Are limes and lime juice more acidic than lemons and lemon juice? I attended a business meeting in the Midwest and one of our clients took our management team and a few other business partners to dinner at an awesome Mexican restaurant. When the appetizers were served I commented that it was a wonderful presentation and that everything looked very fresh, including the avocado slices.

Speaking to the woman seated across from me I said that even though I use a good amount of lemon juice, whenever I prepare avocados they still turned dark pretty quickly. This happens whether they are sliced, used in guacamole, etc. She responded that the secret is to use lime juice. She proceeded to tell me that she was born and raised in Central America and that it is customary there to use fresh limes or juice rather than lemon.

I have tried it and lime seems to work much better than lemon, so it would stand to reason that they are more acidic. However, I never thought there was that much difference. So, on to the questions.

Are limes more acidic than lemons? Are there any other differences in their properties that could make a difference?

I'm culling a lot of information from one of my favorite cocktail books for this one.

Yes, limes have a slightly higher acid content (on average) than lemons do - about 6% for limes, compared to 4.5% for lemons.  More importantly for their flavor, lemons have about 2% total sugar, while limes have somewhere between 0.5% and 0.75%.  Sugar/sweetness has quite a suppressive effect on the perception of sourness, so lemon juice will most likely taste a bit less sour than lime.

The composition of acids in the two also differ.  The acid in lemon juice is almost entirely citric acid, which also makes up most of the acid in limes.  However, limes include about 10% each of succinic acid and malic acid which have an effect on their flavor.  Malic acid is most recognizable as the sour flavor from tart apples and rhubarb.  About succinic acid, Wikipedia states:

  It lends to fermented beverages such as wine and beer a common taste that is a combination of saltiness, bitterness and acidity.

Personally, I think the difference is perceptible in beverages, but less so in cooking.

Culturally, lime would most certainly be the traditional choice for Latin American cuisine.  Lime is much more readily available in Central and South America (three of the biggest producers in the world are located there).  How the difference in acid content would contribute to the browning of avocados is more questionable.

EDIT: Here's an interesting paper, suggesting that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is more effective at preventing avocado browning than citric acid.  Which is an interesting wrinkle, because lemons contain significantly more vitamin C than limes do...

EDIT 2: And along comes Jolenealaska, with an experiment that seems to undermine the entire assumption that acid reduces browning of avocado at all!  Seems like the real secret may just be keeping your avocados either uncut, or refrigerated and tightly wrapped if you have to cut them ahead of service.


What tempering process do you use when moulding chocolates I want make moulded chocolate but am always having a hard time keeping the chocolate in temper for the sealing process.

I use the microwave method to temper the chocolate and I do so with a batch of about 600g. Once the chocolate is tempered, I fill the moulds with the chocolate and then empty the moulds back into the bowl of tempered chocolate. I find that when I do this the chocolate in the bowl is already setting and becoming hard.

One idea I had was to temper more chocolate so that there is more in the bowl and will keep in temper for longer. But if I do this, I will have a lot of tempered chocolate left over.

Is there a better or more efficient way to make a one-off batch of moulded chocolates?

Either use both methods or just use the second step to maintain the temper/work-ability of your chocolate:

A) Use the double boiler method to start tempering your chocolate.

A bowl/pan of chocolate sitting above a pot of hot water - the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl/pan.

B) Dip the bottom of your tempered chocolate in hot water for a few seconds, scraping the base (and sides) of the bowl/pan, mixing it into the rest of the chocolate.
You can repeat this step if the chocolate is not warm enough/cools down.

Of course you could look at investing in a chocolate melter.


How long should roast pork be cooked so that it stays light pink? Often pork is much too dry when served, I would like to have it slightly 'rosé' pink.

So I am looking for some cooking instructions for cooking a roast pork in the oven. A time/temperature table should be fine.

I ask this as from the information I see around, temperature varies from 160ºC to 210ºC. But from experience 200ºC makes the meat much too dry.

The important part of cooking meat to a safe range is a combination of time and temperature. The ranges that you often see from people like the USDA are a temperature at which everything nasty dies instantly. This is a much more definitive test than saying that you need to reach a temperature and hold it for a certain period of time. The US government has a great table showing time and temperature for cooking pork safely (just scroll down a little from the link). As you can see, it's safe to cook meat well below the often given 160F. In fact, it's instantly safe to eat at 144F. I assume that the reason for the 16 degree buffer on the often stated temperature is just to make sure people don't run afoul of the magic number.

What you must understand is that, at these temperatures, it's imperative that you don't mess about with the amount of time. They must be held for at least the time given. But, 140F only needs to be held there for a minute. Once you've got something all the way to 140F, residual cooking should hold it there for at least 60 seconds. Just don't play this one fast and loose.

Cooking something like a roast is slightly more complicated than just getting the meat to temperature though. Generally there's a lot of fat and intramuscular tissue that you want to rend and denature respectively. That's what makes the meat so juicy and tender. While this will begin to happen at lower temperatures, it takes longer. So the meat may not come out as tender or flavor full as you'd like.

I would suggest a little experimentation. As mentioned, the thermometer will be a huge help if you want to be able to do this consistently (due to varying sizes of meat). I'd throw it in the oven and run some tests. I usually do Boston Butt to 168F, and this comes out with some pink parts, but I'm not sure how pink you want the meat (or how much of it should be pink). I'd recommend starting at about 160F and then moving up or down in temperature based on how the meal comes out.


How long can olives be left out of the refrigerator? I left a bottle of garlic stuffed olives out overnight. Are these still safe to eat?

Traditional pickles made with brine and vinegar are very hardy, and where used in the days before refrigeration to store food over many months

The secret is to only use a very clean utensil to remove a single daily portion from the main storage vessel, and otherwise keep the main storage vessel tightly closed and in a cool and dark location

With modern pickles, who knows? Read the side of the jar, if it seems to have a decent amount of salt and/or vinegar it should be just fine

If you haven't put dirty utensils or your hands in it, it will last a long time (weeks or months, depending on the ambient temperature level)

Otherwise, just keep them in the fridge :-)


How can i preserve squid ink I clean my own squids and I want to preserve the ink for later use.
I was wondering what to do with the ink sac. Should I collect the ink in a little jar and freeze it?

Or how long will it last in the refrigerator?

Any ideas?

From what I understand you should be able to extract the ink and freeze it for later use. Users on this forum suggest extracting the ink and then freezing. Another person here says:

  I save my ink from freshly cleaned squid and just freeze it

So it looks like your best bet would be to extract the ink from the sacs into a suitable freezer container and freeze it.

Freezing will definitely help it to last longer as the shelf life of squid in the refrigerator is 1-2 days. You can extend this to 3-5 months in the freezer. I'd imagine the squid ink would have a similar shelf life.


How to make the marshmallow swirl for Chocolate Marshmallow Ice cream from scratch? My wife loves chocolate marshmallow swirl ice cream, but she doesn't like store-bought marshmallows. I would like to surprise her with homemade chocolate marshmallow swirl ice cream, but I am unsure how to make the marshmallow swirl.

Here are some of the options I have considered:

make homemade marshmallow creme (eg Fluff)
melt homemade marshmallows

both of these seem experimental.

Does anyone have a tried and true technique?

I have made marshmallows using Alton Brown's method; it works and is a lot of fun. If you don't form the individual marshmallows, but just swirl it into the ice cream while it's still a sticky mess, that should work for your swirl.

There is even a video in that link.

As ElendilTheTall mentioned in comments, you probably should reduce the amount of gelatin in Alton's recipe, perhaps by a third, to get a good swirl.


Where do I buy food additives (not in bulk)? I occasionally want a pure food additive for various reasons (pure potassium chloride for sports drinks, pure MSG for everything), but I can't find any decent places to get them except amazon.com. Now I'm looking for disodium inosinate, and even Amazon doesn't have that. I expect I'll be looking for weird things like this in the future, so I'm wondering where people buy food additives (besides bulk suppliers).

Hey guys, since the question was posted they opened up Modernist Pantry, which specifically caters to this need. They supply chemicals for molecular gastronomy in consumer-sized portions.

For $10 or less apiece, you can order small amounts of emulsifiers, gelling agents, foaming agents, etc. They also have spherification kits, the Texturas products, and Molecule-R's lineup.


Does sugar inhibit mold growth? I was reading a post earlier regarding maple syrup being left out overnight.  They were asking if their beloved Maple syrup was still safe to consume.  In the comments I believe someone brought up this question I am asking, I'm sure I could do the research and find out but hey whats the fun in that.  So here's my question does the sugar in Maple syrup or any product for that matter inhibit the growth of mold.

Also if its true, how much sugar is needed percentage wise?

Does it matter what type of sugar?

Water activity is the big issue in preventing microorganism growth in sugary solutions.

Water Activity of Foods Table     Includes limit points for various types of bugs. A few molds will grow down to 0.60Aw.

Another foods Aw table

Water Activity of Sucrose and NaCl Solutions     From which: 180 g sucrose + 100 g water will give you a 64% sucrose solution. That'll have a water activity of 0.87, which is low enough to prevent proliferation of most bacteria, but not molds or quite, yeasts.

Oh yes, the question: A water activity below 0.8 will prevent growth of most molds, so at room temp. your syrup (Aw ~.85) will likely eventually pick up some mold, but not much in the way of bacteria.


Making potato pancakes without egg I am wanting to make these Kartoffelpuffer, which is german for potato pancakes. I am looking to use this recipe https://www.allergygirleats.com/potato-pancakes/

The ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients

500g Parboiled Potatoes

1/4 cup White Onion - finely chopped

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Potato Starch

1 Egg

1 tbsp Ghee

1 tsp Olive oil

This is a gluten free recipe but I was also wondering if I could make it vegan as well/dairy free? Which ingredients here would fall under vegan or dairy free?
I  saw the eggs, is there any substitution for that?

Thanks. (Need it more vegan than dairy free, that's the least of the priorities) Thanks!

The non-vegan ingredients are the egg and the ghee (clarified butter, browned to develop the nutty flavours).

For the ghee you can substitute the same quantity of olive oil, possibly with some loss of flavour.

