What's your cooking style?

Cafe Society
1

When you cook, do you follow recipes? Do you start with a recipe and embellish? Or do you wing it all the way? How do you handle leftovers - heat and re-serve, use in another dish? Feed them to the dogs? Do you like to cook? Are you good at it?

Personally, I read cookbooks for inspiration sometimes, but all of my cooking is improvisational. (Even baking. I know that “everyone” says that baking is much more precise, but my breads, cakes, pies, etc. turn out fine.) Most leftovers are incorporated into another dish: last night’s taco meat and black beans are the basis for tonight’s chili and tomorrow’s chili mac. I consider myself to be a decent cook, and cooking gives me a practical outlet for my creative urges.

2

I usually wing it, but I follow directions on boxed food. My winging it is particularly with regards to meat marinades. I just go with what works, add stuff, taste, add stuff, taste…

3

I didn’t start cooking until about six years or so ago. (Except, I’d had a family fave chili and had followed a few recipes for a special occasion or something.)

Since then, I read a lot a recipes and try to gain knowledge about some skills and techniques. And I have screwed up sooooooooo many recipes. Sometimes I wing it and it’s great. Some very much not.

For time, I’ll dress up something half prepared, but once I’ve tried some stuff from scratch–I have found that it’s not THAT much harder to do. I’m all over the place but working hard to do more from scratch.

4

I look up recipes for approximate cooking times and temperatures. I flavor according to my tastes.

5

I will look at recipes to get a general idea for a new dish, then I improvise from there. My cooking is heavily influenced by scent; my “recipes” tend to involve things like “add spice until it smells right”. I rarely measure anything unless I’m baking, which I find hard to judge by sight and smell. Even then, I tweak amounts based on consistency. I generally reheat leftovers straight up, because I mostly make things that work well that way, like stews and pasta dishes. Other leftovers are likely to end up in some form of sandwich or wrap.

I like cooking well enough, but I don’t enjoy it nearly as much when cooking by and for myself. I like to have other people around, even if they’re not actively helping. It’s a little odd, since I’m usually a bit of a loner, otherwise. I guess it’s because there were always people around when I was learning to cook–family, and later roommates–helping, chatting, or doing their own thing. Kitchens should have people in them.

My cooking is generally well-received, and occasionally raved about. Even my dessert ramen experiment didn’t meet with total rejection, despite being an elaborate video game in-joke. (Some day I will try it again, only with ice cream added.)

6

I’ll follow a specific recipe so I can get the taste the person was going for. I’ll tweak it if necessary (I always add more garlic). I’ll also pick bits of one recipe and bits of another.

My favorite thing is to come up with my own stuff, and I’ll improvise. Fortunately I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on what works with what.

7

My personality is such that I’m a rule-follower. So if I’m going by a recipe, I stick to the recipe. Once in a while I will tweak it, especially if it was made by an amateur and not a professional chef. While baking I really try to stick to the recipe and not read things wrong and fuck it up. As for leftovers, I try whenever possible to make new dishes instead of just heating up the old- like I’ll chop up a leftover pork roast for split pea soup or something. Once I’ve eaten something, I don’t really want to eat it in the same form the very next day.

8

I am a fairly proficient, amateur cook.

Almost all of my baking is from scratch with the exception of pies and biscuits, both of which I’ve given up trying to master. (Fortunately my daughter caught the pie-making gene, and I make do with individually frozen biscuit pucks which bake up very nicely.) Breads, rolls, muffins, cakes, cookies–I much prefer my own to any mix or even to good bakery products.

I love to browse recipes for main dishes and veggies, and will comfortably switch things up or adapt to what I have in the cupboard. Gravies, soups, and sauces are right in my wheelhouse; I wish I were better at steaks and roasts.

Leftovers usually get scarfed up for lunch. Occasionally I’ll plan ahead and cook extra for a later meal. I’m frugal and hate to throw anything out, but will admit to tossing stuff during a fridge clean-out.

9

I like to read recipes but almost never cook from one. The reading gives me a general idea of what tastes good together and in what proportion. I make it up from there.

Baking is the exception. I’m scared to improvise with that–I always print out baking recipes and follow the ingredient list though sadly, not the technique. My baking technique is “mix up the dry stuff, pour wet stuff on top, stir.” It usually works okay. Usually.

10

Generally I’ll read recipes for inspiration and guidelines. I’ll leave out stuff that I know I will have a reaction to. I tend to follow baking recipes far more closely than cooking recipes, but even when I’m baking I feel free to substitute almond extract for vanilla, for instance, and I might throw in some chopped or sliced nuts as well.

Usually I’ll have leftovers for another meal. If I’ve made a chicken pot roast, though, that means a couple of regular chicken dinners, plus I’ll make chicken broth from the skin and bones after the bird is roasted and I’ve picked the carcass clean. I’ll usually use the broth plus the leftover meat scraps to make chicken pot pie, or chicken and dumplings, or chicken soup. If I make roast beef or pot roast, I’ll use the leftovers in sandwiches, and then in a pot pie or soup.

11

I stick to recipes for baking, but most other things are a combination of recipe and my personal variations. And things like soups and spaghetti sauce can only be called recipes in the loosest sense of the word. I’ve had a few spectacular failures (crushed corn flakes are not an appropriate substitute for breadcrumbs in meatloaf) but most of my efforts range from OK to amazing, with most in the “pretty good” range.

One thing I absolutely refuse to use is cream-of-whatever soup in any dish. I can’t stand to look at that gloppy stuff, and it’s always far too salty. Eons ago when Weight Watchers was much more restrictive than it is today, they had a recipe for a “white sauce” that was cauliflower cooked in chicken buillion with onion till it was really mushy, then processed in a blender with a little milk - and it’s really good! I’ve used it in casseroles and unless I tell someone, they have no idea.

12

When using a new recipe, I try to make it by the letter the first time. This establishes a baseline, and I’m free to embellish after that. I’m not much of an original thinker, but it’s very easy for me to experiment with someone else’s recipe.

I make one big mess of something for my lunch throughout the week, and I eat leftovers often. My wife usually won’t eat leftovers.

13

That’s a great idea! Do you think it would freeze well so I could keep some on hand when I have a “cream-of” recipe I want to fake?

My cooking style varies a lot. I have a very hard time following a recipe exactly, because I’m always tempted to tweak it, either because I think the recipe is missing something, or I’m missing something I need and have to improvise. I’m also learning that, especially online, recipes can be very wrong. I’ve made enough disasters by following instructions to the letter, and I have a better idea now how long things need to cook, at what temperatures, and how much liquid or seasoning is reasonable.

More and more, I’m able to wing it after looking at a few recipes to get an idea of proportions. I’m starting to feel like I can cook, and not just follow instructions!

14

  1. Pull meal from box

  2. poke holes in plastic film with pointy end of knife

  3. Microwave per instructions

  4. Eat.

:slight_smile: :smiley:

15

My gf laughs at me because I cook mise en place. I cut/dice/chop/measure everything 'll need for a dish before commencing to cook. My gf is the polar opposite.

We both love to experiment, though.

Last night I made an arugula cheese pesto pizza with tomatoes.

16

I don’t cook as often as I did, though I really love to. I can make breads, baklava, cookies, and every kind of pie from scratch. My pot roast, roast chicken, pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, and a few soups are excellent , if I do say so myself!.. If it’s not too hot out, I will light the charcoal grill and cook burgers, hot dogs, sausage, steak on a skewer, potatoes, onions and peppers, mushrooms, chicken - as long as the coals are burning, I’ll keep cooking, and all leftovers go in the refrigerator to be eaten during the week. One marathon grilling and I don’t have to think what to cook the rest of the week!..The only thing that I’ve totally failed at is Chinese and Thai, just can’t get it right - but that’s what Chinese takeout if for…The thing is, it’s just the two of us now, and one of us is a burgers n’ fries type. Hamburg. Hamburg. Hamburg. I buy tons of hamburg. So one day a week I will cook hamburg (loose, to be used in other dishes) and hamburg patties. Wrap and freeze, and take out, thaw, warm up as needed through the week. (I hate hate hate having to cook in the evening!) On one hand, I have a talent for cooking that goes to waste, on the other hand, I don’t have to knock myself out every night producing a 5-course meal…I wrap, freeze, and save all leftovers, they come in handy at times. The leftover potroast and gravy can go in the soup. Leftover chicken warmed up with barbeque sauce, or made into chicken salad. Leftover vegetables, with mashed potatoes and sausage links…I love to read and clip out recipes, though I seldom make them. If I could find that charming article from an Englishman, about a ‘nut loaf’ made at his boarding school with cashews, rice, and I dunno what else, I would make that! … I use recipes as inspiration and my philosophy is: ‘close enough’. I’m not cooking for goor-mays here, I will short cut and substitute if I have to, it all gets eaten with enthusiasm. (I remember Rachel Ray making a Caribbean-jerk type of recipe, and she said “I’m going to use some of the traditional flavors in this…” Which meant, cool, I don’t HAVE to shop for, and cut up, a pineapple - a can of Dole is fine!..I have dozens of cookbooks, including a real doorstop, forgot who by, the ‘perfect recipe’ one, but now I go to allrecipes.com and read the reviews before trying something new.

17

Yep, mise is so important. Don’t skip the mise!

I cook mostly from recipes - I’ll generally make it exactly as directed the first time to get a baseline. After that, I’ll change it up for my own tastes. I’m getting better at writing down my changes so that I know what did and didn’t work. I wing a few things, especially the standards that I’ve made a number of times, but I’m still afraid to stray too far afield. For this reason, I don’t have many disasters. Lots of recipes that just weren’t to my taste and didn’t blow me away, but these I just discard and move on - they don’t make it into any sort of rotation. Sometime I’ll try to improve them, most times I just find another one. I’m definitely getting better at determining whether I’ll like the result just by reading through the recipe, so my palate for combining flavors is getting better. I also watch a ton of cooking shows, because I love them. It’s not hands-on experience, but it expands my knowledge. And seeing how professional chefs do things helps my own technique. Chef Anne Burrell rocks my house.

I’d consider myself an accomplished cook. I cook mostly from scratch now, and only rarely rely on convenience foods. I don’t bake much. When I do, I follow the recipe to the letter (or it’s from a box mix that’s tough to screw up).

18

I try really really hard to follow the recipe at least the first time so I can see what the actual result is before I start playing with it. In reality though I only manage that about half the time. I can’t get through reading a recipe without thinking “Hmmm, I wonder how that would taste if I changed/added/left out X”

19

I HATE people who down-rate recipes they have not really followed.

:smiley:

20

90% of the time, I wing it completely. If I’m cooking something specific that I don’t know how to cook, I’ll look at three or four recipes and take the parts I like.

I suck at baking sweet things (probably because I don’t take directions well) but I do make lots of delicious breads by winging it. Bread is very forgiving.