What are "fondi di carciofo" called in English? I would like to know what the English name is for the Italian word fondo di carciofo as I was not able to find it on the Internet. Basically, carciofo means artichoke and fondo means the bottom part (not the heart which in Italian is cuore, and not the stalk which in Italian is manico, although sometimes the stalk is included with the bottom part and sold together and such combination is very delicious indeed).

So, here is a picture of a bunch of fondi di carciofo from the Internet:

Here is the closest picture I could find on the Internet for the artichoke bottoms with stem, although the stem has been cut away from the artichoke bottoms. Too bad I could not find a picture with both in one piece as in Italy they can often be purchased in such way; next time I go to the market I will take a picture and post it.

Because of the comments that were posted below, I have included a picture of what a cuore di carciofo is in Italy (word-by-word translation: artichoke heart). Basically, it's the inner part of the artichoke with the outer leaves removed. Once cooked, unlike the outer leaves, which cannot be fully eaten as they would not be digested properly, the inner part of the artichoke can be eaten in its entirety once boiled. Here is a picture of cuori di carciofo:

On the other hand, here is the outer part of the artichoke looks like. Italian refer to this as carciofo, but often this is used as a synonym for the artichoke leaves (more commonly known as foglie di carciofo). Italians buy these in the supermarket or at the market and eat the bottom part of all of the outer leaves of the artichoke by scraping them against the bottom teeth once cooked, often dipping them in a little bit of mustard to give them some taste:

And here is a picture of what carciofini (literal translation: little artichokes) are. There are essentially the same as the cuori di carciofo (artichoke hearts), except that this version is sold in a glass jar with olive oil used to preserve them over a long period of time, and can be found in the supermarket in Italy:

That pretty much sums up the whole story about artichokes in Italy.

Anyways, back to my original question:

What's the best/proper way to translate fondi di carciofi into English?

Thanks!

(American English speaker here) To me, the picture of "fondo di carciofo" is a picture of artichoke hearts.

What you seem to call a heart, I call a baby with the outer leaves removed. Like this:

I don't think of that as a heart, I've always considered that a kind if a cheater thing since that's what you can buy frozen or marinated as "hearts". There is no, or very little, inedible choke:

That's because the choke develops as the artichoke matures.

So if I asked for "baby artichokes", I would expect to get what is pictured above.

If I want what I think of as "heart", I would eschew packages labeled "artichoke heart", because I know that what they would actually contain (in the US) is trimmed baby artichokes.

I LOVE artichoke hearts, I try to get plenty of stem too. I'm talking about the bottom portion of the mature artichoke, after you pick off the leaves and scrape off the choke.

This:

Which just has a small part of the choke removed.

On Food and Cooking supports this usage of "heart":

So, I guess "the bottom part of a mature globe artichoke, the base, what some people consider the heart and others call the bottom or even the crown, where the stem attaches" would be a way to say it in English and not be misunderstood. If, in fact, I am understanding the question.


Flames into cooking area Is this normal to happen  it doesn’t happen all the time. Just off and on when using oven

Not really normal to see it happen frequently, though I have seen it happen in commercial convection ovens when they attempt to recover to a high heat. Or, simply, the oven was at 200 - 220 celsius, then the doors were opened letting out all the heat while pans were rotated, then the doors closed and the oven started to recover and heat up again while the fans were spinning up. You ended up with little 'poofs' of gas that ignited.

Throughout normal operation, however, it wasn't something you'd normally see. It worries me enough that my best advice is to discontinue use until you've been able to contact the manufacturer, or a repair place that's authorized by the manufacturer. You could have a faulty internal regulator which is something that can be pretty dangerous. It could also be a faulty part in your gas meter, which is a matter you'd need to discuss with your utility.

I'd turn it off, and get on the phone.


Converting Peppermint Marshmallow Recipe to Raspberry I have the following peppermint marshmallow recipe that I know works well:

  1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting the marshmallows' surface and the work surface
  1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water
  2 1/2 tablespoons unflavored powdered gelatin (3 to 4 packages)
  2 cups granulated sugar
  1 cup light corn syrup
  1/3 cup crushed peppermint pinwheel hard candies
  1/8 teaspoon salt
  1/2 cup warm water
  2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  3 or 4 drops peppermint oil (optional)
  2 or 3 drops red liquid food color (optional)

(Source)

I would like to convert this to raspberry marshmallows.  My current intuition is to change out 1/3 cup crushed peppermint pinwheels for a strained raspberry puree and perhaps increase the corn syrup, but I am not sure this will work and don't know how much time I'll have messing around with the mass on the stove to get the exact sweetness right.  I also could use raspberry oil (when I've made the peppermint version I left both oil and food coloring out).  I'd like to have a pretty strong raspberry flavor.

The original recipe dipped the finished marshmallows in 55-65% cacao chocolate.  Am I right in thinking that a darker chocolate would be better for raspberry if I can figure this out?

The easy way: Use raspberry oil (preferably) or a raspberry extract in place of the peppermint oil.

The (probably) much better way: Leave out the oil and food coloring and use raspberry puree as you suggested. Strain frozen or fresh raspberries through a fine strainer or cheese cloth. Weigh the resulting juice/puree and then put it on the stove an cook it until the puree is half of its original weight (roughly). This reduced puree will be more intensely raspberry, so it will get all of the raspberry flavor without having to add as much water to the recipe. You'll have to experiment with the amount of reduced raspberry puree to use.

I wouldn't increase the corn syrup, but you certainly could if you want them sweeter. I would personally go for the opposite effect and add a small amount of lemon juice to the raspberry puree to give a little tartness to complement the sweetness of the marshmallow.

As far as the chocolate, I would recommend a darker chocolate. 55% is quite sweet, especially around a marshmallow. You should also consider the type of chocolate. Cocoa percentage isn't everything in dark chocolate. Experiment with different types of chocolate and see what fits well with the marshmallows. Just like wine, chocolate should be paired with other foods according to the subtleties of the taste of the individual chocolate.


Can you Refreeze baked/cooked chicken? How long can it stay in refrigerator after cooked? .

Can you Refreeze bake/cooked chicken?   How long is cooked meat good in refrigerator?

According to the USDA:

  After cooking raw foods which were previously frozen, it is safe to freeze the cooked foods. If previously cooked foods are thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion. Freeze leftovers within 3-4 days. Do not refreeze any foods left outside the refrigerator longer than 2 hours; 1 hour in temperatures above 90 °F.

Frozen foods typically remain safe indefinitely, but according to the USDA, cooked poultry can maintain its quality in a freezer after cooking for about 4 months.


Is sterilized milk safe to use with a breadmaker's timer function? I recently started making bread with a breadmaker and was wondering if it's safe to keep sterilized milk in the machine for a few hours before the program starts. I'm using the timer function to have a fresh bread ready in the morning. I know that it is recommended not to use perishable ingredients, like milk and eggs, when using the timer function. Does this also apply to sterilized milk?

Where I live, the average room temperature in summer is 28 degrees Celcius, which probably does not help.

Update: I did some more searching and found this:

  When an increase and then a rapid decrease in heat occurs, bacteria
  such as lactococci and lactobacilli can form. [...] Milk actually
  spoils when bacteria converts the lactose into glucose and galactose,
  which results in the production of lactic acid.

  http://ehow.com/how-does_4572637_what-makes-milk-spoil.html

Basically the question boils down to:

Are these bacteria also present in sterilized milk?
Can these bacteria be introduced from the air or from the bread flower?
Are there other bacteria or toxins that will develop in sterilized milk when exposed to room temperature for a few hours?

Are these bacteria also present in sterilized milk?

If something is sterile, then by definition it does not have any live bacteria in it. That only applies while the milk is sealed in its original sterile container, though.

  Can these bacteria be introduced from the air or from the bread
  [flour]?

Absolutely. There are bacteria and yeast living in the air, flour, and on every surface in your kitchen (including your bread maker). Wild yeast and bacteria in the air and flour are used to make traditional sourdough bread.

  Are there other bacteria or toxins that will develop in sterilized
  milk when exposed to room temperature for a few hours?

I'm not sure how this differs from the above question, so: yes.

Speaking practically, if you are setting the timer for less than 4 hours, I think the risk of getting some sort of illness from this is rather low. The baking process will likely kill the bacteria before they have a chance to produce enough nasty toxins to make you sick. If you refrigerate the milk beforehand, you can even buy yourself a little extra time, since the milk would need to warm up slightly before bacteria could start reproducing in it. I still wouldn't make a habit of this, since there is still some risk of contamination. Leaving milk out on the counter just isn't a good idea, even if it was originally sterile.


Is the lettuce inside the wilted outer leaves still good? At the vegetable market, I noticed some sellers cutting away the wilted parts of lettuce, to sell much smaller, but green portions. I wonder if they are cheating me, or if that is normal procedure.

In some cases, the edges of the leaves were brown or had holes, and they trimmed the edges with scissors.
In other cases, the entire exterior leaves looked really bad, and they just removed the outside, to sell the inside which was still green.

Is it still okay to buy this lettuce? When I find that this has happened to the lettuce I bought, should I similarly cut away these portions and still eat the part inside that is still green?

Yes it is still good.

A lettuce that is kept outside (as in a farmer's market) will get wilted outer leaves, and the merchant will usually cut them off to make the heads nicer.

Depending on the resulting size; if they cut out too much compared to other lettuces, I might ask for a lower price if sold by the unit.

Personally, I will buy the lettuce with as much of the outer leaves as possible, even if I remove them at home, they will act as an outside protection against the elements.


Is hot tap water safe for cooking? I'll typically bring hot water from the tap to the boil instead of waiting longer for cold water. This hot water comes from water heater with a large storage tank. Is this considered safe?

For example, are heater storage tanks known for festering nasties not killed by boiling? Is different piping used for hot water or different soldering on pipe fittings? Do hot pipes cooling down go through a temperature more conducive to bacteria growth?

