I'm wondering if the Onternnet has fueled this trend in cookbooks. These days, if you want a succinctly written recipe, you can use your favorite search engine. So cookbook publishers must offer something else, like a celebrity-centered fantasy land.
1
My mother was a great cook and baker but used a lot of short cuts. She was one of those 60's Mom's who thought Duncan Hines was the way to bake. I have her recipe box and love to decipher all her old recipes and make them new and legible for my recipe collection. I am a cookbook collector and love to read old recipes, their stories and directions on how to make each recipe. The more information the better for me. I learned from the best chefs in my cookbooks an on TV. How can you learn if you don't have the input of the author? Today, so many home cooks look for the shortcut. Learn about the recipe and it's essence and then you can make it your own.
I looked in vain for a reference to Elizabeth David, a writer who always put a dish in context and always told the reader what needed to be done in a conversational tone. Her original books remain classics of what a good cook book should be.
2
Too much cutesy and clutter, as Borowicz said elsewhere on this thread. To me, a cookbook is an instruction manual. Not a memoir with recipes, or a travelogue with recipes, or a book of anecdotes with recipes, or a picture book with recipes. Some chatty passages are fine, but they should be separate from the recipes, and not overwhelm them by sheer copiousness. The practical instructions are the thing.
Pictures of the finished product can be helpful or just padding. Pictures of techniques are helpful if they are clear. Pictures of the celebrity "chef" are a pointless nuisance.
What I consider the new trend in cookbooks is elephantiasis - honey, I blew up the cookbook.
Pictures of the finished product can be helpful or just padding. Pictures of techniques are helpful if they are clear. Pictures of the celebrity "chef" are a pointless nuisance.
What I consider the new trend in cookbooks is elephantiasis - honey, I blew up the cookbook.
2
How about a recipe for Vort Limpa?
I've been a cookbook collector and reader since high school; I sit in bed and read them before I go to sleep, like most people read novels. But I lost touch with my beloved cookbooks when it became so easy to Google whatever I wanted to cook--even just searching the ingredients on hand led to great ideas for dinner. But lately, I've noticed two things: one is that bloggers seem to be copying each other's recipes and the other is that I'm really sick of scrolling through miles of photos and fairly insipid commentary. Maybe I'll go back to my cookbooks, that someone was actually paid to edit.
6
I Google the ingredients I have on hand then decide which recipe to use, too.
I learned to cook because I could not eat what my mother served. She could mess up a basket of fresh spinach out of our garden in a heartbeat by cooking it to death and putting a lumpy flour and grease mixture with burned onions over it. She was a great gardener.
I have LOTS of cookbooks, I read recipes to whet my appetite and then I use what is available to make what I want. I also use the internet a lot to find specific recipes. Cooking and eating should be fun.
I have LOTS of cookbooks, I read recipes to whet my appetite and then I use what is available to make what I want. I also use the internet a lot to find specific recipes. Cooking and eating should be fun.
1
I know what you mean -- my grandfather was a great gardener but my grandmother was a terrible cook. As a child I believed I did not like fresh vegetables (my own mother used frozen) -- but it really was my grandmother's preparation of them: she would boil the lovely fresh green beans till they were brown, for example. When my grandfather retired, he took over the cooking and things greatly improved.
3
Chris Kimball's Cooks Illustrated Perfect Scrambled Eggs recipe clocks in at 440 words (206 without ingredients and step-by-steps). So I don't quite understand his point at the end of the column.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/6604-perfect-scrambled-eggs
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/6604-perfect-scrambled-eggs
9
Kimball had good advice, but if be can't take it himself, why should he expect others to?
Unfortunately the link forces a membership. there's no recipe.
I am surprised that an article like this, in the NY Times no less, does not mention Mark Bittman and his Minimalist recipes, which blazed a trail of no recipe cooking.
7
This new way of thinking is not an erosion of standards; for traditional publishers, the importance of a well-tested recipe has grown. But editors say that the form the material takes has to change to better match a generation of cooks who need less hand-holding and have access to better ingredients.
I heard a story not too long ago, about how some neophyte baker interpreted "butter the pan" which for them included the inside AND the outside. Cake mix boxes now feature pictures of eggs, cups of water and cups of oil, and EVEN a pan and spoon. Yes, we're dumbing down cooking now, like everything else . You might have more flexibility with cooking carrots but try forgetting the baking powder in your next cake.
I learned to read when I went to school, I learned to cook with the help of my mother from the Victory Cook Book --wartime edition c. 1943-- published the year I was born.
Pretty soon we'll have comic strip characters telling us how to do it. How do you make a Russian cheesecake? The Shadow knows. Ha ha ha ha ha.
I heard a story not too long ago, about how some neophyte baker interpreted "butter the pan" which for them included the inside AND the outside. Cake mix boxes now feature pictures of eggs, cups of water and cups of oil, and EVEN a pan and spoon. Yes, we're dumbing down cooking now, like everything else . You might have more flexibility with cooking carrots but try forgetting the baking powder in your next cake.
