What can "modified" mean when describing an ingredient? I have been trying to reverse engineer a packaged glaze mix for fruit pies. It weighs 1oz/28g, and contains "modified tapioca starch, citric acid, salt, artificial flavors and coloring." The mix can't be purchased in our area, we would have to purchase an entire case online, hence the drive to replicate it. The instructions are to sift the contents with 3/4 cup sugar, then add 1 cup of very hot water (I used water that had just stopped boiling). Upon mixing with the water, it instantly thickens into gel which is thicker than honey, you fold in fruit, and pour over into a crust and put it in the refrigerator.

Tasting the mix, I approximated just shy of 1oz tapioca starch, 1/8 tsp citric acid, and a small pinch pickling salt. The end result was 1oz, and tasted nearly identical to the packaged mix when raw.

Upon adding hot water, with a tiny amount of water it begins to set up similar to the store bought mix. However once you get beyond 1/4 cup of water, the gel breaks and basically becomes  slightly viscous water.

I have tried several times with arrowroot, tapioca starch, potato starch, and I simply cannot achieve the same behavior as the store bought mix. All I can think of is that the "modified" tapioca starch is the secret. But I can't figure out what "modified" means. In the US, in nutritional labling, what can "modified" mean when describing an ingredient?

Modified on the label literally means... well... modified, that is changed or altered.

I am unable to find a Standard Of Identity formally for "modified starch."

Modified starches are typically modified in a number of ways (see the linked Wikipedia article for the full detail), but the most common one in instant mixes is to pre-gelatinize the starch.  This permits it to more instantly dissolve and thicken items, even without being heated.

Your description of the filling thickener makes it sound like the starch is in fact modified for low temperature thickening.

In the case of your pie glaze, reverse engineering an industrial product which consists largely entirely of chemicals that are not easily obtained for home use may be... erm... fruitless.

You would be better off describing the outcome of the glaze, and trying to create a home recipe to come close.  You are likely to get a good result, perhaps even better than the commercial product.

Fruit pie fillings are are typically starch thickened, during the baking process.  However, you want an "instant" pie which is not cooked.  No-bake fruit pies are fairly unusual.  You may get better results by making a more traditional baked fruit pie.

This remainder of this answer is educated speculation, but I have not tried it.

To recreate this affect at home, you want a stove top filling method.  Sugar, tapioca starch (which tends to give a transparent effect, and is not sensitive to acid), lemon juice (for flavor and tartness, replacing the citric acid in your mix), and salt, perhaps with some spices should come very close.

Baking911 suggests running instant tapioca in your food processor to get a finer powder, that dissolves more easily.  Note that instant tapioca is in fact modified, as it is has been gelled, and then dried—so it may be close to what you are looking for.

You can bring this mixture to a low simmer, with your fruit, and then pour it into your shell, and it should do fairly well, although you will have to find the right proportions.


What difference do microwave power settings make for reheating food? Basically, the practical implications of microwave heating for food appear to be rather unclear to me. So, the question is whether a higher power setting for a shorter time does indeed produce, as is sometimes claimed, a worse end result than heating on a lower setting for a longer continuous period. Has anyone somewhat rigorously experimented with this, or seen credible sources?

I've found this answer that claimed that a 60 or 70% setting produced better results, and while that is helpful, no concrete reasons/sources are given, and the recommendation also seems somewhat ambiguous seeing how microwaves exist with wildly different wattages.

Most microwaves will not reduce their power.  They will reduce the percentage of time the power supply or the magnetron is active. In other words, longer rests in between shorter blasts.

The actual microwave "heat" is applied in a fairly narrow beam (about 2" in diameter).  This is why some microwaves have a turn table.  So, placing the food off centre is better.

When part of the food gets really hot, it starts warming up the surrounding parts as well and eventually reaches a sort of an equilibrium.

If you have a thermal imaging camera, you can place a damp paper-towel on a plate and see the heating pattern for yourself.  This is where you can do the rigorous experimentation. While I did use scientific equipment in my tests, it was just for my own curiosity.

When you run the MW at 100% you're overheating parts of the food to help warm up the other parts of the food.  Overheating food has a great chance of reducing flavour and breaking down some of the longer molecules.  Usually, the water in the food buffers this, but it does depend on the what you're heating up.

To answer your question, yes, you are better off reducing the power. Regardless of the total wattage of your specific microwave oven

Running at lower power, reduces the peek temperature of the areas that are blasted by heat.  Yes, it will take longer, but you keep the temperatures of parts of the food more even.

Again, if you're really curious, warm up food in short time intervals and take a look it with a thermal camera.

You may end up opting for a toaster oven after you see it all.


Strawberry & Raspberry jam discoloration For about 3 yrs i have been using a jam/jelly maker. After a few months of storage, the strawberry&raspberry discolor. I do follow the canning bath directions. The only thing I do not follow is I decrease sugar to 1/2 or 1 cup (vs directions of 2cups). I have tried bottled lemon juice as directions say. Still discolors after 3-4 months. I have my water tested and it always passes the test. I water bath the jars after filling for 10 min as recommended. I’m at a loss and wonder if I’m overlooking something? I appreciate any thoughts!

For strawberry jam, the discoloration that happens over time is when the pelargonidin, i.e. the red color breaks down, leaving you with a brownish-red or greyish mush instead of a vibrant red jam.

The breaking down is sped up by a warm environment and exposure to light, starting with long cooking time (probably not an issue in your case), and continuing in storage. The easiest way is to store the jars in the freezer - they will be protected from light and once thawed, still have the enticing red of freshly cooked strawberry jam. We pulled out a jar the other day that was from last year and there was no visual difference noticeable.

Alternatives are adding a small amount of a more stable red color, e.g. black currant, aronia, elderberry or even beet juice. It may change the “pure” strawberry flavor, though.

The more color is in your jam at the beginning, the longer will it stay red. If you have the choice, choose fully ripe fruit and cultivars that are red all through the fruit instead of ones with a paler interior. But in the end, freezing is the safest method.

As raspberries’ red is based on the same chemical components, I would assume the same mechanisms apply as for strawberries. But raspberry jam never lasts long enough in our home to change color, so I don’t have experimental data available.


Are there visual differences between regular and decaf coffee? I once asked a waiter at a restaurant how he managed not to mix up cups of regular and decaf coffee when bringing them to various tables. He replied that he could tell by looking at the bubbles – in one type, the bubbles linger, whereas in the other they disappear quickly (of course, I can't remember now which one he said was which).

However: I can't find any evidence or research that supports this, but I don't have any reason to believe that the guy wasn't being serious.

Is there any truth to this?

Coffee foam/bubbles is made up of a mixture of proteins, sugars, oil droplets, caffeine etc, and the lifetime of a bubble is highly dependent on the composition of its membrane. Given that decaf is coffee that's been solvent extracted, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see its different composition affecting bubble lifetime. However, no one seems to have conducted definitive studies of the matter. – answer upped from comments as requested.


Any benefit to buy high-quality meat for a mediocre cook? Quite honestly, I consider myself a mediocre cook as I am consistently able to make decent dishes. Nothing I ever make is fantastic and almost never terrible.

The question is this: will my cooking benefit from buying higher-quality meat even though my cooking skills are not fantastic? What improvements could I expect to see?

This is a great question, but not one that can be answered with "yes" or "no".

In some areas, it is known that the professional grade tools and ingredients require much skill to use well and so the general public is better off using consumer grade tools. (Try tasking the average office drone to create a report with Word or QuarkXpress and you'll see what I mean). But there is no such general rule in cooking. And yet, this does not mean that better quality meat will always make better quality food. It depends on the details of each situation.

First, what does "high quality meat" mean? A filet mignon is a prized cut, and costs much more than shank. But even the best cook cannot make a good stew out of filet mignon. So in the first place, you have to know which category of meat is suited for the dish you are making. Only within a given category will better meat produce better results.

Second, "quality" means different things to different people. A cooking beginner usually cannot recognize which meat will produce better results in the given category and goes by factors like price and store reputation to decide which meat must be better quality. This is not necessarily correlated to better taste. So, as a beginner, you can pick meat you believe to be better, but end up with worse results.

The combination of these two points means that you should be aware of the difference between a "better" cut and a higher-quality version of the same cut. A "better" cut is actually a different cut, so it's a substitution that usually won't guarantee a better result. But a higher-quality upgrade of the same cut is likely to make a dish better. So, you need the cooking skill to tell a given piece of meat will be a good substitution for your earlier choice (a higher-quality version) or not (it is simply a better cut). Also, if somebody is trying to sell you a different version, you need to be able to recognize its quality (marbling in steaks, color intensity in pork chops, etc.)

Third, you can certainly find many cases where the more refined dishes, which need rarer, prized cuts, require a lot of skill to pull off well. So, if you decide to buy the "better" meat - as in the filet mignon vs. shank example - and have enough knowledge to match the dish to it, your skill might not be sufficient to pull off the dish for that meat well, while it would have been sufficient to make a good dish of the type for which the cheaper meat was suited.

Fourth, for each dish, the relative influence of skill vs. ingredient quality will be different for the final dish quality. So, it is possible that for going from "horrible" to "kinda edible" you need to get some skill, no matter what meat you use, but the jump from "kinda edible" to "not that bad" requires better meat, not better skill.

It is impossible to list all possible situations, dishes and meat cuts and say for each where the end result quality is skill-limited and where it is ingredient-limited. I am afraid that you have to be an intermediate cook before you can recognize if a mediocre cook can improve his results by cooking a given dish with better ingredients.


Substitute glass jar for Mason jar in pressure cooker I'm trying to make a recipe in my Instant Pot that calls for ingredients to be placed inside a Mason Jar, which is then put in the Instant Pot filled with water.  I have a glass jar with a metal screw on lid--similar to a Mason jar, although a little wider in comparison--but I'm not sure if there's anything specific about the construcion of a Mason jar that makes it uniquely suited to withstand a pressure cooker.

Can I use my glass jar in the Instant Pot pressure cooker??

Jars that are not made specifically for canning are not safe in a pressure cooker.   There are several manufacturers - "Mason" has become a generic term.

