I'm always talking about Mark Bittman's recipes, whether in the
Minimalist series in the NY Times and books, or his "How To Cook
Everything."

But sometimes his recipes don't work. Especially in "Everything."
Dammit!

The latest was on Saturday afternoon, when I had to make an eggplant
casserole to take to MIL's for dinner. BIL's birthday, and he's a
connoisseur. Found a recipe in Bittman for tian of eggplant, I know
that word. The technique was suspiciously simple - layer raw onion, raw
eggplant slices, tomatoes, herbs & garlic in a casserole. Bake one
hour. A little tug in my ribcage told me...it's gonna take more than an
hour. But my day was crammed and I gave myself two hours total to cook.
I just wanted that recipe to work, because it fit my schedule.

The casserole really didn't cook through, even after 1 hour 45 minutes.
Oh yes and I even dialled the oven up hotter, on the suspicion that it
runs cold.

I can and do make a better "tian" without a recipe. You have to saute
the damn onions. They were still crunchy after two hours, blast! And
brown the eggplant, too. Then layer, then bake, and it still won't be
only an hour. In fact, if you want it to go faster, you have to braise
it slowly on the stove top, and still it will be longer than one hour.

Bittman's prime rib recipe was way off on how long the thing would take
to cook, making Christmas dinner 2001 very late.

There have been other such fiascos but I'm not keeping track well
enough.

And yet the pear clafouti worked pretty well (needed longer cooking
however). My BIL thinks Bittman likes his food raw, or he doesn't test
most of his recipes.

Mark Bittman, are you listening? I'm disappointed. I like your style so
much. Why can't I trust your recipes?

Leila

Leila wrote:

> I'm always talking about Mark Bittman's recipes, whether in the
> Minimalist series in the NY Times and books, or his "How To Cook
> Everything."
>
> But sometimes his recipes don't work. Especially in "Everything."
> Dammit!
>
> The latest was on Saturday afternoon, when I had to make an eggplant
> casserole to take to MIL's for dinner. BIL's birthday, and he's a
> connoisseur. Found a recipe in Bittman for tian of eggplant, I know
> that word. The technique was suspiciously simple - layer raw onion, raw
> eggplant slices, tomatoes, herbs & garlic in a casserole. Bake one
> hour. A little tug in my ribcage told me...it's gonna take more than an
> hour. But my day was crammed and I gave myself two hours total to cook.
> I just wanted that recipe to work, because it fit my schedule.
>
> The casserole really didn't cook through, even after 1 hour 45 minutes.
> Oh yes and I even dialled the oven up hotter, on the suspicion that it
> runs cold.
>
> I can and do make a better "tian" without a recipe. You have to saute
> the damn onions. They were still crunchy after two hours, blast! And
> brown the eggplant, too. Then layer, then bake, and it still won't be
> only an hour. In fact, if you want it to go faster, you have to braise
> it slowly on the stove top, and still it will be longer than one hour.
>
> Bittman's prime rib recipe was way off on how long the thing would take
> to cook, making Christmas dinner 2001 very late.
>
> There have been other such fiascos but I'm not keeping track well
> enough.
>
> And yet the pear clafouti worked pretty well (needed longer cooking
> however). My BIL thinks Bittman likes his food raw, or he doesn't test
> most of his recipes.
>
> Mark Bittman, are you listening? I'm disappointed. I like your style so
> much. Why can't I trust your recipes?
>
> Leila
>
Interesting. Maybe it's like most other things: gain some
popularity, and start cranking things out, forgetting why
folks like you in the first place.

--
Jean B.