I just made ice cream. Unfortunately, it became gritty in the end result. What is a way to make use out of it? I just made vanilla ice cream with my ice cream machine. The taste was amazing, however, the texture was sandy and gritty. I made a awful lot, and I do not want to dump the ice cream. How am I going to make it creamy, or use the ice cream for something else?

Given all of the advice so far, and as you said that you started with a rather large batch, I might try a few things.  I would recommend trying a small-ish portion at a time, so you don't ruin the whole batch:

Soften the ice cream slightly, then put it through a food processor to see if you can make it less gritty, then re-freeze.  (or possibly don't re-freeze, if it has a soft-serve like consistency)

Soften the ice cream slightly, then mix in other ingredients to add texture to the ice cream to try to hide the grittiness.  Nuts, cookie or pretzel bits, or anything else that's crunchy.  You could also make an 'ice cream pie', but you'd want a rather thin layer of ice cream so it's not so obvious that it's not cream.  (maybe something like this

Scrape it with a fork, and tell people it's a granita.  (or, actually make a fruit granita, and then serve it layered with granita / scraped ice cream / etc.)

Melt it down, add starch and cook into a pudding, then re-freeze. (frozen pudding also has a strange texture that isn't quite ice-cream like).

Melt it, add some more eggs, then use it as the custard for french toast or bread pudding.


Fire under electric stovetop element I was cooking and I saw flames shoot up from under the oven element ... why might this be, and what can I do to prevent this? I wasn't too concerned because it wasn't the food that was on fire but rather just something under the element, and fortunately the stove is metal, so there shouldn't be a huge fire hazard ... correct?

It might be a grease-fire

Take a good look under the heating element - there might be some pooled drippings or other food-gunk. You might need to clean it or just replace the whole unit - as some of the electrical insulation might have burned-off.

Either way, I wouldn't use ANY of the burners on that stove again until you're SURE what caused it.

You should be worried anytime there's a fire you didn't intend to make.

Friendly safety reminder: You do have a working fire-extinguisher in your kitchen right? And your smoke-alarm has fresh batteries\is tested regularly?


Are the flames too high in my oven? We just bought this oven and I haven't cooked in it yet. When we turn it on, the flame comes up about 3 inches above the vents inside the oven.
Is this normal  or too high? If it's too high, what can I do?

Flames should not come out of the vents inside the oven. This should not be happening. It could indicate an incorrect or faulty regulator, or ventilation problems. In addition to fire, you may also be at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Your oven is not safe to use. Don't use it until you can get it fixed. Since you just bought it, contact the manufacturer/reseller/installer. Hopefully those are all the same entity, in which case there will be no way they can shift the blame onto each other. Expect whoever made the mistake to leap at the opportunity fix the problem, and feel extremely lucky that they aren't being sued by your next-of-kin. (That's not to say that they actually will do that; just that you should expect it of them, and communicate that you expect it of them.) If you had it installed by an unqualified handyman, find someone more qualified to inspect and repair it.
If you installed this yourself, and/or are planning to fix it yourself, DIY Stackexchange would be a good place to look for advice.
This issue can happen if a natural gas stove is converted for use with propane, the oven wasn't adjusted to compensate for the change.

Note: AMtwo, Sneftel, mroll and Joe pretty much answered the question in the comments section, so I just summarized their comments here.


How can I make carving a chicken less messy? When I carve a roast chicken, a flood of juices overwhelms the moat on the carving board and inundates the counter. This is true whether or not I rest the meat before carving. Why? And how do I prevent it?

As suggested in comments, you could try putting a small cutting/carving board into a large pan or baking tray to hold the liquid better.

In general, this is a good problem to have.  If you are carving a whole chicken, and no juices are coming out at all, you've probably overcooked it.  Resting will only help so much, as fully cooked chicken will generally be at a temperature when muscle fibers will have tightened and contracted, thereby squeezing out some moisture.  It's also possible that your chickens may have been injected with additional brine/broth (though this will generally be indicated on packaging).

As for how to prevent it, I might suggest less carving on the board and more cutting on individual plates.  I'm not sure how you cut up a roast chicken, but I generally start by only cutting off about six pieces -- the wings, the leg/thigh quarters at the thigh joint, and with a little practice you should be able to remove about 80%+ of the breast meat intact from each side in one large filet.  Depending on the size of your chicken, how many people you are planning to serve and what preferences they have, you can then go further and separate the legs from the thighs, and/or do a few cuts through the entire breast to make more white meat portions.  The fewer cuts you make on the carving board, the less juices will leak out there.  Instead, you can give more whole cuts (or parts of whole cuts) to people, who can cut them apart on their plates.  By that point, they meat will have rested and cooled more so it will release less juice, and any juice that is released will be flavor on their plates too, perhaps to be sopped up by other means.

Traditionally, I know many people tend to think of "carving a chicken" the same as "carving a turkey" and slicing thinly through the breast.  To me, that's a lot of work and often results in cold chicken by the time it is served.  It also will tend to release more juices during the slicing.  Even with a 20 lb. turkey, I tend to cut the entire breast off whole, then make thick slices down through the breast after it is detached and on the board.  It keeps the meat warmer, allows everyone to have a bit of skin if they want, and keeps everything moist.  Unless you or your guests are really attached to very thin slices of meat, I find it's better to leave things as whole as you can when you put them on people's plates.


How to seal a jar with a jam so that it can be opened without breaking the lid? When I make a jam, I put it while it's hot into a jar, then close the jar with its lid (a single-piece, screw-on metal lid) and put in cold water. After doing this, I can usually keep the jam outside the refrigerator for months. But, when I try to open the jar, it is very difficult and in many cases I have to use a plyer to fold the lid open.

Is there a way to seal a jam for long-term preservation, such that it can also be opened easily?

EDIT: I just bought a jam at the supermarket. It is canned just like my jams - in a glass jar with a single-piece screw-on metal lid. It can remain on the shelf for months without refrigeration. Opening it is very easy - I just twist the lid slightly and it opens. I don't need to use force or any special tool or technique. The lid remains intact and can be used again. HOW DO THEY DO THIS?

You just need to work out your forearms more. :)

If food gets on the rim of the jar it can greatly add to the friction after the lid is on. It actually makes the whole process unreliable- the food might prevent a seal from forming or it might harden and make the lid difficult to remove- either way make sure the rim of the jar is clean.

Canning jars create a vacuum when the heated air in the jar contracts. This vacuum is what holds the lid on tightly. You can alter the strength of the vacuum in two ways:
1- leave more air at the top of the jar (called headspace).
More air means that a smaller percentage of the air will be forced out and the seal will be weaker. Be careful that you don't make it too weak. If the seal fails the food will spoil.
Jam recipes meant for normal canning jars will include the recommended headspace. You should start there with your experiments.

2- Let the jam cool a little before applying the lid.
This will also result in less air being forced out and a weaker seal. This is something you can experiment with but it would be more finicky than #1. If you do try it, watch your jars closely for a while and put them in the fridge if the seal fails.

The canning process for jam in normal canning jars usually includes boiling the jars afterwards to ensure the jars seal properly. With those lids, sealing too strongly isn't a concern as the lids are disposable. Even with your jars, you want a very strong seal. If you are having trouble opening them perhaps you should try using a tool that will give you leverage but not damage the lid.


Do I need to cook smoked beef before eating? I bought some beef from the supermarket that said "smoked beef" on the label and nothing else. It was contained in the fridge, not the freezer section. I'm not sure how to prepare this for eating. I tried making a few slices and put it in the foreman for about 5 minutes. It turned out tough after about 30 minutes after grilling.

How do I prepare this and how long can I store this in the fridge?

What it looks like you have there is a Pastrami. Though not a particularly 'good' one, perhaps made from Eye of Round rather than brisket. It has been brined (soaked in a salt solution) in order to preserve the meat and then smoked (most likely to an internal temperature of 175°F (80°C)). This should make the meat 'completely safe' from food borne illnesses and is good to eat either cold (which I prefer) or hot (as in a Reuben sandwich). It is typically shaved (sliced very thin).

It should be stored wrapped in a cold place (the fridge). It has a reasonable shelf life, you might check to see of there is a 'best by' date, beyond that it would be impossible to say 'how long it will last' as there are just too many unknowns.


Storing bechamel sauce Is storing a Bechamel Sauce in the fridge for up to week ok? Will it curdle or otherwise go bad? I love eating Croque Monsieurs for dinner and adding a bit of Bechamel is awesome but I would rather make a batch once and then use it later.

You can store béchamel for 4-5 days safely in the refrigerator.  Cool the unused portion as quickly as possible after the sauce is finished and make sure to place a piece of cling film directly in contact with the surface of the sauce prior to refrigerating it so that it doesn't form a skin and slows down oxidation.  Do not freeze the sauce as it will likely break the emulsion.

Another way to make it easier to make your nightly béchamel would be to pre-make a larger batch of roux and freeze it in portions for later use in sauce.


How do I cook frozen Goya Empanadas in the microwave? How do I cook frozen Goya Pizza Empanadas in the microwave?

This from their website:

  Directions

  Keep frozen. Cooking: In a skillet or deep fryer at 325 degrees F,
  preheat enough oil to cover the empanadas. Fry for four minutes or
  until golden, turning occasionally. Drain on paper towel. For Best
  Results: Fry from frozen state. We do not recommend cooking product in
  microwave oven.

This suggests to me that there is no good way to cook these in the microwave.

Having said that, there is probably nothing dangerous about cooking them in the microwave, although I generally keep a close eye on anything I've never microwaved before just in case. You may need to experiment cooking from frozen vs. cooking from thawed but there are four of them in a box so knock yourself out.

If getting the surface to brown is a problem you could try using a microwave crisper. Microwave crispers come in a couple of forms: a reusable bag (a bit like a popcorn bag) marketed under the name "Brown and Crisp" and what looks like a non-stick steel pan. If these aren't readily available I don't imagine they will make such a difference to your end result that it will be worth ordering them specially.


