How do I fix the issue with white film on utensils in dishwashers? Is it okay to use dishwashers if water hardness is 900 ppm? I've purchased a Dishwasher from Bosch (SMS60L18IN). We were very satisfied with it's first wash when it gave us clean utensils without any problems. We put a 3 in 1 tablet then. Now, I use a special salt, detergent and Rinse aid... all from Finish.

From the 2nd wash onwards, it started giving white film on almost all utensils and food residues are not cleaned on some.

I tried all workarounds that I found online like changing detergent amounts and using the venegar trick.

The issue I was thinking and the company engineers suspecting is the water hardness which is around 900 (or 920) ppm. They changed the hardness level in the machine of to H7 (this is the max one for 8.9mmol/L hardness that the company specified) suggested me to run the machine for a few cycles to get rid of water residue from previous cycles.

I've already ran four cycles and the issue still persists. Is the water hardness the cause alone? Would be there other issues like the detergent or salt?

Following are the things that I observed:

The first wash was perfect. We haven't used sale here. Second and
third washes are a bit okay.
In the second wash. We put a 1.5 kg of specially recommended salt (it's brand is Finish)
Issue worsened from the fourth wash.
I realized that I haven't filled the salt resorvoir with water (the company recommends to fill it with water when you use the machine for the first time) and then filled it with a glass of water.
The company technicians said that is not a big issue as the machine will itself dilute the salt with water after 2 or 3 washes.
I ran the machine by pouring a cup of vinegar as suggested in some articles and I found that the white layer on the machines door was gone and utensils in the next wash are somewhat clean. Also, I tried changing detergent amounts, rinse raid quantity settings and switching hardness levels with each wash.
Tried changing the size of the load with each wash
Even if we purchase a budget softener like this, it may have low output rates and that gives new problems.
And an important thing is that we believe it's too noisy (it gives knocking sounds while rinsing) like a cloth washing machine. The company staff said it is normal or I guess it is not that loud when they are around:)

More details

Name of the detergent, salt and rinse-aid's brand is Finish
Am I still using all-in-one tables? No

The company staff recommended water softeners (of a different brand as they don't sell softeners). But I fear if it brings new issues like the change in flow rate (individual tap softeners have low flow rate, i.e., 2 litres per minute where as the dishwasher requires 6 litres per minutre). Ours is a rented house so I can't install a permanent or full house water softener.

Could anybody tell me if you find any other issues here other than the water hardness? Any suggestions or solutions are welcome.

Most likely the problem is your water hardness. A few years ago, they removed phosphates from dishwater detergents. Since then, white films from calcium salts are a problem on glassware. Finish detergent (the little blocks with a red button) is excellent.

Try using white vinegar (or even CLR) to get rid of the film for a cycle or by hand. Use Finish detergent. Add some TSP (trisodium phosphate) with every load, which you can buy at a home improvement or paint store, and also use a rinse surfactant. Cross your fingers.


Bakers semi sweet chocolate bar I feel like a real dummy but I need some help.  I have a recipe that is calling for 8 oz of semi sweet chocolate finely chopped.  I'm thinking that means a semi sweet chocolate  bar chopped up.  I read where a lady said each square is an ounce of chocolate but on the box it says there is 4 ounces  but I bought the box and when I got it home and opened it, there are 8 squares in it.  Why does the box say 4 ounces if each square is an ounce and there are 8 squares?

Bakers Chocolate used to come in 1-ounce squares, but doesn't anymore. This has caused me some confusion (and unexpected recipe results!) in the past, since decades of recipes specified chocolate quantities by squares, rather than by ounces.

I have no idea why they made the change. But, the solution/workaround is to go by weight rather than by squares. If a recipe calls for 8 ounces, look at the package and figure out how many packages (or fraction of a package) you'll need -- in this case, two packages. If a recipe calls for squares (e.g. "8 squares"), then keep in mind that used to mean one ounce per square, figure out the weight (8 ounces), and purchase / add to recipe accordingly.


How to keep insects away I live in a warm country, cockroaches are endemic here, and I do my utmost to keep them out.  However, occasionally one will sneak past my defenses.  Is my kitchen clean?  You bet ya! Have I done enough to stop these invaders, I thought so... But obviously not.  What is the best way to keep these critters from even thinking about coming over for a nibble?

I've had problems with insects, even when I lived in a relatively cool place.  (My apartment was next to the trash chute, and on the day they sprayed for bugs, it would drive them into my place for the better part of a week).

To help prevent long-term visitors, you want to remove sources of food.  A big one is areas of moisture, which start creating small bits of mold that the insects feast on.  Make sure you don't have water dripping below your sink and if you have a shower, leave the curtain and door or window open to let it vent after every shower.

To keep away the random explorers (or to deal with existing problems), I really like glue boards.  They're just a rectangle of cardboard with a really stick substance on one side.  You can either just peel off the protective paper and set them in places the insects typically visit (under sinks, behind toilets, basements, etc), but you can also typically fold them into a tent-like triangle or an open-ended box that you can place on countertops or floors.  (always place them tight up against the walls, so the open sides are accessible)

Glue traps will catch most insects (even flying, if you can get them to land on them.  Some are 'peanut butter scented' as a lure) and mice.

