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Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes
The answers to many kitchen conundrums in one easy-to-use volume, from the author of the acclaimed culinary bible On Food and Cooking.
From our foremost expert on the science of cooking, Harold McGee, Keys to Good Cooking is a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety, and appliances, and arrive at the promised land of a satisfying dish.
A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Keys to Good Cooking directly addresses the cook at work in the kitchen and in need of quick and reliable guidance. Cookbooks past and present frequently contradict one another about the best ways to prepare foods, and many contain erroneous information and advice.
Keys to Good Cooking distills the modern scientific understanding of cooking and translates it into immediately useful information. Looking at ingredients from the mundane to the exotic, McGee takes you from market to table, teaching, for example, how to spot the most delectable asparagus (choose thick spears); how to best prepare the vegetable (peel, don't snap, the fibrous ends; broiling is one effective cooking method for asparagus and other flat-lying vegetables); and how to present it (coat with butter or oil after cooking to avoid a wrinkled surface). This book will be a requisite countertop resource for all home chefs, as McGee's insights on kitchen safety in particular- reboil refrigerated meat or fish stocks every few days. (They're so perishable that they can spoil even in the refrigerator.); Don't put ice cubes or frozen gel packs on a burn. (Extreme cold can cause additional skin damage )-will save even the most knowledgeable home chefs from culinary disaster.
A companion volume to recipe books, a touchstone that helps cooks spot flawed recipes and make the best of them, Keys to Good Cooking will be of use to cooks of all to beginners who want to learn the basics, to weekend cooks who want a quick refresher in the basics, and to accomplished cooks who want to rethink a dish from the bottom up. With Keys to Good Cooking McGee has created an essential guide for food lovers everywhere.
From our foremost expert on the science of cooking, Harold McGee, Keys to Good Cooking is a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety, and appliances, and arrive at the promised land of a satisfying dish.
A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Keys to Good Cooking directly addresses the cook at work in the kitchen and in need of quick and reliable guidance. Cookbooks past and present frequently contradict one another about the best ways to prepare foods, and many contain erroneous information and advice.
Keys to Good Cooking distills the modern scientific understanding of cooking and translates it into immediately useful information. Looking at ingredients from the mundane to the exotic, McGee takes you from market to table, teaching, for example, how to spot the most delectable asparagus (choose thick spears); how to best prepare the vegetable (peel, don't snap, the fibrous ends; broiling is one effective cooking method for asparagus and other flat-lying vegetables); and how to present it (coat with butter or oil after cooking to avoid a wrinkled surface). This book will be a requisite countertop resource for all home chefs, as McGee's insights on kitchen safety in particular- reboil refrigerated meat or fish stocks every few days. (They're so perishable that they can spoil even in the refrigerator.); Don't put ice cubes or frozen gel packs on a burn. (Extreme cold can cause additional skin damage )-will save even the most knowledgeable home chefs from culinary disaster.
A companion volume to recipe books, a touchstone that helps cooks spot flawed recipes and make the best of them, Keys to Good Cooking will be of use to cooks of all to beginners who want to learn the basics, to weekend cooks who want a quick refresher in the basics, and to accomplished cooks who want to rethink a dish from the bottom up. With Keys to Good Cooking McGee has created an essential guide for food lovers everywhere.
553 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2009
About the author
Harold McGee
11 books178 followersHarold James McGee is an American author who writes about the chemistry and history of food science and cooking. He is best known for his seminal book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen initially published in 1984 and revised in 2004.
McGee is a visiting scholar at Harvard University. His book On Food and Cooking has won numerous awards and is used widely in food science courses at many universities. McGee's scientific approach to cooking has been embraced and popularized by chefs and authors such as Heston Blumenthal, David Chang, Alton Brown, Shirley Corriher, Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Russ Parsons.
McGee is a visiting scholar at Harvard University. His book On Food and Cooking has won numerous awards and is used widely in food science courses at many universities. McGee's scientific approach to cooking has been embraced and popularized by chefs and authors such as Heston Blumenthal, David Chang, Alton Brown, Shirley Corriher, Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Russ Parsons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
October 26, 2011
It's easy to learn how to follow recipes. It's hard to learn how to cook. This book and McGee's approach have helped me do the latter. The book as a read can get tedious, but it teaches how the different elements of foods mingle into complex sensory experiences. After reading it, I've learned better how to create, tweak, and balance recipes.
January 21, 2021
In de keuken - en bij uitbreiding in het leven - ben ik intuïtief, impulsief en dus per definitie hoogmoedig en rommelig. Dan is Harold McGee's 'Goed koken' een welkome boei van kennis, rede en doortastentheid. Geen borden met legionella, verbrande korsten en rauwe kippendijen: mijn huisgenoten danken je, Harold!
February 20, 2011
2 or 5 stars? 2 or 5 stars?
Five stars because it has EVERYTHING in there! :)
Two stars because it has...EVERYTHING in there. :(
The book is great, it really is. But if you are easily overwhelmed (I'm not naming any names, but 3 fingers are pointing back at me), you might feel like you are in front of a haystack, pulling out the most interesting hay strands(sticks? pieces?) you've ever seen...one by one. They are all unique and educational. At first, you are completely fascinated for hours, and have plenty of energy to see each next strand.
At some point, maybe a third of the way through, you have to eat or leave or use the facilities or something. When you come back, you're not looking at individual hay strands anymore, but the large haystack again. Suddenly you don't feel like picking up your old project again, moving that haystack strand by strand. So you procrastinate and do something else.
So anyway, it started out so great, but there aren't any pictures (okay, so maybe I'm 5, but it would be nice to break up the monotony of line after line of text) and the information just goes on and on and on. The author does explain that he's trying to fit the most information in the shortest book...but still.
