---
product_id: 1206294
title: "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation"
price: "8370 Ft"
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reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.hu/products/1206294-cooked-a-natural-history-of-transformation
store_origin: HU
region: Hungary
---

# Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation

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**Now a docu-series streaming on Netflix, starring Pollan as he explores how cooking transforms food and shapes our world. Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney executive produces the four-part series based on Pollan's book, and each episode will focus on a different natural element: fire, water, air, and earth. ** In Cooked , Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse–trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius “fermentos” (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships. Cooking, above all, connects us. The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.

Review: Overview of the main processes that define cooking and food preparation - In "Cooked" Michael Pollan takes a look at the major processes that go into food preparation which he breaks into four categories - fire, water, air and earth. As with other books by Pollan there is a deep message in the writing and an underlying goal of the author to revitalize the reader's interest in our historic food culture and the approachability of it at the individual level in modern society. The book sets the stage in the introduction asking the question of why to cook. He notes that the amount of time spent in the kitchen by people has declined dramatically in the last 50 years and how the argument of division of labour and time optimization might hold partially true- being totally removed from preparing what we consume to survive is much much more complicated than such simple economic logic. The book sets the stage by discussing the BBQ. It is a perfect opening to reinforce the author's introductory criticims of modern food preparation as the social atmosphere defined by BBQs will always be an obvious reminder of the deeply social aspects of certain kinds of food preparation. The author researches heavily and takes the reader with him through his journey of finding the authentic BBQ. In reading the chapter i have a much larger where to eat next list... But the author combines food journalism of BBQ today with a historical account of the roast in our history and discusses some fairly deep concepts about what makes us human. The author introduces the idea that what makes us human is actually the ability to cook as by cooking we reduce the time and energy spent in digestion and allows for people to have evolved much larger brains that require economy of eating time. Not a central thesis of the book by any means, just an illustration that the philosophy of the author and examples all weave together to bring purpose to the writing. The author then goes into water and boiling food. This is less adventurous and seems slightly more introspective. Cooking food by boiling it is a more recent human invention as its dependent on a vessel to boil the water in after one has discovered fire. It is also a more domestic form of food preparation and as a result has more gender role connotations. The atmosphere of the campfire is different from the atmosphere of the person preparing a stew. Nonetheless the author discusses how all cultures boil food in various forms to both cook and improve flavour and at its core is a fairly common practice. The chemistry of what happens is discussed and the lessons learnt in terms of process. The author details how for himself the slow process of the food preparation filtered through to the family time enjoyed while talking and slowly eating the slow cooked meal. The author then moves into air and discusses baking. Baking is a form of food preparation that was subcontracted out of the kitchen hundreds of years ago (compared to roasting and boiling for example). The author gives himself the project of learning how to bake and starts in his home state of California. It is really interesting and it makes me feel like i am bread deprived. The science of breadmaking is really interesting and the industrial process of making the flour has the effect of reducing the nutritional content. The process of recombining nutrients to the bland white breads in modern supermarkets is discussed and shown to be predominantly a failure in terms of achieving nutritional goals. The author starts with a successful baking of a white flour sourdough and eventually works with original wholeweat cultures. I read this chapter and want to try the bread as well as all the bakeries that went into shaping this chapter... The author finally moves into Earth which is really his description for allowing nature and microbiology to take its course on food. In particular fermentation is detailed in two forms. The first is through pickling and the author tries to make sauerkraut, kimchi, and various other pickled foods. This seems the most straightforward to attempt at home as its a very slow process but the nuances are discussed and as with all forms of food preparation the author discusses there is an art to it given the science has its limits given the multitude of processes that are occuring. The author then discusses the art of cheesemaking and discusses the health aspects of the cheesemaking process. The author ends with a discussion