The Ig Nobel Prize honors research that first makes people laugh, then makes them think. Its 35th award ceremony possibly also makes people hungry: ISTA physicist Fabrizio Olmeda and colleagues researched the secret of a perfect cacio e pepe pasta sauce. They received the popular award for their findings on Thursday evening in Boston, U.S.
You might enjoy the work of Kenji López-Alt, from Serious Eats. He’s not a scientist, but the manner in which he investigates and iterates when solving cooking problems is super scientific. I fucking loved his investigation into Yorkshire puddings , because it validated some of my own findings when investigating the best methods. For example, my tests led me to use a hydration level of 250% (so for every 100g of flour, use 250g of liquids (a combination of eggs and water/milk). López-Alt found that 266% worked best, and I was pretty chuffed at someone I respect so much arriving at such a similar answer to my own.
He also wrote a book, titled The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science . It’s one of the few books that I’ve actually bought. Lots of the good stuff can be found on the Serious Eats website though.