5punk

Right, I've been thinking.

As it is, I (and Lat/Mr.green) have been writing recipes for food we like/eat.

Is there anything you fuckers would like a recipe for?

Seems like it might be a good way for learning how to cook if you're stuck knowing what'd be nice, but not being able to work out how to make it.

Thoughts?

Requests so far:
Roast Cow
Spring rolls/finger food.

Sounds like a good idea, although I'm not great at being imaginative with food either.

Imaginative isn't that important, demand chicken pie, and a recipe shall appear.

Mostly I wonder if people who can't cook are better off with a recipe with lots of photos of the stages, showing you how it should look, than a wall of text using magic words.

Probably. If a recipe doesn't have a picture of the finished product I won't make it - it gives me a bit of confidence that I might at least know what it should look like. Although I did make my Mexican thing with no pictures. I don't know what it should have looked like, but I doubt it was what it did look like. So logically photos of stages would lend more confidence that you're on the right track for a kitchen spaz like me. Also, while certain terms might explain something to someone with some cooking ability, to the clueless it might mean nothing.

That's the thing, I kinda write my recipes a'la simple.wikipedia because generally it doesn't hurt to make them simple, anyone who knows the posh words will still know what's going on. everyone else can see what's meant to happen.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Mostly I wonder if people who can't cook are better off with a recipe with lots of photos of the stages, showing you how it should look, than a wall of text using magic words.

Very this. Im a very visual person, recipies wih pictures stop a lot of the "does it mean like this? Chop it *how* thinly?" type questions.

And Very No to magic words. Like doggers says, I'm sure they are great to people who know what they mean, but I don't want to have to stop halfway through some sort of sauce to google wtf it wants me to do next.

As for specific things: How to cook a Beef would be good. Nothing fancy, just a regular chunk of cooked cow, such as you might find at a decent carvery. I'm slowly building up my roastin skillz, and can do excellent roast potatoes, and acceptable chickens.

Ooh, here's a nice request. Some sort of finger food, like Spring Rolls, that I can make on New year's Day. Mrs Pants would like that.

Joose wrote:As for specific things: How to cook a Beef would be good. Nothing fancy, just a regular chunk of cooked cow, such as you might find at a decent carvery. I'm slowly building up my roastin skillz, and can do excellent roast potatoes, and acceptable chickens.

Should be easy enough, I'll poke lat for that, he seems the roasting type.

Dog Pants wrote:Ooh, here's a nice request. Some sort of finger food, like Spring Rolls, that I can make on New year's Day. Mrs Pants would like that.

Ooh, that would be fun, I'll have a look at that.

Also, sausage rolls, my Christmas staple.

Pictures are good, much better than a wall of text, but it's handy to have short instructions to print out.

A shopping list is good, showing alternates for stuff you might not be able to get, or suggestions as to where you could - unlike TV shows which always cover up the names of branded goods. Rough prices are useful, too.

Tools and how to use them is good knowledge, plus value versions for people that don't have every utensil, ever.

Multiple sections are good for different bits of a recipe, should you want to spread the workload, but need an overall plan showing the timings.

Notes on how long things will keep, what can be pre-made the day before and how long they take to cook/rest/set etc.

Having pictures showing what stuff should look like is always reassuring and a helpful addition could be what to do when it goes a bit wrong - whether that be not to worry, add a bit more of something, or start again.

If there's a bit that's trickier than the rest, it's worth covering in detail, perhaps advising to get it out of the way early or have extra ingredients to hand.

I prefer a friendly tone, helping me how to cook backed up with the Science of why - not "you do it like this because I say so". It's for geeks, presumably, so Science is good - stuff like smoke points and chemical reactions are interesting, though perhaps in box-outs rather than part of the recipe.

For me, I'd be interested seeing some recipes for sweet things, like puddings, nothing too heavy. I'm rubbish at them as I very rarely eat them myself, but it's an area I'd like to improve in. Key Lime Pie looks interesting.

How about a recipe for 'long pig'?

[Sinister laugh here]

Braise it, low and slow.

Well oddly enough, I don't ever really seem to roast beef. However, when the next opportunity for cooking a roast arises, I will endeavour to do some.

By way of a filler, I did very recently slow-roast a lamb shoulder, and even remembered to take a few photos. Unfortunately I think I got over-excited when the meat came out of the oven and have nothing of the finished product, but I do have witnesses in the form of Pete and Nun. This weekend, I will try to post the recipe for the meat, gravy and yorkshires, all of which I was pretty damn pleased with. Pete or Nun may say otherwise, but I liked them at least.

Pork, and how to make the best crackling.

Crackling's easy. HEAT.

http://geekfood.co.uk/?p=10

I don't bother with other cuts for roast pork, they're usually drier and don't taste as good as belly.

Also belly is unholy cheap.

A cheat I've used before for when the meat is cooked but the crackling is sub-par is to remove the joint from the oven and remove the crackling. Leave the meat under some foil, scrape and discard the wet fat from the underside of the crackling and bung it back in the oven on a tray for 5 minutes, having turned it up to maximum. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn, but that should make the whole lot of it crispy and tasty.

It is easy enough to make crackling without cheating, but it's always good to have a back-up.

I really like Goulash Soup, if you could find a recipe for that t'would be cool.

I have had it in Germany and the Hungarian version was very nice and peppery..

Bally, does you has any recipes handed down from Grandma?

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Lat posted that a coupla weeks ago