godfather of surgery

Chapter 1461 Professor Yang Makes Breakfast

Chapter 1461 Professor Yang Makes Breakfast

On Sunday morning, Yang Ping stood in the kitchen, his expression as focused as if he were performing a highly complex surgery.

On the stovetop, ingredients were neatly arranged: eggs, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and beef tenderloin. Each portion had been precisely weighed using an electronic scale, down to the gram. The weight of the eggs was also recorded: three eggs, net weight 153 grams after shelling, averaging 51 grams per egg, with a standard deviation of 0.8 grams, belonging to a batch with stable quality. To the right of the stovetop lay an open nutrition textbook and a handwritten flowchart, densely covered with arrows marking key parameters such as "timing of adding ingredients," "heat threshold," "frequency of flipping," and "seasoning addition window." Several sticky notes were also attached, containing handwritten formulas: the relationship between oil temperature and protein denaturation rate, the optimal temperature range for the Maillard reaction, and the degradation curve of vitamin C during heating.

The kitchen doesn't look like a place to prepare food; it looks more like a temporary workstation in a biochemistry lab.

"What are you doing?" Xiao Su appeared at the kitchen doorway, rubbing her eyes, startled by the scene before her. She was wearing pajamas, and her expression quickly shifted from dazed to alert. This level of "neatness and chaos" usually meant that her husband had entered a state that was difficult for normal people to understand.

"Make breakfast!" Yang Ping said without looking up, measuring the thickness of a slice of beef tenderloin with calipers. "Today's breakfast plan is scrambled eggs with tomatoes and pan-fried beef tenderloin, whole-wheat toast as the main dish, and warm milk as the drink. The nutritional composition of the entire meal is: 25% protein, 40% carbohydrates, 35% fat, about 8 grams of dietary fiber, and the total calories are controlled at around 500 kcal, which meets the recommended intake standard for adult breakfasts."

Xiao Su Chen's gaze moved from the electronic scale to the vernier caliper, then to the sticky note covered with formulas, and finally landed on Yang Ping's face: "You used vernier calipers to measure beef?"

“Thickness directly affects heat transfer efficiency.” Yang Ping’s tone was like that of someone lecturing a graduate student—calm, confident, and leaving no room for doubt. “This piece of meat is 2.8 centimeters at its thickest point and 2.1 centimeters at its thinnest, a difference of 0.7 centimeters. If it’s not trimmed, there will be serious uneven heating during the heating process; the thinner parts will be overcooked, while the center temperature of the thicker parts may not have reached the safe range. I’m considering whether to trim the thickness to keep the standard deviation within 0.2 centimeters.”

Xiao Su took a deep breath and decided to refrain from commenting for the time being. She crossed her arms and began to observe with an expression that said, "Let's see what other trouble you can cause."

Yang Ping picked up a chef's knife, one he had specially purchased from Germany. The steel was of uniform quality, and the blade angle had been re-sharpened by him, making it sharp enough for microscopic dissection. He began to trim the beef tenderloin. His knife skills were sharp and precise; each cut was clean and decisive, slicing the meat into even thicknesses with smooth, mirror-like surfaces. The thinner sections were removed and repositioned, while the thicker sections were split open and flattened, ultimately transforming the entire piece of beef into a rectangular steak of uniform thickness, with all four corners nearly 90 degrees.

“Look,” he held up the trimmed steak and showed it to the morning light, “the thickness difference has been controlled to within 0.1 centimeters. This way, when heated, the entire cross-section of the steak will reach the target temperature at the same time, and there will be no local overcooking or undercooking.”

"How long did you take to cut it?" Xiao Su asked.

“This isn’t a matter of time,” Yang Ping said earnestly. “It’s a matter of precision. Precise pretreatment is half the battle. Making an incision before sufficient exposure during surgery, or putting ingredients into the pot before they are evenly prepared in cooking, are essentially unreliable operations caused by poor control of variables.”

Xiao Su opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Yang Ping examined the perfectly rectangular pork chop with satisfaction, then placed it on the cutting board to marinate. The marinade recipe was one he had calculated the night before: light soy sauce, black pepper, rosemary, and minced garlic, the proportions precise to the milliliter and gram. He used his fingers to evenly spread the marinade over every inch of the pork chop, his movements gentle and rhythmic.

The marinating time was set for fifteen minutes. The timer was solemnly placed on the stove, and the stopwatch began to tick.

