Oven does not have a temperature notification sound Oven is in new condition, however about 10 yeqrs old. The oven does not have a signal to let you know when desired temperature has been reached. Mfg. suggested using an oven thermometer probe.  A probe attached to a wire that goes inside oven connected to a wire and to a battery operated control unit outside of oven.  My question, is than an alternative to this method?  Thank you

Oven temperatures vary depending on insulation and, the big, how often you open the door. I would recommend using the described 'remote' thermometer or an oven thermometer positioned where it can be read through the glass in the door (assuming that would be possible). Set you oven to it's highest setting and time how long it takes to reach that temperature. Once you know how long it takes to reach 'max' use a timer that will give you the audible cue you are seeking at that length of time, regardless of what temperature you may be using at that time. If you want your oven a 325°F and it takes 10 minutes to get to 500°F...it will 'safely' be at 325°F in 10 minutes, once you test it, trust it. Baking rarely requires such an exact temperature control that the variance created would be problematic.

Extending the pre-heat time for your oven is not a bad thing, indeed it helps with the recovery time that it takes to return to the set temp after being opened and closed.


How risky is it to eat raw flour, as in uncooked dough? Does eating raw flour or doughs containing raw flour pose a significant food safety risk (i.e., greater than other dry goods or ingredients in your kitchen)?  If so, are there particular cooking or baking processes where we should be most concerned about this risk?

Background:

There has been a flurry of news headlines in the past few days over the FDA's latest food hazard warning, claiming that raw flour is a significant concern and consumers should be warned not to consume any raw dough made with flour.  For some reason, almost every mainstream news source has chosen to focus on raw cookie dough (even though the FDA's warning applies equally to any raw dough or batter, whether for cookies, pies, bread, pizza, cakes, waffles, etc.), with the New York Times for example claiming that the "F.D.A. Ruins Raw Cookie Dough for Everybody" and Smithsonian Magazine noting "The FDA Just Declared War on Cookie Dough".

I've been aware for several years that flour bags in the U.S. now come with the warning "Do not eat raw flour, dough, or batter," I assume in response to the 2009 outbreak of E. coli from prepackaged cookie dough, whose source was ultimately traced to the flour.  The new FDA warning is in response to the present E. coli outbreak, which has apparently been confirmed as originating in flour and has resulted in the recall of 10 million pounds of flour.

I obviously don't wish to downplay the seriousness of this outbreak.  But I am interested in the rationale behind the FDA's warning.  In particular, is flour (and raw dough) actually a higher-risk food hazard than any other uncooked ingredient in a kitchen?  For example, we all know that raw vegetables and fruits have been responsible for hundreds of outbreaks, but the FDA has not issued a general warning against consumption of raw vegetables and fruit.  (Instead, the warnings tend to be against the specific batches of contaminated food, as well as a few specific high-risk raw vegetables like sprouts.)

And outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli in the U.S. have been linked to almost every conceivable type of uncooked food.  For example, a whitepaper from a flour mill that produces heat-treated flour for safety notes that just among low-moisture foods, "Salmonella has been implicated in several foodborne outbreaks in low-moisture foods, including chocolate, powdered infant formula, raw almonds, toasted oat breakfast cereals, dry seasonings, paprika-seasoned potato chips, infant cereals, and ... peanut butter," and that was only up to 2004.  That list has grown significantly in the past decade.

Raw flour, like most of the dry foods listed above, has generally been considered extremely low-risk as a cause of foodborne illness.  (See for example this thread from a couple years back, where two different people reported asking state food safety experts about this issue and were told there's absolutely no reason for concern over raw flour.)

So, to sum up, is raw flour actually a higher risk?  99% of foods that you bring into your house with intent to eat raw and don't heat to 160F could conceivably be contaminated with bacteria, as numerous outbreaks have shown.  In most instances, the problem is traced to a specific source.  So why has raw flour been singled out for a general prohibition (as opposed to a warning about a specific contaminated batch, which applies to most fruit and vegetable outbreaks, as well as most of the dry goods outbreaks mentioned above)?

Is there some new information that justifies this broad and sweeping FDA prohibition on the basis of a couple outbreaks?  (And if contaminated flour is such a big deal now to justify the recall of millions of pounds of flour, what makes this new situation different from most wheat flour, which has been known for decades to have high rates of E. coli and Salmonella contamination, occurring in something like 13% of samples of flour?)

Does eating raw flour or doughs containing raw flour pose a significant food safety risk (i.e., greater than other dry goods or ingredients in your kitchen)?

Yes, as the level of bacteria has not been reduced/killed especially if the dough has been sitting/fermenting and/or contains harmful bacteria.
Nb: Most flour isn't washed or treated (irradiated) before use.
Although it is cosidered 'dry' it always contains a level of moisture and it's storage usually allows moisture transfer from the local environment that it is stored/used in.

If so, are there particular cooking or baking processes where we should be most concerned about this risk?

Not really, unless the cooking/baking process does not reach a high enough temperature or a long enough period to reduce/neutralise the bacteria that may be present.

I obviously don't wish to downplay the seriousness of this outbreak. But I am interested in the rationale behind the FDA's warning. In particular, is flour (and raw dough) actually a higher-risk food hazard than any other uncooked ingredient in a kitchen? For example, we all know that raw vegetables and fruits have been responsible for hundreds of outbreaks, but the FDA has not issued a general warning against consumption of raw vegetables and fruit. (Instead, the warnings tend to be against the specific batches of contaminated food, as well as a few specific high-risk raw vegetables like sprouts.)

While it can be argued on the quantities being consumed of flour compared to raw vegetables and fruits, and therefore the level of bacteria that the person is exposed to.  Besides most raw Fruit & Vegetables should be washed, the soil and bacteria can be removed this way, and that is before some of these are peeled/trimmed.  Dried fruit and vegetables after washing (and in some cases peeling), can have a number of processes (such as pre-treated - soaking in an acidic solution, or blanched) and are usually kept in a dry environment.
Minimally processed vegetables (high risk), such as watercress can be irradiated.  FDA article on produce (buying, storing, preparing raw fruit & vegetables)
However, raw nuts still have risks of bacteria (e.g. salmonella).  Most nuts are  treated (pasteurised - steam, blanched, roasted, or fumigated - propylene oxide)

So why has raw flour been singled out for a general prohibition (as opposed to a warning about a specific contaminated batch, which applies to most fruit and vegetable outbreaks, as well as most of the dry goods outbreaks mentioned above)?
Is there some new information that justifies this broad and sweeping FDA prohibition on the basis of a couple outbreaks? (And if contaminated flour is such a big deal now to justify the recall of millions of pounds of flour, what makes this new situation different from most wheat flour, which has been known for decades to have high rates of E. coli and Salmonella contamination, occurring in something like 13% of samples of flour?)

FDA Raw Flour/Dough update
Article on the investigation and the lead to the ban
Any further questions maybe better answered by getting in contact with the FDA
and the academic community.


Some batter falls off during deep fry I have been trying to replicate a bloomin' onion, but it seems that I can never keep the batter on the onion during the frying process. It doesn't completely fall off, but it is definitely not the same as what I see in restaurants.

I usually do a mixture of 2 eggs and a cup of milk for the wet and flour with spices for the dry. I dip in the wet first, then dry, wet again, then dry again. I fry it at 350, but when the time suggested (6 minutes) is up, I pull it out and it just seems to crumble off half the time.

Could it be that my oil is not the correct temperature? Am I leaving it in for the incorrect amount of time?

I am trying to follow the recipe found on food network's site.

Edit: As suggested by @Satanicpuppy I will try coating it in the flour mixture first, giving it a total of five dredgings. I will update this once I try it again if that is the solution.

From Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food (p. 99): "The number one reason breadings fail (fall off) is too much primer coat (flour). There is nothing to hold the layers together so they unzip from each other and your breading is floating free in the fryer..."

If you're going to use a three-stage breading process, which is what you've described, you need to make sure to shake off as much of the initial flour layer as possible.  Dry flour doesn't stick to itself very well, so if a too-thick initial dredging creates clump-like layers of flour that aren't well moistened, in the relative violence of the fryer the dry interior of those clump-like layers will separate from each other and your breading will flake off.

For "bloomin' onions," the process I've seen wasn't a three-stage one like you describe.  Rather, the onions were stored/soaked in milk (because soaking in a slightly acidic liquid mellows the onions -- water should be as effective, and soaking may not be necessary at all), and, as needed, pulled out, shaken free of excess liquid, and generously dredged in seasoned flour.


Oven Temperature an 3 frozen pot pies I'm cooking 3 frozen pot pies do I need to adjust my temp so that they will cook in the hour it takes to do just one

In general ovens are not adjusted for the amount of food being cooked.  It really only matters if you oven is not good at holding temperature, if a very large mass of cold is being heated or if there is enough in the oven to block air movement.  An oven tends to act as a large heat reservoir with a relatively small food item being cooked.  Three small food items will tend to cook in about the same amount of time as one.  You might see a little difference, but it is unlikely to be a huge jump in time needed.  It is different when applied to something like a roast or turkey where a 20 pound item will take much longer than a 10 pound item.

When heating something in a microwave though, this is not true.  A microwave oven focuses the energy and the items in it take that energy without there being a heat reservoir. So, if you attempt to cook 3 items at once rather than 1 you need to provide much more energy, which is done by greatly increasing the time, or simply reverting to doing one at a time.

In the case of conventional oven, I would not really expect a need to increase time by more that a few minutes, if at all, but there cooking times are always approximate in any case.  The true answer to if the item is heated enough is always temperature, not time.


What is this beanlike thing? I had a meal today with beanlike things I was unable to identify. They tasted something like a hard green bean, and it was about 1cm long.

This is very likely Samphire, at least an image search for samphire gives a perfect visual match.


My cast iron has become flaky, did I damage it? So I am quite new to this cast iron thing. After few uses I tried to clean it with kosher salt. Now some parts of it look like it's all flaky, as if the layer will come off if I scratch it with my fingernail. The part is grayish in color. Is it the seasoning that has come off, or have I damaged my pan? How do you really know the difference? I mean, how easy it is to damage a cast iron pan in a way it is no longer useful, and what will that damage look like?

