Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library: Taste Science With These Cookbooks

Press release from the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library:

June 25, 2021

From cooking, to baking, to the way things taste to you, there is so much science involved with food and your kitchen! To go along with the Edible Science episode of EVPL READ’s Cooking Show, we have prepared a book list for scientists of all ages. Check out these titles at EVPL today!

For Children

• Science You Can Eat by Stefan Gates

Explore the science of food by asking questions you’re hungry to know the answers to, and putting them to the test through fun experiments. Science You Can Eat will transform your kitchen into a lab through fun food experiments. Cooking is chemistry, and the fun science experiments – such as tricking your taste buds, making slime taste delicious, and investigating some of the strangest flavors around will prove it. Each page is guaranteed to leave you hungry for more.

• Now You Know What You Eat by Valorie Fisher

Dive deep into the science of what we eat and where ingredients come from by exploring what happens behind the scenes of favorite, everyday foods like pizza, honey, milk, and more! Now You Know What You Eat also includes a glossary, and a graphic about the food groups, as well as an introduction to vitamins and minerals. With a growing focus on STEM for this early age group, this book encourages readers to ask their own questions about the world around them, and to fall in love with discovering the answers!

• Edible Science: Experiments You Can Eat by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen with Carol Tennant

Grab a beaker, pick up your whisk, and get ready to cook up some solid science. Using food as our tools (or ingredients!) curious kids become saucy scientists that measure, weigh, combine, and craft their way through the kitchen. And the best news is when all the mad science is done, you’re invited to grab a spoon and take a bite — and share your results with friends and family.

• Hack Your Kitchen: Discover A World of Food Fun with Science Buddies by Niki Ahrens

Young scientists will learn all about many different scientific principles and properties using everyday tools and ingredients from their own kitchens! Make a lemon volcano, flour craters, edible paper, and more with these hands-on science projects.

For Adults

• The Science of Cooking by Dr. Stuart Farrimond

Why does chocolate taste so good? Is it OK to reheat cooked rice? How do I cook the perfect steak or make succulent fish every time? Bestseller The Science of Cooking has the answers to your everyday cooking questions, with practical advice and step-by-step techniques, bringing food science out of the lab and into your kitchen.

• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat

Chef and writer Samin Nosrat has taught everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to cook using her revolutionary, yet simple, philosophy. Master the use of just four elements—Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food—and anything you cook will be delicious. By explaining the hows and whys of good cooking, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will teach and inspire a new generation of cooks how to confidently make better decisions in the kitchen and cook delicious meals with any ingredients, anywhere, at any time.

• Kitchenwise: Essential Food Science for Home Cooks by Shirley O. Corriher

Want to cook fluffier scrambled eggs and more flavorful sauces, keep your greens brilliantly green, and make everything taste more delicious? KitchenWise combines down-to-earth advice with scientific expertise to address everyday cooking issues. Whether you are a beginner or a professional chef, Shirley’s guidance will save you time and money, and help you know exactly what to do at the stove.

• Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us by George Zaidan

Cheese puffs. Coffee. Sunscreen. Vapes. George Zaidan reveals what will kill you, what won’t, and why–explained with high-octane hilarity, hysterical hijinks, and other things that don’t begin with the letter H. Ingredients offers the perspective of a chemist on the stuff we eat, drink, inhale, and smear on ourselves.

• Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Cooks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter

Why, exactly, do we cook the way we do? Are you curious about the science behind what happens to food as it cooks? Cooking for Geeks is more than just a cookbook. This expanded new edition provides in-depth answers, and lets you experiment with several labs and more than 100 recipes— from the sweet (a patent-violating chocolate chip cookie) to the savory (pulled pork under pressure).

• A Grain of Salt: The Science and Pseudoscience of What We Eat by Dr. Joe Schwarcz

Of all the dietary and nutritional claims pitched to us, what can we believe? How splendid is Splenda? Water from a tap or from a plastic bottle — which should you choose, and which is better for the environment? Guaranteed to satisfy your hunger for palatable and relevant scientific information, bestselling author Dr. Joe Schwarcz separates fact from fiction in this collection of new and updated articles about what to eat, what not to eat, and how to recognize the scientific basis of food chemistry.

All images and descriptions are from goodreads.com and amazon.com.

This press release was produced by the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.