This book contains more than 1,600 A to Z entries from acid to wine. While demystifying the complexities of cooking, it describes the confounding phenomena of everyday eating such as why artichokes make certain foods taste sweeter and what causes some people to think cilantro tastes like soap. Topics on cooking ingredients discuss the basic molecular make-up of meats, poultry, game, fish, and other foodstuffs, as well as how these foods react to heat. The authors include chemistry principles that reveal the physical and chemical transformations that take place during cooking, explaining things like aeration, caramelization, and gelatinization.