If it's flaking, it wasn't seasoned right to begin with. However it really only matters on the cooking surface. You want seasoning to build up, but it shouldn't flake.

See if it really is coming off, try with you fingernail. If it's coming off then get all of it off that you can by chipping it away. Scrape it off. If it doesn't come off then leave it alone, and season as normal another new layer.

If you aren't happy with it, you can always strip it and start over but that's usually something you end up wishing you hadn't done. You do this by putting your cast iron in the oven and running it through a cleaning cycle. Be warned, don't do this unless you already know what to do and how to season your newly bare cast iron.

Old cast iron seasoning is the best, you don't want to start over. I have some with a 1/4 inch of seasoning (I am exaggerating) on the outside of the pan and it looks crusty, but the inside seasoning and finish is baby skin smooth and slicker than any Teflon coating. I keep it that way by scrubbing lightly with a green scrubby to "tip" the bumps down before putting back in the hot stove to cook another thin layer of oil.

You can't ruin cast iron except by breaking it. Don't worry, it's not ruined, it just needs some care. Some of my best cast iron was a lump of rust I rescued from the junk store.


Frozen pizza - Understanding time and temperature equivalency When cooking a frozen pizza in a conventional oven, I have two similar personal pizzas: one box's instructions say to cook at 425°F for 19 minutes, and the instructions on the other pizza box says to cook at 33 minutes at 350°F.

Can I cook both pizzas at 350°F for ~33 minutes?
Does 350°F at 33 minutes equate to 425°F at 19 minutes with frozen pizzas in a conventional oven?
If not, why not?

You can try to bake both at the lower temperature, and it might turn out OK, but there are a lot of variables that could cause it not to.

I went into some of the effects of time and temperature in this answer.  In a nutshell, you have two major processes happening when you bake dough; the first is the Maillard reaction (browning) and the second is water evaporation (drying/hardening).  Just to make things even more fun, the second has a strong effect on the first; the more water evaporates, the quicker the browning will occur.

There's also the gluten development (chewiness) of the crust, but that is less of an issue with pizza because you're usually aiming for a crispy crust.

What this means to you is that if the two different pizzas have crusts with different amounts of water, then the one with lower water content may end up rock-hard and even burnt by the time the second one is properly cooked.

350° F is only a little bit higher than Maillard temperature, so the browning will happen pretty slowly; the fact that the box suggests this temperature likely means a relatively high water content, so that the crust can firm up before starting to brown.  On the other hand, 425° F and 20-minute cooking time probably indicates a higher water content; you want to brown the crust more quickly before the crust gets too hard and/or starts to burn.

So there's a non-trivial likelihood that after 33 minutes at 350° F, the second pizza (which gives a higher temperature) will be undercooked and doughy.  Undercooked is easy to fix in theory, but the problem is that you've thrown off the water ratio, which was specifically formulated for a higher temperature, so it's going to be hard for you to get it exactly right, even if you raise the temperature to finish it off.  It'll still be edible, of course; it's really just a matter of how picky you are (the answer to which is probably "not very" if you're eating frozen pizza...).

On the other hand, there's also a not-too-distant possibility that the two pizza crusts are practically the same, and the different brands just have different ideas of how crisp/brown the crust ought to be when cooked.  It's really hard to know until you try.

One other thing to mention is that if you plan to bake both pizzas at the same time then you will probably need to raise the temperature/time slightly to compensate.  Also, I really wouldn't recommend putting one on a lower rack, because it blocks the heat from the element and tends to mess up what little circulation there is in a conventional oven, and you'll end up with a very flat and probably undercooked pizza.

Bakeries and pizzerias will usually have pizza stones and special ovens with fans and possibly turntables to mitigate this issue; home ovens don't.  So I'd recommend either baking them on the same rack (if you have room) or baking them separately.


Is horse meat supposed to be chewy? I just had horse meat for the first time and found it rather chewy.  When asked what I thought of it, I said I found it a bit chewy.  I then got a new portion, which was just as chewy.  Is this simply how it is supposed to be?  The waiter suggested as much, but I am skeptical.

Depends on the horse meat.  The Japanese make horse meat sashimi, which as you might expect is quite tender.


Can I use liquid-form sugar to replace powdered-form sugar in meringue or sponge cake? Borderline diabetes runs in my mom's side of the family so I'm taking some proactive steps to reduce empty carbs as much as I can. Sponge cake is something I make often and I always put less sugar than the recipe calls for.
But I'm thinking of replacing it entirely with something healthier. We already use honey or palm sugar syrup in drinks and other desserts, but I have not tried it on a meringue, which is a prerequisite for sponge cakes. Anyone here tried it? If yes, what was the result?
I also read in another post that you can replace sugar with corn starch for meringue if one does not mind having no sweetness. Anyone tried it before, and did it work?

In theory you should be able to replace the sugar with a liquid form. The purpose of sugar in meringue is to stabilize the foam generated by the whipping. It does this by preventing the foam from drying out and collapsing as the structure becomes weaker from a lack of water. Hence anything that can retain the water will help.
The one major difficulty that you might encounter is that liquid sugars contain water already, so they might make the foam too liquid/soft to retain the meringue texture. You may be able to overcome this by whipping a lot more, but it might not work. To get around this you could substitute some of the sugar with guar gum or xanthan gum, at 0.04%, both of which appear to stabilize the foam formation (PDF; see page 88).


Steak qualities/beef grades in Canada? In his answer, @hobodave describes the three grades of beef available in the States: Select, Choice, and Prime. He further points out that most supermarkets only carry Select grade.

What are the grades available in Canada, and where can one find higher grades of beef?

The grades that you would be interested in, that are available in Canada, are:
Prime, AAA, AA, and A

See:
Beef Grades and Comparison with US Grades

You can get Sterling Silver Beef in most grocery stores and it is either Prime or high quality AAA. It is also aged for 21 days.

You can also order Prime on-line or ask your favourite butcher.


How do I make dried soup mix? I do a lot of backpacking, and I usually buy freeze dried meals, like these ones.

This year I would like to make my own dried meals. I know how to dehydrate my main ingredients, but I'm not sure how to make a good soup base.

Does anyone have some tips on how to make good mix bases? Or dried meals in general?

A large bottle of caramelized onions and toasted garlic mix is essential in any situation.

And a bottle of powdered Parmesan, adulterated with broken blue cheese bits.

I have been thinking of the possibility of dried green peas, because adding unfrozen green peas (those I get from the frozen veg dept at the supermart) to my soup would sweeten up my soup. I would like to know if drying up the peas would be possible, and that dried green peas would not be a disaster to my broth.

I have a slow cooker. I use it to make spice mixes. I mix into the pot a combination of

cumin powder, various types
broken up anise
coriander seeds
cardamom
cloves
celery seeds
fanugreek seeds
tamarind

I don't think you should mix all of them together, but you should make different combinations of them. I put in sufficient water for each mixture and slow-cook them for a few hours. And they sit in bottles unrefrigerated on my shelf for a few months without getting spoiled.

Then, I have bottles of mint chutney to supplement my soup base above. Mint should not be cooked. Mint is topped onto your food or soup together with the parmesan/blue cheese, when it's being served. Cooking would destroy the scent and flavour of mint.

But then, this is my preference due to my upbringing.


Nutritional information on fruits and veggies I've been looking online for an extensive database of nutritional information on various fruits and vegetables. I've been advised by my doctor to start eating healthier and I'd just like to know the calories, vitamins and minerals that each type of fruit and vegetable have.

I'd like to use the chart in making more salads, vegetable and fruit side dishes and the like ... I just need to know what's good to use and what type of vegetable and fruit provides what type of nutrition.

I've tried searching on google but my google-fu appears to be missing the mark this time, most of the stuff I've found only lists a few fruits and veggies or has little information for each item. I'd like a comprehensive list so I can change things up as I cook and not get stuck in the same ol rut (an apple a day is good and all but gets boring after a while).

My first-line reference is: http://nutritiondata.self.com/


Substituting for Candlenuts in Indonesian Food Indonesian cuisine relies heavily on candlenuts as a base and thickener for spice pastes which are the foundation of the cuisine.  This includes many of the various rendangs and sambals, such as Sambal Kemiri.   Candlenuts are also used in Malaysian cuisine.

Thing is, in San Francisco candlenuts are kind of hard to come by.  I have to buy them in the Asian supermarket, frozen, and they're quite expensive.  So my question is, what's the best substitute for candlenuts using readily available ingredients in an American general market?

Here's a few I've thought of, some of which I've even tried:

Macadamia Nuts
Raw cashews
Roasted Cashews
Brazil nuts

The thing is, I don't have very in-depth experience with Indonesian cuisine, so even if it tastes OK, I'm not sure I'm getting the flavor right.  Recommendations?

Macadamia is as close as you will find for the texture and oil content. As you are using it for spice pastes -the only use I have had for them- then macs are an excellent carrier. That slightly bitter and sometimes soapy aftertaste, I have yet to find a substitute for.
What's a Laksa without that flavor component?


How to tell which induction cookware is most efficient in conducting heat? As above. I am looking for a durable water kettle (preferably stainless steel 304) that is super efficient in conducting heat when on induction cooker. How do I tell which brand/model will conduct heat the fastest without doing the actual test?

Your rule of thumb for induction cookware of any sort is that if a magnet will stick to it, it will work. If you can get to a store that has the kettles you are interested in, bring a magnet with you to test the various models. The better the magnet sticks, the better off you probably are.

I would give a couple of extra things some consideration.  The heavier the pot, the more consistent the heat, though most induction cooktops are really good at maintaining a temperature.  Second, go with stainless if at all possible.  It's so much easier to clean and maintain.

Edit:

Just climbed out of another internet rabbit hole.  Induction cookware works because of a current induced into metal that does not conduct electricity well.  Iron works great because it is not a totally efficient conductor.  Stainless steel, because of the different alloys, does not always work on an induction cooktop.  Clad pots and pans that have layers of ferric metals sandwiched between layers of better conductive metals can give you a balance of heating ability and conductivity.  All of this, though, can in general be boiled down to: Heavy is good, Magnetic is Good, Stainless is Good. You can check these in store before you buy.

