Growing up, we have our favorite restaurants and dishes…things we can ONLY get at those particular restaurants. And then as adults we often end up living somewhere else, and a trip home means a chance to revisit our favorites. But you can’t always travel right when you want (COVID, thank you very much), but what if you came up with your own copycat recipe?
Starting from scratch with a copycat recipe
It’s best to start when you’re actually eating the real food itself. Look for visual clues to spices and ingredients included. Whip out your phone and start a note on everything you see…maybe even take a picture. Are there chunks of minced garlic or onion? Are there little green flakes that could be any number of spices, but somehow they just look more like parsley?
Don’t miss the big things either…like whether your favorite enchiladas use flour or corn tortillas (yes, I figured out I had missed this on my last trip to TX – no wonder my sour cream chicken enchiladas were just a tad off base!).
Next is the taste. Sweet or savory? Is there umami in there? Is it garlicy or oniony or sour? Is it hot like black pepper or more like jalapeño? Scent figures in here, too…vinegar is too strong to hide most times. And some spices can be figured out this way as well. If it just smells Italian, chances are you’ve got garlic, basil and oregano in there.
If you’ve found you need to avoid certain ingredients (like dairy or soy), this is where you will also want to think in terms of substitutions. The recipe might taste just a little different, but if you can’t have it at all with the standard ingredients, compromise so you can at least have a semblance of that favorite.
Make it several different ways
Recipes with a sauce are much easier to start with because usually the sauce is where the flavor is! So, just make that…in super small batches.
I’m gonna focus on small batch testing in the rest of this post, but I’ll include a P.S. at the end for what to do when you simply have to make the whole recipe to test it.
Get a head start
Finding a recipe for the item you’re after and using those ratios (how much of each ingredient) gives you a leg up on where to start. Then you just choose what to change on each batch. Remember, you want small batches (this may require some math as you cut things in half and maybe half again).
The hardest part for me is remembering to only change one variable with each batch. Otherwise, you won’t know which item made that round better or worse. First rule of science: only alter one variable! (Shout out to all science teachers trying to get this point across!) And of course, write EVERYTHING down!
Taste each batch and make notes. You may find some are just totally off base and not worth pursuing. But you may find one that’s pretty close and just needs a tweak or two.
And be aware that sometimes flavors meld and change once they’ve sat together for awhile. Put in the fridge overnight or at least a couple of hours if you have the time.
Test the sauce
From this point, you wanna try that sauce in a small batch of the recipe if you can do that. Maybe you cooked a bunch of pulled pork in the crockpot and simply need to separate it out in handfuls to try your new BBQ sauce. Or if it’s a salad dressing, just one serving of salad greens would work.
You’ll know when you miss it
Salt is a key ingredient in all things savory, BUT it must be used wisely. It can perk up other flavors, but get too much, and it obliterates everything else. Start with less than you think you need. You can always add more.
Other ingredients can be overbearing as well (ooh, the one I avoid is tarragon!). Don’t be wasteful – maybe a friend would love to taste test your efforts too! But if you just don’t like it, make a note and move on.
(Funny story – before I realized I’m super sensitive to black pepper, I made a Shrimp Ettoufeé by the exact recipe from a Cajun woman…so hot I couldn’t handle it. But it was shrimp…I’m not gonna throw that out! Ranch dressing to the rescue and lesson learned about that pepper!)
The final test: a full batch
Once you’ve got what you want in a small batch, it’s time to scale it back up (time for more math) and see if this new recipe works in the larger quantity. Then you sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labors…and hopefully feel the comfort and nostalgia of that meal you loved back home. If not, make more notes and try again another day.
What’s your favorite hometown dish? Let me know in the comments below. Maybe it’ll be my new favorite!
P.S. If you’re making a full dish (like those chicken enchiladas I mentioned), you’ll have to cook a batch, then make notes and change a little each and every time you make it. You might be able to choose something you could substitute more easily than an ingredient in a sauce and switch that for half the recipe. Example: Make the chicken enchiladas but wrap half in flour tortillas and half in corn. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a long-term project. I’m not saying give up…I’m just saying have patience cause getting that taste you love will definitely be worth it!
My favorite copycat recipes:
I found and tried a Chick-fil-A sauce copycat recipe recently and it was just ok. Edible but not much like the original. I might try to tweak it… thanks for the inspiration!
Yeah, sometimes they don’t out just exactly like the thing you’re trying to copy. But just keep working with it! Tiny batches was definitely the way for me to try a LOT more options…
I love this post! It’s so fun trying to copy cat recipes. My son and I went to Disney last weekend and had this amazing salad and while salads are pretty easy to replicate, the dressing was a mystery to us. We paid very close attention to the flavors and I attempted it tonight. My son said it was even better than Disney! I’m not sure if that means I did a good job copying it but at least it tasted good! Haha.
Way to go recreating it yourself! I’ll see about getting the pics you sent me uploaded so all can see!