I really DO want to learn all the fantastic information.
Someday.
Five stars because it has EVERYTHING in there! :)
Two stars because it has...EVERYTHING in there. :(
The book is great, it really is. But if you are easily overwhelmed (I'm not naming any names, but 3 fingers are pointing back at me), you might feel like you are in front of a haystack, pulling out the most interesting hay strands(sticks? pieces?) you've ever seen...one by one. They are all unique and educational. At first, you are completely fascinated for hours, and have plenty of energy to see each next strand.
At some point, maybe a third of the way through, you have to eat or leave or use the facilities or something. When you come back, you're not looking at individual hay strands anymore, but the large haystack again. Suddenly you don't feel like picking up your old project again, moving that haystack strand by strand. So you procrastinate and do something else.
So anyway, it started out so great, but there aren't any pictures (okay, so maybe I'm 5, but it would be nice to break up the monotony of line after line of text) and the information just goes on and on and on. The author does explain that he's trying to fit the most information in the shortest book...but still.
I really DO want to learn all the fantastic information.
Someday.
November 15, 2017
A fantastic, informative resource. I took the time to read this book as I would any other non-fiction read. There is so much information that there's no way to remember it all but it is so well organized that it will be easy to go back to as needed. Also, it is written in short directives, so that if you go to it in the middle of cooking, you will find quick help. I highly recommend it for all cooks. It would make a great gift.
November 1, 2011
This is a great book if you are planning to cook a meal and want help with the technique and ingredients. Read On Food and Cooking if you want to know the why the tips and techniques work.
January 25, 2011
Harold McGee’s “Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes” (Penguin) is an essential kitchen staple. In it, McGee (named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people) describes all manner of information about how to transform raw ingredients into successful meals. It is a guidebook, not about meals, but of the process itself. In it, the author offers empirical data about cooking techniques from broiling to grilling, from utensils to methodology, all designed to promote informed and safe cooking techniques that recipe books just don’t sufficiently cover. For example, do you know how microbes and bacteria multiply in your food or what temperatures actually encourage the growth of bacteria versus killing these germs? What are the perils of cooking on a grill or how does boiling affect your vegetables and their nutrients? “Keys to Good Cooking,” is the equivalent of an owner’s manual for your kitchen. It runs the gamut of the best and most effective methods for food preparation across the entire spectrum of ingredients, tools, methods and appliances. Regardless of how many traditional cookbooks one has or wants, no kitchen should be without this information-packed book.
November 26, 2010
I had high hopes for this because the NPR interview was pretty entertaining. In that segment, Harold McGee shared thoughts on the efficiency of gas vs. electric stoves, choice of cutting board material, how to make crispy fish, etc. But in my cursory review of the book, the first several chapters were truly boring and a flip through the middle meatier sections was not much better. Most of the tips were plain old common sense (not I've-been-cooking-for-years common sense, but truly common sense) and of limited use. I think this could have been a lot more entertaining and useful if written less dryly. Not one I would want to add to my reference shelf.
January 3, 2019
A hardly necessary third book on the science of cooking and eating by the well-known food scientist and writer Harold McGee. Still interesting and some new stuff in here, but I still think On Food and Cooking is the one to own. Great to own all three, which I do, and this one has a bit of a different theme - more of a practical guide for home cooks - but if you have to choose just one, I'd probably opt for his original work. Not to take anything away from this one, though.
January 8, 2018
page 4 | location 56-59 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:12:30
It’s true, as we’re frequently reminded, that the only way to become a good cook is to cook, and cook, and cook some more. But many of us don’t manage to cook that frequently, and frequent cooking can also be cooking by rote, habitual and mediocre. The surest way to cook with pleasure and success—whether you’re a beginner, a weekend gourmand, or an accomplished chef—is to cook with understanding.
page 12 | location 181-183 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:27:38
Food production terminology is neither precise nor tightly regulated. The terms are loose at best, and because some justify higher prices, they may be used to mislead or deceive. Be skeptical about alternative production claims, but not cynical.
page 15 | location 219-219 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:30:10
Picture proteins as separate long threads, more or less folded up, crowded together in a watery world.
page 19 | location 286-287 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:42:30
To understand texture changes, try to picture in your mind what is happening to the food’s building blocks as you cook.
page 22 | location 331-338 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:47:16
Season foods while they’re at serving temperature. Flavor perception is strongly affected by temperature. Saltiness, bitterness, and most aromas are accentuated in hot food. To season a food, taste it actively. Ask yourself questions such as these: Is there enough salt to avoid blandness? Would the acid of some lemon juice or vinegar make the flavor brighter and more mouthwatering? Acidity is especially undervalued as a general flavor booster and balancer. Is there enough savoriness or sweetness to carry the aroma? Would some pungency from pepper add a desirable edge? Have desirable aromas faded away or become masked? Should they be revived by adding a fresh round of those aromatics? Should the aroma be filled out with a complementary herb or spice, or butter, or grassy olive oil?
page 56 | location 851-855 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 23:41:11
Bulb basters and pipettes exploit air suction to draw up liquid from a small space and place it somewhere else. Use them to draw meat juices up from underneath the fat in a roasting pan, or to remove vinegar from under the floating “mother” in a vinegar barrel. Gravy or fat separators are medium-size containers with a side spout projecting from the very bottom. When you pour the pan juices from a roast into them and wait a few minutes, fat floats to the top and the meat juices sink to the bottom, where they can be separated off through the spout.
page 57 | location 864-866 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 23:42:35
Don’t use foil to wrap acidic foods or cover steel or cast-iron pots. Aluminum corrodes in contact with acid or with nonaluminum metal containers, develops holes, and dissolves into the food. Insulate foil from direct contact with corrosives using a layer of plastic wrap or waxed paper.
