Only time you need to cook by the book is in baking/cake making because ratios are the most important part
in normal cooking it's really knowing about the doneness of the food your cooking temps on meats texture of veggies
anything else should be determined by your own flavor preference
I generally follow recipes.
If it gives me a specific amount for herbs and spices, I usually eyeball it.
certain recipies requires excact amount, especially in baking.
Others I just freestyle. Im a fucking pro.. I know whats go well with other.
I get an idea of what I want to cook, look up a recipe and just use it as a loose guideline
first time, almost always by the book. after that, i usually tweak it a little. if i was really good, i would be able to drop the cookbook altogether and be able to eyeball most things. but im not that good, if anything im more like a pretty good housewife
I usually follow the recipe, but I try to match it to what ingredients I have available to me, and I add shit if it tastes bland.
I'm interested first and foremost with authentic cooking so I always cook a dish once with the correct ingredients and move on.
If I don't have them I'll just grow it in my garden and wait until I can harvest it, done that for numerous spices, vegetables and fruit.
I do experiment with the basic dal recipes though which is what I eat almost every day.
100% by the book (it's always bland)
Write down what I thought of it and how I think to make it better.
Cook again, slightly better
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until I die.
Hundreds of pages filled, organized, and filed in the span of a year
I'd fuck Stephanie with the force of 10000 suns.
The 'books' are resources. It is best to read many recipes, familiarizing one's self with the dish. Then you can feel comfortable and confident in the kitchen when cooking.
Following recipes isn't cooking; it's preparing food. The same is true of baking.