The Cookbook Game #1

[Morning Glory]

MG, you make me so happy and glad that I am able to share my game here. I hope others will be able to enjoy their cookbooks like you have.

Are the pictures of your dish or from the cookbook?

I took the photos earlier today. They are snapped in my kitchen using Samsung Galaxy S7 phone camera earlier today. I used available light and a board resting on on my kitchen counter for the 'background'. I was quite pleased with them but not entirely.

I wouldn't post photos from any cookbook without crediting them.

 

[CraigC]

Ok, I made the shrimp jambalaya today. Only an idiot cooks expensive, beautiful shrimp/prawns for 45 + minutes that the recipe calls for! I will no longer make recipes straight up from the cookbook when I know better.

 

[Morning Glory]

Ok, I made the shrimp jambalaya today. Only an idiot cooks expensive, beautiful shrimp/prawns for 45 + minutes that the recipe calls for! I will no longer make recipes straight up from the cookbook when I know better.

Its funny you should say that because once (a long time ago) a member posted a recipe for Jambalaya which said to cook the shrimp for a long time like this. I commented that it seemed wrong but the member was adamant and argued (in that way that I know you & I dislike) that this was the way 'they' did it and it was the authentic way to make jambalaya (grhh!).

We've tweaked the intro to Game #2 a bit to clarify that its important to choose a recipe which appeals to you and although it isn't explicit, it makes sense that we choose one (using our experience as cooks), we are pretty sure will work.

Yesterday I spent quite a long time trawling through recipes for Game #2 and rejected quite a few because I knew that parts of the method were not going to work. A couple of them involved cooking shrimp for much longer than I would!

 

[medtran49]

As I told Craig last night, cooking shrimp for that long is the way it would have been done in the country when Justin Wilson (the author) learned to cook, and some people still cook that way even to this day,i.e. cooking things to death. Other proteins in his book are cooked to death as well, like pork chops, steaks, etc. It's just the way it was done.

 

[TastyReuben]

As I told Craig last night, cooking shrimp for that long is the way it would have been done in the country when Justin Wilson (the author) learned to cook, and some people still cook that way even to this day,i.e. cooking things to death. Other proteins in his book are cooked to death as well, like pork chops, steaks, etc. It's just the way it was done.

I can get behind that. My mom will cook a pork chop until it's dry as dust, because to her, that's how a pork chop is "supposed" to be cooked, both for taste and for health reasons ("trichinosis!").

 

[cookieee]

A good Idea is, post the pub. date of the cookbook, that way, people can get a good idea of how things were done then as opposed to how things are done now and make the recipe adjustments if needed. IMHO lol

 

[cookieee]

A good Idea is, post the pub. date of the cookbook, that way, people can get a good idea of how things were done then as opposed to how things are done now and make the recipe adjustments if needed. IMHO lol

An example, the cookbook I used for game #2 was pub. in 1991. I don't know if things were safer back then, but, the recipe said "drain the chicken medallions and add the drained marinade to the sauce". I added (if you cook the sauce again). I was very concerned about contamination, but I was also concerned about changing the taste of the sauce.

 

[CraigC]

Its funny you should say that because once (a long time ago) a member posted a recipe for Jambalaya which said to cook the shrimp for a long time like this. I commented that it seemed wrong but the member was adamant and argued (in that way that I know you & I dislike) that this was the way 'they' did it and it was the authentic way to make jambalaya (grhh!).

We've tweaked the intro to Game #2 a bit to clarify that its important to choose a recipe which appeals to you and although it isn't explicit, it makes sense that we choose one (using our experience as cooks), we are pretty sure will work.

Yesterday I spent quite a long time trawling through recipes for Game #2 and rejected quite a few because I knew that parts of the method were not going to work. A couple of them involved cooking shrimp for much longer than I would!

I can never leave well enough alone. I only use cookbook recipes as a guide. I might follow a recipe the first time, like I will for the mole, but it seems I always tweak it somehow if I make it again.

 

[Morning Glory]

I can never leave well enough alone. I only use cookbook recipes as a guide. I might follow a recipe the first time, like I will for the mole, but it seems I always tweak it somehow if I make it again.

I'm the same - you will see the issues I ran into following a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey in The Cookbook Game #2 which I'm posting up shortly. You have to use common sense, I guess. If I'd followed the recipe in question to the letter it would not have worked and it would probably have ended up in the bin.