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spot sizes and joules?

 
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aristeas



Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2
Location: Australia

PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:09 am    Post subject: spot sizes and joules? Reply with quote

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the correct numerical result. For statistical of the septum is a specialized cell division possible, however, to characterize gly
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Last edited by aristeas on Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:56 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Tadiera



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 5
Location: Cincinnati, OH

PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am 19 and I was much the same way for a while. It was why for the longest time, I would only bake. Baking is a very precise science (as friends put it) where the exact ingredients get the desired results (usually).

As for cooking, it took me living on my own and learning to truly appreciate good food. My mother was never much for cooking and tended towards just getting the 'put it in the oven and forget it' meals. Well, I started getting bored of the options that presented me and decided to try cooking for myself.

Simple things at first, then slightly bold once in a while (once every other month, about). Soon I became, as I put it, a "food snob". I had found what good food was and the realization that if I wanted it, I had to make it myself and being so precise was not working.

Experimentation also has helped. Days where I see I have ingredients for something, but no recipe to go off of. Smile
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fwendy



Joined: 12 Aug 2005
Posts: 19
Location: UK

PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If your daughter wrote out a flow-chart for a recipe, with your help, it would be possible to build in tasting stages, and go back round the process loop if something needed to be added or changed, or if more cooking time was needed. Quality control is an important part of any manufacturing process. She will need your intuitive skills to help decide where in the process these quality checks need to be.

PS - I hope what is called a flow-chart in the UK is something you recognise in Australia.

http://deming.eng.clemson.edu/pub/tutorials/qctools/flowm.htm
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aristeas



Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2
Location: Australia

PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

LOLOLOLOL - I've actually begun experimenting with flowcharts with my dearly loved engineer - especially the good old "Test.Operate.Test. Exit" process.

We're trying to get her to recognise that testing - a good, solid engineers understanding - is appropriate and reasonable for food. She's got the idea - sort of - in that she'll now check for softness and general texture with a fork or skewer (in the case of baking) and recognises that if it really ISN'T ready in the time the recipe says then she needs to keep cooking (Operate) and then test again until its done.

But for some deeply strange reason she seems to think that tasting is cheating. She feels like it shows a lack of faith in the recipe writer and makes a mockery of the whole process of precise-cookery.

I am hoping that when she moves out of home some ordinary human survival skills will kick in and she'll relax and enjoy the wnole process - not just the mechanics... But seeing as her best friend recently burned down her mother's house (because she wanted to attempt slow-cooking in an Indian Tandoori oven without taking into account how modern technology is not always compatible with traditional methods) I'm just hoping we survive her cooking attempts unscathed!!!
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Last edited by aristeas on Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2005 9:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The trouble with recipes is the unstated assumptions that never precede them. These assumptions completely change the game and requires the practioner to make corrections or alterations to fit their particular situation (equipment, humidity, ambient temperature, age and potency of ingredients, personal taste, etc.)

Perhaps your daughter feels that checking the temperature of a food or tasting it is cheating because she assumes the recipe writer wrote the recipe to work for all cases. This is not true -- in general, the recipe writer writes for cooking at sea level in a reasonable humidity (say 30%, but who knows? The recipe writer sure isn't checking) working with ingredients purchased and gathered near where the recipe writer lives. For example, when I tell someone the recipe for preapring pork chops, I assume U.S. pork chops (which is cut from pigs that are bred to be very lean) and the preparation and recipe is designed for that particular cut and animal. In Europe, China, or Australia, the composition of that pork chop will differ greatly - so you MUST take it's temperature to determine doneness. In addition, the cooking temperature is never recorded precisely (heat on medium-high, that's a big variable!) No time based method will ever be able to be accurate - times are given as guidelines.

For cooking, the saying "cook it until it's done" is true, but it often more helpful to say "cook until medium-rare, about 10 minutes". The key is we want to cook it until it's ready, and to give you a clue - that's usually about 10 minutes. NOT the other way around (cook it for ten minutes, it should be done).

Likewise, seasoning has so many variables in it that you must taste to determine how much you've really added. Measuring out precise quantities of, let's say, nutmeg may not yield the flavor that the recipe writer desired. Perhaps he used freshly ground nutmeg and you have factory ground? What about when your nutmeg is 6 months old, or 1 year old? Flexibility is a desirable trait when cooking from recipes (just like it is when looking for a good engineer). The ability to know when to deviate from a recipe and when to follow it precisely to produce the intended result usually comes from experience, and everyone has to get there through their own means. The first step however is that your daughter must realize that no recipe is meant to be followed exactly. Doing so should yield adequate results, but the recipes must be adapted (perhaps a lot, or perhaps ever so slightly) to the cook's particular situation.
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Smillie - OzFire



Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 24
Location: South Australia

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:55 am    Post subject: What a wonderful discussion Reply with quote

Laughing Out Loud What a wonderful discussion... LOL My mum would have loved it, watching me in the kitchen used to drive her mad... I am both an artist with a engineers compartment in my mind, try sharing a head with one...

What brought me to sanity with cooking was the discovery of just how imprecise ingredients are, after I gave up trying to create a system to regulate the botanical and animal world to my view of conformity. My engineer thinking turned it all around, the problem is to force varying qualities and environments to produce predictable results.... and I was hooked, and have never followed a recipe precisely again. Mind you I still want to know if the wheat was grown in the wind or sheltered or in a hot or cold climate... Hey It really makes a huge difference in the gluten properties. And I am against battery hens.... inserting objects like that is downright sick.

The fowchart is a wonderful Idea... It helps to shift the problems as being to bring unknown qualities to a predictable result.

I loved Michaels response....
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Smillie - OzFire



Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 24
Location: South Australia

PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh by the way, at every point in a recipe where thought is required draw a square with a circle in it... Thats the symbol to an action and to test and evaluate at the same time.... Its an engineer's thing
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ktexp2



Joined: 03 Nov 2005
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm going to compare a recipe to "hand design" for something. You can do hand calculations all day long to meet specification requirements, but as soon as you break out the hardware, you're going to have some changes. Unfortunatly, there's no such thing as a "cooking simulation" to make sure you got the ingredient proportions right!

I think that's a good way to teach a budding engineer that theory doesn't always equal practice!
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Smert



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 11
Location: Gainesville, FL

PostPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Going back to what Michael post a little ways back. . .I think he has the right idea. Measurements, setting, harware, and whatnot can be hard to duplicate at times. Perhaps you can try the approach of telling your daughter that for the author's experience the recipe works well but part of being an engineer is adapting a formula for your own use (R&D work, if needbe.)

She needs to learn the process for adapting to hers (your) cookware, the age/quality of the local ingredients (freshness of spices and herbs are a good example), local weather/altitude and the like.

I like to look at recipes as fairly accurate guidelines and jumping off points to tweak to my own personal preferences. Besides, her taste/style doesn't necessarily have to match that of the original author's.

-Mike
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