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Never understood those that sacrifice enjoyment for health.

Far from having a death wish or being maudalin, we’ve all got a one way ticket. So enjoy yourself a bit whilst your young, slow it down as you get older. No need to count every calorie or what have you.

Same with food ‘fads’. I buy organic meat from the butcher, because I can afford to, and it’s generally a decent cut above supermarket fare. That it’s ‘organic’ isn’t a consideration. That it’s local is a plus (supporting local business, and reduction in food miles).

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Bodt

Beware with low fat stuff. They often have higher sugar. not sure if this applies to cheese though.

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Let's face it. A lot of us learn bad eating habits from our parents, and these get reinforced by bad eating habits when we're college age and broke with not enough time.

For us, eating healthy is not an overnight change. It's an endless stream of small changes over time as we learn how to do better... ideally without sacrificing all the things that make eating enjoyable.

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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Indeedy.

For instance? Nachos tonight. No sour cream or avocado (can’t stand either), and a lower fat cheddar.

Still not good for me, but better then it could be.



I mean, unless you're using the gelatinous "cheese" that sports stadiums use, or gas station nacho cheese, I would say that even home-made nachos will tend to fall on the "infintely healthier than buying straight from the store" end of the spectrum. I've found as a very general rule, the more "basic" a food is, the healthier it is. So, we're all familiar with freezer section lasagna, no? Wonderful meal option. . . Turn on the oven, pop it in, follow the direction, and an hour later your family has a nice meal to enjoy together. . . Its not really healthy, we know this. Its loaded with sodium and whatever other preservatives and "not food" stuff there is in there. Buying Mozzarrella, parmesan cheeses, jar of whatever tomato sauce, box of lasagna noodles, ground beef/sausage. . . This has varying degrees of "healthier than freezer section" depending on what brand you buy, the meat option you go for (ie, pre-packaged sausage from a major meat company is likely to be less healthy than buying the same style sausage from your local butcher shop).. . But, this way takes more time to make. . . and the "healthiest" way to make lasagna is to get the tomatoes/basil and whatever else goes into tomato sauce, make that by hand. Get chunks of whatever meat, grind it up yourself, season it to make the sausage, (I'd probably say you can still buy the box of noodles, as that's still kinda the same. . . unless youre really a masochist. . . or a grandma) and do almost everything from complete scratch, by hand.



Any how, one of the things in the journey toward healthy/healthier eating I've found that really helps, is really 2 things.

-Write out your weekly dinner plan. For the wife and I, we looked at our budget before and after doing this, and its crazy how much we were spending on take-out/restaurant food, simply because we didnt "feel like" cooking, or couldn't figure out what to cook, despite a pantry full of options. Writing out the plan helps us not only with eating out, and grocery shopping, but it keeps things on track. . . If for instance, we're having steak and potatoes on wednesday, "breakfast" on thursday, etc. . . And we get home from work wednesday and see we didn't thaw the steaks out. . . Well, now we can pull them out, do breakfast on wednesday, and move steak night to the next night.

-Second thing we do that helps: plan out nights where you still deliberately eat "junk" . . . whether its ordering delivery pizza, or store bought freezer section hot wings and mozza sticks, it helps us stay on track throughout the week(s) when we reward ourselves, or the kids by dining out or doing something that doesn't really involve us cooking. For us, this works best at the end of the week, usually a friday (which is best for the kids and wife) or saturday (which is the last day of my work-week). . . Im sure some psychologist will point out how Pavlovian this may look, seeing the junk food night at the end of the week as a "reward" for, well, whatever is being rewarded . . . but it is kind of that one small thing to look forward too each week.
   
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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Indeedy.

For instance? Nachos tonight. No sour cream or avocado (can’t stand either), and a lower fat cheddar.

Still not good for me, but better then it could be.


I wouldn't advocate someone eat something they don't like, because that actually makes it harder to eat healthier, but avacado is one of the best foods you can eat in terms of the nutrition it gives your body -- just the way you've phrased it implies that's not the case.

Also as someone else said, you have to be careful with "low fat", it oftens really means "we swapped fat for sugar". Only certain types of fat are bad for you, the rest are needed by your body, and cutting too much fat from your diet can lead to snacking and overeating because it's the fat that's the key driver in your body determining that your full.

