BOOKS
The Cookbook's Companion: Knowing What You Eat Reviewed by Jeffrey L. Fox
My first lab mentor was trained as a physical chemist, but he worked as a food chemist specializing in candy making. Still, all that arcane knowledge about phase transitions and the like led him to look professionally at candy in an unorthodox way. For example, he once told me off-handedly that a properly cooked hard candy is a glass. I believe I disguised my utter bafflement at that remark, not wanting to let on I had no idea what he meant by "glass." Physical chemistry—for that matter, most chemistry—was still an unstudied mystery to me. Something besides bafflement was triggered by his way of describing candy. Call it food for thought, mixed liberally with thought for food. The deeper lesson eventually driven home by his remark—and many others like it that were to follow— was that food, candy, and the whole gustatory universe are the legitimate province of chemists and other disciplined thinkers. To be sure, anyone can settle either literally or figuratively for no more than a burger, soda, and fries. But for the curious and the determined, the subject of food is deeper. And there is no end in sight to the intellectual, scientifically challenging food problems to tackle. Some of the finest writers and thinkers since antiquity have addressed themselves to food, whose relative abundance or scarcity, quality or hard-scrabble simplicity has been a central force shaping civilization. Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" follows in this intellectual tradition. Although not exhaustive, it is a comprehensive and thoughtful accounting of the whys and wherefores of our major, and many of our minor, foodstuffs and beverages. It is no cookbook, but the cookbook's graceful companion—replete with
Chemistry, physics, and biology all have roles to play in understanding the nourishing science lurking in the kitchen "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" by Harold McGee, Charles Scribner's Sons, 597 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017, 1984, 684 pages, $29.95 Jeffrey L. Fox is a science writer based in Washington, D.C., and a former senior editor of C&EN. When not writing, he likes to ponder what went awry with the last meal he cooked
explanations of where ingredients come from, why some especially tricky concoctions are apt to fail, and what some of the sages have had to say about the subject during the course of history. "Chemistry and biology figure prominently in this approach," writes McGee, whose Ph.D. is in English literature, in his introduction. "But science is by no means the whole story. History, anthropology, and etymology also contribute to our understanding of food and cooking." It has become stylish for professionals to talk of solving problems by self-consciously adopting multidisciplinary approaches. "On Food and Cooking," by contrast, takes its broad-based approach in a perfectly natural way, with none of the fumbling that so often hampers many well-intentioned teams of the multidisciplined. The beauty of McGee's approach is that it lays some lovely quirks and
surprises of history right on the platter, so to speak. More than once, prominent chemists play parts in some of those surprises. Take the German chemist Justus von Liebig, who helped put modern organic chemistry on course and set the stage for chemistry's contributions to agriculture. When his treatise on the chemistry of food was translated into English in the mid-19th century, his teachings quickly were embraced as authoritative information from an unimpeachable source. It seems Liebig still exerts a powerful, although misguided, influence on how we commonly roast meat. He contended that searing meat would seal in its juices by forming an impermeable shell and plugging its , pores. The notion has stuck, although McGee explains how it is incorrect: "Searing does not seal, but it does brown: It won't prevent flavor from escaping, but it creates flavor via the complex browning reactions The many recipes and ads that perpetuate Liebig's theory probably do so because the image it evokes is vivid and appealing." McGee's reluctance to be satisfied with what any single expert, including leading chemists like Liebig, has said about a topic led him on at least one excursion into the laboratory. The unresolved question was why renowned chefs insist that copper bowls are the best implements in which to whip egg whites. McGee turned to several cooperative Stanford University researchers (including his wife) for help. Together, they obtained spectrophotometric evidence that the protein conalbumin in egg whites forms foam-stabilizing metallo-complexes with copper ions from the walls of the whipping bowl. Although egg whites bind copper, bran binds nutrients—a point hammered home more than once by McGee. In describing such pheApril 22, 1985 C&EN
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Books nomena, his book avoids catechism and is especially attuned to poking holes in some latter-day food myths—be they of the fast-food or natural variety. McGee writes, "During World War II, Dublin was put on whole grain bread, and the combination of bran and minimal calcium intake resulted in an epidemic of rickets; fully half the children of the city suffered from it." So it is not by accident that white bread (and, for that matter, white rice) prevails throughout history. "People have been given what they want and have wanted for a long time: a purelooking product that won't spoil quickly on the shelf. Today most refined cereals are fortified . . . to compensate for the nutrients lost with the bran." "On Food and Cooking" is more than a well-written companion to recipe books for curious cooks. Implicit in the book's approach to its seemingly ordinary subject is its great value as an educational device devoted to what many people consider an esoteric branch of human thought—natural science. Consider this: Whenever science educators congregate, the word "crisis" seems to crop up with alarming frequency. The U.S., they tell us, is in a perpetual crisis when it comes to science education. Their worries extend to both the small group of future scientists, whose contributions are endangered because of impoverished early training, and the larger group of nonscientists, who somehow need to become more scientifically literate than they now are. Let's not quarrel here about the extent of this crisis. Instead, consider the notion that there is more than one way to try to meet it. Lots of intellectually nourishing natural science lurks in our kitchens, and there's no reason that it should remain the great, daunting mystery that it so often seems to be. Kitchens make fine entertainment centers, but fun easily can be interspersed with casual education. "On Food and Cooking" makes good bedside reading, but it also deserves a place in our stoveside education centers, where the early teaching of basic biological, chemical, and physical principles can do a great deal to counteract scientific illiteracy. Where could there be a 30
April 22, 1985 C&EN
better place to learn that hard candy is a glass or to test some of the elementary properties of proteins, such as those found in meat and eggs? Teach someone the fundamental principles involved in what they're doing, and then let them eat the product. It is a modest proposal, but one that has the potential to work almost anywhere. • The Bioorganic Chemistry of Enzymatic Catalysis. Myron L. Bender, Raymond J. Bergeron, Makoto Komiyama. xiii + 312 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1984. $39.50. Phosphorus-31 NMR - Principles and Applications. David G. Gorenstein, editor, xiv + 604 pages. Academic Press, 111 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003. 1984. $79.
