Feb 21 2009
Stupid cookbooks.
I don’t know why I listen to recipes when they talk about the time needed to roast meat. It’s never an accurate time. For instance, today I have a 1.5 lb. pork tenderloin in the oven, which my cookbook assured me should only need to roast 25 minutes at 400 degrees to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. When I took it out of the oven 25 minutes later, the internal temperature was 96 degrees. Awesome.
I know how long it takes to roast a pork loin. Why didn’t I just do what I always do? Because I trusted the cookbook. Stupid.
I’ve been burned as well when trying to use cookbook recipes — what a letdown to open the over with an empty belly and high hopes, lifting that lid & expecting to see a perfectly cooked, delicious meal, only to discover that it’s either:
a)burnt to a smoldering crisp
b)ice cold in the center
I pretty much use recipes anymore as a brainstorm idea generator. Most of my better creations are actually morphs of several recipes I looked at and then modified, often times through several half-baked (pun intended) attempts — makes me feel like some kind of mad scientist at times (come to think of it — now that I’m back in grad school and taking all sorts of advanced science classes, I *am* a mad scientist — the mad part was never in question).
I just want you to know that, boy you are NOT the only one. My *basic cookbook (a Betty) is ALWAYS off when it comes to meat-cookin’ time. WTF is that about? I guess she has a really kick-@$$ stove.
Probe thermometer, says Alton!