There's some great documentaries on Netflix about food and the food industry if that lockdown time is leaving you without things to do.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Im sure some psychologist will point out how Pavlovian this may look, seeing the junk food night at the end of the week as a "reward" for, well, whatever is being rewarded . . . but it is kind of that one small thing to look forward too each week.


Ofc you're completely right, but as with everything, it's about moderation. If you live with requirement and reward in terms of food on a daily basis, it's going to damage your relationship with food and anyone learning off you, but a case of "well on this night of the week, relaxing the mind/body is more important than what we eat" is taking a balanced and holistic view of your health.

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Home Cooking is also expensive in the short term, because you need equipment.

Not just pots and pans. Those are Basic Essentials, as are things like wooden spoons, spatulas etc.

But for making home made sauces and spice mixes? You’re gonna want some form of blender. Something I still don’t own (no, I’m not entirely sure why not either!)

Now for me, not a problem, I can just waltz over to Sainsbury’s (literally, I’ve got a condition called Sinatra Knee, which means I have to prance and dance everywhere*) and buy one. Could even splurge a bit and get a middle of the range one (where I feel the best mix of cost and quality lies).

For a young family? Or those with low income for whatever reason? Not so much,

Same with my soup maker. Didn’t cost a huge amount, but it still has to be a lump sum. Yet overtime, it’ll save me a decent amount of money buying tinned soup - and the end result will be healthier. I mean, you chop and bung in your veggies. They’re full of good stuff. So for a basic soup, the only real nasty are the stock cubes - and even then I buy the lower sodium version.

Sorry, I’m whimbriling somewhat!

*this may or may not be a complete lie. It’s actually Flatley’s Ankle, which causes my legs to flail wildly about, whilst paralysing my upper body.

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Bodt

For home cooking all you need is a sharp knife, a frying pan, a saucepan and a wooden spoon or spatula. That's literally all I used for 3 years as a singly in my barrack block.


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Oh and a plate to eat off

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/05/20 10:54:36


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Upstate, New York

I disagree that a lot of specialized hardware is required. Sure, it can be required for some very specific things, but for most thing is unneeded.

I have a big stand mixer. It makes a lot of things easy. Could I do most of what I use it for with a hand mixer? Yes. With a spoon/whisk/elbow grease? Also yes. Remember a lot of the things we cook have their roots in a time without electricity/home appliances.

I have an immersion blender, I use rarely. Lost the regular blender in the divorce; never replaced it. Only time I really miss it is when I crave eggs benedict. You can make a blender hollandaise stupidly easy, where the alternative is whisking over a double boiler.

A few basic tools and a little know-how will take you very far in the kitchen. Specialized appliances are mostly just trendy junk that will take up space in a few months before finding it’s way to a yard sale.

A more relevant start up cost for home cooking is building up your spice rack. If you want to try a new recipe, you might end up dropping $20-30 for a bunch of little bottles you use 1/2 tsp. Now once you have them, they are good for a while (they do degrade over time, but if you are cheep/lazy, just add a bit more) but branching out of your normal routine can get pricy.

   
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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Home Cooking is also expensive in the short term, because you need equipment.

Not just pots and pans. Those are Basic Essentials, as are things like wooden spoons, spatulas etc.

But for making home made sauces and spice mixes? You’re gonna want some form of blender. Something I still don’t own (no, I’m not entirely sure why not either!)

Now for me, not a problem, I can just waltz over to Sainsbury’s (literally, I’ve got a condition called Sinatra Knee, which means I have to prance and dance everywhere*) and buy one. Could even splurge a bit and get a middle of the range one (where I feel the best mix of cost and quality lies).

For a young family? Or those with low income for whatever reason? Not so much,

Same with my soup maker. Didn’t cost a huge amount, but it still has to be a lump sum. Yet overtime, it’ll save me a decent amount of money buying tinned soup - and the end result will be healthier. I mean, you chop and bung in your veggies. They’re full of good stuff. So for a basic soup, the only real nasty are the stock cubes - and even then I buy the lower sodium version.

Sorry, I’m whimbriling somewhat!

*this may or may not be a complete lie. It’s actually Flatley’s Ankle, which causes my legs to flail wildly about, whilst paralysing my upper body.


