What is the best rice for sushi? I love making sushi at home - it is a satisfying and delicious experience that is very quick and easy (and I can use whatever food is leftover in the house).

However, I'm limited by the type of rice I have been using, and most of the sources I've found are confusing about details and brands. I have been using Botan Calrose Rice, and I've used the Whole Foods brand sushi rice, but neither is particularly good.

So, what are the specific considerations for good sushi rice? Obviously it should be a white, short-grained rice, but what else should I look for? Is it worth it to order rice online when you live in a place that only sells the Botan rice?

Edit: The method for making the rice is either by boiling in a pot with a tight lid or using a rice cooker - both seem to produce very similar results for me. I am looking for a rice with more consistent texture and with a stronger, less chalky flavor.

According to Seductions of Rice (which also has the best written instructions for making sushi rice I've seen), any Japanese-style rice will work fine for sushi rice.  They further define Japanese Rice as Japonica short rice which has a length:width ratio of 2.5:1.  The grains should look translucent and rounded, sometimes with a small white spot at one end.

For example, I personally use "Akita Komachi" organic rice.  This is also a "half-brown" rice, which gives it more vitamin content than pure white rice, as well as a nice nutty flavor.

According to them, Japanese rice is frequently covered in talc or powdered starch to keep it dry, which is why rinsing it prior to cooking is essential.

I'm not going to go through their entire instructions for preparing sushi rice -- you can borrow the book from your local library for that -- but I will go over the essentials to make sure you're not missing major steps:

Rinse the rice
Soak the rice in cold water for 20 minutes
Cook the rice
Mix the rice with vinegar, sugar and salt
Spread the rice out in a wide pan to cool
Make sushi within 3 hours.


Infusing orange into tea while avoiding bitterness What precautions should I follow to avoid imparting a bitter taste when infusing orange into my tea by placing the rind in the teapot?

Try to remove as much of the pith as possible before drying peels or using them fresh.  You can use a microplane or zester to remove rind without cutting into the pith.

You can remove even more bitterness if you boil the rinds for one minute, drain, add fresh water and repeat.  Do this several times.


What can I do with super runny icing? So I was making the icing from a boxed cake, but screwed up a lot. I mistook the icing mix for the cake mix. So I added 2 eggs, I took out the yolk of one of them. I also vastly put in way too much milk. The icing mix needed 15ml of milk. I put in 250ml. I've been trying to fix it by adding corn starch and more icing sugar but it's still insanely runny.

Now I'm left with a bowl of this icing 'stuff'. I don't want to throw it out. Is there a way to fix it? Or is there something I can do with this mixture?

If I can't find something to do with it, I'll probably end up just eating it by itself...

I'm going to ignore the actual icing ingredients for a moment here as I suspect they will be mostly icing sugar and a few neglible other things.

So you now have roughly

1 cup / 250 ml milk
1.5 eggs
6 tblsp / 60g starch and flour
a lot of icing sugar

-> The egg means you need a heating step to get that mixture safe.

If we ignore the sugar, we are looking at a basic pudding mix, albeit with somewhat skewed proportions. So some minor adjustments are in order:

Add another 1-21 cups of milk, stir well.

Heat slowly on the stove, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.
You'll get some version of pastry cream / pudding. It will probably be somewhat floury and very, very sweet, but at least safe and basically edible.

Once you have the pudding, you can use it as a base for desserts, cake fillings etc., mixing with fruit or stretching it with yogurt could tone down the excessive sweetness.

You can also use the thick pudding for a custard-based buttercream, which means you finally turn your mishap into a frosting again.

1  The math, very rough numbers as I don't have the exact amounts you used:

1 tbsp starch / flour ~ 10 g

For pudding, you'd use 20 g / 2 tbsp per 250 ml / 1 cup.

So if your guestimate is correct, use 3 cups milk in total.

For a somewhat thicker pudding, use 30g / 3 tbsp per 250 ml / 1 cup.


Goat cheese royale definition? I have come across a few recipes that envolve a mix of goat cheese, cream and other hard cheeses. They're called 'royale' for some reason. Can anyone define the term 'royale' in this context.
What makes a royale and if you use any other soft cheese aside from goat, is it still called a royale?

It appears that a "cheese royale" is a fancy name for a custard made with combinations of soft cheeses, cream, eggs and seasoning. From this recipe:

Whisk together the cream and eggs and season with salt and pepper.
Fill the potatoes with the custard mix and sprinkle chives on top.

As for using other cheeses, I really don't see why not, or why it would be called something different. I would be curious to try it with a sharper cheese for a stronger taste, perhaps make a Spanish/Mexican version (kind of like cheese salsa) or with some finely minced onion and garlic. Use your imagination!
From looking on Google Images for "goat cheese royale" it appears it is most often used in two ways:
As filling for something like potatoes:

As topping for burgers and such:

I looked without the "goat" but all I got was pictures of cheese burgers and references from Pulp Fiction!


Why didn't my laminated dough rise? I'm trying to make croissants for the first time and my dough is not rising in between folds.  I don't know whether to just keep going or if it's trash and I should start over?

Laminated or "roll-in" doughs don't rise in the traditional sense. Between folds rising is very minimal. You won't see a true rise until you proof your croissants.


Is eating soap or bleach dangerous? i was cooking some dessert today which contains milk as a primary ingredient. While cooking I started to notice that powder ingredients weren't dissolving in the milk. After a while under heat they dissolved, but I noticed what looked like soap bubbles. We usually use Fairy Soap for washing kitchen tools and Clorox. Now I'm concerned if we can eat what I've made or if it poisoned. The soap came out of the tool I was using to cook the dessert.

Most pure soap is safe to eat in small amounts, but the food won't taste great. Fairy Soap, from some brief research, is safe to ingest in small quantities, but I wouldn't recommend it. Bleach in very small and diluted concentrations won't hurt you, but it's very toxic if larger quantities are ingested, particularly undiluted. It is a very strong base. If you think you put (any) bleach in your food I would throw it away. If you think you put soap in your food, I'd also throw it away. The maxim I live by is: "When in doubt, throw it out."


Is making guacamole a way to "save" almost-gone avocadoes? We had some avocadoes which went bad. My stepmom said that, had we made them into guacamole the night before, they would have been edible today. Is this correct?

First, you have to distinguish between food safety issues and other ways of food "going bad". The likely thing is that your avocadoes were safe to eat (= not full of pathogenous bacteria) on the day you threw them out.

However, people cannot tell when food is full of bacteria, and tend to throw it out when it is too changed from its original state. Or they dislike the taste and texture of the changed state. This is common with fruit and vegetables. They are still alive after being picked, their metabolism goes on, but many of the necessary nutrients and water aren't delivered by the roots and stems any longer. So they change their color, taste and texture, and become mushy, wilted, or black,or change in other ways which people dislike, so they proclaim the produce "spoiled" and throw it away.

If this is what happened to the avocadoes, there is a good chance that making it into guacamole would have let you enjoy the avocadoes a day later. A pureed avocado doesn't metabolize the way a whole avocado does, and the changed pH and other ion concentration (salt) changes the chemical reactions going on in the cells. It is now no longer a living fruit, but prepared food. The pH and cold storage also inhibit mold from growing, which can happen on ripe fruit held at room temperature.

This is something specific to avocadoes and guacamole and not a generic statement about mixing random ingredients, you cannot make such generalizations in principle.


Non-teflon rice cooker reccomendations I am looking to get rid of the teflon rice cooker I have (it is getting a lot of scratches, and I am worried about where that teflon is going). What should one look for in a good rice cooker that does not have a teflon coating?

I quickly checked the models that Cook's Illustrated recommended, and all of them either say they're Teflon (aka PTFE) or are a non-specified non-stick (which probably means PTFE).

Also, PTFE isn't toxic, at least not until heated in excess of 200°C (details at Wikipedia).


substitute beef for lamb? I have a lamb pinot noir sauce recipe that I use for lamb chops all the time.

I would like to use with short ribs instead.

can I merely substitute beef stew meat for the lamb stew meat, and be done with it, adjusting cooking times and seasonings to taste

As stated by Logophobe below, you can of course substitute ingredients as you like. I personally find subbing beef for lamb or vice versa a bit risky though.

Lamb in general has a much milder taste of itself and thus requires a sauce and other accompanyments that do not overpower the taste of the meat. In your case this could mean that the sauce will be too weak as an accompanyment to beef.

In a case such as this and not knowing the actual recipe I would suggest replacing the Pinot Noir with a somewhat more fragrant red wine (a new world Merlot low on tannines should do nicely). You could also make the sauce more rounded by adding some crushed juniper berries.

Should you want to stick to your original recipe, you might try just reducing the sauce a little more than you usually would.


Why does the sour taste in yogurt increase with time? If we let yogurt sit for more days, the yogurt becomes more and more sour. Why does that happen?

Lactic acid is produced by 'probiotic' bacteria breaking lactose into lactic acid. Over time, more lactose is converted, producing more byproducts, thus more sourness.

The byproducts of this reaction are responsible for the distinctive flavor of yogurt.

See a more complete description here: Lactic Acid Fermentation


Exactly which kind of cardamom should I use in pho (phở)? I have been cooking pho for a while. Pho recipes differ from one another, but one of the most common spice ingredients is cardamom. Having looked at various sources, recipes, and Wiki pages, I feel more confused than ever. Some insist that green cardamom should be used in pho, which is also what I myself have been using to cook pho. For example this recipe apparently uses green cardamom.

However, a whole lot of pages point to black cardamom. The problem is that it seems what is known as "black cardamom" is not monolithic but an umbrella term for two similar spices. According to its Wikipedia page:

  At least two distinct species of black cardamom occur: Amomum subulatum (also known as Nepal cardamom) and Amomum tsao-ko. The pods of A. subulatum, used primarily in the cuisines of India and certain regional cuisines of Pakistan, are the smaller of the two, while the larger pods of A. tsao-ko (Chinese: wiktionary:草果; pinyin: cǎoguǒ; Vietnamese: thảo quả) are used in Chinese cuisine, particularly that of Sichuan, and Vietnamese cuisine.

