Is it necessary to "heal" clay pots? I'm from Mexico, and every time either my grandmother or mother bought a new clay pot, they started "healed" the clay pot by boiling water with vinegar, rub garlic on the outside of the pot, and let it rest all night long.

I recently bought a clay pot, and it released black particles into my food. I asked why, and my mother told me it was because I didn't "heal" the pot.

I thought it was ridiculous, so that made my wonder if it's truly necessary to "heal" a clay pot, and if this belief is endemic of Mexico or is it also well know in other parts of the world as well.

Hope this question isn't off topic. And if it is, feel free to flag it.

TL;DR: You should.
I don't own clay pots myself, so take this with a grain of salt. I found some information on the Bram Cookware website called Clay Cooking 101. It has recommendations as well as an instructional video.
The process apparently is called seasoning, rather than healing. Here is a short summary from the page:

Seasoning Your Clay Pot
Give your new clay pot love and it will love you back! Cookware that
will be used over a direct heat source on the stovetop needs to be
seasoned before its first use. This strengthens the pot and prevents
it from cracking. It will also make the pot more durable so it can
provide you with many years of fantastic cooking.

Now for the black particles in the food, I'm not certain what that could be; so it's probably best to play it safe and not eat the food.


What are the qualities of a good French Bread? I have tried a couple different recipes, and the best tasting (in my opinion) are from Betty Crocker and Fannie Farmer. I was just wondering what are the qualities of a good French Bread?

From Retrodor:

  The Bread Decree issued in France on September 13, 1993, defined the characteristics of the baguette de tradition française, the traditional French loaf.

  This baguette resembles the best of those made in the 1930s, when the baguette reached its peak in the major French cities. The Retrodor stands out in particular because it is made from high-quality flour; no additives, chemical products, or other “improvers” are allowed.

  What makes it special? You can recognize a baguette de tradition by specific qualities that appeal to all five senses.

  Here are the cues that will help you identify the ideal baguette.

  As soon as you go into the bakery, you’ll detect aromas of caramel and toasty, nutty hot cereal coming out of the oven.

  First, you’ll judge the loaf’s appearance by sight: it will have a smooth, earthy golden crust.

  Take it in your hand: you’ll see right away that, at 300 grams, it is more robust and generous than the classical baguette

  When you touch it, the appealing crust, thin and crisp, will crack under light pressure; it won’t be hard or brittle.

  If you tap on the bottom of the baguette, you’ll hear a distinctive drum-like sound; this comes from the tension created in a well-cooked loaf during the baking process.

  After cutting off a piece, you’ll look carefully at the crumb (the inside part).

  It adheres well to the crust. It’s cream-colored, not white; this shows that the bread was made with an exceptional flour, then kneaded slowly and with care. The little cavities or air pockets (alveoli), extremely variable in size and unevenly spaced, are the memory sites of a successful fermentation and harbingers of sensory pleasure.

  The crumb has good elasticity: it will spring back to its initial form after you’ve pressed it gently with your fingers.

  When you can no longer resist the temptation to bite into it, you will immediately discover reassuring signs: both delicate and sturdy, the bread is easily chewed and swallowed as a result of the perfect marriage of crumb and crust. The impression in the mouth is promising, at once round and long.

  When you finally taste this baguette, you’ll detect aromas of hazelnut and butter, with scents that are fruity (black cherry, dried apricot) and floral (acacia, verbena). There is no hint of acidity. Its light yeast content keeps it tasty and fresh.


What is meant by "cook until the oil separates" in Indian curry recipes? A lot of Indian curry recipes have a step where you're told to cook an onion-tomato-spices mixture "until the oil separates". Despite having tried cooking such recipes a number of times already, I still haven't really figured out what is meant by this. I have several questions:

How can I tell that the oil is separating? I'm never quite sure whether I'm seeing oil or water coming out of the mixture while it's cooking.
How long on average do you need to cook the mixture until the oil separates?
What causes the oil to separate? Is it simply that all the water has been cooked out of the mixture?
Why do you need to let the oil separate?

Oil is separated in curries normally after you have cooked spices or sauces for ~10-15 mins. You can tell by seeing "bubbles" appearing and the oil by making a thin layer on top of your sauces/curry.
It varies, but normally after 10-15 mins the oil separates from your curry.
Normally after cooking for 10-15 mins most of the water dries up which causes the curry (mostly made of thick sauces) to separate from the oil.
It's always good to let the oil separate from your curry because of two things:

Extra water dries up
All spices and curry get cooked properly

The food tastes much better if spices and the curries are properly cooked.


How to chill a compote? Our apricot tree is overloaded with apricots this year so I have been trying out a variety of different apricot recipes. I am particularily enjoying an apricot compote recipe, however I am having trouble interpreting one step in the recipe:

  Cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, until apricots are glazed and syrupy, 7-8 minutes.
  Transfer to a small bowl and chill.

The chill part has me confused as I am not sure if I should let the syrup chill to room temperature on the counter then cover and store in the refrigerator. Or if I should remove from the heat and immediately store it in the refrigerator. What's the best mechanism for chilling a hot compote?

There is nothing especially interesting going on in a hot compote. You can chill it as quickly or slowly as you want to, until it reaches the desired temperature. Food safety requires that you don't keep it for more than 4 hours in the danger zone (between 60°C and 4°C), but if it is in individual serving bowls, on-the-counter chilling should be enough. Also, don't put large amounts of hot liquids in the fridge, you risk raising the entire fridge's temperature to unsafe levels, and the inside of a large container won't cool quickly enough to leave the danger zone. If you made lots of compote at once and want it very cold, chill it in an ice water bath.

The final temperature can be whatever you prefer. I eat my compote slightly colder than room temperature (15°C to 20°C). You can eat it fridge-cold, room temperature, or even hot, if it tastes better to you.


Repackaging shelf-stable products For products that start out shelf stable but are labeled "refrigerate after opening," I'm wondering if it's possible to safely return them to their shelf-stable status to save refrigerator space. A few specific products come to mind: olives, maple syrup, salad dressing.

For example, could a vacuum sealer and a sterilized jar work? Or does exposure to germs in the air compromise the food requiring refrigeration?

Exposure to germs is the problem, once you open these they are exposed and the clock starts. If you vacuum seal you are vacuum sealing the germs in with the food, and not taking steps to kill the pathogens. Pouring into a sterilized container again just puts contaminated food into an uncontaminated container.

The only way to make them shelf stable again would be to process them. You could vacuum seal and then pasteurize the food inside for example, or re-can and pressure-cook. This takes a lot of time and energy, and each time you do it you lose quality.


How long can we preserve yogurt using a refrigerator? How long can we keep yogurt in the refrigerator and still consume it?

This link should help you. It should be ok at least a week or two past the use by date.

http://www.eatbydate.com/dairy/yogurt-shelf-life-expiration-date/


Pork rillettes - drain fat before shredding or not I'm about to start making some rillettes with some pork belly and Lard left over from making scratchings the other day. I've looked at a few recipes but it's not clear if I should drain off the fat from the cooking before shredding the pork or not. I assume this would be the way to go so you can better control the amount of fat in the finished product.

Anyone know or have tried these themselves?

... but it's not clear if I should drain off the fat from the cooking before shredding the pork or not. I assume this would be the way to go so you can better control the amount of fat in the finished product.

You are correct. Drain and reserve fat, shred the pork, re-add as much as you need.


Why does my cauliflower puree taste mustardy after two days? I recently made cauliflower puree following this recipe.

I put florets of cauliflower in a microwave oven safe pot, together with some butter and some milk, and cooked it till more or less tender. Then I added salt, pepper, a bit of nutmeg and some cheese (I used cheddar and emmental).

At that point in time it was fine, like I had it before.
About two days later, I wanted to eat the leftover puree (which I stored in the refrigerator), but its flavor had changed. There was now a distinct sharp flavor present, which reminded me of horseradish or perhaps mustard.

Does anyone know why and/or how the flavor changed?

The flavor / odor notes you're experiencing are probably sulfuric compounds. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower contain sulfiric compounds that are released on cooking. That's why the stir-fried crisp-tender broccoli tastes so different from the limp overcooked olive green florets. Similar to how spicy salsa fresca grows ever spicier after a couple days in the fridge, your puree is slowly continuing that "cooking" process.

It's still okay to eat, but you'll be less aware of the flavor change if you use it in a more highly spiced dish once it's a couple days old.


Salinity of brine for feta storage The feta package I bought does not have enough liquid to cover the cheese once opened. I would like make a brine to cover the block of cheese. How saline does the brine have to be to store feta? How long can I store feta with respect to (a reasonable) salinity?
(I assume a brine with water is sufficient. Or am I wrong? Some websites mention, milk, whey, yogurt, vinegar.)

After my quick research I've seen ranges from 2% to fully saturated brine. 2% seem too little to me conserve it such that feta could be stored longer than plain water (=a couple days).

Feta is very salty. Recipes I've used called for a brine of around 12%.

Water is fine. When making feta from scratch it helps if the brine is a little bit acidic so the surface of the cheese doesn't soften. It might not be an issue when replacing brine for finished cheese.

https://fankhauserblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/14/feta-cheese/

I've had my own still be good after a month in the fridge before it was all eaten. I would be surprised if it wouldn't keep for 6 months or more. It is a soft cheese and when it is removed from the brine it only gets about a week in the fridge.

This answer: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/24152/2001
Suggests that you can put feta in a brine or milk for up to 3 months.

Yours was partially exposed to the air and then will be re-submerged. My suspicion is that the brine will be strong enough to prevent spoilage but there are so many variables in your case that I doubt we'll find a definitive answer.


Habaneros....and bananas? I once marinated chicken breasts for the grill using some habaneros for heat and bananas for sweetness (and some vinegar and salt thrown in to cut some of the sweetness). To everyone's surprise, the bananas actually cut the heat of the peppers to the point where it was mild-to-medium...quite tolerable and delicious. I know it was the bananas because we have tried it other times with the same results. The question: what is it about bananas that cuts the heat of peppers? I once thought it was the fat content of bananas until I found out they are low in fat. Has anyone had similar experiences with bananas and hot peppers?

