Hello Paul!



 AW>> I can't do the experiment the way you suggest. When I visit

 AW>> my folks, my mother cooks a lemon delicious for me without

 AW>> using any written recipe. It always turns out perfectly. My

 AW>> girlfriend has tried to bake that same dessert four times,

 AW>> from a recipe transcribed from my mothers memory. On those

 AW>> four occasions the pudding has turned out badly and doesn't

 AW>> rise at all. My partner is convinced that some additional

 AW>> "vagueness" steps have been omitted from the recipe's

 AW>> transcript. Perhaps the oven has to be adjusted a few times

 AW>> during the baking phase. It's just one of those recipes that

 AW>> appears to have been passed down from generation to

 AW>> generation and can only be taught "at the oven" and can't be

 AW>> written down.



 PE> There need be nothing vague or mysterious about preheating the oven.



I agree that there's nothing mysterious in the fact that probably 99% of

recipes require a preheated oven. I was surmising that maybe the

temperature has to be tweaked a few times during the cooking process.



 PE> This is like consipiracy theories, Loc Ness Monster etc, people like

 PE> believing in ridiculous things to make life seem more interesting.

 PE> Perhaps you can get your girlfriend to make the lemon delicious at

 PE> your mother's place, and find the missing step.  There is no way

 PE> your mother has a special linkup with God.  BFN.



Next time, I will make sure that Alison watches closely whilst my mother

cooks a lemon delicious pudding. I may even take some notes comparing the

written recipe with what actually takes place in the kitchen. My folks may

be visiting Sydney in November so I'll make a report then. I had thought

that the extra hot gas oven we use may have been causing the pudding to

flop, so it will be interesting to see how my mother handles our oven.





Regards, Alan



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