page 68 | location 1034-1036 | Added on Monday, 17 November 2014 23:27:08
Burners waste a lot of energy. More than half the energy of a gas flame escapes around the sides of the pot and heats the kitchen instead. Electrical elements waste about a third of their energy. Induction cooktops are by far the most efficient. They waste about a fifth of their energy.
page 77 | location 1177-1178 | Added on Monday, 17 November 2014 23:39:21
The key to moist, tender foods is careful temperature control, no matter what the cooking method.
page 90 | location 1378-1382 | Added on Wednesday, 19 November 2014 01:11:26
Gas and electric ovens cook somewhat differently. Gas ovens don’t retain moist cooking vapors as well as electric ovens, which can make them slower to cook and cause less rising and lightness in baked goods. Convection ovens speed and even out heating by force-circulating the hot air with a fan. To adapt standard oven recipes for a convection oven, reduce the baking temperatures by 25 to 50°F/15 to 30°C.
page 114 | location 1734-1736 | Added on Friday, 21 November 2014 01:12:56
To speed ripening, keep delayed-ripening fruits in a warm place to quicken their metabolism and enclose them in a paper or perforated plastic bag, if possible with an already softening piece of fruit, to concentrate their ripening gas, ethylene. Don’t keep them in an airtight bag, which will suffocate them.
page 114 | location 1744-1745 | Added on Saturday, 22 November 2014 14:34:54
Beware of glossy supermarket fruits, which are often coated with wax to maximize shelf life. A matte surface that becomes shiny with rubbing has retained the plant’s natural wax, and can be a sign of fresher fruit.
page 124 | location 1889-1890 | Added on Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:33:12
Pectin is a natural thickening agent in fruits, and it requires high acidity in order to set. A fruit may have enough acid and pectin to set on its own, or may need supplementing with one or both.
page 127 | location 1935-1936 | Added on Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:38:49
Keep apples in the refrigerator to maintain their flavor and texture.
page 127 | location 1942-1943 | Added on Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:39:01
Bananas require holding at room temperature in order to ripen. Don’t refrigerate them until they’re fully ripe. Refrigeration will darken the skin but not the ripe flesh.
page 138 | location 2110-2111 | Added on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 01:10:17
Sprouts are a common cause of foodborne illness. Bacteria readily grow on the moist surfaces of germinating seeds.
page 142 | location 2172-2174 | Added on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 01:16:29
Add salt to the cooking water, as much as 2 tablespoons/30 grams granulated or 4 tablespoons flake per quart or liter, to reduce the leaching out of vegetable components and speed the softening of plant cell walls. Salt does not raise the boiling temperature significantly or toughen vegetables.
page 142 | location 2174-2176 | Added on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 01:16:55
Bring the water to a hard boil first and bring it back to the boil as fast as possible after adding the vegetables, to inactivate damaging enzymes quickly. Partly cover the pot to reduce cooling caused by evaporation and reduce the heat to maintain a steady boil.
page 166 | location 2534-2535 | Added on Friday, 28 November 2014 00:03:15
Cooked leeks and especially their tops exude a thick slippery fluid that gels when chilled, and can help thicken soups and stews.
page 198 | location 3028-3033 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 00:00:46
Make cheese sauces and soups with either dry grating cheeses or melting cheeses, which disperse easily in water. To prevent cheese in sauces and soups from turning lumpy and oily: Grate the cheese finely. Add the cheese to hot but not boiling liquid, at the end of the cooking. Stir as little as possible to avoid developing stringiness. Include flour and starches to prevent protein clumping and fat puddling.
page 204 | location 3126-3128 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 00:10:06
Don’t boil eggs. Boiling water is turbulent and too hot. It breaks shells and toughens proteins, intensifies cooked-egg flavor, and helps turn the yolk surface green. Soft-cook eggs in water or steam just below the boiling point. Hard-cook eggs well below the boiling point, at 180 to 190°F/80 to 85°C.
page 222 | location 3389-3393 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 23:44:30
Meats are challenging to cook well because their protein fabric is both fragile and stubborn. They become appealingly juicy in a very narrow range of internal temperatures, roughly 130 to 150°F/55 to 65°C. During cooking, they can pass through that range and go from juicy to dry in just a minute or two. But some tough cuts actually need prolonged high heat just to become tender enough to chew. So the essential key to cooking meat well is knowing what kind of heat a particular cut needs, and how to strike a good balance between juiciness and tenderness.
page 230 | location 3524-3525 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 23:54:29
o make a wine marinade, simmer the wine for a few minutes to reduce the alcohol, which has a drying effect on meat. Let the marinade cool before adding the meat.
page 270 | location 4131-4133 | Added on Monday, 8 December 2014 23:54:54
Meat and fish stocks are very similar to the jellies used for growing microbes in laboratory petri dishes! They’re highly perishable, and can cause foodborne illness if they’re mishandled.
page 273 | location 4178-4182 | Added on Monday, 8 December 2014 23:58:25
Some foods are natural sauces because they’re already thick liquids. They include purees, oils, egg yolks, cream, sour cream and crème fraîche, strained yogurt, and butter. We can thicken thin but flavorful liquids by adding ingredients that obstruct the liquid from moving easily. The main sauce thickeners are flour and various starches; proteins in eggs, meats, fish, and shellfish, and dairy products; and fats and oils, which we can emulsify, or beat into microscopic droplets that obstruct the flow of the sauce’s water.
page 273 | location 4186-4187 | Added on Monday, 8 December 2014 23:58:49
To avoid starch lumps, never mix dry flour or starch with a hot sauce. Premix the powdery ingredient with cold water or with fat or oil, then add this slurry to the hot sauce.
