The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Book Review: 5/5 Impact On Me (Book By J. Kenji López-Alt)

Read more about the book here

I really enjoyed this book. It taught me cooking in a way that makes sense to me. It uses a scientific method. The book does things like blind taste tests. It makes hypotheses and then tests them. This helps find out what works and what doesn't. For example, if someone says, "Cook pasta in a rolling boil," this book will test different ways to boil pasta, cook chicken, blanch vegetables, and more. I learned so much from this book. This is the kind of expensive gift only food science enthusiasts would appreciate.

Takeaways and learnings

Knives. Buy a knife with a full tang (the blade extends into the handle). Buy forged, not stamped: forged blades are more balanced and robust. Prefer stainless steel. Sharpen blades about a dozen times a year. An electric sharpener reduces the job a lot. Taking blades to a professional is expensive. A sharpening stone works best for me.

Immersion blender. The author recommends an immersion blender over a food processor. For small tasks, and I do small tasks more often than large ones.

Cake tester. A metal cake tester (long toothpick) is better than a fork or knife to check doneness of vegetables, potato, or meat. A fork or knife makes big holes in the food.

Fridge and freezer. Keep fish extra cold at 0°C by keeping it between ice packs. Always put meat on a tray or plate so drips do not fall into the fridge or onto other food. Keep vegetables in the crisper drawer. Vegetables give off a bit of humidity and the crisper drawer retains it. If the drawer has ventilation sliders, set them so there is just enough moisture to bead up on the vegetable surfaces. I keep nuts in the freezer and use them straight from the freezer to crush or roast. I keep dried bay leaves in the freezer too.

Pantry. Whole wheat flour bread does not rise as well because the outer parts of the wheat cut the gluten strands, so the bread is dry and dense. Whole wheat pasta and brown rice go rancid after 6 to 8 months. If I smell a fishy aroma, I discard them. Whole spices keep their taste for 6 to 12 months. Ground spices only a few weeks. I can keep whole spices in the freezer to make them last much longer.

Eggs (basics). Jumbo weight class is bigger than extra large. Grade AA is better than Grade A, which is better than Grade B. For most home cooking apart from poached or fried eggs, the difference is only cosmetic. People prefer eggs that look more orangish or reddish. In one study, eggs were dyed green and fed to subjects; there was no blind taste difference. So if I want to serve eggs to people, making them look orangish helps. The amount of salt we normally use changes the boiling point of water by less than 1°C. But salt particles in water create irregularity, which makes bubbles form more easily, so the water looks like it is boiling faster.

Poached eggs. I do not want the whites to separate. I pour the egg into a fine mesh strainer and let the loose whites drip through. I boil water in a wide pot, turn off the heat, gently lower the strainer into the water, and slide the egg out. I do not need simmering water; the movement would move the whites. The egg cooks even below a simmer. No benefit from adding vinegar to the water. Salt in the water makes the eggs tastier but does not help the cooking. I keep moving and gently flipping the poached egg so it cooks in a more even shape. I was surprised that hollandaise sauce cannot be refrigerated and then reheated well.

Fried eggs. One technique for great fried eggs: fry them in a pan with a lot of oil, about half an inch of olive oil, heated to deep-frying temperature, and pour the hot fat over the egg.

Egg doneness. Yolk cooks at 63°C. Whites cook at 68°C. I put salt on eggs for at least 15 minutes before cooking. It reduces the attraction that yolk proteins have for each other. Salted eggs turn more translucent and retain their moisture.

Butter. Because of its water and protein, butter is not ideal for searing; it cannot get hot enough without burning. Chefs often use clarified butter (ghee). Butter is about 15% water. When I heat butter, that water goes to the bottom of the pan and creates bubbles.

Baking. If I cook pancakes or omelettes that have baking soda right after mixing, I get a fluffy interior. If I let the mix sit for a while, I get very few bubbles and it becomes dense and gummy. I can replace baking powder with baking soda plus equal grams of an acid, but I need to be careful with the proportions. If I have more baking soda than the acid needed to neutralize it, the leftover can give a metallic taste.

Milk. Regular pasteurized, UHT pasteurized, and low-temperature pasteurized milk are all safe to drink. Raw milk is not safe. The lower the pasteurization temperature, the less cooked flavor in the milk. UHT milk has a shelf life of several months.