In another section of the same page:

  The pods are often used in Vietnam, where they are called thảo quả and used as an ingredient in the broth for the noodle soup called phở.

So I gather from this page that it should be tsao ko that goes in pho.

But I still have doubts. I happen to have tsao ko, a lot of it, and it is something I use quite frequently in other Asian dishes. It looks similar to the black cardamom in a lot of pictures on recipe sites, but not quite the same. Examined closely enough, tsao ko is round, fleshy, plump, and looks like this:

In contrast, the black cardamom shown in pho recipe photos and most commonly available is leaner, pointier:

I think it is very obvious they are different things and the latter is apparently the other black cardamom, Amomum subulatum. A pho recipe site links to this Amazon page. It seems what is sold as "black cardamom" is most likely Amomum subulatum.

So here are my questions: What is pho in Vietnam cooked with? Is it a divided matter, a matter of preference? Is green cardamom used at all? If black cardamom is the way to go, which black cardamom?

In phở soup, we use thảo quả, or Lanxangia tsao-ko, formerly known as Amomum tsaoko. Thảo quả trees are grown in Northern Vietnam, Laos, and in Yunnam China (known as 草果).
We call Black cardamom (Amomum subulatum) as đậu khấu thơm. Black cardamom trees are grown in India, Nepal, Burma, Tibet, Yunnam. Black cardamom trees are not native to Vietnam, and their pods are not used in phở traditonally.
We call green cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) as bạch đậu khấu. Like black cardamom, it's not used in phở, either.


My chutney is too thick I made two batches of chutney a week ago, one with tomato, apple and raisins, the other one with plum and cranberries. Making the chutney I added all the usual spices, sugar, vinegar etc. but I tried one of the jars and it is way too thick.  Could I take the chutneys out of the jars and put them in a pot with some apple juice to heat up? Would this lighten it and would it be okay?  As you may have guessed I have never made chutney before. I hope someone can help.

Cranberries (and to a lesser extent, apples) have a great deal of natural pectin, which will make your chutney gel when it is cool or refrigerated.

If you want a thinner consistency, you can reheat it and add any complimentary liquid that you desire:  apple juice would be fine, but remember, you are diluting the flavor of your chutney with the additional juice, so you will want to find balance between texture and flavor that you like the best.

The other thing you can do is warm the chutney for service, which will make it more liquid.

When I make cranberry chutney, chilled, it is as stiff as a good commercial jam.  This might even be desirable.

Note:  I am assuming these are refrigerated chutneys.  If they have been home canned, you should not change the recipe, as the acid balance is essential for safety in canning.


What does '1 unit of lemon juice' mean in a grandma's drink recipe? My recipe says 1 unit of lemon juice, what does that mean?

I am not sure if this recipe states that it is American or not but it is for a weight loss, eat healthy program and I do not understand what it is asking me.

It is to show you the ratio of juice to water, but leave the quantity up to you.

This way you can make different amounts: for example 1 unit lemon juice to 3 units water.  You could sub in pints or liters or gallons or hogsheads or whatever was appropriate for the amount of lemonade you wanted to make, according to the ratio provided.

The puzzler is how much sugar to add, which is dependent on the amount of fluid. My guess is that there is no sugar as this is a weight loss sort of thing, so really it will just be dilute lemon water.


What is a more common substitute for Shaoxing cooking wine? I have never cooked with Shaoxing wine, so I'm not sure what would be its best substitute.

Pale Dry Sherry.

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/qt/rice_wine_sub.htm


Rice paper cake toppers How long will they stay looking good after placing on the cake, I'm using one on an iced rich fruit cake & trying to finish it a couple of weeks before the party

I saw no degradation in image quality (custom printed ones) in a few days. If the icing is hard then you moisten it just enough for the rice paper to stick before letting it dry again you should be fine as there's no source of moisture to make the ink suffer. But of course check the instructions - I think mine used alcohol-based inks.

But why not ice the cake in advance then add the topper the day before serving?


Why are these bagels sticking? I made this bagel recipe, and here is the result:

As you can see, the tops are beautiful, but the bottoms have stuck to the wire rack they were baked on, and have torn upon removal. The recipe does not mention greasing the rack (in either its written or video form), but should I be doing that anyway? Or is there some other way that I'm supposed to keep these bagels from sticking?

Those look like great bagels, as a native New Yorker living abroad in a place with no bagels I both salute and envy your results! I have also been baking my own to get my fix.
Baking bread on a wire rack is generally a bad idea, and a very bad idea with bagels. Bagels are very sticky because you boil them, this gelatinizes the outer layer of the dough, making it very soft so it will mold around any shape. They will sink onto any shape you put them on no matter what you coat them with and then bake onto that shape, so you need to bake them on a flat surface. They will also stick like glue to a flat surface, and there's one or two ways to counteract that:

Coat the bottom of the bagel. Purists will say you shouldn't do this, I have no problem with it, after all it means double the toppings! The only thing is the toppings don't necessarily crisp up as well when they are trapped between the bottom and the tray. You can also use a thin coating of fine cornmeal or better yet fine semolina. These act as miniature ball bearings and keep things from adhering. I use the same technique when baking pizzas
Bake on a non-stick surface such as baking paper or a reusable non-stick baking mat. In my experience non-stick baking trays do not work with bagels, they will stick to them like glue

I usually do both just to make sure.


brunch for sixty people - how to estimate amounts? We will be hosting a buffet brunch in our home for about 60 people, serving bagels, lox, tuna salad, egg salad, kugel, and farmer's salad.

How do I determine many eggs I need for the egg salad, and how much tuna?

There are two parts to your calculation: how much egg or tuna goes into a "helping" at your buffet brunch, and how many helpings you are likely to need.

For the first part, you probably know how many egg salad sandwiches you can get from a certain number of eggs. Let's say one egg makes one sandwich. Are people likely to put that same amount on a bagel? Or will it be more? Less? Let's say a can of tuna makes two sandwiches. Same questions.

Next, how many bagels-with-something will a person eat? Maybe two, right? Especially since there is kugel. So 120 bagels would be a LOT of bagels. You could then take your guesses from the first part and estimate what you need for 60 bagels of egg and 60 bagels of tuna. Sure, one may be more popular than the other, but some people may eat only the lox, right?

If you've never done this before, I wouldn't make up 60 bagels of egg salad mix in advance. You can make maybe 20 worth, and as it disappears, make more. That is assuming a relatively informal get-together where you are the host and friends and family are happily gathering, and will watch you stir up some more egg salad (using eggs you hardboiled in advance, and veggies you chopped in advance) as needed. Things would be different if you were the paid caterer. Not doing it in advance means that if you don't use all the eggs or veggies, you'll have a chance to use them in something else instead of egg salad. Same for the tuna - open the cans as you need them after some initial inventory of tuna salad is made.


Gyuto knife - What it can & can't cut? What cutting techniques? I bought a Gyuto knife but now I am unsure what I can cut with it. The manufacturer says I shouldn't try to cut bones or frozen things with it, which seems clear to me.

But how about raw potatoes & sweet potatoes? They also can be pretty hard. And what about an avocado or mango where cut along the stone in the center of the fruit? Is a Gyuto the right tool for that?

Also, is it ok to firmly press garlic on the cutting bord with the side of the knife?

And what about the technique? I know how to use a Santoku or Gyuto with the "cutting motion", but what about chopping? Actually I thought all japanese knifes are made for chopping, but I heard someone that the blade can break.

Info about the knife: The center of the knife consists of VG-10 steel, coated with a chrome alloy. The blade is 24 cm long, HR is 60.

You can do anything with this knife that you would do with your santoku or Western-style chef's knife. These are real tools, and they are not especially delicate. It is certainly possible to chip the edge or tip (which requires an annoying amount of work to fix), if you drop the knife or, as the manufacturer warns, whack it against bones. This is a consequence of the relatively high hardness of your blade -- not of the fact that it's a gyuto -- but the flip side is that it should retain its edge very nicely for normal work. (A softer steel would end up with a rolled edge or dent rather than a chip.)

I guess that by "chopping" you mean quickly lifting and pushing the blade down through food so that it hits the cutting board. That's perfectly normal usage, and a plastic, wood, or rubber cutting board should not hurt your knife at all. (No glass! Do run it over a steel it often as you use it, though.) The foods you mentioned -- potatoes and fruit pits -- may seem hard, but they are much softer than the edge of your knife.


I accidentally put aluminum foil in my microwave, how can I clean the scorch marks? I have a microwave/grill combo and I accidentally had aluminum foil inside when starting the microwave function. By the time I realized it was already sparking and left brown scorch marks on the inside.

The inside walls of my microwave look to be stainless steel or some type of metal. I tried scrubbing these with some soap but it didn't do much. Is there any remedy to this situation?

Check your microwave's owner's manual for a cleaning procedure and follow it.

If there isn't one, I'd try the procedure recommended by Samsung which I've summarized below:

Sprinkle baking soda over the interior of the oven and rub the entire thing with a damp cloth. Wipe clean with damp cloths.
Make a 1 : 8 vinegar to water solution by volume (at least 130 mL of this stuff) and microwave until its boiling rapidly. Leave in oven for 15 minutes then wipe down with damp cloths.
Use acetone (in many nail polish removers) on a cloth to remove scorch marks. Wipe clean with damp cloths.
Put some instant coffee powder in some water and microwave it until your microwave doesn't have an acetone smell.

You may have to repeat step 4 a few times; basically, just make something that smells pleasant a few times so the scent of acetone goes away.


How long can I keep a chicken carcass and still make stock from it? I bought a whole chicken for dinner two days ago.  Immediately after quartering it, I put it back into a zip-top bag and put it in the bottom of the fridge.  So, roughly around 40 hours ago.

I'd like to make stock with it today.  And insight on whether or not I should move forward?

There are two angles to this:

How long before it makes stock taste bad?
Smell is a good cue here, but I have made stock even with meat and bones that smell a bit "off." No bad flavor or smell was noticeable in the soup/stew.