page 279 | location 4265-4266 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:05:29
For tomato salsas and sauces, be sure to include the seeds, or strain out the seeds while pressing the thick jelly that surrounds them into the sauce. The jelly is the most flavorful part of the tomato.
page 281 | location 4308-4310 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:08:47
To avoid curdling, either use high-fat creams, 38 to 40 percent butterfat, or avoid exposing the cream to high heat. Add sour cream and other lower-fat types at the last minute, after the rest of the sauce has been cooked.
page 282 | location 4315-4317 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:09:58
To make béchamel sauce, cook flour in butter very gently until bubbling stops and mixture gives a pleasant aroma. Slowly add milk to the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, longer for a thinner, finer consistency.
page 282 | location 4321-4323 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:10:31
To prevent cheese in sauces and soups from turning lumpy and greasy, grate the cheese finely. Add the cheese to hot but not boiling liquid. Stir as little as possible to avoid forming protein strings. Include some flour or starch to prevent protein clumping and fat puddling.
page 319 | location 4885-4886 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:07:50
Seed legumes have double the protein of the grains, a stronger savory-sweet flavor, and a range of striking colors that signal the presence of valuable phytochemicals.
page 321 | location 4911-4914 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:10:16
To reduce the gassy potential of any kind of legume, leach out some of the indigestible carbohydrates before you cook them. Bring the seeds slowly to the boil in excess water, turn off the heat and let them soak for an hour, then discard the soaking water and proceed with cooking. Or soak them overnight in excess water, then discard the water and proceed with cooking.
page 324 | location 4958-4959 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:14:01
Choose a pot wide enough to hold the seeds in a thin layer, to heat evenly and avoid crushing seeds at the bottom.
page 327 | location 5002-5005 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:17:28
Bean curd, or tofu, is soy milk coagulated into a bland, solid mass with calcium salts (Chinese style, using the mineral gypsum), a mixture of slightly bitter magnesium and calcium salts (Japanese style, using nigari, the seawater minerals left after extracting sodium chloride), or Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). Different types span a range of textures, from firm and chewy to silken, delicate, and custardy.
page 466 | location 7144-7146 | Added on Tuesday, 16 December 2014 08:34:30
Medium roasting produces medium-brown matte beans with full body and flavor. Light roasting produces a lighter, more acidic drink with distinctive bean aromas; dark roasting produces oily beans with a more generic roasted flavor and some bitterness.
It’s true, as we’re frequently reminded, that the only way to become a good cook is to cook, and cook, and cook some more. But many of us don’t manage to cook that frequently, and frequent cooking can also be cooking by rote, habitual and mediocre. The surest way to cook with pleasure and success—whether you’re a beginner, a weekend gourmand, or an accomplished chef—is to cook with understanding.
page 12 | location 181-183 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:27:38
Food production terminology is neither precise nor tightly regulated. The terms are loose at best, and because some justify higher prices, they may be used to mislead or deceive. Be skeptical about alternative production claims, but not cynical.
page 15 | location 219-219 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:30:10
Picture proteins as separate long threads, more or less folded up, crowded together in a watery world.
page 19 | location 286-287 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:42:30
To understand texture changes, try to picture in your mind what is happening to the food’s building blocks as you cook.
page 22 | location 331-338 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 14:47:16
Season foods while they’re at serving temperature. Flavor perception is strongly affected by temperature. Saltiness, bitterness, and most aromas are accentuated in hot food. To season a food, taste it actively. Ask yourself questions such as these: Is there enough salt to avoid blandness? Would the acid of some lemon juice or vinegar make the flavor brighter and more mouthwatering? Acidity is especially undervalued as a general flavor booster and balancer. Is there enough savoriness or sweetness to carry the aroma? Would some pungency from pepper add a desirable edge? Have desirable aromas faded away or become masked? Should they be revived by adding a fresh round of those aromatics? Should the aroma be filled out with a complementary herb or spice, or butter, or grassy olive oil?
page 56 | location 851-855 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 23:41:11
Bulb basters and pipettes exploit air suction to draw up liquid from a small space and place it somewhere else. Use them to draw meat juices up from underneath the fat in a roasting pan, or to remove vinegar from under the floating “mother” in a vinegar barrel. Gravy or fat separators are medium-size containers with a side spout projecting from the very bottom. When you pour the pan juices from a roast into them and wait a few minutes, fat floats to the top and the meat juices sink to the bottom, where they can be separated off through the spout.
page 57 | location 864-866 | Added on Sunday, 16 November 2014 23:42:35
Don’t use foil to wrap acidic foods or cover steel or cast-iron pots. Aluminum corrodes in contact with acid or with nonaluminum metal containers, develops holes, and dissolves into the food. Insulate foil from direct contact with corrosives using a layer of plastic wrap or waxed paper.
page 68 | location 1034-1036 | Added on Monday, 17 November 2014 23:27:08
Burners waste a lot of energy. More than half the energy of a gas flame escapes around the sides of the pot and heats the kitchen instead. Electrical elements waste about a third of their energy. Induction cooktops are by far the most efficient. They waste about a fifth of their energy.
page 77 | location 1177-1178 | Added on Monday, 17 November 2014 23:39:21
The key to moist, tender foods is careful temperature control, no matter what the cooking method.
page 90 | location 1378-1382 | Added on Wednesday, 19 November 2014 01:11:26
Gas and electric ovens cook somewhat differently. Gas ovens don’t retain moist cooking vapors as well as electric ovens, which can make them slower to cook and cause less rising and lightness in baked goods. Convection ovens speed and even out heating by force-circulating the hot air with a fan. To adapt standard oven recipes for a convection oven, reduce the baking temperatures by 25 to 50°F/15 to 30°C.
