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Geek Food: A Cookbook for the Technologically Inclined 308

Posted by michael from the alka-seltzer-not-included dept.
thaen writes: "Might want to check out the latest offering from arstechnica.com. Somebody has compiled a 51-page book of recipes written by geeks, for geeks, and originally posted in the arstechnica 'Lounge' forum. Mmmm...the omelette..." I seriously hope that the macaroni and cheese recipe really needs "tabasco sauce", rather than "tobacco sauce", because I can't even imagine... no. Not going to think about it.
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Geek Food: A Cookbook for the Technologically Inclined More

Geek Food: A Cookbook for the Technologically Inclined

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  • seems a little long (Score:4, Funny)

    by seinman ( 463076 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:03PM (#2940484) Homepage Journal
    who needs 51 pages to call up pizza hut?

    • Re:seems a little long (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      ... or to walk down the hall and grab a twinkie and a Code Red.
    • who needs 51 pages to call up pizza hut?
      No one. "Easy Pizza" is on page 11.

      That's much more efficient than my local Yellow Pages... I have to read through the first 364 pages before I get to "Pizza Hut."

    • Call? You're gonna have to find a place that takes online orders, man.
    • Who needs 51 pages? Old family recipe for Romulan Noodles:

      Crush noodles before opening packet (unless you like them dripping all over your close/keyboard)

      Fill bowl, dish or whatever works in microwave with warm water

      Add spice packet and nuke water a minute or so on high

      (add frozen vegetables and maybe a crushed hot pepper if you're a gourmand)

      Add noodles

      Nuke until just boiling

      For those who can't take MSG (gives me splitting headaches, shouldn't this stuff be printed with a Surgeon General type warning?), Taste of Thai (Thai kitchen has some cool little packets of rice noodles in various flavors with no MSG)

      Other than that, sugar and caffeine make the world go 'round.

  • Geek Food (Score:3, Funny)

    by Brit Aviator ( 542593 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:05PM (#2940489) Homepage
    This assumes, of course, that geeks are willing to brave anything even resembling a kitchen. Most people I know of the technical inclination much prefer something that either a) comes in a bag or b) gets delivered to your table. After all, geeks have far more important things to use their brain power on, such as....er....um....yeah.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Geek Food (Score:5, Insightful)

      by HalfFlat ( 121672 ) on Saturday February 02, 2002 @01:02AM (#2940947)

      This observation, together with the more dubious recipes to be found in the collection, surprises me.

      Many of my friends and acquaintances fall into the possibly geeky category. I say this because they are involved in or are interested in traditionally geeky things, like computing, mathematics, and academic arcana, and a good portion of them even having traditionally geeky hobbies like juggling or role-playing games, or SCA participation. Yet of all of them, I know of only one who doesn't give good food and cooking any real consideration. If I were to extrapolate from these people to geeky people generally, I would have thought that geeks typically took cooking and food quality very seriously!

      I'm located in a city where there is a wide range of food available which is both cheap and of good quality --- this applies to both ingredients and to restaurants! It's possible that may explain some of the discrepancy.

      Cooking though I think can appeal in many of the same ways that coding, or nutting out a new proof to a maths problem, or playing a musical instrument can. It's an opportunity to be both analytical and creative.

      Given how quickly one can prepare a stir fry or pasta with fresh ingredients (25 minutes or less including washing up), there is not a lot of time to be gained by eating out save at the fastest of fast food places. Cooking for oneself can be practical in time and money savings, healthier than eating out, and intrinsically fun and interesting! If you the reader haven't before now, I'd recommend you give it a shot and do some experimentation!

      • Why geek food is he way it is? It's not just fast, it's FAST and SIMPLE, because time spent fiddling around with it is time away from the project/keyboard/mouse/monitor/online/pr0n/slashdo t, whatever.
    • I love to cook. It offers an escape from the many hours spent in front of the keyboard. Of course I was born and raised in Louisiana where cooking is a hobby. Real Louisiana men can cook up a mean dinner out of just about anything we have available.

      I would assume that a large portion of the college crowd on here eats nothing but fast food and things from a machine, but I don't think that's necessarily a geek thing, it's a situation thing. As they get out of school and get great jobs they'll have a bit more time and money to enjoy things. Others will continue to eat out of a bag.

      Many of my very intellectual friends are also wonderful chefs; the men at least. That's a strange phenomenon. I think it may be because the more intelligent women are trying to escape the female stereotype.

      Of course there are many exceptions to every rule.

  • It's not for geeks unless (Score:3, Funny)

    by Pyromage ( 19360 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:05PM (#2940494) Homepage
    it's 42 or 64 pages long!
  • Wow. A book on how to cook 51 different types of HotPockets.

  • Yay! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:08PM (#2940511) Homepage Journal
    I will master the art of cooking using this book and challenge Iron Chef Morimoto!

    • Re:Yay! (Score:5, Funny)

      by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld@@@gmail...com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @11:30PM (#2940767) Homepage
      Quotes from that episode:

      "Now Iron Chef Geek appears to be marinating the Mishima beef in some sort of brown mixture..is that soy sauce? Now he's coating it in what looks like flour..."

      "Fukui-san!"

      "Go ahead, Ohta-san."

      "The Iron Chef Geek is soaking the beef in Jolt cola, then coating it in crushed penguin mints."

      "Now that's just disgusting."

  • Oh my God! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Accipiter ( 8228 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:09PM (#2940513)

    I seriously hope that the macaroni and cheese recipe really needs "tabasco sauce", rather than "tobacco sauce", because I can't even imagine... no. Not going to think about it.

