SC - Re:Art or Science/ plus "grits"

[Heitman]

At 07:05 AM 1/31/99 -0500, you wrote:
 Bear write:
>> >>      Baking (and all 'Pastry Sciences', to borrow a phrase from
>> >Homer Simpson) is a Science.
>> >>      Mistress Christianna
>> >>
>> >After careful consideration, I must say that baking can not be a
>> >Science.


Greetings to the list From a new joiner.

By way if a bio, My name is Franz, and I live in Calontir. Mundanely, I am
a professional cook with a degree from a nationally recognized cooking
school/ chef program. I passed my test to become a Certified Cook and Baker
with the International Association of Cooks and Bakers (the professional
group that issues the title "Chef" in any of its incarnations), but took a
different career path.

Per the Association, Cooking is an Art while baking is a Science.

Baking is nothing more than food chemistry. Yes, there minute variances in
porportions that will still allow the product to exist, but the ranges are
VERY well known, and too litle or too much and the product fails. Baking
materials are all measured in weights, not volume, and all materials are
measured as a ratio weight to the flour weight when increasing/decreasing
serving amounts. Baking also requires a specific oven temperature to
achieve the desired result. baking "in a SLOW oven" is NOT an option. It
will NOT achieve the same ultimate end result as correct temperature.

Cooking, OTOH, uses volumes of ingredients which can and will vary
according to  the personal taste of both/either the cook and eater. Leaving
out a 'vital' ingredient does not destroy the final product, merely changes
it to something else. (imagine what bread would be like if you left out the
shortening, as opposed to stew if you left out the meat.) Oven temperatures
can vary from barely warm to broiler sear hot, and the end product will be
essentially the same if the cooking time is altered to suit.

Hope this helps.

Franz/calontir

Humorous PS:  EVERYBODY with any intellegence knows Grits is boiled nice
and thick, then made into a patty kinda like a hashbrown, then pan fried in
lots of butter into a solid cake, and served with sorgum syrup. :)

(Honest- this is straight from the BOB EVANS Restaurant menu. Bob Evans
headquarters are in SW Ohio, the heart of the Corn Belt.)

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