Can't cook or won't cook, instructions problem.

[ericmark]

I don't really like cooking, in the main my wife does the cooking, but she does from time to time leave me to fend for myself. The problem is the cook books seem rather old, even a simple task like cooking chips, no longer do we have a deep fat fryer we has an air fryer, but the cook book only covers the deep fat type.

The same is repeated all around the kitchen, nothing in the cook book about cooking times using a pressure cooker in the microwave. Even the more conventional pressure cooker nothing about pressure used and how that effects cooking time. I would take the old pressure cooker put it in sink, wait for tell tail indicator to drop open and test, if not cooked enough I would put it back on heat. But electric pressure cooker no way to rapid cool, instructions need to be spot on.

Even a ready meal I get wrong, Vesta on fridge or freezer required great, but simmer with an induction hob is really simmer, seems the manufacturer means boil likely for a gas hob which has not got the control of the electric induction cooker, when finished I have then to boil off the water.

She looks after me, she said loads of ready meals in the freezer, so I get one out, instructions leave to de-frost for 12 hours before cooking, so much for "READY" meals. Can cook from scratch quicker than that.

Even simple instructions like put on full heat, clearly they mean half heat on boost every thing baked to bottom of pan.

Oven no better, top heat, bottom heat, with or without fan, back and fan heat, OK a few more options than old solid fuel cookers, but they also had dampers to control where the heat went, so really nothing new. Do the cook book instructions say what setting to use? No they give some daft settings like Mark 5, what wrong with temperature?

I thought Mrs Beeton died before gas or electric came out, so it would give damper settings similar to modern electric, and say where the heat is required, wrong it seems Mrs Beeton looked into the future and knew there would be gas, so left out damper setting and gave Gas Mark numbers, how did she know?

Anyway, giving up, off to pub to get some food.

 

[flameport]

Ovens:
The only type worth considering are fan with heat from the element around the fan.
Electric with no fan means it will take at least double the time to cook anything - half the time just to heat the oven, the rest to actually cook.
Top heat is good for burning the top of things, bottom heat is good for burning the bottom of things. Use both for burned exterior and raw interior.
Gas ovens are useless. Any attempt to use one will be a total failure. Despite books stating various different 'gas mark X' settings, in reality they only have two options - burned to a cinder in 10 seconds, or barely warmed after half an hour. This is mainly determined by the location of items within the oven - the position of any controls has little or no effect.

Hobs:
Gas ones can be used.
Induction if you want, although they usually heat things far too quickly so any setting over half is generally not recommended for anything.
Solid plate and coil types might be an option, provided you don't mind waiting for 10 minutes for them to heat up, and the heat to continue for 10 minutes after being switched off. If you are used to controlling storage heaters, then this type of hob is the same deal.
Glass top things with red glowing parts inside are a total nuisance and will typically click on and off continually, rarely imparting any heat into the pan unless set to maximum, when they burn and destroy in seconds.

Microwaves:
Those with microwaves only are good for reheating already cooked things.
If you want to actually cook in there, a combination type with microwaves, convection and grill is the only realistic option unless you like boiling hot soggy slop.

Pans:
Stainless steel is the only sensible choice, but they can be pitted by using salt.
Non stick types are ideal for causing all kinds of food to instantly stick to them. Use of metal tools will destroy the coating. So will dropping them on the floor or cleaning them in a dishwasher.
Other varieties such as copper, glass and orange enamelled cast iron have no useful purpose and are made for display purposes only in designer kitchens which are never used for cooking or anything else.

A substantial amount of what Mrs Beeton wrote was total tripe, and in some cases wasn't written by her at all.

 

[securespark]

I don't follow instructions. We have a fan oven and gas hob and I make liberal use of the slow cooker.

The fan oven gets used at 160 for everything. Anything else is too hot. Gas hob is good for cooking rice by the absorption method:

1 cup of basmati, 1 and 1/3 - 1 and 1/2 cups of boiling water. Put tight fitting lid on and turn gas right down to minimum setting.

