Modernist Cuisine is a six-volume set of cookbooks that goes on sale today. The $625 set isn't for those of us who use a microwave for most meals. This cookbook looks into the science of cooking and the ultimate methods of getting to the ultimate results. For example, this hamburger take a total of 30 hours to make!

Take the book's hamburger. Prepping the lettuce and tomato requires a vacuum sealer. The cheese is restructured—heated with ingredients like carrageenan and cooled in a mold—for a gooier texture. And making the burger itself requires hand-grinding the beef and using half-cylinder molds to catch the strands and gently form the patties.

Get a closer look at the burger at the Wall Street Journal's interactive feature. Link to article. Link to hamburger. -via Nag on the Lake