i think i am the exact opposite! i have a really hard time following recipes, usually i skim through them get the "gist" and then go with my gut, even when i started cooking as a kid. Now that i'm older i am trying to become more patient and actually follow recipes so I can discover new flavours and improve my cooking. :)

For me the "rules" of cooking fall into two categories:

First, there are the laws of physics: If you have the heat on too high under a pan, the food will burn. One ignores that sort of rule at one's peril.

But second, there are the customs of our cuisine: These are more flexible, and "breaking" these rules can be good, great, or disastrous. Two examples:

Seasoning: Your grandmother would have been horrified at adding wasabi to chocolate truffles (if she had heard of wasabi. You know the combination can be surprising and delightful.

Maple syrup on tuna sashimi: It doesn't appeal to me, but if you like it, knock yourself out! 8-)

Yeah I tend to follow the rules pretty closely the first few times I make something. My mother is big on ignoring rules, not measuring, guestimating, randomly turning the temperature up higher for no real reason and her food is mostly gross.

I'm always bothered by people who post comments on recipes that say, "I changed X and added X and cooked it longer and it came out terrible!" and rate the recipe badly because they can't follow simple directions. If I'm trying a new recipe, especially from a trusted source, I always try to follow it exactly the first time. Sometimes my hand is forced (like using GF flour instead of regular), but I do my best beyond that. After I've made it the one time, if I really like or even if I feel the recipe has potential, I'll make other changes.

I have started using my kitchen scale more and using weights for measurement, so I guess I'm following that "rule" more closely than I used to!

I try n follow a recipe with rules the first time. Then once I understand the recipe/ process I will experiment with switching ingredients. But I started out as a follower... Now after a few years of cooking have gotten confident enough to make basic everyday things without looking at a recipe...

I tend to follow the rules when it comes to baking desserts, but with cooking, I usually ignore the rules and do whatever I like.

In general, both my beloved and I follow rules thoughtfully, which means there are some we break -- mostly on civic disobedience basis.

As for food preparation, the greater confidence I acquired in basic cooking skills, the more I tinkered with recipes -- usually not the first time out but certainly thereafter. Tweaking is how to customize it. I know, for instance, that we would prefer an more generous amount of certain spices so when a recipe calls for them, I consider upping the amount to our taste, even with new recipes.

On days when the anarchist within wants to just break out and take over, I cook without any recipes but often while mimicking familiar dishes or at least their principles. It was delightfully refreshing the first time (and there is even a book about how to cook without a cookbook!) so I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with enough confidence to be curious.

i'm a baker. i do nothing BUT follow recipes to the letter.

no!!! no rules. it is very frustrating to my sister, who is a rule-follower. especially when she wants a "recipe" for something i've made. i am going to toot my own horn here and say that i have pretty good instincts. i made a veggie pot pie once with absolutely no recipe to go by, and my dinner guests kept mentioning it for weeks afterwards. could i recreate it if i wanted? probably not, but that's part of the appeal!

For baking: I follow the rules. Not following baking recipes can yield unexpected and unpleasant results. For cooking? I use recipes more like a guideline. I substitue ingredients and sometimes even the method of cooking. I will usually make the recipe the "correct" way the first time before I go out on my own.

I try to follow the recipe the first time. However, that's with the caveat that recipes on self-submitted collection sites like AllRecipes get the comments taken heavily into consideration.

Yes, definitely a difference between baking and cooking here (baking = science, cooking = art, if you change up proportions in baking it will likely be a disaster but in cooking it'll probably just turn out different, and maybe better).

I am the main cook in my household, but I also don't cook (or eat) non-fish meat, so when my omnivore husband wants to cook something meaty for friends or family, he does it. It's interesting to watch our completely different approaches - he's more of a perfectionist to begin with and has less experience in the kitchen, so he follows recipes to the letter and gives me the side-eye when I suggest he could substitute a bit of cayenne for paprika if he wants the dish to be spicier, or whatever. It drives me crazy. On the other hand, sometimes I will make a really great curry or something and then be entirely unable to reproduce it because I just kept adding spices until it tasted good and forgot what I added, which drives HIM crazy.

I probably would have a lot fewer baking mishaps if I followed the rules a bit more often than I do. But sometimes rule breaking can lead to surprise discoveries of something that is actually delicious!

Never follow the rules! They're more like guidelines, anyway. I love recipes, and often use them. However, it's incredibly rare for me to actually follow it completely. Whether it's substitutions for health reasons, because I don't have an ingredient, or just to try something new, And it doesn't matter if it's baking or cooking! As long as you know the base "rules" - you can go from there! The kitchen is for experimentation and creativity. At least for me it is.

I used to be a rule follower, but I have come to enjoy experimenting while cooking. I will usually follow a recipe the first time, but then I'll do my own thing. I do follow baking rules.

I use recipes sometimes... i love reading them and taking the general idea but in a different direction. I find it hard to follow rules when cooking (not baking though). I love to add a little of this and a little of that. I almost always change recipes even when I plan on "following them." Makes it more fun!
http://beanafoodie.com/blog

Depends. Rules are often there for a good reason, but sometimes, advances in technology, availability of produce, or changes in our eating patterns mean that certain rules may be obsolete. No harm in sticking to the rules, but breaking them can also result in delicious discoveries!

I used to be a TOTAL rule follower, no matter what. Now, I like to break them a little when it comes to cooking. Baking however, is a different story. Like orchidsnv above, I've learned that you don't mess with the rules when baking- seriously bad things can happen.

Well if by rules you mean directions, mostly. Level of heat, cooking time, amount of water I pretty much use those. But I don't feel like they're my boss and don't obsess.