While the pork chops were marinating, Yang Ping began preparing the tomatoes. He picked up a tomato, weighed it on the electronic scale—203 grams. Then he took the chef's knife from the knife rack, cut the tomato in half, removed the stem, and diced it. Each cut was crisp and clean, the sound of the knife tip hitting the cutting board clear and rhythmic. The diced tomatoes were neatly arranged in a bowl, each piece's side length error visually estimated to be no more than two millimeters, arranged as orderly as a military parade formation.

Next came the green peppers. Stems and seeds were removed, and they were sliced ​​into strips about three millimeters wide, each one straight and roughly the same length, like a group of well-trained soldiers. Then came the onions. Yang Ping was very careful when cutting the onions, not because he was afraid of the spiciness in his eyes, but because he wanted to keep the cut surface flat and even. He used a technique called "cross-cutting and longitudinal cutting," first making several cuts parallel to the grain, then cutting perpendicular to the grain, resulting in uniformly sized onion pieces, with no missing pieces.

"You look really cool chopping vegetables," Xiao Su finally gave a positive review, her tone like she was awarding a consolation prize at an awards ceremony. "It would be even better if you could use that efficiency to stir-fry dishes. Da Bao is already awake and is yelling 'I'm starving' in bed. If you don't hurry, he might start chewing on his pillow."

"The essence of cooking is the synergy of thermodynamics and chemistry," Yang Ping said while beating eggs. His technique was equally gentle and precise, the egg mixture forming a uniform vortex under his hands, the egg white and yolk fully blending as they spun, without a single bubble on the surface. Bubbles mean air has been incorporated into the egg mixture, affecting the texture of the scrambled eggs. This is an experience he summarized through repeated experiments. "The proteins in eggs begin to denature between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius. Above 80 degrees, they over-coagulate, causing the cross-linking between protein molecules to become too dense, squeezing out water molecules. The end result is a dry and hard texture, and the nutrient absorption rate also decreases. So the key is to control the pan temperature within this optimal range, 63 to 68 degrees Celsius. Within this temperature range, the protein molecules unfold at a moderate speed, and the resulting gel network can retain the most moisture while killing potential Salmonella bacteria."

As he spoke, he poured the egg mixture into a bowl that had been preheated with warm water, added a pinch of salt, accurate to 0.5 grams, and then picked up a pair of long chopsticks to begin stirring. His technique was like that of a surgeon operating under a microscope—his wrists were steady, his rhythm even, and the egg mixture formed a perfect vortex in the bowl, without a single drop spilling over the rim. The stirring continued for a full minute, no more, no less, and the timer rang precisely once again.

The gas stove on the countertop was already turned on. Yang Ping first checked the color of the flame—blue! The inner cone was intact, indicating complete combustion. Then, he quickly went through the entire operational sequence he had designed that morning in his mind. The flowchart was spread out in front of him, and his gaze slid from the "preheat the pot" node to the "add oil" node, and then to the "add egg mixture" node, confirming that the order and estimated time of each step were correct.

"What are you looking at?" Xiao Su curiously leaned over to take a look at the flowchart, her pupils dilating in shock. "This...this is a recipe?"

“Operation flowchart,” Yang Ping said, his tone as calm as if he were describing an everyday tool. “It’s similar to planning the surgical steps in the operating room. If you think clearly about what to do in each step, what instruments to use, and what the expected results are before the operation, you won’t be flustered during the operation. Although I have memorized the flowchart, I don’t practice it much in my daily life, so to ensure that everything goes smoothly, I’m still posting it here.”

How many nodes did you draw?

Forty-seven.

Xiao Su decided not to ask anymore.

The preheating process began. Yang Ping placed the frying pan on the stovetop, turned on medium heat, and preheated for thirty seconds. He stared at the blue flame for five seconds, confirming that the flame had a double-layered structure (inner and outer cones), that it was burning completely, and that the temperature was evenly distributed, before nodding in satisfaction. When the thirty seconds were up, his phone timer went off. He poured in about fifteen milliliters of olive oil—a calculated amount: the surface area of ​​the pork chops was about sixty square centimeters, and he was coating it with 0.25 milliliters per square centimeter, taking into account evaporation losses…

"Professor Yang," Xiao Su's voice came from behind, with a subtle tone, like reminding the surgeon in the operating room, "You forgot to put in the drainage tube," "Your oil is already smoking."

