Don’t Have to be Exact

Please share with your friends. Thank you!

Wanted to take a moment and talk about following a recipe. When you follow a recipe it is easy to get caught in the trap where you feel you have to follow it exactly as written. The concern is that if you do not follow the recipe the end product will not be as good as it could have been, or it will not taste like it should. When you realize the recipe is a guide, and you don’t have to be exact, cooking gets easier. If you Don’t Have to be Exact when following it, the easier it will be to Flavor It Your Way.

I Like the Recipe But ??

How many times have you looked at a recipe and said to yourself, “that sounds pretty good but ???.” At this point you need to ask yourself, “what can I change to remove the but???.” There may only be an ingredient or two you don’t like. However, that doesn’t mean the recipe doesn’t have potential for you. As discussed in these posts there is always something that is changed to adjust the flavors. This allows it to be more to the liking of one’s pallet.

I have some recipes I make that I didn’t really like, so I changed the way I make them. I don’t think about the changes I just make them. If someone asks me for the recipe I will find it for them. When I read through it I realize that what I do is not all in the recipe. I then sit down and rewrite the recipe for them including the changes I make.

A Pinch of This, a Palm of That

I asked my mother-in-law for her recipe for chili beans. My husband liked them, I liked them, and I wanted to be able to make them. I was surprised when she said, “I don’t know.” I didn’t understand how she could make them and not know what the recipe was. As she continued I realized what she meant. She said, “I add a pinch of this, a palm of that, and pour some of this in until it looks right.” She told me she would have to make the chili beans to find out what she actually did.

The next time she made chili beans she kept track of what she did. The recipe she gave me was an approximation of her recipe. At that point I understood what she meant when she said she didn’t know the recipe. What she was really saying was, you Don’t Have to be Exact in the quantities you use.

Sometimes you have a vintage recipe that doesn’t fit today’s measurement standards. The following recipe is my grandmother Harrison’s original recipe as she had it written.

I remember the soup can she used. It was a small Campbell’s soup can. For the shortening she would take a common spoon, dip it in the can and plop a hunk into the flour. I was never sure what size of a hens egg she referred to, but it she knew what it was. It was fun to watch her prepare them. Later, my cousins used the trial and error method to determine what her measurements would be using today’s methods. Grandma never worried if she needed to be exact and the cookies were always good.

Learning to Flavor by Approximation

I came to the realization that I had done that quite a bit as well. It was mostly when I didn’t have a recipe. As time has passed I have gotten more to where I measure like my mother-in-law and my father did, by approximation. As you cook the amount of ingredients and spices added depends on different things. It can include the number of servings you want. The ingredients you have. The flavors your want to emphasize or diminish. The ingredient you have the least of so it doesn’t get completely overwhelmed.

Most of the time when I am cooking on the savory side, I don’t measure the spices. I look at the volume of the ingredients I am seasoning and add accordingly. Over the years I have developed an eye for the amount of seasoning I prefer. Some spices I add more of, others less. Sometimes I add an extra one or more, and other times eliminate one or more. Remember, you don’t have to be exact to get the flavors you want.

Flavoring by Smell

Sometimes a recipe is not needed. When we have baked potatoes we prepare the potato for seasoning and go to the spice cabinet. There are a few items we use all the time. These include: garlic powder, onion powder, Cajun seasoning (personal blend), and pepper. From there it is whatever sounds good or smells like it will compliment what is on the potato. It could be thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, etc. Take a whiff of the spice and if it adds to the flavor you have going put some on. If it doesn’t, put the lid back on and move to the next one. This type of spicing always provides a different flavor. The nice part is it provides the desired flavor of the day. Using this method you definitely don’t have to be exact.

An example of flavoring by smell. I was working and my husband made spaghetti sauce as part of the lunch he brought to me. He used a bottled sauce and then decided to add some extra flavor. Using the flavor by smell method he started taking each spice and determining if it fit. He added several different spices, including a mystery spice. He brought me the plate of spaghetti and I tried it. It had a unique flavor and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I guessed a couple of different ones but did not even come close to getting it right. As he went through the spices he grabbed cinnamon and added some. The mystery spice surprised me. That time, because of the flavors he used it tasted good. Not sure if it would have with a different combination of spices but this combination worked.

Times You Need to Be Exact

There are some recipes you will need to follow the recipe as stated to get the desired results. This is especially true in baking. If you deviate from the recipe to much it will leave the product too dry or too moist. It may cause it to be too dense. You can usually make small adjustments in something like the amount of vanilla you add. If you adjust too much, you may have to adjust another liquid to keep it from being too wet or too dry.

Getting it Your Way

As you practice adjusting recipes it becomes easier to get them to be Flavored Your Way. You will learn what you do and do not like. The combinations and proportions that are most appealing to you will become second nature. You will also find yourself making adjustments to the recipes on the fly because something simply sound better.

Please share with your friends. Thank you!