Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Based Cooking

based.cooking

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 485 posts

Re: Based Cooking

#131

Post by mulmen »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #77

Am I the only one who thinks that this concept is perfectly good, and all the things the site doesn't have are just great further development of the idea? What's wrong with a "wikipedia for recipes"? I would LOVE that. All the complaints about the quality of the recipes or the lack of more in-depth explaination of each one, some kind of voting/reputation system for the recipes and for the submitters and the voters, Y…

A site like this is valuable for what it does not have. Hundreds of variations or a comment section is a nightmare scenario. That’s the absence of information. It’s just data.

The page needs to show the ingredients and steps so I don’t have to scroll while handling raw meat.

Re: Based Cooking

#132

Post by spaetzleesser »

reedjosh wrote: post #117
hardwaregeek wrote: post #111

Some of these recipes seem decent if you're already somewhat experienced and have developed cook's intuition. Otherwise they're way too vague. For instance, the chicken parm recipe: - There should be a photo of how to slice the chicken breast. Saying "through their width" isn't good enough. I had to explain what "lengthwise" was once because my friend cut all the vegetables the exact opposite of it. - Pound with what…

No website can fully replace life experience. Either way, the simplicity of presentation here transcends any such criticism which misses the point entirely.

I think of myself as a pretty decent cook but without some rough measurements I don’t find the recipes very useful. When I look at the gnocchi recipe I have no idea how much flour to take for an amount of potatoes for example . It is a little like watching my mom who just seems to throw things together until it’s right. Every time it’s perfect but she can’t explain what she does. You need a lot of experience for this.

Re: Based Cooking

#133

Post by dpcan »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #111

Some of these recipes seem decent if you're already somewhat experienced and have developed cook's intuition. Otherwise they're way too vague. For instance, the chicken parm recipe: - There should be a photo of how to slice the chicken breast. Saying "through their width" isn't good enough. I had to explain what "lengthwise" was once because my friend cut all the vegetables the exact opposite of it. - Pound with what…

I learned to cook a lot from the 3x5 cards my mom has in a cupboard.

They list stuff like a "pinch" of salt or a "stick" of butter.

Sometimes I'll make her dinner from her recipe and she'll be surprised and say "that's not the way I do it" and then she'll really enjoy the food anyway.

I think interpretation is what makes cooking an art, and many times, those little individual choices we make to interpret a recipe or system of cooking is what makes us proud of our dish.

Re: Based Cooking

#134

Post by harha »

One place that I find has surprisingly good recipes is Wikipedia. Take paella [0] or the basic French sauces [1] for instance. It gives context and standard preparations as a great starting point with useful related items.

It’s more advanced than a YouTube video for someone who hasn’t cooked much yet (similar to a technical topic), but I like the additional information and encyclopedia style discussing variations rather than choosing a single truth and just trying to sell ads on a site.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_mother_sauces

Re: Based Cooking

#135

Post by puchatek »

_6hmp wrote: post #47
solarkraft wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Based" is a specific online subculture slang for something wholly positive, the opposite of "cringe".

more like "unapologetic" I think? also I think somewhat coopted by right wing folks more recently.

Would that explain why the list of recipes is almost entirely noon-vegetarian?

Re: Based Cooking

#136

Post by cjak »

reedjosh wrote: post #117
hardwaregeek wrote: post #111

Some of these recipes seem decent if you're already somewhat experienced and have developed cook's intuition. Otherwise they're way too vague. For instance, the chicken parm recipe: - There should be a photo of how to slice the chicken breast. Saying "through their width" isn't good enough. I had to explain what "lengthwise" was once because my friend cut all the vegetables the exact opposite of it. - Pound with what…

No website can fully replace life experience. Either way, the simplicity of presentation here transcends any such criticism which misses the point entirely.

Agreed. I find the tabular format of Cooking for Engineers excellent for this (for example, at the bottom of this brownies recipe: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/158/Dark-Chocolate...).

Julia Child's classic (https://archive.org/details/JuliaChildMasteringTheArtOfFrenc...) does something similar in free-form.

Re: Based Cooking

#138

Post by hardwaregeek »

dpcan wrote: post #133
hardwaregeek wrote: post #111

Some of these recipes seem decent if you're already somewhat experienced and have developed cook's intuition. Otherwise they're way too vague. For instance, the chicken parm recipe: - There should be a photo of how to slice the chicken breast. Saying "through their width" isn't good enough. I had to explain what "lengthwise" was once because my friend cut all the vegetables the exact opposite of it. - Pound with what…

I learned to cook a lot from the 3x5 cards my mom has in a cupboard. They list stuff like a "pinch" of salt or a "stick" of butter. Sometimes I'll make her dinner from her recipe and she'll be surprised and say "that's not the way I do it" and then she'll really enjoy the food anyway. I think interpretation is what makes cooking an art, and many times, those little individual choices we make to interpret a recipe or…

Eh sure, but I could see a newbie making this recipe, putting too little oil, having it start smoking, then burning the cutlets and undercooking the chicken. That's not interpretation, that's just poor instruction.

Take the Serious Eats version. Yes, it's 10x more complicated, but it has photos and careful descriptions and measurements: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/the-best-chicken...

Re: Based Cooking

#139

Post by bourgoin »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #111

Some of these recipes seem decent if you're already somewhat experienced and have developed cook's intuition. Otherwise they're way too vague. For instance, the chicken parm recipe: - There should be a photo of how to slice the chicken breast. Saying "through their width" isn't good enough. I had to explain what "lengthwise" was once because my friend cut all the vegetables the exact opposite of it. - Pound with what…

Likewise, the stroganoff recipe simply says to cook 'strips of beef' in a skillet. There are some cuts which you are not going to be very happy with the result if you do this with.

I don't see how REMOVING information benefits either a beginner or an experienced cook.

Re: Based Cooking

#140

Post by christophilus »

tylorr wrote: post #49
luckycharms810 wrote: post #20

In the last few years I’ve learnt that there really is nothing better than a good cook book. Vibrant colors, techniques, stories - these can all really add to your experience if their presence is not solely for the purpose of including additional ads. I’ve also found that the recipe alone is truly not enough - the techniques and background are incredibly important !

Any suggestions for a good cook book?

Milk Street is excellent.
Post reply on HN