(no subject)
On Usenet* there was a thread about a no-knead bread recipe. Some people had a lot of success with it, some people weren't so impressed, and one dude couldn't make it work *at all*, and was very upset eager to let everyone know how smart he was. So he responded listing all the things he had done to fix the recipe - changing proportions, adding sugar, using a different type of flour - and explaining why each of those things was necessary for the recipe to work. And of course, someone responded to let him know that perhaps he should try actually making the recipe as written before he started "fixing" it.
That's a message that's always stuck with me, because I have a tendency to do the same thing. Normally, I'm good at curbing it, but recently I got a pasta machine for Christmas. The instructions said "mix 500g of flour with 5 eggs." I figured I was safe to make somewhat less, so I used 300g of flour and 3 eggs. Reasonable! But then I mixed it, and kneaded it, and it was still a shaggy mess with loose flour in the bottom of the bowl, so I splashed some water on my hands, figuring maybe they were expecting extra large eggs instead of large. And everything went fine from there until I tried to cut the pasta, and it was a sticky mess.
The next attempt, I stuck to the recipe as written, apart from changing the proportions, and everything went much better. So: a good reminder that if I'm going to bother following a recipe, I ought to actually follow the recipe.
* - initially, I wrote "A long time ago, on Usenet," but I realized the first bit was redundant.
That's a message that's always stuck with me, because I have a tendency to do the same thing. Normally, I'm good at curbing it, but recently I got a pasta machine for Christmas. The instructions said "mix 500g of flour with 5 eggs." I figured I was safe to make somewhat less, so I used 300g of flour and 3 eggs. Reasonable! But then I mixed it, and kneaded it, and it was still a shaggy mess with loose flour in the bottom of the bowl, so I splashed some water on my hands, figuring maybe they were expecting extra large eggs instead of large. And everything went fine from there until I tried to cut the pasta, and it was a sticky mess.
The next attempt, I stuck to the recipe as written, apart from changing the proportions, and everything went much better. So: a good reminder that if I'm going to bother following a recipe, I ought to actually follow the recipe.
* - initially, I wrote "A long time ago, on Usenet," but I realized the first bit was redundant.