I have a friend who is a great baker because she always follows the recipe exactly, down to the last heaping or smoothed tablespoon. Her cakes are always light and fluffy, her bread soft and chewy. Mine… not so much. We have agreed that she’s a better baker because she’s willing to follow things exactly, while my baked goods aren’t predictable because I’m always in such a hurry to follow directions.
On the other hand, while she’s a good cook, I’m a much more creative cook than she is, just because I’m willing to throw caution to the wind and add an extra onion. As she’s a much more cautious cook, her recipes always turn out well, but she doesn’t feel confident in trying variations on a theme.
What kind of cook are you? Do you feel comfortable experimenting? How can you spice up your cooking habits if you’re a cautious cook? What are some safe ways of going crazy in the kitchen?
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{ 5 comments }
I’m a little bit of both. A recipe will start for me as true gospel. I must follow it diligently; often beating back the internal dialogue of my creative-cook self with a chair and a bullwhip. While part of me is always wondering what-if, I’ll do it the way it’s written if only ever once. Then if I liked it or thought I could’ve liked it with appropriate substitutions, I let the tweaking begin. So it’s seldom the same thing twice, but at least once I followed a recipe. Thus my ability to turn lemon pepper chicken into apple garam masala chicken. It’s the same recipe, except when you substitute apple juice for lemon juice and garam masala for pepper it tastes, well, different.
I am absolutely more like you! I rarely follow a recipe and cook with intuition, tasting as I go. Only for certain ratios (ie flour, eggs, water) do I pay attention to measurements. Cooking is very improv in my world.
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It depends on what I’m cooking. If I’m baking I’m more like your friend but if it’s a main meal then I’m more likely to let my own ideas run wild. I think that’s probably why I don’t like baking too much. Too regimented for me.
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I rarely make a recipe without changing or adding something. It’s hard for me to force myself to stick to a recipe (which I usually TRY to do at least the first time!).
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To me, a recipe is a mere suggestion! :-T