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Cooking for Engineers
gbjbaanb writes "It's not often I post about a website, but this one is different. It is Cooking For Engineers. No big deal, you'd think - a web site about recipes and cooking. But go look at how he's presented it. Most recipes are designed for women, and their funny way of looking at the world. These are very different and instantly understandable for tech geeks like us. Oh yes, although he's been affected by firefox, he blames Microsoft. :)"
In a standard recipe, ingredients are listed in the order in which you use them. I don't see what's so peculiar about that that makes it "womanly"
If you look at the whole recipes on his site, there's still your normail, detailed instructions. I guess it's nice having a quick synopsis at-a-glance, but I'm going to carefully read the entire recipe if it's new to me before I even begin mis en place
This is especially true with baking which is much more akin to chemistry than, say, tomato sauce.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
At least it is in my home: How to Brew.
I'd rather than like to see a cooking book from a chemist. These guys knows the difference between concrete and whipped cream.
Achille Talon
Hop!
Hope the site is still up in a month, and that I'll still remember to look at it by then.
Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
As am amateur cook and professional engineer I was very impressed with the layout. I can not tell you how many times I have misread a recipe because I skimmed the English looking for the next step. Last week I skipped 3 hours of a second rise on a bread I already spent 18 hours on, if only I had not missed that step! This layout is simply brilliant, ingredients on the Y, steps/time on the X. It couldn't be more strait forward. Now we just need to get EVERYONE doing this!
this is my sig.
11. MOV oral_cavity, product
~~~
Steps 2 and 3 look easy enough. ...
I've been working on step 1 for 35 years without much success.
Perhaps it could be factored into a. b. c.
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? ~ Albert Einstein
"Designed for women and their funny way of looking at the world." I, honestly, can not even think of something remotely humorous to respond to this post. People wonder why we can't get laid? This statement effectively sets us back to the Stone Ages. Cro-Magna Phi Epsilon, represent!
It ain't so funny when you consider the thing you want the most, their uterus, falls under the "funny way of looking at the things" category.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
The linked site actually gives a pretty cool way of doing recipes. This comment, however:
Most recipes are designed for women, and their funny way of looking at the world
Is completely uncalled for. What part of
Name of Food
Ingredients
Instructions
is in any way some sort of "funny way of looking at the world"? It's not like there aren't plenty of male cooks, either. Way to be sexist, Slashdot.
Visit the
cooking is an art not a science.
Engineers should be weighing their ingredients.
Not measuring by volume.
Especialy with dry good(flour, etc)
It is puzzling why most recipe books don't use a hierarchical format for the ingredients. I often recopy recipes into a structured format so I can maintain mise en place.
If you want to make Chinese food, try getting some of the recipe books by Weichuan, the Taiwanese food company. I have one of their books from the 1980s or so, which uses a nice format of grouping ingredients.
Tables look pretty good in an old Konqueror. I can see where he wants the vertical text, but to be honest I think the horizontal version I got is more readable.
I agree. I love to cook -- it makes people happy to serve them good food, I get to play with knives, alcohol, and fire, and I find it a great way to relax after work. Work for me is software development, and I see a lot of parallels between my profession and cooking. The way I look at it, in both you are given a set of tools and basic rules to follow -- in software the "rules" may be syntax or design patterns, in cooking it may be "rosemary goes well with tomatos" or "olive oil allows spices to soak into the chicken in a marinade". These "rules" are there for a reason, because they work. You can get a lot done following them, be they an algorithm or a recipie. However, as one spends time in either dicipline, you can begin to be more creative -- you see the overall trends, you use shortcuts, hacks, and other tricks gained from experience.
I find writing code and playing in my kitchen to be both codified and science-like, as well as being spontanious and creative.
The worst part about it is after he spends a buttload to upgrade his service, things will go back to where they were and he will be paying for way more than needs.
The real question is, why don't the editors do it? Would it take too much time out of his busy, busy day for Michael to add nydu.net:8090 to a posting? If Perl is such a kickin' language, why doesn't Taco make links default to Coral if they are not submitted with it in the first place? That's largely what Coral was set up for - they even mention the /. effect by name on their site.
Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
So, are you saying that the average joe, who can follow a table recipe instead of a standard recipe, won't make anything that tastes as good as a frozen meal?
I agree that the average person won't make an excellent chef, and that it takes more than a recipe to make excellent food. But to make good food that most people will eat merely takes a recipe and someone who can follow it.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
That's why God invented soups and stews. You make one huge pot of something that you can eat out of at will during the week. Keep "evolving" it for variety. What starts out on Sunday as a couple gallons of lentil soup ends up as a few bowls of lentil and potato curry by Thursday.
The entire art of homemade "convienience" foods seems to have died out, in fact the two are often considered antithetical, but the microwave oven makes them an more valid than ever.
Rice and bean dishes are also excellent for cooking in bulk.
Then when she wants to eat at 6, but you want to cook until 9, you can prepare her (or she can help herself) a quicky mini-meal with a cup of hot chocolate (or wine if her taste turns in that direction), and you're free to cook until the contentment of that wears off.
KFG
I mentioned in another post Cooks Illustrated -- they've got the scientific approach down. And we can't forget Julia -- after all, Mastering the Art of French Cooking was as much about technique as it was recipes.
Truthfully, I think Alton Brown would point to Harold McGee, as would Shirley Corriher and Howard Hillman.
"I agree that the average person won't make an excellent chef, and that it takes more than a recipe to make excellent food." No. Most recipes suck. They assume the person knows how to cook at the basic level (ie. saute, braising, broiling, baking, seasoning, etc.) Most people don't understand basic cooking skills. You don't learn these by following a recipe. You don't learn proper seasoning by following recipes. Cooking and cooking correctly is a skill, honed by hours of practice. There is no right or wrong, but when it comes to basic cooking techniques and seasoning, there is. Salt is good... most people don't understand that simple phrase.
I could've sworn I had several cookery books in the same style (list of ingredients, list of instructions). Strangely, they weren't marketed as "cooking for engineers", rather they tend to be basic cookery books. An example: ISBN: 0140460179. Original edition: 1952 (predates slashdot, and most (99.99%?) of the computer industry).
Not having thought it through much, I am guessing some sites would be upset about a :8090 link because it could affect advertising tracking and revenue.
Hopefully, someone who knows a bit more about this matter will hop in the thread and explain it all.
If this was truly for engineers, it would use metric units and wouldn't mix volume and weight units unnecessarily. Using cups for recipes is ridiculous considering the possible variations in texture and grain size.
Nobody said that this guy's recipes aren't different or that the idea isn't cool. What I dispute is the idea that a list of materials followed by a list of instructions is in any way tied to women, or that there was any justification for that comment. For comparison, go here and read any of the instructions on assembling desks. Surprise! They follow the same format! Maybe you should stop being anti-"PC" long enough to read what's actually being said.
On a side note, the original site's recipe format would work very well for furniture, too.
Visit the
Thank you, slashdot, for posting those kinds of comments on the front page. As a female engineer I really don't need this first thing in the morning. I am rewriting my hosts file right now.