A recipe is one of the most hardworking tools in the professional kitchen. For this reason, learning how to read a recipe correctly and to use it in various ways is critical to every culinary student’s success. Will you need to build up your math skills? A bit. Will you need to pay careful attention to the details of a recipe? Absolutely.
I know what many of you reading this post are thinking: “I don’t follow recipes and my food tastes great!”
Aside from the fact that I probably disagree with how “great” your cooking is, the bigger problem is consistency and experience. Can someone with lots of experience throw stuff into a pan and it tastes pretty good? Sure! Every now and then. Maybe. For beginning cooks without years of experience? Making a tasty meal by “feel” is a happy accident. You got lucky, bud.
But here’s the REAL kicker: can anyone make that same dish – the one that they kinda “threw together” – over and over again, exactly? Not a chance. Not even a professional can do that.
Learning to follow a recipe correctly FROM THE VERY START will help you create tasty dishes for as long as you study cooking. For those who are choosing culinary arts as a career? This skill is fundamental. Learning to correctly follow a recipe is what allows the cooking professional to work in all different kinds of situations – from catering a party of four to a wedding reception of 700.
This post is all about taking you from the beginning (not even knowing exactly what a recipe is) to competency (reading and following it like a pro).
Recipe defined: a recipe is a written record of the ingredients and preparation steps needed to make a particular dish.
Recipes used at home can follow any format that helps your mom or dad or grandma or whatever to prepare the dish – and if you look online, you will see all KINDS of recipes out there, from the very simple to the absurdly complicated.
But the recipes that restaurant use must follow a format that is clear to every single cook who needs to use them. We call these standardized recipes, and they all follow the same format: they list the ingredients first, in the order they are to be used, followed by assembly directions, or the method for putting the ingredients together.
Why are standardized recipes so important? They play a vital role in:
- Ensuring consistent quality – every dish tastes good
- Ensuring consistent portion size – everybody is getting the same size portion
- Purchasers to know what to buy – ordering the right ingredients only works if there are standard amounts of each item.
- Cooks know exactly how to make each item and throw away less food (because no one is guessing amounts)
- Servers communicate accurate information to guests, such as dishes with potential allergens
- Managers can determine how much it costs to make a dish (which is how they control profits)
Control of costs, quality, and consistency of product are as important to the success of a restaurant as the preparation and service of food that looks and tastes great.
So what’s in one of these standardized recipes? What are the parts?
A standardized recipe includes the following information:
- Name: This is the title of the recipe.
- Yield: This is the number of servings or the amount the recipe makes. This information is used to determine how much of the recipe quantity is needed. Yield is critical to understanding how much it will cost to produce the recipe.
- Ingredients: These are the food items needed to make the recipe, usually listed in the order in which they are used. This list makes it easier to follow the recipe and not forget any ingredient.
- Each ingredient must be clearly defined. For example, stating “onion” is not specific enough; it provides many choices, such as yellow, red, white, green, or pearl.
- Amounts of each ingredient are also given. Avoid terms such as “to taste” and “as needed.” Using specific amounts makes it more likely that the finished product will be what was intended by the creator of the recipe.
- In commercial recipes, weight is generally the preferred method for measuring ingredients rather than other customary measurements-such as cups or quarts, or stating “one onion” or “a large apple”-because weight is more accurate.
- Portion size: This is the individual amount that serves a person.
- Temperature, time, and equipment: This includes size and type of pans and other equipment needed, the oven temperature, cooking time, and any preheating instructions.
- Step-by-step directions: This is how and when to combine the ingredients.
- Nutrition information: This is not essential, but it is useful. Nutrition information may include amounts of fat (saturated and unsaturated), carbohydrates, protein, fiber, sodium, vitamins, and minerals.
No matter how great a recipe is, if the cook can’t or won’t or doesn’t know HOW to follow it, the whole thing is worthless.
A recipe is like a road map. If you want to get good results and make delicious food, you’ll need to read it carefully and follow the steps it lays out exactly. How do you do that?
- Read the recipe completely.
- Gather and mise en place all ingredients as specified. Remember, mise en place is French for “to put in place.” It refers to the preparation and assembly of ingredients, pans, utensils, and equipment or serving pieces needed for a particular dish or service.
- Measure carefully.
- Follow the instructions for preparation.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you’ve made the recipe as written, THEN you can decide if you like it. Remember, there are lots of bad recipes out there, recipes that were put online by amateur cooks and home “foodies.” You will come across these and be tempted to blame yourself. “Afterall,” you will think to yourself, “the recipes had tons of great reviews! I must have screwed up.”
Maybe you did. Maybe you missed a step. Or four.
