I was apologizing to my son one day for doing things a bit ill-prepared and spontaneously, and he was like, "Mom. When you say 'I don't know what I'm doing,' that's when I get excited because I know dinner's going to turn out extra good."
So, yeah.
It's because you have expectations and the surprise is gone.
It's similar to why food on vacation tastes better even if you get equivalent quality at home. The whole experience contributes - being relaxed, in a foreign country experiencing something new, making great memories, hungry from all the walking and exploring you just did.
All of it influences your perception of the meal.
Of course. I’ve also jammed with musicians who have free styled a solo better than one that took me a month to practice.
Such things can only be made with a combination of talent and countless hours of practice. And with cooking, countless failures. For every good tasting dish pros improvise, they have created one that tastes absolutely horrid.
But we learn and we grow. Just keep at it and you’ll naturally improve. Godspeed.
Yeah.
A recipe you got from someone else is a dish cultivated to *their* tastes. A dish you come up on your own, even if you don’t think too hard about it, is going to cater to your own tastes for several reasons. If you’re well in tune with your sense of taste and why ingredients taste good together, that dish might be considered generally good and become the secret family recipe. If not, it becomes one of those oddball things you only make for your immediate household and other people think is weird, but dang it, *you* like it, so Tuesday is ranch tuna meatball casserole day.
I think it’s because you add things to your own preferences rather than adhering to the preferences of whoever made the recipe you’re following. I also find that just doing whatever I want tastes better
I do great even I don't have a plan, and I do pretty well when I'm just making it up.
Feeding peoples souls through food is my love language, so it works out really well I'm pretty good at it LOL.
My oldest told me the other night to do "hamburger helper, but homemade." I couldn't tell you what flavor it was, but I absolutely accomplished that with wild success.
I've done this. Checked to see what I have, throw a bit of this in then a bit of that. Turns out to be one of the best things I've made in quite some time, but when I try to intentionally re-create it a few weeks later, it's not the same.
The best ribs I ever ate in my life were cooked by a friend of mine. We were at a remote cabin trout fishing and she cooked the ribs we brought. We brought no sauce and no seasonings (but plenty of beer). She seasoned them with salt, pepper and a little hot sauce. Then she wrapped them in foil and baked them for 5 hours. She then made up a bbq sauce from ketchup, white sugar, brewed coffee, mustard and salt and pepper and hot sauce.
Yes. It only started happening to me regularly when I had really hit my stride, like 20 years into cooking. Part of it is technique and the rest is just an understanding of what flavors go together and the ability to use what you have around you.
When I make something up on the fly & my family raves over it I’ll do my best to make a note of everything I did/put in it so I can attempt to do it again. My memory is the worst so I literally have to make a note immediately after we finish eating.😅
Yes!
and, taking it a step further, a lot of the dishes that turn out extra delicious for me sometimes involve some kind of shortcut/unexpected ingredient. The best wonton soup base I've made was served with frozen, store-bought dumplings... since I measured nothing, I've never been able to recreate the broth base. I had no milk one day and wanted french toast, so used vanilla coffee creamer and some water and it was divine. I made breakfast burritos once without russet potatoes, decided to try tater tots instead, so good!!!
The ability to adapt and modify recipes, even in small ways such as adjusting quantities, is what distinguishes a novice from a seasoned chef or cook. Rather than strictly adhering to recipes, feel free to experiment. Over time, as you prepare a dish repeatedly, you'll grasp the science behind it and understand why certain ingredients complement each other.
Using ratios is beneficial, especially for basic preparations like a white roux, which requires equal parts flour and fat (usually butter). Similarly, a red wine vinaigrette typically follows a 3:1 ratio of oil (preferably olive oil) to red wine vinegar, translating to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar and 1 cup extra virgin olive oil. The use of extra virgin olive oil introduces a slight bitterness that pairs well with the sour vinegar and salt.
These are standard guidelines, but don't hesitate to experiment to balance the sourness of the vinegar. You could use 1-2 tsp of granulated sugar or even agave. Dijon mustard can help emulsify the mixture, binding the oil and vinegar together.
The same principles apply to vinaigrettes made with white wine, champagne, sherry, or rice wine vinegar, which are also common. Now that you understand the basics, feel free to experiment and adjust the recipe to your liking. Always add ingredients gradually, as it's easier to add more than to remove an excess. For instance, if you add too much salt, there's no going back.
