: popcorn, paper bag, and 2 staples.
If you are reading this I highly recommend I'm Just Here For the Food as well as the show Good Eats. This is the book on cooking I've been waiting for someone to write ever since I started cooking. It gives you the tools and the principles so that you can cook what you want and experiment with flavors and ingredients you like.
Appetite whetted? You can purchase I'm Just Here for the Food from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Sounds like a good approach to teaching coding techniques.
Why is this posted as Science?
Alton is my guru. He has completely transformed my cooking from "hunt and peck" approaches to an understanding of the processes. Now when I try something new, I'm not just guessing at whether it will work or not.
Oh, and go buy a digital temperature probe. You'll need one.
Also, as hinted by the author, go watch his show. I especially like the one when he shows you how to make a smoker out of a cardboard box.
If only because of all the toys available.
Get the EULA T-shirt
I saw it at Costco (yclept Price Club) the other day. Stores like these (e.g., BJ's, Sam's Club) often have books at a discount of 30% or more. (No shipping charge either.-)
The book looked like a hoot.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
This is a book about cooking techniques, rather than recipies. It's organized by cooking method, rather than ingredients like most other cookbooks. There are a lot of cookbooks out there full of nothing but recipies, but many of them don't say anything about the different methods to prepare food. AB also goes into some of the how's and why's of the different preparation methods. afraid to broil? never poached anything? roasts turn out like lumps of coal? deep fried stuff ends up grease laden? You'll pick up a lot of good tips out of this book. There are a few simple recipies in with each section that you can use to test the waters and practice with.
If you like to cook and want to expand your repetoire of cooking techniques, this is a good one to add to the shelf.
-dk
I remember the days, back in college. Surviving on Mountain Dew and Jolt. Microwaveable . I knew I had to kick the habit when what little sleep I did get was consumed with dreams of coding. Nightmares of large code segments chasing me around. Ahh, those were the days. Oh wait, I still have one more year left!
- "My name is Legion, for we are many" -Mark 5:9
It's worth noting that Cookwise as referenced above is by Shirley Corriher, a food chemist who also is a semi-frequent guest on Good Eats. Alton & Shirley are definitely birds of a feather. And yes, we bought this book the minute it came out, and my wife and I both buzzed through it (she a bit more thorougly than I).
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
good pretense, some writers just make it easier to communicate ideas, wish most of my college texts were like this, well some were, but not the majority.
Walk with Music;
Found this somewhere a few years ago. Enjoy!
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIESMaterials:
- 532.35 cm3 gluten
- 4.9 cm3 NaHCO3
- 4.9 cm3 refined halite
- 236.6 cm3 partially hydrogenated tallow triglyceride
- 177.45 cm3 crystalline C12H22O11
- 177.45 cm3 unrefined C12H22O11
- 4.9 cm3 methyl ether of protocatechuic aldehyde
- 2.0 CaCO3 encapsulated avian albumen-coated protein
- 473.2 cm3 theobroma cacoa
- 236.6 cm3 de-encapsulated juglans regia fruits (sieve size 10)
Procedure:To a 2-L jacketed round reactor vessel (reactor #1) with an overall heat transfer coefficient of about 100 Btu/F-ft2-hr, add ingredients (1), (2), and (3) with consistent agitation. In a second 2-L reactor vessel (reactor #2) with a radial flow impeller operating at 100 rpm, add ingredients (4), (5), (6), and (7), processing until the mixture is homogeneous. Add to ingredients in reactor #2, ingredient (8) and three volumetrically equal portions of the homogeneous mixture in reactor #1, processing after each addition until the mixture is again homogeneous.
Upon completion of the previous step, add ingredients (9) and (10), slowly with constant agitation at an impeller rate of 50 rpm. Care must be taken at this point in the reaction to control any temperature rise that may be the result of an exothermic reaction.
Using a screw extrude attached to a #4 nodulizer, place 10.0 cm3 nodules of the mixture in ordered ranks on a 316SS sheet (30.0 cm X 60.0 cm). Heat in a 460K oven for a period of time that is in agreement with Frank & Johnson's first order rate expression (see JACOS, 21, 55), or until golden brown.
Once the reaction is complete, place the sheet on a 297K heat-transfer table, allowing the product to come to thermal equilibrium with ambient atmospheric temperature.
/usr/games/fortune
I was suprised to see this review on /. but i must commend it. As a frequent foodtv watcher, i have to say that this guy is great. In every episode he goes after the science behind a particular food. He covers the chemistry of certain processes and explains often times how to circumvent problems.
He recently did a show about strawberries that was superb. He showed an ingenious technique for freezing the strawberries using dry ice (for the CO2) so that they don't get mushy. He also ended the show with a brilliant analogy of antioxidants and free radicals using the strawberry dessert he had just made.
Although often times quite eccentric, his show is always alurring to watch. Even if you aren't a fan of cooking shows this one might be of interest. On sunday around 9pm on foodtv (check your local listings) he has a full hour long show scheduled on cooking on a deserted island...or is that desserted? His culinary ingenuity is truly impressive.
Scott
You'll go from a cook to a chef. I guarantee it. His explanations of the techniques he uses, as well as the DOWN AND DIRTY GEEKY explanations of the chemistry and physics behind why food cooks certain ways, are fantastic.
Plus he wears great shirts.
I too am a HUGE fan of his TV show. He has that irreverent attitude and common sense approach. Lot's o' humor and tidbits.
./configure && make. No, he wants to give each of us a little hacking course. In fact this book is really "Design Patterns in Cooking".
The book is a good read and if you watch the show it is exactly what you expected.
I find that in places he gets a little too odd -- just like when chatting with your other geek friends and one of them goes into a tyrade about how *HE* rewrote something to make it work how *HE* thought it should. You either think their a genius or just a little furher down the geek trail than you want to go.
For instance he does his simmering in the oven because it gets better heat distribution and the oven is better at holding the 195 degree temperature. Makes sense, sure, but also just a little past normal.
