I missed the original post, but the crumble topping is definitely high on my list as is chicken noodle soup and roast chicken. I also have quite a few liquor drinks memorized. ;)

The only one I have memorized from that top list is Marcella Hazan's Amazing 4-Ingredient Tomato Sauce. It is my go to dish when I want a good meal during the week but don't want a lot of hassle. Not on the list is salsa. I have both a green and a red salsa that I know by heart.

This is a fantastic list (and I need to memorize ALL of them)! I'd add beef stew and pie crust to it.

frijoles charros and at least one salsa recipe.

Frittata? Not needed on the list.
@lillyhkm... Pie Crust! I second that!

I would add most veggie based soups to this list: butternut squash and broccoli to name just two.

I could easily pass on the crumble, but a basic clafouti recipe done with whatever fruit is available makes a great looking presentation and is beyond easy

I LOVE the 15 minute cream biscuit recipe! I recently catered a huge party and 8X's the cream buscuit recipe. It was SUPER easy to do and came together so quckly! Delicious

Biscuits, pancakes, bread -- if I make them once a year it's a lot. I've never made a fritatta or risotto. Crumble??? Never make it either. Apple crisp is good, but it isn't any trouble to look up my grandmother's recipe. This list is pretty useless.

@Vatapa that's why we asked readers to add THEIR own know-by-heart recipes too! What's on your list?

Sub in minestrone for the chili and I have personal variations memorized on every single recipe listed. :)

Definitely tomato sauce, chili, biscuits, salad dressings, crumble/fruit desserts, and I agree with lillyhkm on pie crust. I would also add a good tofu scramble, a few different types of stir fries, and a variety of soups and casseroles.

This is an awesome list -- thanks! I've got my own version of a few of these, but almost all of them are worthy of trying as something a bit new. Am I the only one not being able to connect to chinesegrandma.com to get the balsamic vinaigrette recipe? I've tried via the link as well as directly entering the www address and it just won't connect (and I really want this recipe!!!).

I've been making bagels using the Cook's Illustrated recipe for years. There are only 4 ingredients (not including water), and I make them just about every week, so that recipe is in my head!

Same with roast chicken--after you've done it a few times, it's pretty simple. I've pretty much got chicken stock/soup down, and I could make chili without a recipe, if necessary.

I would add (or substitute) a good blondie, brownie or cookie recipe. I always, always always fall back on Smitten Kitchen's blondie recipe: 1 stick of butter (melted), 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup of flour, 2 generous pinches of salt - and then adapt..chocolate chips, vanilla, cinnamon, toasted walnuts or pecans and orange zest are my favorites, but I mix it up. It's perfect for the moments when you want something sweet right now! or last minute/surprise guests are coming.

Also, I'd substitute chili for a generally good soup (which isn't too hard). Many an evening's dinner can be put together quickly by throwing together this and that, simmering it with some broth (and maybe pureeing it).

My favorite vinaigrette is a lemon vinaigrette. It is versatile beyond belief and super easy to make. In a jar: half & half lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, then salt & pepper -- adjust all ingredients to your own particular taste. I use this on salads (the only dressing my teenage son likes), fish, lemon potatoes, steamed vegetables, chicken breast pannini sandwiches, etc. You can also vary the lemon vinaigrette by adding dijon mustard or honey.

A quick and easy side dish: Smashed Potatoes. Just cut up & boil yukon gold potatoes (I don't peel them). When tender, drain, add salt & pepper and lightly mash with a fork, leaving it chunky. Great if, like me, you are lactose intolerant and want to skip the milk & butter (and calories) of traditional mashed potatoes. Optional: add chopped parsley for eye appeal, lemon vinaigrette for a flavor boost that goes well with fish, chicken, steak and well, most anything.

Tomato sauce is definitely a good one as is chili and no-knead bread. I like recipes that once you know the basic bones of the recipe you can adapt it endlessly- like frittata. I have a recipe for donburi (Japanese rice bowl) memorized and I like it because I can throw in whatever meat I have leftover from dinner the previous night (or just veggies). I would also add- like other commenters- a minestrone soup- always good to have on hand and adaptable.

I'd add on there a good pork tenderloin recipe (as it always impresses guests, it takes all of 5 minutes to throw together in the oven, and then you just wait for it to roast), and once you have a basic recipe, you can tweak it in a lot of different directions for different meals.

