As I’ve hinted upon occasion, our favorite TV show at the moment is
Good Eats, which airs on the Food Network. It’s not so much that
we’re foodies (we’re not) as that Alton Brown is both funny and
informative. He doesn’t just show you how to cook something; he also goes
into the chemistry and physics of it. And he goes about it in a suitably
whimsical way. Anyway, in Alton Brown’s cookbook he references McGee’s
On Food and Cooking as one of his major sources–indeed, as
a source that often goes a good bit beyond what he needs to know.

Well, Jane was looking for a present for me this past Christmas; she was
ordering me some books through Amazon and wanted to get me just one more.
I’m not sure just what prompted her to add this one to the list, but I
don’t regret it. I’ve been reading it in small dribs and drabs ever
since, and finally finished it up this morning.

It’s fascinating stuff. He covers the characteristics of the major foods
(the different kinds of fruits, vegetables, grain, meat, nuts, and so
forth); the different methods of cooking, and how they work; how the body
digests food; it’s fairly comprehensive and very detailed.

For example, were you aware that fatty acids have a chemical structure
very similar to that of octane and other hydrocarbon fuels? Octane
is a chain of eight carbon atoms; each carbon atom has two hydrogen atoms
attached to it on either side. The carbon atoms at the end have an extra
hydrogen each. Octane reacts nicely with oxygen to give you carbon
dioxide, water, and heat; it’s a lot of energy stored in a compact space. Fatty
acids typically consist of longer chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms,
very similar to octane’s longer cousins, with a carboxyl group at one
end. And just like octane, fatty acids react nicely with oxygen.

The single neatest thing I learned from the book, though, is the secret
of modern beekeeping: five-sixteenths of an inch, the so-called “bee space”.
In the old days, it wasn’t possible to remove honey from a beehive
without destroying the hive. A beekeeper harvested honey at the end of the
season by destroying all but a few of his hives. In modern beehives, the
honeycomb is built on to removeable racks which slide out the top of the
hive. There’s a wire mesh below the racks that prevents the queen bee
from getting up into that part of the hive; consequently, only honey is
store there.

And the bee space? That’s the required distance between the edge of the
racks and the wall of the hive. If the gap is any smaller, the worker
bees will seal it with wax; if it’s any larger, they’ll fill it with
honey comb. But if it’s just five-sixteenths of an inch, they leave it open
and use it as a highway.

Apparently the fellow who discovered this (a pastor and school principal
turned beekeeper named Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth–and didn’t his
parents have a fine time rolling out that name when they were angry at
him)–I say, the fellow who discovered this patented his discovery, but
it didn’t do him much good; infringement was too easy once the secret of
the bee space was generally known.

So, if you like to cook and what to know just what’s going on in your
oven or stewpot, or you’re just generally curious about how things work,
On Food and Cooking is well worth your time.