Things in recipes that amuse you
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crush two cloves of garlic
What is this, recipe for ants??7 -
Oh this thread is funny.
I remember a recipe of my grandmothers, for a large fruitcake or something - and the the recipe said 24 tbs of sugar.
Who on earth would one by one measure out 24 tbs???? - surely it could be 2 cups or whatever
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i think the recipes that bug me are the quick meal ideas for dinner and they mostly revolve around having pre-cooked protein ready to go (yes, i know chicken doesn't take long to cook) - but if you are selling a recipe as quick prep, all the prep should be included12
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just_Tomek wrote: »
See the lowest your oven goes, then check for the highest. Middle of that temp range is medium
Wrong. A standard oven goes from 175° to 450°. The middle of that would be 312° which is too slow for baking and roasting.
Fun fact: the terms slow, medium, and fast refer to how long it took for a bit of flour to turn brown in the oven which is how many cooks tested the oven before baking.
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paperpudding wrote: »Oh this thread is funny.
I remember a recipe of my grandmothers, for a large fruitcake or something - and the the recipe said 24 tbs of sugar.
Who on earth would one by one measure out 24 tbs???? - surely it could be 2 cups or whatever
I have a recipe I got from a cooking class in Cambodia for beef lok lak that calls for 12 teaspoons of fish sauce. What no tablespoon?0 -
<aging curmudgeon mode>
I'm amused by people trying to re-create some of the 1950s-ish savory Jello salads (which were pretty shocking even at the time) with current Jello - I'm talking lemon or lime Jello with stuff like tuna, salmon, olives, celery, eggs, etc. in it.
I was super amused (but also sad) when people wrote in to a local newspaper's recipe exchange column (some years back) asking for "a good recipe for Egg McMuffin" and "recipes for pasta salad with something other than elbow macaroni".
I'm mildly amused by the number of recipes on the back of cans or in magazines that amount to "can of soup + pasta + cheese + canned crispy fried onions or croutons". (Add salsa to make it "Mexican"!)
I'm amused by some Facebook-share recipes (very clearly originating from FB like-farmers) that are obviously just not going to work at all (seriously wrong proportions of ingredients, for example, or a photo that clearly doesn't match with the so-called recipe): They usually have either a bunch of frosting, a boatload of sugar (in various forms), or huge amounts of cheese, to get people to "share on your page so you can find the recipe when you want to make it" (heh).Most mornings I read newspapers from 100 years ago today, and recipes from the era tend to be really unspecific with ingredient amounts. "Start with a quantity of chicken, then add a measure of flour..." Wait, what is a "quantity" of chicken? How much is a "measure" of flour?
From an era when home cooks mostly cooked from actual scratch, and knew how much flour (or whatever) something needed in order to be the right consistency. For some things, results vary materially with environmental temperature and humidity, or with the specific type of flour (Durum/hard/Winter/red/soft/Spring/white wheat for example - kinda why Northern cooks mostly couldn't make the most excellent buttermilk biscuits, too, though maybe that's better with the internet).
Standardized measuring cups are generally considered to have been invented/popularized by Fannie Farmer (yup, real person) in 1896. Yeah, that's 23 years more than 100 years ago, but the idea probably took a while to catch on across the board.
Modern recipes with precise measurements are (1) more foolproof, and (2) more consistent (mostly
).seltzermint555 wrote: »I don't know why but it amuses me when a baking recipe says 1/3 cup plus 1/2 tbsp sugar.
I feel like a slightly heaping 1/3 cup is fine. And I'm kinda particular when baking.
Some of my mom's handwritten recipes have this sort of thing for flour, and I know exactly why. If she made a baked item, most often a cake, and noticed that it had a tendency to slump by an undesirable amount as it cooled, she'd add a tablespoon of flour next time she used the recipe. The flour increment would increase, until results were consistently what she desired. End result: Ingredients like 2C + 2T flour. She wouldn't have done "2 slightly heaping cups" because - unlike her slap-dash daughter - she was a precision kind of woman.
Haven't seen it for sugar, but I guess I could imagine it in something where sugar was a structural ingredient.I’m always amused by recipes that call for bay leaf. But I still use it to amuse myself. “Add then remove ...for zero added flavour” IMO
Some bay leaf (and/or other herbs) have been on the distributor or grocery store shelf way, way too long, no matter what the "best by" date may say, if you ask me. And then there's the question of when to add it . . . .