    Dear Lord. A Slashdot editor griping about Spelling.

    Did I get off on the wrong planet?
    • hehe. all this talk about food and planets reminded me of a story about this chick i know.

      back in my high school days when half my friends worked at McD's, a friend of mine's sister was being teased because she was (still is) an airhead. upon being asked what planet she was from, she angrily replied "America".

      anyways, i thought it would be good for a chuckle.

    • No, it's Tomacco! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by WilsonSD ( 159419 )
      Perhaps he meant Tomacco Sauce [thesimpsons.com]. Mmmmm, tomacco.

      -Steve
  • Disclaimer: I did not read the whole thing.

    It looks like a buch of (often redundant) recipies for average food items. So if a geek eats food that is normal, and the old maxim "you are what you eat" is true, then geeks are normal

    Blast, I always wanted to be abnormal ;-)

  • Other Good Cookbooks for Geeks (Score:3, Informative)

    by Redking ( 89329 ) <{stevenw} {at} {redking.com}> on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:11PM (#2940523) Homepage Journal
    I'm not implying anything but I've found that bachelors' cookbooks are great sources for easy to make food for geeks. Also, the recipes are great for college people who live in their own apartments and have a kitchen!

    Check out ISBNs: 0919845622 and 0962845302

    me

  • pdf? (Score:3, Funny)

    by rnb ( 471088 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:11PM (#2940527)
    Yeah, thanks for putting standard text into a 500k pdf. Seriously.
  • Anything that puts the words "cookbook", "omlette" and "flyingmember" together in the same sentence is...un-appetising, at best.

    Soko

  • Variation on the Strawberry Banana Shake (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Col. Panic ( 90528 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:13PM (#2940536) Homepage Journal
    I make a kick-ass shake when I have 5 minutes before leaving for work:

    Small handful of icecubes in blender. Add heaping tablespoon of frozen concentrated o.j., about a half cup of plain nonfat yogurt, a banana, and any fruit you like. It works great with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, plums, and even pear if you don't mind a somewhat grainy consistency.

    REALLY tasty and lots of fiber to boot.
    • I make banana shakes during the summer, but I use homemade yogurt.

      1 really ripe banana
      some sugar if you like
      2 cups yogurt
      a bit of water to thin

      blend everything and drink it.

      The yogurt is really easy to make too, and it's far cheaper than buying it.

      use 1/2 gallon milk - I've tried everything from whole to skim, and all of them work about equally well. Put the milk in a plastic container and nuke about 25 minutes on high until it's boiling. Let it boil for about 2 minutes. The boiling causes all those proteins in the milk to stretch out, link up, and form nice long chains. Those chains actually cause the yogurt to be nice and firm. If you don't boil the milk as long, the yogurt will be goopy, but will taste the same. Boiling milk in a microwave is easier because it won't burn like in a pan on the stove.

      OK, you've boiled the milk, now put it into a covered container and let it sit and cool down.
      When it's about 125 degrees or less, open the top and dump in a container of unflavored unsweetened yogurt with live acidophilus cultures. This yogurt can be a cup of your previous batch, or it can be a new cup from the store to get you started. Stir it up with a clean spoon and put the top back on the container.

      Let that yogurt container sit on the counter for 8-12 hours at room temperature. When you open that thing up, you will be only the latest talking monkey to take part of a long human culinary tradition that probably spans over 10,000 years. Smell that yogurt - that's our HISTORY in that bowl. Save a bit in a clean jar for the next batch and start making those fruit shakes.
  • The staple of my diet during college consisted of this recipie:

    Free (as in Happy hour) hot dogs

    • 200 cheap wieners
    • 200 cheap buns
    • 2 gallons hot water
    • 1 bottle ketchup
    • 1 bottle mustard
    Place hot water in a large tub, add wieners. Arrange all items on a folding table. Garnish with stale keg beer. Serve.

    • Hotdogs are gross boild, and its a tremendous waste of energy to heat up all that water for a few weiners. Use the microwave for gods sake.

      • Hotdogs are gross boild, and its a tremendous waste of energy to heat up all that water for a few weiners. Use the microwave for gods sake.

        1. Food quality has never been a factor in free happy hour food

        2. You propose letting drunken patrons operate a microwave? Can you imagine an cluster of exploding wieners?

      • Wait, you prefer the taste of microwaved hot dogs to boiled? The oil in the sausage drains out when you boil them. When you nuke them, the skin can tear at the ends and down the middle, making really weird (unappetizing) shapes. The other result is a somewhat rubbery texture.

        A boiled Nathan's or Miller's hot dog kicks ass all over any other brand, cooked any other way (except for grilled). Just a matter of taste, but nuked hot dogs are a no-no around here.

        < tofuhead >

        • Re:Classic recipie (Score:2, Interesting)

          by T-Ranger ( 10520 )
          Nathan's or Miller's

          I parsed that as Nathan's in Millers. My first thought (being Canadian) was WTF is a Nathan's, and why would you want to put it in boiling urine? Then I realized you were talking about boiling some hotdog in Beer. Then I realized what you realy meant.

          But that leads to an interesting question: What would hot dogs taste like, boiled in beer?

  • Thai Basil Chicken Recipe for AOL Users
    1. Get large axe from kitchen (large dinner knife OK)
    2. Go to backyard and get chicken. Cut legs off (save legs in your pocket; used in sauce later).
    3. Boil chicken in large pot until dead (silent).
    4. Drain water from pot and throw in 1qt soy sauce, 1qt chili, 4 crushed garlic cloves, 2 qt fish sauce, and 5 holy basil leaves.
    5. Beat legs into paste and add to pot.
    6. Serve with large spork and enjoy.
    On a serious note, anyone have a really good recipe for Thai Basil Chicken? That dish at Dupont Circle's Cafe Asia is the only thing I miss about DC.

