Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is the foundational food science text in English — the book that explained the chemistry behind every cooking technique before Modernist Cuisine existed. His treatment of protein denaturation — the unfolding and re-coiling of protein chains under heat, acid, or salt — provides the scientific basis for every cooking technique involving protein: searing, curing, marinating, brining, and fermentation.
A framework for understanding protein denaturation — the irreversible structural change in protein molecules caused by heat, acid, or salt — and its culinary applications.
JOSH NILAND: THE WHOLE FISH COOKBOOK + HAROLD McGEE: ON FOOD AND COOKING