The New York Times bestselling winner of the 2016 James Beard Award for General Cooking and the IACP Cookbook of the Year Award.

A grand tour of the science of cooking explored through popular American dishes, illustrated in full color.

Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that’s perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac ‘n’ cheese that may be as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (overlook about brining!)―and use a foolproof method that works every time?

As Serious Eats’s culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji López-Alt has pondered these types of questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji specializes in the science at the back of beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that frequently, conventional methods don’t work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results the usage of new―but simple―techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you’re going to find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to grow to be one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and a lot more.

Over 1000 color photographs