Speaking of recipes being tested....
Am I the only one being driven crazy by problems with cookbook and magazine recipes that don't work? I had another one of those episodes the other day. You look at the recipe and think (if you've been around a while) something like, "Now that's a funny time to add the liquid [or whatever]", and then try to decide if it's an editorial problem or if that author really does it that way. For a long time, I thought, "Well, they've been doing this longer than I have," and followed instructions with my fingers crossed. Now I'm more apt to try to decide whether if I do it their way, will it do major damage? But wow, is that ever aggravatng!
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26 Comments:
You are definitely not alone on this one. I have found it a problem more with magazine recipes and TV chefs for that matter, than with the cookbooks I own. It is especially troubling when the ingredients are costly. I tend to go with my instincts when I read the recipe.
izatryt at 5:52PM on 07/09/08
I have that problem a lot with food network recipes. It seems like every time I try a recipe from their site, even if I just watched the chef prepare it on TV, it never turns out.
Chaos at 6:12PM on 07/09/08
@Chaos - I didn't want to point yet another finger at the FN, but many times if I am watching, I have the site up and I get so charged up over the discrepancies between what I am watching and what I am looking at on the site. DH is constantly telling me to calm down.........
izatryt at 6:22PM on 07/09/08
I also find that the recipes on the FN do not jive with the recipe as it's being made by the host. They really need to pay closer attention before they have a melee outside their corporate offices.
Southern_bella at 6:33PM on 07/09/08
I learned the hard way to only trust a few FN cooks and I always read the reviews before attempting a recipe. They're pretty revealing. If I decide to try it, I'll make a note to myself regarding recommendations, especially those repeated by many reviewers.
I'll join that donnybook at FN HQ!
I usually consult several sources for a recipe (and often combine ideas), especially for something new or with expensive ingredients.
PerkyMac at 9:42PM on 07/09/08
@Perky Mac...I rely on the reviews too...but have never left one. I think I have just been shamed (not by you!) into leaving some reviews of my own, not just on the FN, but everywhere i cybertravel, to give back whether good or bad... i know I appreciate those who took the time!
Cary at 10:08PM on 07/09/08
One of the food magazines has a column of reader requests-"We ate the most fabulous fish stew at Cafe Boeuf; I'd love to prepare it for my mother's birthday." And at least SOME of those recipes are waaaay not the same dish as the restaurant is serving, despite the magazine's claims.
lemons at 10:53PM on 07/09/08
Most of the time I use recipes as a guide rather than a strict formula. For one thing, I might not have all the ingredient on hand, and I might not feel like running to the store for one vegetable when I like another one better anyway and I have that on hand.
If I'm making something that I've never made before, I'll usually consult several recipes before I launch the process. Sometimes I'll follow one recipe fairly closely, but sometimes it's a combo of the recipes I've found. Which is quite helpful when one of them is off on an ingredient. If 2 out of 3 recipes call for a tablespoon of an ingredient and the third wants a cup of that ingredient, it's pretty suspicious.
With baking, I usually follow the recipes fairly closely, but I'm still a little bit slapdash about substitutions and whimsical additions.
dbcurrie at 12:40AM on 07/10/08
The only time I ever tried a recipe from a magazine that didn't work, I got it out of Woman's Day. So it really did serve me right, WTH was I thinking making food out of WD? To add insult to injury, when I contacted them to let them know the recipe was flawed, they defended it! I countered, "How the heck do you get cornbread to rise without a leavening agent??? Your recipe was for cornmeal mush topped pie!" Ugh.
I must have been very lucky because all the years I'm cooking out of Gourmet, Bon Ap, MSL, Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated and Savuer, I have never hit a turkey of a recipe - one that downright just didn't work.
OTOH, years ago I looked for a multi-grain bread so I could use all the little leftover bits of different flour and grains I had from the holiday season. The recipe met my ingredient criteria so I sprang right into it before realizing it was extremely out of whack. No measurement for whole wheat flour...in a bread recipe? I put my own spin on it and now it's a favorite. I got this recipe from... A user-contributed recipe website. Those are truly a gamble. Proceed with caution.
chiff0nade at 6:43AM on 07/10/08
When we cook something that we've never seen, tasted, or smelled IRL, we look through our cookbooks and compare each recipe, as well as look online, so we can have 5-7 recipes as resource material. For every ethnic cuisine cookbook we have, we have at least 3 on the shelf that we can cross reference. We rarely follow recipes strictly with the exception of certain baking ratios.
Cassaendra at 7:30AM on 07/10/08
FN is really bad about getting their recipes corrrect. I have found that even the cook who I think has the most consistently and dependably best recipes (Ina Garten) is even risky, copied directly off their site. When I watch her make something, and think... "mmm... I'd like to make that!", I always go to her cookbooks, find the recipe, and check it against what is posted on the FN site. You'd be amazed how many times I have to edit the FN recipe before I can print it out to use!
I agree with chiff0nade on user-contributed sites. They are often the most undependable of all. I always take recipes at one of these sites as "suggestions", rather than recipes, and do it my way if there is any doubt about a step, an amount, a temp, or an ingredient.
Brownie at 8:47AM on 07/10/08
I agree with Perky Mac. I find the reviews from FN and Epicurious to be very helpful in not only making a recipe but also deciding to try it in the first place.
bessfour at 10:07AM on 07/10/08
OK, please pardon the shameless plug...
I'm in the midst of writing my first cookbook, set to be published in the fall of '09. (It's 100 desserts, aimed at people who love food but don't know how to cook at all, so no recipe jargon, etc.) I've had all the recipes tested by professional bakers, but I also really want to give them a reality check, so I'm asking friends and family to test them as well.
