Cookaholics Bulletin Board

When I first was introduced to CI, I was fanatical about following their directions to a "T". I was a terrible cook and CI's thorough (if sometimes obscure) instructions were a blessing, as was the discussion in the articles that explained the pitfalls of the recipes they tried. However, as I got to be a better cook, I began to realize that some of the steps were probably not necessary, and began to gloss over them. Later, I quit reading the articles and just went straight to the recipe. Now, I basically look at the list of ingredients and skim the instructions, mostly in the interest of saving myself several bowls and pans. Does anyone else do this? And do you have any specific examples of unnecessary steps? I couldn't think of any offhand. Are there any other authors/publications that are even worse than CI in this regard?

I think your description nails the problem on the head. It isn't that there are unnecessary steps, it is that the steps and instructions required vary by the skill and experience of the cook. What is unnecessary for you may well be necessary for a less skilled/less experienced cook. In particular, some steps may have a high skill level and a lot of new steps are added to 'de-skill' the process, or at least make it much more tolerant. A really great example would be hollandaise. You can make it very very simply and extremely fast using the direct method ( wisk yolks w/water in a small pan over heat till foamed to ~3x volume, remove from heat, drizzle melted warm butter in while whisking until desired texture/taste is achieved, add lemon juice/salt to taste). Or, you can devote a whole page and set up things like double boilers. The fast method is very delicate; a very small error will result in a complete failure. The bain-marie method is very tolerant, but takes more time, requires more explanation and dirties more dishes.

I tend to follow CI recipes more carefully than others but, that said, I do cut corners when I think I can. The exception is baking, mainly because I am a lot less confident. I like recipe authors who think about things like dishes when creating their recipes.

Mary

When I am making a Cook’s Illustrated recipe, I tend to read the articles and follow directions. Thinking back on the ones I have made, I do not recall any that had superfluous steps in them. “Mastering the Art” is the only cookbook that comes to mind that is as bad as or possibly even worse than Cook’s Illustrated when it comes to providing thorough directions.

I concur. CI really helped me develop beyond rank amateur. As my experience developed I was able to understand the recipes in total rather than as a step-by-step process. This allowed me to save quite a bit of time by doing things simultaneously. I have always liked washing dishes and never really minded the "too many pans" aspect and this helped in the time department as well in that I would often have all burners going doing simultaneous tasks that would be combined eventually; tasks that CI would have you do sequentially.
This will be my last year of subscribing because even though it is less than $.10/day I never go there and even forget to check in for the bi-monthly issue on-line. It was a nice run. I didn't realize how much I was really just using it for the BB - - - and then there was FUZZY!!

Ditto!

And then there is this...
http://news.breakingbrooklinenews.com/t ... 5882300416

I'm sure not eating from their (the organization skewering CI) cookbook!

Yeah, plain boiled chicken breast (because I guess salt, grilling and fat WILL.KILL.YOU.) is not on my menu.

I think the negativity of folks like that will lead to an earlier death than eating a grilled bratwurst now and then. Or at least perhaps they will just wish they were dead.

Reading enough of CI will give you a good overview of the food science behind most techniques. Once you know that much you can see how a recipe works without needing the step by step explanation, you can begin to gauge how much seasoning you like, instead of assuming that the CI editorial board has the "best tastebuds", and how to use the stuff you have on hand to get the dish you want.
That's the moment I love to see in cooks- when they find the freedom of the kitchen, and step away from slavishly following recipes.