On the other hand most of his recipes are DAMN tasty and there are just enough of them to make this book interesting.
But what I truly like about this book and what the reviewer does not explain well enough is the book's point. He does not want to give you the source and teach you how to type
I've watched him on TV.
He killed some lobsters and called them
"BUGS"
this book can't be a good thing
unless it is in which case I will
stand corrected
hug a root yall
www.altonbrown.com is pretty good. Read the rant's and raves section for funny stories from his book tour.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
Alton Brown rocks. I made the turkey for Thanksgiving which he showed how to cook on his show. People were saying it was the best turkey they had had in a while. Believe me, that wasn't due to my own culinary abilites, but thanks to Alton's directions. Good Eats is the most underated show on Food Network, corny, yes, but I love it. Ironcially I went looking for this book yesterday at the bookstore, they didn't have it, I'll have to pick it up online....
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
and must they be cooked while naked and petrified? (Joe Haldeman advocated frying bacon while naked, to make sure you didn't use too much heat.)
Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with
Dear Mr. Brown:
Our law firm represents Emiril Lagasse and his associated restaurants. It has come to our attention that several of the recipes you employ in your book "I'm Just Here for the Food" may infringe on the recipes copyrighted by our client and his enterprise.
These recipes, while not explicitly identical to Mr. Lagasse's, are similar enough to clearly be derivative works. It is our assertion that your recipes are in violation of our client's copyrights as well as his trademark on "hot and spicy Louisiana cookin'".
We require that you pull your book from publication immediately, and submit a deposition regarding the origins of your recipes. We intend to file suit immediately for damages resulting from loss of profits due to your theft of our clients' recipes to the sum of not less than $2,000,000 (two million dollars) plus fifty percent of all profits from your book.
Sincerely,
The Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe
Cc: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, Legal Department
I like "tweaking and compiling" open source recipes, but last week I used a string variable when I should have used an array. It looked good to me, but when I ran it through my FPU (Food Processing Unit) I started getting SegFaults and wound up taking a huge core dump.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
You can also buy the book from the Food Network website. When I got my copy, they were running a limited time special on autographed copies if you bought three or more items.. so mine has Alton's scribblegram on the inside frontspiece. This month it's a free apron with three items, and they're also featuring a complete collection of Good Eats on DVD.
I often wonder why I don't weigh 600 pounds sometimes.
http://www.foodtv.com/marketplace/index/
To point out the obvious, the parallel to programming is right on - too many people ctrl-c'ing code snippets, not enough understanding of what's actually happening when that code executes. Does that make Front Page the TV dinner of Web design?
Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with
I mean, I know it's slashdot, but c'mon. Alton Brown is geeky enough without having to force the matter.
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
Ingredients - Chicken pieces 1kg or 2.2 lbs
Oil 3tbs,
Chopped onion one and a half cup,
Chopped ginger 2 tbs
Chopped garlic half tbs
Split green chillies 4
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Chilly powder half or one tsp
Coriander powder 2tbs
Cumin seed 1tsp, pepper half tsp, cloves 5, cardamom 2, cinnamon sticks 3. Powder these together. Instead one and a half tsp of garam massala powder can also be used.
Curry leaves a few
Coconut milk 2 cups.
Clean the chicken pieces. Mix it with 1 tbs of salt and 2 tsp of lime juice (or half cup of curd) and keep aside for half an hour. Make a paste of the coriander chilly and turmeric powder. Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel. Add chopped onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies and brown it.
Add the masala paste and fry for a minute. Add the chicken pieces together with the juice that comes out of it. Stir it for about five minutes. If the coconut milk is taken from fresh grated coconut add about 2 cups of the second milk to the curry. Otherwise add about 2 cups of hot water. Cover and cook for about half an hour till the chicken pieces are cooked.
If you like potatoes in the currry, about one and a half cups of potato pieces can be added to the curry half way through. Add the coconut milk and the garam masala powder and curry leaves. If you want more gravy or the gravy is not thick enough dissolve a tsp of corn flour in milk or water and add to the curry and just boil again stirring well and just bring the curry to boil.
Mods : Well... You gotta eat!
P.S : Try this. Its one of the best curried chicken out there. Thank me later. Yes, I got karma to burn. I just thought this recipe would do everyone good.
Rapid Nirvana
Is this for roasted popcorn?
As for the popcorn recipe itself, here's a hint: popcorn, paper bag, and 2
staples.
Hopefully the bag is not closed with staples BEFORE insertion into the microwave, since this is the perfect formula for a fire.
No idea why you would staple after popping either.
If someone that has read the book can tell us what Mr. Brown has to say about this, before we run out and purchase the book it would be a greatly appreciated money saving assist.
I love "Good Eats", watch it every wednesday at 2100 on the Food channel! I thought I was the only raw clam lover on earth before Alton Brown featured them on his show.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Shameless (but on topic) plug time:
I met Alton while he was doing a book promo tour for IJHFTF. I did a full write up on it at my website. Read the play-by-play here....
An excerpt:
Alton seems to be at the same point of celebrity that Penn & Teller claim to be... famous enough to be recognized and draw crowds in certain situations, but not so "rock star" as to take it all seriously. I get the feeling that if he hadn't had an invite to the Washington Press Club that night, a bunch of the people at the bookstore could've offered to take him to dinner and he would've accepted immediately.
AMCGLTD.COM. Where cats, science fictio
His new book isn't so much a cookbook, in the current sense of a book that contains a heck of a lot of recipes. (It does, in fact, contain recipes, but it really isn't what the book is about.) See the Perl cookbook, for a translation of this idea to programming.
Yeah, ummm well the Perl Cookbook is actually just a book filled with 'recipes' on how to fix specific problems. I would think of it more as a traditional cookbook than how you're describing this book here...
http://prometheus.frii.com/mp3/YAPC-2001/2001-ligh tning-sean-burke.m3u?play=1
btw html posting and/or preview are broken
Je t'aime Stéphanie
I hate to perpetuate sterotypes, but you know very well that the single, male slashdot crowd (the majority) are pretty much limited to microwaved items, pizza, and stuff from here.
