The great recipe swindle

The idea that you can follow a recipe to the letter and produce impeccable results is a recent one; the problem is, it's nonsense. Have you busted any kitchen myths?
Antique recipe books

Just as a novel tells a story ("Oh dear yes", EM Forster complained), so a cookbook has recipes. And just as some novelists, such as Forster, have felt that a story is a regrettable element of fiction, so some cookery authors feel that recipes are regrettable elements of food writing.

In most cookbooks up to Elizabeth David's, recipes were somewhat perfunctory. You sometimes hear complaints that recipes of David's haven't worked; but that is because she assumed, I think, that readers would bring their own techniques to bear on them. I believe that she would have been surprised if readers took her words as precise, infallible instructions. Only since then have we taken on the idea that a recipe, should, if precisely followed, offer a route to culinary perfection.


At every stage in this process, the experienced cook makes decisions, and will probably have raised and lowered the heat under the pan several times. A recipe that attempted to describe precisely what influenced these decisions would be long and boring. It can give hints, such as "Fry the garlic gently, until it releases its aroma", or, "Simmer the sauce until thick", but that is about it.



Like Forster, I bit the bullet: I gave recipes, but all the while pointed out that these were templates rather than the last words on any dish; and, for those who wanted to read them, I followed the instructions with "why you do it" sections, offering some simple kitchen science. It seemed to me that for most home cooks, an understanding of how dishes work is more important than a set of instructions. You don't need recipes for most of what you put on the table from day to day.

I know: when you bake a cake, it's helpful to have a list of ingredients and precise guidelines. But here particularly, you need to know what is happening as you mix the ingredients and cook them. I'm not a skilled baker, I admit; but at least I know what has gone wrong when the centre of my cake caves in.

Along the way, I hope I've dispelled a few myths – though I must admit that they're not ones that careful readers of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking will entertain. Do you need to soak and fast-boil dried beans – and can you put salt in their cooking water? Do you rinse rice to wash away the starch? Or that old favourite, do you "seal" meat? And of course, do you salt aubergines?