I think you hit the nail on the head here Sophia. Yes, sometimes people will string trendy ingredients together in a recipe hoping to go viral 🙄 But other people name their recipes as they do because it actually describes what the reader can expect to taste. I think it’s helpful. I was reading an older cookbook the other day and some of the recipe names were just so vague. I’m not sure I want to invest time and ingredients into something called “Richard’s Surprise Cake.” 😂
Thank you Betty! I totally agree. @Nik Sharma wrote and interesting Substack about naming recipes a while back and it’s tricky for sure. But I am also more in favour of descriptive ones than vague ones that tell me nothing about the actual dish.
Delightful and Surprise are not words I want to see in a recipe title. What makes the fish so delightful?! A surprise is super vague as well and doesn’t intrigue me.
Hi, Sophia! I just found your work. Thank you for sharing this relevant topic. I've been wrestling with this concept more and more over the last few years, especially here on Substack. I find it hard to digest 13-word long titles. Yet, I am also fascinated to learn about new ingredients, how they’re used in their cuisine-of-origin, and think about how they can be creatively incorporated into different dishes.
You touched on a lot of points that I agree with, but I still have some reservations, such as:
1. If I’m introducing a recipe with a special ingredient that comes from a certain cuisine or culture, do *I* have a responsibility to inform the reader about where it comes from and how it’s traditionally used? If not, that might be lost on the reader/viewer, and then am I obscuring or diminishing part of a culture?
2. Personally, I struggle with suggesting an ingredient that I might not use a ton in my cooking. I hate to leave the reader with a pantry full of ingredients, but only a few ways to use each of them. As someone who loves to cook and research recipes, I try to find ways to use them up. But not all are worthy of posting a recipe about, and most people don’t try to figure out how to use up things on their own. This is particularly relevant for small households, or for some items that are only sold in large sizes. So, ingredients go to waste. (Having been on the road for 8 months and living in other peoples’ homes, I can tell you that there are many expired “pantry” items lurking in their fridges and cupboards.) I realize I place importance on not wasting food, and that’s my own bias. Still, I hate to preach what I don't practice. That’s why I love your ingredient spotlights. 🙂
I am with you on the 13-word long titles - heck, today I was at Starbucks for the first time in ages and I could not even remember the order of the words making up the Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso that I wanted ...
On your first point, it's a tricky one and it depends a little bit on your audience / who you are writing for I would say. It probably never hurts to add at least a short sentence saying something about the ingredient, its origins and typical uses. No doubt I don't always do that but I try to because I do think it's the right thing to do - both towards the relevant cuisine / culture but also to readers who might be new to a given ingredient. But I also don't think that failing to do so is somehow minimising a culture.
As for your second point, I abhor food waste as well (my husband was laughing at me this morning because one of the last things I did before leaving for our trip was to hardboil the last 3 eggs to take with us and cut up and freeze a bunch of apricots we weren't able to finish and our carry-ons were already full of grapes and nectarines). When it comes to the recipes I share I try to be mindful of food waste as well - it's probably not obvious but I try and write the recipes in a way that you don't end up with say 1/3 of a yoghurt carton or similar. Equally, I will suggest suitable substitutions where possible. And yes, I love writing the Ingredient Spotlight posts (and glad to hear you enjoy them!) because they are also a need reference guide if you need inspiration to try and use something up. But if something is a "must" in a delicious recipe even if you yourself don't use it all that often I think it's still fine to post that recipe - you can always be open about that, maybe asks folks for ideas for how to use that ingredient or also try and look up other uses and share those ideas as part of your post?
While I personally get quickly tired of flavormaxed (is that even a word?) dishes, I do love them occasionally. I have Plenty More and I’m having fun with it. I do lean more towards simpler dishes on a daily basis, but it might just be what I’m used to having grown up in Italy, and not having had anything other than Italian food until I was at least 20 yo? I really like how you repurpose pantry ingredients and come up with interesting uses for them. If I can flavormax that way, I’m especially up for it.
Thank you Giovanna, so glad to hear you like my ideas. But I also totally understand where you are coming from. As much as I love that a full spice rack and pantry allows you to transport yourself to places far far away through cooking, 2 years of living in Italy (and about a decade spent travelling back and forth between Italy and various other places) also made me appreciate that simple is sometimes best. That being said, that is much easier when you have access to stellar produce!
Oohh, nice! Where in Italy? You are right, I did struggle a bit to cook my favorite Italian dishes when I lived in the UK. Not saying the produce isn’t good there, just that maybe it’s harder to find, especially the ingredients I’d typically find in southern Italy.
