I couldn’t wait to leave the lab scales and timers behind me. I left lab (not science, but lab), and haven’t looked back since… Until I looked in my kitchen, that is, and saw the same scales, the same timer as I had in the lab. And then I hiccupped a little, and realized that I “aliquot” my home-made chicken stock into single use Tupperwares, and slip, kinda often, by saying that I am incubating my chicken instead of marinating it. I can’t help it. Scientific tools and terminology fit really well into the kitchen, which is something of a scientist’s playground, with food standing in for reagents and pots and pans for the gel rig and centrifuge.
The scale is indispensable for weighing out just the right amount of beans for the perfect cup of coffee, for weighing out the precise amount of dough for equally-sized tortillas, and it makes executing European recipes – written with weight instead of volume measurements – a breeze. I learned so much during my time in lab – reading, writing and rithmetic, as they relate to science – but I never thought that I would take those skills into my kitchen. I guess I got a lot more out of grad school than I imagined. That’s a sweet bonus.
Do you have a rack of Gilsons next to your knife rack?
I’m just the same. Lab work and cooking have quite a bit in common – mixing things, incubating things at different temperatures, the occasional “leave overnight @ +4”… The two major differences being that in cooking it’s a good thing to deviate from the protocol and “experiment”, while in a real experiment you’d better stick with the same procedure, at least if it works. And then you can taste as much as you like while cooking, not recommended in lab work. (Speaking of which, the first thing I was taught entering a chemistry lab was “Thou shalt not pipette with thy mouth”. Has anyone ever done that or is it just an urban lab legend?)
Hi Anna, if you haven’t already you might enjoy the The Science of Cooking by Peter Barham . As Peter says “anybody following any recipe in the kitchen is in effect performing a scientific experiment. Cooks who learn from their experiences with recipes and manage to improve their skills are doing no less that scientists working in their laboratories”. So its no wonder those lab skills come in handy in the kitchen.
The reverse happens too as I have been known to describe laboratory protocols as a ‘recipe’ to new students.
Henry McGee is a pretty entertaining cook/chemist in a similar vein, see On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen some call it Molecular Gastronomy . Yum.
re: “Thou shalt not pipette with thy mouth”. Has anyone ever done that or is it just an urban lab legend?). I’ve actually seen it! Quite a few years ago but by an old technician setting up for a biology lab. I don’t know how they do it/did it – seems too accident prone to me
As for cooking, I have a series of lab timers in use in my kitchen :)
There is also Herve This, I guess that’s one scientist that really struggles to differentiate between his lab and his kitchen!
The title of his PhD is La gastronomie moléculaire et physique, and collaborated with the chef Pierre Gagnaire. Of course they’re French, why are you asking?
Bob – No, but I do have a Gilson on my desk at work. Keeps me grounded.
Anna – Very true! Experimentation is in fact discouraged in the course of performing an experiment. That’s a good line. I need to remember it for future use. And yes, oh yes, people mouth pipette. It was ages ago, but I saw someone mouth pipette acrylamide. If that doesn’t deserve a Darwin award, I don’t know what does.
Duncan – I hadn’t heard of Perter Barham (though I have certainly heard of Heston Blumenthal!), but I do have the McGee book. I don’t know a food/science dork who doesn’t have that book, in fact. I haven’t had the chance to actually use the book though. Need to just sit down and read it cover to cover.
Kate – ‘Recipe’ makes a lot more sense than ‘protocol’ when you are just starting out.
Abigail – Don’t you twitch a little when those timers go off? It brings me right back to lab, emotionally speaking.
Nicolas – Very, very French. This kind of brought all the science geeks out of the kitchen closet, I suppose. There wouldn’t be much of a Fat Duck or El Bulli without him. I don’t have any of his books though. That’s going on my holiday wish list!
I’ve been forcing myself to cook more, as part of my 2009 new year’s resolutions, and I’m finally getting to the point where I’m almost…enjoying it. I found a good basic bread recipe online, but it was written in prose, so I wrote it down myself in more legible form, and it now has things in it like “10’ @ RT”
I guess I got a lot more out of grad school than I imagined.
It’s amazing what skills we pick up without really thinking twice about them, and then seeing how often we actually use them in every day life! If anyone ever asks you “well, what can you do with that?”, you’ll have a great answer.
I saw someone mouth pipette acrylamide
Seriously? That is just so…absurd
I am a bad cook… I hope that doesn’t reflect on my science!
Anna, do you recommend the scale for kitchen use? if so, could you plz pass along the its details.
thnx
Eva – 10’ @ RT! Brilliant. Sometimes I really want a rocking plate inside my fridge, to help meat marinate, etc. The dorkness continues.
Alyssa – Very true! I always thought that grad school offers few useful skills. People who graduate medical school are doctors, those finishing law school are attorneys, but what are basic biology PhDs? I know now what we are, I think. People who know stuff and can apply it to all sorts of different stuff. We know stuff.
Anna – Seriously. In a herpes lab. Ewww.
Caryn – I am a good cook, but a bad bench scientist. I hope that answers your question.
Mehdi – I highly recommend keeping a scale around the kitchen. I don’t know if the make/model are important (as long as it’s NOT a scale you drag home from dirty filthy lab, obviously). The one I have is simple and does it’s job perfectly.