A few bits of warning, though:

Make sure you put them where you're not going to step on them.  They will stick to your shoe.  If you're not putting them under tables or such, fold them into a tent.
If you have a lot of insects already, it can be pretty disturbing to see how many insects you actually had.  (I put them in my basement to deal with camel crickets, and it was basically filled.  And the insects were still moving, so it pulsed)
It's not a very humane trap for mice.  They get stuck and then keep struggling to get unstuck.


Can a sourdough starter be kept alive if you live in a dry climate? I have recently moved to Colorado and now I live in a dry climate at about 5,000 ft (the western slope).  I had a starter in Sacramento CA with me for years, but I'm told that it is too dry here to keep the starter alive.  Is that true?  My fridge sure is humid and I would think that would be fine.  Anyone have any advice?  Thanks!

I moved from Monterey CA to Bullhead City AZ, a very arid climate. I brought my starter with me. The biggest change I had to make was using cling wrap and a rubber band around the jar. I didn’t do that in the beginning and I always had a dry skin across the top. This fixed my issue. My bread is just as great as before. I did also need to hydrate the dough a bit more. Otherwise it has been a success for me.


Using a mild chilli vs giving a small amount of hot chilli? I was just wondering what the difference between using a tablespoon of mild chilli vs a very small amount of hot chilli would be when it comes to taste?

Is it just a case that it will be whatever has the smallest amount of capsaicin will taste less hot or are there other factors e.g. in the second case the chilli flavour would only concentrate in a small part of the oil its being mixed in.

Your thoughts please.

I'm guessing that you're referring to chili powder when you say a "tablespoon of chili"?

Well, regardless of whether you're talking about powdered chili, or chili paste, or fresh chili peppers, the fact is that many people use specific types of chili peppers (or powder derived from different types of chili pepper) because of other flavors beyond the basic "heat."  Some chili peppers are more "fruity" and/or "sweet," others are "dark" and complex, others are strongly "vegetal" or "grassy" etc. in flavor.  Some of very aromatic; others less so.  Similarly, chili powders can vary significantly in their sweet or roasted or smoky or whatever notes.

If you're adding a lot of some form of chili, you'll be getting some of these other flavors too.  This is perhaps an advantage of adding a larger amount of a pepper type that's less spicy: you can actually taste some other flavor components of the pepper.  If all you're adding chili powder for is heat -- and particularly if you don't really want to taste the pepper -- you probably want to go with the purest and most concentrated form of capsaicin, thereby avoiding most of the actual flavor of the pepper (or the peppers a powder is derived from).


Can you make fries with coconut oil? I have seen some recipes saying you can cook fries with coconut oil.  The temperature for fries seems to be 350f however this is also the smoking point for unrefined coconut oil.

Does this mean you cannot cook fries with unrefined coconut oil and perhaps these recipes are referring to the refined type?

Use the refined coconut oil. And not only for temperature reasons...
I admit to not liking the taste of coconut in many cases... but I particularly don't want my french fries tasting like them. That may not be universally the case for all people, but if you want a neutral-flavored oil, unrefined coconut oil is not that. You will end up tasting only coconut, not french fry.
This site seems to agree:

Don’t get me wrong: I really dig the occasional coconut macaroon or coconut cream pudding. But I don’t want coconut flavor invading my scrambled eggs, fresh popcorn or homemade chicken broth. And neither does the rest of my family.
We tend to eat more coconut oil when it’s refined and flavorless, because it’s so much easier to blend into any kind of dish.
If you love coconut-flavored anything, then this probably isn’t a big deal. But if you’re like me, refined coconut oil simply fits into your life more seamlessly. Frankly, we’d barely touch our coconut oil if it was the unrefined variety. So I choose refined because I know we’ll actually use it.
Extra virgin coconut oil has a relatively low smoking point of 350 degrees F. This is pretty low as far as a cooking temperature goes. If you’re eating your oil raw or using it mostly for baking, this is probably not an issue. But for stovetop cooking, this is generally too low of a smoking point.


How much carrot is too much when baking carrot cake? I am experimenting with increasing the amount of carrot in carrot cake. The original recipe uses 3 cups of carrots to 2 cups of flour; how much more carrot can I add in addition to the 3 cups without turning the cake into a dense carrot bar?

There is no exact limit, it's a subjective/linguistic question. With every carrot you add, the proportion of people who recognize your result as "cake" will go down and those who recognize it as something else will go up.
That being said, I now checked my preferred books for recipes that do quickbreads and muffins by the volume, and they tend to have a spread between 0.5 and 1.5 cups of add-in per cup of flour, with Ruhlmann's ratio also containing a fritter (not quickbread!) recipe at 2 cups of zucchini to 1 cup of flour. This means that, for typical tastes, your recipe is already on the high side of carrot. If you want to add more than that, do so incrementally, and don't be surprised when others dismiss it as not being a cake any more.
As mentioned in comments, you will be able to have a stronger carrot taste with a better texture if you would replace the whole fresh carrots for something more concentrated, e.g. partially dehydrated carrots, macerated carrots, or you can search for prepared carrot flavoring (some molecular gastronomy shops carry all kinds of flavoring) or also use something that is strongly reminiscent of carrots, such as a small drop of nigella oil.