If you are preserving, you need a special lid with the rubber rim to correctly seal the jar.  Do not reuse jars from food bought at the store.


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

Personally, I would not put it in the oven.  You may be able to get away with it if you are not broiling anything for an extended period of time, but heat does not play nice with wood and after extended use I would expect the wood on the handle to blacken or even crack.


What can I do with soaked beans that I can't use right away? I started soaking some dried black beans in water and salt in preparation to make delicious beans and rice tomorrow. However my wife has informed me that we have a previous engagement tomorrow and cannot have the beans.

So now I have soaking beans. They are soaking at room temperature. I don't think I can keep soaking them for another few days without turning them into mush. Can I remove and drain them and use them in a few days? Can I continue to store them in water?

What can I do to not waste my beans?

Cook the beans.

Cook them low and slow.  Cook them now, or tomorrow, during your engagement.  I routinely cook black beans 12 hours overnight.  The longer you cook them the sweeter they will be.

Beans are one of those things that get better the day after.  Put the beans in the fridge after they are done and then you can eat them the day after tomorrow.   For breakfast!  Fry them in a pan and fry an egg in the middle of them.  That is what I ate for breakfast this morning (red beans, though).


Cleaning pressure cookers advice So, I'm not too sure if there's a stack website that talks about cleaning but I figure I can ask the experts chefs!

I wanted to cook some rice in my pressure cooker earlier and when I opened my lid, I saw a bunch of small flies coming out and around the pressure cooker! It was really gross and I've been using it alot recently!

Anyways, I realized that all this time, I should have been cleaning the pressure cooker and not just the removable pot. So my question is, does anyone know how to clean a pressure cooker fully? I was thinking of submerging it in a tub of water mixed with some bleach and letting it dry few a week or so. Let me know, thanks.

Also - I have one of those pressure cookers with a heating unit in it and I've been using it for the past two years without cleaning it (except of course the removable pot).

Well to clean the pressure cooker,Immediately after use, fill the pressure cooker with warm water and add a small amount of washing up liquid, and allow it to soak for an hour or two hours. This prevents any cooked food from becoming embedded around the inner regions of the cooker .
Then wash the pressure cooker by running it under hot water and using a cloth or a sponge and apply some washing up liquid cleaner. Rinse the cooker and dry it, using a dishcloth, to ensure that no excess water is left that could cause water stains.This way you can clean the cooker after daily use.

But to remove permanent stains you can use cream of tartar which is a spice along with lemon juice.
To that boil one litre of water in a container by adding 3 tablespoon of cream of tartar and 3 tablespoon of lemon juice. And pour this solution to the pressure cooker and allow it to stand for an hour or two.

Then using a plastic scouring pad or sponge clean the pressure cooker, avoid the metal pad as it might damage the cooker.

Hope it might help you and enjoy cooking.


Can I fry an egg in water? I loved fried eggs, but I hate all the grease that come with them. I have been told this is like a poached egg.  I don't want to fry my egg in oil or butter. How can I fry eggs in water?

You can fry an egg on a non-stick pan without any oil or butter, however you will get a better result with some oil or butter. The reason you use oil or butter is to:

Seal the pores of the pan
Provide quick heat transfer from the pan to the egg

Water doesn't do either for you, all you'll do is cool off the pan. Your egg will still cook, it just won't add any benefit.

You don't need much oil, if you have greasy eggs you are simply using too much. A small amount of cooking spray is enough, you can also wipe a bit of oil on the cold pan.


Microwave Butternut Squash The other day, I was going to roast a butternut squash in the oven to then cube and use in a stew. I noticed on the squash, there was a sticker suggesting to cook it in the microwave, with the following directions:

  Cut in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down in dish and add 1/2" of water. Cook on high 8 min or till tender. Let set 5 min.

I saw that, and I was very hungry, so thought "Why not try it -- 8+5=13 minutes sure beats waiting for the oven to preheat + 50 mins of baking time", so I gave it a shot.

I was cooking that sucker for darn near just as long -- it never seemed to get soft. I think I finally got it tender after putting it back in the microwave for 8 mins at a time like 5 times, and even then it was really spotty in its doneness - a few spots were very cooked and mushy, others still rock hard.

Any ideas of what I could have done wrong? Anyone had success in cooking a butternet squash in the microwave?

I suspect the problem was the 1/2 inch of water, which would have absorbed a goodly amount of the microwave energy, preventing it from heating the flesh of the squash.

For very slightly more detailed instructions, which are not too far off from what you have tried, you might try this recipe from the Food Network, which recommends 5-7 minutes for 1/2 of a squash, but no water.


Left my cast iron on the hot burner, now what? So the other day, while baking off excess water after washing, I spaced out and forgot it was there and headed upstairs for say, an hour.  When I got back down the pan had a white-ish ring in the center.  After cooling and scrubbing it down it appeared that the seasoning had been vaporized in the area that has the ring.

I oiled the pan to prevent rusting and haven't gotten back to it in a week or so.

My question is:
  Should I remove the seasoning from the rest of the pan or should I just re-season the whole thing?
  If I should remove the seasoning, what is the best way, I think I read some on here but I haven't been able to get back to it.  I recall possibly using the clean cycle of the oven?

There's plenty of info on here about seasoning so don't worry about that!

Feel free to make jabs at the space cadet too, I beat myself up about it until I realized the pan wasn't completely ruined!

Personally, I'd just season the pan a couple times to cover the spot; it seems excessive to strip off all the other seasoning and start from scratch unless the pan is really deeply rusted.

Other people may feel differently, of course; there are as many opinions about caring for cast-iron as there are people that own it.


How to toast whole nutmeg to put in coffee? Playing mad scientist a bit, I tried putting some ground nutmeg in coffee, and I really thought it tasted neat, especially with brown sugar. I think it'd taste even better if I used whole nutmeg, toasted/roasted it a little, and ground it up with the coffee beans. Since nutmeg comes in whole...nuts....how can I break off a little chip of it? Also how can I toast it without having to get a whole pan dirty? Thanks :)

You can break up a whole nutmeg with a hammer - just wrap the nutmeg in a kitchen towel first so none of it goes flying. Give it a couple solid smacks with the hammer, right through the towel, laid on a hard surface. This should break it up into larger pieces. (Add a couple more whacks if it doesn't, but try not to break it up too much.)

To toast the pieces, the easiest way really is just to use a pan. Don't worry - you will barely need to clean it, a quick rinse with water will do once you're done.

Toast the pieces on a stove, over low heat. Move the nutmeg bits around frequently with a spoon or by carefully tossing the pan until you start to smell them. You can also use an oven on a medium temperature (around 350 degrees F) and toast for about 10 minutes, checking and stirring them halfway through. Make sure your pan is oven-safe before you do this.

Either way, once the nutmeg smells toasted, it probably is. Remove from the heat, and add to your coffee for grinding.


Should leftover meat be stored in cooking juices? I put some pork shoulder in the slow cooker along with water, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, and spices. I then cooked it until it was falling apart. There's enough to last about a week.
Should the leftover meat be stored in the juices, or will the acids break it down too much? Would it be better to store the liquid in a separate container, and just spoon some over the meat before reheating?

If not consuming right away, it is often recommended to allow meat that was braised to cool, and be refrigerated in its juices.  For this reason, many recipes suggest making a braise a day ahead for better flavor.  I don't think your concern is break down of the protein, as much as it is shelf life.  If you are not going to fully consume the product within 3 - 4 days, freeze a portion of it.


Why does my bread taste like flour? TL:DR; My third attempt at making dutch oven bread from scratch still tastes like flour, although a little less so than previous attempts. Why?

My first attempt I tried this recipe by Tasty. I followed it fairly diligently but found that my dough was way too wet. I probably ended up adding about a half cup more flour total trying to get the texture to seem right. The bread looked fantastic, had a great crunch and gluten development, and tasted disgustingly of flour. It was okay toasted and smothered in garlic so we struggled through it, but it really didn't taste good. I figured the issue was the flour to wet ingredient ratio so I tried a different recipe.

Pic of attempt one:

Round two was this guy. I again followed the measurements precisely, although learning from the tasty recipe I preheated my dutch oven with the oven itself, and put the dough straight in once it had come up to temperature. Although the dough was a better texture while working with it, the flavor was even worse this time - we threw it straight in the trash.

Round three I went with the same recipe from #2, but this time I tried bread flour instead of all-purpose. I also kneaded a bit more than last time. The outcome was, once again, a good looking loaf, but although it's less flour-tasting it's still not good by any standards. It's also lost a bit of the nice crunchy shell from the first try - it just feels hard now, rather than crisp. I think I cut it open too early which is why the inside is a bit sticky looking, that's my bad.

Pic of attempt three:

I will say my method of proofing is a bit unorthodox - I basically cocoon the bowl with the dough in it inside a nest of blankets with a heading pad. It's winter here in New England USA and getting the dough to rise is nearly impossible in ambient temperatures. I haven't seen any weird cooked textures developing at the bottom of the bowl so I don't think it's an issue of proofing temp, but I can't be sure. The rising seems to loosely match the suggested sizes/timing as in the recipes so to my untrained eye all seems good there.

My other outstanding theory is maybe the taste is due to kneading - I've tended to knead less than the recipe calls for because I get a nice, smooth, elastic ball in only about 2 minutes of kneading instead of 5. Could under-kneading cause problems?

Am I missing anything? It's getting expensive to throw all these loaves in the trash - I need to see improvements soon or my mom's going to stop letting me try!

Your photos each look like decent early attempts at bread making.  I would encourage you to keep at it.  While I think your process will improve (for example, you probably want to improve gluten development with further kneading or stretch and folds), nothing about your process would impact the flavor to the point of making it "unusual."

I would make two observations.  First, you might want to take the temperature of your bread, at the center, near the end of the bake time.  Just to make sure you are cooking it completely.  It should be 190 - 200 F (88 - 93C).  I usually bake darker.  If I am using a dutch oven, I will remove the top at about the halfway point, leaving the pan and bread in the oven.  I just like the flavor of a darker crust.

