How do I make paneer firm and chewy like in the restaurant? Recently I've taken a liking to Indian cuisine and am trying to replicate the curry experience at home. The biggest problem I'm having is with the paneer cheese, which is used in curries I like the most.

When I eat out at an Indian restaurant, their paneer is firm, squishy and kind of 'squeaky' on the teeth. The one I make is always crumbly and falls apart in the curry. I've tried all kinds of recipes from the net; at one point I even asked a friendly Indian chef about it and he told me that they buy the milk directly from a farmer, and that the low-fat, UHT shop variety just won't do.

I tried reinforcing 2% milk with cream before as per the advice of one recipe or other, but not "country-milk" so I got some milk from a friend who keeps cows and the result wasn't much better. The cheese still won't stick together and keeps falling apart, you just can't feel the chewy, curry-flavored bits of paneer at all, so it's pretty useless to even bother with it. Help please?

If you are using UHT milk, that is your answer right there. It won't make proper ricotta or mozzarella, so I'm not surprised it won't make good paneer either. Something about the heat treatment makes it so that it will only produce grainy, tiny curds. I made this mistake myself once, in my excitement to try my new cheesemaking kit. Here is some reference info, including pictures, from cheesemaking.com.


Freeze before sous vide or sous vide, defrost then sous vide I over bought St Louis style ribs and wonder if I should freeze them in their original packing now and Sous Vide them at a later date, or Sous vide them, freeze tem and finish them at a later date.

Thank you.

This could work either way, and in part, depends on how you like to prepare them.  Since you would likely cook them low temp for a long time to take advantage of the cooking technique, I would marinate or brine (your preferred preparation),sous vide, then freeze.  That way, you would only have to thaw (or re-therm in bath) and finish (sear of some sort) to have a meal ready in less time than the original preparation


How to make syrups shelf stable? I'm making flavoured tonic syrups, but I want to flavour them naturally with juices, concentrates and botanicals.

I'm working on a "green" flavour with herbs and spices, but trying to make it shelf stable. The idea I currently have is to press the juices from fresh herbs and mix it in with a heavy syrup -- would that create a product that is stable enough to not discolour or spoil for about 6 months?

A syrup can be made shelf stable by reaching the appropriate water activity. Generally, using 2:1 sugar to water is considered sufficient to give you a safe level of water activity of around 0.86, with the only risk being molds, which are luckily visible. So you could start with 200 g of sugar and 100 g of juice and boil that until sufficiently dissolved, but before it gets too thick. A 67% syrup should have a boiling point of 104 C, you can give it a couple more degrees for a better margin of error.

For true shelf stability without molds, take it to 76% sugar solution. That would be reached at 110 C boiling point. This is the "thread stage", but because of the food safety issues involved, I would use a thermometer and not visual recognition.

Theoretically, when you add substances other than pure water, such as herbs or fruit pulp from the juice, you could calculate the exact water activity for these somewhat-wet substances. In practice, I would just calculate a lower-limit by treating everything non-sugar as "water". In this sense, you could start with 95g of juice and 5 g of dried spices, instead of 100 g juice, for the same 200 g sugar, and continue from there.

Do not prepare a simple syrup and then dilute, that's way too watery and has to be kept in the fridge from day one.

If you want to calcluate your own water activity, the formula for a pure sucrose solution is

  aw = 1/(1+0.79*n), with n = sugar in kilograms

By solving for aw, you can find out what percentage sucrose solution you need for a given water activity. As mentioned above, the most common food pathogen bacteria stop growth at 0.86, molds at 0.8, and total microbial activity ceases at around 0.6. You can use a table to look up the boiling point of the desired solution, these are available at most candy making resources, even Wikipedia has them.


How much is a small/medium/large onion? By size or weight - I never seem to know ...

Here's some general guidelines I have used in the past:

Small onion = 4 ounces by weight or
about ½ cup chopped
Medium onion = 8 ounces, or about 1
cup chopped
Large onion = 12 ounces, or about 1½
cups chopped
Jumbo onion = 16 ounces, or about 2
cups chopped

source
The terms are not always completely accurate so use your best judgement. I've often seen large onions that were as big or bigger than "jumbo" according to this data.


What is the best substitute for sugar when cooking thick jam? I like cooking my own food and I often try to make it as healthy as possible. I would like to make my own jam with dark red cherries, but recipes often have loads of sugar. There are lots of different recipes without sugar, but they all have different substitutes and I was wondering which was the best substitute, in order to get a thick jam without using sugar.

What is the best substitute for sugar when cooking thick jam?

The conservation issue aside: It depends heavily on what fruits you want to use. Fruits that contain a lot of fiber might not need any thickening agent to get a good, spreadable consistency. This includes for example certain variants of apples or pears, but also things like plums if you don't discard the skins. The consistency may be a bit different from traditional jam, though.

However, if you have something that contains a lot of water, such as berries, you only have two options: either add pectin or cook it until it reduces very much. The latter option may come with a loss of nutrients and taste, though, so let's concentrate on the pectin.

Normally, when you make jam, you add sugar that is already mixed with pectin to make the process easier. However, pectin can be bought in powder form, too (at least in Germany, you can find it in any better sorted supermarket). Furthermore, some fruits already contain a lot of natural pectin in their skins: black currants are a prime example [1]. If you like the taste and add enough of it, it might be enough to achieve the texture you want.

As for the amount of pectin needed: it depends heavily on what fruits you want to use. Pectin is activated by acid, so you might need to add some kind of acid to your jam to achieve the right consistency. It also needs to be cooked boiling for a few minutes. It's always a trial and error. Before I can my jam i always make a test by dropping a bit of jam into a bowl and put it in the freezer for a minute or two. If it has the right consistency when it is cold, I can it immediately.

Keep in mind though: The sugar is also a major component when it comes to a classic jam texture, so the texture without sugar will be different.

As for the sweetening without sugar: any sweetener should work fine, as long as you like the taste.

[1] side note: my mom once wanted to make black currant juice and instead it turned into jelly by accident. :D It was yummy, but a mess to get out of the bottles.

Edit:
Regarding @rumtscho's comment: There are indeed several different kinds of pectin (I was only vaguely aware of that). Some need sugar to gel. The one I use is specifically marketed for jam production, so maybe that's something to keep in mind when buying pectin powder. In any case: it's worth a try. Just experiment a bit with it and hopefully you'll find what works for you.


Liquid soy lecithin vs sunflower lecithin I'm currently reading Modernist Cuisine at Home and one ingredient that keeps coming up is "liquid soy lecithin". I'm pretty familiar with the powdered variant for making light, airy foams, but the book is adamant that the powder cannot substitute for the liquid.

So I go on Amazon to try to find some, and I simply cannot! All I see is liquid sunflower lecithin. Does the source of the lecithin matter? Can I safely use sunflower lecithin in the exact same way I would otherwise have used soy lecithin?

As long as you know the lecithin content (in the liquid) you can substitute sunflower lecithin with soy lecithin.
It’s more or less similar molecules. I use them interchangeably. (Even make mine at home from sunflower seeds ;))


Can I make my own bread-machine flour? The flour that we used to use in our bread making machine is called Strong White Flour - and has recently doubled in price. I'm not happy paying double what I used to for it, but don't want to completely give up on making our own bread (and other things - e.g. pizza dough) in the machine.

Does anyone know how I can replicate strong white flour at home - maybe using plain or self-raising flour as a base?

The BBC lists strong white flour as simply flour made from hard white wheat, which tends to have a higher gluten content.

By mixing all purpose flour (German: 550, French: 55) with the package recommended amount of vital wheat gluten or by using bread flour you should be able to make bread in your machine just fine.  I usually use either AP flour or a mixture of AP and whole wheat (German: 1600, French: 150), or even all whole wheat (although with all wheat I find adding gluten is extremely helpful for getting a well-risen loaf).

You can also buy other types of high gluten flour, either with that label or listed as bread flour.

If you live in a part of the world with "0" and "00" flour, the protein content of "00" flour is similar to that of all purpose flour, but the grind of all purpose flour will be more coarse.  "Panifiable" 00 flour has the gluten content of bread flour (source).


How does your hand/stand mixer's speed effect the texture of your cookies? I've read many recipes asking to mix sugar and butter at medium speed for about 5 minutes. Can I use slower speed and mix it a little bit longer? Will it make any different in the end?

One more thing, when mixing dry ingredients into wet ingredients, does it really make a difference if I use hand mixer instead of a spatula? In the videos, I've seen most of the bakers usually switching to spatula when they have to mix wet and dry ingredients together but some of them mix them in a stand mixer.

Speed would impact in so much as rapid speed helps incorporate air bubbles. These bubbles are important, since they capture and hold CO2 during the rising portion of baking (essentially I like to think about baking in 4 phases: mixing, heating and rising, setting, and cooling).

Usually you use a spatula vs a hand mixer when you A) are using an incredibly dense dough which could damage a mixer, or B) you are concerned about the formation of gluten. Gluten is essentially a good thing in breads, but a bad thing in cakes, and muffins.


how to get rid the sourness in yogurt My question is about making yogurt at home. I made yogurt at home but there is some problem which causes the yogurt to taste sour. I tried lots of methods to prevent the sourness because I don't like the sourness in yogurt. But unfortunately, I have failed to achieved the expected results. What should i do to make a perfect yogurt at home?

If you want less sour yogurt, you have to pick the right culture and right process.

First, choose a streptococcus culture, or maybe bifida. Lactobacilicus bulgaricus gives you more sour yogurt.
Second, go as low as your culture allows you. The manufacturer will have given you the range at which your culture can be incubated, choose something at the lower end. But of course make sure that whatever setup you are using can really hold the temperature in range - for example, if you have a culture that can go from 40 to 46 Celsius, but your apparatus has temperature swings of 1.5 degrees Celsius, don't set it to 40, set it to 42.
Third, time. Here, you have to see what is the shortest time you can incubate and have the yogurt set. It is a matter of trial and error with a given temperature and culture. Moscafj's answer suggests 5 hours as a starting point for experimentation.
Fourth, storage time. Your yogurt can keep going slightly more sour in the fridge. So don't make more than one week's worth ahead.
Fifth, make sure that your starting temperature is also correct. I have a relative who is too impatient to wait for the yogurt cool down properly before innoculating, and never uses a thermometer, she just adds the culture to the too hot milk. Her yogurt always reeks of acetic acid to levels I can't tolerate.

