What simple cooking item evades you?

chivas

Great thread - thanks for the lunchtime laughs!

I'm another vote for fried/boiled eggs - me and OH don't like egg snot... which often seems to result in rockhard yolks :-s

Btw, I adore poached eggs (but even they are slightly hit or miss...) after years of practice I break into a cup first, and put the cup into the water before letting the egg slide gently out. (I vinegar my water too, and only do poachies if the eggs are very fresh ) Adding salt to the water causes the white to break down. Also, the egg white starts to break down on contact with air, so crack it immediately before use!

angelavdavis

Well my claim to failure is I can't cook bread in a breadmaker! Whenever I actually put it on a bake programme, its always horrible - white topped, dark brown bottomed and like a brick!! Everyone else talks about how lovely their bread is and its very disappointing :mad:

Instead I use a dough setting and then oven bake - perfect then!

Rubbish at barbeques too. Can do burgers and sausage, but anything fancy eludes me.

I used to be a disaster with Yorkshire puddings, but I switched from using sunflower oil to lard. It reaches a far higher temperature (I preheat/melt in the dish first before pouring in mix). It works every time! I know animal fat is high cholesterol, but we have them so rarely, they are a real treat!

floyd

For years my moist muffins and chewy american cookies were stuff of legend using my 50 year old gas cooker that once belonged to my Nanna. We moved house and now nothing I bake works.

I even bought an oven thermometer to make sure its correct but my muffins come out rock hard, the cookies are dry and frisbee-like and don't even talk to me about sponge cakes! I have given up now, its soul destroying trying batch after batch and they all turn out rubbish!

I can make white sauces, custard, roasties, yorkies and boiled eggs but I cannot make omelettes (yellow bin-lids) or cook meat (veggie for years so don't really know what to do with it)

vixtress

angelavdavis wrote: »

Well my claim to failure is I can't cook bread in a breadmaker! Whenever I actually put it on a bake programme, its always horrible - white topped, dark brown bottomed and like a brick!! Everyone else talks about how lovely their bread is and its very disappointing :mad:

Instead I use a dough setting and then oven bake - perfect then!

Rubbish at barbeques too. Can do burgers and sausage, but anything fancy eludes me.

I used to be a disaster with Yorkshire puddings, but I switched from using sunflower oil to lard. It reaches a far higher temperature (I preheat/melt in the dish first before pouring in mix). It works every time! I know animal fat is high cholesterol, but we have them so rarely, they are a real treat!

sounds like your bread maker may be the problem not you!

Ishtar

Can't cook currant buns to save my life. OH calls them rock buns:o

They don't rise, and could be used to prop doors open. I've got a bread machine, and they don't work even when I use that to make the dough

D.

moanymoany

vixtress wrote: »

runny eggs are either hard or 'snotty' and i can never judge portion sizes of rice or spagetti. i always end up with enough to feed an army or not enough to feed an hamster!!

i make fine pastry though

I used to have the same problem with portions of rice etc. - then I discovered measuring. I do 50gs per person and all is well.

anniewoo

I am good at cakes,scones,roasties and omelettes,

But...hopeless at pastry and Yorkshire puds and my biscuits never seem to turn out quite right either.

The thing is,my pastry used to be quite good years ago when I did a lot more cooking when my children were still at home,but now I hardly ever make it and the last lot I did was inedible.Perhaps I just need to practice making it more often,I think you can get out of the habit of making things.

meanmarie

Haven't been madly happy when I baked a loaf in breadmaker...paddle gets stuck and you end up with a small 'holey' loaf, I now use dough setting and bake in oven and its very good...means I have to hang around until dough is done as, living in the country, there are few places you can go, do business and be back in 70 minutes.

My mother could and eldest daughter can throw sponge ingredients into bowl, give it a few beats and have it turn out excellent every time, DD1 can also make wonderful light crisp pastry in a jiffy. I can do these things but not to the same standard...scones, soda bread and even hand made yeast bread are fine...its not fair at my age....

Marie

tiamai_d

newlywed wrote: »

I can't make white sauces. It's either lumpy, runny or completely solid like set custard.

So I cheat and either use Bisto white sauce or a tin of Campbells condensed soup in lasagna

psssstttt....

corn four.

heat milk in a pan, mix up some corn flour in some cold milk, add gradually over reduced heat till the correct thickness.

If too thick, mix in some more milk, if too thin, add some more corn flour/milk mix.

Got to add a bit of salt though and a wee bit butter if you want the buttery shiny texture and look.

Robothell

Like many posts here, I can manage fairly complex recipes with apparent ease............

........but I couldn't fry a steak (sirloin or fillet) to medium rare if my life depended on it. Always turns out either like a piece of stewing steak or a piece of knicker elastic. I've tried everything but am not going to admit defeat yet!

My poached eggs used to be interesting too.....at the start the white used to disintegrate off and leave me with a perfectly poached yolk!!!