The 'Can I Eat This?' Cookbook June 29, 2018 1:40 PM   Subscribe

There have been several posts over the past few years of folks wanting to create a Mefi cookbook. In the spirit of building community I thought I would start actually collecting recipes that people had posted with the intention of sharing for the book.

I've also contacted some of the users who had mentioned being interested but hadn't posted actual recipes. At this point I think it'd probably easiest to open a thread for people to post the recipes they'd like to share (or you can memail me directly!)

I think we've gotten bogged down several times in the past by trying to do it too efficiently. I have little bits of downtime where I can collect the recipes into a word doc and eventually we could find a way to share it! This is definitely the more manual way to do it but I can actually manage it this way rather than trying to sort out Google docs and sign up forms, etc etc. Also no plans to try to publish it for those who are curious - this is just how I've been collecting my favorite recipes over the years.
posted by brilliantine to MetaFilter-Related at 1:40 PM (35 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite

Yay we can post recipes in this thread!!!!
posted by Melismata at 1:44 PM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


*nods, turns off the "NO" on the neon "NO RECIPES" sign*
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:45 PM on June 29, 2018 [25 favorites]


I made a cover.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:56 PM on June 29, 2018 [21 favorites]


Page 1: "No"

The End
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:15 PM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


*Unless you print the book on rice paper.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:16 PM on June 29, 2018 [6 favorites]


From this thread: https://www.metafilter.com/148144/Likely-to-give-pizza-purists-apoplexy#5981147

"Seriously - IRFH's Muffaletta Pizza is amazeballs:

Start with a good pizza dough (insert your favorite pizza dough recipe here). Not too thick, but must be able to handle a serious load of toppings. (Your pizza stone or pan should naturally already be brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with corn meal. [*EDITOR's NOTE - was pointed out in-thread that one should not oil a pizza stone. So, like - don't do that.]) Brush top of dough with olive oil. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning.

Now cover with a layer of spicy, pickled olive salad (make your own, if you have time - chop several types of olives, pickled vegetables, capers, pimentos, roasted garlic, whatever looks good. Add pickled peppers, as spicy as you prefer, and red wine vinegar. Season to preference. Or, you can buy Tapenade.) Add roasted red peppers, chopped or in strips.

Now cover with successive layers of good provolone, mortadella, capocollo, and pepperoni. Top pepperoni with a bit more of the olive salad, then sprinkle with red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning. Finish with a layer of deli-sliced fontina. Bake until melty and golden brown (10 to 20 minutes depending on oven).

Yes, you will almost certainly require a fork. Maybe even a sharp knife. Also, a beer. Later, there will be regrets and a skeevy personal trainer. But I digress...

My gift to you."
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:05 PM on June 29, 2018 [6 favorites]


turns off the "NO" on the neon "NO RECIPES" sign

“I Will Follow You into the Snark”
Death Cab for Cortex
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:48 PM on June 29, 2018 [14 favorites]


Will there be a recipe for plums left in the icebox?
posted by Mchelly at 3:59 PM on June 29, 2018 [4 favorites]


I made a cover.

those aren't refried
posted by philip-random at 4:00 PM on June 29, 2018


Will there be a recipe for plums left in the icebox?

That's in the sequel, Should I have Eaten This?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:17 PM on June 29, 2018 [9 favorites]


You could do a whole chapter on everybody's variation on Cucumber/Tomato/Other Stuff Salad.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:24 PM on June 29, 2018


Will there be a recipe for plums left in the icebox?

That's in the sequel, Should I have Eaten This?


The trilogy ends with: "Is this a sandwich?"
posted by Fizz at 4:29 PM on June 29, 2018 [8 favorites]


Containing in its entirety, a 500 page essay dissecting the eternal question: "Is a book a sandwich?"
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:35 PM on June 29, 2018 [5 favorites]


I made a cover.

>those aren't refried


Yes, but they're still a plate of beans...
posted by hydra77 at 4:36 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


Prologue

*SPOILER ALERT*

Don't leave this book on the counter overnight. It will spoil.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:37 PM on June 29, 2018 [3 favorites]


The Rhubarbara: 2 oz tequila, 3/4 oz rhubarb/ginger syrup, 3/4 oz cointreau, lime juice.

The syrup is your standard thing where you add stalks of rhubarb, disks of peeled ginger to water and sugar in a pot, bring to boil, turn off the heat, cover and leave for a while. Then you strain it.
posted by crush at 5:28 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Looking forward to the Cooking with 18 pounds of Red Leicester chapter.
posted by rodlymight at 5:33 PM on June 29, 2018 [12 favorites]


(for the record, this is an example of the kinds of merch that would drive conversation and potential new users like i mentioned in that thread.


Huzzah to this!
posted by softlord at 5:42 PM on June 29, 2018


I think my coconut macaroons recipe is in here a time or two. The answer to can you eat it is ‘not more than 3 or 4, they’re full of fiber. In fact they’re just all fiber glued together with a bit of egg yolk and sweetened. Eat too many and it’ll hurt.’
posted by bilabial at 5:45 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Calling it the "can I eat this" cookbook makes me think it'll have recipes calling for steaks that were left in the car for a couple hours, marinated in some orange juice that you forgot to put away last night.

