Food

Cooking hacks you say....
picked this one up recently, to peel a hard boiled egg.
http://lifehacker.com/quickly-peel-a-hard-boiled-egg-by-shaking-it-in-a-glass-1683335985
Put it in a jar for less mess...

Easier to get in the nooks and crannies with a tea spoon

Filth

Ginger: peel it with a teaspoon, loads easier and wastes less ginger.

Ooh, will try this. I usually block it off with a knife, wasting loads.

picked this one up recently, to peel a hard boiled egg.

I do it under a running tap; it cools the egg, shears off the shell nicely and puts all the detritus into my plug hole basket thingummy for easy disposal.

Teaspoon and ginger peeling is almost as amazing as the burrito method of getting your duvet in the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1IzS2oBBN0

jaysus, my mum showed me this when i was like 8 yrs old and i didnt remember it fully but remembered that you rolled it, and now it's like a revelation that i didnt dream this up! #rep

I don't understand how this is better than the 'be a ghost' method.

(Turn cover inside out. Put hand inside and grab corners of closed end. Pick up duvet corners. Pull through).

Woooooooooooo.

Lifehacks thread >>>>>>>>>

I know, I know, I started this.

I like the ghost method too. The California roll method gives no scope for running around the bed room making ghoul noises stopping only when you hit your knee against something much harder and pointier than your knee

OK back to food, another one my mum taught me, hot boiled egg, roll over a black eye will get rid of the purple bruising.

OK not quite a cooking hack but kinda...

http://youtu.be/0d3oc24fD-c

For ginger, if you keep it in the freezer it grates really easily and you don't have to faff with chopping or anything

58C for two hours in a water bath is safe.
I refer you to this page

Hokay, some thoughts. Firstly, this is not a personal attack- but we're on a public forum, and the thought of someone copying this worries me. Secondly, I have done a good amount of research on this. I don't have time to find it now, but I will dig it out on Tuesday, whether right or wrong.

1) The article relies on a table from USDA, from a study which is five years out of date. There's been a lot of work on this topic in the last five years, due to the increase of sous vide cooking. It's not reliable.
2) The article is written by a creative director. Not a scientist. I question whether they have the depth of knowledge required to give good advice on this topic.
3) Particularly as he only looks at the effects of heat on salmonella- of the top of my head, there's another three bacteria chicken carry that can make you seriously ill. What of those?

Do you have another source?

Before writing this I went through some notes and books quickly, to make sure I wasn't being a retard and getting my numbers mixed up. The only reference I could find to cooking that low was from the Fat Duck cookbook- hardly a conservative restaurant in this subject- they only cook red meat below 60. And that's after searing it off, in order to kill the surface bacteria. They cook chicken to 62. And I have to ask- do you think you can taste the difference between 4 degrees?

Don't discount the 'danger zone' stuff- it's simplistic, but that doesn't make it unworthy. As said, I'll dig out the work proper on Tuesday. There's been a new study published in the last couple of months, so I'll try and find that as well. In the interim these tables are pretty good- it's written by one of the manufacturers of sous vide machines so (I assume) is pretty safe- http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/en-uk/sousvide_cookingtemperatures.htm .

Well still alive anyway

Also a manufacturer is going to give safer temps - there are plenty if people who are accounting for cooking chicken breast sous vide around 58/59 degree.

What I find more dangerous is your use of the word 'retard' - I'm up for you trying to help people to not get ill but have a word with yourself mate

@mands the egg trick worked for me earlier with a soft boiled egg, result!

I think the most ingenious thing about this video is zip-equipped duvet covers!

I have 14 foot long arms so can faux-ghost method a cover without having to get inside and it takes me probably less time than she spent using the roll method, but then I usually spend as much time again fannying on with press studs, buttons or god fobid, buttons on a turned back flap thing that hides the buttons, but means you need to do them up back to front.

^when I read that egg trick I thought yeah but who ever gets a black eye? And you've gone and sustained one the very same day! What the hell happened?

@Tenderloin
@Olly398

two egg tricks, does loins mean the peeling one or the black eye one?

Sorry I read the water trick and read no more.

My eyes are devoid of bruises!

Three egg hints actually, and Tenderloin used mine.

The glory!

Sardine + chilli + pasta recipes please.

Am planning on just frying the little stinkers in olive oil, garlic and chilli, and throwing in some cherry tomatoes and rocket at the end, but if there's better ideas to be had, hit me up.

@mashton @Tenderloin
woah woah hang on, egg trick in a jar/glass or under a running tap?

I want the glory!

(PS: just did the jar trick today for my caesars salad lunch, fun!)

Currently reliving tastes of our holiday in Marrakech.

Toast with amlo paste aka Berber Nutella. We bought it from a man who was toasting and grinding the almonds before adding argan oil and honey. It is more nutty and less sweet than Nutella and tastes amazing.

We brought back the spices and specific container to make a Marrakech dish called tangia. It is traditionally a bachelors stew, lamb, spices, onion, garlic, preserved lemon and a splash of water are slow cooked for minimum of six hours in a clay dish that looks like a vase. It was assembled and put in the oven this morning, and I have just got back. The house smells beautifully fragrant. Where we stayed there is a renowned chef who runs cooking classes at the rhiad and she helped me locate the best spices. If it has gone to plan the lamb will be falling apart and the connective tissue will have broken down to give the dish moisture.

I need to find a Moroccan baker to get the right bread, tangia is served just with bread, tonight a ciabatta as a substitute.

What I find more dangerous is your use of the word 'retard'

Perhaps I should rephrase that then- 'I checked my notes and books quickly, to make sure that I wasn't being stupid/getting mixed up/having a brain fart.' I make mistakes, I was checking my own facts before commenting. I didn't mean it to be offensive towards anyone in anyway, I wasn't implying anything towards Mr Sworld.