52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1984. $203.50. QSAR in Environmental Toxicology. Klaus L. E. Kaiser, editor, xiv + 406 pages. D. Reidel Publishing Co., 190 Old Derby St., Hingham, Mass. 02043.1984. $54.50. Radiation Effects on and Dose Enhancement of Electronic Materials. J. R. Srour et al. viii + 128 pages. Noyes Publications, Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1984. $32. Ring-Opening Polymerization. Vols. 1, 2 & 3. K. J. Ivin, T. Saegusa, editors, xi + 521; xi + 523-1133; vi + 1135-1227 pages. Elsevier Science Publishing Co., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1984. $277.75 (3-vol. set). Seafood Toxins. ACS Symposium Series 262. Edward P. Ragelis, editor, xii + 460 pages. American Chemical Society, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.1984. $79.95.
Photochemistry and Photophysics in Polymers. Norman S. Allen, W. Schnabel, editors, xii + 425 pages. Elsevier Science Publishing Co., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.1984. $155.50.
Paperbacks
A Pictorial Approach to Molecular Structure and Reactivity. Robert F. Hout Jr., William J. Pietro, Warren J. Hehre. xi + 403 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1984. $39.95.
An Introduction to Immunocytochemistry: Current Techniques and Problems. Julia M. Polak, Susan Van Noorden. 57 pages. Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1984. $7.95.
Plasma Processing of Materials. H. J. Oskam, editor, ix + 268 pages. Noyes Publications, Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1984. $36.
Advances in Inorganic Chemistry. V. I. Spitsyn, editor. 208 pages. Imported Publications, 320 West Ohio St., Chicago, 111. 60610. 1984. $7.95.
Polymeric Stabilization of Colloidal Dispersions. Donald H. Napper. xvi + 428 pages. Academic Press, 111 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003.1984. $65.
Annual Reports on Fermentation Processes. Vol. 7. George T. Tsao, editor, ix + 358 pages. Academic Press, 111 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003.1984. $42.50.
Position-Sensitive Detection of Thermal Neutrons. Pierre Convert, J. Bruce Forsyth, editors, xxii + 430 pages. Academic Press, 111 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003.1984. $36.
Awareness of Information Sources. Theodore B. Selover Jr., Max Klein, editors, iii + 132 pages. American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 345 East 47th St., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1984. AIChE members $15; others $30.
Powder Surface Area and Porosity. 2nd Ed. S. Lowell, Joan E. Shields, xiii + 234 pages. Chapman & Hall, 733 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1984. $45. Profitability of Food Processing. Institution of Chemical Engineers. 430 pages. Pergamon Press, Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, N.Y. 10523. 1984. $61. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. Vol. 9. N. A. Chigier. v + 371 pages. Pergamon Press, Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, N.Y. 10523. 1984. $144. PVC Technology. 4th Ed. W. V. Titow. xxx + 1233 pages. Elsevier Science Publishing Co.,
Chemical Engineering Faculties 1984-1985. Vol. 33. John G. Ekerdt, editor, ix + 254 pages. American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 345 East 47th St., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1984. AIChE members $20; others $40. Computer Graphics and Applications. Dennis Harris, ix + 174 pages. Chapman & Hall, 733 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1984. $39.95 hardback; $19.95 paperback. European Directory of Agrochemical Products. Pt. 1, Fungicides, xxxviii + 395 pages. Royal Society of Chemistry, Distribution Centre, Blackhorse Rd., Letchworth, Herts., SG6 1HN, England. 1984. $114.
