“On Food and Cooking”  The science  and lore of Kitchen by Harold McGee is  an amazing  kitchen classic and anthology of how, what and where of food . I picked up this book to answer some curious questions my daughter had about what is sour cream made of?   Is buttermilk made from yogurt or milk?  What is whipped cream? …….
Well going through this very interesting and easy to read book, I had answers to all those questions and more. From the facts of how the cow makes milk, what’s pasteurization, homogenization, nutritional alteration- low fat milk, understanding about what is butter and what is vegetable margarine, invention of ice cream, difference between true buttermilk and the cultured buttermilk sold in grocery stores in USA.  The book also applauds the inventiveness of Indian cusine with milk as primary ingredient. Innumerable Indian desserts are made from cooked down milk –‘khoa’ like  gulab jamun, burfi, khalakhand and more.   And various more desserts   are made from another form of concentrated milk solids- paneer , made  by  curdling milk like rasgullah and rasmalai. It also traces the simple fact learnt from a warm country like India- To keep milk from souring when not refrigerated, its best   to boil it repeatedly.
We get a detailed understanding of the biology and chemistry of the egg  to cooking of eggs;  effect of heat  on meat proteins and texture, meat  doneness;  what’s foie gras and how’s its prepared; Recognizing fresh fish to techniques for cooking fish to making of Caviar; tricks for cooking green vegetables, pickling olives, ripening of fruit to origin of the name orange fruit rooted to Sanskrit name- ‘Naranga’. Making of tea, bread, and chocolate.
I would recommend this compendium of vast information yet fascinating read to every food enthusiast.