“I don’t use recipes!” is an annoying brag!

[Lordoftheflyingpan]

AIBU in finding it really annoying and unbearably smug when someone says “I don’t use recipes, I just make up my own”?

It can occur any time the filthy word “recipe” is mentioned, but as an example:
A: This salad is really nice!
B: Thanks, it’s a Jamie Oliver recipe.
A: Oh, I don’t use recipes. I just make it up according to what I like.

I’m aware this is super petty, but if Mumsnet isn’t the place to put petty gripes then I don’t know where is.

YABU - it’s fine! Get over it/yourself.
YANBU - ugh, yes, so smug and annoying.

YANBU in the example you've given. Because it suddenly is not about a delicious salad B made (whatever was the inspiration and however strictly was it followed) but about A not using recipes. So it's smug how A is turning the topic to herself (himself :-) )

However, the same sentence might be absolutely ok if A and B discussed they way of cooking and their approach to using recipes.
E.g. I use recipes for everything, I lack imagination in this way at all. My husband and my closest friend for example, do not need / use them, they can just imagine the result taste and find ingrediencies to reach that.

I don't follow recipes from a book but I do technically still use recipes - I cook the way my parents cooked and so I'm following their recipes, and I cook the same way each time I make something I like so I'm using my own recipes. It might not be written down but it's still following the same steps I use each time so surely that still counts as a recipe? I do occasionally make it up as I go along too in which case I'm creating a recipe so I find it a bit weird when people say they don't use recipes. I also don't think it makes me a better cook just because I don't follow recipes that are written down, I just have a fussy family and it's a struggle to find recipe books that I don't have to make alot of tweaks to in order for them to actually eat it.

I do use recipes. First time I follow the recipe and if I like it I’ll make it again with a couple of tweaks. Eventually I’ll tweak it so much that it tastes just like everything else I make…. I wish I could just leave it alone but no, I have to ‘improve’ it every time.

Off on a slight tangent, but I often use recipes on the BBC Good Food website. Reading the comments is helpful, because you'll find that people have added something different because they didn't have one of the ingredients or maybe the recipe is too sweet and people recommend adding less sugar etc etc. BUT sometimes you'll get someone who has added an extra bit of a, totally removed b and c, thrown in entirely new ingredients x, y and z, then cooked it in a slow cooker instead of on the hob. So really, it's a completely different recipe. And then they say how lovely their version of it was and they would definitely make it again!! That annoys the hell out of me. I never know whether they're showing off or just being 'helpful' by demonstrating that the recipe can be obliterated tweaked to your own taste.

Not using recipes is pretty admirable I reckon, but broadcasting it might come across as showing off or pretentious, depending on the context.

Honestly that’s such a strange thing to be annoyed about.

I don't always use recipes. I've been cooking for years, some things I know the recipe well enough that I don't need the book/torn out page from a magazine/scribbled bit of paper any more. Some I made up myself, either from working out how a dish was made or by mixing together various different bits of recipe, or else I just make something up as I go along.

Either way, if someone asks me I'll say "I didn't use a recipe, I made it up myself" if that's the case. I don't brag about it but I'm not apologising for it either.

I use recipes, I also invent things myself but I recognise exactly your gripe OP. There is a certain type of person who says "oh I don't use recipes" in response to you saying you DO use recipes, as a superior put-down. The subtext is "unlike me, you're a completely unimaginative boring personality vacuum just following a chef's recipe like a sheep." Super smug.

The same sort of person sometimes claims they just "whipped something up" when you know there must be some level of thought or planning behind the 5 course dinner party for 10 people they've just "whipped up". Often extends to clothes ("I just threw a few pieces together"), home decor ("oh I just collect things while travelling") etc.

Aren't you over reacting. I seldom use recipes but not because I'm some kind of domestic genius. I open the fridge/freezer, see what there is and use that. It says more about my lack of planning/time than about my culinary skills.

I use recipes when I'm trying to make posh food.

some people use recipes and recipe books as inspiration and a way to start up appetite for food or to try something new.

It does not automatically mean they are such an accomplished cook that they don't need to refer to anything.
It could simply mean that they have done so much cooking/baking in their life that they can make the (same old same old) recipes with their eyes closed.

Interestingly, I think if someone says "I don't use a recipe", then I imagine they are using ready meals or premade sauces etc. For example Sweet and Sour chicken is either made from a jarred sauce, or made by following a recipe (either written down or committed to memory). No-one randomly pulls stuff out of their cupboards and comes up with sweet and sour chicken by being "creative", you need to use the appropriate ingredients. Yes, of course you can make the odd informed substitution here and there, but you need to follow the basic recipe.

A recipe is still a recipe, regardless if it's written down or committed to memory.

@SpongebobsPants or the opposite kind of review is equally irritating - you see something that looks fantastic but it's got a one fork review out of 4. You read the review to see if the recipe is really that bad and it says

"I really wanted to like this creamy pasta with chicken and mushrooms but it didn't turn out well. I cut the liquid by half as I don't like things too watery, I'm veggie so replaced the chicken with tofu and the mushrooms with peppers and had half a tin of tomatoes in the fridge so added that, I'm also on a low sodium diet so left out the stock cube and can't add salt and pepper. Pasta was hard and sauce was tasteless. One star, terrible recipe."