I learned to read when I went to school, I learned to cook with the help of my mother from the Victory Cook Book --wartime edition c. 1943-- published the year I was born.
Pretty soon we'll have comic strip characters telling us how to do it. How do you make a Russian cheesecake? The Shadow knows. Ha ha ha ha ha.
I have enough experience to do without long-winded prose. Please, just give me a list of Ingredients, in order of their use in the second half, a Procedure, that gives realistic time estimates for some steps. Reading the whole recipe before even buying ingredients will tell how difficult or time-consuming the process will be, and what special equipment may be involved. No graphic novels needed.
9
I guess I am in the minority. I am not interested in process. I have reached the point where I am comfortable with the skills I need to produce a good result and pretty good at reading a recipe and predicting how it will turn out. I am not interested in the science of cooking or cooking lessons. I will not be spatchcocking a turkey anytime soon. I do not have time for videos. Count me out on this trend. I am also, for the most part finished collecting cook books. The internet has replaced cookbooks for me. Love your food newsletter.
3
Since starting my job at Food52 I've fallen in love with cooking. Before I "cooked" by following recipes. Now I enjoy cooking as a hobby and I explore, create, and am much more curious than ever before. I love recipes and I love cookbooks, but now these are my guide and I journey through foods and cuisines in a way that fits me. I love it!
3
I enjoy reading about how food is prepared and how certain cooking processes work. I've noticed that my older cookbooks have two to four recipes per page and no photos. My daughter felt she was finally eacoming a real cook when she didn't need photos in a cookbook . My cookbooks range from a 1914 Fannie Farmer to contemary cookbooks but whenever I start a new reciepe I check with my stained falling apart 1997 Joy of Cooking . My family calls it the bible .
3
First learn cooking techniques a good place to start would be with 2 Jacques Pepin books La Technique and La Methode, next buy the best equipment you can afford, quality equipment will last a life time (stay away from equipment sponsored by celebrity cooks) don't buy gadgets. Use a recipe as a guide then let your individual taste and creativity take over. When possible buy the freshest, highest quality and local ingredients. In Italy if it's not in season, it's not available. I laugh we people tell me that they love Indian or Mexican or other foreign cuisines, chances are, unless they have been to these countries and ate with the locals they have never had the authentic cuisine of that country. This also applies to Italian food. Notice I didn't say ITALIAN CUISINE, the term Italian cuisine does exist it's all about regional E.G. in N.E. Italy dumpling and sauerkraut are eaten, in Sicily couscous can be found on the table, you can travel less than 50 miles and the cuisine changes, so which is Italian cuisine .... got it! The main thing is to have fun cooking don't let it be a drudgery. Buon Appetito
6
I have a kitchen full of recipe books but haven't bought one in ten years, when I want to cook something I just type in what I want and select from an internet full of recipes. Last night I had left over chicken and rice and typed that in and found what I wanted. I can't imagine anyone buying a cook book any longer.
1
I agree with Rich: who needs cookbooks anymore, with the internet at hand and an infinite number of recipes for any ingredients that one might care to combine? Maybe the world is just different from my admittedly non-foodie perspective than it is from that of those with more refined palates!
I took enjoy read a good cookbook full of tips, tricks and wonderful stories, beautiful photos but when I am trying to prepare a recipe, I want a recipe written as a recipes so I can work efficiently. When I am looking for a recipe I skip all of the fluff and go straight for the traditionally written recipe. I do think there is a place for both types of writing. One to read and enjoy and one to work with.
7
I have at least 250 cookbooks, going back 55 years or so. My favorites, stained and falling apart, are still the Fanny Farmer cookbook from the early 60's for formula recipes and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 and 2. for techniques. While I love the beautiful photography in newer cookbooks, I rarely read all the verbiage about how the author's restaurant got started, their childhood, etc. I use formulas (traditional recipes) for baking and desserts, which I can then tweak from experience, and recipes for savory dishes for lists of ingredients, which I then put together in my own way.
Here's my 8 year-old granddaughter's perfect nacho recipe: tortilla chips on a plate, canned corn and black beans, shredded cheese on top. Nuke.
Here's my 8 year-old granddaughter's perfect nacho recipe: tortilla chips on a plate, canned corn and black beans, shredded cheese on top. Nuke.
3
If we're still measuring ingredients, could American writers please, please please shift to weights instead of volume? A point of onion is a pound no matter if it's chopped, sliced, whole, quartered, etc. At least include weights.
16
Why would I want to do that? Just what I don't need, another thing to buy and maintain -- a scale.
2
Probably like the majority of Americans, when I get home after working an 8-12 hour day, I don't want to read a tome of esoteric ingredients.
I just want to know how to light a charcoal chimney grill (YouTube), prep a seasoning (AllRecipes), sear a couple steaks (FoodLab), while making some sort of sautéed vegetable (Ree Drummond)... and have dinner on the table ASAP.
Like other millennials, as much as I love Thomas Keller and Jamie Oliver, I'm cooking out of the Pioneer Woman and AllRecipes/Food.com. That's why I returned my copy of At Elizabeth David's Table. I'm too hangry to figure out what she wants me to learn. Plus, there's probably an amazing picture of a galette on Buzzfeed that I can look at while I munch my mid-week Wendy's baconator.
I just want to know how to light a charcoal chimney grill (YouTube), prep a seasoning (AllRecipes), sear a couple steaks (FoodLab), while making some sort of sautéed vegetable (Ree Drummond)... and have dinner on the table ASAP.
Like other millennials, as much as I love Thomas Keller and Jamie Oliver, I'm cooking out of the Pioneer Woman and AllRecipes/Food.com. That's why I returned my copy of At Elizabeth David's Table. I'm too hangry to figure out what she wants me to learn. Plus, there's probably an amazing picture of a galette on Buzzfeed that I can look at while I munch my mid-week Wendy's baconator.
1
As a foreigner who learned to cook by watching the family cook, and only later by reading "Gourmet", I was aways surprised at the (unnecessary!) meticulousness of US recipes -- exactly one-third teaspoon of salt, say -- because I learned another way: salt-to-taste, and tossing ingredients and flavourings in un-specified quantities. And adding water to the rice until it was TWO FINGERS' width above the rice level in the pot... I eventually discovered that the virtue of precise recipes is that they can easily be duplicated. But to this day, I read them as inspiration -- wow, I can add lemon or curry to the cauiflower --but not as rules. They suggest new taste-combinations, new pairings, new ways to present the old foods... all of which I enjoy inmensely.
3
Very few of the general public today know how to cook at all, let alone well!!! They grew up on Hamburger Helper and cake mixes and have no idea how to even read a recipe and know if it will be fit to eat or not.
If sent to a desert island, the two (actually 3 - one is in two volumes) cookbooks I would want to take along are Juile Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vols 1 and 2, and the Joy of Cooking. If you can't find inspiration in and good instructions in these two books, then just order a pizza or chinese carry-out.
These two books are how I learned to cook as a new bride 49 yrs ago and have stood in good stead over the years. As one gains skills, one can change a recipe slightly - don't have this ingredient on hand, substitute that one - but with baking, one must be truly gifted and bake often to be able to change a recipe - I rarely mess around with them.
I so wish we could bring back Home Ec and Shop in today's middle schools. Boys and girls need to take BOTH. While cleaning out my kitchen drawers this weekend, I found the bibbed apron and matching quilted pot holder and oven mitt I made in my required 7th grade home ec class. Of course, I didn't throw it out - that is for my daughter to do someday to "earn" my antiques and jewelry!
If sent to a desert island, the two (actually 3 - one is in two volumes) cookbooks I would want to take along are Juile Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vols 1 and 2, and the Joy of Cooking. If you can't find inspiration in and good instructions in these two books, then just order a pizza or chinese carry-out.
These two books are how I learned to cook as a new bride 49 yrs ago and have stood in good stead over the years. As one gains skills, one can change a recipe slightly - don't have this ingredient on hand, substitute that one - but with baking, one must be truly gifted and bake often to be able to change a recipe - I rarely mess around with them.
I so wish we could bring back Home Ec and Shop in today's middle schools. Boys and girls need to take BOTH. While cleaning out my kitchen drawers this weekend, I found the bibbed apron and matching quilted pot holder and oven mitt I made in my required 7th grade home ec class. Of course, I didn't throw it out - that is for my daughter to do someday to "earn" my antiques and jewelry!
15
Shop class was useless for us boys who were really interested in learning to cook but I don't think the home ec classes were much better. I originally learned to cook from my mother whose repertoire was rather bland and boring. I have lots of cookbooks but these days if I'm looking for the basics on how to cook something I just search it on the internet. Easier and faster and less expensive and you often get reviews and comments on the recipes. Even so, I love my cookbooks from some of my favorite TV chefs and cooks.
Without shop classes how will they learn how to make a cutting board?
2
and with Mastering the Art of French Cooking, on a desert island (though I'd prefer to be on a dessert island) you'll do well to have a small farm, and the knowledge to slaughter your livestock for the recipes; along with some great seeds to start the wheat, onions, and a couple of chickens. How else to make the quiche lorraine?
My all time stand by is Craig Clairborn's The New York Times a cookbook. It's been a staple in my kitchen for 40 years, and has the stained pages to prove it.
8
I think of recipes as a "guide" to cooking - I have rarely been able to follow complicated recipes completely without substituting ingredients I have on hand for some obscure item I can't buy or grow here in Alaska. I personally find that a great recipe gives me an outline of what its trying to achieve (crispiness, sweetness, bitterness, etc), tell me what is needed and how long it must bake/fry/simmer/boil, and I can handle the rest. Love foodie shows, especially shows like "Chopped" or "America's Test Kitchen", where professional chefs demonstrate the basics of culinary skills. I've learned more from such programs than I ever did from my grandmother, who insisted on following a recipe completely. But then again, she lived in NYC, and every obscure ingredient is available there!