</aging curmudgeon mode>4 -
Pet peeve: JUST GIVE ME THE RECIPE. I don't want to read three paragraphs on how your French grandmother on a lavender farm who had this charming story about her love affair with the Australian soldier during WWII. JUST GIMMIE FOOD DIRECTIONS.35
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kenyonhaff wrote: »Pet peeve: JUST GIVE ME THE RECIPE. I don't want to read three paragraphs on how your French grandmother on a lavender farm who had this charming story about her love affair with the Australian soldier during WWII. JUST GIMMIE FOOD DIRECTIONS.
I always wonder whose recipe it really is...crush two cloves of garlic
What is this, recipe for ants??
I had one that called for 1/2 a clove over the weekend. My wife and I decided that they know you're going to use however much garlic you want anyway, so they just put in something. Or it's like how MFP has changed 4 cloves of garlic to 40 on me when I put in something to calculate calories.1 -
Not exactly from a recipe but I’m reminded how when my kids were starting to prepare food for themselves (and I’m talking the odd frozen pizza, or similar convenience thing because they’d not been home at dinner time) and they’d say ‘Mum, how long does this need in the oven?’
Frankly, I have no idea because I’ve genuinely never cooked such things! My answer was always ‘Just leave it in there until it looks like you want to eat it’. Good rule of thumb in my opinion!
Much of cooking is instinctive once you’re experienced so I totally understand the old recipes that say ‘add flour until correct consistency’! Good modern bread recipes work on the same principle because what’s important is the relative hydration of the dough for the specific end product. Things like Ciabatta and other ‘holey’ loaves need very high hydration and flour, humidity and elevation of the kitchen affect that, so it pays to learn ‘instinctiveness’ - if that’s not a contradictory concept! 😂3 -
kenyonhaff wrote: »Pet peeve: JUST GIVE ME THE RECIPE. I don't want to read three paragraphs on how your French grandmother on a lavender farm who had this charming story about her love affair with the Australian soldier during WWII. JUST GIMMIE FOOD DIRECTIONS.
It's absolutely annoying, but usually it's a SEO thing. Most times, they're not just writing so much to tell a story but to make sure their recipe/post is seen.
https://mashable.com/article/why-are-there-long-stories-on-food-blogs/
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seltzermint555 wrote: »kenyonhaff wrote: »Pet peeve: JUST GIVE ME THE RECIPE. I don't want to read three paragraphs on how your French grandmother on a lavender farm who had this charming story about her love affair with the Australian soldier during WWII. JUST GIMMIE FOOD DIRECTIONS.
It's absolutely annoying, but usually it's a SEO thing. Most times, they're not just writing so much to tell a story but to make sure their recipe/post is seen.
https://mashable.com/article/why-are-there-long-stories-on-food-blogs/
Honestly, some people like this s--- **. It's some kind of lifestyle aspiration, virtual pseudo friendship, vicarious 'good life', cult of personality, passive spectator strangeness. It's rampant in the arts/crafts/maker world as well.
I guess if it floats one's boat, swell - but I'm skipping straight to the instructions/recipe, too.
** Judgemental side of this clearly subjective, and I know it. :flowerforyou:7 -
kenyonhaff wrote: »Pet peeve: JUST GIVE ME THE RECIPE. I don't want to read three paragraphs on how your French grandmother on a lavender farm who had this charming story about her love affair with the Australian soldier during WWII. JUST GIMMIE FOOD DIRECTIONS.
I can live with it if it is either a recipe they developed themselves or an old family recipe they needed to make adjustments to and the story is about how they developed the recipe. Reading about the mistakes someone made or what doesn't work can be helpful. If the wall of text has nothing to do with the recipe itself, scroll.4 -
just_Tomek wrote: »
See the lowest your oven goes, then check for the highest. Middle of that temp range is mediumcrush two cloves of garlic
What is this, recipe for ants??
Whats wrong with this?paperpudding wrote: »Oh this thread is funny.
I remember a recipe of my grandmothers, for a large fruitcake or something - and the the recipe said 24 tbs of sugar.
