When you read a recipe...

[CWS4322]

I spend a lot of time reviewing recipes. I am pretty good at picking out where there is an Oops! missed a step or this is not going to work. In another life, I kept a file of bad sentences (when I was an editor). I now have a collection of bad recipes/techniques. My current fav is a recipe for a rice pilaf with fresh asparagus tips. The instructions had the tios being cooked with the rice for 20 minutes. Yuck-I didn't need to cook that to know the asparagus would be worse than canned (I think I likened the asparagus tips to worse than baby Sh*t when I sent my comments back W/out having to make the recipe). I often review recipes with a flat flavour profile where the mid and high notes are missing.

Wondering what red flags others pick up on when reading recipes? I have a lot more "not gonna work recipes," but asparagus tip pilaf is one of my favs. What are some of your favs?

 

[GotGarlic]

One that always bugs me is the direction to add garlic too soon. Years ago, before I really learned to cook, I frequently burned garlic because of that. I thought I was doing something wrong. Now I know it was bad recipe writing.

 

[CWS4322]

Unless I am baking, at home I cook on the fly. When testing a recipe or cooking for a restaurant, I follow the recipe exactly, including timing with timers. It ticks me off when I am told "you should've cooked that at 400" when the temp written was 350. Gee, make sure your recipes are written correctly before you have s/one else make them. Just saying. I baked cornbread muffins according to the recipe. The line cook complained almost every dsy. Finally the Exec chef looked at the recipe and said "the recipe is wrong." Not my fault.

 

[Addie]

Gee, I just had a recipe for chocolate chip cookies with nuts this week. I make sure I have all my ingredients out along with the equipment. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of flour. I knew it was wrong when I read it. But For giggles and laughs, I went ahead. Added the two eggs, had soup on my hands. So I added what the amount of the missing flour should have read. Cookies came out fine. Someone didn't proof their recipe. That could have been a culinary disaster for an inexperienced cook.

 

[creative]

I recently had a recipe that I tried and knew it was wrong but went along with it anyway, i.e. against my better judgement.

It was a kind of spaghetti carbonara but baked - like a cake. It called for folding in RAW torn up pieces of baby spinach and then baking the mixture. Sure enough there were hard, brown, crispy bits of spinach emerging from the top of it (I thought I had pushed most of it down).

 

[CWS4322]

One of the recipes I had to cook for the food photographer had couscous in the ingredients and barley in the instructions. I went with Freekah for the photoshoot since I had to rework it anyway.

Reshooting is expensive so I fix the problems before we shoot or kick the recipe back to the chef or rework the recipe to fit our criteria

 

[CWS4322]

Gee, I just had a recipe for chocolate chip cookies with nuts this week. I make sure I have all my ingredients out along with the equipment. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of flour. I knew it was wrong when I read it. But For giggles and laughs, I went ahead. Added the two eggs, had soup on my hands. So I added what the amount of the missing flour should have read. Cookies came out fine. Someone didn't proof their recipe. That could have been a culinary disaster for an inexperienced cook.

How much flour should it have Been?

 

[larry_stewart]

Parmesan Cheese.
Its usually found in almost every magazine recipe, and my wife falls for it every time.
I have nothing against parmesan cheese, and I use it all the time.
But when I read a recipe and the last thing says, add 1/4 or 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, I know that the whole dish is going to taste like parmesan cheese, totally counteracting anything else you added up until that point.

Im not saying this is a bad thing, and for some recipes it works nicely, but for many its just too overpowering, leaving just one taste.

Larry

 

[Aunt Bea]

For me it is usually the old recipes similar to the one below.

It was assumed that every female, of a certain age, would know how to cream butter and sugar, what temp to use, what size pan, etc... It can be fun converting them and bringing them up to date.

A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn: "Just Cake" and Easy Caramel Frosting

 

[Andy M.]

Now that anyone with access to a computer and the internet can post recipes, there are a lot of crappy recipes out there and you have to be extra careful.

Most of my pet peeves with recipes involve how ingredients are listed. It's bad recipe writing to list "small can of tomato sauce" or similar. It's not that hard to list "8 Oz. of tomato sauce".

When measuring certain ingredients, it must be indicated if the ingredient is packed or not. Shredded cheese is a prime example. Do I just grate it into the measuring cup and call it a day or do I pack it down.

And sometimes, the ingredient isn't listed but the instructions tell you to add it.

I can get past poor directions like these but some may be confused. It's the writer's obligation to write with clarity and not assume too much.

 

[larry_stewart]

Now that anyone with access to a computer and the internet can post recipes, there are a lot of crappy recipes out there and you have to be extra careful.

Most of my pet peeves with recipes involve how ingredients are listed. It's bad recipe writing to list "small can of tomato sauce" or similar. It's not that hard to list "8 Oz. of tomato sauce".

When measuring certain ingredients, it must be indicated if the ingredient is packed or not. Shredded cheese is a prime example. Do I just grate it into the measuring cup and call it a day or do I pack it down.

And sometimes, the ingredient isn't listed but the instructions tell you to add it.

I can get past poor directions like these but some may be confused. It's the writer's obligation to write with clarity and not assume too much.

