I find it odd that Abel emerges from his room out of intrigue but not for promises of no 'Happy Birthday' songs. Then again, I shouldn't find anything about Abel odd at this point...
If it is a hockey puck like Abel thinks then it is a very large icing covered hockey puck! Imagine how big the hockey sticks would need to be for a puck the size of a cake :P
I wonder what it tastes like? Or if Jy-Jy had any help in making it?
I resent that! I'm a scientist and pretty decent with the food ;p
I was just thinking - Abel might be surprised that Jyrras baked the cake, but at least they did not let Mab do the cooking. Those nightmare causing brownies still give me the hystericals!
Well that's one way to make the door open...
Though I would have prefered the more dramatic way! (Mab doing it)
Nothing seems to have gone wrong... So far...
Jyrras is amazingly adorable! That happy little face! :) squeee!
Dramatic Scene Change!
Oh and this comic sheet was written in the Middle ages- According to the date anyways :P
Also, as Shades posted, being a engineer/scientist does not mean that you have to be bad at cooking- in fact all the programmers, scientists and chemists I know are very good cooks.
the distinction must be made between 'scientist' and 'mad scientist'. the latter are rarely known for their culinary prowess, although anyone with the title 'the impaler' could always start a kebab shop
Jyrras is so cute in that last panel, it's like he's taking lessons from Nyil.
Quote from: Brunhidden on June 04, 2012, 11:11:01 AM
the distinction must be made between 'scientist' and 'mad scientist'. the latter are rarely known for their culinary prowess, although anyone with the title 'the impaler' could always start a kebab shop
I'm pretty sure Tesla could cook, and he is as close as you can get to a mad scientist In real life as you can get. But he was a good one :P
Quote from: Sofox on June 04, 2012, 11:43:08 AM
Jyrras is so cute in that last panel, it's like he's taking lessons from Nyil.
*ROFLSNERK*
Who do you think Nyil probably learned it from?
Edit: Also, the cake, does not appear to be a lie..
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 04, 2012, 11:52:32 AM
Quote from: Brunhidden on June 04, 2012, 11:11:01 AM
the distinction must be made between 'scientist' and 'mad scientist'. the latter are rarely known for their culinary prowess, although anyone with the title 'the impaler' could always start a kebab shop
I'm pretty sure Tesla could cook, and he is as close as you can get to a mad scientist In real life as you can get. But he was a good one :P
cooking termite don't count. besides, he was terrified of round objects like eggs and knobs.
testla- i have invented a new egg-less cake using a Bunsen burner instead of evil stoves. it contains a years dietary compliment of niacin, features a cobalt blue finish, and can independently rotate at thirty RPM if left in the sun!
eddison- why do the candles sparkle in cyan?
testla- because they emit radio waves on the frequency of the human eye by degradation of thorium isotopes, don't look directly at them
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 04, 2012, 10:57:53 AM
Oh and this comic sheet was written in the Middle ages- According to the date anyways :P
Yeah, I noticed that. Was cake as we know it even around in 1012?
Quote from: Brunhidden on June 04, 2012, 12:13:26 PM
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 04, 2012, 11:52:32 AM
Quote from: Brunhidden on June 04, 2012, 11:11:01 AM
the distinction must be made between 'scientist' and 'mad scientist'. the latter are rarely known for their culinary prowess, although anyone with the title 'the impaler' could always start a kebab shop
I'm pretty sure Tesla could cook, and he is as close as you can get to a mad scientist In real life as you can get. But he was a good one :P
cooking termite don't count. besides, he was terrified of round objects like eggs and knobs.
testla- i have invented a new egg-less cake using a Bunsen burner instead of evil stoves. it contains a years dietary compliment of niacin, features a cobalt blue finish, and can independently rotate at thirty RPM if left in the sun!
eddison- why do the candles sparkle in cyan?
testla- because they emit radio waves on the frequency of the human eye by degradation of thorium isotopes, don't look directly at them
You CAN use tesla coils to cook chicken :P (science project)
They have hockey in Furrae?
Hmmmmm...I can't help that today's comic was a fun little poke at another comic with a person that considers cooking is a science.
I personally think Jyrras's choice in candles very thought out. Nothing worst then a cake that can be used as a lighthouse and takes up all the room for frosting with a whole lot of candles.
Quote from: joshofspam on June 04, 2012, 02:49:51 PM
They have hockey in Furrae?
Hmmmmm...I can't help that today's comic was a fun little poke at another comic with a person that considers cooking is a science.
