Recipe rabbit holes

May 15, 2025 by
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It’s easy to run down a recipe rabbit hole on the internet. One click leads you to an article about a particular dish, then you follow tangents until you have forgotten the impetus for the original click. That just happened to me: I clicked on a masa pancake recipe on Epicurious, which contained a link to sources of fresh masa around the US. That click led me to a Minneapolis tortilleria that sold its products at various co-ops in the Twin Cities. From there, I search for the co-op nearest my office. (I’m now in downtown St. Paul after 15 years in downtown Minneapolis and I have to learn where to shop all over again, which is both an exciting adventure and a real drag, depending on whether I am in a hurry or not.)

Once at the co-op website I discover that CSAs have drop-offs at that location, so it’s off to research CSAs in the area. I learn that one is the Hmong American Farmers Association, whose headquarters I visited a couple of years ago. When I take the scenic route home, I drive by the headquarters and main farm, where multiple plots dotted with small equipment sheds line either side of US Route 52. I now have to text a neighbor to see if she would be interested in splitting a full share. By now I have pretty much forgotten about the masa pancake recipe, but I kept the tab open, so I eventually circle back to it about an hour after the first click. In my estimation that’s an hour well spent.

Although clicking on links makes it easy to get lost in recipe land, I also run into rabbit holes when I’m reading physical cookbooks. Sometimes I will look for a particular dish (obviously using EYB to locate the books and pages), and pull out several volumes to do side-by-side comparisons. Quite often I will notice another recipe when flipping through to the recipe I was originally researching, and this will lead me to pull more books off the shelf because I now have a new direction to explore.

Other times I will randomly pull a book off the shelf because it speaks to me in the moment. As I flip through the pages I will be likely be reminded of another recipe in a different book, and down the rabbit hole I go again. In both scenarios, I end up with a tall stack of books to put away, precariously piled on the chair next to the bookshelves, but I have satisfied a culinary itch. Just as with the online rabbit hole, I find this exercise to be time well spent: I have either learned about a new dish or rediscovered an old favorite. I am now armed with the tools I need to get in the kitchen and cook. The trouble is, it’s now 10:00 pm and time to get ready for bed. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

Category: Antipasto

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7 Comments

  • dbuhler  on  May 16, 2025

    This post made me smile because I just experienced this exact thing last night! Yesterday I was reading through a cookbook and I came across a recipe for quick Bolognese. This prompted me to search EYB for all my books with a Bolognese recipe (more than I thought!). I then sorted by buzz and pulled the top 5 off the shelf, tucked myself into bed with my booklight around my neck and started reading and comparing. I have since learned that I can not do this sort of research right before bed because it results in restless sleep and odd dreams, so I will leave that sort of reading for the daytime!

    The times when I don’t enjoy this sort of rabbit hole is when I set out to make something specific, for example, doughnuts, and I discover that I have 17+ different recipes to choose from! I am incredibly indecisive by nature and pulling out all the recipes and comparing them just makes the decision that much harder for me. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been making doughnuts for a while, so there are the recipes that I’ve already made and love, do I make one of those? Or, do I try the one I made last time that didn’t work out because I overproofed them…do I try them again? OR, I’m getting pretty good with my sourdough bread baking, should I venture into sourdough doughnuts (if so, that adds an additional 6 recipes to the ones previously mentioned)?? 😅 I really need to figure out how to simplify my choosing process and not get so caught up in the details.

  • JaniceKj  on  May 16, 2025

    And this is a slice of my life, almost weekly. Most of my online recipe searches end in a pile of printed wanna-be’s… After many years I’ve created an extension of my library with binders of them, just waiting… When I’m out of time, I have to concentrate on that “one recipe” from my books, usually the tried and true ones, or the night before make a decision on experimenting on one in particular. The EYB cataloging has been a blessing! But I still fall in those rabbit holes with piles of books and notes (sometimes comparing recipes by ingredients and measurements like a science project spreadsheet!). Oh, the fun of it all! Happy Baking, Happy Cooking!

  • JimCampbell  on  May 16, 2025

    As with JaniceKj I end up with lots of printed sheets. In fact these days I try not to print a recipe from the internet unless I have specific plans to cook it in the next two days. I’s helping control the binders a little bit. Emphasis on “little”.

    You should see the spreadsheet I have to track whats in the binders, marked in books, index cards, and magazines. It’s taken on a life of it’s own.

    I also find myself perusing the recipe notes on EYB daily and marking interesting recipes with the “I want to cook this” bookmark. The trouble is the list keeps growing and I never get around to categorizing them into a usable format.

    Oh well………………………The bane of the addiction…………..

  • anya_sf  on  May 16, 2025

    Yes! All of the above, way too often.

  • KarenGlad  on  May 17, 2025

    Oh my gosh thank you everyone…it’s not just me 🤪

  • gamulholland  on  May 17, 2025

    Having a daughter who just graduated last year from Macalester, I can tell you that there is an excellent cheese shop right across the street from Mac.

  • JennyCampisi  on  May 18, 2025

    Kindred spirits!

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