Recipe Decoder
To understand a recipe, ask five questions: which family, which usul (technique), are the ratios reasonable, where is the critical moment, and what does the recipe leave out.
A recipe describes one version of a dish and does not explain the reasons behind it. That is why you can follow the steps and still not know what to do when something goes wrong. The five questions fill this gap. Read the recipe once with these questions before you start cooking.
1. Which family does this dish belong to?
You find a dish's family from how it is made, not from its ingredients. White beans and chickpeas are different ingredients, but both follow the same pattern: legume, base, long cooking.
If you know the pattern, you only need to read what is different in a new recipe. That is why your first job is to find the dish's family. For the families, see the Dish Families page.
| If you know | You can also make | Shared pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Kuru fasulye (Turkish white bean stew) | Chickpea stew, borlotti bean stew, chili con carne | Legume + base + long cooking |
| Karnıyarık (eggplant stuffed with ground meat) | İmam bayıldı (eggplant stuffed with onion and tomato), moussaka | Fried eggplant + filling + oven |
| Mantı (Turkish meat dumplings) | Ravioli, pelmeni | Dough + filling + boiling |
| Mercimek çorbası (red lentil soup) | Ezogelin (red lentil soup with rice and bulgur), pumpkin soup | Base + main ingredient + puree |
2. Which usul does the recipe use?
The verbs in a recipe show the usul, the technique behind each step. "Sauté" (kavurmak) asks you to keep stirring. "Steep" (demlendirmek) asks you to turn off the heat. That is why you read the verbs in a recipe once and look up any unknown verb in the glossary.
3. Are the ratios reasonable?
You can tell whether the ratios are reasonable by comparing the recipe's numbers with Chef's Essentials. Some recipes online have never been tested. That is why you check the salt and liquid amounts before you cook.
- Salt: Salt should be 0.8–1.2% of the dish's total weight. A 1 kg dish needs 8–12 g of salt.
- Salad dressing: Measured by spoon, oil is usually three times the acid (3 : 1). If a dressing is far from this ratio, there should be a reason. In Shirazi, a Persian cucumber and tomato salad, there is little oil because the lemony juice at the bottom of the bowl becomes the dressing.
- Pilav: Baldo rice (medium-grain; Calrose works) takes about 1.5 glasses of water for each glass of rice, measured with the same 200 ml glass. Depending on the type of rice, the water can go up to 1.8 glasses.
- Time: Meat in a pot stew does not become tender in 20 minutes. So if the time looks short, check it together with the cut of meat.
4. Where is the critical moment?
The critical moment is the step where a mistake cannot be undone. That is why you do not leave the stove during this step.
| Critical moment | How the recipe says it | What happens | That is why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emulsion (a sauce in which oil and water stay mixed) | "Add the oil gradually" | If the oil goes in fast, the sauce breaks | Add the oil drop by drop |
| Caramel | "Melt the sugar" | The sugar burns within seconds and turns bitter | Keep water or cream ready beside the pan |
| Egg | "Temper the eggs" (terbiye etmek) | Hot liquid cooks the egg and it forms lumps | Add the hot liquid little by little |
| Frying oil | "In hot oil" | Cold oil soaks into the food, and oil that is too hot burns the outside | Keep the oil at 175–190 °C (350–375 °F) and add the food in batches |
| Garlic | "Add the garlic" | Burned garlic turns bitter | Add the garlic late and cook it briefly |
5. What does the recipe leave out?
A recipe usually does not tell you the real strength of the heat, the size of the pot, what the right thickness looks like, or when to taste for salt. That is why you, the reader, fill in the gaps below.
| The recipe says | What it leaves out | How you can tell |
|---|---|---|
| "Over medium heat" | The real strength of the heat | If onion starts to turn golden within 1 minute, the heat is too high |
| "Transfer to a pot" | The size of the pot | Liquid evaporates faster in a wide pot, so add water if needed |
| "When it thickens" | What the right thickness is | The sauce is thick enough when it coats the back of a spoon and a line drawn with your finger stays open |
| "Cook for 20 minutes" | The state of the ingredient | Go by the signs instead of the time: color, smell, tenderness |
| "Season to taste" | When to taste | Salt concentrates as liquid reduces. That is why you finish the salt at the end |
| "Onion, garlic" | The size and the cut | Onion cut small cooks faster and falls apart in the pot |
Example: Decoding an ezogelin recipe
The recipe says: "Sauté the onion, add tomato paste. Add 1 glass (200 ml) red lentils, 2 Tbsp rice, 2 Tbsp bulgur (15 ml per Tbsp) and 1.5 liters water. When cooked, serve with mint and chili flakes." Ezogelin is a Turkish red lentil soup. Bulgur is cracked, parboiled wheat, sold at large supermarkets and Middle Eastern groceries, and more rice can replace it. The chili flakes are Aleppo-style pul biber from the same groceries, and a smaller amount of red pepper flakes works in their place.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Which family? | Soup: base + main ingredient. If you know red lentil soup, the differences are the rice, the bulgur and the tomato paste |
| Which usul? | Aromatic base, boiling |
| Are the ratios reasonable? | The recipe gives no amount of salt. The soup comes to about 1.8 kg. That is why it needs about 14–22 g of salt (0.8–1.2%) |
| Where is the critical moment? | While the tomato paste toasts. Burned tomato paste makes the soup bitter |
| What does the recipe leave out? | Lentils sink and stick to the bottom. That is why you stir the soup now and then. Mint smells stronger when you warm it in oil, and the recipe does not say so |
If you cannot answer the five questions for a new recipe, the recipe is incomplete. In that case, compare it with a second recipe for the same dish.