/. demographic (1% ?)
Those of us who have tricked wooed somebody into marrying us are probably sensible enough to let them handle things. Personally, I'm only allowed in the kitchen to peel stuff and take out the garbage.
So I suppose this slashdot article must be aimed at the female
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
Back in June, Mr. Brown (AB to his friends and fans) went on tour to promote his book. I caught his last stop here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (It's the hometown of Borders, don'cha know...)
Basically, the guy is just as witty and cool in person as he is on the show. He was obviously a little burnt out from the tour, and there were rumors his marriage was on the rocks, but in every other way he was just... himself. Most celebrities, when you meet them in person, are paler and scabbier and much more socially inept than they ever appear on screen. Not AB. Watching him during the Q&A session was just like watching him on his show -- so much so that I actually got a slight sense of dissociation.
He's going back out on tour again soon. Here are the dates. If you can, go see him. It's definitely worth it.
The best Good Eats site is not at the Food Network's main site. They just warehouse AB's recipes. The best Good Eats site is the Good Eats Fan Page. News, transcripts, FAQs, family tree (no, really ;-) and a complete index of the recipes. Enjoy.
best example is his episode on baking cookies, i think he did like 4-5 variations explaining all of the variables in the CCCokie combination. From the sugar / brown sugar ratio to the cook time / heat ratio, to the butter used. its the most memorable to me.
if you havent seen his show, you missing out, its not just a slurry of concepts and vocab, theres a fair mix of humor as well. also good is Food 911, where the guy goes to peoples houses and prepares meals with whats on hand. ive learned several recipies from that show. best of all he tells you what to use if you dont have a specific ingredient on hand, good theory + simple ingredients = good show.
I want 2D games back.
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
Lets parse it up another notch, BAM!
Cooking is fun when you add other aspects of life to it. For example... Iron Chef is a clever combination of oriental cooking and televised wrestling. It makes a perfect recipe for entertainment!
It's all good.
oh my god it's...it's...it's a COOKBOOK
I don't know if Chris Kimball is a computer geek, but his work certainly delves into the science of cooking to answer fundamental kitchen questions, like which starch is best to thicken a fruit pie. (Answer: amylopectin, found in arrowroot and tapioca, which is good to know now that fresh blueberries are cheap and plentiful. God, I love fresh blueberry pie.)
Anyway, my wife and I have several of his books, which are great references to have in the kitchen, and although I haven't used it much, he does have a website. It's advertisement-free, and the product reviews are about as objective as you'll find.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
I didn't know about his book till you told me (and I'm getting it) but I love his show (they can be goofy at times, but once they settle down, you can really learn stuff). His chocolate cookie episode was great, which explained how different flours and fats affected the outcome.
Ah, perfect!
Thank you very much.
Montag
the ARSTechnica Cookbook of "Bachelor Chow"
required reading for all single geeks or starving artists.
I want 2D games back.
that is, he had one until we slashdotted it.
At the risk of slashdotting yet another site, check out http://goodeatsfanpage.com/
It has transcripts for the shows, and recipes for each show that link back to foodtv.com. I don't think the latest season is up yet, but lots of great stuff there.
A terrific book that explains the chemistry of flour, meat, eggs and all the other complex reagents involved in cooking. All cookbooks should have electron microscope photos!
Should note that it's not a cookbook, though. If that's want you want, a good one is The Cake Bible, by Rose Berenbaum. Baking is a particularly complex art, and that book explains exactly why a certain type of flour is used in a particular cake, how much and with what other ingredients it's combined.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Good Eats airs Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. and 12 a.m., Saturdays at 9:30 a.m., 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. All times ET.
See what the show's will cover at this website
If you find this kind of subject interesting I suggest you also check out Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking by Shirley M. Corriher. It's a similar type of cookbook: heavy on the science of food and cooking, with sample recipes. Ms. Corriher contributes frequently to food magazines like Fine Cooking and Cook's Illustrated. In this month's Fine Cooking she went into gory details on the cause of freezer burn and how to prevent it.
nuqneH
Hab SoSlI' Quch!
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam
maj! maj! maj!
I really hope he isn't suggesting that you staple shut a paper bag and put it in the microwave. As one who has accidentally placed a foil lined paper bag in a microwave, I can imagine the flames will be impressive. Of course if you aren't using your own microwave then hey have fun.
Not to steal Alton Brown's thunder (I own his book, it's awesome), but can anyone suggest any similar books for those of us who just can't justify culinary school, but want to become great amateur chefs? I've searched, but the cost and age of most of the books I've found make me want an opinion before buying.
(perhaps I'm offtopic, but please mod up responses)
A UK chef called Heston Blumenthal has been similarly engaged on the quest to find the science behind cooking.
Recently voted "Chef's Chef of the Year", Blumenthal is proprieter of the Fat Duck restaurant and writes a regular cooking column in the Saturday edition of the Guardian newspaper.
In these articles he takes tenets of cooking law ("The water in which green vegetables are cooked *must* be salted", "High-temperature sealing of meat keeps in the juices") and either justifies them or blows them apart. He tests, tastes, tests, tastes, and consults food scientists until he understands more of the principles behind the cooking. (Both of those tenets, in case you're interested, turn out to be completely false.)
He has also enthused about cooking meat at very low-temperatures - I can recommend without reservation that you try it yourselves and see.
Read his Guardian articles here, and there are some others on his site.
The Klingon Language Institute list of everyday phrases. It really says something that 'Today is a good day to die' (Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam) is an everyday phrase.
There are now more speakers of Klingon than of Navajo. That is so sad....
Speak for yourself, man!
As far as I'm concerned, cooking is mad geeky -- taking various disparate components and combining and processing them to create things that are often nothing like the original components. IMHO, cooking has the same allure as creating music, coding, or sports. (Wait, did I just say that?)
