Things I want to see in recipes in cookbooks - Cookbook Authors - Eat Your Books

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Things I want to see in recipes in cookbooks   Go to last post Go to last unread
#1 Posted : Thursday, July 7, 2016 4:57:57 PM(UTC)

I just finished making a bar recipe that has the usual crumb topping/crust pressed in the pan.  I wish that cookbook authors would give the yield in recipes like this.  It's fine to tell me to reserve half of the mixture for the topping - but how about saying that you expect it would yield about 4 cups, and so reserve half (2 cups) for the top?


Another problematic item in recipes is sweet potatoes.  I hate it when the recipe says to use one sweet potatoe.  If you want to make a substitution, it's impossible because you don't have an actual measurement, such as 1 cup or 2 cups, etc.


I find the same problem with berries sometimes - I don't want to have a pint of blueberries as the ingredient; I want to know if I should have one cup or 1-1/2 cups, etc.


Has anybody else run into issues like this and know of any authors who provide this additional info on a regular basis?


This is one of the things I'm going to start looking at when I decide whether to buy a cookbook or not.

#2 Posted : Thursday, July 7, 2016 8:15:18 PM(UTC)

I appreciate having weight measurements for fruits and vegetables. This helps me in the grocery store, because produce comes in many sizes. Three potatoes may be 1.5 or 2 pounds, for example. All American grocery stores have scales, with both English (pounds and ounces) and metric (grams) measurements, in the produce section. I also have a digital food scale at home.


Also, remember: 2 cups = 1 pint; 2 pints = 1 quart, etc. 

#3 Posted : Thursday, July 7, 2016 9:08:46 PM(UTC)

I grow my own sweet potatoes, so I get a huge range of sizes in the kitchen - 1/2" across (I boil a pot full of the little guys and squeeze the good stuff out into a bowl), to behemoths that take two hands to lift (and a cleaver to cut). What's medium? LOL

One book that has good measurements is Serving up the Harvest. I have the version that is called "The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Book," which is the same book, but is a hardback. There are handy pages at the beginning of each vegetable section called "[vegetable name] math" The sweet potato one tells you how many cups diced/sliced/grated are in a pound.

Roots is nice. It has weights for most things (imperial and metric). It's not an "everyday" cookbook for me - lots of unusual recipes that I don't think my husband would be interested in (they all sure look tasty though). :)

Vegetable Literacy is a gardeners cookbook (or for farmer's market/CSA shoppers), organized by plant families. It's a lovely book, and gives you a pretty accurate idea of sizes/weights of vegetables to use.

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference This one has everything, even rarities like crosnes and oca, and they tell you how much to use in lbs.


For baking, the King Arthur flour cookbooks I have use both volume and weight measurements so if you are a scale baker, those are good options.

King Arthur Whole Grain Baking
The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion
The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

A book I just bought, but haven't used yet is The Everyday Baker. The recipes are EXTREMELY detailed. Flipping through I found a recipe for "Strawberry crumble topped bars," and one of the instructions says "divide in half (about 10 7/8oz/ 308 gm each)" wow.


These are all indexed.

#4 Posted : Thursday, July 7, 2016 9:11:43 PM(UTC)

Thank you so much for all of this wonderful information!  Just exactly what I was looking for.  I really appreciate your time and effort!!!

#5 Posted : Thursday, July 7, 2016 11:08:49 PM(UTC)

Glad I could help. Happy cooking! :)

#6 Posted : Friday, July 8, 2016 5:53:12 PM(UTC)
A pint is 600mls. A cup is 250mls. So a pint of berries is close enough to 2 1/2 cups not to matter.
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