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I rarely follow a recipe verbatim. I tend to look at a recipe online, TRY to remember the ingredients and measures, and go from there. Or I knowingly add or expand an ingredient that we really like (garlic, onions, shallots, vegetables to a stirfry).
Example: I made crack chicken last night for a party. I did follow a recipe, but added some thinly sliced scallions just before serving. I'm not sure they added any significant flavor, but they sure did make it look 'prettier'
Baking? Follow the recipe EXACTLY. Another reason I hate to bake.
I tweak, usually without trying first because sometimes you can just look at a recipe and know you want to add more onions, or more garlic, or you want to use sharp cheddar instead of mild, or you can't stand the texture of celery so you use celery leaves instead of the stalk and throw in an extra carrot instead. Baking is different, I don't tweak that unless I have tried it and I have a decent idea of how to adjust it without mangling it.
Baking, I seldom alter anything, unless it's "I'm adding walnuts to the chocolate chip cookie recipe" type alteration. Baking depends more on exactness than most of the cooking I do.
I tend to lean more toward starting with a recipe in cooking, and then improvising as I go, unless I'm very specifically trying a certain dish and deliberately want it as written, am bringing it to an event and it is something I've never tried before, etc.
My husband eschews recipes entirely. Always has. He is very much an experimenter. Sometimes this works out very well, sometimes not so much. But he's overall got more successes than failures.
Baking, I seldom alter anything, unless it's "I'm adding walnuts to the chocolate chip cookie recipe" type alteration. Baking depends more on exactness than most of the cooking I do.
I tend to lean more toward starting with a recipe in cooking, and then improvising as I go, unless I'm very specifically trying a certain dish and deliberately want it as written, am bringing it to an event and it is something I've never tried before, etc.
My husband eschews recipes entirely. Always has. He is very much an experimenter. Sometimes this works out very well, sometimes not so much. But he's overall got more successes than failures.
Usually the first time I make something I try to adhere to the recipe, only changing/omitting items I don't have on hand and I don't feel are integral to the success of the dish. After that I may change a few things up from time to time.
I have to tweak because I usually can't get all the ingredients. Even baking. Last night, I made a key lime pie with coconut milk and sugar because no condensed milk. Turned out good but had to bake way longer so there is that issue too. I made a coconut cream pie with flour (3 times as much, whew) because no cornstarch. It was still delish.
Thank God for googling "substitutions for..." and for the converting calculations---metric to oz. etc.
And for kitchen scales for the same reason.
I used to "tweak" recipes based on if I liked the ingredients (like anchovies). I then saw a comment from a chef, saying if people didn't follow the recipe exactly, they shouldn't complain about how it tastes. I now follow it exactly the first time, then tweak if needed.
Was it chef boy r dee?
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