What is the measure for scaling cinnamon if you double a recipe? I love bread and butter pudding. We came across a recipe, and had plenty of ingredients, so decided to double everything, including double the cinammon.

This almost worked out perfectly, except that it suddenly felt like we had way too much cinnamon. It was almost as if we should have left the original quantity of cinnamon whilst we doubled everything else.

It seems to me there must be some scaling factor for cinnamon when doubling up a recipe. Something like 2x the recipe but just 1.1x the cinnamon.

My question is: What is the measure for scaling cinnamon if you double a recipe?

If you never prepared the recipe as written (which appears to be the case), you have no basis to tie the way it tastes when doubled to doubling it, rather than to the proportions of the original recipe.

Based on many years of making many things in many sized batches, if I double a recipe and want it to taste the same as the original recipe, I double the cinnamon.

I conclude that the most likely case here is that the original recipe had a lot of cinnamon, and that what you tasted is simply the way it tastes.

Depending what travels the recipe might have had before you met it, there's also a not-uncommon error that occurs with US measurements sometimes - the confusing (by some transcriber in the past) of T and t in hyper-abbreviated notation, which can make a factor of 3 difference (T = Tbs =Tablespoon = 15 ml, t = tsp = teaspoon = 5 ml.) The copy of the recipe you are looking at need not be hyper-abbreviated for this to have happened to it at some point in its past


How to make olives to be used in salad? Hey i was trying something different, and want to serve olives as salad but don't know how to make that salty thing to be included in salad.

Generally, any salty/pickled ingredient becomes part of the overall salt (and acid) balance of a salad - since olives are salty but not INEDIBLY salty, you can decide to taste how much you want to include, and how fine you want to cut them - you could do everything between including them whole (maybe pitted) and cutting/grinding them to a mince, brunoise, or paste - or a combination of such. The trick is to reduce the salt (and maybe acid) you add to other parts of the salad.


Wouldn’t flash cooling inside a freezer ice cube box be as effective as an ice bath? I’ve recently cooked marinated flank steak for four hours and placed it directly in the freezer ice cube box.  By placing the warm item between ice sheets and allowing full contact on the food, allowing the ice to melt around, wouldn’t this effectively be the same desired (if not better) effect of an ice bath?

Edit: I should have clarified that I cooked souse-vide, keeping the meat in the bag, placing it directly between the sheets.

I was a mechanical engineer.
The heat transfer will be much quicker in the ice bath because you will have full surface contact between the meat and the water, even into all the nooks, cracks and crevices of the meat. This is not possible just putting it in tghe freezer. Water is a great conductor of heat. Air is an insulator. You will have parts of the meat surface insulated by air.

There are other, greater, problems with your suggestion in lieu of the ice bath. When is the last time the freezer box was sanitized? Probably never?
Where does all the melted ice water go? Into a puddle at a low spot to refreeze?
You are bringing odors into the freezer box.
The meat is picking up odors from the freezer box even though you might not be able to smell them or are just aclimatized to them.


Simple Puff Pastry Dough So I have a recipe for simple pastry dough that takes four cups of flour, 1/4 cup  oil, 1/4 cup vinegar and water little by little - after combining, we open the dough up and spread margarine on every layer, fold - once done we cool for it to harden the repeat.

My question is regarding the fats and acidity. Whats the difference of using butter vs margarine in this recipe? Also, to help with creating flakes, how does vinegar compare with bottled (store bought) lemon juice? does it make any difference at all? lastly, am I adding enough acid/oil considering the amount of flower in base dough?

Thanks in advance

The 'puff' effect in puff pastry is produced by an alternation of fat/dough layers. When heated, the water in the dough will become steam and try to scape (hot air go up). Since steam and fat don't mix, this effectively creates pockets of trapped air in between the fat layers. The steam eventually manages his way out leaving behind a layered dry gluten skeleton.

With this picture in mind, the type of fat used plays two roles:

Workability. The fat needs to be soft enough to be spread over but hard enough to be trapped without 'sleeking' when layering. The traditional recipe asks for butter, but many commercial brands use hydrogenized vegetable oil as well, which are fairly stable. In principle, you could use lard or lamb fat.
Taste. Well, unless you are making a lamb pie, lamb fat might be a bit too strong.

As for the acid, I don't see how it could play a role in this process which is mostly mechanical. I also disagree with the claim that traditional French puff pastry takes a bit of lemon juice. Marie-Antoine Carême, the "chef of the king's and king of the chefs" don't mention lemon or vinegar in his treatise about puff pastry. More on the modern side, neither do Alain Ducasse, Pierre Hermé (who curates the Larousse des desserts) or Michel Roux. So maybe some recipes ask for it, but it is definitively not the rule.

