Are The Internet’s Most Popular Recipe Sites Any Good? – Carbonara Comparison | Sorted Food
When you need the best carbonara recipe, you probably Google it and click the one with the most five-star reviews. But are the world’s top recipe websites actually telling the truth, or are they just feeding you scrambled eggs and regret?
Today, Chef James and normal home cook Barry are putting the internet’s “ultimate” carbonara recipes from Serious Eats, Allrecipes, and Cookpad to the ultimate test. James is judging the actual culinary merit, while Barry is just trying to see if a normal person can cook it without having a total breakdown.
#sortedfood #Carbonara #RecipeReview #ChefVsNormal #cookingexperiment
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34 Comments
"Cook till fragrant", when is garlic not fragrant?
As an Italian, I died a little inside watching the second recipe. 😂
The perfect carbonara is delicious and one that i didn’t have to make or clean up after
My guess is that you're gonna rate the fancy recipe 10/10 and slate the others. Just a feeling I've got, not basing it on 15 years of the same thing always happening
Serious Eats has been my go to for well over a decade for any time I want to impress or find the best possible version of something. They've pretty much never let me down, although I do miss Kenji's recipes
4.5 out of 10 is bad that is a failing grade if you got that score on a test.
Cookpad is very popular in Japan (where it was founded) but I did not know it also has headquarters in Bristol.
My mom tried making the traditional carbonara, and her problem was always thats it dry. While i know its considered blasphemous to do so in carbonara, after i told her to add a couple tablespoons of cream to the egg mix, she had no trouble. She can gradually add less each time once she gets how to do it, just gives her wiggle room instead of ruining it by overcooking the eggs
Could you do a grocery shopping video showing what to stockpile
one thing sidekick does is that it tells you to pre-heat stuff, which so many recipes dont
I really enjoyed this video. I will try the recipe and hope it is as good as it says it is. The boys always work well together. They are probably the best pairings. Sadly though, James needs to challenge his student more and demand more of him.
Them Victorinox chefs knives are the most comfortable to use
Great video guys. I always enjoy learning from Sorted.
I’d love to seen this done again with other finicky dishes that are traditionally well-loved but not easy to replicate at home! Maybe even a baking segment if you can find recipes that are close but not exact.
In the first recipe they are not tablespoons they are dessert spoons.
Love this video format!! Also – Serious Eats is amazing for learning the science/why behind recipes. I’ve learned a lot from Kenji and his team over the years.
My other half will pretty much only agree to cook dinner if its a Sorted Sidekick recipe! He hates the read ahead you have to do with many cook books and having prep listed in ingredients rather than in the directions! So end of story thank you sorted for giving me an evening a week off!!
I dont wanna measure my meat in dr*g units. I literally only use grams when buying my weekly greens medication
I agree, ingredients in the order you are going to use them! I stopped using Allrecipes as they were difficult to follow. If it is not a Sorted Food recipe, I will use Recipe Tin Eats, Serious Eats and The Kitchn and then adjust for kosher and gluten-free, I also skip the story first.
barry and james is a great combo
Also, 1 ounce of cheese per serving ( 50 grams is just shy of 2 ounces ) sounds super low???
I wonder what could be used instead of pork for those who can't eat it?
To make my carbonara creamy I use 2 hole eggs, 4 egg yokes, 150 gr panchetta, and 150 gr pecorino with a decent amount of pepper. The prep is the same one as the first but a bit of oil or butter in the pan of panchetta. It is the easy recipe but a bit more creamy.
I have seen those sites never use them, hard to autenticate the recipes. Giallozafferano, Kiwilemon, matprat and many country based sites are better
When I heard "12 minutes — tender yet firm" for the second recipe. 😂 Those spaghetti are definitely mushy.
Oh great. The umpteenth carbonara video.
at 23:40 there is a sneaky hair in the middle of the screen lol
I don't trust any carbonara recipe that doesn't ask for an absolute heaping pile of freshly ground black pepper. Carbonaro means "charcoal burner" after all, it should look like it was covered in charcoal.
You missed the most important step of using any online recipe- look at the top 10 or so comments to see what tweaks people think are needed, what typos they found, etc.
Serious Eats is my go to. Pleased that it is actually good.
Fun video, while I know it is a bit counter productive to showing the links to these recipes due to the Sidekick app, but it would be amazing for when we have these videos if we could have those links so we can easily try them as well.
19:12 yes Barry.. only carbonara 😅
Surely Sorted's app Sidekick has a Carbonara recipe. You should have cooked it as well to compare it against these. it would have been interesting to see how many stars you would have given it.
You should do "alternative recipes". Like many countries have foods that have same name as some original root in another country but the food is completely different.
For example, in Finland "risotto" is type of fried rice with meat and vegetables. Of course restaurants usually offer the traditional slow cooked soupy version. But ask most Finns what's "risotto" and they have never even heard of the original. For me it's leftover rotisserie chicken (or fried mince), rice and mixed vegetables (often frozen mix of peas, sweetcorn and ball pepper). I was about 30 when I learnt that risotto is something else in some other country.