Do collect recipes? Why?

I started collecting recipes in high school. Had this grand idea that I'd be this super cook for whoever I married. HA!! But, never fear - with time and experience, you do get better. Mainly, I try to stay simple. It helps a lot!

Yeah I know I want to learn how to cook so I could cook for my mom and whomever I marry if I ever do. But I'm trying to get better and most of the recipes that I collect are simple recipes. I don't try to collect any extravagant recipes or anything.

I know what you mean. Most of the cooking I do now is for my elderly mother with whom I stay. Cooking was one of her greatest pleasures, but now that she can't see, she can't cook often. Things needing minimal attention are fine, but other things she can no longer do. Instead she "supervises"!! I can laugh, but while it's happening, it can be annoying! LOL I don't blame her, though.

I'll try to help out in any way I can .....I've had to cypher a lot of older recipes, some by trial and error to figure them out, but so far, so good. Funny how they used a pinch of that and a handfull of this. I have one recipe that calls for 'an apron full'.....Try to measure that one out! LOL Those old concoctions usually end up pretty good. The best thing is, you're willing to try and learn what works.

Just always remember to mix the wet ingredients together, mix the dry ingredients seperately, then add then together alternating wet with dry, ending up adding the last of the dry ingredients last. If you are baking or roasting, the basic oven temperature is 350 degrees. Usually. If it's a heavy cake or bread recipe, like pound cake or date nut loaf and even bisquits, that's usually between 375 and 400 degrees for less minutes. This method crisps the outside but keeps the inside soft and moist. Imagine cooking (depending on how old the recipe is) in a wood stove with no regulator. The average temperature in a wood stove would have been between 350 and 400 degrees. It was a lot of trial and error for them, continually watching to make sure it didn't burn. As the wood burned in those old stoves, the heat built up nicely, and maintained the heat long enough to bake something, then started to cool as the wood burned down. Of course they usually kept the fire going all day, so the heat would have been steady (for the most part). The didn't have foil to cover things so roasting was their usual way of cooking, unless they cooked in an iron skillet on the top of the stove. It's fascinating to learn how much trouble they went to. They didn't have much of a choice. That's why their recipes tasted so good. Years of regulating the old cook stove. If your recipes don't go back that far, just remember the average 350 degrees for roasting or baking. Don't 'cha just love it?

LOL - an apronful, huh? Geez - that sounds like she would go out to the orchard or the garden to collect the ingredients!! LOL I can relate because we used to have an orchard behind us when I was little and I always went "shopping" for apples and peaches!! I thought it was great fun! The pinches and handfuls I could probably get, but the proper method to put them together is a little more difficult and then knowing how hot the oven and how long....well....let's just say I've protected the book, but haven't used it yet. :-)

My mother has a handwritten cookbook that was her mother's. We have protected it in a ziplock freezer bag. But, she only put ingredients, no methods on what to do with them. It was assumed that all girls would learn, I guess. Unfortunately, as an only child, I learned more about cars and tools from Dad than I did about kitchens from Mom. LOL

That was me, too. But, believe it or not, over time you do get better. Some people just seem to have the knack (my mother and my son), but others struggle, like us. I'm pretty good now, but I still stay simple.

You sound a little like my mother - although all of her recipes are in her head, she could make variations of them and she could eat something out and re-create it at home. That gene completely skipped my generation!!! I have gotten to where I can look at a recipe and use it as a guideline rather exactly duplicate it, but it has taken a long time. I'm more comfortable now than I ever was with it.

Hi jerz. Well all of us have a talent lol.