I have a cookbook from Molly Katzen, who is normally among the most reliable advisers on all things that occur in the kitchen. But there was one recipe for lentil-walnut burgers that didn’t turn out at all. The recipe looked like exactly what the title suggests. Mix a lot of lentils, some walnuts, an egg, green onions, and a few others things and form it into burgers. But the resulting mess didn’t form into burgers. It didn’t form into anything. It was just a lentilly-walnutty mush.
What’s the era on the Molly Katzen cookbook? Because the cookie recipe disaster was from a book published in the 30s, and someone at work suggested the problem was likely that I used too large eggs.
The carton was labeled “large”, but the eggs were really jammed into it. I think the supplier ran out of large eggs and substitued EXTRA large to make up the dozens ordered. And if the ‘assumed’ egg size back in the 30s was medium, well, maybe four extra large eggs was more like SIX mediums?
Also, sister-in-large confessed she always substituted crisco for the ‘vegetable oil’ the recipe asks for. She couldn’t have mentioned that?
I’m still too unhappy with the whole process to try the recipe again. Hey, I have dozens of cookie recipes I’ve baked and that come out yummy, why waste time on a failed one a second time.
The one memorable time was when I accidentally used bread flour instead of AP flour for a chocolate cake.
You know, chocolate bread is not half bad…