Do you cook without using recipes? Have you had any successes

>>7941303
Good on you m8. Cooking w/o a recipe should be your goal, it's what makes it creative and fun. And yes, there will be utter failures, but as you develop your skills those will become less and less. I'm a competent -not great- home cook and I'll look at a recipe for a dish I'm unfamiliar with for an idea of what ingredients I need and to get a sense of what prep technique is required, but rarely follow it. Home cooking should relaxing, creative act of love IMHO. & ive got a bag of apricots, you've inspired me to do something with them. :^)

It entirely depends on how complicated the thing I'm making is

>>7941303
depends

if I'm doing anything delicate like cake or japanese food I'll use premeasured amounts. otherwise I eyeball/taste things.

>>7941477
this. I'll use a recipe if I don't know what I'm doing. Otherwise I just turn my pantry into a dish

Depends on how much knowledge you have about the subject.

If you have the rudimentary understanding of how something is made/mixed in a rough estimate portions, then I'll do my own takes and experiment. Otherwise, when I'm in the dark about what to make, I'll stick to the recipe.

>>7941303
My cooked meals consist of:

>rice in rice cooker
>vegetables in steamer
>grill or pan fry a piece of meat

Other than simmering some oats and scrambling some eggs, the rest of my meals are ready-to-eat like fruit, non-fat Greek yogurt, glass of skim milk, can of tuna, etc.

It takes balls. Just jump into it.

>>7942390
God, why have you left this man in the hell on Earth he has made of his culinary life?

I mean, I know different strokes for different folks, but I think even if I were on a severe budget I would vary it a little bit more than that.

>>7942398
The variation is in the meat and vegetables. One night I might have filet mignon with asparagus and rice. Another night I'll have grilled chicken with steamed broccoli and rice. Grilled tilapia with grilled zucchini and rice on another.

>>7942428
That sounds miserable

>>7942479
It's not, if you like the food.

>>7941303
Only failed when I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to cook. be specific, focused and things will come out right.

>>7942479
What's your diet like? If it's like most people, you're probably eating some variation of flour every day. Pasta, sandwiches, pizza, burritos...they're all the same to me.

>>7942538
Just admit you don't like flavour and variety.

>>7942544
>flavour
Bongistan talking about flavor. The irony!

>>7942544
i mean if he's varying the meats and vegetables and presumably the seasonings i feel like that's quite a bit of variety by definition

In the off chance I want to prepare something specific, I just look at the ingredients, never the ratios or procedures. Of course the recipes come out all kinds of fucked up, but still pretty tasty and I'm the only one eating them, so it's no big deal.
But mostly I just improvise.

>>7941303
Once you have a clear idea in mind of what it is you actually want to make, you don't need a recipe (unless you're really unfamiliar with the ingredients or something). Just develop your own tastes. Also it's good to be quite ad lib with cooking, specificity is for baking.

>Have you had any successes doing it? Any complete failures?

Oh, some times better some times worse, always edible.

I usually look up a bunch of different recipes of what I want to make and study them. Study the ingredients, technique, photos and reviews. Then once I get a general idea of what i want/like, i make it based on memory.

I've been cooking long enough that I'm almost always satisfied with the results. But cooking, like anything, requires practice.

Use recipes as a base but change to your tastes accordingly. Although I hate bitches that do this and give a recipe 1 star because of their fuck up.

>>7942479
Many people with autism have a strong preference for routines and sameness. Routines often serve an important function – they introduce order, structure and predictability and help to manage anxiety. Because of this, it can be very distressing if a person's routine is disrupted.