What do you call a steak separated with fork? I stayed at a place about 20 years ago in Mexico that had this great little restaurant and they served a steak that I haven't seen replicated anywhere else. It was a fairly flat cut but the steak itself had been separated, as if by using two forks to pull it apart somewhat, during the preparation or cooking process, and then thrown back on the grill. Is anyone heard of preparing a steak like this?

Shredded is the correct term...maybe ropa vieja? This dish is typically made with flank steak that is shredded with the grain of the meat.  The Mexican version is cooked, shredded and then browned, usually in a pan on the stove, but back on the grill does not seem unreasonable.  It is typically served in a tortilla, with condiments.


How to stabilize soft nougat? Which ways to stabilize soft nougat do you know? By stabilize I mean making it less sticky and preventing it from creeping. I emphasise, that I don't want to add nut flour into nougat, or make it harder in other ways. I want to preserve soft and sticky qualities inside while making it easier to hold in hands and store.
I tried to cover nougat with some powders:

Sugar dust. It doesn't work. Sugar is getting soaked into nougat in few hours.
Cocoa. Good taste (can save if the nougat is too sugary) and relatively not sticky. But doesn't keeps form.
Starch. Definitely reduces adhesiveness but doesn't taste good.

I also tried waffles - it's ok, but ... strange? And I know that chocolate is good for this purpose, but I don't like chocolate. Please, answer if you know any other ways, like maybe covering nougat with caramel.

In my own practice, I just cook the sugar to a higher temperature in order to make a nougat firm enough to not spread.

However, I have recipes suggesting the use of rice paper, and have eaten store-bought nougat that used rice paper on one or two sides of the nougat to hold it together (and minimize sticky fingers for the people eating it.)  I can vouch for rice paper tasting just fine with the rest of the nougat.


Sous vide over cooking toughens meat? I'm new to sous vide cooking.  The equipment I'm using is a Ronson slow cooker
connected to Sous Vide Magic PID controller, no bubbler.  No vacuum sealer.

I calibrated the SVM temperature reading to boiling water, and it was very
close (99.9 oC).  I then "auto-tuned" the PID.  The end result is that it
takes a long time to get up to temperature (/slow/ cooker), but holds it
within 0.1 oC once achieved consistently.

For my first experiment I wanted to try Douglas Baldwin's Flat Iron Steak
recipe. (12hr @ 55 oC)

I chose three well marbled blade steaks (cheap cut) with a little bit of bone
in the centre.  Each steak was individually sealed in a zip-lock bag using the
water submerge method Doublas Baldwin recommends.

The first day I cooked them for 10 hours (not 12, it was dinner time, and I was
impatient :( ).  I quickly seared the steak 30 seconds per side in a very hot
pan and rested it for 3 minutes before serving.  It was very tender and had a
beefier flavour than any other steak I can remember.  But there were some
tougher bits around the sinew, but still edible.

I left the other two pieces in the fridge over night and continued cooking one
of them for 10 hours the next day.  To my surprise after 20hr total of cooking
at 55 oC, this piece felt tougher and more rubbery than the first, and the
sinewy bits were distinctly even tougher.  Does anyone have an explanation for
this?

I know thickness in a slab shaped piece of meat is most crucial in determining
cooking time, and each of these steaks was about 15mm thick (so not very
thick), so potentially even 10hr was too long?

Anything you salt will firm up in texture over a period of time. I suspect that since you cooked these with seasonings and then chilled and left them in the fridge before reheating an eating they firmed up a great deal in the fridge.

If you check out this blind tasting conducted by Dave Arnold at Cooking Issues you'll find some more detailed info about this topic. The gist of it is that for cook-chill-reheat purposes you shouldn't salt the meat before searing. For cook-direct serve meals your just fine doing it that way.

http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-thats-the-searing-question/


How long do you have to cook wild morel mushrooms for them to be safe? I have recently been given some wild black morel mushrooms.  I know that you aren't supposed to eat them raw, as they contain toxins which must be cooked out (at least now I know that... good thing I only ate a tiny piece raw!).

However, how long should they be cooked to be safe?

I was thinking of sauteing them, which I am fairly confident will cook them "enough", but also of making them in omelets, or as a topping on pizza.  Either of those could result in rather minimal heating (I usually make my omelets so that the eggs in the middle are still a bit wet).

Should I cook the morels first, and then add them as a pizza topping/omelet filling?  Or is this overdoing it?

I've looked through a number of recipes, and the vast majority of them indicate that you should cook the morels thoroughly (preferably in butter) first, before using them as a pizza topping or in an omelet.

I did find at least one recipe for a morel omelet that did not call for pre-cooking the mushrooms, however.

I must admit that I did my research a bit late, as I had already decided to risk it and made an omelet with morels, as I had not yet received any answers to my question.

I added the morels to the raw egg, rather than putting them in as a last-minute filling just prior to folding the omelet, so they did cook a bit during the process.  The result was actually quite delicious (I also used some fresh garlic, chives, and Gruyere cheese), and I did not become ill.

However, it does seem that some people react differently, and alcohol consumption can greatly enhance any negative reactions to wild mushrooms.

Given the information I found on the Internet (none of it terribly authoritative, as the vast majority of quality information was on small sites maintained by wild mushroom hunting clubs and enthusiasts), I would not repeat my omelet without pre-cooking the mushrooms, nor will I make pizza without pre-cooking them.

The consensus seems to be that they should be sauteed once until "thoroughly cooked".  At least one site (amid heavy cautions) specifies that this is usually 8-10 minutes, although I suspect that this is for intact mushroom halves, rather than small pieces (morels should always be sliced lengthwise to ensure that you can remove all the insects from the hollow center).

It needs to be stressed that even with the proper cooking, it seems some people have strong reactions to wild mushrooms, so use caution and moderation when trying them for the first time, and do not try them with any form of alcohol until you are sure that you can eat them without problems.


What sort of rice and noodles are "brown rice" or "brown noodles"? I am a university student about to enter his second year. At my school, only freshman are given (relatively cheap) access to the Dining Commons, and I recall, near the end of the year, a nutrition specialist held a table inside with recommendations to students about convenient ways to cook when thrown to the lions den their sophomore year. She said something about brown rice or brown noodles, cooked with my choice source of protein as well as vegetables, as a default meal when time is scarce during the work week. I thought it sounded like an enterprising idea, but my family and I are baffled at its execution.

What sort of rice and noodles was she referring to?

Also, what sort of meat and vegetables can I put into it?

Finally, how do I cook this?

No noodles are actually called "brown noodles" but the only noodles I'm aware of that are brownish in colour are either wheat or buckwheat.

Given the suggestion to cook it with a "protein source", and given that this is meant to be a quick and easy meal, I'm sure that the idea was to cook some dried noodles briefly in soup along with some sliced or shredded meat.  This is common in Asian cuisine, and it can be nutritious, assuming you don't rely on instant noodles and artificial flavour packets.

You'd probably be looking at one of the following:

Ramen, which is traditionally made from la mian (hand-pulled buckwheat noodles, although sometimes they're made from wheat), served in broth, usually with meat and green onions, and often flavoured with soy sauce.  Keep in mind that real ramen is actually quite difficult and time-consuming to make, and is not even close to the "instant ramen" you see for 99 cents a package. You can cheat a little and still have a decent meal by buying quality dried noodles and cooking them in real homemade broth, or at least canned broth.
Udon, AKA "thick noodles" (made from wheat), which are also typically prepared in broth, specifically dashi - broth made from kombu (kelp), dried tuna or bonito flakes, and occasionally mushrooms, and seasoned with soy sauce and mirin (rice wine).  Meat isn't as common in udon, but fish and tofu are, especially deep-fried.  You can still make it with beef or chicken. You can find decent-quality instant dashi at Asian grocery stores, so again, prep time is minimal if you get the right ingredients.
Soba (buckwheat) noodle soup, which (in my experience) is almost always served in miso (again, available in instant form). Seasonings and toppings are otherwise similar to udon, although they tend to get a bit more elaborate. For example, the wiki page references tsukimi soba which means poaching a raw egg in the cooked soup.
Finally Phở, which is the Vietnamese take on this, which uses rice noodles (so definitely not brown). The most common preparation (at least in all of the Vietnamese restaurants around here) is simply the hot soup and noodles with some rare beef dropped in to briefly cook, then topped with basil and bean sprouts just before eating. The broth is really very difficult for non-natives to learn and instant pho is usually terrible, so I wouldn't recommend this for beginners.

Of course you can always just go with good old-fashioned Western chicken noodle soup or chicken soup with rice and vegetables. Chicken noodle soup usually uses egg noodles, which are, again, definitely not brown, so although they're a fine choice, they're almost certainly not what the question is referring to.


What "actually" tastes (and cooks) like chicken? I have been allergic to chicken my entire life, and I am looking for a chicken substitute for a variety of recipes.

Of course I've heard the old saying that "everything tastes like chicken", but I would actually like to know if there's some type of food that I have never eaten that actually tastes like chicken.

To date, I have tried some foods that allegedly taste like chicken:

duck
alligator
turkey
pheasant

Would any of these taste similar, or at least substitute for chicken in other recipes?

The problem is, the mass produced chicken  most of us are used to doesn't taste like chicken.

The expression 'tastes like chicken' is therefore used for most anything that's not particularly assertive.

There was an episode of Food Detectives, "Tastes Like Chicken" where they served a few different meats to professional chefs (Alex Guarnaschelli and Aarón Sanchez), who had problems identifying all of the meats they were being served ... I can't remember exactly what all of the results were, and I can't find a transcript; I remember Alex being distraught when she realized she was eating guinea pig).

And the cooking show Ham on the Street had a regular segment of 'name that meat', where he'd have hot dogs, or jerky, and try to have people guess what they were.

...

Part of the issue with substitution is going to be something that has similar cooking characteristics, but that you don't have a reaction to.  (I'm actually surprised that you're allergic to chicken, but then listed other poultry)

Turkey's likely the closest of the stuff you listed, particularly if it's the mass produced stuff, it's going to have a similar lack of flavor that most chickens sold in the US has; duck tends to be richer.  I haven't had any game birds recently, so can't comment on the pheasant.  Alligator I've only had a few times, and the only time in the last decade it was deep fried, so the meat didn't come through.