Bonus: It's also socially acceptable to be a pyromaniac if it's in the service of cuisine.
Double Bonus: Chicks dig it -- you've got to give them a reason to look past your double-thick glasses, right?
darius
Seems pretty universal too, as I found out my local grocery store clerk watches him religiously.
Anyways, I pre-ordered mine from www.foodtv.com a couple of months back, and it was autographed. You might want to see if its still available.
Oh yeah, also watch "A Cooks Tour". Another great Food Network show. Anthony Bordain has a very interesting look into the Restraunt Cook profession in his "Kitchen Confidential" book.
I mean stuff that would make you think twice about going to a 2-3 star restaurant. Germs, blood, sex, drugs, bankrupcy, etc.
GREAT BOOK. This is NOT a cookbook - it's a book on kitchen science directed specifically to HOW TO HEAT FOOD PROPERLY.
As a lot of you geeks probably already know... cooking is about science. Physics and chemstry are paramount to making a good meal (unless your cooking out of a box).
Before the advent of FOOD TV, and experts like Alton Brown, I tended to eat out most. If I ate in at all, I'd just slap some chops on a skillet and eat them with some store bought sauce. Thanks to FOOD TV and his show, I've now become quite a good chef and greatly enjoy making myself and friends gourmet meals.
Browns show is intense... super funny, and chock full of unbelievably useful information. He is never satisfied to *just do something*, no, he has to explain each and every WHY to it. And while he's doing that, he's throwing out tons of other useful suggestions that you would never have thought of.
The book goes IN DEPTH into exactly how heat works and cooks... and the various types of heating and when they are appropriate and why. He covers in depth exactly how heat reacts with the food. He explains exactly what the difference is between Radiation, Convection and Conduction (with excellant and funny examples) and then relates them to the various types of cooking (e.g., oven roasting is radiation, while boiling or steaming is conduction etc).
Each page has side panels that blow apart current cooking and food myths, such as salt being bad for you, etc...
Unlike most books that INSTRUCT you... his book and show not only instructs you, but tells you the why, the history, the mistakes and most importantly... the science!
A book every geek should own and read - and then stop going to McDonalds, buy a BowFlex and drop those pounds and build that body!
He also has a series of dvds available which contain episodes and therein the recipes from shows relating to meats and sweets. Kinda pricy at 50 bucks for 3 dvds, but in interesting buy.
Most tasty, gelflings are. Many ways to prepare...
Is there anything in that book about the cooking technique of draining the life out of the animal with a giant dark crystal? Drained gelfling might not be as tasty as braised, but is a great tonic.
linked to from the NPR webpage:
Audio "Rocket Hot Melon Menagerie"
Video Watch Brown give some sage advice on soy sauce.
The NPR webpage covering "an alton brown cookout"
NPR
There was a thread about Geek Cookery on Ars recently, and out of it came the Ars Technica Cookbook of Bachelor Chow - it's a nifty PDF file with a lot of recipes and such in it. I figured it was germane to this discussion.
As for Good Eats - it's a regular on my Tivo at least once a week. In fact, between Good Eats, Iron Chef, A Cook's Tour, and Mario Eats Italy, I probably just ought to leave the darned thing on Food Network all the time!
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I love good eats. It is because of Alton I made baby back ribs, cheese cake, 40 garlic chicken, and my BBQ skills have vastly improved. It hs more to do with the knowledge about a recipe, then the recipe it self. /., and it shouldn't.
However, it doesn't mean it should be on a
normally I take a pretty broad view of these things, but c'mon, he's a cook.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Thanks, but no thanks. Will the actress/taste-testers from Iron Chef be making this offer?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
13.1. Stirred Eggs From How to Cook and Eat in Chinese
by Buwei Yang Chao
Copyright 1945, 1949 0 1963 by Buwei Yang Chao
Published by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. in 1970.
ISBN: O-394-71703-1 LCCCN: 73-89692
Vintage Books Edition, April 1972
Pages 133 to 135
Chapter 18 EGGS
13.1. Stirred Eggs
Stirred eggs may be said to be the most everyday dish made by applying the most everyday method to the most everyday material. Learning to stir-fry eggs is the ABC of cooking. As this is the only dish my husband cooks well, and he says that he either cooks a thing well or not at all I shall let him tell how it is done.
"Obtain:
6 average-sized fresh eggs (for this is the maximum number of eggs 1 have cooked at one time)
3 grammes of cooking salt (or, as an alternative, 4 grammes of table salt)
50 c.c. fresh lard, which will approximately equal the content of 4 level tablespoonfuls
1 plant of Chinese ts'ung (substitute with scallion if ts'ung is unobtainable) about 30 em. long by 7 mm. in average diameter. (This ingredient is optional.)
"Either shell or unshell the eggs by knocking one against another in any order.* Be sure to have a bowl below to catch the contents. With a pair of chopsticks, strike the same with a quick, vigorous motion known as 'beating the eggs.' This motion should, however, be made repeatedly and not just once. Automatic machines, aptly named as egg-beaters,' have been invented for this purpose.
"Make cross sections of the ts'ung at intervals of about 7.5 mm., making 40 sections altogether. Throw in the ts'ung and the measured amount of salt during the final phase of the 'beating.'
"Heat the lard in a large flat-bottomed pan over a brisk fire until it (the lard) begins to give off a faint trace of smoke. Pour the contents of the bowl into the oil at once.
"The next phase of the operation is the most critical for the successful stir-frying of eggs. When the bottom part of the mixture becomes a puffed-up soft mass on contact with the heat, the upper part will remain quite liquid. Preferably using a thin flat piece of metal attached to a handle, the operator should push the mixture to one side so as to allow the uncooked liquid portion to flow onto the hot fat on the now exposed portion of the bottom. (Sometimes this may be facilitated by slightly tipping the pan.) Quickly repeat this until abut 90 per cent of the liquid has come in contact with the hot fat and becomes puffed. Then, still using the flat piece of metal, make the entire content of the pan revolve through 180 degrees about a horizontal axis. This delicate operation is known as 'turning it over,' which in the hands of a beginner may easily become a flop.