Unless your hot water tank is very close to your hot water tap, this is a very energy inefficient. As Cascabel notes it would be faster to boil water in a electric kettle first, and then pour it into the pan. Put the pan on the heat at the same time if you are really in a hurry
Hot water systems are normally hot enough (above 55°C, 130°F) to keep water borne nasties at bay, plus if you are on town supply water it will be chlorinated etc
Normally on the first few meters of hot water pipe are copper, then it switched to normal crimped plastic plumbing. This will vary depending on your local building codes
The rate at which pipes lose their heat would ensure it never sits in the danger area for long, not that I think this is a big issue for clean plain water
In general, modern copper pipes are not soldered, they are crimped using special hand tools
Old or non-renovated houses may still be 100% copper pipes that have been soldered. This poses no extra safety risks with just clean water in the pipes


What is sourdough bread? I'm intrigued by all the questions about creating and 'feeding' sourdough starter. But I am unfamiliar with the bread itself.

What is sourdough bread? how is it different than 'regular' bread. Is it sour? Why is it worth all the hassle of maintaining a starter?

Sourdough bread is bread that has been all or partially risen with the help of wild yeast. It is made sour because of wild lactobacilli that are picked up with the wild yeast. Where the yeast eat sugar and produce CO2 for rising- the bacteria create acid and other compounds that make the bread sour and distinctly flavored.

Because of the wild nature of the microbes, the bread will taste a little different in every place that it is made. The lactobacillus that gives San Fransisco sourdough bread its characteristic flavor is actually named Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.

The starter can be a hassle to make and to keep. It requires almost daily attention to feed it and can waste a fair amount of flour unless you bake bread frequently. You can freeze the starter but it will require a few days of feeding before it can be used again. Many baked recipes besides bread are also delicious with sourdough starter. Sourdough waffles or coffeecake are fantastic.

Whether it is worth the effort is a personal decision. Many people don't like the flavor and you would have to love the flavor enough to make almost every bread with that flavor to justify the starter upkeep. Personally- I used to keep a starter but my kids don't like the flavor and I got tired of all my bread tasting the same. I just buy a loaf for the 2-3 times a year that I am craving a Reuben sandwich.


How does cooking food changes its content of carbohydrates and sugar? When cooking for diabetics it is important to keep the amount of carbohydrates and sugar low. So I am wondering how cooking food - particularly vegetables - changes the amount of carbohydrates and sugar.

For example when simmering tomatoes slowly for a long time they gain a lovely sweet taste - but does really the amount of sugar increases? And if so, does the amount of other carbohydrates decrease proportionally? Or do slow cooked tomatos become through cooking more dangerous to diabetics?

How to calculate it? Are there lists somewhere available showing carbohydrate and sugar content for vegetables in raw an cooked state?

ps: I did find a similar question about onions - From the answer I deduct that in the case of onions the  sweeter taste is a perception effect not a real change in sugar or carbs.

This is a rather general question, and I will try to answer it in a general manner.

First, the total amount of carbohydrates will not change, or maybe there will be a neglible reduction due to things like burning tiny bits of surface carbohydrates to carbon, or cleaning the vegetables.

Second, the ratio of all carbohydrates to everything else can easily change, due to evaporation. So if you start with a vegetable that is 10% carbohydrates and 90% water, you can end up with one that is 30% carbohydrates and 70% water, rounded (the numbers I am using are pretty arbitrary, the real range is very large). It is easy to find out the direction of change yourself (the carbohydrate density will go up if you evaporate water, and down if you add water), but calculating the actual amount can be a pain. You'd have to know the initial density to start with, and then monitor the initial and final weight of the food.

Third, the ratio of sugar to nonsugar carbohydrates can change. It will always go from more complex to less complex carbohydrates - from polysaccharides to oligosaccharides to monosaccharides. So you can sometimes produce conditions under which starch turns into glucose, or sucrose turns into glucose+fructose, although this won't happen every time you cook. I cannot think of any cooking process that will convert sugars in the other direction. The magnitude of that conversion will vary wildly in practice, depending on the very specific chemical conditions in your cooking pot.

Fourth, there is another effect, but it is likely to be very small in magnitude. The browning of food happens during the Maillard reaction, which is a family of reactions between a carbohydrate and an amino acid. While it is best known from meat, where I think it involves mostly glycoproteins from the animal cells themselves, vegetables brown too, and I suppose some carbohydrates from the vegetables "disappear" in this kind of reaction. It is a thing that happens mostly on the surface of roasted food, and in a specific temperature range, so while it contributes a lot to the aroma, I don't think it actually converts much carbohydrates away.


Recipe calls for shortening, I want to substitute butter. Do I need to melt the butter? I am baking bread, and the recipe (from the Bread Bakers Apprentice) calls for shortening. I don't have any in the house and would like to substitute butter. The recipe does not indicate that the shortening needs to be liquid. Should I melt the butter that I will be using in place of the shortening?

No, shortening is a solid fat. This means you have to substitute another solid fat, else the recipe won't work. So, use the butter as it is.

You probably will have to bring the butter to room temperature to be workable (shortening hardens less in the fridge). Don't use the microwave, it will produce melted spots. Leave it out overnight or longer, or, in the worst case, shave it into small sheets and leave these out for an hour or so.

Your texture will differ somewhat from the original. Lard might be the better substitute for shortening.


Cake batter consistency In winter my cake batter turns into a hard ball as opposed to in warmer months. I always add more milk and try to bring it to the right consistency for baking. But I think this affects taste. If so what other tricks are there to solve this problem? The recipe is:

225g Butter
225g Castor sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
200g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons milk (I usually need more)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

The temperature of the ingredients is very important when making cake. You will have problems if you start from cold ingredients. I'm afraid that there are no good solutions if you don't have a warm room, all work arounds are quite laborious.

Microwaving the butter is not a good solution. It is a very uneven method of heating. You always end up with too-hard spots and melted spots beside the somewhat softened butter.

The proper way to have butter at the correct consistency is to keep it for at least overnight in an environment which is between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius, and has ambient heat. Putting it on top of a working oven and similar is problematic. If you don't have a room in your house which is at that temperature, you might consider making a water bath for your butter. Warm a Dutch oven with water in the stove until it reaches 30 Celsius, pack the butter in a smaller container, float it in the Dutch oven. Pack the whole thing in a few blankets. It should soften the butter overnight without getting too cold (you said your room doesn't fall below 10 degrees).

A workaround is to cut up the butter into very thin pieces (2-3 mm) and then put cream them with the sugar more than usual. The friction from the mixer will warm it up. This can work well if you have a stand mixer, but if you are doing it with a hand mixer, you'll need to stand there for 15-20 minutes just beating the butter. A water bath might help, but you really have to pay lots of attention not to melt the butter.

You can also consider replacing the butter. Shortening and margarine are much more beatable at low temperatures than butter. You'll get worse taste though, and some change in texture. You have to use a solid fat, not an oil. If you use a margarine, use a full-fat one, not reduced-fat spreads.

The butter is your most obvious problem, but you'll never get perfect results if your eggs are cold. The texture might be good enough for you when you bake with cold eggs; I've seen many bakers who don't mind it. But if you are really picky about your cake quality, you also need to warm the eggs overnight. Alternatively, you can quickly warm them in a water bath after breaking.

Adding milk or other liquids is counterproductive. It will change the texture of the finished cake a lot. Your recipe is a slightly modified pound cake, standard pound cake recipes don't have liquid (and neither do many other cake types). The only reason for dairy I can imagine there would be to add some acid for the baking soda to work - but then it should be buttermilk or yogurt, not milk. The more liquid you add, the less cakelike and more quickbreadlike your result will be.


Cleaning out residue from thread of sport mixer base I am talking about the following accessory:

The problem is that in the thread (i.e. the "cracks" onto which the bottle is screwed on when blending the fruit) some fruit remains got stuck. No amount of scrubbing with dish soap/sponge and rinsing removed them so far (they just get wet, maybe even loosen up a bit then dry out again; maybe it is even worse now, because now it is fruit remains soaked with dish soap, which could end up in the fresh smoothie...).

Although I was able to winkle this residue out partially with the tip of a knife, I am looking for a better solution, because that way is neither effective nor perfect (I think about 40-50% of the residue is still there, and it is a pain to do this process anyway).

Long story short, the problem is that the thread is too tight and too deep to effectively reach and clean out with the usual means.

So I have basically two questions:

is there some effective practice to remove this stuck and dried residue? (I was thinking about soaking it into vinegar, but maybe that would damage the unit too? E.g. make the knife rust, or remove the lubricating oil from the shaft. And I'm not sure it would even remove the residue in the end...)
is there a way to prevent this residue from forming in the first place? (Like soaking the base immediately after use? But again, won't that remove the oil from the shaft?)

I tried to do some research, and I found the suggested way of cleaning out blenders is to put water and some dish soap in it, turn it on, and let it do the rest. But I don't think it would work in this case, because when the blender is running, this thread is theoretically sealed by the bottle which is screwed on. (Which is a good thing by the way, because in this way, in theory, the residue can't get into the fresh smoothie. On the other hand, the question arises how did it get there in the first place then?)

Prevent it from sticking in the first place by putting in a bowl of cold water, or cleaning it right away, if you let it dry on it's a real pain.

Muck in the threads can be extracted using the pointy end of a skewer if it's really stuck on, I find an old toothbrush does a great job as well. Soak it first.


How can I rehydrate dried chillies more efficiently? When I make chilli, I use dried ancho and chipotle chillies which I rehydrate in beef stock. However, as they are light, they just float on top of the liquid and so they don't rehydrate very efficiently - one side can still be a little dry.

Is there some way I can ensure even, efficient rehydration?

I had the same problem with floating chillis so I now soak mine in a cafetiere.


How to prevent Meringue from turning chewy/gummy-like? My attempts at Meringue-making are driving me a tiny but crazy...

No matter what I do, at first, they are still wet on the inside, and if I leave them standing longer to dry out, they get a chewy/gummy-like consistency when bitten into (this is really the best way I can explain it).

