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Any cooking hiccups?

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Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Dec 27, 2020 12:14 pm

I had 3 potential disasters averted.

1. I forgot the tartar sauce for the smoked salmon. But had capers in the fridge door, and made up a basic sauce (without the dill).
2. Cooked the turkey crown according to the 2hrs20 instructions Waitrose had on the labelling. It looked super, but I thought I'd better do a practice slice.
Chewy - ie, not cooked till tender enough, so I gave it another 40mins. Phew.
3. Spanish apple pie, to make the delicious creme pat, you need cornflour, which I ran out of months ago.

I was sure I'd replaced it, but had not. So I tried thickening the egg custard some more with rice flour carefully. Which worked, but not enough.
Beautiful pouring custard, but the dessert relies on the thickness of the custard to give a separate layer between the apples and the almond pastry topping.

My custard soaked in during the bake. Which was delicious, but not how it is supposed to be.

Nothing major.
Not like Tony's friends who were going to a bubble house for turkey, where they'd put the turkey in the new garage fridge some days before.
But had forgotten to turn the fridge on, and had to go to M&S on the motorway to get chicken nuggets.

Or last year, my sister sent Chris out to get some meat selection for a buffet.
And he came back with a foot long sausage roll. :lol:

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Seatallan » Sun Dec 27, 2020 12:29 pm

Overdid the pigs in blankets, which came out like lumps of BBQ charcoal. Never done that before but hey- turkey and veg were all sublime as was starter and pud.... :yum :D
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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Dec 27, 2020 12:52 pm

At least they aren't the make or break part of your excellent meal, Seatallan.
Not foodie hiccup, but I did strike a match to light our candles and part of the strike/ head broke off and lit my thumb. Strangely I have a burn blister that isn't the least bit painful. :gonzo

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Suffs » Sun Dec 27, 2020 1:44 pm

I too have a burn blister on my thumb (just like Dire Straits :lol: ), courtesy of rolling the ‘straight out of the oven’ glazed gammon off the dish and onto my left hand on Christmas Eve ... but thanks to my aloe vera plant, although the blister still looks alarming the burn was painfree after a few minutes and remains so. :thumbsup

Otherwise no blips ... :crossed

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Dec 27, 2020 1:54 pm

hurty hurty kissy kissy better.
I've heard that some chefs have aloa vera plants in their kitchens.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:02 pm

Fortunately, accident free over here, not that we ate a mega Xmas lunch.
Yesterday my wife made a "chupe de camarones" - a thick soup made with shrimp stock, shrimp (of course!), sweetcorn and veg - that went down a treat!

Good thinking on the turkey, Gill. Raw turkey - -´orrible!
Shame about the three little piggies, Seatallan, but I imagine the sausage bit in the midddle was probably edible.
Suffs . nothing like an aloe vera to sort of burns. I never cease to be amazed at its healing properties.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:10 pm

We didn't really have any hiccups, and nothing got forgotten although the roast potatoes and the pigs seemed to take much longer than they should have (not your problem Seatallen :lol: ). Also, the Waitrose turkey roast with bacon lattice never browned to look like the picture.
As far as I'm aware, the oven temperature is fine, and things don't usually take longer than expected.

It has occurred to me that maybe I've been the oven's own worst enemy in that it came with one of those slide in roasting pans which I generally keep on the bottom rung with a rack on it to create an extra shelf. Maybe that messes up the flow of the fan? Well, anyway .... :lol: I have foil in it so it catches all the spills etc.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby herbidacious » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:27 pm

The only thing that didn't work was some ready-made stuffing from M&S which came out of the oven as crumbs.

I was really pleased with my red wine, red onion and garlic gravy. I didn't make enough of it, though, alas.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Earthmaiden » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:28 pm

I'm rather pleased to say that it's taken nearly 67 years but everything went smoothly with no disasters here! I think fewer guests and no children or cats makes a huge difference!

One year, the oven packed up very late on Christmas Eve afternoon. That wasn't very convenient. A friend cooked the turkey for me during the evening and we did wonders with the stovetop and microwave on the big day (including crispy sauteed potatoes :yum). Who needs an oven? :lol:. Actually, I think the fridge failing would be worse now that cool larders are rare and Christmases relatively warm.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby herbidacious » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:29 pm

I've been told that lavender essential oil is good on burns too.

