Friday, February 08, 2008

Fry till Golden Brown..

Take any culinary book, am sure these lines would never be missed. Its there all over like a punchline!

Talking about recipe books, writing it is as much as an art as is cooking itself! You need to choose words with utmost care so that it tempts the reader to try it. Once the reader runs through all the ingredients required and is satisfied that (s)he has all the stuffs ready she is automatically drawn to the Method section. Now once (s)he starts reading the method, the author should hand-pick and present the words in such a way that he (more than often she) actually starts smelling the aroma of the spices being lightly fried in oil!!

Some tips (read as "culinary jargons") used to draw the readers attention are -
(Use these phrases in case you are looking for an alternate career in writing cookery book/online posts)

1) Onions are always fried till golden brown. Am sure many a times all of us would have wondered what exactly the golden brown colour was, but sure enough we have been made to believe that onions taste best when they are "fried till golden brown", a thing never achieved !!

2) Garnish with fresh mint leaves and blah blah... mmmm sounds so appealing! The readers would fall head over heels for this!

3) If you observed, recipes with simple names rarely catch your attention. Instead see the increase in page-hits you would get if you posted the simple recipe of prawn fry to Golden Fried Prawns in Sweet-n-Sour Vinegar Sauce.

4) Not to forget that colourful picture of a juicy chicken ready to be dug into surrounded with "garnishes from point# 2", a checkered napkin in white-n-red! Yeah man, its going to be nothing without an eye-catchy pic of the (supposedly) real thing

5) If its an online post, get your friends and parents to comment on your recipe. Bribe them to give you as many stars as possible for your ratings and watch the magic as some naive unassuming user(read: prey) searches for something and your recipe gets another hit!

Now who cares if your prey ends up skipping his dinner coz of half kilo grams of burnt prawns with a vinegar sauce that doesn't taste half as exotic as it sounds! You receive your hits (pun intended ;-))

Happy Writing!

9 comments:

sandeep said...

Good one.. I thought you were going to write about your cooking experiences.

Soorya said...

Naah... :D I won't reveal trade secrets at any cost!

vimalgasper said...

Anyways, now you know how to write a good receipe, so just start writing...

Soorya said...

sure...will b starting a new resource blog soon...

Deepak C U said...

Great post! I shall also share some of my cooking experiences with you. My research area is on "Time efficient cooking practices for bachelors". But I guess it can be applied for couples also.. Usually I take recipes from net and try them for my research. pachakam.com is a good one to start with :)

Btw, I am a great fan of your blog.. Keep posting..

Soorya said...

Thanks Deepak !! Well yeah, time effeciency and "bachelor" cookin applies to a married couple as well, esp when wife n hubby r running from office to home and back!!!
psst... and here i am violating what i said earlier abt not revealing trade secrets..pachakam.com has been my only solace till date :D .. I too think its a grrrreat n vey dependable site!!

Rat said...

ithenthaa pettenningane oru item ?!

Soorya said...

Chumma!!!!

mathew said...

thanks for the tips..I ll make sure to use them generously!! ;-P