From c09f9544c85d6bca7a3f6ba2a7aff00571d0f85f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bradlee Speice Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2020 23:34:07 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Recipes --- _posts/2020-07-09-recipes-for-engineers.md | 44 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2020-07-09-recipes-for-engineers.md diff --git a/_posts/2020-07-09-recipes-for-engineers.md b/_posts/2020-07-09-recipes-for-engineers.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0be0b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2020-07-09-recipes-for-engineers.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Recipes for Engineers" +description: "" +category: +tags: [food] +--- + +It's a little weird applying an engineering mindset to everything, but after navigating a bunch of +new recipes as part of cooking and baking during quarantine, this what I think could be beneficial. + +1. Don't intersperse recipe directions with anecdotes. When my hands are covered in whatever I'm + working on, it's difficult to scroll up and down on a laptop or other device. + +2. Provide weight/mass measurements for everything. Everyone has a different way of measuring flour, + and having to clean all the measuring utensils is a pain. Much easier to dump all the dry + ingredients into the same bowl by weight (oz, g) and not have individual measurements. Bakers' + percentages are nice, but please also include a set of reference numbers so I don't have to do + all the math on the fly (or figure out how it translates to serving sizes) + +3. Make the purpose of each step explicit. When baking, I typically want to wait for the dough to + double in size, it just happens to take somewhere around two hours. Also, why does pie dough need + ice water? It's far too little volume to no immediately change temp. A good way to frame the + discussion is: what would happen if I just left this step out? + +4. When combining ingredients, re-state how much is being added. I don't have containers to + pre-measure everything and dump in, I'd rather know exactly how much is needed at the moment it + is needed. + +5. Add context about tolerance where possible. Do I need _exactly_ 352 grams of something? For + baking, being that precise might well be important. Significant figures matter (and maybe don't + use more than 2? Or at least explain why more than 2 sigfigs are needed if used) + +6. The shopping list is for total quantities of an ingredient. The only reason to split quantities + here is for optional steps. But if you need 4g of something at one point, and 4g at another, tell + me 8g in the ingredients list. + +Other potential intros: + +- It's probably a pathology of software people that they think they can improve everything, so here + I am writing about recipes +- Despite the old adage warning about + [engineers and food](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/fklb1/a_wife_asks_her_husband_a_software_engineer/), + going to humbly submit some ideas for making more helpful recipes.