How can I learn to cook without looking at recipes?

This is a question I am often asked by students when I teach cooking classes.

It will be a bit long, but I will explain it in detail, so please bear with me when you have some time.

Recipes are the blueprints of cooking

First, let's consider what a recipe is.

Nowadays, the environment is set up so that anyone can publish recipes on blogs or recipe sites and share them on social media, so while it is a mixed bag, recipes published by professional chefs, pastry chefs, and culinary experts in recipe books and the like are, so to speak, blueprints for cooking.

Blueprints are designed so that anyone can make the same taste (more or less) if they follow what is written. They have high reproducibility, and in fact, reproducibility is the very value of a blueprint (recipe). This is because you have to guarantee the quality (taste, deliciousness) of the food made by following the recipe.

Get a map, not a blueprint

So, what happens if you cook while looking at a blueprint every single day?
Ingredients might be left over little by little, or you might feel unwell and want to eat something light, but if you follow the recipe's measurements, the taste might be too strong and you won't be able to eat much, so it seems like small problems will arise little by little.

It is also quite a hassle to precisely measure ingredients and seasonings for every single meal.
Besides, if you use ingredients that your family dislikes in a dish you want to make, they might leave it uneaten...

For someone who cooks for their family, having the food they made left uneaten is very painful, isn't it?

That is why you want to cook as much as possible according to your family's preferences. Isn't that the feeling that leads to wanting to "cook without looking at recipes"?

So, what is needed to cook without looking at a blueprint?

That is a map.

You just need to have a map that allows you to determine the path toward the goal of "I want to eat this kind of dish."

For example, if your goal is "It's cold today, so I want to eat food that warms my body," the factors that determine whether you make curry, a hot pot, or a piping hot gratin as the final checkpoint to that goal might be the ingredients you have at home, the prices of ingredients at the supermarket while shopping, or your family's preferences and requests, but the path to reach that goal can be chosen from many patterns.

If you set curry as the final destination for your goal, there are many paths to get there.
You can make it using curry roux and ingredients, make it authentically with curry powder and ingredients, buy retort curry and heat it up, or add ingredients you have at home or preserved foods to store-bought curry rice; there are various methods.

That is how you can have a map that allows you to determine the path toward your goal from within the fog.

How can I get a map?

Actually, this map is not something that everyone should have the same one, so it is not straightforward.

Even if you are handed one and told, "Here you go," it might be a different map that won't lead you to your own goal.

This is because no two people have the same background, such as their values regarding food and cooking, their skills, their knowledge, whether they have family or others they want to cook for and feed, and whether they have allergies or likes and dislikes.

The reason why time-saving recipes or make-ahead recipes don't quite feel right is because, in the first place,

it is not your own map (it is based on someone else's map). However, I think it is possible for anyone to obtain

a "blank map" that is standardized to some extent. First, get a blank map, and each person can color it, add landmarks, and customize it little by little, so that the blank map, which was flat and white at first, can become a full-color, three-dimensional map.

I think that is what it means to improve at cooking. Yes, it takes a little bit of time.

Those who cannot take that time should start by cooking according to the blueprints and fill in the map in parallel.

I want to help with that.

Let's get a blank map

Now, let's get a "blank map" for cooking right away.
In other words, it means knowing the components and formats of cooking. Even with coloring books, you trace the outline before filling in the inside, right? I will introduce some keywords that will help with that.

Five Tastes, Five Colors, Five Methods

Have you heard this phrase somewhere?
If you are someone who reads my notes, you might remember it because it has appeared in past articles several times.

As the words suggest, the five tastes are five flavors, the five colors are five (material) colors, and the five methods are five cooking methods.

Most dishes are made by combining these elements. Sometimes there is only one of each, and sometimes multiple are combined.

Taking Nikujaga (meat and potato stew) as an example...

That is how it is.
Umami includes both the umami from dashi and the umami inherent in the ingredients. Depending on the recipe, green may or may not be included.

Since Nikujaga is a "simmered dish," you can calculate backward, or rather predict, that if you "simmer" materials of "white, red, (green)" in the same way and season them with "salty, sweet, umami," you can make a simmered dish that is similar.

For example, let's replace the white ingredient with daikon radish and the red with chicken. Then, it seems you could make a simmered dish of daikon and chicken. Also, if you change the salty seasoning (soy sauce) to sour (vinegar), you could make a sweet and sour, refreshing simmered dish.

In this way, if you understand the components of a dish, you will be able to make dishes without recipes or names by combining the elements.

Since there are also compatibility and preferences for combinations of ingredients, it is a bit premature to say that if you learn this, you can immediately start making nameless dishes, but I think you can grasp the feeling that "this could become a blank map."

Let's color the blank map

With the phrase Five Tastes, Five Colors, Five Methods, I understood the components of cooking and obtained a blank map of cooking.
Now, let's take it a step further and add colors and symbols to the blank map.

