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Recipe curation is a genuinely hard problem. I often go diving into cookbooks for recipes, and I've noticed that in general I will try 2-3 recipes for each one

Recipe curation is a genuinely hard problem. I often go diving into cookbooks for recipes, and I've noticed that in general I will try 2-3 recipes for each one I might add to my repertoire. I think cookbooks are often just making stuff up to fill pages, and as a result the many of the recipes are just mediocre, with a few good ones sprinkled in.

groby_b 8y ago
Serious recommendation - trash recipe books, unless you're interested in recreating a specific kind of flavor. Then, learn about proper ratios. (Best book I've found so far is "Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking"). And then get yourself a copy of the flavor bible, which makes it easy to create excellent flavor combinations. You're set for life. (You might at some point add cooking chemistry into the mix, too. But the point is, learn to make recipes yourself, so you know they're tailored to what you like. Instead of having to try them one by one)
- grawprog 8y ago
  I can't remember the last time I actually cooked using a recipe. The only thing I use them for these days is a quick glance at the general ingredients in a dish for something i've never made before, or any special cooking instructions. Cooking is more about knowing the properties and flavours of your ingredients and knowing which work well together. Once you know that, you can make pretty much anything. Baking though i'd say is an exception. The ratios of ingredients and the orser you combine and the methods you use are fairly important to get exact. Baking is a lot like chemistry. I've also been lucky enough to have a copy of this book lying around. https://www.amazon.ca/Cooking-Textbook-Culinary-Fundamentals-5th/dp/013715576X https://www.amazon.ca/Cooking-Textbook-Culinary-Fundamentals... I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you want to work in a kitchen, but it's pretty awesome.
- munchbunny 8y ago
  That's great advice, but I'd like to add another consideration: cooking advice is often specific to cultural context. I can't speak for your specific recommendations because I haven't read them, but other books in the category do have this issue. I primarily cook Chinese food, and as a result general technique guidance coming from Western techniques tends to work to the extent that green beans are green beans, but tends to translate imperfectly to the extent that a cast iron skillet is not a wok, dumpling dough and pasta dough are made differently and handled differently, etc. As a result, I sort of have two different kitchens in my kitchen, there's a set of tools, ingredients, and techniques for Chinese food (and often other Asian cuisines), and there's a set of tools, ingredients, and techniques for when I make Western dishes.
  - yowlingcat 8y ago
    Great thread. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to plug Serious Eats (no affiliation, just a satisfied reader). The editor is an MIT trained chemist who also is incredible at cooking, and the recipes not only always just work, but the reason why they work gastronomically is always spelled out in very clear detail. Outside of that, I generally have the same issue with cooking ethnic cuisine. The specialized equipment is different, it's challenging (and crucial) to get specialty ingredients, new techniques need to be learned. But, most importantly, you have to know how it's supposed to taste, otherwise it's impossible to approach cooking it properly. I was never able to make a proper mapo tofu until I had my first really really good one and realized what I was missing (good Szechuan peppercorns).
- joshvm 8y ago
  I would also recommend Niki Segnit's Lateral Cooking which aims to teach you how recipes associate with one another. So you just remember core ratios and what adjustments have to be made get other dishes. It's a very lazy-hacker way of approaching cooking that a lot of technical people will enjoy.
henrikschroder 8y ago
There's a huge difference between recipe collections, which are usually just glossy gimmick-y celebrity-endorsed and useless, and actual cookbooks, which teach you how to cook. A cookbook will have a section on "how to prepare piece of meat X", what to think about when preparing that piece, and then some recipes centered on that piece, at different levels of work and difficulty. That shows you what directions you can take that ingredient in, what it's good for, and how to make variations on the same base ingredient. Recipe collections never do this, everything is presented as a done deal. Here's the recipe, follow the recipe exactly. There are no connections, no progression, no explanations, no substitutions, and in the end, recipe collections never teach you how to cook. So I'm not surprised you have issues with recipe collections. They are useless, and I wish more people knew the difference between those and real cookbooks.
wincy 8y ago
These two books have nothing but good recipes. The Food Lab also explains why to cook something a certain way. My food is so much better after buying these two books. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Americas-Test-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/1945256540/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FS833G9EAJ26&keywords=the+complete+americas+test+kitchen+tv+show+cookbook+2001-2018&qid=1551230528&s=books&sprefix=the+complete+americas+test%2Cstripbooks%2C166&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Americas-Test-Kitchen-Cookbo... https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+food+lab&qid=1551230610&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0...

