U.S. food

MW; there are no doubt worthwhile recipes in the B&B Cookbook. The trick is to figure out which they are. I do use it to scan over the various ways of making a dish, but usually come back to a more reliable source book.

There just is no central consistent approach to cooking in the American Country Inn & B&B Cookbook. It makes for interesting reading, but it just doesn't seem very reliable to me.
I have the 1987 edition, but it is in nearly intact condition; no stains or smudges, which is evidence it hasn't been used much in our kitchens. I'd have to go through the whole book to find recipes I've tried.

I just opened it up and went to the New Mexico section, which is one of the more appealing parts, and here, on P. 254 is a weird recipe for cinnamon rolls from the Sunset House B&B. All the ingredient quantities are listed, except for the flour. The instructions say to add enough to make a stiff dough. (!?!)

A bit further along it tells you to "flatten the dough". To what dimensions, at least approximately? Then to sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. In my experience, that will not stick unless some sort of butter or egg wash is first applied. "Make into cinnamon rolls". WTF! That presupposes you have some experience already with making them. It's all so vague. I do have a lot of baking experience, both at home and professionally, and other than the list of ingredients, this recipe is essentially irrelevant to me. By the way, "makes 4 dozen", but that depends on how large you cut the rolls.

I'm now looking at the part from the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in , and nearly every other recipe has cheese or sour cream in it. One recipe, for Chile Verde, actually has neither. But it does use canned California green chiles, a scandal in New Mexico, land of Red and Green Chiles!

Of course it's not fair of me to single out this one chapter and two B&Bs, but I think this slapdash approach or variable consistency is typical throughout the book. So I read it for background and entertainment more than for useful, reliable recipes.

Comments noted with thanks, Anonimo.

Thanks Anonimo - I agree -- some 25-year-old cookbooks are better than others. The quirks you find so annoying that you won't try the recipes are the ones that I find charming and make me willing to attempt them, supplementing as-needed with other info (from a reliable book like Joy of Cooking or Better Homes & Gardens cookbook). Same reason I like community fund-raiser cookbooks. Looks like the New Mexico chapter recipes weren't tried by me yet, but a few are going on my list. The cinnamon roll recipe reads like it was jotted down while being handed-on by a grandmother as you observed her making them, and the technique of using a hot wet towel to steam for 20 minutes after baking is one I'd like to try to keep rolls tender rather than crusty. Anything with cheese, cream cheese or sour cream is worth a second-look, although I'm likely to substitute low/no fat versions. And since I'm in MN, canned California green chiles are easy & available year-round.

"Enough flour to make a stiff dough" is fine with me, especially in a recipe from the high desert.

I used to live in Riyadh, and flour measurements whether by volume or weight needed a lot of adjusting if they had been conceived of with repect to flour that had some moisture to it.

I used to live in Riyadh, and flour measurements whether by volume or weight needed a lot of adjusting if they had been conceived of with repect to flour that had some moisture to it.

This has never crossed my mind - but it's a hell of a good point.

As a baker, I'm aware that amounts of flour will vary from flour to flour. But the recipe contributor should have given a ballpark amount for the cinnamon rolls.

"Enough flour to make a stiff dough" is fine with me, especially in a recipe from the high desert.

With the caveat that I'd like a ballpark estimate, so I know if I even have enough flour on hand. I prefer recipes that say things like "5-6 cups of flour...add 5 cups and continue adding flour until you have a stuff dough."

This is actually worthy of its own thread. The older the cookbook, the less the instructions, on the assumption that the cook already knows the basics. For instance, my grandmother's famous cake recipe, as given to me, did not mention minor details like separate the eggs and beat the whites until stiff.

But how valid is that assumption today? I've read that modern cookbooks have to give more details because younger cooks have never learned basic skills.

Nutrax et al: please read my sigline.