Do you work the culinary high wire?

Do you when doing either an important meal or one for a lot of people throw caution to the wind? Maybe work with no recipe, try something you have never done, do something complicated....something like that? Of course I came up on restaurant kitchens, all kinds of kitchens, some of them very testosterone and/or adrenaline driven. And I am retired, sometimes a little bored sometimes not. But that does not really explain it because I have always been the way I am.

I just did maple bacon sage apple scones for 40, a very big deal. I worked at one place, a catering company, for a year and a half where I made scones from scratch, but not anywhere else, and I dont like them that much so maybe twice in 30 years at home. Never done savory. Used an internet recipe as a guide but went far off the reservation, what I did is really a completely new recipe. I never even knew the internet recipe was right, but is looked right, and I am Zen, I do a lot of my life by instincts.

God Damn but I am an junkie, I gotta have the thrill, I gotta take the big risk.

Better than going down the road to the casino I think my wife would say.

I know my wife would say.

How Bout You?

Hawkeye10 said:

Do you when doing either an important meal or one for a lot of people throw caution to the wind? Maybe work with no recipe, try something you have never done, do something complicated....something like that? Of course I came up on restaurant kitchens, all kinds of kitchens, some of them very testosterone and/or adrenaline driven. And I am retired, sometimes a little bored sometimes not. But that does not really explain it because I have always been the way I am.

I just did maple bacon sage apple scones for 40, a very big deal. I worked at one place, a catering company, for a year and a half where I made scones from scratch, but not anywhere else, and I dont like them that much so maybe twice in 30 years at home. Never done savory. Used an internet recipe as a guide but went far off the reservation, what I did is really a completely new recipe. I never even knew the internet recipe was right, but is looked right, and I am Zen, I do a lot of my life by instincts.

God Damn but I am an junkie, I gotta have the thrill, I gotta take the big risk.

Better than going down the road to the casino I think my wife would say.

I know my wife would say.

How Bout You?

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Maybe it's just a gift but I have never used a recipe and usually can just make something up on the fly with whatever ingredients I have.

Crovax said:

Maybe it's just a gift but I have never used a recipe and usually can just make something up on the fly with whatever ingredients I have.

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That's good and bad. Its bad because I never know how much of whatever ingredients I used to make a particular concoction to be able to accurately repeat it. Its good because I usually end up off on a culinary tangent that's interesting to explore.

PirateMk1 said:

That's good and bad. Its bad because I never know how much of whatever ingredients I used to make a particular concoction to be able to accurately repeat it. Its good because I usually end up off on a culinary tangent that's interesting to explore.

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I rarely make the same thing the same way twice, which sort of irritates my kids "Dad, can you make that thing you did last 4th of July again, it was awesome", me: "I have no idea what I did that time".

For the purposes of this thread though I am talking about risk, doing something that might just end up terrible.

Hawkeye10 said:

Do you when doing either an important meal or one for a lot of people throw caution to the wind? Maybe work with no recipe, try something you have never done, do something complicated....something like that? Of course I came up on restaurant kitchens, all kinds of kitchens, some of them very testosterone and/or adrenaline driven. And I am retired, sometimes a little bored sometimes not. But that does not really explain it because I have always been the way I am.

I just did maple bacon sage apple scones for 40, a very big deal. I worked at one place, a catering company, for a year and a half where I made scones from scratch, but not anywhere else, and I dont like them that much so maybe twice in 30 years at home. Never done savory. Used an internet recipe as a guide but went far off the reservation, what I did is really a completely new recipe. I never even knew the internet recipe was right, but is looked right, and I am Zen, I do a lot of my life by instincts.

God Damn but I am an junkie, I gotta have the thrill, I gotta take the big risk.

Better than going down the road to the casino I think my wife would say.

I know my wife would say.

How Bout You?

Click to expand...

I used recipes a lot, when I started to cook. After a while I gradually stopped and now never do other than for baking, which I practically never do.

With me it varies. If I'm making a stew or soup or an Italian sauce, I wing it. Sometimes with them it just comes down to what ingredients I have.

