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

I baked a pie every day for a year

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 215 posts

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#101

Post by Etheryte »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #96
profsummergig wrote: post #50

I decided to make rotis every day for a month (am male of Indian origin who hadn't ever cooked breads), AND eat them. The first one was completely inedible. The 30th day's rotis were edible, but nothing like what women in my family make. But still, edible. Eventually had the confidence to experiment with making Naan. This led to experimenting with Asian-style Pot-Stickers. The main benefit to me was confidence, and b…

Why didn't you just ask the women in your family what they did to make them? It shouldn't take 30 attempts to get a basic flatbread recipe to be edible. It's not like all the women in your family devised recipes on their own - they just watched other women make them and learned how to do it that way.

This is like asking why someone built a text editor as a hobby project when Microsoft Word exists. There is value in experimentation and play, in trying to understand things from first principles. It would often be faster to just ask others, but if everyone did that, we would miss out on a lot of innovation.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#102

Post by user68858788 »

Baking everyday as a way to keep a professional identity is an interesting idea. Being semi-retired, I’ve noticed that I am starting to struggle the curiosity and motivation that kept me going when I still worked. This article makes me think I should pick up a habit of doing some “work” daily.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#103

Post by AngryData »

CrazyStat wrote: post #12
delichon wrote: post #5

For me the change would be to become spherical. That would simplify some calculations.

A friend of mine tries to bake a spherical pie for pi day (March 14) each year, with varying approaches (and levels of success).

There are some old 18th century pies they cooked in boiling water inside a bag which could be quite spherical. Townsends on youtube has some videos on it.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#104

Post by LargeWu »

vrosas wrote: post #65
incanus77 wrote: post #48

Pie is such a gift. My wife died nearly ten years ago and soon afterwards, I took up pie baking, which is something that she loved to do (I just loved to eat it — since childhood I've had a birthday pie instead of cake). I had all the stuff, after all. I got good at it and love to share them with friends at gatherings, or even just give them away entirely. Right before COVID, I did a Friday Pie Day thing where I gift…

When everyone got into baking early covid I couldn’t understand why no one was baking anything, like, good. No pizza or pie or cake or muffins or banana bread or even a damn focaccia. The world collectively just decided the end-all be-all of baking was… sourdough.

For one thing, yeast was in short supply, so if you wanted to bake regularly, sourdough was a good option if you could keep it going.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#105

Post by The_Fox »

vrosas wrote: post #65
incanus77 wrote: post #48

Pie is such a gift. My wife died nearly ten years ago and soon afterwards, I took up pie baking, which is something that she loved to do (I just loved to eat it — since childhood I've had a birthday pie instead of cake). I had all the stuff, after all. I got good at it and love to share them with friends at gatherings, or even just give them away entirely. Right before COVID, I did a Friday Pie Day thing where I gift…

When everyone got into baking early covid I couldn’t understand why no one was baking anything, like, good. No pizza or pie or cake or muffins or banana bread or even a damn focaccia. The world collectively just decided the end-all be-all of baking was… sourdough.

It wasn't for no reason at all though. There were concerns about availability of yeast, which isn't used in sourdough. (Valid concerns or not, I have no idea.)

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#106

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

incanus77 wrote: post #48

Pie is such a gift. My wife died nearly ten years ago and soon afterwards, I took up pie baking, which is something that she loved to do (I just loved to eat it — since childhood I've had a birthday pie instead of cake). I had all the stuff, after all. I got good at it and love to share them with friends at gatherings, or even just give them away entirely. Right before COVID, I did a Friday Pie Day thing where I gift…

I'm so sorry for your loss.

What a wonderful way to keep your wife's memory alive.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#107

Post by cmehdy »

ant6n wrote: post #70
CrazyStat wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine tries to bake a spherical pie for pi day (March 14) each year, with varying approaches (and levels of success).

> A friend of mine tries to bake a spherical pie for pi day (March 14) each year, with varying approaches (and levels of success). Could also do it on pi approximation day (July 22), then one doesn't have to be so exact about it.

Now I'm considering making a Matt Parker pie: a spherical pie made from a normal pie + calling it close enough in 2 out of 3 dimensions.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#108

Post by lotsofpulp »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #96
profsummergig wrote: post #50

I decided to make rotis every day for a month (am male of Indian origin who hadn't ever cooked breads), AND eat them. The first one was completely inedible. The 30th day's rotis were edible, but nothing like what women in my family make. But still, edible. Eventually had the confidence to experiment with making Naan. This led to experimenting with Asian-style Pot-Stickers. The main benefit to me was confidence, and b…

Why didn't you just ask the women in your family what they did to make them? It shouldn't take 30 attempts to get a basic flatbread recipe to be edible. It's not like all the women in your family devised recipes on their own - they just watched other women make them and learned how to do it that way.

In my experience, dealing with flour is an art, not a science. You just have to do it over, and over, and over, until you internalize the parameters and can adjust to them on the fly. The look, the feel, the temperature, the smell, etc.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#109

Post by inigyou »

fmbb wrote: post #38
CrazyStat wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine tries to bake a spherical pie for pi day (March 14) each year, with varying approaches (and levels of success).

I heard circles are also related to pi but have not had the time to confirm yet.

That's a pi-ty

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#110

Post by inigyou »

Etheryte wrote: post #101
IncreasePosts wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn't you just ask the women in your family what they did to make them? It shouldn't take 30 attempts to get a basic flatbread recipe to be edible. It's not like all the women in your family devised recipes on their own - they just watched other women make them and learned how to do it that way.

This is like asking why someone built a text editor as a hobby project when Microsoft Word exists. There is value in experimentation and play, in trying to understand things from first principles. It would often be faster to just ask others, but if everyone did that, we would miss out on a lot of innovation.

It's more like taking 50 attempts to design a scalable font format instead of looking up how TrueType works.
Post reply on HN