How do you know when a cultured item is no longer safe to consume? How do you know when yougurt (for example) is no longer safe to consume?
Do I know it from the taste, how it smells, or something else?

Cultured milk products rarely become unsafe.

Yogurt in particular is so acidic and teeming with bacteria already that it can't really go bad per se. It will get moldy as others have said.

I culture my own buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, cheese, etc. Many times they stay on the counter for days at a time. They get more and more sour (if they are the kind that incubate at room temperature) but they can't really go bad. Even sour cream doesn't become dangerous- the mold just tastes bad.

To second what kajaco said: if I do have cultured dairy get too sour or moldy I will wipe off the mold and bake something with it.

It should be noted that non-cultured milk is completely different. Of course it goes bad fast but after even a short time it is too bad to bake with. And never ever EVER use old milk to culture your own yogurt or cheese. The bad bacteria will overwhelm the good and you will end up with liquid that will haunt you in your nightmares!

-- Edit --

https://web.archive.org/web/20161129153701/http://nchfp.uga.edu:80/publications/nchfp/factsheets/yogurt.html (OR pdf)

I did some research and it seems that they can eventually go bad. It doesn't fit my experience but I'll defer to the scientists. Trust your nose.


Do I need to let wine breathe if I'm cooking with it? Some red wines benefit from being allowed to breathe for some time before being drunk.  If I'm using such a wine for cooking rather than drinking, do I still need to let it breathe?

Not really. Letting the wine breath is basically just allowing some of the phenolic components of the wine oxidize lightly, which can improve the wine in your mouth. However when you are cooking, you are beating the piss out of the wine anyway and loosing most of the gentler esters that are improved thusly. Additionally the wine is breathing plenty in the skillet.


Does it make sense to refrigerate the dough made for Parathas to be used after 8 hours? Paratha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratha

Flour:
Wheat flour

Dough ingredients:
Water
Salt
Wheat flour

I am planning to make this dough in the evening and keep it in the fridge for 8 hours to be used in the early next morning.

Is this going to be disadvantageous for making soft plain Parathas any how?
Does any care needs to be taken here?

You should have no problem refrigerating the dough. I have done it with chapatti dough, which is essentially the same thing, without a problem. It's only flour, water and salt after all. You might find it a little hard to roll out straight from the fridge but nothing some brute force and ignorance (or letting it warm up a little) won't cure.


Would it be in any way possible to bake cookies using a blowtorch? I was wondering, what if it was possible to bake cookies using blowtorches? It would be the ultimate in convenience. I do realise, though, that the surface would sooner char than bake through with a blowtorch, so perhaps its possible to achieve baking or similar results using extremely thin sheets of batter? It would become something like thins...

Suggestions for alternative foods I can try making with this line of thought would be appreciated as well.

In other culinary applications, blowtorches are used to put a sear on foods that you exactly do not want to cook at the temperature used for searing. For a demonstration, point a blowtorch at any kind of dough that you know would steam leaven if brought to a bulk temperature over a 100°C - the surface will be very visibly burnt quickly long before any steam leavening will happen. Also, you could handle the dough with unprotected hands seconds after applying the blowtorch heat - not advisable with dough that has been heated through in an oven...

Anything containing a lot of sugar will easily burn to a black char if brought to a temperature much above 160°C, as can be seen even with an oven: Bread or pizza doughs, being low sugar low fat, can be cooked in a 250°C oven - however, for pastry rich in sugar and fat, even 180°C means you need to keep a close eye on the oven in order not to get the surface of your baked goods burnt and bitter. Fat also matters because many fats and/or their impurities will also start to chemically change for the worse in that temperature zone, as can be seen with unclarified butter.
Using a blowtorch would mean that you would thoroughly encounter all these negative effects on the surface before getting any significant heat into the mass of your dough.


How can I prep a large amount of garlic quickly? We're doing a food place for college students so the quality doesn't need to be top class, whereareas speed & cost matter more. We may need to prep a kilo or two of garlic for stir-fry and such (mainly Asian style).
Do we have to cleanly peel every garlic clove? Can we just cut off the hard & brown bottom and chop the garlic without peeling? What's a good way to prep large amounts of garlic quickly?

The quickest way to peel lots of garlic is placing a bunch of cloves in a large metal bowl, placing another metal bowl of the same size upside down on top, holding them together and shaking vigorously for 20-30 seconds. Most of the peels should come loose and it will be fairly simple to separate out the garlic cloves from the peels. They can then be chopped quickly either by hand or with a food processor. I would strongly advise against not peeling them. The peel is not dangerous, but it is tough and papery even with cooking. Your dish would be sprinkled with tiny inedible papery flakes which would be very unappetising.


Flour contaminated by raw pork juices The pack of pork I bought was leaky, and some of the juices soaked into a pack of flour. I'm wondering whether the flour is still safe to cook with.

What I'm thinking:

The flour will be baked before eating, thus killing any bacteria.
Flour is dry, not a suitable environment for the bacteria, they will be dead before I even use the flour in a week or two.

On the other hand, I don't want to get sick over a 1€ pack of flour.
Should I throw it away, or is it safe to consume?

Throw it away, it's not worth risking health issues over such a cheap staple. While the flour was originally dry, the pork juice introduced moisture into it, providing a much better breeding ground for bacteria.

Your concern should not be (just) the bacteria, but also the much hardier toxins that they produce--those could easily give you food poisoning, and normal cooking times and temperatures are very unlikely to adequately destroy them.


What type of noodles absorb most amount of liquid? Sometimes when I have noodles in broth, there is little or no taste to the noodles. It's almost like the noodles were already "saturated" before they were put in the broth, making them unable to absorb the broth liquid which contributes to flavor.

What type of noodles absorb most amount of liquid?
what is the optimal way to prepare them so they absorb as much liquid as possible?

How much broth pasta can absorb is really a question of shape and how it was prepared, and not that much the type of pasta. The most absorbent pasta won't absorb anything if it was overcooked.

So how do you cook pasta perfectly and what is the golden rules

You should season the water, not the pasta. When cooking pasta, bring enough water to the boil to submerge the pasta. To that boiling water, add about a tablespoon of sea salt, not the fine salt you usually buy, that stuff just don't have a proper taste to it :-). Only when the water is boiling you should add your pasta.
Never add oil to your water when cooking pasta. Yes, it does help for pasta to not stick together, but it also make pasta less absorbent. Rather stir your pasta in the beginning to stop it from sticking. You should only add oil to your water if you intent to use it in a salad
Never rinse pasta before cooking. This removes a lot of starch on the outside, making your pasta less absorbent and it also removes the "glue" that helps your sauces stick to your pasta
Never ever over-cook pasta. Over-cooked pasta becomes mushy and doesn't absorb anything. Pasta should be cooked al dente. If pasta is going to be cooked for a second time, like in a broth or in a sauce, it should be Molto al dente, which means it should be slightly under-cooked. This will ensure maximum absorbance
Also, never rinse cooked pasta for the same reason as to not rinsing it before cooking
For the sake of taste, keep the pasta water and use it in your sauce or broth.

As stated before, shape also have a influence on how absorbent a pasta is. Macaroni is more absorbent than spaghetti as macaroni have a bigger surface area than spaghetti compared to if they are the same size.


What's the simplest method to cook rice? For me, the perfect rice is whole, loose and flavorful. To get that result, there are a number of techniques. As the flavor depends on the broth used, let's take that out of the equation.

I'm looking for a 'fail-safe' method so the rice won't pass, without using preprocessed rice.

At this moment, the method I'm using most is Rice Pilaf. This yields a good result, but it's not fail-safe. It's possible to either under or overcook the rice.

So, the question is what variables are important and how do I adjust these to the rice I'm using?

My foolproof method is as follows:

Weigh out the desired amount of rice - I use 2-3oz per person - and put it in a saucepan.
Wash the rice well by filling the pan with cold water, tipping it out, and repeating about 10 times. The more you wash the less the rice sticks together.
Put enough water in the pan to cover the rice by about 5-8mm. Leave to soak for 25 minutes until the rice grains have turned opaque white.
Put the saucepan over a high heat, uncovered, and bring to a boil. Boil until the water has evaporated and the surface of the rice is dotted with small holes. Turn off the heat. Cover tightly: if the lid isn't a tight fit, place a piece of foil on the pan, then put the lid on.
Steam for at least 15 minutes.

The beauty of this method is that it doesn't matter how long you steam the rice for once it's past the 15 minute minimum - in fact, the more it steams the better it is, especially if you have added spices or flavourings to the water.


Should you freeze pastry lukewarm? If so, why? I have a book about baking in general. In the chapter 'Preserving pastry in the freezer' is the following sentence (I translated it for practical reasons):

  Pastry should be frozen as fresh as possible, don't let it cool
  completely and put it in the freezer lukewarm (at 35°C = 95°F).

There is no information why you shouldn't let it cool completely. It's the first time I've heard this (and it's a pretty famous and often used book here; it could be wrong though).

While I was searching on this site whether the question was already asked, I've found this question. The accepted answer claims the opposite.

So, I want to know if the claim in my book is correct and why or why not.

I think it's because freezing tend to dry things out. At lukewarm temperature, it's still 'steaming' a bit, which means evaporating liquid, so losing moist. If you can stop the drying out process at that point, the pastry won't be as dry as when you let it cool completely.
Of course, a too high temperature can do harm to already frozen things, or would cause condensation in the package, so that there would be ice formed.

This could be the reason, and therefore, the statement can be true.


How do I rapidly soften cream cheese? I need to soften some cream cheese to room temperature. I forgot to take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator and don't want to offset my bake start time letting it sit. Is there a way to quickly soften the cream cheese that doesn't require just leaving it on the counter?

Seal it in an airtight zip type bag, squeezing out as much air as possible.   Submerge the cream cheese under lukewarm water for several minutes, until softened, which you will be able to feel through the plastic.

You can also microwave it on low--but do it slowly, and check it frequently, taking off softened portions so that they don't overheat and melt.


Best Practice at cutting butter and sugar in Peanut Butter balls Something I have been making recently is brownie cupcakes (much the same as the molten cakes without the fudge). Using a standard box of dark chocolate brownies, I pour the ingredients, post-whisk, in a cupcake pan.

