Recipe timings

[samarrange]

I've made this before and I'm making it again this evening... it's a perfectly OK recipe that you can play around with a bit.

I started to make it 40 minutes ago and I've just put the cauliflower in (I like to give the potatoes an extra few minutes first). According to the recipe I'll be ready in another 25 minutes, for a total of 65. I've been in the kitchen the entire time and DP has just brought me a glass of wine — the first of the entire process, I might add. I consider myself a competent family cook.

According to the summary there's a total 10 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes of cooking time. Is there bollocks. Even if you add up the "5–7 minutes", 15 minutes, and 10 minutes in the three stages of the recipe it's 30–32 minutes cooking (as if a panful of onions goes soft in 7 minutes from turning the heat on). And who gets all that prep done in 10 minutes (including ginger-garlic paste) from a standing start?

It always annoys me to read that onions can be soft in x minutes, so I make a big batch of slow-cooked caramelised onions (c.60 mins) & freeze in small portions.

This is so true, and PP is right that onion timings are often ridiculous. I assume because if recipes said the first 20mins of so many dishes is just cooking bloody onions they know half their audience would be put off.

On recipe timings in general, I think it’s because the ingredient list often says things like ‘julienned carrot’ or ‘shredded cabbage’. Then the timings are from after you’ve prepped everything . Deeply annoying!

The thing that niggles me is how many recipes start by telling you what temperature to pre heat the oven to in step 1, even when it is clear as day that you won't be putting it in the oven for ages.

For example, I have a quiche recipe that has you turn on the oven in step 1. Then you make the pastry and let it relax for 20 minutes. After that you roll it out and line the tin then put in the paper and baking beans. Then relax in the fridge for another 20 minutes before, finally, putting it in the oven to bake it blind. I don't know about you but my oven definitely doesn't take 45+ minutes to get to 180 degrees.

But they nearly all seem to do this. Mad.