Cooking without a recipe
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (354600)
Rockingham, Australia
May 30, 2025 3:24am CST
I was asked the other day if I could share a recipe which I was pleased to do. The recipe was for scones and I realised that I don't actually bother with a recipe for them.
Depending on how many I want to make, I might several cups of flour. Depending on how much flour I’m using, I might add 1-3 tablespoons of butter and rub it in till it looks like breadcrumbs. Then I add enough milk to make what I consider the right consistency. If by chance I add too much milk, then I add a bit more flour.
Mostly I measure and weight the ingredients but sometimes I cook without bothering about accuracy too much. My mum didn’t worry about recipes too much and everything she made came out really well. I guess she’d had lots of practice.
If you cook, do you measure and weigh your ingredients carefully?
21 people like this
21 responses
@LindaOHio (189836)
• United States
30 May
Depends on what I made. Sometimes the ingredients have to be exact. When I cooked meals I rarely used a recipe. I remember I made scones once (plain); and they were just so bland.
4 people like this
@LindaOHio (189836)
• United States
31 May
@JudyEv I hear of things like lemon curd and clotted cream with scones.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (354600)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 May
@LindaOHio That would be nice too.
2 people like this
@allknowing (146578)
• India
30 May
There are certain dishes that need measurements such as my date and walnut cake
Most of what I cook I could say a little of this and a little of that and it works.
2 people like this
@Beestring (15426)
• Hong Kong
30 May
I am not a good cook. I just cook simple dishes. No need to follow any recipes. When I cook, I do not measure and weigh the ingredients carefully, just do it by experience.
2 people like this
@ptrikha_2 (47938)
• India
31 May
I am no expert on cooking.
However, the people around me say that they do not go for an exact or nearly exact measurement.
They do go by their instinct and do their cooking accordingly.
1 person likes this
@abhi_bangal (5814)
• Ahmednagar, India
31 May
I am a moody person when it comes to cooking. If I have the mood, I like to cook my favourite dishes only. Hahaha! Otherwise, I'm mainly away from kitchen.
I like the photo that you posted here. Looks like probably it's the end result of your recipe. The outcome definitely looks yummy.
I have seen a lot of Indian women and my grandmother's, and my mother too, who didn't bother to check the weights at all. A couple of my older generations where literally illiterate. So there was no chance of measuring ingredients. Also there was a lot of poverty which didn't allow them to even think of buying scales.
But believe me, each time the recipe would taste the same. There wasn't an iota of difference in the taste. And that was the beauty of their recipes.
1 person likes this
@abhi_bangal (5814)
• Ahmednagar, India
31 May
@JudyEv There you are. They were brought up in such training, as far as cooking is concerned, that the thought of measure this, weigh that... was never part of their training.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (149425)
• United States
30 May
If I'm cooking something I don't regularly cook, yes, I use a measuring cup and follow the recipe fairly closely. If I'm cooking something I regularly make, I don't bother using any measurements. I just use a little of this and a little of that. 
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (149425)
• United States
30 May
@JudyEv True and, if nobody complains about anything, there's no reason to change the way you do things.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (85461)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
30 May
It depends on what I am making but mostly I just add ingredients by the looks of them,
1 person likes this
@Ineeddentures (2249)
•
30 May
No
I mostly cook curries from scratch and I measure and weigh nothing.
I just throw the ingredients in and know it's going to be spot on.
I do own digital scales but have never really weighed foodstuffs on them
1 person likes this
@Ineeddentures (2249)
•
31 May
@JudyEv
I do use them.to weigh flour and sugar
Maybe.some.other.stiff but most of what I cook I could cook blindfold most likely.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (163866)
• United States
30 May
If I am trying something new I will use the recipe the first time. After that the recipe is usually just a suggestion.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (354600)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 May
I can understand that. That is how Vince mostly cooks.
@terri0824 (5142)
• United States
30 May
I guess it just depends on what kind of mood I may be in....I've done it both ways....but I think I tend to lean towards not measuring, and just whipping things together....Think I get that from my mom too!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (354600)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 May
Once you've done something a few times, you get more confidence about just going with what you think.
@snowy22315 (190381)
• United States
30 May
Not usually. I am pretty good at eyeballing. That reminds me though I need a new set of measuring spoons. The Tbs. Is missing.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (75120)
• United States
30 May
When you bake, there is a necessity for prescribed amounts (or so they tell us). With things like the peach "sorbet" I didn't measure at all, just filled the blender cup with peaches, added a little water and two packages of sweetener, and mushed that stuff until I had the consistency I wanted. Follow me for more recipes!
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (116797)
• Marion, Ohio
30 May
I do for some things and others I don't
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (84796)
• United States
30 May
It's funny that you are talking about recipes. Mostly I don't use recipes and wing it (so to speak) as you do.
We got a new bakers rack for the kitchen so my daughter can have her coffee bar. One of the shelves we decided to designate to all the cookbooks we have. But, when I was looking at them I realized that I haven't opened any of them in ages. I have two cookbooks that I won't part with, One was my grandmothers and the other I still use for making cookies at Christmas time. As for the rest, I'm ready to donate them.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (354600)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 May
I got rid of a heap of recipe books. Another pile I had Vince go through to see if he wanted to keep any. Another pile I went through page by page and discovered only one or two recipes in each book that I needed so I typed them out and donated those books too.
The house-sit we're in must have three quite long shelves full of cookery books. I'm sure very few of them are used.
