Nathan Myhrvold's $500 Cookbook Now an $80 iPhone App

Nathan Myhrvold's six-volume foodie encyclopedia, Modernist Cuisine, writes reader SmartAboutThings, is one of the most expensive cooking encyclopedias, the original six-volume version retailing for $500, with the two-volume addition that followed after that selling for $115. "Now, Nathan and his team have transformed their huge food encyclopedia into an iPhone/iPad app. It's not just a digital book, but rather an expensive $80 interactive app that can do more than just provide recipes. The interactive digital cookbook is the fruit of a development team of 10-15 people that have worked over nine months on the project. The app contains 37 technique videos, 416 recipes and 1,683 photos."

Comments

Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I look forward to the .IPA!

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

Another slashvertizement all right.

And so continues the once noble /.'s slip into undignified obscurity, one tepid and irrelevant sponsored submission at a time.

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

No shit. It's got to suck to be Rob Malda and see your once-nurtured baby struggling to keep it's head above water like this. The overlords at Dice should do the merciful thing and put Slashdot out of its misery once and for all.

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot always has had articles discussing commercial products. And until universal replicators exist with free feed stocks, there is going to be a non-empty intersection between things tech geeks are interested and things that are sold commercially.

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

it's means it is. Could you retards get that into your trisomic brains once and for all?

Re: Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's" could also mean "it has", which makess ense in this case.

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[Anonymous Coward]

You only get to speak to me that way during class. Don't you have papers to grade? GTFO.

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[Stele]

It has beer recipes too?

Re:Another slashvertizement!

[AbominousSalad]

Yknow, you guys don't have to post these things as ACs. Show some stomp, put it in your dang sig :)

alternatively

[ihtoit]

you could just mirror recipesource.com and dump it on an old notebook. Made the missus well happy, that did.

Re:alternatively

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Ever since coming down with stage 4 kidney failure, I've had to do a lot of cooking of my own food, and that was starting from basically knowing nothing. I've learned the vast majority of my technique from youtube, which offers not just one person's technique but many. I'd be quite surprised if this cookbook or even the app had any information that couldn't be found on youtube.

For example, there are tons of videos that show you how to properly choose a chef's knife (word to the wise, most people have very dull knives in their kitchen - very dangerous and makes food preparation so much slower, but they don't know the difference as they've never actually had a good sharp knife) and how to properly cut different types of foods. It may sound elementary, but try going on youtube and looking up how to dice an onion, you may find a technique that is much better than what you've been doing which will save you time.

(By the way, Victorinox 40520 is easily the best starter knife you can get, has a lifetime warranty, and even well seasoned chefs tend to love it and it is cheap if you buy it as part of a kit.)

Re:alternatively

[Joce640k]

Also learn to hold the knife at the right angle and move it properly.

It's one of those things that people think they don't need to learn. It's just a knife, right? How hard can it be?

Learn how to sharpen one, too. No knife edge lasts forever. That metal stick you see people rubbing knives on? That's a stropper, not a sharpener. Stropping a knife does nothing once the edge is gone. It has to be re-sharpened first.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

That metal stick you see people rubbing knives on? That's a stropper, not a sharpener. Stropping a knife does nothing once the edge is gone.

These days it really depends. There are still plenty of those that come with kits that are just a stropper, but now many include an abrasive and are quite capable of actually sharpening the knife. if you are bored and cheap enough, you can take a rather dull knife and actually get it sharp enough with a decent one, but it isn't that efficient. If you can regularly keep the knife sharp, it is good enough, but if you need a more serious sharpening from time to time, then you would still need to invest in a sharpening stone.

Re:alternatively

[ihtoit]

all my kitchen knives are sharp enough to shave with. They terrify my wife*. I treat every blade I buy to a fresh bevel through three different whetstones from 400-1800 grit (washita, waterstone and polish with an Arkansas Black), and I mean practically every blade that'll take a new edge. Once the bevels are done, I never have to go back to the washita on the same blade.

*she has her own set which are finished with the 1000 grit waterstone. I won't touch 'em for use 'cos they're not "me" sharp.

Re:alternatively

[milkmage]

"invest in a sharpening stone" and run the risk of ruining your knives.

I take mine to the butcher shop about 2x a year. they sharpen for free ;)

Re:alternatively

[master_kaos]

The thing about this book, is it isn't so much about the recipes but the SCIENCE and techniques of food. This set of books is meant for an upcoming professional chef. I bet 3/4 the recipes use either equipment or techniques that no home cook would have/know about
Sure you get a basic recipe from allrecipes.com (most of them just mediocre, I bet there are only a few gems that would be just as good/better than a 5 star restuarant). It is one thing reading a recipe and following, but do you know WHY they use the method they choose, why one food reacts with a different one the way it does.
Proper technique also makes a huge difference. I could put a handful ingredients along with a recipe on your counter, and exact same ingredients with exact same recipe on a professional chefs, and I pretty much guarantee you the professional chefs will taste better.

Also, how many typical home cooks are using sous vide technique to cook their meat, using liquid nitrogen for desserts, using a centrifuge to make beef stock. This set of books also use a ton of ingredients that you would not find at your local grocery store, or even a local specialty store, I bet quite a few need to be special ordered.

I am not saying you need to be a professional chef to make good food, of course not, nor do you need to know all of the techniques, or have all the crazy equipment. I was just stating this volume of books is not just your typical $10 recipe book that you find on amazon.

Re:alternatively

[muridae]

With the number of counter-top vacuum preserver devices, doing sous vide in home is not that hard. It's not as perfect as a full industrial vacu-sealer, but it works. Additionally, LN isn't too hard to get in small amounts as an engineer; and for in-house use you could use dry ice or LCO2 from a fire extinguisher.

But I'm one of those home cooks who likes trying crazy chemistry shit, and has the gear and respect for the chemicals to do it safely. Might have gone to the cooking industry if I had gotten into cooking sooner. So the big set of books is still something I want, but couldn't justify the $500 for. Bet they'd look pretty in PDF format, even if the pictures were lower resolution.

Re:alternatively

[ledow]

Am I the only one thinking that no matter how little I spent on getting a "real" knife, and sharpener, and whetstone, and all the other crap other commenters suggest, and the time spent researching, choosing, and maintaining such equipment, it still wouldn't be worth my time compared to doing it "wrong"?

Sorry, guys, but the food tastes the same no matter how you cut it, and 99% of the time the cut ends up in the blender or oven where it makes absolutely zero difference.

If you were into sailing, or even backwoods skills, or something like scuba diving where the right knife might save your life or save you literally SO MUCH TIME that it will be worth that, then maybe. But to slice a tomato? No.

Tell you what, I'll carry on chopping them with my old blunt kitchen knives and crap technique (honed over years of being clumsy-as-shite and the only way I can cut without chopping my fingers off) and enjoy the damn food, which will taste the same but have cost me less money overall for not buying some Victorinox (enough to make me cringe that you even mention that company's name, a sell-out maker who makes most of its money selling crap swiss-army knives) shite just to cut open an onion.

Re:alternatively

[sammy baby]

There is actually a separate edition of the book called Modernist Cuisine at Home which is specifically tailored to home chefs who want to try out the techniques, for substantially less money than the full version. Actually, the ebook which is the topic of the article is based on the "at Home" edition, which means the price differential between the ebook and dead tree version is only about thirty bucks, not several hundred.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

Those of us with other tools that need sharpening need to learn how to sharpen anyway. There is a lot of money that can be saved if you do handy work or crafts and know how to keep various cutting implements sharp, or even change the type of edge to better suit what you are working on.

Re:alternatively

[BlackHawk-666]

I shave using an old fashioned cut-throat razor, and I can tell you now I wouldn't want to be doing that with a blade sharpened with a 1800 grit stone. I use a stone recommended by many fans of cut-throats, which is 8000 grit one side and 12000 on the other. That still leaves it with a rough edge, so once it is sharpened I use a horse leather strop to refine the edge until it is razor sharp and smooth.

You might want to reconsider what you think is a sharp knife.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose of having a sharp knife is not usually about the taste of the food, but about allowing you to work faster and safer. As long as you don't drop the knife or seriously damage it by doing something stupid, it takes a whole 10-20 seconds each night you use it to keep it really sharp. It doesn't require super expensive knives either. I maybe paid about $100 for a 5 knife set that included also kitchen shears and a sharpening steel (not for straightening the blade, but an actual abrasive steel which works well for sharpening knives made of harder metals, the trend in Western knives for decades now). And the set has lasted me almost 20 years now, and no reason it won't last another 20 years.

