Do you measure ingredients?

I was posting some recipe ideas in the ground beef thread earlier and realized I didn't put any quantities. when I'm cooking I never do------usually I'll just put in amounts of "what feels right" based on the main ingredient. When following a recipe, I will use them as a guide----but not necessarily use the amounts given, adjusting again to my personal tastes. This does pose a problem when I do give out a recipe----I'm not sure I could come up with the right amounts just out of my head without notating amounts as I write them down. How do you cook? Do you measure, or do it on the fly?

I think it depends on the experience of the cook. When I was young I measured everything and followed recipes exactly. That is how I learned the classics.

That was a long time ago, now I measure by dead eye reckoning and make my own variations on the classics as well as making up my own recipes from scratch.

As with any art I think you have to learn the rules first and then throw them out to advance yourself as a cook as well as the art of cooking itself.

With my stand bys and signature dishes, no. When I try something new out, yes, to the letter. Then I figure out how to make it better, and I'm back to soma dis and soma dat.

Of course when I'm baking I measure carefully, as it's a chemical reaction kind of thing.

New cooking recipe, yes.
Old cooking recipe, usually.
Baking, always.

quote:

Originally posted by tsores

New cooking recipe, yes.
Old cooking recipe, usually.
Baking, always.

New recipes..........yes After that I tweak it according to my tastes. I have learned, after many mishaps, that baking is an exact science and do not change a thing. I guess that is why I do not care for baking.

I measure the main ingredients but, with things I do all the time, not the herbs and spices. Those I know how much is "right" for me.

With a new recipe, I like the quantities to be listed so I can get a proportion and "feel" just looking at the recipe, for what the recipe is supposed to be like (both texture and taste). I may automatically adjust some quantities (especially spices and flavors) even the first time I make the recipe, just because I know what I enjoy. I seldom will try a recipe with no quantities listed, unless I am already familiar with a similar recipe. On my old stand-bys, I toss things in without measuring, and substitute one thing for another (since sometimes I get bored with the same-old same-old) until it looks about right. In this way I somewhat follow the way my Mother cooked, with a pinch of this and a dash of that.

Measure? Ya, maybe the first time to see whats wrong with the recipe...
I found, as mentioned above, that feel works better... That and the nose! Some herbs may be a little weaker or something other then fresh, normally you can tell by smell.. Thus more or less being tossed in by smell as a measuring factor.. But then I only like using a recipe one time to get the rough draft, after that it goes to my tastes...

quote:

Originally posted by EdSails

I was posting some recipe ideas in the ground beef thread earlier and realized I didn't put any quantities. when I'm cooking I never do------usually I'll just put in amounts of "what feels right" based on the main ingredient. When following a recipe, I will use them as a guide----but not necessarily use the amounts given, adjusting again to my personal tastes. This does pose a problem when I do give out a recipe----I'm not sure I could come up with the right amounts just out of my head without notating amounts as I write them down. How do you cook? Do you measure, or do it on the fly?

I am definitely in the category of not holding too strictly to ingredient measurements. My family is like this too; we all learned to cook pretty much by feel, smell, and "look." In fact, I remember asking a relative how to prepare a special dish; every question about how much to use of a particular ingredient was met with "use just enough until it looks right"!

quote:

Originally posted by tsores

New cooking recipe, yes.
Old cooking recipe, usually.
Baking, always.

just about says it all !! years ago Justin Wilson (the cajun chef) showed how to measure with the palm of your hand and I use that for salt etc.

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

With my stand bys and signature dishes, no. When I try something new out, yes, to the letter. Then I figure out how to make it better, and I'm back to soma dis and soma dat.

Of course when I'm baking I measure carefully, as it's a chemical reaction kind of thing.

Maybe that explains why I'm a great cook and a lousy baker!

When I was learning to cook my mom always just poured the stuff in. I never saw a recipe card until I was a teenager and in high school cooking class. It was very hard for me to adjust to not just looking and doing. When it came to baking...I just memorized how much mom put in and did the same. For pie crusts, I can't measure the liquid or the filling ingredients...just the flour and such. When it comes to giving recipes I just think about how much I put in and then make a "guesstimate".

I will disect a recipe now and make it fit me and my family. If the recipe seems fit, then I don't mess with it and will do what it says. If I think it would be improved I test and taste! Smell is a good one also. And for dough etc, feel always gets me to the right place.

I measure only while baking. I really had a hard time several years ago when our church made a cookbook. It was hard to list how much of certain ingredients that I include in my recipes.

no It seems like i just eyeshot everything I have been cooking for so long that i can just tell pretty much by looking .One time i tried to go by a recipe and it didnt turn out and im always modifying to my own anyway.

Sure I measure. For instance, when I'm cooking a hotdog I always check to make sure I'm cooking just one hotdog. I do the same when making corned beef. I measure out one brisket.

i too, do not when i cook and do when i bake. After all---cooking is art---baking is science!

I have the same problem as many others...cooking is like sex and baking is like math. I don't measure when I cook or the other one but weigh not measure when baking. Baking is boring, cooking is fun...and so is the other thing.

Like so many before me have said, I don't measure with meals I've cooked before.
I am likely to measure if I'm following a new recipe and I'm not familiar with the dish or similiar dish.
Baking, I have painstakingly learned, is a must to measure. Except when making a pie filling.