If you are looking to buy online, you face a different set of problems.  An "Induction Ready" label is a place to start.

Second Edit:

Fantastic Information here.  Tells you a lot more about how the whole shebang works, so you can decide what you will require in a Kettle.


turkish delight is "grainy" I made Turkish Delight today. I used 2 large cups sugar, 1oz gelatine, 1 saltspoon citric acid and 1cup boiling water. Boiled all together for 15 minutes then halfed the mixture. Flavoured one with lemon essence and coloured lemon and the other half flavoured with rosewater and tinted pink. Allowed it to set. Lemon is almost perfect texture but the rosewater one is "grainy" and much firmer set than the lemon. Why is it so? It was the same mixture, halved!

Grainy means your sugar formed crystals during the heating process. Lemon and other acids retard the formation of crystals, which is why one came out better than the other.

I'd suggest adding some cream of tartar to the other one (which should do the same as the lemon, but without changing the flavor).

In general, to lower crystallization, you should make sure the pots are absolutely clean, and then take great care not to stir or jostle the mix during the heating process. You can also add a little corn syrup, if you roll that way (adding acid actually inverts some of the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which is why it helps to add acid, but you can also just add glucose, in the form of corn syrup. I wouldn't use honey, because of it's water content.)

Hope that helps.


If I made chocolates filled with a shop-bought fruit preserve or jam, how long will it last? If I made chocolates filled with fruit the product, would the use by date of the original jar of preserve still count or would the homemade chocolates have to be used up in a couple of days?  If the jar's use by date still applied, how can the homemade chocolates' same fruit filling be made to last as long as the chocolate?

The use by date on the jar assumes that it is refrigerated after opening. So you have to keep them in the fridge, or eat them soon.


Culinarily Flexible Pepper I'm planning next years garden, and want to know what the most culinary flexible pepper to plant would be.

I plan on using peppers for canning & chili.

Growing peppers of the proper heat level I think will be the most important.

If you like a lot of spice and grow Jalapeno peppers, then everything is going to taste like Jalapeno because you have to use a lot to get your desired heat level.

If you have the appropriate heat level pepper, then a little goes a long way in a dish and you will feel it much more than you taste it.

Here is a page with a nice list of peppers with ratings from the Scoville Scale (also explained on the page) http://ushotstuff.com/Heat.Scale.htm


Cheese making, acidic whey, denatured protein I wish to know. Does protein in acidic whey gets denatured and is it unfit for consumption. By acidic whey I mean whey which was made through citric acid as splitting agent for making panner(cottage cheese). How can I preserve it for a week so as to get it tested in lab.

"Denaturing" is when something makes a protein unwind from it's normally stable, coiled state. The unzipped proteins are then able to tangle up with each other. In milk this action makes them precipitate out as the curd.
http://www.thekitchn.com/the-science-behind-why-acid-curdles-milk-222962

There are a few things that make milk proteins denature: Heat, enzymes, and acid. Often a combination of these is used.

There are two types of protein that are involved when making cheese: The casein and the water soluble proteins in the albumin. When milk is only gently heated and exposed to acid or rennet only the casein curdles. The albumin proteins are left. Heating the milk to 190F, in the presence of acid, will allow the albumin proteins to also denature. The curd that is formed through this process is called "ricotta" cheese ("recooked" in Italian).

Paneer is made by heating the milk before introducing the acid. Thus, the albumin is already denatured and locked up in the curd. The whey left from that cheese process is mostly sugar and vitamin B compounds. There isn't much protein left. You can prove this by trying to make ricotta. Bring the whey to almost a boil and see if any more protein precipitates out.

As for food safety.
Denatured milk protein is not only safe but one of the most heavenly foods on earth: cheese.

The shelf-life of whey varies depending on how the cheese was made. Most cheese methods produce a whey that is very acidic. It can be low in protein as mentioned above. If the cheese was fermented with bacteria then the whey is also low in sugars. This all conspires to make whey very stable. It will last for a long time in the fridge and basically forever in the freezer.


What to consider when learning to make sushi at home? I like eating sushi and think it would be a fun experiment to attempt making sushi at home.  I've seen rolls put together in a restaurant a couple times - looks so simple!  I've heard it is difficult though.

I'm wondering if there any special utensils that I would need to make sushi rolls aside from basics found in most kitchens?  Is it the kind of thing that I should look for a kit?  I'm also curious if there is anything recommended for beginning - certain ingredients to use (perhaps on the cheaper side to get started), etc.  Maybe some gotchas to avoid.  I've been looking for a guide, potentially with detailed pictures to get started with, but nothing has hit the spot yet.

There are a few tools you should have that are out of the ordinary in a typical American kitchen:

Sushi rolling mat - It's really the only way to make maki (rolls). Pro tip: when you use it, put it inside of a large zip-loc bag. This helps prevent the rice sticking to the mat.
Wooden sushi bowl - This is essential in helping the rice turn out properly. The one I linked includes a free mat. I don't own this particular brand; I bought mine from an asian grocery store near me for like $30, it came with a paddle. If you don't want to commit to this large uni-tasker then I recommend using an equally large shallow-ish plastic bowl/dish. The sushi chef that taught me said plastic was OK, but to avoid glass or metal.
Quality rice cooker - A quality rice cooker makes life amazingly easier. I own the one linked and it is amazing. I use it for cooking all of my rice. The quality of Zojirushi is simply unsurpassed and it quickly pays for itself.

The single most important thing is a very sharp knife. It makes cutting the maki SO much easier. I can't stress this enough. A chef's knife is just fine, but it should be well cared for and very sharp.

For beginners nigiri-zushi is by far the easiest to make. You simply shape a small amount of rice in the palm of your hand and slap a piece of fish or other seafood on top of it. Cutting the fish for nigiri is an artform and cannot be adequately conveyed here, but if you just hack out a thin piece of the right size it will taste fine. Tuna and salmon are relatively cheap cuts to use for this.

For maki I suggest starting with spicy tuna rolls and California rolls. All you need for a California roll is: avocado, cucumber, and imitation crab meat. For spicy tuna mix you need: tuna, kewpie mayo, and shichimi togaroshi (or nanami togaroshi).

You may also want some tobiko and/or masago roe for the outside of your rolls.


Which gum/gums to use to get a gummy texture when using Agar agar powder Trying to do a school project that needs me to make gummies from scratch in an innovative way. I decided to go with Agar agar for a vegan based gummy. Unfortunately, once I make the gummies the agar agar sets but I don’t get the gummy/chewy texture that is required. What should I use in conjunction with the agar agar to get this texture without having to compromise the vegan factor?

Just checked the ingredients of some common brands and it looks that they mostly use a mixture of sucrose and glucose-syrup or invert syrup(aka glucose-fructose-syrup) as a base, some also add modified starch. While pectine, locust bean gum, guar or xanthan is used as thickening agent. Agar also would go in this list, but seems not to be used very much by the industry for making gums. But this might rather be for financial than for technical reasons. I would recommend to search for some recipes to compare against each other and to use as starting point to figure out the right balancing of the mixture.


Homemade Beet Pasta loses color when cooked I love making homemade pasta, and I've been making the beet pasta for a while (I use this recipe here http://natalieparamore.com/homemade-beet-pasta/).
When I make the pasta, it gets a beautiful dark red color, like the pictures from the recipe; however, when I cook it, it loses most of it's color, and turns into a pink pasta, instead of the dark red.
Is there a way to avoid this, or reduce the loss of color? Something I can add to the recipe, a different way to make it, or something I can do before cooking the pasta?
Thanks

You could use commercial food coloring. I wouldn't tell, and it wouldn't take much. I use this brand for baking, I'm sure it would be fine in pasta:


How to make, store, and reheat angel hair pasta for 250 in a tiny church kitchen My wedding is coming, and our main course is angel hair pasta with red sauce or white sauce, and add-ins which are cubed grilled chicken and broccoli florets. We are feeding 250 from age 2 up to age 90. I know that portion sizes differ from person to person, and I have done the math. I will need 46-50 pounds of pasta (from a 3-4 oz. serving standpoint). My question becomes...how will I make, store, reheat, and serve this much? Our kitchen has one refrigerator, one stove/oven, one deep freezer, one sink, and one counter area. Roasters to hold the pasta warm? Will that work to reheat it during the ceremony in time for the reception (especially if we start it a little before the ceremony)? Help!

There are a few questions about this topic already, but angel hair is very tricky as it's very easy to overcook ... but it also cooks quickly, so it might work.

One of the big questions is going to be what other items you're going to be reheating, and so if all of the equipment that you mentioned are actually going to be available.  You're going to be holding/warming chicken, brocolli, and two sauces.  That's likely going to tie up the oven and possibly two of the burners on the stove.

Capellinini/Angel Hair typically cooks in 4-5 minutes.  At 3 to 4oz / person, you're looking at 47 to 63 lbs of pasta.  Even if you can cook 5 lbs of pasta at a time, if we assume 1 minute to pull the pasta & refill, it's still an hour.

So, a few important things to consider -- don't pour out hot water as you're cooking.  Find a way to quickly remove the pasta so that you then have hot water to cook the next batch.  There are companies that make pots with 'pasta inserts' that they claim are for this, but they're really for steaming, (they don't touch the bottom, and have excessively large holes) so there's a good chance that you'll lose a lot of pasta in the process.

There are 'pasta cooking baskets' like for restaurants, but they're typically smaller and intended for single servings.  If I were doing this, I'd either find a stainless steel fine holed or mesh colander than just barely fit into my largest pot, remove any side handles and rig up a way to remove it, so I could safely cook 4 or 5 lbs at a time.  If I couldn't find that, I'd buy stainless steel insect screen, and make my own basket.  But I have the tools (seamer and safety wire if that's not secure enough) and experience to do that sort of thing.  You would also want to keep a kettle of hot water available, as you'll need to replace the water that was absorbed by the pasta.