I think you hit the nail on the head here Sophia. Yes, sometimes people will string trendy ingredients together in a recipe hoping to go viral 🙄 But other people name their recipes as they do because it actually describes what the reader can expect to taste. I think it’s helpful. I was reading an older cookbook the other day and some of the recipe names were just so vague. I’m not sure I want to invest time and ingredients into something called “Richard’s Surprise Cake.” 😂
Thank you Betty! I totally agree. @Nik Sharma wrote and interesting Substack about naming recipes a while back and it’s tricky for sure. But I am also more in favour of descriptive ones than vague ones that tell me nothing about the actual dish.
I know, right? One of the recipes I saw in this older cookbook was for “Broccoli Delight” LOL 😂
Delightful and Surprise are not words I want to see in a recipe title. What makes the fish so delightful?! A surprise is super vague as well and doesn’t intrigue me.
😂
Lol
😂
Hi, Sophia! I just found your work. Thank you for sharing this relevant topic. I've been wrestling with this concept more and more over the last few years, especially here on Substack. I find it hard to digest 13-word long titles. Yet, I am also fascinated to learn about new ingredients, how they’re used in their cuisine-of-origin, and think about how they can be creatively incorporated into different dishes.
You touched on a lot of points that I agree with, but I still have some reservations, such as:
1. If I’m introducing a recipe with a special ingredient that comes from a certain cuisine or culture, do *I* have a responsibility to inform the reader about where it comes from and how it’s traditionally used? If not, that might be lost on the reader/viewer, and then am I obscuring or diminishing part of a culture?
2. Personally, I struggle with suggesting an ingredient that I might not use a ton in my cooking. I hate to leave the reader with a pantry full of ingredients, but only a few ways to use each of them. As someone who loves to cook and research recipes, I try to find ways to use them up. But not all are worthy of posting a recipe about, and most people don’t try to figure out how to use up things on their own. This is particularly relevant for small households, or for some items that are only sold in large sizes. So, ingredients go to waste. (Having been on the road for 8 months and living in other peoples’ homes, I can tell you that there are many expired “pantry” items lurking in their fridges and cupboards.) I realize I place importance on not wasting food, and that’s my own bias. Still, I hate to preach what I don't practice. That’s why I love your ingredient spotlights. 🙂
Hi Leslie! So glad you found your way here!
I am with you on the 13-word long titles - heck, today I was at Starbucks for the first time in ages and I could not even remember the order of the words making up the Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso that I wanted ...
On your first point, it's a tricky one and it depends a little bit on your audience / who you are writing for I would say. It probably never hurts to add at least a short sentence saying something about the ingredient, its origins and typical uses. No doubt I don't always do that but I try to because I do think it's the right thing to do - both towards the relevant cuisine / culture but also to readers who might be new to a given ingredient. But I also don't think that failing to do so is somehow minimising a culture.
As for your second point, I abhor food waste as well (my husband was laughing at me this morning because one of the last things I did before leaving for our trip was to hardboil the last 3 eggs to take with us and cut up and freeze a bunch of apricots we weren't able to finish and our carry-ons were already full of grapes and nectarines). When it comes to the recipes I share I try to be mindful of food waste as well - it's probably not obvious but I try and write the recipes in a way that you don't end up with say 1/3 of a yoghurt carton or similar. Equally, I will suggest suitable substitutions where possible. And yes, I love writing the Ingredient Spotlight posts (and glad to hear you enjoy them!) because they are also a need reference guide if you need inspiration to try and use something up. But if something is a "must" in a delicious recipe even if you yourself don't use it all that often I think it's still fine to post that recipe - you can always be open about that, maybe asks folks for ideas for how to use that ingredient or also try and look up other uses and share those ideas as part of your post?
While I personally get quickly tired of flavormaxed (is that even a word?) dishes, I do love them occasionally. I have Plenty More and I’m having fun with it. I do lean more towards simpler dishes on a daily basis, but it might just be what I’m used to having grown up in Italy, and not having had anything other than Italian food until I was at least 20 yo? I really like how you repurpose pantry ingredients and come up with interesting uses for them. If I can flavormax that way, I’m especially up for it.
Thank you Giovanna, so glad to hear you like my ideas. But I also totally understand where you are coming from. As much as I love that a full spice rack and pantry allows you to transport yourself to places far far away through cooking, 2 years of living in Italy (and about a decade spent travelling back and forth between Italy and various other places) also made me appreciate that simple is sometimes best. That being said, that is much easier when you have access to stellar produce!
Oohh, nice! Where in Italy? You are right, I did struggle a bit to cook my favorite Italian dishes when I lived in the UK. Not saying the produce isn’t good there, just that maybe it’s harder to find, especially the ingredients I’d typically find in southern Italy.
I lived in Rome for close to 2 years and spent a lot of time around Novara, Milan and Turin as well but also travelled extensively in Italy.
I think having access to so many flavours from different cultures around the world is incredibly exciting in the recipe development world.
I think so too! It’s a bit like being able to paint with more colours!
Very thoughtful piece Sophia, thank you.
Thank you Cheryl!