I personally think Jyrras's Joice in candles very thought out. Nothing worst then a cake that can be used as a lighthouse and takes up all the room for frosting with a whole lot of candles.
That's the best kind of cake though...
It brightens up the room! but it sucks to eat the cake after.. To much wax.
Quote from: Plotting on June 04, 2012, 09:21:46 AM
I was just thinking - Abel might be surprised that Jyrras baked the cake, but at least they did not let Mab do the cooking. Those nightmare causing brownies still give me the hystericals!
he tired but wound up with a solid brick of something or the other covered in black frosting (that is frosting right? did he burn the frosting too?) and candles.
Well hockey puck or not, I think it's safe to assume that cake is definitely chocolate.........................or just reeeally burnt. :tongue
Quote from: ShadesFox on June 04, 2012, 07:51:58 AM
I resent that! I'm a scientist and pretty decent with the food ;p
No one said that scientists can't cook. Only that cooking isn't science.
Well at least it's the thought that counts, I wonder what Jyrras got Abel for his present...
Quote from: TacticalError on June 04, 2012, 12:30:57 PM
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 04, 2012, 10:57:53 AM
Oh and this comic sheet was written in the Middle ages- According to the date anyways :P
Yeah, I noticed that. Was cake as we know it even around in 1012?
yes, it was in fact very popular. however 'cake' at the time contained no sugar, instead it would include honey and suet with a mix of nuts and fruit. typically they were doused with alcohol and buried as a food preservation or as a military trail ration, but this is also the typical wedding cake up until the French developed refined flour and fine sugar, in parts of Great Brittan wedding cakes still include suet and fruit
Quote from: Brunhidden on June 04, 2012, 08:24:29 PM
yes, it was in fact very popular. however 'cake' at the time contained no sugar, instead it would include honey and suet with a mix of nuts and fruit. typically they were doused with alcohol and buried as a food preservation or as a military trail ration, but this is also the typical wedding cake up until the French developed refined flour and fine sugar, in parts of Great Brittan wedding cakes still include suet and fruit
i did not know that. also what's Suet again?
Ah, I loved this comic. Amber's expressions get better all the time. Abel's "how do I get out of this?" expression in the first panel, and Jyrras' "I
know it's horrible, c'mon, laugh with me!" expression in the last panel are both wonderful.
What is that cake supposed to be? Really dark chocolate? Or
really overdone vanilla? :-) And black frosting to go with it -- what, liquorice ganash? :-) I can just imagine Jyrras in the kitchen, being, uh, assisted (yeah, that's the word) by Deebs and Mace. Yikes. (For the record, I had a roommate once who was at roughly Jyrras' level of culinary ability. I swear, that boy could burn water. He did once have the entire apartment complex he was living in evacuated, and the fire department summoned when he tried to make coffee. When we decided to share an apartment [after the aforementioned coffee making incident], I told him, "I cook. You clean." We got along famously.) Really, though, Jyrras needs to remember that cooking is a form of applied chemistry. It even has a large body of art to go with the theory. :-)
Quote from: e_voyager on June 04, 2012, 09:56:21 PM
i did not know that. also what's Suet again?
Suet is a type of fat, usually from beef or maybe mutton. It has a high smoke point, which makes it nice for things like deep frying. In the old days, it was much used when making things like steamed puddings. Nowadays, probably the most common use (at least here in the US) that I've seen is as a type bird food. Here, I've found a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suet) that may shed a bit more light on the subject.
Quote from: Lurkie on June 04, 2012, 11:04:12 PM
Ah, I loved this comic. Amber's expressions get better all the time. Abel's "how do I get out of this?" expression in the first panel, and Jyrras' "I know it's horrible, c'mon, laugh with me!" expression in the last panel are both wonderful.
What is that cake supposed to be? Really dark chocolate? Or really overdone vanilla? :-) And black frosting to go with it -- what, liquorice ganash? :-) I can just imagine Jyrras in the kitchen, being, uh, assisted (yeah, that's the word) by Deebs and Mace. Yikes. (For the record, I had a roommate once who was at roughly Jyrras' level of culinary ability. I swear, that boy could burn water. He did once have the entire apartment complex he was living in evacuated, and the fire department summoned when he tried to make coffee. When we decided to share an apartment [after the aforementioned coffee making incident], I told him, "I cook. You clean." We got along famously.) Really, though, Jyrras needs to remember that cooking is a form of applied chemistry. It even has a large body of art to go with the theory. :-)
Actually, he baked it meaning, that he put a hockey puck in the oven. And then put icing and candles on it.
