Datasets:

andrewsiah

/

se_cooking_preference_sft

like 0

I want to create white truffles which doesn't taste like white chocolate (sugar and vanilla) but like dark chocolate. So I tried to create them from cocoa butter. I added 60 g of cocoa butter, 17g of cream and 12g of powdered sugar (because it tasted sugary enough) and a little of salt. The problem is when ganache cooled down it was made from 2 layers. Hard top and quite liquid bottom. I could add more cream but I am afraid that the bottom would be more liquid and the top would be the same. Maybe the problem is that most recipes for white chocolate from cocoa butter needed milk powder (which is very expensive) or egg white powder (which is also expensive) and I did ganache without them. Do I need an emulsifier? I have soy lecithin and some others modern thickeners. I can made truffles from dark chocolate without problem.

What you're missing is solids. 17g of cream (especially when you consider the high percentage of fat in cream in relation to solids) is not going to be enough against 60g of cocoa butter. Where are you from? In the US, milk solids (in the form of dried milk powder) are cheap compared to cocoa butter. Many high quality white chocolate brands do not contain any kind of emulsifier, but all contain a significant volume of solids. Those solids are almost always milk, with the exception of a few specialized vegan varieties. I'm wondering in what way you are trying to emulate dark chocolate, since the difference between dark chocolate and white chocolate is cocoa solids (the dark stuff)?

How can you tell if your cashew milk has gone bad? If it is past the freshness code on package?

Yes, it can go bad. The date on the package is one indication, but it may be a "best by" date and does not guarantee the milk will go bad by then. It doesn't necessarily mean it is guaranteed safe, either, although most stores will give you a refund on product that spoils early. Look for the following signs (written for almond milk, but cashew milk follows the same rules): the container seems abnormally bloated after opening mold is present any funky or pungent odors the product has curdled or is visibly thick and slimy (observe the consistency when putting) a change in color, as almond milk may appear more yellow when it has spoiled Source

I'm very fond of coffee, in fact, I have a grinder, grind my own beans and use a coffee stove to make it. However, I've recently been advised to stop drinking anything containing caffeine (at least for a few months). I've always avoided drinking decaf because I read an article about the way that caffeine is removed, and I'm not sure it's wise to ingest a coffee bean that's been rinsed in (what appears to be) poison, for hours and hours. I've noticed that there are certain teas that are naturally caffeine free, so I wondered if the same might be true for coffee. Are there any alternatives to coffee?

Wikipedia lists a few substitutes, some of which are fairly readily available. These may be based on roasted grains (like barleycup), chicory (though this is often combined with coffee), or both. There are several processes for decaffeinating coffee. Not all rely on the organic solvents you're trying to avoid. The Swiss water process avoids then completely and is used commercially so you should be able to order some. CO2 decaffeinated coffee is rarer.

I had a recipe for roast potatoes that states to parboil for 5 minutes before putting in the roasting tin. Unfortunately I don't have the recipe still with me for reference but this is a general question for when instructed to parboil for a short time. Generally speaking, when does the 5 minutes actually start? If I bring the water to boiling point, then put in the potatoes, they cool the water, and it can take nearly the 5 minutes just to get back to boiling point. So should I start timing as soon as the spuds go in the pot, or should I wait until it's boiling again, and then another 5 minutes?

A good recipe should have guidance on the desired end state you are aiming for, and experience with cooking will help you know what to aim for too. In the case of roast potatoes, the aim at the parboiling stage is to get to a point where a knife can easily go partly into the potato, so that they are partially cooked and to help the outsides get roughed up in the fat before roasting. This will take different amounts of time depending on the potato size (and probably also their variety). Prod them with a knife to see if they are ready rather than relying on a timer.

I recently ate at a Mexican restaurant with a delicious sauce. They were willing to sell it to me if I put in a special order, but they insisted it was so easy to make that I should just make it myself instead. I know the ingredients are jalapenos, habaneros, onions, and garlic. There is no water or anything else, just those four ingredients. The end result is a yellowish green sauce with a smooth, almost paste consistency. I think I can figure out cooking the ingredients and blending them together, but how do I even take a guess at the ratios? None of the flavors were overpowering (it didn't taste mostly like onions or jalapenos or garlic), so there's not an obvious base, but I doubt they're anywhere close to equal proportions either. I don't need the results to be an exact match, but I'd like it to at least resemble what I had in the restaurant. What's the best approach to this?

If it is instant oatmeal, just add boiling water (ratio water to oats 2/1) and let it sit for 5 minutes. If it not instant, same ratio of water to oats, boil for 5 minutes while stirring, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. I googled "how to cook oatmeal" and found several similiar ways.

Why do some Chinese dishes, namely braises and soups often call for rock sugar instead of regular sugar. Does rock sugar have any properties that would make it behave differently than regular granulated sugar?

while all of the above answers are correct, I want to provide a perspective as a native Chinese. Rock sugar is better used (than granulated sugar) when you try to make dishes involving coloring the ingredient (by caramelization, dishes like braised pork belly (Hong Shao Rou need this step) mostly because of the shape difference. Rock sugar has less surface area touching the oil while granulated sugar immerses itself in, which makes it react faster, and more likely to get burnt.

I recently made this truffle ravioli dish, it was an easy enough recipe, but I was confused about one thing: it calls for 'musk'. I didn't know what this was, my research only turned up musk melon, which I think is probably different. So, I skipped it. So, my question is, what is 'musk' as used in this recipe, and what sort of flavor would it have imparted to the dish?

It's nutmeg. The author of that blog is from Switzerland, so I imagine that term is used there, but I had never heard used culinarily until now. I Googled "Grated Musk", and still had to look around to be sure. Thanks for teaching me something. EDIT As of an hour after the question was posted: Click the "Grated Musk" link now! This question is now the top result :) You're famous, Tom!

My question is of a scientific nature in regards to the above product. My boyfriend has been given cans of this and every time he has used it, he has said that it tastes literally like nothing. Despite the addition of spices and herbs in copious amounts, it still tastes like nothing. I looked up this product online and found similar comments about it. My question is, by what process or addition does a manufacturer cause products to taste like nothing? I find this very curious indeed and was wondering if someone could help me out.

Italian style likely just means Roma (plum) tomatoes. It's a marketing ploy since there are lots of different types of tomatoes in Italy and no one 'style'. Roma tomatoes (along with most other types) grown without proper plant nutrition, and limited sun can be especially bland if picked early as well. They don't have to add anything to make them bland. Keep in mind that tomatoes have a lot of water (like watermelons) and can easily end up bland if they're just given chemical fertilizer and water. Try different brands. Even San Marzanos can be fake (about 2/3 of the export is fake) but they'll still taste better.

I have a fairly typical Mexican-made tortilla press, and I've had it for a while. It works of course, but there's a persistent problem of the part of the tortilla at the hinge end of the press ending up much thinner than the part where the lever is. That makes sense of course; this particular press has almost no "play" at all at the hinge, and when the plates are fully closed they're touching with basically no wiggle. I'm not asking for a recommendation for another brand so much as asking whether there may be certain patterns of hinge design that allow for a little bit of play in the hinge so that that end of the tortilla doesn't get pinched down to nothing. I also wonder if the real problem may be that mine is a little 6" or so press instead of a larger 8" press. I probably should just go fool around with presses at a local market and check to see; I hadn't used mine in a while but I did over the weekend and I got somewhat frustrated. edit — for those not familiar with what a "tortilla press" looks like, it's a simple pair of flat round iron plates connected by a hinge. Opposite the hinge is a lever that allows the plates to be forced together. If you hold your hands in front of you with the heels of your hands together and your fingers out in a big "V" shape, that's basically what the press looks like when open. As the press closes, the distance between the plates gets smaller, but it gets smaller more quickly at the hinge side than the other side. That issue is my problem. The tl;dr of my question is whether there exist some presses that have enough looseness in the hinge mechanism to keep that part of the press from squeezing the tortilla dough too thin.

With no pictures of your press it is hard to make suggestions. But assuming your press has metal plates with loops and a pin for the hinge, and if you can take it apart, you might be able to lengthen the hole of the plates (by lengthen I mean to wollar out but only to an oval instead of a circle in the correct direction, so there is play up and down between the plates but not forward and backward between the plates). What you are needing is a small (about 1/8 inch) gap between the plates when pressed. Remove the hinge pin Take apart the plates Lengthen the hinge holes on one plate (top plate) - you should be able to do that with a drill and the proper sized bit, or with a metal file Place plates back together Insert the pin Now there will be more space and the plates should be able to close with a small gap for the tortilla.

Once I have made a recipe a couple of times, I tend to follow my instincts rather than strict portion sizes. When following a new recipe, however, I have often wondered about how an ingredient's weight should be interpreted. For example, if a recipe calls for 500g of pumpkin, diced into 1cm cubes, does convention expect me to use a 500g cut of pumpkin, that I then de-seed and dice, or 500g of 1cm pumpkin cubes pumpkins?

In your example, it means 500g pumpkin before preparing. In general, you might see this two ways: 500g pumpkin. Dice the pumpkin. 500g diced pumpkin. The first option refers to the weight before prepping while the second refers to the weight after prepping. In general, the second one is far more exact for the actual recipe while the first one is more exact for shopping. I assume ease of shopping plus presumption of yield is why the first one is so often used, although in high end cook books (Grant Achatz, Thomas Kellar, etc) the weights are often given post prep for precision. You will see the same thing for volume measurements (i.e. one cup of nuts chopped vs one cup of chopped nuts).

Besides a complete cooking like frying, baking, BBQ or smoking is there any other way to prepare freshwater fish that would render it safe to eat in a sushi type application?

Other than catching it deep in the ocean, probably not. The closer to land the fish is caught, the more likely it is to be carrying parasites. You can flash freeze fish to kill the parasites, but it is virtually impossible to achieve temperatures that low with noncommercial equipment.

Can I put my cast iron pan with wood handle in the oven? This is what it looks like.

When I have a fry pan with "other" material handle and want to put it in the oven I wrap it in 3-4 layers of tin foil first and no problem. Usually the oven isn't any higher than 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Hope this is helpful.

There is something special about food cooked in a wok called wok hai? What is it and how do I get my food to have it?

Wok Hei is the "essense" imparted by the wok when stir-frying over very high heat. The characteristic flavor is due to the the Maillard reactions and the charring of the ingredients. Practically speaking, most home stoves do not have sufficient BTU output to achieve Wok Hei. If you have a gas stove with sufficient output, consider yourself fortunate. Get the wok really hot before adding the oil and ingredients... and stir vigorously. You should also make sure to crank up your hood fan/ventilation, since there will be quite a bit of smoke generated. For those without a high BTU stove (myself included), a suggestion was made here regarding a burner that could be hooked up to a propane tank.

I have a coffee maker which I used milk in it rather than water. Now milk has clogged its tubes as shown here: Can anybody help me with a simple and easy trick to clean and declog the coffee maker tubes? Thanks =) Make and model

When you ran milk though the machine you cooked a lot of fat and protein into the components, which isn't good. The only "easy" thing I could recommend is to try to run some clear vinegar through it, the acidity may break down the milk residue and clear the machine. The only other way to get it working isn't as easy as it requires manually removing the residue using brushes. Inter-dental brushes are thin and bendable, you should be able to get them into those holes on the top picture. If you can get at the heating element with an old toothbrush that would be good too. Other than that the only thing I could think to try is a complete tear-down of the coffee machine, which may or may not be something within your skills or worth your time. Just remember to unplug it before you attempt any invasive repairs!

I've noticed that when eating common 'sour cream & onions' potato chips, there is a distinctive, cheesy-like flavour that distinguishes the chips. What gives it this flavor? Is it simply MSG, or is there a way to achieve this using natural ingredients, such as black pepper, Worcestershire sauce etc? To give more context, I am intending to use this in a home-made ranch dip.

First things first: If you're trying to precisely replicate the flavor, you'll probably fail. Food scientists put an incredible amount of time, money and effort into developing those flavors and have ingredients and equipment that we don't have access to. Often, the flavors themselves are byproducts of industrial processing, and they've been combined in a way to make them pleasant. So if you're looking to get that exact flavor in your dip, you're going to be disappointed. If you're really just looking for a ballpark approximation which might be a little closer than what you've got now though, you've got a good shot at it. If I were you, I would first try using dehydrated or freeze-dried green onions or chives which can often be found in glass jars in your grocery store. Mix them with your dip or make them into a powder to toss with your chips. Perhaps pureeing a product like chive cottage cheese which is made with dehydrated/freeze-dried chives might get you there. For the more industrial products, you'll have to look on the internet. Commercial chips almost certainly use sour cream powder (among other flavorants you probably can't find on Amazon) in their sour cream and onion chips. You could even try some sour cream and chives powder to see if that gets you closer, with less work. Good luck and happy dipping!

I read on https://www.northlightfoods.com/blog/2015/12/15/host-your-own-cheese-tasting-party: Organize your cheese tasting order from mildest cheese to strongest cheese. That's a typical advice I used to hear in France. However, I was told that cheese strength is subjective, and may be a factor of several elements such as "tensile, compressive, shear, ductile, elastic, plastic, brittleness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, hardness, flexural" (quote from bob1). Should I instead base the cheese order on one of these factors? Or do the order in some other way?

Yes it's OK. There may be some drawbacks to the method, such as how raw potatoes will behave in a blender and whether the results you get are what you want, but none of those make it not OK to try. Even if you believe that raw potatoes represent a serious health risk, which is debatable, a microwave is more than capable of cooking potatoes.

