How much should little annoyances matter?

February 7, 2024 by
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One thing I love about cookbooks is that every author lends their own voice to the recipe through the instructions and notes. This gives every book its own vibe and personality, and I will sometimes pull a book off the shelf as much for its tone as for a specific recipe. Authors also develop their own quirky phrases for recipe instructions, which I often find charming but which sometimes annoy me to distraction.

One such phrase is “season to perfection”, which I find both vague and imperious: it demands perfection from the reader, yet offers no clue about how to achieve that. Why not just say “season with salt and pepper” and provide an estimated starting quantity? The phrase reminds me of the time my grandmother graciously wrote down a bunch of family recipes for me but did not provide much by way of instructions. One recipe only included the baking temperature but not the time. I called her to ask how long I needed to bake it and she replied “until it’s done.” That answer, while factual, was incredibly unhelpful. I eventually pried a time estimate out of her, which ensured a successful outcome. (I still treasure that booklet of recipes, which now contains my own notes penciled in next to her instructions.)

But I digress. Back to the matter at hand – should I just shrug off annoying phrases because they don’t have any bearing on whether the recipe is a success, or is life too short to put up with text that grates on my nerves? Should it matter that I’m put off by a book’s introduction noting that the author has a nanny look to after her child while she is puttering about in her (swoon-worthy) kitchen? There seemed no reason to mention the nanny other than to signal status, which I find odious. That made it harder for me to appreciate the recipes that followed.

There is no shortage of cookbooks that I could read for hours without being annoyed once (anything by Diana Henry or Nigella Lawson, for instance). Why not just cook from those and do a Marie Kondo on the ones I don’t love? Because, as I recently learned, I might miss out on excellent recipes by being pedantic or judgmental. I cooked several recipes from the “season to perfection” book; most were fantastic and will be frequently repeated. I’m glad I overcame my irritation to try these recipes, and I hope that I remember this lesson the next time a phrase rubs me the wrong way.

Category: Antipasto

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16 Comments

  • bittrette  on  February 8, 2024

    I intend to post about pet peeves in the Forum, but for the most part I just put up with small annoyances and just gripe about them when the occasion is right. But occasionally there is a deal breaker, real or might-have-been.
    One real deal breaker (about which I’ve posted in the Forum) was The Mensch Chef: Or Why Delicious Jewish Food Isn’t an Oxymoron, by Mitchell Davis. Just the title pinged me twice.
    First, the word “mensch.” In German and Yiddish it means literally a human being, and figuratively (at least for a male) a person of the highest moral character. Anyone for The Sterling Character Chef?
    Furthermore, the uninflected word “mensch” cannot be used as an adjective; it needs a suffix for that.
    Second, I agree that delicious Jewish cooking isn’t an oxymoron – not only because I love Ashkenazi Jewish food (gefilte fish, matzo-ball soup, bagels, tzimmes, etc.), but because an oxymoron is always a deliberate rhetorical device meant to point up a paradox. Think “sweet sorrow” (Shakespeare) or “living death” (Milton). Davis means a contradiction in terms.
    The book might have some great recipes, but no, thanks – I’ll find my Jewish yummies elsewhere.
    The might-have-been deal breaker is a book on entertaining, from the 80’s or 90’s, which I think was by Barbara Kafka. The advice on composing a gue st list suggested inviting that ____ couple or that ____ couple. Couples only? Why didn’t the author just come out and say that singletons aren’t worthy of a social life, at least of the dinner-party kind, and explain why?
    In my case there was no deal to break.

  • KatieK1  on  February 8, 2024

    A certain popular cookbook writer spent an inordinate amount of time in his introduction complaining about the indignities of growing up in Texas. He has since done very well for himself. I don’t care how good the recipes are, it was a turn off for me.

    On another note, I am annoyed when the picture of the finished dish clearly has ingredients that aren’t listed in the recipe, unmentioned garnishes for example. A while ago I remember an author’s introduction apologizing for the food stylist having gone overboard and asking the readers to ignore the pictures!

  • thegluttery  on  February 8, 2024

    I would counter with the argument that in 2024, there is more content than you could ever reasonably consume and therefore, no reason to tolerate even the most minor of annoyances. Last year’s primary cookbook season (which I mark as the last Tuesday in August through the second Tuesday in November), I had 260 cookbooks on my personal list. EYB’s master list is even longer, because my personal list does not include diet-specific, drink, or certain other categories of cookbooks.
    Because of the sheer number of books being produced, you would need a dedicated, well-staffed test kitchen just to sample a solid percentage of available recipes. While I understand your fear that you might be missing out on something truly excellent, time itself demands the same opportunity cost. Each recipe that you choose to make takes the place of another. So, if I find something as simple as an irritating phrase off-putting about a recipe, there are thousands more waiting to take its place.

  • demomcook  on  February 8, 2024

    My turn-off lately hasn’t been what is said so much as how it is presented. Tiny font size in light text. I cannot see it. And, there is plenty of extra room on the page. I would happily trade full page photos for larger text, and then I can begin to worry about what they are actually saying.

