Evolution of recipes
<--Brownies recipe from my Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book First Edition by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc and General Mills, Inc.
Last week I cooked Japanese Soba noodle soup to serve at Club Bamboo. This lunch was very popular and all noodle soup was sold out. The fellow Japanese cook decided to make chicken Soba noodle which may not be common at Soba noodle restaurants in Japan. In Japan generally the soba noodle soup is served along with Tempura or simple condiments. The ethnic cuisine changes depending on the location where it is served and people who eat. The first year when I came to Seattle, I had problem eating Mexican food. I didn’t like its cheesy taste and tortillas. Before coming to Seattle I never had Mexican food. After twenty years living in Seattle, my taste preference has changed. I love Mexican food as well as Pizza while I still love Japanese and other Asian food.
The recipe of Japanese traditional meals has changed over the time. One example is Udon noodle soup. I made Udon soup from 20 years old Japanese cook book. The soup was very salty and soup was very dark brown. Popular and the best Udon soup was made from current Japanese recipe with some modification. It was quite different one from age old recipe. It was less salty and looks delicious.
For American recipes, many good old hearty meals in old recipe book are no longer in new recipe book. People are busy yet like to eat healthy meals at home. Many cookbooks include recipes for light and quick meals. No more raw eggs in the recipe. Some people are allergic to specific food and require special diet. Some prefer only plant-based food. There are so many choices of cook books such as vegetarian, low carbohydrate, low fat, no wheat, no dairy diet and so on.
US being multi cultural country, many ethnic recipes have been brought to United State. World became smaller, it is easy to obtain ingredients from other country. Authentic ingredients have been adopted and added into American cooking. Many more recipes have been developed and tested. Author of recipe books have too many choices and naturally unhealthy, time-consuming, and highly technical recipes will be out of consideration.
We, who love cooking delicious meals at home, have to test out various recipes finding out which one fits our family’s taste bud. Although recipes of old comfy food may not be included in healthy food cookbook, Internet helps me finding any recipes.
I still use my favorite cook books for specific recipes. The result is always delicious and no leftovers. Some recipes are never out dated.
The photo above is Brownies recipe from Betty Crocker’s Picture cook Book First Edition.There are 264 Brownies recipes at BettyCrocker.com.