Heuristic cooking, or some better term?

I don't mostly follow recipes. For the dishes that I make regularly, and certainly before I consider the dish mastered, I develop a box of relevant tools -- philosophies, techniques, procedures, and options that I employ to prepare the dish in question. But not a list of ingredients and specific instructions. And I've been thinking about what to call this.

I learned the term heuristic thirty years ago when I was studying computer science. It was specifically contrasted to algorithm. A heuristic is a technique for getting close enough to a solution but not a set of finite steps that will always result in the same answer.

To provide an example of what I'm talking about, let's talk about the American southwest dish, chili. This isn't normally how I'd teach someone to make it, but I think it helps to show the difference between what I'm talking about and a more traditional recipe.

Elements of my heuristic include:
- philosophy: The core of this dish is stewed chiles, this is the only hard requirement. Without chiles in a stew, it isn't chili.
- philosophy: Use cumin. It's the best spice and you probably don't have so much that it would be too much. If you'll be cooking this for a long time, use whole seeds instead of ground. They can be added with other aromatics to the beans if using.
- option: Tomato is a very common ingredient and brings a lot of fluid, if you're not trying something specific out, you're probably using tomatoes.
- technique: If you're using onions, you probably want to chop them up, coarse or fine, and sweat them in the bottom of the bot before adding most other things. Maybe chiles are in there at the same time. Maybe you add garlic toward the end of this step.
- option: Beans go great in chili and extend the volume of the stewed chiles. All beans are good, so use whatever. Some beans will remain quite firm and some will almost dissolve -- both outcomes are pleasant.
- option: Meat (or vegan substitute) are also welcome and common in chili. If you're cooking ground meat before adding it, consider cooking it with a taco seasoning mix or good chili powder.
- procedure: Cook the base first -- chiles and onions and garlic and cumin and whatever else is the core of what you're making. once that's soft and aromatic, add any of: tomato, broth, meat, beans, chunky vegetables, extra spices, etc. and let it simmer a while.
- procedure: When you're getting toward serving time, but still have ten or fifteen minutes to simmer it, taste it. If it needs more spice, add powdered chiles or hot sauce. If it needs umami, add miso. If it's too thick, add broth. After all of that, if it seems dull, hit it with a little salt. The spicier it is, the less salt it needs, so be careful.
- option: Just about anything else can go in. Whatever you have too much of, it can go in. Pumpkin puree? Sure! Cucumbers instead of tomatoes? Why not?! Sweet peppers as the base and black pepper to spice it? Sure! Cauliflower florets? Absolutely!

With these elements in hand, I think just about anyone could make a chili that I would recognize, but they could be wildly distinct.

So, does "heuristic cooking" make sense? Is there a better term? (Bonus points for an extant term that I'm spacing on or unfamiliar with.)

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Interesting concept for describing how to make something chili-like.
20 years ago I came up with the term "recipe's imperative" - something that MUST be followed to have a culinary success. For example in case of bread - it would be proper rising of leavened dough, no matter what ingredients were used. Actually this term could be applied to any recipe (not just culinary). Hundreds or thousands of various instructions/how-tos found online or in books lack it. You follow the recipe quite precisely, not being aware that one of the steps is absolutely crucial to success.

You've hit on something that does a pretty good job of describing my culinary journey. I think of it as a vernacular method and it has holistic elements to it, like getting to know cultural traditions and foodways that have grown up with particular families of ingredients. There's typically a foundation that underpins a range of dishes, and then you apply the tweaks and mods as you get better at the basic build.

My husband is like this about cooking.  When we try something new I want him to follow a recipe, at least until he finds a version he likes and then he can be less calculated.  But he doesn't even like following a recipe in exact proportions the first time, which means sometimes new dishes come out odd haha.  But eventually he gets the hang of what will likely be good and no longer "needs" a recipe.

Yeah, I do often follow the recipe the first time I make something new. Or at the very least, I look at three recipes online and chart a course through the middle. And there are whole areas like baking deserts where I'm very inexpert and I just follow recipes on the rare occasion that I find myself making cookies or cake or something.

I just happened across this example of heuristic cooking!

Have you tried jackfruit?

Fred Frank V Bur wrote:Have you tried jackfruit?

Sure. If you're asking specifically about in chili, I'm not really certain. But I'd certainly include it as a vegan meat substitute in that heuristic.