not that kind of test

[domarzione]

This is the recipe I'm making for dinner tonight: Spicy Chickpea and Sour Tomato Curry with Noodles. (Yes, it's 9pm and I'm still making dinner.)

I am, to be completely immodest, a very good cook. I consider the recipe oddly written, but extremely easy to follow. The oddness throws me a little, though, which is why I'm putting it up here.

The first step is 'caramelize the onions' in a lot more words. It has a description of what's supposed to happen, more or less, but no sense of how long it should take beyond "a while" and leaves the end state at "browned to your liking."

The second step has the similarly unhelpful "let the sauce simmer."

I know caramelizing onions takes a half-hour or so and what kind of brown it's supposed to be and I have a good sense of how long a simmer it would need for the flavors to meld, since that's the point of that action. But if you are not familiar with these processes or if you are just starting to stretch your culinary wings, does this kind of instruction make things easier or just anxiety-inducing because it's so laid-back and vague?

Comments

[anelith]

Since I'm not a good cook, and get anxious when confronted with unfamiliar situations, this kind of recipe is quite helpful! I like the completeness of the instructions about how to caramelize the onions. I also love it when recipes have comments (as this one does) that might add helpful tips. There was one that said something about adding a pinch of sugar if you don't care for the sourness. I might make this!

[domarzione]

Reading the comments on recipes is so helpful. Not the ones who change everything and then complain, but when everyone agrees that you need to cut back on the sugar or the cooking time is wrong or whatever, those are great.

But as a less-comfortable cook, would you even suspect that the onions could take half an hour or more depending on your cookware? Would it make you nervous not to see brown after fifteen minutes? Or would you just do it until they got soft and call it good?

[anelith]

I think it would be better if the recipe gave some estimate of time, yes! So even more information is better. I like that it tells you approx how often to stir, and that it will take time, but an estimate is very helpful.