How often do you deviate from the stated recipe?

puddy

I cant think of the last time I cooked a dish from a recipe that was actually the recipe. In fact some of my dishes could come under the trade descriptions act!

Yesterday I cooked up a beef bourginon to eat today. Its in the fridge now, melding the flavours together.

The recipe called for beef, pearl onions (or shallots) bouquet garni, bacon or lardons, red wine, sliced garlic, water, tomato puree, chestnut mushrooms

I didnt have tomato puree (huge oversight in a kitchen!), bacon, pearl onions, bouquet garni

So the dish consists of beef, normal huge onions!, a tea infuser filled with herbs, red pesto intead of tom puree, a squirt of HP's new Guiness Sauce (yum) for the hell of it, chorizo instead of bacon, added black olives for the hell of it including their juice instead of the water and red wine and the mushrooms.

I cant tell you how delicious it smells. The advice on the recipe was to cook it one day and eat it the next so I'll reheat it later. This took some negotiation with OH who usually refuses to eat things that have been cooked previously, but he'll love it.

I think the French would cross themselves in horror!

oldtractor

frequently.

Lazy_Liz

I often deiviate from the recipe, either becuase I don't have all the ingredients or becuse I find an error or fault with the method. I find this is particulary so for recipies from TV shows downloaded from the net, I think the poor harrased reserchers often make mistakes in getting the method down. I have a recipie from the Hairry Bikers for Turkey and Ham pie with cranberry topping which has the cranberries boiled in a huge amount or water, the topping would never set if you used this amount of water and the given gelatine.
I have a favorite recipe for pasta with gorgonzola spinach and pinenuts which has been made at various times with all kinds of blue cheese, different types or cabbage or broccoli and walnuts insted of pinenuts, it makes DH laugh when I tell him what I am making!

adelight

Everytime! I sub loads and change quantities for the stuff I do/don't like and to alter the portions.

CCP

I tend to use recipes for ideas and substitute ingredients and quantities according to what I've got or what I fancy, so most of my cooking ends up 'inspired by' a particular recipe. In fact, now I think of it, just about all of my genuine culinary disasters have been where I have followed the recipe exactly - I'm not sure quite what that tells me! :rotfl:

Naide

I always deviate from the recipe and come up with some really tasty stuff. My recent was a fish pie which ended up having pasta in it, with a roux sauce and a crunchy, cheesy topping. The kids love it!

puddy

my mum would stick rigidly to recipes. i suppose some people do

happy35

i tend to make a recipe 99% properly the first time and over time adapt it to what I have

stardrops42

I don't think I've stuck to a recipe yet! Usually because I don't have most of the ingredients;) Anyway I've come up with some of my best dishes that way:rotfl:

Allegra

The only time in my life I actually stuck to the recipe as published is when I was testing recipes for a website. Normally my approach is to use the recipe as merely a starting point - a suggestion. Where that suggestion will eventually take me is anyone's guess....

Reverbe

almost always unless baking..often i will even make meals up or for example do a soup which might have the basic ingredients the same but never tastes the same twice as I go to store cupboards and put in herbs and spices saying some of this some of that whatever takes me fancy..