Manufacturers cooking instructions.

[ericmark]

I don't normally cook. But my wife does go away from time to time and then I am left with all the modern technology with want seems very old cook books.

The only cook book which seem to keep up are those given with the appliances and I have pulled out the instructions on how to use a pressure cooker in a microwave as an example.

OK Orange Marmalade great 1kg oranges, 1 litre water 700g sugar etc but believe it or not I don't survive on a diet of Orange Marmalade.

As I look at the simpler items there is clearly something missing. "Peas frozen 2 minutes" well like any microwave it seems quantity is important although it will be less than written on the packet likely taking 1/2 to 2/3rds of the time it takes without a pressure cooker in same microwave with the microwave being made of red plastic it is impossible to tell if food is cooked until after pressure has dropped enough to remove the lid.

To a lesser extent cooking with an induction hob and a oven with a 11 positions selector and elements top, bottom and back latter required fan but fan can also be used with other elements allowing things like closed door grilling and use of multi-elements for pizza etc.

So I get a pizza out of the freezer it gives time and temperature with fan oven and with non fan oven and even an approximate setting for gas. But nothing on box about using or not using top or bottom or back heat.

A simple Vesta meal. Empty dried food into the pan and add water what could be simpler? Instructions say boil then simmer so I set hob to boil then simmer again what could be simpler. But it would seem not designed for controllable induction hob and at appointed time food is cooked OK but swimming in water due to the simmer being really a simmer not rapid boil and off of the older stile electric hob.

Walk around Smiths or local library and look for a book on using a microwave cooker and nothing.

I note walking around the show rooms one can now even get an oven with steam injection.

It would seem the electric appliance has left gas in the dark ages and really come on in leaps and bounds. But once one buys these appliances one has nothing but the manufacturers instruction book.

We sill use old phrases like "remove from heat" rather than switch off and clearly lifting a pan full of food is more dangerous than simply switching off the heat.

Some stuff has now had books published for example the bread maker but other stuff like the soup maker is sadly lacking with anything but manufacturers instructions.

How much is electric cooking being held back by simple lack of cook books and if the cook books were written would we see a boom to the electric cooking experience.

 

[JohnW2]

... instructions on how to use a pressure cooker in a microwave as an example.

That's certainly a new one on me! Presumably we're not talking about a traditional metal pressure cooker - so are there plastic ones strong enough to withstand the pressure? ... and what's the idea - that the food gets microwaved at the same time as it's being pressure cooked? (I wouldn't really have expected the microwaves to get as far as the food if it was in a tank of water - so wouldn't expect much more than heating of the water to pressure cooker temperature!).

I'm rather intrigued!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

This is what it looks like

it would seem on first use it opens a relief valve to match microwave so one should stick to one size microwave. A very basic and cheap unit under a £10. In the main we add no water the water in the food is enough but depends what is being cooked.

The advantage is higher temperatures as in a conventional microwave reduces cooking time instead of steam being pumped out of the microwave with a fan it's retained in the chamber which reducing the drying of the edges of food being cooked and also retains more flavour.

I does work well however mixed veg cooked can result with some veg being well cooked but carrots still being rather crunchy.

I watch my wife and all seems to work well. But visit my mum and try cooking for her and I find it rather hit and miss. I then watched my wife more carefully and noted she puts veg into a measuring jug first then pours into the microwave in other words she measures how much she has put in.

So she has learnt with 500 ml in the pressure cooker it takes 6 minutes but secondly she has learnt that if she does the microwave pressure cooker stuff first it will keep warm while she microwaves something else being used in the meal.

I keep looking for tea cosy type covers for our pans. I am sure they must be made? I can't see why with an induction hob one should allow the heat to escape from the sides of the pan. With the top steam would cause it to get wet but with pressure cooker conventional type the whole cooker other than the magnetic base could be insulated with holes for the pressure release valve.

Can't even find a tea cosy for my tea pot.

looks OK but my tea pot

is too tall to use them. So it sits on the cooker on chocolate melting setting to keep it warm.

 

[Adam_151]

I note walking around the show rooms one can now even get an oven with steam injection.

