What is included in "Spices" In the U.S.A., when a product's ingredients include spices what can this legally cover?

The term Spices on food labels can cover a very wide range of ingredients. This general term is only allowed when the ingredient is in a small quantity and not a major constituent of the product. Spices can be any vegetable sourced material that is used for flavour or arroma. Spices may be whole or ground, may be dry or fresh.

For details look at this page on the FDA website:

  DEFINITIONS:
  1. SPICES - General Definition - Aromatic vegetable substances, in the whole, broken, or ground form, whose significant function in food is seasoning rather than nutrition. They are true to name and from them no portion of any volatile oil or other flavoring principle has been removed.


Which kind of mortar and pestle replaces a blender? I can't stand the noise, and even just the idea, of a blender in my kitchen. I want to keep things more natural (less plastic) and waste free (less products).

So I was looking into getting a mortar and pestle instead. I stumbled onto a great looking olive wood one but after reading the answers to this question I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for. I did some more reserach about the different kinds but since I have no experience with any of them it just sounds like I would need a different one for every task. I can't imagine every chef as every kind.

In the best of worlds I want to crush spices and herbs, make sauces, grind seeds and nuts, pound garlic and ginder, and maybe even make some soups. Which kind of mortar and pestle would be most versatile in this case?

As usual, Serious Eats has an article for this, covering what type of M&P to buy.  They recommend a large granite model for most purposes, but an olivewood or marble one for certain special foods, like pesto.

Your question is specifically "replacing a blender", though, and "even make some soups".  An M&P will never replace a blender for pureeing liquids.  First, you can't put much liquid in even the largest countertop M&P, no more than a liter.  Second, M&Ps do not work for pureeing liquids, but rather for grinding dry ingredients.  If you were to put a chunky soup in, and try to pound it, the soup would just splash all over the counter.  And forget trying to make frozen drinks like daquiris in one.

All is not lost, though: you can pretty much handle almost all foods if you combine an M&P with a stick blender. Yes, it's still a blender, but it's smaller, quieter and more economical.  The only thing you won't be able to do is the frozen drinks.


Is golden syrup with black around the edges bad? I had a tin of golden syrup for a long time - longer than I care to admit. When I opened it up yesterday (to sweeten up some mulled wine), it was granular (a bit like honey can be), and black around the edges.

Is this 'bad', or just different?

Is the blackness the result of some chemical reaction with the tin?

And in general, does it eventually go off, or does it last indefinitely?

Golden Syrup improves with age according to Heston Blumenthal's "In Search of Perfection". Here he analyses a 70 year old glass jar of Tate and Lyle Gold in the lab finding that the "older treacle contained the same flavour compounds as the normal stuff, but each was intensified".

In his recipe he fakes the ageing process by baking the tin at 70ºC (158ºF) for 24 hours noting that the flavour will continue to improve up to 100 hours.


Is there really a tradition of some kind to eat white bread when it's hot outside and dark bread when it's cold? I've heard this more than once in my life:

This hot weather really is suited for white bread. In the winter, we can eat the dark bread again.

And variations of that.
Is that based on any kind of logic/tradition? Why exactly is white bread "more suited" for hot weather than dark bread? Why does the kind of bread matter? Is there something I'm missing?
I might actually agree that it somehow seems to fit better, but I can't explain why exactly.

Short answer: No.
There does not appear to be any such tradition.
I got curious and googled around a bit, and couldn't find anything.
That, and being from a country that could easily get to -15c in winter and 25c in summer, so if anyone would have such a tradition, I think it might be us ;-)
Having said that, if OP knows of any places with such a tradition, it would be interesting to know...


How long is too long to cook chicken? How long should I cook my chicken?

I never get it right when I cook it so what's the right time? The very last time was three weeks ago and I completely forgot about it and it burned.

Cooking chicken, like anything else, is not about time, but about outcome.

In the case of meat, the most important factor is the internal temperature to which it is cooked.   This should be measured with an instant read thermometer.

White meat should get to about 155-160 F depending on your tastes; dark meat to about 165 - 180 F depending on your tastes.

Note that dark meat, depending on the cooking method, can tolerate a fairly long cooking time, even when the temperature does not rise:  during that time, the connective tissues (collagen) will convert to gelatin, and it will become more unctuous and almost silky in texture.

How long this will take depends on the size of the pieces (or whole chicken if cooking whole), the temperature, and the cooking method.  Thighs in a 375 F oven might take an hour to an hour and a quarter; being braised, maybe 30 minutes, for example.

See also:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)?
Temp and times for roast beef 2.3lbs
Is there a general algorithm for calculating the amount of time to roast meat for?


Can you freeze mirepoix? Can I chop up and freeze mirepoix raw, or do the vegetables have to be blanched first?
Thanks!

Yes, you can freeze mirepoix, but it'll be pretty soft once defrosted, as Peter V noted. Onions and celery do not freeze well, though carrots do okay.

All three vegetables, when whole, should be blanched for a few minutes before freezing. For vegetable-specific freezing instructions see the National Center for Home Food Preservation's Freezing Guide.

It's best to use fresh, but blanched for 1-2 minutes then frozen works okay. I do not blanch diced vegetables for more than 2 minutes.


My cultured butter homogenised again after separating I tried making cultured butter using a very simple recipe: 500 ml of cream mixed with 30 ml of buttermilk, left on the counter for a couple of days. Then mix to separate, drain, dry, etc.

I don't own a stand mixer, so I used a hand mixer instead. At one point I noticed the buttermilk separating from the butter, but thought I had to keep going to extract more moisture out. Then the mixture suddenly homogenised again and I was left with a slightly sour, buttery mixture that was quite tasty but won't last long in the fridge (because of the lactic acid still present in the mix).

Most videos I watched mentioned keeping on mixing for a little while after the separation first took place. I didn't really hear anyone mention mixing it too long.

A few questions:

How does it homogenise again? I thought that these fat droplets separate because of breaking membranes.
Is there a name for the mixture I ended up with?
Is there any way to separate it again? I kept on mixing but nothing happened.
Is the hand mixer the right tool for this job?

How does it homogenise again?

I'm almost sure, the cream you used had some emulsifiers in it. Check the ingredients.


What can I do with 2 lbs. of pecans? I just bought 2 pounds of pecans from a friend who received them from a fresh source. I know of all kinds of regular things to do with pecans, but short of making more or bigger dishes that happen to have some pecans in them, what are good things to do with 2 lbs of pecans?

I should mention that I'm vegan, so veg-friendly suggestions particularly welcome.

I'm not sure why the rush.  Pecans are not a cheap ingredient where I am, and I actually have to slow myself down from using too many.

A perhaps unusual preparation is to grind your pecans and coat whatever your main is with them as if the pecans were bread crumbs.  This could be done with egg plant, for example.
As an omnivore I really enjoy fish coated with ground nuts.

One of my favorite ways to do green beans is to roast them under a broiler with onions and pecans until all ingredients are toasty and golden.

Pecan pie is one of my favorite desserts, and with a replacement for heavy cream my recipe could be made vegan.  Google appears to agree that this is a definite option for vegans.  Another excellent recipe if you can save your pecans for fall is a pumpkin pie base with a pecan pie topping.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  So decadent.  There are many options out there.

I rarely make cookies without pecans.  In fact, my ideal cookie is pecans held together by cookie dough.  I love pecans in muffins.  They also taste good in quick breads - zucchini, banana, and many others.  You can also grind the pecans and use them with white or whole wheat flour in a bread recipe.


How to prevent food absorbing smells from other food? I want to bake cakes to take into work tomorrow. But I also have a broccoli and half an onion that need eating soon, and was thinking of having broccoli and sausages with onion for dinner. Is there a way of baking the cakes and cooking the dinner on the same evening without the cakes absorbing broccoli/ onion smell, or do these activities need to be done on different days? Which is it better to cook first?

Possibly relevant information about this specific situation (though I think more general answers would be better):

There is an extractor fan which can be used if necessary (though it's very noisy and annoying).
The cakes would be cupcakes/butterfly buns with buttercream.
I prefer to do the sausages and onions in the oven rather than the frying pan, but don't have to.

To people saying it's not an issue... um.. yes it bloody is! If I cook a smelly oniony meal in the oven and then bake cake or something in it (even the next) it absolutely absorbs smells and really ruins it!


Wine selection when dining on horse meat? I know there is a lot of received wisdom about what sorts of wines to pair with, say, beef or fish or chicken, though I couldn't quote any of it off the top of my own head, as I am the furthest thing from a gourmand in this world. Nevertheless, I am wondering: are there the same kind of "traditional" or "standard" wine recommendations for pairing with horse meat, and what are they?

Having not had horsemeat myself, I can only inquire with one who has: they found it to taste like bland but tender red meat.  So, use mild reds for pairing like you would for beef tenderloin:

Cabernet Sauvigonon
Pinot Noir
Lighter-bodied Shiraz/Syrah


Is steam lost in boiling negligible? If I bring 20 ounces of water (2.5 cups) to boil in a kettle, and promptly remove it from the heat, is the amount of water lost (by volume/mass) a negligible quantity?

To be more precise about my own intent for this knowledge; if a pour over guide for coffee brewing is indicating that there should be twenty ounces of water at 195-205'f, should I go through the steps of weighing out twenty ounces of was-just-boiling water, or will the displacement of water to steam be relatively non-impacting of the coffee extraction and final cup.

What are the various ways in which more steam will be displaced, and how can I conserve mass to minimize variability and improve consistency extraction to extraction?

This depends on the time you need to bring it to boil (water evaporates long before it starts boiling), the surface area of the water, and your definition of "negligible". Best test it with your own kettle.

My kettle needed 2.5 minutes for boiling it, and lost 11 g out of 560, not quite half an ounce. It will probably lose some more while cooling. If you use an open kettle, a very wide kettle, or heat the kettle slowly, you will lose more.


Will an airtight container negatively affect yeast growth / dough expansion? I've had a lot of success making bread and pizza dough using the Jim Lahey "No knead" method, leaving the covered dough to ferment up to 18 hours.