Most of the industrial puff pastries do contain either lemon or vinegar, which they label as 'acidity regulator' in the ingredients list. I believe this acts as an anti-oxidant to increase shelf life and prevents rancidity. Another explanation (a long shot) might be taste. The traditional method for making butter in France involved fermenting the cream in a clay pot before buttering. One of the distinctive aspects fermentation brings is acidity.


How to make spaghetti stick together? I am a person that likes spaghetti that is stuck together, al dente, so it's nice and chewy.

I haven't been able to find any advice on how to cook spaghetti so that it sticks together, but rather the contrary, as it seems most people would prefer spaghetti that is separated.

So, logically, I did exactly the opposite of what these sources recommended so that it would stick together (not stirring, not letting it boil so much that it separates itself), which seems to work well, but not as much as I would like it to. Some of it sticks together, but not all of it.

Is there a way I could make spaghetti such that all of it would stick together ALL the time? Like just one big clump?

Easy....cook per the package instruction, with no oil in water.  Drain well through a strainer.  Allow to sit in the strainer or in a bowl long enough to allow the moisture to flash off.  Your pasta will be sticky and clumpy.  To further enhance the effect, refrigerate.  Saucing or oil will separate the strands,  If you like to eat it that way, there are recipes for using leftover spaghetti, and cooking it with egg, that results in a sort of pasta fritatta. You might enjoy that as well.


Why did my bread bake on the top like spongs and higher than the bucket in the bread maker? I live at 4160 elevation, so I decreased the yeast by 1/4 tsp in the Mary Lunn bread recipe.  The dough rose up to the window of the bread machine 2" from the top of the bread pan. The top looked like a sponge, the dough went down the sides of the bucket, and it was hard to remove all the bread from the bread maker. I cut the top 2" off in order to find the handle then had to still gently dig to get the handle up to remove the pan.  I followed the recipe exactly, except for the yeast decreased by 1/4 tsp The bread baked in the tub perfectly great color, baked 4 hr 20 mins to get that color, normal time would be 4 hr and 10 min for lighter color.  Not giving up, please help~

I couldn't say what exactly caused it, but yeast is a living organism, and recipes are based around average rising times and rising volumes. It could have been a fluke, or it could be that something in your particular combination of parameters is prone to cause this result regularly.

Luckily, you don't need to know the actual cause. You can just scale down the ingredients to make a smaller batch. Continue making half or 2/3 of the recipe to find out if it regularly fills your machine, and if yes, use that amount for a loaf. If it starts making very small loaves, it must have been a one-off event, and you could return to using more ingredients at a time.

Also, consider switching to weight measurements. Volumentric measurements are notorious for being very imprecise in baking, so they are much more likely to produce unwanted results.


Uses for Pork gelatin? I bought a whole pig with a friend. Along with the meat, we each received several bags of skin with ~1/2" of fat.

I figured I'd render the fat for tamales, pies or perhaps make some soap. When a sample batch cooled, I found that another by-product of this is gelatin.

I'll end up with over a gallon (maybe two) of pretty stiff gelatin. Definitely stiffer than any chicken stock I've made. I'd rather not toss it.

What can I do with it? There are no bones involved. Stock?

One option is Pozole Rojo (Mexican Red Pork and Hominy Stew) - Here's a recipe from Rick Bayless: Pazole Rojo You won't need the trotters, and shanks are optional since you already have the gelatin. If you want you can just use shoulder. Good stuff!

It would also be great for bean or split-pea soup.


Do I add salt to my sunny side up eggs before, during, or after cooking? I was wondering if it makes any difference to the taste, texture, or any other factor.

I tried googling but there are very few resources and some of them are contradicting. If anyone could enlighten me, that would be great.

Thanks!

(1)  Taste.  When you salt your eggs DOES affect taste because it affects the way your tongue comes into contact with the salt.  If you salt your eggs before or during cooking, some of all of the salt dissolves in the water that is in the eggs (raw eggs, overall, are roughly 75% water) and is dispersed over the surface of your eggs while they cook. When you salt your eggs after cooking, crystals of salt remain on the egg and, when these crystals come into contact with your tongue directly, they produce a brighter salty taste.  So basically, the way your tongue registers saltiness depends on concentration, not just amount.  Think about how differently a pinch of salt tastes directly on the tongue as opposed to the way that same pinch would taste if dissolved in a drop of water.

So...the tongue registers a brighter salt taste when it comes in contact with salt directly.  That doesn't mean that salting eggs after cooking is better - it means that it affects perception of salt differently.  Go with whichever you prefer personally.

(2) Texture.  Whenever I have a question about food science, I consult Harold McGee's book "On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen."  He states unequivocally that salt DOES NOT toughen eggs.  According to McGee, the only egg preparation that is harmed by the addition of salt is and egg white foam (whipped egg whites).

So from the standpoint of texture, salt whenever you feel called to do so.

Controlling the heat when you fry an egg is the single more important factor in determining the texture of your cooked eggs.


How hot are electric home stoves? In most (Swedish) homes, there are electric stoves that go from 1 to 6, and in some cases all the way up to 12!

Is there an agreed-upon standard deciding roughly what temperature a number corresponds to on the stove-scale?