I bought silicone ice cube forms and when I used them something white swam on the water. I guess some silicone that dissolved from the form. First I made ice three times and threw it away, but the problem persisted. Then I tried to put them in the dish washer. Now I bought another product from a different manufacturer and the problem is even worse. (I am NOT 100% sure if they may still be products from the same factory or made in a similar way, but I explicitly tried to buy another product) Are silicone forms just crap, am I doing something wrong, or is there a good way to clean them before the first use? I do not have the problem using the same tap water with the hard plastic ice cube maker that came with my fridge. The general water quality here is quite high and I even use the water with a sodastream and making tea in the same glasses and it looks perfectly clear. Before freezing the water looks clear as well an I do not see such dirt even when I let a glass of water stand somewhere. Update: I made an experiment by freezing one form with and one without lid. Here is an image of the forms and the lid: The blue one was used without lid. They seem to be both silicone and the lids are all the same, only the forms have different colors. The result after dissolving all cubes looks like this: Left: blue form without lid (Little dirt, but still too much) Right: white form with lid (Larges flakes of some dirt) The cubes in the open form were quite easy to remove and well-separated. The lid stuck a bit on the cubes and I needed to break the cubes apart by bending the silicone, because the lid hold the water surface flat. The open form stood on the closed one. Update 2: Boiled water has the same problem. I'll try a water filter next. Update 3: Water hardness as published by my water supplier: Hardness 4,7 – 8,1 °dH (soft) Magnesium 5,2 – 9,0 mg/l Calcium 24,6 – 43,5 mg/l Natrium 11,3 – 21,9 mg/l 200 mg/l Chlorid 23 - 39 mg/l 250 mg/l Nitrat 10 - 21 mg/l 50 mg/l Uran < 0,0002 mg/l 0,01 mg/l Update 4: Same result with the water in another city (unknown hardness). In some of the forms white sediments after the water rest dried. Next I try a water filter. Update 5: I tried a water filter and got the same result. Using a water filter I still get white flakes like in the right glass after melting all 24 ice cubes of the new form (not the one pictured above, but also silicone) with lid.

Silicone does not dissolve in water. The scum you see floating on the top looks very much like lime-scale. This is in your water supply. It will also give you an encrusted kettle & white/grey blobs stuck to the nozzle of the hot tap after some time. You could try distilled water, or invest in some kind of hard water filtration system. As mentioned in comments, using cooled, boiled water may also help a little, as the boiling will drop some of the calcium out of the water… & stick it to your kettle element instead. Many places in the world you can enquire with your local water company as to how hard your water supply is - how much calcium, basically - & they will advise on softening methods.

I'm not in any way any kind of good cook, I just eat a lot of chicken breasts. I used to have a bargain basement janky gas oven that I would run on full heat, and I would put a Costco precooked frozen chicken breast in ("cooking time 35-40 minutes fan oven 180 degrees") and after 43 minutes it would come out absolutely perfect, with crispy skin and not too dry or tough. I moved house and now have a more expensive oven, which is electric. I have tried to cook my chicken breasts but the results are always disappointing. Generally, the skin seems to cook then burn. The instructions say 180C so I have used a laser temperature probe pointed at the chicken and adjusted the dial so that this value is 180C. I find that after 33 mins the skin starts to burn. So I often cook it for around 30 minutes but it's a little bit tough and doesn't taste as great as my old oven. I can't really tell what I should change to improve it. I feel like I need to cook the inside longer without burning the outside, but I am not certain. The variables I can think of are to increase/decrease the temperature and increase/decrease the cooking time. Is there a general rule of thumb about temperature vs time based on what aspect of your food is cooking incorrectly?

so I have used a laser temperature probe pointed at the chicken and adjusted the dial so that this value is 180C That's not how you are meant to do it. 180 C is the oven temperature, not the temperature of the chicken skin. If you turned it up until the chicken surface became 180, that's way too hot, and of course it causes the exact symptoms you describe. You should just set your oven dial to 180 C and use it that way. If it continues to burn on the outside, go down in the temperature until you find one at which, when you wait until the inside is done, the skin is not burnt. Then write down the time and (dial setting) temperature it needs, and continue using that, no matter what the package says.

I've been trying to ignore my burning desire to make some guacamole because every time I go to the supermarket to buy avocados I can't manage to pick out good ones. They always either become too soft before I have a chance to do anything with them or are hard and not very tasty. How can I tell when an avocado is perfectly ripe?

Depends on if you'll buy for instant consumption or for storage. If you want to eat/prepare them right away, you want an avocado that feels soft on the inside, when pressing them they will cede and have that soft feeling ripe avocado has. It shouldn't cede very much though, as those are past their prime. The very good ones even smell in a nice avocadoey way a bit (or maybe that's just my insanity.) If you want to prepare them later, you want firm ones that cede only a tiny little bit (the rock hard ones mostly never ripen in my experience,) you then store them in a porous bag (the typical brown paper bag or a newspaper) to let them ripe. To speed up the ripening, you can add an apple to the bag. See also this related question

How does one enrobe a candy center in chocolate in such a way that you get a smooth sphere with no ugly mark where it was sitting on a rack, or hole where it was held by a skewer?

What you need, my good man, is a candy fork. Basically it's a two-tined fork with incredibly thin tines. Dip, lift, allow excess to drip off, place on parchment (you will get a tiny 'foot' but this is normal). unless you're talking about absolutely perfect spheres? to my knowledge this is not doable by hand, you will need industrial machinery. and the two hemispheres method will leave you with a seam. i have heard one solution for the tiny hole left by a thin skewer is another tiny dab of chocolate and a quick blast with a hair dryer to smooth out any imperfections, but i have never tried it myself.

I want to pickle the banana peppers, jalepenos and bell peppers from my garden. I have a small sandwich bag full of banana peppers so far, but no more than that. Is it okay to store them in the fridge until I have more ready to pickle or should I go ahead and do something with them? Can I freeze them while I wait?

It depends how long you will need to store them. A couple days in the fridge won't effect them much. After three or four days they will start to go limp. In my experience, limp, un-fresh veggies make terrible pickles. I wouldn't freeze them. In general freezing will keep them good for a long time but they will still be a little limp when they are thawed and the pickles won't be as good. I have dealt with the problem of small yields by preparing a whole batch of pickling brine and putting it in a pitcher in the fridge (carefully labeled to prevent surprises). Then you can very easily make a 1 jar batch of pickles without losing much time. Do water bath processing in a smaller pot that will still contain the jar.

Holodets blues Holodets is a typical Eastern Europe recipe. It is is basically a meat aspic, the gelatin being obtained from long boiling the bones and melting the connective tissue-collagen. I tried to do holodets using cow bones (no pig feet, that one is easier). My problem is that I can't figure out from the recipes which bone is used. It's mentioned as "hoof", "knee", "leg bone", etc. But there is no photograph and bone names vary from place to place. I prepared the dish but the collagen content of the bones I used was not enough, so I ended up adding agar-agar, which I know is not needed if the bones are "the correct ones". Can anyone to help me to identify the bones? A photograph should be the optimal answer! NB> Please feel free to correct my English

The Russian lady that taught me how to make Kholodets used a chunk of femur. She would simmer for at least 5 hours the bone with a good bit of meat still on it. As the broth cooled she would remove the meat from the bone, chop it and put it back into the pot along with a sizeable amount of sliced garlic. After chilling in the fridge (usually overnight) she would remove the fat that accumulated on top and serve with a very khrenoviy mustard. I'm sure that a joint would have worked just as well- it just wouldn't have as much usable meat. I'm sorry I don't have pictures.

As far as I am aware passata is obtained by crushing tomatoes and then sieving the result without heating. That sounds an awful lot like juice to me. What is the difference (if any) between passata and tomato juice? Under what circumstances could they be substituted for each other? Pubs often sell small bottles of tomato juice so on camping trips etc I suspect it may be easier to get tomato juice than passata, although it hasn't been necessary yet.

27% is the percentage of raw bone in a chicken leg. Source: Bone Percentage in Raw Meaty Bones

I'm a beginning baker planning to make ensaymada, which has a sweet buttery dough. The recipe I found requires kneading. Do I have to make some adjustments to the recipe, or can I just make the dough, let it rise for 2 hours, and then put it in the fridge as Gemma Stafford did for her cinnamon rolls? According to this question, someone made a no knead recipe out of a regular recipe without any changes other than letting the bread sit. Will this work or do I have to add more liquid? Thanks in advance!

Black rice is "hulled", meaning the fibrous outer husk is removed, but not (or only minimally) "polished", meaning the thin but tough bran layer is left on. (It's the bran that provides the color to black rice.) Different varietals of rice, and different processing methods, will lead to a thicker or thinner layer of bran. It sounds like the rice you have has a relatively thick bran layer, meaning a tough outer layer will remain after cooking. There's nothing you can change about your cooking process to address this. From the picture, I note a pretty wide variance in color, indicating low-quality processing (the husk was left on a few grains, and the bran partially rubbed off others). If you have a choice of brand, look for black rice with as uniform a color as possible.

When I make a particular cookie, the rolling and shaping steps are very frustrating because the dough gets very soft and tends to fall apart when I'm working with it. Chilling the dough makes it more workable, but I only have a short time to shape the dough before needing to chill it for another half hour. Here is the recipe: ½ cup (110 gr) butter, softened 1 cup (208 gr) shortening 1 cup (225 gr) sugar 1 egg 12.5 oz (1,562 gr) flour 1 tsp (5 gr) baking powder ¼ tsp (1.4 gr) salt 3 dozen Andes Chocolate mints Stir together flour, baking soda, salt. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, then flour mixture to creamed mixture. Divide in half, cover and refrigerate overnight. Roll out dough into two 1/8" thick rectangles; refrigerate when not working. Evenly space mints on one portion of dough, and place other portion of dough on top; cut between mints and press edges down to make individual cookies. Bake at 400° F (200° C) until brown at edges, about 12 - 14 minutes. I can get the dough rolled out OK; the problem is in the cookie shaping (mint-adding and cutting) phase. Since the dough is flattened out, it warms up very quickly, and I'm constantly fighting the softness and stickiness of the dough. How can I increase the workability (either the stiffness or the amount of time I have to shape it) of this cookie dough? I would prefer to change ingredients - rather than my process for cooling and working the dough - for the sake of simplicity.

Sounds an like you may just need more flour. That recipe has more fat per flour than common cookie recipes - for example, the canonical chocolate chip cookie recipe has 10 oz of flour for 1 cup of fat, while yours is only about 8 oz flour per cup of fat. So I'd definitely expect the dough to be on the soft side to begin with, and since the fat softens at it warms up, as you've seen, it just gets worse. If your kitchen is on the warm side, it's possible that you'll also need to chill in the freezer instead of the fridge, but I'd certainly start with more flour (or less fat).

I read an article about Asian cooking involving a Vacuum Flask so I was looking for some techniques involved in cooking with it.

I've had excellent results using my vacuum flask cooker to do slow-cooked eggs. Also known as 63° eggs because they're usually sous vide cooked to 63° C. These eggs are a feature at fancy restaurants all over New York. Here's a picture of a dish from Eleven Madison Park: from my favorite English-language Japanese cooking blog, justhungry.com Provided you have the equipment (vacuum cooker, thermometer) and your tap water is hot enough, these eggs could not be easier. You do them without even turning on the stove. Put four or more eggs in a bowl. Run your tap water on hot until it won't get any hotter. Take a temperature reading and make sure your hot water is hotter than 64° C (147° F). Don't worry if it's much hotter than this. That's actually good. Cover the eggs with hot tap water. Fill the vacuum flask cooker a quarter of the way with hot tap water and close. Go do something else for 10 minutes. (Boil the pasta?) Run the tap again to get hot, dump the water from both bowl and cooker. Fill cooker 2/3 way with hot tap water. Put eggs in the cooker. (I use a steamer basket to keep them suspended in the middle of the water, but I'm not sure it's totally necessary.) Take a temperature reading and adjust the water to 64° C (147° F) by adding cool water, if necessary. After 30 minutes, take the eggs out with a slotted spoon and crack them over whatever you want to make more delicious.

We made 11 1bs. of chicken breast into kebobs and then froze it. How long will it take to defrost in the fridge?

To a first approximation, heat exchange occurs on the surface of an object, and then the heat must conduct through the object. So, again, continuing the approximation, the time for something to heat (or cool) completely depends on how thick it is. Other things that matter a good deal are: the temperature difference (the colder your fridge, the longer it'll take); the amount of airflow (moving = faster); and finally how fast the air gives up heat. (You can't change how fast the air does, but you can defrost under cold running water instead, water gives up heat much better than air). How cold your freezer is doesn't actually matter that much. This is because water's transition from solid to liquid actually takes a lot of energy; it dwarfs any difference from a -5F freezer v. a +5F freezer. (Also why ice cools so well.) So, if you have frozen them in a thin layer, and your fridge is close to 40F (the hottest it should be, for safety reasons), it'll defrost fairly quickly. Probably within an hour or two. If you have a 11 lb block of chicken, it'll take a long time, I'd suggest looking up turkey defrosting times for comparison. 11 lb block of chicken in a 34F fridge would take days. Remember that since defrosting in the fridge keeps the kebobs out of the "danger zone" for the entire time, you can safely hold the defrosted kebobs in the fridge for a day or two. So if they defrost a day before you need them, it's not a problem.

How do I make a pizza in a gas oven, with no temperature control and no pizza stone? I have all ingredients to make pizza without actually knowing how it's made and baked. So I did some research first off course, and it seems I don't have the right "hardware" for the job. How do I make a good pizza without a pizza stone in an ancient oven with no control on the temperature or air flow?