Knife technique is the same, it is about speed and safety. It is a lot like keyboard typing technique. If you don't use a computer a lot, sure, you can hunt and peck. If you do so enough, you might even get faster at hunting and pecking that someone just starting to learn proper typing. But if you want to spend less time typing or doing prep work, you put effort in learning how to do things properly. Basic dishes I cook during week days went from 20-25 minutes down to 10-15 minutes by being able to get all of the prep work (mainly cutting veggies) done very quickly and being left with mostly the cooking time. And it would probably take even longer than 20-25 minutes if I had both no technique and a dull knife I was afraid would slip too easily.

Just because someone likes to cook doesn't mean they like to stand around in the kitchen all day, and a big part of getting better can come down to learning how to get fast enough at the menial work and worry about the things that actually matter.

Re:alternatively

[minstrelmike]

I have cheap knives that I keep sharp.
Keeping tools you use every day in good working order is a good thing imo. It doesn't make food taste better; it just makes life easier in general.
Buying a fancy knife doesn't do anything for you (unless it can sharpen itself).

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

which will taste the same but have cost me less money overall for not buying some Victorinox (enough to make me cringe that you even mention that company's name, a sell-out maker who makes most of its money selling crap swiss-army knives) shite just to cut open an onion.

The recommended knife costs about $20. While I can't speak for that particular knife, you are not going to get much cheaper for a decent starter chef's knife. You don't know to spend much more either, but can't really use that as an example of people saying you need to invest a lot to have decent cooking tools.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

True, but you can't chop onions with your razor. Different tools have different requirements and comparing a tool for cutting meat and vegetables with one for scraping hairs off your chin is a bit pointless.
Unless your goal was turning this thread into a pissing contest with your over 9000 grit sharpening stone.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

Sharpening stones are what, $10 max? Learn the technique to sharpen your knife. Super easy, no force required.

Re: alternatively

[Rational]

Every Slashdot thread of sufficient length degenerates into a pissing contest.

Re:alternatively

[Zontar The Mindless]

Funny that you should mention onions. I take it that you never slice tomatoes, either.

Re: alternatively

[Inda]

None of them has mentioned honing, using a decent honing oil, drawing out the grains or fatigue.

Amateurs.

Re: alternatively

[ihtoit]

I think it goes without saying you don't use a whetstone without some form of lubricant.

o.0

Re:alternatively

[ihtoit]

what I consider a sharp knife, is something that does what it's designed to do with little effort from me. When I rest my carving knife on a tomato, I want it to slide through under its own weight. If it doesn't, it's not sharp enough or there's not enough metal in the blade. My cleaver will go through a goat leg with one blow (though it won't rest-cut a tomato - it's not meant for that), and my pocket knife will reduce an oak stump to an interesting sculpture (because it's meant for that).

So please, take your pissing contest and kindly shove it up your arse. I'm not interested.

Re:alternatively

[BlackHawk-666]

None of those would still be sharp enough to shave with so I don't see why you bothered to mention any of them. Why don't you try and actually shave yourself with one of those "terrifying" knives of yours and tell me how it turns out. Take time to note how many nicks or cuts you gave yourself and how close to the skin the blade cut the hair.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

Easy there, know who you are dealing with; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Myhrvold
This Microshit Patent Troll is just waiting for you to possess or post a recipe that looks like his.
This is how he makes money. Just watch what you cook and tell no one.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

I prefer the "scary-sharp" method of sharpening anything.
That metal stick you see people rubbing knives on? That's a hone, a strop is a leather impregnated strap for sharpening straight razors.
Stones , hones and strops don't even come close to Scary Sharp. I like to get it so sharp that I bleed when I just look at it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

Scary sharp method , I assume.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp
I use it on everything I want to cut with.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

Hmmm, I just cut an onion with a straight.
I saw a man shave with an ax.
Did you have some sort of obfuscated point?

Re: alternatively

[flyneye]

Check the thread on coprolites elsewhere in the forum today.
It's the #2 contest.

Re: alternatively

[flyneye]

Kind of goes without saying. You can't work metal successfully without lube.
Kind of like, you have to hold your breath underwater.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

It's all about technique. You could use a Maul to cut tomatoes, sufficiently sharpened. Do not lack imagination and piss for accuracy, not distance.
Disinterest will only get you wet pant legs.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

NONE? REALLY?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp
-1 lacks insight.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

If you merely invest in a tool without learning how to use it, your fear is realized.
You might as well say, "learn to drive , and run the risk of having an accident".
Let's focus on what IS probable so we don't look silly talking about possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

Puleeeez!!
Talk to the hand....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp
Slice your tomatoes nicely, sharpen a butter knife and use it to impress your friends. Be the life of the party! This is easy and cheap.
Sandpaper costs sooooo much less than sharpening paraphernalia.
up to 2000 grit is usually sufficient for most jobs, but you can go up to 12000 grit if you really want to slice atoms.

Re:alternatively

[magic maverick]

If I had mod points, you'd be getting a couple for redundancy. You mentioned that damn link too many times.
Also, I sharpen my knives on my BF's cock. It's so tough it can take it. Yeah.

Re:alternatively

[master_kaos]

Ahh good to know, I guess fairly typical for /. to get the summary wrong.
Taking a quic klook, it still doesn't seem that the @home version is for your typical home cook with a family of 4 trying to cook dinner in an hour. It still looks like it is meant for an upcoming/aspiring professional chef who doesn't have access to all of the equipment.
I could be wrong though as I did only spend a couple minutes looking at it.

Re:alternatively

[umafuckit]

For example, there are tons of videos that show you how to properly choose a chef's knife (word to the wise, most people have very dull knives in their kitchen - very dangerous

People say duller knives are dangerous, but my experience suggests the opposite. When my knife set was new, I cut myself badly with them on two or three occasions. Nearly took the end of a finger off once. Now that the knives are a little duller they're safer. I maintain the edges a little but I don't bother getting them back to where they were before. It's true they cut faster, but they also cut me faster. Probably I'm just clumsy, but then the lesson is that sharp knives are more dangerous for the clumsy.

Re:alternatively

[BlackHawk-666]

That's not needed for a razor for two reasons. Firstly, you're going to be sharpening the blade with a stone that is already a completely flat hard surface and of a suitably fine grit. The second thing has to do with the way the blade itself is cast. The razor has a natural in-built guide to hold it at the correct 18-20 degree angle with no effort required from the person sharpening it. The thick part of the blade is made just thick enough so that when you lay it flat on it's side it forms the natural best angle for sharpening.

The actual edge of the blade is incredibly fine, and so you need to ensure correct technique to prevent placing any nicks into the blade. Correct technique involves keeping the blade flat to the surface at all times, never lifting it, but in fact turning it over (rotating each stroke) along the flat side of the blade. You always stroke the edge forwards, rotating at the end of each stroke.

That still won't place a sharp enough edge for shaving onto the blade, but it does ensure that the edge now has the correct bevel. To reach proper sharpness you now need to strop that edge which will align the fins of metal on the edge of the blade. Stropping is done in a similar fashion to sharpening, but in the reverse direction - that is, you always drag the edge and rotate it over on each stroke. Typical strops are made of a fine leather but you also find ones made of hemp, cotton or other materials which are used prior to refining it once again on the leather. For the best edge possible you will want to apply some paste to the surface of the strop, and again there are many possibilities for this task.

I used to think my kitchen knife was sharp until I learnt how to sharpen a razor. There's videos on youtube showing the method and all sort of other minutia related to the simple act of shaving.

Re:alternatively

[BlackHawk-666]

Honing is only the first step in getting a blade ready for shaving with. It's the sort of thing you might do every few months. Stropping is what you do every time before you shave, that's the step that makes it really sharp. It's pretty interesting what happens to the metal at a microscopic scale when you sharpen and strop the blade, which rather than removing material works instead by aligning it all.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to use different grades of sand paper to sharpen cutting tools when I was just starting out woodworking, trying to save as much money as possible for more directly useful tools. I didn't know there was a specific term for that. After a couple years of doing that, I got a nice oilstone set for a decent price on sale. In the end, that was much cheaper than replacing the sandpaper, it was quicker, and produces a much better result with less effort. Sand paper is ok if you are trying to avoid any up front investment, and assuming your local hardware store carries the grits you need for the particular type of work you are trying to do. Some things you don't need a really sharp edge, or if you are using cheap tools, they are quicker to get a sharp edge (just need to be sharpened more often).

There are a lot of things you can do with very basic tools, which shouldn't be surprising with crafts that have been around for centuries. And while there are diminishing returns for buy better tools in many cases, that doesn't mean that better tools necessarily offer less value per dollar, especially depending on what and how much of something you are doing.

