When I first started cooking, I was a pretty rigid measurer, then I’d make adjustments based on taste - more salt, a pinch more whatever, etc.
Now that I’ve been doing it for so long, I rarely measure anything. I’ve developed the ability to know pretty much exactly what a dish will taste like by reading the recipe and I make substitutions and volume changes on the fly before I even heat a pan.
My wife thinks it’s magic. That’s fun for me.
If I use a new recipe, I generally follow the directions, although I mark changes as I go. Otherwise, I’m a taster. I’m cooking for finicky people, so I don’t go outside a relatively small range of acceptable items. I do experiment with seasonings, though, and I note what works and what doesn’t.
In terms of family recipes, I don’t even bother with Airman’s family. Even if I follow the directions to the letter, it will not be the same. So I’ve got my family recipes and I let his mom keep his.
Robin
I will follow a recipe the first time I cook something new.
The rest of the time I just estimate
I work as a baker and I like to cook. I have some thoughts on the matter.
You can get away with not measuring whether you are baking or cooking. Sometimes it’s completely unnecessary to do so, sometimes you do so at your own risk. With baking, if you want to have good control over the end result, it’s often helpful to measure things out. But there is leeway with everything, even if it’s occasionally a very miniscule amount of leeway.
With a little practice and good focus (ie paying close attention to what you are doing) you can actually be pretty accurate without using standard measuring equipment. There are times when you mess up doing it this way and when this happens you might have less of an idea where you went wrong.
If you care about getting the exact same results every time, you will be disappointed with either method. If you have an open mind towards what is an acceptable result you will be happier with either method (I am not suggesting that you should accept bad results, but that many of the results that you didn’t intend are not, in fact, bad).
Taste, taste, taste. I don’t care how accurately you’ve measured, you should definitely taste what you are making to make sure it’s turning out. You will learn more about how to make good food by tasting it. Your tongue and your nose (I should have said smell, smell, smell too) are the preferred instruments for measuring how good a food tastes (and isn’t that the point?).
Actually, that brings up a good point: engage all of your senses in the creation food. Taste it at various times; pay attention to what your nose is telling you; use your eyes to gauge how done something is (and a lot of other things too); feel the consistency of the things you are making; use your kinesthetic sense to guesstimate weights or the viscosity of batter you are swirling in a bowl. In other words: pay attention to all of the relevant information your senses are giving you about the thing you are making (this can include you eyes telling you that, yes, the scale does say 500 grams, or your ears telling you that the timer you set for the oven is going off).
I see cooking as an artform. If you measure you’re taking away the art. IMHO.
The only drawback is sometimes you make things that are so absolutely wonderful; you want to duplicate. Only except you can’t; because you didn’t measure anything!! And in my case I’m not always sure what the hell ingredience I used to make said “heavenly” dish!! :smack:
The recipe for bizcocho I got from a friend specifically states to taste the whipped up mixture before baking, to make sure you got the sugar:flour ratio right. Since the measurements are in terms of “yoghurt containers,” this ensures that you haven’t miscounted (and if you have, you correct it). So, it’s possible to have both!
I’m a taster, although generally I can just go by nose and sight. Mom needs to check the pasta several times to determine whether it’s already cooked; I usually only try it once and give myself demerits when it’s not al dente (I don’t like it overcooked, ok? Both of my grandmothers boil/ed pasta until it tried to come apart). I’m a pretty minimalist cook, so reproducing new ideas isn’t difficult.
I only measure with something other than my hand/eye when I first try something out. Even then, I tend to add or change things on the fly. I use a timer for things that go into the oven, or for the first time I encounter an ingredient.
I firmly believe that cooking requires a focus of the senses. If you’re not going to involve yourself in the act, there’s plenty of peoplechow in the freezer isle. (lest I give the impression of looking down on peoplechow, I’ll make meals out of the freezer isle when I don’t want to involve myself in the act :))
I am also a guesstimator - half the time I do not even have half of the ingredients required for the dish, so I have to improvise! If the food is edible, that is also a whole other question 