When a published recipe is obviously missing a step….

[Mosca]

I have this recipe that looks really good. (No, it isn’t a bbq recipe, but it could easily be made into one, so I think it’s okay here.) Here is the recipe:

Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Ziti with Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce

Cook Time: 15-29 minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 4-6 people

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound chicken breast, diced
3 cups chicken broth
16 oz. ziti pasta
3 cups broccoli florets, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s Garlic Parmesan Sauce
2 tablespoons Parmesan, grated

Directions:
Add chicken and chicken broth, pasta and broccoli to pot and stir.
Cover with the lid and lock it into position. Turn the vent to the sealing position. Press the manual button (pressure cooking) and adjust the time to 5 minutes. When cooking is finished, release the pressure.
Stir in heavy cream and Sweet Baby Ray’s Garlic Parmesan Sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
Place lid back on and cook for another 3 minutes.

Source: https://www.sweetbabyrays.com/Recipe...ce=facebook&ut m_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1fTmuZEztzj1t6Cv4Z4o66z H1S69SByJV6PAZeJ7Wb65TDvfo_Okkd-KM_aem_AWo7UzisrfEd1YwwpKYCZcBJNp0bE-BBZp9vkSi3sBuNI8NQ-eY4asLYdoFWQYx9MpOK3QZSNUmTrSStvlklxizhs8EzbarAaU2 9FzfAXBdgpLfg7D1ZQiTPBtVS1NEV42r_43R_ylGQRylLF-jaqcOU


Can you see what is missing?

The list of ingredients starts with 2T of olive oil. But it isn’t listed in the directions! And what do we know about these types of casserole/pasta-y meals? You should brown the meat first!


I had another one last week, cacio y pepe but using white beans instead of pasta. Everything was going well, until it came to the cheese… it involved adding chicken broth to a pan of hot butter, heating to a near simmer, then slowly adding grated Parmesan and Asiago. This was supposed to form a cheese sauce, but all it did was gum up my whisk. I would think that making a roux first, THEN adding the chicken broth, THEN adding the cheeses, would produce the desired result!

[WillTravelForFood]

I had another one last week, cacio y pepe but using white beans instead of pasta. Everything was going well, until it came to the cheese… it involved adding chicken broth to a pan of hot butter, heating to a near simmer, then slowly adding grated Parmesan and Asiago. This was supposed to form a cheese sauce, but all it did was gum up my whisk.

Watch the cacio y pepe recipe by Babish (his "botched" version) -- he kept running into the exact same issue with gummy cheese.

We've used Alton's cacio method to good results (basically, make a cheese/pepper paste then add water to it until it becomes saucy

We've tried other methods to "meh" -- looking forward to trying Babish's version later this week.

[Mosca]

Thank you, I will. I was pissed, that's like $5 worth of expensive Italian cheese.

[texastweeter]

Alton is solid, especially using the low water volume method of cooking the pasta. Adding a tiny amount of sodium citrate will smooth out the gummy cheese issue btw.

[SheilaAnn]

Mosca obviously, you know the basic common sense stuff about cooking. We know that cooking goes smoother when we prep accordingly (mise en place). I’m a firm believer that reading the entire recipe first should also be a part of your mise. And because you do know how to cook, you would have adjusted accordingly. That said, if I had a dollar for every time I did not read a whole recipe first and messed up, I would have a whole lotta dollars! 🤑

[FireMan]

Shoot, if I had a dollar fer every time I read the recipe & somehow found meself not followin it. Then lookin at the cook & spotin or remembering the step or ingredient I left out. So much fer prep.

[58limited]

I've run into that too - once with a Thermoworks e-mail recipe. I e-mailed them and they corrected the error and thanked me for bringing it to their attention.

[mnavarre]

There's a lot of extremely poorly written recipes out there, even from some reputable sources. And don't get me started on sites like Allrecipes, there might be stuff on there that's not pure garbage, but I don't want to wade through a river of crap trying to find it. And it's not just missing steps or ingredients that suddenly appear in the recipe but aren't actually in the list of ingredients, it's often missing explanation. If you don't know why something should work and how it works you're just going to end up either wondering what you did wrong or thinking the person who wrote the recipe is an idiot. That's why I like sites like Serious Eats or ATK or Milk Street, they explain why and how the recipe works.

Let's take Cacio e Pepe. What is it? Pasta in an emulsion of pepper, oil, pasta water, and cheese. If you don't know how that sauce works you're probably going to think the cheese and pepper are the important bits, but if you know then you know that the pasta water is actually the important bit, because that's the emulsifier. Without the starch in the pasta water you get globs of cheese in a broken, greasy sauce. There's also technique to getting the sauce to come together.

So what didn't your Cacio work?

"it involved adding chicken broth to a pan of hot butter"

Yeah, you're in for a bad day, right there. The butter isn't a strong enough emulsifier to carry that sauce, and chicken broth has no body, that's just never going to come together. Using really good chicken stock would probably work, since it's got a ton of gelatin in it. Using the broth from cooking the beans would absolutely work, since it's got tons of starch in it. And don't add too much cheese, and if it starts to clump up add more liquid and turn the heat up a bit. And Asiago always wants to clump up, when I use it I usually get things started with Parm, add the pasta, and then start adding Asiago and more pasta water as needed.

[fzxdoc]

Brilliant.

K.

[Mosca]

1) I went back and checked the recipe to make sure I read it right: “In a separate saucepan over medium-high heat, add butter, olive oil, garlic, and black pepper. Cook pepper and garlic for 1-2 minutes, then add a cup of chicken broth. Gradually add in both cups of Asiago and Parmigiano-Reggiano, whisking to form a cheese sauce (Add more broth if the sauce becomes too thick).”

Yep, I read it right. But now, when I get a chance, I can work on fixing this. Remember, it’s beans, not pasta.

[Mosca]

2) If I use canned beans, then I think making the roux will work, using the starch from the flour.

[bbqLuv]

The best part of errors in a recipe is when the food turns out badly it is never my fault. I blame the recipe.

[FireMan]

One thing I remember always with any & all recipes is Emerill’s advice: “when ya see garlic listed, double it!”

[WillTravelForFood]

Staying on the topic of "always read the recipe first", we guarantee there is no error in this recipe: Swedish Lemon Angels

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/SWEDISH-LEMON-ANGELS-1209952

Go on, we'll wait.....

[SheilaAnn]

WillTravelForFood mnavarre I had to Google it…..

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/swedish-lemon-angels-1927589

Signed, miss gully bull

[WillTravelForFood]

SheilaAnn Blame Penn and Teller (instead of the no-good-niks at Food Network who like to ruin the fun), and their 1992 book. We have a copy around here somewhere...

[WillTravelForFood]

SheilaAnn - tomorrow might be a good day to share that cookie recipe with "friends" or "loved ones".

[WillTravelForFood]

Can confirm, the Babish cacio e Pepe technique is a winner. Will make agaim