According to a news article yesterday, cookbooks are having to "dumb down" the instructions in the their new publications, and they are including lots of step-by- step illustrations. At a recent conference, an executive for General Mills disclosed some of the e-mails and calls for advice the company has recently gotten.
One person who didn't have any eggs, asked if a peach would do instead. Another was upset by the instruction to "grease the bottom of the pan." Seems he greased the outside bottom of the pan and caused a fire.
All the food shows on TV haven't seemed to help any. So Kraft Foods recipes never include words such as "dredge" and "saute". Betty Crocker avoids "braise" and "truss" and Land O"Lakes has banned "fold" and "cream" from their recipes. Pillsbury doesn't use "simmer" nor "sear".
The mothers and grandmothers who used to teach cooking skills are evidently notdoing it anymore and home-ec cooking classes have disappeared from the school curriculum.
My mother, who was an excellent cook, didn't teach me much--I was relegated to
"stir this" or "watch this, don't let it boil over". Actually my husband taught me most of my cooking skills and reading cookbooks has supplemented my knowledge.
It was the joke of our senior year in high school that I won the "Betty Crocker Homemaker of the Year" award--I had never heard of a popover (our first cooking lesson) and my mother had to finish the dress I started in sewing class. How did I win? By writing a good essay on a test, as I remember.
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