1
You should get in touch with Kim and find out her secrets. She used to live in Alaska.
Cooking in Alaska makes one a much better cook, for sure. I swear I have never tasted peas any better than those grown in Alaska, even though the season was fleeting. And that salmon. What I would give for a freezer full of king and reds again.
Thanks for the comments, Chris and Reggie.
Thanks for the comments, Chris and Reggie.
1
I've enjoyed all of the previous comments and I heartily agree with many of those that imply, to paraphrase, the masters are masters and there is plenty of room for new ideas and entrants.
That said, to me, the proliferation of online recipes has brought me back to the old classics, in book form, time and time again. If I want to stretch myself by trying something new or very complicated or something that I've just never made before - and this is certainly true if it calls for expensive ingredients - I want it to be tested and I want it to work. I often read online reviews of recipes to see how they play out and none of the reviewers actually followed the recipe! If I've never attempted something before, that isn't helpful.
But I do love the new cookbooks because sometimes I get ideas for ways in which I might change my usual weeknight meals into something special and it has helped me build a powerhouse pantry that typically just calls for a stop by the fish monger and veggie stand for a great meal.
My personal favorite "non-canonical" cookbook is Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking (Chronicle). She tells a story, contextualizes the recipe to her own life, suggests menus and lets you know where you can bend the rules or skip out. But the technique is all there. It's a gem.
That said, to me, the proliferation of online recipes has brought me back to the old classics, in book form, time and time again. If I want to stretch myself by trying something new or very complicated or something that I've just never made before - and this is certainly true if it calls for expensive ingredients - I want it to be tested and I want it to work. I often read online reviews of recipes to see how they play out and none of the reviewers actually followed the recipe! If I've never attempted something before, that isn't helpful.
But I do love the new cookbooks because sometimes I get ideas for ways in which I might change my usual weeknight meals into something special and it has helped me build a powerhouse pantry that typically just calls for a stop by the fish monger and veggie stand for a great meal.
My personal favorite "non-canonical" cookbook is Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking (Chronicle). She tells a story, contextualizes the recipe to her own life, suggests menus and lets you know where you can bend the rules or skip out. But the technique is all there. It's a gem.
7
I hate this new trend in recipe writing. A recipe is not a novel. This is the antithesis of good technical writing (which is what a recipe essentially is).
Trying to parse out the actual instructions from a "story" is completely impossible for an inexperienced cook.
This is not a travelogue.
As it happens, I used to cook professionally, so I can cook without a recipe, but my housemate is learning to cook and can’t follow these types of recipes at all. I have to rewrite them as step-by-step instructions or it would take him 3 hours to figure out a 20 minute recipe.
Trying to parse out the actual instructions from a "story" is completely impossible for an inexperienced cook.
This is not a travelogue.
As it happens, I used to cook professionally, so I can cook without a recipe, but my housemate is learning to cook and can’t follow these types of recipes at all. I have to rewrite them as step-by-step instructions or it would take him 3 hours to figure out a 20 minute recipe.
38
Much as I love the work of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Wylie Dufresne, to say “One of the great things about recipes today is that you can assume a great amount of knowledge” (JKL-A) or assume that “[t]he average person is a much better cook and so much more sophisticated than they once were” (WD) is based on a very limited view of the public: it's THEIR public, and that's whom they can write their books for. But I think it's a mistake to make those assumptions about the general cooking and cookbook buying public.
It would be enlightening to do an analysis of what styles of cookbooks sell the most copies. Seems to me (completely unscientific guess based on what I remember from lists in Publishers Weekly) that the books that sell (even into the millions, gasp) are the ones that give specific instructions for simple recipes. "Taste of Home" kinds of books, and Pioneer Woman (who is of the photo-per-step school).
Of course there is room, and need, for all styles of cookbooks--the nerdy, the aspirational, the poetic, the supersimple and superpractical, and more. As other commenters have noted, people read and use cookbooks for many different reasons and purposes. No one style of book is "better" than another; it all depends on what the reader wants.
It would be enlightening to do an analysis of what styles of cookbooks sell the most copies. Seems to me (completely unscientific guess based on what I remember from lists in Publishers Weekly) that the books that sell (even into the millions, gasp) are the ones that give specific instructions for simple recipes. "Taste of Home" kinds of books, and Pioneer Woman (who is of the photo-per-step school).
Of course there is room, and need, for all styles of cookbooks--the nerdy, the aspirational, the poetic, the supersimple and superpractical, and more. As other commenters have noted, people read and use cookbooks for many different reasons and purposes. No one style of book is "better" than another; it all depends on what the reader wants.
9
I think you've hit it here. I LOVE the Food Lab (when I should be working), but there is something different about reading for information AND entertainment versus looking for instructions on how to do something. To assume that most people know how to cook at a basic level is an incorrect approach - many people looking in a cookbook DON'T know how to cook, they are looking for instructions.
