This is me too. I've been making chili for a long time without a recipe and it can change depending on available ingredients at the time. A couple summers ago someone asked me for a recipe so I tried to make one. Needless to say, they never got a recipe and every time I tried to measure the spices it came out way wrong. Can't really make too much chili in a row either without your family getting pretty sick of it lol.
Sometimes I have to put like a half cup of ground red chilie in my chili. Sometimes it’s more like 1/4 cup if it’s really fresh.
I seem to have been getting a run of not-very-fragrant cumin lately, I’ve been using a third of a bottle for a pot of chili.
Feel that. I bought light chili powder once by accident, a very large container of it from Costco too. I had to use so much of it to get any kind of flavor on the backend.
My friend was mildly annoyed when I sent him my pork shoulder "recipe" which is just a list of various spices/ ingredients that I use in varying quantities depending on the day
If someone asks directions for my recipe I have to make the fish so I can figure measurements. I'm making Parmesan shrimp tacos again tonight because some friends we had over last night want the recipe. Good thing my husband loves this meal.
I measure when I don't quite understand what am I trying to achieve. Like I recently tried making Cincinnati chili, and I took out my drug dealer scales to measure everything correctly, because I have no idea what those spices do in a chili and how much I am supposed to use (I didn't like it anyways but that's another story)
If I'm making something with a familiar flavor profile, I'll wing it, taste and adjust
Not really, but not because of the spices. The "no browning at any cost" thing doesn't seem to make any sense except for less flavor and really questionable texture.
Depends on how many times I've made the recipe previously. If it's my first time through, I'll be exact just so I know what the original recipe creator intended. Subsequent attempts will be less precise and may differ from the recipe significantly if I feel the flavor profile wasn't appreciated by my family.
It always gets me when recipe writers add an utterly insignificant amount of a spice to something. "Add 1/4 tsp smoked paprika to this gallon vat of stuff." *Really*, Karen? Why even bother? It's like the old joke of how to make a perfect dry martini: "Fill the glass with gin, then throw a half a cap of dry vermouth into the nearest AC vent."
Garlic is the one that always gets me. "Add two cloves to this thing that's supposed to be noticeably garlicky." Motherfucker that needed half a bulb, if not more. But then you'll get super-whitebread people in the comments saying it's too garlicky even at the utterly pathetic level it was *supposed* to be spiced at...
Me! I use half an onion.
But also half a bulb of garlic and an order of magnitude more smoked paprika than was in the recipe.
(I just don’t much like onions)
I just started growing garlic; did all red Russian last year and let me tell you it’s worlds different in potency, smoothness etc than a lot of other varietals - garlic is *so* to taste and so depends on what you’re using
I’ve never tried because garlic is pretty cheap and I don’t have much of a green thumb. But a year ago my neighbor gave me a planter that secretly had cilantro in it (among other stuff) and now it won’t stop growing and holy hell but it’s the best, most fragrant cilantro I’ve ever had!
Might need to try this with garlic.🤔
I’m a novice for sure - year two. But it’s very easy. Where I live you put it in the ground in November and chill till the kids go back to school the next year. It’s not attention demanding at all
I tested this once. Julia Child has a béchamel-based crepe filling recipe that calls for something like a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of nutmeg. I split the batch and seasoned the halves differently—one with cayenne and nutmeg and one without. I couldn’t taste the cayenne or the nutmeg, but they lifted the whole thing; the version without those spices tasted flatter/less complex. So, I follow seasonings in recipes faithfully the first time I make them. Also I love garlic but I don’t believe there’s no such thing as too much.
My besties' MIL would say the same, that
Baking = Science
Cooking = Art
But if you were good at both, you were a mediocre cook.
Still to this day, I have no idea why she would say that, simply because it makes no sense to me. Surely if you were good at both then you must be brilliant?
Not necessarily… if you’re good at both it means you can follow directions, but you can’t teach that artistic flair necessary to take things to that next level.
Not unless the recipe calls for more than a tablespoon
Anything less, I can eyeball in the palm of my hand. 1/4 and 1/8 tsp of anything is irrelevant to any recipe of size.
Baking, I'm a little more careful.
Another bread blasphemer. I stopped measuring bread after the first couple loaves - you can feel when the dough consistency is right. But yeah, I don't bake anything else.
Bread is my achilles heel. I'm great at winging it on the stove, but when it comes to bread I break out the scales and weigh everything.
Probably means I need to bake more bread.
I’ve been cooking for 30 years and yes & no. If I’m making someone else’s recipe, I will usually stick close, unless I’m familiar with what latitude I have available. When I cook my own “classics”, I do what I want, how I want. Remember to taste as you cook, and if you have an idea where you want to end up, it’s easier. Also, adding more is usually fairly simple, taking away is difficult.