I am currently working with 50-60 grams of granulated sugar per eggwhite (depending on what size of egg I have), a slightly heaped teaspoon (not the measuring-kind, just a regular, european teaspoon) of cornstarch per eggwhite.
I add a pinch of salt to my eggwhites before whipping them up, then slowly add the sugar. Temperature-variation of the eggwhites did not seem to do much about the chewiness-Problem.
I have tried drying between 70 and 100 decrees Celsius (most recipes seem to call for 80).

How do I get them to dry all the way through without burning them? I SUSPECT the fact that I seem unable to get them all dried out is the actual problem!

EDIT: For size: I usually strongly heap a teaspoon (mostly because the whole issue with a piping bag seems futile to me if the texture does strange things anyway...). They are not overly large, I'd say, and I even have the chewyness-issue when I make very very flat ones.

I'm pretty sure the problem is in using too much starch. Try less, or even learn to whip meringue which does not weep - you need to get both the speed and whipping time just right - and then skip the starch altogether. You can also try making Italian meringue, it's much easier. It also doesn't need starch.

Also don't use salt, it interferes with foam formation. Use a pinch of acid for more stable foam, but don't overdo it.


Even heating: skillet thickness vs. electric element size I've recently started transitioning to stainless-clad aluminum-core skillets, and one oft-compared property of various offerings is the thickness - generally a thicker sandwich contains a thicker aluminum layer and thus has a greater ability to spread the heat evenly across the cooking surface.

But how much does this matter, if a skillet is placed on an electric coil element which is almost as large in diameter as the flat area one cooks on?

Anecdotally, I've noticed that a "relatively thin" (maybe 2.2mm) inexpensive Calphalon 10" skillet seems to perform fine on a 6" coil, even for high-heat tasks like searing meats.  Contrastingly, an 11" (3qt) All-Clad 3-layer saute pan of the recent "not the way they used to make them" 2.75mm or so thickness shows a definite cold region where it extends well beyond the coil to meet the vertical sidewalls.

I've recently upgraded to an almost 8" element, and am shopping for a 12" skillet which will have a cooking surface around 9" in diameter.  Given the poor performance of the large saute pan, I'm tempted to try to track down one of the few offerings that is still 3mm or more in thickness.  But given that the cooking area will barely extend beyond the coil, I wonder if it's worth nearly twice the price I'd have to pay for a 2.2mm thick one?  Granted, a 3mm pan would probably perform a lot better than a 2.2mm one if used on the 6" element.  Or going to another extreme, designs with thick aluminum and only a thin stainless lining like All-Clad MC2 would presumably have the best heat transfer, at some cost in durability.

Electric oven spirals turn on and off continuously, and the temperature of coil depends on the ratio between periods of cooling and periods of heating.

Thicker skillets act as accumulators of heat, allowing smoother transitions between those periods. They heat up slower and cool off slower, thus making temperature more consistent.

Another voice for thicker frying pan bottoms is that it prevents them from warping as much – metal contracts and expands on temperature changes. Cheap pan will warp after a while and stop forming a good contact with electric stove spiral, resulting in uneven cooking.

Hope this answers your question.


What does "crowding mushrooms" mean? I heard on a film the other day that you shouldn't crowd mushrooms when cooking them? What does this mean and how do you avoid doing it?

It's not the mushrooms that are important, it's the "crowding" -- basically, you don't want so much food in the pan at once that the bits are packed tightly, or in more than one layer.

This is especially important for items that give off a lot of water as they cook (like mushrooms), or that you're trying to get to crisp up, as you want to leave space for the moisture to evaporate and escape without causing the food to steam.


What could cause ice pops (popsicles) to go soft in the freezer? I’m having a strange issue with the storage of ice pops (popsicles/ice lollies) in the freezer. I recently bought a new freezer and still have the exact same issue which we can’t figure out.
Whenever we buy ice pops in our house, we put them straight into the freezer. We sometimes leave them in the box but usually remove them, which doesn’t seem to make a difference to their texture. However, even if they’re rock hard going in, they keep coming out soft, sometimes even melted. Every single time.
Here’s the weird part: everything else in the freezer is rock solid frozen! No other foods go soft regardless of how long they’ve been in there.
Also, as I mentioned, it happened in our old freezer and now our new one (which is 4* freezing). How much or how little we have in the freezer seems to make no difference. This only happens with ice pops (and ice cream cones) but no other food.
This might sound silly, but the only change in my freezer storage habits since we first noticed this problem is that we bought silicone ice trays with lids a few months ago; two of them which we stack on top of each other in the very edge. Part of me wonders if there’s some kind of chemical (since they’re cheap trays that are no longer sold by the seller they’re purchased from online) that could be affecting the ice pops, since they’re usually the only food near the ice trays. Though I do switch foods around to check freezing is consistent in all parts of the freezer, which it is. But the tray idea sounds like superstitious logic even to me.
Am I missing some kind of storage wisdom in regards to frozen sweet treats?

Your freezer is set at too high a temperature, probably just below the freezing point. Pure water freezes at 32°F/0°C so your meats and vegetables are freezing just fine, however adding sugar and/or salt to water reduces the freezing point. A 30% sugar solution freezes at around 28.5°F, salt water is about the same. The fact they are mushy means your freezer is almost, but not quite cold enough to freeze your popsicles.
Frozen desserts aside your freezer is far above the recommended temperature, the FDA and virtually every other guideline I see says that freezers should be set to 0°F, which is -18°C, not because of the freezing point but because that's the highest ideal temperature for food to last long-term.


After you bake eggplant, is it fine to not drain the water? An eggplant can be baked or grilled; then you peel it. I read that you have to drain it then (e.g. in a colander), even overnight. What if you don't drain the water-does the taste change considerably? Can you still make spread out of it?

This is really about water content, not flavor. Eggplant contains a lot of water, and there can be plenty left after baking or grilling. If you then make a mashed/pureed spread like this, that water could make it a lot more liquid than you want.

That said, if you really thoroughly roast or grill the eggplant, you can get enough of the water out of it that you don't really need to drain it. If you prick a couple small holes in it, and bake for something like 45 minutes to an hour at 400-450°F (200-230°C), or similarly grill until it's well-charred, it'll probably be dry enough.

The exact details depend on the size of the eggplant, and what you're trying to make out of it.


Why add salt to the water when cooking pasta? What is the effect of adding salt to the water when cooking pasta?

The salt adds flavor, but it also helps reduce the gelation of the starch in the pasta.  The starch in food is the form of microscopic grains.  When these grains come into contact with water, they will trap some of it (think cornstarch in cold water), but when the water is hot they swell up like balloons and merge with each other, and you have starch gelation.

Another thing you may want to add to the pasta water is some acid (lemon or cream of tartar).  Tap water in most cities is made alkaline, which increases the starch loss from the pasta to the water, making the pasta stickier.


Fat free cooking in 18/10 stainless steel cookware I'm considering a set of stainless steel cookware from either AllClad or Inoxia

Both cookwares are made of 18/10 stainless steel but Inoxia states you can cook fat free in their cookware:

  During the use of the cooking unit the heat accumulates in the
  high-thickness structure of the capsular base, which spreads it back
  gradually and uniformly inside the pot, so that foods can be cooked
  without water or fats addition.

Is this true for AllClad? (or any cookware made of 18/10 stainless steel with 5-ply construction?) Otherwise what is the technical feature allowing for the water/fat free cooking in Inoxia?

I wouldn't believe this - it sounds like marketing hype to me. Stainless steel consistently sticks unless you add at least some small amount of fat. That's true of All-Clad or any number of other brands and pans using 18/10 or 18/8 stainless steel. This copy says nothing about any special non-stick surfacing that would explain the claim; it's nothing more than an aluminum pan with a topcoat of stainless.

Additionally, that page features a ton of other hyperbolic nonsense, like this gem:

  With our Cooking System, described below, also thanks to the perfect fit of the lid to the pot that creates a natural hermetic seal, it is possible to cook at a lower temperature saving time and energy, without condiments addition and preserving both nutritional and organoleptic features of the foods. In short, foods are cooked more delicately in their own natural fluids, for more vitamins, less fats and less calories.

They're talking here about... braising. That's it. You can do this in just about any cookware with a lid. Someone went overboard with the marketing jargon here, and it's not even particularly well-written. Don't believe a word of it.


What is the technique for Vacuum Flask Cooking? I read an article about Asian cooking involving a Vacuum Flask so I was looking for some techniques involved in cooking with it.

It's a slow-cooking technique involving a thermal cooker, or vacuum flask, The pot/flask and contents are heated to cooking temperature, and then sealed in the flask. The flask more or less eliminates heat loss, so the food remains at cooking temperature for a long time, and slow-cooks without continued heating.

See this Wikipedia article for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask_cooking


Seasoning none stick teflon pans Before the first time I use a none-stick teflon pan, how should I do seasoning?

1- Should I first rub oil on it then heat it? [ref1] or first I should heat it then remove heat and rub oil on it? [ref2],[ref3]

2- How long should I heat it for 30 seconds (ref3)?  an hour (ref4)!!! or 2-3 minutes (ref5)?

3- How much hot should oil be? Smoking point or light flame?

4- After seasoning what to do? should I wash the oil off? or leave it on the pan for a while?

5- Should I use cooking oil or frying oil (I think they write cooking oil but they mean frying oil)?

6- After each time using pan, should I wash it immediately or letting oil solidify on pan then after I ate my food I wash it?

7- To extend life span, should I rub some oil on pan after each time washing?