If you get your variables right as described above, your yogurt can be pretty mild.


Why does my oven take so long to heat up? My modern whirlpool electric oven take forever (about 20min) to heat-up to 200C. This seems similar to  other electric ovens I have used in Ireland.

Hoever, when visiting my mother in law in the USA, I noticed that her very old(20+ years) electric oven heats up very quickly, about 5 minutes.

Is this rapid heat-up time typical of american ovens or is there something special about hers?

Why does my oven heat-up so slowly in comparison?

There is a large collection or reasons, some are:

Differences in makes and models
Modern form over function problems
Crap EU standards (EN 60350 etc) that limit the amount of power a element can use. It's something like <= 0.25 W per cm2, and a typical domestic over is around 1100 cm2
For same standards the typical total KW/h of modern over is 3.5 KW/h, where ovens of twenty years ago where around 4.5 KW/h\


reheating leftover omelette on stove in pan without overdrying or making it too oily? I am, probably, a beginner at cooking (can make a small variety of dishes well). Of late, I have been expanding my skill set and have been striving to reheat leftovers (no more than a day or two old) on stove.
For omelette leftovers, which I originally cook in butter, I add about half a tbsp butter for reheating. But it ends up oily in some places and dry in others.
Is there a particular amount of butter or other oil best for reheating omelettes? Should any liquids be added?

There is no way to reheat an omelette & arrive back at 'a fresh omlette'.
You serve it just before it's completely cooked, so it arrives at the table correctly finished. Five minutes later hopefully it's been eaten, before it's past its best.
Anything after that is going to be rubbery.
Reheated is going to be rubbery++, no matter what you do.
To be perfectly honest, if you really want to reheat one, put it in the microwave for 30s to 1m. It's never going to get any better than that… & it will add no oil.
Re-heatable 'omelette' might best be considered as 'Spanish tortilla', which is never meant to be light & fluffy in the first place & microwaves rather well. If you keep half for tomorrow, or buy one in a supermarket, ready-cooked, then the microwave is actually the best way to get it back to temperature. Re-heating in a pan is a) slow & b) will over-cook the outside before the inside is to temperature.


What kind of apple fermented drink did I just make? I got this (dutch) recipe on Twitter a few months back. Translated it's called: apple with bubbles. I made it, and it was nice, simple process, and produced a nice summer style drink. But I was wondering, what did I make, and which parts can I try to vary with?
Translated recipe:

Put in a big jar: 1 apple (small chunks), 1 slice of lemon, 500ml water, 1 tsp honey, 20gr sugar, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 cinnamon stick
Cover jar with cheesecloth
For 3-4 days, put it somewhere without direct sunlight, stir/shake it twice a day. (So get some nice fermentation going)
Transfer/filter through cheesecloth liquid into a bottle
Leave the bottle outside the fridge for 2 days, make sure to releave it of pressure.
Put the bottle in the fridge for 2 days minimum. After that you have a week to drink it

So, uhm, what did I make, and which elements are essential for the process?

What you made is a watered  down version of a fermented or hard cider - the natural yeasts in the apple produce CO2 and alcohol, the sugar adds a bit of extra food for the yeasts, as does the honey which also contributes to the flavor, like the cinnamon stick and fennel.
In short, you used the spontaneous fermentation like it’s traditional for wine and cider, just with a diluted fruit mash.
For tweaking:
The sugar (or honey) is necessary as you added water to the apple juice. The spices are optional.
I currently have a batch of something quite similar on a shelf, where I first fermented apple peels and cores in water  (using up leftovers) and now am fermenting it a second time to make vinegar.


Removing burnt olive oil from an enamelled cast iron pan and a non-stick marble pan? I was wondering what the best way to remove this burnt on olive oil is? These are both pretty new pans. I've heard of using an oven cleaner for the cast iron pan but I'm unsure if it will ruin the enamel coating. I have no idea what to do for the marble effect frying pan.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lodge has a pretty extensive, instructions for usage and caring for enamel cast iron pans.

In short the advice is as follows:

Hand washing with warm soapy water and a nylon Scrub Brush is recommended to preserve the cookware’s original appearance. Citrus juices and citrus-based cleaners (including some dishwasher detergents) should not be used, as they can dull the exterior gloss.
If necessary, use nylon pads or scrapers to remove food residue; metal pads or utensils will scratch or chip porcelain.
Remove slight stains by rubbing with dampened cloth and commercial Enamel Cleaner product or other ceramic cleaner according to directions on bottle.
For persistent stains, soak interior of the cookware for 2 to 3 hours with a mixture of 3 tablespoons of household bleach per quart of water.
To remove stubborn baked on food, bring to a boil 2 cups of water and 4 tablespoons of baking soda. Boil for a few minutes then use a Pan Scraper to loosen food.


Is double fermented kefir safe to eat? I have a bottle of store bought, commercially produced kefir that seems to have undergone a second fermentation in my fridge. It's normally tart and thick, but it's changed to really tart and even thicker, and has a slight fizziness. I've never seen this happen before; normally this stuff remains unchanged in the bottle for months.
What could have happened and is this safe to eat?

It sounds like the kefir was further fermented by a second, more aggressive stain of acetic or lactic acid bacteria introduced after opening. It's likely safe, but probably not very tasty. And as with any unexpected microbial activity: When in doubt, throw it out.


Why my banana sauce is not smooth? here is my recipe

100g  banana
* 1 egg
* 1 tbsp. corn starch
* 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
* 150ml milk

I use folk to beat bananas. Then put everything together and then strain. then put it on stove and do double bowl. After the sauce becomes thick. It looks like this:

It is not so smooth in texture and when I eat it I can feel something like small fibers from bananas. What technique you suggest me to make it more smooth? I have consider two main ways, first make the fibers to become very very small by using blender. second do not let the finer comes out of the banana by don't beat it too much by using folk.

Should I use blender to make it very very smooth? or I should use folk but beat just a little bit to prevent the finer to come out?

What technique you suggest me? what about the portion of milk and corn starch, is it also effect the smooth or not smooth texture? if I place the bowl too long on stove, is it gonna give bad texture not smooth?

A blender certainly sounds like the easiest method.

If you prefer straining, but your sieve isn't fine enough to filter out the things you don't like, use cheesecloth. You can use enough layers to get a really fine strain, though bananas are thick enough that you'll have to squeeze it through.

The other thing you can try for things like this is a food mill, with the finest disk you have, but it sounds like you don't even want tiny tiny particles, so that may not be good enough for you - and it takes a bit of time and elbow grease.


How to keep a chocolate fondue in a liquid form? I'm trying to make chocolate fondue for dessert to serve in a restaurant on Valentines Day. What should I do to prevent the chocolate fondue from burning during heating, and setting as it cools.

You can either maintain the heat level through a heat source served with the food at the table or you can add a neutral-tasting oil to the chocolate mixture such as canola(rape seed) or vegetable oil.  Adding another fat will also help in preventing scorching of the chocolate.

Also the addition of some dairy to create a chocolate "sauce" can be a solution as well, but remember that fondue is about heating(and even cooking) food.  A cold bowl of chocolate, even if it is liquid at room temperature, probably isn't going to be as enjoyable for your guests.


How do Thai People Make Peanut Sauce? I'm interested in making my own Thai Peanut sauce. However, every recipe I see online says to use peanut butter.  I like Thai Peanut sauce I have in restaurants, but I  HATE peanut butter.  So when I see a recipe that uses peanut butter (which also has tons of extra crap in it that is less than good for you), I think that the final result can't be good.

How does one make a peanut sauce without peanut butter? Grind peanuts yourself?

Peanut butter is just ground roasted peanuts essentially.  The american style peanut butter tends to be sweetened, as well as having extra oil and salt.  But they are only slight flavour/texture enhancers (not that I think sugar enhances it, UK peanut butter is unsweetened usually).

Satay sauces are essentially just peanut butter sauces, roast some peanuts, grind them, then add to some lightly fried shallots and garlic, with chilli, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt, sugar and if you want it authentic probably some nam pla (fish sauce), or blachan (shrimp paste), all of the above to taste.  Thin with water and reduce to the consistency you desire.


How to make salt in burger permeate throughout the entire meat? I have been eating beef burgers from various different shops however having asked them they ALL use the exact same brand and product.  Here in east london uk they also all use a standard flat top grill(basically a rectangle pan).  I have noticed that when I eat at one shop in particular it always comes out very salty wheares it isn't like this for other shops.  I even bought some raw burgers from the salty shop and cooked them at home and it didn't taste salty.  They recently closed for a few days and having now reopened there burgers no longer taste salty but just like all the other shops selling the same burger.  My gues is that they reset or changed something which was allowing the burger to be salty once cooked.  It cooked be that there is an optimal grill temperature to make the salt permeate.  it could be that there fridge temperature was low and this allows the burgers to brine.  It could have been something else.

Do you know why, what makes the burger taste so salty.  It cannot be a bacth issue as the shop has produced the same results for several months until they closed. Also they all sell the same burgers and the burgers have 2grams.  Do you know what factor might cause the salt to permeate into the meats tissues so well which shows in the final burger?

Is there anything I can do to get this result when cooking beef burgers at home?

Thanks

This 'trick' is used by many a fine chef. Meat is salted, wrapped and refrigerated hours or even overnight, prior to cooking. Yes, salt will draw moisture from the meat initially, but over time that moisture will migrate back into the meat taking the salt with it! The salt also breaks down the protein structure in the muscle rendering a more tender steak.
The steak is rinsed and dried (a wet steak will steam not char), seasoned, and fired.
Ground beef can be handled in the same fashion. Using a medium or coarse salt and erring on the less salty side, you can find the right proportion to suit your taste. Season before forming or after. Some contend that the seasoning is made bitter by the heat and flame of the grill. Go figure.

Other tips: The meat should be mixed and formed with a gentle hand — use only as much pressure as it takes to hold the patties together. For almost foolproof rare or medium-rare meat, go right from fridge to grill.