...

For substitutions, it'd depend on how you're cooking it, and what part of the bird.

For instance, in place of chicken wings, I might consider frog legs.  (although, it's probably been 25 years since I've had 'em, but I seem to recall them being chicken-like ... I just can't remember if they were like white or dark meat chicken) ... but they'd be closer in mass than turkey wings.

For chicken breasts, I'd go with turkey breast cutlets, so they're closer in size.  For ground chicken meat, ground turkey will work, just check to see if a recipe calls for a leaner or fattier mix, and get the appropriate turkey.  Chicken thighs and legs are a little more strongly flavored ... rabbit might actually work, or duck or pigeon if you have a source.


How do I butter popcorn without making it soggy? I've tried buttering my popcorn in the past, and it always turns out inconsistent. A few pieces will be soaked with butter, and others have no butter on them at all.

Perhaps there is a way to get the butter flavoring without drizzling butter on after popping the kernels?

1) Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter (more if you're a butter-head).

2) Fill a clean paper lunch bag half-way with your popped popcorn.

3) Drizzle your melted butter along the sides of the half-filled bag, fold over the top, and shake vigorously for at least 30 seconds.

4) Repeat as necessary until all your popcorn is well-buttered (and unsoggy).


Sauce made from butter and cream flakes/curdles My sauce recipe (Laurent Tourondel, BLT p 140) called for heavy cream and butter to be set on high heat:

  Put the cream and butter over high heat. cook until the butter is
  melted and browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the shallot and garlic
  and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until tender.

Everything went well for the first 5 minutes but after adding shallot and garlic and keeping it over high heat for another 2-3 minutes, the sauce started to flake/curdle.

I replaced heavy cream with sour cream.

I had a look at this answer that only gives »alcohol and acidity« as causes for curdling and this one which advises not to overheat crème fraîche lest it will curdle.

Did heat cause my flaking/curdling? If not, what did?
And What means »tender« in this context?

Tender means soft and not brown. Sour cream will curdle if the fat content is not high enough (if it is high, it is called creme fraiche, techniquelly) and if you cook it down too much on too hot heat. Next time, use higher fat content and cook on lower heat. Cream, sour cream and creme freche are not really substitutions, not techniquelly and not taste-wise.Mixing butter and sour cream will work, if you take your time and boil down with hardly any or no bubbles.


Why is chorizo spice-mix rarely sold in stores? I'm not much of a cook, but I do enjoy anything made with chorizo.

I've looked far and wide for pre-made chorizo spice-mix in grocery stores, international food stores, etc., but I've never found it.

Yet, chorizo sausage is widely available at grocery stores, restaurants, butcher shops and even convenience stores.

The closest thing I've found to pre-made chorizo spice is a backcountry mix on Amazon.ca.

Question:

Is there a known reason why chorizo spice wouldn't be sold in stores? For example, is it just as easy to make it as it would be to buy it?

There are multiple brands of chorizo spice mix available commercially: Spice House, Savory Spice, sausage maker supply, etc.  Google a little.

Further, if you go to a grocery store with a good selection of Mexican food, you'll probably find some mixes there from Latin suppliers who don't have web sites.  Maybe not, though; all of those spices are standard staples for Mexican cooks, so they wouldn't see the need for a mix.

My recommendation, though, is that you make your own spice mix so that you can balance out the heat/garlic/sweet spices the way you like it.


Is there any truth to the idea that you shouldn't multiply seasonings when multiplying a recipe? I often hear cooks discuss that idea that if you are multiplying, say, a recipe for 4 to be a for 32, that you shouldn't multiply some herbs, spices, or salt. I've never understood any reason why this should be true. Maybe something to do with surface area to volume ratios, or cooking times? Does anyone have a real explanation, or is this nonsense?

The notion that salt or spices specifically don't scale linearly sounds like nonsense to me.  In any recipe involving salt and water, the salt is dissolved, so all that matters is the concentration, and that concentration is going to be the same with linear scaling.

Scaling in general is problematic when scaling more than 2x or 4x.  When you take into account that:

Recipes targeted at home cooks are imprecise to begin with and often use volumetric measurements that are sensitive to heat, humidity, and other environmental conditions, so the imprecision is magnified at larger scale;
Larger portions of food may get cooked less evenly and/or at less consistent temperatures due to the volume/surface area ratio; that part is correct, but it has nothing to do with salt, it has to do with your equipment.  On the stovetop, most of the heat is coming from the bottom of the pan unless you use induction, and even in an oven you've got one or two heat sources radiating heat in a specific pattern.
Cooking times are also going to vary due to changes in things like rates of evaporation.  The total amount of heat you're able to deliver at any given time generally does not increase as quickly as the amount of heat you need to deliver, so very often you need to increase cooking times.

I'm sure you probably already know all this, but the reason I'm pointing it all out is that I'm pretty sure that this odd-sounding assertion about non-linear salt/spice scaling is due to some mutation or misunderstanding of general scaling issues.

Probably, salt and spices are typically present in very small quantities in most recipes, and those quantities are already wild guesses much of the time, so the effect of compounding all this wild inaccuracy, especially with volumetric measurements, is actually pretty noticeable at large scale.  Scaling sucks with these ingredients because the initial quantities and scaling method are both nonsense.

Assuming you have a precise recipe that gives weight measurements, and you scale by weight, then you're not going to have any problems as long as you either cook it in batches or adjust your cooking time/temp accordingly.

I suppose I could be wrong, but I spent 20 minutes digging for some evidence to contradict my claims above and came up dry; you'd think that somebody would have presented some evidence if the claim were true.


Rice flour: weight to volume I have a recipe that calls for 1 lb of glutinous rice flour (mochiko), but I don't have a kitchen scale. Approximately how many cups would this be equivalent to?

Around 2.5 - 3 cups (2.8 exactly) but I doubt exactness is necessary for your recipe if your willing to guess by volume.

May I suggest investing in some scales they will only set you back £14 for some bog' standard ones which will work just fine for home use.


Eucalyptus tea: is it safe to drink? I have a big Eucalyptus Gunnii (If I am not mistaken) tree just out my door. It smells splendid and I have always wanted to know if I could make tea out of its leaves. However, something stops me: I don't know this tree, it could be dangerous to ingest. Can you tell me otherwise?

This is what the tree looks like:

Eucalyptus is technically poisonous, but it depends on amount.

Concentrated Eucalyptus Oil, like an essential oil, should always be kept out of reach of children and have a childproof cap, for example (http://www.poisons.co.nz/fact.php?f=27). It is a dangerous and confusing point because, like clove oil which is also poisonous in sufficient amounts, it is used in various remedies in small amounts. Of course, when you have a concentrated oil, "sufficient amounts" is relatively small. Putting a leaf in some tea is quite different.

There are a number of places on the web selling Eucalyptus tea and giving recipes, but the general recommendation is not to drink too much or make it too strong. The general recommended amount is 1/2 tsp dried leaves or one torn up fresh leaf per cup of water, and 1-3 cups per day.

This responsible looking website notes some safety issues: http://www.eucalyptusoil.com/safety

This website gives more details of the chemicals found in Eucalyptus, and tells you how to make a tea. It also gives a list of medical conditions which indicate you shouldn't drink Eucalyptus tea. http://www.livestrong.com/article/523149-what-is-eucalyptus-tea-good-for/

Another website also contraindicates eucalyptus for use with some drugs - 5-Fluorouracil, Pentobarbital, Amphetamine (I can't provide source because not enough reputation to post the extra link)

Note: Many things that are contained in various herbal remedies and so on contain active ingredients that can ... have all sorts of effects. So everyone should research them themselves or check with a Natural Health Practitioner or doctor first before taking them with medications, or giving them to small children, pregnant women, asthmatics or any high-risk health group.


What went wrong with this bundt cake? I've tried making Baked's Ultra Lemony Lemon Bundt Cake four times (recipe here: http://bakedsundaymornings.com/2015/04/27/in-the-oven-ultralemony-lemon-bundt-cake-with-almond-glaze/). Four times because the first time it came out pretty well - a bit too moist with a dense crumb but overall good enough to make again. The 2nd and 3rd times though, it looked ok but when I cut it open, it was undercooked even though the toothpick had come out clean and the crust was dark brown and dry.

This fourth time, I tried baking it longer. Instead of 50-60 minutes, I took it out after 85 minutes. It was better --not undercooked-- but still fell apart a bit. Here's a picture.

If you Google that recipe, many people's results look almost like a beautifully textured pound cake. I'm open to my technique being wrong even though I thought I followed things to the letter. Any thoughts? My oven is calibrated and my baking powder was very fresh (as was all of my other ingredients). I tapped out any air bubbles and smoothed the batter in the pan.

FWIW, it looks like the cake rose, fell a bit, then when I inverted it the innards separated from the crust?

I did some googling as you suggested and found a few things:

One blog made the exact recipe and the top shows a deep "trench" between the outer rim and the middle chimney. As if the cake didn't rise well in the middle areas. Invert this, and the top may sink down on the platter, leaving a cavity like in your cake unless the cake is properly set.
Another blog shows beautiful pictures, but admits to have adjusted the recipe - less sugar, fewer egg yolks and cream. This brings it to standard pound cake ratios.

A pound cake is called pound cake for a reason: all main ingredients (sugar, fat, eggs, flour) come in equal parts, originally a pound (for very large cakes!).

The original one from the blog uses way more sugar and skimps a bit on the eggs, when looking at ca. 340g of flour and fat. Also, using butter and oil may be a problem - some pound cakes deal well with oil, others get a bit "mushy" in my experience. Replacing some eggs with cream (again, 180 ml is too much, as your too wet results show) can be done, but "weakens" the inner structure a bit, combined with extra sugar and oil it may be just too much. Looks like the baking powder either couldn't lift enough or the texture couldn't stabilize during baking and cooling.

You probably won't like this, but I suggest using ratios closer to a standard pound cake (less sugar, use only as much cream as needed to get the correct texture), then work from there towards the original until you find your personal threshold.


