What a Properly Written Recipe Looks Like
Technical writing (of which recipes are a prime case), is suffering an agonizing death in our society, like many things. But I’ll grant you that there are many miracles, small and large, to offset this one loss. I’ll offer as examples 3D printing, modern drugs, and Parks and Rec’s Ron Swanson, to name only a few.
Below is one small attempt to stop the bleeding. I pay for a subscription to a wonderful cooking publication, Cook’s Illustrated, but they format complex recipes in long paragraphs… combining multiple steps into monolithic prose. That is just plain crap. Below is what one such recipe — just the steps — looks like when formatted for legibility (and the craft of cooking).
Here’s exactly what I’ve done, given the limited formatting of Medium.com:
- I’ve made every action a separately numbered step. Duh. You can now look away while you perform the action, and return to the instructions at the next step.
- I’ve bolded the key ingredients, or sometimes the key actions when no ingredient is mentioned. It’s like a little foothold for the eye.
- I’ve made some steps look like sub-steps, party because they’re related, but also to break up the visual monotony… again so the eye can go back to the same place after looking elsewhere for many minutes at a time.
- And to break up the visual monotony (the ‘mental load’), I’ve broken the steps into two sections with a semi-gratuitous break. There’s nothing gratuitous about good wine.
You’re welcome. Oh, and the recipe is not bad either. In fact it’s Mount Rushmore worthy… that’s why I went to all this effort.
- Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot.
- While water is coming to boil, melt butter in Dutch oven over medium heat.
- Add pancetta and pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until pancetta is golden brown and fond begins to form on bottom of pot, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
- Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
- Transfer 1 tablespoon vodka to small bowl and set aside.
- Remove Dutch oven from heat and add remaining 7 tablespoons vodka.
- Return pot to heat and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until vodka is mostly evaporated and fat in pot begins to sizzle, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Stir in passata, cream, salt, and pepper and bring to simmer.
- Adjust heat to maintain gentle simmer.
- Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, to meld flavors, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.
— — — — Maybe open a nice bottle of Chianti here — — — —
- Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt to boiling water and cook, stirring often, until al dente.
- Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain pasta. - Stir reserved 1 tablespoon vodka into sauce and return pot to low heat.
- Add pasta to sauce and stir until well coated, about 1 minute.
- Add 1/4 cup reserved cooking water and stir until sauce looks glossy and fluid, about 1 minute, adjusting consistency with remaining reserved cooking water as needed.
- Serve, passing parmesan separately.