Are you what I call a magic chef?

[SparklyUnicorn]

I more use recipes for inspiration.  I rarely follow them exactly.  My issue is just deciding what to make. 

[Tanaqui]

So leave out the tomato sauce and flavor the rice with something else that you do like. Easy!

 

Bill

 

The whole point of this post is that she doesn't find it easy. If you find it so easy, go to her house and cook for her - or at least, offer a few practical suggestions here!

 

Edit: And to answer the question - I usually do improvise quite a bit in recipes! But it's okay to use recipes if you prefer. We all have different comfort levels, and I'm sure every one of us hews strictly to the recipe when we're making our first recipe in a new cuisine we've never cooked from before.

 

Those grandmothers who "never used a recipe in their lives" probably had a more limited repertoire than the ones who made it their goal to never repeat a meal!

Edited May 17, 2017 by Tanaqui

[Spy Car]

The whole point of this post is that she doesn't find it easy. If you find it so easy, go to her house and cook for her - or at least, offer a few practical suggestions here!

 

 

See post 64.

 

Bill

[SparklyUnicorn]

Nothing wrong with using recipes!

 

The plus is when it doesn't turn out you can blame the recipe.  :laugh:

[winterbaby]

How can you bake without measuring anything or following a recipe? A substitution is one thing, but just throwing things together won't make a cake rise.

 

In-depth knowledge of the chemistry involved, and of typical ratios and their various effects. I don't quite have this knowledge, to where I could fly completely blind on baking, but I have a kind of "know it when I see it" knowledge - I can tell whether a baking recipe is basically sound, can usually anticipate what the texture will be, and sometimes swap out ingredients or methods in order to alter it without having to check a substitutes reference. After twenty years, I'm probably about halfway to bake a good cake without a recipe level. But since so many baked goods isn't healthy in a small family, I probably won't have enough experience to ever get there.

 

[mommyoffive]

I follow recipes.  I also hate to cook.  

 

Dh is a magic chef lately and I am loving it.

[kiana]

I won't do baking without measuring but I frequently don't use a recipe. I know what proportions are right for what I want to make. 

[Lady Florida.]

 

, but I have a kind of "know it when I see it" knowledge -

 

 

Not baking, but in cooking that's how I do seasonings. I literally can see if the amount is right. As I said upthread, I learned that from my mother. Once she was trying to tell a friend how to make her spaghetti sauce and when she got to the spices she said things like, "You sprinkle in some dried oregano until, well, until it looks like enough." :D

[Bluegoat]

Yes, I cook thst way a lot.  It came over years of practice, though, and reading about cooking, different kinds of cuisine, and so on.

 

I use recipes when I'm feeling less creative or want inspiration, when it includes a new technique, or sometimes for recipes meant to feed a crowd where I'm likely to mis-estimate amounts.  Or, if it's a sort of "family classic" and won't meet with approval if it doesn't taste right.