 I came up with an idea to have peanut butter balls inside of these cakes.

The typical peanut butter ball calls for peanut butter, sugar, and butter then refrigeration.
Now the issue arises:

How do I roll these butter balls while cutting down on sugar and butter (are there substitutes)?

There is a part 2 to this question, here.

I like peanut butter, but the thing with using neat peanut butter in recipes is that it can be very cloying and weld your mouth shut. Mixing peanut butter with butter helps loosen it up a bit, the sugar is there to add flavor back and keep it sweet as butter is a savory, and not a sweet flavor. Peanut butter will roll in balls just fine without any extras, they are just there to improve the eating experience.

Having a big ball of peanut butter in the center of a cupcake is problematic because cupcake batter is fairly slack, however brownie batter is thicker so I it's less likely to run out the bottom.

Freezing the peanut butter is a good thought, however it is likely to keep the center from cooking - the outside of the brownie will be done but the center will be very underdone which is probably not what you are looking for. I'd suggest trying the balls at refrigerator temperature first.


Should I store my uncooked marinated chicken wings in the freezer? Today I have marinated lots of chicken wings.  I have to store three-fourths of these in the freezer. I am wondering whether I should keep these uncooked or half cooked. I will keep these in zipper bags for two or three weeks.

I previously kept some half cooked marinated wings and found that was good to defrost.  But, I am not sure about the taste.

From a flavor standpoint, the preparation of the wings isn't likely to affect how well they taste after being defrosted.  I think you're most likely to notice a difference in texture.

Although you didn't ask about safety, it's very important that you do cook the wings fully after they're thawed, even if you've par-cooked them previously.  If the meat is at all raw, there's a possibility that any bacteria present will continue to reproduce and quickly re-colonize the cooked portions.  Unless they're cooled from the initial cooking and frozen very quickly, they could stay long enough in the so-called "danger zone" to cause concern.

So, given that you need to cook them fully, partially cooking doesn't gain you anything - you're just damaging (via cooking) some of the meat.  That will make the wings drier than they would be otherwise.  For the best texture, keep them raw before freezing and cook them completely after being defrosted.


Best way to preserve a meat without using refrigerator I don't have refrigerator in my apartment, this is because I want to prepare myself from traveling to many countries, doing job-related and church related activities. My most common problem is how to preserved meat without using refrigerator?

So far this are my workarounds in order to preserve a meat.

First Option:

Chop the meat in small pieces.
Put a very little salt on it.
Deep fry it
Put again a salt (this time is a little more)

And that's it. :)

Sometimes I can use it again after 4 more days.

Do you have a much better way of preservation?

Meat spoils because it is packed with water and all the nutrients microorganisms crave.
To make meat not need refrigeration you have to make those things unavailable.

Dehydration is essential. Salt is also helpful. Salt the meat heavily and dehydrate it on a fan or in the oven. You end up with jerky which, if sealed from humidity, will stay good indefinitely. Look for proven recipes.

Salt by itself, without dehydration, isn't good enough. Corned beef, for example, is salted heavily and will still spoil if not refrigerated.

An alternative to drying is to pressure can the meat. By heating a bottle of meat in a pressure canner, the boiling point of water is increased to the point where botulism spores are destroyed. The bottle seals out further contamination. Bottled meat will stay good for years.

While I think that preserving food is a valuable skill- I totally agree with GdD that it is not important for international travel. You will enjoy yourself much more and be more productive if you learn to eat what the local people eat and don't spend your free time drying meat and carrying it with you when you travel.


Storing chicken of the woods mushrooms How can I store stored chicken of the woods?

Last year I tried dehydrating but it really doesn't bounce back too well. Could these be sauteed and then frozen for later use in sauces? They only come around once a year so I don't want to screw them up this time.

As a mushroom variety that is associated with allergic reactions to some, I don't think it is advisable to dehydrate it. This would only serve to increase the concentration of toxins that likely cause the allergies in the first place.
As Stephie mentions in her comment the safest solution would be to pick and sauté only fresh young brackets, then separate and freeze them in portions as needed.

As a side note, most of the brackets you have there are quite large and mature. If you haven't eaten this particular mushroom before or are not sure of its origin, I wouldn't recommend eating them as they may cause the allergic reaction I mentioned or even vomiting and diarrhoea.

As another side note, try sautéing the fresh ones with butter a hint of Chardonnay and some teriyaki sauce.


When to use chicken thigh versus breast? The America's Test Kitchen recipe for Chinese Orange Chicken calls for chicken thigh, explaining that it has a better taste and texture for the recipe. It does not explain why, however.

So that has me wondering: how do chicken thigh and breast differ in taste and texture and how do you decide which to use in a particular recipe?

Well, as to the difference in taste, I suggest the best way to find out is to try both (cooked, of course). If you have access to Cooks Illustrated (as opposed to just watching the TV show on PBS), they have recipes for both roast chicken breast and roast thighs—make both, and the flavor differences should be readily apparent.

As far as cooking goes, chicken breast has very little fat and very little collagen. Typically, chicken breast is cooked to 165°F/74°C (USDA recommendation for food safety), which is actually a little on the overdone side taste-wise. So various tricks like brining are needed to keep it juicy.

Chicken thigh has more of both fat and collagen, which allows it to take a higher temperature without drying out. Cooking chicken thigh to 175°F/80°C is fairly common. It also is much more suited to slow cooking, which allows the collagen to convert to gelatin (which gives a moist feel to the meat and also a nice flavor).

In this particular case, checking two Cooks Illustrated recipes for orange-flavored chicken (one deep-fried, one baked) they both note boneless, skinless breast may be substituted, but they prefer the flavor of thigh.

So you can use either. Use whichever one you think tastes better.


How to cook oatmeal? I bought a pack of oatmeal and it didn't have any instructions on how to cook it and I have no clue what I am doing and I don't want to disappoint mom.

If it is instant oatmeal, just add boiling water (ratio water to oats 2/1) and let it sit for 5 minutes. If it not instant, same ratio of water to oats, boil for 5 minutes while stirring, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes.
I googled "how to cook oatmeal" and found several  similiar ways.


Frozen fresh figs to make jellies Can I freeze fresh figs and make the jelly later with the frozen figs. I only get a few at the time and need to freeze until I get enough to make jelly.

I assume you mean fig jam as jelly is clear and made with fruit juice. Figs don't really do that.

Fresh figs have a delicate texture. When I have frozen them they were just ok. They were damaged and were not nearly like fresh.
However, this damage is nothing compared to the damage caused by boiling them into jam.

Your frozen figs will be fine for jam making.

Freeze them fast to minimize damage, and seal them in an airtight container to prevent freezer burn.
I lay mine out on a cookie sheet until they are frozen solid and then pack in freezer bags for short term storage or vacuum bags for longer term.


How can I filter out unwanted particles in my chicken broth? I often like to cook an entire chicken in water in a crockpot. After the chicken is done cooking, I remove all the meat and then throw the bones & organs back in, pour some extra water in, and let it sit for a day on "Keep Warm".

Now the only thing is that I find that there's some brown particles floating around that I'd rather not be in there. I do my best to clean out the chicken before putting it in, but I'm still not entirely trusting.

Anyway, how can I filter this stuff out to just leave me with a liquid broth?

A piece of muslin/cotton/fine-tissue-of-your-choice will do the job nicely.

You can easily find it in kitchen stores or online.


My crumb cake topping isn't working I used margarine instead of butter and the margarine was mostly at room temp.  So I used a pasty cutter turned the bowl but the mixture just got thicker and thicker.  Is there something I can do to save the mixture to make it crumbly or a recipe I can make instead?  I used 2 cups flour and sugar and 1/2 butter along with the other dry ingredients

The only way to get the mixture crumbly is to cut the margarine into pieces, then freeze the pieces while making the main part of the recipe, then use the frozen pieces in the topping.


ziplock-type gallon bag to store my sour dough starter in the fridge. I am using  a  zip type gallon bag to store my sour dough starter in the fridge.  Will it keep working after a week  in storage? I take it out of the fridge the night before and feed it two cups flour and two cups lukewarm water.

One week is fine. I keep my starter also for one week in the fridge and feed it once a week:

20g starter
50g water
50g rye flour

If you want to do it for a longer period, I'd exchange the plastic for glass which is 100% safe from leeching nasty stuff into your starter.


How can I portion out frozen cookie dough? A friend's kid was doing a fundraiser, and I now have two 3 lb tubs of cookie dough. It's frozen, which is great on one hand because it keeps for so much longer, but...when I want cookies, it's a bit of a hassle.

I don't really want to thaw the whole tub, as I don't need that many cookies at once. I thought about thawing it and then portioning it into cookie sized pieces and refreezing it, but I was concerned about possible illness and such, because, well, it's raw cookie dough.

If that's not an option, what's my best way to carve out just as much as I want of the frozen stuff? I tried a spoon and a fork, but that just left me with bent cutlery. My ice cream scoop didn't really work any better. I tried knives, but with how it is within the container (and so far I've not had a lot of luck getting it out to slice, either), I can't really get any purchase to slice through it.

Thaw in refrigerator until soft enough to portion.  Portion total batch, then re-freeze. Ideally, it should have been portioned before initial freeze. At this point, unless you want to bake them all, you will be fine with a refrigerated thaw, portion, and re-freeze.  Store portioned, frozen, cookie dough with as little air in the container as possible.


How long to roast a whole goose? My wife brought a fresh, unfrozen whole 11.71 Lb goose for us to roast for thanksgiving.  How long should I roast it for?
I've found conflicting advice online:

BBC/Gordon Ramsay say 10 mins @ 240C/450F then 20 mins/Kg for medium rare and 32 mins/Kg @ 190C/375F for more well done
Food Network says put in 450F oven then turn down to 350F and 20-25 mins/Lb

The temperatures seem to agree more or less, but cooking times/weight are off.

First of all, cooking times are always only guidelines. The rule is always, "Cook it until it's done". The USDA suggests a finished internal temperature of 165 F (74 C).

  USDA recommends cooking whole duck or goose to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F as measured using a food thermometer. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. When cooking pieces, the breast, drumsticks, thighs, and wings should be cooked until they reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F.

