Cookery programmes and hygiene

i use implements as much as possible and try not to touch food with my hands - my mother did the same - we never rub pastry with our hands - I either use a fork or do the flour and butter mixing in the processor.

Bit off piste but what really gets me too are the really high stilleto shoes, tight skirts and flowing hair in hospital dramas! The more senior the role the higher the shoes!

Welshwife I went back to college in my 30's and did my city and guilds in professional cookery.The first christmas I was there I made the christmas pudding for the staff lunch ,a LOT of pudding, in a new metal bin with my hands..no spoons or mixers allowed ,it was done the old fashioned way .As long as you wash your hands cleaning under your nails BEFORE you make pastry its fine ,in fact I think its better by hand you really get to know the texture of the dough

I agree about the texture etc but you also get to know by the look of it - I always mix it with egg and milk and rarely any water. You also feel the dough when you are going to roll it out etc.
Another thing I never buy cheap supermarket flour - I find it very flat.

By the way I clean under my nails whether I a, cooking or not!

Am I being picky but although I don't watch cooking programmes on TV I do see the trailers am feel quite sick when I see all those beards floating around over the food without beard nets or something. I think it is qite unhygienic.

Sorry couple of spelling errors - brain quicker than fingers!

Jamie Martin, served pink duck this week, turned my stomach. Don't like pink meat, never mind poultry, always thought pork and poultry had to have no trace of pink.. Also the licking of spoons, the lack of washing hands, puts me of a lot of programmes. Hair should be tied back and in a net, beards too. Yes i am fussy, but nothing I wouldn't do at home.