Short answer: no, there's no standard scale.

First of all, I'm pretty sure it's common enough for stoves of varying power to use the same range of numbers. I see an awful lot of stoves that go up to 10 in the US, and I'm quite confident they're not all the same.

Second, the real property of a stove is its power output, not its temperature. You can clearly see this if you go look at gas stoves - they're described in units of power (BTUs in the US, hooray). The temperature resulting from a given power will depend greatly on what you're cooking. A burner with nothing on it will have a much higher temperature than one with a heavy pot of boiling water on it. To a lesser degree, the temperature will also depend on the environment - a cooler room with some air circulation will keep the burner a bit cooler than a warm room with still air.

So, if you really want to know what you're getting, you have to look up the power output of the stove - or failing that, maybe try to measure it yourself.


How can I tell if the tea has been stored properly, is not too stale or oxidized? I was looking up why my green tea isn't as green as the other guy's and stumbled upon this question: Why is my green tea brown?

So I guess the tea I believed was the best I could get is not actually the best. And I can't fully trust what the seller has to say about the quality of their product, so I'd like to find a way to discover the real quality of the tea I'm drinking.

Are there any reliable ways to tell how old the tea is and if it has been stored properly?

You can't (or at least I can't) tell without a lot of experience with teas of that sort.  Generally, a sufficiently fresh tea will have a decently strong fragrance when you smell the dry leaves.  As it grows stale, the fragrance will be replaced gradually by mustiness.  But which fragrance to expect varies dramatically by the tea.  For instance, pan-fried greens like dragonwell (longjing) tend to smell vaguely nutty, while a sencha will smell more grassy.  Dragonwell will also be more yellowish while the sencha will be more greenish.  But these are two of many different varieties of green.

Also, there's a continuum of oxidation from green to black, so "too oxidized" is really a matter of taste.  If you buy a Darjeeling (black), it'll tend to be lightly oxidized for a black tea; if your green is darker than that, maybe it shouldn't be called green.

I'm sure with appropriate analytical chemistry equipment you could determine some aspects of tea "quality"--but this would be complete overkill unless you're running a major tea business and you want to ensure quality.  And even then, you'd probably be better off hiring a number of taste-testers.

There is one test (but it's not definitive): brew the tea, then leave the cup out for a day.  If it doesn't get dramatically darker by the end of the day, it's already mostly oxidized.

In any case, if you like the tea, why do you care so much about the quality?  You can find some outrageously expensive teas--I've noticed some South Korean greens in particular--that start getting into the price ranges of fine wines, but unless you're doing this to impress people, you're better off trying a variety of samples and then getting the one/ones you like.  (Hopefully you won't find that you really like those South Korean greens....)


Almond pound cakes erupting In the last two weeks I have made 5 almond pound cakes with varying levels of failure. The biggest problem I'm having is that 3 out of 5 of the cakes have over flowed. The 3 that over flowed used no baking powder or baking soda. Each time I made them I put less and less batter in the pan. I'm so frustrated, I'm ready to give up. What am I doing wrong?

The only variation I made to the recipe was a little extra almond extract.

If you have access to fresh eggs--they make it amazing.  The key is mixing it very well!

3 Cups Sugar
2 Sticks of Butter
1/2 Cup Crisco
6 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
3 Cups Plain Flour
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tsp Almond Flavoring

Mix: 3 cups sugar, 2 sticks of butter (at room temp), 1/2 cup White Crisco (not the butter-flavored type)  Mix until very creamy.

Add eggs in one at a time, mixing well after each one.

Add half the milk and half the flour. Mix well. Add the rest of the flour and milk. Mix well.

Add the flavorings and mix well.

Cook in a Bundt Pan- I spray it well with Baker's Joy so it won't stick.
Bake at 325ºF for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hr 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let rest out of the oven for 15 minutes and then remove from pan.

The recipe looks fine. I suspect that you are incorporating too much air into the batter when you are mixing. Try:

Mixing less - shorter time/slower speed and/or use a regular beater rather than a whisk
pouring the batter then giving the tin a good hard tap down on the bench - this will make large bubbles rise to the top and come out of the batter.


Should you strip meat off bones before putting them in a stock? I made my first chicken stock last week and bought some winglets from my local butcher. The winglets had a lot of meat on them and I wasn't sure whether to leave it on or not. The stock didn't come out so great so I'm wondering if it would help to strip the meat off the winglets.

This is the process I used to create the stock - I was following a recipe for a brown chicken stock:

In a chefs pan

Browned chicken (winglets were sliced down to the bone - meat still on though)
Added onions, garlic, mushrooms, bay leaves, thyme and peppercorns and softened
Drained chicken fat
Added everything into large saucepan with 2 litres cold water
Brought to boil
Skimmed scum off surface (never quite managed this, even after half an hour)
Reduced for 1:30 with several attempts to skim more scum off

Meat can add a lot of good flavor to a stock, but it can cause a lot of "scum" to form, so you have to be more diligent in your skimming, otherwise you get cloudiness. The bigger problem with winglets is that they're mostly skin, which equals fat, which is generally not a good thing for stock. Again, though, there's a way to fix it: refrigerate the stock, then remove the fat that solidifies on top.