Your next option is to parcook the pasta, as is mentioned in other questions, removing it about 2 minutes before it's done (although I'd run some tests to verify timing).  The problem is that you have to toss it in oil to prevent it from sticking (which would be a lot for angel hair due to surface area) and cool it down quickly so it's not continuing to cook (shock in cold water, then wire racks over a sheet pan (in the fridge?) to let it drain).  I'd make nests of pasta, just to it's easier to repackage and/or portion for reheating.  So you'd need a lot of refrigerated storage on top of everything else.

You then have to reheat it.  You could either toss it back into boiling water for a minute (don't forget to subtract for carry over cooking) to finish cooking.  You could also steam it to reheat.  In that case, you'd want to pull it when it's super al-dente; steaming takes longer, but it gives a longer window to avoid overcooked pasta.  It's also possible to reheat pasta in hot (not boiling) water so you have a better window, but I'd be reluctant to do it with angel hair.  Or reheat it in hot sauce (thinned some to consider how much will be absorbed by the pasta).  (although for angel hair, I'd want to do it just before serving, and having a chef manning a 'pasta bar' for 250 people might be a problem unless he has 3-4 burners to work with).

If you don't have a steam table or similar to reheat, you can use a chafing dish and use an appropriately sized foil pan (leaving an inch or two of space underneath for boiling water, and fills the dish so there isn't lots of steam going out the sides) that you've poked lots of holes in.

So, the options are:

Find a way to cook large batches with limited reset time before the next batch.
Par cook, cool and then finish boiling (again with a way to quickly reset)
Cook to super-al dente, then finish by steaming, hot (not boiling) water, or in hot sauce.

Personally, I'd switch to a thicker pasta, as (1) I hate dealing with angel hair (too easy to ruin), and (2) I find that it's best for oil based sauces, I don't think it holds up well to thicker sauces like tomato or cream sauces.  I'd probably use a linguini fini.  The larger surface area vs. a fully round pasta will hold sauce better, and the larger size is more forgiving ... without significantly changing the dish if you went for fettuccine or a shaped pasta.  (note that penne rigatte seems to be the norm when I see 'pasta bars' at buffets)


Bubbling chilli sauce I've made a chili sauce mainly with fresh chili, herbs and spices and olive oil & small bit of balsamic vinegar, I've sealed it tightly in a PRESERVE bottle mainly used for making jam, but it seem to be bubbling after a few days?what could be the problem

You are lucky - your sauce is spoiling and you are seeing it.

It is not safe to can random recipes, or to store them (uncanned) for more than 5 days in the refrigerator or more than 2 hours at room temperature. This means that, if you go ahead and can them neverthelss, you get one of the outcomes:

no pathogenic bacterial growth and no symptoms of spoilage.
no pathogenic bacterial growth, but symptoms of spoilage (caused by harmless bacteria or yeasts)
pathogenic bacterial growth and no symptoms of spoilage
pathogenic bacterial growth and symptoms of spolage.

Many people try it out, get outcome 1 (which is really frequent) and conclude that it is safe and outcomes 2, 3 or 4 will never happen. They are wrong.

What happened to you is either 2 or 4, because the bubbles are caused by bacteria digesting your sauce and creating gasses as a byproduct of their metabolism. There is no way to tell if the bacteria are harmless or pathogenic. So your food is spoiled.

The reason I said "lucky": You also narrowly missed case 3, which is the most dangerous. Then you would have been at real risk to get seriously ill, without any warning.


Can I grill a chicken/turkey breast in the night and eat it 12:00 and 18:00? First of all, I'm sorry for my English, I'm not fluent.

I'm on a diet where I can eat only chicken breast and ground muscle (don't know the right word for this but I tried) as the meat (and fish, but I don't like it). Since I work like 10 hours a day and I don't come home for lunch, I have to take my food to the work. So I usually cook the meal at night and I have lunch for like 2 days.

But when I tried to grill the chicken, the taste wasn't very nice. The only condiment I'm using is salt. So, here is my question: can I grill a chicken breast at night and eat it at 12:00pm and 18:00pm? Are there any risks of getting food poisoning or something like that?

BTW, can someone give me some tips about maintaining the chicken/turkey breast in the refrigerator (and not in freezer)?

Any kind of cooked meat or fish and most perishable foods in general are safe as long as they are fully cooked and refrigerated within 2 hours (although the quality will deteriorate rapidly with fish).

If you plan to eat the leftovers twice then refrigerate two individual portions. Reheating the same item multiple times raises the risk of bacterial contamination. That is really the only thing you need to concern yourself with for short-term storage.

For more information see the USDA Basics for Handling Food Safely.


How do I dehydrate Ganoderma Applanatum? I'm wanting to turn artist conk into powder. How should I dehydrate it for grinding in my cornmeal grinder? I tried 6 hours at 180 in the oven, and it's still moist to the touch.

As the generic simple answer that works for most mushrooms:

Cut them in cubes of 1 cm³ (0.061 inch³)
Put them on parchment paper in your oven at 110°C (230°F)
for 1 hour (½ Shí).

doesn't seem to work on this particular mushroom, you'll need special (read: expensive) equipment to be able to dry these before being able to grind them to powder and that is:

Freeze drying
Vacuum drying

Sorry!  :-(
Note: Or bring a few six packs to someone owning this equipment already and drink the beers while waiting for the process to finish


Optimal stirring technique: I read that stirring liquids in a straight line is better than in a circle, but I can't find any references I remember reading that some scientific researchers in Japan (I think) discovered that when it came to stirring liquids, moving a spoon back and forth was more efficient at mixing the liquids than if you moved the spoon in circles. I've experienced this to be true. Nevertheless, I would like to find the evidence of this, either in original source material or articles about it and I'm coming up with nothing on Google.

Does anybody remember this or have links to the research?

Well, this does not surprise me. If you move the spoon in circles, you create a shearing action between the faster moving spoon and the slower liquid. This is where you create a force that makes the two different liquids mix. If you move it back and forth, you still have the shearing action between the spoon and the liquid and it is the same as before, as it only depends on the size of the spoon and speed and length of movement, but also the action of the liquids knocking into each other. This is a stronger force than by going in circles as the molecules crash into each other, instead of side-by-side.

Of course, the difference in technique depends a lot on how much force the liquids need to mix in the first place. So, you should be able to easily verify this if you use water and oil and try to mix them by stirring in circles and going back and forth. The difference should be noticeable, while the difference for water and ink should not be detectable.

I don't know the Japanese research, but Harold McGees 'On Food and Cooking' confirms this in the section about whipped cream, how this force allows the fat globules to destabilize (and finally end up as whipped cream).


Butter and Butter Flavored Shortening I have a cookie recipe I am trying for the first time, and it calls for both shortening and butter. I only have butter-flavored shortening on hand for the shortening. Should I reduce the amount of actual butter the recipe calls for? Or should I trek back to the store for regular shortening?

Butter and shortening behave differently in the cookie dough, so unless you are planning to do more adjustments, I recommend you stick to the given butter-to-shortening ratio. If a recipe uses both, it's often to get the best of two worlds.

This leaves the question of flavour.

If you use the butter-flavoured shortening, you will get a stronger "butter" flavour. This may or may not be what you want. So it's mostly a matter of taste (yours, to be exact) whether a trip to the store is in order or not. Without knowing more about your recipe, we can't even try an educated guess.


Canned tomatoes with too much vinegar I canned some tomatoes using vinegar but now the taste in my pasta sauce is too acidic. Is there anything I can do to correct this in my sauce?

Just add a dash of liquid honey: it's a complex sugar that doesn't need much to combat an acidic taste.  If you have no liquid honey and the pasta sauce is still hot enough, use solid honey. if you have neither, use molasses, then cane sugar and if you only have white refined sugar, use that instead.
In all cases, stir well before tasting as you'll end up with ketchup if you add too much!
;-)


How to make good coffee in a Moka pot? I have a Bialetti Moka pot, which I used to make coffee on weekends. I have had it for a few months, but recently I am starting to notice the coffee is coming out sour and bitter. I am guessing I am doing something wrong. I was wondering what I could be missing..

I am filling it up with water (tap water though) till the valve level.
I am spooning the coffee to fill the bucket to level (I don't tamp it) .
I am using Lavazza coffee ground for using with a moka pot.

Any ideas??

Moka coffee pots work well if you use them every day. This way the oils that the coffee leaves inside them do not have the opportunity to go rancid (all fats go rancid eventually) and impart that horrible taste to your coffee. If you use them every day, it is true that you don't really need to clean them, except to remove calcium scale buildup.

If you use it rarely, like in your case or the frequent Moka pot left at a vacation house, you need to clean it with dish detergent and a scrubby sponge, you don't need anything harsher. Make sure that you get all the coffee brown oils out. Yes, it is an unpleasant job. Make sure you rinse it well before putting it away to dry, you don't want to simply replace the bitterness with soapiness.

...and this is the Italian doctrine! :-)


How do I tell if a metal can is safe to bake in? I'm hoping to make some Boston brown bread in the near future, and the recipe I plan to use (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/10/gluten-free-boston-brown-bread-recipe.html) calls for 'unlined 28-ounce cans', but doesn't specify what it means by 'unlined'.  Other recipes I've looked at either say 'any metal can' or just say to use a loaf pan, and I've found lists of which brands of canned food don't use BPA in the lining of their cans, but nothing listing completely unlined cans.

Is there a website somewhere that lists either where I can find food-safe unlined cans, or which types of lining are safe to bake in?  (Or am I just overthinking this, since presumably the cans are exposed to equal or higher temperatures during the canning process?)

Thanks all!

I normally use tin bread molds for baking. They are 'unlined', and so far, they seem to be safe enough. I suppose lining also refers to teflon coating, which is also safe for baking.

Try your luck with tin, the link below has a image for a bread mold similar to those I use.

http://www.elmaral.com/images/moldebudiningles%20graneado..jpg


Can Kebabs be frozen? I have made why I fear is far too many beef and pepper and onion kebabs for a party. Can I freeze any of them beforehand, or will the vegetables be mushy when thawed?

Is there a better way for me to preserve the kebabs (say, for a few days to a week)?

