I have a confession: I hate recipes. I struggle to follow along with step-by-step directions. I don’t like being told what to do, especially by a 3×5 index card. Would Picasso create a masterpiece using paint by number? In order to making cooking (even weeknight dinners) more enjoyable, you need to free yourself from the burden of recipes.
The problem with recipes is that they’re stagnant. They don’t know how fresh your ingredients are. They have no idea if your oven runs hot or cold. They can’t accommodate your specific taste. Many people follow recipes the way they follow their GPS. Precisely. The problem with this approach (for both driving and cooking) is that you may not end up where you wanted.
Much like driving, in order to really cook, you need to first have an idea of where you’re trying to go. Then understand a few basic rules. Maybe one day you won’t need a recipe at all.
5 Ways to Avoid the Burden of Recipes
- Taste EVERYTHING – There’s no way to make delicious blueberry pancakes without delicious blueberries. Salad dressing with rancid vinegar won’t be good. In order to cook well, you must taste your ingredients. And your final product. You won’t know if there’s too much salt or not enough lemon unless you taste it.
- Knife Skills For life – Yes size matters. A small diced potato cooks faster than a large dice. Big cookies take longer to bake than smaller ones. In order to really by confident in the kitchen, you need to be confident with a knife. Learning how to chop, dice and mince (and the difference between all of those) is a fundamental part of cooking sans recipe.
- Learn techniques – What does “whip to soft peaks” mean? What about “saute”? There’s a jargon in cooking, and many recipes misuse words. (BTW: Saute means to cook quickly over high heat. So you can’t possibly saute over medium heat.) The best remedy for poorly written recipes is to learn how to cook.
- Understand when things are DONE – If you’re ever in a professional kitchen and you ask someone “how long do I cook this?” they will laugh at you. The answer is “until it’s done.” You can’t trust your recipe to give you the correct cooking time. Each day, each oven, each house is different. If a recipe says “cook for 15 minutes,” that means 10-25 minutes. Learn what signs to look for to know when something is done. Should the top jiggle? Can you stick a fork in it? Is it golden brown? The signs are a much more reliable way to cook.
- Don’t be Afraid– The worst that can happen is your make something not good and order pizza for dinner. And you learn what not to do next time. Cooking without a recipe is all about experimenting, tweaking and not listening to what anyone says. Especially your kids. It’s important to show your kids how to be a confident cook, and that creativity and imagination have a prominent place in the kitchen.
So Avoid Recipes?
Are all recipes bad? No! There are many many many recipes out there that have been created by chefs and thoroughly tested. There’s also plenty of room to play. The idea is to free yourself from the burden of recipes. Think of a recipe like sheet music. All the information you need is there, but there’s plenty of room for creativity too. So feel free to use recipes as inspiration, but don’t feel obligated to follow each and every step. Understanding a few basics about cooking helps transform cooking from a chore to an art.
