I used to be intimidated by recipes that included items I didn’t recognize or recipes that required a lot of steps. But eventually, I learned to see recipes in a different way. A recipe is a collection of ingredients and flavors put together in a specific way so that the item I am making will look and taste exactly like the item made by the person who wrote the recipe… we hope.
Now when I read a recipe, I look at the essence of the recipe:
• Types of ingredients
• Texture of the finished product
• Flavor combinations
For example, I think “this is a meat dish with a flavorful sauce served over a cooked starch” or “this is a tea bread made with a mashed/grated fruit or vegetable and nuts.”
A recipe is a guideline, not a set of constraints. If the recipe calls for sweet potatoes but I have a winter squash in the pantry, I wouldn’t hesitate to use the squash. If I am out of buttermilk, I use yogurt or milk with a little vinegar. If the recipe uses walnuts but I think I’d like pecans better, I use pecans. If I have fresh, seasonal apples or pears, I might use them in a recipe that calls for nectarines or plums. If my guests don’t like goat’s milk cheese, I will substitute whole milk feta or cream cheese. I feel comfortable adjusting a recipe to my own tastes and incorporating seasonal ingredients when I have them available fresh from the garden or market.
When I make substitutions, I look at the critical proportions needed to retain the texture of the original dish. In the meat dish, it would be the total amount of sauce to meat and the amount of liquid to whatever thickens the sauce. For the tea bread, I would look at the sugar, butter/oil, flour, liquid and rising agent ratios to ensure that I maintained the desired texture.
I would avoid replacing an acidic ingredient with a non-acidic ingredient without adjusting the baking soda. I might add a bit more sugar if I replaced a grated apple with a grated zucchini… or not, if the batter was already very sweet. I’d pay attention to the juiciness of the fruit or vegetable replacement to avoid large changes in the liquid-to-dry ingredient proportions. Small differences are fine (a batter should remain a batter, not become a dough).
I especially love to play with flavor combinations. Often I’ll steal an interesting flavor combination from one recipe to use in another. For example, strawberries go well with asparagus and cardamom is lovely with carrots. Herbs and spices can be added or removed from most recipes without changing the texture. So if you feel creative, go for it. Try a little added spice or flavoring in a small spoonful if you are hesitant to put it right into the whole batch.
As for the steps, a long complicated step is usually a simple step with a series of tips on how to perform it. I look for the simple step and highlight that. I like to gather together the measured ingredients and tools needed for each step before I begin to assemble the recipe (called mise en place in culinary school). That makes it feel much less complicated when I put it all together, and I’m less likely to make a measuring error if I just focus on measuring the ingredients first.
Remember: Just because what you prepare isn’t exactly the same as the original recipe doesn’t mean it won’t be good. In fact, it may end up being even better suited to your own tastes and those of your family and friends. Best and worst case is it will be memorable.
Note: This article originally appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of Edible Santa Barbara. It’s as relevant as ever, and we thought it worth sharing—along with some recipes to inspire you.
Bay Leaf-Scented Braised Chicken with Red Wine and Olives by Joann Hecht, Edible Ventura County. “This is a great dish for entertaining because you can make it ahead and reheat it easily. It's full of flavors that appeal to almost everyone.”
Lemony Polenta Cake with Blueberries by Eva Katz, Edible Boston. “This gluten-free, rustic cake is a treat at the end of a meal, but is also great served with a cup of afternoon tea or even for breakfast!”
A Fun Colorful Asparagus Side Dish from Diana Johnson of the blog Eating Richly. “This easy balsamic strawberry asparagus recipe turns cheap balsamic vinegar into a sweet syrup to drizzle on roasted asparagus with strawberries and basil.”
Glazed Carrots with Cardamom and Ginger from Delish. “Most people cook carrots in water, Shawn McClain says, which dulls their flavor. His secret to keeping them supertasty is to cook them in carrot juice and orange juice until glazed.”
Thank you for reading. If you missed last week’s email newsletter, you can find it here. And if you are reading this newsletter from a link someone sent you, consider subscribing here. It’s free and comes directly into your email inbox every week on Tuesdays.
Excellent piece, glad Edible reposted it. Our Santa Barbara friend Mahri Kerley who owns the wonderful Chaucer's Book said that if you get one or two ideas out of a cookbook then it's more than worth the price of it. Because you'd spend that same money on a couple of drinks at a restaurant. My current favorite cookbooks to get inspiration from are a bunch of decades old used junior league cookbooks from cities around the country. I love the titles like “When Dinnerbells Ring.” Yesterday I made a curried chicken salad from the “Pasadena Prefers” cookbook. Swapped some ingredients, but tried to keep the old ladies' luncheon charm. I took it to my mom at Vista del Monte and we shared it with my husband and her caregiver. The young caregiver loved it but had never had curried chicken salad, so we all filled her in on the origins of curried chicken salad and memories of that era of eating slightly exotic but still comfort food. My mom was on the SBMA docent council. A lot of great recipes in their cookbook “Gourmet Artistry.” I get a lot of inspiration then adapt them to my 2021 pantry I'm no food snob, but I don't use Campbell's canned mushroom soup or margarine. A sde-note: these cookbooks don't just give me ideas they fill me with nostalgia for the women of my mom's generation who cultivated genuine hospitality (none of this cheap BYOB or Potluck stuff for them, they would have been too ashamed).