"It can be done neatly and without waste only after repeated practice with different sets of eggs.
"If the turning over has been successfully carried out, wait for 5 seconds, which is about the time it takes to count from 1 to 12, then transfer the contents to the bowl or a platter, when the dish is said to be done.
"To test whether the cooking has been done properly, observe the person served. If he utters a voiced bilabial nasal consonant with a slow falling intonation, it is good. If he utters the syllable yum in reduplicated form, it is very good."-Y. R. C.
*"Since, when two eggs collide, only one of them will break, it will be necessary to use a seventh egg with which to break the sixth. If, as it may very well happen, the seventh egg breaks firt instead of the sixth, an expedient will be simply to use the seventh one and put away the sixth. An alternate procedure is to delay your numbering system and define that egg as the sixth egg which breaks after the fifth egg."
Mr. Chao was an engineer...and apparently quite as geeky as anyone would wish... Happy cooking!
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
eat meat? I love to cook, but I don't eat meat, so can anyone enlighten me to if this book is worth reading if you don't eat meat?
What?
AB is amazing, and though his show put me off at first, I'm a big fan now. He is the only reason I can cook fish ("Hook, Line, and Dinner" at http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com ).
But he's not just a cooking geek -- the awesome production values in his show come from a history working with videos for MTV, and even some from R.E.M. I'm not sure which ones he was involved in, but it would be nice to know.
The lobster espisode was the best. Placing them where they were on the food chain has un-whetted my appetite a bit, but the in-depth instructions on how to kill them without pain (it's not dumping them in boiling water...) calmed my nerves when I actually had to do the deed. In AB's terms "the only creature you'll probably have to dispatch in your home kitchen."
Quick! Give this book to your favorite gnu/hippy!
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Start coals the normal way: ready in 45 minutes.
Start coals and blow on them with a hair dryer, leaf blower, or (wow, what a concept!) a bellows: ready in 5 minutes.
Once everyone's already written you off as a hopeless nerd, what's there to lose by using a blow dryer to get the coals ready?
Mark
...you really can't do any better than _The Joy of Cooking_. It's been around forever and has been updated more times than I can remember; it is not a mere collection of recipes, but a well-organized survey of cooking techniques and ingredients (the section on ingredient substitution is excellent, for example, and has saved me from several kitchen disasters.) The chief deficiency of the book, I think, is its overemphasis on American and European dishes, but that's understandable; if the book comprehensively dealt with cuisine of every nationality, it'd be a ten-volume set.
Most importantly, _The Joy of Cooking_ is not written by someone who is more interested in bragging about his thousands of dollars of computer equipment. I'm not sure what the audience for this book is. I've never met a computer geek whose place wasn't overflowing with old pizza crusts and crumpled Jumbo Jack wrappers--computer nerds don't _cook_.
hyacinthus.
The Nigella chick from "Nigella Bites" (Show) and "How to be a Domestic Goddess" (Book) :)
is a baddass in the kitchen - as well as being a really HOT english MILF - I would have her for dinner anytime.
More on her show can be found here
http://www.stylenetwork.com/Shows/Nigella/
Ave Molech Setting
'What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Eplained' by Robert L. Wolke is another book in the same vein.
3 6/ qid=1027094599/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6531399-55438 39
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/03930118
I suspect the cooking skills of slashdot readers are very bi-modal; mostly the folks you describe, but an increasing percentage of the older readers have decided cooking is a Technical Skill and geeked out on it.
All bow down before my peanut-butter soup!
I'm curious as to what some favorite recipes are from the Slashdot crowd. Let this be a little Kitchen Korner.
Robert L Wolke's "What Einstein Told His Cook" - if you're into kitchen/cooking/food science.
I wonder if it would be possible to get a
--
I have no sig.
Alton is a Mad Cook, as in Mad scientist. For those who haven't watched him on Foodtv, it's worth a peek. He approaches things in a very geeky fashion. From building his own smoker to smoke salmon, to other fun projects.
I ordered an autographed copy of the book from foodtv.com, and was somewhat disappointed to find that the autograph was on a sticker pasted to the inside cover of the book. Kind of cheap-ish IMHO. On the plus side, I laugh out loud reading this book, and one has to admit that is pretty rare for a cookbook! Plus, it's hard to fault a guy whose recipes break all of the necessary items into the broad categories of Hardware and Software.
Karma: Professionally Doomed (mostly affected by inability to keep opinions to self)
Looks like a great book. I am going to buy it today for a gift.
For the DIY/Geek Chef that has not gone to culinary school, here are three must haves:
The Professional Chef
Gastronomique
La Technique Culinaire
Essentially, textbooks from most schools including the CIA.
pronoblem
Great book, great show.
C'mon, you guys, somebody's gotta have Good Eats encoded to SVCD. Post it to alt.binaries.multimedia and we'll all love you forever.
I grabbed it back in April when it first appeared at the nearest real bookstore...
Like the review says, this book is entirely about COOKING ITSELF, not about recipes (though it does include several for illustrative purposes), which is something I like, since cooking seems to bo the one "artistic" talent I've got any noteworthy amount of.
Also recommended - Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise" (she is, coincidentally, the "Food Scientist" that appears occasionally on Alton Brown's show - anybody know if the Nutritional Anthropologist that frequently appears on his show has written a book yet as well?), which is similar but is more focussed around "types of food" rather than "techniques of cooking" [she also has a section on eggs, as well as a section on breads and pastries, a section on meats, a section on sweets, etc.], and, of course, the Granddaddy of them all, Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" (VERY good food-science book...without a single recipe wasting space in it!) Compared to these, though, Alton Brown's book is probably the most "accessible" to the non-nerdly, non-culinary audience (while still being very informative). If you've seen his show [also highly recommended!] you're familiar with his 'informative in plain and entertaining language' style.
