As epiphanies go, this one isn't terribly exciting. I'm not running naked down the street screaming "eureka!"or anything, (much to the relief of my neighbours, I'm sure) but it's only taken me 5 days of Edmonds cooking to realise something that should have been obvious:
The reason I do ok at baking, but not so well at cooking, is that when I'm baking, I always use a recipe. Even when I'm messing about inventing my own muffin flavours, I still use a basic recipe as a guide. But when I cook, I very often just throw stuff into a pot or frypan and hope for the best.
When I cook with a recipe, it usually comes out quite well (This excepting standard Robyn behaviour like dropping eggs on the carpet or accidentally unplugging the crockpot). My make-it-up-as-I-go-along meals are usually full of promise in the cooking, but disappointing in the eating.
That's not to say there aren't meals that come out ok: everyone has their old standbys they could do in their sleep. It's when I get creative that it all turns to custard (No, not literally - even I would have trouble doing that). So I figure that I just don't have enough food knowledge to play it by ear. Yet.
Luckily I have a whole cookbook full of recipes ahead of me. With any luck, by the time I've finished, I'll have picked up a few tips and have a better idea of what I'm doing. And if not, at least I'll be in the habit of following a recipe!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular posts this week
-
I've never had much luck with banana cakes. They always seem to come out overcooked on top and gooey in the centre. Yet I still make one...
-
It's hard to believe a whole three years have passed since I posted my first entry in this challenge, and even harder to believe I'v...
-
You see, I had this great idea. The plan was to make jam tart (p210) entirely from scratch, i.e. making both the jam and the pastry myself. ...
-
You'd think that after spending my Saturday making all those Christmas mince pies and meringues, (and cleaning the oven) I'd have sp...
-
Well, actually my gravy did need sieving. But I'm getting ahead of myself here... This particular journey began - as so many do - wit...
-
There's just two weeks until Christmas Eve, which means it's time I got into my annual spate of Christmas baking. It'll be a bi...
-
Despite last week's fiasco with the flaky pastry, I was feeling confident as I began my attempt at sweet shortcrust pastry (p81). I le...
-
This afternoon I suddenly realised I hadn't made anything Edmonds for quite a few days. Along with this came the realisation that I didn...
-
Actually, it's a plastic snaplock container, not a tin, but "biscuit tin" just sounds better, don't you think? I like to h...
-
I used to bake a lot as a kid. Since then, my parents' carefully-instilled lessons to do with checking you have all ingredients before ...
No comments:
Post a Comment