I’ve been watching the Great British Baking Show because it’s just lovely.
I’ve always been a cook, never a baker, but I decided to give baking a shot this weekend. Made a Lemon Meringue Pie.
The 3 components:
Prebought Graham Cracker Crust. My wife bakes often and assures me pie crusts are the worst so didn’t bother attempting that for my first go.
The Lemon Curd. Soooo much sugar but it turned out really well. No Scrambled Egg or overcooking of it, wonderfully tart flavor.
The Meringue. Very easy and fun to make. Recipe I used gave me approximate timings for each step which helped a bunch because I have no idea what “soft peaks” look like, but I think I got the texture basically right.
Biggest problem was I overbaked it. I put it in the oven for about 28 minutes and the peaks of the meringue started to burn a little bit so I had to cut those off. Neither the curd or the meringue has to be baked to be edible, so next time I’d probably just let the curd set and put the meringue on top and bake or blowtorch it just to get it a light brown. I think the overbaking is what contributes to the meringue having a bit of the foamy texture when eaten as it was creamy and fluffy when it came out of the mixer.
Yeah, I don’t watch utoobz without a damn good reason, but if Alton uses the same technique as Kenji, with a low and slow roast to get the meat to roughly uniform temperature just under the desired level of doneness and then finishes on high to get some crust, it’s basically unimproveable. There are some alternatives to the low and slow portion (e.g. sous vide), and some alternatives to the sear portion (e.g. a torch), but low temperature followed by high temperature is perfect.
The written word is a much more efficient medium for communication of information, and particularly in the context of political discussion from which the meme was born, they’re often a means by which charlatans both hide their content from critics who would rebut them and draw in sympathizers. There are exceptions, where the sights and sounds are necessary, but if it’s just a person talking to me for the most part, and there’s not a written version, it’s usually not worth watching.
This is how I feel about Plato’s dialogues and how judges feel about oral argument. (These days in LA you basically have to give a good reason to argue a motion in court and not just “on the papers”.)
I believe all of that and very rarely watch informational or instructional videos. I can read so much faster than somebody can tell me something, and it’s a lot easier to skim a previous paragraph than to rewind a video if I need to clarify something.
Cooking is something where it’s super helpful to have a visual guide. That and video games and car repair are spots where yootoobs can outperform text-only media.
Libertarian yootoobes were always AIDS because I can read about how free market dispute resolution companies are supposed to work a whole lot faster than some youtube cartoon can describe it.
It’s content I simply don’t consume. I don’t listen to podcasts. Never seen an episode of Good Eats (had to google to see what it even was).
I’m not making an either/or decision, or establishing some philosophical POV. If somebody posts a video I’m almost certainly just going to skip over it, especially if there isn’t text giving me a reason to click play.
Just listened to the latest Very Bad Wizards podcast with Plato scholar Agnes Callard, and she offered a decent defense of Plato’s use of dialogues, which softened my position some.
Youtubes are good for practical skills, like cooking, building, repairs, sports, etc.
Podcasts are great for when you can’t read or watch anything (eg, commuting, exercising, in bed).
Freeze after cooking? Hmmm, how does cooked brisket freeze? When I do brisket, I usually cut it into quarters or so raw, and then cook one or two at a time.