groby_b 8y ago

Serious recommendation - trash recipe books, unless you're interested in recreating a specific kind of flavor. Then, learn about proper ratios. (Best book I've found so far is "Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking"). And then get yourself a copy of the flavor bible, which makes it easy to create excellent flavor combinations. You're set for life. (You might at some point add cooking chemistry into the mix, too. But the point is, learn to make recipes yourself, so you know they're tailored to what you like. Instead of having to try them one by one)

grawprog 8y ago
I can't remember the last time I actually cooked using a recipe. The only thing I use them for these days is a quick glance at the general ingredients in a dish for something i've never made before, or any special cooking instructions. Cooking is more about knowing the properties and flavours of your ingredients and knowing which work well together. Once you know that, you can make pretty much anything. Baking though i'd say is an exception. The ratios of ingredients and the orser you combine and the methods you use are fairly important to get exact. Baking is a lot like chemistry. I've also been lucky enough to have a copy of this book lying around. https://www.amazon.ca/Cooking-Textbook-Culinary-Fundamentals-5th/dp/013715576X https://www.amazon.ca/Cooking-Textbook-Culinary-Fundamentals... I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you want to work in a kitchen, but it's pretty awesome.
munchbunny 8y ago
That's great advice, but I'd like to add another consideration: cooking advice is often specific to cultural context. I can't speak for your specific recommendations because I haven't read them, but other books in the category do have this issue. I primarily cook Chinese food, and as a result general technique guidance coming from Western techniques tends to work to the extent that green beans are green beans, but tends to translate imperfectly to the extent that a cast iron skillet is not a wok, dumpling dough and pasta dough are made differently and handled differently, etc. As a result, I sort of have two different kitchens in my kitchen, there's a set of tools, ingredients, and techniques for Chinese food (and often other Asian cuisines), and there's a set of tools, ingredients, and techniques for when I make Western dishes.
- yowlingcat 8y ago
  Great thread. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to plug Serious Eats (no affiliation, just a satisfied reader). The editor is an MIT trained chemist who also is incredible at cooking, and the recipes not only always just work, but the reason why they work gastronomically is always spelled out in very clear detail. Outside of that, I generally have the same issue with cooking ethnic cuisine. The specialized equipment is different, it's challenging (and crucial) to get specialty ingredients, new techniques need to be learned. But, most importantly, you have to know how it's supposed to taste, otherwise it's impossible to approach cooking it properly. I was never able to make a proper mapo tofu until I had my first really really good one and realized what I was missing (good Szechuan peppercorns).
joshvm 8y ago
I would also recommend Niki Segnit's Lateral Cooking which aims to teach you how recipes associate with one another. So you just remember core ratios and what adjustments have to be made get other dishes. It's a very lazy-hacker way of approaching cooking that a lot of technical people will enjoy.

henrikschroder 8y ago

There's a huge difference between recipe collections, which are usually just glossy gimmick-y celebrity-endorsed and useless, and actual cookbooks, which teach you how to cook. A cookbook will have a section on "how to prepare piece of meat X", what to think about when preparing that piece, and then some recipes centered on that piece, at different levels of work and difficulty. That shows you what directions you can take that ingredient in, what it's good for, and how to make variations on the same base ingredient. Recipe collections never do this, everything is presented as a done deal. Here's the recipe, follow the recipe exactly. There are no connections, no progression, no explanations, no substitutions, and in the end, recipe collections never teach you how to cook. So I'm not surprised you have issues with recipe collections. They are useless, and I wish more people knew the difference between those and real cookbooks.

wincy 8y ago

These two books have nothing but good recipes. The Food Lab also explains why to cook something a certain way. My food is so much better after buying these two books. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Americas-Test-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/1945256540/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FS833G9EAJ26&keywords=the+complete+americas+test+kitchen+tv+show+cookbook+2001-2018&qid=1551230528&s=books&sprefix=the+complete+americas+test%2Cstripbooks%2C166&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Americas-Test-Kitchen-Cookbo... https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+food+lab&qid=1551230610&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0...