So, the answer to your question is that you cook it until enough time has past that the goose is 165 F...

With the caveat that your target temperature may be lower than the USDA recommendations because we all love eating rare meat. From an episode of The Splendid Table, Hank Shaw mentions his recommended target temperatures for different parts of a goose:

  HS: The first thing you need to know is the sweet spot of cooking a goose breast is somewhere around 135 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature.
  LRK: It's pink?
  HS: It's pink, yes -- medium-rare to medium. The sweet spot for the legs is somewhere around 175 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take, they're pretty forgiving. That's a huge spread in temperature.

He achieves this temperature difference by removing the breasts half-way through cooking and returning the rest of the bird to the oven until the higher temperature is reached. Note, the temperature of the breasts is below the recommended temperature, so there is likely some amount of risk with eating it this cool.

The entire method is explained in the link and it's pretty fascinating. While he gives estimates of time (45 minutes for breasts plus 45 minutes more for the remainder) which are quite a bit lower than your two recipes despite being for a lower oven temperature (325 F) and a larger bird 12-16 lbs, it's possibly due to the target temperature being so low for the breasts and, once they're removed, the remainder of the bird would probably cook more quickly.

To address the methods you're looking at, I'm going to convert the recipes to be in the same units:

Ramsay - 450 F for 10 minutes followed by 9/15 min/lb at 375 F

Food Network - 450 F preheat then 20-25 min/lb at 350.

Now, let's look at your two recipes...

Ramsay:

  Stuff the zested fruit and the herb sprigs inside the bird and set aside for at least 15 mins. Can be done up to a day ahead and kept refrigerated.

Food Network:

  Rub inside cavity with lemon juice. Place apple, potato, orange and celery inside the body cavity. Truss the bird like a turkey.

I'm going to guess that the apple, potato, orange and celery combo may be more dense than seven lemons/limes. If it is, it's probably going to retard the cooking time a bit. This may explain some of your difference in cooking times, so you should keep that in mind. I don't know how you're planning to prepare your bird but the filling may change the cooking time.

Also, that big 450 F burst for 10 minutes is a big difference over simply raising the oven to that temp and immediately lowering it. When you open the oven, a lot of the air will leave, causing the air temp to drop a bit. If you immediately lower the temperature, it will drop to 350 F pretty quickly.

With Ramsay's method you're actively cooking the bird for 10 minutes at 450 F. This means that the oven will bring itself back up to 450 F and stay there for a few minutes before you drop the temperature to 375 F and it will take longer for the oven temperature to drop (assuming you have a well-insulated oven). The goose will start warming up more quickly with this method, which is reflected in the shorter cooking time.

Plus, when you're talking about 2 hours or more, a 25 F temperature difference does change the cooking time.

So, in the end, I think the methods are quite different but I think that (if you follow the actual method including the filling) both will give acceptable results... but that doesn't matter because you should at least find a recipe that tells you what temperature to aim for rather than what time to cook for and refer to those recipes' internal temperature recommendations and use your meat thermometer to know when you've reached them.


How do I make my roux taste less like flour? When I make a roux for soups and sauces it always ends up tasting like the flour. What is the correct way to make roux? How long does the flour need to cook out of it?

Cook it longer, and watch your proportions. If it's too dry (not enough fat), it's hard to cook through without burning it. You want to get to a golden brown color throughout. You can cook it until it's darker and it'll add more caramel/nutty flavor (don't burn it), but it has to be at least a golden color before it's cooked enough to not taste of raw flour. When in doubt, taste it. If it tastes raw still, go a bit longer.

A good start for proportions is 1 part flour to one part fat--by weight, not by volume. Start with your fat in the pot, and get it nice and warm but not blazing hot, then add your flour a bit at a time, stirring (or better yet, whisking) for a couple of seconds to incorporate it smoothly before adding more. Stop adding (no matter how much flour you've used) when you get a slightly soft paste. Not too runny, but not as stiff as toothpaste either. I've yet to find a common thing people can agree on that has the right consistency to describe it, unfortunately. When you get the right consistency you need to keep stirring it over the heat until you get that golden brown color.

I admit that it's a little imprecise, but it really is a thing I do by feel and experience, based on what I said above as my original starting point. I've learned how I like it over the years, but I started with that.


Can the broiler replicate a regular gas oven? My oven has been broken about a month, and I am getting a new one delivered Saturday. But in the wake of a failed pilot on the bottom, I was curious about whether the broiler could replicate the baking conditions of standard use. I set up my pizza stone as a heat shield/sink, and ran the broiler for about thirty minutes. By the end of that time it had reached a pretty stable 350'F.
For the purposes of generic casseroles, or roasting vegetables, would the heat produced by the broiler via the pizza stone work the same as the lower heating element? Would I need to include some water to evaporate or anything else to make adjustments?

This is a solid idea. I would recommend another heat sink below your cooking area as well, perhaps on the bottom of the oven. That should hopefully provide a suitable oven-like environment. You also may want to consider foiling the top of your top heat sink, if you are still getting uneven temperatures at the top.

Neat idea. I hope it works out for you.


Shortcrust tart stopped working I have a tart recipe that has a shortcrust base that I have done several times. On the first attempts, everything was okay with the base - the "dough" was crumbly but could be rolled and kept its shape relatively well.

Now I tried making it and the "dough" turns out very crumbly, more like dry flour than dough. Rolling is impossible, and only after a lot of compaction with my hands was I able to make something workable.

The ingredients are:

  300 g flour
  100 g sugar
  200 g butter, cut into small cubes
  1 beaten egg

The instructions are:

  Mix flour, sugar and butter
  Add beaten egg and stir until combined
  Flatten the dough, wrap in cling-film and place in refrigerator for 2 hours

The instruction imply to use a food processor, but I have been using my KitchenAid stand mixer with the flat beater. I also tried mixing by hand (with a fork as well as literally by hand), with minimal improvements.

What am I doing wrong now, and why did it work before but not anymore?

If your dough is very dry and crumbly, it needs more water.

Add a few mL to the dough when adding the beaten egg.


Baking powder substitutes So I found this amazing pizza dough recipe. It calls for flour and baking powder (or self rising flour) and sour cream, but I do not have self rising flour or baking powder/soda.

Is there anything I can do to make this work? And basic recipes to use instead? Or even any other pizza dough recipe that doesn't call for this?

I am not familiar with your specific recipe, but I usually use yeast in bread or pizza dough.

You can use dried and fresh yeast, either works for me. You need to let it rise for an hour or so when you prepared the dough. You could put it all mixed together in a bowl and put that in warm water. That will speed up the rising process.


What are the preferred veal cuts for sausage making? I am going to be trying my hand at bockwurst tomorrow evening, and will be going to the butcher shortly to have meat cut for the process. For the pork, I'm going with shoulder/butt. I can't seem to find any recommendation on what veal cuts are best for sausage making.

Are there standard cuts of veal which are traditionally reserved for making sausage?

Remember that veal is merely very young beef; the chuck (which is the beef equivalent to the pork shoulder) is probably your best choices. The chuck  naturally has that best proportion of muscle to fat for sausage making.

That said I would actually discourage you from choosing veal as a meat for sausage making, ground veal is [IMHO] really 'nothing special' in terms of flavor. Veal's 'specialness' is in its tenderness, which is irrelevant in a sausage. You would be better served to use an mature beef chuck from an angus or longhorn. Lamb would also be a nice ancient flavor.


Freezing an apple pie I took out an unbaked apple pie from the freezer, thawed it out and baked it.  I was wondering if I could refreeze it now.

You could, but it will not be "as" good.

Freezing and thawing destroy cell wall structure; making food "mushy" (*).

When freezing, water turn to ice, and when freezing slowly, large ice crystals are formed and will break the cells wall. (and ice is take more volume than liquid water)

To reduce the risk of damaging the food when freezing/thawing, is to freeze as fast as possible (as cold as you can) and thawing as slowly as possible.

(*) http://www.extension.umn.edu/food/food-safety/preserving/freezing/the-science-of-freezing-foods/


Thai Chicken and Noodles Recipe Recreation I used to eat this delicious Thai Chicken and Noodles recipe from a restaurant that closed down over a decade ago.  I'm looking for a closest approximation of a recipe that will still taste good. (I don't know if cooking.SE will tolerate this kind of question, since it's a bit off-topic, but here goes.)

The dish was composed of:

Dark brown noodles, a bit thick
Chicken that was reddish and deep-fried; it was very crispy
Chopped vegetables; zucchini at the least.

The dish was pretty dry; it didn't have any curry, sauce, or any other ingredients, really.

How would I make a dish like this? Or, what's the closest to this dish that I can find a recipe for?

Check out these recipes for curry fried chicken.  They look tasty.  Just use chicken breast cut into strips instead of whole legs and wings and things.

This one, or this one.

They're the same recipe, but it makes me laugh that this site just copied Rachael Ray or vice verse :p.  Probably the former, but still amusing.  Anyway..

You should be able to find some whole grain rice noodles from most major grocers, least here in Cleveland, Ohio.  They will be thick like your looking for.  Start those boiling while you saute your veggies with some olive oil.  Start off with some garlic in the pan for a minute once it's hot, then add some green beans, bell peppers, zucchini, snow peas and what-have-you and cook until they are as tender as you would like.

Mix in the noodles, with an extra tablespoon (15mL) of olive oil if you please, and give them a toss. Put the chicken on top almost like a garnish.

If you think it will be too dry, it's easy to make a sauce REALLY quick by just reserving some of the water you used to cook the noodles, like 1/4 to 1/3 Cup, or 50 to 100mL (it's a really rough number).  Add the water to your noodles and veggies in small increments until you think it's "saucy" enough.  Add in some Curry Paste or eat as is!

Try using Peanut Oil or Sesame Oil instead of Olive Oil!


Troubleshooting: Kitchen Sink Vegetable Soup One of my newbie goals is to be able to make a kitchen sink vegetable soup that doesn't default to tomatoes and packs a punch in flavor. (Cleaning out the fridge and being healthy are nice goals too).

