Nik Sharma Breaks Down the Science Behind His Best Cooking Tricks

The Dinner Plan

In this episode of The Dinner Plan, host Maggie Hoffman sits down with molecular biologist turned cookbook author Nik Sharma to discuss the scien

Key takeaways

• Using a pinch of salt during shallot caramelization helps draw out water via osmosis and softens pectin molecules.
• Baking soda can be used in seafood or meat brines to help proteins hold onto moisture by altering electrical charges on amino acids.

Main topics

• The science of flavor and cooking
• Fundamentals of Flavor book overview

Notable quotes

Moisture is the enemy of all things crisp.

Conclusion

Listeners will gain practical, science-backed tips that transform simp

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Before we get into my conversation with Nick, I want Speaker 1 (0:02) to Speaker 2 (0:02) thank Stobbe for supporting this episode. A Speaker 3 (0:05) great Dutch oven earns its place on the stovetop year-round, and Stobbe's enameled cast-iron cookware is beloved for its exceptional heat retention, thoughtful craftsmanship, and timeless design, which is why pros like Nick keep it around. Stobbe Dutch ovens are easy to clean, never in need of seasoning, and built to be a great to last for generations. Find Stoub cookware at Stoub.com. That's S-T-A-U-B dot com. Speaker 3 (0:38) Welcome to The Dinner Plan, where we start every week with fresh cooking inspiration. I'm Maggie Hoffman, and today I'm chatting with Nick Sharma, a molecular biologist turned cookbook author who you might have seen on America's Test Kitchen's new Netflix shows. He's the author of Season, The Flavor Equation, and Veg Table, and his new book is called Fundamentals of Flavor, 100 Recipes for the Science of Better Cooking. Nick, I'm so glad to see you. Welcome to the show. Speaker 1 (1:07) Thanks, Maggie. I'm so excited to see you. It's been ages. I Speaker 3 (1:10) know. I'm looking at your beautiful kitchen behind you, and I'm curious all the exciting things you're doing in there. What have you been cooking lately? Speaker 1 (1:17) So I have a big box of sugar that's about 25 pounds of sugar I bought in bulk. I'm testing a lot of baking recipes right now, and I decided I'm going to make an attempt and just buy things in bulk because it's cheaper, and recipe testing is such a fun process, but it's also painful because, A, you have to wash the dishes. yourself at home. And then I'm also constantly tweaking things just to get everything right, but also make it easy for people to make at home. So it's kind of like a lot of balancing. So those 25 pounds of sugar, I have a feeling it'll be gone pretty soon. Speaker 3 (1:51) Yeah. I mean, and the worst thing is if you have to go out for an ingredient in the middle of one of those trials, like you can't run out of things. Speaker 1 (1:59) That is the worst thing. And I think that's something that as a recipe developer, you kind of learn on the job that The basics, salt, sugar, water, all these things you need to have in bulk. And even things like cakes and pans, like, you know, the pans and stuff. Because one's out, you need to start on the other one. And sometimes you want to make sure that you're testing the textures, how they look in the same time frame next to each other. Speaker 3 (2:26) Right. You can't start a second trial in a hot cake pan. That's going to be a totally different situation. Speaker 1 (2:31) Yeah, that's not a good idea. So what have you been cooking lately, Maggie? Speaker 3 (2:35) I have also been baking, but mostly with my kid. And I am going through so much malted milk powder. It feels like there are just all these recipes right now with malted milk powder, like more than ever before in my life. So we made Ella Quitner's chewy malted cookie bars a bunch of times. And then I also just made a big batch of... malted milk chocolate chip cookies from Caroline Schiff's new book, which is called Daily Dessert. It comes out in October. And they're sort of like, what if chewy Chips Ahoy were amazing? They're like caramely and chewy and sort of toffee flavor. There's malted milk powder and a little bread flour in there. So they seem extra chewy because of that. and a little toasty, and the texture is really awesome. Speaker 1 (3:28) I love the taste of malted powder itself. I can eat it straight out of the jar. As a kid, and I don't know if this was available in America, but as a kid growing up in India, one of the things that a lot of little kids were forced to drink in the morning was milk mixed with a couple of tablespoons of bonvita or Horlicks, which are both malted milk powdered ingredients. And oh my gosh, I mean, I know what's in it, but it's just the taste is just so, I'm just going to say yummy. Speaker 3 (3:56) Yeah, I'm really into it. You know, I grew up with Ovaltine, but it was like the chocolate version. And this is not a chocolate malted milk. It's just the malted milk. Both of these recipes were really awesome. So Speaker 2 (4:08) I turn on Netflix and there is your face. Speaker 3 (4:12) It's so delightful to see you on there. Tell us a bit about what you were up to with America's Test Kitchen. Speaker 1 (4:18) Okay, so I feel this is such a funny story because when