Meat, as long as it's fresh, can be frozen without fanfare.  Vegetables are another story.  Usually they need to be blanched and cooled before freezing (to stop enzymes from causing them to mature past their prime).  However, peppers and onions are fine to freeze "as is". I am concerned, though, that you won't like the vegetable quality once they are defrosted.  You were on the right track: all vegetables, regardless of the type, sustain at least some cellular damage due to the freezing process.  So cooks usually only use the items in dishes that don't require a "showy" performance (like a small dice for salads, or in cooked products like soup).  The reason for this hit in appearance and crunch-ability is this: Veggies are mostly water (70-95%, while beef is only 55-65% water).  As veggies begin to freeze, the water expands, causing tiny shards of ice to break through the delicate cell walls.  The partial or total collapse = mush.

One additional concern is freezing the kabobs with the sticks still in.  Whenever freezing food, you want to keep all moisture IN and air OUT.  (Air changes flavors and distorts color).  This means that whenever possible, you want to pack items in air tight containers.  Obviously all the "empty space" that pre-threaded kabobs require would introduce all sorts of air into the storage container.

If I were you, I would disassemble the extras: freeze the meat to use however you like, and the veggies for less looks-dependent dishes.  Or -- just go ahead and grill up every last kabob, then send your guests home with leftovers.  (They'll definitely come back again this way.)


What determines sweet potato softness? I often make stews with sweet potato. I prepare it by cutting it about 1/2 to 1 inch every time, and stewing it for about 30-45 minutes.

I make sure to keep everything consistent but sometimes it ends up as hard as apple, and other times it turns to mush.

What makes the difference? The age of the sweet potato? The variety? Something else?

Edit: If cooking longer softens the potatoes, then this isn't what's happening. In that case, well, you just need to cook longer. The main variable is probably temperature (maybe the pot isn't actually all hot for all 30-45 minutes), followed by variations in cut size and in the firmness of the original potatoes. But the rest could apply to some readers too!

I'm going to take a wild stab at this. It can explain this sort of thing, but it does depend on how you cook your stew. The following is a quote from On Food and Cooking (excellent book!), one of my favorite discoveries from reading through the sections on fruit and vegetables.

  It turns out that in certain vegetables and fruits - including potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, cherries, apples - the usual softening during cooking can be reduced by a low-temperature precooking step. If preheated to 130-140F/55-60C for 20-30 minutes, these foods develop a persistent firmness that survives prolonged final cooking. ... Firm-able vegetables and fruits have an enzyme in their cell walls that becomes activated at around 50C (and inactivated above 70C), and alters the cell-wall pectins so that they're more easily cross-linked by calcium ions.  At the same time, calcium ions are being released as the cell contents leak through damaged membranes, and they cross-link the pectin so that it will be much more resistant to removal or breakdown at boiling temperatures.

So, if you started the stew from cold (or drastically reduced the temperature by dumping in the sweet potatoes and other things) and had it on low heat, so that it took a while to come up to temperature, then your sweet potatoes may have been in that 50-70C range where the enzyme is active for a while. So maybe while your length of cooking time is consistent, your time before simmering isn't; that could depend on how cold the ingredients were before adding, the pot you used, whether you got exactly the same setting on your stove, the temperature in your home, and so on. (I know you said this isn't it, but having larger chunks of sweet potatoes could conceivably contribute to that too; the inside would take longer to heat up, so you could end up with a firm interior, and the softer part on the outside could get rubbed off.)

Sweet potatoes do also vary some in firmness, but certainly not by that much. It could still be a factor, though, in combination with the rest! In any case, if you want to avoid the firm potatoes, I'd try making sure to get everything heated up quickly.


what to do with fish steaks that still have scales on? I am in Montreal and the Portuguese community here has a few grocery stores; Portuguese frozen fish is also for sale in quite a few places. It's very inexpensive and I think I now know why. I bought a kilo of redfish (with some research I think it's most commonly called ocean perch*).

It's described as bland fish and apparently best to cook in a sauce, but the steaks still have scales on them! I hate scaling, and during scaling the scales get all over the meat, I can't see them and after adding butter and orange juice and poaching the fish in the oven, they made it to the final dish and the sauce.

Obviously, the fish with scales is best to cook whole, but I have the steaks. Any advice on how to cook them unscaled and still use seasoning/sauce?

[*edit] apparently also known as rockfish

Assuming you're cooking the the fish in a sauce, cut the meat away from the skin, liberally (it sounds like you really don't like the scales). Put what remains of the skin in cheese cloth (like a bouquet garni) to get the flavor out of them. The cloth should keep the scales out. You may need to layer the cheesecloth. You can remove it toward the end of cooking.


What can I do to prolong vegetable and meat freshness in the freezer? In an effort to improve my eating habits I am thinking of buying more vegetables and meats while at the store so that I have them to cook with.  However, with a busy schedule it is hard to try and find the time to cook something complex and needing to cut vegetables, meat, etc.  I don't want to use frozen vegetables either, as I want to start actually cooking more and not re-heating frozen items.

If I pre-cut all the vegetables beforehand, how long will the vegetables stay fresh before losing flavor and getting soggy or drying out?  Also, is there a preferable storage method, such as Ziploc bags, Tupperware containers, or glass bowls/containers with plastic wrap?

As for meat, is there a temperature that meats should be stored at in the freezer to keep them from getting freezer burn?  Currently, it seems that whenever I put anything in my freezer, it forms ice crystals the next day. I've tried lowering the temperature dial in the freezer a number of times, but I am afraid that if I lower it too much then it won't freeze the food and it will spoil.

For most vegetables, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to retain their quality once they have been cut. Your efforts would be much better spent either improving your cutting/chopping proficiency or in cooking entire meals ahead of time. Also, you could prepare components, such as sauteed onions or peppers, and maintain relatively high-quality versions of those.

Meat is a different story. You can do preparations in advance, and freeze individual portions for later use without degrading quality.

The best way to avoid freezer burn is to have a very cold freezer (ironically, easing the cooling settings on your freezer was having the opposite of your desired effect), and to prevent your food from coming in contact with air. You can use a freezer bag for each food item, making sure you squeeze all the air out of it first. However, if you are really serious about this, you would be well-served by investing in a vacuum sealer. Air is the big enemy here, so mechanically removing air from the system will greatly extend freezer life.


Beef: Red on the outside, brown on the inside Take bright-red ground beef and put it in a freezer for a few days.  After
taking it out and letting it thaw, it looks fairly red on the outside, but brown
on the inside. Why is that?

From the answers to this question,
I understand that fresh beef initially becomes bright-red upon exposure to oxygen, and
then browns after long-exposure to oxygen.

I also understand that oxygen can pass through the plastic packaging.

What I don't understand is why the the ground beef on the inside turns brown
before the outside? If oxygen is the cause of browning, shouldn't the opposite happen?

The meat is brown on the inside not due to too much oxygen but due to a lack of oxygen.
Oxygen can pass through the packaging but not, generally, through the meat itself.  Thus, the interior of the meat runs out of oxygen faster than the exterior (which is still exposed to oxygen from the air) and browns for this reason.
I'll quote the full-explanation from the USDA, just for reference:

Why is pre-packaged ground beef red on the outside and sometimes dull, grayish-brown inside?
Oxygen from the air reacts with meat pigments to form a bright red color which is usually seen on the surface of meat purchased in the supermarket. The pigment responsible for the red color in meat is oxymyoglobin, a substance found in all warm-blooded animals. Fresh cut meat is purplish in color. The interior of the meat may be grayish brown due to lack of oxygen; however, if all the meat in the package has turned gray or brown, it may be beginning to spoil.


Does shaping dough require punching/folding it? Newbie baker here with a pizza dough recipe that says this:

  Mix and ... allow to rise at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours.
  Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and divide into four even balls. Place each in a covered quart-sized deli container or in a zipper-lock freezer bag. Place in refrigerator and allow to rise at least 2 more days, and up to 4. Remove from refrigerator, shape into balls, and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours before baking.

I understand that you can either punch or fold dough before shaping it and both have different benefits. This recipe doesn’t mention this step, though. Is it just supposed to be understood that I’ll have to punch it before shaping or do they intend that I somehow divide and shape it without knocking the dough down. Also, would I punch the dough down twice? Once when dividing and again right before shaping?

I understand that you can either punch or fold dough before shaping it and both have different benefits.

Just understand what you're doing. During the fermentation process (rising), yeast consumes sugar and starch in the dough and turns it into alcohol, carbon dioxide, etc. That carbon dioxide collects gets trapped in the dough (thanks largely to the gluten), and bubbles form. Those bubbles (along with good flavor) are a big reason we ferment dough in the first place, so you want to keep most of them, but you also don't want large bubbles that'll create big empty lumps in your pizza.

"Punching down" the dough and folding it accomplish the same things: the idea is to release the gas from the large bubbles, and also to shift the yeast cells around a bit after they've used up all the food that's available in their immediate vicinities. You don't really have to punch the dough with force like you're angry at it, although some people (especially on TV) like to make a show of doing so. You can just press your hand down into the risen dough so that some of the gas gets pressed out. Removing the dough from its bowl and folding/kneading it a little bit does the same thing, and probably also helps develop the gluten a bit.

  This recipe doesn’t mention this step, though. Is it just supposed to be understood that I’ll have to punch it before shaping or do they intend that I somehow divide and shape it without knocking the dough down.

Yes, dividing the dough and forming balls will do exactly the same thing as punching it down, perhaps a bit more gently. Forming balls will also give you a nice round shape that'll turn into a disc as the dough relaxes, and that disc will be easy to form into a nicely shaped pizza.

Given the long fermentation time, I'll bet the recipe you're using calls for a relatively small amount of yeast. Between that and retarding the fermentation in the refrigerator, it may be that you won't get the kind of large bubbles of CO2 that you'd get with more yeast and shorter rise time, and without large bubbles there's no need to punch down the dough.

  Also, would I punch the dough down twice? Once when dividing and again right before shaping?

No, there's no need for that. Shaping the pizza will break any large bubbles. Sometimes large bubbles will start to form as you're shaping the pizza, or even after you've put it in the oven, and it's fine to pop those with the tip of a knife if you want to.


