The Cooking Irritations thread

Whispered

Faith wrote: »

I like to think that I avoid processed food as much as possible, but damn if I don't love Petit Filous and Ribena Toothkind

I love petit filous. I just don't think they're good for me

dee_mc

Faith wrote: »

I like to think that I avoid processed food as much as possible, but damn if I don't love Petit Filous and Ribena Toothkind

I used to teach in a secondary school and used to bring a petit filous 'big pot' as part of my lunch. Some of the other teachers laughed at me for eating 'kiddie yogurt' but by the time I left a good few of them had abandoned grown up yogurt for the odd petit filous

SB_Part2

Bateman wrote: »

Food sticking to the end of pans (even "non-stick" ones) is by far the most irritating thing for me. Oh, and cutting myself when trying to open oysters

I'm still on the lookout for a proper non stick frying pan. I had a LeCreuset one for a year that just gave out. I don't know whether I'm being unrealistic expecting the non stick to last longer than a year.

the beer revolu

SB_Part2 wrote: »

I'm still on the lookout for a proper non stick frying pan. I had a LeCreuset one for a year that just gave out. I don't know whether I'm being unrealistic expecting the non stick to last longer than a year.

I found circulon to be extremely hard wearing.

Speedwell

the beer revolu wrote: »

Why are sausages sold still linked?
It really bugs me having to cut them apart.
No knives in the sausage factory?

It helps soft fresh sausages keep their shape (if they were cut apart they'd squeeze out of the open end). Smoked sausages that are sold still linked typically have an inedible casing that you will remove anyway.

What really drives me nuts is frankfurters in an inedible casing. My idea of a "hot dog" is something that you plunk in boiling water like a tea bag until it is hot enough to put in a bun and eat, or pop on a charcoal grill at a cookout (while we're on the subject, a "barbecue" is an event at which you barbecue meat, not one in which you reduce hamburger patties and frankfurters to charcoal by the seaside, lol). I am aware that normally frankfurters are made in a casing that is removed at the factory. Why a factory would leave that plastic casing on and go to the extra trouble of making sure the casing is printed so you know to take it off... smh.

the beer revolu

Speedwell wrote: »

It helps soft fresh sausages keep their shape (if they were cut apart they'd squeeze out of the open end). Smoked sausages that are sold still linked typically have an inedible casing that you will remove anyway.

Makes sense but my offending sausages were in a rigid pack.

kylith

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Some folk were shocked when told that HB Jr I was fed chicken & black bean sauce, fish pie, chilli, etc. before he hit his first birthday. Basically, he ate what we did from the start. He's a fine strapping teenager now who has a very healthy appetite & eats practically everything (apart from raw tomato for some reason. ).

Someone once told my mum that she shouldn't feed her baby Chinese food because 'babies can't eat that'. She asked them what they thought Chinese babies ate.

The Hill Billy

kylith wrote: »

Someone once told my mum that she shouldn't feed her baby Chinese food because 'babies can't eat that'. She asked them what they thought Chinese babies ate.

Markcheese

kylith wrote:

Someone once told my mum that she shouldn't feed her baby Chinese food because 'babies can't eat that'. She asked them what they thought Chinese babies ate.

I'd guess if it was our version of chinese food...it'll be nothing like kids in china ever see ...

Gloomtastic!

Used to spend hours mushing the kid's food to a purée.

secondrowgal

Great thread!

I made a lasagne yesterday - fab by the way (!) - but for the Bechamel sauce I had to make a roux. The recipe said 11/2 tbsp of butter - WOT?? Of course, it was one of those where I had to hunt for another page to find the roux and then the milk was simmering to overload, and I spent the next 20 minutes making more and more roux, which became more and more seat-of-the-pants butter + flour as I went along.

Fecking tbsp of butter... really... give me a weight for god's sake...

Speedwell

secondrowgal wrote: »

Fecking tbsp of butter... really... give me a weight for god's sake...

