I usually test a recipe three or four times before I’m happy with it. It takes that long to figure out the best technique and get all of the flavors down. Too often I think we give up right before a culinary breakthrough just because our first or second crack at a recipe didn’t turn out perfectly. Stick with a recipe, fine tuning it slightly with each iteration, and before you know it, you’ve got a signature dish.
My husband reminded me of my own advice a couple of nights after I tried my hand at salted chocolate bourbon truffles for the first time. “They’re good,” he said, but “maybe it wouldn’t hurt to make them again,” he said as he conspiratorially licked the melted chocolate from his fingers. I did make them again, and then again, and finally once more that month, but not because I was tweaking my recipe.
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