Speaking of recipes....
Nov. 22nd, 2011 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brooksmosesI was reading my grandfather's recipe for spaghetti sauce -- which makes over 3 gallons, judging by what goes into it -- and thinking, "Only four ingredients? I was sure it was more complicated than that!" The four ingredients, for the record, are four large cans of tomato puree, and some hamburger, pepperoni, and sausage.
Then I actually read the directions, which involve frying an onion in olive oil, making meatballs with the hamburger and bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, garlic salt, et cetera., and realized: Those are not the ingredients in the sense of everything that goes into the sauce. Those are just the things that you need to buy. Everything else is just stuff that Granddad would have automatically had around the kitchen, like the knives and hot water from the tap.
Then I actually read the directions, which involve frying an onion in olive oil, making meatballs with the hamburger and bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, garlic salt, et cetera., and realized: Those are not the ingredients in the sense of everything that goes into the sauce. Those are just the things that you need to buy. Everything else is just stuff that Granddad would have automatically had around the kitchen, like the knives and hot water from the tap.
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-23 03:41 pm (UTC)When my mom wrote down grandma's recipes, she had to watch her make each dish to really see what was needed. Grandma didn't do units or measure much because she knew what she meant.
Transferring this to something that the rest of us could use took work. It was worth it.