of alcohol production and he attempts making beer. Given the beer kits involved are slightly more ready made than kits for other forms of food preparation, the first try for beer seems to turn out quite successfully on a a relative basis. The role of alcohol in social settings, its health contents and issues as well as its historic role througout civilization and consumption in the animal world is all discussed in a lively manner. I have always like Pollan's books. They are entertaining and have humor. Despite the lightheartedness of the writing the deeper message is one that should be considered. Cooking doesnt have to be a chore and the spillover effects of moving from processed food to home cooked are countless. For him with cooking - home atmosphere is better, nutrition is better, value for money is better and his experiences are better all the while his social fabric gets stronger. Obviously the message isnt for everyone to prepare all aspects of their food intake but to shift the balance away from always buying prepared and trying to minimize time cooking is a questionable goal. Despite not being active in the kitchen I feel more invigorated to try after reading this. I learnt quite a bit as well as enjoyed the read.
Review: Thoughts on Pollan's Cooked: Explains the science & history of the most commonplace of things - I read Michael Pollan's masterwork Cooked with great interest. This book takes a simple thing – food and how we prepare it – and delves deep into the underlying science and history of this subject. The book first discusses using fire and water for cooking. It covers topics such as the Maillard reaction, which gives food flavor, and the way a stewpot acts as a second stomach, in a sense, predigesting foods and opening up their nutritional value. I found the final section of the book, on fermentation, the most interesting. Fermentation ("cold fire") uses microorganisms to digest foods partially and to create flavors. The book highlights several key fermented foods – in particular, bread, wine, and cheese – and discusses various aspects of the fermentation process. First, considering bread, fermentation allows us to readily use grasses for food and reclaim much more solar energy. The book suggests that ~90 percent of the energy in food is lost at each step of the food pyramid; thus, being able to eat grass directly is a major triumph of the agricultural revolution. Of course, nowadays, we have taken this fantastic process even further and essentially industrialized grass in the form of white bread -- taking out much of the original nutrients, including fiber, and then putting different nutrients back in. Another exciting aspect of baking bread is what Pollan describes as an emergent phenomenon. Most other forms of cooking, for instance, heating by fire or warming in a pot, involve a simple extrapolation of the preparation conditions. Baking bread is different. It is a "system property," where one combines various ingredients and makes something completely different than the original constituents. Pollan also describes how gluten acts almost like an elastic to create cavities in bread that can fill with gas and facilitate rising. The next fermented food Pollan discusses is wine. To make it clear how easy it is to achieve fermentation, he shares humorous stories from his childhood of fermenting grape juice and having the vessel burst. He also brings up a philosophical question of whether we have domesticated Saccharomyces cerevisiae or whether it has domesticated us: alcohol itself, which is the product of many fermentations, is toxic to most organisms, yet we have evolved enzymes and pathways in our liver to break it down. Pollan also talks about how one can understand the different flavors of wine in terms of the various microorganisms available. Humans, in a sense, have co-evolved with wine and can benefit from having a glass a day based on a variety of health indicators. The final section on fermentation talks about cheese. Cheese represents the product of rotting or decay in its extreme. Pollan describes cheese fermentation as a multistep process where, initially, microorganisms aerobically colonize the center of a bit of milk, digesting it partially and raising its pH, but eventually, the increasing acidity fouls the microbes' nest. Then, there is effectively an ecological succession where other species of bacteria replace the initial microbes; this continues to raise the pH. What I found most interesting is that a secondary fermentation then occurs from the outside of the cheese, where yeasts – which are aerobic – send in their hyphae and partially neutralize the increasing pH. The competition between these different fermentations gives rise to new chemistries, flavors, and compounds. Cheese is also unusual in that it represents the nexus for competition between two current groups of people: the fermentos, those who believe in the importance of microorganisms for health and for giving food its flavors, and the Pasteurians, those who want to purge all foods of microbes. Their differences are evident when choosing a vessel for making cheese: should it be made out of old rotten, moldy wood or modern stainless steel? The overall discussion of fermented foods points to the legacy of the agricultural revolution and the great importance of microbes in day-to-day life. Altogether, I highly recommend this book. I find myself revisiting many of the book's points when I enjoy various meals and purchase things at the grocery store.

