What do we look for when we read a recipe?

What does the recipe make?

Well really, you may say. Of <i>course</i>. And in most cases you'd be rightly scornful. A recipe for apple pie has the title "apple pie." A recipe for beef stew has the title "beef stew."

Sometimes, however, the title doesn't reveal enough. Even our straightforward titles "apple pie" and "beef stew" may fall short. What makes this apple pie different from all other apple pies? Sharon Kebschull Bennett lays it out for us when she titles her recipe "apple-thyme tarts." Small pies rather than one big one, check. Apples flavored with thyme, chck. Puff paste, aha, thus "tart" rather than "pie." A useful and informative title. "Apple caramel tart" Burros: Cooking for Comfort pp. 164-165; phyllo also "tart."

1. too general

2. ambiguous

3. unfamiliar

4. foreign or old

5. fanciful or idiosyncratic

Beecher applie pie Stallworth + Kennedy: The Brooklyn Cookbook pp. 16-17

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That question might seem a little simple-minded, but it's often not obvious. If you grew up in Milwaukee or Lubbock or Scranton or Bakersfield, you probably have a pretty clear idea of what's meant by a recipe for, say, "pizza." If you grew up in Naples or New Haven or Chicago may exclude some of the pizzas so-called in other parts of the world.

pizza

mac 'n' cheese

chili (con carne)