Is an internet recipe reliable?
If you’re looking for a recipe on the web, and it’s from a blog or a small site with no test kitchen or published books, how do you know it’s reliable?
Thekitchn site has an article on this, which you can search with key words - recipe, reliable, internet.
This is a CORRECTION from earlier today, when I thought I posted a link to this article but instead got info in ricotta (please ignore that one).
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3 Comments
I remember when a certain style maven was just getting popular years and years ago. I could look at her recipes and just know they wouldn’t work. I made one, strictly according to the recipe, just to see if it would work. It didn’t.
She has long since become much more reliable, but I always wondered how many inexperienced cooks suffered frustration at their inability to master a recipe, when it wasn’t their fault in the first place.
So, I think it’s just a case of gaining experience in the kitchen, which takes a while.
Your pointing us in the direction of experienced vs relatively novice home cooks is similar to what Gammy said recently in answer to a related question. She said an experienced cook might know enough to guess, proceed and see if it worked out, while a newish cook might need more specific directions on ingredient's, timing or cooking temperatures.
https://food52.com/hotline/51699-what-to-do-when-food52-on-site-recipes-don-t-work-or-are-incomplete
This made me realize I was also/really asking how do people learn to cook from public sources, especially when many of us don't learn cooking until after we've left our parents' or first family's home.
In practice, the most helpful public sources are from restaurant chefs, cooking teachers and/or cooking writers who have standing behind them
* years of tradition and experience
* test kitchens
* editors and publishers who check the work and stand behind it.
Further, there is the idea that newish cooks should first learn the elements of a basic dinner (appetizer, main dish like roast chicken or similar basic vegetarian dish, side dishes, dessert). Once you have mastered those, you will have learned several basic techniques and be able to shop without a list, taking advantage of what's fresh and on the shelves.
After that, branch out to other meals (breakfast, Sunday brunch) or occasions (birthday, Thanksgiving, etc).