How to respond to recipe requests when you don't use recipes

Dear Miss Manners: Cooking is one of my passions, and I love to share my food with others. And while I love positive feedback, I am sometimes taken aback by the automatic request for a recipe as soon as someone compliments something I’ve made. Unfortunately, I do not use recipes. I am an intuitive cook, who many times throws things together. I have explained several times to these people that I do not use recipes, but continue to get asked.

I am not a curmudgeon, and not trying to keep my creations’ ingredients secret; I just don’t have the time, energy or memory to remember everything that went into a dish. What would be a good response to the constant, “This is delicious. Recipe, please!”?

You could easily shut down these requests for recipes by describing the preparation method in a way that works for yourself, in your capacity as an intuitive cook, despite the fact that you know this won't be informative for people who need a recipe to make this kind of food.

 

For example: "Grab some flour and an egg or two, mix it up until it looks good, shape it into the right shape, and bake it until it's done. Then you can add your fillings or your toppings or whatever you want and customize to your heart's content!"

Is this useful to someone who would ask for a recipe? Of course not! And also, it's all the information you have about the process you followed to make the food. 

A couple of rounds of this kind of answer will be far more dissuasive than actually telling them you don't have a recipe.

(Source: I come from a long line of intuitive cooks and have no cooking intuition myself.)