Read Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor for Free Online

pure
    knowledge of this sort, because it seeks also to give practical knowledge a sound
    basis by explaining why successful recipes work and why mistakes occur. Thus,
    for example, if you ask why lumps form when flour is placed in a hot liquid,
    you will at once be led to useful conclusions that allow certain culinary tech-
    niques to be rationalized and refined.
    16 | introduc tion
    I propose a new article of faith: Whoever understands the reasons for the
    results he or she obtains in the kitchen can improve on them. This is why I
    devote so much attention at the outset to criticizing traditional recipes. What if
    one follows a recipe for making mayonnaise to the letter, but the sauce breaks?
    As a hostage to the recipe one will have no alternative but to throw out the of-
    fending egg, mustard, and oil. But the cook who understands that mayonnaise
    is an emulsion—a dispersion of oil droplets in water (from the yolk and vin-
    egar)—will be able to save the sauce, not by adding another egg (as the leading
    authorities advise) but by decanting the oil and once again dispersing it in the
    watery ingredients.
    The whole third part of the book therefore is concerned with improv-
    ing recipes and preparations. Reasoned analysis, allied with the ideal of
    perfectibility, is what gives cooking its soul. The spirit of Brillat-Savarin
    lives on.
    In exploring physical and chemical mechanisms of cooking we will find
    ample grounds for modifying classic recipes. Consider once again the soufflé.
    First we test the maxim that the whipped egg whites must be firm; then we an-
    alyze the way in which we perceive the light, airy texture of the dish. From this
    we draw conclusions about what a soufflé ideally ought to be: Rational analysis
    of the classic recipe shows that a soufflé should be heated from below. But now
    we find ourselves confronted with an awkward situation. Recent studies—ex-
    perimental and theoretical alike, because the two obviously go together—have
    shown that the classic method of cooking soufflés in the oven is not indispens-
    able. What are we to do? Do we abandon the oven, out of distrust of tradition,
    in order to produce a better soufflé? Or do we go on following the teachings
    of the old masters, forgetting that things such as mayonnaise and puff pastry,
    centuries ago, were themselves innovations?
    The fourth part of this book frankly rejects conservatism and resistance
    to change in the name of another tradition: intelligent knowledge. It is in the
    name of this tradition that we undertake to devise new chocolate mousses, that
    we resolve to abandon the useless clarification of stocks, that we generalize
    from the traditional aioli (a garlic emulsion) to produce a new class of flavored
    mayonnaises, and that, despite opposition from defenders of tradition who
    fear the temptations of novelty, we dare to conduct chemistry experiments in
    our own kitchens.
    Introduction | 17
    The fact of the matter is that we do both chemistry and physics whenever
    we make an emulsified sauce or grill a piece of meat. Nonetheless, we are like
    Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain, not realizing that we have been doing chemistry
    and physics all along. What is more, satisfied with what we have achieved, we
    do not look for ways to achieve something better. In the fourth part of the book
    it is therefore the soul of cooking that I insist on. For in seeking to understand
    the reasons for what we do in the kitchen we seek not to poison ourselves but
    rather to enjoy flavors that until now we have only dreamed of. Let us go about
    our cooking, then, with full knowledge of what it actually involves.
    18 | introduc tion

    Secrets of the Kitchen

1part one
1Making Stock
    Meat loses its juices no less readily when it is placed first in boiling water
    than in cold water.
    b e e f s t o c k ( a l s o c a l l e d b r o t h o r b o u i l l o n ), chef Jules Gouffé
    wrote in Le livre de cuisine (1867), is “the soul of ordinary