I came to America to go back many, many years ago, I didn't have cable TV because it was so expensive as a grad student. So I wish to watch PBS and PBS had this really wild show that I would sit and watch called America's Test Kitchen where they were, I realized, oh my gosh, all these people sign just because they're testing things like crazy. And then they sit and focus on a lot of science. And I come from a biology, chemistry background. And for me to see that applied in home was so cool. I said, OK, I can get along with these people. It'll be really fun. And then, you know, as I get into the food world in years go by, I start to learn more about America's Test Kitchen and who they are. I'm totally fascinated. And then fast forward to two years ago, I get a call from Dan Souza, who I think at the time was and still is the chief content officer. And Dan says, hey, so I'd love to see if you would be interested in joining us. And I said, really? Wow, this is wild because this is a show that I've been watching. for so long, used your books and stuff, and now you want me to be a part of it. So it was really cool. I joined as an editor-in-residence. It's been fun. And they didn't tell us this. So when we did a couple of rounds of practice, because what they told us, we would also be part of the TV show. Not only would we write recipes, but some of my recipes would come on the show. So we do these rehearsals. I'm doing these rehearsals with the team, and it's very involved at ATK because Bridget and Julia, who are the hosts of the show, I'm in there with them. And then we are going through the steps, pretending to cook everything. And it's also being filmed, so you don't get nervous. And then I come home and then I get an email, I think on Monday from Dan and Lan, who is also an editor at ATK and Lan Lam. And Dan says, hey, so Lan and I were watching you quietly behind the scenes and you're very entertaining. I think it would be fun to kind of explore the idea of doing shows with you. And I said. Oh my gosh, this is like a dream come true, but I can't show my excited. So I'm trying to playing it cool. My hands are shaking while I'm typing down a response. And I say, hey, yeah, it'd be really nice, Dan. I would like to do it. And then they came up with the idea of me doing a YouTube show with them called Flavor Forward, where I explore the science of flavor with them. And then Dan decided to walk away from In the Test Kitchen because he's doing so many other shows and they decided to revamp the whole show. And they bring me, Lan Lam, Lairi Hoik. And Brian Roof was also an editor at America's Test Kitchen. And so the four of us co-host this new version of In the Test Kitchen where we're just having fun. We talk about a single dish in each episode, but as three different recipes. And it's fun because I get to talk about the science of stuff. We talk about the history, how the recipes are created in the test kitchen, what people think about them and also the challenges sometimes. Speaker 3 (6:55) Incredible. So let's talk about your new book. How would you say this one is different from your previous books? Speaker 1 (7:02) So in the fundamentals of flavor, one of the questions I left unanswered in the flavor equation, you can think of both these books as companion cookbooks, but they also exist on their own. One of the things that was missing intentionally, I guess, is how did the elements of nature, the four elements of nature, earth, air, fire, and water, how did they shape the way humans started to cook? Cooking also helped develop how we approach flavor development. But flavor is one of the things that forces us to eat. So we get nutrition. And so as a biologist and as a cook, I kind of wanted to address all these things. And it was for me, one of the most satisfying things to go back to and kind of just understand because I go back in the book to like a cell. you know, like the start of life and then how from a cell, the cell is learning how to metabolize and use what was around to produce energy. In turn, those chemicals became ingredients for us. We've moved from unicellular organisms to multicellular organisms. So all this stuff was really important because that sets the stage for using fire and cooking. And fire is what led to evolving our brains. That helped. to the development of technology, how we started using ingredients, our body started to change, how they started to, you know, metabolize food. What is the significance of raw ingredients and cooked ingredients? So all of those things were really important to me. And then I also wanted to address some of the basic questions that I see people ask all the time. How the hell do I use my oven? It's assumed that people will put something on the middle rack, but not always. And sometimes you put things on the lower rack and why? What is the point of having a convection oven? I mean, I've got two behind me right now, a double oven, right? There's a steam oven built in. What's the use of that versus the convection? So all those things I wanted people to understand. There's also practicality to the book, like test your ovens and make sure the temperature is right. How do you use water to cook with? How does temperature affect the way we