To Recipe or Not To Recipe

[Claire]

That Is The Question. I have to laugh at this one. I was reading the thread about turkey/tuna salad. I have never used a recipe for these things. I just ask hubby if he wants it fine or chunky, and proceed with what happens to be hanging around the house. I used to use Miracle Whip a lot, but in recent years have taken to making Ranch dressing using the mix, fat-free yogurt, and full-fat Mayo, and using it for almost any mayo-type recipe. If there's celery in the house, or maybe a can of water chestnuts, in it may go. When my herb garden is going strong, tons of whatever is looking good. Then I wind up "in trouble" because a friend will want to know how I made something, and they sometimes think I'm messing with them because theirs doesn't turn out like mine. Some don't understand that MINE never turns out the same twice!!! I do have a couple of things I use a recipe for, but even then it is pretty loose. How about you? Do you use a recipe, not use a recipe, or somewhere in between. I have to say I have hundreds of cook books, a couple of decades of Gourmet, etc.

 

[auntdot]

Claire, we have one wall of built in bookcases filled with cookbooks, and, when cooking, will usually just wing it.

Glad to hear there is someone out there like us.

Love to read the recipes, and will sometimes follow them, but for most day-to-day cooking will just go by the seats of our pants.

Often one of us will come up with an idea and we will just run with it.

Sure if it is a classic recipe we have not tried will follow the recipe.

Or if it is a cuisine we are not that familiar with, will go step by step.

But most of the time we just have fun and cook.

 

[licia]

Some foods are just more fun if there is a little surprise. When I make tuna or chicken salad, I don't use a recipe either. I may put celery, onion, mayo in my tuna salad, I may add a chopped apple if I don't feel too fishy. I have added water chestnuts also. To my chicken salad, I'm even more adventurous, adding grapes, walnuts or almonds, or even pecans, chaning the seasonings. The only thing I don't add that some people use - I never put eggs in either one. I like to keep it light.

 

[Sandyj]

me too, me too! I have a friend who measures everything so carefully, and her food is always delicious. But....there's NO spontanaity there. I just don't seem to be capable of cooking this way....One thing I thought of is that my mom and grandmother and their family had such hard times when she was a child in the '30s...to waste food was a sin. So, when cooking with my friend, and there's 1/4 tsp of fresh herb left over because the recipe called for exactly 1/2 tsp and I cut a bit too much, she'd throw it away, I'd chuck it into the dish and adjust the rest of the seasoning. I love reading recipes and have lots of cook books, and will follow a new recipe as carefully as I can the first time I try it....but after that....I love inventing. I like to try and use up what I have in the pantry if I can.

 

[grumblebee]

I usually use recipes as a guide and tailor it depending on likes/dislikes and what I have on hand. Some recipes that are really persnickity, need to be followed to a T or else they turn out weird... (I'm thinking pastries/baked goods mostly) But for cooking, I improvise a lot and usually things turn out okay!

 

[ironchef]

At home I'll wing it and that's where I'll sometimes come up with some interesting combinations. At work however, even recipes that were just made up need to be measured and done consistently for proper guest satisfaction, food costs, etc.

 

[Andy M.]

I like to experiment but when I do, I write down the recipe so I can recreate it when asked.

 

[AllenOK]

Most of the time, at home, I'll use a recipe, but it's more as a guide than something set in stone, with the exception of baking. Sometimes, I'm just completely flying by the seat of my pants.

 

[sydfan]

I usually just make it myself. A lot of times I'll watch the food network to get an idea for a dish, then just kind of keep track of the ingredients and make it my own way. I usually use much more oil and cheese than a recipe will call for.

 

[Robo410]

50/50 I am capable of winging it with what I got, and haven't made drechk yet! But, I will follow a recipe I like or want to try. Certainly there are recipes mom gave me that i make all the time that I know by heart, and there are certian techniques I have learned by heart as well.

recently made turkey soup...no recipe, just techniques known for years and what was fresh in the market for vegetables.

 

[Claire]

I think the dishes I consistently use a recipe for are Greek/AKA/Cincinatti chili (an old Gourmet) and Green Chili Stew (a cousin from New Mexico, who wasn't happy when I told her that I had to use Annaheims one year because I couldn't get Poblanos). And don't get me wrong, I look up lots and lots of recipes from those hundreds of books and magazines. But I also grew up with the "religion" of never throwing food away if you can help it, and that often influences what goes into my food. I have lots of friends who always follow a recipe to the letter, and their food is always great, and of course much more consistent than mine. I do have to say, though, that I cook meals more often than they do. It'll be, "OK, Hubby, there is XXXX in the fridge that has to go." Then I'll offer him a few choices in style (for example, do you want Asian, Italian, or Mexican?"). It has gotten a little more difficult since he was diagnosed with diabetes, but I have been surprised and pleased to have confirmed that I was raised in a healthy food home, learned to cook that way, and still do.

 

[cristal]

I'll usually wing it if I'm cooking, unless I'm really not familiar with the recipe. I can wing certain things when baking, but only stuff that I've done dozens of times and stuff that has some leeway (for baking anyway). Most most desserts, it's better to be exact or the taste and texture will be really off!

 

[Hungry]

A couple years ago the Barn Muffin recipe on the Kellog's All Bran box called for Apple Sauce instead of oil. I would add nuts and rasins even though they weren't called for.

Now they are back to using 1/4 C. cooking oil no Apple Sauce. The otert indegrents are the same.

I have made some other changes to this recipe.
First I double the basic indegrents..
I use 1/2 C. brown sugar and 1/2 C. granulated sugar.
Then I add 1 large overripe banana and 1 C. Apple Sauce.
I put in 1/2 tsp of soda (for the bananas)
1 1/2 C. Rasins and 1 1/2 C. Nuts
Although not called for, I add 1 tsp vanilla.

This will make 2 Doz. muffins.

This is a prime example of how a recipe can be "rebuilt" for your preferences.

Charlie

 

[RDG]

I think that there are dishes in which a recipe is necessary, and others in which not. If you do "a salad", you can use nearly everything you have at home, and your dish may result delicious. But, if you want obtain a "particular" salad, then you have to respect a recipe. Otherwise you will'not have that dish but something else. The question is not "recipe or not recipe", but, perhaps, "that taste or not that taste". I bring you the example of something absolutely simple: mozzarella and tomatoes, in Capri's way.. The recipe needs boffalo mozzarella and basil (fresh). I assure you that, if you use oregan, the dish is good the same. And so happens if you use a normal mozzarella. But it is NOT THE SAME. And now we are speaking of something absolutely simple. You can well imagine what can happen when the dish is more articulated......

 

[Michael in FtW]

The only reason for a recipe is to be able to reproduce the dish exactly the same way again, either by you or by someone else.

 

[kitchenelf]

If you LOVE a certain dish, even if made up, then you will need a recipe to re-create that dish. I'm terrible in that I will not write certain things down and then can NEVER remember how I got it to that "oh, that is REALLY good" stage It's nice to have a recipe to replicate - it's nice to wing it but then WRITE IT DOWN....don't do like I do

 

[Andy M.]

Consider some classic dishes from various cuisines:

Beef Stroganov from Russia
Boeuf Bourguignon from France
Osso Buco from Italy
Jambalaya from Louisiana
etc., etc.

If there weren't recipes you wouldn't know what I was talking about.

 

[kingfisherfd2]

I find that I will get ideas and then look at multiple recipes that are similar. See what someone else might have paired with a certain meat or something for a desert. Sometimes I will combine part of one recipe with part of another.

I cook for myself alot of the time, so I have certain ways that I will prepare things that I do the same way every time. I never measure the ingredients, I do it by purportions. I know when I'm seasoning a steak for the grill, how much pepper I like how much garlic powder is enough, If I'm going to add soy and tenderize it then I might not add something, or I will add a kick and do a little ground red pepper.

Baking is another story. I like to be accurate when I bake. Sometimes I will substitute extra brown suger for regular white. But that is for the richness in flavor that I think it adds.

Free wheeling in the kitchen.