This post is the first in a series about my cookbook-making journey. Since I spend most of my time in the kitchen perfecting cookbook recipes, occasional newsletters will offer a peek behind the swinging door to my kitchen and my busy mind.
Recipe ideas constantly bounce around in my head. I get a craving, have a flavor idea, eye some spectacular produce, or want to try a new technique—and then a recipe starts to form. If I'm lucky, I type it down somewhere (my handwriting is atrocious). At some point, I may develop the recipe. First, I sketch out a hypothetical recipe and then test it in the kitchen. Once I am happy with it, I type it up and then make it at least a couple more times, following my recipe step by step. (No improvising!)
Now it's time for some navel-gazing.
Once I have a recipe, sometimes I get stuck. Where does this recipe want to live? Will it go in my cookbook? Should I publish it in a newsletter? Or maybe I simply share it on Instagram? But what about pitching it to a newspaper/magazine/online publication?
Lately, I've been Torn. I have a recipe list for my cookbook, so that's pretty much set. (Although it keeps evolving as I have more…and more ideas.) Fortunately/unfortunately, I have ideas for other cookbooks, too. Once in a while, a recipe, like lemon curd, is so simple and basic that I can share the full recipe on Instagram, with a longer explanation here in my newsletter. Other times, I whip up something fantastic and seasonal, like my Rhubarb & Buckwheat Crumb Cake, that must be shared immediately in this newsletter.
When I have a recipe that stands above the rest, something special that I worked very hard to perfect, I hold it close. I want it to have a certain platform and to be valued. I may hold onto these recipes for a cookbook or a magazine article. Yes, I'd even like to be compensated for spending hours (usually days or weeks) and resources developing a recipe.
If I know that a recipe has a very specific audience, maybe I'll pitch that recipe to a publication that fits that audience. Once in a while, they'll actually pick up the recipe, like my Andersonville Coffee Cake and Dinkel's Stollen recipes in the Chicago Tribune or my Black Emmer Carrot Cake for the spring issue of Chicago Magazine.
I have a few absolutely fantastic recipes that I'm saving. Yes, dear reader, I am withholding them from you. I spent time and effort developing them, and they're excellent. And I'd like to get them beyond this little email newsletter. That may seem audacious or pompous, but we all must learn to value our work. And I don't have a paid-subscriber-only newsletter just yet.
I've been developing recipes adapted from my time in Germany: a hearty Bauernbrot loaf, an aromatic spiced rye mixed-bread, a brown-butter rhubarb streusel Kuchen, and legendary Swabian pretzels. I hold these recipes close. But you will see them when the time is right.
Speaking of other writing, here are some recent articles I've written:
What I Learned While Taking a Two-week Crash Course in German Bread Baking in Plate Magazine
Get some insights into my two weeks at the Akademie Deutsches Bäckerhandwerk! You can sign up as a member for free to read the article.
Why I Will Never Cook My Strawberries and Neither Should You in Food & Wine
If you know me, you know I have strong opinions about some things, and I love to voice them. Well, I have a strong option about cooked strawberries: They're disgusting. And before you ask about strawberry jam, read the article.
You're right to hold on to some recipes until the best moments present themselves.
That ham, egg, cheese pretzel!!!