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I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking
Alton Brown explores the science behind breads, cakes, cookies, pies, and custards, explaining it in his own inimitable style. Recipes cover all the basics, from pie crust to funnel cake to cheese souffle. The book also contains appendices and equipment lists.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2004
226 people are currently reading
6202 people want to read
About the author
Alton Brown
23 books639 followersAlton Brown is an American food personality, cinematographer, author, and actor. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats, the miniseries Feasting on Asphalt and the main commentator on Iron Chef America.
Brown received a degree in drama from the University of Georgia. He first worked in cinematography and film production, and was the director of photography on the music video for R.E.M.'s "The One I Love". He also worked as a steadicam operator on the Spike Lee film School Daze.
At some point, he noticed that he was very dissatisfied with the quality of cooking shows then airing on American television, so he set out to produce his own show. Not possessing the requisite knowledge, he enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute, from which he graduated in 1997. Brown states that he had been a poor science student in high school and college, so he began to study the subject as he took cooking training and felt the need to understand the underlying processes of cooking.
Brown received a degree in drama from the University of Georgia. He first worked in cinematography and film production, and was the director of photography on the music video for R.E.M.'s "The One I Love". He also worked as a steadicam operator on the Spike Lee film School Daze.
At some point, he noticed that he was very dissatisfied with the quality of cooking shows then airing on American television, so he set out to produce his own show. Not possessing the requisite knowledge, he enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute, from which he graduated in 1997. Brown states that he had been a poor science student in high school and college, so he began to study the subject as he took cooking training and felt the need to understand the underlying processes of cooking.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
February 2, 2023
I have not seen the author’s show, Good Eats, but I was attracted by the full title of this book.
Unlike Brown’s first book, this one is focused on baking.
I found myself immediately nodding my head to Brown’s approach. HOWEVER --- the reasons that this book appeals to me may not make it a favorite for you.
Speculations: "It’s a well-known fact that a lot of architecture students end up becoming bakers or pastry chefs. Some folks figure it’s because they couldn’t hack the calculus so they cashed in their dreams of mile-high towers for meter-tall wedding cakes. I like to think that deep down it’s because architects and bakers are both structuralists; that is, their crafts are ultimately concerned with form and space."
and
"Sifting decompresses the flour by working air into it and, as you might expect, granules surrounded by air are much easier to work into a batter—and that means less stirring, and that means less gluten. And that’s a good thing, especially if you’re making muffins or pancakes. So sifting speeds the integration of flour into a batter by aeration and, although I don’t have the lab tools to prove it, I firmly believe that sifting assists leavening too."
Practical helpers: "Some other tools that make baking easier: Plastic wrap for covering scales and other things you want to keep clean. Magnetic timers. I have them stuck everywhere. Vinyl gloves for kneading sticky stuff. Cardboard cake rounds from the local bakery. An oven “fish.” Mine is homemade and looks like this:" In giving a nice drawing of this “fish,” Brown shows how even a broken broomstick can be repurposed with a groove cut here and/or there.
Humorous history clips: "Thank goodness for the Dutch. Ever since they won their independence from Spain, the Dutch have been a progressive folk. That’s why in 1611 (or thereabouts) English separatists seeking religious freedom smuggled themselves to Amsterdam. A decade later they headed to America. We call these folks the Pilgrims, and were it not for their sojourn in Holland, odds are we wouldn’t enjoy as many of the Dutch creations that we do…like waffles. Of course I doubt even the progressive Dutch ever got around to serving them under fried chicken."
Myth busting: "THE TRUTH ABOUT MUFFIN BATTER MUFFIN MYTH: Since the baking powder/soda starts releasing leavening immediately upon mixing, such batters need to be cooked immediately. MUFFIN TRUTH: Muffin batter can handle a night in the chill chest as long as you don’t stir it up before you pan it. The batter is viscous enough to hold the bubbles in as long as you don’t go letting them out. In any case, I suggest portioning muffins into the pan with a disher like the one shown below. Cold batter is easier to portion than warm."
Each recipe is given in precise weights and measures, something that Brown strongly advocates. I found the whole approach very helpful. 4.5*
Unlike Brown’s first book, this one is focused on baking.
I found myself immediately nodding my head to Brown’s approach. HOWEVER --- the reasons that this book appeals to me may not make it a favorite for you.
Speculations: "It’s a well-known fact that a lot of architecture students end up becoming bakers or pastry chefs. Some folks figure it’s because they couldn’t hack the calculus so they cashed in their dreams of mile-high towers for meter-tall wedding cakes. I like to think that deep down it’s because architects and bakers are both structuralists; that is, their crafts are ultimately concerned with form and space."
and
"Sifting decompresses the flour by working air into it and, as you might expect, granules surrounded by air are much easier to work into a batter—and that means less stirring, and that means less gluten. And that’s a good thing, especially if you’re making muffins or pancakes. So sifting speeds the integration of flour into a batter by aeration and, although I don’t have the lab tools to prove it, I firmly believe that sifting assists leavening too."
Practical helpers: "Some other tools that make baking easier: Plastic wrap for covering scales and other things you want to keep clean. Magnetic timers. I have them stuck everywhere. Vinyl gloves for kneading sticky stuff. Cardboard cake rounds from the local bakery. An oven “fish.” Mine is homemade and looks like this:" In giving a nice drawing of this “fish,” Brown shows how even a broken broomstick can be repurposed with a groove cut here and/or there.
Humorous history clips: "Thank goodness for the Dutch. Ever since they won their independence from Spain, the Dutch have been a progressive folk. That’s why in 1611 (or thereabouts) English separatists seeking religious freedom smuggled themselves to Amsterdam. A decade later they headed to America. We call these folks the Pilgrims, and were it not for their sojourn in Holland, odds are we wouldn’t enjoy as many of the Dutch creations that we do…like waffles. Of course I doubt even the progressive Dutch ever got around to serving them under fried chicken."
Myth busting: "THE TRUTH ABOUT MUFFIN BATTER MUFFIN MYTH: Since the baking powder/soda starts releasing leavening immediately upon mixing, such batters need to be cooked immediately. MUFFIN TRUTH: Muffin batter can handle a night in the chill chest as long as you don’t stir it up before you pan it. The batter is viscous enough to hold the bubbles in as long as you don’t go letting them out. In any case, I suggest portioning muffins into the pan with a disher like the one shown below. Cold batter is easier to portion than warm."
Each recipe is given in precise weights and measures, something that Brown strongly advocates. I found the whole approach very helpful. 4.5*
July 29, 2011
He is not to my taste, but he does an outstanding job of explaining the chemistry of how things work
July 18, 2017
Good Eats is an amazingly nerdy and informative cooking show, so I turned to this book to check out Alton Brown's bread making tips before I try my hand at it. I ended up flipping through the entire book in one sitting. Really good information that's laid out so clearly and scientifically. Probably going to binge watch some Good Eats reruns on Youtube.
April 26, 2025
This is the sort of book I’ve been looking for, for years. My old flat-mate, Dr Moss, always claimed that cooking was just chemistry but I really didn’t understand the sort of cooking chemistry that was required and this book sets it out really well for baking. It’s not all sorts of cooking: just baking. But there is an absolute treasure house of information and tips here. Plua a real wealth of recipes....which I’ve just skimmed. One thing did rather stand out for me and that was the author’s (or is it really an American thing) predeliction for chocolate and sweet things included in the culinary delights. I did learn a lot from this book...especially things like the water in butter and the need to keep yolk out of egg whites when whipping.
I’ve included a few extracts of things that caught my attention below:
Why cornstarch? Unlike flour, cornstarch is almost pure starch, no protein or any other substances to worry about.
Triglycerides that are high in saturated fats tend to come from animals and are solid at their intended storage temperatures.
