Staple recipes that you have memorized

[Constance]

The first recipe I memorized was white sauce, or bechamel as you all call it. Others were pie crust, buttercream frosting, cornbread, biscuits, and pizza crust.

 

[Smylietron]

Chicken fajitas and fresh guacamole.

That's...yeah, that's it. *hangs head*

 

[Zzinged]

In the process of my learning, I memorise about 6-7 recipes each week, only to have them purged the next week Isn't learning fun!

 

[licia]

Most of my cooking is done without a recipe, some I learned and some I just wing. The baking, however, is always done with a recipe. I'm not scientific enough to do that freehand.

 

[Lexi1989]

Mostly simple stuff for me:
Pumpkin muffins
Chocolate-pumpkin brownies
guacamole, other dips
lentil stew

 

[ironchef]

Like others have said, it's much more important to know proper cooking techniques and flavor combinations rather than specific recipies themselves. If you know how to properly saute, roast, braise, etc. and if you know, let's say, the flavors that are complimentary when cooking with port wine, you'll be much better off then just memorizing a specific recipe. You can then walk into anybody's kitchen and make something which will taste good. If you don't understand technique and which flavors mesh together, you'll never take your cooking to another level.

Take something like ginger. Ginger works with many things: tomato, mango, papaya, citrus, soy, peanut, miso, fennel, cilantro, thai basil, shiso, sherry, scallions, and many, many more things. By knowing how to combine it with those and other ingredients, you can create many more dishes than someone who memorized the recipe for say, mango-ginger salsa.

 

[Quadlex]

I have a couple of staples, but not many.

I can make a fawesome bolognase without help, and poached eggs with Sage butter and salad leaves. I also have a couple of chicken salad recipes, one for fantastic potato salad (With green beans -- Squee!), a chicken and soba broth, and that's about it.

Oh, and I can make Osso Bucco with minimal recipe help, and chicken rissotto as well, but that's hardly difficult... Sweat veggies, add oil, add rice, stir, add stock until done, stir in as much parmesan as you like. Huzzar. Eat. Get glomped by boyfriend for making awesome dinner.

...What?

 

[Tiggzie]

I use a cookbook or recipe five times a year at most so I've memorized most of my recipes. All of them I know the Spanish name for and not so much the English ones so bear with me Some of them are:

Bistec encebollada (steak panfried with onions)
Pollo guisado (stewed chicken?)
Carne guisada (stewed beef?)
Pastelitos (empanadas)
Arroz con habichuelas (rice with beans)
Pernil (roast pork shoulder)
Costillas asadas (BBQ short ribs)
Sancocho (Dominican seven meat stew)
Potato salad
Chicken noodle soup

And I know how to make basic sauces (pasta, BBQ), dips, etc.

I agree with those that said knowing basic pairings is the best way to go. I think it's more fun to know basil and tomatoes are an amazing combination and playing around with that than knowing a whole marinara recipe by heart.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Sancocho (Dominican seven meat stew)

Miss Tiggzie, would you, could you, pretty please post a recipe for this in the "stew" thread???

Thank you!!!

 

[Tiggzie]

Of course! Give me a bit to either write it out or find the one I based my variation off of.

 

[Billdolfski]

Chicken Fried steak
and a bunch of stuff not worth mentioning

 

[KellySeven]

I find the more I use recipes the less I need them, except baking of course. Unless it's muffins - there's not too much you can do to stuff up muffins. Ah, but the technique, that's what I use the recipes for.

 

[bullseye]

I don't think I have any recipes memorized. For day to day cooking, I just look at what I have and combine guided by my taste and experience. Usually turns out good, sometimes great. It can be frustrating for guests, though. All I can do if they want the recipe is give some vague directions... More formal meals may be based on recipes--sometimes a combination of two or three. Baking is a different story. I don't bake that often--not mush of a sweet tooth--and I slavishly follow recipes. Baking, to my mind, is more science than art.

 

[Claire]

I don't have a lot of recipes what you would call memorized. I have a lot, and I mean a lot, of food I simply know how to cook. An acquaintance recently called me and wanted my recipe for artichoke dip. Huh? My sister gave me a recipe for it well over a decade ago, and I could not possibly come up with it now. Oh, yes, I did get it all together enough to give it to this friend. But what do you mean by memorize? Quite often I just throw food together. Mom taught me this, Japanese friends taught Mom that, my childhood friends' mothers were all French, etc. This is just how I learned to cook. I cannot do measurements, so ....whenever someone asks me for a recipe I have to back track and figure out how I did it!

 

[nroberts]

Fill small bowl with cereal.
Poor milk in same until just below level of cereal.
Eat with spoon.

 

[Katie H]

Never gave it much thought. I've been cooking for nearly 50 years and have so many recipes/dishes in my head I don't think I could list them all. The only time I run into a problem is when someone asks for my recipe for... Then I have to really give it some thought. I've been better recently. Especially when something seems to be shaping up quite tasty. Now when I make something "up" I try to at least jot down my ingredients and the proportions. I can always fill in the method part.