I found a reference searching on how to cool your mouth after eating a pepper.

Eat starches. Eat starches if your mouth is burning from ingesting
chili peppers. They should give you some relief.

Although starches
like rice and bread aren’t going to be as effective at dissolving the
capsaicin as fats, oils or alcohol, they will help cool the burn.

There is a reason that many cultures serve spicy food alongside white
rice (or potatoes). This is common in many Asian and Indian cultures.

According to this starched dissolve some of the capsaicin.
Personally I would skip the banana and go for a less hot pepper.  You are using one the hotter peppers.


Is it a problem that the same flipper that touched raw blood touches the finished meat? I noticed that when I was cooking stir fry, I used the same flipper throughout. This means when I put the meat in, the flipper came in contact with the uncooked meat and got some blood on it. Is this a problem considering it touches vegetables that go in much later? Should a different flipper be used half way through the cooking process?

Depends on how paranoid you are.

Technically: Yes, you should be using a different utensil once the meat is cooked. Any contact with raw meat carries a contamination risk, and you can't guarantee the utensil will be heated enough to "cook" it.

If you want to be as safe as possible, reverse the cooking order you're using - stir-fry the veggies first, set them off to the side, then cook the meat, then mix the veggies in again and use a fresh utensil to finish (or wash the current one.) This ensures that the veggies and second utensil only have contact with cooked meat.

Personally? I don't worry about it beyond the obvious - I make sure I rinse the utensil off somewhere in there with some hot (and usually soapy) water, immerse it in the cooking liquid for a bit if applicable, etc. It's not the safest way of going about things, but it strikes a good balance (for me) between risk and convenience. YMMV, obviously.


To par-boil or not to par-boil root vegetables before roasting? I'm looking at some recipes for roasted root vegetables and there appears to be a split between those that par boil then roast for ~30 minutes versus those that just roast for ~45 minutes

Excluding potatoes - where there appears to be a consensus that par boiling is necessary, what are the pros and cons of each approach? and is it more important for particular types of root veg?

I think this depends on how big the pieces are, and of course which ingredients. Some veg cook faster than others.

If you are using 1 inch or smaller pieces, you may not need to parboil, but if you are using larger pieces you may wish to par boil for longer as the pieces get bigger.

This lets you cook the interior without burning the exterior when you roast.

Of course if you add things like squash or broccoli to the veg roast, add those last and they don't need par boiling.


Can you put All-Clad LTD2 in the oven? Just got an All-Clad LTD2 saute pan and I was wandering if it is save to put it in the oven. Thanks

Update:  sorry, this line is layered steel and anodized aluminum construction.

From the Amazon product description (almost certainly direct from the manufacturer), emphasis added:

  LTD2 is safe on all stovetops - except induction and backed by a
  lifetime warranty. The “workhorse” of all cookware shapes, All-Clad
  fry pans' versatile shape and size make them a frequent choice for
  scrambling eggs and bacon on Sunday morning, or preparing a quick
  chicken sauté dinner on a weeknight. Our conventional fry pans go in
  the oven and under the broiler.

That is one of the primary benefits of the good All-Clad stuff, or similar cookware from other brands.

The only pots you don't want to put in the oven are ones with phenolic (sp?) or other plasticized handles or knobs--although some of these are rated to 400F degrees.  I also would not put non-stick pots in an oven above about 450F, or under the broiler.

All steel and aluminum pots are great, partially because they are oven and broiler safe.

Before I switched to all-steel exterior all-clad, I used anodized aluminum (the old, original Calphalon).   It also went into the oven and under the broiler without issue.   My current all-steel all clad has been going in the oven and under the broiler for many year without an issue.


What part to use from fresh Basil leaves? I was wondering what am I supposed to cut from basil leaves, do I only use the “blade” until the petiole or I should cut that too?

I know some things must be chopped in the right places because it may add sourness.

Also, can they be boiled or they should be eaten “raw”?

You can roll the leaves and thinly slice them (chiffonade), that's my preferred method. I've never had an instance where I cut basil and made it sour though.

I've never heard of boiling them, but I assume you could get the essential oils out with that method and could make an infused water. You can fry the basil leaves in oil as well to make a crunchy topping!


How do I cook frozen fish in microwave? I have no baking oven. How can I cook frozen fish in a microwave oven, and how long will it take to be ready?

I frequently cook fish in the microwave, as I'm the only one who eats it in my house. Thaw filet in cold water and place on microwave safe dish.  I turn fish over halfway through cooking.  The kind of fish and the thickness will determine time.  I recommend using partial power or your fish will be rubbery.  I have a 1200 watt microwave and the following is just a guideline.
From completely thawed:

Salmon filet @2" thick - about 2 minutes each side at 70%
White fish or Tilapia filet (these are very thin @ 1/4") 1 minute on each side at 80%.

Please be aware that this is just from my personal experience.


Finding a balanced cheese table I am a newbie in this area and I know it is a challenging one.

The cheese table can have any type of cheeses. So I have been thinking about milk cheeses, blue cheeses and normal cheeses that can be eaten with some salty snacks and grapes.

However, a very good friend of mine said that to make a good cheese table is not only about money but how balanced it is to the given target group, but I will be serving a general audience, so I don't know how to plan well for them.

How would you make a balanced cheese table?

I have been thinking about Camembert as for a milk cheese, Roquefort as the blue cheese and some normal cheese. Does Camembert's creamy taste fit well with Roquefort's strong taste, as there are some salty snacks and grapes?

The way I learned to set a cheese board:

Something Old
Something New
Something Goat
Something Bleu

Something Old - Aged, firm cheese like Asiago or St. George

Something New - Softer, milder cheese, like a Brie or Gouda.

Something Goat (or sheep) - A counterpoint to cow's milk cheese, like Manchego or Chèvre.

Something Bleu - Brisk and tangy, Roquefort or Gorgonzola or Stilton.

What you complement the cheese with depends on the cheese varieties you've chosen - apple slices, grapes, quince jam, mustards of the sweet and whole-seed variety, etc. Google can be your friend, here. Place the condiment close to its intended cheese in the final arrangement.


How long will schmaltz last in the freezer? I have three frozen containers of schmaltz. The newest is three months old; the oldest is probably a couple of years old. Are any of them edible?

It definitely depends on the kind of schmaltz you are having, but to be honest I never have seen schmaltz gone bad, even after several years. I have had schmaltz in the fridge for over a year and it was still perfectly fine.

I'd suggest the following: follow your gut. Just look at it and check for the usual signs. In order: Does it look normal (no mold, no discoloration, normal consistency)? Does it smell normal? Does it taste normal? Then it's probably still good and you can use it for whatever you like. If you're still unsure: use it for cooking only.


Homemade soy milk powder, or other plant-based milk powder I have tried making soy milk powder from store bought soy milk. I used my dehydrator, but a few hours into the process the milk was starting to smell sour.
I have seen recipes that make soy milk powder from the soybeans itself, but I have no access to soy beans.
Has anyone have had succes making soy milk powder this way? Is it possible to dehydrate store bought soy milk without it turning sour?
I am thinking of trying dehydrating almond milk next. The goal is to make an instant chai latte powder. I like my chai latte best with soy milk but am open to whatever plant-based milk will dehydrate properly.
Thanks!

You are going about the process the wrong way - the milk powder in this case is made of pulverized soy beans. Once you add water to this powder to make the milk, it will be very difficult, time consuming and expensive to dehydrate it to make the powder.
The reason your dehydrating milk is turning sour is either that it has picked up some bacteria or yeast from the air or contact with a slightly contaminated surface and these are growing happily in the nice warm dehydrator, similar to making yoghurt from milk. The other possibility is that there are some (bio)chemical changes going on with the heating which result in a sour taste. I would put my money on the bacteria/yeast option.
Your best bet will be to buy some dry soy beans, soak them to remove any dirt, then dry overnight, roast to denature proteins then pulverize them yourself. You can use a blender/spice grinder to do much of the work, but to get it fine enough to work well as milk, you might need to do a bit of manual labour with a mortar and pestle. There is a recipe here.


Knife chopping through bone or coconut Is it ok to use a chef knife to chop through bones (not too big, like chicken or pork ribs) or a coconut or will it ruin the knife permanently?

I've done that on occasion and it did not seem to suffer damages but may be it's just that I haven't done it enough.

A good-quality cleaver can be the right tool for both jobs. Make sure it's properly constructed with the metal of the blade running all the way through the handle, though, or else you risk the handle snapping and the blade going flying during a strike.

For the coconut, the technique is actually to roll it along the blade to start a groove, then crack it with the blunt end of the knife almost as if it were a mallet. This should be done with extreme care, of course.

For bones, place the meat on a very solid cutting board and use clean, forceful swings to break through.

For both techniques I recommend doing a quick search on youtube to watch others demonstrate them first.


Can I make lemon curd more sour/tart after it's cooked? I prepared a batch of lemon curd using an unfamiliar recipe and it just doesn't have what I'm looking for in terms of tartness and lemon flavor. I'd hate to waste it, so I'm thinking of zesting and juicing more lemons to add to the prepared curd - but I'm worried this will ruin the emulsion!
Is there a way to salvage this batch and get the tartness I'm after?
For the record, the recipe I'm starting with uses the following ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 Tablespoon butter

Going purely by taste, I'm a good 2-3 juiced lemons away from where I'd prefer to be.

I have used both citric acid (food grade, sold for canning and jam making, not the descaler) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in similar cases when only the acidity of a dish was insufficient. Sometimes lemons are just not sour enough.
The powder comes in very fine texture and can even made finer with a mortar and pestle. A very small amount will go a long way and that’s why it won’t affect the ratios of a dish and a can be stirred into even thick preparations like lemon curd. You can gently warm up your curd so that the butter in it softens, if necessary.


How long is yogurt good after the best by date? I have a large, unopened container of yogurt that is a couple weeks past the best by date and I wondering if it is safe to eat. It still smells fine. How long past the best by date is yogurt usually still good?

Yogurt was originally a food preservation vehicle.