I normally cover the mix tightly with plastic wrap, and it will bulge slightly, maybe up to 1cm at the centre with ~ 500g proved dough at the end of the time.

In the interests of saving waste, I have invested in a set of stainless steel bowls, which have relatively rigid lids with a double airtight seal. They are a push fit rather than clip over variety, so in theory if the CO2 production is excessive, they would pop off.

Will using these bowls have a detrimental effect on the quality of the dough if the lid stays on for the full duration? Or have I wasted my money here and could have just replaced the cling film with a large plate?

This should not impact your rise at all, unless the container is too small to allow for dough expansion.  In which case, you might have a mess on your hands.  Many people (me included) use sealable containers, though I more frequently just use a clean kitchen towel (a plate would work too), the idea is just to keep the dough from drying.


Vanilla beans vs extract Say I get me some vanilla beans and, say, I am dabbling with pudding at the time. All recipes I've encountered require vanilla extract to be added to the pudding, my question is - if I want to use real vanilla beans: would that be better and how do I decide how much beans to use?

Also, how do I use them? Do I use just the beans or the entire pods?

Slice the pod in half, long ways, carefully.  Run your knife blade down the length,scraping the tiny seeds (very tiny) from the inside of the pod.  What you collect will be sticky and not look like much, but it is very potent.  Place what you collected into your pudding mixture while cooking.  One pod should be plenty.  You can also toss in the whole pod at this point, but then remember to take it out before the pudding sets up.  Alternately, toss the scraped pods in a jar of sugar to create vanilla sugar for other uses.


Halving Spice Mixtures Since I live by myself, I tend to not cook a whole pound or two of say, ground beef or chicken thighs at once, since I can't eat that all in one meal. If using a spice mixture recommended for 1 or 2 pounds of meat, will the spices retain their punch if the spice mix contents are reduced by half or even a quarter? Do spice mixes scale with the rest of the recipe? This is probably a very basic question, but I was wondering if anyone else had experience with reducing recipes for eating in one sitting.

I usually scale spices evenly with the rest of the recipe.

One caveat - if there is water involved in the recipe (say a liquid sauce made with the spice mixture) and salt in the spice mixture, then you may end up boiling off a bigger percentage of water and concentrating the salt too much. Taste it and thin it out a little if it's too salty.


Frying donuts split along the sides So, I rolled out some lovely old-fashioned donuts and cut them out... got my oil to 340... and proceeded to fry them. Instead of lovely “blistering” at the top of the donut, mine seemed to split along the sides... looking like 2 halves of a donut held together in the middle.

What could have caused this? This is my first foray at frying donuts.

I'd guess your doughnut dough was too dry.

I've seen doughnuts with a pale ring around the sides, I'd guess it came from either less contact with oil (if floating fairly high) or from the sides stretching as the heat made the dough puff up, which meant less direct oil contact for the newly stretched dough surface.

For dough to split instead of stretch while cooking, I'd look to similar reasons this happens, eg, in bread - which can include being dry (and especially the surface drying to form a skin, which doesn't stretch), not rising enough beforehand so the "oven spring" is overenthusiastic - which might be a cause for yeast doughnuts though not other varieties, and so on.

With the information that those who tried the doughnuts found them "dry" and "crunchy", I'd go with my first guess of there not being enough moisture, so the dough wasn't flexible enough.  If they sat out long enough to form a dried skin, this would be especially likely to cause splitting.  Moister dough, or keeping covered better, or brushing with water, etc just before frying, might all work to ameliorate this problem.


What would be the difference between frying vs baking meatballs? I'm sure the two techniques impart slightly different flavor profiles, but what are they? What are the circumstances where you would choose one method over the other? Would the recipe need to be altered at all between methods?

No recipe alteration needed.

Fried meatballs will develop more of a crust, and thus more flavour through the Maillard reaction. In any case, unless you're making tiny meatballs (or finishing their cooking in a sauce of some sort), they're going to need to be finished via baking anyway.

I would only do the baking method if I had to make an enormous quantity at once. For home cooking I always fry then bake.


Pea protein in a yeast dough. No rise in oven? Spent whole week making no rise no kneed pizza dough (1.5Tbsp yeast + 1.5 cup water + 4 cups flour etc). Gets pretty puffy in the oven.
Today tried adding pea protein (70g, but with less flour to achieve same level of sticky consistency) and it completed killed it rising in the oven.
Too much pea protein or some properties of pea protein specifically? Besides being pretty fibery it seems pea protein also binds water easily.

The use of legume flours like pea flour is known to compromise gluten formation in the dough, leading to poor gas retention. See, for instance, this article on the use of gram flour in wheat bread. It's not clear from your question what percentage of pea flour you're using, but based on that data I wouldn't advise more than ten percent. You could try adding additional wheat gluten to the dough to compensate. You should also be measuring by relative mass, not by how 'sticky' the dough feels.


Can you make popcorn in a pressure cooker? Will the temperature become too high and will the popcorn burn? Can anything bad happen?

Edit: Picture tells the tale.

On the left, 5 minutes under pressure. On the right 3,5 minutes without pressure. The pressurized popcorn was less fluffy and a bit burned (I just didn't hear them pop).

I never tried it, but I don't think it is a good idea.

The point of popcorn popping is that you cook the inside of the kernel within its hard shell until the internal pressure increases so much that it breaks the shell, releasing the starchy liquid inside as a foam. You need a pressure gradient, with higher pressure inside the kernel than on the outside. So, introducing high pressure outside the kernel is counterproductive. It will certainly result in more duds. I don't know if some kernels will be able to pop, but if yes, I expect them to take longer to pop, and create a denser foam, not light and airy popcorn. So, while I guess you could experiment with it if you don't have anything better to do, theory predicts that the experiment outcome won't be good.

Why did you want to try it at all? Popcorn doesn't take long to pop.


Is it better to air fry and refrigerate my wings or to wait to air fry them tomorrow? I'm going to make some chicken wings in my air fryer (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/air-fryer-chicken-wings-5565422). I have 1.5 lbs of wings which is too much for me to eat in one sitting - so my question is is it better to cook them all now and then refrigerate and reheat some tomorrow or cook half now and cook the other half tomorrow?

I would suggest dry brining the extra half and leaving uncovered overnight so you get an even crispier skin.


Which nuts can be cracked without tools? I sometimes find myself wanting to eat whole nuts in situations where I have no access to a nutcracker, whether because I'm at work or traveling or otherwise not in a place where I might be expected to keep a nutcracker on hand. I've had good luck squeezing two pecans together in my hand, but what other nuts are good for improvised cracking methods?

Yes, you can squeeze walnuts, pecans, almonds together and get something going.  I won't mention peanuts because they're not tree nuts (and they've lost my respect in other ways).  Read this answer tongue-in-cheek given the gravity of the question.

Obviously pistachios are the easiest to open and filberts/hazelnuts the tougher nuts to crack. Pine nuts are somewhat easy, but who wants to carry a barrel of pine cones just to get a few nuts?  I've never seen a macadamia or brazil nuts in a shell and been told Cashews aren't edible unroasted.

You can also get creative using tools other than a nutcracker or your hands.  I used to use the door and jamb (hinge side) in college since we had indestructible doors.  Even keys and car keys are useful to wedge open walnuts.  Some birds (crows/ravens) throw the nuts on the road and wait for a car (hat-tip to them clever birds).  Pretty sure one of my friends uses his iPhone 5 as a hammer (it works, but don't do it).

Finally, if you're concerned about oxidization on shelled nuts, I understand.  As a delicious option, try placing shelled walnuts or almonds in cold water in the fridge overnight and rinse in the morning.  The skins slide off and most of the bitter washes away leaving pure yumminess behind.


How to store cut potatoes for the morning? Hi all,

I am new here; so first of all, NICE TO MEET YOU!

I want to ask for potatoes storage; as the title said.
I usually fry potatoes with the following steps ( I am sure these are good tips ).

  Cut potatoes into tiny stick vertically.
  Put them all in salted water for 10 minutes or around.
  Get them out and fry them.
  Put a little water into frying pan to make sure it's not raw and cooked faster than normal.

But how can I store them for the next morning? As I am working and busy alone, I rather cut them in the evening when I came back home from work and cooked them in the morning before going to work.
: I cut and put them in salted water and I refrigerated them in a bowl. and when it's morning, they can't be eaten anymore.

Any tips/ help?

When I was in the navy, we used to store peeled and cut potatoes in a big plastic bin covered in water. They would be fine for a day or two.

In a home setting, I think putting them in a covered bowl with (unsalted) water overnight would probably work fine.


Suggested chili peppers for steeping in alcohol (bourbon, specifically) I'm looking to make homemade "naughty" and "nice" shots for an upcoming holiday party, using the recipes provided by the Miracle holiday pop-up bars. The "naughty" shot consists of cinnamon sticks steeped in bourbon and simple syrup, but I'd also like to add some chili peppers for extra spice. What kind of chili peppers would work best in this application? I'm looking for something around the spice level of jalapeño, but with a flavor that complements the bourbon well, as jalapeño might be too grassy/vegetal. Either dried or fresh works for me!

Jalapeño would indeed not be a good choice, but if you can buy them locally red Thai chilli peppers are great for this: I use 2 of these per bottle of vodka and then a dash of liquid honey, but I put the peppers in whole and leave them be for at least 6 months.

As you seem to be in a bit more of a rush:

Wear gloves!
Cut them in 2
Remove the seeds
Cut them up in small strips
Add them to the Bourbon a few days in advance

The  "I want it all and I want it now!" method:

Wear gloves!
Cut them in 2
Remove the seeds
Fry them in enough grapeseed oil to cover them all
Add as many drops of the spicy hot oil you now have into the bourbon until the taste is like you want it to be¹
Serve immediately.

Note¹: The alcohol will ensure the oil gets dissolved as long as you don't start pouring it in...


Do you have to wash frozen vegetables? Do frozen vegetables have pesticides on them? Are you supposed to wash frozen vegetables before you cook them and eat them?