Very true, and in addition, I know this comes up time and time again in the forums, but when they say use a certain sized onion ( or whatever ). What really is a small, medium or large onion ?? I prefer when its exact measurements ( a cup, half cup ..).

In reality , after I make it the first time, Ill probably change things to my own liking anyway, but Id like to be dead on or at least pretty close first time around to appreciate where the author of the recipe was going. That being said, it doesn't bother me much, just keeps me wondering why they didn't make the small effort to make it easier to be duplicated by the person reading the recipe.

And I guess another thing that kinda annoys me is when something calls for vegetable stock. Being a vegetarian , I come across this all the time. Big problem is, vegetable stock ( unless a specific brand) can vary soon much depending on which vegetables used, method of making it, herbs added ( or not). Having cooked for many years, I can get around this easily, but its still kinda nice to have more specifics so the recipe I'm following comes out as the author intended.

 

[GotGarlic]

Very true, and in addition, I know this comes up time and time again in the forums, but when they say use a certain sized onion ( or whatever ). What really is a small, medium or large onion ?? I prefer when its exact measurements ( a cup, half cup ..).

I've decided to simply assume that small = half cup, medium = 1 cup and large = 1.5 cups, approximately. I try not to have too many bits of veggies left over, so I use whole or halves as much as possible.

In reality, after I make it the first time, Ill probably change things to my own liking anyway, but Id like to be dead on or at least pretty close first time around to appreciate where the author of the recipe was going. That being said, it doesn't bother me much, just keeps me wondering why they didn't make the small effort to make it easier to be duplicated by the person reading the recipe.

It's because recipe writing is an art that needs to be learned, just like any other form of writing. Most bloggers and home cooks who post on the Internet haven't learned how to do it. They're thinking more about the food than the people who will be reading and following the recipe.

I took a food-writing class several years ago and rewriting poorly written recipes according to standard guidelines was one of the lessons.

This is also why I like to use Living Cookbook for saving and organizing recipes. I can import recipes from anywhere and then edit them to my own preferences. I print them out for cooking the first time, make notes, edit the document, and print it again for my recipe notebooks.

This is not to say that I always cook strictly by recipes, but sometimes I do

 

[GotGarlic]

Another one of my pet peeves is not listing ingredients in order of use. It's such a pain to make sure you've used everything.

 

[CWS4322]

Recipe Writing is the same as technical writing Re procedures.

 

[Janet H]

Recipe Writing is the same as technical writing Re procedures.

Maybe but so often the recipes I see don't appear to be written by folks who actually cook. Assembly instructions are convoluted or in the wrong order. One of my pet peeves is assembly instructions that lead you to use many more bowls and utensils than are actually needed. Clear directions can avoid this but often they just don't exist.

I recently made a cheese souffle using a new recipe. The instructions called for making a white sauce in a small sauce pan and then adding shredded cheese off heat. The next step was to add whipped egg whites to the sauce by thirds, folding to incorporate in a large bowl. bah... bad instructions.
Simply making the cheese base in a large pan would allow you to add the egg whites into that pan, thus avoiding having to wash yet another bowl.

 

[Kayelle]

Here's a funny DC blast from the past that some may remember. It involved two regular members at the time, who shall remain nameless.

I don't remember the title of the recipe but it was for a savory meat main dish. The recipe author included Condensed canned milk in the recipe, rather than Evaporated canned milk. A member made it the way it was written and couldn't figure out why it was so sweet.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Along the lines of what's been discussed, my biggest pet peeve is with (usually older) recipes that call for a "can" of this or a "package" of that. At one point in time, commercial priduct sizes seemed pretty static. Any more, though, companies seem to be constantly changing the size of their packaging in order to charge the same for less product.

Take canned tuna, for instance. For many, many years, the size of the can was a predictable 7 ounces. Then it became 6.5, then 6.25. Currently, I believe it's 5 oz. Even worse, is when companies use the same size package, but fill it with less of the product.

This practice is very frustrating, in particular for younger cooks, who may be unaware of how product amounts have gradually been reduced over the years. The result is recipes that no longer work. Like Andy said, it's always better to specify actual product weight in recipes.

 

[lyndalou]

Another one of my pet peeves is not listing ingredients in order of use. It's such a pain to make sure you've used everything.

Yes, you're right. I helped put together a church cookbook, and it was amazing how mwny people just listed ingredients helter skelter. It was a lot of work to make some of the recipes make any kind of sense at all.

 

[blissful]

How to Make the Perfect Pan-Fried Burger

On this recipe (mid page) for the fry sauce. It calls for 6 cups of mayonnaise and it makes 2/3 cup of sauce.

Ingredients for 2/3 cup of fry sauce
6 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon kosher dill pickle juice
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. The sauce will keep in a covered container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

I was surprised yahoo didn't fix this recipe.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Another one of my pet peeves is not listing ingredients in order of use. It's such a pain to make sure you've used everything.

THIS! And it's not just home cooks posting on blogs. The biggest offender I have come across lately is "The Chew". The ingredients are so out of order sometimes it's not even worth trying to work from their printed recipe. I just read over what is written and work from memory. So it's not exactly like it tasted on the TV show version? Meh, they never offered me a taste when I was watching so I don't know what it's like exactly anyway!