Recipes - What Kind Of Cook Are You?

[HumbleHomeCook]

Now, baking aside, and talking home cooking and not commercial, what is your general approach to recipes? I'm especially interested in your use of cookbooks. I'm guilty of using external recipes mostly as inspiration. Sometimes I don't have the called for ingredients but mostly it's just trying to adopt the recipe to my situation (likes, time, etc.). I almost never adhere closely to recipes.

That means I screw up. My risk factor increases and I don't always get it right. But I love the creativity ignition. I get a concept, an idea, a direction from the recipe and then embark to adapt it to make it work for us.

I buy cookbooks but rarely follow the recipes as presented.

How about you KKF?

 

[UHguy]

When I was less experienced with flavors, I was a stickler for following them to a T. Now that I'm a good deal more experienced in the kitchen, I love using recipes for inspiration. Sometimes I'll cook a recipe as is the first time I make it to see how it is, but usually I'll add things that I think would enhance the flavor.

 

[M1k3]

Start at option 1.

Progress to 2.

Then step 3.

Now you're a typical line cook.

 

[Michi]

Recipes are mostly guidelines only for me these days.

If I make something totally unfamiliar that I have never cooked before, I might stick to a recipe pretty closely. But, when I do that, I also look at two or three recipes for the same thing, which typically diverge, so I know immediately that there are various possible interpretations.

On the other hand, if I look up three recipes for something, and they are all pretty much identical, that's a strong hint that deviating from the recipe might not work out so well.

There is an almost infinite number of recipes, but there are only a few hundred methods. After years and years of cooking, what I recognise is the method, which is what I remember. What I make conforms to the method, but not necessarily to the recipe. So, to me, cooking is mostly about methods. The actual recipe is then typically just a variation on the method. The particular spices or frying technique or marinating time (or whatever) only "bend" the overall taste sensation in a particular direction.

What you need to remember are methods, not recipes. Once that happens, it's possible to whip up a meal from next to nothing, with only the most basic of ingredients and spices, and still make it excellent. Just pick the method to suit the available ingredients.

 

[gentiscid]

Start at option 1.

Progress to 2.

Then step 3.

Now you're a typical line cook.

+1

 

[Boynutman]

1-2-3.

I like to stick to (new) recipes. Just to ensure I try new things instead of falling back on my regular habits, flavors and methods.
New recipe only once per 1-2 weeks.

 

[Jovidah]

Nr 2 for sure... unless it's something that's far outside my normal repertoir, in which case I go down Michi's route and pretty much just average a bunch of existing recipes. But most of the time I just pick bits and pieces and do my own thing.
The main problem with (most) recipes is they don't teach you anything. Sure you can follow them monkey-see monkey-do but if it's not being explained why you're doing what and the result of each individual step it doesn't generate any knew knowledge - which is the main reason for me to look for information.

 

[sumis]

Recipes are mostly guidelines only for me these days.

If I make something totally unfamiliar that I have never cooked before, I might stick to a recipe pretty closely. But, when I do that, I also look at two or three recipes for the same thing, which typically diverge, so I know immediately that there are various possible interpretations.

On the other hand, if I look up three recipes for something, and they are all pretty much identical, that's a strong hint that deviating from the recipe might not work out so well.

There is an almost infinite number of recipes, but there are only a few hundred methods. After years and years of cooking, what I recognise is the method, which is what I remember. What I make conforms to the method, but not necessarily to the recipe. So, to me, cooking is mostly about methods. The actual recipe is then typically just a variation on the method. The particular spices or frying technique or marinating time (or whatever) only "bend" the overall taste sensation in a particular direction.

What you need to remember are methods, not recipes. Once that happens, it's possible to whip up a meal from next to nothing, with only the most basic of ingredients and spices, and still make it excellent. Just pick the method to suit the available ingredients.

^^^ this.

i try to learn techniques rather than recipes – although following and learning recipes might be part of learning a technique.

i tend to think of a) ways to change and combine produce into something else/new, b) flavor and flavor combination, c) orchestrating a meal/dish/plate.

i like to be able to wing it and improvise, to see what happens if … but being secure enough to predict the direction it will go, if not the exact end result.

sometimes you need to be safe – but most of the time, cooking for me is a fun learning experiment (combined with equal parts of 'going to the gym' and 'working on theory').

.

 

[user 16756]

The main problem with (most) recipes is they don't teach you anything. Sure you can follow them monkey-see monkey-do but if it's not being explained why you're doing what and the result of each individual step it doesn't generate any knew knowledge - which is the main reason for me to look for information.

I personally/respectfully disagree with this.

In any given new learning exercise, there will be far too much information to learn, much of which isn't really that important to pick up in the beginning. You can start learning through mimicking and then later progress to understanding. It is also incumbent on folks to focus on building only on top of how much foundation you've built up, which makes most recipes the wrong fit for most people, so while there's not a great solution to that I will admit, I am sympathetic to the folks that don't even bother. I think even beyond this, it's important to know what to look for, and while yes this is itself a skill, you want to select recipes where if you do follow the execution exactly, you are more or less guaranteed to get the result you want (e.g. one of Keller's cookbooks). Without knowing what you're aiming for, which means either doing one recipe exactly or going to a restaurant to try it, you are flying blind.

 

[MarcelNL]

I try to pick cookbooks that teach, AKA explain the WHY in a recipe...
Did a few cooking classes whcih I found great learning experiences, since those (if they are good ones) are all about the why, exchanging recipes with friends is the same...I usually only try those recipes where the owner can explain the why behind them.

