Cooks Illustrated

Here's an interesting site for those foodily-inclined: go check out Cook's Illustrated! I just watched a few of their vodcasts - no-knead bread version 2.0, easy beef and veggie soup, easier butter cookies, an in-depth review of cast iron pans. These vodcasts are free at the iTunes store.

It wasn't just a plain-ol' recipe show - the vodcasts were chock-full of interesting scientific facts about food, for instance, how kneading aligns the protein strands in flour to form a gluten matrix that gives restaurant-style bread its texture. They also manage to pepper their show with helpful tips on knife technique, cookware maintenance, and even cookware reviews!

Their method was scientific and rigorous - their tests had the full complement of controls, standardized equipment, ingredients and even microenvironments. The obsessiveness with detail would certainly do any scientist proud. They analyse every recipe and come up with several different conditions under which the recipe might work, then analyse why some conditions cause failure.

Definitely a site worth checking out for more informed shopping and a rational approach to cooking! After all, if you're going to cook, might as well do it right, and know what you're doing! While most of the articles are open only to subscribers, some articles are free and clearly denoted as such. Shared subscriptions, anyone?

p.s. another book I highly recommend dealing scientifically/rationally with l'art de Cuisine Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking".