4 ms·

> and use volumetric measurements instead of weights Sorry to pick up on one sentence of an interesting long comment, but this is a pet peeve on mine when havi

by NeoTar 3y ago

> and use volumetric measurements instead of weights Sorry to pick up on one sentence of an interesting long comment, but this is a pet peeve on mine when having to rely on American recipes. There seems to be an obsession on using volumetric measurements for things which really should be done in mass units - flour, sugar, sometimes even ingrediants like grated cheese. European recipes in my experience tend to use most 'natural' units - mass for solids, volume for liquids - but you still get the silly culturally specific units sometimes - '1 medium onion' ... well how big is that? Would two small onions be too much? Or half a large onion?

chefandy 3y ago
Yeah it's definitely a big thing with recipes designed for American home cooks. Just like using SAE measurements, it's a chicken and egg thing. Maybe one in ten US home kitchens has a food scale because our recipes don't generally use weight measurements, and recipes don't generally use weight measurements because one in ten US home kitchens has a food scale. If you're making an investment in publishing a cookbook, it's probably not a defensible principled stand to sacrifice the sales and piss off your potential readers because they don't have the equipment to make your recipes. Many professionally-published recipes use both, but that's an added expense and increases your recipe testing costs. As far as the medium onion is concerned, some of that is unavoidable because onions are a natural product with size variations, and unlike sugar, salt, flour, water, etc that serve important chemical or mechanical purposes during cooking, something being 10-20 percent more or less oniony in the grand scheme of all the flavors you have is not likely consequential. Most professional recipes wouldn't be that much more specific in that regard.
- NeoTar 3y ago
  Thanks for the reply ! With respect ingredients such as onions, I am concerned that what I think of as a medium onion, may not be a medium onion in other countries/cultures. Like, I generally will consider an onion of about 5cm (2 inches) as medium-sized, but if I am off by 1cm from the author's perceptions that's 50% less, or 70% more! If a recipe could say '125g chopped onion (1 medium onion)' that would be so useful - catering to the geeks like me and normal home cooks!
  - chefandy 3y ago
    I get it... you're anxious that it's going to be the wrong amount so you want a very specific number... but that specificity doesn't yield commensurate accuracy. Even if everyone put in exactly 125g of plain yellow onion, the variance in age, when it was harvested, soil conditions, etc. would yield more variation than changing the weight... it just usually doesn't matter that much with onions. This is most apparent with strong ingredients like garlic and herbs: one strong small clove of garlic will easily overpower 2 larger mellower cloves of garlic if used raw, but will often have less comparative influence if cooked... not too many people outside of the restaurant world would even know how to judge whether a small piece of raw garlic was stronger or mellower than average. If you're using a flour with a standardized grind and protein level, using weight for a loaf really matters. The most common manifestation of this disconnect is in cooking times. Unless you've got completely standardized ingredients, preparations, storage temperatures, etc. which is very difficult outside of large food service organizations, (and why so many restaurants are willing to pay so much to huge restaurant suppliers like Sysco for mediocre food... it will always cook the same way,) cooking times will almost always be the wrong answer. People always ask questions like "how long do I cook a thick ribeye steak?" and I always say "until its done." There's a general perception that very accurate cooking times will yield very accurate results, but that's so not true. What's the size and shape of the steak? What's the water content of the steak? Has that changed since you pre-salted it too far in advance? Refrigerator temps vary tremendously: what's yours at, how long has the steak been out. People like cooking times and precise measurements for imprecise ingredients because it gives them a sense of control, but it's a false sense of control. when the only way to get that sense of control is learning how to tell when the food is done by yourself.

by NeoTar 3y ago

chefandy 3y ago

Yeah it's definitely a big thing with recipes designed for American home cooks. Just like using SAE measurements, it's a chicken and egg thing. Maybe one in ten US home kitchens has a food scale because our recipes don't generally use weight measurements, and recipes don't generally use weight measurements because one in ten US home kitchens has a food scale. If you're making an investment in publishing a cookbook, it's probably not a defensible principled stand to sacrifice the sales and piss off your potential readers because they don't have the equipment to make your recipes. Many professionally-published recipes use both, but that's an added expense and increases your recipe testing costs. As far as the medium onion is concerned, some of that is unavoidable because onions are a natural product with size variations, and unlike sugar, salt, flour, water, etc that serve important chemical or mechanical purposes during cooking, something being 10-20 percent more or less oniony in the grand scheme of all the flavors you have is not likely consequential. Most professional recipes wouldn't be that much more specific in that regard.

NeoTar 3y ago
Thanks for the reply ! With respect ingredients such as onions, I am concerned that what I think of as a medium onion, may not be a medium onion in other countries/cultures. Like, I generally will consider an onion of about 5cm (2 inches) as medium-sized, but if I am off by 1cm from the author's perceptions that's 50% less, or 70% more! If a recipe could say '125g chopped onion (1 medium onion)' that would be so useful - catering to the geeks like me and normal home cooks!
- chefandy 3y ago
  I get it... you're anxious that it's going to be the wrong amount so you want a very specific number... but that specificity doesn't yield commensurate accuracy. Even if everyone put in exactly 125g of plain yellow onion, the variance in age, when it was harvested, soil conditions, etc. would yield more variation than changing the weight... it just usually doesn't matter that much with onions. This is most apparent with strong ingredients like garlic and herbs: one strong small clove of garlic will easily overpower 2 larger mellower cloves of garlic if used raw, but will often have less comparative influence if cooked... not too many people outside of the restaurant world would even know how to judge whether a small piece of raw garlic was stronger or mellower than average. If you're using a flour with a standardized grind and protein level, using weight for a loaf really matters. The most common manifestation of this disconnect is in cooking times. Unless you've got completely standardized ingredients, preparations, storage temperatures, etc. which is very difficult outside of large food service organizations, (and why so many restaurants are willing to pay so much to huge restaurant suppliers like Sysco for mediocre food... it will always cook the same way,) cooking times will almost always be the wrong answer. People always ask questions like "how long do I cook a thick ribeye steak?" and I always say "until its done." There's a general perception that very accurate cooking times will yield very accurate results, but that's so not true. What's the size and shape of the steak? What's the water content of the steak? Has that changed since you pre-salted it too far in advance? Refrigerator temps vary tremendously: what's yours at, how long has the steak been out. People like cooking times and precise measurements for imprecise ingredients because it gives them a sense of control, but it's a false sense of control. when the only way to get that sense of control is learning how to tell when the food is done by yourself.