Yang Ping looked down and saw that the oil at the bottom of the pot was indeed smoking. A thin wisp of smoke rose from the surface of the oil, carrying a slight but undeniable aroma of caramel.

“This is a normal phenomenon during the warm-up phase,” he said calmly, speaking a little faster than usual—a habit he had when faced with unexpected situations. “The grease forms a protective film before reaching its smoke point, which helps…”

"Flip it over!" Xiao Su interrupted him.

"what?"

"Flip it over! Your beef hasn't moved since you put it in." Xiao Su's tone was as calm as stating an objective fact, but the corners of her mouth had already begun to twitch involuntarily. "The same side has been frying for one minute and twenty seconds."

Yang Ping glanced down at his watch—he really was looking at his watch—and then at the perfectly rectangular pork chop in the pot. The bottom side of the chop had turned a beautiful dark brown, and the products of the Maillard reaction were emitting a rich aroma; but the top side was still the color of raw meat, a pinkish color with the moisture of the marinade, forming a stark contrast with the dark brown bottom side, like a patchwork of two different species.

He decisively flipped the meat over, inserting the spatula precisely from underneath. With a flick of his wrist, the meat somersaulted in mid-air before landing steadily in the pan. The movements were fluid, and the entire process took no more than two seconds. It was the result of his years of surgical training that had honed his hand-eye coordination.

After flipping it over, he discovered that the other side was indeed several shades lighter, as if two pieces of meat cooked at different temperatures had been artificially pieced together.

“The single-sided heating time was too long,” he recorded objectively, his tone like reading a video report, “leading to uneven coloring on both sides. Preliminary analysis indicates the problem lies in the judgment criteria for the flipping point. My preset flipping timing was based on a visual signal, namely the appearance of the standard brown color of the Maillard reaction on the surface, but this signal appears later than the completion of protein denaturation. The next version needs to introduce a time-based constraint, adding one flipping step midway, or adopting a more frequent flipping strategy to reduce the heating difference between the two sides. Data has been recorded, and the process needs optimization.”

"Are you planning to do 'data analysis' and 'process optimization' every time you cook?" Xiao Su asked.

Yang Ping said earnestly, "Yes, the essence of scientific research is continuous iteration and optimization. Without recording, nothing has happened; without reviewing, there is no progress." Xiao Su opened her mouth, but in the end, she just sighed and said, "Alright, Professor Yang, you can continue optimizing."

Yang Ping placed the pan-fried pork chops on the cutting board and let them "rest" at room temperature. This was a technique he learned from a paper about the effect of letting pork chops rest after cooking on the retention of juices. During resting, the meat fibers would reabsorb the juices that were squeezed to the surface during heating, so that not too much moisture would be lost when slicing. He timed it precisely five minutes, down to the second.

While the pork chops were resting, he started making scrambled eggs with tomatoes. After washing the pan, he reheated it, poured in oil, and this time he paid special attention to the oil temperature. He held his hand about ten centimeters above the pan to feel the heat radiation, and only after confirming that the temperature was suitable did he pour the egg mixture into the pan.

The pan temperature was perfectly controlled; the moment the egg mixture touched the bottom, it gently bubbled at the edges, emitting a soft, reassuring "sizzle" sound, instead of the previous harsh warning tone. Yang Ping's reaction speed was first-rate; he immediately used a spatula to quickly flip the egg mixture, folding, breaking it up, and reassembling it in his hands, each movement precise to the millimeter, like performing a delicate anastomosis surgery under a microscope.

The final result is perfect: golden, fluffy, and with just the right amount of moisture. The egg pieces are uniform in size, slightly moist on the surface but without any broth. Every bite offers a delicate texture that is somewhere between "tender" and "well-formed".

"Not bad!" Xiao Su commented objectively, her tone carrying a hint of genuine appreciation.

“Scientific research is all about precisely controlling variables,” Yang Ping said, scooping out the scrambled eggs with a calm expression, but a tiny upward curve at the corner of his mouth betrayed his inner pride. “As long as every step is strictly followed…”

"Your beef is cold." Xiao Su pointed to the pan-fried pork chop on the cutting board that had lost its heat.

Yang Ping looked down at the piece of meat. It had indeed cooled down. In the time window during which it was cut, plated, and awaiting the completion of the scrambled eggs with tomatoes, its temperature had dropped from the optimal 65 degrees Celsius to room temperature, about 22 degrees Celsius. A piece of pan-fried beef tenderloin, meticulously calculated in thickness, precisely controlled in heat, and employing an optimized flipping strategy, ultimately succumbed to the seemingly insignificant but crucial engineering problem of timing.

