Cookbook typo: "salt and freshly ground black people"

Penguin Group Australia accidentally published copies of the Pasta Bible containing an unfortunate spell check error. A recipe calling for "salt and freshly ground black pepper" actually read "salt and freshly ground black people." The company is destroying and reprinting 7,000 copies of the book, but not recalling ones that have already hit bookstores. According to the company's head of publishing, Bob Sessions, it was an honest mistake. From The Age:

"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," he said...

"In one particular recipe [a] misprint occurs which obviously came from a spellchecker. When it comes to the proofreader, of course they should have picked it up, but proofreading a cookbook is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable.

"We've said to bookstores that if anyone is small-minded enough to complain about this ... silly mistake, we will happily replace [the book] for them."

"Hot water over spell check"

Previously:

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Antinous / Moderator

I worked with a nurse once who announced that her patient wouldn’t eat red meat but was fine with eating fish and children.
- Anonymous
  
  children…the other white meat.
IronyElemental

All this hullabaloo over a single word. Nobody would’ve given it a second thought if they’d just said “ground people.”
- scifijazznik
  
  But think of the extreme outrage had it said “freshly cracked black people.”
- muteboy
  
  “Ground people”? You mean, like made from mud? What exactly are you saying?
Phlip

“How come you taste so good?” –Mick Jagger
Felton

It’s okay. I eat my chili with crackers.
Joe

My guess is that the typo for pepper was peoper; the o is next to the p on the keyboard. Then someone running a spell-checker accepted a proposed correction of peoper -> people, and didn’t bother to check the results.
- Anonymous
  
  I thought that myself but my spell checker returned ‘proper’, ‘pepper’ and ‘peeper’ not people.
  - jackie31337
    
    I tried it with Adobe Framemaker, which is notorious for bad/hilarious spell-check suggestions (I’m pretty sure it’s based on the soundex algorithm). “Pepper” was the second suggestion. “People” did not appear as a suggestion at all.
Anonymous

Pastafarians
phisrow

Damn racists. That line had better read “salt and freshly ground African-American people” in the reprint…
semiotix

Holy crap, was this the wrong time and place for the classic “I’m sorry you’re being such a fussy, prissy victim that you had to get offended over what I did or said” non-apology.

“Freshly ground black people” is a forgivable typo; HOW DARE YOU SMALL-MINDED TWATS IMPUGN MY ALMIGHTY COOKBOOK means you’re just an asshole.
Gutierrez

I enjoy my pasta with fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Giovanni

For all the people trying to replicate the mistake, keep in mind they were likely using an australian dictionary which would yield different results than an american or even british dictionary.
Anonymous

Another reason to pirate books. Sleezey guys can’t even proof-read. And they expect us to pay for these things!
lasttide

To be fair, this is the pasta edition of the long-running “To Serve Man” line of cookbooks.
Anonymous

Interestingly worded press release that puts across the idea that you are ‘small-minded’ if you challenge what has happened. A good example of manipulating a situation to your advantage. Also, hasn’t it turned into a great marketing exercise for the book? I wonder how many extra copies they have sold now…
dculberson

It’s not racist to say that black people just taste better, is it? I mean, the truth is the truth, right?
Crashproof

Funny? Yes. Regrettable? Sure, yeah. Racist? Not really.
- Terry
  
  You’re right. If it was racist, it would read something like:
  
  “salt and freshly ground white people. For a low-fat (but less flavorful) alternative, substitute ground black people.”
kc0bbq

You use white people when you’re making cream soups and want a nice, uniform appearance.
Anonymous

Since they didn’t have a proofreader actually check the book the first time, did they at least make sure that this wasn’t the recipe for Soylent Green before they changed the ingredients in the re-release?
jere7my

I could see this doing a lot of dawizard to Penguin Australia.
The Mudshark

Hmm…black people
gobo

The publisher could’ve handled this many ways, from apologizing to taking it in stride and having a sense of humor. Instead, they’re going to cause a shitstorm with this response. Well done.

