Machine translation of Chinese recipes

[abcdefg]

I'm planning to make beef curry tonight. Bought the meat and vegetables and was researching various approaches on-line. Found a recipe that looked usable with only a few modifications. Decided to run it through Google Translate just for fun. The results were surprisingly awkward. I had thought machine translation had progressed beyond that point several years ago. 

 

Here's the Chinese version. Pretty straight forward. Nothing esoteric or poetic. Seems to be clearly written. 

 

Quote

电压力锅版咖喱牛肉

用料  

牛腩	1kg
土豆	750g
胡萝卜	500g
咖喱块	100g
洋葱	200g
葱姜蒜	适量

 

电压力锅版咖喱牛肉的做法  

1.    牛肉冷水下锅焯水等常规步骤就不说了，焯水后放葱姜蒜料酒用电压力锅的鸡鸭档压制。
注意！！！将250g土豆跟牛肉一起压制，目的是让土豆彻底压烂，增加后面汤汁的粘稠度。

2.    牛肉压制好了上面会漂一层油，把这层油留下来，一会儿留着炒洋葱。用黄油就最好了，只是我自己做的时候手头没有黄油。

3.    洋葱，蒜切成丁，用刚才的油煸炒，不用姜，一会儿要留着喝汤。炒香以后下入刚才压好的土豆，把土豆压成泥，继续翻炒。土豆炒散了以后下入胡萝卜。

4.    加入剩余的生土豆块，翻炒。

5.    加入牛肉翻炒

6.    把咖喱块切丁放进锅中，一起炖煮

7.    加入椰浆，大约200g，汤汁明显变白了

8.    煮的时候要经常搅动防止糊锅。煮到胡萝卜跟土豆软烂即可出锅。

 

Here's the English version:

 

Quote

material  

Burdock	1kg
potato	750g
carrot	500g
Curry block	100g
onion	200g
Onion, ginger, garlic	Moderate amount

 

Electric pressure cooker version of curry beef  

1.    The conventional steps such as boiling water in the cold water of the beef are not mentioned. After the drowning, the onion, ginger and garlic wine are pressed with the chicken and duck stalls of the electric pressure cooker. Note! ! ! 250g of potatoes are pressed with the beef to make the potatoes completely smashed and increase the consistency of the back broth.

2.    When the beef is pressed, it will float a layer of oil, leave the layer of oil, and keep the fried onion for a while. It’s best to use butter, but I don’t have butter on hand when I do it myself.

3.    Cut the onion, garlic into a dip, stir fry with the oil, do not use ginger, and keep soup for a while. After sauteing, add the potatoes that have just been pressed, crush the potatoes into mud, and continue to stir fry. After the potatoes are fried, the carrots are placed.

4.    Add the remaining raw potato pieces and stir fry.

5.    Add beef stir fry

6.    Put the curry cubes into the pot and stew together

7.    Add coconut milk, about 200g, the soup is obviously white

8.    Always stir to prevent the paste pot when cooking. Cook the carrots and potatoes to make them rotten. 

 

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The cut of beef that Google renders as "Burdock" is what is usually known as beef brisket. How could a machine confuse 牛蒡 and 牛腩? 

 

 

[Michaelyus]

BURDOCK!!!!???? I know that 牛蒡 has 牛. but still...

 

Now that this connection has formed in my mind and the fact I'm very partial to dandelion & burdock root beer, maybe I'll have to try burdock in a curry at some point.

[matteo]

电压力锅的鸡鸭档压制 does this mean "use the chicken/duck setting of the pressure cooker"?

[abcdefg]

12 hours ago, Michaelyus said:

Now that this connection has formed in my mind and the fact I'm very partial to dandelion & burdock root beer, maybe I'll have to try burdock in a curry at some point.

 

Burdock root is popular here, mostly as an ingredient in soups. I've never tried dandelion & burdock root beer. Sounds interesting!  

[abcdefg]

24 minutes ago, matteo said:

电压力锅的鸡鸭档压制 does this mean "use the chicken/duck setting of the pressure cooker"?

 

Yes, exactly. Most Chinese pressure cookers have a combined setting for chicken and duck, another combined setting for 牛羊肉 beef and lamb. Mine also has a long setting for beans or beef tendon 豆蹄筋 plus a short setting for fish 鱼。Each of these settings is a actually a suggestion for a pre-programmed combination of pressure and time. It can be adjusted by the user. 

 

[matteo]

Makes sense, thanks!

In a way, It is reassuring to know that google can't do as good a job as a human brain...yet.

 

But I suspect It'll get there pretty soon, and I'm not sure whether it is something good or bad. All the wonderful practical applications aside, a very accurate (and maybe real-time) translation system could remove the motivation to get involved and spend time and energy in learning a new language and culture. So maybe that would enable people to communicate more easily on the surface, but make it even harder to establish a connection at a deeper level.