How to Cook Without a Book

I have a cookbook by the title "How to Cook Without a Book." It teaches basic cooking methods and ways to put them together or vary them. I've not worked all the way through it, but I think it's a great idea.

Do you cook mostly from recipes, or do you just cook from what you know?

I use recipes for baked goods (I've never made yeast stuff, oh goodness, I'd be a kitchen goddess if I could do that - well, okay, I made yeast pizza dough but that is it.). And every once and awhile I'll pull one out. But mostly just make stuff I know how to make . . .

I can do both, but usually I use a lot of recipes - just for new ideas. I get really, really tired of making the same thing over and over. I think it's from a childhood spent eating in restaurants (my mom gave up cooking after my dad left). I'm not used to have the same meals week after week.

Yeast baking is totally doable! If you want any tips, let us know. I know Nellie is proficient, as am I, and I assume Heidi is too. YOU CAN DO IT!

[DCJenn]

It depends a lot on my mood and level of organization. I love to cook and love to try out new things. I'm attempting to get over my fear of baking by starting with muffins. I cannot bake without the directions. Even my mom who has made the same yeast rolls (Brenda's Better Buttered Buns, FYI) for years still pulls out the recipe card.

But for generic meal o' the day? I just use the same basics- bake it, broil it, saute it. blah, blah, blah.

Jenn

PS- I will say that I've been using my indoor grill pan (a la George Foreman) quite a bit this summer. It seems silly to fire up the outdoor grill for one burger or one crab cake.

[Vanquisher]

Baking and breadmaking needs to be done with a recipe. You can't just put in too few eggs and too much baking powder and get away with it. You can vary basic formulas and play with sugars, oils, flours, flavorings, but the same basic ratios have to be there for baking.

Working with yeast is fairly simple. I like to use water that is about 100 degrees and the sugar in with the yeast for 5 minutes before adding it to the eggs and flour, milk, or other ingredients to let the yeast get going. If the yeast gets frothy, you can tell it's working. I store mine in a airtight jar in my fridge.

I cook mostly from recipes, but I do throw stuff together, and I vary almost everything I make in some way.

[SuzySunshine]

I cook from recipes all the time when I'm baking and probably 90% of the time when I'm cooking a meal. I, like Jenn, like to have some variety and if only cooked things I knew without a menu we wouldn't have much if any variety.

I use recipes to try new dishes but once I have tried them, I never really go back to look at them as I adjust to our taste. I really like allrecipes.com bc I like reading the reviews.

I have How to Cook without a Book and I found it way too basic. But I bought it after someone recommended it to me. But by then I had been cooking for at least 7 years, plus I learned how to cook when I moved to Italy, so now it just collects dust on my shelf. I should give it to my college-aged niece.

You can bake without a recipe once you have experience.

[Vishenka69]

I have a few books that I use frequently but mostly for new idea or to refresh my memory. Usually day-to-day stuff I do without a book. Once you know the basics, it's fairly easy to cook on your own.

[MissCrabette]

Re: How to Cook Without a Book

I cook from recipes because I simply can't remember them all. My DH is picky when it comes to repeats so we're always trying new recipes, but I have a feeling I'd have trouble remembering a recipe even if I made it once a week. My DH is a huge improviser in the kitchen, but I hate modifying a recipe I haven't even tried yet. I'd always think that maybe the original recipe was fine tuned to perfection. That and I've tried eyeballing it a few times and those were my only kitchen disasters so I've learned my lesson.

Re: How to Cook Without a Book

I just finished my organizational masterpiece collection of recipes. It's a huge binder broken down by meat; type, cut, etc...with the tried-and-true recipes for each tucked behind the tab thingy. If our house were on fire it's the one thing I would rush back in to save (provided all the living creatures were safe). I think I freaked dh out a little when I showed it to him.

In short, I cannot cook without a recipe.

[samssugarmomma]

Re: How to Cook Without a Book

I use mostly recipes too. There are some family favorites that I can make without using the recipe but if I only made those, we'd be eating the same 6 things over and over.

[Stella]

Re: How to Cook Without a Book

I own a LOT of cookbooks, but I don't really use them. I seem to have a knack (so I've been told, I'm not just tooting my own horn) for throwing things together unexpectedly that just turn out well. I don't really have a rhyme or a reason but I've been cooking for 7 years so it's not that new to me.

I definitely use recipes for new foreign dishes and things like that but usually I just wing it. The bad side is that I can't always remember how to make the things I loved b/c I made it up and then never wrote it down. Haha. Oh well!

Oh, and baking? Well... I don't bake.

[Meenah]

Re: How to Cook Without a Book

Ccvqueen, what is the name and author of the cookbook? This sounds like a book my daughter would enjoy.