Made an amusing read. Thanks!
I was a beta user of NYT Cooking and have found it a godsend - most of my cooking and baking is inspired by it. I access it daily and always read the "notes" because many of them are helpful in ensuring the success of a recipe. But I am enjoying that less and less because I am so disappointed at the level of discourse. People not reading the notes and asking the same questions over and over; inane questions (How do I eat this bread?); questions whose answers are easily googled (How many ounces is 1/4 cup of butter?); reviews of a recipe they have not made; comments about the healthfulness or not, as tho the rest of us are ignorant; asking for allergy/preference subs for most of the ingredients (then don't make this recipe!!!)......the list goes on.
(While I am venting - I also get frustrated sometimes by the recipe search function; it seems to be unforgiving of typos or incomplete recipe titles.)
One of my main reasons for maintaining a NYT subscription is that it includes NYT Cooking. Melissa Clarke is my hero (I have an Instant Pot because of her reviews); I so enjoy Sam Sifton's columns; and Julia Moskin's videos are works of art. So thank you to all the food editors! And now I have to go and see what they suggest for dinner tonight!
4
Am I allowed to make two comments about recipes. Well, anyway, here is my second pet peeve. Pictures that obviously weren't created for the recipe. They must have been made by a stylist and not the baker!
3
Generally, I like the cooking section, but find it jarring to see a headline like "five things to cook while watching whatever" on the front page under a sobering news item. In general, I also think most recipes offered should be reasonably healthy (lots of butter, sugar and fat are signs of an insecure cook) and rather than labeling such recipes "healthy", label the unhealthy ones "occasional indulgences." As a lifestyle influencer, and in light of the national plagues of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, the Times could help people eat better, without preaching, if most of the recipes featured avoided too much fat, sugar, and refined grains.
2
OK, my pet peeve about recipe comments. When you issue a list of substitute ingredients you are not making what was described in the recipe. You are making a new dish entirely.
8
Love the app but hate the inability to comment via smartphone. I will never remember what hacks I tried the next day when I am finally at a computer.
I get a kick out of the comments of provincial Manhattanites who are sure that if they can't secure a particular recipe ingredient in their neighborhood, that the sorry folks in flyover country must be at a total loss.
1
Sometimes we just want some great or new recipes for meals that we may often consume. If it requires harissa, persimmons, rose water, ghee, kumquats, tempah, fish sauce, pine nuts or tahini, chances are I don't have it sitting in my kitchen.
Exotic or ethnic cooking is great but I still can't make the pad thai as well as my local Thai place does for 6 bucks.
If it involves expensive, hard to find, one time use ingredients it seems a bit too much.
5
Why does anyone write in a comment to an online article? Or write a product review on Amazon? Why, it's so they can see their opinion in black and white and share (impose?) their chauvinism, parochialism, and sophistry with the wide world without having to engage in a face-to-face conversation.
The self-righteousness behind many comments regarding specific NYT recipes is....depressing and discouraging.
2
Actually it's fun.
4
What's so great about face-to-face conversation?
2
I just accessed Melissa Clark's roasted hake recipe from the Times Cooking archives. After reviewing the recipe and watching the video, I scanned some of the comments. Ms. Clark used a metal sheet pan to roast the fish and several readers cautioned, always politely, that cooking acidic ingredients on a metal surface was inadvisable. How refreshing to read comments free from trolling, nastiness or outright abusiveness. (Can we get Ms. Clark a Pulitzer?).
5
On Thursdays the first order of business for my late husband was to read the entire Food Section at breakfast. From the office he would often email me a recipe suggesting we make it for dinner; we loved to cook together...no boundary issues. For years he clipped recipes from the paper. Every woman should be so lucky. What a great guy. Cook together, stay together.
41
I love NYT Cooking--and this is coming from someone who's not a cook. More often than not I just bask in reading the ingredients, feast on the pictures...every now and then try a recipe. It's just such an oasis of peace and calm in a fragile and distressed world.
20
Curious if Mr. Johnson remains married. :)
5
Regarding: “Superb recipe,” Christopher Johnson opined recently after trying a lemon soufflé recipe. “So light and fluffy it feels like a tangy cloud! My wife hates me and life is meaningless. Be sure to be careful with the variety of lemon because it can sometimes be too tart. Good luck!”
Christopher's seemingly irrelevant comment seems actually to the point: He cooked up the recipe and his wife hated him for making something so much better than she ever made!
2
And further, take it from an Italian - NEVER include the seeds and skins of the tomato when you make a homemade sauce. There is a whole ancient ritual around removing these and making paste with them.
I always have to fight my "Whitebread Wasp" friends (as my mother calls them) when at their house and watching them, in horror, put all those bitter seeds in their sauce.
3
Except the seeds aren't bitter and the most flavorful part is the jelly that surrounds the seeds.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/502-tomato-primer
"In response to Mark Bittman’s “Best Scrambled Eggs,” which takes 40 minutes..."
Bittman credits James Beard for his version, but see also M.F.K. Fisher's 1942 edition of "How to Cook a Wolf" (p.81) for a special version. Great minds think alike ; )
2
Does anyone remember the submitted note that changed virtually everything in the recipe... including shooting a rabbit in the backyard because they ran out of chicken? Unfortunately, the satire was lost on more than a few readers.
15
I recall reading some rather intense, if not nasty, replies to a updated/variation treatment by Melissa Clark. Verbal fisticuffs. I seem to remember suggesting that everyone chill. I love the Times' food/recipe department. If I weren't a subscriber to the paper, I would without a doubt subscribe to the recipes!
4
Speaking of cooking notes and emotional states: when I need a little pick-me-up, I check to see that my comment is still the top "helpful" comment on a certain recipe (modesty precludes me from revealing which one). I like to believe this is less pathetic than checking the number of "Likes" on a Facebook post.
21
Anyone else feel terrible for laughing at the "My wife hates me and life is meaningless." comment? #nihilistNYTcomments
6
Not me. Life IS meaningless, and his wife hates me, too.
14
So true. I'm a wife and I hate everyone. :)
4
Ms Tarchak: "And vent our commenters do."
To sidestep the deliberately avoided label "comment" maybe use "noter"?
1
Then again some of these sections are just for snooty people recommending there Brand of blah blah tomatoes; Dissecting brands of canned or boxed (a septic) is not a bad idea because that's the basics staple for a lot of sauces, To find the best one for easy uses is Helpful and good since refining them or reducing tomatoesfrom Fresh is a lot more trouble
1
For me reading the notes section is an essential review for any recipe prior to deciding to cook it. I began this discipline on the Bittmann app and continue it in the new, improved NYT version which has a much wider playing field. Witnessing engaged commentators mix it up over recipes is more than great entertainment, it can improve the recipe. It a far, far more enriching experience than reading the samo comment exchanges found on the opinion pages.
7
Not a comment about reader comments, but:
I really hate that most recipes, in the Times and elsewhere, don't give specific measurements for salt and pepper. "To taste" is unnecessarily vague...if everything else can be codified, why not salt, which is so critical to a recipe's success? At least give a starting point.
3
"season to taste" is the bug-a-boo of young cooks!
1
If you have been cooking for any length of time, you will have established a sense of how much salt and pepper to add to things according to your own preference and health needs. Also, saltiness depends on the type of salt used. A half teaspoon of kosher salt may not yield the same flavor impact as a half teaspoon of iodized table salt, etc. The NYT Food section featured an article on the theory and philosophy of salt last spring: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/dining/how-to-season-food-with-salt.html.
4
Elizabeth, try harder; you can figure it out. Assess the volume of the material you're cooking, and the saltiness of the ingredients before adding "salt to taste" then put in the least amount of salt you think it needs. Taste it. Add more if more is needed to satisfy your taste. Got it?
7
I stopped the emails from NYT Cooking because I wouldn't dare eat all that beef, butter, cheese and other artery clogging food. There seems to be total ignorance on the part of Editor Sam Sifton and the other food writers about harmful antibiotics in poultry and meat, preservatives linked to cancer in bacon and other cured meats, and artificially colored farmed salmon. If you're watching your weight or your cholesterol, you won't find many friendly recipes here.
4
Victor--check out Martha Rose Shulman's contributions in NYT. There are plenty of friendly recipes that answer your need to avoid food that scares you.
5
NYT Cooking is not a health column. I have health issues and am informed enough to make choices, which includes reading the comments, making substitutions or only making a "decadent" recipe once in a blue moon. From the comments you make it seems you are also informed as I suspect most readers are. Please, must the NYT be all things to all people?
7
The column is about food and cooking, not about health paranoia.
9
I do like to read the notes and see what others have done to tweak the recipes and I very, very rarely leave a note myself. Last note I left pointed out that the fat content of one serving of a particular recipe was 51 grams and it seemed excessive. There were a few snarky replies published (“get over yourself,” etc.). Then I got an email from the Times stating my note was being removed because it was inappropriate. Then I got another email stating I was going to be dropped from the Cooking email list because I wasn’t active. Oh, well. So much for collegiality.
11
Reader input is most valuable. You always pick up a few good tips and insights. And of course, this true for the whole paper - all departments. Often, the reader knows more about a given subject than the article writer, which is huge.
2
I love the comments as well! I have to wonder if the baking recipes don't warrant a closer look by the authors since one so often finds the comments on cakes suggest removing half to a third of the sugar from the recipe. I tend to find American baking recipes too sweet myself, but if even the American readers are removing sugar perhaps taste has changed in the U.S. and the authors should consider this with the initial recipes...
14
My cookbook library lays unused as I use New York Times Cooking recipes constantly. I’m never disappointed. It’s a joy and a privilege to be part of Sam Sifton’s cooking family.
5
For me, the NYT "Marinara Worth Mastering" recipe was a revelation. A few of my Italian American in-laws were initially suspicious of a marinara that used domestic canned tomatoes and that took only half an hour to cook. The rationale of having to spend 5-2000 hours slow-cooking a sauce and crying into it was a tough one for some to shake. The taste won out though -- so much so that my mother-in-law now calls it "Chris' 'Quick Sauce'" and asked ME to show HER how to make it! All credit to the NYT though.
13
Of course there should be beans in chili! That, along with some (massive amounts of) garlic should give it a good flavor and odor
1
I love the food and recipe sections and love to read all the notes too. I save more recipes than I'll ever make, but it makes me feel good to have them saved nonetheless. It is my to-go-to place when the news and politics get to be too much or on a lazy day when I just want to find a pleasant thing to do. Loved this article.
4
I seem to be the odd one out here, however I enjoy reading how people substitute ingredients and change the recipe—even when that results in an entirely changed recipe. It gives me insights into how other cooks think about food, what ingredients I can try swapping around in future recipes, and reminds me not to be afraid to play and be creative in the kitchen.
The NYT cooking emails are by far my favorite emails I receive each week. Articles like this just add to the joy.
12
I love the alternatives suggested in readers' posts. They sometimes turn a recipe with ingredients I wouldn't enjoy into a recipe that really works for me. Some suggestions spark ideas for my own creativity or point me toward other regional takes on a familiar tradtional dish. It makes the food section livelier.
6
I, too, appreciate the thoughtful alternatives in readers' posts. I read a lot of online recipes, and many other sites have comments along the lines of "I haven't tried this, but it sounds yummy!" Or, perhaps worse, reviewers who rave or complain, while explaining that nearly every aspect of the recipe - from ingredients to prep/cooking instructions was jettisoned or altered without even trying the original recipe.
1
I love this section of the NY Times. I find the videos very helpful and I hope you can include more with recipes, especially the more complicated ones.
1
Love the whole section too. As a very inexperienced cook I should thank the NYT for the easy, well explained and beautifully pictured recipes and the readers for the useful notes. And Melissa Clark. She's lovely. If she posted a new video every day there would be more peace in the world!!!
