A flat cake, a bland soup, a dry loaf of bread...When a recipe doesn't turn out as expected, we feel the disappointment to our very core. Our instinct is to blame either the recipe itself or our own inferior cooking skills, but here's the thing: very often, it's neither.
Certainly, recipes sometimes do have errors or maybe it calls for a technique we haven't quite mastered. But when we have a recipe fail or talk to other people about their recipe failures, most of the time it seems to come down to one of these reasons:
1. Oven Temperature is Off - Even if you only use your oven occasionally, picking up a cheap oven thermometer is a worthwhile investment. Ovens are often several degrees warmer or cooler than the numbers on the dial and having an oven thermometer means you know exactly how much to adjust the oven to compensate.
2. Ingredient Substitutions - Going off-recipe is a fun and creative part of the cooking process, for sure. But it also requires a little more due diligence on our part to understand how the additional or substitute ingredient will affect the recipe. For instance, cutting the sugar in a cupcake or substituting a tenderloin for a chuck roast in a braise will give you very different results than the recipe author intended.
3. Equipment Substitutions - Ditto on the equipment. If the recipe says to use an 8-inch pan or a cast-iron skillet, there's probably a good reason for it. That doesn't mean we can't substitute something else in its place, but we just need to understand that our dish might turn out differently.
4. Adjusting the Cooking Time - Recipes are often written with the expectation that you're following along. If you pause in the middle of making a cake and come back to it an hour later, some chemical reactions might have taken place that the recipe didn't intend because it thought the cake would go right in the oven. Same goes for shortening the cooking time - like the time for bread to rise or a roast to cook. The result might be different. As with the ingredient and equipment substitutions, it's not that you can't adjust the cooking time. You just need to think it through first.
5. And Finally, Trust Your Own Judgment! - Recipes (and the people who write them!) aren't fail-proof and they also can't take into consideration every variable in your kitchen, like how cold your eggs are or how strong your whisking arm is. We love this quote from Dorie Greenspan, "Just about every time you cook or bake, you've got to make a judgment call - it's the nature of the craft." She means that just because a recipe says to cook something for 15 minutes, you should use your judgment if it's not quite done yet or starts to burn at the 13-minute mark.
A failed dish is a disappointment, definitely. But every time a recipe doesn't come out quite the way we expected, it's also an opportunity to learn something. We'll think back and try to figure out what in the recipe or what we did made the dish turn out this way. Next time, we'll have a better idea what to do.
These five reasons are the biggies, in our opinion. What other reasons have you come across in your cooking for why a recipe doesn't come out quite right?
Related: Recipe Rescue! What To Do if You Oversalt
(Image: Flickr member Bill HR licensed under link to specific Creative Commons license">Creative Commons)
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the worst for me is when a recipe that i previously made and turned out excellent the first time, fails miserably the second time. i agree with all the points in the post.
I'd even include the item about ingredient age. Some foods/chemicals we cook with lose their abilities over time. As do spices and their flavors. It may look and cooked the way you expected, but sometimes the flavors just aren't right.
If a recipe fails, yes, it's usually my fault, but over time I've come to know which of my cookbook authors have well-tested recipes and which do not. Some recipes are just plain more fail-safe than others. My general rule is to avoid hippy authors when baking. Anyone ever use the first edition of the Tassajara Bread Book? Disaster. I think they've fixed that.
Building on Aschalk's comment, I agree that ingredient quality in general can be a huge factor. Two-week-old oniony butter in your sugar cookies? Pass the mouthwash. Using macadamia nuts from anywhere other than Hawaii? I hope you have a strong imagination when it comes to flavor. And so on. Everything after ingredients is makeup.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: recipes are guidelines, not rules.
However, you should only break the rules of a recipe if your kitchen experience and technique are solid. The craft of cooking DEFINITELY has rules.
I've know how recipes can fail and what I've learned from my mistakes (everyone makes them!) here.
aschalk is right, especially in baking: common pantry items have expiration dates, and yeast can go bad so easily if not kept in the freezer.
Number 5 is important. I remember having a Martha Stewart scone recipe that called for two Tablespoons of baking soda. Instinct immediately said, "They must have meant teaspoons." I almost stuck to the recipe but ended up going with my instinct. Sure enough, my scones turned out great with the smaller amount, and I later found a message board full of complaints that the original recipe resulted in painfully bitter scones (to be expected with that much baking soda).
@hooloovoo
Number 5 should also say always check the comments (for recipes found online).
My mom recently struggled with a Jamie Oliver recipe coming out very undercooked, and sure enough, when she checked the comments, nearly all of them were about increasing the cooking time.
I love finding recipes online now BECAUSE of the comments made. Almost always the comments will lead me to make the recipe better. BUT, I still love my cookbooks; it's their smell, the feel of the pages, there is something romantic about them. I have found the most success with Southern Living (you can look most of them up online as well), Julia Child (it did take her years of development and testing and she covers substitutions like no other), and anything by Cooks Illustrated. These books have become my teachers.
I still don't understand why my no stir, oven baked risotto came out as hot stock and raw rice. Toast for dinner that night and major disappointment for me.
I've never had a recipe fail. Maybe it wasn't as good as I hoped, but it wasn't error on my part. Everything always turns out as it is supposed to, sometimes the recipe is just crappy.
6. Many people post pretty pictures of food that is lacking in the taste and texture department, but the author doesn't mention it.
Often getting another blog post up is more important to people than sharing successful results. You can even see that some of the expertly lit, beautifully positioned, and well-garnished results may not be that good from the texture in the photos (especially with baked goods). I certainly think that posting a less than stellar recipe is absolutely fine, but at least the author should talk about it so that the readers know what to expect when they try it. If it makes a dense cake, just say so. If it makes a salty soup, just make that clear.