With the sad situation where nearly the entire "Cooking" section of the bookstore is bloated with "lists of recipes - instructions even a robot can follow mindlessly" (BAH! RECIPES ARE FOR THE WEAK! :-) ), it always pleases me greatly to see a good book on "cooking theory and practice" like this one show up at the bookstore.
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Don't fall into the lies, guys. Cooking can be as masculine as anything. Did I mention they make titanium cookware? Mmmmm.... titanium...
I'm always a bit surprised when people consider cooking to be un-geeky. I think of the choice "to cook or not to cook" to have some parallels to what kind of operating system you run on your computer. Hear me out. We all gotta eat and we all gotta use a computer. A great many of us either run Windows exclusively or have a Windows partition on our machine. Why? Because it's useful sometimes. Windows is crap and we all know it but the convienence is hard to ignore. Much like fast food. Fast food may be tasty but no one is going to argue that it is well-constructed cuisine. Windows is the fast food of operating systems. It's not good but it's ubiquitous and does the job.
Some people oppose eating at fast food restaurants on principle just like some people absolutely refuse to use Windows. However, there's no denying that going to a restaurant or heating up some frozen food in the microwave is a step above fast food. Similarly, some people like their Macs. You're still somewhat at the mercy of what's been created for you, but at least it's not fast-food/Windows.
But for the real power-user who wants to fully understand what's "under the hood" and be free to tinker it to their heart's content, there's nothing like Linux/unix. Infinitely configurable, the performance of the finished product relies quite a bit on your ability and knowledge of what you're doing. Cooking is for the "power eater" who is not content to trust someone else and is willing to get their hands dirty in order to make sure the finished product is just how they like it.
So don't think of cooking as "women's work." Think of it as the culinary equivalent of Linux/unix. The finished product is in your hands. If you're capable, you can create something just how you like it and your friends will be amazed. If you don't know what you're doing, then perhaps you'd better stick with Billy Gates' McOperatingSystem. It sucks but at least you won't die of food poisoning.
GMD
watch this
It's not on Amazon, although some of his other books are (more on .co.uk than .com) - listed as out of print.
I'll look foward to getting a copy and seeing if cooking has changed in the last 35 years! ;-)
I firmly believe that some types of coding, cooking and music in their most brilliant, improvisational forms all share a common axis of creativity.
My peers tell me I'm a darn good systems architect/developer, my friends and family tell me I'm a wondeful chef, and in school I was a pretty decent musician.
I get asked all the time if I can recount a recipe or how I produced an architecture and while I can readily document and communicate about my work, often times people have trouble reproducing the same results that I do...not because I'm better at following recipes, but because I can successfully improvise when reacting to individual circumstances, events, requirements and conditions while maintaining a vision of what the end result needs to be.
It's something about mastering demanding technical skills/domains and then creatively envisioning and producing results that have nothing to do with following recipes/blueprints etc, but like someone else posted earlier, the ability to apply well understood Design Patterns to produce uniquely tailored/crafted outcomes.
I'm sure a shrink could weigh in with a more technical explanation...
Alton Brown, Food Network's answer to "I wonder what would happen if we created a genetic crossbreed of Mr. Wizard, Joel Hodgson and Julia Childs," is one of the funniest and most educating men I've ever had the pleasure to learn cooking from.
However, I find his books to be fairly frenetic in their design, though well written and paced. They're all over the place with Quark textboxes and asides and footnotes, like his MTV-cut cooking show, with tiny margins that remind me of the Principia Discordia more than a book about the science of food. The information presented (especially on the chemistry of foods) is invaluable, but I feel that the brokenness of it strains out a lot of the flavour of the information. Call me a perfectionist, but I prefer my recipes in perfectly structured orders with explanations of what constitutes a perfect rise or the consistancy of an ideal soufflee.
For this reason, I prefer Alton's professor and nemesis of food artisans everywhere, Shirley Corriher. Her book "Cookwise: the hows and whys of successful cooking" has lead to more delicious meals, more perfect loaves, and more satisfied coos from a well fed wife then any book I've ever dealt with, Joy of Cooking included. It's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for aspiring chefs...elegantly written and full of more hints for cooking and living than the large print and simple illustrations would suggest.
However, though I felt a bit let down from Alton's literary style, I still make a point to be at home by 9 every Wednesday for Alton's program. It's entertaining, interesting, and the wife totally thinks he's sexy -- an opinion from whose association I can occasionally gleam a modest amount of appreciation. I even purchased glasses like his.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
My wife and children are vegetarians - I can't/won't kick my seafood habit ;) - and I do all the cooking in the house. I also tivo Good Eats and watch every episode, even the meat based ones, because they generally have good learning experiences that can be applied to any ingredient.
;)
This isn't the first cooking book I would buy (that would be Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone"). But it's definitely a great help in understanding how to create, well, Good Eats
Since it can be hard for some vegetarians to find good recipes that they like, especially when they may be craving comfort foods from their non-vegetarian childhood, it's can be nice to know how to tinker with food in creating vegetarian substitutes/approximates that can hit the right spot with your family/friends.
I am living proof that you are incorrect about this one...I've been computer nerding (~20 years now - I started with a Vic-20 ["Why, sonny, when I was YOUR age...."]) almost as long as I've been cooking (an additional 3-4 years, casually).
Cooking is FUN, if it's done improvisationally. It is, as the reviewer implies, a lot like coding in its philosophy. At least, the way *I* code. ("Hmmm. I want to grab THIS off the net and do THAT to it. [Grab keyboard. Hackhackhackhackhack. Test. Run. Enjoy.]" "Hmmm. I'm hungry, I want something with beef. [Grab knife. Hackhackhackhackhack. Cook. Spice. Enjoy.])
However, while I've not yet personally read it, "The Joy of Cooking" is, indeed, one of the classics and almost certainly worth looking over (we've got it in the house here...somewhere...)