We pretty much do all our own cooking, rarely buying anything pre-made and I can tell you it's absolutely not the case you need any fancy equipment. We also have a soup maker, but we just call it a pan because, honestly, I'm not sure what else you really need for making soup. So much so I'm actually going to go and Google it after writing this. I'm sure the makers of all these gadgets would like you to think you need them but all you really need is a sharp knife or two and a decent selection of pans and utensils. Sure, it's not nothing, but it's all pretty cheap on its own and you can buy it gradually. The same applies to ingredients. You don't need a fully stocked spice rack right now but if you buy herbs and spices as you need them for your recipes you eventually end up with a good selection that just needs renewing one at a time.
   
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UK

There are loads of kitchen gadgets, some work and some are just a fuss that are more trouble than they are worth.


I think some gadgets are actually more useful when you do casual cooking. Eg you can get potato slicers that let you fine slice potato - great if you're only using it once a month. Meanwhile a professional cooking every day can likely achieve the same result faster with a choppingboard and a really good knife that's been well kept and sharpened regularly.

As for those on lower income you can grab a lot of things at secondhand. Heck the mixer we use was pretty cheap and picked up secondhand and works fine (brand new it would be £300+). Market auctions, car boot sales even ebay (though the latter can get more pricey because its got national appeal). Provided you pick it up when you need it rather than trying to get it all at once you can get some quality equipment at affordable prices. Heck right now (or at least before lockdown) you can easily pick up a full dinner service of crockery for tiny amounts. Even some of the really fancy stuff is dirt cheap. Sure you can buy new at £30 a plate or you can get a whole set secondhand for £40 (plates, bowls, fishplates, serving plates, gravy boats etc...)


If you know what you're after and are patient you can find a surprising amount of quality stuff at affordable prices. Though for market auctions it means time viewing the stuff; for cardboots it means getting there at 5-6am when it opens etc...


That said I'd say you always want to aim for medium to upper end for quality. Quality tools and equipment pay for themselves in reliability and performance. Cheaper stuff can work fine, but it might break more easily; it might dull or degrade faster; it might not be possible to sharpen or maintain and it might fail you more often .The result being with cheap you pay for it in lowered performance and a higher chance of having to pay out more to replace it. So you end up spending more in the long run.

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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
But for making home made sauces and spice mixes? You’re gonna want some form of blender. Something I still don’t own (no, I’m not entirely sure why not either!)
I am really not sure what you mean at all. I actually make my own sauces and spice mixtures, because I can't properly digest onion or garlic, so I have to make everything from scratch if I don't want it to make me feel sick.

I never touch our blender. I don't even know how to use it, frankly, or where it even is in the house. Might well be gone for all I know. I make my own ketchup with a crock-pot and a strainer (I do hit it with an immersion blender, but that can easily be skipped). I make my own pasta sauce, from crushed tomatoes, using a food mill, but I never touch the blender for that.

While my wife is the one that usually bakes anything, frankly, I'm a luddite when it comes to it and I don't even use a mixer. I think the answer on how to make things is mostly just quality ingredients and techniques, not really having gadgets at all.

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Maybe I’m just suffering middle classitis.

Most of my gadgets and gizmos are labour saving. Soup Maker is a ‘fill it, press button’, allowing me to crack on with other stuff. George Formby is likewise a ‘just chuck the meat on and come back in a bit’ jobby.

Edit - forgot the smiley, and without it I read like a conceited knobber.

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I tend to get well with my basic stuff of a cast iron, Carbon steel and stainless steel.
If you want to make your own crust and pasta maybe, a stand mixer.

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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
George Formby is likewise a ‘just chuck the meat on and come back in a bit’ jobby.


Those grills are neat and nice for cooking up a couple of burgers and such. The issue I find with them is the same as those cheese toastie makers which have the line that cuts the bread in half. The non-stick coating comes off on the ridges. Esp for the George Formby because you're scraping the burgers up to flip them every so often (at least if you want nice cooked ones with huge lines of burnt charcoal running all over them).

We've shifted to using one of the flatpan toastie makers and its far superior; no more issues with the bread being too big (wasted edge) or too small (dribbling escaping cheese); no more ridges that chip and shave off their non-stick and it can even do regular toast if you want. Only downside is it can be a bit squishy on a toasted teacake; but you can just lift the lid and only toast with one side if you want to avoid that. Still doesn't beat an AGA (nothing beats and aga), but then again Aga's are insanely inefficient on oil in the long run.