Second, the breads that you mention in your comment are typically made with a starter, or are enriched breads.  These breads will have a different (and perhaps more enjoyable to you) flavor profile.  You appear to have some of the basic technique down, maybe you want to experiment with a sourdough starter and a formula that uses a combination of flours, and allows for more flavor development.  It will take more time, but the flavor will be noticeably different.

By the way, you can always make croutons or breadcrumbs with the loaves you don't enjoy.


Cooking with sugar makes pan very difficult to clean I was improvising with some scrambled eggs, and decided to put a spoonful of white sugar in while cooking them. The recipe was good, but the subsequent coating of egg on the teflon pan was very difficult to scrub off. I suspect that the sugar made it "stickier," perhaps, or maybe was more inclined to burn onto the pan.

The food was good, is there a way I can avoid making the pan so difficult to clean?

Melted and re-hardened sugar (including caramel) is very difficult to remove through mechanical action, but trivial to remove by soaking. Just pour in enough hot water to cover the sugar and wait an hour or so. (If oil was used, add some dish soap.) For a quicker turnaround, you can simmer the pot with the water on the stove; 10 minutes should be enough to remove even a thick coating.


How to preserve coated popcorn? I have an idea for making coated popcorn with caramel or marshmallow. I have not tried this yet. I do know popcorn gets hard and tasteless quite easy. Is there a different technique I can do or add a preservative to the recipe that would not affect the taste?

The popcorn's problem is effectively staling -- and a sufficient coating will help to prevent this problem.  You may need to add the caramel at a low enough viscosity to get a good coating on the kernels.  You can always give them a second coating, if necessary.

It's also worth nothing that many of the places that sell packaged pre-popped popcorn tend to use 'mushroom' style popcorn.  I assume it's so that there's less breakage of the popcorn during transport, but it's also possible that there are other reasons (eg, slower staling due to reduced surface to air ratio).


Will cooking chicken longer in soup make it less tough and stringy? I tried a new chicken soup technique and am not quite thrilled with the results. The point of this technique was to achieve flavorful, tender chicken. Well, the broth is tasty but the chicken is kinda tough and stringy-not awful - but I'm going for tender perfection.

I poached the cut-up whole chicken, starting with cold water, low simmer, etc. Then I removed it from the poaching water, removed the meat from the bone, tore it into small pieces, and refrigerated it. I added the bones and skin back to the poaching water with herbs, and the broth came out great.

The idea was to add the chicken pieces as needed to the broth before serving, but my first bowl reveals the aforementioned tough chicken. Researching chicken soup gives me conflicting answers; some say longer cooking will eventually make the chicken tender, and some say it will make it stringier and dryer.

So do I take some of the broth and simmer the heck out the chicken, or just deal with the toughness and try for something better next time?

There's several major reasons why meat and poultry can be tough:

Collagen: muscles exist to impart a force between bones, when they contract there must be a connection between that muscle and the bone or the muscle would not be able to do work. Collagen is a strong protein that is distributed throughout a muscle and connects to a tendon, allowing the muscle to distribute its' force to the skeletal structure of the animal. The more load a muscle takes, the more collagen is needed to distribute the force, and the tougher the meat is.
The animal was stressed before slaughter: if the animal was stressed before slaughter it will have lactic acid buildup resulting in tougher meat
Poor treatment after slaughter: Once an animal dies chemical changes happen that toughen the meat, and the correct treatment is needed to allow the meat to relax again. If that isn't done right you'll get tough meat
Freezing and thawing: freezing makes meat and poultry tougher

Collagen breaks down in the presence of heat and moisture, so a long stewing at low temperature could make your chicken tender. The collagen helps make your broth thicker and taster too! That would take a maximum of 2-3 hours on a low simmer. If it isn't tender by then it isn't tough because of collagen and there isn't much you can do. If you've got a chicken that was stressed, not processed correctly, and then frozen there's a limit to how tender you'll be able to get it.  You can try cooking it a couple more hours, but if it isn't tender by then it never will be.


Can I cook a food differently than the instruction? So the instruction on the food carton that I just bought only mentioned of oven-method but I actually know the food can be served via frying (on another brand product).
Is it bad if I cook the food differently?

You can cook your food any way that you like, or is practical.  There are two issue to consider.  First, is the packaged product already fully cooked (and thus only needs reheating) or does it need to be fully cooked?  Your cooking or reheating procedure should be appropriate for this first distinction.  Secondly, if you use a cooking procedure different from the one specified on the package, your results might differ from the picture or the product's instructions.  However, as long as you cook or re-heat appropriately, the product will be safe to eat.


Maintaining Sourdough Starter - Are potato flakes/water necessary? I just got some sourdough starter going with the Oregon Trail, and it seems to be doing quite well. However, the guide calls for using potato flakes or potato water to feed it- having neither, I hoped for the best and used some arrowroot powder instead. I'm not sure what the purpose of the potato stuff is- is it just food? I figured it might be primarily for providing starch, in which case the arrowroot should be fine.

I feed sourdough starter with strong white bread flour mixed with water to make a sloppy dough. This is a common method in the UK and it seems to work well.


Does addition of tomato puree make the oil component of sauce less lubricating? I believe the oil component of a sauce of a pasta sauce, for example is the critical lubricating factor. It is here that herbs and spices will get infused.  Wherever the oil goes thereafter so will the flavor from herbs and spices.

When you add tomato puree, the puree itself cannot get absorbed by the oil so significant bits of non oil mixed puree will exist in the final sauce. This will not absorb the flavors of the herbs and spices, so there isn't an equal distribution of herbs and spices throughout the sauce.

Is this correct, or would you say a sauce such as dolmio, or homemade has the oil mixed with and well distributed in the tomato?  Put another way I don't think herbs/spices are soluble in pureed tomatoes, so I don't expect a good distribution of the flavour throughout the puree.

I think you're getting a little caught up on minutiae.

True, oil & water [or tomato purée] don't mix - however, oils & water can be emulsified. In other words you can create a mixture that appears to be a single liquid - like a solution -  even though one is actually suspended in the other rather than being permanently intermixed.

You can 'fix' this emulation in a pasta sauce by adding a little cornflour [or any starch] a couple of minutes before the end. It effectively binds the two together, certainly for longer than it takes to eat it; and in fact semi-permanently in food terms.
Some people [including me] don't like to do this because it removes the glossy sheen that the oil imparts to the sauce, & though it certainly helps adhesion to the pasta, makes for a slightly more homogeneous look to the sauce itself.

Whether you use any type of starch binder at the end or not, so long as you have your actual water quantity low enough by the time it's served that it doesn't drain through to the plate [allowing for a little last-minute absorption by the pasta itself] then your sauce to all intents & purposes will be 'a single entity', with the oil & water sufficiently mixed that no-one is going to spot it isn't actually a solution, but an emulsion.

The flavours will balance, no matter which component each herb or spice is technically dissolved in.


Homemade and commercial kefirs I want to produce kefir at home for personal consumption but I don't know where to find kefir grains. Any ideas?

Some of my friends buy commercial kefirs. Do commercial kefirs in the market have the same quality as the ones produced at home?

Here is a source for organic kefir grains.


Safe to wash rice the night before and leave overnight before cooking? I'm trying to figure out a convenient way to bring fresh rice for lunch. Cooking it the night before and leaving it in the fridge causes it to become dry and hard and unpleasant, and I've read that it's not safe to leave cooked rice out at room temperatures for long periods of time (such as overnight).

So I thought it would be nice if I could at least save myself the trouble of having to wash it in the morning. Would it be safe to wash it the night before, and cook it in the morning? If so, what storage methods should I use? Just leave it out on the countertop? Or should I leave it soaking in water? Or either dry or soaking in an air-tight container? Or should it be refrigerated? I'd also like to hear any methods anybody else has for having fresh rice at lunch!

I should mention I'm referring to short grain Japanese white rice. Thanks!

I did this in my restaurant for years, it really does work great. Make your rice in a huge batch, cook it as if you're planning to eat it then, but then let it cool until handlable. Once it is cool enough, bag it in individual servings and freeze it. Refrigerating cooked rice quickly ruins it, freezing it, however, works great. If your servings are fairly small, snack sized ziplocks work great for this, otherwise use sandwich sized. Make sure you press the air of the bags, I take all of the small bags and seal them together in gallon sized ziplocks to give them one more layer of protection in the freezer. Either with the rice solidly frozen, or at lunchtime (defrosted, cool rice), throw the baggie in the microwave. You don't even have to open the baggie, when it pops open that's a sign to check it. It may need a bit of a mix and a few more seconds in the microwave, or it may be done, it just needs to be heated through. The hot rice will be almost indistinguishable from freshly cooked. If you don't have a microwave, you can drop the sealed baggie into simmering water, or take the frozen or cool rice out of the bag and steam it to heat.


What is the best water to use for yeast being used in bread making? I'm just starting back on the road to bread making, and I have been wondering about the water that I am using, and how it will affect the yeast.  Do I just use (1) the stuff that flows from my pressure water system, (2) the water from my drinking water filtered system or (3) go out and buy bottled water? For #1 I just open the tap - the water that comes out of it is de-salinated using RO.  #2 is the same water but put through two filters, I use this for drinking.  #3 the bottled stuff, but if I go down this route, what type - filtered or purified (is there a difference- see below)? How will my yeast react?  So, had a mooch around google and found all sorts of articles (below), but am still wondering.  What is the best water to use for yeast being used in bread making?

This is a fascinating article

A bit more info here

These guys seem to know a thing or two

There's no single right or wrong answer to the question as it depends on the mineral content (ie hardness), acidity, and chlorine content of your water. Yeast and gluten development is affected by these factors, see this good summary from the King Arthur Flour site:

  The degree of hardness is an indication of the amount of calcium and
  magnesium ions in water, expressed in parts per million (ppm). Soft
  water has less than 50 ppm, while hard water has over 200 ppm.
  Generally, water of medium hardness, with about 100 to 150 ppm of
  minerals, is best suited to bread baking. The minerals in water
  provide food for the yeast, and therefore can benefit fermentation.
  However, if the water is excessively hard, there will be a tightening
  effect on the gluten, as well as a decrease in the fermentation rate
  (the minerals make water absorption more difficult for the proteins in
  the flour). On the other hand, if water is excessively soft, the lack
  of minerals will result in a dough that is sticky and slack.

