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:
- Belgian bacon pudding, a desert containing dried porcini mushrooms
- Vietnamese apple kebab, with the vaunted mushroom-and-strawberry pairing
- Portuguese lobster roll, with appetizing "saffron fluid gel"
- Hoof-n-Honey ale, with veal stock
- Thai-Jewish chicken, with potato latkes and rice balls
- The shrimp cocktail, which is a beverage with actual shrimp in it
- Kenyan Brussels spouts, with cardamom
It sounds like another sort of molecular gastronomy. Have any Soylentils eaten recipes like that? Does it work?
Related Stories
The world's first robotic kitchen prepares crab bisque for breakfast:
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited along to a warehouse in north London to see what is being billed as "the world's first automated kitchen." The system, made by Moley Robotics in the UK, can only make crab bisque right now—and it requires that all of the ingredients and utensils are pre-positioned perfectly. The goal, though, is to have a consumer-ready version within two years, priced at around £10,000 ($14,600). The company envisions an "iTunes style library of recipes" that you can download and have your robot chef prepare.
In its current form, the Moley Robotic Kitchen is essentially two very expensive robotic arms, with two even dearer fully articulated biomimetic humanoid hands made by the Shadow Robot Company on the ends. In front of the robot is a kitchen—a sink, a stovetop, an oven, and a range of utensils, including the aforementioned blender. The ingredients are placed in bowls and cups on the worktop. Once everything is set up, an engineer simply presses "start" on the controlling PC, the robot arms whirl around for 30 minutes, and voilà: crab bisque.
Simply stunning. Fresh from the arms of your android girlfriend, you awake from a coding/WoW binge to a delicately prepared breakfast of crab bisque. Geek nirvana, here we come!
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Monday April 13 2015, @09:13PM
The apple kebab sounds pretty tasty, to be honest. I'd eat just about anything though. I think the only food I've ever been offered and couldn't bring myself to eat were rocky mountain oysters. Probably would have be delicious if I didn't know what they were already. :(
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:00AM
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by deadstick on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:27AM
They are quite tasty indeed, once you get past the psychological hurdle.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Paradise Pete on Tuesday April 14 2015, @10:37AM
How about roasted maggots? Have you tried those? It's a common dish in rural Thailand. I couldn't bring myself to try it.
By the way, the same girl that tried to get me to eat those had recently discovered some western foods. She loved mayonnaise. I told her she could make it herself, and showed her a youtube video. Her first reaction: "Oh, that's easy!" Then a pause... "Wait, you don't cook the egg?! You farangs are crazy!!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2015, @03:17PM
Posting AC because I'm at work, but I've never had maggots. I've had spider, ants, and grasshoppers though, but that's been many years. I did eat a mealworm on a bet once while fishing, that was kind of gross, but that wasn't exactly cuisine.
I don't really like mayo much, but I find the idea of being repulsed by raw egg being in something kind of funny. I like them that way. To each their own I suppose.
-dyingtolive
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:35PM
It didn't sound as if she were repulsed, it sounded as if she considered it unsafe. Not an unreasonable reaction it the egg wasn't VERY clean on the outside. (Also, IIUC, uncooked eggs can carry salmonella even if they have been externally cleansed.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2015, @09:06PM
Perhaps I misunderstood then.
And yeah, I'm aware of the health risks. I don't do it on a daily basis, but I just don't shirk from an undercooked breakfast egg, raw cookie dough, or the occasional egg in a dark beer.
-dyingtolive
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Paradise Pete on Thursday April 16 2015, @09:23AM
Yes, I believe it was the safety issue. I didn't ask, but later when I said "come on, you eat maggots" she said, "yes, but we cook them first," thoroughly putting me in my place :-)
She loved them, by the way. When the cart passed by the house she'd run outside to get some.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Yog-Yogguth on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:50PM
Food is weird, there was a local tabloid story about American visitors starting to cry when confronted with pâté, some of them thought it was made out of children lol :D (do they also think Frosted Flakes are made out of tigers?). I'm sure it was exaggerated for comedic effect but it's still funny.
I'm quite squeamish however I've eaten raw eggs right out of their shell and that's no problem at all. By the way raw egg on rice (whip it in with the chopsticks) is a Japanese thing as far as I know (never tried it yet).
Grass jelly drinks can be nice or …interesting… when canned so I found this page/picture of text [noapologiespress.com] hilarious. Completely get their take on it but it's far better than frogs and snails or raw oysters :)
I've “swallowed” my fair share of living flying flies including one rather large one due to bad luck (don't talk and bicycle? Stay away from “suicidal” flies? I know why frogs don't need to chew or kill, it died almost instantly in my stomach after hitting the back of my throat and ricocheting down), at least it wasn't a wasp or bumblebee :3
Grass jelly drink is no worse.
P.S. Prawn crackers++
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 3, Funny) by Megahard on Monday April 13 2015, @09:31PM
That's crazy. It's too dry in the desert for mushrooms.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by EvilSS on Monday April 13 2015, @10:14PM
That's why they are all dried up!
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday April 13 2015, @09:33PM
According to the Risks Forum, they fed Watson the Urban Dictionary, but were forced to back it out after Watson "developed potty mouth".