To make nameless dishes more creatively, the shortcut is to know not only the components of cooking but also the elements of deliciousness that people find delicious.

The source of delicious taste is "umami," but did you know that umami seasoning doesn't taste good if you lick it as is?
You might think that "umami," which is supposed to be delicious, extracted purely by itself, would be the most delicious thing in the world, right?

However, unfortunately, umami alone is not delicious. It is mysterious, isn't it?

That is why it is good to combine umami with other tastes and know the components of deliciousness.

The introduction has become long, but this time it is the five senses.

People do not judge food by taste alone; they enjoy it by fully utilizing all five senses.

The five colors mentioned earlier were more of a nutritional categorization (white for carbohydrates, red for protein and vitamins, etc.) than about appearance, but here, sight refers to whether the colors and plating are appetizing.

Sounds that stimulate the sense of hearing include the "sizzling" heard from piping hot dishes, or the "crunch" or "crisp" sounds imagined from fresh vegetables or heard when biting into them.

The sense of smell directly stimulates the appetite. Many of you have likely been lured into a restaurant by the scent of curry or grilled eel.

Touch includes not just the feel on the hands, but also the texture felt in the mouth. If you add croutons or corn kernels to a simply smooth potage, it creates a variation in texture, and enjoying that difference elevates the deliciousness by one level.

In terms of taste, combining accentuating flavors adds depth to what would otherwise be a flat profile. Adding a little saltiness brings out sweetness, and combining sweetness with acidity or bitterness creates a complex, three-dimensional flavor.

Another element that adds a three-dimensional quality to flavor is "richness" (koku).

Richness makes the map three-dimensional

"Richness" is a term we hear often, but it's difficult, isn't it? It's used in phrases like "it has richness" or "it lacks richness."

What is "richness" made of, and what should you add to create it? It's not written anywhere in recipes. Unlike saltiness or sweetness, it cannot be measured by numerical values like salinity or sugar content, and it seems like a vague, hazy concept.
The Umami Information Center, a non-profit organization, defines it as

That is defined as such. It's a bit complicated, isn't it? To put it bluntly, since richness is often described as depth or complexity, it can be thought of as "giving flavor a three-dimensional feel." What are the elements other than the five tastes and the five senses mentioned so far?

This is based on personal experience, so there may be various theories, but the element that can quickly produce richness is

"fats and oils".You sometimes see descriptions like "it's light yet rich," but basically, you don't feel richness in refreshing, high-moisture ingredients like watermelon or cucumber. Even among plant-based ingredients, you can feel richness in sesame seeds or nuts. While there are many differences, I believe a major element is "fats and oils."

Have you ever had the experience of feeling that a light, salty soup was lacking something, only to have the depth of flavor increase significantly after drizzling in a little sesame oil?

Drizzling olive oil over soups like potage is also thought to aim for the same effect.
If you don't treat fats and oils as the "enemy of dieting" and instead learn to work with them well, they should help you make delicious food even without a recipe.

Delicious dishes, such as those using sesame oil in Chinese or Korean cuisine, butter in French cuisine, or olive oil in Italian cuisine, certainly make good use of fats and oils.

Of course, if you need to limit fats and oils due to your physical condition or illness, you should avoid them, but otherwise, I think it is necessary to incorporate them into your diet in moderation.

Now, has your blank map become a little more lively?

As I mentioned before, all that's left is practice.

Whether you look at the goal and work backward, or look at your feet and take it one step at a time, please hold onto your own map and make the food you want to eat, or the food you want to feed someone else, just as you like.

In home cooking, recipes are not the essence

Up to this point, I have written about what I do unconsciously when I cook, in the style of a small adventure story. How was it?
From here on is the so-called epilogue.

After reading this article, some of you may have seen a light in the haze, while others may have become even more confused.

However, one thing I can say is

In home cooking, recipes are not the essence

is what I mean.
As someone who is a bit of a cook, this is not something I should be saying, as I also publish recipes.

For food served in restaurants, recipes are absolutely necessary to ensure the same taste or to ensure that anyone can make the same taste (maintaining quality).

But in home cooking, even for the same dish,it doesn't have to taste the same every time.

In fact, rather than "not having to," thatfluctuation and variation are the very value of home cooking.
Adapting to the family's physical condition and preferences, beingflexible and free like haute couture is the wonder of home cooking.

Of course, since a recipe is a blueprint, when making a new dish, try following the recipe, and then by arranging it to your liking, it becomeseach family's own "taste of home".

There is no need to make everything an original "nameless dish," nor is there a need to make everything according to a recipe.

Home cooking can be freer and easier.

Please share the map you have built little by little with your family. You can help create everyone's individual maps sooner.

Did you find what you were looking for?