how good are you at following recipes ?

grumpyoldman said:
do you always follow recipes to the letter ? or do you improvise ?
do you follow the directions on how to prepare it or do it your own way ?
do you fudge a little here or there ?
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I view recipes as ideas or suggestions but not rules. They are instructions that worked to the preference and palate of the recipe author. I rarely measure or follow recipes to the letter. In the baking world one needs to be more precise but the rest of the cooking world leaves lots of room for customization. My main guide is taste testing.

In bread baking for instance changes in the flour hardness or hydration or measurements results in a different product. One should be as precise as possible without experience in bread baking. A salad or sandwich or stir fry etc leave room for your own preferences
 
TastyReuben said:
You sound like someone who wants to retain a level of ownership with your recipes. That’s definitely a hopeless endeavor. Most people naturally want to customize.

I’m probably the closest to you in trying to follow a recipe exactly the first time, and most of the time I can, but every so often, I don’t have spaghetti, but I do have linguine, or I don’t have whole canned tomatoes, but I have diced, and I’ll substitute those in.
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In my thirty-plus year career in graphic design and photography, I started as a grumpyyoungman, but learned as I got older to just live with people either loving, liking, disliking and sometimes hating my work.

The biggest thing I hated was when I asked a customer what they wanted, and they said, "I trust your talents, do what you think is right." I knew I was being set-up like Charlie Brown, by Lucy with a football. From that, I developed a saying, "Nobody knows what they want, until you show them what they don't want." :laugh:

CD
 
blades said:
I view recipes as ideas or suggestions but not rules. They are instructions that worked to the preference and palate of the recipe author. I rarely measure or follow recipes to the letter. In the baking world one needs to be more precise but the rest of the cooking world leaves lots of room for customization. My main guide is taste testing.

In bread baking for instance changes in the flour hardness or hydration or measurements results in a different product. One should be as precise as possible without experience in bread baking. A salad or sandwich or stir fry etc leave room for your own preferences
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For instance, all my sandwiches are on toasted bread or baked as a panino. I just prefer them that way. The bread is almost always ciabatta regardless of the recipe suggestion.
 
blades said:
My main guide is taste testing.
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Ah, yes. I went to IKEA and bought a big package of small spoons to use as tasting spoons. Whether I use a recipe, or just shoot from the hip, I taste and adjust as I cook.

When I write a recipe, I try to use terms like, add salt to taste, instead of an exact measure. My taste buds are more sensitive to certain things, especially salt. I assume that other people have their own sensitivities to salt, and other seasonings. Cumin is another ingredient I am sensitive to. If a recipe calls for a certain amount of cumin, I generally use half as much, at least to start.

When I post a recipe on the forum, I'm basically saying, "This is how I made it." I expect, and encourage people to tweak my recipes to suit their personal tastes.

CD
 
the reason for following a recipe to the letter is that it gives you something to compare to
i know your all great cooks and you say that you know what this much of this will taste like or if you add some of this or that i can make it to my liking better than that grumpy old man can
and some of that maybe true .....but not always !!!
in fact i can guarantee you that everyone here would be standing on a chair screaming that my recipe has waaay to much of this or that in it
but you would be wrong ...its that simple
you would be wrong in making that assumption
so you would not follow the directions and stand 0 chance of getting the result that i get
and because my measurements are so precise i can get the same results every time
once some one has made it as directed and eaten it i have 0 problem if they need to make minor adjustments but NOT UNTIL THEN
 
my whole point is that you can not make any assumptions on any recipe until you have made it following the directions exackly first
even i if i had followed my gut about certain things i would have never getten the desired results that i wanted but by putting aside what i thought would be wrong and doing anyway i got a very pleasent suprise that made a world of difference in the final product
 
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grumpyoldman said:
its that simple
you would be wrong in making that assumption
so you would not follow the directions and stand 0 chance of getting the result that i get
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One thing about that, though…none of us here are ever likely going to taste what you made, nor you what we made, so that’s something of a moot point to me. We’d have to take each other’s word for it, one way or the other.

“Hey, I made your recipe for potato salad, but it tastes like it has way too much XYZ in it.”
“Did you follow my recipe exactly?!”
“Yep, right down to using the same brands that you mentioned, and I recorded a video so you can see.”

Once you watch the video and see that I duplicated everything exactly, but it tastes too much of something…did I do something “wrong?” Is your recipe “wrong?”

Neither! We just have different tastes, and that’s ok.

Now I want you to post something so I can try it! :wink:
 
tasty:....... your sneaky haha

and by the way , i did say that AFTER you made it to the letter the 1st time you would be free to make any minor adjustments you needed to suit you
 
And to go with people's tastes, I've been very gradually lowering the amount of salt I use over the last few years. Due to that, some recipes that we loved years ago now are WAY too salty tasting. So, I always start with a lower amount of salt than called for and taste as I go, adding salt if needed.
 
the only way i have found to get around this problem with my chicken recipe is to mix it and then vac seal it and give it to them and tell them to call me after they have made it and then i will tell them whats in it and how much , they are always suprised but they love that chicken haha
 
grumpyoldman said:
the reason for following a recipe to the letter is that it gives you something to compare to
i know your all great cooks and you say that you know what this much of this will taste like or if you add some of this or that i can make it to my liking better than that grumpy old man can
and some of that maybe true .....but not always !!!
in fact i can guarantee you that everyone here would be standing on a chair screaming that my recipe has waaay to much of this or that in it
but you would be wrong ...its that simple
you would be wrong in making that assumption
so you would not follow the directions and stand 0 chance of getting the result that i get
and because my measurements are so precise i can get the same results every time
once some one has made it as directed and eaten it i have 0 problem if they need to make minor adjustments but NOT UNTIL THEN
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I think you misunderstand. Nobody is trying to fight a recipe. Obviously it worked right for the recipe author. As an example, Casey Dog posted a recipe for a tuna salad that contained celery. I can't abide celery. If I had to repeat the recipe as written I simply wouldn't make the dish. All of my sandwiches - 100% - are on toasted bread or baked as a panino. If I had to use untoasted Wonder Bread to make a recipe by the letter, I wouldn't make it. It isn't a matter of right or wrong. It is a matter of preference. The recipe author made the dish to his or her preference. That is as it should be. We should all make the dish to our preference. That is also as it should be. Recipes are very useful. I don't consider them rules, just inspiration.
 
grumpyoldman said:
my whole point is that you can not make any assumptions on any recipe until you have made it following the directions exackly first
even i if i had followed my gut about certain things i would have never getten the desired results that i wanted but by putting aside what i thought would be wrong and doing anyway i got a very pleasent suprise that made a world of difference in the final product
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You have definitely made your point very clear. If you don't want to share your recipes with other people because they may not follow your recipe exactly as you wrote it, then don't share your recipes. Problem solved. It seems like you are kicking a dead horse at this point.

CD
 
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