This chart on Cooking for Engineers totally startled me, but once I got over my need for everything to be in lists and paragraphs, it made perfect sense.
With some substitutions, I made a delicious ratatouille on my first try!
You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
This chart on Cooking for Engineers totally startled me, but once I got over my need for everything to be in lists and paragraphs, it made perfect sense.
With some substitutions, I made a delicious ratatouille on my first try!
Jon
on 16 Jun 08Excellent! Thanks for not only pointing out an interesting display of information, but also a tasty treat.
john
on 16 Jun 08hmm. this is quite brilliant
SH
on 16 Jun 08For a seasonal version, replace all the veggies with sumer squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes. I used a dollop of red pepper pesto as well.
Leland
on 17 Jun 08Wow. What a great recipe/informational chart!
Feroze Patel
on 17 Jun 08Well, easy way to learn cooking
Phil Dokas
on 17 Jun 08I have been loving (and learning how to cook from) this site for years and I would pretty much instantly buy a book of recipes in this format. It’s a damn shame they’re publishing many fewer recipes than they used to. I wonder if they realize how good of a thing they’re sitting on.
Michael
on 17 Jun 08Thanks for the positive remarks! I’m hoping to be able to find more time to write articles more often for Cooking For Engineers, but during the last two years I’ve been working hard on Fanpop which has really affected the time that I have to experiment in the kitchen as well as write articles. (Even when I do have time, I’m almost always tired…)
It’s positive comments and words of encouragement that keep me excited about writing more, so thanks and I’m glad you guys like the site!
Michael Chu Cooking For Engineers
john
on 17 Jun 08Very interesting display. Alternating row colors should make more usable I think.
GeeIWonder
on 17 Jun 08I keep getting thrown an application error when I try to post, but just wanted to say great find. It reminds me more than a little of Petersen matrices.
Also, rattatouile is a good choice. I grew up on the stuff and as much as the great thing is it’s almost impossible to make wrong the infuriating thing is it’s also almost impossible to make the same way twice.
Re: the row colors, I think that might make everything less printable, so that might be a concern.
Jochen
on 17 Jun 08I am under the impression this is obvious to everyone but me: How is this an improvement? I got an idea concerning that but it’s one I came up with after struggling for an answer and it’s not really convincing me so if anyone cares to elaborate, thanks :)
Mike
on 17 Jun 08The main advantages from this format coming from scannability and from grouping information together in a logical way.
Most of the recipes that I’ve worked with have numerous usability problems. This format fixes a big problem: the measurements of all the ingredients are presented in a list at the beginning of the recipe in no particular order, and when you’re reading the actual directions, the measurements aren’t given. You therefore have to try and find the measurement in the jumbled up list, but it’s inefficient because there’s no particular order.
Removing extra language makes it easier to scan through the recipe. This is going to help with finding your place while you’re in the middle of cooking. It’ll also help if you’re cooking mis en place because you can see at a glance which ingredients are grouped together.
Joe Grossberg
on 17 Jun 08I’m not sure why my original comment was deleted, so I’ll rephrase:
Michael, why do you have a patent pending on that type of layout?
geekychic
on 17 Jun 08@John: There was a really interesting article last month on A List Apart about the (in)effectiveness of zebra striping. Of course, that was for a straight table, not for a wonky right-angle format like this ;)
matt
on 17 Jun 08@Joe:
Maybe a stupid question, but why should this be patentable? It’s a fairly obvious representation.
Joe Grossberg
on 17 Jun 08@matt, Ask Michael that. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Yet, at the footer of his site, it says:
matt
on 17 Jun 08@Jochen:
I’d say it’s a typical improvement in several ways: 1) all your prep work is represented in a single column 2) the work effort is very easy to follow (left to right then top to bottom)
OTOH, several nits: 1) Michael doesn’t follow this on every recipe (prep work isn’t always presented similarly) 2) In some cases if an ingredient is used twice…it will be in the left column twice…so it’s a not a “shopping list” collation of ingredients.
Rishi Agarwal
on 18 Jun 08Absolutely Brilliant !!!
This chart is the simplest way of cooking I have seen till now. Now I know which preparations to do in parallel with others… :)
Jochen
on 18 Jun 08mike / matt: Thanks for the insight :)
This discussion is closed.