Acidity has an effect as well, too acid or too basic will impact your yeast, neutral or very slightly acidic is best.

Water with a high chlorine content is not ideal as it may impact the flavor of the bread, and can impact the development of cultured starters like sourdoughs. Chlorine is not an issue though as simply leaving water in an open container for a day or two will let it naturally disperse.

So, your bread will be best if there's some minerals in the water to feed the yeast and aid gluten development, it will also be best if the water is very slightly acidic. In many places water that comes out of the tap is perfect, and in most places it will work fine. Purified water is not good because it doesn't have enough minerals in it. Filtered water from a RO system may be fine, whether you want to go further really depends on how much residual mineral content there is in it. I live in a hard water area, about 250ppm, and I use a brita filter for my bread making and cooking and as long as the filter is not used up it seems to work, although I don't know what the actual mineral content after filtering is. If I really wanted to know I would get a testing kit, they do not cost much and are simple to use. I would suggest you get test kits for hardness and acidity, you probably don't need one unless you know you are adding it in your RO system.

Another good article I've seen on the subject is here.

EDIT: chloramines
Chloramines are sometimes added to water instead of chlorine because it does not evaporate easily and therefore much less can be used. The EPA's guidelines is a maximum of 4ppm, however beer brewers state that yeast eating chloramines can produce off flavors in the end product even in small concentrations. I don't know how that translates into bread baking though. Chloramine can be boiled off, but that takes a lot of energy, or you can use Campden tablets to remove it. A charcoal filter like a brita can also remove some, how much I do not know. All I can say is that I've never detected any off flavors in bread when I've used filtered water.


Does a 1500W blender produce a less viscous smoothie than a 400W blender? A less-viscous smoothie is more drinkable, by adults and kids alike. (We assume we add minimal to no water.)
1300W-blenders are touted by sales-folks as Formidable Juice Machines.
Is this marketing hype to justify the significantly higher price tags, or do they actually serve a better purpose than 400W blenders.
No wide survey question is sought here. The question is very narrow.
Is the viscosity of the smoothie (for mangoes, berries, kiwis and other low-fibre food) produced by 1300W blenders noticeably lower than that of 400W blenders? Assume that I add equal amounts of water, and I do not intend to add ice cubes.
Context
A high-powered blender from a good brand may render the price-tag a moot point. What still remains distasteful in high-powered blenders is that they all come with plastic jars. It may well be that the plastic never leeches into the food, but the possibility that it could be happening is disturbing.

The measure you should use for making the smoothest purées is RPM, not wattage. You could put a blender jar on a 4500 Watt floor standing mixer and it wouldn't do anything more than roughly chop some berries (or car tires with that kind of torque.) Assuming the canister and blade designs are good, and it's not drastically underpowered for its speed (something I haven't seen before,) higher RPM blenders will pulverize the contents of the jar much more smoothly than lower RPM blenders. If you're looking for a general puréeing tool, a high-speed blender is what you need; if you're just looking to make juice, a cheap juicer will give you more bang for your buck, and you won't have to strain particularly fibrous juices.

Edit to address your updated question:  Irritatingly, the difference between an expensive professional/prosumer high-speed blender and a reasonably priced standard consumer blender is significant. A standard consumer blender, within a reasonable amount of time, would make a slightly pulpy mixture out of soft fruits. In the same time, a high-speed blender could make a velvet-smooth mixture from raw carrots. Your mixture will be much smoother— so much so that some people find the smoothness unpleasant.  (As an aside, I'm not sure viscosity is the best word to use... The solid matter will still be there, it will just be in significantly smaller pieces. Uniformity or smoothness I think are better descriptors.)

Edit Again: As KevinNowaczyk pointed out in the comments, "Sheer" is the measurement of thickness in purees.


How can a Bavarian cream that includes orange juice thicken with so much liquid? I found a recipe for an orange flavored Bavarian cream with the following directions.

Start with a crème anglaise by whisking egg yolks and sugar and then add boiling milk flavored with orange zest. Put the mixture back on the heat and -- here comes the fishy part -- add fresh orange juice and let everything thicken.

Then it continues to add softened gelatine, let cool and add whipped cream. But this makes sense.

How is a mixture so liquid supposed to thicken? Is this the right procedure to make a flavored Bavarian cream?

The egg yolks can thicken the liquid when you heat it, like in a standard egg custard (the home made version, not the one made from custard powder). But this is a fairly tricky procedure: if you heat it too much the mixture will separate. So best done on a double boiler ('bain marie').

And in addition, you have the whipped cream and the gelatine, which will help thicken the mixture on cooling*. I suspect that there's also a prescribed time in the refrigirator...

(*: as I've been taught, the swollen gelatine is first dissolved in a small amount of liquid, and the whipped cream is mixed with the rest when the gelatine just starts to set)


Leaving buttermilk out overnight, recipe for food poisoning? In the recipe for corn bread in The Bread Baker's Apprentice, the first instruction reads:

  "The night before baking the corn bread, soak the cornmeal (1 cup) in the buttermilk (2 cups). Cover and leave at room temperature overnight."

Similarly (just found this randomly), a recipe I found online for "Overnight waffles" instructs:

  "Before going to bed, combined the dry ingredients, then stir in the
  milk, butter and vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap or a tight-fitting
  lid and let stand overnight at room temperature."

Wouldn't the buttermilk spoil overnight and give you food poisoning, even with baking the bread in the oven at 350F?

Let's assume that we're talking about cultured buttermilk (the modern, sour kind that smells like yogurt), rather than the old-fashioned by-product of making butter, sweet cream buttermilk.

Cultured buttermilk is pretty acidic, with a pH of about 4.5. Acidity is one of the conditions that control the growth of foodborne pathogens and 4.5 is outside of the optimal growing range for most of the bad-guys.

If the buttermilk is fresh, it should have a living colony of good-guy, lactic acid bacteria. This should mean that as it warms up, your existing good-guy bacteria will multiply and lower the pH a bit more. Lactic acid bacteria (the guys that make cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, and sour kraut) help preserve things by making the food a hospitable environment for themselves and an inhospitable environment for bad-guy, pathogenic bacteria.

Since there are existing good bacteria, the pH is low, and neither the dry corn nor buttermilk is likely to bring in contamination from bad-guy bacteria, this instruction seems reasonable.

In fact, maybe the author wants the buttermilk to get a little more acidic (sour) overnight by allowing the lactic acid bacteria to develop a bit more.

That said, the buttermilk package says Keep Refrigerated, and it would be possible for contamination with a bad bacteria to happen and for pathogens to multiply overnight. So there is some risk.

You could soak it in the refrigerator if you wanted to play it safe.

Sources: reading about making cheese, making cheese, watching buttermilk get thicker and more sour in the fridge over time.


How do I make "thick cooked rhubarb" I'm looking at a 1960's Betty Crocker cookie recipe that calls for "1 cup thick cooked rhubarb". What sort of preparation does this imply? Baking? Stewing? Should I add sugar?

For reference, here's a copy of the recipe for reference: http://recipe-finder.com/#!/recipe/16473076193787340525

If I were to make a guess, thick cooked rhubarb would be chunks of rhubarb cooked in a sugar syrup that is thickened. (Kind of like cherry pie filling, which comes in cans.)

Here's what I would do to simulate this:

cut some chunks of rhubarb in a size that you think you would like in a pie or cobbler.
Add some water (at least a cup) and the rhubarb to a saucepan.  Add some sugar (about a cup) Cook on medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce is boiled down to a thick syrup.
Let the mix cool, or refrigerate, and then move along with your recipe.


Can I use aluminum foil as a substitute for parchment paper? I'm attempting to make this recipe for Greek Meatza which calls for baking ground beef in a pan on top of parchment paper.

I don't have access to parchment paper, so I'm wondering: can I substitute aluminum foil? If so, are there any adjustments I should make to the time or temperature for baking?

Thanks.

Depends on what you're making. The principal differences are:

Parchment is much more non-stick than aluminum foil. I haven't tried non-stick aluminum myself, so no idea how that compares.
Parchment insulates (against heat transfer) more than aluminum.
Parchment is somewhat porous; it absorbs water.

Looking at that recipe quickly, it'd probably work fine. I'd suggest substituting aluminum foil sprayed with Pam (non-stick cooking spray). The bottom may brown a little quicker with the foil.


No-melt chocolate coating on ice cream bars I just discovered the fascinating world of tempering chocolate.  I've read about it before, but I never tried it until recently.
So, being the adventurous fellow that I am, I tried making my own chocolate-coated ice cream bars.

My first attempts were not successful.  I ended up with melt-in-your-hand chocolate, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid.

It might be as simple as not having tempered the chocolate properly, but before I experiment too much more, I wanted to know if I could be successful at all.

Is it possible to make a chocolate-coated ice cream bar that doesn't melt all over your fingers?

I have also dabbled in tempering chocolate, but have never been able to get something that you could hold for a while without melting in your hands.  I've also never tried coating ice cream bars.

I think you should be able to do it with a high fat(butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil) chocolate mixture.  It will probably seem like entirely too much fat, but that is going to firm up and become a shell when wrapped around something cold and creamy.  Here's a recipe for "magic shell" (I'm sure that is actually trademarked by Hersheys) that that goes something like 2:3 cocoanut oil to chocolate.  That should give you something that resists dripping down your hand.

Then again, you could always just make ice cream pops instead.  Just shove a popcicle stick in it and you have clean hands, but that's not what you asked.


Why do we need to soak dry Fenugreek leaves in warm water, and then sprinkle salt over them? What's the benefit of soaking dry Fenugreek leaves in warm water and then sprinkling salt over them?

From: http://www.everestspices.com/masalas/kasuri-methi

  Soak the Everest Kasuri Methi in boiling water with a pinch of salt.

From: http://www.rakskitchen.net/2010/07/dal-fry.html

  add kasuri methi leaves(soak in hot water before adding)at this stage.

From: http://www.tarladalal.com/Aloo-Methi-%28-Punjabi-Recipe%29-22789r

  Wash the fenugreek leaves and chop them finely. Sprinkle some salt over them and keep aside for about half an hour.

