Not every household is as easy.
I think many people also come home after a long work day, open the fridge, and think: I don’t know what I could possibly make with what I have. Where should I begin?
That’s where the Globe comes in. Our food team has launched a brand new recipe database that will make it easy to find a dish to make or figure out what to do with an ingredient.
This database was years in the making, so I spoke to Chris Morris, the senior assistant managing editor for living arts, and the Globe’s former food editor, Sheryl Julian, who has been writing recipes for the paper for years.
Q: The Globe has published recipes for decades. What does it mean to finally have them all searchable in one place?
Morris: Well, I wish the archive went that far back – it doesn’t. Not quite! But it goes back to when I first became food editor nine years ago and we started collecting the recipes in a database. Our hope then was that one day we’d be able to create this useful tool for Globe readers, and now we’ve finally officially launched it! It’s exciting.
So the database has nine years’ worth of recipes, which is about three a week – sometimes more. Bringing them together in a single, searchable archive means readers can actually use this incredible body of original recipes from our talented contributors — whether they’re looking for a weeknight chicken dinner, a classic New England holiday side dish, a comforting soup, or something to satisfy their sweet tooth.
Q: How big is the Globe’s recipe archive?
Morris: It’s about 2,000 recipes at this point, and growing every week. We’d love to be able to go back and add all of the Globe’s past recipes – that would be a heavy lift – but at some point, it would be our dream to be able to do it.
Pear gingerbread cake with mascarpone frosting.Claudia Catalano
Q: Are there any dishes that were once wildly popular decades ago that you almost never see people cooking today?
Julian: There are many recipes that were popular throughout America for decades that were made with cans of condensed soups and other commercial ingredients that corporations worked hard to sell to cooks everywhere. We don’t see them much today, but when it comes to holidays like Thanksgiving, when nostalgia rules the menu on many tables, out come the marshmallows for sweet potatoes and cream of mushroom soup for green bean casserole.
Q: What are some of the most popular recipes we have?
Julian: It’s cold out, so people want warming recipes right now. In our Winter Soup Club newsletter, we received many emails about Devra First’s lentil soup, my chicken soup, and Joe Yonan’s Nearly-Any-Vegetable Coconut Soup. One of the most popular recipes we ever ran was for Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins (from the old Boston department store’s bakery). Of course, no muffin recipe we offer tastes anything like Jordan Marsh’s. Again, it’s nostalgia kicking in. Nothing is as good as it was when you were a kid.
Q: In general, have you noticed any surprising trends in what people cook now?
Morris: I’m hard to surprise. I have a teenage daughter, and I honestly love it when she makes me the latest viral TikTok recipe. By far, pickles in a blanket were my favorite of them all. So simple, so good. I can’t get behind some of the weird ice cream flavors that are becoming popular – lobster doesn’t belong in a cone. But who am I to judge?
Q: Every recipe in the database has been tested. What does that process look like?
Julian: Almost all of our recipe writers are professionally trained chefs who know instinctively how recipes work, even before they go into the kitchen. Every recipe is tested in their kitchens, sometimes two or three times to get it right. We also have certain rules to make it easier for cooks to use our recipes: We don’t, for instance, ask someone to make a sauce that they only need part of for the recipe. No one wants little containers of things from other recipes floating around their fridge. We listen closely to readers who write in and try to accommodate them and what they’re asking for. We respect the fact that they may not have much time in the kitchen or the skill to make certain confections, so we try to offer a wide variety of recipes.
Bratwurst with German-style potato salad.Sally Pasley Vargas
Q: Which three Globe recipes would you suggest a new user try first?
Morris: OK, this reflects the kind of mood I’m in today – I’m Irish and answering your questions on St. Patrick’s Day:
Q: I’m often exhausted and unmotivated to cook after a long week. What’s a fun and easy recipe I can tackle on a Friday night that also tastes delicious?
Morris: It’s still cold out, and I’m always in a soup mood. I love this recipe for a quick pho: Kick-start your January resolutions for healthier dinners with a quicker version of Vietnamese pho
Shrimp salad in toast cups.Jill Gibson for The Boston Globe
Q: Anything else is new in Food?
Morris: Yes! We have a new food editor starting this week. Her name is Esther Mobley, and she’s coming to us from the San Francisco Chronicle. She’s wonderful. I’ve handed Esther my food duties so that I can oversee the rest of the Living Arts department, too. I’m so excited to see where Esther takes the section.
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Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
Dining and Cooking