Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor by Hervé This

Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor Reviews

• 
  Petra has forgotten what being in love feels like

  I'm really enjoying this. Some of it is going over my head but I'm starting to get an idea of how it works. It's fascinating, not just the science and the cooking but the experiments. I'm going to try this one.
  
  Put an egg into a tall glass and pour over vinegar. In two days the shell will have dissolved leaving the egg floating. Magic!
  
• 
  Bookworm

  Very cool book. At times a little too much science, but very interesting. I wish it had actually included recipes and not just theory. Though I might try some of the applications anyway. Mayo without oil anyone? Or, how about chocolate mousse made only with water and cocoa?
• 
  Darren

  Molecular Gastronomy has became a catch-all term for the various activities of cooks to manipulate the flavour, appearance and even form of food and its constituent ingredients through scientific means. Of course, on a very basic level, combining ingredients is a form of science, yet it is fair to describe molecular gastronomy as taking things way beyond a basic level.
  
  In recent years molecular gastronomy has started seeping out of the kitchen laboratory and onto the restaurant plate, thanks to a pioneering group of think-ahead chefs who want to really understand and reinvent everything if they can. There is also an enthusiastic bunch of amateur cooks who are doing their own kitchen experimentation. The exclusive genie is really out of the bottle and books like this help shine light on this form of 'kitchen alchemy'.
  
  This book has been translated into English from an earlier work (Casseroles et éprouvettes) and in essence it contains a good, general overview for the average person to this exciting world. This reviewer notes, with a little disdain, the relatively small physical size of the book and its printing - would it have really cost a lot more for another inch or so of paper?
  
  The book is split into four key sections - Secrets of the Kitchen; The Physiology of Flavor; Investigations and Models and A Cuisine for Tomorrow. Each section is further sub-divided and presented by an excellent, detailed contents page at the front - at the back, after a great glossary and bibliography is a very extensive index too. It might be fairer to say that each mini section is effectively its own chapter, and everything that stands in the way is just a navigation tool. Whether it was luck or editing judgement that the tally of mini sections came to 101 we shall never know.
  
  It is pleasing to note that, despite being an academic book by nature and necessity, the writing style has been tailored to be accessible to the average person who wants to learn more. Clearly where further technical or scientific detail is needed, this book would not solely suffice but there is sufficient pointers to the really-detailed reading that would probably be just boring filling to 95%-plus of this book's target audience. It is a great compromise that does not water the book down or make it out-of-reach. In the years that have passed since this book was released in French, more developments and advances have taken place. Maybe it is time for an update (hint, hint!). That said, this book still remains an excellent introduction to a subject that is by nature prone to being confusing to outsiders. If you are looking for pretty pictures and diagrams of the finished dishes this book is not for you - but the written word can be a very powerful, illuminative force in its own right.
  
  To conclude, this is a great book on so many levels. It acts as an introduction to a nearly endless science, it sits as a memory aid to many key points and techniques and it sets off a taste for even further reading, experimentation and trial. Now, that hoped-for updated version can have more than 101 mini chapters and, oh, a little larger physical presence too.
  
  Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring The Science of Flavor, written by Hervé This and published by Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231133135, 392 pages. Typical price: GBP9. 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. //
• 
  Wendy

  This is a collection of 101 short essays on various topics in the science of food and cooking. It a bit of a mixed bag: you get everything from essays on how food chemists identified the compounds that give particular types of wine or cheese their flavor, to wacky science experiments you can try at home (how much air can you beat into an egg white), to slightly offbeat things that you might actually try in your kitchen at home. (This describes a technique for making a chocolate mousse using pure chocolate and water or a flavorful liquid. He suggests orange juice, but I'm more inclined to raid the liquor cabinet.) The essays can get pretty technical sometimes - I'm really not sure how comprehensible it is to folks without some chemistry and biochemistry background.
  
  This book is best sampled a couple of essays at a time, which is why it's taken me ages to read. It just gets overwhelming if you try to devour it at once.
  