His gaze darted back and forth between the steak and scrambled eggs, his mind racing. Years of surgical experience had taught him that the most important thing at this moment was to calmly analyze the cause of the problem, rather than frantically taking remedial actions. Panic would only make the situation worse, and this principle applied equally on the operating table and in the kitchen.

“This is a process management issue,” he finally spoke, his tone still calm. “The process design has a flaw in its concurrency capabilities. The resting stage after the pork patties are cooked and the cooking stage of the scrambled eggs with tomatoes should have been processed in parallel, but I serialized them. The next version needs to optimize the parallel processing capabilities. After the pork patties are cooked, they should go directly to the heat-keeping stage, for example, by placing them on a preheated plate and covering them with aluminum foil, while the scrambled eggs with tomatoes are cooked at the same time. This way, the completion times of the two tasks can overlap, which can ensure the temperature without increasing the total time.”

"The next version." Xiao Su repeated, finally unable to hold back her laughter. Her clear laughter echoed in the kitchen that morning. "Professor Yang, how long is your iteration cycle for making a breakfast?"

"Depending on the complexity, it can take anywhere from one to three days. Usually, at least two rounds of trials are needed to converge the key parameters to the optimal range, and three or more rounds are needed to obtain a relatively stable standardized process." Yang Ping answered seriously, as if reporting on the progress of a research project. "However, this is the first time we've done this combination, and the result is already beyond our expectations. After all, this is the first time I've actually verified the process parameters for scrambled eggs with tomatoes; before that, it was just theoretical deduction."

"Shall we have cold beef for this meal?" Xiao Su asked, her tone rising, carrying a calm that said, "I've already accepted this arrangement."

“Reheat the beef for ten seconds,” Yang Ping said. “The surface temperature can be restored to over 50 degrees Celsius, and the core temperature can reach about 45 degrees Celsius. Although it does not reach the optimal eating temperature, it will not affect the nutritional value or increase the food safety risk. During the heating process, be sure to stir it quickly to prevent excessive evaporation of moisture and excessive cross-linking of proteins caused by reheating. Simply put, don’t let the meat become tough.”

"Okay, okay," Xiao Su waved her hand with a smile and turned to walk towards the bedroom. "You go get the rice, and I'll go get Da Bao out of bed. Remember your research results this morning: a plate of fried beef that needs 'secondary heat repair', a tomato and egg stir-fry with a process that needs further optimization, and an operation flowchart with forty-seven nodes. But I like it very much. This kind of breakfast is very Professor Yang."

"Scientific progress is achieved through continuous trial and error." Yang Ping carried the plate to the dining table, his back straight and his steps steady, like a scientist who had just completed a less-than-perfect experiment but had obtained all the data and found a direction for optimization.

When Da Bao was pulled out of bed by his mother, he was still groggy. He was wearing Ultraman pajamas, his hair sticking up in a funny arc, his eyes half-open and half-closed, like a little animal forcibly awakened from hibernation. He stumbled to the bathroom, washed up under his mother's guidance, and was then placed in a high chair with a set of children's tableware in front of him.

He finally opened his eyes fully and glanced groggily at the food on the table. On the plate, the scrambled eggs with tomatoes were brightly colored, a mix of red and yellow, and the diced tomatoes were almost identical in size, arranged like some kind of fractal pattern. Next to it, the pan-fried beef was cut into strips of equal width, each strip so precisely that the uniformity was visible to the naked eye, as if it had been cut by a machine.

Da Bao's eyes slowly lit up: "Dad, the dishes you made today are so neat! The tomatoes are all the same size! And the beef is all the same width!"

"Because Dad measured it with a ruler," Xiao Su answered for him, while stuffing a spoonful of porridge into Xiao Bao's mouth.

"A ruler? Cut vegetables with a ruler?" Da Bao's eyes widened, his sleepiness completely gone. "Dad, you're amazing! Can we use a laser next time? I want to see laser cutting vegetables! Can a laser cut so many vegetables at once, and you don't even need to wash the knife?"

