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Cookbook recommendations that teach the basics and are accurate and consistent?
Posted on 6/21/18 at 8:42 am
Posted on 6/21/18 at 8:42 am
Last night I tried to make two new things and both failed. I tried to make ricotta cheese:
3 cups of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Heat milk, cream, and salt to 190, stir in lemon juice, and remove from heat for five minutes. Pour into a cheese cloth over a colander and let sit for ~60 minutes.
I got just under 1/4 cup of cheese even though the recipe promised a generous cup.
...and I tried making some homemade ravioli from Frank Stitt's (James Beard winner) Southern Table cookbook:
Pasta:
1 3/4 cup - 2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Make a well with the flour. Add eggs and oil. Stir flour into eggs at a slow pace until incorporated and turning into a wet dough. Knead for 5-7 minutes.
Dough was way too dry right off the bat. After looking up other recipes, it seems like homemade pasta dough needs a lot more eggs than 2 for 2 cups of flour. This was a total failure.
Other recipes that have failed me recently:
Frank Stitt's Southern Table pizza dough: way, way too wet of a dough. Had to add 1.5 cups of flour to get it to turn into a pizza dough.
Frank Stitt's Southern Table chess pie: not sure if I did something wrong, but the filling separated during baking. I followed the directions to the T.
Jamie Oliver's Ribs recipe: No where near enough cooking time. (posted about this here a few weeks ago)
Jamie Oliver's Wild Rice and Butternut Squash: 4 cups of stock to 4 cups of rice? Come on, man!
Joanna Gaines Biscuits: 4 cups self-rising flour plus baking powder and soda, 2 eggs, and 3 sticks of butter? That's a damn muffin!
Joanna Gaines Pancakes: an absurd amount of butter in the batter.
I've grown really tired of trying new recipes from cookbooks and finding that the basic part of the recipe is off. I understand that there are different schools of thought for cooking, but I just want something consistent. Let me try a new sauce or new filling for a pasta, but don't screw me over on the actual pasta recipe.
So anyways, done venting, any suggestions for learning basic things like cooking times, homemade pasta, and the like?
3 cups of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Heat milk, cream, and salt to 190, stir in lemon juice, and remove from heat for five minutes. Pour into a cheese cloth over a colander and let sit for ~60 minutes.
I got just under 1/4 cup of cheese even though the recipe promised a generous cup.
...and I tried making some homemade ravioli from Frank Stitt's (James Beard winner) Southern Table cookbook:
Pasta:
1 3/4 cup - 2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Make a well with the flour. Add eggs and oil. Stir flour into eggs at a slow pace until incorporated and turning into a wet dough. Knead for 5-7 minutes.
Dough was way too dry right off the bat. After looking up other recipes, it seems like homemade pasta dough needs a lot more eggs than 2 for 2 cups of flour. This was a total failure.
Other recipes that have failed me recently:
Frank Stitt's Southern Table pizza dough: way, way too wet of a dough. Had to add 1.5 cups of flour to get it to turn into a pizza dough.
Frank Stitt's Southern Table chess pie: not sure if I did something wrong, but the filling separated during baking. I followed the directions to the T.
Jamie Oliver's Ribs recipe: No where near enough cooking time. (posted about this here a few weeks ago)
Jamie Oliver's Wild Rice and Butternut Squash: 4 cups of stock to 4 cups of rice? Come on, man!
Joanna Gaines Biscuits: 4 cups self-rising flour plus baking powder and soda, 2 eggs, and 3 sticks of butter? That's a damn muffin!
Joanna Gaines Pancakes: an absurd amount of butter in the batter.
I've grown really tired of trying new recipes from cookbooks and finding that the basic part of the recipe is off. I understand that there are different schools of thought for cooking, but I just want something consistent. Let me try a new sauce or new filling for a pasta, but don't screw me over on the actual pasta recipe.
So anyways, done venting, any suggestions for learning basic things like cooking times, homemade pasta, and the like?
17
Posted on 6/21/18 at 8:45 am to StringedInstruments
For Italian, I like Marcella Hazan's, "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking".