Soy milk; fridge vs. shelf? Occasionally, I see a product in the supermarket that is either sold off the shelf at room temperature (then expected to be refrigerated after opening), or right out of the fridge.  I use soy milk as an example, but there are other products that fit the bill as well (though the only other one that comes to mind is almond milk).  What's (most likely to be) the difference between a product sold refrigerated and its equivalent sold room-temperature?

I'll use (cow) milk as an example, but the idea is the same for other products like juices and fake milks.

In the case of milk, the milk you get in tetrapak cartons (shelf stable milk) is ultra-high temperature pasteurized (UHT). It is heated briefly (1 to 2 seconds) to over 135 C then cooled down very quickly to kill bacteria and spores and then filled into a sterile container (the entire system is designed to keep bad organisms out, so the result remains sterile). This gives a much longer shelf-life than fresh milk (but once opened, it should be refrigerated), on the order of months. In contrast, the usual method of pasteurizing milk (at least in the US (*); Europe does a lot more UHT) is pasteurized by heated to about 70-75C for 15-30 seconds, then chilled and packaged (and lasts on the order of days).

The flavor can be affected due to things like the Maillard reaction occurring. Also, the temperature can affect the uses of the milk for applications like cheese making affecting the proteins.

(*) This is dependent on the type of milk you get; organic cartons in the US you find in the refrigerated section are often UHT pasteurized.


How To Get Flavour Into Dried Grains And Pulses All those things you have to soak, you would think you could infuse some flavour during the soaking.
I've tried all sorts of ideas, vegetable stock, herbs, spices, yeast extract etc. but I find the end result is always a feeble to un-noticable difference in the flavour of the pulses or grains, even if I cook in the soaking liquid to reduce "washing the flavour away".

Any suggestions for adding flavour when soaking dried peas, beans, lentils, pearl barley, etc.?

Why infuse the flavor just during soaking? Unless you are eating them just soaked, after soaking you can cook(fry) the pulses with herbs and spices and that will give them a nice flavor. Most Indian Dal curries are made this way.


Are any corn products in the United States made from nixtamalized corn? I believe polenta, corn meal, grits, and corn flour are not. But how about tortilla corn chips you buy at the supermarket? This is what I am looking for!
I have a link to a quora question that I believe is wrong in that it says most corn products in the United States are but I read just the opposite on other sources.
Still searching, this is a tough question.  Here is the link which gives various opinions. https://www.quora.com/Why-isn-t-nixtamalization-a-standard-process-for-corn-production-outside-of-Central-or-South-America-European-settlers-seem-to-have-just-ignored-and-eliminated-the-process
P.S. After posting this I discovered a corn chip made with mesa flour! It's called Calidad. It's the only one so I assume the quora answer is incorrect. If it does not list as mesa flour probably the corn meal is not nixtamalized.

Masa Harina is nixtamalized corn flour, as is anything made from it.  So, most corn tortillas you can buy are, as are premade tamales, sopes, etc.  While you may come across varieties made from non-treated corn flour (be suspicious of anything bright yellow), most are treated.  Corn/tortilla chips are a little bit more of a mixed bag; some are made from corn flour and some from masa, and it's pretty hard to tell from the labeling which is which.
Hominy is also nixtamalized, as are grits, and any product made from/with grits (no, grits and polenta are not the same thing).  There's another kind of masa, called masarepa, which is used to make arepas.  This isn't an exhaustive list, but should be sufficient to show that yes, we are eating nixtamalized corn in the United States.


Can you preserve/can tomatoes of various sizes together? I am new to canning and have a water bath canner. I have successfully (well...I think!) canned/jarred several dozen bread-and-butter pickles following a recipe I found in the official Ball Canning & Preserving Guide.
I am now trying to preserve/can/jar a bunch of my tomatoes following another recipe in the same book. The problem is, all of my tomatoes are drastically different sizes:

Is it generally OK to use the different-sized tomatoes when preserving them? Or do they all need to be the same type and generally same size?

Your intuition is correct here: cannng recipes are developed for a given chunk size (within a small range). If your recipe was developed for large chunks, the small ones will overcook and not taste as well, and if it was for small ones, the large won't heat up enough in the middle and thus it is unsafe.
Your options here are to:

sort the tomatoes into cans and use different processing times (unless you happen to find two recipes with the same time for large and small tomatoes because of different jar sizes)
cut up the whole tomatoes until they are roughly the same size as the small ones
find a recipe for hacked tomatoes and cut up all tomatoes before preserving them.
use a recipe for large chunks and see if the small ones still taste good enough for your personal standards

Hot water canning tends to be more forgiving than pressure canning, so if you find a recipe specifically intended for hot water canning tomatoes (hint, it will also require acidifying them), it might have a wide size range - you may test it and see if you are OK with the quality of the small chunks.


What's the different between the sides of aluminium foil (shiny/matte)? Is there any difference between the two sides of an aluminium foil? (shiny/matte)

If so, when to use each one? For example, when covering something or when using as a pan cover to bake/cook something on top of it.

Appearance is the only difference! There is no performance differance between the shiney side and the dull side. Two sheets are run through the rollers in the mill to acheive the desired thickness then sized, separated, cut to length and packaged.


Is rice supposed to be eaten with chopsticks? This question is about cultural norms and tradition. In Asian countries, is rice intended to be eaten with chopsticks? I heard this is a western misconception, as rice is too hard to pickup with chop sticks (though in my opinion if it's sticky rice it's manageable). Is rice supposed to be eaten with a spoon in Chinese cuisines? I'm not expert, but I noticed Chinese cuisines normally have more loose rice, compared to Japanese cuisines where the rice is often wrapped in seaweed.

The Chinese cultural norm is to eat rice with chopsticks. It would be very inconvenient to constantly switch back and forth between eating with chopsticks and a spoon depending upon whether you were eating rice or vegetables or meat.

To get around the loose grain problem, you can use the shovel method. You pick up your bowl and use a shoveling motion with your chopsticks to eat.

This video illustrates the shovel method as well as picking up clumps of rice.


Cooking kidney beans that just started to sprout a little I have some kidney beans that I soaked overnight to cook the next day but didn't get a chance and accidentally left them out and it's been fairly hot lately. Some of the beans started to get little sprouts poking out. There's also a little bit of a smell. Is it still safe to cook the batch or have I wasted a bunch of beans?

This is totally safe to eat as long as you cook them. The taste and the texture would be a little bit different than what you use to though.

Here is an article about the safety of eating sprouted beans.


What would adding wine (red or white?) do when cooking Vindaloo? This is my first post, so please be gentle.

I am cooking chicken Vindaloo and I'm trying to get a bit creative. I have never heard of adding wine to vindaloo, however, I know that I like it in soups and stews. What would be the effect of adding 1/2-1 cup of red wine, and would the effect change if I added white wine instead?

Thanks for your input!

Recipe edit: The recipe was about 2 cups vindaloo paste simmered in coconut cream. I sauteed the chicken once I started seeing some red streaks of separating oil in the vindaloo/coconut cream mixture. Once the chicken (3 breasts cubed) was cooked on the surface, I added the mix to a slow cooker set to high. I then took the same pan and seared some small russet potatoes (silver dollar sized at most) cut longways in canola oil. Once the cut ends were a touch brown and crispy, I added them to the mix, as well as with whole mushrooms. I then thinned the mixture with the rest of the can of Coconut milk, as well as about 1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock. After about 2-3 hours of slow cooking, I did end up adding a 1/4 cup Marsala wine. It came out very tasty.

Ah, wine. "I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food."

Anywho, your experiment shows that the short answer is "it'll probably come out quite nice". Most of these things have been said in the comments, but here's a recap:

Alcohol is a solvent, and so wine will presumably help eke out flavours from the spice solids to the liquid. (Much like you can make e.g. vanilla extract with vodka.)
Wine is also acidic, and acid is a general flavour enhancer (a bit like salt).
Wines contain varying amounts of residual sugar (ranging all the way from "almost nothing" to "syrup") which also is a flavour enhancer.
Vindaloo is based on a Portuguese dish prominently featuring white wine and garlic, so why shouldn't it work?

As for red wine, drinking a highly tannic wine with chili-hot food increases the perceived heat, but on the other hand, I can't say I ever really feel the tannins in cooked red wine and my experiences with using red wine in spicy food have been rather positive.


Food safety when tasting from dish When making a dish, I of course taste it through out the process of cooking until its done. I have been extra careful - Each time I taste from the dish I use a new spoon - This means that I have to have ALOT of spoons ready all the time, and have to spend a significant amount of effort to keep them clean.

Is this common practice? Or is this too harsh compared to the norm (in restaurants). Are there any "tricks" that people use to get around the possibility of introducing your own germs into the dish, or minimizing this risk?

EDIT: I'm interested in the common practice in commercial settings (I have a small home-cooking business, and I want to align myself with the norm in restaurants etc..)

You don't really need a lot of tasting spoons, just one. Use your stirring spoon to pour some into your tasting spoon without touching. Or if that's too tricky, serve a bit onto a small plate/bowl.

But if you're just cooking for yourself I personally wouldn't really worry about it, because in general you'll be cooking the food at a safe temperature, not just above the danger zone (140F/60C) but something safe for all meat (180F/80C) so whatever bacteria you put in with your spoon is just going to get killed. We routinely put potentially contaminated things like raw meat into our food while cooking, and let the heat take care of it; whatever you might be carrying isn't any more dangerous.


How to know when pickles are pickled correctly I've made a small batch of pickled Japanese Turnip (the small white ones) based on this recipe.

1 cup vinegar, such as white, apple cider, or rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon kosher salt or 2 teaspoons pickling salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (optional)

I did not add other aromatic ingredients but I added a teaspoon or so of pepper flakes.

I boiled the mixture and pour it over the sliced turnips; covered and put in the fridge for a couple of days; in that case I did not intend to keep them longer, so no bottling or canning.

They were good, but overwhelmingly vinegary (at least compared to commercial pickles)

Question:

How can I know if the pickles were pickled correctly; I only tasted the vinegar, a little bit of the pepper flakes, but not much of the turnip.

