Vol. I · What Cooking Does Plate 9 of 10course map, parts, threads, heat, molecules, safety, technique, flavourHMSTF

The Map of the Course.

Thirty-four volumes in seven parts, and five threads that run through all of them.

The course is built from the bottom up. Part One is the physics every method shares — heat, water, the tools. Part Two is the chemistry of what food is made of. Part Three keeps food safe and keeps it for later. With those in hand, Part Four cooks: method by method, ingredient by ingredient, with a volume on running a household kitchen. Part Five is the bakery; Part Six the culinary arts — the cuisines of China, Japan, India and the world, the professional kitchen, the plate and the menu, modern technique. Part Seven is history and seven projects that are graded on the page.

Five threads tie the plates together, and each plate names the ones it practises: H heat, how energy moves into food; M molecules, what the chemistry does; S safety; T technique, what the hands and tools do; F flavour, taste, texture and presentation.

Below: the seven parts and how they depend on one another. Choose a part to see where it sits.

What you will learn

Find your way around the seven parts.
Know what the five threads mean.
Choose a route through the course for your purpose.

Workshop

The seven parts. An arrow means "uses ideas from".

Three ways through

If you cannot cook yet, read Vol. I, then the knife (Vol. IV), dry and moist heat (Vols. XV and XVI) and the everyday cook (Vol. XXIII), and come back to the science as questions arise. If you cook already and want to know why, start at Part One and read in order; Part Two is where most "why" questions are answered. If you study food science or work in a kitchen, Parts Two, Three and Six are written as that course, with the professional kitchen in Vol. XXXI.

Every volume ends with drills, and the course ends with projects you complete on the page: a steak, a safe chicken breast, a bread formula, a stable sauce, a safe pickle, a dinner served on time and a costed menu.

Each plate has an "At the stove" box when there is something to try in a real kitchen; the workshops can show what happens inside the food, but only cooking teaches the hands.

Terms

Thread: One of the five themes — heat, molecules, safety, technique, flavour — each plate names.
Volume: A group of about ten plates on one subject, ending with drills.
Plate: One lesson: a workshop, prose, an exercise, terms and ten questions.

The course climbs from physics and chemistry to cooking and craft; choose the route that fits what you need.