The Science of Spice: Understand Flavour Connections and Revolutionize your Cooking
£16.40£20.90 (-22%)
It’s time to spice up your home cooking and transform your dishes from bland and boring to punchy and flavoursome with this definitive guide to spices!
Taking the periodic table of spices as a starting point, this adventurous recipe book explores the science behind the art of making incredible spice blends to help you release the flavour in your dishes. Discover a spice book like no other from TV personality, food scientist and bestselling author, Dr Stuart Farrimond.
Spice profiles – organised by their dominant flavour compound – showcase the world’s top spices, with recipe ideas, information on how to buy, use, and store, and more in-depth science to help you release the flavours and make your own spice connections. There is also a selection of recipes using innovative spice blends, based on the new spice science, designed to brighten your palate and inspire your own culinary adventures.
Sure to get your taste-buds tingling, you can explore:
– An explanation of what spices are and how they’re produced.
– Which countries favour which spices and a bit of the history behind it.
– Dozens of spice blends you can make and what you can use it for.
– 52 exciting recipes from around the world which showcase each spice blend.
– A reference guide to look up each spice to understand how to use it.
– Colour-coded charts to help you learn the chemical compounds that make up the flavours.
– Instructions on how to design your own spice blends with photographic references without.
Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe – it’s knowing how to use the right combination of spices and herbs to get the greatest possible flavour from your dishes. From learning how the flavour compounds within spices work together to exploring the world’s top spices, this is the perfect cookbook for curious cooks and adventurous foodies. Whether you’re a fan of spice seeking to experiment with new flavour combinations, or simply a beginner-level home-cook looking to advance your knowledge on all things spice-related, this is a must-have volume also doubling up as a great coffee table book for the whole family to love.
Explore the world’s best spices, be inspired to make your own new spice blends, and take your cooking to new heights. You’ll turn to this beautiful and unique book time and again – to explore and innovate.
At DK, we believe in the power of discovery.
So why stop there? This series from DK is designed to help you perfect your cooking with practical instruction – and the science behind it. There are more cookbooks to discover from The Science of… series giving you the essentials to cook up a storm! Find the answers to your everyday cooking questions and get more out of your recipes with The Science of Cooking, paired together they make the ideal cookery gifts for your food-loving friends too!
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | DK (4 Oct. 2018) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 224 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 9780241302149 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0241302149 |
| Dimensions | 22.1 x 2.3 x 26.2 cm |
by Kindle reader
This is a very beautiful book. Not many recipes but they are good.
It makes a great gift for any foodie
by An Amazon Customer
Love this book, it’s so well presented and full of useful information.
It’s not one to read, but definitely belongs in anyones collection who enjoys cooking with spices. Lots of tips, tricks and ideas.
by Floral Haze
Well-researched and informative book.
I love spices,and experimenting with different combinations during cooking,so this was an absolute Godsend.
by Vashisht
“Andaaz” (loosely translated, “feel”, pronounced un-thaaz) is the way my Mum taught me how much spice to add when cooking Indian dishes. How much turmeric, Ma? “A little bit”. What about chilli powder? “Yes, add chilli powder” – How much, Ma?! “Add a bit”.
Somehow, they turned out mighty delicious (and no, it wasn’t just me who thought so).
When I saw the “Science of Spice” I immediately thought, ah this looks like a good one! I can perhaps finally get a glimpse of “quantified andaaz”. Sadly, this isn’t what I found.
The book’s beautiful in its design, texture, and overall look and feel. The substance of the book is what I’m struggling to define as anything other than largely below average.
Spice combinations aren’t quite authentic. My fiance’s Japanese and when asked whether the Japanese mix was authentic, she responded in the most quintessentially Japanese way – “Well, I understand that he might use these ingredients, but we never use them in Japan”. A polite way of saying “Nope – no, that is definitely NOT Japanese!”
We both know a thing or two about Asian food and really struggle to see how many of those suggested mixtures are anywhere near ‘authentic’. What stood out in particular were a good few recipes with (surely) excessive amounts of white pepper being suggested. Those did NOT taste good.
Ultimately, I found using “andaaz” to determine the *proportions* of spices considerably improved the taste profiles. I’m still optimistic about the intricate explanations of the spices themselves.
I’d view/take the book with a pinch of salt in terms of authenticity, but a nice way to explore the varieties of spice combinations used in different parts of the world.
by Joseph Guindi
Bear in mind that this is the same book as “Spice” from the same author, so don’t bother buying both.
I have been looking for a book like this for years, so I am happy someone finally put this together. It not only covers a wide array of spices, but also the chemistry of them and how to knowingly combine them. I especially liked the historical, cultural and geographical discussion of each spice. As an extra bonus, regional recipes for each spice is included.
On the negative side:
– it really should include herbs as well as spices (though some herbs are included). And dill seeds are included, but dill weed is even more popular
– the heavy focus on India but total exclusion of Eastern Europe on p71 is unforgiveable
– there are many factual inaccuracies (slaves didn’t build the Egyptian pyramids, just one example). I didn’t feel like cataloging them all, but everytime I run into one it just makes me wonder how much of the rest is also inaccurate
– I like the periodic table of spices, but it needs a page number to the spice profile. Actually, I would like such a table as a poster for my kitchen, and if it included additional information (country / region of origin, ideal combinations, etc)
Overall I really like this book and it’s a welcome innovative addition to the culinary sciences, and I would welcome a second edition.
by G Howgate
The book I was eger to get, to learn what the spices do, but disappointed the package was left by the gate and got wet with the rain, luckily the book didn’t get damaged, but would have been peeved if it had?
by Mr D J Arnold
Great for explaining the science behind the spices. Well presented and easy to follow.
by Kitty
Such an awesome book! Fab graphics and fun to read. Also has spice blend recipesbive hot seen before. Win win