Mackerel brining time before smoking Having only just bought a charcoal fired barbecue/smoker, I am confused about brining times.  Having searched the web I found some sites recommend 20 minutes, for mackerel, others much longer, who is right?

I smoke mackerel and eel just with fine salt and ground black pepper in the open belly (kept open with a couple of toothpicks). Vertical smoking about 6h at 35-40ºC smoke.

If you marinate them, I don't know if the meat wouldn't fall apart. I marinate (just the fillets and just marinated) covered with wine vinegar and lemon juice (80% to 20%), garlic, a little salt or no salt and black pepper. After 4-6h it's ready to eat over toast, as a snack with cold dry white wine. Best next day. Holds for a week in fridge (covered with marinade). Sardines are the best like this.


using icing with buttercream to write with I am decorating a cookie for a wedding and packing them separate in a clear bag for a thank you gift.  I've used the instructions from the meringue container for icing but wanted to know if I could use butter cream with real butter, add the meringue powder and have crust up so the writing doesn't smear in the package but taste better than plain icing.

I wouldn't suggest using buttercream icing- even if you add meringue powder to it, I don't think it will get as hard as you'll need it to prevent it from being ruined when put inside the bags. I always use royal icing with meringue for my icing (this recipe, specifically) and I think it tastes great.


The recipe for chess pie includes cornmeal and vinegar-why? I am making a chess pie, and the recipe calls for vinegar and cornmeal-why?  Can I leave it out?

The vinegar is there to balance out the amount of sugar.  If you leave it out, it may be sickeningly sweet.  If you don't have vinegar, look up recipes for 'lemon chess pie', which use lemon juice instead.

As for the cornmeal ... it typically thickens the filling, to get it to the proper consistency.  The typical replacement is a bit of flour, but it can leave an off (raw flour) taste if used in significant quantities.


What can I do to make beaten egg puffier and fluffier? The way I cook an egg is like this. I take the egg, crack it in a bowl, pierce the yolk, then whisk it a bit. Then I add a bit of soy sauce, and fry it in a pan. However, the egg always come out a little bit flat, and hard, so is there a remedy to this?

Yes, a few suggestions:

(1) You are most likely cooking it at too high a temperature. Scrambled eggs will come out maximally tender if you do them over very low heat, stirring almost constantly. High temperatures cause the egg proteins to knot up and become tough. For 4 eggs, figure on at least ten minutes of slow cooking.

(2) You can incorporate more air by whisking more vigorously, or if you want them really fluffy, by running them in a blender before cooking.

(3) To increase tenderness, you can also add an extra egg yolk, or more butter.


What can I substitute for Kaffir Lime Leaves? Kaffir Lime Leaves seem to be a common ingredient in Thai food, particularly coconut based dishes. I have never seen them in Atlanta, and I've looked (farmers market, whole foods, normal grocery, but not an Asian grocery store). What is the flavor profile of these leaves? Is there a good substitute?

I wouldn't attempt to substitute. I've read somewhere that you can use regular lime leaves, but I've never seen those anywhere. Even Googling for lime leaf turns up kaffir lime leaves.

They can be found easily enough online: ImportFood.com. They freeze well for months in just a zip-lock bag.

The flavor profile is best described as a bright floral aromatic. It's similar in function, not taste, to a bay leaf. Thai cuisine uses kaffir lime leaves much as we do bay leaves.

If you decide buying online isn't worth the hassle, then Kitchen Savvy suggests the following substitute:

1/2 a small bay leaf
1/4 tsp of lime zest
1/8 tsp of fresh lemon thyme


When making pizza dough ahead, at what point in the process should I let it rise? I would like to make pizza dough by hand a few nights before actually baking. Do I knead the dough, let it rise, punch down, cover in oil and saran wrap, and then place in fridge? Or do I knead the dough, cover in oil and saran wrap, and then place in the fridge?

It should be safe to skip the punch down step.
In fact, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, who literally wrote the book (or at least a book: Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day) on making pizza dough ahead of time, strongly encourage us to never punch down.  Actually, if you search their website for the words "punch down," you will find that it only occurs in the following phrase (emphasis theirs):

  DO NOT PUNCH DOWN THE DOUGH!

Having said that, it is worth noting that most of the doughs they make are relatively wet, and they usually suggest just mixing and storing everything in a bucket without bothering to oil the dough.
However, in my own experimentation, which has mostly involved doughs that are not quite as wet, I haven't been able to detect a difference in the end product whether I punch the dough down or not, as long as the dough is fully kneeded, regardless of whether or not I portion/oil the dough out for individual pizzas before storing it in the fridge (though portioning it out in advance or not does make a difference for me).

You can also see that our dear friend Alton Brown, who prefers proofing the dough in the fridge (see "Flat is Beautiful," Good Eats Season 3 Ep. 11), also does not suggest punching the dough down before stowing it.

Finally, when in doubt, try it out.  Homemade pizza dough is great stuff (and inexpensive); now you have an excuse to make it twice and see what happens.


Cleaning 'cement' from grill I've been a bit lazy in the last couple of weeks and left some ash in my grill. I was cleaning it today and noticed a hard cement-like substance. I believe this is the dreaded corrosive 'cement' I've read about which is the result of ashes absorbing moisture.

I've scrubbed it with paper towels but it's not coming off.

Any recommendations on how to clean it?

If it is just steel then a stiff brush ought to do it, or steel wool. I'd be tempted to hose it down a few times, the water ought to loosen the ash before sponging it off. If there are coatings on it then using getting it wet makes the most sense as abrasives could damage the coatings.


Can Nutmeg be substituted in for Mace? This may depend on recipe, however since Mace is the outer coating of nutmeg seeds, I was wondering if nutmeg can be substituted in for mace in recipes. Specifically, there is this recipe for hot dogs that I want to try from about.com:

Ingredients:

3 feet sheep or small (1-1/2-inch diameter) hog casings
1 pound lean pork, cubed
3/4 pound lean beef, cubed
1/4 pound pork fat, cubed
1/4 cup very finely minced onion
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon freshly fine ground white pepper
1 egg white
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 cup milk

I have nutmeg in powdered form, is that an acceptable substitution and if so do I need to make any adjustments to the recipe? Would prefer the answer generalized a ratio of nutmeg for needed mace for other recipes.

The flavors are very similar (they are different parts of the fruit of the same tree, nutmeg being the nut itself, and mace being a covering that grows around the shell), although nutmeg tends to be slightly stronger and more forward.

in a complicated hot dog recipe, I imagine that the substitution should work well, although you might choose to try your first batch with 3/4 the amount.


New Oven - Bad Pavlova l always have had great success with pavlovas.  Recently l bought a new double oven.  l made a pavlova and put it in the small oven.  A complete disaster.  l made another and put it in the bigger oven - same thing.  The meringue was coming away from the sides and it was flat and soft.  Have tried another three times with the same result.  Is it the oven ? ? ?

Your new oven might be off in temperature calibration.

Or your old oven might have been off in temperature calibration, but you were used to it - so you set the new oven where you set the old oven, and even if the new oven temperature is correct as set, it's not what the old one was when set there.

If there are other differences between the ovens (fuel source, convection fan or lack thereof, etc.) those may also play a role.


Have to preserve a cake for decoration purposes We had a cake which was made for our school opening and we need to find something to spray on to preserve the cake? For the future.  We called other cake shops but they didn't have anything we could how used.

The first thing would be making it as hollow as possible (probably eating the removed matter) ... the less massive it is, the easier it will be to treat.

Just spraying something on will not help unless the inside mass is either very dry (water activity) or sterile (won't be unless it was heated through to >120°C ... no it wasn't during baking!).

You would need to either replace ALL water in it with something else, or make sure ALL water is bound up or poisoned - all even harder to do without making it dangerous to a misguided person (children and animals! "Looks like food but is poison" is always an accident waiting to happen) mistaking it for an edible cake... it might be possible though, if you can get it down to a thin inner layer close to the icing - and manage not to damage the icing. A massive amount of salt would be the most obvious agent (and if someone eats it by accident, they will quickly realize they cant eat it) ... but would need to be sealed in too in order not to attract more moisture that will dissolve salt and icing.

Sealing the cake in and treating it with ionizing radiation to the point of sterilizing it would be rather impractical, heating it to the point would discolor, crack or melt it.

If you are lucky, the bare icing and decoration (if you can get it that hollow while preserving structural integrity long enough to backfill it with something inert) is dry enough/can be dried enough to be microbe and mold-proof, like lump sugar would be - even then, do not forget to deal with insects that would go for dry sugar.

Sealant? Maybe, just maybe, sodium silicate, since it has historically been used near food (egg preservation).


Why is my pickled red cabbage so pale? Forgive me, but this is a very particular question:
I love having pickled red cabbage at Turkish restaurants; it's delicious and the color is always a beautiful deep magenta (see picture below). Yet every time I try to make it at home, it comes out a sad, pale white-pinkish hue (see 2nd picture). I massage the cabbage with salt, let it sit for at least half an hour, and then add a brine of salt, sugar, and about a 3:1 ratio of red wine vinegar to water. Does anyone know where I'm going wrong?
Thank you very much
çok teşekkür ederim

Are you heating the brine first to dissolve the sugar and salt?
I've always heated the sugar and salt in water, poured that over the cabbage while still hot, then add the vinegar (I use white vinegar at room temperature) and mix well.
This heating and quick "cooling" should lock in the color.


Non-dairy creamer, dry Is there a substitute for powdered non-dairy creamer that does not have transfat or hydrogenated fat? I want to make dry hot chocolate mix.

I usually see powdered milk used rather than non-dairy creamer, as in this recipe; This source seems to say it has less or no trans fat.


Making crunchy creamy hash browns I want to make southern style hash browns (cubed 1/3-1/2 inch potatoes) and I WANT them to be more on the greasy side. This accomplishes that they have crunchy spots but are creamy. I've tried pan frying them but that makes them too oily. What would happen if I deep fried them on a low temperature, let's say 275-300f? Would they brown? And would they be more creamy? Or is there a better way?

The way I have achieved this is by gently simmering the potato cubes until they soften. (You want them pretty much cooked, but not so done that they won't hold together well.)

I also lightly salt the water so they take on a little seasoning while they cook. This, of course, is optional.