The French baguette is traditionally made with a “lean” or fat-free dough, which is why it’s so darned chewy and why it dries out and gets hard so fast. [I’ve always wondered about that]. Add some fat and it lubricates the structural elements (the protein and starch) keeping the overall structure tender.
If you receive your water via municipal supply, it’s been treated with chemicals, chief among them, chlorine.........it stands to reason that this is not the best place for yeast to be....Hard water can be good for bread because it strengthens glutens in yeast doughs.....Most commercial water-softening systems inject a fair amount of sodium into the water and that can pose problems for yeast as well as chemical reactions inside doughs and batters.....If you have strange problems with baking, try changing to bottled water
Only wheat flour contains the proteins responsible for gluten formation.
If you want to accurately measure flour you have to weigh it. [Because of packing issues etc].
Since gluten is not water-soluble, it makes bread pleasantly chewy. It can also make pie crust, biscuits, and muffins chewy—or downright hard, which isn’t a good thing. That’s why agitation and/ or water content are kept to a minimum in such products.
If the percentage of protein is high, the wheat is called “hard,” and the flours milled from it—which are called “strong”—may have a protein content as high as 13 percent. If the protein content is low, the wheat is called “soft,” and the flour milled from it “weak.” The higher the protein content, the more gluten formation is possible.
Durum flour is so darned hard that it’s only good for a few things, namely pasta making. It’s an ancient breed and despite being loaded with proteins, it’s not the kind of protein that makes gluten, so durum is terrible for bread making......But without wheat flour, there won’t be any gluten. No gluten, no elastic bubbles—and that means weak and flabby bread.
All you really need to know is that gelatin strands are long and thin and that they move around a lot when they’re warm. When they drop below 50 ° F, they slow down and tangle up, resulting in a microscopic mesh capable of holding the liquid of your choice in a firm gel.
Egg whites contain mostly water and protein; no fat.......Egg yolks contain protein, less water, and all the egg’s fat—as well as phospholipids that act as emulsifiers.....But if you’re whipping up a custard, these biological bungee cords [chalaza: the link between yolk and white] will have to be strained out before cooking or you won’t achieve a smooth texture. Since the chalaza dissolves as the egg ages, you could simply skip the strainer and wait a few weeks for your eggs to get old.
Egg Gels. When “cracked” or denatured by agitation, acid, or heat, egg proteins weave together in a three-dimensional net that can capture and hold moisture, starch, fat—whatever......The same protein mesh that makes cakes and custards possible can also be used to reinforce tiny bubbles that, when grouped together, become a foam.
Although egg-white foams are the most acclaimed, yolk-only and whole-egg foams are also possible and darned useful.
The only difference between glucose and fructose is that glucose has a six-sided carbon ring while fructose’s ring has five. They have the same chemical formula.
Table sugar is 99.9 percent sucrose, a disaccharide made up of one fructose and one glucose molecule.
There are records of “honey without bees” [presumably sugar from sugarcane which reached India from PNG approx. 3,000 years ago] being produced along the banks of the Ganges River at least 2,500 years ago.
Powdered sugars are packaged with cornstarch, which absorbs the moisture that would otherwise turn the contents into a white brick......Today brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added after the fact.......Turbinado sugar is made from unrefined raw sugar.
slightly lighter version of turbinado called demerara is especially popular for coffee in the UK.
There’s also a special sugar made in Japan called wasanbon toh. It’s made from a very special type of sugarcane called chikutoh, which is short and skinny. The fine crystals of this sugar are the product of a long, intensive, hands-on process.
Sugar tenderizes baked goods in two different ways. First, it gets in the way. For example, sugar molecules get between egg proteins in a custard, thus slowing the coagulation process. Sugar is highly hygroscopic, or water-loving, so it can also tenderize by grabbing water and preventing it from being used by tough structural components like protein and starch......Sugar preserves by binding up water so that it’s not readily available to the microbial life forms that would love to get hold of it.......Sugar leavens by punching tiny holes into solid fat. In the heat of the oven, these bubbles expand, thus lifting the product and creating its internal texture.......Sugar also aids leavening by slowing the movement of water into starch, and that means batters and doughs containing sugar can expand further before setting.
Sugar stabilizes egg foams by holding onto and dissolving in the water contained in the bubble walls. That’s why angel food cakes are so much easier to make than soufflés,
Although caramelization and Maillard reactions are often confused, it’s important to note that Maillard browning can take place at much lower temperatures than caramelization—and without added sugar. When you get a nice brown sear on the outside of a steak, that’s Maillard at work, not caramelization.
But only cows and their kin (yaks, for instance) produce enough fat for the butter-making process to be practical.).....Most of the butter produced in the United States and Canada is only 80 to 85 percent butterfat. The other 15 to 20 percent is water......When it comes to baked goods, butter really isn’t very efficient and it’s kind of a pain to deal with, because:
Butter isn’t 100 percent fat, so when using in a recipe you always have to consider the water content.......Butter has a very narrow window of plasticity and is best worked with between 18 degrees C and 21 C. Any colder and it’s hard as a rock; by the time it hits 36 C, it’s completely liquid......Butter goes rancid quickly......If I need to cut butter into flour for pie crust or biscuits, I use the large holes on a box grater to just grate it into the flour. Just spray the face of the grater with a little nonstick vegetable spray beforehand so that it doesn’t bind.
Shortening remains plastic at a much wider temperature range than any other solid fat.
Unlike butter, shortening is 100 percent fat.....Although they’re made from vegetable oils that are high in unsaturated fats, shortenings are partially hydrogenated, which makes them mostly saturated.....Why do they call it shortening? Because fats (all fats, really) shorten gluten strands by lubricating them so they can’t grip each other.
Butter tastes a heck of a lot better
These new fatty acids are called “trans fatty” acids and they may be even worse for us than saturated fats. So if you’ve been using shortening as a way to avoid butter you may be wasting your time.....Basically, shortening can do everything that butter can do, and do it better—except for three things: it doesn’t brown well; it tastes like, well, nothing; and in “laminated” doughs (like puff pastry), well, it’s just a mess—that’s because, with a melting point just above normal body temperature, it doesn’t have a good mouthfeel.
Since they can’t trap bubbles and don’t contain any water, oils don’t do any leavening whatsoever.....Since they’re liquid at room temperature, they do however contribute a sense of moistness, despite the fact that they don’t actually contain anything wet.
If someone says, “Wow, that _________ is so moist,” it’s because of oil.
Oils are used in nearly all applications calling for the Muffin Method.
There are several methods of pasteurization. The law requires (at the very least) that milk be heated to 145 ° F for 30 minutes......Milk processors opt instead for something called HTST or “high-temperature-short-time” pasteurization, which takes only 15 seconds at 161 ° F. Of course, at these temperatures, the resulting milk tastes a lot like white water—
Milk looks white for the same reason that a meringue looks white. It is composed of very small orbs—only instead of bubbles they are amalgamations of protein and calcium called “micelles.” Light can’t pass through them so white is reflected back.
If you’re willing to jack that temperature to 280 ° F for even two seconds, you have UHT, or ultra-pasteurized milk, which tastes even less like anything.....Most American milk is completely skimmed. All the fat is removed and then a specific percentage of fat is added back in, depending on what the market demands
Buttermilk, that is—the liquid left over after the churning of butter. Today’s buttermilk is little more than lowfat milk to which lactic acid bacteria have been added.
Sour cream is light cream inoculated with lactic acid bacteria. In the United States, sour cream must contain a minimum of 5 percent lactic acid.
Ultraviolet light can damage various structures in the milk, robbing it of nutritional value and creating off flavors.....Clear bottles are only suitable for a day or two of storage....Cream is much easier to whip when it’s cold so chill your bowl and whisk/ beater. Unlike egg whites, which increase six to eight times in volume when whipped, cream usually only doubles in volume
A leavener is either a bubble or something that blows a bubble.