Other than that, there are the usual bits of advice-

Add a whole onion, skin on - the skin provides good color
Add flavorful vegetables: carrots and carrot-shaped root veggies, celery stalks
Cook low and slow
Do add spices (whole peppercorns, whole allspice), but don't go overboard with them
When scum starts to form, skim it off with a strainer or a spoon, whichever works better for you
Did I mention cooking low and slow?


What exactly is a chowder? Are there other names which mean essentially the same thing. If there is a univeral process that goes into the making of a chowder that distinguishes a chowder, what is it? Are there some sorts of food produce conducive to "chowdering" and others that are not? Is there a list of chowder types somewhere? I ask because I sense that all of those elements would go into a good definition--not just a dictionary definition--of what makes for good chowders.

According to Food Network and chowhound.com, chowders are thick, usually cream- or milk-based soups with chunks of vegetables and/or fish. A cream soup is generally pureed, a thinner consistency and smooth, with no chunks of food.
Food Network also notes the regional aspects, in that the Northeast seafood-based chowders are more common, while further inland meat-based soups are more prevalent.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/chowder-and-soup/index.html

Chowder's roots are in the Northeast, with the most popular being New
England Clam Chowder. It has been said that the soup took its name
from a type of French cooking vessel, the chaudiere. But the French
can't claim responsibility for this truly is an American tradition.
Customarily, chowder included onion, potatoes, and cream. Nowadays,
not all chowders adhere to these guidelines. New England Clam Chowder
is sometimes made with milk, and Manhattan Clam Chowder doesn't have
any milk or cream, but has a tomato base instead. As chowders pop up
across the country, they have taken on many different ingredients but
most people still expect a chunky, creamy soup. So whether it's corn
chowder or seafood chowder, it will not be a smooth puree and it will
not be thin and wimpy.

PreparedPantry.com describes chowder attributes:

A chowder is a thick, rich, chunky soup usually made with a white
sauce base though Manhattan chowders have a tomato base.  Originally,
it was a fishermen’s stew made with seafood but today, vegetable
chowders are common such as corn chowder and potato chowder.
Chowders typically have five parts:
The vegetables or seafood, the focal ingredient of the soup.
Ancillary ingredients which may include cream, diced onions, bacon, or herbs.
The cooking liquid—usually broth or stock.
A thickening agent—usually cornstarch, flour, or potatoes.
Seasonings including salt and pepper.

http://www.preparedpantry.com/Recipes/How-to-Make-Chowder.htm


Does black tea have the highest level of caffeine? If so, why? It's said that tea, in general, has lower levels of caffeine than coffee, and that black tea has more caffeine than green tea (which has more caffeine than white tea).

This suggests that the higher degree of fermentation of the tea, the higher the caffeine level. Is that correct? Does fermentation concentrate caffeine?

How is it that these teas, all coming from the same plant, have different levels of caffeine?

Rate Tea tells us this is a myth:

  Many tea companies, and even some reputable entities such as the U.S.
  Department of Agriculture, have made misleading generalizations about
  the caffeine content of broad classes of tea. It is a widespread myth
  that black tea contains more caffeine than green tea, and another myth
  that white tea contains the least caffeine of all teas.

They indicate that brewing method is the main determiner of caffeine levels in the brewed tea.

The source article goes on to cite various credible scientific sources, which raise the credibility of this assertion.  Unfortunately, most of their links have gone bad, which makes it harder to check the background science.

This caffeine level table from Mayo Clinic does indicate slightly different levels, but that is likely to be a result of different brewing details across tea types rather than fundamental to the tea plant itself.


Chocolate pancakes using melted chocolate I have a friend who wants to make American-style chocolate pancakes for breakfast in Mother's Day.
That's alright and there are plenty of recipes laying around, but the thing is she would like to use some bar chocolate she has laying around, melting it and using it in preparing the batter instead of using cocoa.

I've tried to convince her to use the chocolate for other purposes (chocolate chips, making ganache or syrup for the pancakes, using it in other recipes or otherwise saving it for later), but she seems... unbending.

I've found only a couple recipes using melted chocolate in the batter (and they don't have many reviews), but a multitude of well tested/reviewed recipes using cocoa powder.
Is there a reasonable way to adapt recipes using cocoa powder, or should I just tell her it's helpless?

EDIT: The chocolate is milk chocolate (which in my country must contain at minimum 25% cocoa solids), but does not divulge its percentage. Its ingredients are sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, vegetable shortening, lactose, cocoa powder, anhydrous milk fat, emulsifiers (soy lecithin and polyglycerol polyricinoleate) and flavouring.
Nutritional information in the image below (quantities per 25g of chocolate).

Perhaps she could make "regular" pancakes and use the melted chocolate candy bar in place of traditional syrup?

Imagine, a stack of hot pancakes with melted chocolate poured over them... perhaps a fresh strawberry on the side.  oh my! I might have to make some for myself!