For your missing equipment, calibration, and control, you will have to substitute vigilance and technique. Basically, if you parbake your crust, you should get something good. Turn on your oven, probably as hot as it'll go. Unless you have a thick crust and a very intense oven, it'll be hard to get too hot. Roll out your dough into a baking pan/cooking sheet/pizza pan. Bake in the oven until the dough is just starting to brown. Take it out, add toppings to the more-cooked side of the crust (flipping the crust, if necessary). Put it back in until the cheese starts to brown. The process above is the lazy-man's method, and it works with my oven at 350F or at 500F or out on the grill at 750F and all points in between. The "ideal" pizza that is the target of most pizza aficionados may well be beyond your reach. However, I make pizza a couple times a week, and most nights I don't worry about that. Delicious toppings on good bread and excellent cheese is a great meal, whether or not it matches stereotyped image of "pizza". P.S. If you do get some equipment, get the pizza stone and put the crust directly on it (w/ or w/o parchment paper). Your crust will be crisper. In a pan, sometimes your crust may seem closer to bread than to pizza.

as a follow up question, I'd use dulce de leche (Slow Cooker Dulce De Leche) for the macaron filling, how do I milden its sweetness? Could I mix it with melted dark chocolate for example, and will it have the desired consistency? Google suggested Dulce de Leche buttercream for the right consistency but it is even sweeter than the Dulce De Leche itself and make the whole cookie cloying! Any suggestion would be appreciated.

I use dulce de leche as a filling or topping as well, but you are right, it is a bit too sweet, so I tone it down... one way to make it milder is to incorporate some cream and a bit of melted dark chocolate, but you cannot just mix it in... Leave the dulce de leche in the fridge overnight. Pour off any liquid that separates out. Mix in a bowl to smooth out any lumps. In a separate bowl, whip up some double cream (ratio 2:1:0,3, dulce de leche:cream:chocolate) to stiff peaks. Add cream to dulce de leche and beat until combined. Melt the dark chocolate and stir into mixture. Refrigerate for about 30mins so the melted chocolate in the mixture can stiffen up a bit. It's delicious and not as sweet as pure dulce de leche at all!

I recently bought something that was labelled at the grocery store as a "purple sweet potato". They were larger than what I am used to for sweet potatoes, but looked similar, although they had a purple skin on the outside and white flesh on the inside. I figured since they were labelled as "sweet potatoes", I would prepare them the same way I like to prepare regular sweet potatoes, by boiling them first (for about 40 minutes), then removing the skin, slicing it into wedges and then pan frying them. I have done this many times with normal sweet potatoes, and it works quite well. However, after I boiled the purple sweet potatoes for 45 minutes, I pulled them out to take the skins off, and they were soft and stringy and incredibly off putting - they felt the same way as a gummy mashed potato would feel, and they fell apart all over the place. Are they more like a potato, requiring less boiling time? Or is there something else going on here that I am missing? Edit: I went to the grocery store today, and they are now labelled as "purple yams". I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I also got a picture of them, to make my description a bit clearer.

I used to cook plenty of purple sweet potatoes when I was living in africa:) Sounds like you maybe cooked them too long... They can be extremely tasty, sweet with a "perfumy" hint if you are lucky. They are best boiled with the skin on like you did and peeled afterwards (as the taste is preserved better that way). As for cooking time it really depends on the size (which means the potatoes are likely done at different times) but you can always feel when they are done by pressing on the potato with a fork - it should give slightly/be soft. I think it usually took me about 30min but I didn't use a clock. It may shorten the cooking time slightly to make holes in the potatoes with a fork (this also adds to the "creaminess"). I guess they do sometimes get a softer, more "creamy" consistency than your usual potato when well done. However the taste is richer and in my opinion far superior to orange sweet potato. If you prefer a firmer potato, just let your potatoes stay on the firm side (in my experience, though, the taste is enhanced by letting them go soft). But boiled ones would anyways mainly be for puddings as it gets rather sweet. For panfrying I would suggest avoiding boiling the sweet pots first. Simply peel/wedge them raw, fry them as chips until done and serve with a spicy/hot dip - yum.

In a related question, I asked about plating with bread for sampling chili. Here I need to find a cooling, as in take the heat off the capsaicin with fats, garnish. For this question I would like to know how to garnish. I am making a bacon and pulled pork chili, and need a smooth, subtle garnish to take the edge off the peppers. First off, I will be dusting the top with a mixture of nutritional yeast and a smidge of dround coffee and ground, dried orange rind. Initially I was inspired by the idea of a bacon flavored ice cream, served to the side of the bread with a hal strip of maple-smoked bacon candied in the oven with light brown sugar. The idea of being able to have a whole spoon of chili and then a nibble of the garnish is very appealing. I pitched the idea at a friend and added, "but I don't want it to be frozen, or to melt." The cold would be impossible with the heavy texture of the chili, and melting would disturb the dusted topping. We came up with a mixture of sour cream and cream cheese, with a bit of arrow root as a coagulant (since it will be semi-cold, I want it to retain some stiffness on the surface of the chili). Basically, blend it all up with some of the bits of candied bacon and some spices, then chill it over night in the fridge to marry the flavors until competition time. What ratio would the above mixture need to be relative to arrow root (I haven't used it before)? By the teaspoon, tablespoon, fraction of a cup per cup of dairy? Is there a better coagulant for the purpose Are there any flavor/textural issues with arrow root that I should be aware of to begin with, and specifically in the context of sour cream / cream cheese? Is there a better solution to fit the problem; that is, what other kind of ice cream like garnish could I use that would resist melting for a bit of time and would have a smooth texture and be able to nibble on with little scoops from the spoon?

I'd avoid a coagulant if you can, it will likely keep this dense on whats already a rather dense sounding dish. Personally, I'd beat loads of air into your sour cream/cream cheese mixture and serve a small whipped dollop of it. It will keep it light and still offset your spiciness a little. If the pork chili is the star, keep it complimented but not complicated.

I am planning on making a cooked white chocolate sauce, sealing it in a bottle while hot, and selling it in my shop. It contains dairy, and so I am wanting to work out the best before date. My questions are:1. does cooking and sealing make dairy products last for longer, if so, how much longer? 2. Do I just take the earliest best before date of the dairy products that it contains as the best before date, and advise to refridgerate after opening? But this does not take in to account the fact that it is cooked and sealed. Thank you

I make the same Challah bread recipe every year, and mine says to bake at 350°f for 35 min and the crust is chewy but not crunchy or crisp. I've never had it under baked either.

I'm making potatoes mousseline tomorrow morning for a 3pm service. While the recipe doesn't call for it, I want to wash off as much starch as possible to minimize glueyness. I'm planning on soaking overnight, and then rinsing after boiling. In order to maximize surface area for the soak and rinse (and for a faster prep) I plan on using a mandolin to cut the spuds into 1/2" slices. However I suspect this will change the cooking time since the surface area has also changed. Any suggestions or educated guesses?

I think you are overthinking this somewhat on the starch front, I don't think that soaking and rinsing overnight, or the mandolin cut will reduce glueyness. It's the choice of potato and how you mash it that makes it gluey or not. If you use a ricer and non-waxy potatoes you should be fine. Just add lots of butter and they'll love it! Slicing the potatoes thinly will make them cook faster due to the higher surface area, it also removes any room for error - the difference between undercooked and overcooked is all of a minute. Thin slicing can also be a problem for water circulation, leading to the potatoes on the bottom being mush and the top ones being raw, putting them in the pot vertically will prevent this. You are using 1/2 inch slices so you should be fine, but if you go thinner be aware of it. If you are doing thicker slices on a mandolin keep in mind the curvy end pieces will cook faster than the middle cuts. As for how much of a cooking time you'll save I think it may be a couple of minutes over cutting them into quarters, but it's hard to say exactly.

In common consumer pizza, microwave and bake-at-home pizzas are often advertised as four-cheese pizzas. What are these four cheeses, traditionally? Do different brands use different mixes, or does everyone stay about the same? How are these cheeses traditionally mixed, in what fashion?

They all seem to use different cheeses depending on the brand. The most consistent cheese is definitely mozzarella, which makes sense as it's the default cheese on most pizzas. Second to that is some sort of hard grating cheese like Parmesan or Asiago... which also makes sense as it's a traditional pizza condiment. Other Italian cheeses also seem popular like fontina and provolone But non-Italian cheeses like cheddar certainly show up. Below are some examples. I don't recommend any of these products, they just came up in web searches and specifically describe which four cheeses they use. Amy's uses: Fontina, provolone, Parmesan, mozzarella: Frontera uses: Mozzarella, white cheddar, smoked provolone, asiago. California Pizza Kitchen uses: Mozzarella (apparently more than one kind), fontina, gouda Lean Cuisine uses: low fat mozzarella, Parmesan, asiago, romano

I took a large pack of ground beef out of the freezer and it has been in the fridge for no more than 10 hours. There are still ice crystals on the meat. I'm on call and turns out I won't have the opportunity to cook it until next week (the works in another city). I guess I have two options put the meat back in the freezer and refreeze thaw out the meat, quickly cook it, and put the left overs in the fridge. Any advice?

I'll offer a third option : Cook the meat, then freeze it. Holding it in the fridge for a week can be questionable, although there are some things that you can do to reduce the risk (eg, sterilizing the containers first, and pouring the fat on top to form a seal over the meat). You can hold cooked meat in casseroles for quite some time longer than meat on its own; I suspect it's the other added moisture which helps to prevent freezer burn. As such, I'd brown it, then moisten it with a can or two of crushed tomatoes (as it's something that I have on hand, and it leaves the meat so it could be turned into chili, a pasta sauce, or other things), then portion it out to reasonable sizes based on possible uses, and freeze those. It's better if you can let it cool off before freezing, but if it's in smaller containers, you don't have as much of a problem with the center staying hot for too long. I've frozen chili and soups by laying them in gallon zip-top bags on a sheet pan, and putting that in the fridge. (2 bags per 1/2 sheet ... but I had a larger freezer back then)

There are many chilis that have amazing flavors but are so hot that it is hard for most of us to appreciate them. Beyond the standard suggestion to discard the seeds and cut away the ribs, are there any other methods that can lower the capsaicin level while retaining the other flavors? This was asked on Dave Arnold's Cooking Issues podcast, and I'm not sure they landed on a solid answer. EDIT: I'm looking for something that might cut the perceived heat by like 90% or even 100%, not just make it slightly milder. Something that completely neutralizes the capsaicin, not simply buffers it on your palate. (Starting a bounty).

In Indian cooking we usually add Ghee (Clarified butter) to reduce the heat of a chili pepper. Most Indian dishes, we would add a good heaping spoon of ghee before feeding little ones. This helps temper the heat but keeps the flavors alive so that the children get used to them and can gradually learn to eat hotter foods.

Salad Olivier - The modern version contains peas, potatoes, carrot, eggs, etc. It would be cool to cut everything into same-size spheres...

Not the answer you expect. Cream freezes at 31.5 F. Put it in a covered bowl and float it in ice water. Better yet a cooler with ice water you can close. Not only do you have an optimal temperature but liquid versus air heat transfer is like 100:1. Liquid density is like 1000:1. You can drop a beer can in ice water and have a cool refreshment in 10 minutes. If you insists on fridge / freezer I would do 1 hr rotation fridge (first) then freezer until you get what works. Maybe like 4-6 hours.

I found a bag of chocolate chips in the back of a cabinet that's well past the 'best use by' date and showing signs of bloom. From experience, I know that it won't melt right, and has a tendancy to be a bit grainy if used as-is. Is there something that I can do to revive it? If there isn't, are there recipes where it the bloom isn't a problem? (and before you say 'crush it up and put it over ice cream' ... I thought of that, but I can't eat dairy)

Assuming the can was canned properly and has not been damaged, the contents are effectively sterile, because the food is boiled in the can after it's sealed. There might be some degradation in texture and taste, but in terms of food safety, they are effectively safe. Note that the date on your tin is given as Best Before, not Use By. That generally means it's safe to eat after the given date, but it won't be at its... best. Given that you're only 12 days out of August, and with the proviso of exercising due caution (don't eat them if they're green), you should be just fine.

I decided to make a 2.5kg sourdough to make bread and pizza out of it. I used the following formula: 76% hydration, 2% salt, 20% of starter (100%). I mixed the flour and water and let it autolyse for about 2 hours. After that, I purred in the starter and salt dissolved in water. I mixed by hand until the gluten was formed. After that I left it to bulk ferment over night. I left it covered in the oven with the oven light on. In the morning it grew a lot, I think it doubled. However when I took it out on the bench it seemed liquidy. It was very very hard to handle. I left it outside in the cold for about 30 min then I tried to shape it. It was still pretty liquidy, it lost structure. Can I still bake with this dough? I put it in the fridge because I had to go to work. Should I simply bake and see what happens? Kind thanks! Update: So the pizzas were a disaster and the bread didn't spring too much but the taste was good.

I don't know how it would work for a loaf of bread, but there's a good chance that it could be used to make flat breads. If the dough is too difficult to work with, you can chill it down (and you said it's already in the fridge, so this is just for anyone else), and then sprinkle some flour across the top. Reach in, grab a handful of dough, get it well coated in the flour, and then shape it. Griddle on both sides, and you're good. If you have a lot of dough to use up, I'll often griddle it over higher heat to get both sides set (and maybe a touch of char), then slide them into the oven to finish cooking through.

We tend to buy a big bag of carrots from the supermarket (mainly because it's cheaper than a small bag), but usually these are starting to go soft halfway through the week. My current rule of thumb is that I'll cook them until they are so soft that I just can't peel them, and won't eat them raw after they have started to go soft. Given that this is entirely based on my guesswork, can anyone tell me at what point they are actually inedible?

If your carrots are going soft after just a few days, you're not storing them properly. Mine keep for weeks and weeks. I leave them in the plastic bag, and keep that in one of the vegetable drawers in my fridge. How are you storing yours? A rubbery soft carrot isn't bad for you, it just isn't very pleasant. A slimy carrot is bad for you, don't eat it.

