Harvard has a science for non-scientists course that uses cooking as a vehicle to talk about nature. It started last year and was enormously successful with numerous audits and continues this year. The lectures are often wonderful and can be found on iTunes.
Lots of fun. An excellent starting point is the first lecture of this year by Dave Arnold (an incredible fellow if you don't know of him - he is heavily into the tech of cooking), Harold McGee (a serious science of cooking person), and physicist David Weitz. I was following last year's lectures as they came out and am seriously behind in this year's set, but you learn something even if you know the science.
Some of this is associated with "molecular gastronomy" - yikes what an awful term! Of course everything you cook is made of molecules. A better label that seems to be finding acceptance is "modernist cuisine". There are some fascinating methods sometimes associated with it like sous vide ("under vacuum") - a somewhat misnamed technique that cooks food sealed in bags in low temperature water baths (140° - 170° F are common) to allow for precise results.
Colleen and I have spent quite a bit of time working on how to explain the physics of energy to non-physicists. One of the common areas we kept coming back to was food, cooking and what the human body can do with the energy it gets from metabolism. All of us share the common experience of life that depends on these energy conversions. We have some interesting things to say about how cooking work and will put it out one of these days when some other work is finished.
In the meantime enjoy all of your holiday meals. There is a lot of great science embedded in them.
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In the meantime here is a great brussels sprouts recipe I've been making for a few years - I've been lucky enough to have made it for three of you.
I never liked brussels spouts until I was about thirty. Up until then I had only had the evil whole green leafy spheroids that were steamed to complete limp and awful imperfection. I saw someone slice them thin and sauté them in butter. They were excellent. Since then I've had some that were picked after a hard frost ... really good. I think that makes them sugar, but any of them are probably really good this time of the year.
these are very approximate measures as none were used
1 pound of brussels sprouts
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c water
a good sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2c chopped nuts (I used walnuts and pecans)
1/4 c of a good balsamic vinegar and 1/4 c of a good white balsamic vinegar like Colavita
Here is what I did. I'm not good with measurements so these are guesses
chop and discard the hard ends off the brussels sprouts. chop them lengthwise (I did top to bottom so they would be mostly uniform) they were maybe 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick.
Throw the brussels sprouts into a pan over medium high heat with maybe 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4c water. Add salt and ground pepper. I *really* like Maldon salt when I'm working with a lot of vegetables and as a finishing salt. When it heats up, turn the heat back to about medium, cover and cook about 5 minutes.
In a separate pan brown the chopped nuts in 1/4 c olive oil ... just to the point where they start to brown and smell *wonderful* ... lots of stirring. Set aside
Uncover the pan with the brussels sprouts after 5 minutes, turn up the heat to medium high and heat until the water is gone and the brussels sprouts are tender (a few minutes) -- don't overcook brussels sprouts. There is some rule of the nature that is violated if you do and you wouldn't want the Earth to suffer the consequences!
Now stir the balsamic vinegar and nuts into the brussels sprouts, turn off the heat and serve.
You may want to use more of the vinegars and alter their ratios. I won't tell.
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The cutting board is a raised board to cut down on bending and back pain. You may need one if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen and are over about 5'10". If you are over 6' and have a standard 36" counter you absolutely need something like this. There are details on sizing your own for a homemade version here as well as a link to a company that does a great job on custom boards. You back is delicate and requires care - please take care of it with good ergonomics
I have had those brussels sprouts and they are completely awesome:-)
That is a pretty bad photo Steve...
Posted by: jheri | 11/11/2011 at 06:20 PM
I too have had theses yummy morsels...and then made them myself. delightful! Agree - terrible photo.
Posted by: Jean Russell | 11/21/2011 at 07:33 PM