How to Lasso a Gorilla
A TASTE | Pacific Northwest "Crumb"
A “Crumb” is a little gift.
A TASTE “Crumbs” post poses no appeal for you to take action. No subscription or donation requests. A “Crumb” is a simple post of appreciation: the last best taste.
The Gorilla
Throwing a gauntlet at the feet of the gorilla in the room has yielded a creative and intriguing result ~ one I think may benefit TASTE subscribers.
The genesis of this discovery was the simple desire to create an index of my publication posts. That desire merged with a fascinating tool (the gorilla) called NotebookLM, which is free for Google Workspace* users. NotebookLM is a virtual, AI-powered research assistant.
It my practice to use AI as a research tool only. No content brainstorming, no drafting, no editing, no revision, no AI images. I use the Substack tool that is available to writers on the platform to block AI training on TASTE | Pacific Northwest.
My full AI disclosure is located on the TASTE About page. Scroll through the witty content and dazzling photos to read it in full.
Throwing the Lasso
As an experiment, I cut and pasted the links from each post I had written on the topic of pies or tarts in NotebookLM. TASTE is not yet two years old so scrolling back through sixty-plus posts was a minor task.
Clarifying my thinking about the result I wanted was key and, frankly, a very valuable skill going forward. The more specific the query, the more specific the result. In thinking it through, I wondered just what result might be available to me. This was my query; these were my instructions to AI:
“I want you to be an indexing robot that specializes in recipe indexing. Review all the resources [post links] and create an index of all the ingredients. Use only the Pie & Tart links as the sources of your output. Ignore savory and seafood recipes. Output your results by creating an alphabetized list of ingredients and the recipe they’re found in, and include the post title(s) and applicable links as part of the output.”
Gorilla Tie-Down
Say, in two months you’d like quick access to our Bing Cherry-Berry Pie recipe but you remember only the ingredient, not the post or recipe title. Simply scroll to find the alphabetized ingredient and click on the post link. A quarterly pdf of the fifty most recent posts/recipes/ingredients will be emailed to subscribers. Here is the first set of results:
Alphabetized Ingredient Index
All-purpose flour:
[Enriched Pastry Dough] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Apples:
[Savory Roasted Apple Tart] – Taste at Every Step
Apricot jam:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
Balsamic vinegar (Aged/Reduction):
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Solstice Strawberry Pie] – Solstice Strawberry Pie
Bing cherries:
[Bing Cherry-Berry Pie] – Resilience | Legacy | Clarity
Black pepper essential oil (optional):
[Savory Roasted Apple Tart] – Taste at Every Step
Blackberries (or Marionberries):
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Blueberries:
[Bing Cherry-Berry Pie] – Resilience | Legacy | Clarity
Butter (Unsalted):
[Enriched Pastry Dough] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Essential Strawberry Pie] (for dotting) – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Red Tart Cherry Galette] – Lost Orchards | Preserving Cherry History
Cinnamon (Ground):
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Citrus aromatics / Essential oils (optional):
[Red Tart Cherry Galette] – Lost Orchards | Preserving Cherry History
Cornstarch:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Cranberry-orange compote:
[Cranberry-Citrus Pie] – Quintessentially Local
Egg (Whole, for wash):
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Egg yolks:
[Enriched Pastry Dough] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Enriched pastry dough (Foundational recipe):
[Artisan Grape + Pear Pie] – Quintessentially Local
[Bing Cherry-Berry Pie] – Resilience | Legacy | Clarity
[Cranberry-Citrus Pie] – Quintessentially Local
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Pumpkin Pie] – Art | Citizenship | Simplicity
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Red Tart Cherry Galette] – Lost Orchards | Preserving Cherry History
[Savory Roasted Apple Tart] – Taste at Every Step
[Solstice Strawberry Pie] – Solstice Strawberry Pie
Grand Marnier:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
Grapes (Artisan varieties: Canadice, Jupiter, Interlaken):
[Artisan Grape + Pear Pie] – Quintessentially Local
Heavy cream:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Kosher salt:
[Enriched Pastry Dough] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Lemon (Zest and Juice):
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Marionberries:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie (optional)] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Marionberry jam:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
Mascarpone:
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Savory Roasted Apple Tart (Vanilla bean mascarpone cream)] – Taste at Every Step
Pears (Bosc, Bartlett, Anjou):
[Artisan Grape + Pear Pie] – Quintessentially Local
Pumpkin (Canned/Libby’s):
[Essential Pumpkin Pie] – Art | Citizenship | Simplicity
Pumpkin pie spice:
[Essential Pumpkin Pie] – Art | Citizenship | Simplicity
Red tart cherries (Oregon):
[Red Tart Cherry Galette] – Lost Orchards | Preserving Cherry History
Sour cream:
[Essential Pumpkin Pie] – Art | Citizenship | Simplicity
Strawberries (Local/Oregon):
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Solstice Strawberry Pie] – Solstice Strawberry Pie
Sugar (Granulated):
[Enriched Pastry Dough] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Essential Marionberry Galette] – Marionberries: Never the Understudy
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
Vanilla extract:
[Essential Strawberry Pie] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
[Savory Roasted Apple Tart (Vanilla bean mascarpone cream)] – Taste at Every Step
Water (Cold):
[Enriched Pastry Dough] – Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder
The new TASTE Alphabetized Ingredient Index is a “Crumb,” a little gift. If you enjoy using it as we include other categories like Cakes, Seafood and Main Dishes, why not share it with a friend?
The Alphabetized Ingredient Index will evolve quarterly to include the fifty most recent posts and recipes in each category. You may want to save this Crumb for future reference as upcoming pdfs will inevitably change. Happily, they’re downloadable…
Comments are highly prized.
A Little Search Note
* I do not use Google Chrome for search due to its extreme profiling and privacy invasion practices. I do use several of Google’s products: Gmail, Calendar, Keep (notes) and occasionally, Maps. I use Brave for search, a Chrome derivative, that does not engage in profiling.
It's interesting that we both did an index post this week. What is the AI training blocking tool on Substack? I would like to activate that setting.