How do I maintain the crunchy crust of home baked bread? When I bake artisan bread, the crust does not retain its hard consistency, and by morning of the next day is already soft. I use a Dutch oven and spray water. The taste is great but the crust loses its crunch.

The reason the crust is going soft is a combination of factors:

Moisture from inside the bread transfers to the outside during cooling: This is most prevalent in breads with thinner developed crusts. Leave your bread to cool completely either in the cooling down oven (best) or on the side on a rack.
Humidity of bread storage: never put warm bread in a container (not even a bread box) and never ever put it in the fridge (unless saving for croutons or breadcrumbs)
Ambient room humidity: If your kitchen is really humid this will definitely have an effect. I typically store bread in the oven if it's currently really humid (which it typically is in Ireland).

There are a few steps you can take to ensure you get a crispy crust for longer:

Take extra time to develop the crust after the initial bake

Remove the bread from the dutch oven at the end of your bake and place directly on the oven rack with the oven door open as it cools down.
Don't place your bread into a container (even a bread box) until hours after finished.

Store bread properly

Keep open in dry conditions. If cut, place cut side face down on board or countertop. Can cover with a tea towel (after complete dryness) and then just leave alone.

Rejuvenate the crust (best tip I ever received)

This seems counterintuitive, but if you've got some soft crust bread you want crisped up, crank your oven up, then wet the bread where you want it crispy (running a wet hand over it is about enough water), and chuck it in the oven directly on the rack and bake for a few minutes until you're satisfied.
This method works wonders for stale bread as well, and you can keep the soft (cut) side softer by wrapping that bit in some foil. It won't make it like day one fresh bread but it'll certainly make it edible again and good enough for some nice oil & vinegar or a nice slab of soft butter.

Update
+1 for oven cooling! http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2015/09/15/keep-baking-crispy/


How can I make sifting easier? I'm at the point where I will completely avoid certain recipes simply because they require sifting and I find it incredibly tedious. Is there a better method? A better tool? A magic sifter?

Use a food processor to aerate the flour and mix other dry ingredients in.

As a bonus for me, the food processor bowl can go in the dishwasher.  I have to hand-wash my sifter.


What happened to my melted couverture? I wanted to make mint-chocolate-covered candy. I never worked with couverture, but yesterday it was all I had.

I melted the chocolate, cooled it, reheated a bit (tempered), added peppermint extract (homemade, pure vodka and peppermint) and when I tried to gently mix it to incorporate the extract, everything turned into thick shoe-polish-like-paste. I had to add some butter to be able to melt it again, but now, when it is all cool again, the chocolate is quite sticky (I suppose because of the butter) and my candy doesn't look good enough for anybody exept immediate family.

What happened? Did alcohol do something to the couverture? How to prevent this from happening again should I try this again?

I am assuming your couverture was real chocolate, since you haven't said.

While I don't know the effect of alchohol on chocolate, small quantities of water can easily seize chocolate.  It becomes a nasty, pasty, stiff mess.

Typical 80 proof vodka would be 40% alcohol by volume, and so approximately 60% water, so your homemade extract would have had significant water in it.

According to Harold McGee as related in The Kitchn, this sounds like what happened:

  The process of refining cocoa beans into chocolate gets rid of all the
  moisture, and so the final product is actually incredibly dry.
  Technically, even melted chocolate can be considered a 'dry'
  ingredient despite its liquid state.

  For this reason, adding water to melted chocolate has the same effect
  as adding water to flour--it turns into a paste. Food science Harold
  McGee explains that "the small amount of water acts as a kind of glue,
  wetting the many millions of sugar and cocoa particles just enough to
  make patches of syrup that stick the particles together..."

You may be able to still use the chocolate for ganache by adding cream, or adding more water so it becomes smooth again, and use it as sauce... but it almost certainly cannot be recovered for covering confections any more.

To prevent this from happening in the future, don't get your couverture wet--from any source.

Note that the flavoring in truffles is normally in the ganache filling, not the couverture; you haven't said you are making truffles, but this gives you a hint:

One way to keep the couverture dry and still have your mint flavor is to add your mint flavoring to the filling.

Another would be to make your homemade mint extract with grain alcohol rather than vodka, so that there is no water in it.


Baking soda as a substitute for baking powder I am making a pancake recipe that calls for 2 teaspoons of baking powder, which I do not have.

I was wondering if it would be ok to use baking soda as a substitute, and if so, how much would I need to use?

Baking powder contains baking soda, plus acidic ingredient(s).

If you have cream of tartar, you can make baking powder directly:

2 parts cream of tartar
1 part baking soda
1 part corn starch

Without cream of tartar, you can substitute baking soda for baking powder as long as you have an acid in your recipe, like buttermilk. If your recipe does not contain an acid, you should add one or the baking soda will remain inert. Based on the above proportions, you should be able to substitute 1/2 tsp baking soda + acid for 2 tsp baking powder.

For pancakes specifically, if you rest your batter, you should fold in the baking soda at the end so you do not lose all the leavening action.


how much sugar is required to be added to fruit for jam making when making jam are you able to reduce the amount of added sugar, or is the amount of sugar stated on the recipe necessary for the jam to  have a reasonable shelf life.?

Base ratio is equal weights of sugar and fruit.

Using less sugar is possible but requires considering the following points:

Sugar is a main aspect of preservation. Using less requires adding alternative substances such as sorbic acid to compensate.
Sugar is required for pectin to bond. This can be compensated with more pectin and/or longer cooking time while ensuring there is enough acidity (another factor for pectin bonding)
Canning protects the result better than simply jarring.

The sealing determines how difficult it is for germs to get in. The chemicals determine how well it resists to germs once they do get in.


How to adjust time for oven stuck at 350F My oven is stuck at 350F. I need to cook a lasagna that requires 400F for 1:55 (one hour 55 minutes). I also need to cook a turkey at 375F for 4:30 (separately). How do I adjust since my oven is stuck at 350F?

The two means are back to back, not together.

The turkey is going to be quite happy with the slightly lower temp - you will need a bit more time, but I'd guestimate 1/2 hour tops should be ok. This is another occasion to repeat our all important:

  Use a thermomenter to determine doneness of your roast, not a timer!

The lasagna shouldn't be a problem either - I'm surprised at the long baking time anyway. Again, perhaps another 1/2 hour should be sufficient, if necessary at all.

Just note that at 350F / 175C your dishes might be browning a little less that you'd expect at 400F / 205C. Consider using the broiler when they are almost done to crisp them up a bit.


How can I preserve refrigerated cashew / almond milk by at least 2 months? How can I preserve refrigerated cashew / almond milk by at least 2 months?

I tried citric acid, but a very bad taste and smell resulted.

Does anyone know what can i use naturally to prolong the life when i make this natural vegan milk for my family?

Simple: you can freeze it. Nut milks, especially homemade versions, can be frozen successfully. It doesn't seem to be a recommended practice according to commercial producers, but I would guess that's more to do with the emulsifiers and thickeners (typically lecithin or xanthan gum) used to improve the texture of commercially produced nut milks.

Assuming your freezer is properly set, this will remain safe for as long as it's kept frozen, although you might notice a decline in quality after extended storage.

The freezing and thawing can cause the nut milk to separate unevenly (making for a less pleasant texture) but this site suggests a quick run through the blender to help re-emulsify the milk after thawing.


using medium chilli powder instead of kashmiri chillis, what ratio should be used? I have a recipe for making a madras, and it suggests substituting chilli powder for the chilli's, but doesn't suggest how.

Wondering of anyone can give me a pointer as to what ratio to use?

I've been growing a variety of chilis recently and have experimented with drying several varieties. By best, Mk. I eyeball guess is that the dried flesh occupies between 1/2 and 1/4 the volume of the fully hydrated flesh.

So I'd shoot for approximately 1/3 as much (by volume) dried chili as fresh (assuming that you are comparing to finely chopped fresh chili, because the dried stuff does not retain the shape of the original).

Of course for small thin chilis that you can dry whole (like the little Thai reds) the substitution is one dried chili plus some moisture equals 1 fresh chili.


Preserving dehydrated fruits and vegs We bought a food dehydrator to make dog treats with.  Primarily we're dehydrating yams, apples and bananas.  I'm not dehydrating these to crisps because I didn't think I needed to.  The dehydrated yams that we buy as dog treats are still pliable and leathery, so I didn't think I needed to dehydrate them totally dry.

The problem I'm having is that these treats are going moldy in about 4 days.  Again, the treats we buy never go moldy.  I'm assuming they're adding something to the commercial version to stop this.

Does anyone have some hints on what I'm doing wrong or any idea what the commercial brand is putting on them to stop this.  The apples seem to be the slimiest first... Should I be drying the apples to crisps?

You get mold (and less visibly, bacteria) growth after 4-5 days because your water (humidity) content left in the deyhdrated food is greater than 5%. Typically dried apples (and other types of fiberous dried fruit) have humidity levels closer to 20% when you don't dry them to a crisp. That means the treats you make aren't shelf stable, but luckily this can be fixed with some experimentation.

Each food has it's own requirements for preservation. Here are some quick guidelines to try out on apples. For yams and bananas, I would try dehydrating them a bit more closer to being crisps.

Steps:

Wash fruits thoroughly before dehydrating. I don't do this, but you could try using a "fruit wash" (product for washing fruit).
Dehydrating isn't sterilization - the dehydrator isn't hot enough to sterilize the food, so some of these 'nasties' are left on there and waiting for their chance to grow. Commercial-grade food is always sterilized. Because a dehydrater isn't sealed well, I suggest you nuke the treats in your oven for 5-10 minutes on high heat AFTER you dehydrate the stuff, experimenting to make sure you don't dry them out too much in the oven. Also, be careful because the sugar is concentrated in dehydrated fruit, so it will burn easily. Wrapping the fruit in tin-foil before placing it in your oven is a potential trick because this effectively sterilizes the fruit in a steam bath. If you use foil, you'll need to cook them longer - start with 15 minutes.
After the treats are dehydrated and sterilized, try storing them in air-tight containers and always away from light in a cool/dark place. They need 7-10 days to "equilize" the moisture between each dried piece of fruit. Make sure to shake the containers every once in a while so they don't all stick together.