  • Already exists. (Score:3, Informative)

    by aussersterne ( 212916 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:24PM (#2940577) Homepage
    The best Web site on the net is just such a cookbook, and it can be found here [tatfad.co.uk].

  • Tobacco Sauce (Score:5, Funny)

    by JohnG ( 93975 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:24PM (#2940578)
    Big Tobacco doesn't want you to know this, but Philip Morris has been adding tobacco sauce to their kraft macaroni and cheese for some time now, in hopes of getting younger children addicted earlier.
    Truth is contagious; Infect-truth.

    DISCLAIMER:This parody is in no way associated with Infect-truth or truth.com. Had this been a really infect-truth commercial, it would have been much less logical.

    • Re:Tobacco Sauce (Score:3, Informative)

      by sphere ( 27305 )
      Little does JohnG know that many chefs de l'haute cuisine in New York City and Paris have been using tobacco as a spice/flavoring agent in fancy-pants recipes, especially desserts!

      NOTE: This is actually true and has been amply documented by the New York Times--"Hmm, Hot and Spicy. It's What? It's Not!" by Melissa Clark (1/31/01). Don't believe me? Be my guest. [nytimes.com]
      • Jesus...I wouldn't have believed it, but here's another article on it [about.com]. IMO, these people (the chefs) are setting themselves up for lawsuits bigtime. Tobacco is toxic. [nicotinevictims.com]

  • The ticker (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Faux_Pseudo ( 141152 ) <Faux@Pseudo.gmail@com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:28PM (#2940589)
    There is a ticker on the site that is currently showing just a hair over 10,000 visits. Now we can watch the /. effect in real time.

    By the way I have been looking for a geek style cookbook for a while.
    Any one know of a cook book that specializes in recipes that can be cooked up a week in advance and in bulk that will not loose their flavor or require more than 30 ingredients?
    I have visited numerous bookstores in the last month and have as of yet to find such a book.
    • > GUI's are like diapers, everyone grows out of them.

      Well, I'll get off-topic'd, but its not my fault he doesn't have a journal. :P

      Now now. We all love science, right? Well, if your goal isn't to eke out that extra power hidden under the hood, or to make a political statement (which I support) by coupling the lack of a GUI with the notion of open source, science can tell you that getting the job done with the best quickness:stress-free ratio for the average 'grower' involves more gui, less memorization. Would you really want to type in the name of every object you wanted to interact with in the real world, or would you rather that typing interface attempt to approach the ease of use and real-world familiarity that three dimentional objects enjoy?

      As a disclaimer, I'm a C/C++ FreeBSD programmer, so I'm not dissing the CLI. Just understand that it was build by, and most importantly, for the technical illuminati like you and I.
    • There is a ticker on the site that is currently showing just a hair over 10,000 visits. Now we can watch the /. effect in real time.

      As I post this the ticker is at: 13109 (just to give a running guide here)

  • can be found at AllRecipes.com. [allrecipes.com] Search for the 4-star or 5-star recipes to find the best stuff. There are several great ones that work well for one person, including the tuna burgers one (yum!) and Chex Mix (your friends at work will love you when you bring a huge bag of it in.)

    My personal favorite 10-minute recipe requires a steamer:

    Easy Ballpark Hot Dogs

    -- Buy some good plump hot dogs and cheap hot dog buns at the store. Grab some shredded cheddar cheese and any other garnishes (onions, ketchup) while you're there.
    -- Turn on steamer. Put in hot dog. Set timer for 10 minutes.
    -- At 7 minutes, put hot dog bun in steamer (off to the side so it doesn't get soggy). Place cheese and other garnishes on bun before sticking it in the steamer.

    3 minutes later, pull both out and eat. Voila! Real ballpark-style hot dogs in 10 minutes. Oh-so-good, and easy to make. It just goes to show that even total geeky klutzes like us can make great food! ;)
  • Somewhere along the line food got bastardized.. People accept prepackaged, canned, frozen, freeze dried, shrink wrapped whozits whatsits and god knows what else as "food"

    Even the recipes in this book, although geared towards geeks or bachelors, falls prey to the same problem..

    People have become convinced that prepackaged food is quicker, and better than actually COOKING something..

    I'd urge anyone who likes to eat.. (you don't have to like to cook.. I don't like cooking, but i like to eat, so its an ends to mean)

    Next time you go shopping.. Skip the boxed meals.. Skip the frozen meals.. (You can buy frozen vegetables if you don't want to store produce)

    Pick up steaks, burgers, fish, shrimp, ANYTHING other than boxed macaroni and cheeze..

    Buy real butter.. not margarine, not ICBINB..

    Spring for some olive oil (do some reading on the grades, or buy some of each)

    Take it all home, and cook some real food..

    You won't be sorry..

    And to facilitate this new eating experience.. Here's a quick steak recipe (thanks to alton brown)

    Take 1 steak. (I like ny strips, but i think ribeyes work a bit better)

    Take a cast iron, or solid metal pan

    Put pan in 500 degree oven for 10 minutes

    Cover steak in seasoning (Salt and pepper work nicely)

    Coat steak lightly in oil

    REmove pan, put on highest temperature stovetop burner

    Turn on vent fan or unplug smoke detectors (IMPORTANT.. THIS MAKES A LOT OF SMOKE.)

