How to Cook Without a Recipe

Recipes are a great guide for people learning to cook, but you don't have to rely on them if you have good kitchen skills. Practice making a few recipes until you've perfected them. Then, play around with small changes and substitutions. You'll learn how long it takes to make a dish, what seasonings you enjoy using, and how to make a meal out of leftovers. Over time, you won't need the recipe to create a perfectly original dish.

[Edit]Steps

[Edit]Learning the Basics

1. Choose a few simple recipes to master. The more you practice a recipe or cuisine, the easier it will be to cook it from memory or make your own changes. Look through cookbooks, your family's recipe box, or at food blogs to find recipes that you'd like to try. Then, make the dish regularly so it always turns out the same way.^[1]
   
   • You might want to focus on a certain cuisine or type of food, such as pizza, pasta, or soup.
2. Cook with experienced friends and family. If cooking doesn't come easily to you, you might learn better by watching others cook. Although there are lots of cooking shows and food channels, find someone you know who's a good cook and ask to make something with them.
   
   • Cooking with someone will give you hands-on experience and you'll be able to ask questions as you cook. You'll also be able to taste the finished product!
3. Look for opportunities to experiment with cooking instead of baking. It's a little easier to cook without a recipe because cooking methods, roasting, boiling, or grilling for instance, don't have to be exact. Try to think of baking like chemistry class and realize that you can't simply leave out or eyeball important ingredients.^[2]
   
   • If you'd like to bake without a recipe, it's important to tweak something that you already know how to make really well. For example, make your favorite blueberry muffins and add cinnamon or swap raspberries for the blueberries. Avoid big changes, like leaving out the eggs or dairy.
4. Stock your fridge and pantry with staples. Pay attention to ingredients that you buy often and cook with every week. Try to keep these in your fridge or pantry at all times so you can always reach for a familiar ingredient to add to your meal.^[3]
   
   • For example, you might always keep pasta, tuna, beans, or marinara sauce in the pantry. Having these staples on hand would allow you to throw together a casserole, pizza, or soup.
5. Challenge yourself to cook more in order to improve. Frequent practice is the best way to learn cooking, with or without a recipe. Consider where you're already at with your baking skills and set a goal of cooking more or skill building. For example, you might challenge yourself to:^[4]
   
   • Improve your knife skills
   • Cook 5 days of the week
   • Cook a meal from a new cuisine
6. Take a cooking class if you need more guidance. If you're still struggling to feel comfortable with cooking, check local community centers or cooking supply stores to see if they offer cooking classes. They may do classes on a certain style of food, such as baking bread, making pasta, or baking desserts.^[5]
   

[Edit]Building Your Confidence

1. Recognize when food is finished cooking. If you don't have a recipe to tell you how long to cook something for, you need to know signs that the food is done, especially when cooking meat or seafood. To tell if meat is as cooked as you like, rely on an instant-read meat thermometer. If you're baking cake, muffins, or quick bread, you'll usually want to insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.^[6]
   
   • The more you cook, the better you'll be at gauging how long something takes to cook. For example, if you're stir-frying vegetables, you'll know to add carrots before onions since they take longer to cook.
2. Taste your food frequently and trust your senses. Don't wait until you're ready to serve a meal before you taste it. As long as the food isn't raw, you should be sampling it as you cook so you can adjust the seasonings. Learn to trust your instinct. For example, if the dish tastes like it needs brighter flavor, add a squeeze or lemon or freshly chopped herbs.^[7]
   
   • Pay attention to how things smell as you cook. Your sense of smell can tell you if you've added enough spices, if the food smells appetizing, or if something is burning!
3. Experiment with a dish before serving it to others. You'll put unnecessary pressure on yourself if you try to whip up something that you've never made before to serve to guests. Instead, practice cooking without a recipe when there's little stress or pressure. You'll enjoy yourself more and might be bolder since there's no fear of making mistakes.
   
