Taste and smell would be tied for first with me.
Then visual comes into play followed by feel.

Nancy

I taste.....first I smell out of the package ro when I cut it up....then I taste....I taste raw meat...raw dough ...bread dough included...veggies onions etc. and spices...cinnamon paprika, curry powder, salt...
If I didn't....how would I know that those tomatoes were sweeter than the others or that onion hotter or that I forgot to put the salt in the dough or the sugar or the yeast....or how would I know that "something's missing" and that the addition of a bit of lemon fixed that?
I also touch....and "feel" when a steak or a piece or fish or a bird in the oven is done....and feel the top of a cake. pinch a pea ior a green bean to check for doneness.....and I listen to the sound of a thumped loaf of bread.
If you rarely taste....that means you rarely "wing it"...if the recipe isn't right...you wouldn't know. I think tasting is very important....I mean that's the ultimate goal isn't it? To cook without tasting would be akin to a painter painting with hus eyes closed but knowing what the colors were on his palette. I can't imagine how you can do that? maybe your sense of smell is better than mine....LOL !
Linda C

A chef once showed me a trick to use when grilling steaks, how to judge the doneness.

Push your index finger in to the softest part of your cheek--that's what 'rare' feels like. Touch the tip of your nose--that's 'medium'. Tap your forehead--that's 'well-done'.

It's surprisingly consistent. However, it does make me think that in restaurant kitchens, grubby line cooks are poking they grubby little fingers into my steaks...

Linda I almost always "wing it". Recipes are at best a guideline for me and, unless it's baking, I never follow to a tee. Bet I don't use a recipe more than two or three times a month....if.

I just don't taste...I may get others to taste but I don't normally taste and if I do it's just at the last moment.

Guess I just have a great smeller! LOL

;) Sometimes like this!

Here is a link that might be useful: Clip

Wow Chase, what are you a culinary Beethoven?

Eileen what a classic! LOL

Not getting it foodonastump.......but I'm blond, at least I was when I was three.

Foodonastump is referring to the fact that Beethoven was deaf.

(No one will eat at my house now! LOL!)

#1 Sense is sight. In just about every aspect of cooking, seeing it is what I need in order to do it right. I almost never measure spices, just figure out how much to add by sight. I know if the ground beef is done browning by looking, or if the chicken is done baking by seeing if the juices run clear, etc.

Even when baking bread, which I'm totally new at, I look to see if I think the dough looks right before I bother touching it.

So second for me is touch. Smell usually only comes into play if something smells bad or if I suspect it might. Taste falls in at the end, when I'm pretty sure it's just how I want it, then I taste it to confirm and make adjustments as needed.

What about hearing? Let's see... when making popcorn, I know when to turn off the heat because it's stopped popping. Yes, I make popcorn on the stove, the old fashioned way.

chase, I'm a smeller, too. DH jokes that the little beagle we had for 15 yrs. didn't have much on me. I try to be discreet, but I always smell my food.

Sight is next. Then touch. Then taste. Another culinary Beethoven!

I know I should taste more often, but I think having been a WW member has made me very conscious of how much "extra" food I would consume in a short time if I kept taking bites here & there. Plus, I like "the big reveal" when I sit down to try a new dish. I want to savor my first bites when it is plated up and looking like the picture in the cookbook (or on Ann T's posts..LOL)

Lindac, you have a point, though. I only wing it with recipes that are tried and true. I usually follow recipes to the letter when I first try them with little improvisation. And I usually only spend my time/ingredients on recipes from sources I trust, so results are usually good.

Food for thought, though. I should try more tasting and more winging.

I can't imagine cooking and not tasting. Because I wing most things and never measure anything I always taste. And I smell and I touch.

Ann

Did anyone see that recent episode of top Chef....whre one of the contestants didn't taste a dish and the panel asked her if she had tasted her "whatever" and she admitted she hadn't. She served something that had salt instead of sugar in it....thankfully it wasn't a dessert calling for 1 1/2 cups of sugar or so, just a sauce calling for about 2 tablespoons of sugar.
I got into the habit of tasting everything from my mother who admonished me to always taste the baby's food before feeding....sort of like the "poision tester" in the Medici court! LOL!
Linda C

I tend not to taste; the sense of smell is best for me. If I'm not sure about something (like pasta texture, etc), I taste. I taste if salt/seasoning is really important and I've been winging it-- but it's that sense of smell and just feeling it that works for me.
Annie1971

It depends on what I'm cooking. If I'm baking bread or pastry, it's touch, I do not like raw dough and never taste it. I also don't care for raw cookie dough or cake batter, my girls always tasted that for me, LOL, but I do taste raw beef, just because I like it raw.

I rely on smell a lot, but not to the extent Chase does, I think it's more how something feels or how it looks.

I know how jam "looks" when it starts to jel and how thick the gravy is and whether my scones are too wet or too dry.

I usually only taste at the end of my cooking, to adjust seasonings, but I usually do end up tasting. I usually only follow a recipe the first time I make it, then I decide how to change it so it'll conform to my own individual taste.

Annie

My first thought when I read the title was kitchen mishaps - like I use my sense of touch when my arm touches the oven door while sliding something in. And I came close to needing to use my sense of smell tonight while preparing cookies for Shalach Manot (gifts of goodies for the Jewish holiday of Purim). I was going for vanilla extract and picked up the similar size and shape bottle of black sesame seed oil. Fortunately, I noticed the error visually but if I hadn't, I sure hope my sense of smell would of kicked in before I poured or that would have been a ruined double batch of dough. :^)

Annie stole my real answer. It depends what I'm cooking. I can tell that my sponge cakes will be good by the feel of the batter (both to my fingers and mouth feel when I take a taste). Taste is a check too. For a lot of baked goods, feel is very important for me.