"How can I know if the pickles were pickled correctly": Based on whether they taste good to you. With refrigerator pickles like this, you don't need to worry about them fermenting incorrectly or growing the wrong kind of microorganisms. If you think they're too vinegary, reduce the vinegar content.

FWIW, a 1:1 ratio of water to vinegar is much stronger than I like... I prefer something closer to 3:1 or 4:1. Keep in mind what you'll be using them for, and in particular how diluted they'll be: If you'll be popping one in your mouth, you'll probably want a less vinegary brine than if you intend to distribute slivers of them around a sandwich.


Can brownie dough sit? I've been making brownies lately, and my last brownie turned out like dwarf bread. As the recipe and the oven/time haven't changed, my guess is that the preparation went wrong.

I mixed all the ingredients, (just like always) and then walked away to have lunch. After lunch, I tried to pour the batter in the mold, but it was impossible to pour.

Is my analysis correct and, more importantly, is there anything that can be done if the batter does have to sit for a while? Can it be gently heated?

Edit Chocolate & Margarine gently heated together. Sugar and Eggs beaten. Mixed together. Added flour & hazelnut.

If the flour is self-rising flour, then it shouldn't be allowed to sit for too long. However, this wouldn't result in it being "impossible to pour" - it would just prevent the item(s) from rising properly when baked.

If I had to guess, I would point to the chocolate as the culprit. If your batter/dough recipe uses melted chocolate (as opposed to just cocoa powder) then it is almost certainly going to solidify again as it cools. In which case, you can simply heat it again (gently - you don't want cook the eggs!) to loosen it up a little before pouring it.


Fresh popcorn serving size suggestion I am planning to sell popcorn spiced with my own personal recipes, and i am looking to purchase bags for them.

Each bag should contain a single serving of popcorn, but i'm not sure how much that would be.

what is the suggested serving size for an adult?

Suggestion:

Make a batch of popcorn, weighing all ingredients used.
Fill one bag.
Weigh the bag.
Calculate price per serving and total amount of ingredients required based on the weight of your initial batch.

In short, decide what kind of bags you have / want to use and calculate from there.

(Hint: We often instinctively think of popcorn as a volume, not as a weight based quantity.)

If you don't have the bags yet, meassure what you consider a one-person serving. I suggest making servings of plain popcorn larger and those with lots of sugar or similar smaller - e.g. 2 generous handfulls for caramel corn vs. 4 for plain salted.
Put it in a meassuring jug, read the volume scale, buy matching bags. If you need to calculate ingredients, weigh your serving and proceed as above.


How can I stop roast beef drying out? I've bought a beef joint for roasting but it doesn't have much fat around it.

How can I stop it drying out?

Depending on your cooking method you shouldn't have any problem with the joint drying out.  By it's very nature, a joint contains a lot of connective tissue.  That connective tissue will gelatinize under a slow roast and make the meat come out extremely juicy.  The best way to do this is going to be a lot of low dry heat (like the kind you get in your oven thats set to about 200-250*F).  You could also slow cook it, as in a crock pot, but only if you don't want slices.  BTW, if you want a crust on that bad boy, just kick your oven up to five hundred when the roast gets to about ten degrees from where you want it, and it should crust up nicely.

Finally, don't forget that all large pieces of meat are going to keep cooking even after you remove them from the heat so make sure that you take that into consideration when deciding what temp to yank it out at.


To make Gluten free pancakes, can I just substitute regular flour with Gluten free flour? Will a normal pancake recipe work with Gluten free flour, or do I need to add other ingredients as well?

It depends on what you mean by gluten-free flour. If you are buying a gluten-free flour mix that it labeled for all-purpose use then you should be able to substitute that and get a reasonably good result. Substituting straight rice or almond flour in a standard recipe will not work well, because the mixes have a blend of ingredients designed to make it perform similar to flour.

It may take some recipe/flour experimentation to get it as close to what you are used to, but will definetly make something edible. There are also various almond-flour based pancake recipes which work well.


Exceptional pumpkin variants Five or six years ago, I happened upon a pumpkin in the bin at a Whole Foods in Cambridge, MA, that turned out to be substantially different from the others I've had.  It was, I think, about eight pounds.  Its skin was milky white with very faint, thin green veins, and its flesh had a distinct reddish tone to its orange color, very different from the usual pale or medium orange of a pie pumpkin.  After baking and pureeing it, the resulting mash was unusually dark and dense and the pie I made out of it was fantastically rich and flavorful.

I have no idea what kind of pumpkin this was.  I suspect that the store was using it only for decoration, or to be sold as a decorative pumpkin, because it was in no way advertised as a pie pumpkin (it was way better than any pie pumpkin I've had) and the employees weren't even sure how to ring it up.  Other white pumpkins I've bought that I thought were the same turned out to be no different from similar-looking orange pumpkins.

Was I the lucky beneficiary of a unique gourd or is there a particular pumpkin species or cultivar that displays these properties, and if the latter, what is it and where can I get more?

Based on your description and some of the feedback from comments, I think the most likely candidates for your mystery gourd are white pumpkins of the Cotton Candy or Valenciano varieties, possibly also Lumina or Silver Moon (though those tend to be flatter and larger than you describe).  Here's a link with some further comparative description.

The dark color of the flesh that you describe was more likely a product of the growing season than anything else, though you might have some luck asking farmers at local pumpkin patches what specifically could cause that result.  How you cooked the mash could very well have contributed too.  Here's an excellent post from the community blog with instructions for producing quality, richly-flavored "orange goo".

Should you be completely unable to find a similar specimen, you may need to consider substitution.  Possibly the best one I can think of is butternut squash.  This has a very rich flavor, quite similar to pumpkin, and it gets richer as it ages.  Look for ones with dark skin - the darker the outside, the darker and sweeter the inside will be as well.


Trying to find the actual name of an eastern european distilled beverage this is hopefully a simple question. I have had several friends from Eastern Europe, and they often visited with a bottle of a family-style distilled beverage. It is made with pretty much whatever fruits are available (I've had plum, prune, cherry, etc). The closest I can come with the pronunciation is "trweeka," but that is from memory so I could be slightly off. It would be found in the Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland... those types of places. I am hoping someone may be familiar and know the proper name in Cyrillic and transliterated to English? I'd like to learn more about it.

I think you mean Tuica. This is a Romanian liquor, made from fruits.
It is quite similar to Palinka, a Hungarian liquor with a protected name.


How do I prevent tomato making quiche soggy I have made a simple quiche using a Martha Stewart recipe (http://www.marthastewart.com/336904/spinach-and-gruyere-quiches) several times, sometimes altering the filling to include variously bacon, ham, mushrooms, cheddar, and today, tomato slices with basil leaves.

I typically half the amount of filling and make only one quiche. Usually, this comes out quite well (although sometimes a bit overly fluffy like a souffle) and makes for a quick supper. I use prepared pastry (usually Pillsbury) and it typically comes out well-cooked and not soggy, despite not blind-baking the crust which is apparently something I should be doing based on this question: Why is my quiche soggy?.

Until today, the only time I had a problem was when I used spinach without pressing out some of the moisture, and then the quiche filling and crust were both soggy.

Today, I added sliced plum tomato on the top of the quiche before cooking, but found I had to cook the quiche for an additional 10 minutes and still had a somewhat overly gooey filling (but the crust was basically fine).

Unlike spinach, it seems silly to squeeze out tomato slices so that they don't add additional moisture to the quiche. Is there a strategy to avoid this problem?

You may wish to seed the tomatoes, removing the gelatinous part containing the seeds, which is mostly water, and very little flavor.  You want to use only the meaty, fleshy part of the tomato in a quiche.

Depending on the size of your tomatoes, scooping the seeds out with a melon scoop, cutting out the seed sections, or simply squeezing out the seeds will help.  The Shiksa in the Kitchen has a very nice article with very clear pictures showing these three different methods of seeding tomatoes.

This will substantially reduce the amount of moisture the tomatoes are adding to your quiche.

Another method you may choose to use, if you have the time, is to roast your tomatoes before using them in the quiche (which may also involve seeding them first).  This will reduce the moisture and concentrate the flavor.


I'm brewing hard cider - what can I do with the yeast afterward? I currently have a largish bottle of cider fermenting away in my kitchen. I will rack it in the next weeks. I prepared the batch from mashed apples (not juice) and I expect some sediment of yeast and apple leftovers.

Any ideas what I can do with that? Any recipes that make use of this yeast?

I will store part of it for the next cider, but certainly not all. So I'm looking for other uses around the kitchen.

I tried making bread once with leftover beer yeast.   It was the densest bread I've ever tasted.  Breadmaking not recommended.

You could try making vegemite.

  How to make Vegemite.

  Brewer's yeast is a good source of vitamin B, but live yeast tastes
  boring, it is poorly digested. Inactivated yeast lacks the
  disadvantages, but is still bland. The inventor of vegemite solved
  this problem using autolysis: a process where the yeast's own enzymes
  break it down.

  Spent brewer's yeast is sieved to get rid of hop resins, and washed to
  remove bitter tastes. Then it is suspended in water at a temperature
  greater than 37 C with no nutrients: the yeast cells die, and vitamins
  and minerals leach out. Then the proteolytic (protein-splitting)
  enzymes take over, breaking the yeast proteins down into smaller
  water-soluble fragments, which also leach out. The yeast cell membrane
  is unruptured during this time, and can be removed by centrifuging.
  The clear light brown liquid is then concentrated under a vacuum to a
  thick paste (the vacuum helps preserve flavours and vitamin B1,
  thiamine). It is seasoned with salt, and a small proportion of celery
  and onion extracts to increase the palatability.

From http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/foodwine.htm (Last section on page)


How does one soften sun dried tomatoes? Some packs of sun dried tomatoes come a bit too hard to chew.  How do I soften them for use in a salad?  Should I toss them?

Generally you soak them in a small amount of very hot water for about 10 minutes or until they are as soft as you want them. The flavorful liquid that comes out of that process can be used in salad dressings, soups, sauces, etc. (A quick way to do this is throw them in a microwave safe bowl with water to cover and microwave for say 3 minutes, then allow to stand.)


