Skills
Ready to improve your cookery skills? Helping you Be a Better Cook is one of our most important missions. We love to share knowledge from the experts with you to help boost your kitchen prowess.
- Master classic techniques such as making the five French mother sauces, perfect shortcrust pastry or a really good stock.
- Challenge yourself with one of our cookery projects. Learn to prepare roti canai and udon noodles from scratch with expert-led guides or discover what makes caramelised white chocolate or burnt butter brilliant additions to your cooking.
- Browse our Best of the Best series, where we take a deep dive into a classic recipe, examining how to make the ultimate version of lasagne, carrot cake, fish pie and more.
- Learn how to use up a whopping 250+ different leftovers – from blue cheese to the remnants of a roast chicken.
- Let’s get started: search for the technique you’re looking to tackle and discover our skills guides.
How to make nougat
Nougat can be tricky, but with a little precision and patience it's easy enough to make. Find out how by following our step-by-step guide.
How to poach an egg
A perfectly poached egg with a soft white and oozing, golden yolk is the real test of a good cook. Here's how to poach an egg, with our tips for success.
How to make a swiss roll
Swiss roll is an ingenious cake: it has the ‘ah’ factor yet it’s simply a light-as-air sponge rolled up with jam. Here's how to make and roll a...Swiss roll.
How to make roast tomato sauce
Cook like an Italian and learn how to knock up a batch of intensely flavoursome roasted tomato sauce, then use it to produce a variety of dishes.
How to make bread
Nothing beats homemade bread and it’s a lot easier to make than you might think. Learn how to make a basic white loaf with our simple guide.
Simple chocolate cake
An easy and foolproof chocolate sandwich cake recipe. You could fill it with whipped cream and jam instead of chocolate icing.
Basic curry sauce
This curry sauce recipe can be frozen in batches and transformed into three different curries: Creamy chicken korma, Lamb rogan josh, and Prawn madras
Subscribe to our magazine
Food stories, skills and tested recipes, straight to your door… Enjoy 5 issues for just £5 with our special introductory offer
