Review of What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science by Robert A Wolke

I read this book as an ebook over the course of hmm lets say a week, over a few sittings.

This is the second part of the "What Einstein Told His Cook" series by the author, and I absolutely loved it. It's filled with random tidbits of information as well as more foundational knowledge on kitchen science and the art of cooking. Most important of all (for me), the author works hard to scientifically verify (or disprove) common kitchen myths.

For example -- I've probably written about this -- I've added alcohol while cooking in the past to 'dissolve flavor compounds and bring em out' in the past. Wolke claims that it's nonsense, that alcohol in the concentrations used in cooking does nothing. He then tests his opinion rigorously, and most importantly of all, ask the foundational question: why do you want to dissolve the flavor out of your food into the 'sauce', why? I had never thought of it that way. If vodka did dissolve the flavor from the food, I'm not getting anything by bringing it out of the meat (or veggie) into the sauce anyway. It doesn't matter when eating because they both go to the same place. Either way, adding alcohol adds complex flavors and additional compounds but dissolving, the liquid does not.

I'm a much, much smarter, and informed cook thanks to Wolke's detailed experiments and points of advice. The many many recipes sprinkled throughout the book would be a useful resource to somebody interested in taking up cooking according to the author, but I skipped past most of them because I wasn't looking for recipes. Though even a disinterested reader might want to peruse the recipes since some of them have helpful tidbits included.

What a great find, I'm glad I got myself the second part of the series too. A strong "BUY and GIFT" recommendation from my side to anybody looking for food or cooking-related reads.

9+/10 stars!