A culinary sleuth solves common cooking mysteries with 150 foolproof recipes - thoroughly tested solutions that explain why recipes work and don't work. Christopher Kimball, America's premier culinary sleuth and the founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated magazine is the author of a popular newspaper column entitled 'The Kitchen Detective'. The Kitchen Detective is an attempt to get under the skin of popular recipes to understand how and why they work (or don't work) and how to make them reasonably foolproof. It is also full of opinions and odd facts. Did you know that your oven, that miracle of modern engineering, is remarkably imprecise? Do you think searing meat seals in its juices? Well it doesn't. This is a book for anyone who is tired of being told what to do in the kitchen without being told why.