A Little Eyeball Rolling

Since I'm behind in posting the recipes from our Christmas feasts, I thought I might as well take this moment to get on my soapbox just for a minute about an annoying trend in food blogging:  that thing that you all (no doubt) have run across--the recipes where the ingredients list is peppered with words such as free-range, fresh, organic, pesticide-free, unprocessed, from-the-farmer's-market, low carbon footprint, additive free, all-natural, GM-free, kosher, fair-trade, etc. 

I even saw a recipe last night that specified that a liquid ingredient come in a BPA-free can.   I kid you not.

What the heck?

What do any of these things have to do with basic kitchen chemistry?

Seriously.

Sure, some of these things impact taste.  Some impact health.  Some are obviously religious or moral-code preferences.  But creating that same recipe without those specifications in most cases will not impact the general outcome in the slightest. 

Not in the slightest.

So why bring it up at all?

Look.  I've had some fun health problems of my own off and on.  Right now I am using unbromated flour just 'cause.  (Ok... because flouride deficiencies run in the family, and I just don't want to go there with the big, bad related illnesses.)  But I don't put "unbromated" before the word "flour" in any of my recipes because it's unnecessary.  If you are doing the unbromated thing, you will use unbromated flour anyway.  If you don't, it doesn't matter--the pie, cookies, bread, and cakes will still turn out.

And putting those extra specifications in only creates a mess of the ingredient list with many items taking up 2 or more lines when they are compressed into columns--making it hard to scan quickly and use efficiently. 

Here's an example of one such recipe: 

*4 cups homemade chicken or vegetable stock
 *1 1/2 cups organic whole coconut milk and cream (In a BPA-free can.)
*1 wild salmon fillet
 or
* 6-8 oz. free-range/organic chicken breast
 *1 (tightly packed) cup of fresh, organic chopped kale, tough stems removed (or use any other chopped leafy green that you can find at your farmer's market)
*1 cup cubed winter squash or pumpkin, (peeled if not organic)
*2 teaspoons organic brown sugar, coconut sugar, or palm sugar  (do not use white sugar!)
*Freshly squeezed organic lime juice

Can you hear my eyeballs rolling from over here?

Here is how that list could look:
4 C. stock, any flavor
1 1/2 C. whole coconut milk
6-8 oz. salmon or chicken breast
1 C. (tightly packed) chopped kale (or other leafy green), tough stems removed
1 C. cubed winter squash or pumpkin
2 t. sugar (any kind)
lime juice

Isn't that easier to read?  If this was put into columns, only one ingredient would need to wrap onto another line.  

Here's a request from one blogger to another--if you feel passionately about some of those specifications, mention them in the leading paragraphs or make them into an entirely separate post.  Leave them out of the ingredient list.  Keep your list simple and to the point.  Clean, crisp, succinct.  

Please. 

Your readers will thank you.