I'm Just Here for the Food

MattE writes: "Alton Brown, for those who aren't familiar, has a cooking show on the Food Network called Good Eats. His new book isn't so much a cookbook, in the current sense of a book that contains a heck of a lot of recipes. (It does, in fact, contain recipes, but it really isn't what the book is about.) See the Perl cookbook, for a translation of this idea to programming. It is a book about cooking that covers science and technique first; Recipes are only example code. He says he is a 'culinary cartographer.'" This sounds like a fun book -- for the rest of Matt's review, read on below.

I'm Just Here for the Food
author	Alton Brown
pages	287 pages
publisher	Stewart, Tabori & Chang
rating	9/10
reviewer	Matt Eberle
ISBN	1-58479-083-0
summary	This is a book about cooking, by a geek, for geeks. If you code and you cook, this is the book.

Rather than giving precise directions about how many rights and how many lefts, Alton aims to give you the lay of the land. "Cooking is not defined by seasonings ... it is defined by the application of heat." That is why the first six chapters are devoted to a single heating method each: searing, grilling, roasting, frying, boiling, and braising. This first book doesn't cover baking, or other manufactured food. Another book, in a similar vein, by a chemist, Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking , actually begins with baking.

As partial proof of the author's geekiness, I present an excerpt from the introduction to the grilling chapter:

I am typing on a Macintosh G4 Titanium Powerbook, which is roving through my MP3 collection like a digital whirling dervish. When I need to speak to someone, which isn't very often since the G4 is wirelessly connected to the Web through a device in the house, I do so on a Nokia cell phone capable of trading files with my Palm V, which I really should replace since it's so 1999.

He's got his own web site, complete with blog. Throughout the book, he describes approaches to cooking that have everything to do with good food and geekiness, and nothing to do with the manufacturer's instructions. Back to the grill, he's removed one of the plates on the side of his grill and fitted it with a piece of tailpipe. Then, when he's grilling, he sticks a hair dryer in the tailpipe and uses it to whip the coals into an inferno. Which might explain why he gets his oven mitts from the hardware store in the form of welding gloves. When talking about ovens, he describes how he builds an oven out of firebricks, and how he uses a large terra cotta pot to cook a chicken in his oven. It's all in the name of even heat distribution. He's also not above rewiring his electric skillet to provide a greater range of temperatures. You know you've read something good when the author includes a mini-disclaimer to the effect of "if you try this at home kids, I and the publisher are not responsible."

Alton encourages improvisation, suggesting you hold a refrigerator roulette party: everybody brings three ingredients and then everybody has to make something of it. Now there's a team building exercise for the daring. Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with -- you either eat it when somebody else has already prepared it, or you compile (I mean prepare) it yourself, but follow the directions exactly. This just ruins the whole point of making the source (or the recipe) available. Tinker with it, make it better, make it awful, hey, it's just food.

From Alton's Rules I Cook By: If the food is an existing hunk or hunks of something to be cooked, you can generally mess with seasonings, herbs, spices, and so on to your heart's content. The book is filled throughout with examples of Alton's own improvisations -- like the recipe he used to win a cheap chili competition he and some friends dreamed up while sitting around on somebody's porch. In this case, the ingredients were tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and salt he had in his pantry, some cheap beef stew meat and some lamb stew meat from the supermarket, and the cheapest beer available from the local taqueria and the chips and salsa that came with it. Total cost: $7.74

The end of the book includes appendices with a Critter Map, which shows where different cuts of meat come from, and The Basic Culinary Toolbox, where he describes necessary tools, from heat resistant spatulas and all kinds of thermometers to what makes a good knife. Also included are a very brief selection of suppliers for various dry goods and a selection on cleanliness that has some tips on recognizing a good meat and produce department. The one weakness of the book may be its index. Again, since this isn't really a cookbook per se, it might not matter so much that all the chicken recipes in the book are not listed in the index under Chicken, or that his great recipe for microwave popcorn is listed under M, but not P. As for the popcorn recipe itself, here's a hint: popcorn, paper bag, and 2 staples.

If you are reading this I highly recommend I'm Just Here For the Food as well as the show Good Eats. This is the book on cooking I've been waiting for someone to write ever since I started cooking. It gives you the tools and the principles so that you can cook what you want and experiment with flavors and ingredients you like.

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Appetite whetted? You can purchase I'm Just Here for the Food from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

I love this book

Alton is my guru. He has completely transformed my cooking from "hunt and peck" approaches to an understanding of the processes. Now when I try something new, I'm not just guessing at whether it will work or not.

