Have you ever tried to cook using recipes and followed them to the T, thinking that’s the recipe for success, but for some reason, the food didn’t turn out? Or worse yet, ended up with a… disaster?
Watch what America’s most beloved French chef and cooking show host (and my favorite), Jacques Pepin has to say on this topic:
What do you think – do you agree?
Many people believe if they follow a “tried and true” recipe exactly as written, you’ll end up with a successful dish. But in reality, it’s often not the case. Many fear if they deviate, it will often result in some kind of disaster.
Actually it’s the opposite!
Following recipes exactly is not the recipe for success. It’s often a recipe for disaster.
Why?
Because the sameness is an illusion.
What Jacques meant is this–even when someone as accomplished as he is cooking in the same kitchen, the outcome may not come out the same especially if you follow the recipe exactly – depending on the season, variety, size, and ripeness of the ingredients, moisture in the ingredients, and air temperature, etc, etc…. all these variables change the final dish.
If that’s done by different people in different kitchens using different tools, with varying skill levels… you know what’s gonna happen. A completely different dish will come out in the end just like the French chef says. Now that doesn’t necessarily result in a bad dish, but it can be significantly different.
When I was writing my cookbook, I did an extensive recipe test with average cooks, because I’m Japanese, I wanted to observe how American people cook to make sure that my book reflects the way they cook and be truly helpful, and not adding my Japanese bias to it. I observed these recipe testers in either my own or their kitchen. With some others I asked them to try my recipes at home and give me feedback to ensure what I wrote would be clear enough.
This is what I found.
- Measuring: Some eyeballs the amount, some use the measuring spoon and cups exactly. The interesting thing is, when it called for 1 tablespoon, some heaped it up like a mountain (probably 2 TBS), some filled it to half. The difference is… like 4 times more or less.
- Even though the same recipe was used, some told me that it has too many mushrooms and to reduce the amount or take them out. Others suggested I should’ve increased the number of mushrooms by 3 times.
- The size of the vegetables varied a lot. Some were using a very small size specimen, some were using XL. This is like me wearing my 6’5″, well over 200 lbs brother-in-law Dan’s shoes. (I wear 4 1/2 shoes! What I actually need is his 9-year-old daughter Anna’s children size 3 shoes! LOL)
Do you see where I’m going? The “exact” ingredients don’t matter that much, because the deviation of each specimen and conditions, personal preference, and kitchen tools and equipment, etc. are all quite different. So that’s why following recipes exactly doesn’t result in the same finished product.
As long as you like the final dish, that’s all that matters. Especially when it’s your everyday cooking.
Another thing I found. People tend to obsess about the “exact” ingredients and amount and time it takes for something to be cooked, but they tend not to pay as much attention to the level of the heat let alone adjusting it and also the actual size of the pots and pans they are using..
And many people don’t taste their food while cooking even when the recipe says “adjust seasoning to taste”.
When I do initial consultations with my clients and they say “I follow the recipes exactly and it doesn’t taste good.” The first thing I ask is, “do you taste your food while you are cooking?”
Some of them are “What? Taste food? The recipe didn’t tell me to taste!” Additionally even when the instruction says “adjust seasoning to taste” many home cooks seem to skip that part.
Hey, that’s the best part of home cooking! Don’t miss that cook’s treat!
Well, this blog post is getting long…
I have a lot more to say about what IS, then, the recipe for success. But I’ll save that for later.
So what do you think? What is your biggest take away from this post? Let me know in the comment section.
