The list of corrections to ‘Modernist Cuisine’ is staggering
Typos, mathematical errors and general cock-ups are a fact of the writing life, and a six-volume, 2,400-page opus like Modernist Cuisine is bound to have a few. But the extraordinarily long list found at Modernistcuisine.com is staggering. From the significant (“In the recipe for Compressed Tomato, an additional step should be taken before step one: ‘Remove the cores’;” “In the note in the margin, ‘192.2 °C’ should read ‘192.2 °F'”) to the cryptic (“In the recipe for Goulash broth, steps three and seven should be omitted”) to the merely amusing (“ ‘your own spirts’ should read ‘your own spirits;'” “’desert’ should read ‘dessert'”), it’s one long advertisement for the value of copy editors. Still none quite reach the absurd heights of Penguin Australia’s recent cookbook misprint, which suggested that a recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto should include “salt and freshly ground black people” rather than pepper.