The Cooking Irritations thread

Malari

Alun wrote: »

One word ... soup.

Yeah, not really a soup eater. And definitely not vegetable soup!

kimokanto

My ultimate has to be a broken yoke in my fried egg. Do I give it to the dog & feel guilty about waste? Do I put up with a fried egg thats not nice & dippy? Grrrr

Dubl07

kimokanto wrote: »

My ultimate has to be a broken yoke in my fried egg. Do I give it to the dog & feel guilty about waste? Do I put up with a fried egg thats not nice & dippy? Grrrr

Give it to the dog every time!

Malari

Do dogs eat vegetables?! :eek:

Edit...oh, I see you've removed my post from your post ;-)

Dial Hard

kimokanto wrote: »

My ultimate has to be a broken yoke in my fried egg. Do I give it to the dog & feel guilty about waste? Do I put up with a fried egg thats not nice & dippy? Grrrr

Give it to the dog. Life's too short to put up with non-guggy eggs.

Whispered

Dogs eat vegetables. Our boys get 90% of the carrots that come into the house. Raw and crunchy.

They also get a lot of the chopping board veggie bits like peppers and tomatoes. So long as it's not toxic and you can eat them raw, I'll throw it to them. If they don't eat it they'll play with it for a while

Dubl07

Malari wrote: »

Do dogs eat vegetables?! :eek:

Edit...oh, I see you've removed my post from your post ;-)

:-)

I'd navigated away and returned to reply to another post, but my half-formed response to you remained in the system. A ghost in the machine. Like a celery botty-burp from a pup, perhaps.

Celery is not something I'm fond of in quantities. I can accept a balanced dance with apple and walnuts in some Waldorf; a slender stalk in a Bloody Mary; a frond or two in soup; a few seeds either inside or topping a crusty loaf. In most other cases it's overpowering to my palate and I happily throw it into the compost heap.

MissFlitworth

My dog will beg for/just bully up beside me and wait for a carrot but it's a couple of nibbles and then try to find somewhere to hide it. Finding root vegetables in your couch cushions is a bit irritating.

Kovu

I've only recently started eating avocados and feel your pain! I do a big shop once a week otherwise I get grenade hardened ones in the local shop. One of which took a 10 days to ripen before and had a chewy texture....bleugh. Never had a problem with Lidl ones funnily enough, I poke them eery day and move them either into the fridge when just ripe in order to slow it for a couple of days or plonk them on the bananas.

I get really irritated if people start poking at something I'm cooking for myself and adding bit to it or eating out of the pot. FECK OFF, you said you didn't like spicy food and that you weren't hungry!

People watching me eat, don't like that oddly enough. Oh and leaving something in the fridge and looking forward to it the next day. Only to have some greedy so and so eat it on me!!

Alun

I had a weird one just now with avocados. I bought a "Ripe n Ready" 2 pack from Aldi (after vowing never to do so again after a recent pair of bullets!) and had one last week which was lovely and ripe, just right. I totally forgot about the other one until this lunchtime, but thought I'd try and rescue what I could from it expecting it to have turned to mush, but no, this one was still as hard as a rock. Go figure.

Tree

Volumetric measurements are a big one.

Bags of potatos where some of them are bad but you can't tell till you've sliced them open. Also potatoes for "baking" packs, as they're never good enough to eat the skins off. Also, that way you roast a bunch of potatos and some of them have the peculiar new spud taste to them and you can never identify them and they're always the last one left after you ate a perfect fluffy one.

Minder

Beanshoots - specifically western supermarket beanshoots. Typically sold in a hermetically sealed bag, they have been washed before being bagged. The result is a product with a shelf life that should be measured in hours, not days. The residual water ensures that the bright, crisp vegetable will be well on its way to turning into a fetid brown mess suitable only for the compost bin before one sunset has passed.

Give me a breathable bag of dry beanshoots any day. Alas, these little beauties are only available in oriental supermarkets and I'm don't have one local to me. I'm on to you Tesco/Laldi/Sainsburys. Change your product & packaging or I'll set Joliver and Hugh Fearlessly-Eats-It-All on you.

kylith

Minder wrote: »

Beanshoots - specifically western supermarket beanshoots. Typically sold in a hermetically sealed bag, they have been washed before being bagged. The result is a product with a shelf life that should be measured in hours, not days. The residual water ensures that the bright, crisp vegetable will be well on its way to turning into a fetid brown mess suitable only for the compost bin before one sunset has passed.

Give me a breathable bag of dry beanshoots any day. Alas, these little beauties are only available in oriental supermarkets and I'm don't have one local to me. I'm on to you Tesco/Laldi/Sainsburys. Change your product & packaging or I'll set Joliver and Hugh Fearlessly-Eats-It-All on you.

