Friday Question #64
When you bake or cook, do you follow a recipe?
According to this article, most people DO NOT follow a recipe. But I almost always DO. I’m not confident enough in the kitchen not to!
Steven, on the other hand, only uses recipes and cookbooks for inspiration. Sometimes when he wants to try something new, he’ll look at a bunch of recipes for ideas, then write his own. But sometimes, he just improvises! He’s a true chef.
Some administrative stuff: On Saturday, I put up a poll asking where recipes should be posted, and the majority voted for a new recipes category, so I am adding that today. In it, you will find Fruit Pizza, Swiss Apple Pie, Banana Donuts, Granola Bars (re-visit the comments section for an update on the recipe!), the Pad Siew teaser and Christina’s Rainbow Cake. Most of the recipes for these items are posted in the comments section or in a link in the post. In the future, I will post the recipes in an extended post.
I’ve also been bookmarking a few recipes to try in the future: Denise’s Pumpkin Spice Muffins, Chocolate Covered Katie’s 24-Carrot Cake Muffins, Nicole’s Cinnamon Bun Muffins and Cathy’s Gluten-Free Brownies. Yes, I like to bake sweets! And I love to share them with my coworkers or Steven’s, so we don’t eat them all.
Themocracy
Usually the first time I make something I follow a recipe but then after that I decide what I would like to change a bit. But sometimes I stink at following a recipe just like I stink at following a pattern for knitting. I always think “what if I…” and then make changes. Sometimes I have good results and sometimes not so good.
i am so like you… i follow the recipe… and then my ocd/anal-ness starts to kick in and i won’t even begin to think of straying from the recipe… dc on the other hand is like Steven… he doesn’t even use recipes… he just thinks, this and this and this would be good together and goes for it (and so far it’s always been excellent!)… i have no idea how that happens but to me it is amazing!!!!
=^..^=
I always follow a recipe when I bake. I almost never follow a recipe when cooking, unless it’s something I’ve never cooked before, or it’s something that ABSOLUTELY HAS TO turn out really well. (Like indian food – that I always will follow the recipe for).
I find if I don’t follow a recipe when baking, nothing ever turns out.
It depends… I usually follow a recipe if it’s the first time I’ve made anything like it, but if it sounds like something easy or a dish that sounds good no matter how I make it or what goes in it, then I’ll just wing it. Scott freaks out if he finds out a recipe exists and I’m not using it, even if I tell him I’ve never made it with the recipe and he’s always liked it.
I’m someone who pretty much never follows a recipe. Food Network is my go to channel, so usually I find something that looks good to me, and I make it my own, and figure out how to make it WW friendly. Baking on the otherhand, I tend to follow the recipe as closely as possible (sometimes with modifications) since there is so much science behind the ingredients.
PS-Thanks for the comment on yesterdays post 🙂
Oh man, I am chained to recipes in the kitchen. (Unless it’s an Asian stir-fry or something, which I’ve gotten pretty good at throwing together.) Glad to know that I’m not the only one who’s cautious in the kitchen.
i am a total recipe stickler. i don’t know how to “improvise” or “work stuff out” in the kitchen, so i follow the recipes to the letter!
When baking or cooking, I usually use a recipe. With baking, I stick to it (because it’s often an exact science). But, cooking? I add a little more of this and a little less of that. I’m never exact and it always turns out great!
I actually find that I tend to screw things up less when I just feel it out rather than follow specific directions. (E.g., should I really pour the whole jug of tomato juice into the chili like the recipe says, or should I just stop pouring before I drown everything?) Then I get mad at the person who wrote the recipe, thinking they deliberately tricked me out of their own amusement, and that meanwhile they’re sitting at home eating their perfect secret version of the meal.
It depends on what I’m making. If I’ve never made it before and there are alot of ingredients or if it has ingredients that I’ve never used before, I will follow a recipe. If it is something I make alot, I don’t follow one. Or if I’m trying to be creative(sometimes my husband wishes I wouldn’t try to “create”), then I “wing” it.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 61! CONGRATS!!!!!!! 😀
my answer is posted here…http://hubbyscook.i.ph/blogs/hubbyscook/2009/04/18/recipe-or-not/
Happy weekend!
I am kitchen-challenged. Of course I follow recipes.
Hubby? Never.
Someday I’ll learn to wing it.
Hm, I wonder how the people who answered were defining going off recipe. Because like a lot of people who have commented, I need to start with a basic recipe so I have a handle on the proportion of ingredients and the oven temperature. But then I tend to play very fast and loose with the original recipe.
I don’t very often come up with dishes on my own. And yes–baking is exact and I am not talented enough to know how to create a recipe with all the proper reactions and such. I think my grandma had a lot of recipes stored in her head, but I think they still started as recipes and were not just “magical creations”.
I use recipes as a guideline and I guess that experience has taught me where I can experiment and not make a mess. I love to experiment and it’s safe to say that nothing turns out exactly the same as the last time in my kitchen but it’s always (95% +) yummy!
When I bake, I always follow a recipe. I might make my own changes later, but I’d be lost without directions.
As diane knows, even with a recipe there’s no guarantee my cooking will be edible! And me cooking without a recipe is itself a recipe for tragedy…