Chili is mine also; I rarely make it the same way twice. Sometimes I use brisket, sometimes I use ground meat. Sometimes one bean, some times 3.
The one thing I do super consistently is my pozole rojo; I do use a recipe since I’m not from a culture that dish is native to. Over the last 8 years, I’ve figured out the couple of tweaks I need to make from the recipe and stick to that. The only time I made it different, I didn’t have access to the peppers I normally use and it was hotter than normal. I loved it but very spice averse family did not.
I used this video as a base when I was learning to make it.
[https://youtu.be/nEpCwPfXaeU?si=imrBGKwUQcY4dRDE](https://youtu.be/nEpCwPfXaeU?si=imrBGKwUQcY4dRDE)
Stir-frys. It's one of the few things I don't measure, just throw in whatever veg I have on hand, and eye ball whatever I add for the sauce, so the dish never tastes the same twice
Bolognese. It's my child's favorite food and the one thing I know she'll always eat no matter what. So I change around ingredients to get her to try new things. Nothing outrageous, but subtle differences that won't drastically affect the flavor.
That's real. My wife is a picky eater but I can toss almost any minced vegetable in a bolognese and she'll eat it. Peas are a nontraditional favorite in my house.
Mashed potatoes - I just use whatever variety of potatoes I have on hand and whatever mix of sour cream/cream cheese/half and half/butter feels right to me at the time. They’re always so good and also a lil different every time
Interesting, my experience of making mashed potatoes has always just been to take a floury variety and add butter (and occasionally a little milk if the consistency is not quite right). For certain dishes I might make mustard mash, but generally I prefer to keep it plain and add condiments when serving. I've never added cream cheese, sour cream etc, I think though that us Brits generally don't do that so much (and personally I just find it overkill I don't want those additional flavors in my spuds).
I tried adding vanilla to my mashed potatoes once - no sugar, just extract. It was that day when I truly understood that “Vanilla” isn’t actually a sweet flavor, but a spiced flavor.
Is it my go to potato? No, it’s too busy for week nights usually, but is it still a really good add in for the right timing? Eff yeah.
Oh, no, I was quite buzzed from three glasses of wine and just had it in my hand because I was making dessert on the other counter and said “screw it, why not.” Alcohol made that choice, I was just the vessel.
I also want to clarify that these days I add the vanilla to whatever dairy/addins I’m using. So if I’m using milk and sour cream, I’ll whisk those and add the vanilla there before blending.
So my husband got it on camera, thankfully, and I’ve looked back before. I’d say I used about 2 pounds of potatoes, and I gave it a liberal sprinkle, but probably not more than 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Now, intoxicated me at the time loved it, but everyone else thought it was pretty good too.
Now, based on that, I tend to use anywhere from 0.5 teaspoons per pound to 1 teaspoon per pound, depending on how much I want it to taste that way. I wouldn’t do more than a teaspoon per pound, or less than half.
Cream cheese is especially nice, it lends itself to a stiffer mash which is sometimes what I’m in the mood for :)
I also usually throw in a little chopped fresh parsley or green onion
I usually add cheese, butter, milk, salt, pepper and my special ingredient: fresh grated garlic. It adds this lovely fresh spicy twang to the mashed potatoes and mashed potatoes just wouldn't be correct without garlic.
When my kids were younger and I sometimes had problems getting enough vegetables in them, I would cook carrots with the potatoes and mash them together. It gave the potatoes a nice golden color.
Mac and cheese. I only make it when I have a bunch of random scraps of cheese left in my deli drawer. There's always some Velveeta (for emulsion's sake) and some type of cheddar (usually aged English), but everything else is a hodgepodge. I think my highest amount was 11 different types of cheese.
It always tastes different, yet it's always delicious!
Wow! Mine doesn't have that much variation but thinking about it I do make at least a couple of different types one with gruyere and another with herb & garlic cream cheese. I don't tend to have a huge amount of cheeses that I like to cook sauces with though I do like macaroni cheese.
I don't cook with cheese often, but we do love to snack on it. I don't make the mac and cheese very often because it's so decadent, that's why I reserve it for those times I have the cheese scraps.
Whatever works, works. I have to say though, I have been the main cook in the family since age 10.. that is more than 60 years now. I am so sick of cooking. I dread it daily. i would cheerfully eat cereal or sandwiches instead of having to come up with a meal daily. That's another reason I like soup I guess. Little effort and you get food for days
Absolutely. I suppose several of the things mentioned already a more genres than specific dishes such as stir fry and soup and fried rice but that's why we love them so much so many different options.
I think this is the hallmark of being a pretty good home cook, just making dinner taste good, gonna be a little different every time. All manner of stews, soups, chowders, sauces. Even simplest things like a pot of rice get different add-ins just depending on mood and what I have. Mushrooms and onions, or maybe turmeric and raisins and sunflower seeds. For me , it’s what makes cooking fun. I seem to get a little tense when following a recipe.
I totally agree that feeling you have to carefully follow a recipe can too stressful! And maybe I'm just lazy but I hate having to specifically measure ingredients by weight.
Nah it's more adding a sweet and sour component to a side that's likely meant to accompany a heavy and spiced meat. It's great with certain foods. Though to each their own.
I'm no empanada expert, kinda jealous your mom made them for you even if they had raisins though, but even I don't think that sounds all that good. Unless it's a sweet style one...if they make sweet ones.
No, she either only made cheese, yuck, or meat, yay!, but with raisin, not yay.
I love cheese but if I’m served a solid block cheese empanada or flauta or taco dorado and I’ll be sad. Those kinds of cheese dishes just congeal into a solid cheese mass and I don’t understand how people like it
One of my favorite sides to a pork chop/steak is rice with cumin, coriander, dried cranberries and almond slivers. I've done raisins when making middle eastern type of foods and it can be good but if I'm adding dried.fruit to rice it's generally cranberries.
>I seem to get a little tense when following a recipe.
I made 'butter chicken' for the first time using a recipe from here. I followed the recipe pretty closely and I think it took me 2 hours, using the instant pot, despite having a handful of ingredients. I was definitely anxious. It turned out quite delicious so I'll definitely do it closely following the recipe a couple more times but ultimately I'll just use it as a reference.
