The Recipe Writer's Handbook

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

If you have lived for a while on this earth you will notice that there is very little new under the sun, with the exception of perhaps technology, which we're not talking about here. There are creative and interesting ways to use sugar, chocolate, spices and herbs in baking. There are fascinating ways to decorate cakes, cookies and all things sweet and edible. If you are a seasoned cook/baker you probably already know about this little jewel of a book, but if you are not this may be something you will want to look into. Originally written in 1997 by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L.Baker The Recipe Writer's Handbook is something all bakers should have on their cookbook shelf. Why? Because one day you will be (perhaps not a "baby-boomer") but a generation "X" boomer or generation "Y" boomer and you will be passing on knowledge to the next generation of bakers. This sort of information is helpful.

This little book is designed to teach you to "think" your way through a recipe to make important decisions and trouble shoot problems concerning format, syntax, spelling, cooking terminology etc." Those who attended at professional culinary art program probably already know this, but trust and believe if you live long enough it will escape your memory.

You may not think you will, but one day you may want to put all your recipes to pen or in today's case "Word," and publish all those dynamic dishes that have made you famous or not so...famous. Publishers are always looking for ways to take a bigger piece of your pie, so this book can assist you in structuring your recipes in such a manner that publishers will think you had help...well you did it just didn't cost you an arm and a leg.

The more you know, the more you can deliver and you won't have to rely on the publisher finding culinary writers to "clean up" your recipes.

I have the old copy (original 1997) and plan of purchase the revised and expanded copy soon. The chapters in my copy are well written and the information is invaluable. Here's a hint of what's in the book (1997 version).

Chapter 1 The Philosophy of Recipe Writing
Chapter 2 Recipe Writing Style
Chapter 3 The Style Sheet
Chapter 4 Recipe Testing
Chapter 5 Cooking Terminology
Chapter 6 Preferred Spelling of Commonly Used Food Words
Chapter 7 Generic Terms for Brand Names and Trademarks
Chapter 8 Metrics
Chapter 9 Nutrition Analysis of Recipes
Chapter 10 Copyright, Plagiarism and the Ethics of Recipe Writing and more (15 Chapters in all).

The new revised book is on Amazon for under $10 (used) and I have emailed the authors to see if they might be revising it again (it's 2009). As I mention before if this is old news, no sweat, but for those baby bakers out there, just another resource for your baking arsenal.

Mom made a "FEAST!"

Monday, January 12, 2009

I am going to tell you a story so just roll with it. Once upon a time there was a little child who loved his mother very much. Mom and dad worked very hard to provide "little man" with everything he needed and most of the things he wanted. One day it was discovered that mom was going to have a baby; twins to be exact. This made "little man" very happy. When the babies arrived home, a very interesting thing happened. Mom decided to stay home with the babies until they got bigger. This made "little man" really, really happy. He had his Mom and sister and brother home when he arrived from school each day.

One day "little man" explained to his teacher that he was just so happy his Mom was home with the babies because she now prepares a "feast." The child went on to say, "Mom is COOKING US DINNER AT HOME, she made a chicken in-the-oven, and green bean casserole, rolls, and a pie and we are so happy."

So why was the child so happy? This little story is true and was provided by a teacher in a public school system in the south. It was reported that most of the children in the school eat out for dinner every night, rarely getting a home cooked meal. And we wonder why our children are obese, diabetes is on the rise and our little ones suffer from all sorts of allergies, headaches and insomnia?

I will continue to say it until I am blue in the face. GET BACK TO THE BASICS! GET BACK TO THE BASICS! GET BACK TO THE BASICS! Please parents, understand that it starts with you. Don't talk about how busy you are, or how you have to work late and don't have time. Learn, take a cooking class or two or three. Learn how to organize your food pantry and LEARN TO COOK! I teach private classes and I had maybe two inquires last year. Today people want to be entertained, but you better wake up and get educated about food preparation. Look, just think about!

We have already lost two generations, how many more must we lose.

Attention Home-Based Bakers – Is Your Online Business Revenue Struggling

Friday, January 9, 2009

What purpose does a website serve today if it’s not generating revenue? I teach a home-based bakery course and work with home-based bakers who sell their baked goods either for a living or part-time to generate extra income for the household. As our economy dips further into a recession everyone is searching for ways to make extra money. It would be wrong to say all these little earn extra money schemes are effective, most aren’t and few people will tell you that.

When economic times are tough expendable income becomes more precious than gold, silver, and diamonds (combined) and trying to pry it from the super glue drenched hands of the everyday consumer is near impossible. I have friends and acquaintances who constantly want to send emails asking me to purchase this or that from their site and I want so badly to say, I am not spending the extra income I have on sweet smelling stuff, candles or other items that end up cluttering my home. If I am going to spend extra money on anything it is usually going to the theater, movie, out to dinner or planning a dinner party with family and friends.

