0
    • Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
    0 0
    Download high-resolution image

    Keys to Good Cooking

    A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes

    Author Harold McGee
    Ebook
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    On sale Oct 28, 2010 | 576 Pages | 9781101444665
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    See Additional Formats
    The answers to many kitchen conundrums in one easy-to-use volume, from the author of the acclaimed culinary bible On Food and Cooking.

    From our foremost expert on the science of cooking, Harold McGee, Keys to Good Cooking is a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety, and appliances, and arrive at the promised land of a satisfying dish.

    A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Keys to Good Cooking directly addresses the cook at work in the kitchen and in need of quick and reliable guidance. Cookbooks past and present frequently contradict one another about the best ways to prepare foods, and many contain erroneous information and advice.

    Keys to Good Cooking distills the modern scientific understanding of cooking and translates it into immediately useful information. Looking at ingredients from the mundane to the exotic, McGee takes you from market to table, teaching, for example, how to spot the most delectable asparagus (choose thick spears); how to best prepare the vegetable (peel, don't snap, the fibrous ends; broiling is one effective cooking method for asparagus and other flat-lying vegetables); and how to present it (coat with butter or oil after cooking to avoid a wrinkled surface). This book will be a requisite countertop resource for all home chefs, as McGee's insights on kitchen safety in particular-reboil refrigerated meat or fish stocks every few days. (They're so perishable that they can spoil even in the refrigerator.); Don't put ice cubes or frozen gel packs on a burn. (Extreme cold can cause additional skin damage)-will save even the most knowledgeable home chefs from culinary disaster.

    A companion volume to recipe books, a touchstone that helps cooks spot flawed recipes and make the best of them, Keys to Good Cooking will be of use to cooks of all kinds: to beginners who want to learn the basics, to weekend cooks who want a quick refresher in the basics, and to accomplished cooks who want to rethink a dish from the bottom up. With Keys to Good Cooking McGee has created an essential guide for food lovers everywhere.
    © Elli Sekine
    HAROLD MCGEE is a world-renowned authority on the chemistry of foods and cooking. He studied science and literature at Caltech and Yale, and has written two prize-winning books, On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook, as well as many articles and reviews. He lives in San Francisco. View titles by Harold McGee
    “Mr. McGee might have called this encyclopedic work "The Kitchen Home Companion," since it offers indispensable information on how to make the most of any recipe—a user's manual that enables home cooks to achieve maximum results… the enjoyment it affords will be found on the table.” — Wall Street Journal

    "If you want to know virtually anything about the "why" of cooking, read Harold McGee. Along the way, he'll teach you the "how." — ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

    “McGee’s writing is broad, yet detailed at the same time, scientific, but comprehensible.”

    — CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

    “A great addition to any cookbook library. It picks up where many cookbooks leave off. The "How's" and "Why's" of a dish's success - or failure - are often a mystery, but McGee sheds light on many of those mysteries to make us more informed in the kitchen and ultimately, better cooks.” — SEATTLE WEEKLY

    “McGee will banish any romantic notions about cooking with his fast-draw expertise… With an eminently pragmatic approach  to cooking and a user-friendly précis of a lifetime’s devotion to the kitchen, this is an invaluable addition to food literature.”

    — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

    About

    The answers to many kitchen conundrums in one easy-to-use volume, from the author of the acclaimed culinary bible On Food and Cooking.

    From our foremost expert on the science of cooking, Harold McGee, Keys to Good Cooking is a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety, and appliances, and arrive at the promised land of a satisfying dish.

    A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Keys to Good Cooking directly addresses the cook at work in the kitchen and in need of quick and reliable guidance. Cookbooks past and present frequently contradict one another about the best ways to prepare foods, and many contain erroneous information and advice.

    Keys to Good Cooking distills the modern scientific understanding of cooking and translates it into immediately useful information. Looking at ingredients from the mundane to the exotic, McGee takes you from market to table, teaching, for example, how to spot the most delectable asparagus (choose thick spears); how to best prepare the vegetable (peel, don't snap, the fibrous ends; broiling is one effective cooking method for asparagus and other flat-lying vegetables); and how to present it (coat with butter or oil after cooking to avoid a wrinkled surface). This book will be a requisite countertop resource for all home chefs, as McGee's insights on kitchen safety in particular-reboil refrigerated meat or fish stocks every few days. (They're so perishable that they can spoil even in the refrigerator.); Don't put ice cubes or frozen gel packs on a burn. (Extreme cold can cause additional skin damage)-will save even the most knowledgeable home chefs from culinary disaster.

    A companion volume to recipe books, a touchstone that helps cooks spot flawed recipes and make the best of them, Keys to Good Cooking will be of use to cooks of all kinds: to beginners who want to learn the basics, to weekend cooks who want a quick refresher in the basics, and to accomplished cooks who want to rethink a dish from the bottom up. With Keys to Good Cooking McGee has created an essential guide for food lovers everywhere.

    Author

    © Elli Sekine
    HAROLD MCGEE is a world-renowned authority on the chemistry of foods and cooking. He studied science and literature at Caltech and Yale, and has written two prize-winning books, On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook, as well as many articles and reviews. He lives in San Francisco. View titles by Harold McGee

    Praise

    “Mr. McGee might have called this encyclopedic work "The Kitchen Home Companion," since it offers indispensable information on how to make the most of any recipe—a user's manual that enables home cooks to achieve maximum results… the enjoyment it affords will be found on the table.” — Wall Street Journal

    "If you want to know virtually anything about the "why" of cooking, read Harold McGee. Along the way, he'll teach you the "how." — ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

    “McGee’s writing is broad, yet detailed at the same time, scientific, but comprehensible.”

    — CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

    “A great addition to any cookbook library. It picks up where many cookbooks leave off. The "How's" and "Why's" of a dish's success - or failure - are often a mystery, but McGee sheds light on many of those mysteries to make us more informed in the kitchen and ultimately, better cooks.” — SEATTLE WEEKLY

    “McGee will banish any romantic notions about cooking with his fast-draw expertise… With an eminently pragmatic approach  to cooking and a user-friendly précis of a lifetime’s devotion to the kitchen, this is an invaluable addition to food literature.”

    — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

    Additional formats

    Other Books by this Author

    • Nose Dive
      Nose Dive
      A Field Guide to the World's Smells
      Harold McGee
      9780143110897
      $23.00 US
      Paperback
      Penguin Books
      Oct 18, 2022
    • Nose Dive
      Nose Dive
      A Field Guide to the World's Smells
      Harold McGee
      9780143110897
      $23.00 US
      Paperback
      Penguin Books
      Oct 18, 2022

    Related Articles

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Book Covers: Cowboys and East Indians 9798217006892 Advocate 9781984862495 THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS 9780593831878 IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI 9781603095747
    General

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

    Each May, we honor the stories, histories, and cultures of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Below is a selection of acclaimed fiction and nonfiction books by AANHPI creators to share with your students this month and throughout the year. Find our full collection of titles for Higher Education here.

    Read more

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

    General
    Subscribe

    Penguin Random House Higher Education

    © 2026 Penguin Random House

    Back to Top
    0
    Wish List (0)