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Yes, assuming you have all the required elements (ingredients, time, tools, etc). There's plenty of people who are okay at following basic directions for cooki

Yes, assuming you have all the required elements (ingredients, time, tools, etc). There's plenty of people who are okay at following basic directions for cooking - but the moment anything goes astray or they want to do something that's not exactly in the recipe (say, substitute one ingredient for another), they don't understand what is happening and how to fix it. A lot of cooking is about knowing general rules and how to apply them, but if you've never learned them, you can end up with inedible messes. This is where those who arn't terribly confident can decide that it's all too difficult and give up.

galangalalgol 7y ago
Knowing the heuristics of what flavors pair and balance one another isn't really understanding what is going on in our tastebuds or brains any more than music theory understands the ear and auditory processing. The individual that invented the trebuchet didn't know about gravity, calculus or unified theory but the rocks still brought down walls. There is something between copying and true understanding. I call it engineering and its my favorite part of the maturation of any technology because when you dont know why something you are using works there is still deep magic and wonder left. Once we figure it all out, the book is over, i know who dunnit and all the wonder is explained away.
- WalterBright 7y ago
  > all the wonder is explained away I find the wonder is in the explanation. I was talking about airplanes with a woman once, and it became apparent she didn't know how they flew. I offered to explain it, and she declined, saying she wouldn't feel safe if she knew the mechanics of it. For me, it was different. Knowing all about airplanes made me feel safer in them.
- paranoidrobot 7y ago
  I was thinking more of the physics/chemistry aspects of cooking. Flavour combinations are very much a personal and cultural thing. For instance, knowing that certain ingredients release a lot of liquid when cooked, or that fresh ingredients often behave quite different to dried, canned or preserved variants. I know I'm not the only one to have used fresh pineapple with meat, and come back to find that the pineapple's enzymes have started to digest the meat and all you have left is some meat paste. Those things mean you either need to know what's going on, or be willing to experiment (and suffer the failures). Also, on the subject of wonder/deep magic aspect - I think you can still know precisely how something works and still be amazed at it. Knowing that it's billions of microorganisms eating sugars and farting CO2 causing your bread to rise is still incredibly cool.

galangalalgol 7y ago

Knowing the heuristics of what flavors pair and balance one another isn't really understanding what is going on in our tastebuds or brains any more than music theory understands the ear and auditory processing. The individual that invented the trebuchet didn't know about gravity, calculus or unified theory but the rocks still brought down walls. There is something between copying and true understanding. I call it engineering and its my favorite part of the maturation of any technology because when you dont know why something you are using works there is still deep magic and wonder left. Once we figure it all out, the book is over, i know who dunnit and all the wonder is explained away.

WalterBright 7y ago
> all the wonder is explained away I find the wonder is in the explanation. I was talking about airplanes with a woman once, and it became apparent she didn't know how they flew. I offered to explain it, and she declined, saying she wouldn't feel safe if she knew the mechanics of it. For me, it was different. Knowing all about airplanes made me feel safer in them.
paranoidrobot 7y ago
I was thinking more of the physics/chemistry aspects of cooking. Flavour combinations are very much a personal and cultural thing. For instance, knowing that certain ingredients release a lot of liquid when cooked, or that fresh ingredients often behave quite different to dried, canned or preserved variants. I know I'm not the only one to have used fresh pineapple with meat, and come back to find that the pineapple's enzymes have started to digest the meat and all you have left is some meat paste. Those things mean you either need to know what's going on, or be willing to experiment (and suffer the failures). Also, on the subject of wonder/deep magic aspect - I think you can still know precisely how something works and still be amazed at it. Knowing that it's billions of microorganisms eating sugars and farting CO2 causing your bread to rise is still incredibly cool.