Cooking recipes are sets of instructions on how to prepare a culinary dish. It is best to read the recipe first before you start cooking. In reading a recipe, you must carefully browse every detail and acquaint yourself with the cooking terms involved. Cooking recipes, though different in tastes, share a common format on how they are written on cookbooks. These are:
Recipe Name
This is the first component of a cooking recipe. It tells the readers what dish will be made. Some cookbooks and websites even attach an image beside the recipe name for readers to visualize how the final output looks like.
Number of Servings
This portion tackles how many people can be accommodated or fed with such recipe. Large dishes are highly recommended for parties and festivals. A recipe for two is enough for romantic dates.
Time
It clarifies readers on to the extent of time one must spend in order to prepare and cook a dish. The advantage of cooking recipes with preparation and cooking times is it allows the cook to schedule and manage their time wisely before they do the actual cooking.
Ingredients and Substitutes
Ingredients, on the other hand, are the items needed in performing the recipe. Alongside with the ingredients are alternatives if the ingredient is not available in the kitchen or nearby market. For instance, the recipe asks for 1 cup butter, and you have no supply of it, a cup of margarine can be a substitute.Measurement of ingredients is also included in this part of the recipe.
Cooking Methods
These are directions on how to do a recipe. It is a big help to any cook if he is familiar with the different methods. A few that are done, but not fully understood by meaning by many are: bake, caramelize, devein and to fold.
In baking, food is being cooked within an oven. The types of food often associated with baking are pastries, bread and cakes. Caramelize, on the other hand, is cooking sugar with water. Devein is a method done with shrimps. When you devein, you use a knife in removing the black vein located at the shrimp’s back.
Cooking tips
At the end part of a recipe, cooking tips on alternative ways in doing the cooking methods are inserted. These allow cooks to experiment further and to re-create a dish in accordance to their taste. Cooking recipes are not rigid standards. With a particular recipe, you can modify it and personalize it.
Cooking recipes are indeed essential step by step guidelines for every cook. Forgetting a single ingredient or cooking method, may badly affect the taste of the dish. However, if done carefully well, the chance of failure is slim. I believe that a cooking recipe is truly a vital piece of information for every cook. If cooking recipes are understood and executed excellently, then surely a delectable dish awaits.