There are simply too many online businesses chasing too little online revenue. The whole Web 2.0 social networking genre has created a multitude of online businesses whose main focus is to build followers and databases of contacts without a clear definition of how they will generate revenue.

For the home-based baker one way to create a sustainable income is to create forums whereby all consumers who purchase from you; receive your product over time. A sort of get your money up front ventures. For example, one home-based baker devised a plan to ship out miniature pound cakes (6 ounces) to retiring teachers across the nation who belongs to a specific organization. The organization has a database of retiring teachers and each time someone retires they receive a gift card congratulating them on their retirement and pound cake. The gift is personal. less expensive than flowers, rarely thrown away because it’s delicious.

I still believe people involved in the food business are some of the most creative folks on the planet. The one item people will always be interested in spending their expendable income on is FOOD!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Can you prepare a simple dish of Peppered Steak? As I look at all the ingredients involved in making this seemingly simply "skillet" dish, I began to realize the endless amount of knowledge about both ingredients and technique needed to make it a reality. Then I got to thinkin about the basic make up of this dish and...

Slow food. I know there are those of a different generation who want to think that this concept is something new, but it’s not. According to slowfoodusa.org, slow food embodies “the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.”

I'll stop now and tell the truth, I was not thinking about that as I prepared to make my Peppered Steak.

What I was pondering however was that in many parts of the world, our nation, even my community, the idea of "Slow Food" has never changed, it’s just that we now acknowledge that if we are to exist and produce food, healthy food on a global level we must change the way we think about food, the community and the environment.

Okay, I haven’t really said anything profound or anything you haven’t heard; but what most people don’t realize is that it is not so much about the food, it’s about the people, people!

I am going to make a statement and it has nothing to do with anyone outside the United States. I'm talking about Americans in the U.S.

“People don’t cook.” There I said it. What American’s are learning to do is “dabble” or work at cooking in an “amateurish manner.” Good old down-home cooks have gone the way of the Dinosaur.

Why do we watch cooking programs? So we can dabble in the kitchen. Do we really want to know the cold hard facts about cookin and what it's really all about? No. We want to dabble and throw a steak on the grill like Bobby Flay or garnish a plate with seasoning salt like Emeril, and shout BAM!

Folks don’t want to really cook, that’s like work, and that’s hard. Cooking involves thought, analysis, decision making and possible failure. Why would we want to get involved in all that since we have deal with "life" on a daily basis? It’s easier to just pull out a George Foreman grill and lay marinated salmon fillets on it for the allotted time. Right? Right?

Then I started to think about all that is involved in cooking. The physical energy needed along with the complex layers of knowledge to make really good food; not to mention the tiny tidbits of information that's usually shared at the hip of a mother or grandmother, (not in any cookbook) no wonder folks don’t cook.

What really brought it home for me was when I watched my daughter’s boy friend who loves to bake carrot cake, fill the carrot cake batter to the rim of the cake pan; never realizing that it would run over and cause a horrible mess in the oven. It did.

It was at that point that I knew we must teach people to cook. No, not watch Food TV Network, but really cook. We need a little old down-home grandma in every household, staffed by Mama Lula, Mama Mazolla, and even men like my grandfather affectionately known as “Poppie.” The unsung heroes and sheroes who appreciated the knowledge needed to prepare a good meal; who wanted (from the heart) to prepare a good meal. We now have two generations that don’t have a clue, no really, they don’t have a clue and for me that is scary. I can just see myself in a senior center having cardboard like substances shoved down my throat, being pawned off as the redeemable by-product of the new “Slow Food” initiative of 2025.

Food TV Network stop creating celebrity chefs and let’s get folks back in the kitchen learning about the craft, the act, dare I say the art of cooking.

I personally don't want a 30 minute meal, I want the real deal, even if it takes more than 30 minutes!

Jae's Oven Fresh Cinnamon Buns

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Well, my daughter, who is 28 years young finally learned to make cinnamon buns. She loves them and has wanted to do this for many years. What stopped her? Fear of failure. I kept telling her that old adage "if at first you don't succeed" well that didn't work, but for some reason on Monday, she got up the nerve and did it and this is the result.

