Ingredients & Techniques

Ingredients & Techniques is the range's other main way of organising cookbooks. Where geography starts with where food is cooked, this section starts with what is cooked and how.

What these books have in common is that they explore a particular process in depth rather than offering a broad collection of recipes. It is about what actually happens in the pan, from the Maillard reaction that creates browning and flavour to emulsions that hold or split, temperature control, seasoning at the right stage and fermentation as a chemical process. Once you understand the principle, you do not need the recipe next time.

The section is divided into seven subcategories. Meat & Charcuterie covers butchery, ageing, sausage making and charcuterie. Fish & Seafood covers butchery, dry ageing and using the whole fish. Vegetables & Vegetarian treats vegetables as the main ingredient rather than a side dish. Pasta & Pizza covers doughs, fermentation and pasta shapes. Grilling & Fire deals with direct and indirect heat, smoking and slow cooking. Fermentation & Preserving covers sourdough, miso style pastes, pickling, salting and drying. Cheese covers both cheese knowledge and cheesemaking.

The books here work just as well in a restaurant kitchen as they do at home.