Thats a case of technology thats existed in commerial catering for a number of years finally crossing into domestic

Most school / college / pub chain kitchens will have a regeneration steam oven made by the likes of Rational. Its purpose being to reheat dishes prepared off site without having them mushy or dried out etc, quickly and without much user intervention. I did hear that there was one pub chain where the only thing that wasn't reheated were the chips and steaks,, its probably the same for most pub chains

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combi_steamer

 

[JohnW2]

The advantage is higher temperatures as in a conventional microwave reduces cooking time instead of steam being pumped out of the microwave with a fan it's retained in the chamber which reducing the drying of the edges of food being cooked and also retains more flavour.

Interesting. I'm still not really sure what advantage it offers over traditional pressure cooking (in which food certainly can't "dry out"!).

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

The advantage is higher temperatures as in a conventional microwave reduces cooking time instead of steam being pumped out of the microwave with a fan it's retained in the chamber which reducing the drying of the edges of food being cooked and also retains more flavour.

Interesting. I'm still not really sure what advantage it offers over traditional pressure cooking (in which food certainly can't "dry out"!).

Kind Regards, John

It depends on quantity. Small quantities its faster than traditional pressure cooker. Large quantities it's just the same. But they are far cheaper than the traditional pressure cooker and clearly smaller.

We got ours from a QVC shop where they sell off end of lines from their shopping channel. The first one fitted old microwave but was too big for our new one so we then got a smaller one. When swapped microwave and selected one which would take the larger one. Seems made in Blue and Red my mother also has a small one and we have two microwaves in kitchen and ended up with a second large one.

Watching my wife I wonder what can't be cooked in a microwave? Seems normal to have both going. But there even with two going is often a queue for items to go in so the pressure cookers both takes less time and retains heat after removal so allowing more to be microwave cooked.

It would seem technology has changed methods so much. We normally have baked potato with our pizza. Baked potato tastes better out of oven than microwave but pizza is faster then baked potato so when we decide we are eating baked potato and pizza the potatoes go in the microwave and oven is switched on. When oven reaches temperature the potatoes are transferred. 10 minutes latter the oven is changed from back heat to top heat and the pizza is put in still with fan running.

I am sure every household has worked out how to use the new technology but where it falls down is some one like me who rarely cooks. I want to be able to look up cooking times and methods without ringing my wife and saying how do you cook this.

With the pizza and potato example using technology takes less than 1/2 hour but without it takes an hour to do potato in conventional oven.

I am sure I am not the only one with a kitchen full of electric cookers from the toaster to soup maker, to sandwich toaster, to bread maker not including mixers etc. But most cook books are from the dark ages. My wife still uses Mrs Beeton who died in 1865 and it was 1890 before cooking with gas took off yet the book has all the approximate gas oven setting. Clearly some one has updated it.

I look at the soup maker. I think will it cook rhubarb? If so can I use it to make rhubarb wine? I use the QVC juicer to make cider. Bit on the dry side but add Ginger beer.

It just seems we are surrounded with technology and no instructions how to use it.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

OK Orange Marmalade great 1kg oranges, 1 litre water 700g sugar etc but believe it or not I don't survive on a diet of Orange Marmalade.

You could if you had to though, for a few days.

As I look at the simpler items there is clearly something missing. "Peas frozen 2 minutes" well like any microwave it seems quantity is important although it will be less than written on the packet likely taking 1/2 to 2/3rds of the time it takes without a pressure cooker in same microwave with the microwave being made of red plastic it is impossible to tell if food is cooked until after pressure has dropped enough to remove the lid.

Seems to me that using a pressure cooker inside a microwave to cook frozen peas (which don't actually need cooking, just heating up) is an incorrect application of two technologies at once.

Watching my wife I wonder what can't be cooked in a microwave?

It is my experience that nothing can actually be cooked in a microwave oven. (As in satisfactorily cooked, that is.)

With the pizza and potato example using technology takes less than 1/2 hour but without it takes an hour to do potato in conventional oven.

Then it takes an hour, and that's all there is to it. Even with a breadmaking machine, if you want to make your own bread you have to start the day before.

You only have to consider how poor CBP bread is compared to proper bread to realise that no matter how much new technology you employ, some things simply cannot be done more quickly.

I look at the soup maker. I think will it cook rhubarb? If so can I use it to make rhubarb wine?

It could well prepare it to be used to make wine, but I'm pretty sure it would ruin it if you wanted to cook it for eating.

I use the QVC juicer to make cider. Bit on the dry side

Surely that fault originates in the apples, not how they are turned into pulp? Mind you - I'm not a cider maker - does the traditional method of pressing them affect how much sugar you end up with?

It just seems we are surrounded with technology and no instructions how to use it.

