Notes to Jimmy's Sate Sauce Recipes
An important concept stressed in practically every cooking class is that cooking is 10% art and 90% chemistry. Recipes are to cooks what formulas are to chemists - important instructions for a consistent result. One vital cooking element provided by recipes is proportion.
There are a few instances in which traditional recipes may not be strictly necessary, but until a cook gains enough kitchen experience and learns enough cooking theory to improvise, recipes should be treated as the roadmaps to culinary success.