Oh, and go buy a digital temperature probe. You'll need one.

Also, as hinted by the author, go watch his show. I especially like the one when he shows you how to make a smoker out of a cardboard box.

Kitchen should be a geeks 2nd home

If only because of all the toys available.

Check the warehouse stores for this title

I saw it at Costco (yclept Price Club) the other day. Stores like these (e.g., BJ's, Sam's Club) often have books at a discount of 30% or more. (No shipping charge either.-)

The book looked like a hoot.

Alton Brown Rocks

Good Eats is one of the few TV shows that I regularly make time to watch. It's amusing, offbeat, and educational. My favorite bit was in the Oatmeal episode, when Alton took 3 minutes to get into pictish drag and describe making haggis with a scottish accent.

It's worth noting that Cookwise as referenced above is by Shirley Corriher, a food chemist who also is a semi-frequent guest on Good Eats. Alton & Shirley are definitely birds of a feather. And yes, we bought this book the minute it came out, and my wife and I both buzzed through it (she a bit more thorougly than I).

Recipie

Found this somewhere a few years ago. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Materials:

1. 532.35 cm3 gluten
2. 4.9 cm3 NaHCO3
3. 4.9 cm3 refined halite
4. 236.6 cm3 partially hydrogenated tallow triglyceride
5. 177.45 cm3 crystalline C12H22O11
6. 177.45 cm3 unrefined C12H22O11
7. 4.9 cm3 methyl ether of protocatechuic aldehyde
8. 2.0 CaCO3 encapsulated avian albumen-coated protein
9. 473.2 cm3 theobroma cacoa
10. 236.6 cm3 de-encapsulated juglans regia fruits (sieve size 10)

Procedure:

To a 2-L jacketed round reactor vessel (reactor #1) with an overall heat transfer coefficient of about 100 Btu/F-ft2-hr, add ingredients (1), (2), and (3) with consistent agitation. In a second 2-L reactor vessel (reactor #2) with a radial flow impeller operating at 100 rpm, add ingredients (4), (5), (6), and (7), processing until the mixture is homogeneous. Add to ingredients in reactor #2, ingredient (8) and three volumetrically equal portions of the homogeneous mixture in reactor #1, processing after each addition until the mixture is again homogeneous.

Upon completion of the previous step, add ingredients (9) and (10), slowly with constant agitation at an impeller rate of 50 rpm. Care must be taken at this point in the reaction to control any temperature rise that may be the result of an exothermic reaction.

Using a screw extrude attached to a #4 nodulizer, place 10.0 cm3 nodules of the mixture in ordered ranks on a 316SS sheet (30.0 cm X 60.0 cm). Heat in a 460K oven for a period of time that is in agreement with Frank & Johnson's first order rate expression (see JACOS, 21, 55), or until golden brown.

Once the reaction is complete, place the sheet on a 297K heat-transfer table, allowing the product to come to thermal equilibrium with ambient atmospheric temperature.

Alton Brown on FoodTV

I was suprised to see this review on /. but i must commend it. As a frequent foodtv watcher, i have to say that this guy is great. In every episode he goes after the science behind a particular food. He covers the chemistry of certain processes and explains often times how to circumvent problems.

He recently did a show about strawberries that was superb. He showed an ingenious technique for freezing the strawberries using dry ice (for the CO2) so that they don't get mushy. He also ended the show with a brilliant analogy of antioxidants and free radicals using the strawberry dessert he had just made.

Although often times quite eccentric, his show is always alurring to watch. Even if you aren't a fan of cooking shows this one might be of interest. On sunday around 9pm on foodtv (check your local listings) he has a full hour long show scheduled on cooking on a deserted island...or is that desserted? His culinary ingenuity is truly impressive.

I just got this book last week

I too am a HUGE fan of his TV show. He has that irreverent attitude and common sense approach. Lot's o' humor and tidbits.

The book is a good read and if you watch the show it is exactly what you expected.

I find that in places he gets a little too odd -- just like when chatting with your other geek friends and one of them goes into a tyrade about how *HE* rewrote something to make it work how *HE* thought it should. You either think their a genius or just a little furher down the geek trail than you want to go.

For instance he does his simmering in the oven because it gets better heat distribution and the oven is better at holding the 195 degree temperature. Makes sense, sure, but also just a little past normal.

On the other hand most of his recipes are DAMN tasty and there are just enough of them to make this book interesting.

But what I truly like about this book and what the reviewer does not explain well enough is the book's point. He does not want to give you the source and teach you how to type ./configure && make. No, he wants to give each of us a little hacking course. In fact this book is really "Design Patterns in Cooking".