When searing, hearing comes into play - does the sizzle sound right. And hopefully I also hear the timer go off when cooking something that needs timing. :^)

I taste for some things to adjust seasoning. Marinara sauce gets multiple tastings as does soup. But there are other things that I can make consistently without tasting and I don't worry about it. I don't taste raw meat but I don't usually mind tasting batters with raw egg. I figure my body can fight off the bacterial load of a little taste a fraction of which is egg. The exception was during chemo - then I tried very hard to remember not to taste anything with even a tiny bit of raw egg because my resistance was down (lower than usual white cell counts during part of the cycle plus other stresses on the body).

And there are times when sight is primary. For example, when the egg whites are whipping, I can tell a lot by how they look as the beater does its job.

Smell is always very prominent when things are in the oven.

I use all my senses when cooking. Hearing perhaps a bit less than the other 4.

Mind's eye. I get a feeling about how things will or should taste. Most of the time I can get an idea of what something will taste like with just my imagination. I can almost taste what two flavors will do with each other. I do lots of theme and variation so things sort of evolve as the years go by. I will make something I have done before but then perhaps add something extra or if I'm short delete an item. Sometimes I'm just struck with a craving for a particular flavor... sweet, sour, or salty. Then I start working with what I have to make a dish that will cure the craving. Last weekend I really needed something sweet so I made cinnamon toast... didn't get it... added a drizzle of chocolate syrup... oh yeah that did it.

: )
lyra

Most often smell
-when something is done (any kind of heat)
-when something needs to be turned in the skillet
-choosing what to add to a dish 'when it needs something'. I sniff what's cooking and sniff spices and herbs to tell if it goes together well.

and what Cloud Swift said very well!

Judy

I use smell, but I think I use sight more. How can you "smell" when onions are transluscent? I suppose they might have a certain smell at that point, but I think I use sight more. I never really thought about it before I guess!! I usually taste at the end to adjust seasoning as Annie said. Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I do use smell a bit more than I thought. When I'm making things like Cuban black beans or chili, I do smell to make sure I have enough spice - I can smell whether there's enough cumin for example. But in dishes that have to cook a long time, like gravy (spaghetti sauce), it doesn't make sense to taste until you're getting towards the end because the alcohol in the wine needs to cook out, the different ingredients need time to meld, etc.

I guess whatever works for you is the right way to do it! Everyone has their own technique.

Lisa

It sure isn't something I can dissect easily as it is very much an intuitive process at this point in my cooking life.

Taste is first. I taste things for correctness more than I smell them.

Smell is relegated to an "alarm system" function mostly. As in "dang, I burned it," or "this smells off."

Touch works for bread dough and cake done-ness as well as grilled meat cooking.

Sight is great for presentation purposes and baking or egg done-ness, or produce freshness.

My grandmother used to listen for her cakes to "sing." I listen for the smoke alarm.

I wish hubbydubbydoo would use his senses when I cook. If I leave the kitchen for a while, I leave instructions like, "if it smells like it's burning, it probably is!" "If the buzzer goes off, it means something'; "if it sounds like it's boiling over -- it is!" "Respond, please." He does respond to the smoke alarm, however, spurred on by our Labrador retriever.

For me it's sight and taste first. The smell factor is always there for me...I mean you have to breath so in a way you are always smelling so to speak. Touch or feel would come in last unless I'm baking or checking steaks on the grill. Interesting what everyone's take on this has been so far.

David

taste is first. I sample often. Smell is next..does it need more thyme? Sight is last. Does it look good? Why not? Steaks, touch. Hearing, only when frying.

I'm with Lyra I have a sense memory when it comes to flavors. I wing most everything I cook and in 30 yrs of cooking I have never made anything that was inedible. And my husband is a high palette PITA.

I always taste and adjust as I cook. But I never put in enough pepper for the Pepper Monkey (rolleyes)

We lived in Great Falls, VA for many years. Many years ago I was inspired by an article from the Washington Post with recipes from Frances Kitching, Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay, where the earth on the low-lying island is too salty to grow produce. A quote from her, "my cookin is touchin and feelin", inspired me to document my own recipe collection, some of which are shamelessly cut and copied from experts, most of which are tried and true family recipes or my own originals.
I have her Maryland crab cakes; broiled fish in mayonnaise sauce; corn fritters and fig cake/fig cake glaze.
She was all about "touchin and feelin" (not "smellin" though)

Nice, Annie71....
My cookin' is all about love.....and I do it by taste...I am hopeless as far as writing things down.
Today was another funeral lunch for a lovely lady who led a full and rich life and died at 92, much beloved.
With lots of help I cooked a chicken/veggie/pasta/ cheesy/creamy sauce pasta casserole and a spinach/ lettuce salad with strawberries and a poppyseed balsamic vinaigrette.
I nipped and sipped and tasted all through the fixing of the sauce and salad dressing. I mixed with a big spoon and a whisk and had tea spoons lined up for tasting.
I know pretty well what I put into each thing....but how much?? Oh MY!....and several people have asked for the recipe....so I will send the ingredient list with the caveat of "taste as you go".
Yes....cooking is all about taste and love and "feelin".
Linda C

You're right Linda C: It's about doing what we love; what we're good at; what makes others comfortable and feel cherished. Some people are blessed with the ability for touchin and feelin and making a comfortable environment out of unfamiliar surroundings. You did well, today! Good job!, as hard as it must have been for you!
Annie1971