Re:Based Cooking
by ydant on Thursday March 11, 2021 @08:10AM
(#26423570)
> Do people normally measure spices?
For me, no, not anymore. Recipes serve as inspiration and I rarely do more than scan the ingredients list and then go off to make something (inspired).
It's taken me a lot longer to develop a great intuition of which herbs, spices, and ingredients combine to make a great flavor than it did to develop the intuition of how /much/ to use if I know what I'm using.
I've been asked for "recipes" by people in camp #2 - and they don't know what to do with what I'm able to give them. Which is fair - my recipes are just a list of general ingredients, spices, and a method of cooking in my head. "These vegetables (sauté), these meats (brown), combine, these spices ("enough", go heavy on this particular one), this preparation (slow simmer for hours, like a chili), this finish."
Camps #1 and #2 want exactly the same thing, they just need varying level of specificity. Both would strongly prefer you give them exact measurements.
My guess is #1/#2 is the bulk of people who cook.
The recipe cards that everyone's family seems to have as heirloom keepsakes - those are all more #2 with a dash of #3 ambiguity thrown in to throw off any people trying to copy grandma's old recipe.
The recipes swapped at potlucks and family dinners - same. There's usually a (simpler or more shortcuty than the person might want to admit) recipe buried under there.
For me, no, not anymore. Recipes serve as inspiration and I rarely do more than scan the ingredients list and then go off to make something (inspired).
It's taken me a lot longer to develop a great intuition of which herbs, spices, and ingredients combine to make a great flavor than it did to develop the intuition of how /much/ to use if I know what I'm using.
The problem here is the threeish kinds of cooks:
I've been asked for "recipes" by people in camp #2 - and they don't know what to do with what I'm able to give them. Which is fair - my recipes are just a list of general ingredients, spices, and a method of cooking in my head. "These vegetables (sauté), these meats (brown), combine, these spices ("enough", go heavy on this particular one), this preparation (slow simmer for hours, like a chili), this finish."Camps #1 and #2 want exactly the same thing, they just need varying level of specificity. Both would strongly prefer you give them exact measurements.
My guess is #1/#2 is the bulk of people who cook.
The recipe cards that everyone's family seems to have as heirloom keepsakes - those are all more #2 with a dash of #3 ambiguity thrown in to throw off any people trying to copy grandma's old recipe.
The recipes swapped at potlucks and family dinners - same. There's usually a (simpler or more shortcuty than the person might want to admit) recipe buried under there.