A touch more than 14 grams.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=98723853&postcount=7

secondrowgal

Thanks, I googled it at the time but I was up to me oxters in boiling milk and simmering sauce, with every pot in the kitchen used, so I could have done without the hassle

Speedwell

secondrowgal wrote: »

Thanks, I googled it at the time but I was up to me oxters in boiling milk and simmering sauce, with every pot in the kitchen used, so I could have done without the hassle

Heh, sorry, I'm an American immigrant and it is kind of a reflex action to explain American things whenever people ask.

Tree

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Some folk were shocked when told that HB Jr I was fed chicken & black bean sauce, fish pie, chilli, etc. before he hit his first birthday. Basically, he ate what we did from the start. He's a fine strapping teenager now who has a very healthy appetite & eats practically everything (apart from raw tomato for some reason. ).

I think Mrs. HB and HB jnr are my kinda ppl


on the linked sausages thing, yeah, why aren't they unlinked. butchers (style/size?) sausages in packs are often unlinked, but sometimes they're not, and it's like, ugh, i'm making a mess of everything just to separate these, and hey i really like when the ends ooze out of casing a bit and go cripsy anyway

Sapphire

Tree wrote: »

I think Mrs. HB and HB jnr are my kinda ppl


on the linked sausages thing, yeah, why aren't they unlinked. butchers (style/size?) sausages in packs are often unlinked, but sometimes they're not, and it's like, ugh, i'm making a mess of everything just to separate these, and hey i really like when the ends ooze out of casing a bit and go cripsy anyway

In Scotland they have loaves of sausage meat that they call square sausage. The regular ones are called links. The square makes a savage sandwich for the cure. I've tried to recreate it from sausage meat here but its a coarser texture a bit like black pudding so not quite the same.

Speedwell

Sapphire wrote: »

In Scotland they have loaves of sausage meat that they call square sausage. The regular ones are called links. The square makes a savage sandwich for the cure. I've tried to recreate it from sausage meat here but its a coarser texture a bit like black pudding so not quite the same.

They're made with ground beef mince and comparatively little rusk. I had one in Aberdeen that included venison, good eating. Came across as kind of the center of a triangle with the endpoints "meat loaf", "hamburger patty", and "meatball".

Markcheese

Speedwell wrote:

Heh, sorry, I'm an American immigrant and it is kind of a reflex action to explain American things whenever people ask.

I can handle cups ( I have a set) ,butter is what always gets me though... a half cup of butter ?? , I can handle it when the reciepes are in sticks or fractions of a stick of butter ,easy when you remember 4 sticks in a pound.. I get horribly confused when bodging imperial,metric ,american cups and then some reciepe calls for a pack or can ... which can ... how big... ah screw it,i'm going to the pub...

Sapphire

Speedwell wrote: »

They're made with ground beef mince and comparatively little rusk. I had one in Aberdeen that included venison, good eating. Came across as kind of the center of a triangle with the endpoints "meat loaf", "hamburger patty", and "meatball".

They may be made of different things because the ones I've eaten were undoubtedly pork not beef, or maybe its down to regional variation if they use beef for them in Aberdeen.

chuckles30

Tree wrote: »

on the linked sausages thing, yeah, why aren't they unlinked. butchers (style/size?) sausages in packs are often unlinked, but sometimes they're not, and it's like, ugh, i'm making a mess of everything just to separate these, and hey i really like when the ends ooze out of casing a bit and go cripsy anyway

The simplest and cleanest way to separate sausages - use a scissors. Nice clean tidy cut.

Before anyone starts, my scissors go through the dishwasher after every use :D

Corvo

My father is a bit old school and he loves his roast dinners etc. When I lived at home, I would always help him out and he never minded.

When I was younger of course, I'd eat whatever was thrown at me. But as I got into my twenties, you of course start to develop a taste for certain methods, certain flavours etc. So we'd be there on a Monday (he never made a roast dinner on a Sunday, when we could take our time) and rushing about and I'd say "what are we doing now"...."gravy" and he'd never think of perhaps some red wine, or using the roasted garlic I had snuck into the oven, or the fresh herbs that we doomed to a brown extinction from lack of use.