The George Formby we've adopted using oil and wiping it generously over the grill before cooking; helps at lease preserve some non-stick and you've still got the majority draining down its surface so its not quite the same as cooking in the pan.

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Bodt

The george formbies are good if you dont have an oven and dont want to pan fry burgers etc.

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 Baragash wrote:

I wouldn't advocate someone eat something they don't like, because that actually makes it harder to eat healthier...


Which is the ultimate problem when teaching kids to eat healthy, especially for school lunches where the parents are watching over the kids to make sure they eat. The healthiest food in the world does a child no good if it winds up in the trash can instead of in the kid.


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 Nevelon wrote:
I disagree that a lot of specialized hardware is required. Sure, it can be required for some very specific things, but for most thing is unneeded.

I have a big stand mixer. It makes a lot of things easy. Could I do most of what I use it for with a hand mixer? Yes. With a spoon/whisk/elbow grease? Also yes. Remember a lot of the things we cook have their roots in a time without electricity/home appliances.

I have an immersion blender, I use rarely. Lost the regular blender in the divorce; never replaced it. Only time I really miss it is when I crave eggs benedict. You can make a blender hollandaise stupidly easy, where the alternative is whisking over a double boiler.

A few basic tools and a little know-how will take you very far in the kitchen. Specialized appliances are mostly just trendy junk that will take up space in a few months before finding it’s way to a yard sale.


The fun part is, NOT having the tools to make it easy means instead it's hard, and takes more time. If you don't have a lot of money, odds are you're working multiple jobs and have even less time than you have money...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/05/20 16:38:10


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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Soup Maker is a ‘fill it, press button’,


Question. . . are y'all referring to a crock pot, an instant pot, or something entirely different? Which, I guess goes into there being too many silly made for TV kitchen gadgets, and the naming differences on each side of the pond.
   
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im not exactly sure how it works, but a soup maker is different, i think it uses high pressure and heat to cook soup.
Honestly, its like an ice cream machine, yeah you can make ice cream with tools at home, but it requires work.

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Upstate, New York

 Vulcan wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
I disagree that a lot of specialized hardware is required. Sure, it can be required for some very specific things, but for most thing is unneeded.

I have a big stand mixer. It makes a lot of things easy. Could I do most of what I use it for with a hand mixer? Yes. With a spoon/whisk/elbow grease? Also yes. Remember a lot of the things we cook have their roots in a time without electricity/home appliances.

I have an immersion blender, I use rarely. Lost the regular blender in the divorce; never replaced it. Only time I really miss it is when I crave eggs benedict. You can make a blender hollandaise stupidly easy, where the alternative is whisking over a double boiler.

A few basic tools and a little know-how will take you very far in the kitchen. Specialized appliances are mostly just trendy junk that will take up space in a few months before finding it’s way to a yard sale.


The fun part is, NOT having the tools to make it easy means instead it's hard, and takes more time. If you don't have a lot of money, odds are you're working multiple jobs and have even less time than you have money...


Don’t get me wrong, labor saving devices are there for a reason. If you don’t have all afternoon to slow cook something, you can do it in a fraction of the time in a pressure cooker. And I would not want to whip egg whites by hand to make meringues. But you can do a LOT with basic tools. You don’t need a bread maker. I had never heard of a soup machine until this thread. I’ve alway just used a big pot.

My point is that people shouldn’t think “I can’t cook/bake at home, I don’t have the fancy tools” Sure, there are some things you probably don’t want to attempt. But a much larger selection of stuff you can make with just a pot/pan and a little time.

   
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 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Soup Maker is a ‘fill it, press button’,


Question. . . are y'all referring to a crock pot, an instant pot, or something entirely different? Which, I guess goes into there being too many silly made for TV kitchen gadgets, and the naming differences on each side of the pond.


It’s pretty much part kettle, part blender.

Mine gets it all done and dusted, ready to serve in about 15 minutes, not including prep time (for leek and potato, I tend to use New Potato’s, as no need to skin them first).

Whether with a dedicated maker or not, soup is a great way to use up veg that’s on the turn. I’d include so called ‘ugly veg’. But that’s such a bloody pretentious, idiotic thing it’s not even funny.

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So its its pretty much just blender soups with the cooking part put right in.
I might need to get one.
I personally make stock with bad vegetables or frozen ones.

