Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

I've got to save up some money to buy Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myrhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet (the folks behind The Cooking Lab). This six-volume, 2,438-page set teaches readers the science and technology behind cooking and features thousands of original images. Click here to take a look at the Table of Contents.

At $625.00 ($461.62 on Amazon.com), it would be by far the most expensive book set I own. But the images look so beautiful:

And the tips sounds so useful:

 A sam­pling of what you’ll discover:

• Why plung­ing food in ice water doesn’t stop the cook­ing process;

• When boil­ing cooks faster than steaming;

• Why rais­ing the grill doesn’t lower the heat;

• How low-cost pots and pans can per­form bet­ter than expen­sive ones;

• Why bak­ing is mostly a dry­ing process;

• Why deep-fried food tastes best and browns bet­ter when the oil is older;

• How mod­ern cook­ing tech­niques can achieve ideal results with­out the per­fect tim­ing or good luck that tra­di­tional meth­ods demand.

Many invalu­able fea­tures include:

• Insights into the sur­pris­ing sci­ence behind tra­di­tional food prepa­ra­tion meth­ods such as grilling, smok­ing, and stir-frying;

• The most com­pre­hen­sive guide yet pub­lished on cook­ing sous vide, includ­ing the best options for water baths, pack­ag­ing mate­ri­als, and seal­ing equip­ment; cook­ing strate­gies; and trou­bleshoot­ing tips;

• More than 250 pages on meat and seafood and 144 pages on fruits, veg­eta­bles, and grains, includ­ing dozens of para­met­ric recipes and step-by-step techniques;

• Extensive chap­ters explain­ing how to achieve amaz­ing results by using mod­ern thick­en­ers, gels, emul­sions, and foams, includ­ing exam­ple recipes and many formulas;

• Some 300 pages of new recipes for plated dishes suit­able for ser­vice at top-tier restau­rants, plus recipes adapted from mas­ter chefs includ­ing Grant Achatz, Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal, David Chang, Wylie Dufresne, David Kinch, and many others.

From the pro­fes­sional chef to the home cook, Modernist Cuisine is an indis­pens­able guide for any­one who is pas­sion­ate about the art and sci­ence of cooking.

Until then, I'll have to make do with How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science by Russ Parsons and the Modernist Cuisine website.