Does everyone follow a recipe?

[mgordon1100]

Yeah, sure I started out a couple weeks ago with the e-juice-me-up calculator, but my juices tasted like crap. I just whipped myself up some butterscotch that is the best tasting yet. I know it's only one flavor, but my one flavors didn't taste good before.

I pulled out the calc, and scanned the numbers over once. Then I just grabbed my bottles and poured a little of this, some of that, a bit of the other stuff, and mixed it up. Like a mad scientist. Finally, I have something that taste good.

I've come to the realization that I can't follow recipes. I have to go at it on instinct, just like when I'm cooking in the kitchen. I love to cook, but someone's recipe is just too exact. I like to take a bunch of ingredients and whip out something outstanding. I think this is the only way I'm going to fly from now on. I guess I'll never sell the stuff, because I doubt I can come up with something the same every time.

 

[Prettycat191]

I mostly follow recipes, I've only done simple ideas without a recipe so far. Yeah...I'm a chicken lol, scared of wasting costly supplies!

I'm a perfectionist too, so all of my measurements are exact!

Guess I'm not cut out to be a mad scientist...

 

[mgordon1100]

I don't think you can waste costly supplies. No matter what it turns out to be, you can always fix it if something isn't right. I'm not talking about mixing BBQ Rib flavor with Strawberry, because it sounds like it would be outstanding. I mean, if you're going to mix different flavors, you should have an idea of what will taste good together in the first place.

 

[Prettycat191]

Lol, I mixed a Strawberry Pie and quit vaping it because the pie is so strong. I haven't tried to fix it yet, been enjoying my all day so much that I haven't tried anything new in awhile. Not a lot of time either really. I have some new flavors that I haven't even tasted yet!

 

[dotma]

mgordon, i have tried some recipes that i have found but, like you, i find I am not good at following recipes lol. I use a little plastic paint pallette thingie that I got at walmart for like a dollar, it has a buncha dips all around it. So I just go around the circle and drop in like 7 drops of VG in the little dips, and about a drop or 2 of distilled water or PGA, and then i figure i have 20% left over to do flavors and the nic part. So then I just drip in whatever flavors i feel like dripping, trying to keep track of which one went where lol. Then I suck up some of each and drip em on my little 306 atty. It sounds like a tiny amount but it is enough to give you several good drips. The ones i like I will do in a bottle and put nic in. Sometimes i end up mixing some of the individual flavors together and that has turned out pretty well too. Sure is better for me than wasting several mls of everything just to try out flavors!

 

[mgordon1100]

Am I doing this wrong? I keep reading everyone talk about an "all day vape". I don't have one of those. I just vape something until it's gone, then try something else. However, I guess if I had to pick one, I could vape butterscotch all the time. It's sweet enough, and not too strong. When I got my Vapor Bomb's double flavor Cinnabomb, I thought I found the one juice that I love. Then after a couple of weeks, I realized that I can't do anymore of this. It was killing me.

 

[dotma]

I change it up all the time. I havent used a carto or my ego-T tank and atty since i got my 306 atties, i just drip and change constantly. I would like to have an all day vape tho, it just sounds pleasant, no?? I loooove cinnamon but after a day of vaping it, i just cant feel or taste a damn thing. Its like eating hot tamales all day until your mouth goes numb

 

[36tinybells]

Yeah, sure I started out a couple weeks ago with the e-juice-me-up calculator, but my juices tasted like crap. I just whipped myself up some butterscotch that is the best tasting yet. I know it's only one flavor, but my one flavors didn't taste good before.

I pulled out the calc, and scanned the numbers over once. Then I just grabbed my bottles and poured a little of this, some of that, a bit of the other stuff, and mixed it up. Like a mad scientist. Finally, I have something that taste good.

I've come to the realization that I can't follow recipes. I have to go at it on instinct, just like when I'm cooking in the kitchen. I love to cook, but someone's recipe is just too exact. I like to take a bunch of ingredients and whip out something outstanding. I think this is the only way I'm going to fly from now on. I guess I'll never sell the stuff, because I doubt I can come up with something the same every time.

I have found that much like cooking, recipes are only a guidence. My best homemade vapes are ones I have made up, what seems right to me. Maybe it is because how much flavoring I want varies from time to time, but recipes are made to be adjusted, IMO, especially if you get a feel for it. And, yeah, there is a charm to playing mad scientist, as long as we keep being sucessful! I'm with you, though, my homebrew is not for sale, but I kinda think that would take all the fun out of it!
I have an excellent source for premade, but it is nice to know I can make awesome diy on the fly for cheap! Keeps me from freaking out about gov regulation rumors!

