THE RECIPES YOU’LL FIND IN THIS BOOK ARE QUITE DIFFER­ENT from those you see in most cook books. The point of Modernist Cuisine is that we’re look ing at cook ing from new angles, with a dis tinct inter est in sub jects not com monly cov ered in culi nary books. So it stands to rea son that our recipes look some what dif fer ent from those in other cook books. The goal here is to break down recipes in such a way that you bet ter under­stand not just the what (ingredients) and the how (methods), but also the why. To accomplish this, we needed a new for mat for pre sent ing recipes.

Think of this as a textbook, with recipes used in the way that other text­books might use exam ple prob lems or case stud ies. The com pact, modular form in which we present our recipes makes them a broader resource for instruction and inspiration. They’re meant to help you both under stand the prac ti cal appli ca tions of culi nary prin ci ples and visualize how you might apply those principles in other contexts.

In these four volumes, you’ll find a huge variety of recipes and foods. Although we are telling the story of Modernist cuisine, our recipes are not lim ited to cutting-edge dishes. Instead, we cover every thing from American regional bar be cue to innovative fla vored gels. The point is not to tout mod­ern approaches or sci ence for its own sake but to illus trate how the principles of Modernist cooking can, and should, be applied across a wide range of recipes.