Day 33
recipe
Don’t like ‘em; never really have. I love to cook, but I don’t like to use recipes (and I could do without the novellas that often precede them on cooking blogs). Most of the time when I try to follow a recipe, I’m disappointed in how the food turns out and I end up feeling like a failure. I have learned that recipes can get you only so far. For instance, tonight I am making pheasant and apples, which is basically pheasant, onions and apples braised in apple brandy and cider. I’m sure it will be delicious. I read a recipe on one of my favorite food blogs by a guy named Hank Shaw (honest-food.net) who cooks a hell of a lot of game. The recipe was super helpful because it told me what order to cook things in before I pushed it all in the pot to braise, and it gave me an idea of what levels of heat to use. But if I had followed his recipe exactly, I would have burned the onions instead of browning them and the end result would have been lame.
My current way of interacting with recipes is to think about what kinds of flavors or textures I want to experience (i.e. pheasant with something sweet) and then I do some research. I read through five to fifteen recipes and get an idea of what I want to do and then I wing it. The exception is, of course, most baking, because it is a bit more of an exact science. I’ve never been too lucky “winging” it with cakes.
To be honest, I pretty much live my life this way too. I survey my friends, family, books, films, etc. and figure out how to live in a way that works for me and allows me some freedom to improvise. I can’t imagine living any other way. This does present some challenges. Let’s just say the more you improvise your life, the more your life is like a rich stew; certainly, it’s no piece of cake.