(Disclaimer - this is NOT to say that I don't also eat my share of Pesto-sauce pizza or Jack-in-the-Box from time to time...)
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Cooking, Harold McGee, ISBN: 0684843285
Which is a sort of encyclopedia of food and science. He also wrote:
The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore, ISBN: 0020098014
Which is more 'science project' based. "How much oil can one yolk emulsify into mayonayse?" It turns out to be an absurdly large amount.
If you have an analytical mind and care about being a better cook, Alton makes it entertaining and McGee delves in to the science.
Everyone interested in the science of cooking should run out and buy On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee.
He has the same scientific approach as Alton Brown, and this book covers an immense amount of material, from emulsions to the science of kneading dough, to historical recipes showing how the Aztecs really made hot chocolate.
It's a must have.
Hi,
Amazon has a combined package on sale for $43.75, and free p&p if you push it over $50 with something else.
Cookwise link - Double at bottom
Just Here For the Food - Double at Bottom
I'll certainly get Alton's book, and I'd never miss am episode of Good Eats, but ...
If you like the science behind cooking, you must get a copy of "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" by Harold McGee. The book has a primer on chemistry in the back. In addition to the science of cooking (e.g. the biology of yeast, chemical changes to create alcohol, the physics of distilation) it gives you the history (when beer was discoverred, [ir]religous use of wine). A friend who is a CIA graduate had this book as a textbook in his science course.
McGee also has other books in the same vein.
If you're interested in actual cookery, though, reach for James Beard's books. His "Theory & Practice of Good Cooking" is arranged by types of cookery. There's a section on baking there're details of what baking is, followed by a highly detailed recipe for baked ham. After the initial detailed recipe he assumes you know what you're doing and provides you with less detailed recipes that show you the variety of food you can make with this technique (e.g. bread, ribs).
Beard also has books titled "Beard on *". "Beard on Bread" and "Beard on Pasta" come to mind. These are a very similar format to T&P, but concentrate an a particular type of food.
Good Eats!
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." --Napoleon Bonaparte
The beginning is a primer on the history of saucemaking, and a guide to the tools, techniques, and science to great sauce making. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone with at least a passing interest in cooking great food.
You might also like Rick Bayless' show "Mexico - One Plate at a Time" on PBS (Saturday @ 3:30 (at least in NC)).
Like Alton, Rick also explains the why's of food. There is not a measurement or time given in his show, but there are great combinations and "ingredient interactions" discussed.
When you post a recipe like that, you really should include a disclaimer about toxic byproducts, etc. Don't want to be billed for superfund cleanups!
If you like AB's show, but sometimes it doesn't go far enough into the actual science, let me recommend (if no one else has,) Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking," as the single greatest source of how food works. While not as pleasantly silly as AB, and definitely coming under the heading of a "Tome" it's still a great read...
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
The show is also on the Canadian FoodTV cable channel. Here's a link to show times. Food TV has a strange broadcast schedule, so it's worth checking the website to see when things are on.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
He has several books out that I'd recommand to any french-speaking cooking geek: Casseroles et éprouvettes, Traité élémentaire de cuisine, Les Secrets de la casserole...
Some of his recipes are online; at least try the chocolate mayonnaise.
And for those of you who want a big classic list of recipes, I have 10000 of them in a big Windows Help file (5Mb), still all in french. He, at least that's one thing this language is good for!
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Easy- go to an indian/asian grocery store. We have tons in the MD/VA/DC area. Heck, you can get Garam Masala by the bag, if you please (laxmi brand comes to mind)(I prefer to get the leaves/pods/seeds, then crush them myself in my coffee grinder).
You can usually ask for help in those small shops and they're very nice (that's how I learned about using fish paste to make fish cakes for singapore style curry noodles.)
Yes it is an expensive outlay in the beginning, but if you dig food and the way it tastes, you will never go to a restaurant again (unless you want samosas or naan. Those are a pain to make on yr own)
I tried calling my contact in Cali (whose spices I inherited) but I guess he's not up yet, so I can't give you any stores yet.
P.S.- Trader Joes Chicken pot sticker gyoza are the BOMB!!! 3 on plate, 1:20 on high, and you got some cheap bangin' eats!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
For you Canadians out there, Mr. Brown will be coming to Toronto sometime in October. I beleive he'll be appearing at The Cook Book Store.
I bought the book when I saw it a few months ago. It's great. Like everyone else has said, it is a book about cooking, not a recipe book. It's totally worth having in your library.
His show is great. It's funny and educational and that is a rare combination. The best episode I have seen to date is "Scrap-Iron Chef" in which he parodies Junkyard Wars (aka Scrap Heap Challenge) *and* Iron Chef. It was great. Alton and the other chef had to scrouge up stuff cooking materials from a junkyard to make dishes that best reflected the ingredient of the day. In true Iron Chef fashion, the panel raved about his food, complained about the scrap iron chef's food, and Alton (the challenger) lost...
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
5. 177.45 cm3 crystalline C12H22O11
6. 177.45 cm3 unrefined C12H22O11
This is insufficiently precise. Which Disaccharide should I use?
I don't have any sucrose, guess I'll try lactose. Maltose might also work....
ALTON ROX
This sounds just like a book I've had for years written by a chemist called, Cook-Wise, written by Shirley Corriher. Old news.
After reading these posts, it looks like we could come up with some inventive ways of cooking things.
And, now that I think of it, I was thinking about it last night, why recipies aren't copyright-ed/able. I mean, we see companies and people filing for patents on "ways" doing things, connecting to information via links, etc. What makes a recipe any less of a creation? Not that I want that to happen by any stretch of the imagination, but just the opposite. We've all got the same tools and brains to deduce solutions, etc. Why, just because someone thought of a way of doing something first does that mean that they own that way of doing it? Build a better mousetrap! Don't copyright the "idea" of a mousetrap!!
