Becoming A Cook

Photo by American Heritage Chocolate on Unsplash

One of my (many) shortcomings when it comes to cooking is that I follow recipes to a tee. 

Yes, I appreciate that that can be a positive and it is -  in the sense that the resulting dish will be exactly to specification. It will taste and (for the most part) look exactly as the recipe author intended. 

But what I don’t understand is the conceptual underpinnings of what’s going on. For example, if I were to change the butter to cocoa ratio, or if I were to reduce the number of eggs, or if I tilted the balance more towards water than flour, what would happen?

In other words, beyond the obvious, I don’t understand why I’m doing what I’m doing and how I might alter one element (versus another) to suit my personal tastes.  

And that’s because I don’t have the fundamental education to be able to do that. What’s the role of butter in baking a cake? Why use this flour versus that flour? How do I manage proportions to produce what I want?

Basically, I’m an automaton. I just go about doing what I’m told. 

So my goal now is to understand the why. 

And that means going back to basics. Educating myself on not only what is needed to make a specific dish but also why. Understanding also the interactions between those ingredients as well as the specific ratios that drive different types of interactions. 

Only when I do that, can I free myself up from the specific recipe and then be able to add my own personal stamp on the dish I’m making. 

Only then can I exercise any level of personal creativity. 

Only then can I not simply produce - I can then create.