Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (SFAH) is a gentle book about the principles behind cooking. It is not primarily a recipe book, nor is it a book about cooking techniques. Instead, SFAH aims to help build chef’s intuition: the remarkable ability some cooks have to look through a fridge or pantry and design a tasty meal on the spot – one whose elements balance, with just the right amount of contrast; the skill to taste a sauce and figure out and identify what’s missing, be that a splash of vinegar or a pinch of sugar.

SFAH is a nice blend of story, science, and practical wisdom that makes for an entertaining and informative read. The main issue for me personally (which probably says more about me than the book) is that efficiency is not at all a variable in the author’s calculus – for most home cooks, the time it takes to cook a dish and the number of steps to prepare it are reasonably important factors (as is the hassle of washing up!).

So while there are many tips that I will adopt in future (e.g dry brining meat in advance; preheating a pan before preheating oil), and certainly many aspects of the book that I will revisit (like the flavour maps), many of the recipes are too involved for my liking. Thankfully, there are YouTubers like Ethan Chlebowski who (in my view) have similar priorities to me: some mix of taste, convenience, and health.

Key points

• Salt:
  • modifies both taste and flavour; reduces perception of bitterness
  • salting in advance: salt increases water retention by proteins
  • types of salt: use kosher or sea salt for cooking / seasoning.
• Fat:
  • preheat pan then preheat oil (to stop oil from breaking down). Unless you’re cooking butter/garlic
  • fat/water emulsions have a creamy texture (e.g butter sauce)
• Acid:
  • acid brings contrast
  • cooking acids add depth
  • finishing acids add last-minute contrast/freshness
• Heat:
  • balance cooking rate of outside with inside
  • cook meats from room temperature: otherwise there is too much intra-meat variation
  • choosing heat: preserving tenderness means less overall heat; creating tenderness means more overall heat. Browning determines the temperature, then time is the plug.
  • animal fats smoke at 190˚C – cook below this.
  • carry-over: 3˚C for steaks, 8˚C for roasts