Less data viz, more dinner viz.

October 4, 2011 4:49 PM

Taste Buds is a visualization of complementary flavors, sourced from patterns found in lots and lots of recipes. For those of us not blessed with a chef's instincts.
posted by carsonb (19 comments total)

That's pretty cool.
posted by empath at 4:55 PM on October 4, 2011

I'm not sure how to read this. Are complementary ingredients paired across from each other across from each category, like chicken with rosemary and cream? I guess not, since many ingredients do not have something paired across from them, in which case the radial layout is confusing.
posted by swift at 5:03 PM on October 4, 2011

There's really not a lot of information in those infographics. Or am I missing something? Aren't these just mundane lists blown up into circular shapes that take a whole page to display 3 or 4 lines of information?
posted by mhjb at 5:04 PM on October 4, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is deliciously clever! Maybe if I use this, my attempts to cook will turn out less like horrific franken-dine experiments and more like something resembling actual food.
posted by DisreputableDog at 5:06 PM on October 4, 2011

take a whole page to display 3 or 4 lines of information?

That's the modus operandi of 'Information is Beautiful' - it's more about aesthetics than efficiency.

That said, I like that potato complements potato. I never would have thought of that combo.
posted by Paragon at 5:08 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Fish - White Fish - Soup? What flavor is Soup?
posted by filthy light thief at 5:12 PM on October 4, 2011

This is interesting, but The Flavour Thesaurus does it much better.
posted by Specklet at 5:18 PM on October 4, 2011 [9 favorites]

I tried to find the scene in whatever movie that was that had Uncle Rico in it where he says "soup is for bums," or "soup is bum food," but I've read the word "bum" so many times in the last minute that I don't know what it means anymore and I want muffin stumps.
posted by cmoj at 5:42 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is fantastic.
posted by reenum at 5:44 PM on October 4, 2011

Meh. Tarragon only for veal? I use it for chicken, fish, shellfish, eggs...
Chicken doesn't pair with artichoke, but artichoke pairs with chicken?
Yeah, the radial layout is a gimmick. Do we need all that space to tell us those things are FISH or POULTRY or ROOT VEG?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:17 PM on October 4, 2011

It seems like exactly same information could be conveyed more compactly and readably in a simple indented outline form. It would be a trivially easy (though tedious) transformation, in fact.

They've gone out of their way to make this difficult to read.
posted by smcameron at 6:32 PM on October 4, 2011

Finally, the cultured know how to best accent their ostrich dinners. Seriously?
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 7:06 PM on October 4, 2011

A good first effort, but needs some proofing (the editing kind, not the baking kind). This is the sort of subject matter where computers can pull together "patterns" as they did here, but there's a reason good, solid cookbooks that stand the test of time get strenuously recipe tested before publication.
posted by webhund at 8:28 PM on October 4, 2011

Wow, thanks for clueing me in to Information is Beautiful.
posted by not_on_display at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2011

I dislike Information is Beautiful because they fetishize unusual visual presentations of information, often at the expense of more mundane, but more useful presentations of it. This "visualization" is one of the best examples of that. The data presented here could have been presented much more usefully as an outlined list as suggested above.

Sometimes I worry about the number of people who begin to think that this is what a great infographic is. If you want to see some great visualizations, see Tufte or Cleveland. William Cleveland's Visualizing Data includes some incredibly simple plots that are exceptionally useful in understanding data.
posted by grouse at 10:36 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

There really needs to be two versions of this - flavors that are complimentary as seasonings or co-ingredients, and flavors that are complimentary as sauces, side dishes or meal components. The Fish graphic does a good job of the first, the Meat graphic does a good job with the second. As is, it's incomplete.

I dislike Information is Beautiful because they fetishize unusual visual presentations of information, often at the expense of more mundane, but more useful presentations of it.

I love Information Is Beautiful, because it helps me think about the data in new ways - sometimes the presentation is less clear than a plain ol' bar graph or table, true, but seeing that information exploded, turned on its head, and otherwise messed-about-with is incredibly useful in some instances, and simply entertaining in others.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:08 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love Information Is Beautiful, because it helps me think about the data in new ways - sometimes the presentation is less clear than a plain ol' bar graph or table, true, but seeing that information exploded, turned on its head, and otherwise messed-about-with is incredibly useful in some instances, and simply entertaining in others.

There are so many examples elsewhere of infographics where information is "exploded, turned on its head, and otherwise messed-about-with" and the end result is more clear than a plain bar plot or table. Information is Beautiful is a lot of settling for mediocrity.
posted by grouse at 7:04 AM on October 5, 2011

somehow they missed soft-serve vanilla ice cream + saltine crackers
posted by fallacy of the beard at 9:46 AM on October 5, 2011

My general rule is: If it grows together, it goes together. I stole it from Sally Schneider's The Improvisational Cook, which also has a great little section in the back grouping the classic flavors of different regions.

That's why you often see grape jelly bushes growing in the shade of the mighty Jiff tree.
posted by Gygesringtone at 11:40 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]