Cookbook errors
 

I collect cookbooks and I'm still at the stage in my cooking journey where I at least start with someone elses recipe and maybe modify it a bit based on what I like or have on hand.

A recent acquisition was a book of recipes, primarily from Eastern Europe, with a little German and Austrian thrown in.

So far, I have caught 2 errors.

The first called for a 4 pound stuffed pork loin to cook for 4-5 hours. Per my digital thermometer, it was medium well between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. Following that one could have been a disaster.

The second was an apple strudel recipe that called for too much filling and too much fillo dough. I'd have filled 3 pans with all it called for. I scaled back and still managed a pair of good sized products - enough for a dozen servings.

I can't blame poor translation skills as anyone with a couple months in a kitchen would catch this and I have to wonder if the "contributing editor" actually made any of this stuff.

This is the first case I've ever been sure the book was wrong. Any others?

I've got a few with somewhat unclear instructions (mainly translated from German), and some that definitely are lacking ingredients at the desired result cannot be made from the list.

I love cookbooks, too. Don't remember catching anything particularly egregious, although it's always amusing to see old cookbooks calling for up to 1/2 teaspoon of MSG in a recipe :)

BamaVol, back in the day folks used to cook pork for long, long times, well past the point where we'd do so today, in order to kill pesky pork germs.

Back in the day, pork also used to be much fattier than what you'll find today at anyplace other than a specialty purveyor. The high fat content made the meat much more forgiving of longer cooking times.

Published in 2006. Not exactly old school. Is UK pork fattier?

I had a similar problem with cook time for a pork loin in my "Star Trek" cookbook. It was perfectly done halfway through. The surprising thing is that the recipe is fairly new.

As for MSG, it doesn't really surprise me at all. I use it in my daily cooking and so do most asians and they are some of the healthiest people in the world.

I don't know, but because of tapeworm, the advice is always to cook it well done here (or at least, that's what I was brought up to believe!)

Tapeworm shouldn't be a problem for commercially-grown pork in developed countries (rigorous agricultural inspection and maybe regulation). It's the free-ranging pigs that eat human fæces (that's how the tapeworm's lifecycle goes) that would present the risk.

At any rate, pork these days in N. America is much leaner than in the days of yore. Even my Gourmet cookbook mentions cooking pork to a much lower temperature (almost similar to beef), entitling the subject "not your grandfather's pork". Apparently part of this progress is due to a substance, used as a feed additive, called ractopamine that promotes muscle growth and inhibits fat accumulation.

Had a baklava recipe that called for three little bottles (or the liquid equivalent) of rose water. Having no knowledge of the strength of the stuff and despite the protest of my older sister (who's no cook herself) I used it all.

It was a disaster. Oh the nuts and the phyllo cooked well but it was a bit soggy, and let's just say, it tasted like.. erm... rose water.

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

The American version of Nigella Lawson's "How to be a domestic goddess" is riddled with errors - whoever did the metric to imperial conversions really got it very, very wrong. The coconut macaroon recipe is seriously whacked - US version calls for 1 cup + 2 tbs of coconut, UK version calls for 3.5 cups!

I HATE US versions of foreign cookbooks, they're never converted properly.

That's good to know as I want to get her cookbooks. I took a cooking class from a Danish woman many years ago and that was one of her beefs, trying to convert her metric recipes into "American" versions for her students.

I'm extremely disappointed in both of Alton Brown's recent cookbooks. I've tried three recipes so far, and of those two had fatal errors. One called for 10x more salt than it should have had, and the other called for a stick of butter but never told you what to do with it. I also notice there's noplace to give feedback on his web site.

Oh my!

Which recipes are those? I know someone who might be able to get the complaint to the right place.

"Owen Harper Enthusiast"? Really? Captain Jack I can understand, but Owen??? :confused: