Readin', 'Ritin', and Recipes

I don't like the way most recipes are written. Too many lack clarity or detail. I think my displeasure comes from too many years of writing work instructions and procedures for QS9000. Another pet peeve I have is too many recipes call for ingredients in unusual amounts, like 10 ounces of beer or one cup of sour cream. Beer comes in 12 ounces bottles and sour cream comes in 8 ounce containers, by weight, and no 8 wt. oz. does not equal 8 fl. oz. except for water.

As I've gotten more into baking I've worked to weigh my baking ingredients instead of using volumes like cups, especially with flour. This is especially important if you want your recipes to be consistent batch to batch. It also makes upsizing or downsizing a recipe much easier. It is a whole lot easier to reduce 500g of flour by half than to find half of 3/4 of a cup.

So now I think I have a recipe format that has evolved that I really like. I include notes for extra clarification or for changes for next time at the bottom of each. Kind of like the side bars Rick Bayless includes in his cookbooks which I like so much

Anyway, tonight I made an easy Italian dish called Polo con Salsa di Funghi. Its a chicken dish with a tomato sauce and mushrooms. I used some leftover cooked chicken that I had frozen from a few recipes ago but it's pretty straight forward to cook up a two pound package or so of boneless chicken breasts (or thighs) for the recipe.

If you would like to try it, you can find it here.