Freed Roger wrote:I am not disagreeing. I think i heard those science food experts talk about onions and cooking them. NPR. Was interesting.
Food science, for me, is fascinating in general. From working in restaurants I often had a lot of guests ask about tips, tricks, more that once "haha I sure can't get it to taste like this at home, jokingly when they're blown away by something." There are really two reasons most home cooks don't get it the same at home.
The first is salt. Restaurant kitchens use a ton of it. For someone who's never watched a cooking show or been in a high-end pro kitchen, if they saw the amount of salt that goes into things, whether it's a salad or seasoning a piece of fish, they'd probably be floored. I was. I grew up being told salt was fine in moderation but bad for you if you have a lot of it. My mom was way off.
The second is science. Why do burgers dome up when cooked? Because the meat is overworked prior to cooking. Overwork the meat, you untangle proteins that then re-tangle when cooked. Don't overwork the meat, shape it into patties without pounding the crap out of it, it won't dome up. Why doesn't salad dressing break in a restaurant? It's emulsified. Why are the eggs better than mom's? That hipster brunch spot doesn't cook them over high heat. There's science to how all these thing work, and I never cease to be fascinated by it. Oftentimes the answer is that there's no tip or trick or shortcut or one vital step that someone is missing, it's just that the environment they have has certain scientific rules that define what can happen in that environment.
Good BBQ is good science, and the things that make the possibilities both limited in some cases and endless in others are all science. Talk to Aaron Franklin for an hour and he'll talk to you more about wood selection, combustion, airflow, and the science of smoke than he will marinades or injections.