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Are you a recipe detective?

ThePontificator

Grumpy ARFCOM pizzaiolo

Joined Jan 2009
Posts 34174
EE 100% (35)

SC, USA

Posted: 12/6/2023 4:55:04 PM EDT

If you find a recipe you'd like to try do you scan through the ingredients and especially the instructions to see if there are any errors?

I do, and I've found plenty over the years. Glaring errors, small omissions, and some outright "this a-hole really didn't make the recipe prior to publishing it".

One of the member of my extended family is a die-hard "recipe follower". This person will follow the directions no matter what and refuses to believe that there is any other way other than what the author says. This has led to any number of kitchen disasters. Did I mention this person is also a flaming liberal ass?

When's the last time you ate a salad?

Urimaginaryfrnd Joined Jun 2008 Posts 8654 EE 0% (0) IA, USA	Posted: 12/6/2023 5:35:59 PM EDT [#1] I add what I want and alter them.

CCHGN

Joined Nov 2023
Posts 183
EE 0% (0)

FL, USA

Posted: 12/6/2023 6:47:31 PM EDT

[#2]

Originally Posted By ThePontificator:
If you find a recipe you'd like to try do you scan through the ingredients and especially the instructions to see if there are any errors?

I do, and I've found plenty over the years. Glaring errors, small omissions, and some outright "this a-hole really didn't make the recipe prior to publishing it".

View Quote

Dang, no examples?

For me, I wouldn't know a sconch from a scallion, so I don't look at exotic recipes, but I like to experiment in the kitchen, like putting Curry in milk, seafood chowder, or brown sugar in chili or spaghetti, or putting shrimp in a fish taco.

AR_Dale Lets Go Brandon Joined Nov 2014 Posts 12127 EE 100% (9) OH, USA	Posted: 12/6/2023 6:55:07 PM EDT [#3] My wife asked me what I was making Sunday, I said it's called "Stuff I have".

CCHGN

Joined Nov 2023
Posts 184
EE 0% (0)

FL, USA

Posted: 12/6/2023 8:01:45 PM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Originally Posted By AR_Dale:
My wife asked me what I was making Sunday, I said it's called "Stuff I have".

View Quote

We have traditional menu from when the kids were here: Meatloaf Monday, Waco taco Tuesday, Pot pie Wednesday, Oriental stir fry Thursday, ( Ci Ci) pizza Friday, sloppy Joe Saturday. Sunday is the traditional Thanksgiving menu,with a whole chicken, instead of a Turkey, but all the same sides. Well, since they're grown and on their own, no more Ci Ci pizza, but I do Sunday- fry up a load of bacon in the morning while watching"Sunday Morning"and the whole shebang in the afternoon.

pedaler Member Joined Aug 2009 Posts 7175 EE 0% (0) USA	Posted: 12/6/2023 9:27:22 PM EDT [#5] Oh yeah. Often I use recipes for ideas, but not much more. So many that are online now seem to be for clicks and not much else. The best one was a sausage recipe I "consulted" where I knew they were crazy on the mount of salt.....I went with like a 1/4 of what the recipe called for knowing damn well it was still going to be too salty....and it was.

DogtownTom Team Member Joined Mar 2007 Posts 15561 EE 100% (21) TX, USA	Posted: 12/6/2023 10:09:27 PM EDT [#6] Quote History Originally Posted By CCHGN: Waco taco Tuesday. View Quote A whut? Seasoned with aged Dr Pepper and cooked by a Baptist?
	Plano, Texas...........the Gun Nut Capitol of Gun Culture, USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE

engineer61

Member

Joined Jul 2019
Posts 2135
EE 0% (0)

CO, USA

Posted: 12/6/2023 10:13:59 PM EDT

[#7]

I ran into this recently. Found a recipe for Apricot Brandy pound cake, sounds real good so I started reading the ingredient list to make sure I had everything. Saw that I needed some Rum flavor extract, and orange flavor extract that I didn't have. Finally noticed that there wasn't any flour in the ingredients list at all, even though the directions had you adding it when blending everything together. The recipe has 2 1/2 cups of sugar, so I will start there, but in reading other pound cake recipes it looks like the correct amount of flour might be as much as 3 1/2 cups. Will be trying the recipe soon, so I'll start with the 2 1/2 cups and see what the batter is like and maybe add more, then bake and see how the cake turns out.