    Sear steak for 30-45 seconds each side (just let it sit)

    Put entire pan into oven for 2 minutes

    Flip steak, cook for 1.5-2 more minutes (depending on doneness)

    Remove steak from oven

    Let sit for 3 minutes (otherwise the juices will leak out)

    Eat with gusto.

    Life is short.. eat well..
    • Somewhere along the line food got bastardized.. People accept prepackaged, canned, frozen, freeze dried, shrink wrapped whozits whatsits and god knows what else as "food"

      People were forced into working obscene hours and commuting over vast distances, that's what changed our eating habits. A lot of times people are too tired to cook when they get home.
    • I used to do mine that way and they come out truely excellent, but I've found a slightly modified version that I prefer.

      Put the cast iron skillet in the oven and turn on the broiler. Let it sit in there for a good while. When you think it's about as hot as it's going to get, take it out of the oven and put it on the stovetop at it's highest temperature. When it's ready, put the skillet back in the oven, throw the steak on it and close the door. Don't flip it at all. The broiler will cook it from the top. About 7+ minutes later, depending on thickness and desired result, it's done. Take it out and let it rest under some tin foil before cutting it.

      This way has three advantages. First, you don't have to unplug the smoke detector because most of the smoke stays in the oven. Secondly, as a result of the first, you get a really nice smokey flavor throughout the meat that adds alot to it. And third, you end up with a crispy (down) side and a softer (up) side that creates a nice contrast.

      I can get a very nice sirloin steak on sale, cook it this way that takes no time at all, and spend maybe $6 on the entire meal. Throw a potato or two in the steamer and mash it up with butter, sour cream, and chives or something. Compared to what you get at McDonalds for $6, you just can't beat it.

      Enjoy!

      .
  • My roommate got the George Foreman Grill for Xmas, but it wasn't much help because he didn't know he had to defrost meat before cooking it.

    Ultimately he got an industrial-strength utility light (the kind with a grating over the bulb) from the garage. He flipped it over, turned it on and left the meat on the grating for 20 minutes.

  • alt.gourmand and the USENET Cookbook (Score:4, Interesting)

    by plalonde2 ( 527372 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:49PM (#2940670)
    The real cookbook for geeks dates back into the deep dark days of the usenet, before the great renaming. Not that I expect anyone on this board to remember.

    Alt.gourmand was archived, and various bits of unix software (deceptively close to the man page system) could be used to not only format the cookbook, but also to glom it together, build a permuted index, and drop the lot to your printer.

    I have a lovely spiral bound edition from around 1986... Does anyone know where to get these collections anymore?

    • Re:alt.gourmand and the USENET Cookbook (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02, 2002 @12:47AM (#2940914)
      Well, THAT brings back memories...

      You've got two options:

      1. I found an online version of it here [cf.ac.uk].

      2. If you really want to recapture the "old school" experience, you can get the original troff sources here [std.com] - but then you have to go to Finland [funet.fi] to find the "recipes" macro package that you need to process them successfully.

  • Enjoy unblocked arteries while you can... (Score:4, Funny)

    by EvlPenguin ( 168738 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:57PM (#2940700) Homepage
    All I can say is... "ewwwww".

    Check out the "Breakfast Sandwich" on page 2. It involves frying a bagel and eggs in bacon grease! This gives you: greasy bagel/cheese/eggs/cheese/bacon/greasy bagel. A noxious concoction which would probably not only turn any surrounding napkins translucent with lipids, but maybe even the table itself. You may as well lick a Lard Pop (tm) every morning while drinking your coffee mixed with olive oil and Crisco.

    This sort of stuff makes me proud to be a vegatarian.
    • I work in a large government compound/building with a cafeteria in the center. For a while when I used to work early mornings I would order a breakfast sandwich that consisted of sausage, egg, cheese & grilled onions on a fried bagel. I probably ate this same thing everyday for about 6 months. It was the best breakfast anyone could ever have, ever.

      I'm still trying to lose the weight =(
  • and it was nothing like what's in the cookbook:
    • Chicken livers (raw, Mmm... =)
    • chicken leg/thigh (raw)
    • pecans (raw, in shell)
    • pine nuts ("raw", but lightly oxygen roasted)
    • walnuts (not really raw, but non-cooked)
    • almonds (raw)
    followed with: (all raw)
    • spinach
    • Mustard greens
    • purple kale
    • celery
    • some other bitter (yum =) purple-white vegetable (radicco?)
    • broccoli
    The human body really adheres well to the GIGO principle: Garbage In = Garbarge Out. It's been my experience that how well I feel is a function of my food inputs - ie, when I eat (*gasp*) cooked meat or processed foods, I feel noticeably less well. Some of these recipes don't sound too horribly bad from a puritanical standpoint, but "frito pie"? No thanks. But anything's better than Taco Bell every night I suppose...

    Check out the Superhealth report [buildfreedom.com], it's what got me started...
    • Raw veggies is nice. But raw meat is not. Especially chicken. Salmonilla can kill. And beef has e coli etc.

      If you dont want to cook your meat, become a vegitarian.
      • Raw veggies is nice. But raw meat is not. Especially chicken. Salmonilla can kill. And beef has e coli etc.

        I've heard it before. "but aren't you woried about salmonella?" I'm not - salmonella, et all, are largely a product of industrial-style meat manufacturing. Real meat is not manufactured. I buy my meat from the local organic food store. It's raised naturally, without antibiotics and hormones, etc. I eat my meat on an empty stomac, so all there aren't any obstacles between the stomac acid and any "bad" bacteria that might happen to be present.

