Spend enough time with New York Times Cooking and eventually you’re going to deviate from a recipe, or cook without one entirely. The recipe calls for chicken, shallots, smoked paprika and cream, but what you have is pork chops, onions, flour, white wine and Lawry’s seasoned salt. These are people who have made a recipe enough times that they know the instructions cold and have streamlined them according to their tastes and needs. They’ve cooked enough by this point, out of enough pantries, using enough different techniques, that they believe in their abilities. Give those people a few prompts and they don’t need all the measurements.

Source: New York Times April 30, 2023 16:06 UTC