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by useless on Monday April 13 2015, @09:47PM
Then it branched out to Tumblr, after which it printed out the Futurama "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" meme, then formatted it's drives, effectively killing itself.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:51AM
Fortunately, Watson was restored from backup and extensively retrained using a mix of 9gag and Tumblr content. Now it identifies as Emma Watson.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:37PM
That one's true. I read a report at (only slightly after) the time. So they had to purge the database and retrain it. Not a big deal, they were, after all, working on a copy and doing it as an experiment.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday April 13 2015, @09:52PM
Have any Soylentils eaten recipes like that?
I'm hungry, there's leftovers in the fridge, the microwave is right over there... You should rephrase that to "intentionally" or "on purpose".
general tso chicken on waffles
guacamole on yellow pound cake (the kind of cake you'd make strawberry shortcake with, minus the strawberries and minus the whipped cream)
Pesto on pecan pie
A little taco sauce on ice cream as a topping
Sliced apple and bacon sandwich with swiss cheese (maybe this isn't so weird?)
Those taste much better than they sound.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday April 13 2015, @09:56PM
If the only way you can cook is with a microwave, after a while you develop some weird recipes.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:30AM
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/25/172505187/the-microwave-miracle-of-cooking-in-mugs [npr.org]
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/08/25/214799882/dishwasher-cooking-make-your-dinner-while-cleaning-the-plates [npr.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Monday April 13 2015, @10:07PM
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.
(Score: 1) by slinches on Monday April 13 2015, @10:39PM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday April 14 2015, @11:04AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @10:00PM
Not in computing. In asking, "Why is my life better that such things exist?"
Watson: Wasting Applied ThoughtS On Nothing
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday April 13 2015, @10:41PM
Watson: son of WAT.
(sorry, that's about the best I can do until you buy me upgrades)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Monday April 13 2015, @10:24PM
I'm waiting for Totino's to come out with a Belgian bacon pudding Vietnamese apple lobster pizza roll smeared with an appetizing saffron fluid gel. Leave a comment on this webzone if you want me to e-mail you one. The gel tends to get a little oily, so you may want to add some extra saffron when you get it.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SlimmPickens on Monday April 13 2015, @10:40PM
I'd be much more interested in the pairing database. I'm after less extreme pairings and the commercial databases are very expensive. They generally work by saying if one popular food has a group of chemicals and another popular food has the same group of chemicals then they might go well together. This is how Heston Blumenthal comes up with the likes of snail porridge (which is one of his best sellers).
For a while there was a free database where I learned several pairings I still use, like eggs and scotch whiskey, or duck meat and cooked banana (with duck gravy etc) but it's gone now. It's not in the wayback machine.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:32AM
I've heard the claim that what you might call advanced pairings have a chemical basis, but I'm somewhat dubious.
Some foods have elements that are a mixture of an extremely diverse collection of molecules. Structures like gluten made up of chopped up proteins are an example. We can characterize types of gluten based on their plant origin, but I doubt there's a clear picture of the molecular distinctions between different glutens.
Second, I doubt we properly understand the mapping between chemical features and taste sensations. In vision, violet is a monochromatic color which is observable due to light in that frequency provoking a certain response on cones with overlapping frequency ranges and purple is an approximation of violet created by blending red and blue light in a way that stimulates the cones in a similar way. I've seen some food pairings that sound like they're based on guesses about "purple" and "violet" tastes.
But I'm not sure those can be distinguished from culturally bound pairings and acquired tastes (which can be motivated by being told that a great chef came up with the pairing).
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:39AM
We don't understand it, but that is how those databases work, and they do work. Not everything they come up with is delicious though.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:46AM
Why bother with unsightly databases when you can go cognitive Web 3.0 with the Watson API [ibm.com]?
"Watson, make me a sandwich."
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:17AM
Don't know if the food info is in there, but sure looks interesting
(Score: 5, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday April 13 2015, @10:47PM
I don't eat recipes. The paper doesn't taste well, and the ink doesn't really make it better. Also, the nutritional value is negligible.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday April 14 2015, @03:31AM
Rice paper with soy based ink?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:24AM
maxwell demon's point still stands
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @11:23PM
Molecular flavor pairing is great for inspiration but it isn't robust enough to predict what will taste good together at certain ratios or after certain cooking techniques. A database of recipes is probably not the best set to train on either. It would be useful to make an empirical database that starts with more simple pairing with fewer ingredients.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday April 13 2015, @11:48PM
> It would be useful to make an empirical database that starts with more simple pairing with fewer ingredients.
I'm gonna go make myself some crepes. With butter/sugar/lemon on top.
Then I'll eat dark chocolate on a piece of bread, or maybe a croissant.
Because some people need to be reminded that simpler can be a whole lot better, regardless of what your burger toppings menu claims. The US is crazy about mixing flavors until there's so many you can't taste anything. Watson was programmed by people like that, apparently.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:57AM
Peanut butter goes well with both green pepper and banana (exp. bananas that aren't fully ripe).
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:43PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 14 2015, @07:14PM
Unnnh.....
Did you ever hear of curry? It's not based around some particular spice called the curry plant, it's a collection of a variety of different spices, and that's why it comes in some many different varieties.
What you are complaining about is not a distinctive feature of US cooking, it's also common in China, Japan, India, France, Italy, and probably other places that I just don't know well enough to think of. Different traditional cuisines differ mainly in their choices of how to combine which flavors. The difference in main ingredients is probably a much less important difference.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday April 14 2015, @07:39AM
Reminds me of BBQ Soda.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:24PM
BBQ, impressive, try Kava soda, but you have to travel to the pacific isles to find it.
Having drank kava, that soda must be an acquired taste. You know that face freshmen make when they drink their first beer? Its like that times ten.