My mother always made banana bread when I was growing up, and my favorite part was the the fact that the top of the loaf was sweet and moist, to the point that it would leave residue if you touched it! Hers is the only banana bread that I've seen that does this. When I first tried making the recipe, the top stayed dry, but these days it becomes moist just like when she makes it. As far as I can tell, the top is dry straight out of the oven, then as it cools it becomes slightly tacky. After saran wrapping, the top develops the moist layer that I'm familiar with. Does anyone know: What physically causes this moisture on top? What I can do to reduce or enhance it?

You've partially answered your own question: When wrapped in foil, the water contained naturally in the ingredients will re-moisturise the banana bread. a. To reduce: don't wrap it leave it in the oven to cool down with the oven slightly open so that most of the moisture can escape b. to enhance: make a dome of tin foil above it before putting it in the oven Wrap it in micro-wave resistant plastic foil the moment it comes out of the oven P.S. Don't use Saran foil when it comes straight out of the oven. I've tried and it's not pretty!!! :-( P.P.S. For perfect balance, I don't wrap it in tin foil before putting it in the oven but do leave it out for 5 minutes before wrapping it in microwave-resistant plastic foil, but my mum is not your mum, so YMMV. ;-) P.P.P.S. Unless you're my brother, in which case your mum is my mum and I want to know: Why didn't you call mum yesterday??? :D :D :D

I always read that when cooking a pot roast in a slow cooker, you should cook on low for 8 hours. If you don't have time, 2 hours of high and 4 hours of low is OK, or 4 hours on high; but the best result is 8 hours on low. I recently got a new slow cooker and found it hits the safe temp (145F) after about four hours on low. Unfortunately, I never checked the temp halfway through on the old one for comparison. Should I take it out, or should I keep cooking for the remaining 4 hours?

I highly recommend cooking pot roast (or any low-and-slow stew or braise) by checking the texture, rather than using time or temperature. Something like a steak can be cooked just to the desired temperature and served because there's very little chewy connective tissue to break down. Pot roasts are different. The thing that makes them taste so meaty, juicy, and tender is breaking down a bunch of collagen and connective tissue. That doesn't happen right when the roast reaches 145F; that's just the temperature where the roast is safe to eat. It needs to sit at that temperature (or warmer) for a while to give the connective tissues time to break down, so if you pull it out right at 145, it might still be very tough. (Collagen doesn't break down until 160, so I'd expect it to be pretty tough and dry at 145). How long that takes is highly variable, so you also can't use time to tell when it'll be done. I've had some finish in 2 hours and some in 4 (I do them in the oven, which is quicker). What you'll need to do is check the texture. Grab a couple of forks and try pulling the meat apart. If it easily pulls apart without much resistance, it's done. If you find yourself fighting to get it apart, keep cooking. You can also pull out a chunk and taste it, as long at it's passed that 145F mark so it's safe. If it's easy to chew and tastes tender, it's done; if it still tastes tough, leave it for longer. The good news is stews and braises reheat beautifully; they actually taste better reheated. So you don't need to time them exactly. Just shut them off when they're done and reheat when you're ready to serve.

I have made several batches of homemade caramels, and they have all turned out the same - soft around the edge of the 9x13 pan I use to cool them and hard as a rock in the center of the pan. Seriously, the caramels at the sides are soft and chewy, but the ones in the center are so hard that if they're bent at all, they crack (with a cracking noise). I have noted that the part that is hard is also the part over the area on that pan where the caramels are first poured out. Coupled with this, the top of the entire pan of caramels is slightly crunchy. There is no discernible grain to them and they look and taste like they should (except for the center caramels, which is like a really grainy toffee). Of course, the recipe is from my mom, who manages to make them without any problems -sigh- Anyone have any ideas about what I'm doing wrong?? Thanks for your help! Here's the recipe I use: (I do not deviate from this, at all) 2 c. superfine sugar 3/4 c. light corn syrup 1/2 c. butter 2 c. whipping cream Boil all ingredients except for 1 c. of cream over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in remaining cream. Reduce heat and stir occasionally, until candy reaches 240°. Take off heat, stir well, and pour into buttered pan. Cool completely before cutting.

The higher the temperature, the harder the caramel. That is basically the whole story. So I think what is happening to you is that the caramel in the middle is still going up in temperature due to residual heat, while the stuff at the sides cools down quickly because it can vent heat through the pan to the outside world. Have you checked the calibration on your thermometer? In any case, I think the things you can try are (1) cook to a slightly lower final temperature (back down a couple degrees at a time) and (2) set the pan over a tray of ice to cool it more evenly. Also, be sure to do a really good job of that final stir before pouring into the tray.

how long can I keep uncooked lentils in my pantry?

Lentils are good for a long time: Many claim that they stay safe "indefinitively". While that is clearly an exaggeration, properly stored lentils stay edible for years if you keep them well-sealed in a cool, dry and dark(-ish) place. Note that dry storage keeps mold at bay, closed jars protect from insect damage and cool temperatures slow trace amounts of fat getting rancid. They might get tough and a bit stale, but that can be mitigated by cooking longer and a generous hand when seasoning. To add one source (for completeness): Still Tasty gives one year but states that it doesn't get unsafe, simply looses taste.

I have tried various ginger cookie recipes over the years, for gingersnaps, gingerbread cookies, pfeffernusse, and most recently pepparkakor. I never find the cookies to be spicy enough—I assume, not gingery enough. What can I do to bake a really spicy cookie? By way of prior research: I am often generous in the measures of the spices; in particular, I often put in more cloves than the recipe calls for. (And when I made candied orange peel for the first time a few years back, I thought that might be part of the solution. Once I tried adding it chopped to the gingerbread cookie recipe above, but the result was equivocal.)

I often find that fresh ginger tends to lose its freshness over time when heated, and this might happen here. So I suggest ginger powder. Similar to garlic powder, this is a very fine powder made probably from the dried fruit, and surprisingly intense and close to the original. It might be difficult to find; I buy mine at an Egyptian spice dealer. (It's also awesome to put into hot chocolate...) In addition, you mention an extra dose of cloves. Maybe try reducing that, as cloves tend to have a somewhat numbing effect in the mouth.

Which properties should I look for or avoid in rice when I'm planning to fry it (the day after cooking)?

It depends how you like your rice. Personally I like my fried rice to have a few sticky lumps through it to add texture. Others may like it completely 'separated'. It's really up to you. I usually use a combination of long grain and Basmati. Another point is to make sure your rice is safe - it needs to be cooled relatively quickly, and kept cool, to prevent the growth of Bacillus cereus, which can cause serious (no pun intended) food poisoning. As it happens, fried rice is much better when cooked with cold rice and very hot oil anyway, so it's a good idea to keep it cool in any case.

Recently I’ve been getting canned chicken and then frying it, baking it etc. What I notice is that the chicken in general feels cold and the inside always feels colder. You might say that’s normal but if I get raw chicken and then cook it the whole thing always feels tastefully hot inside and out. Canned chicken(cooked or not) always seems to have a mushy texture unlike raw chicken. Do you know why and why does it feel like cooking still leaves the inside quite cold compared to other cooking methods. As you can see from pic, Even visibly the outside might become dark and crusty but the inside still looks very pinkish though I know these are precooked. Had it been raw chicken then cooked it would have all become at least white inside. Thanks.

The product you're using is made of "mechanically separated meat", aka "white slime". It's produced by pumping or centrifuging ground chicken bones through a sieve to separate remaining bits of flesh. While chemically similar to regular meat, mechanically separated meat has lost its meat-like texture during the separation process. It tastes mushy because it is mush. Frying it will dehydrate and brown the surface, giving it a more palatable texture, but no amount of cooking will approximate the texture of regular chicken; it had that texture once, and then industrial food processing was done to it. The pink color has nothing to do with rawness, or with chicken-ness for that matter. That product is designed as a lower-quality, less-expensive alternative to tinned formed pork products like Spam. In order to "sell" it as a Spam substitute, colorings are added to make it look approximately like ham (or, at least, less like mechanically separated chicken). Incidentally, it is also possible (though perhaps harder) to buy tinned chicken which is just tinned chicken, not mechanically separated meat slurry. The texture of that is basically the same as that of boiled chicken.

I've been trying to make wasabi and soy sauce almonds, like the ones you find at the store (Blue Diamond) but the only recipe I've found (food.com) is very underwhelming. Despite using varying increasing amounts of wasabi, the spicy factor is non-existant. I suspect the heat from baking causes wasabi flavor to lose it's intensity, so it must be added at the end. But, I haven't been able to find anything to coat the almonds to the outer shell and maintain the roasted/crunchy almond exterior. Since wasabi powder is "matured" [and activated] with water and a short (covered) resting period, refining it into more powdery makes it stick better but still not spicy. How do I get my wasabi almonds to come out spicy? Note: I have also tried horseradish on almonds (which is just wasabi without food coloring) and baking it off.

Wasabi can also be activated by oil. So. Make yourself a nice intense wasabi oil, add equal part by weight of maltodextrin, stir. Voila, a nice sticky powder perfect for adhering to your almonds.

Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question, or if it doesn't sound coherent, but: Is it possible to buy sourdough yeast, ready to use? You can easily find "active dry yeast" for sale in supermarkets. I realize this regular bread yeast is a different variety from your typical sourdough yeast. But can the sourdough type of yeast (I guess it is referred to as "wild yeast"?) be packaged in a way that you can just add it to your dough whenever you feel like baking, and not have to maintain a starter in a special container, with all the fussy feeding rituals, and worries about its health and environmental conditions, etc.? ... I imagine taking care of the starter must be half the fun, but people are always trying to make a buck by selling you convenience, so I wonder if you can buy little packets of "active dry sourdough yeast". Or does wild yeast have some characteristic that makes it impossible to package it up neatly for sale? Or is there some other reason I haven't seen this product, even on the internet? ... Or do I just need to open my eyes, and I will see it in every market?

No, I really don't think you can have "sourdough yeast". If you want sourdough without the "fuss", you can look up sourdough flavor additive and see what works for you - one here, and here, just for examples. The thing is, sourdough starter isn't just yeast, it is a complex community - including several strains of wild yeast and bacteria, and a complexity that comes from aging. Yeasts can be packaged up - though balancing several strains is tricky, especially if you want consistency - but the bacteria is a lot trickier, especially since conditions which support bacteria are easy to contaminate with the wrong strains, and you would want the product quick - so not taking the time for the bacteria to establish a strong culture, which leaves it more vulnerable to said contamination. Bread yeast is, I think, basically what happened when sourdough yeast was cleaned up and regulated and made safe for storage. I have heard of starters that began with commercial yeast - it apparently takes a while for the characteristic flavors to develop, but apparently they do. Also, I've heard extended proofing (cold proofing) gives more complex flavors somewhat similar to sourdough, so simple time is, in fact, a factor in how the taste forms - it gives time for the fermentation to work. The fact that adding more time to yeast or dough makes a bread more complex and sour-dough like, makes me think that there's no way to build that flavor naturally and quickly - after all, there's no instant time on our shelves.

My oven is a Westinghouse. The serial numbers are as follows:- POL660S*02 230-240 V a.c. SERIAL: 52610542 APP NO: S/91 The problem is that it cooks unevenly and burns the base of everything no matter what rack I use. The heating element is on the bottom and fully exposed (which I have never seen in previous ovens I have used.) As I am in a rental I cannot replace the oven. Is there a solution to this problem? TIA

I have the same problem. It seems landlords prefer lowest cost appliances, but as you said you cannot choose. Having the heating element below the oven interior is preferable. In this situation I do two things differently: 1) Use an oven thermometer and check it both before and several times while cooking. In my case, the oven temperature is 50F above the dial, and temperature regulation (between when food is in or out) is poor. 2) Use heavy gauge pans or cooking sheets. Also Pyrex seems to work well. Thin metal baking pans or sheets tend to burn food easily. Using a baking stone as mentioned by @Megha is also a good idea.

I don't even remember where I have learned that, but I've always thought it common knowledge: Before a piece of meat gets seasoned, or malleted for tenderizing (sorry, don't know the English word for that), or marinated, or thrown into the pan, or ground, it should be first washed under the faucet, and then patted dry. When I think of it, it also makes sense to me, because the bacteria are always on the meat surface, never inside. So I don't think it is a vestige of the time one got bloodied cuts from the village butcher, but that it applies to the modern meat pieces sold on absorbent pads too. And then I read this question, which presumes patting (but doesn't mention washing). Most of the answers and comments seem to indicate that patting isn't always considered necessary, and there is no mention of washing the meat or of the dripping water from the washing. In fact, the answers and comments wouldn't make much sense if one assumes that the meat has been just washed. So is washing compulsory, is it optional but a good idea, is it plain useless, or does it even have disadvantages for the meat?

It's neither necessary nor a particularly good idea; it does little to remove bacteria from the surface of the meat (which you're about to cook, remember) and runs the risk of spraying/dripping bacteria all over the kitchen. The FSIS has an article on it here: Washing raw poultry, beef, pork, lamb, or veal before cooking it is not recommended. Bacteria in raw meat and poultry juices can be spread to other foods, utensils, and surfaces. The only exception would be something like vac-packed, wet-aged meat where you need to remove the salt, but that's a matter of preference. I have never washed a piece of meat in my life and I'm still here!

When cooking in water, is there any difference between 98°C or 100°C ? In the second case water is boiling, and in the first it isn't.