The egg is harder to replace. You could try a commercial egg replacement: these are powdered starch (one product uses potato and tapioca flour, so is gluten free) with assorted emulsifiers. A substitute widely recommend on the web for savoury pancakes is a gel made from flax or chia seeds: mix 1 tablespoon of seeds with 2.5 tablespoons of water and leave for 10 minutes for the seeds to fully hydrate.


What would happen with food stored in a sterile environment? Imagine I get a heat-proof plastic bag or other convenient container, put a chicken in it sealling it completely and bake it. All bacterias/living thing should be dead and the food should rely inside a sterile environment, right? Could I be able to store it on my kitchen shelf and leave it there for a long period of time without spoiling it? I have a feeling it's not possible otherwise we would be using this technic for a while, but why itsn't it?

You would need to use fancy pressure canning techniques to get the entire contents of your container up to the temperatures required to kill botulism spores (et al?) that could begin to thrive later in the anaerobic environment inside. But given that prerequisite, what you describe sounds like the canned meat products that you find in the grocery store. You can certainly find canned cooked chicken meat there (near the canned cooked tuna in supermarkets near me).

As for a whole canned chicken, no, I don't see that in my area. Maybe the effort required to achieve this isn't cost effective for the consumer market. Doing it at home as you describe doesn't seem worth the trouble to me. Perhaps NASA is working on it.


Cheese sauce without flour? I wish to make mac & cheese using real cheddar (not processed cheese). I am familiar with the usual process of making a base out of butter, milk and flour and then mixing the grated cheese in to get a thick and creamy sauce.

This time I wish to skip the flour. Is it possible to pull it off this way? I have a bunch of eggs I could use for their yolks if it helps.

If you have evaporated milk (also known as unsweetened condensed milk) in your pantry, you can use it to replace everything except the cheese in a cheese sauce for stovetop macaroni and cheese.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese with Evaporated Milk Cheese Sauce

This recipe is an example of mac and cheese made with an evaporated milk cheese sauce.

Ingredients

  6 ounces (170g) elbow macaroni
  6 ounces (180ml) evaporated milk
  6 ounces (170g) grated mild or medium cheddar cheese, or any good melting cheese, such as Fontina, Gruyère, or Jack

Directions:

  Place macaroni in a medium saucepan or skillet and add just enough cold water to cover. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Continue to cook, stirring, until water has been almost completely absorbed and macaroni is just shy of al dente, about 6 minutes.
  Immediately add evaporated milk and bring to a boil. Add cheese. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring continuously, until cheese is melted and liquid has reduced to a creamy sauce, about 2 minutes longer. Season to taste with more salt and serve immediately.

The recipe does not drain the macaroni, but instead uses the remaining cooking liquid as part of the sauce. This is important, as the starch released by the pasta during cooking is needed to keep the sauce smooth.

(Consider this cheese sauce recipe, which uses a similar ratio of cheese to evaporated milk but also includes cornstarch. The "Read more" link in the recipe notes that a sauce made with just cheese and evaporated milk was significantly less smooth than a sauce made with both evaporated milk and cornstarch.)

A note for baked macaroni and cheese:

A footnote in a recipe for baked mac and cheese from the same website noted that a different cheese sauce recipe using evaporated milk did not work well in baked mac and cheese.

  I found that [the cheese sauce] didn't translate as well to the baked version of the dish; it tends to break when subsequently baked, diminishing its gooey texture and cheesy flavor.


Store cracked eggs for a week? I love using Egg Beaters but I want to start using more natural eggs. One of the things I love about Egg Beaters is that I can just pour the eggs from the spout, directly into my pan. Call me crazy, but I find that to be incredibly convenient for the way I cook.

So of course I can simulate this on my own by only cracking eggs once a week and putting them in a container in the fridge. But is it safe? Is there a particular container I should use? I was thinking of re-purposing something like an aluminum water bottle and just store all my eggs for the week inside that. Is that a safe practice?

Fine, you're crazy. There's no time savings in shelling a lot of eggs at once .vs. shelling them as you need them, and there is a HUGE loss of storage life.

Once removed from the shell, 2-4 days is the official word, so a week - no.

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/eggstorage.html

http://www.incredibleegg.org/cooking-school/tips-tricks/egg-storage/

The first site suggests the possibility that you might beat them and freeze them, but then fails to give a storage time for that particular option. The second site suggests that up to a year is acceptable, and further suggests adding salt or sugar to improve the texture of egg yolks that have been frozen. I have no practical experience with freezing eggs myself, they last quite long enough in the shell in my refrigerator for my purposes.


Should I marinade brisket for smoking overnight, or only do a dry rub? I normally grill flank steaks in a marinade w/ citrus juices, soy sauce, garlic and chipotle overnight...
I want to get into smoking brisket and wanted people response about taking a brisket and marinading in such a similar marinade overnight before I pat dry and then smoke or am I making a BIG mistake and should just do a dry rub 2 hours prior to smoking?

Marination is a surface treatment.  So, you are not getting any added benefit by marinating over night.  The only thing that generally penetrates is salt, which might happen, depending on the quantity of soy sauce you are using. So...probably doesn't matter too much.
If you want to "get into smoking brisket", I would recommend a traditional approach.  Brisket is challenging enough as it is.  Master the traditional approach, then deviate if you want to mix things up.


Making sticky rice without rice cooker I know that a rice cooker is the easiest way to make sticky rice, because of the way it is steamed. However, I don't have a rice cooker: what is the most effective way to make sticky rice using regular kitchen tools and appliances, i.e. ones which most people would have? (I am not against getting a rice cooker: I just don't want to invest in an appliance which I would probably not use that frequently. So I'm interested in learning how to make sticky rice with your average kitchen tools and appliances.)

You can replicate a Thai rice steamer with a deep frying pan, a splatter guard, and a heatproof bowl. Just place a mound of soaked glutinous rice in the centre of the splatter guard over simmering water, then place the bowl on top, and steam for about 20-30 minutes, turning the mound over once or twice to ensure even cooking.


How does the number of eggs affect a cookie recipe? If a chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for two eggs and I add three eggs, what will the effect be on my cookies?

Likewise if it calls for two eggs and I only put in one egg what will the effect be?

Eggs contribute to better texture, leavening and they extend shelf life. More eggs = moister (sp!) cookie. Eggs are also crucial in building structure. They are about 75% moisture, 12% protein, 10% fat and 2ish % sugar.

The white provides strength, stability and moisture.

Yolks, where all of the fat is in an egg, increase richness, tenderness and flavor.

Therefore, if you put an extra egg, you will get a chewier cookie. I do it all the time. If you put less, you will get a more crumbly cookie.


Chicken Stock alternatives? I want to make a barbecue sauce which has chicken stock in its recipe.
This is the first time I needed chicken stock for cooking; somehow, I didn't come by it up until now.

Anyway, neither me or any of my roommates ever buy chickens with bones; we always buy clean chickens or clean wings (nothing to create stock with).

I understand I could buy a chicken with bones for the sake of making chicken stock, but I was wondering whether there is an easier, alternative solution that could substitute for chicken stock in my sauce. Think of "chicken stock for students."

Rule number one with sauces: don't miss an opportunity to add some flavor. The worst thing you can make is a bland sauce, and while I doubt a little water or watery store-bought broth would bland this one up, I'd use whiskey myself. It's liquid, the flavor should be compatible, and I've never seen a college student who couldn't lay his hands on a bottle.

Bullion cubes/granules are fine, but, again, I'd probably add booze instead of water to hydrate them.


How do big companies can products at large scales? Canning product in small batches can be done using bath or pressure canning. But it takes a long time for canning a small batch. I was wondering how big companies do it at large scales.

What I've seen (on TV, not in person) is typically somewhat different than a home process - the food is sealed in the cans (raw) and then run through a giant pressure cooker, typically on some sort of conveyor system, and spends a number of hours being cooked in the cans at the same time as it's being "canned" (heat-processed to kill bacteria) - at least this seems to apply to canned beans. Labels are applied after the can has cooled.


How can I get fried prawns to be juicy? Okay I give up, I've tried and failed about 8 times now frying prawns but they never are succulent. The recipe that I want to get done is pretty simple:

De-vein. Salt the prawn for some time and allow it to marinate.
Wash them.  Fry them in some oil till they turn pink.
Add onion, chillies, ginger, garlic. Some turmeric. Some tomatoes.

The cuisine is Goan if it's of any help.

This is exactly what mum does and somehow it turn out great. The only things different that I'm doing are:

The original recipe uses coconut oil, I'm using sunflower
I'm using frozen prawns because i cant get hold of fresh prawns.

I don't think any of this should affect the dish. Anyway, what always happens is that the prawns are either too chewy or too dry (opposite of juicy).

What am I doing wrong here?  How do I know if the prawns are just cooked right?  Should I be using low or high heat?

Any other tips for getting really juicy fried prawns?

You are overcooking them. When the shrimp turn pink at the end of your second step, they are done. When you add your remaining ingredients and continue to cook them, you are overcooking the shrimp.

I'd suggest cooking the shrimp until they are pink, then setting them aside. Cook your remaining ingredients in the pan until done, and then toss with the shrimp and serve.

Regarding the oil, it shouldn't make a difference that you are using sunflower oil. Regarding the frozen prawns, unless your mom was purchasing them direct from an oceanside market, she was likely buying once-frozen prawns too. Most prawns found in supermarkets are flash frozen at the source, and are only thawed and put on ice at the supermarket.


What are the most effective wheat flour substitutes? While not something I'm overly dogmatic about I try to keep my carbohydrate intake relatively low, especially during the day so as to not become tired.

I've found that in some recipes, particularly for pancakes or breading (for frying) I can substitute almond meal or a combination of almond meal and fine parmesan and usually come out okay. In fact almond meal pancakes turn out great.

I'm interested to hear of any other flour substitutes others have used, even if they aren't low carb as it might serve for inspiration to find further subs.

Cheers.

Wheat Flours at Cook's Thesaurus discusses varieties of wheat flours and their substitutions in general baking, yeast breads, and as breading agents.

And here's a reference discussing "the carbohydrate-content, dietary fiber content and 'net carbs' in all types of flour": Carbohydrates in Flour and Baking Foods.