Why we add fenugreek leaves in dishes:

Normally in Indian dishes we used to add herbs for removing common health issues,the benefits of adding fenugreek leave and indian herbs while cooking can be seen here:

http://chefinyou.com/ingredients/what-is-fenugreek/  (for new users: what is it and what uses it has)

http://www.indiamart.com/glittoexports/spices-leaves-spices-3.html (indian common herbs)

Why we sprinkle salt after soaking in hot water:

Normally hot water is capable to remove the common uncleaned strains... and some common small microbacteria (as normally this kind of herbs were grown under muddy conditions so there were more chances for microbacteria's)

We used to sprinkle salt over herbal leaves for mainly two reasons:

To bring taste

Why is it important to add salt during cooking?
The main reason for sprinkling salt was the herbs were normally salt absorbing interigents so we sprinkle salt after soaking in hot water

hope it helps


How long to bake a pre-baked ham? I was given a 3 oz pre-baked ham. I do not have an internal thermometer. As I have never baked a ham before, can someone please tell me how long I need to bake it? Thank you!

Pre-baked hams just need to be warmed through.  You can augment it with a glaze or other flavorings, but really it just needs to be warmed up.

But 3oz seems really, really small.  If it were larger, I'd possibly heat it up covered so that it doesn't dry out before it warms through in the oven.

If it's really 3oz, I'd assume it's a ham steak, and you can just cook it in a pan on the stovetop 'til it has a little bit of color on each side.


How do I substitute almond flour for all purpose flour? I am trying to make a few cookie recipes and want to reduce their carb content and make it suitable for a low carb consuming person. Most of the cookie recipes call for all purpose flour.
In one of the recipes which specifically knead the dough with butter and no moisture (so as not to form gluten) I substituted almond flour 1:1 but haven't had great results (the dough is crumbly, cant be rolled, etc). Even 1.5:1 and still was the same. I added a pinch of xanthan gum and was able to get the dough to bind. However I wanted to ask here how people have gone about replacing all purpose flour with almond flour.
My next attempt is going to include some Vital Wheat Gluten along with the almond flour.
Edit: I have used Erythritol(powdered) as a sweetener.
One of the sample recipes :

from https://www.archanaskitchen.com/shrewsbury-cookies-recipe-butter-cookies
The other one is a video recipe : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4U0M8JZG8&ab_channel=CookingShooking - I did mention my findings to the chef in the comments - but he's clearly a big enough celebrity to ignore a novice such as me.

There is no general replacement. Almond flour has very little in common with all-purpose flour, and behaves very differently in baking.
Your idea of adding gluten is very interesting - many flourless recipes are actually made with the intent to be gluten-free, which is a very difficult restriction to work around. It is certainly something to have in your toolbox.
However, you cannot just find some kind of mixture which will behave as a good substitute in different circumstances. Rather, you will have to redesign each recipe separately, and some things (e.g. laminated dough) may not be possible at all. For others, you would probably need to learn what the flour's role is in each, and experiment how to match it well - here, food science books will be helpful. It is quite an interesting project!


Why would you Parboil Some Vegetables Before Stir-Frying them? An example would be green beans - some recipes call for parboiling green beans before stir-frying while others do not?  Is there a reason behind this?

Really, this is just to even out cooking times for vegetables that don't have a surface area to volume ratio consistent with the other things you're stir-frying.  If you were to shred those green beans, as is sometimes done, you could put them in at the same time as raw, julienned carrots, and they would finish at the same time.

If you put them in whole, you'll end up with beans that are burned on the outside and raw on the inside, as there's not enough time for the heat to penetrate to the center of the bean before the outside burns.  Or, if you fry at a lower heat, you could get the beans cooked, but would have to add the carrots later (which means a lower temperature, too, since the beans are dragging heat out of your pan) in order to have them not turn to mush.


Why wouldn't you strain hamburger grease after cooking? So I've got a friend who makes many dishes involving hamburger but doesn't ever strain it.  The grease is added to a dish like Shepard's pie which to me just seems very gross.  I see alot of posts about how to strain but nothing to discuss why you should/shouldn't strain and what you should do as an alternative if the grease must be used.

Well, all I can say is 'it depends on the dish'.  If the dish calls for fat to be added otherwise, you can keep that fat and count it where you would add some later.  If the dish is  just adding hamburger and no more fat - I agree, discard it.

That said - I don't find hamburger fat particularly flavorful and nearly always strain it and add another kind of fat I like better.

It also depends on the fat percentage.  If I'm using lean 97/3 hamburger, there's hardly any fat to drain.


Using fresh pumpkin as a substitute for canned Several times I've seen recipes from the United States that call for canned pumpkin which isn't widely available in Australia. From research I see fresh butternut pumpkin / squash which is available should be a good substitute but I've found conflicting ideas on the best consistency and cooking method and I've never eaten canned pumpkin for comparison.

If I was to say halve a butternut pumpkin, remove the seeds and roast until it was easy to scoop out the flesh with a fork would that be a good substitute? I'm unclear as to whether boiling or roasting would be best, whether it should be puréed or somewhat chunky and if any other additional ingredients are required to best imitate the flavour of canned pumpkin?

Either boiling or roasting would work, but roasting may be less work (since you don't have to peel and dice the squash).  Roasting may also give you better flavor.

Here is one recipe for homemade pumpkin puree, from Alton Brown, but the basic technique is very simple:

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and loose pumpkin... erm... guts
Roast the pumpkin, until it is soft, cut side down
Cool
Scoop out the flesh
Puree

Please also see our very own blog entry by Derobert, describing the process in detail.  He recommends a second bake of the puree, to reduce its water content and more closely resemble the canned product.  This will of course also intensify the pumpkin flavor.

No additional spices or flavoring are required; they will typically be added in the recipes wehere you use the pumpkin.


Are silicone baking mats safe for heating enchiladas? So, I had bought a ready meal (I have broken hand) enchilada, something I've never tried before.  Instructions says 15 mins at 200c with plastic film lid, then take plastic film lid off and a further 15 mins at 200c.  It came in a plastic tray.  I never trust plastic so I took them out and put in some foil in a baking tray and that was big mistake as the underside fused to the foil.  I got a mushy mess.

I have a silicone baking mat which I have never used.  It says heat safe up to 250c on side of box.  It seems ideal but I've yet to try it.

In general, your question is probably going to be labeled as health and opinion based and closed.  It is very difficult to say something is safe-unsafe authoritatively because most such answers are opinion based as to who you are going to accept as authoritative.  US FDA says they are safe.  You will always find some group that says everything is unsafe.  Taking a position in either direction ends up mostly unproductive, other than for things which have clearly been demonstrated as unsafe such as heating Teflon to very high temps.

That said, silicone mats are intended to be basically inert to most food contact to their recommended temperatures.  Above that, they will start to break down and then all bets might be off.  I personally assume they are safe, but would tend to avoid high acid items just for caution, but enchiladas would definitely not be high acid.


Salad ingredients: how to pick them at the market? I often make salads with lettuce and a few vegetables (perhaps some of carrot, celery, bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, green beans, snap peas). I can plan the ingredients before I go to the grocery store or farmer's market, but are there good ways to pick the ingredients once I get there, based on freshness or value? How?

My advice is simple -- don't plan ahead.

Being fresh produce, most of us have no idea before you get to the store what the current stuff coming out of the local fields are.

This is going to affect both price (in season stuff that hasn't been shipped from the opposite hemisphere is typically cheaper, especially w/ today's fuel prices), and quality (how long it's been sitting around, maybe there's been too much rain or not enough, etc).

And, don't forget that you don't need to limit yourself to vegetables in salads -- sliced apples or pears, orange or other citrus segments, etc, are great additions, particularly as we get into the fall and the spring & summer vegetables aren't locally available.

If it's the middle of winter and nothing's fresh, consider jarred marinated vegetables like olives, sun dried tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, etc.


Bringing water to boil with rice or alone and then add rice? Very simple question:  as a general rule of thumb, is it better to

A) put the rice into cold water and then bring to a boil together or

B) bring the water to a boil, then add rice and then cook until the rice is done?

Or does it depend on the type of rice and/or desired texture?

In his section on cooking rice, Wayne Gisslen makes a couple of frank statements which deserve to be restated here (Essentials of Professional Cooking).

First,

  There seems to be very little agreement among chefs regarding the best
  ways to cook rice.

And second,

  Everyone agrees that the key to properly cooked rice is correct
  proportions of rice to water and correct cooking times. Unfortunately,
  no one agrees on what those proportions and times should be.

So the expert is telling us that, no, there is no rule of thumb. We are wise to acknowledge that there exists so wide a variety of opinions on this subject that neither here nor really anywhere is anyone likely to give/find an assessment capable of bridging those several gulfs, capable of laying down that which is definitive. Each of many answers at variance with one another can still class as a right answer.

I personally never obtain anything other than perfect results by bringing an oversupply of water to a boil, briskly stirring in the rice, pouring off what my eyes deem to be just the right amount of water at just the right stage of cooking, reducing the heat for a few more minutes of cook time, and then removing and covering to allow the residual heat to finish the job. But as my results do not seem in any way superior to anyone else's using alternate or more traditional methods, I do not attempt to claim them anything but more convenient to achieve.


Why is the first hotcake always the worst? Every time I cook hotcakes, the first one is usually the worst one. It seems like it will take forever to cook and for the bubbles to show up at the surface.

I initially thought it was the pan, that it was not hot enough, but I've even gone to the extreme of measuring the pan temperature, and it's the same temperature for the first cake, than it is for the last one.

Is there anything chemically/physically different from the first hotcake from the rest?

Absolutely the first hotcake/pancake is the worst.

Typically, the pan has not reached an optimal temperature nor has the oil/butter that you use seeped into the pan to create a better cooking surface for the hotcake. An improperly heated and greased pan will lead to suboptimal pancake.

To cook the perfect first pancake (or as close to the second as possible), do the following:

Heat the pan (375 F / 190 C)
Coat the pan with oil (I use safflower - but can use canola)
Let the oil get hot
Wipe the oil from the pan (wipe the pan dry)
Add a few more drops of oil
Let the oil get hot again
Wipe the oil
Apply batter

This process will seal the surface of the pan (which is pocked) and create a truly flat surface for the hotcakes to cook on.