I rarely use recipes, I do if I’m baking although often tweak recipes to suit my needs and tastes (do a lot of gluten free baking and aim for no/low refined sugar too).
When it comes to savoury meal recipes I often look up recipes, read a few and then freestyle it. I can’t be arsed to follow recipes to the letter, I’m more interested in learning the method and then adapt to my tastes.

I wouldn't think people claiming never to use recipes were being smug and braggy, I would make the assumption that they have a selection of things that they cook and don't really deviate, or that they were so wildly arrogant to think that they can't learn anything by following recipes by people from other cultures.

I consider myself a pretty good cook and I do a mix of recipes/ no recipes. Most of the simpler meals I make are thrown together as I have made them many times before eg stew, stir fry, lasagne, cottage pie. I also have a very good understanding of what flavours/ textures etc work together so I can chuck things together with whatever we have and create delicious meals.
However, I maybe use recipes a couple of times a week. Sometimes new but often things I have made regularly before but require certain proportions of ingredients/ timings. This is mainly because I am autistic which affects my ability to retain information so I just cannot remember the details. In these situations I don’t really follow the recipe as such but have to have the recipe so I can make sure I don’t forget an ingredients/ use the wrong amount, or can quickly look how long to cook it for. I am not actually following the instructions themselves iyswim. For example, the worst one is steamed rice - I have cooked it a thousand times but can never remember the ratio of rice to water so have to check this every single time.

DH is not a good cook at all and has no understanding of flavours, cannot think of ideas by looking at the ingredients we have in the fridge/ cupboard. However he does try and quite likes cooking. But due to lack of confidence/ experience he has to follow a recipe for everything, even something like a stir fry. He needs exact quantities of herbs, oil, soy sauce etc and cannot just eyeball something. If something basic where no recipe he can do it with verbal instructions, but will not think to add seasoning or herbs unless I specifically tell him. He has made some very bland food in the past because I forgot to tell him to add some salt, or basil or whatever cos it’s so automatic to me that I didn’t think to mention it to him.

Ime there are people who can’t make nice food even following a recipe with it in front of them while they cook.

Some people are better at cooking than others.

I kind of think that being able to rustle up a nice meal with what you have is genuinely being “good with food.”

I think op is being chippy.

I do this, and didn't realise it came across as smug at all. I don't use recipes because I'm classic ADHD, impulsive/disorganised. Even if I have all the ingredients needed to follow one I can't help but tweak it, so I find it easier to make stuff up as I go along. I enjoy cooking food I can change that doesn't need recipes (curry, stir fries, soup etc) but I hate baking as that generally requires recipes (though I don't ever weigh for Yorkshire puddings or pancakes etc). I have actually felt the very opposite of smug, and more embarrassed that I can't follow recipes and don't have one if someone asks for one. I'll be wary of saying it now I know how it can come across.

Yabu. I've been cooking family dinners since I was about 10/11.

I'm 52 now. If I can't thrown some ingredients together and make something tasty without a recipe book after all these years I'd think that was a bit odd.

Fair enough if it's something you haven't done before but family staples? I'm surprised anyone needs a recipe book for those?

I rarely follow a recipe.

To make a cake i do (well weigh the eggs then equal the other ingredients)

To make lasagna, chilli, spag, lobscouse, i do it from head. Never weigh/measure anything. I cook them like my mum did. From sight.

My mum was a confectioner and ran a small cake business from her kitchen. The Christmas cakes she cooked over summer were weighed out using hands. No scales. Just hands and sight.

Depends what it is.
Sometimes I stick to a recipe like glue.
Other times I just eyeball it if it’s something I’ve made lots of times before!

I don't use recipes and I am smug about it, so you are not BU at all.

at the inference good cooks are actually just xenophobic fucknuts who crack open the Dolmio for culcha.

As for sweet & sour sauce. Can’t you imagine what it tastes like and then mentally assemble the ingredients and then figure out the best way to cook said ingredients?

I can't say I've ever come across it, but if someone was to reply like they did in your example I would also find it smug. It sounds like they are saying they are such a good cook that they don't need to follow someone else's recipe.

I think I'm a good cook but it's because I'm good at following directions because I almost always follow recipes. There are a few things I've made so often that I don't really need a recipe (but not many because my memory is terrible), or sometimes I'll throw together, for example, a vegetable soup. But I know I'm not good enough to create something as good or better than most written recipes. I do tweak recipes occasionally, especially when it's something I'm not making for the first time, but for the most part I follow them as written.

I also love cookbooks and will happily sit down and read a new cookbook from cover to cover. I get a lot of recipes online too. I like trying new recipes and different cuisines.

I don't understand how it works when people say they just look at what's in the fridge or the cupboard and throw something together using what's available. Because at some point you decided what to buy and stock your fridge and cupboards with. Do you just go shopping and throw random items in your trolley? I figure out what I'm going to cook and go to the supermarket to buy the specific ingredients needed for those recipes.

@Motherofgorgons

YABU. Many of us from non British backgrounds don't use recipes because we were taught by our mothers who did not use recipes or even measurements.

Literally came on here to write this.

@Xiaoxiong 🤣🤣 Yes, you're right!

So how did all your mothers teach you? Osmosis?! Mine taught me too, but she definitely showed me the ingredients, told be when to add them, told what is should look like when cooked etc. That’s a recipe. What did you think people did when they couldn’t read or write?! I agree with other posters, not using a recipe is pretty basic, maybe a recipe book for a special occasion or trying a completely different cuisine, but I would say most people I know don’t bother with one daily.