I consult these pages as jumping off points when I'm altering my baking recipes. I'm a big fan of mixing flours to come up with lower-carbohydrate and more nutritionally sound baked goods (white flour isn't the most nutritional option out there, no matter that it's one of the most common options in baking). Oat, spelt, and soy flours figure in a lot of my recipes (note that using soy flour calls reducing the baking temperature called for in a recipe by 25°F, and that soy has a very pronounced flavor that not everyone likes).

The more you learn about the various flour options, the easier it is to make substitutions with confidence, so I encourage you to do a bit of reading. Of course, if you're rushed, baking sites (ones that sell high-quality flour, such as Bob's Red Mill) tend to tell you right on the page how much of their flour to substitute for wheat flour.

As a general rule, the more whole grain flours you use the better because of their higher fiber contents. If you subtract the fiber from the carbohydrate count, you find the net carbohydrate of the flour in question, and it's the net carbohydrate that tells you how your sugar levels will be affected. One carbohydrate serving is 15 grams of carbohydrate total.

One cup of all-purpose flour has 95 grams of carbohydrate and 3 grams of dietary fiber, which gives each cup a net carbohydrate amount of 92 grams (which is 6.13 carb. servings). One cup of whole wheat flour, on the other hand, has 87 grams of carbohydrate and 15 grams of dietary fiber, which gives each cup a net carbohydrate amount of 72 grams (which is 4.8 carb. servings). Even if you're baking a bread that isn't particularly low in carbohydrate, getting the benefit of the increased nutrition and fiber from a whole grain flour will benefit you.


What determines how well cheese melts I have had my fair share of eating cheese and experimenting with them. Sometimes they come out heavenly while other times, it turn out to be a huge flop. Usually when it flops, it's because I am expecting the cheese to melt and it doesn't.

So my question is, what properties of cheese determines how well the cheese melts? This way I can determine in the future whether a cheese I am about to experiment with is meltable. Are there physical indicators that I can see and feel that can help me determine a cheese's meltability?

Is there a special way to increase how well cheese melts? I have noticed that some cheese melt slightly on the outside but the inside turn rubbery and doesn't melt.

Three factors influence how well cheese melts:

The amount of moisture,
The amount of fat,
How it was set.

The meltiest cheeses have a lot of moisture and fat and were set with rennet and not acid.
Both moisture and fat leave space between the casein proteins that allows them to move. Otherwise they are packed together and don't flow as well.

Aged cheeses have lost more of their moisture to evaporation. This means that they have to been heated to a much higher temperature before they will melt.

To quote Harold Mcgee:
"Melting behavior is largely determined by water content. Low-moisture hard cheeses require more heat to melt because their protein molecules are more concentrated and so more intimately bonded to each other." (On food and Cooking, 64).

Aged cheeses with a high fat content will often leak some fat when they finally do melt- making an oily mess. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt had some good suggestions for dealing with this problem.

Acid set cheeses, such as Indian paneer and latin Queso Blanco, don't melt much when heated dry because the acid denatures the casein in such a way as to cause it to bind more tightly.(although they will dissolve into hot liquids sometimes.)


What would happen if I made angel food cake with whipped cream instead of whipped egg whites? I know that whipped cream also has air incorporated into it, so it can actually be used as a leavening agent. But compared to whipped egg whites, is the leavening power more or less (or maybe even the same)? And with something like an angel food cake, would the whipped cream work as a substitute?  Thanks!

It would not work. The benefit of egg is that it is largely (aside from water) comprised of protein (~12g/100g). This forms a stable structure when you whip it, that is maintained because the proteins denature (that's why the white goes white from clear when cooked) and form an insoluble and highly stable mass.

Cream, on the other hand is largely fat (19g/100g), which forms an emulsion when whipped. When you heat fat - it melts. This would mean that the batter would lose its air and structure.


Why cover a pepper after blackening? I have seen multiple recipes that ask to cover the pepper after blackening?
What is the use for this?

It causes the pepper to steam a bit, making it easier to remove the charred skin.

(resting might also be a factor ... I've never done a side-by-side comparison of covered vs. uncovered)


What is a pressurized filter, and should I use it for my espresso? I've just started out really using my Gaggia Classic espresso machine, and so far I've been pretty satisfied with my results – but I'm no expert. Yesterday, I lost the black plastic thing that goes between the portafilter and the basket (is that the right terminology?), as shown below:

Now, when I tried to make espresso without it, I noticed that the liquid would spray from the portafilter and, well, ruin my kitchen. When I researched further, it seemed that I didn't even use a normal filter, but something called a "pressurized filter", where there's only one hole in the bottom for the coffee to come out.

Here's what I found out about it on coffeegeek.com:

  […] a crema enhancing device is built into the actual filter basket, usually through the function of channeling all the brewed coffee through a solitary pin hole. This action creates a jet-like effect that boosts crema production, even in stale coffee or coarse ground coffee.

People on the internet seem to hate this thing though, and I start wondering whether I should get a replacement for this bolt, or just buy a "normal" filter. Here are my questions:

What exactly is the purpose of this "enhancement"? How does it work?
Why should I use it, or why shouldn't I? Does it matter for me as a non-professional?

This is called a pressurized portafilter. As you found on coffeegeek, it is designed to enhance production of crema. The Coffee Geeks look down on this device, since it produces what is essentially "fake" crema - even with old, stale pre-ground coffee.

If all you want to drink are lattes, it does not make much difference. If you want to taste decent espresso, then you must use a non-pressurized portafilter - even if you are a non-professional.

Making espresso is not a slam dunk - especially with a consumer machine like the Gaggia. You will learn to improve your espresso shots by analyzing your technique. This often is based on the appearance of the crema during and after the shot is drawn.

Since the pressurized portafilter gives you misleading information on the actual crema, you will have difficulty learning how to make a good espresso.


What will happen to my Pecan tassies if I use too much butter? When I was making Pecan tassies, I read the recipe wrong and put a stick of butter in for the filling instead of 2 tablespoons. There are two eggs, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, vanilla extract. Will it turn out with that much butter?

I'm assuming your stick of butter is 8 tablespoons, right?  So you used four times as much butter as the recipe calls for, which is probably enough to make it into a buttery mess.

I think your two best options are: 1) increase all other ingredients by the same amount and make a lot of tassies, or 2) start over.


How to roast chestnuts on an open fire? I have never managed to successfully roast chestnuts on an open fire. I tend to end up with charred chestnuts, which are inedible.

Is there a good technique for this?

In Spain, the traditional way is using something like this:

Or a pan with holes. The big day to do it is called Magosto and it's celebrated on 11/11, but it varies from town to town. It's one of the closest things to a barbecue, you first roast chorizos, then you roast chestnuts.

If you don't have access to those tools, your best option is to put them close to the fire. Make a small cut in almost each chestnut (to release moisture). The ones without the cut will pop and tell you when they start to be done. Start checking for doneness at that point.

Maybe you already knew about the cut, but I know some people don't roast at home because they don't know it can be done in a regular oven if the cuts are in place to avoid the chestnuts popping wildly.


How to remove cardamom seeds from rice I love the taste of cardamom seeds, as does the family.

But I am the only person in the household who doesn't mind chewing the seeds as a part of the rice dish.

For flavoured rice, it's quite easy, but fried rice with mixed vegetables etc I always end up missing some.

Thoughts?

My typical method to add flavor, but not "bits", is to wrap the ingredients in a cheesecloth bag and remove it after cooking is done. Usually this is larger items than cardamom seeds (e.g. vegetables or bay leaves), but with fine enough cloth you should be able to add seasoning without adding texture.


Alternative to Wisconsin Brick Cheese I just came across a pizza recipe that requires Wisconsin Brick Cheese.
It kind of looks like Cheddar or Emmental, however I do not know by taste.
As I am living in Portugal, finding that cheese is not that easy, so I am wondering if there are alternatives to this type of cheese, ideally from European countries, if from Portugal, the better (but I am open to alternatives available worldwide).

Brick is one of those cheeses that should get more distribution. It's slightly soft and melts well, with a slight butteriness and tinge of acidity. Aged brick gets a slightly ripe flavor and smell. The closest cheese I can think of to a decent aged Brick is an aged Havarti. Similar softness, and not far off in flavor compared to other cheeses, and it should be widely available.


What purpose does adding oil/butter to thin pancake batter serve? While I understand that adding melted butter or oil to thick, American-style pancakes improves the texture/crumb of the pancake, I have been wondering what the impact is on thin pancakes. Here are some example recipes of the style of pancake I mean: one, two, three (interestingly this third link is a vegan recipe and calls for the most oil by far).
I've read in some places that the main reason is to reduce the chances of the pancake sticking to the pan - but this seems easily avoided with the right equipment and technique anyway.
So what function is butter/oil serving in these recipes? Is it still a textural thing, as with thick pancakes (and if so, how would the texture be different with or without the oil)? Is it about the non-stick issue? Or is it just a flavour thing? Given the massive variance in amounts of oil I've seen added to otherwise similar recipes for this style of pancake, it would be useful to understand what function the butter/oil is truly serving.

it's used mainly for 2 purposes the first being flavour (if u're making sweet crepes,as we call them in europe, better to use butter: if u're making savoury u can replace the butter with olive oil to give an aromatic note) and the second being elasticity and "bounciness".


How long does raw ground meat last in the fridge? Does it make a difference if it's raw ground pork or raw ground veal?  There is no sell-by date since I got it at the butcher.

The store kept it at 30°F (-1°C) or less, at least in the US. Since your fridge is probably warmer, you probably want to use (or freeze) within two or three days, regardless of the sell-by date.


Cleaning simple mandolin slicer with non removeable blade I have a very simple mandolin slicer.  Blade is not removable.   Extremely hard to clean, even soaking, running through dishwasher on top rack. Can't even get a toothpick between blade and plastic frame.  Help.

The best way to clean it is with timing. Use your spray nozzle as soon as you are finished using it so good doesn't have a chance to setup and glue to your mandolin.


What technique best infuses spices into a dish? If I have a group of spices, all dried and ground, say: nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper...

