Conference turris::cooks

    I am a "no measure cook" and I always cook with whatever I have handy,
    I improvise a lot, and cook from memory, and I get great stuff but
    hardly can be repeated just because of that, it is never the same
    because there is no exact measurement.  I learned to cook from my
    mother, and I learned the "right" or "exact" consistency by watching
    her.  I make all sorts of pies, cakes, puddins, etc, with no measure
    whatsoever...
    I make Spanish "paellas" from 6 to 30 people (I use the 4 burners of
    the stove simultaneously) and never measure either liquids, or rice,
    just measure "2 handfuls" of rice per person and if they tell me
    they're hungry... add a few extra handfuls! (my son always gets "4")
    It would be great if you could watch people cooking and "see" the
    different stages of cooking, I found that to be the best way to achieve
    success...  Also, you could watch how she/he did "measure" the amounts
    and make a mental note of the amount/volume for use of your own.
    It is great to experiment and learn from our own selves...
    Best luck!  Ana
    

    I also improvise and create my own recipes - and rarely use a written
    recipe except as a launching point.  However, baking
    requires exact proportions, the correct choice of flour, and the correct
    method for something to turn out well every time.  It takes experience 
    to know when you can substitute something or change the proportions,
    and what know what effect it will have on the finished product.  I think
    that you will gain experience from using good tested baking recipes at 
    first.  Look at a good baking book - one that explains *why* things are done
    the way that they are as well as giving you recipes that you like -
    read the "about baking" section.
    
    As an example, when making quick breads and muffins, the flour is added
    to the liquid last and combined quickly without overbeating.  Why?
    Because when flour comes into contact with liquid, gluten is
    formed.  (I think that it is the reaction of the protein in the flour
    with the liquid)  The more that the dough is worked, the more gluten is
    developed, and the more elastic the dough will become - great result if
    you are making a yeast dough, but if you are making a cake, muffin,
    quick bread, pie crust or cookie, the goal is a tender dough. 
    Overworking will cause the end result to be tough and not to rise
    nicely when baked. 
    
    Also, the protein content of the flour you use will affect the end
    result.  Flour with a high protein content (15-17 grams) is good for
    making yeast bread because more gluten will be developed.  Flour with a
    lower protein content will make a more tender cake or pie crust.  I buy 
    "bread flour" for my yeast breads and an "all purpose"
    flour with the lowest protein content I can find for cakes, muffins,
    pie crusts, etc.
    
    Oven temperature is also very important in baking - preheat your oven and
    consider getting an oven thermometer - most ovens are at least 50
    degrees F off. 
    
    Make quick notes when you are experimenting with a baking recipe - if
    something goes wrong you may be able to understand what happened and
    not make that mistake again - if you got great results you will be able
    to duplicate it!
    
    Cathryn
    
    
    
    

    I've had several discussions with my husband, who is a very
    self-conscious cook but who likes food in general, about which
    ingredients need to be measured and which ones don't.  In general, I
    told him to measure things which are chemically or structurally
    important to the cooking process, and not to measure things that are
    important only to the flavor.  Chemically important would be something
    like the proportion of leavening agent to flour, where the recipe won't
    work if you are off by a huge amount.  Structurally important would be
    the oil going into an emulsion, like making salad dressing.  left to
    his devices, he would cautiously measure things like chopped garlic,
    which tends to cause dinner to be a late-night affair.  I try to steer
    him away from trying to make fussy things like hollandaise sauce (which
    he made once, which I think is the same number of times I have bothered
    to make it).  Of course, he also has to know that several of his
    favorite recipes are no longer made according to the original printed
    recipe and may not even use the printed ingredients - I keep meaning to
    annotate some of the older cookbooks but I never seem to get around to
    it.
    
    I too was taught to use the "muffin method" of mixing all the wet
    ingredients in one bowl, all the dry ingredients in another, and then
    combining them without much mixing to make things like muffins (as
    opposed to the "cake mthod" where the combination is beaten).  I have
    gotten lazy since then and usually just put the wet ingredients into a
    well in the bowl of dry ingredients, mix them together, and then
    quickly incorporate them into the dry ingredients.  I haven't noticed
    much of a difference.  It is more a matter of how much you work the wet
    flour and build up gluten, same deal as making pie crust.  I have never
    figured out how to make pie crust with the food processor, but it only
    takes about two minutes with a pastry blender, which is a lot easier to
    clean - with the processor the dough always ends up overworked and
    tough.
    
    /Charlotte

    I have a paperback book called _The_Cookbook_Decoder_ which has
    excellent information by a chemist, written with a sense of humor. 
    It's probably out of print, but would be worth searching out if you are
    really curious.
    
    Laura

    A good cookbook that gives a lot of information about the chemistry of
    cooking is Madeleine Kamman's "The Making of a Cook."  That particular
    book helped me get a feel for what I can play with in a recipe.  I'm a
    cook more than a baker, though, so I didn't read those parts!
    
    *Susan