6
I'm continually surprised at how poorly done the recipes are, either in terms of details in instructions, or in reader reaction to the product. There are many alternative sites where recipes are prepared more thoughtfully. Yet the Cooking site has rocketed in popularity. I wonder if the popularity taps into an intellectual need to debate food as much as we NY Times readers debate politics.
1
I'm a great fan of the Cooking section and app. I've been able to cancel my longstanding Cooks Illustrated subscription. I love the emails; every day at about 4:00 I open the last few emails and choose something to make for dinner.
Those complaining about the notes feature: do you not realize that the function also allows YOU to make notes for your own use? There are a few recipes I know I've tried but cannot remember how they worked out for me, or what substitutions I made. Leaving a comment on the recipe allows me to remember for the next time. I'm not a recipe follower; I read for the basic technique and then adjust based on what I have on hand or prefer. For instance, I will probably never use dried beans in anything, I never plan that far ahead.
Between living in Astoria, access to places like Kalustyan's, and the NYT Cooking section, my two teenagers are growing up with a more ambitious, sophisticated and adventurous palate. Thank you to the NYT Cooking team for helping make this possible for them!
3
I love the passion in the Comments, er, um, Notes. Many have made the recipe just a tad better, in my opinion. Sometimes a commenter will note that another item can be substituted if you don't have the ingredient in the recipe on hand and it's made the difference between being able to make the recipe right then and there or not making it at all.
3
Sam Sifton, and the company he keeps in cooking, is the high point in the news cycle.
The recipes are fine, the notes helpful (usually) and frequently fun....what's not to love ?
4
I know what you mean...Not a poundcake baker my friend and I decided to enter the King Arthur contest at our little county fair in the interest of community participation and extension service support. I used one of the NYTimes Lemon Poundcake recipes because I love everything lemon. Well. This is where I get in trouble, often. I just assumed everyone else liked lemon also. Not so much. The comments were in the category of, "Wow!" paired with face pucker. They do like almond poundcake 'round these parts. My friend won.
2
I love the entire food section. I do wish, however, that when we made comments (notes, that is) to a recipe, and they're approved, that the email notification included a link to the recipe. there are occasions when I add notes to 3 or 4 recipes in a day, but have read more, and then don't know which was where. Why can't the times do that? It's just a few lines of code.
Thanks, Sam -- for always a great column and a wonderful Food Section.
14
How Delicious! - A Readers' comment section for a NYT's article about Readers' notes on NYT's recipes.
37
Love the whole section, love the notes, have way too many recipes saved to my box to ever get around to making. If a note deconstructs the recipe, makes wholesale substitutions, and then complains about the result, I chuckle and move on. If a note makes a thoughtful suggestion for an addition, I am grateful for the community. And when the original chef responds to a note with either reasoning for the original recipe or an agreement that the addition might make a better dish, I am doubly happy about the whole thing.
55
I like the sometimes offbeat comments. And, I think, especially with ethnic or regional foods, the issue of authenticity is likely to elicit spirited ones. It was fun to read, for example, the yuck-response to lengua (beef tongue) tacos when these are about as common as toast on a breakfast menu here in Los Angeles. I like to read people mixing it up about food, a subject that is (mostly) apolitical and a wonderful embodiment of culture far and near.
11
I comment or should I say note and I always read the notes from other home cooks. Everything from questions to small changes to full on adaptations are appreciated even when not taken.
22
I enjoy the notes, but have a suggestion. When a question is raised as to an ambiguity or apparent omission in a recipe, it would be nice if that could somehow be brought to the attention of the NYT writer, so that a correction or explanation might be added to the notes or the recipe.
It's not super-often that it seems as though something is left out, and I myself have never caught one, but I have seen those points raised in the notes. I google before I make the dish, to see how other sites deal with that recipe, and I am at least alerted to keep an eye out for thus and so.