It's funny to think that J. Kenji Lopez-Alt assumes a great amount of knowledge, but then goes on and on and on and on about the best way to boil an egg. Boiling water is very basic. Boiling an egg is not much more advanced. (Plus his method leads to enough broken eggs that I suspect he is working for the Egg Council. Seriously, you have a 20% loss almost every time.)
It's funny to think that J. Kenji Lopez-Alt assumes a great amount of knowledge, but then goes on and on and on and on about the best way to boil an egg. Boiling water is very basic. Boiling an egg is not much more advanced. (Plus his method leads to enough broken eggs that I suspect he is working for the Egg Council. Seriously, you have a 20% loss almost every time.)
3
I'm liking these comments related to pragmatism. Am putting together my own "cookbook" now for the kind of people who live on a food stamp budget for meals, work at least one full-time job, and maybe have a couple of kids to feed as well -- i.e. no time or money. I love reading the high end recipes and the explanations of the writers you mention, but there's a reason Hamburger Helper is popular, and if you're trying to help people prepare healthier food, you have to take into account class, culture, and income level. I read this hoping to get some tips (how does one convince my neighbor in public housing to try a Thai noodle salad instead of mac and cheese? A list of ingredients and steps to follow is NOT the problem.) It's scary when the steadily increasing class divide in the US shows up in basic domestic locations like the food section.
7
Boiling an egg is not rocket science but it's not self-evident either. I had to consult a few Web pages to learn to produce a hard-cooked egg without an ugly green coating around the yolk.
1
Today's recipes are similar to how today's children learn math? Is that supposed to be an endorsement?
30
Browse through James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking and just about anything by Elizabeth David (French Provincial Cooking is my personal favorite), and I think that you'll discern that this is not new if you've followed your senses into and around the kitchen and local markets.
I'm sure there are others - what are your suggestions?
I'm sure there are others - what are your suggestions?
6
The Cooking of Provincial France by MFK Fisher (Time-Life Series). No, this literary narrative style has quite a storied history.
A much more significant change in recipe publishing has taken place with publishing on the Internet. From http://cooking.nytimes.com to most other major recipe online publishers, Microdata embedded in the HTML is making recipes easier to compare, to find and grab/share. Do a search for a recipe, for example blueberry pancakes and the search page includes ratings, prep time, calorie count, etc ( https://www.google.com/search?q=blueberry+pancake+recipe ). More and more tools will be built based on this revolution in publishing. Already Google is allowing a better search for these enhanced recipe pages. Soon we will be able to search and better produce recipes. And this may even allow for multiple views of recipes with mobile quick views, embedded videos and graphics for others and easier to compare across multiple recipes.
2
while all you folks are searching, I'll be cooking and eating long before you have finished your internet meanderings. Learn to cook properly and you won't need the internet. does everything have to be solved by an internet search? Doesn't anyone think anymore?
3
It's a stunning omission to leave James Beard and his many cookbooks out of this article. His Theory and Practice of Good Cooking (1977) is still the book I recommend to all beginning cooks because it is organized by cooking technique (Roasting, Sauteing, Baking, etc.) not by main ingredient or course which immediately gives you the gift of why and how before you tackle the what. It's brilliant, as are his many other books especially because Beard was a writer drawn to cooking, rather than a cook compelled to write.
7
Although I enjoy delving into cookbooks, I do it in the guise of a treasure hunter, searching for nuggets of information rather than instruction. My best culinary creations have grown out of lists of ingredients given me (while I lived in Italy) by farmers, cooks, waiters, or have their origin in the dish itself, which I'd taste and then work backwards to arrive at the 'what' and 'how'. Following recipes in a cookbook is like buying clothes off the rack; it's much more satisfying to concoct a dish made to measure for and by you.
2
I love Julia Child. Her 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' (Volume 1; Volume 2 not then published) was my first cookbook used as a newly wed in 1967. The first meal I cooked after we were married (and served on the floor--we only had one kitchen chair) was Veal Prince Orloff. The little I knew of cooking prior to Julia Child came from my mother's Betty Crocker cookbook, mainly snickerdoodles, and 4H where, following my sister, I took the bread making project. Over the years I've certainly followed recipes from books, magazines, and the internet, developing my own mainstays. And I've used and enjoyed Chris Kimball's scientific approach. But it's been Tamara Adler's 'The Everlasting Meal,' read just three years ago, with it's exquisite language and freeform recipes that's given me the certain confidence and freedom I've always wanted to feel cooking.
I'm not a student of cooking, but I have the feeling this makeover of the written recipe--and I'd include Adler's book--is, in a way, a coming full circle of both learning to cook at the side of one's grandmother, with the internet ratings now providing the experience, on the one hand, and the writing--essays really--of those 18th, 19th and early 20th century authors of 'gastronomic literature', with the celebrity video chefs on the other.
I'm not a student of cooking, but I have the feeling this makeover of the written recipe--and I'd include Adler's book--is, in a way, a coming full circle of both learning to cook at the side of one's grandmother, with the internet ratings now providing the experience, on the one hand, and the writing--essays really--of those 18th, 19th and early 20th century authors of 'gastronomic literature', with the celebrity video chefs on the other.
