For some reason, driving around this afternoon I was thinking about pie - specifically whether a particular lemon tart could be halved to go in a seven inch tart pan, or whether it would just make sense to make two seven inch tarts, because the recipe calls for one whole lemon, or whether I should just go for the whole thing. And I remembered that once upon a time, I actually made (and saved) a little spreadsheet of the areas of round pans, because I am some kind of closet geek who scales recipes up and down using actual math.
Then I got home and puttered around the intertubes for a bit, and discovered that, according to Niobe and Nora anyway, today is π-day, as in "pi", as in 3.14159..., as in what kind of a weird coincidence is it that I was both thinking about pie, and thinking about the formula to determine the area of a circle which of course involves π?
And I never did make the lemon tart, which probably would have overflowed into the bottom of the oven if I'd done it in seven inch pans, but a recipe for a ten inch tart would halve nicely into a seven inch pan, in case you were wondering.
22 comments:
I are dead from the math!
Does that make you a pi tart?
I would never have considered this. Wow.
My brain hurts. Let's have some chocolate.
Oh my goodness. I, too, have struggled to adjust recipes with real math, but it looked nothing like this...
I think I would have just made the whole recipe and just fit whatever I could into the pan. I'm sure it would have turned out disasterously, like everything else I cook.
mmmm.....pi
i made a quiche. it was my usual no-recipe thing: some sauteed veggies and ham; handfuls of cheese scattered above and below the filling; 5 whipped eggs. in a pi pan.
ummmmm, lemon. Third pie post today!
You are aware that you can purchase pies from the grocery store, right? There are even small ones and individual slices, if you feel so inclined. Marvelous things, grocery stores...
Shade and Sweetwater,
K (who actually gets the whole cooking math thing, because she does it all the time)
Geek! You are a geek!!! ;-)
Thinking about pie is never a waste of time.
Both kinds of pi/e are cool. And what is up with the lemon tart obsessions? Lucy asks me daily when I'm making her one. Must be a harbinger of spring, no?
Or you could make the whole recipe, and just eat the leftover custardy filling. Mmmmmmmmmmmm! ;-)
FA
i could go for some leftover custardy filling, actually. mmm, lemon. i should get my act together and bake, already.
love pie. hate pi.
and i am in awe of your mathematical baking computations. i too would have just put as much possible in the pan.
my computations go like this: "oh well, here we go".
love pie. hate pi.
and i am in awe of your mathematical baking computations. i too would have just put as much possible in the pan.
my computations go like this: "oh well, here we go".
i love this post.
Happy pi day!
You seem like one of those smart cooks--and not just because you think of infinite numerical series when you cook. I'll bet your food is awesome.
I can't handle the pressure of cooking. Making it taste good. It overwhelms me. Now if it didn't have to taste good. Or look good, then it seems like it could be fun. Like some kind of art. Couldn't it just be about the process?
Yeah that is pretty geeky.
To drive around and wonder about pi charts. Fascinating world, that head of yours!!
I was just this second telling Niobe about our pi/e dish:
http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com/whatonearth/Item_The-Pi-Dish_VC4603_ps_srm.html
It's like you are one with the universe.
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