The thing that really gets me is that I am a confident cook - so I am likely to know when it's the recipe and when it's me having a bad day. People who are new to cooking are likely to blame themsleves instead of a dodgy recipe and that's just not fair.
Many years ago I was helping out on a cookbook shoot - which the author hadn't deigned to attend. We were trying to make one of the dishes to photograph and it just didn't work. I called him and he said "Oh, that one never worked for me either". I never saw the completed book so I don't know if they published it anyway.
Unfortunately they probably did especially if it was a celebrity chef 🙄 I agree, it's not fair on the person who buys the book who will have invested time and money buying the ingredients for the recipe
Goodness, I could write far too much on this subject. And I'm sure I've been involved with the publishing of at least one of those mistakes you list above! I was forever drawn into the world of editorial error and away from diligent design. One of the biggest recipe mistakes in my time in publishing was discovered on one of the books that had the highest standards of editing, proofing etc and sold the most: a ratio for a brine that rendered the resulting pork joint utterly inedible. We had a week of replying to so many irate emails and phone calls! And definitely agree that restaurant chefs find the transition to domestic recipe uniquely difficult. Our very best editor would sometimes put in four or five times as much work as an author in order to make the instructions logical and legible (not to mention lyrical). I can think of many books where the editor should really receive a co-author credit (I can think of just as many where the editor would probably want to put a lot of distance between themselves and the book!). Some of the most difficult moments I spent in publishing were fighting an author's case and, contrarily, fighting for more time/resources for an editor to save an author's work.
Thank you. So many cookbook authors seem incapable of thinking like inexperienced cooks, and far too many recipes I've encountered are sloppily written or downright wrong. I do think this is why Ina Garten has been so successful, since her recipes are well explained and reliable. Even she, though, took several years to realize that the brand of kosher salt she uses (Diamond Crystal)is half as salty as Morton's, another popular brand. Viewers and readers complained in droves that her recipes are too salty!
Claire Saffitz too - she breaks down her recipes into such detail of what each stage should look like/smell like/feel like. Like Delia, a proper educator.
I only have Dessert Person - but I am devoted to her Youtube channel. Her recipe for sour cream and chive dinner rolls is incredible. And her pie crust finally made me really understand why Americans talk about "pie dough" being flaky.
May I recommend Kate McDermott's incredible books on pie? Her crust recipe is best I've ever found. And yes to flaky American crusts! The stuff I ate growing up in the UK in the 70s always had the texture either of cement, or of wet flannel. Mind you, there was a war on.
Hmmm . . . I'm afraid the thing I remember most about her is that twaddle about holding the sieve high above the bowl to "get air into the mixture" . As I told a UK friend, if this were really necessary, all US cakes would be flat failures, because nobody over here does that. 😂
I reviewed cookbooks for a couple of years - did maybe 20 or so and cooked between 4 and 10 dishes from each. So variable in the level of attention given to the workability of the recipe! I hate to name and shame, but I’ll shout out Ed Smith as being incredibly clear and having recipes that *do* simply work. Tim Anderson’s recipes likewise. Mezcla looks as if it’ll be a bit slapdash because it’s light on instruction but it’s really accessible for a newby cook I think.
I haven't cooked any of Tim's recipes though I love his books and am definitely a fan of Ed's especially On The Side. I still maintain that Mezcla is slightly daunting due to the number of ingredients/elements in a recipe (think we've had this convo before!) but inspiring nonetheless
I got rid of several cookbooks by one particularly well known chef because not one of the recipes I tried actually gave me the desired results. I decided to waste no further time or ingredients on them.
And then there are the times when things go spectacularly well. I've got a recipe cut (I think) from the Waitrose Food magazine for boeuf bourgignon. It uses ox cheek, and takes about a week from start to finish, it needs no highly skilled techniques, you just do what it says and you end up with an absolutely fabulous dish. Utterly dinner-party friendly, and for me the best BB I've ever eaten. Not because of my stupendous skills (ahem), but because I followed the recipe. Almost anybody could replicate it.