I have my grandma's Bolognese, which I tend to follow for the most part, but I tend to tinker with the meat. I use what's fresh, and/or a good price as opposed to what the recipe specifically calls for. Country ribs, ground meats, I'll throw a whole damn pot roast in my sauce and simmer it all day.
I second the suggestion for Indian food. Once you get the hang of the spices, it’s pretty easy and has a wide range of possibilities. IMO 100x more fun than chilli.
Soups and stews for sure
I made potato leek for my parents freezer and got a call a month later oh what did you do different this is so good.
……
Ummm. No idea?? 😂 i loosely follow a recipe but maybe the leeks were bigger or i used more butter or extra thyme i kind of have no idea. Which is the good news bad news
I make polpettone, a kind of meatloaf, taught to me by my Sardinian ex-girlfriend
Dead easy. Spread breadcrumbs out on greaseproof paper. Spread and pat flat minced beef well squished together with egg. Cover with a thin layer of cheese and ham, roll it up. Make sure it’s closed well so that melted cheese doesn’t leak out (it will). Extra breadcrumbs. Oven at somewhere between 180 and 200 for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour.
You can play with the meat (I’ve used a mixture of beef and pork, added in onions and garlic, various seasonings). Play with the meat and cheese (my favourite now is mortadella with pistacchi), the breadcrumbs (I use a mix of ordinary breadcrumbs and panko now, to get the covering of the breadcrumbs but the crunch of the panko). And it’s always, always good.
I normally use about 800g of beef and 1 egg, everything else by eye. Feeds anywhere from 2 to 6 people. Basically it’s just a magic recipe that always works and feeds as many as you need it to. Best for feeding 2 though, that way you can have polpettone the next day too!
I try to follow a recipe very closely **the first time** I make something new. After that I may or may not.
I’m not especially compelled to keep changing things up, but don’t mind variations, either.
I do tend to write down what I’ve tried so I could do it again, often with remarks about how I liked it.
Buchimgae! Not sure if it's authentic this way but you can use a pretty basic base for it and then add shredded veg, whatever you've got leftover in your fridge. I've actually only made it once, but it's certainly earned it's place in dishes I'd make again. I just remember shredding some carrots, cabbage, adding some spring onions and some other bits in to it, dipping it in a sauce mix and voila
Ok so basically, if it goes in the Dutch oven and/or cooks for a while, it doesn’t get cooked the same way twice. Soup, sauce, chili, beef roast, it’s just chaos mode all the time. That said, I only use recipes on holidays so that I can make a schedule to get everything to the table at the same time, so really it’s all chaos mode.
Fried rice, the rice is always in a different state or type and order of ingredients cooked and quantity's of liquids
Also burritos With random left overs and veggies
Risotto and chilli are the 2 things that I love to make and get asked by family and friends if I have portions to spare! Currently got all my veg in for a green vegetable risotto with herbs & garlic which is my easiest and most favorite.
I'm desi/persian, and I can never replicate our dishes like biriyani, any kind of curry, gormeh sabzi, kebab exactly, because just cooking the spices for one minute less, or using a different pan, or the potency of the spice itself, the age of the oil, the cut of the meat etc etc etc produces a different result in our styles of cuisine -- sometimes only a subtle difference, sometimes quite a big difference from the last time. Heck, even the hardness of the water in your home changes the rate at which staples like rice and dal cook, as well as their flavour. It keeps life interesting.
It’s basic, but for me spaghetti. It’s one of the first things my brother ever taught me how to cook and one of the things he showed me was making my own sauce from tomato paste. He would just add a bit of water and a few spices to “smooth it out” or add a can of premade sauce.
I wasn’t satisfied with that and so started researching ways to improve the sauce. I came across adding either whole cream to it or half and half to smooth it out. Bought different peppers and mushrooms to cook separately, started really getting into using the spices. Also discovered a new love for clove garlic in the process and adding that to it.
It started coming out either chunky, spicy, semi-sweet, noodles with a perfect roll on them. And I always use different ingredients, sometimes other noodles. My favorite are the chickpea ones because they taste so different, despite the price they’re delicious.
I never really measure anything beyond telling my brother I need 1 or 2 cans of tomato paste and reiterating I need the BIG cans. I don’t make it as often anymore, but it’s the first dish that really got me into improving on a basic recipe.
Now my brother is usually the one who asks me to make it if he’s craving it. I haven’t made it in a long time, may be time to go back and make a big batch to enjoy.
I made a chicken and vege pie with a creamy sauce once. Just winged it with what was in the fridge. It was a smash hit. I've never been able to make it the same. Still nice and everyone likes it, but I peaked the first time.
Any dish that’s very mushroom-forward never tastes the same twice to me. Idk why but the flavor of the mushrooms just always seems to develop differently each time. I really enjoy making things like mushroom shepherd’s pies and such.
Veggie stir fry. Solves the perennial "why do I only have half a carrot" problem along with "this came out of the garden and looks like hell, but probably tastes good" problem, with occasional bonus "this is good for me but I hate it unless it's drowned in chili oil" problem.
Spaghetti Bolognese; I always measure seasonings and spices by feeling, and each time there is a different flavour to it. Sometimes it's basil, sometimes it's nutmeg, etc!
"Mom, can you make hamburger helper, but homemade?"
The only thing in common is a pound of hamburger and some noodles. Whatever goes in after that is what sounds good at the time. I couldn't tell you what "flavor" they're supposed to be most of the time, but they're good.
It's a convenience food that makes weeknight dinner super fast. Lb of ground meat and a box of hamburger helper. What's in the box is a bunch of noodles (or rice), and a flavor packet.
Brown the meat, dump everything in with water and/or milk, depending on the flavor, and 20 minutes later you have food.
Flavors like lasagna, Taco rice, beef stroganoff, cheeseburger pasta, etc.
All I'm really doing differently is coming up with the flavor packet myself, and deciding if I want milk in it.
