Step One: Change Recipes

I loved New York Times' reporter Kim Severson's story in today's paper about recipe requirements that send the cook looking for another recipe.

In "Recipe Deal Breakers: When Step 2 is 'Corral Pig,'" Severson  shared the practical and psychological reasons that cooks will toss in the towel and the cookbook along with it.

One of the funniest is cookbook author Diana Kennedy's Mexican sausage recipe that calls for two quarts of pig's blood. "If you do not kill your own pig, order it through a butcher," she advises.

Less dramatic perhaps, but equally unrealistic is a Paula Wolfert recipe calling for 48 tender young grapevine leaves, freshly picked; and a dish in Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe cookbook that required "wild boar from the hills surrounding Santa Fe."

Severson interviews amateur and professional cooks alike and finds that no one really loves stuffing olives, cutting veggies into matchsticks or filleting fresh anchovies. Trussing and de-boning aren't favorites either.

And the terms “Serves 18” and “Remove all jewelry before proceeding” are also pretty good indications that the going will not be smooth.

I stopped to think what recipe demands cause me to flip the page fast.  #1 is anything that involves a candy thermometer. Making caramel and measuring the temperature of exploding sugar is just not in my DNA.

I also rush on past recipes that call for cooking baby artichokes – snipping, trimming, tugging out the insides -- though I love them and order them in restaurants every chance I get.

I know that the ghee in Indian dishes is simply clarified butter and easy to make, but its presence in a recipe is usually a deal-breaker as it implies (to me) hopelessly time-consuming and exotic, to boot.

Turn-off buzz words? “Smoke” is right up there, since I don’t have the equipment to do it and don’t feel the need to expand my horizons in that time-consuming and, er, smoky endeavor.

And “overnight” is usually a killer, too. If the beans soak overnight or the meat marinates overnight, that often means I’ll be looking for gourmet-to-go in the neighborhood since the “overnight” in questions was 12 of more hours ago.

If there’s an ingredient or instruction that triggers the “No way, Jose” response in you, please share it with us here.

Comments

[Melanie]

Loved the NY Times article too! Any recipe that calls for more than five or six ingredients (minus any dried spices) is an absolute no-go. I keep my pantry and fridge frugally stocked, a habit that comes from living in a small space and with only one other person. As it is, we waste far too much of our food when it spoils before use.

I've always been annoyed by those "quick" recipes that call for items "everyone has in their cupboards," because, without fail, I don't!

[Kim Severson]

Maureen - Thanks for reading the story. I now wish I had added "Ask a butcher..." to my list. Know many butchers these days? Especially any who know how to perform tasks much more challenging than weighing a pound of ground round?

Nice seeing you at Chef's Night Out last night.