Maybe it has an interesting name or a short, approachable ingredient list. Perhaps the thought of it brings you to another place and another time. Or maybe it just plain sounds delicious.
In The Wall Street Journal recently, cookbook author Rozanne Gold explores some of her own tactics in getting readers to want to make a recipe. Sure, catchy titles are a good starting point but will only go so far. She mentions that the recipes should be intriguing yet easy to pull off. Readers want to work with what they've got and I can certainly attest to that. I hate feeling as though I need to drive to three different grocery stores to pick up each ingredient on a rather long list.
Gold mentions how action words like "double-rise" pancakes or "overnight" tabbouleh often entice readers, too. It sounds interesting and exciting -- the food is familiar but perhaps you've never approached it that way before. I chuckled reading this, remembering when I read about Alice Medrich's brownie recipe and how, after baking the brownies, she submerges the pan in cold water because it gives the edges an unbelievable crispness. I have my favorite brownie recipe. I've baked dozens upon dozens of brownies. But yes, I had to try this one.
So how about you? What really attracts you to a recipe and makes you feel as though you must come back to it?
Related: What Would You Consider a Genius Recipe?
(Image: Megan Gordon)
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Definitely an approachable ingredient list! Mouth watering photo's of the dish are a plus as well! For me things as double-rise and overnight are a no-no, if I see a dish I want to make, I don't want to have to wait for it! Maybe I should practice being patient ;)!
Oh and please tell me what is that delicious looking cake/dish in the photo above!Thanks!
I'm not too sure what exactly attracts me to recipes, but I know what doesn't:
1. Long ingredient lists
2. Hard-to-read print (e.g. loopy fonts, handwriting - this means you, Mollie Katzen!)
3. Multiple-page, multi-part recipes (annoying to flip back and forth when you're cooking)
4. Too many odd ingredients (I appreciate creativity, but I also value simplicity)
I tend to gravitate towards recipes that have ingredients that are mostly fresh and I tend to carry anyway. This gives me flexibility when I need dinner fast and have not prepared. I don't really pay that much attention to the title. Also timing is a factor. I don't mind long prep or cook times, but won't utilize them as much because normally I'm staring dinner as soon as I get home in the evenings, so I need something that is ready to serve in about 45-75 minutes.
On blogs, pictures speak louder than words usually. Doesn't have to be a great picture, but the food just has to look appealing. When I search for a recipe, I type it in to google and go straight to image results and pick my recipes to look at off of that.
I'm same as dutch girl- I don't want to wait when I'm hunting for a recipe so overnight and things get skipped.
Ingredients and things never bug me, same with instructions.
Seeing a great photo, a short ingredient list, and ingredients that I tend to have on hand, or know where to get. Sometimes I'm excited to venture outside the box and try new ingredients, but if the recipe is made up of half or more of things I've never used before I won't try it.
@DUTCH GIRL That is a Harvest Apple Coffee Cake. You can find the recipe here: http://asweetspoonful.com/2011/11/all-good-things.html
Thank you for the great comments so far, all!
I love a great photo and something unique about the recipe. I use to collect a lot of recipes that 'seemed' to be good. Now that I have more experience and confidence in my skills, I'm look for recipes that recipes that are more unique. My last "Ooo cool recipe" moment was finding a recipe called Peanut Butter Shale, which is a brittle made with PB instead of whole peanuts. And it is a great recipe.
Pictures, a list of ingredients where I know what everything is and have many of them on hand. Time it takes to prepare is also important. I am impatient and want to eat it now!
First, the name of the recipe. Are the main ingredients (usually in the name) something I generelly enjoy eating?
Then I look at the ingredients: fresh vs packaged/processed.
Photographs are esential only if the recipe is VERY long. However, ugly photos don't deter me from making something.
The picture is important but not as important as how the finished dish, with its varied ingredients and preparation methods, comes together. I say this only because I take horrible pictures and while I certainly enjoy a good food glossy, its sole purpose isn't to provide me with eye candy but interesting recipes adn techniques based upon how tasty something sounds.