How long before it is unsafe?
The long periods of high temperature involved in making stock will kill any germs. I have used old meat for this purpose and had no nausea or diarrhea afterwards (the usual signs of food poisoning). At high levels of decay where you notice a rotting or putrescent smell there may be some unhealthy compounds created that are not destroyed by cooking, but I am sure the smell taste will be so bad in that case, that it would be difficult even to swallow.

At normal refrigeration temperatures, it takes much much longer than 40 hours to reach either of these thresholds.


Safe fenugreek sprouting in a jar? I am the new proud owner of more fenugreek seeds than I will ever use as a spice, so I thought I'd try my hand at sprouting. I have no idea if I will enjoy sprouting or if I will like fenugreek sprouts so I don't want to spend any money on a special tray or anything like that at this point. From what I have read (most notably, this: http://sproutpeople.org/fenugreek.html) it looks like I can just use a big jar with a screen lid. Wouldn't cheesecloth secured with a rubber band do the trick?

Also, I've been warned that there is a salmonella risk in sprouting. What precautions should I take?

Any other sage advice for a novice to sprouting?

Per the Foodsafety.gov, since sprouts must necessarily be grown in warm and humid conditions, they are unique among produce items in presenting a risk of food born illness.

  Since 1996, there have been at least 30 reported outbreaks of
  foodborne illness associated with different types of raw and lightly
  cooked sprouts. Most of these outbreaks were caused by Salmonella and
  E. coli.

You will have to decide whether you feel this level of risk is acceptable to you.

They suggest the only real mitigation is thoroughly cooking the spouts.

Savvy Vegetarian suggests:

  Start with very clean containers and utensils, preferably glass - no plastic.
  Rinse the seeds or beans before soaking.
  Use purified water for rinsing and soaking.
  Keep the soaking seeds in a cool place away from direct light.
  Soak for no more than 12 hours.
  Drain and rinse once or twice while soaking seeds.
  Wash your hands before handling the sprouts.
  Rinse several times a day while growing sprouts.

However, I am not sure I can concur with their assertion that these precautions render spouts as safe as any other produce, as only spouts are grown in warm, moist conditions.


What should I substitute for dried anchovies and kelp in a stock I was thinking of making this tofu-/seafood-stew, but I am having some trouble getting a couple of ingredients for use in the initial stock - namely the dried anchovies and the kelp. A friend suggested that I should just make a stock of the heads and shells of the shrimp used later in the recipe, maybe with some soy sauce or anchovies in oil added in, to get that umami flavor mentioned on the Maangchi-website. If so how much should I use of the various ingredients, and should I clean out the shrimp heads in some way before attempting to make a stock from them?

Some ingredients more effectively transfer flavor to stock in dried form than in fresh or pickled form. Mushrooms, kelp, fish and shellfish are examples of those types of ingredients.

You won't find an exact substitute for them, but they do keep for a long time, so it doesn't hurt to keep them on hand.

However, Japanese and Korean cuisine have many variations of stock starting from various combinations of dried ingredients. Although obviously Japanese and Korean taste preferences are quite different, it may be instructive to look at similar ingredients used in similar ways to see if you can adapt to what's available in your region.

Dried shiitake are used in some Japanese soup stocks, but years ago I noticed the similarity of aroma between smoked, dried katsuo (skipjack tuna) and dried porcini mushrooms, which may be more available to you in Norway. I was rather surprised to find that it was a rather compelling substitute for katsuo. There is some overlap between that and dried anchovies, though it won't be as close of a match.

Dried anchovies and dried sardines are as iconic as a source of flavor in Korean dishes as dried katsuo or dried sardines are in Japanese ones, so you won't get an exact result by substituting, but you may find a compelling enough alternative.

You may find locally dried fish that would help produce an effective stock. Stockfish, or dried cod, may be a reasonable local substitute in Norway. I would expect its flavor not to be as distinctive as dried anchovies, though.

However, you should do your best to find dried kelp, because the only reasonable substitute for that is MSG, which is purified to the point that the natural aromas of kelp are lost, so the flavor won't be as nice. It was quite reasonably priced, though, even when I was a starving student in Germany, even though it took a bit of effort to track down.

An inadequate but passable substitute for kelp may be a touch of MSG and simmered green cabbage. Cabbage is one of the few vegetables that old rural Japanese preparations didn't necessarily expect to be prepared in a soup stock, because it does a nice job of creating its own when simmered gently.


What effects will xylitol have as a sugar substitute? What effects does xylitol have when used in place of sugar?

Will replacing sugar with xylitol lower the calories in my candy?
Does it have a laxative effect if eaten in quantity?
Will my fruit gems benefit from other gums or thickeners added to the recipe? Or citric acid, wheat starch etc?

I am new to confectionery but making food stuffs and making cosmetics seems to be a kindred talent. Let's see if I am up to the task. Can't be too hard can it??? LOL

It's difficult to find reliable information amidst all the marketing hype with xylitol, but here's what I've been able to figure out:

Xylitol does have fewer calories, per unit of weight, than table sugar.  However, xylitol is also less sweet than sugar.  Factually, it has about 2/3 the calories of sugar.  Anecdotally, it is about half as sweet, so if you judged your amounts entirely by taste (as opposed to doing a 1:1 substitution), you would end up with more calories.
Xylitol has been associated with gastrointestinal upset in doses higher than 35 g, so if you plan to use a lot of in your candies, you might want to use very small servings.  It seems to be not as bad as most other sugar alcohols, but still much harder on the gut than ordinary sugar.
One of the more interesting properties of some sugar alcohols (including xylitol, again) is that they are humectants - meaning that they draw in moisture from the air.  This is a useful property if your candies are prone to drying out; on the other hand, if they are prone to breaking down then this could make it worse.  It depends on the specific candy and especially the gelatin concentration.
Although it is mildly alkaline - enough to spawn anecdotes of it having a "cooling effect" on the mouth - it's not really enough to make a difference in gelatin, which does fine up to a pH of about 10.  Citric acid does seem like a common accompaniment in sugar-free gums but it seems to be just for flavour purposes, as humans aren't wired to enjoy alkaline tastes.  Keep in mind that this will at least partly negate the supposed oral benefits.
Finally, polyols act as stabilizers for gelatin in the same way that sugar does.  Although xylitol wasn't included in the linked experiment, it's very similar to sorbitol in that respect.  What you'll end up with is an increased melting point and a generally firmer gel, and while that's normally seen as a good thing, don't overdo it or else you'll lose the melt-in-your-mouth property that's unique to gelatin.
I wouldn't use other thickeners; the gelatin is already taking care of that, and if you need more gel strength then just use more gelatin.  If you're trying to make stiffer candies then just use a stiffer gelling agent.


American cheese availability and utility According to Wikipedia, the product commonly (and in that article) called "American cheese" is

  generally manufactured from ingredients such as one or more cheeses, milk, whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, saturated oil(s), emulsifiers, and salt.… American cheese can not be legally sold under the name (authentic) "cheese" in the US. Instead,… laws mandate that it be labeled as "processed cheese"… or "cheese food"…. As a result, sometimes even the word "cheese" is absent, altogether, from the product's labeling in favor of, e.g., "American slices" or "American singles".

It seems from Wikipedia that there is no actual cheese that may be labeled "American cheese". Yet, the product in my refrigerator labeled "white American pasteurized process cheese" has as its first ingredient "American cheese". Specifically, its ingredients are:

  American cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), water, cream, sodium citrate, salt, sorbic acid (preservative), olive oil.

What is that "American cheese" the label refers to? Is it available on the market? Can I use it in substitution for, perhaps, American slices, or maybe instead of Cheddar or something?

American cheese isn't real cheese, but a processed cheese product made partially from cheese, but with loads of extra stuff added in to make it pliable and melt easily. The "American Cheese" you see in the ingredients is the real cheese part of it, although the American part of it is probably for marketing purposes.

It's not a substitute for cheddar or other cheese from a flavor, texture, or melting point perspective, although it can be used in many of the same things. If you want a cheese that tastes good then use real cheese, if you want something that looks and tastes a bit like cheese and melts quickly and evenly use american cheese.


What reasons might make day-old pastry the preferred choice in these recipes? Almond croissants ("croissants aux amandes") are a French pastry sold in every bakery.

Several websites (FR) describe (FR) recipes using croissants that were baked the day before.

Is there something specific to puff pastries that might result in a better taste when using it the day after it has been cooked? Or is it just to salvage leftover food?

It may be a matter of texture, rather than taste.

The recipes you link involve putting a wet paste on top of a previously baked croissant.

Most baked goods change in texture after sitting out for a few days, mostly because they get drier.  If you want to turn bread into crumbs or croutons, for example, you slice it and let it dry out before processing it.

By letting the croissants sit for a day or two, their surface will become harder, and they won't get soggy when the almond paste is applied.


In a recipe, how much is "to taste"? A lot of recipes I've been preparing lately often list salt and black pepper as "to taste" in terms of quantity. I get that the general idea is to make the food taste good, but I'm not sure that I regularly notice salt or pepper unless there is TOO MUCH of either.

When a recipe calls for adding something "to taste", what am I trying to note when I taste it? If it's a brand new recipe, how do I know if something is supposed to be bland, seasoned or salty/peppery?

To taste is one of those awesome cooking terms that trips people up all the time.  To taste does not mean to what tastes good to you, although you can use that as a determination and your dish should still come out fine for most people.  To taste means that you add salt (or whatever) while tasting the dish and you slowly add until the seasoning tastes perfect.  To properly do this you are going to have to train your palate, but luckily it's not that hard to do.  As a matter of fact, we have a pretty good way to learn it right here.  The end result you are trying to achieve is the point where food tastes the most like itself without adding to much, this the small increments.

The important part to remember is that "to taste" is where your food lives.  It's the thing that is unique to you and a part of what makes every dish you make an expression.


Is this cast iron pan safe to cook in? My wife just bought this pan and I noticed this weird dark/black spot in the center with a bit of a swirl around it (never mind the brownish tint, this is due to my flax oil seasoning).
I don't care much about the looks, I'm just worried this might be unhealthy to cook in. Does anyone know what that might be?