Since they rarely appear in ingredient lists, it’s easy to forget about air and steam, and yet they do most of the leavening on this planet. In fact, some devices, like those built from choux paste and popovers soar to considerable heights on the expansive natures of air and steam alone.....Steam is an amazingly efficient leavener because as water changes to vapor it expands in volume more than a thousand times. No matter what other leaveners are in use, steam and air will be at work too.
In the case of cakes and yeast-leavened breads, the bubbles are actually “planted” by the baker through mixing and kneading. In the case of cakes, which have fine, tight textures, the bubbles are created by the cutting of sugar granules into solid fat, a crucial step in the Creaming Method, as we shall soon see.
Fine textures are created in yeast breads by kneading and by the folding that follows the first and (occasionally) the second rise. This folding breaks up the large bubbles blown during the first rise so that they may rise again. If the baker is careful, his or her bubbles can literally multiply right alongside the yeast that exhale into them.
Since there aren’t too many bases hanging around the kitchen (ammonia and egg whites are the only ones I can think of), we require the services of a special additive to mix with our acids: baking soda.
Pearl Ash, or potassium carbonate extracted from wood ash, was first used as a baking soda in America around 1790......Eventually it was replaced by sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) aka bicarbonate of soda, aka bicarb, aka baking soda, which can still produce a soapy flavor, unless it’s counteracted by acid.....Most of the world’s baking soda is made from vast trona deposits found in mines in Wyoming and dry lake beds in California. Who knew?
Cream of tartar, or potassium hydrogen tartrate, is a pure and all-natural acid that’s harvested from the inside of wine barrels in the form of tiny crystals. If you’ve ever opened a bottle of red wine and noticed tiny sparkles reflecting off the bottom of the cork, then you’ve seen tartaric acid crystals.
All baking powders available in this country give off the same amount of CO2: 12 percent by weight.....So, if cream of tartar is an acid and baking soda is a base, why not put them together and sell them as “baking powder”? Good idea.
Baking powders contain baking soda as well as an acid with which it can react. Since all it takes is a wee little bit of moisture to start the reaction, cornstarch is also added to absorb atmospheric moisture.....Commercial “double-acting” baking powder, contains two or more different acids, one that dissolves and gives off CO2 immediately upon mixing and another that doesn’t give off gas until it’s heated. That gives the baked good in question an opportunity to catch another lift before setting.....Once opened, a can of baking powder only has a lifespan of six months.
Instant yeast is superior to active dry. You can add it directly to the flour before mixing doughs.....Slow rises in a cool place will produce better flavor and texture every time.
Without salt, yeast run wild, often overproducing to the point where the entire population burns itself out before the bread gets to the oven. Salt keeps the population under control.
In fact, of the hundreds of known strains of commercial yeast, the one used in bread making most often is Saccharomyces cervevisiae (Latin for “beer sugar”).
It’s important to note that since yeast cells lack the enzyme amylase, they cannot break the starch in flour down into sugar, which is a shame because it’s sugar that they eat. To make up for this, most millers add amylase to their flours.
Fresh or cake yeast. Basically zillions and zillions of yeast cells compressed into blocks (Compressed yeast blocks are only about 30 percent yeast. The rest is moisture.)
Active dry yeast (aka the stuff in the little triple pouches). An oxymoron if ever there was one, these are essentially yeast mudskippers, which must be roused to action by “proofing.”
sprinkling the packet of yeast over a bowl of warm water or warm sugar water, you have “proofed” yeast.
Instant yeast is a hardy strain of dry yeast that’s been broken into very, very small granules and then packed with vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid. This really turns the yeast on upon waking.....Instant yeast is also meant to be mixed directly into the dry ingredients—no soaking or proofing first, which means no chance of killing it with too hot water.
if you’re going to make great bread—really great bread—you’re going to have to cultivate your own sourdough starter.....\When I bake with yeast, I use filtered or bottled water. If you can’t manage either, draw the water and let it sit open for six hours so that the chlorine can dissipate.
Besides contributing its own flavor, salt can “complete” flavors as well as “turn them up.” In other words, salt makes things taste more like themselves. In even small amounts, salt can make chocolate taste more like chocolate or a tomato more like a tomato.
Extracts are made by chopping and soaking ingredients such as herbs, nuts, berries, and other ingredients containing alcohol-soluble compounds (usually oils) in ethyl alcohol or a combination of alcohol and water. And the most commonly used of these is vanilla extract.
nibs are then rolled under heavy stone or metal wheels to produce a brown paste that’s called chocolate liquor, despite the fact that there’s no alcohol involved. From the time of the Maya to the eighteenth century, this substance was simply mixed with a few spices, frothed into water, and served.
Chocolate remained primarily a beverage until 1828, when a Dutch chocolatier named Conrad Van Houten devised a hydraulic press that could separate the cocoa solids, or cake, from the fat, or cocoa butter. Pulverize this cake and you’ve got natural cocoa powder. It’s brick-red. With a pH of 5.2, and fairly acidic.....Van Houten added alkalies to it, and that mellowed out the flavor. It also darkened the color into something more chocolaty.
What does affect the solubility of cocoa powder is the percentage of cocoa butter that’s still clinging to the granules. Since that differs from brand to brand, you’ll just have to shop around until you find one that makes you happy.
Baking chocolate, or unsweetened chocolate, is nothing more than chocolate liquor (that is, cocoa powder with cocoa butter) stabilized in cube or bar form.
While most of us think that the boiling of water has a lot to do with heat, it’s really about pressure......By applying approximately 15 psi, the temperature inside a pressure cooker can elevate to 257 ° F......Since most published recipes are tested at or near sea level, a baker in base camp on Mt. Everest might experience some frustrating complications
Alton Brown then goes into detail about his four basic mixing methods and includes a multitude of recipes under each heading. He also has stacks more tips and tricks along the way and explanations about why things work or don’t work. His four mixing methods are:
1. The Muffin Method
2. The Biscuit Method
3. And The Pie Variation
4. The Creaming Method
5. The Straight Dough Method
6. The Egg Foam Method
7. The Custards
And if this looks like 6 methods, then a couple are sub variations on the theme.
I really liked the book. Masses of interesting information there. Five stars from me.
I’ve included a few extracts of things that caught my attention below:
Why cornstarch? Unlike flour, cornstarch is almost pure starch, no protein or any other substances to worry about.
Triglycerides that are high in saturated fats tend to come from animals and are solid at their intended storage temperatures.
The French baguette is traditionally made with a “lean” or fat-free dough, which is why it’s so darned chewy and why it dries out and gets hard so fast. [I’ve always wondered about that]. Add some fat and it lubricates the structural elements (the protein and starch) keeping the overall structure tender.
If you receive your water via municipal supply, it’s been treated with chemicals, chief among them, chlorine.........it stands to reason that this is not the best place for yeast to be....Hard water can be good for bread because it strengthens glutens in yeast doughs.....Most commercial water-softening systems inject a fair amount of sodium into the water and that can pose problems for yeast as well as chemical reactions inside doughs and batters.....If you have strange problems with baking, try changing to bottled water
Only wheat flour contains the proteins responsible for gluten formation.
If you want to accurately measure flour you have to weigh it. [Because of packing issues etc].
Since gluten is not water-soluble, it makes bread pleasantly chewy. It can also make pie crust, biscuits, and muffins chewy—or downright hard, which isn’t a good thing. That’s why agitation and/ or water content are kept to a minimum in such products.
If the percentage of protein is high, the wheat is called “hard,” and the flours milled from it—which are called “strong”—may have a protein content as high as 13 percent. If the protein content is low, the wheat is called “soft,” and the flour milled from it “weak.” The higher the protein content, the more gluten formation is possible.
