Overheard a baker at the county fair say she never measures vanilla extract, just pours until it 'feels right'

3 comments

3 Comments

But where does that line get drawn? Like @mason.cole said, recipes are training wheels, but vanilla is a strong flavor. I'd worry about making a whole batch taste like a candle if my "feel" was off that day. Does that gut feeling work for every single ingredient, or just the ones that are hard to mess up? I feel like you could pour in too much salt or baking powder just as easy and ruin everything.

nathanb7121d ago

Honestly, that's how a lot of real skill works, isn't it? You start by following the recipe exactly, and after a while you just know the right amount by heart. It's cool to see that gut feeling in something as simple as baking.

mason.cole21d ago

That's the sign of a real pro right there. Recipes are just training wheels for when you're starting out. Once you've made something a hundred times, your hands just know what to do. Measuring every single thing would slow you down to a crawl. It's like riding a bike without thinking about it.