To think most people cook from their heads?

[untiedstates]

I can just walk into the kitchen and start cooking. For example, pasta sauce I will chop and onion and get it softening then scan the fridge for veg and protein and chop and bung in. Similar for curry. Similar for soup, stew, pie filling, savoury mince and all sorts. I use recipes when baking. If I’m trying something new then I will usually read 8-10 recipes then make up my own borrowing bits from each.

DH thinks this is some sort of witchcraft. He can accurately follow a recipe but gets extremely panicky if the recipe calls for onion but we only have leek or if mince comes in 400g packets and the recipe calls for 450g.

I think most people cook like me, he thinks most are like him. Who’s BU?

We meal plan and shop for that plan, and when I cook I usually do it from memory apart from when it's a new dish I'm trying.

I may double-check on how much spices a dish needs but that's it.

I make cakes by weighing the eggs first. As my Nan did.

This is why so many people had problems with Jamie Oliver's 15 or 30 minute meals. If you know what you're doing, they probably do only take that length of time, but if you're inexperienced or lacking in confidence it can take a lot longer than that!

Some of DH’s favourite meals have been cooked after he’s opened the fridge and announced there’s nothing in there and I’ve gone and made a ‘fridge meal’ which is basically using whatever I find.

He always says I’m good at making something from nothing but I’m not sure it’s a compliment

I've been cooking meals for 40+ years now, so most things are just done on the fly - but I still spend quite a lot of time looking up recipes and trying things I've not done before - today being an example - we're having pulled pork for the first time ever. Spag bol, shepherd's pie, fish pie, that sort of thing I can do without really thinking about it - curries, too, or steak and chips, paella, risotto - they're all 'from my head'. DH wouldn't know where to start (not complaining, I don't want him cooking, I like doing it!). No one is born knowing how to do this stuff, but when you spend years creating meals, you end up being able to do them without looking anything up.

I cannot for the life of me watch cooking shows and I don't follow recipes in magazines/online, as a pp says - I may not use the ingredients again if too specific. I routinely tell people that I can't cook and I just get by, but I must be able to on some level.
My DM couldn't stand me in the kitchen, so I learned nothing from her. Must be instinct.

I'm the same as you, just make it up as I go along. I might browse a few recipes for inspiration, but usually just wing it.

My DH on the other hand, if we didn't have the onions, would stop cooking, go to the shop, ring me to ask how many onions he should buy, ring again to ask if they should be red or brown, probably ring again to ask if frozen would do, then decide it was all too much trouble and come home with a takeaway pizza, and no onions!

I kind of meal plan but can improvise if needed. I usually follow a recepie the first few times but then change it a bit.
My husband would have to follow a recipe but wouldn't worry about the quantities of meat etc.

I can do that OP, but it came with time and experience.
Your post does make you sound a bit up your own arse, and I think puts people off who are new to cooking for whatever reason

I do the same as you, OP. Much less wasteful that way - everything in the fridge gets used! DH does the same.

It depends. I can cook many things without a recipe (some curries, stews, fried rice, spag bol), but with things like roasts and pastry I look up timings and quantities to be sure.

I'm reasonably good at opening the fridge and making something decent from whatever we've got.

I follow recipes to the letter. Definitely would not start cooking something then see what we have, I need to know we have everything before I start

I never follow a recipe. Even when I actually do look up a recipe, I basically ignore it. The problem with this method is I often can’t repeat the same meal twice!

I cook like you. I read recipe books but for inspiration...I would never measure out ingredients unless I was baking.

Surely most people who are decent at cooking do a bit of both? And people who struggle to cook and lack experience but want to try anyway use recipes more regionally?

We do meal plan but unless I’m making something I’ve never made before the recipes are in my head at this point and like you, I would be confident to improvise where necessary. Never measure out quantities of something like mince, at this point I’ve made enough bolognese to do it by eye.

I do meal plan, but in a more improvised way, similar to op.
So when I'm going to the shops, I'll have my planned meals in my head eg roast chicken; leftover chicken curry; leftover chicken risotto; something to have with the rest of the potatoes; something to use up any leftover veg; something quick.
And depending on what's available I will tweak my meal plan a bit while I'm in the shop.
I do cook from recipes sometimes, but I'm happy to substitute, add, take out.
DH generally prefers more concrete instructions and a more specific shopping list, but he is confident with things like pasta dishes, curry etc to substitute different veg, protein etc.
It's just about being more familiar with different methods.

We are exactly the same in our household, in fact we get a weekly meat/fish box and a weekly veg box so we don’t even know what is coming most weeks! Love to walk in the kitchen and put ingredients together that day. We top up with staples so always have stock, spices, herbs, onion, garlic, etc.

I always follow a recipe, every time. Over confidence can lead to mistakes IMHO. If I've used a recipe a few times I may swap an ingredient for a substitute when I've become comfortable with it.

I'm a very intuitive cook. My sister is a recipe driven cook....perfect measurements and ingredients. We both are good cooks. But she excels at baked goods and cakes and I'm much better at main courses, salads, veggies, sauces etc.
Both have their place. But I prefer a bit of witchcraft.

I make it up as I go along but my husband has to follow recipes to a T

I think there's a balance. If you're a new cook, or not confident - maybe you didnt have someone who ypu learned technique from when you were young, then recipes can teach you to make something nice to eat and you can branch out later.

Equally, some people don't ever make the leap from following steps rigidly to realising that what worked with one ingredient might work just as well with another and build up a repertoire of interchangeable techniques that mean you can just look at what you have and go from there.

And of course a third group just open a packet and stick it in the microwave.

None of these approaches is wrong but as 99% of the time an "instinctive" cook (of consistently decent food) has had lots and lots of practice, I'd say these days they're less common.

Both DP and I are intuitive cooks, but it's not from experience or confidence, it's just naturally how we are. We both only really started cooking when we moved in together a few years ago, and though I had more experience than he did, he's just a natural and better than me. We occasionally use recipes for something totally brand new to us, or for baking, but we still only use them as guides, never to the letter.

We're also crap at planning, so will either use stuff that we have or go and pick up some random ingredients we fancy the look of and throw something together.

I think it's a left brain/right brain kind of thing, more than confidence, experience, ability, etc.

I cook ‘from my head’ as you say. If something is missing or different amounts then I can easily substitute/adjust. If cooking something totally new I follow a recipe but often tweak it.

DH like to follow a recipe and also timings to the second eg if it says on the packet to bake for 20 minutes that’s what he does and then sometimes things aren’t quite cooked etc whereas for me the 20 minutes is a guide (and depends on what else you are cooking /our oven etc) so will happily let something cook longer if needed and can tell by sight if something is ready.

I could burn salad, honestly. I can just about feed my kids reasonable food when needed (DH cooks) but I haven't got a clue what to do off the top of my head.

You do realise that it's experience as well that helps you do it off the top of your head? Loads of people don't know what to do. I couldn't tell you if a meal would be improved by cumin, coriander or curry powder for love nor money. Other people can.

My dd12 already improvises. She makes things like pancakes and pasta dishes and has found her own favourites through trial and error. Today she put bananas in her mix and other times she will use yogurt. I do both. For family meals I usually just cook around the meat so mince could be spag Bol, lasagne, rissoles, burger, shepherds pie, burritos but I won't decide until the day and won't use a recipe. If I have visitors then I might look up some recipes for I inspiration and I did try 4 shops last week looking for a fennel bulb for a salad which I thought was central to the taste.