Cooking Car

Don’t Buy Another Recipe Book Until You See This Video!

In the daily challenge of cooking meals for your family, home cooking recipes can be a help or a hindrance. How recipes work for you depends on what you expect them to tell you. Remember, recipes are good at telling you some things, but don’t help you with an overall kitchen culinary journey. If this is what you’re expecting, if you’re expecting guidance that will help you to become a master chef in your home, you will be disappointed.

Here is a review of some of the things that recipes don’t tell you about cooking meals at home:

•    Variations in ingredients or potential substitutions
•    Variations in measurements or how to handle mistakes in measuring
•    Variations in different oven and stoves and their varying temperatures
•    Variations in time or how to tell EXACTLY when the meal is cooked
•    Why you are taking the steps that you are being asked to take so you can make educated decisions

In fact, recipes are best used as a guide for cooking meals just as a musician uses sheet music as a guide for playing music. But if you think about the musician that reads sheet music, they already know how to play an instrument and they can bring the sheet music to life. In the same way, in order to bring a recipe to life, in many respects, you already need know how to cook or at least understand several different cooking methods.

Have you ever heard a cover version of a favorite song? This happened to me recently. I happen to be a fan of Counting Crows and their song, Mr. Jones. Someone else had reinterpreted the song and was singing it as though it were a poem. I was upset! It just didn’t sound the same, but obviously, the musician had put his own spin on it and it may sound great to him and his fans.

So, if you understand how to cook and how to use recipes as an inspiration for your interpretation, you can overcome the things that the recipes don’t tell you about cooking meals at home. You’ll have power, strength and confidence to make the recipe come to life in your personal kitchen culinary vision.

Here are some ways to use recipes to your advantage:
Ingredients – Become familiar with families of ingredients so you can make substitutions. Here are a few examples:

•    spinach for escarole
•    carrots for daikon
•    ostrich for steak

Measurements – forget measurements, cook by how the food looks to you and how it tastes. In your desire to complete the dish as the recipe defines it, you are being distracted from the art of cooking, from enjoying and developing your kitchen culinary skills. Remember, the cookbook doesn’t know your kitchen, you do. The recipes doesn’t know how you like your meals to taste, but you do. So take back control and stop measuring.

Variations in oven temps and times – forget about temperatures and times. Even if you’ve already cooked the recipe at your mom’s house or your best friends house, you can’t rely on the stated temperatures and times. Your oven may be 25 degrees warmer. Instead, use your eyes. Look for visual cues (quantify your cooking): the coagulation of proteins, the caramelization of starches, the evaporation of moisture, the reduction of sauces, etc.

Why you are taking the steps you do – how do you overcome this? Learn basic cooking methods like sauté, steaming, poaching, roasting and grilling. By understanding the nuances of these basic methods, you will be able to look at recipes as a particular method or combination of methods. In this way, just as the piano player hears the melody and attaches their own interpretation, you will begin cooking at home from recipes that will have everyone (including yourself) believing that you are a kitchen culinary master!

About the Author

Chef Todd Mohr is a classically trained chef, entrepreneur, cooking educator and founder of WebCookingClasses.  You can experience his unique approach to no-recipe cooking with his FREE online cooking classes.  The 7 minute class will change the way you think about cooking forever.

Burlap Sack Recipe Book

The New England Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes c1936 Wood Burned Cover -UNIQUE $14.99

Southern Cook Book 322 Old Dixie Recipes 1939 WOOD COVERS politically incorrect $29.95

Cookbook Bundle Lot 2 Hawaiian Chefs/Cooking Hard Covers Recipe Books Sam Choy + $14.99

Vintage Recipe Book Hand Painted Apples Wood Covers $14.95

1941 Here’s How Bartender’s Recipe Book w Wood Cover ~ Whitfield Illustrated $6.49

Southern Cook Book (“Mammy” cover) 322 Old Dixie Recipes. Lustig. 1939 softcover $5.79

VINTAGE OLD RECIPE HOLDER HAND EMBROIDERED COVER RECIPES COLLECTABLE BOOK $4.99

CHRISTMAS CRAFT BOOK WITH RECIPES FUN PROJECTS HOLIDAY SEASON HARD COVER $3.00

The South Beach Diet Hard Cover Book ~ With Recipes $1.04

Charming 20s Glenwood Cookery Recipe Cook Book Cookbook Iowa Oilcloth Cover IA $14.99

Charming 20s Hastings Cookery Recipe Cook Book Cookbook Iowa Oilcloth Cover IA $14.99

