The same, though you may want to explain the process since it’s not something that people do every day.
Yeah, I was thinking that many British amateur cooks wouldn’t recognise the term either. I think the book is quite specialist so it may be ok without explanation. Thanks for your continued help by the way.
Yeah, those are staples in many British people’s cupboards, certainly mine. Nor am I a weird hippie.
If their boss isn’t paying them enough they shouldn’t be taking it out on the people who are paying for a service, especially since they’re taking individual items. Steal from someone’s wallet and they’re down the cash, but it doesn’t matter which notes were taken. Steal someone’s stuff, and they’re down the cash it costs for a replacement plus the item itself, which might be either irreplaceable or have some sentimental value.
Weirdest slo-mo hijack ever.
The bacon press is either with the old yearbooks, or in the box of Christmas ornaments you didn’t use recently.
I swear, stuff MIGRATES between boxes during a move!
Unpacking at the new house, while looking for the freakin’ bacon press, you’ll run across stuff you haven’t seen in years. The common response is, “I forgot we HAD that!”
The things that NEVER vanish or get busted are those GAWD-awful wedding presents.
~VOW
New questions:
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What is it that you do with a hand mixer? I’d say you “beat” whatever it is you are mixing, but just want to check.
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When you pour out liquids through a sieve (e.g. when making pasta) to remove the solids, is that called “straining”? Or “draining”? Actual example: a fruit preparation with lemon zest in it, poured through a sieve to remove the zest.
“Beat” or “mix”, either one works.
Well, to me, in your zest example, I’d say “Strain through a sieve.”
But pasta is “drained”.
Though the action are the same, I think “straining” implies you’re keeping the liquid and discarding the solids, and “draining” implies the opposite. But it’s subtle, and I think either word works.
In either case, if you need to keep both liquids and solids (like for pasta, sometimes you want a bit of the pasta cooking water to thin the sauce), I’d make a note of it: “Strain the liquid through a sieve to remove the lemon zest, reserving 1T. of the zest.”
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That’s my understanding.
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I understand pour through a sieve. Straining would also work, I think. Draining the pasta is done in a colander.
Yeah sorry I should have included colander in my examples. Interesting that there’s a distinction in verbs based on the utensil.
Unless they’ve seen My Blue Heaven. “Arugula. It’s a ve-ge-tub-ble.”
As the consummate idiot, I’d try to make the instructions even more idiot-proof (but don’t worry, I would still find a way to mess up). First I would go in order, so for your example I would say:
“Strain the liquid through a sieve into a bowl to remove the lemon zest, reserving 1T. of the zest.”
However, in the case of pasta water, I would say:
“Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water. Drain pasta.”
Even though I read recipes through completely before starting, when I am cooking I will often be wrestling several different tasks. If the task says, “Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water”, I might (actually, I have) stopped at “Drain pasta” then after draining I go to the next step, “reserving…”. :smack:* I’ve seen the same thing happen to many other cooks trying to follow step by step instructions for dishes with which they are not familiar.
*I’ve long since solved this problem by buying a pasta pot with a lift out strainer. Now I always have water left behind.
Hehe, I’ve done that as well, and it’s not only when following recipes. I’ve taken to putting a measuring cup IN the strainer that I’m going to use to drain the pasta. That way, when I go to drain it, I look at the colander and go “why is that measuring cup in there?” and then go :smack: “I gotta reserve some water.”
When I posted this I was joking… and apparently drinking. I swear it was hilarious at the time. But at least I’m happy somebody noticed me after only half a year.
Yep, sausage shaped is quite well understood and is quite often used as a simile in the common culinary vernacular to describe the shape of an object whether it be sausage or not. For example, when you wrap and roll, say a stuffed whole salmon roll in saran and foil to poach, it would not at all be uncommon to refer to the process as twisting the ends and forming it into a sausage shaped roll.
I have also heard of blimps or zeppelins being described as “sausage” and “cigar” shaped.
It’s “arugula” now, although it was also known regionally and perhaps more archaically as “rocket” in earlier times and places in America. Although today it is most commonly known as “arugula”… never heard “rucola”, unless it was a natural language dropping of the beginning “a” and a softening of the “g” through dialect.
Saran is also one that might need translating, don’t know what you guys call plastic wrap in the UK?? Kitchen Film or something?
Cling film, usually.
Plastic wrap.
Bit of a hijack, concerning the packing of various salts and sugars: Small grains will pack with the same efficiency as large grains. The two things that actually do affect packing efficiency are grain shape, and the distribution of grain sizes. A mixture of large and small grains will pack more efficiently than uniformly-large grains or uniformly-small grains.
At a guess, I’d say that variations in packing efficiency of sugar come mostly from different variations of size, and variations in packing efficiency of salt come mostly from different grain shapes. That’s just a guess, though.