It is quite acidic and if unopened and refrigerated it can stay good for a very long time.
The pasteurized, inoculated, milk is allowed to ferment in the container.
Foreign bacteria don't have much chance to get in and if they do the yogurt culture crowds them out and the acidity kills them.
Greek yogurt, with its lower moisture level, stays good even longer.

I have had very old yogurt from time to time (months past the expiration) and it has only ever gone bad in one of two ways:
Either it went moldy or the yogurt's own bacteria was allowed to work for too long and the yogurt was too sour and not creamy anymore.

If the yogurt isn't moldy then it is probably fine. If it has continued to ferment then it will be more sour and possibly broken but not unsafe.


Proper chopping technique When you're cutting a veggie, you're holding a veggie in the left hand and the knife in the right hand. Which hand does move closer to another? When you hold a knife with a tip resting on the board and keep cutting moving to the left, you will end up with a knife bottom inclined to the left and not cutting straight. How should be done right?

Here's the video that help you to understand the problem better:

http://sebastian.honsa.eu/files/downloads/cutting.mp4

style 1 - I move the carrot to the knife (this cannot be done with any veggie)
style 2 - This is when my problem occurs
style 3 - I tried to cut it right and maintain the knife angle but it was pretty uncomfortable

In my amateur experience, the knife moves and the other hand stays put; the knife should always be vertical.


What is the proper/most common way to serve curry? I went to a Thai restaurant this afternoon and ordered Massaman curry, which I've never had before. When I make curry at home, I usually mix it with chicken and pour it over rice and eat. But this curry was served in a bowl with a serving of rice beside it. So, doing what I normally do with curry, I flattened out the rice, poured the curry over the rice and ate it.

I realized afterwards that perhaps I was supposed to put the rice in the bowl and eat it like that, but I hadn't heard of doing that before. Is it normal to serve/eat curry that way? Does it depend on the type of curry being served?

There are two traditional way to eat curry. Indians typically eat their curry with a type of bread. Usually Naan or Roti and use piece of the bread as a scoop/spoon of sort.

Thai curry will tend to be eaten, as you suggested, over top of rice. Typically it is separated when it is served so the rice does not get soggy while it is waiting to be served. The rice is typically served on a plate big enough to fit both the rice and the curry.

Of course, you can eat the rice and curry however you see fit.

Also there are thin soups that is flavoured with curry but usually those aren't served with rice so there shouldn't be confusion in that category. But do note that if you think the curry is too thin, it will thicken as it mix with the starch from the rice.


Is cereal supposed to be cooked? I saw many people eat cereal by pouring in milk. I don't have milk.

Is boiling or microwaving cereal in water a good idea? Or should I cool drinking water to melt the cereal without any heating?

Packaged cereal such as corn flakes, raisin bran, or the Toasty O's in your picture is "ready-to-eat" — you can eat it dry, right out of the box if you wish, although many people enjoy adding some kind of milk (cows milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc.).

I don't think it would taste very good just mushed up with water. If that's all I had, I'd eat the cereal dry and drink the water separately — you can easily try it yourself and see what appeals to you.

Other cereals like oatmeal and wheat farina usually taste better when cooked, though you could eat dry oatmeal if you wanted.


Does Pressure cook work for hard to soften soybeans? I do not have a pressure cook in my house. But the soybean I bought remains really hard after soaking for 24 hours and boiled for 1 hour. I saw someone  saying that some old beans will never soften no matter how long I cook. Is this really true?

One of the poster mentioned 10 min cooking in a pressure cook should soften the beans. This appeals to common sense. But I am still concerned about those people saying "will never soften no matter what".

So, I am asking if any one has tried boiling which did not work but succeeded to soften the beans with pressure cook? I have no need for a pressure cook. And I don't want to buy a pressure cook if it too can not soften stubborn hard soybeans.

Tried it.  Failed utterly.  If the beans won't soften with overnight soaking and an hour of cooking, you should forget about them.


How to thin Ranch dressing? I found a recipe online for Ranch dressing that uses mayonnaise, sour cream, and buttermilk. The ratio of these ingredients are to my like (tastes good enough). However, I'd like the dressing to be a bit thinner (more liquidy). How would I go about achieving this? Add milk, cream, water, or something else?

Anything, including a 'neutral' flavor, is going to change the flavor, even if all it does is reduce the 'intensity'. So what you need to find is what is an 'acceptable' change.

With this in mind I suggest your best 'first choice' would be to warm your dressing slightly. Place the container or mixing bowl into a warm water bath. You are not trying to 'cook' or make it 'hot' just warm enough to thin it out without actually changing the flavor profile.

If that doesn't work for you then you might consider adding something to the mix.

The most likely thing you can do is alter the existing ratio to favor the 'thinner' ingredients. More Buttermilk, less mayo or sour cream.
Your second 'best' option would be to seek an thinning agent that does not distort the existing flavor profile 'too much'. Best candidate would probably be heavy cream or soft butter.
If neither of those options produces an acceptable result you might look for a different thinner such as an oil (olive, soy, canola) or another dairy (milk, low-fat or whole)


Is there a secret to flavouring with herbs I am a strictly amateur cook.  Most of my output is OK, certainly edible, but I seem to lack the ability to impart flavour through herbs.

I can throw in an inordinate amount, but still no flavour (not even an overpowering one).

Yet, I have a simple recipe for a vegetable stew in which the listed seasoning mix works beautifully.

Do you have a guide for the best way to deal with herbs ?

If you're adding inordinate amounts of herbs with no effect, then that sounds to me like a problem with the herbs themselves.  If you're using dried herbs, they could just be too old.

To me, dried basil and oregano and marjoram just never taste like much. Fresh, however, they're quite strong. Tarragon, chervil, and dill, on the other hand, do "work" in dried form, and in fact you have to be careful with tarragon. I guess I'd put rosemary in that category too but thanks to some out-of-control plants I've got more fresh rosemary than I could ever possibly use cooking for an army.


How come heating milk in the microwave is safe? I was reading this question and began to ask myself...

Since milk contains calcium, and calcium is a metal (just like potassium), how come putting a cup of milk in the microwave is safe and there are no visible arcs or sparks?

When metal is exposed to microwave radiation, an electric potential difference can develop as the microwaves generate electric charge in parts of the metal. Flowing electricity can cause sparks as electrons migrate to places of lower potential. Solid metal is susceptible to this because its electrons are relatively loose, making it a good conductor of electricity.

Calcium (Ca) in milk is bonded with other atoms (mostly as calcium phosphate), so it doesn't behave as a solid metal would: first because its electrons are secured in bonds with other atoms, and second, because the Ca atoms are not aggregated together but intermixed with nonconducting ones.


Substitute rabbit in chicken recipes? After reading through the cookbook thread from front to back, I bought a couple of the recommended works, including How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I went straight to the index to look up what it says about rabbit which came as a surprise to me (p. 653 in the 2008 print):

But you can substitute rabbit---which really does taste like chicken---for virtually
any recipe for braised chicken.

This wasn’t at all what I expected. Just to give you some background: due to relatives who live in the country, my family always had a decent supply of rabbit meat. Until say five years ago we had rabbit once every other month, or more often; definitely more frequently than chicken. That said, I don’t recall rabbit to taste anything like chicken up to the point that apart from soup I don’t value the latter very much, while I absolutely love the former.

What I want to know: How does this substitution work? How far does it go (is it limited to braised food)? Is it reversible? What chicken recipe should I try with rabbit meat? Am I prejudiced against chicken ;-)?

References: some threads mention this substitution, but they don’t exactly answer my question.

I would say he is referring to farmed rabbit which does have a very mild flavour akin to chicken especially compared to the wild stuff.


Is Turkish coffee grinding finer than Espresso grinding? I am shopping for an electric grinder that can grind to the extremely fine grind of Turkish coffee.

But the only commercially available electric grinders I have found so far refer to Espresso coffee (as if manufacturers never heard of Turkish coffee...)

So it is very tempting for me to settle for an Espresso type of grinder but really what I need is any grinder that could grind at least 8 Oz. of Turkish coffee at a time.

So... my question is simple: Does Turkish coffee grind:

Finer than Espresso grind?
Coarser than Espresso grind?
Same as Espresso grind?

Yes Turkish coffee grind is finer than esspresso grind.

Grinders are typically one of two kinds: Blade grinders, or burr mill/grinders. For a consistent turkish coffee or esspresso grind, it's recommended to get a conical burr grinder they can produce the fine grind you need without heating up the coffee and losing flavor.  Also, the better ones tend to not 'click' as you adjust the grind size. That way you can calibrate your grinder to the specific bean roast without making big jumps in grind size.

If you are going for the whole 8 oz, i'd recommend giving the grinder a break to cool down part way and prevent the grind from getting too hot and essentially roasting again.


By what method, other than heat, can I cause the alcohol in a liquid to evaporate? If boiling and other heat methods cause a deterioration of flavor, What is the fastest way of accelerating the evaporation rate of alcohol in a liquid like beer?

The only thing I can think of: lower the air pressure in the container it's in.  Probably not practical.


Are hard anodized aluminum pans oven-safe? I have a full metal "hard anodized aluminum" pan which I'd like to use in the oven. I heard non-stick pans in the oven are unsafe.

This pan comes with: no "oven-safe" label, a metal handle on the pan, a glass lid with a plastic handle on it. Because of the glass lid with plastic handle, I assume it's not designed to go into an oven.

Can I still safely use this pan in the oven?

An anodized finish is chemically stable. It does not decompose. It is nontoxic. High heat levels will not damage the anodized finish. Anodized surfaces are heat-resistant to the melting point of aluminium (1,221°F).

