Yeah, I get what you mean about cultural differences. Though interestingly, in the UK we seem to have people all over the spectrum on this one — perhaps class is involved here to some extent.
I am a bit reluctant to describe things as "not really cooking" (though I do have a not really cooking tag on my home cooking Tumblr). If someone has memory issues, for example, they may need to write down all kinds of things, not just recipes. And if someone has cognitive issues (or is simply feeling a bit overwhelmed with stuff to do), it does reduce the cognitive load if you know you can just follow the instructions exactly and the result will be good.
Certainly there are plenty of times when something I've made has turned out less delicious than previously, and when I go back and look at how I made it before, it turns out that I left out something that would have made it much better.
When I'm cooking in a cuisine I'm unfamiliar with, I like to have a recipe that tells me how much of each thing to add. I may decide later that I like it a different way, but I don't think it necessarily makes it better if I start out by disregarding the experience of other people who've made the same thing. This does of course leave the problem of locating a reliable recipe!
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zvi and
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Date: 2011-11-30 07:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, I get what you mean about cultural differences. Though interestingly, in the UK we seem to have people all over the spectrum on this one — perhaps class is involved here to some extent.
I am a bit reluctant to describe things as "not really cooking" (though I do have a not really cooking tag on my home cooking Tumblr). If someone has memory issues, for example, they may need to write down all kinds of things, not just recipes. And if someone has cognitive issues (or is simply feeling a bit overwhelmed with stuff to do), it does reduce the cognitive load if you know you can just follow the instructions exactly and the result will be good.
Certainly there are plenty of times when something I've made has turned out less delicious than previously, and when I go back and look at how I made it before, it turns out that I left out something that would have made it much better.
When I'm cooking in a cuisine I'm unfamiliar with, I like to have a recipe that tells me how much of each thing to add. I may decide later that I like it a different way, but I don't think it necessarily makes it better if I start out by disregarding the experience of other people who've made the same thing. This does of course leave the problem of locating a reliable recipe!