  I think I was hoping for a book with a few more practical recipes and a bit less industrial food science. (There are essays on novel ways of filtering tartrates out of wine and of mass producing smoked salmon by electrical deposition of smoke particles. Interesting, I suppose, but I'm never going to try it at home.)
  
  The book was translated from the French, and the translation is mostly good, although there are some oddball turns of phrase (I've never seen anyone say "dehydrogenase glutamate" before - it's "glutamate dehydrogenase") and a bit of confusion in one or two places (one recipe can't seem to decide whether creme fraiche or regular cream is called for). My copy also has a really odd typesetting/printing error - none of the lower case italicized g's printed. This has led to a few discussions of "astronomie" rather than "gastronomie".
• 
  Keith

  This book has a few interesting parts to it, but overall the writing is really disjointed and the chapters are giving you information you can't really use, or bother to remember, because they don't go into enough depth on the subject matter. They will talk about the effects of putting eggs in a vinegar solution and then they'll say something else happens in another case, but they don't tell you what that case is. They spend a lot of time naming different chemicals and numbers in brief, but not in a context that you can make any use of.
  
  The useful information I got from this book was if you're cooking lentils or beans and want to speed up the process or help them fall apart, add baking soda to the water (to make it more alkaline). Also if you're cooking pasta, add a little vinegar or lemon juice to the water to keep the pasta from sticking together. These tips and the explanations behind them were two of the only memorable parts of this book.
  
  I didn't read the chapter on wine so maybe it's better.
• 
  Kalle Wescott

  I read /Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor/, by Hervé This:
  
  
  https://kitchen-theory.com/molecular-...
  
  Fascinating. I don't cook much (yet), so the first part on secrets of the kitchen was less useful for me than others.
  
  The physiology of flavor was fascinating, though, including how the receptors for the 5th taste (umami) work. Did you know there are 5 different types of bitter?
  
  The book also featured food investigations and models, essentially the physics of food, mostly cooked, but also covering emulsions, tenderizing, the terroirs of Alsace, "length" in the mouth of wine, tannins and more.
  
  Finally, the book made suggestions for cooking of the future (where's Nathan Myhrvold when we need him?). Cooking in a vacuum / sous vide, aromas, reactions, mousse, and textures.
  
  Awesome content. A bit stilted in English.
  
  I should have read it in the original French.
  
  After all, Italian is for lovers, but food should be discussed in French.
  
• 
  Pio

  Nếu mở đầu năm nay cực kỳ tệ hại bằng một quyển của Borges thì cuối năm được kết sổ bằng một quyển bí kíp nấu ăn khá hay và hài hước đúng chất Pháp, nhưng chính sự lòng vòng và thái độ không gì chắc chắn của tác giả làm mình bối rối chẳng biết nên làm gì với tất cả các mẹo đầy thể nghiệm như thế (tất nhiên, ẩm thực phân tử là một ngành siêu mới trên thế giới, nên tôi cũng có thể thông cảm được phần nào cho ông).
• 
  Dylan Gould

  For the most part, I just want to say read Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat instead as it does a better job of being comprehensive, scientific, but also relays the information in a way that is useful and readily applicable.
  
  For the most part, Molecular Gastromy continues the tradition of being smart, elitist, and "pushing the boundaries" for the sake of it alone: progress without even a sidenote towards food quality. Does this new method of mayonnaise taste good, is it in some way better, or is it just simply scientifically possible? Often This fails to answer or seem to even consider this, at times seeming entirely distant and removed from the ingredients so wholly and scientifically examined within. Ignoring all this, there is very little most can do with all the information provided within this book of chemistry-based culinary fun facts.
• 
  Thao Nguyen