Source: http://www.yourcookwarehelper.com/cookware-college/healthy-cookware-safe-cookware/is-anodized-aluminum-cookware-considered-safe-cookware/

The issue you will have is if the rest of the pan is safe, such as the handle.
more information on this can be found here.

https://foodal.com/kitchen/pots-pots-skillets-guides-reviews/bare-aluminum-and-nonstick-cookware/choosing-the-best/


Which cooking apparatus is best to make Croque Monsieur? I'm looking for a small cooking apparatus that I can use to make Croque Monsieur.  I've used this kind of device before but I don't know which words to use to google for it.  Here's how I made a Croque Monsieur from the past:

Place a slice of cheese and ham between two bread slices
The sandwich is placed in between two grills which press against it like a jaw
After a few minutes, parallel grilled marks are left on both sides of the sandwich

Think of the above machine as a closed book engulfing a sandwich.  What's the English name of that machine and is it available in small size(my kitchen has limited space).

The device is called a "panini press" and they're available fairly small.  I've seen ones which aren't much larger than a toaster.


How to cook roast potatoes at low temperatures? Is there a sane way of roasting potatoes at low temperatures?

I ask because I am pot roasting a silver-side joint and would like some roast spuds to go with it. However, the pot roast is to be done at 140c and the spuds need roasting at around 200c. 60 degrees is a big difference, if it was 10, maybe 20 I'd just throw them in regardless.

If the potatoes roasted in say 20 minutes, I'd just roast them as the joint rests, which is how I do my Yorkshire puddings. Sadly, the potatoes end up taking to an hour or so, and I really don't like reheating just rested joints of meat.

How can I go about doing this?

Yes. What you can do is throw the potatoes in with the meat - anything above 85C will eventually cook the potatoes through. Then when you pull the meat out to rest, raise the oven temperature to say 190 - 200 C and possibly add a little fat. They won't take long to finish roasting to a nice golden brown.


Why would this pastry cream have an eggy smell? I tried making a dairy free pastry cream but it came out with a strong eggy smell at the end.  I may not want to use it depending how bad the smell is after is cools completely in the refrigerator.

My ingredients were

2 cups organic almond milk

1/2 cup sugar

vanilla bean + touch of vanilla extract

2-1/2 table spoons corn starch

4 egg yolks

I did it exactly as you're supposed to, whisk egg yolks with sugar until light cream colour (actually added the cornstarch with sugar to this and whisked everything together)

Boiled almond milk  with vanilla, add some hot milk to egg mixture and whisk, then pour back into remaining milk.  Cooking for several minutes until thicken.

Anyway, 2 of my eggs were fresh, but two were duck eggs that that were a few weeks overdue, but I
ve used them in omelette recently and they were still ok.  And on cracking them open they looked and smelled ok.  (I read duck eggs have thicker shell so last a bit longer than chicken eggs)

Do you think the two eggs that were a bit older was enough to make the pastry cream a strong egg smell?

Or was it maybe that I did not have enough fat content in the milk (due to the fact I used almond milk) that caused this effect?

I made pastry cream once before with whole milk and it did not have this smell.

The eggs may have cooked about before fully incorporating. You may want to put the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to see if any egg bits strain out.


Why season the bottom or handle of a cast iron / carbon steel pan? I hear a lot of advice to season the entire pan, including the handle and bottom of the pan along with the inside. Is this really necessary, and if so, what purpose does it provide?

It helps keep the pan clean.

I know in my cooking, there's always a chance of something dripping, something splashing, few drops running down the side, which might need wiping up with a damp towel or can just be ignored (and left there).  not to mention the possibility of moisture in the air.  And unseasoned metal can rust.

The first pan I had, I seasoned just the cooking surface... and after a few months, when I was cleaning something, I noticed the bottom had started rusting - not much, just bits of subtle discoloration, but enough that I noticed it.  Probably, if left a long time or in moister circumstances, that rust might get quite bad, perhaps leaving rust flakes or compromising the structure of the pan.

So the handle might get some spatters of whatever is cooking, or your hand might not be quite clean, and the moisture can start eating into it.  Or a few drops might end up on the outside of the pan to run down to the bottom, or end up on top of the stove coil or any surface the pan might rest on - when serving or moving pots.  Cleaning up such spatters, or generally cleaning the pan, might easily leave behind a little moisture.  And add the possibility of moisture pulled from the air - humidity, steam, whatever - and an unseasoned surface will slowly start to pick up rust.

I don't think it needs as much seasoning as the rest of the pan, since there's less exposure and less wear on these surfaces.  And obviously you can use the pan for quite a while before it becomes noticeable, much less an actual problem - but a layer of seasoning just to waterproof it a bit seemed like a good idea after I saw the bottom of that pan.


Where to get Chinotto extract? Chinotto drinks like San Pellegrino and Brio have Chinotto extract as their main ingredient.

Where can I get this extract? I've been looking around online, but cannot seem to find a supplier.

I was also unable to find the extract, but I was able to find a site that allows you to purchase the chinotto sour orange tree!

Here you go: https://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/store/sour-orange-trees.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=30&category_id=8


What is this white powder on my grill? I have a ceramic grill that I have only ever cooked organic chicken breast and organic steak on.  I have occasionally added spice but not for months as it makes too much mess.  After cooking, I drizzle warm water mixed with washing up liquid on it from a soft cloth, whilst the grill is still hot (generating a lot of steam), then wipe it in order to clean it efficiently.

After I have cleaned the grill and it starts to cool, I have noticed white powder on it, as shown below.

I can scratch this off gently with my thumbnail and it comes off cleanly, as shown by the highlighted area below:

This leaves a black substance under my nail that has a slight meaty smell:

Can anyone suggest what this is?  My first thought was salt, but I don't add any to the meat (or is there enough in it to cause this?).  Or could it be something to do with the washing up liquid I use to clean it?

(This is my first question here, be nice.  And yes, I know I could write to the manufacturer, but trust impartial individuals on here just as much :))

Not sure anyone would be able to tell you definitively, but, if you add water after each use, my guess would be minerals from your water.


What function that is suitable for baking cookies My cookies had been bake for almost 13 minutes ...but my cookies didn't flat and it had blacken on top ... so what function that is suitable for baking cookies ... ?? Is upper-lower or upper-convection-lower or what ??

A convection oven uses a fan that circulates the air so it shouldn't matter which self you use in the oven. I suggest you use the bake setting which only uses the lower heating element and not the roast setting which uses both the upper and lower element. When I bake cookies I baked it 25 degrees lower in my convection oven. Hope that helps!


Adding 'netvet; to sausages I'm not entirely sure what the word in is in the English language but where I'm from there is this one type of food 'skilpaadjies' which is lamb livers encased in the fat that surrounds the liver of the sheep.

I'm curious as to whether this type of fat can be used in general sausage making and also can you make a cured lamb liver sausage with 30 percent of this type of fat?

Also what should I know about cured lamb's sausages?

Netvet - or caul fat doesn't work well with sausages - it is hard fat - rather use soft fat for sausages. Like lamb's tail or something similar like pork fat.

I usually make skilpaadtjies from ground sheep's liver, that are spiced etc and then wrapped in netvet before being grilled on the braai.

Never tried cured lamb sausages - lamb has quite a pronounced taste and drying it will make it even more pronounced. We have used lamb in droe wors though - with beef and game meat.


My black glutinous rice is not chewy at all? I need some advice, I bought some Black Thai glutinous rice, but it just isn't getting the right texture.
I have:

soaked it overnight
soaked it over 2 nights
boiled it
slow cooked it
steamed it

I have tried various times from 1 hour up till 6 hours for the above.
No matter what I do, the texture isn't right. It's crunchy on the outside, like it has a shell but it's soft on the inside. It's not chewy and soft at all unfortunately.
The bag says it's glutinous rice. Could it be it's labelled wrong?
Any tips and insights would be helpful!

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


What to do with mochi...this version is white, hard and puck-like in shape? My mother-in-law gave us some mochi that she received as a gift. It's actually the size of a small hockey puck, white and pretty hard. (I've only encountered soft mochi in this shape and generally they had some sort of filling). The only other time that I've seen hard mochi is once when I bought frozen mochi from the store (sold as one solid rectangular block, about 1/2" high). With this frozen mochi, they suggested baking it. When baked, it browned on the outside and puffed up a little bit.

Has anyone ever seen the white mochi pucks that I've described? How do you eat it? I'm going to attempt to steam one and try to bake another to test. Is this the proper way to cook this type of mochi?

I've actually found this post about mochi. They show the cakes that I've seen in the past and also the shape that I mentioned in my post.

It seems like you can:

grill them - they will brown a bit and rise.
boil them - they won't rise
microwave them

And the ways to serve it is with:

Butter+soy sauce (an interesting combo that I will try)
Rolled in ground sesame seeds + sugar or salt.
Rolled kinako (toasted soybean powder + sugar.)

UPDATE

Boiled

I cut them into about 1 inch x 1 inch pieces and threw them in boiling water. Boiled them for about a minute or so...then removed them to a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.

Dressings

I tried butter+soy sauce (1 TBSP melted : 1/4 tsp soy sauce) - It's actually pretty good!

I also ground up some black sesame seeds with sugar (1 TBSP : 1/2 tsp sugar)...this was actually my favorite of the two.


What exact temperature allows me to store frozen products really long? For as long as I remember, I was always told (and I was always so sure), that minus 18 degrees Celsius is an optimal temperature for storing frozen products  for really, really long. Months usually and in case of certain types of meat and fish, even up to one year.

Some other sources, that I recall, but can't cite right now, said that in minus 18 degrees Celsius most (if not all) products can be kept until at least "best before" date.

Some time ago I went to a one of Polish shops around me and I was shocked to find this infobox:

It basically says, that in minus 18 degrees Celsius I can store all products up to one month (so not "many months" and not "really long"), with exception of ice cream (which even at this temperature can't be stored for longer than a week+).

And minus 24 degrees Celsius* I can store most frozen products "many weeks". Which leads me to a conclusion that under no home-applicable* circumstances I'm not allowed to store frozen food for "many months" or "really long".

What am I missing? Is above presented table correct?

* not mentioning, that none of fridges / freezers, that I use is able to run at minus 24 degrees Celsius temperature and to be honest -- I have never heard about any home-targeted device, that is able to achieve this temperature.

-24°C will usually be chest freezers, not uprights.

-18°C seems to be generally considered to be cold enough that even new-old-stock mammoth would still be safe, albeit a little dry. The only caveat is auto-defrosting systems in some freezers, they raise the temperature periodically (check the documentation for your model of freezer).


