# Reply to Christina and Tomasino

2020-06-12

=> gopher://gopher.black:70/0/recipebox/basic-bread.txt Tomasino's original post (gopher)
=> gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~christina/2020-06-12.txt Christina's response (gopher)

I saw on the fediverse today that ~christina over on circumlunar tried their hand at baking some bread following Tomasino's recipe.

I must say I quite enjoyed the contrast between Tomasino's careful, methodical process and ~christina's recap of their "just do what you feel" strategy. Or, as I like to call it, the Mungo Jerry approach.

```
(fn in-the-summertime []
  (if daddy-rich?
    "take her out for a meal"
    "just do what you feel"))
```

Sometimes the Mungo Jerry approach (just do what you feel) works out okay in baking. At least, sandwich bread is pretty forgiving. It's not like you're baking a delicate cake or anything.

There's this conventional wisdom that "While cooking is an art, baking is a science," and that you must be very careful and precise all the time.

> Baking is *wonderful!* It's like *science* for *hungry people!*
>
> -https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1679

Aside: while looking for the above quote, I was startled to see that Jeph is *still* writing Questionable Content. He's fast closing in on *twenty years* of writing that little webcomic. I used to read it avidly.

So even neurotic little Hannelore buys into the baking-as-science myth. For good reason mind you. It's an appealing story.

But here's the thing. ~christina, mungo jerry and all, succefully made yummy bread:

> it has a happy ending and satisfies the ego-scanning heart

So whatever man. Just use what you have and mix it all up and heat it up for a while. It'll probably turn out pretty great.

This is the secret of most DIY: just make stuff.

---

=> gemini://breadpunk.club/~bakersdozen/gemlog/ back to gemlog