What makes you bypass a recipe?

The NYT published an article on this today. What is your no-go for a recipe?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/dining/04recipes.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

G

Most frequently, it's time. I can usually substitute ingredients, but occasionally it's not possible.

1. time
2. ingredients that you really can't sub (and probably can't find)
3. expensive ingredients prepared with brand-new-to-me techniques

Canned cream of mushroom soup.

(I didn't rtfa; did they mention that?)

Canned cream of mushroom soup.

I thought your response would be "meat."

Canned cream of mushroom soup.

(I didn't rtfa; did they mention that?)

No, but they did mention: First corral a pig.

I thought your response would be "meat."

Surprisingly not. There are quite a few dead animal recipes that can be adapted for vegetarians. It just takes a little creativity and something that I don't have a word for- the ability to mentally put together flavors and textures to see how they fit.

Too time consuming, too complex and unavailable ingredients, like many others I suspect.

The following key words or phrases usually cause me to run the other way.

"Poach"
"Brine"
"Roll out the dough"
"Add the raisins"
"Hang the duck and prop the hairdryer up..."

Or, any savory recipe that includes allspice and/or cinnamin. My husband, unfortunately can't deal with those flavors in a savory dish. That leaves out a lot of middle-eastern recipes.

It is having to use more than 8-10 ingredients (excluding S&P). Have found few great recipes with 15+ ingredients. Simple flavors are much better, IMHO.
Walt

The following key words or phrases usually cause me to run the other way.

"Poach"
"Brine"
"Roll out the dough"
"Add the raisins"
"Hang the duck and prop the hairdryer up..."

Or, any savory recipe that includes allspice and/or cinnamin. My husband, unfortunately can't deal with those flavors in a savory dish. That leaves out a lot of middle-eastern recipes.

WOW!!! We brine/marinate almost all meats except fish. Poached salmon last night to take to a jazz concert tonight and love raisins. Guess that is what makes the world go around. Don't think I have ever done the duck -hair dryer thing
Walt

The following key words or phrases usually cause me to run the other way.

"Poach"
"Brine"
"Roll out the dough"
"Add the raisins"
"Hang the duck and prop the hairdryer up..."

Or, any savory recipe that includes allspice and/or cinnamin. My husband, unfortunately can't deal with those flavors in a savory dish. That leaves out a lot of middle-eastern recipes.

WOW!!! We brine/marinate almost all meats except fish. Poached salmon last night to take to a jazz concert tonight and love raisins. Guess that is what makes the world go around. Don't think I have ever done the duck -hair dryer thing
Walt

Walt, we marinate a lot too and usually love the results. After several attempts at brining, however, the results are always too salty and taste too "processed" for us. I recognize that many people do brine and enjoy the results, so no problem with that.

As far as poaching, we just prefer a "sear" or at least a good browning on most of our proteins (except eggs, but we don't like them very "jiggly" either.) Poaching just doesn't give us the flavor/texture we are after.

You're right -- different strokes!

[Jenise]

Great thread! Been thinking over your question since reading the article a little bit ago, and to tell you the truth? Beyond anything that requires me to first kill an animal, I can't think of anything that sends me running.

Funny though, Kim's (Kim Severson, author of the article) is an old acquaintance and I may have been around when "First, corral a pig" became a hot topic. She was the food writer for the Anchorage Daily News when I lived up there, and she and I spent one fantastically hedonistic culinary weekend out in the boonies (we had to be flown in by sea plane, landing on a river) of interior Alaska. The first evening there they served us a buffet that included a number of different dishes all involving pork. The next morning, we had sumptuous thick house-smoked bacon. We also met the pet pig, an enormous and entirely ornery beast that would block the path from our cabins to the lodge and charge trespassers. Like us. Her name was Caroline.

Another guest that weekend was a lovely chef from the James Beard House. She, Kim and I collectively gulped when we learned that Caroline's 'husband' had been the source of all that fantastic pork, and that as soon as the next bag of corn was done, so, effectively, was Caroline. Even as inhospitable as that sow was, upon the occasion of each encounter we'd call out to her, "Eat slow!" And we wondered aloud if we could ever pull a trigger, or whatever you do, to get the pork we wanted to make great pork food. Ham or Caroline? Us three ladies all chose Caroline.