I appologize for links. Since I do not have 10 reputation, I cannot have more than 2 links.

ref1: www.thekitchn.com/surprising-tip-do-you-season-your-nonstick-pans-187938

ref2: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoning_%28cookware%29

ref3: www.ehow.com/how_7745528_season-non-stick-cookware.html

ref4: cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/34420/wok-patina-comes-off/41164

ref5: www.productknowledge.com/more-myths-nonstick-coatings-myth-13.html

Absolutely not

A non-stick pans surface will be ruined when any oil becomes polymerised onto it. The whole idea of a non-stick pan is that it's surface is non-stick to food. Permanently layering it with anything else will make it less non-stick

Only use non-stick pans for low to medium heat cooking, and use no, or very little oil in them. Be very gentle with the surface so as not to scratch it, as the scratches eventually make it sticky again

Most manufacturers of non-stick pans recommend gentle hand washing with soap from new, and then removal of excess oil from the pan with a plain paper towel while still warm. Never hard washing or scrubbing

If oil does become polymerised onto the surface, sometimes you can recover them by using 3M style green polyester scourers with liquid soap to gently remove the hardened oil, if done carefully it will not overly scratch the non-stick coating

Seasoning is for plain metal pans, not for coated, glass, or ceramic


how to take away the dead animal taste/smell from meat? I went vegetarian for a while and now back on meat. but there is a lot of time the smell is repulsive like rotting flesh and death.

My family member say its all in my head, but i am sure a real chef can help.

I am looking for a way to take away that smell, what can I do/add to the meat?

Cooking the meat, marinating the meat will remove the raw smell from the meat.

You can try different kind of meat; beef, pork, chicken... they all smell different.

If wanting to add meat back to your diet, do it slowly and try finding recipes that you can add little bit of meat at a time (mostly stews and sautées) before going full on with a t-bone steak.


How to un-brine hearts of palm? Is there a way to remove the sour taste from hearts of palm (which, I assume, are not sour intrinsically)?
I tried washing them off and then roasting them, but that didn't help, they were still sour.

Typically, hearts of palm are canned with citric acid, giving the sour taste you are referring to.  Unfortunately, there isn't an easy way to remove most of the acid they are canned with.
You can try soaking them in a mild brine (water and salt) which can help reduce the concentration of the acid in the heart.  Salt also counteracts perceived acidity in an ingredient - not actually changing the PH of the ingredient but it makes the acidic taste less noticeable.  A light sprinkle of sugar will also help reduce the perceived acidity and can add to the flavor when grilling (think of Brussels sprouts cooked with a bit of brown sugar).


Home oven over 500°F? I am curious why I can not find a home oven that can reach temperatures over 500°F/260°C. Every oven I have seen maxes out at 500°F.

I am wondering are there safety regulations that limit this, or maybe technical or cost reasons?

They do go above 550F, it's a question of design and the type of wiring used in an oven. THWN is commonly used to wire up home ovens, which has a maximum surrounding ambient temperature rating of 105 degrees celsius.

So, oven makers need to design ovens where the ambient temperature of things outside of the insulated oven cavity don't reach a temperature above 220 degrees fahrenheit (that's where the wiring lives), and not exceed the insulation around the door of the oven, and not burn anyone coming in contact with the sides.

So it's both safety and technical cost reasons. Hotter home ovens are possible, and available, but they're made a bit differently and the cost to produce them is a bit higher. Since most people cooking at home don't need something that goes north of 500 degrees, there isn't a big market for them - and the market that does exist is mostly in the commercial space.

A residential implementation would have some pretty specific insulation requirements, be slightly larger than most home builders anticipated (making them harder to install) and naturally quite a bit more expensive and scarce.


What's a good nondairy substitute for parmesan/grana padano as a salad-topper? I'm making a salad that's quite bitter (endives, radicchio, arugula, with a lemon vinaigrette dressing). Normally this salad has peeled grana padano on top of it, which cuts the bitterness, but my co-diner can't have dairy (or gluten, sadly).

Any ideas for what I could add to a salad like this that would cut the bitterness similarly?

Thanks!

The main things that Parmesan cheese can add to a salad are fattiness and salt. The first thing that comes to mind for me is bacon. You could probably also make a yummy main dish salad (or hearty first course) by adding duck or a cured meat such as salami.

If you're not interested in adding meat, how about olives? Those would serve similar purposes. Other options might be marinated artichoke hearts or mushrooms. Just make sure you choose ones that aren't too tart, as they might add to the effect of the lemon vinaigrette.


What is the impact of opening the oven door? I enjoy baking and really love the smell. When the cake is about halfway done, I like to open the door to let the scent waft out.

Does opening the door for a second have any impact on the cake itself?

(The cake is a basic Victoria sponge if it makes a difference.)

It makes a big difference what you are baking as to how much impact opening the door will have. A victoria sponge does not have any chemical leavening agents in it, all the lift you get comes from the expansion of air and moisture from the heat of the oven. When you open the oven door you let in cold air and lose some of your moist, hot air. Worst case is that the cold air could cause the cake to contract or possibly even collapse, best case is that you lose some of your lift and get a denser cake. The moisture loss makes a hard crust form sooner, constraining the lift of your cake and/or making the crust thicker and tougher.  It works the same way for bread. Cakes/pastries which are chemically leavened are a bit less sensitive but they still get part of their leavening from the expansion of air.

Some things are much more sensitive to the door opening than others, opening the door too early with popovers and yorkshire puddings is a great way to ruin them, for example. Opening the door after yorkshire puddings stop rising helps them form a better crunch (that's possibly controversial, some say a crunchy yorkie is heresy). Cornbread is less sensitive, I've opened the oven plenty of times when I'm baking that in the oven with other things and it's always come out well because it's relatively dense to begin with.

There are a few cases where opening the oven door is beneficial early or mid-way through the process, one being bagels. Because bagels are boiled in water before being baked their structure is pretty fixed before they go into the oven, so opening the oven halfway through won't hurt, in fact I've found that a quick opening of the door can help form a better crust on them. When baking focaccia I often open the door and spray water into the oven to keep the crust from forming too quickly.

So in general it's good advice to keep the oven door closed as long as you can when baking most types of cakes, pastries, and bread. Once a crust forms and the rise stops it's safer to do, but limit it if possible to prevent uneven baking.


What are the advantages of homemade pasta over store-bought? I am thinking about getting a pasta maker. Of course it takes more time to make your own pasta but it seems like it would be fun and nutritious. What are the real advantages to making your own pasta from scratch with a pasta maker, as opposed to using store-bought pasta?

The best part of making your own food is the ability to experiment!  Sure, you can get spinach or tomato pastas in the store, but is there something else you've always wanted to try?  Try some chili peppers for a Mexican flair, or ginger and leek for Asian foods.  I've heard that even certain fruits work well, and chocolate could form the base for a unique dessert.


Why does my honey always crystallized? My honey always crystallizes no matter where I store it. I have some that hasn't been opened yet and it has crystallized. I have stored it in dark and warm places I tried cool places the outcome is the same. I know I can still use it but sometimes I haven't thought ahead and I didn't prepare the honey from being crystallized. Is there anything I can do to stop it from being crystallized?

That's normal for honey. When you buy good quality honey, it will always crystalize, no matter what you do. The speed and crystalization and the appearance of the crystals depends on the plant from which the honey was made.
If you want honey that doesn't crystalize, you can go to the supermarket and look at the cheaper honeys. If they are liquid in the supermarket already, there is a good chance that they have been treated in ways which prevent crystalization. Alternatively, you can buy products which are a mixture of bee honey and other sugars, which can also be formulated to not crystalize.


Why put a stone in the soup? I was surprised by the added stone in the soup of this question:

"Also, for irony, a large (cleaned) stone is always left in the pot"

What would be the reason for this? For the minerals in the stone? As far as I know, minerals do not infuse water directly out of a stone.

There's an old children's story about making Stone Soup. In it, a penniless begger offers to teach people how to make his favorite recipe: soup, made from a stone! He boils some water and drops a stone in, and while it's "cooking", keeps mentioning offhand things like "It'd go great with some carrots" or "Celery would be lovely in this". The townspeople rush off and get celery, carrots, potatoes, onions, and the like to add to the soup, until eventually, they've made proper soup in his pot along with the stone. So basically, the whole "stone soup" thing was a clever con game by which the begger can eat for free (or, in kinder versions than the one I recall, to trick the townspeople into learning a lesson about sharing).

The stone adds nothing to the soup.


How do I substitute proofed dried active yeast for fresh yeast? I have a recipe that calls for fresh yeast, but I want to substitute a particular weight of dried active yeast for the fresh yeast.

It seems from this question that I do not need to proof the dried active yeast and can simply weigh the amount of granules out of the dried yeast and just make the dough with that relying on the water content of the dough to work on the yeast.

What I am interested in though is if I decided to proof the yeast, how would I go about doing this to use in the recipe?

The bread recipe calls for a weight measure of yeast which is easy to achieve without activating the yeast. However activating the yeast calls for a specific weight of the yeast along with measurements of sugar and water. This would leave me with a liquid of a particular volume - this doesn't translate into a weight of dried active yeast too easy any more. Secondly, the bread recipe calls for water, yet adding the proofed yeast would change the ratios of this and I imagine alter the consistency of the dough.

In both cases, you don't add the recipe's amount of water to the proofed yeast. If your recipe says e.g. 500 g flour, 300 g water and 10 g fresh yeast, you measure these 300 ml water, then pour some of the 300 ml over 10 g of pressed yeast to proof it, adding a teaspoon of sugar if you want it quicker. After that, you mix flour, proofed yeast and the remaining water together (for simplicity, I left out salt and possible other ingredients).

You do it exactly the same way with dry yeast, only you have to use the correct substitute ratio, which is 3:1. So you measure 300 ml of water and (1/3)*10 g = 3.3 g of dry yeast. Then you pour some of the 300 g of water over the dry yeast, and after it has bloomed, you mix flour, sponge and the remaining water. The bread hydration stays correct, and the fermentation time/amount is equivalent to the fresh yeast case.


Can I substitute parchment paper for foil? can I substitute parchment paper for the foil in a bar cookie recipe

Short answer for a short question: Probably. Assuming you're using it to line the pan, paper might leave the cookies less browned than you'd like, but it will provide a physical barrier between cookies and pan just fine. If you're using it to cover the bar cookies to keep them warm, foil works a lot better than paper. If you're cooking the cookies in a makeshift pan made solely out of foil by shoving the whole thing into a campfire, paper will definitely not work.


