How do I buy meat from a butcher without feeling out of my depth?
What to say, what to ask for, what a butcher will do for free, and how to get better meat for less than a supermarket charges.
beginner10 min3 min read
Ingredients
Choosing, prepping and getting the most out of what you buy.
90 guides in Food & Cooking
What can I use instead of buttermilk, soured cream or crème fraîche?
Cultured dairy does two jobs — acidity and body — and a good substitute has to match whichever one the recipe needs. The swaps that work, the ones that only work cold, and the ones that split.
beginner5 min5 min readCornflour, plain flour or arrowroot — which thickener should I use?
The three starches a home kitchen actually uses, compared by what the sauce has to survive — long simmering, acid, dairy, reheating and freezing — rather than by what happens to be in the cupboard.
beginner8 min4 min readFarmed or wild salmon — which should I buy?
What actually differs between farmed and wild salmon in fat, flavour, price and cooking behaviour, and why the environmental answer is not the same as the eating answer.
beginner6 min4 min readRaw or cooked prawns — which should I buy?
Why buying cooked prawns for a hot dish nearly guarantees rubbery prawns, when the ready-cooked ones are the right choice, and how to read what the pack is really telling you.
beginner5 min3 min readWhole, semi-skimmed, filtered, UHT or raw — which milk should I use?
What separates the milks on a British shelf — fat, filtration, heat treatment and processing — and which of those differences actually changes how the milk behaves in cooking.
beginner6 min5 min readWhat are the bits and spots in my egg, and are they safe?
Blood spots, white cords, cloudy whites, pale yolks and double yolks all have straightforward explanations. What each one is, what it tells you about the egg, and the one appearance that genuinely means bin it.
beginner5 min4 min readIs grass-fed beef actually different, and is it worth the money?
What the term is allowed to mean in the UK, the differences you can genuinely taste and see, and the ones that are oversold.
beginner10 min3 min readWhat can I use instead of egg?
There is no universal egg substitute — only substitutes for each of the jobs an egg does. Match the replacement to the function and most recipes work; ignore the function and none of them do.
beginner6 min5 min readWhat do the codes stamped on an egg mean?
Every UK egg carries a code that tells you the farming method, the country and the farm. How to read it in three seconds, what the lion stamp adds, and why the box and the shell can disagree.
beginner5 min4 min readAre stock cubes, stock pots or liquid stock better?
What is actually in each format, how they differ in salt and in body, and which one to reach for depending on whether the liquid is going to be reduced.
beginner8 min4 min readFree range, organic, barn or caged — which eggs should I buy?
What each of the four UK egg systems actually guarantees, what the additional assurance logos add on top, and where the real differences are as against where the packaging implies they are.
beginner6 min4 min readSalted or unsalted butter — does it actually matter?
Where the choice genuinely changes the result, where it makes no difference at all, and how to convert a recipe from one to the other without guessing.
beginner4 min3 min readWhich fish is good value in the UK?
The species that cost a fraction of cod and salmon and eat just as well, what each substitutes for, and why UK fish prices track fashion far more than quality.
beginner6 min3 min readWhy are my prawns mushy, and how do I tell if they have gone off?
Mushy, mealy or cotton-wool prawns come from three different faults. How to tell which one you have, which are safe to eat and which are not, and what to check at the counter next time.
beginner5 min4 min readWhy will my dried beans not go soft?
Old beans are the usual answer and no amount of cooking fixes them. The five causes in the order worth checking, plus the two additions that genuinely do slow softening and the one that does not.
beginner10 min3 min readWhat actually makes people ill from shellfish?
Four different causes with four different controls: bacterial spoilage, norovirus, algal biotoxins and allergy. Which ones cooking solves, which it does not, and where the real decisions are.
beginner8 min4 min readWhat do egg sizes mean in a recipe?
The UK weight bands, which recipes actually care, and how to substitute one size for another by weight.
beginner5 min3 min readWhich tinned fish should I buy, and how do I use it?
What separates a good tin from a cheap one, what oil, brine and spring water each do to the fish, and the species worth having in a cupboard.
beginner6 min4 min readHow many eggs a day is it safe to eat?
The old limit on eggs was withdrawn in the UK because dietary cholesterol turned out to matter far less than saturated fat. What the current position is, who should still be careful, and what an egg actually contains.
beginner5 min3 min readHow often can I eat tinned tuna and oily fish?
Why there is a limit on oily fish at all, why tuna gets its own separate limit, and how the advice differs for pregnancy and for children.
beginner6 min4 min readWhat is dry-aged beef and is it worth paying more for?
What ageing actually does to beef, how dry and wet ageing differ, what the extra money buys, and why you should not attempt it in a domestic fridge.
beginner10 min3 min readAt what temperature does an egg actually set?
White and yolk set at different temperatures, and almost every egg dish is an attempt to stop between the two. The ladder of temperatures that explains scrambled, poached, coddled, custard and hard-boiled all at once.
intermediate6 min4 min readHow do I use dried mushrooms properly?
The soak, the soaking liquid that is the real prize, and the grit that ruins a dish if you pour it all in.
beginner30 min3 min read
Going deeper: PizzaHQ
Dough hydration and fermentation schedules, flour selection, oven types and bake profiles.