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I used butter muslin (the link is to the specific product I used as an example) to roast a turkey crown (following the method from this article). I now have a piece of muslin with a tie-die pattern of browning from where the creases were. I can get most of the butter out by rinsing it in the sink but obviously it needs proper washing before I store it and use it again. Can I put it in the washing machine on a typical clothes-washing cycle? (Not quite on-topic, but how wary should I be of putting it in with clothes I don't want to ruin?) Is there anything I should do after washing it to make sure it is food-safe? Is there any risk of detergent residue I need to look out for? I normally use 3-in-1 laundry capsules.

Accept that it will never look pristine white ever again. Whatever you do, don't wash it in Persil. That stuff is designed to make your clothes bright & nicely perfumed, not something you need in your turkey - "seven day freshness" isn't quite what they meant in the adverts. At least it doesn't have fabric conditioner in it, which would be even worse. No-one ever bought Comfort for how good it tastes;) Unless you want to invest in some pure soap* - flakes or liquid at various prices from reasonable eg Wilko's to truly ridiculous "they saw you coming & laughed" then you'll be fine just washing it in regular washing-up liquid, or give it a soak in bleach first, so long as you rinse it afterwards until you can no longer smell it. [I'd just go with Fairy myself & put up with the staining]. *& run it through the washing machine all on its own, wasting an entire wash cycle for one cloth.

I have a Butterball turkey breast roast that I'd like to cook tomorrow, and I'm planning to do it in my slow cooker. The recipe as provided online is the same one that is on the turkey packaging: Slow-Cooker Instructions: Place THAWED roast, skin side up, flat in 8” diameter slow-cooker. Add 1/2 cup water. Cover, cook on low 7-1/2 hours to internal temperature of 170 degrees as measured with a meat thermometer. After 4 hours, check temperature at center, ends and near top for food safety. Turkey must reach 140 degrees within 4 hours. Now, I haven't done a lot of slow cooking before, but when I have, I've always added enough liquid to fill the slow cooker up to about 3/4 full. Half a cup of water will barely cover the bottom of my slow cooker. I did some research, but found nothing conclusive. Some people say that slow cookers should always be more than half full, while others seem to indicate that it's fine to run them almost empty. Is there a minimum level of liquid necessary when cooking in a slow cooker?

It's really no different from cooking something on a stove: if you have no liquid at all, things are probably going to start getting too hot, sticking on the bottom, and maybe burning. As long as there's some liquid, you'll be fine. The important thing is to add enough; if you keep having to open it to add more, it won't stay hot. This is basically the minimum level: enough that it won't boil dry in an hour or so. If you're cooking something really simple like a piece of meat, using too much water just provides more water for the flavor to get diluted into. This is precisely what the first page you linked to says: if it's not full enough, it might all boil off. The writer is just way off about quantities. I suspect his cooker's lid doesn't fit well, or he's unnecessarily cooking on high. I don't think my slow cooker would boil dry from half full in 8 hours on low, and there's no reason to put it on high if I'm cooking that long. The recipe at the second link isn't exactly empty - a can of cranberry sauce will provide a good amount of liquid. It also might not be a great recipe. On that note, I might suggest you look for more authoritative recipes. Perhaps check out a slow cooker cookbook from your library (these tend to be pretty common) to get an idea of the kinds of things you can do. (Of course, if all you want is a plain piece of meat, I guess you don't need much.)

There are plenty of recipes regarding how to cook fish, and other foods, in olive oil. This puzzles me because olive oil has a very low smoking point. So I'll burn it if I cook fish at 350 degrees. If I set the temp to 200 degrees, the fish will cook for ages and will basically boil in it's own juices. So how do seasoned cooks deal with this? How do you cook in olive oil?

It sounds like you feel that 350 is too low a temperature to effectively cook fish and some other foods. In fact many of the foods that people saute in olive oil are vegetables which could also be cooked just fine on top of the stove immersed in water. By that method, the vegetables would not exceed 212°F, since the temperature of water can't go above its boiling point. You may decide this isn't the tastiest way to prepare vegetables, but they would certainly cook and become "done" at that temperature. Likewise for fish and other meats, as I look up the internal temperature required for "done-ness" on this site and other internet locations like kitchn, etc., various meats are considered done when their temperature reaches a level somewhere between 145°F for fish, and up to 170°F or so that someone recommends for well done beef. So it shouldn't be necessary to exceed olive-oil temperatures in order to get most foods to cook. It might be puzzling that sometimes you do use much higher temperatures than that in cooking, like in the oven. But the food itself doesn't get as hot as the oven setting. When you preheat your oven to a nice hot temperature (above 350), and put in some raw food to bake, it takes a while for the hot air in the oven to bring the food up to a fully done temperature, since hot air doesn't transfer heat very efficiently. However the food won't reach an internal temperature the same as your oven setting before burning. It will be done before its temp. gets that high. On top of the stove, olive oil in a pan transfers heat to the surface of your fish, vegetables, or chicken etc. faster than the air in the oven. But either way will successfully get the temperature of the food up to the level of doneness, and well below the smoke-point of olive oil.

This may depend on recipe, however since Mace is the outer coating of nutmeg seeds, I was wondering if nutmeg can be substituted in for mace in recipes. Specifically, there is this recipe for hot dogs that I want to try from about.com: Ingredients: 3 feet sheep or small (1-1/2-inch diameter) hog casings 1 pound lean pork, cubed 3/4 pound lean beef, cubed 1/4 pound pork fat, cubed 1/4 cup very finely minced onion 1 small clove garlic, finely chopped 1 teaspoon finely ground coriander 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram 1/4 teaspoon ground mace 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed 1 teaspoon sweet paprika 1 teaspoon freshly fine ground white pepper 1 egg white 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1/4 cup milk I have nutmeg in powdered form, is that an acceptable substitution and if so do I need to make any adjustments to the recipe? Would prefer the answer generalized a ratio of nutmeg for needed mace for other recipes.

The flavors are very similar (they are different parts of the fruit of the same tree, nutmeg being the nut itself, and mace being a covering that grows around the shell), although nutmeg tends to be slightly stronger and more forward. in a complicated hot dog recipe, I imagine that the substitution should work well, although you might choose to try your first batch with 3/4 the amount.

I have been trying to make chapattis (an Indian flat unleavened bread, somewhat like a wheat tortilla), using the following recipe for the dough: 300ml water, 250g whole wheat flour, 250g white wheat flour, pinch of salt. The dough rolls out fine, but the cooked chapattis turn out rather hard and/or rubbery instead of nice and soft. Any ideas why, and what I can do to improve the result?

Oh well, I make chapatis everyday, even when I bake a Pizza or a cake. The dough for making chapatis and stuffed and plain parantha and even poori is same. Until and unless you are trying some thing fancy like bhature you just need water and wheat flour. As I am used to kneading dough w/out any measurement I cant suggest you measurements. I knead the dough till the time its firm enough to stand in a round shape. More over I take a ball of dough and throw it on granite counter with some force it doesn't loose its shape. Now the temperature of griddle matters a lot. I keep it on a medium heat for chapatis and high for paranthas. Roll out a chapati and place it on preheated griddle. You may need some flour while rolling out the chapati. Leave it on griddle for 10-15 seconds. Turn the side and leave for another 15-20 seconds. Turn side third time and you should see the chapati puffing up with steam. With this dough you can make chapatis, plain paranthas, stuffed paranthas and poori. On a very special occasion my Mom used to knead the dough with milk and or ghee, a kind of clarified butter. Dough kneaded using milk and ghee is normally used for purees. Apart from all the technicalities you may have practice a while. It took me a month to roll out a perfect round fluffy and soft chapati. Best of luck :)

A thought occurred to me that since oil is a better conductor of heat than water, can too much sweating hurt the cooking process? If the meat sweats a lot of liquid, blood or protein then it can move the oil around (with enough liquid the oil may be elevated from the bottom of the pan), reducing the pans ability to transfer heat to the meat. Is my theory correct? Should you keep your pan when frying meat somewhat dry so as to not displace oil?

There are only four ways that I know of other than towels (paper or otherwise) to dry meat: Air circulation Time (in a relatively dry environment). Heat Momentum Most people avoid the heat approach, as you'll start to cook it once it's hot enough to be safe for long-term storage of meat. Some recipes may start in a low oven to dry the surface, then remove it, let the oven pre-heat to a higher temperature, then finish cooking. (as it's difficult to give recipes that know how quickly your oven heats up). For momentum, you basically have to flick the meat such that the water gets flung off. Which is prone to lots of problems (letting go of the meat, plus the spraying of contaminated liquid everywhere). You could use a salad spinner, but if you did, I'd recommend keeping a separate one for meats, as you don't want to risk contaminating other ingredients that would be eaten raw. For the airflow, you can set it under a low speed fan ... avoiding high speeds so you don't end up aerosolizing the moisture and flinging it through the kitchen. Or you can place the food in a ventilated container and leave it in your fridge overnight ... possibly with a battery powered fan in the fridge to improve airflow. As all of these ideas have drawbacks (food safety, time, etc.), most people just accept the waste of using paper towels. There are a few times when one of the others might be used (food dehydrating, trying to get a glaze to set up (eg, peking duck), dry brining, etc.), but they're relatively rare.

A shooter's sandwich is intended to be eaten a long time after it is made. I understand that it originated, pre-refrigeration, as a meal that could be prepared the night before and taken on a hunt the next day. This recipe recommends keeping it in a cool place for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight. I am wondering how safe it is. Could I prepare it late on Dec 30th, refrigerate it overnight, and then take on a camping trip for New Year's Eve, and still enjoy it (as a hangover cure) on New Year's Day, 36 hours after cooking it, without risking my stomach (as well as my liver)? Or is that just looking for trouble?

The shooter's sandwich you linked involves cooked mushrooms and fried steaks. In contemporary food safety practice, this is not shelf-stable at all. It can be held 3-5 days in the fridge, or up to 2 hours at room temperature. I can imagine that hunters did take it on longer trips historically. They lived in a time when mild food poisoning (symptoms limited to bloating and light diarrhoe) was commonplace, and the average person experienced it as often as the common cold, if not a bit more frequently. More serious types of foodborne illness were less frequent, but still appeared with some regularity in a given population. There are two reasons we don't eat this way today. First, our standard of living is higher. We have the possibility to drastically reduce our risk of food-borne illness by choosing nutritious shelf-stable food for situations we need it, and we have much higher expectations of our own quality of life, including the expectation that the chance of getting bloating from a sandwich should be close to zero, not close to 10%. Second, our meat today well may have much more pathogen contamination than in the past. If you slaughter one healthy animal in your small farm, the worst you get spread over the meat are some E. coli from inside its own guts, and normal E. coli don't cause too bad symptoms (mutations can be very dangerous, but they are also exceedingly rare). Today, animals are penned together by the thousands, exchanging exotic pathogens while still alive, and then are slaughtered and eviscerated in efficient conveyor-like manner, so that if one cow had some unpleasant bacteria from somewhere, they will probably cross-contaminate the steaks from hundreds of other cows slaughtered in the same shift. Bottom line: It is absolutely not safe. You are free to decide to take the risk and eat it, but by the usual standards in the food industry, this is an unacceptably high risk, and it is foolish to take it.

I'm curious for some ideas on what to make with seaweed salad.

Asian style - usually with a sprinkle of white sesame on top and that's it.

I was doing so research over the internet to know why egg are typically use in wheat flour crêpe but not in Buckwheat crêpe. Is there's a reason for it or it is just a simple question of recipe ?

Eggs make crepes stronger, which makes them less vulnerable to tearing. It also adds some taste if you like eggs. If you have a good frying pan then you don't need them at all. You can make crepes with next to any type of flower without eggs or any egg replacement. Pure buckwheat on the other hand does not have gluten and might be more fragile. In my experience "galettes bretonnes" are always with eggs, water and buckwheat, but without white flower or milk. I expect here the eggs are especially in use to make the dough less fragile.

I have a question about botulism when canning pickles. I realize that most canning recipes use 1:1 vinigar to water ratio for canning pickles. I accidently used 1:4 vinigar to water ratio for canning pickles. Now i am wondering if I will get botulism and if so can i re-use the jars or do i have to throw the jars out? if i can re use the jars then what is the best way to clean and steralize them?

Botulism is a spore. If you suspect botulism you SHOULD NOT open the jar. If you do, you'll need to wipe down everything with a bleach solution. I don't think the risk is worth saving a jar. Per the CDC, wrap the jar tightly in plastic, and throw it away carefully in a way that animals or humans that might be digging through the garbage do not open it.

We generally do a roast on the weekend and we end up with a load of really nice juices in the roasting tray. What is the best method of turning this into a nice natural gravy?

My technique: 1 tbsp Fat (from pan, or use butter) 1 tbsp Flour Pan Juice Stock (total liquid about 2 cups - omit if you have enough pan juice) Step 1: Make Roux Melt fat in medium high saute pan Whisk in flour, getting out all the lumps. (This is called a roux) Continue to heat until smooth, and the roux is just starting to darken. Remove pan from heat. Step 2: Prepare Liquids Remove solids from roasting pan. (let meat stand... etc.) Whisk, scrape, deglaze the roasting pan. If it's brown, you want it, and want it dissolved Strain juices. skim off excess fat. Step 3: Assemble Return roux to heat, and keep whisking. While whisking, slowly pour in the pan juices. Once blended, reduce heat and let it thicken. Salt to taste.

How might I recreate the smell of the ocean for cooking? I was out today fishing on a Pier in San Francisco and caught both a smelt and crab. The smell of both had that romantic smell of the sea. (I threw both back) I'd like to experiment with that smell and taste in cooking, so any proposed solution should be non-toxic. Thanks in advance!