The usual difference comes because there are foods which have to reach certain temperature to get done. For example, the collagen in beef needs to be held at above 68C to transform. But I don't know of any food for which the turning point occurs between 98 and 100 C. So, in theory, if a recipe calls for boiling food for a prolonged time, you could also cook it at 98 C and nothing too terrible will happen. You might have to wait a little longer. In practice, it is quite difficult to hold water at exactly 98 C for a long period of time. So, unless you have a reason to use a temperature controler at this exact temperature, you will just use your stove at a temperature which brings the water to a boil. You have to make a difference between boiling and blanching though. Some recipes will direct you to put a small amount of vegetables in a large amount of boiling water and hold them there for a minute or less, or just use the word "blanch". There, you want the vegetable heat-shocked. It will still work at a lower temperature, but you will get the best quality at a roiling boil. Some starches like pasta are also important to mention here, they also profit from a quick heating. In principle, you could change them to another, colder pot after the surface has gelatinized - even 85-ish C will do - but there is no point to such acrobatics, so people boil it until ready. There are more cases where the other direction is important, usually because 100 C is too high a temperature. In these cases, you want to simmer your food at 90ish. The only case where the fact of boiling itself is important is in stock. Boiling distributes the protein scum from the meat into the stock, so people don't let it boil if they want a clear stock.

I just tried today to temper dark chocolate for the second time. I used about a pound of Toll House dark chocolate chips. If the quality of that chocolate is my problem, that would help me a lot. My first attempt, I heated 3/4 of the chocolate to about 115 F, took it off heat, and tried to cool it by adding the remaining chocolate as a seed. The instructions I used said it should cool and almost melt all the seed. Wrong, it all melted in about 10 seconds. I'm guessing all the temper in that seed was lost and my chances were ruined right then. All my test parchment failed to set up. I also noticed the thermometer I was using was awful so I went and bought a fancy infrared gun thermometer. I put the failed bowl in the fridge to set up. I just tried again with the new thermometer. Having no tempered seed, I figured I'd try the melt, cool, reheat method. I put the chunks of chocolate into the glass bowl over a pot of a water on very low heat, and melted it up to 115 again. Then I took it off the heat, and spent over 20 minutes stirring and waiting for it to cool it down to about 82.5 degrees. Then I put it back on the heat for 10 second increments, heating it first to about 85, and keeping it there for a few minutes, then heating it to just a fraction over 88. I held it at that temperature for a few minutes to make sure the form IV crystals were gone, and then dipped some parchment strips. Again, they never set, even in the fridge. Like before, they looked ok, with good gloss, but stayed soft and smeared to the touch. Rather than getting discouraged I tried heating it back up to about 90 degrees, held it again, and then did more tests. Still nothing. It's back in the fridge now. I have no idea what to do next except get a different batch of higher quality chocolate to try.

I'm going to blame your thermometers. The one you used for your first batch you believe was a bad one, so it likely was measuring the temperature incorrectly, so you got poor results. Then, you bought a really fancy infrared thermometer... which is great for measuring surface temperature but is pretty useless for anything else. Note that surface temp is usually much different than internal temp. Generally, if you're heating something up, the surface will be hotter than the inside and if you're cooling something down, the surface will be cooler than the inside. This means that all your temperature readings were wrong! Here's some info about the internal temperature reading myth: 2. An infrared thermometer will tell you the internal temperature This is another myth worth busting. An infrared thermometer is a surface temperature tool – period. If you’re grilling, baking, smoking, or roasting you’re going to need a penetration probe to tell you the internal temperature of the food you’re cooking. An infrared will only give you the surface temperature of the food, and depending on your optical range, the temp of the surrounding grill, skillet, oven, etc. I think you should try your chocolate tempering again but with a good-quality instant read thermometer (make sure the temperature range goes low enough) or a candy thermometer (again, some of them start at 100 F, so make sure it goes to the temps you need).

I'm planning to make a batch of soft caramels. Whole milk makes up about half the recipe. Since I only have skim milk on hand, can I substitute skim milk for the whole milk?

You can but the result will be much thicker than that with the whole milk, and they won't taste as good due to the reduction of fat. You could add some oil or other fat to make up the diffrence, although that will most likely change the taste as well.

It is advised to pat a steak dry before frying. I've used paper towels in the past for this, but sometimes parts of them stick to meat. Now and then I've used a clean cloth kitchen towel for patting and put it immediately to wash bin for hygiene reasons. This seems a bit wasteful to me. How do professional kitchens do this? If they use cloth towels, how often they wash them and do they use different towels for different kinds of food (meat, vegetables, fish, chicken) ?

I was not familiar with advice to pat meat dry, so I asked a chef what was going on. The answer was... complicated. First, if you're working with meats that were frozen, you're going to want to remove any moisture which comes from the freezer (frozen humidity, which is essentially water). For un-marinated meats, you want to be careful how you pat them. The important distinction, in all cases, is not to remove any natural fluids (blood) from the meat. This would remove both moisture and flavor, resulting in bland, dry cuts of meat. So, do not press the meat when patting; this will squeeze moisture out. You should lightly touch/brush the surface, so excess moisture wicks away. That's it. For marinated meats, it can depend a bit on the marinade, and how much your supposed to keep for flavor. Otherwise, stick with the "remove excess moisture, but nothing else" idea. So, long story short, if paper towels are sticking to the meat, you're removing too much moisture. Maybe try this the other way around: set a paper towel on your work surface, hold the meat in some tongs, and touch the meat to the towel as you're putting them on to fry. As to how professional, large scale kitchens do it; they don't. They'll take a large sheet pan, place a drip rack in the pan, and place the steaks on the rack. This allows excess juices to flow off naturally, and everything is easily washable and reusable. If the meat is not cooked quickly after set to dry, you can baste drippings, marinade, or oil onto them just before cooking.

Why are wooden sticks usually used for ice cream bars? This seems to hold for every commercial ice cream bar I have ever had, yet I can't find the reason... Why not use plastic instead, for example? I am not an expert, but I presume plastic can be cheaper to manufacture...

One element is tradition. The popsicle was supposedly invented by Frank Epperson when he left a drink mixture on the porch overnight in with a wooden stirrer in it. (Some historians have questioned this narrative, however, given that Epperson claimed this occurred in 1905 in San Francisco, but weather records show that it never got cold enough in the 1905 winter there for Epperson's story to hold up.) The choice of wood, according to this traditional story, was somewhat accidental, though given that plastics were not yet available in 1905, Epperson's main choices for stirring would probably have been metal or wood. (And obviously metal would be uncomfortable to hold in a frozen treat, regardless of whether this origin story is true or not.) In any case, Epperson later patented his invention (including the wooden stick) in Oakland in 1923 and started selling them. Again, this would have been too early for plastic to be a reasonable alternative, so part of the reason for wooden popsicle sticks may just be that they are traditional and familiar to customers. A business seeking to make a change away from such a tradition would need motivation, either an economic reason (a cheaper but still acceptable product) or an actual product improvement. Given that wooden popsicle sticks are intended to be disposable and already function well, economics would be a primary reason to switch, if there were a cheaper material. But Memj's answer is correct here. It's simple economics: wood is cheaper in this case, which is the reason it is used for various small uniform disposable items from toothpicks to chopsticks, utilizing technology that has been in wide use since the early 1900s. (For more information on the reason for manufacturing and process on producing small wooden items cheaply, I'd recommend Henry Petroski's book The Toothpick: Technology and Culture.) It's also important to note that some businesses actually have experimented with disposable plastic sticks. The most common type were so-called Elsie Stix or Icetix, which were distributed by Borden Dairy in the U.S. They were intended to be collectible and manufactured to be used as toys after serving their purpose in the ice cream bar. (See photos and further description here and here, for example.) I would note that these sticks easily solved potential problems brought up in some of the other answers: A series of holes allowed the popsicle to be frozen through the plastic and thus added to adhesion. And the holes also decreased thermal mass and heat transfer, which would negate any potential discomfort from holding a piece of cold plastic, which seems to be a strange concern to me anyhow.** In any case, these plastic sticks were undoubtedly more expensive to manufacture, but they were marketed as a novelty item. And their interlocking nature and use as a toy required people to buy more popsicles to build with them, thereby providing an economic incentive to justify the added expense. Without such an economic incentive for "standard" disposable popsicle sticks, and with wooden sticks being traditional, there's little reason for businesses to make a switch to plastic. ** More details about thermal properties: While some plastics are somewhat better at transferring heat than wood, there are many types of plastic which would not be noticeably uncomfortable compared to wood in a small stick, even if they were solid. Note that the thermal conductivity of many standard plastics is around 0.2-0.3 W/m-K, only roughly double that of wood, which is around 0.13 W/m-K. Compare that to most metals, which could actually freeze one's hand to them, which have conductivities which are hundreds of times that big. Specific heat is roughly the same for plastic and wood, and the density of most plastics is only a little higher than birch, which is a standard wood for popsicle sticks. Bottom line is that plastic popsicle sticks would absorb heat somewhat more quickly and stay colder a little longer, but not enough to produce significant discomfort for a small, thin piece of plastic. But, theory aside, one can easily buy reusable plastic sticks for homemade popsicles -- just search Amazon for "plastic popsicle sticks". (Here's a review comparing 26 different varieties of plastic molds, almost all with plastic sticks/handles.) And I don't think I've ever seen a review complaining about discomfort in holding them. I've also seen multitudes of baby teething toys, for example, which are meant to be frozen and are made out of plastic: the idea of a "damp hand freezing" to a small thin piece of plastic seems quite unlikely.

I keep hearing about adding some of the pasta water to the sauce, either to thicken it or to make the sauce stick to the noodles. But when are you supposed to do this? Wouldn't you be boiling your noodles right before you eat them? And wouldn't the sauce be finished cooking at that point? Wouldn't adding water then just dilute your wonderful tomato sauce?

This is a technique used for sauces that are otherwise very thick, such as a well-reduced marinara or a cream sauce (which will thicken as it cools). You wouldn't add it to a sauce which is already at the right texture. As you deduce, yes, it's the kind of thing you do just before serving. You boil the pasta, save some of the water, and stir it into the sauce. You might give it another minute of cooking to ensure that everything is well incorporated, then plate the dish. The starch in the water gives it a supple texture that simply thinning with plain water wouldn't achieve. This is an old restaurant trick, and they do it a little differently. They'll end up using the same water over and over, maybe for the entire service, so it's very starchy and thick. Doing it at home is a little different, since you won't have as much starch, but it's still a ready source of hot water that can be used to perfect the texture of a thick sauce. Cream sauces like alfredo are especially useful for this: the starch water doesn't change texture as much as the cream does during cooling, so the dish stays at the right level of thickness as the diner eats. This may not be quite as necessary at home, where it isn't necessarily part of a long dinner service (and where the dish won't ever have to wait at the pass for other dishes to finish). Still, it's a good tool to have in your toolbox. So, if you've got a perfect tomato sauce, don't do anything to it except eat it. But if you've been cooking it all day, and you find it's more "ragu" than "sauce", the starchy pasta water is the right tool, right there.

I have a recipe for spring rolls which call for (essentially) half watercress and half ground pork. I boil the watercress first, then chop it and fry it with carrot, tofu, and seasonings. Then I add the meat (cooked previously). Often when I make the recipe I am half-way through (or worse) and I realize that the watercress is way too bitter to eat. I'm not sure why this is happening; it could be the watercress itself or perhaps I didn't boil it long enough. What tips do you have for preventing this situation, and is there a way to fix this dish? I'm willing to add anything, even if it changes the flavour a lot, to rescue this dish.

Don't boil the watercress, just wash and use raw I suspect the Asian watercress varieties are a little hardier than what is found in most western countries You could try substituting it with some other Asian greens. Maybe a mix of Choy Sum and Coriander with some grated White Turnip for some peppery zing. Or try other peppery greens like Arugula, Endive, or whatever local weeds provide that peppery taste (Daisy family?)

I have some never opened alcoholic bottles under the kitchen sink and has been there for years. The are basically whiskey, vodka and bacardi. I always thought that alcoholic drink never go bad and even the taste doesn't spoil and can be kept for years but my other question about wine got me thinking if that is not the case. So can we keep alcoholic beverages indefinitely without even spoiling their taste?

Short Answer: Yes. In general, unopened containers of alcohol have an indefinite shelf-life. For example, there are 500+ year old barrels of wine which are likely still drinkable (i.e. not only safe to drink, but pleasant). Alcohol itself is a preservative, and will prevent nasty organisms from growing. As such, I would not have any safety concerns about old bottles of liquor (especially if they are still sealed, but even if they are not---I have a bottle of whisky that I have been sipping on for about 20 years). However, there are things which can change over time. Beer When beer is exposed to ultraviolet light, it can become skunked. This is why beer is generally kept in brown or green bottles, as these are better at blocking UV light than clear glass. It is also worth noting that one of the defining features of beer is its effervescence—those tiny bubbles of CO2 are part of what makes drinking beer pleasant. Once opened, the CO2 comes out of solution pretty quickly, leading to flat beer. Mold can also grow on the surface of beer, or in a container which has been in contact with beer (e.g. homebrew equipment which is not properly sterilized). Properly bottled beer will not grow mold as long as it is unopened. Once a bottle is opened, it can be exposed to mold. However, mold is typically pretty obvious, and the beer will no longer be pleasant to drink long before it gets moldy. Thus opened containers of beer will likely remain perfectly safe to drink for a longer period of time than they are pleasant to drink. Unopened containers should remain safe virtually indefinitely. Wine, Cider, and Sake Wine continues to change and evolve after it is bottled. There are some wines which improve with age, and others which are meant to be drunk "young" (e.g. [1] and [2]). Wine also reacts with oxygen, and changes significantly once it has been opened, which will changes its flavor and character over a short period of time (e.g. you'll notice significant changes after only a few days—eventually, you'll have vinegar). Sake and cider are similar. Unopened bottles will generally change very little over time, and opened bottles will react with oxygen. Finally, as with beer, sparkling varieties of wine (such as champagne) go flat fairly quickly after they are opened. Again, just for emphasis, wine which as been sitting in a bottle for a long time is generally safe to drink, but it may not be pleasant. "Hard" Liquor Hard liquors, like whisky, rum, tequila, and vodka will basically never go bad, and will experience very little change once they are bottled. For something like vodka, which has very little flavor, even opened bottles will change very little over time. For more complicated liquors, such as whisky or rum, which are aged in (and take on the character of) barrels, the complex molecules which carry flavor and aroma can react with oxygen. However (in my experience), these changes are very subtle, and have very little effect on the overall experience. In short, something with a higher alcohol content is going to be both safe and pleasant to drink for a very long time, either opened or unopened. Dairy There are some drinks which contain dairy, e.g. Bailey's Irish Cream or (appropriately for this season) eggnog. These types of drinks are often lower ABV and may have some risk of spoiling. However, it will generally be pretty obvious that the drink has gone off, as the milk will curdle. Again, I would imagine that sealed bottles will last basically forever, and I would have no problem drinking from an old bottle if there are no signs of spoilage. But if you do see or smell something off, throw it away. It should be obvious.