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm new to cooking, but I learned a lot. For instance. There are a LOT of types of tomatoes. I don't know their names, I really don't care about shape, size or color, only taste. And some of them are very different. Very few recipes care about this.
Cooking, to make something taste good, requires not kitchen equipment, chopping techniques or pretty colored paper from cooking schools, but lots and lots of experience.
You want to become good at cooking? Start by making pancakes every day for one month, each time a different kind. Then move onto another recipe and so on. Books, videos, they only get you started, sometimes onto the right path, but won't make your food taste good.

Re:alternatively

[AthanasiusKircher]

That metal stick you see people rubbing knives on? That's a stropper, not a sharpener.

As someone else already said, no. The "metal stick" is used to hone. Honing is something you do to straighten the edge before cutting, since a fine edge will gradually begin to bend and lean in places if not honed.

Stropping is generally done with leather (think of an old-style barber sharpening a straight-edge razor). The stropping step similarly straightens the edge, but the material (leather or sometimes other cloth) also polishes the edge slightly, effectively removing a very small amount of burrs and cleaning up some microserrations on the edge.

Stropping a knife does nothing once the edge is gone. It has to be re-sharpened first.

That's true -- if the knife is dull, stropping won't do much. On the other hand, the "metal stick" most people own is a grooved steel, rather than a smooth steel. A smooth steel hones only. A grooved steel will tear microserrations into the edge of the blade, making it temporarily seem somewhat sharp. Unfortunately, it will also cause the edge to degrade faster, requiring more heavy work with the grooved steel to tear up the edge again.

To my mind, grooved steels are rather stupid devices, but lots of people use them. They actually can temporarily "revive" some cutting power, but in a destructive sort of way. Assuming your knife isn't completely dull, smacking it around with a grooved steel may make it seem a little more usable for a while anyway....

Re:alternatively

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason people say dull knives are dangerous usually applies to clumsy people too: the knife can slip and go some place not intended. Unless your knife is so dull you are just squashing onions and tomatoes, you have to go pretty slow with a dull knife to not have a chance of it slipping off and potentially hitting something you didn't want to. If it is sharp, then you just need to keep your hand away from the sharp part, and knife will go where directed.

Re:alternatively

[AthanasiusKircher]

People say duller knives are dangerous, but my experience suggests the opposite. When my knife set was new, I cut myself badly with them on two or three occasions. Nearly took the end of a finger off once. Now that the knives are a little duller they're safer.

I agree, but I'd qualify this a bit. Very sharp knives are dangerous. Very dull knives are also dangerous. If you're not careful when cutting, I agree that it's best to have something in the middle.

Very dull knives are dangerous in unpredictable ways. You have to use excess force to make them cut, and at times that may just slide off the food rather than cut into it. I can't tell you how many times I've been at someone else's house with a set of terribly dull knives, and I'm asked to slice an onion or something, and the knife just keeps sliding off the skin, rather than cutting into it. I have to exert a lot more force to pierce through the skin, so when the knife slides off, it also hits the cutting board with a bang. I've certainly nicked myself a few times with dull blades just that way.

That's just not a safe way to cut food -- excess force and unpredictable knife motion.

On the other hand, very sharp knives are dangerous is very predictable ways. If you keep your fingers out of the way while chopping, you can always depend on your knife to work like a steady machine. Yeah, if you're not careful you could easily slice into your finger or even slice the tip off. I've sliced myself a couple times with sharp knives, and I have to admit that it's a bit scary, because at least once or twice I didn't even notice it until I saw the blood. Unlike with a dull knife, a sharp knife slicing into a finger is clean and almost painless. A dull knife will leave an awful jagged cut that could take a long time to heal; even a deeper gash from a sharp knife seems to heal very quickly.

Personally, with my own knives, I like to err on the side of predictablity, and therefore I keep them relatively sharp. But I'm not crazy about it -- when I first sharpen them, they are quite sharp. But I don't bother to touch them up until I really start sensing resistance in cutting food.

In sum, both dull and sharp knives can be dangerous. But dull knives can be dangerous even if you're trying to be careful, so I try to avoid them.

Re:alternatively

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Well you can get away with a dull knife for *most* foods. However for some foods, like sushi after you've rolled it, cutting it with a dull knife will result in a pretty mashed up roll. Believe me, I've tried, and it was making sushi that lead me to eventually get a proper knife. Tomato as well, if you've ever had trouble cutting them to your exact desired thickness and cutting them straight, a sharp knife makes all the difference in the world, and gets it done faster too. If you've ever seen those cooking shows where some guy makes cutting look easy, yet it never feels that way to you, it's because you've never had the feel of cutting with the right knife.

If you're not into cooking, then don't cook, just go on using cheap crap knives you can buy at walmart. Seriously, I'm all for using cheap utensils so long as they get the job done. I'm only into cooking because my diet basically requires it. If it didn't, I wouldn't bother.

By the way, one of the chief complaints about cooking though is how long it takes. If you cut your food with a proper technique, you'll save a lot of time. If you cut with a sharp knife, you'll save even more time. I cannot stress enough how many times I've wowed people by showing them my victorinox blade, which I paid about $25 for a while back and it's still very sharp. Most proper chef knives you get will run you over $100 for an equivalently good blade, only they won't have a warranty. There's a reason that this particular make/model of knife is popular among restaurants and has won numerous awards. And most of all, it's cheap. I like cheap.

Re:alternatively

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Youtube to the rescue. I'd look for some videos on proper knife technique. It takes a little mastering, but I like the method where I wrap my index finger around the blade (instead of the handle) with the blade pinched between that and my thumb.

I didn't use that method at first, but after you try it for a while you'll realize just how good it is and it'll fit so naturally after you force yourself to do it for a short time. And then slice rather than chop when you can, that'll stop a lot of the accidental knicks and it's faster (especially if you use the rolling technique where the blade never leaves the cutting board.)

I also keep the knuckles of my guide hand touching the blade. You'd think you'll cut your knuckles, but I have yet to have it happen. Every time I've cut myself it's been my fingertips when I wasn't using that technique on some oddly shaped food.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

No stones needed, unless you are putting an initial bevel edge on it to begin with, in that case I start with an electric grindstone. I choose an angle suitable for task , jig it up and set the degrees for the tool. Then I spray glue a number of grits of wet/dry from 150 to 2000 (or more) to a sheet of glass. I jig up the blade once again, at the same angle, in a jig with a wheel and run that sucker back and forth over the wet sandpaper, grit by grit, till I see a mirror. I unjig and finish the tip by hand the same way. Stones are for the sentimental who have time on their hands. In this way I can make a maul into a razor or put a suitable edge on an axe. I could even put a razor edge back on a razor, I'm so damn cheap, I even resharpen X-acto blades. I haven't met a metal meant for a blade that I couldn't sharpen, appropriately or inappropriately.

Now we all know a razor edge on a maul would ruin the maul, but I have sharpened an ax to a razor point. It was old, had seen its day, had enough metal missing that it felt funny. It tore into the wood nicely for a few strokes, regressed to regular ax strokes, then faded into dullness after a couple trees. So , no, it isn't beneficial to sharpen THAT sharp. But you can. I have sharpened straights this way too. Yes, I can shave that way. Further, I use no "shaving cream", I only use water to shave.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

Yeah, yeah, I know, but I sharpen so many things, I still call it setting the angle.
I have used a strop before. Now I use scary sharp for everything and have for years.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

Once I spray-glue several grits onto glass, they last a very long time, through many, many sharpenings.
I doubt I spend a stones cost on sandpaper for that, in 5 years. I actually have some dusty old stones, even some diamond "stones". I break them out when I don't want to take the blade off the mower.

Re:alternatively

[drinkypoo]

If you merely invest in a tool without learning how to use it, your fear is realized.

Your brain is a tool you don't know how to use. Virtually no haircutters know how to sharpen their scissors or clippers, but they still manage to cut hair. My lady is a professional chef and she uses an el cheapo knife sharpener and you know what? It works fine. Two or three passes through it, wipe the blade on a towel, cut a tomato. Y'all are way overcomplicating this. You don't need a monomolecular edge to cut food, and if you had one on a steel blade, it would vanish the first time you made a cut and it touched the cutting board.

Re:alternatively

[flyneye]

No one said anything about monomolecular, but you.
Haircutters make enough to support the sharpeners trade when he comes around, hair cutters.
Sure it works fine to cut food. I'm sure she does the Edward scissorhands bit to a baron of roast. No? Doesn't make it look like a pig head? She could, if she had the tools....You would've thought of that if you had a tool, well, I got a tool , even if I don't use it well. Maybe she could say if I use it well
Once upon a time, man cut food with a rock and it worked just fine.

Re:alternatively

[drinkypoo]

No one said anything about monomolecular, but you.

It's called hyperbole, you're expected to recognize it when speaking English.