But it is just as likely that… it just wasn’t a very good recipe.
Recipes in Action
Almost everyone likes Brownies, so we’re going to use the world’s greatest treat as a way to demonstrate the three basic types of recipes.
HOME COOK
If you live with someone who likes to cook but doesn’t know much about cooking, they probably make brownies out of a box. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. I don’t make brownies out of the box unless I’m feeling especially lazy…. But I’m weird.
Here’s what that box looks like:
Despite the graphics and images and what not, this is a standardized recipe. It has all the core components: ingredients, instructions, doneness indicators. It is missing portion sizes/ yield and some of the ingredients are irritatingly vague (is it a medium, large, or extra large egg? what kind of vegetable oil exactly?), but for our purposes, this recipe hits all the points.
This kind of recipe is pretty common with prepackaged foods – the manufacturer wants to make these brownies as idiotproof as possible.
AMATEUR FOODIE
On the other hand, here is a recipe for the SAME KIND OF BROWNIE, just this time, it is made from scratch. This is a much more complicated recipe, one made for a talented home cook who has the patience and skill to follow a more challenging set of directions:
Handmade, No Box Brownies
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa 106 g
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1 tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 8 oz unsalted butter 2 sticks or 227 g
- 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar 447g
- 1 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 180g
- 2 cups chocolate chips 340 g
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13×9 pan, line with parchment, and grease the parchment.
- Crack 4 eggs into a bowl and whisk together with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla for 1-3 minutes, or until smooth. Try to incorporate as little air as possible.
- In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Continue to heat briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it.
- Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth.
- Fold in the flour and chips, stirring until smooth. Do not overmix!
- Spoon the batter into the pan, using a spatula to spread the batter evenly.
- Bake the brownies for 28 to 32 minutes, until the edges feel set, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. When testing to see if brownies are done, take a toothpick or the tip of a sharp knife and carefully poke it two inches from the edge of the pan. It should come out clean.
- Remove the pan from the oven and use a paring knife or metal spatula to loosen the edges of the brownie from the pan. Cool completely before cutting and serving.
- Store leftovers well-wrapped at room temperature for 5-6 days. Freeze for longer storage.
A lot more details, right? The instructions are more specific and it contains doneness indicators at every stage.
PROFESSIONAL, STANDARDIZED RECIPE
Now, compare the two home recipes above with a commercial brownie recipe, one written to be followed by a trained professional:
Classic Brownie Formula
Ingredients
- 11 oz Unsweetened Chocolate 100%
- 1 lb Unsalted Butter 145.29%
- 1 lb Whole Egg 145.29%
- 2 lb Granulated sugar 290.95%
- .5 oz Vanilla Extract .04%
- 11 oz AP Flour 100%
Instructions
- Sanitize all work surfaces, tools, and hands before handling raw flour and batter.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.Grease a half-sheet pan (18-in x 13-in x 1-in).
- Melt together unsweetened chocolate and unsalted butter in a double boiler. Remove from heat and maintain the temperature of the chocolate/butter mixture at 86 degrees F°.
- Meanwhile, combine whole eggs and sugar in a 5-quart mixer bowl. Using the paddle attachment, beat on low speed (Speed 1 on a Hobart mixer) for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
- Add the chocolate and butter mixture. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Stir in pure vanilla extract.
- Add sifted flour. Beat on low speed 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
- Pour the batter into the prepared sheet pan and spread out evenly. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. A wooden pick inserted in the center will come out with moist crumbs (150°F).
- Sanitize all work surfaces, tools, and hands after handling raw flour and batter.
- Cool to room temperature. Double-wrap slab of brownies in a sheet pan with cling wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Using a long sharp chef’s knife, trim off 1/2-in from each long side of the slab. Cut the slab into twenty 3-in x 3-in brownies.
You should notice a couple of things:
- There are fewer ingredients in the commercial recipe and less explanation in the instructions
- Ingredients are listed by weight and to the side they are listed as percentages. Why? Pastry Chefs use formulas and ratios when making big batches like the recipe above. Don’t worry about that for now. Baker’s Percentages are an entirely different kind of recipe and one you will encounter if you study baking and pastry more deeply. And why the focus on weight? MEASURING INGREDIENTS BY WEIGHT IS ALWAYS MORE ACCURATE THAN MEASURING BY VOLUME.
- Sanitation plays an important role in making these brownies because they will be packaged and sold (not given to pesky foster kids visiting during school break). In commercial cooking, sanitation is part of the recipe.
- Equipment and tools are described by name and without explanation. The recipe writer expects the professional following the recipe to ALREADY KNOW what these things are.
