A few weeks ago our friends Kate and Joel and their three girls came over for dinner. We were all vacationing on the same island together so the menu was as simple and fresh and kid-friendly as we could manage: asparagus salad (without eggs for the kids), campfire potatoes, and grilled chicken sandwiches with homemade slaw. Kate took one bite of her sandwich and, because she is a good guest, immediately started oohing and ahhing and inquiring about how we put the whole thing together. “This is perfect,” she said. “Just what I am in the mood for. Man!! And the slaw! Mmmm! How did you make it?”
I told her slaw is one of those things I don’t really have a recipe for. I just start whisking things together and keep adding more shredded cabbage and carrots until it looks about right.
“OK, fine, but what exactly are you whisking together?”
“It’s like I’m making any salad dressing. I’ll add a dollop of mayo to the bottom of a large bowl, then add some celery seed, some cider vinegar—-“
She crossed her arms in front of her face and looked away as though I had shined a bright light in her eyes. “OK, stop right there,” she said. “Page turner!”
“What…?” I was confused. (Were we talking about the can’t-put-it-down book Blood, Bones, and Butter again??)
“Cider vinegar?!?” She said. “I don’t know from cider vinegar. As soon as I see it in a recipe I’m turning the page.” Kate is a psychologist, but she has also has a side career as a Second City comedian, so sometimes it can be hard to tell when she’s kidding.
“That’s ridiculous,” I told her. “It’s cider vinegar. It’s right next to the balsamic vinegar in any supermarket.”
“I don’t care. The whole idea of it scares me. The whole idea of someone who knows how to use cider vinegar scares me. It’s like cream of tartar. I mean, what is that? What do you use it for? What kind of people buy cream of tartar?”
I started laughing until I realized that in our house, we totally have our own list of page turners — puff pastry, marjoram, anything deep-fried — and they’re all equally ridiculous. Marjoram is probably right next to mustard powder on the spice shelf, but whenever I see it in a recipe I assume the dish was meant for someone with exotic taste who knows exactly how to use it. Puff pastry, with all its layering and covering with wet towels, is just downright terrifying to someone for whom patience has never been a strong suit (or any suit at all, actually). And deep frying? Doesn’t that involve a special thermometer or something?
I think the ingredient with the world’s longest reign as premiere page-turner in my life is “yeast.” (Is there anything more alienating for a new parent than the phrase “Allow dough to rise 8 hours?”) But then Jim Lahey and his no-knead bread revolution came along (luckily right about the time the girls were old enough to allow for me to build “rise time” into my day) and one day in the supermarket I just did it. I picked up the Fleischmann’s Active Dry stuff and tried the famous bread recipe. Amazingly, it worked! Just like it had for the other 1 billion people in the world who had grabbed the yeast packets in their supermarkets and tried it before me.
So, Kate, the cider vinegar revolution starts today! Right here, right now with this not-even-a-little-bit-fancy dinner sandwich. And I’m declaring it Get Over Your Page Turner Ingredient Day for the rest of us, too, so if anyone has any good recipes that call for puff pastry, I’m all ears.
Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Classic Cole Slaw
Make our grilled chicken for people who hate grilled chicken and assemble sandwiches with whole wheat hamburger buns or potato rolls, then top with….
Old Fashioned Cole Slaw
In a large bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish, 4 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise, ½ teaspoon celery seed, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. Shred half a head of green cabbage (5 cups) as thinly as possible. (With a mandoline or the shredding disk of a food processor.) Add to the dressing and toss to combine. Serve right away.
So funny! Thanks for documenting this – and nice to see that I’m not the only one who turns the page at yeast, candy thermometer and deep fried. My husband and I were just discussing this … I was looking for a Cinco de Mayo friendly dessert and he was reading aloud about chocolate pralines and said, Woops, better turn the page!
i read in a Mark Bittman column a few years ago that his page turner is “bain marie” and i totally agree.
also: any recipe that requires more yolks than whites or vice versa (nothing grosser than a clump of four yolks in a mini Pyrex sitting in the refrigerator, waiting for that “some day” use).
custard=my two-fer-one page turner.
agree about the marjoram: have used it a grand total of once, in a NYT thanksgiving sweet potato recipe, and it was so marjorammy that no one ate it. the sweet potatoes–and no one wanted them!
It used to be sectioning citrus fruit. But since my 17-month-old daughter decided she wouldn’t eat oranges unless they were membrane-free, I’ve sectioned more oranges than the salad chef at Chez Panisse. Now it’s any recipe that has more than about 5 ingredients.
HILARIOUS! My “page turner” is also deep-frying. The idea of the massive clean-up of old oil and spattered stove top & counters puts me off completely. I know I could do it, I just don’t want to bother. yeast? no problem. I make almost all of our bread from scratch these days (gotta love that No-Knead business!) Puff Pastry- break it out every once in a while (love Pepperidge Farms!) while marjoram isn’t a page turner… just rarely used. Cider Vinegar though? I wouldn’t even blink- it’s a staple at our house.
Ginger juice and fennel pollen. Both are recipe killers for me.
