Subsistence cooking equipment

Mankysteve

Personall i think getting a decent but cheap Pan, baking tray and non stick frying pan is cheaper in the long run than trying to make do with stuff that will wreak food, not last very long and be hard to clean. It needn't cost that much.

PasturesNew

You can cook a pizza just using a piece of foil and chucking it deftly into the oven onto the shelves. You can use the frying pan to get it in and out, using that as a tool so you don't burn your fingers.

ceridwen

annie123 wrote: »

Have spoken to my son again who makes 12 hm pizzas a month.

He cooks then either on the upside down roasting tin or takes the grill pan rack and puts it on the oven shelf directly to get a closer grid (so the edges don't flop over) for a less crispy base, and said he cant see anyone else having problems doing the same.

And on the shelf below goes a batch of twinks hobnobs on the upside down roasting tin:)
followed by flapjacks:)

He's more organised than me:o:D

Sounds like you've trained him well:D - that or "meet your new daughter-in-law" perhaps??:D

ceridwen

ARIARNIA

Thank you for that comprehensive reply.

I'll have to give a bit of further thought to that. As you say - there are indeed many people who find themselves in a position where they have only recently moved to somewhere - so are short of "contacts".

So - I can see that its only your MIL thats "on side" - but...yep.....a pestle and mortar wasnt the worlds most helpful gift to give to someone in these circumstances. Something more "basic" would have been a lot more to the point.

So - as this basic list is for Shirley and Bob's mealplan - then I'm guessing that they wouldnt need very much at all in the way of "storage containers" and "freezer containers" - so would have time to accummulate ones of their own from previously-used food items. I was adding those things to the list more from the POV of helping Shirley/Bob to realise that they COULD use those things as containers. We all have to learn that fact somewhere sometime - and it must have been from some magazine article many years ago now that I realised that I could use old coffee jars as storage containers (that thought would never have struck me on my own.....as I honestly thought one HAD to buy storage containers readymade specially....whoops..).

I've had one or two comments from my own mother about things I do....so I can understand the mince comment...(ones like that tend to have a rejoinder of reminding her of the - low - salary level I am on). I think it can be difficult for parents to see things from their "childrens" viewpoint sometime. My father looked shocked when I told him the exact figure I earn - and I've been having comments ever since from them when I pick out anything other than the cheapest item possible of anything....

ceridwen

PasturesNew wrote: »

You can cook a pizza just using a piece of foil and chucking it deftly into the oven onto the shelves. You can use the frying pan to get it in and out, using that as a tool so you don't burn your fingers.

Thanks for that - and useful thought for some people. We have to assume on the Subsistence Mealplan that Bob and Shirley wouldnt be buying things like cooking foil though.....

I'm certainly thinking more about how many ways grillpans can be used from recent comments though - I never knew that. I just assumed grillpans were purely and simply for putting things on and flashing them under the grill - and I had got as far as figuring out that I could take out the inner slatted metal shelf thingie and using it to cool off bread and other baked goods on. It hadnt occurred to me to use the grillpan itself for anything other than as a grillpan though:)

I think this equipment section of the "web resource" is going to have to encompass two things I hadnt thought of initially:
- pictures of the equipment that people wouldnt necessarily know (if possible - bearing in mind that I'd need help in that bit:o)

- tips on ways of using equipment that people may not have thought of - in order to get "double mileage" out of it.

carriebradshaw

with regards tablespoons they do vary in size an awful lot if you've picked up any from relatives or boots sales,ebay etc,they are more likely the imperial size which are larger than the metric measures made these days.For example the older imperial tablespoons measure around 20ml, the metric ones are 15ml I think. I've got my grannies old one in my kitchen drawer and used it to measure out dry ingredients for cakes when my scales broke a couldn't afford new ones for a while and it worked a treat

hex2

ceridwen - apologies for lowering the tone It has been bugging me since and I think it was actually 'Cooking for Blokes' that suggested the bra measure for flour. Not tried it myself cos I didnt bake then :cool:.

ceridwen

carriebradshaw wrote: »

with regards tablespoons they do vary in size an awful lot if you've picked up any from relatives or boots sales,ebay etc,they are more likely the imperial size which are larger than the metric measures made these days.For example the older imperial tablespoons measure around 20ml, the metric ones are 15ml I think. I've got my grannies old one in my kitchen drawer and used it to measure out dry ingredients for cakes when my scales broke a couldn't afford new ones for a while and it worked a treat

Hmmm...another thought that hadnt occurred to me. I must say I assumed there was a basic cutlery size and that was it. I hadnt realised that cutlery used to be in imperial measurements and is now in metric measurements.

EDIT: that had me heading for my tablespoons to see what they were - conclusion: duh! my teeny little measuring jug I have seemed to indicate they are metric size (couldnt be exact). Whew - makes things a bit more difficult for someone of my generation (ie Baby Boomer) upwards - as we have cookery books from years back and more modern ones and I'm now thinking that I've got more of a problem on my hands than I thought I had translating measurements through from one era to another. It must be easier for people who have only ever known metric measurements - and all their equipment is in metric sizes.....

ceridwen

hex2 wrote: »

ceridwen - apologies for lowering the tone It has been bugging me since and I think it was actually 'Cooking for Blokes' that suggested the bra measure for flour. Not tried it myself cos I didnt bake then :cool:.

Dinna fash yersel lass......we have to have a bit of humour once in a while - in between all these very precise measurements which "do my head in a bit" personally....:D

Feel free to "lower the tone" any time...:rotfl:

carriebradshaw

ceridwen wrote: »

Hmmm...another thought that hadnt occurred to me. I must say I assumed there was a basic cutlery size and that was it. I hadnt realised that cutlery used to be in imperial measurements and is now in metric measurements.

EDIT: that had me heading for my tablespoons to see what they were - conclusion: duh! my teeny little measuring jug I have seemed to indicate they are metric size (couldnt be exact). Whew - makes things a bit more difficult for someone of my generation (ie Baby Boomer) upwards - as we have cookery books from years back and more modern ones and I'm now thinking that I've got more of a problem on my hands than I thought I had translating measurements through from one era to another. It must be easier for people who have only ever known metric measurements - and all their equipment is in metric sizes.....

yes I have this problem too, although metric came in when I was in school I did start out with imperial measures and prefer them even today.

Both my grannies cooked everything form scratch,one weighed everything precisely, the other cooked by eye - both were absolutely wonderful cooks and fantastic grannies