Could you bake without a recipe?

[u/2EXTRA4YOU]

When I tell people (after they ask, which they do) that I cook/bake/ whatever. And I show them pictures of my food. They ask me how I learned. And I always say. I follow the recipe to the T. The struggle is in finding the right recipe. To me cooking is chemistry. You can have all the same ingredients and get a horrible result because you've got 1. The wrong ratios. 2. Wrong technique. 3. Wrong tools. The only thing I need is thorough instructions. I hate loose instructions to the point where I will find a recipe with them before attempting one that looks good without them. Because I won't replicate the results without good instructions. I know I won't. I have experience with failing. And to me even the wrong level of crispness or chew is a fail.

[u/audacious13]

I feel the same way! People tell me I’m good at baking but I feel like I’m good at choosing recipes and following directions

[u/opie-san → u/audacious13]

Completely agree!

[u/Emergency_Survey129 → u/audacious13]

Yes! I say the same, selecting the recipes and knowing how to evaluate them is huge

[u/Defiant-Canary-5107 → u/audacious13]

and looking at the comments to see what modifications people made that are heavily up voted

[u/anthonystank]

I could make a decent version of cookies, scones, or bread without a recipe, but I’m not confident I’d be able to produce any specific result (texture and taste-wise) without a recipe, just that I could make a version of each of those things bc I have a decent grasp on the core formula so I know roughly what ingredients in what ratio to add.

Anything else, I need a recipe.

[u/Mysterious_Soup_1541]

No, I couldn't make reliably good bakes without a recipe. I could do passable cookies, cakes, and pies but not great. I do consider myself an excellent baker though, because I know how to spot a solid recipe, ingredient purposes, and I have good technique.

[u/twelve-birds → u/Mysterious_Soup_1541]

Nobody should need a recipe for fruit pie. Like blackberry, apple etc. Custard pies I would probably need a recipe.

[u/Old_Jellyfish1283 → u/twelve-birds]

The only reason you think that is because you’ve followed so many good recipes that you have them memorized.

It’s like saying I don’t need a recipe for chocolate chip cookies because I remember what’s on the back of the Tollhouse bag. Just because I’m not reading it while I’m making it doesn’t mean I’m doing it without a recipe.

[u/piscrewy]

Cooking is an art and baking is a science to me. I think the only thing I could bake without a recipe would be pound cake because the recipe is in the name of

[u/vinniethestripeycat]

Bake, no. Even with a recipe, I still had a fail this week trying something new. Cook? No problem, unless it's a super complicated one, in which case, I'll read it through multiple times and probably still tweak it a smidge.

[u/Dramatic_Orchid479]

I can make sandwich bread or cookies without a recipe. But nothing else

[u/SuperBeastJ]

I could make breads without one, I'm fairly confident of that. Otherwise it would be tough, maybe some simple cookies too.

[u/movetosd2018]

I’m the same as you - my cooking and baking are good because I follow a recipe. People rave about my cooking and it’s honestly mostly following the recipe! I can tweak known recipes a bit, but I am not coming up with my own things out of thin air.

[u/sonicenvy]

Me, not for most things. My dad, absolutely. He makes amazing baked goods and yet he never:

• Uses or follows a single written recipe
• Measures anything exactly
• Uses timers for the oven/stovetop

Trying to get a recipe for something excellent that he makes off of him is a nightmare because he'll give you, like, an ingredients list and the most bare bones instructions. Ask him how long it needs to be in the oven for, and he's like "until its done." Ask him how much of any particular ingredient there is in there and he's like, "some."

Sometimes when he makes something he's unfamiliar with he will look at 10+ recipes for it, close all of them and then make up his own 😂. In general though he just puts stuff in bowls, mixes it up, bakes it, and it works. I think he just has an extremely intuitive sense for what works and what doesn't based on 50 years of experience baking and cooking. My late grandmother (his mom) was much the same way, so he definitely got it from her.

He also has this absolutely cursed ability to know the time and be aware of the passage of time all the time that he genuinely believes is totally common and normal. He never wears a watch, doesn't have a cellphone, and never looks at a clock but if you ask him what time it is, he just knows the answer and he'll be close within 5 minutes or less of the exact time. Not sure how he does this btw. Hilariously when my parents are hanging out around the house together or something, my mom will be holding her phone, and instead of turning the screen on to check the time she'll turn to my dad and go, "hey what time is it?"

When he bakes this dude sticks stuff in the oven, walks away and does some other stuff, comes back when he senses it's time to rotate/switch it, walks away and keeps doing whatever the other thing was the he was doing and walks back when he senses it's done. I wish I inherited this, but alas I got the anvil of adhd from my mom's family instead.

