"Secret" recipes

[farmgirlinwv]

OP...you can make a glaze w/ granular sugar glaze that is good.

 

In saucepan put 1/4 c water and 1 c sugar. Bring to boil. Boil 5 min. Remove from heat. Add 1/4 c or so of sherry. Place 1/2 of glaze in bottom of the bundt pan, then put cake back in pan. Next poke small holes in bottom of cake and pour rest of glaze over.

 

This works well and the entire cake is glazed.

 

As to the issue of sharing.....to be honest, I don't like to. I'm known to be a good cook. When I give out a recipe then it's not MINE anymore. If I have to bring something to a function, it might already be there. Then I have to find another great recipe. That's a lot of time and work. I'm picky about cooking and recipes. What some people consider great, I won't. But that's only certain recipes. Others I have no problem sharing. I also don't think it makes me a bad person for not sharing. I'm never angry if someone won't share a recipe. I can put the work in and try to duplicate it or just eat it when they share! Some recipes have countless hours of work behind them and they're private. It's hard to explain. I know there are people lurking here who understand! :tongue_smilie:

 

lisa

[OnTheBrink]

In a somewhat related story, my grandmother had the best recipe for chili. It's one of the few things my mother could cook well and the recipe has been freely shared. After my grandmother died, my Colombian stepmother started making the chili and SHE CHANGED IT! She tried to pass off a horrid version, calling it my grandmother's chili, but both me and my dad called her on it and said it was good chili, but it was NOT my grandmother's! We were almost insulted! LOL Stepmother just blew us off, saying she made it healthier. My dad told her, "Then it's YOUR chili, not my mother's." :lol:

[Hoggirl]

OP...you can make a glaze w/ granular sugar glaze that is good.

 

In saucepan put 1/4 c water and 1 c sugar. Bring to boil. Boil 5 min. Remove from heat. Add 1/4 c or so of sherry. Place 1/2 of glaze in bottom of the bundt pan, then put cake back in pan. Next poke small holes in bottom of cake and pour rest of glaze over.

 

This works well and the entire cake is glazed.

 

As to the issue of sharing.....to be honest, I don't like to. I'm known to be a good cook. When I give out a recipe then it's not MINE anymore. If I have to bring something to a function, it might already be there. Then I have to find another great recipe. That's a lot of time and work. I'm picky about cooking and recipes. What some people consider great, I won't. But that's only certain recipes. Others I have no problem sharing. I also don't think it makes me a bad person for not sharing. I'm never angry if someone won't share a recipe. I can put the work in and try to duplicate it or just eat it when they share! Some recipes have countless hours of work behind them and they're private. It's hard to explain. I know there are people lurking here who understand! :tongue_smilie:

 

lisa

 

are you saying to bake the cake in the pan, let it cool, remove it, then pour the glaze in the bottom of the pan, put the cake back in the pan, and then pour on the rest of the glaze? How long do you let it sit in there before you take it back out of the pan?

 

this sounds like a neat "trick." Thank you for posting this!

[lionfamily1999]

We have two "secret recipes" in our family. One is for Oma's Trifle and the other is for Gramma's Curry Chicken. I have, apparently, not proven myself family enough for these recipes. Once I get them, maybe I'll share ;)

[coffeefreak]

Here's an interesting thought! Most of the "secret recipes" you're all talking about are MADE by your family members. Meaning, they INVENTED the recipe. I will amend my earlier statement. If your family INVENTED the recipe, than secrets are allowed. However, most of my experience is, our generation doesn't invent recipes. That is why I think it's stupid to keep recipes secret.

 

That's all!

[nmoira]

I don't have secret recipes per se, but my secret ingredients are minced orange peel, espresso powder and anchovies. Not in the same dish. :)

[lionfamily1999]

I don't have secret recipes per se, but my secret ingredients are minced orange peel, espresso powder and anchovies. Not in the same dish. :)

pumpkin pie spice, sour cream, and vanilla

 

So funny, we don't make recipes, we just add stuff :)

[coffeefreak]

Allspice and Worcestershire sauce. But I got the idea from Rachel Ray, so that doesn't really count does it?:lol:

[coffeefreak]

I don't have secret recipes per se, but my secret ingredients are minced orange peel, espresso powder and anchovies. Not in the same dish. :)

 

If it was in the same dish, I would totally want the recipe!:lol:

[OH_Homeschooler]

:lol: I'm sorry but this thread just keeps reminding me of Phoebe on Friends who lost her mother's cookie recipe (I believe) and was frantic to replace it, and it was finally revealed to be the recipe on the bags of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips. :lol: So some recipes might be secret only because they're no secret at all! :lol:

[angela in ohio]

:D

pumpkin pie spice, sour cream, and vanilla

 

So funny, we don't make recipes, we just add stuff :)

 

Im surprised how many recieps are declared "Delicious!" and all I did was add more vanilla than the recipe called for. I guess that's my "secret." ;)

 

I personally like to find new recipes, take them to things, and then "launch them" into circulation.