ThePontificator

Grumpy ARFCOM pizzaiolo

Joined Jan 2009
Posts 34175
EE 100% (35)

SC, USA

Posted: 12/7/2023 6:12:43 AM EDT

[Last Edit: ThePontificator] [#8]

One of the first "busted" recipes was for pasta fazool from "Father Orsini's Italian Kitchen". Beans weren't even listed in the ingredients.

That was probably 30 years ago.

Of course today I don't bother using a recipe to make dishes like this. It's all from rote.

Another recipe was for pizza dough where the amount of water was suspiciously small. Using baker's percentages I found that the hydration ratio as printed was 50%. That's waaaaay too dry...like trying to knead a rock

the proper ratio is around 64% and was adjusted accordingly (see my post in the tacked pizza making thread).

But usually I find stuff like ungodly amounts of salt being listed.

When's the last time you ate a salad?

wildearp CURATOR Joined Jun 2003 Posts 95382 EE 100% (67) AZ, USA	Posted: 12/11/2023 1:52:38 PM EDT [#9] Quote History Originally Posted By Urimaginaryfrnd: I add what I want and alter them. View Quote Recipes are merely guidelines. I often consult more than one until I get a feel for what my end result needs to be. Cheesecake is a good example. Not every recipe works.
	Preferred pronoun: MARINE

Jambalaya Slow Cooked Joined Sep 2005 Posts 43188 EE 0% (0) USA	Posted: 1/18/2024 11:38:55 PM EDT [#10] The chili recipe from "A Bowl of Red" requires a complete re-write in order to make an actual cohesive recipe out of it.

SteelonSteel

Joined Jul 2005
Posts 43947
EE 100% (6)

USA

Posted: 1/18/2024 11:53:22 PM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Originally Posted By pedaler:
Oh yeah. Often I use recipes for ideas, but not much more. So many that are online now seem to be for clicks and not much else.

The best one was a sausage recipe I "consulted" where I knew they were crazy on the mount of salt.....I went with like a 1/4 of what the recipe called for knowing damn well it was still going to be too salty....and it was.

View Quote

The classic betty crocker cookbook muffin recipe that had no salt in it. You have to have some salt, not enough to know it’s there but if it’s not there, you will know it.

I just take a pencil and write my adjustments in the book. In the above recipe I had to adjust the milk, flour sugar ratio too. Somebody was testing the weed they dried in the oven that day.

gearjammer351

EnemyOfTheState

Joined Sep 2010
Posts 14736
EE 100% (5)

MI, USA

Posted: 1/19/2024 1:15:26 PM EDT

[#12]

That person sounds dumb. Definitely a sheep in more than one sense.

My method for trying a new dish is to look at about 3 highly rated recipes to compare ingredients and techniques. Sometimes I even read some comments from people who have tried it. I start with some sort of amalgam of the 3 (+ suggestions from comments, if a consensus). If I/we like it, I'll copy what i did into my Google drive cookbook (accessible from any device, easy to edit, and free of ads and fluff).

On subsequent uses, I might try alternate ways of making it or substitute ingredients to see if it improves (red onion instead of white onion, for example).

Occasionally I get scolded by wife for this. She says, "We already liked this; stop changing it!"

They want you disarmed, because they know they are guilty of things for which they should be shot.

DKUltra Member Joined Nov 2006 Posts 16610 EE 100% (55) ID, USA	Posted: 1/21/2024 3:06:53 PM EDT [Last Edit: DKUltra] [#13] A recipe to me is basically a rough guide. I will modify to suite what I have? Or need with what I already know.