Assumptions & Procedure

Almost all the recipes I researched online called for getting translucent onions first, which I did
Added potatoes to this mix and tried to brown the potatoes for texture
Green beans and matchstick carrots went in
When potatoes seemed to turn a different color, I started becoming uneasy because the onions were getting very, very brown but the potatoes weren't.  I panicked at this point and added water and herbs - bullion, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, 5 peppercorns and a tiny amount of rosemary as per this
Brought to a boil, then simmered for 5 mins
Added sprouts and bok choy as they are faster cooking
Simmered for 5 mins
Panicked that maybe the bok choy was not cooking, so brought to a boil then down again to a simmer
Ate

Outcomes & Questions

Herbs did not "meld" with the soup and wound up sticking to the bottom despite stirring, so I got a mouthful of marjoram at the bottom of my bowl.  Why did they sink to the bottom? Should I add larger amounts of the spices for more "meld power?"
I never did get the texture I wanted from the potatoes.  Is getting a crispy potato texture not really possible in a veg soup?
Green beans got very army green toward the end.  Should I have just added them in with the water and spices?
Lastly, it had a diet-ey, cabbage-ey flavor/smell about it, which transported me to Weight Watchers meetings in the 70s/80s.  How do I prevent this? I'd like a vibrant, fresh soup, not one reminiscent of a moldy, old school cafeteria.

Please let me know if there are too many questions in this post.  I don't mind splitting them up but I thought it would be more for convenient for fellow newbies to find veg soup answers in one go.

To address your points in order:

If you only cooked your soup for ten minutes, you didn't give it enough time for the flavours to 'marry'. A gentle simmer for half an hour would give you better results. A night in the fridge to really let everything blend would be even better.
You will not get crispy potatoes in a soup - the liquid will see to that. The only way you will achieve a crispy potato is by cooking and sauteeing them entirely separately and adding them at the end as a kind of crouton
Green beans don't need much cooking at all - they should still have some bite. If you really want to keep the colour specifically, blanch them separately, plunge them into ice water, then drain and add to the soup for the final 5 minutes of cooking or heating.
Tomatoes help counteract this by lending some acidity and fruitiness. If you don't want to use tomatoes, try a little white wine or cider vinegar to give a bit of zing.


What are the herbs that "dry" the best? Some fresh herbs seem to retain their flavor better than others when dried; for example, dried parsley has very little flavor, but dried tarragon tastes reasonably close to fresh tarragon.

Which other herbs can be dried successfully without losing too much flavor?

Tarragon, basil, oregano, thyme, savory, and sage are the ones that I'm most inclined to use in their dried form.  Generally the more resinous and strongly scented they are fresh, the better they'll be in dry form.

Rosemary will hold its flavor dry but unless you're going to grind the dry product it's like eating pine needles.  I prefer fresh rosemary instead.


Is it possible to know how much the cake weighs using a specific size of cake pan before baking? I have someone asking me for a wedding cake. She wants three separate round cakes. The cakes will serve 100-150 people and the point she emphasized was it being easy to slice and share. Would two 11x3 inch cakes weigh 4 kg? I haven't baked large cake before so I'm not sure about the weight. I usually use a simple vanilla cake recipe for the base and cream cheese for the icing.
Here is the recipe in case it matters:

  4 eggs
  1 and 1/2 cups sugar
  1 cup oil
  1 cup buttermilk
  2 and 1/2 cups flour
  2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
  1 tsp baking soda
  1 tsp vanilla powder

It is a question of scaling.

In chat you told us the given recipe was for a 23 cm pan.
I'll ignore height for now, assuming the same height for all pan sizes, because that can be adjusted in a second step.

The math:

The cake batter for round cakes fills a cylinder.
The volume of which is base circle area x height, ignore height as stated above.
The formula of a circle is pi x r2. As pi is constant, ignore it.
So for scaling, you only need to look at the radius (1/2 diameter) of the pans  - or even the diameters.

Divide the desired diameter (or radius) by the original one and square the result.

-> Use that value to multiply all ingredients.

Further adjustments:

Height scales linear - for a cake that is 1.5 times as high as the original, you need 1.5 times the batter etc.

So for your question:

  To go from a 23cm / 9in cake to a 28cm / 11in cake,
  you need (28/23)2 = 1.48 times the original recipe.

My personal gut feeling: three of those won't feed 100-150 guests.


Ran out of salt can I use MSG (monosodium glutamate) instead? I can't read in local language and was looking to buy some salt, so I went to local shop picked up what looked like it (white crystals in plain plastic bag without much colour and decoration). I tasted it and it did have 'salty' feel to it, so I bought it... I then went home and ran EAN barcode check and it turned out to be monosodium glutamate (MSG).

I am to lazy to go back to shop and willing to compromise on taste this time...

Can I use monosodium glutamate instead of salt?

Sure you can. It will not taste salty, but it also will not taste bland, it will have a "seasoned" taste. Will you like it that way, or miss the salt? That's not something we can predict (or you, for that matter, if you have not tried it before). You have to taste it so you can know if you personally enjoy eating saltless, umami food.

When trying, make sure that you are using very small quantities. Measure in knifetips, not in teaspoons, add one at the time and stir well. You can easily overdo it, and there is no way to go back. Pay speciall attention to the feeling of "It's not good yet" - it can come from "not enough seasoning" or from "not enough salt", in the second case adding more MSG won't help.


Why are Parathas smeared with fat/oil within layers? The difference between plain roti and plain parathas is that parathas have oil in between their layers, and roti's don't.

Even after we put oil in the layers we still smear the front and back sides with oil while cooking them. That may be for taste though.

What purpose does oil in layers serve?

If we put the same amount of oil in flour while kneading the dough, instead of putting it in layers, will the effect be same?

It's the same idea as puff pastry, when the layers of oil/fat heat up they expand and make air pockets in the dough which gives the flaky consistency.

The fat or oil needs to be layered and not amalgamated to get the flaky layers.  If it was spread throughout the dough randomly it would be a more spongy texture.

The other name for this is laminated dough.

In short the layering of dough and fat/oil are to generate texture.


Which non penetrating method is recommended to check chicken breasts for done-ness when pan fried i love pan fried chicken usually with some tumeric, salt, pepper, rosemarry, and evoo. Anyways, I don't like to get my thermo dirty everytime, and sometimes i get it a bit overdone, sometimes the oppsite

There isn't one.

The only reliable way to determine doneness of a chicken breast is to use a thermometer. If you didn't have a thermometer then you would have to cut open the breast to confirm. Outside of those the only other method is experience. e.g. knowing that it takes 5 minutes per side to cook a breast of X size, in Y pan, on Z stove, at M heat.

Given that you own a thermometer, it's kind of silly to ask for another way. Use it.


Uses for Old bread dough I found some old bread dough that I had left, sealed in tupperware, in my fridge. It has a powerful fermented smell, but doesn't appear to be moldy or otherwise bad. Is there any use for this fermented dough? The dough was water, salt, oil, sugar, and yeast and has been hanging in my fridge for about 2 months.

Mix it into new batches of artisan bread. It will give you some awesome flavor.

I doubt that sealed in the fridge it was able to pick up any interesting bacteria that would make it a sourdough starter but it would still be a more adventerous flavor than a young dough.

You could try making bread with just this dough but I would be afraid of it being too acidic and strongly flavored. I personally would just use it as a starter for other batches of bread.


Can I add milk to tea while it is steeping? Can I add milk to tea (bagged or loose) while it is steeping? Or will it stop or otherwise mess with the process?

If so, does the temperature of the milk make a difference?

Ideally, I'm looking for solid info on the chemistry, or effects of milk in the water on diffusion through the tea bag or out of the leaves.

The big issue is temperature. There are various guidelines for setting temperatures for various kinds of tea, but the most common advice for traditional black tea is to use boiling water. If you add cold, or even warm, milk to the tea it's certainly going to alter the rate at which various flavor components (caffeine, tannins, polyphenols, catchins, etc) dissolve.

It is primary a matter of solution rather than actual chemical changes. Tea is toasted before you get it; black tea is the most cooked. You aren't engaging in many more changes during the steeping. It's just a matter of what dissolves out when and at what temperature. Compare cold-brew coffee, which leaves behind many of the more burnt/bitter flavors of a roasted bean, as well as less acidity and caffeine. Some people like it; others don't. There are a great many chemicals involved in both, all with different rates of solution, and some people put great care into getting the temperature and brewing time to their taste.

You can also heat the tea in the milk. That's how traditional masala chai is made. Generally, you won't want to boil it for long, since that will cook the proteins in the milk, rendering it clumpy. It's often given a long simmer at a temperature somewhat below boiling.


If I want a complex, yeasty soy sauce, what to look for? My local Asian food shop has many, many, brands of Chinese soy sauce, light and dark, most of them describing themselves as 'superior'.

What should I be looking for in the ingredients lists as a sign of quality?

Soy sauce should only contain at most 4 ingredients - soy beans, wheat, salt and water; Chinese ones often leave out the wheat, which is a more typical Japanese ingredient.  The quality of the sauce depends on the fermentation and maturation processes (like a good wine or beer), so is not reliably predictable from the ingredients lists. Some types have sugars and/or spices etc added as well, but it depends on the variant.

Good quality soy sauce is usually expensive, so cost can be an indicator, but is not reliably so, just like you can find good quality cheap wines, you can find good quality cheap soy sauce. In general, a longer fermentation time leads to more varied and richer flavor profile

Dark soy sauces tend to be richer in darker(maltier)/yeastier flavors, while light sauces are saltier with brighter flavors (think aromatics). However, the use of the soy sauce alters how you might interact with it. If, for instance, you were using the sauce for dipping sushi or dumplings, you would use a different sauce to one that you might cook and blend flavors with. Chinese actually have a double pressed variant on light soy sauce used specifically for dipping.

First of all I would suggest working out what you want to do with the sauce, and what style of food you are making - Chinese? Japanese? Thai? Malay? Korean?... etc, all have different ideas on soy sauces and how to use them. Then, go and have a look at the local grocer and see what they have, look for brands that have wine-sized bottles - those are probably the go-to for people doing regular, every-day cooking at home, so will be both cheap and (probably!) moderate quality. If you can find smaller versions of the same brands, they are a good place to start for testing out what you like

Another way to do it is to ask - the people at the shop, your favorite local [insert-asian-food-style-here] waiter, your colleague from work...