I can't believe meatloaf isn't on here.Also I would include the 4 mother sauces and then put variations from there.You know like a white sauce and then how to make al fredo or a cream soup.

Quick pickled veggies!

Wow, I would say every single thing on this list is something I make very regularly, many from memory (although with anything baked I have an OCD need to check the recipe, *just in case*, even though my memory was usually right...)

Possibly the only things I might add are spaghetti carbonara (Martha Stewart has a great light-ish recipe that's easily memorized) and homemade pizza (I usually use Smitten Kitchen's dough recipe).

Ooops just looked over the basic tomato sauce yeah that's what I'm talkin' about.Basic sauces with variations.

I know how to make my "famous" carrot cake w/cream cheese frosting by heart. Also the fruit crumble topping as mentioned above. However, I find that if I don't make someting on a regular basis. I always have to refer back to the actual recipe. My memory's not that good. :)

@jamileigh17 - i agree with the pork. i make a simple pork tenerloin that can either be baked or grilled (Depending on if the bf wants to start the grill). people love it and its SO EASY. i'd also say any balasmic sauce. easy and good on fish, pork, steak, chicken, salad, etc.

Black bean filling for tacos and burritos. (Black beans, onions, peppers, tomatoes, sometimes corn.)

three things I'd add- enchiladas, lasagna, and asian peanut noodles.

While I do have several of these items memorized, such as spaghetti sauce, chicken soup and roast chicken, I don't understand what the big deal is with looking up a recipe. Betty Crocker pancakes, page 197 (in my copy) has been my go to for 30+ years. Isn't that why we have cookbooks?

BTW, some of my "memorized" recipes have evolved over the years, such as reducing salt.

To be honest I have very few recipes actually memorized. Typically I have go to recipes that I will reference every time or a basic method that I follow and then make it up as I go.

Perfect recipe for me to use the last of my red onions, have just bought some new sets to plant this spring, hope it's another good season.

I'd add Bolognese sauce, Lasagna, Perfect Mashed Potatoes and a basic Curry (Like a Chicken Curry, for instance) to the list. Should be able to come up with most basic asian dishes without recipes too such as stir fries, soups, noodles dish and the basic fried rice! (Might just be the Asian blood)

I agree with the list and would add quick pickles, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and chicken cutlets and related dishes (parm, piccata, etc).

Banana or pumpkin bread variations are so easy and great, and a cheery thing to bring with you on a busy day. All my vegetarian soups, including great old Cooking Light one with squash, beans, cumin and cinnamon as well as a curried sweet potato with peanut butter and a corn chowder. Or my lentils, onions and rice dish that is so easy-peasy and a kid favorite, oddly enough. The lovely Nigella has a store-cupboard pancake mix that is so much better than boxed, and adapts really well to adding whole wheat flour.

I have found a recipe for a cake using fresh fruit is very handy and the ratios are pretty easy to remember. Basically, 1 c each sugar and flour, 1/2 c butter, 1 c and two eggs, or one egg and a tsp of baking powder. Put that into a cake pan that has been half filled with fresh fruit--I've used berries, stone fruit, apples and pears and bake at 350 for about an hour. Always comes out perfect and with cream it's lovely.

Peanut butter cookies! 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg. Stir together, shape into cookies (with crossed fork marks if you have a few extra minutes), and bake at 350 until done (~12 minutes though it depends on size). Easy to make, easy to remember!

But in general, I feel like I find myself "memorizing" techniques more than full recipes, and I'm also likely to tweak ingredients based on what I have at hand so memorizing them wouldn't be very helpful. For example, from this list, I make risotto and fritattas and salad dressing all the time, and I never use a recipe or even really measure ingredients. However, knowing the recipes by heart would imply that I make them exactly the same way every time, which is not true at all. Instead, I know the techniques by heart, and I can adapt them to different veggies, cheese, etc. Personally I think this is much more useful than memorizing a recipe just so I don't have to pull out a cookbook (which is really not a big deal).

I can't remember the last time I cooked with a recipe. I just grab stuff out of the fridge and pantry and a short while later, I have a tasty meal. Drives my friends who 'can't cook' mad. I agree with Joco that memorizing techniques and using ingredients onhand is the key.

My granny's Irish Soda Bread and chocolate chip cookies.

I agree with Votapa, not a helpful list.

I agree with Joco, better to know techniques than a few canned recipes. Then you can really make it your own. Also you know how to tweak and substitute when don't have particular items.