Sure it works fine to cut food. I'm sure she does the Edward scissorhands bit to a baron of roast. No? Doesn't make it look like a pig head? She could, if she had the tools....You would've thought of that if you had a tool, well, I got a tool , even if I don't use it well. Maybe she could say if I use it well

Is the problem simply that English is your second language? Perhaps you should actually be able to speak it before attempting to argue in it.

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

You know you can just type the name of any dish into google and get dozens of recipes, videos and pictures, right?

But I like the advertisment, your PR team is awesome to have submitted this to slashdot!

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Much like books on technical/theoretical software topics, even though the information is out there and relatively accessible sometimes it's nice to have it all together in a consistent and well thought out collection. Yes there's a tonne of easily available perl resources on the net, but the camel book guides you from start to finish at a consistent pace, using consistent terminology, etc..

I have the two volume set, and it's nice (posting AC, so by all means assume I'm a paid shill).

I do agree that this isn't really newsworthy from a technical perspective and probably doesn't belong here.

Re:Wow

[MysteriousPreacher]

But I like the advertisment, your PR team is awesome to have submitted this to slashdot!

Yeah. It's a very exclusive and highly selective process to get a story on Slashdot.

Hopefully from here on we'll be seeing a story for every single iOS/Android app release.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes that is a bug, not a feature. Searching for recipes can sometimes result in too much returns, and sorting through the results to find a good one can take quite a bit of effort, and frequently, a lot of knowledge and experience. Finding a particular cookbook you like and trust as the first place to go when looking for a recipe can make a huge difference in amount of effort to try something new. Once you get enough experience, you might not need a book any more other than rough proportion reminder, but it can make a difference in the learning curve. Sometimes a good blog will work well too if you agree and trust the author's recipes, although those tend to be more random in terms of what recipes are covered.

Re:Wow

[wiredlogic]

Not only that but Google has a special recipe search tool that will let you specify certain combinations of ingredients and find recipes that incorporate them.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

People using "less" when they mean "fewer" is bad enough, but using "much" instead of "many" goes well and truly beyond the pale of idiocy.

Less filling

Fewer calories

Much beer

Many glasses

Fucking retard.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Not every /. reader is a US or UK citizen, sometimes we can fuck up on such an insignificant phrasing matter, especially when less braindead languages use the same word for "less" and "fewer" and the same word for "too many" and "too much".

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

There has been a couple hundred years of English writing that ignores that distinction, which was only recently created artificially by grammar books about a century ago. So in a sense, it was around the time grammar Nazis got serious enough to self-perpetuate, to create needless rules they could later chastise people.

Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

here http://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/7153205/Modernist_Cuisine_-_The_Art_and_Science_of_Cooking_%5BVol_1-6%5D_(HQ

Re:Its free over

[dmbasso]

Interesting, I think it is the first time I see a link to copyright infringing material here. Will it be deleted?

Re:Its free over

[glavenoid]

Were you here for the scientology clambake/xenu thing like 13 years ago? Scientology sued Slashdot to get an embarrassing copyrighted comment deleted and Slashdot was coerced into compliance. The subsequent Slashdot story about the comment being deleted was in the old Slashdot faq (or maybe hall-of-fame or something) that used to be in the left navbar but now seems to be missing.

There also may have been a time when a link to windows 2000 source code within a comment was deleted but I don't remember if it actually was. I think CmdrTaco et al may have fought and won to keep the comment but my memory on Slashdot lore isn't that good any more.

Re:Its free over

[sconeu]

Unfortunately Dice.com owns Slashdot now, and they don't give a shit about integrity.

(It's amazing, isn't it? I post a negative comment about Dice/Slashdot and I have to wait 5 minutes between posts to post it instead of the usual 2, or occasional 1).

Re:Its free over

[TheRealMindChild]

See, this is a link TO a link, that links to copyright infringing material. Even the lawyers have to be careful how many steps removed they go after, else they will be going after the entire internet

Re:Its free over

[jones_supa]

Interesting, I think it is the first time I see a link to copyright infringing material here. Will it be deleted?

You must be new here. Slashdot is heavily pro-piracy.

Re:Its free over

[glavenoid]

Slashdot users may be, on average, but I don't think the suits at dice holdings, inc. would really appreciate potentially violating an advertising agreement they have with the company that ostensibly paid to have this submission put to the top of the queue by allowing a link to a pirated version of the commercial book that the app being advertised is based on.

Re:Its free over

[jones_supa]

Ha ha ha. :D

Re:Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be a dick. That's someone's hard work over there. Quite possibly literally their life's work. Don't be so disrespectful of it.

Re:Its free over

[demonlapin]

So is there anywhere decent you'd recommend? I used /. for years before signing up for an account, so my userid is pretty high, but I've been here since '98 or so.

Everyone complains that Slashdot sucks these days, but I don't see anyone recommending alternatives.

Re:Its free over

[Wycliffe]

I think it depends on what you're interested in. Most of the other sites I follow like newscientist.com and
machineslikeus.com although they have tech stuff also have alot more medical stuff. Google news also
has a tech section. I like slashdot. It's about as good as any for my interests and honestly advertisement
or not this article seems to fit the "news for nerds" if for no other reason that I find it interesting that
someone is selling an $80 app where the average price is probably closer to $2.

Re:Its free over

[demonlapin]

Thanks, hadn't heard of MLU. I'm more interested in community - I'm still modestly involved in the Ars Technica forums, but I've completely given up on the front page of the site.

Re:Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

Appropriate.

Nathan Myhrvold is also the man behind intellectual ventures, the company that buys out patents and sues companies making products based on them. I wonder if a lawsuit is on the way.

Re:Its free over

[rmdingler]

Slashdot rocks like Slayer. You don't know why you like it?: It's better than 'work' through the week, goes great with a Whiskey at night, and it's there faithful as an old hound 24/7 ... no matter what time you get crafty.

Re:Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only fair, as Nathan Myhrvold is one of the biggest patent trolls in the entire world.

Re:Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

The quality of the photography didn't really come through in that scan. Just compare this photo:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/assets_c/2011/01/20110131-modernist-cuisine-burger-137237.html

To the one in the torrent that was scanned from a paper copy of the book. The color and contrast are totally whack in the torrent's PDF copy. And yet, most of the comments on that TPB page are praising the torrented PDF as being high quality and better than previously-posted versions. The previous copies must have *really* sucked if that is indeed that case.

Re:Its free over

[DaTrueDave]

That's not a photograph, that's a computer-generated photo manipulation at best, but more likely it's closer to being pure CGI.

Re:Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be a dick. That's someone's hard work over there. Quite possibly literally their life's work. Don't be so disrespectful of it.

The guy is a fucking patent troll. Essentially, an extortionist.

Go away shill.

Re:Its free over

[Anonymous Coward]

It actually is a (carefully staged) photograph, see here:

http://modernistcuisine.com/books/the-photography-of-modernist-cuisine/

Re:Its free over

[strikethree]

Interesting, I think it is the first time I see a link to copyright infringing material here. Will it be deleted?

Since when is a .torrent file considered copyrightable material? What you are seeing is a link to a file that tells you how to get (is itself a link) copyrighted material.

Moo

Re:Its free over

[mattack2]

You mean integrity like following the laws of the land and court ordered actions? That sounds like a lot of integrity to me.

So innovative

[hugg]

I wonder how the culinary specialists that first developed the techniques in his book are getting compensated for their innovations.

Re:So innovative

[TheloniousToady]

Careful...with talk like that, you could prompt Myhrvold to become a copyright troll.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

I'm not trolling here -- honest -- but I have to ask honestly: who cares?

I saw an article about the "modernist" hamburger recipe from this book. Just about every ingredient in the burger is first saturated with beef suet (fat). Even the bun has fat smeared on it before grilling.

No matter how flavorful it is, it's not so much hamburger as greaseburger. Seriously, it must have about 4,000 calories.

I don't know what's "modern" or "modernist" about that. I thought smearing everything with lard before cooking went out of style about 80 years ago.

Re:So innovative

[pspahn]

Certainly better than those assholes that think putting chunks of onion in the burger is the best way to go. Sure, I get it, you want your burgers to not be dry an mealy. Instead of ruining the burger with all that nasty onion flavor, just learn to cook properly.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

Update: here's a picture of Myhrvold's "ultimate modernist burger".

In addition to the loads of suet, it also uses fish sauce.

I can just about guarantee that if you knew how genuine fish sauce was made, you wouldn't put it in your mouth.

If that's "modernist" cuisine, I probably don't want any.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

god, that sounds a w e s o m e. I have to spell it like that or else the dog will hear and attack me in anticipation of this marvelous treat. GOD DAMMIT! The dog attacked me because I accidently said "treat". ...twice, apparently.

Re:So innovative

[sconeu]

Whoosh.

Myrvhold and "Intellectual Ventures" are some of the biggest patent trolls on the planet. Hence the joke.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

Whoosh yourself. My point was: who cares?