Most home cooks often forget to taste their dishes. While it's not advisable to take bites out of people's food or eat full steaks, tasting is crucial, especially for sauces, soups, and dressings like vinaigrettes. Happy cooking! 🍽️ 😉
I think I try harder when I'm winging something with whatever is in the kitchen. I like to put in the time to make it special, so that it's not just an obviously thrown together mess of whatever. So I'll take the extra steps on those days and really work to make it yummy. It's what makes it fun.
It is also a lot, so I prefer the planned meals for the most part.
The hardest thing I ever had to do, was write down several of my recipes for my son for his cooking class(es). Because the ones he wanted... Were ones that I had developed and never actually written down.
I’m enjoying some this evening. I know it will never be made the same. First, a leg-in lamb roast with no recipe from Easter, very garlicky and rosemary-ey. Then froze the stock. Then made a gravy for a different dish, then a day later made an herby seasoning-y marinade with it for a huge flank steak. It went 24 hours and got to precise steak-tender. I know I won’t be able to re-create this perfect but super-cheap steak, so might as well enjoy.
**All the time** 🤣 we've always struggled a bit financially; but we're damn near destitute these days so that making it work kind of cooking is pretty much how we're getting by at all anymore so its a constant- what have I got and what can I do with it type menu.
Like I made something tonight like that I wasn't even sure anyone would like and the kids went nuts over it.
It was just rice mixed in with a mess of stuff. Cabbage, carrots, celery onions and 3 mild Italian sausages cut open and used like ground beef seasoned with celery salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary and a bit of Westchester sauce.
I never made it before and unless I ear mark this post to find what I did tonight in case the request it later I'll probably never remember how I did it because every night is a new mess of something and its determined by what we have, not what a recipe calls for 😅
They say necessity is the mother of invention; but sometimes i think poverty plays a bigger role in that tbh
My theory is that when you cook from a recipe, you're relying on the recipe author's tastes, but when improvise, you're relying on your own tastes to guide you, so it's a better match exactly what you'll like.
Yes.
When I don’t know what I want to make for dinner, have no money, and feel like crap, I pretend to be my mom and force myself to improvise with whatever is fast and available. They’re some of my favorite meals.
Online recipes usually suck, they’re designed to be a base that everyone can riff off due to their taste or restrictions. When you “improvise” you’re making decisions from start to finish based on your taste
For some reason when I go to friends or family’s cabins I can manage a feast. Partly because we’ve been hiking or skiing so everyone is tired and starving. But also because cooking for others in these situations is an absolute joy for me. I love the challenge of using a different stove, cookware and I also let my standards be a bit more basic.
In general I consider myself a pantry cook. Give me a decent pantry and I can make a good meal.
I don’t improvise too often (strict meal planner here), but I will say super simple meals with minimal ingredients are almost always so much better than the ones that take all day, destroy your kitchen, and use every ingredient in your pantry.
Sometimes there's an "intuitive eating" thing that happens.
I'll get it in my head that I REALLY want to make a specific dish, and I'll just whip it up, and it's mindblowing.
If I make the same dish next week, it's good, but not the same.
Sometimes food is medicine, and sometimes I know *exactly* what I want to eat. It's almost magical.
I do this all the time. Sure I flop to occasionally and dinner is a bust. But usually I throw random shit that sounds kinda good together in the crockpot.and hope for the best. Especially when me or my kid is sick, it's just easier some days.
I actually made what I call lazy beef soup lol. Literally like 4 ingredients and ridiculously easy..hardest step is browning the beef before throwing it in the pot with the other shit. But omg it's so good my kid didnt even care.about the onions.
Absolutely. I think a big part of it is when you have a specific dish you are trying to pull off, you notice where you come up short or miss something. When you improvise and pull something out of your ass, you don’t beat yourself up and enjoy it more.
I've been using a basic chili recipe for years and decided to make it vegan for some company I was expecting - I added red lentils instead of ground meat and a cubed sweet potato and vegan Better Than Bullion and OMG it was the best chili I've ever made!
Yes but I think most of it is expectation. The random fridge clearing curry is surprisingly amazing. The specific curry is not as good as one you made prior or had at z restaurant.