Durum flour is so darned hard that it’s only good for a few things, namely pasta making. It’s an ancient breed and despite being loaded with proteins, it’s not the kind of protein that makes gluten, so durum is terrible for bread making......But without wheat flour, there won’t be any gluten. No gluten, no elastic bubbles—and that means weak and flabby bread.
All you really need to know is that gelatin strands are long and thin and that they move around a lot when they’re warm. When they drop below 50 ° F, they slow down and tangle up, resulting in a microscopic mesh capable of holding the liquid of your choice in a firm gel.
Egg whites contain mostly water and protein; no fat.......Egg yolks contain protein, less water, and all the egg’s fat—as well as phospholipids that act as emulsifiers.....But if you’re whipping up a custard, these biological bungee cords [chalaza: the link between yolk and white] will have to be strained out before cooking or you won’t achieve a smooth texture. Since the chalaza dissolves as the egg ages, you could simply skip the strainer and wait a few weeks for your eggs to get old.
Egg Gels. When “cracked” or denatured by agitation, acid, or heat, egg proteins weave together in a three-dimensional net that can capture and hold moisture, starch, fat—whatever......The same protein mesh that makes cakes and custards possible can also be used to reinforce tiny bubbles that, when grouped together, become a foam.
Although egg-white foams are the most acclaimed, yolk-only and whole-egg foams are also possible and darned useful.
The only difference between glucose and fructose is that glucose has a six-sided carbon ring while fructose’s ring has five. They have the same chemical formula.
Table sugar is 99.9 percent sucrose, a disaccharide made up of one fructose and one glucose molecule.
There are records of “honey without bees” [presumably sugar from sugarcane which reached India from PNG approx. 3,000 years ago] being produced along the banks of the Ganges River at least 2,500 years ago.
Powdered sugars are packaged with cornstarch, which absorbs the moisture that would otherwise turn the contents into a white brick......Today brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added after the fact.......Turbinado sugar is made from unrefined raw sugar.
slightly lighter version of turbinado called demerara is especially popular for coffee in the UK.
There’s also a special sugar made in Japan called wasanbon toh. It’s made from a very special type of sugarcane called chikutoh, which is short and skinny. The fine crystals of this sugar are the product of a long, intensive, hands-on process.
Sugar tenderizes baked goods in two different ways. First, it gets in the way. For example, sugar molecules get between egg proteins in a custard, thus slowing the coagulation process. Sugar is highly hygroscopic, or water-loving, so it can also tenderize by grabbing water and preventing it from being used by tough structural components like protein and starch......Sugar preserves by binding up water so that it’s not readily available to the microbial life forms that would love to get hold of it.......Sugar leavens by punching tiny holes into solid fat. In the heat of the oven, these bubbles expand, thus lifting the product and creating its internal texture.......Sugar also aids leavening by slowing the movement of water into starch, and that means batters and doughs containing sugar can expand further before setting.
Sugar stabilizes egg foams by holding onto and dissolving in the water contained in the bubble walls. That’s why angel food cakes are so much easier to make than soufflés,
Although caramelization and Maillard reactions are often confused, it’s important to note that Maillard browning can take place at much lower temperatures than caramelization—and without added sugar. When you get a nice brown sear on the outside of a steak, that’s Maillard at work, not caramelization.
But only cows and their kin (yaks, for instance) produce enough fat for the butter-making process to be practical.).....Most of the butter produced in the United States and Canada is only 80 to 85 percent butterfat. The other 15 to 20 percent is water......When it comes to baked goods, butter really isn’t very efficient and it’s kind of a pain to deal with, because:
Butter isn’t 100 percent fat, so when using in a recipe you always have to consider the water content.......Butter has a very narrow window of plasticity and is best worked with between 18 degrees C and 21 C. Any colder and it’s hard as a rock; by the time it hits 36 C, it’s completely liquid......Butter goes rancid quickly......If I need to cut butter into flour for pie crust or biscuits, I use the large holes on a box grater to just grate it into the flour. Just spray the face of the grater with a little nonstick vegetable spray beforehand so that it doesn’t bind.
Shortening remains plastic at a much wider temperature range than any other solid fat.
Unlike butter, shortening is 100 percent fat.....Although they’re made from vegetable oils that are high in unsaturated fats, shortenings are partially hydrogenated, which makes them mostly saturated.....Why do they call it shortening? Because fats (all fats, really) shorten gluten strands by lubricating them so they can’t grip each other.
Butter tastes a heck of a lot better
These new fatty acids are called “trans fatty” acids and they may be even worse for us than saturated fats. So if you’ve been using shortening as a way to avoid butter you may be wasting your time.....Basically, shortening can do everything that butter can do, and do it better—except for three things: it doesn’t brown well; it tastes like, well, nothing; and in “laminated” doughs (like puff pastry), well, it’s just a mess—that’s because, with a melting point just above normal body temperature, it doesn’t have a good mouthfeel.
Since they can’t trap bubbles and don’t contain any water, oils don’t do any leavening whatsoever.....Since they’re liquid at room temperature, they do however contribute a sense of moistness, despite the fact that they don’t actually contain anything wet.
If someone says, “Wow, that _________ is so moist,” it’s because of oil.
Oils are used in nearly all applications calling for the Muffin Method.
There are several methods of pasteurization. The law requires (at the very least) that milk be heated to 145 ° F for 30 minutes......Milk processors opt instead for something called HTST or “high-temperature-short-time” pasteurization, which takes only 15 seconds at 161 ° F. Of course, at these temperatures, the resulting milk tastes a lot like white water—
Milk looks white for the same reason that a meringue looks white. It is composed of very small orbs—only instead of bubbles they are amalgamations of protein and calcium called “micelles.” Light can’t pass through them so white is reflected back.
If you’re willing to jack that temperature to 280 ° F for even two seconds, you have UHT, or ultra-pasteurized milk, which tastes even less like anything.....Most American milk is completely skimmed. All the fat is removed and then a specific percentage of fat is added back in, depending on what the market demands
Buttermilk, that is—the liquid left over after the churning of butter. Today’s buttermilk is little more than lowfat milk to which lactic acid bacteria have been added.
Sour cream is light cream inoculated with lactic acid bacteria. In the United States, sour cream must contain a minimum of 5 percent lactic acid.
Ultraviolet light can damage various structures in the milk, robbing it of nutritional value and creating off flavors.....Clear bottles are only suitable for a day or two of storage....Cream is much easier to whip when it’s cold so chill your bowl and whisk/ beater. Unlike egg whites, which increase six to eight times in volume when whipped, cream usually only doubles in volume
A leavener is either a bubble or something that blows a bubble.
Since they rarely appear in ingredient lists, it’s easy to forget about air and steam, and yet they do most of the leavening on this planet. In fact, some devices, like those built from choux paste and popovers soar to considerable heights on the expansive natures of air and steam alone.....Steam is an amazingly efficient leavener because as water changes to vapor it expands in volume more than a thousand times. No matter what other leaveners are in use, steam and air will be at work too.
In the case of cakes and yeast-leavened breads, the bubbles are actually “planted” by the baker through mixing and kneading. In the case of cakes, which have fine, tight textures, the bubbles are created by the cutting of sugar granules into solid fat, a crucial step in the Creaming Method, as we shall soon see.
Fine textures are created in yeast breads by kneading and by the folding that follows the first and (occasionally) the second rise. This folding breaks up the large bubbles blown during the first rise so that they may rise again. If the baker is careful, his or her bubbles can literally multiply right alongside the yeast that exhale into them.
Since there aren’t too many bases hanging around the kitchen (ammonia and egg whites are the only ones I can think of), we require the services of a special additive to mix with our acids: baking soda.