And no, it’s not too much to ask for a proofreader to catch a typo like this. “People”? Really? I haven’t done a ton of proofreading, but I’d think the word “people” in the ingredients list of a pasta recipe would stick out a wee bit while proofing.
- PapayaSF
  
  I have done a ton of proofreading, and it’s harder than it seems. Old-style it was done with two people, one reading aloud while the other followed the text, but I doubt if anyone (other than perhaps legal publishers) does that any more. It’s very easy to miss one or two things. Partly it’s because your eye can often “correct” things: people reading a recipe expect to see “freshly ground black pepper” and so that’s what most of them will see. An excellent recent example is the Chilean coin where the country was spelled “CHIIE.” In all caps it’s very close visually to the correct spelling, and it was in circulation for nearly two years before it was noticed. (Of course, there’s no excuse for poor proofreading of something with just a few words on it.)
  - Diamond Jim
    
    I’m an editor at a legal publisher, and I can assure you we don’t proofread the old-school way, with a proofreader reading aloud to a copyholder. The last time I did that (as I think I said in some other thread not so long ago, heaven help me) was back in my law review days, some time during the Cenozoic Era.
    
    Roach @33, thanks. You’ve saved me from making the same point rather more intemperately.
Lobster

Before we condemn this “typo,” has anyone actually tried following the recipe as listed? It might be delicious.
Anonymous

“Proofreading a cookbook is an extremely difficult task”? Pull the other one, Bob, it’s got bells on.

Funniest typo ever, though.
rootchick

Yum! Must be a recipe for Soylent Chow!
DJBudSonic

NOW they tell me it’s a typo!
Anonymous

I believe the typo must have been peopre because the o us next to P and sometimes people are in a rush and mix e and r around, then the spell check dictionary says people, then pepper…
thecheat

My wife works at a facility that takes care of people with severe development disabilities. One of her coworkers was typing a letter to the board of directors and signed it “Best Retards” instead of Regards and mailed it.
- MrsBug
  
  OMG, that’s a freakin’ riot. I’ll bet it didn’t go over too well though, did it?
Shaddack

When I was younger, errors in books were handled by including an errata sheet, a leaflet with list of errors. If it is good enough for reference books and engineering tables, why it should not be good enough for a cookbook?
Metronicity

Talking of typos…if you don’t LOL at some of these then you really are a humorless —–

http://www.welcometowallyworld.com/thats-funny/2007/9/24/what-not-to-put-on-your-resume.html
aml

I’m afraid that proofreading at most organizations has turned into “once all the red squiggles are gone. We’re done.”
- Anonymous
  
  Well, if the green squiggles offered proper suggestions, we’d fix them too.
Anonymous

Too late. I already went on eBay and bought a people grinder. It’ll be here next week.
Thad E Ginataom

Oh, this is just dreadful. One of the most horrific and offensive mistakes I have ever seen in a book.

I don’t think anything, short of tracking down every copy, and ensuring that it is destroyed, can be good enough here.

I am absolutely fed up with this increasing ignorance of the hyphen. People, it should read:

Freshly-ground black people
- Roach
  
  Actually, the hyphen there would be wrong. We use hyphens to connect terms OTHER than the adverb-adjective pair like “freshly ground,” because the adverb there is standard and not confusing where a noun might be:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen#Joining
  - Thad E Ginataom
    
    Oh shucks, yes, I guess you’re right!
    
    Thanks for the correction :)
Ed Wilson

I’m a black woman and I think this is just hilarious, especially dculberson’s comment.

I’m going to take it as an honest mistake. Besides, everyone knows Filipinos are the most premium meat…

Just sayin’…

-Ed
spotrh

Original cookbook title: “To Serve Man”
Drew from Zhrodague

That sounds soul soylent.
lewis stoole

i prefer freshly ground pecker, it just tastes better
Anonymous

I have a hard time believing it’s just a typo. I could accept that if it were one letter off (like the ‘regards/retards’ mix-up above), but to get from ‘pepper’ to ‘people’???
danimagoo

peopre returns people, at least with the spell checker in Open Office
yclipse

This was not a typo. “Best retards” was a typo. This one looks like deliberate sabotage.
- mdh
  
  you do mean your own comment, right?
Mitch

Better leave the recipes for faggots and gravy out of the cookbook, too.
- lewis stoole
  
  mmmm. this sounds as scrumptious as spotted dick.