When a recipe calls to reduce oven temperature mid-cooking, should you leave the door ajar until the oven reaches said temperature? I have always wondered this. Many recipes will ask for 15-10 minutes browning at 450f and then continue cooking at 350f. But should you leave the door open until the oven hits said lower temperature, or just reduce the temperature mid cooking and be done with it?

What yields a better result?

No, don't leave your door ajar. The recipes have already factored in the time an oven needs to go lower. Also, as a very loose rule of thumb, many dishes tend to do better without very wild temperature swings during baking, and some of them (e.g. steam leavenend cakes) react really badly to them.


How to make my chicken noodle soup thicker? Online chicken noodle soup recipes contain mostly the same things - chicken, noodles, stock, vegetables - and for the most part taste the same.  However, they taste completely different from the soup in many restaurants (such as Old Country Buffet or my favorite, Perkins').  I can't figure out how to make my soup taste like that.

It seems like the main difference is how thick the soup is... but simply adding less water doesn't do the trick.  How do restaurants make their broth so thick? (should I be making my own broth?)

I don't see any starch on the list.  Starch is generally how you thicken stocks and sauces.

Corn starch is probably the most common and the easiest to find, and you should see results with no more than a tablespoon.  Just be sure to add it while the soup isn't too hot and stir very thoroughly, otherwise you'll end up with lumps.

A more reliable approach is to use a roux, although that will give you a more "creamy" end product.  If you just want a little thickening, use a starch like corn starch or tapioca flour.


Should you add some salt to flour when baking? I was always taught to add a pinch of salt to flour when baking (mainly cakes / muffins and puddings).

I have recipes that specifically mention adding salt and others that don't.

Is there a scientific reason to add salt?

Salt serves two primary purposes in baking:

To regulate yeast

Salt kills yeast. The addition of salt to a yeast leavened dough prevents the little beasties from growing completely out of control.

To enhance and mask specific flavors

Salt is almost a universal flavor enhancer. Virtually anything that tastes good, will taste better with salt. What typically comes as a surprise to people is that this holds true with sweet things too, particularly chocolate. The addition of even a tiny bit of salt can make a sweet dish significantly sweeter. It also serves to mask the taste of raw flour.

Update

Also according to Progressive Baker salt affects the strength and shelf life of baked goods.


Can you extend the life of frying oil with lettuce? Someone told me that putting lettuce in frying oil, it will recover some of the  properties. That way you can extend the number of uses you get from this oil.

I read (Spanish) that doing so will keep the oil from foaming.

Is there any evidence this is true? How should this be done, dump the lettuce in the cold, warm or hot oil? How much lettuce? Would other green leaves work as well, better?

With regard to your source that suggests adding lettuce will reduce foaming of the oil: it might be possible to use lettuce as a tool to scoop up surfactants from the surface of the oil. If you're going to attempt it, I think the best time to do it would be when the oil is cool.

An Introduction to Surface Tension

Foaming is related to surface tension: for example, adding a surfactant (such as soap in water) to a liquid reduces its surface tension, which makes bubbles more stable. So to reduce foaming, you would need to increase the surface tension.

Note that we can't increase surface tension by adding something to the oil: the only way to increase the surface tension of a liquid with an additive is to increase its overall density.

To see why that's the case, suppose for a moment that there were a magical substance that liked to stay on the surface of the liquid and caused higher surface tension. That higher surface tension would compress the liquid, and raise its pressure. That means any spot on the surface that had less of the substance would have less surface tension and less pressure, so the pure liquid would be pushed out of that spot and cover the surface. That process would result in the substance never actually being on the surface of the liquid, which contradicts our starting assumption, so no such substance can exist. Instead, such substances become distributed evenly throughout the interior of the liquid...and, if they make the liquid more dense, that raises its surface tension.

So, if we want to increase the surface tension of aging oil, the only way we can do that is by removing surfactants from the oil, assuming we don't want to mix the oil with large quantities of something more dense.

Surface Tension and Frying

As J. B. Rossell explains in Frying: Improving Quality (with credit to BaffledCook for finding the source), surface tension is very important in deep fat frying, beyond just the idea of foaming.

Initially, oil for deep fat frying tends to undercook (or takes longer to cook) food, because few surfactants are present in fresh oil. Due to the high surface tension, the oil is less often in direct contact with the food being fried (as little as 10% of the time it is submerged), which means less heat transfer by conduction, less of a crust, and less oil present in the final product.

As the oil gradually breaks down with repeated cooking, surfactants build up in the oil, reaching an ideal range which gives the preferred golden crust and moderate greasiness, with oil being in contact with the food between 20% and 50% of the time it is submerged.

When the oil goes bad, the high quantity of surfactants results in too much contact between the oil and the food, resulting in greasy food that is overcooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside, and may have a bad flavor due to the rancidity of the oil, or contamination from the food being fried.

Removing Surfactants

First of all, I want to say that I'm not sure I'm in favor of trying to prolong the life of frying oil beyond its natural lifetime: the breakdown of the oil results in potentially cancer-causing free radicals, so I'd rather err on the side of replacing the oil too often, especially if I'm cooking for myself or loved ones.

If you were going to re-use the oil anyway, you might be able to reduce the amount of oil that gets into your food by reducing the quantity of surfactants, but if you're debating saving money by using your fry oil longer than you normally would, I'd say a bottle of oil is cheaper than a trip to the oncologist's office.

Speaking of cost, I think a bottle of most oils used for frying is also cheaper than a head of lettuce, so I'm not sure how economically viable this strategy is.

That said, since surfactants (SURface ACTive AgeNTS) are attracted to the surface of the liquid (they find a lower energy state by decreasing the energy of the boundary between two liquids or a liquid and a gas), they can potentially be removed by skimming (or just pouring) them off the surface. (I expect putting the oil in a narrow bottle and pouring off some of the oil from the top would be a more economically viable solution to remove surfactants.)

Because crinkly lettuce leaves have a high surface area, its possible that just dipping lettuce in the oil and drawing it out might remove a significant amount of surfactant, especially if the surface area of the lettuce leaf is high in comparison to the surface area of the pot that the oil is in: the surfactant will attempt to spread evenly across the entire surface of the oil. If we assume the surfactant is attracted only to the oil/air boundary (note: I have no knowledge of whether this is actually the case, or whether the material of the container matters), then when a lettuce leaf with a surface area equal to the surface area of the oil/air boundary is dipped into the oil, and then slowly removed, the oil covering the top of the pot and the oil covering the lettuce leaf will have roughly equal surface area, and if the surfactant has had time to spread evenly, they will have roughly equal amounts of surfactant, so dipping the lettuce leaf in once and removing it would remove about half of the surfactant (though somewhat less, due to dripping returning some of it to the pot).

Drying the lettuce leaf (or taking another similarly sized leaf) and repeating would drop the amount of surfactant to about 25% after the second attempt, around 12.5% after the third, etc.

Using a pot or bottle to hold the oil that reduces the surface area would make it more effective: if the ratio of surface area between the oil and the lettuce leaf were 1:2, you'd be removing two thirds of the surfactant each time, but if it were 4:1, you'd be getting at most 20%, and it would take a lot of dipping cycles to make any noticeable difference. If (as assumed above) the surfactant is present only on the oil/air barrier, then a tall thin pot or bottle would be ideal; if instead the surfactant spreads over all surfaces of the oil (including the oil/pot barriers), then it'd be best to put it in a pot that makes the depth of the oil fairly close to the width of the pot.

Of course, anything with a high surface area would be a good candidate to remove surfactants via this dipping method, there wouldn't be anything magical about lettuce leaves beyond their shape (and perhaps their affinity for oil), anything with a high surface area that doesn't immediately shed all the oil as its pulled out would work just as well.


When cooking or baking is it better to steam peppers or add them raw? I was curious to know when baking, such as muffins or corn bread, when you go to add a pepper like a jalapeno is it better to steam the jalapeno or add them raw to the batter?  Is the heat effected when steamed?  Should all peppers be steamed when adding them or can you add them raw?

Jalapeno added to a muffin should be minced sufficiently finely that it is not necessary to par-cook it in any way, but you may choose to in order to develop flavor.

When adding larger peppers like a pablano, I like to roast (not steam) them first, to:

Remove the skins
Soften the flesh, as the larger dice may not completely cook during the baking process
Develop that delicious roasted flavor

Incidentally, I find a can of diced hot peppers performs extremely well in corn muffins, and is very friendly for last minute baking out of the pantry.

The heat in peppers is due to a chemical called capsacin, which is found mostly in the ribs and membranes surrounding the seeds.  You can influence the heat level in your muffin by how much of this part you include.

By cutting out the ribs, membranes, and seeds and using only the outer flesh of the pepper, you minimize the amount of heat; by including these parts, you maximize it.

Whether or how you par-cook the pepper before baking it in the muffin has no real influence.


How can I cook chicken breast like Nando's? I want to make chicken butterfly breast similar to Nando's but plain. I read this question which gave me a good insight. I have no grill so only a gas oven/halogen oven and a frying pan.

Am I able to cook it like Nando's Butterfly chicken using a frying pan and an oven?
Is this the best method to achieve this:

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
Put just enough oil in a heavy-bottomed pan to cover the bottom.
Put the pan over medium-high heat and get it good and hot - the oil may just start showing wisps of smoke.
Lay the chicken in the pan carefully, being sure to start at the edge closest to you and lay it down away from you. This will prevent you from getting splashed with hot oil.
Let it cook for 2-4 minutes until you get a nice sear on it.
Flip, (the chicken, not you) again being careful to flip away from you.
Now if the breast is thin enough (maybe you butterflied it beforehand), you can just let it finish in the pan. Often, though, after flipping I'll pop the whole pan into a 400F oven and finish it in there. Again, times will vary, but I would start checking it after 5 minutes.

As I don't like seasoning, what oil should I use?

Yes, this technique will give you approximately the same results as Nando's. You want to use an oil with a relatively high burning point like sunflower, rapeseed or groundnut - olive oil may burn.

Another point to remember is that Nando's chicken breasts all have the skin on: this adds flavour and helps keep the meat moist. For the best results, both in terms of not giving yourself food poisoning and avoiding dry chicken, use a quick-read digital thermometer to ensure the breast is only cooked as much as it needs to be, but at a safe internal temperature. It should reach 75ºC in the thickest part.