How can I translate my bread machine recipe to using a stand mixer instead? I really like the whole wheat bread recipe I've been using in my bread machine, but the machine dying on me. How can I use my stand mixer instead? Do I need to add liquids with the yeast and let it proof for some time, or can I add all the ingredients into the stand mixer, add the dough hook and let it start mixing until dough forms?

You can, but you want to make sure the water or major liquid ingredient is about 120-130 F (50-55 C) to activate the yeast.  For best success, you want to put the liquid  ingredients into the mixer first.

Start it slowly.  No one enjoys having the bread ingredients flung around the kitchen to clean up, which can happen easuk if you start on high.

If the hydration of your loaf is fairly high, you may be able to beat the dough for a minute or two with the paddle.  For lower hydration loaves, you will want to start with the paddle, then switch to the dough hook when the dough comes together.

You will have to learn to tell when the kneading is sufficient.  For moderate hydration loaves, this is when:

The dough ball feels smooth and soft to the touch, and does not stick to your finger when you touch it
An impression made to the dough ball with your finger springs back in a few seconds
It passes the windowpane test: you can stretch it thinly between your fingers into a sheet thin enough to be translucent.  See the link for pictures and more detail.

High hydration breads are trickier, but typically about 2 minutes of beating with the paddle should give them sufficient development.


How Sanitary are Counter-Style Baked Goods versus Packaged Goods? In a local supermarket, the bakery section has a small cart-like unit that houses baked goods like croissants, bagels, etc. The cart has small boxes to store the food, tongs to pick it up, and a roof-like clear plastic shield. However, the boxes themselves are not individually covered (in contrast with a bulk bin or something similar, for example).

My question is, are these open-air container bagels less sanitary than, say, a closed plastic package of bagels? I'd assume there would be greater chance of people coughing on them, touching and throwing them back, having pathogens being blown on them, etc. Is that significant?

A "chance"? yes...not "as sanitary"? yes...However, given that these markets are in business to stay in business and potentially subject to severe litigation at each possible instance of food borne illness that could have maybe-possibly-conceivably be laid at their doorstep by an over anxious [expletive-deleted] lawyer I would gauge the 'risk' as very low. Your mileage may vary.


Why do French macarons need two types of sugar? In most instructions for French macarons, you mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another. Then you fold them together.

Dry

Almond flour
Powdered sugar

Wet

Egg whites
granulated sugar

My questions are:

Why it needs two types of sugar?
Are both types critical to the overall texture/taste of the macaron shell?
can I forgo one of them, say the granulated sugar when beating the egg whites, to make the recipe simpler?

As this answer was originally downvoted for not being helpful answering all 3 questions in that one single question separately:

a. Powdered sugar contains additives to ensure it doesn't re-crystallize into a big hard rock of sugar under normal atmospheric conditions and only using that one would give the macarons a powdery taste.
b. Using granulated sugar only would change the texture of the macaron as all of the sugar cannot be dissolved in the egg withes.
a. Yes: the undissolved powdered sugar gives the macaron its stickly sweet taste while munching
b. the dissolved granulated sugar gives it it's first hit of taste while biting down.
Making macarons is as much Black Magic as it's a science: even when carefully measuring everything and doing things perfectly, they sometimes don't turn out perfectly, so:

No! Please! Don't change anything!


Can I heat and then cool Shiitake mushrooms, and eat cold one day later? I want to cook them, then keep them in the fridge and eat them cold one day later.

I have heard of some mushrooms becoming poisonous one day after heating, and you cannot eat Shiitakes raw.

Will it be a problem to eat them cold?

Shiitake mushrooms are certainly not poisonous, either raw, cooked or as you posit in your question, after being cooked, stored in the refrigerator and consumed later.

If you enjoy eating them cold, go for it. Just keep in mind that like any other cooked food, they can spoil if not stored properly (I have some leftover Chinese mustard greens stir-fried with shiitakes in my fridge right now, and have been eating them for days).

However:

There is a rare allergic reaction in some people called Shiitake Dermatitis which is brought on by eating uncooked or under-cooked Shiitakes. Note that this does not mean it is poisonous, it is a food allergy for all purposes like any other (think shellfish, wheat, soy etc.)

In addition to that,

If you look, you will probably find advice to cook all mushrooms before eating (this probably has more to do with digestibility than anything though).

Although I believe this is really aimed more at wild harvested mushrooms, in his wild mushroom identification book "All that the rain promises and more", David Arora can be quoted as saying:

  "With very few exceptions, mushrooms should not be eaten raw. They are
  safer, more digestible and more nutritious when cooked..."

Personally, I would not shy away from eating Shiitakes raw for any safety reason, but you then may be robbing yourself of some of the nutritional value.


Soak meat in water to get rid of smell? Some of my Asian friends soak their beef stew meat in water or even boil it to "get rid of the blood and the bad smell", as they say.

It is my understanding that the red juices in the meat is not blood but myoglobin. The cow has been drained for day, extracting all the blood from the capillaries, so there should not be any blood left.

Why do they believe that they are getting rid of bad smell and blood?
Are there differences in the way animals are slaughtered in Asia compared to the West?

They may be using beef round, precut stew meat almost always is, unless otherwise marked.
It has a livery taste and odor some people find objectionable.
Generally the more work a muscle does the better it tastes, the round comes from the rear leg and rump, the least exercised muscles of a cow.
Probably has nothing to do with the blood, but hopefully someone can enlighten us to exactly where the funk comes from.


Can Fresh unboiled egg pasta be used for lasagna? I want to make a lasagna quickly, and I don't want to be bothered with boiling the noodles OR going to the store. Would strips of freshly made pasta cook properly layered with the other ingredients? Could I use one large sheet of pasta per layer instead of several strips?

Like Bob said, surely boiling some noodles is way less of a bother than breaking out the pasta machine?

If you really want to make fresh pasta, I don't see any reason you couldn't use it for lasagna without boiling it - the reason one boils dry noodles is because it's hard to get them to soften in the time it takes to bake the lasagna. But just like when cooking fresh noodles, you need to be careful not to overcook it, so make sure all your fillings are fully cooked before you start layering. It also should be perfectly fine to not cut the noodles into strips - the reason dried noodles come that way is for easier handling.

It is possible to make lasagna using dried lasagna noodles without boiling them first, but you need to add more water and bake it longer. A search for "no-boil lasagna" will turn up scores of recipes.


What are natural alternatives to Nong Shim noodles? My dad can't explain why he loves just  the Nong Shim noodles below. Are there more natural alternatives?

Note these  are NOT the instant cup noodles. He doesn't use their sauce that contains MSG.

WordPress

Blog spot

https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4441115931_1d832d21e9_b.jpg

Questions of health and nutrition are out of scope for this site. However, the question "what are alternatives to these instant noodles" is pretty straightforward.

Instant noodles are typically preserved by flash-frying in oil. They arose as a quick-to-prepare and long-lasting alternative to fresh or frozen noodles. Thus, fresh or frozen noodles are a great replacement. Though they need to be refrigerated or frozen, and may require a longer cook time, they are typically made without oil.

In particular, both noodles in your question appear to be instant Korean ramyeon, which is very similar to Japanese ramen. In the United States, Sun Noodle produces fresh Ramen noodles that are commonly available at supermarkets or Asian grocers.


When baking quick breads and cakes, can I premix wet ingredients the night before? When baking quick breads and cakes, I've premixed dry ingredients the night before to save time. Can I premix wet ingredients as well?

I understand that I can't premix the full batter when using leavening agents -- I am curious if I can save some time the day of while preparing the batter by premixing both the wet and dry ingredients separately beforehand.

The following is an example of a recipe for which I was thinking of doing this (wet ingredients would be the egg and buttermilk mixture):

  Ingredients

  1 1/4 cups buttermilk, milk, or yogurt (or 1 1/4 cups milk plus 1 tablespoon white vinegar; see Step 2), plus more as needed

  2 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil

  1 1/2 cups medium-grind cornmeal

  1/2 cup all-purpose flour

  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

  1 teaspoon salt

  1 tablespoon sugar, plus more if you like sweet corn bread

  1 egg

  Instructions

  Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  If you’re using buttermilk, milk, or yogurt, ignore this step. If not, make the soured milk: Warm the milk gently—1 minute in the microwave is sufficient, just enough to take the chill off—and add the vinegar. Let it rest while you prepare the other ingredients.
  Put the butter in a medium ovenproof skillet or an 8-inch square baking pan over medium heat; heat until good and hot, about 2 minutes, then turn off the heat. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the egg into the buttermilk. Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients (just enough to combine); if it seems too dry, add another tablespoon or two of buttermilk. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet or pan, smooth out the top if necessary, and put in the oven.
  Bake about 30 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and the sides have pulled away from the pan; a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean. Serve hot or warm.

  Source: Good Old Fashioned Corn Bread by Mark Bittman

Sure.

With quick breads you just don't want to activate your leavened prematurely. That happens when the wet and dry mix so you're fine.

Two things to watch out for:

The eggs and buttermilk are going to be more prone to spoiling after they are removed from their containers. Additionally, the batter could pick up funny flavors from the fridge. Storing in an appropriate container in the fridge and using it the next day would avoid any issues.

The wet ingredients, including the eggs, are emulsified when they are mixed. The oil dissolves into the buttermilk with the help of the egg yolks. This emulsification is important for the texture of quick breads. The emulsion is not indestructible. If you find your oil has separated in the morning you may need to beat it again to reemulsify before combining with the dry.

Note: your title says "and cakes". Cakes are assembled with different methods such as creaming or beating egg whites. These could not be done in advance without destroying the texture of the cake.


Ridges on knife steel? Is there any functional difference (not related to things like embedded diamond grit) between a smooth-surfaced knife (or honing) steel, and one that has visible ridges?   Would there be any reason to prefer one over the other?

Clarification:  the type of answer I am looking for actually addresses the effect (or lack thereof) of the ridges at the microscopic scale where honing takes place.

