how to what? - a rundown on the basics

[cuuks]

what is it for?

To invent recipes and compose all kinds of things with the aromas and the tastes that surround us. Cuuks.com suggests ingredients for flavor combinations.

Cuuks is an application to:

-Match cooking ingredients
-Adapt flavor compositions others liked and used.
-Remind you of inspiring compositions.
-Discover unusual ingredients to complement a dish.



ingredients?

Find ingredients through search and by clicking on suggested ingredients. Clicking on ingredients adds them to your composition in the main panel in the center.

If search doesn't come up with the ingredient you want to work with, then you can add a new one - click add new ingredient in the panel on the left - type in its name and add tags.

Common ingredients in cuuks will be the ones you find in standard-recipes but if you want to steer away from that - go ahead, we don't mind- your ingredients could be "grandmothers stock cubes" or "4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde". It's up to you what compositions are made of!



tags?

Tagging: a way to label and retrieve information. Any word you associate with an ingredient or a composition can be a tag to describe it better. A tag is a descriptor, keyword or identifier. Any item may have several tags and there is no "wrong" choice.

Tags seem particularly useful when composing flavors. Our brain combines the perception of aroma with all kinds of memories. A "tomato" may remind you of: italy, red, summer and pasta. Next time you can use these descriptors to make "tomato" show up in search results, whenever you or someone else uses these words in a search query.

You could search for:
seasonal ingredients:"spring"; for taste: "salty"; texture:"crunchy"; aroma:"floral", "minty"
... it can be quite poetic, actually.

Add tags to an ingredient by clicking on the respective link. You can and should add tags to compositions as well. It makes it much easier to find what you need and allows us to make smarter suggestions. Tag often - it's a good thing!



compositions?

A composition is a recipe reduced to bare essentials: ingredients, notes and tags.

You can adapt any public composition and turn it into something of your own. To do that click on the title of a composition. To edit click on notes, title or ingredients. You can now edit the composition and save it on your profile.

Notes can be a reference to recipes, your personal toughts or detailed instructions and measurements - you decide what is most useful to you.

A composition will be public by default unless you uncheck that box (make public). If your composition isn't publi, eople can't see it, rate it or adapt it themselves.

Be playful - enjoy!

[andyson]

Emulsions: Concept of Stabilizing Oil & Water | Lecture 7