I'm starting to get into the inexactness of cooking

[fiatlouis]

For the longest time, I have railed against the vagaries of cooking. I hate the fact that you have instructions like "add a dash of X" or "simmer on med or med high until done" or "bake until just right". Just give me a number of minutes, an exact temperature, and don't make me guess

Comments

[mrs_ajax]

a dash is actually a measurable amount. it is 1/8 of a teaspoon (a pinch is 1/16).
but i think the concept that cooking is a science (as a website i looked-up in order to find these amounts states) is kind of dumb. i'll bet scientific cookies do not provide us with the range of memories, aromas, and tastes that trial and error and companionship while eating provide us. if for no other reason than you are not trying to recreate an experiment but recreate sustenance, i do not buy that it is a science.

Well

[fiatlouis]

For me, the first time following a recipe I try to be as precise as possible in following it. But I have found with the things that I make regularly (as listed above), I basically do it all "approximately" now. I have a feeling of how much of which for how long, and I don't worry about having a recipe to follow. So I start out more "scientific" (really meaning "replicable") but it turns more "artistic" (meaning "approximate") after a while.

Re: Well

[mrs_ajax]

(for the record, i'm only so quick to respond because i'm avoiding work)
well, while i might, in another forum, argue with you about the definition of art as "approximation" (just because it is not science does not mean it has to be art, right?), on the more basic level of this discussion what your comment points to is familiarity. which is what i've always said: one knows what stiff peaks are in beating egg whites because one has made them stiff or knows when onions become translucent because they have made them so. cooking more makes cooking easier, which is also why i have little to no patience for people who say they "can't" cook for themselves and therefore don't (i'm thinking mostly of the privileged college kids one encounters on a daily basis at a West-coast public university, but also many white guys in the US).

Re: Well

[fiatlouis]

Well, the reason I used quotation marks and gave definitions is that I didn't think "scientific" and "artistic" were actually good words to use, but they seem to be to be used frequently as opposites, and often as the two possibilities of a binary system of work: you either do things scientifically, or artistically. You have a scientific temperament, or an artistic one, etc. I don't think it's quite that binary, and the older I get, the more I find myself to be more of a melange of these possibilities than strictly one or the other. And I agree with your critique of the "not possible for me to cook" line, although I have definitely met some men (or their wives) in my French class would use it, and they are neither American or white (Somali and Indian are the two that come to mind, but I think Turkish as well).

[magogin]

I had a conversation with a classmate on this topic recently. Her criteria for "doneness" was "do I want to eat this right now?" I definitely appreciate explicit instructions the first time I made a recipe. I'm only now starting to realize that I don't HAVE to make things exaaactly like the recipe says. Mike can whip up things without recipes, which still amazes me because I'm not at that point yet. I'm still likely to argue with him when he suggests substituting something else in a recipe for something we don't have on hand. "But it says THIS kind of sugar! That means my cookie is going to explode or something if I use the wrong kind."

You can try mail-ordering some masa harina and making your own tortillas for enchiladas. =)

[fiatlouis]

Yeah, I don't make random things like that, only things I have made quite a few times, and have a good feeling for what it's supposed to be like and what happens. E. is much more comfortable looking at some random things and seeing a dish, or going "eh, I'm sure it doesn't matter if we don't put that in" or "we can just substitute X". I think much of it is just experience, so perhaps both of us can improve!