Made a batch six weeks ago, kept it in a sealed jar in the cupboard. Opened it tonight and it has a sharp cheesy smell, properly parmesan rather than nutty. No mould, no visible water, and it looks normal. I cooked it…
Recipe calls for instant yeast. I have a jar of bread machine yeast that I bought for a machine I no longer own, and I would rather use it than buy another jar. Are these actually different things, or is the label doing…
Both go off for specific, avoidable reasons, and the two of them together is the classic mistake. Keep them apart. Onions give off moisture and a gas that makes potatoes sprout. Potatoes give off moisture that makes…
Same vegetables, same oil, roughly the same seasoning. Mine come out pale, slightly soggy and a bit steamed tasting. A restaurant version of the same thing is browned, sweet, and has actual texture. I have assumed it…
Chest freezer with a dial rather than numbers, so I bought a thermometer to find out where it actually was. It reads about −25°C, and the usual recommendation I see is −18°C. My assumption was that colder is simply…
I keep discovering that a recipe wants softened butter after I have already started, at which point waiting an hour is not an option. My two failure modes are well established. The microwave goes from fridge hard to…
Happens repeatedly and across different recipes. The result is not bad exactly. It tastes like a slightly dull version of what it should be, as though someone turned the volume down. I have tried adding more spice,…
Bought cherry tomatoes, got them home, and one of them had a serious amount of black mould on it. The others look completely normal. I have heard two rules and they contradict each other. One is "mould means the whole…
I cook in batches and grating a block once a week would save me a lot of time. Everyone tells me freshly grated is better but nobody can tell me why in a way that survives a follow up question. What I have noticed…
I want to cook a single egg with minimal effort and no dedicated gadget, and without watching a pan. The idea I keep coming back to is putting the egg in a vacuum flask with boiling water and leaving it. My attempt…
Stock and similar liquids often come in cartons with a screw cap over a foil seal. Twisting the cap the first time breaks the foil, and there is no way to take the cap off without breaking it. That means the cap alone…
Some people avoid ice in drinks because it dilutes them, and use metal or stone cubes instead. Those seem to have much lower heat capacity than water ice, so they must cool far less effectively. Which made me wonder…
Thick bone in chops, cast iron pan, ordinary gas hob with an extractor that is basically decorative. Every time I do the traditional hard sear first the kitchen fills with smoke and the alarm goes, and the middle is…
Sear chicken, deglaze with white wine, reduce, then off the heat I whisk in cold cubed butter and it goes greasy and separated about four times out of five. When it works it is glossy and thick and I cannot tell what I…
Fifteen years of confident weeknight cooking, no recipe needed, and I can taste a sauce and fix it. I bake maybe six times a year and the result is always the same: heavy, tight, slightly tough, edible but sad. I use…
My nephew moves into his own place in September and can currently boil pasta and reheat things. He will have 20 minutes on a weeknight, one decent pan, and no interest in becoming a cook. I want to teach him techniques…
Whole chicken, dry brined overnight uncovered in the fridge, roasted at 190C then cranked to 220C for the last twenty minutes. Meat is perfect at 74C in the thigh. Skin is beige and chewy, especially the underside of…
Every recipe says ten minutes and every comment section says that is a lie, but I am 40 minutes into three sliced onions on medium low in a wide pan with oil and they are soft, translucent and barely golden. Not burnt,…
Bone in short ribs, seared, then braised in a covered dutch oven at 160C for four hours with liquid coming about halfway up. They were fork tender in the sense that they fell apart, but eating them was dry and stringy…
Tiny kitchen, two burners, one of which is noticeably weaker. Cooking for two most nights, occasionally four. Budget is about 90 total. I keep going back and forth between one big 12 inch carbon steel that does…