First thing that comes to mind is how much I dislike strong flavors like mint or rosemary with lamb. I love lamb, but not with those.

Oh! I know one! When I make a "crème Anglaise" (so-calked thin custard in American recipes), I cook the custard until it starts making little clumps. Not scrambled eggs, just starting to dry a little. Then I put it through a mesh to get it back to perfectly creamy. I've tried doing it the "right" way, and I get slop. My way it comes out perfectly.

I only use salted butter when baking. But I leave out any additional salt in baking recipes.

I don't warm the milk for a béchamel. If you add it carefully and stir you don't get lumps. Saves washing another pan.

I don't sieve flour. It's pretty lump free these days.

I ignore the first instruction in most baking recipes - to turn the oven on. It's wasteful imo. It can be sitting there empty for twenty or thirty minutes while you do the prep. I turn it on just before the prep's finished.

I never sift flour. Bread recipes that call for salt or oil...I may leave it out. Chocolate chip cookies...I used to use shortening instead of butter to keep them from falling flat, when @ a lower altitude.

Hmmm. I make a lot of quiche with various fillings, but never-ever with the pie crust. I dont see the point. I just butter the pie pan well.

Like others here, I use salted butter (omitting the added salt), and don't sift the flour. I still managed to win several prizes for my baking and was the go-to person for birthday/celebration cakes in my town for decades.

I don't pre-bake the crust for quiche.

I make my bechamel and custards in the microwave. It's always good and I never scorch the bottom of the pot :-)

“But I leave out any additional salt in baking recipes.”

floral, I don’t leave it out but do reduce it. I hear you regarding turning on the oven sooner than needed. Mine doesn’t take that long to get up to temp, but I realize ovens differ. I also don’t sift flour but do whisk it with any other dry ingredients.

Something else I thought of. When a recipe for something like meatloaf or meatballs calls for eggs, I always beat them before adding. Just makes more sense for combining everything without over mixing.

Plllog doesn't scrambling your egg yolks give the custard an eggy flavour? I guess you're cooking proper custard and not crème anglaise which the french serve thin and runny and it always has a background taste of cornflour and too much vanilla. Arrgghh.

If you add a tiny spoon of cornflour to your yolk/sugar mix, your eggs won't get scrambled, you'll just have lovely, silky custard.

I'm with Flora. Don't heat milk for béchamel either. If you pour in the cold milk and whisk, it doesn't heat up enough to thicken before you've had time to whisk it all together.

I'm not sure I do anything strange though..... one thing that annoys me is a recipe that says to whisk eggs and butter THEN whisk egg whites. You have to really clean the bowl out but if you whisk the whites first, you can go ahead and use the same mixing bowl for the buttery bit.

Islay, you have me wondering if it's really crème Anglaise at all! It's what the recipes call it, but always for making something else, like ice cream or pastry. I don't scramble the yolks, however. It's specifically not that. It's just an ootch toward grainy and after the milk goes in. But I'm thinking "crème Anglaise" here may mean runny custard rather than the sauce I just read recipes for, because I've definitely been making custard!

I always line my cake pans with wax paper, that I have cut to fit. My grandmother taught me that and it always works. Never mind that recipes say I should butter and dust with flour.

My understanding of creme anglaise, is pouring custard made without starch. I cook to 180F. Pastry cream custard which is bound is sturdier. I cook over direct heat rather than a double boiler and until it begins to boil thus releasing from the pan bottom.

Just for clarification, since Lisaam just mentioned "pastry cream", which IME is a thick, sweetened custard, what I was referring to as "for" pastry, was a thin custard that goes in the dough, and was called "crème Anglaise", rather than a pastry cream filling such as one would put in an eclair.

“I always line my cake pans with wax paper…”

This reminded me of the time I made a 6 layer cake for my MIL’s birthday. I was so proud of it. As soon as I started slicing it I could tell something was odd. Sure enough, I neglected to peel off the wax paper.🥴 These days I tend to use layer cake pans with removable bottoms. Otherwise, I use parchment paper.

Umm, yes. Peeling off the wax paper is very important.

Well, we all had a good laugh! Never did it again because I stopped using it.

Plllog crème anglaise is just what the French call custard. What us Brits pour all over our puddings/ apple pies/crumbles etc. Crème patissière has flour in it.

I'm still not clear. In discussing things with Floral and others ,I've learned that we mean something quite different often when talking about cooking and baking things, not just what "marrow" means, including that parsnips are parsnips but they taste different, and what we make by the same names for similar purposes may be entirely different.

