How Do You Cook - Recipe or Wing It

[Marianne]

I'm one of those that wing it on a lot of recipes. Some baked goods are a different deal, though (baking powder, salt, etc).

Some people are just a bit OCD about things that I consider to be simple stuff. I have a friend that will literally put a ruler next to a partially frozen chub of ground round to cut all her hamburger patties EXACTLY the same size. For me, life's too short to worry about stuff like that.

BTW, I cracked up when I read your comment, "stick a fork in it."

 

[2dream]

I'm one of those that wing it on a lot of recipes. Some baked goods are a different deal, though (baking powder, salt, etc).

Some people are just a bit OCD about things that I consider to be simple stuff. I have a friend that will literally put a ruler next to a partially frozen chub of ground round to cut all her hamburger patties EXACTLY the same size. For me, life's too short to worry about stuff like that.

BTW, I cracked up when I read your comment, "stick a fork in it."

OCD it is then. Because all hamburger patties must be exactly 1/4 lb. But I think more than just a little OCD there.

 

[k15n1]

I'm a compulsive recipe tweaker...even when making it for the first time

Yeah, me too. Sometimes I end up combining recipes, checking a 3rd or 4th recipe for cooking time in another pan size, etc, etc.

Even when I try to follow the recipe, I can't.

Strangely, a photograph and a few critical ingredients is inspiration enough these days.

I still use a thermometer to check if a large piece of meat is done---such as a roast or ham.

 

[k15n1]

Once upon a time (3, maybe 4 months ago) I followed cake recipes. But then I was reading and found out that pound cake is THE cake recipe. And even I can remember that 1:1:1:1 ratio for flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. There's some tricks, but that's cake. Oh, there's other types of cake, but this is the one my kids want.

Box cakes, are overly leavened in my opinion. You can taste a chemical tinge if you're paying attention and try a piece without frosting. We still have them occasionally but everyone in the house has learned to like the real thing.

 

[Hinotori]

Normally I just wing it. If I'm trying something new I'll use a recipe, then adjust the next time.

 

[Emerald]

Hahaha! I am in the process of becoming closer friends with someone(I haven't had a close friend in many years) and her idea of cooking and mine are a bit different.. we both laughed quite hard over my cooking( I'm an old restaurant veteran.. from short order to fancy smancy)I can cook by the book/letter of the recipe etc.. but tend to "wing it" and hers- she had everything measured and laid out in precise order on the table when I got there to hang out and help. she has been to my house when I was cooking for Thanksgiving (the night before) and asked if I ever measured anything haha.. I'm hoping to become fast friends as we do many things the same and just told her that "varity was the spice of life" and we would be bored if we were both carbon copies!
I do tend to go by the recipe on the first run but I've cooked since I was 11 and can do many things by feel. it sucks when someone wants a recipe from me cuz I just don't really use them. I've been working on that tho.. I do have many basic formulas and then tweak them. I have written down the ones that most people ask for the most and have them pretty good so that the end product works for anyone using it.
Some things do need precise measurements tho.. some of my candy recipes must be measured or they just do not work when done. so I can't say that I never use a recipe..

 

[ORChick]

Some cooking is more like chemistry - cakes, candy, things like that. One needs to keep the proportions right. Other things are best done by feel because there are so many variables. Depending on the meat one might want more or less seasoning. Depending on the vegetable, and the time of year, and where it came from (your own garden or, perhaps, Chile) will determine how best to treat it. Baking bread one needs to consider the humidity and temperature to know how much flour and liquid to use, and where to set it to rise.
Early on I measured salt into my palm with measuring spoons to give me a feel for how much a tablespoon or teaspoon or fraction thereof looks like. I sometimes pull out the measuring spoons even now, but mostly I just scoop, and judge by eye. Not difficult, and most herbs and spices aren't that critical. I have a low tolerance for salt though, so I estimate what, for example, a teaspoon is, and then pour some of it back into the salt crock. If I need more I will add it later ... but that seldom happens.
When we were newly married my DH - a German AND an engineer - bought me a calculator that, with the push of a button, told me the metric and English equivalents of American measures and temperatures (and the other way round, of course). He thought it would help, as I added to my (American) cookbook collection with German and English examples. He was right - to an extent - but I don't think he (a non-cook) ever fully grasped that cooking is not that exact (I did not look for a replacement when that calculator died )

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I"m a Cajun. I use a recipe, only to get the basic idea; besides that, I make a few improvements. Even when I use a box cake....it don't take a genius to know you only have to add an extra egg, 1/4 cup water and half cup self-rising flour to make a bigger cake. If I'm missing an ingredient, I might say,"Well, this will do just as well"

 

[Cindlady2]

I'm a seat of the pants cook too. I started at a very young age when my great grandmother lived with us. My mother worked, so when my great grandma died my mom would leave "instructions" how to start dinner. By the time I was 12 I was doing most of the cooking without instructions. LOL I took Home Eco. in 7th grade (I was 11). The first ting we did was make a box cake. When she told us what we were going to do I busted out laughing. She asked why I thought that was so funny, I told her I made scratch cakes since I was 8. I got a very sceptic look. I made the cake with the group, I did the second project with the group. The third thing was chocolate chip cookies. Some kids were gone and it left 1 extra person and kitchen. I asked if I could work alone. She went along with it.... I made the kind I always made at home. I didn't use a written recipe. I got an "A". I spent the rest of the classes as an assistant! LOL

I know it's hard when people want your "recipe". I tell them I can give them what's in it and "abouts" for measurements. After that it's a feel for it.

 

[Hinotori]

When I was growing up we used the cookbook for things we didn't make very often like cookies and candies. Candies we were always careful with getting exact.

Meals were a different story. Everyday food was just cooked the same way by Mom as it was by Grandma and Great Grandma (Great Grandma preferred to cook on her wood burning stove until she died so it was a touch different there). Mom started teaching me cooking when I was 5 or 6. Started with helping stir while standing on a chair and peeling vegetables. Then learned to make biscuits.

Back just after I'd gotten out of the Navy and was living with a few roommates, I taught a friend of mine how to cook when he expressed interest in being able to do more than just nuke frozen dinners. It was much better to teach him than let him wing it. There was an incident with canned spaghetti sauce and he decided he needed to liven it up and he dumped a bunch of ground cloves in it. It wasn't very edible. Then he'd read about sweetmeats in some novel he was reading and thought that you just coated meat with honey and cooked it. After explaining what they were to him and cleaning up the icky mess and making something else for everyone to eat. First thing I taught him how to cook was stew as it's easy in the crockpot and the worst mistake he ever did making it was forgetting to salt it at all. That was easy remedy.

He's a decent cook now, which is good because his wife can't cook. I sent them some cookbooks for total newbies for last Christmas since he'd said he needed simple cheap recipes and after reading them and being able to finally understand, his wife has tried a few meals now.