by pinback » Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:50 am
Flack wrote:In general, when you look up recipes on there do you follow them to the letter or do you use them as a guide?
If it's something new or unfamiliar, I tend to follow the recipe pretty closely the first time. Once I see how that turns out I know where I can modify/add/remove things to make it my style.
The main exceptions to that are 1) if it calls for obscure/expensive ingredients ("1/2 tsp white pepper", please) I'll omit or replace it with cheap stuff that I have on hand, and 2) always use more garlic than the recipe says.
I'd be afraid of messing up the whole dish by making a rookie mistake.
The only rookie mistake you can make is to put too much of something in that you can't take out. That's why cooks use unsalted butter, so they can fully control the salt content. And if you put too much salt in, you can't take it out, and it's ruined.
If you put too much water in, you can always boil it out. If you didn't put enough chili powder in, you can always add more. Fixing it as you go is part of the fun.
That leads to the most important cooking tip there is, which is, taste as you go. Then you know well before it's done, oh, I need more salt, oh, I need more whatever, oh, I need to thicken this, etc.
In retrospect, the dumbest thing I've ever seen was my mother's "trick" for telling when the pasta was cooked. She was so proud that she'd found this ingenious method for getting correctly cooked pasta every time. You may have heard it. The trick is: Take a strand of pasta and throw it against the wall. If it sticks, it's done, is the "trick".
The reason it's stupid is that, hey, you know an even BETTER way to tell when it's done? Take that same strand you were going to throw on the wall, and bite into it. If it's not done, guess what, it's not done! Magic!
The answer to "how long do you cook it for?" is always: "Until it's done."
Easy.
[quote="Flack"]In general, when you look up recipes on there do you follow them to the letter or do you use them as a guide?[/quote]
If it's something new or unfamiliar, I tend to follow the recipe pretty closely the first time. Once I see how that turns out I know where I can modify/add/remove things to make it my style.
The main exceptions to that are 1) if it calls for obscure/expensive ingredients ("1/2 tsp white pepper", please) I'll omit or replace it with cheap stuff that I have on hand, and 2) always use more garlic than the recipe says.
[quote]I'd be afraid of messing up the whole dish by making a rookie mistake.[/quote]
The only rookie mistake you can make is to put too much of something in that you can't take out. That's why cooks use unsalted butter, so they can fully control the salt content. And if you put too much salt in, you can't take it out, and it's ruined.
If you put too much water in, you can always boil it out. If you didn't put enough chili powder in, you can always add more. Fixing it as you go is part of the fun.
That leads to the most important cooking tip there is, which is, taste as you go. Then you know well before it's done, oh, I need more salt, oh, I need more whatever, oh, I need to thicken this, etc.
In retrospect, the dumbest thing I've ever seen was my mother's "trick" for telling when the pasta was cooked. She was so proud that she'd found this ingenious method for getting correctly cooked pasta every time. You may have heard it. The trick is: Take a strand of pasta and throw it against the wall. If it sticks, it's done, is the "trick".
The reason it's stupid is that, hey, you know an even BETTER way to tell when it's done? Take that same strand you were going to throw on the wall, and bite into it. If it's not done, guess what, it's not done! Magic!
The answer to "how long do you cook it for?" is always: "Until it's done."
Easy.