A Disclaimer Regarding Recipes

I can recall vividly (which is a shock to many who know me, as my memory is mediocre on its best day) my first time picking up my very own copy of "The Joy of Cooking" as I drove off to my junior year of college.  I would now have a kitchen of my own (well, one shared with the four fraternity brothers I would be living with) and hence a reason to cook.  Little did I know that our fridge would soon find itself void of anything but beer and mustard, but that is another story entirely.

I picked up my book and thumbed through the recipes found in its pages.  I determined then to make a number of the items.  Well, I still have "The Joy of Cooking" and still thumb through it on occasion, but I don't think I have ever followed one of its recipes to the letter.  You see, for me, a recipe is a guide, not an absolute.  Making pancakes or risotto or soup is not the same thing as building a cabinet from IKEA.  For the cabinet, if you do not follow the instructions precisely - or sometimes even if you do - you will not end up with a piece of furniture resembling what you thought you were buying.  Using only some of the pieces, or adding more that you think you like better, will lead you to disaster.  A recipe is not the same.

I use recipes as a basic roadmap and to help with some of the tougher parts.  For instance, if baking a cake, a recipe will tell me the ratio of flour to sugar to use, and how many eggs.  That is not something I can just do by feel.  But if I like my spongecake with a bit more vanilla than normal - which I do - I might double the vanilla extract I put in.  That is ok.  If you like garlic, I mean REALLY like garlic, add garlic to a recipe I post that doesn't call for it.  It likely won't do anything harmful.  (Within reason, obviously. Garlic coffee buttercream isn't something I would ever crave.)  If you are on a diet, use milk instead of cream.  If that changes the consistency a bit, add cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken it, or eat it with the new consistency.  It might even be better than mine.  If you like your risotto softer than I do, add more stock and cook it a bit longer.

What I am trying to say is this: cooking, unlike building a cabinet, is completely subjective.  If the cabinet only has three legs and no shelves, it is not so useful.  But food is not like that.  Use recipes to get a basic outline of what you want to make, but then make it your own.  Trust me, I won't be offended, and neither will the author of any cookbook out there.  (But if yours ends up great, send it to me!)