Houston ..

… we may have a problem

I wouldn't want you to think that I'm spending all my time in the kitchen – I'm not – but as I plan to teach my friend various bits and pieces whilst I'm here it requires a little thought.

What better way to gather my culinary thoughts than to sit, with my morning coffee – notebook at the ready - cuddling the dogs – here's my view :

Hmmm – I need to check the kitchen kit and experience has taught me that it's as well to do this before you leave the house! There are certain essentials that are absolutely necessary.

You can do what you like cooking your signature dish with a drop of this and a pinch of that to refine your recipe and make it your own but you can't mess with baking – it's a science and the recipes are not there for fun, so we need scales. There are no scales – gulp!

Thank you Walmart – you can buy anything in Walmart – cheaply. Panic over!

Confession time - for years I used scales for baking that I know, hand on heart, were not accurate. Do yourself a huge favour and drag yourself kicking and screaming into the 21^st Century and invest in a digital set. Here's why. The majority of cooks have old books which give weights and measures in Imperial. In the UK we use metric weights and measures and have done so for a long time. In the US they still use Imperial. How much joy is there in having a set of scales that does it all – grams, pounds and ounces, fluid ounces, millilitres blah, blah.

The cherry on the top is that your baking is much more likely to be successful if your ingredients are accurately weighed.

If my friend is willing – at the age of 75 years old – to get to grips with a new piece of kit!

You won't regret your investment.

P.s. I only ever knew one person that never used scales - my grandmother - who was a brilliant pastry cook - I never saw her use a set of scales – in truth I don't think she owned any. The best apple pie ever. I'm not sure whether it was skill or practice in that she baked regularly and therefore experience meant that she just knew the amounts were accurate. It couldn't be just luck – I saw her produce and ate the results too many times for it to be a fluke – may be it was a combination of both.