BEYOND THIS, there are more advanced techniques that you can easily try - including conditioning the dried fruits and a number of fruit-baths that preserve the fruits with harmless chemical solutions, like Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C).  Try reading more on this link from UC Davis:

http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8229.pdf

(Start Reading on Page 7).


Can overcooked caramel be harmful? Ok, here's the situation. I put a pan of water and sugar on a medium high flame and went away. Some time later I found a smoldering black mass overflowing the pan. It took some time to clean up (anybody know how to remove burnt caramel from stainless steel?).

I threw the burnt caramel away, but later started wondering. There is a sweet called 'carbon' and I have no idea how it's made, but it looks the same as what was in the pan... So there's the question. How is 'carbon' made?

Edit The question was whether the burnt sugar is edible. The answer of course is: no.

I think what your looking for is called poured sugar oil moulds(rings) that you want to use ant shape is okay then use 2 lbs sugar,1 lb water, 6.55 ounces of glucose  and food colouring if you want.make a syrup with the three and then boil until it reaches 260F add food colouring continue to boil until temp. reaches 330F  plunge the pot into a cold water bath to stop the cooking.remove from water and let stand 2-3 minutes to thicken. Pour mixture into moulds until 1/4 inch thick. Once edges have setenough remove the ring. Use a little reheated sugar to attached pieces together like a glue.this can be used as a base for any center piece you want to create with other sugar pieces


How do I make tasty seitan in a pressure cooker? Today I made my first seitan. I mixed gluten some spices and herbs with cold water and kneaded a bit, then boiled in broth for 40 minutes; I failed to leave it undisturbed. When done, the chunks were clearly a great part water, but I threw them on a hot pan indifferently and fried them with oil and some more spices.

When I ate them, I found them a bit spongier than I would like, but overall insipid. Would following this recipe improve my results? How should I go about replacing the pot with an electric pressure cooker?

In my experience a pressure cooker does not greatly influence the taste nor the texture of seitan.
The same recipes apply for cooking in a regular soup pot and in a pressure cooker, but here are some suggestions that might help:
Texture:
The sponginess can be reduced by making a bit dryer (less hydrated) seitan dough and kneading it a little more, which makes it more compact and chewier.
Also I find that the next day (after the cooked seitan was sitting in broth) the texture tends to be a bit better.
Flavor:
If the broth is too weak (cause of diffusion) the flavor gets washed out of the seitan ... so I always make quite a strong broth (i.e. on the spacier/saltier side). Adding something like some shiitake can help add more richness and umami.

I had great success with variants on this Miyoko's recipe for "unturkey" ... at least the proportions/ratios of spices/salt/soysauce are quite good ... but then you can experiment with different spices (I like it with a bit of smokiness and heat, so I usually add some chipotle chiles).
What this recipe also suggests is:

adding a little bit of chickpea flour to the active gluten (1/4 cup chickpea to 4 cups of gluten), and
pre-baking the seitan before boiling

both also contribute to a nicer texture and crust.


Why did my green tea muffins turn black? I made green tea muffins following the recipe here.   I like my muffins moist and fluffy, so I added banana as suggested by the recipe and replaced half of the baking powder with baking soda.  I also added a teaspoon of rice vinegar to activate the baking soda.

Right before baking the mix was vibrantly green, but after 13 minutes in the oven the muffins had turned very dark — and this morning they were even darker.

What happened, and how can I prevent it?

Your first step would be to stick to the recipe. pH changes are well known to interfere with plant pigments. Adding baking soda and vinegar can very well have interfered with something in the muffins, be it the tea or something else. I am not 100% sure this must have been it, but it is the likeliest reason.

Also, I would recommend against making changes to a recipe before you have tried it as-written. You cannot know how changes affect it, and what unintended consequences they have, until you have established a reference. For example, you cannot know if your addition of baking soda made the muffins both fluffier and darker, or if it only made them dark without any change in fluffiness.


Does my electric stove heat up quicker on the highest gear? I have an electric stove with the gears 1-6. When I want to, for instance, boil some water I always put it on gear 6 and then leave it like that until the water is close to a boil, and then I reduce it to gear 5.

However, today it crossed my mind: Does it actually heat up the water quicker when I put it on the highest gear? Or does the gear simply represent a temperature and then it will always heat up as quickly as possible until it reaches that temperature?

In other words, will it take the same amount of time to bring the water to a boil regardless if I pick the 5th or 6th gear?

Yes, it will bring you to a boil the quickest.

Many heating systems we encounter in everyday life have thermoregulation, and it is counterproductive to run them at full blast at the beginning. For example, an AC unit will "know" on its own to run all the time until it reaches the target temperature, and then start turning on and off as needed to sustain it.

Stoves are different. They don't have any temperature feedback, and all you regulate for them is the total output of energy fed into the hob. It doesn't matter if their lower levels are solved by going off part of the time, or heating constantly but with less energy. They are not even supposed to reach a constant temperature, and for any given stove mark, the final temperature in your pan will be quite different depending on factors such as the pan material and the amount of food you are heating. Some fancy new stoves try incorporating a sensor below the plate, but the one I have used was so far off that I found it useless and cooked in "constant energy" mode with it.

So yes, whatever the technology of your stove, your water will boil quickest if you use it on the highest setting.


Substitute for refined white flour to make fried potato wedges crispy? I used to make potato wedges using refined flour, using this recipe. Basically refined flour and corn flour is used to provide extra crisp to potato wedges. The parboiled wedges are coated in a mixture from the flour and some seasonings, then frozen and deep-fried.

But while net surfing I came across harmful effects of refined white flour. Is there a substitute for refined flour? Or are there other ways to get crispy wedges?

You could substitute any flour you like, the purpose of the coating is to give it some extra crisp when frying. I would suggest maybe rice flour or you could use whole wheat flour but the taste may be different.

IMO, I would skip that step altogether though. A potato wedge is just a french fry cut in a different shape and we don't dredge french fries.


how to get maximum amount of rise for shaped pizza I'm making pizza from scratch.  My goal is to have the least dough possible in terms of grams per square cm/in, but have it as fluffy and bubbly and airy as possible.

My dough is 360g Caputo blue-sack Tipo-00 fine-ground bread flour, 70% hydration (251g bottled water), 6g yeast, 3g salt.  (I add a scattering of margerita salt on the bottom when rolling so cut this down.)  10g sunflower oil seems to improve it.

I dissolve the yeast in hot water (as hot as I can bear my finger in) while mixing the salt with the flour.

Knead 10 minutes, folding in half from 12 o'clock, 3, 6, and 9 in a cycle.

Divide into 123g balls (that fit our little baking sheets).  Fold each ball in half 4 times (it resists the fifth fold).  Let relax for 40 minutes.  (Otherwise, when I shape it to the pan, it will contract.)

Then I roll out to the size of the pizza pan, and stretch it to fit perfectly.  (I've hand-stretched instead of rolling and not gotten improved results.  Indeed, the thickness is slightly uneven and the thinner spots simply don't get any rise at all.  Rolling is much superior as even the thinnest parts are thick enough to rise.  Yes this might squeeze out some CO2 from the 30-40 minute relax period, but it's going to go on rising for several more hours.  In practice the rolled pizza doesn't end up less tall than the hand-shaped pizza's tallest points.)

Now the question is coming! I leave these sit for 3-6 hours and rise.  The baking sheet has a 1cm vertical edge, taller than I expect the pizza to rise, so I just put a cutting board on top to keep it from drying out.  I'm getting very variable results, in part because I'm letting them sit outside in Tokyo's summer weather which itself is variable.  I know I could check it every 20 minutes or make a time-lapse video, but can anyone describe generally what I should expect to happen?  For instance will it keep getting taller, or will the air go out of it at some point, or what?  Is 35C/95F a better temp than 23C/75F inside? how long should a dough 2-3mm thick take to rise?  Sometimes it almost looks like a mattress, nearly uniformly as tall as the sides of the pan, and gives great results.  But I can't recall the conditions I got that effect with.

Just in case it's relevant: I then par-bake in the baking sheet in a toaster oven 4:30; put on the toppings; and give a real bake of 6:00 or so.  The toaster oven actually does a much better job than the full-size oven in my last flat did at a nominal 250C/480F, which required a 10 min parbake and 10 min bake.  (At the moment we don't have an oven.)

The pizzas I make have a resting time to improve flavor in the refrigerator. I then take the balls out and, after warming up, stretch them to the appropriate size and add the sauce and all the toppings. It immediately goes into the oven. It rises and puffs up in the oven due to oven spring.

If you let it rise beforehand, I would think the added toppings would collapse the dough. Also, if it rises before putting in the oven, there may not be enough left to have an additional rise so don't do that and see what happens. Just put it in the oven right after stretching and topping.


How to fry Italian sausages without producing so much smoke? I just fried 2 Italian sausages on a non-stick pan, which created enough smoke to briefly set off my smoke alarm.

The sausages are delicious, but how can I do this next time without producing so much smoke?

Use less heat.

It's not clear if you used any fat here. If you do, you have to be aware of the smoke point of whatever oil you're using.

