Do you follow recipes, or make it up as you go along?

Alun

Just a quick poll to see how other people cook. When I started many moons ago, I used to follow recipes to the letter, but nowadays I tend to just look at recipes as being just a source of inspiration, nothing more, and just make things up as I go along. Most times it works, other times it doesn't, but then you learn the most from your mistakes don't you?

As a result the vast majority of my recipe books now gather dust on the shelves, with the notable exception of my Nigel Slater books, but then he doesn't go a bundle on formal rigid recipes either, so that's great.

Shabadu

Recipes? Who needs 'em!

I compulsively flick through recipe books, but only by reputable chefs. No Worrall-Thompson of fukking Ready Steady Crap for me.

Most Michelin Chefs don't give the exact recipe in their book anyway, for fear of professional poaching. I like to examine other chef's habits, or typical flavour combinations, and compare them with my own.

The only time I will ever follow a recipe exactly is for fine baking, when proportions and measures need to be exact.

I learn new things about food every day by buying things I haven't seen before and mucking about with them.

To me, the secret to being a great chef is confidence, an educated palate, an inquisitive and questioning mind, some technical ability and prior knowledge/experience, and a desire to learn.

Alun

Recipes? Who needs 'em!

That's why I like the Nigel Slater books. He just starts off with basic ingredients, goes into quite some detail as to how to extract the best from them by cooking them in the most basic ways, and then goes off for the next 5 pages describing all sorts of variations on that theme. The only measures he uses are ones like 'handful', 'lump' or 'glug' depending on the type of ingredient

The only things that remotely resemble recipes, are, like you said, ones for cakes and desserts, but then I rarely cook things like that anyway.

Norinoco

I mostly follow recipes, but adapt them a bit to my own taste

I am a really really bad cook....

so for something to taste someway edible I have to follow the recipe exactly and even then it sometimes goes wrong!

But don’t worry, my boyfriend is a genius in the kitchen so I won’t starve!

dudara

Only when baking do I use exact quantities. Otherwise, it's a pinch of that and a sniff of this. There are some really great inspirational cook books out there like "Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons" and "The Cafe Paradiso Cookbook". Great for ideas.

foodietwoshoes

I mostly follow recipes, but adapt them a bit to my own taste

If I'm following a recipe from a cookbook for the first time, I'll do exactly as instructed. I might tweak it later, but I first want to taste the dish the way its author meant it to be. Also, if a recipe works well, then I generally stick to the measurements, especially when entertaining. But that doesn't mean I don't use recipes for inspiration and to get my creative juices flowing. My daily routine leaves me very little time to cook from books or to measure a bit of this and a bit of that. So, unless I have a lot of time on my hands, I just make the dish up as I go along, with consideration to what leftovers I need to use up

tSubh Dearg

I view recipes as just a source of inspiration

As already said, I mainly follow the recipie exactly the first time I'm doing it (esp with some of Darina's cream and butter sauces) or when it's baking as if you go wrong then, who knows what will happen!

For ordinary everyday cooking I just throw in things till it tastes right

pickarooney

I view recipes as just a source of inspiration

A bit of all 4 really. If I'm making it for the first time, or it's something that requires some scientific exactitude (pastries and the like) I'll squat down and squint at the needle of the scales, if I'm making something I'm used to doing, I'll not bother measuring but use the "right" ingredients. If I can't find/am too lazy to go buy/can't stand the sight of an ingredient, I'd wilfully swap A for B and add some C to compensate for the missing aroma of D and sometimes I'll make a fridge sandwich, or 'steachi' (isteach i).

simu

I view recipes as just a source of inspiration

I used to stick very rigidly to the recipe when I first started to cook but after a while I developed an understanding of time in cooking and what sort of things go together well so I can imporvise a fair bit now (handy because it can be hard to get more exotic ingredients in Galway). Mostly, I get recipes from newspapers or the internet or a few cookbooks that I own (one by Jamie Oliver - pretty good, a few student ones - okay but a bit too much emphasis on saving money).

Gordon

Recipes? Who needs 'em!

I just use them for inspiration unless there are specific chemical reaction 'exactitude' type recipes like bread or meringues.