Step by step guide to planning a batch cooking day, can anyone help, please?

weezl74

Say she's using her food processor to chop a whole load of veggies, I guess the last 2 things would be onions then garlic, but is there a specific best order before that?

Penelope_Penguin

weezl74 wrote: »

fab, fab, fab

OK how does she plan the order to do all the recipes in, apart from oven becoming gradually hotter and those tips already suggested?

I can't see what we can add without knowing what they'll be cooking Can you suggest some ideas, so that we can give broad guidelines?

Gigervamp

Wash up as you go along!

weezl74

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I can't see what we can add without knowing what they'll be cooking Can you suggest some ideas, so that we can give broad guidelines?

right ho!

Well there'll definitely be bread, with a quarter of the batch of dough becoming a sweet loaf with spices, raisins etc...

definitely some 7-8inch blind baked pastry cases ready for pies...

some sandwich fillers (hummus, bean pate, lentil pate)

Some large batches of HM potato wedges ready for freezing.

Lots and lots of veg to chop ready for the freezer...

A couple of steamed puddings (savoury)

Penelope_Penguin

1. some sandwich fillers (hummus, bean pate, lentil pate) beans/lentils on to saok the night before
2. bread, with a quarter of the batch of dough becoming a sweet loaf with spices, raisins etc... make dough and put to rise
3. definitely some 7-8inch blind baked pastry cases ready for pies... make pastry and chill
4. A couple of steamed puddings (savoury) prepare these and put onto steam (I do mine inside the oven - if you have several, and the utensils to do so, ie big enough pans and an upturned saucer in the bottom, it may be economical to do this)
   
5. Some large batches of HM potato wedges ready for freezing. prepare these onto trays for the oven. Cook once there's space
6. Lots and lots of veg to chop ready for the freezer... chop these next
7. shape the bread and put to prove; roll out the pastry and linbe tins
8. cook the pulses/lentils when there's room in the oven/hob
9. once the bread is risen, cook bread and pastry

That'd be the order in which I'd do things It's difficult to plan exactly in which order to do things - depends how much you're making, and how much hob/oven/utensils you have. Sorry to be vague



Did I miss anything weezl?

weezl74

thorough and fantastic penny as ever

Do you think you learnt about the right order by trial and error, or did someone show you, or from tips on here?

I'm keen that this isn't 'give 'em a fish and feed em for a day' but rather teaching (perhaps) to eat for life. So I'm wanting it to be as much as possible about encouraging the cook to plan it for herself with our tips, if that makes sense?

So I'm intrigued by how everyone on here learnt to batch cook

Allegra

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I can't see what we can add without knowing what they'll be cooking Can you suggest some ideas, so that we can give broad guidelines?

Okay, I'll try to [STRIKE]muddy up the waters a bit[/STRIKE] explain a bit better

Weezl has come up with a menu plan to feed a family of four for £100 a month (here). She gave a full list of recipes for each dish, and the full list of which dish should be eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Basically, the assumption was that the reader was someone busy, suddenly finding him or herself in straitened financial circumstances, but was, unlike the old stylers, not necessarily very competent in the kitchen, perhaps better used to running off to 'Trose to buy the ingredients for the evening meal than to the batch cooking and planning ahead.

For this mythical reader to get the most out of the planner, assuming he or she works full time and does not have the time to cook for a couple of hours each evening, they would need to do a bit of batch cooking when they can spare the time - say, at weekend. To help them with that, I wrote a step-by-step batch cooking guide for the first week of the plan.

So, now I could go and do the same for each following week, and for the two monthly menu planners still in the pipeline, and I wouldn't mind doing that - but how is that teaching this newly converted domestic god or godess to apply the principles to their lives when they move on to creating their own frugal menu plans ?

So what we need is a general list of tips from experienced batch cooks on how they work their batch cooking days, in order for the newly converted frugal cooks to get the most out of their new kitchen skills Like this, only not specific to any particular planner, but more general.

Penelope_Penguin

weezl74 wrote: »

thorough and fantastic penny as ever

Do you think you learnt about the right order by trial and error, or did someone show you, or from tips on here?

I've been cooking for as long as I can remember (nearly 35 years :eek: ) and cooking for my family for 20 years. It's one of those skills that you pick up if you do it often enough, I suppose

Take a look at some recipe books - they often tell you the time taken to prepare the dish, start to finish, and the time taken for you to be doing stuff. That helps with planning. For instance, a loaf of bread needs about 4 hours, but you're doing about 3 lots of 10mins - the rest of the time, it's rising and baking

Once you get the hang of starting the long recipes first, and fitting in the quick bits (chopping veg, washing up ) when it's rising, it becomes second nature.

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

So I'm intrigued by how everyone on here learnt to batch cook

D'you know, I don't think I've ever heard of the concept of batch cooking before Old Style. Obviously, it's not a concept that's been invented on this forum, but this is certainly where I've found it. So yeah, it's these guys that taught me all I know, whatever that is.... Big thanks to you all, while I'm at it :T

I suppose I should add that I left home at 18 not knowing how to boil the proverbial egg (still not too hot at it, for that matter, but I have acquired a charity shop copy of Delia's How To Cook to remedy that), and that pretty much everything I do in the kitchen I learnt from cookbooks and off the net.

Penelope_Penguin

Allegra wrote: »

So, now I could go and do the same for each following week, and for the two monthly menu planners still in the pipeline, and I wouldn't mind doing that - but how is that teaching this newly converted domestic god or godess to apply the principles to their lives when they move on to creating their own frugal menu plans ?

Because by following yours for a few weeks, they'll then be able to see that pulses need doing the night before, bread needs to be done first in the morning, etc Soon, it'll become second nature.