  Quyển sách về ẩm thực phân tử ấn tượng và thú vị nhất trong các sách về cookbook từng đọc.
  Trước giờ, về ẩm thực mình chẳng biết gì về ngoài làm một số loại bánh đơn giản mà mình không hiểu được đến tận cùng những điều nho nhỏ trong lúc làm bánh. Chẳng hạn là tại sao phải cho muối vào bánh gato, hay một số loại bánh, đánh lòng trắng trứng phải bông lên, không được dính 1 tí xíu nào của lòng đỏ? Những thứ đó thật sự mình không biết và trong các sách hướng dẫn làm bánh mình có, cũng không giải thích được cặn kẽ cho mình. Nên khi bạn mình giới thiệu quyển này, nói là sẽ giải đáp được một số thắc mắc của mình. Mình không suy nghĩ gì, đặt tiki ngay và luôn. Mặc dù sách mua từ năm ngoái, mà năm nay mới lôi ra đọc kĩ.
  Bạn đừng bị đánh lừa bởi cái tên nhé. Sách này không phải nói về truyền thuyết cái chảo hay cái quần gì đâu. Mà đây là một quyển sách dùng kiến thức khoa học của hóa học, vật lý để giải thích những bí kíp nấu ăn đó. Tên tiếng Anh của nó là Molecular gastronomy.
  Trong quyển này, giới thiệu và cắt nghĩa,rất nhiều phương pháp nấu ăn, chế biến. Chẳng hạn như:
  - Gelification: dùng gelatine, pectin hay rau câu,… tạo kết cấu dạng thạch. Ví dụ như các loại rau câu mình hay ăn hay như món thịt đông.
  - Emulsification & infusion: dùng nhũ tương (các dung dịch không tan vào nhau), hoặc chiết xuất từ mùi hương, thảo mộc,… để tạo mùi cho món ăn. Cái này ứng dụng trong trộn salad. Trộn rau cho ngon, rau còn xanh nè
  - Smoking: tạo khói cho món ăn. Cái này dùng nhiều cho mấy thủ thuật chụp ảnh đồ ăn nè :v
  Không chỉ trong chế biến đồ ăn, mà cả đồ uống cũng được ứng dụng nữa. Đọc quyển này mình phát hiện ra bình rượu nho mình với anh Tư Lê cất công mang từ núi cao về Sài Thành đã thành công cốc. Huhu. Rượu vang là cả một câu chuyện dài từ quá trình lên men, phải có độ pH thích hợp cho đến lúc lấy ra, cho dung dịch một chất nào đó để ngăn cản sự oxi hóa với làm ruoju trong, rồi phải ủ trong thùng gỗ để các hoạt chất phenolic tiết ra, phản ứng với rượu để cho ra được cái mùi vanillin. Dafuggggg. Tôi mà biết cái này sớm, bình rượu nho của tôi đã không đến nỗi nào rồi. Hự. Thật đáng tiếc.
  Đọc sách này, ngoài việc biết thông tin ra, còn đặt ra những câu hỏi rất bình thường mà mình không để ý, cũng không tìm hiểu. Ví dụ như là tại sao táo bị thâm sau khi cắt ra, hay bảo quản rau củ quả trong tủ lạnh như thế n��o cho tốt? rồi khi pha trà sữa thì cho trà vào sữa hay ngược lại? vân vân và mây mây câu hỏi hay ho liên quan đến đồ ăn thức uống hằng ngày của bản thân mà mình không biết đến.
  Ngoài ra, đọc quyển này xong, mình tự hỏi, không biết có phải những người đầu bếp, thợ làm bánh giỏi là những người giỏi hóa, lý không, hay đơn thuần là làm nhiều nên có kinh nghiệm?
• 
  زهراء مُحمد

  Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor is food book written by Hervé This. He is a French physical chemist on the staff of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Paris. M. B. DeBevosie translated this book from French to English and published it in 2006. The book has 377 pages, four chapters total. Each chapter consists of several sections. In the beginning of each section the author states the history behind writing the section to provide the readers with generous information about his argument. Then, he states the questions he is trying to answer following it with an experiment that reveals the scientific reasoning of how things are cooked. Each section presents one argument. The sections are 2 - 2 ½ pages long, directly to the point. The author is very confident in his experiments, although, the experiments are basic and simple, but are reasonable in winning the argument. He even asks the readers many times to try it themselves to gain their trust. The book is smooth in reading, in which it is designed into sections each is 2- 2 ½ page long that allows the reader to breath in between the sections. For a physical chemistry book about food I find the sections style a very smart idea not to overload the reader with long research talk, but rather simplify the research to be easier to understand and straight forward.
  