Teflon pan safe to use after being in an oven? We put a Teflon pan in the oven at 400° F for about 20 minutes before we realized and took it out.After it cools off outside and we wash it would it still be safe to use on the stove? or should we toss it.

I think the pan should be just fine to use because Teflon begins to deteriorate at temperatures of 500 degrees Fahrenheit or more according to the Wikipedia article on PTFE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene).


How many times can you reheat boiled eggs? Everything I've found indicates it's safe to reheat boiled eggs - but nothing I can find indicates how many times. (I assume one should chill them back down to fridge temperature quickly after the first reheating to even have the chance of using them again.)

I don't think there will be a number of times which is safe. Each time you reheat, you increase the risk that you've not killed all the bacteria. Guildlines are usually to only reheat food only once and to make sure you're essentially cooking it through again, i.e. getting it hot enough to kill off any bacteria. (No source specifically but I have a level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene Qualification)

For boiled eggs specifically there is an article here. I'll highlight that eggs are one of the "danger foods" which you should be more careful about.


How long do unrefrigerated opened canned peppers last? I received a couple homemade cans of banana peppers that were canned with a jalapeno in each for some extra heat. I absolutely love the taste of them, but I am curious how long they can last once opened when there isn't access to refrigeration.

After opening, keeping the lid on, at room temperature (around 75F), how long should they be good for? Is there a way to specifically tell when they have become unsafe to continue eating?

Given the vinegar, these sound like pickled peppers. Pickled items are usually made to last, even when not refrigerated -- preservation was the original purpose of pickling. As it says on the Wikipedia article about pickling:

  "Another distinguishing characteristic is a pH 4.6 or lower,[2] which is sufficient to kill most bacteria. Pickling can preserve perishable foods for months. Antimicrobial herbs and spices, such as mustard seed, garlic, cinnamon or cloves, are often added."

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickling)

-- But, how well an item is pickled contributes greatly to its shelf-life either in or out of the fridge.

As an example, I had store-bought kimchi (pickled cabbage) which wasn't great after a week or two opened in the fridge, but my homemade kimchi was good for months under the same conditions.

These differences in shelf-life arise because of differences in the pH level, the ingredients used, and the conditions wherein the product was made. All of these things are controlled when buying such items commercially, which is why an expiration date is even possible. However, this is not as easily determined in the case of home-made items, because there are no strict standards on pH, ingredients, conditions, etc.

I've made many pickled items over the course of years and my best advice is to open one of the jars, eat a pepper, and notice the taste, texture, smell, and other qualities of it. Then wait before eating another one. Draw it out and see how the taste evolves. Mark this down on the calendar and it will give you an idea of how long they may last. You can then use this when considering when to open the other jars.

When making my own homemade pickles, this is what I do, so that I can give estimates if I give them away as gifts. Just ask the person who made them (if you can) and make sure they're all from the same batch because that can influence the overall shelf-life. If you can't do this, assuming the shelf-life is relatively similar probably shouldn't steer you too wrong.

With homemade items, there are so many differences in ingredients and other factors that it results in a very different aging process, so a more precise answer in my experience, just isn't possible.

Just a few things to keep in mind:

The overall shelf-life after opened may be shorter, the longer you wait from the date they were first canned. This is because the items are still aging in the sealed jar, albeit at a much slower rate than after the jar is opened.
Take care not to put fingers, used forks, or other non-clean things into the jar when taking the peppers out. The more free of contaminants that it is, the longer the shelf-life will be after opened.


Is there pattern to stack lasagna? I've been cooking lasagna at least twice a week, but I still haven't been able to come up with a flavor that makes me "happy".

Is there a particular way to stack lasagna for full flavor? Say:

first veggies, then sauce, then cheese, then protein, etc?

I'm asking this because when I'm cooking lasagna, its taste is pretty "plain" at best, I can taste the pasta and the sauce, but that's about it, I can never get to taste the other ingredients.

There are many, many ways to make lasagna, so there cannot be one single answer.  You have to ask yourself, what is the goal of a good lasagna?

It is not to feature the individual components that make up the layers, but rather to have a cohesive, unified experience.

The order layering is more for visual effect than to control how the ingredients taste.

However, if the contribution of your other ingredients is not coming through, they may not be bold enough to stand up to the cheeses, pasta, and sauces (none of which are usually very bold) and still hold their own.  Some of the common accent ingredients in lasgana commonly include:

Bolognese sauce, or another ragu type sauce, with a strong, meaty flavor from long cooking.
A spicy sausage or salumi

Also, make sure each component is properly and individually seasoned, to taste its best.  Each component should also be treated properly to bring out its best flavor (long slow braising for ragu, good browning for sausage, and so on).

These ingredients are aggressively flavored, and while they shouldn't dominate the casserole, they should come through as part of the overall flavor.


What is the recommended temperature for cooking eggs? Omelette, scrambled eggs etc. Are there any visual cues by which you could know if the eggs are "Safely cooked"?

The FDA recommends 160°F (71°C) for dishes containing eggs. If you're scrambling eggs or making an omelette, as long as they're coagulated/solidified, they'll be safe.

The easiest way to confirm this is with sous vide eggs. For example, this Food Lab sous vide egg guide has 155°F, 160°F, and 165°F eggs:

which clearly show that the white won't be totally solidified until 160°F or even 165°F, even when cooked for an extended period of time.

(To be clear, those lower-temperature eggs are actually safe if cooked for sufficient time. The point here is just to show coagulation versus temperature, to demonstrate that when eggs cooking in a pan, you can use the solidity as a temperature indicator.)


Maintaining crispy fried potatoes while cooking with onions and peppers I love fried potatoes, and I love them even more when there are some delicious vegetables mixed in, like onions and bell peppers.

The problem is that I can't figure out how to cook all these things so that I end up with crispy potatoes with the cooked onions and peppers.

I've tried a few methods:

Cook onions at the beginning, then add potatoes. Result: overcooked onions, mushy potatoes.
Cook the potatoes, get them about how I want them, then add onions&peppers and cook. Result, good peppers&onions, soggy potatoes.
Cook the potatoes, remove them from pan and set aside, cook onions and peppers, add cooked potatoes and toss.  Result: almost what I want. this might be the best way to go, but still end up with slightly soggy potatoes.

Are there any factors I'm missing that could give me better results? I've had better results at restaurants before, so I know it's possible...

You probably should keep #3, but use a much higher temperature for the vegetables.

Non-starchy vegetables contain lots of water. If you shallow fry them at a leisurly pace, their juices flow out and stay in the pan, making everything a bit soft. You also get a bit less grilled-like taste.

If you saute them instead, you'll end up with dry vegetables. Their juices will evaporate the moment they hit the pan. When you add the potatoes, they will stay crisp.

You'll have to use a non-nonstick pan for that, it needs temperatures which will destroy a PTFE coating.


Converting kneading times from machine kneading to hand kneading I have previously tried this recipe, and wish to try it again this weekend (recipe follows at end of question).  Since I don't have a mixer, I kneaded it by hand, for longer than the recipe stated, in order to reach the required texture.  It could have been the substitute flour I used, or the fact that it didn't rise enough, or that the environment was too cold for the dough to rise, but the bread didn't work.

I am now wondering - is this recipe particularly intended for making with an electric mixer with dough hook?  Can one convert it for hand kneading?  And if so, is there a rule of thumb for converting between kneading times for electric mixers vs. hand kneading?

Sour Cherry & Walnut Stick (Yotam Ottolenghi, from his 'Ottolenghi' book)
160 ml luke warm water (not higher than 30C)
1.5 tsp active dried yeast
40 ml orange juice
250g country brown flour ("Allinson's country grain brown bread flour or Hovis granary flour) plus extra for dusting
65g buckwheat flour
1tsp salt
50g dried sour cherries
50g walnuts, roughly broken into pieces

(excerpt from method)
Stir the water/yeast in an electric mixer bowl and leave for 10 minutes. Then add OJ, mix, add both flours. Knead for 5 minutes at low speed w/ dough hook until the dough comes together.

Scrape the dough in the bowl, then add salt and knead for 4 miuntes on high. Dough should be smoother and silky. Add cherries & walnuts and mix on medium for one minute.

Knead by hand, turning the dough until you can no longer see the walnuts/cherries and the dough is smooth. Put the dough (shaped into a ball) in a large bowl, covered w/ a damp cloth, for about 1.5 hours in a warm place - or until dough has doubled.

If I were to convert a machine kneading time to hand kneading time, I'd take the time and at least double it, perhaps between double and triple, depending on how strong/vigorous you are.

The odds of over-kneading by hand are pretty low, as compared to by machine.

I would guess that the flour substitutions or the coldness were more of an issue than the kneading.  I've not heard of this book or either of the flours mentioned, but I do know that mileage can vary a LOT with wholegrain flours, and even basic white flours depending on where you live, due to changes in protein contents for regional differences.


Oat powder is moist after blending for two minutes. Safe to store? I filled my blender about half way with instant oats and blended on high for about 2 minutes. When I took the lid off, I noticed moisture all inside the lid and and the oat powder is a little moist as well. Is it safe to store the oat powder in the original cardboard carton it came in? Should I try to get the moisture out of the powder first?

There must have been some moisture in your blender.  You could bake it off the oats, or you could freeze the wet powder, or just make whatever you were going to make.  But I think moist oat powder will go moldy within a few days.


Does it make any sense to grate the radish on a grater without peeling its skin? Does the radish automatically get rid of it's skin when grated on the grater? OR for safety reasons is it better to peel the skin off the radish before grating?

By radish I mean this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikon

Daikon peel is edible. I believe it does have a somewhat different flavor (stronger? I don't have one around to try) than the rest of the root, so you might want to try a bit before you include the peel in a dish. You'll also have to wash a bit more carefully to make sure you don't leave any dirt on. And the skin is tougher, but if you're grating perpendicular to it, you'll end up with small enough pieces that it shouldn't be a problem.


U.S. Equivalent of French T80 for Sourdough Pain de Campagne I'm a home sourdough baker in the U.S. and want to try a recipe that calls for the French T80 flour. Some questions:
- I have read T80 described as half whole wheat/half bread flour, and also as all bread flour (i.e., white flour). Can it really be one or the other?
- What is the equivalent of T80 in the U.S., if any?
- If there is no equivalent, what comes close, or what combination of flours would come close?