How do I get vegetarian tamales to come out fluffy? I'm a vegetarian, so naturally I don't use lard when making the masa for tamales. I've experimented with butter, non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening, and solid coconut oil. I've tried beating the dough for a long time in my stand mixer, as I've read some suggestions that that is the key to make a fluffy dough. I've also tried both fresh masa and MaSeCa.

My tamales are ok, but I inadvertently had a bite of a lard-based tamale last year, and it was drastically fluffier and lighter than anything I've achieved. I don't know if the difference is the choice of fat, or if the restaurant that made them employs a better mixing technique. Help?

You can use Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening: its is on PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) shopping list of baking goods, but can work just as well for frying as lard.


Butter chicken too tomatoey I recently made Sanjeev Kapoor's butter chicken and found the taste too acidic/tomatoey. It was tasty but it lacked the authentic butter chicken flavor. This was surprising to me considering the amount of spices called for. I followed the recipe nearly to a tee.

My leading theories are:

did not cook tomatoes long enough (cooked about 15 min)
did not cook tomato puree long enough (cooked about 15 min)
too many tomatoes (8-10, followed by 2 cups tomato puree)

Any thoughts?

Any time you find a tomato based food item "too tomatoey" you're more than likely tasting the acidity of the tomato products. I always add a pinch of sweetener to any tomato based dish I make. And why you often hear of somebody's secret ingredient in a chili cook off to be something with sugar in it like peanut butter or chocolate or honey.
Start with a teaspoon of honey, sugar, brown sugar, agave nectar, etc, and go from there. Also, try using coconut milk as the cream butter chicken recipes call for, as that may also alter the taste to conform to what you are accustomed to.


Separating chocolate-coated cookies stuck together I purchased some really nice chocolate-covered cookies that were packaged in a metal tin.  The cookies must have been stored somewhere warm, because the individual cookies are stuck together.  How can I separate them without ruining them?

Short of re-melting/reheating them you can't do this without some mechanical separation such as cutting between each cookie. You may find that you can do this most easily with a heated knife - dip it in hot/boiling water for a few seconds to heat the blade.


Liquid nitrogen ice cream in food processor? Has anyone tried using a food processor to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen?

Since the container is not made of steel but hard plastic, I am wondering if it is ok to use a food  processor to do the stirring. I presume the plastic will turn into extremely brittle glass as soon as the nitrogen is poured in. Has anyone tried this?

As someone who uses liquid nitrogen as part of their daily routine (in a lab) and who has made liquid nitrogen ice cream on several occasions, my advice would be to not use a plastic container to hold liquid nitrogen unless it's designed to.

Yes, the plastic vessel may become brittle and may fracture. I have seen some materials shatter with extreme violence when frozen with liquid nitrogen; do not attempt this. Vessels for handling cryogenic liquids are designed especially for the job, and made from materials such as stainless steel, styrofoam, teflon, HDPE or silvered borosilicate glass. Unless you know with certainty that your container is designed to withstand temperatures of -196 °C (-321 °F), do not attempt this procedure.


Can German Potato Balls be frozen? Can they be frozen, before being cooked, for a week? I'm making sauerbrauten & potato balls for 25 people, and thought if I could make them a week earlier and just cook them that day, it would be a lot easier.

Yes, you can freeze them: I have done it before, and it works just fine.

They key (in my experience, that is) is to freeze the balls quickly if uncooked, and put them into the boiling water still frozen when you actually do the cooking.

I have also been freezing cooked potato balls, and that works just fine as well -> In that case, warm them up in hot, but not boiling, water.

A note due to the comment below: The recipe I use calls for half cooked, and half raw potatoes, with the raw half being pressed almost totally try of water; and they DO fall apart if I do not take that part seriously. So, except for potato-flour added again, there is not that much raw potato starch left when I freeze them.


Recreating a Mexican spice blend I have bought I previous bought a pre-made spice blend from a health food store which I absolutely loved however its $5 per 30g which is pretty expensive so I was thinking I would try and recreate it.

The ingredients it contains are paprika, cumin, sea salt, smoked paprika, coriander seed, amchur, chili, cinnamon, coriander leaf (cilantro) and oregano.

The reason i am posting here is that when it comes to actually doing the ratio/quantities for the spices I am lost. Naturally it doesn't say how many grams of each spice there is in the packet. I thought asking here would be a good option since a lot of the people here seem to know there stuff.

I want to use this in a chili con carne sort of styled dish.

1kg Beef Mince
1 Large Onion
6 Garlic Cloves
1tsp Salt
1tsp Black Pepper
1 can Pureed Tomatoes
1 can Diced Tomatoes
2tbsp Spice Blend

I would put the tomatoes and spice mix in a slower cooker for 10 minutes while I browned the rest in a pan then I would add the meat into the slow cooker for 2 hours.

I am looking for something that isn't on the hot side since I am not the only one eating this and unfortunately the others don't appreciate hot food however when I made this with the spice blend it was very well received.

Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Your mix is just a chili powder with a fruity flair.

As a rule of thumb, chili powder contains large amounts of chilis, cumin, and either garlic or onion. Other flavors come and go and appear in varying quantities. The ingredients in your mix that are not typical are the amchur, coriander, and cinnamon. Cinnamon with chili powder is not unheard of and results in familiar flavors but it isn't often included in standard recipes.

The amchur, dried and powdered unripe mango, and the coriander would impart fresh, fruity notes that are not typical but sound delightful!

AB's is a decent standard chili powder recipe:

3 ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced
3 cascabel chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced
3 dried arbol chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced
2 tablespoons whole cumin seeds
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

I was able to find a recipe that looked more similar to yours- that is with coriander and cinnamon:

5 dried Guajillo chilies
2 dried Chipotle chiles
4 Arbol chiles (or other thin red spicy chiles)
1 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs coriander seed
1 Tbs cumin seed
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black peppercorns

Start with this recipe and modify it to your taste. For example I would probably double the cumin and leave out the black pepper as I don't think it fits here. If the flavor of the mango was distinctive in your mix it could be added to taste without adversely affecting the mix. If you don't want your mix to be too spicy then you should stick with milder dried peppers. Many dried peppers are surprisingly mild and fruity. Don't just leave them out because they do make up a bulk of the flavor and the magic.

Notice that both recipes call for no salt. Commercial spice mixes include a lot of salt as cheap filler. You should salt your dish to taste and not add it in your spice mix.
By mixing this yourself you will also be able to use freshly toasted and ground spices which will taste much better.


how to clean ginger residue from my plastic juicer containers? I was juicing unpeeled ginger over the weekend, and even though I washed both the main juicing chamber/Auger housing and the juice container after using them, they seem stained, with slightly sticky residue in hard-to-get places and they're tinted slightly yellow.

The brush the juicer came with has helped a bit, but not fully. I watched this video, but it's not super clear how food-safe its recommendations (OxiClean, Sun Oxygen Cleaner) are.

Any pointers would be appreciated!

i would hesitate before using chemical methods like the video you linked suggests, but you may have some success with scrubbing with an SOS pad or chore boy, or even some high grit sand paper (something like 240 grit)


At what pressure is whipped cream stored in a can? Whipped cream is often sold in pressurized cans. At what pressure is the cream stored in such a can when it is new? Thank you!

"... (50 bar of pressure) per charger."

according to http://creativewhip.com/isi-charging-system/


How do olive oils differ, and what should they be used for? Here is a question from a "pre intermediate" home cook who lives in Spain. What is the difference between exta virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, and simply olive oil? I gather that the non-virgin one is used for cooking while the other kinds can be consumed raw, on bread or salad...What is the difference between the superior kinds though? what determines a great taste of the oil? Is splurging 11 euros on a bottle of olive oil worth it?

I can't really tell the difference between most of the big label suppliers of olive oil within the same grade of oil. The actual grade (virgin vs extra virgin) speaks to the processing of the oil and how many times the fruit is pressed.

I think the flavor is somewhat different between the grades with the extra virgin being somewhat more flavorful on its own.

In the US, there are also smaller boutique vendors of olive oil that basically treat olive oil like wine. You can go taste different oils with different olive varieties as their base. The flavor does vary quite a bit.

I think whether the cost is justified comes down to how you are using the oil and how much you care. The less you will process the oil through cooking or addition of other flavors, the more likely its worth using the best oil you can get. I wouldn't use an expensive oil to cook the potatoes of a tortilla española, but I may in a simple salad dressing or a dish where the oil is a major independent flavor.


Placing a steel disk inside a non-ferrous pan using an inductive stove I have an inductive stove, and some very large pots that don't work on the stove.  It seems that the material is invisible to the induction coil, and if I were to place a steel disk inside the pot, then that steel disk would act as a heating element.  Would this work?

This would be for liquids, boiling large amounts of mostly water (bone broths, beer, etc.), so the cooking surface isn't really a factor.

edit: The stainless pots I'm using are quite thin.  I have tried placing them on a cast iron skillet similar to the adapter idea, but that doesn't work well at all.  I am hoping the disk would heat, and being inside the pot, would be much more efficient.  I could also test with some generic bits of steel I can find.  I thought I'd ask first.

The usual approach would be to put the steel disk under the pot. Such disks are even produced commercially for this purpose: look for an induction interface disk. The basic mechanism is straight forward. The disk heats due to electromagnetic induction; then heat moves from the disk to the cooking vessel via conduction. As long as your cooking vessel is a good conductor and the bottom of the pan is in direct contact with the disk, it will heat up relatively efficiently.

Putting the disk inside the cooking vessel seems iffy. If your cooking vessel has a thick bottom, then the disk will be further from the stove-top. Because the magnetic field strength decreases with distance, induction would be less efficient. Also, if the disk is inside the vessel, it will come into contact with the food and probably need to be washed. Putting it under the pot leaves one fewer item to wash.


What are some appropriate accompaniments for satay? I have an excellent recipe for satay chicken, which I usually accompany with coconut rice. Last time, I also attempted a kind of Asian coleslaw of white cabbage, chilli, carrot and lime juice, but it didn't turn out all that well.

Can anyone suggest a suitable accompaniment, preferably something vegetable and fresh to counter the peanut butter in the sauce, for this? The only caveat is that I am cooking it soon for guests who don't like salad of any kind (lettuce, cucumber etc).

