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I've got a question for the cooks in the room...

nadalama

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I'm a decent cook. There've been many times, when my kids were little and we were poor as church mice, that I was able to come up with something good to eat out of just whatever was left in the house.

Thirty years down the road, I find that I've gotten better over the years at making up recipes for stews and soups, stuff that just kinda instinctively makes sense to me and ends up being pretty tasty. So I suppose you could say I'm kind of an "instinctive" cook. That's not to say that I don't cook with recipes; many times I do, but many times I don't, too.

So my first juice that I mixed up the other day is going to be good. It's only a couple days old, but it's good and I think it's going to get a lot better if I can just make myself stay out of it long enough for it to properly steep. I didn't use someone else's recipe; rather, I just thought about it and made up my own after I sat here with a pen and paper and figured out the mix and ratio of flavors I thought would be good together. (The recipe is for a Sweet Cinnamon, has cinnamon, french vanilla, lemonade, and graham cracker, plus a tiny bit of sweetener.)

My question is, are there any other folks who cook by the seat of their pants, who've ended up being pretty good at mixing juice, specifically at coming up with their own recipes? Do you think one has anything to do with the other, or was I just lucky with a decent first mix? I'm perfectly prepared to acknowledge that I was lucky, so please don't take this as arrogance on my part. I know I'm brand spanking new at this and fully expect to make things that have to be dumped at some point.

Whatever your opinion, I'll appreciate the feedback.

Jane
 

jojosvapes

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I personally think it can help, we cook a lot in our house and push the boundary of getting out of our comfort zone and try recipes from all regions of the world, we even end up mixing items we find/like from other recipes i guess in the trendy parts of town they cal it fusion lol ;)

This has helped me come up with ideas that I would have never thought to try for flavors.

At the same time I dont think its the only key or really needed. I think experience and personal taste come into play just as much and I am certain some DIY's may not even like to cook at all but have some great recipes.

At the end of the day taste is subjective so I dont think you can really go wrong :)
 

nadalama

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Well, tell me something if you can. How could you make juice that tastes like the combination of chocolate and salt? For example, chocolate chip cookies and potato chips together, or french fries dunked in a Wendy's Frosty?

Actually I guess that's chocolate, cream, potato, cookie, and salt -- but where would the salt come from? Surely you can't put salt in juice? Sounds toxic!
 

wildgypsy70

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I am a cook professionally and have been definitely in your position personally. I learned to cook by winging it, using what I had and hoping for the best. At work, I winged it too.....long story but I basically figured it all out on a solo Saturday brunch.

Ejuice has been a bit harder, but I’ve winged it there too. I do mix other people’s recipes quite a bit, but recently I’ve been really getting into doing my own and I’m getting pretty ok at it. I use a lot of what I know from the culinary world in the ejuice world.....what goes with what, etc...and it seems to work out.

Just keep going. You will eventually screw up. We all have. Juice will be dumped. It’s still so much fun to try!
 

Teresa P

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I think seasoned mixers do this most of the time from knowing their flavors. This is where single flavor testing, pain in the butt that it is, is essential. You know what they taste like individually, just like the ingredients you're preparing meals with, so you have a very good idea what the finished product will taste like. From there on out, it's just a tasting game to hone in on just how much of everything you want.
I do that a lot, sit down at the desk and think "Okay, this is good with that and maybe a touch of the other thing but not too much, just a "pinch"...", and so on and so forth. Only frustrating thing is I don't have to let soup or stew sit in the desk drawer for a couple weeks before I know if it's any good. :p
 

nadalama

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I think seasoned mixers do this most of the time from knowing their flavors. This is where single flavor testing, pain in the butt that it is, is essential. You know what they taste like individually, just like the ingredients you're preparing meals with, so you have a very good idea what the finished product will taste like. From there on out, it's just a tasting game to hone in on just how much of everything you want.
I do that a lot, sit down at the desk and think "Okay, this is good with that and maybe a touch of the other thing but not too much, just a "pinch"...", and so on and so forth. Only frustrating thing is I don't have to let soup or stew sit in the desk drawer for a couple weeks before I know if it's any good. :p

Welll you got a laugh out of me there. I think after a couple of weeks in the drawer, none of us would want to taste the stew anyhow! Yuck!