19
Many of the "notes" are helpful, but some "commenters" continue to weigh in with their own take on the recipe: e.g. can you make this vegetarian? or I change the XX to YYY and then added ZZZZ and my family loved it.
Please, helpful hints are helpful, but not major changes.
18
Surely a light fluffy cloud-like lemon souffle is some small consolation. If not, try chocolate. My best days start with reading Sam Sifton's fine work and that of all the contributors to the NYTimes food section. I love it all, even the crazy comments. Please keep doing and innovating, you're the best!
28
I adore the food and recipe section and the notes, which I find helpful, especially for a first try on a recipe.
And for those of you whining about the food section of 20 years ago, use the archives.
13
As a new cook (post 65 years of age), first let me thank you for the "recipe section". I have enjoyed the resulting product and I appreciate the wisdom and experience of the comment section. Second, thank you for this wonderful article sharing your views of the interactions of this NYT community. Yes, there are some frustrations with the technology, but we are very fortunate to have this resource to draw upon. Be well.
26
I also hate what you've done with the food section. Why the need to change the format when we all liked it as it was. And what happened to the videos of Melissa and Julia?
11
I love the NYT food section, and I love that it has reader "notes," not "comments."
But I wish the emails and collections etc. would stop flogging that terribly unappetizing Mississippi Roast. The horror, the horror. But it always seems to pop up on "what to make this week" etc. Follows me around like a bad penny! Enough already!
19
Helen, how about trying 'Lillian Hellman's Pot Roast' instead, courtesy of Nora Ephron? In her autobiographical novel, Heartburn, and going through a divorce, she lists a few excellent recipes, while keeping her vinaigrette a secret from her husband during the proceedings. If you are willing to be the guinea-pig, I will share with you my recipe for making a deviled egg.
6
Absolutely exquisite and beautiful, I don't understand poetry but this (Suggestion for a killer "deviled egg") Has got to be superlative to that form of expository!
I know lots of ladies in Mississippi, and not one of them admits to putting a stick of margarine in their roast. Where did y'all come up with this recipe for "Mississippi Roast"?
3
After sending Paris the 'receipt' for Double Apple Pie, adding don't forget the vodka, she replied 'this is something I would like to make, but whatever is Apple Butter - help!'. Perhaps a heavier kind of apple sauce, which she plans to order.
American Apple Pie is the best says this elegant French swan, while in turn, I mention that many of us here have an affinity for a delicious tarte aux pommes.
Be as it may, the New York Times Cooking Section brings us together and its contributors offer us a movable feast. Could we have a recipe for the 'Cronut'? A bit greedy to ask for more from our Chefs, but too tempting and after happily demolishing some 'financiers', I became daring for once.
3
Apple butter is a dark brown spread, made from apples, and used a bit like jams. It used to be very common, but now I never see it.
1
Just purchased some on line from McCutcheons and it is delicious; much like what I remember from my Massachusetts childhood. If it’s fall, it’s time for apple butter and home-made applesauce.
1
The last time I was in Trader Joe's, they had apple butter. And, because of the season, there should be plenty available.
1
Love, love, love Sam Sifton & Cooking. Reasoning for "Notes" was inspired. NYT is the best. In everything. Thank you.
30
How about an article n cooking that invites readers to submit (1) beloved family recipe.
Then section the country into (10 - or so regions).
Then publish one recipe from each region.
Advantage?
Unites blue/red states; gives voices to coastal areas/and heartland; knits us together food/culture wise.
That week's food section - many additional pages.
17
The recipe for "Katharine Hepburn's Brownies" came from a letter to the editor, written by someone claiming that Kate wrote it down from memory and gave it to her. Does anyone actually think Katharine Hepburn ever baked anything in her life? Did anyone fact check this?
If I wrote a letter to the editor to share the chocolate chip cookie recipe that Cary Grant gave me, would you elevate that to mythical, viral status as "Cary Grant's Cookie Recipe"?
I'm just kind of amazed at how a questionable claim in a letter to the editor became accepted as fact.
