Starbucks 'Trenta': How The New Size Compares To Your Stomach
Famous Death Row Last Meals
You might remember me gushing over Becks & Posh's perfectly posh cookbook note-taking last October. The image had sent me into a flurry of thoughts about how much more I should be writing in my cookbooks, and made me wish that my writing looked nicer when I did get out the pen. But all of that was about comments, substitutions, and all-around good cookbook tidings.
But what do you do when the recipe, to put it bluntly, sucks? Once again, we have note-taking gold via Becks & Posh. It seems that once, poor Sam made a Castagnaccio, which went down in infamy as "really bad food Sam has made." It was so bad, in fact, that she wrote the above note in the margin. if you can't read it: "This is the shittiest crapest most disgusting tasting cake I ever made in my WHOLE LIFE."
So it got me thinking: What do you do when a recipe turns out terribly? Do you rant in the margins? Cross it out with a big, thick X? Doodle a little skull and crossbones near the title?* Clip it out and give it to a friend to try, so they can unknowingly share your tastebud misery?
*Now that is what every cook needs: small skull and crossbones stickers to plunk down on offensive recipes!
Jane Seymour's Modest And Modern Style
Broke Stars: 11 Celebrities Who Went Bankrupt
LOOK: Amazing Underwater Photos Of Dogs
Adele Five-Year Break? Singer Plans to Focus on Relationship, Write 'Happy Record'
Social Security Is Failing Even Faster Than We Thought
PHOTOS: How You Can Get The 'Miracle' Dress
Man Says Starbucks Discriminated Against Him Because He Has Half An Arm
Chris Brown, Grammys 2012: Embattled Singer Slams Critics
Janice Dickinson's Outrageous Style
Ford's clever Sports Illustrated Swimsuit ad features phantom model
3 Economic Misconceptions That Need to Die
Photos Of Dead Lacrosse Player's Injured Body Shown To Jury
Trace Adkins Reunites With College Crush, 30 Years Later
Van Gogh's Starry Night modded into beautiful interactive light and sound show (video)
PHOTOS: Model Falls At Dennis Basso Show
'Hooker Teacher' Forced To Resign, Now Can't Find Work
Lauren Scruggs Goes On Ski Vacation
WATCH AND LAUGH: Cops In 2-Hour Standoff With Empty Car
Woman's Dead Fiance Is Behind Her Disappearance: Cops
Stephen Wiltshire Draws Cities From Memory
We Meant There WERE Nukes In The Fire
3-09-2009 @8:41PM Sarah said... Cross out the recipe and mark it as why it was so gross :-D
Reply
3-09-2009 @8:49PM Winker said... I've always written in my cookbooks. People have always acted like I'm defacing valuable property. But I love it especially since I cook a lot, have a ton of cook books and a terrible memory. Sometimes I'll be looking at my old notes and can't remember making the dish. I'm going to start dating them like I see in your post.
Reply
3-09-2009 @9:42PM KF said... YOu know, I used to write in cookbooks all the time, but typically it was adjustments I made and "good" or "great" -- etc. Seldom "horrible" although I did find a cookbook from my teens where I wrote "gross" or "yuck" a few times. I should make more notes for future generations. As it stands now, as a food blogger I post good and bad dishes, and with the bad, I just tag them "lame" and tell people why I won't repeat it as written. Sometimes, it's helpful because someone will come along and say "Well no wonder that didn't turn out. Did you use Ingredient Type X? It doesn't work, you have to use Ingredient Type Y or you'll get slop." That can be helpful.
Reply
3-09-2009 @11:10PM FoodieSearching said... I put a big "X" with a sharpie marker next to bad recipes in mine. I have also been known to write "don't use this one" and "yuck" too. I figure, they're my cookbooks and need to be annotated.
Good recipes get a check, or a "this is good." The better the recipe, it seems like the more times "good" gets underlined.
Reply
3-09-2009 @11:39PM kerosene said... A big "No!" next to the recipe works for me. Alternatively, "OK" and "Great".
Reply
3-10-2009 @2:49AM Samme said... Most of my notes focus on how to make the recipe better. I have found several recipes that needed 2-3 times the thickener, or half, way less salt, way more salt, vegetables etc. to make them tasty to my palate.
I consider these things to be errors (sometimes I am sure they are)and I fix them in my notes.
I have so far been fortunate enough to not find anything truly irredeemable. If so I would probably just mark through the recipe so it wouldn't accidentally be used by someone who ignores margin notes.
Reply
3-10-2009 @4:55AM Dr. Electro said... I'm a scribbler. I keep my loose recipes and printed recipes in a three-ring binder. I doodle everywhere. Maybe some day I'll copy all the interesting stuff and sell the books for cheap.
Yes, my skull-and-crossbones doodle is a good one. No, I'm not giving it away for free. :)
Reply
3-10-2009 @9:59AM Emily said... Next to bad recipes I draw a little circle with a dot in the middle. It means it tastes like an "asshole."
Reply
3-10-2009 @10:46AM Crystal said... I usually modify recipes on the fly to suit my and my family's palates, so I've never had to denote a recipe as bad before. And in the case of baked goods where substitution can make it worse, if I don't think we'd like it, I won't make it. I would never make a cake with rosemary in it like the recipe above. I can tell just by the ingredients that it would be gross!
Reply
3-10-2009 @10:59AM Austin said... here's your stickers: http://www.google.com/products?q=skull+crossbones+stickers
:-)
Reply
3-10-2009 @12:53PM Christine said... On the top of the page, one word...
Yuk!
Reply