Gold Tips

Certain materials are more inert than others. This means the pots you use to cook with can interact with the food you make. Traces of metals can make their way into your food.
This is not so important for adults. For babies and small children it can be a risk to health. Experts are divided on exactly what the effects are. The biggest risks are attached to those who are allergic to certain metals. And babies can’t always tell you what has given them a stomachache or that unsightly rash.
When your cooking pots are shiny and new, there is no risk. As soon as they begin to get chipped, the metals [...]

When I was a teenager, my friends would be amazed at my ability to produce the perfect omelette to order. And I always told them the secret was in the cooking oil.
They would go home and try it out for themselves. Their way was to pour a good portion of their mother’s most expensive cooking oil into a frying pan, crack a couple of eggs into a bowl which they’d briefly whisk before tipping the lot onto the luke warm oil in the pan. What ensued might be an interestingly textured scrambled egg ensemble. But not an omelette by any stretch of the imagination.
There are many lessons to be learned from [...]

Back in the 1960s, no self-respecting parent would dream of trying to do anything in the kitchen without first putting on a cooking apron. In those days it wasn't cheap to buy clothes or keep them clean, so it was madness not to protect them when working in the kitchen. Things had become radically different by the end of the decade, though. The cooking apron had begun to symbolise the downtrodden housewife. And then, being tied to your apron strings became something to escape.
Forward wind to our century. Everyone is watching cooking shows on TV before heading into their refitted kitchens to try out their new-found cooking skills. And TV [...]

As the evenings draw in, it’s time to store the barbeque and get out the croc pot. Invented by the Crock-Pot company, the croc pot, or slow cooker, is a low-energy way of cooking food over a period of several hours. Because the ingredient never boil, food gets cooked without losing any of its natural flavour or nutritional value. This is a cooking pot that is excellent for preparing rich stews. The length of cooking time is ideal for complex dishes that rely on binding diverse flavours. And modern croc pots are ultra-economical.
The concept has caught on. Well-known brand names such as Morphy Richards and Breville make super-efficient slow cookers [...]