No, it wasn't easy and they were not perfect. I know they might look good but this was her first try. They were to bake for 25 minutes and they really could have stood 18-20 minutes. They were a bit dry, but that's what learning is all about. I recently spoke to a man who was attempting to recreate his mom's potato rolls and did not know where to get fresh yeast. (fresh yeast is another blog) We talked for several minutes before also finding out that the recipe a family member had may not be the mom's original recipe. He was quite desperate since he wanted to serve these luscious rolls for Christmas dinner. I provided a couple of well respected sites where he might find a good recipe and told him to try the recipe three times. The first time to see if it works, the second time to get the bugs out...if it did work, and the third time would be a charm. He said he did not even want to trust messing up the first time.

This leads me to this question. Why is it so hard to get people to attempt new culinary endeavors? Why do people insist on having recipes work on the first try? What ever happen to "if at first you don't succeed try, try again." I know, I know, food is expensive, but you have to learn some way, right? What are your thoughts?

I teach cooking classes for a living and recently took my show online. I'm gonna teach personal one on one cooking techniques online. (you know schedule a time online and walk folks through the recipe) I'm hoping it will be a blast. With all this technology, I'm looking to reach those lurkers, fearful foodies, cooks and bakers who hide in the booth in the back in the corner in the dark...just dying to jump out and shake their culinary booty! I know you're out there and I'm coming to teach you...you little novice cook, you little budding baker...I see you.

Let me know your thoughts!

Cheap Meat

Thursday, December 4, 2008

One thing I have done to cut corners is ask the butcher at my local market to provide me with "Shanks and Bones with the meat on." For example I located a veal shank and lamb shank with very little meat, but enough meat to make a savory experiment. I asked the butcher how often he had these cuts and he said often but no one really purchases them because it's not enough to feed a family of four. My response was "I'll take it", I'm a family of one and sometimes two (empty nester) and this would be perfect for us. I now have the butcher's phone number and call him on Monday and Thursday to see what he has for the week. Okay, so you want to know how much I paid for the shanks? $3.01 for the veal and $1.03 for the lamb. No way...yes way! This was for the package of meat. Now, we don't eat a lot of meat (anyway) so I stretched it using lots and lots of vegetables. (mushrooms, onion, garlic, sweet and hot peppers etc)

I still have the veal in the freezer and I prepared the lamb into a wonderful lamb curry with couscous, of course served with marinated cucumber and red onion. There were no left overs, but now days I consider that a blessing, I know I'm not wasting food.

Go with the inexpensive cuts and cuts attached to a bone...you really can work wonders.

Share how you save on meat purchases at the supermarket?

How much are you willing to pay?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Well, it is official, we are in a recession. Oh no, don’t call me a pessimist, I heard it on CNN. No really...you know everything you hear on CNN is try? :-) Well, let's just say I'm a realist and have lived long enough to know that if you do not take responsibility for your actions, you are doomed to pay a costly price. Lesson learned…all good things come to an end. Now with that said let me Blog on.

Cooks and bakers, this is where the rubber meets the road and for many of us we are being forced to answer the question how much are we willing to pay? As I stroll down the grocery store isles and look at the price of food creeping higher and higher I have to wonder how much folks are willing to pay for the convenience of fast food; you know the stuff we make, quick, fast and in a hurry. You know those foods in the refrigerator and freezer section of the grocery that can be popped in the microwave to provide instant gratification.

I have been telling the students in my cooking and baking classes for years that they must learn to cook and bake, well; instant food is expensive and a dinosaur that will one day become extinct. Why you ask? Because it addresses the needs of millions, who have no time, no time, no time? In fact, for the first time in the lifetime of many Americans “time” will no longer be an issue, money will. The painful, honest truth is that when you cannot afford to buy convenience you buy the basics; rice that must be cooked, beans that must be cooked, meat that must be cooked and vegetables that must be steamed.

For those who are married to convenience foods, what would it take for you to begin to look at preparing food the good old fashioned way? Before I go on I should probably ask for your definition of convenience food. Some folks will say its fast food (restaurants only); others will say it is anything that makes life easy, like canned biscuits, frozen breakfasts boxes in the freezer selections and cold cuts. The dilemma is this, it takes a lot more effort and money to make thousands of frozen breakfast boxes than for you to scramble an egg, fry a couple slices of bacon and toast a slice of bread. Okay, I hear ya! It all takes too much time, but think about it this way, you probably won’t have a job in the next six to eight months so why not learn to eat real food? No, seriously, on the real, this whole economic disaster is going to cause millions of people to reexamine how they live, what they eat, where they work and what their future will look like.

It’s not all about “you”, it about how we all fit into the world and learn to survive with what the world has to offer. Now, with that said…how much are you willing to pay? Still not willing to give up those microwave sausages?