Re:So innovative

[sribe]

... just learn to cook properly.

In other words, learn how and when to use a panade, something the French figured out a long time ago ;-)

Re:So innovative

[sconeu]

And some people don't get jokes, apparently.

I guess I'll have to petition W3C to officially put the HUMOR and SARCASM tags into the HTML5 spec.

Re:So innovative

[ButchDeLoria]

Still won't be able to see them in IE.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

And some people don't get jokes, apparently.

I guess I'll have to petition W3C to officially put the HUMOR and SARCASM tags into the HTML5 spec.

You are the one not understanding. I got the joke. But WHO CARES?

I guess I'll have to petition W3C to add CLUE and PLAIN ENGLISH to their spec.

Re:So innovative

[sconeu]

Oh, and apparently, YOU care, or you wouldn't have replied to this thread TWICE.

Re:So innovative

[sconeu]

Very well, since you're going to be so damned obtuse....

Myhrvold and IV are patent trolls, insisting that they be paid for every "innovation" that they come up with.

Unless Myhrvold came up with EVERY SINGLE technique and recipe in that book, he's using something someone else invented. Thus the OP's comment that he hopes that the inventors of the techniques are compensated. And again, obviously YOU care, or you wouldn't be continuing this thread.

If you care as little as you claim to, why don't you just ignore this whole thread? Because, as you say, "who cares?" if you don't care?

Re:So innovative

[vux984]

good idea, we could use an onion panade!
Seems like we've gone in a circle...

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

learn how to use a dagger?

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

I can just about guarantee that if you knew how genuine fish sauce was made, you wouldn't put it in your mouth.

Or you can realize like a lot of foods you are not used to, millions of people get by just fine with a cuisines that uses it in many dishes.

Re:So innovative

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I can just about guarantee that if you knew how genuine fish sauce was made, you wouldn't put it in your mouth.

Grumph! Ehh, scratch that...garumph?

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently you care so much that CAPITAL LETTERS aren't enough. They have to be BOLDED CAPITAL LETTERS.

Re: So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be a twat.

Substitute Worcestershire sauce for the fish sauce and butter for the beef suet, and you've got two very common ingredients in hamburger recipes.

Wikipedia, on fish sauce:
"In English it was formerly translated as fishpickle. The original Worcestershire sauce is a related product because it is fermented and contains anchovies."

Beef suet contains just about 20% more calories than butter.

Re:So innovative

[St.Creed]

It is made by fermenting small whole fish in brine and drawing off the liquid, which is then bottled. I've got no problem with that.

Re:So innovative

[AlphaWolf_HK]

I love lots of onion in the food I cook. Sweet, red, and scallion, and they can taste different ways depending on how you cook them. If you just don't like the bite, just cook them longer.

Re:So innovative

[FunkDup]

I can just about guarantee that if you knew how genuine fish sauce was made, you wouldn't put it in your mouth.

I counter-guarantee that if you knew how awesome and useful it is, you wouldn't care how it is made. It should be called "magic sauce"

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

It is made by fermenting small whole fish in brine and drawing off the liquid, which is then bottled. I've got no problem with that.

No, it isn't. Unless you mean the Korean variety.

The biggest-selling brand in the world is made this way: Fish entrails (not whole fish... the meat is sold for food) are fermented. If, that is, by "fermented" you mean literally poured into barrels and left to rot, outside in the sun, for 2 years.

THEN, the liquid is poured off, and bottled. (It is cooked before bottling. So it's not going to make you ill in that sense.)

I watched the whole process from beginning to end on the food channel. I'll not intentionally and voluntarily consume it again after that.

Granted, the U.S. variety is made differently. But no doubt it tastes differently, too.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

I counter-guarantee that if you knew how awesome and useful it is, you wouldn't care how it is made. It should be called "magic sauce"

Are you talking about the U.S. kind? It's made very differently.

But if you mean the most-sold brand in the world (which probably would be illegal to sell in the U.S.), yes, I do care how it's made. Even if every bite gave me an orgasm I still wouldn't touch it.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

Apparently you care so much that CAPITAL LETTERS aren't enough. They have to be BOLDED CAPITAL LETTERS.

Yep. READ THE THREAD.

I did NOT care about his joke. But I **DO** care when somebody calls me stupid because he thinks I didn't get his joke, and I had already explained to him 2-3 times before that the problem was not that I was stupid, but that I actually did get his joke and it WASN'T FUNNY.

Tell me: how else do you get the message across, if the other person isn't getting the clue after that? Huh?

For other readers: what kind of arrogance or narcissism does it take for the following train of thought?

Heh. I made a funny joke.

Hm... somebody didn't think it was funny.

That MUST mean that she didn't get the joke.

I will have to explain to this this person that she was stupid, 3 times, and that it was really satire.

Even though that person has tried to tell me just as many times that she really did get the joke, that isn't possible because she didn't think it was funny, and I told it, so it was funny.

Re: So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm actually surprised that making fish sauce does not involve the skankiest hooker on the planet bathing in stagnant ocean backwaters and squeezing the water from her vagina into little bottles.

That's how it tastes, anyway...

Re:So innovative

[that_itch_kid]

If, that is, by "fermented" you mean literally poured into barrels and left to rot, outside in the sun, for 2 years.

I'm not quite sure how you've equated fermentation with decomposition. Fermentation prevents decomposition, as the salt used and acids and alcohol produced by the fermentation inhibit the growth of those bacteria which decompose the food.

Are beer, bread, yoghurt, gherkins, and olives also "left to rot"?

Fish entrails (not whole fish... the meat is sold for food)

Respect for the animal and frugality. Fermenting to make a sauce is just one good way to use the parts of an animal which are not particularly appetising on their own.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you talking about the U.S. kind? It's made very differently.

I didn't even know there was fish sauce made in the US, considering most generic supermarkets I go to have at least two brands of imported kind that are authentic and cheap. There is a long list of foods that involve letting them spoil in a specific way, including in Western cultures, but people usually only object to the ones they are not familiar with. Doesn't matter, if you want to avoid it for personal reasons, go ahead. The few people I know that avoid it due so out of its strong smell or taste and because they don't think of it being used in moderation. Considering most cookbooks on southeast Asian cuisine that have an intro discussing ingredients, quite a few people must know somewhat where it comes from...

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

I'm not quite sure how you've equated fermentation with decomposition. Fermentation prevents decomposition, as the salt used and acids and alcohol produced by the fermentation inhibit the growth of those bacteria which decompose the food.

I'm not sure where you learned science, but fermentation *IS* decomposition.

Are beer, bread, yoghurt, gherkins, and olives also "left to rot"?

In the sun, for 2 years? Not even. (By the way: there are several kinds of "fermentation", and the kinds that happen with bread and beer do not even remotely apply in this case. Especially bread. If you want to call the metabolism of sugar by yeast "rotting", then you're rotting right now. Yecch.)

"Respect for the animal and frugality. Fermenting to make a sauce is just one good way to use the parts of an animal which are not particularly appetising on their own."

Right. Silk purse from a sow's ear. That works well. I do appreciate the attempt to make something useful out of refuse, but in this case I refuse.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

There is a long list of foods that involve letting them spoil in a specific way, including in Western cultures, but people usually only object to the ones they are not familiar with.

I'm familiar enough. But there are varying degrees, and in the case of Southeast Asian fish sauce, I have seen it done and it is far outside my standards. Fair enough?

As for the kinds made in the U.S.: They are made differently and although they meet my standards of sanity, I still don't like them very much.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure where you learned science, but fermentation *IS* decomposition.

Fermentation is part of decomposition, but you referred to it previously as rotting. Rotting involves all three decomposition processes, not just the break down of carbohydrates (fermentation), but of the proteins (putrefaction) and fats (rancidification). In salty environments, like that used in making fish sauce, you can stop the breakdown of proteins and fats, and are left with just fermentation.

By the way: there are several kinds of "fermentation", and the kinds that happen with bread and beer do not even remotely apply in this case.

What happens in bread and beer are very similar to what happens in fish sauce. There are different possible outcomes of fermentation, which can be alcohols or lactic acid related things for example. The latter is still used plenty in foods most people have no problem with eating, everything from pickles to cured meats. There are plenty of highly valued meats and cheeses aged for years, just similar treatment to seafood in the west is a little less common. But for the same reason your metabolism and bread rising is not rotting, fermentation of things like meats and fish are also not rotting. If you had actual rotting, the smell and taste would be quite different for fish sauce, and it would be unusable.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

WHO CARES?

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

Fermentation is part of decomposition, but you referred to it previously as rotting. Rotting involves all three decomposition processes, not just the break down of carbohydrates (fermentation), but of the proteins (putrefaction) and fats (rancidification). In salty environments, like that used in making fish sauce, you can stop the breakdown of proteins and fats, and are left with just fermentation.