You would want to look for a high gluten bread flour, in the 14% protein area.  I found this helpful for understanding different flours.  In the Fresh Loaf Discussion Forum, a user suggests combining whole wheat and bread flour in a ratio of 80/20.

Here in the US, you probably have access to King Arthur flours.  Their whole wheat is 14%, white whole wheat is 13%, and bread flour is 12.7% protein.  I doubt you want to go 100% whole wheat flour, so you could use some of the information I provided to create a blend that would work well.

It looks like you could also order from French T80 here. Although, I should point out that this product description is a little confusing because it describes T45 flour below, and a protein content of 10%, but you might be able to contact them for the product you desire.


What kind of domestic use machine is needed for preparing Brown Rice from Paddy? The brown rice is extremely expensive here so I was wondering if it is possible to get some machine for converting Paddy into Brown rice at home?

What prerequisites need to be fulfilled for the achieving the same? Is it practical even?

There are 3 main types of rice huller in use:

The oldest, Mortar and pestle, takes strength, time and patience.

Centrifugal hullers have been around since the late 1800's, but high speed (5Krpm+) centrifuges are not consumer devices. They can be quite dangerous if not used correctly.

Rubber roller based hullers are probably the most common type today. You don't see many consumer friendly units around, but rubber based attachments for Corona mills are sometimes available.

Once you get your rice dehulled, you'll need to separate the chaff. There are lots of ways to do that, starting at a low tech level.


How long do pre-chopped portobello mushrooms last in the refrigerator? I'm looking to clean, wash, and pre-chop about 10lbs of portobello mushrooms. Will they be the same quality in the refrigerator for about 24 hours?

This is in an effort to find more efficient preparation methods. Is there a most suitable way to store them for 24 hours?

This is probably way too late, but for the benefit of others with the same question...
I have been taught, and my experiences verify, that fresh mushrooms of any sort should only be washed if absolutely necessary and if do so, to do it at the last possible moment. I just brush off any noticeable growing media and continue on. For Portobello mushrooms, I do this while cleaning out the "Gills" so it takes no extra time whatsoever.
That said, Pre-chopping / slicing, will reduce the shelf life over the long term, but for an overnight stay in the fridge it will not be a problem.
I would love to hear how you made out. Did you end up washing them? Your experience will also help others with the same question.


How to replace water in meat (chicken, beef) with another liquid? Is there a non-destructive way to replace water in meat such as chicken or beef, with another liquid (e.g. lemon juice)?

No, there isn't. And you're probably not actually asking the question you mean to ask.

The first problem is that, to a first approximation, lemon juice is water—approximately 92%. Chicken breast is approximately 64% water, so even if you could remove that 64% water and replace it with lemon juice, you'd get chicken with 59% water and 5% sugar and other lemon juice components. It's rather silly to remove all the water, when your end result is to reduce it a small amount.

The second problem is that the chemistry inside the cells in the meat depends on that water. Removing it would destroy the meat—the cells would all collapse and likely eject their contents, proteins would be denatured in weird ways or broken apart, etc. Even beef jerky, which you'd think of as dry, is approx. 23% water. Flour is approx. 12%. Dried rice, 10%. You're asking for drier.

Likely, what you're actually trying to do—at least, if you're cooking, not performing chemistry experiments—is get lemon flavor into your chicken. In which case, obvious ways are marinade, flavor injectors, and squeezing it on after cooking the chicken.

(BTW: You can find water content of foods by either using the USDA nutrient database, or asking Wolfram Alpha)


Ziploc vacuumed bags expand in sous vide I had an issue yesterday when I tried to cook some root vegetables in my sous vide supreme. I chopped them to roughly 1" lengths and placed them in a few quart Ziploc freezer bags and vacuumed them using a ThriftyVac. After just a few minutes in my sous vide at 84C the bags expanded with a lot of air and were very buoyant. I have not had this issue when sealing beef or fish, and no liquid seeped in or out of the bag, only air. The bags were very well sealed. It happened with my bag of parsnips, carrots, and bag of potatoes, but it did not happen with my beets.

Believe it or not, veggies just happen to contain a lot of air.  Even under vacuum this is a fairly common occurrence when cooking veggies low temp.  You can add oil or other liquid to the bag, it will help, but air pockets will still likely develop.  I usually add weights to the bag or bleed the air out by lifting a corner of the bag and resealing by displacing the air as it happens.


Is 'honey in crystallized form' the same as 'raw honey'? Is 'honey in crystallized form' the same as 'raw honey'?

Subquestion: can heated/pasteurized/decrystallized honey ever crystallize again?

Short answer? Maybe. Crystallized honey and raw honey are not mutually exclusive, so you may have a honey that is one or the other, or you may have a honey that is both.

Raw honey is simply honey that has not been over-heated (heated more than necessary to allow the honey to flow for easier bottling) or pasteurized.

All honey will eventually crystallize; however, raw honey will crystallize faster than pasteurized or heat-treated honey, which is often of lower quality as the heat required for pasteurization destroys some characteristics of the honey.


What kind of herbs are common in Italian dishes? Yesterday I tried to follow a pasta recipe that called for tarragon.  Since I didn't have this herb, I sustituted basil.

For convenience, I may try to plant those commonly needed herbs myself so I can pick them fresh, when I need them.

What are the most common herbs used in Italian pasta dishes and should they be used fresh?

Please state why the herb was chosen rather than simply listing them which would not be that helpful to me.  For example, tarragon goes well with chicken so I put some into the pasta dish because I like the fennel-like taste of it.

Some example of herbs usage here in Italy (I'm 100% italian living near Milan):

Basil: (for its fresh taste)

Pasta with tomato sauce and a couple of leaves of fresh basil on top.
Pizza Margherita: Mozzarella Cheese, tomatoes, basil.
Pesto: basil, parmigiano cheese, pine nuts & olive oil.

Oregano: (a little salty, chosen for its strong parfume)

On top of Focaccia
Mozzarella Caprese (mozzarella, tomatoes, basil & oregano)

Sage (delicate perfume, used to enhance flavours)

Gnocchi with butter & sage, with little parmigiano

Parsley

Mostly used with fish pasta dishes (never with meat!)

Some common mistakes on italian pasta recipes "as seen from abroad" is that we don't really use parsley or oregano everywhere. Many other herbs like tarragon, marjoram, etc... Are rarely used in everyday recipes.


What's the use of onions in teriyaki sauce? I make my own Teriyaki sauce. Soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, olive oil and onion. Normally, after marinating, I dry the piece I'm going to sauté and remove the onion.

Does the onion add flavour to the sauce? Does the onion have an effect on the meat that's marinating?

Or can I leave out the onion?

Soy sauce, sake or mirin and sugar are the usual ingredients in a teriyaki sauce. The rice wines in particular are vital for an authentic teriyaki flavour.

So the question is somewhat moot: onions aren't usually found in teriyaki sauce anyway. The onions naturally add flavour to your marinade: if you like it, leave them in, if you don't, take them out. The onions won't have any major chemical effect on the marination process.

Personally I would ditch the olive oil, replace it with toasted sesame oil and add garlic and ginger for a more rounded and authentically flavoured East Asian marinade.


How can I identify bad peanuts before using them? Every once in a while I encounter a bad peanut - too bitter and sour which overwhelms the peanut flavor.  (For example, when topping cookies with individual peanuts.)  Since I can't taste and then use each individual peanut, how can I identify the bad peanuts before I use them?

It's hard to say what is going to be ABSOLUTELY sure here, but I'd look for ones that have a different color from the rest in the container- if it's been overroasted, for example, you might want to avoid it.  Otherwise, I guess going by smell might be your best bet- if it has a more oily or rancid smell, you'd want to avoid it.  Look at your batch of nuts, and taste one or two of each dominant color shade/shape, and find like ones is my best suggestion.


How prepared should a baked dessert be before a long transport? I need to make a ~2.5-hour drive with a baked dessert (most likely a crisp/cobbler) but am unsure how prepared it should be beforehand. I suppose I have three options:

Prepare ingredients at origin and cook at origin
Prepare ingredients at origin but cook at destination
Prepare ingredients at destination and cook at destination

Which would be best in this situation?

Assuming you really do a crisp/cobbler, you can do any of those. If having it fresh and hot is the most important thing, but you want to avoid the inconvenience of cooking too much at your destination, your best choice is to prep first and cook later. (This all changes completely if you decide to bake a cake instead.)

Assuming you like it served hot, it'll of course be best if it's cooked there. You might as well do the prep first (but of course you don't have to); just be sure to keep the topping and the fruit separate and assemble right before baking so it doesn't all soak through.

Doing it all beforehand is probably the most convenient though, and it'll work fine. You can reheat it in the oven at your destination; that should help crisp up the topping a bit. (You might want to err on the side of underbrowning it at home, though, so you don't burn the top later. You can also cover it with foil to keep it from overbrowning.) And of course, if you don't want to serve it hot anyway, you might as well do it all at home.


What should a good cookie dough look like? I've been trying to make a good, chewy cookie recipe for the last 4-5 months but nothing good ever shown up. I've tried countless recipes on the internet with no success. One thing that I noticed was that my cookie dough always looks different from the pictures or videos that I have found on the internet. My dough looks like ice cream, is wet, and really sticks to the scoop. Sometime when I scoop it up I can feel that it's very light, not dense. I have tried adding more AP flour in and it made my dough a little more stiff. I can roll it into a ball shape without any of the dough sticking to my hand.

Which one is the good dough?

These are the ingredients I use:

  1 cup AP flour
  1/2 cup brown sugar
  1/2 cup white sugar
  1 egg
  1/2 tsp baking soda
  pinch of salt
  1/2 tsp baking powder
  1 1/4 cup blended oat
  123 grams butter

What is the best ratio between wet and dry goods?

Cookie recipes vary. There is no single consistency that all doughs should have. The proof is in the finished cookie.