As far as I know, yeast helps the dough rise by eating away some of the sugar in the flour. But if we make low-carb bread (with, say, soya flour), yeast has nothing to eat and the bread will not rise. One solution might be to use baking powder, but then our bread has a cake-like texture. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

As Bikeboy said, sugar will hasten the process, but yeast has enzymes that break down the starch to get to the sugar components. If it has starch in it, yeast will eventually persevere and the dough will rise. It doesn't have to be wheat starch, but the yeasts we use commonly are used to working on wheat or barley flour. They will adapt to other starches. It may be better to make these breads on the sourdough principle, once you persuade a yeast to work. If it takes longer than usual, you need to have patience ...

Although I am by no means a connoisseur (I don't really even drink it) I have been investigating the various means by which wine bottles are stopped up. This was prompted by a negative reaction by a more dipsomanic friend to a screw top wine that I had purchased from my local off licence. The impression I got from him was that a bottle with a cork was less... tacky. And that somehow a bottle with a screw top gave him the impression of teens in parks drinking Lambrini through straws. I have read a few articles online here, and here which seem to show some benefits to screw top bottles (namely that they aren't affected by TCA and are easier to open). I have not been able to find any resources which show an actual benefit to the wine that comes from using cork. The usual pros listed include the fact that it supports natural cork plantations (an ethical consideration) or that it just seems to be more sophisticated. So, is there any reason (when only considering taste) that cork should be used over a screw top?

If a wine maker loves their wine, and their customers, they will use screw caps. All the studies have come back positive for screw caps. See screw cap initiative for starters. Some main points are: Corks taint the wine Corks, real or synthetic, have a very high failure rate. Screw caps are basically 100% effective (maybe too effective) Wine ages better with a screw cap, as there is no chance of seal failure or tainting Screw caps have been physically tested for over 30 years, and are designed to last longer than that You can cellar wine bottles at any angle The energy used in making a recyclable (aluminium) screw cap is significantly less than used in making a cork Most corks aren't made in ethical plantations No special tools are required to open and recap a bottle (cork knives can be a serious health hazard later in the evening). Wines age more safely. Corks do not breathe, but they may shrink and let wine out (bottles stored on side). Good vineyards will re-cork cellared wine every 20 to 25 years, or when corks start failing. The wine is topped up to the correct level, and often the wine/cork gap is flooded with nitrogen to avoid oxygen contamination which will "soften" the wine. All in all, some pretty convincing reasons to go with screw caps.

When turkey gravy sits undisturbed for hours in a clear jar, a dark layer develops at the top. This layer contains a lot of flavour but it is not fat because the gravy had been skimmed of all fat. I used the gravy for dinner, poured the remaining gravy into a mason jar and left it sitting for about 3 hours. When I went back to the kitchen I noticed this dark layer about 2 inches thick on top of gravy. I think the collagen had risen to the top. I know gelatin comes from the turkey bones, but what is the proper name for this dark layer?

It may not have a formal name. If this were water treatment, we'd likely call it 'sludge'. Although it's possible that you missed some of the fat, it's very unlikely that it would be 2 inches thick. What's more likely is that the gravy is still undergoing some sort of settling, and that's what you're seeing: Type 1 settling : Free-settling : iImpurities accelerate with gravity. The oil goes up while the solids precipitate out. Type 2 settling : Flocculation : Impurities collect together until they become large enough that gravity will overcome other forces Type 3 & 4 settling : Sludge thickening : Bands slowly form and become more distinct with time. May require hours or days. The exact rate of settling depends on a lot of factors. One of the largest ones in water treatment is ionization. (you have to neutralize any charge so that the particles won't repel each other). Some systems use microbes to speed up the process after type 1 settling. You have to leave it in still water for the whole time; disturbing the vessel can cause the layers to mix, undoing the type 3 & 4 settling. (note: it's been almost 20 years since I took a water treatment class, and I never went into the field. It's possible that terminology has changed in that time. And when I say 'water treatment', I really mean 'sewage treatment')

I have some agar agar powder to make a mixed berry gel using some berry coulee that I made. Lets say I want to make one cup of coulee to turn it to a gel, how much agar agar powder should I use. Keep in mind I don't want to turn it into a gelatin, just a gel so that it will still be liquid but very thick.

So I finally was able to test out making the berry gel using some berry coulis. I used one half cup coulis in a small saucepan and added 1/8 teaspoon Agar Agar powder brought it just up to the boil then put it in a plastic container and put that in an ice bath. I checked in it a half hour later and it had jelled. I then blitzed it with my hand blender and magic. It's the exact consistency I wanted, thick and fluid but won't lose its shape on the plate. I took this picture ten minutes after I put the gel on. ** Update - Here is what I wanted to do with the berry gel ;-)

My coworkers would like me to make faux "special" brownies. The requirements are that the brownies look the part and still taste good but don't have any actual "herbs" in them. My first thought was crushed dried mint leaves. We also came up with colored coconut. I'm going to try the mint leaves, but will the food coloring hold up on the coconut in the brownies? Or would I be better off mixing undyed coconut into the brownie with some dyed coconut lightly mixed on top? Or are there any other suggestions I could use? I also thought of cat nip but that doesn't seem like it would taste good. (I'm using code just in case I can't put the real word. LOL)

Thanks rumtscho. I wasn't sure if I should post as an answer or an edit. I've edited to remove answer and place here. Update: I ended up making two brownies. One 8X8 pan with 6 bags of mint tea stirred into it. It gave off a very earthy (and minty) smell and has a very earthy/herby taste (and minty too). I doubt I'll make the mint ones again. The second one was a 9X13 pan with 2/3 of a bag of shredded coconut colored green. I put the coconut in a bowl and used gel food coloring. I don't have a huge selection of colors, so I used green with a touch of brown. I could have used a little more brown so the green wasn't so bright. I mixed it in the coconut and then mixed most of it into the batter. The remainder went on top and lightly swirled into the batter. The effect was really good and amazingly the color didn't seep into the brownies. When you bite into them, the coconut maintained its green color. I didn't have any white chocolate to try the green white chocolate idea, but maybe next time. :)

I am looking for food-grade beeswax to make Canelé. On Amazon, all I can seem to find is "cosmetic grade" which is not necessarily meant for food usage.

@Adisak I was able to find one source , although there may be many more. I also found food grade paraffin wax, but it seems that it has a much lower melting point. After a little reading it seems that making canelés can be a quite tricky and meticulous process, so you probably want to stick with the beeswax. They do sound delicious!

Assume I have found and want to eat a to me unknown kind of mushroom. Is there some way to find out if that mushroom is poisonous by looking/smelling/soaking it?

No as per: "There are no outward characteristics that all poisonous mushrooms have in common, so picking and eating wild mushrooms requires the utmost caution. To be absolutely safe, the only mushrooms you should eat are those found at supermarkets and restaurants! All the old wives’ tales about how to tell if a mushroom is poisonous – such as whether it tarnishes silverware or turns blue when bruised – are dead wrong. There’s a saying that there’s no such thing as an old, bold mushroom hunter."

I generally buy frozen Pizza Margherita in store for making a quick lunch if I am running out of time. However, I don't really like the taste of the baked Pizza because it is just Tomato and Cheese. I am a vegetarian and I would like to add toppings but when? Should I directly add veggies on frozen pizza and put it in the oven or let the frozen pizza bake for a few minutes and then add the toppings ? Suggestions are most welcome.

The method I've used to add toppings to frozen pizza is- use frozen toppings. For example, green peppers are in my opinion a great addition to pizza. I usually keep frozen green peppers and other pizza-worthy vegetables for use with many things, and frozen pizza is one of them. This way, I simply add the toppings to the pizza before baking and viola! Easy, simple, and much more tasty frozen pizzas.

I found a recipe for maple scones I might try, but it calls for both 1/4 cup maple syrup and 1/4 tsp maple extract, and I only have syrup. I don't have any idea how strongly flavored the extract is compared to the syrup, but it seems like I should be able to reduce some syrup, take out some of the sugar, and be just fine. How much maple syrup would it take to get the flavor contained in 1/4 tsp of extract? I can balance the recipe from there. (I've seen this question, which does have a comment saying it wouldn't work in frosting, but this is a bit different.)

I would take some of the maple syrup that you have and cook it down in to granulated Maple Sugar. A tutorial is here. Then, as maple sugar is about twice as sweet as regular sugar, substitute it into your recipe accordingly. That should help infuse your scones with additional maple goodness.

I somehow ended up acquiring not one but two tagines recently. Unfortunately, I have neither a gas nor charcoal stove (the ideal cooking surfaces for tagines, AIUI), only a smooth glass cooktop. I've already tried using the W-S tagine, with a heavy cast-iron skillet as a makeshift heat diffuser. It worked out okay — the dish turned out great, but it took forever to cook, much longer than previous times I've cooked the dish using a cast iron Dutch oven. In the end, I had to turn the heat to high so that the dish would finish in a reasonable amount of time. This also resulted in stripping the seasoning from the skillet, which I'd rather avoid every time I want to cook a tagine. Is there a better way to use a tagine on a cooktop? Should I be using some sort of heat diffuser (which variety?), or can I place the tagine directly on the burner, and just keep the heat low? I'm hesitant to try the latter: both tagines have a small rim around the bottom, so the area of direct burner contact would be very small. Should I give up and just stick to using the tagines in the oven?

My name is Tom Wirt, with Clay Coyote Pottery. I'll try to shed some light on the intricacies of clay cooking pots, especially tagines. You can use any flameware tagine directly on the glass stovetop. This includes, Emile Henry, Le Crueset, and Clay Coyote flameware. These are pots with either a metal base (Le Crueset) , or a type of ceramic called flameware (Emile Henry, Clay Coyote which is formulated and made to take direct heat. Normal stoneware clay pots and earthenware pots will not do this. Stoneware should never go on a direct heating source, gas, electric or glasstop. It will crack with or without a diffuser. Earthenware ceramic pots, typically identified by a reddish clay color and some absorbency by the bare clay (typically the bottom), do need a diffuser and should be started over a low heat. They can crack if used over sudden or too high a heat. Remember that these pots were originally used over charcoal fires. Metal, obviously is fine. The flameware ceramic pots, are designed for direct heat and are actually especially good on glasstops as the top spreads the heat better than electric or gas. Clay is a insulator, not a conductor. Thus the heat doesn't spread much, but, with a highly liquid food like a tagine, the liquid spreads the heat. Basically a tagine is cooked at a simmer, even though the pot would take the heat. Induction stoves require a metal plate with ceramic cookware to turn the electromagnetic force into heat. You can find more info on my blog.

Let's say I'm cooking a piece of meat and the whose outside temperature is higher than its inside temperature. If I stick a meat thermometer through the piece of meat so that part of the needle is at the center and part of it is at the surface, what reading will the thermometer report? the temperature in the center (minimum temperature) the temperature at the surface (maximum temperature) some average temperature Also, would the reading be skewed if most of the needle is not touching anything? Should I stick the needle through a second piece of meat so that the whole needle is covered? (Background: I'm thinking of food safety)

The sensor in your thermometer is located at the tip of the needle, so you're measuring wherever the tip of the needle ended up. If the tip of the needle it not touching anything (or is touching the pan or cooking surface) your readings will be skewed.

I love Northern Indian cuisine, but am allergic to cumin. Can anyone suggest a substitute for cumin to use in making garam masala from Northern India?

There seem to be more than a few well known curries that use neither garam masala nor cumin - for example, Camellia Panjabi's "50 great curries of india" (an older vintage but good cookbook IMHO) lists a Rogan Josh and a Safed Murgh Korma meeting this constraint. Also, "Nadan" style south indian beef curries seem to be commonly cumin-less, and they could fit well together with north indian dishes even while not north indian. Also, while it is a different flavor, Ajowan (or even Thyme) can go great lengths at creating a "balanced" indian flavor profile where nothing seems missing (it is commonly used as one of defining spices in samosas).

