Modernist Cuisine includes an extensive index, which is freely available here. But no index can include every term that appears in a book. Some readers have asked for the ability to search the full text of Modernist Cuisine, and we’re happy to now offer this keyword finder that includes a complete concordance to all six volumes. Just type in any search term and click the Search button to get a list of pages on which that word or phrase appears. (Very common words such as “a,” “the,” “are,” and prepositions are not searchable by themselves, but may be used in a phrase, such as “in an oven.”) In addition to the page number, each hit displays several surrounding words to give you a sense of the context in which the word is used at that location.
Converting a huge set of complex layout files into a plain-text database is not as straightforward as you might think, and the conversion is not perfect. You’ll see the occasional extra or missing space or punctuation, and some odd characters, especially where ligatures or accented letters appear in the book. Short of hiring an army of typists to retype the entire book, there isn’t much we can do about that. We think you’ll find this feature very useful nonetheless.