Your rice will be cooked in 10 ish mins without having to worry about straining it.

I cook other things by this method (turning down the pan to minimum). Frozen peas is a good example. If only cooking a few, you can put a layer in a frying pan with no water, heat the pan till the peas start defrosting then put a heatproof lid on and turn the gas down to minimum.

Slow cooker, in the case of pork I make a dry rub out of powdered garlic, cumin, chilli, smoked paprika plus salt and dark brown sugar. This is massaged into the meat and left for at least 10 hours in the fridge before the meat is sealed in the wok and placed into the slow cooker with 200 mils of stock.

I cook for a minimum of 8 hours, often up to 24 hours, by which time the meat is deliciously tender (according to my family).

Best served in white bread rolls with slaw and a BBQ sauce made by heating cider vinegar, brown sugar a little soy sauce, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, salt, cayenne, and black pepper in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently until the sugar dissolves.

The meat is pulled apart with two forks; it is surprisingly easy. If the meat is a little dry (it shouldn't be with the stock in the pan) you can add some stock to the pulled meat.

 

[JohnD]

I think you are having a moan and not really serious

...... instructions leave to de-frost for 12 hours before cooking, so much for "READY" meals.......

This only works for people who eat every day. They know on Monday that they are going to want to eat on Tuesday, or they know in the morning that they will want to eat in the evening. If you are a person who eats at random intervals, not daily, then it is difficult for you to plan.

...................Do the cook book instructions say what setting to use? No they give some daft settings like Mark 5, what wrong with temperature?

I really don't believe you are serious. How do you cope with imperial plans and a metric measure? In your cook book, go to the index and look under "C" for "conversion." Or click http://lmgtfy.com/?q=convert+gas+mark+ centigrade

Or print this and nail it to your hand. It even includes Mrs Beeton's descriptions. For a fan oven you reduce the temperature by about 20C, or the cooking time by about 10%

Centigrade Gas Mark Description
140°C 1 Very Cool
150°C 2 Cool
160°C 3 Warm
180°C 4 Moderate
190°C 5 Fairly Hot
200°C 6 Fairly Hot
220°C 7 Hot
230°C 8 Very Hot
240°C 9 Very Hot

You are the reason why women tell their daughters "Only marry a man with a small head. Never marry a man who lives with his mum"

 

[EFLImpudence]

Just realised.

 

[securespark]

What?

Am I being dense again?

 

[JohnD]

Design flaw with big heads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episiotomy

Intelligent design my asre.

 

[ericmark]

Yes it's a moan, I learnt to cook many years ago, we had a coke fired range cooker, it could run on coal or wood so suppose you could call it multi or duel fuel, but one lit it was always run on coke, which my dad as a steel worker got cheap from the steel works, all the stuff too small for blast furnace was sold of cheap to workers, they paid for delivery only I think we would take a ton at a time, and as a boy I had to wheel barrow it all to back of house off the road where it would be tipped.

It is true damper in or damper out the smoke went up the chimney just the same, however the temperature of the oven varied a lot, also there were insulated covers which also reduced the heat lost to room and kept oven hotter. I lived in the days where the kettle was always simmering on the edge of the hot plate and instant coffee was as the name said made in an instant no waiting for the kettle to boil, no simmerstat we just adjusted where on the hot plate we put the pan or kettle. Oven was only thing with a temperature gauge which was built into the door. Kitchen windows single glazed in fact louvred so we could let out the heat from the stove without the rain coming in. Floor was quarry tiled so fire proof and it was not unknown to drop the bars and rake out the fire.

When I married my wife did all the cooking, or I lived in work camps where they employed cooks, so since the days when I learnt how to cook the kitchen has changed so to have instant coffee you need to boil kettle first, today real instant coffee is from the beans with a filter coffee machine so instead of water always being simmering it is the coffee simmering. Kitchen today is full of tools to make it easy, and likely a lot safer too. No open flames can't even light your fag from the cooker ring any more. Not that it matters to me gave up smoking in 1979.

