Why do people not follow recipes?

my recipes always taste the same as grandma's and great grandma's did. I follow them exactly as they were written! a teacup of this, a coffee mug of this, a lump the size as a hen's egg, etc.

other of my recipes are measured with modern equipment! yes, I even have a scale in my kitchen for my english recipes.

I have noticed that everyone wants to eliminate the eggs, the fats, the baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, change the flour to something non gluten, and otherwise change the recipe to where every item in the original is not the same. It doesn't even resemble the original. and they wonder why it doesn't work or taste the same!

I call these people "TwinkyBelles" and have huge giggles with my daughters and granddaughters who know better than to make any substitutions to any recipes.

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Some are sticklers for following recipes to the letter. I prefer to make stuff pretty much by the recipe the first time and make any necessary changes if you want to try it a second time. You could back off on something you didn't care foe and add more of something you did. Some ingredients grammy used may not be available currently. Baking is an exact science. You can add the same 5 ingredients in different order and end up with 5 different end products. Good luck!

When I follow a recipe to a tee and it doesn't work out, that's when I wonder what happened. If I make a substitution to a recipe and it doesn't work out put it down to the substitution. I'll admit I don't make as good a loaf of bread as my grandma, but I'm not using the same techniques and I know that!

I imagine a reason people find it difficult to cook something "like grandma" is because their grandma had the recipe in their head and never wrote it down, or had a specific method which was never passed down.

I generally follow the recipe the first time I try it. The exception was when I made French Onion Soup this spring with a batch of huge green onions my sister gave me. The recipe called for burgundy wine to be added. I couldn't imagine why it would call for wine! I've never tasted alcohol in onion soup! It was OK, but nothing to write home about. The next time, I tried putting a big splash of Cream Sherry (couldn't find burgundy) in it, and the difference was astounding. That pot of soup vanished in no time flat, it was so good. Lesson learned. I've even started splashing it in my marinara.

LOL

Depends on the granny, (((Bear))))

My one granny was a marvel in the kitchen.....you would do well to follow her instructions to the letter.

My other granny made the same things daily.....coffee & the driest scone known to man for breakfast, followed by tea.

Peanut butter & honey sammich on 60% whole wheat, no butter, for lunch with carrot sticks, a kiwi cut in 4 & tang.

Dinner for grandpa was the toughest steak one could find, cooked beyond all recognition. Dinner for granny & any of us grandkids was a hamburger patty, cooked until puck-like. And of course, boiled potatoes.

Accompanying both dinner & lunch would be some iceburg lettuce, 2 tomato slices, and some 1000 island dressing.

Every once in a while she would get adventurous & BURN a can of Campbell's soup.

LOL -- I couldn't follow that to save my life.....I rarely cook the same meal twice in a month....much less the same crap day in day out.

Because my Grandmother and my mother seldom measured anything and I only measure if I am making a recipe for the first time or if I am trying to perfect one of my own recipes so other can use it. I do carefully measure ingredeints when baking pastry etc.

Meh. Why do I follow my grandma's recipes to the letter and my cherry bars taste different anyway?

I noticed that at websites. The reviewers make the recipe differently. Then they post a negative review. In those cases, inconsiderate.

I hardly measure anything in the kitchen... I doubt my kids will ever be able to make things taste the same as I do.

Probably what I do taste like what my grandma did since she hardly measured anything too

(((Bear)))