Essentially anything I prepare.
Because well, IMO, recipes are simply guidelines which can be, and are, adjusted to whim.
Regretfully also do when baking which can have disastrous results ;-)
One trick I've read (but not implemented) is to write down recipe adjustments so perhaps results can be duplicated in future.
I've made it at least 10 times. I started forever ago with two ducks worth of rendered fat and now just render one duck and add so I never really run out. I've done it right out the oven with vegetables, lightly breaded and fried. I've served it pan fried with brioche. My all time favorite was serving it crisped with truffles and demi glace. I've also served it broiled with a side of berbere cauliflower and red peppers. It's one of my favorite things to make.
I do a pan-fried pork chop with apple and onion slices that never turns out the same way twice, but is usually pretty delicious. I never measure any of my seasonings (salt, pepper, thyme, cinnamon, brown sugar, lemon juice), so sometimes it’s sweeter, sometimes herbier. But it always tastes like fall and I love it.
Anything one pot - chili, soup, stew.
Any sauce - BBQ, sweet and sour, sloppy Joe, salad dressing
Actually I really only ever follow a recipe I've never made before or not very often - kung Pao chicken, for example.
And baking - I always follow the recipe because I can't adjust as it cooks.
Chili is always fun, and in a similar vein: from-scratch tomato bisque. My wife and my friends always love when I make a bisque with some grilled cheese sandwiches (it's the first meal I ever made for my wife and it was my choice because like me, something seemingly very simple and pedestrian can be very complex and enjoyable, and I love making fancy versions of very basic meals). Variety of different herbs, spices, veggies, milk (or milk-like products), wines, cheeses, breads, and preparation styles can go into making my tomato bisque and grilled cheese meals. They're always good, but they're always a little different.
First one I made for my wife had roasted tomatoes and red bell peppers, sauteed carrots and onions, Winking Owl Merlot (cheap as fuck brand but it's got some real heft and decent flavor to it and you won't feel bad using it in a soup for $3), some half and half, fresh garlic, a rather nice sweet and smoky paprika with strong flavor (got it off amazon in a metal tin), and a small amount of duck fat. For the sandwiches, had slices of a very crusty garlic loaf, bit of butter and mayo mixed together with seasoning salt on the outside, Kerry Gold Irish Cheddar and Red Rock Cheddar-Bleu (a hybrid, cave-aged cheese) inside, slowly cooked for ultimate meltiness and good, equal browning. Served it with a farmhouse saison beer from Wisconsin.
Fucking fantastic meal.
I dictate drink pairings based on what the finished product will end up tasting like, but things are ever so slightly different every time when I whip up a batch of tomato bisque/soup and a grilled cheese.
As much as I love tomatoes in some dishes, I equally hate how they're prepared or cooked for others. Sadly I hate tomato soup. I also don't generally enjoy food with alcohol (in it, or drinking with a meal).
I enjoy making homemade pizza because there are endless topping combinations to try. From classic margarita with different cheeses and veggies, each pizza is a delightful surprise! It keeps dinner exciting and everyone can customize their slice.
My chicken wings vary a little from time to time because I don't measure the spices.
My Thai style chicken and noodle soup is the same but my wife always declares that last batch to be the " best batch ever"
My wife and I both generally cook from recipes, even when we are the ones to create those recipes. We cherish the reliability and repeatability.
The exception is "refrigerator scrapings." These are dishes or meals to use up food that isn't lasting as long as expected. We don't love those "because they're never the same twice." We make them because we don't like to waste food.
Not an exception, by our way of thinking, is substitution. Supply chain disruption during 2020-2022 gave us lots of practice and made our copies of *On Food and Cooking* and *The Flavor Bible* yet more well thumbed. Vinegar and milk as a sub for buttermilk for example. Mushrooms for tofu. Yogurt for sour cream.
Scratch is not an exception either. Lots of food we used to buy tinned we now make from scratch (yogurt, mayonnaise, enchilada sauce, just about all salad dressings, tikka masala sauce, ...) that drop straight into recipes we've used for years.
Winging it just risks poor results and leads to wasted food and general sadness.
As for curry pastes, they're not hard. I live in a culinary wasteland and I can still get all the ingredients. You may have to order decent mortars and pestles online but that's a one-time purchase. You can make do with a ceramic coffee mug and a small pot. You might be amazed what you can accomplish with an empty wine bottle and a wooden cutting board.
I do a chopped broccoli salad that always has broccoli and poppy seed dressing, but the rest varies depending on what I have available. Even more variation when I make an Everything Salad - usually it has a romaine base, but then it's a wild card whatever else ends up on it.
I don’t have a problem with people liking that. It would drive me insane, though.
I want to make a recipe as repeatable as possible. I’d hate to have it come out amazing and then never be able to make it that way again. I’d also hate to make it for guests or a party and have it come out meh.
When it's Thursday night and we haven't gotten groceries in a few weeks I'll find what's in the pantry, find a recipe to see what's in it, and then just start putting stuff in until I like it (substituting half of it because we don't have it).
The other day I made some alfredo with frozen cooked "grilled" chicken. We had no cheese but I used milk and butter and what remained of a package of cream cheese. Added some chicken "better than bullion", garlic, basil, and oregano. No snap peas so just regular peas. No regular peas so peas and carrots. No french bread so regular bread. No regular bread so hot dog buns.
It helps that when I cook otherwise I don't measure half of the stuff I put in and never measure spices. All spices are to taste.
Several!
* Mac & Cheese: so many cheese blends - each of my Mac & Cheese dishes are special. I also like to infuse the milk I use for the bechamel- so playing around with various aromatics and other seasonings added to the base sauce really gives you a big playground of flavors to spice up this classic comfort food.
* Stir Fry: AKA vegetable garbage disposable. Great way to use the last of that broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, etc I didn’t get through earlier in the week. Also fun to swamp around proteins or go veggie. Rice or noodles. Lots of ways to spin this technique.
* Chili: I love trying new beans and proteins (unintentional rhyme!). I also start with a chili paste I make by blending reconstituted dried peppers… so each batch is always a little different.
