“Russ Parsons knows that the best cooking comes from a genuine
understanding of basic techniques, and he illuminates them here
with lively writing and smart recipes. This is an unlikely creation:
a kitchen-science book that makes you hungry and a cookbook that
teaches, from an authority on food and cooking.” —Thomas Keller, chef and owner of the French Laundry and author of The French Laundry Cookbook
"Fascinating to read and totally useful in the kitchen . . .
Parson’s scientific explanations are very satisfying."
— Jeffrey Steingarten, author of The Man Who Ate Everything
Don’t
you miss having Mom around to answer those kitchen questions whose
answers were second nature to her? Russ Parsons—food editor
of the Los Angeles Times—brings us the kind of understanding
Mom had in his first book, How to Read a French Fry and Other
Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science (Houghton Mifflin Company,
May 9, 2001). It explains why foods cook the way they do, and has
tons of tips and recipes.
"You can think of this book as a kind of modern cooking class,
one that uses basic scientific principles to explain culinary truths—and,
most importantly, does so with only a minimum of technical language,"
writes Parsons in the Introduction.
How to Read
a French Fry is filled with so much practical advice that you
might want to think of it as an "anti" cookbook. Its intention
is to get you to step back and examine some of the most important
processes in cooking (frying, roasting, boiling, and baking). It
then explains the science behind them and tells you how to use this
knowledge to improve your own cooking. The chapters conclude with
dozens of applied cooking tips, and the book contains more than
100 delicious and straightforward recipes that drive Parsons’s
points home. You'll learn how to get the cooking results you want
and how to adjust the recipes to suit your tastes.
Parsons explores the chain of chemical reactions that makes you
cry when you chop an onion or salivate when you eat a perfectly
grilled piece of meat. He even tells you how to judge the freshness
of a restaurant’s cooking oil by looking at the french fries
on your plate. In the process, he drops irresistible pieces of trivia
-- telling us, for instance, that there’s little difference
in taste between the pure protein of whale meat and that of beef;
it’s fat that makes the difference. He explains complex concepts
with engaging metaphors. (An emulsion, he says, is a combination
of two normally antagonistic substances, "kind of like a friendly,
functioning Congress.")
Once you understand the fundamentals of frying, for example, you
can try cooking some of Parsons’s awesome recipes for fried
foods: Tuscan Potato Chips, Fried Little Fish, Sautéed Green
Beans with Garlic and Sage. The chapter called "The Second
Life of Plants" gives a lesson on plant respiration and proper
storage. "Though we may think of fruits and vegetables as cheerfully
inanimate, their lives don’t stop at harvest," Parsons
writes. You can try out your newfound knowledge by making a knockout
Spring Vegetable Stew of Snap Peas, Lettuce, New Potatoes and Artichokes
or the Ultimate Strawberry Shortcake.
You'll learn all about meats and what makes chicken different from
fish and pork different from beef. You'll find out how knowing about
muscle fiber and animal locomotion can help you prepare a great
dinner. You'll be able to show off your skill with Sautéed
Chicken Breasts with Fresh Tomatoes, Green Olives and Rosemary or
Oven-Steamed Salmon with Cucumber Salad. Similarly, Parsons shows
how an understanding of starches can help you decide which kind
to use to thicken a gravy, which kind of rice to choose for a dish
and whether to use red or russet for a potato salad.
Science, Parsons reminds us, "is nothing more than a way of
answering questions about the things that happen to us every day."
How to Read a French Fry will help you answer some of those questions --
and make you a better
cook in the process.
Russ Parsons is food editor of the Los Angeles Times. He has
won many awards for his journalism, including the Bert Greene Award
and two James Beard Awards.
• Really fresh
oil will not work as well for deep-frying as oil that has been broken
in a little. If you're using fresh oil, be prepared to toss out the
first batch of food: it will probably be lighter in color than you
want and it may not have cooked all the way through. It's worth it
to keep a little old oil in the pantry if you fry a lot.
• Boil green vegetables either without a lid or for less than
7 minutes. Much longer than that, and acids freed by cooking will
begin to condense on the lid and rain back down on the vegetables,
spoiling the color.
• Once you get vegetables home, they should go straight into
the refrigerator. The only exception is the tomato, which is a fruit,
not a vegetable. Never refrigerate a tomato.
• Buy the following fruits fully ripe: berries, cherries, grapes
and citrus. All can be refrigerated, except berries, which will lose
their flavor.
• The following fruits will soften and develop more complex flavors
after picking: apricots, melons, figs, peaches, nectarines, plums
and persimmons.
• You can refrigerate fruits such as apples, pears and mangoes
as soon as you buy them.
• If you want a vinaigrette to remain stable longer, add some
prepared mustard before you shake it. The mustard will prevent the
oil from separating.
• The cardinal rule of cooking any pasta is to use plenty of
water. This is especially true of dried pasta, which cooks for longer
and throws off more starch.
• When using long-grain rice, always rinse it well under running
water before cooking it. This does remove a very small amount of nutrients,
but it also washes away a lot of excess surface starch that can make
rice clump.
• You don't need to soak dried beans before cooking them. Soaking
will speed their cooking time, but it will diminish their flavor.
• Use baking potatoes when you want to thicken something or when
you want a smooth puree. Use boiling potatoes when you want potatoes
that will hold their shape.
• While marinades can contribute a lot of flavor, as a general
rule, they affect only the surface of the meat and do nothing for
the texture.
• All meats, whether grilled or roasted, benefit from a 10-to-20-minute
rest at the end of cooking to allow the moisture and the temperature
to equalize within the interior of the meat.
• Adding an acid, such as vinegar, and a little sugar can make
a piecrust more tender. It doesn't take much of either ingredient
-- 2 to 3 teaspoons of acid or up to 2 tablespoons of sugar.
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