## Features

- Michale Pollan strikes again! This time with COOKED!

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #81,929 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #37 in Food Science (Books) #87 in Gastronomy History (Books) #205 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,004 Reviews |

## Images

![Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71OPY4uOxfL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Overview of the main processes that define cooking and food preparation
*by A***N on June 23, 2013*

In "Cooked" Michael Pollan takes a look at the major processes that go into food preparation which he breaks into four categories - fire, water, air and earth. As with other books by Pollan there is a deep message in the writing and an underlying goal of the author to revitalize the reader's interest in our historic food culture and the approachability of it at the individual level in modern society. The book sets the stage in the introduction asking the question of why to cook. He notes that the amount of time spent in the kitchen by people has declined dramatically in the last 50 years and how the argument of division of labour and time optimization might hold partially true- being totally removed from preparing what we consume to survive is much much more complicated than such simple economic logic. The book sets the stage by discussing the BBQ. It is a perfect opening to reinforce the author's introductory criticims of modern food preparation as the social atmosphere defined by BBQs will always be an obvious reminder of the deeply social aspects of certain kinds of food preparation. The author researches heavily and takes the reader with him through his journey of finding the authentic BBQ. In reading the chapter i have a much larger where to eat next list... But the author combines food journalism of BBQ today with a historical account of the roast in our history and discusses some fairly deep concepts about what makes us human. The author introduces the idea that what makes us human is actually the ability to cook as by cooking we reduce the time and energy spent in digestion and allows for people to have evolved much larger brains that require economy of eating time. Not a central thesis of the book by any means, just an illustration that the philosophy of the author and examples all weave together to bring purpose to the writing. The author then goes into water and boiling food. This is less adventurous and seems slightly more introspective. Cooking food by boiling it is a more recent human invention as its dependent on a vessel to boil the water in after one has discovered fire. It is also a more domestic form of food preparation and as a result has more gender role connotations. The atmosphere of the campfire is different from the atmosphere of the person preparing a stew. Nonetheless the author discusses how all cultures boil food in various forms to both cook and improve flavour and at its core is a fairly common practice. The chemistry of what happens is discussed and the lessons learnt in terms of process. The author details how for himself the slow process of the food preparation filtered through to the family time enjoyed while talking and slowly eating the slow cooked meal. The author then moves into air and discusses baking. Baking is a form of food preparation that was subcontracted out of the kitchen hundreds of years ago (compared to roasting and boiling for example). The author gives himself the project of learning how to bake and starts in his home state of California. It is really interesting and it makes me feel like i am bread deprived. The science of breadmaking is really interesting and the industrial process of making the flour has the effect of reducing the nutritional content. The process of recombining nutrients to the bland white breads in modern supermarkets is discussed and shown to be predominantly a failure in terms of achieving nutritional goals. The author starts with a successful baking of a white flour sourdough and eventually works with original wholeweat cultures. I read this chapter and want to try the bread as well as all the bakeries that went into shaping this chapter... The author finally moves into Earth which is really his description for allowing nature and microbiology to take its course on food. In particular fermentation is detailed in two forms. The first is through pickling and the author tries to make sauerkraut, kimchi, and various other pickled foods. This seems the most straightforward to attempt at home as its a very slow process but the nuances are discussed and as with all forms of food preparation the author discusses there is an art to it given the science has its limits given the multitude of processes that are occuring. The author then discusses the art of cheesemaking and discusses the health aspects of the cheesemaking process. The author ends with a discussion of alcohol production and he attempts making beer. Given the beer kits involved are slightly more ready made than kits for other forms of food preparation, the first try for beer seems to turn out quite successfully on a a relative basis. The role of alcohol in social settings, its health contents and issues as well as its historic role througout civilization and consumption in the animal world is all discussed in a lively manner. I have always like Pollan's books. They are entertaining and have humor. Despite the lightheartedness of the writing the deeper message is one that should be considered. Cooking doesnt have to be a chore and the spillover effects of moving from processed food to home cooked are countless. For him with cooking - home atmosphere is better, nutrition is better, value for money is better and his experiences are better all the while his social fabric gets stronger. Obviously the message isnt for everyone to prepare all aspects of their food intake but to shift the balance away from always buying prepared and trying to minimize time cooking is a questionable goal. Despite not being active in the kitchen I feel more invigorated to try after reading this. I learnt quite a bit as well as enjoyed the read.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thoughts on Pollan's Cooked: Explains the science & history of the most commonplace of things
*by M***N on October 6, 2019*

I read Michael Pollan's masterwork Cooked with great interest. This book takes a simple thing – food and how we prepare it – and delves deep into the underlying science and history of this subject. The book first discusses using fire and water for cooking. It covers topics such as the Maillard reaction, which gives food flavor, and the way a stewpot acts as a second stomach, in a sense, predigesting foods and opening up their nutritional value. I found the final section of the book, on fermentation, the most interesting. Fermentation ("cold fire") uses microorganisms to digest foods partially and to create flavors. The book highlights several key fermented foods – in particular, bread, wine, and cheese – and discusses various aspects of the fermentation process. First, considering bread, fermentation allows us to readily use grasses for food and reclaim much more solar energy. The book suggests that ~90 percent of the energy in food is lost at each step of the food pyramid; thus, being able to eat grass directly is a major triumph of the agricultural revolution. Of course, nowadays, we have taken this fantastic process even further and essentially industrialized grass in the form of white bread -- taking out much of the original nutrients, including fiber, and then putting different nutrients back in. Another exciting aspect of baking bread is what Pollan describes as an emergent phenomenon. Most other forms of cooking, for instance, heating by fire or warming in a pot, involve a simple extrapolation of the preparation conditions. Baking bread is different. It is a "system property," where one combines various ingredients and makes something completely different than the original constituents. Pollan also describes how gluten acts almost like an elastic to create cavities in bread that can fill with gas and facilitate rising. The next fermented food Pollan discusses is wine. To make it clear how easy it is to achieve fermentation, he shares humorous stories from his childhood of fermenting grape juice and having the vessel burst. He also brings up a philosophical question of whether we have domesticated Saccharomyces cerevisiae or whether it has domesticated us: alcohol itself, which is the product of many fermentations, is toxic to most organisms, yet we have evolved enzymes and pathways in our liver to break it down. Pollan also talks about how one can understand the different flavors of wine in terms of the various microorganisms available. Humans, in a sense, have co-evolved with wine and can benefit from having a glass a day based on a variety of health indicators. The final section on fermentation talks about cheese. Cheese represents the product of rotting or decay in its extreme. Pollan describes cheese fermentation as a multistep process where, initially, microorganisms aerobically colonize the center of a bit of milk, digesting it partially and raising its pH, but eventually, the increasing acidity fouls the microbes' nest. Then, there is effectively an ecological succession where other species of bacteria replace the initial microbes; this continues to raise the pH. What I found most interesting is that a secondary fermentation then occurs from the outside of the cheese, where yeasts – which are aerobic – send in their hyphae and partially neutralize the increasing pH. The competition between these different fermentations gives rise to new chemistries, flavors, and compounds. Cheese is also unusual in that it represents the nexus for competition between two current groups of people: the fermentos, those who believe in the importance of microorganisms for health and for giving food its flavors, and the Pasteurians, those who want to purge all foods of microbes. Their differences are evident when choosing a vessel for making cheese: should it be made out of old rotten, moldy wood or modern stainless steel? The overall discussion of fermented foods points to the legacy of the agricultural revolution and the great importance of microbes in day-to-day life. Altogether, I highly recommend this book. I find myself revisiting many of the book's points when I enjoy various meals and purchase things at the grocery store.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Classic Pollan
*by M***S on April 26, 2013*

