Cookbook Rant
This holiday season I had a few people over the house so I thought I would try some new recipes. That was my first mistake. Years ago when I was giving lots of dinner parties I always tried new recipes before I would make them for my guests. I later started getting cocky that when I saw the ingredients I thought I knew what the dish might taste like and therefore choose new recipes that I felt would be worth a try without trying them out first.
I did that this year for Passover. I had heard my friends all talk about the pop overs that they ate for the holiday. I really like popovers and since the oven was going to be on anyway I would make them. They only have a few ingredients and if I followed the directions for my New York Times Passover Cookbook I should be okay. I was wrong. When I teach cookbook writing I stress and am reminded by other cookbook authors, to tell your students test and taste every recipe in their cookbooks. I can tell you without any hesitantion that was not done with this recipe.
After I mixed the ingredients the batter looked to stiff to be popover batter from regular popovers I have made in the past. The recipe says it makes 12 popovers so I heated two-six cup popover pans when I heated the oven. When I started to put the batter in the pans I noticed there was no way the recipe was going to make 12 and even it might be lucky to make six. The instructions in the recipe state 3 tablespoons of batter in each cup. I was using a tablespoon and was running out of batter when I had just used 1 scope into each cup. I decided to go a head and put them into the oven and follow the rest of the directions.What I go was popover like. It did blow up a bit and tasted right but it was too heavy to be right. It was not a total loss since they tasted okay but not good as I had hoped.
There was either a typo in the indregients or something wrong in the instructions. If this recipe had been tested they would have found it. It is so sad to see recipes make it to cookbooks without being tested and tasted. Make sure that you never commit that mistake since it could cause one of the future members of your family to disappoint theirs!
I did that this year for Passover. I had heard my friends all talk about the pop overs that they ate for the holiday. I really like popovers and since the oven was going to be on anyway I would make them. They only have a few ingredients and if I followed the directions for my New York Times Passover Cookbook I should be okay. I was wrong. When I teach cookbook writing I stress and am reminded by other cookbook authors, to tell your students test and taste every recipe in their cookbooks. I can tell you without any hesitantion that was not done with this recipe.
After I mixed the ingredients the batter looked to stiff to be popover batter from regular popovers I have made in the past. The recipe says it makes 12 popovers so I heated two-six cup popover pans when I heated the oven. When I started to put the batter in the pans I noticed there was no way the recipe was going to make 12 and even it might be lucky to make six. The instructions in the recipe state 3 tablespoons of batter in each cup. I was using a tablespoon and was running out of batter when I had just used 1 scope into each cup. I decided to go a head and put them into the oven and follow the rest of the directions.What I go was popover like. It did blow up a bit and tasted right but it was too heavy to be right. It was not a total loss since they tasted okay but not good as I had hoped.
There was either a typo in the indregients or something wrong in the instructions. If this recipe had been tested they would have found it. It is so sad to see recipes make it to cookbooks without being tested and tasted. Make sure that you never commit that mistake since it could cause one of the future members of your family to disappoint theirs!
Posted by Hella at 4/10/2009 12:49 PM 
Categories: Cookbook Writing
Tags: family cookbooks recipes family memory cookbooks cookbooks Passover recipes
Categories: Cookbook Writing
Tags: family cookbooks recipes family memory cookbooks cookbooks Passover recipes
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