It likely depends on how hot you make your peanut sauce, and what you consider to be a salad.  You mentioned that you had chilies in your slaw (and some people consider slaw to be a salad), but if you have a very hot peanut sauce, you might want something more cooling.

I once did a very nice carrot slaw (jullienned carrots, left to sit in a rice wine vinegar dressing for a few hours), but I can't remember the complete ingredient list, and I've never managed to re-find it ... I seem to remember there being a touch of sugar, sesame oil ... soy or fish sauce, can't remember ... it was really, really simple.  (might've had some scallions added for garnish, but it was basically just marinated carrots)

You could also add some thin sliced red onion, scallions, bell pepper, or bean sprouts to it, but then you'd be getting into salad territory.

...

If you didn't want to make coconut rice, I find I can get a good amount of vegetables into anti-vegetable people (eg, kids) with nasi goreng.  As I don't have a good source of kejap manis, I also mix in some shredded carrots at the end to add to the sweetness.


Is it safe to eat butter after it has crossed its expiration date? Does butter ever spoil in fridge? I just came back from a long trip and I was cleaning out my fridge, and I noticed that there is an expiration date on the butter. It expired about two months from when I bought it. The butter doesn't look any different than normal butter.

How strictly should I follow the date on the box? Is there a way to test to see if the butter has actually gone bad?

Butter can go bad.  The oils will go rancid if exposed to too much light and heat for too long.  This accelerates the process of oxidation, which happens even if you keep the butter in the fridge.  Even in the fridge your butter will eventually go bad.

Personally I follow the dates on all packages.  I do so with an awareness that they usually tend to be conservative, which keeps me comfortable.  Rancid butter in a taste test won't kill you, though.  It'll just taste bad.  So you should be able to taste this butter to see if it is bad.

While I recommend following the dates on packaging, here are signs that your butter has actually gone bad:

discoloration
melting (which will happen outside of the fridge, you probably wouldn't see it)
sour smell
sour and unusual taste


How can I make breadcrumbs without a full, yeast-leavened loaf of bread? What's the best (fastest, most efficient) way to make breadcrumbs from scratch, without having any old bread?

I'm curious if there's something quick I can do, when I realize I want 5 cups of breadcrumbs and have no old bread, and don't want to buy or bake a loaf of bread just to immediately pulverize it.

That is, what is the fastest, simplest, easiest bread-like thing one could make, which would turn into breadcrumbs in a food processor?

One more edit: I didn't really intend this to be asking "what other ready-made things can I buy (or have around) and turn into breadcrumb substitutes". I want to know, at the very least, the best way to streamline the process of making and drying bread given the fact that I don't care if it's ever moist enough to eat as bread, and don't care about its overall shape or texture or anything else we usually care about in bread.

Three substitutes come to mind:

Saltine Crackers
Pretzels
Select brands of Cereal (Chex, Corn Flakes, etc.)

Take these for a spin in your food processor till you reach the consistency you desire.

Depending on your ultimate goal one or any of these could serve as a suitable sub for "bread crumbs"


Can I Use Yellow Split Peas in Paruppu Urundai instead of Toor Dal I thought toor dal (thoor dal?) was the Hindi term for the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan).  Additionally I thought yellow lentils (Lens esculenta) and split yellow peas (Pisum sativum) were two different plants.  Bit confused.

Which brings me to my most important question – if I wanted to make Paruppu Urundai could I substitute split yellow peas for the toor dal?  I live in a small, rural town and although our health food is store is brilliant we don’t have a huge range of choices.

Paruppu Urandai, is a Tamilian (Iyengar/South Indian) Recipe. It uses Thuvara or Tur Dal (Arhar Dal). Now substituting Tur Dal with Yellow Peas, wouldn't be right choice.
Tur has a special flavour, which is retained even after it turns to Cereal or Cooked. But the Pea looses its flavour when it turns to Cereal, it turns tasteless.
So Tur's unique flavour that is retained even after cooking impacts the overall flavour of dish.


What are ways to reduce cellulose in vegetables and fruits? I (and some family members) have a medical condition that affects the ability to digest cellulose, so we have to avoid most fresh fruits and vegetables.  We have found that cooking vegetables helps a bit, and something that requires a long cooking time (like a stew or soup) helps more.

Basically I am wondering if there are other ways besides cooking to break down the cellulose of vegetables and fruits and make them easier to digest?

Ummm, this isn't a specific condition...cellulose is indigestible by humans.  It is the chief component of what we call "dietary fiber" or my Grandma called "roughage".
This question is really asking how to remove the fiber from fresh fruits and vegetables - puree and  straining, juicing etc. would all do the trick.


Types of potato for making gnocchi I've made gnocchi with different types of potato with mixed result. Can anyone recommend a type that is particularly good for making gnocchi?

I think gnocchi should work best with varieties of potatoes that you think of as mealy, dry, and fluffy when cooked. The most common mealy potato is russet. From On Food and Cooking:

  Mealy types (russets, blue and purple varieties, Russian and banana fingerlings) concentrate more dry starch in their cells, so they're denser than waxy types. When cooked, the cells tend to swell and separate from each other, producing a fine, dry, fluffy texture that works well in fried potatoes and in baked and mashed potatoes..."

You want those that dry texture to make gnocchi, so that you can manage to wrangle it into a dough. If you live somewhere without russets, just use whatever you'd normally use for baked or mashed potatoes.

The other category of potato is waxy. They'll tend to be too solid and moist to easily make gnocchi from; they're better suited for things where you want chunks/slices to stay intact. In the US, most red, yellow, and white potatoes are waxy. Stay away from those for gnocchi.


What do soybeans taste like? I've read about the beneficial use of soybean in the food industry, so I wonder what it tastes like? How can it be explained?

Does soybean taste like regular beans? Also, what's the difference in its processed forms, such as soymilk?

I can get soy beans in two varieties here: As dried beans and as edamame.

Edamame is a particular type of soybean that is harvested when it is still young. The pods are cooked (usually boiled or steamed) and then served with salt. The beans are popped from the pod and eaten. The pod is discarded.

Edamame is sweet and a little grassy because it is young.

Dried soy beans can be cooked like any other bean. Their hulls tend to come free and have an unpleasant texture so it is nice to skim most of them off. The flavor is good but not unique. It tastes like a normal white bean. The raw beans have a very strong "beany" flavor but cooked beans should not.

Soymilk is made from dried soybeans. The beans or the milk are cooked to remove the very strong beany flavor. The finished milk does have a hint of sweetness and bean but not strong at all.

Tofu, made from soymilk, tastes the same as the milk. Besides being sweet and a little beany, it can be a little nutty tasting. It can get chalky if it isn't fresh.

All of these soybean preparations are very bland. They tastes fresh and clean but there shouldn't be any overly strong flavors. Strong flavors in these products are often a sign that the product is past its prime.

Some soybean preparations ferment the beans. These have a wide range of flavors and textures.


How to prevent food colouring changing the taste of food? I am a keen baker with a big sweet tooth. I often use coloured icing and sponge when I bake, but often the colouring I use changes the taste of the icing/sponge.

Does anyone know how to prevent the food colouring changing the taste of food or how I can minimise it?

The food colouring I use is: Dr Oetker

If you use the same Dr. Oetker colouring that I have used in the past, which is advertised as a 'gel' colouring, then you have to use a lot to get a good intense colour.

You may have better results (colour and taste-wise) getting proper concentrated gel food colourings, like those made by Wilton. You need to use much less than cheaper brands so you don't run the risk of flavouring the food, and you can even use them in meringues without ruining the structure.


How often is it safe to eat sushi? Assuming the fish is prepared properly and is sushi grade, how many times per week can I eat sushi without having to worry about mercury poisoning and/or health concerns? I'm not sure if the kind of fish is important, but I generally eat salmon, white tuna, and yellowtail.

Provided you go to a reputable sushi restaurant with good hygiene standards, you should have no problem in terms of bacteria or parasite-related health problems. Most fish used in sushi restaurants is flash-frozen at -20 degrees C (-4F), which kills parasites outright.

As for mercury, you can check the FDA's page detailing the amount of mercury in the various species of edible fish, to help you make an informed decision. They recommend that higher risk groups, such as pregnant women, limit their intake of certain fish to 12oz/week.

Generally, sushi is extremely healthy as it is low in fat and high in vitamins and minerals - Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, after all: diet plays a big part in that.


Can I substitute amaretto syrup for amaretto liqueur? I have a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup amaretto liqueur.  Can I substitute Torani amaretto syrup and should I use the same amount - 1/2 cup?

no not at all. alcohol in recipes is generally there because certain flavor compounds are only soluble in alcohol. adding a half cup of syrup will make your recipe come out much much sweeter than it should. A better substitution would be probably around a teaspoon of almond extract and some neutral liquor like vodka. It would also be helpful if you include what recipe you are using or what you are attempting to make.


Is it recommended to rinse the teapot with boiling water before putting the tea leaves in? Is it recommended to rinse the teapot with boiling water, or does that make no difference?

The main reason you put boiling water in the teapot before making tea is to heat up the teapot. You dump out the now cooler water and then add your teabags and more boiling water, and the teapot will now be warm and not leech out the temperature from within it. This results in tastier tea, but is totally not necessary if you didn't make enough hot water, or don't want to spend the time doing so.


How should I incorporate separated eggs in a cookie recipe without instructions? I found a partial (ingredients only) recipe of my Mother's that called for 3 eggs separated for an "Italian Cookies" recipe.  I would love to try it but without any instruction\directions how would I manage this ingredient?
Other ingredients include:

10 Tbsp. butter

1 1/4 c. sugar
beat 2 minutes

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp lemon zest

3 c. flour

bake 350 15-20 minutes.
That's all I have.

I'm going to suspect you beat the whites  (all clean, no fat, no grease, no bits of yolk) to at least soft peaks, possibly stiff peaks, and fold in to the rest - cream the butter & sugar (that's the beat 2 minutes step), add the yolks, add the remaining ingredients, fold in the whites. This is a fairly standard method of using beaten egg whites for a sort of "leavening" by expoiting their trapped air bubbles.