But no, really, I think this is a great idea, and while I don't have any mind-blowing recipes to share (none come to mind, anyway), I would honestly expect everything in it to be great.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:47 PM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


> cortex:
"*nods, turns off the "NO" on the neon "NO RECIPES" sign*"

Computer: when is cortex' birthday.
posted by rhizome at 6:56 PM on June 29, 2018


"Will there be a recipe for plums left in the icebox?"

Plum Icebox Cake
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 10:02 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


How do you get the sides of your icebox cake plumb?
posted by aubilenon at 11:05 PM on June 29, 2018 [2 favorites]


Computer: when is cortex' birthday.

Computer, arch!
posted by Celsius1414 at 6:13 AM on June 30, 2018


Lunch
posted by 256 at 7:15 PM on June 30, 2018


I have bachelor chow. I hate cleaning up because it's pointless. I have a horrible freezer/fridge (think giant single door dorm freezer/fridge that I have to go at with a putty knife and a hammer because defrost is busted.... I am lazy and aim to have not much to do after I've eaten but wash my plate/bowl/fork and be done with it. yadda yadda.

Last week I tried Roast Beef Sushi | recipes | Dining with the Chef | NHK WORLD - English with my style of cooking....

Reheated rice, toss in some RWV, sugar, salt, and toss a bit (it was yummy). Use some sandwich roast beast that I needed to do something with. Made a mess 'cause that rice was damn sticky. Used too much wasabi, made strange faces each time. It was fucking yummy.

Next time I'm thinking get the sushi rice mixture more right.... maybe toss it in a salad bowl in front of the fan and at least attempt to do that bit right, less wasabi. OM NOM NOM. Rice cooker, one big bowl, one plate, no utensils. I'll probably roll it up in plastic wrap instead of trying to form by hand.

It probably helps that I eat one or two meals per day and aim for done before you finish. I only cook a real meal on occasion because I can't eat that much food or keep it.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:51 PM on June 30, 2018


There are a bunch of recipes (including a few of mine) on my Vegan Recipes page.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:47 PM on July 1, 2018


We should have a whole sub-section for "Argument Food" -- pizza, mac & cheese, BBQ, etc.
posted by tzikeh at 8:34 PM on July 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


added the Muffaletta Pizza, Rhubarbara, soba noodles, and Summer Squash and Oyster Mushroom Soup.

bilabial, I wasn't able to find your macaroon recipe by searching your activity so please send me a link if you'd like to include it!

Thanks everyone, this is great :)
posted by brilliantine at 5:16 AM on July 2, 2018


I initially didn't think I had anything I could contribute, since I mostly work with recipes and it didn't feel right. But I just realized - I do have an original recipe to contribute.

--

After 30 years of residency, I consider myself to be a New Yorker now. But there are three ways where I've retained my New England ancestry: I often call liquor stores "package stores", I stayed a fan of the Red Sox instead of switching to the Yankees (because come on), and I favor New England style Clam Chowder.

Or: I should say, I favor clam chowder. Because here's the thing: the generally accepted culinary definition of "chowder" is that it is a dairy-based soup. The "Manhattan Style" is tomato-based. It's a very nice soup, but it has a tomato base and not a dairy base, and that means - it is not. CHOWDER.

End of discussion.

That said, there are indeed styles of "New England clam chowder" that don't involve dairy or tomato, and are predominantly seafood stock with the other ingredients. There are chowders that use more milk than cream, chowders that use more cream than milk, some that thicken things with flour, some that thicken things with a lot of flour, that use potatoes, that add corn, etc. So one weekend I decided to synthesize all of the recipes I had on hand and play around and come up with my own personal recipe.

I did have an Ur-chowder in mind, though - the chowder at Harriet's, a small restaurant in the town where my grandparents and a set of aunt-uncle-and-cousins lived when I was growing up (and it's the town where my brother lives with his family today). My grandma never made chowder because Harriet's always made it better anyway, so we just got it there. In 1980, Harriet's also won the grand prize in a "Best Chowder In New England" contest sponsored by Pepperidge Farms, so they pretty much know what they're doing. This is not their recipe - it's my own attempt, though.

One final note: when making this for the first time, I went to get the clams at the fish stall in my neighborhood farmers' market, innocently asking for 6 dozen clams without knowing quite how many that actually would be. "That's....gonna be about eight pounds," the fish guy said. "Gimme ten minutes to get another bag from the truck so you don't clean me out." I still had to get the vegetables, so that worked nicely. When I got back to the fish stall, the vendor was ready, and there were three or four other people also browsing at the stall when he started doling my clams out into a huge mesh bag. They gradually all started watching him curiously, looking from him to me.

"How many clams are you getting?" one of them asked me.

"Six dozen."

"...What are you making?"

"Chowder."

"From scratch?"

"Yup." The vendor was done bagging my clams up, so I paid him, then slung the bag over my shoulder, nodded at the others, and sauntered off, the other three customers all watching me go, jaws slack. I have never felt more like a culinary bad-ass.