Who on earth would one by one measure out 24 tbs???? - surely it could be 2 cups or whatever
With things like this you had it passed onto you from your grandmother. What she was doing is spooning the sugar into whatever and stopped when the taste was good for her. Thats what she wrote down, thats what you got. Measure out those 24tbsp of sugar and see the weight. next time use that.
Oh there is no next time - no any time actually.
That's why I said it was for 'large fruitcake or something' - I don't have the recpipe and I can't remember exactly what it was for,I just remember the 24 tbs.
And tried to imagine someone going tbs by tbs until they finally got to the 24th - because recipe writer didn't convert it to 2 cups or whatever it is.
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paperpudding wrote: »just_Tomek wrote: »
See the lowest your oven goes, then check for the highest. Middle of that temp range is mediumcrush two cloves of garlic
What is this, recipe for ants??
Whats wrong with this?paperpudding wrote: »Oh this thread is funny.
I remember a recipe of my grandmothers, for a large fruitcake or something - and the the recipe said 24 tbs of sugar.
Who on earth would one by one measure out 24 tbs???? - surely it could be 2 cups or whatever
With things like this you had it passed onto you from your grandmother. What she was doing is spooning the sugar into whatever and stopped when the taste was good for her. Thats what she wrote down, thats what you got. Measure out those 24tbsp of sugar and see the weight. next time use that.
Oh there is no next time - no any time actually.
That's why I said it was for 'large fruitcake or something' - I don't have the recpipe and I can't remember exactly what it was for,I just remember the 24 tbs.
And tried to imagine someone going tbs by tbs until they finally got to the 24th - because recipe writer didn't convert it to 2 cups or whatever it is.
My Grandma's Angel Cake recipe was like that. She was famous for it and it was all hand beaten. The reason for the sugar being listed as a bunch of Tablespoons was because it needed to be added 2 Tbl at a time while beating. When Mom copied the recipe, she converted the 28 Tbl to "1-3/4 c sugar added 2 Tbl at a time"
Mom's job as a little girl was to stand over Grandma as she beat the egg whites and when Grandma would say "now" she added 2 more Tbl of sugar.13 -
paperpudding wrote: »just_Tomek wrote: »
See the lowest your oven goes, then check for the highest. Middle of that temp range is mediumcrush two cloves of garlic
What is this, recipe for ants??
Whats wrong with this?paperpudding wrote: »Oh this thread is funny.
I remember a recipe of my grandmothers, for a large fruitcake or something - and the the recipe said 24 tbs of sugar.
Who on earth would one by one measure out 24 tbs???? - surely it could be 2 cups or whatever
With things like this you had it passed onto you from your grandmother. What she was doing is spooning the sugar into whatever and stopped when the taste was good for her. Thats what she wrote down, thats what you got. Measure out those 24tbsp of sugar and see the weight. next time use that.
Oh there is no next time - no any time actually.
That's why I said it was for 'large fruitcake or something' - I don't have the recpipe and I can't remember exactly what it was for,I just remember the 24 tbs.
And tried to imagine someone going tbs by tbs until they finally got to the 24th - because recipe writer didn't convert it to 2 cups or whatever it is.
My Grandma's Angel Cake recipe was like that. She was famous for it and it was all hand beaten. The reason for the sugar being listed as a bunch of Tablespoons was because it needed to be added 2 Tbl at a time while beating. When Mom copied the recipe, she converted the 28 Tbl to "1-3/4 c sugar added 2 Tbl at a time"
Mom's job as a little girl was to stand over Grandma as she beat the egg whites and when Grandma would say "now" she added 2 more Tbl of sugar.
This is how people learned to cook/bake once upon a time:)
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just_Tomek wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »just_Tomek wrote: »
See the lowest your oven goes, then check for the highest. Middle of that temp range is mediumcrush two cloves of garlic
What is this, recipe for ants??
Whats wrong with this?paperpudding wrote: »Oh this thread is funny.
I remember a recipe of my grandmothers, for a large fruitcake or something - and the the recipe said 24 tbs of sugar.