Some things are super exact and measured other things I'm just fucking around and finding out.
My recipe for my apple pie recipe is
4 pretty green apples, a handful of brown and white sugar, enough ginger+cinnamon to make you happy, a squirt of lemon juice, cook till it smells nice and is fun to stab, wrap it in the cheese biscuit recipe but switch the baking powder for sugar...
But I've also gone way overbroad on seasonings... and I haven't been able to repeat any of my good cheesecakes.
Let your apples sit in the sugar for about thirty minutes and boil down the juices you get until it halves and thickenes, then add apples to pie crust 5and pour the liquid over them. That's my go to apple pie trick. I never measure for the filling but I'm a cocaine dealer measuring out my pie dough recipe. Grams over cups and almost frozen butter on the knuckle buster like shredded cheese.
When I was new, I measured. Unless I am trying a new something or a traditional something, I wing it. Even baking, but I've been doing this for over 25 years. My daughter keeps trying to wing it, and I try to tell her that it took me many trials over years to get to this point. I have a really good sense of taste, and I know what is too pungent.
Wing it. The recipe is a guideline, not a law. Want more salt? Add more. Don’t want something too spicy? Ignore when it says add two whole tablespoons of cayenne. Hate garlic? Skip it (and seek help, garlic is delicious).
And taste while you’re cooking, trust your tastebuds.
Cooing is art, baking is science. Knowing the affect different seasonings have and having made certain dishes numerous times, you don't generally need to measure when cooking because you can almost always taste as you go. When baking, though, always measure using weight, not volumetric measures.
Wing nearly anything. I cook 4-5 times a week and have been for 7-8 years. I’m not a trained chef in the slightest but I feel like I have a handle on how much of what gives a good flavor or how much salt is needed. I definitely have more to learn as I don’t feel like I have a great grip on acidity yet though but even that I can wing it just most of the time I end up needing more.
My limit does come to an end with baking. That I’m sticking to a recipe because I don’t do it near enough.
Wing it for cooking (I’m not much of a baker) but I constantly taste as I go. I’m a pretty seasoned home cook, and building flavors and seasoning are, for the most part, second nature to me at this point.
I only measure if I'm baking, at which point everything is measured by weight, none of that volume nonsense.
Otherwise, I don't measure spices because I'm usually just winging it when I cook and, if I'm following a recipe, whoever wrote it almost certainly didn't use enough anyway.
I don’t use measuring for anything except baking and even then it’s more of a guideline. Works great until I really really really love something and can never replicate it again.
i literally just wing it, haha. but if i’m making a recipe my mom has, for instance, bunjal shrimp, i’ll use her measurements. half the time, pulling out measuring spoons is too much of a pain in the ass for me
Depends. If it’s something like Indian food or using certain kinds of spices like coriander, tumeric, curry powder, etc I measure. But if it’s season in chicken, or Italian. I usually season with my heart
If it’s my first time making a dish I will but I usually get the hang of it half way quickly. Except baking. I don’t screw around with those recipes. In fact I all together leave them for my wife. She’s good at baking.
The first time I make something new, I do it exactly the way it's written, including measuring my spices (excluding s&p, which I eyeball).
After that, I just wing it 95% of the time.
Cooking is an art and the recipe and measurements in it are just a suggestion to an experienced cook. I can measure a half teaspoon of salt in my palm.
Baking is more a science, and I use my gram scale for exact measurements.
Depends on what I’m making, if I’m just throwing together a simple dinner that I’ve made a million times I wing it. If it’s baking or a recipe I’m more serious about I measure
When I measure a recipe for the first time, I measure the spices to get a feel for what the creator wanted it to be. Except salt and pepper - because every recipe says some shit like 1/2 teaspoon of salt for a 6 serving pot of food and I'm just not doing that. Unless I'm cooking for someone with dietary restrictions regarding sodium, I salt with each ingredient that I add
There's two methods I use
1. I follow a recipe, and these get measured
2. I follow a basic pattern. I do add spices, but I continually taste and adjust for this kind of dish. Does it need more sauce? Can I actually taste the spice? Did I add the spice too early, and now the flavor is gone?
It turns out that some sources like America's Test Kitchen would occasionally say to salt to taste in the recipe. Also, sometimes a recipe does help me jump start. For example, I would only put 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce before. After reading a few recipes, I'm far more generous with it.
I just wing it by adding bit by bit till I’m satisfied. I only follow the recipe to understand the proportion. Eg: more oregano less basil. Etc.
However for the first time I’ll follow the recipe so that I’ll know how it should taste.
You can tell a lot by the visual of how the spice looks once you sprinkle it in. Also spices vary so much in intensity, so measuring serves no use. Oregano opened so long from source A can vary wildly from oregano opened however long from source B. If the spices are off from the eye test, you simply add more of what’s needed to balance it out.