Cooking ham and scalloped potatoes At what temperature can you cook scalloped potatoes and heat a cooked ham together? Ham says 275 and potatoes says 325.

I would stick to approx 300, and put the potatoes in the hottest part of the oven and the ham in the coolest part of the oven, that should do the trick, and get ready to take your ham out before the potatoes are finished - at which point possibly turn the oven up a bit.  As with a lot of cooking, it can take a bit of juggling.


Why do chefs insist that cleanliness is next to godliness? From what I've heard and seen, chefs seem to be very concerned that the area that they are working in is kept spotless.  For instance, when cutting up veggies, they are careful to keep everything on the cutting board and are quick to clean the counter if anything gets on it.  Is there more to this, or is it really just because they want a clean and orderly area?

Thanks!

Cleanliness, as pTerry reminds us, is only next to godliness in a very sternly abridged dictionary.

However, working clean has three main things going for it:

order! when you're trying to bang out a couple hundred dishes as fast as possible, being orderly and methodical in your work is not just important, it is absolutely vital.
safety! see above. if your area is a mess, you're more likely to injure yourself or others. Bear in mind that we play with sharper knives and hotter burners than you do at home
health! a clean work area is one that is free of cross-contamination.

Per calumbrodie's answer below, I'd like to expand a bit on the need for order. I'll do this by telling you about my day today.

We've just rotated the kitchen; chef does this from time to time to make sure everyone is cross-trained on all stations. So right now for the restaurant I'm responsible for sandwiches (one hot menu sandwich, one daily special), prepping one of our appetizers, one hot appetizer, soup daily, and one of our main courses (crepe stuffed with pan-roasted wild mushrooms, caramelized shallots, and barre boulard cheese which is just heavenly). In addition to that, we also have a takeout counter and a satellite location elsewhere in the building; for those I am responsible for sixteen sandwiches daily (different from the restaurant sandwiches!) as well as stuffed chicken which goes with a salad.

We start work at 9:30AM, everything for the takeout must be ready by 11:15, and restaurant service runs from 11:30 until 3PM. You should be able to see the time constraints this imposes.

When I walked in this morning, here is what I had to do just to get the counter stuff out, and be ready for service:

Bake bread (parbaked, frozen, from a local artisanal baker; we simply do not have the room to bake our own, although chef is open to the idea of tasking me with that)

Bread, par-fry, stuff, and bake chicken breasts.

Deep-fry onions until crispy (garnish for the menu sandwich)

Make crepes (must be done fresh daily)

Make sandwiches for the counters (today I was lucky; I had some of the mise ready from some free time on Saturday)

Oops, mayonnaise didn't come in Friday's delivery, better make some...

Make garnish for the soup I made Saturday

Double check all my mise en place in case I forgot something. Chef has slimmed down the menu somewhat, but I still have roughly fifteen to twenty different components which must all be ready, all the time. With backups in case we get slammed.

I have 1h 45m to do all of these things. And while I work best in a situation that looks like chaos to the outside observer, everything is carefully organized and planned. For example, crepes are something that--if you've made enough of them--you can interweave with another task: make the batter first. Ladle batter into pan, spin around, put back on the heat. Good, now I have a minute or two to work on another task; make a sandwich. Flip crepe, cut and wrap sandwich. Remove crepe from pan, repeat.

And this was a slow day. On a busy day, this list could easily be twice as long, including some things that will simply take time and require undivided attention.

So that took right up until service. During service I'm still prepping: everything I need for tomorrow that can possibly be done today, I do. So... roasting turkey for tomorrow's sandwich, making a cranberry aioli, making crab croquettes for the entremetier station (so: mashed potatoes, chilled--oh dear that's going to take two hours to come down in temp, better get started now--then folded around a crab mixture), some sort of stuffing for tomorrow's chicken... and on top of that I've got to be planning for Wednesday, for which I will need a new soup (and garnish), gotta roast another lamb leg--and that needs to chill too so I can slice it carefully, make sure I've got enough bread in stock, and oh wait--we have a catering function Thursday for which I need to make about a dozen things, best figure out when I'm going to do that... And all of this is being done while chits are coming out of the printer, so I need to be organized in such a way that I can not only stop whatever project I'm working on, but that having those ingredients/tools on my station won't impede my ability to serve food in a timely manner.

...you get the point. (There's a much better treatment of this, from an exec's POV, in Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential).

Without some order to my workspace (which is thankfully large), I would quickly be dans la merde and everything would go a bit pear-shaped. I've had those days, and it is difficult for me to convey how much it sucks to look at the clock, know you have five minutes left, and know that you have fifteen minutes of work still to go.

The thing about working in a kitchen is that, apart from a very few places which run with military precision (Alinea, Fat Duck, elBulli, Moto, the Laundry, etc), there is never enough time. Ever. And when there is enough time, well, there's always something else that can be done. So you have to be organized. There's just no way not to be. And you always have to be thinking several steps ahead of where you are; focus on now and you're screwed later.

This has wandered somewhat far afield from 'cleanliness', but cleanliness and order are opposite sides of the same coin. Without both, you're SOL. And the thing about being orderly in your work is that being clean will flow naturally from that. The reverse isn't necessarily true.