I'm curious about how to maximize their flavor for a drink or dish, and in what liquids spices are ideally soluble.

Do they need or benefit from sauteeing in oil, or is simmering in water better? Does the liquid need to be hot? Should they be toasted? Or mixed in a food grinder? Or just added directly to the dish?

Gracias.

The classic technique for most spices is to roast them. This can be done in a dry pan because the spices cotain their own oils, you just need to make sure that they don't burn. The spices are usually used in the dish from the start so that they have time to infuse, but it is not always the case, for instance there are many dishes which add Garam Masala spice mix towards the end of the cooking although the spices have again usually been roasted before they are used.

Regarding grinding them, again it does vary. Some spices are added whole but will then have to be removed before eating, some spice mixes are ground so they are eaten with the dish. All spices as far as I am aware should be roasted whole though so you would usually roast them and then grind them to produce the spice mix.


How long does it take for buttermilk to go bad? I love making buttermilk pancakes but I can never seem to use up my buttermilk before it passes the expiration date. The thing is, if I take a solid whiff of the "expired" buttermilk it smells great (even up to a month after the expire date).

How can I tell if it's still ok to use?

Buttermilk is already thoroughly packed with live bacteria. During its manufacture, that bacteria already consumed some portion of the available lactose and turned it into lactic acid.

Because of the lack of food, acidity, and the extreme competition it is pretty hard for buttermilk to go bad. The good bacteria will stay active and the buttermilk will get thicker and more sour until it runs out of lactose. In fact- when your buttermilk container has about 1/2 cup left you can make more just by refilling the container with milk and leaving it to ferment on the counter for a day. If you use it up more quickly than the bacteria eat the lactose then you can keep this up indefinitely.

Don't worry if it is thicker- if it still smells good then it probably is. As Noctrine said- mold around the lip is the worst risk. I am not a food chemist and despite my personal experience- if you ever suspect that food is bad just throw it out. $2 of buttermilk isn't worth an unpleasant afternoon.


Is it safe to eat off of partially tarnished silver? My wife and I were visiting some friends who were recently married and had received heirloom silver as a wedding present.  It was obvious it had been recently polished, but some of the pieces still had a little tarnish on them.  Is it ok to eat off of that, or should I schedule a doctors appointment to get checked out for this reason?

If it's pure silver, it's fine. Silver isn't toxic. Well...if you get some colloidial silver, and you dose yourself with it every day, you'll have some disturbing symptoms. The same is true of almost all metals. Iron pills, for example, are worse, but we commonly cook with cast iron. Metallic silver is sometimes used as a chelating agent, so it can purge your body of other metals you may have absorbed.

If its heirloom electroplated silver, it's probably still fine. If it's heirloom pewter, coated in copper, then electroplated with silver, its still fine (because pewter doesn't tarnish, so the tarnish is either silver or copper) but I wouldn't eat anything acidic with it, because it'll leech lead into your food.

Note : There is no way you have pewter. That was a joke.


How to make black peppercorns extremely fine? The black pepper I buy come in containers where you can grind it on use and they come out fine but not super fine.

I'm just wondering :

how do powder suppliers e.g. the companies which make curry powders etc make black pepper so fine?
What can I use to make my peppercorns more fine, it seems the store containers with grinder do just as good a job as a purpose bought pepper grinder(mill I think its called)?
How does a mortar and pestel compare to above?  I imagine the pepper is always much bigger?

Better grinding and sieving

If you think about it - spice powders are essentially flour. Pop it in a good blender. Blend, let it settle and sieve to required consistency. Repeat with oversized particles.

In an industrial setting this would likely mean a large mill and vibrating sieves, but you can, very carefully get the same results on a smaller scale. I believe some folks also use coffee mills for this, though obviously not one you have or intend to use for coffee.

For small quantities, you could probably use a spice mill or mill attachment on a blender. Just take your time.

Its also worth remembering a pepper mill cracks not grinds pepper.


All fried rice recipes seem to have the same toned down interpretation I have been trying to recreate the fried rice from a restaurant that I loved before moving. They were a Japanese steak house (called the Iron Chef), the type that cooks in front of you, and they made this incredibly saucy fried rice. It had this sort of savory perhaps umami taste to it that was so incredible. However I can’t recreate it. Other than their secret sauces and pastes the only difference from your average recipe is that they had larger chunks of zucchini in it.

I did try one of the internets self proclaimed best fried rice** recipes* but it was pretty flat and boring and toned down, even from your average restaurants version.

All the recipes I find for fried rice seem to be quite similar to each other and are meant to result in a much more toned down less savory and saucy result. Very few of them involve mixing in a sauce that is any more than just soy and sesame. Boring! Not only did the restaurant have some sort of paste but they also had a sauce.

How do I look for recipes that might be different and might be able to create a memorable fried rice like the one from that restaurant.

*it is worth noting that I did not follow the part of the recipe that asked for Shaoxing wine as I am underage and can’t buy that. That can’t be it right?

**Some people are reporting having trouble using the link so here is the ingredients list.

3 tbsp neutral oil
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper
2 carrots
1 tablespoon garlic
1 cup peas
1 tbsp ginger
3/4 cups rice
2 eggs
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine or water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cup minced cilantro
Salt pepper to taste

Shaoxing wine OR water, what nonsense is this? You will get completely different results with water and the wine.

As for your question: Add some Douchi (or black bean sauce), or Doubanjiang (if you want it spicy) for a focus on umami. I'd omit the cilantro altogether as well. A dash of rice vinegar might go a long way. Be careful though, since you've already added some acidity with the wine.


What is the delicious brown layer that appears when you fry or bake apples, plums, apricots, etc.? When one fries or bakes various fruits, like apples, plums, and apricots, they acquire a (patched) brown to black layer where they have touched the pan or the hot air. It tastes deliciously tart and bitter. Is that only caramellisation, or is it more than that? Bonus question: is it the same process as what happens when you grill aubergines, and meat? A picture:

This is a combination of the two: caramelization and Mallard reaction.

Caramelization may sometimes cause browning in the same foods in which the Maillard reaction occurs, but the two processes are distinct. They both are promoted by heating, but the Maillard reaction involves amino acids, as discussed above, whereas caramelization is simply the pyrolysis of certain sugars.

Mallard Reaction – Wikipedia

Caramelization – Wikipedia


Non-alcoholic substitution for dry white wine in bolognese sauce and other tomato sauces? What is the purpose of dry white wine in a recipe like bolognese sauce? I need to substitute something non-alcoholic for the wine and while I've found many great lists of possible substitutions, the actual selection depends on the role the wine plays.

Is it there for acidity? Is there an alcohol soluble flavor I will miss if I don't use real wine? What purpose does it play and what would you substitute it with?

I'm making my favorite lasagna bolognese recipe for company later this week and some of the folk coming are in recovery. Out of respect for my guests' wishes I want to use something else, not just cook the alcohol off before adding the wine. It's too late to switch to something other than lasagna... I'm fixated. Lasagna and salad, followed by apple pie and pear, ginger, cranberry pie.

How do I make this work? Thank you for any and all input.

White wine in tomato sauces adds:

Some acidity, but tomatoes are quite acidic as well
A touch of fruitiness and flavor
Alcohol, which does not all cook off, which can enhance the perception of the dish due to some flavor molecules being alcohol soluble, especially in tomatoes

Since you are avoiding alcohol itself, some of the options you might use are:

Simply omit the wine.   The dish may not be quite as good, but it will still be good.
Use a splash of verjuice (un-fermented grape juice) if you can get it; this will give you some of the fruity and acidic qualities, without the alcohol.
Use a splash of white wine vinegar (unless you are concerned with the trace amounts of alcohol that may persist from its production); this will give you some acid, but you are not likely to use enough to add any significant fruitiness.

Since you are specifically avoiding alcohol, you necessarily lose the flavor enhancing effect it can have, but a good well seasoned dish will stand up without it.

I would suggest you make your sauce, and if you feel it lacks brightness, to try cooking down a little white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar and adding it; otherwise, leave it alone.

And of course, taste as you are cooking to season it well.

Again, as one component of several in a lasagna, which is all about the integration and balance of all of the components, I wouldn't worry about it this overly much.


substitute for snakehead fish A friend of mine mentioned he wished he could find snakehead fish (Channa marulius) to make me a fish curry his mother used to make him in India. I haven't been able to find a source of this fish locally or else in Canada (it's considered an invasive species).

Any recommendations on something that would be a good replacement?

Here is an article in the Washington Post on a local caught taste test for snakehead:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/05/20/snakehead-taste-test-can-a-fish-this-ugly-really-taste-that-good-photos/?utm_term=.6ff5bd89c114

They compare snakehead directly to cod, tilapia, and flounder and indirectly with catfish cooked in various ways, in general comparing it favorable with each, a bit firmer than cod or tilapia.  Though I have not had the opportunity to have snakehead, this is consistent with other reports that I have had which list it as similar to catfish, usually reported as a bit cleaner or milder flavor.  Similar flavor and ability to grab spices to tilapia, but a firmer texture that holds up to cooking.  I would think that catfish or maybe mahi-mahi would be candidates for a curry for their ability to stand up to a bit extra cooking while candidates like tilapia tend to be thin fillets and soft so may well not stand up as well.


Can you make latte-art with a panarello wand? I have a deLonghi Icona coffe machine. It contains a steaming wand of the panarello kind (with a hole in the top that automatically injects air). I tried to steam the milk to create a microfoam that would behave correctly when pouring into coffee. No success though.

My question is - is it possible to make a correct foam that would create latte-art on pouring with this kind of wand? Or do I need a machine with other wand type?

Yes, you can.  And it is not too easy.

Microfoam has small bubbles by definition and the panarello wand will draw a 'certain' amount of air and you can't really control that part.  The notes below might help you get there.  I have successfully done this with the panarello wands of automatic Saeco machines which aren't too different from deLonghi.