By turning down the heat you'll decrease the amount of fat you are burning, and turning into smoke. If you want to still get a nice crisp exterior you can briefly sear your sausages on high heat prior to fully cooking. Although, his might be irrelevant since you don't really get good sears with a non-stick surface.


looking for an idea for "fondue alternative" dish, that can be served in a buffet I'm looking for an idea for a dish with fondue taste (mainly the combination of cheese and wine \ beer), but which can be served in a buffet (without constant heating, and something that can be eaten standing up)

Any variation of the swiss holy trinity (lardon, cheese and potatoes) is good, but for maximum wow factor, see if you can rent a raclette oven or two and have someone stand by it and slide the molten cheese on people's plates :

Downside is you need a raclette officer on duty (can be done by anyone, its not hard)


How to substitute unsweetened coconut for sweetened coconut? I'm planning to make a coconut macaroon recipe that calls for:

1 cup of cream of coconut
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 egg whites
3 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut
3 cups of sweetened shredded coconut

plus small amounts of salt and vanilla (which are probably not relevant for this question.)
My local grocer was out of sweetened coconut, so I need to make the recipe with only unsweetened coconut instead.  What should I add to the unsweetened coconut to make it sufficiently sweet and moist?  How much?
The recipe, ironically, gives instructions on how to substitute sweetened coconut for the unsweetened (reduce cream of coconut to 1/2 c, omit corn syrup, add 2 Tbsp cake flour), but does not say how to go the other direction;  and the presence of the additional cake flour makes it difficult to reverse the directions.

Assuming you want to keep the recipe as close as possible to the original, you could simply replace the 3 cups of sweetened shredded coconut by sweetening yourself 3 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut.
Here, as an example, this is a recipe to sweeten 1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut. You can find the details and adjust the recipe to make 3 cups. Keep in mind that it is designed for organic unsweetened shredded coconut, so the quality of your coconut should play an important role in the result. As a quick summary of the recipe they provide this image

PS: If you plan on storing some, remember to allow to dry as the recipe says.


What is this white part of these lamb chops called? What is the white part (circled in black) of these lamb chops called?  I know they contain fat, but is there a name for the tissue itself?  Do they occur throughout the meat or is it only in certain parts?  I believe back lamb racks don't contain them, but the front ones do.  Is this correct?

It's hard to tell from your photo, but probably fat or connective tissue.


Should asparagus be peeled before cooking? I have it from two sources that asparagus should be peeled before being cooked in simmering water (Julia Child) or fried in butter (Heston Blumenthal). I tried Julia's method once and I've been discouraged from peeling them again ever since.

I probably overcooked on that attempt; they turned out a bit limp. But even so, don't asparagus look nicer with the skin on? And what's wrong with the skin anyway?

The asparagus spears I buy are quite thin with tender skin. Does the advice to peel only apply for thick asparagus spears?

As a rule of thumb that would pretty much coincide with what JustRightMenus said: green asparagus is generally not peeled, but white asparagus should definitely be peeled. I think it's the same plant, just cultivated in a different way. (And interestingly, in Germany and the Netherlands, the green stuff is much less common, whereas in North America I've never seen the white ones.)


Cooking a turkey in an electric roasting pan for the first time My oven is not working so I'm cooking our turkey in an electric roasting pan and I can't find the wire rack to go in the bottom. Can I still cook the turkey in the roasting pan? Is it going to be soggy? How do I get the skin crispy? Any other suggestions?

You can absolutely cook a turkey without a wire rack.  I have done this for years.

What I suggest is laying down a grid of celery and carrot sticks, to elevate the turkey a little bit and keep it from sitting in the juices that will come out during cooking.

These aromatics will then lend their flavor to the pan drippings, and help you make a fantastic gravy.

Another approach, which I do not like as well, is to crumple aluminum foil into a snake-like shape, and coil or snake it around the pan to serve as a makeshift rack.

This works well, but doesn't offer the flavor benefit that using aromatic vegetables does.


Will old coffee in the refrigerator keep for 2 days? I like the acidic taste of old/stale coffee.

I left my coffee at my desk over the weekend, and on Monday morning I took a sip. It tasted good. I did not heat it up, I drank it at room temperature.

But I read it is not advisable to drink coffee left out at room temperature because it is a medium for mold.

If I left it in the refrigerator for 2 days will it be safe to drink?

If left at room temperature it would certainly become a pool of mold, but if you refrigerate it, especially for just a few days, it should be fine. You would do well to put in a sealed container and probably adding ice to chill it faster would be 'better' but just set in the fridge for 2-3 days (depending on what else is in the fridge) should be ok.

Beyond that, taste is a personal thing and if you like it that way...go for it.


Why do my cookies deflate when coming out of the oven? Immediately after I remove my cookies from the oven, they start to deflate and lose some of their puffiness.  What are the primary causes of this?

This occurs with both old and new baking soda; though the effect is lessened with new baking soda. This happens with most kinds of cookies. I chill the cookie dough in the fridge while baking each batch.

What are the primary causes of this?

The steam and other hot gasses that were puffing the cookies up either escapes or condenses. Without heat to create more steam, the cookies deflate.

You get exactly the same effect with bread, quiches, and other baked goods. You can hear bread start to make a crackling sound almost as soon as it comes out of the oven, and the sound continues for some minutes until the bread has cooled a bit. Quiches are always quite puffy looking when they're in the oven, but they start to shrink a bit as they cool.

If you want your cookies to shrink less, you might try cooking them at a slightly higher temperature, or cooking them a bit longer, or perhaps not chilling them so much prior to baking. Bumping up the amount of egg white in the cookie may help, too. The idea is to get the structure of the cookie to set a bit more by the time you remove the cookies from the oven. That will, of course, cause the cookies to be less chewy and more crunchy.


What is the animal product in pizza sauce in korea I am currently in S.korea, I was checking the ingredients of pizza in a small local restaurant, because I follow halal diet, and I was surprised to find that there is animal product in the sauce.
So can anyone tell what kind of animal product that is used in making tomato sauce?
Thanks is advance!!

All sorts of animal products may be used in a tomato sauce, and only the restaurant itself can tell you exactly which they used. For example, one could add anchovies for salt and umami, one could add chicken/beef/pork stock for a richer flavour, one could add a splash of cream for a rounder flavour, or one could use honey instead of sugar to balance the acidity of the sauce. This list is by no means exhaustive and only the restaurant can tell you what they did. (The "authenticity" of any of these options is up for debate.)


Why is some frozen breaded chicken pre-fried? At the supermarket, I found some frozen breaded chicken. The package said it was already fried before frozen. Why would they fry the chicken before freezing it?

To simply facilitate the end-user cooking.

You get all the "benefit" of fried food without the hassle of having to actual fry the food (hot oil handling, odors, ... )

Most people do not have fryers at home and rely on par-fried food (for example oven fries).


Recipe asks for "15 cardamom pods, crushed". Do I keep the shells? do I just crush the pods in a pestle and keep the pods in or do I remove the seeds from the pods and then crush them?

this is for a flavouring for grilled chicken

To get ground seeds I usually pound the whole pods once or twice in a mortar. The seeds should separate from the husk easily then. Remove the entire pod from the mortar, and grind the seeds.

Is this recipe for a marinade? You might get away with just crushing the pods, not separating the husk and seeds.


Substitute for vegetable oil in brownies I'm cooking brownies; I have put everything together, and then find out I have no vegetable oil. What can I use to substitute for it?

Any fat can always replace any other fat, so if you have any of the following around, they can be used as a substitute:

Butter
Duck fat
Olive oil (yes, it's a vegetable oil, which you say you don't have, but you might not have thought of this one)
...

Note however, that using different fats will change the texture and taste of the final product. (if you're used to very soft brownies, butter will give you a less soft experience and duck fat will change the taste)


Can/do apples and pears ripen? It seems to me that apples and pears are pretty much hard for a long time. Does it make sense to speak of some point at which they are ripe and best for eating?

And if they do ever ripen, how do I tell when they are ripe?

Ripe pears range from as firm as soft wood (think balsa) to as soft as a sponge when ripe, depending on the variety.  If your store-bought pears are hard for more than a week, then you bought ones which were picked too young and will never really ripen.  This is a common issue with supermarket produce.

Ripe apples are generally always firm, even when ripe. Soft apples are generally rotten, except for a few varieties which are primarily meant for cooking into sauce or fillings.  This makes it more complicated to tell when they are ripe.

Both apples and pears ripen much more slowly when refrigerated.  Most fruit will ripen faster when put in an enclosed space with ripening apples, including other apples.


How is boiled rice different from steamed? I recently got into a friendly argument with a coworker about how rice should be prepared.

I insisted that the goal was to steam the rice- too much water and it would boil into a soupy pudding.

She claimed that her uncle's family in a little village in India boils their rice with a lot of water and pours off the excess. She says that the rice is "fine". I don't believe her.

Is it possible to make rice that isn't a sodden mess by boiling it? If so, how does it differ from steamed rice?

It depends a great deal on the kind of rice you use. My father always steamed rice in a closed pot with a measured amount of water using American long grain rice. The ratio was one cup rice to two cups of water.

When I got my own place I used the boiling method but chose Basmati rice, as is commonly used in india. This rice has a longer grain and holds its shape after cooking. I tried the boiling method with American long grain rice and found it also worked well. There is no need to measure the water as you cook by timer and taste the rice before draining. It's something similar to how you might cook pasta.

Contrary to what ElendilTheTall said in his answer, when boiling rice you do not have to make careful measurements of rice an water. You put in enough rice for how ever many people and an excess of water. Too much water. You cook the rice in an open pan, so you can see it. When the rice has cooked long enough, you pick out a few grains on your fork and taste them. If they are just soft enough, not too soft, then you quickly drain the water in a sieve or colander and serve. Timing is crucial.

Now, when I move to China, I found a very different kind on rice. It was shorter grained and required several washes before could be cooked. This rice didn't boil well. The unless really well washed, the rice powder in the water turns in into something reassembling wall paper paste. Instead the steaming method must be used. To steam you need to carefully measure the rice and water to get the correct ration. You put on the heat and cover. When the rice has boiled almost dry, you take it off the heat and serve.


What went wrong with this cake? This is an olive oil cake (with gluten free flour). It baked in this completely crazy way. The entire cake lifted up and there was a large bubble under the cake that shifted the batter to the sides before it cooked.

Here's how it cooked in the pan with half removed (we used a conventional oven, the toaster oven is just for scale):

Turned the cake up in this following photo -- you are looking at the bottom of the cake this time:

A couple of questions:

What happened?
How can we make sure this doesn't happen again?
Have you ever seen anything so crazy happen before?

