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posted by takyon on Monday April 13 2015, @09:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the cloudy-with-a-probability-of-meatballs dept.

Steve Abrams, the director of IBM's Watson Life research program, told Quartz that Watson scanned publicly available data sources to build up a vast library of information on recipes, the chemical compounds in food, and common pairings. (For any budding gastronomers out there, Abrams said Wikia was a surprisingly useful source.) Knowledge that might've taken a lifetime for a Michelin-starred chef to attain can now be accessed instantly from your tablet.

The Watson team has actually published a cookbook of its AI-inspired dishes in partnership with the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), which launches April 14. While Quartz has not been able to test out Watson's esoteric parings yet, here are some that stood out:

It sounds like another sort of molecular gastronomy. Have any Soylentils eaten recipes like that? Does it work?

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Monday April 13 2015, @10:07PM

    by gman003 (4155) on Monday April 13 2015, @10:07PM (#170031)

    I've been trying to cook more lately, but I always forget to plan a side and usually have to improvise. This has led to at least one clever idea, which I will now share.

    Take a steak. Butter up a frying pan, put it on there, start cooking on stovetop at a medium-low heat. Take a banana, slice it into wafers, put some on the pan as well. Flip the fruit after a minute or so, swap for more after both sides have fried. Flip the steak after about three minutes, if you're going for medium rare.

    The banana flavor spreads into the steak, and tastes great. And you get a side dish of fried bananas, which is also great. And it only uses a single dish to cook in, so cleanup is a breeze.

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  • (Score: 1) by slinches on Monday April 13 2015, @10:39PM

    by slinches (5049) on Monday April 13 2015, @10:39PM (#170045)

    You lost me at cooking a steak in a frying pan. That's just wrong. On the grill over a very hot charcoal fire is the only way to go. Throw some asparagus, zucchini or corn on there with it and you've got a solid meal with no clean up.

    Fried bananas are good though.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @10:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @10:54PM (#170059)

      Nahhhh browned butter that fucking awesome like most caceriogen ;) but charcoal is awesome too...

    • (Score: 2) by gman003 on Monday April 13 2015, @11:03PM

      by gman003 (4155) on Monday April 13 2015, @11:03PM (#170065)

      Unfortunately, I am a city-dweller, with neither a grill nor a place to put one.

      However, I'm sure you can find a way to adapt this recipe to whatever heating method you prefer, from a range to a grill to an open pit full of napalm.

      • (Score: 1) by slinches on Wednesday April 15 2015, @07:06PM

        by slinches (5049) on Wednesday April 15 2015, @07:06PM (#171140)

        That's a legitimate reason to not use a grill. Pan fried steak can certainly turn out great. I know a lot of steakhouses prepare them in a pan and really don't have any complaints about how well they're cooked. I just prefer the smoky grill flavor imparted by cooking over coals, at least for the cuts I like best (e.g. ribeye). For leaner cuts, pan frying can be better since there's more control over the cooking process, added flavor from the oil or butter and more herbs/seasoning can be used.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @11:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @11:30PM (#170078)

      Up to a couple of years ago, I would have agreed with steak on a hot charcoal grill, been practicing since c.1975. However, some friends introduced me to sous vide, cooking in vacuum bags, in a temperature controlled water bath. The steak was exceptional, and they didn't start with a super expensive piece of meat. Here's one link,
            http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/03/how-to-sous-vide-steak.html [seriouseats.com]

      "... With traditional cookery, when you are exposing your meat to temperatures much hotter than their final desired temperature (say, cooking a steak to 130°F in a 550°F skillet), timing is crucial. The center of your steak is getting hotter and hotter, and it's your job as cook to take it off the flame at precisely the moment that it reaches the desired final temperature. Miss that precise moment, and dinner is ruined. ..."

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:25AM

      by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:25AM (#170139)

      You lost me at cooking a steak in a frying pan.

      Try cooking the steak in a cast iron pan. Much faster than a grill and as far as I'm concerned, better as well. You can also de-glaze the pan (works with the frying pan as well) with red wine after cooking the steak and make a quick sauce to enhance the steak further.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:13PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:13PM (#170351)

        The most important tool for cooking steaks indoors is ventilation, without a good exhaust fan you'll make enough smoke to get the fire department called.

        The problem with deglazing the cast iron is I spent hours coating my pans with oil (hemp, couple other types) and baking at 400F for an hour repeat many times and the seasoning builds up in strength with frying use for years on end, etc. So I'm not amused at the idea of burning that off or having to re-season again. I seem to pan fry / stir fry a lot of chicken in my diet and ruining my pan on a single steak would piss me off.

        Something thats cool about shiny bare stainless steel is it lasts forever (I've got an al-clad, one of those "it was a car payment" pans, but worth it) its at least 20 years old and will probably last another 100 years if I don't F up somehow. The key is there is one, and only one, way to clean stainless that I know of, and thats "barkeepers friend" polish, its freaking magic, 20 seconds of scrubbing no matter how burned on the steak grease is, and it looks new again. Stainless deglazes pretty well too. Personally I use cheap whiskey on my steaks, but whatever. I can imagine a red wine would taste pretty good too.

        Maybe, just maybe, if you buy a non-stick and never cook anything hotter than soft omelet in it and never dish wash it and never use a utensil harder than plastic in it, and store it very carefully, then the non-stick coating might last a whole two years. Things are too well value engineered to last longer than that now a days. I've spent too much money on non-stick over the years, I'll never buy a non-stick ripoff again for the rest of my life, F those people.

        • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:48AM

          by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:48AM (#171297)

          The problem with deglazing the cast iron is I spent hours coating my pans with oil (hemp, couple other types) and baking at 400F for an hour repeat many times and the seasoning builds up in strength with frying use for years on end, etc.

          I'm not sure I used the correct term. What I do after pulling the steak out of the cast iron pan is splash in some red wine, sprinkle in a bit of flour (I'm too lazy to prepare a roué ahead of time, and there is usually already enough fat in the pan anyway) and quickly stir it up, scraping up the drippings from the steak. Sometimes I add sliced onions and/or mushrooms to the pan just before the steak is ready to come off and let them become part of the sauce. When it is thick enough, I pour it over the steak. It does not seem to affect the seasoning of the pan.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:52AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:52AM (#171301)

            I meant to add to the above that if I still had a high quality stainless steel pan (suppose I should just buy another one) I would have no qualms about using it to cook a steak. Not quite as good as cast iron but close enough, and a whole lot easier to clean and maintain.

          • (Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday April 18 2015, @08:53PM

            by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 18 2015, @08:53PM (#172580)

            Ah understood. I was thinking about that "get the pan red hot" to get the tasty texture sear bit. That part is hard on the seasoning.

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday April 14 2015, @02:27AM

      by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday April 14 2015, @02:27AM (#170159)

      What you advocate is good, but try this. Put a layer of sugar in a pan on high heat until it melts and begins to caramelize. Use a little more sugar than you think you should. Then slap the steak in and rub it around. Wait about 30 seconds, then flip it and rub it around. Sprinkle on some garlic salt and white pepper, wait 30 seconds, flip and rub again. Add onion slices and mushroom slices. Move the steak to on top of the other stuff when it's getting done enough. When the onions are done call it good. Goes well with asparagus fried in butter.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek