Things I have learnt since becoming rich (a.k.a. fuck you: Nigella and Jamie)

[TheAutumnHere]

1. Having an oven that holds temperature stops cakes falling
2. A stand mixer simplifies baking by a factor of at least 4, and improves the results
3. Branded vacuum cleaners actually remove dirt from the floor
4. Le Creuset pans don't stick, and just wipe clean
5. Baking with children is delightful japes, when timed the morning before the cleaner comes
6. Corn fed chicken is the bomb

Just leaving a note to my past self - who never cut herself any slack and thought she was a slattern and a crap cook.

This change means that we can get equipment that works.

And yet my mum turned out cordon bleu meals in the 70s with one of these old ovens and a 50s hand blender.

We used to make excellent cakes as children - without equipment you learn to hand whisk the eggs, sift the flour and beat the mixture evenly to produce a smooth, moist sponge.

You actually need to know how to do things by hand to know how best to use equipment imo.

A Magimix is less faff but it doesn’t produce a better result.

Really? I mean no one really made nice food in the 70s. I wonder if it just seemed nice through the eyes of a child.

I mean no one really made nice food in the 70s.

Speak for yourself. I look back fondly on pheasant Normande, profiteroles, roast ham with Oxford sauce, smoked haddock mousse, ratatouille, crème brûlée, coffee and walnut cake, home-made bread.

We still have the recipes and they taste exactly the same now as when we were kids.

@TatianaLarina

I agree. I have manual scales with weights, varying balloon and rotary hand whisks, and I'm a terrific cook. I'm actually really anti electric gadgets. For no real reason, just that I produce lovely food without them so I see them as a waste of money. DH is gadget boy. And I've tried to use some of his gadgets to see what the fuss is about, but find them completely unnecessary to the finished meal.
My mother and grandmother in particular are outstanding cooks. They do everything by hand as well. I guess you go a lot on how you've been raised to cook. I replicate their recipes too.
I research every purchase though to make sure I get the best option of what I want (which frequently is not the most expensive) looking at reviews, which reports, customer ratings and feedback. I think it does assist in the sense that it's then a smart well designed purchase, so really fit for purpose, as opposed to just an expensive purchase which can often look the part, but not necessarily the best at the job.

🤣 you two are hilarious

Only read the last few pages but of course Courtney is a terrific cook

Yup. I am indeed.

You really don't need a fancy, expensive mixer to make good cakes, you can use an electric hand whisk which costs about £15 (they sell them in Asda) which is a fraction of the price of even a basic mixer. The secret is in how well and how long you whisk your butter/sugar/eggs etc and that can be done very well with an electric hand whisk which you don't need to be rich to buy.

Make sure you are using the correct size tin for your cake.

You don't have to be rich to buy a fairly reasonable oven. Our grandparents didn't have fancy ovens, they just "knew" their ovens iyswim and what works best when and for how long.

Supermarket own brand flour, sugar, eggs etc are all absolutely fine to make a good cake.

The only difference about being rich is the surroundings to bake in are much nicer.

I’ve had a cleaner for 15+ years and have never made her clean up my baking mess or my kids’ baking mess as a sort of bonus in addition to the usual floors, toilets, showers, beds etc. A person who does that is a jerk.

Sure you could make nice food before the kit today.

You just need the nice food culture.

We still have an old garlic handle press thing from dgm. You’d lift the lid, press down and turn.

Anyway I think my thoughts on this are influenced by the French cooking she did.

There was still some funny 70s stuff creeping in but if you pass stuff down through the generations it’s easier to see they did really excellent food back then.

Regarding appliances which break, I found a 'repair cafe' and got mine mended for free and watched them do it. Its fun. I do of course donate to them and reduce landfill. Enjoy!

Oil! You leave Jamie and Nigella taught me how to cook!

I'm not rich but I'm alright and I agree with all of the above.

Now tell me how to get rich so I can have more luxury holidays.

(Ignore the ones with no sense of humour)

You may or may not be rich, OP, but you have style. And that is priceless.

I left this thread and came back to find a bun fight!

Now all the food talk just makes me want to bake and more importantly eat cakes. Lemon drizzle is calling me.

Well, this whole thread has been extremely edifying.

Courtney555, having seen your previous thread contributions, (no advance search, I just recall your distinctive posting style), I'm sure you are indeed a terrific cook. However, I suggest you stop 'cooking' and smoking the results. I'm not sure it's doing you any good

Really? I mean no one really made nice food in the 70s. I wonder if it just seemed nice through the eyes of a child

We have mostly been talking about cakes on this thread. How do you imagine a sponge cake tasted any different in the 70s to how it tastes now? We had flour, butter, sugar and eggs in the 70s you know.

And there was plenty of nice savoury food in the 70s too. If you were living on Fray Bentos pies, spam, tinned potatoes and Vesta curries, more fool you. Roasts, shepherd’s pies, anything made from scratch would taste exactly the same.

My DM cooked lovely meals in the 70s, nothing processed. The only things that we weren’t aware of were curries/Asian food apart from Vesta.