I'd lower the temperature. You'll have to experiment. I think what happened is that the bottom quickly cooked and sealed. As your liquid ingredients turned to steam an air pocket was created, which would further slow the cooking of the middle.The still fluid batter would flow to the sides and provide more liquid, as the bottom rose.


How should I cook bacon in an oven? I've heard of people cooking bacon in an oven by laying the strips out on a cookie sheet. When using this method, how long should I cook the bacon for, and at what temperature?

I've always cooked it on top of aluminum foil, at 350°F (~175°C) for 20 minutes. Flipping it once at about the half way point. If you prefer crispier, go for 25 minutes.


Why do they put sulphites in vinegar when vinegar is a preservative? If vinegar is a preservative, how come they put sulphites (also a preservative) in it?

Fermentation naturally causes sulfites, sulfites are a by-product of the yeast activity . Sugars, particularly beet sugar is often bleached with sulfites. Even common table salt (iodized) contains sulfites, the list goes on and on.

Per the Wiki Article: "In the U.S., labeling regulations do not require products to indicate the presence of sulfites in foods unless it is added specifically as a preservative; however, many companies voluntarily label sulfite-containing foods. Sulfites used in food processing, but not specifically added as a preservative, are only required to be listed if there are more than 10 parts per million (ppm) in the finished product."

It is not hard to find sulfite-free vinegar, it will often be labeled organic.


Why do my macarons become lopsided? I've recently started making macarons using the Italian meringue method. I got this recipe from a macaron class I attended at the Waitrose Cooking School (in the UK). When I made them at my class, they were perfect, but I can't say the same for making them at home.

I don't think there is anything wrong with my mixture but rather with my oven that is making my macarons either lop-sided, or spew their "guts" out.

The meringue is glossy/shiny and gooey when I remove it from the mixer.
The paste is firm.
After mixing the meringue into the paste it's the right consistency i.e not runny and not firm that its doesn't fall off the spatula. It looks a bit like ice-cream if you keep mixing for lack of a better description.

Piping them, they keep their shape and size and have the "nipple" on top. Banging them on the counter sets/smooths them and they look ready to go.

The recipe said to have the oven on 145 degrees Celsius (with fan) (293°F) for 14 minutes.

I have one tray in the middle of the oven and my first batch cracked. I left the next batch to set for a few minutes before putting them in and this solved my cracking issue.

Now however, they just spew out the sides and are lop-sided. What could be causing this?

I started trying different temperatures, fan off and on, double tray, putting the tray higher up but nothing really fixed it.

Is the oven not ventilated enough?
Is it too hot?
Too much moisture? (it's quite humid today and rainy)

I have an electrical single oven (top and bottom elements).

The best result seemed to be 125 degrees Celsius (257°F) with fan, in the middle with a double tray. No cracks and spillages but just lop-sided (only one side had "feet"). I tried piping as straight as I could but this didn't seem to help either.

Does anyone have any ideas? I really want these to work :(

As you probably know, making Macarons is tough, especially making them at home. But it is possible as I have been able to create perfect macarons in my home kitchen, using Italian and french meringue. The Italian meringue always got me better results.

There are many reasons why your macarons don't come out like expected. First off, the meringue. It should be glossy and shiny like you say and also firm, but not too thick. When you take your whisk out of the meringue it should look like this:

The French say that when you take the whisk out of the meringue, it has to look a bit like a bird's beak, hence the way the meringue forms a soft peak slightly pointing downwards.

The consistency of the meringue mixed with the almond paste is very important. People often say it has to fall like a ribbon or like magma, but I always thought that is hard to imagine.
You can take a knife and cut through the batter. If it flows back immediately, it's ready. But let me tell you: One or two strokes too much with the spatula and the batter becomes unusable.

I always tried to make sure not to under-mix it. Then, every time making Macarons, I mixed it a tad more until I ended with an over-mixed batter one day. Since then I know how far I can go without destroying the better. Some people even count there strokes, maybe this helps you.

And one tip I can give you: The process of transferring the batter into the piping bag also 'mixes' the batter, so maybe don't go too far if you are unsure.

From my experience, making macarons with fan turned on always fails in my oven. For yours it could be different as every oven is different, but I only use top & bottom heat, 13 minutes at 150 °C in the middle of the oven.

When piping them it is really important to pipe them directly from the top (90 degree angle). Directly after piping them, I also tap against the bottom of the tray to remove any air bubbles.

You really have to experiment with the temperature and baking time. This process was really hard for me because even when the Macarons looked good from the outside, they could be hollow.

Although some sources say it's not necessary, I always wait a few minutes before baking my Macarons. When you touch them, they can be sticky but shouldn't stick to your finger. I never have tried baking them without resting.
Your first batch cracked, because the temperature was so high that the batter expanded too fast I believe.

What exactly do you mean with lopsided, do your Macarons look like this?

Or like this? (left one)

Maybe you should bake them longer at a lower temperature, you really have to experiment here, every oven is different. It took me a few weeks until I figured it out.

Also, make sure you let them rest enough.

Moisture could be a problem, but I don't think so. As long as they don't stick to your finger after resting and before baking, it always worked for me - even on rainy days.

So the thing I would try first is baking them without fan. If that fails, I would experiment with baking time and temperature.


Can I bake a cheesecake using only a water bath? I don't have an oven, but I want to make a cheesecake; however, I do not like the "no bake" cheesecake recipes.

A lot of cheesecake recipes require a water bath before baking in an oven. I was wondering if the cheesecake could be baked only in the water bath.

There are a number of technique that you may find acceptable as alternatives to an oven, it in part depends on what equipment you have available.  Any of these technique have their champions and recipes can quickly be found with a web search.

Try "stove top cheesecake" and you will find recipes for using a covered frying pan for instance.  I personally have tried and those are not my favorite, at least of the one I tried as I found it difficult to control temperature.  Here is a blog recipe with an example of this type of technique.  It is not actually the one I have tried and no promises on the actual recipe, but the point is more the technique and a starting point.

Dutch oven I have not tried, but that seems like a very promising approach if you have one as it would trap steam while acting as an oven.  I may have to try it in fact.  I consider the pressure cooker to be a sped up water bath, and a covered dutch oven to be not far from it.  Covered, a straight water bath could be very similar but take longer while these options would up your temperature and speed the process.  This is a Scouting Magazine article on the Dutch oven method. Again, I have not tried this one, nor do I endorse the recipe, but the method seems very adaptable and with the way a dutch oven works, I would think it will work well.  I know how nicely it creates a steam dome for breads for instance.

I personally have had very good luck with an instant pot, and most any pressure cooker would work for those recipes.  If you have one, that is an option worth trying and seeing if you like the results.  It will not get you a browned crust top which some people prefer, but I have found it easy to adjust between a bir more moist to a drier result according to taste.  This is for pressure cookers/InstantPots.  There are many similar out there and this is one I have gone my before for technique.  Most any cheesecake recipe I have used would easily adapt to this, I went there for just the ideas and timing.  With pressure cookers, some recommend enclosing in foil, some not.  I have found it does not make a lot of difference as long as you lightly remove any condensed water as soon as you remove from the cooker and before if fully sets.  I have liked my results, but of course it requires a pressure cooker.

As I consider for applications like this a pressure cooker to be a pressurized water bath, by extrapolation I would say you could do stove top water bath for the entire process, but would have the disadvantage of it taking longer.

Those are a few options over an oven.  The dutch oven technique is championed by campers as well which is shouting at me to try next summer.  Each of these I just picked one item out from search results and there are many more examples that will pop up in any search engine.  For myself, I have found methods like the pressure cooker to me more forgiving and more available for experimentation than oven baked to be honest and it produces what I consider to me a real and tasty cheesecake.


Can a masticating juicer make good hummus? Many masticating juicers are sold with the claim that they can also make nut butters. Seeing that chickpeas are easier to crush than roasted nuts, I wondered if they can also be used for hummus or other legume pastes. I searched around, but only found 1-2 links and a video from an Australian juicer manufacturer who suggested this use.

If the answer is yes, then the subquestions are:

what features should the juicer have to make sure it is suitable for hummus? Does every juicer that says "makes nut butter" also make hummus, or do I have to look for other special features?
What can I expect in terms of effort and quality to get results? Can I just pour the ingredients and gather the output, or does it require some kind of fiddling to get everything right? How smooth and creamy is the resulting hummus? Does it work with standard dryish recipes (1:10 tahini:chickpeas) or do I have to use more fat as a lubricant to see results?

The background is that I have been thinking of getting a slow juicer, but the price and counter space deterred me, seeing that I don't drink juice frequently. But if it can make good hummus, this will probably tip the scales.

In the meantime, I do have a masticating fruit juicer, and I am quite happy with the results it produces, including hummus. The skins of the chickpeas are somewhat a problem, but either peeling them or cooking with a pinch of soda in the pressure cooker is sufficient to get a very creamy hummus.
I still use the food processor for small portions, because the masticating juicer is a PITA to build up and then clean, but making large batches of thick hummus and freezing them turned out to be a good strategy. I also have to note that I make the hummus much thicker than standard, a bit claylike, and either eat it as-is (because I sometimes enjoy the texture that way) or mix it with more oil or liquid after it has thawed, saving space in the freezer. And the juicer works much better for this thick hummus than the food processor, which has trouble moving the substance around at that viscosity. For that, and for the general quality of hummus overall, I am very glad I got the juicer.


how to extract Glycyrrhizin from liquorice root? I recently learned that Glycyrrhizin, which is naturally present in liquorice root, is a strong sweetener (30-50x stronger than sugar depending on sources).

Some traditional recipes call for infusing liquorice for tea, but besides this I could not find much information about how to use liquorice as a sugar substitute.

So my question: How can I extract glycyrrhizin from liquorice to substitute for sugar in recipes?

Should I grate / slice / blend my roots before putting them in water?
Shall I boil for 10 minutes (more / less?) or leave it in cold water overnight?

I'm assuming the last step would be to filter the water / liquid and use this 'syrup' as my sweetener, but is this assumption correct?