   • It's not a bad idea to have a backup plan, even if you're just cooking dinner for yourself. For example, have supplies in the fridge for making a quick sandwich if cooking doesn't turn out as you hoped.
4. Make substitutions to dishes you know how to make. Once you've gotten really comfortable with making a particular dish, experiment by changing a few ingredients. For example, if your pasta calls for bacon and asparagus, try making it with pancetta and snap peas.^[8]
   
   • Pizza is a great meal to cook without a recipe. As long as you can roll out the dough, you can try different sauces or toppings.
5. Practice seasoning a dish. You may be used to seasoning food with salt, but there are a lot of ways to adjust the flavor of food. In addition to salt, you might want to add more spices or fresh herbs according to your preferences. To really take your cooking to the next level, add a few drops of an acidic ingredient, such as lemon juice, vinegar, wine, or hot sauce.^[9]
   
   • To add richness to the meal, stir in a little butter or heavy cream.
   • If the meal tastes a little boring or flat, add depth of flavor by stirring in some miso, tomato paste, or Worcestershire sauce.
6. Memorize basic ratios for the foods you cook often. You don't need recipes for foods that rely on simple ratios, such as rice, quinoa, bulgur, and other grains. Find a ratio that creates food with a texture you like and commit it to memory. Then, you can easily make a pot of couscous without even thinking about it.
   
   • Use of water for every 1 cup (180 g) of rice as a starting ratio. Then, adjust the ratio to get a texture you like.

[Edit]Becoming a Great Cook

1. Take notes about what works. Not every dish you create from scratch will be a hit, but you're sure to cook something that you want to make again. Don't wait too long before you write down what you made. This will help you replicate the dish until you can commit it to memory.^[10]
   
   • You should also make notes of what didn't work and possible things to try for next time. For example, you could write, "Don't substitute white chocolate for dark chocolate. Try semisweet instead."
2. Give yourself enough time to cook. If you don't have a recipe to go off of, you should have a vague understanding of how long it will take to make certain dishes so you don't feel stressed. Keep in mind that meals like pasta, pizza, or stir-fries will come together faster than large cuts of meat, such as roasts.
   
3. Use leftovers as the basis for a new meal. This is a great way to reduce food waste and come up with a new meal without a recipe. Take a look through the fridge and pantry to see what food you have and try to come up with a meal that uses several of the ingredients.^[11]
   
   • For example, if you have leftover roasted vegetables and some soft cheese, toss them with cooked noodles to make a casserole. You could also use them as toppings for a quick pizza or mix them into a simple omelette.
4. Use your favorite recipes as templates for new dishes. You don't need to start from scratch every time you cook without a recipe. Instead, find recipes you enjoy making and use them as a guide to make new meals.
   
   • For example, if you have a great curry recipe, try substituting the protein or swapping out the vegetables for an entirely new curry.
5. Cook within flavor families. Look at the ingredients you have on hand and think about which go well together. Then, try to craft a meal around those flavors. For example, if you're making a simple bean soup, you could use black beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder, garlic, and onion to make a Southwestern-flavored soup. Or you could use different flavors, such as white beans with garlic, thyme, chicken stock, and rosemary.
   
   • You might find that you're already comfortable cooking a certain cuisine. Think about the ingredients and flavors that are frequently used and try to make them into new dishes.
6. Relax and enjoy making food. Don't be afraid to make mistakes when you cook and try to cook as often as you can. Working in the kitchen every day will make you feel more capable and confident. Practice really will make it easier to cook meals without a recipe.^[12]
   

[Edit]Tips

• Set yourself a goal of cooking 1 meal a week without a recipe. As you become more confident, you can make more original meals throughout the week.

[Edit]Related wikiHows

• Cook
• Know if Food is Undercooked
• Understand and Use Basic Cooking Terms and Skills
• Write a Recipe

[Edit]References

1. ↑ https://www.thekitchn.com/5-ways-to-be-more-confident-in-the-kitchen-life-in-the-kitchen-213461
2. ↑ https://www.finecooking.com/article/for-great-cakes-get-the-ratios-right
3. ↑ https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/cooking-from-the-pantry/pantry-essentials-checklist
4. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/23/corn-nuts-cookbooks-and-hot-oil-kitchen-encounters-eve-osullivan
5. ↑ https://uncpressblog.com/2012/01/17/cooking-the-books-12-great-reasons-to-take-a-cooking-class/
6. ↑ http://www.eatingwell.com/article/65068/how-to-cook-without-a-recipe/
7. ↑ http://www.eatingwell.com/article/65068/how-to-cook-without-a-recipe/
8. ↑ https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/cooking-without-a-recipe/
9. ↑ https://www.thekitchn.com/cooks-tricks-how-to-properly-s-94250
10. ↑ http://www.eatingwell.com/article/65068/how-to-cook-without-a-recipe/
11. ↑ https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/cooking-without-a-recipe/
12. ↑ https://www.thekitchn.com/my-secret-to-becoming-a-more-confident-cook-life-in-the-kitchen-216576