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Yes, you usually have to stick to recipes for baking...we all know that but for cooking, I usually look up recipe IDEAS...then I just add or take away my own preferences. I think we can all agree that once you've mastered basic techniques you can pretty much wing it after that. I guess that's why some things I make all the time NEVER taste exactly the same. But I am always learning!

I use some recipes, I go off the map sometimes and I strive to learn formulas and ratios. The science behind baking and cooking is the thing that enables you to go off the recipe. Rulman has a great book out recently that is a must read for recipe people and non recipe people as well called Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416566112/ref=nosim/ruhlmancom
This is a great reference book and I think a bargain price because you will use it again and again.

When I use a recipe for the first time, I will almost always try to follow it to the letter. If I find that I don't have everything the recipe calls for, that's when I start improvising. OTOH, I very often do not use recipes at all. I just walk into the kitchen, take what I can find and start cooking, especially if I am in the mood for soup.

When it comes to baking though, I try to be as precise as I can and use a scale to weigh things out. I'll often use a spreadsheet to calculate weights from volume measurements. That often leads to my discovering that the original formula needs adjusting. Knowing how much flour in a cup is often an iffy business.

I am with you, tapioca. All the way.

I usually create recipes rather than follow them, but I love the inspiration that comes from perusing recipes, and if it is my first time trying my hand at a method or technique, or if it is something foreign I have never even tasted before, I will follow the recipe as close to the letter as possible, and then play with it once I feel I have mastered it.

But, in general, if I follow a recipe identically, I don't feel the meal is actually my creation, and I don't so much enjoy the compliments I receive from it. Oddly, I am proud for recognizing it was a good recipe before I made it, because that is a skill in itself, but otherwise it's more like "thank you, isn't it a great recipe? I agree! And, I will be sure to post a comment for the recipe writer to let them know it was a success." Because, all I managed to do was get it right, and not flub the formula. I know it's silly, but that's how I feel about it.

Fun question! Thanks!!

~ Paula

Definitely just coming up with my own ideas. My blog is mostly recipes I invent depending on what I have on hand, or what's on sale at the store.

But I do like looking through magazines and web sites to get inspirations.

Generally I read a couple of recipes for ideas, then wing it.
For baking- Might reduce the sugar or add a spice or nuts. I usually follow the recipe pretty closely.

i feel free to range from recipes. i used a cobbler recipe to make my strawberry rhubarb pie because i had its proportions and no other online recipe i found for pie had them.

i made banana bread with chapati flour and bread flour to replace part of the wheat flour. i didnt have any other wheat... i used nutmeg and ground clove instead of allspice. and it turned out fine.

sometimes you have to make stuff up because you have something you want and othertimes because they want something you dont have.

I'm about 50-50%. And though I do frequently try new recipes I've read, seen or heard, I can't remember one that I didn't mess with.

Generally for baking it's a recipe--although with bread I use my judgement as far as just how much flour...my brother in law has observed that it's a how does it feel, how much does it pull away from the bowl thing with me. He loves my bread and pizza and I've been under his microscope of late so he can make them at home.
If I'm not baking it's improv all the way. Sure I look at recipes for inspiration, but I fly by the seat of my pants (or pantry/fridge/garden) most of the time.
And boy am I looking forward to my garden!!

Baking I use a recipe, though if its something I've done several times I don't have to stare and scrutinize the recipe so much.

Cooking, I prefer recipe free cooking. It's quicker, less clean up (hell if I'm going to pull out the measuring cups just for dinner), and I'll get something that I've seasoned to fit my own tastebuds.

The first time I prepare something created by another, I stick to the recipe. I want to see what the author intended the dish to be and the only way to know this is to follow the recipe verbatim. If I choose to prepare the recipe a second time, all bets are off. I'll likely add my own favorite ingredients and/or omit an ingredient called for by the recipe author. i.e. If I felt the recipe was too dry, I might add more stock or non-sat-fat.

Baking = 100% of the time, I follow the recipe; even those I write. Successful baking depends on the chemical reactions caused by the exact ratio of the ingredients as listed in the recipe. i.e. Flour, baking powder/soda/cream of tartar or yeast, plus eggs, fats and liquids + the proper amount of heat cause the goo to become cake. While adding a half cup of chopped walnuts or chocolate chips will likely not affect this chemical outcome, you can't just arbitrarily decide "Hmmmmmm, this needs more cream of tartar."

Great familiarity with the formulas involved in baking will enable a baker to "wing it" to some degree. (i.e. Subbing part of the AP flour with whole wheat flour.) Unless you can afford to toss an entire recipe's worth of ingredients into the trash, it's best to stick with T&T baking recipes.

@dmcavanagh--I have lots of basil thriving! You're certainly right about fresh basil on a pizza just out of the oven--such a heavenly aroma.

I'm all about recipes, but I come from a baking background, so I guess that makes sense. For cooking, I can venture out a little bit, but I always have something guiding me for the key ingredients or instructions. I think it's because I love reading recipes and they are usually the inspiration for me cooking in the first place. I figure if I have something that inspires me, I might as well follow it and see where it leads.

Like most good cooks, I'll read through a recipe just to get ideas; then I put my own spin on it. Even with baking, I stick to the basic formula for the dry and wet ingredients, but I might jazz things up a bit with different flavorings and match up different frostings to the ones listed with the cake recipes.

@honeybumper-
I just saw an apron that says "Recipe? What's a recipe? I'm Italian!" in a nearby Italian grocery store.

I'm addicted to cookbooks too but most of the time I don't use them. I will even go so far as to buying all the ingredients called for in a recipe that I want to try and then wing it anyway or make something completely different. One of my "goals" for this year was to use my cookbooks more. It hasn't really happened yet. But I did look through a couple over the weekend and mark some recipes to try. We'll see if it happens. I haven't been grocery shopping since my eye surgery two weeks ago - it's time to cook some real food again.

When I cook for a group, I usually follow a recipe, if inexactly. But because I usually just cook for myself, I most often wing it. Like others, I'll get inspiration from recipes or from what's in the fridge. I print out plenty of recipes from various websites and cut them out from magazines, so I have quite the collection -- if only I could afford to throw more dinner parties to try them out!