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 Nevelon wrote:
 Vulcan wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
I disagree that a lot of specialized hardware is required. Sure, it can be required for some very specific things, but for most thing is unneeded.

I have a big stand mixer. It makes a lot of things easy. Could I do most of what I use it for with a hand mixer? Yes. With a spoon/whisk/elbow grease? Also yes. Remember a lot of the things we cook have their roots in a time without electricity/home appliances.

I have an immersion blender, I use rarely. Lost the regular blender in the divorce; never replaced it. Only time I really miss it is when I crave eggs benedict. You can make a blender hollandaise stupidly easy, where the alternative is whisking over a double boiler.

A few basic tools and a little know-how will take you very far in the kitchen. Specialized appliances are mostly just trendy junk that will take up space in a few months before finding it’s way to a yard sale.


The fun part is, NOT having the tools to make it easy means instead it's hard, and takes more time. If you don't have a lot of money, odds are you're working multiple jobs and have even less time than you have money...


Don’t get me wrong, labor saving devices are there for a reason. If you don’t have all afternoon to slow cook something, you can do it in a fraction of the time in a pressure cooker. And I would not want to whip egg whites by hand to make meringues. But you can do a LOT with basic tools. You don’t need a bread maker. I had never heard of a soup machine until this thread. I’ve alway just used a big pot.

My point is that people shouldn’t think “I can’t cook/bake at home, I don’t have the fancy tools” Sure, there are some things you probably don’t want to attempt. But a much larger selection of stuff you can make with just a pot/pan and a little time.


Which is the point, if you've just come home exhausted from your second job and have to get up too early in the morning for your next day's work, 'a little time' is a LOT more effort than you want to put into it.

Thinking about it, I'm getting way off subject here. Probably best to either agree or disagree in your own head or PM me and let the thread get back on track...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/05/21 15:13:41


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Yup.

Fresh, home made bread is a wonderful thing. But, it takes time to prepare, with that time increasing the fewer doodads and gadgets you have, especially getting your dough ready.

But, if you can cough up a couple of hundred for a bread maker? You’re golden. Load up the ingredients, set the timer, and you wake up to freshly baked bread the next morning. Minimum of fuss, maximum benefit.

This opens it up more to the ‘time poor’. Such as myself. In the general run of things, I only really have the time to make bread at the weekends. But given it’s got no preservatives added, it simply doesn’t last through the week,

But the health benefits of fresh, multigrain whole meal bread more or less on demand is too good for me to pass up. Hence I’m desperately trying to source a bread maker. Naturally given the current Times I’m struggling there somewhat! But I’d love one to go with my soup maker. Easy, more nutritious lunches? Aye, go on then!

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Upstate, New York

A higher protean bread stays fresh longer. You can use a different flour and/or add milk, butter, etc.

Not as good as fresh baked, but I don’t have problems with bread making it to the end of the week.

YMMV.

   
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 Overread wrote:
 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
George Formby is likewise a ‘just chuck the meat on and come back in a bit’ jobby.


Those grills are neat and nice for cooking up a couple of burgers and such. The issue I find with them is the same as those cheese toastie makers which have the line that cuts the bread in half. The non-stick coating comes off on the ridges. Esp for the George Formby because you're scraping the burgers up to flip them every so often (at least if you want nice cooked ones with huge lines of burnt charcoal running all over them).


Ugh, tge toasties that come off those things are just terrible. They're too closed; a proper cheese toastie is crispy (not black! Just crispy) on the outside with melted cheesy goodness in the center.
How is making soup in a pan timeconsuming though? I make it the exact same way MDG does, except I don't have a soupmaker, I just chuck all the ingredients in a pan, and leave that to simmer on a low heat for a time while I go off and do other things.

I find a lot of people want to cook things too fast. To get flavour in something takes time.

Anyway, was feeling a little homesick, so I decided to go for an old family recipe hunter's stew with whatever I could find locally. Going to make it again for the missus when I get back home. It was sooooo good. I woukd post a picture, but it's against dakka rules. Pretty healthy too. I think. I can give the recipe if anyone's interested.
   
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Don’t need to worry about the simmering, at all.

With it all being automated once the button is pushed, I’m free to faff about doing other household things.

Do need to expand my repertoire. Leek & Potato, and Muligatwany are both very very tasty, but they’re not the only Soup!