I think I've read every one of Pollan's books. I loved some, especially Omnivore's Dilemma, while others were just good (In Defense of Food). With Cooked, there were parts I loved, while other parts I was ready to skim over. In the end, I enjoyed the book immensely, but not as much as some of this others. Like many of his other books, Pollan divides Cooked into thematic sections (Here: Fire [Grilling], Water [Cooking in water], Air [baking], and Earth[fermenting/pickling]) but they seemed a little forced, as Pollan himself seems to acknowledge. You need fire for three of the four, and yeast plays a pretty big role in both beer and bread. I get what he was trying to do, but it felt like it didn't quite work to enhance the themes of the book rather than merely provide breaking points. His introduction sets the stage for the entire book. He identifies a dilemma in modern culture: we spend less time cooking than ever but more time watching and idolizing others who cook. Pollan explains that contemplating this dilemma triggered something in him to write this book, and I think he makes an important overarching observation: although cooking may not be the most efficient use of time, it is an alchemic process that transforms both raw foods and people. Without cooking, humans would not be what we are today. The modern trend to remove cooking from everyday life, therefore, is likely to have huge consequences on who we are. As Pollan notes, our fascination with cooking reflects the deep-seated position it holds in our lives. The book contains long sections with meditations on what cooking is and what it means to culture, both ancient and modern, and for the most part I enjoyed them. For example, although it is somewhat tangential to cooking, Pollan discusses the role that microbiotics play in our gut and the effect on our health. Tying this topic into modern cooking, he raises some very interesting questions about the effect of a "no-microbe" policy on our health. As Pollan excels at pointing out repeatedly, the food we eat today is at the long end of the combined evolution of man and food: we eat what we eat and cook food the way we do because it is necessary to our survival. Removing certain types of food (e.g., whole grain bread, fermented vegetables) without thinking of the consequences is fraught with peril. The meditations are interspersed with stories about masters of cooking and Pollan's own personal experiences. In each section, Pollan seeks out the masters in each particular field to teach him about cooking. As with his other books, Pollan always finds the philosophers within a certain field that combine their expertise with an ability to discuss their field in a way that opens your eyes. Who knew that bread baking would be so complex and more of an art form than simple mixing? Pollan is a masterful storyteller, combining an ability to explain complex issues with a sharp sense of humor and self-deprecation. With Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan changed how I think about the world. For me, Cooked was different in that rather than changing how I see the world of food, he reinforced ideas I already have and gave voice to some subconscious thoughts I had about the importance of cooking my own food. Although I have always enjoyed cooking, Pollan helps highlight WHY cooking is so enjoyable and so worthwhile. I especially enjoyed his section on brewing beer and have been inspired to try to brew my own batch. As he notes in his afterword, many of these endeavors seem at first glance to be an incredible waste of time and totally inefficient. As Pollan explains, however, there is a "satisfaction that comes from temporarily breaking free of one's accustomed role as the producer of one thing -- whatever it is we sell into the market for a living -- and the passive consumer of everything else." Over the course of the book, Pollan successfully proves that cooking is special and shouldn't be given up so easily, and there are benefits to slowing down and becoming immersed in something so basic as the food we eat. So while I can't claim that Cooked is as eye-opening as some of Pollan's other works, I enjoyed it immensely.

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*Last updated: 2026-06-02*