I understand that the ridges just make the honing process faster

You can hone a knife with more or less anything. Preferably with material of a similar nature so as not to "grab" the knife edge and pull chunks off it

For a quick test, take a knife that needs honing, and use the back square edge of another knife to hone it with

The square edge bites into the burrs faster than a round edge, but can also "grab" and damage the edge

Honing is a gentle process, you are straightening the edge, and removing burrs, not really grinding the edge

Honing with material that is softer than the knifes edge, will just take longer, but generally produces a better result

The same processes are happening when a barber runs the blade over a honing leather strap, particles in the leather gentle grab the edge, and straighten it out. Any bad burrs will catch on the leather and be torn off


How to infuse flavors into steamed vegetables? Tried to put 5 smashed garlic cloves in boiling water in a hope to get the spanich flavoured but failed. Spanich was being steamed in that vessel.

I intend to steam cook mushrooms, spanich, green onions, and cauliflower.

What is the way to infuse strong garlic, ginger, and black pepper flavours in them?

To set expectations here, you aren't going to infuse flavors into the middle of steamed vegetables and fungi, you may get some flavor penetration on the outside, but the best bet for flavored vegetables is to coat the outside with the flavor.

When you put flavorings into water for steaming food most of the flavor stays in the water rather than getting onto the food, it's a waste of good ingredients to be honest.

Many of the flavors you are working with are oil soluble, so your best bet would be to infuse the flavors in oil then mix with the food after steaming. A tablespoon or two of vegetable oil on low heat would be enough, you could add the garlic, pepper and ginger to the oil and cook it slowly to extract the flavors, then discard the solids. The oil could be drizzled on the vegetables. You could also go for a higher temperature method, sauteing the garlic, pepper and ginger for a short time in oil before adding your steamed vegetables to the pan and sauteing them with the flavored oil. I've used both methods, slightly preferring the second one because I like the extra flavors you get from the maillard reactions.


When is homemade wine-based vinegar simply bad wine? If I am making homemade wine-based vinegar, is there a way to tell if it's just plain soured wine?  One recipe described the process as leaving the wine mixture open for a few weeks - is there a turning point: Vinegar versus bad wine?

There is not really a turning point. The way that wine goes bad is the process of making vinegar. From wikipedia:

The word "vinegar" derives from the Old French vin aigre, meaning "sour wine".

The Canadian government limits things that can be sold as 'vinegar' to something with an acetic acid content of 4-12%, so you could do the technical-bureaucratic thing and wait for the acetic acid to get up to 4%.

If you aren't hung up on technicalities, then you can  use it as soon as it gets sour enough. It is done when all the alcohol has been changed to acetic acid, but it is a bit hard to taste since the acetic flavor dominates.


What is this spoon-like kitchen utensil with a rubbery head and wooden handle called? What is this utensil or kitchen tool called that has a rubber-like head and a wooden handle?
What is it used for?

That is usually called a rubber spatula, even though they're rarely made of rubber. The ones I find most useful are made of silicone, and are heatproof. This one by OXO is one of my favorite gadgets.

They're for stirring and for clean scraping bowls and jars and such. The heatproof ones are great for use with non-stick cookware while sauteing.


Overnight cooking: Is sous-vide safer than electrical oven? I am a fan of bone broths, but always have a problem with the overnight cooking part.

For the overnight cooking part I have the following options:

Interrupt cook, let the pot hot on the stove, continue in the morning (this is what I am doing now)
Cook overnight on the stove (this seems to be a bad idea)
Cook in an oven overnight. Some people say, that this is a lot safer, than the stove, but I am not willing to do it.
Stand-alone stove on the balcony. I actually believe, that this should be pretty safe.
My latest idea: Put the bone broth pot in a big container full of water and heat the water with a sous-vide circulator.

Since sous-vide circulators can not reach as high temperatures as an oven and since they are, after all, in a container full of water, is it safe to assume, that overnight sous-vide is safer than overnight oven cooking? I could make it even safer, by putting the whole thing on the balcony, however this would probably increase energy consumption dramatically.

On top of the stove the issue is boiling dry. At that point the temperature can rise almost unchecked. This will result in unpleasant fumes at best, flames at worst. Even in the latter case, because you should be using a fairly tight fitting lid, everything should be contained, but I wouldn't rely on that.

The oven is different. Once the pot is up to boiling point you can set an oven temperature of just over 100°C. In the unlikely event of boiling dry, the contents still won't exceed that temperature - no burning. Like you I assume an electric oven.

Using a sous vide circulator you'll actually struggle to get the inner pot hot enough - you generally want a gentle simmer for broth/stock. The outer pot will loose a lot to evaporation even if it never boils.

I'd have more confidence in the oven, but if you're shopping there's one more option - a slow cooker. Making stock is trivial: put in bones (and any veg etc.); pour over boiling water; leave on high for a few hours or low for up to a couple of days; strain. I normally use low overnight for chicken stock with onion, celery, & herbs. These are specifically designed to run for long periods unattended without boiling dry (as the power input is low and the lid fits tightly).


Why should entrecôte meat apparently be cut into slices before served? Recently, I went crazy and bought an entrecôte -- a very premium cut of beef to me. Over $11 USD for one. It was heavenly. I nearly cried when it was all gone from the plate.
The instructions said to put it out from the fridge for 30 minutes before frying it, which I did. While in the grill pan, it caused so much fat to melt into it that it quickly started "boiling" in its own fat rather than frying, so I had to repeatedly take the meat out from the pan and put it on a plate while pouring away all the liquid fat from the pan into a container. I repeated this many, many times before it finally looked done. The instructions said nothing about this, but maybe they consider it "obvious". If I had just left it in the pan, it would've been "caramelized" rather than fried/grilled. A lump of coal!
Anyway, once done, the instructions said to let it rest on the plate for two minutes before slicing it up into slices and then serving.
My question is: while I understand the need to wait for it to cool down, and possibly "set" (not sure if that's the right term) outside of the frying pan before serving, why do they tell you to slice the whole thing into slices? I actually didn't follow that last advice, but instead just kept cutting pieces from it as I ate. (As I've always eaten meat of any kind, including in any restaurant I've ever been to.)
This time (yes, I couldn't help myself from buying another one!), I'm going to try to cut it into slices as instructed, before eating, after waiting the two minutes. Unless you all can tell me a good reason not to, that is. Does it make the meat taste better? If so, why?

To directly answer your question - you slice it for presentation.
Entrecôte should be cooked at as high a temperature as you can achieve. This will tend towards charring the outside before the inside is cooked. As you should serve it towards medium rather than rare because of the fat content, you want to avoid over-cooking by doing it too slowly.
You are correct in allowing it to rise to room temperature before cooking. Some people would also salt it 30 - 45 minutes before cooking [others would object to that - your call, experiment]. If it was vac-packed, definitely allow it to come to room temperature between towels to help dry it out.
Once it hits your pan or grill, it should really only need a couple of minutes each side; this should be fast enough that it doesn't swamp your pan before each side is done.
After that, you either leave it to rest for at least 10 minutes, or place in a slow oven, depending on thickness. This is to allow the temperature to equalise & finish cooking the inside.
Because it is heavily charred on the outside, for presentation you slice to present the tender inside as it's served.

Image is waygu, but best I could find royalty-free. - https://www.dreamstime.com/modern-style-barbecue-dry-aged-wagyu-entrecote-beef-steak-lettuce-tomatoes-offered-as-close-up-design-plate-image194816166


My sourdough starter is going wrong in every possible way I have been feeding my sourdough starter daily for just over two weeks and everything is constantly going wrong. At first water was sitting on the top, then it started smelling of nail varnish, and now it has a green mould at the top. Should I just give up and throw it in the bin?

If it has mold on it then it needs to be thrown away, you are unlikely to salvage it. Once a sourdough starter goes wrong it's generally not worth your time to try and save it, just start over.


How do you properly cook cow tongue? In Mexico, "Tacos de lengua" (cow tongue tacos) are popular, and I've come to love them!  I want to learn to make them in the U.S.  What is the proper way to cook a cow tongue?  I've seen the taco stands remove the skin from the already-cooked tongue before slicing it to serve on tacos.  But what did they do before then?

Standard prep for beef tongue seems to be: scrub it well and rinse, then soak it in cold water for 2-3 hours.  Heat water to a low simmer (about 200F) and cook slowly for at least an hour per pound.  Preferably cook as long as you can (5-6 hours) to get a more tender result.  When meat is tender and cooked, remove meat and save the broth. Cool the tongue and peel off the outer skin.  The broth may be reduced and added to vegetables and meat to create a richer, meatier taco.

I also found a tongue taco (how is that NOT slang for some sexual act?) recipe.

Personally, I'm also a big fan of cold boiled beef tongue with horseradish sauce.  You can go from the cooked tongue straight to that just by slicing it up. Now I really want to make tongue tacos.


Are mascarpone and clotted cream the same thing? When serving some mascarpone with French toast to my mother, she exclaimed: "Oh, this is the clotted cream I had when I was a little girl!"

Are mascarpone and clotted cream the same thing?

If not, what are the differences?

They are completely different.

Clotted cream, also called Devonshire cream, is made by heating unpasteurized milk until a layer of cream forms on the surface. The mixture is then cooled, and the cream skimmed off. It has a butterfat content between 55 percent and 63 percent. Unlike creme fraiche it is not a cultured milk product, and is typically eaten as a tea-time accompaniment to scones or bread. Clotted cream is also naturally thickened by the heating process, whereas tartaric acid (a thickening agent) is added to mascarpone to create a firmer, smoother texture.

Mascarpone is classified as a curd cheese, unlike clotted cream and creme fraiche. The fat content in mascarpone is 25 percent. It is made by heating cream and adding tartaric acid to the mixture to further thicken it. The mixture is then cooled and strained, yielding the creamy-textured mascarpone. Mascarpone may be used as a dessert filling or as a thickener in savory sauces. Some methods of mascarpone production call for initially culturing the cream prior to heating and mixing it with tartaric acid.


Is it ok to eat kimchi that is causing its package to expand? For non-fermented foods, I feel like it's obvious that they shouldn't be consumed if they're causing the package they're stored in to expand, even if they're still within the "best by" date. Does this apply to fermented foods like kimchi?
I had some yesterday and, while it's still in date (just), the sealed package was notably "inflated". It popped when opening and the kimchi made a "fizzing" sound for a little while. It didn't smell off and it tasted OK, albeit a little more acidic than usual.  So far I haven't suffered any adverse effects.
I have one tub left. Is this Korean Roulette, or should it be fine?