  Overall, Molecular Gastronomy is a good book in “Exploring the Science of Flavor”, unusual to any of the cookbooks I have seen. Its beauty is in combining science with food, it’s a distinctive perspective and a new lens into understanding the art of cooking and flavor.
  
• 
  Michael

  I don't think this book works very well as an audiobook.
  I was fine with the rather in-depth science. I guess I know more about the science mentioned in the book than about the food.
  This books is essentially an numeration and unfortunately most of it just went in one ear and out the other.
  I retained two things:
  hot coffee + milk + 5min wait is hotter than hot coffee + 5min wait + milk
  All spirits ageing in oak barrels will acquire a vanilla flavour.
• 
  Bill

  Sometimes fascinating, always brief (3-page chapters). Perfect for browsing, even by those of us with little talent in the kitchen.
• 
  Phạm Thảo

  Bí ẩn của cái chảo” là cuốn sách nấu ăn thú vị bậc nhất mình từng đọc. Tác giả cuốn sách là giáo sư Hóa Lý Herves This làm việc tại Viện nghiên cứu Nông học quốc gia Pháp. Ông sử dụng kiến thức hóa học giải thích tất tần tật các bí quyết nấu ăn. Đọc xong cuốn sách mình lại càng thấy hâm mộ những bạn beautiful minds. Tại sao đến chuyện bếp núc cũng có thể thi vị đến thể?
  
  Mình xin tóm lược những đoạn mình thích nhất trong quyển sách đáng yêu nhất quả đất này:
  
  1. Món vịt kiểu Brillat – Savarin:
  Nguyên tắc làm việc của lò vi sóng là chỉ làm nóng phần thực phẩm có chứa nhiều nước. Vì vậy, khi nấu thịt trong lò vi sóng không đúng cách sẽ tạo thành món thịt luộc chứ không phải thịt nướng.
  Điều đó khiến các đầu bếp thông thường cho rằng vịt xốt cam không thể thực thiện trong lò vi sóng. Tuy nhiên, khoa học có thể khắc phục nhược điểm của lò như sau: Rán vịt thật nhanh trong bơ trên lửa lớn cho đến khi lớp vỏ trở nên vàng ươm và giòn tan. Dùng giấy thấm để hút mỡ trên bề mắt thịt sau đó dùng xi lanh bơm rượu hương cam vào giữa miếng thịt (muốn thịt thơm ngon hơn thì hãy thêm muối và ngâm hạt tiêu vào rượu trước khi bơm vào thịt). Như vậy, lò vi sóng sẽ vận hành theo đúng nguyên tắc chỉ nấu phần thịt được bơm rượu mà bỏ qua quần vỏ đã bị mất nước khi rán. Ta sẽ có một món vịt sốt cam chín ở trong mà vẫn giữ được phần vỏ giòn ở phía ngoài.
  
  2. Luộc trứng sai cách
  Một trong những sai lầm thường gặp nhất là luộc trứng kỹ làm lòng đỏ bị bao phủ bởi lớp màu xanh còn lòng trắng trứng sinh ra mùi khó chịu làm người ăn tưởng như trứng không tươi. Nguyên nhân của sai lầm này là khi nấu trứng quá lâu, các phân tử protein của lòng trắng chứa nguyên tử lưu huỳnh sẽ giải phóng ra khí hydro sunfur gây ra mùi trứng thối và phản ứng với sắt có trong một số protein gây ra màu xanh nhạt.
  
  Để giải quyết vấn đề này, cách lược trứng đúng là cho trứng vào nước đang sôi, đun tiếp 10 phút tính từ lúc nước bắt đầu sôi, sau đó cho vào nước lạnh ngay khi vớt ra. (Questional?)
  
  3. Tác dụng hòa tan kỳ diệu của dứa
  Giáo sư vật lý Oxford Nicholas Kurti đã dùng khoa học chứng min các enzyme có trong nước ép dứa có khả năng phân giải protein. Như vậy, thịt sẽ được làm mềm một cách tuyệt đối khi được ướp với nước ép dứa. Ông đã làm thí nghiệm tiêm nước ép dứa vào 1 phần thịt để nướng rô-ti. Sau thời gian, phần thịt không có nước dứa vẫn còn màu hồng đặc trưng của thịt lợn chưa đủ chín, phần có nước dứa thì ngược lại thịt chín hoàn toàn.
  
  Ngoài ra, quyển sách này còn vô vàn bí ẩn khoa học về rượu vang, phương pháp làm bánh và các loại nước sốt. Các bạn beautiful mind thật là biết truyền cảm hứng quá mà :”(
• 
  Ekin Aksu

  This book didn't meet my expectations. There are useful bits of information somewhere in there, such as scientifically explained cooking tips or insight into the structure of foods. However, it is a total mess. All chapters are three-page-long disconnected pieces that don't even have a structure within themselves. It's like the author went to the food science building, asked some scientist what they're working on and wrote a chapter for each of them. The prose is bad as well, even a bit cringy at times. Like caramel being CONSIGNED TO PURGATORY for 20 years because it wasn't researched at all between 1845 and 1865 or something. Amazing.
  
  
  Anyway, here is a list of useful info I remember from the book:
  
  -Adding bicarbonate to the cooking water makes lentils and beans softer
  -Pasta sticks because they get coated with water insoluble amylopectin. This coating can be avoided when proteins in the dough form a stable network outside of the pasta. We can achieve this by adding acid, because proteins are stable at pH 6.
  -Capsaicin (the spiciness molecule) receptors are also sensitive to heat, which might be why we feel spicy foods as hot.
  - The structure of emulsions and foams are similar. Oil droplets or air are spread in water, and some amphiphilic molecules stabilize the walls surrounding oil/air. In mayonnaise, egg yolk provides lecithins for this job, and their amount is enough for liters of mayo. So if it breaks, add water before adding another yolk.
• 
  Noah Goats

  I only read about 30% of this book, and I'm not going to give it a rating because while I can't say that I enjoyed it very much, it feels like maybe I'm just not this book's intended audience. Herve This uses science to answer questions about the proper way to do all kinds of things in the kitchen, but the sad fact of the matter is that I simply do not intend to do many of these things. I don't want to know how to make a quiche or fois gras because I will never do either of those things because I don't particularly even want to eat quiche or fois gras. Also, it turns out I'm not particularly interested in getting into the science of cooking. I'm quite interested in how to properly roast or tenderize meat, but as soon as This starts talking about myofibrils and proteosomes, my eyes glaze. I assume there are people who will devour this book like corn dog fried through techniques on the cutting edge of modern science, but I am not one of these people.
• 
  Laura

  This book is divided into 101 topics which I read over a long period of time. It explores the intersection of food and science. I have to admit that there was a lot in the book that I was not able to fully comprehend, given that I am not a science-y person. However, that did not detract from my enjoyment of the book and its topics. It presents a very unique way of working with food!
• 
  Aurore Labenheim

  I love the concept, really, but to be thoroughly enjoyed, one needs to be pretty well-versed in chemistry... which I am not. Hervé This teaches cool facts about food, busts some myths and shares some cooking tips, and even provide a couple of ideas for recipes but all in all, that was not really the book I was expecting to read. Interesting to leaf through though.
• 
  Eric Wurm

  Where chemistry and physics meet the culinary arts, this book brings science and food together. Understanding the nature of changes to foodstuffs brought on by cooking and preparation has the potential to improve your ability in the kitchen.
• 
  Jason

  Will this book make you a better cook? Probably not. Is it particularly useful for home cook? Also no. Is it a fun read if you have a decent background in chemistry? Absolutely! Was fun to see just how much overlap there is between my research and the frontiers of food science.
• 
  Paul

  Interesting in parts with a great (and amusing) glossary. Just not structured very well, reading more like a bunch of paper summaries stapled together than a book.
• 
  Rafael Meirelles

  Essencial :}
• 
  Ginny Martinez

  Too egghead for me, but ...
  
