Perfecting a recipe...

rascal

rascal

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I'm self taught and do some pretty good meals but sometimes I need more. I've just got my butter chicken, samosas, southern fried chicken and a few others I've been trying to get to an excellent level. I now need more challenges, my d.i.l has requested a chicken meal that we often get out so I'm starting to work on that. I've also asked Yorky for his spring rolls. If you have any spring rolls recipes I'd like to see them. I'm trying the two potato ones featured on here. Do you try and copy until you get your recipes just right?? Btw the potato ones look soooo yummy. I'll report back on them.

Russ
 
I don't have the self-discipline to write down recipes, so I rarely make the same thing twice. I keep a supply of spoons handy, and taste often when I cook. I taste, and ask myself, "What does this need?" That seems to work for me.

I also love trying to replicate something I have eaten in a restaurant, like your wife's chicken request. It is like a science project, or a mystery to solve. That definitely requires a lot of tasting. It's a lot of fun.

CD
 
caseydog said:
I don't have the self-discipline to write down recipes, so I rarely make the same thing twice. I keep a supply of spoons handy, and taste often when I cook. I taste, and ask myself, "What does this need?" That seems to work for me.

I also love trying to replicate something I have eaten in a restaurant, like your wife's chicken request. It is like a science project, or a mystery to solve. That definitely requires a lot of tasting. It's a lot of fun.

CD
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I love replicating something, it might take me 10 to 20 times but I'll get it right. I normally start with small portions.

Russ
 
caseydog said:
I don't have the self-discipline to write down recipes, so I rarely make the same thing twice.
Click to expand...

I didn't used to but since joining CookingBites I now do. Sometimes, rather than write down the ingredients whilst I'm making it I take a photo of them as an aide-mémoire. I can usually remember the method if I type it up pretty soon afterwards. I've been looking at using voice recognition so I won't have to type up recipes - but so far its too hit and miss.

As for perfecting recipes I'd say yes and no. I rarely cook the same thing twice as I get kicks out of developing new recipes. But there are some techniques that I am still trying to perfect. One of them is making sourdough bread. I can easily make a heavy sourdough loaf - but I'm talking about the classic light one with the holes. The dough is alaramingly difficult to shape as it is very sticky and will pancake. There is a technique for the final shaping which I've been practicing.

This is what I'm trying to achieve:


33286
 
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Usually I can try a recipe then taste it and go through my herbs and spices just smelling them to know what will and won't work with them. I will then write down on a piece of paper our changes to that recipe. Next time we make i, if those changes are final, I'll added them directly to the recipe and ditch the piece of paper. If I still need to tinker, then the paper is edited or replaced and we'll repeat, but I rarely need to cook a recipe more than a couple of times to get our preferred variation of it.

Hummus seems to have been the major exception to that but I think I may have finally have found our best yet recipe (I did tinker whilst making it, adding a little ground cumin, ground coriander and sweet paprika). I'll know when hubby tastes it tomorrow and I see how it has faired overnight.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Usually I can try a recipe then taste it and go through my herbs and spices just smelling them to know what will and won't work with them. I will then write down on a piece of paper our changes to that recipe. Next time we make i, if those changes are final, I'll added them directly to the recipe and ditch the piece of paper. If I still need to tinker, then the paper is edited or replaced and we'll repeat, but I rarely need to cook a recipe more than a couple of times to get our preferred variation of it.

Hummus seems to have been the major exception to that but I think I may have finally have found our best yet recipe (I did tinker whilst making it, adding a little ground cumin, ground coriander and sweet paprika). I'll know when hubby tastes it tomorrow and I see how it has faired overnight.
Click to expand...

Exactly like I do. My butter chicken is a 10/10 so I wrote it up and wife typed it and printed it. It's final and in a file. I'm just looking for more recipes, I've tried one potato from here and one to go. One was a fail. I taped a bread tv programme last night on an easy bread recipe. I'll see how that goes.

Russ
 
As you all know by now, DH has been doing all the cooking for the last 5 years. I would say on a weekly bases, 2 or 3 days are from a recipe, couple are winged, 1 might be take out, and hopefully but not always, 1 is cleaning out the fridge of leftovers. Of the days when he uses a recipe, he tries to follow it as close as possible. But if it is not up to our expectations, that is usually the last time he makes that recipe. Since I have been collecting recipes for over 35 years, we have more recipes than we will ever be able to use. So he moves on to another version. But, we do have our favorites that have been made many,many times. The other night he did make the schnitzel recipe, and it was good, but he wants to try it again with a different coating hoping it will be more to his liking. Luckily I have more schnitzel recipes. lol
 
morning glory said:
I didn't used to but since joining CookingBites I now do. Sometimes, rather than write down the ingredients whilst I'm making it I take a photo of them as an aide-mémoire. I can usually remember the method if I type it up pretty soon afterwards. I've been looking at using voice recognition so I won't have to type up recipes - but so far its too hit and miss.

As for perfecting recipes I'd say yes and no. I rarely cook the same thing twice as I get kicks out of developing new recipes. But there are some techniques that I am still trying to perfect. One of them is making sourdough bread. I can easily make a heavy sourdough loaf - but I'm talking about the classic light one with the holes. The dough is alaramingly difficult to shape as it is very sticky and will pancake. There is a technique for the final shaping which I've been practicing.

This is what I'm trying to achieve:


View attachment 33286
Click to expand...

I can imagine dictating my ingredients to SIRI...

Beau Tamer Salad
Three rounds Beau Tamers
Four stock seller reef
One onion finally died
One cut mayor
One tee spoon peeper
One tee spoon Kai yam
One calf tee spoon gusher soft...

I think you get the picture.

CD
 
Then there's recipes I keep in my head, about 90 % I do from memory, I'm picking most on here do the same, except mg, she's always trying new stuff. :)

Russ
 
caseydog said:
I can imagine dictating my ingredients to SIRI...

Beau Tamer Salad
Three rounds Beau Tamers
Four stock seller reef
One onion finally died
One cut mayor
One tee spoon peeper
One tee spoon Kai yam
One calf tee spoon gusher soft...

I think you get the picture.

CD
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Lol, siri can't pronounce Maori names very well, I always laugh at some of the words. Silent letters don't translate well.

Russ
 
caseydog said:
I can imagine dictating my ingredients to SIRI...

Beau Tamer Salad
Three rounds Beau Tamers
Four stock seller reef
One onion finally died
One cut mayor
One tee spoon peeper
One tee spoon Kai yam
One calf tee spoon gusher soft...

I think you get the picture.

CD
Click to expand...
I get most of the picture. I can't figure out the first line and the last line.
 
cookieee said:
I get most of the picture. I can't figure out the first line and the last line.
Click to expand...

LOL. The first is Potato Salad, and the last is one-half teaspoon of kosher salt -- as translated by SIRI.

CD
 
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