Fresh kimchi will continuously release gas as it continues to ferment; unlike some other fermented foods, it contains active cultures. Commercial kimchi is often packaged with a "gas absorber", but that can only do so much. So yes, it should be fine.


Do I have to cook salame My specific query is to the products on http://www.columbussalame.com/products/italian-delicacies
The website says that it is "cured and naturally aged"
Does this mean I dont have to cook it before eating?

The website specifically says :

  All of our salame are cured and naturally aged. Other salumi items like our Mortadella are spiced and cooked in the Italian tradition.

The problem is that there are two classifications of meat that only vary by a letter:

Salami (the plural of salame) are cured, air-dried meats.  They can be stored at room temperature (at least before you cut into them), and would be fine to eat raw.
Salumi (the plural of salume) is a larger classification of salted meats, that includes not only salami but also cooked or raw products, such as mortadela and pancetta.  The cooked products (eg, mortadela) would be fine to eat as-is.

Pancetta is salt and spice-cured pork belly, is still raw, and should be cooked before eating.


Making Dough: Preferment + Cold Rise - Necessary? I'm making a brioche. Currently, I do a sponge & dough process + an overnight cold rise. I'm wondering if the sponge and dough is necessary if already doing a cold rise?

From my understanding, the sponge & dough gives the gluten a chance to develop without having to knead the dough as much. Wouldn't a cold rise with occasional folding do the same? If so, is it overkill to do both steps?

My current process for sponge is: I take part of my flour (33%), liquid (33% milk), 1% sugar, and 1% of 33% yeast - and give it 2 hours.

I have not tried it but I suspect it is just as you say, the sponge phase allows gluten to develop and improves the texture of the resulting bread.  Brioche should not be fluffy like a cake but should have a little bit of stretch and chew to it, but should paradoxically not be tough either.  It also needs a sour element in the flavor to offset all of the fat and sweetness.  The best way to achieve this is with the long slow process, which internally creates long, supple strands of gluten rather than smaller, firmer ones.

Another trick with brioche is keeping all of the fat (usually butter) in suspension in the dough throughout the process so that it does not leak or sweat out during baking.  The sponge, fermentation and long overnight rest develops long strands of gluten which form an internal mesh that keeps the relatively heavy dough in suspension.  If the dough is prepared too quickly it will "sweat" or the fat will liquify and leak out and you'll lose all of that lovely butter.


Juice recipe recommendation engine to give me recipes based on the ingredients I already have? Does anyone know of a website where I could enter a bunch of ingredients that I have and it would return a list of possible juice recipes for my juicer?  Like a WolframAlpha for recipes?

I've seen a bunch of juice recipe sites and many times I'm missing just one ingredient, or all the ingredients.  I think it would be cool if I could, at any given time, enter what I have on hand then get a list of possibilities.

Search engines like that, as you know, are more complicated to build than the standard recipe searches you see in most places, and many websites that have food recipes and are heavily utilized don't have them.
If you want to ultimately be able to make juice based on the ingredients on hand, what I'd recommend is becoming more proficient at matching flavor profiles and knowing what the essentials of juice are.  You can learn more about possible good flavor pairings at this website (more info about the website's technique for pairing flavors).  You can also learn a ton at khymos.org or from The Flavor Bible by Page and Dornenburg.  For learning ratios, start with simple recipes such as these or even try and break down your ideal juice by sugar and water components and then look at how much sweetness and water are in each possible ingredient.
If you get stuck on a particular recipe, you can always ask how to improve it here.


Dried Kidney beans for Chili We're going to buy a large quantity of dried kidney beans. It will mostly be used for Chili. I've never used them before so excuse me if this sounds like a dumb question. Would I need to soak the beans overnight and then add them or would they turn tender on their own if I slow cook the chili for 6 to 8 hours in the crock pot?

I have done a lot of cooking with beans and I will usually soak them overnight and then slow cook them for an additional 5-7 hours. If I forget to soak them, I will usually have to put them on the stove and boil them on high heat for almost 2 hours stirring constantly.

As far as Chili goes, I have always preferred a mixture of Red Kidney Beans, Black Beans, And "Great Northern Beans" (white beans)


Is it better to store chocolate in the fridge or at room temperature? What is the best way to store dark chocolate to preserve chocolate and flavour?

Chocolate should be stored in a cool, dry area whenever possible.  A cold basement or wine cellar is perfect.

Moist environments, including the refrigerator, can cause the chocolate to bloom.  This is when the cocoa butter separates and you start to see a white film at the top.  It's actually still safe to eat this way and won't even affect the flavour much, it just looks a little odd.

That said, even tempered chocolate (i.e. baking chocolate squares) will melt at hotter room temperatures, so if the air is humid or you're in a hot climate, you'll typically want to refrigerate.  Also, if you've just melted the chocolate to make a coating and haven't tempered it, then you must refrigerate it as it will melt even at colder room temperatures.

Otherwise, it's best not to refrigerate.  It will generally keep for a year or more at 55-60° F (about 13-15° C).


What causes sticking and what can I do to reduce food sticking to my cast-iron skillet? I enjoy using my cast-iron skillet, but how can I minimize the amount of food that sticks to it while cooking? I apply oil after cleaning, and for the most part, I only clean it with hot water and a rag.

For the most part, breads (pancakes, sandwiches) and meats do fine, but I have particular trouble with potatoes and fried eggs.

What causes sticking and what can I do to minimize the it?

The first rule to keeping food from sticking to cast-iron is to keep it well primed - it sounds like you're doing that already. Beyond that, read these tips for cooking with stainless steel - they'll also apply to cast iron.

To summarize:

Food sticks when chemical bonds form between the food molecules and the metal.
Very hot oil helps to reduce sticking by instantly and continuously heating the food until it's surrounded by a layer of steam from its natural moisture content boiling. Let the oil get nice and hot before adding food.
Very hot oil also binds with the pan, so food can't. This is the principle behind priming the pan in the first place.

I have some theories regarding particular problem foods:

Most of the molecular bonding occurs from proteins. Egg whites are mostly protein.
Frying potatoes creates surfactants in the oil, which cause oil and water to mix. This reduces the effect of the protective layer of steam. (Some people save and re-use cooking oil -- though it can impart a delicious flavor to later meals, it will also build up surfactants if the same oil is used too many times.)
Also, keep in mind that acidic foods like tomatoes will break down the protective patina and may make foods stick more readily.


Safety of raspberry seeds in smoothies It would be a bad idea to crush apple or cherry seeds while making smoothies or marmalades (due, apparently, to the presence of hydrogen cyanide).

If a raspberry smoothie is made in a 550W blender, the seeds survive unscathed (pictured below). They can be strained and discarded.

Does a super-blender (1300W-1500W) grind them? Does it become unsafe to ingest them?

Update

Normally an opinion, perhaps one that can be ascertained, is fine. But to confirm that there is no cyanide etc in some product, a reference would be nice. Or else a disclaimer for an empirical experiment you've been running (great teeth, powerful jaws) for years and have survived.

You can eat raspberries. You can chew them as much as you like, without dying. Your teeth (unless yours are suffering great defects) are perfectly capable of crushing the seeds.


Why did my caramel come out grainy? I made caramel on my induction cooktop. The temperature was correct, but the caramel texture is grainy, like all of the sugar didn't dissolve properly. Do I need a different thermometer? I used a Wilton clip-on stainless steel mercury thermometer. Or does the cooking time need to be adjusted?

The recipe I am using is: 1cup butter,2 1/4cup brown sugar, dash salt,1cup light corn syrup,1can sweetened condensed milk,1teaspoon vanilla. Melt butter in heavy 3 qt. saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in corn syrup and mix well. Gradually add milk stirring constantly. Cook and stir over med. heat until candy reaches 245F remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into 9x9 pan. Let set 24 hours. Cut into squares, wrap in wax paper.

I am close to sea-level.

I noticed that you're stirring constantly. Generally with candy you want to stir as little as possible, since it causes sugar crystals to form in the syrup. In addition to making the candy grainier, they reduce the overall lifespan- even after the candy has cooled the (larger) crystals will continue to grow, causing the candy to slowly revert back into flavoured sugar.

Once the sugar is fully dissolved, you want to disturb it as little as possible. You will still have to do some stirring, otherwise the milk solids will burn. It'll help a bit to mix in the corn syrup at the same time as the sugar. Corn syrup is an invert sugar, meaning it gets in the way of crystallization and slows it down. If your caramel is still coming out grainy, try adding half a teaspoon of lemon juice. Your candy will be slightly gummier, but the acid in the lemon will inhibit crystallization and reduce the graininess.


Lots of liquid in bottom of wok when stir frying When making stir fry, I use chicken, onion, bell peppers, green onions, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. When doing this, I use just enough peanut oil to coat the bottom of the wok, and heat the wok up on high until the oil just starts to smoke, then start with the meat, then water chestnuts/bamboo, then peppers, then onions and finally the bean sprouts and green onions.

When doing this, I have a large quantity of water/liquid that accumulates in the wok, to the point where the cooking seems to devolve to boiling instead of stir frying. I often drain some of this off into the sink. I estimate that between what is drained off, and what is left, somewhere in the range of 3/4 to 1 cup of liquid forms.

I assume this is liquid released from the veggies when they're heated up. Is there anything I can do to reduce/limit the amount of liquid forming, which seems to greatly slow down the cooking, and doesn't leave the veggies as crisp?

Don't crowd the wok; steam has to escape.

Frying off meat separately then no more than a cup of veg at a time for an average/lg wok, should prevent steam from condensing to soup.

Some veg will always produce liquid unless cooking stops at the warm-but-raw stage: ie spinach.

Adding salty ingredients only in the last few seconds helps.

If you prefer quite tender veg then a parboil first is better than longer wok cooking.

