Scenarios that run end to end
Each adds exactly one capability to the engine, and the order is not arbitrary: muhallebi needs a ratio and one threshold, cake needs all of it at once. Build cake first and there is no way to tell which of four things went wrong.
Muhallebi — milk pudding
Milk, starch, sugar. Three ingredients and one threshold: nothing happens until the starch sees 62 °C, and once it has there is no going back. The sma…
Pilaf
The water goes into the grain and stays there. In the pudding the starch bound the water; here the grain drinks it, and how much it will drink is sett…
Deep frying
A two-way exchange: water leaves and fat arrives. How much water leaves depends on the oil temperature, and how much fat arrives depends on how fast t…
A yoghurt sauce
In the first three, something turned out well or badly. Here something BREAKS, and the break does not reverse. 85 °C is not a target but a ceiling: st…
Mayonnaise
The same ingredients, the same amounts, the same temperature — and a different result if you change the order. Pour the oil in at once and there is no…
Temperature in meat
Until now the pot had one temperature. With meat that assumption collapses: the surface can be at 200 °C while the middle is at 50, and both are true …
Cake
A cake is a race between two clocks: the leavener makes gas while the egg and the starch build the structure meant to hold it. Set the structure too e…
Biscuits
A cake manages rise; a biscuit manages spread. The difference between the shape you put on the tray and the shape that comes off it is decided by what…
Bread
Every scenario so far was measured in minutes. Bread is measured in hours, and something in it is alive: the yeast speeds up and slows down with the t…
Pickles
In the other scenarios a bad result is a dish nobody eats. Here a bad result is a jar that makes somebody ill. A pickle is a preservation method rathe…