Jeff Potter's Blog

Salt curing has been used for centuries to preserve fish caught at sea. It’s also easy to do at home! Surrounding fish with a sufficient quantity of salt draws out the moisture; this is called dry brining. But salt doesn’t just dry out the food (along with any bacteria and parasites). At sufficient concentration, dry … Continue reading Lab: Salmon Gravlax

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

Ahh, salt: responsible for the salvation of many a food (or is that salivation?). The oldest chemical in use, salt was used in prehistoric times and there are records of its use for drycuring hams in the third century BC by the Roman Cato the Elder. The use of sugar as a preservative wasn’t far … Continue reading Traditional Preservatives: Salt & Sugar

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

This makes enough dough for one medium-sized pizza with the crust rolled thin. You’ll probably want to multiply these quantities by the number of people you’re cooking for. Weigh into a large bowl or container: 1 1/3 cups (185g) flour 1 teaspoon (6g) salt 1 tablespoon (9g) instant yeast Using a spoon, mix together so … Continue reading Pizza Dough—No-Knead Method

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

A serious examination of pizza is clearly a must-have for a book called Cooking for Geeks. Pizza covers so many variables: flavor combinations, Maillard reactions, gluten, fermentation, moisture levels, and temperature. We’ve covered most of these elsewhere in the book, but we haven’t yet talked about temperature, which is key to a good crust. Great thick-crust … Continue reading How to Cook a High-Heat Pizza

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

What if you don’t have a digital thermometer and need to check an oven? It’s common practice to calibrate thermometers with ice water and boiling water because those have temperatures based on the physical properties of water. Water isn’t the only chemical in the kitchen with known temperature dependent properties, though: you can also calibrate … Continue reading The Sweet Way To Calibrate Your Oven

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

One piece of equipment that you’re probably stuck with is your oven. What makes an oven “good” is its ability to accurately measure and regulate heat. Since so much of cooking is about controlling the rate of chemical reactions using heat, an oven that keeps a steady temperature and isn’t too cold or too hot … Continue reading The Two Things You Should Do to Your Oven RIGHT NOW

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

In a bowl, soak for several hours or overnight: 2 cups (400g) dry white beans, such as cannellini beans. After soaking them, drain the beans, place them in a pot, and fill it with water (try adding a few bay leaves or a sprig of rosemary). Bring the water to a boil and simmer the … Continue reading Winter White Bean and Garlic Soup

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My friend Dawn hates the taste of eggs. As a little kid, she ate eggs that had been cooked in burnt butter. Her brain linked the revolting acrid taste of the burnt butter with the taste of eggs, and to this day that link is stuck in the basal parts of her brain to the … Continue reading Taste Aversions

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

Flavor is a Jedi trick of the mind, a combination of the gustatory sense of taste and the olfactory sense of smell that your brain fuses into a new sensation. To give you an idea of just how clever your brain is about flavor, consider this: your brain detects odors differently based on whether you … Continue reading What is Flavor – A lesson in Orthonasal Olfaction

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

Interest in eating gluten free has seen a major uptick in the past few years, but how much does the science back up the claims? First, some numbers. I spoke with Darren Seifer at the NPD Group earlier this summer. During our conversation he shared some numbers with me from their annual research of consumer behavior around food … Continue reading Gluten Free Diets: Fad or Science?

For more, see Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.