Like so many others, deep frying is a deal breaker for me, and I wholeheartedly agree with what 654Caroll tells us is Mark Bittman’s page-turner: bain marie. I just refuse to do it—I make the recipe and melt or cook whatever needs melting or cooking without the damn bain maire! But frozen puff pastry is really fun: turn the page back! I stew apples with cinnamon and sugar, fold in the middle of a square of pastry, and make (not very good for you but delicious and easy) apple turnovers.
Fresh fennel. It just seems so strange to buy it…
But I’ve got to call you out on the puff pastry front: A-MAZ-ING!!! Make this: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2008/11/chaussons_aux_pommes (from Molly Weizenberg), but fix a few things: just make 9 instead of saving some of the dough for something else, and use an awesome chunky apple or peach sauce if you’re short on time (though the filling listed is delicious). This is one of our all time favorite breakfasts.
Love your site… thanks for sharing 🙂
Cream of tartar is what makes Snickerdoodles stay soft and delicious! My page turner any recipe that has ingredients that I would have to go to a specialty store to purchase!
I don’t do phyllo dough (because of the towel, multilayer thing), but I use *gasp* frozen puff pastry sheets and they are super easy.
My page turner is anything that involves whole seeds and crushing mortar & pestle style. Fennel seeds, cumin seeds, etc.
Anything that requires a long rest — “cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight” and the like. We never plan that far in advance, and have been caught many times by that phrase at 6:00, mid-way through a new recipe. Recipe authors should be required to put a disclaimer right up front: “warning, you will not be eating this dish tonight!”
Seriously, what could be easier than frozen puff pastry? I mean, I am not ever making baklava ever again, but stick a tube of marzipan down the middle, brush with egg, top with sugar and almonds and BAKE IT! So easy. Children beg for this.
Puff Pastry? You will probably want to check out anything puff pastry-y with Julia Child. That woman knows her buttery deliciousness. ESPECIALLY if you are essentially making puff pastry for her tarte tatine.
Just the other day I saw a recipe for napoleons in which you put puff pastry squares in your panini maker for about 3-4 minutes. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will!
These are all so funny. And re: puff pastry. No one ever said these fears were rational. I’m sure using it is as easy as adding cider vinegar to cole slaw. Thanks for the encouragement — I’ll keep you posted!!
Hysterical! I actually keep a list of cooking goals in order to get over my page turners – and I haven’t ever done one of them yet!! And I’m idiosyncratic – I’ll use a candy thermometer but, “wipe down the sides of a pan with a wet pastry brush” – no way!
This topic is awesome. I have so many things I skip over I don’t even know where to begin. (Also, one of our two kids has food allergies, so don’t get me started on all the stuff we have to take a pass on for that alone.)
I’m definitely terrified of baking bread; deep-frying anything; decorating a cake with anything more elaborate than a big schmear of frosting; and any recipe that uses the word “scant” in it.
PS I realize you don’t have kids with food allergies, Jenny, but over here with use your site & your Time for Dinner book often — other than egg-based stuff, which is hard for me to figure out how to cook around, there’s a lot my dairy, egg, & nut allergic kid can eat out of there.
This is really funny. I also don’t love puff pastry but have attempted it (with the frozen stuff) a few times. I find it hard to work with. My page turners usually involve equipment I don’t have and don’t want to get involved with – like slow cookers, pressure cookers, and especially candy thermometers. I used to be afraid of yeast also, until I became a mom trying to occupy a toddler all day. One day I decided we were going to make our own soft pretzels. I watched Alton Brown do it (research) and we gave it a try. It was not that hard and they turned out great, so I’m no longer afraid of those silly little packets!
I can’t wait to try this. I love cider vinegar.
LOL. I love this topic. I’m sure I have one but I cannot think of it at the moment. Everything you have mentioned I have in my kitchen but I’m sure it’s out there.
But are you sure it’s puff pastry you’re thinking of and not phylo?? I don’t think I’ve ever had to cover puff pastry with a towel. My biggest problem with the puff is remembering to thaw it soon enough (though that’s true of phylo too). I don’t even bother much with the towels anymore when I use phylo … assuming I’ve made the recipe before I just work really fast before it can dry out. Moosewood has some amazing strudels that the whole family loves. This tofu mushroom cheese one (http://jesser.org/?p=1752) even contains marjoram AND it has the distinction of being the first “vegetarian” main dish my husband ever loved. 😉
Jesser, re: phyllo v. puff pastry, I wouldn’t know, as phyllo also qualifies as a page-turner for me. But, yes, it’s very possible that I am confusing them based on the reactions of my passionate puff-pastry using readership. Thank you for the Moosewood rec. Sounds delicious.
I know it sounds nuts, but anything involving a food processor. We own one… but it’s a pain to get it out and use and then clean it. So generally… I just turn the page.
love this question and your confession of your page turners. Mine are anything involving lentils. The red ones are ok, but I have a hard time getting into anything that looks (and tastes) that close to dirt. My apologies to lentil lovers everywhere, maybe I just need a better recipe.
Page turners include mango chutney (even though I like it, I just don’t want to have half a jar sitting around waiting for the next recipe), cake flour (again, storing something that gets only occasional use) and extra-large eggs (which pretty much eliminates every dessert recipe ever created by Ina Garten).
Anything that requires special instruments. Being a college student, I turn the page on recipes that make me feel like I need a license and a lab to make something good.