This initial mix has really tried my patience. It's only been two days and I'm sitting here vaping it as we speak. Such is life. You'd think at my age I'd have learned to wait on things. :)
 

jojosvapes

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I think after a couple of weeks in the drawer

the art of steeping and another great topic with like 2000 different answers... its been my experience that I almost want to say it does not really improve the flavor as much as a slight change. Some flavors will back off, while they were strong as a shake and vape, others seem to me they increase some. So the flavor profile can change some-I dont want to say its a huge amount though... I have made some pretty nasty juice and it does not seem that time helps in that case, the times I made something that was just bad from the start I know steeping is not going to make it better (IMO). I guess all I am getting at is dont torture yourself if you have something mixed up and like it-enjoy it :)
 

pulsevape

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well, to be a good cook you have to have a good palette, and to enjoy food to the degree you develop a passion and an intenese interest in international cuisine,and cooking. also means you have a palette that can appreciate them.people with that level of passion are not going to be satisfied with McDonalds,neither are they going to be satisfied with the e-juice equivelants,which make up the vast numbers of e-juice makers...who for the most part have ..like Mc Donalds been created and tailored to make profit not good food...but just imagine how much more familiar you are with meat.s grains.fruits.and vegetables.spices and herbs, wines and liquors than you are with...PG VG and synthetic flavorings. you've been eating food three times a day since birth....what i do think is that if you have a good palette if you enjoy the creative expression of cooking,if you have an interest in cuisine from around the world and taken the time to study and try different recepies and foods and been able to pull those recepies off...you are way ahead of most e-juice makers....to be absolutlly honest all my favorite juices I made myself and the recepies came out of my own head..as a rule I don't look at other people's recepies that much, I'm just no that interested, I usually try and create something that appeals to my vision and tastes.occasionally I'll see something that catches my eye,but not that often...I go to bull city vapers ...cruise their flavorings like I would say...OK what's at the market today that woukd be good to eat.The other thing is ...the kinds of recepies and flavors that I enjoy vaping are not the general direction most e-juice makers are going...the idea of vaping Captian Crunch or Tiramisu, or Boston cream Pie is not my cup of tea.
 

AndriaD

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My question is, are there any other folks who cook by the seat of their pants, who've ended up being pretty good at mixing juice, specifically at coming up with their own recipes? Do you think one has anything to do with the other, or was I just lucky with a decent first mix? I'm perfectly prepared to acknowledge that I was lucky, so please don't take this as arrogance on my part. I know I'm brand spanking new at this and fully expect to make things that have to be dumped at some point.

Whatever your opinion, I'll appreciate the feedback.

Jane

Me. :) But yeah you were pretty lucky with that first mix; I mixed a couple things at first that turned out awful -- but the recipe turns out to be crucial -- my disasters were when I tried to follow other peoples' recipes; my own first success, which is still my ADV more than 3 yrs later, was my own recipe.

I simply can't and won't tolerate that steeping BS, when coming up with a new recipe -- if you can't taste it when you mix it, how will you know if it's any good or not? So I started following advice about "High-flavor mixing" over in the TFA thread at ECF (butthole central)... and it worked beautifully. I kept it at its initial 31% flavoring until it started being too sweet, so I started reducing the sweetener very drastically and rapidly. Now, I've gotten the total flavoring down to about 24% flavoring (using zero sweetener), and I do let it steep for about a week or so before I start vaping it, but that's ok, because I know it's good and I like it.