Pearl Ash, or potassium carbonate extracted from wood ash, was first used as a baking soda in America around 1790......Eventually it was replaced by sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) aka bicarbonate of soda, aka bicarb, aka baking soda, which can still produce a soapy flavor, unless it’s counteracted by acid.....Most of the world’s baking soda is made from vast trona deposits found in mines in Wyoming and dry lake beds in California. Who knew?
Cream of tartar, or potassium hydrogen tartrate, is a pure and all-natural acid that’s harvested from the inside of wine barrels in the form of tiny crystals. If you’ve ever opened a bottle of red wine and noticed tiny sparkles reflecting off the bottom of the cork, then you’ve seen tartaric acid crystals.
All baking powders available in this country give off the same amount of CO2: 12 percent by weight.....So, if cream of tartar is an acid and baking soda is a base, why not put them together and sell them as “baking powder”? Good idea.
Baking powders contain baking soda as well as an acid with which it can react. Since all it takes is a wee little bit of moisture to start the reaction, cornstarch is also added to absorb atmospheric moisture.....Commercial “double-acting” baking powder, contains two or more different acids, one that dissolves and gives off CO2 immediately upon mixing and another that doesn’t give off gas until it’s heated. That gives the baked good in question an opportunity to catch another lift before setting.....Once opened, a can of baking powder only has a lifespan of six months.
Instant yeast is superior to active dry. You can add it directly to the flour before mixing doughs.....Slow rises in a cool place will produce better flavor and texture every time.
Without salt, yeast run wild, often overproducing to the point where the entire population burns itself out before the bread gets to the oven. Salt keeps the population under control.
In fact, of the hundreds of known strains of commercial yeast, the one used in bread making most often is Saccharomyces cervevisiae (Latin for “beer sugar”).
It’s important to note that since yeast cells lack the enzyme amylase, they cannot break the starch in flour down into sugar, which is a shame because it’s sugar that they eat. To make up for this, most millers add amylase to their flours.
Fresh or cake yeast. Basically zillions and zillions of yeast cells compressed into blocks (Compressed yeast blocks are only about 30 percent yeast. The rest is moisture.)
Active dry yeast (aka the stuff in the little triple pouches). An oxymoron if ever there was one, these are essentially yeast mudskippers, which must be roused to action by “proofing.”
sprinkling the packet of yeast over a bowl of warm water or warm sugar water, you have “proofed” yeast.
Instant yeast is a hardy strain of dry yeast that’s been broken into very, very small granules and then packed with vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid. This really turns the yeast on upon waking.....Instant yeast is also meant to be mixed directly into the dry ingredients—no soaking or proofing first, which means no chance of killing it with too hot water.
if you’re going to make great bread—really great bread—you’re going to have to cultivate your own sourdough starter.....\When I bake with yeast, I use filtered or bottled water. If you can’t manage either, draw the water and let it sit open for six hours so that the chlorine can dissipate.
Besides contributing its own flavor, salt can “complete” flavors as well as “turn them up.” In other words, salt makes things taste more like themselves. In even small amounts, salt can make chocolate taste more like chocolate or a tomato more like a tomato.
Extracts are made by chopping and soaking ingredients such as herbs, nuts, berries, and other ingredients containing alcohol-soluble compounds (usually oils) in ethyl alcohol or a combination of alcohol and water. And the most commonly used of these is vanilla extract.
nibs are then rolled under heavy stone or metal wheels to produce a brown paste that’s called chocolate liquor, despite the fact that there’s no alcohol involved. From the time of the Maya to the eighteenth century, this substance was simply mixed with a few spices, frothed into water, and served.
Chocolate remained primarily a beverage until 1828, when a Dutch chocolatier named Conrad Van Houten devised a hydraulic press that could separate the cocoa solids, or cake, from the fat, or cocoa butter. Pulverize this cake and you’ve got natural cocoa powder. It’s brick-red. With a pH of 5.2, and fairly acidic.....Van Houten added alkalies to it, and that mellowed out the flavor. It also darkened the color into something more chocolaty.
What does affect the solubility of cocoa powder is the percentage of cocoa butter that’s still clinging to the granules. Since that differs from brand to brand, you’ll just have to shop around until you find one that makes you happy.
Baking chocolate, or unsweetened chocolate, is nothing more than chocolate liquor (that is, cocoa powder with cocoa butter) stabilized in cube or bar form.
While most of us think that the boiling of water has a lot to do with heat, it’s really about pressure......By applying approximately 15 psi, the temperature inside a pressure cooker can elevate to 257 ° F......Since most published recipes are tested at or near sea level, a baker in base camp on Mt. Everest might experience some frustrating complications
Alton Brown then goes into detail about his four basic mixing methods and includes a multitude of recipes under each heading. He also has stacks more tips and tricks along the way and explanations about why things work or don’t work. His four mixing methods are:
1. The Muffin Method
2. The Biscuit Method
3. And The Pie Variation
4. The Creaming Method
5. The Straight Dough Method
6. The Egg Foam Method
7. The Custards
And if this looks like 6 methods, then a couple are sub variations on the theme.
I really liked the book. Masses of interesting information there. Five stars from me.
March 15, 2008
I was waiting to review this until I had tried a recipe and tonight I did. I made the peanut butter cookies. I have made many batches of peanut butter cookies over the years and have never had a bad batch. Alton's are very good cookies, but not my favorite. They're kind of crunchy, and I like a chewier cookie, but that's just me. Don't get me wrong; AB's are excellent, too.
The real reason I'm giving this book 5 stars is that it's just such an interesting read for someone who loves baking. I had a lot of "Ah ha" moments reading about the chemistry and physics of baking. Actually, I knew I had a touch for it, and now I understand more clearly what I have been doing right. And I definitely have picked up some valuable pointers for improving.
The writing is light and amusing and easy to read but gives some really solid information. It's almost a "dummies" kind of read, only you're not pretending to be stupid because there happens to be an area in which you're not expert, which I think is the problem of the concept behind the dummies books. You're not a dummy just because you don't know Photoshop or antique coin collecting. You're a dummy if you are interested in one of those things but won't read up on it. So anyone reading a dummies book has proven, ironically, that they are not. Wow, what a digression. What I'm saying is that Alton uses a similar light touch with humor and helpful diagrams but without insulting you for not already knowing it.
Some people might not like his insistence on unusual methods, like weighing ingredients by volume. There are little things to pick at in this book like that. He also insists that you have a stand mixer if you're going to bake cookies. He says handhelds don't cut it and neither does manual mixing. But I mixed manually on cookies for years when I was young and poor and they always came out great. Then I used hand mixers for many more years and my cookies were, of course, fine. So he's kind of unrealistic in his expectations for the equipment of the average Joe's kitchen. But it's fun to dream of one day having all that stuff and knowing you would have this book to help you know how to use it.
To recap: only made one recipe and liked it. But the book (and there's quite a lot of text, this is far more than a cookbook), is a pleasure to read.
The real reason I'm giving this book 5 stars is that it's just such an interesting read for someone who loves baking. I had a lot of "Ah ha" moments reading about the chemistry and physics of baking. Actually, I knew I had a touch for it, and now I understand more clearly what I have been doing right. And I definitely have picked up some valuable pointers for improving.
The writing is light and amusing and easy to read but gives some really solid information. It's almost a "dummies" kind of read, only you're not pretending to be stupid because there happens to be an area in which you're not expert, which I think is the problem of the concept behind the dummies books. You're not a dummy just because you don't know Photoshop or antique coin collecting. You're a dummy if you are interested in one of those things but won't read up on it. So anyone reading a dummies book has proven, ironically, that they are not. Wow, what a digression. What I'm saying is that Alton uses a similar light touch with humor and helpful diagrams but without insulting you for not already knowing it.