 

[Jovidah]

I personally/respectfully disagree with this.

In any given new learning exercise, there will be far too much information to learn, much of which isn't really that important to pick up in the beginning. You can start learning through mimicking and then later progress to understanding. It is also incumbent on folks to focus on building only on top of how much foundation you've built up, which makes most recipes the wrong fit for most people, so while there's not a great solution to that I will admit, I am sympathetic to the folks that don't even bother. I think even beyond this, it's important to know what to look for, and while yes this is itself a skill, you want to select recipes where if you do follow the execution exactly, you are more or less guaranteed to get the result you want (e.g. one of Keller's cookbooks). Without knowing what you're aiming for, which means either doing one recipe exactly or going to a restaurant to try it, you are flying blind.

I never have a problem with too much information. What I have a problem with is doing stuff when I have no clue 'why'. It makes it much harder to remember stuff, much harder to go 'beyond the recipe'.
Regardless of how low or high your skill is, if you're just mimicking stuff without a clue why you're doing what, you're not learning anything. You're just playing cargo cult in your kitchen.

 

[user 16756]

I never have a problem with too much information. What I have a problem with is doing stuff when I have no clue 'why'. It makes it much harder to remember stuff, much harder to go 'beyond the recipe'.
Regardless of how low or high your skill is, if you're just mimicking stuff without a clue why you're doing what, you're not learning anything. You're just playing cargo cult in your kitchen.

but surely you must admit that you're making up a guy here. mimicking does not preclude later understanding.

you are conflating an activity (mimicking) with an approach (being thoughtless). the first does not necessitate the latter.

 

[sumis]

but surely you must admit that you're making up a guy here. mimicking does not preclude later understanding.

you are conflating an activity (mimicking) with an approach (being thoughtless). the first does not necessitate the latter.

this is very true. with the right mindset, repetition should lead to epiphany. sometimes knowing the 'why' doesn't help or make sense at all, until you get stuff under your hands and really understand the why behind the why, so to speak.

it is a dialectic combination of knowing and not-knowing, theory and practice taking turns leading.

spending time in an italian kitchen, kneading pasta dough, getting first hand info, breaking my wrists, and getting to see up close what's going on, was invaluable. but that experience (+ a lot of mindless repetition) has for me me made it more worthwhile, and interesting, to actually follow other sources to the letter, mimicking different approaches and recipes. because now, i have a some kind of ability to analyse the results and differences.

.

 

[Naftoor]

I have a decidedly boring palette. Not so much that I don’t enjoy things, but I enjoy simple things enough that I could eat them day in day out without issue. Luckily my better half suffers from flavor fatigue, so I have to try new things. Back in the day that consisted of browsing food gawker for things that looked good. Then it became browsing serious eats. Now it’s browsing instagram and the cooks country/illustrated/milk street magazines. I stick to a recipe fairly closely for the first time, and decide the modifications I want to make to the recipe based on the results.

So I guess 1-2 and 3 mainly for simple things like roast proteins or veg that I’ve made so many times it no longer registers as cooking to me. I also have to employ 3 for trying to learn my moms recipes because even though she remains one of the smartest people I know, the idea of writing down recipes she learned 40 years ago is inconceivable to her. Funnily enough; my dad is the spontaneous cook in the family and he insists on writing down every recipe he makes, which can have hilarious results when he doesn’t actually measure anything in the process and hand waves numbers out of the air.

 

[rickbern]

I’m a pretty adventurous cook and try to introduce foods from various cultures into my cuisine.

I tend to look at a variety of different recipes and aggregate them into one. Sometimes when I find a source that I trust I tend to follow that person pretty closely, but when I’m new to the cuisine I try to find a variety of sources and put them together on my own terms.

I strive to make my interpretation of a dish, authenticity be dammed. Gets me in a fair bit of trouble when I claim to a French friend I’m making cassoulet

 

[esoo]

I think it depends on what I'm doing.

First time trying a recipe, I follow it exactly to see what it's like. Maybe some small changes (like a recipe that says to add water, I'll use something more flavourful)

After that, I'll make changes as I'm inspired. Adding different ingredients to broaden the flavour.

Sometimes though, I find the recipe is perfect as written. It's exactly what I want so I make it following the recipe.

Or sometime I want the traditional flavour. For example, the wife makes banana bread and can't not add other stuff. Her results are tasty but sometimes I just want a plain old fashioned banana bread.

 

[coxhaus]

I am not sure I fit the above. If a recipe inspires me then I follow it closely and then the next time I modify it to suit me. Sometimes I am looking at recipes for a starting point. And then I cook it the way I want it. I don't really measure other than maybe the first time. It is more to taste than anything.
I am not very good at just inventing a recipe. I do like to cook a recipe and change it from time to time to see if I like it better.
I would get bored just cooking the same recipe over and over as I don't like to eat the same thing. I could not have a fixed menu other than a couple ideas over the next couple of days. So, I would never repeat from one week to the next. Things that influence me are weather, butcher's cuts of meat, family and friends.
My wife likes to cook, and she measures everything. So, we work it out.

 

[Cliff]

Totally depends on the situation. If I'm learning something new, especially a new cuisine, I tend to look for a recipe from someone I trust and follow it. As I get comfortable with it, I may take part of the recipe and apply it elsewhere. For example, I found some curry recipes friends raved about, tried them and liked them. They tended to have similar ratios of a handful of spices. As I got more comfortable working with the ingredients, I might use them in something I'm just throwing together.

If I'm making Keller's salmon coronets, I make them as he does. But I've adapted others of his recipes, like poaching salmon in olive oil for something else.