From Johanna in the comments section:

In that case, regardless of if it's safe or mot, I would request a replacement from the store you bought if from. You're unlikely to get a smooth surface regardless of how much you season it and the seasoning will most likely just flake off around the swirl marks.

Turning the helpful comment given into an answer as comments are temporary.


Making 1% milk into whole milk I have a yeast Roll recipe that calls for 1 cup of whole milk. I only have 1% milk. What can I do to make the 1% equivalent to whole milk.

You can't directly make whole milk out of lowfat milk and milkfat. But if you like, you can try adding back some fat to the recipe -- melted butter or vegetable oil -- at the concentration of, I suppose, 2.5%. (If the recipe already includes one of these, just increase the amount.) The result will not be quite the same, but will be very close.

In a yeasted bread, though, the difference between 1% and whole milk probably won't be significant. I'd just use the 1% milk, and see what happens.


How to make modeling chocolate shiny? I have modeling chocolate panels I am using for a cake. They have a very soft shine from being smooth, but I was hoping to bring them to a higher shine. I had wanted to make them out of tempered chocolate but the shape made it problematic. I've tried lightly buffing with my hand, but that is not doing enough. Can I use perhaps a warm, damp cloth or glaze with a mix of 1:1 corn syrup:alcohol? Would that make them tacky?

I think adding a few drips of vegetable oil or honey could help! Always heard other people say that.


Will adding more yeast to a dough mean I need a longer time in the proofer? For example if one dough has one tsp. and the other has two tsp. of yeast, would they need the same amount of time in the proofer?

Yeast is a living organism, and the rise in the dough is a result of its metabolism.  As it lives and grows, it emits carbon dioxide as a waste product, which metaphorically blows up the dough.

This means that more yeast you have, the faster it raises the dough.

The rate at which it does so is a function of the absolute amount of yeast, but the amount of yeast grows exponentially over time, where the rate of growth is related to the temperature of the dough.

This means that for dough held at a constant temperature, the amount of time it will take to proof would actually be less if you double the initial quantity of yeast, as each generation of yeast would have more cells in it given the larger starting quantity.

The proofing temperature is extremely important; what make take a given amount of yeast an hour on a hot summer day might take 24 hours at refrigerator temperatures.

The flavor of the dough is also related to how fast it proofs; longer proofing times generally develop a deeper, yeastier flavor.  So bakers tend to control the flavor development by adjusting both the initial quantity of yeast as well as the proofing temperature.


What is the driest, brownest bread that I can make for a stuffing? I once had someone's Wonderbread stuffing (not good), and I decided that when it came time for me to make my own stuffing, I would go the exact opposite route.

I am going to make a loaf of bread in my bread machine with the intent to turn it into a stuffing. Thus I want an extremely brown, super multi-whole-grain, and dry bread that will not crumble apart. I do not care if the bread has a strong taste, but it should go well with Rosemary-Sage and Sausage.

My German Cousin tells me that German Pumpernickel tends to crumble, so I am going to exclude that before hand. Russian Black bread was also suggested; does that hold its form well?

Any bread can be dry - slice or cube and put it in the oven at 140F, or low, until it's as dry as you like.

Wonderbread is not even bread, in my opinion - it's certainly not anything like a yeast bread, even one made from all white flour. So it's not hard to be very different from it. As such you might want to heed the advice in comments to scale back your reaction a tad.

For a different approach to "very brown bread" look at Anadama recipies - much of the brown there can be from the molasses, but you can also whole-grain it up as much as you like - but 100% whole grain and some tendency to crumble go together in my experience, so I'd probably limit the whole grains to 25-50% of the flour bill, tops. I quite happily mix and match the whole grains as well as bean flours, potato flour, etc.


How do packaged cookies stay good for so long? How come packaged cookies, even those without preservatives, don't go bad after a few days and have such long shelf lives? Is it because of the packaging? Especially cookies that contain ingredients like milk... doesn't the milk in the cookies go bad??

The sugar answers are spot on.

Also, let's give a shout out to modern packaging--particularly the vapor barriers in use today.  Light years ahead of the old days.  That vapor barrier is a significant contributor to the longevity of the modern packaged cookie.

Also impressive, is Modified Atmosphere Packaging. That allows products today that were unthinkable 20 years or so ago. Pre-sliced lunch meats, shredded cheeses, Lunchables, prefab sandwiches etc.


How to prevent unwanted taste transfer? This was surprising to me. Every other week I make straw fries. These are kept on the counter in a plastic container and with kitchen-paper. The container is open because otherwise the fries lose their crisp.

I've made tuna teriyaki twice this week and found that the straw fries have obtained a distinct tuna flavor that I could do without.

The fries are not even close to the stovetop.

Any suggestions?

Aromatics are at least half of taste. Its like when you go to a restaurant and have to wash your clothes when you get home because they smell just like what you ate. Potatoes don't have any particular dominating flavor, they generally inherit whatever flavor they are exposed to; chicken is much the same way. Tuna on the other hand has a very pungent aroma. I wouldn't be surprised to see the fries take on the tuna aroma and "taste" a little fishy. Try temporarily covering your fries while you cook other things. That should help.


Is it possible to make non-sweet icecream (i.e. with no added sugar or sweeteners)? I know plain frozen yogurt exists, but what is so special about sugar that there doesn't seem to be a non-sweet substitute?

Sugar does more than just make ice cream sweet. It also controls the way ice cream freezes. Without it, you tend to get bigger ice crystals, which have an unpleasant mouth feel.

There are substitutes. Breyer's sugar-free ice cream, for example, has guar gum, polydextrose, cellulose gum and gel, and maltodextrin, among other things. Home ice cream makers don't have ready access to all of those ingredients, but there are recipes for making sugar-free ice cream at home. (I haven't tried them and can't vouch for them.)

As for making savory ice cream... yeah, people have tried. Most of those are nonetheless somewhat sweet. That may be in part because coldness really dampens flavors; people enjoy melted ice cream because it's even sweeter than cold ice cream. Umami flavors are hard enough to do well even warm, and they'll become very bland when frozen. Maybe if somebody wanted to really pack an ice cream with marmite and Parmesan cheese...


Which Whole Wheat Breads can be crisped on the stove? My aunt craves grilled bread, but her temporary residence for work has only an electric stove, and lacks an oven or grill. She loathes (pun intended) microwaves.

What types of Whole Wheat Bread should she buy, to imitate "grilled bread"? She worries that not all grillable breads can be seared on the stove.

Any kind of bread can be toasted/grilled. The only things you really have to worry about are whether it has a flat surface to evenly cook and whether it's so crumbly it'll just fall apart. Anything you buy sliced will work, and anything you can cleanly slice will work.

Note that an electric stove is not the easiest way to toast bread, since it isn't designed to radiate heat. The easiest method is probably to butter the bread then put it butter side down in a pan, so the recipe you linked is fine, but plain bread is a bit iffy.


Why add baking powder when creaming sugar and butter? A friend recently provided me with a family recipe for cookies which instructed  me to cream together sugar and butter - so far so good. However, the thing that took me back was that the recipe called for adding baking powder along with the sugar and butter and creaming it all together.

I've never seen a recipe call for creaming anything more than just sugar and butter so I'm unsure if there is a valid reason for adding the baking powder at this stage. Does adding baking power during the creaming process do anything or is this recipe just odd?

As an an addendum, is there any reason you'd add anything besides butter and sugar during the creaming process?

FWIW, the cookies came out rather small and unlevened.

I can't think of a reason to add the baking powder before creaming, but I can think of a few reasons not to:

Pretty much all baking powder these days is "double-acting". It provides leavening two different ways, under two different conditions: first, when it comes in contact with moisture, it produces carbon dioxide, and second, when it comes in contact with heat (in the oven). Adding the baking powder earlier than usual in a cookie recipe would trigger that first leavening earlier than normal, as soon as the baking powder comes in contact with the water in the butter. It's normally added at the end of the process so that as much of the CO2 as possible from the first leavening is still in the dough when it goes in the oven.

Perhaps more importantly, adding the baking powder to a creamed cookie dough very close to the end of mixing, along with the flour, keeps the agitation of the beater from beating too many of the carbon dioxide bubbles out of the dough. That's normally the first time the BP encounters moisture and starts that first leavening, and ideally not much mixing takes place after that step. Adding it before the creaming step begins would mean that any CO2 bubbles introduced by the first action of the baking powder aren't going to stand much chance of survival through the rest of the process, as the butter and sugar are creamed, eggs beaten in, etc.

Also, baking powder doesn't last forever, its leavening power decreases with age. Yours may just be old, or at least old enough that those two other factors were enough to affect the end product.


Can cooking in a larger than intended vessel be disadvantageous in some way? I have a big pressure cooker (3.5 litre) in which I cook 3/4 cup Lentils (on gas stove) intended for 2 people. Can it be disadvantageous in some way?

Are there some serious reasons that I should consider buying 1.5 litre pressure cooker to cook that amount of food?

Every pressure cooker has a minimum amount of liquid which it must be filled with, in order for that liquid to evaporate and provide the pressure increase.

Check the manual for your pressure cooker to ensure that the small quantity of lentils you want to cook is at least the minimum.

If it is not, you can either prepare more lentils (hopefully you can use the leftovers), or perhaps get a smaller pressure cooker.

Of course, it doesn't take very long to cook lentils conventionally, so when you want only a small amount, you might consider cooking it in one of the traditional stove top or oven methods.


Chocolate Berry Cake with Berries as main batter ingredient? I have this rather vague idea that popped into my head for a chocolate berry cake of some kind where the berries, pureed, go into the batter itself and form a large proportion of the ingredients.

Unfortunately, I lack the knowledge of how cakes 'work' to be able to figure out how to make this, and everyone I've talked to so far has never heard of anything like my idea.

Is such a cake feasible, and can anyone offer any suggestions on what such a cake might need, ingredients- and preparation-wise?

There is actually a well known Bundt cake that is blueberry puree swirled into the cake. The original isn't chocolate, but that wouldn't take more than some cocoa to cure. And there's no law that says you can't play with other types of berries.