Unless you freeze them yourself and don't wash them first, no, you should not need to wash commercially processed frozen vegetables. Part of the process for freezing includes cleaning/trimming preparing the vegetables. Washing is unnecessary.
Info here:

The actual process of freezing a food item varies somewhat depending on what is to be frozen. Peas are the most common frozen vegetable, having virtually replaced fresh peas in the American supermarket. The pea process is typical for many vegetables. A typical process for a frozen entrée follows.
Picking and washing

2 The peas may be picked by hand or automatically. Then, a machine called a viner removes them from their shells. If the processing plant is adjacent to the fields, the peas are carted there. If truck transport is necessary, they are cooled with ice water and then packed in ice for transport. At the plant, the peas are dumped into beds and sprayed with water to remove dust and dirt.


Are there carcinogens in grilled foods? I do a lot of grilling (various vegetables and meats), but was recently told this will have similar effects to smoking. Is there much merit to the concerns over grilled foods containing carcinogens?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: depends on what you're cooking.

  Grilling some popular food items can produce cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs)

  HCAs, a family of mutagenic and cancer-causing compounds, are produced during the cooking of many animal products, including chicken, beef, pork, and fish. In January of 2005, the federal government officially added HCAs to its list of known carcinogens.

  Cancer Project nutritionists determined that many commonly grilled foods contain alarmingly high levels of HCAs. This table lists the five foods containing the highest levels.

(Source: Cancer Project/The Five Worst Foods to Grill)


How much should I season meat before sous vide cooking? I’m referring mainly to salt.  I’m starting to Sous vide steaks and chops etc.   I do a fast hard sear after the sous vide is finished.

When the steak comes out of the bag I pat dry very thoroughly and remove the sprigs of herbs garlic etc.  Then I lightly brush with oil and salt pepper etc and sear in butter oil mixture.

My question is how much to season with salt and pepper before the sous vide.  I’m tending to go easy on that as I don’t want an overall salty flavour.  But I see many recipes talk about ample seasoning for the sous vide stage (one upvoted answer on this board even capitalised SALT!).

Or should I do that and not salt the meat before searing?

Ahh, a long-debated question in low-temp cooking circles.  Dave Arnold, an early low-temp (sous vide) cooking instructor, ran a test when he was an instructor at (what was then know as) the French Culinary Institute in NYC.  The three variables were (a) salted - cook - chill, (b) unsalted - cook - chill, and (c) salted - direct serve.  His testers preferred the unsalted, and could distinguish all three samples.  So, they do present differently.  Now, your process may differ from his, and he also admits that, at that time, more testing was required.  I think, these days, there is agreement that if your cooking time is going to be a couple of hours or less, and you are going to serve right away, salting before the cook step is fine.  However, on long cooks (12, 24, 48 hrs or more) you probably want to salt after.

Having said that, you and your diners, might prefer it one way or the other.  There really isn't a right or wrong answer.  I would suggest your own "triangle" test.  Just do two steaks or chops in different bags.  Salt one.  Cook them the same.  Serve three pieces (two the same and one different), blindly to someone (or have someone serve them to you), and see if you can pick out the piece that is different.  Then, decide which you prefer.


Stone or iron mortar? I need to buy a mortar. Should I get a stone (granite, marble, etc) or an iron one?
What pros and cons are there?

Stone is a much worse heat conductor than iron. It warms much slower from vigorous pounding than iron, and actually cools whatever is being ground. This is often desirable, as you don't want to warm whatever you are grinding - some spices contain fats which are viscous or solid at room temperature, but get liquid somewhat above it, so they would be seeping their aroma and converting to a paste if warmed while ground.

Another argument for stone will be the smooth surface. Seasoned iron isn't as smooth as marble or granite can be polished, and if left unseasoned, you will need to remove rust from time to time (another problem of iron which harwig already pointed out), disturbing the surface. The mortar surface should be as smooth as possible.

Also, the stone will require no maintenance apart from washing. Iron will have to be kept from rusting, so you'll have to season it. The grinding action will probably slowly eat away the seasoning layer, so you'll have to reapply it periodically, which is lots of work (well, the complete stripping first is what makes it lots of work, seasoning not so much). But if you use your mortar as seldom as I do, this shouldn't be a problem.

On the other hand, iron's density is about 3 times higher than marble or granite, resulting in a much heavier pestle. While this means some more fatigue for you, it will result in a better grinding result.

Another problem with stone is that it can crack if you happen to drop it on the floor. Luckily, a mortar is not easily dislodged from the counter, and granite breaks nowhere as easily as earthenware, but the chance exists. If you get stone, don't go for the tulip-on-a-stem shapes. While it may be convenient to grip the stem, it is also a weak point.

You must also consider possible chemical reactions. Granite won't be a problem, but marble is acid sensitive. So making a pesto with lots of lemon juice is probably a bad idea in marble. It won't cause a comic-book like Chinese syndrome, but it will attack the surface, making it less smooth. Seasoned iron has some acid resistance, but strong acids are bad for it too.

To me, the "tradition" argument isn't very strong. People have used abacuses for thousands of years, but I prefer a TI-42 simulator when I have to make a calculation too complicated for my brain. Both iron and stone will work. And as harwig says, aesthetics are individual - not that I need much of that in kitchen implements.


What piece of veal should I ask a butcher/meat shop in the US if I want to do stew dishes like "blanquette de veau" or "veau marengo"? Ideally, I should be using "tendron" which I think is equivalent to flank steak for a veal. But flank steak is "bavette" for beef, so maybe it is a different name. I think I could also use jarret, which is for the pork called ham hock I believe. Do I have any chance of finding these pieces? Do they have a proper name in US english?

Any other piece suggestions for veal-based stew dishes?

Veal and beef cuts are completely different, the terminology is not the same at all. With veal the tendron is part of the breast, which includes the foreleg and the front of what would be considered the flank on a full-sized animal, in other words the part that does the most work. The tendron cut includes the lower-front part of the ribs. As for what to ask a US butcher for I'm not sure, I'd ask for veal foreribs and hope that they get what I'm after.

Here are some definitions that may help.


Food Safety Question - Refrigerator Temperature The temperature in my refrigerator has suddenly increased and seems stuck at 55 degrees (12ºC) no matter how I set it. Clearly something is wrong but it's Sunday and I can't get anyone out to check it today. Do I need to toss the food inside? Freezer seems fine.

Dairy and meats should be tossed to be safe if they were at 55 degrees for more than a few hours in my opinion. When I have difficulty tossing questionable food, I mentally compare the potential cost of a trip to the ER, lost work, and pain/suffering compared to the cost of the food. The decision to toss or not to toss could be compared to the quandary of whether to purchase insurance or just hope there aren't any accidents or disasters.

Remember that cheese does not go bad and is better soft, so do not toss that.  Cottage cheese is not really cheese and should be tossed, as well as mayo, salad dressings.  Depending on source of your eggs, you may consider discarding.  In the US there is high salmonella risk, so eggs should be tossed, unless from your own chickens. Do not toss the butter.

The source of cold for the refrigerator comes from the freezer; it just seems to still be cold since it will take longer to thaw.  Rule #1 is do NOT open the doors unless absolutely necessary.  You will lose tremendous amounts of cool air each time. If necessary, you may have to unload contents into coolers and pack in ice. If you do that right away with risky food items, may not need to toss a thing. Usually here when the power goes out, it's during a massive storm, so running to town to get bags of ice to pack perishables in is not really an option. But for a temporary mechanical problem, I would definitely run to the store and pack meat, dairy, perishables in ice in coolers, leave the less perishable, and keep the doors shut.


What can you add to water to make it hard enough for tea? I was living in southern California where the water is one of the hardest in the country, but once passed through a Brita filter it was perfect for tea.

Now I am living in a country where the water is soft. All the sources of water are surface sources and this has been aggravated by heavy rainfall. The water coming out of the tap and all sources of local bottled water I can find are soft.

As a result, I have not been able to brew tea that has much of any taste. The Darjeelings that I enjoyed in California with their beautiful distinct aroma, here do not taste or smell like anything. Even the strongest teas like double bergamot earl grey have just a faint aroma here. Assam comes out sour.

I have tried the baking soda trick or putting in a pinch of baking soda, which helps a little bit (mostly in color) but not that much and has its own taste. Using too much quickly ruins the tea.

There are few imported waters here and in any case, I don't want the expense of using expensive imported bottled waters. There are also no mineral drops on the market here as far as I know.

So besides baking soda, what are some things I can add to the water to change its mineral profile, pH level and make it suitable for tea?

Would dissolving calcium and magnesium supplements in the water work?

I have heard of Epsom salts being used by brewers for its magnesium content, but don't know if that would work for tea.

You are going to need Epsom salts, baking soda and Calcium chloride to make a run of the mill hard water. You can easily find these in food grade and small quantities at your local homebrewing store. I live in Seattle and we have notoriously soft water, but I don't mind it for my tea. But for brewing, I use these minerals all the time.

Get 500ml of distilled water
Add half tablespoon of Epsom salts stir until dissolved
Add half a teaspoon of Baking soda stir until dissolved
Add half a teaspoon of calcium chloride until dissolved

Wait a bit until everything dissolves. Voila instant hard water!

If you are really serious, there are plenty of resources out there, especially around the homebrewing community. Here is an online Brewing Water Calculator


Can I bake in a convection microwave? I have microwave oven, but I can't bake cakes and cookies in it. So I need an electric oven, but people are suggesting I buy a convection microwave to do both baking and normal microwaving. Will that work? Or do I really need to get an electric oven to bake?

I've baked bread in a convection microwave with some succes. It's a far cry from what you can achieve with a good electric oven, but you can get some decent results. Certainly a poor to average microwave-sized electric oven will perform about the same as a decent convection microwave combination.

Just remember to turn the microwave funtion off entirely. I once accidentally microwaved a loaf instead of baking it, and I have never seen so much smoke in my apartment.

So if you're expecting to do a lot of baking, I'd ditch the microwave aspect and buy a good microwave-sized electric oven (the Rowenta OC7868 or the Breville BOV800XL are good options). Since your current microwave still works, I'd only go for a convection microwave if you absolutely only have room for a single microwave-sized appliance.