Vintage Wooden Cover Recipe Book “Udderly Delicious” $12.50

SMOOTHIES! Best Ever Cool-Drink Recipe Soft-Cover Book!!! $8.99

1967 ITALIAN RECIPES VOL. 1 SOFT COVER COOK BOOK $12.50

Recipes to Lower Your Fat Thermostat Soft Cover Book $6.99

Art Deco 1920s FleischmannsYeast Recipe book cover $9.99

The South Beach Diet Hard Cover Book ~ With Recipes $1.99

BK – GIFTS THAT TASTE GOOD – 1990 – Hard Cover – Recipe Book $2.99

Cook Book FRUGAL GOURMET WINE Jeff Smith 1986 1st Ed Hard Cover New Lots Recipes $7.97

Collection of Recipes Booklets- LOT OF (10) soft cover books from 1955-1995 $2.99

Collection of Recipes Booklets- LOT OF (7) soft covers w/ hardcover mini book $2.99

Fine Old Dixie Recipes: The Southern Cook Book (Wooden Folkart Covers), , Accept $67.04

GREAT RECIPES FOR GOOD HEALTH HARD COVER BOOK $3.95

COUNTRY STORE REMEDIES RECIPES SOFT COVER BOOK $3.59

Craft Needlework & Recipe Country Woman Hard Cover Book $4.99

2004 Taste of Home Annual Recipes Hard Cover Book G.. $8.49

40sRARE BOWMAN DAIRY COVER INCERTS POSTCARD RECIPE BOOK $15.00

EAMES ERA COVER 1953 SPRY SHORTENING RECIPE BOOK GREAT $29.99

MY BEST RECIPES KATE BREW VAUGHN COOK BOOK HARD COVER $22.95

Cover & Bake (Best Recipe), , Acceptable Book $9.27

Coke Recipe Collection Book $13 Coke Recipe Collection Book

Insanewiches Sandwich Recipe Book $16.99 Insanewiches Sandwich Recipe Book

Disgustingly Delicious Recipe Book $12.98 Disgustingly Delicious Recipe Book

Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book $11.86 Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book

Complete Traditional Recipe Book $23.09 Complete Traditional Recipe Book

The Ultimate Recipe Book: $19.76 The Ultimate Recipe Book

The Tassajara Recipe Book $11.86 The Tassajara Recipe Book

LifeFood Recipe Book: $12.88 LifeFood Recipe Book

Perfect Recipe Baking Book $9.98 Perfect Recipe Baking Book

The Fussy Eaters’ Recipe Book: $15.63 The Fussy Eaters’ Recipe Book

America’s Hometown Recipe Book: $12.56 America’s Hometown Recipe Book

Recipe Book For Cats With Cookie Cutter $8.99 Recipe Book For Cats With Cookie Cutter

ACCESSORY, RECIPE BOOK VOL 1 $17.99 ACCESSORY, RECIPE BOOK VOL 1

Excel PivotTables Recipe Book $22.91 "Excel Pivot Tables Recipe Book: A Problem Solving Approach" deals with computers/software.

A Zombie Ate My Cupcake Recipe Book $15.95 A Zombie Ate My Cupcake Recipe Book

Pocket Page Recipe Book – Initial Gourmet $26.49 Pocket Page Recipe Book – Initial Gourmet

The Everything Cooking Raw Food Recipe Book $10.84 The Everything Cooking Raw Food Recipe Book

Recipe Card Binder – Botanical Treasure Design $12.49 This Botanical Treasure Recipe Card Binder by Meadowsweet Kitchens organizes and protects your most precious family recipes. This lovely book accommodates index-sized recipe cards and turns them into a functional cookbook.Simple, clean and functional, this attractive recipe card organizer features a fun garden-themed design and opens up to a fabulous 2 ring binder that keeps your recipes neatly contained within 50 plastic sleeves and 9 pocketed tab dividers with pre-printed section labels. This book also includes 25 matching recipe cards to add to your collection. As a bonus, the inside covers feature Measurement Equivalents, Substitutions, Common Food Equivalents and Food Care Tips.Features: • 2 ring binder keeps recipes contained • 9 pocketed tab dividers with pre-printed labels • 50 plastic sleeves included • Includes 25 matching recipe cards • Includes measurement equivalents & food care tips • Common food equivalents and substitutions included • Pattern: Botanical Garden • Color: Classic herbal motif on linen colored background; soft accents of berry and lilacSize: 7″tall x 6 1/4″wide x 2 1/4″thick

Slow Cooker Recipe Book $6.95 Come home to dinner! Simple recipes to prepare in the morning allow you and your family to enjoy a meal together, even on busy days. 24 pages of recipes have lined pages for you to record your own favorites. Book has a stand-up easel back for displaying the recipe so your hands are free.

The Dukan Diet Recipe Book $15.44 The Dukan Diet is based on a unique four-step programme. Two steps to lose weight and two steps to keep it off for good. The Dukan Diet Recipe Book will help you stick to the diet by offering over 350 recipes suitable for the all-important weight loss sta