The stinky antibiotic aka "The Stickin Rose"

Friday, September 12, 2008

I have been a huge fan of the “stickin rose” for more than thirty years. I would eat it in everything if it did not have such an abusive aroma and pungent taste causing an offensive breath that could and have waken the dead. I have learned from experience that the more you chop or crush garlic the more potent it is; and when left in its raw form the flavor is quite subtle. If you are looking for a more gentle flavor try the elephant ear garlic, those jumbo cloves that often remind me of shallots in a strange kind of way.

What would garlic bread be without garlic or roasted garlic leg of lamb? My most famous memory was a wonderful garlic soup I had when my ex and I was in Orlando, Florida. It was a light cream soup garnished with little garlic croûtons. The flavor was delicate, but definitely garlicky. I am not into making garlic ice cream or using it in truffles but I do think it is one of those wonderful jewels that would be missed if left out of a dish. Do you have a favor garlicky dish? What is it? How much garlic can you stand at one sitting? Let me hear from you!

Cookbooks with No Photos

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

I just returned from a visit to a used bookstore and sat on this hard floor for more than an hour looking through cookbooks dated pre-1950s. I was specifically looking for books that do not have photographs. I know we have moved into a time when we now eat with our eyes and not our mind, okay so some of you don’t know what I mean, but believe it or not there was a time when I could just write about the food and it would get you drooling. Does anybody out there remember those times? Oh, okay.

Well after teaching cooking classes off and on for more than twenty years, I now know that folks in the U.S. have come to a point where they no longer have an imagination. Where did it go? I think when these colorful, frilly cookbooks and cooking magazines came into being; we started to eat with our eyes. I guest you could say we did what you folks are doing today with video games and television. Instead of going out to play, using your imagination, popsicles sticks and good old fashioned dirt, they twiddle their thumbs, text and play.

What would happen if we went the way of yesterday and removed many photos from our texts? Could you live in a world without food photographs in newspapers, magazines and books? What words could describe this Sweet Potato Pie?

Thank you Chef Paul Prudhomme

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I have been cooking and baking now for more than twenty five years (dare I say thirty) and although I can say that my mom, grandmothers, grandfathers, friends of my moms and others have been most influential in my culinary journey; there is a man who really helped me see the light when it came to putting dynamic flavor in food. I know this Blog will probably never be read by Chef Prudhomme it is good enough for me to put it out in the universe for God to see. I was first introduced to Chef through his first book titled Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. I prepared at least seventy-five percent of all the recipes in his books and all were not only reliable but absolutely delicious. I have followed his career being there through the passing of his beloved Kay and as he weaned and leaned his culinary talents. Through it all the favor of the food did not suffer and I respected that enormously.

I know there are people who see his name and think “oh yeah, that Cajun Chef,” but Chef Paul is so much more. He really brought about the need and appreciation for flavor to American food. It is not about cayenne pepper, it is not about spicy food; great Louisiana cooking is about the blending of flavors, the slow cooking and braising that makes food not just good but great.

There was one particular meal I would prepare for my father who lived at 1300 Lafayette in Detroit years ago. We would shop for all the ingredients and then I would go back with my little daughter in tow and prepare dinner for him. The meal was straight from Chef Paul’s cookbook. It was the Seafood Stuffed Whole Fish, with carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. I always served hot butter rolls and a light dessert lemon mousse or his favorite Maple Butter Cake, a simple butter cake with a seven minute maple syrup frosting. He never wanted anything different, the same menu each time I would visit. I have to say the seafood stuffing was spectacular and with the Shrimp Butter Cream Sauce. Yes, the food was rich, but it was not consumed often, usually once a month.

Chef Paul, I would say as I cooked, you are truly a culinary genius. I do not know of many Chefs today who put that much thought into their recipes. It is clear that the man knew exactly how he wanted the food to taste and strived to give the best flavor and texture possible. Today I use his natural syrups to sweeten foods and I enjoy all of his lean recipes. I too no longer cook like I use to, but don’t think I can’t when called upon to do so. I hope to make Chef Paul’s Turducken® this Thanksgiving and serve it to a whole new generation of people who don’t have a clue. I have made it several times in my lifetime and his recipe reins supreme. Last year I saw a Turducken® in a box and my daughter and I both had to laugh out loud and shuddered to think what was inside the box.

Let me end by saying thank you Chef Paul Prudhomme for changing the way I cook, the way I eat and the way I create recipes. It is not about just about the food, but the flavor, texture and technique. You are America’s real Iron Chef.

* Many years ago I met Chef Prudhomme in the parking lot of the Riverwalk while visiting New Orleans, he had just had lunch at Mulate’s. I asked him if he had any advice for a budding chef and he said “yes, try to figure out a way to keep your money.” In other words, irregardless of how much you make it really does disappear like snow in a furnace. Interesting!