Thread 14 - TalkLair: “What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 13).

Summer should be well under way, but the chilly wind, grey clouds and pouring rain beg to differ. Looks like 2024 continues to be a washout - on the bright side, the Tories got washed out too! In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Great news on the free-fluids-front, @MouseMinge Can I recommend the posh Apple & Mango juice from the supermarket chiller section? A bit pricey for juice, but delicious. pulp-free and oddly more filling than other juices.

That is excellent news Mouseminge. Never have fluid-foods sounded so intoxicating.

I've never had lobster bisque, but I suspect strongly that I would enjoy it. I hope you did, Mouse.

I've never had lobster bisque either and now want to try some. Oh my, just looked at a recipe and it sounds absolutely delicious.

My brother has just been waxing lyrical in an email about making Lemon Posset, which sounds divine and very easy to make. Must try it myself. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/86428/lemon-posset/

I find it really hard to get past the fact that posset is also a word for baby puke....

Yes, there is that.

It reminds me of shoulders! I have some Italian unwaxed lemons in the fridge that I bought for no good reason the other day, so might be tempted. 'Heavy cream' is American for double cream, right? I'm always suspicious of American recipes, though, everything is always so sweet!

This might be a better recipe, that one was the first I came across. I see now that the US recipe isn't that good because there are no proper measurements. Also, personally, I'd leave out the topping cream.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lemon-posset-sugared-almond-shortbread

A quick-and-dirty calculation is that a US cup = about 250ml. That only works for liquid, obviously. There is no answer to what it is by weight, because some stuff is heavier than some other stuff! Yes, 3 cups cream to 1.25 of sugar seems insane. I noticed in the comments below the recipe that someone made a big batch for a party using half a gallon of cream (= 8 cups) and "only" 2 cups of sugar, which still sounds like a lot.

The US system is looney, and the cups: who the hell measures by volume rather than weight? Bur it seems a cup of cream is 240 grams, and a cup of white sugar is 200 grams.

https://thegourmandiseschool.com/measurement-charts/

Actually my big thing now is I weight everything. Including all liquids. As a cc of water weighs a gram, and all liquids weigh the same, near enough. So with things where the amount of liquid is quite critical, like pastry, I can meter it out exactly. Like that 5 min baguette: bung bowl on scale, zero the scale, put in 150 grams of flour. Half fill large jug with water, put small empty jug on scales and zero again. Pour in water from large jug until it reaches 106 grams. Job jobbed.

Bloody power cut! Halfway through cooking tea, and the Internet dies, everything off. Target fixing time is 7.40, so I'm told. First time in a few years, tbf.

We had a minor power cut today, @duc748 but luckily it was less than five minutes.

I've had lemon posset and it's very nice. My jar of lobster bisque is now empty, I had another one yesterday and the rest today. I need to get more so I'm thinking an Ocado shop because they do all the M&S stuff.

@Gonners I'm definitely up for apple and mango. When I was stuck with water and squash my favourite was M&S apple and mango which I'm still happily drinking. I'm not too worried about price, not because I'm rolling in it but when you buy so much less you can afford to buy the best of what you like. There are all manner of silver linings when you look out for them!

I thought I was too full for custard yesterday. I'm having to be really careful with what I'm eating because there is a thing that can happen after my operation and when you're eating a bit too much. It's called dumping and it's sort of what it sounds like and unpleasant, so you have to take it very slowly at first and be careful for the rest of your life but it's all good.

@MouseMinge - My favourite brand for both apple juice and apple & mango is Innocent, which has no shit in it. It's on the pricier side, but Morrisons and the Coop both seem to have it on offer more often than not.

<on edit> These are actual juices, rather than squash, but I always dilute juice 50:50 because who needs that much sweetness?

Not sure why I didn’t read this thread yesterday but I’m pleased to see you’ve reached custard day @MouseMinge - that’s great news even with the need to be cautious about over indulging in custard.

I’m not a fan of American recipes with their cups of flour and sticks of butter and so on. A friend who moved to the states said he thought that at first but came round to it because he can visualise volumes in a way that he can’t see weights. I kind of get that but it’s hopeless for baking which is often about ratios and precision is key.

Maybe I've just been unlucky, but I've also found with American recipes that by the time you're read through it all, you not only feel you know the writers life-story, you also know that of her bestie Susie, who gave her the recipe in the first place. I exaggerate only a little. But it's quite fun.

That’s certainly true of online recipes and it’s really annoying but I think actual cookbooks are fine.

I too dislike cup-based recipes, particularly for baking. I was rather fascinated by the story of why USAians use this bizarre method - read it some years ago in a book by Bee Wilson and had to do a quick Google to jog my memory. The Prophet of Cups was Fannie Merritt Farmer, the principal of the Boston Cooking School and author of a bestselling cookbook by that name. She was distraught by the old-fashioned recipes lacking proper (or any) quantities and believed that consistent, scientific measurements would improve the nation's cooking ability. Apparently she decided on cups as the standard because she thought that all those pioneers struggling across the western wilderness would definitely have cups, whereas they might lack scales, etc And so she wrote her recipes using these very scientific, accurate and inclusive measurements - sometimes even calling for cups of obviously-not-cuppable ingredients such as "cooked string beans."

I discovered recently the existence of Australian cups. Very slightly different to US cups. Found myself trying to convert and scale down a recipe recently, which went disastrously wrong when it got to the eggs. I ended up with a loaf/baked egg custard fusion. Which wasn’t horrible but wasn’t servable.

Australian cups? What fresh hell is this?

I have an Australian Women's Weekly cake cookbook which has a handy converter at the back for Aus/NZ/US/Canada/UK measurements, including cups, metric to imperial weights, an oven temperature converter C-to-F-to-gas mark, an inches-to-metric table (presumably for pan size) plus a helpful note about eggs, saying they use "large" eggs which weigh, on average, 60g. The cakes are pretty good too!

I ended up with a loaf/baked egg custard fusion. Which wasn’t horrible but wasn’t servable.

That sounds ... original.

If I'm baking,I use weight measurements. Most other stuff I'm ok with cups.

And yes, American recipes are usually too sweet for me. When I first came here, i commented that all the bread tasted like cake. DH's tastes are notably sweeter than mine.

A sweet story as a change from all the misery.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0831/1467661-choctaw-ireland-sculpture/

Oh that's lovely, I know the kindred spirits sculpture but didn't know there was a companion piece planned.