Know and Understand Your Kitchen Appliances

Hi! How are you all?

I know I promised to post some of my experiences with "pudding" this week on my twitter.. But, before I post my pudding experience, I want to share some interesting experience that I had a couple days ago.. It's about your "best friend"..

What is every Cooks or Home Cooks's best friend? for me, my "Kitchen Appliances" is my best friend! My stove, my oven, my mixer, even some small appliances like double boiler, spatulas, whisks are my kitchen's best friends! Why? This is I what I want to share with all of you now..

2 years ago, one of my friend asked me to teach her how to make Brownies at her house.. The first thing I asked to her is, "do you have an oven?" and She said, "of course, my Mom loves to bake too!" (then I don't know why didn't her asked her Mom to teach her.. I'm sure her Mom has a better experience than me.. humm..) So, I made it!

My oven is actually my Mother's oven.. it's a one set stove and oven.. She had use it a year before I born, which mean it's already 26 years old.. So, I need 50 - 60 minutes to make a beautiful Brownies.. but, when I tried to make the Brownies at my friend's home, I need one and an half hour.. I kept checking every 10 minutes since it became 45 minutes but still not cooked.. I checked the heat, it's a same temperature like I usually used at my house.. then since that time, I know that "YOU NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR OVEN!"

you should know the age of the oven.. you should know the quality of your brand.. you should know their standard temperature.. you should understand how to bake every cake, cookie, bread with your oven.. different oven, different temperature, means you need different time to bake it..

no, this is not the end of my story, yet..

the next interesting experience is when I tried, tried and tried to make a perfect pudding recipe.. I'm so happy when I've finally found the best recipe I need.. so I have an idea to make it at my boyfriend's house for their dinner's dessert..

I use a same recipe, but... if I use a metal whisk and an aluminium pot to make the pudding at my house, then I use a plastic whisk and a 'teflon' pot at my boyfriend's house.. at first, I get worried because it's been 5 minutes but my pudding is still watery.. then when it came to 15 minutes, it started to thick.. I kept whisk it, then after next 5 minutes it finally boiled and I still use the next 2 minutes to stir it before I transfer it to a pudding mold, and keep it in a refrigerator for an hour..

the result is, it's not thick and smooth.. it's thick enough, but not really smooth..

so I got a new lesson.. even a different pot and whisk could change your food, especially for dessert! a metal pot cook your food faster than the 'teflon' one.. a metal whisk more pervade heat than the plastic one.. so once again, be careful with your kitchen appliances..

KNOW it and UNDERSTAND your Kitchen Appliances!


Happy Cooking, all! ;)