Editing recipes that work the first time
Most recipe errors are in the order of the steps, not the quantities. What I check in a cookbook manuscript before anything else.
When I edit a cookbook, I cook from it. Not every recipe, but enough to see where the writing and the kitchen disagree.
The order of the steps
Most errors are here. An oven preheated in step six, onions that need forty minutes but get ten, a resting time mentioned only in the headnote. I rewrite the method so that a cook reading it once, top to bottom, does things in the right order.
Quantities a reader can measure
Two medium onions means something different in every kitchen. I ask for weights alongside counts, and for “a pinch” to become a quantity wherever it matters.
The headnote
A good headnote says when to make the dish and what can go wrong. A long story about a grandmother can stay, but it goes after the useful part.