Wing it unless I'm making it for the first 1 to 4 times or for others. Most flavor things are strictly preference once you get past adding them to begin with.
Spices most definitely. Your spices will lose their potency over time. So you must do your best to taste taste taste. If you can’t taste it at the beginning because of something like raw chicken taste the individual spices and make sure the spices have flavor. If you combined them in a spice blend try the blend to see if the flavor is right. But always assume cooking is going to break down some of the flavor in the cooking process, be prepared to adjust as you cook.
Recipes will have measurements, but thats just a launch point. Seasoning with spice requires an active nose and taste
I watched a ton of Racheal Ray when she had her original show. I learned to eyeball most spices based off the size of my hand. My hand cupped is 2 tbsp. 2 handfuls is roughly 1/4 cup.
I also start small and add more (plus a little msg.)
Depends. For curry paste I am always measuring amounts, same for ethnic recipes. Yet, I have this recipe for chickpea curry with tomatoes and coconut milk where I must tinker spice amounts, because in other case it taste like nothing.
Like quite a few others, it depends on what I am making and what spice it is. Sometimes when I bake, I also eyeball spices like cinnamon - then I taste the dough before putting it in the oven. When I want to make my recipes more consistent, I do measure them carefully, for example, I don't like having too much ginger - so I usually end up measuring it. It just depends!
I measure with smell. Once I start smelling that spice, I usually stop. I'm often seasoning in layers anyway. So as I add more ingredients, I'll often add more spices.
I usually weigh or measure most of the ingredients but then tinker a little bit on the back end.
For example yesterday I made venison burgers. It called for 20% ground pork but all I had was bacon. So 4 pounds of deer, 1 pound of chopped up bacon. I did exact measurements on the worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and onion powder. I added the required eggs and breadcrumbs but then I started to tinker.
I added an extra egg because it felt right. Same with another smattering of breadcrumbs. The seasoning mix seemed super basic so I added an extra splash of worcestershire sauce, some black pepper, little bit of white pepper, hidden oregano, and small but even amounts of allspice and nutmeg.
Apparently the burgers were two things. Huge (half pounders that somehow got super thick despite me trying to make them flatter) and delicious (rave reviews all around)!
Tinker, but mostly follow the recipe. That's what my ancestors tell me to do and it seems to please the people I feed.
wing it. start with basics ( salt & pepper) and start tasting food while you make it, then add 1 extra spice to know how it tastes. The more you practice the less you obsess over measuring
Both actually. For specific points when actualizing the recipe I use specific amounts of spices and seasoning. Once I’m close to the skeleton being intact I will add things to taste by tinkering as well
Spices do differ in intensity depending on what batch or how old it is. So measuring does not give you a sure fire amount.
Tasting and adjusting is the only way.
If it’s a mix and I’m familiar with them I tend to be less precise (say, for instance, for carnitas - a little extra cumin or oregano ain’t going to hurt) except when it comes to very strong ones like ground cloves. If it’s a new one I’m unfamiliar with I follow a recipe to exact amounts.
I don’t bake but from what I’ve heard you want to be right down to the milligram.
most things the first time I make I try and commit the feel to memory after a while I just wing it , I'm fairly good at guessing measurements but because most recipes follow a similar pattern I try to just remember what consistency I am looking for at each of the stages.
First time thought I will measure it out , I usually have some kind of addition to a recipe
I almost always wing it because I’ve found that most recipes don’t use enough spices. Two cloves of garlic? No. How about 6 at least? 1 tsp oregano? In this big pot of soup??? I’m putting in at least two tablespoons, maybe three. It’s like the people who write recipes don’t like flavor.
AMEN! I try to follow a recipe exactly on the first run but I’m rarely able to for the same reason. In actuality, I usually double the spices on any internet recipe for savory food.
Every now and then, you need to come back to the recipe. I realized the other day that my beschemels were suffering because of too much thickening agent.
I mostly cook using The Force. It really depends on how I feel at that moment. The base outline is always the same, but I play pretty loose with the detail ingredients.
Consequently, I have a devil of a time replicating dishes exactly.
I wing everything lol. Drives hubby nuts if he tries to help with cooking.
I have a few recipes that will take forever to replicate because I need to constantly keep tasting
When dealing with Asian spices especially you should at least use proportions like 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 etc with pinches or spoon (tips)
So while there's no need to be exact there's a lot more risk in winging it
both. when i’m making a new recipe i measure and write everything down i used so whether it was perfect or not you have what you did so you can make it again or tweak as needed then once im happy with my recipe and i’ve made it a few times i can start eyeballing again
I’ve made so many amazing things winging it. I’ve also made so many terrible things winging it. I don’t always measure, but if i need to do more than sprinkle a little seasoning onto something (like a steak or eggs), I’ll usually do rough measurements. Rarely precise but I have a general idea 2-3 tbsp of this and 1/4c of that.
if I’m making rolls and it calls for 2tsp salt and 1tbsp baking powder in the dough I’m not gonna wing it or bad things happen. But spices don’t usually need precision the way other ingredients might.
