به تارنمای انجمن بانو خوش آمدید

Banou is currently putting together a Cook Book comprised of our members' favorite family recipes, all of which will be listed under the senders' names and organized by an index of regional province of origin (plus one general section for international recipes). Banou feels that this effort would go a long way in preserving many delicious family traditions, and will ensure the passing of the best of our collective and time-tested culinary knowledge to the next generation. Plans are to actively solicit and collect recipes, and eventually publish a high-quality Cook Book available to members and interested individuals.

If you have a personal or a tasty family recipe that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you! Send us your cooking instructions (the more recipes, the better!), either via e-mail or regular mail (Banou Inc., P.O. Box 700, Alpine, NJ 07620).

In writing your recipes, please observe the following:

• Be sure to include a detailed list of all ingredients and kitchen tools used;
• Your measurements must be exact and consistent (please use either Metric or Imperial units);
  
• Your step-by-step instructions and preparation method must be clear, complete, and understandable to ensure readers could replicated your recipe with ease;
• When possible, consider reducing fats, salt, and other ingredients that are not generally considered as healthy;
  
• You do not have to write complete sentences; be as short and concise as possible;
• You must test your recipes to make sure that they work, the amounts and serving sizes are correct, and that they taste as great as you intended!

Some wizards of the kitchen spend countless hours mixing and experimenting with different ingredients, cooking times and temperatures, and other techniques, only to get a certain dish that is perfect, but it CANNOT be duplicated again! Writing an original recipe requires careful recording of each step and ingredient in a dish. To help you with the process in writing a great recipe (and making sure we all would enjoy your tasty dish!), here is a simple guide that we encourage you to follow:

1. Prepare for your cooking session with any ingredients you may choose to use, the utensils, pots and pans, bowls, and other kitchen tools you will need, and a notebook or voice recorder to take notes of each step in preparing your chosen dish.

2. Keep a list of each ingredient you use. You will want to be as specific as possible in type, quantity, and the method used to prepare it for addition. An example might be, "One medium yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped". Note, a yellow onion is distinctly different from a red onion, and finely chopping is different from slicing or coarsely chopped.
  
3. Proceed through each step of preparation, being as exact in your measurements, cooking times, temperatures, and sequence of adding ingredients as possible.

4. Use the correct term for each step in your process. Using the correct nomenclature for these will enable another person familiar with standard terminology to more closely duplicate your success, and avoids potential confusion.

5. Simplify the process and keep descriptions as brief and to the point as possible, without compromising the accuracy. Reading a recipe often occurs while you or someone else is trying to follow precisely timed steps, and it is easier to focus on what the cook is actually doing if the instructions are clear and concise.

6. Make a point of adding descriptive phrases where they are needed. If you are to saute one or more ingredients until lightly browned, there may not be an exact cooking time or even temperature that works every time, so telling the person trying your recipe what they are looking for will be helpful.

7. Give sufficient warnings about any problems which may occur during the cooking. An example of this might be "Do not open the oven door while baking, or your cake may fall", or "Do not let the oil get too hot on the stove". In candy making, especially, urging the cook to "Pour the mixture quickly after the ingredients reach a certain temperature, because they will set quickly as they cool" is a critical warning, since any remaining candy will turn into a hard, formless mass in the saucepan.

8. Cook the course or item you are writing your recipe for, and see if it turns out just right. If it is too sour, sweet, salty, spicy, or otherwise fails the taste test, consider what you might do to correct the problem, then begin the process over again. Guessing an adjustment, either in ingredients, cooking times, or temperatures does not always yield success. This is the reason "Test kitchens" are operated like laboratories, and results are carefully documented and repeated.

9. Write your recipe out using your notes. This does not have to follow any certain format or style, so long as it is readable and can be followed someone else if you desire to share it. The following items are a rough guideline for a typical recipe:

• Name of the food (or dish);
• Servings produced;
• Ingredients, with measurements for each one. Clearly write out the measurements. For example: 1 teaspoon, not 1 t. - 1 cup, not 1 c;
• Use numerals when writing the recipe. Write bake for 15 minutes not bake for fifteen minutes. This makes it easier to read recipes which follow a somewhat standardized format;
• Oven or stove temperatures. Many baked recipes will state at the beginning "Preheat oven to ____ degrees";
• Preparation steps, including all special instructions and cooking times.

10. Review your final notes, making sure that it is complete.

Congratulation! You have now made a delicious recipe!