Along the lines of this thread, when you are cooking do you carefully measure each ingredient or are you a “pinch of this, dab of that, and two splashes of the other” type of cook? Baking doesn’t count, because that’s carefully controlled chemistry at work. I’m talking about sauces, casseroles, and general stovetop style cookery.
I’m an inveterate throw it together, rough-estimates, season-to-taste, cook 'til it’s done type cook. My wife, on the other hand wants precise measurements and cooking times for everything. She hates it that I can’t give her precise instructions for how to make my spaghetti sauce, but I never do it exactly the same way twice.
So, how about you Dopers? Who’s with me, and who’s weird like my wife?
I’m an estimater/taster. I can usually tell when an amount is right by looking at it, but I still want to taste it after I’ve tossed it in to make sure I was right.
It really depends on if I’m making something from a recipe or not. It’s really a matter of understanding what you’re making - if I make something new that I haven’t made before, I’ll be quite precise to the recipe, but once I understand the gestalt of the dish, I can be a lot more freeform.
One major drawback of doing things “exactly” is that your ingredients, temperatures, humidity, weather, etc. will vary, so if you use 100% exact same proportions each time, you may not get the same results.
The other thing about not following recipes exactly is that you’re more likely to get it just how you want. 1/2 tsp red pepper? No way! I want it spicy - toss a whole bunch in! Company coming over who can’t tolerate the heat? Scale it waaaay back.
I’m a guesstimator. Recipes are merely guidelines. Precision measurements use up valuable time and prevent learning. Do you learn art by painting in the numbers someone else drew? No! You learn by working on a blank canvas. Guidance is helpful, but if you’re exactly following a recipe without variance, you not learning how to cook–you’re learning to follow directions.
I’m a smeller. I cook mostly by sense of smell. I can usually reproduce other people’s recipes precisely just by smell, it is really a strange talent. If I am following an actual recipe, then I eyeball it (and yeh, that’s a talent, too – I have amazed people by eyeballing an oz/lb/Tbsp/etc and then measuring it and being off by mere grams), unless it’s something like bread that needs exact amounts.
I’m a taster. I make a point of never taking a recipe book into the kitchen - I read them, absorb the general ideas, then set them aside, lest they distract me.
Baking is a bit different, as the OP notes - and I do measure carefully there (in grammes, which are not too small to be useful, IMO).
I might start with a recipe as a guideline, but I’ll still taste and modify as I work. I’ll typically stay pretty close to the recipe the first time, but after that future renditions will typically be loose interpretations of the original.
I am terrible at following recipes. I want to do it my way, dammit. Put me down as a taster. My best friend, on the other hand, once made a tossed salad using a recipe.
Packaged items, like X pounds chicken breast - okay, I buy the closest size package of chicken.
Smaller than package items, like X cups shredded cheese - I measure
Spices, like X tsp of oregano - I shake in whatever amount looks good
Estimate and taste, for most things. Doesn’t work for baking. Or if I’m doing a complex recipe from someone else. Even those I’ll adjust to what tastes right, though.
I’m a taster. I’ll add what looks right, what I have on hand, whatever needs to be used up.
My daughter recently moved out, got married, set up housekeeping, and wants to make the foods she grew up with and for which there are no recipes. She is definitely a measurer as opposed to a taster, so I’ve had to write things up for her with quantities and steps and temperatures and all. Baked goods like banana bread, brownies, and apple cake are no problem–those recipes are specific and, for the most part, have been in the family for years. But she wants to duplicate my chili, my pasta primavera, my meatloaf, my chicken casserole. And she’s not yet confident enough in the kitchen to improvise. So I’ve walked her through roasting a chicken (make sure to remove the goodies in the cavities first), beef stew (cut things up so they’re roughly the same size), and countless other things I make from instinct.
I’ve had to examine and quantify how I cook to help her out. It’s been interesting, if not exactly easy. And she’s growing as a cook–trying out new recipes and learning from her successes and failures.
I’m like the OP and many others here. If I even use a recipe, I rarely follow it exactly as written, unless I’m trying to duplicate something new to me that I tasted elsewhere, for example at an ethnic restaurant, and I have found a recipe that I hope will produce the same results.
The funny thing is, I own and love over 300 cookbooks. But I use them for inspiration rather than as blueprints.
Except cakes and muffins - for those I usually do follow the recipe. Yeast bread you can do anything you want with once you are familiar with the textures you need to achieve (no pun intended).
ETA: Following a recipe for TOSSED SALAD? That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time.
I’m a taster. Unless it’s something I rarely do like canning or baking. Then I measure like an anal-retentive chem student. Generally though, a cup of this, two cups of that, a tablespoon of this, all gets guestimated.
My SO, on the other hand, carefully measures exactly two cups of water for her Ramen. For heaven sakes, you’ve been eating that stuff for twenty years at least! She has a whole bookcase filled with cookbooks and can tell you much more about cooking than I can, but she doesn’t actually cook that much so when she does, she’s frightened to stray very far from the recipe. Her cooking is fine, but lacks a certain “soul.”
It depends whether I’m cooking or baking. When I bake I follow the recipe to the letter, though I’ll experiment with flavorings. But I rarely use a recipe at all when cooking; definitely don’t measure anything, except when making finicky things like matzoh balls.
