About cooking

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #1669542]

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

The correct answer to the first question is "yes" or "it depends" or "by small increments until the resulting texture or consistency looks right" which is, I think, a bit different from just winging in a knob of this and a pinch of that all at once because it looks about right.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

both of these questions needed a 'both' option.

[panzerwalt.livejournal.com]

yes

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

If I am making an unfamiliar food, or scaling a recipe up/down by a lot, I'll often measure. Sometimes I'll check quantities against a recipe but not bother actually measuring them, just to make sure I'm in the right ballpark.

And of course I measure if I'm baking, because that's Science.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

...for hungry people!

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

How I measure depends on what I'm making and what I'm measuring. For any one dish, I may measure some things by weight, others by volume, and others by smell. For devices I may use anything from a scale to standard measuring spoons and cups to spoons from table settings, container lids, or my hand as devices. I've also been know to base quantities on relative proportions.

The more important it is that the resulting dish be very similar or identical to earlier versions, or the "fussier" the recipe, the more likely it is that I'll measure everything. If precision really is important, I'll measure dry ingredients by weight and liquid by volume.

[oh6.livejournal.com]

I am reasonably capable of throwing together a stir fry without measuring anything, but I weigh everything because I am fanatical about determining the caloric content as accurately as possible to maintain the machine-like precision of my diet plan.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

I have been broken of the habit of measuring flour by volume. Most other ingredients, I go by volume. American units, for that matter.

Except for truffles, which I do somewhat by eye.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I measure till I have a feel for how a particular kind of thing is made, or unless the kind of thing is antithetical to measuring. I answered "by volume" because I prefer it, since I can eyeball a familiar volume more readily than I can heft a mass and know what it is. I do have a kitrchen scale, which I use for winemaking*** mainly but also for a few other things, including curiosity.

***I haven't made wine in a while: the last batch was the year the nice fellow died and I couldn't pay attention to anything and it came out as vinegar. The next year my plum tree** (from which I make wine) seemed to take on my grief, for all the plums were rotted with a fusty grey mold. The year after that there were good plums again, but I only made jam and dried plums and canned plums from them. Maybe this year.

**they are satsuma plums. I also dry and make jam from other plums that come my way, such as the little round yellow cherry-sized ones around the block and the prune-like blue plums at my daughter's apartment.

[refugee50s.livejournal.com]

Mostly I measure, and mostly by volume, because it's easier.

A few things I can do by eye, and seasoning is always by taste.

I do have a kitchen scale, and perhaps if I baked I'd use it for flour.... but as is, it's just not worth dinking with.

[amberdine.livejournal.com]

I use a German-made jewelers scale, because I have it and hey, who doesn't want to measure their flour down to the tenth of a gram?

Okay, maybe that's just me...

I primarily measure to track calories and other nutrition data, not for recipes, but I'll do that on occasion too. And I don't track all the time.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I wish to draw a clear distinction between cooking, which I do by eye and au pif, and baking, which I do strictly by recipe (unless it's bread, and then we're back to "it's complicated").

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

+1, except I don't do bread.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

I use volume or weight, depending on what i'm making and the time of year. I tend to weigh more in Winter when it's dry, as those few low-humidity months are the exception.

[rpresser.livejournal.com]

I also tend to weigh more in winter, but I don't cook.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

This is a ticky box question for me. Somethings are strictly by guess and by golly while others need measurements. Baking tends to be by measurement. Supper is whatever seems like a good idea.

[pperiwinkle.livejournal.com]

Yes, this.

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

When baking, I measure by volume

When cooking something I have never cooked before, I measure by volume.

When cooking something I am familiar with -- I fly by the seat of the pants

[tamago.livejournal.com]

Question one's real answer is: by instinct and experience with recipes I know very well and have internalized (pancakes, stew, bread, etc...) and with measuring devices for recipes I'm following from a book or trying out for the first time from verbal instruction.

Question two's answer is "it depends". If my recipe is written for volume measure, I use volume measure. If it's written for weight, I use weight. Each have their advantages and disadvantages.

Parenthetically, I love the internet because it makes it much easier for me, an American, to find recipes with recipe measurement in weight.

[laetitia-apis.livejournal.com]

I measure some things with cups and spoons, some with my scale, some with the palm of my hand, some by throwing in the whole package, some I eyeball, some I add until it's right . . . .

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

This.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

If I know the recipe and the ingredients well enough, I'll do it by instinct, but I haven't been cooking seriously for long enough to be able to do it that often.

[seawasp]

My answers are "yes" -- I use both instinct/experience and measuring, depending on dish and circumstances.

Volume almost universally, though; I don't HAVE anything in the kitchen I'd trust to weigh anything.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Really? Not even a little cooking scale?

[sraun]

I don't have a scale usable for food at the moment. I rarely bake, and most of the recipes that I do bake are at least somewhat forgiving - I do not make bread from scratch! So, volume if I'm measuring. Some things I do by eye - typically things like curries or scrambled eggs with whatever-is-in-the-pantry or pasta sauce.

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

At home cooking I do it mostly by eye, I do have 50 years of experience to draw on. In a pro environment cooking it depends on just what I'm doing, baking I do both weights & ratio both at home & in the restaurant. I use BTW both metric & US weights, depends on where I got/developed the recipe.

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

I do a lot of cooking and do a lot of both instinctual and by measure. You get an eye to what a tablespoon of looks like in a cooking pan, so I never measure that. If I'm making bread, I measure by weight. If I'm making my chili with beans, I do mix, some measuring, some by taste, some by eye.

If you watch really good cooks, they almost never measure their ingredients.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

IT DEPENDS.

[gryphart.livejournal.com]

If it's an unfamiliar recipe, or if I'm baking something with specific proportions, I measure - if I've made it several times and basically know how it's supposed to look/taste, I go by experience.

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

The correct answer to both questions is both, because it depends on what I'm making. Or: it depends, and until it looks/tastes right.

[thebluerose.livejournal.com]

It depends on volume or weight by what the item is

FREX Flour and sugar can be either and often within the same recipe

Outside the US butter is almost always given by weight

Liquids are usually given by volume

so you need a both or depends option or ticky boxes and not radio buttons :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thee answer to all of these is "it depends"; for example, when I cook bolognese sauce it's mostly "chuck in ingredients until it feels right", when I make bread I use scales for the flour etc. and a measuring cup for water.