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[SirQuiamus]

Baking != cooking. Yes, measurement is critical when baking. I don't bake.

Well, except with bread. You can do just about anything to bread, and it'll be fine. But pastry? Man, fuck that shit is fiddly.

Yep. The only thing that I (roughly) measure when baking bread is the amount of water/milk, and pastry is not in my repertoire. I'm even sloppier in other matters of cookery: If I have to look at a recipe for more than five seconds to produce an edible result, it's too fukken fancy recipe.

[Sirus]

I always follow the recipe, as exactly as I can. I don't cook enough to know how to experiment with anything other than sandwiches 

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Bumblebee]

Cooking is art. Baking is science.

This. And I do enough science at university, I don't need it in my kitchen as well.

Yep. And I guess I'm on of those people of rare occurence, who don't mind accurate measuring both while doing the job and the cooking, but have to WASH THE DAMN DISHES here and there, too. Cooking is easy, baking is simpe, science is pleasure, but that dishes... They. Are. Bad. The worst thing about this all is coming home after work and hearing that "Could-you-please-wash-them-dear" phrase after having washed a few dozens of flasks and Petri dishes already.

Here is a recipe of my favourite fritters to make it up for the complaints.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dissolve a tablespoonful of good honey in 1/2 l of warm water, add one teaspoonful of  yeast and let this liquid stand in a warm place for some time. Then you should pour in some (few!) corns of salt and an undefined amount of flour to reach the common pancake-pastry sour-creamish consistence. Give it some more time - the bubbles don't like being born in a hurry- and fry them as if they were 15 sm diameter pancakes.

They're so spongy if done right. Can absorb jam, honey, sour cream and whatever else nicely.

[Tack]

Cooking a beef stew tonight. My measurements are very improv, and I haven't cooked a stew before in my life (it doesn't generally get cold here), so I'm curious as to how it will go.

[i2amroy]

Cooking is art. Baking is science.

I'd say that cooking can be either an art or a science as you want it (while baking is just a science). As a science you look up a recipe, measure everything and are guaranteed a great meal every time regardless of how good you are at the Art side of things. As an Art cooking involves not measuring things as closely, and as a result your outputs can vary all of the way from "best thing ever eaten" to "horrible gunky mass of destruction" (though obviously as people get better at the Art side of things that distribution starts to shift).

I think the biggest problem people get into with dishes is they fail to wash them as they go. A simple blast of water right when you are done with the dish can usually clear up 95% of all dish washing problems to the point where you can just stick them in the dishwasher and call it a day.

[Bumblebee]

Dishwasher.... yes, dishwasher is a good, useful thing. In my family I am the dishwasher.

[Flying Dice]

One of the essential components of good baking is knowing when to deviate from the recipe. Ferex, I've got a family recipe for pumpkin pie. We developed it by taking a recipe out of a good cookbook and then quadrupling the quantities of all the spices and substituting molasses for the sugar. If you bake it like the original recipe, it turns out like 95% of the pumpkin pie you'll ever eat: dry, sweet, and completely lacking in the 'zap' you should be getting from the spices.

That said, if you get your hands on a genuinely good recipe, deviate from it at your own risk.

[Dwarf_Fever]

Cooking a beef stew tonight. My measurements are very improv, and I haven't cooked a stew before in my life (it doesn't generally get cold here), so I'm curious as to how it will go.

Stews, like chilis and most things that are best made in huge pots, tend to be forgiving and delicious.

[Helgoland]

I think the biggest problem people get into with dishes is they fail to wash them as they go. A simple blast of water right when you are done with the dish can usually clear up 95% of all dish washing problems to the point where you can just stick them in the dishwasher and call it a day.

Oh yes, that's the most important second-rank virtue for cooking: Wash dishes as soon as they're no longer in use, wash dishes as soon as you've got a minute to spare, don't let the dishes pile up, but work contiuously at keeping the sink empty. As long as there's dirty dishes, you don't get to rest.

[acetech09]

Spoiler:  Leftover fish tacos. Still good the day after (click to show/hide)

[timferius]

I made Bacon/Balsamic Deviled eggs and Crockpot Spinach and Artichoke dip for easter. Both recipes turned out deliciously, my method for boiling eggs is still perfect, and I forgot to take pictures! Sorry guys, I'm sure I'll make both recipes again, and I'll document better. Really pleased with how it all worked out.

[timferius]

The method I find works best for me is as follows:
1. Put eggs in bottom of empty pot
2. Pour water over eggs so they're fairly well submerged (the instructions I read said 1 to 2 inches, as if you could eyeball that easily). Add salt to the water.
3. put pot on heat turn to high.
4. once pot starts boiling, turn off heat and put the lid on. Leave it on the burner for 10-12 minutes.
5. If you want to use them right away, put in a strainer or something and run them under cold water until they're handleable.

I don't think it's humanly possible to over-cook them this way, and I've definitely never under cooked them (always peel 1 first, that way if it's under cooked you can just leave the rest on)

[Arx]

My family's traditional method is five minutes boiling for softish yolks, more for hard-boiled.

[acetech09]

The method I find works best for me is as follows:
~egg snip~

This.