Anyway, it looks like a cool book. I might have to get it now. Sorry for the tangent....
...and they still haven't put any Iron Chef episodes out on DVD yet. (IC USA doesn't count, dammit!) The Food Network. Can't live with 'em, can't live without them.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Many years ago, before marriage and kids, I used to take Advanced Dive classes up to Lake Tahoe for high altitude diving intro's. While at the campsite we used to speed up the fire with a little compressed air from the handy dandy tank we happen to have close by. Works great, but don't stand on the other side. Cough, cough...
You should check out eGullet.com. Its sort of a Slashdot, but for food freaks. Its a free site and currently there is no advertising.
We frequesntly get food celebs like Tony Bourdain participating, as well as others who use pseudonyms.
We have boards about regional restaurants, wine, cooking, food news, and our user base is very international.
He lost major brownie points with me over one point in this book.
On page twelve, there are some definitions. "Degrees", "BTU", and "calorie". The definition for calorie is correctly given as the amount of energy needed to increase the heat of 1 cc of water 1 degree celsius. But *then* he continues by saying that a 378 calorie candy bar would raise 13.3356 oz of water 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Anybody spot the problem?
Food isn't measured calories, it's measured in Calories. One Calorie is a thousand calories. So most candy bars would weigh in around 378 Calories, enough to heat quite a bit more water than he suggests.
Sarah
While I prefer the Iron Chefs, Alton Brown's "Good Eats" is a close second in my Food Network watching. The book is fantastic, especially for someone who doesn't know much about cooking but is pretty smart and can follow directions well. Each chapter describes a method of cooking -- boiling, frying, etc, and shows the science behind it as well. That's what sets this book apart from your everyday off the shelf cookbook. It beats eating rocks.
Regular Meta Moderators are not more likely to get mod points.
This is an ad. The user that posted this message makes money of anyone buys anything though either of the URLS.
You also know you've read bad grammar.
Considering this audience, and my own desire to try to build my own... Has anyone that has the book yet tried to modify their Weber kettle grill as he describes in the grilling chapter of the book.
./ has produced, I figure this was bound to be done by some one here...
For those who haven't read, he has attached a chimney and a hair-dryer to the bottom air intake of a standard Weber Kettle grill, the result is a BBQ Blast furnace for use in ultra high temp cooking... I love stir-fry, and I have a beat up old grill, I'm looking for a weekend project, why shouldn't I?
Considering the geek and hardware hacks that
When asked what was the strangest thing he ever made, he replied "Butter, from my wife's breast milk"
Also, there will be no SPAM episode, as I asked him about it :-(
I watched his show on making biscuits, realized it's easier than coding, and now that it's hard to find work coding, I cook and watch cooking shows.
But seriously, fans of Alton Brown will want to read the sourcebook that Alton must consult twelve times for every show:
McGee, Harold On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Simon & Schuster Fireside, 1984
A random selection of chapters and subsections:
Egg Foams
Slaughter, Aging, and Storage
The Four Basic Food Molecules
The Nature of Digestion
Browning Reactions and Flavor
Nutritional Fads in the United States
He's got the botanical defintion of the difference between fruit and vegetable; why fish meat is totally different from land-animal meat; electron micrographs of various kinds of candy, yeast, gluten, and the development of cheddar cheese, among others; tables of changes in the many tissues of meat at different temperatures, etc. There are few recipes but lots of chemistry diagrams, and an appendix on Atoms, Molecules, and Energy for those who need an easy leg up. It's less a how-to-cook book than a how-cooking-works book.
It's more scientific and contains enough material for about ten seasons of Good Eats. Which is okay, because my TiVo isn't even close to being retired.
--Blair
The reviewer mentioned _Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking_ but failed to mention that a lot of Alton's show is from Shirley O. Corriher's book. It is a fantastic text that is more of a chemistry lab book than a cooking book. (I would rather be taught why something works than just presented with a generic formula.)
But also, Harold McGee's books need mentioning here. Try _On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen_. He has much better depth, and is probably the expert on things like breads.
And of course any geek worth his (coarse kosher) salt would have read _The Physiology of Taste_ by Brillat-Savarin.
______
Once: you're a philosopher. Twice: a pervert.
That's the thing about Alton Brown: while I personally like garlic presses (no quicker way to make spaghetti aglio e olio), I understand his hatred of gadgetitis. Me, I bought myself a Wusthof knife a month or so ago; it's the nicest piece of kitchen equipment I own. And I'm still looking for a sashimi knife and trying to convince myself none-too-successfully that there is no way in hell I will ever make enough sushi to justify buying a ceramic knife.
/Brian
It is fun multitasking things that weren't meant for it, though; paella pans, for example. I've used mine as a roasting pan, omelette pan (big mistake), and a majorly oversized wok with varying degrees of success.
Why is this posted as Science?
Yeah, I agree. Instead of posting it in science, it should be in Slashdot's lesser-trafficked "Amateur Metallurgy" section.
Back to the grill, he's removed one of the plates on the side of his grill and fitted it with a piece of tailpipe. Then, when he's grilling, he sticks a hair dryer in the tailpipe and uses it to whip the coals into an inferno.I think that's pretty close to the definition of a "blast furnace", and I've melted iron with similar techniques. I'd be surprised if his barbecue doesn't... sag.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
I remember the days, back in college. Surviving on Mountain Dew and Jolt. Microwaveable.
I used to work in the TV industry as a technician. And, on one really long show - I think it was a telethon - one of the older techs took me aside and showed me Burbank Toast.
Burbank Toast is kinda like French Toast, but it's faster and easier to make, and has a lot more kick to it. It's so-named because it originated among technicians in Burbank's film and TV studios; it's therefore authentic California cuisine.
One warning: it's *very* good, but when you come down, you'll swear off eating it ever again. And then you'll find yourself making it when you next need excess energy.
Burbank Toast (Serves 2-3 hungry broadcast technicians)
Fire and Meat. Yummy.