Modernist Cuisine: The Art & Science of Cooking Hardcover – September 21, 2021

We just received this set. My wife has wanted it for years and I finally broke down and got it for her for Christmas. We haven't had time to do more than a cursory reading, but it is gorgeous.It is also HUGE! Make sure your shelf can hold it. It is almost fifty pounds and 10.31 x 14.5 x 17.5 inches. It's the size of two good-sized truck batteries and half the weight.There is a lot of information in these and I guess you need somewhere to put it.

It’s expensive, sure. However if you’re interested in food history, ingredients and just “playing” in the kitchen, it’s totally worth it.You’re not likely to make everything in these books, but the breadth of knowledge, techniques, and ideas presented in these volumes can provide a lifetime of exploring in the home kitchen for enthusiasts of trying new things.

It’s expensive, but the real cost is the time it takes to read the books, plural. That’s right. It’s not one book; it’s five huge books. It took me three months of reading 1 to 2 hours every day to go through the almost 2000 pages in the first four volumes. There are about another 300 pages of recipes in volume 5.It’s not worth it if you are just looking for a cookbook. Calling Modernist Cuisine a cookbook is as wrong as calling Cruyff a footballer. They don’t just redefine the role; they redefine the game.Whether you will enjoy these books comes down to why you cook. Think of every meal as a project over which you can have total artistic, technical, and operational control. And the wife approves. Now, how often can a middle age man say that?To be in control, you need to know what you are doing. Here is a small subset of the science I learned from the book about how cows become steaks (I have a longer review on medium. Search for "book review: modernist cuisine" there):It all starts on the ranch. The animals’ diet affects the quality of the meat. Feeding an animal a high-calorie diet accelerates the typically slow replacement of mature, stiff collagen with new, weak collagen. Making such a change to the animal’s diet just before slaughter thus produces more tender meat. That’s why so many cooks swear by corn-fed beef.Even if you have a perfect specimen, a lot can still go wrong with the slaughtering. Dead muscle goes through a complicated biochemical process to become meat. After death, no oxygen is delivered to the muscle tissue because there is no blood flow. The cells burn through their energy reserve like anaerobic exercise burns energy. In turn, the pH of the muscle tissue drops, the same way you feel sore after intense exercise. If the cows are left in cold rain right before slaughter, the animals use up their energy reserve in the muscle. After slaughtering, not enough lactic acid is produced to drop the pH value. This causes too much water to be retained, and the meat appears darker. It’s a quality defect known as Dark Firm Dry (DFD).On the other hand, if the animal experiences acute stress before slaughter, a different kind of defect ensues. The surge of adrenaline accelerates the consumption of energy reserve in the muscle. The pH value drops rapidly before the temperature of the muscle has the opportunity to drop. The low pH and high temperature combination causes the muscle protein to denature and exude water. This is known as Pale soft exudative (PSE).Quality beef can be easily ruined if not stored and cooked correctly. To freeze it properly, you need to understand the science of water. To cook a steak right, you should know the science of heat transfer. It’s all in the books. Can you cook a nice meal without taking science classes? Yes, with a few rules and a lot of practice. But why would you trade knowledge and enlightenment for repetitive, menial labor?One last thing: Modernist Cuisine at Home is not a good low-cost alternative. More than half of the single volume is recipes, so it necessarily has to cut a lot of the scientific content. The recipes are still hard to make at home. Two much better alternatives are Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, and Science and Cooking: Physics meets food, from home made to haute cuisine, based on the popular Harvard lectures.

Very large books, easy to read with many pictures. Clearly a premium product. Came packaged very well, triple boxed, no problems. I waited a while to make this purchase but I am very glad I did.

Covering just about every topic in modern cooking, in heinous detail, with exquisite photography, spread across 5 volumes and an additional spiral-bound cookbook - Modernist Cuisine is just amazing. The entire set just reeks of quality, from the physical production of the substantial books to the actual knowledge & content that received a James Beard award. You will herniate yourself trying to lift these 50lbs of books into your bookshelf, but it's worth it. Buy a sous vide kit while you're at it and don't look back.

Product arrived very well packed - double boxed, bubble wrap, silica packets galore ( I counted at least 5), the whole nine yards. Books were totally unharmed and I'm enjoying them immensely. The collection is identical to the Modernist Cuisine in the acrylic housing - 5 books plus a spiral bound sixth volume, but instead of acrylic, these are cocooned in stainless steel (which looks amazing, even if the edges are kinda sharp). I can't tell what binding it is, but I think it's the same as the previous set - still glue; that said, all the pages are intact, no highlighting, no separation from the spine. So I've got no complaints, a great successor to the acrylic box set

This was a gift for someone else, but I leafed through the pages... What stunning photos! I'm sure the information is appreciated by those with an intense passion for exploring what can be done in the kitchen.

I felt compelled to leave a review of this masterpiece because I saw a few less- than- stellar ones here.I have been cooking professionally for 13 years. I bought this early on when it came out- first edition- with my tax return from washing dishes and cooking.This book changed my life, changed my cooking, and my perspective on food. I still use the lab manual ALL the time at work. It is indispensable for any professional- recipes, data tables, in- depth explanations, photos, and technques are included that I’ve NEVER seen anywhere else. Ten+ years later and this thing is still basically cutting edge- it has aged really well.When new cooks ask me about what books to check out this is One of the first ones that comes to mind. If course no one ever gets it because of the price…. What a mistake.