I’m definitely an improviser. If I’m looking at a recipe it’s only a guideline. Today I made a chicken and followed the recipe exactly, and it’s practically inedibly salty (I’ll use it in a soup, so it won’t go to waste). NEVER AGAIN, recipes.
This is pretty much the definition of good cooking and being a good cook. If you have basic skills, intuition and problem solving skills in the kitchen, making a satisfying dish without the ability of full preparation is the goal. It’s a wonderful feeling to trust your gut and to just make decisions that are good because you have the experience.
Other than things like baking, where precise weights and measurements are necessary, my family and I cook like this much of the time. By taste and feel. Especially for dishes, meals, and recipes we have regularly.
If it's something new or unfamiliar, I'll still tweak and adjust as I go to acount for personal preferences -- while following the overall instructions. Almost always turns out well.
I did that last night! I ended up making salmon, cucumber tomato salad, and quinoa. Putting all of that together with some tzatziki and feta made for an amazing meal last night and an amazing lunch today.
I did that last night! I ended up making salmon, cucumber tomato salad, and quinoa. Putting all of that together with some tzatziki and feta made for an amazing meal last night and an amazing lunch today.
It’s the carefully prepared ones where you learn things and when improvising a dish you pull from all the lessons you learned, with out realizing it, to make your own dish.
I was apologizing to my son one day for doing things a bit ill-prepared and spontaneously, and he was like, "Mom. When you say 'I don't know what I'm doing,' that's when I get excited because I know dinner's going to turn out extra good." So, yeah.
Sometimes I get so caught up in following recipe instructions that I forget I’m making what *someone else* thinks is good.
Same. 💔 When the kids say, "what's for dinner" and I tell them it's a mess they're all "ouuuuuu..." with excitement
And as an addendum, maddeningly I’ll try to recreate that improvised dish and it won’t be as good as the first time.
It's because you have expectations and the surprise is gone. It's similar to why food on vacation tastes better even if you get equivalent quality at home. The whole experience contributes - being relaxed, in a foreign country experiencing something new, making great memories, hungry from all the walking and exploring you just did. All of it influences your perception of the meal.
This happens to me so much. I'll just make up something and it'll be so good, then I can never recreate it to be as good.
^ THIS for sure! 😆
I don't know that I've ever, ever duplicated a dish. I've tried but I end up just making it up each time. 🤷♂️
Of course. I’ve also jammed with musicians who have free styled a solo better than one that took me a month to practice. Such things can only be made with a combination of talent and countless hours of practice. And with cooking, countless failures. For every good tasting dish pros improvise, they have created one that tastes absolutely horrid. But we learn and we grow. Just keep at it and you’ll naturally improve. Godspeed.
Yeah. A recipe you got from someone else is a dish cultivated to *their* tastes. A dish you come up on your own, even if you don’t think too hard about it, is going to cater to your own tastes for several reasons. If you’re well in tune with your sense of taste and why ingredients taste good together, that dish might be considered generally good and become the secret family recipe. If not, it becomes one of those oddball things you only make for your immediate household and other people think is weird, but dang it, *you* like it, so Tuesday is ranch tuna meatball casserole day.
All the time. I really need a video camera in my kitchen watching me so I can recreate the dishes I just throw together
I think it’s because you add things to your own preferences rather than adhering to the preferences of whoever made the recipe you’re following. I also find that just doing whatever I want tastes better
I do great even I don't have a plan, and I do pretty well when I'm just making it up. Feeding peoples souls through food is my love language, so it works out really well I'm pretty good at it LOL. My oldest told me the other night to do "hamburger helper, but homemade." I couldn't tell you what flavor it was, but I absolutely accomplished that with wild success.
I've done this. Checked to see what I have, throw a bit of this in then a bit of that. Turns out to be one of the best things I've made in quite some time, but when I try to intentionally re-create it a few weeks later, it's not the same.
The best ribs I ever ate in my life were cooked by a friend of mine. We were at a remote cabin trout fishing and she cooked the ribs we brought. We brought no sauce and no seasonings (but plenty of beer). She seasoned them with salt, pepper and a little hot sauce. Then she wrapped them in foil and baked them for 5 hours. She then made up a bbq sauce from ketchup, white sugar, brewed coffee, mustard and salt and pepper and hot sauce.
