Are you the type of person who adds a pinch of this or a smidge of that when creating recipes? Do you know when something is done by the smell? You are a natural cook!
Your family loves your cooking, but you are making it hard to recreate them because the recipes are in your head. Below you will find tips for how to create recipes when you are a spontaneous cook.
There are many evenings when my kids walk into the kitchen and ask what I am making and I respond with, “I don’t know yet, I’ll let you know when it is done”. My response always elicits a “mmm, my favorite” and is followed by a reminder to write what I am doing down. They remember the pumpkin pie incident of 2001, where I made some impulsive changes to the family pie recipe. It was declared the best pie ever. But I hadn’t written down the changes I had made and only had a vague idea of what I did. I had to make the pie 3 more times before I figured out how I had made the “best pumpkin pie ever” and my kids made sure that I wrote that recipe down!
My natural tendency is to add a bit of this and a pinch of that when cooking. However, most people want accurate measurements when they are following a recipe. I’ve also found that most people don’t appreciate when you tell them to “pull it out of the oven when it smells done”. I know that I am not the only one who cooks this way, so I thought I would share the steps that I use to translate my methods to standard measurements.
How to Create Recipes When You Are a Spontaneous Cook
The most important step is to do what you do naturally. I often pour spices into my hand and use my eye and nose to gauge the amount.
Before you add an ingredient to a dish, transfer it to a measuring spoon:
Keep a log of ingredients, measurements, and steps taken. After taste testing, I might decide to add more of an ingredient, which I write down. I tally up the final amounts of each ingredient after the dish is finished.
Memorize the measurements for the items that you most often use to measure things. Whether it is your hand, a lid, or some other untraditional measuring device.
I often add veggies to dishes by the handful. So, after I pick up the veggies, but before I add them to the dish, I measure them or weigh. My hand holds approximately 1 cup of spinach.
I often use spice lids as measuring spoons, but after doing so, I transfer the spices to a measuring spoon until I have the measurement memorized.
This McCormick lid holds a little under a tablespoon’s worth of spices. The lid on my vanilla bottle holds approximately 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Since I have some of the translations memorized, I can add 2 capfuls of vanilla, but write 1 teaspoon down when creating my recipe.
I use my senses, a fork, or an occasional toothpick to tell me when a recipe is done cooking. So the last step I take is to write down the time when I start cooking, jot down the time when I pull it out, then calculate the cooking time.
Are you an impromptu cook, a recipe follower, or a combination of the two?
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Jennifer says
I'm more of a recipe follower because I am a perfectionist by nature. I will say, though, that since I've been cooking solely from scratch now, I'm becoming more confident in what different ingredients do. I'm experimenting more, and I hope to become more impromptu in the future! 🙂
jacobithegreat says
I'm a horrible impromptu cook. I usually need something to go by. My sisters and mom can throw anything together and make something delicious, but it looks like that gene was lost in me, haha
RobbieKay says
I'd say I'm a combo. I tend to be a precise, detail-oriented person, so as a child it would frustrate me when my mother would try to teach me to cook by answering my questions of how much to put in with "just eyeball it". Though even as an adult I don't know how you're supposed to "just eyeball it" until you get some experience under your belt re. "what looks right". As an adult I follow new recipes to the T, but the things that I make that tend to come out the best are when I am not following a recipe. Thank you for your tips. I will try to remember to implement them next time. If something comes out good, I always tell myself I'm going to write down what I did while it's still fresh in my mind, but then never seem to.
Tammy L says
Great tips, Alea! I have to do this a lot 😛 🙂
CrystalsCozyKitchen says
I would say I'm an impromptu cook and a combination. There are some recipes that I pull out but only follow about half of it, but for some reason I still feel the need to have it in front of me. Other dishes, I just throw together. However I'd say I'm more of a combination cook.
kissykat says
Thank you so much for sharing! I have been doing a lot of impromptu cooking (for me anyway) lately, and thinking I would love to share the recipe but I had no idea how much of anything I added! I'm gonna try this out and get some dishes posted 🙂 I was even actually thinking about this this afternoon when I made a carrot salad!
Annie Jones says
I also learned to write things down as I cook after coming up with some tasty dishes I couldn't duplicate. Shane's always asking, "You did write that one down, didn't you?"
This doesn't work, though, when I make clean-out-the-freezer soup. Because the ingredients come from so many different leftovers, they can't be duplicated. Which is usually a sad thing, but sometimes I very good thing…LOL!