Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    How To Read A French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science
    Unavailable
    How To Read A French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science
    Unavailable
    How To Read A French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science
    Ebook467 pages5 hours

    How To Read A French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science

    By Russ Parsons

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Why can you stick your hand into a 450-degree oven but not into 212-degree boiling water without burning it? Why does fish taste different from meat? Why do you cook pork differently from beef? Why should you always start cooking dried beans in cold water, not warm? Why should you never cook a Vidalia onion? What's the only kind of marinade that’s really an effective tenderizer? Why is strawberry-rhubarb a good combination, scientifically speaking? And why don’t potatoes fried in fresh oil ever brown completely, no matter how long they're cooked?

    “Cooking is full of questions that science can help you answer, questions that can make you a better cook,” writes the award-winning Los Angeles Times food editor, Russ Parsons. In this entertaining book packed with fascinating tidbits, Parsons explores the science behind such basic cooking methods as chopping, mixing, frying, roasting, boiling, and baking. You’ll learn why soaking beans can’t offset their gaseous effects, why green vegetables shouldn’t be cooked under a lid for long, which fruits you can buy unripe and which you should buy fully ripened, which thickener to choose for your turkey gravy, and which piecrust is foolproof for a beginner.

    Along the way, Parsons slips in hundreds of cooking tips, provocative trivia, and touches of wit that make his scientific explanations go down smoothly. He also includes more than a hundred recipes that deliciously exemplify the principles he describes, from Tuscan Potato Chips and Crisp-Skinned Salmon on Creamy Leeks and Cabbage to Chocolate Pots de Creme and Ultimate Strawberry Shortcake.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 11, 2019
    ISBN9780547346250
    Unavailable
    How To Read A French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science
    Author

    Russ Parsons

    RUSS PARSONS is the food and wine columnist of the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of the best-selling How to Read a French Fry, a winner of multiple James Beard Awards for his journalism, and the recipient of the IACP/Bert Greene Award for distinguished writing. He lives in California, which produces more than half of the fruits and vegetables grown in this country. He has been writing about food and agriculture for more than twenty years.

    Read more from Russ Parsons

    Related to How To Read A French Fry

    Related ebooks

    Cooking, Food & Wine For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The 5 Best Cookbooks of 2019

      Dec 11, 2019

      The 5 Best Cookbooks of 2019
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mexico City

      Jun 3, 2021

      Mexico City
      2 min read

    • Article

      Go For The Gold

      Sep 23, 2021

      Go For The Gold
      1 min read

    • Article

      30 Years Of Beautiful Homes

      Feb 27, 2020

      30 Years Of Beautiful Homes
      5 min read

    • Article

      São Paulo

      Sep 7, 2023

      São Paulo
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mushrooms by Martin Nordin

      Jan 26, 2023

      Mushrooms by Martin Nordin
      2 min read

    • Article

      Black Cleopatra

      Dec 1, 2023

      When Netflix released the docudrama miniseries Queen Cleopatra in May 2023, controversy quickly arose around the casting of Adele James—a mixedrace English actor with Jamaican ancestry—as Cleopatra. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities issued

      6 min read

    • Article

      Pozole

      Sep 2, 2021

      Pozole
      1 min read

    • Article

      Cozy Up To Comfort

      Aug 11, 2020

      Cozy Up To Comfort
      4 min read

    • Article

      Feel Good Food

      Oct 5, 2021

      Feel Good Food
      4 min read

    • Article

      All-day EGGS

      Apr 7, 2023

      All-day EGGS
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Fresh Look at Crepes

      Feb 11, 2020

      A Fresh Look at Crepes
      6 min read

    • Article

      Shanghainese Snacks

      Dec 7, 2021

      Shanghainese Snacks
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Beauty of Braised Bok Choy

      Apr 2, 2024

      The Beauty of Braised Bok Choy
      3 min read

    • Article

      Sybil & Cyril: Cutting through Time

      Nov 17, 2021

      Faber £20 The artists Sybil Andrews and Cyril Power made monotypes in the early 1930s when no one in Britain was interested in the genre. Very few of their daring experiments survive, though there is a fine example by Power in the British Museum, La

      3 min read

    • Article

      Laila Gohar

      Aug 2, 2020

      1. AN EVERLASTING MEAL: COOKING WITH ECONOMY AND GRACE (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2012) BY TAMAR ADLER “This is definitely in my top three books. Tamar Adler is a great writer. I also really identify with her cooking approach, and especially her views on fo

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Cheese Stands Alone

      Sep 29, 2023

      The Cheese Stands Alone
      4 min read

    • Article

      On The Gumbo Trail

      Jan 2, 2024

      On The Gumbo Trail
      8 min read

    • Article

      Spring zing

      Sep 26, 2021

      Spring zing
      8 min read

    • Article

      Herby Horseradish Potato Salad

      Mar 9, 2021

      POTATO SALAD CAN range from cold to warm, from tangy to mild. I wanted a version packed with plenty of herbs and bold flavors. My goal was a bright salad similar to a German- or French-style potato salad but with a not-so-secret ingredient: horseradi

      2 min read

    Reviews for How To Read A French Fry

    3.5/5

    47 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I loved the information in this book so much that I started taking notes. In the book the author explains what is actually happening when you cook food. I started reading this book the day after I made fried green tomatoes for the first time, and it just so happened the the first section of the book was about the chemical process of deep frying. So then I totally understood the purpose of every layer of coating of the fried green tomatoes and why they were the consistancy they were... it was just really interesting. Just all of these things with making pie crust and sauces and salad dressing that I have observed as I've learned to cook.. now I understand it a little better. Some of it was a bit scientific and I really just don't understand chemical structures of proteins and fats and sugars and all that. I really enjoyed the book, but I'd only recommend it to people who really like cooking
    • 5/5
      I love this book! I love potato products with an unnatural passion, so this in depth study of french fries was a fabulous read.