The missing ingredient - Jenny Linford

'Brilliant and original ... From slow feasts to fast food, Linford
shows that, no matter what we are cooking, time is of the essence' - Bee
Wilson, Sunday Times

The Missing Ingredient
is about what makes good food, and the first book to consider the
intrinsic yet often forgotten role of time in creating the flavours and
textures we love.

Written through a series of encounters with
ingredients, producers, cooks, shopkeepers and chefs, exploring
everything from the brief period in which sugar caramelises, or the days
required in the crucial process of fermentation, to the months of slow
ripening and close attention that make a great cheddar, or the years
needed for certain wines to reach their peak, Jenny Linford shows how,
time and again, time itself is the invisible ingredient. From the
patience and dedication of many food producers in fields and storehouses
around the world to the rapid reactions required of any home cook at
the hob, this book allows us to better understand our culinary lives.