Recipe or Wing It?

cherokee

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13 Feb 2015
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Most people tend to use recipes when it comes to cooking. But do you usually follow a recipe to a tee, or do you just use it as a guideline and also do your own thing? For me, I tend to follow exactly what the recipe says, except for taking out the things I don't like. Or maybe some of you just throw things together and not follow a recipe at all? For some reason, I am not good at throwing different foods together to make a meal.

Are you good at just throwing something together or is it a recipe for you?
 
I am not good with following recipes, which is one reason I don't bake often. I always alter recipes and I never put in the exact amount of ingredients listed, I just eyeball it or switch it up how I would like it better. This is because I am usually altering things to be as low carb, low fat, and heavy vegetable as possible, while still tasting like something different than "vegetable slop" (as my husband affectionately calls half my meals).
 
It really depends on what I am making. If it's a tomato based dish or a casserole, I don't bother with a recipe, I just throw whatever in. If it's a dish I've never tried before though, I will use a recipe so I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
 
I throw things together. I will read the recipe but alter it to make it more of how I want it to be. A recipe may call for 3 eggs and I think that is too many eggs I will change it or too much sugar I may change the sugar from white to brown. Right now I am trying to find a combination that I can use with red wine vinegar as a marinate or sauce, I keep trying when I find the right combination I will use it often.
 
Recipes are guidelines if they are pan or casserole/stew/soup based...
Of they are baked, as in cake/scone/biscuit then they are better stuck to ime.

I agree. Most of my cooking is stuff I can just improvise - pasta dishes, curries, casseroles, soups. But baking needs a little more care.

For some things (like BBQ sauce for pulled pork), I'll follow a recipe the first time, and then after that I'll probably just wing it.
 
I love winging it! I think I am at my best when I just throw together different foods and come out with a totally new recipe myself! It is so much fun.
With that being said I do sometimes follow recipes especially when it is something I have never made before and I don't want to mess it up. Apart from that I feel like recipes put too much pressure on the cook and I end up always panicking when I don't have the specific ingredients. So recipes really should be guidelines as the other posters have said.
 
I try to follow the recipe to the letter at least once before making any modifications, especially if I am inclined to leave feedback for the author and others on the site the recipe was published. The only exception I will make is if something looks way off, as if it were a typo - for example if something called for a cup of salt instead of a teaspoon of salt. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine when I am reading through reviews and 95% of the people chiming in swapped out or omitted almost all the ingredients and amounts. Their comments about whether or not the recipe was good or bad are useless since they didn't even follow it to begin with.

A recipe that came to mind recently was one that I tried for "Cafe Rio" pulled pork. The recipe I tried called for about 1/4 cup of brown sugar per can of spicy tomato sauce, which ultimately I felt was way too sweet even though I stuck to the recipe. Another recipe I found later, called for a whopping two and a half cups of brown sugar to two cans of spicy tomato sauce, which was nuts - that was twice the amount of sugar. I'm very glad I didn't try that recipe first!
 
Unless I am trying something for the first time, and trying to duplicate it exactly, I just wing it. Recipes are a guideline for me, but often they have ingredients that I don't ever use like bell pepper, or things that are not easy to find like galangal, so I will either leave those things out or look for a substitute ingredient. Sometimes it's a matter of preferring on type of something over another.
 
When it comes to cooking I rely on to cookbooks, searching in the internet and watching cooking shows. Then I tried to compared what are their different method of cooking a recipes and give it a try. Then after, if the taste does not makes me satisfied then I improvise then let my family judge the taste then if its already okay for them then I make my final recipe for a certain dish and keep it and that is the one I always follow. I am also very particular with the right measurement of my ingredients.
 
I normally follow the recipe to the number when I make a dish for the first time. After that then the recipe becomes a guideline that can be altered however I see fit. As for baking, I always follow the recipe because it can go wrong very quickly if you don't. Baked foods take a little more precision.
 
Pastry and cakes use a recipe ,every thing else I do by feel, touch , look and experience to correct
 
I do like to try new things and with those things I use a recipe. I can mostly put things together and everything comes out great. I get that gift from my mother.
 
I usually try to follow a recipe as much as I can with the stuff I have. If it's something like "olive oil" then I'll always just use normal oil because that stuff is EXPENSIVE. Winging it has about a 50% success rate for me
 
It really depends on what you're making. You cannot really wing it when it comes to baking or any other dish that requires precision. However, if you're trying to invent your own recipe then by all means wing it.
 
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