Wednesday, May 9

Breadboarding: Git for A/B Testing Actual Bread

We will be the first to admit, we like to use Git for a lot of things that are probably off the beaten path. But now thanks to [hendricius] you can find out how to make your own bread on GitHub. Let’s get one thing straight. This isn’t the breadmaker fad from a while back, although we are surprised we don’t see more hacked together breadmakers with Internet connectivity. This is old-fashioned bread baking with a bowl, some ingredients, and an oven or another heat source.

You might think this is just using Git as a repository for recipes, but it is more than that. According to [hendricius]:

Learn how to master the art of baking the programmer way. If you love programming, you will also enjoy breaking some bread. A/B test, iterate and ultimately become a self-taught baker. This repository is dedicated to becoming your bread manifesto with useful tricks and hacks. Furthermore, the goal is to illustrate how easy making bread is and that you can get started today without expensive tools.

The “manifesto” covers yeast- and sourdough-based bread. If you do want some exotic recipes there is everything from bacon bread to full milk chocolate bread. Like any good GitHub project, there is even a FAQ to help you figure out what you are doing wrong.

The thing that amused us in a good way was the hacker’s approach. It’s a scientific approach to figuring out what is working and what’s not with the process. We saw it a few years back when [Ben Krasnow] searched for the perfect cookie, and we want to see even more! Here’s another quote from [hendricius]:

All the recipes I provide have been A/B tested by myself with different variations. I encourage you to do the same. Try to recreate the same bread with only one parameter changing at the same time. Make notes and log all the different types bread you made. Slowly, bread by bread you will become better.

You will fail, in fact, you will fail often. With every fail, ask yourself what you could have done better. That’s how I have learned and still learn with every bread I make. That’s what I call The Bread Code.

Why not? If nothing else, this will cover the embarrassing faux pas when your significant other heard you needed a breadboard so they brought you one from Williams Sonoma. Besides, if you get tired of eating sourdough bread, you can always make it into a metal foundry.

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