I'm away from home right now - I'll try to remember to dig it out and see if I can find a link to it online.
Yes, I've had disasters, and I think that afterwards, as well as castigating the writer, I find myself castigating myself, thinking "come on, why did you ever think that would work?" Like a recipe I tried once where you cooked individual cheese soufflés, turned them out, rolled them in breadcrumbs, and fried them. Soufflé-like they definitely did not remain.
Or a recipe for lemon rice from a cookbook published by a well known up-market London Indian restaurant which called for 750g of rice for 4 servings, and a 3:1 water:rice ratio, initially “part cooked” for 12-15 minutes.
Apparently after 12-15 minutes of cooking 750g of rice in 2.25l of water it should have been "just cooked but still a bit firm" and I should have drained it well and spread it out so the grains remained separate.
Just wrong in so many ways.
"Just cooked but still a bit firm"? Nope, it was a sticky, almost solid mess.
"Drain well"? Nothing left to drain, and the theoretical time not yet up.
"Spread out so the rice grains remain separate"? Not a chance - it was more of a stuck-together mass than the glutinous rice in Chinese and Thai cuisine, and the grains were no longer distinct. And even if I could have spread it out as directed, I can't begin to think where I would have found enough space.
There was about 4l of the stuff – enough to fill 10 normal cereal bowls. Serves 4?
I blame myself for not thinking how it compared to the part-cooked rice I’ve done countless times for Madhur Jaffrey’s biryani recipe (5 minutes, not 12-15), but I also blame the chef and publisher for getting it so catastrophically wrong.
With a modicum of skill and experience one should be able to spot pitfalls in recipes, but I feel sorry for inexperienced cooks who do what it says and end up failing, through no fault of theirs.
And it’s not just cookbooks – I’ve seen mad cooking instructions on supermarket packaging, for example (and I kid you not) to fry tuna steaks for 3-5 minutes each side.
Well in the case of the supermarket that’s almost certainly about health and safety. But no excuse at all for the cookbooks. I sometimes wonder if the publishers get them copy edited. Underlines always to read the recipe first and if you see something that doesn’t look right trust your instinct!
I would say that there’s one particular cook book writer with such a poor reputation for recipe writing that a section of the internet spent some months trialling dozens of them and rating them from 0 to 5 with accompanying photos and descriptions of the output. It’s hilarious to read but also saddening that people like this continue to be published (7 books in this case).
My husband recently had an awful result trying to make a cake with a layer of lemon custard in the middle. I felt so cross on his behalf, as he's a very confident cook, but not a baker - this kind of thing won't help! It was from a cook (in the Guardian's Feast in fact) whose savoury recipes and writing I usually love, but feel she is just not experienced in properly testing out a baking recipe. The online comments bore out bad experiences from others. I do wonder if the pressure to knock out one or more recipes a week is too much, even for a seasoned cook.
Baking is a world of its own. I'm not a great baker either so rely on someone telling me EXACTLY what to do! I think time pressures sometimes mean recipes are not as thoroughly tested as they might be though some writers - Diana Henry to name one - are more reliable than others
The thing that really gets me is that I am a confident cook - so I am likely to know when it's the recipe and when it's me having a bad day. People who are new to cooking are likely to blame themsleves instead of a dodgy recipe and that's just not fair.
Many years ago I was helping out on a cookbook shoot - which the author hadn't deigned to attend. We were trying to make one of the dishes to photograph and it just didn't work. I called him and he said "Oh, that one never worked for me either". I never saw the completed book so I don't know if they published it anyway.
Unfortunately they probably did especially if it was a celebrity chef 🙄 I agree, it's not fair on the person who buys the book who will have invested time and money buying the ingredients for the recipe
This makes smoke pour out of my ears. The contempt for the reader/user is in itself contemptible.