I would like to figure out how to make a strongly apple-flavored yeast bread I found a recipe for a yeast bread that I was quite happy with, which starts with the yeast in 2 cups of milk, then uses 1/3 of a cup of honey as the source of sugar. More recently, I came across this BA video on cider donuts which starts out with essentially making mulled apple cider and reducing it to a syrupy/jelly consistency. This inspired me to try to make an apple cider yeast bread. I found this recipe for an apple cider yeast bread, but it says that it produces a bread with "a hint of apple and a faint sweetness". "A hint of apple" is not enough for me, I really want to make a yeast-based bread that truly tastes of apple. What I tried: I substituted 4 cups of apple cider (with cinnamon, cloves, and an allspice berry), reduced to about 1/2 cup, for the honey in the original recipe (I checked, 4 cups of cider has about the same amount of sugar as 1/3 cup of honey). Unfortunately, my bread came out tasting like a wonderful yeast bread, without the slightest trace of apple (it doesn't taste like the original recipe, I think it's actually better, but no trace of the apple cider). I would like to make my cider bread truly contain a strong apple flavor. Can I: Substitute cider for the milk from the original recipe Make a second batch of the cider reduction and fold it into the dough somehow Some other option that will produce a stronger apple flavor

I suggest that (in addition to using a reduction of the juice*/cider) you add some solid apple. Personally I would get dried apple, of a tasty variety if at all possible, and put it through a food processor until fairly fine. I dehydrate my own home-grown apples, selected for flavour, but would buy Cox or Granny Smith for this. Then add as you would other dried fruit. If you get the really dry dried apple chips, you could partially rehydrate the pieces in spiced apple juice/cider to soften it a little, adding to the flavour. * Where I'm from "cider" is always alcoholic, the unfermented juice is just "juice" even if cloudy, so I'll use both terms, hopefully correctly.

I'm considering entering a gingerbread house contest with my mom this year. I might've done a few as a kid, but I've only done one before in my adult life, more than 10 years ago, and I remember having problems with the amount of spread of the parts. Does anyone have any advice? are there any tricks to keep parts from spreading as much, or should I be baking the parts, then cutting them? (or par-baking, cut while still soft, then finish baking to firm everything up?) Should I bake the parts well in advance to let them dry out / stale up so they're stiffer before assembly, or do I want a little bit of flex when I'm assembling so I don't accidentally crack them while working? Also, recommendations on the best thickness of wall sections to use (especially based on the height I'm dealing with, as I assume I'd want them thicker the higher I'm going) would be great, too.

I make gingerbread houses every year. Walls should be approximately 1/4 inch thick. I have found that cutting the pieces first to work best. Yes there is some spread, but when they come out of the oven, I replace the stencil and trim up any spread (for the straight outside edges, a pizza cutter works well). I know it sounds redundant, but sometimes I don't cut quick enough, or I am distracted by the phone, or any other number of things, if I only cut after baking. With the items pre-cut, if I get distracted, I at least have a usable part. Granted I may have to shave any spread very gently with a microplane or the edge of a knife, but that is just what works for me. I also will roll the dough out on parchment paper, cut and remove the excess, then slide the whole thing onto a pan for baking. This way, you don't get any "stretch" of your pieces. I have several square cookie cutters that I will use to cut out the windows and such. I make the windows rectangular by using the cookie cutter and cutting a square then moving it and cutting another half square. This is helpful because when the gingerbread comes out of the oven, you don't have to spend a lot of time with a knife trimming the inside of all the windows... you just punch any spread out with the cookie cutter. As Sobachatina mentioned, melted sugar makes beautiful windows. I however, will lay the walls on a silicone mat and pour the sugar directly into the window holes. No need to "glue." I'd hate for you to make a gingerbread house with the "wrong" icing. You want an icing that will dry rock hard, like cement. For this you will want to use "Royal Icing." For larger houses, use canned goods to hold the walls in place while the icing dries. The house should be built at least one day before you start decorating, to be sure it has set up really good.

How to Sous Vide Lamb says: Blade Chop: Medium-Rare: 131°F for 18 to 24 Hours (55.0ºC) Shoulder: Medium-Rare: 131°F for 1 to 2 Days (55.0ºC) Sous Vide Lamb Chops with Chimichurri Compound Butter says: 132°F for 2 hours I know sous vide is very forgiving with cooking times, but there is a big difference between 2 hours and 24 hours that can't be accounted for by the 1C° temperature difference. I would expect at least one of these to be a bad idea, but which one?

Time will determine texture and your target texture is really up to you. Folks typically recommend the “pinch test”. Squeeze the bag and feel it out as you go. Once it’s pasteurized (id refer you to Baldwin for that data) you can shock it and throw it in the fridge and hold until whenever you are serving, so it’s best to start early. I haven’t personally processed this particular cut SV, so I don’t have a personal recommendation for you. I recommend keeping a log of every cook you perform with notes about texture so you can refer back to it in subsequent cooks. My gut tells me that anything in that listed range will work for you. They will just provide different textures. If you’re looking for tender, go longer.

I've been making Yogurt and Coconut Yogurt for a long time. I've always wondered why one can't leave milk out for more than an hour or so without it going off, yet when adding cultures or probiotics all of a sudden this isn't a concern.

The initial heating of the milk, besides denaturing proteins to improve the texture, also pasteurizes the milk. The culture needs to be added in a high enough concentration to crowd out harmful bacteria that might exist. That said, if your tools or containers are dirty or if your starter is dead, or you don't add enough starter, your yogurt can grow accidental bacteria and go off. Note As Bob1 commented, this applies to the first few hours of fermentation before the milk has become acidic enough to inhibit other microbes.

One easy way to make boiled or stir-fried vegetables more exciting is to drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil. To diversify the flavor, and while still taking inspiration from Korean and Japanese kitchens, I have attempted to dissolve/dilute a bit of: Korean, light-colored, fermented soybean paste, Korean, dark-colored, fermented soybean paste, and Japanese soybean (miso) paste in some water and add to various dishes such as: boiled vegetables, stir-fried vegetables, and vegetable broth and (largely unseasoned) homemade chicken broth but the outcome is far from exciting. It doesn't come close to the flavors of even the basic dishes served at Korean and Japanese restaurants. What is the correct way to use fermented (and unfermented) soybean paste? (Hint: a little of any of these goes a long way; beware of buying too much too soon and being unable to use it before expiration.)

First of all, the Korean middle one is not soybean paste at all, but chunjang (춘장), a black bean paste. This is used as a condiment for stir-fries, in particular the noodle dish jjajangmyeon; it's not suitable for soups. The leftmost one is Korean soybean paste aka doenjang (된장, you can spot the characters in the top left corner). Unlike miso, doenjang is not "diluted" with rice, so it tastes stronger. The most popular way to eat this (and also my favorite) is as the base for doenjang-jjigae, a tasty stew. Finally, the Japanese one on the right is a "nothing added" (無添加 mutenka) plain miso, which means it's missing the other key ingredient for miso soup: dashi stock, which adds salt and umami flavors. Dashi can be made from bonito (katsuo) or kelp and is easily purchased in "instant" powder form, just add a pinch (quarter tsp or so per bowl, it's strong stuff!) to the boiling water and mix in before adding the miso. Many commercial brands of miso have dashi premixed (出汁入り dashi-iri), which eliminates this step.

I just fried 2 Italian sausages on a non-stick pan, which created enough smoke to briefly set off my smoke alarm. The sausages are delicious, but how can I do this next time without producing so much smoke?

Use less heat. It's not clear if you used any fat here. If you do, you have to be aware of the smoke point of whatever oil you're using. By turning down the heat you'll decrease the amount of fat you are burning, and turning into smoke. If you want to still get a nice crisp exterior you can briefly sear your sausages on high heat prior to fully cooking. Although, his might be irrelevant since you don't really get good sears with a non-stick surface.

I often go to Whole Foods, but I feel like I'm getting ripped off there. I can walk out having spent $120 on a single bag of groceries. I try to get to a Farmer's Market occasionally, but not often enough I guess. Are there other ways to buy as close to the farm as possible?

You can look for a CSA in your area, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture: CSAs consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit in a vegetable box scheme, sometimes including dairy products and meat. You can use http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ to try to find one in your area.

My family would like to eat pork knuckle (ideally the Germany/Austrian style but not necessary as long as they taste fine). I looked up various receipt but most require an oven, which I don't have (No! I do not have an oven!). I also do not have large enough fry pan - just one small enough to cook up the gravy. I do have a very large boiling pot though; so I wonder in what way can I cook the pork knuckle just by boiling it and still manage to make it tasty. Should I add salt, tomato sauce, oil or what sort of seasoning in the boiling water? And normally in what way and how long it takes to boil pork knuckle to tender? Some has suggest to boil pork knuckle in Coca Cola to make it tender and taste...Any creative receipt is also welcome.

When I was a child every christmas day we would have ragout des pattes de cochon (pigs feet stew) With meatballs in it. It is definetly possible to cook pigs feet in a pot! That being said, I have never done it myself. This looks like a good recipe, you can get a good idea of what to do. http://www.food.com/recipe/rago-t-de-pattes-de-cochon-pork-stew-with-meatballs-398226

I have 2 loaves of banana nut bread that are not quite baked completely(they are very dense with lots of banana). What other things could I make with them as I refuse to waste food??

You can make pretty much any bread-like substance into french toast (slice the bread, dip or soak in eggs mixed with a little milk, then shallow-fry in your choice of fat) or bread pudding (cube the bread, if necessary spread it out to dry and/or toast it, pile it in a baking pan, cover in a milk + egg + sweetening mixture, bake). Heck, if you're feeling really decadent (or you can't make up your mind), you can make french toast bread pudding: fry the bread, then make it into bread pudding.

I've read many recipes asking to mix sugar and butter at medium speed for about 5 minutes. Can I use slower speed and mix it a little bit longer? Will it make any different in the end? One more thing, when mixing dry ingredients into wet ingredients, does it really make a difference if I use hand mixer instead of a spatula? In the videos, I've seen most of the bakers usually switching to spatula when they have to mix wet and dry ingredients together but some of them mix them in a stand mixer.

Doing this will not harm the pan, assuming you do not heat the pan to absurd temperatures (which is no different than if you used oil). It may not give you ideal results for your chicken, though. Oil in the pan serves a couple of purposes. In traditional (as opposed to non-stick) pans, of course it helps prevent sticking. It also provides a thermal coupling between the surface of the pan and the surface of the food, conducting heat from the one to the other (much akin to the way thermal paste helps your processor cooler work better). Without this effect, you may get spottier and less reliable or uniform cooking of the chicken.

I bought frozen pork ribs and the label said pre-frozen. what does this mean, and is it safe to thaw and eat. To me, it sounds like it was frozen twice.

I've seen the term applied a lot to seafood. It means that the seafood was frozen when caught and for distribution to stores, then thawed at the store to be sold in its thawed state. For ribs, I'd expect that the ribs were cooked then frozen at the plant. The store would then thaw the ribs for sale.

We've all heard the advice: don't add salt when cooking lentils, because they'll toughen or not become soft or variations on that theme. For example, on lentils.org: Be sure to season with salt after cooking – if salt is added before, the lentils will become tough. The thing is, the same advice is given for basically all dried legumes, but Serious Eats debunked that - at least for beans (specifically, cannellini beans). But lentils aren't much like beans, neither in size, cooked texture, nor even really in cooking processes.1 So I'm not sure if the Serious Eats experiment really applies to lentils. Has anyone either confirmed or debunked the don't-add-salt thing specifically for lentils? 1For example, soaking lentils in my experience just adds to the preparation time: it doesn't seem to make an appreciable difference in how long it takes to cook them, but it adds the time you had to take to soak them.

If you look at lentil recipes, there is not agreement on whether to salt or not. In fact, this one begins with a salt brine...others say salt makes beans tough. I think the salt making beans (lentils included) tough is a myth has been debunked. This post refers to Harold McGee, who I would trust on the issue. It is acid that keeps beans from softening. The real issue with salt is that evaporation during cooking will increase your salt concentration. If you don't keep track of this, you can end up with overly salty beans. That, in and of itself, might be a good reason to wait, almost until completion, to salt your beans.

The crust on my french bread never turns out "crusty" like it does in restaurants, what am I doing wrong?

To promote a crust on a bread (ie. getting it 'crusty'), the bread must be baked in two phases. First, steam must be introduced (and not vented) for about a third of the bake time. Then, you must evacuate the steam and bake the remainder of time dry. This is the trick to making crusty breads. Also critical in the promotion of crust is temperature. You must bake crusty breads at a high temp., at least 400 degrees (which is what I bake my crusty-style breads at). Also of note, crusty breads tend to be lean doughs, that is one without a high fat content.

I just made the recipe below for slow cooker dal and there is quite a bitter flavor. I'm wondering: - what ingredient would cause this bitterness and why? - is there something I can add to counter the bitterness? 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds 2 teaspoons whole mustard seeds 1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds 2 cups split red lentils, rinsed 5 cups water 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes 1 medium onion, diced 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated 1 tablespoon ground turmeric 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Fresh cilantro leaves, for serving (optional) Jasmine rice, for serving Add the cumin, mustard, and fennel seeds to a small sauté pan, and place on the stove over low heat. Toast the seeds, using a wooden spoon to stir frequently, until fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the toasted spices, lentils, water, tomatoes, onion, ginger, turmeric, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a 6-quart slow cooker. Stir together. Cover the slow cooker with the lid, then set to low and cook for 4 to 6 hours, or high and cook for 2 to 3 hours, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the lentils are soft. Stir before serving.

In dal recipes I have made, the lentils and tempering are cooked separately, then combined later. They generally begin by toasting spices (careful, mustard pops, but that is what you want), then caramelizing thinly sliced onion in the spices. This brings out the sweetness of the onion, which can offset the bitterness of some of the spices. Once the lentils are cooked, the tempering (onion and spices) is added and the seasoning is adjusted.

I've never used a cut proof or cut resistant glove but I think it may come in handy when using a mandolin slicer or prepping a bunch veggies. Any suggestions on the pros and cons between cut resistant and cut proof gloves? Any specific products you would suggest?