But some dishes that I really like, Red Clam sauce with Lingiuni and Chicken Marsala are 2 of many, I stick to a recipe. I like the way I make them, so I stick to a recipe to make sure it's the same every time.

SenorXm/Sirius said:

With me it varies. If I'm making a stew or soup or an Italian sauce, I wing it. Sometimes with them it just comes down to what ingredients I have.

But some dishes that I really like, Red Clam sauce with Lingiuni and Chicken Marsala are 2 of many, I stick to a recipe. I like the way I make them, so I stick to a recipe to make sure it's the same every time.

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Cool, but would you risk it in an important meal? Maybe the boss is coming over...something like that, or a girl. It is the adrenaline rush, the confidence in myself to pull it off knowing that maybe just maybe I dont that really rocks my world. I am a pretty risk averse person in most things, but when it comes to the culinary I swing for the fences. I wonder if there are others like me out there.

joG said:

I used recipes a lot, when I started to cook. After a while I gradually stopped and now never do other than for baking, which I practically never do.

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I avoided baking for a lot of years because I almost never copy a recipe because what fun is that (Anthony Bourdain (Les Halles), THe Nakid Chef, Rick Bayless, Martha Stewart the only four I can remember copying in the last ten years), but when I tried it with baking it did not work out so well, for obvious reasons. In my retirement I am doing it though, using a recipe for guide on stuff like amount of eggs or baking powder. I am having fun.

Hawkeye10 said:

I avoided baking for a lot of years because I almost never copy a recipe because what fun is that (Anthony Bourdain (Les Halles), THe Nakid Chef, Rick Bayless, Martha Stewart the only four I can remember copying in the last ten years), but when I tried it with baking it did not work out so well, for obvious reasons. In my retirement I am doing it though, using a recipe for guide on stuff like amount of eggs or baking powder. I am having fun.

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I have been thinking of trying it and going beyond Brownies, Fudge and bread pudding.

Hawkeye10 said:

Cool, but would you risk it in an important meal?

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No, I would not. I love to cook. But for an important meal, a meal that I am entertaining other people (me and my wife or kids if they are visiting don't count as other people)I will stick to the recipe. I cook often, especially when the weather cools down, so I have plenty of chances to wing it, and experiment at other times.

My wife is more like you. She'll make a 5 star meatloaf. Then the next time she'll try to outdo the 5 star by experimenting, even if other people are coming over. About the only thing she'll stick to making the same each and every time is Braciole, because she makes it so good I have threatened her that she can NOT change the way she makes it. Ever! lol

joG said:

I have been thinking of trying it and going beyond Brownies, Fudge and bread pudding.

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Bread Pudding: Nutella and Brioche and raisin bread....think about it. The way I made it was in a Bundt pan, had something like a 5 hour cook, with the nutella as a swirl in the center.

OMG.

Had a sweetened condensed milk based topping put on after heating.

Seriously, if you like bread pudding think about it.

Once you've been cooking long enough, you can usually wing it and get away with it.

So how did your scones turn out Hawkeye?

Hawkeye10 said:

Bread Pudding: Nutella and Brioche and raisin bread....think about it. The way I made it was in a Bundt pan, had something like a 5 hour cook, with the nutella as a swirl in the center.

OMG.

Had a sweetened condensed milk based topping put on after heating.

Seriously, if you like bread pudding think about it.

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That sounds amazing.

Hawkeye10 said:

Do you when doing either an important meal or one for a lot of people throw caution to the wind? Maybe work with no recipe, try something you have never done, do something complicated....something like that? Of course I came up on restaurant kitchens, all kinds of kitchens, some of them very testosterone and/or adrenaline driven. And I am retired, sometimes a little bored sometimes not. But that does not really explain it because I have always been the way I am.

I just did maple bacon sage apple scones for 40, a very big deal. I worked at one place, a catering company, for a year and a half where I made scones from scratch, but not anywhere else, and I dont like them that much so maybe twice in 30 years at home. Never done savory. Used an internet recipe as a guide but went far off the reservation, what I did is really a completely new recipe. I never even knew the internet recipe was right, but is looked right, and I am Zen, I do a lot of my life by instincts.

