Cook without recipes, does anyone else?
- Thread starter SueBee
- Start date
hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
Almost always without a recipe.. always have.... exception being if it's something complicated that I've not cooked before
againstthegrain
Well-known Member
- Location
- Sun Valley, ID
Start w recipes on new to me dishes, and after a few times just wing it. Mac n Cheese has never come out the same way twice over all these years!
Jules
SF VIP
. I didn’t recognize the name.
debodun
SF VIP
- Location
- way upstate in New York, USA
I've tried many experimental recipes - things I just make up to try. Some turn out edible. I've also had to eat many disasters.
Georgiagranny
Well-known Member
I'm usually a by-guess-and-by-golly cook unless it's baking. For things like cakes and cookies and specialty desserts, I follow a recipe.
Marquest
Senior Member
- Location
- Bay Area CA
Following a recipe usually makes me very stressed out. Lately I just take note of the ingredients and their amount and wing it.
Of course, when baking, amounts are precise, so I do very little of that.
Of course, when baking, amounts are precise, so I do very little of that.
Oldeagle66
Senior Member
Always have, that's the way we were raised in my family. What's a cook book?
RadishRose
SF VIP
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
Usually never use cookbooks. Once in awhile when I need inspiration I'll use a recipe.
Lilac
Well-known Member
- Location
- Flyover Country
I'll follow a new recipe, but may change some of the spices to suit our tastes. Baking is strictly with a recipe.
My Grandma knew her main recipes so well that she didn't use a book & they always came out the same. When she did write down a recipe, she ended up listing the main ingredients without the liquid amounts, times or temps. I've experimented with a few we liked to figure them out.
My hubby didn't understand that I cooked like my Grandma & he would complain that no one else would be able to do them. So I ended up writing them down so someone else in the family could do it.
My Grandma knew her main recipes so well that she didn't use a book & they always came out the same. When she did write down a recipe, she ended up listing the main ingredients without the liquid amounts, times or temps. I've experimented with a few we liked to figure them out.
My hubby didn't understand that I cooked like my Grandma & he would complain that no one else would be able to do them. So I ended up writing them down so someone else in the family could do it.
Muskrat
Senior Member
- Location
- Mainly arizona
The problem with recipes is the ingredients. I rarely, if ever, have the same ingredients as what is supposedly required. In this way things sort of morph…
Aunt Bea
SF VIP
- Location
- Near Mount Pilot
Being a good home cook is like being an artist or a musician, once you become proficient in the basic techniques you can improvise and create with some degree of confidence.
I still use some recipes or read several to come up with my own version using what I have on hand.
Learn from the greats like Marion Cunningham, Jacques Pepin, Beatrice Vaughan, Edna Lewis, etc…
I still use some recipes or read several to come up with my own version using what I have on hand.
Learn from the greats like Marion Cunningham, Jacques Pepin, Beatrice Vaughan, Edna Lewis, etc…
Paco Dennis
SF VIP
- Location
- Mid-Missouri
Yep, the recipe for the zucchini bread was in my head. Lastime I made it the sweetener and sugar stayed in my head...made for a rather dull bread. 
I use recipes so I can perfect them. Most of my recipe cards are full of notes (time the boiling from the first bubble) (add the cheese last) sort of things and spices are marked through and changed to more or less suit our taste. If I get a recipe from the internet I make it exactly as written the first time, but consider that the starting point.
Lilac
Well-known Member
- Location
- Flyover Country
I've tried some new recipes & the ingredients are what I would use in other things. I think it's the recipes & your right, they don't make the cut. Once in a while I'll find something good & will make it again. I still like to try different things, but I find the old stand-bys are hard to beat.
Even if you would go to the store and buy the missing ingredients, chances are it's something you would rarely use again, and it would take up shelf space.
I'm with you. Hopefully someone will have some good suggestions.
MACKTEXAS
Well-known Member
Nothing I make is special enough to read a recipe. I use the crock pot a lot with cut up frozen vegetables and lay a piece of rotisserie chicken on top and leave on low 4 hours. Today, I opened a large can of Progresso chicken soup that had rice and carrots in it, then I steamed some broccoli and green peppers until tender, added those to it, cut up a small (left over) cooked thigh into chunks; added that - it made a bit pot to simmer on the stove until warmed. Had half that for lunch, froze the other half to thaw for later on. Spur of the moment things that can't be done wrong.
Here's a complicated recipe for you: Mix a 15.25 ounce of chocolate cake mix with 2/3 cup of water (nothing else). Use vegetable oil spray on a baking pan, shape your mixture into cookies, let bake for no more than 10 minutes on 350. These will be very soft. Add some chocolate chips if you want.
If I want fancy baked desserts, I pick them up at Walmart or the grocery store. Average price would be $8.00 to $14.00 for a cake, maybe less for a pie. I wouldn't make those because even the most economical concoctions would cost me at least half as much as the bought ones, if not the same as the bought ones, olus the work.
Here's a complicated recipe for you: Mix a 15.25 ounce of chocolate cake mix with 2/3 cup of water (nothing else). Use vegetable oil spray on a baking pan, shape your mixture into cookies, let bake for no more than 10 minutes on 350. These will be very soft. Add some chocolate chips if you want.
If I want fancy baked desserts, I pick them up at Walmart or the grocery store. Average price would be $8.00 to $14.00 for a cake, maybe less for a pie. I wouldn't make those because even the most economical concoctions would cost me at least half as much as the bought ones, if not the same as the bought ones, olus the work.
What's holding the cake mix together to keep the cookie shape? Doesn't there have to be some egg or something to hold it together?