Wanna bet it's a decoy cake to get Abel out of his room, with the real cake hidden away?
If it is a decoy then i bet Jyrras will look crest fallen when they bring out the real cake.
Quote from: e_voyager on June 05, 2012, 12:13:08 PM
If it is a decoy then i bet Jyrras will look crest fallen when they bring out the real cake.
And if it is a decoy, I wonder if Abel will snarkily applaud Alexsi and Mab when he finds out it was bait-cake, or get super angry and storm back into his
lair room.
I once saw a Chemistry of Cooking course on a syllabus. Many baking processes are actually polymerization reactions. A cake becoming harder during baking is actually like the heating of a thermosetting plastic. Taking such a course would prevent you from trying to bake cookies with saccharin instead of sugar, since the sugar is actually undergoing a chemical process in the baking process as well as providing sweets. Broiling meats is also a chemical process. A knowledge of physics can also be a help during cooking, as knowledge of heat transfer can ensure that the material is evenly cooked instead of being raw on the inside and caramelized on the outside.
I say cooking can be more like an art than a science, sure you can follow a recipe carefully and often get consistent results, but a truly wonderful culinary creation takes improvisation and imagination.
Quote from: MT Hazard on June 06, 2012, 07:53:06 AM
I say cooking can be more like an art than a science, sure you can follow a recipe carefully and often get consistent results, but a truly wonderful culinary creation takes improvisation and imagination.
But it has a larger chance of failing dramatically if you don't apply science to it.
But it is fun to just experiment without bounds- as long as you don't kill yourself accidentally because of it.
i shall once again intercede, with a scientist whose science is food
(http://topscallops.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/alton-brown.jpg)
(http://gaiuspaxflorius.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/alton_brown_geek_motivator1.jpg)
with a penchant for things like 'fire' and 'explosions'
(http://www.eatmedaily.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/alton-brown-late-night-jimmy-fallon.jpg)
videos including explosions included http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/10/alton-brown-makes-a-smoothie-using-a-water-cooler-and-a-fire-extinguisher-on-late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-video/
watch his cooking show, he goes to the hardware store roughly every 1.7 episodes, and instructs his audience to chuck the dinky little creme brule torch and grab a propane cutting torch
I guess they are exceptions to every rule and rules to every exception.
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 06, 2012, 08:58:15 AM
Quote from: MT Hazard on June 06, 2012, 07:53:06 AM
I say cooking can be more like an art than a science, sure you can follow a recipe carefully and often get consistent results, but a truly wonderful culinary creation takes improvisation and imagination.
But it has a larger chance of failing dramatically if you don't apply science to it.
But it is fun to just experiment without bounds- as long as you don't kill yourself accidentally because of it.
Here's one example of spectacular failure if you get things wrong. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nembswJRkSs) The chemistry of cooking class was at a culinary school. Experimentation is fine but understanding how the cooking process works as well as understanding how taste and smell works can enable you to determine what went wrong and to make it better the next time.
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 05, 2012, 08:01:24 AM
Actually, he baked it meaning, that he put a hockey puck in the oven. And then put icing and candles on it.
That'd be one heck of a hockey puck! Who plays the game, the Big Giant Griffins? (One can just imagine the property damage...)
Quote from: Naldru on June 05, 2012, 10:55:48 PM
I once saw a Chemistry of Cooking course on a syllabus. Many baking processes are actually polymerization reactions. A cake becoming harder during baking is actually like the heating of a thermosetting plastic. Taking such a course would prevent you from trying to bake cookies with saccharin instead of sugar, since the sugar is actually undergoing a chemical process in the baking process as well as providing sweets. Broiling meats is also a chemical process. A knowledge of physics can also be a help during cooking, as knowledge of heat transfer can ensure that the material is evenly cooked instead of being raw on the inside and caramelized on the outside.
Now that's a class I'd like to take, it sounds like a lot of fun. BTW, there's even more to baking with sugar than the polymerization. When you beat butter to softness (i.e., cream it) you're beating air into it. When you slowly add sugar to the creamed butter, you're doing more of the same thing: The jagged surfaces of the sugar grains trap air, and incorporate it into the batter. When the batter is baked, the air expands and helps make the resulting cake or whatever lighter. This is basically how an angel food cake works. Beat the egg whites till they're firm, then fold in the flour, sugar, and whatnot. The egg whites -- and the trapped air -- provide the "fluffyness" of the cake.