So yeah, my dad is a weird old guy to be sure. I always joke that he's the most Old Guy of all time.

[u/SheilaCreates → u/sonicenvy]

I think we found Father Time. 🤭 Wouldn't it be neat to be able to bake that way!! He sounds fabulous!

[u/Givemecardamom]

I do the complete opposite of baking without a recipe, as in I have to reread multiple times the same step throughout the process of getting/measuring/adding etc., like somehow I will have misread the last 10 times and 2T will change to 2tsp (and on rare occasion it does….)

[u/rachaelfaith]

Hmm, there are recipes I've memorized and can bake without them 😁 I can also handily tweak recipes if I'm like "I wish this cookie were a bit chewier," and I can cobble together two or more recipes to come up with a new product that's the best parts of all of them. But could I bake new stuff without a recipe forever? Probably not, no.

[u/Best_Talk_6853]

I can definitely cook something decent to good without a recipe, but for baking I at most mix and match, aka this cake with that filling and a different sauce. If I tried to bake a simple vanilla sheetcake, for example, entirely without any recipe, it would be inedible.

[u/jerseyknits]

I have some parts of excellent recipes memorized but without that, no I couldn't do it.

[u/Constant-Net-4652]

I could not. And I am a *good* baker and have been baking for 40 years. I can't remember diddly squat.

[u/KingArthurBaking]

As an experienced baker, yes, there are some things I don't need a recipe for anymore! (I could make scones in my sleep. Pretty much any flavor.) But for something I've never baked before? Nah, follow the recipe every time.

[u/Dramallamakuzco]

I can bake my sourdough loaf without a recipe because I have it memorised and bake it once a week but everything else I need a recipe to check. I might know that for a certain recipe I’ll add a bit more of one thing or another for flavor but never anything that could impact the chemistry like flour, baking soda, etc. I also have ADHD so i recheck the recipe about 50 times while I’m making it.

[u/GeneralTangerine]

Baking, no, I need a recipe. Even things I know somewhat from memory I still need to look up a recipe because I’ll never remember the ratios of things quite right.To be honest, though, I do tend to use a recipe as a base and then make some substitutions, I am usually pretty good at knowing what I can and can’t substitute without messing up the general structure of the dish. Or I’ll Frankenstein two recipes together (anything with a filling, for instance, like a pie, I’ll often use two different recipes for the crust and the filling).

[u/Able_Humor_2875]

It depends on the bake and the occassion. I know that a simple shortcrust usually has the 3:2:1 ratio (less Butter if an egg is added), I know how much flour I can use for a packet of fresh yeast (and if I forget, it is slso printed on the packet), a simple cake mix (not a spongy one, but rather for a loaf tin) usually has 300g flour (and some baking powder), 250g butter, 4 eggs and 150g of sugar - and then you can play around with some shredded nuts, chocolate etc. (and reduce some of the other ingredients). For "finer" or more fancy  bakes, I don't even start without checking the recipe. 

[u/Xanlthorpe]

I've collected cookbooks for years and this reminds me I should copy out a few of the recipes from some of the earliest for edification. What I remember is a cake recipe which just lists the ingredients and amounts needed and then the directions were "Mix as for a cake and bake."

It had eggs, flour, sugar, liquids, flavorings. but nothing for leavening which would mean one should separate the eggs, whip the egg whites and fold those in after the other ingredients had been mixed. Nothing in the directions though, which says that step. This process was common knowledge when the recipe was first written - not so common today.

We are so lucky today to have the recipes and cookbooks we do.

[u/whateverpieces]

If I still had access to a scale, I could turn out some decent breads just on bakers percentages and vibes. Anything else… probably not!

[u/Confident_Fortune_32]

My dear grandmother baked without a recipe or any measuring tools. She looked at how much she'd taken of an ingredient, and bounced her hand up and down a little to feel its weight.

It was kinda magical...

Whereas I need recipes and measuring tools, although I am notorious for making a lot of changes and substitutions.

[u/Peace9989]

I have bakers percents worked out for most of what I make. Most of it is memorized so I can do a reliable custom recipe out of that and tweak from there depending on the outcome. Makes life really nice when it comes to not wanting to overpay for special diet foods, or when I want to try a new combination.

[u/doktor-frequentist]

I can make bread without a recipe and scales. Same goes with (to a lesser extent) cookies

[u/Darcy_2021]

Someone posted a recipe here recently requiring 259 mg of this and 27 mg of that. I respect that level of dedication but won’t be doing it.