        Read the superhealth report (link in my first post). It explains why we (I'm not the only one who eats raw meat) don't worry about salmonella or e coli or whatever the food-borne-illness of the month happens to be.

        • Re:well, i just had dinner... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld@@@gmail...com> on Saturday February 02, 2002 @12:09AM (#2940839) Homepage
          I've heard it before. "but aren't you woried about salmonella?" I'm not - salmonella, et all, are largely a product of industrial-style meat manufacturing. Real meat is not manufactured. I buy my meat from the local organic food store. It's raised naturally, without antibiotics and hormones, etc. I eat my meat on an empty stomac, so all there aren't any obstacles between the stomac acid and any "bad" bacteria that might happen to be present.

          So you're assuming the local organic food store isn't lying to you about where the meat came from, and their distributors aren't lying to the store where the meat came from, and the individual farmers aren't lying to the distributors about where the meat came from. But that's besides the point. Raw meat is dangerous, no matter where it comes from.

          There are many, many parasites and bacteria that it can contain beyond e. coli. I like steak tartar, but I don't eat it--it's just too dangerous (and raw chicken just sounds disgusting).

          Raw vegetables can be very healthy, of course, as long as you stick to to ones that can be consumed raw. A lot of them (such as potatos) are toxic when uncooked, however.

          Read the superhealth report (link in my first post). It explains why we (I'm not the only one who eats raw meat) don't worry about salmonella or e coli or whatever the food-borne-illness of the month happens to be.

          I went to this site, and found it to be of dubious accuracy, and some of the proposals to be dangerous if followed. For example:

          It's now conceivable to me that most aging stems from mind-programming - cultural brainwashing. If you're interested in health, life-extension, stopping and reversing aging, and physical immortality, you must study his book.

          This is not a place I would go to for health advice.

          And remember, salmonella and e. coli and all the rest of those microorganisms weren't created by industry; they evolved in the natural world, and while industrial meat-processing can contribute to their spread, organically grown beef and poultry is not immune to them.

          Usually I don't really care when people believe in strange things, but when they start giving dangerous advice to others based on them, I feel compelled to speak.

          • So you're assuming the local organic food store isn't lying to you about where the meat came from, and their distributors aren't lying to the store where the meat came from, and the individual farmers aren't lying to the distributors about where the meat came from

            So you're assuming the doctor isn't lying to you about your health, and that his med school professors weren't lying about how to examine a patient, and the medical researchers aren't lying about what consititutes healthy vital signs.

            Sorry, but that statement was just a bit hyperbolic dontcha think? I mean, you can't function as a human being without trusting people on some things.

            Otherwise, I agree with what you say. I stay clear of undercooked/raw meat, especially at restaurants.

          • Raw meat is dangerous, no matter where it comes from.

            Cooked meat is dangerous, no matter where it comes from. See, dogma can go both ways! ;)

            This is not a place I would go to for health advice.

            Ah, the superhealth report is really just a starting point - a report from a guy who wasn't doing so hot in the past, and found a better way. Where you go it up to you. Which is really the most important point - no one else can give you perfect health, you need to find out what it is that your body needs to be well. You might find that you do really well on no meat at all, cooked meat, or maybe even (*gasp*) Raw Animal Foods. What you find is a unique discovery for yourself - no one else's needs will match your own.

            Usually I don't really care when people believe in strange things, but when they start giving dangerous advice to others based on them, I feel compelled to speak.

            My posts are not meant so much as advice, as they are a statement of fact - myself, and many others, eat un-cooked animal products. The primary aim is to challenge the status quo - seemingly everyone establishment says "cook your meat well or you'll regret it", while there are plenty of us who do pretty well the other way around.

            This just occurred to me - if you are one who is interested in Raw Animal Foods, but worried about the risk of bacterial or parasitic infection, you should obtain a copy of Nourishing Traditions [amazon.com], by Sally Fallon ("The cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictators"). It's basically a recipee book that deals with all your concerns regarding raw meat - freezing for 14+ days will kill all parasites (according to the USDA), and there are recipees for marinades & the like to deal with the "bacteria problem". I don't have a copy myself (only leafed through one at the local farmer's market last fall), but I suppose I really ought to get a copy... Raw meat is consumed elsewhere in the world - Germans like raw hamburger, Libiyans (sp?) have a couple tasty raw meat dishes, japanese are big on sushi (yeah, so there's that one fish that if not prepared right will kill you. so stay away from that one).

            from a review:
            Since I wrote my first review, I have added even more of Fallon's recipes to my regular menu, and continue to reap the health benefits of the diet: I stopped gaining weight after years of lowfat dieting; I have more energy, stamina, mental clarity, and focus; and my mood swings and irritability are gone. Plus, the food is DELICIOUS! Hooray for butter, cream, whole milk, and eggs! Hooray for full-fat meats! Hooray for pickles and crispy nuts! Get the book! It's worth it.
            • Ah, the superhealth report is really just a starting point - a report from a guy who wasn't doing so hot in the past, and found a better way.
              The problem I have with his site is that a) he provides no convincing corroboration, and b) he seemingly believes in a lot of other quackery.

              The only thing he really cites are other independent web sites.

              His other ideas are also somewhat disturbing. According to him AIDS is a hoax. He insists that you should never visit a Doctor. He claims that as simple a biological fact as mortality is culturally determined; we only grow old because that's what we're conditioned to believe.

