Given the 20th Century’s propensity to turn everything into a science, it is nothing short of a wonder that Harold McGee’s definitive book on food science, “On Food And Cooking”, came along so late. The first edition of his book, which is now THE go-to reference book for anything involving food was first published in 1984. The most recent edition was the 20th anniversary edition in 2004, but, in fact, McGee never stops doing his research. The New York Times Dining section today has a nice profile of Harold McGee, who, despite his universally-recognized authority, is not himself a well-known figure (in fact, I think this article has the ONLY photograph I have ever seen of McGee).
Because he made a conscious decision not to simply accept the accumulated wisdom of thousands of years of cookery and to analyze every step of the cooking process, not only did he clear up many misconceptions about how cooking works (most notably the cherished rubric that searing meat “seals in the juices”), but he also develops improved methods: the article takes advantage of Thanksgiving season to quote him as saying that brining a turkey (a fad of the last 10 years or so) does not produce anything except wet turkey, and that air-drying the bird (in the fridge, of course) then using a high roasting temperature (as recommended by Barbara Kafka) produces juicier meat flavored by the turkey’s own natural juices. The article then goes on to explain his improved method for making pastry crust, which involves rolling the flour and butter together, not cutting in the butter, and then spraying in the water with a misting squirt bottle.
I’m not roasting a whole turkey this week, but I probably will try out his pie crust. I tried reading his book when I was at cooking school and found it too dry to just read straight through, but it’s an indispensable resource that every serious cook should have and use.
Well, amen to that brined turkey business.
It was the “garlic mashed poatoes” of the new milleniuum.