...You may also use canned or frozen clams if you are pressed for time or are self-confident enough that you don't feel like you need to prove anything.

CALLIPYGOS CLAM CHOWDER

6 dozen hardshell clams (8 pounds) OR 3 8-ounce cans of chopped clams
1/4 lb salt pork
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled (or well scrubbed, as you prefer) and chopped
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup cream
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 or 2 Tablespoons flour (can be omitted for a gluten-free chowder)
1 or 2 sprigs fresh thyme
one bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
salt and pepper to taste

If using raw clams: soak clams for an hour in a bowl full of water laced with a couple teaspoons of salt and a little baking soda. Rinse. Dump them into a big pot, add 4 cups of water, cover and bring to a boil. Steam clams for about a half hour. Remove from heat and scoop out clams (save the broth). Discard any clams that don't open. Remove the meat from the shells and chop by pulsing a couple times in a food processor. Strain the broth from the pot, and add enough extra water to make 4 cups.

If using canned clams: draim the canned clams, saving the juice. Add enough water to make 4 cups.

Dice the salt pork. Saute in a big pot for about 10 minutes, until crispy; remove pork and set aside. Add the chopped onion and celery and saute in the rendered salt pork fat for about 6 minutes, until soft. Sprinkle over flour and cook another 2 minutes, stirring continuously. Whisk in the milk and the 4 cups broth, then add potatoes and bay leaf. Simmer 10 minutes. Add clams, thyme, half-and-half and cream. Simmer 5 more minutes. Season with salt and peper to taste, then take off heat, cover and let sit for an hour.

Reheat slowly, swirl in the butter and dust with a sprinkling of dried tarragon. Serve with oyster crackers.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:53 PM on July 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


Oh, important bit I forgot - you can use the crispy salt pork bits to top the chowder with, basically they are meat croutons.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:17 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]


Recipe I posted that got the most favorites:

Aunt Moriah's almond cookies:

1 egg white beaten to just foamy
1 small bag sliced almonds (slivered is fine too), ˜6 oz or 150 grams
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325°. Mix all ingredients together, drop with a fork or form into crescents.

Dust lightly with cinnamon (optional). Bake for 12-15 minutes, until just browning

(Gluten free, kosher for passover, nondairy).

- - -

Recipe I found here that I make the most (from OP question in this post):

Dhal lentil Soup

2 tbl butter or olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, chopped (okay, I sliced it. I hate chopped onions)
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
¼ tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cans of chopped tomatoes (14.5 ounces ea)
1 cup red lentils
Juice of ½ a lime
2½ cups veggie stock
1¼ cups coconut milk

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Saute the garlic and onion for 2-3 minutes. Add the spices and cook for another 30 seconds.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

- - -

My most-favorited cooking-related advice:

When braiding dough for challah, drape, don't pull.
posted by Mchelly at 6:26 AM on July 4, 2018 [1 favorite]


You can definitely have permission to print any recipes I’ve posted. The ones I remember are:

Cherry Delite

Spring Lentils and Rice

Lemony Bulgar Salad with Olives, Raisins and Pine Nuts (I posted this one on MetaChat and referenced it on AskMe here)

And I’ll throw in a new one. Though it’s not really a recipe at all, just a thought on how to construct a delicious salad from a salad bar. I like to call it an Ice Cream Sundae Salad (contains no ice cream):

Step 1: Lay down a bed of your favorite greens. For me this is mostly spinach, sometimes also arugula.

Step 2: Add smattering of your favorite lighter salad veggies. A few cuke slices, some green and red bell pepper, shredded carrots, chopped red onions, celery slices.

Step 3: Now add a creamy dressing. I like ranch. Also a generous helping of full fat cottage cheese. (It’s important to put on the dressing and cottage cheese at this stage, instead of at the end, so your salad doesn’t get all messy when you put the cover on.)

Step 4: Here’s where you heap on the fruit. Cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc.

Step 5: Sprinkle on your favorite toppings: shredded parmesan, sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, dried cherries or cranberries, raisins.

Seal it up. Take with you. And stir it all up while consuming. So refreshing on a hot summer day.

The key components are a massive amount of your favorite summer fruit and the full fat cottage cheese and a creamy dressing. Those ingredients are what make it seem like a semi virtuous ice cream sundae. You can also add shredded chicken or even chopped ham to make it a more substantial salad if you like.
posted by marsha56 at 2:42 PM on July 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Metafilter Chicken, courtesy of padraigin, is one of my favorite internet 'recipes' ever. Everything you need to know in three sentences and it's deeeelicious:
My mom does this crazy thing where she throws a bunch of chicken into a pan with a whole bottle of white wine and lets it simmer down until the wine itself turns into sort of a thick goo. Then she takes out the chicken, throws in some mushrooms, shallots, and cream and reduces the cream down a bit before pouring it back over the chicken. Traditionally we cook it with a cheap chardonnay and serve it with a good one.
posted by yeahlikethat at 10:00 AM on July 6, 2018 [3 favorites]


I’m deeply flattered!
posted by padraigin at 6:02 AM on July 26, 2018


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