Additionally, you should let the batter sit (in its bowl) for 6 to 8 minutes so that it has time to mix the wet and dry ingredients more thoroughly. Make sure that your batter is at room temperature - or as close to it. You don't want the pan to lose heat while trying to bring cold batter up to temperature - this will give you a soggy pancake.


Why does Wusthof call Honing Steel 'Sharpening steel'? I know that honing differs from sharpening. See this also. My grandparents must buy a Honing Steel for their WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife.

On Wusthof Canada's website, they selected 'Honing steels (18)' on the left as you can see below. But why are all the results  listed as 'Sharpening steels'. Is this correct?

If wrong,  why'd Wusthof muff this distinction? Don't they know better?

I know Wusthof know better, but I suspect that they suspect that consumers don't know better. Honing does make a blade "sharper", after all... if someone just knows that their knife is dull, they won't necessarily know that the thing they need is called a "honing steel", just that they want to make their knife sharper. Looking at Amazon search results, the same decision has been made pretty widely.

If you want to make very precise distinctions, "sharpening" is not a good word, because both honing and grinding make a blade sharper. ("Grinding" is not often used to describe what you do to a chef's knife with a finely-grained stone, but that's the most precise description.)

Oh, and just to make things even more confusing: The term "honing" is actually a little inaccurate too. "Honing" in the context of machining actually refers to a form of grinding. A honing/sharpening/whatever steel mostly works by burnishing and bending the edge back into shape.


Should I warm wine in the microwave? Although warming wine in the microwave might seem like a "horrible" thing to do it clearly has some practical benefits.

So will the microwave change the aroma of the wine compared to the conventional way or is it  fine to do this**.

** Maybe before the guests arrive

According to Spanish winemaker guru the Marqués de Griñón, you can safely warm a bottle of wine to serving temperature (12ºC-14ºC). Put the microwave at high for two seconds for every ºC you want to raise the temperature.

Also here

Edit: I looked up the reference in his book. It says to heat a bottle out of the fridge (where stored after opening) in the microwave for two minutes at low.


How long can I soak dried beans before they are considered inedible? How long (days/weeks) can beans that have only been soaked in the refrigerator last before they are considered inedible/spoiled? I found  black beans in the fridge that had been soaking for approx 3 weeks. They look and smell fine. Considering that they are dried beans soaking, toss or eat?

If you cook to 180 and there is no smell of rotting at all when you drain them (before the cook) you should be good.  There aren't very many bacteria that rock out on dried beans and the few that do don't leave toxins behind, and the cold temp should have inhibited the rot.  If they do smell after the drain, I would pitch them.


Can I store extra pizza dough in fridge? I kneaded some pizza dough and it turned out that I have done this double the amount I wanted to. This is my first time. Can I store this dough in fridge? And for how many days?

Yes, the colder the fridge, the longer you can keep the dough in the fridge. It will overrise after a day or two. Take it out of the fridge for an hour or two until it happily rises.

Pizza dough can also be frozen. I freeze mine immediately after finishing, and thaw it in the fridge for a day. Supposedly you can thaw it in the microwave.


Is there any way to make jack-o-lantern pumpkins worth eating? Background: For the holiday Halloween in America, we make decorative lanterns -- Jack'o'Lanterns -- from large pumpkins.  These pumpkins are bred to be large, durable, and dry to make them easy to carve.  This also results in them being fairly mealy and tasteless as food.

Question: is there any food preparation I could make with a surplus jack'o'lantern pumpkin that wouldn't be a waste of the other ingredients?  Some way to prepare it that would make up for its dry texture and weak flavor?

I've tried roasting one (Afgan-style) on previous years, and it didn't help; it was dry, mealy, and roasted. And yes, I do clean and toast the seeds, which are tasty.  I'm looking to do something with the flesh.

Admittedly our carving pumpkins in the UK are smaller than yours, which may affect the texture, but this year and last I made:

three been and pumpkin chilli
pumpkin tagine
pumpkin spice cupcakes
pumpkin curry
pumpkin, pepper and mushroom fajitas

All of these get most of their flavour from other ingredients. All were successful.

The chilli, curry, and tagine all start by frying the diced/roughly chopped pumpkin until nicely browned with tasty ingredients (spices, onions, and plenty of garlic), before quite long simmering. The curry was last year but I think I went for quite hot, with a sauce based on tomato, coconut, and mango (I certainly did when I made it again this year).  The fajitas were cut into strips and fried, just like the other veg, though I did the pumpkin first and reserved it, to be sure it was cooked through.  Again, plenty of spices, garlic etc.

The cupcakes (for which there are plenty of recipes online) started by microwaving and pureeing, and ended up similar to carrot cake - moist and popular. I added latte buttercream.


What is the point of mustard-frying burger patties? I mean the type where mustard is placed on the hot griddle, and the patty is placed or smashed on top.
Mustard is actually mostly water (with some vinegar and mustard powder mixed in). The water inhibits browning of the patty and causes the patty to be steamed, so it does not seem like a great idea to put it below the patty.
There are other ways to add mustard flavor to the burger, like adding mustard or mustard powder to the sauce, or smearing mustard or mustard powder on the patty after it has been cooked. You could even season the patty with mustard powder before cooking it.
So, why place the patty on that mix of water, vinegar and mustard powder, which we know as mustard?

I did various tries and ate a lot of smashed cheeseburgers lately. Here is what I found:
The best option is, in the case of smashed burgers, to fry the first side without mustard, and the second side very briefly with mustard. This tastes better than frying without mustard at all, frying both sides with mustard, frying just the first side with mustard, smeering mustard on the patty after frying or adding more mustard into the sauce or elsewhere on the burger.
I cannot say why, but I can say that at least for my palate and my wife's palate mustard frying only the second side very briefly is best.


Can I freeze stew made from leftover roast beef? I bought a large joint of beef which I roasted on Sunday. On Monday I made a stew from leftovers.

From a food hygiene/bacterial growth perspective am I ok to reheat the stew after freezing/refrigeration? I wouldn't do this with ordinary leftovers but I wonder if the boiling for 1.5Hrs kills any bacteria in the leftovers.

Thanks

Yes, you can freeze and reheat the stew. Just keep in mind the total amount of time the meat is between 40°-140°F. If you make the stew and serve some and immediately chill and then freeze the leftovers then you should be fine. If you leave the stew out for several hours before freezing then it may be a little iffy.

Also, you don't want to be putting warm items into your fridge and freezer, so a good course of action is to chill in an ice bath (in the sink or beer cooler works well) and then put into the fridge or freezer. Otherwise you're warming the temperature of your fridge/freezer and causing everything else stored in there to spoil prematurely. Obviously don't put the meat directly into ice water, but put it into, say a glass storage container or if it's cool enough (below 190°F) a freezer zip-lock bag is great.


Does a granite pestel need to be re-grooved? I have a granite Mortar-Pestle, which I use to grind spices and other stuff. I got it 2nd hand and I've been using it for a 3-4 months. I have noticed that the small radial groves on the grinding surface of the pestel are slowly disappearing.

Do I need to re-grove the pestle? If so how is it done? I can't seem to find any information about that on the internet.

Just to clarify, the mortar is the bowl and the pestle is the rod. I haven't ever seen a grooved pestle, but the grooves on a mortar will wear off with use. The grooves are useful for holding seeds and the like in place while grinding, but they are not strictly necessary. Spices can actually be ground finer in a smooth mortar than they can with a grooved one since the particles can't get caught in the ridges, however the initial grinding and tapping may take slightly longer to get started as you chase things like seeds around the bowl a little. The rough surface of the granite alone is enough, just adjust your technique as it wears more.


How can I make raisins really hard & chewy? Does anyone know how to make raisins really chewy like they are in packets of granola and museli?

I tried mixing some in with a bag of oats for a couple of weeks but there was no effect.

Thanks

I think you just need to dehydrate them some more to get that effect.  I assume granola and muesli tend to use drier raisins because they will keep longer, and not affect the rest of the cereal with extra moisture.  The amount of moisture left in raisins can be variable, it depends on how they're made and for what purpose - the moister ones are more accessible, the drier ones keep longer - that would be why some are softer than others.

To dry out your raisins, you might sun-dry them, or use a dehydrator, or even lay them out in a warm oven to chase of the extra moisture.  You would have to keep checking to figure out when they reach the consistency you want.  You might even try toasting them, for a higher temperature and a quicker time - though I'm not sure if the higher heat will change the flavors, or if the changes would be any good... I have not heard of toasted raisins as an ingredient.


How to make cookies crispy? I'm looking to make very crispy thin, light, airy cookies. Kind of like dog-treats but for humans.

What makes some cookies chewy and other "snap"? What makes cookies "heavy"?

In my own cookie making experience, substituting margarine for butter yielded a crispier cookie than butter.  Sometimes too crispy.   The Perfect Cookie dismisses non butter fats for cookies although they did suggest the trick of substituting a small amount of butter for liquid oil to increase chewiness.

The margarine cookies slump and get crispy and almost toasty/ fried.  If that sounds good, try making a batch of toll house cookies with margarine and see what you think.


Sourdough starter from regular yeast? I live near San Francisco and I am in love with the local sourdough bread. It is very expensive and I'd like to bake my own bread. I am wondering though, is it possible to make sourdough starter from regular breadmachine yeast?

Yes you can create sourdough from regular yeast, but it's not necessary. Ordinary flour comes with a trace of yeast. In the San Francisco area, that yeast is famed. Just mix flour and water 50/50 to make a batter-like mixture and leave it in a jar on the counter. Put a lightly fitting lid on the jar.

Add more flour and water every 12h (give or take). You should be doubling the initial amount each time, so 1 teaspoon, 2 teaspoons, 4...

After a couple of days you'll see bubbles developing in the sourdough. Once you're at that stage, you can reduce the amount of care. 'Refresh' the sourdough once a week: mix, take out 1/2 of the sourdough, add the same amount back (50/50 flour/water as before), mix. According to the Wikipedia, this can be kept at room temperature.

