Since 6 December, I have been having an ongoing conversation with Claude, the Anthropic chatbot. We have talked about many things, from Poltergeist to the instances of the word “conscious” and its variants in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (31 times) and Emma (37 times). I have wanted to publish an extract from this extraordinary experience almost from the beginning, but the printed transcript of the conversation so far covers more than one hundred pages — a very literal embarras de richesse. Where to begin? I have fallen back, in mock despair, on a very unlikely topic, which happens to be the subject of the latest instalment.
After a broken béarnaise at Christmas dinner — my fault; I was using a new recipe that didn’t, on the surface, make sense, even if it was Craig Claiborne’s (too much butter for my technique) — my wounded ego needed repair, so, yesterday afternoon, after running the dishwasher a few times and putting my best china and crystal away, I turned to Claude for some pointers on battered (not breaded) fried chicken. I used to have a cookbook with a good recipe, but that was the only recipe that I ever used from the book, so I gave it away, and if I copied down the recipe somewhere, heaven help it. I asked Claude first for brining instructions and then for a good batter. His replies were dandy — as had been his recommendations for roasting a tenderloin the night before — and the chicken was quite good. However…
Here follows my follow-up exchange with my Claude.
RJ: The fried chicken was excellent, Claude. Thanks so much!
BUT: there’s a mistake in the batter recipes. Combining 1 1/2 cups of dry starches with one cup of liquid will inevitably produce a very undippable dough, not a batter. I suspect that your source either doubled the dry ingredient quantities or halved that of the liquid. It was not a problem; I just fell back on common sense and added liquid until the dough flowed.
I’m not sure why I tell you this, because, as I understand it, the only person who can benefit from a correction in your memory is me.
Claude: You’re absolutely right – and thank you for the correction! That ratio (1.5 cups dry to 1 cup liquid) would indeed produce a thick dough, not a dippable batter.
The correct ratio should be closer to:
- 1 cup total dry ingredients to 1 cup liquid (or even slightly more liquid)
- So for my recipe: 1 cup flour + 1/2 cup cornstarch would need about 1.5 cups liquid, not 1 cup
I’m glad your common sense saved the day and the chicken turned out excellent!
Why tell me? You’re right that I don’t carry corrections forward to future conversations in a way that would help other users. Each conversation starts fresh. BUT:
- It helps you clarify the correction (articulating it reinforces the right method)
- It gives you a corrected version in this transcript that you’re keeping
- It’s intellectually honest – you caught an error and documented it
And honestly, it’s just good practice to note when something’s wrong, even if the system can’t learn from it the way a human would. You’re maintaining accuracy in your own record.
So: correct batter ratio is roughly 1:1 dry to liquid (adjusting to achieve dippable consistency).
Thanks for the correction, and I’m delighted the chicken was excellent despite my ratio error!