how two things are different
Cooking from a recipe book is incredibly different from cooking from recipes online.
Here is how I cook from a recipe book:
I am bored or hungry and flip through the book.
I find something I think I can make.
I write down the ingredients.
I go to Kroger's and get any ingredients I don't have.
I make the thing, making my best guess as to what any techniques I don't know might involve.
It turns out probably OK.
Here is how I cook from recipes online:
I want to make saag paneer.
I look up "saag paneer."
I click on the first five recipes that pop up. I choose two of them. I repeat the process until I have a number of recipes to choose from that don't use Cheez Whiz.
I compare the recipes. They all have a similar process, but the spice blends are different.
I freak out slightly. I write down the spice proportions and note which ones are mostly present in large quantities, small quantities, etc.
I search "authentic saag paneer" and find a video of a lady making homemade paneer.
I check out a cooking forum I like and see if anyone has posted anything about saag paneer lately. Finding that they have not, I post a question about it. I get five responses, three sarcastic and two serious. One response tells me to go to an ethnic grocery if I can.
I look up "saag paneer" on Wikipedia and find that there is no definitive recipe, but I learn what the words mean.
I go to the Indian grocery store and get unsolicited advice from an Indian lady about which garam masala blend is better. I tell her I am making saag paneer for the first time and she smiles and says, "Don't worry, it will turn out OK."
I go home, make paneer with the help of the video, then make the other part and dump in vague proportions of spice that I think I might like.
It turns out completely awesome, and I've learned many new things.
*
I'm culling my books right now. This involves lugging more than a dozen huge boxes up from the basement, going through my bookshelf and picking out which ones I don't really need anymore, finding a new way to store my DVDs, and making an enormous pile of books and empty cardboard boxes on the floor. The poor cat is SO confused.
I said I wouldn't toss any books, but I am doing so. I threw several in the garbage and they weren't damaged or moldy. Why?
It's not like burning books. Burning books is turning something into ashes, scouring it from the earth, transforming it. You are saying, "I wish this book never existed. I will keep anyone else from reading it."
Tossing a book isn't like that. The book still exists. It is still paper. It is just in the landfill. Someone else might find it, or it might make very good worm food. You are saying, "I do not think this book is worth anything to me. I do not wish to take responsibility for passing it onto another person and sharing its abhorrent ideas or waste of space story."
I have tossed several books that weren't damaged or moldy. Some were simply out of date manuals for things I don't own. But two of them were actively offensive to me. I'd never burn them or wish they didn't exist, but I don't want to be responsible for putting them in someone else's hands.
Here is how I cook from a recipe book:
I am bored or hungry and flip through the book.
I find something I think I can make.
I write down the ingredients.
I go to Kroger's and get any ingredients I don't have.
I make the thing, making my best guess as to what any techniques I don't know might involve.
It turns out probably OK.
Here is how I cook from recipes online:
I want to make saag paneer.
I look up "saag paneer."
I click on the first five recipes that pop up. I choose two of them. I repeat the process until I have a number of recipes to choose from that don't use Cheez Whiz.
I compare the recipes. They all have a similar process, but the spice blends are different.
I freak out slightly. I write down the spice proportions and note which ones are mostly present in large quantities, small quantities, etc.
I search "authentic saag paneer" and find a video of a lady making homemade paneer.
I check out a cooking forum I like and see if anyone has posted anything about saag paneer lately. Finding that they have not, I post a question about it. I get five responses, three sarcastic and two serious. One response tells me to go to an ethnic grocery if I can.
I look up "saag paneer" on Wikipedia and find that there is no definitive recipe, but I learn what the words mean.
I go to the Indian grocery store and get unsolicited advice from an Indian lady about which garam masala blend is better. I tell her I am making saag paneer for the first time and she smiles and says, "Don't worry, it will turn out OK."
I go home, make paneer with the help of the video, then make the other part and dump in vague proportions of spice that I think I might like.
It turns out completely awesome, and I've learned many new things.
*
I'm culling my books right now. This involves lugging more than a dozen huge boxes up from the basement, going through my bookshelf and picking out which ones I don't really need anymore, finding a new way to store my DVDs, and making an enormous pile of books and empty cardboard boxes on the floor. The poor cat is SO confused.
I said I wouldn't toss any books, but I am doing so. I threw several in the garbage and they weren't damaged or moldy. Why?
It's not like burning books. Burning books is turning something into ashes, scouring it from the earth, transforming it. You are saying, "I wish this book never existed. I will keep anyone else from reading it."
Tossing a book isn't like that. The book still exists. It is still paper. It is just in the landfill. Someone else might find it, or it might make very good worm food. You are saying, "I do not think this book is worth anything to me. I do not wish to take responsibility for passing it onto another person and sharing its abhorrent ideas or waste of space story."
I have tossed several books that weren't damaged or moldy. Some were simply out of date manuals for things I don't own. But two of them were actively offensive to me. I'd never burn them or wish they didn't exist, but I don't want to be responsible for putting them in someone else's hands.