I'd be prone to putting some of the sugar and the vanilla and possibly the zest right at the end (it's got some oil so that's a little risky) in with the whites, but the way you have presented it does not seem to suggest that.


Is old Bailey's Irish Cream safe to drink? Will it poison a person to accidentally drink some Bailey's Irish Cream that is way past the expiration date? I am wondering if it will make me ill?

Does it smell off? Has the bottle been opened? More than a year past the expiration date?

If not, cheers!
Else use common sense. If in doubt, ditch it.

But it WILL make you ill if you drink too much ;-)


Butterscotch Pudding Clumps Excellent butterscotch pudding has been a Holy Grail of mine for forever. I have an idea of exactly what I want, but I've never accomplished it. Either the flavor isn't rich enough, or it's clumpy. This season America's Test Kitchen tackled butterscotch pudding, so I tried it yet again. I really loved the flavor of this recipe, but I had to strain out tiny clumps of egg yolks. ATK promised me that I wouldn't have to do that! ATK's Butterscotch Pudding
This is what they did differently:

Smoother Route to Pudding?
Pudding recipes almost always have you temper the yolks and cornstarch (i.e., add some hot dairy to the mixture to gradually raise its temperature), add everything to the remaining dairy in the pot, and stir constantly as the mixture slowly comes to a boil and thickens. Inevitably, bits of egg still overcook and need to be strained. We wondered if there was a better way.
EXPERIMENT:
We made one batch of pudding the conventional way and a second batch in which the yolks never saw the heat of the stove: We added a little warm milk to the yolks and cornstarch, brought the remaining “dairy” (in our recipe, the butterscotch mixture) to a boil, and then dumped this hot liquid over the egg mixture and whisked briefly as the pudding thickened almost instantly.
RESULTS:
The conventional pudding needed straining, while the “no-cook” custard was utterly smooth and perfectly thickened.
EXPLANATION:
Boiling pudding is overkill. When cornstarch is combined with liquid, it thickens between 144 and 180 degrees, while yolks diluted by liquid coagulate between 180 and 185 degrees—significantly lower temperatures than the boiling point of 212 degrees. Whisking the hot butterscotch mixture into the yolk mixture heated the pudding to about 185 degrees—plenty hot to properly thicken it but not so hot that the yolks overcooked.
DUMP AND STIR

The only thing I can see that that might have been the problem is that I looked away at a critical moment and the base was nearly boiling over when I removed it from the heat to dump it into the egg yolks. So it was a couple of seconds past "climbing the sides of the pan". Could that tiny temperature difference be the problem? Do you have any idea of the temperature difference between "climbing the sides of the pan" and "nearly boiling over" of a dairy/sugar mixture?

Well, no one else has answered, so I will. I made the pudding again, this time I did the "dump" just as the milk and syrup started climbing the sides of the pan. Apparently the tiny temperature difference between that and "almost boiling over" was the difference. The second pudding was completely smooth. The recipe is great and it works just like ATK promises. Now I need to find that chalazae removal tool SAJ showed me!


What's the most cost effective way to make chicken bone broth? I would like to start consuming chicken bone broth for health reasons, but there are some difficulties with this plan I'd like to resolve.

Where is the best place to get bulk chicken bones (I live in Washington state)? Is it better to just buy whole chickens or buy the bones? I've looked all over the internet for ideas and places to shop, and I just keep getting more confused on what to do. I would be so grateful for any advice on this subject. I'm looking to make enough bone broth to consume about 16 ounces daily.

Formulas for stock are somewhat variable, but a common case is to use 3 kg of bones (and half a kg of mirepoix, which is a vegetable mix used for taste) with 4-5 l water, which after cooking down yields 3 l of stock, or just a little bit more than that. I couldn't find an especially good figure for the bone:meat ratio of chickens, but many Internet sites seem to agree on a 30:70 figure (I hope they didn't copy it from each other without fact checking). So, you are looking at either buying 1 pound of bones, or one 3-pound chicken per day.

In your place, I would prefer to use bones, not whole chickens, because of the logistics involved. With chickens, you'd need lots of freezer space, and then will end up with 2 lb of chicken meat daily. The work of removing the bones, especially if your recipe requires you to do so before boiling, will also cost a lot of time. But I don't know in what circumstances you live, maybe these points are not a problem for you.

If you decide to use bones, the first place to look for them would be a local meat seller. I have heard that in the US and Canada, bones are seen as a waste product and sold cheaply. If you cannot find a convenient place which sells them, you might have to ask a butchering company. They will have many bones, but are unlikely to bother to trade in small amounts, so while you are likely to get a good price, you might have to deal with a bulk delivery (and the uncooked bones will need freezing if they are to last for more than a few days).

A catering business or a restaurant might be another place to ask, as showbiz suggested, but you should be aware that fast food chains get their halfway prepared ingredients delivered from a central factory, and high-end restaurants use the bones for cooking stock for their own needs.


Cooking thick fresh egg pasta I tried making fresh egg pasta for the first time today, and generally I think the dough came out alright, except that, as I don't have a roller (and also because I just underestimated the thickness) my pasta was quite thick. I used 100g of 00 flour per large egg, that's all.

I essentially made what resemble tagliatelle but really think - I cut this by rolling out the dough into a rectangular sheet, folding inwards from both sides and then cutting through the rolls - quite a common technique I gained from watching videos.

My pasta came out a little hard, probably from the thickness, but I am unsure as to whether this means I should cook for more time or less time - I cooked for around 10 minutes.
Does hard pasta, given the thickness of my hand-rolled pasta mean undercooked or overcooked? Just trying to understand whether, other than rolling thinner, I need to cook for more or less time, next time.

The hardness you're experiencing is a sign that you've undercooked it. It isn't really "hard" in the sense that dry pasta is hard. It's not brittle, just very tough and difficult to bite through.

You can continue to cook it, but it's going to start becoming mushy on the outside before it becomes cooked through to the inside. That's why pastas are rolled out thin. Rolling it out thin with a rolling pin is enormous effort, so new pasta makers always give up too early. And they get this effect of tough pasta.

We all go through it. Stick with it. And then invest in a pasta roller, which makes it a bajillion times easier. But it's good to have done it the hard way a few times.


Can I bake a "no bake" cheesecake? Random, but I haven't seen this anywhere else.

I realize this can't apply to every "no-bake" cheesecake recipe for good-reason, but I'm wondering if it would be safe to try.

Has anyone ever done it?

Note: This isn't asking for opinion, but rather whether baking a specific "no-bake" cheesecake is plausible to some extent.

I just don't like the mousse consistency in the no-bake recipes.

But, then I got to thinking of how the cheesecakes offered at The Cheesecake Factory all seem to be baked, even the ones that have no-bake versions up on YouTube.

I can't say I've browsed through dozens and dozens of no-bake cheesecake recipes but the ones I've looked relied on the ingredients being whipped (usually cream) or gelatin to maintain their shape. Mousse style no-bake cheesecakes use a whipped mixture of gelatin and some milk product that gives the foamy texture.

All no-bake cheesecake recipes (that I've read) require them to be refrigerated before serving. A no-bake cheesecake made with whipped cream, cream cheese, sugar and other ingredients would simply melt into a mess if baked. Ditto for one made with gelatin.

Baked cheesecakes call for eggs and flour to provide structural strength to hold the fats together. I guess if you wanted to add flour and eggs to a no-bake recipe, it might hold some sort of shape. Or not and you get a less spread out mess instead. I really don't think it's at all plausible and I wouldn't want to test it and clean the mess each time.


Homemade fermented coconut milk I made milk from a mature brown coconut by blending the flesh with water and straining through mesh. That was a week ago. I haven't used it all, and now I've discovered that it has soured. It's kind of slimy and has a tangy smell.

Does anyone know if it's safe to use? Is this probiotic-filled and healthy or is it just rotten?

I'd go with "certainly not safe" - and probably rotten.

Even for fermenting foods like yogurt or sauerkraut you need to follow a certain protocol to ensure the end product is safe. Yes, a pot of milk that was left out can turn into a delicious soured milk if the right bacteria grows in it. It can also turn into a nasty rotten mess.

If you want to ensure a specific product, you should add the appropriate bacteria, the traditional way would be a spoonful of an established product. Alternatively the bacteria can be obtained in liquid or dry form. This would give you a safe product.

While it is possible to ferment coconut milk with "yogurt bacteria", it's pretty unlikely that the "desired" bacteria mysteriously appeared in your milk. So no, your coconut milk is not safe. And if you write "slimy", I assume it's simply rotten.


Why do apples sometimes taste bitter? I sometimes come across apples that taste very bitter (not sour like a granny smith, but more like tannin). This is maybe one in 10 or 15 apples. It doesn't seem to be restricted to a certain variety (I've tasted it in pink lady, opal, honeycrisp and some I've forgotten). Sometimes it's just one, and sometimes it's a whole batch. Washing doesn't remove the flavor

Google search suggestions show other people have noticed this too, but I can't find a good answer as to why. It seems too common to me to not have a good answer though; maybe it's something only some people can taste, like cilantro tasting soapy or cyanide smelling like almonds?

We have an old variety apple tree, similar to Yellow Transparent, of uncertain origin. When ripe - that is, the flesh has softened to edibility and sweetness has developed - the skins provide a highly tannic note. Removing the skins before using the apples in cooking dramatically reduces the tannins.


Why isn't the Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm sharpening my WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife? My grandpa bought the Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm
to sharpen his WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife.

He educated himself a whit by watching YouTube videos, and his sharpening has yielded metal shavings onto the Sharpening Stone. He tried to cut squashes with it, but it hasn't become any sharper! Why?

This is like saying "I bought my grandpa a Faber Castel pencil and 200 gm acid-free paper, and now the pencil is not drawing realistic portraits, why".
Knife sharpening is a fine motor skill. The only way to learn it is through hours of deliberate practice. It is also a tricky skill to learn, because you don't really get immediate feedback per stroke, and there is not that much affordance. So it is more difficult to learn, especially learn on your own, than something like throwing a ball.
If your grandpa wants to sharpen his knives with a stone, he will have to put in his hours of learning. It is impossible to say how many he needs before he starts to see consistently good results, it can be a dozen or it can be over a hundred.
It is best to start learning on old, bad knives, since a learner's first attempts frequently destroy the edge, making it more difficult to repair it later.