Next, I drain the potatoes very well. I want them to essentially be dry for the next step. Lastly, I lightly coat the surface of a non-stick pan with oil and cook the cubes on a medium heat, tossing as needed, until they are browned to my liking.

This results in potatoes that are crunchy on the outside and still creamy on the inside.


How can I keep food hot for extended periods without an active heat source? Say I have a hot dish, and I want to keep it hot and safe (i.e. >140F) without any heat source (no electricity, no fire) for as long as possible, say morning to evening, or even over a day. Just using something insulated won't be enough for more than a few hours, so what else can I do?

The long drive is easy. There are 12 volt cooler/warmers available that would cover that need. But you have to do your homework. I found several that say they heat to 140° F or above, but I did see a couple that don't go over 135° F. There are also reusable hot and cold packs that can be used in an insulated cooler or carrier that will keep food safe for 4 - 6 hours.

There are several other options that could be used for a long drive or camping, etc.

Instant, disposable ice packs or heat packs; don't require a heat or cold source and can be replaced as needed.

Hotpots - Transfer hot food to the hotpot and it keeps hot for several hours.

Hot pot casseroles - Food can be cooked in and carried or stored, staying hot for several hours.

Other ideas for camping:

A chafing dish type setup.
A camping stove.

*Both have certain time limits and shouldn't be left unattended.

If you use the 12 volt cooler/warmer you can plug it in as needed. However you need to be sure that you don't run your car battery down. You can avoid this by running the vehicle while heating/cooling. (Not the most efficient.) Also, in some cars (like mine) the plugs will not work unless the car is on.


Does toasting and grinding whole spice really improve curry flavor? It seems to be common knowledge that "toasting is better" when it comes to spices. But the other day I noticed my toasted-and-freshly-ground coriander smelled pretty weak, and I ended up boosting the flavor with pre-ground stuff that packed a lot more "fresh" (citrusy, floral) flavor.

It got me thinking - is toasting really better? Cooking is full of pervasive myths, and perhaps this is one of them? If it turns out toasting can be beneficial, then which spices really need it, which only see some small improvement (and could be skipped), and which ones should not be toasted?

I found this long and interesting article that argues against toasting. My TL;DR summary:

Plenty of generations-old family recipes use raw (untoasted) spices. They know about toasting but have chosen not to for centuries.
One Indian cookbook says toasting helps dry out whole spices that have become damp during monsoon season, for easier grinding (not for flavor).
McGee says toasting "mellows" spices.
Essential oils are lost into the air, making a nice smelling kitchen (but less flavor for the food itself).

I don't think roasting spices "improves" them or rejuvenates stale spices but it certainly does change the flavor profile in ways that may be desirable in some cases, for some spices, less so for other spices in other cases. This is common sense to me and also what I got out of the article. I think the heading of the article is too absolute for the content.

Whether or not dry-roasting is "better" depends on which spices and what you are doing with them - how long they will be in the recipe, what else is going in, etc, and what flavor profile you are looking for. I think the article goes into a lot of detail about this and has some good references (it looks like an interesting blog, thanks for sharing.)

For example, fresh, dried coriander seeds don't taste the same as toasted coriander, and fresh, untoasted, whole cumin doesn't taste like toasted/dry-roasted cumin.

If you add it raw vs dry-roasted, in general you are going to impart a slightly different flavor profile to the dish. Some recipes are complex and/or delicate enough that this matters, and as the article notes, this will be specified in recipes from trusted sources.

If you are making an uncooked chutney that you want to season with coriander seeds or fenugreek seeds, you need to toast them before grinding them if you want them to taste cooked. Or if you are seasoning your raita or lassi with cumin, it will probably taste better (or more like what would be expected) if you toast it.

But "better" really just depends on what you are looking for. The author of the linked article talks about what flavors she wants to impart to her squash soup, and that is great. If it's her recipe and her tastes, she should make it how she will enjoy it. But if you are trying to replicate a traditional recipe, you may want to follow the traditional methods for that dish at least the first time you do it, which may or may not use the spice how you are used to using it, it's even possible that the traditional way won't taste as good to you as using them how you're used to.

So again, that's fine, adapt the recipe, with the understanding that it may be a bit less traditional. That's how we end up with fusion cuisines, like Indian-Chinese, or British-Indian or American-Italian, adapting traditional methods to new ingredients or to differing tastes and preferences.

For the most part, in my Indian cooking, I rarely toast spices before adding them in unless I'm making something where it isn't going to be cooked further. I hadn't heard or been told that you "always" should roast all spices before grinding them.

In fact, most of the Indian cooks I've learned from use pre-ground spices for convenience, and I sometimes get weird looks from people in my generation when I make things less convenient and start from fresh, whole spices instead of spice blends. My point here is that there is sometimes a difference between what is ideal for a dish vs what is ideal for daily cooking. Both the daily "easy" method and the for-special-occasions-only multi-step preparation can be equally traditional for what is ostensibly the same dish.


How do you make sauce for a Thai dish such as Chicken Pad Khing? I've eaten Chicken Pad Khing (Ginger Chicken Stir Fry) many times in Thai restaurants.  Really love the dish.  I'm a very amateur cook and recently attempted this at home.  It came out ok with the exception that every recipe out there doesn't include much sauce.  In the restaurant, there's normally a good amount of sauce with the chicken and vegetables.  In the recipes, it advises a couple of table spoons of fish sauce, couple of table spoons of oyster sauce and some sugar.  This produces a very small amount of sauce that once cooked, doesn't leave any visible sauce left.  I'm sure it's added to the flavour but the dish is still quite dry.

The obvious conclusion could be just to make more of the same sauce. My concern is that that before cooking, this sauce has an overwhelming fishy, and not very nice smell.  When you get the sauce in the restaurant, there's certainly no fish taste to it.  My feeling is that multiplying the ingredients by 4 or 5 would make a largely fish tasting sauce.  I'm therefore wondering if anyone knows what normally goes in to the dark sauce that is served up in a Thai restaurant?

I just joined the other day after much lurking. Figured, I could help with this question. When I worked in a Thai restaurant, I had a couple of staple stir-fry sauces on hand. The basic one I had come up with had the folllowing:

1 part thin (white) soy
2 parts dark (black) soy
1 part Golden Mountain brand soy (as this imparts a little bit of a different taste than the other thin soys imo, but really, it's just a thin soy, ultimately)
1 part fish sauce
5 parts oyster sauce
1 part cornstarch

The sauce will last forever, covered in the pantry or fridge. You'd just need to stir it up before using and, aside from being so versatile (with the exception of coconut soups, I may have put some of this in every Thai dish we served), the great thing is your dishes will be consistent. I'd just make it up in 5 gallon buckets and fill my little jug that I kept wok-side from the walk-in bucket. From this basic sauce, I would add sugar, vinegar, and hots to it to make a drunken noodle stir-fry sauce, or thickeners to it to make the sauces for other noodle dishes. My aunt likes to add Maggi to her stir fry base, but I don't like the way Maggi sauce smells. One of my employees would throw in a handful of fried garlic and vegetable oil to her sauce, and that was a great addition that saved a couple steps in the cooking process. You can totally make this sauce your own.

The basic stir fry sauce (a few tablespoons) is added to vegetable stock (a good bit, at least 1/2 cup) in stir fry recipes and if I wanted a dish to have more sauce, like I always do in Gai Pad Khing, I'd add more stock and more stir fry base, tasting as I go along and usually having to add a few more teaspoons of sugar for my tastes, letting it reduce a little bit in the pan, then finishing it off with a ton of white pepper, again, my tastes. And I'd usually not use a thickener in this dish, because my dad didn't use thickener when he made it for me growing up.

And, the fish sauce smell doesn't really go away when it's cooked. I'd avoid adding more than a single tablespoon to any one dish.

Hope that helps!

Source: I'm Thai, have been cooking Thai food for 20plus years.


How do I cook for just one person? any good cookbooks? Being single again, I'm thinking it's time I learned how to cook for myself, problem is knowing how to cook, and buy, buying being a significant part of the problem, in quantities that will be just enough for me, and having it be healthy and not all premade. Are there any good cookbooks that lend themselves to this? I should note that I really don't want to eat the same things for a couple of days.

Also do any of the Absolute Beginner Books lend themselves to this? as I'm not very experienced

One of the problems with using regular cookbooks to cook for yourself is after doing it for long enough, it's hard to get motivated to cook anything too complicated; no one else is going to know if you have a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.
I contributed a few of my lazy ideas to Neurotic Physiology's "Grad Student Cooking in Style", but a large part of it didn't make it in time for the deadline (she didn't accept my 'you didn't say which timezone' excuse) ... here are the various comments I hade typed up, minus the recipes:

The problem with grad school cooking -- unless you're also supporting a family (in which case, hopefully they'll share in the cooking duties), except for the pre-packaged foods, most of it's not sold to serve one person, and the price breaks seem to be when you buy 3 to 5 lb of meat at a time.
So, my suggestion is to buy the unreasonably sized package of meat, but then prepare it so it can be used in sizes you want.
For instance, when that 'family sized' pack of ground beef goes on sale -- I make most of it into burgers, wrap them individually in wax paper, pop eight of 'em into a gallon sized zip-top bag, and freeze 'em.  If you want, add some italian seasoning or steak seasoning as you're forming the burgers for some extra variety. (although, they're more versatile if you leave 'em plain.  You can toss 'em onto a George Foreman grill still frozen, and they'll come out fine. (although, you'll want to take the wax paper off first).  Or, you can thaw 'em, and turn it into a meat sauce for pasta, a quick-cook chili, or anything else that uses ground beef.
During my undergrad, as I didn't have freezer space, I'd get a package in the 1lb range (maybe a little larger), and cook it together with a diced large onion (maybe softball sized), a few cloves of garlic, crushed, and maybe a bell pepper if they were reasonably priced that week.  Tightly sealed, the mixture would keep in the fridge for a week, and I just had to heat some up with either :

tomato sauce & pasta : meat sauce
rice & seasonings : dirty rice
can of diced or crushed tomatoes, chili powder : chili (beans are optional ... but it's great over a baked potato)

... the dirty rice would often find itself with a tortilla, cheese and hot sauce in burrito form.  If bell peppers are on sale, cut one in half, vertically, then take out the stem, seeds and membrane.  Place it cut-side down in a baking dish and roast at 350F 'til it's softened some (maybe 10-15 min), then remove from the oven, stuff with a mix of dirty rice and cheese, then put back into the oven to bake 'til the cheese melts.  (f it's leftover dirty rice, you'll cook the bell pepper less on its own, so that it doesn't completely soften up before the rice is heated through ... or microwave the rice first so it's warm before stuffing)
...
If you don't have the freezer space, you can also make meatloaf.  I don't have a set recipe ... vegetables (carrots, onions, bell pepper, I've even thrown in a thawed package of frozen spinach), ground beef, a couple of eggs, some bread crumbs (or, if it's not stale enough to break into crumbs, tear it up, soak in milk or water, then squeeze it out, and add the damp bread), italian spices, lay on a sheet pan, then bake.  If it starts getting too dark before the center's cooked, add some type of sauce to the top (ketchup, tomato sauce, barbeque sauce, whatever).
If you don't have a microwave to reheat it, just cut it into slices, and then pan fry to warm through.  You can also crumble leftovers into tomato sauce and serve over pasta.
...
If you have freezer space, and a large pot (not worth it otherwise), buy chicken when it' on sale, poach it, then freeze it.  If you're even more adventurous, make chicken stock, too.
The normal problem with poaching chicken is you have to remember to take it out, or it gets rubbery -- but there's a trick:

bring a pot of water that'll still fit the chicken to a boil (lid on will boil faster)
add the chicken to the pot
put the lid back on, and bring the water back to a boil.
Wait two to three minutes.
Turn the heat down to low.

After an hour, the chicken will be cooked ... but it won't be overcooked, even if you leave it in there for three hours.  Because we boiled the outside of it, we've disinfected it in case it had surface contamination.
If it's boneless, you can just let it cool, and then cut into chunks later.  If there's bones, I take 'em out, and then shread the meat, bag it up, and freeze it in reasonably sized bits.  (which for me means filling a quart sized freezer bag part way, then sort of squishing it into two chunks, so it doesn't freeze as one giant lump, and I can take out only half of it at a time.)
If you have some sad vegetables (past their prime, but not rotted, moldy, or mushy ... but we're talking about grad students, you'd have eaten it way before it go to that stage), cut into chunks and toss after you've let the water boil.  If you're like my mom, and cut up and freeze stuff for that later batch of stock (along with parmesan rinds, stems from some herbs, etc.), toss it in while boiling, so you don't cool the water down too fast after the boil.   Add some salt and pepper, then leave like normal.  After deboning the chicken, throw the bones back in, and left simmer for another hour or two ... then strain and cool ... and then after it's spent a night in the fridge, freeze (in ice cube trays or muffin tins, then pop into a zip-top bag, and stash in the freezer for when you need it.
Uses for chopped up chicken:

While still a little warm, make chicken salad
chicken noodle casserole -- any left-overs can go into a casserole dish, so you can just bake it the next day.  (if you want to top it w/ bread crumbs and extra cheese, feel free)
chicken pot pie

Uses for shredded chicken:

Thaw in a pan with a little bit of water; add taco seasonings; serve as a burrito, with beans & rice, roll into enchiladas, or however you like.
shredded chicken also works great in casseroles.

...
I'ver never been much of a steak eater, but when either top or bottom round goes on sale as a 'london broil' cut (sale for me is ~$4/lb, sometimes less), I'll splurge, and make it into a variety of things:  (note -- not all 'london broil' is the same .... they sometimes try to pass off chuck as london broil).
... so, with the leftovers of the london broil, we can then turn it into other completely different meals for the rest of the week:

Fajitas
Cheesesteak
Stir fry
Salad w/ steak
Beef Stroganoff


What could this utensil pair be used for? The photo is of a utensil found in a European (French) kitchen. What is its use?

The knife is 7 inches (18 centimeter) long.

The handle of the round plastic object feels really distinctive to me. It would clearly work with a normal hammer-like grip, but it also has the thumb-print inviting the user to choke the grip up close and apply lots of force. I'm pretty sure it's for scraping.

The metal tool is a bit confusing; it looks like it could cut, but it's clearly not a knife.

After a minute's thought, I'm comfortable guessing that this is a child's pumpkin-carving kit.


What are professional methods for preventing pantry moths? For about a month I have been fighting with a pantry moth infestation and that got me thinking... Professional businesses (bakeries, restaurants, factories that produce milkbars or cornflakes) take in much more food than I ever will. Therefore the probability of them buying an infested product (like pantry moth-infested flour) is much higher than in case of my home kitchen. And the costs of production halting or throwing away infested food is much higher than in my case.

What precautions are taken by professional businesses to minimize the risk of pantry moth infestation? Can some of them be implemented in home kitchen?

Honestly, the top reason is going through stock quickly.
My apprenticeship bakery took delivery 1X week for most grains. Milled daily.

The second strategy was tightly sealed plastic tubs.

Third, deal with infestation in early stages. isolate and destroy.
It was an organic bakery so, yes, occasional uninvited nibblers.


How to make edges on pancakes be crispy and the inside soft I want to make pancakes which have a slightly crispy outside ring but on the inside are soft like a pancake.  How can I do this?  Thanks.

There are two things at play here, and unfortunately it'll take you some trial and error to get this right.

The first is heat control. You might want to try cooking at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time. This will cook the outsides very fast and the insides slightly more slowly. However, you don't want to raise the heat too much or you'll just burn the outside and be nearly raw on the inside. Yuck.

The second is going to be your batter consistency. A thicker batter that rises a little more will take longer to cook into the middle. If you're having trouble having the middle stay soft, add a little more flour and/or a little more baking powder.

As I said, this will take some trial and error. You may want to invest in a good IR temperature reader, to get an accurate reading of how hot your pan is to assist with the experimentation.

Good luck!


How do I make Crispy Gnocchi This is turning out to be harder than I expected. I had gnocchi at a restaurant which had a crispy outside. I fail to consistently achieve this.

I have tried shallow frying — gnocchi just absorbs all the oil.

Pan frying — gnocchi seems to cook through before getting crispy.

Any help?

If the exterior of the gnocchi you had at the restaurant was crispy in the sense that it had a crunch to it, then they probably dropped it in a deep fryer for a minute or so to crisp it up.

I usually saute mine in clarified butter to brown the exterior and form a crust but it's not necessarily "crispy".

Regardless of what you're frying and whether you're shallow or deep-frying it, the problem of absorbing oil and turning out greasy is due to not having your oil hot enough, or adding too much food at once and dropping the temperature too much.

You usually want to fry between 350 and 375 degrees.  If you're using a thermostat controlled fryer or electric skillet, then I suggest setting the temperature at 365 degrees so you still have room for up to a 15 degree drop in temperature without detriment to the food.

When food is fried the oil heats up the moisture inside the food product which then turns to steam and forces its way out.  As the steam pushes outward it creates the visible bubbles we see.  It's the force of the steam pushing outward that keeps the oil from going in to the food.  As the temperature drops and thus the pressure from the steam, or the moisture has cooked away and food isn't removed when its done, the food starts to absorb the oil and turn greasy.


Pineapple upside down cake alteration I'm planning on baking a pineapple cake for my husband's birthday and the only recipes I find are for pineapple upside down cake. Can I use a pineapple upside down cake and just add the pineapple on top to the batter instead? Has anyone tried this before?

As Aaronut said, it'd definitely be best to just find a pineapple cake recipe.

But if you have a pineapple upside down cake recipe that you're really attached to, you could always just try it, presumably cutting the pineapple into smaller chunks. Depending on the batter, though, the pineapple may tend to either sink or float.


Lodge 12sk lid, what can I use? I have Lodge 12sk(13") skillet. I would like to find a lid, glass or stainless steel, the lodge cast iron lid is too heavy for my spouse. And recommendations would be appreciated.

I was thinking that an inverted Norpro 5672 pizza pan may work, but I don't have one to try. Does anyone have a 12sk and Norpro pan they could try?

Thanks

I often use a baking sheet. Not pretty, but it works. Combine with foil for a tighter seal.


Can you thaw a frozen turkey in a dryer? In the TV show New Girl, there is an episode (season 1, episode 6) in which they are cooking for Thanksgiving but forgot to thaw the Turkey, so they put it in the dryer, but it has some unexpected results.

Is it actually possible to thaw a turkey in a dryer? If one were to try to accomplish this in real life, how would one go about doing it a safe and reliable manner?

Please note that I am not asking, should one thaw a turkey in a dryer. Rather - is it possible?

Ignoring food safety for a moment referring to an example like How Clothes Dryers Work in most dryers air enters near the top, is heated by an element at the rear of the dryer but the air is actually being drawn in / out by a fan at the bottom of the unit. The internal temperature of the air ends up being about 175C so most of what is "floating around" in the dryer will be steam in normal use.

While the electrical conductivity of pure water is very low the actual conductivity depends on contaminants. Those contaminants will be present inside a dryer but intuitively I'd say at they would be well distributed given the fast air flow. I'm not sure of the conductivity of turkey fat itself but it obviously remains a liquid at 175C and contains many contaminants.

So the real problem I'd see is turkey fat would splatter on the heating element and get within the evacuation fan. Both those events could change their electrical resistance, increase power draw in areas and cause hotspots that could cause a fire. It could also clog up the various vents leading to further overheating.

I guess the answer to that would be completely prevent the possibility of fat / juices escaping during the process. A regular oven bag probably wouldn't be durable enough but maybe a modified pressure cooker vessel of some form would be suitable if you didn't mind a bit of wear and tear on the drum of the dryer.

But getting back to general cooking method I wouldn't see it any different to using an oven to do the same. Results would either go from either dangerous from a food safety point of view to just nasty and overcooked on the outside, especially with something as large as a turkey.


How to use herb extracts or essential oils in drinks What I am trying to do is make a drink called "Tarhun". It is, in its essence tarragon extract, sugar, water and lemon juice. I can not find fresh tarragon, so I must use either oil based tarragon extract or dried herb.

In the case of an extract - how would one create an emulsion with the essentail oil (or an oil based extract) for a drink? If you just put a drop of it in water it wont mix - it will stay a single drop of oil.

Sugar will bind with the essential oil, allowing you to produce a flavored syrup that you can use to sweeten the drink in place of sugar. This is a commonly used practice in drink-making since a syrup is much quicker to integrate than dry sugar.