Just breathtaking ...
Goodness, I could write far too much on this subject. And I'm sure I've been involved with the publishing of at least one of those mistakes you list above! I was forever drawn into the world of editorial error and away from diligent design. One of the biggest recipe mistakes in my time in publishing was discovered on one of the books that had the highest standards of editing, proofing etc and sold the most: a ratio for a brine that rendered the resulting pork joint utterly inedible. We had a week of replying to so many irate emails and phone calls! And definitely agree that restaurant chefs find the transition to domestic recipe uniquely difficult. Our very best editor would sometimes put in four or five times as much work as an author in order to make the instructions logical and legible (not to mention lyrical). I can think of many books where the editor should really receive a co-author credit (I can think of just as many where the editor would probably want to put a lot of distance between themselves and the book!). Some of the most difficult moments I spent in publishing were fighting an author's case and, contrarily, fighting for more time/resources for an editor to save an author's work.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many pairs of eyes go over a book, mistakes slip through. But thank God for editors as you say!
Thank you. So many cookbook authors seem incapable of thinking like inexperienced cooks, and far too many recipes I've encountered are sloppily written or downright wrong. I do think this is why Ina Garten has been so successful, since her recipes are well explained and reliable. Even she, though, took several years to realize that the brand of kosher salt she uses (Diamond Crystal)is half as salty as Morton's, another popular brand. Viewers and readers complained in droves that her recipes are too salty!
Delia, I think, comes into the same category. When I was a rookie cook I used her books all the time and they never let me down!
Claire Saffitz too - she breaks down her recipes into such detail of what each stage should look like/smell like/feel like. Like Delia, a proper educator.
Ooo, don't have any of her books! Which would you recommend?
I only have Dessert Person - but I am devoted to her Youtube channel. Her recipe for sour cream and chive dinner rolls is incredible. And her pie crust finally made me really understand why Americans talk about "pie dough" being flaky.
Oh, wow - will definitely check that out! Thanks for the tip!
May I recommend Kate McDermott's incredible books on pie? Her crust recipe is best I've ever found. And yes to flaky American crusts! The stuff I ate growing up in the UK in the 70s always had the texture either of cement, or of wet flannel. Mind you, there was a war on.
Really don't think you should be encouraging me to eat more pie 😉
Hmmm . . . I'm afraid the thing I remember most about her is that twaddle about holding the sieve high above the bowl to "get air into the mixture" . As I told a UK friend, if this were really necessary, all US cakes would be flat failures, because nobody over here does that. 😂
😂
I reviewed cookbooks for a couple of years - did maybe 20 or so and cooked between 4 and 10 dishes from each. So variable in the level of attention given to the workability of the recipe! I hate to name and shame, but I’ll shout out Ed Smith as being incredibly clear and having recipes that *do* simply work. Tim Anderson’s recipes likewise. Mezcla looks as if it’ll be a bit slapdash because it’s light on instruction but it’s really accessible for a newby cook I think.
I haven't cooked any of Tim's recipes though I love his books and am definitely a fan of Ed's especially On The Side. I still maintain that Mezcla is slightly daunting due to the number of ingredients/elements in a recipe (think we've had this convo before!) but inspiring nonetheless
Yes we have, sorry!
Not at all! Just wasn't sure if I was repeating myself!
Agree with this - Ed Smith’s recipes from Crave have been faultless.
I got rid of several cookbooks by one particularly well known chef because not one of the recipes I tried actually gave me the desired results. I decided to waste no further time or ingredients on them.
Tempting to ask which one 😉
OK, I'll name names. Gary Rhodes was the guilty party. I did keep "New British Classics" which does work.
Don't think I've ever made anything of his but I do remember eating a lobster thermidor omelette in one of his restaurants which was sublime.
Oh god, yes! The lobster thermidor omelette was a fantastic thing.