 

When dh and I got married, he thought I made the best mac-n-cheese (Kraft) that he'd had. My secret was to add more butter, no milk, and a little salt. So there. Now you all have my secret.

:D

[farmgirlinwv]

Cynthia,

 

That's right. After baking take the cake out of the pan. Pour 1/2 the glaze into the pan. Place cake back in pan. Poke little holes in bottom of cake (toothpick or fork) and pour glaze over. Let sit 20 min or so to soak it up! The top does get more glaze where it sits in it. So you could just put 1/3 in bottom of pan and pour the rest over. Your call.

 

HTH,

 

lisa

[PariSarah]

Would you like to see some of them? Seriously, if your mother is over 60, they will help you understand her better. :D

 

A Commonplace Breakfast?

 

Mammy's secret recipe. Just like she used to make for the Master up at the Plantation.

 

Some mothers make mistakes.

 

Will YOU become an unloved parent?

 

Why risk his health?

 

The little lady grew careless!!

 

And my favorite: The Kiddie Koop

[lionfamily1999]

:D

 

Im surprised how many recieps are declared "Delicious!" and all I did was add more vanilla than the recipe called for. I guess that's my "secret." ;)

 

I personally like to find new recipes, take them to things, and then "launch them" into circulation.

 

When dh and I got married, he thought I made the best mac-n-cheese (Kraft) that he'd had. My secret was to add more butter, no milk, and a little salt. So there. Now you all have my secret.

:D

Our super secret family recipe is for brownies. LOL, my daughter was convinced that we used bacon grease, instead of oil. That might be because dh told her that :glare: Anyway, she told my mother that her brownies wouldn't be so yucky if she just used bacon grease, like RooDaddy. And my mother did.

 

BTW, we use butter instead of oil. We are the Buttertons.

[kalanamak]

having secret recipes meant they were taking better care of their families than other people were.

 

 

My mother used to spit acid over people who did that (she married in '38 and still had a minor in the house in 1975). After the birth of number 5, my father decided to "surprise" her with a very, very clean kitchen. He managed to get behind something heavy and get at her recipe box and THROW IT OUT. Her reaction might have been part of why he went deaf in his older years. Her next move was to run around the neighborhood and get all the recipes back: everyone shared, and she re-cooped. Good thing or I (#6) might never have been born, my mother being a widow.

 

("Do I come down to your office and throw things out?" was the common ending to a retelling of that story. Another good story was the time my bargain-loving dad bought a dozen loaves of bread on sale a week before the whole family moved to Australia. My mother "let fly". Later, feeling badly she'd shouted, she dashed out of the kitchen to hug him good bye as he left to go back to work after lunch. I still remember him in his brown suit with his good coat on over it. Mommy surprised him and he couldn't escape. As she hugged him, he crinkled: he was smuggling the bread out under his coat. Mommy got the giggles, and they got a little smoochy before he left with the bread. They were in their 50's at the time.)

[unsinkable]

:D

 

Im surprised how many recieps are declared "Delicious!" and all I did was add more vanilla than the recipe called for. I guess that's my "secret." ;)

 

I personally like to find new recipes, take them to things, and then "launch them" into circulation.

 

When dh and I got married, he thought I made the best mac-n-cheese (Kraft) that he'd had. My secret was to add more butter, no milk, and a little salt. So there. Now you all have my secret.

:D

 

I knew this guy who worked for a bakery and everyone insisted that he made the best pizza bread. He told me (and kept telling his co-workers) that he just "heaped" the herbs. IOW, instead of a flat measuring spoon of basil, he'd say, "Heap it!" and make a rounded measuring spoon of basil.

 

It's been over 20 years and I can still hear him saying, "Heap it!"