page 114 | location 1734-1736 | Added on Friday, 21 November 2014 01:12:56
To speed ripening, keep delayed-ripening fruits in a warm place to quicken their metabolism and enclose them in a paper or perforated plastic bag, if possible with an already softening piece of fruit, to concentrate their ripening gas, ethylene. Don’t keep them in an airtight bag, which will suffocate them.
page 114 | location 1744-1745 | Added on Saturday, 22 November 2014 14:34:54
Beware of glossy supermarket fruits, which are often coated with wax to maximize shelf life. A matte surface that becomes shiny with rubbing has retained the plant’s natural wax, and can be a sign of fresher fruit.
page 124 | location 1889-1890 | Added on Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:33:12
Pectin is a natural thickening agent in fruits, and it requires high acidity in order to set. A fruit may have enough acid and pectin to set on its own, or may need supplementing with one or both.
page 127 | location 1935-1936 | Added on Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:38:49
Keep apples in the refrigerator to maintain their flavor and texture.
page 127 | location 1942-1943 | Added on Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:39:01
Bananas require holding at room temperature in order to ripen. Don’t refrigerate them until they’re fully ripe. Refrigeration will darken the skin but not the ripe flesh.
page 138 | location 2110-2111 | Added on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 01:10:17
Sprouts are a common cause of foodborne illness. Bacteria readily grow on the moist surfaces of germinating seeds.
page 142 | location 2172-2174 | Added on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 01:16:29
Add salt to the cooking water, as much as 2 tablespoons/30 grams granulated or 4 tablespoons flake per quart or liter, to reduce the leaching out of vegetable components and speed the softening of plant cell walls. Salt does not raise the boiling temperature significantly or toughen vegetables.
page 142 | location 2174-2176 | Added on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 01:16:55
Bring the water to a hard boil first and bring it back to the boil as fast as possible after adding the vegetables, to inactivate damaging enzymes quickly. Partly cover the pot to reduce cooling caused by evaporation and reduce the heat to maintain a steady boil.
page 166 | location 2534-2535 | Added on Friday, 28 November 2014 00:03:15
Cooked leeks and especially their tops exude a thick slippery fluid that gels when chilled, and can help thicken soups and stews.
page 198 | location 3028-3033 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 00:00:46
Make cheese sauces and soups with either dry grating cheeses or melting cheeses, which disperse easily in water. To prevent cheese in sauces and soups from turning lumpy and oily: Grate the cheese finely. Add the cheese to hot but not boiling liquid, at the end of the cooking. Stir as little as possible to avoid developing stringiness. Include flour and starches to prevent protein clumping and fat puddling.
page 204 | location 3126-3128 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 00:10:06
Don’t boil eggs. Boiling water is turbulent and too hot. It breaks shells and toughens proteins, intensifies cooked-egg flavor, and helps turn the yolk surface green. Soft-cook eggs in water or steam just below the boiling point. Hard-cook eggs well below the boiling point, at 180 to 190°F/80 to 85°C.
page 222 | location 3389-3393 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 23:44:30
Meats are challenging to cook well because their protein fabric is both fragile and stubborn. They become appealingly juicy in a very narrow range of internal temperatures, roughly 130 to 150°F/55 to 65°C. During cooking, they can pass through that range and go from juicy to dry in just a minute or two. But some tough cuts actually need prolonged high heat just to become tender enough to chew. So the essential key to cooking meat well is knowing what kind of heat a particular cut needs, and how to strike a good balance between juiciness and tenderness.
page 230 | location 3524-3525 | Added on Sunday, 30 November 2014 23:54:29
o make a wine marinade, simmer the wine for a few minutes to reduce the alcohol, which has a drying effect on meat. Let the marinade cool before adding the meat.
page 270 | location 4131-4133 | Added on Monday, 8 December 2014 23:54:54
Meat and fish stocks are very similar to the jellies used for growing microbes in laboratory petri dishes! They’re highly perishable, and can cause foodborne illness if they’re mishandled.
page 273 | location 4178-4182 | Added on Monday, 8 December 2014 23:58:25
Some foods are natural sauces because they’re already thick liquids. They include purees, oils, egg yolks, cream, sour cream and crème fraîche, strained yogurt, and butter. We can thicken thin but flavorful liquids by adding ingredients that obstruct the liquid from moving easily. The main sauce thickeners are flour and various starches; proteins in eggs, meats, fish, and shellfish, and dairy products; and fats and oils, which we can emulsify, or beat into microscopic droplets that obstruct the flow of the sauce’s water.
page 273 | location 4186-4187 | Added on Monday, 8 December 2014 23:58:49
To avoid starch lumps, never mix dry flour or starch with a hot sauce. Premix the powdery ingredient with cold water or with fat or oil, then add this slurry to the hot sauce.
page 279 | location 4265-4266 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:05:29
For tomato salsas and sauces, be sure to include the seeds, or strain out the seeds while pressing the thick jelly that surrounds them into the sauce. The jelly is the most flavorful part of the tomato.
page 281 | location 4308-4310 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:08:47
To avoid curdling, either use high-fat creams, 38 to 40 percent butterfat, or avoid exposing the cream to high heat. Add sour cream and other lower-fat types at the last minute, after the rest of the sauce has been cooked.
page 282 | location 4315-4317 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:09:58
To make béchamel sauce, cook flour in butter very gently until bubbling stops and mixture gives a pleasant aroma. Slowly add milk to the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, longer for a thinner, finer consistency.
