Wine In My Kitchen: Cooking and Reading Everyday

By Karen Tripson

Testing Online Recipes to Save Money

Many Web sites publish recipes as a free service to enhance products for sale and the atmosphere on the site. Frequently the recipes are from cookbooks or magazines being promoted right now as something you need desperately to be current with the latest trends in cooking. Take advantage of the opportunity to test recipes from an expensive book or magazine before you buy it. Are your taste buds in the same arena with the chef? Can you follow the instructions? Does the recipe work? Will you use it for more than the one recipe you saw demonstrated on TV?

Test Recipes Professionally

If it doesn't work or taste good to you, be brutally honest with yourself before jumping to the common conclusion that the recipe was not tested. Did you really follow the instructions? Did you use all the ingredients specified in the exact amounts? Substituting, omitting or using more than called for can drastically change the chemistry or balance and makes it unfair to say that you tried the recipe.

When a test keeps you from buying the book, allocate the savings to your wine budget!

Recipe Sources

From humble to haute cuisine, sometimes on the same site, here are a few locations I like to search for new recipes:

epicurious
chefshop
cookinglight
cooking.com
meals
foodtv
globalgourmet
recipelink

Online Bargain Cookbook Sellers

Cookbooks are my weakness. I can't walk by a bookstore without a quick look to see what sort of cookbooks they might have. I love to get a bargain on new or used books. The online book sellers can provide different types of pleasure with reviews and extra information. No need to list the well-known gorilla of online book sellers here.

Gourmet Guides (local treasure)

Jessica's Biscuit