Should I add vegetables and spices in the stock-making stage of pig-knuckle soup? I'm toying with the idea of making some soup - just a simple one.  The recipe call for boiling/simmering a pig-knuckle for about four hours together with a laurel-leaf.  Afterwards the stock/fond is strained, the meat stripped from the knuckle, and vegetables and the meat is put into the fond to make the soup - which should boil for another 10 minutes.

The thing is, I was wondering if I could do something more with it.  I thinking about adding vegetables, herbs and spices when cooking/simmering the knuckle, to add flavor to the stock and/or meat.

I was thinking root-vegetables like celery-root, beats and carrots... perhaps leek... perhaps onions, perhaps garlic - maybe after frying them lightly in some butter (before adding the water to cook the knuckle)...  I guess black pepper would be OK, but what about chili?  And what about some fresh herbs and spices?

My first thought would be to strain the stock and throw-away the out-boiled vegetables, since I'll be adding fresh ones to the soup anyway...  But could some (eg. the root-vegetables) or all be puraied in a mixer and added to the soup to make it "thicker" - and perhaps add flavor?

I you probably understand, I'm a lot better at eating food than making it, so any advice would be appreciated.

If you are going to cook a stock for 4 hours, the flavor of the vegetable will contribute to the overall flavor of the stock...but not be so great in vegetables themselves...and their texture will be very soft.  I would strain and de-fat the stock... then use the stock you created to build your soup.  Add vegetables at this point and cook just until the vegetables are cooked through.  This would provide both the best flavor and texture of the vegetables.  Use the same process if you want to puree some or all of the soup.


What is flavor development? Probably this is something covered in cooking academies/universities, but I'm not a professional chef, I just happen to like cooking a lot, and I want to get better at it.

I often hear the phrase "This flavor is not well developed", but I don't really understand what "flavor development" really means.

Can all flavors be developed? What factors tend to develop more a particular flavor?

This is just fancy sounding talk for the myriad of techniques in good cooking that create good flavor in dishes.  It doesn't refer to any one specific thing.

Some examples of techniques used to develop flavor include:

Seasoning (properly salting)
Browning meats and other foods properly to bring out their flavor
Creating pan sauces or other uses from fond to enhance the flavor of a dish
Using herbs and spices skilfully to compliment the food
Balancing flavors with acidic ingredients like lemon juice or tomatoes
Cooking properly to allow the flavor of individual ingredients to shine through
Blooming or toasting spices to bring out their more aromatic qualities
Using alcohol to enhance certain flavors not soluble in water or fat

There are no doubt many, many more things that could be included in a list like this.

After all, it sounds far more professional to say "the flavor in this dish is not well developed" than to say "this dish is bad."


How can I calculate the affect of cooking my food on its nutrition If I look on nutritiondata.self.com for the nutrition value of raw lentils (as an example), it tells me the protein value per 1 cup is 50g. However, 1 cup of boiled lentils is good for 18g of protein!

I looked up the question, however the popular answer is that it doesn't make much of a difference. But judging by those numbers, I think that it does!

So, what should I do?

Lentils being just an example! This applies to other foods too..

Lentils (and other foods) expand when cooked - its not the same amount of lentils (and other food).

Some vitamins and such are destroyed by heat, but to be sure on exactly what, only a lab could determine.

For macronutrients such as proteint, fats, etc - whatever goes in, comes out.


How can I tell if a vegetarian recipe is suitable for freezing? I am a vegetarian looking to save time. I thought cooking in large batches and freezing would be a good option. However, I don't know which of my recipes are freezable and which are not, how can I tell? Are there certain ingredients that make a recipe non-freezable, or is it only possible to tell on a case-by-case basis, and if so what are the criteria?

Otherwise, are there good online resources for healthy, freezable, vegetarian recipes? Or, can anyone share any suitable recipes they recommend?

Freezing is bad for things which have a special structure and lots of water. Everything else should be OK with freezing.

The prime example of a thing which behaves badly when frozen is a fruit. It consists mostly of water, but is firm instead of liquid because the water is contained within a cellulose structure created by the cell walls of the fruit. When you freeze it, the water turns to sharp ice crystals, which also expand in volume (water is one of the few liquids which does that upon freezing), and they hurt the cell walls. When you defrost the fruit, it turns terribly soft, and all the juice runs out. It is practically like maceration without the sugar. You can use the fruit for cooking, e.g. for a jelly, but it is not the same thing as a fresh fruit.

Another example which is very structure dependent is whipped egg white. It is a fragile foam, and the formation of ice crystals is also very damaging for it. Whipped cream is similar - you can freeze it (and get ice cream), but it melts to a liquid, not a foam.

On the other hand, foods which have a specific structure but not much water are OK with freezing. Butter is not pure fat, it is an emulsion of 17% water in 83% fat. Emulsions tend to have very fragile structures (don't freeze mayonnaise), but butter is OK, because there isn't much water so the formation of crystals doesn't disrupt the structure. Another exception which is OK to freeze is dough. A dough being practically a mesh of gluten, it doesn't get really hurt by the crystals.

There are a few ingredients which develop an off taste when frozen. For example, don't freeze anything carbonated, it tastes terrible afterwards.

You should also consider the problem of freezer burn. It happens when the moisture of the frozen product sublimates in the dry freezer air. To prevent it, you have to seal the food airtight. You are therefore limited by the kind of food you can seal. If you have a food which would make a mess in a home vacuum sealer, like a wet stew, you could try freezing it for a night, so it is hard but does not have freezer burn yet, and then sealing the frozen chunk and returning it to the freezer.

Some ingredients will prevent the food from freezing into a solid block. Notable examples are salt, alcohol and propylene glycol (which is used as a solvent in food coloring and baking aromas). This shouldn't be a food safety problem, because first, bacteria growth is inhibited by low temperatures, and second, if you have these things in concentration high enough to completely prevent freezing at -18°C, then they will kill the bacteria by themselves. But it can cause some logistic problems if the food stays too soft.

As you see, these general guidelines have exceptions, or at least require some knowledge of what food is built like (but frankly, I would have predicted that yeast dough freezes badly if I didn't know from experience that it works well). So you should definitely try to remember it on a per-case basis for the most common things you intend to freeze. A very convenient guideline is to think if you can buy a premade equivalent frozen at the supermarket. If they sell it, it will probably turn out OK when frozen at home (sometimes with differences, like frozen fruit). If they don't have the food (or its major ingredients), there is probably a reason for that.


Are rinsed out plastic milk jugs safe for storing water? Over some time I have accumulated several plastic milk jugs and I'm considering using them to store water in case of an emergency.  I've rinsed them out and left them to dry, but should I worry about cleaning them further?  Should I use dish soap/scrub brushes?  Will the cleaned jugs be sealed tightly enough to prevent the water from becoming contaminated?

Cleaned jugs are, but ones that are only rinsed aren't. After the milk is gone, wash the inside of the jug with hot water and anti-bacterial soap. Rinse with super-purified or distilled water to avoid the risk of re-introducing contaminants to the inside of the jug. I store the filled bottles in my cold room for six months, then use the water and replace my stores.


Toads with a flat batter-y At the weekend I made Toad in the Hole. I put some sausages in a glass dish in the oven at about 180 centigrade. Then I followed my usual batter recipe which is:

100 ml milk
100 g plain flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

When the sausages had started to brown, I took them out, greased the hot dish with more vegetable oil, poured the batter in and arranged the sausages neatly therein.

It looked to cook nicely. However, when I removed the dish from the oven the batter rapidly lost shape. It collapsed into a thick, chewy crust. Not inedible by any means, but not the nice fluffy result I've had before. It also stuck quite badly to the dish, even though I'd greased it.

There were three notable things I did differently to normal. Firstly, I normally make this in a cold dish, not a pre-heated one. Second, I mixed the batter with hand-held electric food processor rather than fork. Third, I was using a different brand of sausages that turned out to be greasier than I was expecting.

Could any of those things have caused my batter to collapse? If not, what did I do wrong?

Good Yorkshire pudding is not an art, it's a science. You need three things:

Hot fat
A hot oven
Batter of the right consistency

The only raising agent in Yorkshire Pudding is steam from the water in the liquid ingredients. You need to convert that water into steam fast to get a good rise, and you need the batter to crisp up quickly so it doesn't collapse.

This is why you need hot fat and a hot oven. I would say 180C is much too low: use 220C*. Preheating the dish is a good idea - use a good, thick, metal pan, preheated along with the oven. Then place that on the hob and fry the sausages in it, then add the batter. Then it's straight in the oven. This ensures as little heat as possible is lost . Do not open the oven during cooking if you can possibly help it. The sudden drop in temperature and the shock of the door closing will destroy the structure.

Adding cold oil to the pan is, as you can imagine, a bad idea. Instead, fry your sausages with enough oil to rise the batter with (if you're worried about the fat, you shouldn't be eating Toad in the Hole anyway) and it will get good and hot while you fry the bangers. If it doesn't sizzle when you pour the batter in, you might as well throw it out.

Batter consistency is the hardest thing to get right. Too thin and there won't be enough gluten to provide structure. Too thick and it will collapse under its own weight. About the consistency of double cream is right, but experience is the only real teacher. I usually whisk my batter with a balloon whisk, leave it to sit for a couple of hours, then give it a good whisk before adding to the pan.

*Oven dials lie. Get an oven thermometer to see how much. My last oven was 30 degrees cooler than it said on the dial.


Is there a definitive measure of completed lacto fermentation? In brewing, as the yeast consume the sugars from solution, the density of the medium is measurably reduced. When the yeast stop converting sugars, the density of the medium, as measured by a hydrometer or refractometer, stops changing, indicating the fermentation is complete.

Is there an analog in the realm of the fermentation of vegetable matter (cabbage)? What would one measure to determine if fermentation of sauerkraut is complete?

In the making of beer, the stabilization of density (gravity) does not mean the yeast will no longer have any effect (which is why beer is typically subjected to secondary fermentation or lagering). Given a definitive measure of complete fermentation of cabbage, is there an analog to secondary fermentation, where the measurable value remains unchanged, but the product continues to evolve (in a positive way, as in "ageing")?

