Topic: Most recipes don't work

[George]

I just thought it was out of order to do this on television, unprofessional even ?

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the kitchen of some BIR restaurants or takeaways, when nobody is looking? I dread to think. Would the fear of such a risk put you off going to a BIR that served up delicious food?

I don't really mind how many rings Delia is wearing on TV. What counts for me is whether her recipes turn out well, and they do, with a far lower failure rate than for most other cook books.

[Curry Barking Mad]

I would love to have taken a sample from her ring. I hate to think what may have been around that area 
[/quote]

Are you sure mate?

[Les]

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the kitchen of some BIR restaurants or takeaways, when nobody is looking? I dread to think. Would the fear of such a risk put you off going to a BIR that served up delicious food?

Maybe a few sweat drops off  the nose, Just to give the curry that jenesequa
HS

[Graeme]

I would love to have taken a sample from her ring. I hate to think what may have been around that area 

Are you sure mate?
[/quote]

LOL 

Sorry about being off topic George, say no more, say no more.

[prawnsalad]

Sorry if I missed something here as although I think DS is great I just cant remember her running a BIR? As we aren't taking Steak and Kidney Pie I don't know why anyone bothered to reply to George. My guess is she would screw up the Taz base first go, just like the rest of us.

Yes, it certainly looks like you've missed the whole point. It's perfectly valid to come up with a general observation and then suggest it MIGHT apply to the specific case of BIR recipes. In my experience, most (i.e more than half of) books claiming to reveal BIR recipes are a bit of a disappointment, to say the least, and I thought many people here tend to agree. It might be amusing to mention Big Macs and Steak & Kidney pudding but it's totally irrelevant to the main point I'm making.

I may have come across a little harsh here unintentionally. However there is no validity in your original post as DS does not specialise in Indian food any more than Jamie Oliver does.
The position I now occupy is one of zero time for any chef (celebrity or otherwise) who has not actually worked in a public BIR personally, as no matter how good they are at streak & kidney (pie not pudding) they lack any real proof of ever making a true BIR dish even once.

[Graeme]

I just came across a very true comment in the introduction to a Delia Smith book.



I agree with the two main points:

1. Delia's recipes do tend to produce good results
2. Other recipes might not.

How can this be? Are most other authors no better than con artists?
I'm afraid to say it may apply to many of the recipes 'published' here, as well.

I suggest we need some kind of 'peer group review' before any recipe is allowed to be posted here, perhaps with a graphic stamp as being 'tried and tested'. The implication might be that many/most other recipes are only to be tried at your own risk.

The thing that jumps to my mind is...
1) Well she WOULD write this in one of her books,  shes selling her books and Image.
2) The wording and description sound to good be be true....i,e
"what i like about you Delia" "the kind comment was cheerfully whispered" and
" by a charming lady who is anything but an idiot" who writes this stuff its like a novel  ;D
If i was reading this book i would look at this as total sales hype and ott, i would have put the book down at this point and bought the hairy bikers...not really but you know what i mean.

[Les]

the position I now occupy is one of zero time for any chef (celebrity or otherwise) who has not actually worked in a public BIR personally, as no matter how good they are at streak & kidney (pie not pudding) they lack any real proof of ever making a true BIR dish even once.

That would include 99.9% of all the recipes on cr0 then.

[Peripatetic Phil]

The thing that jumps to my mind is...
1) Well she WOULD write this in one of her books,  shes selling her books and Image.
2) The wording and description sound to good be be true....i,e
"what i like about you Delia" "the kind comment was cheerfully whispered" and
" by a charming lady who is anything but an idiot" who writes this stuff its like a novel  ;D
If i was reading this book i would look at this as total sales hype and ott, i would have put the book down at this point and bought the hairy bikers...not really but you know what i mean.

I don't have a problem with Delia (or any other author) seeking to promote their work by factually reporting positive feedback from existing customers, and I am certainly willing to give Delia the benefit of the doubt concerning whether or not this exchange ever took place.  That said, I do not have a single copy of any of Delia's books, nor any other books by so-called celebrity chefs [1], simply because I prefer to trust the recipes of those whose reputation has been established over time, rather than in the deliberately shortened timescale of television and popular entertainment. 

** Phil.

[1] Not strictly true : I was given a book by Gordon Ramsay as a present, which of course I could not refuse.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I just thought it was out of order to do this on television, unprofessional even ?
I thought she should have known better. The rings were very large with plenty of places for them...err bugs to hide until washed out via the mixing.

OK, but how many rings did she have ?  Ten, say ?  Well, we all have ten fingernails, and the amount of crud that can accumulate under them would seem to me to be an even more likely source of contamination then her rings.  I have a vague sympathy for your general point, but unless/until the time comes when every television "chef" (and I use the word loosely) does a full surgical scrub before commencing food preparation, and until all television kitchens are equipped with long-arm taps that can be elbow operated, I don't think we should worry excessively about the presence of a few rings.

My EUR 0,02.
** Phil.

[emin-j]

It's going to happen again if we're not careful!  RESIST TEMPTATION TO RESPOND TO INSULTS! 

My thoughts;  I post a recipe when I think I can go no further with the development of the dish, when I've explored all possibilities, and ruled out many of the variables.

My hope is, members enjoy the dish and give it positive feedback, however, I am not naive enough to think it will suit everybody's tastebuds.  Still, I'm confident that most of my own dishes have something which others can build on if they wish.

As for providing a "statement of quality" I'm never going to add a recipe to the forum and give it a tag line such as "Better than the BIR's"  Yes, I know Blade did with his tikka, and to be fair, it was certainly better than most!  I wouldn't be so bold.

Now, if anyone came back after trying one of my recipes and said "Razor, sorry mate but your dish was terrible"  I would;

(a) be safe in the knowledge that they haven't done it correct, as all my dishes are tried and tested on many many family and friends before I post them here;

(b) I would check through the instructions and make sure that I haven't made a mistake with the published recipe;

(c) I would thank them for trying the recipe but would enquire as to what it was that they didn't like about it.

The group tests are a great way of validating some of the recipes kindly provided by the members and I don't think that there is a need for a separate section or an "untrusted" section.

I guess if the forum was a tad more disciplined, every recipe provided could be accompanied by a review count for example;

Razors Seekh kebab with photos (27 reviews)

To validate how good the recipe is, a positive or negative function could be added to the review, worked out by percentage, so the title would now read;

Razors Seekh kebab with photos (27 reviews, 98% positive)  :

Unfortunately, as it stands at the moment, the reviews count would simply mean, number of responses to the recipe, many of which could be off topic!

I wonder if the above could be an added function to the forum, Stew?

Of course, anybody could still reply or ask questions but if you are reviewing the recipe, you could simply click on the 'positive or negative' option!

Whadya think?

Ray

I like the sound of this Razor only problem is when someone gives  Negative feedback this could be down to their level of expertise or attention to detail rather than the Recipe,I like the idea though.