Run your steam wand in a cup water first until it's fully producing steam and not spuddering hot water mixed with steam.
Use a small Stainless Steel Milk Frothing Pitcher.  If the wand is trying to blow steam and air in for a long time, you'll end up with big bubbles.  That wand is not as powerful as a commercial espresso machine with a proper boiler.
'Stretch' the froth only for a few seconds in the beginning.
Keep the wand off-center in the pitcher to encourage circulation (see next point).
Most important: make sure you create a whirlpool to circulate the milk (helps to gently move the pitcher in a circular motion to encourage the start of the whirlpool).
I use the fattiest milk I can find.

  The trick is to move the milk in a circulation such that big bubbles
  break and only microbubbles survive.  Some microfoam creation also
  happens at the vortex of the whirlpool.


Are egg yolks neccessary for proper pancake structure in flourless pancakes? I have read many great things about the surfacing two-ingredient egg/banana pancake recipes...
However, I am a fitness nut and don't want to overdo it on the cholesterol, which is found in the yolk.

Question:
Does this recipe work if I use two egg whites only (instead of eggs with the yolk)?

Will it "work" in the sense that the batter on the skillet will coagulate and form a solid flat pancake-like thing?  Yes, it should.  That doesn't mean you'll necessarily like the results.

Keep in mind that the egg/banana pancakes aren't really producing something that tastes like or has the texture of a standard "pancake" (or even most gluten-free "flourless" pancakes).  The result will be something like a cross between banana-flavored custard and the middle of a piece of French toast.

However, yolks provide flavor and some tenderness (mostly due to the fat in them, which isn't present in the whites).  If you remove them, you might not like the flavor that results, so you might consider adding an alternative fat and/or something that can give more flavor (e.g., vanilla, complementary spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.).  The "structure" shouldn't be worsened much without the yolks, but these "pancakes" don't tend to rise much anyway.  If you want something with a more airy texture somewhat closer to "normal" pancakes, you might want to add a small amount of baking powder and/or beat the egg whites and fold them in.

(Of course all of these additions and substitutions sort of defeat the purpose of the "super fast and easy" two-ingredient "pancake," but it really depends on whether you like the flavor and texture that results when you try to cook them, or whether you want to take a few extra steps to improve them.)


Why does my corn flour dough feel like wet sand? I did corn dough empanadas and the dough felt almost like wet sand and was tearing apart in my hands, impossible to shape up.

What should I do better next time ?

I followed this simple receipe:

2 1/2 cup (290 g) corn flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup warm water (plus a splash or two of water)
2 teaspoons olive oil

I tried to add more water and/or more flour and it was the same.

I finally added weat flour to save the day as the clock was ticking but I really wished I could land that dough.

edit: I used the parchemin paper technique for shaping and it went well.

I really wonder about the texture of raw dough not about shaping technique. I couldn't achieve any of the shaping steps with my dough.

Corn masa is what you need for this.

The process of nixtamalization makes the corn more easily ground and therefore the texture of doughs made with it will not be "gritty" in the way that a dough made with corn meal or corn flour will be.

Also, corn masa (or masa harina) is more nutritious than standard corn products due to the chemical changes that result from the nixtamalization process.


How long can I reuse this delicious bacon grease for cooking? I cooked some bacon about a week ago and left the grease in the pan.  I've used it the last two nights with great success for cooking other meals.

How long is it safe to reuse?  I figure since I'm heating it up to a million degrees each time I use it it's probably pretty safe, but.... I'd rather not get food poisoning.

Is it safe?  maybe.  Is it recommended?  No.

If you're going to save bacon grease (or other fats), I'd recommend:

straining it
putting it into a different container to minimize the surface area exposed to air
keeping the container in the fridge.

Although, the first one, I admit I don't do -- as I'm not cooking bacon every day, I've generally used up my supply by the time I've got more ... so I fill a glass jar, and let solids settle to the bottom ... then just use the stuff off the top as I need it, until I get so far down the jar that I hit the darker strata, when I then dispose of the whole thing.  (I recycle jars for this, then pitch the whole thing ... you don't want to go washing bacon grease down the drain, it does nasty things to your pipes)

...

If you're going to do what you are, you'll want to make sure that you hold the pan at 250°F (121°C) for at least three minutes, preferably longer, to kill off botulism spores, unless you're fond of that whole paralysis thing.


What method can I use to cook pumpkin seeds so that they turn out crunchy? I've always enjoyed eating the pumpkin seeds when I buy them at vendor, but whenever I try to make them at home in the oven, they always seem to turn out either still soggy, or deflated and not crunchy.  What am I missing in the technique - I've just simply washed them off, laid on aluminum foil and placed in the oven at 350.

I let mine dry after washing, then toss them in oil, sprinkle with salt, and then roast on a sheet pan

I also make sure to get in there and stir them a few times during roasting, to be sure that they all get exposed to the heat, and on both sides.


How to prevent creamy sauces from separating upon reheating? When I reheat pasta with some kind of cream sauce, the sauce always ends up separating into oil and cream stuff. I am using a microwave, but, I am open for other methods of reheating.

How can I reheat and store pasta without the sauce separating?

Is it truly separating? Or is it just that the creamy stuff is sticking like a paste to the noodles, and there is a bunch of oil sitting all by itself at the bottom of the container?

The latter problem happens to my left over noodles when they have been kept in the fridge for a little while. In addition to the evaporation from the dry refrigerator, the noodles themselves suck up a lot of the moisture from the sauce. The "sauce" becomes a dry-ish paste that can't mix well with the oil. So I add a liberal amt. of water before reheating (trying to keep a gentle touch when mixing it in, so as not to mangle the pasta too bad), and the sauce regains its sauciness.

Can't imagine what the real chefs would say, but my family enjoys the result.


Can I use store-bought orange juice instead of fresh squeezed Can I use store-bought orange juice instead of fresh squeezed?

I don't have a juicer and the recipe assumes fresh squeezed juices...
Is there a big enough reason to go through the hassle for a weeknight dinner?

Probably won't make too much difference for carnitas. FWIW, when I make them, I cut up an orange or two and cook it with the pork for a while. Then remove before cooking down completely


Cooking over an open flame at home Is it doable to cook over the flame of a cooking gas stove at home. Is it dangerous? Couldn't it be even better as an open fire over coal or wood, since gas is cleaner?

It is similar to cooking over a propane grill. Gas grills often have stone or ceramic bricks in them to help retain heat, but it is the burning gas that provides it.  Cooking over a gas stove should be similar.

That said, I wouldn't grill meat or fish directly over the flame; it may work, but the cleanup may not be worth it.  If you want to char a pepper or some bread and get the 'grill' feel, that should work fine.  I see chefs do it all the time on TV, and it looks easy enough and doesn't make a mess.


Gluten free bread in breadmaker looks weird and doesn't rise I have been trying to make gluten-free bread in my bread maker for a few times now. It always fails. It doesn't rise how a funny shape (still the shape from kneading) and doesn't cook very well inside (very dense).

I know there are lots of posts about this, but I have already made sure:

the yeast doesn't touch the water or the salt
the last yeast I tried was Hovis fast action yeast
should I use one rising cycle (this is the setting for gluten free bread)
I've put xantan gum as required

Anything else I can check?

From this otherwise great recipe book. (I did leave out the onion and pepper and replaced the sugar with agave)
[]  1

There shouldn't be much different between dough rising on your counter vs. in your bread machine, unless your bread machine heats the dough slightly during rise (in which case the bread machine will be quicker).

There are two things likely to cause what you're seeing:

The dough hasn't achieved enough elasticity to rise. Normally this elasticity is provided by gluten, so it can be hard to obtain in gluten-free recipes. Easy enough to test: take your dough out of the bread machine after it finishes kneading, and let it rise on the counter (without any additional kneading). If it rises on the counter, then the dough had enough elasticity (and the yeast was alive, etc.). If it doesn't, you'll need to adjust the recipe and/or the amount of time the machine kneads for (if possible). Or possibly something like pre-mixing the xanthan with the water before pouring it into the machine. If it does rise on the counter, that leaves...
The bread machine didn't wait long enough. Time how long it takes to rise on the counter. Hopefully your bread machine allows you to adjust the rise time and use that as a basis; it may be shorter if it elevates the temperature. You could also attempt to speed up the rise with a bit more yeast, switching to quicker yeast (rapid rise vs. instant), or adding a little sugar.

The not really cooked denseness you're getting is a side-effect of the lack of rise. Get it to rise properly, and that should go away.


What to do about beetle infestation of wheat products? How do we prevent reinfestation? Today my wife went to make some bread. She noticed some very small insects in the whole wheat and regular flour. Upon further inspection, many of our wheat based products were infested with these critters. The worst infestation was in some buckwheat noodles that looked like swiss cheese.

The bug looks like a dark, barely visible beetle. Maybe about half a centimeter in length. They seem to be depositing a powder everywhere. Maybe this is just flour they've carried around.

What are these guys? How do we get rid of them? How do we prevent them from coming back?

Link to picture:
http://web18.twitpic.com/img/146355240-133d33091a2b839fc9d4fb35402c0cea.4c686a68-scaled.jpg

Ugh, I feel for you!  Just based on the description, it's probably some type of flour beetle (normally either red flour beetle or confused flour beetle -- but check on wikipedia for pictures).  I'm no exterminator, but I've dealt with infestations of both in my pantry.

The only thing that I've found that works is to go through all food stored in the pantry (including that in sealed packages) and make sure that you throw out anything that is infested.  I'm not sure how you feel about chemicals, but at this point, I bug-bombed the house.

After you're sure that you no longer have an infested food, seal everything in plastic food storage containers.  In theory, that should contain any further infestations to a maximum of one container.

The other thing that I've done is to store as much of my dry goods as possible in the fridge/freezer... so stuff like flour is now stored in a sealed container in the back of the fridge.

My exterminator has said that a lot of times the beetles come in a package from the grocery store (a couple beetles in a box of pasta, for example) and they just overrun/overpopulate as much as they can.


Paper towel gets completely dark after I wipe my Dutch oven I bought Lodge cast iron dutch oven a few weeks ago. I didn't season it right away since I kept it in a dry closet. Last week seasoned it with pure almond oil (because I read it somewhere it's slightly better than other oils) and an hour in the oven (500F). After I cooked with it, nothing was wrong with the food. Then I rinsed it with hot water and wiped with paper towel, and the paper towel got completely dark, and it didn't seem like the oil I used for the food.