Having a slew of never-fail, best-of classics is really important. I also agree that for everyday cooking, you need to master technique.

This is why I think that Delia Smith's How to Cook series (originally 3 books, but now combined into 1) are so very brilliant. For example, she teaches you how to make perfect scrambled eggs, and then gives you lots of variations. Or how to make a perfect pork chop, and then you are free to improvise flavours. How to make perfect baked (jacket) potatoes. The tv series was really good too.

So, to that list I would add bolognese, several ways to cook steak (skirt steak, hanger steak, strip loin, with a shallot red wine sauce); how to make great pork tenderloin; perfect mashed potatoes; macaroni and cheese, a couple of simple classic pasta sauces (e.g., romano and black pepper), and perhaps some good, solid stir fry basics an variations (several years ago, Real Simple had a great feature on this).

I'd also add a German Apple pancake recipe (3 eggs, 3/4 cup milk, 3/4 cup flour, dash salt, 425° oven for 15 minutes, 350° for 10 in a cast iron pan, plus apple brown sugar filling); clafouti; crepes. Oh, and a few good salads -- a perfect Salade Lyonnaise, Nicoise.

I like this list. Would these complete my list of 12 know by heart recipes? No, but they inspire me to try something different. I love the ideas that specifically address using up leftover veggies. I have been nervous to make risotto, but now I'm going to go for it! One of my staples is a beef stew. It always begins with beef, onion and garlic, but it morphs based on whatever I have on hand. Usually the season dictates the veggies, but they range from celeriac root to parsnips.
I think what is great about knowing recipes by heart, is that it actually gives you the confidence to experiment, because you can always go back to the original if things don't turn out! I think this is how I have honed my own style and confidence in the kitchen.
Thanks, and to the mean people: mind your manners.

To Votapa - In my opinion this is not the place for a negative comment. Constructive criticism is most often welcome, whereas a rudely worded diss just brings everybody down.

Stir fry...lol, just chop and drop! add some seasoning and you're done. Actually I guess that's not technically a "recipe"

Korean bbq, easy decadent German chocolate cake, cheese grits, etc. I like to play around and use certain recipes as a guideline.

MUST in our house! It's the go-to comfort food & it HAS to be homemade to cut the mustard, so to speak. When I make the cheese sauce, I add cream cheese for extra creaminess.

Homemade bread, check!
Risotto, I've tried but no one is so keen on it but we love brown rice.
Frittta, check!
And the BEST Pancake Recipe EVER you mention above? it is! And I've had a lot of flops, lol!

Bechamel sauce must be added on -- when I haven't frequented the grocery store and don't know what I could cook up, the classic white sauce is such a wonderful foundation to go creative off of.

This is very much a culturally-specific list, no? Specific to North Americans of European descent. I wonder how many people think of pancakes, biscuits and crumble as intrinsic to the way they eat. Same thing when I see lists of 'comfort' foods. What is comfort to certain groups of people certainly aren't to others. I wonder if authors of these posts think of the diversity of American readers before they write about how 'essential' or 'natural' certain foods are in the diet of an assumed 'universal' audience out there.

I am good with most of the ones listed as well as a few family favorites. You know the ones passed down from mom to daughter through the years.

@crumbseverywhere I agree with you about the culturally-specific list, but doesn't that say more about the people who submitted recipes rather than the author of the post?

As for me, my go-to, know-by-heart recipe is a quiche... it's quick, uses up the odds and ends in the fridge, and everyone raves about it.

As a southern girl, I would have to add cornbread.

A rue, (Bechamel sauce), basic cookie recipe, mashed potatoes and a vegetable dip.

I agree about knowing how to make a bechamel sauce. Then, from that, you can make all sorts of wonderful things without a recipe. Chicken pot pie, cream of X soups, mac & cheese...

No-knead bread, veggie lasagne w/ white sauce (which can also be a similar process to mac & cheese or baked pasta w/roasted veg), salsa & pico, beef stew, potato soup, enchiladas, chicken marsala/picatta/parmesan

Madeleine Kamman's / Wednesday Chef's adapted Chicken Legs Roasted with Mustard.
Eric Ripert's recipe for Tomatoes Provencal.------Both are made in the toaster Oven.........

Chicken and Ginger Congee in made overnight in the slow cooker---Doesn't get easier than this.....