How to Read a Recipe

When you are learning to cook, it’s essential to use cookbooks with well-written recipes. What’s a well-written recipe? One that has two distinct lists… a list of ingredients and a list of each step you’ll take in preparing the dish. The lists should be separate and, especially important for the step-by-step instructions, in the exact order you’ll follow while cooking.

Some cookbooks with really great recipes are written by chatty authors that include a story with each recipe and weave the ingredients, and the instructions, into the story. Fun to read, but not much fun to follow if you’re just beginning to learn the art of cooking.

And, while cooking is an art, it’s also firmly rooted in science, which is what the standard recipe format is all about. By listing the ingredients and the steps, well-written cookbooks give mere mortals the ability to create art in the kitchen, and at the dinner table, every day, and often at a fraction of the cost of eating at a restaurant.

So, how to recognize a well-written recipe? Start with a cookbook from a respected author, one who has been cooking for years and loves to cook and loves to teach and it shows. OR, peruse one of the classics that have been around for years and have stood the test of time. Just make sure to get the latest version so you’re not scared off by something, like, say, jello molds, that might have been the thing to serve 50 years ago, but not so much today.

As a beginning cook you may not want to tackle the recipes right away, but you’ll certainly get inspiration and will probably learn a thing or two that will help you understand what in the heck it takes to cook even simple dishes.

Five Great Cookbooks with Well-Written, and Tasty, Recipes

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