Re the OP topic: the omelette thread reminded me-- I like making ggs in browned butter. It tastes good! I know there's a whole deal about not a spot of brown on eggs and especially omelettes, but that's just showing off skills ("Look Ma, no brown") so I was glad to learn today that French mamas do brown too.

Also in the name of flavor, I use canned evaporated goat's milk for Mac and Cheese, rather than cow's milk or cream. It's not funky, but is a bit tangy and reinforces the complexity of the cheese.

I love crème anglaise on bread pudding.

We never sift flour, in fact, we always pack the measure.

No salted butter, ever, for anything.

The last time I measured a spice with a tool, by grandmother smacked the back of my head and showed me how to measure with just my palm. I was eight-years-old.

I dislike recipes and would rather invent dishes on my own. Most of the time, they work.

Gosh, I'm sure there's more, but I'd rather not focus on negative things right now.

I lightly rinse my pasta. I don't like pasta to be sticky or the sauces to be globbed onto it. Since I make my own sauces, they are sufficiently thick and flavorful.

I don't peel carrots ever.

We only buy red potatoes, or very, very rarely the golds. I prefer my microwave (baked-alternative) or fried potatoes on the firm and crunchy side of doneness; other family members go for more doneness though.

Many types of cooked recipes that I make that call for them will likely have auto-doubling of the diced onions.

Bananas must be only slightly green for eating. Too green and I will wait. Too yellow, with any browning, and they are compost. They get eaten by me in a window that is narrower than for avocados. :) No, I do not like banana bread or banana cake even a little.

Gyr, have you tried freezing those bananas? Peel, freeze and when you fancy some ice cream get out a banana, defrost slightly and whizz up. Not bad.

When I go walking and stay away overnight my usual roommate is also a fussy banana person. I never take any with me because she always has plenty of rejects.

I prefer salted butter too, and I do not reduce the salt in the recipe.

I never salt pasta water - and I cook beyond al dente - especially for mac & cheese and other casseroles, otherwise it absorbs too much liquid and becomes more dry and dense.

I don't follow the steps for cakes, etc. that say to alternate liquid and dry ingredients when mixing. I usually just mix all the liquid, then add the dry ingredients

No, I hadn't thought to freeze them floral. Subconsciously, it was probably a perceived textural uncertainty since I generally eat them fresh and solo. Maybe I will give that a try. The freezer is usually packed, but bananas come in a more conveniently shaped storable design than just about anything else out there.

Carolb I could have written your post exactly.

Plllog

” what I was referring to as "for" pastry, was a thin custard that goes in the dough, and was called "crème Anglaise",

I don’t know of this dough that has creme Anglaise in it. Do you mean you incorporate this liquid into some sort of flour instead of water or milk to make the dough. ? I may be way of track in my understanding. Does this dough have a name?

I'm not well up on all the French and British names for stuff like doughs. The in the dough was a dessert thing, and yes, it's added tto the raw dough, but I don't remember exactly what. Wracking my brain isn't helping and I can't find one. For awhile there, I was making everything from babkas to beignets and at this point it all knid of runs together. It's just the question of if it's really a crème Anglaise, as these recipes say, especially for ice cream, or if it's too thick and custardy. For ice cream base, I think it maybe is, but if I make it that liquidy, my ice cream never sets. When I reduce it more, it comes out perfectly. But maybe it's not crème Anglaise at all. I'm just repeating what the recipes said, and people use all kinds of words wrong...

If it's for homemade ice cream you may just be thinking about a custard.

Like floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, I also wish recipes used bullet points or paragraphs so I don't lose my place.

I routinely draw lines in the ingredient list that correspond to the instructions to help keep track of where I am in preparing a recipe. I'm a dedicated to mise en place for the same reason, it makes everything move along smoothly.

If I have a recipe like that, I type it up my way. :)

Lizbeth, it's definitely custard. The recipes say "crème Anglaise".

I sometimes re-write a recipe or mark it up so that visually it flows and is clear. I don’t care to read an essay, but rather have a visually concise flowchart. For example, for a cake, I group DRY ingredients and WET ingredients and within that the process/flow.

I often bold ingredients, use bulleted lists or brackets.

Sometimes I make a crib sheet.

Here’s an old recipe I made for Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. If I plan to share the recipe, I make a brief narrative with enough detail so that a beginner can make the recipe correctly.

Petalique, that is beautiful!

Thank you, plllog.