On Food and Cooking
Buy this for your library. Harold McGee is every food expert's secret source; his first revision in 20 years.

Despite its wipe-down covers, this is not a book to consult in the kitchen. On the other hand, it is the one book that is indispensable for the serious cook. This thoroughgoing revision of Harold McGee's great work, first published twenty years ago, explains everything to do with cooking, from the variety of proteins in egg whites and their properties to the mathematical formula for calculating the optimum roasting times for meat, to the origins of food words.

There has been no book like this since Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food, and there are few books so comprehensive, perspicuous, or gracefully written on any subject. It is no exaggeration to call it a masterpiece.
-Paul Levy

Before antioxidants, extra-virgin olive oil and supermarket sushi commanded public obsession, the first edition of this book swept readers and cooks into the everyday magic of the kitchen: it became an overnight classic. Now, 20 years later, McGee has taken his slightly outdated volume and turned it into a stunning masterpiece that combines science, linguistics, history, poetry and, of course, gastronomy. He dances from the spicy flavor of Hawaiian seaweed to the scientific method of creating no-stir peanut butter, quoting Chinese poet Shu Xi and biblical proverbs along the way. McGee's conversational style-rich with exclamation points and everyday examples-allows him to explain complex chemical reactions, like caramelization, without dumbing them down. His book will also be hailed as groundbreaking in its breakdown of taste and flavor. Though several cookbooks have begun to answer the questions of why certain foods go well together, McGee draws on recent agricultural research, neuroscience reviews and chemical publications to chart the different flavor chemicals in herbs and spices, fruits and vegetables. Odd synergies appear, like the creation of fruity esters in dry-cured ham-the same that occur naturally in melons! McGee also corrects the European bias of the first edition, moving beyond the Mediterranean to discuss the foods of Asia and Mexico. Almost every single page of this edition has been rewritten, but the book retains the same light touch as the original. McGee has successfully revised the bible of food science-and produced a fascinating, charming text.
--Mandy Davis

All over America, serious cooks have often been heard to utter "TGFM," or its equivalent, "Thank God for Harold McGee"-that is, Harold McGee, America's leading light on the science of food. His first book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, published 20 years ago, soon became a classic, and it changed the way we cooks think about and do things in the kitchen. Now McGee's book has a sequel . . . But it's really a different book. McGee spent 10 years writing it, and it reflects much of what scientists and cooks have learned over the past 20 years.

On Food and Cooking can be used as an encyclopedic reference work on everything we eat-when you need to understand the varieties of sake or the main flavor compounds in a given spice. But most people will find that reading McGee makes us into better, more conscious cooks-and even eaters.
--Jeffrey Steingarten

Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" . . . remains the single best sourcebook for anyone who has even the faintest interest in food, not just because it is full of information on everything edible but because it is such an engaging exploration of chemistry, biology, nutrition, history, folklore and much more. McGee actually makes science seductive.

Other food books give you the how; McGee explains the why. His book could be read straight through, but it is designed for browsing. Short segments cover every conceivable food issue, such as why fish is so tricky to cook (muscle fibers evolved to work best at cold temperatures) or what makes some Sauvignon Blanc smell like guava (sulfur compounds).

Best of all, McGee has bulked up his cornucopia with ingredients that were unfamiliar, if not unknown, two decades ago, including lotus root and balsamic vinegar. The shelf life of this incarnation should be even longer as a result. His segment on meat- and food-borne infections is sure to be read many times during the next 20 years.
--Regina Schrambling

IN the library of almost every serious cook, there is a large amount of real estate, both physical and psychical, given over to one big blue book. Its official title is "On Food and Cooking," but it's been years since I've heard anyone refer to it that way. Everyone just calls it "McGee."

I can't think of very many other food books to achieve single-name status (though there are plenty of food personalities to do so). There's Escoffier, and Larousse, and that's about it.

For at least 10 years, people in the food world have been buzzing about the second coming of "On Food and Cooking." Now that it's here, at a binding-busting 884 pages, we can finally appreciate what took so long. Remarkably, the revised "On Food and Cooking" (sure To Whom It May Concern: be called "McGee Two") is as fresh and vital as the original. The science goes much deeper than before, and throughout, it's more clearly explained.

McGee Two cannot be the revolutionary leap forward the first volume was. Until McGee One, the intersection between cooking and science was so remote it wasn't even on the map. It was as if the left and right brain of the kitchen had not yet been introduced, as if scientists didn't cook and eat, and cooks thought nothing about the physical processes that were going on in the pan.

There were scientists who studied food, of course, but they reported only to other scientists in food technology journals. To find their results, you had to dig through footnoted papers on meat emulsions in the hot dog industry just to come up with the two or three tidbits that were of use -- or even just of interest -- to the home cook.

By creating a bridge between two worlds, McGee introduced everyday cooks to the inner workings of the science of food, and influenced a whole new generation of chefs and cookbook writers. It's easy to forget McGee's contribution in an era when it seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry is writing about food science, but McGee pretty much pioneered the field. Doubtless, eventually someone else would have come along if he hadn't, but equally doubtless, they wouldn't have done it as well.