I've not changed, though I've learned to kill crab in the belief that if I'm going to pull it out of the ocean then I must participate all the way, or not at all. But crab aren't cute.

Out of the barn and back into the kitchen, though, there's no technique or instruction that I just won't do. I kind of like it all, and complex recipes are challenging and rewarding. If it includes things I don't have or don't like, I feel no remorse at changing as neccessary to suit.

I do hate kneading bread, though.

I'm kind of with Jenise on this one. However, after our recent cooking challenge, if I had read Jenise's recipe and it started with first, drain the chickpeas to make the flour, at that point I would have dropped out. A recipe has to resonate with me on some level -- then I will go for it. I don't care whether there are 25 steps or if all the ingredients are not readily available (I will make the trip to find it -- I usually have an idea of where); I will go for it. Sometimes it's the challenge (like trying to duplicate the rillette I had in France), and sometimes its the sheer pleasure of eating something that I think will be heavenly upon completion (99.5% of the time I am right). I have never had to kill my own food (except for seafood occasionally). But, unlike Jenise, so much do I love the flavor and texture of pork that I would have had no compunction about bringing Caroline to her early demise. Give me the gun! Plus, the only way I can relate to most animals is as some opportunity for a culinary delight. I am not the person you want to pet sit!

[Jenise]

After several attempts at brining, however, the results are always too salty and taste too "processed" for us. I recognize that many people do brine and enjoy the results, so no problem with that.

Brines don't need to contain half as much salt as many recipes would indicate. In fact, if you took two chicken breasts, say, and sprinkled each side with a bit of salt--about the amount you'd actually use to season it, or a little more if you're a very light salter--then an equal amount of sugar and then place in a bowl just big enough for both and then add water (and maybe wine) to just cover, you'd have enough to make a brine. Four hours is plenty. Add herbs for more flavor. Too much salt and too long a brine makes the food you complain about, but not all brines have that result. But I believe we talked about this before....

I've had to think about this question for a little while. In general, I'll bypass recipes that call for prefab ingredients like precooked rice or canned soup or bottled salad dressings. I don't want food that tastes mass-produced, so those "shortcuts" don't appeal to me at all. Beyond that, I'm ready to try just about anything, assuming I have the time and can find most if not all the ingredients. I'm not afraid to substitute ingredients, so I can usually work my way around a weird ingredient that I might not want to search out (i.e. "dried, smoked cuttlefish").

Like Jenise and others, I would balk at killing any animal other than a fish or crustacean.

[Robin Garr]

I was going to claim that I'll try any recipe, but upon reading through the thread, I recognized a couple of no-nos for me.

One, the "can of mushroom soup" comment is no joke. There's a whole genre of what I snarkily call "Woman's Day magazine" recipes, basically '60s style stuff using canned soups and similar short-cut ingredients, that I tune right out.

The other no-go for me, as someone (Jeff?) said, is deep frying. Just too much trouble to use that much oil, knowing that I'll end up wasting it. If I want deep fried, it's really easy to go out and get it.

[Jenise]

Okay, now Robin and Ines have me needing to add to my answer. I didn't rule out what Robin so aptly called the Womens Day kind of recipes--I don't read that kind of publication, so I never get to the point of bypass.

[Robin Garr]

Okay, now Robin and Ines have me needing to add to my answer. I didn't rule out what Robin so aptly called the Womens Day kind of recipes--I don't read that kind of publication, so I never get to the point of bypass.

Ahhhh ... but if you Google for recipes often, you'll run across a fair segment of them. I'd estimate maybe 20 percent of my hits on a recipe search strike me as this kind of recipe, but maybe I'm a tough grader.

I was going to claim that I'll try any recipe, but upon reading through the thread, I recognized a couple of no-nos for me.