Alton's web site

www.altonbrown.com [altonbrown.com] is pretty good. Read the rant's and raves section for funny stories from his book tour.

That's what you think....

Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with

Dear Mr. Brown:

Our law firm represents Emiril Lagasse [emerils.com] and his associated restaurants. It has come to our attention that several of the recipes you employ in your book "I'm Just Here for the Food" may infringe on the recipes copyrighted by our client and his enterprise.

These recipes, while not explicitly identical to Mr. Lagasse's, are similar enough to clearly be derivative works. It is our assertion that your recipes are in violation of our client's copyrights as well as his trademark on "hot and spicy Louisiana cookin'".

We require that you pull your book from publication immediately, and submit a deposition regarding the origins of your recipes. We intend to file suit immediately for damages resulting from loss of profits due to your theft of our clients' recipes to the sum of not less than $2,000,000 (two million dollars) plus fifty percent of all profits from your book.

Sincerely,
The Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe

Cc: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, Legal Department

Another source

You can also buy the book from the Food Network website. When I got my copy, they were running a limited time special on autographed copies if you bought three or more items.. so mine has Alton's scribblegram on the inside frontspiece. This month it's a free apron with three items, and they're also featuring a complete collection of Good Eats on DVD.

I often wonder why I don't weigh 600 pounds sometimes.

http://www.foodtv.com/marketplace/index/

Wow, a /. book review...

...that actually makes me want to READ the book. I'll openly admit to not having heard of this guy before, but I like the approach. A lot. There are many people who say they can't cook, and yet, when you talk to them, they haven't really tried to learn - all they've ever done is follow recipies.

To point out the obvious, the parallel to programming is right on - too many people ctrl-c'ing code snippets, not enough understanding of what's actually happening when that code executes. Does that make Front Page the TV dinner of Web design?

Curry Anyone ?

Ingredients - Chicken pieces 1kg or 2.2 lbs
Oil 3tbs,
Chopped onion one and a half cup,
Chopped ginger 2 tbs
Chopped garlic half tbs
Split green chillies 4
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Chilly powder half or one tsp
Coriander powder 2tbs
Cumin seed 1tsp, pepper half tsp, cloves 5, cardamom 2, cinnamon sticks 3. Powder these together. Instead one and a half tsp of garam massala powder can also be used.
Curry leaves a few
Coconut milk 2 cups.

Clean the chicken pieces. Mix it with 1 tbs of salt and 2 tsp of lime juice (or half cup of curd) and keep aside for half an hour. Make a paste of the coriander chilly and turmeric powder. Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel. Add chopped onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies and brown it.
Add the masala paste and fry for a minute. Add the chicken pieces together with the juice that comes out of it. Stir it for about five minutes. If the coconut milk is taken from fresh grated coconut add about 2 cups of the second milk to the curry. Otherwise add about 2 cups of hot water. Cover and cook for about half an hour till the chicken pieces are cooked.
If you like potatoes in the currry, about one and a half cups of potato pieces can be added to the curry half way through. Add the coconut milk and the garam masala powder and curry leaves. If you want more gravy or the gravy is not thick enough dissolve a tsp of corn flour in milk or water and add to the curry and just boil again stirring well and just bring the curry to boil.

Mods : Well... You gotta eat!

P.S : Try this. Its one of the best curried chicken out there. Thank me later. Yes, I got karma to burn. I just thought this recipe would do everyone good.

Re:Paper, Staples and Microwave?

I have the book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the science of cooking. As for the great staple controversy, here is a paraphrase of what is said: as long as youre using a microwave oven with a turntable and dont place the bag where the staples can rub up agains the wall, no fires or sparking will happen. This is because the staples have very little mass and are shorter than a microwave wavelength, rendering them 'invisible'. P.S. Use two staples only, placed 2 - 3 inches apart.

I met Alton during his book tour!

Shameless (but on topic) plug time:

I met Alton while he was doing a book promo tour for IJHFTF. I did a full write up on it at my website. Read the play-by-play here... [amcgltd.com].

An excerpt:
Alton seems to be at the same point of celebrity that Penn & Teller claim to be... famous enough to be recognized and draw crowds in certain situations, but not so "rock star" as to take it all seriously. I get the feeling that if he hadn't had an invite to the Washington Press Club that night, a bunch of the people at the bookstore could've offered to take him to dinner and he would've accepted immediately.

Re:/.ers can cook?!?