Quote from: MT Hazard on June 06, 2012, 07:53:06 AM
I say cooking can be more like an art than a science, sure you can follow a recipe carefully and often get consistent results, but a truly wonderful culinary creation takes improvisation and imagination.
Cooking is
both art and science. Good cooks are those who have internalized the science of cooking -- though doubtless they don't think of it in those terms -- to the point that it becomes second nature. Whereupon they can cook "by feel" or by intuition. That's where the true art comes into play, and where the talents of the truly gifted chefs really shine.
Quote from: Brunhidden on June 06, 2012, 09:42:36 AM
i shall once again intercede, with a scientist whose science is food
Ah, good ol' Alton, he's always fun. Alas, the videos are no longer available at the linked site. (The link is good, but the vids aren't there any more.) And me without cable tv, *sigh*. Time to peruse YouTube, I guess.
As for those wussy little crème brûlée torches, they're just marketing gimmicks to get people to buy a really expensive, "proper" (read, "even cheaper") version of a cheap, pedestrian tool. Bah, humbug. :tongue
Quote from: D'ymkarra on June 04, 2012, 12:13:03 PM
Quote from: Sofox on June 04, 2012, 11:43:08 AM
Jyrras is so cute in that last panel, it's like he's taking lessons from Nyil.
*ROFLSNERK*
Who do you think Nyil probably learned it from?
Edit: Also, the cake, does not appear to be a lie..
You guys suck :| You both suck so hardcore, if there was a.... a sucking contest you'd win hands down by sucking the entire universe into your sucky.. sucking... suckiness or something Dx Whatever, you both suck!
Also, I think that Jyrras should try his hand at molecular gastronomy. It's all the rage nowadays, and it literally turns cooking into a science, like chemistry! Cooking using a chemistry set - a few popular restaurants are doing it now! http://www.motorestaurant.com/
I just want to see Abel eat his words by giving Jyrras some form of cooking he'd be good at.
And also, D'ymkarra and Sofox both suck >:c
Why, Nyil. Anyone would think you were upset, what with a cute little outburst like that. ;-]
Quote from: Lurkie on June 06, 2012, 01:01:14 PM
Cooking is both art and science. Good cooks are those who have internalized the science of cooking -- though doubtless they don't think of it in those terms -- to the point that it becomes second nature. Whereupon they can cook "by feel" or by intuition. That's where the true art comes into play, and where the talents of the truly gifted chefs really shine.
I agree, but you don't normally see them going about cooking as if it were a scientific experiment (which would involve establishing all their hypotheses and their expected results before they cook, documenting every step of the process, then writing a report about the result, cross-checking it and comparing it to other related works, and drawing conclusions and making suggestions for future work; and that's not even counting the theoretical frame - as in where their present work fits among the field of cooking - and listing their motivations for cooking that particular meal).
I agree that science can influence and assist the art of cooking, but if cooking itself were treated as a science we'd be lucky to get one meal per month.
Who cares if cooking is science or art? Let's settle for both and enjoy making/eating the food and the exploding coffee machines. (seems to be a thing hereabout, this is the third time in the neighborhood this week)
Poor Nyil do you not realize there is an inverse relationship between being cute and being taken seriously? Worse it's a exponential relationship as well
Quote from: Gabi on June 06, 2012, 05:32:49 PM
Quote from: Lurkie on June 06, 2012, 01:01:14 PM
Cooking is both art and science. Good cooks are those who have internalized the science of cooking -- though doubtless they don't think of it in those terms -- to the point that it becomes second nature. Whereupon they can cook "by feel" or by intuition. That's where the true art comes into play, and where the talents of the truly gifted chefs really shine.
I agree, but you don't normally see them going about cooking as if it were a scientific experiment (which would involve establishing all their hypotheses and their expected results before they cook, documenting every step of the process, then writing a report about the result, cross-checking it and comparing it to other related works, and drawing conclusions and making suggestions for future work; and that's not even counting the theoretical frame - as in where their present work fits among the field of cooking - and listing their motivations for cooking that particular meal).
Which is why I said that good cooks don't think of cooking in those terms -- they aren't scientists. (Well, they don't have to be; there's no reason why one can't be both.) They do use observation and experience, and the occasional experiment, to form hypotheses about what would taste good, and what wouldn't. But the formal scientific method is probably not something they'd use much.