Cooking Dry noodles without them being soggy Could I get some tips on how to cook like or similar to Sharwoods Dry Noodles since when I cook, strain, wash and add them to the wok for cooking they always seem to come out soggy and sloppy. I've tried cooking them less but it doesn't really help too much.

So any tips to make them better?

Soak in boiling water while cooking the rest of the stir fry, drain and lob 'em in for the the last 30 seconds so they get coated with sauce and don't get too soggy.


Why are parsnips sold pre-clipped? In Swedish and, I'm led to believe, British supermarkets, parsnips are often sold pre-clipped. Topped and tailed.

If I have a choice, I prefer to buy my veg with a few leaves on so I can see how fresh it is. So I have rather cynically assumed that this is done to hide the age of the product. Whether or not this is the case, I wonder why the same trimming service is not extended to carrots.

Anyone able to shed some light?

Update: Quite often just the tip of the parsnip is trimmed. This appears to be a global phenomenon; here are some parsnips from an Australian market.

The two answers I've so far received are good, but don't explain why the tip might also be trimmed.

In the US, carrots are normally sold topless too.

I do understand the desire to see those fresh green leaves on it, but in fact, they're not helping. Since they're still alive, they draw nutrients and water out of the root, decreasing what's left for you. This means they may actually be worse than ones that had the tops left on them, especially if they've been stored for a while. They'll have less flavor and won't be as crisp. If you do buy them with the tops still on, it's a good idea to at least trim them before storing.


Cooking tied-up ribeye This is probably a silly question, but I saw these steaks that the butcher in the grocery store said to be made of several pieces attached together by a thread. So I am wondering:

How do you cook a tied-up ribeye?
Can it be done on a grill?
Should the thread be removed before grilling or after?

My concern is that if the thread is removed before grilling the whole thing might just fall apart. The steaks looked delicious and I'd love to cook those, but I have no idea how to handle the thread.

Cook it with the string on, then remove the string when you eat it. It is there to hold it altogether while cooking. Should be fine to grill, butcher's twine is food safe and stands up to roasting and braising so should be fine on the grill too. But if you wanted to do something else, like turn the smaller pieces into kabobs, then you could skewer them with some veggies and grill them.

At least your butcher was honest about tying the pieces together with string. I bought a vaccum packed ribeye "steak" the other day and when I was grilling it and turned it, the top part came off as a thin slice like roladen.


Replicating the thin, soft crust of Portuguese Sweet Bread When I try to replicate Portuguese Sweet Bread (Massa Sovada) from places like Fall River, Massachusetts, the crust on my bread comes out thick and hard, whereas the bakery versions have a thin, soft crust that you can almost peel off, and there are noticeable wrinkle lines.

Here's the bakery version:

And here's mine, with the thick, hard crust:

I've looked at several recipes and most are very similar. Here's the one I'm using:

1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter, room temp
2 eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant or active dry yeast
Egg glaze: 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

Things I've tried:

Changing the flour: I've tried bread flour and all purpose.
Changing the cooking temperature: I've tried 330F (fan-assisted) as well as a combination of temperatures: 11 min. at 320F, 30 min. at 285F, 65 min. at 250F.
Egg glaze: with and without.
Steam after baking: I tried covering the loaf with a bowl until it cooled.

But nothing changed the crust much at all.

The wrinkles on top look like maybe it was put into a plastic bag right out of the oven, and the steam caused the wrinkles. But my test with covering the loaf with a bowl didn't change the hard crust at all.

There's a similar post with suggestions such as using a Pullman (covered) loaf pan but it seems unlikely to me that the bakery is doing that because of the shape of the bread and the type of pan I know they use (which can be seen here). I have wondered if covering it with foil for part of the time might help, but I'd be surprised if the bakery is doing that. The post also has suggestions to use steam (which seems like it'll have the opposite effect) and to user lower temperatures, which I followed exactly using the three temperatures I mentioned above. For those reasons, I don't believe the post answers my question:

How bakeries do a soft crust breads and making the same at home will result in a crisp crust?

Thanks for any other ideas!

I'm the OP. After a lot of experimentation and reading, I've found that the solution is to use steam. A lot of articles talk about how steam is necessary for a hard crust so that made me think it was the opposite of what I needed.
I learned that steam does several things, including keeping the top surface soft for longer so the bread can expand further, preventing the crust from burning, and helping the starches become a gel that turns into a brittle and glossy shell. But in almost all cases, recipes call for steam to be used only during the first portion of the bake, and then removed to allow a hard crust to be formed in the latter part after the bread has finished expanding.
I did several experiments where I added steam for a little bit longer each time, finally just using steam for the entire bake. That's when I finally got the ultra-soft, wrinkly crust like in Portuguese Sweet Bread. After going back to read the article mentioned above, I realized that its suggestion of adding a tray of boiling water to the bottom of the oven at the beginning of baking was what I needed, but to also keep the water in the oven for the entire bake.


Do some breeds of chicken have particularly red meat when cooked? Tonight, my friend and I ordered a fried chicken special at a restaurant with a local food theme. It was a great dish.

Both of us got very pink chicken. I am pretty sure that my plate had three drumsticks. Upon noticing the color, my colleague returned the dish to be more thoroughly cooked. I did not return mine, since last week I read the USDA fact sheet on poultry preparation. It says that temperature and not color should be used to test for safety, and that cooked poultry can be pink - especially when young. As I kept eating, I came across meat that was quite dark red - this was probably the pinkest chicken I have ever eaten. Other than the color, the texture and color of the meat did not seem raw.

I have a few questions:

Might the exceptional color be due in part to the breed (e.g. are there heritage breeds that have exceptionally red meat)?
Should I have been concerned (since I did not have a thermometer) (and should I have sent my chicken back?)
Is undercooked (pink) chicken more likely to be unsafe than undercooked (pink) beef? (Answers to previous questions seem to provide give conflicting answers: "no" as discussed in Why isn't it safe to eat raw chicken?; "yes" as discussed in Is it safe to prepare Chicken Tartare?)

Puffin meat is bright red. Duck meat can be rather red as well.

I have seen some cooking process that can make chicken red or pink, Jidori chickens for example cooked at low temperatures for long periods of time.


Homemade coconut milk separates into different layers after a day in the fridge I made some coconut milk. After a day in the fridge there was two layers of liquid in the jar, coconut water and solid coconut which I found out afterwards that it is called coconut butter! When I stir them together to  have my coconut milk back, it didn't work. Is there a way to prevent this? If not, is there a way to have coconut milk again?

All coconut milk separates out. When you buy it tinned, there is often a plug of coconut cream above a pocket of coconut milk. But it certainly should recombine. It may well have been too cold when you tried to stir it together - let it come to room temperature at least.  If you warmed it up on the stove you'd find the two would melt together without any stirring necessary.


airy bread rolls done in bread machine What are some techniques for making bread and/or  kaiser style rolls that are very airy with large holes inside, kneaded in a bread machine then baked in an oven? I have tried a few recipes but none with the desired "holey" type.

Airiness, whether with big holes or little holes, occurs when the proof is near complete.  That is, the yeast has stretched the gluten very close to its maximal length without going beyond.  All other things being equal, the key to airiness is knowing when the bread has risen fully, and then to put it immediately into a very very hot oven.  This applies to kaiser rolls, panned loaves, baguettes, ciabatta, pizza, artisan, sandwich, you name it (and especially shaped things like challah).  It doesn't matter if you knead in a bread machine or not, though some machines will change the dough temperature, which will speed up a first rise.

So how much rise is enough rise?

Some recipes give a particular number of hours.  If you aren't in possession of a temperature-controlled proving box, don't go by time.  Watch the dough, not the clock.  A small temperature difference between your kitchen and the one in which the recipe was developed will change the speed of fermentation dramatically.  Other recipes say to do a second rise until the dough has 'doubled in bulk' but with unpanned loaves that's difficult to judge visually, short of doing something clever with water in a plastic bag...

For all my bread I use the poke test to judge how far the proof has gone: flour the surface of the dough, then sink a fingertip into the dough.  You want it to have enough bounce left to still rise in the oven, but you don't want it so stretched that it's started collapsing before your eyes.

Another tip: preheat the oven if you think the bread might be nearly done proving.  If it's not, the oven will wait, but a dough on its way to overproofing is inexorable!


Can't stop eggs from sticking to stainless steel pan I've made omelettes in this pan before without any problems, but fried eggs are impossible to make without sticking.I heat the pan, throw few drops of water and check if they move around (some would say like mercury), lower the heat, pour oil and then put eggs in.I've tried to monitor the temperature carefully to make sure that the pan isn't too hot, still no success.Is my pan the problem?

If food sticks to a stainless steel pan it is usually due to either a) too high heat, b) not enough grease/butter/oil, or c) some amount of both a and b.


Court-bouillon: Why delay adding the wine and vinegar? I'm preparing the court-bouillon recipe from James Peterson's Sauces (p. 103 of 3rd edition).  The procedure is, roughly:

Sweat vegetables,
Simmer vegetables for 10 minutes,
Add white wine and vinegar, simmering for a further 15 to 20 minutes, and then
Cool and strain.

My question is about step 3.  For what reasons would the wine and vinegar be withheld for the first 10 minutes of simmering?  Is this an evaporation issue?  Or is there some deeper interaction between wine/vinegar and vegetables to be accounted for?

Thanks!

Court-bouillon is an old French broth designed for subtle seafood dishes (crayfish/lobster etc.). There is no "standard" for it

The finished product should have a note of the wine and vinegar (make sure you use a good quality wine and vinegar)

If you add the wine and vinegar too early they may have time to overly react with the other ingredients and make their flavours too strong (ethanol and acids strip good and bad flavours from vegetables and herbs). If you add it to late it may have an overly powerful smell of wine and vinegar

The simple trick is to add it nearer the end, and gently simmer for longer if the smell is too intense


What is that tool called for scraping vegetables? There is a specific kind of tool I want that is used to scrape the surface of vegetables in order to turn them into thin strands for spaghettifying or hash browns, but I don't know what it's called.

