Research Catalog

Nose dive : a field guide to the world's smells

Title
Nose dive : a field guide to the world's smells / Harold McGee.
Author
McGee, Harold
Publication
  • New York : Penguin Press, 2020.
  • ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFE 21-5472Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xxxii, 654 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
"Smell is such a powerful and revealing sense because it detects actual little pieces of things in the world. It gives us direct evidence of what those things are made of-unlike the indirectness of vision or hearing, which register light waves and air movements. Those little pieces are volatile molecules, so little that they're able to break away from their source and fly invisibly through the air to reach our nose. To begin to understand a thing's smell, then, is to identify the many volatile molecules it emits. Its overall smell is a composite, created by the component smells or "notes" of its most prominent volatile molecules. When different things seem to echo each other with shared component smells, it's a sign that those things have some volatile molecules in common. And the chemical identities of the molecules are keys to why they're there. They're tokens of the processes that created them. Text and 200 tables cover this topic, in a book by an expert on the chemistry and history of food science and cooking"--
Subject
  • Odors
  • Smell
  • Chemical senses
  • SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / General
  • SCIENCE / Chemistry / General
  • COOKING / Reference
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 601-634) and index.
Contents
Preface: My first grouse -- Introduction: A sense for the essential -- Among the stars -- Planet Earth, early life, stinking sulfur -- Life's starter set -- Animal bodies -- Animal signals -- The human animal -- Sweet smells of success -- Plant volatile families : green, fruity, flowery, spicy -- Moss, trees, grasses, weeds -- Flowers -- Edible greens and herbs -- Edible roots and seeds : staples and spices -- Fruits -- The land : soil, fungi, stone -- The waters : plankton, seaweeds, shellfish, fish -- After-life : smoke, asphalt, industry -- Fragrances -- Cooked foods -- Cured and fermented foods -- Conclusion: My second grouse.
Call Number
JFE 21-5472
ISBN
  • 9781594203954
  • 1594203954
LCCN
  • 2020003220
  • 40030288558
OCLC
1144093964
Author
McGee, Harold, author.
Title
Nose dive : a field guide to the world's smells / Harold McGee.
Publisher
New York : Penguin Press, 2020.
Copyright Date
©2020
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 601-634) and index.
Other Form:
Online version: McGee, Harold. Nose dive New York : Penguin Press, 2020 9781984881878 (DLC) 2020003221
Other Standard Identifier
40030288558
Research Call Number
JFE 21-5472
View in Legacy Catalog