• @[email protected]
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    187 months ago

    It’s the only way to season food. If you’re good enough, you can just imagine the flavors, but I still have to rummage the spice cabinet and sniff to get the dish to taste just right.

    • @[email protected]
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      197 months ago

      Critical is that HOW you learn this is trial and error.

      Most people can imagine the result of combining two images, say a frog riding a turtle. We can imagine what a handful of wet spaghetti might sound like being dropped onto the hood of a car. We can imagine what a fluffy bunny that’s been rolling in sand might feel like.

      But that isn’t just because those senses are somehow intrinsically better for synthesis and prediction. We just got a ton more practice with them. As kids we got to draw, we got to play with toys, we touched everything, we bashed all kinds of stuff together.

      But most of us, we just got the food prepared for us with no awareness of the properties of the constituent ingredients.

      You gotta act like a toddler in the kitchen to grow that part of your brain.

      • @[email protected]
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        97 months ago

        I binge watched a lot of Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares (the UK) one

        The best tip ever given on those shows is Gordon Ramsay yelling “taste taste taste!” at everyone.

        Tasting as you go is what improved my cooking the most. I also vigorously smell everything too.

    • Refurbished Refurbisher
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      37 months ago

      I don’t even sniff them; I just remember how they taste/smell, and then I end up adding vanilla extract to savoury dishes and it tastes amazing

    • beefbot
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      16 months ago

      Mmm, cinnamon and garlic and cloves and rosemary! Perfect for that hangover cure that makes you barf 😍😜

  • @[email protected]
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    76 months ago

    “Measure carefully, friends!” - Chef Jean Pierre on YouTube as he yeets in approximately random eyeballed quantities of everything.

  • @[email protected]
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    407 months ago

    My chef yells at me because I do this all the time.

    Though he’s mainly mad because I didn’t measure a single fuckin thing and can’t recreate it

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      also, if you do write down the recipe and try to recreate it on another day, it doesn’t work because your mood has changed and now the flavor doesn’t match anymore.

      has happened to me many times now.

    • @[email protected]
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      37 months ago

      If your chef has a nose and taste buds he should be able to figure it out by remaking it a few times.

  • FartsWithAnAccent
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    667 months ago

    “Can you share the recipe?”

    “Nope!”

    “Seriously?”

    “Seriously, I don’t remember.”

    • @[email protected]
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      77 months ago

      for me it’s easy because i mostly remember what i just made. but that’s also because i pay special attention to what i do and what comes out afterwards, kinda to do semi-structured research.

      • FartsWithAnAccent
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        47 months ago

        Some people would definitely not remember all the details, but yeah, this might not be an issue for others.

    • ...m...
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      7 months ago

      …that’s pretty much my improvisational style, everything eyeballed, nothing measured: sometimes things turn out amazing but of course the cost of those happy surprises is that i’ll never make it the same way again; couldn’t if i tried…

      …i dated a girl who dogmatically followed published recipes, considered any deviations anathema to the authors’ labor developing them, and she was horrified to watch me cook…

  • @[email protected]
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    227 months ago

    Isn’t this just a sign of inexperience? If you have been cooking for a reasonable time, you will know which spices to use when going for what sort of flavour.

    • @[email protected]
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      137 months ago

      yeah but there’s also a lot of people just seeing cooking as a chore and never really paying attention to it, therefore not learning much or anything at all.

      it takes patience and a bit of dedication to actually learn cooking in a reasonable way. otherwise you’re just following recipe.