For a typical simple syrup recipe, you combine equal parts water and sugar and heat them until the sugar dissolves. With a flavor extract, I typically add the extract to the sugar first, let the sugar absorb the extract, then add the water and proceed as normal. You'll need to experiment with the amount of extract to achieve your desired level of flavor.

Keep the resulting syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator; it will keep for at least a couple weeks. If you increase to two parts sugar to one part water (sometimes called "rich simple syrup") or add a small amount of alcohol, you'll get much longer shelf life.

Your other option is to bind the oil with some other emulsifier; egg white is commonly used in cocktails for its ability to form stable, thick foams (which is just an emulsification of air in liquid). The disadvantages with using egg white are that it's difficult to measure in small portions, it will change the texture and flavor of your drink somewhat, and you'll need to agitate (i.e. shake) the drink in order to emulsify the proteins in the egg.


Does Splenda caramelize? Do any of you know if splenda caramelizes and melts like regular sugar? My parents are doing a low-carb, low-sugar diet and I'd love to surprise them with some diet-friendly hard candies.

On the Splenda website it says that Splenda doesn't caramelize like sugar. Admittedly, it is talking about getting the golden brown colour in your baked goods, but I suspect since it doesn't happen in that instance, it wouldn't work in a hard candy.


Purpose of hole in stove leading to oven I'm staying in a hotel and have access to a "electric coil stove" for one of the first times.

I accidentally turned on the oven light and saw that the light was shining up through only one of the stoves:

There's only a port from the oven into the top right stove, and note that the stove is not on.

Here's a view from within the oven:

Is there a hole here as a vent for the oven for some reason, or is this for the stove? I typically use a glass "flat-top stove" that doesn't have an oven underneath it. I've never seen a direct hole from a stove to the oven before, and have to wonder what the purpose is.

A simple Google search yielded the following

https://www.shopyourway.com/m/questions/1019973

All ovens are vented one way or another. You would not want to heat up the air in a sealed chamber because of thermal expansion. It would explode due to the heat expanding because it has no way to vent. A vent is also needed to vent fumes and by products that burn off during the self cleaning process.

A vent is necessary and should not be blocked


What is the difference between Shao Xing and Shao Hisng Chinese cooking wines? Some people say that Shao Xing and Shao Hisng are different names for the same thing yet others say Xing has added salt.

Could someone please shed some light?

Shao hsing is just another romanization of mandarin Chinese (Wade Giles) for Shao xing :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Chinese_romanization_systems


Large quantities of sushi rice in a rice cooker? I'm looking to cook large quantities of sushi rice (short grained) in a rice cooker. Any tips? I have a commercial cooker but it only has a cook and warm setting. Should I go with the usual rice to water ratio?

Any help would be appreciated

K.

Sushi rice in a rice cooker would be cooked using mostly the same ratio as other rices.  I tend to add just a touch more water than I would if making, say, basmati rice just to make it a bit sticky.  Since the standard rice-cooker formula is:

Rinse rice a couple times and mostly drain
Add equal quantities water as rice (e.g. 2 cups water for 2 cups rice)

... for sushi rice, I add just about 10% more water, e.g. 2 1/4 cups water to 2 cups rice.  This makes it just a touch stickier.  Optionally, you can throw a piece of konbu in the rice cooker for extra flavor in the rice, but I've never found it to make much difference.

Of course, if you're making sushi rice, you'll want to take the rice out of the rice cooker as soon as it's done, spread it in a large pan, and season it with vinegar, salt and sugar and cool.

I've made nori rolls using rice cooker sushi rice several times; it works fine, and most of the sushi you've eaten in restaurants was cooked in the rice cooker.  Making it the old-fashioned way (soaking the rice in cold water etc.) results in somewhat better rice texture, but it's a lot more time.


how do I replace a heating element in the oven My heating element in the bottom of my oven went out. I replaced it with a new one and it doesn't get hot. Now what?

I did that once and found when the first element failed , it had heated a copper spring contact and softened it so that it would not work . A new control was needed.


How to par cook potatoes for use as home fries If I were to use a deep fryer, and then a flat griddle, at what temp and for how long should I par cook potatoes to later finish on a griddle as home fries?

I wouldn't deep fry potatoes to par cook them for use with anything other than future frying. That cooking method gives the potatoes a hard exterior that won't cook as easily on your griddle.

Instead for home fries I prefer to blanch my potatoes in boiling water. This makes them soft and absorbent to seasoning and the starch is pulled to the surface which then gets that nice crispy exterior that you want at the END of the homefry cooking process.

Oh and since your size will effect your cooking time I will just give you a ballpark 7-10 minutes but really you are looking for about 60-75% doneness.


Island cheese — Azorean (or Portuguese) I have a recipe that uses island cheese and I am not sure what type of cheese that is.  I've found a place online that sells "Island Cheese" in the Azores but it doesn't describe the type of cheese.  I am trying to find a substitute that would be similar.  Any ideas?

I'm pretty sure it's the famous Sao Jorge cheese from the Azores although there are many cheeses from these islands:

There's some good information here:
http://www.culturecheesemag.com/Sao%20Jorge

The Azores have traditionally been home to a variety of cheeses. These range from fresher styles, designed to be eaten within a few days of production, to more robust, aged cheeses able to withstand the rigors of transportation - and consequently often sold to ships’ crews to sustain them for many months at sea.
Made from raw cow’s milk, São Jorge cheese falls into this second category. It is the largest of the Portuguese cheeses weighing between 8kg (16 lb) to 12kg (26lb) and is aged for between three and seven months before release.
To make the cheese, cows are milked twice a day and the evening milk gets delivered to the cheese plant about 8:30pm with cheesemaking commencing right away, continuing through the night from about 9 pm to 4 am. Then, after morning milking another round of cheese is made.
A cooked curd pressed cheese, São Jorge is made by three dairies on the island although just one produces cheese that has been awarded DOP (name protected) status. The DOP status is awarded to cheeses matured for a minimum of 90 days although usually wheels of São Jorge are released at three, four and seven months.


Adding sauce without microwaving the chicken I brought the InnovAsian chicken and broccoli frozen food and  missed an instruction. I added the sauce before microwaving the chicken. But the instruction says to microwave the chicken before adding the sauce and add the sauce and microwave another few minutes.

What I want to know is, is this an issue? is it still safe to eat?

That won't make it non-safe as long as it gets hot all the way through.

MICROWAVE (PREFERRED METHOD)

Place bag of sauce in a bowl with warm water to thaw.
Open bags of chicken and broccoli and empty into a microwave safe container.
Microwave on HIGH, uncovered for 3 minutes.
Open bag of sauce. Stir in sauce and heat for 3 additional minutes or until hot*.

NOTE: MICROWAVE OPERATING AT 1200 WATTS. MICROWAVES MAY VARY, ADJUST COOK TIMES TO INDIVIDUAL MICROWAVE.
*Internal temperature should be 165°F for at least 15 seconds. These instructions are guidelines only since individual cooking equipment vary in temperature.

From the manufacturer
It's the 165F (74C) for 15 seconds that is actually relevant for food safety. That's just quite hot all the way through, and is almost certainly an overly conservative recomendation anyway.
They specify not heating the sauce as much as the chicken because it's not necessary to heat the sauce for safety. The sauce can burn more easily than the other ingredients, which of course would affect taste, but it's not a safety concern.


Ought I still buy a honing rod, if I'm buying multiple whetstones of different grits? I know that honing differs from sharpening. My grandparents never altered their WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife since buying it on Aug 1 2018. It could effortlessly slash coconut and raw Winter Squashes, but now it can't even cut paper or pears or zucchinis! Undeniably they must alter their knife. But they're buffaloed: ought they buy

1 honing rod + electronic sharpener or 2 whetstones (500 and 2000 grit)?
no honing rod, but  ≥ 3 whetstones of different grits e.g. 500 + 2K + 4K?

Maybe.

Should you have a honing steel?  Yes.  Should you use it regularly?  Yes.

Are you actually going to use it?  ... well, many people don't get in the habit of it.  And unless you're in the habit of using it regularly, it's not going to do you any good.  And well, if they're like my grandparents (before they passed), it can be a challenge to develop new habits.

Once the blade has gotten bad enough to really notice, you need to actually sharpen your knife ... but that slowly grinds down the knife, and if you're not careful, you can change the curve of the blade.

I wouldn't recommend whetstones unless you're maintaining a lot of knives.  For one knife, just go out and get it professionally sharpened.  A professional knife store will do a phenomenal job, but for most german knives, you can just take it to most kitchen stores these days and they'll just run it through an electric sharpener (the same as you might) for around $10.

But honestly, a year is rather quick for a home chef to dull a knife to the point that you're talking about.  If you're going to splurge on something, make sure that they have a good cutting board.  (plastic or wood, not glass, stone, or other ceramic.


How to bake Frozen French Fries I bought a couple of packets of frozen fries and I absolutely can't fry them. My only option is to bake them. I have access to oil if necessary.

How do I bake the fries to make them resemble (as far as possible) the McDonald type fries ?

What I have tried:

Preheating oven to 250C, throwing them in (on a baking tray) till they look golden. Didn't work, they tasted weird and were soggy-ish. Maybe lack of oil? Citation Here
Same as above but with an added step before throwing them in : gently pouring oil over them and mixing them by hand. Result was not very different.

I take a piece of aluminum foil, crumple it up then smooth it out somewhat still leaving slight concave and convex angles for the fries to crisp evenly without the need of flipping halfway through baking.


How do you keep a Turkey Meatloaf from getting too "dry"? I just made a Turkey meatloaf, using a standard recipe that usually turns out good with ground beef, but it was too dry - any help would be appreciated.

My mom's meatloaf recipe included a couple slices of bread that had been soaked in milk and then blenderized with the egg before mixing in to the meat. The milk obviously provides moisture, and the bread a nice carbohydrate matrix to hold onto that moisture. Give that a shot, I bet it will hydrate your turkey. (Do you dare take meatloaf advice from a 25 year vegetarian?)


cabbage - volume to weight conversion? I am making sauerkraut, and don't have a handy kitchen scale. What is the approximate volume of 1 lb of cabbage?  Also, any advice on saurkraut making would be appreciated. This is my second batch. The first one turned out very good, but I had to throw away that last of what was in the crock as it had mold on top.  I am using a Harsch Crock.