Might order one of those veg boxes. Perhaps a bit of blind luck will help inspire.

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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Yup.

Fresh, home made bread is a wonderful thing. But, it takes time to prepare, with that time increasing the fewer doodads and gadgets you have, especially getting your dough ready.

But, if you can cough up a couple of hundred for a bread maker? You’re golden. Load up the ingredients, set the timer, and you wake up to freshly baked bread the next morning. Minimum of fuss, maximum benefit.

This opens it up more to the ‘time poor’. Such as myself. In the general run of things, I only really have the time to make bread at the weekends. But given it’s got no preservatives added, it simply doesn’t last through the week,

But the health benefits of fresh, multigrain whole meal bread more or less on demand is too good for me to pass up. Hence I’m desperately trying to source a bread maker. Naturally given the current Times I’m struggling there somewhat! But I’d love one to go with my soup maker. Easy, more nutritious lunches? Aye, go on then!

I gave up on making bread TBH,
ESPECIALLY sourdough.

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There’s definitely a knack to baking in general.

My paternal grandparents were dab hands, my Dad not so much. Dear Old Mumsie tried to learn, and kinda got there. My brother and I? We can bake pretty much whatever we fancy, and get it right second, maybe third time around- and we’ve never been taught how.

Seriously. Take five random people. Give them identical ingredients, recipes and ovens. Some will get it spot on, others will just sort of fail. It’s Just One Of Those Things!

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Decrepit Dakkanaut




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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Seriously. Take five random people. Give them identical ingredients, recipes and ovens. Some will get it spot on, others will just sort of fail. It’s Just One Of Those Things!


It's also because a lot of cookery books are very simplistic and are made as guidelines not teaching instructions

Like almost any subject there's the general pattern of behaviour, but underlaying it there's often a subset of small things. Little quirks and bits that you pick up doing something over and over that you often don't realise that you do. Things that on their own mean very little, but when added together and put into the right place at the right time, result in an improved end result.

There's also familiarity with equipment and the practice itself. If you're not used to cooking to start with chances are you don't even have a lot of the really basic little skills and know what you're looking out for - so following the recipe can still fail because you slip up on the little stages. You can see this often enough growing up if you go through school sciences - even following simple formulas you can still get a few in the class who will follow them and get the "wrong result" because they've made tiny mistakes along the way that don't get spotted. Or there are tiny differences in the equipment or setup that send results awry that they, again, don't spot.

For cooking it might be as simple as learning that the oven doesn't heat perfectly even and that you've got to turn things 3/4 toward the end of the cooking time. It's learning the difference between a flan being cooked and one being just undercooked and still a little wobbly. etc...



Like I said a lot of cookery books are guidelines that provide a formula, but often don't include lots of the little bits of information. In fact in any hobby or interest picking up the little bits can be darn hard, and yet its often some of the most valuable information. It's the little bits that click together and bring a whole process up a whole level. Heck I'm trying (once again) to learn painting of models - if I just follow the recipes from the GW video guides (or any video guide) I still don't get a perfect result. Same model, same paint, same brush, same model holding tool. However there's a whole slew of little quirks that don't make it into guides - even video where you can see minor hand adjustments and shifts (that aren't mentioned) which clearly aid steady holding; small bits on how to sweep the brush across the model; how to load the brush, etc.... Again there are lots of little bits, small and on their own not a big element, but when you add them all together they make or fail a process.

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True enough.

My Granny had a cook book comprised of cuttings and written notes. Of the hand written notes, they’re a mix of precise measurements (200g of this, 45g of that) and then ‘a bit of X, splash of Y’ type things.

Best of all? Cook it until it’s done. What a gloriously imprecise instruction.

And many are from before we enjoyed such luxuries as temperature controlled ovens, with things like gas marks and dials and that.

Maybe that’s where my knack comes from? Maybe not, as it’s hard to tell. But one thing I do know is that I cannot replicate her or Grandad’s shortbread.

Forget the store bought stuff, which is kinda hard when you bite it. This stuff was so soft and crumbly and pretty much dissolved on your tongue. Try as I might, I just cannot get it that right. Sure it’s still better than store bought. But it’s far from Granny’s. That is a solid loss to the human race right there!

Spesh when she made Millionaires Shortbread with it.

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