The other evening, I decided to try this recipe from CookingLight.com: skillet pork chop sauteed with peaches. Before I get to the actual subject of this post, let me say that this meal was delicious and simple. I used Pacific Rim’s Dry Riesling for the dry white, which I then paired with the meal. Again, delicious!

Now, if you click the link, you will see that this recipe is advertised as a “20 Minute Meal.” That’s a regular feature in Cooking Light and one that I enjoy; however, these meals are never cooked in twenty minutes. The problem, I have discovered, lies in the ingredients. You’ll notice that this recipe’s ingredients list includes “thinly sliced shallots,” “chopped fresh thyme” and “peaches, each cut into 8 wedges.” I don’t know what grocery store the Cooking Light chefs visit, but the ones in which I shop only sell whole shallots, whole sprigs of thyme and whole peaches. By the time I’ve taken those whole, fresh ingredients and sliced them as instructed, ten or fifteen minutes have passed.

The same thing happens in cooking shows. Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, you name it. The chef nearly always begins cooking with pre-chopped – sometimes pre-measured! – ingredients. As a result, they may claim that you can have dinner on the table in twenty minutes, but it always takes at least half an hour. To me, that seems just a bit dishonest. Worse, it’s unnecessarily dishonest.

Would it be so bad if cooking magazines told us the actual amount of time it takes, from start to finish, to put their recipe on the table? I can’t imagine that their readership would open next month’s edition and say, “30 Minute Meals?! Ugh, nevermind! I’m canceling my subscription.” I know that I, for one, would appreciate being given a more accurate assessment so that I can better plan when to begin cooking my dinner.