So my question is: Is it normal ? Should I reseason it ? I thought maybe I should've done the seasoning for a couple more times instead of once, or I used too much oil for the seasoning.

Thanks in advance,
Cheers!

You didn't mention what your meal was, but this may help...from the Lodge Cast Iron web site:

Occasionally when your seasoning works a little too hard with acidic foods or really high heat, you may notice some dark residue on your towel when cleaning. This is perfectly safe and normal, and will go away with regular use and care.


What is the safest way to acquire non-alkalized cocoa powder? I am looking for a non-alkalized, full-fat cocoa powder to use in recipes. By non-alkalized, I mean cocoa which has not undergone the Dutch process.

The problem in detail: Gourmet grocery stores sell various "raw cacao" powders that fit the bill, however there seem to be safety issues. For example, ConsumerLab shows high levels of lead and cadmium for many of these products. Some products even have a California Proposition 65 warning. One might treat these as a guide, however absence of a bad ConsumerLab result or Prop 65 warning isn't a strong signal, because batches vary and many brands don't even test their product. It would seem likely that the safest cocoa products would come from big brands like Valrhona, Callebaut or Guittard, however their cocoa powder products are all alkalized.

Back to the question: What is the safest way to acquire a high-quality, non-alkalized cocoa powder? UPDATED: I would accept a definition of "safe" from someone with expertise in the area of metals contamination in food, but short of that, here's what would qualify as "safe" for me:

A product from a major producer in the industry.
A product from a company with a specific commitment about metals contamination, such as stated practices or certificates of analysis.

Without actually being able to access the ConsumerLab report you mentioned, it's difficult to know what meets your definition of safe.

Scharffen Berger natural cocoa is one option. It has 1g fat per 5g serving, which I believe should meet your definition of "full fat". It is natural (non-alkalized) cocoa powder. It's quite expensive, and I believe normally considered "high quality". Scharffen Berger is now owned by Hershey's, which is definitely a major producer in the chocolate industry.

I highly doubt that Scharffen Berger and Hershey's cocoa are now identical. This is partly based on personal experience (10 years ago, which is not current), but also on the nutritional information for Hershey's (0.5 g fat per ~5 g serving), which I believe does not meet your "full fat" criterion.

Another option is Ghirardelli unsweetened ground cocoa, which is also a large producer.

  Not processed with Alkaline/not Dutch processed.

I have no affiliation with Scharffen Berger, Hershey's, Ghirardelli, or any other chocolate producer.


Teabags: for how long should I let them sit in the hot water? This is a complex matter. The amount of time the teabag spends in the hot water is going to affect the tea in at least two different ways: (a) the longer, the stronger and (b) the shorter, the more 'exciting'.

(a) The more time the teabag sits in the hot water, the more it will release its elements in the water creating that strong taste tea has when it is really dark.

(b) Tea contains caffeine; but it also contains tannin, which is a caffeine-antagonist. The release of caffeine starts immediately, while the release of tannin starts after 2-3 minutes. Therefore, a 'short tea' would have stronger exciting effects.

So, my question is: which one do you think it is the best timing for teabags? I know different cultures have different standards, but I do not know if a rule-of-thumb or golden rule actually exists.

This will vary greatly depending on the type of tea you are drinking. Green and white teas can have steeping times as short as 30 seconds, and darker teas like puehr can sometimes steep 7 minutes or more. It can also depend on if you are re-steeping the tea (which, using teabags, you probably aren't), as each additional steep will require more time.


Preparing slow cooked meats for the next day This may be a basic question but I have never done it before (I have slow cooked meat before just not for the next day): I want to prepare different slow cooked meats, beef, pork and a lamb leg, for the next day that is going to be an out doors picnic. I know pulled pork keeps well when refrigerated but I also kept a beef joint in the fridge that felt a little dry the day after until reheated.

Could you offer any advice on achieving this without losing succulence or flavour on the next day? My idea so far is to cook them one by one then transfer them to a sealed container to preserve their moisture until cool then refrigerate until next day then prior to heading to the picnic reheat the meats for a short time to warm them up and have the juices flowing and be on my way.

Thank you

I would suggest you follow your plan, but reserve and refrigerate the cooking liquor to reheat the meat in, which will help with restoring juiciness.

However, be very careful when reheating and keeping meat warm. The meat should not be in the danger zone (5-60°C/40-140°F) for more than 2 hours, cumulatively, throughout its 'lifetime'. You should avoid moving the meat through the danger zone too often as well. This means you need to cool the meat quickly, reheat it quickly, and minimise the time it takes to get to the plate. If you've got a long drive to your picnic, or it's going to be a while before you eat, I'd consider serving it cold instead.


Freezing Bouchon Bakery Macarons. Whole cookie or just the halves? I'm making the macarons from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook and it recommends freezing them for 24 hours before letting them come back to room temperature for eating. The only part I'm not clear on is if I am meant to freeze the whole assembled cookie w/filling or just the cooked halves. If anyone knows what is supposed to be frozen and why I would really appreciate that help..

I don't know about the Bouchon recipe, but my wife just attended a macaroon making class at Mille Feuille last weekend.

They recommended refrigerating the whole macaroon overnight (and up to a week), not freezing. The idea is the moisture from the filling migrates to the cookies. This causes the cookie to be moist on the inside, but still have a firm and somewhat crisp outside.


How to get vegan cheese to taste like cheese I have yet to find a vegan cheese that tastes like cheese. It seems that all recipes use mainly nutritional yeast as flavoring and while it's delicious and has a cheesy flavor to it, it doesn't quite taste like real cheese. My question is how can I make vegan cheese that tastes like actual cheese? I've found some recipes that use fermented tofu as part of the flavor component and that might give it the fermenty flavor, but what I really want is the sharp flavor that comes with cheddar. Is there anything I could add to make it taste like that?

According to Eater, the latest and most sophisticated vegan cheeses involve fermentation of the cheese base itself, rather than by adding any particular ingredient:

The process for making fermented vegan cheese, which is most nut-based cheese, is quite similar to that used to make dairy cheese. A nut is soaked and then blended with water to create a milk base, to which a culture is added.

As such, if you're making your own, then you need to look into how to ferment your own nut milks and other ingredients.


Stop rhubarb compote juice from leaking I am making a rhubarb meringue pie by first blind-baking a short pastry, afterwards I put the rhubarb-compote onto the cake and the meringue on top, and then bake that again for a short time.

However, after and while baking, the juice of the rhubarbs starts leaking en masse. What can I do to prevent that from happening?

Consider two options:

Add a stabilizing agent for the compote: cornstarch immediately comes to mind, but I suppose sewit, or custard would do the trick. This automatically lends itself to needing a longer bake time which I can understand to be less favorable.

Try reducing more moisture while prepping the compote. By giving the rhubarb a longer cooking time, you can also intensify its flavor while getting a firmer, stickier compote.


Why does rice flour or cornstarch produce crispier crusts than wheat flour? If you add a percentage of rice flour or cornstarch to any sort of breading or pancake, you get a much crispier crust than one made with 100% wheat flour. The Vietnamese banh xeo, which is like a crepe made with just rice flour and coconut milk, no egg, comes out extremely crispy, for example. What is the physical reason that these pure starches cook up crispy?

My guess would be a lack of gluten in those flours. Gluten makes dough sticky and dense, so adding flours with little to no gluten might make it less sticky and thus crispier.


Can vinegar be used instead of alcohol in keeping sorbet soft/scoopable? I recently found a recipe (forgot the source) that called for white wine vinegar instead of strong liqour or sugar syrup to keep the sorbet soft and creamy. Would this actually work (is there something in vinegar that would have this effect)? If so, what vinegar would be best?

Vinegar freezes at about -2C, so it will have a minimal effect on the freezing of ice cream; certainly not the major effect of alcohol.

If you want to make a sorbet smoother without adding too much extra sugar, replace some of the sugar with dextrose--it suppresses freezing a little better than sugar, and is less sweet. You might also try stabilizers like locust bean gum or guar gum.

You might also consider skipping the syrup and just dissolve the sugar directly into the juice without the extra water (although this will affect the flavor--some fruits benefit from being diluted a bit).


What's the best pasta, and cooking approach, for making pasta salad? I love the pasta salad you can buy in shops and would love to be able to make something comparable.  The part that I love the most is the dense, thick pasta that comes in these salads.

When I try to reproduce this at home by making standard pasta shapes and leaving them to cool, I end up with thin rubbery pieces that are dull and disappointing.

So, how can I make great pasta for pasta salads?  In particular, what pasta should I buy and how should I cook it?

I mostly use spirelli in pasta salads, but other thicker pasta works as well. I just cook them in a good amount of water (with salt/oil), nothing fancy really. But don't cook them too long or they will be too soft and not tasty.

I don't know about the packages in your country, but here, the time is always too short (you hardly can call it al dente), so if you cook it the time written plus one additional minute, you have the perfect time for pasta salad pasta :)

But it is of course a question of taste, so I would recommend to vary cooking times and see what you like best.


What is the white sauce of Domino's pasta made of? What is that made of? Can it be replicated at home?

It's Alfredo sauce and according to Domino's nutrition guide it's made of:

  Water
  Cream (Cream, Milk)
  Parmesan Cheese (Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes)
  Asiago Cheese (Pasteurized
  Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes)
  Margarine (Palm Oil, Water, Salt, Vegetable Monoglycerides, Whey Solids,Sodium
  Benzoate [Preservative], Natural And Artificial Flavor, Citric Acid, Beta Carotene [Color], Vitamin A Palmitate Added)
  Seasoning
  (Maltodextrin, Nonfat Milk, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley
  Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Xanthan
  Gum, Spices, Mono And Diglycerides)
  Butter (Butter, Salt)
  Parmesan Cheese Concentrate (Parmesan Cheese [Pasteurized
  Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], Water, Salt, Natural Flavors, Yeast Extract, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Citrate)
  Modified Corn Starch
  Garlic (Garlic, Water)
  Chicken Base (Chicken Meat, Chicken Juices, Salt, Potato Flour, Flavorings, Sugar, Disodium
  Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate)
  Parsley
  Salt

You can definitely make something similar at home. You should also be able to buy something like it in a jar at your local grocery store.