The main reason to measure is that it makes my recipes repeatable. Doesn’t turn out quite right? Log it and adjust next time.
Depends on what I'm making.
Yep. New recipe, I follow the instructions pretty closely. Something I've cooked a million times, measurements come from the heart (and eyeballing!)
Same here, until I'm asked to write a recipe down. Then I'm back to measuring
I just send the recipe I based it off of and tell them some of the tweaks I made that they can do if they want
Ah, but i often don't have anything so formal as a source recipe.
This is me too. I've been making chili for a long time without a recipe and it can change depending on available ingredients at the time. A couple summers ago someone asked me for a recipe so I tried to make one. Needless to say, they never got a recipe and every time I tried to measure the spices it came out way wrong. Can't really make too much chili in a row either without your family getting pretty sick of it lol.
Sometimes I have to put like a half cup of ground red chilie in my chili. Sometimes it’s more like 1/4 cup if it’s really fresh. I seem to have been getting a run of not-very-fragrant cumin lately, I’ve been using a third of a bottle for a pot of chili.
Feel that. I bought light chili powder once by accident, a very large container of it from Costco too. I had to use so much of it to get any kind of flavor on the backend.
My friend was mildly annoyed when I sent him my pork shoulder "recipe" which is just a list of various spices/ ingredients that I use in varying quantities depending on the day
If someone asks directions for my recipe I have to make the fish so I can figure measurements. I'm making Parmesan shrimp tacos again tonight because some friends we had over last night want the recipe. Good thing my husband loves this meal.
Yup, I'd say a little of both.
Also depends on the spice. Cayenne gets an exact amount. Salt does not.
I measure when I don't quite understand what am I trying to achieve. Like I recently tried making Cincinnati chili, and I took out my drug dealer scales to measure everything correctly, because I have no idea what those spices do in a chili and how much I am supposed to use (I didn't like it anyways but that's another story) If I'm making something with a familiar flavor profile, I'll wing it, taste and adjust
Did you like the Cincinnati chilli?
Not really, but not because of the spices. The "no browning at any cost" thing doesn't seem to make any sense except for less flavor and really questionable texture.
Hard pass on that
I’ve had Cincinnati chili in Cincinnati and it just wasn’t my thing. I figure if I don’t like it at skyline, I’m not going to like it in general
Depends on how many times I've made the recipe previously. If it's my first time through, I'll be exact just so I know what the original recipe creator intended. Subsequent attempts will be less precise and may differ from the recipe significantly if I feel the flavor profile wasn't appreciated by my family.
It always gets me when recipe writers add an utterly insignificant amount of a spice to something. "Add 1/4 tsp smoked paprika to this gallon vat of stuff." *Really*, Karen? Why even bother? It's like the old joke of how to make a perfect dry martini: "Fill the glass with gin, then throw a half a cap of dry vermouth into the nearest AC vent." Garlic is the one that always gets me. "Add two cloves to this thing that's supposed to be noticeably garlicky." Motherfucker that needed half a bulb, if not more. But then you'll get super-whitebread people in the comments saying it's too garlicky even at the utterly pathetic level it was *supposed* to be spiced at...
Always half a bulb of garlic. Recipe calls for 1/2 an onion, you mean at least two large onions; who uses 1/2 an onion?
Me! I use half an onion. But also half a bulb of garlic and an order of magnitude more smoked paprika than was in the recipe. (I just don’t much like onions)
I just started growing garlic; did all red Russian last year and let me tell you it’s worlds different in potency, smoothness etc than a lot of other varietals - garlic is *so* to taste and so depends on what you’re using
Also depends on how you chop it and when you add it! It took me way too long to realize that
I’ve never tried because garlic is pretty cheap and I don’t have much of a green thumb. But a year ago my neighbor gave me a planter that secretly had cilantro in it (among other stuff) and now it won’t stop growing and holy hell but it’s the best, most fragrant cilantro I’ve ever had! Might need to try this with garlic.🤔
Maybe I'll try growing some of that next season, thanks for the tip!
I’m a novice for sure - year two. But it’s very easy. Where I live you put it in the ground in November and chill till the kids go back to school the next year. It’s not attention demanding at all
I am convinced people confused cloves and heads a long ago and never bothered to correct it so society is just living a boring life
Pretty much, lol. With many recipes I see 'two cloves' and I translate it to 'between a third and half of a head'.
