Which would you prefer to eat? A recipe called Guava ice cream or Gulnaz’s Gorgeous Guava Glory? Here are more tips to help you name your recipes and make them more appealing to the visitors to your blog.
- Consider the pleasure the recipe gives and what someone might say or do while eating your dish. Imam bayaldi (a Turkish dish where aubergine is stuffed with mince) means ‘the priest fainted’ – with pleasure. Shoofly Pie is an evocative name for a pie so sweet and sticky you have to shoo the flies off it. Perhaps your carrot cake is so full of texture and flavour, your friends and family can never stick to just one slice. So call it Piggy carrot cake because you can’t help making a pig of yourself every time you bake it. Or how about Just-another-slice carrot cake. In South Africa, there’s a biscuit brand called Eet-sum-mor. I always ate some more.
- If it’s an ice cream dish, consider words used to describe ice cream dishes including boat, sundae, scoop, cup, glory (as in Knickerbocker Glory), pie, split (as in Banana split). If it’s cake, play around with combinations which include one of these words: tray-bake, sponge, gateau, showstopper, slice, loaf, torte.
- How about naming your dish after the occasion on which it’s going to be eaten. Coronation Chicken, After-school biscuits, Four-o’clock flapjacks, World Cup waffles. If your dish has been created for a particular time of year, it will be easy – Boxing Day waffles or Halloween hash. Speaking of Halloween, could you make Scary biscuits?
- What does it contain? The ingredients may lead you to a name such as Forty Clove Chicken or Very garlicky pasta. Delia Smith has several recipes mentioning three cheeses. I guess that Chinese Five Spice is so-named because it contains five spices.
- Use a title that appeals to generosity and greed. Big fat sausage roll. Quarter pounder. UK food blogger, Jack Monroe, has a recipe called Sleepy potatoes ‘in homage to the coma-inducing carb hit and satisfying creamy texture’.
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Aimed at slimmers: the purpose of the recipe gives you the title. What does the eater hope to get out of making your recipe? If your creations are aimed at healthy eaters or slimmers, then the purpose of the recipe will dictate the title e.g. Delia’s Waist-Watchers’ Dressings, Super-healthy detox salad, Afternoon pick-me-up smoothie, Super-express portable porridge.
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Quirky title: because this recipe ‘raises sad herbs from the dead’ What actions are taken by the cook or what does the cook hope to get out of making this recipe? Jack Monroe named her Lazarus pesto after the biblical character because it ‘raises sad herbs from the dead’ cheating her guinea pig from an extra meal. If you are worried about food waste, you may have made Use-it-up soup with the glut from your veg patch or gleanings from your fridge. It’s best if the title is appetising but it may not have to be. It makes you and your writing stand out from the crowd.
What crazy names have you come up with? Do you struggle to find catchy names for your recipes?