"The smell of the sea" as romanticised by those of us who visit the shore infrequently, is really that of rotting seaweed & dead sea animals... So, that aside, which aspect of "the smell of the sea" are you really trying to recreate? It could be as simple as 'make it smell a bit fishy' for which almost any South East Asian fish sauce will do. [It will also add salt, so be careful in your seasoning]. Some are far stronger than others & many, to a westerner, have almost indecipherable labelling, so you may need to try a few to find the right one. They're generally quite cheap, so it's not too hard to experiment. Additionally, sea-weed - packaged conveniently in sheet form by many Japanese companies for making sushi - would add some of that 'vegetable edge' to the experience, with its own distinct aroma. Both of the above, added to almost any broth or sauce, will set you off in the right direction, without having to add anything you dragged from the pier yourself ;)

So I have been reading and hearing a lot about Robuchon (to name one) boiling his potatoes skin on to counteract gluey mashed potatoes. When I make my mash though I think it's way easier to peel them pre boiling and simmer the potato skin in the milk that I'm later gonna use to emulsify the butter and potatoes. Normally I have to add quite a lot of milk (2 parts potatoes to 1 part butter and almost 1 part milk) before I end up with a mash that isn't gluey. This makes for quite a loose mash though. Would it be correct to say that boiling the potatoes with the skin on would lower the risk of having a gluey mash with less milk? And if so, then why? To give some reference to where I found the habit of using the ratios mentioned above I put a link here to a transcript of a Joel Robuchon mashed potatoes recipe. http://greenmarketrecipes.com/vegetables/robuchons_mashed_pototoes.htm Also I include a link to a youtube video of Tom Aikens, a former chef under Joel Robuchon, who speaks about the question I am posting here. This is the reason for my question in the first place. https://youtu.be/S-Gkne6skXc?t=25m19s

I've never heard that boiling potatoes skin on makes a difference in consistency, but it's possible. The skin will act a as a barrier to moisture, letting the potatoes cook while absorbing less water. That will only work if you keep the potatoes whole though, cutting them up will negate that somewhat. While skin in may make a difference the choice of potato makes a bigger difference. Waxy potatoes are not a good choice, neither are dry ones like russets. A medium starch potato is best, like a yukon gold or a maris piper. Also very important is preparation after cooking. I find using a mixer tends to overwork the potatoes and make things gluey, while most chefs would recommend using a ricer. A ricer does give a great result but it is messy and lots of work. I use a potato masher and do it by hand, which to me is a good balance between speed and cleanup while giving a good result.

I grew my own tomatoes this year and had success with making my own salsa. Do you need a pressure cooker to can home-made salsa?

You cannot preserve just any salsa recipe (unless you're just freezing it). Tomatoes are on the border between acidic and non-acidic foods. What this means is that they can be water-bath canned if they are sufficiently high in acid; but, if they are low in acid, they need to be pressure canned. If you want to be sure to avoid trouble, follow a tested recipe. Salsa recipes will have a careful balance of low and high acid ingredients. Do not alter the proportion of acids (tomatoes and vinegar or lime/lemon juice) and low-acids (other vegetables, peppers, etc). The recipe you choose should specify if it requires pressure canning or water-bath canning. One of those two methods must be used, though... you can't just put it in jars and save it. For tested recipes, see the Ball Blue Book, the Ball website, or the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

I just purchased a deep fryer and have been looking at different recipes for making beer batter. I noticed that some instruct you to let the batter sit for a number of hours before using it to coat veggies, meats, etc., while others do not mention this. Does letting the batter rest make a difference in the flavor, texture, or anything else significant?

Yes, it changes the texture. If you want it light, you need to use it quickly, as the bubbles will disappate over time.

I've fallen in love with the seaweed salad from a local Japanese seafood buffet. What would be the most cost-effective way to obtain this kind of food in large quantities for regular eating? I would assume that making it fresh would be the best way. As far as obtaining ingredients, I'm located on the east coast of the United States; so this isn't a native dish. I'm also confused on the type of seaweed to look for. Google says that I'm looking for wakame seaweed but search results show many different varieties. The specific type of seaweed salad I want appears to be "sesame seaweed salad". Here is a photo of what I would like to make:

Because we don't do recipe requests around these parts, I'm going to treat this as an ingredient question. Japanese markets (and some online merchants, including Amazon) often sell dried versions of the seaweed mix that many restaurants use. It'll be sold as kaiso salad or seaweed salad. Some versions are better than others; some contain a ton of dyes that make the salad look unnaturally neon to my eyes, although the taste and texture is similar. Such blends typically contain wakame and other seaweeds, including agar agar noodles, for example. If not included in the package, you can make a simple dressing based on toasted sesame oil and Japanese vinegar, in roughly a 1:3 ratio, or use sesame oil and lemon juice (maybe 1:1-1:2 ratio since it's more acidic). You may want to include soy sauce or salt. This is loosely in the category of sunomono, so it doesn't typically contain emulsifiers like mustard, but if you find it hard to blend you can use a touch of mustard or something like lecithin or a stabilizer like xanthan gum.

I am new to making homemade ice cream. I just started to feel confident with plain vanilla, so it was time for the next step - adding fruit. The custard recipe says it can be turned into fruit ice cream by adding 30g pureed fruit per yolk. I looked into the basket for a fruit likely to make a good puree, and settled for a honey dew melon. I made the custard base (yolks, cream and sugar with a pinch of salt), and, because I wanted more fruit taste, made 50g of melon puree per yolk and thickened it with a bit of guar gum, because I feared crystals from the rather liquid melon. I added the melon to the prepared custard, it wasn't exposed to heat. After chilling and transferring to the freezing plate, I indulged in licking the thermometer, spoon and bowl used for the making of the ice cream. I was unpleasantly surprised at the lack of melon aroma and strong bitter taste. It was as if I was chewing the seeds of the melon, although there were none in the ice cream, I am sure I'd have seen them if they had fallen into the puree. Combined with the overbearing sweetness of unfrozen ice cream, I thought of throwing the batch out. But I froze it anyway. Frozen, there is much less bitterness (and of course much less sweetness), it tastes as if I am eating a raw gherkin. In fact, if I didn't know that there is melon in there, I probably wouldn't have recognized. It is eatable, but not especially good. The aroma problem was solved when I ate a piece of the melon: this exemplar must have grown in a dark greenhouse. It was watery, only a hint of sugar content, only a hint of aroma. But it wasn't bitter, just tasteless. But I am still wondering what went wrong. Does melon react with guar to create a bitter compound? Does melon react with cream to create a bitter compound (I know kiwies do, but melons?) Was there so much heat in the custard base as to cook the melon, and does cooked melon taste bitter? Would a better melon have made a difference, or would it have been bitter, sweet and aromatic at the same time? Is melon generally unsuitable for making ice cream?

This is about a melon-milk shake that I made previously. I don't know if it applies. Melon has a reaction when mixed with milk which causes the taste to become bitter. When freshly made it tastes okay, but when left for some time (a few hours) it gets bitter.

What were the most popular cookbooks in the 1950s in the US? I have seen lists that cite the many Betty Crocker cookbooks, but what about other authors (or companies)?

Fannie Farmer's cookbook has been popular for years and years.

Having read this question I am persuaded that resting meat is good for its flavour. But if the meat has a good temperature straight after it's been cooked, it seems as though it will be too cold after resting it for a few minutes. How do you rest meat in such a way that it is not too cold for eating?

Straight after it comes out of the pan it will usually be too hot to eat. Regardless of resting or not, you can't fully taste things which are too hot, they need to come down to a comfortable temperature before you eat them. Some things you can do to stop the meat being too cold when you serve it: You can rest the meat wrapped in foil, this will stop it from getting too cool too quickly if you are not ready to serve once its had the time to rest. you can rest it and then warm it again before you eat it, either under a hot grill for a little, or in an oven. serve it with a hot sauce which will warm the meat serve it on a warmed plate which will stop it cooling more too quickly on the table Although I think you are worrying too much about nothing IMHO. Even once rested the meat will still be at a good temperature, especially as you have not cut it yet and most of the heat will be retained in the middle of the meat.

I have a number of teas, some of which require a lower temperature for steeping than others (for instance, I have a particular Green Tea which asks for steeping at 70°C, 158°F). I was wondering how to get the water to this temperature, and I can think of 4 different methods: Heat the water gently until it reaches that temperature Boil the water, then add cooler water until it reaches that temperature Boil the water, leave it standing for a couple of minutes until it reaches the temperature Boil the water, transfer it from vessel to vessel until the temperature drops sufficiently. Is there any difference in the result of those methods, as to the quality of the tea it'll end up producing? Will it make a difference if the water (or some of it) never reached the boiling point?

The method we use (for coffee) is pretty simple (though it requires some compatible equipment): Fill kettle. Shove probe thermometer through "whistle" hole in kettle spout. Heat until desired temperature is reached. Pour water into vessel. If you don't have a kettle or your thermometer won't work, you can do the same thing with any pot and a thermometer that has a clip (so you don't have to hold it for 10 minutes while the water heats)... but be sure the thermometer is heat safe (candy thermometers are good for this if they have a high enough temp range). You'll want to keep a couple of things in mind... The temperature of your mug will cool the water when it makes contact. This is unlikely to make a huge difference but it's something to think about. If you really want to brew your tea at exactly 70 C, consider heating sufficient water to "warm" your cup (or teapot) by filling it part way and swishing the water around to heat up the cup first and then pour the water down the drain. Alternately, you can heat your water to a slightly higher temperature (72 C). As to your other methods... I'm sure any of them would work just fine... they'd take longer, though, because you're waiting for something to boil and then you're waiting for it to cool off or you're futzing around with getting it back down to the "right" temperature by adding cool water or tossing it back and forth between cups. Provided you have standard, municipal water that you're comfortable drinking from the tap (or filtered), I don't know why boiling it first would matter. I'm also skeptical about the pickiness of tea being steeped at exactly 70 C. I have a feeling that there'd be little discernible difference (to the average consumer) were the water at 80 C or even 90 C... It'd be an interesting thing to test, I suppose. As this relates to oxygen loss due to boiling, which has been mentioned in some of the answers. This related question actually discusses that already and the general consensus is that lower oxygen levels in the water is actually bad for the taste of the tea: Dissolved oxygen is reactive, and will most likely extract more substances from the tea leaf, than without it. If these are the good flavour parts of tea, I do not know? And: This person found that increased oxygen in the water resulted in milder, less tannic tea. So, it sounds as if not bringing your water to a full boil is actually preferable to the flavor of the tea (assuming you don't like the tannic flavors) because the oxygen is beneficial to the brewing process.

In general, how does the microwave power setting work? Is it a straight percentage of the maximum wattage or is it something less precise? For example, would the time to cook something in a 700 watt microwave be the same as a 1000 watt at .7 power? Is there any other major deciding factor in how one microwave cooks compared to another besides the power? (Assuming it is actually running at its listed power. Is it even possible for a microwave to drift off its posted power due to age or some other factor?)

The majority of microwaves cannot modulate their power output. The power setting in most microwaves simply turns the magnetron (microwave generator) off and in in cycles. So a power setting of .5 for 10 minutes would simply cycle the magnetron on and off every few seconds, with a total on time of 5 minutes. You can actually hear this occurring. According to wikipedia, some newer microwaves can actually achieve a more or less constant level of reduced power using a technique called pulse-width modulation. I have never seen or used one of these though. Microwave cooking is never very exact, so cooking something at 700 W vs 1000 W at .7 power would yield very different results. The only reliable way I've found in cooking things properly in different wattage microwave ovens is simple observation.

According to the history of Yorkshire pudding, at one time long ago in England, they would hang a roast of beef from a hook and have the drippings create the Yorkshire pudding beneath it. Since standard recipes today call for a prerequisite amount of beef drippings, and since cooking a roast and pudding take about 40-60 minutes each, is there some way to make them now as they once were? Maybe with a roasting pan?

This website mentions that historically the puddings were made in a large, shallow pan and then cut into squares for serving. They were also made below a piece of meat usually placed on a spit Their suggested method for a modern oven is to collect the beef drippings in a pan and then add the batter to it before proceeding with baking it on the high rack of the oven This modification is due to the fact that the puddings need high heat to puff up properly. In olden times of cooking in an open hearth, the highest level of heat was close to the fire, below the piece of meat in the spit, since the heat would then dissipate upwards through the chimney Nowadays, modern ovens tend to be hotter on the top shelf, especially if you are using the top heating element. You might be able to tinker with your oven settings to have it hotter at the bottom and then make the puddings the old-fashioned way - grease the bottom of the pan a bit before adding the batter and then use the pan to catch the drippings

Frequently recipes call for a particular kind of oil for making use of certain characteristics (taste, heat tolerance, health, etc.). It's well known you can substitute cooking oils in most cases (vegetable oil for canola oil). Are there circumstances in which it is not appropriate to substitute cooking oils?

Actually, there are really only a few oils you can substitute for each other, at least without any significant side effects. The oils which generally are used interchangeably are peanut oil, canola/rapeseed oil, and sunflower oil. These oils have similar smoke points, don't impart any really noticeable flavour, and tend to be used primarily for high-heat cooking (pan-frying, deep-frying), so if you're paranoid about saturated fat for instance, you can substitute sunflower oil for peanut oil. Corn oil is in the same group, but I rarely see that used anymore. You can also use the "light" olive oil, but that will change the flavour of the dish. I believe walnut oil has similar properties, but it's considerably harder to find. But keep in mind that oils are used for far more than frying. Many have highly-specialized uses: Extra virgin olive oil is most commonly used in sauces and salad dressings ("oil and vinegar" almost always means olive oil, there really is no substitute); Chili oil is really more of a condiment than a cooking oil. Even if you could cook with it, the result would be inedible due to the heat. Toasted sesame oil is used as a flavourings in Asian dishes. It's useless as a cooking oil (and cooking with it would be a terrible waste). Regular sesame oil, on the other hand, is often bought in a refined form and is generally used as a cooking oil. There are a lot of other more esoteric types of oil such as palm oil and coconut oil, which you really don't want to use unless you know what you're doing (you can ruin the flavour). I could go on, but for now I'll refer you to the Types of oils and their characteristics as a starting point. Cooking oils really aren't freely interchangeable in all situations; even if you've accounted for smoke point and flavour, sometimes a significantly different fat content (i.e. grapeseed oil which is mostly polyunsaturated vs. canola oil which is mostly monounsaturated) can seriously mess up a delicate recipe. It's better to be asking which oils you can substitute in a specific situation than to assume everything goes and list the "exceptional" circumstances.

I recently bought a relatively large (~2lbs) filet of salmon. In order to portion it out I placed it skin side up on a cutting board and used a bread knife to essentially saw through the skin as it seemed pretty tough. Is a bread knife the best option in this case? Is this something that should be done with a kitchen knife?

I think a bread knife would shred the skin and flesh. I would place skin side down and, ideally, use a sharp slicing knife. Sharp is the key. I have also used a chef's knife and a fillet knife for this task. The goal is to achieve a clean cut.

I have a few recipes that require marinating meat in yogurt (usually poultry), but none of them are particularly clear on what to do with the meat after marinating, but before cooking. For example, I have a chicken tikka masala recipe that essentially states: Remove chicken from marinade Put on skewers and grill; begin cooking sauce Remove chicken from skewers and add to sauce In this example, every time the chicken goes from the grill to the pan of hot sauce, the excess yogurt on the chicken immedietely curdles, giving the sauce an almost gritty look to it. Given this dillema, I have a few questions regarding the yogurt marinade: As a general rule, are you supposed to rinse the yogurt marinade off of the meat prior to cooking it? If not, what is the best way to prevent the excess marinade from curdling in the pan? Is there any particular type of yogurt that is better for marinades?