It's an America's Test Kitchen recipe, so this is when I would normally say, "(sorry, paywalled)". Today however, the recipe Gods are smiling upon me. ATK (Cook's Illustrated) has allowed the recipe to be published online and available to even us mere mortals who have not yet paid their subscription fee this year.

So:

From Dispatch.com

Also, the ATK video is still not paywalled, but I expect that the change quickly as it's actually from last season (they don't charge for the current season). ATK

  Cake:

  3 cups (15 ounces)  all-purpose flour

  1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  3/4 teaspoon baking soda

  1 teaspoon salt

  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  3/4 cup buttermilk

  2 teaspoons grated

  lemon zest plus 3  tablespoons juice

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  3 large eggs plus 1 large yolk, room temperature

  2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

  2 cups sugar

  Filling:

  3/4 cup sugar

  3 tablespoons low- or no-sugar-needed fruit pectin

  Pinch of salt

  2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

  1 teaspoon grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon juice

  Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 325 degrees. Heavily spray nonstick Bundt pan with baking spray and flour.

  Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in large bowl.

  Whisk buttermilk, lemon zest, juice and vanilla together in medium-size bowl.

  Gently whisk eggs and yolk to combine in third bowl.

  Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Reduce speed to medium and beat in half of eggs until incorporated, about 15 seconds.

  Repeat with remaining eggs, scraping down bowl after incorporating. Reduce speed to low and add 1/3 of flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until just incorporated after each addition, about 5 seconds.

  Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape down bowl, add remaining flour mixture and mix on medium-low until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with a rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour.

  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside while preparing filling (batter will inflate a bit.)

  Filling: Whisk sugar, pectin and salt together in a small saucepan.

  Process blueberries in a blender until mostly smooth, about 1 minute.

  Transfer 1/4 cup puree and lemon zest to saucepan with sugar mixture and stir to thoroughly combine.

  Heat sugar-blueberry mixture over medium heat until just simmering, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar and pectin.

  Transfer mixture to medium-size bowl and let cool for 5 minutes. Add remaining puree and lemon juice to cooled mixture and whisk to combine. Let sit until slightly set, about 8 minutes.

  Spoon half of batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Using back of spoon, create 1/2-inch-deep channel in center of batter. Spoon half of filling into channel.

  Using butter knife or small offset spatula, thoroughly swirl filling into batter (there should be no large pockets of filling remaining). Repeat swirling step with remaining batter and filling.

  Bake until top is golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 60 to 70 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert cake directly onto wire rack. Allow cake to cool for at least 3 hours before serving.

That may not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's a place to start.


Can I use a reused can for serving food Since 1919, tin cans have been the symbol of the Tin Can Tourists organization (vintage trailer enthusiasts). I want to serve red beans & rice in a recycled can (actually cleaned all-meat cat food cans) and want to know if it is safe doing this. Would hate to make every one sick.  I've been soaking, then washing the cans immediately after emptying them. Now I've rewashing, scrubbed & put them thru the dishwasher.

Want to use them 1 time only at the rally.

Food canned in steel cans (commonly called "tin cans" though none are made from tin), is generally considered safe - obviously we buy a lot of it at the store, and dedicated home canners can actually use steel cans themselves, with the cost of a special lid sealer device. Home canning with lined steel cans is considered safe by the FDA and USDA, at temperatures between 212F and 250F (pressure canning).

Modern cans are lined with an epoxy or other polymer lining that protects the can from corrosion, thus limiting the chance of contamination or spoilage. This liner usually contains small amounts of BPA (the chemical blamed for some potential long-term health problems), but amounts in different cans varies wildly, and the amount of BPA that is considered hazardous is also up for debate. If it matters greatly to you, you can get "BPA-free" canned food from some retailers (though some tests have found BPA even in "BPA-free" cans). Caveat emptor.

I would say that using cans to serve food would be safe, given a few caveats, mostly related to the liner:

Make sure the cans liner hasn't been damaged with scratches by sharp tools. Tin plating is a bit toxic and food contaminated by tin shouldn't be consumed, but it usually takes a long time for even very acidic food to break down the tin through a scratch in the coating. Even if there was a scratch I think it would be impossible for enough tin to get into the food to exceed the very high safety limits of 200mg/kg. Easy to avoid the problem entirely by scooping the food out of the old can with something plastic or silicon.
Don't heat the can above the temperature of boiling water. The liners are good up to around 240F at least, because that is roughly the temperature things are pressure sterilized at. If you are just serving out of the can rather than cooking in the can you should be fine.
Sharp edges - The opened can has sharp edges, make sure that you press the sharp edges down so they aren't likely to catch someone's finger or tongue (if the food is good enough that they are licking the cans clean!).
I won't get into the whole BPA thing deeply here - society in general seems comfortable with the small amount of BPA in most can liners, and I don't think you'd be "negligent" to use regular cans. If you feel strongly about it, use BPA-free cans from some brands sold at Sunflower Market, Whole Foods, Trader Joes or other "natural living" retailers.

The idea sounds cool, and I bet people will enjoy it! I'd recommend removing the cat-food labels, though. ;)


Are commercial chocolate almonds coated with something that prevents melting? Why is it that a milk chocolate bar begins to melt in my hand sooner than a chocolate-covered almond?

The surface of typical chocolate-covered almonds are also a lot smoother than regular chocolate bars when I slide my finger around each of their surfaces.

And does the shiny surface of the chocolate-covered almond have anything to do with its ability to not melt so easily?

The aren't coated, but the chocolate is mixed with hardeners. Things like xanthan gum, gum Arabic, corn starch, bees wax, etc.

These let the chocolate harden and polish a little better.


Can you slow down the time it takes for dough to rise? I am going to make bread sticks and I don't want them to rise too soon. It is hard to predict what time my husband will get home from work. Can I slow the dough from rising too soon? The recipe says first rise about 1 to 2 hours and then let rest for 20 minutes. Can I put them in a cool place or should I refrigerate them?

Yes, you can easily slow down the rising time by lowering the temperature of the dough ("retarding" it, as the pros say). You can either put it in a cool place or refrigerate it; the colder it is, the slower it will rise. Dough can even be frozen and proofed later, though sometimes that will make it a bit wonky when it thaws.


What happened to my duck? This happened a couple of years ago, but I still don't have an answer. Christmas eve. I had a duck in the oven. I tried to cook it at a slightly lower temperature and a little longer than the recipe dictated. Also, I didn't turn the duck over at all.

The duck was completely done. My wife complained about the horrible taste of the breast, while I was happily eating the leg. Later on I found that the breast was foul smelling and tasting...

Any idea why this would happen? Did I cook too long, should I have turned the duck over, why should the leg be tasty and the breast foul???

Assuming you didn't do some kind of "flavor injection" treatment, there is absolutely no reason why one part of a bird would taste radically different from another. I'm going to go with "Bad Duck."

Cooking the bird slowly seriously reduces the possibility of a "hot spot" causing some kind of local taste variance. Breast meat will become overdone at the point where dark meat is still tasty, but that wouldn't explain smell or taste, and unpleasant smells are almost always related to bacterial issues.

If it was discolored, it could have been local bruising, which would cause some taste issues, but, again, wouldn't explain the smell.


Almond milk: pasteurize almonds and water before sealing? I make almond milk regularly. One time, my whole-almond soaking period extended to 4 days instead of the usual 2 days. This batch soured and curdled sooner than the other batches.

I have also seen souring and curdling with storebought almond milk, however well-after opening and being kept inside the refrigerator.

I wonder if it's an option to pasteurize the almonds and its soaking water together in a pot, before storing in a jar? Regardless of the fact that it will later be recontaminated in my juicer and a subsequent decantation (part of my own process) -- maybe it can still lower the microbial load?

What bacteria rots the almond milk anyway?

In the US, most almonds are already pasteurized, even when they are listed as "raw". One of the methods is to steam blast the nuts, which heats up the outside of the almond to 205°F (96°C). However, this process is mostly done because of Salmonella concerns, rather than the yeasts and microbes that cause the souring of the milk. You could do something similar by blanching the nuts in boiling water for a few seconds before you soak them.

You could also try soaking the almonds for even less time, I've found that 12 hours or overnight will do the trick, rather than the 2 days you mentioned.

Some producers of almond milk also "ultra-pasteurize" the liquid by heating it to a temperature of 280°F (138°C) and cooling it down quickly before packaging but getting to that temperature is hard to accomplish in a home kitchen. You could try heating to 162°F (72°C) for 15 seconds after you've collected all the liquid, though be sure to have a plan to cool the milk down quickly afterwards.

Exposure to oxygen, yeasts and microbes are predominately what causes the spoiling. The oxygen can rancid the fats in almonds, molds can grown on the surface, yeasts can start to ferment the liquid, and other spoiling.


Secret component to make spray dough Is there any kind of dough that can be sprayed to make it any form and extra thin?

EDIT: I mean that dough was prepared with some liquid fast evaporated component to make it available for spraying.

I have never even heard of spray dough, but you could make a filo dough roll it out thin with a pasta machine and drape it over a shape and then attempt to bake it as long as the shape can withstand the heat. Or you could let the dough dry a bit and it may retain its shape after you pull the mold out for baking. Any decent bread dough recipe should work as long as the gluten content is high enough to withstand the pasta machine and molding process. Although you could take a paper mache approach and use thin dough strips.

Maybe if you can tell us more about what your end product should be we can help you get there.


Removing metal disc ring from chocolate mousse: which method should I use? I just managed to do a chocolate mousse with 5 layers (sponge, chocolate thin layer, nougat mousse, dark chocolate mousse, ganache). I added some "Agar Agar" to make it more firm and put them in the fridge to rest. Having used some INOX iron disc ring to give them shape (see photo) I wonder how I will be able to remove the ring leaving intact the mousse.

I thought I could use a little gas torch but I am not sure whether it is best to leave them in the fridge or to put them in the freezer so they get a bit more hard and less likely to get ruined when I extract the ring with the torch. In other words, I am worried that leaving them in the fridge they will be too fluffy to allow the disc ring to remove without damage.

What is the best way to remove them?

The goal is to melt the outermost little bit and let the ring mold slide off.  Make sure they have had plenty of time to set up before unmolding.