So wife went on holiday, and I found good as all these labour saving devices are, without the instructions which I assume came with them, can't simply use them without some trial and error to find out how they work. Non of the cook books help as all seem to be written before all these devices were invented.

It's all well and good if your going to cook on a regular basis, but maybe for three weeks in the year I cook for myself. I really did think ready meals were micro wave cooked straight out of the freezer, I did not know you need to transfer to fridge the day before you want to eat them. I am sure the ones I have bought for my mother do cook straight from freezer? But I don't shop in Tesco.

 

[bernardgreen]

Cuppa soups can be used to add flavours to otherwise very simple dishes. Cooking and experimenting with different ingrediants can be fun. The odd upset stomach from someting a bit too "exotic" is a minor inconvenience.

 

[JohnD]

Some shop-bought ready meals are made so they can be microwaved from frozen (though may not be as good) but home-made casseroles etc need to be thawed, otherwise the edge surfaces will be overdone while the middle is still cold.

 

[blightymam]

I think you have been spoiled by the wife for too long!! Cooking is easy, but if you don't know how to use certain appliances, have a google for instruction?! Am sure you are not the only one needing info. Or just enjoy those pub dinners, yum yum!

 

[ericmark]

Pub is a good idea, I lived in a caravan for a time, no freezer just a fridge, long hours often shops closed when I left work, micro wave cost nothing, oven or hob used gas so that cost me. Electric was a standing charge only. I had a kettle too, but no room for deep fat friers and the like. Local shop 10 beef burgers were cheaper than 4 as 10 were Co-op's own, so 10 beef burgers would last 4 days and would not really keep 5 days in fridge so every day for 4 days beef burgers. Every other food seemed the same, could not buy small enough quantities to make one meal. So same meal for 2 to 4 days. Pizza in the microwave not so good, so ready meals were good, but at that time the fridge type were rare, and no freezer and instructions were always cook from frozen. I lived mainly on Vesta meals, they did not need a fridge or freezer. Although some needed gas.

Pub meals were good, but I was in Suffolk and they make really good ale in Southwold, Adnams was too good to leave in the pumps, and the lanes on the way back to caravan were not wide enough for my bike with some beer induced wobble. I still have not worked out where the eel has a foot? But spent many happy hours in the Eelsfoot pub.

Today pubs seem to be closing, we have lost two close to me, and they did not serve food, so non in what I call walking distance, so either bike or bus, and bus stops at 6pm. If it was flat than no problem with bike, but I live in Wales, we do have one or two hills in Wales, so the bike is not ideal.

 

[bernardgreen]

Adnams was too good to leave in the pumps,

So true.....

 

[big-all]

asdas smartprice oven or fry chips 3.4% fat
lidl chunky chips oven chips 3.4% fat
george forman grill hand full off chips
get the chips out about an hour before you use them and place on the grill
thin chips cook for 14-16 mins turn power off 3 mins before the end
chunky chips for 16-18 mins turn off 3mins before the end
i also cook potato/sweet potato/carrot/parsnip slices for the same 18 mins with fiberous root vegetables like parsnips and carrots half the thickness off the other veg at around 7mm
i also heat cooked pies pasties and slices along side the chips yes the finish up squashed quite a bit lol
just put them in for the last 6 mins including the 3min cooling time

 

[ericmark]

We don't tend to get it up here. Back in the 1990's pubs up here were mainly owned by the brewery and we had very little cask ales, that is changing now fewer and fewer pubs don't have some cask ale, it has resulted in micro breweries popping up all over the place, some really good, but a lot are marketing what I would call a green ale.

Maybe if I did not do home brew I would not know the taste of ale which has not been conditioned. But I do make home brew and I do know what good ale tastes like.