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Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

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Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#511

Post by ghaff »

therealcamino wrote: post #390
than3 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No such book actually exists. There's a french book that covers basic/common procedures and a reader's digest book but those are about it; and they definitely are not beginner oriented.

That's just not true. Every generation has its own version of this. In the 60s-70s, it was The Joy of Cooking. In the 90s it was How To Cook Everything. Based on the replies there are some candidates for today.

The Joy of Cooking still takes up the bulk of its pages with recipes. Though pretty much all cookbooks did pre-Web. You got recipes out of big cookbook volumes (as well as newspapers etc.)

I agree with your basic point though. And there are tons of cookbooks today that do spend pages on relevant techniques--though certainly some are celebrity chef memoirs interspersed with recipes and high-quality photoss.

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#512

Post by donohoe »

silverlake wrote: post #506
isaacfrond wrote: post #131

My sister in law writes recipes. She has a recipe column in a newspaper and wrote a few high quality recipe books. I saw them in a bookstore. So she's reasonable successful. Her pieces are charming, her recipes inspiring. The thing is. At a birthday party when I was talking to her, she confessed to me that she never actually tries her recipes. When it's time to do a new piece, she sits down at her computer and makes…

From what I’ve read and seen, many cookbook authors test their recipes repeatedly in home kitchens. Most have testers or volunteers to ensure they make sense and work. By contrast I have some books that are restaurant recipes they purposely did not modify for home use. They are ridiculously complex and interesting. For example, here America’s Test Kitchen: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/5237-join-our-c.…

Yes, most do! If you want a fortress of well-tested recipes I highly recommend Smitten Kitchen. Everything tested to great depths...

https://smittenkitchen.com/

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#513

Post by Sakos »

jraph wrote: post #200
isaacfrond wrote: post #131

My sister in law writes recipes. She has a recipe column in a newspaper and wrote a few high quality recipe books. I saw them in a bookstore. So she's reasonable successful. Her pieces are charming, her recipes inspiring. The thing is. At a birthday party when I was talking to her, she confessed to me that she never actually tries her recipes. When it's time to do a new piece, she sits down at her computer and makes…

Ah ah, it's like an experienced developer committing code and releasing it without running / testing it first. It would not happen. Right? Right?

It's more like deploying code to production without at the very least running it once. That would be really fucking dumb. Most people don't do that. The above comment is saying that most cookbooks are hot garbage and dont have recipes that have been used once.

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#514

Post by SamBam »

sanitycheck wrote: post #421

I've had this conversation with people many times, a consequence is that some of them have no idea what caramelised onions actually are - they think it's the state you get to after 10 mins. Thinly slice 10 onions, dump them in a big pot with some oil on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes stirring frequently. Then turn the heat down to low and cook for a further 45-60 mins, check on it and stir every 10 mins or so. When…

The real issue is simply a vague use of the word "caramelize," not that they expect you to be at the stove a half-hour longer than they say.

The vast majority of recipes that say "caramelize" simply mean "cook until softened and sweet." No, technically the onions won't be caramelized after 15 minutes, but very few recipes actually want you to caramelize the onions.

Take an Italian pasta sauce. As an Italian who has cooked (and eaten) across Italy, I can say that there are nearly zero sauces where the onions are supposed to be caramelized. Yet people routinely use the word "caramelize" when describing cooking the onions for a pasta sauce.

The wrong reaction to reading that word would be to say "these damn recipe writers don't know how long that takes, dinner's going to be late kids, I guess it's going to be 45 minutes before I can add the next ingredient." The right reaction would be to cook the onions for the given time, until they are soft and translucent, and forget the word "caramelize."

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#515

Post by underratedbug »

kuu wrote: post #289
underratedbug wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is so clearly true I wonder if the author intentionally “misunderstood” the situation so they could rant. Bonus points for commenters years later making the same “mistake”. No, they don’t really mean caramelization. No, no one else cares.

There are almost 300 comments in this post, I would say someone else cares :)

Ha! Fair point. I suppose I meant normal people that don’t comment on internet cooking rants like us :P

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#516

Post by bluGill »

kqr wrote: post #361
henrikschroder wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if I needed more fuel on the fire of my burning hatred for recipe collections. Everyone who is interested in cooking should do themselves a favour and buy a proper cookbook. Something that starts with the basics, and works itself up to full meals. It should have cheat-sheets for basic ways to cook all your staples, here's all the ways you can cook a potato, with times and temperature. Here's all the ways you can s…

I'm learning cooking as an adult (if I had to grade myself, I'd say "early-stage apprentice") and it's by far one of the most difficult things I've learned. One of the reasons is this: > A timer can never replace the knowledge of how something is supposed to look, feel, and smell when it's done or not. And it's not only that. If you just eat a lot, you'll know what things are supposed to look like when they are done.…

A fun one is salt to taste early on when the dish isn't safe to taste - raw eggs are in the bowl for example. Not to mention the amount of salt to make the batter taste good is not always the same amount you want after baking is done.

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#517

Post by hk1337 »

isaacfrond wrote: post #131

My sister in law writes recipes. She has a recipe column in a newspaper and wrote a few high quality recipe books. I saw them in a bookstore. So she's reasonable successful. Her pieces are charming, her recipes inspiring. The thing is. At a birthday party when I was talking to her, she confessed to me that she never actually tries her recipes. When it's time to do a new piece, she sits down at her computer and makes…

I am convinced they add red and yellow bell peppers strictly because they think the dish needs more color.

I _hate_ bell peppers. I can tolerate them in big chunks where I can pick them out but if you dice them up and mix it in, I won't eat it.

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#518

Post by conductr »

bruckie wrote: post #110

Recipe writers are still lying about cooking time in 2023. I signed up for a Hello Fresh promo recently to get some new meal ideas, and it's making me feel like the slowest cook on the planet. I reliably exceed their stated prep and cooking times by 100-200%. Tonight's "40 minute" recipe took about 70 minutes, and that was with a family member helping out with some of the prep and cooking. I wonder if they collect an…

Mirrors my experience. Prep work is the most underestimated part. I think they start with everything out on the counter and unpackaged and with necessary tooling lined up and ready. But those things take time. For me, something like mincing garlic cloves takes a solid 5-10 minutes alone and is one of the things that consistently stands out as they must have started with minced garlic to get to this time estimate.

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#519

Post by zamnos »

grumple wrote: post #499
pkilgore wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just FYI you can easily cook a room temp chicken breast or thigh (or lots of them) 4 minutes a side directly below a broiler on a broiler pan, letting them rest covered for 5 afterwards. Add a minute for the genetic freak 2+ inch thick ones. You will need to pat the moisture off them first and brush with oil.

You may have changed the color of the meat and killed off the bacteria to make it safe to eat, but you didn't make good chicken. It takes time and lower heat to cook through, create good flavor, and get good texture. Sure you can put any food in an incinerator for 2 minutes and it's "cooked", but not really.

How do your want to define cooked then? cooked != tasty it just means it's no longer pink and will kill you with salmonella inside. Doesn't mean it's not dry or bland or any other implications

Re: Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

#520

Post by yakubin »

ghusbands wrote: post #465
shakna wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they do both use PDF.js [0]. [0] https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

Chrome uses PDFium [1], not PDF.js. [1] https://github.com/chromium/pdfium

Which is significantly snappier than pdf.js on big and moderately-sized PDFs.
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