Master Recipes

Master Recipes is a cookbook written by American author Stephen Schmidt. The book aims to put forth a method to teach cooking from basic principles, using strightforward and deliberate language and techniques. Recipes are provided in a basic form (the "master recipe"), and variations are later provided.^[1] First published in 1987 by Fawcett Columbine,^[2] the book received critical success,^[3] being placed on the Chicago Tribune's top 10 list of cookbooks for 1987,^[4] but had little public demand and fell out of print. An updated second edition was published in 1998 by Clear Light.^[1]

Schmidt has stated that the book took 6 years to produce. Following its initial publication, he directed a workshop on "How to Get a Cookbook Published",^[5] and has since written for the newsletter of the Culinary Historians of New York.^[6] He has also been an advisor on culinary history to the New York Academy of Medicine.^[7]