What is Alchemy to you? Is it what Gaia (or as the anime started it, FMA) drawing a circle, throwing a bunch of random ingredients in, and activating it to get something else?
To me, Real life Alchemy doesn't include circles. There's no symbols.
Just me and the stuff in the kitchen.
Just now I was craving some cake (So I made this little beauty) It's basically the recipe for a chocolate cake, downsized to the size of a coffee mug, thrown into a coffee mug, then microwaved.
I made it, and found out I had no baking powder. Now, I had already mixed the coco powder and the sugar and the flour together, so I couldn't very well put it back (or, much less, throw it out) so I was wondering what I could use to substitute.
I found no baking soda, nor anything else which would serve the purpose in baking.
What I did find was a bottle of antacids.
Now, who here knows how baking soda works? On the scale of acidic to basic, Baking soda/powder is on the basic scale, while things like vinegar is on the acidic scale. When you mix the two together, you get a reaction; the formation of carbon dioxide. This is from the acid and the base neutralizing each other.
Baking powder/soda, when placed into cake batter and heated, is what makes the cake rise. Combine that with eggs in the batter as a binder, It's how you get that fluffy light delightful texture. Vegan batters don't use the eggs, thus you get a thicker more solid texture.
Now, antacids. I found a bottle of those little tablets you chew on for quick relief for acid reflux. Acid reflux is when your stomach pretty much produces too much acid. It leads to heartburn and damage to the esophagus because it isn't made to handle acid the way the stomach can. The tablet, like the baking soda, are on the basic side of the scale, and you sometimes end up with gas after using one. (From the tablet neutralizing the acid in the stomach.)
So I wondered...
It probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to do, but I wondered if I could use one of those tablets to similar effect.
So I broke out the good old mortar and pestle, ground up one tablet and threw it into the batter, before mixing it all up and throwing it into the microwave. I had to nuke it for a longer amount of time then 2 minutes (around 3 1/2) but the effect was the same. (Upon further thought I should have used more then one)
This, to me, is alchemy. It's something similar to, but not exactly the same, as chemistry. Basic by itself, it's gathering intimate knowledge of different things, putting them together, and getting something new.
The best example I can give of Alchemy would be medicinal Alchemy. I watched someone take a regular can of greek chicken and rice soup, and mix at least 15 different spices and herbs in. I ate this soup (I could barely breathe through my nose cause I had a very bad cold) and the next day my symptoms had lessened by half.
Another good example was (from the same guy) he went to a juice place that sold various types of blended shakes, juices, and smoothies. He ordered a juice made of various ingredients, such as carrots, broccoli, flax seed oil, stawberries, among others. He happened to be sick as a dog at the time, and he drank about half the large cup and was feeling right as rain the next day. I had about a quarter of the cup (it tasted awful and the texture was WORSE) but it kept me from catching what he had on nearly the same scale.
Alchemy never needed the fancy circles, or the symbols. They were a code, a method of hiding the notes in metaphor. You don't put things into a circle and it glows and turns into something else. That's not how it works.
If you stop and think... what is it that you do in the kitchen (or otherwise) that's kind of like Alchemy?
To me, Real life Alchemy doesn't include circles. There's no symbols.
Just me and the stuff in the kitchen.
Just now I was craving some cake (So I made this little beauty) It's basically the recipe for a chocolate cake, downsized to the size of a coffee mug, thrown into a coffee mug, then microwaved.
I made it, and found out I had no baking powder. Now, I had already mixed the coco powder and the sugar and the flour together, so I couldn't very well put it back (or, much less, throw it out) so I was wondering what I could use to substitute.
I found no baking soda, nor anything else which would serve the purpose in baking.
What I did find was a bottle of antacids.
Now, who here knows how baking soda works? On the scale of acidic to basic, Baking soda/powder is on the basic scale, while things like vinegar is on the acidic scale. When you mix the two together, you get a reaction; the formation of carbon dioxide. This is from the acid and the base neutralizing each other.
Baking powder/soda, when placed into cake batter and heated, is what makes the cake rise. Combine that with eggs in the batter as a binder, It's how you get that fluffy light delightful texture. Vegan batters don't use the eggs, thus you get a thicker more solid texture.
Now, antacids. I found a bottle of those little tablets you chew on for quick relief for acid reflux. Acid reflux is when your stomach pretty much produces too much acid. It leads to heartburn and damage to the esophagus because it isn't made to handle acid the way the stomach can. The tablet, like the baking soda, are on the basic side of the scale, and you sometimes end up with gas after using one. (From the tablet neutralizing the acid in the stomach.)
So I wondered...
It probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to do, but I wondered if I could use one of those tablets to similar effect.
So I broke out the good old mortar and pestle, ground up one tablet and threw it into the batter, before mixing it all up and throwing it into the microwave. I had to nuke it for a longer amount of time then 2 minutes (around 3 1/2) but the effect was the same. (Upon further thought I should have used more then one)
This, to me, is alchemy. It's something similar to, but not exactly the same, as chemistry. Basic by itself, it's gathering intimate knowledge of different things, putting them together, and getting something new.
The best example I can give of Alchemy would be medicinal Alchemy. I watched someone take a regular can of greek chicken and rice soup, and mix at least 15 different spices and herbs in. I ate this soup (I could barely breathe through my nose cause I had a very bad cold) and the next day my symptoms had lessened by half.
Another good example was (from the same guy) he went to a juice place that sold various types of blended shakes, juices, and smoothies. He ordered a juice made of various ingredients, such as carrots, broccoli, flax seed oil, stawberries, among others. He happened to be sick as a dog at the time, and he drank about half the large cup and was feeling right as rain the next day. I had about a quarter of the cup (it tasted awful and the texture was WORSE) but it kept me from catching what he had on nearly the same scale.
Alchemy never needed the fancy circles, or the symbols. They were a code, a method of hiding the notes in metaphor. You don't put things into a circle and it glows and turns into something else. That's not how it works.
If you stop and think... what is it that you do in the kitchen (or otherwise) that's kind of like Alchemy?
