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\\nToday\\u2019s episode is all about who is Fannie Farmer and her contributions to food science. I\\u2019m continuing the theme of food science from a couple of episodes back. If you haven\\u2019t had a chance to listen, make sure you click back and check out my episode about William A. Mitchell. He was a powerhouse of a scientist and was the key inventor of Cool Whip, Tang and Pop Rocks. 
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\\nIf I were to ask you who is Fannie Farmer, there is a great chance you\\u2019d have no idea. Most people don\\u2019t dive that deep into food history. I feel you can\\u2019t talk about food science without referencing Fannie and her contributions to the culinary world. 
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\\nThe Importance of Reproducing Results
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\\nAny scientist will tell you that the key to a great experiment is being able to reproduce results. If you have a tremendous scientific finding, the scientific community will not pay attention unless you can reproduce the results. Then you have something. 
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\\nWe all have a family member that is an amazing cook. Growing up, my parents and grandparents cooked amazing food. However, when I grew up and moved away, I had a hard time reproducing their results. I had a recipe in hand that I executed perfectly, but the end result was light years away from what they could do. 
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\\nMy Attempt to Make A Family Recipe
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\\nI remember making my Grandma\\u2019s biscuit recipe a year ago. I was excited. She was from Kentucky and knew how to make a fantastic biscuit. Finally I had her recipes and I was going to be cranking out Kentucky biscuits by nightfall. My thoughts of fame and fortune came crashing down when I sent my Grandma a picture of the final product. Her response, \\u201cThose don\\u2019t look like my biscuits.\\u201d
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\\nAs the air instantly burst from my rapidly deflating ego, I thought about what went wrong. I had the recipe and I followed it perfectly. However, the end result was a disappointment. This was a prime example of how my Grandma never used her recipe. Sure she had her method and recipe written down, but there were probably 5 things that she would do that she didn\\u2019t even consider writing down. 
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\\nCue Measurements!
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\\nThat\\u2019s how cooking and cookbooks used to be. I\\u2019ve read through many vintage cookbooks over the course of this blog. I have tried to replicate the recipes to the best of my ability. Sometimes modern equipment and techniques took precedence over what was written in the book. One thing that often left me guessing was what exact amounts and proportions of ingredients should I be adding to different recipes. There weren\\u2019t many standardized measurements in the early days. People would add whatever \\u201cfelt\\u201d right and then be shocked when their neighbor couldn\\u2019t replicate their recipe.
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\\nFannie Farmer realized this was a major problem with cooking. Without consistent and universal measurements, the average cook would never be able to reproduce a masters recipe. Think about that for a second. How many times do you watch someone cook a recipe they made themselves. I do this all the time. I’ll make a chicken soup that will vary slightly from time to time. I have never bothered to write down the recipe and assign strict measurements to the process.
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\\nThe result is a soup that is amazing, but difficult to replicate. It might be almost impossible for someone else to replicate my mental recipe. I would tell them to add a little of this, and some more of that, and in the end they might be in the ballpark. However, their product wouldn\\u2019t be similar to mine. 
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\\nWhat Fannie Said About Measurements
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