The torch will work, although I would use a towel soaked in very very hot water, then squeezed dryish—just wrap it around the mold for ten or twenty seconds.   This maybe gentler than the torch, and less likely to go too far.

Edit:

Agar agar us not freeze stable, so you should not freeze your confections.

I imagine that eight hours is sufficiently long for a good chill, but I would go overnight if you can--a lot of labor goes into this sort of dish, so you don't want to loose the work.


Why is my Green Tea Brown but then Green when I reuse the bag? I've read the posts about why Green Tea can appear brown, and it makes perfect sense.

However, what I'm experiencing is different.  When I reuse my Green Tea Bags a second time, I get the green color one would expect.  Totally counter intuitive, I know.

Any ideas why this is happening?

Some additional information: The green tea bags I buy are from a local Asian Market.  They are sourced from China, so not likely high quality.  I also do NOT place them in boiled water, but place 8 bags at a time in a gallon pitcher, in the room temperature purified water (reverse osmosis water), and let them steep for 24 hours.  I then refrigerate the tea.  First batch is always brown but the second batch made from the re-used bags is green.

I know that with pu'er tea (not a green tea), they rinse and 'awaken' the tea with the hot water first - dumping out the first brew (seemed like a waste to me).  They say the 2nd is good, but the 3rd cup and on is much better !  I never noticed the color of my green tea changing, but I must admit i like the second pot better than the first - when re-brewing same tea leaves.  perhaps the oxidation from the leaves is brewed of in the first pot?


Why is my cheesesteak meat tough? I made Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches and the resulting meat was quite tough and hard to bite off and chew.

For the meat I used eye of round steak, cut into roughly 3in by 1/8th-1/4th in strips. I did not marinade the meat or season until salt and pepper during cooking.

To cook the meat I used a nonstick pan over medium heat for a few minutes.

Is my cut of beef to blame, my technique, or perhaps both?

My experience has shown that you need to slice the meat against the grain when preparing it for sautéing. The shortened muscle fibers make for a more tender piece of meat. After that, the quicker you can cook the meat, the better. Round steak tends to be best either quickly cooked or cooked for an extended period of time -- there's not too much of a middle ground for it.


How to Harvest and Prepare Prickly Pear Pads Without Getting Poked I enjoy eating Prickly Pear Cactus pads, but I can't figure out how to harvest and prepare them without filling my fingers with tiny hairs. I have asked around and looked online and found sites such as this, among which, the common theme seems to be to burn the spines off.

I do not really have fire available to me very much, so does anyone know any other good ways to get out the flesh of the pad without getting pricked?

Please note: This question is about Prickly Pear Fruits I am asking about the Pads.

At grocery stores in our area they prepare cactus pads for sale in-house. I haven't sat and watched them for hours but it seems that the process involves a pair of gloves and a knife. The gloves are generally the cloth gloves with rubberized palms/fingers and the knife is a chef's knife.
This image shows the process I usually see them following, though they're using a much larger knife in the store... admittedly, they do it on a daily basis, so it might be good to start with a smaller knife:

click for source
This image is from what looks like a nice guide on preparing cactus pads.
The steps are pretty simple:

VERY IMPORTANT TIP: Use kitchen tongs to hold the nopales or, better yet, wear gloves to protect your hands from the thorns. Once you are familiar working with cactus paddles then you can try to clean them without gloves.

Place the cactus paddle on your cutting board and, using a sharp knife, trim off the edge. Scrape the spines, thorns or eyes, running your knife from back to front until completely clean. Turn the cactus paddles and do the same on the other side.

Other sites seem to echo this process, so it seems pretty universal. One site even recommends replacing the knife with a spoon, which is less likely to dig into the cactus pad, particularly if it's convex.


How do you properly defrost frozen fish? I recently bought a package of frozen cod that contains about 6 pieces. How do you go about properly defrosting them? Thanks.

There are two safe ways to defrost, one more rapid than the other.

First method is to defrost in the refrigerator.  This keeps temperature below 40 degrees F, in the safe zone.  This will, also, take a while.

Second method is to defrost in the sink under cold running water.  The water doesn't have to run rapidly, but it should change regularly.  This will defrost the fish more rapidly than in the air (water is a better conductor of heat than air) and will keep the fish in the danger zone for the shortest period of time.  If you are not going to cook it immediately, then return to the refrigerator.

If you are deep frying, there are some techniques that will allow you to go direct from frozen to fried, but that is generally done in a professional kitchen where they have powerful fryers that can take the temperature hit and come back strong.


PET containers for freezer meals? I'm looking to develop freezer meals for my family. The meals will be frozen in plastic takeout boxes likely PET, or PET-lined paper/kraft bowls.

The frozen meals are likely to remain frozen even when opened by lunch time, and will have to be blasted in a microwave at medium for 15 minutes, or at high for 5 minutes. Either of these are practical and potentially unsafe.

It's the unsafe part I'm worried -- do these plastic boxes or paper bowls that say "microwave safe" really suitable for high power microwave?

Not all PET plastic are microwave safe; make certain the containers you buy are labelled as such.

see this link.

"Unlabeled plastic containers aren't necessarily unsafe for the microwave. But the lack of label just means that these plastics haven't gone through the battery of tests required to ensure microwave safety. Because there's no way to tell if these containers can hold up to microwave heat, it's best not to use them in the microwave."

and this;

"Many of our manufactures do not recommend HDPE for the microwave and we suggest that you avoid it unless the manufacture has specifically approved it. PET and polycarbonate should not be used for microwaving as they tend to absorb heat."


Can I reuse glass bottles with plastic lids for homemade sauces? I have bottles with plastic screw top lids (from supermarket bought hot sauce). Can I use these bottles for my homemade bbq/tomato sauce? I would sterilise the bottles as I usually do. I have previously reused bottles with metal lids and stored these on the shelf for months, successfully. I don’t plan to “can” the sauces in the bottles, I am using recipes that have enough vinegar to preserve without “canning”. The sauces are usually just poured hot into a sterilised jar and left on shelf.

Reusing the bottles shouldn´t be a problem as long as they can be cleaned properly.
But I wouldn`t use them for canning for two reasons:

Metal lids usually have a 'click' that ensures they keep the vacuum seal and allow you to check if it is still unbroken.
Some sorts of plastic are not meant to be heated and when cooking the bottles for canning there is a risk that some chemicals (e.g. BPA) diffuse to the food.


How to make a strong cup of milk tea without boiling it much? As it is known that boiling the tea for a quite some time extracts tannins. But, that is the only way I know of making strong tea.

Cup size: 150 ml.

I put 3/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of water in a vessel with 1/2 tbsp of tea and 1/2 tbsp of jaggery on a slow flame, and let it boil for some time.

What is other way to get a strong cup of milk tea?

Is there a way to get a strong cup of tea without boiling tea at all?

This is the tea I use:

http://www.tataglobalbeverages.com/brands/tea/tata-tea/premium

These leaves are totally crumbled.

As a general rule for tea, milk tea or otherwise... You can make it "stronger" a few ways. Increase the amount of tea, increase the steep time, increase amount of tea or raise the temp.

I would suggest trying it in that order.

Increase the amount of tea. More leaves, means more stuff extracted.
Increase the steep time. This should work, as essentially you're allowing more time for the water/milk to extract the flavours from the leaves. However the potential downside is over-steeping, which could result in more of the bitter tannins tastes coming out of the leaves. Since Milk Tea has a large quantity of milk and usually is a stronger tea to balance, this might be what you're looking for.
Raise the temperature. This might result in more "flavours" coming out, but generally, they're not the flavours you want. Most of the pleasant flavours of tea dissolve at a lower temperature than the tannins. Again, as milk tea is generally a stronger drink, that may be what you want. But I'd try this last, as you could also lose the other flavours in the tea.

Also, not entirely clear from your question, but it appears that you're adding the tea to the cold liquid? I'd probably heat the milk/water to about 80-90C before adding the tea. If for no other reason, than making it more predictable/repeatable as to how long to steep for.


Fire in hot air oven We are setting our hot air oven 130 degree Celsius.Unfortunately oven was fired and all the products (wheat flour) are burnt.What is the reason for this type of fire?

If you are saying that there was an explosion while you attempted to dry/bake plain loose flour in a fan-assisted oven, then I'd say it was a classic dust explosion (flour explosion). It occurs when fine dust of combustible material (the flour) is dispersed in the air (e.g. by air whirling) and then gets ignited by an open flame, a heat element, or even an electrostatic discharge. This can happen at any temperature. Flour explosions are a known workplace hazard in the food industries and grain/flour storage facilities.

Next time turn off fan-assisted heating in your oven. If not possible, use a different oven.


How can I get brine flavour into turkey? Since I started doing holiday dinners, I've always brined my birds. I love the result, but I find that while the turkey comes out nice and moist, it doesn't pick up much flavour from the brine. For Thanksgiving, I had a delicious smelling brine with some star anise, cinnamon, and a few other things. The turkey didn't seem to pick up any of this flavour.

Any tips on solving this problem? Would injecting the meat help?

Many aromatic compounds are oil soluble, or need to be heated to really come out and 'open up.' Since brines I use are all water based, I've had some luck with heating, even briefly boiling dried spice components first, then cooling, adding the other ingredients, then using. Especially, don't boil vinegar or alcohol components, as they will lose potency.

Anyway, I find brines to have a tough job imparting too much of a distinct flavor, so consider straining some of this out of your brine and using it to make a gravy or pan sauce to accompany the roast bird, the flavors will then be further accentuated.


What is the purpose of oil or butter in bread? Specifically in wheat and potato breads, what is the purpose of adding oil or butter to the dough?

I have always assumed it was just for flavor, but I suspect there is some background chemical reasons for adding it.

Breads get their structure from glutens--a type of protein formed by the combination of glutenin with gliadin.  Kneading and resting the dough helps the formation of glutens--I assume by shifting glutenin and gliadin molecules around, this increases the odds of bindings occurring.
Oils can bind to glutenin and gliadin and inhibit these reactions, so fats--oils and butter--definitely play a role in the texture control.
It prevents the dough from getting too elastic, which controls texture.  This elasticity change would also change the maximum air bubble size.  Altering resting times and yeast quantity also change these, but trading off for a different flavor.  Oil may play other roles, but these are what I recall reading about off the top of my head.  Yes, it does contribute to flavor as well.