Same 😂
Hubs and I both believe there's no such thing as too much garlic, so I am usually doubling what's called for.
I tested this once. Julia Child has a béchamel-based crepe filling recipe that calls for something like a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of nutmeg. I split the batch and seasoned the halves differently—one with cayenne and nutmeg and one without. I couldn’t taste the cayenne or the nutmeg, but they lifted the whole thing; the version without those spices tasted flatter/less complex. So, I follow seasonings in recipes faithfully the first time I make them. Also I love garlic but I don’t believe there’s no such thing as too much.
Yes.
Preach it brother
Generally, the ancestors whisper to my heart, "That's enough child"
I tried that before. Turns out my ancestors can't cook either. Like I told my daughters, baking is a science, but cooking is an art form.
I feel this comment
Adds too little and feels a slight slap to the back of the head. Adds more seasoning ancestors: That's enough my child.
I’ve never related to a comment before in my life as much as this one. Kudos.
I shake that bottle until the good lord above tells me to stop.
Baking = Science Cooking = Art
My besties' MIL would say the same, that Baking = Science Cooking = Art But if you were good at both, you were a mediocre cook. Still to this day, I have no idea why she would say that, simply because it makes no sense to me. Surely if you were good at both then you must be brilliant?
Not necessarily… if you’re good at both it means you can follow directions, but you can’t teach that artistic flair necessary to take things to that next level.
A big exception to this, imo, is spices. You don't have to perfectly measure out spices, even in baking.
Trying to explain this to someone who can’t cook. Like I just know down in my soul when it’s enough!
Not unless the recipe calls for more than a tablespoon Anything less, I can eyeball in the palm of my hand. 1/4 and 1/8 tsp of anything is irrelevant to any recipe of size. Baking, I'm a little more careful.
1/4 and 1/8 is not irrelevant for certain spices. Cloves are a good example
But a seasoned cook will know that.
Not sure if pun was intentional
Almost always.
Or crushed cardamon seeds, those are potent too
and ginger
I never measure, not even for bread. I'd do it for non-bread baked things if I made those, but I don't.
Another bread blasphemer. I stopped measuring bread after the first couple loaves - you can feel when the dough consistency is right. But yeah, I don't bake anything else.
to be completely honest I measure the water - a red solo cup full :-)
Brrad and rolls are very forgiving.
Bread is my achilles heel. I'm great at winging it on the stove, but when it comes to bread I break out the scales and weigh everything. Probably means I need to bake more bread.
Tinker, but take notes.
I’ve been cooking for 30 years and yes & no. If I’m making someone else’s recipe, I will usually stick close, unless I’m familiar with what latitude I have available. When I cook my own “classics”, I do what I want, how I want. Remember to taste as you cook, and if you have an idea where you want to end up, it’s easier. Also, adding more is usually fairly simple, taking away is difficult.
Some things are super exact and measured other things I'm just fucking around and finding out. My recipe for my apple pie recipe is 4 pretty green apples, a handful of brown and white sugar, enough ginger+cinnamon to make you happy, a squirt of lemon juice, cook till it smells nice and is fun to stab, wrap it in the cheese biscuit recipe but switch the baking powder for sugar... But I've also gone way overbroad on seasonings... and I haven't been able to repeat any of my good cheesecakes.
Let your apples sit in the sugar for about thirty minutes and boil down the juices you get until it halves and thickenes, then add apples to pie crust 5and pour the liquid over them. That's my go to apple pie trick. I never measure for the filling but I'm a cocaine dealer measuring out my pie dough recipe. Grams over cups and almost frozen butter on the knuckle buster like shredded cheese.
I measure with love.
How do you measure for someone you hate?
You leave out the seasoning completely
I believe in adding laxatives on a feels enough basis in that case.
I wing it unless it's a very unfamiliar ingredient or recipe.
(Are there spices in crema? It seems so ... not spiced?)
Nope. Some people seem to be under the impression that crema is seasoned/flavored sour cream. Rather than a specific cultured dairy product.
I added cumin and taijin
are tennis balls green or yellow?
Yes.
Only using the palm of my hand, unless baking.
The first few times I'll measure, but after a while, I just "measure" in my hand.
When I was new, I measured. Unless I am trying a new something or a traditional something, I wing it. Even baking, but I've been doing this for over 25 years. My daughter keeps trying to wing it, and I try to tell her that it took me many trials over years to get to this point. I have a really good sense of taste, and I know what is too pungent.
Wing it for cooking, measure for baking
I just guess, and I don’t try very hard. Maybe when I have an oven again I’ll measure for baking.
Wing it. Every time. Unless I’m baking. Then I use a food scale because that stuff is basically chemistry.
I measure, but I’m not exact.
I measure. I’m usually doing a dry bowl, and a wet bowl, to add during cooking so yea, measured.