Assuming that you have Glycyrrhiza glabra, the glycyrrhizin content should be somewhere less than 25% of the content - which is plenty for an extraction, and means you won't need a whole bunch of root and specialist techniques to extract it.

A quick google search leads me to believe that the procedures for extraction of the glycyrrhizin are fairly simple - maceration (literally chewing, but in this context meaning mashing/grinding/blending) followed by steeping for about 4 hours at room temperature (see also here).  It looks like water alone is a pretty good solvent for it, but a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% water is better.

From Wikipedia, it looks like the solubility is about 10 mg/ml (milligram/milliliter) in water. This is assuming that you can get a saturated solution from a pure compound. You will likely not get this sort of concentration, at least not without a bunch of other compounds coming across and giving you a strong liquorice flavour. Note that the average detection limit for sugar/sucrose is about 12 millimol/litre or about 4 mg/ml by my calculation - so with something 50x sweeter, you should have no problem sweetening things to a similar level as sugar using a solution with as little as 0.08 mg/ml. Your major problem with attempting this process is going to be how to measure how sweet your extracts are - you can do it by taste, but that will be very subjective.

Also note that many recipes for things like cookies call for crystalline sugar to provide structure in the batter rather than purely for sweetness, so you will need to substitute some of the liquid for your liquid sweetener and work out something to add to maintain the structure. I am sure that there this is a well worked out solution for this already for people wanting cookies without the sugar, so I will leave it to you to research.


Why do some countries prefer UHT milk and cream? My wife and I recently moved to Belgium.  We were absolutely shocked by the fact that UHT (long life) milk and cream dominate supermarket shelves compared to pasteurized - by a factor of at least 10 to 1.  The UHT products are sold in cardboard containers and taste poor compared to the refrigerated fresh stuff.

Considering Belgium is well known for it's rich tradition of dairy products, this struck us as rather odd.

I asked around and was told that France was also going UHT.

Anyone know how this came about? I can see how UHT makes sense when there is a poor distribution network, but surely it isn't by choice???

My guess is that the Belgians (like the French) rarely eat milk cold and uncooked in the way that the British do. The Belgians will have their milk in hot chocolate, or cakes etc, whereas the Brits will have it cold in cereal (again, in France at least, cereal is eaten with warm milk).

I have found that the UHT milk in French supermarkets tastes a lot better than the UHT milk in British supermarkets.


Adding cayene early makes it less hot I have a favorite jambalya recipe. I usually saute the trinity (celery, onions, green peppers) for a short while before adding garlic and then a longer while later I will add my Cajun seasoning. For some reason the other day I did it differently and added my Cajon seasoning to the oil before adding the trinity and garlic (like I do when making Thai curry - adding the curry paste to the oil to start the cooking). I was surprised to find my final dish at the end was far less spicy (less hot) and there was less of the flavor from the Cajon seasoning. That surprised me. Slightly less spicy would make sense but this was WAY less spicy. I used the normal quantity of all ingredients so that wasn't the cause of the difference.
EDIT: DIshes made 3 days apart with spices that have been stored the same length of time (months+).
What is going on?

Cooking over high heat causes capsaicin (the hot chemical in chiles) to break down and to vaporize, leaving less in the finished dish. There's a huge difference between cooking in water at 95C vs. in hot oil at 150C; simmering only causes losses of up to 1/4 of the capsaicin, while frying can cause much greater losses, up to 90%.
So by adding the cayenne pepper earlier, you were cooking it at hot oil temperature, and thus lost the majority of the spiciness.  If you'd waited until the vegetables broke down, the water they release lowers the cooking temperature to near boiling, and thus little hotness is lost.


(How) Can I fry red lentils? I really like the taste and texture of red lentils and I've been cooking them (sometimes together with rice) as a side dish or as part of the main dish.

However, I wondered if and how you would go about frying them. I'm thinking that maybe the straightforward way of just throwing them into hot oil wouldn't work if they're raw, right? So do I have to soak them beforehand? Should I cook them first?

With all dried beans, they should be cooked first. Lentils do remarkably well cooked as rice, which is why they're often paired with rice. A rice cooker set with just lentils, or your favorite pan-rice recipe should work. Lentils don't need to be cooked as long as other beans, so you shouldn't need to pressure cook them, or soak them, like you would other beans.

You can then sauté them in oil, if that's what you want to do. Frying (deep-frying) is not what I would expect with lentils; they sauté well, however.


Replacing cream and butter in a carrot casserole/pie Casserole from pureed carrot (it may be a "pie" rather than a "casserole" though - my footing in Anglo cooking terms isn't very strong, feel free to edit) is a traditional Finnish recipe.

Essentially, it consists of cooked and pureed carrots, cream, butter, eggs, breadcrumbs, syrup, and salt, baked in the oven for about an hour. Sometimes, some rice is added as well.

You can imagine what the dairy products add to the dish - they emphasize the delicious carrot taste, and make it rich and heavy.

I'm not a hard-core vegan, but I'm curious what vegetable based alternatives could work to replace them. I'm sure olive oil wouldn't: it has too strong a flavour of its own. Other vegetable oils would add the heaviness, but I find there is something unique to what cream and butter do to such a simple dish, something that no oil known to me can.

Are there other ingredients that could work here? Preferably something that is readily available, as opposed to complicated and expensive vegan "xy replacement" products.

A mixture of almond milk and silken tofu (1:1) will yield an inexpensive half and half replacement, top with earth balance margarine as necessary. For baking, flax or Chia eggs or commercial egg replacer should fit the bill. If the baking time is not too long you can incorporate tapioca flour in slurry for a creamier texture and extra thickening, our just use a corn starch slurry.


Cleaning out a smell Trying to clean out the spice cabinet and I want to re-purpose a shaker from a chili powder based mix to a cinnamon-sugar (it's made principally of plastic but has wire mesh screen). After a couple of washings the smell of chili powder is still pretty evident. How can I clean out that smell.

You could try baking soda. It is well known for absorbing odors, especially in plastic.


Do I have to discard leftover sushi? We had a party Monday night and ordered Sushi for 20 people - about 25 percent of the Sushi went uneaten, mostly plain rolls like tuna and yellow tail.  I would hate to throw out 10+ rolls - any suggestions?

I'm assuming these rolls contain raw fish. If that's the case I'd urge you not to eat them raw the following day. It might be safest to just throw it out, but you could try deep frying them in a light tempura batter. Just a few minutes should be enough to cook the fish.


how long is tofu good for? I bought some tofu at the store about a month ago (or was it two months?). Anyway, I haven't eaten it all and it's sitting in my fridge in tupperware. How long is it good for?

Throw it out.

Tofu has a very short life. Once opened it can last up to 5 days in the refrigerator, but only if you store it submerged in water, and change it daily.

See also: http://stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18509


Why does commercial brown (whole wheat) bread taste bitter? I use this flour for making parathas: Pillsbury Chakki Fresh Atta (whole wheat flour)
This is whole wheat flour. The parathas never tasted bitter.

Is the commercial whole wheat bread made of this kind of flour?
I have found the commercial whole wheat bread to be bitter. What's the reason?

If I make the brown bread with this flour only, will that be bitter too?

Much of the bitterness in breads made from whole wheat is caused by the phenolic acid and tannins in the bran layer of the wheat. Different varieties of wheat have different levels of those compounds and produce breads with different levels of bitterness. "Traditional" varieties of wheat, such as red wheat, contain high levels of tannins, while hard white spring wheat contains relatively low levels of tannins.

Here is what bakingbusiness.com has to say about this subject:

  With whole wheat, taste differences boil down to the tannin content of
  the bran. These red pigments in hard red wheat carry a bitter flavor.
  “... Whiter whole-grain varieties typically contain fewer tannins, which
  results in a less bitter taste,” said Brook Carson, technical product
  manager, ADM Milling, Shawnee Mission, Kansas. "Differences in taste can
  also be overcome with added sweetness or with a masking agent."

Based on your question, it sounds likely the Pillsbury Chakki Fresh Atta whole wheat flour you use for making parathas is milled from either hard white spring wheat or a blend of the white wheat with a more traditional variety of wheat resulting in a non-bitter end product.

There is another possible source of bitterness in bread made from whole wheat flour, although it shouldn’t really affect commercially made bread. When whole wheat flour is milled, it includes the oil containing wheat germ, which is different than refined white flour where the wheat germ is removed prior to milling.  This oil in the whole wheat flour results in it having a much shorter shelf life than white flour and makes it susceptible to rancidity if not stored properly. Commercial bakeries go through (literally) tons of flour, so their whole wheat flour shouldn't be sitting around long enough to go bad.

I can tell you from first-hand experience, one of the signs whole wheat flour has started to go rancid is an increase in bitterness.


Using a paper towel as a splatter shield: Great idea or terrible accident waiting to happen? I recently watched a friend cooking, and he used a paper towel as a splatter shield:

This seems like a very convenient solution, since you can just throw away the paper towel afterwards, as opposed to conventional splatter shields, which are a nuisance to clean.

Is it safe to do that, or will the paper catch fire (or are there any other hazards that I did not think of)? I tried to research the burning point of paper towels, but I failed to find a reliable source...

This definitely falls into the category of an accident waiting to happen. No flammable materials should ever be used in this manner. Not only is there the danger of the paper catching fire from a heating element or flame, there is also the risk of it catching fire from a pan fire (and consequently making that situation worse).

However, if you want something disposable, a foil sheet works and won't catch fire. Additionally, if you want it vented so steam can escape, you can poke small holes in the foil.


Cups v. weighing scales - is there an historical explanation? Broadly speaking UK recipes will specify amounts by weight (lbs/ounces or metric), whereas American recipes will specify amounts by volume (cups).

Is there an explanation for how the two different approaches arose in the first place? I'm not talking about whether or not metric is used, but specifically about volume versus weight.

I'm no authority, but I have a hypothesis.

Measuring weight is more complex than measuring volume. Before the invention of the digital scale (recent history), or the spring scale (1770, by a Brit) things were weighed with a balance scale and a set of weights. Materials alone makes this more expensive than a simple cup that would hold a liquid.

