Monday, August 24, 2009
The Greatest Cookbook of Them All
I’ve gotten it into my head that there are certain skills I need to have. Making pudding is one of them. Pudding from scratch that is, not the box mix with high fructose corn syrup and dye to make it look like chocolate.
So I began my search for pudding recipes as I do all my cooking experiments: online. Pulling up about 20 different versions and getting a feel for ingredients and method.
Cookbooks are great. In fact I love flipping through cookbooks. But they all suffer the same crucial flaw: only one recipe per dish. (Maybe not all, I did recently see a cookbook that promised 50 grilled cheese recipes. But then it suffers having only one dish.)
When I’m searching for online recipes I’m looking for something I can make now with ingredients (and kitchen equipment) already in my cupboards. Combining the local and the universal creates the option of immediacy. I don’t need to go shopping for ingredients, because there are always substitutions to be found. Another benefit to having the world at my fingertips: malleability of ingredients.
This convergence of local and universal access hits home weekly when I dig into my CSA (community supported agriculture) box. This year I am fairly familiar with the local produce, but last year there were some surprises in there. For instance, I had no idea what to do with kohlrabi. After researching what it is and how it can be eaten, I discovered that I like it. Now I grow it in my garden.
The 2009 Digital Future Project report showed that 80% of Americans are now online, and of those 15% participate in online communities. The most popular communities are related to hobbies and social causes. I have yet to join a cooking community, maybe because it’s not one of my more active or social hobbies, but I definitely benefit from the social networking of others who enjoy cooking. From blog posts detailing cooking successes and failures to comments and ratings below recipes with suggestions to improve the dishes, my seat as a lurker is panning out well.
