No recipes required.
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Cooking without an exact recipe can be scary. What if it ends up tasting bad? What if you overcook something?
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But if you stick to a few simple rules, you can slowly start to rely less on recipes and start experimenting with confidence.
So here are 12 practical tips that'll help you cook some delicious food without having to rely on a recipe:
1. Always keep your pantry and fridge stocked with staple ingredients.
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Having ingredients such as olive oil, garlic, onions, and balsamic vinegar can help you improvise during cooking — allowing you to add a little bit of this, and a little bit of that — until you cook something that suits your taste.
2. Don't forget to season during every step of the cooking process...
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One of the best ways to build flavor is to season during every step of the cooking process. This assures that every ingredient is seasoned, and that your finished dish will be balanced and flavorful. Say you're making your own pasta recipe — make sure to season the pasta water, the sauce as it cooks, as well as the finished dish.
3. And don't forget to add a touch of acid.
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Just like salt, acid helps balance a dish by brightening flavors. When improvising a recipe, make sure to always keep this in mind and reach for a squeeze of lemon, splash of balsamic vinegar, or even some white wine to add acidity. The type of acid you use really depends on the flavors in your dish, and even the tiniest bit can elevate the flavor.
4. Use recipes you've already made and love as templates to build from.
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Try to think back to a recipe you loved. How did it build flavors? What were the basic cooking steps? For most people, the first step in learning how to cook without a recipe is to mimic recipes you know you love. If your favorite pasta sauce starts by sweating onions, garlic, and thyme — why not try this same technique for an impromptu pasta night by sweating the aromatics you have in your fridge?
5. Remember that the first step in most recipes is to bloom your aromatics and spices.
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Many recipes start out with the same first step — cooking aromatics (such as onions or garlic) in oil. This helps them bloom, or release their flavors into the oil and become fragrant, which then flavors everything else you add to the dish. Ingredients that are commonly cooked this way are garlic, onions, shallots, ginger, and dried spices. Adding spices (such as chili powder) to this step will also help them release their flavors and infuse into the oil.
6. Learn how to tell when your meat is done cooking so you don't have to rely on a timer.
Cooking meat without a recipe can be scary, but it doesn't have to be. For fast-cooking items such as shrimp, scallops, or stir-fry meat, you can usually tell by simply looking at them. For larger, whole pieces of meat (such as steaks) using an instant-ready thermometer is your safest bet. Just insert it into the thickest part of the meat and check to make sure it's at the proper temperature. You can see a full list of cooking temps here — print this out and reference it when you're cooking.
7. Choose your cooking oil wisely, as this is what drives the flavor of your dish.
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“Fat determines the particular flavors of regional cooking," says Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. This means that you typically wouldn't start a French dish with coconut oil, and you wouldn't start making an Italian pasta dish with sesame oil. Fat drives flavor in a dish, so picking the right one makes a difference.
Cooking oils also have different smoke points, meaning some can be heated to high temperatures while others can't. You wouldn't' want to fry something in pure butter — as butter can burn easily — but you could totally fry something in canola oil. See a complete list of oils by smoke point here.
8. Remember that garlic burns easily, so you don't want to add it to a super hot pan or cook it for too long.
Burnt garlic has a strong bitter flavor that can overpower a dish. To prevent this, make sure you don't add your garlic too early in the cooking process or into a super hot pan — especially if the garlic is minced very finely. A good rule of thumb is to avoid adding garlic to a pan that's above medium heat. This way you won't risk burning it and ruining the flavor of your whole dish.
9. Memorize the basic ratios for cooking grains.
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Being able to cook various grains (such as rice, quinoa, or couscous) can help you improvise an endless amount of meals — so memorizing a few basic ratios can help you create bases to work off of. All grains are different, and you can see a complete list of ratios here.
10. Focus on complimentary flavors you already know and love.
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Sticking to flavor profiles you know and love is a good way to steer your cooking in the right direction. If you know that you love the flavors of garlic and rosemary together, start with this duo and build from there — you'll at least know that the base flavor is going to be something you enjoy.
11. Know which cuts of meat you can cook quickly, and which require a little more time.
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Some meats cook very quickly (such as skirt steak) while others require hours of cooking to make them tender (like pork shoulder) — so you can't just substitute one for the other. Cuts that are called roasts or stew meat are not ideal for quick searing, so make sure to look up the specific cut of meat you're using to see if it's better suited for long or quick cooking methods.
12. When making substitutions, replace like with like.
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If there's a green bean salad you know and love, but all you have is asparagus, don't be afraid to substitute one for the other. When making ingredient swaps, just try to stick to ingredients that have similar cooking times, colors, and flavors. If there's a sweet potato dish you absolutely love, try making it with butternut squash. Just remember that some ingredients take longer to cook than others, so you may have to adjust the cooking times you're used to.
Let's get cooking!
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