From your description, I think you are referring to a julienne vegetable peeler.

There are many different styles. Some may julienne on one side and peel on the other. Others may have interchangeable blades. And, as you can see in the lower picture, they can make different size cuts.

If you do a Google search, I'm sure you will be able to find one that will suit your needs.


Can I freeze all cookie dough? How far in advance can I make it? I want to make about 15 varieties of cookies for an upcoming gift exchange. I have a number of recipes together. I already made a few that were listed as freeze, slice and bake dough.

Can I freeze all cookie dough?
What ingredients will be a tell tale sign that I can't freeze it?
Whipped egg whites maybe? A lot of butter?
If I can't freeze the dough, how far in advance can I make it and store it in the refrigerator?

Here is the list of recipes I've collected FYI. http://pinterest.com/superjac/holiday-cookies/

All baking dough does well in the freezer for a few days. But I'd suggest not thinking of meringue cookie mixture as cookie dough... it's an entirely different animal. I think of dough as anything with lots of flour and a decent amount of fat and moisture in it. You can't freeze anything with whipped egg whites and expect it to survive. You can't even leave whipped egg whites to settle on the counter for very long before they start to loose the air bubbles you've worked so hard to incorporate.


Substitute for horseradish? What are some good substitutes for horseradish?

I've heard mustard is one, but I still struggle a bit to see how it would do a very good job...

Anybody ever try mustard with success?

I've also seen online that some people suggest wasabi, but let's be honest, the "wasabi" that most of us are familiar with is actually horseradish.

(Oh, and please don't suggest horseradish sauce -_- . That one is obvious).

Update:

I like horseradish, but horseradish is not available at my local market.

I'm just trying to achieve the same sharp/pungent "kick" that horseradish typically brings. The flavor is almost immaterial; I just want the "kick".

As such, I'm not particular to trying it in any specific dish. I'm just curious what other foods can produce a similar feeling/tasting "kick" as horseradish.

Note: Wasabi is also not available at my local market.

Mustard can be used, but it might have a lot of vinegar in it and can clash with whatever you are doing.

Maybe try doing something with mustard powder instead of prepared mustared.

You could try, if you are luck to get some real fresh Wasabi roots; that would be close to the perfect substitution.


How can I vacuum seal acidic ingredients with meat or poultry for freezing? What if I want to prepare packets for sous-vide and freeze them? I want to include an acidic marinade in the bags, but I don't want to turn the meat into mush.

Home sealers don't like liquids in the bag, so use an ice tray to freeze any liquid you want to seal in the bag.

Both of these products freeze slushy, but that's fine. I squished the slush into a corner, and then added a layer of butter so that the chicken won't actually interact with the acidic ingredient until it's in the water bath. Just use the same temperature that you would for the same ingredients not frozen, but add 30-45 minutes of time.

I could make a freezer-full of these!

Alternatively, you can freeze your acidic ingredient and butter like this:

The butter will naturally rise to the top.

Now you could add your meat or poultry and seal if your vacuum is strong enough. Or you could add some chilled broth on top of the butter, add your meat and freeze vertically like this before sealing.

Of course you could easily tip the bag if you want the acidic ingredient in the corner.

You might want to make a sauce with your marinade and the juices in the bag. Scoop off some butter to saute your choice of aromatics, then add the defatted juices and reduce. You may want to strain it at that point. Thicken or finish with more butter, a bit of wine and/or some cornstarch or xanthan. See here: How should I prepare an excellent sauce from sous vide juices?


Royal icing - how important is accurate measuring? Making royal icing today, for a rather overdue Christmas cake.

I always end up with too much icing sugar, based on my normal recipe which asks for 4 large egg whites and 500g icing sugar.

So today I used 3 egg whites and as much icing sugar as "felt right". Is this fair enough?

If it's taking a long time for stiff peaks to form, is this a sign of too little icing sugar? And if I overdid the icing sugar how would I tell?

The consistency of royal icing depends on many things, including the size of your eggs, but also the humidity/weather. So if you know what stiffness you want, it's perfectly valid to add sugar until it "feels right". (I usually make royal icing with meringue powder rather than fresh egg whites, which removes one variable from the equation [the size of the eggs], but I still have to adjust the sugar to get the right consistency.)

As far as troubleshooting, if you've been whipping away and it's still gloopy, by all means add more sugar. If you overdo the sugar, you'll know immediately: it'll be too stiff to mix. (In which case, depending on the quantities involved you can either just add a teaspoon of warm water, or you can whip up another egg white separately until soft peaks form, then fold it into your icing.)


Help! What have I made? Is it safe to eat? Ok so here’s the problem, I have an instant pot that has a yogurt setting.

The first time I made it I just added some heavy cream and half and half milk with a couple generous tablespoons of yogurt, I pressed the yogurt button and put the lid on and left it.  It turned into very delicious yogurt that almost had a sweet taste to it.

I discovered after that the yogurt I had used for the starter didn’t list the ingredients as active bacteria.  So I was concerned that perhaps my yogurt was just cream that has thickened from heating.

I decided instead of using existing yogurt for my starter I would purchase cultures for health Greek yogurt starter and I used 2 litres of homo 3.5% milk.  Before I began the process I went through a sterilization process of my instant pot which used some lemon juice and vinegar in an attempt to get rid of any nasty bugs that might be present from regular cooking in it. I then began the yogurt cycle on my instant pot after thoroughly drying the pot with paper towels(discovered after it should have air dried).  Then I added the milk and waited and waited and waited for the instant pot to bring the milk up to temperature...I had pressed the yogurt button and every time I checked it the yogurt would be a couple of degrees warmer.

After two hours of this and the temp only getting to 93F, I decided enough of this and I put my instant pot on sauté and I brought the temp up to 165 F then I took the pot and put it into an ice water bath and stirred it until the temp dropped to 110F at which point I stirred in the white powder from the little packet and put the instant pot back on and I pressed the yogurt button and just left it to do its magic.  When I got back to it the machine had shut itself completely off but I noted that the inner liner was still quite warm to the touch. I then tried the spoon test to see if it would stand up and sadly it didnt and appeared quite liquidity and had a really sour smel to it. I then dumped it into my new mesh strainer and put the lid on and put it in the fridge, I took the remaining yogurt as is and just put it into a glass container with a lid.

I did have a taste of the yogurt and it tasted really sour almost like some sort of cheese I was thinking.  I have not figured out how much “yogurt” I will have remaining once the whey has been strained from it.  Now I’m wondering what exactly is it that I’ve made and is it safe to eat?  I did discover that I had inadvertently used UHT milk.

It sounds like you may have made paneer. Rubbing undiluted lemon juice and vinegar on the pot, then drying it without rinsing, would leave a significant amount of acid dried on the surface. That acid dissolved into the milk, curdling it.

If so, it's safe to eat. Generally paneer is rinsed after curdling to remove the acidic taste.


Will potatoes discolor if I pre-make scalloped potatoes? I'm planning to make scalloped potatoes with russet potatoes and cream and cheese.  If I prepare and assemble the dish in the evening, can I store it (covered in the refrigerator) overnight and bake it the next day?  Will the potatoes discolor or soften in the cream?

They should be fine.

We sometimes do it in the morning for dinner and it gives no problem. Just make sure all the potatoes are covered with liquid, or those pieces would discolour.


Why does meat dry out in high heat despite being submerged in liquid? My understanding is cooking over long periods will break down collagen and other proteins. Won't the breakdown of protein cause the meat to lose structural integrity, thereby letting liquid in?

Meat being "moist" or "dry" is an oversipmlified description of the texture. It is not a straightforward measure of the amount of liquid, and also, meat is not a sponge.
When people say that a piece of meat is "moist" or "juicy", they mean a specific texture that includes muscle fibers at a very specific stage of denaturation - they have some elasticity when bitten into, providing resistance, but are also relatively easy to crush during mastication. There is also lubrication from cell plasma (which is not pure water, but a mixture of water and proteins, gaining some colloidal properties) and fat. Even if you could produce a squirt or gush of water (or sauce) similar to what would happen if you were to bite on a wet sponge, that wouldn't really contribute to the texture people seek.
Dry meat means meat in which proteins have been denatured to a quite advanced stage. They harden and become chewy, the actin and myosin no longer slide against each other, and I'm not entirely sure what happens to the cell plasma, but I suspect that part of it oozes through the damaged cell walls, and another part seizes due to the dissolved pieces of protein, just like overcooked egg custard seizes. If you have fat left, it will provide some lubrication, but today's meats are produced with extra low amounts of fat, due to customer preference and cost efficiency.
Even if water were to enter the meat in its "dry" state, it won't turn it into a pleasant texture, because, as explained above, this is not about actuall wetness. But also, liquids don't penetrate meat that well. Take, for example, a piece of meat from a stew that has been stored for 2-3 days in the fridge. There will be stew liquid on the surface, but if you wash it, you will find little evidence of that liquid, maybe only within the first 2-3 mm. If you cut it in two and lick it, it won't taste like stew liquid. If you squeeze it, no stew liquid will come squirting out. In short, it turns out that the physical structure of meat with heat-damaged cell walls doesn't really permit for soaking up liquid.
Combine the two effects, and you will find out that most mental models that the public has about meat texture ("moist" having to do with adding moisture, or browning to "seal in the juices") are wrong. What you are trying to do is to get the proteins to the state in which we expect them, and that is achieved with some, but not too much, heat.


What is hunter's chicken My long held opinion of this was that Hunter's Chicken was chicken breast, stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and, occasionally, with barbecue sauce over the top.  Recipes like these seem to agree with me.

However, I've just been looking around the web to see if I could get a recipe with any new ideas, and came across this.  There's a few others in the same vein, which basically have it as a chicken stew.

So, which is correct?  Or are they both?

There are a lot of different dishes, and not enough names, and different parts of the world don't agree with each other on what things should be called. In general, there is no standard for what a dish a certain name corresponds to. I believe for example Italy has standardized some recipes, but there are still people making their own version of that dish, and calling it by the same name. To summarize, both are correct. There is no universal body that names dishes.