I am guessing sprouts are your soggiest culprit. A blanching and pat dry might do the trick.


Coconut cream from coconut butter How can I make coconut cream from coconut butter? I am making Pina Colada cocktail and I need coconut cream. I have one original coconut cream (for the sake of not advertising, I will not put here name of this brand), from the original Pina Colada, and yes, it tastes good, but, I would like to make my own. So I bought biological coconut oil (which solidifies so it turns into butter almost instantly in the refrigerator), and I tried to mix it with some low fat coconut mil, some water, but nothing worked. I mix it well and put it a little bit on the low fire, but as soon as I put it in fridge, it soon solidifies, so I cannot really use it to put it in the cocktail, since it becomes gritty, so the cocktail is not good. Any advice, guys? Newb here on this stack, so thanks for any suggestions.

Coconut cream is a more concentrated version of coconut milk, with more fat but also more coconut solids. Coconut milk won't mix well with additional coconut oil, because without the additional solids the emulsion will be unstable.

If you'd like to make your own coconut cream from scratch, you'll need a coconut. Alternatively, buy it directly, or skim it off rested coconut milk.


How do I cook lamb tongues? They're cheap and delicious. (I had them at Fergus Henderson's restaurant in London.) But I have no idea what to do with them.  All I've read appears to say to treat them like beef tongue: slow simmering for a few hours until they can be peeled.

What do I do from there?

I would try simmering or braising until they are tender, which will make it easier to then skin them.  Stewing them slowly, like you mentioned works well especially if you're making a soup.


How long after the expiry date can I use Chipits Skor toffee bits The expiry date is 10.2015. Are they ok to use or should I throw them out ?

This is likely a "best by" date, rather than some sort of indication of spoilage.  Usually these dates indicate when the flavor and/or texture is likely to begin to degrade.  Therefore, it is not a health or safety issue, but rather a quality issue.  You can eat them, and determine for yourself whether or not the flavor and/or texture has degraded from the same product consumed before the "best by" or "expiry" date.


Using Vinegar to Cut down on Spice I've read recommendations on cutting down the spice of a sauce using butter, oil, fat, yogurt, and cream; however, I've tried all those and they don't seem to do the same type of balancing as adding vinegar.

Is this just my tastebuds being weird or is there something "to" adding vinegar to cut down on spice heat?

Thanks!

I can't tell you why it works - possibly alteration of sodium or calcium channel response in the taste receptors? - but I've seen Indian cooks use lemon or lime juice in much the same way to cut down the heat of a too-hot curry. It's definitely a done thing.


Should a roast be covered in liquid in a slow-cooker? My roommate put a hunk of beef roast in the slow-cooker for a good 6 hours.  It's a fairly large sized slow-cooker, at least 8 quarts.  The meat was cooked through but very chewy, and I never remember my mom having that issue with a slow-cooker.

My roommate tends to put only enough water to get halfway up the side of the roast, and always uses a slow-cooker 'bag' (another thing my mom never did).

What advice can I offer them to get a better outcome?

It doesn't matter if it is covered or not. The inside of the slow cooker will be warm enough to cook the meat. Braising (not submerged) and simmering (submerged) are two methods which both can lead to good results.

The "very chewy" result sounds like choosing the wrong type of meat for slow cooking. If it was a real roast, then this is the obvious problem. Roasts should be roasted, not slow cooked. If it was an actual slow cooking cut sold under a bad label (these things happen), then probably it was cheap meat from an animal grown up without movement and slaughtered too young. You have to choose tough meat with lots of fascia streaking for slow cooking.


Meat loses weight after some time Context
My physic teacher told a story where he bought some beef, put them into
a vacuum (separated), measured their weight and put them into the freezer. Some days later he wanted to cook one of them but he couldn't see a difference between the beefs and his other meats. So he decided to weight them since he wrote their weight down before. Surprisingly none of them had one of the noted weights, he told that they were completely different. His biggest beef weighed about 1.300g but now it weigh less (I can't remember the number anymore).
What's your question?
What could be the reasons that the beefs lost their weights, although they were packed in a vacuum and put into a freezer?

If the outside of the bag was wet (such as if it were rinsed after sealing), that water will have evaporated. There may have been some small amount of outgassing from the plastic itself. Neither of those effects would amount to more than a few grams. If the reported difference was greater than that, the most likely explanation would be measurement/recording error.


My baked cookies are crumbling I bake these cookies every day but with varying results. It's a simple recipe where flour sugar and oats are combined and hot butter with baking soda are added. I sometimes add a little shortening to the dough. Today the butter solids got too hot and burnt the bottom of my saucepan while I heated the butter so I'm assuming the quantity of butter was reduced a little. I'm not too experienced a baker but I bake these for my restaurant very frequently.

With the information you have provided I would guess that you are getting 'crumbling' because you have insufficient fat in your recipe (or are loosing some to the your process).  Make sure your volume and temperature of melted butter is consistent. You will also want to let your melted butter cool slightly before adding it to dry stuff (after melting let your butter rest till it is below 130°F(55°C). If these are still 'too crumbly' increase the amount of fat. Not all fats are created equal here. If your recipe does not include egg (at all) then I would bump the butter by 1 tablespoon (up to one half the current measure of butter) If there is already 'some egg' start with adding one additional egg YOLK (no more white).

Consistency is going to be the most important part of addressing this issue. In the kitchen insanity is doing something different and expecting the same results.


Lamb half cook then recook next day Is it safe to half cook a lamb roast and the recook the roast the next day?

Probably (famous last word)
(curious) what is the reason you want to do it in 2 stages ? Lamb roast usually does not take a long time to cook.
You could quickly roast/brown it at high temperature to have a crust.
Quickly cool it down in the fridge, and the next day, continue cooking up to temperature.
I'm not expecting this to result in the best roast, but it should be feasible,


What can I use to replace beet sugar syrup for cookies? I'm making cookies that call for beet sugar syrup but I don't think it's available in my country. What can I use in substitute for it?

My first reaction was to think that beet sugar syrup was just simple syrup, since beet sugar is just regular sugar, but I looked around and discovered that I was wrong.

The reviewers on Amazon likened the flavor to that of raisins, and suggest molasses, AKA treacle (not blackstrap molasses, use a lighter variety), as the best substitute. If the molasses flavor seems a bit strong, try mixing it with a bit of corn syrup, preferably dark corn syrup.


Food safety issues related to eating raw frozen vegetables I just pulled out a package of frozen spinach and noticed a warning "Cook from frozen, product must be cooked before consumption". I found the same on a package of frozen baby peas and I'm sure I've seen it many times before on vegetables that are often eaten raw when fresh. Are there any food safety issues related to this advice?

I couldn't really think of a problem with vegetables that are commonly sold and stored a while at room temperature. I live in Australia so maybe it's location specific, but having a further look I've found the same warning on products from three different manufacturers.

While I agree that these types of warnings are conservative and partially CYA, I would suggest that they not be dismissed.

What needs to be understood is that there are other factors involved past the production method. Even if a mfr./producer observes and maintains the highest quality standards in their production facility, they have no control over how the food products are handled after leaving their facilities.

There are many transportation and storage steps between the time products leave a production facility and the time you pick it up from a grocer's shelf. If, in any one of these steps, the food has not been handled properly, the safety has been compromised.

While I would say that the risk may be minimal, it still exists. I am not overly conservative in my own kitchen, but one needs to know that the risk can be real. And just because something hasn't happened yet, it doesn't mean that it can't.


I forgot to add butter to my cupcakes but they were ok - why? I made some chocolate cupcakes and for some reason totally forgot to add the butter. The mixture was like muffin batter so I didn't twig until they'd cooked and looked  smaller then usual and more glossy on top.

On tasting them they were a little bitter, probably due to the amount of cocoa powder and more dense than usual but definitely not horrible, in fact quite nice.

Have I invented something or is this just something that I've actually made? I thought you had to have oil of some sort in cakes  to make it stay together?

Butter (and basically any saturated fat) is added to cake recipes mostly as a way of adding texture to the final product. By adding the fat product to the recipe, you make the cupcakes light and fluffy. If you leave the butter out, it will affect the taste slightly and will cause the cupcake to stay smaller and more dense, as you noted, but it will still be perfectly edible and probably quite tasty.


How do different spices react to heat? I'm working on a chili recipe.  It has a bunch of spices.  I'm trying to figure out when best to add them.  People sometimes recommend "opening up" spices like cumin by toasting them or frying them in hot oil along with the onions.  OTOH, I have felt like cinnamon has much more punch-per-gram when I add it at the very end and don't cook it much/at all.  I'm sure there's a lot of chemistry involved, and different spices will behave differently when brought to different temperatures, but I haven't seen good info on it.

So, does anyone have any information on "max temperatures" or cooking approaches with individual spices?

EDIT: I did just find this link, Indian Spices 101, which talks about it from an Indian culinary perspective.  Interesting.

I can't speak to the chemistry but I can describe the approaches I use in different spices and see if that helps. As Willem mentions in his comment, different cuisines may treat spices differently to bring out different aspects of the flavor.

Dried Herbs: typically I will add once I've begun the "watery/saucy" stage of a dish. I want these to simmer in the dish typically. Examples of these are Dried Oregano, Dried Rosemary, Dried Basil, Bay Leaves.
Fresh Herbs: typically I add these later in the cycle; many recipes will call for X tsp dried or X tbsp fresh of a particular herb. In these situations, my assumption why I prefer adding them later to the dish is that they are directly providing the flavor instead of diffusing the dried form into the sauce. I add cilantro as a finishing in both Mexican and Indian dishes. Similarly Basil is often added as a finishing ingredient.
Garlic: is a good example of multiple preparations used to bring out different aspects of the Garlic flavor. Roasting the garlic tends to mellow out the sharpness/spiciness of the garlic. This is done for some soups and often when making garlic butter for garlic bread. Raw garlic has a sharp kick that is used to flavor pestos. Sauteing garlic with onions or red peppers is a common starting point that isn't as sharp as raw garlic and not as creamy as the baked garlic.