  • gamulholland  on  February 8, 2024

    My turnoff is loud, busy photography so cluttered with table decor and other food and in oversaturated colors, making it hard to actually see the food. Another one, which is kind of a resurrection of a 1970’s annoyance, is wacky title fonts that are hard to read. The latest Molly Baz, or the third Chrissy Teigen, for example. (And yes, I have that latter one. She and Adeena Sussman write really good recipes.). But I’ve passed on many a recent book because the photos and/or text are so jarring and distracting. Probably just as well since I have limited shelf space.

  • bittrette  on  February 9, 2024

    “Tiny font size in light text.”
    The worst offender: yellow text on a white background. Whose idea was that, anyway?
    It’s poetic justice that The Mensch Chef is out of print.

  • KatieK1  on  February 9, 2024

    I agree about the tiny type sizes being a turn off. And then there are typefaces where it’s impossible to tell a 3 from a 5 without a magnifying glass. Where do they find these sadistic book designers?

  • KarenGlad  on  February 10, 2024

    Haven’t seen the yellow text on white but the grey on white in teeny tiny text is maddening. Finally got myself one of those page size magnifying sheets that old people used to have in their phone book …back in the old days lol.

  • averythingcooks  on  February 10, 2024

    I have 3 little peeves. 1st is the already mentioned seriously poor choices made for font / page colours. Second is when ingredient lists minimize fractions to the same size a whole number…even with my correctly powered cheaters on, I don’t have a chance without the use the magnifying light on my phone. And 3rd is not listing all ingredients in the list only to have them pop up in the instructions. A recent EYB recipe comment called this out where a large volume of water is suddenly requested in the instructions. Another example is an author on my shelves who, in at least one book, treats red wine vinegar the same way. He explains why in the book’s intro but really…how hard is it to include in the list of ingredients? Oops…and there is a number 4 – books that REFUSE to stay open on my counter or even in my lap when I’m on the couch reading. I do have a lovely pine cookbook stand but some even refuse to stay open in it.

    Also – I have a “season to perfection” author on my shelves…hmmm…can there be more than one?

  • Jane  on  February 10, 2024

    I suspect the issue with the light/small fonts isn’t so much sadism as age. The designers are probably young and want the design to look cool and don’t consider that what they see clearly with their 20/20 vision is what us oldies have issues with. Impossible to read fractions are a real bug-bear of mine. And that “seasoned to perfection” bit is very annoying right now, since it’s on every recipe in one of our featured cookbooks in the EYB Cookbook Club.

  • bittrette  on  February 10, 2024

    “Season to perfection” is just a bad way to phrase it. Who expects us to know the mind of the recipe writer so well that we can get it perfect the first time? I’ve stayed with a recipe several times just so I can get the seasoning right. “Season with salt and black pepper” is usually what is meant, but you may want to add an herb or another spice or, I dunno, hot sauce. There are at least two better ways to give the direction: “Season to taste” and “Adjust the seasoning.”

  • Rinshin  on  February 10, 2024

    I dislike seeing pictures of authors, their family, or friends in the books. It really annoys me. Ok just having one picture but more than one tells me the author is not to be taken seriously.

    Crazy fonts annoy me. Too cutesy illustrations too.

  • Fyretigger  on  February 10, 2024

    I will add the utterly absurd recipe time estimates. I want to see time estimates that accurately reflect working in a home kitchen without a support staff doing prep and mis en place – doing your own washing, peeling, chopping, searching through the spice cupboard, measuring, etc.

    If the time estimate cannot be somewhat realistic, just skip it.

  • AllieTaylor  on  February 28, 2024

    Oh, boy, did this article and the comments resonate! Totally agree with font sizes (says she who now must have specs to read _anything_ let alone tiny print in weird colours on yet weirder colours. Fill the page FGS, leaving a bit of space for notes. Why leave more than _half the page_ (!) empty when using the tiniest font possible? Sorry, Jane, but it is sadism.

    Please, put both metric and imperial measurements in. It’s 2024! Then you don’t have to have two editions!!!! What an idea?!?

    Vague instructions can be irritating (‘cook until done’: well, yes, it does take account of the vagaries of different ovens, sea levels, etc, but it would nice to know that it’s going to take 6 hours, not 45 mins). Times out of mind I have embarked on a voyage of discovery in the kitchen that I so wish I’d known was going to drive me to distraction. Some kind of roadmap please. Oops, do I have to explain what a roadmap is?

    Totally agree with you on Nigella L and Diana H. Bliss. Sometimes, I think it’s because they are interpreting for the reader their personal experience rather than listing a culinary shorthand. But I have to say that I love quirkiness, even when it grates. So, carry on with ‘season to perfection’ even though I’m gritting my teeth (I’m looking at you, JO!). If a writer has filtered out their own voice, it ceases to be interesting. One is there for the destination only and not the journey.

    Omg, I love cookery books! In some dim far-flung future, they will shine a light on our consciousness and culture.

  • arlojill  on  February 28, 2024

    One of my pet recipe peeves is “juice of one lemon” – are all lemons created equal? NO!!

    Thank you for this interesting post!!

  • cookbookaddict2020  on  February 28, 2024

    a blogger I otherwise love uses the phrase “slick” as a noun and it makes me gag. Like “a slick of chocolate” and gaaaaaah it makes me think of those poor seabirds covered in black goo from the Exxon Valdez disaster, plus “lick.” Ugh.

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