1
I like recipes with clear, easy-to-understand instructions that provide just enough detail to successfully complete a dish, but that also includes personal anecdotes along with some background information about the dish or an ingredient used in the dish.
But I think it works better to separate the personal stories from the recipe directions so you can either jump right into cooking in the kitchen or leisurely read about the recipe over a cup of tea. This is already how most great cookbooks are written, including Julia Childs' "The Art of French Cooking." They already figured this out decades ago. Escoffier, in fact, invented the free-form recipe: a list of ingredients with suggestions on how to put them together. Jacques Pépin's "La Technique" used lots of photos showing each step of the process that is a popular format on food blogs today.
So while the medium and narrative may have changed, the newfangled ways in which recipes are shared isn't really all that new.
But I think it works better to separate the personal stories from the recipe directions so you can either jump right into cooking in the kitchen or leisurely read about the recipe over a cup of tea. This is already how most great cookbooks are written, including Julia Childs' "The Art of French Cooking." They already figured this out decades ago. Escoffier, in fact, invented the free-form recipe: a list of ingredients with suggestions on how to put them together. Jacques Pépin's "La Technique" used lots of photos showing each step of the process that is a popular format on food blogs today.
So while the medium and narrative may have changed, the newfangled ways in which recipes are shared isn't really all that new.
10
Formulas are for beginning bakers. I learned to cook by watching my grandmother, my aunt, older neighbors, and the cooks behind the counter at Original Joe's in San Francisco. My first cookbook, a 1876 version of the White House Cookbook, was only helpful if you already knew how to cook and basically just listed ingredients (a teacupful of wine, a pinch of mace), but it fascinated me with its long menus for formal dinners. The Joy of Cooking was great for its more scientific sections (Foods We Heat). I liked the original Moosewood Cookbook for its focus on quality ingredients and its hippie sensibility.
I am asked so often for my recipes that I've been thinking about writing a book, but never a traditional one. Maybe one with just lists of ingredients with explanations of, e.g., why I grow my own bay leaves and tarragon, and why buying produce and chickens from the Amish market is optimal.
I am asked so often for my recipes that I've been thinking about writing a book, but never a traditional one. Maybe one with just lists of ingredients with explanations of, e.g., why I grow my own bay leaves and tarragon, and why buying produce and chickens from the Amish market is optimal.
2
Learning to cook at your grandmother's elbow rings with me. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather was a logger and he and his sons had to be in the woods before daylight. That meant breakfast finished by 4 AM. My job was to split the kindling the night before for the cast iron wood burning stove. My granny had a thing which she poured pancake batter into and she could crank out great pancakes one after another. We sweetened them with sorghum molasses made locally and with home churned butter.
Today we live in a world of information and my favorite food is Indian with Chicken Tikka Masala being one of my favorites - BTW it was supposedly "invented" in Scotland by a Pakistani cook.
With today's cooking tools and availability of recipes being a foodie is a real treat. BTW Jacques Pepin PBS show is a favorite and he always tells how his mother made this particular dish.
If you fail with a new recipe - tomorrow is another day.
Today we live in a world of information and my favorite food is Indian with Chicken Tikka Masala being one of my favorites - BTW it was supposedly "invented" in Scotland by a Pakistani cook.
With today's cooking tools and availability of recipes being a foodie is a real treat. BTW Jacques Pepin PBS show is a favorite and he always tells how his mother made this particular dish.
If you fail with a new recipe - tomorrow is another day.
6
I'm a life-long cook who 20 years ago earned a professional chef's diploma, before the global food craze. I don't need photos with recipes. However, the recipes must be well-tested, which is why, for instance, Gourmet magazine was brilliant both for keen amateur and trained cooks. (Most NYTimes recipes also seem well-tested.)
Recipes that publish measurements in weight instead of volume, as taught in culinary schools, is a HUGE move forward and the only way to create consistency, particularly in baking and pastry.
Recipes that publish measurements in weight instead of volume, as taught in culinary schools, is a HUGE move forward and the only way to create consistency, particularly in baking and pastry.
18
I find recipes on the internet give uneven results, probably because they are not tested as diligently as they are in books and magazines. Also, too many step-by-step extraneous photos, especially on blogs--too much cutesy and clutter.
4
I'm a little dubious. It's fun to read these new books, and I do browse recipes online, but when I actually want to cook, I turn to Bittman's How to Cook Everything, The Joy of Cooking, Marcella Hazan, James Beard, Bernard Clayton, and a couple of others. I don't need personal narrative or step-by-step pictures; I want to know what temperature to turn the oven on to and how to season the fish. How many of these new cookbooks actually get used to the point that they're stained and falling apart?
30
As in the practice of design, learn all of the rules well enough so you know how and when to break them. In cooking, breaking rules, can leave you with with something inedible. Don't make me think when I'm trying to get food on the table for my family and be very careful with poorly written recipes (Food52).