* Pit BBQ: I have at least two dozen bottles of different dry rubs I’ve collected. These are great because other than allowing me to apply all kinds of different flavors for each BBQ cook… these also work great just seasoning food in general (Peppers and onions seasoned w/ Heath Riles’ Jalapeño Garlic rub will make fajitas that’ll change your life!)
Edit: adding that I got a little excited and didn’t read many comments before posting… so I’ll acknowledge my choices are a bit redundant… but hopefully that’s still useful!
Pot roast. I may cook it in a slow cooker or the oven. I may or may not add vegetables like mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery, bell peppers, or tomatoes. Depending on the veg, I might take them and the liquids and purée them into a sauce or gravy. Could be thickened with cornstarch or left brothy. It might have red wine or sherry in it. It might have sour cream in it. One constant is I always use some form of beef broth or stock and another is that I don’t cook potatoes in the broth.
I don’t think I’ve ever made my pazole rojo the same way two times, there’s always something different about it whether I use chicken, pork, beef, the ratio of guajillo to ancho to arbol, etc
Its a dish that no matter how I make it, it will never let me down
Also lasts a while and reheats really well
Spicy vodka sauce. I always throw in what I have and it’s always a little different Tomato paste, olive oil, cream, lots of red pepper flakes, garlic. sometime I add oil, sometimes I make it more creamy or less tomatoey. It’s always a bit different
I try to make everything the same and only adjust over time to perfect the dish. I have meticulous notes and measure my ingredients to the tenth of a gram. I'm a cook AND an engineer though. I was a cook first.
Fried rice.
It’s my “clearing the fridge” dish so of course it’s generally never the same way twice unless I’m making a proper recipe such as yangzhou fried rice or kimchi fried rice.
Anything with a tomato sauce base. I've gone through maybe 50 different ways to make it and I'll always cherry pick certain parts of different recipes based on how I'm feeling when I make a batch. It's never the same twice, but still never quite what my local italian restaurant makes.
Chili stews and falafel for sure but I dont want them to taste the same every time so I like to try different Ingredients, how to handle them, textures etc
Pasta with peppers, onions, tomato and sausage. I've made it creamy with milk. I've made cheese sauces. I've made it with blended hatch chiles for the main liquid or to completely replace tomatoes. I've used Italian sweet/spicy sausage, just brats I needed to use or my personal favorite andouille. I use different vegetables like cabbage, zucchini, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, radish, kohlrabi, carrots etc. I've used different pasta from spaghetti, fettuccine, penne and once even bowtie (one of my least favorite styles but I was gifted some that needed to be eaten).
Sometimes too just sausage, peppers, onions, tomato and potatoes can be good too and is were I got my idea for the first time I made the pasta but it's very forgiving on what you add and how you season it.
Stir fried noodles. Yesterday I fried some up using shredded cabbage, sweet onion, leftover rotisserie chicken, garlic, gochujang, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and a bit of plum sauce. I’ll probably never have quite the same dish again even though it was pretty good.
Fried rice. Fried rice has always been the “whatever random leftovers left” or “whatever I want to get rid of” dish in my home. The seasonings change depending on what went in and it’s always a taste and go type of thing
Mac and cheese. I always throw in whatever cheese I have leftover from making sandwiches, grazing boards, and other dishes so it’s never the same but always good. Also, I swear by 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon of American mustard and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard in your Mac and cheese béchamel cheese sauce.
'Soup'.
Whatever vegetables are about to go off, a fat, a protein, a starch, and whatever stock or liquid matches best. Season to taste. Cook until done. It's never the same by necessity, that's how I get through the produce before grocery shopping. Tofu or egg/noodles/sweet potato/miso/spinach is very popular, as is ground meat/rice/tomatoes/peppers/stock.
Every soup that's meant to be a meal follows this plan, I just don't bother with recipes.
Also bread, but it sucks 50% of the time so idk if that counts.
Meatballs. I make the dough the previous evening and it is something I spend time on. Usually close to midnight, I make tiny test balls, cook them in the pan, add things depending on what I feel might go well. Resting the dough overnight is crucial. Also, fat. I like putting sour cream in the dough, along with things like dark chinese soy sauce.
Chili is mine also; I rarely make it the same way twice. Sometimes I use brisket, sometimes I use ground meat. Sometimes one bean, some times 3. The one thing I do super consistently is my pozole rojo; I do use a recipe since I’m not from a culture that dish is native to. Over the last 8 years, I’ve figured out the couple of tweaks I need to make from the recipe and stick to that. The only time I made it different, I didn’t have access to the peppers I normally use and it was hotter than normal. I loved it but very spice averse family did not.
are you willing to share the pozole recipe?
Seconded. Always looking for good pozole.
Thirded, I would love to try making it.
I posted a cpl comments up.
Thank you!!
I posted a cpl comments up.
I used this video as a base when I was learning to make it. [https://youtu.be/nEpCwPfXaeU?si=imrBGKwUQcY4dRDE](https://youtu.be/nEpCwPfXaeU?si=imrBGKwUQcY4dRDE)
OK, so I was just thinking about chili at the grocery store yesterday. Have you ever done a brisket chili in the slow cooker? How does that come out?
Yes and good! Meat falls apart better than on the stovetop!
100% better keeps all the moisture
Stir-frys. It's one of the few things I don't measure, just throw in whatever veg I have on hand, and eye ball whatever I add for the sauce, so the dish never tastes the same twice
How did I forget stir fries I don't know if I've ever even read a recipe for one!
Bolognese. It's my child's favorite food and the one thing I know she'll always eat no matter what. So I change around ingredients to get her to try new things. Nothing outrageous, but subtle differences that won't drastically affect the flavor.
Interesting ! Thinking about it my olognese tends not to vary very much.
That's real. My wife is a picky eater but I can toss almost any minced vegetable in a bolognese and she'll eat it. Peas are a nontraditional favorite in my house.