Where can you buy real liver (pref. calf's liver) in the western US? I have been looking for 14 years for calf's liver. I know that most processing plants render the organs inedible but the rise of the organic meat movement should make it possible to find. Anyone?

Have you asked the meat departments of the stores you shop in?  They may not carry it simply due to lack of demand but could order it for you.

Calve's liver is often sold frozen in small quart size containers due to the fact it's not a high demand item.  Check your freezer section as well as the fresh meat section.

Also look in the yellow pages of your phone book for any meat markets in your area.


What is the American measurement equivalent of 3см.л in Russian on a package of seasoning from Russia for Rice Pilaf, it suggests using 3см.л per 900 grams of rice. What would those measurements translate to in American measurements? I've seen translations for ct.L but not cm. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is a typo. The original is probably 3 ст. л, which means 3 tablespoons (an abbreviation for столовые ложки).

Note that, in Russian cursive handwriting, a т looks like a Latin small m, and can also, with the wrong amount of slant and writing speed, look like a Cyrillic small m. I don't know where cursive handwriting can have come into play in the design of a modern packaging, but it is one small pointer.

This interpretation also makes sense from a culinary point of view. I don't know the concentration of your seasoning, but 3 tablespoons sounds roughly feasible for 900 g of rice, which is quite a lot of rice, especially if measured dry. 3 cubic centimeters would not only be a weird unit to use in kitchen measurements (ml is the common one) but also it would only be a sufficient amount if you are using something like pure MSG crystals.

Russia does not use the Imperial system, so having a Russian recipe expressed in tablespoons is even less precise than an American recipe doing so. A Russian seeing this recipe would just use any real eating spoon in their cupboard to do the measuring. So, be prepared to treat this as a starting suggestion only, it might need some (or a lot of) tweaking to work well in your context.


Food-safe rotary evaporator grease For those of you who have rotary evaporators or other chemistry glassware in the kitchen, what do you use to grease the ground glass taper/ ball joints so that the lubricant does not either absorb or introduce flavors into the product?

Thus far I have not found anything that is a GRAS food additive marketed as a vacuum grease, but I have found some very expensive fluorinated/ PTFE compounds (Santovac 5GB) that would be insoluble in any food items being run through the system.

Many manufacturers and manuals say that you shouldn't grease them.  However, for parts of the process you may be able to use Taylor ice cream machine lubrication or Vaseline (see below).

Dave Arnold who also runs the Cooking Issues blog, is the king of RotoVap in the kitchen.  There is a full article over here on Dispensery Grade where he discusses RotoVap  in the kitchen.

Here's an excerpt from the comment section of the article:

  What are you using to grease the glass joints (air inlet and vacuum
  take-off)? Regular vacuum grease is probably not a good idea.
  Something like chapstick or shortening? Thanks.

  Reply  Dave A // Dec 12, 2009 at 11:22 am

  Howdy Stephen, We use Taylor ice cream machine lubrication or
  Vaseline.

If you go with vaseline, make sure you get the food-grade version.


Why are fermented dairy products pasteurised? Could it be for longer shelf life?How much longer does pasteurised dairy products last compared to non pasteurised one?It doesn't make much sense to me to destroy useful bacterias.I understand that pasteurisation destroys harmful bacterias, but probiotic (unpasteurised) products do exist (how do bottles of probiotic beverages not explode?).

Probiotic products are generally pasteurised, then the desirable cultures are introduced, in a similar way to yoghurt. There may be exceptions but those you can find in the supermarket are all made this way.

There are several reasons. Shelf life is a fairly minor one, but a batch contaminated with a disease-causing species would be a problem not just for health but for the manufacturers profits. Another is consistency. Even a benign bacterial/yeast culture can produce off flavours, or even just different flavours from different strains of the same species.


Why is my stock jelly-like when cold but watery when hot? I made a chili with home-made stock that appeared to have plenty of gelatin in it as the chili wobbled like a jelly when defrosted but when I subsequently heated it the sauce was very watery.

Is this a case of simply not reducing my sauce enough when I originally made it (despite its jellyness) or is something else going on?

The properties of gelatin are that it gels when it cools and turns liquid above 90F (32C). There's nothing wrong, it's supposed to do that. The melted gelatin has a silky mouth feel which many consider desirable.


What is "dumpling soit"? I am watching a Gordon Ramsey youtube video, he is cooking dumplings. At approximately the 6:04 mark of the video Gordon mentions "Next the dumpling essentail, soit". It looks to be a off white substance about the size of rice kernels, almost exactly like shredded cheese.

What is this "dumpling soit"? I assume some form of animal fat?

Yes, it is animal fat. The word is spelled "suet" and it comes from beef.

I haven't been able to find a recording of the word with British accent, but this is what fits the context too. It also seems to exist in this flaky form that is shown in the video.


Pink salt for cooking steak I've been curious about pink salt for a while now and I was wondering if it would be ok to use it for cooking steak? Or should i just stick to the regular table salt?

sorry for the confusion, guys. My mom's friend gave her himalayan pink salt and I'm supposed to prepare steak for them so i was just wondering if I could use the himalayan pink salt that she has. I normally cook with iodized salt and have zero idea about other salts. Hope my question makes sense this time. Thanks!!

Do not use pink salt unless you are following specific guidelines for food preservation. You could easily end up poisoning yourself or others if your are not careful.

Edit: I should add that I am referring to pink curing salt. The Himalayan pink salt is a different story and can generally be substituted for table salt. However if you are not 100% positive whether it is curing salt, don't use it as a seasoning.


Condensed milk versus regular milk in fudge recipes What is the difference between fudge recipes that call for sweetened, condensed milk versus regular milk?

Fudge is basically a chocolate flavored candy.

You combine chocolate and a sugar syrup and boil the syrup until you get the desired concentration. Everything else about the recipe is to either minimize sugar crystal size or add flavor.

Sweetened condensed milk will do two things-
1- give you a nice, caramelly flavor
2- Save a little time. Since it has less water to begin with there will be less to boil off.


How to keep edible cookie dough soft after refrigerated? I have experimented with about 5-6 edible cookie dough recipes. All are similar to regular cookie recipes minus the eggs and I also use heat treated flour to kill any bacteria. They all taste amazing but as soon as we place the bowl in the refrigerator it becomes rock hard. I need to find a way to keep it soft and scoopable after refrigeration. Any ideas what I could add?

Since most recipes use butter, I'm going to guess that's what you're using.

Think about butter in the fridge... what's it like? It's hard. Stiff.

Well, that's why your dough is getting hard. So, you have a couple of solutions.

Replace the butter with a fat that's softer when cold instead of using butter. Perhaps coconut oil?
Portion the dough before you put it into the fridge and let your portion warm back up to room temperature before eating it.

For me, I'd go with option two because I'd be worried about the texture when the cookies were warm, which would be much softer than they are currently, and I'd be worried about changing the flavor. If you're using the dough in something really cold - like ice cream - then option 1 would probably be fine for your needs.


What is a good bread recipe for light bread, but able to be shaped? I've started this thing for Easter where I bake bread and mold it into the shape of a bunny. Last year the bread turned out really hard and was hard to eat.
How can I be able to shape it but have the bread soft when it's cooked?

Do you want to use (more or less) the same bread recipe for flavor reasons? If so, coating the outside with oil or butter can help maintain softness. Also, adding or increasing oil/butter to the recipe itself (in place or in addition to moisture from water/milk) can make it more generally pliable.

Alternatively, perhaps a challah loaf may work better. I make it frequently, although I'm usually just braiding it instead of making a more complex shape like a bunny. It will get a crunchy crust on it when baked, but the inside should be quite soft. (Plus it's an egg bread, which seems nice for Easter.)


Caramel made with coconut milk tastes burnt I'd like to be able to make caramel without using any dairy products for my friends and family who are lactose intolerant or vegan. Usually when I make caramel, I use a recipe close to this one with a few small alterations:

I substitute 1/2 cup of light brown sugar or 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar for the same amount of granulated sugar because I like the flavor.
I use salted butter instead of unsalted butter and salt because it's convenient.
I add some lemon juice to the sugar before cooking to prevent crystallization.
At step 4, I heat the caramel to 250° F and at step 6, to 235°.

This generally yields good results for me. I read elsewhere that coconut milk can substitute for the heavy cream, but when I tried substituting coconut milk and coconut oil for the cream and butter respectively in my recipe, I got burnt toffee instead of chewy caramel. Also, it looks like the oil pooled on the surface instead of staying mixed. Why does my caramel feel like it was cooked to hard crack? Does coconut milk burn at a lower temperature than heavy cream, and if so, what temperature should I be cooking this caramel to? Is there a better vegan substitution that I can use here?

EDIT: I've found other recipes which use coconut milk instead of heavy cream, but I've noticed that they tend to make recommendations which run counter to the ones in my normal recipe, like stirring the syrup continuously, mixing everything together at the start instead of adding the fat after heating the syrup, and heating to lower temperatures. I would like to understand the reasons for these differences.

Try coconut cream.

I have moved away from coconut milk except for soups.  Coconut cream is also in cans and is lovely, with much less wateriness and great flavor.  It is often semisolid right out of the can but melts in the pan.  The mammal miracle is that milk holds fat in suspension.  I suspect this is trickier for coconuts.  The cream is fattier and so whatever they use for an emulsifier is present in greater amounts.

Try your veggy caramel with coconut cream and report back!


Regulation and balancing of readymade packed mayonnaise and other sauces How to reduce the acidity of packet sauces and mayonnaises? I came to know these packed food stuffs are very acidic to prevent any bacterial attack and i felt it my own, so what is the best way to reduce its acidity if it is suppose to use in a single day we open the packet? So that I can avoid the overhead of making sauces and mayonnaise of my own by using the best brand packets available in the market.

