to think that Nigella doesn't taste half the horrible food in her cookbooks?

The chocolate chip cookies in Kitchen are the only cookies that I have ever got to be properly soft chewy cookies - but you need to cook them faster and hotter than she says.

Ah yes, the parallel universe threads

GOML - I had it on the hot burner on the aga for ages (couldn't give a stuff about my pans emoticon)

just kept getting runnier

did chuck vinegar in, too.

was fine, just had a bit too much run-off, but we spooned some back over after 10 mins or so in the oven...

re: cementine cake, my uncle has made it just with lemons, an he said not as good.

dh always wants to do an orange/lemon mix. I quite fancy trying lemon/lime tbh.

Some of the instructions are scientifically disastrous: do NOT, if making lemon iced gingerbread tray bake from 'Goddess' mix boiling water with the bicarb befofre adding, because guess what? yes, the fizz goes off before it is even mixed into the cake. result: Devil's Own Backyard paving Slabs.
Dito her instruction at some popint to boil the choc and cream for ganache - result: Devil's Own Gravel.
Timings are often way off, too.

In fact, I've been making that chicken recipe since 2004. She probably stole it from me

I think you're right, aitch, to a degree.

my uncle (admittdlynot famed fo rhis baking, but can follow a recipe easily, and honestly, what can you do wrong with the clementine cake?!) had this problem, but I never have.

I've never had that issue (maybe I'm just lucky?) but agree that after a few days it is claggy if there is any left

Cheeky mare! She probably didn't stole that Venetian chicken recipe from Claudia Roden! here, published 1996

Anyway, the person complaining you can't serve it to a black man is an ignorant douchebag - the Ghetto refers to the original Ghetto in Venice, established 1516.

GOML - see you really are a fan - OK a few things you don't like but you seem to find more amazing stuff now than things you don't like.

I once made her slowcooked lamb recipe from back in the day when she was food writer for Vogue

Was in oven for weeks, and the smell got into my laundry cupboard (is still there in fact), and then when we finally ate it lamb was a real letdown

I have pencilled notes all over her cookbooks (fewest on How to Eat and Dom God) saying things like 'use half quantities' or 'utterly disastrous'

Yes - it gives it a subtle sort of BBQ type flavour more than anything and depending on how you glaze the ham after can make that more intense.

i think it's the clementines themselves which are the problem. orange and lemon with the same ingredients is perfectly pleasant (although personally i would always rather have a sponge).

her lemon drizzle cake is great, for example. but the clemmie cake is all claggy.

Her cake receipes are quite good.

Is the coca cola ham really ok?

Never had the guts to try it

Gary Rhodes did an orange cake in one of his books a few years ago - recipe is very similar - usually Nigella does say where she copied got the inspiration / basis from.

oh, and we think the clementine cake is marvellous too.

mind you, I often need to bake gluten and dairy free, and it cuts out the hassle of trying to bake with gf flour, which is hit and miss at best...

did ham in cherry coke over christmas, and used the liquid for the red cabbage.

was lovely, although I couldn't get my cherry jam to go sticky - meant to reduce in saucepan, along with the paprika, before glazing. It just kept getting runnier and runnier

would have been better off slapping it on ot of the jar
I love Nigella Summer - we make the fritters too, with various different veg, and the peanut/carrot salad always goes down well (mind you, we like weird salads in our house - spinach/strawberry is another favourite)

oh yes on that note edwardcullen, her fairy cakes etc never stretch to the numbers that they say they will, while biscuits go wildly over.

I had Kitchen for Christmas, I'm a bit new to cooking (can bake quite well though) and have yet to try any meals from it yet. I'm a bit worried now!
I did make the choc chip cookies for new year and they were divine! very sweet, but they spread perfectly in the oven and I had a lot more than the recipe suggested (I doubled everything to make sure there was enough for the party of 20 guests, ended up taking a tin full to the party, froze another 15 and froze dough for 10!) After a day or so they'd lost the chewiness, but even the defrosted ones were lovely.

The butterscotch cake does work - is the problem with the cake or making the butterscotch?

The flapjacks the recipe in the book is wrong - the amount is something like 150g of syrup not 50g (not 100% sure would have to go get the book out). Look on the Nigella website for other (not that many omissions).

Oh, and I am desperate to try that Georgian Feast. That bread looks a-may-zing.

God, I hate being on a diet

I have her Christmas book from Christmas 2010...and inside was a list of alterations of measurements printed out from the editors and just thrown in. I use it as a book mark.

Her chocolate chilli looks vile.

I love her but some of her food is a tad far fetched-regardless of being a great cook.

Pity because I love her so.

hmm yes i can imagine that would be quite nice with red cabbage, actually. although i do like apples.

do you think i made the point about the venetian ghetto, getorf? and do you think i was BAFFLED when this buttered no parsnips with either the OP of the thread or other posters? it was mental.