Grandma’s recipe says “add flour until it feels right.” Growing up is learning what right feels like.

Not all knowledge fits into numbers. An experienced cook is reading the dough, the day’s humidity and the flour in front of them, and the instruction is vague because the right amount genuinely changes. Learning it means building a feel through repetition, which is slower than a measurement and worth more.

Make the same thing four or five times and pay attention to the texture rather than the recipe. Stand next to whoever does it well and ask what they are looking for. Expect the first attempts to be wrong, since that is how the feel gets calibrated.