Anyone here want to lend a hand? I can't tell you how much I would appreciate any and all feedback, especially from the Serious Eats crowd, whose opinions I really respect and value!
If you're interested, please email me and I'll send you a recipe. All you have to do is make it and send me an email with any feedback, good, bad, or otherwise:
sparkyluma@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance!
CookiePie at 11:15AM on 07/10/08
@CookiePie I'm ready to start on my cookbook! How did you get started? If you have a minute or two, please give me an overview. Thanks so much.
dianeb at 11:42AM on 07/10/08
@CookiePie: Me, too!
And I cannot tell you how often i find even book-published recipes that either miss ingredients, or steps, or both. Sometimes there is no temperature indication for baking, which can be made up, but is still annoying if you are already trying to convert from metric to imperial to gas...
I actually just had this happen to me regarding one of my published recipes. My mother wanted to make it, so I told which book it was in adn she immediately called me back and said that the recipe was missing a third of the ingredients! For a coffee cake, it apparently had no eggs or flour! Can you believe that? You have to wonder what the editors were thinking...and I can't believe that I missed it! But, then, I had the recipe memorized, so I never really look at it anyway.
Live and learn, right?
Traveller at 12:50PM on 07/10/08
@dianeb and @Traveller -
Happy to talk about it! But when you say "get started," do you mean that you're about to write the proposal, or that you have a book deal and now you're getting started on the recipe development? Happy to discuss either or both.
CookiePie at 1:04PM on 07/10/08
@Cookie Pie: I have jsut accumulated so many personal recipes that I have developed that I have pondered the idea of perhaps putting out a cookbook. You never know...it might be just a dream. But a nice one. :)
Traveller at 1:45PM on 07/10/08
@CookiePie: Actually, I have just accumulated so many personal recipes that I have made that I have sometimes fancied the idea of putting them into a book. Just a dream, maybe, but a nice one. How do you even get started?
Traveller at 1:48PM on 07/10/08
@Traveller - Personally, I love those kinds of recipes, the ones you've been tinkering with forever and have made 100 different ways. Good for you!
I'm no expert, since this is my first foray into book publishing (I've been working at magazines forever), but this is how I did it. First I wrote a proposal (it was based on a book proposal that a friend of mine wrote for a non-cookbook -- I had no idea how to write one. I used her basic outline but with my information in it and included some recipes. I'd be happy to send you my proposal for reference). Then I sent the proposal to a bunch of literary agents -- some were referrals from friends or friends of friends, others were cold calls. Through that I got an agent (after many rejections). She is amazing -- she really whipped my proposal into shape. Then she tirelessly shopped it around to publishers -- and through that I got a book deal. It took many, many months and lots of rejections (did I mention the rejections? There were a lot), but it finally happened in September, and I've been writing and developing recipes ever since. I have to turn in the manuscript in September, and it will come out next fall ('09).
I don't mean to be discouraging with all the rejection talk, but I wanted to mention it because it can be soul crushing. In one day I got 2 rejections - one saying my idea was too general, and the other that it was too specific. I had to laugh to keep from crying! But it only takes one yes, so that's the good news.
I hope this helps!
CookiePie at 3:04PM on 07/10/08
@CookiePie - kudos, congrats and well-done indeed! I hope it's a huge success for you.
@Cary - I'm just as guilty about leaving reviews, but mine would read something along the lines of:
I substituted brined chicken for the veal (because that's what I happened to have on hand and it's tastier and was on sale!), and grilled it rather than sauteed, used beets in lieu of carrots, wine instead of champagne, decided to add melted butter to the sauce because I didn't have heavy cream..............
You know? On the rare occasion when I actually followed a recipe and loved it, I did leave a positive review..
PerkyMac at 3:20PM on 07/10/08
@Perky: maybe that is what's stopping me, I'd have to do that too...i don't mind reviews like that when they are positive (and at least mention what aspect of the recipe they did like) but it drives me nuts when someone gives a recipe a 1-Star rating and then proceeds to list the 20 substitutions and how they used the microwave instead of the grill and STILL BLAMES THE RECIPE/AUTHOR FOR THEIR MISERABLE MEAL!
Cary at 4:15PM on 07/10/08
One of my biggest problems with recipes is timing. With one recipe calling for 30 minutes you practically have the beef still mooing when it should be well-done, with another you have smoke billowing from the oven with ten minutes to go!
mynah at 5:06PM on 07/10/08
@cary: it drives me nuts when people rate it with 5-stars when they didn't even use the recipe. They say something like, "this recipe looks great! can't wait to try it." UGH! Or they give it 1-star and have yet to cook anything.
_greenbean at 5:16PM on 07/10/08
@CookiePie: No worries about the rejection info - I remember publishing in my former career and how painful that could be, too...especially peer-reviewed work. And I would love to see yoru proposal, as that might really help me to focus and see if I even have the potential for something like this in the future.
Now, of course this means A. Congratulations! and B. You realize that when it comes out you will have to let us know how we can all obtain copies of our own!
Traveller at 6:37PM on 07/10/08
Thanks Traveller and Perky for the good wishes!
Incidentally, I totally agree about people rating recipes who haven't made them yet!
I find that when I'm looking for a recipe, I go to all the usual suspects, including the FN site, but I rarely use any of the FN recipes. I generally find something I like better elsewhere.
@dbcurrie - what you said, that's me too, exactly!
CookiePie at 9:43AM on 07/11/08
@CookiePie: You know the other thing that I do, that i am sure that other do too, is that they are really just looking for a recipe to vary on their own. I find that I search for those recipes and bring a bunch together that are all for the same general thing, and then I just combine them and adjust them to suit my tastes.
Traveller at 11:46AM on 07/11/08