When you cook (from scratch), do you prefer to work from a recipe or wing it?

i can not cook with more than 2 ingredients: cereal (milk/cereal), fish (trout, olive oil), toast (bread, butter), etc. ergo, i dont really need recipes.

It rather depends. If I'm baking, I *always* follow a recipe, baking is too fussy. But if it's stew or stir fry, I wing it.

I never cook from scratch

I really prefer winging it, but I really don't know enough about cooking to always pull it off - so, I should look at recipes more often than I do. **Great Survey Steve! - this is a question that I'm very interested in. **** Recipes never say to put enough cinnamon. It's always a 1/4 teaspoon - I generally transform this into 2 tablespoons!

When I'm trying something new I tend to start from a recipe, or at least to read what The Joy of Cooking has to say on the subject. But subsequent attempts usually find me varying the recipe quite widely.

I make something from a recipe 3 times, then I can do without unless it's hard to do.

I prefer to wing it. I pretty much always do so when cooking, while baking (as others have said) is more touchy; I'll wing it if I think I can (say, if I have some apples and I just want a simple apple cake, or for cheesecakes or bread, which are very forgiving). For some things I absolutely need a recipe, though, and there are things that I've developed myself that I always make roughly the same way. However, when I do use a recipe I almost never actually follow it; I think of them more as suggestions. **Bill--yes, exactly. It's the same with chocolate and garlic (though not usually in the same recipe).

I'll either wing it or start with a recipe and modify it to make it more interesting. It's pretty rare when I just stick with a recipe as written.

If it didn't come out of a plastic package in the freezer, I didn't cook it.

If it is just cooking then I wing it all the time. If it is baking then I follow the recipe.-- Bill I agree about the cinnamon!!!

I almost always wing it. I've regretted that a few times when something has turned out particularly delicious, and there was no way I could duplicate it...the only time I ever cook from a recipe is when something absolutely must turn out well, such as a holiday dinner for a bunch of people.

I prefer to use a recipe but wing it from there (i.e. add as much/litte of each ingredient as looks smells, and tastes appropriate to me) until i get used to making whatever it is. At that point I add things, leave out things, or change the recipe entirely based on my expierence cooking that particular food, becasue with expierence cooking it I am able to fine tune it to mine (and whoevers eating with me's tastes).

I start with a recipe and usually follow it at least vaguely the first time, particularly when I'm in unfamiliar territory in terms of the chemistry of what you're trying to achieve. When it's something familiar, I wing it. You can make good chili winging it. A good souffle on the wing is pushing the envelope....

I usually prefer to make things without recipes, but I have had great success with some recipes in the past.

on the rare ocassion when I cook, I follow a recipe, I have no talent for winging it

I do a lot of things from memory/wing it. I rarely follow a recipe exactly - I usually try to collect a few different recipes that approximate what I want to make and then find a happy medium

I don't cook

I need a recipe. I'm slowly learning to be a little freer with my interpretation of the recipe, but I need a good starting point, and I'm bad at guessing measurements.

When I am baking (my speciality, in the kitchen), I am more apt to modify the recipe somewhat. When cooking meals, I will generally follow the recipe fairly closely. In all cases, I will usually use a recipe, though.

i use a recipe unless i'm making sauce, then i follow my inner italian

I use recipes for inspiration and guidance, but I don't think I have =ever= followed a recipe completely. Cooking is more art than science, and baking is more science than art, so I use recipes more (more often and more closely) when baking than when cooking.

Everything that I cook (not bake) is done ad-lib. It's a creative process, not just food. If I followed recipes, I don't think I'd like to cook.

My memory isn't what it could(should?) be. so I usually use recipes. Once I have made something a couple times, so I know what it is supposed to be like (and I can remember the ingredients in approximate proportions), I wing it so it is more to my taste. I'll usually see if I can get two or more recipes(recipes) and compare/contrast and mix and match.

Most dishes I just make up myself. When there is something in particular that I want to make I use a recipe and then wing it to make it more mine.... Bread and cookies I follow the destructions for... : )

My recipes, when I follow them, generally leave quite a lot to the imagination.

The "I prefer to wing it but some things I make from a recipe" answer is technically correct, but "we don' need no stinking recipes!" more accurately reflects my attitude on the subject, so I picked it. I'll look up recipes when the chemistry is important and I don't know it (eg, when making dough), and I'll periodically browse cookbooks and articles looking for combinations of foods that I wouldn't have thought of myself... but usually, I cook by looking around the kitchen and seeing what inspires me.