Being on vacation, I have found allrecipes.com to be a great place to procrastinate. I find recipes and read reviews.. sometimes hundreds of them. They are quite entertaining as crowd sourced wisdom forums generally are. You always find the person who complains that the recipe doesn't deserve the 4.75 stars followed by a fan who responds with a "You didn't follow the whole recipe" followed by an oblivious person who raves about "her" version of the recipe with the 15 new items and viola its a dessert instead of an entrée now. The fan is upset with the complainer and even more upset with the oblivious person. By this time, I start to seriously wonder if the so called fan is not the recipe writer with a pseudonym. See the drama is addictive!
Personally - I've never met a recipe that I haven't modified and this morning was really no different. I found an authentic Israeli hummus recipe and instead of following it, I decided to add some un-boiled chickpeas for 'texture.' As my grinder gurgled, I knew I had made a mistake. Oh why do I never follow recipes I pondered.. and a few minutes later I was picking out the un-grounded and un-boiled chickpeas from the otherwise perfect hummus.
This isn't about the hummus or recipes - I never follow instructions unless someone is standing right there glaring at me and making sure I follow instructions. So clearly if Betty Crocker wanted me to follow her recipes, she would have to personally stand in my kitchen and glare at me. But seriously if Betty Crocker was in my kitchen, she would be making the cakes not me.
Instead of feeling guilty (and in defense of all people who modify recipes) I would say that we are just a different group of people who see instructions more as 'guidelines' or 'launching pads' not as rules. So next time a fan gets mad at the recipe-modifier, I'd encourage them to live a little dangerously and modify some recipes ... worst case, you will be picking out the un-boiled chickpeas in your hummus with a grin on your face. And the hummus will still be delicious.
Personally - I've never met a recipe that I haven't modified and this morning was really no different. I found an authentic Israeli hummus recipe and instead of following it, I decided to add some un-boiled chickpeas for 'texture.' As my grinder gurgled, I knew I had made a mistake. Oh why do I never follow recipes I pondered.. and a few minutes later I was picking out the un-grounded and un-boiled chickpeas from the otherwise perfect hummus.
This isn't about the hummus or recipes - I never follow instructions unless someone is standing right there glaring at me and making sure I follow instructions. So clearly if Betty Crocker wanted me to follow her recipes, she would have to personally stand in my kitchen and glare at me. But seriously if Betty Crocker was in my kitchen, she would be making the cakes not me.
Instead of feeling guilty (and in defense of all people who modify recipes) I would say that we are just a different group of people who see instructions more as 'guidelines' or 'launching pads' not as rules. So next time a fan gets mad at the recipe-modifier, I'd encourage them to live a little dangerously and modify some recipes ... worst case, you will be picking out the un-boiled chickpeas in your hummus with a grin on your face. And the hummus will still be delicious.
