4 Tips For Picking Great Recipes.

How often have you looked at a recipe and thought, wow I should try that? Then you do, and its a disappointment. With the internet, cookbooks, packaging, advertising, magazines, social media, and more the resources go on and on. Finding keeper recipes is a learned skill that takes some discipline. When I’m looking for recipes there are a few rules I follow.

1. Companies who print a recipe to be used with their products, will only do so, if the product and recipe have been thoroughly researched in their own test kitchens. It only makes since that they will print the recipe, if it helps sell their product. Bisquick, McCormick, come to mind as well as Uncle Ben’s Rice. I have family favorites from all of these companies because I tried out their tested and proven recipes on their packaging. So, if you like the ingredients that are listed…chances are good it will be a great recipe. Give it a shot. But first, read all the directions on the recipe. You should know before you grab the other ingredients, if you have the skill level and the required equipment to produce the end product.

2. When I’m surfing the net, looking for some fun new recipe, there are a few things that I look for after the picture has pulled me in. Do the ingredients, match the picture. Yes, I said that right, there are many recipes on the internet whose picture attached is not the recipe or end product. I have had this happy to me a few times. So read the recipe. Two things will happen. You will know before you run out and buy the ingredients that it is indeed the picture and your expectations will not be crushed. You will find out if you have the skill level and required equipment to produce the end product. The next thing I check out is the number of people who have liked the recipe. I usually look for a sampling of 25 people or more, the higher the better, with a collective rating of 4 or higher. This is a good indicator that the recipe will be worthy of my time. This advice came from my friend Rebecca and it has never failed me. If I’m still not convinced, I take a quick glance through the comments. If people are adding and tweaking and adjusting that tells me that the over all construction of the recipe is probably not where it needs to be. I don’t always need all of these things, but a solid couple for sure.

3. If you are like me and you have a huge cookbook collection, you are always pulling one out to review and read. I apply all of the above checks that I can to my cookbook recipes. Many times, you can actually search for the author or title of the cookbook and or the specific recipe online. You guessed it, you can check the likes, ratings, and comments. If it’s a brand I have used in the past like Bon Appetite for instance, I am usually pretty confident that the recipe I am looking to cook is probably constructed well. Of course like always I recommend reading the recipe before you start the process.

4. If you are a new home cook, sometimes the old church cookbooks can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Many times basic cooking skills or steps are left out – they assume you know those things as most books were written when women stayed at home. So, be cautious. On the other hand some of my old cookbooks have some classics and I make them often. A beef stroganoff comes to mind. If you have an old recipe, and you’re not sure about it, you can search it. Find some that are close and compare them. Don’t get frustrated if you do try a recipe that just doesn’t work. It happens to the best of us.

I hope this has given you some new insights or perspectives on searching for and picking out winning recipes. I will always try the recipe as written the first time I make it. I want to understand the construction of the recipe before I personalize it to my own tastes etc. A solid go-to recipe is always a keeper. If you have questions, about any recipe, remember you have a personal chef in your kitchen, give me a shout. I’ll do my best to help you out.