A medium-sized cabbage weighs around 2 to 2.5 pounds. (Assuming we all mean the same thing by "medium"...) I think you'll probably be better off guessing based on fraction of your whole cabbage than volume, since once you shred the cabbage, the volume's going to vary wildly depending on how fine you shred it and how fluffed up it is when you measure it. My best guess for volume would be 10-12 cups.

Of course, you can always go to the fallback and find something else in your kitchen that weighs a pound (I tend to have pasta) and try and lop off a hunk of your cabbage that weighs the same.

Edit: I did find something on about.com suggesting that a medium cabbage is two pounds. Unfortunately it claims that a two-pound head of cabbage makes 10 cups shredded, but that a medium head makes four cups. I think the ten cups is way, way closer to correct, based on experience. If you do want a volume, that would probably be a good estimate.


Cocoa butter sauce for beverages that doesn't resolidify I'd like to make a cocoa butter sauce flavoring for beverages with the following properties:

Stays as close to pure cocoa butter as possible.
Doesn't re-solidify when drink is cold.
Prefer not to use emulsifiers, but will if really necessary.
Uses as natural ingredients as possible.

I think you may be looking for "white chocolate" rather than pure cocoa butter. Cocoa butter doesn't have a huge amount of flavor; it's added to things largely for its texture. At the very least it generally needs sugar and vanilla.

Ghirardelli and Torani both make white chocolate sauces. Is that what you're after? You can make your own by dissolving white chocolate in sweetened condensed milk, which is dense enough that you don't need an emulsifier if you grate it finely and stir.

I'd use this recipe as a starting point. (Omit the coffee powder)
http://www.food.com/recipe/white-chocolate-mocha-syrup-recipe-376916


How to ship bread or bread dough? I've been thinking about starting a boutique mail order dinner roll business.

Dough
While I'd really like to ship dough and allow customers to bake (per roll) at their leisure, I'm beginning to think that is a far-fetched goal. Dry ice? It just seems risky. However, I have purchased live lobster by mail order before without trouble. Maybe it would work? They would probably have to be some expensive rolls to make that a profitable endeavor.

Baked
That has lead me to think about ways to safely ship cooked rolls. I have lots of experience packing and shipping boxes, but not boxes of food. Would any special precautions need to be taken to protect rolls during transit apart from careful (food grade) wrapping?

Some Googling has lead me to the idea of par-baking, but I feel like that would negatively effect the quality of the food.

Does anyone have experience in this area, or can you point me towards any relevant resources on this topic?

I think you will get the 'best result' out of 'par baking' your rolls. I have done this myself, though not for shipping. It is simply easier to make a large batch and then store them for use as needed. IMHO rolls are best served hot and fresh, and while re-heating fully baked rolls can recapture some of the glory that is fresh baked bread, allowing your customers to finish bake a partially baked product will give them the convenience of truly fresh rolls on demand. The technique (and recipe, for my part) I picked up from Alton Brown, in the episode of Good Eats: Roll Call. Alton's recipe for Parker House Rolls includes a par baking option:

  For Brown and Serve option:

  Assemble rolls as above, but bake as follows.

  Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

  Bake until the outside of the rolls just begin to set but have not
  browned and the internal temperature is 185 degrees, about 30 minutes.
  Remove and cool on the pan for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove
  the rolls from the pan and place on a cooling rack until they are room
  temperature, 30 to 40 minutes. Place the rolls in bags and freeze for
  up to 3 months.

  To Finish:

  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Thaw the rolls for 60 to 90
  minutes.

  Spray a sheet pan with nonstick spray. Place the rolls on the prepared
  sheet pan and bake until the rolls reach an internal temperature of
  200 degrees F. Rotate the pan halfway through baking, 10 to 12
  minutes. Remove the pan to a cooling rack and cool for 2 to 3 minutes
  before serving.

The key 'take-aways' that you will want to apply are:

Bake to internal temp of 185°F
Cool to Room Temp
Freeze for up to 3 months


Why did my root beer hard candy turn to a dry crumble? I just tried to make some root beer flavored hard candies. I was somewhat improvising the recipe, and I ran into a weird issue I haven't seen before. When I added the root beer flavoring to the heated sugar mixture, the entire concoction bubbled up, then dried up and hardened, producing a thick layer of crumbs. I was left with what I can only describe as a dry root beer crumble.

What could have caused this? Do I need something to prevent crystal growth when I stir the mixture at the end?

Here's the process I was following:

Mix 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar in a small pot.

Dissolve sugar in water and bring to a boil.

Heat mixture until it reaches the hard crack stage (about 295 degrees Fahrenheit at this altitude).

Remove mixture from heat and quickly mix in 2 teaspoons of root beer flavoring.

Pour into molds and let cool. (I didn't reach this step.)

I am pretty sure that this method cannot work.

When you heat up sugar with water, you make a supersaturated solution. At room temperature, you can dissolve at most 200 g of sugar in 100 g of water, which gives you a 67% sugar solution. At hard crack stage, you achieve a 99% sugar solution. If you manage to cool that down without too much mechanical disturbance, you end up with a clear hard candy.

But if you mix in a small amount of new, cold (room temperature) liquid, you are suddenly cooling your sensitive supersaturated solution, and dissolving parts of it. It loses its state and the sugar precipitates out, giving the crystals you described as "crumble".

You will have to add your flavoring before the heating stage and see if that turns out OK. But you cannot add watery liquid to hard crack, unless you are adding enough to dissolve the sugar, the way people do when adding cream to caramel to make sauce.


Baking bread/cake yields different results than expected I am trying to bake bread/cake without flour (gluten free). The friend who gave me the recipe gets a fluffy, light weight loaf, while mine tastes the same, but it is more condensed and hard even when I follow the recipe to the letter. What do I do?

This is the recipe:

(using measuring spoons)

6 tbs Tahini paste
2 tbs honey,
4 eggs,
1/2 tsp baking powder.

Lightly beat the eggs and mix well with other ingredients, pour into a lightly greased English-Cake form (long and narrow), and bake for 20 min. in a pre-heated oven at 160-180 °C. 320-356 °F.

Assuming this is actually a recipe that worked for your friend (it does seem pretty weird - see rumtscho's answer)...

  We are both using a soup spoon, not a measured one, Yet we get different results.

That's exactly why you got different results. Your soup spoons aren't necessarily the same size.

You need to use some kind of reliable, standard measurement when baking, especially for leavening (like the baking powder), whether it's real measuring spoons, or a scale to measure by weight. If your friend can't provide you with a recipe using reliable measurements, then you won't be able to reliably reproduce it.

From your description ("condensed and hard" not "fluffy, light"), it could be that you've used less baking powder than they did, or more tahini than they did. So even if they can't give you a good recipe, you may be able to experiment on your own to find one. But if you do that, do yourself a favor, and get accurate measuring spoons or a scale.


Use high gluten (bread) flour for hand pulled noodles I found that recipes on hand pulled noodles use various types of flours that's confusing from a chemistry perspective.  Dough made from high gluten flour is more elastic and less extensible which doesn't sound like a good candidate for hand pulled noodles.  Has anybody had success making hand pulled noodles from high gluten flour?

Any experience and theory is appreciated!  Thanks.

Hand pulled noodles are normally made with low to medium gluten flour (cake flour)

Alkalines, like Lye water or baking soda are added to soften hard flours (high gluten). You use much less for soft flour

Elastic may not be the word you want, supple is what you want in the dough. It need to be able to pull and not break, and stay that way

The dough needs to sit a few hours to fully saturate. Also keep it warm at a high-ish room temperature to keep it supple

It can take years of practice to pull noodles well


Rising pizza dough in the fridge after punching it? EMERGENCY!  I am making a pizza recipe and am deciding between having it for dinner tonight or tomorrow. I was originally planning on doing it tomorrow because I wanted to let it have its first rise in the fridge since I've heard that is what makes it taste best.

However, the dough seems to have doubled already after being in the fridge for 6 hours.  I also read that it should be punched down so I did and now I'm stressing...

Now that I have punched it down, should I leave it unrefrigerated and let it reach room temperature and do it for dinner tonight? Or should I put it back in the fridge and let it rise overnight again?

There is no emergency, you have a healthy, active dough. You can punch it down as much as you like, remember that with pizza dough you are going to knock a load of air out when you make your pizza bases. You can keep it in the fridge until tomorrow, it should slow down as it starts to exhaust the available sugars.

If you find things still going a bit too fast reduce the yeast in the dough.


Difference between sweating and sautéeing? I would like to know the difference between sweating and sautéeing? Is the difference between the two, the fact that one uses oil, and the other uses fat, or are there any other aspects to be considered?

The answer is a bit complicated, because there is a confusing language issue here.

In standard cooking terminology, there is nothing in common between the two (except that both are stovetop). Sautéeing requires a wicked hot pan, a layer of oil (you can't use nonstick at these temperatures), and constant movement of the food. Basically, you are burning/caramelizing the outermost layer of your small pieces of vegetable while keeping the inside juicy. And if you'd let the food rest for a few seconds in contact with the hot pan, it will burn, so you have to keep it jumping.

Sweating is the process of allowing heat to slowly break down the cell walls of the plant. It is done on medium low temperature, and frequent stirring is counterproductive. In fact, if the pan is not crowded, you can do the whole process without stirring at all. It is usually done with fat, because this produces some very tasty byproducts (I've read of a study found that one of the flavors people found to be most pleasant in meat was in fact produced by a chemical reaction of onions and butter). But the fat is not strictly necessary for the process to take place. The resulting vegetables are soft through and through, and have lost some of their water during the cell wall breakdown. It needs some experience to find the temperature at which the food won't burn, but the juice will cook off quickly enough to not turn the bottom layer limp.

But this terminology is not common among home cooks at all in English speaking countries. I have never seen the term "sweating" in an English recipe meant for home cooks. And for some reason, they use the term "sautéeing" instead, even when they are clearly not sautéeing at all in the culinary school sense. I don't know what has caused this strange language phenomenon, but it has led to a somewhat confusing situation.

