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>we could at least be precise The biggest lesson I've ever had in cooking is that literally nothing is precise. Measurements like "a pinch" (a pinch of salt)

>we could at least be precise The biggest lesson I've ever had in cooking is that literally nothing is precise. Measurements like "a pinch" (a pinch of salt) are the epitome, but even the ingredients themselves aren't precise and uniform. Cooking becomes a lot easier and the food better when you throw out any and all notion of precision. The proper way to cook is grab some pot or pan, grab ingredients, throw them in, and cook. Trying to make cooking precise is a fool's errand.

vidanay 3y ago
Except baking. Baking is more chemistry than cooking.
- Faaak 3y ago
  I'd even say that baking is science
  - YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
    I'd say it's at best engineering, not science, otherwise everybody would be making the exact same bread. Which is demonstrably not the case.
lqet 3y ago
> The biggest lesson I've ever had in cooking is that literally nothing is precise Ah, I remember coming home from school one day when I was 16, and finding the kitchen filled with smoke. On the stove was a pan with a breaded piece of meat, burned to blackness. When I called out, my dad emerged from his office. Seeing me turning off the stove, he erupted: "Don't turn off the stove, the package said place frozen in pan and let it fry for 13 minutes!!!". He had read the instructions, put the meat into the pan, turned to stove to full heat, set a timer to 13 minutes, and then returned to his office.
red-iron-pine 3y ago
even more concrete instructions like "a teaspoon" or "4g of X" are often best guesses by the creators or recipe testers. sugar & salt is especially tricky because different vendors ship different concentrations in the crystals. morton's may have a different level of salty compared to whatever the store brand is, and that'll come through the food. age of ingredients and quality also is yuge. the Bon Appetit crowd is using good stuff they bought fairly recently, not garlic powder that's old enough to graduate 5th grade. obvious concept, but it makes a serious difference. source: ex did recipe development & food science for a major fast-packaged goods company.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
Yeah, I think the best advice one can give to a new cook is : "don't measure anything". You have to learn what makes sense; the hard way, but that's the best way. You can't measure taste and that's the only thing that really counts. So you learn what tastes good and then you don't need cups and scales. Well mostly. I weigh stuff when I make bread or emulsions (roux or mayonnaise e.g.). But even there, the variability between ingredients makes it all a hazy approximation.
amiga386 3y ago
I do commend you for your views, but I'd say the nuance is (I guess like in programming or carpentry or other tasks as well), to know when precision matters, and when it doesn't matter. It really does matter when making bread that you get the yeast, water, flour, salt concentration exactly right, and you get the temperatures exactly within range. It really matters when boiling sugar. You're not going to make toffee correctly without a working thermometer. On the other hand, other doughs, cakes, etc are much more forgiving, and for the majority of home cooking that anyone is doing, you're quite right that it really calls for a reactive chef who is making things _to taste_, actively keeping track of their cooking, rather than someone hoping that if they follow instructions _precisely_, they'll achieve the outcome they're hoping for. But if you're writing a recipe book for others, not just for yourself... readers would still like to know how _you_ make it, and that calls for at least a bit of precision in the measurements and times. Perhaps we should write recipes with margins of error?

vidanay 3y ago

Except baking. Baking is more chemistry than cooking.

Faaak 3y ago
I'd even say that baking is science
- YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
  I'd say it's at best engineering, not science, otherwise everybody would be making the exact same bread. Which is demonstrably not the case.

lqet 3y ago

> The biggest lesson I've ever had in cooking is that literally nothing is precise Ah, I remember coming home from school one day when I was 16, and finding the kitchen filled with smoke. On the stove was a pan with a breaded piece of meat, burned to blackness. When I called out, my dad emerged from his office. Seeing me turning off the stove, he erupted: "Don't turn off the stove, the package said place frozen in pan and let it fry for 13 minutes!!!". He had read the instructions, put the meat into the pan, turned to stove to full heat, set a timer to 13 minutes, and then returned to his office.

red-iron-pine 3y ago

even more concrete instructions like "a teaspoon" or "4g of X" are often best guesses by the creators or recipe testers. sugar & salt is especially tricky because different vendors ship different concentrations in the crystals. morton's may have a different level of salty compared to whatever the store brand is, and that'll come through the food. age of ingredients and quality also is yuge. the Bon Appetit crowd is using good stuff they bought fairly recently, not garlic powder that's old enough to graduate 5th grade. obvious concept, but it makes a serious difference. source: ex did recipe development & food science for a major fast-packaged goods company.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago

Yeah, I think the best advice one can give to a new cook is : "don't measure anything". You have to learn what makes sense; the hard way, but that's the best way. You can't measure taste and that's the only thing that really counts. So you learn what tastes good and then you don't need cups and scales. Well mostly. I weigh stuff when I make bread or emulsions (roux or mayonnaise e.g.). But even there, the variability between ingredients makes it all a hazy approximation.

amiga386 3y ago

I do commend you for your views, but I'd say the nuance is (I guess like in programming or carpentry or other tasks as well), to know when precision matters, and when it doesn't matter. It really does matter when making bread that you get the yeast, water, flour, salt concentration exactly right, and you get the temperatures exactly within range. It really matters when boiling sugar. You're not going to make toffee correctly without a working thermometer. On the other hand, other doughs, cakes, etc are much more forgiving, and for the majority of home cooking that anyone is doing, you're quite right that it really calls for a reactive chef who is making things _to taste_, actively keeping track of their cooking, rather than someone hoping that if they follow instructions _precisely_, they'll achieve the outcome they're hoping for. But if you're writing a recipe book for others, not just for yourself... readers would still like to know how _you_ make it, and that calls for at least a bit of precision in the measurements and times. Perhaps we should write recipes with margins of error?