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?

Like lots of people we're in the middle of you two - we meal plan so I wouldn't start making a sauce then decide what's going in it, but nor would I use a recipe unless it's something new, and if I were using a recipe I'd feel free to adapt it. We didn't use to meal plan but winging it just didn't work for us once we were both full-time working parents - our food waste and so our shopping bill also went down considerably when we started planning.

Nah I just chuck stuff in and hope for the best!!
Love my slow cooker, everything gets chucked in!!!

I'm quite a confident cook, in that I can think of what's in the fridge/freezer/cupboards, and which veg or salad items need using up and create something without too much hassle.

More like a 'Ready, Steady, Cook!' approach

The idea of prescribed meals on set days fills me with horror.

Like you OP, I do all the cooking from my head and I often make up new recipes. However, baking is a different story. So much could go wrong if I just “eyeball” the ingredient quantities and the order of preparation.

I rarely use a recipe. I only use them if it’s a new dish or a difficult dessert that requires accuracy. I use taste, touch and eye to measure.
A lot of what I cook I substitute things that I have handy or go out of date. I think being a good cook means improving and experimenting. But it take practice and time, I cooked from the ages of 5 so it get sort of embedded. My bf only started cooking around five years ago (when he met me) and he still doesn’t get how I cook. He still struggle to get that he can add a whole bag of something rather then leaving that last little bit.

I’m with you, OP. I loosely meal plan, but at least 2-3 nights a week I just look at what we’ve got in and rustle something up.

It comes from experience, though, and being confident with flavours and seasonings. DH is the same. We probably follow a recipe a couple of times a year only.

I only ever use a recipe for baking, never been able to wing a cake

When cooking something new then it's often based on something I've eaten out and I just make my own version of it.

I also get the v basics of a recipe kinda stuck in my memory, so if I see something on TV I'll remember enough of it but won't refer to the actual recipe again when it comes to cooking it

I follow recipes pretty much to the letter. I'm a scientist so I think that plays into it. I can improvise if needed and do adapt recipes but I like having a written recipe to follow unless it is something simple.

In my experience, as well, people who don't meal plan and just cook what's in the fridge actually just eat very samey meals. It's hard to do that and have a real variety of cuisines and without running to the shops every five minutes.

I'm crap at recipes, it never tastes how I want so I always have to freestyle.

Recipes are useful for inspiration or something technical like baking where ratios and timing matter.

I can't imagine cooking something familiar like a bolognese by actually weighing things out and getting certain things in.
Mince, tinned tomatoes, random veg, pasta, seasonings and bolognese is on the menu. Time doesn't matter, as long as the mince and veg are cooked, and the longer to simmer the better. Ratios don't matter either. So if you've cooked it more than a few times, why would you follow a recipe?

I tend to go off piste anyway as it's too awkward trying to follow the recipe and keep up with it.

The actual act of cooking is easy but not everyone is an instinctual cook. I am..I can look in the fridge, see what's there and make something up. Once you know some basic techniques and understand what flavours compliment each other its quicker and easier than following recipes.

YANBU Husband asked me how long I timed a fried egg for yesterday. I just know when it’s ready (due to the thousands of eggs I’ve cooked him in the last 20 years)

Grew up poor, so food was often made from what we have.

Now I'm poor, but not as poor, and still make food out of what's available and I'd consider myself a bloody good cook.

DH was the eldest of 5 siblings and his parents used to have to make sure they always had enough so they followed recipes to the T. He also gets anxious cooking without instructions.

I do as you do OP. I may occasionally follow a recipe once but usually end up adjusting it as I go, tasting and adding more whatever. DH follows a recipe to the letter then wonders why it’s not nice.

I’m not sure it is experience, more instinct. I’ve been cooking less time than he has.

I like a recipe for inspiration. Then I adapt it to suit my preference.
I don't understand people who say they can't cook. It's like saying they can't read.

The more experience you have, the more you cook without recipe in my experience. O do the same like you now. Read few and make a combination. Sometimes I freestyle completely.

Only once it happened that DH said he "can't, just can't so sorry" eat it😂 Tbf I didn't eat it too.

I cook from my head. Over time you get a feel for what herbs and spices go with each other and go with which meats/fish/veg. We keep a store cupboard of we add to meat and veg to make it tasty. My DH needs a recipe and thinks its bonkers to substitute things. We do meal plan but more of a 'whats our protien that night plan'

I'm like you OP - but I enjoy cooking and am relatively competent.

My DH would prefer to follow a recipe

I have maybe 3-4 things I can cook without a recipe. Everything else, I use a recipe. Despite cooking near enough every night for the last 13 years, my brain just doesn’t work that way that I can improvise and come up with substitutes and amounts without a recipe. I mean, I could cook basic meat and veg stuff til the cows come home, but as I like to try different stuff, I need some help with that.

Depends
New stuff and baking I use a recipe
Once I've cooked something a few times then it's freestyle. So ragu, cottage pie, beef stew, pasta things, most chicken stuff I wouldn't use a recipe for

Either way is fine, whatever works and gets the job done. I do a mix of both but leaning on the recipe side. I have a friend who thinks she’s a superior human because she does it the way you do, actually would mock my using recipes. Yet she always raved about what I cooked when they came over for dinner.

We do a mixture. We can both cook from scratch but now that we are not quite so strapped for cash we are trying to branch out a bit and try more different styles of cookery. We are also still quite keen to avoid waste so don't keep more perishables than will definitely get eaten, and have limited time for either shopping or dithering about what to cook.

Starters and mains I tend to wing it, some of my greatest successes have been complete inventions, but I can't bake without a recipe and most puddings I use a recipe for, too.

But then I don't often cook puddings, tbh, unless it's something easy like a crumble or rice pudding. And then it's usually to use up stuff, especially rice pudding, when I've got cream left over from something else.

The thing is, a lot of the dishes you’ve mentioned require precision to be done properly. And I think that’s the difference. Anyone can chuck a few things together and call it a curry, but the people who follow the recipes (and only experiment once they are masters) produce something truly special.