On: Wikimedia Cookbook

[mjparrott]

Very well articulated! I’ve thought about this before too. There is an assumption of having a “baseline knowledge and skill set” to be able to use most recipes. If you’re really starting from scratch (like I was a few years ago), the best thing you can do is to start trying and failing. I take meticulous notes on the things I cook to help me learn and improve.

Take your example of heat on a pan. I’ve always wanted a stove where I can control the BTUs with a dial. You could test your own stove for it and calibrate yourself for example.

There is a slightly more scientific blog here, but it won’t satisfy what you’re looking for I don’t think. I’ve never found that depth, but would appreciate it too! https://www.seriouseats.com/

I like this book too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_Lab

[bradford → mjparrott]

Thanks, I'll check those out!

I'd also like to mention cooks illustrated (they are online at https://www.cooksillustrated.com/, but my primary experience is with the printed magazine form).

I don't know if I'd call them 'scientific', but I like the detailed accounting of the authors expectations, along with failed attempts and adjustments.

It's not completely what I'd like to see in a recipe book but I think it's the closest example that I can think of.

[AlanYx → bradford]

I agree that Cook's Illustrated and its two sister publications, America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country, are pretty good examples of what you want. They have a lot of standardized elements that they don't always make clear to casual readers. For example, 1 onion in CI is actually standardized to one cup of chopped onion, they use a standard brand of Kosher salt and provide conversion ratios for brands with different crystal structures, etc. I get recipes from a variety of sources, but I do find that this kind of precision helps with getting repeatable results.