Baking by instinct

[Cronker]

Hello

 

having become very much interested in baking over the last few years, I'm very aware that accurate measurements and following recipes is far more important in this area than that of savoury dishes.

but I am wondering if, after a time, you become more instinctive when baking?

can you measure a cup of flour by eye?

can you read a recipe and note that perhaps fifty more grams of butter would be better?

can you see that perhaps substituting mandarins for lemons would work?

 

discuss.

[cakewalk]

I think people re-work baking recipes all the time, but I wouldn't say it's "instinct." It's more a matter of either learning by experience, or knowing what substitutions would work scientifically. There are a lot of variables. It depends on what you're baking, it depends on whether you want a very particular result, etc. If I'm feeling lazy and a recipe calls for two whole eggs and one yolk, I might just use three eggs. I wouldn't worry about the result. I've reduced the butter in a recipe and added sour cream instead. Better result. Again, it's not instinct, it's experience, and of course you have to be prepared to be wrong. But I would not measure a cup of flour by eye. Ever. Even I have my limits. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I usually cut sugar in sweet baking with good results to my taste.

 

I can sometimes tell if a baking recipe is not going to turn out well from just reading it, but was surprised by one with no leavening recently that a few members swear works fine as written. I did however get some agreement that the web photo of the recipe could not have resulted from the formula. Apparently it's delicious anyway.

 

I never estimate/eyeball a cup of flour in baking. Flour does vary in is liquid absorbing capabilities, so I do eyeball that on some recipes, once I've measured everything and mixed and only then, I make minor adjustments. For instance, I adapted my favorite cornbread recipe by making it as written and then thinning the batter with extra milk to make it the proper consistency for skillet cooked pancakes. I don't measure the extra milk, just add and gently mix in a little at time until I get it where it needs to be.

 

Oh, and since I've recently started cooking only for myself, I have started winging very small batches of shortcake or biscuits to be cooked in a small but heavy aluminum Dutch oven. I do start out doing math to reduce the ingredients to produce a single shortcake or a couple of biscuits.

 

I think baking has been done for millennia before we had digital scales, thermostat controlled ovens, Kitchen Aid mixers, therma pens, Modernist Cuisine type additives and on and on. It is doable without a lot a expensive or dedicated equipment. I make great 

corn tortillas by pressing them out between sheets of heavy plastic and pressing down on them with my 10" Wagner Ware cast iron skillet. No tortilla press necessary. My paternal grandma always made great biscuits and she never measured anything. I guess that's where I get my approach to it. It's not magic, but it takes a lot of experience if you start messing with tested and successful recipes.

[pastrygirl]

I don't know if instinct is the same as something being ingrained, making muscle memory with practice, and experience.  If so, then yes

 

There are things that I make without measuring - corn tortillas, cream scones when it's just for a snack and not a customer*, sorbets mixed to taste.  Yeast breads are very forgiving so I'm less precise with measuring and go by how the dough looks that day.  I weigh everything else and substitute or adjust recipes for different needs.  You just have to understand how the ingredients work together

 

*easiest ever:  mix some flour, a little sugar, baking powder, salt & flavorings (spices or inclusions), add heavy cream until it forms dough.  Portion & bake.  Sometimes better than others, but always pretty good when warm from the oven.

[Cronker]

Sorry, I guess I was alluding to experience equalling a kind of instinct.

thanks for your replies.

[liuzhou]

5 hours ago, Cronker said:

can you measure a cup of flour by eye?

 

Given the notorious inaccuracy of "cups" as a measure, the eye is probably as good as anything else.

Edited May 25, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[jmacnaughtan]

If you have digital scales, then it's just as easy to weigh the ingredients as to wing it.

 

You do need to use instinct when dealing with fruit and other fresh products - they vary enormously, even within the same variety.  But for structural ingredients like flour, eggs, etc. it's not worth the hassle.  Find a decent recipe and stick to it.  Use your intuition to work out when to take it out of the oven

[nickrey]

Flour hydration is variable. Egg size is variable. Humidity and other climatic variables all affect how baking turns out.

 

Cup measurements are next to useless as a way of standardisation.

 

Measurement by weighing provides a much better estimation but, once again, the factors above are modifying variables that can sabotage what you are trying to achieve.

Measurement can only take you so far.

 

Over time one develops expertise in coping with variances caused by the things I've hurriedly noted above as well as many others. The way the dough looks and feels is a better measure of how it will work than anything else.

 

To the outsider this seems instinctive because it appears to be automatic and natural.

 

On the other part of the question, with enough experience and some natural ability I've found that you can read a recipe and, in essence, taste it in your mind. This allows you to substitute or add ingredients that will improve the product.

 

Taste is one thing but you also need to know what impact the substitute will have on the cooking process. For example, adding liquid acid rather than a dry form to bicarbonate of soda or another rising agent will cause the rising to happen in the bowl rather than in the oven: cookie textured cake anyone?

 

To some extent, watching others do things (e.g. a parent or grandparent) can shorten the journey to gaining experience because you internalise lessons that you then don't need to acquire by trial and error yourself. However, it can also lead to dysfunctional dogmatism. I remember reading of a granddaughter who cut a portion off the end of each roast before cooking because this is how she was told to do it. Turns out that this came from her grandmother via her mother. She finally worked out that the grandmother had a cooking pan that would not hold the length of the meat...