Some people might not like his insistence on unusual methods, like weighing ingredients by volume. There are little things to pick at in this book like that. He also insists that you have a stand mixer if you're going to bake cookies. He says handhelds don't cut it and neither does manual mixing. But I mixed manually on cookies for years when I was young and poor and they always came out great. Then I used hand mixers for many more years and my cookies were, of course, fine. So he's kind of unrealistic in his expectations for the equipment of the average Joe's kitchen. But it's fun to dream of one day having all that stuff and knowing you would have this book to help you know how to use it.
To recap: only made one recipe and liked it. But the book (and there's quite a lot of text, this is far more than a cookbook), is a pleasure to read.
January 3, 2020
Now I know why I’m not a baker. Oh.My.Gosh. Talk about information overload! Waaaaaay too much technical info for me. I make a great custard and fairly good biscuits and pie crust without all the scientific terms and gadgets. This is basically a textbook.
June 1, 2023
I have always enjoyed Alton’s presentation of cooking and related facts - and this book was no exception. The book (read on a Kindle) had many links to move to related (or opposing topics) but I found this a bit clunky to navigate. Also, maybe it is just me but I find reading cooking books on a Kindle tedious.
June 15, 2017
If you're into baking, this is probably one of the better cookbooks you're going to find out there, but that's just a guess--I'm not really into baking. But it was enjoyable even though I knew I'd never even attempt 90% of the recipes in the book.
October 30, 2018
Really informative! As a beginner baker, some really good information about the mechanics behind baking and why I'm doing the things I do while baking. I could hear Alton's voice in this book. Makes me want to binge some Good Eats. :)
August 29, 2019
Baker’s Delight
Alton Brown can be trusted to provide the right information and techniques to help improve your cooking skills. Knowing why to do certain steps makes it easier to remember their importance.
Alton Brown can be trusted to provide the right information and techniques to help improve your cooking skills. Knowing why to do certain steps makes it easier to remember their importance.
December 30, 2017
Brown's catchy, educational style makes the book about more than just recipes - but the recipes are also quite good.
October 30, 2024
I'm just here for more food
By Alton Brown. If you like Mr. Brown and the TV show "Good Eats" you will like this book. You'll probably even recognize some of the recipes.
By Alton Brown. If you like Mr. Brown and the TV show "Good Eats" you will like this book. You'll probably even recognize some of the recipes.
September 8, 2025
I love all of the scientific analysis into baking! It adds a lot of context that explains why certain things happen you when bake or why you’re given certain tips. I appreciate the depth and detail.
June 12, 2012
In many ways this book is a little difficult to describe so that it receives the credit it deserves. It is more than a recipe book even though it isn't a classical recipe book - it is more than a textbook too.
This fairly massive tome from Alton Brown is a relatively informal "workshop guide" to basic food preparation in the shape of baked goods. Here Alton focusses on ensuring that the reader really understands the nitty-gritty or the nuts and bolts as to what really happens from when you mix together ingredients right up to the point of serving. If you only care about making recipe X with the shortest amount of work, hassle and time this book is not for you. If you want to understand how things work with a view of improving them then you may find this a gem, particularly if you are not a food scientist or advanced chef.
Brown starts with a good introduction and a bit of an explanation to as to what to expect, before it is onto the "parts department" where elements such as proteins and carbohydrates are explored and their interaction whilst baking is explained. No, do read on, it is not as dull as you might think. Even if you don't fully understand what Brown is writing, if you can pick up some basic understanding and practical tips you may find a real, noticeable difference in your baking. The importance of core ingredients such as eggs and flour also comes under the proverbial magnifying glass, helping remove any misapprehension that, for example, different types of flour are essentially the same and do roughly the same job. Indeed they may, just as a bicycle and an aircraft can propel you from New York to London (eventually).
After all of this, recipes and their underlying work processes are concentrated within a number of standard methodologies and thus many recipes appear here. Each standard methodology - muffins, biscuits, pie variants, creaming, straight dough, egg foam, custards and a few other bits and bobs are similarly heavy on the science and plain-language explanation of the whats and whys and, naturally, then many recipes are provided that draw on this knowledge.
As long as you remove any preconceptions about this book and if you are interested in how things actually go together and want to hopefully make a better "product" then this book might be an interesting, innovative diversion for you. A hybrid that carefully curates and moulds both high-level academic theory and common sense practical information to a fairly light-hearted, engaging and informative stream to be piped en masse into your brain. Just like Alton Brown's (American) television shows you can sense the energy, constantly changing focus as you read through the book yet, surprisingly, there is an almost serene, controlled manner to this as well. A concept that is harder to explain than it is to understand through reading it.
The book ends with, as you would hope for, a good detailed index since it is a fair bet you will be referencing hither and tither as time goes on. Some little errors and some abrupt endings made this reviewer scratch his head metaphorically a few times, but these little black marks rapidly pale into insignificance when you consider the overall picture.
I'm Just Here for More Food: Food X Mixing + Heat = Baking, written by Alton Brown and published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN 9781584793410, 336 pages. Typical price: GBP20. YYYY.
This is a RETROspective review of a previously-published book that, whilst not new on the market, is still available and the review has been made of the book as it stands today.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
This fairly massive tome from Alton Brown is a relatively informal "workshop guide" to basic food preparation in the shape of baked goods. Here Alton focusses on ensuring that the reader really understands the nitty-gritty or the nuts and bolts as to what really happens from when you mix together ingredients right up to the point of serving. If you only care about making recipe X with the shortest amount of work, hassle and time this book is not for you. If you want to understand how things work with a view of improving them then you may find this a gem, particularly if you are not a food scientist or advanced chef.
Brown starts with a good introduction and a bit of an explanation to as to what to expect, before it is onto the "parts department" where elements such as proteins and carbohydrates are explored and their interaction whilst baking is explained. No, do read on, it is not as dull as you might think. Even if you don't fully understand what Brown is writing, if you can pick up some basic understanding and practical tips you may find a real, noticeable difference in your baking. The importance of core ingredients such as eggs and flour also comes under the proverbial magnifying glass, helping remove any misapprehension that, for example, different types of flour are essentially the same and do roughly the same job. Indeed they may, just as a bicycle and an aircraft can propel you from New York to London (eventually).
After all of this, recipes and their underlying work processes are concentrated within a number of standard methodologies and thus many recipes appear here. Each standard methodology - muffins, biscuits, pie variants, creaming, straight dough, egg foam, custards and a few other bits and bobs are similarly heavy on the science and plain-language explanation of the whats and whys and, naturally, then many recipes are provided that draw on this knowledge.
As long as you remove any preconceptions about this book and if you are interested in how things actually go together and want to hopefully make a better "product" then this book might be an interesting, innovative diversion for you. A hybrid that carefully curates and moulds both high-level academic theory and common sense practical information to a fairly light-hearted, engaging and informative stream to be piped en masse into your brain. Just like Alton Brown's (American) television shows you can sense the energy, constantly changing focus as you read through the book yet, surprisingly, there is an almost serene, controlled manner to this as well. A concept that is harder to explain than it is to understand through reading it.
The book ends with, as you would hope for, a good detailed index since it is a fair bet you will be referencing hither and tither as time goes on. Some little errors and some abrupt endings made this reviewer scratch his head metaphorically a few times, but these little black marks rapidly pale into insignificance when you consider the overall picture.
I'm Just Here for More Food: Food X Mixing + Heat = Baking, written by Alton Brown and published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN 9781584793410, 336 pages. Typical price: GBP20. YYYY.
This is a RETROspective review of a previously-published book that, whilst not new on the market, is still available and the review has been made of the book as it stands today.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
April 3, 2013
Mad kitchen scientist Alton Brown is back for another installment, this time looking at the process of baking and the chemical compositions that make it work. He divides his recipes into mixing method because it determines the consistency and texture of the final product. This makes a lot of sense for this book and also for anyone anxious to pick out the patterns in a wide variety of recipes. Every section provides examples of the type.