Yes, being able to use good quality processed mayonaise would be nice....well, calcium regulates acidity. I have experimented with this using dairy, and it does help a bit. I never went as far as adding pure calcium, but that would probaby work better and have less impact of the taste of, say, mayonaise. It makes sauces feel and look more creamy too, and apparently this works with pure calcium as well:

http://www.foodmanufacturing.com/news/2014/04/adjusting-calcium-acidity-levels-may-improve-dressings-and-sauces


Can the skin of lychee be used for anything? We recently saw and picked up some lychee from the grocery store.

It appears that the skin is inedible, but my girlfriend is wondering if it could be used for anything.
Should the lychee skin just be tossed, or can it be used in some way?

The rind is inedible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee

I've had a lot to do with Asian culture, both in and out of the realm of the culinary arts, and have never seen or heard of lychee rind used for anything. There are some fruits like lime, lemon, grapefruit, etc., wherein the rind can be used for other purposes, or even eaten. However, in this case, I think the most you could do to make use of it is to compost it and use it as nourishment for a garden. -- Which would certainly help feed your plants. :)

Another idea that is that sometimes things are put on the plate purely for decoration. The peel could be cut into decorative shapes and put on the plate with the peeled lychees, if you have guests over. You just need to make sure they know the peel is not edible. I've never tried this before, so I cannot attest to how well they work for this purpose, but it's an idea more relevant to cooking/presentation.


How do I open a brand-new (plug-top) oval canister? Shockingly I can't find an answer to this anywhere I look online. I have an oval canister of cocoa that I received as a gift with no directions on how to open it. A can opener is not going to work here due to the shape.

http://mcstevens.com/elvispeanutbuttebanana.aspx

It says it is a plug top. But I can't seem to unplug it with brute force using my hands. How do you open a new plug top?

As described in the comments by Jolenealaska and rumtscho, the key to opening plug-tops is leverage; it "is like opening a can of paint." Use a butter knife, screw driver or any other object that is both long, flat and sturdy to pry open the can. It is nearly impossible to open a plug top with your hands. If the can is oval pry open from the end of the can that will yield the most leverage (i.e. your rod should be parallel to the long axis and perpendicular to the short one).


How can I hold a battered Mars bar in a deep fryer without leaving any chocolate exposed? I made a deep-fried Mars bar today. When I was initially lowering it in the oil I held it with tongs, and when I released, the part where the tongs were touching had left the chocolate exposed. I hurriedly fished it back out, holding it by another part (already slightly crisped by then) and dipped it back in the batter to seal the exposed part. It worked ok but I couldn't help thinking there's a better way.

Put in on a stick. Depending on the size of the bar a toothpick may be sufficient. Just make sure the batter covers the stick a little where it goes into the bar.


What elements in green leafy vegetables provide carbohydrates? If you boil some greens and drink the liquid only, will that give you a lot of carbohydrate energy or none to little i.e. do you actually need to eat the solid or how much energy can you get from the liquid alone?
If it comes from the solid, is most of the carbohydrate it in the stalk or leaf?

Thanks

According to Nutrition Data, using spinach as a sample green leafy vegetable, a 30 gram serving of spinach contains only about 1 gram of carbohydrates, and that is dietary fiber.

So the simple answer is that there isn't much energy there at all, in the leaf or stem, or to be leached into the cooking liquid.


Pulled pork - inject brine AND immerse in brine? Aiming to do a pork shoulder for pulling. In the past I've made an apple juice brine and immersed the joint for up to 24hrs. I bought an injector. Would it be overkill to inject the brine AND immerse it for say 12hrs? Or should I only do one?

Frankly - if you're aiming for pulled pork, brining at all isn't really necessary. Brining is most beneficial for lean pieces of meat because it helps the meat retain moisture and prevents a lean cut from drying out during fast cooking.

When slow-cooking a pork shoulder, you're going to wind up with very (deliberately!) overcooked meat fibers with much of their moisture squeezed out. The apparent moisture comes mostly from rendered fat and collagen converting into gelatin, which aren't really affected by brining; they are functions of the long and slow cooking process.

If you like the flavor that the brine introduces, then you can sure keep it, but given the other processes involved, I would not expect any difference in brining method to produce a noticeable difference in your pulled pork.


Why does broccoli turn brown when steaming? I steam my broccoli until it's 'al dente' and some buds turn brown. I've done a small search, but haven't found anything.

I'm thinking maybe the steam is too hot or I'm steaming too long. What do you think?

Per the transcript of Alton Brown's Good Eat's episode If It Ain't Broccoli, Don't Fix It:

  Inside broccoli, nice, bright green chlorophylls are kept separate
  from acidic elements by cell walls. But if you overcook the broccoli,
  the cell walls can collapse, and the acids can attack, turning our
  nice, bright green chlorophylls into a sad, dingy gray.

This would let other pigments reveal themselves, turning making the appearance of your broccoli yellowish or brownish.  Your picture shows that the individual florets seem to be most effected, which are the smallest and easiest parts to cook on the broccoli.

So it may simply be an issue of overcooking the little florets.

Later in the transcript, Brown recommends a hybrid method of cooking, giving different treatment to the stalks and florets to minimize this effect.

According to The Happy Scientist, raising the pH with baking soda will prevent the enzymes from effecting the chlorophyll, but this would be difficult to apply when steaming, and of course it also would have the unfortunate side effect of turning the broccoli mushy.

Personally, I prefer to roast broccoli rather than steam it.   It is a little slower, but can be very effective, and of course, a different type of browning is somewhat expected :-)


What N+ stands for in French and Dutch descriptions of a spread / cream cheese? I have a Polish spread cheese that is also marketed for Dutch and French markets and thus has descriptions in three languages. Polish and French or Dutch names differs by number used in it.

Polish name's equivalent to English is "spread cheese 24.2% of fat". French and Dutch names are equivalent to English "cream cheese 60+".

What that "60+" stands for, what does it mean and how does it correlate to 24.2% of fat.

EDIT: Here are the photos of a cheese in question, box containing it photographed from both sides:

Dietary table (placed on back, not photographed) says that it contains exactly 23.5 grams of fat per each 100 grams of the product. Thus this cheese, by no mean, can contain 60% of fat and this number must stand for something else.

As you can see, to make things even more complicated there's a "V.G./M.G.: 70%" notice on the front (haven't noticed it before). So this gives us three numbers:

23.5 grams / 24.7% of fat,
60+,
V.G./M.G.: 70%.

Last two are unknown to me.

The edited question gives three numbers.

23.5 grams / 24.7% fat

This is the percentage of fat by weight.

V.G / M.G: 70%

M.G. is an abbreviation for  matières grasses (i.e. fat: think of foie gras!). I'd guess V.G. is the corresponding abbreviation in Dutch. Anyway, this refers to the percentage of the dry matter in the cheese that is fat. For instance the top line of the table in the second link shows that full-fat cream cheese is between 60% and 85% fat by this measure.

60+

I think this is simply a less precise version of the previous statistic, showing that the cheese is in the highest band for fat content.

Summary

100g of cheese has 35.3g of dry matter, of which 70%, or 24.7g, is fat.


Any strategies or tips on how to make juice into creams for filling cakes? So Custard powder and Custard are both expensive where I am from. My mom is looking for ways to do creams to put inside pastries.
Currently, what I do is use Fresh Milk, melted butter and some flavoring.
Will adding gelatin to water and juice make them look and taste like fillings?
I am thinking of using purple yams as flavor, like a jam, and then make them creamier by adding them to the butter and hot milk.
Any tips will receive digital hugs XD
But really, thanks. hopefully, it is not expensive XD

There are many thickeners that can make fruit juices into thick fillings.

You can make a traditional egg custard, as bob1's reply to your answer mentions.

You can make a non-egg filling using other thickeners, like gelatin or starches. Popular starch thickeners to use for pastry fillings are corn starch and tapioca powder. Any of these will work well with liquid flavoring ingredients like fruit juice. Corn starch is very cheap, at least here in the U.S.

Yams already contain a lot of starch and very little liquid, so you will need to add liquid (milk or cream should work well) if you plan on using additional thickeners (which may help achieve a smoother, less chalky texture). I do not recommend gelatin for yam filling because I don't believe the textures will go well together.

"Yam" is a word that is applied to a bunch of different roots, but I think it's worth looking at this Portuguese Trutas recipe. These sweet potato pastries are amazing and don't require additional thickeners. Note that the yam or potato should be pureed, not mashed.


Can I substitute Maida Flour for All Purpose Flour for making Tortillas? I'm attempting to make a Hot Cheeto Burrito. I've already subbed the Flaming Cheetos with a local substitute (Kurkure), and I'm going to make the Tortilla myself too. I have both Maida and Atta at hand.

I've seen answers that say it's an okay substitute if you're baking.

This is the recipe I'm going to use:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/157642/homemade-flour-tortillas/

https://tasty.co/recipe/hot-cheeto-burrito

Real tortilla would be made with corn flour or wheat flour. You can use the maida, it would taste little different, but not much to matter


Factors affecting meringue crispness I've read the other questions on meringue but didn't find the answer I'm looking for. When making meringue, there are basically three types that form:

Crisp shells will a uniform texture throughout.
Crisp shells with a gooey texture in the middle.
Gooey, marshmallow like shells.

What are the variables and ratios that predicate the type of shell predictably (e.g. temperature, time, source/type of heat, and sugar:egg ratio)? What mechanics are involved to determine the result?

I recommend watching Egg Files VII - Good Eats. It is an entire episode on meringue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmIuFX3x_ik

Important factors affecting the result:

temperature
amount of sugar
how the sugar is incorporated

Alton Brown explains how to make three types of meringue: french, italian, and, swiss.

Here are a tidbits of info from that episode:

French Merigue

add pinch of salt to egg whites
whip egg whites,
add sugar slowly until dissolved
add vanilla extract
add cornstarch and vinegar
bake, then turn off oven and wait 3 hours with oven door ajar
low temperature 250 degrees fahrenheit

The low temperature means the meringue dries out slowly.
The outside becomes dry (crisp) first, and since the
temperature is dropped before water inside can escape
the inside becomes soft and moist.

The acid from the vinegar helps the structure of the foam (note: new eggs
are slightly acidic, so use new eggs for meringue).

The corn starch prevents any liquids from seeping out.