              These are dangerous ideas if followed. Modern medicine may be imperfect, but for him to just dismiss out of hand, to insist that surgery is unnecessary, that all practicing MDs are engaged in some sort of hoax, is just wrong. Call me dogmatic, if you will, but this is pseudoscience of the worst kind.
              • The problem I have with his site is that a) he provides no convincing corroboration,

                The superheatlh report is only an introduction. It can only serve to enlighten you as to the existence of another path, it is up to you to decide whether the path is worth exploring. But if you want to leave your heatlh 'up to the authorities' (whoever that might be), well, that's a gamble I'm not willing to take...

                ...and b) he seemingly believes in a lot of other quackery

                Something is only quackery until it goes mainstream.

                The only thing he really cites are other independent web sites.

                There's a 61 text bilbiography at the end. Do those books not count as citations?

                His other ideas are also somewhat disturbing. According to him AIDS is a hoax.

                Why do you find them disturbing? Have you ever heard that the AIDS is a 'hoax' before? You've obviously dismissed this as a possibility - why? Perhaps you'd like to take a look at http://www.aliveandwell.org [aliveandwell.org] - a site that tells one woman's story of surviving being diagnosed with 'HIV'. (without perscription drugs of any sort)

                He insists that you should never visit a Doctor.

                No, he says Doctors can be good body mechanics - for fixing you up when you get trauma'd. I don't remember the exact statistics, but I believe the U.S. has the most doctors/capita of any other nation in the world. But we are by far _not_ the healthiest developed nation. Doctors are like cops - they come in after the fact to clean up the mess. And they typically don't do a very good job, either (though there are exceptions to this).

                He claims that as simple a biological fact as mortality is culturally determined; we only grow old because that's what we're conditioned to believe.

                This is something you likely infered from the reading. I suggest reading it again. He says that the mind plays a critical role in deciding one's health, but if that were the only deciding factor - well, there would be no need to eat raw meat, and this whole thread would have never gotten started. =).

                These are dangerous ideas if followed.

                Perhaps you are a medical doctor. The idea that the individual can have a powerfull influence in determining their own health would certainly be dangerous to you - just think of all the fees you wouldn't be able to charge!

                Modern medicine may be imperfect,

                agreed,

                ... to insist that surgery is unnecessary,

                The word 'surgery' occurs twice in the superhealth report [buildfreedom.com]. These are in a quote by someone who was planning on having a melanoma removed, but no longer had a need for that operation (because it went away on its own). 'Surgery' is a broad term - some are certainly necessary, many are likely not.

                that all practicing MDs are engaged in some sort of hoax, is just wrong. Call me dogmatic, if you will, but this is pseudoscience of the worst kind.

                ah, not so much a hoax as mass delusion. Very few medical schools teach more than a cursory course on nutrition and/or holistic well being to their students. Hence, MD's are painfully ignorant in this aspect of health (though this is slowly beginning to change - more and more med schools have courses on accupuncture and the like...). 'pseudoscience' is a powerful world, evoking strong responses in the people who read your post. Modern medicine has been full of pseudoscience for years, and yet because it's mainstream it's always been accepted. Pregnant mothers used to be X-ray treated, for the good of the child, i believe. Chemotherapy does a remarkable job of finishing off many cancer patients. (there's a controversial statement!) Early AIDS drugs were highly toxic - no wonder mortality rates are improving! And the list goes on and on.

                Take responsibility for your own well being. Doctors can only assist you in finding a path. (but be wary of your doctor's path, as it will likely be commensurate with the path he likely followed in his 'paid for by a pharmacutical drug company' medical school).
                • It can only serve to enlighten you as to the existence of another path

                  It can't serve to enlighten; it's a hodgepodge of unproven allegations and hokey theories.

                  Why do you find them disturbing? Have you ever heard that the AIDS is a 'hoax' before? You've obviously dismissed this as a possibility - why? Perhaps you'd like to take a look at http://www.aliveandwell.org [aliveandwell.org] - a site that tells one woman's story of surviving being diagnosed with 'HIV'. (without perscription drugs of any sort)

                  I'd suggest you read this [skeptic.com] for a well-researched article on the AIDS skeptic movement.

                  The only reason I responded to your original post was not to change your mind, but to let anyone else reading it to take your suggestions very cautiously.

            • two more links (Score:3, Informative)

              by nido ( 102070 )
              http://www.rawpaleodiet.org/ [rawpaleodiet.org] - Raw Paleo Diet Web Site
              http://www.beyondveg.com [beyondveg.com], specifically http://www.beyondveg.com/cat/paleodiet/index.shtml [beyondveg.com]
              The second site is the "anti propoganda" - because I'm reasonable. A buddhist principle to keep in mind as you look through it (specifically in regard to raw animal foods) is to "rely on the teaching and not the person". (The author of _Instinictive Eating_ wasn't much of an instinctive eater, smoked, and died a couple of years ago of cancer - the author of some of the beyondveg pages seems to hold this against the diet).

  • *real* cookbooks for geeks (Score:5, Informative)

    by dghcasp ( 459766 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @11:02PM (#2940716)
    The best "geeky" magazine about cooking is Cook's Illustrated [cooksillustrated.com] - Every issue is filled with articles similar to the following (except serious and useful):
    I always wondered what the best way to BBQ a steak was, so I bought 50 Kg. of steak, marinated some with oils, some with non-oils, put seasoning on some, and all possible combinations of the above, then grilled each one at 300,325,350,375,400,425 and 450 degrees for 3-19 minutes per side, either turning once, twice, or 2*N times.

    The results are presented in the following handy table and graph, with results from our 50 food tasters in 54 categories...

    BTW, the magazines are much better than the books that they also publish... The books mostly contain only the final recipe, not the experimental log book that led to it.