Don't Rinse You should not need to do more than shake the excess marinade from your chicken, or if you want to be very thorough, pat it down with towels lightly. If you rinsed, you would be washing away from of the flavor developed by your marinade, and the seasoning at the surface of the chicken. Cook on The goal is to not put the chicken on the grill with so much left over marinade that it fails to cook through and dry. By the time you are done grilling, the chicken should be essentially dry at the surface with nothing left to curdle. The other goal of the grilling (or putting in the tandoor, I imagine, if you have one) is to develop the nice browned and delicious flavors, and that won't happen if there is still liquid yogurt on the surface. Type of yogurt The particular type of yogurt you use should not be a factor, since it should be fully cooked in the grilling phase. However, in general, very high fat dairly products (like cream, or a yogurt made from full cream).

I made a no-oil sponge cake for a swiss roll. I filled it with fresh whipped cream and then stored the cake in the fridge. It has gone moldy within 4 days of filling it. Since filling it, it has been stored in the fridge. Why did it go moldy so quickly?

When I was young in Asia, my mom would bake a cake on a coal stove in a cast iron pot. Hot coals were then added on top of the lid as a secondary heat source.

This is killing me! Buying an oven and getting it installed isn't really an option at this time. What I'm thinking is cooking the apples in the caramel on the stovetop for longer, making a smaller version, in a mini cast iron pan. Cover the top and place something hot on top to even out the temperature. Would I have issues with the puff pastry cooking through and going golden? Has anyone tried anything similar and would have suggestions? Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

I'm sure you can obtain something interesting, but nothing can replace an oven for the puff pastry to cook correctly and uniformly. So even if you manage to get it cooked, the consistency won't be the same.

I'm cooking two different dishes in the oven at the same time that each require different temperatures. One is a roasted vegetable dish that says to cook at 475 for 35-40 minutes and the other is parmesan crusted pork chops at 350 for 40-45 minutes. What do you suggest I do?

I would put the oven on 350, and cook the pork chops according to the recipe. Put in the vegetables for the last 30 minutes. Once the pork chops are done, cover them and let them rest for 15-20 minutes. In the mean time, turn up the temperature to 475 and finish cooking the vegetables for 15-20 minutes. The reason I suggest you adapt the temperature to the pork chops is that they are most likely to dry out if you deviate from the recipe. Roasted veggies on the other hand are almost fail safe. The first 30 minutes on a low temp will start cooking them, and the last few minutes will add some crispiness to them.

At the grocery store here in Germany I saw that lettuce isn't refrigerated. So I brought a head home and it's been in my pantry for 3 days and it seems fine... The English speaking internet says that's not ok, I don't know what the German one says.

There are a couple tricks I've learned from Cook's Illustrated about making oven fries: Soak your cut potatoes in warm water to rinse off excess surface starch. Drain them and dry them very well (I use a salad spinner and paper towels). Use a heavy duty sheet pan on the bottom rack of a hot oven to focus the heat on crisping the bottoms of the potatoes. Oil your sheet pan well, and sprinkle salt on it. This will act kind of like ball bearings under the potatoes to prevent them from sticking too hard. For the first 5-10 minutes, tightly wrap the sheet pan (with the potatoes) with aluminum foil. This will essentially steam the potatoes and help get a really nice creamy interior. After that, remove the foil and flip the potatoes halfway through. Make sure you use a thin metal spatula when you flip them. These techniques work well for potatoes in general, and really do turn out some fantastic spuds.

Do different types pasta cook at different times (brand, shape, whole wheat)? I know there is no exact science to cooking in general but I was wondering if there is a statistical difference in the respective cooking times.

Pasta definetely does have (sometimes vastly) different cooking times. Thin noodles like angel hair spaghetti might be done in 3 min, and al dente in 2 min, while e.g. penne rigate or rigatoni often need 10min+. Whole wheat noodles also tend to need to cook longer for the same pasta type, and often don't get as soft as wheat noodles. That being said, check the box or bag your pasta came in, it should include approximate cooking times. If you like your pasta softer, cook it for a little longer than what is recommended, if you like it al dente, cut it short. The best way to find out is to taste regularly towards the end of the cooking time.

I'm looking at the ingredient list for Alton Brown's aged eggnog recipe, and I see the following: 1 pint half-n-half 1 pint whole milk 1 pint heavy cream Does the half-n-half play any specific role here? I calculated the final fat ratio of the mix and it's ~20% Wouldn't it be easier to just mix milk and cream to get the right ratio, skipping the half-n-half altogether? By my math that's 3.25 cups of milk + 2.75 cups of cream.

The main purpose of the one part of Half-and-Half is to aid in homogenization of the one part of milk and one part heavy cream. Per this article (toward the end): Half and half is also a good solution for desserts that call for equal parts milk and cream, but have a tendency to separate. The fat has been homogenized in the half-and-half, so using it in desserts like panna cotta will deliver a smoother, more consistent result. The half-and-half also enhances desired texture/mouth feel properties.

I tried several times to cook the glaze for a strawberry glaze pie and the sugar, water, and cornstarch would thicken but then the sugar would turn grainy. I have also tried to boil water, sugar, and butter to make a carmel type sauce to pour over corn curls and it thickens and seems to be fine but then turns grainy right after I take it off the stove.

It sounds like your syrups are crystallizing on you. For a smooth glaze or caramel, you want tiny little sugar crystals. When you heat your sugar and water mixture, after a certain temperature the water becomes super-saturated with the sugar. After this super-saturation point, things get dicey. If the solution is disturbed--say by stirring, or an undissolved sugar crystal or other foreign particle getting into the solution--the sugar can rapidly come out of solution and form big crystals. This could be why your confections are grainy. There are a lot of resources online that have the science behind it and suggestions on preventing it (example, example, example). To summarize a few: Always use a clean pot or pan. Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved before it comes to a boil Dip a pastry brush in water to wash away any sugar that sticks to the side of the pot or pan as the sugar heats. Combine the sugar with a little water (it should have the consistency of wet sand) before cooking. Avoid stirring the sugar when it comes to a simmer. Cover the pan loosely with a lid or baking sheet. Add a little acid (such as a touch of lemon juice) or corn syrup to the sugar-water mixture before cooking

I am planning to cook beans in an halogen oven i recently acquired. Where i am in an office, I have no gas cooking facilities and don't want to venture into electric cooking to weight on electricity bills. I was reading on various methods of fast cooking dried beans. but couldn't get any What is are your experiences? I thought of soaking dried beans, bake in the halogen oven before cooking. Earlier, i tried cooking with 250Degrees after over-night soaking which took a bit longer to cook.

The only way I can think of to cook beans faster is in a pressure cooker.

Prepackaged microwave food typically says to microwave on high for n seconds. It usually says that the instructions are meant for an 1100 watt microwave (give or take). My microwave is only 950 watts. What is the equation for me to get the new time? Is it time x (1100 / 950)?

I'm no plastics expert but a general rule of thumb is the softer the plastic initially, the more likely it is to melt (I know that sound too obvious, but hey;) Something to do with thermoset vs thermoplastic. The trouble with plastics being advertised as microwave-safe is it is a limited claim. If you microwave a bowl of water covered by the lid, then you're fine… forever. However, if you get food, especially fat, on it then that will create a local heat spot far in excess of what the plastic can stand. I've found that it's not worth spending money on heat-proof covers when in fact far more heat-resistant plastics are readily available - for free. Your take-away food will come in one - both container & lid are quite likely to survive being nuked with a really greasy curry inside, with little ill effect except perhaps some staining. Likewise, those supermarket dishes containing ready meals are even more resilient. I have some of those still in use from probably 20 years ago. They can get a bit bashed & the edges will chip after a time until you decide they're no longer worth keeping. They all go through the dishwasher with no worries too [so long as you make sure they don't flip over, they're very light.] I have actually been known to buy supermarket ready meal products like this just for the dish ;)

My marinara was strangely too acidic than before even though I used canned tomatoes which are normally ripe, but then I remembered I added white wine to the flavor base (which i reduced). First I do not know how acidic wine or white wine is (is it? how much?) Second, considering wine is acidic - can you cook the acidity off like you can with alcohol?

You can' "cook off" acidity, but you can balance it. Typically in marinara, that is done with a small amount of sugar, or, better yet, half of a grated carrot per 28 oz can of tomatoes, sweated with your onion.

Every time I have made split pea soup, I have to try to estimate the amounts to be finished in one meal. If I store the leftover soup (in the refrigerator or the freezer), the soup thickens to the point that it's barely liquid anymore. In Ham and Pea Soup with Whole Dried Peas, there's a passing comment that split peas break apart more to thicken soup. Is there any way of reducing this effect or simply predicting the amount of thickening that will happen? No matter how much liquid I add to the original soup, I can't seem to store the leftovers without getting a porridge-like texture.

This is not a defect but a characteristic of pea-soup. In Holland, the pea-soup is considered good when a wooden spoon can be put upright in the pot. I've never eating it that thick myself, though. The starches and the gelatin will form a mesh when cooling, so the consistency of the pea-soup will always be thick when cold. On heating, do what Mien advised: add some water or broth to the soup to the consistency that you want. You will have to heat slowly because otherwise the soup will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Don't forget to thoroughly heat the soup and let is simmer for at least 10' to kill any unwanted visitors (germs) before serving.

I've made some apricot jam and I'm happy with the consistency. I heated the jars and filled them with hot jam. Unfortunately the jam cooled before I got the lid on. Can I put a cellophane lid on cold jam?

If you want the result to be shelf stable, you need to follow a proper procedure to either process the jam in a water bath or in a pressure cooker. Just placing the lids on the jam (either hot or cold) is not considered safe. Your jam is fine if you want to store it in the refrigerator, but not otherwise.

I am a vegetarian looking to save time. I thought cooking in large batches and freezing would be a good option. However, I don't know which of my recipes are freezable and which are not, how can I tell? Are there certain ingredients that make a recipe non-freezable, or is it only possible to tell on a case-by-case basis, and if so what are the criteria? Otherwise, are there good online resources for healthy, freezable, vegetarian recipes? Or, can anyone share any suitable recipes they recommend?

Freezing is bad for things which have a special structure and lots of water. Everything else should be OK with freezing. The prime example of a thing which behaves badly when frozen is a fruit. It consists mostly of water, but is firm instead of liquid because the water is contained within a cellulose structure created by the cell walls of the fruit. When you freeze it, the water turns to sharp ice crystals, which also expand in volume (water is one of the few liquids which does that upon freezing), and they hurt the cell walls. When you defrost the fruit, it turns terribly soft, and all the juice runs out. It is practically like maceration without the sugar. You can use the fruit for cooking, e.g. for a jelly, but it is not the same thing as a fresh fruit. Another example which is very structure dependent is whipped egg white. It is a fragile foam, and the formation of ice crystals is also very damaging for it. Whipped cream is similar - you can freeze it (and get ice cream), but it melts to a liquid, not a foam. On the other hand, foods which have a specific structure but not much water are OK with freezing. Butter is not pure fat, it is an emulsion of 17% water in 83% fat. Emulsions tend to have very fragile structures (don't freeze mayonnaise), but butter is OK, because there isn't much water so the formation of crystals doesn't disrupt the structure. Another exception which is OK to freeze is dough. A dough being practically a mesh of gluten, it doesn't get really hurt by the crystals. There are a few ingredients which develop an off taste when frozen. For example, don't freeze anything carbonated, it tastes terrible afterwards. You should also consider the problem of freezer burn. It happens when the moisture of the frozen product sublimates in the dry freezer air. To prevent it, you have to seal the food airtight. You are therefore limited by the kind of food you can seal. If you have a food which would make a mess in a home vacuum sealer, like a wet stew, you could try freezing it for a night, so it is hard but does not have freezer burn yet, and then sealing the frozen chunk and returning it to the freezer. Some ingredients will prevent the food from freezing into a solid block. Notable examples are salt, alcohol and propylene glycol (which is used as a solvent in food coloring and baking aromas). This shouldn't be a food safety problem, because first, bacteria growth is inhibited by low temperatures, and second, if you have these things in concentration high enough to completely prevent freezing at -18°C, then they will kill the bacteria by themselves. But it can cause some logistic problems if the food stays too soft. As you see, these general guidelines have exceptions, or at least require some knowledge of what food is built like (but frankly, I would have predicted that yeast dough freezes badly if I didn't know from experience that it works well). So you should definitely try to remember it on a per-case basis for the most common things you intend to freeze. A very convenient guideline is to think if you can buy a premade equivalent frozen at the supermarket. If they sell it, it will probably turn out OK when frozen at home (sometimes with differences, like frozen fruit). If they don't have the food (or its major ingredients), there is probably a reason for that.

I treated myself to a new Panasonic bread maker but since it is my first, I have a couple of questions. Also perhaps it is worth mentioning that I live in the UK. What type of yeast do I buy? There are so many! Also, I am told that I should buy Strong Flour for making bread, but even then there are so many types, which do I buy? Or is it simply a matter of taste? I prefer wholemeal. Any clarification and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

This is the date the item was manufactured. The upper dial gives the year, the middle one, the month. The bottom indicator could be a mold identifier, and in some cases, it might be a shift indicator (although this would typically be a clock going from 1 to 3, 4, or 6 depending on how shifts are allocated rather than the example showing 0 to 5). See e.g. this manufacturer's datasheet on mold indicators: http://www.plastixs.com/pdfs/datecodeti.pdf

I am roasting a chicken in a dutch oven. Should I add any type of liquid to the bottom of the dutch oven before putting it in the oven?

If braising, yes. If roasting (lid off), no.

I've been reading and watching content about cooking and when the instructor says, "liberally season with salt", I am left clueless as to how much I should apply. As a complete novice in cooking, I don't know how much is too much, or how little is too little. What do they mean by that ?

