It has now been one year since I left the lab.
In
May 2012, I found a full time position as a Scientific Editor for BBA with
Elsevier in Cambridge. It is an excellent job for me: I get to read
other people's science all day. Plus, it has been an exciting change of pace. In the first few months, it was tough to get used to the
relaxed atmosphere; suddenly, there was much less pressure to produce
results. I have since adapted to the vagaries of scientific publishing.
The best part of this normal schedule: I have a more balanced life
again. For me, this has included reading more books, watching movies, and running more regularly.
I
have also started to develop my skills as a baker. Anyone who has tried
my brownies knows that I am familiar with the power of combining eggs,
butter, and flour. However, in the past few months I have started to
take this to a new level. About six year ago, I
stumbled upon Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. If you are
unfamiliar, they have an amazingly scientific approach to developing a recipe;
essentially, they make 100 batches of chocolate chip cookies so you
don't have to (by the way, their chocolate chip cookies are amazing
and are worth every extra step). I started to think about my
baking differently. I have been reading more about the science of
cooking, specifically the chemistry of the ingredients and how changes
in the ratios of the components can lead to predictable changes in the
resulting product.
I decided to work on one of my standard recipes: the oatmeal raisin
cookie. In the past, I have done a little bit of experimenting with my
recipes, but I have never been very methodical. For this new undertaking, I invested in two new tools: a scale and a notebook. After a few batches, I think I have a successful recipe, which has consistently
(N = 3) achieved the desired outcome: a cookie with a good combination
of chewy and crunchy with a lot of molasses and oatmeal flavor.
I suppose this means that I miss the lab more than I had anticipated. Of course, in contrast to experiments in the lab, a bad result in baking is still a good outcome: treats to enjoy!
I love Cook's Illustrated! Glad to hear things are going well!
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