What Einstein Kept Under His Hat: Secrets of Science in the Kitchen

by Robert L. Wolke

Book Overview

Have you ever wondered why onions make us cry? Do you believe bananas contain more calories as they ripen and get sweeter? This sequel to the best-selling What Einstein Told His Cook continues Robert L. Wolke's investigations into the science behind our foods. In response to ongoing questions from readers of his nationally syndicated Washington Post column, "Food 101," Wolke debunks misconceptions with reliable, commonsense logic. And for exceptionally...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393341658
• ISBN13: 9780393341652
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 490 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

science at its best

For all of you that enjoy reading and enjoy science, this book is well suited for you. Even if you're just dipping you're feet in its amazing.

absolutely fascinating

This book is absolutely fascinating and well-written. It is a combination of insightful questions, comprehensive answers, recipes illustrating the points, and humorous food-related false "definitions" like a made-up food dictionary. If you have ever wondered what or why or how about anything food-related, like why does this happen when I mix these ingredients, or what is this stuff the recipe calls for, or how does marinade work, this is the book for you. It literally answers questions you never thought to ask. The author is a chemist with an interest in food, so at least in his spare time focuses on the chemistry of food. So he is knowledgeable and his love of the subject is obvious. He also knows who his audience is--food lovers and cooks who may not be scientists. This book is substantial with lots of short chapters so you get a lot for your money, with short attention span reading that covers a wide spectrum of subjects. I'm glad I stumbled upon it in the bargain section, I learned a great deal by reading it.

Entertaining Foodie Read plus Superior Explanations.

`What Einstein Told His Cook 2, The Sequel' by retired chemistry professor and columnist, Robert Wolke is in the same format as the first volume, of which I said: "This book of what science can tell us about working with food. It is one answer to my wish that every TV chef who is attempting to teach cooking to us foodies take a two semester course in chemistry. The book is not a rigorous approach to the chemistry of sugars, salt, fats, chemical leavenings, heat, acids, bases, and the like. Rather, it is a collection of enhanced answers to questions posed to the author in a regular newspaper column. This makes the book more interesting to read, if a little less available as a resource to applying its teachings to new situations." This statement is equally true of the second volume. And, I must believe Professor Wolke has read this comment in my review or elsewhere. In his introduction he recognizes that his little columns are all answers to specific questions; however, science, by its nature, is `all tied together' in theories which enable its predictive and explanatory powers. Thus, Wolke says that in order to explain the answer to two related questions, we may find him repeating himself now and then, as he does over and over when he invokes how proteins denature by unwinding themselves and wrapping themselves into tight knots, leading to, for example, cooked eggs or tough cooked meat. I have absolutely no problem with that within the context of his format of question and answer. On the other hand, this format does not lend itself to be used as a source for looking up specific answers to questions that were not asked by the people writing into Dr. Wolke at the Washington Post. This is a small but real problem, made all the more frustrating because buried in the answers to some questions are some real gems of wisdom such as Table 5 on page 222 which gives the best kinds of sauces for various shapes of hard pasta. As good as the battalions of Italian cookbook writers are in covering their field, none of them has, to my recollection, put things quite so succinctly. This illustrates that genius in writing about cooking is not so much in what science you use, but in how well you present the answer. And, with a few small reservations, it is in this talent where Professor Wolke is a champion. While I may still vote for Alton Brown as my favorite TV foodie, Wolke has mastered the connection between Science, English, Food, and his audience. One of my favorite examples of how Wolke successfully addresses an issue is on the matter of cutting onions and tears. For starters, he corrects Alton Brown's error in attributing the tearing to sulfur trioxide dissolving in the moisture in your eyes, thus creating a weak sulfuric acid solution. In fact, if any sulfur oxide gas is involved, it is much more likely to be sulfur dioxide which, when dissolved in water, creates the much weaker sulfurous acid. Wolke goes on to say that the phenomena is due to a number o

Worthy Sucessor to the first book!

As a big fan of the first book in this series, I was glad to see another one pop up and quickly put it on my wish list. I was also glad to see that it was even longer than volume 1, with an extra 110 pages. The style is great -- well paced, well laid out, with the 'harder' science very skimmable and yet approachable to non-chemists. I particularly like the way he challenges conventionally held assumptions by, in many cases, doing simple experiments that seem to answer things conclusively. The inlined recipes (by his wife, Marlene Parrish) look delicious and provide a nice break to the flow of questions. Some of my favorite answers: Why does iced tea turn cloudy? Will coffee stay hotter if I put the cream in right away or only when I'm ready to drink it? Why are there sulfites in wine? How can I get a red wine stain out of a tablecloth? Why do onions really make me cry? Why are "sweet" onions sweet? When an banana ripes and gets sweeter, does it contain more calories? What is a free radical? What makes mashed potatoes gluey? How can I best match a pasta shape with a sauce? Does marinating work? (suprising!) What's the difference between browning and caramelizing? Why do we cook with wine? And so on. If you like cooking and like knowing more about what's going on inside the pan and aren't afraid of a few polysyllabic words (mmmm, alpha-galactosidase... don't worry, they are defined in context) then grab this book. I couldn't put it down!