Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan

  • Pork shoulder barbecue with vinegar-BBQ sauce

    from Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation Cooked by Michael Pollan

    • Categories: Grills & BBQ; Main course; Cooking for a crowd; American South
    • Ingredients: pork shoulder; hickory chips; apple cider vinegar; brown sugar; dried red pepper flakes
    • Accompaniments: Asian dipping sauce
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Reviews about this book

  • Ms. Marmite Lover

    Written in an accessible way, this book has good pacing, reading like a food adventure story. Pollan never talks down to the reader and seems excited by what he is discovering.

    Full review

  • Fuss Free Flavours

    If you want recipes then this is not the book for you. There are four in the back of the book, but really this is a well written and easily readable meander around the meaning of food and cooking.

    Full review
  • ISBN 10 1410456536
  • ISBN 13 9781410456533
  • Published Apr 19 2013
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 480
  • Language English
  • Edition large type edition
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Thorndike Press
  • Imprint Thorndike Press

Publishers Text

Fire, water, air, earth—our most trusted food expert recounts the story of his culinary education

In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook.

Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse–trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius “fermentos” (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships: with plants and animals, the soil, farmers, our history and culture, and, of course, the people our cooking nourishes and delights. Cooking, above all, connects us.

The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume huge quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.

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