The result is that you have to know your source. If it was written for and/or by home cooks, you can assume that there is no difference at all. When you read "sautéeing", you should sweat your vegetables, or brown the meat. If you are using a professional cooking resource, you need to use the other definition. Also, if it's for home cooks but a translation from a language which makes the distinction (e.g. German), it is possible that it uses culinary school terminology. It's a bit like the dinosaur/bird terminology problem in biology: depending on who is talking, it means different things.


Adding beer to my chili gave it a spoiled taste. How can I salvage it? I added beer to my chili and now it has a very bad spoiled taste! How can I fix it without tossing it out? I have tried using baking soda, but it didn't work.

I doubt you can salvage this dish. Once you add flavors you can't take them out, you can try to compensate and balance using other ingredients, which you have tried. Beer adds sweetness, bitterness from hops and sometimes acidity depending on the type of beer, you would need to judge which one you need to balance and add an ingredient to do that. However, you added baking soda, which is bitter and has a metallic taste, flavors which are unpleasant. Adding more ingredients at this point are unlikely to help, I would suggest you start again.


What setting on a thermomix would create a simmer? Making marmalade in a thermomix and I need to simmer.  What setting should give me a simmer?  Thanks.

(Disclaimer, I don't have thermomix)

Simmering is usually just below boiling temperature (100c), so I would set at 80c and see how it goes depending on the marmalade consistency.

Most recipe I've seen just say to simmer the marmelade; no set temperature.

I'd also look at the Thermomix user manual or user community to see if there are instructions or marmelade recipes


Dented can of iced tea fizzed when opened I just opened a can of iced tea that got dented about a week ago I think from hitting the ground. It fizzed a bit when opened, like soda sort of and sprayed on my hand, after that it was flat. It's apparently not carbonated (Brisk). This is not a botulism risk is it? I put it down the drain but not sure how much cleaning up I need to do. I would guess that it has enough sugar but not sure. Or could it be fermentation from a possible tiny break in the lid? Thanks!

It fizzed a bit when opened, like soda sort of and sprayed on my hand, after that it was flat.

I see this happen all the time with cans of uncarbonated drinks, e.g. Arizona iced tea. Even though the drink isn't carbonated, the cans seem to be pressurized to some degree: an unopened can is quite firm and hard to squeeze, while cans that have been opened even just a tiny bit yield easily. Also, you can hear the hiss of escaping gas as you open the can.

I've also seen these cans spray somewhat when they're opened, mostly after they've been shaken. My guess here is that shaking the can mixes the gas and liquid, and when you open the can the bubbles of gas in the liquid expand quickly as the pressure drops. I've never seen a can of tea spray nearly as much as a vigorously shaken can of soda would, but it enough to wet your hand a bit or spread a few drops on nearby surfaces.

  This is not a botulism risk is it?

I doubt it -- botulism does not like acidic environments, and one source I found puts the pH of Lemon Brisk at 2.86, which is pretty acidic.

  I put it down the drain but not sure how much cleaning up I need to do.

I'd wipe the area with a damp towel to remove the sugar, which will make things sticky as it dries. Other than that, I think you're pretty safe.


Why drain soaked rice? When cooking black rice, I’ve been told I need to soak it for a few hours, then drain and finally cook with 1:3 parts regular rice (i.e., topped up with fresh water).

Black rice is a type of glutinous rice, so I can understand the soaking stage. What I don’t get is the need for draining; especially given black rice’s nutritional content, which presumably partly ends up in that soaking water. Why is this done? Does it need to be done?

My best guess, if it does need to be done, is that it’s for some hygiene reason.

Apart from water, rice is mainly made from starch. Starch is initially packed in a crystalline structure that is not soluble. However if you soak it for long enough or expose it to heat, the starch slowly 'unpacks' and binds with water, resulting in a soluble compound. This is called starch gelatinization, and is what you are aiming for when you soak your rice in water (note it gains volume!). But it works in two ways: now soluble starch molecules detach from the rice and go into the water. This is why it gets cloudy.

The upshot is that this water is full of rice starch, and if you cook it will behave similar to when you add corn starch to water: thicken and form a glue. If you cook your rice in this water you should thus expect a much stickier result, with big lumps of rice 'glued' together. This is not always undesirable! Risotto is an example of cooked rice where we deliberately use this effect (so don't wash or soak your risotto rice).


Need translation of dish into English I am trying to find for a descent equivalent for the Spanish "sartén de la abuela" or "sartén de los montes". That is, I want to know the name of the dish, how you order it from a menu, not the utensil (the pan itself).

Don't worry if you don't understand Spanish. The pictures are here:

Google image search for 'sartén de los montes'

Google image search for 'sartén de la abuela'

"Sartén" is just a cast iron pan. And the dish is cooked and served in it. It is purported to be homemade or rustic. "Abuela" is grandma. "Montes" is hills.

Just imagine an assorted fry (meat, sausage) with two eggs on the top.

It would appear similar to what in the US is commonly called a "breakfast skillet", such as this recipe for one.

The 'skillet' comes from the pan that it's usually served in at restaurants (cast iron or some equivalent), and it generally consists of a meat such as bacon or sausage, usually a form of potato ('home fries' or hash browns are common, or they could just be cubed), eggs on top cooked to your specification (over easy, scrambled, etc), and often some kind of cheese.

Restaurants that serve such dishes here usually have fun or regional names added to describe the contents of the 'skillet', such as "American", Denver, Southwest, and others - but they all follow a similar trend.

The only main difference I can see is the form of potatoes seem to be julienne, or as they'd usually be called here, "french fries". This would be less common in the US, but many would embrace it as a great idea - just don't expect to find it on every menu.


Where to learn what ratios to use in cooking? I am learning to cook. I want to know whether there is a good resource at what ratios of ingredients to use when I am cooking. Thank You. :)

How about Ruhlman's book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking?

The entire work is dedicated to breaking cooking down into ratios, and it includes recipes.  I hear the bread recipe is particularly good.


To make a cream cheese icing, can I use cottage cheese? Can I use cottage cheese instead of cream cheese to make a carrot cake icing?

It is true that you can use the cottage cheese, you could even use ricotta cheese which Italians have a Ricotta Cheese Pie and Sambucca Liqueur is used as a flavoring.  It is delicious.  Using cottage cheese, which I have, really does not taste good, not only in my opinion but others who have tried to cut calories.  Either use less cream cheese with less powdered sugar and no butter for the frosting or just dust it with the powdered sugar.  The first answer is correct, yes you can, but the taste ruins your carrot cake no matter how finely you blend it. So my answer is no, don't do it.    Good Luck


Can I use Cream of Tartar in a Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe to make them crisp? I want to know if I can use a cream of tartar in a chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I want a crisp cookie.  Can I use it with both baking powder & soda?  In a peanut butter cookie recipe, it asked for cream of tartar and said that it makes the cookie have a "cracked" appearance on top?

So far, in my search for a crisper chocolate chip cookie, I've found, 1. more white sugar than brown, 2. bake longer than recipe calls for 3. freeze the cookie dough.

Any other suggestions?

Cream of tartar is an acid. The main purpose in a recipe I believe is to work with baking soda to make carbon dioxide to make the dough rise. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and various acidic reagents (including cream of tartar) so that some of the reactions are delayed (heat activated) and the gas is not released all at once. If you put baking powder in water, you will see it fizz up somewhat, but once that has died down and if you heat it you should see more fizzing up. The ratio of baking soda to cream of tartar can be calculated fairly easily, and the same can be done if you include baking powder additionally.

The crunch comes from caramelization of sugars which begins at a little above 350F/180C (not to be confused with Maillard browning which begins at a much lower temperature). Now, I have not done any research on this to date and I can only share with you my educated guess. I think if anything, cream of tartar may actually inhibit the crunch as carameliaztion is promoted by alkaline conditions and baking soda is mildly alkaline.

One thing perhaps worth experimenting is to brush the dough with a baking soda solution just before baking. You will need to watch them because you also run the risk of the cookies going brown too quickly before the inside is cooked or they get too dark/burnt. You can also use a solution of sugar and baking soda instead of just baking soda for this "glaze". As for concentrations, you will need to play with that.


Why are my Rucola and Lettuce washed in ice-water? I bought rucola and lettuce at the grocery store today and on the packaging is said in Dutch Drie keer gewassen in ijswater which translates to washed three times in ice-water.
Is there a reason why ice-water seems to be the water washing of choice, instead of water in general? Is it for a longer shelf life or freshness? I might be missing something obvious here. Could someone clarify?

Using cold/ice water helps crisp up leafy vegetables.


what cooking oil(s) produce the crispiest and least greasy fried foods Which cooking oils can be used for frying to produce the crispiest and least greasy foods.  Do different foods require different oils?  If so, what is best for battered foods, and which is best for non battered foods *potatoes, chicken wings, etc.)

The desired texture of 'crispness' is the result of many factors, and oil choice is generally not the biggest factor. Consider a french fry. The generally accepted best practice for fries is a blanch and finish method. This allows the fry to be cooked throughout and have a crisp surface, without being overdone and leathery. To accomplish this, the finish frying is generally done at a higher temperature than the initial blanching.

This blanching step can be done, and is easier to do at home, in a different liquid. I often simmer chicken wings in a flavorful stock, with some aromatics. You then want to cool, and especially if cooking in water, dry the food. This allows the par cooking to finish. Now, when finished from this cooled state, the outside can crisp without overcooking the inside.

I use this practice when preparing food at festivals, and it is the common practice in most restaurants to prepare crisply fried food.

The final crisping of potatoes and the skin of chicken comes from driving the water out. (This is what produces the bubbles) Here temperature is key, as the temperature must be high enough to turn the internal water into steam, but not too high to toughen and overcook.

All that being said, different cultures use a variety of oils for essentially the same effects. Crispness can be accomplish using any number of oils. The practicality is about cost, smoke point, adding unwanted flavors, and dietary concerns. There is a nice chart of smoke points over here.
Note ghee (clarified butter) has a high smoke point and would impart amazing flavor (assuming you like butter) but would be expensive to fry in.

The crispness then is generated by relatively high heat, so par cook chicken wings and potatoes, etc. Cut battered veggies thin, so they can cook quickly. Choose a fat that you like and can afford, and use technique to get the best crispness.

As for greasiness, this often goes hand in hand. Greasiness, or amount of grease left on the food after cooking is temperature dependent and depends on crowding and draining after cooking.