Drove me absolutely insane.

I moved out soon after, and now live alone where I can cook to my hearts content!

Oh, and the beef was like a WWII boot.

Tree

Unlike the knives, the scissors are ALWAYS going awol, them and the bottleopeners. Can't keep them in the kitchen for love nor money.

I suppose that's a cooking irritation there, stop taking the useful things out of the kitchen.

The Hill Billy

On the subject of bottle-openers...

My new BBQ has one & it was a key factor in deciding to buy it.

Anyone who designs a BBQ with a built-in bottle-opener must really know their stuff.

kylith

And on the subject of openers

When my brother opens tins in my house they look like he's used his teeth because he can't work my tin opener just because it opens from the side rather than the top. This is an issue I have found with many people.

Speedwell

Help! My husband is making a recipe that calls for plain flour... that is, flour that has no, I mean NO raising agents in it. I looked in three shops today, including a specialty shop that caters mostly to restaurants, and they had only the kind with raising agents. I don't mean self-raising flour, I mean all the other flour (plain, cream, what have you) had raising agents. Is there a specific kind I should be looking for?

RasTa

Speedwell wrote: »

Help! My husband is making a recipe that calls for plain flour... that is, flour that has no, I mean NO raising agents in it. I looked in three shops today, including a specialty shop that caters mostly to restaurants, and they had only the kind with raising agents. I don't mean self-raising flour, I mean all the other flour (plain, cream, what have you) had raising agents. Is there a specific kind I should be looking for?

What's he making? Plain flour is usually plain flour

anothernight

Speedwell wrote: »

Help! My husband is making a recipe that calls for plain flour... that is, flour that has no, I mean NO raising agents in it. I looked in three shops today, including a specialty shop that caters mostly to restaurants, and they had only the kind with raising agents. I don't mean self-raising flour, I mean all the other flour (plain, cream, what have you) had raising agents. Is there a specific kind I should be looking for?

Try to find the absolute cheapest plain flour in the shop and it usually won't have anything other than flour in it. Lidl plain flour also doesn't have raising agents, and I think Tesco's own brand doesn't either.

I had this issue when getting flour to feed my sourdough starter. The yeast didn't like the raising agents that more expensive flours added to their so called plain flour, so I only ever bought flour at lidl for my starter.

Speedwell

anothernight wrote: »

Try to find the absolute cheapest plain flour in the shop and it usually won't have anything other than flour in it. Lidl plain flour also doesn't have raising agents, and I think Tesco's own brand doesn't either.

I had this issue when getting flour to feed my sourdough starter. The yeast didn't like the raising agents that more expensive flours added to their so called plain flour, so I only ever bought flour at lidl for my starter.

Good to know about Tesco, I'll check. Lidl's plain flour said it had raising agents (I was in there today). Maybe Lidl just doesn't add very much!

Oh... he's making a croquembouche for a family party. I just want to get reliable results with a flour blend I'm more used to using in the recipes I like to make.

Toto Wolfcastle

Speedwell wrote: »

Good to know about Tesco, I'll check. Lidl's plain flour said it had raising agents (I was in there today). Maybe Lidl just doesn't add very much!

Oh... he's making a croquembouche for a family party. I just want to get reliable results with a flour blend I'm more used to using in the recipes I like to make.

What's the recipe? I make profiteroles with Odlums plain flour and they come out perfectly puffed up and crisp.

Speedwell

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

What's the recipe? I make profiteroles with Odlums plain flour and they come out perfectly puffed up and crisp.

Something he downloaded off the Internet and printed out without attribution and stuck up on the refrigerator. We have Odlums plain flour; I'll tell him to not be so Aspie (I'm one too, so I can banter like that, lol) and try it out. It makes sense. I use it for ebelskivers and it works beautifully.