Harold McGee

He has written two god-like books on the science of cooking, 'On Food and Cooking' and 'the Curious Cook.' Here are some links to his web presence:

NYT page
curiouscook.com (his website)
news.curiouscook.com (his blog)
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an article on yogurt and creme fraiche, which is how I found his NYT page...

an article on the culinary uses of tomato leaves. interesting.

an article on using less water to cook pasta -- saves energy, less waste of a precious resource. In Baja when making mac and cheese we got it so that we used the water to cook the noodles, didn't drain it, added powdered milk and mystery cheese, and it had the perfect consistency.

an article on not brining the turkey. might have to try this as i've kinda burnt out on turkey the brined way.

an article on nukerwave cooking.

an article on cooking tender octopus.

double dipping, Seinfeld-style. [note that Mythbusters tried this, and found that double dipping doesn't contaminate the dip].

rare apples -- this is a neat article, about heirloom trees, but also about the bizarre flavors that result at a Cornel apple breeding lab.

on using the tomato seeds, too -- my friend Chris cooks in NYC, and he cooked for me once -- 'twas the first time I saw someone blanch tomatoes to peel them, and also cut them in half to squeeze out the seeds. Apparently it's a french cooking thing. I've always used the seeds, I do squeeze them out, but boil them down separately, and add them back at the end. It works a treat. And it adds that 'unami' stuff to the sauce.

the 5 second rule, revisited.