[.ca] The Elements Of Taste (ISBN 0316608742)

the science of cooking:
i have been frustrated when trying to learn more about, i have to say it, the elements of taste. what makes a dish taste good? what ingredients compliment each other, which do not? i am a novice cook but i have reached the point where i want to be able to understand why i am cooking something the way the recipe calls. or why i am using certain ingredients. i am shocked at the lack of books out there about this topic. if you want to learn to appreciate and develop your taste buds, this is a prefect starting point. the book discusses the many elements of taste. it then delves into recipes specific to those aspects of taste. and then, the best part, it sums up what you should look for when eating the dish (salty taste at first, giving way to sweetness from the aroma of caramelized onions, the texture, etc. etc., then the finish). this book explains taste, allows you to create a dish, then explains what the dish does to your mouth. i am very satisfied with the book and believe this is an excellent launching pad for me to learn to create my own dishes. i would also recommend "culinary artistry". it is more textbook-like, however, it has a HUGE appendix telling you what foods compliment one another.

The best ... bucks you will ever spend!:
Not only is it full of WONDERFUL recipes, it is also full of a lot of taste commentary and other information that will help you to design your own wonderful recipes. If you like to cook, or like to eat, this is the book for you!!!! This is an especially great book for meat-eaters, who have over 70 amazing recipes to choose from. It's not so great for vegetarians (25 recipes), pretty poor for vegans (9 or 10 recipes), and downright bad for "no-honey" vegans (5 recipes). Still, the book is about more than just recipes: it is about taste, and the factors of taste. Please note that the recipe count above does NOT include items in the chef's larder: a section filled with 43 recipes for things used to make other things, such as ginger confit, bourbon mustard brine, floral herbal aioli, tomato fennel broth, almond milk broth, bulby citrus butter topping, orange spice mix, cranberry glaze, and crispy rice flake breading. All in all, an excellent book. One of the things I dig about it most is that it considers TEXTURE as a part of taste, and this is apparent in the recipes. The very first recipe in the book, PAN ROASTED SALMON WITH AROMATIC SALTED HERBS, had me convinced. The thing that really says something about this particular recipe is that both my father and I like it. My father adores salmon; I can't stand the stuff, but I like this. Seriously: try the recipe even if you don't like salmon, and especially if you do; it's easier than it looks and tastier than it sounds. Either way, I believe you will be pleasantly suprised. Each recipe includes a section on taste, called "taste notes". These help you to hone in on the different tastes in the mix, and why they taste the way they do together.

Just another collection of recipes.:
I was excited to first see this book, because there is so little in the way of serious yet readable analysis of taste and flavor experiences. Unfortunately, this turned out - against my expectations - to be long on recipes and short on analysis. Mostly, it's a book of recipes with an interesting organizational twist. Kunz's classification of taste is just that, a classification, and little more. I don't feel that he has unearthed any new principles or theories that help chefs create new dishes, because it offers only superficial "rules" about what flavor combinations do or do not work. Beyond being a clever filing system, it offers little more than a language for discussing food, and not a very good one at that. If you want a book of interesting recipes, this is a reasonable source. However, my kitchen is full of such books, and I don't find recipes very useful. If you want new food ideas, check out Charlie Trotter's series, which is more imaginative, has fabulous photographs, and is filled with detailed and evocative writing that is probably more valuable than what you'll find here.

Interesting, but flawed:
The concept is interesting, but I have to say that the recipes could have used a bit more testing and/or proofreading. Almost everyone I've tried has been delicious (5 good to 1 bad), almost all have needed some tweaking in quantities. The strawberry soup with champagne ice is fantastic, but makes more than twice as much ice as is needed. The Italian Sausage with Lager Sauce and Apple Bouillon is delicious, but the Lager Sauce has the same consistency as the Bouillon (next time I'll be drastically reducing the amount of lager in the sauce). One recipe description talks about how the flavor of the almonds interact with the other ingredients but there are no almonds in the recipe! None of these problems are insurmountable, and I love the complexity of flavor that he layers into the dishes, but a little more testing would have removed a fair amount of frustration. But it was really worth the price just for that strawberry soup...

Cooking reduced to tastes - delicious:
Magnificent book about cooking. Instead of fancy recipes nobody can cook, it discusses the different flavours we can distinguish. Similar to component tasting in wine, Kunz and Kaminsky introduce a system to classify food in a mouthwatering fashion.