McGee not only was willing to do the scut work of digging through all that desiccated material; he was also able to translate it into elegant, entertaining prose. "On Food and Cooking," which has sold about 150,000 copies, always reminded me of a book by one of those 19th century gentlemen scholars, graced by a wide-ranging and happily undisciplined curiosity. It's the kind of book you open just to look up one detail and find yourself browsing an hour later.
--Russ Parsons

Literally any food-related question you can think of is answered in some detail in this book, which runs almost 900 pages and covers every victual from abalone to zucchini. This is an update of a classic first published 20 years ago, and the new edition does seem entirely up to date, with at least a few paragraphs on every contemporary food issue I could think to throw at it, from raw milk to antioxidants to aquaculture to mad cow disease.

The science is left uncomplicated, and best of all, McGee's writing is fresh and involving. He seems as much enamored with language as with the molecular compositions of cereal or chewing gum, scattering little treatises on the origins of food names in gray boxes throughout the text: "gluten," for example, shares a root with "cloud," "globe," "clam," and "clay"; "berry" comes from a root meaning "to shine."

Most important for readers, particularly in such an inclusive effort, McGee can hold our attention even when writing about the most commonplace groceries. His ability to provide a whole avalanche of interesting facts about, say, mangoes or griddle cakes is nicely balanced by his ability to redefine the metaphors with which we understand our food. When he reminds us that the flavors of all herbs and spices "are defensive chemical weapons that are released from plant cells when the plant is chewed on," it's hard not to reconsider your spice cabinet in a whole new light.

"On Food and Cooking" is not a book to be read through start to finish, although that can certainly be done. There is an obvious logic to the sequencing, from milk to meat to seeds to sugars, but the chapters do not necessarily rely on one another, and it's better to think of this tour de force as the Oxford English Dictionary of your kitchen. Look up peanut oil, or pectin, learn about it, think about it in a new way, and shelve the book again.
--Anthony Doerr

High on the list of books published this year is the encyclopedic "On Food and Cooking," by Peninsula resident Harold McGee (Scribner, 884 pages, $35). Subtitled "The Science and Lore of the Kitchen," this is a complete revision and update of his groundbreaking 1984 book and contains so much new information that even people who own the first book will covet this new volume.

McGee has that rare talent of treating a subject exhaustively without ever exhausting the reader's capacity for absorbing facts. He doesn't preach and he doesn't prattle, he just presents information in an easy, elegant style that betrays his previous career as a professor of English literature.

A true Renaissance man, the unassuming author also studied astronomy and physics, but it is his thorough understanding of food -- from its sources through its processing, preparation and presentation to the effects it has on the human body -- that has made him an international celebrity. No less a chef than Daniel Boulud has called McGee's book a treasure trove and a "must for every cook who possesses an inquiring mind."

Information ranges from the entirely practical -- how to rescue a sauce that has separated -- to the arcane -- how the ancient Romans kept green vegetables vibrantly colorful -- to the humorous -- how a German visitor to the English court in 1598 described Elizabeth I: "... her Lips narrow, and her Teeth black; (a defect the English seem subject to, from their too great use of Sugar)."

If we had a rating system for books, we'd star this, in the manner of Consumer Reports, a "best buy."
--Karola Saekel

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, has been a mainstay of the food lover's home library since it was first published in 1984. . . . On Food tackles the imposing subject of the earthly raw materials that nourish and delight us, but McGee's book goes further in looking at what we do with those materials in the kitchen and how they interact on both a scientific and a culinary level. Now McGee has published a second edition of this modern classic, rewriting and updating most of the text and expanding it to more than half again its previous girth. In its new and improved state, On Food and Cooking is an even more thoroughgoing amalgam of history, science, literature, and cooking tips, and it covers its subject supremely well without overburdening the brain or flagging the interest. . . . Although every imaginable fact about food is contained in these 884 pages, the style is fluid and concise, and while McGee's prose isn't as pointed or compulsively readable as [Waverley] Root's, it's clean and crisp and absolutely understandable -- ideal for his wide-ranging subject matter.

Taken together, this is a reference book one can read cover to cover with pleasure, interest, and the more than occasional flash of newfound wisdom.
--Matthew Stafford

It is a great food day indeed when the new Harold McGee hits the bookstores. For 20 years, curious cooks, professional chefs and researchers have reached for "On Food" to understand the chemical mysteries behind heating food with flame. The man basically invented kitchen science. On the 20th anniversary of the original, this version is 90 percent rewritten, updated with new material and fascinating new charts ("Some Traditional Fermented Soybean Preparations," "Smoked Fish Terminology," and "Making Green, Oolong and Black Teas," to name just three.) He drops the chapters on human physiology, nutrition and additives in order to make way for more reports on a much broader range of ingredients and preparations.

And get this! McGee reveals in the introduction that it was a friend from New Orleans, at dinner in 1976 or 1977, "who wondered aloud why dried beans were such a problematic food, why indulging in red beans and rice had to cost a few hours of sometimes embarassing discomfort." A few days later, when McGee was working in a library and needed a break, dozens of other food questions started occurring to him as he researched dried beans.