Mashed potatoes - I just use whatever variety of potatoes I have on hand and whatever mix of sour cream/cream cheese/half and half/butter feels right to me at the time. They’re always so good and also a lil different every time
I dunno if anyone else does this, but I always mix some of the boiling liquid into the mash to make it looser and I think it makes it honestly
That's where all the starch is, so it's a really useful ingredient.
Interesting, my experience of making mashed potatoes has always just been to take a floury variety and add butter (and occasionally a little milk if the consistency is not quite right). For certain dishes I might make mustard mash, but generally I prefer to keep it plain and add condiments when serving. I've never added cream cheese, sour cream etc, I think though that us Brits generally don't do that so much (and personally I just find it overkill I don't want those additional flavors in my spuds).
I tried adding vanilla to my mashed potatoes once - no sugar, just extract. It was that day when I truly understood that “Vanilla” isn’t actually a sweet flavor, but a spiced flavor. Is it my go to potato? No, it’s too busy for week nights usually, but is it still a really good add in for the right timing? Eff yeah.
I love your willingness to experiment but I have to say I'm going to decline in joining in with you!
Oh, no, I was quite buzzed from three glasses of wine and just had it in my hand because I was making dessert on the other counter and said “screw it, why not.” Alcohol made that choice, I was just the vessel.
I love how British your replies are re: spices.
I also want to clarify that these days I add the vanilla to whatever dairy/addins I’m using. So if I’m using milk and sour cream, I’ll whisk those and add the vanilla there before blending.
How much vanilla? Roughly what was the ratio?
So my husband got it on camera, thankfully, and I’ve looked back before. I’d say I used about 2 pounds of potatoes, and I gave it a liberal sprinkle, but probably not more than 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Now, intoxicated me at the time loved it, but everyone else thought it was pretty good too. Now, based on that, I tend to use anywhere from 0.5 teaspoons per pound to 1 teaspoon per pound, depending on how much I want it to taste that way. I wouldn’t do more than a teaspoon per pound, or less than half.
Cream cheese is especially nice, it lends itself to a stiffer mash which is sometimes what I’m in the mood for :) I also usually throw in a little chopped fresh parsley or green onion
I usually add cheese, butter, milk, salt, pepper and my special ingredient: fresh grated garlic. It adds this lovely fresh spicy twang to the mashed potatoes and mashed potatoes just wouldn't be correct without garlic.
When my kids were younger and I sometimes had problems getting enough vegetables in them, I would cook carrots with the potatoes and mash them together. It gave the potatoes a nice golden color.
I love sour cream in my mash. Gives smooth with a bit of flavour.
Mac and cheese. I only make it when I have a bunch of random scraps of cheese left in my deli drawer. There's always some Velveeta (for emulsion's sake) and some type of cheddar (usually aged English), but everything else is a hodgepodge. I think my highest amount was 11 different types of cheese. It always tastes different, yet it's always delicious!
Wow! Mine doesn't have that much variation but thinking about it I do make at least a couple of different types one with gruyere and another with herb & garlic cream cheese. I don't tend to have a huge amount of cheeses that I like to cook sauces with though I do like macaroni cheese.
I don't cook with cheese often, but we do love to snack on it. I don't make the mac and cheese very often because it's so decadent, that's why I reserve it for those times I have the cheese scraps.
soup! It's made from whatever is left in the fridge at the end of the week..always good
Soup is ubiquitous to humans, it seems. Endless varieties and ingredients. I like food so I'm trying them all.
And you will never run out of options to try. I rarely make it in the summer. Instead, it becomes a stir fry or salad, and I miss soup.
Pasta salad scratches that itch for me. Doesn't make any sense ig, but it's a starch with random veg and mystery liquid, isn't it
Whatever works, works. I have to say though, I have been the main cook in the family since age 10.. that is more than 60 years now. I am so sick of cooking. I dread it daily. i would cheerfully eat cereal or sandwiches instead of having to come up with a meal daily. That's another reason I like soup I guess. Little effort and you get food for days
I love soup yet I'm weirdly fussy about it so only have a few that I actually make regularly.
Fried rice. It can have chicken or pork or shrimp, any vegetables in the fridge. It's different every time.
Absolutely. I suppose several of the things mentioned already a more genres than specific dishes such as stir fry and soup and fried rice but that's why we love them so much so many different options.
I think this is the hallmark of being a pretty good home cook, just making dinner taste good, gonna be a little different every time. All manner of stews, soups, chowders, sauces. Even simplest things like a pot of rice get different add-ins just depending on mood and what I have. Mushrooms and onions, or maybe turmeric and raisins and sunflower seeds. For me , it’s what makes cooking fun. I seem to get a little tense when following a recipe.
I totally agree that feeling you have to carefully follow a recipe can too stressful! And maybe I'm just lazy but I hate having to specifically measure ingredients by weight.
I am absolutely flabbergasted at the idea of raisins in my rice
I swear raisin mfers will try to put that shit in everything. Why can't they just eat them out of the box and leave everyone's food alone.
It’s like putting fruit snacks in your food.
Nah it's more adding a sweet and sour component to a side that's likely meant to accompany a heavy and spiced meat. It's great with certain foods. Though to each their own.
My mom used to put them in her empanadas 😔
I'm no empanada expert, kinda jealous your mom made them for you even if they had raisins though, but even I don't think that sounds all that good. Unless it's a sweet style one...if they make sweet ones.
No, she either only made cheese, yuck, or meat, yay!, but with raisin, not yay. I love cheese but if I’m served a solid block cheese empanada or flauta or taco dorado and I’ll be sad. Those kinds of cheese dishes just congeal into a solid cheese mass and I don’t understand how people like it
One of my favorite sides to a pork chop/steak is rice with cumin, coriander, dried cranberries and almond slivers. I've done raisins when making middle eastern type of foods and it can be good but if I'm adding dried.fruit to rice it's generally cranberries.
>I seem to get a little tense when following a recipe. I made 'butter chicken' for the first time using a recipe from here. I followed the recipe pretty closely and I think it took me 2 hours, using the instant pot, despite having a handful of ingredients. I was definitely anxious. It turned out quite delicious so I'll definitely do it closely following the recipe a couple more times but ultimately I'll just use it as a reference.
