Recipe Phobes - what gives?
I have these lovely, charming friends, at whose house I often eat dinner. They're both pretty good in the kitchen, which is a good thing, as both of them have the idea that a recipe will only slow them down. What's up with this? In my type-A OCD world, I need a recipe and follow it to the letter (especially the first time). These friends usually produce good food, but there have been some crazy mistakes - the cheesecake that was burnt on the edges and liquid within is my personal favorite. We needed both knives and straws to consume it.
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13 Comments:
Ever see the Anal Retentive Chef on SNL? I think it was Phil Hartman. He would interpret a recipe's directions 57 different ways, reading something into every period and every comma. This is one problem.
Sometimes people think they've gone to the next paragraph but what they did was skip a paragraph and totally omit that piece of the instructions! Post it notes under the current paragraph, then moved as you proceed through the recipe will take care of that.
As far as your friends' reluctance to use a recipe, some people see them as a way to "color inside the lines." I like structure so recipes are my friends!!
chiff0nade at 9:35AM on 03/04/08
I'm one of those who just can't seem to follow a recipe. Sometimes I don't have all the right ingredients on hand, so I will leave something out or substitute something. Sometimes I think "oh, this will taste better with some extra garlic, or sage instead of oregano." I rarely measure ingredients either, I prefer to eyeball it. I'm sure the thought is horrifying to most of you! I think if I were making something as precise as a cheesecake, I would be more careful. 95% of what I make turns out great, but sometimes it's a miss. I just shrug and move onto the next thing. The worst thing, I think, is when I make something amazing and can't recreate it because I don't know what I did!
I'm the same way with knitting, too--I never follow a pattern, I'm always "tweaking." I'm terrible at following directions; drove my teachers crazy when I was in school!
Chocolate/Olive
Vegetarianka at 9:58AM on 03/04/08
I agree. I rarely follow a recipe, even though I read them all the time for inspiration. I almost never measure my ingredients and I'm the queen of substitutions. The only time I follow recipes is when I bake.
bitchincamero at 10:19AM on 03/04/08
I read cookbooks on a fairly constant basis, and I've clipped so many recipes that I've constantly looking for a new storage system. That said, I rarely follow a recipe; I'll read a few that cover what I'm considering making, then go my own way. Exception: ethnic foods with which I am not familiar enough to wing it.
Barbara Hanson at 11:04AM on 03/04/08
I love cookbooks but will usually throw in my standard switches (extra garlic, slightly less oil, etc.). And eyeballing ingredients is simply something you learn to do as you get experience in the kitchen. Same with substitutions: with experience, you can spot when to sub and how.
But occasionally I'll follow a recipe closely, usually when it is unique or when it is a different method or approach to a dish I've made before. Last night I made gumbo, which I don't need a recipe for, but I used a book because they had a few different seasonings I wanted to try, although I did add some of my standard practices back.
Baking, as noted, is a whole other thing, but i might switch or omit chunky add-ins to cookies, switch the fruits, use vanilla sugar, etc. Stuff that functions in the same way. And I have no problem swapping cakes and/or fillings around.
renzata at 11:35AM on 03/04/08
With the exception of the proportions of ingredients in baking, if you view recipes as suggestions rather than commands, you'll do just fine.
Eventually you'll even find yourself "adjusting" the quanties and "substituting" ingredients in baking recipes too!
srhcb at 12:34PM on 03/04/08
My mother was extremely OCD with eeeeverything, but she never kept a recipe book/box. I had, on occasion, seen her peruse through Japanese language cookbooks at the bookstore when I was a child. So...is it cheating since she had a photographic memory?
Cassaendra at 2:44PM on 03/04/08
I'm not a recipe-phobe, per se, but I definitely see them as more of a foundation for creating your own dish. Cooking isn't like building a car; it's an art more than a science, and you have the freedom to be fluid and creative -- which is what I love about it! If I had to follow recipes all the time, I'd probably hate to cook.
For me, it's all about personal expression and experimentation and using what I have on hand, not rote memorization or robotic processes (which is how I feel when I'm forced to follow a recipe).
sheeats at 3:07PM on 03/04/08
Other than for baking (which is the whole different animal, I agree with everybody else here), I've always viewed recipes as guidelines rather than step-by-step instructions. It truly puzzles me when people say, "the recipe is good but it's too salty" or "too bland" or "too garlicky". If you have an understanding of what you do in the kitchen, why would you put more salt than you need or make something "too bland" or put more garlic than you'd love? I always chuckle when hubby cooks something - he has to have that piece of paper and check every step. So I reckon it depends on the degree of experience and confidence in the kitchen, and has nothing to do with recipe phobia. Don't get me wrong, I do follow water-grain ratio when I cook rice or other grains (although admittedly, rice cooker makes it significantly easier) or check cooking times when I use a steamer, and, like I said, when I bake, I also follow a recipe, but that's pretty much where it ends.
brooke29 at 3:59PM on 03/04/08
I am not a recipe follower but my friend Michael is, to the letter. We used to cook together and fight, but now we approach cooking together as a way for him to become more comfortable winging it, and me to become more careful!
karenita at 5:25PM on 03/04/08
On ocassion, when there is a truly intriguing dish I want to try, I'll seek out a recipe.
Right now, I have the ingredients for Thai coconut custard cakes
waiting in the wings for when I have the patience to fiddle with the specialty pan (actually a takoyaki pan, but it serves the same exact function).
Normally, I have a bit of an aversion to recipes. Mostly because I grew up on home cooking where there wasn't a measuring cup or spoon in sight.
I learned to cook by relying on my senses, alone. Also, I became accustomed to cooking being done on the fly, with what was on hand, and to make improvisations on whim.
Formal recipes were always just a hassle to me, and never seemed to come out quite right when I did take the leap of faith and tried one or two.
Recipes often mean that you have to go out of your way to find and spend money on ingredients you don't normally keep at home. And you'll end up with surplus ingredients you'll probably never use again.
Not to mention you also have extra dishes to wash at the end because the recipe calls for a teaspoon of this and a quarter cup of that...or to count out sprigs of chives or something ludicrous like that.
More hassle than its worth. I could whip up several meals in the time it takes to prepare for and actually cook from a recipe.
fuuchan at 6:35PM on 03/05/08
@sheeats.......I am so totally with you on this one!
crazyspice at 7:18PM on 03/05/08
To cook successfully you need to know what can be fiddled with and what needs to be left alone. With salad dressing you need to stick to the acid/oil ratio but can change what kind of acid and oil used as well as other flavorings. Extra garlic, seasonings- no prob. Baking is all about ratios and weights that need to be respected. If you read a recipe that has interesting flavors by all means use them on that languishing chicken breast.
artoeat at 1:26PM on 03/08/08