Molecular Gastronomy at Home: Taking Culinary Physics Out of the Lab and Into Your Kitchen Hardcover – September 12, 2013

First of all, let me give the traditional disclaimer: I can cook, but often did not, until I started watching Hannibal on NBC. This, and modernist cooking in general, can only be described as food porn. (The culinary consultant on Hannibal is Chef José Andrés, who is a modernist cook, so by definition, the fictional character Hannibal is modernist too since his recipes are provided by Chef Andrés.) But watching this show was troubling because, among other things, Hannibal used a centrifuge to make a soup. Who uses a centrifuge in cooking?! That was my introduction to molecular gastronomy.I read quite a bit online, and eventually bought a collection of used lab and restaurant equipment so I could do my own experiments. And I bought a few of the reasonably-priced books as well. This book -- Molecular Gastronomy at Home by Jozef Youssef -- is the best of those by an extremely wide margin.It is an introduction to the techniques of molecular gastronomy. It has example recipes, but it is not a cookbook per se. It is closer to a college course on the intersection of physics and food: the subtitle of Youssef's book is "taking culinary physics out of the lab and into your kitchen."The book delights me! The table of contents is a periodic table, with page numbers in place of atomic weights. The essential elements of this table (other than introduction, glossary, etc.) are:Equipment and MaterialsSpherificationCulinary smokingAirs, foams & expumasSous-vide cookingTransglutaminaseCold gels & fluid gelsHeat-tolerant gelsDehydrationRapid infusionLiquid nitrogenThe anti-griddleCentrifugeRotary evaporationUltra-sonic homogenizerFermentationHydrocolloidsUmaniMulti-sensory flavor perceptionFlavor tippingFood pairingFood presentationIncidentals I have learned so far:- Reverse spherification is more versatile than spherification.- You can bag liquids in a foodsaver if you first freeze the liquid.- Hannibal probably used "the smoking gun" for one of his dishes.But it will be more illustrative of this excellent book if I provide a (short) recipe. After 5 pages on spherification history and technique, Youssef gives us an example recipe for mango spheres.Ingredients1 tsp (5 gr) calcium lactate2 cups (500 ml) water½ tsp (2.5 gr) sodium alginate1 cup (250 ml) mango juice (or other non-calcium, non-acidic purée)Serves 31. Prepare the calcium bath by whisking the calcium lactate into the water in a large mixing bowl and set aside once fully dissolved.2. Using your hand-held immersion blender, mix the sodium alginate into one half the mango juice. It may take a while to ensure the sodium alginate is well-hydrated.3. Add the remaining mango juice to the mixture and incorporate with a whisk.4. Using a teaspoon, scoop up the mango mixture and gently pour the mixture into the calcium bath and leave the bubble to "cook" for 1 minute in the bath, turning the bubble over halfway through the "cooking" time.5. Gently remove the "sphere" from the bath using a slotted spoon and transfer it to a clean water bath to rinse off any excess calcium on its surface. Remove and serve immediately.The accompanying photo of mango spheres on a bed or lime zest with hazelnut looks rather like the yolks of poached eggs on a bed of ground broccoli.

Awesome breakdown... def barney style... but easy to follow and worth the purchase for sure. Gorgeous pics and recipes!

Book arrived in great condition with quick delivery. As for the content of the book, it's as I expected. Interesting and intimidating (LOL)

Good price, fast service and free shipping, I am a happy camper.

Purchased this book as part of gift, combined with molecular gastronomy starter kit. Turned out to be a great gift, so I am pleased with purchase.

I don't have the tool to make it yet, but I looking forward to it

Nice with great feedback but not everlasting as a topic. Great to use as a base. Well explained and great picture presentations.

Very interesting read.