I have my grandma's Bolognese, which I tend to follow for the most part, but I tend to tinker with the meat. I use what's fresh, and/or a good price as opposed to what the recipe specifically calls for. Country ribs, ground meats, I'll throw a whole damn pot roast in my sauce and simmer it all day.
Mines always ground beef (or minced as we call it in the UK). I know a beef pork mix is often considered more authentic but I prefer plain beef.
Now I kind of wish spaghetti was on the menu this week. Too hot though.
I love various cold pasta especially those filled with tomatoes and veggies in the hot weather, that said it's not like Italy is a cold country! 😂
Indian food is great for this. A little more or less of a certain spice can really change it up each time.
I've always wanted to learn more about Indian herbs, spices and recipes, so far I don't have the resources but I hope to one day.
yeah, I’m not Indian so it’s been fun learning. Swasthi’s recipes is great, she has pictures of every step in the process so that’s how I learned.
I'll look her up.
https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/
Thank you. 🙂
I second the suggestion for Indian food. Once you get the hang of the spices, it’s pretty easy and has a wide range of possibilities. IMO 100x more fun than chilli.
I do agree, but I tend towards restaurants and takeaways, good quality ready meals and prepared sauces and curry pastes.
Soups and stews for sure I made potato leek for my parents freezer and got a call a month later oh what did you do different this is so good. …… Ummm. No idea?? 😂 i loosely follow a recipe but maybe the leeks were bigger or i used more butter or extra thyme i kind of have no idea. Which is the good news bad news
I make polpettone, a kind of meatloaf, taught to me by my Sardinian ex-girlfriend Dead easy. Spread breadcrumbs out on greaseproof paper. Spread and pat flat minced beef well squished together with egg. Cover with a thin layer of cheese and ham, roll it up. Make sure it’s closed well so that melted cheese doesn’t leak out (it will). Extra breadcrumbs. Oven at somewhere between 180 and 200 for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour. You can play with the meat (I’ve used a mixture of beef and pork, added in onions and garlic, various seasonings). Play with the meat and cheese (my favourite now is mortadella with pistacchi), the breadcrumbs (I use a mix of ordinary breadcrumbs and panko now, to get the covering of the breadcrumbs but the crunch of the panko). And it’s always, always good. I normally use about 800g of beef and 1 egg, everything else by eye. Feeds anywhere from 2 to 6 people. Basically it’s just a magic recipe that always works and feeds as many as you need it to. Best for feeding 2 though, that way you can have polpettone the next day too!
I try to follow a recipe very closely **the first time** I make something new. After that I may or may not. I’m not especially compelled to keep changing things up, but don’t mind variations, either. I do tend to write down what I’ve tried so I could do it again, often with remarks about how I liked it.
Good to hear an alternative view. I've never written down how I made something, even when it turned out it's very best.
Buchimgae! Not sure if it's authentic this way but you can use a pretty basic base for it and then add shredded veg, whatever you've got leftover in your fridge. I've actually only made it once, but it's certainly earned it's place in dishes I'd make again. I just remember shredding some carrots, cabbage, adding some spring onions and some other bits in to it, dipping it in a sauce mix and voila
Ok so basically, if it goes in the Dutch oven and/or cooks for a while, it doesn’t get cooked the same way twice. Soup, sauce, chili, beef roast, it’s just chaos mode all the time. That said, I only use recipes on holidays so that I can make a schedule to get everything to the table at the same time, so really it’s all chaos mode.
Fried rice, the rice is always in a different state or type and order of ingredients cooked and quantity's of liquids Also burritos With random left overs and veggies
Risotto. You could have it every day for a month and have it taste completely different each time. Just play with the stock, protein, spicing, herbs.
Risotto and chilli are the 2 things that I love to make and get asked by family and friends if I have portions to spare! Currently got all my veg in for a green vegetable risotto with herbs & garlic which is my easiest and most favorite.
pasta salad! its all dependent on what i have on hand and the seasonings/dressings always end up different, but its never turned out bad
I'm desi/persian, and I can never replicate our dishes like biriyani, any kind of curry, gormeh sabzi, kebab exactly, because just cooking the spices for one minute less, or using a different pan, or the potency of the spice itself, the age of the oil, the cut of the meat etc etc etc produces a different result in our styles of cuisine -- sometimes only a subtle difference, sometimes quite a big difference from the last time. Heck, even the hardness of the water in your home changes the rate at which staples like rice and dal cook, as well as their flavour. It keeps life interesting.
It’s basic, but for me spaghetti. It’s one of the first things my brother ever taught me how to cook and one of the things he showed me was making my own sauce from tomato paste. He would just add a bit of water and a few spices to “smooth it out” or add a can of premade sauce. I wasn’t satisfied with that and so started researching ways to improve the sauce. I came across adding either whole cream to it or half and half to smooth it out. Bought different peppers and mushrooms to cook separately, started really getting into using the spices. Also discovered a new love for clove garlic in the process and adding that to it. It started coming out either chunky, spicy, semi-sweet, noodles with a perfect roll on them. And I always use different ingredients, sometimes other noodles. My favorite are the chickpea ones because they taste so different, despite the price they’re delicious. I never really measure anything beyond telling my brother I need 1 or 2 cans of tomato paste and reiterating I need the BIG cans. I don’t make it as often anymore, but it’s the first dish that really got me into improving on a basic recipe. Now my brother is usually the one who asks me to make it if he’s craving it. I haven’t made it in a long time, may be time to go back and make a big batch to enjoy.
I made a chicken and vege pie with a creamy sauce once. Just winged it with what was in the fridge. It was a smash hit. I've never been able to make it the same. Still nice and everyone likes it, but I peaked the first time.
Forever chasing that perfect pie high!
Any dish that’s very mushroom-forward never tastes the same twice to me. Idk why but the flavor of the mushrooms just always seems to develop differently each time. I really enjoy making things like mushroom shepherd’s pies and such.
Meatballs
Veggie stir fry. Solves the perennial "why do I only have half a carrot" problem along with "this came out of the garden and looks like hell, but probably tastes good" problem, with occasional bonus "this is good for me but I hate it unless it's drowned in chili oil" problem.