 

BTW, none of his co-workers believed that "heaping it" was the only thing he did differently than them.

[siloam]

I have three "family" recipes I am required to keep under wraps, but I share all the rest. I mean I don't want to be disowned or I would share those as well. :001_huh:

 

Funny is one of them is an Ice Cream and it generally reads something like this:

 

6-12 eggs

4-6 cups cream

2-6 tbls vanilla

Milk till 3/4 full

2-4 cups sugar

 

Like anyone is really going to get THE recipe from that (no that isn't the real one either-I haven't looked at it recently to remember it, but it is the gist of it). Now I have watched it made 100 times and I know how to interpret it to get the right mix, but if you weren't family you would never get there with just the recipe, so why make it a secret?

 

Heather

 

 

 

[Audrey]

Do you have recipes that you do not share with anyone?

 

I have never withheld a recipe from ANYONE who asked me for one, but I have one friend who has a "secret" cake recipe that she won't share, and it bugs the %$#@ out of me! She makes me one of the cakes every year for Christmas, but she never gives out the recipe to anybody!!!

 

I am just curious if it is common to have a "secret" recipe.

 

I wish I knew how to do a poll, but I am too "stoopid."

 

 

We're talking food, right? I have one secret cake recipe that may not be shared. It was given to me by my g-ma with that specific caveat "no one else gets this recipe, until you pass it on to your own."

 

It pisses off a cousin and an aunt who thought they were going to get the recipe. Oh well. :D

 

As for other recipes... I don't share the ones for soaps, oils or teas that I make, either. I'll let people the ingredients, but they're not getting my recipes.

[BusyMum]

Would you like to see some of them? Seriously, if your mother is over 60, they will help you understand her better. :D

 

A Commonplace Breakfast?

 

Mammy's secret recipe. Just like she used to make for the Master up at the Plantation.

 

Some mothers make mistakes.

 

Will YOU become an unloved parent?

 

Why risk his health?

 

The little lady grew careless!!

 

And my favorite: The Kiddie Koop

 

These are marvellous! Thanks for posting them. I really enjoyed them. :lol:

[stripe]

I do have secret recipes, I guess. If I feel like I have a special thing, l I don't like to share because I wonder what the motivation is. (Does that sound twisted?) I don't like when some people look like they want to start making my recipes all the time. I made a cookie from the back of the walnut bag, and shared it with a friend, and then she took it to a gathering, where another lady identified it as being my recipe! But, in my experience, most people just have no idea how to make a particular item (chocolate chip cookies, lasagne, whatever), it's not really your recipe that they want. They just want to know how to make that thing.

 

When she was younger, my grandma shared a recipe with my mom's teacher, and the teacher went on to win a cooking contest with it, so she's rather bitter.

[LynnG in Arizona]

This has been a fascinating thread for me, because I've never before thought about the tendency to avoid recipe sharing being a generational issue.

 

But it makes sense, because I can think of several older friends/family members who are extremely loathe to share recipes. What's funny about their reluctance is:

 

1. They often got their recipe in the first place by . . . requesting it from somebody else :D and/or

 

2. The recipe often turns out to be a super common recipe that is on the back of a can/package :lol:

 

I can actually see both sides of this issue, I truly can.

[RegularMom]

My mom had a recipe for potato salad that she taught me and then told me I wasn't allowed to give out to anyone. It's a really great potato salad. It's always a hit. I felt So Special that she'd shared this secret family recipe with me. It must have been handed down from woman to woman, generation after generation, and now it was MINE, and my MIL seethed with frustration and jealousy over the fact that she didn't make potato salad nearly as good as mine! Muah-hah-hah-hah-hah.......

 

Then, a couple years ago, after a chat with my mom about potato salad, wherein she once again admonished me not to tell anyone how to do it, I asked her:

 

"Mom," I said, imagining a beautiful story involving one of my great-grandmothers or something, "where did YOU get the recipe?"

 

"Oh, I got it off the box of Muellers Elbow Noodles, years and years ago!" she said brightly.

 

After hearing that, I started sharing the recipe with everyone who asked. Except my MIL. :)

[stripe]

I think the generational issue is that people a) used to cook and b) had recipes from family members. This has been replaced by cookbooks (using Martha's fondue recipe is hardly a secret source) or not knowing how to cook at all.