How much jaggery can replace 1 tablespoon of white sugar? Assume the jaggery is of finest quality and is ground. Also, the sugar can be powdered or in crystal form.

I just want the same level of sweetness when I replace them with each other.

According to Cook's Info:

  Jaggery is not as sweet as white sugar, so when substituting white sugar for Jaggery use about 1/3 less. When swapping Jaggery in for sugar, use anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 more Jaggery than was called for of sugar (if you want to keep the recipe as sweet as it was.)

That meshes with my limited experience too, so if the jaggery is ground in such a way that it will measure like the sugar you are replacing, and you are replacing 1TBS of sugar, then you would want to use somewhere in the neighborhood of 1TBS plus 1tsp of jaggery. If precision is needed (which of course doesn't really apply here, but bear with me) consider that the way jaggery and sugar measures volumetrically are unlikely to really be identical. It would be better to measure by weight, or if there is liquid in the recipe, by water displacement.


Why does room temperature coffee taste so bad, even to asnomics? It's been theorised that room temperature coffee tastes more bitter might be due to the smell sense being activated by hot coffee (particles moving around), which improves the taste.

However, as a congenital anosmic (no sense of smell since birth), room temperature / cold coffee is still awful.  I love a hot cup of coffee, on the other hand.

Any proven theories?

The initial statement is too broad. It is not true that room temperature / cold coffee tastes awful. It is highly dependent on how good the roasted coffee is. This is why coffee cuppers drink coffee at room temperature.

ANY defects in the coffee are amplified as it cools. This is why almost everyone likes hot coffee. Unless you have really good coffee, you can detect off flavors and bitterness as it cools. With really good coffee, the flavors actually improve /expand as it cools.

Source - I roast my own coffee every week on a Hottop roaster. I drink coffee black, and I can drink my coffee cold with no problem. Can't say that about Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, etc.


Cooking 4 lasagnas at same time I would like to bake 4 3-lb lasagnas at same time.  Recommended time for one is:
375 degrees for 55 minutes, remove film and bake an additional 10 minutes for browning.  How much extra time is required and does the temperature need to be changed?

If you can fit all four into one oven and you use convection, just use the instructions for one. Like for all foods, you will want to monitor the progress and possibly decide to give it a few extra minutes or to pull it out a moment sooner. But that is a general advice that takes different oven calibrations etc. into account.

If you use a top & bottom heating element without convection, you might have to do some juggling as you will probably have two lasagnas on an upper and two on a lower rack. This means they will heat / bake unevenly and you should swap upper and lower at about half the given baking time. You might also have to extend the time by a bit, I'd guestimate perhaps ten minutes or so. But the rule of thumb is bubbly = done, so just have a look. Likewise for the final browning step, plan to swap once, watch to make sure nothing burns.


How to grill polenta? The first time I tried to grill polenta on a barbecue, I brushed both sides with olive oil and it came out perfectly with a crisp exterior and a creamy interior.

The next time I tried it, on a different barbecue and with the slices a bit thinner, it was a disaster with the polenta refusing to separate from the grill when I attempted to flip it. This made me very sad.

To avoid having the polenta weld itself to the grill in future, should the grill be hotter? Colder? Should I use a different fat than olive oil? Is there anything else I should consider?

Inquiring minds need to know!

Your polenta was probably sticking because you didn't use enough oil or your barbecue was too cool.

Olive oil on a barbecue is a bad idea as it flares up and burns easily, you're better off with a more standard vegetable oil. The choice of oil is not as important as the quantity in keeping things from sticking, you need to use a lot of it. I use a high temperature silicone to baste the barbecue surface with a lot of oil when I need things not to stick, some use a halved onion dipped in oil to apply it to the grill. Also oil your food.

Your barbecue surface could also be too cool. If it's too cool the surface of the polenta block won't form a crust quickly enough and will adhere to the grill. It should be hot enough that you can't hold the back of your hand over it for more than 2-3 seconds.

Other factors in frying or grilling polenta are the thickness of the polenta, the temperature of the polenta, and the thickness of the mix. You want to be grilling thick slabs of still fridge-temperature polenta that was on the gloopy side when cooked.


Allergic to the whole pepper family - what can I use in its place? I am allergic to the whole pepper family including black pepper. I don't know what to use as a substitute. I don't eat salt, so that's out. I am having to check every item that I buy to make sure it doesn't have pepper any it.  Can anybody give me some suggestions? I would greatly appreciate it.

Grains of paradise are peppery but don't seem to be too closely related to black pepper, so perhaps you won't be allergic to them. They're a bit smaller than peppercorns but can still be ground in pepper grinders.


How to clean my unanodized aluminium pot? I got some acidic food in the pot and its starting to look ugly.

Can this pot be saved, or do I need to throw it out?

If it's a small spot you can rub half a lemon on it till it's gone. If the entire inside has darkened you can fill it with water, add several tablespoons of cream of tartar (2 per quart) and boil it for 10 minutes.

You can also buy aluminum cleaner, but the do it yourself is typically cheaper.

In case you're wondering why I'm suggesting an acid for cleaning. It's actually alkali foods that stained your pot, not acidic. e.g. boiling potatoes. Acid actually cleans the spots put there by alkali foods.

The common warning against cooking acidic foods in an aluminum pot is to prevent excessive amounts of aluminum being leeched into your food.


Why do we add salt in porridge? Many porridge recipes require salt. Even if it will be a ''sweet'' porridge.

Is there any chemical reason for this ingredient?

No. It's just for taste. Moderate amounts of salt taste nice to people especially if we are accustomed to it in our food.

Salt tends to enhance the flavor of sweet foods as well. Recipes for cakes, cookies & other desserts often include a little pinch of salt, but you can always omit it if you would rather minimize your intake of sodium. From what I read, people on low sodium diets acclimate after a while to a lower saltiness level in their food, and don't even miss it.


How do I prevent fudge browning? I'm trying to make a fudge inspired by some I have seen made in a fudge shop here in the UK (although it is an American-style fudge, not the softer British kind). The recipe the shop uses substitutes cream for the butter in traditional recipes, and uses pure corn syrup as the sugar.  They manage to get the fudge to stay completely white, without it browning at all, yet when I try to replicate this at home I always get a pale brown colour with a toffee flavour that isn't present in the shop-made fudge.  The process I'm using is this:

Mix milk, cream and corn syrup
Heat to 112C
Add vanilla
Pour into a cold tray to cool
Stir and stretch for the final phase of cooling

Any suggestions what might be going wrong?

Fructose is one of the sugars in corn syrup.  The problem is that 112 C is above the caramelization temperature of fructose, which is 110 C (230 F); this is uniquely low among the various common sugar molecules, most of which begin to caramelize around 160 C (320 F).

The toffee flavor that you are getting is due to the caramelization components.

However, without seeing your exact recipe it is hard to know what to change.  I would suggest using table sugar with its much higher caramelization temperature instead of corn syrup would be the most appropriate solution.

It should dissolve the dairy, so you should not need to make a syrup.

However, sucrose (table sugar) has different crystallization properties than fructose and corn syrup, so after you get the main part of the candy mixture up to temperature and then cooled some, you might wish to add a tablespoon or two of corn syrup to help reduce the likelihood of graininess.

You could also try reducing the temperature to say 108 C, but this may affect the final ratio of water to sugar as less water will have been evaporated off, which would change the crystallization pattern in the confection, and thus is texture.  It could end up quite sticky or even gooey.

It will probably be easier to search for a recipe for this confection that is already tuned to do what you want, as modifying candy recipes is very tricky; you must get the science and technique just right.

Note:  fudge by its very nature is a a solid suspension of very tiny sugar crystals embedded in a dairy/syrup phase.  The cooling and beating in traditional fudge recipes are to control the growth of the sugar crystals, so that they are numerous and very, very tiny (which gives the smooth silky texture) as opposed to larger and fewer (which gives a grainy texture).

As fructose and corn syrup tend to resist crystallization, it is odd to have a fudge like recipe with corn syrup as its main sugar component.


What happens chemically when flavours 'mingle'? When I make a stew and cook it for hours, the flavours combine to make a better combination than if I cooked them for a short time. The same thing happens when I leave a sauce like a ragu in the fridge overnight.

People talk about flavours mingling, but what is actually going on here? When the cells of foods break down and are released, what happens when they meet?

There are two different processes.

Amino and glutamine acids break down into smaller components, γ-glutamylpeptides due to long cooking. These proteins create the "complete, rounded taste", kokumi, similar to the umami taste, which is more a feeling than a flavor.

The second process are enzymes breaking down fat into other components that we recognize as flavor, f.e. pentylfuran or heptenal. This process takes time and is independent from temperature and happens f.e. in the fridge overnight. It is similar to the process of aging meat.

Flavor pairing is a different process that is not related to this.

Reference:
Aroma - Die Kunst des Würzens / Flavor - The art of seasoning
http://www.amazon.com/Aroma-Thomas-Vilgis-Vierich/dp/3868510729


Does it matter if I sauté onions for high liquid foods? Many (most?) recipes ask that you sauté onions before adding other ingredients when making soups, stews, or other dishes that contain lots of liquid (as opposed to something like a stir fry).
I'm not taking about caramelization -- I understand the purpose of that.  I mean recipes that ask you to "sweat" the onions or cook them until they're just translucent, with no browning.
Cooking the onions this way makes sense if you want to reduce the moisture and concentrate the flavors.  But it seems to me that if you're adding the onions to soup, for example, you're reducing the moisture just to put moisture back in it.
Does it really make a difference in a soup or stew, as opposed to simply adding the raw onion along with other ingredients?

It makes a big difference. The heat you can impart to anything by boiling is limited to 100°C (212°F). This is too low for some of the flavor magic to happen, like maillard reactions, which start about 140°C. A pan's temperature can get much higher than boiling water, which is why you saute them first. If you try to make onion soup without sauteing them first they'll soften, but they'll never lose that raw onion flavor, and you won't get the sweetness or depth of flavor from the maillard reactions.