For my money, I thought this book was a little better than the first, though some of the metaphors / illustrations are stretched a mite too thin. Maybe it's because baking is more precise and scientific, so Alton's exacting methodology has less tendency to seem like overkill; maybe it's purely personal, because baking is my favored arena. Regardless, I also found the recipes in this book less basic and more generally interesting - this is a book that lends itself to being used as a recipe book.
However, the way the recipes are laid out and printed significantly hampers this. I always photocopy recipes so I can hang them up in my kitchen and not damage the book - well, several of the recipes are 4-5 pages with illustrations and wide spacing. Even if this isn't your habit and you prefer to have the book on hand, that's a lot of flipping, propping, etc to refresh yourself of the steps. I would have preferred the detailed explanation and then a separate page with the compact recipe. (I can't really complain about the flaps with the Mixing Methods rather than repeating it in every recipe, since Brown's intention is for you to memorize them instead of continuously referring back. It's a good idea ... though I pulled the flaps forward for my photocopies anyhow. I'll get there.)
But the rest of the book is entertaining and clever. It starts with the building blocks of baking and examines their composition and their purpose in baking - whether they strengthen, leaven, weaken, etc. It's a delicate balance ... but one gets the feeling that by deeper review and perhaps some additional information (for instance, what ratio of X to Y would balance out?), you could alter recipes in a more complicated manner than simple 1:1 substitution - and that's invaluable.
For my money, I thought this book was a little better than the first, though some of the metaphors / illustrations are stretched a mite too thin. Maybe it's because baking is more precise and scientific, so Alton's exacting methodology has less tendency to seem like overkill; maybe it's purely personal, because baking is my favored arena. Regardless, I also found the recipes in this book less basic and more generally interesting - this is a book that lends itself to being used as a recipe book.
However, the way the recipes are laid out and printed significantly hampers this. I always photocopy recipes so I can hang them up in my kitchen and not damage the book - well, several of the recipes are 4-5 pages with illustrations and wide spacing. Even if this isn't your habit and you prefer to have the book on hand, that's a lot of flipping, propping, etc to refresh yourself of the steps. I would have preferred the detailed explanation and then a separate page with the compact recipe. (I can't really complain about the flaps with the Mixing Methods rather than repeating it in every recipe, since Brown's intention is for you to memorize them instead of continuously referring back. It's a good idea ... though I pulled the flaps forward for my photocopies anyhow. I'll get there.)
But the rest of the book is entertaining and clever. It starts with the building blocks of baking and examines their composition and their purpose in baking - whether they strengthen, leaven, weaken, etc. It's a delicate balance ... but one gets the feeling that by deeper review and perhaps some additional information (for instance, what ratio of X to Y would balance out?), you could alter recipes in a more complicated manner than simple 1:1 substitution - and that's invaluable.
January 2, 2008
Not as good as the first book. In "I'm Just Here for the Food", AB had a very casual, minimalist attitude towards tools and techniques: keep it cheap but heavy; you don't need a thousand pans to be a good cook; good cooking is really only variations on a very few common themes, so learn to trust your instincts and play around a little, and people will think you're fabulous.
Now, baking is a more fastidious endeavor so you can't be quite as hippie about it, and he seems to have compensated by injecting the leftover handwaveyness into his explanations, flaunting hunches instead of using actual science to combat the conventional wisdom.
He also spends a lot of time talking about specific brands of tools, and has a crappy attitude about it -- where in IJHftF he would've said "Don't bother getting X if you're not going to cook Y every day of your life -- while X is useful, it's probably not worth it," in IJHfMF he says "If you're going to do Y a lot, you really need to get an X. Do it for the children." Maybe it's a subtle difference, but it's one I find unbelievably snooty, as if I can't be a *real* baker without some special kind of stand mixer. Pah!
At the same time, this is still a very different book from most cookbooks, and it still focuses on basic techniques and variations rather than just listing gobs of recipes. And that's why I will probably keep buying AB's books until he tires of writing them. I just liked him better when he was a Revolutionary Telling Us the Secrets! instead of an Authority Figure Telling Us the Answers... maybe he changed editors?
Now, baking is a more fastidious endeavor so you can't be quite as hippie about it, and he seems to have compensated by injecting the leftover handwaveyness into his explanations, flaunting hunches instead of using actual science to combat the conventional wisdom.
He also spends a lot of time talking about specific brands of tools, and has a crappy attitude about it -- where in IJHftF he would've said "Don't bother getting X if you're not going to cook Y every day of your life -- while X is useful, it's probably not worth it," in IJHfMF he says "If you're going to do Y a lot, you really need to get an X. Do it for the children." Maybe it's a subtle difference, but it's one I find unbelievably snooty, as if I can't be a *real* baker without some special kind of stand mixer. Pah!
At the same time, this is still a very different book from most cookbooks, and it still focuses on basic techniques and variations rather than just listing gobs of recipes. And that's why I will probably keep buying AB's books until he tires of writing them. I just liked him better when he was a Revolutionary Telling Us the Secrets! instead of an Authority Figure Telling Us the Answers... maybe he changed editors?
April 23, 2011
I loved this book. It was a bit pricey, but I got it cheap at a store closing. If I had $30+ a pop to blow, I'd get every single one of his books. I have never sat down and read a cookbook as if it were a real book before. But I started yesterday thinking I'd have a glance here and there and learn a few things in between reading my other book.
Instead I stayed up reading until 3 in the morning, went to bed, and woke up to start reading again. Of course I didn't read the recipes too thoroughly as I was not baking at the time, but the science behind how those recipes work and what to do to improve your techniques overall is amazing. I love this book. I wish I had more of his stuff.
Of course, you'll have to like cooking to appreciate this book. You might be interested in the chemistry and science alone, but seeing as it's applied to cooking, it might have to be something you're at least curious about.
And if you like science as well as cooking, and you like gritty little technical details, and you always nitpick every little project of yours to find out why and how and even when, you're going to love love love this book.
Instead I stayed up reading until 3 in the morning, went to bed, and woke up to start reading again. Of course I didn't read the recipes too thoroughly as I was not baking at the time, but the science behind how those recipes work and what to do to improve your techniques overall is amazing. I love this book. I wish I had more of his stuff.
Of course, you'll have to like cooking to appreciate this book. You might be interested in the chemistry and science alone, but seeing as it's applied to cooking, it might have to be something you're at least curious about.
And if you like science as well as cooking, and you like gritty little technical details, and you always nitpick every little project of yours to find out why and how and even when, you're going to love love love this book.
July 26, 2015
Not certain how much useful perspective I can offer to other potential readers.
I freely admit to a strong bias in favour of anything by Alton Brown's as his approach to cooking education, writing and video composition style and for that matter, general world view seem to work very well for me. Brown's organization by baking method is very logical and easy to learn and will give you a solid structure in which to organize your knowledge as you move forward in your baking education/practice.
As with all things food, the usefulness of this and any other book will depend on how well (and quickly) you apply it to your own baking (or cooking). For me, the immediate value has been in helping connect the dots between what I've already learned along the way, and creating the necessary mental "buckets" to organize and retain whatever I pick up moving forward.
All in all, I highly recommend this book. In fact, "I'm Just Here for More Food", along with Alton Brown's first book "I'm Just Here for the Food" and Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" are the three books I would currently recommend to anyone starting cooking, or looking to solidify their basic cooking skills.
I freely admit to a strong bias in favour of anything by Alton Brown's as his approach to cooking education, writing and video composition style and for that matter, general world view seem to work very well for me. Brown's organization by baking method is very logical and easy to learn and will give you a solid structure in which to organize your knowledge as you move forward in your baking education/practice.
As with all things food, the usefulness of this and any other book will depend on how well (and quickly) you apply it to your own baking (or cooking). For me, the immediate value has been in helping connect the dots between what I've already learned along the way, and creating the necessary mental "buckets" to organize and retain whatever I pick up moving forward.