Posted on 6/21/18 at 8:50 am to StringedInstruments
You have poor taste in cookbook choices. That's your primary problem.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 8:55 am to StringedInstruments
The number one thing you are doing is cooking to an exact recipe instead of using your instinct. You have basically self diagnosed why things didnt work. Most recipes are attempts to make something fluid (how one makes a dish based on a variety of factors like season, humidity, temperature, type of flour, ingredients, etc...) into something fixed.
On the ricotta, I can tell you that you strained too quickly.
On the ricotta, I can tell you that you strained too quickly.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 8:58 am to StringedInstruments
quote:
3 cups of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice
try Vinegar next time. I've made it a few times and just have to let it curdle longer.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 9:06 am to StringedInstruments
One of my favorite cookbooks over the years is one called "Talk About Good" and it now comes in 2 volumes. Both are chock full of great recipes that are so popular in La. and covers a broad range of recipes from soup to dessert.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 9:13 am to gumbo2176
Good call. Very good book with many well formed recipes.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 9:35 am to StringedInstruments
Joy of Cooking
Posted on 6/21/18 at 10:53 am to StringedInstruments
For baking and most things with flour, measuring ingredients by weight will give you more consistent results.
Helpful chart.
Helpful chart.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 11:36 am to Btrtigerfan
On Cooking is a great tool for teaching the basics. Keep in mind, it's a textbook. 
Posted on 6/21/18 at 11:42 am to StringedInstruments
Southern Sideboards is a standard, well-rounded, go-to cookbook for pretty much everything southern and more
Posted on 6/21/18 at 11:56 am to LSUEnvy
quote:
Joy of Cooking
Joy of Cooking helped me immensely.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 1:44 pm to Panny Crickets
quote:
On Cooking is a great tool for teaching the basics. Keep in mind, it's a textbook
I'm okay with textbooks. I'd like to get a few of them and then make my own reference chart so that I don't have to question basic things like making pasta dough or baking ratios.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 1:49 pm to StringedInstruments
I'm not a baker, but the Lahey no knead pizza dough is easy and terrific. Even I couldn't mess it up.
LINK
It's been recommended by multiple posters on TD.
LINK
It's been recommended by multiple posters on TD.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 1:52 pm to StringedInstruments
quote:
I'm okay with textbooks.
ABSOLUTELY get "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee, then. He explores the science behind cooking and explains not only what you're doing, but WHY you do it and what's happening at a molecular level when you do it.
Understanding what's going on when you're following a recipe and in the middle of cooking will allow you to better adjust on the fly as you see things not going quite right.
Incidentally, if you've ever watched Good Eats, there's a lot in this book that you'll instantly recognize. I don't mean "Hey, Alton Brown kinda did something like that", I mean "Hey, Alton Brown kinda lifted that straight out of this book". Alton Brown has made no secret of the fact that Harold McGee was responsible for a lot of the content of Good Eats and this book was one of the books that appear on shelves in the background.
This post was edited on 6/21/18 at 2:04 pm
Posted on 6/21/18 at 2:02 pm to StringedInstruments
You reference a number of baking failures. More than any other sort of cooking, baking is math and chemistry. Stop using recipes from non-bakers (looking at you, Joanna Gaines and Jamie Oliver) and STOP using volume measurements.
If you're looking at a baking recipe that uses volume rather than weight, find another recipe. Flour weight varies wildly by volume....I can scoop and sprinkle a cup and it's 4.25 oz, someone else smashes and packs and it's 5.5 oz. That's a huge variation, and if you compound it over several cups, it's easy to be using 25-30% more flour than the recipe requires. Ditto for eggs: most recipes are calibrated off of US standard Large sized eggs, but you may be leaving quite a bit of white in the shell, or using un-size-graded yard eggs, or have bought medium b/c they were on sale, or you always buy jumbo b/c you like big fat ones for devilled eggs. Buy a food scale and embrace weights rather than volume.
Hardcore baking recipes, esp bread recipes, are expressed as ratios/a formula (aka "baker's percentage") in which all ingredients are calculated as a percentage of the total flour weight. This allows you to very quickly scale up or down with no errors. Here's an example of a bavarian pretzel recipe from King Arthur Flour's website with the baker's percentage: LINK
Good books for baking include anything by Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Yotam Ottolenghi, Rose Levy Berenbaum, Mark Bittman, Carol Field, Peter Reinhart...and the aforementioned King Arthur Flour website is an excellent source of solid, tested recipes. KA's website recipes allow you to toggle between volume, ounces, and grams.