You could be right, but I believe that if you can cook then you can cook with pretty much any type of cooking appliance, once you've got used to its foibles. I accept that learning the foibles by experience may result in a few disastrous meals.

ATEOTD, there simply isn't any substitute for knowing what you're doing.

For instance:

I does work well however mixed veg cooked can result with some veg being well cooked but carrots still being rather crunchy.

That is a problem which you'll encounter no matter how you cook a mix of vegetables which require different times if you try to do them all at once. Steaming, boiling, whatever - carrots take longer than broad beans and broad beans take longer than peas, and so on. Whether the method you use makes the times 10 minutes, 5 minutes and 3 minutes, or 5 minutes, 3 minutes and 1 minute, you cannot get around the fact that some need more time than others and that if you try to do them all for the same amount of time then some will be spoilt.

How much is electric cooking being held back by simple lack of cook books and if the cook books were written would we see a boom to the electric cooking experience.

As with many other fields of human endeavour, a fundamental issue is the acquisition of genuine competence.

You can't become an electrician by reading appliance installation manuals either.

I don't normally cook

Step 1. Change that.


PS - very good way to cook carrots: steamed whole and unpeeled - they retain so much more flavour.

Best way I've ever found to cook rhubarb:

Cut into pieces 2-3cm long.
Place in a roasting tray and sprinkle with caster sugar at a rate of 80g per kg of fruit.
Cook in a 180° C oven for 10-15 minutes. Maybe a little longer if you plan to eat it immediately, or if the rhubarb has a large diameter.
If leaving to cool cover the pan with foil or a lid to trap the steam, which will condense into lovely juices.

 

[Belboz]

Jeez....Chef BAS

Who would have thunk it.....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm still not really sure what advantage it offers over traditional pressure cooking (in which food certainly can't "dry out"!).

Oh yes it can. You just need to leave it long enough for all the liquid to boil away.

 

[JohnW2]

I'm still not really sure what advantage it offers over traditional pressure cooking (in which food certainly can't "dry out"!).

Oh yes it can. You just need to leave it long enough for all the liquid to boil away.

Hmmm - having another quiet day? -)

The same would presumably also be true of eric's gadget.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

I am sure I am not the only one with a kitchen full of electric cookers from the toaster to soup maker, to sandwich toaster, to bread maker not including mixers etc. But most cook books are from the dark ages. ... It just seems we are surrounded with technology and no instructions how to use it.

You have really chosen to put yourself in that position. Methods which have been tried and tested for decades/centuries still work, and are supported by millions of cookery books - and there is extremely little which can't be satisfactorily cooked using traditional methods. Traditional cookers, pots and pans etc. are still readily available. New-fangled technologies may sometimes have some convenience value (e.g. speed) but we could certainly live, and be well-fed, without them.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

As one may guess my wife has gone on holiday leaving me to work out how all the stuff works. Thanks for rhubarb idea I will try it.

I would love to have a solid fuel cooker it was what my mother had and what I was taught to cook with. But not an option with this house.

The problem starts with the house and the problem in removing heat and humidity from the kitchen which means having cooking appliances which impart the least amount of heat and humidity into the kitchen.

My father-in-law lives in same design of house two doors away and uses gas the kitchen is unbearable and humidity around 78% against 54% in my house. Hence induction hob and microwave cooking.

But must admit one gets lazy and use to labour saving devices the number of times I have walked into the kitchen to find the hob still switched on I have lost count. It clearly is not on as no pan on it but should my wife cook in the caravan I worry she will also forget to switch that hob off. Seems to be zero safety features on the gas oven only redeeming feature is a limit to supply of gas.

I have got use to switching on cooking appliances and walking away. I expect them to auto switch off. My house not a problem but where gas is used clearly there would be a problem.

 

[JohnW2]

The problem starts with the house and the problem in removing heat and humidity from the kitchen which means having cooking appliances which impart the least amount of heat and humidity into the kitchen.

Maybe we are all getting a bit 'soft'. For centuries, it was accepted that kitchens can be very hot and humid places, and that this is a fact of life. In large houses, they often aimed to have north-facing kitchens with lots of large openable windows. Even today, 'hot and humid' seems to remain the case in many a commercial kitchen!

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

Jeez....Chef BAS Who would have thunk it.....

How long before we get a Ban All Takeaways version of BAS...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

My local Indian restaurant recognise my voice when I phone to order a takeaway....