How do I avoid carrot slices rolling away? When you slice carrots, the slices tend to roll away. This previous question did mention this as part of a broader issue, but didn't focus on it enough to get answers that specifically address rolling. Sharp knives and a fluid rocking/orbital motion don't really help with this; the slices will still stick to the blade, then tend to roll when they fall.

So how do you keep sliced carrots (or any other small, round, and hard things) from rolling away as you slice them?

(I know cutting them in half works, but let's say I want to avoid that: round slices look nice.)

One option is to cut the carrots slightly diagonally instead of perfectly square. The resulting pieces are not perfectly cylindrical, but they tend to tipping instead of rolling all over the cutting board. (Note that this method only works if the diameter of the carrot is substantially larger than the thickness of a piece.)


Meringue seems to fail at piping stage I tried making meringues for the first time yesterday, using splenda instead of sugar. I didn't have any cream of tartar either. I definitely overbeat them, to the clumpy and a bit runny phase. I baked them anyway and they still tasted fine, they were just extremely crispy throughout.

Today I got some cream of tartar and tried again.

2 whites
bit less than 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup splenda
1/2 tsp vanilla

They seemed to be going very well through soft peaks, when I added the splenda in a few batches. Shortly after, the vanilla. Maybe it was the extract, but at that point it returned to a runny goop phase, still foamy but no peaks. Two more minutes of beating and it seemed good again, uniformly small bubbles and medium peaks. I stopped here so I wouldn't repeat my previous mistake.

I then put the meringue in a large ziploc bag to use for piping. As I began, I immediately noticed that it was again looking like the previous attempt. The bubbles were getting bigger and less uniform, and the inside of the bag showed collapsed runny whites all over. It was more foamy than creamy.

Where did I screw up this time around? Was the runnyness halfway through a warning sign? I imagine the extract could have added too much liquid.

Edit: The results

Today I got the chance to try again, and it was a success! (I think, they're in the oven...) I added a 1/4 tsp white vinegar as well, and replaced almost half the splenda with granulated sugar. I was worried because I didn't bother processing the sugar finer, but it seemed to do fine.

I added the sugar at around medium peaks, and it did collapse a little back to that runny stage, but not nearly as bad as the previous attempt. Another few minutes and I got them back, and then added the splenda and vanilla.

I made quenelles instead of piping, and it worked well. There was no weeping at all, not a single drop, and the foam stayed smooth throughout.

First of all, I suggest reading through our other questions on meringues and general egg-beating, to rule out any issues with your technique regardless of sugar content:

Beating Egg Whites with Granulated Sugar Added for Tapioca Pudding
How to minimise sugar in meringue
Why do my egg whites separate after whipping?
Making my meringues form peaks
How can I keep meringue pie-topping from falling?

There are more, but I'm going to stop here - there's already so much about the subject on this site that I'm not going to waste any more time going into details about that. Suffice it to say, make sure you're using the right eggs, the right equipment, and the right ingredients, and doing things in the right order.

More specific to this question, however, is the fact that the sugar in a meringue is not just to make it sweeter. Sugar is a stabilizer; it is a critical ingredient in a meringue, and regardless of what Splenda and its recipes may say, it's not a perfect substitute for sugar.

Most Splenda recipes I've seen still use some sugar (preferably superfine), just less of it. Every little bit helps and you don't need that much. If you're not going to use any sugar then you'd better use some other stabilizer like corn starch, otherwise it's simply not going to be stable (unless, maybe, you've done everything else absolutely perfectly).

By your description, it also sounds possible that you might be rushing through it; "soft peaks" should be fairly smooth, not foamy or bubbly, like so:

If you don't beat long enough to get soft peaks, or if you start adding the "sugar" too quickly, it will collapse. I prefer to err on the side of firm peaks, it doesn't change the end result too much and there's less risk of a collapse. On the other hand, if you massively overdo it (i.e. try to get it all the way to stiff peaks) without any stabilizer, then it almost certainly will collapse, and once it does, you cannot recover it, it's like trying to blow up a balloon that has already burst.

So, to summarize: Try to use some sugar, or at least some starch as a stabilizer once the peaks firm up. Make sure your peaks are somewhere between soft and firm before adding your sweetener/stabilizers - not earlier, not later; and add them slowly enough to properly incorporate - you don't want to see any crystals or bubbles at that point.

(From what I can tell, your meringues failed long before the piping stage, and it definitely wasn't the vanilla's fault.)


Local special ingredients on Cape Cod I will be spending some time on Cape Cod and since I'm from a landlocked country, I wonder what local ingredients I could take advantage when cooking during my stay. I suppose seafood and fish are in good supply, though probably still not cheap. Is there anything else worth hunting for? What are some typical dishes in the wider area utilizing local ingredients?

When I lived in Boston, and occasionally visited the Cape Cod area, there was more of a regional cuisine than local ingredients. Seafood -- lobster, fish, clams, mussels -- is the most uniquely Cape Cod ingredient I can think of, since it is right on the coast.

This infographic describes some of the foods that are associated with New England, although that is a little too general for your question -- dairy, for example, is much more a Vermont or non-coastal ingredient. However, Cape Cod is close enough that Vermont cheddar will be quite easy to come by!


I'm trying to make cheddar sticks from scratch What are common commercial food additives that keep the cheese 'melty', but not runny?

I have tried making fried cheddar sticks but the cheese just oozes out, like thick water...

Freezing first?  Freeze the breading too?

Sodium Citrate is the most common emulsifier for cheese, it keeps it soft and flexible when cold, and like a smooth sauce when hot. Being an emulsifier it stops it separating too

See http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/sodium-citrate-creates-silky-smooth-macaroni-and-cheese/

You can make Sodium Citrate at home, heat a tbs of lemon juice, add 1/2+ tsp of baking soda and stir. Add this to a cup of melted cheese (all very rough measurements). Experiment to get the best results for your cheese of choice!


About ripe bananas for banana bread I put mashed bananas in the fridge in a bowl for a couple days and they turned dark brown on the top. Are they still good after that?

Cut or mashed bananas, like many fruit, will turn brown after a very short time, a few minutes should show first discoloration and after a few hours, the surface will be brown. This is primarily a matter of aesthetics, because the fruit looks less appealing.

As far as food safety is concerned, it depends on your definition of “a couple of days”. The rule of thumb for storing whole bananas  in the fridge is 2-3 days, but you are dealing with mashed fruit, which means a much larger surface area and some broken cell walls. So one or two days should be ok. But if you notice any signs of spoilage like discoloration apart from the aforementioned browning, visible mold or a strange smell (acidic, boozy, or just “off”), discard them regardless. The general rule is always:

  When in doubt, throw it out.


Cast Iron Skillet / Pan stains I just bought  a new lodge cast iron skillet today and used it to cook a Japanese Waghu A5 10+ BMS Ribeye... was worth the hype, yummy.
I washed the Skillet with hot water and salt and then heated it again to dry all the water, but there are some stains left... Do I need to clean this or is this normal and leave it ?
Please see pictures:

But there is some stains left... do I need to clean this or is this normal and leave it ?

As long as the "stain" is hard and dry rather than gummy or sticky, it's probably fine. As commenters have noted, it looks like polymerized oil. You probably cooked your steak at very high heat with some oil in the pan. If you didn't use oil, the stain might just be from some of the fat that rendered out of your well-marbled ribeye. Either way, some of the fat/oil polymerized on the bottom of the pan due to the high heat. This is exactly what you'd do on purpose if you were to season the pan yourself -- coat it in a (very!) thin layer of oil and then stick the pan in a hot oven for a few hours.

As you keep using your pan, it'll acquire a lot of those stains, and it'll eventually be black all over. That's completely normal — it's what a cast iron pan should look like, and the black seasoning is a good non-stick surface.


How to maintain the calories in rice (which were present in it in its raw form) after cooking it? I searched Google with the following keywords:

  calories in 1 tbsp brown rice

The result was:

As you can see the calories, after cooking have severely reduced.

What can I do to maintain the default level of calories in cooked rice?

I am not talking about increasing calories by adding extra materials like oil. I wish to know some cooking method which does not destroy the calories so much.

Note: I do NOT throw any water during the process of cooking rice.

I'm afraid you interpret the tables wrong. You aren't destroying calories, you are adding water (=0 cal) to the dry rice. As the rice absorbs the water, you are in fact measuring rice + water for cooked rice.

This is true for calorie tables that measure by volume (like here) and by weight.

If you are cooking your rice by boiling and straining, you are effectively losing a few calories due to the starch that gets drained with the water, but that's not what you asked here.


Is there a disadvantage to a textured cutting board? My new plastic cutting boards have a textured surface.  Is this unsanitary?

The textured surface consists of tiny bumps molded into the surface.  The pitch of the bumps is about 1mm.

There is another disadvantage to consider with very acute knives (eg sashimi knives, usuba bocho, gyutos sharpened to 12 degrees per side or below) on these kinds of boards: The edge tends to get trapped between the bumps, and instead of camming out,  can be bent out of alignment if torque is accidentally applied to the blade (easily happens with rock chopping/walking techniques). Also, you tend to get unclean cuts (similar to a tear-off perforation) at times because the edge bites into the bumps while the food is pushed between them (can happen eg when cutting very elastic foods, like raw dough).

Also, the anti-slip effect from that texture is questionable at best, these boards can be even more slippery on some surfaces - if textured both sides, they can also slide around on your work surface (this is dangerous!) even more than if they were smooth - some mitigation can be achieved by putting towels or paper between the surfaces...


How do I adjust cooking time for smaller batch of bread? I've been making this recipe for bread that I really like, but it yields more than I'd like to make at a time. I'm wondering if I were to cut the recipe by half, how would I adjust the cooking time?
Here's the current recipe:

40g fresh yeast
600ml warm water
1kg bread flour
18g salt

You proof it once for 2 hours, shape it, and once again proof for another hour. Then you cook it in a dutch oven in an oven heated to 480º F for 30 minutes and then 450º F for another 30 minutes.

