One Recipe, Ten Cooks, Ten Different Results

What happens when ten people follow the same recipe? Ten different results -- that's what! From your salt choice to your skillet's thickness, every detail makes a difference.

Sometimes I receive comments from readers who’ve tried a recipe, saying things like:

• “It was delicious, but it looks totally different from your picture -- the color is not even close.”
• “I had to bake the cake much longer than the recipe stated.”
• "I followed the recipe word for word and the sauce never got as thick as it said it would."

My goal of course, is to have you achieve a certain result — the result I get after testing and retesting a recipe a few times. My hope is that it’ll be as close as it can be.

That said, if ten different people follow the same recipe to a T, none of them will turn out exactly the same. From taste to color, the results will always vary a little. We're different people, after all.

The results will differ depending on everything from where you get your ingredients to what pan you use.

For the sake of this discussion, let’s say ten of us make my Braised Brisket Stew. (Delicious!) Below are some of the reasons why each of us will have a slightly different result . . .

First, Let’s Look at the Ingredients

• 1 (2½-pound) brisket - 
We will all get our meat from different stores. Will yours be grass fed or not? Will it be slightly over or under the weight listed in the recipe? Will it have a lot of fat, or has it already been trimmed?


• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce - 
Is yours Lea & Perrins brand or is it a vegan brand like Savory and Spice? (Lea & Perrins contains anchovies.)
• olive oil for the pan - 
We likely all have different brands. Some of you may use extra virgin, and some of you won’t. Some will have a stronger flavor than others, or be thinner or thicker.
• 1 cup peeled Pearl onions, peeled - 
Will the onions you use be from your local Farmer’s Market or will they have journeyed to you from hundreds of miles away? How precisely will you peel them? Will they fall apart, or stay intact? Maybe you used frozen pearl onions?


• 1 cup Peewee potatoes, washed, dried and cut in half
 - All of the Peewee sizes will vary slightly, and some of us will cut them into very even halves, and some won’t. (Even sizes = even cooking, by the way.)

• 2 large carrots, peeled, and cut into ¼-inch slices
 - Everyone might have a different idea about what ¼-inch looks like. I highly doubt we're using a ruler!
 😉
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed - 
So many brands to choose from. Will you get the petit peas? The organic variety? Will you thaw them thoroughly or get a little impatient and add them frozen?
• 
1 cup beef stock
 - Some of you will use broth instead, which unlike stock, is already seasoned. Some of us will use homemade stock, and some will use store-bought -- and different brands at that. They will all have a slightly different flavor and color.

• ½ cup red wine
 - Some of us will use a dry wine. Some sweet wine. Some will use a wine that you just opened for the recipe, and others will use one that was opened several weeks ago, which could taste noticeably different due to oxidation. And then . . . Cabernet? Merlot? Pinot? Shiraz?

• salt and freshly ground black pepper - 
Some of us will have a small bowl of high quality coarse salt at the ready by the stove, and some will use table salt from a shaker. And where are your peppercorns from? (Kampot black pepper is my favorite, FYI.) Will you use a pepper grinder so they're freshly ground, or use a pre-ground pepper?

So many variables! And yes, each one of these small differences in the ingredients can make a small difference in the big picture. 

On to the Cooking Process

This cooking process brings up even more questions.

• oven - We all have different makes and models. Is yours calibrated? Does it have hot spots? Is the rack at the bottom, center, or upper third of the oven? (For this recipe, closer to the center is better.)
• cooking vessel - Are you going to use a Dutch oven? A deep cast iron skillet? A baking dish because you don’t have other choices? And say, by chance, we all use a Dutch oven -- are all Dutch ovens the same thickness on the bottom? Are they all smooth on the bottom, or are some charred?

• browning/searing the vegetables and meat - We all have a different picture in our minds of what “nicely browned” looks like. Not only could that affect the color, but also the cooking time and how juicy the meat is.

• seasoning the meat, before and after cooking - I’m sure we won’t all season the meat with exactly the same amount of salt and pepper. And what about when you "season to taste” at the end of the recipe? The whole point is to season to your taste, which will no doubt, be slightly different from everyone else's.
• slicing the meat - Will you all cut against the grain (you should, FYI), and will the thickness of the slices be even? Will they be thin or thick?

• oven adjustments - Will you all remember to turn the oven up from 250°F to 300°F in the middle of the recipe?
• mixing the stew - Will you stir constantly, periodically, or not at all?

Once again, all of these minor differences in the details can alter the big picture. 

While many things can change the outcome of a recipe, the good news is that usually there’s really no right or wrong way to cook (unless you’re baking — which is a whole other post).  

We all interpret and execute recipe instructions in our own way — and some of us may try intentional, creative tweaks, too.

A slightly different result isn't a bad thing — it’s just a bit different. And often, those differences are what make cooking (and eating) so fun. I’m all for them. 

It's our different outcomes that can make cooking -- and life -- so interesting. We're human! We each bring our own experiences and personalities to the table. Pun intended. 😉

What recipe will you put your unique stamp on today?