I have had some really nasty ones from my oven in France before I stuck guards on the fronts of the shelves. One so bad/deep I couldn't feel it.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Suelle » Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:48 pm

Earthmaiden wrote:I'm rather pleased to say that it's taken nearly 67 years but everything went smoothly with no disasters here! I think fewer guests and no children or cats makes a huge difference!


Same here, EM.

I'd agreed with my two children that they would arrive at 7pm and the meal would be ready by then. I also plated up in the kitchen to minimise the risk of all of us handling the same serving spoons (with them supervising what went on the plates from a distance).

It meant a more leisurely approach to getting the meal ready and waiting in a warm oven. I wasn't rushing and making last minute mistakes by trying to finish the cooking and open Christmas presents at the same time, which is what usually happens. It also meant less washing up, without all the serving dishes that usually go to the table!

The only thing I forgot was to send them home with the portions of cheesecake that they would have eaten on Boxing Day, if we had still been able to meet.
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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:57 pm

herbidacious wrote:I've been told that lavender essential oil is good on burns too.



Please do not put any kind of oil, essential or otherwise, on a burn - and bear in mind most commercial lavender oil is intended for use as fragrance, so not a pharmaceutical grade

I didn’t do much cooking for things to go wrong, the only thing I wish I’d done is thin the egg wash for my pastry with a splash of milk, I thought about it but the recipe I was half following didn’t mention it

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:07 pm

I keep a tube of ancient Nelsons homeopathic burns ointment in the kitchen drawer and also something made by Weleda. I must remember the aloe vera, as we have a couple of plants.

My mother used to put soap on burns. I remember jiggling around when I was inhaling karvol with a towel over my head when I was little, and knocking the whole bowl of boiling water over my legs. She put soap on and I didn't get any scars on visible parts of my body. Of course, it could well be that it wasn't that hot any more. I think I wasn't even 5 years old.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:28 pm

For the record - NHS advice on burns

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/burns-and ... treatment/

Just water to cool then an appropriate dry dressing (which is what Iwas taught when I did first aid at work decades ago)

I do follow this advice but tend not to leave the burn in cold water long enough, I get bored :oops:

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Amyw » Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:35 pm

When I do first aid training , we’re always told to leave the affected cold area in cold water for at least twice as long as you think you need to . We’re always told as well to use any kind of fat or oil on a burn is a definite no no . I’m sure my nan used to put butter on burns !!!

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:03 pm

The cling film advice is new to me, but my first aid training was in the 80s.

I regularly burn myself on the door of the top oven, which is at eye level. Trifling, but preventable. :roll:

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:28 pm

The only cooking hiccup I had this year was overcooking the broccoli slightly. I made the mistake of putting it in the same pan as the halved sprouts and sliced leeks. The rest of it went fine, pretty good considering it's the first time I have cooked a roast for months!

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:45 pm

Badger's Mate wrote:The cling film advice is new to me, but my first aid training was in the 80s.

I regularly burn myself on the door of the top oven, which is at eye level. Trifling, but preventable. :roll:

Don't want to deviate entirely from cooking to burns - but the cheap Savers drug stores have packs of WBM Non Adhesive Wound Dressings for about £1, the big white plasters that they use in hospitals. I burned my forearm quite badly on a roasting pan and kept it covered with these, as the burn was just where my sleeve rubbed it - healed well, no problems

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Dec 27, 2020 6:10 pm

At the risk of tempting fate, I haven't done it for a while.

To return to the OP, no serious hiccups. Could have made slightly more pastry when I did the mince pies, some of the lids were a bit patchwork. Tasted alright though.

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Re: Any cooking hiccups?

Postby ZeroCook » Sun Dec 27, 2020 10:18 pm

.
No serious hiccups. Very simple meal tho, no birds or precision baking or monitored roasting. Strawberry klondike ice cream (2 step icecream) wasn't quite set but perfect the following day of course. Started it on Xmas eve when it should have been the day before. Another last minute choice!

Gill - I always use ordinary flour for creme pat anyway so I wouldn't count that as a real hiccup! Well done on spotting the deliberate mistake on turkey timings. :D I think a lot of instructions and recipes underdo meat and fowl cooking times to "only barely just done" instead of done to very nicely tender.
And OMG, Tony's friends and the garage turkey - bit more than a hiccup, that! :o :shock:


Seatallan wrote:Overdid the pigs in blankets, which came out like lumps of BBQ charcoal. Never done that before but hey-

Oh, dommage, Seatallen! But hey, as you say! :shock: :lol: At least everything else was perfect :D

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