Many "science of cooking" books mostly focus on chemistry. When it comes to cooking, there are many more interesting scientific disciplines in addition to chemistry: thermodynamics, material science, rheology, fluid mechanics, electromagnetism, and microbiology, to name a few. In this section, we explore several fundamental cooking challenges, drawing on knowledge from a range of scientific fields, wherever the problem takes us. Don't worry. You will not see a few chapters of dense scientific theory like in a textbook. The relevant science is introduced in the context of the problem. It's as if you discover the science while working on the problem.
Speaking of problems, Richard Feynman has a foolproof 3-step program to solve them, no matter how difficult:
- Define the problem.
- Think very hard.
- Solve it.
In cooking, the first step is often where most falter: they fail to define exactly what they mean by good before debating various cooking techniques. We are doing hard science here. That means for each problem, we will begin with an objective definition of "good," conduct controlled experiments, employ quantitative or mathematical models, and generate testable predictions.
But let's get one thing out of the way first: the perception of taste is inherently subjective. However, even within this subjectivity, there are correct and incorrect methods for conducting a taste test.