Given the timing of the invention of the spring scale, and our subsequent armed revolution, and many years (decades?) of being a flat-out poor country I don't imagine that we had much money to worry about spring scales or balance scales. A cup is cheaper and simpler, and doesn't wear out or break. The durability also likely had a role to play in our journeys westward.

Likely by the time we actually could afford "fancier" methods of measurement the volume thing was just too ingrained in our heads. Plus, we tend to be stubborn (e.g. metric).


Fat sinking to bottom of stock So I've made stock a couple of times in the last couple of months - one batch of chicken stock and one of beef neckbone stock - and I've come across a problem I've never seen before.

After cooling, the majority of the fat in both batches sunk to the bottom of the containers they were in. It's definitely at least mostly fat, since there was almost no fat layer to speak of on top (as there should be.)

The thought crossed my mind that it could be the storage containers, since I used regular mouth Mason jars for the beef stock, but I store my chicken stock in a big pitcher since I use it so often, and the same thing happened there.

Two different sized pots, as well: the chicken was the same 20-qt aluminum pot I always use, and the beef in a heavier stainless pot that's only 8-qt or so. Therefore, I wouldn't imagine it was the pot.

The only thing different was the butcher for the beef: our butcher where I live now is MUCH higher quality than what I used to have access to.

As a side note, while thickened, the fat did not solidify as per usual, which suggests it wasn't saturated fat (right?), but with beef...?

Does anyone have any idea what may have caused this weirdness, and how can I prevent it?

Gelatin. All bones and connective have gelatin and collagen. When you cook bones slowly and gently for a long time, the gelatin leaches out in the water. Being heavier, it sinks. It isn't marrow. Marrow will stay in the beef bone until you spoon it out (lucky you). If it did fall out, it would stay in one piece. But I believe the substance you found in the bottom of your soup pot is the natural gelatin from the bones in your stock!


How should I adjust the time and/or temperature when baking a pound cake in loaf pans When splitting pound cake batter into two loaf pans instead of using a tube pan, how would you adjust your baking time and temperature?

I wouldn’t change much if anything.

The main factor for baking is volume and the area of the cross-section, or, in other words, how long does it take for the oven heat to reach the center parts of the batter and bake them. Under that premise, you could say a bundt pan is like a curved loaf pan, thanks to the chimney in the middle. But: The material of the pans will also be a factor in baking time, even if you are using the same shape, so a tiny bit of experimentation is called for here

So the recommendation is to treat your tried-and-tested recipe like a new one: Set your timer for about five to ten minutes less than you normally would, check the cake for doneness (thermometer or skewer that comes out clean) and if needed, continue baking until the cake is done. Tip: note the baking time for all pans that you used, this will be helpful next time.

Assuming that you are baking the pound cake at a relatively low temperature (160-175 C or 325-350 F), a few minutes deviation won’t cause it to burn.


Can ricotta cheese be frozen? If yes then how long it keep in freezer? Can ricotta cheese be frozen to store for a long time.If yes than how long we keep ricotta in freezer.

I would not recommend freezing ricotta as-is. My concern is the freeze-thaw cycle would deteriorate the lovely delicate texture of the curds.

However, freezing a ricotta filling (example: a spinach ricotta filling for a pasta shell or cannelloni) seems to work well (bound with egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan, spinach, etc).


How to stop mushrooms from discoloring everything? A few times in the past week, I've cut up a few mushrooms (I'm pretty sure they're button) and sauteed or fried them with a few other ingredients for dinner. I absolutely love the taste and the texture, but they seem to give a dull grey tint to anything in the pan with them. This was most obvious when I cooked them with tofu and eggs.

How can I stop this from happening? I've heard that acids can stop discoloration, but I mostly heard that in the context of oxidation of fruits. I also thought of sauteing the mushrooms separately and combining everything at the end, but I'd like to avoid additional cooking time and dishes used.

Is there anything that I can do to stop this discoloration?

Based on comments, the likely culprit is moisture cooking out of the mushrooms and into your other ingredients.  Mushrooms contain a surprising amount of liquid, and when cooking them you'll see that they shrink down significantly due to moisture loss.  If you're adding them to other ingredients, some of the resulting liquid is hanging around in the pan long enough to discolor other, lightly colored items like eggs or tofu.

What I would suggest is sauteeing your mushrooms by themselves for at least a couple minutes, to release their moisture prior to adding everything else.  Here's a good step-by-step guide.  Be sure you salt them to draw out moisture, and make sure that you don't crowd the pan (see this question) so that the moisture can cook off effectively.  Both eggs and tofu should cook fairly quickly, so you can add them after the first couple minutes and the mushrooms can continue to brown and cook afterwards.  If you have other ingredients that need to cook for an extended amount of time, you may want to cook your mushrooms  separately if the color bothers you.  If you're using a separate pan, this won't really add additional time, but you will have extra cleaning to do.

Mushrooms are funky that way - common sense might indicate that they be cooked like vegetables, but there's a reason why Alton Brown suggests treating them like meat instead.


Electric stove coils scratched by pan My pan is scratching the coils on my electric stove.
What is the best pan to use so the coils do not get scratched?

Looks like heating plates could be the solution. Note that I have never used them, and the link below is just an example; if you decide on these, shop around for the best ones for you!

https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Tamer-Burner-Plate/dp/B00004W4UJ


When to use convection/fan bake vs bake Are there any general rules to follow when choosing between bake and fan bake to cook something in the oven? What effect does each have and what are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

To clarify: forced-air (a/k/a "convection", a/k/a "fan bake") ovens rely on a fan to circulate the air in the oven.  The fast-moving air substantially enhances the rate at which heat is transferred to the food.  It is particularly good where you want the surface to brown, such as roasts and breads; it is not as good for more delicate items, such as custards and cakes, which can set too quickly or get dried out.  For cookies, it depends on what effect you want, but many standard types do well in forced-air ovens because the fan helps ensure that the whole oven stays at a uniform temperature despite the presence of several trays.  (Of course, the tray closest to the heating element will still cook faster than the one farthest away, so you will still have to swap them partway through.)

The general rule for using the fan is to set the oven temperature 25 degrees F (15 C) lower than what the recipe calls for using in a regular oven.  Even then, don't go strictly by cooking time, as ovens vary; rather, be sure to check on your food regularly to see how fast it is cooking.  You may need to cover your food to prevent over-browning, or perhaps adjust the oven temperature.


How can I approximate a deli kaiser roll? I want to approximate kaiser rolls, as you would buy in a deli or bodega. I tried this recipe, and the results were tasty, but not really a kaiser roll. Specifically, they were:

Too dense
Not crusty enough

How can I get closer to the target?
Update
Some photos of what I'm trying to achieve are here, here, and here.

Density

A high-protein bread flour will give strength to the roll, and allow it to rise higher. While it should still have some chew to it, this may be what your perceiving when you refer to density. Think of the difference between a pizza (typically high-protein, or "bread" flour) and a muffin or pastry (often uses lower protein flour). Bread flour can be substituted 1:1 with AP flour.

Crustiness

Instead of milk, try using an egg wash. This can be done by mixing a lightly beaten egg with 1 tbsp of water and a pinch of salt. Brush the rolls just before sprinkling on the poppy seeds.

Some more sugar might also improve browning. You could try increasing the sugar content by about 50% and see what effect it has on your rolls.

If you're interested in learning more about bread baking, this answer is based on a recipe from Bread Illustrated from America's Test Kitchen. I am not affiliated with them, but I feel like I should give the credit where it's due.

The techniques for making bread can get very complicated and precise, so there may be other ways to improve your rolls. I would also recommend a recipe that uses weight instead of volume for measuring flour/water ratios. Hydration levels in your dough can cause a significant difference in your final product.


Savoury version of caramel or sugar cage I am a hobbyist cook, who has recently taken to attempting elegant plating and presentation.

I particularly like to make "gourmet" versions of classic dishes (nothing novel about that I know).

My question is as follows:

I made a take on Peking Duck with plum sauce the other day and instead of a prawn crackers I made a potato tuile. It inspired me to make more decorative elements to my meals and was wondering if anyone had a tip on how to make a savoury version of a sugar or caramel cage as in the picture below. I've searched in vain on Google and have come up short.

Many thanks!

You can make some pretty delicate cages using pastry, which is (or can be) pretty neutral in flavor.

An example is posted on a foodie blog post about a dinner they had at the restaurant L'Heritage in Kuala Lampur.

  Slow-braised Black Angus ribs with sweetbread & morels in a choux pastry cage.

Images for "choux pastry cage" are pretty easy to find and they seem to be made in a couple of ways:

A "lattice" style cage that uses flat (premade) puff pastry dough into which slits are cut and then stretched to create openings and then baked. This can be done by hand or with a specialty rotary cutter called a "lattice cutter". Described in detail in this Joepastry article.
Using choux pastry, pipe the pastry around a form in the pattern you like using a small tip and then bake. This is described in a YouTube video here.

Joe Pastry's beautiful caged pears using the lattice cutter look like this:

The choux pastry from the video comes out looking like this... he uses them as bowls but you should be able to use them as cages instead.


What is the effect of poaching fish in milk? I recently came across a recipe for fish poached in milk.  I've never heard of this technique, and am skeptical of its effect (vs. water), so it sounds wasteful to cook fish in 4 cups of milk only to discard the milk afterwards.

After a quick Google search, I found that it's done in some cuisines.  So I'm wondering what, if any, effect does poaching fish in milk have?

The milk sugars will add a sweetness to the dish. Also, after the fish comes out, the milk can be reduced/thickened to make a bechemel sauce.


Not feeding sourdough starter enough? I'm new to the whole baking thing, so I'm learning as I go along. In that regard, there may be a host of things wrong with my bread baking process, but I'm mostly curious at this point about my starter feedings. I don't really follow any rules aside from equal parts flour/water. How important is it to feed the starter in proportion to the starting amount? I've seen lots about a 2:1:1 starter:water:flour ratio or even 1:1:1, but I haven't really been doing anything like that. In most cases I just feed a static 40g flour/40g water each time; regardless of the starting volume, starter rises to double no problem and I make sure it passes the float test every time before I mix the dough.