Can you make stew without onions? I'm trying to make a stew with the least amount of ingredients.  If I could just cook the meat itself that would be great but I think that would be frying or grill so not a stew.

What is the least ingredients one needs to make a stew?  I take it can be made with onions, potatoes or carrots as one ingredient are there other options?

If you were to cook meat in just water (possibly after browning it) you could call it a braise. In order to be a stew it probably needs some other ingredients. If you don't like or don't have onions, there's no need to use them. Use whatever vegetables you feel like using. They aren't serving a chemical purpose, such as leavening or thickening or browning; they're just for taste and to make a filling meal by adding things that cost less than meat.

You can of course add a variety of spices, which may make your stew qualify as a curry or a chili. And if you intend to serve it over rice or noodles, you may want to thicken the liquid a little. There are many ways to do that, but white flour, predissolved in a little cold water, is a popular one. This is, for some people, a key discriminant between being a soup and being a stew: that stews are thickened with flour and soups are not. But you can find plenty of people to disagree with that.

Why is it important to you that you make something called a stew?


What went wrong with this bread? I just baked this bread using sour dough. Why is there a large hole in it? What can I do to prevent this from happening next time?

Pre oven:

Post oven:

You got close, it looks like you had good gluten and structure, I think there's a maybe more than one thing you can do to prevent this:

This looks underproofed: You have bigger air holes on the top of the bread than the bottom, especially apparent on the bottom right of the bottom picture. A bit longer in the basket would have let the dough open up a bit more. It's possible you over rather than underproofed it, but my money's on under
A large air bubble may have existed in the dough, before shaping it knocking it back a bit would be good
You need to slash the top just before baking. Bakers use a special knife for this but you can use a carpet knife or a box cutter instead. A quick slash or two a couple of centimeters (about half an inch) deep will let the loaf open up, and large air bubbles on the top can't form because the air can escape. I do a cross cut in the center of the loaf, 1/3 to 1/2 of the diameter of the bread

One thing also, if you don't have steam in the oven the crust will form too quickly and you won't get oven spring, resulting in a tight loaf. Put a pan of boiling water in a few minutes before you put your loaf in to bake, then take it out after 20 minutes if it hasn't all boiled out. This has nothing to do with the big hole, it's just a tip.


My oat bread is drier than the Sahara I made some high protein / low calorie oat bread using a recipe I found online.

The recipe is:

12 egg whites
120 g oat flour (from rolled oats)
28 g psyllium husks
70 g whey protein
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients then bake for about 40 minutes at gas mark 3.

Everything about the bread is fine except that it's extremely dry and difficult to swallow. The bread feels and looks ok until I try to eat it.

Is there anything I can add to the recipe to improve it when I make it next time?

Your oat bread is a quick bread recipe. Keep in mind that advice for quick breads is going to be very different than advice for yeast risen / glutinous breads.

In quick breads, the structure of the loaf is provided by egg protein and the moisture is mostly provided by fat.

Your recipe uses only egg whites which, as J K commented, have a drying effect on baked goods. The yolks in whole eggs have fat that help keep things moist.

Besides the water in your whites there is no other liquid and no fat in this recipe. I'm surprised that you were able to swallow it at all. This is a problem that plagues low calorie baked goods. You can make it a bit better than this recipe but don't expect it to ever be as good as recipes that have fat in them.

This recipe is so dry that I would have a hard time making suggestions on how to improve it without turning it into a new recipe that would have to be tested.

Some things to look for in recipes that will make them better:

Some added fat
It doesn't have to be a lot. Some quick breads have a lot of fat. Even a little bit will help. Some recipes will use part fat and part applesauce. The pectin in the applesauce helps make things tender and the extra liquid helps keep things moist.
As I said above, whole eggs are also nice for some good fats.
Less of the unswallowable ingredients
Those psyllium husks are going to be bone dry no matter what you do. If there is a lot of that in there have a glass of milk handy when you try and swallow it.
Added liquid
Not all recipes use added liquid but some like buttermilk can be very tasty additions.

My personal opinion is that I would rather eat less of something that tastes good than a lot of something gross. Low-calorie can be taken too far.

Another alternative is to abandon the bread idea altogether. This recipe would be very similar to low-calorie granola recipes if rolled out thinly.


Do silicone baking mats come in 14x16" sizes? I've really liked the non-stick silicone backing mats that I have.  I use them all the time.  They fit perfectly in our 12x16" jelly roll pans.  My cookie sheets are a bit bigger though at 14x16".  I could fit more on the sheets if I could find silicone mats that are two inches wider.

Are there silicone mats that are sized to fix 14x16" cookie sheets?

Don't know if you got it yet, but I just purchased one from Kohl's. It's a Food Network branded product. I had hoped for two, but store only had one.  There's some issue with the SKU from the bar code on the product, but they do carry the product.  Here's the link. http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-756153/food-network-14-x-16-baking-mat.jsp
Here's the SKU that they had to look up in the store to ring it up:  91482863.  You can look up if your local store has any in stock, but not the quantity.

Wish I had it yesterday before I baked three hundred cookies.  I'll be ready next year.  Tired of cutting parchment and it sliding around, especially with balled dough cookies!


I am flying to Macau from Michigan and would like to take a kilo of frozen Cured Canadian Bacon The flight is roughly 20 hours.Will it still be safe to eat once I arrive in Macau?

Here is the customary seasoned advice answer: How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?

The variables in your case:

you are starting out frozen (not refrigerated or room temp)
we don't know the temps of the cargo hold
or are you carrying it onboard (where temps are higher)

You could wrap in foil and make it within temp safety limits... but that can be foiled (pun) by airport security after x-ray, because they'll unwrap that foil to see what's inside.

Bottom line:

when in doubt throw it out, food poisoning is awful
leave the Canadian Bacon at home. It's not going to fly safely.


How to bring taste back when too much creme fraiche is added Occasionally it happens that I add to much creme fraiche to a pasta sauce. Recently this happened with a pasta that contained aubergine, courgette, white mushroom, onion, chicken and some pepper and salt. I added the creme fraiche in the last stage.

This made the dish creamy, but also neutralised the flavour of the ingredients.

Is there a way to to partially reverse this neutralisation?

It depends on the dish and how amenable it is at the stage you make the mistake. Short of redoubling certain ingredients, in most cases, you can't reverse the error.


Cryoconcentration, can you do it yourself? I'm looking to concentrate freshly pressed apple juice. In order keep the apple-freshness I would very much like to avoid heating up the juice.

Does anyone have experience with cryoconcentration, is it possible to do yourself?

I was thinking about putting the juice in the freezer while constantly stirring it (using a magnetic stirrer), and once in awhile strain away the ice crystals and hopefully reduce it by half.

Is it possible to do? Any pointers would be highly appreciated.

Yes, you can do it yourself:
People have done this to concentrate alcohol, and other water contaminants, at least as far back as the middle ages. Example:

  Fractional freezing -- "jacking" in old parlance -- has a long history in the United States. The beverage applejack was produced using this method by first fermenting apple juice into hard apple cider. Then barrels of this cider were left outside during the winter and the connoisseur would occasionally fish out the frozen chunks of water, leaving an ever-concentrated batch of hard alcohol behind. At some point in the 20-25 percent ABV range, the liquor would stop freezing at ambient temperatures and the booze was ready to consume as "Jersey Lightning." It was also used as currency.

Wikipedia has a short piece on fractional freezing, but you're better off looking into use by home brewers; ignoring the alcohol part of the equation of course.
Generally stirring is not required. You just let the liquid partially freeze, then pull out the ice chunks. The result is relatively pure water ice, and concentrated juice of whatever you started with. Obviously, you can repeat the process several times to end up with a stronger juice. As the phase diagram in link 1 shows, a -20° (-4°F) will get you alcohol up to 30%.
Bear in mind that the fractionation isn't perfect, and some compounds tend to freeze along with the ice more than others.

The existence of Applejack suggests that your apple juice concentration scheme will work. I'd just not bother with the stirplate.


Are there a better ways to crush biscuits/cookies than a rolling pin? Can the old trick of putting biscuits (cookies or crackers to Americans) in a plastic bag and hitting them with a rolling pin be improved upon?

Generally, I've only heard of the plastic bag or the food processor.

I have seen people who just bash the packet of biscuits on the kitchen top. Jamie Oliver likes to do that with slabs of chocolate!

Otherwise use a heavy duty snack-lock bag or else wrap the plastic bag in a tea towel.

It helps to have a small hole for the air to escape.


Is there anything I can add to homemade bread to preserve it? I love making our own bread - we rarely buy shop bought, but it tends to go off very quickly. Part of the appeal is that it doesn't have any "junk" in it - artificial preservatives - which I'm sure contributes to the lovely flavor. Is there anything natural I can add to it to stop it going moldy so fast?

My whole wheat bread takes 4x to go off than my white bread. Even a mixture of 50% whole wheat flour will make it last longer. But that will only help if the problem is the bread getting hard too soon. That can also be prevented by keeping it in a plastic bag. You'll get the mold before the bread goes stale.

If you're keeping the bread in a plastic bag, try paper bags.

To solve the mold problem, the traditional way is to add some acidity. For example, you can add a sourdough starter. If you don't like the taste of sourdough, a poolish starter should also help. The bacteria it grows will prevent the mold growing.

I know it's not what you're asking, but freezing will also help. When you bake more bread than you eat, freeze it wrapped in a plastic bag and thaw it overnight and you will get a good, fresh bread.


What are differences between traditional whisked whipped cream and whipping syphon? Is there any perceived taste or texture difference between traditional whisked whipped cream and whipping syphon.  Assuming, for comparison, identical mix of cream and a little sugar.
Also, if say lemon juice, liqueur, or other flavourings are included does the N2O react with those in any way?

[edited for typo]

When you whip cream with a wisk, you can easily control the texture/consistency on a fairly fine scale, from liquid to butter.  With a whipper you have, essentially, one output, similar to the consistency of whipped cream that you can purchase in a can, ready to dispense.  Taste variation is influenced by other variables (raw product, flavorings). N2O does not interact with other flavorings, but they can easily be added to a whipper.  The only concern is anything solid that might get caught in the seal of the whipper.  Something as small as ground pepper could cause a problem here.