I really don't mix other stuff, because I don't really want or feel a need to vape other stuff. I mixed up something blueberryish the other week, and I'm still undecided if I like it or not. Mainly because it's NOT strawberry & cream. But I smoked the same brand of cigarettes, in differing strengths, for more than 30 yrs -- if ever I bummed a smoke from someone, it got me by, but didn't really satisfy -- because it wasn't VA Slims. What I want from my vape is very similar -- something comfortably familiar.

Andria
 

nadalama

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well, to be a good cook you have to have a good palette, and to enjoy food to the degree you develop a passion and an intenese interest in international cuisine,and cooking. also means you have a palette that can appreciate them.people with that level of passion are not going to be satisfied with McDonalds,neither are they going to be satisfied with the e-juice equivelants,which make up the vast numbers of e-juice makers...who for the most part have ..like Mc Donalds been created and tailored to make profit not good food...but just imagine how much more familiar you are with meat.s grains.fruits.and vegetables.spices and herbs, wines and liquors than you are with...PG VG and synthetic flavorings. you've been eating food three times a day since birth....what i do think is that if you have a good palette if you enjoy the creative expression of cooking,if you have an interest in cuisine from around the world and taken the time to study and try different recepies and foods and been able to pull those recepies off...you are way ahead of most e-juice makers....to be absolutlly honest all my favorite juices I made myself and the recepies came out of my own head..as a rule I don't look at other people's recepies that much, I'm just no that interested, I usually try and create something that appeals to my vision and tastes.occasionally I'll see something that catches my eye,but not that often...I go to bull city vapers ...cruise their flavorings like I would say...OK what's at the market today that woukd be good to eat.The other thing is ...the kinds of recepies and flavors that I enjoy vaping are not the general direction most e-juice makers are going...the idea of vaping Captian Crunch or Tiramisu, or Boston cream Pie is not my cup of tea.

I love everything you said, until you got to Tiramisu. Hangsen Tiramisu is one of my faves...but...it isn't sweet in the way, say, Hershey's Kisses are sweet. It has enough dark chocolate/cocoa and coffee undertones that it just comes across as very rich, and I only get chocolate on the exhale. It smells sweeter than it tastes, at least to me. Maybe what I like about it is that it really doesn't taste like real Tiramisu, because ladyfingers and cream, I don't taste those at all in the HS juice.
 

nadalama

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Andria, I included some blueberry, strawberry, and cotton candy in my BCF order, but those flavors aren't for me. My son and grandson love that sweet sweet sweet stuff, so I may try to mix up something for them one of these days. Probably should have ordered banana, too (Lord, I cannot stand banana juice!) The only fruits I've tried (not in DIY, just in juice) that I like are citrus, and I did once have Cinnamon Pear that was good. It wasn't sweet, though; it was more like hot from the cinnamon with just a bit of finesse from the pear. That was a Madvapes juice which was my ADV for a long time, but then when the FDA stuck its big fat nose into everything, Madvapes discontinued the Cinnamon Pear. I guess it wasn't one of their more popular flavors.

I'm jonesing for the Russian Tea that I plan to make with the BCF flavors that are more than likely out in my mailbox right now. I'm being a wimp, though, because there's still snow out there and it's messy, so hubbs will have to bring the mail in a bit later. I'm supposed to be working anyway. :)

Now that I've read a bit more in the DIY threads, I am learning that strawberry is tricky. Had no idea of that when I placed my orders, so no telling if son will be able to taste any strawberry or not. I'll mix it half and half with vanilla and add some sweetener. Heavy, sweet vanilla juice is really damn good as a DTL vape. Reference Vape Wild's Vanilla Clouds. Outstanding.
 

SteveS45

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My question is, are there any other folks who cook by the seat of their pants, who've ended up being pretty good at mixing juice, specifically at coming up with their own recipes? Do you think one has anything to do with the other, or was I just lucky with a decent first mix?

I think it has a lot to do with your cooking skills because I do not follow others recipes but might use them for an idea for one of my own creations. I might print a recipe out for a meal but never follow it to the letter. Always comes out they way I made it.
 