All in all, I highly recommend this book. In fact, "I'm Just Here for More Food", along with Alton Brown's first book "I'm Just Here for the Food" and Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" are the three books I would currently recommend to anyone starting cooking, or looking to solidify their basic cooking skills.
April 7, 2008
Sherpa the Baker, who'd think that? Anyways, If you're looking for a cookbook, this is NOT the book for you. However, if you are looking for a book that begins with a 60 or so page explanation of the science behind baking, you're in luck. The entire book which includes a good number of recipes looks to instruct the reader in how to consistently make excellent baked goods of all kinds; yeast breads, muffins, cookies, etc, by taking a unique approach to the categorization of these items, the mixing method. Alton Brown believes that if you master his five basic mixing methods you can create any type of baked good with a combination of these techniques. It really is a great book if you actually want to LEARN and not just follow directions. Think of it as a class in a nutshell. You start out with the basics, move on to the techniques, and lastly to the applications. Excellent Book, highly recommended.
December 28, 2008
Read my review of A.B.'s original cookbook, since I don't want to repeat myself about his style or philosophy on teaching folks how to cook.
Baking is largely defined by the "method," the process by which the ingredients are mixed prior to baking. Things like the Muffin Method (wet ingredients mixed, dry ingredients mixed separately, then combined) or the Biscuit Method (cold fat cut into flour) are taught before they are applied to specific recipes. It even has these page flaps that allow you to fold over the "method" instructions for specific recipes ... though if you're paying attention you don't need to worry about that.
And the recipes themselves are just plain ol' nummy. I'm a fan!
Baking is largely defined by the "method," the process by which the ingredients are mixed prior to baking. Things like the Muffin Method (wet ingredients mixed, dry ingredients mixed separately, then combined) or the Biscuit Method (cold fat cut into flour) are taught before they are applied to specific recipes. It even has these page flaps that allow you to fold over the "method" instructions for specific recipes ... though if you're paying attention you don't need to worry about that.
And the recipes themselves are just plain ol' nummy. I'm a fan!
June 11, 2009
Tons of factual baking education going on here, which is great! Serve me up a plate, I'm hungerin'! And clear, with humor that fits in nicely. But: I only tried four recipes, but they weren't home-runs, and there were tricky bits to them that you think Mr.Technique would have given you the heads-up about (Frustrating doughs, laughing so I will not cry). There's a bunch of scientific details in here that don't seem so need-to-know, and thus I dozed off some times. Also, I have heard from several sources (Internet hearsay, which I believe completely) that Alton Brown bears an unhealthy hostility towards fat Americans-- therefore, I can't entirely let down my guard and enjoy the man or his book.
June 29, 2009
Reads more like a science text book than your standard cookbook. I'm hoping the tips learned here will help me with my baking technique.
The only thing that I didn't like about Mr. Brown's style is that it isn't geared towards quick or fool-proof baking at all. This is book is for those who want to master a difficult (but tasty) craft. I'm some where in between those who want to do it quick and do it perfectly, so I might to follow all of Mr. Brown's instructions, but I'm definitely learning from his process.
I loved the book structure and the way the techniques and methods were described. The illustrations are good, but photographs would be helpful too. I don't there there's a single photo in the book.
The only thing that I didn't like about Mr. Brown's style is that it isn't geared towards quick or fool-proof baking at all. This is book is for those who want to master a difficult (but tasty) craft. I'm some where in between those who want to do it quick and do it perfectly, so I might to follow all of Mr. Brown's instructions, but I'm definitely learning from his process.
I loved the book structure and the way the techniques and methods were described. The illustrations are good, but photographs would be helpful too. I don't there there's a single photo in the book.
May 19, 2022
I love Alton Brown, and I love baking - no idea why I had never read this. When I got it for my grandson who is trying to bake semi-professionally, I glanced through it and immediately ordered another for myself.
This is not a cookbook as we know it. This is the science of baking, written in a conversational tone, with real Alton Brown asides, just as though he were standing next to you in the kitchen. As he says, if you are looking for a book of recipes, this isn't it (although he does include the basics). But if you want to learn how to bake, and why attention to detail is so important, you couldn't do better than to start here.
This is not a cookbook as we know it. This is the science of baking, written in a conversational tone, with real Alton Brown asides, just as though he were standing next to you in the kitchen. As he says, if you are looking for a book of recipes, this isn't it (although he does include the basics). But if you want to learn how to bake, and why attention to detail is so important, you couldn't do better than to start here.
April 9, 2010
A really great book if you're a baker and have a scientific mind. Me, not so much. I know baking is a science and I definitely consider myself a baker, but the book was a little much for me. I didn't get out of it what I was hoping to in terms of grasping how one ingredient reacts to another, or this causes that, etc.
The book has lots of diagrams and when something is explained there is a visual to go along with the explanation when possible. One thing I really liked about the book was that the ingredient list gives you the amounts in weight and volume.
The book has lots of diagrams and when something is explained there is a visual to go along with the explanation when possible. One thing I really liked about the book was that the ingredient list gives you the amounts in weight and volume.
September 3, 2013
I picked this book up after finishing the first book. Admittedly, I'm not much of a baker, but much like the first book, this was a huge help in explaining the "how" and "why" of baking, using science to help explain how and why certain things are done and used in baking. One of my favorite things about the book was that it has a unique approach which outlines the different methods used in baking, and bases the recipes on one of the methods. Much like the first book, this book is a great read and quick reference to keep on hand in the kitchen.
May 28, 2008
The ol' Macguyver attitude of baking with a shoestring, a paperclip and a .22 caliber cartridge disappears in this book. Here you need some equipment, and some expensive pieces if you want to follow the way Brown does it in this one. Still the theory is good. My solution to the equipment problem is to just use my bread machine, or for other things, buy a package mix at the store. Looks like I still won't be baking from scratch for a while.
December 20, 2009
Just like "I'm Just Here for the Food," this book teaches WHY you do things as you do in baking. First of all, it bakes by mass, not volume which allows for more repeatable results and is simply faster. There is no careful measurement with a scale. Pour until it is enough. Move on.
It helps that the recipes are often excellent too. The banana bread particularly never fails and Chocolate Muffins #7 are amazing with surprisingly little fat given the resulting taste and texture.
It helps that the recipes are often excellent too. The banana bread particularly never fails and Chocolate Muffins #7 are amazing with surprisingly little fat given the resulting taste and texture.
July 26, 2016
An excellent collection of recipes backed by science, from everyone's favorite food TV host (who is refreshingly not a (famous) chef from some (famous) restaurant).
With this book at hand baking is demystified, and I, at least, have gained the confidence to modify baking recipes. Impressive, given the lectures most baking books/recipes give regarding the accuracy required for perfection.
Fun fact: accuracy is for robots, science will set you(r baked goods) free.
With this book at hand baking is demystified, and I, at least, have gained the confidence to modify baking recipes. Impressive, given the lectures most baking books/recipes give regarding the accuracy required for perfection.
Fun fact: accuracy is for robots, science will set you(r baked goods) free.
October 9, 2007
VERY DETAILED. Alton is a hardcore baking geek, which I can get behind. I haven't made anything from the book yet, but I've read the first half (which is all a breakdown of baking chemistry- no recipes). This first half is like a baking bible. A bible to my Carb Gods. I bow to their great power, complexity, and fortitude.
October 19, 2007
This is not so much a cook book as it is a book about cooking. The book is set up with chapters explaining the science and foundation of cooking (searing, roasting, braising, etc.)followed by several recipes which use the method.
Brown's writing style is humorous and though the subject matter can get a bit scientific it never gets boring.
Brown's writing style is humorous and though the subject matter can get a bit scientific it never gets boring.
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