As the food director at Real Simple magazine, responsible for all recipes, Sarah Copeland has lots of opinions — and experience — about writing a high-quality recipe good enough for a national magazine.
A former freelancer and veteran of several magazines, Sarah’s recipes and articles have appeared in Saveur, Food & Wine, Health, Fitness, Better Homes & Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Oprah Magazine and The Food Network magazine.
Sarah is also the author of The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other and the James Beard-nominated Feast: Generous Vegetarian Meals for Any Eater and Every Appetite.
Here’s how she got to where she is today, with tips on writing a high-quality recipe:
Q. How long have you been developing recipes?
A. My first opportunity was as an intern at Redbook magazine in 2001. I was starting culinary school. I was really jazzed about creating recipes out of thin air.
Q. What do you mean by “out of thin air?”
A. Well, that’s what I thought I was doing, until I got a little perspective. I would eat something in a restaurant, twist it and make it mine. Then the longer I spent working with cookbook authors and working at magazines and restaurants, I realized that most things have been done before, but we can all bring our own unique spin to them.
That said, there are moments when we may introduce something into the culture that isn’t widely known about or widely used, and when that happens, we feel a little more ownership over the idea.
Q. Can you give an example of that kind of recipe?
Sarah saved her best recipes for her cookbooks. This is her first.
A. When I wrote my first cookbook, I stayed in a friend’s house in upstate New York, who was a master gardener. One morning I picked blackberries, and pulled together pancakes from my friend’s pantry. I used yogurt instead of buttermilk, and oats with a little flour, because that’s all the flour he had. Oatmeal Yogurt Pancakes with blackberry Crush became one of my most picked-up recipes, all over Pinterest and in food blogs. Bloggers were using that exact title and it was very clear that it had come from my book.
To pull back, the recipes I made up from my own experience are the most special, the most delicious, and I’m the most proud of those.
Q. Who are your teachers and what have you learned?
A. I learned technique from the restaurant chefs and great food editors I’ve been lucky to work with. I know how to distill a recipe in a way that makes the recipe unique. I spent years learning how to master the classics in cooking school, restaurants and test kitchens, and now have the confidence to veer from that.
In culinary school, my friends and I would save up our money to eat out. I was experiencing lots of new tastes. When we made truffles in class, I wanted to infuse my cream with rosemary. But the instructor said I had to make classic truffles first, and then I could go home and make rosemary truffles on my own time.
Q. So should food bloggers go to culinary school?
A. No, but they can go to cooking classes, and they can learn from books, television and friends who are classic cooks.
Q. Do you think bloggers can write new, classic or foolproof recipes?
A. I realize that few bloggers have the resources to make béchamel six times before they hit publish. But if they take the time to understand the classic way, it’s easier to do something new.
What’s hard about writing foolproof and classic recipes is it’s very tempting to just Google something with 30 stars and adapt it. But the best reference for doing your homework is still books, because anyone can publish a recipe online.
I don’t think anyone should publish a recipe they’ve only made once. I know that’s the reality of blogging, but it’s especially dangerous with baking. When I worked at the Food Network, the first time we made it it was amazing, but the second time could be a flop. Then I had to figure out what went wrong, and then I made it a third time.
If I want to create a cream puff I know is going to work, I’m not going to the Internet. I’m going to ask myself who are the best five bakers I know, and look at my cookbooks or go to the library. I want to learn from them and then credit them. I’m going to go to Sherry Yard and see how she did it, because she’s so rooted in the skill. She’s done it over and over again.
Q. What are the five books you reference all the time?
A. I’ll break it up by category:
- Crowd pleasing: Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn
- Anything French, pastry or baking: Dorie Greenspan’s books
- Whole grain baking: King Arthur Whole Grain Baking
- Troubleshooting: BakeWise and CookWise by Shirley Corriher
- Simplicity and pure deliciousness: Nigel Slater’s cookbooks
Q. What is the best recipe writing process?
A. Writing a good recipe is like writing a report for college. First do your research; second you make sense of your research by organizing it a little and getting rid of something that’s not exciting or interesting, or that’s not going to build on what other people have done; third, get cooking; and fourth, revise.
Q. What about testing?
A. All my recipes have been cross-tested by someone else before publishing. Depending on the project and budget, they’re tested by a professional recipe developer, an intern, a volunteer, dear friends who represent my target audience, or my mom or sister or cousin.
Those extra set of eyes and a once-through in a kitchen other than your own reveal so much. Testers always improve upon the experience for the reader. And people love being in proximity to good food, so I find it’s always easy to find someone eager to give a recipe a run-through.
Bonus: Sarah collected her five favorite five recipes (If you use these you have to credit her!) to share with you:
- Roasted Kale, Broccolini and Chickpea Salad with Ricotta
- Wild Mushroom Goulash
- Thousand-Layer Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Triple Decker Peanut Butter and Pretzel Fudge
- Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
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Thank you, Dianne! It was so much fun talking with you about this topic, and I look forward to great conversation (as always in this space) with your readers about it!
