Okay, you’re entitled to your opinion. Curious about who taught the recipe writing class at NYU.

I agree about your pet peeve, especially deglaze. I have a list of terms that need explaining in the recipe chapter.

Did you write about Judith Jones’ pet peeves in a post some time ago? I feel like I read about these “bothersome” phrases not too long ago!

Like many other commenters, I have no issues with those phrases. I use the terms she can’t stand in recipes all the time. These terms were perfectly acceptable in a recipe writing course I took at NYU.

I do think that “In a bowl combine” needs something else to make it easy to understand: “In a bowl combine the dry ingredients by stirring with a whisk.”

“Mixture” is just fine for me. If you add salt and vanilla to eggs, it is no longer appropriate to say “Now add milk to the eggs” because the eggs are no longer just eggs. It is a mixture because specific phrases such as batter, dough, sauce, marinade, etc. do not apply to this type of MIXTURE!

“Set aside” is actually helpful. “Reserve” tends to give people the idea that they have to wrap up the item and store it for use 2 days later or something. Set aside means that you will be using that item momentarily.

My pet peeve is recipes that assume people know specific culinary terms without any explanation. I was taught that the #1 rule of recipe writing is that you can never explain too much. You want your readers to feel comfortable with the language of your recipe, and it is always better to explain in detail than to assume the reader knows what “braise” “deglaze” or “proof” means. Unless you are writing for professional cooks, recipes should be written in a way that is encouraging to new cooks, not intimidating.

Then again, if you don’t mind alienating a lot of potential readers/cookbook buyers, you should feel free to write your recipes however you like.