Well, if you really want a "definitive" way to measure when lactic fermentation is complete, you'd have to do a laboratory test directly for residual sugars.  Most traditional foods that are lactic-acid fermented don't have enough sugar to reach a final acidity that will self-limit continued fermentation by killing all the bacteria.  (Foods with too much sugar also often tend to spontaneously undergo yeast fermentation and lead to alcohol production instead if not monitored.)  Given the wide variety of fermentation products that can result from initial ingredients and different fermentation conditions, it's really difficult to come up with some sort of "test strip" or something for residual sugar that is accurate.  Home fermenters rarely bother with such things, but large-scale commercial fermentation sometimes tests residual sugar content for batches to ensure shelf-stability.

That said, a specific recipe with specific starting ingredients will often have a target pH range, depending on the quantity of sugar in the ingredients, the amount of salt (which in excess will inhibit further fermentation), desired flavor, etc.  The composition of the ingredients will determine the mininum possible pH when fermentation is effectively complete.

The desired pH of lacto-fermented foods can vary anywhere from about 3.0 (even down to ~2.75 for some sweet relishes) to 4.5 (more common in grain-based ferments, or quick-fermented vegetables meant to be used up quickly).  To answer the specific question for sauerkraut, I'd say most people would say sauerkraut fermentation is "complete" when a pH of ~3.5 or below is reached (though opinions may vary).

Part of the difficulty in answering the question is that home fermentation is often done with the intention of keeping the food "alive" even when it is consumed, which means fermentation will still be ongoing.  In most traditional food cultures around the word, lactic acid fermentation is often deliberately incomplete, only used for a short period to transform an ingredient and then use it within a dish for consumption.  This contrasts with much alcohol production, where continued fermentation in your final product can obviously create various difficulties for bottling, proper aging, etc.

And some people just prefer food at various earlier stages in the fermentation process.  To take sauerkraut as an example, a pH of 4.0-4.5 will be achieved rather quickly (usually within a few days, depending on temperature, salt content, etc.).  Some people prefer the taste of a fresher, crunchier product, and they may only ferment for a few days and then refrigerate to slow down fermentation significantly.  Other people like to go much further and will ferment sauerkraut anywhere from a month to several months, again depending on temperature -- to achieve a final pH below 3.5 and even down to ~3.0.  Over time, the final product will obviously get more sour, but it will also soften and various nutritional changes will take place.  It's all a matter of preference when done at home.

Lastly, in reference to the "lagering" aspect of the question, I think the closest analog in lacto-fermentation is the fact that various processes (and various bacteria) will work better at different temperatures.  A higher temperature fermentation, for example, may result in a greater acetic acid component in the final ingredients, enhancing the "sharp" vinegar notes.  At lower temperatures other bacteria may become more prominent in the fermentation, and in some temperature ranges enzymes and natural (spoilage) reactions may help to change flavor and texture too.  Anyhow, for these reasons, some people prefer to refrigerate fermented foods or hold them for a while at "cold cellar" temperatures to allow these "aging" mechanisms to work as bacteria slow down (analogous to lagering).  Whether this is done after fermentation is effectively complete or at an earlier stage when the food is less sour again depends on individual preference.


Is salty tongue effect normal after eating sichuan peppercorns? I've used sichuan peppercorns many times previously and never had this effect before where my tongue becomes salty for a while after eating it. Normally I would just get the buzzy, numbing effect but now my tongue becomes salty and everything I eat afterwards tastes salty. I wonder if it's because I'm using a different brand or whether I used too much, or possibly whether there is contamination or something with the peppercorns.

Has anybody else experienced this? Is there any risk posed if I continue to eat these? I don't mind the effect, but I don't want any permanent damage to my taste buds.

Yes. This happens to me. Some scientists are investigating the possibility of using the peppercorns as a means of reducing people's salt intake.

Potential of Szechuan pepper as a saltiness enhancer, Tram Hong Le Bao, Siree Chaiseri and Yaowapa Lorjaroenphon, International Journal of Food Properties 21(1), pp533-545.


What is the proper word/term/expression to describe a dish that appears to be something different I want to experiment with dishes that fool the senses. Dishes that look like one thing but taste completely different from what was visually expected (e.g. Heston's parsnip cereal)

I want to google for these kinds of recipies, but what seach terms should I use? Is there a term of art or word which describes these dishes?

I believe the most common term, especially for foods that just visually look like another food, is Trompe-l'œil.  While the Wikipedia article linked focuses on other forms of art, the word is still applied to foods.

If you google "Trompe l'œil food", you will find many examples of the term in use.

Note that Google seems smart enough to handle either "œ" or "oe".


Do you need a stock for carbonade flamande So there is this amazing Belgian/French dish called carbonade flamande and as I browse recipes I see one major difference in them: some recipes use (beef) stock while others don't (but then they have larger quantities for beer, or they add apple vinegar, etc…). What is the recommendation regarding the stock while cooking carbonade flamande, and is there some "classical way" to cook the dish?

I'm Flemish and I don't use stock at all:

butter
half an onion,
beef
a nice coat of mustard smeared on top of peperkoek:

ginger bread will do nicely as well
use "Appenzeller Biberli" if you want to give it a Swiss twist and call it "Carbonade Suisse"

pepper, salt, nutmeg
the darkest non-bitter beer you can find (Any Flemish beer would be better though)...

:-)


Do I need a specific pan for baking sourdough bread? I have been following a recipe to make sourdough bread and a starter. The recipe said to cook the bread in a dutch oven or a cast iron casserole dish. Since I have neither, can I cook the bread in an ordinary loaf tin or some other utensil?

Bread can generally be baked in any pan, sourdough is no exception to this. Baking it in a covered dutch oven seals in moisture and keeps the crust from hardening, allowing maximum oven spring. You can achieve a similar effect by putting a pan of boiling water in the bottom of your oven for the first half of baking.

There's no reason you can't use a loaf tin, my main concern would be it sticking to the sides. To prevent this I would coat the sides of the dough that will touch with a generous layer of coarse wheat flour while it proves.

You can use other things as well, I don't have a casserole with a lid, but I do have some enameled cast iron pots. There are too deep to but the bread into without mangling the shape, so I invert it over a cookie sheet instead, then I remove it halfway through cooking.


Black greasy residue from stainless steel pot on lid only after simmering turkey stock for 18 hours. Question is the stock safe to eat ? Is the 18 hour simmered stock safe to eat? I don't want to poison myself .
I cleaned the stock pot and lid before use and when I opened the lid it was this black film like grease. I was able to use bar keepers friend to remove it, but what about the stock? AL clad!

I'll assume that the inside of the pot and the lid are both stainless steel.

The black gunk would be some sort of organic residue from the turkey or spices used. Often stocks are strained to remove the "solids" (froth) that result from the stock solution boiling.

A turkey stock solution would typically have some fat on it. When bubbles burst at the surface some of the fat and froth would be "blown" onto the lid. This would form thye black greasy gunk observed.

The stock, which had been simmering, would be perfectly safe to consume.


What kind of Creme or Mousse is the most robust? How can I strengthen a mousse? I want to make a multi layer cake where one of the top layers consists of some kind of mousse. I haven't decided on what kind of mousse/creme yet because I have to transport the cake once it's done and I am afraid that the mousse will collapse.

What kind of mousse/creme is the most robust? How can I support a mousse without changing it's texture too much (I don't want it to become a jelly)?

There are several major types of mousse, made from different bases, and with different flavor elements.

Depending on which one you are using, they may have varying requirements.  As MandoMando mentions in the comments, assuming you are using a mousse based on whipped cream or whipped egg whites or a freezer-stable thickener (neither gelatin, agar agar, nor carageenan are freeze-stable), you can simply freeze the cake for transport.  This tends to work very well, although you may have issues with condensation when thawing it, so you want it very well wrapped (usually after freezing, so as not to muss the icing).

Chocolate mousses are often fairly stable due to the cocoa butter, which is solid at room temperature; some can also be gelatin stablized.  See the linked recipe in

Chocolate mousse - methods to have firm foamy mousse using white egg and cream

for inspiration, where the confection is built with two layers of mousse, one which is stablized with gelatin.

Many fruit mousses tend to be made with gelatin, so increasing the quantity of gelatin will give you a stronger mousse.

See also:
Hydro-colloid primer for perhaps more information on hydro-colloids than you ever wished to know.


Used old chicken broth in a stew, but washed it out. Will it be safe to eat? I was making a beefstew, but didn't have any beef broth, so I used some chicken broth I had in the fridge.  It smelled bad and thought it must be old.  I rinsed the meat and potatoes.... 3 times.  Do you think I washed out all the bad broth, or should I just toss it?  It's in my slow cooker right now.

Toss it.
Old chicken is risky business. What with salmonella and other bacteria.
Next time
Note if this happens again, or for anyone else, that you don't need beef or any other kind of broth to make stew. I use plain old water, and some seasoning, salt, pepper etc. And a bay leaf or two. Always tastes great.


What's wrong with using spin dryer to dry lettuce? I love lettuce salad. I eat it very often. I bought a spin dryer, which I find very handy and I use it all the time.

But recently I heard Gordon Ramsay saying that you should never use a spin dryer, that it will destroy the lettuce.

Is that true? How is it destroying the lettuce. I don't see any difference between spin-dryed and un-spun lettuce.

I think the thing boils down to how much you need to get from the lettuce. If you demand the best of the best performance for your salad, you want to blot it dry with paper towels, so that the texture is best preserved and the appearance is undisturbed. For my purpose, in my kitchen, a salad spinner saves money (the paper towels), time (my time), and allows me to do something more interesting than blotting it dry, and the time saved can be used to better decorate the dishes I love better than the salad.

In essence, there is nothing wrong with any method of cooking if you enjoy the result, and it doesn't involve health problems. Spinning it dry is fine for me, and if you accept the result, there is little to hesitate using one.

Thomas Keller also told us that after vegetables release the flavors in the soup we should discard them, and replace them with fresh cooked vegetables with better colors and better flavor for better presentation. In my kitchen, I am not serving a Michelin 3-star soup to my family, and thus it is fine having those vegetables in the soup for some more fibres in our diet.