Sometimes the recipe is at fault, because people are trying to generate content rather than offer something of value.
@cmcihnyc
I laughed out loud about the hippy baking books (the older ones at least), you're totally right.
I would also add something about unavoidable substitutions: when trying to cook in someone else's house, know that things almost always turn out at least different given the cook wear/oven etc.
And when trying to cook in different regions, ingredients are often just inherently different (protein contents in flour for example) and might not come out right at first. Both examples of when your instincts don't serve you as well as the should first time around.
I've been making peanut brittle for years. The last step requires adding baking soda to soften up the texture. The last two times I made it, the colour and texture was terrible; you could almost see the raw baking soda in the brittle. The acids were neutralized before all of the soda was consumed. I had picked up a box of Wal-Mart "Great Value" baking soda, thinking who could screw up baking soda? I bought a new box of brand-name baking soda and the problem disappeared.
I've made Bill Granger's scones, double checking that it said 2 tablespoons of baking soda, but my brother-in-law swears by them, and they worked & tasted fine...
I find translations are the big problem - from metric to American & vice versa, and it is the publishers who get that wrong. I always just use whichever is the original, although still find the whole half a cup of carrot thing not quite normal.
I think fresh ingredients is the biggest culprit for me. I had a container of bread machine yeast that said it was good until March 2011, but that was not the case as I tried to use some in December and wound up with a flat loaf. These things happen. You can't beat yourself up over it (hah! I get so upset with myself when I make a mistake!)
When I do blog a recipe, I only blog recipes for things that taste good. And if I mess up, I'm usually taking a photo and posting it to facebook to ask my friends what I did wrong!
My latest failure was the creme brulee I prepared on Monday. I followed the recipe that was posted here last week but attribute the failure to one of the points mentioned above. Notably, the size of the equipment; in this case my ramekins. Since the recipe indicates it makes 4 servings, and I filled up 2 1/2 ramekins, that should have been a red flag to bake it longer. I should have trusted my instinct to bake it longer than the 65 minutes than I did but since it was the first time I had ever attempted that dish, I was leery. Next time-trust my instincts!
After seeing Julie & Julia we now know that cookbook authors don't always test their recipes. "Who has the time?!"
Sourcing recipes online has been a blessing with my novice cooking.
One more thing to have in mind, the place where you are cooking or baking!!! I came from Brazil to USA two years ago and I'm still having trouble trying to adjust recipes that use common ingredients for both countries!
Testing, testing, testing....and tasting, specially when you are looking in a international cookbook recipe.
This is SO true! I very rarely have recipes just completely fail, but I think that's often because I get them online (and read the comments) and because I have a pretty strong cooking intuition. It helps!
One of the things I've noticed about getting recipes from blogs is that the comments are all about how beautiful the picture looks, how good it "sounds", and how great it turned out. The effort to contain negativity means you can't really discuss the recipe. I've made five recipes recently from my favorite blog. Overall, the results are good, but some were less than satisfactory. But since all the comments are over-the-top raves on how good it LOOKS, I don't feel comfortable saying anything less than glowing. Which means I'm not really getting any feedback from fellow cooks.
I tried one too many times to use whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour in my old recipes before my hushand got fed up and threw the rest of the bag out. It just doesnt come out the same! (next time i buy whole wheat flour, i'll find recipes that atually call for it)
why my recipes fail
sloppiness/inattention - the first time I make something, I tend to take my time, make sure the vegetables are chopped evenly, measure the spices rather than eyeballing, greasing and flouring the pan very carefully, etc. Subsequent go-rounds are faster and looser, which sometimes works out fine, but sometimes leads to substandard results.
measuring issues – my baked goods are always better when I use a scale to measure; with measuring cups I’m scooping up too much flour
overmixing dough – especially with cakes, muffins, and pastry, must take care not to overwork the gluten
overseasoning – I have a hard time resisting the urge to double the amount of cinnamon and vanilla, or throw in just a little more of the spicy chili paste, or add more spices because I’m making an Indian dish and I’m itching to use the fenugreek I just bought (even though the recipe doesn’t call for it). Tasting while cooking can be misleading; one bite of soup may taste just right, but when you sit down and eat a whole bowl, you realize it’s too salty. Restraint is the best policy.
overcooking – cookies, cakes, brownies and the like should come out of the oven slightly underdone. Fish goes from raw to perfect to rubbery in a matter of seconds, it seems.
Most important advice for baked goods: taste the batter before it goes into the oven. Delicious batter= delicious baked goods. Also, don’t open the oven door until just before you think it might be done, and then take it out the second you think it is done.
Most important advice for stove-top cooking: watch the heat. There is a tendency to crank it way up, but most of the time, medium or medium high is better than blazing hot (unless you’re wok cooking).
A few years ago, I had promised my boyfriend's parents a cake and had ambitious plans to make a new recipe of a complicated french dessert. Of course the day I was to make it, I got very ill so my wonderful non baking boyfriend stepped in to make it. It was awful! It turned out a sugary cookie slathered in butter.
I still wonder if it was the recipe or the boyfriend. Maybe when I get over the taste memory of taking a bite of whipped butter, I will try it myself.
Two things have caught me off guard before...the importance of room temp ingredients in baking (a lot of Ina's recipes call for this, but others don't and they should)...also, adjusting baking time due to altitude (why I can't keep this one in mind I will never know).
A recipe of failure.I've trying to compromise my weaknesses in cooking. Thanks to gourmandia.com that taught me some tips to avoid failure in making a recipe.