If you're looking at a baking recipe that uses volume rather than weight, find another recipe. Flour weight varies wildly by volume....I can scoop and sprinkle a cup and it's 4.25 oz, someone else smashes and packs and it's 5.5 oz. That's a huge variation, and if you compound it over several cups, it's easy to be using 25-30% more flour than the recipe requires. Ditto for eggs: most recipes are calibrated off of US standard Large sized eggs, but you may be leaving quite a bit of white in the shell, or using un-size-graded yard eggs, or have bought medium b/c they were on sale, or you always buy jumbo b/c you like big fat ones for devilled eggs. Buy a food scale and embrace weights rather than volume.
Hardcore baking recipes, esp bread recipes, are expressed as ratios/a formula (aka "baker's percentage") in which all ingredients are calculated as a percentage of the total flour weight. This allows you to very quickly scale up or down with no errors. Here's an example of a bavarian pretzel recipe from King Arthur Flour's website with the baker's percentage: LINK
Good books for baking include anything by Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Yotam Ottolenghi, Rose Levy Berenbaum, Mark Bittman, Carol Field, Peter Reinhart...and the aforementioned King Arthur Flour website is an excellent source of solid, tested recipes. KA's website recipes allow you to toggle between volume, ounces, and grams.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 2:09 pm to StringedInstruments
quote:
...and I tried making some homemade ravioli from Frank Stitt's (James Beard winner) Southern Table cookbook:
Pasta:
1 3/4 cup - 2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Make a well with the flour. Add eggs and oil. Stir flour into eggs at a slow pace until incorporated and turning into a wet dough. Knead for 5-7 minutes.
Dough was way too dry right off the bat. After looking up other recipes, it seems like homemade pasta dough needs a lot more eggs than 2 for 2 cups of flour. This was a total failure.
Nope--that's a perfectly fine ratio of eggs and oil to flour. What failed was your mixing....it is quite difficult for most amateur cooks to hand mix egg pasta. They inevitably quit before things are remotely sufficiently kneaded, or they think b/c the dough is dry and hard to mix, it must be wrong. No--next time, don't try to emulate an Italian nonna. Use the dang food processor or stand mixer and let 'er rip. Food processor is usually faster, in my experience. Once the dough is cohesive, pulse until it looks smooth & allow it to relax for 20-30 minutes before attempting to roll with a pasta machine. Flour it well, too. If you make the dough too wet, it will not thin properly and will gum up the pasta rollers. It's got to be dry to the touch and very well kneaded.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 2:13 pm to TigerstuckinMS
quote:I've seen an episode where Alton is clutching this book in his arm. It compelled me to purchase the book and it's an awesome read for a science geek. If you're familiar with the book you'll know that many of Alton's episodes are based on it.
"On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee
To the OP, you can never go wrong with Julia Child or Jacques Pepin. JP has a fantastic book on techniques.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 2:18 pm to StringedInstruments
quote:
Frank Stitt's Southern Table pizza dough: way, way too wet of a dough. Had to add 1.5 cups of flour to get it to turn into a pizza dough.
The pizza doughs I use are usually between 65% and 75% hydration (ie, ratio of water to flour).....the saying in bread and pizza is "the wetter the better". Recipe wasn't bad: you simply haven't worked with wet doughs & the recipe did not provide sufficient detail (or it did, and you didn't follow instructions, LOL) for you to be successful. 65% hydration pizza dough works best if aged at least 24 hrs, and the extensibility peaks around 48-55 hrs from initial mixing.
Wetter doughs tend to stick, so if you don't have all of your ingredients prepped & oven ready, you can't stretch out a crust and then start working on other things. If you struggle to shape and handle wet doughs, parchment paper is your friend. Shape the crust on parchment, which allows you time to screw around w/toppings. You can slide the pie, parchment and all, onto a hot stone or steel, wait a minute, then slip the parchment out from under the now-set crust. Of course, you can leave the parchment beneath the pizza throughout the cooking, but you will diminish the bottom browning & never get the sought-after "leopard spots" on the bottom.
Posted on 6/21/18 at 2:35 pm to StringedInstruments
quote:His tongue would yield some awesome lengua tacos.
Jamie Oliver
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