Monsur Fromage du Pollet wrote:
>
> Melba's Jammin' > wrote in
> :
>
> > In article >, Arri London
> > > wrote:
> >
> > > Mad Dan wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Seems there's a lot of resistance round here to consulting
> > > > recipes - or at least pride in NOT consulting recipes.
> > > >
> > > > What's with that? Is consulting a recipe sinful and cheating and
> > > > somehow "not proper" cooking then?
> > >
> > > Just depends on how one was taught to cook. It's not sinful or
> > > cheating, but perhaps like consulting a driving manual before one
> > > gets into the car each time. If it's necessary then go ahead; if
> > > it isn't why take the time.
> >
> > Your analogy is much better than mine. Although I was *bulding* a
> > car, not driving one. "-)
>
> I consult recipes...but not necessarily when cooking.
> How can you come up with 'new' food ideas if you don't at least look at
> recipes?

The old fashioned way: cook something and have the back of your brain
tell you how to make it better. Eat something in a restaurant and have
the back of your brain (or perhaps it's the front?) tell you what's in
the dish and how to make it better.

And keep in mind that there may be a very good reason why people didn't
combine certain flavours or food previously in over 10,000 years of
cooking LOL


'But how many times do you need to look at the recipe you use to
> make your standard made a zillion times meatloaf before you remember it?
> Or that breaded pork steak you eat 3-4 times a month or a cheese omlete?
> Frankly I don't need a recipe to cook myself a meal, my brain (screwed up
> as it is) remembers enough recipes to feed me a large variety of meals.
> Just by looking in the fridge I can concoct a meal. Since, by posting
> here you must have some sort of 'like' for cooking, it seems likely you'd
> know a few recipes by heart or rote. You should also be aware of your
> food combination likes/dislikes and your seasoning preferences. So now if
> you can cook meat, seasoned the way you like and combine it with a veggie
> you like you've got a meal...What recipe?

It may depend on what the definition of recipe is. In terms of *exact*
quantities, that's rarely necessary in cooking. Cooking times will vary
with the cooker or oven. Certainly they will vary at the altitude I'm
living at now. Any recipe involving sugar cookery giving temperature
rather than stage is inaccurate for me.

Probably the only true recipe I know by rote is for bread in the
breadmaker; it had to be altered from what the manual said anyway :P
>
> Sure if you're trying out beer batters for the first time...consult a
> recipe or 6.

Have never had to do that. Batters are pretty intuitive.

But after a while, you just make the batter. When trying
> roasted cauliflower for the first time I looked at the recipe (actually 7
> or 8 recipes)...adjusted the seasonings to my taste and cooked it. I
> changed the oil from olive oil to canola and changed the spices from
> cumin and crushed red peppers to taco seasoning. Now 6 months later I
> just cook it. Sometimes I use a curry powder instead of the taco
> seasoning though.
>
> This is why it is important to get your parents to write down the recipes
> you loved from your past. After a while they just cooked it too.

I learnt those family dishes by watching the parents cooking them and
then cooking them myself as a small child. They didn't use recipes, so
neither do I.
That's not to say I don't have a few cookbooks because I do. But mostly
cuisines for which I don't have a face-to-face teacher such as Korean or
Japanese.

It really doesn't matter how someone learns to cook. If someone needs to
follow recipes precisely to get the result they like, then so be it.
It's not wrong or right.