Recipes that thrilled...then didn't

Five years ago, I downsized ten 4" binders of loose recipes into five--a collection 35 years in the making. One of the key Keep/Toss determiners was whether the recipe was for a large quantity. And I don't mean 40 servings type recipes, although I had a few of those. I mean Chateaubriand for 8 (which I had actually made), Steak Diane for 8 (also made), a Tex/Mex dinner party from Dinah Shore with homemade tortillas from limed masa harina or 4 dozen donuts. Those kind of recipes. I also tossed cheesecake recipes because I didn't need 40 recipes. I had ~30 brownie recipes and at least 25 chocolate chip, 15 scone and 10 banana bread recipes.

That's not what this post is about. What concerns me now are those recipes that had made the cut because I had made, loved and recommended them. I made each of the following over the past three years and realized they no longer live up to my memories. Whether it's because my taste buds have changed or my culinary skills have improved or I've eaten in so many restaurants now--these recipes will be culled in the next cleanout:

1. Toblerone Mousse: I thought this was fabulous the few times I made it. Easy, impressive and a lovely finish. Now all I think is that it's too sweet.
2. Bradley Ogden's Crab Chowder: Fifteen years ago I remember being stunned I had made something so wonderful. Recently I made this expensive dish for Christmas guests and was stunned at the fishiness of it. Jumbo lump crab meat ($38), four bottles of clam juice ($12), heavy cream, etc...all made for an expensive fishy dish that failed my original memory. This recipe is getting tossed.
3. Buckwheat crepes with Roasted Cauliflower, Parsnip & Leek filling. Another recipe that took two days to prepare, starting with grinding buckwheat groats to make the crepes and an obscene $$ for leeks. CUT!
4. Hyeholde Sherry Bisque: while this recipe still tastes good, it takes two days to make and serves 12 to 20 people. It's from a popular restaurant near Pittsburgh and was possibly the first soup I had that was finished off with a dash of sherry at the table. I no longer need recipes that use 3 quarts of homemade chicken broth, a quart of heavy cream and a pound of butter. Let's say I was dazzled with presentation my first time and leave it at that. It's out.
5. Beef Wellington: Yes, I've made this. Yes, it really is as big a pain as it looks. It should be served as rare beef, coated in mushroom paste and wrapped in puff pastry. I was requested to make this and I did. But now I will no longer spend $90 for generic ($120 for organic) center cut beef tenderloin (aka filet mignon) for guests who want their slice of rare beef returned to the oven to be cooked well-well-well done....resulting in grey meat coated in dried out paste and burnt crust.

These are a few I ran into recently while looking for my stained and often used PF Chang's spicy eggplant recipe. Of course, I didn't find that recipe--it was probably mistakenly tossed 5 years ago.

Well you had me at "eggplant" so went looking for THAT one. I'll be making that soon!!
As for the crab soup--cannot imagine adding clam juice to a crab soup--crab i already so delicate. But I save that expensive ingredient for crab cakes at the beach--an absolutely necessary dinner one night.

Oh how I can relate. Although not on the multitude of recipes as yours because I cull at least yearly. But even those that didn't go in recycling (or deleted in the file) I sometimes, years later, make it and then think - what was so good about this recipe? Darned if I know??? LOL

charley2 said:

Well you had me at "eggplant" so went looking for THAT one. I'll be making that soon!!
As for the crab soup--cannot imagine adding clam juice to a crab soup--crab i already so delicate. But I save that expensive ingredient for crab cakes at the beach--an absolutely necessary dinner one night.

P F Chang's Stir-Fried Spicy Eggplant Recipe - Food.com

This is a copycat recipe for P F Chang's Stir-Fried Spicy Eggplant (Chinese eggplant tossed in a spicy vegetarian sauce with chili paste and scallions

www.food.com

Click to expand...

Thank you for locating this. It really is wonderful when using long thin Japanese eggplants.

Just in case anyone wants Dinah Shore's Tex Mex dinner party that requires FIVE chickens for the enchiladas...here ya go. Better you than me. I didn't save the homemade tortilla recipe since fresh masa harina was available in ABQ, but not near me in FL.

Also, they are a pain to make if you aren't a 75-year old abuela with 70 years experience making tortillas.

Here's a photo but I've also included a PDF file because, good luck trying to read this photo.

Thanks for the Dinah shore recipe, because enchiladas for a crowd is my kinda party.

Also, I’m going to have to say you are not the only one to have noticed this. I thought, is my taste changing with older age? I really don’t think it’s related to the Covid taste incident because I pretty much think I have all of those faculties back. However, this started before Covid. I’ve been mostly chalking it up to thinking that some prepared foods are now made differently. You know like when they changed the real Coca-Cola to new Coke. I also chalked it up to hey with all those preservatives in food and now I pretty much only cook dead on from scratch, so maybe I just never noticed the chemical or off taste before. I think it’s a combination of both. Because for example, I grew up eating Duncan Hines devil’s food cake, and it was delicious, now it taste like a big pile of chemicals to me, but that’s not the only thing, how is it that I used to like XYZ recipe and now it’s just ok? Or worse, why did I think this was good? That’s happening more and more to me too.