Just Nodding My Head Wisely

This is for Cop Car* (she being an old ex Engineer**) - Why Engineers Don't Write Recipes.

Take a guess first before looking at the answer.

* I'm not just picking on my mother, almost every Engineer I've ever worked with would have written it this way (that's why there are Documentation Specialists / Technical Writers to put it in English!).

** Alright, I know she didn't lose her abilities once she retired, so technically I suppose she is still an Engineer.

And no, it isn't brownies (in my own defense, I didn't read the directions that were listed after the ingredients - pretty much how I cook except I usually don't pay that much attention to the ingredients either!

Comments

[rita]

Thanks for the link! I thought it was something like brownies too until I read the directions.

[Cop Car]

No fair! No fair! You are too picking on your mother! Besides, my instructions on Cop Car's Chow don't read like that. *sniffling*

Seriously, no engineer would have guessed brownies, folks. Brownies don't get extruded nor does one bake brownies until they are golden brown (unless they are blonde brownies!) Of course, I wouldn't extrude the actual product, either. Ingredient 6 was the tip-off as to what we were making, having already read through the first 5 ingredients. I would quibble with the way Ingredient 9 is presented. The form of it should be stated! (Without a quibble, people wouldn't believe that I am a genuine engineer.)

[bogie]

The extrusion would have been the tip-off, if I had read that far (but really, that would have confused me because who in the heck extrudes the stuff anyway?)

[bogie]

Of course your recipes don't read like that - they are all from someone else (Someone Else's Biscuit, Matt's Fetticcini, Grandmother H's Applebutter etc). They gave you the recipes written in a fashion that normal people understand - LOL!

[Cop Car]

Tut, tut, Bogie. Logic will get you nowhere with me! If I gave you the recipes as they appear in my hand written cookbook, they would just be lists of ingredients--sometimes with quantities or amounts. As an engineer, I believe that if I can't figure out what to do with the ingredients, I don't really deserve to make the dish.

[buffy]

I was following along, and thought I had it figured out, but the "de-encapsulated legume meats" threw me. I missed the "de" part of it, so I was left thinking about peas and beans, wondering who the heck combines chocolate, eggs and peas.

[bogie]

Maybe some desparate mother who's child won't eat peas?