aem wrote:
> Made beef stroganoff last night, without consulting a recipe. After
> doing onions, the beef, mushrooms, a bit of broth and a splash of
> worcestershire, I remembered that I had once added some tomato paste
> to it, so I squeezed a bit of that from a tube before stirring in the
> sour cream. Eventually we ate, and I then also remembered that I
> hadn't *liked* the addition of tomato.

LOL.

The questions I am getting to are, 1.) In
> everday cooking when making something you've made before, how often
do
> you consult a recipe?,

If there's any complexity, perhaps something with over 3 ingredients, I
almost always consult the recipe. Not that I necessarily follow it,
tho, as after refreshing my memory I may decide to do it differently.

and 2.) When you vary from a recipe, do you
> make a note of it, and if so, how?

I do now. Recipes are on 5x7 file cards on which I enter notes of
chgs. I usually make notes of chgs as I go along on a piece of paper
and later annotate the card, along with a brief evaluation of the final
result.

I didn't keep notes for quite a while, until the time I didn't have the
final recipe for a goulash I made. I started off following a recipe,
then added this and that, varied amounts, and produced a goulash that
won rave reviews and several requests for the recipe. I couldn't
remember everything I added and in what amount. After that I was more
organized and kept a record of what I did.

Mac