The case for cookbooks without photos
July 18, 2019 by DarcieImages of food are a huge component of many people’s Instagram and Facebook feeds, and most cookbooks today feature amazing photos that are close to works of art in and of themselves. It is difficult to imagine a cookbook without lush images, but they used to be the norm. Cookbook author Andrea Nguyen thinks you can learn a lot from them, and she makes the case for cookbooks without photographs.
Photos can show what the finished dish should look like, but there is a lot that images alone can’t portray. Pictures can’t tell you if you have overcooked your protein, for example. Relying on pictures doesn’t help us develop our instincts either. Nguyen relates a story that reinforces the latter notion, recalling when she first attempted a classic recipe from Marcella Hazan, pork loin braised in milk. The three-hour recipe from the entirely photoless “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” called for simmering the pork until tender and letting the milk coagulate into “nut-brown clusters.” Not having a photo to reference gave rise to many questions, says Nguyen, such as “What nut was Ms. Hazan referring to?” Without a go-by, Nguyen said “I had to cook with my gut and all my senses.”
Not only does a lack of photos make you pay more
attention to your own senses and judgment, styles can change, and a
dish that would be perfectly lovely can be ruined by out-of-date
aesthetics. You can generally tell when a cookbook was published by
the table settings, plating, and food styling in its pages. Without
photos, you can imagine the dish in whatever style you desire
instead of being turned off by a dated image.
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