Find out what goes on behind closed doors in the kitchen. The closed door of the oven, that is. Cooking for Geeks, written by Jeff Potter, is a cookbook that goes beyond recipes and adds a little more spice to the mix. In it, you will learn:
• Why medium-rare steak is so popular.
• Why we bake some things at 350° F/175° C and others at 375° F/190° C.
• How quickly a pizza will cook if we overclock an oven to 1,000° F/540° C.
• How to initialize your kitchen and calibrate your tools.
• Important reactions in cooking, such as protein denaturation, Maillard reactions, and caramelization, and how they impact the foods we cook.
• How to play with your food using hydrocolloids and sous vide cooking.
Read on for a couple of sample recipes.