Do I need to keep white peppercorns on hand for making stock? Many classic recipes for chicken stock call for white peppercorns (which are just skinned black peppercorns).

I'm looking to trim my pantry list a bit and white peppercorns seem unnecessary, given that black will probably do the trick, and I always have those on hand.

Does anyone have first-hand experience with a stock made with white vs. black peppercorns?

White peppercorns are used purely for aesthetic reasons- just to avoid black specs in a pale dish.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, white peppercorns taste absolutely terrible. They have a sour, astringent, flavor not at all similar to black peppercorns.

I don't think black pepper looks objectionable so I always use it.


Substituting birds eye chilli with carolina reaper I like to cook asian dishes. I recently found some carolina reapers on the supermarket and bought it on impulse.

What can I do with them and can I substitute them in place of Birds eye chilli in asian dishes(e.g. Pad Thai)? I am well aware that reapers are much much spicier, but apart from that how similar do they taste?

Capsicum chinense chili peppers tend to have far more pronounced smoky/fruity aromas than small capsicum annuum types like bird's eye - whether this aroma works well with the rest of the dish is probably a case-by-case matter.

Recipes/cuisines that use mixed fresh green and dried or fresh red chilies in their flavor profile (eg many indian dishes, some hunan chinese dishes...) can probably gain from using that kind of pepper - recipes that only use dried red types might rely on the peppers not adding unexpected aromas.

Another rough thought experiment to categorize dishes: Would the dish gain, or be ruined, if you added sambal oelek into it (which tends to also have a somewhat smoky/fruity note to it)?

Mind that distributing the heat through the dish is an important matter with peppers that hot - so infusing the fat and cutting the peppers very finely is advised. However, these actions both have their own dangers with extremely hot peppers: Frying them in oil can suddenly surprise you with releasing a lot of capsaicin into the air, teargassing/choking you; cutting them finely usually means touching them a lot. Keep a wet towel handy, expect to have to dash outside for fresh air, and use gloves if inexperienced.

Mind that fresh red chilies seem to be uncommon in making thai curry pastes (except some recipes for kaeng pa ... which, however, due to the lack of coconut milk, could end up truly hellish with a 2+ million scoville pepper in the paste), a bit more common in indonesian-style pastes...

Quick pickling them as a condiment to a pad thai, or using them in a som tam, is probably ill-advised - that kind of heat is usually just plain unpleasant in lean preparations...


Can I refreeze defrosted crumb topping? I have a crumb topping (margarine + brown sugar + flour) that I usually make double or triple the recipe of and then freeze. Sometimes I don't divide it evenly and end up with extra dough when I defrost a section. Can I refreeze the dough or should I just toss it because it'll affect the taste? (What about cookie dough?)

Generally, freezing and re-freezing is not a big issue. Some things just shouldn't be frozen (certain fruits and veg), because when frozen the water contained in the cell structure expands and in turn bursts the containing structure, which causes mushiness. Meats can be refrozen with a slight moisture loss. From what I was taught by my old pastry chef, this whole notion of freezing and refreezing being dangerous was started when electric freezers were just coming into the market (first half of the 20th century), and the cold storage and ice companies were scared of the potential loss of their business (which absolutely happened). It was them that advertised that this refreezing could be detrimental to health.  Truth is, refreezing just sends the item into a (mostly) inert state, where bacteria can't harm the item by propagating.
However, your question is about the taste and how refreezing pertains to cookie dough. It's not a matter of the refreezing that has an effect on the taste, rather how long things stay in your freezer. You can thaw, refreeze, thaw, refreeze as much as you want. Happens all the time in commercial kitchens and bakeries. The key is to not make so much that it stays in the freezer too long.

Here's and article I found, haven't looked for any others:

Safe food practices


What is the easiest way to shred chicken? Usually I will just cook it and then tear it to pieces using two forks, but this is still pretty time consuming.  Are there any secret ways to easily do this?

Once it's cooled down some, I switch to using my hands ... expecially as it helps to find any bones, globs of fat, etc.  I find it goes much faster, particularly if you're dealing with anything other than boneless breast meat.

... but it shreds easiest while it's still warm, so if I'm doing a fair bit, I'll break a bit apart using forks, let that cool, break some more apart with a fork, then shread the first bit before it cools too much, repeat.  (so basically, I have one set broken down somewhat to cool faster while I'm shreding an already-cooled off bit).

update as justkt mentioned, the cooking method matters -- roasting and other high heat methods are going to cook the outside faster than the inside.  I typically poach my chicken if I'm going to be shreding it -- bring water to a boil, add chicken, bring back to a boil, turn to low, then leave for an hour or two ... the low temp gets it all nice and tender, while the boiling kills surface bacteria.


Keep macaroni cheese creamy after refrigerating I occasionally make Macaroni and Cheese with a béchamel/roux (and tuna, but I still call Macaroni and Cheese). I make the sauce with butter, corn flour and milk and add the cheese later. I use a lot of milk and after I've just cooked and served the dish the sauce has a beautiful creamy/liquid texture.

I cook the sauce in one pot and the pasta in another. When both are cooked I quickly drain the pasta and add both it and the drained canned tuna to the sauce. I then heat it just long enough to raise the temperature of the tuna without changing the flavour by recooking it.

However, when I refrigerate the leftovers and reheat them I just end up with clumps of pasta (and tuna) stuck together with an almost solid sauce. The flavour is still good, it's just the texture that's changed. Is the pasta absorbing extra moisture before it cools? How can I prevent this so I have creamy reheated Macaroni and Cheese?

Having made this dish again recently and experimenting with it based on the comments here can report the following:

A good creamy texture in the pot after the initial preparation will become a single hard lump in the fridge. Adding more milk before refrigeration will:

Prevent it from solidifying
Reheat (e.g. in a microwave) to a close enough texture to the original

The amount of milk that needs to be added is about the same quantity as went into the dish originally, i.e. if you used 1 litre in the dish before serving it (assuming only a small quantity removed) add another 1 litre of milk before refrigerating. If you served half of it, only add half a litre of milk, etc. The only downside is that the extra liquid separates slightly in the fridge, leaving watery pools on the surface of the food. This extra moisture can simply be stirred back into the dish before reheating.


What is tasso made from and how is it made? What is tasso made from and how is it made?

Having myself originally written most of the Wikipedia article on Tasso (which isn't really that extensive anyways), I feel justified paraphrasing it here:

Tasso ham is a specialty of Cajun cuisine. It is not a true ham, since it is made from the front shoulder, rather than the rear leg, of a pig. The front shoulder is a fatty and well-exercised (thus very flavorful but also somewhat tough) cut of meat. To prepare Tasso, the shoulder is boned out and sliced across the grain into fairly thick (1-3"/2.5-7.5cm) sections. The pieces are dredged in a salt, sugar, and nitrite mixture, then left to cure for a very short time (as little as a few hours). A spice mixture containing Cayenne pepper, garlic, and perhaps other spices or herbs is applied, and the meat is hot-smoked until cooked through.


Is there any use for the bark trimmings of dry aged beef? I have dry aged my own beef, and now Im wondering if there are any applications for the bark trimmings aside from binning them.

Also wondering whether it is safe to be consumed.

I aged my beef in an umai bag :)

I don't have experience with the umai bag, so I don't know what it produces, but I have dried aged beef in my curing fridge.  There is nothing unsafe about the trimmings (unless, as a comment points out, you contract a bad mold).  Using them partly depends on how long you dry-age, and how desiccated the exterior is.  It could be too dried to be pleasant, and you also don't want any rancid or off flavors, but many folks add it to the grind when making ground beef.  Of course, primal cuts of best quality beef (which, if you are going through the trouble, is what you should use), should contain a large fat cap.  That fat is very useful.


Can I preserve fresh potato gnocchi by drying it? I have a lot of potatoes to use, and I am making a large batch of Gnocchi. I plan to freeze much of it, but I was wondering if it's also possible to dry the fresh Gnocchi and store in a sealed container at room temperature (as is done with other pastas).  Has anyone tried this?

If it matters, the Gnocchi dough will not have egg in it.

Surprisingly, the answer seems to be a qualified yes, however the texture is not the same. The dried gnocchi turned out to be much better if fried after boiling; see below.

Here are the results of my experiment:

I dried a small amount of the fresh Gnocchi by placing them in a 150 degree (Farenheit) oven for about an hour, then turning off the oven and leaving them in all day. It is very dry here, so that did the trick.

I boiled the dried gnocchi after several days of storage. They took about ten times longer to boil than their fresh counterparts. Even after they were fully cooked, they were not as soft as the fresh gnocchi, and they never regained their original size or shape. Overall, they were denser, firmer, and less sticky. Not desirable traits necessarily, but they were quite edible.

I decided to pan-fry a small batch in about a tablespoon of oil, and these turned out wonderfully! I have pan-fried gnocchi before, and it tends to be hard to keep them intact and keep them from sticking. The previously dried gnocchi, however, did not stick and held up to vigorous frying. The result were gnocchi with a crispy exterior and soft (if somewhat dense) interior. The crispy outside and flavor reminded me of samosas. These weren't just edible, they were great. I plan to dry about half of my next batch and use the dried gnocchi exclusively for frying.


How much water to put in my pasta pot? My pasta pot/steamer did not come with directions telling me how full to make it.  It seems to boil over or not have enough water to cover the pasta.  It is a large pot with the pasta strainer included.

The pot choice should depend on the amount of water (which depends on the amount of pasta you're cooking) rather than the other way around. For detailed advice on amounts, see these answers (answer 1,  answer 2).

Generally (not using fresh pasta or very long pasta when more water is necessary) you just need to cover the pasta. A bit of oil on top will help keep it from boiling over, as will keeping the lid off after it's begun boiling and just simmering it rather than a rolling boil.

With longer pastas like spaghetti you should add more water than just enough to cover the pasta, but as long as the top of the water is more than an inch below the top of the pot (after adding the pasta) you shouldn't have trouble if you follow the precautions above.