Sourdough is a mixture of flour, water, yeast and bacteria. When unattended for some time, 'water' forms at the surface. This liquid contains some alcohol that adds to the flavor of the dough. It's part of the sourdough and should be mixed in when refreshing the dough.


Where do all the tough old birds go? The first comment or answer that says "Alaska" will be promptly downvoted.

Seriously though, I keep hearing about the superiority of "stewing hens" for stocks and soups, and I'd really like to get my hands on a few. All those eggs we buy have to come from somewhere, I've got to assume that the hens that make our eggs are eventually turned into soup. I'm not asking for a specific source recommendation, just for clues to direct my search.

Does anybody know where the old birds go?

They go into soup.  Or pot pies.  Or any of the other myriad industrially produced canned or frozen foods which require chicken stock or chicken flavoring and sometimes canned chicken meat.

The millions of cans of Campbell's have to come from somewhere :-)

For smaller home chicken farmers, they probably end up in the stock pot.  If you know people who keep backyard flocks, they may be willing to sell you their culls for a very reasonable price.


Can you cook bone stock in two hours, if not what are the problems? I tried to make my first stock, used 1 chicken carcass, brought to boil and simmered all in 2 hours.  Regrigerated it and next day everything was gel.  I know recipes say it should be 6-24 hours however isn't my one considered a success?

What things am I missing out on by not cooking for half a day?

Refrigerated stock is supposed to gel. Its caused by the gelatin you're (intentionally!) extracting from the bones.

To determine if its a success, you'd taste it. Assuming it tastes right, then its a success. If you had you cooked it longer, you may have extracted a little more flavor & gelatin (so it'd be an even thicker gel).

You can also make chicken stock in a slow cooker (if you want an easy way to let it simmer all day), or in a pressure cooker (if you want to make stock in a hour). The taste of these methods will be slightly different, and for best taste pressure-cooker stock requires a non-venting pressure cooker running at 15 psi.


How long does a pack of raw, dried Indian papad keep once opened? How long does a pack of raw, dried Indian papad keep once it's opened? There's a best before date on the pack, but it's not mentioned how long they keep once it's opened. The ones I have are the Lijjat Papad brand that's sold internationally. This stuff is pretty dry, so I'm guessing it will remain safe to eat for quite a while though.

I haven't really experimented, but if imagining how dry that stuff is and the amount of salt that goes inside one those, I would say in the months/years range. Just keep it in a cool dry place..


How to store tamarind paste? I bought some tamarind paste the other day, and I am wondering how should I store it once opened, as the package does not say anything special. Should I put it in the fridge? Store it in an airtight container? Freeze it (as I am probably not going to use it very often)?

How long will it last?

I am a south Indian who use tamarind in my daily cooking. As previously answered a block of tamarind can be stored wrapped at room temperature. but anything processed like a paste or juice should be refrigerated after opening.


Should you wrap chicken in foil when you steam it? If so, should you wrap the chicken completely in foil, or leave the bottom open so the steam can get in?

Don't wrap the chicken in foil.  Instead you can use a steamer basket inserted in a pot with the lid on (making sure your liquid does not touch the chicken) and steam it that way.

If you don't have a steamer basket and what you are trying to do is replace one, instead of wrapping the chicken roll that foil into balls or strips and use it to elevate the chicken above the cooking liquid in your pot.

If you wrap in foil, the chicken will be cooking via the heat transfer from the foil rather than from the steam.


Cleaning burr coffee grinder I have a medium-end, drop-through burr espresso coffee grinder (a Solis Maestro Plus).  I haven't cleaned it since I first bought it, and I thought it was about time.  Both the plastic bean funnel and the grounds drawer were coated in extremely stubborn caked-on coffee oils and grounds.  So, some questions:

Getting the caked coffee oil off the plastic parts was very difficult, requiring multiple soakings in hot water and citrus-based dishsoap.  Was there an easier way to do this?
How do I clean the burrs themselves, now?  I can't remove them from the machine.  Presumably I can't use water, and I certainly can't soak them.

Thanks for any advice!

I use Minute-Rice to clean mine (any instant-rice will do - it's partially cooked, so it's softer than raw rice and does a better job cleaning).  I just run a bunch of rice through until it's coming out clean, then run some old beans through before using it for coffee.

Here's a Youtube video on it.  I'm sure there are tons more.  Check out the CoffeeGeek or Home-Barista forums for more information than you ever wanted.


Key Lime Pie Filling - Thins out after pumping Key Lime pie filling thickens once the lime juice is added to the sweetened condensed milk and allowed to sit.  Why does the filling thin out when it is pumped and require static hold time to thicken back up?

I've been making KLP commercially for well over 20-years and long before that growing up in Miami. Gone for me (on a commercial ever) are the days of using fresh egg yolks, but on occasion we might make one when visiting friends, from scratch. It is very important when incorporating the lime juice into the SCM-yolk mixture that it be done gently, never use a blender of mechanical mixer. You will see the chemical interaction between the yolks and juice start to take effect, "clumping" (for lack of a better word right now) will occur as the mixture begins to thicken. Also, the colder the ingredients, the better. If the mix is overworked, you go beyond that magic moment and it is very difficult to have the filling "set."

Another aspect is the juice. I would never recommend using a bottled juice over fresh, even if you're using fresh regular (Persian) limes. The most popular bottled juice used isn't even real key lime juice, but truthfully packaged as "Key West Lime Juice," concentrated lime juice packaged in Key West (not even any more.) The from-concentrate and reconstituted juice just doesn't hold up as well as (any) fresh juice.

On a commercial level, we now add (beef) gelatin to our mix, about 1/4 tablespoon per 10-inch pie. This is for insurance, as most of our customers are restaurants who need to cut and plate and cannot afford the sloppy-factor. The gelatin is blossomed in the juice then (under warm heat) after mixing with the juice it is allowed to cool. At that point the juice is incorporated into the SCM-yolk mix. This trace amount seems to be just enough to have the filling set right without adding any gumminess.

This answer is of course for the "fill and chill" method for making a KLP, as baking the pie once the filling is added causes the egg to cook and therefore sets the pie filling. Good luck! I hope this helped. Happy New Year!


Cooking, freezing, recooking, and refreezing chicken I boiled a whole chicken, then froze the cut up parts. I then cook different meals but want to know if I can refreeze the leftovers from the dinners.

Yes, you can. You're not facing a food safety issue at all except possibly for violating the "time in the danger zone" rule, and then only if, in fact, the rule has been violated. Look at What do I need to know about temperature and food safety? for more on that. For what (admittedly little) it's worth, I find the strict interpretation of that rule (2 hours, cumulative) overly conservative in a home environment assuming healthy, non-pregnant, adult eaters, but that's not my call to make concerning your food.

What you may face is a quality issue. The texture of your chicken may be negatively effected by refreezing. The smaller your pieces of chicken, and the saucier the dish, the less likely it is that you will notice this negative affect on the chicken.


Shelf life of a yogurt product I made kubideh kabobs with saffron rice for my fiance and I last night, and it was a huge success.  However, my fiance wished we had some mast o khiar (yogurt-cucumber sauce) to go with it, as what we would normally get from a kabob takeout place.  Now, given that this is the first time Persian food has ever been made in this house, I have concerns about any reasonably sized batch of this yogurt sauce being consumed in time.  Assuming that all of the following ingredients are fresh and well within their use by date, roughly how long might this be safely stored in a refrigerator?  The common components are plain yogurt and seedless cucumber.  The latter might be diced or grated.  Fresh mint is a commonly found, though many recipes do not use it either.  Any advice would be most welcome!

Mast O Khiar, as you mention mainly consist of plain yogurt and cucumbers and most recipe do not require much more than that. Because of such, the shelf life for the yogurt product will be the shelf life of the yogurt itself. If it is a store bought yogurt, then the shelf life should be about 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Make sure to store the sauce in an air-tight container. Most tubberware should work. Those soup containers from Chinese takeout orders work perfectly.

EDIT: After a bit of a debate in cooking chat, I decided to change my answer a little. The reason I said 2 week is because personally I had eaten 2 week old Mast O Khiar. However it could be recipe dependant so it could be different for a different recipe.

However it is very easy to tell whether yogurt OR cucumber is bad.

Mast O Khiar should have a very fresh/clean aroma. When yogurt turn bad, it releases a rancid smell. If it smells bad, dont eat it.

If you see fuzzy mold it's a good idea to throw it out.


Beef Wellington - how to get it (especially the pastry) right? I'm thinking about cooking Beef Wellington this upcoming weekend for six adults and three kids. I've made it, with ok-ish results, before, but the trick is always getting the pastry right. Not too dry, not too soggy. (It was a bit too soggy when I last made it).

Wikipedia suggests a crepe to help prevent this: what are some other techniques I can use? Should I make multiple smaller ones, should I twiddle with temperatures or let the pastry defrost more than I normally do - I'm open to suggestions.

Update:

I am using store-bought puff pastry
4 sheets of pastry vs ~350 g of meat
the meat has not been frozen and has reached room temperature before being wrapped
Starting at 200C
fairly small gas oven

I don't know your exact prep but the best thing you could do is bring your dough to a completely thawed state, store bought will work fine.
Make sure you beef is at room temperature before doing a quick sear, this will not only add flavor but will give you a layer of protection.
Another problem that can occur is the puff pastry releases some steam and it needs some way to escape. After you have wrapped your piece of meat, take a knife and make small slits in it with the tip of a sharp knife. This will help release the steam and should take away the moisture.
425 degrees would be a good temperature to cook at and you should hit your ideal around 40 to 45 minutes.
Hope this helps and let me know how to it turns out.


What is the ratio for soft polenta? I want to cook a soft polenta. I would like the consistency to be like pudding - just firm enough to hold a shape (it doesn't flow out of the spoon if you take a heaped spoonful), but not firm enough to be cut into pieces. My ingredients will be cornmeal (not cornflour; it seems to be ~600 µm grain size), milk and olive oil. I am looking for the correct ratio by weight to achieve this consistency.

If you don't have a ratio for this case, but know a ratio for a similar polenta (e.g. cornmeal + stock) which gives this consistency, I'd be glad to know this one too, I think I can get the tweaking right by myself.