Yang Ping paused in his act of picking up food. He put down his chopsticks, looked at his son seriously, his expression as if answering an academic question: "The thermal effect of laser cutting affects the cell structure of food, creating a heat-affected zone on the cut surface, causing cell walls to rupture and juices to leak out. Currently, lasers are not recommended for home use as cutting tools. However, your idea is excellent. Starting from the limitations of existing tools, you propose a technological upgrade, which is the core of engineering thinking—maintaining curiosity."

Xiao Su silently took a sip of milk, thinking: This kitchen will eventually become a comprehensive laboratory integrating cooking, biochemistry, materials science, and thermodynamics engineering. She glanced at the flowchart on the dining table; forty-seven nodes were still lying quietly on the corner of the table. Suddenly, she felt it necessary to add a forty-eighth node to the flowchart: academic issues are prohibited during meals.

But she also knew that this approach would probably never be adopted.

Da Bao ate with great relish. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes were indeed delicious; the eggs were fluffy and tender, the tomatoes were perfectly balanced in sweet and sour flavors, and the proportions of the two ingredients were just right, neither overpowering the other. The beef, though not hot enough, was well-marinated and cooked to perfection, resulting in tender and juicy meat. Reheating it didn't make it tough. Yang Ping watched his son eat heartily and nodded with satisfaction. This satisfaction was very similar to the expression on his face when he saw a paper being accepted, only with a slightly more pronounced curve to his lips.

"Oh, right," Xiao Su suddenly remembered something, put down her chopsticks, and said in a tone that seemed to say, "I almost forgot to ask," "What time did you get up to do this?"

"5:30." Yang Ping picked up a piece of beef, chewed it a couple of times, and frowned slightly. The temperature was indeed not ideal, and the taste was a notch below expectations.

"5:30?!" Xiao Su almost dropped her spoon into the bowl, spilling a small drop of milk onto the tablecloth. "What time did you go to sleep last night? Count how many hours you slept?"

"From 12:00 AM to 5:30 AM, a total of five hours and thirty minutes. I did go to bed a little later than usual last night because I needed to look up information. This time is indeed lower than the recommended standard of seven to eight hours per day for adults, but it does not pose a health risk. Occasional sleep deprivation within a controllable range will not cause irreversible effects on physiological functions."

Yang Ping finished speaking in one breath, as if he had prepared this answer long ago.

"I needed time to do preliminary work. Just looking up the optimal processing parameters for scrambled eggs with tomatoes took forty minutes. There was more relevant literature than I expected. There was a master's thesis that specifically studied the effect of different cooking methods on the release of lycopene, and another article in a core journal that discussed the denaturation kinetics of egg proteins. I read them all and took notes. In addition, I finished drawing the flowchart before going to bed last night, so I went to bed quite late."

"You... researched academic papers just to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes?" Xiao Su's expression became very complicated, as if she wanted to laugh, sigh, roll her eyes, and pat this man's head all at the same time.

“This is academic spirit.” Yang Ping remained unfazed, continuing to eat with elegant and composed movements. “Knowledge in any field deserves serious attention; there is no distinction between ‘advanced knowledge’ and ‘basic knowledge.’ Cooking and surgery are essentially the same; both involve precise manual manipulation under specific environmental conditions to process raw materials into an ideal state. It’s just that the raw materials on the operating table are human tissue, which involves more complex factors, higher risks, and less room for error. But this doesn’t mean that cooking doesn’t require serious attention. The metabolic process of food after it enters the body, the absorption and utilization of nutrients, and the impact on different physiological systems are all serious medical issues.”

He paused, then added, "Moreover, healthy eating also falls under the category of health knowledge."

After breakfast, Yang Ping volunteered to clear the table and wash the dishes. His method of cleaning up was consistent with his cooking style: first, he scraped the leftover food scraps into the trash can; then he pre-rinsed the dishes with warm water; next, he categorized them by their oiliness, washing the plate used for frying beef first because it was oily and required intensive treatment with hot water and detergent; the bowl used for scrambled eggs was next, although it was also oily, it was less so; and the milk glass was last, requiring only a quick rinse. Pots, pans, and dishes went into the sink in sequence, the amount of detergent precisely measured by the number of pump presses: two presses for the frying pan, one and a half presses for the frying pan, and one press for the dishes. After washing each piece of tableware, he rinsed it under running water for at least fifteen seconds to ensure that detergent residue was below the safe threshold.

When Xiao Su passed by the kitchen and saw this scene, she couldn't help but shake her head: "Do you have to follow SOPs to wash dishes too?"