Recipes hold such delicious promise. Just follow along, the instructions whisper seductively, and you will wow your family and dazzle your friends. Or not. The cruel reality is — and we all encounter this — some recipes just don’t deliver.
How can you tell, preferably before you buy the ingredients, invite people over and start cooking, whether a recipe is “good” or “bad”? Here are 10 steps six cookbook pros say you should follow to get the most from a recipe.
1. Cook! The more you cook, the more you will learn and the easier it will be to spot a recipe that's "worthwhile or intriguing," says Dianne Jacob, an Oakland, Calif.-based author and cookbook coach. Experience in the kitchen has given her "a general idea of how long to cook things, which spices to use and … techniques such as 'fold,'" she wrote in an email.
2. Be flexible! Cooking well depends on so many things: ingredients, equipment, a cook's skill. It's all very individual. Jenny Wapner, executive editor of Ten Speed Press in Emeryville, Calif., says "a good recipe succinctly, and not four pages later, gives you the variables and tells you what the dish should look like." So, for Rick Bayless, the Chicago restaurateur, TV cooking show host and author of nine cookbooks, including the new "More Mexican Everyday" (Norton, $35), a "rough time estimate" for cooking is good, but what's more important is "what does it smell like or taste like when it's done?"
3. Listen! You want to hear the recipe's "voice." Judith Jones, the cookbook editor behind Julia Child and other cooking legends, says she wants the recipe to tell her "whoever wrote it had really done it and makes me feel the taste and texture just by reading it."
4. Read carefully! "Cooks typically forget to read the entire recipe before they start," says Wapner and thus can overlook the little things that might be missing from a recipe. Also, make the recipe as written at least once to get an idea of what it's about before making modifications, she says.
5. Double-check! When in doubt about a recipe direction or ingredient amount, turn to other sources. "Recently I made a pound cake which said to bake for 39 minutes, and I knew it should be at least 1 hour," Jacob says. "I checked a few similar recipes online to be sure." Wapner also goes online or to other cookbooks to "see what else exists in the world" if she's worried a recipe looks funny, contains strange ingredients or is missing needed detail.
6. Gauge! Is the recipe complete and balanced? Speaking from her Vermont home, Jones says the biggest mistake a recipe can make is not to give cooks the necessary tools to do the job. One possible sign? A recipe with a list of ingredients far longer than the instructions. Lorena Jones, publishing director, Food & Drink and Lifestyle, for Chronicle Books in San Francisco, takes this a step further. Check the quantity of each ingredient and its ratio to other ingredients. "If something is calling for 4 cups of butter instead of 1/4 cup of butter, there's something off-base," she says.
7. Trust! But verify the expertise of your recipe source. Beware the "flimsies," to quote Jones, who merely borrow from one another. Jacob writes that she basically trusts recipes from websites with test kitchens and newspapers with test kitchens.
8. Careful! Use caution with old recipes. "Recipe writing has come a long way," says Wapner, adding that she will never attempt an older recipe without looking at other versions and checking various cooking methods.
9. Be kind! Consider the audience — you — when choosing a recipe. Some recipes are written for quasi-professional or highly experienced recreational cooks while others are written for the weekend or beginner cook, says Lorena Jones. Think of what level, and recipe, is right for you. Nathalie Dupree, a Charleston, S.C.-based cookbook author and television cooking show host, looks for recipes that are doable for the home cook. "I'm totally uninterested in recipes for restaurants," she says, defining those as recipes with multiple steps that are easy for a kitchen crew to do but more challenging for home cooks to accomplish.
10. Work it! There's nothing wrong with a recipe that's challenging or requires some effort to pull off, says Judith Jones. "What art form doesn't require a little bit of work?" she asks.
Tart and pie dough
Prep: 15 minutes
Rest: 1 hour
Makes: Two 10-ounce balls of dough, enough for two 11-inch tarts or one double-crust 9-inch pie.
“A lot of people struggle with pie dough,” says Jenny Wapner, executive editor of Ten Speed Press. “The recipe in ‘The Art of Simple Food’ by Alice Waters works for me every time.” The dough recipe in this 2007 cookbook from Clarkson Potter is smartly sandwiched between an informative essay on how to make a tart dough — “the only secret to making good tart dough is practice” — and detailed instructions (1 1/3 pages) on how to roll out a tart dough. (See some of those tips below.) “The ability to use lots of flour to roll out an otherwise wet/sticky dough is what makes this so surefire,” Wapner adds.
Have measured:
1/2 cup ice-cold water
Mix together:
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp. salt (omit if using salted butter)
Add:
12 Tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
Cut or work the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or your fingertips, leaving some of the butter in fairly large, irregular pieces. This will take 1 or 2 minutes. (Or mix for no more than a minute, at medium-low speed, in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.) Pour in three-quarters of the water, stirring all the while with a fork until the dough begins to form clumps. (In the mixer, turn the speed to low and pour the water down the sides of the bowl, mixing for 30 seconds or less.) Keep adding water if needed. Divide the dough in two, bring each part together into a ball, and wrap each ball in plastic. Compress each ball, and then flatten them into disks. Let rest, refrigerated, for 1 hour or longer. Use the crust in your favorite pie recipe.
Dough rolling tips
From Alice Water’s “The Art of Simple Food”
1. Let refrigerated dough rest at room temperature about 20 minutes to soften before rolling.
2. Flatten the dough ball with your hands, pinching to close any cracks. Place dough on floured surface, dust dough generously with flour. Tap the top of the dough with a rolling pin to flatten the dough further.
3. Roll the dough, moving the rolling pin outward from the center of the dough to the edges, "pressing with firm but consistent pressure." Turn the dough over after a few rolls, dust with flour and continue. Give the dough a quarter turn occasionally to help prevent sticking; dust with flour as needed.
