Kitchen Essential

The perfect kitchen is toasty and warm in winter, cool and airy in summer but, alas, the situation is often reversed.

The Kitchen Floor

However magnificent they may look in an old farmhouse, cold, grey flagstone floors don’t conjure up a sense of winter comfort. The fact is, if your feet are cold, so is the rest of you. Ironically, in the right location, solid floors are an important factor in maintaining a good ambient temperature. Continue Reading »

Start with a well-designed kitchen; mix that with a carefully thought-out colour scheme and personal decorating touches, and the result will be an individual and interesting room that will be in keeping with the rest of the house.

While the working parts of the kitchen are vitally important, so too are the decorative aspects — you want to create a room that you feel happy working in. There’s no point in having all the latest appliances and high technology if you’re miserable every time you set foot in the kitchen. Think just as carefully about colour and the decorating of the room as you do about every other aspect. Continue Reading »

Is it a space station, is it a laboratory — no, it’s a kitchen, an ultra-modern one. Here you’ll find the best of everything, the very latest technology. No room here for comfortable clutter — everything’s hidden from view, or displayed purely for its functional qualities. Small appliances sit in purpose- built cabinets, always close at hand — the message here is efficiency, speed and streamlining. Continue Reading »

A small kitchen may not have enough room for a permanent table at which a couple of people can eat breakfast or quick kitchen meals, but it may have a wall to which a fold-down table could be attached.

Such a table can also provide extra workspace when needed as well as a place for family and friends to sit and keep the cook company while meals are being prepared. Folding chairs, some kind of cosy lighting arrangement and a spot for a small television on a facing wall could make previously dead space the most popular spot in the house. Continue Reading »

The galley kitchen, generally a narrow room with cabinets on the two long walls, is one of the most difficult types of kitchen to make work satisfactorily.

The most awkward arrangement is when the room is essentially a passageway between the back door and the main living areas. Much less troublesome is the corridor with one completely enclosed end wall, in which the only traffic is that coming into, and not through, the room. Continue Reading »

With cabinets and appliances running in an unbroken line around three counters, the U-shape is generally considered to be the most workable kitchen design.

To create an efficient work triangle in a U-shaped kitchen, awkwardly positioned doorways are more of a problem than the actual size of the room. In the true U-shape, the line of work surfaces is uninterrupted by doors, so that the cook is undisturbed by family members continually tramping through the work area. Continue Reading »

This configuration is suitable for virtually all types of rooms, except for particularly narrow ones, or those with lots of doors.

It’s often used to create a kitchen in the corner of an open-plan living room, or in a large combined kitchen/dining room.

In almost every case, the L-shaped kitchen can include an eating area, even if it’s only in the form of a breakfast bar; generally, though, there’s room here for a table. Of course, it’s a very sociable set-up, ideal for relaxed entertaining and family meals, enabling the cook to join in conversation without feeling excluded. Continue Reading »

In any kitchen, but especially a small kitchen, where space is at a premium, it is important to make use of all available space for storage.

These DIY projects will enable you to keep kitchen essentials within easy reach. While they are simple to make, they look smart and help keep your kitchen neat.

All these projects are suitable for novice carpenters. Continue Reading »

If you’d like to expand your knowledge of wine beyond where you get the best deal on Tassies, read on. If you remain firmly committed to the hops fraternity, you may want to skip to one of the other stupefyingly interesting sections. For instance, it is very dangerous handling heavy machinery in any shape, form or size after a wine tasting (a dedicated driver is a valuable asset) and a few other details that you may want to indulge us sharing with you. One thing is certain, if you do study this section you will know so much marvellous and interesting wine terminology, if you don’t impress anyone you’ll definitely confuse the pants off someone! Before we get serious — with wine, too, you only learn through experience. Take note of what exactly you’re drinking. Not all wines will cause your face to scrunch up as if someone has just poured a bottle of vinegar down your throat. If you’re lucky you may even find a wine that leaves you with a blissful little grin, like few other things in life ever will. Continue Reading »

You may never set the table like this (you probably don’t have enough matching cutlery anyway) but should you happen to be invited to one of those really fancy restaurants where you are faced with a dazzling display of silverware and starched white linen as the maitre d’ pushes in your chair, at least you won’t make a fool of yourself when it comes to using said silverware to deliver delicate morsels to your mouth for mastication, swallowing and digestion and whatever follows that.

With formal 3-5 course meals, the dinner place-setting is used from the outside in. When you sit down at a formal table, the side plate on your left is yours. There will normally be a butter knife on top. You will use this knife to butter your bread or roll which you don’t cut, by the way, but break (gently, you’re not a caveman). Continue Reading »

The best method of caring for all cutlery, whatever it is made from, is to wash and dry immediately after use. In this way all food residues are removed before staining can occur. No cutlery is totally stain-resistant, so do not leave it unwashed, wet or `in soak’ overnight — even in a dish washer. First rinse under cold running water to remove any traces of salt; salt plus hot water can cause staining and pitting. Next wash in clean, warm, soapy water, rinse and dry thoroughly. Use soft dish pads or cloths and tea towels, and never add bleach to the water. Handle each piece separately; cutlery cluttered in a bowl may get scratched. When drying, knife blades (nowadays usually made from stainless steel) should not be wiped with an up-and-down movement, but in one direction only from neck to point until all the moisture is removed. This method is best for spoons and forks too. Continue Reading »

Basic Needs

Now for the stores required:

Flour—plain is essential; self-raising highly desirable; wholemeal a slight “extra,” but it makes wonderful scones. Baking powder and cornflour, which is used in many cake and biscuit recipes and also for fillings.