It is a matter of fine dining, it is not a matter of home kitchen. Insist if you have to, but relax if you actually can.


Why is my first polenta not easy to cut? I've cooked my first polenta.

it was too dampish, without shape, but also not easily sectile: it couldnt be easily cut.

What should I do better next time?

As your question stands, the possible answers are essentially:

You used too much liquid or too little cornmeal.
You didn't cook it long enough.
You didn't cool it enough for it to firm up.

Polenta is the sort of food that you should make by trusting your senses over a recipe. You should be able to tell, with a little bit of experience, whether it's too thin and wet after cooking for it to set once it cools. If it is, you can cook it a bit longer on low heat to get more water out of it, and the next time you can compensate with more cornmeal or less liquid.

Also, since I don't know what recipe you used, do note that there are also recipes out there for soft polenta (usually described as such), which is intended to be served soft, not cut.


How much lemon extract to substitute anise extract? I have a anise cookie recipe that I want to convert to a lemon biscotti recipe.

How much lemon extract should I use when I use 3 teaspoons of the anise extract?

As I cook mostly only for two, I'll make a smaller batch than a recipe is intended. 3 tsp anise seems a lot, or the recipe will make a large number of cookies. Cut the recipe way down, make as small a batch as is resonable (even if you must mix by hand) taste then decide. Joe's suggestion to try 1:1 seems reasonable


Cooking fruit with or without sugar solution Why does fruit retain its shape when heated in sugared water but break down when heated with just plain water?

It is a case of osmotic pressure. If you heat it in plain water, the sugars inside the cell want to cross the cell membrane and try to equalize their concentration inside and out. With sugar in the water, the osmotic pressure is already equal so they don't need to leave the fruit.


How can I remove the skin from peanuts? I will be making Ban ban ji chicken for tonight's dinner, and have picked up some shelled peanuts. The peanuts are still in their skins, and I was wondering: what is the best way to remove the skins from peanuts?

Take a clean kitchen towel (not a terry towel, a dish towel), place the peanuts on it, fold it up, then rub the peanuts vigorously through the towel. The friction should remove the skins. You can then pass the whole lot through a colander to winnow out the skins.


Frying - Straw potatoes in fryer I've stopped frying my straw potatoes in the fryer as the straws sink to the bottom and get stuck below the heating element. After a while, some of these raw straws float to the top and mix with the already fried potatoes. I now fry in a pan on the stove.

Is there a way to prevent the straws from sinking to the bottom in the electric fryer?

Edit: I stopped using the mesh basket as the straw potatoes float right through the holes. With the mesh basket, they don't sink to the bottom though.

I thought that all electric fryers came with a mesh basket for the fries. If yours didn't, or if the mesh is coarse enough for the fries to fall through it, you could try to find another basket (I don't know if they are sold separately, but it is worth a try) or make some DIY solution by either suspending a big sieve in the fryer or lining the big-holed basket with fine steel mesh.


How do I adjust a baking recipe for fruits of different PH? I just cooked some apple bread, and I'm curious about adapting it to other fruits. I'm led to believe that the acidity of a fruit will cancel out some of the effect of baking powder or baking soda by neutralizing it, so more acidic fruits will require more baking soda to compensate. Is this accurate? If so, where can I find a comprehensive list of PHs of various ingredients, and how should I calculate how much extra baking soda to add?

It would be nearly impossible to gauge the effect of a different fruit on a quick bread without knowing the types and amounts of other acidic things in the recipe. Milk or buttermilk are also acidic, as are some other things you're likely to find in a quick bread batter.

Your recipe is going to be calculated to have enough leavening action for the bread, using whatever acids are initially required. Most likely this is partly the fruit and partly things like milk or buttermilk (both of which are acidic, buttermilk being more so).

Using more acidic ingredients than intended will just leave your final bread slightly more acid--probably not enough to bother you, particularly if the fruit was to your liking to start with. You may find that a more acidic batter causes the baking soda to rise faster than you want, so you should watch for that. You will not be able to make the baking soda release too much carbon dioxide by acidifying more--it'll do as much as it can then stop.

If you use less-acidic ingredients, you risk making the baking soda underperform. What I would resist doing in that instance is adding more baking soda, however. You won't increase the leavening action and you may find you introduce an unpleasant metallic taste. Better in those cases to let the batter sit just a little longer to give it more time to leaven, or add more of another acidic ingredient.

Ultimately, I'd be more concerned about the varying moisture levels in the fruits used than the acidity. Apples are relatively dry compared to, say, strawberries or blueberries, so you may find that your batter is too wet to cook properly at the time and temperature prescribed.


How do I safely deep fry a turkey? I've seen all the videos of deep fried turkey fireballs. but I've also heard deep fried turkey is really great. How do I safely deep fry a turkey? What causes the explosions?

The other answers touch on the fact that its the release of water from the turkey that interacts with the oil, causes the oil to overflow, and then ignite the burner.

Generally, this happens pretty shortly after you put the turkey in (due do any moisture on the outside of the bird).

To do it safely don't bank on the fact that you've removed all the water - do two additional things:

Do it outside.  In the event something bad happens, better to lose some grass on the lawn than your house.  If you don't have space outside, you can always go to a public park or such.  It may seem like a pain but turkey frying should not be done inside.
There's one absolutely surefire way to ensure than you don't catch the burner on fire by accident.  Don't have it on!

Prep your turkey.  Have it dry on the outside and completely thawed.
Heat your oil outside.
Turn the burner off
Lower the turkey into the hot oil
Wait 1-2 minutes or so, most of the initial contact between water and oil should over by now.
Turn the burner back on and cook the turkey.
Also make sure the burner is off while taking the turkey out, just to prevent any spills from becoming terrible.

@ChrisWalker, below in the comments, also provides a method for making sure you don't put too much oil in the pot and thus cause a spill over.


Is there any way to bring an egg to its natural state (not boiled) after you cook it? This is probably a stupid question, but I'm curious now after I opened the refrigerator looking for eggs to make a cake and there was only one and it was cooked. Is there any way to undo that, whether at home or an industrial way?

No, there is no way you could do this in a kitchen. The process of denaturation is usually considered irreversible, a boiled egg stays boiled.

Ok, it is possible to un-denaturize proteins if you have the right chemicals and a fast centrifuge available and it earned Colin Raston and his team an Ig Nobel Prize. But even they can't "unboil" your boiled egg from the fridge yet.

So it seems you either have to quickly perfect the method of Colin Raston (and possibly earn an award or two on the way) or schedule a trip to the store. Alternative approaches are asking your friendly neighbours for an egg or two, choosing a cake recipe without eggs or postponing the baking project.


Should I be worried if my broth or stock has no foam to skim? A lot of recipes tell you to skim the foam/scum. What if I'm making one of those recipes and there doesn't end up being any? Does that mean I did something wrong somehow? Or am I just lucky not to have to do that extra work?

Just a basic stock: simmering bones (or chicken carcasses) in a pot on the stove, along with whatever vegetables the recipe calls for.

Brief answer: no, you shouldn't be worried.

Slightly longer answer: you only should be worried if your stock/broth displays characteristics of unskimmed stock (i.e., cloudiness, particles, or odd color) and that bothers you in your particular application for the stock/broth.

Long answer:

There are lots of things that can reduce the amount of apparent foam, including:

Roasting, poaching, or otherwise cooking meats or bones before making broth/stock
Boiling the liquid (which will sometimes break up the foam before it becomes noticeable enough to skim)
Putting lots of floating items into the stock at the outset, especially vegetables that may absorb or break up the foam on the surface
Starting with warmer water and/or heating the stock quickly initially
Different types of bones or cuts of meat will produce varying amounts of foam

With the exception of pre-cooking the meat, most of these won't actually result in less foam/scum in the final product.  They just will cause the foam to break up more and be dissolved into the stock/broth so it isn't as noticeable during the initial cooking and can't be skimmed easily.  (Boiling the liquid will in fact increase the amount of dissolved particulates, which is why many recipes insist on keeping the heat to a very low simmer.)

If you really want to skim the maximum amount of foam, then start with cold water, heat very slowly, wait to add vegetables and other floating items until after skimming is complete, and never have the temperature above a very slow simmer.

But ultimately the question is whether you should care about removing the foam.  There's an old question that addresses this point.  Very briefly, there are three main negatives when you don't skim:

Stock will appear cloudy and/or grayish.  This isn't a problem when you're making a hearty soup in the end, but if you plan to serve the broth alone or with minimal ingredients, it may be nicer to have a clear stock with a nice color.  (This can become more noticeable if you plan to refrigerate the broth/stock before using again.  The particles will precipitate out and form some grayish stuff, some of which floats near the top at the boundary of the fat layer and some of which will sink to the bottom.  These larger particles may not redissolve completely when reheated and may be more noticeable in a clear broth.)
If you plan on significant reduction of the stock to make a demiglace or something, the particles will be concentrated and may mar the texture and flavor of sauces made from it.  Most home cooks don't do such extreme reductions, so this is unlikely to be relevant.
Unskimmed stocks/broths tend to spoil slightly faster, and the dissolved particles will acquire an "off taste" a bit faster.  This is generally not a problem if you plan to use the liquid within a day or two.  (And, generally speaking, this is best practice for food safety: broths and stocks are excellent growth media for bacteria, even in the fridge, and should optimally be used or frozen within 2-3 days.)

If you don't care about these, there's no reason to worry, whether your liquid foams or not.  And if you do care about these, you can also clarify your stock afterward (e.g., with egg white).


What is the name for a dish similar to chili but with no chili peppers or related spices and some very non-chili ingredients? I made something the other day and I'm not sure what you'd call it.  I softened some onions, celery, carrot, and garlic in olive oil;  browned some ground venison in with the veggies and oil; added some beans, chicken stock, diced tomato, and tomato paste; let cook for a bit; threw in some spinach and let cook to wilt; cubed some stale rolls and threw them in there too.

It struck me as somewhat similar to a chili but has no chili peppers or related spices and some other things you normally wouldn't find in chili.  What would you call it?

I would call that a stew or a soup depending on how "brothy" it is.