#252: Welcome to the Osmocosm
Harold McGee\u2019s 1984 book On Food and Cooking\u2014revised extensively in 2004\u2014changed modern cuisine, inspiring the molecular gastronomy of Ferran Adri\xe0 as well as the weeknight creations of humble home cooks everywhere. McGee\u2019s latest book, Nose Dive, is a companion encyclopedia to On Food and Cooking, and it focuses on the most overlooked of our senses: smell. When we bring a fresh oyster or a glass of wine to our lips, what makes us detect minerality or grassiness? When did the molecules that we smell first appear? What happens to these volatile molecules when we transform our food, whether through cooking, fermentation, or some other process? Listen to McGee explain this universe of smells\u2014which he dubs \u201cthe osmocosm\u201d\u2014and you\u2019ll never breathe in the aroma of fresh-baked cookies the same way again.
Go beyond the episode:
- Harold McGee\u2019s Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World\u2019s Smells
- If your copy of On Food and Cooking is also illegible from use\u2014fear not! Copies abound, but be sure to grab the 2004 revision
- McGee blogs at the Curious Cook
- Get a whiff of 19th-century olfactory history in our interview with historian Melanie Kiechle
- Imagine the future of food in our changing climate with novelist Alexandra Kleeman and chef Jen Monroe
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