If food is cooked at a lower temperature, then expelling of water is less vigorous. As you remove the food from the fat, the oil has a better chance of clinging if the steam moving out was less volume.

Crowding is important here. If there is too much food in the frying vessel, then the space between pieces of food turns into a steam area, instead of hot oil area. Now food is cooking in a moist ~212 F environment instead of the oil temperature. Those areas will not be hot enough to get crisp or expel extra oil and lose the greasiness. Good rule of thumb is you should be able to easily stir and move the food around while frying.

Finally, draining. Have a rack or platter with absorbent paper. Remove small amounts quickly. If using a 'spider' you can use an up and down motion to shake a little excess fat off.  Now place in a single layer to avoid steaming. These final steps help, but if the food comes out flabby and soaked in grease already, they won't fix anything.


How to substitute beetroot for other ingredients into a cake recipe? Me and my roommate want to make a batch of brownies, however each of us has their heart set on a different recipe: I want to use one from Serious Eats because it's loaded with cocoa and I have a lot of faith in that site; he wants to use one that uses beetroot because he thinks it's healthier and someone gave him a few that we need to use up. (I thoroughly despise beets but I'm hoping that enough cocoa will cover them up here.)

Is there a way to get the best of both worlds? I've done cakes with shredded carrot and/or apples, and I assume the vegetables mostly contribute liquid and some structure. Is there some general rule I can use to replace some of the ingredients in a cake batter recipe for shredded beetroot other than trial and error?

There isn't a substitution formula, since beets add moisture, structure, and flavor to the batter.  Any substitution would therefore be complex and highly recipe-specific.

Instead, I suggest that you start with the BBC recipe and make use of the techniques in Stella Park's recipe, such as the brown butter, the foamed eggs, and the double chocolate, all of which could be added to the BBC recipe.

FWIW, beets are an excellent addition to baked chocolate desserts, making them moister, richer and darker.


Does soaking in saltwater for 20 mins help cleanse mussels? After reading both sides of the debate (cp. beneath), I can't make up my mind!

I live in Toronto, Canada. I buy my mussels from Diana's Seafood or Loblaws.

Evidence for soaking in salt water for 20 mins

Try This Simple Tip for Plump Steamed Mussels and Clams | Kitchn

  Just before cooking, soak mussels or clams in a bowl filled with cold water, salt and about 1/4 cup of flour for about an hour. Why do this? The benefits are twofold: 1. Removing debris [...] 2. Plumping up mussels & clams [...]

How to Clean Mussels | Saveur

  3. Using your hands, agitate mussels gently to remove any debris clinging to the shells. Let mussels soak for 15 minutes. During submersion, mussels filter water in and out of their shells as they breathe. Soaking encourages them to expel any sand or debris remaining inside.

YouTube — Bart Van Olphen at 0:09, Just Eat Life at 0:23 soak them.

Evidence against
Don't fear the mussels - Chicago Tribune by James P. DeWan, Special to the Tribune. DeWan is an instructor at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. Mar 15 2006.

  2. Just before cooking, rinse the mussels under cold running water. If they're gritty, scrub them with a brush (photo 1). Discard any with broken or cracked shells. Mussels that feel unusually heavy are probably filled with mud and should be tossed. Tap any whose shells are open with a knife. If the shell closes, the mussel is alive and therefore good. Discard any that won't close.

  Now, many cookbooks and chefs alike advocate soaking mussels in tap water for an hour or so before cooking. The idea is that they'll take in the clean water and eject any sand or grit that's hiding inside their shells. Some sources suggest adding flour, cornstarch or cornmeal to the water to encourage the purging. Others suggest these additions will fatten the mussels or whiten their flesh in the process.

  However, knowing that mussels are ocean creatures, and me being generally suspicious anyway, I decided to consult three experts: two marine biologists and one "seafood technology specialist." All three agreed that tap water is the mussel's enemy. At best, the mussel will simply shut its shell, precluding any purging; at worst, it will drown.

  While one expert said that mussels soaked in fresh sea water (hard to come by here in the Midwest) will purge themselves of some grit, the other two agreed that farm-raised mussels (and commercially available mussels are nearly all farm-raised) are relatively clean to begin with and don't need purging.

  My conclusion: Don't soak. Just rinse, and hope for the best.

Seafood Safety: What Consumers Need to Know

  Store live shellfish, such as oysters and mussels in the shell, in a shallow dish covered with damp towels or moistened paper towels. Never put live shellfish in water or in an airtight container. Scrub shells with a stiff brush just prior to shucking or cooking.

Mussels: How To Clean Mussels

  To clean the shells put them under running water and rub against each other for a few minutes. Run under the water until the mussels feel smooth with no visible gritty residue. Never put mussels in standing water (i.e., in a bowl of water): they will open to breathe, releasing the salt water and absorbing the tap water. That's exactly what we want to avoid.

YouTube — Chefs Becky Salengut, Franck Dangereux, Thomas Joseph don`t.

Where I come from (Portugal) it is quite common to see in most restaurants and establishments shellfish being soaked several hours to even days long before consumption, especially sand dwelling shellfish, which is not the particular case of mussels.

The reason for this is that it keeps them alive and fresh for longer, while also purging any remaining sand or debris naturally found inside them, which is very common in burrowing shellfish, quite unpleasant to find when eating and can virtually ruin the dish.

These are however always soaked in either salted tap water at worse, or at preferably clean natural sea water from where they came from at best. Never just unsalted tap water, because this would obviously kill them quickly, and remove any natural salt that acts as flavor enhancer. Chlorine based disinfectants commonly present in tap water will also slowly affect quality of any living creatures (including aquarium fish) and may eventually be fatal them in the long run.

From your provided examples, most against soaking either state that tap water will kill them quickly, or considerably affect quality (which are both true); or is not needed for farmed shellfish.

I can't speak much for farmed shellfish, they are not as common here and quality may vary with providers and techniques, but even farmed one can some times be quite sandy.

So I'd say that soaking with either salted water or ideally sea water is at at worst redundant or not needed, but can be quite beneficial in some situations.

For farmed shellfish, if you find them clean and edible it is probably not needed, for "free range" ones you probably have more to gain by soaking than not.


How to roast vegetables correctly? I have heard that roasted vegetables are more tasty than steamed, but I have never been successful in roasting in small batches.

What is the best temperature to roast and for how long?  Should I add olive oil? How much?

Preheat your oven to 425F (218 C).  Squashes and root vegetables will take about 45 minutes at this temperature.  Mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussles sprouts will cook in about 25 minutes. Cut your vegetables into evenly sized pieces. Place in one layer on a baking sheet (parchment lined is good for browning and easier cleanup).  Drizzle generously with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast.  Turn the vegetables over halfway through the cook so that they brown evenly. This information, with pictures, can be found here.


What factors should I consider when buying kitchen tongs? I consider kitchen tongs one of the most essential kitchen tools but due to a lot of moving around recently I no longer have a pair.  Rather than just picking up a cheap pair at the corner store I figured I would ask the experts and get something worth holding onto this time.  I'd like to know more about the following:

What material is best and why?  I'm familiar with metal tongs but would there be any advantages to other materials such as wood?
I have some non-stick pans.  If you recommend metal tongs, are there any available that have some kind of plastic on the tips or some other coating that would not damage the teflon? Cleaning would be a consideration. I don't want something that food is going to get stuck under.
What should I be looking for in a latching mechanism?  I've seen types that you can just tip upside down and close which makes closing them very quick, but have also experienced faulty ones that won't open right (usually when you really need them and have only one hand free!)
Is there an ideal length?  Obviously too long is going to be awkward and too short gets you too close to the heat, but what I'm wondering here is if I'm missing some advantages to having a certain length, for example, if shorter than X inches it's good for the stove top but dangerous for the oven.
Any comfort factors I should consider such as grips at the top or just go bare?

Get good metal

A decent pair of 23 to 30 cm (9 to 12") stainless steel tongs should weigh around 125 to 150 g (4.5 to 5.5 oz); if it weighs less than this it is not going to be strong enough to be truly useful, and will probably bend and break in short order

Longer tongs, say around 35 to 40 cm (13.5 to 15.5") are great if you operate a very hot grill frequently

If it has a locking mechanism (recommended) it should only lock when the tongs are pointed up and squeezed close. It should unlock when pointed down and squeezed. This is normally achieved with a pin just below the hinge pin that is engaged when tipped up. Locks that require fiddling or two hands to operate are a pain, and often fail over time

Go for plain metal, the plastic bits never last very long or stay hygienic, and you will be adding to the rubbish pile before long

I have various tongs like this that have lasted 20 years and are still great

Cheap Chinese tongs are often just chrome plated crap steel. They are bad in so many ways: hygiene, longevity, easy of use, etc

Examples

Good tongs 23 cm with internal locking pin. Cannot bend steel with hands.

Bad tongs with silicone ends that wear out quickly. The two handed locking mechanism that jams or breaks easily


Cooking pasta: when to salt? So, I have always been salting the water first when cooking pasta. Another amateur cook friend insists on salt after boil because it raises boil temperature elsewise. I keep telling him I don't care since it only raises it about one Fahrenheit for an ounce (damn imperial system...) so not a big deal. Just now I heard Gordon Ramsay say "What's the number one rule when cooking pasta? Salt in first" to his son and I wanna know if I can substantiate my claim to salt in first. Does anyone have a clue why he might have said this? Is there some chemistry going on there that can help?
Edit: Not why but when. Stop flagging duplicate please.

From a chemistry perspective there's no difference between the approaches, either way you're ending up with the same amount of water and salt with the same boiling point.

Ramsey is saying salt in first because he's adding the salt to the water before the pasta, not before heating the water. It makes sense to add the salt to the water before heating it because:

It's one less thing to do later: by the time you're ready to add the pasta to the water you might be busy, adding the salt to the water first saves you the step later
You're less likely to forget to add it: again, if you're busy later you might skip the step


Can I reuse dessicant? I was wondering if I could reuse dessicants from storebought goods. I throw a lot of dessicant packets in the bin from seaweed (dried). I also found some in packets of tortillas, but threw them in the bin.

Looking on google I see that you can do heaps of stuff with dessicants. Can I reuse them from food?

