Yeah, I can, pretty much. When I go wrong it's usually when I make something despite having my doubts, because somebody says it's really good.

I'm very good at it....I can "imagine taste".

I lean in the direction of imagining what the recipe calls for and what I think I would change. I rarely make a recipe exactly as it is written. Of course this does not apply to baked goods which I rarely make.

The other thing that comes into play is the ingredients themselves. I make alot of soup. The celery I grow on my deck during the summer is far more potent than the pale green stuff you get in the store or even the organic. I rely on my nose alot as I am preparing the dish.

It's the same when I am making refrigerator dill pickles. I smell the dill heads I am buying at the market. I will use more or less depending on the pungency. The same goes for the garlic I use. So when someone asks me for my recipe it's hard to nail it down.

My SIL and I made pickles one day last summer. She kept asking how much garlic should I peel? How much dill should I pack in the jar? I kept telling her I won't know until I smell it in the jar and pour the brine over it. I leave a little room at the top so I can add more of either if needed.

Nope. I don't even taste as I go. We just eat the finished product.

My DD and I read cookbooks like the latest best selling novel. We both taste with our minds long before we actually make something.

My DH thinks we are crazy and does not like to talk about food, but then he is only interested in eating not preparing. To his credit, he buys all the groceries (from my list), he does all the dishes, and never ever objects to what either of us put before him to eat. He maybe won't eat all of it but he will not critique it either (as DD and I do too much of), and he always thanks us after every meal. DD thinks that to him food is a necessity, while to us it is an adventure of the senses.

Nancy

I think I'm pretty good it it.
If a recipe lists ingredients that I don't like,
I'm not apt to try it.
And the first time I try a recipe,
I try really hard to make it exactly as written.
Then I have a better idea
of what I want to change or adjust.
Most of my 'everyday' recipes
Are dishes that aren't a written recipe,
Just things I have come up with over the years.
Makes it hard
(Next to impossible, in fact)
To share recipes.
Kind of like Teresa_mn's soup & pickles.
You just put in what is 'right'.

Strangely enough,
I am more apt to change a baked goods recipe
the first time around.

Rusty

Nancy, Sounds like you have the same kind of discussions that my son and I have. We have always talked about, and critique what we eat. So does Moe.

I'm very good at imagining what something will taste like, so I very seldom make a recipe, even the first time, exactly as specified. To me, a recipe is just a suggestion or a guideline. I don't hesitate to make adjustments when I'm baking either. Unlike Jasdip, though, I can't imagine cooking and not tasting and making adjustments as I go along.

Ann

I taste as I read a recipe and I taste as I make it.
I usually do find myself adjusting most recipes. No use in trying to eat something that you spent time making when it could have been avoided with a few changes.

Nancy

I look at the ingredients in a new recipe and can usually tell whether I would like it or not. If it has an ingredient I don't care for then I probably won't make it. I see nothing wrong with making a recipe as written and then adjusting it if you make it again.

jude

No, I'm not very good at it, which is why I hang out here, lol! I find the more I cook, the better I get at it. I have no idea how certain taste combination will be until I try them. That's why I usually stick to Mediterannean style dishes since I am so much more familiar with that taste profile from experience. I love Asian and Indian food but I just don't do well cooking it. I like to try out new dishes and styles of food so I can expand my taste repertoire, much to my BF's chagrin. I've had some spectacular failures. He likes the tried and true. He's actually better at adjusting taste than me, but his repertoire is limited.

Like Nancedar and many others, I can absolutely imagine what it will taste like long before I walk into the kitchen. Sometimes I think a recipe can be improved before I even begin, sometimes it is in the tasting as I go along.

I can't even imagine making something "as written" and not tasting and/or adjusting along the way if needed.

Alexa

I think I'm pretty good at imagining what a recipe would taste like. I've been reading cookbooks since I was in grade school. Every evening while watching TV with my folks, I'd thumb through one of my mom's many cookbooks. And like many others, if a recipe has ingredients I don't like (or my husband doesn't like), I'll either substitute something else or not bother trying it. I'm a taster too.

But I admit that sometimes I am persuaded by glowing reviews and from time to time fix something that neither one of us likes. That has happened more frequently since trying to cook low sodium. Some of the salt-free substitutes (for example, homemade sodium-free soy sauce) people have devised can be pretty dreadful. I give them a try, hoping they might work. I've gotten a lot more cautious over the years.

I once asked a chef the same question, he gave me an interesting answer:

"I can see tastes in food, so I can layer the flavors. I can hear smells in food, so I can make music with different notes, and I can taste colors in dishes, so I can arrange the colors to achieve the taste that I want."

I alway think about what he said when I cook.

dcarch

That's something I'm not really good at. I can look at a recipe and think "I like most of those ingredients" and I can look at a recipe and think "I don't think those will go together", and many times I'll be wrong, the flavors blend together perfectly well in the latter and I end up not liking the end result at all in the former.

Like Shambo, I'm often enticed by the reviews of others and make something that I really end up not liking and should have known I wouldn't like. I'd be better off if I'd just trust my own judgment but because I find it hard to imagine what a new recipe is going to taste like, I end up with something not at all like I thought it would be.

Annie

When it comes to cooking, usually have a pretty good idea what it's gonna taste like just from ingredients. Also often end up "winging" it... if recipe calls for 1 LARGE bell pepper, and I only have half a smaller one... that'll have to do.

Well, I do have enough sense to know that if a recipe calls for something I don't like, not to make it.

