Recipes

Actual Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (from allrecipes.com):

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

 How a cook reads the recipe:

• 1 stick of butter
• A couple large dollops of shortening
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (or to taste)
• 1/2 cup white sugar (or to taste)
• 1 egg
• a splash of vanilla extract
• a dash of baking soda
• a pinch of salt (or to taste)
• half a bag of semisweet chocolate chips (or to taste)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (not to taste, this one's important)

How an engineer reads the recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter (+/- 10%)
• 1/2 cup shortening (+/- 10%)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (+/- 10%)
• 1/2 cup white sugar (+/- 10%)
• 1 egg (+/- 10%....wait...)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (+/- 10%)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (+/- 10%)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (+/- 10%)
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (+/- 10%)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (+/- 10%) 

How a physicist reads the recipe:

• 0.50000000 cups of butter
• 0.50000000 cups shortening
• 0.75000000 cups packed brown sugar
• 0.50000000 cups white sugar
• 1.00000000 eggs
• 1.00000000 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.00000000 teaspoons baking soda
• 0.25000000 teaspoons salt
• 1.50000000 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2.00000000 cups all-purpose flour

(AND IF THESE MEASUREMENTS AREN'T EXACT IT WILL BLOW THE COOKIES UP.)
(....why in the world aren't these in metric units?!)

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So I might be exaggerating this a little bit but having been the engineer in a cooking endeavor with someone that knew how to cook and a physicist, I'd say this isn't too far off from the truth.