 

[mgordon1100]

I like the way you two think, Dotma and Bells. Chicken....., you need to be more like us.

 

[dotma]

Now you be nice to PC!!

 

[Prettycat191]

It takes a long time to find an all day for many people, I just lucked out on mine lol. It's just a simple recipe, TPA's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream! It sounded so good that I even ordered a full 30ml's without even getting a sample size first. Good thing I did, because I'm going through 3ml's of that flavoring per week!

 

[36tinybells]

Aw, mgordon's just trying to get PC to have COURAGE!

 

[Prettycat191]

I like the way you two think, Dotma and Bells. Chicken....., you need to be more like us.

I need lessons, I hate cooking so I'm not super inventive lol

 

[mgordon1100]

Dotma, the day that I can't totally molest her name, is the day I'll quit. She knows, it's endearing.

 

[Prettycat191]

Lol, the day you quit is the day you make me mad and I start yelling at you...not that that's likely to stop you...

Not likely to happen either, it's funny seeing the different ways you abuse my name!

 

[mgordon1100]

You have to admit, so far I've been pretty good at catering your name to the situation, while keeping the basic cat theme going.

 

[Prettycat191]

Can't fault you there

 

[wizard10000]

Am I doing this wrong? I keep reading everyone talk about an "all day vape". I don't have one of those. I just vape something until it's gone, then try something else. However, I guess if I had to pick one, I could vape butterscotch all the time. It's sweet enough, and not too strong. When I got my Vapor Bomb's double flavor Cinnabomb, I thought I found the one juice that I love. Then after a couple of weeks, I realized that I can't do anymore of this. It was killing me.

Some people never find an all-day vape or really even feel the need to find one. I don't do other people's recipes, preferring to figure stuff out on my own.

On the butterscotch, *my* current all-day vape is 14% butterscotch, 2% Bavarian cream and 2% cotton candy. The Bavarian cream smooths it out just a bit and the cotton candy (which is just ethyl maltol in PG) sweetens it a tad.

 

[Hoosier]

When I cook, a recipe is a guideline of what someone else thinks tastes good. I know better because my grandmother taught me that cooking is about the way stuff feels and the smells. She said measuring was for people who couldn't feel and had poor noses.

That was my original approach to DIY and I changed. I had to because I made this fantastic juice, once, and have never been able to do that again. So I started keeping notes and making precise measurements in order to work up a recipe. I have a small collection of repeatable recipes now and many, oh so many, notes that never resulted in a recipe.

Last weekend I started the search for a brandy cask aged cigar recipe. I took out 20 small glass bottles and 4 flavors that I think may be the base flavors and mixed 5 bottles of each flavor at different %'s. These will be sampled over time and notes taken. They will be mixed together and notes taken. Will it ever become a repeatable recipe? I don't know and don't care. This is the fun part to me. The experiment. An experiment that could result in something that I can add to my collection.

So I've kinda gone with a hodge-lodge random with perfectionist thing in my mixing so I don't have to miss a fantastic vape ever again.

And that "all day vape" for me is a range of 6 different flavors that change daily. I cannot eat cheeseburgers every meal every day but a summer day when the grill is just right and the tomato's are right off the vine, it is a wonderful thing.

 

[symphynity]

+1 for Hoosier !
Taste is such a subjective thing , some folk have a knack for knowing what will probably go with what. That Flavour Pairings list will be a Godsend for a lot of people .

I dont get too hung up on the 20% flavouring thing , it all depends on the strength of the flavours that you are using . I think this is where a lot of people are going wrong , and making juices are that are unvapable. Like a good Chef in his / her kitchen , a good Flavourist knows the strengths and weaknesses of his / her base ingredients .

As many have mentioned , MAKE NOTES! Lots of them . Invariably , the best juice you ever made will be the one you didnt make notes on.

I do make my own recipes , and follow them ( mainly as a reminder of the precise quantities) . As for other peoples recipes , whilst I may use the same ingredients , the amounts are very much my own , based on my own (admittedly limited) experience. This comes back to the personal preference thing . Some like it sweeter , stronger, more aromatic etc . Those concentrations as printed , may not suit me , so I alter them so they do .