Hands

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Another lovely piece of writing by Ruby Tandoh.

https://heated.medium.com/your-hands-ar ... 46caaab79c

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Yes. It is part of cooking with love I suppose.

That said, even when cooking with love I have to own up to hating getting my hands dirty and sticky. I used to save the plastic gloves from home hair dye to use when I touched raw meat (the only thing I missed when I started having hair coloured at the hairdressers) and I tend to rub the fat into the flour for pastry or scones with a fork. If I have to rub oil into anything I often use a cloth which can be washed afterwards. Of course I will use my hands if I have to but am much happier not to. (It probably stems from never having had a hot water system which produces instant hot water to wash with!).

My first domestic science teacher told us a story when we first made pastry as an illustration to always wash our hands before cooking. When teaching in a rather deprived area of London she had got a class rubbing in pastry for the first time and a girl commented, "Miss, this is really good for getting your nails clean - look!" .

[Renee Profile]

I really enjoyed that article Pepper Pig! Thanks for posting it.

[Linnet Profile]

I also don't like getting my hands messy, and always run a bowl of hot soapy water before starting to cook so that I can wash them at once after handling anything sticky or greasy.

Same reason I always wear gloves when gardening (apart from never knowing what you will come across....!)

[Lokelani Profile]

What a therapeutic read, very evocative. I could really imagine the hands doing everything described.

I mostly don't mind getting my hands messy with food, mostly I thoroughly enjoy it. If I'm in a hurry I sometimes use tools instead.

At any other time, when I've finished cooking, I can't bear my hands to be sticky, or greasy or worst of all, smell of anything foody.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Finally read it, needed to use my PC not my tablet which I usually use

I generally don't mind getting my hands messy but for some reason I really dislike bringing bread dough together from dry flour, though I like kneading

I keep hearing this on the radio, seems apt, and this is for me is the best version, including the rambling, humorous, introduction
The late Bill Withers, Grandma's Hands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W-xtHYXE7A

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I really enjoyed that article.
Hands are so important in cooking. When I first started to make pastry ( and I´m NOT a very good pastry cook) it wouldn´t work out , so I called my mum. She said " Just rub the flour and the butter with your fingertips -and make sure they´re cold".I thought that was so wierd, but it´s absolutely true.
There´s an Indian snack called a "Vada". A bit like a falafel, but the mixture is far wetter. The skill in making good vadas, according to an Indian friend´s wife, is to wet your hands and just roll the ball around in your palm. She´s absolutely dead right.
In the US these days more and more chefs are obliged to use latex gloves. Another buddy who´s the Head Chef at a university moans about this to me every time we speak. " I can´t "feel" if the food is good or not with these bloody plastic things on!" he says!

[jeral Profile]

It wouldn't be the first time a man had complained about having bloody plastic things on.

We were taught to rub margarine into flour between thumb and first 2 or 3 fingers above the bowl so aerating too. I have looked at those pastry cutters, like six spaced wires, used like a knuckle duster, but that's the opposite of keeping the flour mix light. I suppose food processors do the work now, but with dodgy hands, how the heck do people assemble them, or move the weighty thing into position in the first place for that matter.

Edit PS re Vada: I have this bookmarked for making medu vada, 5mins36secs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2WZShtFWA
My vada is still in the form of a packet mix at the moment

[Stokey Sue Profile]

On not being able to feel food well enough searing gloves - perhaps bear in mind that somehow brain surgeons manage microsurgery while wearing them? I do accept that you can’t feel moisture through them, but my own experience is that they are quite easy to get used to

[karadekoolaid Profile]

somehow brain surgeons manage microsurgery while wearing them?

Of course they do. But I´m prepared to bet they´re using instruments, rather than their fingers directly.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

https://buttondown.email/ApoorvaSripath ... t-feed-us/

[Seatallan Profile]

Wasn't it Joan who once shared a story of being told by a well-known chef (I can't remember who) that your hands are the best kitchen implement ever? I really liked that.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

What a lovely article PP.

To get that mix of a good partner and food and economic security where a woman is able to cook and run a home with love and be truly valued and appreciated for her efforts is IMO a rare thing but rewarding when it happens. Hands are a big feature in most creative activities.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Completely off topic, but every time I read the title of this post, a tune sticks stubbornly in my head:
" Hands that do dishes are as soft as your face,
With mild green Fairy liquid"

[aero280 Profile]

Or Max Bygraves, 1958 the B side to "Tulips from Amsterdam" - "You need Hands"

[jeral Profile]

...
" Hands that do dishes are as soft as your face,
With mild green Fairy liquid"
...

I can only remember that as "Put 'judicious' in a sentence."

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I can only remember that as "Put 'judicious' in a sentence."

Sorry, Jeral, I don´t understand that one.

[jeral Profile]

karadekoolaid, do you remember the famous Wham's George Michael's "semi frontiers" rather than his intended diction of "save me from tears"? "Hands that judicious" was equally famous in its day.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

do you remember the famous Wham's George Michael's "semi frontiers"

Nope, you´ve lost me on that one.
Mind you, I´m a bit wierd on music; my classical favourites cease around 1850 and my pop music tastes stopped around 1976.

[jeral Profile]

The Fairy advert dates back to 1965 so no excuses!

I read that the EU determined (2015) that Fairy washing up liquid (along with many other cleaning fluids) has to carry a skin-corrosive label: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/scienc ... he-EU.html
My current bottle has a diamond symbol with an exclamation mark inside and words of warning about eyes and aquatic life.

I find it judicious to wear Marigold gloves and always have for any and everything of that ilk. Damaged hands and food prep are not good bedfellows.