Quote from: Ignuus66 on June 06, 2012, 06:57:34 PM
Who cares if cooking is science or art? Let's settle for both and enjoy making/eating the food and the exploding coffee machines. (seems to be a thing hereabout, this is the third time in the neighborhood this week)
Exploding coffee machines?!? :boggle Wow, you guys have got my old roomie beat -- even he never did anything like
that...!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=47qgz4ToBfE#t=27s
I'm telling you, man, Jyrras could be a kickin' cook, he just needs to get into that molecular gastronomy!
Quote from: justacritic on June 06, 2012, 09:19:17 PM
Poor Nyil do you not realize there is an inverse relationship between being cute and being taken seriously? Worse it's a exponential relationship as well
It's not that we don't take him seriously, we just have a really hard time getting past the cute before we can do so. He cooks up dishes that I personally would never have the patience to prepare..
Quote from: D'ymkarra on June 07, 2012, 07:06:40 PM
Quote from: justacritic on June 06, 2012, 09:19:17 PM
Poor Nyil do you not realize there is an inverse relationship between being cute and being taken seriously? Worse it's a exponential relationship as well
It's not that we don't take him seriously, we just have a really hard time getting past the cute before we can do so. He cooks up dishes that I personally would never have the patience to prepare..
Wait, him?!? Nvm, I think I know the relationship you're talking about, this one right? http://xkcd.com/231/ (http://xkcd.com/231/)
Quote from: Lurkie on June 07, 2012, 03:17:38 PM
Quote from: Gabi on June 06, 2012, 05:32:49 PM
Quote from: Lurkie on June 06, 2012, 01:01:14 PM
...
...
Which is why I said that good cooks don't think of cooking in those terms -- they aren't scientists. (Well, they don't have to be; there's no reason why one can't be both.) They do use observation and experience, and the occasional experiment, to form hypotheses about what would taste good, and what wouldn't. But the formal scientific method is probably not something they'd use much.
I agree that great cooks can just "go by feel" but those cookbook recipes come from somewhere! If they're consistent enough then it's irrelevant and they just measure the stuff they've always used. Cooking is fun b/c actual science requires a degree of precision that cooking can get away without, and that wiggle room can lead to two completely different recipes for the same thing that are both delicious!
(I'm now thinking about a cookie recipe in terms of how a chem paper may write it: To a stirred mixture of (blink) add (blank), stirring vigorously. Repeat for each wet ingredient, in order. Mixture of dry ingredients was added to reaction mixture for 1 min then stirred slowly until just mixed. Mixture was divided into rounded teaspoons and left to sit 10 min at 350 deg F. Product was obtained in 85% yield, with losses likely resulting from eating of dough by the preparer... yes, chem papers look roughly like this, but with really big words. Chem paper experimentals look like recipes to me, for whatever reason, just with overly convoluted language.)
Quote from: Nocturne of Night on June 08, 2012, 07:43:21 AM
I agree that great cooks can just "go by feel" but those cookbook recipes come from somewhere! If they're consistent enough then it's irrelevant and they just measure the stuff they've always used. Cooking is fun b/c actual science requires a degree of precision that cooking can get away without, and that wiggle room can lead to two completely different recipes for the same thing that are both delicious!
Actually, the modern cookbook, with its exact measurements and cooking times is a, well... modern development. Back in "ye olden dayes," they were more a description of the ingredients, with maybe a description of how to prepare them. The instructions were fairly sparse, too. Basically, I think, folks were supposed to know how to cook, they just needed the list of ingredients and some pointers. Here's a recipe for an Elizabethan "Savoury Pottage" (http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/elizabethan/fetch-recipe.php?rid=eliz-savoury-pottage) -- what we could call a stew. (This website has all sorts of interesting old recipes, so have fun.) You can see that it's not exactly what we'd think of as a modern recipe. :-) Over the centuries, not only did our kitchens change (we no longer cook in a fireplace!), but our expectations of what a recipe should tell us did, too.
Quote from: Nocturne of Night on June 08, 2012, 07:43:21 AM
(I'm now thinking about a cookie recipe in terms of how a chem paper may write it [...] Chem paper experimentals look like recipes to me, for whatever reason, just with overly convoluted language.)
Hah! It's been many
(many) years since I had to write a chemistry lab report, but that does sound familiar. You're right, a chem paper
is a sort of recipe, subject to sesquipedalian loquaciousness [TVTropes link not included ~_^ ]. You might enjoy the Cooking for Engineers (http://www.cookingforengineers.com/) web site. The recipe cards there are, shall we say, unique. :square