Bicarbonate of soda has its place in many scone and other recipes, and cream of tartar is often wanted for scones, too, and also for some toffees and sweets. Continue Reading »

Herbs, spices, flavourings, colourings and decorations are just as important
to good cookery as the basic ingredients

THERE are a number of things, apart I from basics- like tea and flour, which everyone ought to keep in their kitchen. They crop up, as apparently minor ingredients, in countless recipes, but they are important. They are as vital, in their way, as the contents of a sewing basket, and a cook will need them to work on the basic materials. If you have not got them at hand, you must either forgo the dish you intended to make, or make it imperfectly. Continue Reading »

Hot smoking kilns Pressure smoking

The first piece of smoking equipment I had any experience with was the Abu Smokebox, which is manufactured by Abu Svangsta of Sweden, a famous firm of fishing tackle manufacturers. The Abu measures about 12 x 7 x 4 in. deep and on account of its small size, the potential is very limited. The Abu works on a different principle from other smoke units, and is said to ‘pressure smoke‘. A bed of fine sawdust is spread on its floor, and a combined drip tin and wire rack placed over the sawdust, on which is placed the food to be smoked. A small methylated spirit burner under the Abu supplies instant heat, and the sliding lid fits fairly tightly into place. Here the process differs from other smoking techniques, which allow for the free passage of smoke out of the top of the sides of the unit. The smoke has to force its way out of the sides of the lid, causing smoke pressure inside. High temperatures are generated within the Abu and the food cooks in the time it takes for the meths to burn out, which is usually about 20 minutes. Continue Reading »

Razor clams should first be steamed for 10 minutes to open them. The meats should be shaken out and the clams should be cleaned by removing the stomachs and splitting open the necks. They should then be washed and cut into sections. The clams should be soaked in 60% brine (1 lb 14 oz salt to 1 gallon of water) for 5 minutes, then rinsed in cold water and drained on racks for 15 minutes. Continue Reading »

Red and roe venison can, for all practical purposes, be dealt with together. The treatment is identical, the only differenc_es being in brining and cooking times on account of the differences in size and weight. Only the haunches and saddles are suitable for smoking as the more frontal areas have n_ot sufficient depth of flesh; in fact the saddle of a roe has only just enough depth of flesh to render smoking a viable proposition.

Venison should have hung a minimum of 1 week before brining, but on no account should it be allowed to go ‘high’. A haunch of roe will require brining for 3 hours in 80% brine, a saddle of roe 2 hours, whereas a haunch of red deer will require 6 hours in the brine and a saddle from the same animal will need 31/2 hours in the pickle. I am assuming that the red deer venison will come from ordinary hill beasts, and it is surely a matter of commonsense that a haunch from one of those monsters from Thetford Chase would require considerably longer in the brine. Continue Reading »

The traditional Scottish recipe for this, the largest of the British and Scandinavian game birds, states that as soon as possible after the bird has been killed, the crop should be removed, the feet cut off and the bird then buried for a fortnight, by which time one should have forgotten where the bird has been buried. This implies that the caper is pretty ghastly fare, but this is an exaggeration, and similar defamatory statements are often made about the black grouse and its female counterpart, the grey hen, which I and many others consider excellent eating. Continue Reading »

The idea of the kitchen as the heart of the home dates back to the dayswhen kitchens were power houses of service and industry and had a staff to run them! Fitted furniture and neat appliances mean they now have all sorts of other benefits to offer — and are much more fun to decorate.

Practicality should be uppermost in your kitchen planning. Even if you’re not a keen cook, or want a rustic, unfitted look,you will still need unobstructed access to cooker, fridge, sink, work tops and storage. And the kitchen is usually the room that has to accommodate all the general paraphernalia for which there’s no room elsewhere, from cleaning equipment to spare light bulbs and fuses. Colour and decoration will make it a pleasant place to work, but the most important thing is that it suits the way you live. This tells you how to plan a new kitchen — and how to update an old one at a fraction of the cost! Continue Reading »

The kitchen is the heart of the house, the centre of consumption, the hub of daily life. It is the place where family and friends gather to eat, drink, and chat, share their joys, or solve their problems. It is the base of all domestic operations and the one place where we can “act locally”, and play an active part in protecting the health of ourselves and that of the wider environment.

The kitchen of childhood dreams is a place full of appetizing and tantalizing smells, a farmhouse kitchen, perhaps, hung with polished copper pots and pans and warmed by a glowing fire. However, behind that dream lay the reality for the housewife of long hours of tiring work stoking fires, heating water, hand-washing and ironing, scrubbing and polishing, and cooking. Continue Reading »

If you’re planning your kitchen from scratch, there’s no substitute for an accurate floor plan on which you can mark existing fittings, furniture and immovable features such as windows and plumbing points. Draw it to scale and mark all the measurements clearly.

The basis of a practical kitchen layout is the arrangement described by kitchen designers as the ‘work triangle’ — the space between cooker, sink and fridge. Your kitchen plan should allow for clear access to all three. You should be able to turn quickly and easily from one to another without the risk of dropping a hot pan or spilling an ice-cube tray. It’s an easier arrangement to achieve in some kitchens than in others: long, thin kitchens have a natural tendency to line up all the appliances in a row, and in very small kitchens you really won’t have much choice about what fits where. But if you aim for the triangle — even an elongated one — you’ll have a good basis for the rest of your kitchen. Continue Reading »