    The best "general" cookbook I've found is How to Cook Everything [amazon.com] by Mark Bittman. Each chapter starts up with several pages of "how to" and "How to do this right" information (such as how to dice tomatoes without making a mushy mess,) then follows up with tons of recipes.

    No pictures but lots of drawings of techniques such as which part of the cow that steak came from... (IIRC, there's also some info on butchering that steak yourself.)

  • Garbage in, Garbage out. Geeks need to have a balanced diet.
    As illustrated by legendary PhD student Mike Slackenerny [stanford.edu] , a balanced diet consists of four main food groups (anyway, where is my beer???):

    Sugar food

    Caffeinated food

    Fat food

    Free food!!!
    The slashdotted recipe seems to have too much junk. I think most of us can survive on Coke/coffee, taco/potato chips and instant noodle ;-) Who need fruit, vegetable or milk?

    (Well, straightly speaking, these are refering to postgrad students. But, I think the scope can be extended a bit.)

  • Cooking? (Score:5, Informative)

    by yzf750 ( 178710 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @11:36PM (#2940780)
    Don't most slashdot readers just eat whatever mom puts on the table?
  • Ingredients:
    • Large Oven
    • $50 Million
    Directions
    1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
    2. Shovel money into the oven
    3. Stick your head in oven to check temperature
    4. If you're still reading this, check the temperature again.
    • The money won't burn until 451'F. You should know that. The people in the book "Fahrenheit 451" had the right idea - burn the paper items which make people unhappy. They just got the wrong paper items.

  • the lazy man's salad

    those salad in a bag things

    by Reid

    Reid, whoever you are (don't read much Ars), you are a geek's geek. With the exception that you eat salad, instead of Doritos you picked up off the floor.

    < tofuhead >

  • Good Eats (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I dont know if anyone's mentioned it...but there's a good
    geekish cooking show on TVFN (Food Network) called Good Eats hosted by Alton Brown.
    It's one part Julia Child, one part Bill Nye - not only does he show you how to cook dishes, he tells you why things are prepared the way they are.
    Good Eats is by far my favorite show on Food Network - I find it much more interesting and entertaining than Iron Chef or BamBam.

  • Hey, thanks this is perfect! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JoeShmoe ( 90109 ) <askjoeshmoe@hotmail.com> on Saturday February 02, 2002 @12:07AM (#2940832)
    Now I actually have some recipies to swap over all those peer-2-peer networks like Kazaa, Direct Connect, eDonkey, etc!

    I mean, that's what those networks are all for, right? Right?

    - JoeShmoe

    .

  • recipes to scare you to death (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Saturday February 02, 2002 @12:12AM (#2940846) Journal
    As seen on the Appalachian Voodoo Kitchens Website.

    Kentucky Bourbon Deviled Crab [tripod.com]
    Bacon-Burger-Fried Okra [tripod.com]
    Potato Candy [tripod.com]
    Turmeric Potatoes [tripod.com]
    Hot Sweet Pickled Durian [tripod.com]
    Chocolate Steak [tripod.com]
    Sausage and Muenster Couscous [tripod.com]
    Chicken-Bacon-Banana Kebobs with Garlic Rice [tripod.com]
    Survival Biscuit Casserole [tripod.com]
    Rockcastle County Vampire Tonic [tripod.com]
    Bubblegum Sauce [tripod.com]
    Baked Calpis Soda Ham [tripod.com]
    Marzipan Milkshake [tripod.com]
    Appalachian Voodoo Beer Cheese [tripod.com]
    Sweet Potatoes Baked in Hazelnut Oil [tripod.com]
    Pocky-Paraffin Edible Architecture [tripod.com]
    Squambo [tripod.com]

    Something to terrify just about anyone. Some how I think some of these are weird enough to be japanese or geek recipes (thinking of the japanese mint beer)

  • ... It's called WHY NO ONE EATS AT MY HOUSE.

    Sample bits on http://home.earthlink.net/~rividh/asylum/random.ht m :)
  • Quite possibly the best thing I ever got for my kitchen. Hotdogs, humburgers, vegetables, if you can grill it, you can stick it on there.

    Even works with hot pockets, and alot of other frozen foods that are usually just cooked in the microwave.

    Oohhh, yeah, and when you see the fat dripping off, you know you're eating healty ;-)

  • Ask Slashdot (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Khopesh ( 112447 ) on Saturday February 02, 2002 @01:12AM (#2940962) Homepage Journal
    gee. this seems rather simple: do an Ask Slashdot on the subject and put top submissions into a Slashdot cookbook of our own, much like an interview.

  • Ramen noodles? What? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MattGWU ( 86623 )
    Here...go nuts:

    Ramen Recipe Database [mattfischer.com]

    Alright...there was at least ONE ramen recipe in there...but that guy has two hundred and five! If only ramen noodles weren't so scarce and expensive. Wait...nevermind. Notably absent now that I'm checking is "Prison Ramen", which IIRC was cooked in a bag of Cheet-O's for lack of an actual pot. In fact, I seem to remember there being more than 205 recipes last I was there (maybe got rid of more or less duplicate recipes), but that should hold you for awhile.
  • Input: Flour, water, sugar

    Hardware: Toaster oven, spatula

    Algorithm:
    1) Mix up some flour and water. The ideal ratio is somewhere between watery and cementy.
    2) Spoon the mixture onto the flat metal option and put in toaster oven. A light coat of anything oily is helpful.
    3) Set the temperature somewhere in the 100-400 degree range.
    4) They are done when they start to look sort of dry but before they brown too much. Set your timer to 5 minutes so you don't forget about them and burn your place down.
    5) Stack them on a plate, dumping sugar on each one. You can use the sticky surface exposed when you bite into them to blot up more sugar from the plate.

    I find that most things worth snacking on can be reduced to one or two ingredients (e.g. sweet potatoes, smoked turkey, cold apples, popcorn). This also makes it easier to count calories and to buy things in single-serving quantities.
  • I think those of us who were around in the BBS days know all about the real cookbook for geeks [socialentropy.net]...

  • Good Eats (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SupahVee ( 146778 ) <superv@@@mischievousgeeks...net> on Saturday February 02, 2002 @02:25AM (#2941129) Journal
    I think the majority of the people who are posting replies to this at least watch Iron Chef, which is cool in it own right. But by far the best cooking show for geeks is Good Eats, with Alton Brown. I have learned more about making my own food taste better by watching him than any other cooking show, ever. He doesnt just cook food, he shows why it cooks the way it does, how to get that perfect done-ness out of steaks, eggs, etc. That and the show is damn funny.


    And to the guy who down below who says potatoes are toxic when uncooked, please, get your facts straight, as well. Potatoes are NOT hazardous when uncooked, no more than fresh corn or green beans. Take it from someone who loves a good red potato raw. The last person I heard who still believed spuds were poisonous was my great grandmother, and she no longer bought into that crap, either.


    sheesh, some people's facts....

    • Fans of Good Eats should check out this cookbook. [amazon.com]

      This book reads almost like a chemistry text. It describes what ingredients do in a recipe and how they behave under different cooking conditions. The recipes in the book are there to illustrate the role of an ingredient or cooking method, rather than just telling you how to make the dish. For example, the recipe for brioche (a type of bread) gives two very different results depending on the order in which you combine the ingredients.

      Most cookbooks just give you prepackaged solutions to predefined problems, much like a programming language cookbook. This book helps you come up with your own solutions, more like a language reference. For example, when I bought my pasta machine, the recipe that came with it produced terrible results. The amount of liquid called for in the recipe was nowhere near enough for the amount of flour. Then I remembered reading that the amount of liquid flour can absorb is directly related to the flour's protein content; the higher the protein content, more liquid it can absorb. I checked the protein content of the flour I was using. Then I look in the table in the book that lists protein content vs. volume of liquid absorbed. My flour's protein content was so high it was off the scale. So I fired up the spreadsheet, plugged in the numbers from the table and calculated how much flour and liquid I would need for two cups of pasta dough using the flour I had. The pasta turned out pretty good, certainly a lot better than the recipe that came with the machine.
  • I think geek cuisine is much like geek musicianship- some of us just love trying out wild stuff and develop a lot of skill with it.

    My pet geek cooking tool is the wok. Got a _heavy_ steel wok, which has seasoned to a rich black on the outside :) you can sear meat in it or load it up with a lot of stuff and cook it through fairly rapidly.

    Keep stuff on hand like spices (lots of different kinds, buy in bulk not at the supermarket!) and frozen vegetables. My freezer is kept stocked with chopped onions, corn, peas, carrots, and hashbrowns (VERY useful to bulk out food as a source of diced potatoes. I never cook actual hashbrowns with it :) )

    If you need to research a dish, Google is the thing. I wanted to soup up a cheap 'Thai' sauce and come up with a dish using it- searched on Google for 'thai cumin', 'thai cinnamon', 'thai garlic' and all the spices that I had, and found that cumin/turmeric/ginger was a likely combination, all of those being common spices with many hits in the search. Bit of chopped chicken breast, onion, potato in the wok, rice in the rice-cooker and then peanut butter (just a tsp) and corn mixed with it, cook the chicken/onion/potato in oil on high heat, add some of the spices and sear until it threatens to burn, then pour the thai sauce in to deglaze the spice-layer, then dump over the rice/corn/peanutbutter mixture. Mmmmmm (and _very_ filling!)

    Now I gotta go and do General Tso chicken since I defrosted some chicken legs... that one needs a deep-fryer and is heinously complicated with cookings and recookings, but the neat thing is the ingredients themselves are insanely cheap :) Chris Johnson

  • MAN! They should have something in that book on coffee. I can't survive in the morning without coffee. I have a pot with one of those grinders on it. It grinds the coffee and puts it onto the filter and has a timer. I am smelling that my sweet sweet coffee is done, so time to go get a cup! Good cookbook though! Thanks Ars Crew!

  • Snoot's got an infinite supply of randomly-generated recipes:

    http://snoot.org/factory/recipe/ [snoot.org]

  • Check out Cookwise [barnesandnoble.com], a real geek's cookbook.

    The author spends a lot of time explaining exactly what happens to food as you change the pH, explains what happens on the cellular level when you cook at different heats and for different times, basically reads like a chemistry text at times, all while giving some GREAT recipes.

    I first heard the author on NPR a few years ago, and was very impressed. She would be talking your traditional cook-show talk, then suddently dive into these marvelously technical chemistry explanations that would just make Julia Childs fall over, foaming at the mouth.

    • Cookwise rocks, and it sucks that I can't find my copy. Shirley Corriher should have her own TV show.

      Actually, these sciency kinds of cookbook are some of my favorites; you might also want to check out the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook while you're at it. Chris Kimball may look like a dork on TV with that bowtie, but he and the Cooks Illustrated people know their shit, better than most other people I've seen (including me).

      /Brian
  • I overclocked my microwave and now I am transported back in time whenever I make instant coffee.

    Need to get back to the year 31337.

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