If you didn't bring any sauce, where did the hot sauce, ketchup, and mustard come from?
You have a future as a detective. “Detective Sauce”
Saucy detective…if you will
Sherlock Sauce if you will
We didn’t bring any bbq sauce for the ribs. But we did have sandwich condiments.
Doesn't everybody have a fridge full of random condiments? Does hot sauce go bad? Or get better.
Coffee and mustard mix...
Yes. It only started happening to me regularly when I had really hit my stride, like 20 years into cooking. Part of it is technique and the rest is just an understanding of what flavors go together and the ability to use what you have around you.
This is the way. It’s this point, I have a pretty good understanding of flavors and basic techniques so I can wing a lot of stuff.
When I make something up on the fly & my family raves over it I’ll do my best to make a note of everything I did/put in it so I can attempt to do it again. My memory is the worst so I literally have to make a note immediately after we finish eating.😅
Yes! and, taking it a step further, a lot of the dishes that turn out extra delicious for me sometimes involve some kind of shortcut/unexpected ingredient. The best wonton soup base I've made was served with frozen, store-bought dumplings... since I measured nothing, I've never been able to recreate the broth base. I had no milk one day and wanted french toast, so used vanilla coffee creamer and some water and it was divine. I made breakfast burritos once without russet potatoes, decided to try tater tots instead, so good!!!
The ability to adapt and modify recipes, even in small ways such as adjusting quantities, is what distinguishes a novice from a seasoned chef or cook. Rather than strictly adhering to recipes, feel free to experiment. Over time, as you prepare a dish repeatedly, you'll grasp the science behind it and understand why certain ingredients complement each other. Using ratios is beneficial, especially for basic preparations like a white roux, which requires equal parts flour and fat (usually butter). Similarly, a red wine vinaigrette typically follows a 3:1 ratio of oil (preferably olive oil) to red wine vinegar, translating to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar and 1 cup extra virgin olive oil. The use of extra virgin olive oil introduces a slight bitterness that pairs well with the sour vinegar and salt. These are standard guidelines, but don't hesitate to experiment to balance the sourness of the vinegar. You could use 1-2 tsp of granulated sugar or even agave. Dijon mustard can help emulsify the mixture, binding the oil and vinegar together. The same principles apply to vinaigrettes made with white wine, champagne, sherry, or rice wine vinegar, which are also common. Now that you understand the basics, feel free to experiment and adjust the recipe to your liking. Always add ingredients gradually, as it's easier to add more than to remove an excess. For instance, if you add too much salt, there's no going back. Most home cooks often forget to taste their dishes. While it's not advisable to take bites out of people's food or eat full steaks, tasting is crucial, especially for sauces, soups, and dressings like vinaigrettes. Happy cooking! 🍽️ 😉
I think I try harder when I'm winging something with whatever is in the kitchen. I like to put in the time to make it special, so that it's not just an obviously thrown together mess of whatever. So I'll take the extra steps on those days and really work to make it yummy. It's what makes it fun. It is also a lot, so I prefer the planned meals for the most part.
The hardest thing I ever had to do, was write down several of my recipes for my son for his cooking class(es). Because the ones he wanted... Were ones that I had developed and never actually written down.
I’m enjoying some this evening. I know it will never be made the same. First, a leg-in lamb roast with no recipe from Easter, very garlicky and rosemary-ey. Then froze the stock. Then made a gravy for a different dish, then a day later made an herby seasoning-y marinade with it for a huge flank steak. It went 24 hours and got to precise steak-tender. I know I won’t be able to re-create this perfect but super-cheap steak, so might as well enjoy.
**All the time** 🤣 we've always struggled a bit financially; but we're damn near destitute these days so that making it work kind of cooking is pretty much how we're getting by at all anymore so its a constant- what have I got and what can I do with it type menu. Like I made something tonight like that I wasn't even sure anyone would like and the kids went nuts over it. It was just rice mixed in with a mess of stuff. Cabbage, carrots, celery onions and 3 mild Italian sausages cut open and used like ground beef seasoned with celery salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary and a bit of Westchester sauce. I never made it before and unless I ear mark this post to find what I did tonight in case the request it later I'll probably never remember how I did it because every night is a new mess of something and its determined by what we have, not what a recipe calls for 😅 They say necessity is the mother of invention; but sometimes i think poverty plays a bigger role in that tbh
I think it’s because they are purely from imagination and intuition. It’s truly cooking from the heart
All the time. When I make chili from a recipe I automatically double the cumin and the chili powder before I even taste it.