page 282 | location 4321-4323 | Added on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:10:31
To prevent cheese in sauces and soups from turning lumpy and greasy, grate the cheese finely. Add the cheese to hot but not boiling liquid. Stir as little as possible to avoid forming protein strings. Include some flour or starch to prevent protein clumping and fat puddling.
page 319 | location 4885-4886 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:07:50
Seed legumes have double the protein of the grains, a stronger savory-sweet flavor, and a range of striking colors that signal the presence of valuable phytochemicals.
page 321 | location 4911-4914 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:10:16
To reduce the gassy potential of any kind of legume, leach out some of the indigestible carbohydrates before you cook them. Bring the seeds slowly to the boil in excess water, turn off the heat and let them soak for an hour, then discard the soaking water and proceed with cooking. Or soak them overnight in excess water, then discard the water and proceed with cooking.
page 324 | location 4958-4959 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:14:01
Choose a pot wide enough to hold the seeds in a thin layer, to heat evenly and avoid crushing seeds at the bottom.
page 327 | location 5002-5005 | Added on Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:17:28
Bean curd, or tofu, is soy milk coagulated into a bland, solid mass with calcium salts (Chinese style, using the mineral gypsum), a mixture of slightly bitter magnesium and calcium salts (Japanese style, using nigari, the seawater minerals left after extracting sodium chloride), or Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). Different types span a range of textures, from firm and chewy to silken, delicate, and custardy.
page 466 | location 7144-7146 | Added on Tuesday, 16 December 2014 08:34:30
Medium roasting produces medium-brown matte beans with full body and flavor. Light roasting produces a lighter, more acidic drink with distinctive bean aromas; dark roasting produces oily beans with a more generic roasted flavor and some bitterness.
February 18, 2022
I have both editions of Harold McGee's previous masterwork: "On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen," the original 1984 book and the highly-updated 2004 second edition. Should one try to find it in Great Britain, it is cleverly retitled "McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture." His original book and its revision were highly praised by everybody who is anybody in the culinary world. Alton Brown loved it. Daniel Boulud loved it. Heston Blumenthal loved it. And I loved it. Under the influence of food writer Bill Buford, McGee set out to write a book which included all of the hows and whys of his previous text but in a much more applied way, particularly for the home cook. There is less food history, less molecular science, and more "this is how you do it and why." The "and why" part is reminiscent of "Cook's Illustrated Magazine" which includes wonderful disclosures of kitchen disasters that preceded finding the perfect recipe to include in its pages. Knowing what doesn't work is at least as valuable as knowing what does. There are no recipes in "Keys to Good Cooking." There is advice about everything: ingredients (their variety and how to shop for them), food storage (food safety and preservation), cooking processes (the devices and the techniques). This thing even tells one how to brew a decent cup of tea which, for an American author, is rather remarkable. Thomas Keller, the chef who gives policy advice to God, has used and recommends this book. I love McGee's bibliography because it includes so many authors whose books grace the shelves of my culinary library and on whom I repose high regard: James Peterson, Michael Ruhlman, Alton Brown, Bruce Aidells, and Peter Reinhart. My copy of this book is autographed by the author; that makes the food I cook, following his advice, taste better.
October 29, 2011
I don't know if anyone who doesn't already know everything in this book even reads Harold McGee. I don't think they do. It's something like an affirmation that everything you have been taught is actually right according to someone who you've been told should know. I guess it's a good reminder.
June 6, 2012
The jury remains out on this book. If one had not read other examples of this author's work there might not be such a dilemma.
In many ways this is a really good book that has pulled a lot of useful information, hints, tips, suggestions, wrinkles and the like into one place. It is after all billed as a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety and appliances, arriving at the promised land of a satisfying dish. Yet if it was not written by Harold McGee then things would have been so much simpler. Why...?
McGee is a known, respected expert on the science of cooking and is held in the highest esteem by top-rate chefs and (without being disparaging) culinary madcaps such as Heston Blumenthal who try to push the envelope and migrate good food, innovative dishes and the science that sits behind them. So if you have thought that this is a distillation of much of McGee's knowledge you are in part wrong as you are getting his extensive take on "common sense" matters but not the more esoteric things that can make you go wow and huh? at the same time. Confused yet?
This book is, to be fair, written more for the average home cook, enthusiastic hobby chef and maybe newbie in the business. A comprehensive memory bank of things that you can possibly find elsewhere curated by a master. You are not getting the master's innermost secrets but neither are you getting the scrapings from his writing dustbin.
Within the book which is set out in a workman-like, clean style is a plethora of information set into several chapters - getting to know foods; basic kitchen resources, water, the pantry and the refrigerator; kitchen tools; heat and heating appliances; cooking methods; cooking safely; fruits; vegetables and fresh herbs; milk and dairy products; eggs; meats; fish and shellfish; sauces, stocks and soups; dry grains, pastas, noodles and puddings; seed legumes, beans, peas, lentils and soy products; nuts and oil seeds; breads; pastries and pies; cakes, muffins and cookies; griddle cakes, crepes, popovers and frying batters; ice creams, ice, mousses and jellies; chocolate and cocoa; sugars, syrups and candies; coffee and tea... pause for breath ... where to find more keys to good cooking and then the customary acknowledgements and a comprehensive index.
All of this is packaged into a fairly small (!) 553 pages. Make no mistake this is not a "how to" cook and neither is it a recipe book. It could be described as an "Encyclopaedia Britannica" style book in the pre-Internet age. You want to know about a certain term or topic and why does it possibly do so-and-so. Consult McGee could be the reply!
McGee has written already some seminal works - On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen and The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore but it is not doing these an injustice by saying that they may be out of reach of the typical yet inquisitive reader.