You're not alone in being confused. Here's a few "weasel phrases" that recipe authors use: "Liberally season" "Season to taste" "Season as required" "Add enough" "A bunch of" "A generous quantity" In a lot of cases, what these phrases stand for is "I didn't bother to measure this". That means you, as the recipe reader, need to guess. Salt, though, is kind of a special case. Depending on how much salt you're accustomed to eating, personal tastes vary a lot in terms of how much salt a dish needs. For example, I'm used to cooking for someone on a low-salt diet, so even when I cook for myself I tend to use 1/4 as much salt as, say, Chef John of Food Wishes does. For that reason, "season to taste" when used to talk specifically about salt added, for flavor, towards the end of the recipe, really means "season to your taste". That is, if you like salt, use a lot; if you don't, use a little. Unfortunately, "a lot" or "a little" are still only meaningful in the context of the recipe. For example, 1tsp of salt is a lot if you're putting it into 1/2 cup of salad dressing, but it's very little if you're adding it to three liters of chili. So, as a first time cook, my recommendation is to add a very small amount of salt when you first try the recipe, regardless of "liberally season". You can always add more salt at the table if you find it too bland, and next time you make it you'll know how much it needs.

'Artisan' is a term thrown around a lot right now in the bread world. What defines something as an 'artisan' bread? Is it a function of the recipe, the technique, or the person? Note, I'm not talking about just store bought bread here - but books like Artisan Breads Everyday. So clearly it can't be just a grocery marketing term. (It could be more generally a marketing term.)

I think everyone agrees that "artisan" gets tossed around as a marketing term that is largely empty or vapid, referring as much to the "old world" images used on the bag than to the bread itself. However, I think there is an actual "artisan" quality to food, and that it relates to several qualities or ethics of the producer - which you do find in some actual bakeries: Develops their own recipes - an artisan baker should be developing recipes that meet their needs. If they don't know enough to do that, then they are just following instructions. Tweaks recipes carefully over time to maximize the intended qualities of the bread. An "artisan" producer understands the variables that impact the quality of their product and constantly adjust them to keep the bread quality high, despite changing or variable ingredients. Follows the ethic of "Flavor Rules", and flavor is the first priority. Of course they have to be a business-person as well, but recipe changes and enhancements should primarily be made to improve flavor, not reduce cost, improve packability, etc. Has a real passion for what they are doing, and holds themselves to the highest standard. Artists are always the most critical of their own work, and are constantly looking for ways to improve. A home baker may not be an "artist", but when I make "artisan breads" at home (and I think this is what Peter R. is referring to), I do so with an intent to make the bread as good as I possibly can, even if this means baking it tomorrow instead of tonight, or ordering special flours online. I contrast this with my "makin' dinner" baking, where I obviously want it to be good, but am willing to give up some perfection in order to get it done tonight. Neither method is inherently better, but they are undertaken with a different intent and process.

How do I tone down the heat in a white bean chicken chile with corn that is made from the Omaha Steak side meal kit?

Dairy products have the impeccable ability to dampen heat from peppers, hot sauce and other spicy items. This includes milk (often drunk along with very spicy foods and peppers), sour cream, and cheese, among others. I find Sour Cream not only adds to the complexity of flavors in most chili's (a great thing!), but also quells the heat quite a bit. I'd leave your chili how it is, and then as you serve it, allow the individual to add sour cream to taste. You can also top your chili with a healthy dose of your favorite cheese. This will help tame the heat a bit too. For white chili, jack or pepper jack cheese would be a good fit.

I made my cheese sauce with pre-shredded cheese (first problem I know), milk and butter. I tried to make a roux but without the flour I think I made it fail. To make the cheese sauce, I put milk and butter in a pot and brought it to a boil. When it frothed, I mixed in the cheese, then stirred it every so often. When I took it off the heat, the cheese was separated, with a milk and butter mix at the top. I strained it over my pasta and it was in chunks. (I'm keeping the milk and butter mix for my next cooking adventure, but I'm not sure what yet.) Where did I go wrong, and what can I do for next time? I'm trying to keep it relatively cheap. I thought doing homemade would be more cost-effective than buying Velveeta or a million boxes of macaroni and cheese.

I know it seems that mac 'n cheese should be a simple thing for a beginner cook to make. It isn't. Without a solid recipe, even experienced cooks can royally screw up mac 'n cheese. Generally it starts with a bechamel, also known as a white sauce. You're right, that starts with a roux which requires flour, or at least some kind of starch. Once you've got a good white sauce, then you add the shredded cheese. You're right again, pre-shredded cheese is not a good idea. Pre-shredded cheese is covered with cellulose so it doesn't clump up in the bag. That doesn't make for smooth melting. Alton Brown's stovetop recipe is about as simple as homemade mac 'n cheese gets. I would recommend mastering this then moving on to (written and highly rated) recipes that start with a bechamel. And grate your own cheese. AB's Stovetop Mac 'n Cheese. One more thing - Cheese sauce for mac 'n cheese is one application for which high quality (read that "expensive") cheese may not be your best choice. High quality, expensive cheeses tend to be aged, making them melt with a texture you might consider grainy. Some people go so far as to use (gasp) American cheese or even (double gasp) Velveeta for smooth melting. I'm not sure that I'd recommend going that far except for pre-teen palates. For me a happy medium (so to speak) is store-brand medium cheddar. AB's recipe calls for sharp cheddar, but he has other ingredients that ameliorate potential graininess.

I have been experimenting by adding extra cloves of garlic into my pasta sauce every time I cook it. I make a quick pasta sauce by caramelizing onions in a pan, adding very finely chopped fresh garlic (its practically a paste), and whatever other vegetables is my pick for the night. Then I add chopped tomatoes/passata and reduce. It seems to me no matter how much garlic I add, I do not get a harsh flavour. I just get a nice, deep, complex yet subtle flavour that I wouldn't instantly attribute to garlic. I am currently at the stage where I am adding more than half a bulb of garlic to a one person sauce. Is there any point in adding this much garlic? Is the garlic responsible for this "nice, deep, complex flavour"? Would the same effect be achieved with less garlic which is more coarsely chopped? I understand that the longer garlic cooks, the weaker the "garlic" flavour gets, but is this flavour disappearing or is it developing into a new flavour?

Garlic mellows pretty rapidly with heat. Dropping it 2 minutes before you've completed sautéeing your onions is enough to knock the raw edge off it - in fact that's the common deciding factor as to when to add your liquids, "Fry until the raw smell is gone". After that, the longer it simmers the more 'relaxed' it gets. If you want more punch, try adding some more fresh right at the end. You'd be surprised, too, how much punch you can get adding dried garlic powder right at the end too. I use it in tarka dal to really give some 'front' to the flavour & aroma as it is served.

When I cooked salmon filets on the grill last night, after the filets had been on the grill for a while, I noticed that the salmon secreted through the surface of the filet a white liquidy substance that looked sort of like mayonaise or ranch dressing. What is it and why does it come out during cooking?

That white stuff is albumen, the same protein that makes the white of chicken eggs. The albumen is part of the salmon's blood, which means that your fillet was fresh. A trick for dealing with it was developed by Bruno Goussault while collaborating with chef Michel Richard from Citronelle in DC: soak the salmon pieces in an ice cold brine. The article in the New York Times that told the story recommends soaking the salmon fillets for ten minutes in a 10% brine (by weight). To make the brine, dissolve three tablespoons of Kosher salt for every cup of ice cold water and make as many cups as you need.

Over the years, I've read a lot of health information that says processed meats are some of the worst foods for you from a fat, sodium, and nitrate intake perspective. Then I read that Sausage is a processed meat, which, makes sense. Is all Sausage considered a "Processed Meat", and is therefore relatively high in fat, sodium, and nitrates?

Generally it's things that have been prepared such that there's some sort of added preservative -- salt, sulfates, sulfides, nitrates, etc. So this would include all hams except 'fresh ham', almost all deli meats, all sausages, bacon, jerky, corned beef, etc. So yes, sausage is considered a processed meat. If you want to get all technical about what 'processed' means it could also include any other form of curing (eg, smoking), and most any form of processing (grinding, slicing, etc), although this second group typically isn't refered to as 'processed meat' (unless it's then glued back together, like chicken nuggets, but those tend to have additives in them already) As for the health aspects ... like most anything, it's fine in moderation, although there are some people who react badly to sulfates and sulfides. Some sausages have more additives in them than others, and there are plenty of sausages out there that might be considered 'healthy' if it's in place of other higher salt/fat foods (eg, some brands of chicken & apple sausage).

If I boil a bit alcohol in a pot, can I get drunk by inhaling the evaporating mixture? Does the steam of alcohol still include any alcohol?

Yes, you can. You can definitely become intoxicated, but this is not advised. When you drink alcohol, it is absorbed through the lining of your digestive system and passes through the bloodstream to reach your brain. This means that the alcohol will be buffered by the contents of your digestive system, getting you drunk more gradually. When inhaled, the alcohol is absorbed directly into the bloodstream through the lungs, so intoxication will happen much more quickly, not giving you time to "back off" if you think you've had too much.

I have some moong dal that I bought at an Indian market a few months ago. I've stored them in a sealed tupperware container. When I opened them today (to make them for dinner tonight), they smell strongly - not necessarily bad, but pungent. Is this normal? Or have they gone bad?

Don't over think this. If you know somebody who already makes sour dough, they need to refresh their culture once or twice a month. Get their "throw away" starter and use it to start yours. I bought a starter from King Arthur about 10 years ago. Still using the same starter today. King Arthur still sells sourdough starter. Their crocks work well too. You can start a starter simply by putting out a bowl of water in the summer air. The yeast that's in the air will find its way into the water. You should then add some of that water to perhaps a half dozen jars of water flour mixture. Not every jar will start but the ones that start bubbling are worth keeping and nurturing. It may take a day or so at room temp before you see bubbles. After about two days the mixture will stop bubbling. That's when you need to add more flour/water mixture. I use King Arthur unbleached bread flour in the light blue bag. Use 1 cup flour and one cup tap water and 1 cup starter. You can boil it if you want but I never do. Just make sure you don't add boiling water to the starter or you'll kill it. Tepid or lukewarm is fine. I don't worry about chlorine, add honey or lower the pH. If your water is unusually alkaline you may need to do something about it but first you would need to know if it's alkaline or acidic. Inexpensive pH test strips are available at pet stores that sell tropical fish, especially if they sell saltwater fish. Running your water through a carbon filter will remove the chlorine (Brita, PUR, ZeroWater). You can boil it too but then you have to wait for it to cool down. Simply leave the water in an open container and the chlorine will evaporate out...not sure how long that takes. You'll need to repeat this a few times until you get a stable culture. Throw away one cup of starter mixture then add back one cup water and one cup flour that's been mixed together. When you mix a fresh batch, leave it out on the counter for a few hours. It will double in size so make sure you have a big enough container. Starter over flows are a pain to clean up. From there, put your covered starter in the fridge for 2 or 3 weeks and then rebuild your starter again. I go 4 weeks maximum. Always put a date on the jar so you know when to do the refresh. Starter is like a pet, you have to take care of it and it's a long term commitment. At 4 weeks, your starter will have a layer of black water on top. In general, don't worry about. The water will contain some alcohol as the yeast give it off as a by-product. When it's time to refresh, just pour off the layer of water. Give it a smell. It will have a sourdough smell. You'll quickly learn what that is. As far as I know I have never had a starter culture go bad. At one time I kept two cultures for white bread and one for rye. Now I just keep one culture for white bread. When it's time to make your bread, grab 1 cup of starter for your bread and use the other cup to rebuild...one cup starter, one cup water, one cup fresh flour. Keep it simple. You don't need added sugar for sourdough but some recipes may call for it. Authentic sourdough is much like authentic French baguettes...flour salt and water is all you really need. Baguettes use added yeast instead of the yeast in the starter. FYI, by French law, authentic French baguettes can only contain flour, salt, yeast and water, nothing else. Over time, your starter, and your sourdough will develop their own special character/taste based on the yeast in your area. Good luck!

They look pretty similar except the Australia ones cost more than twice the ones from China. Taste-wise, there are only subtle differences according to my tastebuds. Is there a reason Australia broccoli is more expensive? Is it a nutritional thing, a taste thing, or a supply thing (I supposed they grow more broccoli in China)? EDIT: Forgot to mention, I'm located in Singapore, so that might make a difference :)

I imagine that the following things make a vegetable more expensive: quantity of supply (if a shop has more product to move in a limited time they make it cheaper) quality of supply (eg organic) distance to supply (if it costs more to move it from source to destination) age of supply (products near expiration are cheaper because the shop needs to sell them)

I would like to bake bread as soon as I get up. Would it be possible to store bread dough overnight, perhaps in the fridge? For how long could I store it? Would it need to rise again next morning?

Yes, it is possible, and in fact usually results in better bread, because the yeast has more time to work and develop flavour. It depends on the recipe, but you should usually reduce the amount of yeast being used to prevent overproofing. You can keep most doughs for a couple of days in the fridge, depending again on the amount of yeast and how often the fridge is opened. Simply mix and knead your dough as normal, cover it tightly with plastic wrap over the bowl, then put it straight in the fridge. You will usually need to allow a couple of hours the next morning for the dough to 'wake up' and finish a full proof, but if your dough has fully risen in the fridge (ie it has grown 1.5-2 times) you can go straight to shaping.

What's the best way to prepare two steaks via sous vide if you want to cook a medium rare and a medium steak? Is it best to cook the medium steak first at its temperature, then lower the temperature, leave the medium steak in and cook the medium rare steak?

Pretty simple, cook the two steaks separately at the required temperatures the day before. Cool in an ice bath and reserve in the fridge. The next day rethermalise the steaks in the bath at say 55C: you really only need to heat them for around 25-30 minutes, as all you want to do is take the chill out of the steaks before you sear them on as a high a heat as possible. Do not season your steaks before they go in the bag because the meat will cure slightly overnight in the fridge. There's some good info on Cooking Issue around the cook/chill method, especially the pre-salting question: http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-thats-the-searing-question/ There are two main types of low-temperature cooking – direct-serve and cook-chill. For direct-serve you cook foods and serve them right away. For cook-chill, foods are cooked, chilled, stored, and rethermalized at service time. Here is a typical sequence for cooking a steak: Sear the raw rib-eye. This step kills bacteria on the surface, starts the browning reactions that contribute to good meat flavors, and ensures that a nice crust will be formed quickly later when the meat is seared again. Put meat in a bag with butter. Cook the steak for 1-4 hours at 55 C. The optimum length of time depends on how tough the particular steak is. Now, either: Pull the steak out of the bag, sear it (to make a nice crust) and serve it. This is Direct Serve. Or: Chill the meat and store. Retherm it at 52 C. Pull the steak out of the bag, sear it and serve it. This is Cook-Chill.

I'd like to pre-bake pita bread so that I can store it in the fridge and use them one at a time by heating them in a pan. Any idea how to do that?

