You are surrounded by recipes!
Not only from this very blog, but on the entire internet you’ll find billions of recipes! Now even Google has a dedicated search!
But not all recipes are the same and not all recipes are trustworthy… It happens, and quite often, to read recipes that call for 300 ml of water for a plum cake, or no gelatin for a blanc manger. Well, those recipe, despite the sure honesty of the author, are wrong and will led you to the doomed world of fail.
But there few simple rules you can follow to always succed choosing a recipe.
1. Do not overestimate your skills: if you are a beginner, do not cook a soufflé for 12 people in singular servings. Do not even cook for 12 people at once! One day, with experience, you’ll arrive to that, but right now cook something simple.
2. Do not underestimate your skills: only because you are a beginner it doesn’t mean you should stick to pasta with Parmesan and oil (that’s the typical metaphor for a beginner in the kitchen in Italy). There are loads of simple recipe around that everybody can cook.
3. Read it trough: do not stop at the ingredient list or a the cooking time is required. Read it all, carefully. Acknowledge if you need specials skills or tools, if there are obscure passages or if there is something that doesn’t sound right to you.
4. Trust your instincts: by instinct your brain will tell you if what you are reading is ok or not. Trust the little voice in your head.
5. Take your time: speed is not a skill in the kitchen (unless you work in a restaurant). If a recipe call for 2 cooking hours, allow your food to cook for 2 hours.
6. Trust the blogger. Do not trust the blogger. Over the years it happen to see billions of recipes and it happens to see blogger recipe completely wrong. 9 times over 10 a blogger won’t publish a recipe he/she didn’t try/cook/photographed. But there is always that 1 time. Long story cut short: bloggers are more likely to publish trustworthy recipes, but do not trust them with all your heart. And the same goes for recipes and magazines.