Last night, I made beer-batter fish tacos for some friends, and — even with a lecture to guests prior to the actual cooking about deep frying and kitchen safety that bordered on the fascist only because having a huge vat of 375-degree oil in the company of guests tends to, as has been said of  the prospect of hanging, concentrate one’s thoughts — they turned out great. And somewhere in the back of my head, I knew that the beer-battered cod bits would not be greasy, not if I had the oil at 375 degrees: In true deep frying, some long-ago-read piece of wisdom reminded me, the heat of the oil is so intense it vaporizes the water in the food, and the steam, driving out of the food, keeps the oil from penetrating the batter …

I think I read that years ago in How to Read a French Fry by Russ Parsons, which was a gateway to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen, insofar as awkwardly dancing to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in grade 8 is a gateway to making full, passionate love on a warm shore as the sun rises.  Not that I’ve done either, but you get the point. On Food and Cooking — or, ‘The McGee,’ as cooking nerds know it — is the best book you can read as even an amateur cook and baker, because you will not only learn thing you didn’t know, but you will change your whole philosophy and understanding of food. I was making a friend a birthday chocolate cream pie by their request; a brief perusal of The McGee said I should make sure to heat the filling over 167 degrees, as that temperature kills Amylaze, the present-in-eggs enzyme that turns starch to water and makes undercooked cream pies runny and less than fridge-stable. Was that a handy tip?  Sure. But not as mind-blowing as contemplating a living thing inside what I had cooked and would eat.

Baking and cooking are both, in their way, chemistry for hungry people — with cooking involving more physics (‘This level of heat will melt the collagen in the roast into lush, sumptuous fat ….’ which is why Pot Roast, done right, is so damn good) and with baking involving more pure chemistry (as leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda or yeast react with liquids to create a matrix of structure within flour/egg/butter/sugar mediums of differing composition).

If you’re reading this, you like to cook — or, at the very least, like to eat — but if you want to own one book that’ll change both of those, get On Food and Cooking (Wait until you’ve read it a few times before you call it ‘The McGee’). You don’t have to read every word — its extensive molecular diagrams are the best insomnia cure in the world — but the words you read will change how you cook and how you think about it, and for the better.

Speaking of baking, here’s the much-loved Blondie recipe I always use, taken from American Classics: From the Editors of Cook’s Illustrated, and modified in three areas by me, which I’ll note between asterisks. Bear in mind, if you get good at these, it can be trouble — as they’re a melted butter bar cookie (and hence no waiting for butter to soften to cream), I can go from “I feel like making Blondies” to having them in the oven in, at this point, 18 minutes. (Yes, I timed it.) these are butterscotchy and vanilla-y and can be bade gluten free (about which more some day) — they’re kinda good.

1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour, *and I always add 3tbsp Flaxseed meal*

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter melted and cooled.

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract *which I increase to 3, which I prefer; chacun a son gout*

*1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 1/3 cup white chocolate chips, 1/3 cup Butterscotch or peanut-butter chips* (Original recipe calls for 1/2-and-1/2 white and semisweet chocolate but .. come on. I stand by my choice.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the middle position. Line a 9 x 13 Pyrex baking dish with a two-part foil sling (See the incredibly ugly advice at http://www.baking911.com/howto/pan_linewithfoil.htm) and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk flour, flaxseed, baking powder and salt; set aside.

Whisk molten butter and sugar until combined; add eggsand vanilla, mix well. Fold dry ingredients into wet with rubber spatula until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chips and nuts; place batter in prepared pan, smoothing top with rubber spatula.

Bake until top is shiny, cracked and firm to the touch, 22-25 mins. Place on rack to cool completely; cut to serve.