8
Here's another possible addition to the story:
The recipe comes from a letter to the editor of the New York Times on July 6, 2003. In the letter, Hepburn’s New York neighbor Heather Henderson recalled her first memorable meeting with Katharine. At the time, Heather was threatening to quit her studies at Bryn Mawr, Katharine’s alma mater. Heather’s father, who had noticed that Katharine lived nearby, slipped a letter into her mail slot, begging her to talk some sense into his daughter. Katharine called Heather at 7:30am the next morning and lectured her on the stupidity of her decision. The two arranged to meet for tea. Katharine convinced Heather to stick it out at Bryn Mawr. This began a series of casual meetings between Katharine and the Henderson family.
One day, Heather’s father heard that Katharine had been in a car accident and was recovering. He stopped by her place to bring her a batch of brownies. Hepburn tasted them and balked. “Too much flour! And don’t overbake them! They should be moist, not cakey!” As always, Katharine was opinionated and brutally honest. She rattled off her own brownie recipe while Heather’s father scribbled notes. The recipe appears below, with a few of my own notes in the baking instructions.
Heather took away three pieces of advice from her acquaintance with Katharine Hepburn:
Never quit.
Be yourself.
Don’t put too much flour in your brownies.
http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/katharine-hepburn-brownie-re...
9
Thanks for that, Coco! I guess facts trump conjecture every time. Lovely story!
2
I know the story, and thanks for adding it here. I just don't find it credible. It's easy to believe these kinds of stories, because most of us would never think to invent them. But I've also heard too many invented stories to believe this one. In any case, the source is still a letter to the editor, with no fact checking.
I know I sound ridiculous. But it just amazes me that a viral story about "Kate's brownies" can be built on such a flimsy foundation. In this day and age, we all need to question our sources.
2
I love the food section -- I've been reading recipes and restaurant reviews in the NYT for at least 53 years and follow along with whatever format you dish out. It's calming and distracting; I alternate between "real" news and "food" news. I do a lot of cooking and I read in depth articles about the world and one day the "Notes" section had both -- a heated discussion about Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese takes on, I believe, hummus.
19
Why on earth would anyone put green peas in guacamole?
36
I don't know. It just seems so wrong and against the natural order of things. I don't mind what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own kitchens, as long as they don't do it in the middle of the street and frighten the horses.
7
Green peas in guacamole is just wrong. I think there's a verse in Leviticus condemning this practice.
1
The one thing I've always wondered about with the notes is just how many people change half the recipe and then comment on it. I (usually) try to make it as is the first time before I consider any changes. I'd at least like to know what the recipe author intended before I decide to modify it. One can often tell from the ingredients whether a given recipe is one you'll like, but if not, you know, give it a chance, you might be surprised. :-)
11
I always reduce the amount of fats called for, substitute olive oil for butter where I can, and yogurt for sour cream, roast rather than fry, and get a tasty, healthier result, very possibly not as delicious as the original, though. I would always appreciate a healthier take on a recipe. As they say, weight loss occurs in the kitchen, not the gym!
1
I must confess that I have a great laugh at the folks who substitute the prime ingredients or complain about ingredients. Why even use the recipe. One reader did a wonderful piece on all the substitutions which was definitely not the recipe that was featured. It was a prime example of how folks like to change something before even trying. It's all good. I love the recipes and do use them, as written. Thank you for the recipe pages.
13
This is unfortunately standard in every set of reader comments in food blogs and websites of all kinds. "I added safety pins for crunch, but the result was unappetizingly metallic and sharp. Forget this recipe."
60
Your comment made me laugh out loud!
2
Whilst I do not agree that adding a (small) amount of sugar to cornbread is wrong (it simply adds to the splendid caramelization that takes place when the batter is cooked in a hot iron skillet), I absolutely endorse the use of Durkee's in pimiento cheese.
11
My British in-laws use "whilst" in everyday speaking and writing, without pride or prejudice.
