Cookbook Review: Salt Fat Acid Heat

By Samin Nosrat, Wendy MacNaughton, Michael Pollan

About the Book

This cookbook builds you from the ground up on how to cook in the kitchen. It is a very colorful cookbook with in-depth illustrations. This book shows how to use salt, fat, acid, and heat and how to apply it to your cooking.

Egg whites whipped with sugar

What to Expect

Learn to cook delicious meals with any ingredient, anywhere, at any time – even without a recipe – Samin Nosrat

The cookbook is split into two parts with the first part explaining how to use salt, fat, acid and heat, and part two showing how to use those parts of cooking in recipes. There are 12 chapters including 12 sub chapters of types of dishes to cook. Also look for the index to find recipes you want to keep as well as a notes section at the end. This book shows just about everything you need to know about the why and how in cooking with the four elements of good cooking.

Beautiful Illustrations

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The writing style is approachable and encouraging, making the cookbook feel more accessible even if your not a professional chef

• The diagrams and illustrations help visualize the cooking principles and processes, which makes it more engaging

Cons:

• Though all concepts are strong depth can vary depending on the reader.

• The cookbook teaches concepts more than providing a large number of recipes (reader might find information heavy than a traditional recipe cookbook).

Final Thoughts

This cookbook is great for both beginner and professional chefs who are looking to cook with anything on hand. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of cooking. This book provides a wealth of knowledge while demonstrating it with detailed illustrations.