God Damn but I am an junkie, I gotta have the thrill, I gotta take the big risk.

Better than going down the road to the casino I think my wife would say.

I know my wife would say.

How Bout You?

Click to expand...

I love making up new recipes. Almost everything I make comes out pretty really good. However, if I'm cooking for guests I stick to tried and true recipes.

I make things up on the fly all the time, but if I have guests over I generally try to aim for something tried and tested. Then, after a few hours of talking and multiple bottles of wine, I might suggest a random dish if people get hungry.

Think the last time, the random dish was some sort of spicy grilled octopus and shrimp thing with greens and..... stuff

Mr Person said:

I make things up on the fly all the time, but if I have guests over I generally try to aim for something tried and tested. Then, after a few hours of talking and multiple bottles of wine, I might suggest a random dish if people get hungry.

Think the last time, the random dish was some sort of spicy grilled octopus and shrimp thing with greens and..... stuff

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I bet it is the same with you as it is for me.....reputation is everything. Once people know that I have a lot more hits than misses they tend to be game for anything I suggest. My kids are all very culinary, they often will make suggestions, everyone else just goes with the flow, trust me. Sometimes I just flat out fail, like that pureed oyster dish I did a few years back. I dont know what I was thinking. But see that is the fun, anything can happen, we set out on an adventure.

Groogrux said:

That sounds amazing.

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THE REVIEWS ARE IN:

It was. I have never had diced apple in a scone, and it is a pain in the ass, but oh my. Used Granny Smith with a little brown sugar and sage. THe bacon layer was the bomb, precooked diced bacon, the last left over from my failed restaurant. I let it sit in the frig in Canadian Maple Syrup for a day, then heated on the stovetop with a half stick butter, flour, dijon(the dijon idea I stole from a recipe) and a decent amount of OLD BAY to kick it up a notch. It got nice and thick. Let cool. THen I did a basic scone with buttermilk recipe, folding in the apples on the third roll. Rolled to half the thickness I wanted, cut in half, spread the bacon/butter/maple layer on one side, covered with the other, pressed down some to make them stick some, then cut. Brushed with Bulgarian Buttermilk, sprinkled with sage, and ran the brush over the tops again. Cook at 400.

Turns out that they are best when cooked on a stone (I have a fairly crap new GE, they dont make em so good), and when they come out leave them in the pan to cool, all that mass of the apple and the bacon layer needs time to dry out.

The really awesome part is what happens to the bacon layer that drips between the scone and the pan....it gets really dark, you'd think it was burnt and nasty, but OMG. The scones all taste different depending upon how much bacon layer they got and where they were on the pan.

The end result is ****ing magical, and let me tell you, I am not a guy who goes into magic very often.

A compete win.

Better than what most of the Seattle bake shops offer, and my client is well aware of what Seattle Bake Shops produce.

I got a nice tip.

I cook for weed money.

This is my life, plus some other things.

Hawkeye10 said:

Do you when doing either an important meal or one for a lot of people throw caution to the wind? Maybe work with no recipe, try something you have never done, do something complicated....something like that? Of course I came up on restaurant kitchens, all kinds of kitchens, some of them very testosterone and/or adrenaline driven. And I am retired, sometimes a little bored sometimes not. But that does not really explain it because I have always been the way I am.

I just did maple bacon sage apple scones for 40, a very big deal. I worked at one place, a catering company, for a year and a half where I made scones from scratch, but not anywhere else, and I dont like them that much so maybe twice in 30 years at home. Never done savory. Used an internet recipe as a guide but went far off the reservation, what I did is really a completely new recipe. I never even knew the internet recipe was right, but is looked right, and I am Zen, I do a lot of my life by instincts.

God Damn but I am an junkie, I gotta have the thrill, I gotta take the big risk.

Better than going down the road to the casino I think my wife would say.

I know my wife would say.

How Bout You?

Click to expand...

