Why You Should Never Be Too Proud To Use a Recipe Book or Guide

There’s a small but surprisingly active subset of people in the world that feel that it’s cheating if you follow a recipe. They feel like there’s a certain amount of pride in figuring things out yourself, and that’s perfectly fine if you like experimenting. However, there comes a point where too much pride can be a bad thing.

We’ve all done it before. We might look at something that people have made and we’ll try to mimic it, only to end up failing spectacularly. Unfortunately, this is fairly common and it could’ve been avoided if we just followed the recipe word for word. So in this post, we’re going to offer a bit of advice for all the home chefs out there that are too proud to follow a recipe.

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Someone else has done all the trial and error for you

If you’re interested in becoming a better cook then it’s natural to fail a few times. However, when you follow a recipe book, you’re following instructions to make something according to someone else. That means they’ve gone through all of the trial and error for you already! It means you don’t need to continuously fail, making it a far more practical way to cook a certain dish. If you want to save a lot of time, we highly suggest just following a recipe and making modifications as you try it.

Most recipes can be found for free on the internet

A lot of people refuse to buy cookbooks and follow recipes because it’s usually gated behind something paid. For example, you might need to purchase a book or unlock a subscription to see recipes, so it can make some cooks scoff at the idea of following the recipe. Thankfully, most recipes nowadays are freely available on blogs and videos, so there’s no excuse not to try something new!

It’s one of the best ways to discover new cuisines

If you love trying out food from around the world then one of the best ways to learn their secrets is to just follow a recipe! Whether it’s a Mexican shredded chicken recipe or following a guide on making your own delicious ramen noodles, following a recipe helps you learn all of the fundamental skills that an entire cuisine is based around. If you want to get more creative with your cooking, then you need to start experimenting with different recipes instead of just creating wild concoctions in your kitchen!

It’s a good idea to have everything measured exactly

Measuring things exactly is really important for certain types of cuisine and dishes. For example, if you’re ever interested in baking, then you should know that those exact measurements and wait times are extremely important. Adding too much of a single ingredient is going to be disastrous and could completely change the end result. If you want things to be consistent, make sure you follow a recipe! Yes, it’s true that many cooks can just eyeball measurements, but baking is a completely different story and you need to cook a recipe for years before you can just throw ingredients together and have it work out.