And then there are the times when things go spectacularly well. I've got a recipe cut (I think) from the Waitrose Food magazine for boeuf bourgignon. It uses ox cheek, and takes about a week from start to finish, it needs no highly skilled techniques, you just do what it says and you end up with an absolutely fabulous dish. Utterly dinner-party friendly, and for me the best BB I've ever eaten. Not because of my stupendous skills (ahem), but because I followed the recipe. Almost anybody could replicate it.
I'm away from home right now - I'll try to remember to dig it out and see if I can find a link to it online.
Re Matt Inwood’s “make the instructions logical and legible” I read once of a recipe writer who would have in the instructions things like
“Now drain the stock you started making 5 hours earlier”.
Yes, I've had disasters, and I think that afterwards, as well as castigating the writer, I find myself castigating myself, thinking "come on, why did you ever think that would work?" Like a recipe I tried once where you cooked individual cheese soufflés, turned them out, rolled them in breadcrumbs, and fried them. Soufflé-like they definitely did not remain.
Or a recipe for lemon rice from a cookbook published by a well known up-market London Indian restaurant which called for 750g of rice for 4 servings, and a 3:1 water:rice ratio, initially “part cooked” for 12-15 minutes.
Apparently after 12-15 minutes of cooking 750g of rice in 2.25l of water it should have been "just cooked but still a bit firm" and I should have drained it well and spread it out so the grains remained separate.
Just wrong in so many ways.
"Just cooked but still a bit firm"? Nope, it was a sticky, almost solid mess.
"Drain well"? Nothing left to drain, and the theoretical time not yet up.
"Spread out so the rice grains remain separate"? Not a chance - it was more of a stuck-together mass than the glutinous rice in Chinese and Thai cuisine, and the grains were no longer distinct. And even if I could have spread it out as directed, I can't begin to think where I would have found enough space.
There was about 4l of the stuff – enough to fill 10 normal cereal bowls. Serves 4?
I blame myself for not thinking how it compared to the part-cooked rice I’ve done countless times for Madhur Jaffrey’s biryani recipe (5 minutes, not 12-15), but I also blame the chef and publisher for getting it so catastrophically wrong.
With a modicum of skill and experience one should be able to spot pitfalls in recipes, but I feel sorry for inexperienced cooks who do what it says and end up failing, through no fault of theirs.
And it’s not just cookbooks – I’ve seen mad cooking instructions on supermarket packaging, for example (and I kid you not) to fry tuna steaks for 3-5 minutes each side.
Well in the case of the supermarket that’s almost certainly about health and safety. But no excuse at all for the cookbooks. I sometimes wonder if the publishers get them copy edited. Underlines always to read the recipe first and if you see something that doesn’t look right trust your instinct!
I would say that there’s one particular cook book writer with such a poor reputation for recipe writing that a section of the internet spent some months trialling dozens of them and rating them from 0 to 5 with accompanying photos and descriptions of the output. It’s hilarious to read but also saddening that people like this continue to be published (7 books in this case).
Well obviously DYING to know who that is!
Google “slopalong”
P.S. I hope you've seen that Anissa has just started her 'Belly Dancer In The Kitchen' Substack...
I HAVE and have subscribed!
My husband recently had an awful result trying to make a cake with a layer of lemon custard in the middle. I felt so cross on his behalf, as he's a very confident cook, but not a baker - this kind of thing won't help! It was from a cook (in the Guardian's Feast in fact) whose savoury recipes and writing I usually love, but feel she is just not experienced in properly testing out a baking recipe. The online comments bore out bad experiences from others. I do wonder if the pressure to knock out one or more recipes a week is too much, even for a seasoned cook.
Baking is a world of its own. I'm not a great baker either so rely on someone telling me EXACTLY what to do! I think time pressures sometimes mean recipes are not as thoroughly tested as they might be though some writers - Diana Henry to name one - are more reliable than others