Your best bet is to use a thermometer.  Most bread is done when the internal temperature hits 190F (88c).  Some people will bake longer because they enjoy a more browned crust. If it were me, I would keep your first bake step the same.  Once you reduce the heat, the second step might not take as long.  I might check the temperature at 15 minutes to see where it is.


How to clean lecithin residue? After using liquid soy lecithin to stabilize a foam, I find it often leaves a hard to clean, sticky residue on the cooking ware that was in contact with it in undiluted form, which is resistant to soap and needs to be cleaned by hand. Even by hand, it is not so easy to clean as it sticks to your hands as well.

Is there any product/trick to easily clean up the lecithin?

This is one of the reasons I hate working with liquid lecithin - it's the most viscous and sticky substance I've ever had in my kitchen (or, frankly, anywhere).

Prevention seems to be the best approach; try not to let the lecithin directly touch any utensils or cooking surface. Grease up your spoons, preferably with something reasonably solid at room temperature like coconut oil, butter, or margarine. That makes the lecithin slide off more easily, and you only need to clean off the grease afterward (i.e. with soap).

The only way I've been able to clean surfaces or utensils coated with the lecithin itself is lots and lots and lots of warm water and paper towels. Warm water is important since lecithin does not dissolve very well in cold water.

Good luck - personally, on the infrequent occasion that I need lecithin these days, I just stick to the granules.


My wooden cutting board bent. Is there a way to fix this? I'm not sure about the humidity in the apartment, but I don't think this was a problem. However, the board took quite some water one day and slightly bent on the front and back (so it has a slight U shape when seen from the side). It seems to have receded a little bit but it is still noticeable.

A couple possible solutions:

Throw it out and start over by buying a better cutting board or getting a non-wood alternative that is easier to use, cleaner, and more "knife friendly".  If you want a wooden cutting board, make sure its made from multiple pieces glued together, and each piece is "straight grained".  (The grain of each piece is nearly straight and perpendicular to the cutting surface.)
Take it to a wood working shop and have it planed down so it is flat again. Depending on how warped it is, and the original thickness of the board, this may be not be feasible.
If you insist on trying to flatten it yourself good luck.  I've done a lot of wood working and its been my experience that once the wood is warped, unless its thick enough to plane it and still keep a usable thickness, you're out of luck.  You're fighting mother nature and the natural tendency of the wood to want to follow its grain pattern.


How to form cookie dough into rolls? I see Pillsbury pre-made dough rolled in tubes. This makes it easier to open it at one end and chop off slices as needed.

In my case, I force freshly made cookie dough into containers and just slice them up later -- very difficult and tough. I tried preparing them into rolled parchment paper, which I ended up using a lot of, so it was thus wasteful.

Is there tool I can use so I can form the freshly made cookie dough into tubes, for ease of rolling later on?

A sausage stuffer, perhaps?

Your standard food mill attachment type more typically seen in a home kitchen:

Unless you're seeing some product I've never met, I would not call that stuff "rolled in tubes" - I'd call it a tube (or log) of dough, and I expect the filling process is VERY like a (large, automated) sausage stuffer, and involves no rolling at all.

In making refrigerator cookies, one simply makes a log out of the dough, wraps it, and places it in the fridge to harden before slicing. The dough is not liquid to start with, so it does not pour, and can be shaped without a form. If your "dough" "pours" I'm dubious about your recipe or method.


Adding liquid to Le Creuset Casserole during cooking My Mum had just purchased a Le Creuset Casserole with enamel coating and is wondering how you add liquid to it when it is already hot without cracking the enamel? This not only includes water, but wine and beer as well.

Adding cold liquids to a hot enameled pan is not going to crack the enamel, you can add a cold beer to a dish without worrying about your cookware. The main thing to keep in mind when adding cold liquids is that it will bring the temperature down below your desired cooking temperature, you will need to either crank up the heat to bring it back up to the desired temperature quickly or lengthen the overall cooking time.


What is the difference between traditional Mexican cooking and Tex-Mex? Most Americans (including myself) have grown up on Tex-Mex thinking it was traditional Mexican cooking. I was able to eat traditional Mexican (I thought) at a small cafe in downtown Denver. It was delicious and savory.

My question is what is traditional and what is Tex-Mex? What spices are used, etc?

I see sour cream, cheese, etc., in Tex-Mex but the traditional was a taco platter, stewed meat or meat in a sauce, a bit of garnish but absolutely delicious! Simple but great flavor. Thanks!

(To clarify my statement to avoid confusion, I like Tex-Mex but the "traditional" Mexican I believe I experienced was delicious, simple and different. I was seeking spices used to differentiate, ingredients used in traditional and not used, and example dishes)

I'm not an expert by any means, but here's my understanding of the situation:

There are many different regional cooking styles in Mexico, not all similar to the northern Mexican food upon which Tex-Mex is based.
Overall, relative to Tex-Mex cooking, there tends to be less focus on heat, cheese, and beef.
Cheddar cheese is a more recent addition in some northern Mexican cuisines (eg, Sonoran).
Although wheat is used (for rolls, empenadas, etc.), flour tortillas are typically only in northern Mexican cuisine.

Common "Mexican" dishes that were created in the United States : fajitas (Tex-Mex, inspired by arracheras), mission-style burritos (San Francisco), chimichangas (Arizona).


"Lime water" technique -- why use an excess of cal? At https://www.catsfork.com/CatsKitchen/lime-water I see a technique from a cookbook called Nourishing Traditions for soaking cornmeal in 'lime water', created from pickling lime (calcium hydroxide, aka "cal"). The technique starts by preparing a quart of lime water by adding a quart of filtered water to something like a half a cup of pickling lime powder, sharing, letting the powder settle out, and then using the water obtained by pouring the liquid portion off of the settled solids.
I am confused because according to the solubility table at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_table, something like 2 grams of calcium hydroxide would be expected to dissolve in a quart of water. That's basically one mL of calcium hydroxide that is expected to dissolve; why would you use a half cup (which is approximately a hundred times that amount)?
Am I missing something about the technique? Is there a reason why using a dramatic surplus might be anything other than wasteful?

The supersaturation of cal seems to be the common instruction in most online sources, but no reason is given.  The best reason seems to come from chemistry texts, which note:

Ca(OH)2 is only slightly soluble in water (0.16g Ca(OH)2/100g water at 20°C) forming a basic solution called lime water. The solubility decreases with increasing temperature. The suspension of calcium hydroxide particles in water is called milk of lime.

According to Cook's Illustrated, you are trying to get as much lime into the water as you can, since your target is an extremely alkaline (pH 12.4) solution.  So .. if it's hard to dissolve Ca(OH)2, and you're going for maximum saturation, dump a whole bunch in and pour off the solution.


will soup beans go bad during soaking period at room temp?48 + hours I soaked some great northern soup beans for 48 + hours,I started cooking them and they smell  bad,what happened
?

It is normal for pulses to develop froth when soaked. Note that soaking dissolves lots of molecules contained in the beans. Some recommend to soak and throw out the soaking water in order to remove the oligosaccharides contained in most legumes, because bacteria breaking down these indigestible sugars produce gases as a side product, which is felt as bloating. Soaking also dissolves many of the micro-nutrients contained in the beans, and is adviced against the practice. If the beans are soaked (for shortening of cooking times), the soaked water should be used for cooking. If the eaters experience bloating, the beans should be cooked for a longer time, to give oligosaccharides time to break down under temperature. I would recommend that you soak in the fridge for much shorter period the next time - you don't need any fermentation to take place, so the low temperatures aren't a problem.


Amount of meat needed How much beef brisket and how much pork butt  should I buy to feed 40 people. 95 % men. They will be making sandwiches and have slaw and dessert .Needed right away. Thanks..

A typical brisket / pulled pork sandwhich has around 225-250g of meat on it, but to play safe I would overcount.


Springform pan vs. regular cake pan Can a regular cake such as from a cake mix be baked in a springform pan?  If so, will the results be the same as a normal cake pan?

Absolutely!

"Regular" or springform pans is in my experience partly a cultural difference: In Germany you might have trouble to find a non-springform pan.

As long as the diameter is the same, you can freely substitute one for the other.

There is one exception, though: Most springform pans aren't watertight, so for a cheesecake in a water bath, you should either choose a regular pan (and face the trouble with unmolding) or see here for how to tighten them.


How to check freshness of paneer I normally buy paneer only if it's packed within previous day of two. Apart from checking the date of packaging, is there anyway to check whether the paneer is fresh or sour? Also, when paneer itself has a tinge of sour taste, why do people soak paneer in vinegar before using it in curries?

Paneer is a fresh cheese, which gives it a short shelf life, typically under two weeks if kept refridgerated.  Outside we are talking a few hours.  The higher water content of soft cheeses makes them a better medium for the growth of pathogens.

Paneer will go bad before one can tell from visual inspection.  If you are like 90% of the population, trying a small piece will not harm you.  If it tastes like sour milk, toss it.

Using vinegar is an old habit from times when refrigeration was not common.  On foods with low moisture content, such as dried meats, a small spot of mold may have been washed with vinegar (an acid) preventing it from growing further.  That idea must have transfered to paneer, but it is not applicable there because its water content makes it likely that the pathogens are also inside.


Is there something wrong with this scallop residue? After cooking scallops in oil in non-stick pan, I cleaned up and there was a white hard substance left stuck to the pan. It felt like plastic. These scallops were fresh caught one day before using, right from the boat.  Also, when beginning to cook they had blue around the outer edge. Suggestions?  We are wondering if there is a problem here!

Comments in this blog comment could offer a clue to the blue color. The most relevant part says:

  The blue color in the liquid is due to a change in the natural
  chemical composition of the scallop meat during spawning.

That doesn't explain the hard white stuff, but maybe it'll put you on the right track. If there's a state or university agricultural extension near you, they might be able to shed some more light on the mystery.


