Eatdrink #42 July/August 2013

№ 42 | July/August 2013 www.eatdrink.ca 57
development. Pollan writes, “Cooking in
effect takes much of the work of digestion
outside the body, using the energy of fire in
(partial) place of the energy of our bodies
to break down complex carbohydrates and
render proteins more digestible.” Before
the invention of food cooked over fire,
our primate ancestors spent most of their
day expending energy by chewing and
digesting raw food.
The Earth chapter is about the fermenting
and pasteurizing processes used to preserve
all sorts of food — sauerkraut, tofu, pickles,
cheese, beer, and yoghurt. Fermentation
originally occurred in the ground, graduating
to crocks made of earthenware which are
“really just earth once removed, cleaner and
more portable perhaps, but otherwise the
same basic idea.” Fermentation is also known
as cooking with cold fire as there is no actual
heat involved but foods like cabbage and
grapes can be “cooked” with bacteria and live
cultures into sauerkraut and wine.
Pollan ends the book with brewing his
own beer because “all four elements were
represented in the beer-making process.
The barley is first cooked over a fire; the
grain is then boiled in water; and the beer,
after fermentation, is carbonated with air.
Beer is the complete four-element food.”
Above all, Pollan is interested in
informing us how his research is good
for our health and he does rail against
pre-packaged, industrialized food as
being detrimental to our well-being. He
urges that “to cook for the pleasure of it,
to devote a portion of our leisure to it, is
to declare our independence from the
corporations seeking to organize our every
waking moment into yet another occasion
for consumption.” Pollan believes that
building our own meals from scratch is
important, interesting and worthwhile, and
that every meal is a piece of artistry and
alchemy that nourishes us. He writes: “It is
the very allusiveness of cooked food that
appeals to us, as indeed that same quality
does in poetry or music or art.”
Darin Cook works and plays in Chatham-Kent and
regularly contributes to eatdrink.
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