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

Analyzing a Baking Recipe

cookingforengineers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#61

Post by BlackFly »

haswell wrote: post #26
BlackFly wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to cooks, who love measurements like - a carrot - four cloves of garlic - an onion - yolk of one medium egg - salt to taste because cooking isn't a science and precise measurements are generally worse than useless. If you spend more of your time trying to perfect the measurement instead of paying attention to the texture and flavor then you are cooking very well. People insist baking is different, but it r…

> because cooking isn't a science and precise measurements are generally worse than useless Cooking and baking are both sciences, and have very different tolerances and methods for working with those tolerances. As others have pointed out, baking tends to require far more precision, and the methods used are focused on precision as a result. To your point, spending all of your time focused on precise measurements whil…

I agree with your points, but your conclusion is equivalent to suggesting that painting is a science because perspective is geometry. I am not denying that ingredients work in a deterministic fashion, I am suggesting that subjective aspects of the person eating the dish are the most important thing once you have a basic skill level.

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#62

Post by BlackFly »

tomgp wrote: post #17
geuis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is different. It may not seem so to a non baker, but regular cooking has a lot more leeway. Baking consistently requires a much finer degree of control over the variables. The difference between "a pinch of baking powder" vs "5 grams of baking powder" is entirely different. In the first case, you're left wondering why pancakes came out good last time and why are they inedible this time. I'm no great coo…

The best cake baker I know weighs her eggs and scales all other ingredients accordingly.

And the best cake maker I know whips ingredients together by her mood, inventing cakes on a whim. The margin of error is wide enough.

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#63

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

icegreentea2 wrote: post #8
fps-hero wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely cringe worthy. The painful thing is it’s just a simple conversation factor but I couldn’t take the article seriously after that. Speaking of reinventing, the article rediscovered the concept of bakers percentage, which is how bakers always describe recipes! Except baker’s percentage is unit agnostic and not susceptible to variations in volumetric measurement, ingredient density, and non-universal cup sizes…

Heh, engineering is being about as precise and accurate as needed. Knowing that your taking a shortcut and shrugging and saying "this is easier and still works" is the peak of engineering.

Right? There's some misunderstanding that engineering is about precise measurements and reproducible results. That's a scientist, not an engineer. An engineer is the person who gets the job done and the thing built, and if it doesn't kill someone or explode and start a fire, then that's all good.

But I think treating cooking as any of the STEM subjects is wrong. Cooking is an art. It has to please your senses and senses are not scientific instruments, they're subjective and inaccurate. Recipes are only templates and you need to use the brain to fill in the blanks: if I tell you to add two onions in a stew, can't you use your noggin to decide whether your onions are too small, and so you need to add more than two, or too large and so you need to add fewer? Will it ruin the stew if you add three onions, or one and a half? How many traditional dishes are the result of cooking another dish with what ingredients were at hand, or the result of mixing two things that were previously not eaten together?

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#64

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

haswell wrote: post #26
BlackFly wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to cooks, who love measurements like - a carrot - four cloves of garlic - an onion - yolk of one medium egg - salt to taste because cooking isn't a science and precise measurements are generally worse than useless. If you spend more of your time trying to perfect the measurement instead of paying attention to the texture and flavor then you are cooking very well. People insist baking is different, but it r…

> because cooking isn't a science and precise measurements are generally worse than useless Cooking and baking are both sciences, and have very different tolerances and methods for working with those tolerances. As others have pointed out, baking tends to require far more precision, and the methods used are focused on precision as a result. To your point, spending all of your time focused on precise measurements whil…

>> Any baker who focuses on consistent and repeatable results knows that precision is part of the path to getting there.

I make bread. Every time I make bread that is better than my standard it's because I accidentally deviated from my standard recipe. When that happens I will sometimes make a note of what exactly I did and then try to do it again, but I never got the same results that way. In fact I never get the same results with my standard recipe either. There is always variation, even when I use the same flour from the same sack.

I don't think baking is like you say at all.

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#65

Post by glandium »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #64
haswell wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because cooking isn't a science and precise measurements are generally worse than useless Cooking and baking are both sciences, and have very different tolerances and methods for working with those tolerances. As others have pointed out, baking tends to require far more precision, and the methods used are focused on precision as a result. To your point, spending all of your time focused on precise measurements whil…

>> Any baker who focuses on consistent and repeatable results knows that precision is part of the path to getting there. I make bread. Every time I make bread that is better than my standard it's because I accidentally deviated from my standard recipe. When that happens I will sometimes make a note of what exactly I did and then try to do it again, but I never got the same results that way. In fact I never get the sa…

Bread making is influenced by air humidity and temperature.

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#66

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

glandium wrote: post #65
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Any baker who focuses on consistent and repeatable results knows that precision is part of the path to getting there. I make bread. Every time I make bread that is better than my standard it's because I accidentally deviated from my standard recipe. When that happens I will sometimes make a note of what exactly I did and then try to do it again, but I never got the same results that way. In fact I never get the sa…

Bread making is influenced by air humidity and temperature.

Did you forget an /s at the end of your comment?

Re: Analyzing a Baking Recipe

#70

Post by xandrius »

Optimal_Persona wrote: post #58

As a former professional baker for 2 decades, from corner bakeshops to a hippie co-op to a large scale dessert manufacturer with worldwide distribution - as soon as I saw the recommendation to use volume instead of mass I closed the tab, nothing of value could be there. Baking is both an art and a science. If you're a home baker you can ignore the science, if you are trying to make money you have to understand at lea…

Totally agree here, we're in 2024 and still see recipes with "cups" and teaspoons where anyone who has done even half an hour of cooking class will know that they can vary wildly.

I usually try to convert the recipe to proper measurements and adjust them as I make attempts and then stick to my version.

Post reply on HN