I also learned from my mistakes as I went along. For example, when baking pie crust, you should poke holes in the bottom of it or it will expand and a weird bubble will form. Also, poking the bubble will just make the filling fall through the poked hole and not make the bubble go to the bottom of the pan if it has already cooled. However, if when you make pizza and the cheese forms a weird bubble, poking it when it is in the oven will deflate the cheese bubble and it will no longer look like fluffy pizza. These little nuances of baking are best dealt with when experienced. I’m not sure I ever would have come across those situations if I hadn’t taken the time to make both of those dishes. The mistakes I made while cooking helped me realize that mistakes are a helpful way to increase learning. Because I have had these experiences, I am more likely to remember how to fix these mistakes than if I had done it correctly the first time. Although learning from mistakes is one way to have knowledge become part of your long term memory, it is certainly not the only way; doing things correctly the first time does help reinforce the correct behavior so that you remember what to do next time.
Learning Log
1/16/09 cooked chicken 7-8pm 1 hour
1/23/09 pizza crust 6-7pm 1 hour
1/30/09 enchiladas 7-8pm 1 hour
2/28/09 chocolate lollipops 9-9:30pm ½ hour
3/13/09 pizza 7-8:30pm 1 ½ hours
3/14/09 chocolate pie 2-3pm 1 hour
4/4/09 peanut butter cookies 5-6pm 1 hour
Thanks for sharing your baking experience. You hint at several learning aspects in your narrative, such as disequilibrium, that bring (for me) new understanding to these concepts as a learner.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I don't know about you, but I love to get the cheese to bubble on a pizza. We make homemade pizza all the time and I have found that the best way to get the bubbled cheese look is to change the oven to "broil" for 1-2 minutes at the end of cooking the pizza.