Can I re-cook a ham that was left out overnight? I left a fully cooked ham in a bag out overnight. It was refrigerator temperature when I took it out at 9pm. Our Seattle home was not heated; it was about 50 degrees last night. I found it at 6am and threw it back in the fridge, in case it was still good. I would cook it again and then use it with eggs or sandwiches. Would this be ok?

It's probably even safe to eat without cooking again; the refrigerator is likely only about 10 degrees colder, and that generally translates to accelerating rates of spoilage (mostly growth of pathogens) by a factor of 3-5 or so.  For example. at 10C (50F), E. coli only manages to divide once every 8 hours or so (see Ratkowsky et al., "Relationship Between Temperature and Growth Rate of Bacterial Cultures", J. Bacteriology, vol 169, p. 1 (1982) for a not-very-clear example of growth curves--I've seen these curves online, but unfortunately I tried and failed to find an easily accessible one this time).

It's almost certainly safe to eat with cooking (fully, to at least ~160 at the center), which would kill anything that managed to grow on the ham.  The only thing to worry about with well-cooked food is whether bacteria or fungi have managed to produce so many toxic chemicals that the food will make you ill--and in this case, it's been too cold.  (At those temperatures, not only is growth slow, but most anything is slow, including production of anything toxic.)

So I'd say--cook away, enjoy, and don't worry about it.

P.S. I have in practice eaten ham left out at warmer temperatures for longer.

Edit: In response to a comment about bacterial toxin production, I want to reiterate that colder temperatures slow down metabolism of just about everything, including toxin production.  This is because, at a basic physical level, reaction rates are governed by the Arrhenius equation which translates, for simple reactions, to a doubling of reaction rates for ~10C increase in temperature.  Of course, organisms like bacteria have more complex interactions, but this still gives an order of magnitude estimate.  Furthermore, research has been done on production of bacterial toxins.  For example, Skinner & Larkin (J. Food Protection vol 61 p. 1154 (1998)) wrote a paper called "Conservative Prediction of Time to Clostridium botulinum Toxin Formation for Use with Time-Temperature Indicators To Ensure the Safety of Foods", which gives, for food innoculated with the bacteria, a time-to-detection-of-toxin of 2-3 days at 10C.  In fact, they did the research because food storage at open-face refigerators in stores often allows products to get up to as high as 10C (at least as of 1998).

Similarly, in Bonventre and Kempe ("Physiology of Toxin Production by Clostridium botulinum Types A and B, III"), their 10-18C toxin line is flat for 24 hours at the baseline level before creeping up by a factor of 3 or so between 24 and 48 hours (figure 4).

These are just examples, but you find the same general trends everywhere because of the fundamental physical relationship between reaction rates and temperature.


When to add seasoning to oven-baked french fries? When baking French fries in the oven, either from a frozen package, or made from cut potatoes, is it better to add seasoning, such as salt, pepper, paprika, etc., before placing the fries in the oven or after? When should one add vinegar or lime juice?

Dry seasonings can be added either before or after cooking French Fries. However, for oven-baked potatoes, you want to avoid adding wet seasonings before cooking, as it may impair the crunchiness of the final product.


Too much cayenne chilli pepper I have added cayenne chilli pepper, instead of cayenne pepper, and (I think too much) to my green tomato chutney.
How can I reduce the spice and still be able to store the chutney?

There are two traditional ways to reduce the hotness of excess chilli.

First, excessive spicy taste is can be neutralized by adding appropriate filler/absorbent ingredients to the mixture. Fresh coconut shreds are commonly used to absorb the excess chilli in chutneys.

Second, you can add sweet and/or sour substances to counter the feeling of hotness. Traditional sour additions to chutney can be:

Tamarind (common)
Tomatoes
Lime or lemon
Vinegar

Typical sweet alternatives are:

Honey
Brown sugar

All these additions may change the flavor and shelf life of the chutney, but you can always experiment. If that is not desirable, just add more of the other recipe ingredients to increase the number of servings.


When should I add red chili to an omelette? Is there a proper time to add red chili to an omelette?  How should it be mixed in?

Chili powder will never dissolve in eggs. What you're aiming for is a suspension: the chili particles evenly distributed in the eggs. The chili will eventually float to the surface of an egg mix, so the best you can do is mix it properly right before pouring it into the skillet, and hope it sets before the chili separates too much.


How do I "save" my Christmas Cookies (Venetians)? I am making my favorite Christmas cookie. They are called Venetians. They are a layered marzipan bar cookie.

Here is a recipe.

So, I just took them out of the oven -- and while the tops are perfectly cooked -- the bottoms got too toasty. I have taken them out of the pan and put they on cooling racks. I expect to let them cool well before putting on the jam and layering. I will then let them set overnight before putting on the chocolate top and cutting.

But darn-it -- the bottoms are too toasty. In fact they are just this side of being burned. I am not sure why. The oven must have gotten way too hot, or the greasing pan before I put the wax paper on must have gotten too hot too fast. Whatever -- now I need to figure out what to do. And they are suppose to be delicate -- not have a crunchy layer!

I would "cut the layer of burn off" -- but there isn't a layer to do this. The layers are less than 1/4 of inch think as it is. I honestly don't think I can without wrecking it. I could try to "scrape it" -- but they are so delicate. I could add some sweetened whipped cream to the toasty side. I could  . . .

Ideas? What should I do to save these delicate "masterpieces" so that I can still enjoy the results (even if I don't give them away anymore).

Well, here is what I did to "save the cookies" --

With one batch I put them together with the jam, pressed them overnight, cut them in squares, put them in a pan with EggNog, let them soak overnight,turned them over and soaked them a little more.

With a second batch I did the same as above-- but I also added some Amaretto during the soaking process.

I served them with a sprig of mint. and a drizzle of dark chocolate.
They were a hit. The overcooking created a biscotti-ness prior to the soaking-- and left the final desert, yummy, and of a firm enough texture to still hold together as a dessert!

So, that is how I ended up saving the over-cooked Venetians.


What is the difference between malai paneer and paneer? What is the difference between paneer and malai paneer? My wife asked me to buy paneer. In the shop I saw malai paneer and bought it. Are they the same?

Raghavan Iyer's book, 660 Curries has recipes for both Whole-milk cheese (doodh paneer) and creamy homemade cheese (malai paneer).  The only difference between teh two recipes is that the Malai paneer uses half-and-half while the doodh paneer uses whole milk.


How to cook flatbread without oil? Here's the thing:

I am currently experimenting with a Oshawa diet #7 and I discovered that I can make these tasty flatbreads in my frying pan.
However, the issue is that after each flatbread is done I have to wash the pan with a wet sponge, as either flour or small parts of the dough will get burnt and stick to the pan.
This means that I have to then wait for the pan to reheat again and this, together with the washing, makes the process a lot longer.

Here's what I tried so far:

I've tried removing any excess flour before frying, but some dough parts still got burned and got stuck.
I put baking paper on top of the frying pan. This worked, but the baking paper got burned after each flatbread and I had to replace it each time.
I also tried baking them in the oven. Although, it did work, the flavor and texture are different.
My final attempt was buying a stone-effect frying pan, hoping that the cleaning process would be almost zero. True, it is far easier to wash than my previous pan, but it still takes a lot.

Now, what I would like to know is if there are other ways cooking these flatbreads (without oil) what would make the process faster and more efficient.

Thanks in advance for the help!

My family always made these Chinese flatbread-like pancakes and we cooked them on a cast-iron pan (although it was more like a frying surface or something, it was flat, round, had a handle, but no conceivable border) without using any oil. Now it is true that a little bit of the flour kept sticking to the pan, but we also had a little broom made of spliced bamboo (I think) with which we just swept the excess flour off. This of course is rather messy, but we only had to clean the stove after the cooking was done.
I think this worked so well because the dough was not too wet (but also not too dry) and we covered the surface of every flatbread with a little bit of flour, which helps in making it less sticky.


Should scones dough be sticky? I decided to make scones for the first time and picked a high rated recipefrom allrecipes.com.

It instructed me to combine the ingredients like a pastry dough (cold butter cut into the dry ingredients, crumble, then add the wet ingredients). Then:

  Turn onto a floured surface; knead gently 8-10 times. Divide into four portions. On ungreased baking sheets, pat dough into 4-in. circles. Cut each into four wedges, but do not separate.

I followed the recipe to the letter, using a scale. But the dough emerged extremely sticky. Kneading was impossible. Forming into circles too: I spread it with a knife, but couldn't get it in any way into a regular shape. It stuck to everything, including a silicone rolling mat and a silicone spatula. The best description I can manage for the consistency is Nutella-like.

Is this normal? If yes, why the "knead" instruction? If not, what went wrong?

It should be reasonably dense, firm and only a little sticky on the outside - a bit like modelling clay. You should be able to knead it easily and cut shapes out of it without too much trouble.

The absorptive potential of flour varies by brand and even batch, so recipes involving it always require a little improvisation - in this case it sounds like you need a bit more.


Why does my tofu keep turning out brittle? I've been making my own tofu for a couple weeks now, first making fresh soy milk using my soy milk maker, and then combining the fresh and hot milk in a bowl with tofu coagulant (either gypsum or nigari), let it sit for a while, and then press it.

However, my tofu keeps turning out quite grainy and brittle, easily falling apart.

How can I stop this from happening?

This recipe uses more coagulant (1 tablespoon for 3 cups/600g of dried soy beans + 750g of water) and more weight (2.5 pounds), so I think you could also increase one or both of these factors in your next batch.


Is it safe to eat green onion slime? I just harvested some scallions from the garden, where it's getting bit chilly (late November in Seattle).

After chopping them, I realized that their insides were covered in a gelatinous, slippery, viscous goo!

What is it? Is it safe to eat?

Normally, people associate slime with "inedible" because some bacterial colonies can build up slime on spoiled food. But there are plants which naturally produce slime, and it is as edible as any other part of the same plant. Slimes are most common in algae, but I have also seen them in other plants such as hyacinth greens, and scallions have it too, although in normally not that much. But if you mash a "dry" scallion or the greens of a typical yellow onion, they still feel slimy, while other alliums become slimy on cooking, for example leeks.