For some big or important meal, I wouldn't do something without any recipe at all or try something completely new and outside any of my experiences (like a new cooking technique or flavor profiles I haven't worked with before), but I would be comfortable trying a new recipe working within the bounds of things I am familiar with. For instance, I can look over an Italian recipe and tell quite accurately if the dish will be tasty or not. Also, if I was using a new recipe in my comfort zone and thought it needed a tweak or a change, I'd feel pretty confident doing it on the fly.

Now cooking for my own family or friends, I love to go "off road" so to speak. I'll often look up several recipes and kind of combine them into my own thing if I don't find something that really strikes a chord with me. I'm also always excited to try new flavor combinations or methods, but again only with family and close friends. If I had a meal with something riding on it or a large gathering, I play it a little safer, but still feel free to improvise within that safe zone if the urge strikes.

Psychoclown said:

For some big or important meal, I wouldn't do something without any recipe at all or try something completely new and outside any of my experiences (like a new cooking technique or flavor profiles I haven't worked with before), but I would be comfortable trying a new recipe working within the bounds of things I am familiar with. For instance, I can look over an Italian recipe and tell quite accurately if the dish will be tasty or not. Also, if I was using a new recipe in my comfort zone and thought it needed a tweak or a change, I'd feel pretty confident doing it on the fly.

Now cooking for my own family or friends, I love to go "off road" so to speak. I'll often look up several recipes and kind of combine them into my own thing if I don't find something that really strikes a chord with me. I'm also always excited to try new flavor combinations or methods, but again only with family and close friends. If I had a meal with something riding on it or a large gathering, I play it a little safer, but still feel free to improvise within that safe zone if the urge strikes.

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Sounds prudent. "WTF, let's just see what happens" is probably not normal.

And this is me, normally a low risk guy.

Food and sex are the exceptions.

Yeah, new recipes are just too hit or miss. Rarely do I make something that turns out terrible, but I've had my share of new recipes that turn out to be "meh" or in need of serious tweaking before they're true standout dishes. My last culinary disappointment was a recipe I saw in the paper for tacos al pastor. It was a recipe that had a lot of ingredients I don't normally use and sounded really intriguing. The article that accompanied the recipe really made it sound great. But the end result was kind of eh. It didn't taste bad, and I think it would been a lot better if I had cooked it on the grill over direct heat to give it some char, but it didn't come close to my expectations or hopes.

Psychoclown said:

Yeah, new recipes are just too hit or miss. Rarely do I make something that turns out terrible, but I've had my share of new recipes that turn out to be "meh" or in need of serious tweaking before they're true standout dishes. My last culinary disappointment was a recipe I saw in the paper for tacos al pastor. It was a recipe that had a lot of ingredients I don't normally use and sounded really intriguing. The article that accompanied the recipe really made it sound great. But the end result was kind of eh. It didn't taste bad, and I think it would been a lot better if I had cooked it on the grill over direct heat to give it some char, but it didn't come close to my expectations or hopes.

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Some of these recipes on the web are just crazy bad, sometimes with entire steps stripped out to make the recipe less scary for people who dont know what they are doing. I was a professional chef (maybe I should have said that part before) I tend to look at recipes in about 30 seconds, and If I dont by then have a gut feeling "Ya, that sounds right" I keep moving.

Hawkeye10 said:

Some of these recipes on the web are just crazy bad, sometimes with entire steps stripped out to make the recipe less scary for people who dont know what they are doing. I was a professional chef (maybe I should have said that part before) I tend to look at recipes in about 30 seconds, and If I dont by then have a gut feeling "Ya, that sounds right" I keep moving.

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I'm no pro, but I have a similar approach. Like I said, I'm usually able to avoid truly awful just by my gut feeling, but mediocre or recipes that are way too much work for way too little result has a way of slipping in now and then (especially the latter because I enjoy trying complicated/challenging recipes or experimenting with new techniques). Unless it something in my wheelhouse, then I'm pretty good about knowing what will work, what needs a tweak here or there, and what is just flat out wrong.