Dumbing Down Cookbooks

Here's some evidence that suggests American education systems, parents included, just are not doing the job.

From SeattleTimes.com:

"Thirty years ago, a recipe would say, 'Add two eggs,' " said Bonnie Slotnick, a longtime cookbook editor and owner of a rare-cookbook shop in New York's Greenwich Village.

"In the '80s, that was changed to 'beat two eggs until lightly mixed.' By the '90s, you had to write, 'In a small bowl, using a fork, beat two eggs,' " she said. "We joke that the next step will be, 'Using your right hand, pick up a fork and ...."

Even the writers and editors of the "Joy of Cooking," working on a 75th anniversary edition to be published by Charles Scribner's Sons in November, have argued "endlessly" over whether to include terms such as "blanch," "fold" and "saute," said Beth Wareham, Scribner's director of lifestyle publications.

"I tell them, 'Why should we dumb it down?' When you learn to drive, you learn terms like 'brake' and 'parallel park.' Why is it OK to be stupid when you cook?"

Pretty sad, eh?