Masala Lab, Krish Ashok
Masala Lab, Krish Ashok
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Masala Lab
The Science of Indian Cooking

Author: Krish Ashok

Narrator: Ashish Bhandari

Unabridged: 7 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/10/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Ever wondered why your grandmother threw a teabag into the pressure cooker while boiling chickpeas, or why she measured using the knuckle of her index finger? Why does a counter-intuitive pinch of salt make your kheer more intensely flavourful? What is the Maillard reaction and what does it have to do with fenugreek? What does your high-school chemistry knowledge, or what you remember of it, have to do with perfectly browning your onions?
Masala Lab by Krish Ashok is a science nerd's exploration of Indian cooking with the ultimate aim of making the reader a better cook and turning the kitchen into a joyful, creative playground for culinary experimentation. Just like memorizing an equation might have helped you pass an exam but not become a chemist, following a recipe without knowing its rationale can be a sub-optimal way of learning how to cook.

Exhaustively tested and researched, and with a curious and engaging approach to food, Krish Ashok puts together the one book the Indian kitchen definitely needs, proving along the way that your grandmother was right all along.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Anu on July 30, 2021

I bought Masala Lab because its blurb sounded interesting. And because it had excellent reviews. Now, a disclaimer – I’m definitely not the target audience for this book. I’ve been cooking for more years than I care to remember. I grew up in the school of, “When I said one handful, I meant the size......more

Goodreads review by Girish on July 22, 2021

As a kid, I grew up reading funny blogs of Krish Ashok. On twitterverse he started posting food pics and I thought it's a phase. When I read this book - It all clicked! Welcome to cooking food for nerds - if you were scarred by Chemistry, Physics or Thermodynamics in schools stay away! Despite the me......more

Goodreads review by Gorab on September 15, 2023

3.75/5 Take a dip into food engineering, by turning your kitchen into a chemistry lab. Loved: 1. Multiple takeaways (elaborated later) 2. Laugh out loud surprise punches in the narration. 3. Methods, algorithms, variations - beautifully structured. 4. Myth busters. Takeaways: 1. Order in which ingredients......more

Goodreads review by Tushant on February 28, 2021

Fills a gaping hole in the Indian cooking literature. The chapter titled 'Burn the recipe' is absolutely phenomenal especially for a beginner cook like me. The writing is pretty amateurish and makes you cringe with its high school level humor but it's not bad enough to deter you from reading. There......more

Goodreads review by Madhulika on July 07, 2021

How heat works to cook food, how proteins and carbohydrates and fats are affected by heat, acid, sugar, salt, etc. Why you shouldn't store powdered spices for months altogether, and why Coke is absolutely the wrong choice to counteract a massive dose of chillies. And much more. In the first few chap......more