Yes, it depends on brand, humidity, etc. My local variety is 1:4 to 1:4.5 (polenta:water) to get to that softness level

Add nothing else until you have the polenta at the desired consistency and softness


Create hot "sauce" from capsaicin extract There are a lot of hot sauces like "Blairs Mega Death" with more than 500.000 scoville heat units. However, they do have some odd taste, which I don't really like.

So I'm thinking of creating a sauce from capsaicin or nonivamide extract. These are pure chemicals with 16.000.000 and 9.200.000 SHU respectively and would be perfect candidates for creating tasteless but very hot sauces. I already have nonivamide at home. Capsaicin is something I could get easily over the internet.

Since you really can't just put them on your food, you have to dissolve or mix it with either a liquid or another powder. I don't think I can use a powder because that would never create a homogeneous mixture. So I'm thinking of a liquid.

Facts:

Capsaicin is soluble in alcohol, ether, benzene, slightly soluble in CS2, HCl, petroleum

Nonivamide is soluble in methanol

...

So, obviously these are all non-edibles, except for alcohol. But I don't really like the idea of consuming alcohol to every meal. It just doesn't sound very healthy. Does anyone have an idea of how to create a hot but tasteless "sauce" or powder from pure capsaicin / nonivamide?

There's no point in getting pure capsaicin and diluting it yourself when you can buy capsaicin in just about any strength you want with all the work done for you. If you want something truly, painfully hot then get capsaicin 1 mil and then measure it into your dishes with an eye dropper. Be real careful with it, use gloves and don't sniff it, even at 1M it can still seriously hurt you.

I second @Jolenealaska's warning that pure capsaicin is dangerous. In fact, you should not try to get the pure stuff even if it is available, get something somewhat diluted as it is safer and easier to work with. Pure capsaicin is used in industrial applications, you need to work in tiny quantities, requiring special equipment. It can also put you in the hospital, so just don't do it. As cool as it sounds "I made this sauce using pure capsaicin!", the reality is somewhat different.


Is it useful to retain the myoglobin of meat which has collected as a fluid at the bottom of the container? This is in India. I purchase fresh meat (chicken/beef) from the shop and sometimes keep it in the freezer until I'm ready to pressure-cook it on some other day.

I noticed that after thawing it in the fridge for a day, there was a red liquid that collects at the bottom of the container. I assumed the freezing process squeezes the meat and that causes the blood in it to flow out (silly me). This answer says it's myoglobin. Wikipedia says...

  The released myoglobin is filtered by the kidneys but is toxic to the
  renal tubular epithelium and so may cause acute kidney injury

...but I'm hoping that's myoglobin in the bloodstream, and not a part of digestion.

I searched for research papers to check for safety of consuming myoglobin, and came across this paper that says...

  As internal cooking temperature increased soluble myoglobin content
  decreased with a corresponding increase in percent myoglobin
  denatured. Percent myoglobin denaturation values ranged from 0 (raw
  chops) to 77.30% in mutton chops cooked to 79 °C internal temperature.

Couldn't find much else on the safety aspect, but since it gets denatured, I'm assuming it'd be safe.

However, all this literature appears to refer to the myoglobin within the meat that gives it a flavour and juiciness. What about the liquid at the bottom of the container that contains myoglobin? Is it useful to retain it or is it better to just drain it away since it is separated from the meat already?

The quote in the Wikipedia article you link to:

  The released myoglobin is filtered by the kidneys but is toxic to the
  renal tubular epithelium and so may cause acute kidney injury

is myoglobin released due to Rhabdomyolysis, so your own muscles affected by this disease can cause  kidney injury, not the meat (also muscle tissue) you're eating.

Having said that, I haven't found any useful purpose for the liquid that gets separated from frozen meat.  I've tried:

pouring it op top of the meat when cooking
adding it to gravy
using it as stock
...

and it coagulates, doesn't give any good taste so I consider it not very useful, so nowadays, I throw it down the sink when someone gives me a piece of frozen meat to cook.

Note: Freezing changes the texture and taste of the meat, and it's easy to get fresh meat where I live


Appropriate process for bulk sauteing onions? In doing some bulk cooking for a vacation, I needed to cook 12 sliced onions and later 6 minced onions for two different dishes; both as a first step in a sauce. In both cases, I used a large Le Creuset dutch oven. I found that the evaporation of the liquids shed from the onions couldn't keep up with the volume of liquids and I seemed to be boiling the onions rather than sauteing.

For the sliced onions, I ended up removing half the volume, draining off the liquid, cooking the onions, and boiling down the liquid to add back to the sauce at a later step. The onions boiled / simmered for 30 mins before I took that action. The dish was fine, but was a curry, so had lots of other flavor. It was also distinctly better after I added the boiled down liquid.

With the minced onion, the liquid eventually boiled off and I continued to cook them. It felt like it took a long time to get to that stage though. The dish was fine, but the texture of the onions was different than how I normally prepare them.

Are there appropriate steps to take when cooking mass quantities of onions as a first step in a dish? Is it ok for them to go through the boil / simmer phase? Should they be cooked in batches? What recipe adjustments should be made?

You simply need to ensure sufficient area/a max thickness of the onion layer. You can let them simmer first in their own juices, but I have never had good results that way. You really need them spread out for sauteing.

In practical terms for a home kitchen, this means cooking in batches. Of course, nothing stops you from using multiple burners at once, and maybe even some kind of external burner if you have one, like a paella cooker going off its own gas canister. As far as I know, there is no other way around it.

If you don't need them sauteed but are OK with merely softened onions (no caramelization, no residual firmness), filling a pot with them and keeping them on low flame for a long time is a good option which frees your attention for other tasks. Don't forget to add sufficient fat on the bottom against burning, butter makes them especially tasty.


Pizza crust lack of flavor Since we've moved to the UK our pizza dough hasn't been tasting the same as it was in the states.  We'd normally use King Arthur flour (Sir Lancelot or bread flour) with Saf yeast.

Now in the UK we're using either Sainsbury or Coop flour along with Dove's Farms quick yeast.

We're having a real issue with the flavor of the crust.  We have a few different recipes.  1 day which starts with a poolish or a couple day ferment in the fridge.  The finished pizza crust has really been lacking flavor compared to our pizza's in the states.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to try.  I just bought some fresh yeast (Saf Levure).

Is it the water with the higher hardness?
Type of yeast?
Type of flour?

Wondering if anyone else has had an issue like this.

Also going to try building a sourdough starter and using that.

2018-11-09 update:  I got the new yeast and the malted barley. We used both for the next batch of bread and the results were very good.  Actually a lot better flavor than the previous batch.  I added 2tsp of malted barley to about 3.5c of flour.  We'll need to do some more experiments and see what the sweet spot is.  :-)

One thing I noted below was how much more intense the smell was from the poolish the next day which would mean my previous yeast was probably too old or just not good for my needs.

The next test will be making pizza again.

Looking at King Arthur Flour's website it appears that both their Sir Lancelot flour, and their bread flour have Malted Barley flour added, which is likely the source of that extra flavour you experience.

As far as I am aware this isn't a style of flour we much have in the UK, anything here which is headlined as 'malted' will be more like what you may be familiar with as a sprouted grain flour, I believe.

Your best bet may be to import Sir Lancelot for yourselves or to look for 'Diastic Malt Flour' or 'Diastic Malt Powder' and experiment with adding that to see if you can hit the right result.

That said, most supermarket bread flours are not as strong as Sir Lancelot eg Sainsbury's is 13.6% protein to SL's 14.2%. I understand that this is just a product of the fact that the UK climate just doesn't grow such hard wheats as the Americas. The flour I use for sourdough bread and pizzas is Marriage's Very Strong Canadian at 14.9%


Name for a flour-free onion sauce I came across this in the context of low-carb chicken pie filling, in other words without a flour/roux base. Is there a name for a sauce that starts with low & slow-cooked onions?

Asking for a friend ... really ;-)

Thanks.

A soubise is a classic french onion-based sauce.  Really it is just slow cooked onions with a bechamel added.  Of course, bechamel has flour in it to thicken.  However, I have seen recipes where the bechamel is replaced with heavy cream.  For example, here, onion, cream, and vadouvan spice are blended together to make a flour-free soubise.  It would make a terrific pot pie filling!


How do I bake 'Sugar Cookies' but my oven does not go high enough? I am trying to bake sugar cookies but the recipe I am using says to bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes. My oven only goes to 200.
Could someone help me and tell me what to do?

Set your oven to 175, because it's in Celsius and the recipe is in Fahrenheit.


are the larger snails in Hawaii edible? We live in Hawaii and their are lots of larger (really big) land snails.  I don't know if I can eat one but I was wondering if it can be eaten.

If it can be eaten, how would it be best to prepare them, or what can I pair them with?

The name of the snail in Hawaii Achatina fulica.  It's is edible but must be prepared properly according to Wikipedia. Here's a video on the subject of preparing them linked to in the Wiki article.


Why does oil bubble when you fry things? My apologies if this question is misplaced, but I've always wondered: what causes the oil to bubble and sizzle when you fry something in it?

It's always intrigued me that I could take a totally inert-looking pan of hot oil and turn into a frenzy by dropping a piece of potato (or something else) in.

The oil is bubbling very simply because of the water inside the object (eg: potato) that is rapidly vaporized when come into contact with the very hot oil.

Incidently this is a very good thing as done right, all the water coming out of the object keeps it from taking on too much oil, which would cause you to have over-greasy food.

Edit: Also note as @SF commented below, that this can also be a very BAD thing if you put something with too much water into hot oil. Adding this in so nobody burns themselves.


Using food as a cooking fuel to cook other food? I was thinking about it and we use charcoal, gas, wood chips, etc to heat our food; for obvious reasons and since they burn for a long time.

But what if, for example, you set a few steaks on fire and use those steaks to cook a hamburger? Would it improve the taste of the hamburger?

If you just want the concept, there are pasta sauces involving egg or egg yolk where the heat from the pasta is the only thing that cooks the egg. In that way you cooked your food with food, but you didn't have to do without either piece of it.