One, the "can of mushroom soup" comment is no joke. There's a whole genre of what I snarkily call "Woman's Day magazine" recipes, basically '60s style stuff using canned soups and similar short-cut ingredients, that I tune right out.

The other no-go for me, as someone (Jeff?) said, is deep frying. Just too much trouble to use that much oil, knowing that I'll end up wasting it. If I want deep fried, it's really easy to go out and get it.

How about the recipes with cream of celery soup? Or cream of anything? I'm witcha.

I'll have to partially add the deepfrying thing. I have a FryBaby that doesn't use much oil when I fry shrimp chips, rice sticks, onion rings, etc., but if the recipe calls for a gallon or so, forget about it.

[Jenise]

Okay, now Robin and Ines have me needing to add to my answer. I didn't rule out what Robin so aptly called the Womens Day kind of recipes--I don't read that kind of publication, so I never get to the point of bypass.

Ahhhh ... but if you Google for recipes often, you'll run across a fair segment of them. I'd estimate maybe 20 percent of my hits on a recipe search strike me as this kind of recipe, but maybe I'm a tough grader.

I'm sure you're no tougher than I am. It's probably a matter of where you're looking. I rarely google recipes in general--Epicurious is my go-to website for online recipe searches and their content is largely sourced from Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. Things I want that might require a more general recipe search, like "Filipino pork belly" to name the most recent, are few and far between and usually ethnically directed, things for which the kind of shortcut recipes you're talking about just don't exist.

Over the years I have tried many things, recipes with many ingredients, recipes with canned soups, brining, unusual ingredients (I can find most anything) too many and complicated steps, nothing has really stopped me from trying a recipe I've connected with. However, over the years I've stopped doing certain things, all of which has to do with aging and realizing life is just too short to be in the kitchen doing cooking chores that don't really matter. Consequently, I do not brine, (marinate, I do) don't search to the ends of the earth for unusual ingredients unless I know I will use it up. I dislike complicated steps and too many of them. I don't roll out dough, too messy. I don't fry because it is unhealthy and makes a mess. I have a Fry Baby and use it outside, maybe once every three to five years.
I finally realized how lucky we are to live in California, Northern California to be exact and by using in season fresh food, one does not need to make a fussy meal. Nothing better than simple foods, fresh from the garden, and prepared to show off nature's sweetness. But I'm fickle.....maybe next week, I might get a surge of energy and cook all morning in the kitchen.

Deal breakers for me are 2 things:

Recipes for food that I know I can get take-out that will taste just as good as mine, ie, pizza, chinese, sushi...for me there is no reason to go through all the trouble to have it taste only as good as the nearest restaurant. I want to make something that I can't get...which, in Northern NJ, are things like BBQ or great steak (I can get these things, but have to go to expensive restaurants, far away, and find a sitter...LOL!) When I was living in Chicago, I made lots of Chinese food and pizza/Italian...since I had a hard time finding good take out for that there.

The other deal breaker is dealing with ingredients I am not familiar with or recipes for food I am not familiar with. I am really not very well versed in most ethnic cuisine. I haven't even tried much of it yet, so I am not sure what it is supposed to taste like. For me, it's difficult to make a recipe, if I am not sure how it should turn out.

I would easily kill an animal to eat it...if I knew how to hunt or properly do it. I am very good at doing seafood (catching and filleting fish, shucking clams, boiling lobster and crabs) but haven't had an opportunity to hunt yet...someday!

I would have no problem trying any difficult techinique or finding ingredients if the result was something that was amazing and I couldn't get easily.

Oh and Jenise...I don't really like kneading either...I love my bread machine for that

I will take shortcuts or substitute often...and it usually turns out well. If not, I don't do that recipe again. If the recipe makes too many servings, I will try and cut it in half.

I would easily kill an animal to eat it

I remember once, while digging my spoon into a steaming bowl of chili (yes, with pinto beans - I happen to like 'em), I looked up at the big whitetail buck head just back from the taxidermist, and I said, "you sure are tasty!") My wife (first one) almost choked on hers.