Salt won't dissolve in buttermilk brine I'm making fried chicken and the first step of most recipes involve soaking the chicken in a buttermilk and salt brine to tenderise it.

However, I have had problems getting the salt to dissolve in the cold buttermilk. I typically use a 5-6% salt brine, so it's not like I'm exceeding the salt saturation limit of water (typically at 30% from what I read).

I've thought of the following solutions:

Heating the buttermilk up, and dissolving the salt. But I'm concerned that this will cause the buttermilk flavor to change.

Using a immersion blender/whisk to stir the salt into the buttermilk.

You should just heat it (your first proposed solution), and not worry about changing flavor, because if buttermilk is going to change flavor with heat then it is going to change flavor when you cook the chicken.


Horizontal cuts when dicing an onion Should you make horizontal cuts (parallel to the board) through the halves of an onion before dicing?

Yes. The standard method is to make 2 or 3 horizontal cuts (depending on the size of the onion), then 3-5 vertical cuts, then slice to form dice.


How to serve a fish filet: skin up or down? I've seen filets served both ways. I personally feel that fish - especially trout - should be served skin down. I want to use a fork to pick the flesh away unimpeded.

But I've seen Jaime Oliver and one of my favorite restaurants in DC (Le Diplomat) serve trout skin side up.

Is there a best practice here?

I think it depends on which fish, and the way it's cooked. If it's steamed,poached, or en papillote, fish skin can be quite unappealing to some diners, and, as you say, the conventional way to eat the fish would be to lift the flesh from the skin, especially if at the same time you are parting the flesh from the bones.

But if it's an oilier or meatier fish, pan-fried or grilled, the skin can be deliberately crisped, in which case it's intended to be eaten. (This, again, is much easier to eat if the fish has been filleted from the bone before cooking.) In that case, it is sometimes more attractive, and keeps the skin crisper, to serve it skin-side up.


Is my maple syrup still good? Possible Duplicate:
  Should maple syrup be stored in the refrigerator?

I have pure maple syrup and it has only been opened for maybe 5 days or so. I do keep it in the fridge but the other day I was distracted after breakfast and forgot to put it back in the fridge. It sat out for about 7 hours before going back in the fridge. Is it still safe to eat?

Your syrup is perfectly safe. People will argue about whether it's necessary to store maple syrup in the refrigerator in general. Regardless of your feelings about that, it's a fact that many people don't refrigerate it at all, ever, with no discernible ill effect. Certainly, 7 hours or even 7 days at room temperature will do you no harm at all. Maple syrup has a fairly low concentration of water, so few organisms are able to grow in or on it. And those that do grow very slowly.

Enjoy your syrup.


What type of fish is best suited for baking? I have very little experience in cooking fish (of any type, using any method). So I was wondering, what type of fish is suited for baking?

For reference, recently came across this recipe: http://www.dinnerintenminutes.com/easy-dinners/baked-fish/ which looks nice and simple. However the recipe simply says "fish fillets - no bones".

Thanks!

ps. the last time I tried baking fish, it turned out to be horrible - tougher then over-done steak!

To answer your main question, you can bake very just about any type of fish.

Looking at that recipe though, down in the "tips" section, it suggests you use a flaky white fish. So in that category, you have lots of options, snapper, cod, tilapia, for starters. Their flavours are often a little more mild and will pair nicely with the tomatoes and other flavours in there.

If you're prone to overcooking it, take it out sooner. I find many fish recipes that give cooking times tend to get you to overcook it. It'd done as soon as the fish "flakes" fully. Leave it any longer it will start to toughen quickly.


How to reverse sear a steak? Been trying this method recently and generally happy with the results. That being said, I can't help but feel I'm still making a few mistakes:

Steak lets out quite a lot of juice when slicing it, even after it's been rested for 7-10 minutes. How do steakhouses serve a steak on a plate that almost doesn't let out a drop when cutting it?
Cast iron, smoking hot - is there such a thing as too hot? I use avocado oil with a high smoking point but the oil always seems to burn rather quickly, even in just a few minutes of searing. It turns into this ugly brown color and doesn't let off a great smell either.
Steak is unevenly cooked (i.e. top vs. bottom). Should I be flipping it while in the oven?

The method on the link talks about how it is more consistent, but really it has as much potential for going wrong as any other. That doesn't mean it's not a good method, just that there are some gotchas. To answer your questions:

Good steaks are juicy, there's nothing bad about having juice come out when you cut it! If juice doesn't come out when you cut it then it's probably too dry
With this method you can't get too hot, the idea is a quick sear at the end of the bake. However, you have to get the temperature right when it comes out of the oven or you must cook it for longer than a quick sear to get it up to temperature. The right temperature depends on the thickness of steak, a thin steak cooks much faster than a thin one, so you pull it from the oven at a lower temperature or the heat from the pan frying will overcook it. The method on the article says for medium to take it out of the oven at 105°F and then sear it to 130°F. That means your sear is supposed to add 25°F. This may work with a thinner steak but a thick one it means a lot more time searing. I'd bake a really thick steak up to 120°F before searing it to get to medium
There may be a difference in heating between the conduction of the air on the top and the metal on the bottom which is causing uneven cooking, it all depends on your oven and the pans you use. I'd be tempted to try a baking tray rather than a cast iron pan in the oven as it should be more even, but flipping it is a good idea as well and may be all you need

So, a couple of tweaks should get you there. One thing more, with a thick steak I'd let it rest for 10 minutes rather than 5, don't forget to cover it to keep it warm.


Kitchen towel vs dough seal in a dum biryani A lot of recipes for biryani involve sealing the edges of the pot with dough. I generally used a kitchen towel and weigh down the lid with something heavy and don't bother with the dough. I was wondering if there is any benefit to using the dough over the towel.

I use the towel method for some other rice dishes as well as I find the towel helps to absorb some of the moisture as opposed to it condensing on the lid of the pot and dripping back in.

I have used both methods. I don't really know why but the one cooked with dough tasted bit better than kitchen towel method for me.

I believe it was because the container was sealed very well and no room for air to escape. The meat is cooked to perfection too.

You are right the towel absorbs moisture which may even dry out the rice and meat so moisture is important for slow cooking.


What dish is improved by pressure cooker? Ok so I've read conflicting arguments on the merit of pressure cooker against others. I'm planning to buy one.

some says it's the same taste/quality but saves time, some says it gives more nuanced taste to some dish because of uniform maillard and the pressure extract more flavor (isn't that just moving one flavor component to others hence the overall flavorfullness is the same?) .

is there any kind of dish that can be improved (or at least more nuanced) with pressure cooker?

stews, soups, chili sauce(sambal), stocks, meat broth etc ?

thanks in advance.

It works well with rice and lentil soups (Indian Daal) where uniformity is desirable. It is inferior than pots for making curries and stews.

It works wonderfully for stocks and it can dramatically reduce the cooking time. Although I have no experience with non veg cooking!


curdled 1/2 & 1/2 in Keurig-type coffee When I buy coffee (either decaf or regular) at the convenience store and add 1/2 & 1/2, it lasts for several days and several re-heatings without curdling.

BUT when I make Keurig-type coffee using ANY of several different brands I buy at the supermarket, my coffee won't last until the next day and reheating.  It will curdle overnight.

So, does the coffee in the Keurig-type cups just end up having a lot more acid in it from their manufacturing process?

Might it help with my Keurig-type coffee at home if I used the little 1/2 & 1/2 containers that a typical convenience store carries?  I know the chemistry in those little containers is different so that they don't curdle as easily when left out.  (Hence the difference in taste vs regular chilled 1/2 & 1/2).  Maybe they are made with an intentional alkali Ph?

The little 1/2 & 1/2 containers are ultra-pasteurized, so that they can be stable at room temperature.  Ultra-pasteurized milk products will not curdle.  This is why you cannot make cheese with them.

It is also possible that the Keurig coffee, being better roasted and sealed, is more acidic, but it is far more likely the UP milk.  You can test this by finding UP 1/2 & 1/2 at your supermarket in a carton, and comparing.

As a side note, I do find it pretty horrifying that you are making coffee, putting cream in it, and reheating it several days later.  Maybe you could consider making a fresh pot?


How many types of Roti are there? I'm really interested in what the different types of rotis you may find in India. Is the roti basically at a base flat-bread made with wheat flour and then basically flavored with any other flour. Off course you would then get different spices added to it, but what exactly is the difference between the various types of Indian roti?

Roti & chapatti are the same thing with a different name.
Both are made with only wheat flour (atta) & water - though some prefer to add a little oil, that's not really a part of the base recipe. If you add oil to the dough after formation, whilst rolling then folding you get a paratha instead. Milk & oil or ghee is going more towards a puri.
You can cook them in one of two ways. Dry-heat on a tawa or regular frying pan, then flame them, or just keep on the tawa. Personally I prefer flamed, but that's not too easy at home. The chefs I used to watch used huge tongs, like two wire table-tennis bats on a scissor to hold them over quite a wild flame. My gas range produces a very tame controlled flame by comparison & I have never been able to find those tongs anywhere.
The only other real difference, which may be area or even just family tradition related, is their thickness & pliability. My favourites growing up were always the ones that went soft & highly pliable after a few moments cooling; definitely best for picking up your food - we used to jokingly call them 'wash-leathers' but that was the type we liked & would return to establishments that could make them that way, rather then the dryer ones with a slight 'crisp' to them. Where I grew up most of the chefs were Bangladeshi, but I don't actually know if that variant is truly geographical.
I've moved away from that predominantly Bangladeshi-staffed area since my youth in Bradford & no-one around here (London) makes them that way, they're much more layered & dryer. Nowhere near as good imho.
Presumably, in the same way a plethora of various flavours, fillings & toppings have been added to the humble naan in the 40 years or so they're been widely available outside the sub-continent, you could add any other ingredient you like - but then it's not truly a roti any more.


