I agree with those that said the main purpose of the article was humor and to get a rise out of people. He certainly did accomplish that, as did her rebuttal.
I know plenty of women, personally and via media (i.e. FoodNetwork) that can do more then just hold their own in the kitchen.
Mrs. Big Dog and I more or less share the cooking duties. When it comes to baking, she does the lion's share, and I help sometimes. We don't bake a lot anyway, but I don't like baking because recipes are actually formulas that if altered can have a disastrous effect on the outcome...
I've heard this argument a thousand times. Baking is a formula. Baking is a formula. Big deal. And BigDog, this is not directed at you, but at those who foist this misinformation at us.
My pancakes are the same recipe used for a basic white cake. Only, the cake has more sugar in it and is multiplied by a factor of three. My pancake recipe is also the basis for a host of quickbreads, muffins, even biscuits. And my bread recipes are made without recipes. They share one thing in common; three cups of flour are used to make one kitchen loaf pan sized bread-loaf.
Even in the sciences, the formulas are basic lists of ingredients and techniques used to produce some thing. By altering the formula, new discoveries, somtimes better, sometimes worse are made. Usually, a fair bit of knowledge is present in the individual doing the experimentation about what might or even probably will happen when the formula is changed. Even then, the formula usually has to be tweeked and monitored to obtain the best-case results.
Don't be intimdated by baking. It's really not as difficult as most people think (except for recreating my Mothers bread dressing/stuffing, Still ahven't got it right.). You just learn and memorize some basics, and then modify from there. Someone said, and I concurr, you must know the rules before you can successfully break them.
Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
