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ventaEvery so often - usually when cooking - I notice that I'm doing something exactly the same way the mother does it. Of course, it's possible that this is because there is one right and obvious way to do it, and everyone else on the planet does it the same way too.
Apart from it being every woman's tragedy to turn into her mother, I quite like it. It gives me a nice sense of continuity, and of family, in everyday life.
I realise that I have, not quite consciously, stocked my kitchen with many very similar bits of equipment to the kitchen I grew up observing. Not in deliberate emulation, but just because those things strike me as being the proper tool for a job. So I have a beige-on-the-outisde, white-on-the-inside heavy ceramic bowl to mix bread dough in, and a Kenwood food mixer, and a set of Lakeland "add and weigh" scales. I prick eggs before I boil them, and I store my fridge boxes exactly like my mum stores hers. My spices live in a box in the cupboard, not on a rack. Recently, I've begged, borrowed and stolen what I think of as proper "kitchen cutlery" - second-hand heavy, white-metal tablespoons and forks, and flat-bladed knives with yellowing (fake-)bone handles. Kitchen cutlery is used only for cooking, and never makes it to the table for eating with.
Yesterday I was making custard (from powder, not from scratch) using a big, old tablespoon (did you know that a modern tablespoon measure holds slightly less, and if you make custard using one your custard will come out thin?) and I emptied the tin. Getting the new tin of custard powder out of the cupboard, I was suddenly struck by the end of one of these little similarities. Never again will I turn the spoon round and use the handle-end, with its distinctive heart-shaped pattern, to lever off the lid - something I watched my mum do at least once a week for years. They've changed the design, and instead of a lid which resembles that of a tin of paint, the new plastic lid is now easily removable with fingers alone.
It's a much more sensible design, but I can't help slightly regretting the old one's passing. Maybe in another thirty years I'll have got used to it.
Apart from it being every woman's tragedy to turn into her mother, I quite like it. It gives me a nice sense of continuity, and of family, in everyday life.
I realise that I have, not quite consciously, stocked my kitchen with many very similar bits of equipment to the kitchen I grew up observing. Not in deliberate emulation, but just because those things strike me as being the proper tool for a job. So I have a beige-on-the-outisde, white-on-the-inside heavy ceramic bowl to mix bread dough in, and a Kenwood food mixer, and a set of Lakeland "add and weigh" scales. I prick eggs before I boil them, and I store my fridge boxes exactly like my mum stores hers. My spices live in a box in the cupboard, not on a rack. Recently, I've begged, borrowed and stolen what I think of as proper "kitchen cutlery" - second-hand heavy, white-metal tablespoons and forks, and flat-bladed knives with yellowing (fake-)bone handles. Kitchen cutlery is used only for cooking, and never makes it to the table for eating with.
Yesterday I was making custard (from powder, not from scratch) using a big, old tablespoon (did you know that a modern tablespoon measure holds slightly less, and if you make custard using one your custard will come out thin?) and I emptied the tin. Getting the new tin of custard powder out of the cupboard, I was suddenly struck by the end of one of these little similarities. Never again will I turn the spoon round and use the handle-end, with its distinctive heart-shaped pattern, to lever off the lid - something I watched my mum do at least once a week for years. They've changed the design, and instead of a lid which resembles that of a tin of paint, the new plastic lid is now easily removable with fingers alone.
It's a much more sensible design, but I can't help slightly regretting the old one's passing. Maybe in another thirty years I'll have got used to it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 09:52 pm (UTC)Really? Why? As someone who boils a lot of eggs, I want to know if I can improve my method!
"did you know that a modern tablespoon measure holds slightly less"
I thought so! When I was a kid, tablespoons seemed huge! But my modern tablespoon measure seems teeny.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 10:03 pm (UTC)If you put eggs into already-boiling water, they often crack.
If you prick a tiny hole in the shell (I always do it on the roundy end, I don't know if that's necessary) the air scoots out the hole when you drop them in boiling water, and the shells don't crack.
You can prick them with a pin or a sharp knife, but it's a bit of a carry on and risks cracking them before you've even started. I have owned a variety of egg-pricking devices of various designs, currently one of these (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/egg-piercer/F/keyword/egg+pricker/product/10897).
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 07:28 am (UTC)It is always possible I suppose that it doesn't really matter :-)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 08:36 am (UTC)I suspect it may not matter :)