AndriaD

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Andria, I included some blueberry, strawberry, and cotton candy in my BCF order, but those flavors aren't for me. My son and grandson love that sweet sweet sweet stuff, so I may try to mix up something for them one of these days. Probably should have ordered banana, too (Lord, I cannot stand banana juice!) The only fruits I've tried (not in DIY, just in juice) that I like are citrus, and I did once have Cinnamon Pear that was good. It wasn't sweet, though; it was more like hot from the cinnamon with just a bit of finesse from the pear. That was a Madvapes juice which was my ADV for a long time, but then when the FDA stuck its big fat nose into everything, Madvapes discontinued the Cinnamon Pear. I guess it wasn't one of their more popular flavors.

I'm jonesing for the Russian Tea that I plan to make with the BCF flavors that are more than likely out in my mailbox right now. I'm being a wimp, though, because there's still snow out there and it's messy, so hubbs will have to bring the mail in a bit later. I'm supposed to be working anyway. :)

Now that I've read a bit more in the DIY threads, I am learning that strawberry is tricky. Had no idea of that when I placed my orders, so no telling if son will be able to taste any strawberry or not. I'll mix it half and half with vanilla and add some sweetener. Heavy, sweet vanilla juice is really damn good as a DTL vape. Reference Vape Wild's Vanilla Clouds. Outstanding.

I had a similar problem thx to the FDA, when Sweet-Vapes.com discontinued all their house juices which were PG/VG customizable -- I really liked their Blueberry Muffin, which I always ordered at 80% PG, and then added a few other things to bring it up to 85%-86% PG. It's really a damn good thing I started DIYing so soon after I started vaping, because it's impossible to find high-PG juice anymore. Damn cloud chasers. :mad:

The only strawberry I'v ever used is Inawera Shisha Strawberry -- it tastes like real fresh strawberries dusted with sugar. Most say to use 2%-4% of that, but I could barely taste it even at 8% -- hence the high-flavor mixing; I started it off at 16%, plus 15% of supporting flavors -- creams, vanilla, and sweetener, and FINALLY had a juice I could actually TASTE -- first one I ever vaped that actually had a taste and not just a nice smell. So, everyone can pull an appalled face at my high-flavor mixing, I don't give a rat's ass; I love being able to TASTE my vape, and not just smell it and pretend it tastes good. :facepalm:

Andria
 

nadalama

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I had a similar problem thx to the FDA, when Sweet-Vapes.com discontinued all their house juices which were PG/VG customizable -- I really liked their Blueberry Muffin, which I always ordered at 80% PG, and then added a few other things to bring it up to 85%-86% PG. It's really a damn good thing I started DIYing so soon after I started vaping, because it's impossible to find high-PG juice anymore. Damn cloud chasers. :mad:

The only strawberry I'v ever used is Inawera Shisha Strawberry -- it tastes like real fresh strawberries dusted with sugar. Most say to use 2%-4% of that, but I could barely taste it even at 8% -- hence the high-flavor mixing; I started it off at 16%, plus 15% of supporting flavors -- creams, vanilla, and sweetener, and FINALLY had a juice I could actually TASTE -- first one I ever vaped that actually had a taste and not just a nice smell. So, everyone can pull an appalled face at my high-flavor mixing, I don't give a rat's ass; I love being able to TASTE my vape, and not just smell it and pretend it tastes good. :facepalm:

Andria

That's essentially why I decided to try to learn to mix juice, because even my 50/50 is getting hard to find. I loved some of the juice I got from Oasis, but they stopped making 50/50, and that 70/30 makes me cough every time I take a hit of it. Don't think I'm as sensitive to vg as you are, but there is some sensitivity there. Has to be, because NONE of my lower-vg juices make me cough like that.