4. "You want the dough to flow smoothly from under the rolling pin. As the circle gets bigger, keep guiding the rolling pin out from the center, as opposed to rolling back and forth. Think of the dough as a bicycle wheel, and the spokes as the lines to follow while rolling."
5. Stuck dough? "Use a pastry scraper to slide gently underneath the edges and loosen the dough from the counter. Carefully fold the dough back and throw some more flour over the countertop. (It's okay to use plenty of flour; just brush it off at the end.)"
6. To move rolled dough to pie or tart pan, fold in half and then in quarters. Or, roll it up on the rolling pin and unroll where you want it. Refrigerate the rolled dough before finishing your pie or tart.
Mexican Tomato-Colored Rice (with fresh vegetables)
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
Makes: About 3 1/2 cups, 4 servings
Lorena Jones, Chronicle Book’s publishing director for Food & Drink and Lifestyle, praises Rick Bayless for the context he provides not only in recipe headnotes but ingredient lists. This recipe from Bayless’ “Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking From the Heart of Mexico,” published in 1987 by William Morrow, is one of her favorites. “If Americans make this unassuming but delicious rice dish instead of buying boxed pilaf, they would take a big step toward bringing true flavor and healthfulness to their weeknight meals,” she wrote in an email.
1 1/2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup long- or medium-grain rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, peeled, finely diced
1 ripe, medium-small tomato, roasted or boiled, cored and peeled, or half of a 15-oz. can tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups broth (preferably poultry) or water
Salt, about 1/2 tsp. if using salted broth, 1 tsp. if using unsalted broth or water
1 cup fresh or (defrosted) frozen peas, optional
1 large carrot, peeled, chopped into 1/4-inch dice, optional
Several sprigs fresh cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
Frying the rice: About 40 minutes before serving, measure the oil into a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan set over medium heat. Add the rice and onion; cook, stirring regularly, until both are lightly browned, 7-10 minutes. Mix in the garlic; cook a minute longer.
The liquid ingredients: While the rice is frying, prepare the tomato: Seed it, if you like, by cutting it in half width-wise and squeezing out the seeds, then puree it in a blender or food processor. Pour the broth or water into a small saucepan, add the salt and bring just to a simmer.
Simmering and steaming the rice: Add the pureed tomato to the browned rice and cook for a minute, stirring several times. Add the simmering broth, stir the rice, scrape down the sides of the pot, cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, 15 minutes; turn off the heat, and let the rice stand, covered, until the grains are tender (but not splayed), 5-10 minutes.
The optional vegetables: While the rice is cooking, simmer the fresh peas until tender (4 to 20 minutes, depending on size and freshness), then drain and set aside; frozen peas only need to be defrosted. Separately, simmer the carrot 5 to 8 minutes, drain and add to the fresh or defrosted peas.
Finishing the rice: When the rice is tender, add the optional vegetables and fluff with a fork to separate the grains and stop the cooking. Scoop the rice into a warm serving dish, decorate it with fresh coriander or parsley, and it is ready to serve.
Nutrition information per serving: 294 calories, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 52 g carbohydrates, 7 g protein, 662 mg sodium, 4 g fiber
Angel No-Fool Cake
Prep: 40 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Makes: 10 servings
And what about angel food cake? This recipe resulted from a quest by the Tribune’s Renee Enna to find a foolproof cake. After years of looking and trying different recipes, she combined the best of a recipe from Betty Crocker and a recipe found online and attributed only to Charlotte J. That cake, with adjustments by Enna, was featured four years ago with her Good Eating story about her quest. It still holds up as a foolproof recipe.
1 cup cake flour
7/8 cup sugar plus 3/4 cup sugar
12 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Measure the cake flour and 7/8 cup sugar into a bowl (for 7/8 cup, measure a cup, then remove 2 tablespoons); sift together. Set aside.
Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla and almond extract into the bowl of an electric mixer; beat on medium speed with electric mixer until soft peaks form. (Do not beat until stiff, no matter what any recipe says!) Slowly add the 3/4 cup sugar, beating on medium-high speed until combined.
Reduce speed to low; slowly mix in the flour-sugar mixture just until incorporated.
Gently spoon batter into a 10-inch aluminum tube pan. Gently cut through batter with a butter knife. This breaks up any air bubbles in the batter. One time around is sufficient. (And don’t bang the pan on the counter!)
Bake until top of cake is golden brown and crusty, and top springs back when lightly touched, 30-40 minutes. Remove cake from oven; turn pan upside down. (Many tube pans come with little tabs that accommodate this necessary step. Otherwise, place pan upside down on a few ramekins — anything stable that puts air between the pan top and the counter.) Let stand until completely cool, about 1 1/2 hours.
To remove cake from pan, carefully loosen all pan edges including the tube’s with a butter knife. Invert onto your serving platter. To frost and fill, halve cake horizontally with a serrated knife, using a gentle sawing motion. Fill center and frost cake with whipped cream frosting.
Nutrition information per serving (with frosting): 324 calories, 13 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 49 mg cholesterol, 46 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 138 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Fortified whipped cream frosting
Before starting frosting, put the beaters and mixer bowl in the freezer to chill.
Put 1 1/2 tablespoons cold water in ramekin; sprinkle on 3/4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin. Let stand 5 minutes. Place ramekin in skillet filled with 1/2 inch water; heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin is clear and dissolved. Let cool, about 5 minutes.
Place 1 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream in the chilled bowl of an electric mixer; beat on medium speed until cream begins to thicken. Add gelatin mixture, 3 tablespoons sifted confectioners’ sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Continue beating until soft mounds fall. Remove bowl from mixer; finish whipping by hand with a balloon whisk until cream thickens a bit more and holds its shape. Adapted from “Great Cakes,” by Carole Walter.
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