How to prepare and use fresh herbs with woody stems (thyme, oregano) For quite a while I have wanted to grow a selection of fresh herbs in my kitchen. I have managed to set up that works wonderfully growing my most used herbs but now I’m running into questions about how to use them, particularly herbs like thyme that have small leaves and woody or fibrous stems.
I prefer to include the herbs into whatever I’m cooking rather than use a bouquet garni. But picking individual leaves from a plant such as thyme is incredibly work intensive and not really worth the time involved. Is there a more efficient way to harvest these sorts of leaves?
This question has been linked to a similar question, which is fine, but I believe that Stephie’s answer here is more complete & helpful than any given for the linked question about oregano.

There are two ways to deal with herbs like thyme.
First, you can strip the leaves by pinching the stem with two or three fingers and pulling up towards the tips. Nails can be helpful, too. That should dislodge pretty much all leaves and when some of the tips tear off as well, it’ll be the soft bits that can be used just like the leaves.
For some herbs, you can also tear in the opposite direction, e.g. for savory.
Second, if you are planning to cook the leaves anyway, note that they will detach from the stems during cooking. After a while, you can simply fish out the woody stems and discard them. You will end up with the whole individual leaves, which is great for thyme, but may be a bit large for rosemary - I don’t worry too much about that in most of my dishes and if it is an issue, choose the first option.


Why is gnocchi a dumpling and not a noodle? I've recently been told that gnocchi is technically a dumpling, not a noodle. What about it causes gnocchi to fall under the dumpling category?

The primary difference between a dumpling and a noodle, besides shape, is leavening.  Dumplings usually have either egg or baking powder to make them lighter.

There's considerable bleedover in terminology here. It's reminiscent of the difficulty of defining "chowder". You're always finding a counterexample. I wouldn't be surprised if someone came up with something called gnocchi, gnochs, gnocchetti, that has no leavening. I can think of two myself.

Gnocchetti alla romana are semolina "dumplings" sometimes leavened with egg, particularly when they contain spinach, but more often not. Gnocchetti sardi are dry pasta shapes that kind of look like thin potato gnocchi.


Is this cooking method likely to yield a tasty pork chop? So I'm thinking of doing three things to a piece of pork.

First salt it for a day
Then Confit it
Then Smoke it

Is this overkill or can this make some good pork?

So let's see what would happen:

salting

Assuming you mean brining, not too much. The meat would absorb some of the liquid, that would be unwanted in step 2.
If you mean a dry rub with salt, the outer layer of the meat would dry out a bit. Not nice for a lean chop.

making confitSlow simmering in fat would most likely render the lean meat of the chops tough. Confit is excellent for meat with a higher internal fat content - think duck legs vs. duck breast. Neck instead of chop could work.
smoking
The meat from step 2 now contains a lot of fat (albeit little moisture), especially in the outer layer. Fat absorbs and binds scents. In perfume-making fat was used to extract aromatic oils that couldn't be heated. So the result of smoking the chops would be a lot more intense than you'd probably expect.

As I said in my comment: Smoked shoe leather. I wouldn't recommend it.


White chili and chocolate I always put chocolate or cocoa powder in my chili. Now I want to try making white chicken chili. Should I add white chocolate?

Cocoa powder is sometimes added to regular chili because the bitter earthiness compliments the dark chilies.

White chicken chili only contains green chilies and has no complex flavor to compliment.

White chocolate might make your chili creamier but there are cheaper ingredients that do that better.


Oversalted and too matured kimchi (like sauerkraut)? I made kimchi more than a year and a half ago. Because I live in Europe, I know and I often eat sauerkraut (fermented sour cabbage). When I made the kimchi, I committed a big mistake. I added too much salt.
The final result was inevitably salty. So I went the same way as when sauerkraut  was prepared.

I dropped the kimchi into a fermenting barrel, I stamped it with stone and hermetically sealed. I let it 20-25 C° warm place until the fermentation started (it started very slow because too much salt). Then I took it to a cooler place and I let it for 5-6 months. After then I tried to taste it. The kimchi doesn’t rotten, just turned like sauerkraut, but it was too salt yet. Due to the extremely high salt content fermentation was very difficult.

Then I put it the refrigerator and I let it more 4 moths. After I made another portion of kimchi but I was very cautious with the salt.

For the previous one, it was a mistake to put cabbage with very large amounts of salt, pushing it with weight and leaving for a night. The cabbage made a lot of juice and swallowed the salt almost completely. I could not wash the salt out of it. And I added extra salt to it. (Don't know why.)

Next time I used less of salt and I left it for less time in the salt. The old salty Kimchi was still in the fridge, so I found out to mix the old with the new one.

After that, I put it back in the barrel and waited for a few days until fermentation started.
Salinity just started to ease but didn’t disappear completely.

Afterwards, I was put back into the refrigerator again for 5 months. After 5 months, the salinity almost disappeared. But the whole thing was very sour. the taste has changed, it tastes like very spicy sauerkraut. (But it didn’t rotten.)

Has anyone been here like this? Added too much salt and fermented the kimchi too matured?
What should I do with it? Can I use it for some of dishes which requies matured kimchi?

(I struggled a lot with it, so I do not want to throw it away.)

I have quite a bit of experience making homemade kimchee.
There are two distinct stages, for me, where salt is used. The first is the initial salting/wilting phase.  The cabbage leaves are heavily salted and left to sit, some recipes call for pressing under weight, others do not.
Then there is the "stuffing" that flavors the kimchee - chives, scallion, garlic, salted shrimps (if you use them), hot pepper powder, etc, along with..... some salt.
Before the cabbage is stuffed with or mixed with the "stuffing," there is another step.
The cabbage gets pressed to get excess water out, then thoroughly rinsed to get all that salt off, and drained of excess water.  THEN the stuffing goes in and the kimchee is allowed to ferment/pickle.
I suspect that you aren't rinsing away the original salt you use to draw the moisture out from the cabbage and jump-start the pickling process.
So.... now you have well-aged kimchee that is a lot more sour than the normal "eating" kimchee.  What to do?
One fantastic dish that requires over-soured kimchee is the kimchee stew, aka Kimchee Chigae.  Traditional recipes call are made with kimchee, scallion, sesame oil, tofu, and pork belly.  Since Koreans have a particular passion for Spam, my mom always made it for us with spam instead of pork belly. If you're worried about the salt level, you can give it a little bit of a rinse, since the hot and the sour is what's needed for the stew.
If the kimchee is particularly salty, then you would not want to substitute Spam for unsmoked, uncured pork belly. You might also want to hold off adding soy sauce until the end (recipes usually call for a little bit) and reduce the amount or use a low-sodium variety (never, ever thought I'd recommend that), after tasting it. I always eat the stew mixed with a lot of rice, so a little bit strong or salty is not a major issue.
Just Google "kimchee chigae recipe." Also, I'd strongly advise cooking outdoors or at least in a well-ventilated kitchen.  Simmering a kimchee stew is obviously going to come with a certain amount of odor.


Do you add extra oil when replacing eggs in baked goods? I usually use applesauce to replace eggs in muffins, but I realize that I am losing out on some of the fat that an egg yolk would provide. Should I add more oil when I do this? If so, how much?

If it helps, here is the recipe I use to make muffins: https://togetherasfamily.com/mini-chocolate-chip-muffins/

I replace one egg with 3 tbsp of applesauce and 1/8 tsp baking soda. Is there a rule for how much oil I should add per egg?

Thank you. :)

Eggs are about 10% fat by weight, a large egg is about 50g, so you would lose 5g of fat in the recipe per egg, which is just over a teaspoon of oil. Whether or not you add it depends on what you want out of the recipe. If you are taking eggs out to reduce fat then you don't need to add anything, if you want to keep the richness and consistency then a splash of oil or butter would be a good thing.


Substituting parchment for foil in slow cooker A slow cooker gooey brownie recipe calls for using aluminum foil as a liner.

Can I substitute parchment paper for the foil?

Since the OP seems to be long gone, I'm going to edit in this recipe, since it's the first Google hit if you search for "slow cooker gooey brownie recipe", and it does call for lining the slow cooker with foil. The recipe also calls for the foil to be generously buttered.

My experience would suggest that unless the aluminum foil is used to form some kind of shape such as a seal around the food, parchment paper would be superior.  Aluminum foil is better for forming shapes.  Parchment paper is better for non-stick qualities.  Parchment paper has a temperature limit of around 400 degrees F, whereas aluminum foil will tolerate much higher temperatures (technically it will melt around 1200 degrees F).  Most slow cookers wouldn't be too hot for either one, but they vary, so you may want to check yours to be sure.


Why would hot-packed green beans go bad when still sealed? My hot-packed green beans went bad. They are still sealed, look nice and green. On the bottom there is a white slime. When I opened a jar they smelled terrible. What happened?

I know this is kind of old but unless green beans are pickled or processed as in the link below, they are considered not safe (NOT safe to waterbath unless pickled). So in answer to your question, if they were not process in a pressure canner at the appropriate pressure for your altitude and for the correct length of time for the jar-size, then that would be what caused them to go bad.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_snap_italian.html

you said the jar is sealed and they are nasty smelling/looking - that specific problem is often due to a false seal from either stacking the jars or storing them with rings on. If the seal breaks for whatever reason, the ring being on can cause it to "re-seal" after letting air and whatnot in/out of the jar. It then gives the appearance of being sealed while actually being quite gross/unsafe. To prevent this, rings should be removed 24 hours after the item has been out of the canner.


Is Manganese Violet suitable as a food coloring? Can I use Manganese Violet as a food coloring? It's safe to use in cosmetics, and I've got some left over, so I was wondering. Is it toxic, edible or actually palatable? Does it have a certain taste? And if it can't be used, are there other Manganese (not magnesium) Compounds that I could use as purple food dye? (Just curious)

As absolutely no-one uses it as a food additive, that should give you some considerable concern.
Aside from that, it's not water-soluable.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a factsheet

Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful

Cameo* (a pigment/paint/colour authority) says this:

Hazards and Safety
Toxic. Inhalation or ingestion of manganese can cause a nervous system disorder.

