Can You Cook & When Did You Learn?

[Jdsk]

We have a Bosch convection oven that we bought the same time as the S.m.e.g. induction cooker top. I'm very happy with the oven.

The things I'm best at are baked goods, and the over is really good at heating evenly. It does take a little trial and error to determine the right temperatures for everything, and I'd say on average, the right temperature in my oven is 10 to 20 degrees lower than recipes suggest. Even some that have a temperature for convection ovens come out better and/or closer to recommended cooking time at slightly lower temperatures.

Is that optimal temperature offset derived from settings or from measurements?

Thanks

Jonathan

[Vorpal]

Is that optimal temperature offset derived from settings or from measurements?

Thanks

Jonathan

Settings. I have not measured the temperature in the oven.

[Jdsk]

Thanks

I would. : - )

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

"Can you cook and when did you learn?"

I'd say there are different levels of being able to cook. The highest is probably knowing how to achieve particular results without a recipe and being able to predict how combination of ingredients will turn out. That would include being able to improvise with a limited availability of ingredients.

Between that and opening a tin of beanz, is being able to follow a detailed recipe and get decent results. That depends on decent recipes, of course. I moved up from opening tins and doing fry-ups when I retired. My favourite cookbooks are by Mary Berry and to a lesser extent Nigel Slater. More recently Mrs thirdcrank has felt family meals for a dozen people is too much hassle, in spite of me doing the cooking or perhaps because of that, and we are now lucky to be able to depend on the next generation. Both our sons are good cooks and one of our daughters-in-law is Thai, which brings an extra dimension.

[661-Pete]

Another thing we'd definitely need some sort of gas flame for - that's chapatis. Yes I've become quite adept at making my own chapatis, but according to my method I do need a gas flame to puff up the dough. So if we ever do change out to induction, it'll be the old Camping Gaz stove coming out of mothballs...

[PH]

I have been amazed at how some people can make a mess of frying an egg!

Add to that poached and scrambled!

There's a bit of a knack to poaching an egg, one I haven't mastered, possibly because I'm not keen enough on them to have spent much time on it.
Anyone can scramble eggs, but one of the celebrity chefs (maybe Gordon Ramsey) considers it to be something that takes skill to do perfectly. So much so that it's used to test potential chefs for their restaurant, I do mine in the microwave so I doubt I'd get the job
Omelettes I do like, more so after learning to make them the Delia way.

[Hellhound]

I have been amazed at how some people can make a mess of frying an egg!

Add to that poached and scrambled!

There's a bit of a knack to poaching an egg, one I haven't mastered, possibly because I'm not keen enough on them to have spent much time on it.
Anyone can scramble eggs, but one of the celebrity chefs (maybe Gordon Ramsey) considers it to be something that takes skill to do perfectly. So much so that it's used to test potential chefs for their restaurant, I do mine in the microwave so I doubt I'd get the job
Omelettes I do like, more so after learning to make them the Delia way.

Scrambled eggs in the microwave!!!!?????No,no,no,no,no!
You maybe thinking of Michel Roux Jr.He is,of course,right you cannot make scrambled egg in a microwave!
I can tell straight away if they are microwaved.I have sent many back in cafes only to be told 'that's how we do them'

[slowster]

Anyone can scramble eggs, but one of the celebrity chefs (maybe Gordon Ramsey) considers it to be something that takes skill to do perfectly. So much so that it's used to test potential chefs for their restaurant, I do mine in the microwave so I doubt I'd get the job
Omelettes I do like, more so after learning to make them the Delia way.

I think that it is omelettes that are often used to test potential chefs applying for a job, rather than scrambled eggs. There is more technique and skill involved in cooking an omelette in the style that would be expected in a Michelin starred restaurant and the like.

However, that does not mean it's necessarily the best way for all tastes and all circumstances. I prefer a more rustic style omelette with the outer lightly browned, and probably would not appreciate - or possibly even like - a classic haute cuisine omelette.

Ultimately personal taste and preference are what matter for home cooking, and often there are different methods/styles, and which you use and prefer is up to you.

For example, I generally don't make softly scrambled eggs in the restaurant style, as shown in this Marco Pierre White video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOu3-cymnY, with one exception, which is when I add some smoked salmon to the eggs after beating them. My current preferred method of making scrambled eggs is the method shown in the video below by Kenji J Lopez Alt (his videos and tips on technique are excellent), although as he states in the video the question of at what point you stop cooking the scrambled eggs is still a matter of personal taste.



In the video below he demonstrates the classic french restaurant omelette:

[PH]

Scrambled eggs in the microwave!!!!?????No,no,no,no,no!

It might be an acquired taste, powdered eggs were a staple of my childhood, and microwaved scrambled is as close to that found memory as anything else I've tried.

[simonineaston]

If you really want a poached egg and lack the skills or patience, there's a really quick way to get a decent version using a microwave.
* pour a half-cup of cold water into a mug
* crack an egg into the water - check to see that the water covers the raw egg
* microwave on full power for under a minute
This results in a cooked egg that while not a perfect poached egg, is close enough to pass muster... however the exact amount of water and the power / time combination is critical and will require rehersal. At full wack (1000W), I cook for 35 sec.s. This gets me a white that's just cooked and a slightly runny yoke.

[NUKe]

I had a feminist mother, who believed boys should learn to cook, so unlike most of my generation I was helping in the kitchen from a young age, and it’s still one of my favourite pastimes. I am quite happy in the kitchen listening to the radio creating something from scratch and have a few recipes, of my own design. My daughter is trying to convince me to start sharing these via the internet. But I am too old for that, and it would cost me a kitchen upgrade to do it.

[Mike Sales]

It strikes me that there are no subjects which are better covered by instruction books than cooking. Take a look at the non-fiction best sellers lists.
I have learned several rather more tricky and crucial subjects from books than cooking.

[drossall]

It strikes me that there are no subjects which are better covered by instruction books than cooking.

But for many of us it seems to take a certain level of confidence, first to follow a recipe, and later to start throwing in ingredients to see what happens. So sometimes a recipe by itself is not enough.

I was educated in a school where the classes separated. Boys went to do woodwork and the girls domestic science.

Same here. Though I was rubbish at woodwork, so maybe I should have done the domestic science. A few years later, I went back and the domestic science room had become the new computer laboratory, and all the teachers had had to learn how to use these new devices.

Anyway, I learnt to cook in the third year at university, when I moved out of halls into a shared house. The other residents taught me for their own self-preservation. One had his Mum visit for a weekend, and she taught me to make pastry as well

[Mike Sales]

Cooking is more than adequately covered on the television, with demonstrations on camera.
The Sunday papers have supplements devoted to the culinary arts.
Can there be any excuse for ignorance?
We all have to eat, and most of us enjoy it. There is every reason to learn how to cook the food we enjoy, and to do it well.
It really is apathetic to rely on others to do something so important for us, and to be so helpless.
It is not very difficult.

[merseymouth]

The problem with using TV for inspiration in the area of cookery is with choice of presenters? My early years were spent watching Fanny & Johnny, with the poor chap being mercilessly bullied by the "She Witch"!
But the real problem for me if I used Johnny as my role model would be keeping the monocle from falling in the G&T, something that happened to the late, great Patrick Moore when I was supping with him. But he simply hauled out on the string then sucked it clean . TTFN MM