 

I think sitting and talking dishes is fun when you know someone else who likes to cook. (Of course, this can get competitive!) But a detailed discussion on the advantages of particular fat choices in pie crusts can be overwhelming to those who only buy the readymade ones at the store and might contemplate making their own one day, is just looking for an overview of the whole process, not really a secret, unless secret=shortcut.

[lionfamily1999]

My mom had a recipe for potato salad that she taught me and then told me I wasn't allowed to give out to anyone. It's a really great potato salad. It's always a hit. I felt So Special that she'd shared this secret family recipe with me. It must have been handed down from woman to woman, generation after generation, and now it was MINE, and my MIL seethed with frustration and jealousy over the fact that she didn't make potato salad nearly as good as mine! Muah-hah-hah-hah-hah.......

 

Then, a couple years ago, after a chat with my mom about potato salad, wherein she once again admonished me not to tell anyone how to do it, I asked her:

 

"Mom," I said, imagining a beautiful story involving one of my great-grandmothers or something, "where did YOU get the recipe?"

 

"Oh, I got it off the box of Muellers Elbow Noodles, years and years ago!" she said brightly.

 

After hearing that, I started sharing the recipe with everyone who asked. Except my MIL. :)

:lol::smilielol5:

[Oak Knoll Mom]

This has been a fascinating thread for me, because I've never before thought about the tendency to avoid recipe sharing being a generational issue.

 

:iagree:The more I've thought about this today, the more I've come to realize why my mother-in-law was so miffed when I didn't just melt into a pile of thankful goo when she gave me, unsolicited I might add, her chocolate cake recipe. I think she looks at it as her specialty and just couldn't understand why all I said was, "thanks".

 

I don't even like her chocolate cake! Or*any* of her desserts for that matter!

[Kris]

Do you have recipes that you do not share with anyone?

 

Hum -- secret recipes? Well, I'll have to think about that so I have an answer if anyone ever asks me for one. :lol:

 

Actually, if I make something someone likes, they don't ask me for the recipe -- thank goodness 'cause I'd have an awful time writing some of them down and might fall into the "recipe sabotage" group. :001_smile: They just ask me to make it for them again.

 

My Dad has/had a secret recipe for spaghetti sauce that he wouldn't share with us when we were kids and I guess he figured we just wouldn't be paying attention while he was cooking it up! One night, though, he *did* tell us what the secret ingredient was!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oregano!

 

Shhhhh! And don't let him know I told you!

 

:lol:

[jejily]

This thread has been a hoot!

 

It reminded me of the time I made a chocolate cake for a get-together. People just *loved* that chocolate cake, said it was the moistest, spongiest cake they'd ever had, and would I please share the recipe? Well, after all the gushing over my "fabulous" cake, I told them it was a "secret recipe" because I was too embarrassed to admit it was just a plain old box cake! :blushing:

 

The only thing I'd done differently was to over beat it, because I had it in my mixer, then got distracted, and so it beat for five minutes or more. Because of that, I think it rose more that it would have normally.

 

My sister's favorite "secret recipe" story comes from a church potluck, too. Someone had brought a chicken pot pie casserole, and my sister asked for the recipe. The woman gave my sister the recipe, but made it a big to-do over it and swore her to secrecy because it was a "family recipe" and she wasn't supposed to share it.

 

Well, my sister went to buy the ingredients, and found the exact same recipe on the back of a can of Veg-All!

 

We women are a strange lot, aren't we? :laugh:

[tibbyl]

Here's an interesting thought! Most of the "secret recipes" you're all talking about are MADE by your family members. Meaning, they INVENTED the recipe. I will amend my earlier statement. If your family INVENTED the recipe, than secrets are allowed. However, most of my experience is, our generation doesn't invent recipes. That is why I think it's stupid to keep recipes secret.

 

That's all!

 

Most of the cooks I know do indeed invent many of their own recipes. I do not measure ingredients in the dishes I develop myself. However, if someone asks for the recipe, I will either estimate the amounts when writing out the recipe or simply make the dish again, taking exact measurements of ingredients.

[PiCO]

Although, truth be told, I *do* tend to alter the spices (doubling the ginger and halving the cinnamon, say, or adding nutmeg when it only calls for cinnamon, or some such) in baked goods, and if I share the recipe, I share the original, not my refinements. So maybe I'm a little "guilty" myself. ;)

 

I always alter recipes also. I just tell people I can kind of give them the recipe, but I don't exactly measure everything so ymmv.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Do you have recipes that you do not share with anyone?

