108: Episode 177: Inciting A Scientifical Riot

  <p>Have you ever seen those food videos on YouTube where a chef or a food scientist tries out a series of “food hacks” found in those viral videos by places like 5-minute crafts or Blossom? The “hacks” as they’re commonly called showcase a new, easier way of cooking in well-edited videos lasting only a few seconds per recipe. Ostensibly, this is to help folks who don’t have a lot of cookware on hand or prior skill make something delicious in a way that’s cheap, accessible, and easy. Making brownies in a paper bag or caramel corn with a bit of candy and some kernels.</p> <p> </p> <p>These videos are made in a way that most people find not only aesthetically pleasing, but enjoyable to watch and rewatch, to share with their friends, and, of course, to try and replicate. Some of the biggest channels on YouTube are these life hack or food hack videos, garnering hundreds of millions of views across multiple channels and raking in large sums of money for the never-seen owners of the channel.</p> <p> </p> <p>Invariably, what the chef or food scientist realizes pretty quickly is there is a problem, several actually, with these slick, trendy videos: there are no lists of ingredients used, no temperatures provided, no times given, and no narrator telling you what they’re doing. So, when the expert attempts to replicate the video they immediately run into some problems and typically need to have a fire extinguisher on hand. </p> <p> </p> <p>The food scientist or experienced chef can usually break down exactly why the hack doesn’t work as they’re showing you the technique used in the viral video. Either the recipe is missing a key ingredient that would cause the bread to rise or the video tells you to use something that would fall apart in real life. What is most often the case is, if you look closely, the videos are edited in a way that the end result is an already prepared dish that wasn’t made using the hack. </p> <p> </p> <p>What does this have to do with a podcast about witches and other magical people? Well, we have s