Here in many ways this book sets to redress the balance whilst still providing a "quick, did I really forget X" look-up for those who really should know better but are, like us all, prone to forget certain things. Even top chefs like Heston Blumenthal or Gordon Ramsay might have learned in the dim and distant past things that they have "temporally misfiled" in their brain such as covering raw foods with oil can allow the growth of botulism bacteria, but a quick check on the section "flavoured oils" might drag up that forgotten factoid. Yet for the ordinary cook this could be an entirely new discovery... and there are many who do add various flavoured oils to their raw meats as a means of marinading. One is never too old to learn and adapt accordingly.
So, the prospective reader really should look at a copy of this book and understand what it is, and then think why they don't need it (not the other way around). McGee has covered virtually all bar the proverbial kitchen sink in this book and you need time to understand the different ways in which you will attack the book to get the knowledge out.
Some readers have been disappointed in this book as they have not considered what it really is. It is not a follow on to the more technical previous works by the author yet in some ways it does build on it. It is a different beast, for a predominantly different market. That is not a bad thing but some reviews have been slightly scathing through this misunderstanding.
This reviewer sees dozens of food and cookery books daily yet most of them, even those yielding high acclaim, never get to transfer to the "YUM reference shelf" for err, future consultation and use by fellow YUMmers. This one will sit there, but it might need a long chain attached to it so it doesn't develop a pair of legs and wander off.
So in short: A great book that hits many marks. Just make sure it is what you think it is before buying it. It is worth spending time on this book prior to a purchase decision if you are unsure about it as, if you do buy it, you know that you will be spending a lot of time with it afterwards. Even the most expert of experts need to refresh their memories from time to time, even if they don't always like admitting it.
Keys To Good Cooking: A Guide To Making The Best Of Foods & Recipes, written by Harold McGee and published by Penguin Press/Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781594202681/9780340963203, 553 pages. Typical price: GBP17. YYYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
In many ways this is a really good book that has pulled a lot of useful information, hints, tips, suggestions, wrinkles and the like into one place. It is after all billed as a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety and appliances, arriving at the promised land of a satisfying dish. Yet if it was not written by Harold McGee then things would have been so much simpler. Why...?
McGee is a known, respected expert on the science of cooking and is held in the highest esteem by top-rate chefs and (without being disparaging) culinary madcaps such as Heston Blumenthal who try to push the envelope and migrate good food, innovative dishes and the science that sits behind them. So if you have thought that this is a distillation of much of McGee's knowledge you are in part wrong as you are getting his extensive take on "common sense" matters but not the more esoteric things that can make you go wow and huh? at the same time. Confused yet?
This book is, to be fair, written more for the average home cook, enthusiastic hobby chef and maybe newbie in the business. A comprehensive memory bank of things that you can possibly find elsewhere curated by a master. You are not getting the master's innermost secrets but neither are you getting the scrapings from his writing dustbin.
Within the book which is set out in a workman-like, clean style is a plethora of information set into several chapters - getting to know foods; basic kitchen resources, water, the pantry and the refrigerator; kitchen tools; heat and heating appliances; cooking methods; cooking safely; fruits; vegetables and fresh herbs; milk and dairy products; eggs; meats; fish and shellfish; sauces, stocks and soups; dry grains, pastas, noodles and puddings; seed legumes, beans, peas, lentils and soy products; nuts and oil seeds; breads; pastries and pies; cakes, muffins and cookies; griddle cakes, crepes, popovers and frying batters; ice creams, ice, mousses and jellies; chocolate and cocoa; sugars, syrups and candies; coffee and tea... pause for breath ... where to find more keys to good cooking and then the customary acknowledgements and a comprehensive index.
All of this is packaged into a fairly small (!) 553 pages. Make no mistake this is not a "how to" cook and neither is it a recipe book. It could be described as an "Encyclopaedia Britannica" style book in the pre-Internet age. You want to know about a certain term or topic and why does it possibly do so-and-so. Consult McGee could be the reply!
McGee has written already some seminal works - On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen and The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore but it is not doing these an injustice by saying that they may be out of reach of the typical yet inquisitive reader.
Here in many ways this book sets to redress the balance whilst still providing a "quick, did I really forget X" look-up for those who really should know better but are, like us all, prone to forget certain things. Even top chefs like Heston Blumenthal or Gordon Ramsay might have learned in the dim and distant past things that they have "temporally misfiled" in their brain such as covering raw foods with oil can allow the growth of botulism bacteria, but a quick check on the section "flavoured oils" might drag up that forgotten factoid. Yet for the ordinary cook this could be an entirely new discovery... and there are many who do add various flavoured oils to their raw meats as a means of marinading. One is never too old to learn and adapt accordingly.
So, the prospective reader really should look at a copy of this book and understand what it is, and then think why they don't need it (not the other way around). McGee has covered virtually all bar the proverbial kitchen sink in this book and you need time to understand the different ways in which you will attack the book to get the knowledge out.
Some readers have been disappointed in this book as they have not considered what it really is. It is not a follow on to the more technical previous works by the author yet in some ways it does build on it. It is a different beast, for a predominantly different market. That is not a bad thing but some reviews have been slightly scathing through this misunderstanding.
This reviewer sees dozens of food and cookery books daily yet most of them, even those yielding high acclaim, never get to transfer to the "YUM reference shelf" for err, future consultation and use by fellow YUMmers. This one will sit there, but it might need a long chain attached to it so it doesn't develop a pair of legs and wander off.
So in short: A great book that hits many marks. Just make sure it is what you think it is before buying it. It is worth spending time on this book prior to a purchase decision if you are unsure about it as, if you do buy it, you know that you will be spending a lot of time with it afterwards. Even the most expert of experts need to refresh their memories from time to time, even if they don't always like admitting it.
