On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 10

Theeverydayalchemyofcreatingfoodforthe
bodyandthemind.This17thcenturywoodcut
comparesthealchemical(“chymick”)workof
the bee and the scholar, who transform
nature’s raw materials into honey and
knowledge. Whenever we cook we become
practical chemists, drawing on the
accumulated knowledge of generations, and
transforming what the Earth offers us into
more concentrated forms of pleasure and
nourishment. (The first Latin caption reads
“Thus we bees make honey, not for
ourselves”;thesecond,“Allthingsinbooks,”
thelibrarybeingthescholar’shive.Woodcut
from the collection of the International Bee
ResearchAssociation.)


Introduction

CookingandScience,1984and2004

This is the revised and expanded second
edition of a book that I first published in
1984, twenty long years ago. In 1984, canola
oil and the computer mouse and compact
discs were all novelties. So was the idea of
inviting cooks to explore the biological and
chemicalinsidesoffoods.Itwasatimewhen
abooklikethisreallyneededanintroduction!
Twentyyearsagotheworldsofscience

andcookingwereneatlycompartmentalized.
Therewerethebasicsciences,physicsand
chemistryandbiology,delvingdeepintothe
natureofmatterandlife.Therewasfood
science,anappliedsciencemainlyconcerned
withunderstandingthematerialsand
processesofindustrialmanufacturing.And