I want to reuse them for both in-food uses (like making tortillas and storing them with dessicant) and non-food (keeping jewellry fresh-looking). Thanks.

Desiccants eventually saturate with moisture, making them ineffective. This can be reversed, usually by heating the packs - various "recipes" for reheating are quoted, depending on the kind of desiccant pack; for those filled with silica gel temperatures of around 130-140 degrees celsius in a well ventilated (eg slightly opened) oven (moist atmosphere does not help) seem to be common, with time dependent on the packet size.

Some types seem to have a color indicator built into the material to indicate when it is dry again, with others weighing the packets (they get heavier when having absorbed moisture) can help.

If food use is intended, be extra careful there are no plastic parts or coatings in the packet construction that you could melt or burn with oven heat.

Microwave based methods are sometimes mentioned, if you want to try them, make sure you are prepared to handle the situation safely in case one of the packet/s (the paper, not the silica gel inside) catches fire. Also, if the model of microwave is not allowed to run empty, add some food or other load (a mug of water might create too much steam inside).


How long do you let a turkey rest after cooking? I have heard mixed advice on how long you should let a turkey rest after cooking.

Last year my wife and I watched a Thanksgiving cooking show with Gordon Ramsey and he said you should let the turkey rest for as long as you cooked it.  If you cook it 3 hours, it should rest for 3 hours.  That seems like an awful long time to me.

Everything else I've read looks like 30 minutes to an hour is fine.  Any suggestions?

The purpose- as with any cooked meat- is to let the meat firm up so it doesn't release juices when you cut into it.

In the case of a turkey it also helps to let it cool enough to not burn you when you are carving and eating it.

Both of these goals will be met in 30 minutes to an hour.

I don't know why that chef would recommend 3 hours. At that length of time the turkey would start to approach room temperature and would be less appealing to eat as well as start the clock on the danger zone.


What's an inexpensive substitute for Port wine? Is there a good substitute for port? It's for a slow cooked pork loin recipe. I'm not concerned about the alcohol, but I would like to keep the cost down.

Decent port is not necessarily expensive; you may find yourself spending more on the meat.  For example, Sandeman's Founders Reserve 750 ml runs about US$15 before taxes, Dow's Fine Tawny 750 ml is about US$13, and Graham's Six Grapes Ruby 750 ml is about US$8 (and this is just the start of the list).  These are, perhaps, not the connoisseur's choices, but they are hardly undrinkable.  Depending on the laws where you live, you (or your favorite wine shop) can order any of these online from a variety of sources.

Port has a unique character that is not easy to replicate with any other wine or fortified wine.  If you are trying to replicate a result, do not substitute.  If you really want something else that will serve the same role even if it will taste different, I would look to a Madeira, a cream sherry, or sweet Marsala (depending on your tastes).


Why add Wheat Germ to Bread? A blogger I generally trust recently posted a recipe for a simple, brown soda bread.

The recipe calls for: bread flour, whole wheat flour, and wheat germ.

What is the purpose of adding wheat germ to a bread dough? What function does that serve?

I thought wheat germ was what you removed to turn whole wheat flour into white flour.  So is the wheat germ just there to make the bread darker?  Or is it something to do with it being a soda bread, instead of a more standard yeast bread?

Wheat germs are the repoductive parts of the wheat grains. Like all germs, they are rich in vitamins, nutrients and oils. The oils are the reason the germs are removed during the milling process: they can become rancid quickly and reduce the shelf life of the flour. In whole wheat, the germ remains included, hence the shorter shelf life.

But the germ is not what makes the bread "dark", that's the outer bran - also removed during milling for white flour. Your recipe uses whole wheat flour, which explains the "dark" in the name.

In your recipe, I assume the wheat germ is included to make the bread "healthier" - like in many totally different recipes that use it. It may also influence the taste with "nuttier" tones and a tiny bit the texture. But combined with whole wheat flour, the effect is limited.


Making batter one day, baking the next I have to bake a white chocolate mud cake after work and I am always left with some batter, which I then use to bake cupcakes. As mudcake takes a couple of hours to bake (at least my recipe), by the time I will finish, it will be too late to bake the cupcakes.

Is it possible to leave the cupcake batter in the cupcake baking tray in the fridge to be baked the next day? Are there any tips when doing so?

EDIT: Here's the ingredients:

WHITE CHOC MUDCAKE

500 g butter (melted in microwave)
400 ml water
300 g white chocolate (melted in microwave)
2 cups caster sugar
5 eggs (large)
2 cups plain flour
2 cups self raising flour

The rest is just mixing wet with dry ingredients and baking at 150 degrees till baked.

It most likely will not work well to do that. Unfortunately, baking powder (in this case in your self-rising flour) starts the chemical reaction that gives cakes their lift as soon as the powder meets liquid. If the baking powder is single action, all of the bubbles are created when the water meets liquid and the heat of baking doesn't really play a role. If the baking powder is double action, some of the leavening reaction occurs when the batter is mixed, the rest of it happens while baking. So, if your self rising flour is made with single action baking soda, the cupcakes will fail if the batter is held overnight. If your self rising flour is made with double action baking powder the cupcakes will not have all of the lift they should, but may be OK. I have many times saved pancake batter for 24 hours and used it with no problem (flour, double action baking powder, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, eggs), but optimal lift isn't as crucial in a breakfast pancake as it would be for cupcakes.

That thought does present a possible "out of the box" solution to your problem. Could you cook your leftover batter on the stove while the cake is baking? I would try one in a skillet with a lot of butter, flip it when it's good and bubbly. I don't know where you are from or if pancakes are something with which you are familiar, but pancake batter and cake batter are very similar. They wouldn't be cupcakes, they would be something else entirely, but they could be very good.

If you decide to make cupcakes with day-old batter and your self rising flour is made with single action baking soda, or you're not sure, you should make your own "self rising flour" to give yourself the best odds. For 2 cups (`225 grams) of cake or pastry flour (soft, lower protein than all purpose) add 3 tsp double action baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt.

I'm assuming that you've considered cooking the cake and the cupcakes simultaneously in the oven and you have reason to not do that.

(Edited after Joe's comment about single vs double action baking powder)


Help! I sliced my flank steak along the grain, is there a way to still have tender meat? I don't know how to cook beef, I'm really not a meat eater; however, I prepared a recipe from memory and I was in a rush and I thought I remembered reading to slice the meat along the grain...I was wrong. I see articles all over the internet about how to slice it correctly, but I don't see any articles about what to do to salvage your meat when its sliced incorrectly.

Right now my meat has been marinating for about 16 hours and I have 8 more hours to go. Is there anything I can do to this meat to guarantee that it'll still be tender, even though I sliced it wrong? I am making Hunan beef by the way. Thank you in advance for your responses.

I will shamelessly steal @Jolenealaska's thunder and recommend velveting your meat as a means to protect against overcooking.  This is a great method to bring meats just up to temperature, and is a very traditional preparation for stir-frys.  Should work nicely with your Hunan Beef.


The cook time and temperature I need is not an option on my crockpot How do you adjust the cook time for a recipe that says cook on low for 6 hours to coordinate with a programmable crock pot that only has settings for 4-6 hours on High and 8-10 hours on low?

Go for 8 hours on Low.

2 more hours on low shouldn't hurt anything too much, for many slow-cooking extra cook-time can actually be beneficial. More cook-time usually means a more tender finished product.

Whatcha cookin? That would help us answer this question better.


Pepper spice varieties How many varieties of edible pepper spice there are? I know white, black, green and pink pepper, but I'm sure that around the world there are many more varieties. There is a comprehensive list or a book devoted to pepper and receipts with pepper?

So far, the best reference I found is Wikipedia.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) has the following varieties:

Black pepper
White pepper
Green pepper
Orange pepper and red pepper

Cubeb (Piper cubeba), or tailed pepper

Long pepper (Piper longum)

Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum)

Pink peppercorn (Schinus molle, Schinus terebinthifolius)


Sperical lumps in milk Got to work this morning and made the first round of drinks and everything was fine with them. We then made the second round about an hour later with the same milk, same kettle, same instant coffee and tea bags. It all tasted fine but in the bottom of some of the cups after we had finished were some spherical white lumps.

This happened in both the coffee and the tea so it appears it was caused from the milk. What are these lumps?

I would suspect that these lumps are milk protein coagulating, sometimes these little lumps are unavoidable. I also suspect that this means your milk was 'on the verge or going,' and I would suggest that you either use a pure silver pitcher to keep your milk from growing bacteria or you can drop a pure silver item into your milk. Silver will prevent bacteria from multiplying(silver works especially well if you are going to leave your milk at room temperature for any period of time.) Good Luck


Why do I sometimes “cream” and “beat until smooth”, and sometimes not? I have enjoyed baking for MANY years and the basic rule of thumb is to “cream” the butter and sugar thoroughly, add the eggs one at a time then beat all other liquids until smooth before adding the dry ingredients.  Over the years I have acquired a handful of favourites, (cakes and loaf cakes) that instruct to “add ALL ingredients, beat well, and add to pan. And, these recipes turn out perfect! I’m confused as to why “these” recipes don’t follow the tried and true method of basic baking rules, and still turn out perfect!

For the same reason that sauce recipes will sometimes direct you to cut the tomatoes, sometimes to puree them, sometimes to deseed them, etc. You are not only making a cake every time, you are making different kinds of cake, and for each kind, there is a method which will produce the desired type of cake.
It will probably be more useful to stop thinking that 'the basic rule of thumb is to “cream”'. There is no basic rule of thumb. What is needed is to mix the ingredients in a way such as to provide the desired final texture in the cake. There are perhaps 6-7 methods which can be used, and the choice of method is always an integral part of the recipe, to the point where Michael Ruhlmann considers sponge cake and pound cake to be two different cakes, made with exactly the same ingredients at exactly the same ratios, but with two different methods (the creaming and the egg-foaming method).
As a very brief description of the specific methods of creaming and all-at-once, creaming is generally used for cakes with a finer final texture that is softer, with uniform small bubbles. Festive decorated cakes and tortes are frequently made with layers using this technique. The all-in-once method, also called the muffin method, is more commonly used for everyday cakes. It gives you a somewhat irregular texture with some tooth, requires a chemical leavener, and is more tolerant of adding extra ingredients, such as fruit or vegetables in sweet loaves like banana bread, zucchini bread, etc.