READ THE COMMENT I WAS REPLYING TO. My statement was perfectly justified, in context.

I referred to it as rotting, because the process of making some brands of fish sauce -- including the most common brand sold in the world -- is not just "fermentation". It involves rotting.

The problem here is that you seem to think I called fermentation "rotting". False. I was making the distinction between fermentation, and what we commonly call rotting.

Yes, fermentation is part of decomposition, but the whole point I was making is that the production of some fish sauce -- and I mean a very common fish sauce in many parts of the world, not just rare, niche varieties -- involves decomposition that no sane person would call "fermentation", unless they were using that word as a euphemism for something quite different.

If you are talking about the kind of fish sauce made in the U.S. and some other "western" countries, then we're talking about two different things.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Your obsession with fish sauce is hilarious.

"Are you talking about the American kind or the most popular brand in the world? 'Cause I watched a whole television show on the most popular brand in the world. I know all about it."

Re: So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Try Julia Childs' burger recipe (Mastering the Art of French Cooking vol I)

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

But is she over herself yet?

Re:So innovative

[Zontar The Mindless]

But have you cancelled all your meetings yet?

Re:So innovative

[Goaway]

I can just about guarantee that if you knew how genuine fish sauce was made, you wouldn't put it in your mouth.

No, I am not such a little wimp that it would bother me. I know very well that many, many of the foods I eat are made through very disgusting processes.

Does it taste good? Is there any chance of it making me ill? If the answers are yes and no, why should I care about how it is made?

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Short-rib patty ground to vertically align the grain?

This sounds like a recipe for an audiophile cable rather than food. My guess he is aiming for the equivalent market.

Re:So innovative

[magic maverick]

"Even if every bite gave me an orgasm I still wouldn't touch it."

I know what I'm getting you for your birthday. (Of course, it's more one of those, I bought it for my self presents...)

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

Please, get a life.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

You're taking an awfully American-centric view to assume everyone who disagrees with you has never eaten or seen fish sauce from outside the US. Nonetheless, you are still incorrect, the method of making fish sauce is not rotting, but is specifically fermentation. That is why so much salt is involved. And if you took the salt out of it, it would fail its primary use in Thai cooking, so there is no point in trying to find some way to make the fish sit there and rot instead. I have no idea how fish sauce is made in the US, and didn't know it was even popular enough there for them to make it too. I've only seen its production in Thailand, so I guess your mileage may vary if you are talking about some other county.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm the same way, except I have three questions instead of two:

Does it taste good?
What are the chances of it harming me?
what are the chances of it harming others?

No sense eating something if the production method is really destructive to the local environment, or if made by slave labor, but that doesn't apply to most foods including fish sauce.

Re:So innovative

[NulDevice]

Wuss. I don't see how fermenting fish entrails is any worse than the processes used to make cheese. Or sausages. Or stinky tofu. Or sauerkraut.

Fermentation as a preservation method (and a developer of umami flavor) goes back millennia.

I know how fish sauce is made, and I still use it all the time. It's *great* stuff.

Re:So innovative

[bruce_the_loon]

Well, the fact that it routinely fails to kill or cause massive illness in the millions of people who do eat it makes it fine in my book.

You soft westerners have too low a squeamishness level. Harden up a bit and enjoy your food rather than worrying that it will kill you when obviously it doesn't.

Fish sauce didn't kill the Romans and it won't kill you.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

You soft westerners have too low a squeamishness level. Harden up a bit and enjoy your food rather than worrying that it will kill you when obviously it doesn't.

I'm not "worried that it will kill me". Obviously it isn't killing people. I'll just repeat: I don't like the way it's made. Okay?

Eating dogs won't kill you, but I don't like that practice either. The reasons may be different, but they're MY reasons.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

Are you talking about the American kind or the most popular brand in the world? 'Cause I watched a whole television show on the most popular brand in the world. I know all about it.

I didn't claim to "know all about it." But I do know enough to have an opinion about it. Don't put words in my mouth. It shows that either you weren't paying attention, or made a moronic assumption, or both.

Re:So innovative

[Jane Q. Public]

You're taking an awfully American-centric view to assume everyone who disagrees with you has never eaten or seen fish sauce from outside the US.

You're taking an awfully assumption-centric view to assume that's what I was doing. I did not write that, and I did not mean that.

Nonetheless, you are still incorrect, the method of making fish sauce is not rotting, but is specifically fermentation.

I stated that one brand -- a very popular one -- was made the way I described. I also stated, very clearly, that I was aware other kinds are NOT made that way.

Re:So innovative

[Anonymous Coward]

You're taking an awfully assumption-centric view to assume that's what I was doing. I did not write that, and I did not mean that.

Then maybe every time someone mentioned fish sauce is made different than you describe, you shouldn't ask them if they are talking about American fish sauce. It looks like someone was paying attention to notice you've done that several times.

I stated that one brand -- a very popular one -- was made the way I described. I also stated, very clearly, that I was aware other kinds are NOT made that way.

Then maybe from the start you should have said one brand of fish sauce involves rotting and maybe name the brand. It also took you a while to go from "fish sauce" to " Southeast Asian fish sauce" to "some fish sauce brands" to finally "one brand." So what brand is it? I've seen squid, tiparos, or three crabs all named as near the top sellers in different places. Or is it even made in Thailand, considering they have legal limits to what may be called fish sauce, including limits on salt and nitrogen content that would preclude rotting?

Re:So innovative

[drinkypoo]

If, that is, by "fermented" you mean literally poured into barrels and left to rot, outside in the sun, for 2 years.

Well, no. Most of it only sets for 30 days or so. That's more than enough time. It only takes a couple of days to make garum. I saw THAT on the teevee, so that THAT.

The fact is that the same bacteria used to make fish sauce work in your gut to break down the fish there, too.

THEN, the liquid is poured off, and bottled. (It is cooked before bottling. So it's not going to make you ill in that sense.)

You don't even cook garum. The salt and enzymes take care of safety.

Re:So innovative

[drinkypoo]

I stated that one brand -- a very popular one -- was made the way I described. I also stated, very clearly, that I was aware other kinds are NOT made that way.

hmm.

It is made by fermenting small whole fish in brine and drawing off the liquid, which is then bottled. I've got no problem with that.

No, it isn't. Unless you mean the Korean variety.

And I quote: It is made by fermenting small whole fish in brine and drawing off the liquid, which is then bottled. No, it isn't.

You made multiple statements in that comment, and in fact you did specifically say that he was wrong about the method of production before you went on to include weasel words which you are now citing, while ignoring the part of your comment to which the poster was specifically objecting. The line for crow forms to the left. You may also wish to consider the line to register for English 101.

I don't normally wish for patent trolls to attack

[larry bagina]

but in this case, I shall make an exception!

More hype?

[AthanasiusKircher]

From TFA:

Among the top features that the Modernist Cuisine app comes with are the high-resolutions pictures and the ability to search within the app's own information which will also fetch extra data from Wikipedia and other web services.

Wow, an app that can search its own information! And use that cool web resources like Wikipedia!

As someone who admired the photography from the original book, though, the high-res photography is awesome.

Unfortunately, that's about all the book was good for, at least unless you're some professional chef with a large budget and a bunch of fancy equipment. I find it hilarious that TFA makes it sound like a regular cooking and recipe app:

the recipe cards dynamically adjust the measure of ingredients you'll need to yield a given number of servings, then add these items to a shopping list.

Have people even looked at the book? The exotic ingredients used in many recipes aren't exactly the sort of things you can find at your typical supermarket. Even if you have the centrifuge and other fancy equipment needed to prepare some things, you're going to have to special order a lot of ingredients... not just pack your iPhone in your purse and head off to the grocery store.

The hype for this book was huge, with people claiming that it revolutionize the way we would cook and introduce a whole new "scientific" approach to cooking. That was complete nonsense -- it's more about fancy technology and fancy ingredients, with lots of fun pictures. If you like $600 coffee-table books, by all means, get a copy... or maybe get the photos for a steal in an $80 iPad app.

I know I'm a dissenting voice on this book, but all the blather about using "science" in cooking really bothered me. I'm actually the scientific type of cook -- I have many digital thermometers, scales, a pH meter, and many other precision devices, along with a "lab notebook" (journal) of my kitchen "experiments."

But this book is more about presenting pretentious culinary "culture" that uses lots of technology as if it were "science." That's not science. It's just somebody's wacky cooking vision. I'm not saying the food is bad, but claiming that their approach is "better" is rarely backed up by any data... therefore, it's hardly "scientific."