What is cold-pressed honey? I've heard mention of cold-pressed honey - what does that actually mean? Would it make the honey any different? Honey isn't pressed like olive oil.

This is most likely referring to honey processed without any heating, often simply called raw honey, or possibly cold-extracted or cold-processed. It likely has more flavor and color preserved than commercially-processed honey (which uses plenty of heat), but it may not be much different from gently heated honey. It's not actually cold (honey flows really slowly when cold), just not heated.

There are two primary ways honey would have been heated during processing. First and most common, most commercially sold honey has probably been heated substantially (perhaps up to 165F - 73,89ºC) to help melt crystals, allow impurities to separate, and to make sure everything's dead and safe. This definitely does affect the honey - it makes the flavor a bit more mild, and the color a bit lighter.

If you're getting honey from a very small producer (maybe someone with a hive in their yard), it's also possible that they actually heated it in order to separate the honey from the beeswax. The most effective way to get honey out of the comb is to remove the caps and use a centrifuge to spin the honey out of the frames, but for hobbyist beekeepers without access to an extractor who don't want to just crush and strain it, another method is to heat the comb, letting the melted wax (it melts around 145F - 62,78ºC) float the top for easy separation. This is pretty gentle heating, and doesn't have nearly as strong an effect as the commercial processes.


How to differentiate sea prawns from farmed ones? Is there a way to differentiate sea prawns from farmed ones based on appearance?  Can we differentiate it based on Color of prawn, structure etc?

"Farm Raised" vs "Wild Caught"? There's a difference, just not a visual one. Because wild caught seafood is dependant on their ecosystem, they are ultimately going to have an, ever so slightly, different flavor than the exact same species that is farm raised in a controlled environment. But, I'm not sure anyone short of a connoisseur would be able to tell. Either way, it's going to taste good. (But read the articles I linked to, below.) Push comes to shove, most of us buy what we can get, even if we have to "settle". Geographic location can make a difference, then again... it might not matter.
If you are in a landlocked state, local grocers probably offer farm-raised fresh-frozen. But even coastal communities don't always get fresh-caught seafood. My favorite grocer sells shrimp from Thailand. And I live (literally) 6 miles from the ocean, in a coastal NC (USA) town where local families have been shrimp fishing for generations. Go figure. I don't buy the stuff from the grocer. (Oddly enough, tourists assume it's local shrimp.)
So, how can you be sure you are getting fresh wild caught shrimp?

You can consider having it shipped to you. Shop local fisheries
online. Most suppliers will pack it in dry ice to maintain freshness
enroute, or
You could plan a vacation along the coast. Many of those
fishing families have local restaurants, so enjoy as much seafood as
possible. Then pack some up to take home. yum!

What You Need to Know About Farmed Shrimp
Not All Shrimp are Equal


How to bacon infuse solid cheese block for smoking? I already cold smoke cheese. I'm looking to add bacon flavor to that cheese. Would soaking it in cooked bacon grease and cutting off the heavily saturated outer section work?

Part of it depends on how you use the cheese.

To get a bacon-infused cheese block, the best and easiest way would be to buy some cheddar culture and make your own - the bacon fat, or even crumbles, well dried, can be added during the process, layered between curds, etc.  The block can be aged and/or smoked after pressing.

It may, maybe, be possible to take a block of cheddar, shred or chunk it, toss in some grease and/or crumbles, and press it into another block.  You would need to start with a young cheddar, and give a great deal of time and/or pressure to re-combine the cheese - seems like a lot of work for little return, and it saves very little work over making from scratch.

Soaking the cheese block in the grease, or adding a layer of such onto it after smoking and before storage, would get flavor into the outermost edges (it would not likely infuse far without extensive time).  Cutting those edges off would readily undo most of the flavor addition, though.  That saturated section you're concerned about, though, would not necessarily be a large part of any portion - it would be mainly be around the rind of a slice (small surface area) or mixed into a shredded pile... though additional cheddar can be added if the smoking on top of grease is still too much flavor.

The only other alternative I can think of would be keeping the bacon flavor on hand (as grease, or as commercial seasonings or flavorings) to add to the cheese at the time of use.


How to fix a sauce with overheated yogurt that has separated? I was trying out some healthier recipes from the New American Plate cookbook, one was a Greek lamb casserole with lots of green beans and potatoes. The lamb was marinated in plain yogurt to which spices were added prior to being added to the pot and baked at 350 for 45 min. The flavor is good, but it is not attractive due to the yogurt separating into a grainy curds and whey.

I now have a lot of leftovers, and am thinking if I can fix the texture of the sauce, the kids would be more enthusiastic about eating it. Is there anything to salvage this huge pot of tasty food? Thanks.

Did it and rescued it - important extended family meal and I took a curds and whey disaster to a great sauce! I cooked up chicken with its yoghurt base marinade, the yoghurt split. It tastes fine it's just the proteins have changed at high heat and clumped to form curds.

To solve it I:

took a small amount of water (2 tablespoons or so) in a jug and mixed in a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch. I then added this to the sauce. Don't add cornstarch directly or it will just lump.
OPTIONAL: take other sauce ingredients that are meant to be whole (tomatoes in my case) and add 1/2 to sauce
blend to a smooth sauce using stick mixer (careful of hot sauce splashes)
Reduce sauce, if necessary, to thicken sauce on a medium heat stirring frequently
Return chicken to sauce and add the rest of the ingredients.

Serve and eat, and not to self "next time you cook with yoghurt do it slowly on a low heat - DO NOT BOIL"


My espresso shot is extracting too quick, what am I doing wrong? If my espresso shot appears to be extracting too quickly, what factors could be causing this?  What should I change to try to get a better result?

Without more details, it's hard to pinpoint, but here's a few suggestions:

Start by checking the setting on your grinder.  You may not have it set fine enough for espresso. NOTE: if the coffee is really stale, as in many months old, the shot will start blonding early.

How much are you dosing?  If it's too low you can get channeling and fast extraction (we tend to use 17-21 g depending on the beans).  Also take into account the size of the portafilter basket.  For example, if you try to put 17 grams of coffee into a triple basket, you will never get a good pour. I would suggest trying 18 g in a double basket and see if you notice an improvement.  You should shoot for roughly a 25 second extraction.

Double check how you are distributing the coffee in the portafilter.  If you are tamping unevenly, the grinds will be more likely to cause channeling with an uneven shot (check out the WDT method to help ensure proper distribution).

Otherwise, make sure you're fully engaging the portafilter into the grouphead and it is not loose when pulling the shot.


What are some cheap types of meat that are suitable for a stir fry? I'd like to start purchasing more meat from organic farming for my stir-frys, but the price level for high-tier cuts like chicken breast is almost unpayable, so I'd like to look into alternatives.

I don't care about which animal the meat is from, and it doesn't need to taste perfectly good or be 100% tender. What would be some cheap options that can reasonably be used in a stir-fry?

The problem with a lot of cheap cuts is that they are not really suitable for stir frying or other short cooking methods because they are less tender, more muscular, more sinewy. Instead, cheap cuts from e.g. beef often end up in pot roast dishes, where they can soften up and become really good.

That being said, a few good options for stir fry meats are, in my opinion:

chicken thighs, i.e., dark chicken meat, which also usually stays juicier than breast. I can get them at my local supermarket, de-boned, in free-range quality, for quite a low price. Need to do a little cleanup usually, but nothing too bad.
cutlets (schnitzel in German) from beef, veal or pork: tenderize them a bit with a meat mallet, then cut in strips across the grain
ground beef: while it's not whole meat, you can cook ground beef with a little bit of oil on medium-high meat to get the water out, then brown it in it's own fat and a little oil, then finally add your veggies and other ingredients for a "fine grained" stir fry, so to speak
other cuts of beef: Kenji López-Alt covers cheap stir fry cuts from beef beautifully here


Simmering split peas smell bitter - why? Today while simmering split peas with a good meaty ham bone, the whole works smell so bitter. I'm wondering why. I love pea soup but haven't made it very often.

In the end it did taste fine but had a really bad smell like it was going to taste bitter. I added the onions carrots celery and garlic a bit later. I did have to use salt and that helped. Used 10c of water. It ended up fine... my husband had 3 bowls! I just thought it smelled off.

One of the first things that comes to mind is that you have some beans burned to the bottom of the pan. This is a common issue when cooking a large quantity of beans if they aren't stirred enough. Burnt food items omit a bitter flavor as well as smell.


Can a sour dough starter be too active? Can a sour dough starter be too active?  My starter almost tripled in 4 hours.  Should I keep feeding it and when do you know that it is ready?.

Different starters can behave very differently depending on what's growing and the temperature. I'd say it's probably not TOO active.

However, some times sour dough starters can grow really fast in the first one or two days, at this point it is NOT ready. There needs to be a few days for different types of bacteria growing and dying out before you get the right types and balance of bacteria and yeast. Do the following checks before you use starter.

Has it been at least a week
does it smell good (should be a light refreshing yeast smell, not a bad smell, if it smell like socks or something, throw it all out and try again)
does it double consistently after feeding

If all checks out, it's probably ready, if not just keep feeding every day and keep at room temperature


How can I create a scotch egg with a runny yolk? I ate a scotch egg at thebreslin.com in New York City.

The dish was clearly cooked fresh and the yolk of the egg was still runny when I cut into it.  It was pretty amazing.

My question - how can I get the yolk to stay runny? Scotch eggs are pretty easy to make with hard-boiled eggs - but soft-boiled?  Is it just a timing thing?

Timing and precision are key. First off, you need to boil your eggs for exactly 5 minutes, assuming they're large. They should be at room temperature before you start, and you should let them cool afterwards. This should result in a cooked white and a very runny yolk before you fry.

The oil you use to fry the Scotch eggs needs to be just the right temperature - too hot and the crust will brown before the sausage is cooked, too cool and the yolk will cook solid before the crust is browned. The oil needs to be 350F/180C; a cube of bread should take 1 minute to completely brown.

If the temperature is right the Scotch egg should take about 5 minutes to brown evenly, and you should have properly-cooked sausage and a yolk that's still runny.