I normally make a full batch of pitta, freeze most of it and then defrost using the toaster. Contrary to Joshua Engel's answer, I've never had any trouble with the pitta toasting rather than defrosting; for contexts where I want pitta I'm happy for it to be hot. My toaster has a 'defrost' setting which I think reduces the heat intensity, and I'll typically set it at the shortest setting, then turn the pitta over to heat the part that was sticking out of the top of the toaster. I also sometimes leave it in the oven for a few minutes to defrost instead but have never felt a need to wrap it in foil beforehand, and I don't think it's suffered as a result.

I am from india and a beginner baker. I have been trying really hard for quite some time to make decent 100% whole wheat bread from freshly milled chakki atta. I have tried pre-packaged ones available in grocery stores and am able to make decent bread loaf with small/medium crumb texture but not able to replicate that with freshly milled atta I follow variations of this recipe - 250 gms atta flour 180-200 gms water 4-5 gms salt 10-15gms sugar 10-15 gms fresh yeast. roughly 1-2 tsp of oil. The above is based on this recipe. I sometimes substitute a portion of water with milk (maximum around 50%), replace 20-30 gms water with one medium egg, or use unsalted butter instead of oil (12-18gms). The hydration varies from 72-80%. I generally knead for 200-250 passes, the dough is generally somewhat elastic and surface is somewhat smooth after that Typically I let the dough be until it double in size ( typically 45 - 1 hour ) and then bake it or punch it down and do the second rising. Over the last few times, based on this discussion, I ensure that the internal temperature gets to 190° F - 205° F. This, and at least 15 mins of resting ensures that the bread is cooked evenly. In India we have quite a few types of wheat, and I have tried so far 4 kinds of wheat - Sharbati (aestivum) Sihori (aestivum?) Khapli ( Emmer/dicoccum)- I came to know about this in this discussion and so far this has given the best results I am not sure if its supposed to work, but I tried making my own active gluten by washing away the starch from a bowl of kneaded dough until only the gluten is left behind, and using that gluten in the bread dough. I didn't see any improvement. This is the typical structure of bread I bake. As its evident, there is no crumb structure, and can tend to be a bit soggy on the inside. The below one was baked until the internal temperature was about 205deg F and then allowed to cool on a rack for 15-20 mins. Its somewhat dense ( although it was baked when the proofed volume was more than twice the size) I would like to be able to make fluffier breads with hopefully well defined crumb structure. Does any one see any fault in my process? Any recommendation on how to get a decently defined crumb and relatively fluffy. UPDATE 25/3 After going through @GdD's answer, I made a couple of batches incorporating the suggestions made there. Made sure the dough is as smooth as possible before letting it to rest covered in a warm place. Didn't put water in the oven as I dont mind how the crust is as of now. Since the crust was't hard as is, there shouldn't be any problem if there is an oven spring. Ingredients Dough - 250 GMS Water - 175 GMS - 120 deg F Yeast - 11 GMS - Fresh Compressed Salt - 4.5 GMS Kneaded slowly about 12 minutes. Then shaped it into a log and transferred into the loaf pan. Let it rest for 2 hours. The results are marginally better. Here are a few observations - The dough breaks apart almost immediately when stretched. ( is this because of poor gluten content/development ) The dough is significantly stiffer compared to 70% hydration dough that I see online. Every second fold would break it at the seams while kneading It proofed to be double in size in about 45 mins and then would rise no more. Although I am sure yeast was working (you can take the pan near to your ear and hear a tiny fizzy sound), it would rise no more :( There was no oven spring. Its super frustrating :( Can anyone help me figure out what alterations are required to get a decent loaf of bread from just chakki atta, salt, yeast and water? SOLVED 85% hydration for chakki atta is equivalent to 60% hydration for all purpose flour. This is 250 gms chakki atta, 85% water 2% salt 3% active wheat gluten 3% fresh yeast. Needs significant kneading, end result will be a smooth dough. Moderate raising dough at sweltering Indian summer (30 °C). Single raise of 75 mins. The dough more than doubled in size. 10 mins in 210° C with boiling water, 15 mins covered in 190°C. Bread is soft, although there are no large crumbs. Thanks everyone for suggestions.

Atta has a high gluten content, it doesn't sound like you need to do any extra work on gluten development. From your description of your method and your picture of your result I think you are under-kneading and under-proofing. Also, it sounds like you are knocking out what rise you do have. You should have a very elastic and smooth dough after kneading. If your gluten is not developed enough it won't have the elasticity you need or be able to trap the air needed for expansion. You are adding sugar, oil and sometimes eggs and into your dough, all that is going to slow down the action of the yeast. Enriched dough takes significantly longer to proof (rise), 45 minutes for an enriched dough typically isn't enough. In any case you should be working to a result, not a time. A high hydration dough like yours should at least triple in size, if not quadruple before you move onto the next step. You say you sometimes bake right after a first rise, you can do this if you proof it in the container you want but you have to make sure you don't lose any air. If you do a first rise and then move it to a tin you need to do a second rise to get the air back in it. If you want a really airy dough don't knock it back, you lose all that hard work the yeast has done. Treat it as gently as you can when moving it to your tin or baking sheet and handle it as little as possible. Then let it rise again until it's the right size, then bake. Something else that might be happening is that the crust may be hardening before you get full oven spring. In high hydration dough you get a lot of oven spring from the vaporization of water in the dough, the expansion of the air trapped in it and the yeast going crazy before dying. If your crust forms too quickly then the bread can't expand and it all gets trapped. Try putting a tray of hot water in the oven about 10 minutes before you bake the bread, it will create a moist environment that will keep the crust from hardening completely. Once the bread has sprung (about 20 minutes) you can remove the tray of water and let the crust harden up. Also, don't forget to score the dough on top with a sharp knife, that will allow expansion as well.

I recently renovated my kitchen and have a new Bosch wall oven. I've noticed many baking recipes that used to be reliable are no longer so. I have a ThermoWorks ChefAlarm and calibrated my oven according to the procedure on their website. The accuracy of the oven is pretty good – usually only 5-8 oF lower than the display says. But the temperature swings are surprising: they're ± 30 oF. So if I set my oven for 350 oF, the temperature ranges back and forth from 320 oF to 380 oF over time. I've never checked the range on previous ovens so I can't say if this is normal. It seems to me to likely be a problem, especially when a cookie might only be in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Does anyone know? And a follow on: I'm tempted to reach out to Bosch customer service to see if there is a field modification to change this behavior. Does anyone know if that's realistic?

This is fully normal. Ovens are not stable, temperature-wise, and I have frequently seen such large amplitudes in temperature. Of course, it is much nicer if your oven can hold a constant temperature, that's why some people will accept the expense of an Aga. But in principle, baking recipes can handle that. Note that from a historical point of view, people used ovens with solid fuel, which had much larger temperature amplitudes and no temperature display, and their baking goods were still tasty. Ovens are not temperature-accurate, and recipes are robust for that. As for the recipes which are no longer reliable, the most likely explanation is that your old oven was also inaccurate, but in a different pattern. Another possibility would be a different mix of radiant, convective and conductive heat, which means that the same recipe in the same pan can require a different time. In general, a recipe which specifies time is reliable for a specific combination of pan, oven and amount. If you bake until ready instead of waiting for a time given in the recipe, the problem disappears.

So it seems that every time that I pan sear something, any oil I have in the beginning seems to be gone about half way through and it turns into me dry searing whatever I am cooking. My guess is that I have the heat too high and the oil is evaporating or burning off. Is there a simple way to know when the oil is hot enough to pan sear but not so hot that it burns off?

If the oil is of too low temperature, it'll have a tendency to get soaked up by the food you're preparing or get evaporated together with the water that's leaking out, so that's where it's disappearing. (Some vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, ... tend to soak up oil like sponges regardless of the temperature.) To test whether the oil is hot enough, I always use the empirical method: slice off a sliver of whatever you're going to sear throw it in the pan if bubbles start forming: oil is hot enough if not: throw away sliver, rinse and repeat Works for anything you're going to sear! Having said that: Don't be shy on the oil: it doesn't just sear, it adds flavour too!

I have a grape vine with a lot of fresh leaves so I thought I'd make stuffed vine leaves. I'm going to precook the filling, so the final cook only needs to be enough to cook the leaves. Most recipes for stuffed vine leaves cook for long enough to cook the filling as well, so I can't get an idea of how long the leaves need. Other recipes are based on oven cooking them until crispy. I'm planning to simmer them in a covered pan or steam them over some new potatoes, as I can do that outside to avoid heating the house (we're having a heatwave here). I expect to par-cook/blanch the leaves first as apparently that makes them easier to roll. So how long do vine leaves themselves take to steam/simmer?

As you're going to blanch the vine leaves until they are easy to roll, no additional time is needed to cook them... If you add cold ingredients like cheese to the filling or if you freeze them, it's a good idea to steam them a bit more for perfectly warm and properly cooked Dolmades...

I am from Santiago, Chile. Here, there's a rumour that smashed (ground) flax seed loses its properties in around 4 hours. Do you know anything about this? Basically, the rumors say that the flax seed loses its nutritional properties, and that it can even be unhealthy once it is ground — but, if you grind it yourself and eat it right away, it's OK.

I could not find any credible sources indicating that flax seeds (also known as linseed) lose significant nutritional benefits after they've been smashed, crushed or ground. This article from Mayo Clinic in fact indicates that since the seeds tend to pass undigested, it is better to grind them: Most nutrition experts recommend ground flaxseed because your body is better able to digest it. Whole flaxseed may pass through your intestine undigested, which means you won't get all the health benefits.

I would like to make umeboshi makizushi, but I don't have access to shiso leaf which is traditionally paired with the umeboshi. Is there any acceptable substitute for the shiso that is more readily accessible in the US?

Shiso is in the mint family. Stick to that area and you'll be fine, even though nothing will be exactly right. Peppermint leaves, lemon basil or Thai basil will all give a nice look and a pleasant flavor, even if it won't be quite the same. A combination of mint and and Thai or Holy basil might be your best bet. A tiny, tiny drop of toasted sesame oil will get you even a little bit closer. I just read from a totally unknown (to me) source that lemon thyme hits a lot of the same notes, but obviously that would look completely different. Again, perhaps a combination will get you closest.

When making real Ragu, what really is the specific difference between using tomatoes (so, for say 1kg of meat, a big pile of tomatoes, chopped and cooked-in for many hours as the last step) using Passata (so, for say 1kg of meat, a few cups of Passata, cooked-in for many hours as the last step) What really is the specific actual difference in outcome or perhaps in procedure? Is Passata really just for convenience? That is to say: if the "inventors" (so to speak) of Ragu simply had lots of fresh San Marzano tomatoes on hand, they would simply use the fresh tomatoes and say "naturally, that's better than Passata". Or is there actually some difference?

The primary reason is definitely convenience. If you don't want skin and seeds in your sauce, then you have to do some work to avoid it. Yes, it's possible, e.g. passing through a food mill, or blanching and peeling plus retaining only the flesh, but having it already done is a whole lot easier. Passata is usually much thicker too, so it won't need as long a cooking time to reduce into a non-watery sauce as fresh tomatoes. On top of that, you don't have to worry about whether you can find good fresh tomatoes, e.g. if it's winter and they're out of season. Your two cases for comparison seem to overlook this: if you just chop and cook, you'll have skin and seeds in your sauce, as well as excess liquid to cook down, while if you use passata, you won't. (Also, for what it's worth, you'd need pretty giant tomatoes to get the equivalent of 3/4 cup of passata out of one tomato.) Of course, if you don't mind skin and seeds, it's also perfectly fine to simply cook fresh tomatoes and be done with it. Note that you can often get similar advantages from other canned tomato products. In the US, crushed tomatoes are far more common, and a roughly similar texture. (Peeled whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste can also be useful depending on what texture you're aiming for.)

A colleague of mine just got a new thermos (inox), this model, and actually read all instruction, and we were surprised to read that it is not recommended to pour hot milk in the thermos. My opinion was that: Unlike tea of coffee, a lot of micro-organisms live in milk, will end up being a favorable place for those micro-organisms to generate a culture (which will be more and more difficult to get rid off, and will contaminate any other fluid poured in the thermos) If you don't wash it straight away, it will really stink. The milk being full of water-insoluble proteins/fat, it will "coat" the internal thermos walls (gross!) - I've already seeing that "coat" forming in plastic containers, and I guess it won't be any different in inox containers. I've actually not found an answer online, so I thought that here I could find some experts. I realize this could be a cross-question for Biology SE, but I felt it more food-related.

The cleaning is one thing (there are flasks without hidden crevices that can be easily cleaned), but there’s also another point to consider: A thermos flask that is doing its job will keep food warm, or rather, slow down the cooling process. Even if you fill it with fairly hot liquid, it will slowly cool. If you do that with a perishable food like milk, you will easily create an environment in the upper range of the danger zone, where food will become unsafe after as little as two hours. Yes, you can argue that you are filling hot milk in a clean container, but in the end, it’ll be not safe by food safety standards. (What you make of that is obviously your choice.) The manufacturer’s warning will protect the end users from food poisoning.

When you hear of people making extreme quantities of omelettes in record time (think: contests), is there a special technique one needs to master in order to do this? Or is it simply a matter of being really good and efficient with the standard technique? If there is such a technique, what is it?

Try brushing the tortilla with oil, and baking it upside down over a steel bowl.

At my local (kosher, Ashkenazi) butcher, one of the cuts of beef they sell is kulkie, or kolichel/kalichl. It's a tough, lean cut with copious connective tissue which is great for stewing. However, I haven't the faintest what it is, which presents a problem if I'm going to a Sephardi, or non-Jewish kosher butcher, who wouldn't likely be familiar with the term. Which part of the cow is the "kulkie"?