 

I will give out every recipe in my arsenal, save one. I swore that I would keep the secret that was one of the most incredible gifts I've ever been given.

 

When I was 8 weeks pregnant with my first child, the Army moved us to Germany. We lived in a tiny little village called Burgbernheim. We loved it. We traveled a little but mostly enjoyed our quiet temporary home. There was a doner place in that town that was run by the loveliest Turkish family, the nicest people you can imagine, so welcoming and friendly to us. They made the most incredible doner on the planet earth, chock full of marinated feta, tzaziki, veggies, and they used turkey for the meat. And the flatbread, oh my. I could not stand another doner I had in any other town the entire three years we lived in Germany. I stopped trying and stuck to Bratwursts. They also had something they called garlic fries, which they soaked in the tzaziki. (I think I'm drooling now!)

 

I had my first and second babies there and craved these doners and fries the whole way through. After being trapped in the hospital for 5 days after my second was born, the first stop we made before even going home was to get a doner to go! I'll never forget how the lovely owner got such a kick out of that and fawned over my daughter and blessed us over and over. She insisted that we stay in the car and she brought our food out to us.

 

Before we moved back home, I became an even more frequent customer because I knew I'd soon be cut off completely from my favorite food. I can't tell you how many times the kids and I walked into town to buy a doner from her. She kept asking me when we were moving and insisted on knowing what specific day. I told her and she got a gleam in her eye. She told me to come the day before we were getting on the plane to come home and she would give me all her recipes as long as I promised never to share them. And she did. So, of course, I don't share.

 

Off to make a shopping list... It's been fun going down memory lane! All the other answers are such fun to read too!

 

Kristina

Edited December 20, 2008 by Alte Veste Academy

[AuntieM]

all the worth-keeping-secret recipes some of you have, and the neat reasons behind why they are secret! You have some great stories!

 

I do have some "signature" dishes that I fix for my husband's side of the family. These are not secret and I've shared the recipes. But what bugs me is when we go to a gathering, and someone else has prepared one of "my" dishes, and goofed it all up by changing ingredients. Then they tell everyone it's my recipe!

 

"Oh no, dear, it's *your* recipe now..."

[Cinder]

Were they Schweddy balls by any chance?

 

Warning: video is "risque"

 

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/nprs-delicious-dish-schweddy-balls/2846/

 

 

Just got back here and I must say. Oh. My. Too funny :lol:

 

 

Thankfully, no.

[unsinkable]

Just got back here and I must say. Oh. My. Too funny :lol:

 

 

Thankfully, no.

 

I'm glad you are laughing and not offended. :D

 

My dh and I can get each other doubled over laughing quoting this skit.

[Lakeside]

I was wondering if perhaps she is embarrassed because it really isn't anything special.

 

At Thanksgiving a friend told me of a "secret" roll recipe that her grandmother made. As it turns out, the secret was that they were just the packaged crescent rolls.

[Guest Lorna]

I once asked a friend for the recipe of a chocolate birthday cake he made, which was heavenly, and he refused to give it to me. I was a little sad but he implied it was a family secret so I respected that. However, the very next day we visited my little sister and she had baked the exact same cake!

It turns out it was a recipe from Green and Black's cookbook.

Family recipe, what was that all about then?

[Tammyla]

:lol::lol::lol:

 

:iagree:The more I've thought about this today, the more I've come to realize why my mother-in-law was so miffed when I didn't just melt into a pile of thankful goo when she gave me, unsolicited I might add, her chocolate cake recipe. I think she looks at it as her specialty and just couldn't understand why all I said was, "thanks".

 

I don't even like her chocolate cake! Or*any* of her desserts for that matter!

[Jenny in Atl]

My MIL used to make the most amazing pecan pie. She told me when the time was right, she would share the recipe with me to pass down to my girls. Unfortunately she never got the chance. I believe in sharing as much as you can (food, love, etc). You never know how long you have to share it. :(

[unsinkable]

My MIL used to make the most amazing pecan pie. She told me when the time was right, she would share the recipe with me to pass down to my girls. Unfortunately she never got the chance. I believe in sharing as much as you can (food, love, etc). You never know how long you have to share it. :(

 

 

Awww...that's too bad! :grouphug:

[Anne Rittenhouse]

I guess I would come off as a recipe sabotager, although I don't mean it in the least. I learned to cook without a recipe. To this day I cannot follow a recipe to the letter, even if my life depended on it. Ask me for a recipe, I'll give you my best estimate but it's only a guideline.

