Geek Food: A Cookbook for the Technologically Inclined 308
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.
Other Good Cookbooks for Geeks (Score:3, Informative)
Check out ISBNs: 0919845622 and 0962845302
me
Already exists. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other Good Cookbooks for Geeks (Score:3, Informative)
ISBN 0919845622 (The Bachelor's Guide: To Ward Off Starvation) [amazon.com]
ISBN 0962845302 (No More Mac and Cheese: A Bachelor's Guide to Cooking with Ease) [amazon.com]
Re:Tobacco Sauce (Score:3, Informative)
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]
*real* cookbooks for geeks (Score:5, Informative)
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.)
Re:The ticker (Score:2, Informative)
woot!
Cooking? (Score:5, Informative)
Good Eats (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Re:Variation on the Strawberry Banana Shake (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:alt.gourmand and the USENET Cookbook (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Instantaneous Sugar Cookies (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Re:*real* cookbooks for geeks (Score:5, Informative)
two more links (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.beyondveg.com [beyondveg.com], specifically http://www.beyondveg.com/cat/paleodiet/index.shtm
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).