There's no such thing as "cut proof", so you should still try to be careful. I use a Microplane glove with my mandolin, and it's worked out quite well so far. Cook's Illustrated also recommends this glove.

I've been cooking a certain brand of noodles, and noticed that the seasoning provided is quite salty than you'd expect. Is there a way to reduced the saltiness without a noticeable change in flavor? And if it does change the flavor, please describe in what way it changes.

My simple method is just to use less of the packet. If it's still a little bland, you can always add spices back in (eg, if you want a touch of heat, shake in a little crushed red pepper). If you're preparing ramen, my uncle's simple method was to stretch it out by adding other vegetables, such as some form of cabbage (eg, bok choy, a couple of shreaded brussel sprouts), some sliced onion, bean sprounts, etc. It's basically a form of diluting, but you're adding things that need to be seasoned, so it won't seem as overly salted.

I'm making a Peanut Butter Blondie recipe, and I'm trying to make it healthier for a Health Class my son is in. The recipe calls for 2 cups of peanut butter chips and I want to use natural peanut butter instead. How would I convert 2 cups of chips to an amount of peanut butter. Here is the recipe for those interested. http://www.squirrelbakes.com/2011/01/peanut-butter-blondies.html?showComment=1295643747439

You cannot convert it, because they are two different ingredients. Peanut butter chips are pieces which stay whole when baked. They don't melt, just sit there so you can bite on them after the cookie is baked. Peanut butter is a creamy substance, and if you try to put it in a blondie, it will not form a chunk, it will become part of the dough, giving it a completely different texture and maybe even hindering its baking well. Even if it bakes properly, you will get a totally different result, with dough that tastes uniformly of peanuts, without a contrast taste to bite on. You could try putting in whole peanuts (shelled, without the papery skin, but unsalted and toasted), in which case you can use the same amount in cups. It will still be somewhat different, because they will be harder to bite on than the chips, and it can make the blondies drier as a whole.

I've got one in my freezer. The whole heart. After a cool defrost... How should I cook this heart o' cow? Steaks are the only application that come to mind.

If it's from an animal that is "young at heart" (veal/calf), it may be tender enough to cut into thin strips and pan-fry or grill quickly as "steaks." Don't overcook, or they will be really tough, and you'll be heartbroken. But to get to the heart of the matter, if it's really an adult beef heart, it's too tough and chewy to cook quickly. Braising is my preferred method and the one closest to my heart. This is one of those things can cook all day and will eventually become incredibly tender -- tasting like a slightly unusual and hearty pot roast. You can also stuff them and then either braise or roast them -- again, "low and slow" heat is the most heart-friendly. If you roast it, also be sure there is enough moisture in the stuffing (i.e., leave a "soft spot" in your heart), or else it can dry out during a long bake. (You can also "roast" it in a dutch oven or something.) When you open up your heart after cooking, a dry stuffing will just leave you with a heavy heart. A final option is to use it as stew meat. It will take longer to cook than most stew meats, so you might want to simmer for a while first before adding vegetables. Then cook until the flavors come together and your heart's content. Once, when I had leftovers after making a stuffed heart, I was just going eat it, but then I had a change of heart. I chopped up the tender meat and added it to chili. It probably was about 1/3 of the overall meat in the chili, along with some diced chuck chunks and some ground beef. It came out incredibly good: there was a deep earthy flavor that really worked well. I served it to a number of friends without explaining the dish, and they didn't notice anything unusual; I didn't have the heart to tell them. In fact, a number of people said it was some of the best chili they had tasted, which was really heartwarming to hear. Take heart! There are lots of ways to cook it. Any slow-cooking method or recipe you might use for a tough cut of beef will probably work -- just follow your heart. (I am actually serious about all of these methods -- but, okay, truly sorry about the puns. From the bottom of my....)

I'm not looking for a Risotto recipe. I make a pretty nice risotto, thank you very much. But, making a risotto takes about 20 minutes. It seems unreasonable to me that a cook would start from scratch in a restaurant. So how do they do it? There must be some pre-cooking involved, and then it's finished off when ordered in about 5 minutes.

It's actually hard to hold when it's almost all the way cooked - it'll start getting gluey if you let it cool off, but could start scorching on the bottom if it's not stirred, and get too runny if you keep adding stock. Mario Batali said that risotto isn't finicky in the middle - so you can cook it part way, cool it down (I think he said he spread it on sheet pans to cool quickly), then you can add hot stock and cook it from that point, so you've already got a 10 minute head start. I've also been to a restaurant where it was only served on the hour and half-hour.

An entire cake is too much food (and temptation!) for me and my husband. Generally speaking, how do I halve a cake recipe? I have heard you can't just cut everything in half due to the way baking powder & soda react. A particular recipe I would like to cut in half is Red Velvet Cake. (I would then just put all the batter into one cake pan instead of 2.)

I have halved cake recipes before without issue. The most complicated thing to worry about is halving an odd number of eggs, but this question addresses that. The finished product was indistinguishable from the full recipe. Edit One thing to note. In your specific case, because it's a two-layer cake, halving is simple because you're only cooking a single layer. Halving other cakes, such as a pound cake, or a bundt cake involves adjustments to the cooking time. A halved cake will cook much quicker, and could possibly need a lower temperature as well as a decreased cooking time.

I've got a recipe that calls for adding a box of instant pudding mix to a box of cake mix (along with eggs, water, and oil) to make a cake moister. And there are lots of cake mixes that proclaim "pudding in the mix!" on the outside of the package. I'm curious how this works. I think instant pudding is just sugar and cornstarch (and then various chemical things and flavoring), so what's working with the cake mix to make a moister baked cake?

Instant pudding contains a significant amount of cornstarch. It also contains less significant amounts of disodium phosphate and tetrasodium phosphate. All three of these ingredients will have an effect on cake. Starch absorbs water and gels during baking. This interferes with gluten formation to some degree. If you break down the starch in flour, which is, in part, how you make cake flour, the starches are more able to do this job. Cornstarch is nearly all starch. Adding it to your cake will make your flour behave more like cake flour, while increasing your cake's hydration. The phosphates also affect your cake, but to a lesser degree. Depending on the other ingredients in your cake, they will act as a leavening agent that will help to prevent the addition of all that pudding from making your cake too heavy. Many bakers rely on a secret trick that you might try instead of pudding. They replace two tablespoons of flour in any cake recipe with cornstarch. I do this not only in cakes, but in pie dough.

I have 5 - 6 lbs of sauerkraut in a crock with a water vacuum seal. I read that the first 24 - 48 hours are crucial to the success of the kraut. I also read that the kraut should develop its own liquid during this time, and that one can pour boiled water on top if it doesn't. However, I also read that it shouldn't be disturbed for a fairly long period of time. I am a bit confused. Should I check on the progress after a few days, or not?

Don't check on it. When I lived in Virginia I used to drive up to Pennsylvania every year to this little Amish farm to buy a gallon of the best sauerkraut I've ever tasted. They showed you how they made it, and I remember the farmer stressing two things: (1) sterilize the jars, (2) don't touch it for 2 months.

I have a recipe that calls for a 1/2 cup of cracked fennel seed. If I wanted to use a light ground fennel seed what would be the equivalent? Thanks!

I used a spice grinder to actually measure how much ground fennel I would get from 1TBS cracked. I got just over 2tsp ground. Therefore, 1/2 cup of cracked fennel is in a sense equivalent to about 6TBS ground. However, don't do it that way! Cracked fennel gives a little burst of flavor as you crunch the seed. Powdered fennel will strongly permeate the whole dish, and that much ground fennel will seriously overpower all other flavors. If the fennel is really necessary to the dish, and you can only get ground fennel, start with a single tablespoon, and then add more to taste. My guess would be that 2TBS will be plenty, but seriously, I wouldn't even try the substitution.

If we boil an egg which already has a crack on its shell before boiling, it will break and spread into the water. In many cases if we put an egg into hot water it will crack also. So, is there any safe method to boil an egg like that, or should it be fried or cooked in another way?

I use Egglettes™ to boil my eggs. You simply crack the egg/s into a silicone cup and place it/them into boiling water. Without wishing to seem like a crappy infomercial (see below), I find it a heck of a lot easier to crack an egg into a cup than I find it to peel eggshells off of a soft-boiled egg. Obviously it makes no difference if the egg has already sustained a recent crack (from being dropped onto the surface, for example) since you're removing the shell prior to cooking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxVT2Q6Vt_c For the avoidance of doubt, I am in no way affiliated to Egglettes other than being a customer

I'm really trying to make a great low fat muffin. No matter how hard I have tried with this one (I am not over stirring), I can't get these to rise past a mini muffin height, and this batter is so sticky, it's all I can do to get it off the spoon. Any insight/suggestions? https://www.averiecooks.com/skinny-blueberry-muffins/

Muffin mix should be a pourable batter, not a thick dough, your mix is too dry. If it's too dry and claggy it won't be free to expand, and you don't get a rise from water vapor. Try adding more cashew milk until you get a pourable batter, and try it again. You want it to be ribbony, not so loose it evens out right away.

Is it necessary to cook soaked dried soy beans before fermenting them?

No. Both tofu and miso require cooking the soybeans to work. For miso, the soybeans must be mashed into a paste, which doesn't really work with raw soybeans. Further, the koji culture grows on the starches and sugars present in cooked soybeans, not raw ones. So creating a miso from raw soybeans would require you to obtain a different fungal culture designed for them, and the result probably wouldn't be miso. Tofu is made through soymilk, which must then be boiled to make it coagulate. So while the soymilk itself is made with raw soybeans, if you don't boil it, you don't get tofu, just thickened soymilk. Also note that raw soybeans are poisonous, so in addition to producing a product, you'd have to be sure that any fermentation process you cultivated would successfully breakdown all lectins and protease inhibitors in the beans. While fermentation is known to break down the saponins, the other two unhealthful chemicals usually require heat.

Forgive me if this question has been asked before, I did a search and did not find it. I have cut up a chuck roast into steak slices (relatively thin, maybe half an inch), tenderized it and marinated it overnight. I am now ready to grill it. I have read contradictory advice online on the best way to grill it, the disagreement being whether to grill it 'low and slow' or 'high and fast' to ensure maximum tenderness (that is, to preserve whatever tenderness was there and ensure it doesnt become 'tougher'). I know, chuck roast is not typically designed for grilling or doing what I'm doing, so I'm not looking on a lecture on that, I'm simply asking if I want to preserve whatever tenderness is there, will I have a better shot grilling it low and slow or high and fast? As a side note, its grass fed beef, and just by throwing a few small pieces on a frying pan last night for a few minutes yielded (surprisingly) relatively tender meat.

I know and have read over and over the "correct" method of cooking this type of roast is low and slow (meaning for hours on end) not sliced up and on a grill like I did. Its not a traditional steak cut and its not 'supposed to' be treated that way. If you are looking for the best way to cook this meat, follow all the advice you find online and in the other answers/suggestions here. However, I chose to go against that advice and slice up a chuck roast, tenderize it and marinate it to see if I could cook it like a steak. My results were that you can, and the results were surprisingly good. Your results will vary on the quality of your cut and how you prepare it, but it CAN be done effectively. Because I had beat and cut the chuck into very thin slices, putting them on the grill on low heat for more then 10 minutes was enough to overcook them. Thankfully I only did a few like that and the rest I grilled like a regular steak for a few minutes a side and they turned out better. I don't believe this had to do particularly with the cut of meat, just the fact that they were so thin already.

I have my garlic in the skins in a rice cooker on the warming setting after 7 days the garlic was brown dried out and hard, is it over cooked and not slowly caramelized? what is the purpose of putting it on a steaming tray? there is a vent hole in the lid of my cooker should I cover it up with plastic wrap not allowing steam to escape? Any ideas? I'm starting a new batch and I will cover that vent hole to see what happens.

To make black garlic, you're trying to break down the sugars in the garlic. It sounds like you're dehydrating it, rather than giving it time for the enzymes in there to do their work. You need to somehow prevent the moisture from escaping. Covering the vent hole may be sufficient, but I'd suggest putting the garlic is in an airtight container to be sure - perhaps wrap it tightly in plastic wrap to keep the moisture in there. Once the sugars have converted, you could then unwrap it for a little while to dry out the skin further if you liked. There's an interesting article that talks a bit about what's going on inside black garlic here

Can I replace baking soda with bread flour in a cake recipe that already has baking powder? Google was no help and I really need to make this birthday cake today. Buying baking soda just isn’t a good use of my time or money, and I don’t have the time anyways.

No. Not at all. Baking soda is a leavening agent. Together with baking powder it gives your cake lift and airiness. Bread flour is just flour with a higher protein content. If anything, it will make your cake more dense (though not in such small quantities as you would have for baking soda). If a recipe calls for both baking soda and baking powder, the recipe is balanced to rely on both and omitting one will cause the recipe to fail (to some degree). How it will fail will depend on the recipe, which you haven't included. If you already have baking powder, and don't have the time to find baking soda, I recommend that you instead find a different cake recipe that uses ingredients you already have at home - specifically one that does not require baking soda at all. Many cake recipes use only baking powder, so this should not be overly difficult. You may be able to replace the baking soda with baking powder at a powder to soda ratio of something between 2-1 and 4-1 depending on who you ask (e.g. two teaspoons of baking powder for one teaspoon of baking soda). Depending on the type of cake this may create off flavors in your final product. This and other possible substitutions for baking soda in cakes are discussed on this site in the related question: Replacements for baking soda in a cake? Note, while these options are available to you, I still recommend finding a different recipe, particularly if you're not set on this specific one you're already using. Also, since you mention bread flour, I hope you're not using bread flour for your cake instead of all purpose flour or cake flour. These three flours are quite different and will cause different outcomes if you use one when the recipe calls for another.