If you mean recipes, not at all. I change them all the time. Although they are minor adjustments. If I am cooking for an esteemed guest or loved one who cherishes a recipe, I will then follow the rules.

My mother always told me "The first time you make a dish, follow the recipe to the letter, THEN you can change it up later." Which I think is essentially what a lot of other commenters are saying.

I often think that recipes are just written in a silly way, like they have you boil water and start something cooking and THEN prepare and chop up the rest of the ingredients, when to my mind, it makes much more sense to put on the water and prep ALL the ingredients while it's coming to a boil.

So, I quite often rewrite a recipe that I essentially liked, to make the steps flow better for me, and I also include any ingredient or technique changes I made or would like to try in future. I like to tuck my revamped versions back into the cookbook!!

I also do this with overly chatty, memoir-style recipes. I enjoy reading those types of blogs and cookbooks, but if I really like a recipe and want to make it again, I want it written in a clearer way.

I'm a huge experimenter/rule breaker. Often I'll do things the "correct" way the first time I follow a recipe, but often times even my first attempts are amalgamations of several related (or unrelated) recipes. I've even been known to change proportions in baking (Replace some flour with cocoa powder? Sure! Halve the sugar? Why not!) and melt chocolate on the stovetop without a double-boiler. The key is to watch it closely and frequently lift the pan while stirring the chocolate. And only to mostly melt the chocolate. The the final pieces melt with the residual heat. Sometimes I get cooking disasters, but it usually works out pretty well for me.

Baking=chemical formula. Except for flavorings, change at your peril. Bricks do make good dog treats:). Cooking=just do it. I only follow a recipe for a new technique.

A poem from an old cookbook explains it all......

I didn't have potatoes so I substitued rice,
I didn't have paprika so I used another spice.
I didn't have tomato sauce so I used tomato paste,
A whole can, not a half can, I don't believe in waste.
A friend gave me the recipe,
She said you couldn't beat it.
There must be something wrong with her,
I couldn't even eat it!

Follow the recipe the first time and then change it to your hearts content is the rule I usually follow.

Rules? What rules:

EDIT: *What rules?"

(pleeease gve us an edit function before i go off the deep end)

Seconds the motion for an edit function!

I am all over the map with rules re: cooking.

Many recipes I look at and use as a guideline. I know what I want to cook, but there may be a part or two of the dish that I haven't made before that I need help with. I just read the recipe, follow the mystery part and do the rest as I intended to do it.

Or, like the Baba Ghanoush recipe Faith gave us a couple of days ago, where you can grill or roast the eggplant. Sometimes the recipe calls for one method of cooking when another will be just as suitable... as long as you know how the cooking method will change the final dish.

I am also one of those cooks who measures by sight. So, If you want a recipe from me, it is going to sound a lot like something from your grandma. (Handful of this, pinch of that, etc.) so I don't mind asking people for very simple guidelines to base a dish on. (I don't need to know to heat the skillet first, how to hard or soft boil eggs for the recipe, etc.)

ON THE OTHER HAND...

I am moving into "baking" (mostly breads, tortillas, etc.) and recognize that one has to be much more aware of measurements. Between what little experience I have in this realm and how exacting it can be, I am much more careful.

I am even uncomfortable with how much whole grain flour to sub for all-purpose.

But, the more I do it, the more I am willing to "play" a little and make small changes like that. I am also willing to play with prep methods. For example, since I am still new to it, I haven't gotten around to getting a press. I find a nice 800 page hardback works really well. I have also thought that, since the rolling pin doesn't ever get me a nice circle (which doesn't really bother me, for most tortillas), maybe put a bowl or plate upside down on the flattened dough and pull the excess off and re-use... (which may sound obvious to some of you, but I still haven't tried...)

Also, when I branch out into cooking areas I am unaware of, I am much more conscious about following the recipe. My wife wants more vegetarian dishes, so I have been trying to learn some more that will satisfy the whole family while still getting the nutrients we all need.

Black beans, quinoa and lentils have never really been part of my diet, so making them for the first few times.... I want to do it right. Or, at least as right as the recipe says. That way, I can figure out how they are supposed to taste and then incorporate them into my other "culinary" knowledge to make sure I can "break the rules" later.

So long as you know the basic 'theory' you can even disregard the rules when it comes to baking. I do it all the time. Okay, so I wouldn't just throw random stuff in a bowl for a proper cake. But brownies, muffins, even cookies are pretty agreeable when it comes to throwing ingredients in a bowl and getting something good. Probably not so much if you want a super specific result, but if you just want something yummy, how can you go wrong with some sugar, some flour, some kind of fat, some chocolate,, a little bit of salt, baking soda and flavorings? They're brownies, not science.

I constantly read recipes and, if available, comments from those who've followed them, but I can't recall the last time I followed a recipe without making at least one alteration ... usually more than one, in fact. it's got to be, like, 20 years. literally!!

Recipes are only guidelines!
BYOC = Be Your Own Chef!
If there is an ingredient you do not like; remove it or use less and vice versa.
If the meatloaf recipe calls for ground beef, pork and veal and your religious practices do not permit one of them or your supermarket doesn't normally offer one then substitute.
No one said the Blogger who posted the recipe knows what they are doing. Even the big name celebrities often don't have clue one regarding what I think taste good. Example -> mustard goes great on bratwurst, hotdogs and pastrami sandwiches; it ruins a $15/lb rack of lamb!
Even baking is not as strict as some would have us believe. Recipes can be somewhat more critical, especially for more delicate items