Some of my favorite recipes produce doughs that are sticky enough that I can't "drop" the cookies onto the sheet without using my finger to scrape the dough out of the spoon. In these cases, it's easier to use an ice cream scoop with a triggered blade that will clear the dough from the scoop. Another trick is to refrigerate the dough for four hours, overnight, or for as many as three days. This will give the flour a chance to absorb more of the liquid ingredients. In addition, chilled dough is easier to work with, and produces a superior texture in the finished cookie. I add this step to nearly every cookie recipe.

I want to address, though, your concern that the dough you make doesn't match what you're seeing in pictures or videos. This could be due to the way you measure flour. There are several ways to measure flour, and each of them can produce a different actual amount for the same called-for measurement. Not only that, they may produce different actual amounts each time you measure. I assume that most modern recipes are tesed with a "scoop and level" method, unless something else is indicated. However, measuring by weight is more accurate. I convert all my cookie recipes to weight measurments. That way, I can ammend or reproduce them with complete accuracy. Lastly, I want to address the integrity of the relationship between written recipes and the pictures or videos that accompany them. Over many years of experience, I have found that relationship to be rather loose.


Burn stains inside microwave I heated a dish that my local fish store said was in a microwave-safe aluminum foil. Now I have a brown (chocolate looking) residue, mostly on the sides of the inside of my microwave. I have read that I can sprinkle baking soda, then add acetone (followed by liquid coffee) to remove these stains.  Will this work on a white interior or is it just for stainless steel? I have white.

Acetone is not considered a carcinogen in the United States

The Material Safety Data Sheet can be found here.

It is the active ingredient in regular nail polish (varnish) remover.
It may remove the 'paint' from surfaces.
It is legally sold in the United States.
It is highly flammable and explosive in the right concentrations.

I would not recommend it to clean your microwave as it's hazardous to health if used improperly under a variety of conditions or used without proper safety equipment.

I would also advise against placing an aluminum foil pan in the microwave and turning it on.

Where did you get this misinformation, Connie?

  I have read that I can sprinkle baking soda, then add acetone (followed by liquid coffee) to remove these stains.

The above is incorrect!


Can I take a glass baking dish from the fridge and put it in a hot oven? I have a glass baking dish my husband put together a meatloaf in it last night and put it in the fridge. Can I put it right in the hot oven? I think no so I have had it sitting on the kitchen table most of the dish is warmer but the bottom is still a little cold not as cold as it was but cold. I'm scared to put it in there. I have no idea who it's made by.

It would depend on the type of glass.

If the oven is say 300 F then starting from 40 F (fridge) versus 70 F (room) is not a big difference.

If the glass is oven safe then that 30 F difference should not cause failure.

70 F to 375 F is a bigger difference than 40 F to 300 F.


Can you temper store-bought chocolate? Is it possible and necessary to temper store-bought quality chocolate like Lindt?

Say, for example, you want to use it to make chocolate moulds - would it be possible to melt and temper the chocolate and have the same result as that of couverture chocolate?

Yes, you absolutely can (Lindt dark chocolate bars work just fine).

Whether you can temper chocolate is simply a matter of whether there's enough cocoa butter (the fat that is actually crystallizing during the tempering process). You will want to have at least ~30% cocoa butter by mass if you want to temper the chocolate, but even 20% will work.

When you see a chocolate bar that says something like, "70% cocoa," that is the sum of the fat (cocoa butter) and non-fat parts (cocoa solids) of the cacao bean. That 70% might be divided between 30% fat and 40% cacao, for example, which is definitely sufficient for tempering.

If you want to know if a particular bar can be used for tempering, here's a quick test:

Read the label, and see if the primary fat is real cocoa butter
Make sure that the bar is at least 30% fat by mass

Small warning: different chocolates have different tempering curves. This is why dark, milk, and white chocolates generally have slightly different tempering curves. If you have a good, instant-read thermometer, it will help in the process of learning how to temper your chocolate of choice.


Butter burns when pan searing mahi mahi I have been trying to cook some new things, and I bought myself a good allclad skillet. I've tried pan searing fish a few times, using some hipster techniques I saw on YouTube.

I heat the pan pretty high, add in some peanut oil, and add the fish (already seasoned on both sides)

I leave it for a few minutes (med high heat) and then flip it. At that point, I added in a tab of butter, a crushed garlic clove, and some fresh herbs. As the butter melted I basted the fish.

The thing was, at that point the butter got really dark. Should I have lowered the heat, or done it more toward the end?

In this case since the fish filet was pretty thick I had the heat lower then when I cooked a bass filet, but had the same basic issue.

video

thanks.

Use a very high heat oil such as peanut or avocado. These oils have a much higher working temperature than does butter. Think about it. Do you want seared Ahi or do you want smoking butter. By not using butter, and using a high heat oil, you get the food that you want - seared Ahi


Balsamic vinegar became too thick. How to liquefy it? I store an Italian balsamic vinegar (BVM) in a fridge and use it from time to time for a couple of years. It used to be thick and viscous. (In contrast to some other reports, I did not need to reduce it, as the original consistence was totally satisfying.) But now it has almost solidified:

How to make it liquid again?

I would use some good regular (i.e., a non-reduced or a non-aged) balsamic vinegar to thin it out.


Candi sugar problems around 130°C — what happened? Today I was brewing a candi sugar. Recipe I use is simple: unrefined beet sugar, white sugar (for cost saving), a pinch of dry malt extract for Millard reactions, and water just to dissolve it all. Then heat to 120 — 130°C, keep at this range for an hour or so, heat to 150°C, pour on baking paper and let it cool.

Previous time result was like a brown glass. Smooth. And making it was straightforward, it stayed liquid all the time, from start to finish.

This time when I reached around 130°C, sugar suddenly started to solidify, formed thick mass and big solid chunks. I added hot water to keep it from burning, tried to keep it closer to 120°C, but this happened again. Result has less rich taste and is not so transparent. And of course brighter, because I kept it, on average, at lower temperature, but colour I can easily work around in finished product.

What might be the reason for this difference? Using more % of unrefined cane sugar could cause this? Original Belgian candi is 100% unrefined, so I expected it to be better. Or maybe going too fast with heating? I used pot better suited for induction this time. Or anything else I should think of?

I think you heated the sugar too quickly. Try again with a slower increase in temperature and you should have better results.


Chiffon cake constantly has an unfilled bottom Not sure why this keeps happening. I read that mixing the yolks is critical and I mix until the color becomes whiter.

In the oven it grows very tall roughly 20 minutes after start, but starts collapsing after that. Once taken from the oven and put upside down it still collapses onto itself and becomes at roughly the same height as the pan

This will happen if you grease your cake pan or if the cake isn't allowed to fully cool before being removed from the pan. Another possible culprit is overbeating your egg whites.

Egg foam cakes, like chiffon, blow up with steam as they bake. The tube pan gives them more surface area both so they bake in the middle and also to give them more to cling to.

After they bake the cake is inverted until the egg proteins set. If not inverted, the cake will collapse as the steam escapes. A good rule of thumb is about an hour rest but the cake should be nearly room temperature.

If the tube pan is greased then the cake will not adhere near the end of cooking or through the inversion rest period.

The consistency of the egg whites is also important. If the whites are overbeaten they will lose some of their elasticity and give up their steam when they are stretched too far. Chiffon cake recipe do call for firm peaks, that is if you pull your beaters out the resultant peaks don't droop. But if you beat much past that phase the whites can get fragile.

Keep in mind that you should expect the cake to shrink slightly from it's max height when the steam is hot, but nothing like the collapse in your photo.

I don't believe that over or under beating the egg yolks would have caused the behavior you were seeing.


Is it possible to create good hummus without a food processor? I don't own a food processor and because I don't have much storage in my apartment, I'm not entirely interested in purchasing one right now.

Is it possible to create good hummus without a food processor?

Would a blender be an alright substitute?

While you can make a decent hummus with a blender, it will be thinner than the hummus you would make in a food processor (at least thinner than my recipe).

If you have a potato masher or ricer, either would do the job nicely, giving you a texture that is less smooth than you might get with a food processor, but definitely good.  I like the texture when done by hand (think lumpy mashed potatoes) and the flavor, of course, is the same.  You can accomplish the same thing a little easier with a stand or hand mixer.

Keep in mind that hummus has been around a lot longer than the food processor, so if you do it by hand, it will probably be more like "real" hummus.


roasting vs microwave+roasting beets We made a recipe tonight for halibut and beets.  It called for cooking the beets in the microwave with some water until tender, peeling and slicing them, then putting them in the pan with the fish to bake at 450F until done.  They take more time to cook than the fish, but why not peel and slice, put them in the oven, then add the fish at such a time as they will be done together?

Skipping the microwave step works, I suppose the author of the recipe used the microwave to save time. If you decide to roast the beets directly, keep the following differences in mind:

Time
Roasting beets in the oven takes significantly longer than parboiling in the microwave. I can't say how long slices take (depends on thickness), but whole beets need 60 to 90 minutes, depending on size. Same reason why some cooks parboil their baked potatoes, then finish them in the oven.
Taste
Roasting beets in the oven will caramelize the sugars in them, making them noticably sweeter than just cooked beets. The long roast will also bring out other flavour components.
Texture
Roasting slices in the oven will likely dry them out somewhat. (I personally would go for wedges, but that's my choice) You either have to live with that or take counter-meassures like covering the dish, adding liquid or oiling the slices.

In short, yes you can skip the microwave step.


Baking - Substitutions for a gingersnap crust I'm making a recipe that calls for gingersnap crumbs in a crust. I don't really want to make a trip to the store to try and find gingersnaps but I have graham cracker crumbs. Could I just put a bit of ginger or molasses with the graham to make gingersnaps or is there a better way to substitute gingersnap crumbs?

Thanks in advance for all help!

I suggest you look for a similar recipe that makes its crust from the crackers you have, then add ginger to that. The fat content (and therefore the fat you need to add) will vary, as will the sugar. I've done almost the opposite substitution on a chocolate cheesecake and could have been a bit more careful to get the texture right.

I'm told Graham crackers are very suitable for a crust, certainly the nearest equivalents over here are, so it it just a matter of getting the substitution right.


How do I effectively rub spices into fish? I did a fish rub for the first time last night. I mixed the spices and then put the thawed tilapia fillets right into the bowl. I noticed two problems:

The spices tended to clump up and became difficult to work with.
After cooking I noticed that there were some VERY concentrated pockets of flavor; not at all uniform. Sometimes these were unpleasantly strong.