2
Smiley: Some people are British and speak the King’s English. They live in lots of places, including all around the US of A. Cheerio.
2
Austin? She was English, not Texan. (It's Austen.)
4
Leave well enough alone. Cooking is as much about passion as it is about technique. Your well meaning missionary zeal to purify the comments section is neither desirable nor appreciated.
1
I can't agree. I think "notes" inspire readers to be more thoughtful and less reactionary. I wish all sections on the Times and other publications would call for "notes" rather than "comments" to raise the level of reader response from what are often unthinking, unpleasant knee jerks.
For decades, the NY Times food section was fabulous.
What on earth has happened to it? The recipes are
mostly awful and the articles look like they were planted
there by public relations account executives. Please bring
back the format of twenty years ago.
16
Oh, I miss Molly O'Neill.
7
Wow this is surprising to me. I liked the old food section but the new stuff is fantastic! Keep it up NYT! And, if people don't appreciate the notes, here's a hint: don't read them.
19
I agree with you, Lin. Maybe it's a Chicago thing. I've always liked the food section, but recently I've come to LOVE it. I make at least one recipe a week, sometimes more. The videos are helpful. I use the app a lot. I get the newsletter. And also, sometimes when the real news is just too much, it's nice to still be able to spend time with the newspaper.
1
I think all commenters should be required to mention how fat they are because fat people's opinions should hold more weight. They clearly love food and have a bigger frame of reference. I'd trust a fat person's opinion on food much more than some skinny goofball. I am very fat.
101
Brains Report, remember those little brass scales you might have found on the kitchen counter? Some of the finest chefs used these and you brought back a memory worthy of Proust. In the meantime, I have been told to eat 'carbs', which a friend from Paris tells me does not exist.
2
This is funny. I worked in food service for a long time, and food is just something to eat for me. I am very thin.
2
Good work on the puns as well!
4
In response to Mark Bittman’s “Best Scrambled Eggs,” which takes 40 minutes, Larry wondered, “What do you do with the cold toast and coffee when the eggs are done?”
"Bailey in LA
Amateurs. The ultimate scrambled egg uses direct sunlight to heat the pan and 7.5 hours of continuous stirring."
"Tony
Nonsense, hot pan, keep em moving, don't over cook them, get the same results"
"Laura
Do not add the salt until the eggs are done cooking AND out of the pan. They will never be rubbery, they will always be soft and fluffy. That's the only "secret" to scrambled eggs."
"Dave
Thirty minutes for scrambled eggs!? Holy, Moly! Scrambled eggs takes maybe 5-6 minutes. A well seasoned iron skillet is best, btw."
...and on and on....
12
Mid-century private Montenegran/Manhattanite detective and gourmet Nero Wolfe said he needed 45 minutes' warning to prepare scrambled eggs. You could start a shooting war with less notice. But then he had time on his hands, as he rarely left his brownstone with the orchid greenhouse on the roof. And he had a source for chickens fed on blueberries somewhere on Long Island. He was fat.
17
Maybe the 45 minutes included gathering the eggs.
11
"We felt that asking for ‘notes’ on recipes would lead to a more collegial and fact-based atmosphere than one filled with mere comment and opinion."
That was a brilliant decision.
The common pitfall of most recipe sites is when someone proposes adding or deleting an ingredient and then a commenter invokes the memory of a grandparent from the Old Country whose recipe was the official and best version of whatever dish was being discussed.
I love the idea that someone has a scoffing, dismissive statement chambered and arrives at a recipe website looking for heretics to denounce.
Melissa Clark handles these "controversies" by saying "try it both ways and whichever one you like best, keep doing it that way."
65
My favorites are always the ones that choose a meat, dairy or gluten-containing recipe as a forum to complain that the recipe contains meat, dairy or gluten.
110
Or the ones who complain the desserts have too much sugar and butter!
3
I don't understand why so many commenters deconstruct a recipe before they even try the original one. I say use the recipe exactly as written and then change to your taste. Pet peeve: when the recipe calls for some exotic or rarely used spice. In a recent recipe, it called for two teaspoons of cardamom or turmeric. The price for a container was $6.99. How often does one use cardamom or even a teaspoon of cayenne pepper?