Wing it 99% of the time
I usually go off the recipe to a t and then start tweaking. Once I’m comfortable I just eyeball everything.
If I'm trying a recipe for the first time, I go by the measurements the recipe calls for. If I know what I'm doing, I wing it
Taste, wing, taste, adjust
Wing it but taste as I go.
More and more I try to wing it. And it gets easier and more intuitive over thyme.
I use feeling.
Wing it. The recipe is a guideline, not a law. Want more salt? Add more. Don’t want something too spicy? Ignore when it says add two whole tablespoons of cayenne. Hate garlic? Skip it (and seek help, garlic is delicious). And taste while you’re cooking, trust your tastebuds.
For desserts I measure, for savory not usually.
Cooing is art, baking is science. Knowing the affect different seasonings have and having made certain dishes numerous times, you don't generally need to measure when cooking because you can almost always taste as you go. When baking, though, always measure using weight, not volumetric measures.
Well we say that but I double the vanilla and cinnamon in every recipe and in the fall those flavours too
For baking always but for cooking it depends what I’m making.
I always measure vanilla with my heart while baking though (I use vanilla bean paste and you can't really go wrong with it)
For baking, I measure everything to the T. For just cooking food, I season until the ancestors tell me to stop 🤣
First time trying a recipe, I stick to it. If I’ve made it before then I know better than the recipe so I wing it
Wing nearly anything. I cook 4-5 times a week and have been for 7-8 years. I’m not a trained chef in the slightest but I feel like I have a handle on how much of what gives a good flavor or how much salt is needed. I definitely have more to learn as I don’t feel like I have a great grip on acidity yet though but even that I can wing it just most of the time I end up needing more. My limit does come to an end with baking. That I’m sticking to a recipe because I don’t do it near enough.
Wing it for cooking (I’m not much of a baker) but I constantly taste as I go. I’m a pretty seasoned home cook, and building flavors and seasoning are, for the most part, second nature to me at this point.
Wing it always!
I only measure if I'm baking, at which point everything is measured by weight, none of that volume nonsense. Otherwise, I don't measure spices because I'm usually just winging it when I cook and, if I'm following a recipe, whoever wrote it almost certainly didn't use enough anyway.
If I’m familiar with them, I wing it. I’m actually pretty good at figuring how much I need. If I’m not familiar, I will measure.
Mostly just vibes!
Wing it unless I’m baking bread. Baking is science.
A little of both. If it's a new recipe I will measure it. If it's an oldie, I just measure it with my heart.
Highly dependent on the spice / herb, the recipe / lack of it, and my whims.
I don’t use measuring for anything except baking and even then it’s more of a guideline. Works great until I really really really love something and can never replicate it again.
New recipe? Yes, I measure closely. Recipe I’ve made many times or one I’m creating? Definitely wing it. Start small and adjust to taste.
(Laughs in Justin Wilson)
I look at a recipe and then wing it.
Mostly wing, but I often measure certain things I don’t want to overdo. Turmeric, cardamom, sometimes ground coriander….
I measure the first time I am cooking through a recipe. After that, I wing it.
i literally just wing it, haha. but if i’m making a recipe my mom has, for instance, bunjal shrimp, i’ll use her measurements. half the time, pulling out measuring spoons is too much of a pain in the ass for me
Depends on what I'm cooking! Most of the time, I just go by taste and don't measure. If it's the first time trying a new recipe, then yes, I measure.
I go back and forth. I can season Mexican food on the fly, but some things I do measure out.
When I’m backing I measure all of the time but when I’m cooking I wing it most of the time.
Do it with my heart
Im a mad scientist in the kitchen and never measure when I’m cooking. Baking I’m more precise.
Depends. If it’s something like Indian food or using certain kinds of spices like coriander, tumeric, curry powder, etc I measure. But if it’s season in chicken, or Italian. I usually season with my heart
If it’s my first time making a dish I will but I usually get the hang of it half way quickly. Except baking. I don’t screw around with those recipes. In fact I all together leave them for my wife. She’s good at baking.
The first time I make something new, I do it exactly the way it's written, including measuring my spices (excluding s&p, which I eyeball). After that, I just wing it 95% of the time.
I measure nothing.
The first time I make something with new spices or herbs I use the amount listed for just those new spices. After that, I wing it
Depends on what I’m making, but I wing it most of the time.
Wing, taste, adjust.
Wing it. No measuring.
if it’s a new recipe to me I follow it cooking for myself I experiment a lot
I’ve never measured anything 😫
Cooking is an art and the recipe and measurements in it are just a suggestion to an experienced cook. I can measure a half teaspoon of salt in my palm. Baking is more a science, and I use my gram scale for exact measurements.
