Lost my ability to cook!

fpcat

I've been cooking since I was a teenager, and I'm now in my sixties. I've cooked yorkshires which covered the rails on the shelf above and had to be extracted by getting 2 shelves out.:rotfl: In the last year or so everything I cook is either seriously burnt, or looks OK but is soggy inside. Tonight's yorkies rose ok, collapsed when I took them out and were nowhere near cooked. Christmas cakes I followed recipe (which I've used for years) and these were OK on inside but burnt on outside. Is this me going senile, or perhaps my oven going senile instead? What does anyone suggest I try, I'm losing the will to live, so much is not the way I used to cook? Hubby is so good, saying everything is lovely, even when I know it's not. Help. :sad:

purple45

Sounds like your oven is a bit dodgy maybe. I used to do lots of baking but since moving to this house and buying a different cooker I never got on with the oven and everything turned out wrong. I've not baked for years now but then that saves me scoffing it all so is probably a good thing.
I'm sure you've got years of Yorkshire puds left!

meritaten

I would say the thermostat on your oven has gone!
its not you - after so many years your 'cooking muscle memory' is finely tuned. but your oven is letting you down!
my old oven got that problem - everything cooked on high and got burned!
get a new oven hun!

LameWolf

I, too, think you need a new oven. I have a similar problem with the ancient built-in oven we have, but the micro/grill/combi turns stuff out beautifully, so in my case it's definitely the old oven that's the problem, and I reckon it is for you also. I can't for an instant believe that after many years of successful cooking, you'd suddenly start making everything wrong.

lostinrates

I'd try an oven thermometre.

I hate my current oven. Fwiw, I was just griping somewhere else that my cold pastry hands haven't been reliable lately.

allat

Also get an eye test...cooking and sewing became harder until I got my varifocals.

fpcat

Had an eye test, and 2 sets of new glasses in the last 2 years, so OK on that, thank heavens. I told my OH that a new oven was suggested, he humphed and said basically make do. Do you think I could use my jam thermometer in the oven to test the temperature, or will it explode? I'm disappearing for a couple of weeks (FIL has died) but I look forward to reading any replies when I finally get back online. Thanks for all your advice, FPCat.

Lilyplonk

It IS possible to get a new thermo for your oven - had it done for mine about 7yrs ago and it's been great ever since.

You'd need to google your make/model oven and try to find somebody locally who can 'do the job' properly. The guy who did mine tested the oven afterwards to make sure it was working correctly.


Other suggestion is that, perhaps a couple of 'burnt offerings' - iyswim - would soon convince your OH that a new oven IS needed .

rosalie-lavender

I am another one who thinks the oven is likely to be faulty not that you have suddenly lost all ability to cook.

Try an oven thermometer and if that shows it is faulty get your OH to do the cooking if he won't agree to it being fixed!

FairyPrincessk

You can get an oven thermometer for under £5. It would tell you if your oven is running true to temperature. If the oven consistently is out by a certain number of degrees then you can adjust accordingly. If it varies wildly then you'll have 'proof' that is more reliable than in the pudding!

System

hmm I dunno here. I used to be a decent cook when I'd got all the kids at home but I'm a naff cook now. I put it down to lack of practise. Finding something that both my husband and son likes is one mammoth task so I tend to stick to the same stuff. Boredom and lack of practise has killed it for me.