Writing Cooking Instructions

Last weekend my husband and I saw Julie and Julia, a movie about a blogger who cooked her way through Julia Child's classic French cookbook and wrote about it. I loved the movie because it includes so many of my favorite things: cooking, eating, writing, and Paris. It got me thinking about cookbooks, recipes, and learning to cook.

I learned to cook by watching and helping my mom in the kitchen. When I moved out on my own, I picked up a few cookbooks or found recipes online and experimented a good deal. What I found out was that not all cookbooks or recipes are equal—some work better than others. It turns out that there is an art to writing cooking instructions.

The first thing a cookbook writer, like any other writer, must consider is audience. Is this book for beginners or experienced chefs? Julia Child's cookbook, despite containing some difficult recipes, is easy for beginners to use because it includes instruction on basic cooking techniques, such as poaching an egg or sauteing mushrooms (don't crowd them!). I learned an important lesson about audience when I gave a friend my recipe for vegetarian chili. After making it, she complained that the chili was too watery. We eventually figured out that she had not drained the cans of beans but poured them into the pot, water and all. I had thought anyone would know to drain the beans, so I did not include that step in my instructions!

A cookbook for beginners might contain tips about grocery shopping, choosing produce, stocking your pantry, as well as a list of cooking terminology. What does it mean to blanch something? How do you zest a lemon? It would probably also have colorful photos with each recipe and short, easy-to-follow steps. A cookbook for more experienced chefs would look dull in comparison, containing mostly text to allow more room for numerous recipes. These chefs don't need a picture to tell them how a meal should look.

One of the most important aspects of cooking is measurement. Too little baking powder, and your cake won't rise. Too much salt, and the meal is inedible. A cookbook writer must consider audience here, too. Should the measurements be based on the metric system or on U.S. customary units? Should people put in a pinch of nutmeg or 1/4 tsp?

Over time, and a few disasters later, I have become an experienced cook. I can usually tell just by looking at a recipe if it will be good, and I don't hesitate to alter a recipe even the first time I make it. But would I make a good recipe-writer?

What makes a well-written recipe? What are some recipe writing no-nos that would make you put down a cookbook? And how, if at all, is writing cooking instructions different from writing instructions in general?

Idiotic Idioms

In general, I pride myself on my finely-honed grasp of ordinary language, its meanings, and implications. Recently, however, my confidence was put to a test. Over the course of the last two weeks, I have been challenged on three separate occasions and found myself searching for answers to my initial lack of understanding. The cause of the chaos—idioms.

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be revealed by the exact definition of the phrase itself, but conveys instead the figurative meaning that is known only through common use. If a listener hears an idiom for the very first time, she may find difficulty connecting its meaning to its intent, as its literal meaning delivers an entirely different message.

For example, perhaps you never heard the idiom, “read between the lines.” Upon hearing it, you may look around you for something to read and the lines upon it, when actually, “read between the lines” means “discern the meaning which is not obvious and explicit.”

To get back to MY idiom idiocy, it all started with a book that I was reading in which the writer wrote, “Come what may, I would continue to love him.” As a natural editor, I thought that May should have been capitalized. Only then did I discover that I had missed the meaning of this term all along. I have always thought the word may meant the month of May, as in, “a year from now, come what May,” I will continue to love him.

The second realization occurred in much the same way. The writer of my book wrote, “I didn’t know how I would make ends meet.” I always thought it was ends meat. I relayed my potential blemish to my family, who, in turn, laughed at me. However, upon looking this one up, I discovered that I would have the last laugh. The idiom, “to make ends meat” derives from the age of the Great Depression. When times were difficult, butchers making sausage had to resort to stuffing more filler into one end than the other so they could tie off the second end. They could not make both ends meat. (A side note—Microsoft Word’s spell check tried to change this spelling to meet.)

I even discovered a poem (writer unknown).

Economics for Sausage Makers
"I buy a pig," the butcher said,
"And grind 'er up complete,
Excepting for the nose and tail,
For they ain't fit to eat.
That's why I'm always broke," he wept;
"I can't make both ends meat."

My third and final recent discovery came just the other day. While watching television with the closed caption turned on, to allow for a better understanding of the program with a screaming toddler in the room, I read below as the character on the screen discussed his fool proof plan. I always thought it was full proof, as in this plan is a proven one to its fullest capacity. It did not occur to me that the plan could also be a plan that even a fool could not compromise.

When researching this, I discovered that I am not alone in my rationale. Google the term full proof, and you will discover pages upon pages of businesses, ministries, and average Joes who agree with my thinking.

This leads me to my conclusion. Idioms are not a part of language, as I once thought; they are part of a culture. We should remember this when writing to a broad audience, such as Internet users across the globe. Perhaps over time, more idioms will become universally recognized, but until then…

Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be.

Where has all the journalistic integrity gone?

Today is the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Charley, one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit Florida in recent memory and one of the only hurricanes to seriously affect Orlando. Appropriately, the hometown paper contains a feature story on the hurricane, its aftermath, and the outlook five years later. Now, the Orlando Sentinel (or Slantinel, as my husband likes to call it) has never been a paragon of excellence; it has not won any awards for quality. And in recent years, with about 2/3 of its staff being laid off, the paper has become something of a sad joke.

Just the other day, I was curious as to what time the space shuttle was landing at Cape Canaveral. Silly me, I thought the local paper would have a story about it. Well, it did, but it simply said the shuttle was landing that day and neglected to mention the time, which I found after a few minutes of searching on the NASA website. The story was a pathetic four sentences, something to the effect of: The space shuttle will land today after a 15-day mission to the international space station. Wow, what an overload of information!