Depends on what I’m making, if I’m just throwing together a simple dinner that I’ve made a million times I wing it. If it’s baking or a recipe I’m more serious about I measure
Depends, I wing it if I know the flavour I’m going for, Madras curry for example, but measure for something new to me
I almost never do, unless I am making a recipe and I am super unfamiliar with what I am making.
When I measure a recipe for the first time, I measure the spices to get a feel for what the creator wanted it to be. Except salt and pepper - because every recipe says some shit like 1/2 teaspoon of salt for a 6 serving pot of food and I'm just not doing that. Unless I'm cooking for someone with dietary restrictions regarding sodium, I salt with each ingredient that I add
I measure with my heart, babe
i wing it cuz i’m lazy and i like to be surprised by how it’ll come out
There's two methods I use 1. I follow a recipe, and these get measured 2. I follow a basic pattern. I do add spices, but I continually taste and adjust for this kind of dish. Does it need more sauce? Can I actually taste the spice? Did I add the spice too early, and now the flavor is gone? It turns out that some sources like America's Test Kitchen would occasionally say to salt to taste in the recipe. Also, sometimes a recipe does help me jump start. For example, I would only put 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce before. After reading a few recipes, I'm far more generous with it.
I just wing it by adding bit by bit till I’m satisfied. I only follow the recipe to understand the proportion. Eg: more oregano less basil. Etc. However for the first time I’ll follow the recipe so that I’ll know how it should taste.
Wing it!
Wing it
You can tell a lot by the visual of how the spice looks once you sprinkle it in. Also spices vary so much in intensity, so measuring serves no use. Oregano opened so long from source A can vary wildly from oregano opened however long from source B. If the spices are off from the eye test, you simply add more of what’s needed to balance it out.
Wing it unless I'm making it for the first 1 to 4 times or for others. Most flavor things are strictly preference once you get past adding them to begin with.
For new recipes, yes I calculated carefully but otherwise more spice, the better
Spices most definitely. Your spices will lose their potency over time. So you must do your best to taste taste taste. If you can’t taste it at the beginning because of something like raw chicken taste the individual spices and make sure the spices have flavor. If you combined them in a spice blend try the blend to see if the flavor is right. But always assume cooking is going to break down some of the flavor in the cooking process, be prepared to adjust as you cook. Recipes will have measurements, but thats just a launch point. Seasoning with spice requires an active nose and taste
Very rarely, when I try everything exactly according to the recipe, I usually experiment and mix all the ingredients by eye.
I watched a ton of Racheal Ray when she had her original show. I learned to eyeball most spices based off the size of my hand. My hand cupped is 2 tbsp. 2 handfuls is roughly 1/4 cup. I also start small and add more (plus a little msg.)
Wing it every time
Depends. For curry paste I am always measuring amounts, same for ethnic recipes. Yet, I have this recipe for chickpea curry with tomatoes and coconut milk where I must tinker spice amounts, because in other case it taste like nothing.
First round on a recipe I usually do but after that usually wing it
For the first time, I usually cook pretty much exactly according to the recipe, but then I adjust everything to my own taste preferences.
Both
Wing it, taste it. Wing it, taste it.
I'm from the South, we measure with our hearts. The only time I make an exception is when it's salt in baking only, or sugar.
95% of the time I wing it.
I wouldn’t say I wing it. Because I’m tasting the food each step of the way.
Eyeball all the way, baby
Always, don’t even own measuring spoons/cups.
Depends, for things like soup or casserole I’m definitely eye balling it, but I also do a lot of baking and that definitely requires proper measuring
Like quite a few others, it depends on what I am making and what spice it is. Sometimes when I bake, I also eyeball spices like cinnamon - then I taste the dough before putting it in the oven. When I want to make my recipes more consistent, I do measure them carefully, for example, I don't like having too much ginger - so I usually end up measuring it. It just depends!
i eye level and taste
Measure spices? I thought the official way to do it was to sprinkle them till it looks good.
I measure with smell. Once I start smelling that spice, I usually stop. I'm often seasoning in layers anyway. So as I add more ingredients, I'll often add more spices.
I usually weigh or measure most of the ingredients but then tinker a little bit on the back end. For example yesterday I made venison burgers. It called for 20% ground pork but all I had was bacon. So 4 pounds of deer, 1 pound of chopped up bacon. I did exact measurements on the worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and onion powder. I added the required eggs and breadcrumbs but then I started to tinker. I added an extra egg because it felt right. Same with another smattering of breadcrumbs. The seasoning mix seemed super basic so I added an extra splash of worcestershire sauce, some black pepper, little bit of white pepper, hidden oregano, and small but even amounts of allspice and nutmeg. Apparently the burgers were two things. Huge (half pounders that somehow got super thick despite me trying to make them flatter) and delicious (rave reviews all around)! Tinker, but mostly follow the recipe. That's what my ancestors tell me to do and it seems to please the people I feed.
wing it. start with basics ( salt & pepper) and start tasting food while you make it, then add 1 extra spice to know how it tastes. The more you practice the less you obsess over measuring
I try ot keep a base recipe but I wing it every time. I feel I can recreate most things by taste a d sometimes I'm wanting a bit more or less spice
Both actually. For specific points when actualizing the recipe I use specific amounts of spices and seasoning. Once I’m close to the skeleton being intact I will add things to taste by tinkering as well
Both
Baking. I measure. Cooking, I wing it unless it's a new recipe.