I am an absolute sucker for photos, in progress photos are even better! I won't cook with mushrooms, my hubs is not a "fun guy" and he also has the palate of a three year old so I'm limited... but if it has a photo and commentary regarding the origins of the dish, an attainable ingredient list and a prep time that doesn't span days, I'm sold.
A great photo draws me in, but if a recipe has too many steps that will produce a mountain of dishes, I probably won't try it without major modifications
Simple list of ingredients. While a short ingredient list is definitely a plus, recognizable is also a plus. Who hasn't bought an ingredient for a recipe only to never use that ingredient ever again? If there are too many steps or processes that are unfamiliar to me those are also usually a big no no for me. If it requires that I have to go out and buy a new piece of equipment I will think long and hard about whether it is worth it.
Definitely whether or not I'd be able to make it without a trip to the store! On weekends or days I'm at home, sometimes I look for something I wouldn't be able to make normally, maybe bread or something that takes a little more time. Also, I occasionally have random ingredients laying around that I want to use up, so I search for more unusual recipes - I had a jar of tahini from making hummus awhile back, and found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that had tahini in it. And finally - would the boyfriend eat it? Very important!
Beautiful photography first, then the name of the recipe. Natural ingredients (if it calls for Splenda or the like, it's out) and easy to read (or convert) measurements are also a must!
Well, I'm attracted to recipes that use ingredients or techniques I'm unfamiliar with. If I know all the ingredients, already own them, and know all the techniques, then I don't need a recipe. Recipes are for expanding my cooking skills and experience, not just repeating what I already know.
I'm always looking for new ways to combine ingredients I use all the time, especially for weeknight cooking. I usually have the same staples in my house so I like finding flavor combinations I hadn't thought of before or cooking techniques I don't normally use or if I only have to buy one or two things to turn my same old ingredients it into something I've never made.
I like it when recipes tell you how much time is involved. Especially, the total time and the "active" time. I typically don't make recipes that take longer than 45 minutes to make (and that's at the high end.)
Also, a medium-sized ingredient list. I've found that recipes with too few ingredients can be kind of blah. But too many is just pretty intense for my lifestyle.
Also agreeing with everyone else re: photos.
I've never thought about it but I suppose I'm drawn to a comobination of these elements:
- Short ingredient list
- Cheap
- Healthy
- Interesting use of something I've never cooked before
- New combination of favourite flavours
Photo draws me in. The less ingredients, the more likely I am to try it. If there are more than 6-10 items in a list, I usually pass it over... I like fresh, quick, wholesome ingredients with little cooking.
For savory dishes - things that use bits of meat as a flavoring (yum!) but don't require buying much of it - I do the whole free-range-grass-fed kinda thing and large hunks of meat go over my grocery budget fast.
For baked goods - things that don't require a mixer, which I don't have space for in my kitchen.
For techniques I go straight for one-pot, one bowl recipes, even if they have lots of ingredients or cooking time - see tiny kitchen explanation above. And I seem to have a deep aversion to any recipe that requires wrapping/stuffing something in something else. I need to get over this, because I love cabbage rolls and manicotti and sushi, and I know I can do it, but it always seems like a bridge too far... which seems odd since I do harder stuff like make bread and can tomatoes.
I could care less about a photo (gives me unrealistic expectations of the end result, anyway!), but a decent name (so sick of "chocolate cake, "chocolate cake II," "chocolate cake III" in old cookbooks), a not-too-long ingredients list, from-scratch, no crazy ingredients (or at least, not with out substitution suggestions), and no expensive appliances required.
For me the best recipes have:
1) An interesting name
2) A back story/anecdote
3) Not too many ingredients
4) Not too many weird ingredients (one or two is okay), but combined in a new-to-me or unusual way
5) From-scratch (anything that calls for a boxed cake mix or a can of cream of ____ soup is out. Canned fruit or veg are okay.)