Any advice for next time?

First of all, if you're seasoning tilapia, you'll want to add some oil to it, since tilapia has almost no fat.  So, here's the steps:

Drizzle oil over the tilapia (both sides).
Sprinkle it lightly with the spice mixture, all over
Let sit 10-15 minutes.
Sprinkle with starch (e.g. flour) at this point if you're frying them.

Optionally, you can also add some lemon or lime juice (just a little) in step 1.  You also want the tilapia sitting on something flat, with the filets in one layer, like a large plate or baking sheet, not heaped up in a bowl.

For spicing small filets, you want a finely ground, moderate-flavor spice mixture.  Unlike beef or pork, you're not marinating the fish for a long time, and you're not cooking it for  along time.  So the spicing on the fish isn't really a "rub"; it's spicing to eat.  I recommend against using rubs designed for meat on light fish like tilapia.


What do I need to know about coffee machines and grinders to get started making good coffee at home? How to make a strong mug of instant Coffee?

  "Crema" is a light-colored foam layer which builds on top of espresso, and many people like it. Espresso is also stronger than normal coffee. For both, you need an espresso machine and real coffee beans. Different coffee brewing methods produce different types of coffee. Espresso is the hardest to make at home. Instant coffee is easy, but has bad reputation taste-wise, so don't expect to get coffee shop quality with it.

Questions:

At home, does grinding coffee in a coffee grinder and then making coffee in a typical machine produce the same results as you would get in a typical coffee shop with a proper Barista (assuming the beans are freshly ground)?
Are their coffee machines and grinders available which would be suitable for single servings? If not, then what do you do when you need to make coffee only for yourself?
If I could only pick one (between a grinder and a decent coffee maker, which is more important in achieving the best possible coffee at home?

You need to know what coffee you want to drink. Your question is like asking "What do need to know before buying meat cooking tools". If you want to eat your meat as BBQ, you need a grill and tongs. If you want to eat it as meatloaf, you need a meat grinder and an oven. Similarly, with coffee, you need to know what coffee you want to drink. Different types of coffee are made with different processes, and each process needs different tools. You need a dripper and filters for drip coffee, an espresso machine for espresso, and so on.

Your decision will be probably based on

taste and caffeine content. Coffee produced with different processes tastes differently. It also delivers different amounts of caffeine per ml of drink (although this can be tweaked within the same process). Espresso, drip coffee, Turkish coffee, mokka pot coffee, French press coffee, Aeropress coffee, instant coffee, Nespresso coffee and cold brewed coffee all produce a basic coffee drink (and this is not an exhaustive selection). If you are into mixed coffee drinks like mocha, latte machiato, cappucino, etc., you will need a combination of a tool which can produce the right coffee for your mixed drink and a tool which can create the drink (e.g. a way to foam milk).
The money you want to invest. Many people love a good espresso, but a professional Italian machine costs several thousands of Euro, guzzles energy and takes up space. Home espresso automates offer a somewhat inferior result for a few hundreds of Euros. Or you can make Turkish coffee with a 2-Euro sieve and whatever small pot you already have in the kitchen. Most people go neither for the expensive espresso machines, nor for the Turkish method (which leaves dregs in the cup - most people in the West want their coffee clear) and choose some method which is affordable but still produces coffee of a type they find agreeable.
The time you want to invest per cup. Nespresso has a devoted following of people for whom coffee making has to be convenient above all. There are methods which produce much better coffee for a fraction of the cost, but you have to 1) invest time in learning how to brew well, and 2) take the time to brew. It is mostly in the range of several minutes per cup, plus overhead for assembling and cleaning utensils.

If you are confused by the wide range of coffee methods and think "I don't know how each of these coffee types tastes like, how do I know which one to choose?" I would recommend to start by the second criterion (money) or third criterion (effort), depending on which one you are more pressed for. As an example, if you are a middle class person to whom it doesn't matter if they will spend 100 or 200 Euros on a tool which will be used as a part of their daily routine, go by effort. Look up what it takes to make coffee with the different methods, and think which you can imagine yourself doing. Then try coffee made with this method (if you need special tools for it, maybe you have a friend who has the tools?). If it is good enough for you, get the tools and start brewing. If not, move on to the next method on the list. Money-first would work similarly, but you rank the tools by price rather than effort per cup.

The first criterion - taste - is probably the one which is most likely to result in personal satisfaction, but you would have to know what you want before settling on a method, and it would be very difficult to find a way to taste all the different types of coffee and to develop a taste for each. Note that, if you are just starting out with coffee, your taste is also likely to develop and shift over time. So, I wouldn't recommend taste-first for people going for their first set of tools.


Is it acceptable to reheat frozen food? If I make a frozen meal and then save the leftovers in the refrigerator, is it OK to reheat it the next day in the microwave? Since it's already been frozen (or freeze dried, whatever they do), it seems like it may not be the best thing to do.

And I realize this is hardly "cooking", but I figure it loosely fits under the site's umbrella.

If you mean like a potpie or a TV dinner? Yes you're fine, go for it.

If you're really worried about it here is the rule. (been a few years since I took serveSafe)

When reheating foods you want the internal temperature to reach 165 degrees F. (74C) for 15 seconds. In practice (at home NOT at the restaurant) just get it nice and hot.

Note: Homemade foods generally need to be carefully reheated but not frozen dinners etc. They cook them pretty good at the factory.


Why add malt to bread? Several bread recipes that I have been looking at recently call for rye malt.

I know that malt is sweet but what other effect will malt have on a bread recipe?

Malt syrups and powders come in two forms, Diastatic and Non-Diastatic. The Non-Diastatic kind is just sugar, and is only useful for adding a little sweetness and flavor.

Diastatic Malt Syrups and Powders are made by taking grain (usually barley, but others can be used, like rye), allowing it to sprout, then toasting it lightly to halt the sprouting process. The little roots and stuff are rubbed off, and the grain is ground into a powder, or soaked into a syrup. This is very similar to the process used to convert grains for beer-making.

The syrup is rich in enzymes that are created by the sprouting grain, for the purpose of converting the seed's starch reserves into sugar for the young plant. Non-Diastatic versions have these enzymes deactivated by heat, leaving the syrup "inert".

The enzymes and sugars do three important things

Provide nutrients for yeast.
Facilitate the conversion of starch into sugar, making bread more flavorful.
The little shot of extra sugar also gives yeast an initial boost.

Here is an article on malt syrups and powders and how to make them yourself:
http://artisanbreadbaking.com/flour/malts/

And King Arthur Flour sells a version of the powder, along with some recipe examples:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/diastatic-malt-powder-16-oz


How to best barbecue calamari/squid? Is is possible at all to barbecue uncooked calamari (tubes) without getting them tough? If so, how should it be done? Are there any preparations (marinade?) which may help to get them soft? Does the size of the calamari matter?

See:  How do you cook calamari / squid and avoid making it tough?

The principles remain the same for grilling or barbecuing:  you want to cook the squid briefly so it doesn't toughen up, or slowly for a long time, so that the collagen dissolves to gelatin, making the squid tender again.  In between is the rubbery zone.

The main issue is that many squid are not really large enough to place directly on a grill grate without danger of falling through, so you may wish to use a fish or vegetable grilling grate.  You can then grill them briefly, over high heat.

It is probably possible to use low-and-slow smoking techniques (true barbecuing), but I didn't find any really credible sources or recipes, and I have never tried this myself.  You could also grill the squid to get some smokey flavor, then finish by braising them (for example, in a disposable pie tin on the cool side of your grill, with flavorful liquid) for a long time.

Googling barbecued squid recipe will give you many recipes to try, with a variety of marinades and treatments.


Why does my walnut cake fall? The recipe uses 3 eggs for volume, separated, yolks and sugar whipped over hot water until triple in volume, whites whipped to stiff peaks. Ground walnuts, 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, 1/4 c butter are all folded in. baked at 350 for 40 minutes.

During baking it looks great, rises and is perfection. On cooling the center starts to fall, then the sides turn into the center.

How do you stop it falling? Am i overwhipping?

This "cake" is practically a souffle, and falls for the same reason a souffle does: it has nothing to keep it tall. It first rises because of the steam created during baking, but once the steam production is over, it deflates. Unlike real cakes, which include flour, there is nothing to create a persistent structure here.

There is nothing to prevent a souffle from falling when it has cooled, it is like expecting a punctured baloon to stay inflated. I would suggest using a different recipe. Alternatively, you can decide that you are OK with a moist, fudgy cake without much rise. To avoid a mishappen shape from first rising too much and then falling, whip the eggs less and combine them more thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients, while still keeping some air in.


How deeply should I peel sweet potatoes? When peeling sweet potatoes, should I just peel the outermost layer, or should I be peeling off the white part as well till I hit the orange inside? Should I keep going until it's all a darkish orange?

It doesn't really matter.

A lot of people cook them with peel still on and peel it with their hands when cooked (Careful, hot!).
You can peel them before you cook them, and then it's just a question of taste I'd say.

Personally, I would peel off the white as well, though I'm not sure about this.


Shelf Stable "Ganache" I'm baking something that I might end up sending on a very long trip. For this I would want to make ganache, but it may be in transit for as long as 10 days so I don't want to use cream.

If I do make these, the ganache would between sandwich cookies. What could I use for that, stable at varying temperatures, for as long as 10 days, possibly even longer?

You could make a ganache type filling if you used water, cocoa powder,chocolate chips, butter, and icing sugar. Adding all but the chocolate chips in a saucepan will create a chocolate like sauce. Thick and with body. Once everything has melted,and blended smoothly together, you add the chocolate chips with the heat off. let the residual heat melt them the rest of the way. Once cooled it can be sandwiched between cookies, cake topping, cupcake "frosting", eclair icing. It is a shelf stable "ganache" like filling I like to use. In terms of quantity, I use 1 Lb. butter, 4 cups icing sugar, 1 cup water, 1 cup cocoa powder, 2 cups chocolate chips. This is a very rough recipe as I do most of my pastry making/baking by feel. *Note...The more chips you add, the thicker the end results.