IIRC Adam is French, so may have just guessed we would have the verb pâtisser, which would naturally translate to English as something like “to patisse”.
The true deep philosophical answer was… I wanted to separate cakes from bread (in french we have patisserie and boulangerie), but couldn’t find any obvious one in english (seems like indeed, english-speaking countries use baking for both). So I adapted the “patisser” verb in french, hoping that I would get away with a neologism given that english is so fit for constructing them.
Let’s perhaps try and clarify what we mean here. Cooking has a larger margin of error than baking—is that what you’re referring to? (If so, then I agree.) Or are we talking about being able to repeatably get a specific result (which is how I read the OP)?
Hmm, I am not fully sure what people meant in context, but I would guess it referred to the “margin of error” thing. Like, people have told me many times that they have much more frequently produced approximately inedible batches of baked goods than they have produced inedible batches of other food.
I have been baking for 25 years and I have never heard the term “patissing” before now. Not once.
The term for making cakes is… “baking”.
EDIT: Also—baking cakes, less reliable than cooking? Well, all I can say is that this is pretty much the opposite of my experience…
IIRC Adam is French, so may have just guessed we would have the verb pâtisser, which would naturally translate to English as something like “to patisse”.
I took it as a kinda-joking backformation from “patisserie”.
Yeah, patisserie is one of those kitchen-french words that have made it to american english, but I’ve never heard conjugated :P
I see, yeah, that would explain it.
The true deep philosophical answer was… I wanted to separate cakes from bread (in french we have patisserie and boulangerie), but couldn’t find any obvious one in english (seems like indeed, english-speaking countries use baking for both). So I adapted the “patisser” verb in french, hoping that I would get away with a neologism given that english is so fit for constructing them.
Well, Google thinks it’s real!
I am not competent at either baking or cooking, but I’ve definitely heard this 10+ times over the years (and never the opposite).
Let’s perhaps try and clarify what we mean here. Cooking has a larger margin of error than baking—is that what you’re referring to? (If so, then I agree.) Or are we talking about being able to repeatably get a specific result (which is how I read the OP)?
Hmm, I am not fully sure what people meant in context, but I would guess it referred to the “margin of error” thing. Like, people have told me many times that they have much more frequently produced approximately inedible batches of baked goods than they have produced inedible batches of other food.