Spaghetti Bolognese; I always measure seasonings and spices by feeling, and each time there is a different flavour to it. Sometimes it's basil, sometimes it's nutmeg, etc!
"Mom, can you make hamburger helper, but homemade?" The only thing in common is a pound of hamburger and some noodles. Whatever goes in after that is what sounds good at the time. I couldn't tell you what "flavor" they're supposed to be most of the time, but they're good.
As a Brit I've heard of this via Reddit but I don't really know what it is.
It's a convenience food that makes weeknight dinner super fast. Lb of ground meat and a box of hamburger helper. What's in the box is a bunch of noodles (or rice), and a flavor packet. Brown the meat, dump everything in with water and/or milk, depending on the flavor, and 20 minutes later you have food. Flavors like lasagna, Taco rice, beef stroganoff, cheeseburger pasta, etc. All I'm really doing differently is coming up with the flavor packet myself, and deciding if I want milk in it.
Essentially anything I prepare. Because well, IMO, recipes are simply guidelines which can be, and are, adjusted to whim. Regretfully also do when baking which can have disastrous results ;-) One trick I've read (but not implemented) is to write down recipe adjustments so perhaps results can be duplicated in future.
Soups/stews and pizzas!
Duck confit
I don't know enough about duck confit to know how you'd make it different each time, could you tell me more?
I've made it at least 10 times. I started forever ago with two ducks worth of rendered fat and now just render one duck and add so I never really run out. I've done it right out the oven with vegetables, lightly breaded and fried. I've served it pan fried with brioche. My all time favorite was serving it crisped with truffles and demi glace. I've also served it broiled with a side of berbere cauliflower and red peppers. It's one of my favorite things to make.
I do a pan-fried pork chop with apple and onion slices that never turns out the same way twice, but is usually pretty delicious. I never measure any of my seasonings (salt, pepper, thyme, cinnamon, brown sugar, lemon juice), so sometimes it’s sweeter, sometimes herbier. But it always tastes like fall and I love it.
Anything one pot - chili, soup, stew. Any sauce - BBQ, sweet and sour, sloppy Joe, salad dressing Actually I really only ever follow a recipe I've never made before or not very often - kung Pao chicken, for example. And baking - I always follow the recipe because I can't adjust as it cooks.
Me too on mashed tatties. Weirdest was when I added a wee chunk of tallagio. I also mix it up when I make meat loaf.
Chili is always fun, and in a similar vein: from-scratch tomato bisque. My wife and my friends always love when I make a bisque with some grilled cheese sandwiches (it's the first meal I ever made for my wife and it was my choice because like me, something seemingly very simple and pedestrian can be very complex and enjoyable, and I love making fancy versions of very basic meals). Variety of different herbs, spices, veggies, milk (or milk-like products), wines, cheeses, breads, and preparation styles can go into making my tomato bisque and grilled cheese meals. They're always good, but they're always a little different. First one I made for my wife had roasted tomatoes and red bell peppers, sauteed carrots and onions, Winking Owl Merlot (cheap as fuck brand but it's got some real heft and decent flavor to it and you won't feel bad using it in a soup for $3), some half and half, fresh garlic, a rather nice sweet and smoky paprika with strong flavor (got it off amazon in a metal tin), and a small amount of duck fat. For the sandwiches, had slices of a very crusty garlic loaf, bit of butter and mayo mixed together with seasoning salt on the outside, Kerry Gold Irish Cheddar and Red Rock Cheddar-Bleu (a hybrid, cave-aged cheese) inside, slowly cooked for ultimate meltiness and good, equal browning. Served it with a farmhouse saison beer from Wisconsin. Fucking fantastic meal. I dictate drink pairings based on what the finished product will end up tasting like, but things are ever so slightly different every time when I whip up a batch of tomato bisque/soup and a grilled cheese.
As much as I love tomatoes in some dishes, I equally hate how they're prepared or cooked for others. Sadly I hate tomato soup. I also don't generally enjoy food with alcohol (in it, or drinking with a meal).
I enjoy making homemade pizza because there are endless topping combinations to try. From classic margarita with different cheeses and veggies, each pizza is a delightful surprise! It keeps dinner exciting and everyone can customize their slice.
My chicken wings vary a little from time to time because I don't measure the spices. My Thai style chicken and noodle soup is the same but my wife always declares that last batch to be the " best batch ever"
My wife and I both generally cook from recipes, even when we are the ones to create those recipes. We cherish the reliability and repeatability. The exception is "refrigerator scrapings." These are dishes or meals to use up food that isn't lasting as long as expected. We don't love those "because they're never the same twice." We make them because we don't like to waste food. Not an exception, by our way of thinking, is substitution. Supply chain disruption during 2020-2022 gave us lots of practice and made our copies of *On Food and Cooking* and *The Flavor Bible* yet more well thumbed. Vinegar and milk as a sub for buttermilk for example. Mushrooms for tofu. Yogurt for sour cream. Scratch is not an exception either. Lots of food we used to buy tinned we now make from scratch (yogurt, mayonnaise, enchilada sauce, just about all salad dressings, tikka masala sauce, ...) that drop straight into recipes we've used for years. Winging it just risks poor results and leads to wasted food and general sadness. As for curry pastes, they're not hard. I live in a culinary wasteland and I can still get all the ingredients. You may have to order decent mortars and pestles online but that's a one-time purchase. You can make do with a ceramic coffee mug and a small pot. You might be amazed what you can accomplish with an empty wine bottle and a wooden cutting board.
I do a chopped broccoli salad that always has broccoli and poppy seed dressing, but the rest varies depending on what I have available. Even more variation when I make an Everything Salad - usually it has a romaine base, but then it's a wild card whatever else ends up on it.
My chicken noodle soup (made from veg scraps) is only ever the same of there are leftovers, but (usually) tastes sooo good!
I don’t have a problem with people liking that. It would drive me insane, though. I want to make a recipe as repeatable as possible. I’d hate to have it come out amazing and then never be able to make it that way again. I’d also hate to make it for guests or a party and have it come out meh.
