Functional Cooking

This post is dedicated to Nicole who posed the question, "When will you ever use math in the real world?" My favorite response to that question is to ask, "What can you do with math in the real world?" Nicole is a good cook, and uses math all the time to adjust recipes for the number of people she is serving. I suggested to her the following mathematically informed notation for her recipes.

Shrimp Scampi(x)
x/5 lbs linguini
4x/5 tablespoons butter
4x/5 tablespoons of olive oil
x/5 large shallots
x cloves of garlic diced
x/5 pinches of red flakes
4x large shrimp, peeled
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
x/10 cups dry white wine
x/5 lemons, juiced
x/20 cups finely chopped parsley leaves

Serves about x people.

I'm hungry already!

Photo by: Eli Hodapp