Why would I want to use the creaming method in waffles? All good chemical leavened waffle recipes I have had (the ones from New best recipe, Bittman, etc.) instruct me to melt solid fats before adding them to the waffle batter. I only once tried a recipe which uses the creaming method for adding butter to the waffle batter, and I didn't like it. The result was like badly baked cookies, with a crumbly texture instead of soft and elastic. I never found out if it was the method or the ratio which created this bad texture.

Now I bought a whole recipe book dedicated solely to waffles. It has many different recipes, savory and sweet (for the savory recipes, the butter is creamed without sugar, and the eggs are added to the creamed butter). All solid-fat recipes use the creaming method. I find this very strange.

Is it a good idea to cream the butter in waffle batter? How are creamed-batter-waffles different from melted-fat-waffles?

update An example recipe

100 g butter
75 g powdered sugar
1 sachet lemon essence
3 eggs
250 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
200 ml milk

Give the butter with the powdered sugar and the lemon essence into a bowl
and beat it into a foam. Add the eggs one by one, mixing vigorously.

Mix the baking powder into the flour, place it on the egg-butter foam, and
fold in together with the milk. If the batter is too thick, add some more milk.

This is the waffle part only, the actual recipe specifies chocolate glaze to dip the waffles in, and fruit salad as a side. Any language stiffness is probably due to the fact that I tried to do a very literal translation from German and should not be interpreted as incompetency on the recipe writer's side :)

Update 2
There was one obvious way to see if the recipe is any good. I made the waffles from the above recipe.

The result was not good. The waffles have a texture between cakey and gummy. Not directly crumbly, but not soft and elastic like normal waffles or pancakes. I also looked into the New Best Recipe and found a wildly different ratio. If normalized for flour amount, the NBR recipe has 1 less egg, half the amount of butter, no sugar at all, and 3.5 times the amount of liquid, as well as more leavening. Now I have to make this recipe without creaming and the NBR recipe with creaming to get a conclusive answer :( Unless somebody has already tried it and can answer it for me.

Butter in liquid state is more easy to mix and get an homogeneous batter.
Given enough effort, creamed butter does the same thing.

By effort, I mean making sure not to overlook tiny lumps of heterogeneous batter; otherwise the texture will be different. Also, if you are mixing the eggs with some lukewarm butter, it may be a health concern if you don't use the batter right away.

If you had a crumbly cookie-like texture, then my first thought is that the ratio was not correct or something was missing.


Does the foam from instant coffee always taste bitter? I'm trying instant coffee for the first time and thought that it tasted like drinking a flat tire. After experimenting with different condiments I came to realize that the offensive taste was from the foam that appears at the top after stirring in the powder and not the liquid itself.
The taste of the foam is bitter and extremely distasteful. But if I spoon it off then the coffee itself is just fine.
I am new to instant coffee and have only tried Nescafé Taster's Choice and Café Listo de La Salvadoreña.
Is this a common theme among instant coffee? Possibly a result of the drying process?

With proper coffee the foam is referred to as crema. It is typically quite bitter itself (as coffee tends to be anyway), which seems to be a function of the emulsion of the aromatic oils  in the crema and CO2 from the bubbles. I don't know that the crema on an instant coffee is any more bitter than the crema on an espresso
Instant coffee aims to replicate the crema to give the appearance of a quality coffee. I have found (I'm from NZ, where we drink quite a lot of instant coffee generally), that instant coffee tends to have a faint chemical taste in the crema that isn't present in an espresso coffee. I suspect this is a result of the process of manufacturing instant coffee, or even perhaps as a result of aiming to get a crema on the instant without the pressurized equipment used to make an espresso coffee


Do you peel garbanzo beans for hummus? If using garbanzo beans to make hummus, should you peel them beforehand?

There are three considerations for deciding whether to skin them or not.

Do you like the texture/flavour with the skins on
Do you, or those eating the hummus have dietary reasons to avoid the
skins
How much do you want to make a culturally/regionally 'accurate'
dish.

I, for example, like the texture that the skins add to hummus, but I only mash my chickpeas very roughly with a fork and find the ultra smooth variants texturally unpleasant.

Some people use a food processor to make hummus, which allows for quite a smooth product with the skins still, in though not as silky smooth as with them removed, the flavour may be marginally different.

For some people there will be dietary reasons for using peeled chickpeas, for instance Crohn's' Disease sufferers may tolerate hummus without skins better than with.

More traditionally, a silky smooth texture is prized for hummus and that is achieved by using only the meat of the beans.

What most people get wrong about making hummus
By Maureen Abood

  The most important thing to note about chickpeas is that they have translucent skins. Those skins are the cause of grainy hummus, and they dampen flavor. They have to go.

So essentially, your hummus, your kitchen, your choice.


How can I get hash browns to bind without using egg? I don't want to add egg to bind hash browns. What is the best way to bind hash brown without the eggs?

My first thoughts are should I still grate the potato, or boil first to soften to enable them to bind?

I follow Alton Brown's recipe from Good Eats for grated (the only way!) hash browns and never have problems with it binding. It's from the episode "Another Man Food Show: Breakfast" if you want to search it out. He talks on the show about why the type of potato matters and recommends a high starch potato like an Idaho or Russet. I use Russets as they're readily available here and never have any issues.

Summary of the cooking process:

10 inch cast iron skillet to medium low. I think I've tried it in a non-stick skillet and while it cooks, you don't get the same browning.
Grate potato with large grater. Squeeze out the water from the grated potato. I use my hands, he uses a tea towel.
Add bacon fat to the skillet. Scatter the potato evenly and cook for 5 minutes without touching it at all. I compress  them down a little bit after I've scattered them.
Turn down the heat, flip and cook for another 5 minutes. I flip it by sliding it onto a plate, flipping it in the air there, and then sliding it back on. Using a second plate to flip it might be easier.

Notes:

I think the biggest thing is the type of potato. I tried it a few times with some other potato because I had them on hand, and it turned out terrible. I've also tried with previously boiled potatoes, and it was even worse.
Not touching is important too. You want to give them time to stick together.


What method yields best result for washing breads? I've seen many bread recipes and they used different combination as egg-wash. Egg white plus water, egg yolk plus milk, beaten egg plus milk or water, and I myself sometimes give it a sprinkle of saffron ti get a goldener final result. Is it better to use egg white or egg yolk? Milk or water? Do they make any big difference or they are all the same?

The egg-wash I used for these croissants was a beaten egg plus a few drops of milk and a pinch of saffron. But sadly they are not as golden as expected even though I turned on the heat coming from up for a few minutes (oven's temperature: 450F):

I have always used egg and milk. Two thirds egg to one third milk. Use a spray bottle to ensure that you get a nice, even coverage.

Also make sure that you have a full proof on your goods, because (obviously) anything that gets exposed to the heat due to oven spring will not have color.

Just the way I have always done things (and I used to work in some pretty nice pastry shops back in the day).

EDIT:

Just noticed the comment from sour d'oh... Should've mentiontioned that stuff myself... Very important. The higher the fat of the dairy, the better the color (use a high fat cream instead of milk).


What is the purpose of raita? Raita is usually served with spicy dishes like biryani. If the purpose was that the curd in raita would give some relief from the hot, spicy food, then why are chillies and onion added to raita?

Personally, I dislike any foreign objects in the curd I drink. Even if it's "boondi" or mint in the raita.

Was raita meant to give relief from the spices or is there some nuance I don't know about curd being used as a side dish? I considered comparing it to mayo, but I guess the purpose of mayo is to impart a cool, moist feeling to the food.

Raita is a side dish or condiment meant to go along with a variety of Indian dishes.  It's purpose is to complement the other offerings in the meal.  It is not specifically designed to give relief from spices, though some claim this is true.


Is it possible to identify the quality of fish after cooking the fish? One know that a fish is fresh if the fish eye is clear and bulging and its gills is ought to be red.

However, if the fish is being cut into many slices and the fish head was being removed, it would be very hard to identify if the fish is of good quality (fresh) or poor quality (not fresh).

So, is it possible to say that when cooking a poor quality fish, the outcome is that the fish meat will be quite hard? (I mean like when one bite the cooked fish, it feel like eating a over-cook chicken breast meat.)

or how do I know the fish is good or bad after cooking it? (This is especially true when you eat in some restaurant that you can't see the fish itself)

Old filets of fish will be slimy and have an overly fishy smell. When frozen filets are poorly stored, (refrozen/not flash frozen/stored at improper temperature/too old) they have this texture of eating a sponge that makes me wretch, since the delicate emulsion properties of the flesh have been completely broken down. The moisture can be sucked out and the proteinous membranes chewed on like rough, spongey, dough. If you try to skin them, they sometimes come apart in your hands rather than adhere like tissue from a living organism.

When cooked poorly (burnt to a crisp, overseasoned), it's difficult to tell the difference between fresh and old filets.


Can I bake a cake in a toaster oven without temperature control? I live in a place with no easy access to an oven. If I wanted to bake a cake, could I do this with an appliance like this?

In general, yes.  But it's going to take a bit of effort and monitoring.

Your results may not be ideal (in particular don't expect the highest rising cake or the most even doneness), but it is possible to bake a cake in something like that.  There are three main issues:

The device you linked looks like it doesn't have temperature control.  It looks like it just turns elements on the bottom and/or top on and off.  So, you'll need to regulate the power yourself, turning the power off before the oven heats up too much and turning it back on when it starts to cool down.  If you're not experienced with baking without a built-in oven thermometer, you might want to try to pick up a cheap thermometer which you might be able to fit inside and help regulate temperature.
If there are electric heating elements on the top and bottom, they may be much closer to the cake than they would be in a larger oven.  That could lead to excess browning on the surface and/or the bottom of the cake.  You may need to bake at a lower effective temperature to avoid browning or even burning the crust.
The heat produced will be more uneven in general than a large oven.  That may interfere with rising or doneness in the cake.  There's not much you can do about that other than monitoring and making sure the cake is cooked through before removing.

I personally wouldn't recommend trying this unless you already have experience baking/cooking with this appliance.  Cakes are bound to be more sensitive to things like temperature fluctuations and radiant heat than many other things you might cook in such an appliance.  But if it's your only option, it may be workable.