I've only been to the UK once, and so my only basis on 'British' peas is 'mushy peas' for the most part. I do know that American varieties of fruits and vegetables are much more likely to be bred for sugar content as compared to European bred ones. I suspect that most of what you were getting in the UK were 'hull peas', as another name for them is 'English peas'. As I don't know how peas are classified in the UK (other than 'mange tout'), this is what I know for US peas (may be incomplete; I couldn't find an authoritative exhaustive list): snow peas : aka. sugar peas; available fresh or frozen, as a whole pod, almost flat with very little peas inside; you eat the whole thing (mange tout) snap peas : aka. sugar snap peas; available fresh in the spring and sometimes late fall. Sold as whole pods with large peas in them (sometimes so large they start flattening each other); you eat the whole thing (mange tout) hull peas : aka. garden peas, shell peas, English peas; available fresh in the spring as whole pods, but the pod is not edible. Some varieties are sweeter than others. field peas : aka dry peas; Used as a fall cover crop, and commonly sold dried or used as cattle field. peanuts : (might not be a pea; definitely is not a nut) : Bends over as it grows, so the pods grow underground. Can be sold fresh ('green peanuts'; highly perishable, only available in areas where it's grown) or dried ('raw peanuts'), but commonly available in the US in a cooked form (mostly roasted, but also fried and boiled (seasonal) in the US south) And to differentiate by processing: fresh peas : it's possible that there are places that sell them already shelled, but around here I can only get them shell on, and can typically only get snow peas out of season. frozen peas : typically labeled as 'sweet peas' or 'petite peas' dried peas : I'm not sure if these are made from garden peas, field peas, or both split peas : dried peas that have had their skins removed and split in half; cook up similar to lentils canned peas : foul things; I'm not sure if they're really food; avoid at all cost And then we have all of things with 'pea' in the name, but are actually different families of plants (I think they're all beans / legumes / pulses): pigeon peas black eyed peas (cowpeas) the 'peas' in 'peas and rice' chickpeas crowder peas cream peas ... and if anyone knows of any naming differences between the US and UK, please add it to Translating cooking terms between US / UK / AU / CA / NZ

So I made homemade cottage cheese yesterday that had me cook the milk until it was just about to boil. I had it on the stove for at least half an hour because I didn't want it to start boiling the one time I looked away. This got me wondering if anyone has any 'tricks' to bring milk to a boil quick(er) and safely?

I put the pan with the milk inside a larger pan containing some water. This makes it much harder for the milk to boil; but it doesn't need to boil in order to turn for cottage cheese. It takes much longer to turn this way (1-2 hours), but during that time I can pretty much leave it alone and just check back every 5-10 minutes to see if it's started to turn yet and give it a quick stir to break up the skin.

I want to make Italian Three color Christmas Cookies (like these: http://www.food.com/recipe/italian-tri-color-cookies-rainbow-cookies-147882 ). This kind of cookie is traditionally are covered in melted chocolate, but my husband and son are both allergic to chocolate. The last time I tried to melt carob chips, I discovered that carob doesn't melt (it was awful...). So... how can I make a carob coating for these cookies?

Melting carob is a bit different from chocolate. The sugar crystal formation is not the same for tempering chocolate. One suggestion is to add paramount crystals (which is a combination of palm kernel oil and soy lecithin) to help start/control the process. I would also recommend not keeping the double boiler actually on the double boiler for the entire time. Heat it up until some of the carob melts. Remove from heat and stir. Add it back to the heat and continue removing to stir as each bit melts a little more. It takes longer but it allows you to control the heating and crystallization process. End the end, you should have a smoother and more even end result.

Everyone says you should seal whatever container you brine your meat with using tinfoil or airtight nylon. What are the reasons for this?

I found this very informative article from the Crown Prince company, an anchovy canner and distributor. Apparently the reason for cold storage has to do with the preservation process and product quality: Anchovy Handling Anchovies are a "semi-preserved" product. This means that they are not sterilized by either cooking or pasteurization. Instead, anchovies are preserved by a salting process whereby salt is used to control bacteria which would otherwise render a canned product unusable. The anchovies remain in the salt until just before canning. Therefore, suppliers do not pack ahead of order. Our anchovies are not packed until just prior to shipment. Because they are "semi-preserved", anchovies will eventually break down and become mushy. The cans may even puff. This occurs because there is a non-harmful bacteria that survives in salt. This bacteria can be inconvenient because when it grows it can eventually form a gas which will puff the can. We repeat that this is not harmful to humans, but is most inconvenient. Heat will hasten the growth of the non-harmful bacteria. Anchovies should always be stored in a cool place, preferably in the refrigerator. Their shelf life when refrigerated is about 18 months. If you do not plan on consuming the anchovies or paste immediately after purchasing, we recommend storing them in the refrigerator. It is important to note that puffed anchovy cans are not indicative of a faulty canning procedure, but rather of improper storage subsequent to canning. Occasionally, customers complain of a white substance in the can. Often, salt collects around the edges of the fish. This is harmless, as it is only salt.

Well, I haven't really cleaned my cabinets right above the stove for a few years so now they are covered in sticky, nasty goo that's basically settled oil fumes (I like to fry and sautee stuff). Any idea what to use to clean it? I tried regular soapy water through a sprayer but that didn't do much.

If it's safe for the cabinet surfaces, Bar Keepers Friend or some similar product (the active ingredient is oxalic acid) is pretty good at dealing with gummy polymerized oil mess. I would not try this on finished wood or painted surfaces, but if you happen to have a metal vent hood above the stove it's fine, or if you're dealing with the hidden unfinished underside of the cabinets. Failing that, the stronger the soap the better. Soapy water may not do much, but if you squirt a good amount of dish soap into a moist sponge, you may start making progress. See also Gummy residue from baking spray/oil - this is essentially the same thing as those dark spots you get from stray oil when baking, but generally in larger quantities and possibly a more liquid or at least softer form.

I want to make this recipe for a luncheon tomorrow: http://eatnorth.com/eat-north/karine-moulins-red-bean-cream-puffs I have three concerns. First, the local Asian grocery store was closed early yesterday, so I didn't get adzuki beans in time to soak. If I get them today is there a safe way to skip the soak? Second, to avoid the puffs getting soggy, what should my timing be like? Should I make the pastry and filling seperate tonight and fill them in the morning? How should I store everything? It's a work luncheon so I'd be able to fill them at 7 am at the latest, to be consumed at 12:30. Third, I have mung beans and wet Tamarind. If I'm unable to secure Adzuki, would a direct substitution of mung taste alright? Or a tamarind flavored cream? If I went either of those routes, should I skip on any white chocolate topping ?

You do need to soak the beans unfortunately, you are not going to get good results without soaking them. There's really no substitute for adzuki beans which would work well in this recipe, I'd go for another type of filling. Choux pastry (ie the puff) can be baked ahead of time but is best fresh as it gets soggy easily.You could make the pastry cream the night before, just remember to get it out of the fridge a good half hour or more before piping so it loosens up. If you absolutely have to make everything the night before don't pipe until the morning as your pastry will be very soggy by the time they are eaten.

Different sites recommend different flours for the feeding of my established starter, so I suspect it depends on the purpose, but I can't find a definitive answer. Should I be using the flour I plan to bake with next? Will mixing and matching make a difference? Do certain types produce more activity? Better flavor?

Once my starter was established (started with organic whole wheat flour) I've been feeding it with unbleached AP flour (King Arthur) and that's worked fine. I do this simply because it's the flour I buy in large quantities to stock my pantry, and so it's generally the cheapest flour I have on hand. If you want to "switch over" to a different flour you can always scoop out a bit of starter a couple days before you bake, and feed it with the different flour. Start with a small amount so you don't have to throw any away; just double the volume with each feeding. I don't usually bother, though.

This morning, I found some sausages in the fridge that had been there all week. The top of the sausage (that is, the surface of the skin facing upwards) had turned brown. I initially thought that if I just fried them long enough, this would be fine; however, while frying I did a quick search on the web, got spooked and threw them away. My question is: what causes this discolouration and, have I needlessly thrown three very tasty looking sausages in the bin?

My question is: what causes this discolouration Many meats are dyed to make them look fresher. They add red, cause meat is red right? Well no. Most meat will "brown" or "gray" as it is exposed to the air and the blood dries up (or drains out). This is not, in any way, a sign of bad meat. In fact it "may" be a sign of good, natural meat. A YouTube Video that explains it and, have I needlessly thrown three very tasty looking sausages in the bin? Yes, probably. Important note When in doubt throw it out. A week in the fridge (not freezer) is border line for me. I would have probably cooked it, but I wouldn't fault someone else for not cooking it. You can usually look for smell or slime to tell if meat is bad.

I want to cook some meatballs by boiling them in plain water. Does this remove flavor from the meatballs? I have a instantpot pressure cooker and I thought it would be way easier than baking for example.

More flour: Thicker, cakier Less flour: Flatter, more custardy More egg: Chewier Less egg: Breadier More milk: Flatter Less milk: Thicker

The lowest temperature my gas oven goes to is 130C. I have yet to find a gas oven that goes lower than that, which is weird. Is that the case with everyone? I know meringue does better with lower temperatures like 90C, so I was wondering: can one make perfect meringues at 130C, if yes how? Would a fan be of any use?

I usually go with residual heat. But I use Pavlova meringue recipe (with teaspoon of potato flour) which call for baking for 30 minutes in 120 degrees (I adjusted time to around 18 minutes to compensate for the 130 temp). Then I open it a little for around 2 minutes to lower the temp and keep closed for another 2 hours. When I was making typical meringue I just put a tray in the oven when the temp dropped to around 100 degrees on gauge (old type gas oven with gauge in the middle of the glass) and just let it sit there for 5-6 hours.

I just grilled up a steak marinated in vinegar, rosemary, and olive oil. Problem is I made too much. What's the proper way to freeze, store, and subsequently reheat this steak to get it as close to as delicious and tender as it now?

I'd recommend letting it cool to near room-temperature, then place it in an airtight sealed plastic freezer bag before it dries out too much. You can spoon some of the juices from cooking into the bag with the steak so that when it defrosts again the juices will be in there working to keep it moist. When you defrost it, do so in your fridge leaving it overnight so that it defrosts gradually, keeping it in the freezer bag so it doesn't lose any more moisture. It should then be good to reheat, probably best in a shallow pan rather than a microwave to retain moisture.

I was using some variant Veg. Ramen Noodles (The one with the noodle brick and the TasteMaker) and wished to add some "real" protein in the form of egg. I cooked the Ramen as follows: I got the water to a boil and added the brick After about a minute, I added the TasteMaker and stirred I added 1 egg and stirred. However, once I added the egg, the whole noodle mixture got congealed and semi-solid and no matter how long I let it be, it didn't change form. I inferred that I should have added the egg just before I was ready to take it off. This reinforced my inference. However, I tried again and this time, I added the egg 30 seconds before I was ready to take it off but now it tasted weird. I wanted something more like scrambled eggs in Noodles. Note: As always, I am on a student budget. EDIT: A minute ago, I found a video on youtube which stated that I should throw away the extra water a minute after I add the egg. This doesn't seem right, does it?

Here are two really good, really easy ways to make ramen with eggs: The easiest way is to just boil an egg and toss it in. If you eat this a lot, you can boil a few and keep them in the fridge. They should stay good for about 3-5 days. If you like liquid yolk in your soup, soft boil the eggs (boiled between about 3 and 9 minutes, to taste). Just cook your ramen, peel the egg, and drop it in for about 90 seconds right before you eat it. Cut the egg in half if you like. It is best to use older eggs for this. What I like to do personally (and remember this comes from the internet, so listen to me at your own risk) is use them for boiling if they have passed the expiration date, since that date (in the US) is based on the thickness of the egg white, not food safety. Older eggs don't stick to the shell when they are boiled, but new eggs do. The slightly harder (but tastier) way is to poach the egg in the ramen. To do that, cook your ramen, and make sure you have tasted your broth and you like it. If you don't like the seasoning pack from the ramen, you can add any combination of soy sauce, grated ginger, crushed garlic, oyster sauce, miso paste, sriracha, etc. There are lots of tasty, cheap things to add depending on where you live. Try them! Anyway, back to the eggs... You want to cook the ramen until is is soft but not cooked all the way. Turn the heat down to almost nothing. Crack a very fresh egg (fresh eggs have a nice thick white) into the pan once it stops bubbling. Give it a few minutes. If you want to feel busy, you can spoon the hot broth onto the top of the egg to cook it faster. If you are particular about how cooked it is, jab a knife into the middle of the yolk and check it out. Here is the last egg and ramen tip: My friends and I just called this noodle slop, but it tastes good, uses fresh at least a few fresh ingredients, and is super cheap. Cook some ramen noodles and drain them. In a big skillet, add some oil and fry some combination of celery, onions, chopped cabbage, ginger, fresh chili peppers, garlic, matchstick carrots, bell peppers, chopped scallions, cucumber, zucchini, etc. You want to cut them to the size you get in Chinese takeout and cook them until they get a bit soft. Then, scramble one egg per ramen package in with the veggies. When the egg is cooked, add the noodles and mix it all together. Add some salt and pepper, or the seasoning from the ramen if you are into the whole MSG thing. It is like cheap chow mein.

I have some kombucha scoby that I let go way too long (had to leave town for a bit, new job…) and it has gone to vinegar. I would hate to just throw it out as it’s delicious vinegar. I’d like to give out small jars to friends and family. Can I use any regular bottle or even after this long will it keep producing co2? If it’s still pumping gas it needs to be bottled in bottles that can handle it. How can I know if a bottle is safe for bubbly liquids?

I would suggest, for the combination of "possible pressure" and also "easy dispensing and resealing" flip-top bottles (ceramic stopper and rubber washer on a wire bail arrangement) which were (or are intended if you are not re-using) used for a carbonated beverage (examples common in my area are Grolsch beer in green, or sparking lemonade in clear bottles. Brown beer bottles are also seen occasionally.) I do, in point of fact, use one of these for balsamic vinegar (but that's not actively fermenting, from what I see.)

I just purchased some nice beef marrow bones. What I'd like to do is make myself some beef stock for soups and whatever else. Now I'm planning on making a Mirepoix and then adding the bones and then the water. However, my question is this: do I just put the bones in how they are or do I cook them in the oven?

Both methods are acceptable. A stock made with roasted bones is called a brown stock. A stock made from raw bones is a white stock (or sometimes just stock). Practically, it's very difficult to get a true "white" stock with beef, as opposed to chicken, since all of the impurities will darken or cloud the colour - but that is semantics. Brown stocks have a richer flavour, but that does not automatically make them better - it depends on what you'll be using it for. For soups, where the stock will give most of the flavour, brown is generally preferred; however, as a "flavourful liquid" to use in sauces, risottos, etc., a white stock may be more useful because you don't want it to overwhelm the other flavours. One cautionary note: Beef bones tend to give off a lot of what looks like blood (actually myoglobin) when boiled. If you're trying to achieve a perfect clear stock (white or brown), then you may want to blanch them first; dump them in the pot, bring the water just to a boil, then dump out everything and start over. You really won't lose much; most of the proteins are deeper within the bones and requires several hours of simmering to extract and denature. If making a brown stock (from roasted bones), do this after roasting, not before. It will also help you to get rid of any excess oil so you won't need to skim as much.

How do you figure out the exact time how long to cook something? Do you use binary search?

It is very simple. Note the time you start cooking it, and the flame/power setting/temperature. Check periodically to see if food is cooked When food is done: record time and subtract from start time. If you cook the same dish a few times, you can average it out. A lot of cook times are approximate anyway; you have to check the dish a bit before it should be done to make sure it hasn't cooked faster than expected.

