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Tuesday, 2 February 2010

KITCHEN TALK: Changing Recipes

I'm all for trying new recipes ... that's what this blog is all about! :) Occasionally people take a recipe and make changes to it hoping for it to be better than the original. This works sometimes ... and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes people find a recipe then make so many changes to the original recipe that the new recipe no longer resembles the original. I'm OK with that ... I encourage it actually. I find baking/cooking to be a very creative outlet.

That being said, I do have a pet peeve. Often I go on certain recipe sites that allow for people to rate recipes and comment on them (a la allrecipes.com). I love the fact that 'ordinary people' (not chefs with 3 Michelin stars and oodles of restaurants) can comment on what they liked or disliked about a certain recipe.

But ... when people change a recipe so much so that it no longer resembles the original then criticize and give poor ratings to the original recipe ... that just bugs me. If they changed so many ingredients or amounts ... of course it isn't going to turn out the same way. I don't lose sleep over it but it just doesn't seem right.

I saw a recipes review once where the person berated the original recipe because it didn't turn out right. The texture and taste were all wrong. But the poster had omitted all of the butter/oil, changed the flour from all-purpose to whole wheat, omitted the salt etc etc etc. So many changes were made ... then criticized the original recipe.

But, the reverse can also be true. Sometimes you can find a good recipe but then add on to it so much that it becomes an amazing recipe. I love taking a recipe and tweaking it to suit my family's tastes. If I do this I'll then go onto allrecipes.com (or a similar site) and post the changes that I made and how well it worked out. I love to read other posters' comments before I try a recipe to see if they have any tips for making a recipe better.

As I said above, cooking is a very creative (not to mention cathartic) outlet for some of us. We just have to play nicely while we make our new creations. :)

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