The word that has been “stirring” around in my brain the last few days has been just that “stirring.” It was hit home for me over the past few days as I have listened to culinary judges’ comment on various aspects of stirring, including how often, with what, and when. I had never quite thought about how complex the simple process of stirring actually is. Ultimately, I found a vide titled “Stirring Conclusions” by Peter Hertzman which offered me so much information about stirring. Some of the things I knew, but some I was not aware. One of the points he made was that many people stir only because the recipe tells them to and don’t think about the reasoning behind it. For example, he suggested that there are three reasons to stir: [a] to create a homogenous mixture; [b] to evenly disperse temperature; and [c] To alter the viscosity of a liquid (thicker or thinner).

As I thought about this, I wondered how many of us do things just because