Comment by dinkleberg
15 hours ago
I do find it kind of wild how intimidating most people I know find baking. Get a food scale and follow the directions and you're good to go and will have something respectable and delicious. As with anything, you can dive deep and go extreme with it. But baking delicious food is not rocket science.
Baking bread is not like that unless you have strict control of the environment; it is sensitive to temperature, and nature of the water and flour. It's an art; you have to read the signs. And mastering that is rewarding.
It is fun but it's also not universal. While every house and apartment I've lived in in the USA had an oven, the default in Japan is no oven. 1 to 3 burners, and possibly a broiler is the norm.
If you want an oven you get microwave/oven combo.
Might be similar in Korea? China? Taiwan? India?
Funny you'd say that. Other people say cooking is art, while baking is a science. No room for errors.
Cooking is art, baking is a very easy science (weight things and check the temperature), pastry is another thing. That requires talent, experience and a lucky star.
if there was no room for "errors", how is it possible that there are tens of thousands of different bread and cookie recipes and stuff like that?
Because while the recipes are easy to follow, you can't fix a baked dough. If you messed up the salt, the yeast, etc. that's it. Cooking is more forgiving in that sense.
Baking bread is fun because its not science. It had guidelines but thats it
Science can be fun!