The Secret Ingredient
When a recipe is SHARED with you, can you ever really recreate it in the same way as the person who SHARED it with you? I suspect not, as we all have our own little twists and tricks that we use when we cook, that make the dish our own.
I have been given and SHARED many recipes over the years and when they have been SHARED with me I don’t think they ever taste quite how they did when they had originally been cooked for me. That’s not to say they don’t still taste amazing!
I remember mum and dad coming to stay with us and mum making untold batches of cheese straws to have with drinks before dinner. They always tasted amazing and John would always say that mine were not as good.
The day they were leaving to return home, I insisted mum teach me how me to make them, which she did. The lesson improved the cheese straws but apparently mum’s are still better! However if you ask a couple of our friends they disagree and say mine are better. Is this just because they know they will only get mum’s cheese straws every 2 years and they need to keep me happy so I keep on making them, or do they truly prefer my version!
After watching and cooking with mum, I know her secret tip for making pastry, cheese straws and some biscuits, is to use cold butter and always cut it into tiny pieces before adding it to the flour. She then squashes the pieces of butter into the flour rather than rubbing it in too much. I now use this trick and get a much better result with all of them.
My trick with biscuits, fruit cakes and brownies is to cook them at a slightly lower temperature than they say for slightly less time so they end up a little chewy. This doesn’t work for all recipes but I tend to know which ones it will work for.
When I’m cooking something that has a sauce with it I will always add a bit more liquid than the recipe asks for because, like the judges on My Kitchen Rules I love lots of sauce / gravy with my food.
I am also a firm believer that unless you are cooking a cake or something like macaroons there is no need to follow a recipe to the letter as it is always good to put your own twist on things, to make them your own. The only problem is remembering what that twist was and writing it down for next time.
We would love to hear from you on what your secret ingredient or tips and tricks are when you cook.
Happy cooking
Rachel