I’m glad to hear Sarah emphasize the importance of mastering the classics and resourcing to talented chefs and cookbooks. Following recipes can be tricky for many and it’s good to provide readers with helpful, insider tips to make them feel more comfortable and confident on their success of making a dish or a baked good.
This was a great interview to “see” how a food magazine editor thinks.
Thanks as always Dianne!
Best
Paula
My pleasure, Paula. It’s good for bloggers to find someone who will talk about something other than how to adapt a pre-existing recipe. She’s upped the bar.
Oh, thank you both! Paula, following the classics was hard for me at first–I wanted to do my own thing–something more modern or simple, but now I understand why it was important. And you’re right to want to give readers a better, easier experience by doing the homework. We always say a recipe is a set of instructions–and the trick is to make it so good others can get the same result at home you got in your kitchen (note:I’ve certainly failed at times, but always strive for this!)
This was great insight for me. When I develop a recipe, I make it multiple times, giving away most of whatever I am making to get feedback. Then I keep making it until it is easy to replicate, and I will sometimes solicit testers who will make it for free (my budget is $0).
Love the book recommendations. I would add Ratio by Ruhlman and Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking to the list!
That’s probably too much trouble for a blog, but your process is great for publications. Those are great book recommendations!
Suzannah, you touched on something so important that we didn’t have time to cover–getting as many tasters to give feedback as possible (this part is easy, and fun!). Of course you can’t accommodate all opinions, but certain ones help so much in honing a recipe, especially when you’re cooking alone at home.
Glad to see Sarah referenced Julia and the importance of verbs. Julia’s books are till the best!
Hi Greg, thanks for chiming in. Actually those are my posts and the one with Julia’s verbs is one of my most popular!
Oh, must read this!
Great interview Dianne and Sarah. I especially appreciate the feedback about turning to reliable cookbook authors for research rather than the first site that pops up in a Google search. As an aside, that Rhubarb Upside Down Cake is one of my kids’ very favorites.
Yeah, we still have to buy the darned things and keep them in our library. It’s so inconvenient, Katie! 😉
Thank you, Katie! Confession: I’m a total cookbook hoarder, but I recently donated about 40 to our local library so I could still reference them easily, but not have to house them myself.
Excellent interview. I wonder what your/Sarah’s thoughts are on casual style recipe writing? Such as Jamie Oliver, where it is more conversational and sometimes not exact in measurements? That could be said of Nigel Slater too? I love reading their recipes because they are poetic.
Also, do you have a good template for recipe writing for a blog that you could recommend?
Hi Stacey, I have a whole chapter on recipe writing in Will Write for Food, so that’s about as close as I can get to a template. Recipes are quite formulaic but the best writers, as you say, add their personality. I do love Nigella’s style. Did you see this post I wrote about her voice?http://diannej.com/2015/nigella-lawsons-strong-voice/
Stacey, I love a more causal recipe style! In magazines, we have to be so strict about adhering to a style, and being absolutely consistent, but in my books and my personal life, I really prefer recipes with a personality, and a more conversational style. I think readers want to feel like they are in the kitchen with you, like you’re a friend chatting them through a dish they love to make. That said, it’s not okay to take someone’s recipe, rewrite the method in our own voice and call it our own. This style works best when you’re creating authentically from your own experience, or sharing something you learned, giving credit and building a story around it (Molly Wizenberg does this so well!)
I totally agree with Sarah Copeland about books being the best source of inspiration. I’ve looked at the books in my collection so many times that I have a good idea about where to go when researching any given topic of the moment. Shirley Corriher is one of my all-time favorites. I would love to read a post where everyone contributes their favorite cookbooks that they think represent good recipe writing. Or, maybe you’ve already done that.
I haven’t done that! Great idea, Shirl.
What a great resource that would be!
Regarding lists of favorite books about food, you might be interested in http://www.1000cookbooks.com/ where a number of chefs and food writers have submitted their go-to lists. The listed cookbooks are indexed and compiled into various groupings, but the main thing is: it’s all about the books.
Great to know about this list. Although it’s kind of a bummer that people can’t see it unless they register.
Dianne once again thank you for sharing an insightful article. I did notice in the Kale, Broccilini and Chickpea Salad that the directions were given for the chickpeas but no mention is made in the Kale ingredients to add the prepared chickpeas. Obviously from the photo and the recipe title, the chickpeas are supposed to be added to the make and broccolini. Is this an omission or am I being anal? I know my cooking class students would ask me about it.
Hi, Carol,
The first line says to toss together the broccolini, kale and chickpeas (cooked). But thanks for checking me–I DO make mistakes! I’m not (currently) blogging, partly because I’m too spoiled by having many eyes on recipes in books and magazines, to catch mistakes. (I admire bloggers–they’re brave for putting themselves out there everyday!)