Cooking for Geeks Cookbook Review

Posted by NanLT in Cookbook Reviews, Special Features | 0 comments

My son calls me a geek because I have a blog and I use Twitter. I may not agree with him when it comes to computers, but when it comes to cooking, yes, I admit it. I am definitely a geek about cooking. I like knowing why you need to add salt to bread dough (keeps the yeast from acting too long), what the process of browning foods off is called (It’s a Maillard reaction apparently), and what temperature chocolate starts to melt (37c).

I’m also fortunate to be married to an engineer (another geek) who can cook.

You can image my delight then when I was asked to read Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter. A book filled with the science behind cooking, a lot of good tips (hacks), and some rather nice recipes.

Cooking for Geeks manages to do what is nearly impossible with most cookbooks. It is accessible to anyone, from the complete novice to the fully adept in the kitchen, providing step-by-step instructions which are easy to follow.Each chapter explores a different aspect of cooking, from the basic kitchen tools and how to use them to chemical reactions of different key ingredients.

The appeal of Cooking for Geeks becomes clear in the very first chapter. Geeks want to know not just what to do, but why it is done that way.That is what this book does. Once you are able to let do of the fear of failing in the kitchen (you will, but you can learn from it) a whole culinary world is opened up to you. This first chapter takes you back to the very beginning. It introduces you to your kitchen and teaches you how to read a whole new language – the recipe.

Chapter 4 begins to explore the different chemical reactions which happen when heat is applies to an ingredient. It shows you scientifically when and how chemical changes occur due to the application of heat. The chapter then goes on to explain how you can tell when your food is finished cooking by understanding what reactions are being triggered and detecting (through sight and smell) when those reactions have occurred.

Reading through these two chapters I had a very difficult time deciding which recipes to trial. I really wanted to cook the Butternut Squash, Apple and Vadouvan Soup but couldn’t find the needed vadouvan spice mix.

I decided instead to try the most basic of recipes, the humble pancake (page 24). The recipe was clearly written, easy to follow, and the resulting pancakes were really tasty.

I would like to have known from the recipe though how long to cook the pancakes once they were flipped. As I needed to substitute gluten free flour, my pancakes were not following the recipe exactly as written, this may be why they did not rise as much as they should have done.

I also decided to make the Butterflied, broiled and roasted chicken (page 206) and try it out on my family. The directions for butterflying the chicken were well written though the instructions on actually cooking it were a bit difficult to pick out amongst the other text. I also had to cook my chicken for twice the time suggested in the recipe, but this could have been due to the size of my chicken.

The resulting chicken, once cooked, was very tender and very moist. Between the broiling and the roasting the chicken had cooked to a nice golden brown, and we ate every bit of it.

NanLT is a home cook with over 2 decades experience cooking for her family. Over the years she has developed a wide range of recipes for family eating. At Cooking with NanLT she provides recipes, hints, and tips for other home cooks.
Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food, was written by Jeff Potter and published by O’Reilly press. NanLT has been offered a free copy of “Cooking for Geeks” in order to complete this review.