Cooking by Instinct

There are cooks who, perhaps through lack of confidence, very carefully measure each component of a recipe and follow the instructions religiously. At the other end of the spectrum there are natural cooks who can grab a handful of various things without exact measurement and come up with delicious food.

I'm in the middle - I measure but feel free to adjust by taste as a recipe proceeds, particularly with salt and spicing on the finished or almost finished food.. The exception is baking - if you don't follow a recipe carefully, you are almost certainly doomed to failure.

When you apply a bit of serendipity by going by feel, you rely on perception. One of these areas that is interesting is cutting ingredients up. Pretty much anyone can take and ingredient and a knife and cut it in half by eye. Some are also good with thirds, but when you go to higher numbers of parts, perception fails us. It is very hard to be able to cut something into, say, seven equal parts by eye. We are usually fine with eight as we just take what we are pretty competent with, cutting into equal halves and then subdivide those in half. It takes a savant to go for the higher numbers accurately.

I had experience of one of the old style instinctive cooks - she would just pour something out into the palm of her hand before adding it to the pot. I once asked her to let me have what she had poured out before it was tossed into the pot. I measured it and it was right on the 2 tbsp or whatever, that it was supposed to be.

Are there any instinctive cooks here? If so, I take my figurative hat off to you,, for being confident and being right. It is beyond the abilities of us mere mortals.

I cook by recipe and follow exactly if it is a new recipe. I am also a huge tweaker and try to use what I have on hand. Once I make the recipe I will then go by instinct. All my family recipes are done by habit, sometimes I change things up. I go by instinct when making soups and chilis, slow cooker recipes are just tossing in what sounds good. I love trying new recipes and new techniques.

I'm one of those who usually cooks by recipe, and always by recipe when making a dish for the very first time. It's probably because of my background in Biochemistry.

Recipe directions such as "salt to taste", with no other indication, drive me bonkers. If I'm making the dish for the first time, and especially if it's from a cuisine I'm not too familiar with, how am I supposed to know what the correct amount of salt/pepper/whatnot is? Please give me some operating parameter--say something like "one teaspoon or to taste".

There are some dishes that I make without a recipe. Red-cooked chicken and lo mein, for example.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I am that instinctive cook. I don't own measuring spoons. I make up new dishes on the fly. Where I can't imagine a song I haven't already heard, I can imagine flavors and textures I've never tasted before and confidently create something that's never existed before. I rarely use recipes. It's not that it's beneath me to do so, recipes are very inspiring and I learn from great cooks who write books. I read them like novels and take away ideas. But most of the time I can read the recipe one day and days or weeks later make the dish without looking the recipe up--the ingredient list stays in my head--not the measurements but the ratios, I think in ratios--and I have a strong mastery of technique so tell me what's in it and show me a picture and I know what to do.

Brief segue: back in high school I took shorthand. Four semesters over two years of repeated timed writings were needed to get one to 120 wpm for an A. I peaked at 150 in the first semester. I didn't have to memorize the symbols the way other students did, I didn't have to practice. As soon as I was shown a new symbol and it's applications I knew it like I'd known it my entire life. And once my brain knew it, my hand knew it and could combine them effortlessly. My teachers had never seen another like me. They sent me to competitions all over Southern California and I took 1st place in each one--by a mile. (I was already typing 100 wpm, too.)

And yeah it was just shorthand, an outdated blue collar skill and no big deal really but for the confidence booster it was for a shy 16 yr old with a dismal home life she would need to type her way out of, but the point is that cooking is similar--I was just born with it.

And I'm very grateful for that. For one, it makes me a very fast cook because I'm not slowed down by looking at the recipe after each ingredient nor the need to hunt for measuring spoons.

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I'm in the category with Karen and Paul and Bill: gotta follow a recipe pretty closely if the technique is new. If the technique is not new then I can do it myself. Also, I have a lot of adjustments to do around here... His Most Pumpkinous One has a number of eating quirks that intrude on almost every recipe.

The exception is baking - if you don't follow a recipe carefully, you are almost certainly doomed to failure..

I think this is an exaggeration. It's true that proportions will affect the outcome but that doesn't mean you are doomed to failure.

For any baked good there is a range of possible textures/flavors and no absolute correct one. Even if it turns out slightly differently than you envisioned in your mind, it doesn't mean it's 'wrong' and you can always tell people it is what you intended! (At least that's what I tell my wife, she does most of the baking, I do most of the cooking)

Recipe directions such as "salt to taste", with no other indication, drive me bonkers. If I'm making the dish for the first time, and especially if it's from a cuisine I'm not too familiar with, how am I supposed to know what the correct amount of salt/pepper/whatnot is?

Maybe it is your background in biochemistry but as mentioned above, for me, there is no universally 'correct' amount of salt! It all depends on your taste. Even if you don't know a cuisine, you still know whether you prefer things heavily/moderately/lightly salted. I suppose novices might need more handholding, but at your stage, I'm sure you have a rough sense of how much salt to put on different types of ingredients in order to achieve something that is heavily/moderately/lightly salted.

More broadly, interesting topic. I think we're all somewhat in the middle, but I suppose it depends where.

I lean more towards instinct, although that doesn't mean it's a free-for-all.

Like Jenise, for me, cooking is a combination of techniques and flavor combinations. There are certain 'rules' or steps that help you understand techniques. And the same could be said for flavor combinations, although probably more leeway there.

Dishes are combinations of technique and flavor combinations and once you understand the substance, you can tweak depending on the needs of your specific ingredients/palate/etc. Step-by-step recipes rarely help me, although they can be an outline to understand techniques and flavor combinations.

Regarding baking, I think that's an area where instinctive cooking really comes into play. Climate factors, especially humidity, can have a profound effect and you have to adjust things such as the proportions of flour and liquid until it "looks and feels right". You can't rely on strict measurements.

Maybe it is your background in biochemistry but as mentioned above, for me, there is no universally 'correct' amount of salt! It all depends on your taste.

I agree completely. But I do feel more comfortable if the recipe gives some guidance as to whether, for example, the recipe should have a pinch of salt or 1/4 cup. Perhaps one factor in my attitude is that I do a lot of stir-frying. in stir-fried dishes you rarely have the luxury to taste the dish and make seasoning adjustments as the cooking is in progress.

-Paul W.

If I am making something unfamiliar to me I will follow a recipe, somewhat. I will definitely do so if it is a recipe with a dozen or more ingredients. However, I read cookbooks like Jenise. I can read an ingredient list and cooking method and know exactly what the finished dish will smell/taste like, even if I’ve never had it before. The exception is when there is a spice or herb unknown to me. Although I may have six or more measuring spoons and just about as many cups, I’m pretty good at feeling/eyeing measures and I seldom use them. One of my tricks with young people who cook with me is to have them estimate a teaspoon or tablespoon of salt or sugar poured into their hand. Then I tell them how much it is and after I will have them take the measure. They are always wrong and I am always right, and they are always surprised. They cannot graduate from my cooking class until they can successfully do this.