Some years ago, my red & white cookbook got a hefty splosh of melted butter on it. I don’t know how much, and I don’t remember how it happened, but we should emphasize “hefty” rather than “splosh,” and we should keep in mind that the book sat on the counter, drenched in butter, for several hours before I discovered it. Now. I cleaned it up as best I could, but I was not willing to replace the still-functional book at that time. Some of the pages became translucent, and it wafts a certain smell of ancient melted butter now and again, but it is still a book that I rely on for basic cooking (because I still don’t really have a handle on that).
Recently I’ve been on a giant “getting rid of all my crap” jag, and I ordered a new copy of that book. It came today. Trouble is, the new one is REALLY new (as in published this very week, that kind of new), and there are some changes. I intended all along to go through and transfer my notes from the old BH&G to the new one - but it appears that about 90% of the recipes have been replaced, AND the portion sizes have changed on the ones that are still there.
Here’s an example. Herb-Roasted Chicken, in the 2000 edition, calls for a 2.5-3 lb chicken and serves six. The nutritional analysis shows 210 calories per serving. In the 2010 edition, the same recipe calls for a 3.5-4 lb chicken and purportedly serves only four. (Other ingredients and amounts are consistent across the two books.) Not surprisingly, the calorie count jumps to 610 per serving (though they do say “per 4 ounces chicken” in the newer book, rather than “per serving,” which I find a little dodgy).
What to do? I don’t even know if I trust this new impostor book! They changed the font and everything! I can’t really send it back, having already opened it. I also have already found a couple of things I like (Make-It-Mine Muffins, for example, means I don’t have to transfer my notes for applesauce muffins from one book to the other). And it’s all new and shiny, and I didn’t have to put the dividers in place myself, and there is still the problem of the melted butter. Even though I know I will probably not use two different BH&G cookbooks, so much is different that I can’t think of this as a one-for-one swap. I need to either keep both (counterproductive) or be painstaking with creating some combination of the two (arrgghhh) or just toss the old one (horror!).
Admittedly, I have some issues. You know what, though? This isn’t really about the cookbook. It’s about being concerned that I’ll miss something, and it’s a little bit about my mom. Not fair. NOT. FAIR.