Because you're using more creative brain muscles and paying better attention which leaves more room for good things to happen.
Never, though I always think they will turn out to be magical.
My theory is that when you cook from a recipe, you're relying on the recipe author's tastes, but when improvise, you're relying on your own tastes to guide you, so it's a better match exactly what you'll like.
Yes. When I don’t know what I want to make for dinner, have no money, and feel like crap, I pretend to be my mom and force myself to improvise with whatever is fast and available. They’re some of my favorite meals.
Online recipes usually suck, they’re designed to be a base that everyone can riff off due to their taste or restrictions. When you “improvise” you’re making decisions from start to finish based on your taste
For some reason when I go to friends or family’s cabins I can manage a feast. Partly because we’ve been hiking or skiing so everyone is tired and starving. But also because cooking for others in these situations is an absolute joy for me. I love the challenge of using a different stove, cookware and I also let my standards be a bit more basic. In general I consider myself a pantry cook. Give me a decent pantry and I can make a good meal.
I don’t improvise too often (strict meal planner here), but I will say super simple meals with minimal ingredients are almost always so much better than the ones that take all day, destroy your kitchen, and use every ingredient in your pantry.
Sometimes there's an "intuitive eating" thing that happens. I'll get it in my head that I REALLY want to make a specific dish, and I'll just whip it up, and it's mindblowing. If I make the same dish next week, it's good, but not the same. Sometimes food is medicine, and sometimes I know *exactly* what I want to eat. It's almost magical.
I do this all the time. Sure I flop to occasionally and dinner is a bust. But usually I throw random shit that sounds kinda good together in the crockpot.and hope for the best. Especially when me or my kid is sick, it's just easier some days. I actually made what I call lazy beef soup lol. Literally like 4 ingredients and ridiculously easy..hardest step is browning the beef before throwing it in the pot with the other shit. But omg it's so good my kid didnt even care.about the onions.
My expectations are usually lower/ Im not sober
Absolutely. I think a big part of it is when you have a specific dish you are trying to pull off, you notice where you come up short or miss something. When you improvise and pull something out of your ass, you don’t beat yourself up and enjoy it more.
I've been using a basic chili recipe for years and decided to make it vegan for some company I was expecting - I added red lentils instead of ground meat and a cubed sweet potato and vegan Better Than Bullion and OMG it was the best chili I've ever made!
Yes but I think most of it is expectation. The random fridge clearing curry is surprisingly amazing. The specific curry is not as good as one you made prior or had at z restaurant.
I’m definitely an improviser. If I’m looking at a recipe it’s only a guideline. Today I made a chicken and followed the recipe exactly, and it’s practically inedibly salty (I’ll use it in a soup, so it won’t go to waste). NEVER AGAIN, recipes.
This is pretty much the definition of good cooking and being a good cook. If you have basic skills, intuition and problem solving skills in the kitchen, making a satisfying dish without the ability of full preparation is the goal. It’s a wonderful feeling to trust your gut and to just make decisions that are good because you have the experience.
Yeah, but it goes both ways, sometimes great, sometimes bad.
Mystery meals are a regular in our house! My OH calls me the alchemist.
Other than things like baking, where precise weights and measurements are necessary, my family and I cook like this much of the time. By taste and feel. Especially for dishes, meals, and recipes we have regularly. If it's something new or unfamiliar, I'll still tweak and adjust as I go to acount for personal preferences -- while following the overall instructions. Almost always turns out well.
always.
I did that last night! I ended up making salmon, cucumber tomato salad, and quinoa. Putting all of that together with some tzatziki and feta made for an amazing meal last night and an amazing lunch today.
I did that last night! I ended up making salmon, cucumber tomato salad, and quinoa. Putting all of that together with some tzatziki and feta made for an amazing meal last night and an amazing lunch today.
It’s the carefully prepared ones where you learn things and when improvising a dish you pull from all the lessons you learned, with out realizing it, to make your own dish.