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[Neonivek]

Anyone can really follow a recipe and frankly the problem with the idea of following a recipe is that... you will always succeed and when you don't it is because of an obvious mistake.

Yet how do you actually elevate your cooking so that you are actually cooking and not just a robot?

Yet the thing is...  No amount of followed recipes will teach you how to cook... Only get the idea of techniques and time as well as give you ideas.

Yet I want... To cook. So how do you cook?

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And mind you, one thing I really liked about some of the few educational cooking shows I've seen... Is they didn't JUST tell you recipes, they told you why the recipes worked and the theory behind them.

[LordBucket]

Cook a lot. Eventually you will notice patterns. Once you do, follow patterns instead of recipes. Eventually you will cook and never use recipes. Sometimes it will suddenly dawn on you that ingredient X that you never use in meal Y would probably actually go rather well together.

In time, you will conceive of dishes / see dishes and think "I could make that." And you do. No recipe required. Then you look up a recipe after the fact and see that it is different than what you actually made, so you try it the way the recipe says. And sometimes you'll find that the way you made is was better. Other times you'll find that the recipe was better, so next time you make it you draw upon what was said in the recipe. Yet other times you'll see the recipe and think "hmm, ok I see why they did it that way, and that's probably fine...but, it really could go either way."

"Recipes" may be directions that when followed generally generate adequate results, but there is no "single" recipe for a thing. Pick a meal, look up four different recipes for it...odds are good they'll all be different.

[Blargityblarg]

Yup, it's really just a consequence of knowing how various ingredients or food constructs (for lack of a better word, I'm talking about intermediaries in the cooking process like a roux or an emulsion that isn't readily available as a raw ingredient) react to various stimuli; generally heat (and the various kinds thereof) and mechanical work (whisking, beating, whatever). The other part is knowing how things taste, and what tastes good in combination.

[Neonivek]

So, from what I am getting... Passive learning.

[MadMalkavian]

So, from what I am getting... Passive learning.

No, it's more along the lines of "practice makes perfect". If you want to get good and creative with something you've got to do it a lot. Eventually after you cook for a while you might come up with something good.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Don't listen to these hacks, I've got a method that will make you a master chef in under thirty minutes.

First, climb up onto your roof. Then, scream at the sky while posing powerfully for about 10 minutes. Then, tear off your shirt (and only your shirt), revealing your rippling biceps. Scream louder at the sky for five minutes. Then take a commercial break. Finally, scream at the sky louder still for the final fifteen minutes, killing your current major villain in the last five to three minutes.

After that, you'll have reached the next level and become a super chef.

[Neonivek]

No Metal Slime I am not asking for magical competence... But at the same time I am not asking for passive absorption of knowledge over a long period of time through the process of osmosis.

Somewhere between "Don't do anything, just cook" and "Instantly learn because that totally works in reality!"

Which is sort of a shame really. "How do you learn martial arts?" "Well you see, you punch this punching bad over and over again until you learn how to punch correctly" "Well hang on a minute, wouldn't it be easier to learn how to throw a proper punch first and how to properly aim it and then practice?" "NO!!!" (I am still ticked off about that)

Which is sort of why I made this topic.

Since a lot of the subtleties do not come from strict adherence to the recipes which could be gained either through making those recipes hundreds of times, or by simply by being given the science and being allowed to validate it.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I guess you could hire Paula Deen as your mentor, I hear she's looking for work. Note that this is probably not a good idea if you are a racial minority.

[Neonivek]

I guess you could hire Paula Deen as your mentor, I hear she's looking for work. Note that this is probably not a good idea if you are a racial minority.

I heard only the most BARE of explanations of what occurred and it is between "Racial slur" (In which case it is overblown) and "Racial verbal beatdown" (In which case why was it a debate? toss her!)

Also no...

Given that the general consensus with "Learning to cook" is "Osmosis" I am not very confident in a tutor who would only say "Hey, do these recipes" in which case I would go "Hey, how do you fold?" "FOLLOW THE RECIPE YOU LEARN BY DOING IT!!!" "But if you showed me how to fold, that would" "NO!!!"

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I keep pitching you golden ideas, and you just keep shooting me down. You're tearing me apart, Neonivek.

[Neonivek]

I keep pitching you golden ideas, and you just keep shooting me down. You're tearing me apart, Neonivek.

Your idea was magic and magical racist!

I am planning on having Superman over for dinner one of these days... I can't just magically encantor my meals.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

If Paula Deen was magic, she long ago would have been dismembered and preserved for reagents.

[Neonivek]

If Paula Deen was magic, she long ago would have been dismembered and preserved for reagents.

I never said she was made of delicious magic.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It doesn't have to be delicious, it just has to be imbued with the forbidden arcane power.

[LordBucket]

Somewhere between "Don't do anything, just cook" and "Instantly learn because that totally works in reality!"

Which is sort of a shame really. "How do you learn martial arts?" "Well you see, you punch this punching bad over and over again until you learn how to punch correctly" "Well hang on a minute, wouldn't it be easier to learn how to throw a proper punch first and how to properly aim it and then practice?" "NO!!!" (I am still ticked off about that)

Ok. Then you need to ask a more specific question. "How do I cook" is not like "how do I punch?" It's like "how do I do martial arts?"

Now, if you want specific advice on how to make, for example, milk-based pasta sauce...that's more like "how do I punch" and people could probably give you more specific advice.