Why do Jamie Oliver's recipes never work for me?

[driggle]

Watching his new Christmas show. Everything looks lovely. I bought Ministry of Food on the back of the great recommendations it gets on here but I could never get anything to taste half decent or sometimes the timings would be completely wrong. Now I'm a competent cook. Give me a Mary Berry recipe or one from BBC Good Food and they always come out tasty and as I expected them to. Apart from Jamie's rogan josh curry in his 30 Minutes book, I've yet to get one of his recipes to turn out as I expected it too. What am I doing wrong? Is there a knack to adjusting his timings? Do I add less or more of what he suggests? Someone teach me his ways. I really want to like the MoF book but the 5 or so things I've made haven't been met with much enthusiasm in this house. And DP and DC will eat anything.

I've only tried cooking from Jamie's early books but I did find that it all took a lot longer to cook than stated!

Jamie’s recipes are designed for someone who is already a confident cook but is looking for different ideas. They aren’t the best if you can’t tell by looking at a recipe that something’s a bad idea — eg some of his dessert recipes don’t include vital ‘common sense’ steps like whipping cream etc. If you want a good ‘by the recipe’ book then Mary Berry and Delia Smith are perfect.

If you cook like Jamie does (I.e by eye) then his books are generally good for ideas and inspiration. Fine

But more recently he seems to aim them at the can't/don't/short of time elements of the population but it just doesn't translate well. I cook like Jamie and I know that he probably doesn't mean a full tin of tomatoey water and he actually means splash some water in the can, swill it around a bit to clean out the rest of the contents of the can and add to the pan, but lots wouldn't.

I genuinely don't think he gets that not everyone has a natural aptitude for cooking or a kitchen full of gadgets or a pantry full of non basics.

He also cooks like someone who never has to do their own washing up.

Pasta I think you're right, he is surrounded by friends and family who all know how to cook and love food - didn't his parents run a pub? And his cookbooks are full of recipes from his mate Dave or his nan or whatever. I also think some of the cookbooks are tested better than others.

I do respect his clear passion to improve people's diets though, especially kids. His campaigns have made him a target, definitely not just burnishing his image for marketing purposes (the opposite if anything) so the fact that he keeps going shows that he really does care to keep trying. Unfortunately I don't think it's something he can solve in the teeth of austerity, low or insecure wages, UC and the constellation of issues that contribute to obesity and poor diets. It is a political issue and needs to be solved by politicians rather than campaigners. But I respect him putting his reputation on the line by trying.

I love Rick Stein's cookbooks - especially his Indian one. The recipes usually turn out perfectly.
JO has good intentions, and he seems like a decent bloke, but I don't think he or Nigella ever test their own recipes. DH is a 'follow the recipe to the nth degree' person, as he's not long learnt to cook, so he didn't realise that adding pints and pints of water to a tomato sauce as directed by Nigella was going to ruin what could have been a lovely dish. Annoying as the ingredients cost a flipping fortune.
I will concede that Nigella's Rocky Road recipe is awesome though.

He also cooks like someone who never has to do their own washing up

Man cooking, I call it. DH is the same, so was my dad. Every conceivable pot, pan, dish and utensil gets used, often for fairly basic dishes. Then they expect you to clean up because they cooked (not that DH cleans up after I cook every damn day).

Ugh, strikethrough fail.

They never work for me and I'm a chef! Delia you can't go wrong with, Hairy bikers are always good too.

Has anyone noticed Liam, Bake Off, has a programme on C4 at the moment? Its structured in a similar way to the early JOs. All a bit hit and miss, cant see it being wildly successful.

As everyone else has said, JO’s quantities and timings are all over the place. I use his recipes for inspiration and work out the details myself. They can also be quite technically difficult, I think. I find Nigella’s far better- her descriptions of what things ought to look like are really helpful. Nigel Slater is another one whose recipes aren’t difficult in the same way as JO, but he does assume that you know what you’re doing- you have to be unfazed by working out what “a touch” or “a generous amount” should be.

I am not much of a cook tbh but hairy bikers food never goes wrong their chicken pie is lovely.

I love Hairy Bikers. Their recipes always turn out great.

You need to do a Mockney accent to follow his recipes.

I miss when jamie said Pukka now he talks like an ageing surfer dude it is very embarassing

Was just coming on to say it's probably because you don't use 17 gallons of olive oil but everyone has beaten me to it!

You can’t beat the good housekeeping cookery book! It tells you exactly how to do everything and the recipes are always perfect. Mine is the old version so I skip some of the offal recipes. Many cookbooks have come and gone from this house, now I pretty much just use GH and the BBC good food website.

I'm not keen on Jamie or Nigella, give me Delia any day of the week.

Delia's "how to cook" parts 1&2 are my bible. I have about four Jamie books and I have never succeeded in any of the recipes in them. Delia on the other hand, so long as you follow the instructions it comes out perfect every time. I made a lamb shanks recipe at the weekend and it was to die for with absolutely perfect gravy. Never would've happened with Jamie

I use JO books and TV shows for inspiration. I love his food combinations and interesting tweaks but it doesn’t have to be an exact science.

I learnt to bake first so I’m a big fan of following a recipe to the letter. I don’t understand how so many cookbooks are produced with shite recipes that don’t work, tried a few from Ella, they were awful.

Prue Leith Baking Bible, every item cooked has been fantastic, ditto Delia, Good Housekeeping Book at least 15-20 years old also very reliable

JO's chinese style coconut steamed dumplings are pretty good tho. And very very easy to make.

I hate JO. Anything I have EVER cooked from his recipes has turned out bland and tasteless.

Never been able to cook a JO recipe correctly. Can't go wrong with Delia or Mary Berry. Mary's Victoria sponge is the business and never fails! Also put off with the amount of ingredients JO uses

I watched JO last night and what he did with the turkey looked delicious but that was a hell of a lot of butter!