[Hoggirl]

I have loved reading the various and sundry answers to this question.

 

I went to the store to get the ingredients, but they were out of one of them! Guess I will have to do the trial run after the holidays, b/c I am sure not going back to the store right now for an optional thing!

 

And, thanks again, Lisa, for clarifying the glaze procedure! I will report back in after I try to copy her recipe!

 

Happy cooking, all!

[TammyinTN]

I have one recipe from my Grandmother that I don't share with anyone. Only a few people in the family have it --my mother and I. It's for an awesomely delicious pound cake and I give it for gift. People always want the recipe but I don't want to reveal it either.

[unsinkable]

I guess I would come off as a recipe sabotager, although I don't mean it in the least. I learned to cook without a recipe. To this day I cannot follow a recipe to the letter, even if my life depended on it. Ask me for a recipe, I'll give you my best estimate but it's only a guideline.

 

Do you bake this way?

 

I learned to "cook" --- anything on a stovetop --- by trial and error and watching other people.

 

I learned to bake by following recipes from a very old cookbook.

 

Cooking and baking are 2 very different skills.

[Anne Rittenhouse]

Short answer yes, I bake without recipes also. Pie crust, short bread, biscuit, cookies, cake and quick breads, I don't have recipes for these. I cook and bake by touch and feel only. I do have cook books. I even read them. They are upstairs in my bedroom; they never make it to the kitchen.

[Jill- OK]

Anyway, she told my mother that her brownies wouldn't be so yucky if she just used bacon grease, like RooDaddy. And my mother did.

 

This made me laugh. Seriously.

 

I always say that you can't go wrong with bacon...but I guess there are a few things it could mess up, LOL! :tongue_smilie:

[lionfamily1999]

This made me laugh. Seriously.

 

I always say that you can't go wrong with bacon...but I guess there are a few things it could mess up, LOL! :tongue_smilie:

Lol, bacon is meat candy.

[Halftime Hope]

1) when I was a newly-wed, my boss' wife used to bring lunch in to his medical office every few weeks. As a new wife, I hadn't a clue how to cook main dishes, although I was a pretty fair baker, so I asked for her lasagna recipe. My family had never made lasagna, nor had I ever encountered a good institutional (food sevice) lasagna. She would not share (old-school Jamaican grandma--proud as all get out). About six months later I made a cool-whip chocolate pie (3? ingredients) in a nice homemade pie crust and brought it for an office party. She went gah-gah over the pie, and, after much persuasion, I traded it for her lasagna recipe. :) She was not happy...

 

2) My mil-to-be came to FL for our wedding and just knocked herself out making food for our rehearsal dinner. She forgot to pack her recipe for her mother's rolls, so we gave her my grandma's recipe, which she had tasted a day or two before when my mom fixed them, and she had loved them. She had a fit trying to make them, and ended up adding quite a bit more flour, so they weren't very tasty. Years later when she taught me how to make her mom's rolls, I discovered that the recipes were identical in both indgredients and proportions, except my grandma's were cut and shaped as crescent rolls, and her mom's were cut and folded like half-moons. By then, 15 or so years later, we could laugh about it together, and I commented that she had approved them in the first place because they were exactly like her mom's. :)

 

Since I cook by begging, borrowing or stealing good recipes, I share freely.

[unsinkable]

Short answer yes, I bake without recipes also. Pie crust, short bread, biscuit, cookies, cake and quick breads, I don't have recipes for these. I cook and bake by touch and feel only. I do have cook books. I even read them. They are upstairs in my bedroom; they never make it to the kitchen.

 

You're probably really talented! I don't trust myself to bake w/o a recipe...I am actually afraid to mess up.

 

I love to read cookbooks, too. So soothing! "Cream butter thoroughly. Add sugar gradually." They are a little like fairy tales or bedtime stories to me.

[Kris]

Short answer yes, I bake without recipes also. Pie crust, short bread, biscuit, cookies, cake and quick breads, I don't have recipes for these. I cook and bake by touch and feel only. I do have cook books. I even read them. They are upstairs in my bedroom; they never make it to the kitchen.

 

You definitely rock. I don't even attempt baking without a recipe, and even then, I'm often surprised. :lol: