Some people don’t cook at all, some only cook as a necessity to eat, yet others cook to put food on the table for their families, and others cook for the pleasure of it. Some cooks rely oncooking classes, old family recipes, or cookbooks to guide them with food preparation. A few cooks have gone beyond following other people’s cooking directions and create their own dishes. Creating your own dishes will be more successful if a few rules are followed. Wanting to create something new does not mean we ignore the cooking wisdom of decades.
There are Different Kinds of Cooks
There are different kinds of cooks and there are people who don’t cook. The people who don’t cook may have servants to do it for them, or they may choose not to learn to cook relying on packaged food and restaurants for their meals. There are men and women who rely on their spouses to do all the cooking. Microwave ovens and the modern food industry make it possible for people to eat without doing anything more than opening a package and dishing up the food or heating it. Frozen entries are available in a great variety of foods. Take out meals are readily available at local restaurants.
Another segment of people does basic cooking to prepare meals to feed themselves or their families. They use mixes of semi-prepared food, frozen dinners, and simple recipes out of cookbooks. And they do just fine. These people would be lost without a recipe to follow and rarely even substitute ingredients. For these people, cooking is not a creative process but a necessary task to put food on the table or create a dish to take to a community event.
The third group of people love to cook. The cooking is a creative process that brings them joy as well as a meal or a treat to share. These cooks can whip up a good meal out of what is in the refrigerator without the help of a recipe. These cooks intuitively know what will taste good combined and how to cook it. They know that each ingredient in a recipe plays an important role. They know that the quality of the ingredients determines the success of the dish. Purchasing herbs from quality companies such as Spice World Inc helps them create better-tasting dishes.
6 steps to Creating Recipes
Creative cooks often want to create a new recipe for a food they are craving but can’t find a recipe for. They also want to improve on existing recipes. But creating a successful new recipe is not that easy. A certain knowledge of foods and nutrition is necessary for cooks creating new combinations of ingredients. The following 6 steps will help those considering making their own recipes:
1. Have the skills, knowledge, and confidence to attempt the creation of a new recipe. Be brave enough to take the plunge into creating something new to eat. If the cook is concerned about wasting ingredients, make a small portion first. Master the basic cooking techniques and learn to cook the classic recipes for different dishes. you can’t create a fantastic new cake recipe if you don’t know how to bake a cake. Learn proper ingredient ratios, common cooking techniques, times and temperatures that are recommended for different types of foods, and other basic cooking information.
2. Work with things you know. Use ingredients you are familiar with to improve on existing recipes. A family recipe might be a good place to start. Think about how the recipe could be improved and make those changes. Perhaps choose a food you like and find new ways to use it. Experiment with changing or adding new herbs and spices to a familiar recipe. One example could be pizza.
3. Seek inspiration from sources such as food blogs, recipe books, magazines, and TV cooking shows. These tested recipes will give you an idea about what ingredient proportions work together, the best cooking methods, and which herbs and spices work with which meats and vegetables. Let’s say you want to have your own Mexican coleslaw recipe. You may collect a group of recipes that come close to what you want to create and adapt the information into your own recipe.
4. Once you have your recipe idea and inspiration. Decide on the ingredients to use and the amounts of each ingredient. Write up a basic recipe including all of the ingredients and the amounts to use. Decide when to add each ingredient and how to incorporate it into the recipe. Decide on cooking temperature and times. Then, compare your recipe to other recipes that are similar. This might help you catch errors in amounts of ingredients or cooking techniques to use.
5. When the recipe is written out and looks correct, make a test batch. When the food is being prepared, be ready to make changes as you go and note them on the recipe. The preparation of a new recipe is where the kinks are worked out and mistakes are corrected. This is the time to take notes on the cooking time and temperature that really worked and the cooking techniques such as roasting, basting, simmering, and baking that worked best. The first try might need to be improved on to be more tender, have spices adjusted, or change how individual ingredients are treated. This could be as simple as browning the diced onions instead of adding them in raw. The texture could need changes. There are details that must be tried to know if they work or need to be altered.
6. Find someone to taste the new recipe and give feedback. You will want information on the flavor and texture of the recipe as well as the cooking process used. Once you have feedback from several people, you can adjust the recipe and have them try it again. Ask them to rate seasoning, the balance of flavors, texture, and amounts and proportions of ingredients.
When the Recipe is Perfect or Not
When all the steps are followed, a cook can be pretty sure of being able to create successful recipes. The end result should be a dish that is unique, healthier or an improvement on existing recipes. If the first attempt is not perfect, there are limitless chances to improve on it. Once the recipe is a success, you need to decide to keep it as a signature dish only you make, to share it with friends, or even publish it.