Those of us who have tricked^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hwooed somebody into marrying us are probably sensible enough to let them handle things

I am am a better cook than my wife. We both know this. Yes, I appreciate it when she makes me dinner, but usually she leaves the cooking to me. By the way, I found a site long ago here [slashdot.org] that really helps me out in the kitchen.

Don't fall into the lies, guys. Cooking can be as masculine as anything. Did I mention they make titanium cookware? Mmmmm.... titanium...

Cooking and Operating Systems

Don't fall into the lies, guys. Cooking can be as masculine as anything. Did I mention they make titanium cookware? Mmmmm.... titanium...

I'm always a bit surprised when people consider cooking to be un-geeky. I think of the choice "to cook or not to cook" to have some parallels to what kind of operating system you run on your computer. Hear me out. We all gotta eat and we all gotta use a computer. A great many of us either run Windows exclusively or have a Windows partition on our machine. Why? Because it's useful sometimes. Windows is crap and we all know it but the convienence is hard to ignore. Much like fast food. Fast food may be tasty but no one is going to argue that it is well-constructed cuisine. Windows is the fast food of operating systems. It's not good but it's ubiquitous and does the job.

Some people oppose eating at fast food restaurants on principle just like some people absolutely refuse to use Windows. However, there's no denying that going to a restaurant or heating up some frozen food in the microwave is a step above fast food. Similarly, some people like their Macs. You're still somewhat at the mercy of what's been created for you, but at least it's not fast-food/Windows.

But for the real power-user who wants to fully understand what's "under the hood" and be free to tinker it to their heart's content, there's nothing like Linux/unix. Infinitely configurable, the performance of the finished product relies quite a bit on your ability and knowledge of what you're doing. Cooking is for the "power eater" who is not content to trust someone else and is willing to get their hands dirty in order to make sure the finished product is just how they like it.

So don't think of cooking as "women's work." Think of it as the culinary equivalent of Linux/unix. The finished product is in your hands. If you're capable, you can create something just how you like it and your friends will be amazed. If you don't know what you're doing, then perhaps you'd better stick with Billy Gates' McOperatingSystem. It sucks but at least you won't die of food poisoning.

GMD

AB on tour, and a Good Eats fan link

Back in June, Mr. Brown (AB to his friends and fans) went on tour to promote his book. I caught his last stop here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (It's the hometown of Borders, don'cha know...)

Basically, the guy is just as witty and cool in person as he is on the show. He was obviously a little burnt out from the tour, and there were rumors his marriage was on the rocks, but in every other way he was just... himself. Most celebrities, when you meet them in person, are paler and scabbier and much more socially inept than they ever appear on screen. Not AB. Watching him during the Q&A session was just like watching him on his show -- so much so that I actually got a slight sense of dissociation.

He's going back out on tour again soon. Here are the dates [altonbrown.com]. If you can, go see him. It's definitely worth it.

The best Good Eats site is not at the Food Network's main site. They just warehouse AB's recipes. The best Good Eats site is the Good Eats Fan Page [goodeatsfanpage.com]. News, transcripts, FAQs, family tree (no, really ;-) and a complete index of the recipes. Enjoy.

what i love about his shows...

he dosent show you one way to do things. he does it several ways, with a scientific description of each. I love the little "muppets" that pop up to explain things.

best example is his episode on baking cookies, i think he did like 4-5 variations explaining all of the variables in the CCCokie combination. From the sugar / brown sugar ratio to the cook time / heat ratio, to the butter used. its the most memorable to me.

if you havent seen his show, you missing out, its not just a slurry of concepts and vocab, theres a fair mix of humor as well. also good is Food 911, where the guy goes to peoples houses and prepares meals with whats on hand. ive learned several recipies from that show. best of all he tells you what to use if you dont have a specific ingredient on hand, good theory + simple ingredients = good show.

From his blog:

I've received several books, a few very good cigars, custom art, a home-made Alton Brown doll and a set of tea towels that have "Good Eats" woven into them...in Klingon.

Ok, fess up. Who was it?

To Serve Camels

oh my god it's...it's...it's a COOKBOOK

Fan page

At the risk of slashdotting yet another site, check out http://goodeatsfanpage.com/

It has transcripts for the shows, and recipes for each show that link back to foodtv.com. I don't think the latest season is up yet, but lots of great stuff there.

Good Eats show times

Good Eats airs Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. and 12 a.m., Saturdays at 9:30 a.m., 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. All times ET.

See what the show's will cover at this website [foodtv.com]

Good Book, Good Show, Good Eats!

After watching his show for over a year now, I had to have his book as well.

