recipes don't just appear, like well-written, well-tested recipes, like, takes so much work.

This is best-selling cookbook author Julia Tertion. She's also written for the New York Times and Bon Appetit, among others.

She says a great recipe should feel effortless. So I studied poetry in college, and to me, like a really well-written recipe is

like a little bit like a really good poem, even if that sounds kind of cheesy, but it seems

simpler, but like so much work went into it and so much taking out and editing, and it has to be

really descriptive. And, you know, I think sometimes the simplest things take enormous amounts of work.

A really good recipe anticipates and answers every possible question a person could have,

all in just a few paragraphs. It has really clear indicators. Those are the clues that tell you what

to look for to move on to the next step or when you know it's done. Claire Safett's best-selling

author of the cookbook

dessert person says when she writes a recipe, she thinks a lot about that part. So I like to always

give three or four visual indicators and even other kinds of indicators, like what is it? Is it going

to smell like something? Is it going to feel like something? So with a cake, I often say golden brown

around the edges, golden on the top, springs back in the

center when you touch it and a cake tester comes out clean.

So it might feel excessive, but like all of those things are important and are telling you

something.

Is there a specific indicator in a recipe that you have seen at some point in your career?

It could be maybe someone else wrote it and you were like, that's really seen at some point in your career. It could be maybe someone

else wrote it and you were like, that's really good. I wish I wrote that. One of my favorite

indicators is, just because I love the words, a slowly dissolving ribbon. So when you mix eggs

and sugar in a mixer and you whip them, it gets really, really light and thick. And the best indicator is when you lift up the whisk and the mixer falls back into the bowl

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