Swiss

add pinch of salt to egg whites
dissolve sugar in egg whites
whip on medium while heating (Alton uses a hair dryer!)
wait until the temperature hits 140 degrees fahrenheit
kill heat
whip on high
These meringues were poached

These meringues becomes very gooey inside.
Note: Hot water can dissolve more sugar than cold water.
      Sugar keeps water in the final product.

Italian

whip egg whites with a litle salt and vanilla extract
make hot sugar syrup with sugar and corn syrup
slowly drizzle syrup into foam while mixing


Make existing cheesecake recipe chocolate? I have a cheesecake recipe that I have used many times, and absolutely love. I also love chocolate. So I was thinking, why not combine the two? There are plenty of recipes out there for chocolate cheesecake. My concern is that these are all new and different recipes to me, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I was wondering if I might be able to simply use the recipe I already know?

My thinking was that I would melt some semi-sweet chocolate and mix it into the batter, perhaps with a dash of chocolate extract as well to enhance the chocolate flavor. Is this a reasonable approach? or would the addition of the melted chocolate change the consistency/character of the batter such that it wouldn't work, perhaps not setting up properly or something? Would there be any caveats I should be aware of, or adjustments I would need to make for it to work?

Apparently (according to comments) the specific recipe makes a difference, and the technique can't be generalized to cheesecakes in general, or baking in general. As such, here is the recipe I use. Nothing special, it's just one I know works and produces results I like. It actually came from the box of cream cheese originally:

  1 cup graham cracker crumbs
  3 Tbsp. sugar
  3 Tbsp. butter, melted
  5 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
  1 cup sugar
  3 Tbsp. flour
  1 Tbsp. vanilla
  1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
  4 eggs

  Heat oven to 325°F
  Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 min.
  Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.
  Bake 1 hour 10 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Some additional digging with more specific search terms turned up this recipe: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/philadelphia-new-york-chocolate-cheesecake-52676.aspx which is effectively exactly what I suggested doing. The only difference is that the number of eggs used is decreased by one, and, of course, the recipe doesn't use any chocolate extract. So apparently I was on the right track :)

  5 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
  1 cup sugar
  3 Tbsp. flour
  1 Tbsp. vanilla
  2 pkg. (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces, melted, slightly cooled
  1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
  3 eggs

  Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, the flour and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add melted chocolate and sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
  Bake 1 hour 5 min. to 1 hour 10 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.


How to make sure that potatoes are boiled properly? I once boiled some potatoes of average size, by inserting a fork into them I thought they were boiled properly but cutting them in half, I saw the center is still raw with a lighter color. So how should I know it's enough boiling?

You would probably do best to check the internal temperatures of each and every potato. You can do this with a meat thermometer.

  Potatoes are done if tender when pierced with a fork and the internal temperature reaches 210 degrees F. Use a meat thermometer to test for doneness.

[ Source: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/PotatoBaking.htm ]

(That's 98.8889 degrees Celsius, because I can't read Farenheit.)

Now, baking and boiling are different, and what you are going to end up doing with it or what type of potato you used will have an effect on this. However, you get the general idea. Thermometers will provide the best accuracy for any method of cooking.

If you want to really keep things accurate, you can use the ChefSteps method of selecting potatoes to begin with: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/finding-perfect-french-fry-potatoes

So all your potatoes have about the same water content.

Then you can cut them all to exactly the same size.

Then you can put them in an immersion circulator/waterbath at 194°F / 90°C, use a special sous-vide bag thermometer to test the internal temperature (it pierces the bag and reseals it on the way out,) and you have the most accurate potatoes ever.

Mmmm, accurate potatoes.


Impossible to manage sticky dough Even after finding many people with my same problem and some nice answers, nothing really works. I have watched many youtube tutorials on how to handle and shape sticky dough but believe me, I have never seen something as sticky as what I'm dealing with right here.

My dough will stick to absolutely everything, even the brand new dough scraper that I bought is useless against this. I have tried everything: oil, flour, cold water, a spatula, a scraper... NOTHING works.

I'm doing just as many youtube videos and tutorials suggest and they never end up with such an sticky monster as I do. It's driving me crazy.

I really appreciate your help,

This is a short clip of me tryng to fold my dough: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h12qkh14uyrd0ev/video-1468336333.mp4?dl=0

Thanks!

Unfortunately, your link does not seem to be working for me right now, but assuming you are making a leavened bread dough, here's some tips. Let me know if you've tried all these before.

Wet your hands before handling the dough. This will temporarily keep the dough from sticking to your hands but be warned: this effect will not last forever. Make sure to keep wetting your hands as you go.
If you're getting near baking time, go ahead and flour the surface and your hands. Ge generous with the flour, too little will find yourself elbow-deep in dough with no way out
With the scraper, wet the scraper a bit before using it to reduce "drag" on the dough.

If you could provide more details on the exact makeup of the dough, that could provide more insight, but that's all I have for you right now.


Lime on Fish tastes Bitter I recently cooked tilapia in foil packets. I used Season All, and topped eached filet with guajillo salsa (flavored with lime) and lime slices.  I noticed a bitter aftertaste when I was eating the finished product.  It wasn't unbearable, but I didn't like it.  I'm thinking it was the lime slices.  I'm by no means a cooking pro, so I was wondering if anyone knows if lime slices add bitterness when cooked?  And if so, how to avoid?

My internet research didn't come up with anything definite.  (However, I discovered this website in the process!)

I'd be a little concerned about mixing aluminum foil with acid foods. Aluminum acetate has an astringent taste. I'm not finding it on the internet, but aluminum citrate (from citric acid in the lime juice) likely has a similar flavor.

Here's a recent, and seemingly reputable look at cooking acid foods in Aluminum foil (PDF file): Risk Assessment of Using Aluminum Foil in Food Preparation

Using parchment paper rather than aluminum foil would avoid the possibility of producing bad tasting metal salts.


Can boiling a soup too low result in less flavor? I recently tried a new recipe which involved cooking vegetables at a lower temperature than I normally see. I had problems with the instructions from the start. The low setting on my stovetop didn't seem to do the trick to sweat the onions or simmer the soup until I turned it up to medium first.

As a result, I spent a lot of time waiting, and the soup spent less time at any kind of boil. The resulting soup doesn't have much flavor despite the ingredients all being fresh.

Could it be that the vegetables didn't get hot enough for long enough to do the job? How do I fix it?

I'd say that recipe really is going to depend on how much flavour is in your ingredients.

Nothing really has much time to 'cook' so the end result is going to be very 'summery' ie not far off 'just heated'.

You can't sweat down onions & garlic in 6 minutes, but what you can do is just knock the raw edge off them.
Everything else gets about the same treatment, & should come out almost al dente & tasting really fresh.

The massive hit of basil & parsley at the end ought to make it zing off the plate!

If it doesn't… then I'd look at your ingredient supplier.

Supermarkets are great at selling you things that look fantastic, perfect in every way - except they can really lack flavour.
One of my pet hates is supermarket parsley [& coriander/cilantro] It can often be nothing more than 'green', with very low flavour. Supermarket tomatoes, eggplant & zucchini can be very similar.


Is my sourdough starter "bad"? I want to bake sourdough bread and have created a starter.

It's three days old and bubbling a lot. However it smells like sour yoghurt and not at all yeasty.

Has it gone bad?

Hard to tell for sure, but it sounds like a good sour to me.  It has been my experience that sours do not always smell like yeast. Did you add a pinch of yeast in the first place when making the sour?  If not, you would be relying on nature to have any natural yeast spores within your sour, and that does not always work out that way.

Either way, if you are only using the sour to impart flavour in your bread, it doesn't really matter if it has yeast in it anyways, as you will add yeast for leavening purposes when you mix the bread.

It has also been my experience that often a 'strange' smelling sour has excellent flavour.  Ultimately, it can't hurt to bake a loaf.


Sushi/nori/yaki paper - out of date? I make a lot of sushi.  But, as I buy the paper/wrapper in 100's, sometimes I do not use it in what might be considered good time.  I have searched and searched the packet for a sell or eat by date but there is none.  Is this OK to use even though I bought it about 8 months ago, and opened it about 6 months ago.  I have made sushi today from it, it seems OK, rolled great and cut brilliantly, but should I be concerned?  The paper is not too dry on the edges and is still a great greeny/blackish color.

According to Still Tasty (a site that looks at USDA, CDC and FDA data), nori lasts 2-4 months in the pantry and 4-6 months in the fridge. Also it says:

  Store in airtight glass or plastic container or in sealed plastic bag. Refrigerate to extend shelf life.

Still, nori is completely dried. I imagine that the concern beyond that time frame is staleness, not safety.

I have nori that's years old. I would check to be sure that it is somewhat brittle, not leather-like before I used it, but for quality, not safety.


How to broil a rack of goat ribs It's football playoff time, and I have two racks of goat ribs. My cooking plan is to wrap the ribs in foil and broil them. Any recommendations about what to do with them first, and what to put in the foil with them?

I am assuming that you have actual goat ribs, like pork ribs, and not a rack of goat chops.  I had a full goat breast that I just cooked them the other day.  If you just broil them as you describe they will be tasty...and tough...and greasy.

You want to treat these like pork ribs, needing a slow cook.  I first smoke my ribs, then braise them, then finish them under the broiler with a thinned sauce.  Here's the whole process in great detail at cookloose.com

Unless you are saying broil as a means of describing putting them on a grill, note that wrapping the ribs in foil before broiling defeats the purpose.  Broiling is directional heat...heatfrom a direction.  Wrapping them in foil reflects the direct heat away.

However, your method is, almost, correct.  You DO want to wrap the ribs in foil with a little liquid (beer?), maybe some garlic and a bay leaf, or do a full rub, and then put them in the oven at low heat for a braise.  This will cause the meat and connective tissue to get soft and yummy.  THEN pour off the liquid, open the foil and slip under the broiler to give them a crusty finish.  Brush with a sauce or not, as you wish.

So...slow cook in liquid...broil to finish, but not wrapped in foil for the broil.


