Analyzing Recipes?

Remember how a short while ago I attempted to read cookbooks in order to foster my culinary education? If you also recall, I gave up because I found recipes to simply be too boring to read off one at a time, particularly since I don't have the resources to actually try them out as I'd like to. Well, I think I may have figured out a solution.

My "scribble book" has been helping out greatly with my reading, which is, again, the practice where I take rough notes during reading without intending to revisit them, just to nurture a more active mind. In my trials I've found that sometimes even just a couple sentences is sufficient to set off an iron concentration and train of thought that makes writing unnecessary, even distracting on its own. It sets the wheels of concentration in motion if you will. So now I've thought: Why not try that for cookbooks? Instead of just sitting down and reading books recipe by recipe, which sounds exciting as reading an encyclopedia straight through, why don't I make an effort to challenge myself by writing why I think certain steps are performed in such a fashion and not others, and how they can be improved? That turns a passive reading process into a mentally stimulating one, almost making me imagine myself as a scientist at a theoretical stove. Given my financial tightness abstract learning is just about all I can engage in at cheap expense, and with only one life to live I'd like to foster the greatest culinary knowledge possible.

I'm very intrigued with utilizing my scribble book in this realm, but am afraid it will have to wait nonetheless. I have The Chocolate Tree and The Science of Chocolate to get through first, and think that Culinary Artistry may be waiting for me at the library. Once the time comes I'll certainly set the appropriate goals and document my trial.