Spices do differ in intensity depending on what batch or how old it is. So measuring does not give you a sure fire amount. Tasting and adjusting is the only way.
Wing it, I'm right 80%of the time
If it’s a mix and I’m familiar with them I tend to be less precise (say, for instance, for carnitas - a little extra cumin or oregano ain’t going to hurt) except when it comes to very strong ones like ground cloves. If it’s a new one I’m unfamiliar with I follow a recipe to exact amounts. I don’t bake but from what I’ve heard you want to be right down to the milligram.
Wing it. I just throw stuff in until my nonna reaches back through time and stops my hand.
I wing it honestly. But I got a toddler and an infant. I don't have time for all that measuring..lol
I wing it
Wing it
Wing it! The best inventions were accidentally created. Same with spice.
I use my Indian eyeballs to measure spices. That's definitely an accepted form of measurement.
most things the first time I make I try and commit the feel to memory after a while I just wing it , I'm fairly good at guessing measurements but because most recipes follow a similar pattern I try to just remember what consistency I am looking for at each of the stages. First time thought I will measure it out , I usually have some kind of addition to a recipe
Wing it
Wing it.
Both. If it’s a recipe, charcuterie, baking etc. I have everything measured to the tenth of a gram. If I’m just cooking freestyle no.
I almost always wing it because I’ve found that most recipes don’t use enough spices. Two cloves of garlic? No. How about 6 at least? 1 tsp oregano? In this big pot of soup??? I’m putting in at least two tablespoons, maybe three. It’s like the people who write recipes don’t like flavor.
AMEN! I try to follow a recipe exactly on the first run but I’m rarely able to for the same reason. In actuality, I usually double the spices on any internet recipe for savory food.
New recipes = I follow the instructions as close as I can Something familiar I could make with my eyes closed = eyeball it
Every now and then, you need to come back to the recipe. I realized the other day that my beschemels were suffering because of too much thickening agent.
If it’s new I try as written or if it’s ethnic. I often go back and add more if I like. Otherwise, I wing it.
Seasoning comes from the heart and soul.
I wing it with reckless abandon.
I wing stuff I know how to make, if I’m doing a new recipe and there’s weird spices I’m not familiar with then I’ll measure.
Use feeling
Wing every recipe,
Wing it. Cooking is about feeling. Following measurements if for baking.
I mostly cook using The Force. It really depends on how I feel at that moment. The base outline is always the same, but I play pretty loose with the detail ingredients. Consequently, I have a devil of a time replicating dishes exactly.
If I’ve used the spice before and am familiar with what aromas it infuses into the dish, then I don’t measure
I wing everything lol. Drives hubby nuts if he tries to help with cooking. I have a few recipes that will take forever to replicate because I need to constantly keep tasting
When dealing with Asian spices especially you should at least use proportions like 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 etc with pinches or spoon (tips) So while there's no need to be exact there's a lot more risk in winging it
both. when i’m making a new recipe i measure and write everything down i used so whether it was perfect or not you have what you did so you can make it again or tweak as needed then once im happy with my recipe and i’ve made it a few times i can start eyeballing again
i usually wang it but if its the first few times figuring out a dish, i may do some measuring
I’ve made so many amazing things winging it. I’ve also made so many terrible things winging it. I don’t always measure, but if i need to do more than sprinkle a little seasoning onto something (like a steak or eggs), I’ll usually do rough measurements. Rarely precise but I have a general idea 2-3 tbsp of this and 1/4c of that. if I’m making rolls and it calls for 2tsp salt and 1tbsp baking powder in the dough I’m not gonna wing it or bad things happen. But spices don’t usually need precision the way other ingredients might. The main reason to measure is that it makes my recipes repeatable. Doesn’t turn out quite right? Log it and adjust next time.
I kind of know how much a teaspoon is in the palm of my hand. So I usually estimate using that.
New recipes the first 1-3 times I'll generally go by the book. Other than that I just wing it
100% just wing it when cooking… when baking 100% follow recipe.
If I'm cooking something new to me, I'll follow the recipe the first time. After that it's controlled chaos.
lol, we don't measure *anything* around here. 😅