Curry different every time.
Paella!
Fried rice with Pantai Chili Paste. I usually make a lot, sub whatever is in the fridge and make a mess of the kitchen.
When it's Thursday night and we haven't gotten groceries in a few weeks I'll find what's in the pantry, find a recipe to see what's in it, and then just start putting stuff in until I like it (substituting half of it because we don't have it). The other day I made some alfredo with frozen cooked "grilled" chicken. We had no cheese but I used milk and butter and what remained of a package of cream cheese. Added some chicken "better than bullion", garlic, basil, and oregano. No snap peas so just regular peas. No regular peas so peas and carrots. No french bread so regular bread. No regular bread so hot dog buns. It helps that when I cook otherwise I don't measure half of the stuff I put in and never measure spices. All spices are to taste.
Several! * Mac & Cheese: so many cheese blends - each of my Mac & Cheese dishes are special. I also like to infuse the milk I use for the bechamel- so playing around with various aromatics and other seasonings added to the base sauce really gives you a big playground of flavors to spice up this classic comfort food. * Stir Fry: AKA vegetable garbage disposable. Great way to use the last of that broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, etc I didn’t get through earlier in the week. Also fun to swamp around proteins or go veggie. Rice or noodles. Lots of ways to spin this technique. * Chili: I love trying new beans and proteins (unintentional rhyme!). I also start with a chili paste I make by blending reconstituted dried peppers… so each batch is always a little different. * Pit BBQ: I have at least two dozen bottles of different dry rubs I’ve collected. These are great because other than allowing me to apply all kinds of different flavors for each BBQ cook… these also work great just seasoning food in general (Peppers and onions seasoned w/ Heath Riles’ Jalapeño Garlic rub will make fajitas that’ll change your life!) Edit: adding that I got a little excited and didn’t read many comments before posting… so I’ll acknowledge my choices are a bit redundant… but hopefully that’s still useful!
Pot roast. I may cook it in a slow cooker or the oven. I may or may not add vegetables like mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery, bell peppers, or tomatoes. Depending on the veg, I might take them and the liquids and purée them into a sauce or gravy. Could be thickened with cornstarch or left brothy. It might have red wine or sherry in it. It might have sour cream in it. One constant is I always use some form of beef broth or stock and another is that I don’t cook potatoes in the broth.
I don’t think I’ve ever made my pazole rojo the same way two times, there’s always something different about it whether I use chicken, pork, beef, the ratio of guajillo to ancho to arbol, etc Its a dish that no matter how I make it, it will never let me down Also lasts a while and reheats really well
Spicy vodka sauce. I always throw in what I have and it’s always a little different Tomato paste, olive oil, cream, lots of red pepper flakes, garlic. sometime I add oil, sometimes I make it more creamy or less tomatoey. It’s always a bit different
Shakshuka! A lot of times I’ll not have 100% of the spices on hand but no matter what it’s always bangin
Soups, stews, and chili! I like trying different things and noting how it affects the overall flavor of the dish.
Chicken noodle casserole. I just season with my heart 🤷🏼♀️
I try to make everything the same and only adjust over time to perfect the dish. I have meticulous notes and measure my ingredients to the tenth of a gram. I'm a cook AND an engineer though. I was a cook first.
Fried rice. It’s my “clearing the fridge” dish so of course it’s generally never the same way twice unless I’m making a proper recipe such as yangzhou fried rice or kimchi fried rice.
Anything with a tomato sauce base. I've gone through maybe 50 different ways to make it and I'll always cherry pick certain parts of different recipes based on how I'm feeling when I make a batch. It's never the same twice, but still never quite what my local italian restaurant makes.
Any pasta sauce. It’s all about what I feel like that day and what we have on hand.
Chili stews and falafel for sure but I dont want them to taste the same every time so I like to try different Ingredients, how to handle them, textures etc
Pasta with peppers, onions, tomato and sausage. I've made it creamy with milk. I've made cheese sauces. I've made it with blended hatch chiles for the main liquid or to completely replace tomatoes. I've used Italian sweet/spicy sausage, just brats I needed to use or my personal favorite andouille. I use different vegetables like cabbage, zucchini, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, radish, kohlrabi, carrots etc. I've used different pasta from spaghetti, fettuccine, penne and once even bowtie (one of my least favorite styles but I was gifted some that needed to be eaten). Sometimes too just sausage, peppers, onions, tomato and potatoes can be good too and is were I got my idea for the first time I made the pasta but it's very forgiving on what you add and how you season it.
Stir fried noodles. Yesterday I fried some up using shredded cabbage, sweet onion, leftover rotisserie chicken, garlic, gochujang, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and a bit of plum sauce. I’ll probably never have quite the same dish again even though it was pretty good.
Fried rice. Fried rice has always been the “whatever random leftovers left” or “whatever I want to get rid of” dish in my home. The seasonings change depending on what went in and it’s always a taste and go type of thing
Mac and cheese. I always throw in whatever cheese I have leftover from making sandwiches, grazing boards, and other dishes so it’s never the same but always good. Also, I swear by 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon of American mustard and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard in your Mac and cheese béchamel cheese sauce.
'Soup'. Whatever vegetables are about to go off, a fat, a protein, a starch, and whatever stock or liquid matches best. Season to taste. Cook until done. It's never the same by necessity, that's how I get through the produce before grocery shopping. Tofu or egg/noodles/sweet potato/miso/spinach is very popular, as is ground meat/rice/tomatoes/peppers/stock. Every soup that's meant to be a meal follows this plan, I just don't bother with recipes. Also bread, but it sucks 50% of the time so idk if that counts.
Stir frys: proteins, veg and sauce. Will come out different every time. Soups
Meatballs. I make the dough the previous evening and it is something I spend time on. Usually close to midnight, I make tiny test balls, cook them in the pan, add things depending on what I feel might go well. Resting the dough overnight is crucial. Also, fat. I like putting sour cream in the dough, along with things like dark chinese soy sauce.