If son has a problem with the strawberry I got, I might try something else, but I'm not going off in search of his "perfect strawberry." :) If he wants to do that, he's got a bank account, so he can do it on his own dime. But I did hope to save him some money because he IS cloud-chasing, and going through juice like a house on fire. He went through 120ml of some Kilo fruity pebbles flavor a couple of weeks ago. Fruity Pebbles. 36 years old. I'm just shaking my head. LOL
 

burley

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My question is, are there any other folks who cook by the seat of their pants, who've ended up being pretty good at mixing juice, specifically at coming up with their own recipes? Do you think one has anything to do with the other, or was I just lucky with a decent first mix?
This is me, through and through. I also "instinctively" cook, and did that exact thing with mixing juices. I'd just fly by the seat of my pants without even jotting down notes until one mix turned out fantastically perfect, and I couldn't replicate properly. That's when I started making a txt file with my "inspired" ratios. Helps keep track of them, alter and refine as I see fit, and that's now where 99.999% of my juice recipes come from.

For instance - simple blue-box, cheepo Mac and Cheese is a family staple side dish. It became nearly god-tier around here with small alterations, i.e. sour cream or cream cheese, and that's more or less what I strive for my juice recipes. Sometimes I just "know" something will work out right with a certain mix - sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong, but I rarely churn out an idea that flat out tastes like butt anymore. Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, I just don't... experiment with wildly different things that wouldn't make sense in a cooking theme.

A smidge of something odd like Flavorah's Brie Cheese flavor works so well with vanillas, bakery flavors, grain and oat cereal-y flavors. FA Oakwood works awesomely with (well, obv, just about anything tobacco-related) custards and savory profiles in super low amounts. Cardamom, marzipan, small dashes of Yogurt, - WonderFlavours has a flavoring called Sesame Dough that, mmmph, mwah, these things are the 'spices' to my rack of flavorings, just as I've got a rack of seasonings above the stove.

Yeah, the two hobbies do very much go hand-in-hand. You're doing it 1000% right! Well, you're 1000% not-alone, anyways ;)
 

nadalama

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This is me, through and through. I also "instinctively" cook, and did that exact thing with mixing juices. I'd just fly by the seat of my pants without even jotting down notes until one mix turned out fantastically perfect, and I couldn't replicate properly. That's when I started making a txt file with my "inspired" ratios. Helps keep track of them, alter and refine as I see fit, and that's now where 99.999% of my juice recipes come from.

For instance - simple blue-box, cheepo Mac and Cheese is a family staple side dish. It became nearly god-tier around here with small alterations, i.e. sour cream or cream cheese, and that's more or less what I strive for my juice recipes. Sometimes I just "know" something will work out right with a certain mix - sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong, but I rarely churn out an idea that flat out tastes like butt anymore. Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, I just don't... experiment with wildly different things that wouldn't make sense in a cooking theme.

A smidge of something odd like Flavorah's Brie Cheese flavor works so well with vanillas, bakery flavors, grain and oat cereal-y flavors. FA Oakwood works awesomely with (well, obv, just about anything tobacco-related) custards and savory profiles in super low amounts. Cardamom, marzipan, small dashes of Yogurt, - WonderFlavours has a flavoring called Sesame Dough that, mmmph, mwah, these things are the 'spices' to my rack of flavorings, just as I've got a rack of seasonings above the stove.

Yeah, the two hobbies do very much go hand-in-hand. You're doing it 1000% right! Well, you're 1000% not-alone, anyways ;)

Cardamom? Oh, be still my heart! Sounds like you and I might have some taste preferences in common. I would absolutely add a dab of Brie to the Vanilla Cheesecake I'm about to concoct. The girl I'm making it for doesn't know it, but a tad of lemon is going in there, too.

After I did that first mix, while I still had it in my mind, I registered at ELR and documented the recipe. Then I used ELR to figure out the recipe for a Russian Tea, which I mixed last night and absolutely had to try this morning. The bergamot in the Earl Grey tea I used is beautiful on the exhale. I think it's gonna be spectacular.

Thanks for your feedback. A great post indeed. :)
 

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