Anyhow, I could go on about this for some time, and already have here. But from my experience with this book, I'm a little hesitant about recommending the $80 app, unless you just like paying that much for a lot of pretty pictures.

Re:More hype?

[whoever57]

Wow, an app that can search its own information! And use that cool web resources like Wikipedia!

So he is leeching off the work of many people and resources provided to a non-profit in order to make money? Way to go for someone so investing in intellectual property rights!

I hope the app provides the appropriate attributions for photos and such licensed under a creative commons license.

Re:More hype?

[pspahn]

Indeed. You can pick up a copy of Cook's Illustrated "Best Recipes" and "More Best Recipes" for about $10 at a book store. While yes, they might give you a comparison of which $200 pan is the best, their process is fascinating.

Re:More hype?

[Threni]

On the positive side, this app is "just" $80! That's all it costs! Not a dollar more!

Re:More hype?

[rasmusbr]

But this book is more about presenting pretentious culinary "culture" that uses lots of technology as if it were "science." That's not science. It's just somebody's wacky cooking vision. I'm not saying the food is bad, but claiming that their approach is "better" is rarely backed up by any data... therefore, it's hardly "scientific."

Then it truly is modernist cuisine. At least the book is aptly named.

Re:More hype?

[jafiwam]

The hype for this book was huge, with people claiming that it revolutionize the way we would cook and introduce a whole new "scientific" approach to cooking. That was complete nonsense -- it's more about fancy technology and fancy ingredients, with lots of fun pictures. If you like $600 coffee-table books, by all means, get a copy... or maybe get the photos for a steal in an $80 iPad app.

That's already been done.

The guy's name is "Alton Brown".

We don't need this arrogant asshole patent troll to do it. It's been done. (and probably better, I might add)

Re:More hype?

[drinkypoo]

Then it truly is modernist cuisine. At least the book is aptly named.

if it's really about bullshit machinery that nobody would really use because it's a PITA, isn't it postmodernist cuisine? The only way it would be moreso is if it came from soviet russia, because you know.

Re:More hype?

[rasmusbr]

No, postmodernist cuisine would be all about mixing different food traditions, but referring to it with fancy sounding words like "fusion" or "referencing" or "sampling" or maybe even "modding". In other words, it's basically what a lot of restaurants do today.

Destined to be undercut

[Dr. Manhattan]

If it's not a casual purchase, the audience is sharply limited. Someone will come out with something at least 80% as good for less than a twentieth the price.

That's what I did when an app came out with an insulting pricetag.

Re:Destined to be undercut

[NoMaster]

Dude, it doesn't count as a slashvertisement unless it's mentioned in an article approved by an 'editor'.
In order of increasing difficulty, it goes

1. Mention your own app in your .sig.
2. Mention your own app in a comment
3. Get a slashvertisement for your app posted by Timothy
4. Get someone else to mention your app in a comment

Almost any fool can mention their own app in a comment...

Wants to be FREE! Set it FREE!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is screaming for a freebird version so let's see it as soon as the copy presses can start like right NOW!

I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[behrooz0az]

Why would I pay $500/80 for a book and god knows how much for the ingredients and mess up each food a dozen times to get a half-decent meal which I wouldn't know how it should taste before eating it made by professional chefs who actually know what they are doing and cost less?
/restauRANT

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[ledow]

1) You wouldn't, obviously.
2) People cook for lots of reasons, not all of them are based on your argument.
3) Home cooking can be cheaper than anything you buy pre-cooked elsewhere - or else restaurants wouldn't be able to make a profit selling it.
4) Not everyone is a dolt in the kitchen. Home cooking is rarely a "dozen attempts" kind of thing if you have anywhere near half a brain and have done it a few times before. Those that are dolts need recipes to follow to become "non-dolts".
5) Home cooking can be prepared when you like, how you like, without having to try a dozen restaurants that are open when you want and where the cook is one that you happen to like (how many attempts would that take you, trying all your local restaurants?) - there isn't a "professional chef" in the world that will cook to you exact preferences, or else there's no point being a chef. You get what you're given, and the modifications you can make apply to the removal of certain ingredients and choosing how well done you want it.
6) Cooking, in itself, is a hobby.

More to the point, the argument I would propose, is why do you need to pay someone to tell you approximate proportions of ingredients when the web is full of millions of free recipes (many of them reviewed, and even ripped directly from recipe books without attribution) and you can't really "copyright" a recipe - you can copyright the exact text, the arrangement of them within a book, the photos of the dishes, etc. but there's not much to stop people sharing recipes and their own variations of your recipes.

My girlfriend's "recipe shelf" is full of more scrap cut out from newspapers, handwritten notebooks of recipes from friends/family, and photocopies of single recipes that she happened to like than anything else.

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[RespekMyAthorati]

It's just Myrvold saying to the world:
"I'm so rich I can force a useless over-priced piece of crap on the market, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[BlackHawk-666]

The vast number of those free recipes are pretty terrible. My personal favourites are ones which claim to teach you to make a recipe and then the main ingredient is a pre-made sauce from the supermarket. Even the ones that are basically right need usually need a fair amount of adjustment because the poster doesn't know how to use herbs and spices or how to blend flavours.

They are however pretty good if you are just looking for the basic way to make simple dishes and don't mind a bit of experimenting. I usually find 3-4 of the same recipe and try and work out a method based on all of them since most omit something important.

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[Anonymous Coward]

There ought to be a book on cooking theory that is designed for laymen. I learned to cook by learning about ingredients. For example, knowing what salt does, knowing how to use fresh or dried spices, understanding vinegar, understanding how heat affects eggs, understanding how proteins work. There used to be a show on Food Network, "Good Eats" hosted by Alton Brown who does the kitchen-side hosting on Iron Chef America. Alton's background actually is in filmmaking, and he brilliantly used that create a cooking show that emphasized science by teaching why things happen in cooking. Normally, you'd need to go to culinary school to learn cooking from that angle.

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[mbstone]

I was looking for a cheap knockoff version of Myhrvold's $800 cookbook and found On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, $25 hardcover. All the cooking-theory topics you mentioned are covered. Tell your SO you want it for the holidays.

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[mbstone]

Also check out the cable TV informercial for Nu Wave Portable Induction Cooker.

Re:I'd spent my money somewhere tastier

[Anonymous Coward]

There are quite a few such books around. Go into any decent sized book store with a cook book section, and you'll see several voluminous tomes with titles mentioning "Bible of Ingredients" or other things mentioning ingredients. There'll be a bunch more that might have slightly less obvious titles. They are a small minority of the books in that section, but still quite a few around. Then there are usually many special books that focus on one kind of ingredient, like a particular type of meat, or veggies, or constrain things to a particular type of final result. Plus many cook books have an intro section before the recipes discussing ingredients.

Wrong book, SmartAboutThings.

[qXUSrfebDy]

Looking at the app, this isn't the voluminous $500 set that's been digitized. It's the ~$110 watered down version for home chefs. The home version is a bit more than just a "two-volume addition" tacked onto the original. It's a compendium of simpler recipes taken from the original volumes with preparations that gel well with what regular chefs can get their hands on.

It's still a fantastic book for wannabe kitchen scientists but it seems the author got a little too excited in writing his sensational headline.

Re:Wrong book, SmartAboutThings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking at the app, this isn't the voluminous $500 set that's been digitized. It's the ~$110 watered down version for home chefs. The home version is a bit more than just a "two-volume addition" tacked onto the original. It's a compendium of simpler recipes taken from the original volumes with preparations that gel well with what regular chefs can get their hands on.

It's still a fantastic book for wannabe kitchen scientists but it seems the author got a little too excited in writing his sensational headline.

best part is you don't have to buy the $500 book. Use world catalog and find out which is your closest library that has it.

http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=modernist+cuisine+the+art+and+science+of+cooking

Re:Wrong book, SmartAboutThings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Also the home version is the same recipes twice, one in a giant coffee table sized book with lots of photos, the second a spiral bound kitchen book with waterproof pages (but still a finishing issue that causes pages to stick together terribly)

Patent Lawsuit

[sybarongo]

It'd really suck if someone with a patent covering distributing recipes using interactive devices were to sue him.

Re:Patent Lawsuit

[behrooz0az]

Don't worry, the patent dosen't cover rounded-corner devices this time.

"It was at this point that I..."

[tlambert]

"It was at this point that I set the device with the charged Lithium battery on the still hot cooktop and turned to chip the celery".

Re:"It was at this point that I..."

[SternisheFan]

Yep, not sure if all chefs are tech-savvy enough for this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6WuHzE-1fk

Misleading summary, as usual.

[westlake]

The app is based on "Modernist Cuisine at Home" not the $500 50 pound reference set for the professional chef.

