Recipes Count

I am of mixed minds about changing the way in which recipes are written because I found the way your paper (and all cookbooks) have been writing them to be sufficient to learn to cook. On the other hand, your new style will be more inviting, which might entice more readers to cook at home, which would improve everyone’s health. My only misgiving has nothing to do with The Times. I am sorry readers are not able to think for themselves as well as we used to do. Reading a recipe through completely before cooking should alert a cook, even a neophyte cook, to think about the correct point in the cooking process at which to preheat the oven and prepare equipment and/or ingredients for use later in the process. But then, the current society graduates people from high school with few math skills and an inability to write (and still admits them into college, rather than sending them for remedial work at junior college). Better the Food Section help them at their level. The rest of us really do understand.

JESSICA TROPP

Via e-mail