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I feel already overstuffed with opinions and uneasy with my online think piece consumption rate, and if this article were behind a paywall I would immediately forget it existed. Freddie and the NYT are, of course, entitled to charge for their content, but I will then simply ignore it and feel mildly annoyed when it comes up in a search.
There's a tipping point somewhere. Lately I've noticed having to wade through five page essays interspersed with huge photos and video ads to view recipes online. This freezes up my phone, which is a problem sine I'm mostly looking recipes up at the store to see what to buy. There's likely some level of inconvenience at which I will actually start buying physical printed cookbooks again. Physical cookbooks would come up as a solution before subscribing to a food substack, though I could imagine someone else doing that and it making sense for them. I subscribed to New Masters Academy videos for a couple months, and didn't feel cheated.
There are enjoyable and useful ways to deliver advertising content. Unboxing videos are surprisingly popular. I like to read subscription box review sites, which are full of affiliate links and paid content. This seems fine, since I'm considering getting a curated selection of cocktail mixers or whatever, and the site will inform me of which ones are on offer that month and if there are any specials or not. Often I prefer these articles to those written by the NYT.
Facebook ads seem about right -- they're clearly ads, but are for things I would actually consider buying, and occasionally do buy, and do not feel tricked. Youtube ads are worse, and seem to be getting worse every year or so; I'm not sure if there's a point at which I would pay for Youtube premium, but it's probably good that they provide the option.
If I had to choose between an internet hiding behind paywalls, and an internet full of obnoxious ads, I would probably choose the ads. There was one website where I was trying to read an article about Roundup, and the text kept moving when the ads changed shape, jumping around erratically, and I would lose my place. Eventually I saved it to PDF, which solved the problem. I would certainly not have paid money for the article, and very certainly wouldn't have subscribed to anything for it. I would rather see Freddie's Substack marred by even shady lottery animation than not be able to see it at all without subscribing (which I wouldn't do, because of the automatic renewal and having to remember to cancel aspect of that). But can certainly see how he would prefer subscriptions.
Apropos of cook books:
If you haven't already, all the Kimball produced books and magazines are excellent. Not full of room for expression, but reliable recipes that don't ask you to do a bunch of silly horse shit for no reason, and also don't talk down to you like a child vis. making idiot substitutions or lazy technical choices.
Dude is equally not afraid to say "You must get this weird expensive fungus or don't even bother" and "This sacred cow is dumb, slaughter it".
Refreshing.
old Cooks illustrated and current Milk Street recommended highly.
Thanks, I'll check them out!
My father had several James Beard cookbooks that I remember fondly.
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