Ooo, I'll have to check the Asian supermarket tomorrow. I love beansprouts but they turn into mush as soon as you open the packet.

L1011

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Carrots are my limes/onions. I generally need A carrot, maybe 2. Definitely not 1.5kg of them. And my kitchen is murder on carrots so I'm a World Champion Thrower of Black Mouldy Carrots in the Bin

Greengrocer (or a big Tesco actually) - can buy carrots in any number from 1 to the 15+ you get in a big bag. My usual weeks shopping includes 3.

Celery is the one that annoyed me enough that, after my partner objected to me putting it in *everything* to use the sodding thing up - I've just stopped using it.

Any form of bulk-packaged vegetables bar onion nets is usually too much for a two person household even if you usually cook 6 out of 7 dinners a week from scratch - punnets of mushrooms, four-packs of garlic in a net, etc are all too big.


I really wish the 4 packs of eggs were more common, or even the ability to buy singles of them. I like them for breakfast/lunch but the OH hates them with a passion so I frequently end up buying them for a purpose and throwing out two or three as they're not really freezer suitable!

anothernight

L1011 wrote: »

Any form of bulk-packaged vegetables bar onion nets is usually too much for a two person household even if you usually cook 6 out of 7 dinners a week from scratch - punnets of mushrooms, four-packs of garlic in a net, etc are all too big.


I really wish the 4 packs of eggs were more common, or even the ability to buy singles of them. I like them for breakfast/lunch but the OH hates them with a passion so I frequently end up buying them for a purpose and throwing out two or three as they're not really freezer suitable!

Was with you until you mentioned onions, mushrooms, garlic and eggs. :P
If onions come in the vegetable box I caramelise most of them and leave a couple for other uses, otherwise I don't buy any onions because they go off before I can use them (my bf hates onions). Mushrooms, eggs and garlic... we seem to be constantly topping up on those three ingredients.



My cooking irritation is actually three:
1. Being watched while I'm cooking or worse, people "helping" me cook. Just no. It's my kitchen.

2. Americans making Andalusian gazpacho with jalapeños, hot sauce, prawns, tomato juice, and a whole bunch of other things that don't belong in gazpacho. And then calling it Mexican. (while we're at it: no, that's not "Spanish" rice.) Same for a lot of other countries' cuisines. Carbonara with cream, I'm looking at you.

3. "Recipes" like this one. Brownie made with German cake mix and caramels. Cake mix is not and will never be an ingredient in my book!

Minder

kylith wrote: »

Ooo, I'll have to check the Asian supermarket tomorrow. I love beansprouts but they turn into mush as soon as you open the packet.

I have two bags still in edible condition that I bought on Friday evening from an Asian supermarket near work.

Speedwell

anothernight wrote: »

2. Americans making Andalusian gazpacho with jalapeños, hot sauce, prawns, tomato juice, and a whole bunch of other things that don't belong in gazpacho. And then calling it Mexican. (while we're at it: no, that's not "Spanish" rice.) Same for a lot of other countries' cuisines. Carbonara with cream, I'm looking at you.

I'm an American with Mexican family members (my brother's wife). I worked in a Mexican restaurant for a few months for extra money in college in the late 80s (waited tables and helped the back of the house learn English, lol). You are exactly spot on; both interpretations are Mexican (or Tex-Mex, or Cal-Mex). Mexican gazpacho really is a thing. Mexican rice is the proper name for what they serve beside the Mexican refried beans in Mexican restaurants. Most people in America would not know Spanish food if you actually served it to them (I was more fortunate in that the large Texas city I came from had a very authentic, highly-regarded institution of a Spanish restaurant).

Carbonara with cream? My mother's father was from Rome. He used to say, "Never mind about the food here; it is a different dish", and as far as he was concerned, he made the food, and he was Italian, so it was Italian food.

MissFlitworth

anothernight wrote: »

3. "Recipes" like this one. Brownie made with German cake mix and caramels. Cake mix is not and will never be an ingredient in my book!

Tangentially related to that link - food covered in something that shouldn't be there. Cake plastered in icing sugar, desserts with a 100 ml of red coulis on top (cakes that come served on top of a napkin give me twitches in both eyes), plates of food with pesto or balsamic crema. It's all fine and dandy if the food should be covered in 'stuff', I' a-ok with icing sugar on my victoria sponge, but when it's just there for decorative purposes and changes or overwhelms the taste of the food - rage.

nkav86

Anything with a foam on, what the hell is that?! The sight of it makes me gag oh and knowing the cook made a good batch of sauce but only puts a drizzle on the plate, don't want it drenched in the stuff but a drop more wouldn't go amiss! Aware that's a restaurant complaint, hope it's not off topic just drives me barmy!

