On Food and Cooking

from 19th century poetry, I remembered it and
the answer a biologist friend had dug up
(indigestible sugars), thought I would browse
in some food books, wandered over to that
section, and found shelf after shelf of strange
titles. Journal of Food Science. Poultry
Science. Cereal Chemistry. I flipped through a
few volumes, and among the mostly
bewildering pages found hints of answers to
other questions that had never occurred to me.
Why do eggs solidify when we cook them?
Why do fruits turn brown when we cut them?
Why is bread dough bouncily alive, and why
does bounciness make good bread? Which
kinds of dried beans are the worst offenders,
and how can a cook tame them? It was great
fun to make and share these little discoveries,
and I began to think that many people
interested in food might enjoy them.
Eventually I found time to immerse myself in
food science and history and write On Food
and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the