Do you ever make up your own recipies when cooking?

Hope it turns out well, @Dutchess_III !
I do much the same thing if I’m trying a new recipe, regardless of whether it’s from a cookbook or online. I know what I like, and I know more about seasoning and cooking chemistry than many of the people who put recipes online anyway.
The only time I follow a recipe precisely is if I’m baking, which I don’t do very often.
I cook with no recipe at all much of the time, for curries, soups, and sauces.

Smells good!

I pulled it out to check on it. I said, “Smells good, doesn’t it!”
Rick says, “Yeah it does! What is it?”
“I dunno!”

Most of the time.

Oh man! It is SOOOO good!!!

It is virtually impossible to make leftover soup from a recipe. What is leftover soup? You take most the leftovers out of the fridge and make them into soup. When you have too much of something to throw out, but not enough to eat, it goes into the soup.

Most of the time it turns out edible, much of the time it turns out good, a few times the dogs won’t want to have anything to do with it.

When my kids were little they wanted to make stone soup. My daughter, who was about 6 at the time, woke me up and said she was starting to make it. She said, “I have lettuce and I have pickles, and I have a rock…I don’t know what else to put in it.” I decided to get up and get with the program! She did indeed have a rock. A big, old, dirty nasty paving stone! :)

I often modify regular recipes to make them suitable for vegetarians.

I will also look at multiple recipes for the same item, let’s say it’s for enchiladas or hot and sour soup. Then I’ll mix and match, ususually cranking up the heat a bit, and adding or omitting ingredients that I like or dislike.

I’m hopeless without a recipe, generally. I might modify it a little after I’ve made it ‘by the book’ enough times to be familiar with it, but the first several times I make a recipe I stick to it. I’m decent at thinking up new flavor combinations, though, and have a few favorite dinners that have resulted from that. For instance, I love to have browned kielbasa on a potato roll with sour cream and shredded cheddar as toppings. Must be served with a side of caramelized apples. The whole set of flavors has to be there for me to enjoy it to its fullest.

I’m all for winging it, and most of my cooking is just that. BUT, my theory, and I finally convinced my wife of it, is to follow a new recipe precisely the first time in order to understand the intricacies and interactions between the food and different seasonings. If I adjust a new recipe to fit the tastes that I know I like, I’ve lost the opportunity to experience new tastes and smells, and I end up with something similar to what I’ve had before.

I ran my theory past a chef at a high end restaurant, and he mostly agreed. He has the advantage of skill, knowledge, and experience to get a good idea what a new recipe might taste like, and might make some preferential changes. But when he runs across unfamiliar combinations in recipes, he sticks to the recipe the first time; that’s how he continues to learn and expand his repertoire.

I always follow the recipe as directed the first time I make it, then I modify it and make it my own. I would substitute ingredients for stuff that is already in my pantry. I also make my own combinations. However, when I bake, I follow recipes very carefully because keeping the exact measurements is essential for cakes, pastries, and bread to have the right consistency.

I usually use a recipe as an idea only.

I used to be scared to deviate from recipes (I’m talking about cooking in the most simplest sense), but not I’m more lenient. Just the other day I made this really good, simple chicken dish by winging it.

Well, this was my first time making a quiche…and it was AWESOME!!

….winging fried chicken. THAT’S funny!! :)

I almost always deviate from printed recipes, and I regularly make up my own.

I frequently improvise depending on what’s in the fridge, freezer and cabinets. It usually comes out edible, at least, and, often, it’s really terrific. I find recipes that sound great, try them, and throw the recipes away because I don’t think they were worth repeating. Fortunately I don’t have to cook for picky eaters. They’ll eat anything. I’m the final judge.

@Dutchess_III Oh yes! I have a quick look at a recipe to see if I have at least some of the things and then adapt.
Never call a dish anything until it is finished as, in my case, it will look completely original and unlike any picture from a recipe book.

Some people don’t seem to realize that every recipe, every dish, was made up by another human being! They weren’t given to Adam and Eve by God, ya know!

Going to find out if warmed over quiche is any good. And, if nothing else, I learned how to SPELL ‘quiche’!

@Dutchess_III Not even Apple Pie in The Sky?

Nope! Not even Lucy In The Sky!