Anyway, getting back to today's feature article. It contains this little gem: "Charley devastated this Gulf Coast community in 2004, crashing across Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte like an angry drunk swinging a billy club. Originally forecast to hit Tampa Bay, it sucker-punched Southwest Florida, making a hard right into Charlotte Harbor just before landfall."

An angry drunk swinging a billy club? Sucker-punched? While these sorts of descriptions might work well for a creative writing class, they seem just a tad out of place in a newspaper article. I only took one journalism class in college, and even I know that this is not newspaper style.

I know these questions have already been asked by people more important than me, but what happened to real reporting? What happened to our newspapers? All across the country, cities are losing their newspapers, and no one seems to care. Do we even need them anymore? In today's blog- and Twitter-filled world, are newspapers completely obsolete? Call me crazy or old-fashioned, but I would still rather read a factual account of an event in The New York Times than to watch a YouTube video or an iReport on CNN. Is it because I'm a writer at heart and have a soft spot for the printed word, or is it because at the advanced age of 28 I have somehow fallen behind the times?

Writing to complain

In a typical day, we might write in a variety of styles, including a business email, a grocery list, a blog, or a status update on a social networking site. These all have different purposes, whether to inform, remind, or entertain. But what about adding another useful style to our repertoire—writing to complain?

I have always been a fan of the letter to the editor. I enjoy expressing my outrage at some newspaper article in a sassy and well-worded letter. I enjoy even more when it gets published. In fact, when I am a retired old lady, I plan to spend my days reading the papers and crafting witty letters to the editor (although by the time I reach retirement age, newspapers will have gone the way of the Dodo bird).

In addition to the personal satisfaction they afford me, I have recently discovered that letters of complaint can actually pay off. A while ago, I ordered a bathing suit online from a well-known retailer (one that is popular with the first lady). The suit, when it came, didn't fit correctly, and I had to send it back. For this transaction, I had to pay about $15 in shipping fees and in the end had no actual product to show for it. Instead of just getting upset, I decided to write a letter to said retailer to express my disappointment. One email exchange later, the retailer refunded $13 of my shipping costs and wrote me a nice message with the hope that I will shop in their stores again in the future.

I believe a few keys to a successful complaint letter are:
1. Be respectful.
2. Stress your status as either a first-time or long-time customer.
3. Compliment the retailer's brand or reputation (e.g. I have had good experiences in the past, have heard good things about your store from friends, or similar).
4. Express your disappointment rather than your anger.
5. Suggest possible solutions to the issue (I had simply suggested the retailer review it's shipping charges, where shipping a bathing suit cost the same as shipping a winter coat).
6. If necessary, politely threaten to never do business with the retailer again.

Have you had any successes writing a letter of complaint about a product or service? What other tips would you suggest?

Explanation of a long absence and a blog about friendship

After a brief (ahem) hiatus, we are back. Seriously. I feel newly inspired to write about writing lately, and hopefully we'll both be a little more consistent about posting in the future. In the, um, almost year since our last post, much has changed and much more has stayed the same. My husband and I bought a house, so the only thing I was writing for a while were checks to pay the bills. I am still working as an editor, reading and writing, and talking to Hayley on a weekly basis about some sort of writing-related issue. We've just forgotten to blog about it!

In this post, I would like to discuss how writing can affect personal relationships. How many professionals working as writers have been asked by a friend or family member for help writing/editing a resume, cover letter, school paper, or business proposal? And while this sort of request may seem innocent at first glance, it can be a minefield of miscommunication and mismanaged expectations. Of course, it all depends on how close you are to the person and what sort of relationship you have, but it's always good to be aware of a few pitfalls of working for friends.

Here are a few tips for writers on how to avoid ruining a friendship through heavy-handed editing:

1) Before you begin the project, discuss your friend's expectations. Does she consider herself to be a fantastic writer needing only a grammar check? Does she think "editing" means you actually writing the paper for her? Set the ground rules for the extent of editing the project requires and stick to the plan.

2) Discuss how to manage your feelings over the course of the project. This may sound silly, but it is often necessary. Working for friends is often harder than working for complete strangers because of the difficulties of finding a balance between the personal and professional relationships. Ask your friend whether she will be hurt or offended by brutally honest feedback about her work. Discuss the manner in which you will suggest revisions, whether by email, over the phone, or face-to-face. A more personal format may be less threatening and help avoid misunderstandings. In the end, do not be offended if your friend chooses not to take some of your advice.

3) Most of the editing you do for friends and family is probably free or offered at a greatly reduced rate. If you expect to be compensated for your time, whether in the form of money, barter, or dinner, discuss it upfront. Leaving the discussion until the project is finished might cause friction. If you are doing the work for free, remember to manage your own expectations. You will most likely receive a thank-you note or call from your friend, or maybe even something more (like that free dinner), but do not expect anything if you said you didn't want anything.

4) Don't take on a project out of a sense of obligation. If you truly do not have time to devote to it, the project will become a stone around your neck and make you resent your friend for saddling you with it. If you really feel guilty about not being able to help, spend a few minutes putting together a list of resources for your friend, such as books or websites with resume-writing tips and samples. Then you can say, "I'm sorry I don't have time to help you with your resume, but here are some resources I use that you might find helpful."

Do you have any other tips to share, whether from the perspective of the writer or the friend getting help with her writing?