Keys To Good Cooking: A Guide To Making The Best Of Foods & Recipes, written by Harold McGee and published by Penguin Press/Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781594202681/9780340963203, 553 pages. Typical price: GBP17. YYYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
April 23, 2023
"Keys to Good Cooking" is one of those books that you can read cover-to-cover and still feel like you haven't learned much. While the author tries to cover a wide range of cooking topics, the tips and advice are often repetitive and don't offer much new insight. And let's be real, how many of us are making our own gelatin or chocolate from scratch on a regular basis?
The organization of the book also leaves something to be desired, with a lot of unnecessary filler and sections that aren't particularly relevant or useful. While there are certainly some helpful tidbits scattered throughout, overall, "Keys to Good Cooking" falls short of its promise to be a comprehensive guide to making the most of your food and recipes. Guess I won't give it 1 star because it has some interesting tidbits scattered throughout the book, if you search hard enough.
The organization of the book also leaves something to be desired, with a lot of unnecessary filler and sections that aren't particularly relevant or useful. While there are certainly some helpful tidbits scattered throughout, overall, "Keys to Good Cooking" falls short of its promise to be a comprehensive guide to making the most of your food and recipes. Guess I won't give it 1 star because it has some interesting tidbits scattered throughout the book, if you search hard enough.
August 6, 2017
Extremely boring reading, and not useful as a manual, at least not for me. (Read about sixty pages and found only one new thing I might try: blasting your aubergine in the microwave before frying - a bit doubtful that will work, though.)
Part of my disappointment is probably due to the sloppy Dutch translation, obviously done in great haste.
Part of my disappointment is probably due to the sloppy Dutch translation, obviously done in great haste.
June 7, 2019
Great basics on cooking
This is not a cookbook with recipes as much as a textbook on how to choose the best ingredients and tools for cooking and then why and how you should cook certain foods with the best methods for the best results.
Well done. I borrowed this book from my local library.
This is not a cookbook with recipes as much as a textbook on how to choose the best ingredients and tools for cooking and then why and how you should cook certain foods with the best methods for the best results.
Well done. I borrowed this book from my local library.
September 17, 2020
I did not finish this book. It has everything from kitchen tools (thermometers, knives, blenders, food processors, storage containers, pots, pans) to cooking methods (frying, roasting, baking, and boiling). About 80% of the information is familiar unless you've never stepped into a kitchen before.
April 9, 2024
It is a must read if you want to really improve your cooking skills. I enjoyed the book, thought it is a very thorough and informative book. The only thing that did bothered me now and then was the repetitions about foods or ingredients.
December 4, 2017
Super helpful in explaining food prep and coming best practices and why
July 8, 2019
Skimmed through but there's nothing wrong reading something extra from Harold Mcgee though :) !
January 16, 2022
Necessary reading for all cooks!
Brilliant book. Rewards multiple readings. Should be taught in schools!
Technical & scientific in parts, but they’re things worth knowing.
Brilliant book. Rewards multiple readings. Should be taught in schools!
Technical & scientific in parts, but they’re things worth knowing.
April 6, 2011
Really great information, overall. I learned some tips that are definitely helpful in my kitchen. I have to say that McGee is biased toward butter and doesn't think anything good can be made using margarine, and I have to disagree. As a strict vegetarian I have other reasons to not use butter, but I also find that Earth Balance and other margarines make perfectly good butter substitutes. Of course, any author is biased about his own preferences, and I skipped over the meats sections for the most part as well, but, I still definitely recommend the book for general cooking science and information, for everyone.
September 3, 2016
This is a reference book rather than a cookery book, so not exactly enthralling reading if read cover to cover (as I did). However, it is an invaluable reference on just about every cooking topic you can think of.
I'm not sure if I'll every bother cleaning my fruit and veg to the his suggested standards, but I will definitely refer to this book next time I need to improve how I make anything in the kitchen.
I'm not sure if I'll every bother cleaning my fruit and veg to the his suggested standards, but I will definitely refer to this book next time I need to improve how I make anything in the kitchen.
February 15, 2011
If you already know your way around the kitchen pretty well, you might not find this book all that useful. If, like me, you missed out on Home Ec and have a lot to learn, it's a great reference. I didn't read this book in its entirety, but I did read relevant sections here and there, and they were useful.
May 19, 2011
Great resource but it would be a lot better if it weren't so BORING to read. Factual is one thing. I love factual. But this book is dry as an overcooked turkey breast. If this had more details, it would be more scholarly which is allowed to be dry. This is neither heady nor interesting.
Still, it does have a lot of good facts in it, if you can stand to wade through it to find them.
Still, it does have a lot of good facts in it, if you can stand to wade through it to find them.
June 21, 2011
So important to read if you want a grasp on what's happening in your kitchen. For the amateur home cook, this will improve your cooking immediately, practically, and explains it all in an easy to understand way. I refer to this book all the time.
July 8, 2011
A good kitchen reference guide - more focused on how than why, and full of guidelines and suggestions rather than recipes. I think this would be especially helpful if you're hoping to troubleshoot a recipe, make substitutions, or try something new.
May 17, 2016
Not a bad book and certainly contains info on pretty much everything. It'll help you better follow recipes but if you're interested in higher level cooking (and are too lazy to go to culinary school like me) then this doesn't help. Lacking on finer details but for what it is it's useful.
Want to read
November 19, 2010Harold McGee is giving a reading at Third Place Books on November 20, 2010 at 6:30 that I'm going to. I only wish I'd been able to pick up the book earlier.
December 9, 2010
This is a great book. I'd say I'm a moderate cook in the kitchen, but I love this book and find the tips not only helpful but fascinating.
January 26, 2011
Not too informative.
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