Old Fashioned Recipes Are Still The Best Cooking Medium
By Rohit

It seems like every day offers up a new medium online or on television for recipe lovers. On cable, channels dedicated to cooking have cropped up, and individual programs offer in-depth look at specific types of cooking, cuisine and recipes. And on the Internet, there are even more resources for new and old-fashioned favorite recipes, as well as forums and communities that let you search and share recipes with other amateur cooks.

There are more resources than ever available to recipe lovers everywhere, and new recipes that no one has ever heard of are invented every day. Yet even in the face of all of the new recipes and cooking styles, good old-fashioned recipes still remain the number one favorite of Americans as well as people in other countries, as well. While our cooking tools, implements and ingredients have changed dramatically over the last century (think of the microwave and fat-free ingredients, for instance), the favorite recipes are still those that were cooked up well over a century ago.

Old-fashioned favorite traditional meals still make up the majority of the meals that are cooked for families across the United States and other nations around the world. While the way we cook may have changed, the food that we eat really hasn't. Although it may be presented in different ways, the old-fashioned favorites are still showing up in recipes just as frequently as they were a century ago. And can you really blame anyone for enjoying old-fashioned cooking and recipes more than the new-age, bland, strange food that is served up in some new restaurants?

The best-tasting recipes are the ones that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers treated their families to many years ago, and some people count family recipes as their most prized possessions. They commit these family recipes to memory and pass them on to their children as heirlooms that are to be treated with reverence and respect. In fact, even suggesting a small change to grandma's traditional recipe is enough to anger some of today's cooks in their own home kitchens. But wait: what about new fat-free and healthy eating crazes that have captured much of the nation?

For some, it is heresy to transform traditional family recipes into fat-free or healthy versions, but luckily it is still indeed possible to create those traditional recipes while using healthier ingredients. Thankfully, many new healthy ingredients taste much the same as our traditional less healthy counterparts, so most people won't notice much of a difference. But just to be safe, it is probably better not to mention to the most traditional diners that you went out of your way to make their meal a little healthy. Let them eat and enjoy, and the healthiness of your traditional recipe can be your own secret!

Aaron Cherry is a big time chef.