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

121–130 of 215 posts

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#121

Post by raddan »

walthamstow wrote: post #39
MrJohz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first two things that spring to mind are pasties from the UK (which are not usually spherical but can get quite hemispherical), and the "UFO-Döner" from Germany (which are more oblate spheroids). Maybe by combining these ideas, your friend can get closer to their dream?

British steak and kidney pudding (a steamed pie of suet pastry) is a truncated cone shape, could go spherical with the right pastry case.

A truncated cone is called a "frustrum" which always seemed fitting to me.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#122

Post by raddan »

reactordev wrote: post #45
mordechai9000 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would make them fairly small (personal pie-sized) and use a filling that doesn't need to be cooked in the oven to set. The main limiting factors, I think, would be structural integrity and heating the filling to the center. You could set it on a ring (like the rim of a spring-form pan) to support it better during cooking. Now, a four dimensional hyper pie, on the other hand...

I would bake it on a pizza stone to ensure an even bake. Has nobody here ever done this? It comes out perfectly cooked.

You cook a spherical pie on a pizza stone? Do tell.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#124

Post by raddan »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #117
Etheryte wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you're looking at it solely from perspective of "value" in experimentation and play, then that value mostly comes from expert level understanding of the ingredients and the process. To not ask for guidance from people right near you who know far more than you just seems like egotism. Who has a better chance of developing an innovative omelette dish? Thomas Keller, or someone who can't make scrambled eggs without s…

It really depends on what your goal is. Some people just like "play." For example, I am terrible at video games--when somebody tells me that they "beat" a game, this usually seems unfathomable to me. The last video game I finished was Riven, back when Riven was new. I still do play now and then. I play Skyrim poorly. I like walking around and discovering things in the Skyrim world. If my goal had been to beat the game in some way, then I would be going about it terribly. But that's not my goal. It does not have to be because egotism.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#125

Post by raddan »

sosodev wrote: post #14

I challenge each and every one of you to make a pie by the end of the month. I made one, for the first time in my life, last week. It brought me tremendous joy not only to make it, but to have something nice to share with friends.

In case you did not actually nail perfect, flaky crust the first time, that's a fun parameter to try to optimize. I finally got it at some point, and when I did, I realized that all those old cookbooks that said things like "use little water" and "keep the dough cold"---all the tricks where I thought "that has to be a myth"---turned out to be essential. The Joy of Cooking is full of old wisdom like this that has taken me ages to appreciate.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#126

Post by renjimen »

HalfCrimp wrote: post #113
renjimen wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you stay injury free climbing every day? I feel like at even twice week I am entering the danger zone with ligamentisis.

I suspect they mean "days that I deal off" rather than "every day". Even elite climbers struggle with ligament issues climbing every single day

Name checks out! Your clarification makes sense on a second read. Thanks

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#127

Post by raddan »

nozzlegear wrote: post #40

I would love a pumpkin pie right now. But I'd settle for pecan.

Sweet potato pie is at least as good as a pumpkin pie if you've never tried it. If you're making filling from scratch, it's easier too. I learned not too long ago that the "pumpkin pie" my mom made every year was actually a sweet potato pie... that kind of blew my mind.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#128

Post by mr_mitm »

dinkleberg wrote: post #116
vrosas wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do find it kind of wild how intimidating most people I know find baking. Get a food scale and follow the directions and you're good to go and will have something respectable and delicious. As with anything, you can dive deep and go extreme with it. But baking delicious food is not rocket science.

Funny you'd say that. Other people say cooking is art, while baking is a science. No room for errors.

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#129

Post by danielmarkbruce »

ericmcer wrote: post #76
stephen_cagle wrote: post #54

Not to take anything from any other activity that someone embraces, but I imagine that for the majority of people in the developed world, taking a 1 hour walk every day would be the most "life changing" thing you could do.

The point of the pies was the connections it forced her to make with people in her life and then ultimately strangers. Finding 365 people to give pies to is probably harder than baking them all. Taking a walk alone would be missing the main point.

Move to San Francisco!

Re: I baked a pie every day for a year

#130

Post by wizzwizz4 »

inigyou wrote: post #110
Etheryte wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, I can't believe the TrueType people didn't just use METAFONT.
Post reply on HN