Raw Kale - Korean side dish I'm trying to get more raw veggies in my diet in general and Kale is such a good one. I recently had a raw kale side dish at a Korean restaurant that may or may not have been fermented. It's flavor was very subtle and lightly sweet.

I'm trying to find how to make this, though I'm imagining the restaurant may have simply innovated something on the fly (likely not a traditional recipe). I don't care to copy it exactly either - just looking for something similar to it on any level.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but thought I'd post that in researching, I found that Korean side dishes are called banchan, and the specific dish that you are speaking of might be kale namul:

Kale namul 케일나물 (Korean Seasoned Kale)

Makes 2 cups

1 pound kale
1 green onion
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. roasted sesame oil
½ tsp. roasted sesame seeds
salt, to taste

http://www.apricosa.com/2011/03/different-sort-of-namul.html

The sweetness you refer to might just come from the kale itself, depending on the varietal.


Store bought Mayonnaise is too vinegary? I haven't made mayonnaise myself but the one Ive liked while eating out, is the one that tasted like a 'smooth creamy salt-sugary eggy' paste. However I happened to buy a bottle of imported mayonnaise, and it had a very sharp vinegary kick to it, which I am kind of allergic to. How can I remove that 'vinegarnishness' from my store bought mayonnaise.

EDIT: The ingredient list: Water, vegetable oil (soyabean and/or canola),distilled vinegar, modified food starch, egg yolk, sugar, contains less than 2% of salt, spices(black pepper, mustard flour),potassium sorbate as preservative, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, lactic acid, lemon juice concentrate, artificial flavour, beta carotene.

You cannot. I hate vinegar too, and can assure you, there is no way to remove the taste. If dilution works for you, do it, it doesn't matter what you use. If you really can't stand the taste, dilution won't matter, then you have to throw out the bottle.

"It doesn't matter what you use" means that there is no specific thing to mix in which will be better at "removing" the vinegar smell than some other thing. This is because you are not removing or changing anything about the smell, you are simply diluting - if you mix 50/50 with the filler, the mixture will only smell of vinegar half as strong. Which filler you use matters very much for the overall taste impression, it can happen that you dislike the new combination much more than you dislike pure vinegar. We can't tell you which combinations will make it better for you and which worse, it is a matter of personal taste.


Can I use fresh okara without cooking it? I started to experiment with home-made soy milk, which means that I have a lot of okara and I am looking for various ways of using it. I grind the soy beans before boiling the milk, so that the okara I get comes from the beans that have just soaked in water overnight and boiled for one or two minutes before grinding. Can I use such okara directly in spreads and other recipes without boiling it or steaming it? Can my body use the proteins and other nutrients?

Its been a while but I found this thread as I was wondering the same thing... Not much info on raw okara but I just googled raw soybeans....

"For human consumption, soybeans must be cooked with "wet" heat to destroy the trypsin inhibitors (serine protease inhibitors). Raw soybeans, including the immature green form, are toxic to humans, swine, chickens, and in fact, all monogastric animals."

From wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean


What does it mean for something to be broiled? More specifically, what is the difference between broiling and boiling?

It doesn't compare at all - broiling is the US term for what is called grilling in UK. The heat source is above the food.

In the US, a "grill" is used to mean a "gas powered barbeque", as the Brits would say.  The heat source is below the food.


How to "bake" whole potatoes in slow cooker? The ability to make "baked" potatoes in a slow cooker is pretty appealing: I can bake potatoes while at work without heating up my house or having to worry about fire hazards.  After reading several recipes on the internet, it seemed that a cook time of 4 - 8 hours was normal.

However, my slow cooker has been cooking potatoes for about 14 hours now and most of them are still not cooked.  On the other hand, after opening up the potatoes on the bottom layer they are over-cooked.

Judging by the plethora of recipes online, there must be some way to do this. Is there something I am missing?

Some more specifics:

My "recipe" consisted of poking holes in potatoes, wrapping them in foil, and adding them to my crockpot. I did this until my crockpot was full (8-9 potatoes).
Based on the wisdom of several internet sources, I did not add any liquids.
I am using a Rival 5-quart slow cooker like this one.

How frequently did  you lift the lid to 'look at them'? While water is not required convection is, and each time the lid is lifted all the hot air does exactly what hot air does...rises and escapes. The slow release of heat through the ceramic sides do not reheat the space quickly and if one peeks too often (or doesn't have a good lid), you will get the results you report, over done on the bottom, where the wrapped potatoes are in direct contact with the ceramic, and under done on top.

If not only from my experience doing so the sheer number of posts from people reporting success with 'baking potatoes in a crock pot' says that 'it is possible'. From comments above I believe you may have also managed to overcrowd the pot. I have never tried more than four 'good sized' potatoes at once and always had good luck. A quick scan of the articles offered from a quick google search (above) has mixed suggestions, from only cover the bottom (what I do) to fill the crock. Try again with few potatoes, in a single layer and keep the lid sealed.


When should I flavor my Bolognese? My Bolognese sauce usually contains some combination of salt, pepper, basil, oregano and thyme. It is easier to taste if I add them towards the end, but is the taste affected by when I add the herbs to the sauce?

Salt is added at the beginning, because it takes long time to dissolve. Also, it's maybe less important for bolognese, but you want your veggies to get infused with salty water, the taste is different from bland vegetables swimming in water salted late. Last but not least, salt's chemical properties are important for the cooking of some dishes.

The stuff which depends on volatile aroma molecules (practically all fresh herbs) is added at the end, after the sauce (or stew) is removed from the heat, because lots of the compounds are destroyed by heat, and while the flavour is still discernible, it is diminished.

On the other hand, if you are using dried herbs, their most fragile molecules have long since disappeared in the air. The flavours which remain in the dried leaves are sturdier and not easily loosened from the plant matter. So by adding dried herbs early enough to allow for some simmering, you can leach more of these out of the leaf (you are practically steeping it in the sauce). But if you cook them for too long, even these molecules can get damaged. Plus, there were some herbs which release unpleasantly bitter alkaloids after too long a steeping (I don't remember if your three are among those, but I would suspect the basil may be, as it is prone to producing off-tastes). So add them ~5 minutes before turning the heat off.

Spices are a bit of a boundary case. Although dried spices don't taste the same as fresh ones, grinding them still releases volatile molecules. So I tend to add them at the end, like fresh herbs, and I'll advise you to do so too (using peppercorns in a grinder). If I use spices which were bought pre-powdered, I throw them in earlier or together with the dried herbs.


Can tomato paste be substituted for tomato purée? A recipe for meat loaf from an Australian book (apparently terminology differs from country to country) calls for 1 cup (250 mL/8 fl oz) of tomato purée, and 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce.

Wikipedia's article on tomato purée claims that the main difference between purée and paste is the thickness, whereas tomato sauce has a different taste.

Can I substitute tomato paste for the tomato purée? If not, is it because the taste, or the amount of water, differs?

If so, how much "triple concentrated" tomato paste should be substituted for a cup of tomato purée?

Edit: the tomato paste ingredients are: concentrated tomato (98%), salt. Link to the product page.

I'll weigh in on this one, having extensive cooking experience on both sides of the pond. The terminology is indeed confusing when it comes to tomato products. By tomato sauce they don't mean canned tomato sauce like you get in the states, they actually mean ketchup! As for puree there's two types, one is just what it means, pureed tomatoes in a can, and the other is super-concentrated like what in the US is called tomato paste and comes in a tube.

Given it's this recipe is asking for 250ml of puree they must mean the canned stuff, as adding that much concentrate would be hideous. To replicate UK/AU style tomato puree I'd use a can of tomato sauce with a half mini-can of tomato paste to thicken it up a bit. That still sounds like a bit too much liquid for my taste.

Alternatively you can use my mom's technique and add a can of concentrated tomato soup to the mix, it makes a great meat-loaf!


How much juice is in a pineapple The title pretty much says it all - I want to know (preferably in American units) how much juice you could get out of a regular-sized pineapple.

I do believe your answer can be found in this totally over the top experimental comparison of two juicers. There's loads of info there, but I think the relevant part is when the author discusses the actual yields for each juicer. For pineapple, the author finds the yield to be between 71% - 76% of the total mass of the pineapple. So give it a weigh, and you should get about 3/4 that much juice. I assume the experiment skinned and cored the pineapple, so you'll need to account for that.

I'm assuming you're using a juicer to get your juice. Note that the juicers used in the above experiment were $400 and $500 respectively, so I assume they are pretty high end. You mileage may vary with a lower quality product.

And since you didn't ask for weight, I just tested weight to volume, 6 fluid oz of pineapple juice weighs 6.5 oz (so it's a bit denser than water). So one pound of pineapple should yield about 11 oz or just under a cup and a half.


Accidently reduced salt in pickling recipe - are these pickles still safe? A dill pickle recipe called for 1.5 cups vinegar, 1.5 cups water, and 2 tablespoons salt. I doubled the bring, but forgot to double the salt before canning my pickles. I ended up with:

3 cups Apple cider vinegar (5% acidity)
3 cups water
2 tablespoons pickling salt

Will these pickles still be safe to eat? There is a wide range of vinegar:water:salt ratios online, and I'm not sure what is safe.

With that level of salt, I think it was more for flavor rather than curing properties. They'll be safe, but they'll probably taste somewhat flat.


Is there any other substitute of papaya paste to tenderize the mutton or beef? To tenderize mutton for BBQ I use fresh papaya paste, but it is not available in some areas. Are there any alternatives to papaya paste that could be easily found?

Your closest substitute will be pineapple, either juice or puree, which is much more widely available worldwide than green papaya.

Papaya contains a natural tenderizer called papain; pineapple contains a different one called bromelain.  While the actions of the two fruit-based tenderizers won't be exactly the same, they will be very similar.  Plus both will impart a tropical-fruit-flavor.

Your other alternative is to find dried paypaya powder.  While still hard to find in many places, you could order it over the internet, and it would keep for a long time.   The enzyme Papain survives drying*, and thus can still be used in powder form, although you'd have to experiment with quantities.

If none of that suits, see this answer for other ideas.

(* there are multiple references to this but they're all spammy, so no links included)