  I am a nutritionist, I love the chemical side of cooking. Fun to look through, but that's it for moi.
• 
  Sarah Yasin

  Molecular Gastronomy is a sophisticated and fascinating tome (a tome because of the density of content and microscopic font) destined to go down in social and academic history. The purpose of this book is, using the scientific method, to debunk claims by cookbooks and cooking methods from the Middle Ages that are still in use today. This is a book about the perception of flavor and the ways gastronomy can be improved with science. Hervé This illustrates his chapters with experiments that are simple enough to be performed at home: my favorite of which is cooking lentils in water with differing levels of acidity.
  
  This book is laden with science while rendering a clear approach to flavor. It is not a cookbook, however. Hervé This may explain what makes a perfectly cooked egg, but he does not provide instructions for you to follow to achieve that perfection. He says a dry fruity wine helps a fondue, but he doesn't list any types of wine as suggestions. Why does he leave this out? My guess is that this book aims to be a classic (and already is, in my opinion), and a Riesling from Australia in 2007 may be very different from year to year and vineyard to vineyard.
  
  My favorite line in the book is from page 45:
  
  
  "This increase in viscosity is analogous to the heretical practice of thickening a fondue by adding flour or any other ingredient containing starch, such as potatoes."
  
  Hervé This explains that aged cheese is the best cheese for fondues due to the enzymes which have "broken up the casein and the other proteins into small fragments that are more easily dispersed in a water solution." This makes perfect sense because, as This explains, fondue is an emulsion.
  
  Anyone who has enjoyed reading M. F. K. Fisher or even looking at Alton Brown on the Food Network will be delighted and enriched by this book.
  
  Toward the end of the book there is an interesting chapter on "Length in the Mouth." Science has not spent a lot of time looking at how saliva reacts with wine, and it has recently been discovered that wine has a specific amount of caudalie, which is a unit that measures the time that wine remains aromatic in the mouth after having been swallowed. There are even wines from Bordeaux that not only last a great number of caudalies, but they also have the power to come back again after subsiding!
  
  This book is highly recommended for all libraries, especially ones associated with a physical chemistry program.
• 
  Irene

  Cool book, but not much I didn't know from "On Food and Cooking." It was interesting to get to know Herve This.
• 
  G

  This book opened my eyes to the science (mostly chemistry and physics) behind cooking. The basic idea of the author is that cooking as a science has largely been unchanged since the Middle Ages. Look at cookbooks today and the techniques that they recommend, and you will find that there are, in most cases, no scientific basis for the recommendations. This book will address many basic questions around cooking wisdom that many cooks have heard about such as "Should I salt beans before or after they are cooked? ". But the book is much deeper than that as it provided detailed scientific review on subjects such as "What is the optimal way to cook a souffle to maximize height/volume?" and in other cases even provided forward thinking ideas (e.g. a proposal on how to re-hydrate stock meat with a truffle flavored liquid). This book is definitely geared toward someone who at least has basic skills and knowledge in cooking. However, I can see how someone who is not passionate about cooking, but has a scientific and curious bent could really get into cooking as a result of reading this book. A must read for people passionate about cooking, and I would think a good introductory volume for anyone looking to be a professional chef.
• 
  Audrey

  DNF, which is unusual for me. As I commented previously regarding this book, I did learn a few things, such as it doesn't matter if I salt steak before or after cooking. However, there are some cooking topics discussed that I have never heard of before and I don't think I need to know about now - for example, I am very sure I have never cooked or eaten a quenelle or echaude. I do not really care whether I should use an unplated copper pan when cooking a fruit preserve. The author disproves the idea that sticking a teaspoon in the mouth of a bottle would preserve the bubbles in sparkling wine/champagne but why would anyone believe this in the first place?
  
  I gave up because I was getting very annoyed with the disjointed writing. The editing was bad enough as to make no sense at times (for example, the statement was made that horses only eat salt if they are deficient in the mineral and this was proven in the laboratory using salt-deprived rats - wha???) I have enough science background, including coursework in food engineering, to understand what the author was doing. But he really could have used a better editor, and maybe someone with a little common sense to help him decide what to include in the book.