What your saved recipes can tell you about your taste

You can learn something about your taste from a recipe you haven’t cooked.

You save a dish of roasted carrots over yogurt, with chilli oil and seeds scattered on top. The carrots have browned edges. The yogurt looks thick enough to drag a piece of bread through. You already cook carrots, but this is a way of serving them you haven’t tried.

Later, you look at the recipe again. You like the idea of the warm vegetables with the cool sauce. You’re less interested in the chilli oil. You wonder whether leaving it out would lose the part that made the dish appealing.

That is worth exploring, even if you have no plans to make it this week. You might find that the contrast is what caught your attention, rather than the carrots themselves. Another vegetable served that way could interest you too.

A save doesn’t have to become a commitment to make the whole dish. It can give you a way to look more closely at something you like.

Look at what caught your attention

“That looks good” is enough reason to save a recipe. The reason can become clearer when you return to it.

With the carrots, start with the part you keep looking at. It could be the browned edges against the yogurt, or the seeds on top of something soft. You might recognize a combination you already enjoy. You might be curious about one you’ve never tasted.

Knowing which part interests you helps when the rest of the recipe appeals less. You can be drawn to a dish with an ingredient you dislike, a method you don’t feel like attempting, or a serving suggestion that doesn’t suit you. Treating the recipe as a single choice makes it easy to set the whole thing aside. Looking at the part that interests you gives you something more specific to explore.

You can ask what the chilli oil contributes, whether the sauce needs that heat, or which other ingredients provide contrast. Those questions help you work out what you want to keep. They don’t require you to decide on a replacement dish.

Sometimes the answer is simply that you liked the photograph. That’s useful to notice too. A picture can catch your eye without making you want to eat what’s in it.

Explore the dish with Fennli

Bring that saved recipe to Fennli and say what appeals. You don’t need a precise description of your taste. The yogurt looks good, the chilli oil looks like too much, and you’re curious whether the dish would still work without it. That’s enough to begin.

Ask Fennli what the chilli oil adds and whether the dish would work without it. Talk about dishes you already enjoy, then work out which parts you’d keep and what you’d change.

A general chatbot can help with these questions too. Fennli keeps your recipes alongside your preferences, details about your kitchen and what you’ve cooked before, so a later question can build on what you’ve already discussed. If you tell Fennli that you liked the yogurt idea but wanted less heat, that gives the next conversation more to work with than another description of the dish alone.

Fennli can’t tell what you like from a photograph. Say what caught your eye, then talk through what the ingredients and method add to the dish.

Notice what you return to

You may see a similar detail in another recipe you’ve saved: a baked potato with a cool topping, or a lentil dish finished with something crunchy. The dishes are different, but the contrast could be part of what draws you to both.

That is a possibility to explore, rather than a verdict about your taste. You can look back at meals you’ve enjoyed and see whether it holds. Perhaps it’s the sauce you keep noticing. Perhaps the texture matters more. A few recipes give you examples to think with, and a new one can change your mind.

Return to something when it interests you. Some recipes will lead to questions, some to dinner, and some will stay where they are.

Cooking offers another kind of information. The carrots might look better than they taste to you. You might discover that the topping was the part you enjoyed most. When you do cook the dish, that result can refine what you thought you liked about it. Until then, you’re working out what you might enjoy, and that can still suggest something worth trying.

Leave with a clearer idea

You return to the saved carrots. This time you can say what interests you: browned vegetables with a cool, tangy sauce, and a little crunch. You’re still unsure about the chilli oil, but you know what to ask about.

You may cook that recipe, adapt it, or come across the same idea in another dish. Even if the carrots never become dinner, you’ve found a combination you want to explore. The recipe gave you somewhere to start.