About Tabelia

OUR SOURCES

What our recipes are based on

How we research

Every Tabelia recipe starts with a dish that people actually cook and eat in its place of origin, and we check each one against written sources to confirm how it is made. We use cookbooks and chefs’ own accounts to find out which region the dish comes from and how it has traditionally been made there, and for each dish we keep a record of the sources we consulted and what we took from them. When a home-style dish has no known creator or definitive recipe, we base ours on how the sources describe it being made in its home region. The “About this dish” section, which tells the story of a dish and where it comes from, draws on other sources, on the history and culture of that region.

How we edit

We rewrite each method so that you can cook the dish at home using nothing but our recipe page. Quantities, heat levels and times are written into each step, and each step tells you what the food should look like before you move on.

We keep every original ingredient and step; we never drop one. When we suggest a substitute for a hard-to-find ingredient, the Authenticity Score and a short explanation show how the swap changes flavor, texture and technique, so you can see how your dish will differ from the original. We change a step only when it can’t be done safely in a home kitchen. Instead of flambéing, for example, the recipe has you simmer the liquor until the alcohol cooks off.

What you can buy and which food-safety rules apply both depend on the country where you cook, so Tabelia writes each recipe separately for each country. We check product information from that country’s retailers and producers to see how ingredients are actually sold there, and choose substitutes from what’s available there. Cooking and storage instructions follow the official guidance of the country where you cook, not the dish’s country of origin. On our U.S. pages, we follow the home food-safety guidance of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

How we set quantities

Quantities are based on those given in sources from the dish’s home region. When sources disagree, we settle on the single amount that comes closest to the original dish in a home kitchen. With a single amount on the page, you can cook exactly as written without stopping to decide.

When you change the number of servings, we recalculate the quantities the way professional kitchens convert recipe yields. Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management (BCcampus), a textbook for Canadian culinary training programs, teaches scaling ingredients in proportion to the number of servings. It also advises increasing spices and seasonings conservatively, since doubling or tripling them outright can spoil the result, and adjusting the seasoning just before serving. Tabelia follows the same approach. Main ingredients such as meat and vegetables, and the water or wine used for braising, scale in proportion to the servings. Ingredients that add aroma or flavor, such as garlic, chili, herbs and salt, are not fully doubled when you double the servings, or fully halved when you halve them.

The same textbook also notes that when a change in quantity calls for a different pot or pan, cooking and mixing times change too. A whole roast, a dish baked in a pan or mold, or a long braise with little liquid can cook through or reduce differently when the quantity changes a lot, so for these dishes you can only change the servings within a range where the dish still turns out as intended. For every dish, we round the calculated amounts to numbers that are easy to measure with spoons or a scale, and list ingredients that are hard to divide, such as eggs or onions, as whole items.