Physically, slime is just a special kind of gel. As long as it is not of bacterial origin, it is not a sign of spoilage, and it is highly improbable that a living green plant without signs of sickness will be full of colonies of spoilage bacteria. So, I would declare it good to eat.


Mousseline sauce, use the white or the yolk of the egg? I always used the yolk of the egg for preparing mousseline sauce, but sometimes I see recipes on the web where they use the white of the egg.

Like in the definition on this site epicurious

  mousseline
  [moos-LEEN]
  1. Any sauce to which whipped cream or beaten egg whites have been added just prior to serving to give it a light, airy consistency.

So what's the 'orthodox' way of making mousseline sauce?

And what difference would it make to use the whites instead of the yolks?

I guess, I will have to try it one of these days, but was wondering about.

It should* be made (classically) with egg whites.  It is supposed to be a light hollandaise based sauce.  Obviously the white is lighter. All the fat from in the mousseline should come from the butter, not yolk.


Can bean-to-cup machine make quality espresso/cappuccino? I want to buy myself a coffee machine so I can get nice and tasty coffee throughout the day. Basically my goals are

Don't really want to invest half the day in front of my machine, experimenting with all sort of weirdness
Do want excellent and nice looking coffee.
Do want to have milk foam.
Don't want to go over 500 euros.

I'm OK with a cup of coffee taking like 15 minutes of preparation, but not much more.

I heard from people that a bean-to-cup machine makes not a real cappuccino or espresso, because that can only be done by a portafilter machine, where you have to grind the beans yourself and prepare for much longer. Is that correct, or is that only fanboy sayings?

EDIT: By "coffee", I mean espresso and cappuccino.

Your best bet is to buy an inexpensive Nespresso type machine. I've been looking for a good coffee machine and I bought a professional machine for nearly 900€. The other option would have been an Nespresso for about 100€. Buy one with a milk foamer. A little bit more expensive, but within your range. Why do I recommend this type of machine? Capsules! All your cups come out equal. No hassle. A little bit more expensive than grinding your own coffee.

The next best bet is consumer grade expresso machine from Krups (for instance), but then you have to grind your own coffee.


How does pineapple tenderize meat? It seems to be common knowledge that pineapple tenderizes meat. Most sources say that it does so due to proteases (specifically bromelain). However, I've also seen suggestions that acid is an effective tenderizer on its own, and the Wikipedia article on bromelain in the meat tenderizing section says:

  Although the quantity of bromelain in a typical serving of pineapple fruit is probably not significant, specific extraction can yield sufficient quantities for domestic and industrial processing.

which is sort of wishy-washy but might mean that there's not actually enough there for tenderizing.

It does seem that pineapple is effective, one way or another. (See for example Will a pineapple marinade reduce a beef roast to paste?)

So what's going on here?

Is the acidity important? Would something equally acidic tenderize just as well? It looks like lemon and lime juice have lower pH than pineapple juice, so how effective are they?

Is the bromelain important? Could you hypothetically neutralize the acidity of pineapple juice and still use it to tenderize, or do you need larger quantities of bromelain extracted for it to be effective?

Update: After reading a bit on this, (and also fully reading the question) I found that there have been papers written on the effects of acid baths on meat tenderness as well as enzyme treatment:
Acid: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=animalscidiss
Enzyme: http://www.brainromania.ro/uploads/papers/effect-of-marination-with-proteolytic-enzymes-on-quality-of-beef-muscle-2012-409.pdf

It seems that food grade citric acid doesn't affect tenderness that much, where as a solution of Bromalain does, and at a greater effect than that found mixed in with the citric acid of Pineapple. There's no study comparing pineapples to oranges (Eh? See what I did there?) but this seems to say that the citric acid in food may have less of an effect than that of the digestive enzymes in them.

Please see below for previous answer if you'd like to point and laugh at those who skim questions and don't read fully.

So, I think I found the answer: http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/pineapple-enzyme-tenderize-steak.htm

Apparently, acidity aside, the enzymes found in the stem of the Pineapple: Bromelain can divide the proteins found in muscular fiber. I'm going to copy and paste the next part from the article that goes a bit deeper into how Bromelain works (and I'm lazy):

  Bromelain works in these capacities due to it's ability to separate amino acids. Amino acids are organic compounds within living cells. Amino acids join by forming peptide bonds, a link that connects one amino acid's amino group with the carboxyl group of another amino acid. When amino acids join through peptide bonds, they form proteins. These proteins can carry out numerous functions in the structure and operation of cells, tissues and organs.

This breaks down the peptide bonds that hold together proteins in collagen, which is what makes meat tough. The enzymes stop around 158 degrees Fahrenheit, so once they start cooking, their work is done. That's why it's important to marinate.

TLDR: Pineapple stems have Bromelain, which aside from a fun nickname breaks down Amino acids and dissolve the peptide bonds in collagen, which causes the firmness in meat.


Stirring honey in room temp. water vs. boiling honey water? I read Is lemonade better when made with simple syrup?, but does the answer differ if I use honey rathe rthan sugar?

In their videos on making lemonade, Rachel Farnsworth and Laura Vitale counsel boiling sugar and water to make simple syrup on the stove. But if I prefer honey, ought I add honey to room temp. water and mix them in a blender?

Honey has volatile flavor compounds like floral overtones or orange flavor which you likely want to keep. High heat will cause you to lose some of these, so I'd advise against boiling. Honey is already a sugar syrup so boiling is totally unnecessary anyway, some heat can help with getting the honey mixed in, but a blender would probably take care of that.


Bread machine bread dough I wanted to bake bread in the oven. I used my bread machine to do the dough part it rise twice in the machine.
I couldn't finish it so I put in fridge over night it rise for a third time. I took it out to get to room temperature. It went down in size. It is in bread pan ready to be bake do I let it rise again for Fourth rise .I didn't knead it I took it out put on counter. Would it rise again? Is it lost? Thank you

It's worth a try letting your bread rise again as you've come this far, however the chances of it coming out well aren't great. Your bread will rise as long as there is enough sugar for the yeast to consume in the dough, if the food supply is exhausted the yeast will die and your bread will collapse, and it's a strong possibility that's happened to you.

However, it could be that you knocked the air out and the yeast is still going, so let it warm up to room temperature and see. If it rises then bake it, if it doesn't get rid of it as it'll come out dense and gummy.


Why do people recommend cream of tartar when whipping egg whites to the exclusion of all other acids? Virtually every single egg white recipe will say add some cream of tartar to egg whites to help them whip better because the cream of tartar will lower the pH and make it more stable. But if all it's doing is making it more acidic, why exclusively cream of tartar over the dozens of far more common acids found in the kitchen?

One difference is cream of tartar is the only solid acid so it wouldn't add more water to the egg whites except many books also say that adding a tbsp of water to egg whites increases stability as well. Is there something else in cream of tartar that isn't in other acids?

Ingredient substitution lists say you can use an equal volume of lemon juice or vinegar if you don't have cream of tartar.

Most likely, the assumption has been that a baker will be more likely to have cream of tartar on hand than other acid sources due to the fact that it has multiple uses in the kitchen:

Leavening
Stabilization of egg whites
Prevent crystallization of sugar in things like frostings, syrups, chocolates, etc.

Cream of tartar also has a number of beneficial properties:

It is odorless and practically tasteless, unlike lemon juice or vinegar.
It acidifies without adding water, which might be detrimental in some applications.
Unlike fresh lemons, cream of tartar has a nearly indefinite shelf life.


How long will grease (from bacon or roast) keep in the fridge? I kept all of the bacon grease from making bacon this weekend, and now I have a jar of solidified grease in the fridge. How long can I use this to impart bacony goodness to my fried vegetables before it goes bad?

What is the shelf life of the fat drippings from bacon, roast and other meats?

Depends on how many solids and how much water you have in it. If you've rendered, filtered, and refined it, it should last a few weeks easy.

Note: my mother maintained it never EVER went bad, refrigerated or not. Lot of old time southern cooks will say the same, but they all go through it fast.


Is there a salt antidote? Possible Duplicate:
  How to fix food that got extra salty?

Is there any way to resurrect a dish if you put too much salt into it ?  I know you could double up all other ingredients to dilute the salt, but if you don't have this option is there anything that tends to counteract salt ?

Depending on the exact dish, a possible solution I have found (and tried) is to add potatoes to the dish, leave for a while (30 mins or so) then remove.  They are meant to absorb the salt somewhat.  It didnt work for me however.

What is the dish you are having problems with?  If it is something with a sauce (e.g. Stew) I have before had to strain it to remove some sauce and then add more stock/water to dilute it back down to your desired consistency.


Do scratches on electric range burner elements affect its performance or function? My electric range is about 5 years old and over time the burner elements have become scratched- it looks like coating is being worn off- is that normal and does it affect the performance or function of the burner?

Thanks for adding the photo, Ford, as I think I know what it is. Although your photo is nicely focused, it's not the real thing so I can't be 100% sure. It looks to be the built up bits of grease and other residues from the bottom of your cooking pans that have accumulated over the 5 years. Not saying you slopped lots but the smallest amounts of spatter from cooking will add up. I moved 6 months ago into a place with a new stove and I've done my best not to spill food and to always wipe up right away but I've noticed the burners getting marked. It doesn't wash off either. Do you find the elements you cook on the most are more marked?

But to answer your original question whether the scratches affect the burners' performance,  the answer is no. All they need to be able to do is heat up and even a knick in the metal wouldn't stop it from heating.


Will avocado stay fresh longer if stored in the refrigerator? Should I store avocado in the refrigerator or will it make no difference for how long they stay fresh?

Ripening of the avocado is slowed down greatly by refrigeration, so it is usually a good idea to let the avocado ripen fully at room temperature. Once it is ripe, it can be stored in the refrigerator for at least a week. This way, it is ready to use whenever you want it. Fortunately, there is a day or two when the avocado is ripe, but not too ripe, so if you check on it everyday when ripening, you will be able to save it at the correct ripeness without worrying about it too much.

Putting an unripened avocado in the refrigerator may prevent it from ever ripening completely. Once cooled to near freezing (40F in most refrigerators), it seems that some avocados (maybe it depends on the type) don't ripen anymore, even when removed to room temperature.