On Recipes and Why I Don't Use Them

The dominant paradigm of cooking is recipes. In fact it is so dominant that using recipes is taken for granted as the way cooking is always done. Many people assume that if you are cooking, then you simply must use a recipe. The are several sociological and cultural reasons why recipes are used so frequently, however I believe that the most important reason is psychological in nature. Recipes present a heads I win, tails I still don't lose proposition. It allows a cook to take all credit for success but accept no responsibility for failure. For example, if a cook is having guests over for dinner and makes a chicken dish and it turns out great, they can say "Look at this great chicken dish I made". But if the dish turns out poorly, what gets said is "Man this recipe really sucks".  Good meal= I'm a great cook; bad food= Entirely the recipe's fault. 
I don't use recipes.  Most importantly, I think it makes cooking more fun, more of an adventure. It challenges you to learn how to cook more fundamentally.  You're learning how to cook rather than just memorizing series of instructions.  It also means that you have to be confident in your cooking skills and confident that what you make will turn out good.  Not using a recipe means that you entirely own the results of what you make. If it's good it was entirely because of you; if it was bad there is no recipe to blame, it is entirely your fault.  Here is an example.  I made this tonight.

Seafood and Tofu Soup
Put some clam broth in a big pot.  Add lots of milk.  This is the base of your broth.
Mix in a little orange juice for zest and fruitiness but don't get heavy handed with it, its just supposed to be a barely noticed accent.
Add one can of whole baby clams (do not drain them beforehand).
Add one can of cream corn.
Add seafood mix- this is also known as paella mix and can be found in the frozen seafood section of your grocery store.  It's cheap since most people don't know how to use it.  The kind I used had crab, squid, and fish.
Add any other seafood you have and like.  I added extra squid.
Add chopped mushrooms.
Add a little bit of hot horseradish.
Add chopped tofu.  Chop it about the size you see in Chinese hot and sour soup.
Add spinach or whatever other greens you have.
Add one to two spoons worth of your favorite hot sauce to give a little bit of a throaty kick.
Add parsley, chives, and chopped mint.
Bring the soup to a boil.  Leave it that way until all the seafood has been cooked thoroughly, the spinach is slightly wilted, and the mushrooms are cooked to your liking.

Let it cool down.
If you want, put chopped nuts and/or oyster crackers on top for crunch.

And that's how you make seafood and tofu soup.

-The Monkey