15
Many areas have grocery stores that have spices in bulk. I use this all the time when I need some seasoning that I don't have on hand. You can buy just the amount that you need for that recipe.
18
Try shopping middle eastern grocery. Spices are plentiful and very inexpensive.
9
I use those spices a lot! A bit of cayenne in an omelette really gives it some oomph. And cardamom and turmeric is used in pretty much every south Asian recipe. Leave them out or substitute them, if you must, but don't get too upset at the recipe writers for trying to stay authentic
4
I love the cooking section and always read up on the helpful hints of those who gone before me... such a help!
41
I always go to the notes before making a NYT recipe and am afraid to be the first to try it. What I would prefer is, when a reader asks a question, that it be answered, no matter how obvious the answer. Sometimes it is responded to by other readers but only occasionally by the staff who post the recipe. Many of the questions deserve answers
49
so I'm the only one who LOVES Sam's almost-daily emails and suggestions?
I actually hate planning dinner, he makes my chore bearable.
I skipped recipes that don't "sound" palatable to me, but I look forward to his emails.
keep it going Sam, please?
90
No...I also love them! Thanks Sam!
7
Agreed - love the emails.
9
I love the suggestions. If people don't like them they can always figure out how to filter them out of their email...
1
Two comments:
1. Please restore the old format of Food Section and do not try to fix that, what is not broken.
2. NYT readers' comments on the articles in Food Section do just that, what they are supposed to do: inject new ideas into the consciousness of gourmets and help reeducate the tastes of the eaters of hamburgers-with-ketchup.
20
I'm always amused by the commenters who take exception to a pivotal ingredient --say, beef in a pot roast recipe-- and plaintively ask what can be substituted. How about a different recipe?? Also fun for laughs are those who detail how they changed a recipe to the point it no longer has any resemblance to the original.
183
There is one commentor who shall not be named here who, on pretty much every article that accompanies a chicken recipe, complains that the Times prints too many chicken recipes and that other meats are far more interesting. Excuse me? Chicken is popular, easy to cook, and easy to vary, and there are plenty of other recipes for different meats--or none at all. Used to bother me. But I cannot Evanstonly think Ill. of anyone who cares that much.
20
It's like some of these people find a recipe with the same number of ingredients as a real one, and say "Oh, I made THIS RECIPE, except I substituted 1 for A, 2 for B, 3 for C," and so on until they've got chocolate cake instead of Irish stew. :)
54
Agreed: "I substituted tofu cubes for beef tips and the flavor and texture didn't seem to match what was described in the recipe." *eyeroll facepalm*
77
Love this article!
37
I recall reading the note on the Mississippi Roast. The commentator's measures were a bit off. The recipe called for 4 tablespoons of butter which is half a stick, in a dish that serves 6-8. It was a little alarmist. If a 1/2 to 2/3 of a tablespoon of butter blows your dietary lid then skip the butter and have smear of Neufchatel on your morning bagel instead.
Why can't you just leave your formats alone? Hate what you've done to the Food Section. Your previous iteration allowed a simultaneous parallel view of both the "new" and the "recent".
49
Exactly. Build it once, do it right and LEAVE IT ALONE. You should not have to re-learn how to read a newspaper on a regular basis. Fire the web redesign staff and lower the subscription price. And for GOD'S sakes please align your headlines, it's maddening to click on an article link with one headline to be taken to the article with another headline altogether. And then to try and find the same article a couple days later and see it transformed once again. And don't get me started on the search function, or rather dysfunction.
75
"You should not have to re-learn how to read a newspaper on a regular basis."
They are also trying to entice new people to read their content.
I don't believe "stop innovating" is part of any company's growth plan.
12
Not to quibble , but what if innovative writing about food is based on innovative content, not innovative format? I think of format as a mirepoix, it should carry the dish without being distracting.
9