Reply #3: I have to warn people that I cook by guess and by gosh [View All]

and generally don't measure my ingredients precisely and that all quantities will be approximations, only, and that when I took a recipe out of a book or magazine, I regarded it as a suggestion, only.

A few brave souls have still asked me for some of my stuff, and I've obliged as well as I've been able to. No, they've never duplicated anything I do, but sometimes what they've come up with is even better.

One thing I've always wanted to avoid is giving a precise recipe to somebody who would make a substitution and then blame me for leaving out a key ingredient when it flopped, something that has happened a couple of times, although I managed to get them to fess up about the substitution after they'd made fools of themselves.

I imagine that's why a lot of folks are reluctant to give out recipes. Or it could just be pride and selfishness. I've always had good success at duplicating things I've tasted at other peoples' houses or even restaurants, so that hasn't been a problem for me.