I like to cook the same recipe regularly. Big plate chicken noodles from Chinese Cooking Demystified is on an almost weekly rotation in my house. I know of my regular recipes off by heart, but sometimes I change the recipe. Often little things like using volumes instead of weight for flour. Other times it’s making a substitution - changing a cut of meat or replacing an ingredient that isn’t available here (Australia). It’s easy enough to do each time I cook, but I lose track of what I’ve done before and if it improved the recipe. How do you handle this?
I use recipes about 1% of the time and even then only as guidelines, but if every now and then I happen onto a change I really like, I’ll either make a recipe card or mark up a cookbook, enabling anyone else to consider the change if they wish. Years (decades) ago, I decided on the Fanny Farmer recipes for basic waffles and pancakes. Both are now covered with copious notes, written in pencil. Using pencil was smart. I made some substitutions and later found better substitutions.
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If I find a recipe I like (on the internet), I copy/paste it to a Word Document, make my changes, then save it on my hard drive. Once satisfied with the recipe, I’ll print it out and put it into my 3 ring recipe binder.
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I use Apple notes to track recipes and alterations or changes. Then I can retrieve on different devices or away from home. I paste a link(s) to recipe or information in the note, then simply type in changes under the link. I used this a lot for sous vide since time and temp changes can make a major difference. Carnitas is an example; 152f for 24 hour gets a different result than 165f for 12 hours. I note ingredient changes as well but not as often. I also note variations on quantity or scaled size.
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I store everything in a recipe folder on my laptop, with notes. As low tech as it’s possible to be while also using tech.
When I make something from a recipe, I do the Word thing, too. I have a binder in which I have a lot of recipes printed, and I’ll make notations on them now and then with changes I’ve tried and whether I liked them or should avoid them in the future. For things I cook from memory, well, those changes are often lost to the ages, especially if the dish is something I don’t make often enough for the change to become habit. It drives Mrs. ricepad nuts.
I really love the idea of pencil and paper I’m just not sure I want to print every recipe I cook. Pencil is the perfect tool for the job though
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The sous vide problem is an interesting one. There’s a whole lot more precision required than what I do most of the time. I’ve been trying to build something for tracking recipe changes and what worked. Would you be interested in taking a look and giving me some feedback?
I think it’s difficult to cook from a cookbook; I much prefer a paper copy enclosed in a plastic sleeve, ready for a notebook. Of course, it’s already in WORD.
I’ll note changes in my Word copy and in my printed sheet.
I annotate with pencil in the recipe book or use the notes function in the NYT Cooking app. Or I write notes on a separate piece of paper and keep it folded in the recipe book.
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I am not the Luddite I might appear to be, and I spent a long career living with Word, etc., but I have inherited my parents’ recipe cards, and the fruit stains on the canning recipes and the batter drips on others are endearing, as are the notes written in pencil on index cards typed on an old Olivetti. Any heir to a trove of digital recipes will never experience that connection.
If it’s a book I own I’ll just write right in the book. If it’s from on online source I’ll create a text file and toss it into a folder locally. But there are only a handful of recipes I cook regularly so there’s not much there.
Is there a good recipe you recommend online for the Big Plate Chicken Noodles? Just googled it and looks like something I’d like to try.
