Chicken and Cheddar Pot Pie

Egg wash & the baker’s shine 34 recipes

• Applied thin and even over every surface that will show, with no bare patches and no ridges or brush lines standing in it.
• Nothing pooled: no wash run down into the seams, collected in the corners, or welded to the tray around the base.
• It has not glued shut what needs to move: layers, scores, and cut edges are still free to open in the heat.
• Baked, the finish is even and glossy across the whole piece and deep gold rather than patchy, with no darker bands where the wash sat heavy.
• The shine is on the outside only: nothing inside the piece tastes of egg.

Where it goes wrong The wash went on heavy and ran into the scores and down to the tray, so the piece baked sealed along its seams, browned unevenly, and carries dark rubbery ridges where the egg collected.

Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes

• No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
• The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
• The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
• The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
• It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.

Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.