Why are my biscuits rock hard?
Hard biscuits are over-baked, over-worked, or short of the ingredients that hold moisture. Whether they were hard straight out of the oven or went hard in the tin points at different causes.
beginner8 min3 min read
Food & Cooking
The cooking questions people actually search for — how long, how hot, why did it go wrong, and how to keep food good for longer. Techniques and timings, not recipe theatre.
816 guides
Why did my chocolate mousse not set?
A mousse holds up on three possible structures — cocoa butter setting, whipped cream, and whipped egg white — and the recipe tells you which one you were relying on. Whichever it was, that is what failed.
intermediate15 min4 min readWhy does my rice burn on the bottom of the pan?
There is one part of a pan of rice that can scorch and one reason it does. What is happening at the base, the four things that prevent it, and how to save the rest of the pan.
beginner10 min3 min readAre tinned beans as good as dried beans?
An honest comparison on texture, flavour, cost, time, salt and the cooking liquid — and the dishes where the difference genuinely shows.
beginner5 min3 min readCream cheese or mascarpone — can I swap one for the other?
They are made differently, they are 10 percentage points apart in fat, and one is cultured while the other is not. Where the swap works, where it changes the dish, and where it fails outright.
beginner4 min3 min readDo I need to salt aubergine before cooking it?
Modern aubergines are not bitter, so the original reason has gone — but salting still collapses the sponge structure that soaks up oil, which is a real benefit for frying.
beginner5 min3 min readHow do I clean and prepare a whole squid?
The five parts of a squid, which of them you eat, and the pull-and-strip sequence that turns a whole squid into clean tube, wings and tentacles in a couple of minutes.
intermediate10 min4 min readHow do I cook new potatoes properly?
New potatoes are a different ingredient from maincrop, not a small version of one. How to cook them so the skins stay on, the flesh stays firm and they taste of something.
beginner20 min3 min readHow do I get royal icing to the right consistency?
Royal icing is not one consistency but three, and each is defined by how long a ribbon takes to disappear back into the surface. The seconds test, and how to move between them without ruining a batch.
intermediate12 min4 min readHow do I revive limp vegetables?
A cold water soak puts water back into cells that have only lost pressure, and it works remarkably well. Which vegetables come back, which do not, and how to tell the difference before you bother.
beginner10 min3 min readHow do I stop a rich fruit cake burning during a long bake?
A three to four hour bake will darken the outside long before the middle is done. Double lining, an outer paper band, a low shelf and a late foil cap narrow the gap between how fast the outside and the centre cook.
intermediate20 min5 min readHow do I use up a glut of herbs in a sauce?
Salsa verde, chimichurri, gremolata, herb oil and herb butter — five sauces that each use a whole bunch of herbs rather than a sprig, with the pattern behind all of them.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy did my baked custard split and weep?
A split baked custard has been overheated — the egg protein contracted and squeezed its water out. A water bath, a lower oven and taking it out while the centre still wobbles prevent all three symptoms.
intermediate15 min4 min readWhy did my biscuits not spread at all?
Biscuits that come out as the shape you put in are short of spread, and spread comes from fat that melts, sugar that dissolves and dough that is loose enough to flow. Four causes, each with a different look.
beginner8 min3 min readWhy did my chicken stock not set to a jelly?
A stock sets because of gelatine, and gelatine comes from specific parts of the animal cooked for long enough. The four reasons yours stayed liquid, and whether it matters.
intermediate12 min4 min readWhy is my pastry greasy and leaking butter?
Butter running out of pastry means the fat melted before the dough set around it. Almost always a temperature failure — warm hands, a warm kitchen, or an oven too cool to set the structure fast enough.
intermediate10 min3 min readWhy is my soup gritty?
Grit in a soup is either actual grit from the vegetables, fibre that the blender could not break down, or curdled dairy — and each one has a different answer.
beginner12 min4 min readCan I leave the salt out of bread dough, and does salt kill yeast?
Salt does three jobs in bread — flavour, gluten strength and controlling the rate of the rise. Leave it out and the dough over-proves, slackens and bakes into a pale, coarse, oddly bland loaf.
beginner6 min3 min readHow do I concentrate and freeze stock so it takes up less room?
Reducing stock to a concentrate, the freezing formats that actually get used, and how far you can take it before the flavour suffers.
beginner25 min3 min readHow 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 readHow do I cook rice in the microwave?
A genuinely good method rather than a compromise, once you use a big enough bowl and the two-stage power setting that stops it boiling over.
beginner20 min3 min readHow do I truss a chicken, and does it actually matter?
A one-piece-of-string method that takes under a minute, plus an honest account of what trussing helps with and what it makes worse.
beginner5 min3 min readShould I wash mushrooms or just brush them?
Wash them. The idea that mushrooms absorb water like sponges does not survive testing — what matters is drying them before they hit the pan.
beginner5 min3 min readWhy did my flapjack fall apart?
Flapjack is held together by sugar syrup setting as it cools, not by flour or egg. Crumbling means too little syrup, not enough pressing, or cutting it at the wrong moment.
beginner8 min3 min read
Going deeper: PizzaHQ
Dough hydration and fermentation schedules, flour selection, oven types and bake profiles.
PizzaHQ is in development — GuideHQ covers the practical answers in the meantime.