Anyone who has tried to follow a recipe has likely ended up confused at one point. Especially for novices, dealing with lengthy ingredient lists and tricky terms while doing the required steps can be overwhelming.
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As a possible solution, an engineer came up with a recipe hack that lists ingredients in a table. It remained forgotten for decades until a random social media user revived it, making it an instant viral hit.
And while a chunk of people on the internet appreciated it, others raised their eyebrows. Scroll down to see what the buzz is all about.
Nowadays, recipes can be confusing and even time-consuming with all the unnecessary information
X user Juan Buis discovered a vintage recipe design that may help provide clarity
He even shared one dish he made using the said approach
He found it extremely helpful and decided to rebuild it
“I do not see structure and intuition as opposites”
Michael Chu, who came up with the recipe hack, spoke with BuzzFeed to explain why and how he developed his method. According to him, it was from his personal cooking notes where he’d take a conventional recipe, copy the ingredients, and “scale as needed.”
“I drew curly braces to show which groups of ingredients would be combined and wrote a word or two beside each group describing the action I needed to take," Chu explained.
Chu eventually founded his website Cooking For Engineers, where he first recreated his system using HTML tables. And after it went viral when X user @juanbuis posted it in late July, he was left in total surprise by how people received it.
Chu later stated that his method blends both a problem-solving approach that someone in his industry might take and a feel-based approach that chefs are known for.
"I do not see structure and intuition as opposites. A clearly organized recipe can help someone build that understanding more quickly,” he said.
Preparing a meal involves a ton of mental work
One likely reason the hack went viral is that following a recipe to make a delicious meal everyone would appreciate requires multiple mental processes.
As behavioral neurologist Dr. Marwan Sabbagh tells the Cleveland Clinic, measuring and mixing ingredients involves the brain's executive functions.
“Executive functions test our ability to organize, prioritize, sustain focus, solve problems, retrieve memories and multitask,” he said.
For someone like Chu, who is more analytical, writing a recipe as a flowchart will likely work much better. However, chefs accustomed to the flow of a cookbook may find it challenging.
In any case, the resurrection of Chu’s hack inspired people like Juan to take a different approach to dealing with recipes that works for him. Not only did it spark conversation but also prompted people to re-evaluate their cooking methods or even learn something new.
Some people loved the idea
While others were left confused and asking questions