4
I don't want to read a treatise on why. I'll check it out myself.
I just tried Kenji's theory of immersing eggs in boiling water versus Bittman's technique of putting them in cold water and bringing the whole thing to a boil.
My personal feedback: it's too hard to get the simmer just right. I'll stick to Bittman's technique.
I just tried Kenji's theory of immersing eggs in boiling water versus Bittman's technique of putting them in cold water and bringing the whole thing to a boil.
My personal feedback: it's too hard to get the simmer just right. I'll stick to Bittman's technique.
3
I go with Pepin's never-fail method. At this altitude I have to add 50% to the cooking time for anything in water, since it boils at 198F here.
My grandmother, born in 1906, used Bitmann's egg boiling technique, or he used hers. Suffice it to say that's how I boil eggs.
"Bittman's technique?" My family has boiled eggs that way for generations.
Yes, Chef Pepin is right. Make it once or twice exactly as written, then work with it to your taste. An interesting, but unrelated, note: in Turkish cookbooks, recipes are written in the imperative: Do this! Do that! Sort of like having your grandmother hanging over your shoulder.
21
Give me old-school cookbooks every time. Any budding cook worth her/his salt who cannot appreciate the work of Julia Child, Elizabeth David, Paula Wolfert, Diana Kennedy, Jacques, Marcella, Edna, and the list goes on, is really missing a core component of their culinary education, and culinary history to boot. As for photos, whatever happen to appreciating and being inspired by the magic and imagery of words?
14
Couldn't agree more with WOW about starting off with training wheels and progressing from there. My complaint about crowd-sourced recipe websites is that there is too much stealing from each other (even types are often reproduced!) and that too many of the recipes look like someone's idea that they never actually tried out. I love hacking recipes but you have to start with a recipe that works and go from there.
2
Interesting that in tracing the "roots" of highlighting technique, the writer doesn't mention Pepin's La Technique and La Methode, which pre-dated Mr. McGee's excellent book. Many of the new offerings are intriguing and at times lovely, but I agree with Mr. Pepin.As with music and perhaps all of the arts, before one can recast or cast away forms, one must be well-educated in their fundamentals. People may indeed be cooking more and better, which is salutary, but adherence to form at the beginning is what permits people to advance in skills (if that is what they wish to do).
15
When we married I compared what my wife cooked to my paternal Grandmother's. The woman was a fantastic cook who could make anything, almost all of it from memory. Though a German she could cook Italian better than Italians according to my Sicilian Grandfather. When she cooked the whole building smelled it. When you enter the foyer the rush of juices to your mouth hurt you wanted to taste it so strongly.
When I was a boy she cooked on a black oil stove without timers and temperature gauges. Cakes were made with handful measurements. I never saw an under or over baked cake and none collapsed. Whenever I visited She made Sauerbraten and red cabbage. Her potato balls never failed to stay together or become sodden bricks.
She taught my mother to cook and she did a passable job of it. Her own daughter, my aunt never came close. Cooking isn't just following instructions it's a talent. How else to explain two people following the same instructions and getting different results?
Get me a cooking reference that can imitate her and I'll pay double for it.
When I was a boy she cooked on a black oil stove without timers and temperature gauges. Cakes were made with handful measurements. I never saw an under or over baked cake and none collapsed. Whenever I visited She made Sauerbraten and red cabbage. Her potato balls never failed to stay together or become sodden bricks.
She taught my mother to cook and she did a passable job of it. Her own daughter, my aunt never came close. Cooking isn't just following instructions it's a talent. How else to explain two people following the same instructions and getting different results?
Get me a cooking reference that can imitate her and I'll pay double for it.
17
My ex- loved to bake, but when asking for my German grandmother's challah recipe, she started: "First you take some flour". "How much?" I asked. "So it looks right." :-)
1
When one examines the plethora of cookbooks available, all just seem to be full of recycled favorites or "last year's Fad"! Cooking blogs do give some personal insight into why the recipe developer came up with the recipe, and also some idea of his/her taste.What I publish on my blog wadesglobalkitchen.blogspot.com, is a collection of recipes that push the envelope of fusion cooking that draw on my multi-cultural background as well as my childhood growing up in a very diverse society, where food was influenced by multi-ethnic input. Some, not all Food Blogs therefore can be very specific to the author but nonetheless contribute significantly to an evolving culinary environment!
When I am hungry and tired but want a good home-made dinner I also want a recipe that is straightforward and easy to follow that yields delectable results. When I am sated, sitting in an armchair or bed, with a good steaming cup of tea beside me I want an engaging narrative. This narrative might come with photos or drawings but it is the words that draw me in, the anecdotes that illustrate for me how the writer and I are both different from and similar to each other. That narrative might lead to one of the recipes I use when I have time and desire to cook in a more complex way. Let's celebrate the best of both of these kinds of cookbooks, not allow ourselves to get too cute or too trivial in our sometimes frantic attempts to capture the short attention spans of the contemporary cook. And let's not forget the wonderful writing of still sadly missed Laurie Colwin while when we do. The great beauty of the also sadly missed Gourmet magazine was that at its best it gave us good recipes and informative, delightful prose. It promised adventure, good taste and good judgment, and it generally delivered. In my dreams it is still among us.
