Thursday, December 29th, 2022

Time	Event
9:00a	Watch You Suck at Cooking, a Hilarious Source for Tasty Recipes and Food Hacks of Questionable Veracity </p> Is it just us, or did half of Gen Z teach themselves how to cook on TikTok during the height of the pandemic? The recipes that go viral have more in common with gonzo science experiments than Julia Child’s Coq au Vin. Hacks are golden in this forum – whether or not they actually work – and running time is of the essence. There’s an unmistakable visual vocabulary, too – from the god shots of manicured hands dumping pre-measured ingredients into mixing bowls to the reveal of the completed dish just seconds later. One has to be conversant in these tropes to subvert them as gleefully as the anonymous creator of the seven year old online series You Suck at Cooking. Unlike such TikTok heavy hitters as cloud bread or whipped coffee, most of You Suck at Cooking‘s dishes are things you might consider preparing on a regular basis, however trendy they may be at the moment. The responsible party’s cooking and editing skills are solid, but his writing is the real star here. We also appreciate the massive amount of planning and care that goes into every five minute episode. He’s an unabashed coiner of vocabulary and elaborate ways to refer to straightforward appliances and ingredients. His delivery is mild mannered, but he doesn’t mince words when it comes to culinary biases – e.g., condimenting only one side of the bun is a certifiable burger crime and if you don’t like pickles, one thing you can do is seek help. Simple dishes such as overnight oats require so little instruction, he’s freed up to skewer the questionable claims of food-focused wellness “experts” by leaning all the way in. The spirit of the project carries over into his written step-by-steps on the rare occasions when mere video demonstration will not suffice. (His cookbook, You Suck at Cooking: The Absurdly Practical Guide to Sucking Slightly Less at Making Food, was published anonymously in 2019.) To get the most from your experience, we recommend you first watch his deep fried Korean-style corndog How To, then follow the written recipe: 1. Go to the store  2. Buy corn dogs  3. Enjoy  If you insist on making corn dogs yourself, first read these frying safety tips The reason home fryers are safer than doing it on the stovetop is because they limit the heat of your oil so it won’t catch fire. It’s easy to let it get too hot which is very bad news.  Batter 1 ¼ cups flour  2 tablespoon sugar  ½ teaspoon salt  1.3 teaspoon yeast  1 egg  100 ml warm water Wangjangle until your wrist is furious (I did it for a few minutes tops) Let it sit for half an hour  Dry off anything you’re rolling in it  Peg your dogs  Roll ‘em  Roll them in artisan Italian bread crumbs (okay seriously this is a flavor game changer and I can’t recommend them enough. Kortalian food just has such depth.  Fry for 3 minutes  Cool for a few minutes  I think anything else is pretty straight forward When it comes to cooking hacks, our hero is a champion fabulist. It’s safe to assume that the first tip is legit, after which… well, let’s just say that some of his orange peeling methods remind us in the best possible way of our old pal Shel Silverstein’s Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book. Enjoy a playlist of all 150 episodes of You Suck at Cooking here. Related Content  Michael Pollan Explains How Cooking Can Change Your Life; Recommends Cooking Books, Videos & Recipes 10,000 Vintage Recipe Books Are Now Digitized in The Internet Archive’s Cookbook & Home Economics Collection The New York Times Makes 17,000 Tasty Recipes Available Online: Japanese, Italian, Thai & Much More – Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and author, most recently, of Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto.  Follow her @AyunHalliday. (Comment on this)
12:00p	The Book of Leaves: A Beautiful Stop Motion Film Featuring 12,000 Pressed Leaves Brett Foxwell meticulously collected over 12,000 leaves while walking through forests and parks. Then he carefully arranged the leaves, many at different stage of development, into a stop motion sequence. He says: While collecting leaves, I conceived that the leaf shape [of] every single plant type I could find would fit somewhere into a continuous animated sequence of leaves if that sequence were expansive enough. If I didn’t have the perfect shape, it meant I just had to collect more leaves. Above, you can see the result of his painstaking work. You can also watch another exacting Foxwell animation, The Woodswimmer, here. If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newsletter, please find it here. If you would like to support the mission of Open Culture, consider making a donation to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere. You can contribute through PayPal, Patreon, Venmo (@openculture) and Crypto. Thanks! via Petapixel/Laughing Squid Related Content Watch “The Woodswimmer,” a Stop Motion Film Made Entirely with Wood, and “Brutally Tedious” Techniques Stunningly Elaborate Ottoman Calligraphy Drawn on Dried Leaves The Secret Language of Trees: A Charming Animated Lesson Explains How Trees Share Information with Each Other (Comment on this)
8:41p	Pelé’s Great World Cup Goals (RIP) </p> Today, the soccer legend, Pelé, passed away at age 82. The most dominant player of his generation, Pelé turned professional at age 15, won the World Cup at age 17 in 1958 (before winning two more World Cups in 1962 and 1970), and ultimately scored 1,283 goals in 1,367 professional matches, averaging nearly one goal per game. On the international stage, he scored 77 goals for Brazil, 12 of them in the World Cup. The highlight reel above features the young Pelé’s goals in the 1958 World Cup. Separately, you can see his 5 greatest goals in the World Cup finals here. And, for good measure, we’ve added more footage below that highlights his magical skills across his career. If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newsletter, please find it here. If you would like to support the mission of Open Culture, consider making a donation to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere. You can contribute through PayPal, Patreon, Venmo (@openculture) and Crypto. Thanks! Related Content  Video: Bob Marley Plays a Soccer Match in Brazil, 1980 Albert Camus’ Lessons Learned from Playing Goalie: “What I Know Most Surely about Morality and Obligations, I Owe to Football” Why Jorge Luis Borges Hated Soccer: “Soccer is Popular Because Stupidity is Popular” (Comment on this)

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