When I was younger I decided to make a trifle. I had no idea what a trifle even was, beyond dessert. I was so surprised to find that it included a custard until I was cooking and thought "hmmm, this is starting to look like pudding." It was completely different from my vague idea of what it was.

My mom reads cookbooks like novels.

Occasionally I am surprised by a combination or technique that results in flavors I didn't expect. Like the first time I roasted Brussell sprouts at high heat and hit them with a little fresh lemon juice before serving. Those carmelized, nutty tasting sprouts were nothing like the boiled ones I'd only known before. But most often I choose recipes that contain ingredients I know and like and get the result I hope for.

Some people probably have a more inherent gift of being able to taste recipes by imagining the flavors. I think it's a skill that many of us develop the more we cook.

I smell the food often when I'm cooking - bring a teaspoon right up under my nose - and I check often for texture, as when thickening a sauce. But I don't actually taste my food very often before eating, unless I'm cooking for guests. Probably sounds silly, but it pleases me to enjoy the first bite when it's nicely served in my plate.

I have a good sense of which ingredients work well together, so in that sense, I can "taste" a recipe before I make it.

Like many chefs, I use tasting spoons to test the taste of a dish while it is being prepared. I can't imagine not doing that, there are so many variables to take into account.

To me, it would be like shopping for shoes without trying them on. Sure, they should fit, the size is your size, but sometimes the fit just isn't quite right.

Jo

I also have developed a good sense of what foods/spices, etc. we enjoy together & adjust recipes to suit those tastes. I can "taste" a recipe by looking or imagining the ingredients.

Like amck, I use my sense of smell, vision, & even hearing (is it sizzling right?) but do not taste as I cook. If I taste while cooking, my body registers that it has already eaten & I lose any appetite for a meal. Mom learned that about me as a kid...she would give me a small bite of raw cookie dough knowing then I wouldn't bug her for a warm from the oven cookie. That's still true for me. Sometimes, even being in the house while there's a long braise happening in the oven is enough to kill my desire to eat. At holiday meals, after cooking all day, I never actually eat dinner. I sit at the table picking to be polite but don't eat then raid leftovers about 10 p.m.

/tricia

There are benefits to not tasting! Less calories, for one. It's amazing how those little tastes add up, though based on the food indulgences posted here, I know some aren't concerned as much with calories!

And if you're comfortable enough with the food and flavor profiles, I don't see a problem with not tasting. I think it takes skill to be able to produce excellent food without tasting every step of the way.

A chef's take on the subject:

Here is a link that might be useful: Thinking I need a red bucket o spoons.

"If I taste while cooking, my body registers that it has already eaten & I lose any appetite for a meal.",

and

"Sometimes, even being in the house while there's a long braise happening in the oven is enough to kill my desire to eat. At holiday meals, after cooking all day, I never actually eat dinner. I sit at the table picking to be polite but don't eat then raid leftovers about 10 p.m."

/tricia, that is so true for me, too!

"I think it takes skill to be able to produce excellent food without tasting every step of the way."

My sentiments, exactly! ! !

Rusty

Jo, guess it's a good thing I never craved being a chef. My body would quickly rebel. :)

/t

Exchanges like the ones on this thread are what make this forum so interesting to me. I've never met anyone else in my little world who is similarly affected (loses appetite) by tasting or smelling food while it's cooking.

I made eight Tourtieres (Canadian meat pies) for Christmas Eve over a weekend and had no desire to eat one until February (I'd kept one to freeze.)

DH's favorite breakfast place is a family-owned diner that has people lined up into the parking lot most weekends. Often, by the time we're seated I feel I've already consumed a big hearty brunch - just from breathing in the smells of bacon, onions, hash browns, etc., and can hardly bring myself to eat.

Jo, I think that all chefs would agree with that article. I can't imagine cooking with out tasting. It is all part of the cooking process for me. Something I enjoy.

I think losing appetite for something that you have tasted often, or smelled cooking all day is pretty common.

I know that when I have a pot of chili or something simmering all day or even a pot roast in the oven that I can smell. Often by dinner time I've lost interest in dinner.

From the above article:

Be aware of the phenomenon that some cooks encounter when they taste as they cook, they don't have as much of an appetite for the finished food when it hits the table. In fact, after cooking a banquet for 150 guests, I can barely bring myself to eat the food! It's the cook's curse. Although, I find that I enjoy the leftovers the next day, when I've had a break from the food I've been making. Sometimes I'm just too close to it.

I do it with soup all the time. If I have a big pot simmering on the stove for a few hours and I taste it frequently, I don't even want it when it's done. Since it's just me, it then sits in the fridge for a week before I finally toss it. Such a waste!

I thought I was weird for not wanting to eat baklava after spending so much time fixing it. My mom & grandmother spent weeks every Christmas making pan upon pan of the stuff. The house would smell of honey & cinnamon for days on end. It got to the point that I couldn't stand to eat even one piece. Although I never made more than one pan at Christmas, it was enough for my daughter. She doesn't want to eat it either. We both make it just to give away.

I don't actually imagine how something will taste when reading a recipe as much as just get a feel for if it's going to be something I'll like. Like an intuition, which I'm almost always right about. Except when, like others, I let myself be convinced against my better judgment to try something based on good reviews .

As far as tasting as I go, I mostly do. But, unfortunately, it doesn't kill my appetite! And smelling something cooking only serves to enhance my appetite. I have to say, it takes extraordinary circumstances to kill my appetite. What can I say? I love to eat!