On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 16:47:16 GMT, "Vox Humana" >
wrote:

>
>"Dee Randall" > wrote in message
...
>
>> Just a thought, perhaps Cook's Illustrated started the new fad of
>> 'deconstructed' recipes.
>> Dee Dee
>
>That is a good description of what they do. Sometimes I think that it is
>appropriate. However, I get the feeling that Cook's Illustrated and Alton
>Brown sometimes reverse engineer things to justify their particular niche.
>It is a matter of goal inversion. At first it reasonable to deconstruct
>things to illustrate a point of fix a problem. Later, the deconstruction
>takes place just because that is what they do. I have see them do things
>and justify the use of weird equipment that makes things harder, or at least
>seems to have a very, very small incremental return for the amount of effort
>and/or expense exerted.
>
I like the reverse engineering that they do (Alton Brown)
Most of the time it shows cooking basics and shows what can be
changed with the recipe without having undesired results.. ie: the
recipe needs acid, so if you don't have or like this in it, you need
to add this to increase acid level, otherwise this will happen..
Sometimes they go overboard with the gadgets (which I end up buying)
Past 6 weeks: French coffee press, micro plane, measuring cup plunger
thingy..
Chuck (in SC)