Here is my white device, which has turned yellow on one side while cooking an over done cheese burger: Does anybody know whether it is possible to turn it back to the white color?

Probably not, plus it will get worse over time. I've an old George Foreman with similar marking. Neither oxygen nor chlorine bleach works - plus it smells. The only thing that very slightly works is a good hard scrub with something quite aggressive, oven cleaner or barman's friend etc, which will eventually take all the paint off. You'll just have to live with it.

I have tried a variety of experiments to make corn tortillas, but the results have been far from satisfactory The only masa I can get this corner of the world is imported from Mexico or USA and is chilled or frozen The masa and water mix goes soft after I let it stand for 30 to 60 minutes I use a typical tortilla press, but it never gets them really thin, just flat, say match thickness? The main problem is that using a well seasoned cast iron comal they take longer to cook than I would expect (more than one minute), and tend to dry out too much, and don't like being bent. If I stop cooking them after a minute they taste very uncooked They taste so so ... the kids will eat them all day made up as Quesadillas Where am I going wrong?

They may be too thick. You can try placing several pieces of paper or thin cardboard into your tortilla press to get thinner tortillas. (If you aren't already using plastic or wax paper to press the tortillas, then you'll have to start, so that the paper doesn't stick to the tortilla.) Experiment with several different thicknesses until the cooking is more uniform/faster but they're still thick enough to support the food. (You'll also need to modulate the heat.) Once you find the right thickness you can just leave the extra sheets of paper/cardboard in the press for future pressings.

For example, Amla (Indian gooseberries) can be preserved by candying them in sugar, or preserving them in brine and vinegar. However, the candying makes them too sweet and preserving in salt makes them too salty. Not just taste-wise, but also health-wise. Instead, can we use a combination of sugar and salt to preserve them? That would avoid the overload of either sugar or salt. If yes, then how? When applying sugar, they usually advice not to add water. So would that necessitate dry application of sugar and salt?

I think the hypothesis is incorrect: there are certainly Western recipes for stock that suggest cooking for 24-72 hours, such as here: http://realeverything.com/tutorial-thursday-broth-stock-bones/. Most recipes I find for Chinese white stock in English also suggest cooking only at most 4-8 hours. I have never made these long stocks but the longer cooks are claimed to continue creating more gelatin out of the bones, until the bones disintegrate under mild pressure. That certainly isn't true about bones cooked for 4ish hours, in my experience, so something is happening in the long cook, although I don't have any clear information on how significant that something is.

I've started making tofu recently, and the one thing that bothers me is how much okara I end up throwing away. Since I'm not drinking the soy milk, and just turning it into tofu immediately, what's the problem with just leave the okara? I assume the tofu will be less flavorful, but it's not exactly strongly flavored to begin with. Will it mess up the coagulation process?

The okara has some unextracted protein and sugar but it also has a large quantity of fiber. That fiber will prevent the protein from properly coagulating. If you leave in all the okara you get soybean porridge. I imagine you could leave in a portion of the okara and you would get a fragile but hearty tofu. The problem with this is that, with most tofu recipes, the beans are not cooked long enough for the okara to be palatable. With all that sugar it would also give rise to much more flatulence. You don't have to throw the okara out. There are many recipes that make use of the okara for its fiber. It is pretty straight forward to use it in baked goods. Toasting it gives it more interesting flavor. If you want to look into tofu-like products that use the entire bean you could research tempeh. The whole beans are fermented so you get a meaty product with all the nutrition of the whole soy bean.

Possible Duplicate: How do I make my roux taste less like flour? I'm trying to make a basic cheese sauce for putting over broccoli, etc. A typical recipe I've tried is: 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder Sea salt, to taste 1 cup low fat milk 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated White pepper, to taste Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in flour, mustard powder and salt to taste. Gradually stir in milk, whisking over med-low heat until thickened. Add cheese, stirring until completely melted. Season to taste with white pepper. The problem is that it always ends up with a flour/paste undertaste. Am I just not cooking the Roux sufficiently before adding the cheese or what?

It seems like you are not cooking the roux. Even a white roux should be cooked. A roux made with butter froths when it is cooked, after that you can add the milk. You can try adding it gradually, if it works for you, I find that dumping it at once and stirring vigorously is better for me - else the first small amount of milk gels the roux into too-hard lumps which the next portion of milk doesn't dissolve. Also, "until thickened" is a bit of a hit-or-miss. I wait until I see bubbles of cooking - not the rapid small bubbles of boiling water, but big, slowly rising bubbles plopping here and there, only then I stop cooking the sauce.

I have a recipe for a pumpkin french toast bake (think pumpkin bread pudding) that calls for 30oz. canned pumpkin pie filling. I have all of the ingredients for making a pumpkin pie from scratch, including canned pumpkin. How do I doctor the canned pumpkin in order to substitute for the pie filling? I figure that I'll need to add spices and sugar, but I'm unsure if there is any egg or dairy products in the pie filling that I'd need to account for.

The most common, almost canonical brand of canned "Pumpkin Pie Filling" in the US is Libby brand. While the canned pumpkin puree is just canned pumpkin, the Libby "Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling" also has sugar syrup, natural flavoring, salt and spices. So I would add the spices, salt and condensed milk in @Phrancis's recommendation to 30 ounces of pumpkin puree (probably without the cornstarch, there is probably cornstarch or other thickener in the rest of the recipe, if not, consider adding it as a part of the next step I am recommending here), more or less of the spices and sweetener to taste. The eggs and dairy (other than the sweetened condensed milk, which would serve in the substitution as the sweetener) are most likely in your recipe, not expected to be in the can of "Pumpkin Pie Filling"). You want a texture pretty similar to the unadulterated canned pumpkin product. If your substitution is a bit thinner than the the canned pumpkin was (as it should be, with the addition of sweetened condensed milk) simmer it a while to reduce. That can get your volume down to 30 ounces and intensify the pumpkin flavor, making your substitution probably better than the stuff for which you are substituting. Libby sells the pumpkin puree in 15, 29 and 106 ounce cans. BTW, America's Test Kitchen does that reducing trick to canned pumpkin just routinely to give it a more intense pumpkin flavor and to eliminate "the taste of the can".

If I want to make a really superior vegetable or seafood tempura, what kind of oil should I use, and what temperature should I heat it to? I've been using refined peanut oil (Lion & Globe brand) and heating it to around 375F. However, the results haven't been as good as I'd like them to be. Would using a different type of oil help?

In my experience at expensive tempura restaurants, sesame oil is almost always used at least as part of the blend, but my understanding is that it is not the roasted kind, which has far too low a smoke point. I've been to a restaurant in Izu, now closed, where it was obvious because we were seated right in front of the fryer and the smell was quite noticeable, and the fancy place I went to in Tokyo was apparently using sesame oil as well, but they had more effective ventilation, so it was mostly obvious from the flavorfulness of the results. I've seen unroasted sesame oil in middle-eastern markets and I know some companies sell it in the US, so it is obtainable, and I've seen it at about $40/gallon on Amazon. I also know from experience that a blend of the roasted sesame oil and neutral, high-smoke-point oil will have a higher smoke point than just straight roasted sesame oil, and will add flavor, so it's at least possible that some people do that. At home and at inexpensive restaurants, other vegetable oils are frequently used, and there's a simple tempura set that you can buy as a gift pack that I've seen used as a winter gift. This is usually cottonseed oil or a blend. In some regions, an ambiguous blend called "salad oil" is commonly used. It is not unheard of to use tea seed oil (camellia), which is increasingly available in the US at Asian markets (when I ran a specialty import business, I used to sell sell some that a Chinese tea importer was purchasing until he shifted his focus to larger packages suitable for restaurant use). The Japanese entry for tenpura on Wikipedia confirms that a custom blend of sesame, cottonseed and other oils is often used at tempura shops. The Tokyo style and Kansai style is a bit different, with many Tokyo shops serving a darker version thanks in part to sesame oil and egg, and Kansai region versions leaning a bit whiter thanks either to using neutral vegetable oils or lack of egg. I've used canola oil but it tends to leave an unpleasant aroma in the air, especially after the second use. If I were in the US and on a budget, I'd probably choose peanut oil, but it will taste different than most of what I've seen in Japan. I doubt that I've ever encountered peanut oil-fried tempura in Japan, though there's a chance I just didn't notice. In practice, I've found that the most important thing to get good results from homemade tempura is to prevent overloading the fryer, because the temperature will drop too quickly. This is true for other kinds of fried goods as well, but is far more important for tempura because the coating should be fairly thin. As an unpracticed amateur, I've found that using a modest amount of katakuriko or cornstarch in the flour blend helps produce crisper results. It's fairly difficult to get an assortment of different items to be ready at the same time, so consider making it in "courses" if you want flawless results, or make only one or two items at a time. Tempura restaurants tend to have wide, slightly shallow fryers, whereas most fryers meant for western deep-frying tend to have several stations of deep pots, since it's ok in many cases for things to be submerged, like when making french fries. It's quite unusual for tempura to be completely submerged. Edited to add: Assuming you're coating with a batter (there are some types that are dusted with flour or katakuriko rather than a full batter), I get far better results by keeping the batter (or the flour) very cold. Many years later edit, since I live in Japan now and occasionally buy prepared "tempura flour": I just wanted to note that, looking at the ingredients in tempura flour sold in Japanese supermarkets for home cooks wanting to make tempura here, baking powder is typically in the mix. I have added it occasionally with plain flour in the US depending on how important crisp results were to me, but if your primary issue is textural it may be worth a try. I don't think it's as much baking powder as "self-rising flour" would contain, but I'm not sure. I will say that in a pinch, when I was low on regular flour, I used tempura flour in scones and got acceptable results, so it may be "just enough" to cause some carbon dioxide explosions that produce a leavening effect.

I know there's a recipe for Mayonaise cake that is super moist. I am baking sugar free brownies that are a bit dry, box recipe. I'd like to use mayo instead of oil and see if it comes out moister. However I am not sure what the equivalent? I know in the cake mix the oil is double. Not sure if the brownie mix would be the same?

Note that basic mayonnaise normally is made from egg yolks, oil, mustard, citron juice, salt and pepper. This is means that the flavors in mayonnaise are a bit sour. This is normally compensated with sugar in the recipe, but you are using a non-sugar recipe. I think the idea of adding mayonnaise for the texture is ok. However I experienced the effect of making a cake becoming more moist from some other ingredients from which i think they fit more properly in a brownie recipe. You could replace the amount of oil by the same amount of applesauce. Or add some additional applesauce to the recipe (2 tablespoons I would say) The flavors of applesauce do not seem to change the flavor of a cake a lot in practice. And applesauce is used in a lot of recipes to bake low fat. So in stand of sugar free you now have low fat brownies. If you still want it to be sugar free you can use or make some sugar free applesauce of course. If you don't want to use applesauce you good think of adding a couple of tablespoons of vanilla pudding to the recipe. Or even chocolate pudding, to give your brownies even more chocolate flavor. Also replacing some of the water you use in the recipe by some more oil can work. The water while evaporate during the baking. However, the oil does not do that, and stays liquid at room temperature after baking. This causes an moisty effect. Note that you will almost always add some more sugar/oil in the recipe if you only want to use 'instant' products. If you want to make non-sugar/low fat brownies this may not be what you want. So you could also think about undercooking your brownies a little. So shorten the cooking time a little bit, so you don't cook your brownies 'dry' but still a bit undercooked in the middle. This makes it very moist, and personally I think the 'undercookedness' of brownies it actually the best think about them.

Basically, I have some shrimp paste, it's a nice, very dark purple colour, and I keep it in the fridge. It's not "dry", but it's dry enough to be extremely firm when I take some out of the jar with a teaspoon. I'm wondering how long it will last - since it's mostly salt and is very, very thoroughly cooked when used, I'm thinking it will last quite a few months, but would it last a year?

Your best bet is a stone ground bread flour or hard flour in the US that means finding a local mill. At your standard supermarket a high protein bread flour is your only option if you can find it there. I generally have to venture out to a Whole Foods market to find that as my "local" grocery store doesn't carry it. You could also try Tipo 00, I have run across it in some specialty stores. You are looking for the highest gluten content you can find so that you can get the elasticity you need to make proper strudel.

I really enjoy cooking eggs for breakfast, and sometimes I'm feeling fancy enough to add veggies into my scramble. However, I'm never sure how to prepare the veggies to put into the scramble. If I don't cook them, usually they are too crunchy or tough (and sometimes make the scramble watery), and don't taste good with the eggs. If I try to cook them before adding them, they usually come out too dry/overdone. I figure this might depend on which veggies I'm cooking so here are my common favorites: tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions (suggestions welcome!) To make my question more specific (and hopefully more answerable): how can I prepare the veggies so that they are not crunchy, but not over-cooked?

Those 4 vegetables (and fungi) all require different cooking times. Chop the onion and pepper into dices of roughly the same size, to ensure even cooking. Get them frying, with a little salt which will help to soften them, over a medium heat while you slice the mushrooms, then add those: it is more or less impossible to overcook a mushroom incidentally. Once the onion has softened but still has some bite, chop the tomato and add that, then add your eggs more or less straight away - the tomato doesn't need much cooking.

We're going through a healthy-eating phase at the moment, and this includes eating a fair few steamed vegetables. Unfortunately I find steamed vegetables (especially potatoes) can be painfully dull when they make up a good quantity of the dish. I have an undying urge to season them with something before steaming, but I've no idea with what (nor if this is even a good idea). Worryingly the last urge like this I humoured was deep-fried egg; which was both amazing and awful.

One thing we have found that helps in adding flavor during the steaming process is to slice garlic thinly, and line the bottom of the steamer basket with the garlic. Then afterwards, toss the garlic in with the potatoes and add salt/pepper/etc. (I'd probably add paprika, onion powder, and a pinch of cayenne.) I would imagine orange or lemon peel might work the same as garlic when steamed, although you might get better results tossing the steamed veggies with some zest. You can also toss the steamed potatoes with vinegar or lemon juice (whether or not it's combined with oil is up to you) along with the spices. Another option would be to bake your potatoes rather than steam them. Just wash, poke, and bake at 350F for 1 hour. There's no more fat, but the flavor and texture are VERY different. Just make sure not to wrap them in foil, since you won't get the same results. (Wrapping potatoes in foil is essentially steaming them, and the crust won't get crisp.)