6) Requires no more than 1 stick of butter (unless I'm making giant batches of christmas cookies)
7) A recipe you can bake/mix using just a knife, wooden spoon, and/or a whisk. Maybe an electric hand mixer if we're getting really fancy. Anything that tells me to "Then put all the ingredients into a food processor" without by-hand alternative directions is OUT.
For me I guess it boils down to: from scratch, by hand, a moderately healthy end result, fresh ingredients, and flavors that are a little out of the ordinary.
Unlike many commenters above, I'm generally not drawn to or away from recipes by their length, familiar ingredient list, or time. Recipes that really grab my attention -- here I'm distinguishing from recipes I decide to use after searching for them (e.g., pasta dish with that spinach I have in the fridge) -- are all sorts, and aren't necessarily unique.
Like Megan, a recipe that introduces a new technique to something familiar often sparks my curiosity. The best example is the chocolate mousse made with water, chocolate, and a whisk currently causing a stir in The Kitchn (via Cenk via Blumenthal/This).
Sometimes a description or story will lure me into the kitchen. Molly Wizenberg has a way of doing this, as with her post a number of years back about dutch babies.
Often I'm taken with a recipe because of a good review. Deb at Smitten Kitchen does this to me frequently: she posts gorgeous photos of some innocent little pasta dish and then implores me to make-it-right-now-or-I'll-die! Damn you, Deb! But you know, she's usually right, and I'm itching for her book to come out. Or sometimes it's just a food writer I trust, like Mark Bittman. But he also sometimes falls in the "innovative" category.
Finally, there is a quality that a few food writers have for me.. a kind of "soul mate" quality. Not always, but often these writers capture and resonate my particular mood, and whatever food they're suggesting suddenly sounds like the only thing I will allow across my tongue. Molly Wizenberg has this, but even moreso Nigel Slater and Deborah Madison for me.
P.S. I love that little milk vessel in the photo at the top.
One or two good photos, ingredients that I already have or at least, are easy to find, and a brief description of the final product. If it calls for an ingredient unfamiliar to me, a description of that particular ingredient.
1. Like many others have mentioned, I enjoy recipes that use items I already have in a new combination.
2. Adding one new ingredient to what I own, which will inspire me to enhance dishes I make all the time or inspire me to make new dishes. (Smoked paprika on deviled eggs? Would have never thought of it, had I not seen a recipe using smoked paprika.)
3. New techniques that I never thought of (roasted cabbage) and can expand my cooking skills.
4. "Hand me down" recipes. I *MIGHT* cook the recipe as it says the first time. But, I cook following the "recipes" of older generations much more. ("You will add a little bit of salt after the sauce has a nice color...") A detailed recipe is nice, but I prefer guidelines instead.
- Appetizing pictures
- Approachable ingredient list (perhaps one unusual ingredient, not a whole bunch of obscure one)
- a new process or skill that is clearly outlined in the recipe
- quick/easy to pull off!
I will try something because it looks/sounds tasty, but if it's a huge production to actually cook it, it's not going to make it into my regular meal rotation. Or to put it another way, if it's quite laborious to make, the taste payoff better worth it. If I can make something similar in less time, I will.
Trying out a recipe for me is usually a process of elimination; minimal fat, no non-kosher meat, more vegetable than carb, will my kids eat it? - it's mostly about diet/lifestyle.
A close-up photo of the finished dish, short ingredient list, and not too many steps. I actually prefer videos - seeing someone actually prepare a dish, with a spoken commentary, is easier for me to memorize than a recipe in print.
I must admit that I'm also swayed by the endorsement of particular chefs or food writers whom I admire (Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Fuchshia Dunlop, to name a few.)
@EVATOAD It's from Heath Ceramics! Thank you.
Definitely photos. I use google images to search for recipes, same as another poster mentioned. Also Foodgawker and Pinterest.
Other than that, I am usually looking for a recipe to use up ingredients I have on hand and don't have a plan for how I'd like to prepare them.
A number of things really: gorgeous pictures, a list of ingredients which i already have in my pantry, interesting techniques, weird (but yet sounds absolutely amazing) combination of ingredients eg avocado+chocolate, 5 spice+choc, etc.
The picture!