Day five: From quitting to quizzing
Posted on | February 18, 2009
So last night I settled down to read what must have been a least nine thousand assigned pages in my textbook when I hit page, oh, seven, and realized there was no way I could possibly memorize the 47 or so terms on every page.
Tears, yes, of course, ensued.
Husband let me cry it out (amazing what a diet of potatoes, lack of sleep, and living out of boxes because we moved to a new city so I could do this will do to the nerves). Then, I had me an idear …
Quizzing, your friend and mine
I needed to get away from that bloody textbook. And I needed to connect with my husband. And I really needed to put this place into some semblance of order so I could focus on my work and not on the half full (half empty) boxes underfoot, constantly underfoot.
So I plunked the husband on the bed. Put the textbook in front of him. And asked him to ask me anything he wanted, just as long as it was from text I had highlighted.
He asked questions as I folded laundry / unpacked boxes / sorted papers / put away dishes / answered questions.
And the more questions he asked, the more I found I had retained some of this stuff. I mean, I know the difference between an aluminum saucepan and a stainless steel saucepan (the big difference is the former heats up nice and fast but the latter is stronger) and I never knew this before. I knew what a pairing knife was used for (little, fiddly work), I knew what a julienne is (the smallest matchstick cut: 1/8″ square and 2″ long), heck, I even knew when you use a china cap (to puree stocks and sauces).
Sure, there was a lot I didn’t know. But I was so surprised to learn that some of it I did know, that I was able to relax. We laughed a bit. And, hey, the house got a bit neater and that is a comfort, too.
And I can tell you, I was mightily encouraged by the fact that some stuff was seeping in. And sticking.
As for today at culinary school …
First, I have two quotes I want to share with you from my motorcycle chef, the first silly and the second clever. Then I’d like to introduce you to the next bane of my existence (as if that damn textbook were not enough).
Quote #1: “The Frank Zappa lyrics are stuck in there and I can’t get them out. Maybe I should find someone to drill my head.”
Quote #2: “You need two things to be a good cook: Patience and dedication.”
Rollercoaster ride from despair to hope to despair
Today, the motorcycle chef decided it was time we learned culinary math. Culinary math, at least at this stage, is all about converting pints to gallons and cups to quarts and so on. So the first thing we need to learn is measurements.
Suffering prefers company
If I gotta learn ‘em, you gotta learn ‘em, so here goes.
- 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
- 1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce
- 1 cup = 8 ounces
- 1 pint = 16 ounces
- 1 quart = 32 ounces
- 1/2 gallon = 64 ounces
- 1 gallon = 128 ounces
I was given a worksheet with scintillating questions like 75 fl. oz = _____ gallons and 5 1/4 cups = _____ tablespoons. The chef also gave us a formula to do this math, but it makes no sense to me, so if anyone gets this stuff, please take pity on a poor culinary school student and help!
Then she told us about this cool YouTube video with kittens.
I love culinary school. Sometimes.
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4 Responses to “Day five: From quitting to quizzing”
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February 18th, 2009 @ 9:07 pm
It sounds like you are settling in pretty well; I loved the idea that your husband quizzed you while you were organzing your house.
February 20th, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
I don’t know what formulas you were given, but the basic idea behind this system was that, back in the old days, if you wanted a smaller portion of something, it was just easier to keep dividing things into halves, hence you get a measuring system where every increasing size is twice as large as the previous one (well, except for that tablespoon bit, which never made sense to me). Trouble is, when you try to do math with this system, it just makes things so much harder.
June 15th, 2010 @ 2:49 pm
You need to set up a conversion factor.
75oz x (1 gal/128oz) = .5859gal rounded to .586gal
1gal/128oz=1 just as 128oz/1 gal=1, they mean the same thing which allows us to switch them depending on what we need.
The most important thing about conversions is that you always put the measurement you want to get rid of on the bottom of the fraction.
This is because it cancels out the measurement in your starting amount, in this case 75oz. You want to get rid of ounces and end up with gals so use the conversion factor 1gal/128oz.
Cancel out the ozs, multiply 75 by 1 to get 75/128 that equals .586 and you keep the gal measurement.
You can go the opposite direction to, suppose you want to know:
How many ounces are in .586 gallons?
You want to end up with oz so this time you use 128oz/1gal.
.586gal x ( 128oz/1 gal) = 75oz
Cancel the gallons then multiply .586 by 128 and keep the remaining sign, ozs.
June 15th, 2010 @ 2:59 pm
5 1/4 cup x (8oz/1cup) x (1 TBS/.5oz)
First you need to multiply 5 1/4 cups by 8 to get the ounces. 5 x 8 = 40, 1/4 x 8/1 = 8/4 simplified to 2, so 5 1/4 cups times 8 oz/1cup equals 42oz after you cancel out the cups.
Next you go 42oz x (1 TBSP/.5oz), cancel the ozs and multiply 42 times 1 divided by .5.
42/.5oz = 84oz