When baking quick breads and cakes, I've premixed dry ingredients the night before to save time. Can I premix wet ingredients as well? I understand that I can't premix the full batter when using leavening agents -- I am curious if I can save some time the day of while preparing the batter by premixing both the wet and dry ingredients separately beforehand. The following is an example of a recipe for which I was thinking of doing this (wet ingredients would be the egg and buttermilk mixture): Ingredients 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, milk, or yogurt (or 1 1/4 cups milk plus 1 tablespoon white vinegar; see Step 2), plus more as needed 2 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil 1 1/2 cups medium-grind cornmeal 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar, plus more if you like sweet corn bread 1 egg Instructions Preheat the oven to 375°F. If you’re using buttermilk, milk, or yogurt, ignore this step. If not, make the soured milk: Warm the milk gently—1 minute in the microwave is sufficient, just enough to take the chill off—and add the vinegar. Let it rest while you prepare the other ingredients. Put the butter in a medium ovenproof skillet or an 8-inch square baking pan over medium heat; heat until good and hot, about 2 minutes, then turn off the heat. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the egg into the buttermilk. Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients (just enough to combine); if it seems too dry, add another tablespoon or two of buttermilk. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet or pan, smooth out the top if necessary, and put in the oven. Bake about 30 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and the sides have pulled away from the pan; a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean. Serve hot or warm. Source: Good Old Fashioned Corn Bread by Mark Bittman

Sure. With quick breads you just don't want to activate your leavened prematurely. That happens when the wet and dry mix so you're fine. Two things to watch out for: The eggs and buttermilk are going to be more prone to spoiling after they are removed from their containers. Additionally, the batter could pick up funny flavors from the fridge. Storing in an appropriate container in the fridge and using it the next day would avoid any issues. The wet ingredients, including the eggs, are emulsified when they are mixed. The oil dissolves into the buttermilk with the help of the egg yolks. This emulsification is important for the texture of quick breads. The emulsion is not indestructible. If you find your oil has separated in the morning you may need to beat it again to reemulsify before combining with the dry. Note: your title says "and cakes". Cakes are assembled with different methods such as creaming or beating egg whites. These could not be done in advance without destroying the texture of the cake.

I would like to find "food safe" glass marbles for sous vide cooking. They can be used for keeping bags from floating, to space out ingredients in a bag, or even as "filler" space in a chamber vacuum to get a higher level of vacuum sealing. Even for bags that don't float, the extra weight can keep the bags from moving in the current generated by a immersion circulator with a strong water pump. Here is an example of using them as a anti-floating weight. Many "toy" glass marbles are in China or other countries. They may have lead or cadmium or have other dangerous metals or chemicals added -- especially if the glass is colored and even clear glass may be made with chemicals that are not "food safe". Does anyone know where to purchase glass marbles or beads that are guaranteed to be "food safe"???

I would recommend using Whiskey Stones. They are used in whiskey instead of ice cubes. So they should be heavy, won't rust, and are supposed to be immersed in liquid that you'll consume. I think that probably meets all your criteria. Whiskey Stones Another alternative is to use a rack. This comes with the Sous Vide Supreme and I find it quite useful for keeping meat submerged. It does however only accommodate certain sizes of meat. It works quite well. You can buy it separately online for $12.

I use a sauce pan often for grilling chicken or frying bacon, and a lot of grease tends to splash out. There are fine mesh screens available with a handle designed to cover the pan without creating a seal. Are these a worthwhile investment, or do they just wind up being one more item to clean?

They are one more item to clean, but they are a lot easier to clean than the walls and stove. I have several in different sizes - very worthwhile in my opinion.

I've got this little 30 gram container of "wasabi" powder. I'm on a little kick of trying to perfect my sushi rolling technique, so I'm likely to use it up within a month or so. It's just the typical Japanese export to the USA, mostly horseradish with a tiny bit of actual wasabi root. It's a pain to mix up every time. Will it lose its flavor if I make it all up at once, and keep it in a tiny air-free (as close as I can get it) Ziploc for a month in the fridge?

I think you're out of luck preparing or serving food. Obviously butchery is also very physically demanding. Depending on how much you can handle physically, you could consider sales, leading to a management position. Another career that would take networking skill to "get into" would be writing about food. As a blogger, you'd need strong writing skills and photography skills, but your career "ceiling" would be of your own making. I'm not aware of any well known blogs that center on butchery, that could be an option, but you'd really need to work hard at it to make a living at it. Take a look here for a bunch of books on the subject, and here for internet sources. To work for somebody else as a food writer, they're mostly going to be looking for candidates with an apprenticeship background or formal education. Again, your butchery background could be a bit of an "in" if you're slick about it. I can tell you from experience that you can learn A LOT about food writing by throwing yourself into this site. It will also help you to define exactly where your expertise lies. You'll find that the community gives excellent feedback, both positive and negative.

I found a recipe for lollipops. It uses 2:2:1 ratio of sugar:water:vinegar. What exactly is the role of vinegar in it? The recipe was: 10 spoons of granulated/crystalic sugar 10 spoons of water 4 spoons of vinegar food coloring Combine ingredients and cook approx 10-12 minutes since water has started to boil. All water has to boil out. You can test if it is boiled enough by making a drop.

It is simply to add tartness to add some balance against the sugar. The water from the vinegar will evaporate and leave behind acetic acid. There is an old fashioned type of hard candy known as vinegar candy. Your lollipop is essentially just that candy on a stick.

I am a big fan of tea. I hail from Punjab, India. I like it with cardamom and milk and water in 1:1 proportion. And I like to boil everything together (this is the way its done in majority of Indian households). Recently, I noticed that the tea tastes much better if I put sugar in my cup after pouring the tea in it, rather than boiling the sugar with everything. It tastes so fresh this way that I have altogether stopped putting in the sugar while boiling. Is there anyone who shares this taste with me and can give me some scientific explanation on what is the difference?

Yes, it would taste different- Sugar chrystals are made of sucrose saccharose(glucose combined with fructose), if you boil sugar with an acid (milk is slightly acidic[ph 6.5-7]) your sugar splits into its monomers-fructose and glucose(invert-sugar). Fructose fits into your taste receptors better than sucrose or fructose causing it to taste sweeter(1.73 x sweeter).

First of all, I don't know the difference between stock, broth and bouillon in english (not my native language), but what I mean is when you cook for example a chicken carcass with vegetables for a couple of hours to use the liquid, discarding everything else. My question also applies for when you cook any other type of meat which haven't been pre-cook, meaning it will have quite a lot of fat remaining. However, when you make your own stock, how much fat will there be in it? I'm mostly interested in the fat content after you've removed the "lid of fat" after refrigeration, but also immediately after sieving, if anyone has answer to both questions. And naturally, I know it's hard to determine the fat content without doing an analysis, but I'm not calling for an exact answer on the gram, just if it's around 0–5 %, 5–10 %, or 10–20 % or whatever – just be as precise as you can. When buying stock in the store, it usually says 0 g fat, but I guess they have some method of removing all of the fat, lowering the risk of it going rancid and increasing shelf-life. In my stock, I can see quite a lot of droplets of fat. One way of attacking the question can be: Doesn't all the fat have to come up the surface ("the lid") since fat and water are unmixable? If fat is still in the broth, a) has it cooled down before all of it was allowed to rise (can be difficult in gelatin rich stocks)?, or b) can a stock hold fat in an emulsion?

Shoulder is a tough cut. I think you will probably find it a bit chewy if you've cooked it at 190ºC for 52 minutes. In future, preheat the oven to maximum, place the lamb in a roasting tin, cover the tin with foil, put the tin in the oven, then immediately turn the oven down to 150ºC, and leave it for 4 hours. After that time, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes or so. The lamb will melt in your mouth. And yes, you can buy a bone-in shoulder at just about any supermarket, and they are usually tastier. Cook it as above and you will just be able to pull the bone out of the meat.

I have yesterday's French Fries (Chips for those of you across the Pond). They were stored in a refrigerator overnight and now are cold AND soggy. What's a good technique to reheat them in a small counter-top electrical oven? E.g. temperature? bake/broil/convection setting? How long? Constraints: I must heat them on a sheet of thin wrapping aluminum foil (over a loose grill, no tray) I would prefer a method that takes less than 5 minutes, but that's not a cut-off The main goal is to have them somewhat crispyish on the outside, and tasty (not hard, not soggy) on the inside The fries/chips size can be either McDonalds size (1/2 cm^2 square cross cut) or slightly larger diner size (~0.5cm x 1 cm cross cut) The amount is such that - evenly spreading them on an aluminum foil sheet the size of the oven's tray - they cover pretty much the whole sheet, in single layer this is at work, so I am unlikely to have access to any ingredients (e.g. any answer that starts with "sprinkle with xyz oil" is less desirable. The fries are fully-cooked, from an order from an eatery, not home-cooked. So while I don't know the ingredients/coating/what they were fried in, a safe assumption is that the fries are either standard McDonalds recipe, or some sort of generic US Diner or midrange restaurant recipe, assuming one is known.

They won't be as good as when fresh (of course) but generally: You want the oven pretty hot. How hot depends on the oven, size of fry, etc., but a good first guess would be 425°F–450°F. On most toaster ovens I've seen, that'd be as hot as it goes. Let the oven preheat. Unfortunately, heating the oven is going to take longer than your five minutes, probably ten to fifteen... But as long as you stay nearby (just in case) you can do something else while its heating. Spread the fries evenly on your piece of foil. Fold up the edges of the foil a little to keep them from sliding off when you move it. (Note: A plain, uncoated aluminum quarter sheet pan probably fits in your toaster oven, and can be had for under $10.) They won't take long. Listen for them to start to sizzle. Once they've sizzled for a little bit (say, 30 seconds) pull them out and flip them. Put them back in and let them sizzle a little longer. Take them out, sample one, put back in if not done yet. I can't give you a time (other than "a few minutes") because it's going to vary a lot based on the fry, and even how much it has dried out in the fridge. Judge when they're ready based on the sound (sizzle), smell, color (browning), and taking one out and tasting it. Notes: You may find adding some salt helps them a lot. Same with some finely ground pepper. Or other powdered seasoning mixes like Old Bay. If the center isn't warm enough by the time the outside is browning, use a lower temperature next time. If the center is overdone (e.g., dried out) before browning sets in, use a higher temperature.

I have a recipe from my teenage years in Australia for a bar cookie called "Cherry Crunch". It includes cashews, arrowroot, cocoa and "biscuits", among other things. I know that biscuits are cookies, but have no idea what type of cookie to use. I'm assuming it would be something rather plain?

As an Australian we seem to use Arnott's Milk Arrowroot or Arnott's Milk Coffee biscuits in a lot of recipes. Milk Arrowroot

I'm cooking a lamb recipe from Donna Hays' book "Fast, Fresh, Simple" and it calls for a "small boned leg lamb" (1.6kg). I saw "bone" and "lamb" and went out and bought a lamb leg roast on the bone. What exactly is meant by "boned"? Does this mean the bone is removed? If so, how do I go about removing the bone from the steak I have, and should I butterfly it? Also, the recipe recommends cooking for 25 mins at 350F after browning, but the piece I bought is 1.2kg with the bone in, so likely closer to 1kg with it removed. How should I adjust cooking time? Thanks.

If a recipe asks for a boned piece of meat, this indeed means that the bone is removed. I think the easiest and cleanest way of doing this is just asking your butcher. As for doing it yourself, there a some videos available online, e.g. this one. Since your meat is a bit smaller, I would suggest to lower the temperature a bit (to 340F) and leave it in the oven till you have a good internal temperature. I think it would take about 20-25 minutes, but this is just an estimate.

I have between 7pm tonight and 5pm tomorrow to make a pozole. Specifically, it will be a red pozole styled chili, using a rubbed and smoked seitan 'meat' to sub for pork. The dish will be vegan. What are the distinctions between different approaches I can take, and what will result in a better red pozole? How should I select corn for the chili? Do I have time to do an alkaline-soak and stew until popping the corn? Is it just as well that I use hominy?

Pozole is traditionally made with nixtamalized corn, also known as nixtamal or hominy. So yes, of course you can use hominy - that's what you're supposed to use! Canned hominy/nixtamal is common. I believe that in some areas you can find dried whole nixtamal and possibly even fresh nixtamal - but I'm not sure I ever saw that in Texas, so I'm not sure how much luck you'll have. As with everything, people say that fresher is better; I can't personally support that, though, not having managed to find it where I live. I have, however, made some pozole that I found to be quite good using canned hominy. Since you're planning on pozole rojo, you'll have a lot of other flavor, which I expect would make the difference between canned and fresh less noticeable. I suppose if you want to try to nixtamalize your own corn for the sake of having the optimal pozole, you could, and you would have time. I've never tried it myself. From what I've read, cooking/soaking times vary depending on what you're going to do with the nixtamal. For pozole, you don't have to cook and soak the corn as long since it's going to be further cooked in the stew. I've seen varying instructions online. For example, this site says to cook for 15 minutes, soak for another 5-10, while this one says to cook for 40-50 minutes. After that you rinse it thoroughly to remove the lime and hulls (softened by the lime), before cooking it in your pozole. I imagine either of those cooking times would produce something satisfactory; with it of course being more tender with the longer time. Note also that the corn won't get that nice puffed shape if you don't remove the tip cap (one of those pages calls it a pedicel - not sure that's the right term). So with a lot of effort and adventurousness, you could indeed make your own nixtamal (hominy), and it might well be better, but you can also make something extremely good with already-made hominy and not take a risk on something I suspect you're feeding to others.

Any tips for seasoning wooden spoons? I found a couple different methods on the web but they vary quite a bit. What I've done so far is to sand the new spoons starting with 280, then 320, and finally 1000 grit sandpaper. Then I put it in water to raise the grain and sanded some more with 1000 grit. I repeated the last step 4 times and the spoon is nice and smooth. Is there a final step to season the spoon?

I cannot imagine that sanding and buffing a wooden spoon would have any useful culinary applications, although I suppose it might feel smoother to the touch. Generally when you season something wooden for food preparation, the purpose is to create a protective layer to avoid warping or impregnation. If I really wanted to season a spoon, I would season it the same way as a wooden cutting board: Use a food-grade mineral oil and rub it in thoroughly with a cloth or paper towel, then repeat as necessary after it is dry. Like hobodave, however, I have never done this nor heard of it being done. The cost of a wooden spoon is probably less than the cost of the mineral oil you'd need to season one. If your spoon starts to warp or take on strange odours, just buy a new one. N.B. I can think of one exception, which is if the spoon takes on a fuzzy texture when you get it wet. In that case, sanding it would be done in the context of raising the grain. But once again, it's extremely rare that you'd need to do this with a cooking utensil - this is a far more common requirement for homemade (i.e. DIY) wood products.