Who on earth would one by one measure out 24 tbs???? - surely it could be 2 cups or whatever
With things like this you had it passed onto you from your grandmother. What she was doing is spooning the sugar into whatever and stopped when the taste was good for her. Thats what she wrote down, thats what you got. Measure out those 24tbsp of sugar and see the weight. next time use that.
Oh there is no next time - no any time actually.
That's why I said it was for 'large fruitcake or something' - I don't have the recpipe and I can't remember exactly what it was for,I just remember the 24 tbs.
And tried to imagine someone going tbs by tbs until they finally got to the 24th - because recipe writer didn't convert it to 2 cups or whatever it is.
Its your grandmas recipe... maybe give her a break lol
Yes she was a good cook.
It wasn't her recipe, as in she wrote it.
It was a recipe she used - not sure where it originated from.
But I don't think she will get upset at me being amused by it - since she died over 20 years ago.
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Cook until done.
DO NOT OVERCOOK. 6 -
..."stir it anti clockwise"... It might be a bad translation from Cantonese.1
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neugebauer52 wrote: »..."stir it anti clockwise"... It might be a bad translation from Cantonese.
It is actually how the Brits say "counter clockwise". Common in the UK, Australia, etc.5 -
JeromeBarry1 wrote: »My mother's recipe for banana pudding says, "Butter the size of an egg". That's 4 tbsp in modern stick butter.
LOL!
My mother had a recipe that called for 4 melted 5¢ Hershey bars. Wonder what size they were back then.5 -
neugebauer52 wrote: »..."stir it anti clockwise"... It might be a bad translation from Cantonese.
What happens if you stir it clockwise instead?
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You open a portal to another dimension. 6
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Keep mixing until it feels right. If I've never made it, how do I know if it "feels" right??3
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neugebauer52 wrote: »..."stir it anti clockwise"... It might be a bad translation from Cantonese.
Is the issue the words anti clockwise? - which as poster pointed out, is the normal term in many places. Not mis translated at all.
Or the fact that it had to be stirred in that direction only? - which I agree does seem weird.
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »My mother's recipe for banana pudding says, "Butter the size of an egg". That's 4 tbsp in modern stick butter.
LOL!
My mother had a recipe that called for 4 melted 5¢ Hershey bars. Wonder what size they were back then.
Yes! This is something that’s tripped me up a few times when wanting to make a recipe of my Mum’s that I remember from childhood. ‘Small tin of...’, ‘packet of...’ Sometimes I even remember when the product was sold in more sizes than it is currently, but I have less of an idea what the relative weights of the different products were. In these cases I have to do the ‘mix until it feels right’ as mentioned above!2 -
paperpudding wrote: »neugebauer52 wrote: »..."stir it anti clockwise"... It might be a bad translation from Cantonese.
Is the issue the words anti clockwise? - which as poster pointed out, is the normal term in many places. Not mis translated at all.
Or the fact that it had to be stirred in that direction only? - which I agree does seem weird.
Seems weird indeed, although I have a cousin who is a research scientist specializing in manufacturing processes for pharmaceuticals who once told me that for certain chemical reactions, liquids have to be agitated in a very specific way.3 -
paperpudding wrote: »neugebauer52 wrote: »..."stir it anti clockwise"... It might be a bad translation from Cantonese.
Is the issue the words anti clockwise? - which as poster pointed out, is the normal term in many places. Not mis translated at all.
Or the fact that it had to be stirred in that direction only? - which I agree does seem weird.
Seems weird indeed, although I have a cousin who is a research scientist specializing in manufacturing processes for pharmaceuticals who once told me that for certain chemical reactions, liquids have to be agitated in a very specific way.
And here I thought it was something only learned in Hogwarts Potions class. Interesting.7 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »Cook until done.
DO NOT OVERCOOK.
My sister actually called me the other night and said "I just put a roast in the oven, how long should I cook it for?" That was the entire question.
My response was "Until it's done." I mean, how am I supposed to know if you aren't going to give me weight, temperature, etc.? And no, she doesn't have a meat thermometer.
My pet peeve is always recipes that say use "a heaping tablespoon of" - my heap may be larger than their heap.0 -
Not sure if it's been mentioned but i have a cast iron cookbook and with every recipe it says
"using potholders..." this is usually in a recipe to something that has been in the oven
Is this really something we need to be reminded of this??? it always makes me giggle a little4
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