I do have a “rationalist cooking” (heh) post in the works, as it happens, so I’ll take your comment as encouragement to finish it up and post it. (By the way, how does cross-posting work? Do I just manually copy/paste content from my blog, or is there some more fancy way?)
In the meantime, I can hardly do better than to recommend Christopher Kimball’s two books: the Cook’s Bible and the Dessert Bible. Kimball is already as close to a “rationalist cook” as you’re likely to find, and these two cookbooks are written with a very empiricist, question-all-assumptions, attitude; Kimball conducts taste tests, tries recipes in many ways, and consults with food scientists to figure out why things happen a certain way. The actual recipes then also (in addition to being very clearly written) come with “What Can Go Wrong” sections—notes about specific failure modes, and how to mitigate them. For anyone who likes to cook or wants to learn, I think these two cookbooks can advance your grasp, not only of cooking, but of rationality as well.
I do have a “rationalist cooking” (heh) post in the works, as it happens, so I’ll take your comment as encouragement to finish it up and post it. (By the way, how does cross-posting work? Do I just manually copy/paste content from my blog, or is there some more fancy way?)
In the meantime, I can hardly do better than to recommend Christopher Kimball’s two books: the Cook’s Bible and the Dessert Bible. Kimball is already as close to a “rationalist cook” as you’re likely to find, and these two cookbooks are written with a very empiricist, question-all-assumptions, attitude; Kimball conducts taste tests, tries recipes in many ways, and consults with food scientists to figure out why things happen a certain way. The actual recipes then also (in addition to being very clearly written) come with “What Can Go Wrong” sections—notes about specific failure modes, and how to mitigate them. For anyone who likes to cook or wants to learn, I think these two cookbooks can advance your grasp, not only of cooking, but of rationality as well.
Ace. It’s copy-only. If there’s issues, do ping me in the intercom.