GREAT BOOK. This is NOT a cookbook - it's a book on kitchen science directed specifically to HOW TO HEAT FOOD PROPERLY.

As a lot of you geeks probably already know... cooking is about science. Physics and chemstry are paramount to making a good meal (unless your cooking out of a box).

Before the advent of FOOD TV, and experts like Alton Brown, I tended to eat out most. If I ate in at all, I'd just slap some chops on a skillet and eat them with some store bought sauce. Thanks to FOOD TV and his show, I've now become quite a good chef and greatly enjoy making myself and friends gourmet meals.

Browns show is intense... super funny, and chock full of unbelievably useful information. He is never satisfied to *just do something*, no, he has to explain each and every WHY to it. And while he's doing that, he's throwing out tons of other useful suggestions that you would never have thought of.

The book goes IN DEPTH into exactly how heat works and cooks... and the various types of heating and when they are appropriate and why. He covers in depth exactly how heat reacts with the food. He explains exactly what the difference is between Radiation, Convection and Conduction (with excellant and funny examples) and then relates them to the various types of cooking (e.g., oven roasting is radiation, while boiling or steaming is conduction etc).

Each page has side panels that blow apart current cooking and food myths, such as salt being bad for you, etc...

Unlike most books that INSTRUCT you... his book and show not only instructs you, but tells you the why, the history, the mistakes and most importantly... the science!

A book every geek should own and read - and then stop going to McDonalds, buy a BowFlex and drop those pounds and build that body!

Good Eats, Good Man, So-so books

Alton Brown, Food Network's answer to "I wonder what would happen if we created a genetic crossbreed of Mr. Wizard, Joel Hodgson and Julia Childs," is one of the funniest and most educating men I've ever had the pleasure to learn cooking from.

However, I find his books to be fairly frenetic in their design, though well written and paced. They're all over the place with Quark textboxes and asides and footnotes, like his MTV-cut cooking show, with tiny margins that remind me of the Principia Discordia more than a book about the science of food. The information presented (especially on the chemistry of foods) is invaluable, but I feel that the brokenness of it strains out a lot of the flavour of the information. Call me a perfectionist, but I prefer my recipes in perfectly structured orders with explanations of what constitutes a perfect rise or the consistancy of an ideal soufflee.

For this reason, I prefer Alton's professor and nemesis of food artisans everywhere, Shirley Corriher. Her book "Cookwise: the hows and whys of successful cooking" has lead to more delicious meals, more perfect loaves, and more satisfied coos from a well fed wife then any book I've ever dealt with, Joy of Cooking included. It's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for aspiring chefs...elegantly written and full of more hints for cooking and living than the large print and simple illustrations would suggest.

However, though I felt a bit let down from Alton's literary style, I still make a point to be at home by 9 every Wednesday for Alton's program. It's entertaining, interesting, and the wife totally thinks he's sexy -- an opinion from whose association I can occasionally gleam a modest amount of appreciation. I even purchased glasses like his.

Go to the source....

If you watch Good Eats closely, you'll notice Alton reading a particular well-worn, dog eared book from time to time (usually while waiting for something to bake or rise) The book is:

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Cooking, Harold McGee, ISBN: 0684843285

Which is a sort of encyclopedia of food and science. He also wrote:

The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore, ISBN: 0020098014

Which is more 'science project' based. "How much oil can one yolk emulsify into mayonayse?" It turns out to be an absurdly large amount.

If you have an analytical mind and care about being a better cook, Alton makes it entertaining and McGee delves in to the science.

Evil Amazon has Cookwise & Just Here as a pack

Hi,

Amazon has a combined package on sale for $43.75, and free p&p if you push it over $50 with something else.

Cookwise link - Double at bottom [amazon.com]

Just Here For the Food - Double at Bottom [amazon.com]

Re:Science?

Because Alton Brown is a food scientist.

He's also amazingly hot. I don't think that has anything to do with science, but damn.

damn

Re:This is a great book

This review was posted, word for word, to Amazon on May 13th, 2002, by one Eugene Mah. Pretty nasty work, plagarizing the work of others just to grub karma. Slashdot folks, why do you keep modding this jerk up?

Re:This is a great book

• This review was posted, word for word, to Amazon on May 13th, 2002, by one Eugene Mah. Pretty nasty work, plagarizing the work of others just to grub karma. Slashdot folks, why do you keep modding this jerk up?

I can confirm that.

Eugene Mah's reviews are on amazon.com here [amazon.com]. The review that dknj [slashdot.org] plagarized [slashdot.org] is currently the third one down on that page.