For lists of approved food additives - see Wikipedia; E number
*Cameo - The Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO) is an electronic database that compiles, defines, and disseminates technical information on the distinct collection of terms, materials, and techniques used in the fields of art conservation and historic preservation.


How to make fluffy (not crunchy) quinoa? Here is what I did:

Heated 1 cup quinoa in olive oil for 1 minute after rinsing it.
Added 2 cups water till it boiled.
I set the heat to the lowest setting and closed it with a lid.

After 15 minutes, the quinoa is still crunchy and the water has gone. If I let it stand for a few more minutes it gets burnt. I've tried this a few times and get same result - the quinoa is half cooked and inedible. What am I doing wrong?

Note: I'm very new to cooking. About 3 weeks since I entered the kitchen.

Quinoa is cooked exactly like rice. In fact- if you have a rice cooker you can use that and not worry about it.
Your procedure is ok. This is the way I make my quinoa.

Toasting grains in oil before steaming them is delicious and results in grains that are more nutty and more individual. Rice is nice this way so there is less risk of making rice paste.

If you are having trouble with your grain not rehydrating properly, the first thing to try would be to skip the oil step. It isn't required.

If you find that your water is evaporating before the quinoa is steamed then it is likely that your lid isn't tight enough.


Wheat Flour Vs. wheat gluten Is it okay to use whole wheat flour instead of vital wheat gluten for a recipe?. Would there be any noticeable flavor and texture changes?

These are two related, but different products.

Gluten is protein that is formed from two pre-cursor proteins, glutanin and gliaden, found in wheat flour in the presence of water and under enzymatic activity.

It forms resilient stretchable networks which give yeast raised bread its structure.

Whole wheat flour is... well... whole wheat berries, ground up.  It is mostly starch, but contains all glutenin, gliaden, and the necessary enzyme to create gluten, which forms naturally when the flour is moistened, if given long enough or kneaded to accelerate the process.  However, even a very "strong" flour (bread flour) will have no more than about 10%-15% percent protein by weight, so it cannot form more than that amount of gluten.

Vital wheat gluten is essentially concentrated, powdered gluten, without the rest of the parts of the wheat berry.

They are not freely interchangeable, as the gluten does not bring the starch, bran, and other components that flour does.   You may, in specific recipes, be able to use just gluten, but not in the general case.  And even if substitution is possible, you would have to determine the correct ratio to achieve the desired outcome.

Using vital wheat gluten in lieu of whole wheat flour, in most applications, will either fail completely (no thickening from starch, as in a gravy), or be dense and rubbery, and practically unpalatable (as in a bread).


"Post Brine" for Lacto-Fermented Cucumbers (Dill Pickles) Once I have "pickles" pickled (pun intended)... how do I store them? Typically I make a very large batch and would like to transfer them to smaller vessels for friends/family... do I just pour in the brine I used to ferment them?

Yes, you can use the brine you pickled them in. Covered plastic leftover containers are actually very good for storing pickles - you don't have to struggle to stuff them in jars. You can throw away the dill weed and garlic and other flavorings, just keep the pickles and enough strained brine to keep them submerged.

Keep in mind, of course, that such pickles are not preserved, so they must be stored in the fridge, and should be eaten within a short amount of time - one or two weeks at most.


how to fix pudding that got extra sweet? i have made the chocolate pudding and accidentally added loads of sugar..now it is too sweet n too sticky..what can i do with it except throwing it out?

Do you have the ingredients necessary to make more?  You could make a second batch, without adding sugar, and combine them.


Why do they put the fruit on the bottom? Why do they put fruit at the bottom of the yogurt? Why not at the top, or just mixed in?

Fruit will settle to the bottom of the yogurt during transit anyway; this way, it ends up neat and tidy and intentional. Many people mix it together just before eating if they prefer a more blended flavor.


How can I substitute for unsweetened chocolate in a frosting? I've found a recipe for cupcakes that I want to try. The ingredient list of the frosting is this:

3 ounces (90 grams) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (120 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

However, where I live, unsweetened chocolate isn't available. I do have dark chocolate (cacao percentage is about 40, but I don't know how much sugar is in them).

I believe the frosting would be too sweet (even for a frosting) if I would use my chocolate. A simple solution seems to put in less sugar, but I think I'm going to end up with a different consistency.

So, how can I make the frosting so that it comes close to the original?
I'm willing to experiment (if for instance there would be a way to split the sugar from the chocolate).

Note: I have cacao powder at home, but I rather not use it for the frosting. The cupcakes themselves contain it and the combination of the two types of chocolate seem nice to me.

The reason this frosting uses unsweetened chocolate is because with all the sugar and sweetened chocolate (even dark, ie 70%) it would become cloyingly sweet. It needs to have double the amount of icing sugar to butter as this produces a smooth texture. If you don't have enough icing sugar it won't have a smooth texture and will have a hard texture almost like the state of the butter to begin with. So there are 2 ways of getting around this:

This is the easiest method. You can use the original recipe substituting unsweetened chocolate for dark chocolate (preferably with minimum cocoa solids of 65% to keep the chocolatey flavour) and add a quarter of a cup of cocoa powder to balance out the sweetness. To equate for the stiffness it brings slowly add 3 or 4 tbs's of milk so it has a smooth frosting-like texture.
Make an meringue frosting. This is appropriate because the meringue keeps the buttercream smooth and light without adding huge amounts of sugar, so you can then use your chosen chocolate and not have it too sweet. To do this you have to make an Italian meringue which is hot sugar syrup whipped into a meringue (or a Swiss meringue but this uses a different method which involves whipping sugar and egg whites until hot in bowl over a pan of water) then once cool whipping in soft chunks of butter. Then you can add your melted cooled chocolate. Here are some recipes for Italian meringue buttercream (US measurements), Italian meringue buttercream (metric measurements), Swiss meringue buttercream (US measurements) and finally Swiss meringue buttercream (metric measurements).

Hope this helps!


How to improve the flavor of gluten free challah bread? I am trying to improve the taste of this gluten free challah recipe.  The texture seems right, but I am trying to add more flavor.  I am wondering what ingredients I have the freedom to modify.  For example,

Can I increase the butter without altering the chemistry?  Will this add to taste?
Can I increase the salt?  Why is there so little to begin with?

Any other suggestions are welcome!

Baking is chemistry. Any changes in the formula will have some consequences on the chemistry. It can  be fun to experiment but do not be surprised that the end result is not the same as from the per-modified formula.

As to your question of more flavor, I do know that increasing the proofing time will help to increase the development of the dough and allow it to extract more of the flavor available in the flour. Try slow proofing your loaf in a refrigerator or a very cool room.

I do not know anything about the flour in question but I know that the better the quality the  flour the better your bread will be. Avoid flour from  large industrial producers that use large steel mills, these create to much heat in the milling process and deplete flavor, enzymes and proteins. Find a good stone ground miller. You may be limited in the gluten free options.


What are toffee potatoes? I came across a reference to this in an article about Scandinavia.

They are apparently a regional delicacy.

I think the toffee potatoes in the article must be Brune kartofler; the literal translation is "brown potatoes". They are simply small potatoes covered in caramelized sugar. The photo Ocaasi links to are potatoes gone terribly wrong. I think the photo caption is ironic.

They are a traditional side dish for any christmas meal with pork roast or duck.
Here is a video that shows how they are made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYoJ14RIIhs.

The recipe is as follows:

Boil small potatoes.
Peel them.
Distribute sugar evenly in the pan.
Warm until the sugar caramelizes.
Add butter in small pieces (amount of butter and sugar are equal).
When the butter is incorporated add the potatoes.
Distribute the caramel over the potates.
After 10 minutes the potatoes are done.
They should now have a nice layer of caramel around them.


Does beer in bread retard the yeast? I want to make a bread with a stout in it for extra flavor. The stout will replace most of the liquid content of the bread and I am worried whether it will kill the yeast due to the alcohol (4% volume) content of the stout.

Yeast, depending on the strain, can typically sustain in alcohol in concentrations of up to 14-18%. Some strains can actually go higher. (I personally keep a champagne yeast on hand for homemade root beer and ginger ale that goes to about 18%). Typical bottled beer runs to about 6%.

Once started the fermentation process, at room temperature, is only slowed or stopped by CO2 build up or starvation, until the alcohol reaches toxic levels. Given the portion of beer to the overall volume in beer bread recipes, the abundance of food for the yeast and the relatively short period allowed for rising none of these factors should inhibit the yeast.

In short, the environment in your dough will reach nowhere near 'toxic' levels during the rise.


What's the US equivalent of double and single cream? I can find whipping cream, half and half, and even clotted cream where I'm staying in the US but not double or single cream, are these familiar terms or is there a US equivalent term?

In the UK, single cream is a milk product with at least 18% butterfat.  Double cream has 48% butterfat.  Neither are common in the US.

If you can find clotted cream, which is 55% fat, then there is a chance of making double cream at home by diluting it.  As some clotted creams have a cooked taste, there may be other solutions.


What can I use instead of amaranto? Amaranto (amaranth grains) is a popular cereal used in Mexican cuisine, used in both savoury and sweet dishes. However, it's hard to come by here. What can I use instead? I'm not sure if it is a cous-cous style grain or more like rice.

I don't think it is close to either cous-cous or rice. It is less starchy than both. Also, it has a unique mouthfeel when you chew on it, because the tiny grains (1 mm or less) pop under your teeth.

I would try getting the real thing in a whole food store or an organic store, or also online. If you can't find it, in these stores, but can get other exotic grains, you can try quinoa or millet.

If you really can't get anything uncommon, I would use durum semolina. Wash it before cooking and cook it with fat to reduce the starch. Also, I would maybe cook it in more water than needed and remove excess water after it has been cooked and cooled, so your semolina grains don't form a creamy pudding.

Maybe tapioca pearls of the extra-small variety can work too, I am not sure because I haven't tried using them and don't know what their final texture is.

You will notice that, when suggesting replacements, I am most worried about texture. The reason is that the flavor of amaranth is very faint and bland. It is best used as a base for other, strong flavors. So you can use anything with the right texture, the flavor in the dish should come from spices and other components.