How do I cook butternut squash so it is not soggy?
Squash is wet and sweet, which means dry heat and space. The cutting method, the roasting temperature and why boiling it is almost always the wrong call.
beginner40 min3 min read
Techniques
Roasting, frying, braising and why temperature matters.
234 guides in Food & Cooking
Why does my blended soup taste starchy or turn gluey?
Potato and rice burst in a high-speed blender and release free starch, which turns a soup into paste — why it cannot be undone, and the three ways to get a thick smooth soup without it.
beginner8 min3 min readHow do I make a beurre blanc without it splitting?
The wine and shallot reduction, the cold butter that goes in piece by piece, and the narrow temperature range a butter emulsion has to be kept inside.
advanced20 min4 min readHow do I make crispy smashed potatoes?
Boil, squash, dry, then roast hot. The two decisions that separate genuinely crisp smashed potatoes from soft flat ones — how hard you squash and how much you leave them alone.
beginner20 min3 min readHow do I make horseradish sauce?
Fresh root or jarred, how vinegar controls the heat, and why a sauce made in advance is much milder than one made ten minutes before serving.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy is my cooked spinach so watery?
A bag of spinach is almost entirely water held in very thin leaves, so it collapses to nothing and floods the pan. How to cook it dry, and how much you actually need.
beginner5 min3 min readWhat is beurre manié and when is it better than a roux?
Equal weights of soft butter and flour kneaded to a paste, whisked into a finished sauce that is already too thin — how much to use, why it cannot lump, and where it beats a roux.
beginner5 min4 min readWhy are my potatoes hard in a chilli, curry or stew?
Acid stops potato pectin dissolving, so a potato that would soften in twenty minutes in plain water can still be firm after two hours in tomatoes or wine. What to do about it.
beginner5 min2 min readWhy is my risotto still crunchy in the middle?
Cold stock, an acidic addition too early, the wrong rice or simply not enough time — the four causes, how to tell them apart and how to finish the pan you have.
intermediate10 min4 min readHow do I char vegetables properly without burning them?
Charring is controlled surface burning that has to happen faster than the inside cooks. The heat, the dryness and the contact that make it work, and the line between char and acrid.
intermediate20 min4 min readHow do I cook a lobster at home?
Buying, humanely dispatching, and cooking a lobster without turning an expensive animal into rubber — with the timings, the split-and-grill route and the boil route compared.
advanced30 min5 min readHow do I cook carrots so they are glazed rather than watery?
Cook them in a small amount of liquid that becomes the glaze rather than boiling them and dressing them afterwards. The one-pan method and the timing that decides it.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy does my sauce set solid when it goes cold?
Three different things set a cold sauce — starch, gelatine and fat — and telling them apart tells you whether it will come back when you reheat it.
beginner6 min3 min readHow do I make sushi rice properly?
The rice, the rinse, the ratio and the seasoning-while-hot step that turns plain short grain into rice that holds together without being stodgy.
intermediate45 min4 min readHow do I stop red cabbage turning blue or grey?
Red cabbage is a pH indicator, which is why it changes colour in the pan. Add acid and it stays red; British tap water and a long cook turn it blue.
beginner10 min3 min readHow do I roast a whole cauliflower?
A whole roasted cauliflower is a centrepiece rather than a side, and it needs a two-stage cook — steam or par-boil first, then hard dry heat — or the middle is raw when the outside is black.
intermediate1 hr3 min readWhy is my dauphinoise watery, curdled or still hard?
Three separate faults with three separate causes — potato water thinning the cream, cream splitting under heat, and slices that never softened — and the method that avoids all of them.
intermediate25 min3 min readWhy does the pasta in my soup go soggy?
Pasta left in hot liquid never stops absorbing, so a soup that is perfect at the table is bloated an hour later. Three ways round it, depending on whether you are eating now or later.
beginner10 min2 min read
Going deeper: PizzaHQ
Dough hydration and fermentation schedules, flour selection, oven types and bake profiles.