Properties of potassium carbonate as leavening agent We have a gingerbread recipe calling for potassium carbonate (vulgo baking potash). One year I replaced the baking potash with baking soda 1:1. It worked fine.

Later I researched what the supposed differences are and found a claim that you may leave the dough up to several days in a cool place to rest when using baking potash but not when using baking soda. The (family) recipe originally also allowed to substitute baking potash for hartshorn salt (ammonium carbonate), but since this has the effect that the dough gets a little runny in the oven and therefore the resulting gingerbread is flatter than desired, we haven't used this in decades.

This answer describes potash as "purely historical leavener". Alas, where I come from (Germany) it is commonly used in Christmas recipes. In fact you will find it alongside the respective spices during the season.

The recipe of my family explicitly allows for storing the ready dough in a cool place for several days. Another recipe of the family of my significant other actually calls for leaving the dough in a cool place for several days and also uses baking potash. I never thought anything of it, but "the internet" appears to ascribe preservative properties of sorts to baking potash.

Or is there something else behind the alleged difference in keeping the dough in a cool place? For example, is baking soda perhaps known to somehow dissolve or otherwise react with the other ingredients and thereby lose its leavening effect?

Could someone please shed some light on the properties baking potash would have in a recipe aside from the leavening effect?! Please provide authoritative sources, if possible.

I've never heard of any preservative effect of potash, the reason it is still used in traditional recipes is the ashy flavor it imparts. That smokiness is not to everyone's taste, baking soda is a perfectly good substitute if you prefer the end result.

You can refrigerate baking soda leavened cookie dough for 3-5 days without issue, it's batters where this would be a problem, but it would be whether you used potash or baking soda. The reason is that any chemical leavening agent starts to react with acid right away and produce carbon dioxide. Refrigeration slows this process, but doesn't stop it - cookies don't need as much leavening so it's not an issue whereas for a cake it's a problem.

Refrigerating a spiced dough for a couple of days is a good step because it lets the flavor of the spices come out and blend. You can achieve the same thing by mixing the spices with the butter and refrigerating the butter for a couple of days instead, the end result is the same from a flavor point of view.


How to keep cream from separating in milk? I have fallen in love with raw milk. It tastes so much better than processed milk. Raw milk is not pasteurized or homogenized. Because the milk is not homogenized, the cream will separate from the milk.  Also, pasteurization or homogenization changes the flavor of the milk so the milk does not taste as good.  Homogenization breaks up the fat cells.

I buy three quarts of milk at a time. As I use the first quart, the cream is well mixed in the milk. By the time I open the second and third quart, the cream has separated from the milk and settled at the top of the bottle. How do I keep the cream from separating? I suppose I could shake each quart each day, but that is more trouble than it is worth.

Once the cream has separated, it requires a lot more effort than shaking to get the cream to mix back in.  I have to stick a knife through the opening at the top and break up the cream.  Then, I have to shake vigorously.

Homogenization is the process that breaks down fat particles in milk so that they will not separate.  The least expensive hand-held homogenizer I found on Amazon is over $700US. I would say your options are (a) buy a homogenizer, (b) agitate your milk regularly, (c) buy less milk more often, (d) skim off the cream and use in another way, or (e) ignore the separation.


Type of wok and how to go about seasoning it I've just bought a cheap (+-$15) wok from an asian market and I'm unable to determine the type of material it is (the wok had no informative label/instructions). I was specifically looking for a carbon steel wok without a non-stick coating; I confirmed with the lady at the store that the wok did not have a non-stick coating, however, she was unable to tell me if it was carbon steel. The wok is not very heavy but feels fairly strong.

I've attached 2 photos of the wok. The black colour seems different from the other carbon steel woks I have seen, but I am no expert on the subject. If anyone is able to provide info on the material and how I should go about seasoning the wok I would highly appreciate it.

Thanks.

I had a very similar coating on the wok I bought recently.  The person I bought it from explained that the coating had to be burnt off, and not scrubbed off.  I put the wok on a high flame and made sure to flame the entire surface of the wok, including the sides.
The coating smokes and burns, but once it is off you will find yourself with a good carbon steel wok. it does take some time and great heat to burn it off so persevere.


Fruit Oil Extraction I'm making an experiment which compares different oils.  It seems I can make oil from any fruit/seed
by just pressing it, filtering the liquid outflow, and letting the filtered liquid settle (keeping only
the liquid which settles above the water in the end).

Though not refined, I should be able to thereby make olive oil and sunflower oil for starters.

Then, it seems I should be able to make grape oil or grapefruit oil with the exact same procedure.
But, I can't find nutrition facts about these two oils on the internet, so I'm wondering if no oil
would be produced, or if this is really considered juice (but that doesn't make sense because juice
normally includes water; even "concentrated juice" doesn't seem right since it isn't slippery like
normal oil).  Anyway, what happens when you use the exact same procedure on sweet fruits like this?
If you truly make oil, what is the saturated fat content for extraction from a grape or a grapefruit?

Ultimately, I want to compare the saturated fat content of many fruit oils, extracted by a universal
method, so a big table here would be the best answer.  But, I don't even know if this is possible
since people don't even talk about the oils from normal fruits.

For grapes you don't make oil from the fruit, you make it from the seed. The only entries in this table for fruit "flesh" are for oil palm and olives.

Assuming the price of some oils correspond to the difficultly to get a reasonable yield,
I think their will not be enough oil in grapefruit (or grape flesh) to extract, otherwise it would probably have been done so commercially already.


How to know the doneness for a tough cut of meat You're always hearing that a tougher cut of meat like a brisket or a shoulder be cooked low and slow to break down the tissue and be tender.  I have also heard (by the experts) that a tough cut of meat like a flank steak be cooked no further than medium rare for tenderness?  How does one know what doneness goes with a tougher cut of meat?

There are two basic cooking methods for tough cuts:

Cook for a long time ("low and slow"): this is appropriate for large pieces like roasts
Sear very quickly on both sides and remove while barely medium-rare: this is appropriate for thin steaks

The thing is, while many people mention the second method, it's still going to produce a relatively tough piece of meat.  Some people claim that you could take a piece of chuck steak or round steak and make it as tender as a ribeye as long as you cook it fast and don't overcook it.  That's just not true, but it's a way of cooking the meat fast, while minimizing the amount of toughness that occurs with fast cooking.

Usually you'd want to do this either with very thin steaks (which is one the reasons flank is often sliced very thin) or with the type of meat that you'd slice into thin strips before serving.  Many people cook a traditional "London Broil" this way (which tends to be a relatively lean and somewhat tough cut): very fast cooking on both sides, then slice thinly and serve.

The reason for these two conflicting pieces of advice is that "tough" meat reaches its maximum toughness when it's just "well-done."  You generally want to cook it to medium-rare, because that's when beef is juiciest, so you get juice and still less tough.  But once you go beyond medium-rare, it just gets tougher and less juicy.  At that point, the way forward is to continue to cook for a long time, which will eventually break down the tissues that make the meat tough (as you note), so you'll end up with thoroughly cooked but more tender meat in the end.


What's this green crispy vegetable or edible seaweed? My grandparents saw, but didn't take, these online images at Chiu Chow Garden restauarant in Central, Hong Kong. They can't remember which website: perhaps OpenRice? What's the scientific name for the green?

Sources: Left, Right picture.

Looks like qúndài cài (裙带菜)/Wakame/sea mustard.


How flavoursome is Roast Buffalo? We're considering roasting a Buffalo Rib Roast for a bunch of friends but have no idea how it will turn out. How does this meat compare (assuming it's cooked medium rare) to something like a Beef Sirloin Roast? Are there other meats that are particularly similar? Will it be succulent or dry out? How does the flavor profile compare with beef? Is it particularly gamey?

I can't help but think this will be a winner. Buffalo tastes very similar to beef, but has a richer flavor, almost (but not exactly) like what you get when you dry age a steak.

Buffalo is much leaner, obviously, but I honestly don't think that will make much of a difference in a rib roast. If it were a Chuck or brisket cut, I might feel differently, but a rib roast should not give you any problems, given that you are only roasting it for 1.5-2 hours.

Take it for what it's worth (not much, because it's a totally different cut of meat) -- I had a braised buffalo short rib at Ted's Montana Grill, and it was surprisingly excellent. It was very tender, but was so much more flavorful than a beef short rib.


Gluten free baked good coming out bitter I am trying to bake gluten free and i find that my baked goods come out bitter. I am using oat flour and rice flour, can the bitterness be from that, what can i do to correct this?
What is a good gluten free flour other then oat?

Thank you

Both of those ingredients are not bitter unless they are rancid. You may be using too much baking soda?

A basic gluten free flour is usually a combination of white rice flour, brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, tapioca starch and xanthan or guar gum. From there it can go into buckwheat, bean flours, quinoa, etc. The gums give resilience and elasticity to the dough (along with the tapioca and sweet rice flour) and replace the action of the gluten which creates a structure for baked goods to rise.

There's lots of gluten free flour recipes that come up with a Google search. It's sometimes easier to start with those than trying to create one from scratch.

Oats BTW, are not strictly gluten free because of cross contamination when growing or processing. The package should state that they are gluten free.


What to use for a matcha whisk? I want to make matcha green tea. If I just stir it in a mug with a teaspoon it doens't mix in very well so I know I need a whisk. The most popular ones are the traditional bamboo ones but it seems you need a bowl for them as well and I'd prefer to use a normal mug.

Has anyone used a normal whisk, does that work? Or I was thinking of trying a cooking brush.

UPDATE: has anyone tried with an electric whisk?

The bowl isn't absolutely essential; it's part of the aesthetic. The shape does serve a purpose, as most of them have nicely curved bottoms that will minimize the chance of the powder from clumping near the edge of the bowl.

I've used a normal whisk when preparing "matcha latte" drinks for a client of mine back in the day. There's an advantage to having the 80-120 "tate" (bristle?) because they make it easier to break up beads that form as moisture contacts the tea. But a normal culinary whisk will do the trick, perhaps with a bit more work.

I don't see how the silicone brush would help whisking; they tend to be pretty floppy (and mine has occasionally had some of the silicone strands break off when I've used it for brushing food).