If you are the kind of person who likes to browse in encyclopedias or reference books, this is a fascinating one. And if you really want to understand what happens when you cook, you need this book. Harold be praised.

. . . I chanced upon Harold McGee's masterpiece, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Scribner, New York, 1984). McGee, I learned from the book's dust jacket, had a Ph.D. in English literature of all things, and now "writes about science." As it turned out, that was tantamount to saying "and Tiger Woods plays golf."

The book was a masterful compilation of virtually everything you ever wanted to know about food. There were excellent and easy-to-follow scientific explanations about the chemistry of cooking along with historical anecdotes and discussions of the latest concepts in nutrition. From the first moment I glanced through the thick tome, it became a constant companion at my bedside and in the radio studio.

The revised version of On Food and Cooking is an encyclopedic, relevant, well-written book, destined to become a classic like its predecessor. It should be on the bookshelf of anyone who eats.
-Joe Schwarcz

The new culinary obsession with understanding processes stems largely from the work of a single man. Harold McGee is not a chef but a science writer based in Palo Alto, California. He trained in physics and astronomy, before taking a degree in English literature. In his masterpiece McGee on Food & Cooking, he has striven to break down the "neatly compartmentalised" worlds of science and cooking.

The latest, massively expanded edition of his book runs to 884 pages. McGee is not only astonishingly comprehensive, he is also admirably comprehensible. . . . McGee's unique amalgamation of wit, knowledge and clarity of expression is applied to seaweed, cakes ancient and modern, the enzymatic browning of cut fruits, structure of grains, flavours of cooked alliums, the weak connective structure of fish, muscle fibre types in meat, stringiness in melted cheese, couscous ("an elegantly simple pasta"), toxins in wood smoke ... McGee offers witty, profound enlightenment about everything you're ever likely to cook or, indeed, eat.
-- Christopher Hirst

Despite the fine crop of new cookbooks, if you have to buy a present for someone really obsessed with cooking, the outstanding choice is a work that is not new and does not contain a single recipe. McGee on Food and Cooking is an expanded version of Harold McGee's classic exploration of science in the kitchen. Not only does he explain how every culinary reaction works, he also explores the history of everything we eat. For the price of a meal, you'll get a lifetime's nutrition.
-- Christopher Hirst

McGee's great skill in the book has been to present highly technical food science information in a readable form. I've been lucky enough to know him for several years. I know he cooks regularly, and you can see that reflected in the cultural and historical information in the book alongside the purely scientific nuggets. His book has heart, and isn't just a dry, technical tome. It's fascinating. --Heston Blumenthal

The Californian Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, first published in 1984, has undergone complete reconstruction and significant retitling. He has made the jump from mere author to timeless authority, earning that particular beatification granted Brewer, Roget, Banister Fletcher and Gray [the UK edition is titled McGee On Food and Cooking]. It is quite remarkable in its depth, breadth and clarity. Whether it is listing the various sorts of lettuce, describing the muscular patterns of a squid's mantle, analysing the effects of roasting on a joint, counselling how best to make a stew that preserves maximum moistness in the meat while delivering high flavour, or suggesting the most humane way of dealing with lobster, it preserves a cool accuracy of language that covers most angles, particularly those of taste. His vocabulary of flavour is eloquent and consistent (and doesn't go in for too much wine-tasters' nonsense of dirty shoe leather, grandfather's raincoat, and so on).

The joy of McGee is that he is not just about science. History and culture get the fair showing allowed in the subtitle. Boxes on most pages give generous gobbets of fact about food words, food history and myths and misunderstandings of cooks gone by. This adds humanity and perspective to all the eye-popping chemistry so that even the least scientifically literate will feel at home.
--Tom Jaine

I recently received a copy of McGee On Food & Cooking. The subtitle is An Encyclopedia Of Kitchen Science, History And Culture, which says it all, really. This rewritten edition of Harold McGee's classic has been 20 years in the making, and it was worth the wait. If the original was a great book, this is a masterpiece.

It is an exhaustive work, covering everything from dairy produce to the four basic food molecules. It explains the composition and qualities of fruit and veg, say, describing the difference between cassava and manioc. It goes into the qualities of sweet potato as opposed to regular potato, and explains the behaviour of starch in those potatoes when you cook them. In the fish section, there's a diagram that shows what happens to fish at various temperatures, and this is related to the texture and behaviour of the molecules in the flesh.

It is absolutely not an A-level chemistry or physics textbook, however. It is easy to read, and full of wonderful anecdotes and information. Did you know, for example, that liquorice is sweeter than table sugar and was once used to flavour beers, porter and stout, as well as tobacco? It's too expensive now to use in sweets, so modern liquorice candies are made by mixing molasses and flour.

There are explanations for farting, and cultural history - like the fact that cooking with honey was used to show how rich you were in the 14th and 15th centuries. There's a chapter on the science of sauces, another on cakes. You start looking for something and then go off on 30 tangents before you get to the subject you were searching for. It's a book that helps you understand what happens to food when you cook it. If there is one book that any budding domestic or professional cook should buy, this is it.
--Heston Blumenthal