following recipes and taking notes

[Mark V]

Earlier this year I made chocolate babka. It turned out fantastic, I thought it was the best dessert type thing I ever made. I have since tried to make it three times and each time was a dud. I have the printed recipe, the only notes I made the first time was the rise took longer than they said. I took pics, none of the later ones look like the first. Very frustrating, it is a lot of work, and I only have tried more because the first was so good. I still have no idea what I did different! It could be I am just not following instructions as well as the first time. The instructions from the site are hard to follow, very disorganized.

I would like to think that from now on I will take better notes when cooking anything. And write things in my own words when it is something I want to make again.

[Richard Chrz]

I tell myself that I will take notes with everything. I never do… I’m a slow learner. I hope you get it worked out.

[RonB]

That's tough. Maybe try lookin' a several youtube videos - that might spark your memory...

[HawkerXP]

I agree with you. My son continues to haunt me with "Remember that one time you cooked those ribs?" Ahhhhhhh! No and I didn't make note of what I used.

[Troutman]

Now you know why it is so hard to cook 100 briskets each and every day and have them as good as the one you cooked to perfection in a restaurant that survives on getting it right each and every time.

[Troutman]

Another thought is cooking has so many variables; stove, oven or barbecue pit temperature fluctuation, the weather outside, barometric pressure (when doing a soufflé), age of your product, the age of your seasoning, the type of vessel you cook in, etc. etc. I think we've all gone through that same cycle. I make a mean gumbo but making the roux just right for my taste, as just one for instance, never seems to be exactly the same. So goes the roux, so goes the rest of the stew.

My only suggestion is to download the Paprika app and keep all your recipes therein. You can make notes, there are exact measurements, you can even tell it to cut the scales in half or even quarters if you want to cut down on the recipe. At least you have those former recipes at your disposal. The rest is up to you and your precision at being a good cook.

[fzxdoc]

I'm as a cook, I'm pretty tightly-wrapped. I don't follow recipes, even my own, to the "t" but I am pretty careful to document the changes I make. Unless I write down the changes I make to a recipe as I use it, I'll never remember.

When I cook from a recipe, I print it out, even a TNT one, from my Paprika files and have it to hand as I cook. I make any notes on the fly. It ends up food-spattered but valuable. Then the next morning I transfer those changes to the original recipe in Paprika, resulting hopefully in a newer, better, easier and tastier resulting recipe. I don't always get to it the next day, so spattered Paprika printouts sit in a stack on my desk until I can get to them.

My profession has taught me this type of discipline, but I did not always have it in the kitchen. Now that I have a little more discretionary time, I find it a satisfying method and feel that it has made me a better cook.

Kathryn

[TripleB]

I generally always take notes and record what I'm doing in my cooking journal. When I cook, smoke, grill a recipe that I have recorded before, I will make a note next to the date on the new journal entry and say something like "chk 7/10/21" and that ques me to go look at my notes on the first time I did it (or the second, third, etc.).

[bbqLuv]

Thanks for the post. I did an internet search, looks Really Good.