this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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What I did so far to overcome it:
Sometimes the rice is overdone or too sticky or the pasta is too salty.
Interrogate them if it's necessary. Until they stop with the "Do as much as you like" and instead instruct you with "Put about a cup of X and about a quarter of Y by volume". If you got this you are nore prepared for the measure by eye and feel.
It's like science. It is science.
My parents are the worst about this. It's all based on vibes. My dad acts like Amadeus in the kitchen, furiously experimenting and being creative. I've asked him to explain wtf he's doing and he never does. Like he'll tell me what he's literally doing, but with no explanation of why.
Edit: Particularly with cooking meat, which I never seem to do right. My parents both describe the temperature and time they choose purely in terms of vibes and I have no idea how to copy that when I go from trying to learn with them where I'm typically trying to cook for 3-4 people to trying to figure out how to cook for just myself.
This book should take care of the basics: https://amzn.eu/d/16lMSZG
(If you are not in the EU area, just search for the title on your local amazon or book store)
What I read so far in it is bits of explanation of the science of taste and cooking whats happening inside the food and storytelling. This would give you an aid to be closer to what your father does being an able to experiment and deviate from a recipe.
Personally I enjoy the recipes from http://justonecookbook.com
The recipes are not very complicated and tasty. It usually is supplemented by a youtube video that shows the steps as well.
I get around this by asking them to make the specifics dish, gathering all the ingredients for them, then weighing everything before and after to get exact numbers.
It really is a matter of "do as much as you like", but without an intuition on how different ingredients taste and affect the dish at varying quantities, you're not going to know how much you like. So getting that starting point to experiment with is very important.
Usually my meals end up in "I feel like there is one aspect missing to tie the whole thing together".