Speedwell

I like it, I like it, but... molecular gastronomy somewhat annoys me

nkav86

Speedwell wrote:

I like it, I like it, but... molecular gastronomy somewhat annoys me

I'm with you there, was watching a show last night that sent chefs into a restaurant to try a fried chicken meal, they went back to the kitchen to recreate it, ended up with a triangle of chicken skin and a dot or two of hot sauce, what the absolute......?? Just remembered also, recipes that call for ingredients that you 'most likely have in the cupboard' like sherry vinegar or truffle oil, umm no!

Dial Hard

L1011 wrote:

Celery is the one that annoyed me enough that, after my partner objected to me putting it in *everything* to use the sodding thing up - I've just stopped using it.

You're the second person to mention celery on this. Just chop it and freeze it. You can throw it straight into the pan then next time you're making a sofritto for anything.

I always stock up, chop and freeze when it's on Super 6.

Malari

Oh my, two irritations in one recipe today.

A few steps into a curry recipe I'm instructed to add tablespoons of curry paste...what now? I have to GOOGLE the recipe for that one and make it up. Forgive me for thinking that all might have been included in one recipe, or at least highlighted at the start, Mr. Oliver.

Anywho...'add 2 tbsp yoghurt to 2 tbsp (freshly made) paste and 2 tbsp of tomato purée and mix well'

Grand, I think, all done in a cereal bowl.

'Add 8 bone in chicken thighs to the bowl of paste mix' 0o

Argh! Would it have killed you to mention LARGE bowl?

It's probably my own fault for not reading the recipe through before I start. Like a fecking exam paper.

kylith

Malari wrote: »

Oh my, two irritations in one recipe today.

A few steps into a curry recipe I'm instructed to add tablespoons of curry paste...what now? I have to GOOGLE the recipe for that one and make it up. Forgive me for thinking that all might have been included in one recipe, or at least highlighted at the start, Mr. Oliver.

Anywho...'add 2 tbsp yoghurt to 2 tbsp (freshly made) paste and 2 tbsp of tomato purée and mix well'

Grand, I think, all done in a cereal bowl.

'Add 8 bone in chicken thighs to the bowl of paste mix' 0o

Argh! Would it have killed you to mention LARGE bowl?

It's probably my own fault for not reading the recipe through before I start. Like a fecking exam paper.

He's a devil for that, and for the vague measurements too. It's like reading a recipe written by my nan: a swig of milk, a fistful of nuts, a bunch of coriander.

Dial Hard

kylith wrote:

He's a devil for that, and for the vague measurements too. It's like reading a recipe written by my nan: a swig of milk, a fistful of nuts, a bunch of coriander.

I actually much preferred Jamie when he was like that. Then he got all prescriptive with 30 Minute Meals and I lost interest. I like recipes that are open to a bit of interpretation.

It's why I don't bake :-)

Alun

Dial Hard wrote: »

I actually much preferred Jamie when he was like that. Then he got all prescriptive with 30 Minute Meals and I lost interest. I like recipes that are open to a bit of interpretation.

Me too I have visions of people carefully chopping coriander leaves to just fill a tablespoon or weighing exactly 100g of cheese out on the scales before grating it.

Malari

Dial Hard wrote: »

I actually much preferred Jamie when he was like that. Then he got all prescriptive with 30 Minute Meals and I lost interest. I like recipes that are open to a bit of interpretation.

It's why I don't bake :-)

I don't mind this so much either because to be honest I very roughly measure most things anyway (when not baking).

I usually only read the ingredients list for most dinner recipes, and only look at the recipe step by step as I go, so things like this arse things up. I've been known to annotate my cookbooks with things like 'mix this first!' and 'do this in a measuring jug!' to avoid further frustration and unnecessary receptacle usage in future incarnations.

fiddlechic

I quite like Neven Maguire, but I find some of his recipes have unneccessary steps and equipment usage.

This statement is akin to heresy among my sisters and mother who worship the man.

kimokanto

fiddlechic wrote: »

I quite like Neven Maguire, but I find some of his recipes have unneccessary steps and equipment usage.

This statement is akin to heresy among my sisters and mother who worship the man.

"Careful with that knife now, & don't cut yourself"

God bless him Health & Safety Neven style:pac:

Dial Hard

Malari wrote:

I usually only read the ingredients list for most dinner recipes, and only look at the recipe step by step as I go, so things like this arse things up. I've been known to annotate my cookbooks with things like 'mix this first!' and 'do this in a measuring jug!' to avoid further frustration and unnecessary receptacle usage in future incarnations.

The Jamie Oliver website seems to be buggy in general, with recipes missing entire steps that are there in the equivalent books.

Darina Allen, on the other hand, is painful for exactly what you describe - referencing other recipes within the recipe you're making. JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO NOW!!!!!!