32
Finally - a Laurie Colwin reference! Her warm, genteel writing about food and home has been my favorite for so many years. Every book was a different gem. RIP, Laurie Colwin.
What is new is old again. Be certain to read the new while acknowledging what has gone before. Chef Pépin's books, and recipes, work because they are well crafted, masterful and provide success. Something every home cook seeks. There is a long history of wonderful cookbooks in which the personality of the chef and/or author is imbued in the recipes and their approach to the subject at hand. Here in the US, we owe a tremendous amount to European cookery books, both for content and presentation, without which our current approach to cuisine would be greatly diminished.
A recipe is like a poem, specific in its wording, truly descriptive in its telling and magical in its meaning and execution. It is a craft, but also, most assuredly, an art.
So, we can all choose our favorite respective chefs/authors for their individual approach to food, but know that there are certainly masters of the form, there are also those renegades plowing new ground, and, of course, there are the new stars of the culinary firmament. And they all toil to get their recipes just so. Communicating that knowledge, that experience, that expertise is their passion and pleasure. Lastly, remember that we all love those recipes that amaze and sustain us, (and family and friends,) and in the end, work.
A recipe is like a poem, specific in its wording, truly descriptive in its telling and magical in its meaning and execution. It is a craft, but also, most assuredly, an art.
So, we can all choose our favorite respective chefs/authors for their individual approach to food, but know that there are certainly masters of the form, there are also those renegades plowing new ground, and, of course, there are the new stars of the culinary firmament. And they all toil to get their recipes just so. Communicating that knowledge, that experience, that expertise is their passion and pleasure. Lastly, remember that we all love those recipes that amaze and sustain us, (and family and friends,) and in the end, work.
12
Lyrical, perceptive and true.
1
We use, read,recipes & cookbooks for so many reasons. When searching recipes online, I most always read the comments- and then do as I wish. Years ago a Washington Post article featured several non-professional cooks given the same recipe, all encouraged to follow the recipe as written. It was delightful to read about the results! Each had an interpretation of the recipe's directions which, naturally, affected the results. No photo without a finger in it can give one an idea of scale. Plating is critical (thanks Ms Cohen!). Freshness of ingredients, variation among brands of commercial sauces- a seasoned cook understands and thrives on this familiarity with cooking, whereas a novice may want the 'hand-holding' of a video. I work at a co-op and love to talk food. Our customers almost glow when they've made a pleasing dish, and readily engage in the how-to banter over different approaches, unfamiliar (though perhaps common) ingredients. Let's all continue to talk food and share our interests!
4
Don't forget Gabrielle Hamilton's "Prune" cookbook. Many of the recipes are complex, but what I found most valuable were the side notes to her chefs on how to do it right, while not wasting anything. Those instructions to the line cooks was worth the price of admission. I believe that she helped me up my game.
Chef Pepin's books are the bedrock of my cooking. "La Technique" is an education in itself. Or, watch his video on how to bone out a chicken, do it a few times, and you own that technique.
Chef Pepin's books are the bedrock of my cooking. "La Technique" is an education in itself. Or, watch his video on how to bone out a chicken, do it a few times, and you own that technique.
5
Highly recommended: Ruhlman's Twenty.
3
For those into baking, the publication of Rose Levy BERANBAUM's The Cake Bible was a major 'turning point' in the way we cook. Using weight in lieu of volume for the home cook was virtually unknown in the USA. Published some 30 years ago, The Cake Bible was the leader for publishers and the print media to change their 'style books' so that we can duplicate recipes as they should be done.
15
"The Cake Bible" was my guide, and yes, my bible through my early years of baking. Even 15 years after graduating from pastry school, it is still a valued reference. I have purchased several to give to young aspiring bakers and to replace my original copy when it fell apart from hard use.
As an experienced cook, my preferences have evolved to appreciate the wonderful density and range afforded by classic recipe books such as The Art of French Cooking (Golden Press, 1962), The Escoffier Cookbook by Auguste Escoffier (Crown, 1941), Great Italian Cooking by Luigi Carnacina (Abradale Press, 1968). Today's recipe books tend toward entertainment with a bit of condescension, rare but valuable tips on ingredients when esoteric, and lots of superfluous training. My suggestion is give cooks density and latitude and let them train using training wheels. They graduate fast and then want quality not a reminder with each reading of how to boil water. For those few that don't want to graduate (I've found it's always by temperament), why ruin every new book just for them? Let's return to a time of value over entertainment which is the domain of the cooks themselves, not recipe books.
4
My major cookbook complain is when the layout obscures the recipe. There are several famous but illegible cookbooks where someone thought it was cute to have yellow fonts on a lighter yellow page or green on green or red on pink.