I've baked 4 loaves unsuccessfully at this point, all have been flat with a large air pocket like this. My best guess is that this has to do with being under-kneaded but after doing some more reading I'm a little curious if there's any specific reason behind feeding a starter that much and if it could be contributing to my bread failures. Is my starter OK (i.e. I should look elsewhere to find the problem) or is this something worth changing about my process? Thanks!

My early sourdough loaves looked like that. Now they are less flat and have defined hikes through the crumb rather than a great interlinked cavern.
The things that changed:

my starter became more mature and stable. It lives in the fridge and gets fed 2-3 times a week when I bake. I keep about 250g which gets 100g taken out and replaced for my standard loaf and 180 g on loaf-and-pizza days, plus another 60g at random times when my partner steals some.
I’ve learned that in my kitchen a sourdough loaf takes a long old time to rise. Sometimes I bake it underproofed because that’s better than not having bread, but really mine needs 24 hours from start to finish.
I gave up kneading. I read all the methods, watched all the videos... I slammed that dough down 300 times per loaf, kneaded for at least ten minutes, stretched and folded... and never got smooth elastic dough as advertised. Instead I got exhausted sticky dough that was a nightmare to handle and didn’t rise all that well. I’ve come to the conclusion that if dough has enough time it doesn’t require kneading. Now I mix the starter with water, mix in the flour with a rice paddle, mix a bit more about ten minutes later and leave alone for about 22 hours.  I might give it a poke if I’m bored, but that’s more for me than the bread.
Shaping: I used to do a lot of folding/rolling up of dough before I put it in a proving basket for the last hour or two. Now I just kind of punch it down and gather it back up and dump it into a well-floured basket.

I don’t have a current loaf to take a pic to prove my success (just back from Stratford, flying to Stornoway in the morning, had to actually do a discard feed for 1st time this year) but essentially my mantra would be ‘chill and give it time’.


What is the difference between white and brown eggs? I always use brown extra large eggs, but I can't honestly say why I do this other than habit at this point. Are there any distinct advantages or disadvantages like flavor, shelf life, etc?

The Egg Nutrition Center's FAQ page has an entry on this very topic. Basically, the color of the egg does not affect the egg's flavor, nutritional value, etc. It simply depends on the particular breed of chicken that lays the egg -- white eggs from white hens, brown eggs from brown hens.

It's also worth noting, as the ENC points out:

  Generally, brown hens are larger and
  require more feed and therefore their
  eggs may be slightly higher priced.


How can I prevent coconut cream from curdling in a soda drink? I've made Tom Kha soda syrup:

  simple syrup + coconut cream + lime leaves + lemongrass + galangal + a bit of lime juice to help preserve

When I add a couple spoons of it to soda water and ice, it curdles. I know this is because the soda water is too acidic (it's just tap water that I carbonated — no basic additives). What can I do to alleviate this without changing the flavour too much?

If it's acidity that's causing the separation, a pinch of baking soda should do it. In fact (trivia alert!), the first "soda" was naturally carbonated spring water, which usually contained alkaline sodium compounds, including sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda. Many brands of carbonated water today, especially those marketed as "club soda" in the US or "soda water" in the UK, have baking soda added to mimic the flavor of that natural spring water.

Having said that, if coconut cream curdles with acid, and you've already added lime juice to your coconut cream, there's nothing you can do to un-curdle it. However, coconut cream has very little protein, which is what causes dairy milk to curdle in acid. Most of the discussion I can find online about coconut milk and cream curdling refers to heat as the main cause.

Could your problem simply be that the high-fat coconut milk, like many fatty products, doesn't mix easily with water? Try blending it thoroughly with a small amount of water, and then blend that with the larger amount of carbonated water, and see what happens.


Grilling veggies & meat on same surface for vegetarian guests If I grill veggies and then grill meats (or vice versa) on the same surface, is heating and brushing the grill an adequate method to assure I haven't offended a vegan or vegetarian?

My response to this kind of question is always just ask, and if you absolutely can't, err on the side of caution.

I'm assuming here that you're talking about a pretty thorough heating and brushing. If you're leaving a bunch of meat stuff on the grill, that someone could conceivably taste, that's not good - you certainly shouldn't be risking food that actually has meat in it. But if it's essentially clean, with pretty much everything burned and scraped off, you're in a much better state.

I believe most of the vegetarians I know would be okay with that general plan. They're pretty pragmatic about their diets, they they know that some people eat meat and aren't going to have two grills, and they'll regard it as pretty similar to you using a pan that previously was used for meat but has since been washed. I would be sure I was doing everything that I could, thorough heating and brushing, separate (or washed) utensils, and so on, but I wouldn't be overly worried at that point.

But there are also people who keep to much stricter diets for all kinds of reasons (see Journeyman Geek's answer, for example), who would not be okay with this.

The only way you can tell the difference between the two is to ask, or to know someone well enough that you don't have to ask. This is really a pretty general principle when it comes to potentially strongly-held beliefs: if you want to do right by someone, don't expect to be able to use generalized categories to get the answer, assume you need their answer.


Are these eggs safe to eat? I like to hard boil eggs because they are one of very few foods that help when my sugar levels are too low.

But now Im a little paranoid. The other week I read online that if you take an egg out of the refrigerator and shake it, if you can feel stuff moving around inside then its not safe to eat.

I just did that with all 12 eggs I have and according to what I read, they're all bad.

But the usedby date on the carton says 21 August. So, are they safe to eat? How else can I determine if they are safe to eat without cracking the shell and without boiling it first?

I have heard it stated before, but here it is from various sources:

Source 1

Source 2 (confirms the shake test)

Source 3

In general, the air pocket in an egg gets bigger as it gets older due to the permeability of the shell.  I think the shake test is a little hinky, unless it actually sounds like water sloshing.  I would try the float test; fill a bowl to twice the height of the egg, and place it in.  If it sinks to its side, it's fresh.  If it stands on its end, it's probably good, but needs to be used quickly.  If it floats, toss it.


Where to look for Vintage Cookbooks in Spanish? I'm trying to find some vintage Cookbooks printed in Spanish from the 30's, 40's and 50's for a present. After many google searches I can only seem to find vintage Cookbook sites in English only. Likewise, the vintage book shops in town have nothing in other languages.

Would anyone know a good place to search? Thanks in advance.

I collect vintage books (birding books, though) and I speak spanish; I usually find good results in ebay.es

I have checked for you on cocina books, and have found these:  http://www.ebay.es/sch/Otros-Libros-antiguos-/269/i.html?_nkw=cocina
the page is in spanish, so it conveniently filters books in spanish for you.

If you are interested in one of the books http://www.ebay.es/itm/DR-A-VANDER-COCINA-MODERNA-/230916243325?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_186&hash=item35c3ae3f7d
and want to proceed with a purchase, change the domain in the URL to ebay.com http://www.ebay.com/itm/DR-A-VANDER-COCINA-MODERNA-/230916243325?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_186&hash=item35c3ae3f7d and voilà!

other interesting sources,
http://www.uniliber.com/resultados.php?pc=cocina&orden=PA

http://www.iberlibro.com/libros/libros-cocina.shtml

iberlibro.com is the spanish version of abebooks.com
so you might get similar results searching there and filtering for cocina and a year range

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=cocina&yrh=1950&yrl=1930


Do I always have to peel garlic? Is it safe to prepare ginger garlic paste without peeling garlic skin ?? I always peel garlic which is a labourious and time taking process. I would like to know whether if it is ok to make paste without peeling skin of the garlic.

I don't think that this would be unsafe, as you do see unpeeled garlic used in some applications, but it wouldn't be particularly pleasant and you probably wouldn't end up with a great paste. Garlic skins can be pretty tough and woody depending on the particular bulb; you'd probably end up with hard, fibrous bits in your paste.

If you're willing to accept this negative impact to the final texture, then I suppose you could try it. But as @Joe points out, you're better off working on an improved method of peeling your garlic, which will serve you well no matter what you're cooking.


Are stone or metal grinding wheels better for flour? I want to buy a flour mill for bread and pizza flour. I read that stone grinding wheels are better for grinding fine flour (tipo 00) than metal burrs. The mill that I am looking at does offer fine metal burrs. Any insights into which is better, stone grinding wheels or metal burrs? Can I grind "tipo 00" in one pass or do I need to do multiple grinds?

Though I've never ground wheat, I've used metal and ceramic mills to grind spices, rice, and nuts. As far as I know you'll usually find either ceramic or steel burrs. Steel burrs though usually stainless steel, can still corrode depending on the type of steel used. Where as you typically want a harder steel for mills, you also want something corrosive resistant, but often a compromise needs to be made between one of the other.

Its known that ceramic burrs do a better jobs grinding to a consistently small grind. However I've never had an issue with a steel burr, though I've never ground anything to the fineness of OO flour.

As far as I've heard you should not grind anything in more than 1 pass. Its my understanding that its harder to grind something that's already been ground than it is to originally grind it to that same coarseness on the first run. My coffee grinder, which is a conical burr grinder, actually voids the manufacturer warranty if you do this. I assume this is because the burr can become clogged, and can wear out the motor.

In my experience I've preferred ceramic burrs for their ease of cleaning, they don't have issues with static like steel does so the burr rarely needs to be dusted off because it doesn't accumulate build up nearly as quickly.

As far as grinding to a finer coarseness I have no reason to believe that one is better than the other, and cannot think of a reason why that would be so. I've heard that ceramic is better for this, but cannot back that with any facts.

For other reasons I prefer ceramic for just about any type of burr. As far as fineness I've found that the size and quality of the burr can effect consistency the most regardless of the material its made out of.

Addition:

I've used this grinder for over 2 years now. I don't know if it will grind to the fineness of 00 flour, but its rather cheap and good quality.