Published Recipe Discrepancies

[wysiwyg]

BreezeCooking,
I agree with you 100%, asking for precise measurements is not being too picky at all.
I haven't watched Miss Ray's show or read any of her books because I think she is just the product of clever advertisement, mass media & marketing and has little to do with cooking. How come a mid-30's girl has her own TV cooking show, got several books published and endorses from knives to pans with no formal cooking training or real life practice?
I am no fan of Emeril, Mario Batalli or Wofgang Puck either, but at least I respect these guys since they proved they can cook.
I personally prefer to follow the advise of the Julia Childs or Jacques Pepins of the world.
Sorry about the venting LOL.

[BreezyCooking]

Thanks!!

Heck, with my own recipes I frequently use terms like "dollop", "handfull", etc., but I certainly wouldn't do that if I were publishing a recipe for the masses. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't equate a "handfull" with "1/3 cup". It just doesn't work that way. I don't have large hands, but they certainly hold more than 1/3 cup of grated cheese - lol!!!

To be honest, while I don't care for Ms. Ray's personality, I do have one of her books & so far the recipes I've tried have been good - so that's all I care about - lol!!!! As far as Martha Stewart, it's been long known & printed that many of the recipes in her books (& I do have nearly all of them) need "tweaking". One gripe I have in particular is any recipe that calls for a marinade. Her marinade ingredients versus the amount of meat to be marinated are always sorely out of whack. My advice to anyone using a "Martha" marinade is to double the marinade ingredients or cut the amount of meat in half.

[keltin]

When I read two handfuls, I wasn’t thinking of two massively full handfuls as if I were holding a softball, I was thinking more like a “palm full” . Just enough so that you can still completely close your fist and not have cheese poking out of every opening. Two of those make 1/3 of a cup for me.

[kitchenelf]

OK, like keltin stated (as I was already thinking this) the two handfuls are pouring cheese, or scooping it and placing it in your palm, not digging into a bowl and grabbing as much as you can in your fist. I can guarantee you that a palm full, or a handful as RR states, for me would be about 1/4 cup. The whole point of her cooking this way is to prove that cooking is not so scientific.

It's just a way of relaxed cooking. It's a way to not get so stressed out with measuring every little thing. I like her approach on doing things this way.

[Andy M.]

I have to go with the precision in recipes philosophy. It's easy to make a recipe when the measurements are not open to interpretation and the instructions are precise and correct.

This does not prevent you from winging it and changing the amounts. It just makes it less stressful for beginners.

GB, how does anyone know RR is saying the exact measurement doesn't matter unless she states that in the recipe?

If measurements in recipes are precise and instructions are complete, even beginners will not have questions and will be able to prepare the dish as intended.

I have no problem with addressing recipe or ingredient variations in footnotes to a recipe. I often do that, stating key substitutions and offering helpful added instruction.

Grated cheese is a perfect example of the opportunity for wide variations. One cook may measure 1/3 cup packed and another may measure it loosely placed in the measuring cup. A vast difference. You can say it doesn't matter, but the person reading the recipe may not know that and believe they may be ruining the recipe and will have an under- or over-cheesed recipe as a result.

[kitchenelf]

Breezy - totally off topic (sort of) - Check out this recipe. It DID take more than 30 minutes but it was worth it! I also added more liquid and reduced the sauce a LOT more, made it hotter, added more lemon zest and soaked that wonderful liquid up with some grilled bread. It is a wonderful recipe!

[keltin]

Originally Posted by kitchenelf

Breezy - totally off topic (sort of) - Check out this recipe. It DID take more than 30 minutes but it was worth it! I also added more liquid and reduced the sauce a LOT more, made it hotter, added more lemon zest and soaked that wonderful liquid up with some grilled bread. It is a wonderful recipe!

Oh wow, that sounds incredible. I'll be making this soon!

[BreezyCooking]

Hey - thanks for that link Kitchenelf - recipe saved & looks absolutely delicious.

Like I said before, while I'm not a fan of Ms. Ray's show/personality, I've enjoyed many of her recipes & have one of her cookbooks. In fact, since I'm a "cheese whore" at heart, I personally didn't mind the extra cheese in my original complaint. I just felt it was misleading to new cooks. If she had said "a half handfull", that I wouldn't have had a problem with - lol!!!! I just found it hard to equate a full handfull of cheese with 1/3 cup.

[Barb L.]

I watch Food Network, and when I want to try a certain recipe, I always read the reviews - making notes to the changes they have mentioned from watching the original show. It really does help.
Paula Deen made a strawberry short cake today, using 1 small 3oz. jello - recipe- (3 tbls.) -!

[auntdot]

I go with Andy's approach in that when we write down a recipe we list the TNT and then add comments either in parens or as footnotes, depending upon the length.

If we use a large onion instead of a small we would state that probably in ().

But I believe most recipes should be very specific and then give variations as lagniappe, but not to confuse the reader.