This is a "modern" (or Modernist) cookbook, so the recipes inside are going to be closer to what you'd find in a restaurant that uses an obscure adjective for it's title rather than what you'd see in your grandmother's kitchen. If the idea of cooking a beautiful cut of salmon in a Ziploc bag seems blasphemous, or using a digital scale instead of an elephant-shaped measuring cup is akin to high treason, you may not be ready to make the jump.

Modernist Cuisine at Home introduces a consolidated set of kitchen tools and gadgets that the home chef can reasonably afford. Don't have the funds for the laboratory-grade centrifuge featured in "Modernist Cuisine?" No problem. Not only does MCAH omit the prohibitively expensive tools from its recipes, but many of them are the same recipes found in the original, redone for the home cook. MCAH even goes as far as offering several options at varying price ranges for the equipment used within.

The same goes for the ingredients. MCAH mostly does away with the laundry list of exotic spices and chemicals featured in many "modernist" cookbooks and instead relies on ingredients you can find either at the local grocery store, or in reasonable quantities online. For the ingredients you are probably less familiar with (malic acid? agar agar?) there is a two-page spread detailing what each does, where it comes from, and what it costs. In many cases, the recipes will list alternatives if you choose not to add their recommendations to your shopping list.

[purchaser review]

Re:Misleading summary, as usual.

[AthanasiusKircher]

It's not just the summary, but also TFA itself that is misleading then:

[The original Modernist Cuisine] is also one of the most expensive cooking encyclopedias, the original six volume version retailing for $500, with the two-volume that followed after that selling for $115. Now, Nathan and his team have transformed their huge food encyclopedia into an iPhone/iPad app.

I don't know about you, but when I read that, I assumed the app was based on the "huge" original version or even BOTH versions, probably edited in some way to make it work as an app.

But the appstore link makes it clear that you're paying for the modified "home" version. So even if the book is COMPLETELY available in the app, you're paying $80 for a book that costs about $120.

"at home" is not the full version

[forevermore]

This app is a digital version of the $115 "at home" version (2 volumes is a stretch -- one is a spiral bound version without the photos so you don't have to feel bad spilling on it while using it to cook), not the full $600 professional set. FWIW, I own the printed "at home" version (it goes on sale occasionally for under $100) and think it's great, but not enough that I'd be willing to shell out another $80 for a digital copy (not even $40, since they offered a discount to the owners of the printed version). $80 for a digital version of the full set? I'd be all over that. But this isn't that.

Save your money

[PopeRatzo]

Just use lots of butter.

Re:Save your money

[Anonymous Coward]

and salt.. and dont forget the ketchup.. everything's better covered in good ol' ketchup!

Re:Save your money

[PopeRatzo]

You joke, but I remember seeing a cookbook that was "200 Delicious Recipes With Only Three Ingredients" and with ever single one of the recipes, one of the ingredients was butter.

Re:Save your money

[Anonymous Coward]

Worked for a chef who thought a stick of butter in every sauté pan was a good idea, spent his entire time in the kitchen drunk, and didn't know his recipe from the menu from what a customer ordered. Place went out of business shortly after I left, thankfully. He'd finally finished running the place into the ground by buying rotten food and insisting we cut away the "bad bits" and serve the "good bits". I won't even get into his *other* issues, which were the real cause of my departure. (Hint, physical violence against employees is a bad idea.)

Never working in a kitchen again.

Re:Save your money

[drinkypoo]

You are nearly there. There's not one secret, but three. The secrets to gourmet cooking are fat, salt, and alcohol. If you find yourself standing in the kitchen saying "how do I kick this up a notch", the answer is one of those three things, or perhaps some combination thereof.

Anyone overjoyed about just having been saved eighty bucks is welcome to make paypal contributions to the above email address :D

Last recipe?

[TonyLoro]

Troll well done.

I actually own the book

[kungfool]

The book that this app is based on (Modernist Cuisine at Home, the ~15lb book, not the 50lb reference) is actually a great book for the home cook. It has a great deal of information on technique that defies the traditionalist view of how to cook just about anything. While $80 is still a ridiculous price for an app, the book is a reference for any one who is a serious home cook.

Re:I actually own the book

[Anonymous Coward]

There are many other, cheaper references for serious home cooks as well. You got seriously cheated.

I don't care how good the recipes might be

[93 Escort Wagon]

I'll never purchase anything with Nathan Myhrvold's name attached to it. In my opinion, the world would be a better place if he weren't part of it.

Isn't this part of an old fad?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't sous vide a fad a few years ago? My impression of the whole thing was that you had a bunch of people paying somebody 10X the price of normal food to cook slowly at temperatures that skated on the thin ice of allowing deadly bacteria to not be killed. Once you've done it and met all the right people, you just move on to the next fad, whatever that is... like..., umm.... one of the first few google hits for that, where I see "smoked everything" is one of the trends. So, no thanks for your out-of-date tech cooking thing. I've got hickory smoked kale to tend to. If you don't do it just right, it... damn! Ruined. See what you made me do?

INSANE PRICE!!!

[danielk1982]

$80 for software?!?! What is this, 2005? ....

Re:INSANE PRICE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

You must have missed the part where it said "Apple". 100 bucks is expensive for an HDMI cable too, but you wouldn't be surprised if it was mentioned in a Monster article.

$500 to $80

[hcs_$reboot]

They're gonna sell 6.25 times more anyway, thanks to iPhones and the like.

Joy of Cooking

[mdsolar]

I have a Chinese knockoff version of the Joy of Cooking. The binding has fallen apart though. Interesting that a book with recipes for roadkill is sold in Taiwan. Not a lot of possum or raccoon to be found there. They do like snake though. Recipes do like to be shared.

why IOS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would they develop an APP for IOS before Android? When 4 out of 5 devices are Android devices it would seem that the numbers would translate into profits. Maybe Apple users cook and Android users do takeout?

Duh

Misunderstood

[mattr]

FYI I and probably almost no American absolutely cannot eat for example shiokara which is Japanese soupy squid entrails. I am totally with you. Not even in the realm of acceptability.

But fish sauce, I don't know the process beyond that it is fermented anchovies, according to wikipedia. There are high quality and lesser quality brands. Basically, do you like Thai food? Then you like fish sauce. It's like soy sauce for them. Incidentally wiki says worcestershire sauce is related, also being fermented and having anchovies. So I think it is much ado about nothing. A very little fish sauce goes a long way, I am not expert but it is great for sauteing shrimp with some garlic and hot pepper, also the typical Thai dipping sauce uses it. FWIW I got roped into trying Surströmming (fish fermented in a can from Sweden) and though I found a way to eat a little basically thought I'd die at first. That kind of survival style fermenting which you have to be marooned in the north sea to eat is a different ball of wax. There is apparently a vast number of kinds of traditional fermented foods many of which are horrible but fish sauce, at least the kind you can get form high quality brands, is one of the great jewels of cuisine. I wouldn't put it on a hamburger, I don't think, but it is central to Thai cuisine which makes everything okay! A link I found discussing brands -- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/379200
and these:
http://shesimmers.com/2012/07/thai-fish-sauce-taste-test.html
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/fishsauce1.html

In my own experience

[Natales]

Many of the comments here are from people who has not seen or read the books. Gourmet cooking at home is my hobby so I actually own both, the Modernist Cuisine and The Modernist Cuisine at Home. I've read them thoroughly and I've done many recipes from them, and I must say, I yet have to see another set of books as useful and complete as these. You learn the principle of things, the math, physics and chemistry associated with the processes, from smoking and grilling to sous vide and pressure cooking. It's amazing the wealth of knowledge in these books. Also, the photography alone makes it a work of art.

If you are in doubt, simply make one recipe: the Caramelized Carrot Soup. It will blow your mind (and your guests). This recipe works because by increasing the pH under pressure you achieve the Maillard reaction before the carrots can burn. You cannot achieve this result any other way, and that's the kind of knowledge behind these books. Also, check the Hyperdecanting trick with wine. You'll impress your friends at any party.

Nathan said in an interview that he wrote this because that's the kind of book that he'd wish he has had access to when he started cooking. There is nothing else out there like this. It's true it's not for everybody. It's for either chefs or very serious amateurs. I for one, welcome an app. As wonderful as the books are, they are complicated when you need to find something quickly. Unfortunately, I don't do iOS, so I'll have to wait for the Android version in the future or steal my wife's iPad when I need it.

This was actually in our class discussion

[WillAffleckUW]

I noticed that one part of our Thursday night Environmental Sciences discussion was about both this cookbook and the $80 app for it.

Not everything is black and white. Just because he believes in Feudal IP Baronies does not mean the cookbook isn't good.

Addition or edition?

[mattack2]

two-volume addition that followed after that

Addition or edition? I could imagine both being correct, if the two volume one is more of a sequel. They likely meant the latter.