Text 14639, 148 rader
Skriven 2014-07-03 18:01:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: computer cookng
=======================
An intersting article in CBC on-line today:
                                     
by Lauren O'Neil in his blog:

IBM's Watson computer creates surprisingly delicious BBQ sauce   

From beating Ken Jenningsat Jeopardy to helping researchers improve
cancer treatments, IBM's Watson supercomputer has racked up an
impressive list of accomplishments in recent years.

Watson has proven itself highly intelligent (albeit artificially)
when it comes to analyzing natural language and retrieving
information, but its latest undertaking is prompting many to beg the
question: can a computer actually be creative?

In an effort to demonstrate its "cognitive cooking" technology, IBM
researchers recently gave Watson the task of creating its own
barbecue sauce from scratch.

Using data sourced by IBM engineers who examined thousands of
flavour compounds at the molecular level, along with nutritional
data from the FDA, Watson was able to produce what it determined to
be a pleasant combination of unlikely ingredients.  

"Watson consumes massive amounts of recipes from different sources
and then parses out the ingredients and steps," wrote one of IBM's
Watson team members on Reddit. "It also takes in information about
the basic flavor compounds in ingredients, the general nature of
ingredients, and, perhaps most interesting, a database of the
'pleasantness' of flavor compounds."  

Chefs from the New York's Institute of Culinary Education assisted
in bringing Watson's recipe to life.

The resulting "Bengali Butternut BBQ Sauce," a combination of
ingredients that includes white wine, butternut squash, tamarind,
dates, thai chiles and "and a dozen more ingredients that have never
before been slathered together on a chicken wing" according to IBM,
is being hailed as "delicious" by nearly everyone who's reviewed it
online to date.

"Immediately, you can taste the sweet warmth of the wine and the
squash," wrote Fast Company's Mark Wilson after taste-testing the
sauce. "The tamarind blends seamlessly, backed by a duo of vinegars,
to tickle your tongue with just the right amount of tartness. The
other flavors combine to leave an indefinable, warm aftertaste that,
as you have a few more bites, actually heats your mouth--thanks to
Thai chiles."

"I test it again and again," he continued. "Finally I just slather
my plate in the stuff. It’s delicious--the best way I can describe
it is as a Thai mustard sauce, or maybe the middle point between a
BBQ sauce and a curry. Does that sound gross? I assure you that it
isn’t."

IBM sent me a bottle of BBQ sauce designed by Watson, so I ate it.
My job is weird sometimes. Yes, it's THE Watson. The same computer
that decimated Ken Jennings in Jeopardy has taken on an even greater
challenge--what IBM calls cognitive computing, or put more simply,
creativity.

And it doesn't simply taste good — the sauce is quite healthy too,
with only 2 grams of sugar per serving and a host of natural,
flavour-packed ingredients.

Unfortunately for those who are itching to taste Watson's Bengali
Butternut BBQ Sauce, IBM has no plans to start mass-producing
condiments.

"There's a pretty big jump between small scale production and mass
production," wrote the Watson team member on Reddit. "The original
recipe was developed at the kitchens of the Institute for Culinary
Education. However, to get it into bottles that we can give out
required us to go through an appropriately certified producer that
could package it according to appropriate standards... unfortunately
[the sauce] would be really expensive on store shelves because it
doesn't use the cheap filler ingredients that your typical major
name sauces use."   

That said, IBM has provided Watson's recipe on its Tumblr blog for
anyone who's interested in making the sauce themselves.   

IBM also maintains an online Cognitive Cook Book with "all the info
on every dish we’ve cooked up so far," including those produced for
Watson's high-tech food truck at the South by Southwest festival in
Austin, Texas, this past March.    

According to IBM, quintillions of recipes based on thousands of
ingredients have been modeled by its cognitive computers to date —
far more than any human could possibly try out for themselves, as
Business Insider noted.

"We wanted to see how we could push the boundaries of cognitive
computing and if computers could be creative."  IBM engineer Florian
Pinel told Business Insider. "We wanted to focus on food because
it's easy to gather data on and it's something everyone cares
about."

--MM

Bengali Butternut BBQ Sauce

Approximate Yield: 550g
300g butternut squash, diced
200g white wine

100g rice vinegar
50g butter, unsalted
5g tamarind concentrate
40g water
10g chili paste (Sriracha)
4g soy sauce
50g dates, pitted and chopped
2g Thai chili
3g mustard seed
3g turmeric, fresh, thinly sliced
0.4g cardamom, ground
5g coriander leaves
2g Meyer lemon zest, grated
5g salt, to taste
10g Meyer lemon juice
6g molasses

1. Gently sweat the squash in the butter over medium low heat until
softened, approximately 5-10 minutes.

2. Add the vinegar, tamarind, water, wine, chili paste, and soy;
bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Add the dates, chili,
mustard seed, turmeric, and cardamom. Continue to simmer and reduce
to roughly 250g, for about 20 minutes.

3. Remove from heat; add the coriander leaves and lemon zest. Blend
to a very smooth consistency and cool.

4. Season the mixture with salt, lemon juice, and molasses. Chill.

Created by @iceculinary and IBM Research

---


YK Jim


... Bill Gates is so rich he now owns the whole world & some of Neptune too

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