Is there such thing as "active dry sourdough-variety yeast"? Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question, or if it doesn't sound coherent, but: Is it possible to buy sourdough yeast, ready to use?

You can easily find "active dry yeast" for sale in supermarkets. I realize this regular bread yeast is a different variety from your typical sourdough yeast.

But can the sourdough type of yeast (I guess it is referred to as "wild yeast"?) be packaged in a way that you can just add it to your dough whenever you feel like baking, and not have to maintain a starter in a special container, with all the fussy feeding rituals, and worries about its health and environmental conditions, etc.? ... I imagine taking care of the starter must be half the fun, but people are always trying to make a buck by selling you convenience, so I wonder if you can buy little packets of "active dry sourdough yeast".

Or does wild yeast have some characteristic that makes it impossible to package it up neatly for sale? Or is there some other reason I haven't seen this product, even on the internet? ... Or do I just need to open my eyes, and I will see it in every market?

No, I really don't think you can have "sourdough yeast".

If you want sourdough without the "fuss", you can look up sourdough flavor additive and see what works for you - one here, and here, just for examples.

The thing is, sourdough starter isn't just yeast, it is a complex community - including several strains of wild yeast and bacteria, and a complexity that comes from aging. Yeasts can be packaged up - though balancing several strains is tricky, especially if you want consistency - but the bacteria is a lot trickier, especially since conditions which support bacteria are easy to contaminate with the wrong strains, and you would want the product quick - so not taking the time for the bacteria to establish a strong culture, which leaves it more vulnerable to said contamination.

Bread yeast is, I think, basically what happened when sourdough yeast was cleaned up and regulated and made safe for storage.  I have heard of starters that began with commercial yeast - it apparently takes a while for the characteristic flavors to develop, but apparently they do. Also, I've heard extended proofing (cold proofing) gives more complex flavors somewhat similar to sourdough, so simple time is, in fact, a factor in how the taste forms - it gives time for the fermentation to work.

The fact that adding more time to yeast or dough makes a bread more complex and sour-dough like, makes me think that there's no way to build that flavor naturally and quickly - after all, there's no instant time on our shelves.


missing ingredients in banana bread I have my grandmothers handwritten recipe for banana bread. the paper tore and I lost some of the recipe. it calls for 1 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 3 mashed bananas. I lost the amount of salt, baking powder, shortening and eggs. can anyone tell me how much of each I need to make this recipe?????

That is a lot of sugar for that much flour. The salt and baking powder are likely to be one teaspoon each or 3/4 teaspoon each. It probably called for 1/2 cup shortening (consider butter or butter flavored Crisco, but that's just me), and 2 eggs. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.


What's the purpose of syrup in toffee apples? The toffee apple recipes pretty much all have syrup in them.  The ratio of syrup ranges from low to almost as much as the sugar.

My question is: What is purpose of the syrup? If it's just for flavour, then how does it affect the flavour?

I realize it's easier to get the caramel going in the pan with syrup in the base, but if you add water (which most recipes say, and it boils off anyway) that makes it easy enough to get going without burning the sugar.

The bane of sugar syrup or caramel making is unwanted crystalization. A few stray sugar crystals, a premature stir, and your caramel gets grainy instead of smooth.

Corn syrup is an invert sugar (glucose), which can prevent this. Alternatively, a bit of acid (a few drops of lemon juice, a pinch cream of tartar...) will break some of the sucrose (plain sugar) into fructose and glucose.

Do you have to use it? No. It's mostly a safety net. If you follow proper procedure, like not stirring, washing down stray sugar crystals from the walls of your pot..., you can make your caramel apples without syrup. And there are recipes without syrup to be found on the Internet, for example here at Serious Eats.


White wine vinegar in sweet and sour sauce Can I sub white wine vinegar for white vinegar in sweet and sour sauce? Answer much appreciated!

Sure. It will taste a little different, but fundamentally, the main thing is the acid - you'll just get some extra flavor (which you may or may not consider an improvement) from white wine, cider, red wine, rice, malt or balsamic vinegar, rather than white.


Is it possible to bake bread or the like using a stovetop tagine? I have a Moroccan style tagine, and I usually use it on the stovetop.  The recipes or guidelines I have found for baking bread in a tagine usually depend on using it in an oven - something that is problematic for me in my particular oven (because of its height).  I'm interested in knowing if there's some way to adapt techniques to make bread (flatbread, biscuits, I'm not too picky) using the tagine on a stovetop.

An answer to this question here suggested looking at dutch oven recipes.  Some of them require the use of an oven, like the tagine recipes.  Others, the camping versions, seem to require techniques I am not sure would translate to a stovetop tagine - that kind of quick preheating, while fine for thick cast iron, would likely cause temperature shock in the tagine (since it is designed for consistent slow temperatures).

So, on to details.  Preheating the tagine should put the camping dutch oven recipes back into play.  I'm pretty unsure about leaving it on the stove to preheat while empty, especially since it will take a while (half hour or more) to get hot - having been warned against heating up pots without at least a little liquid in them.  Having water or oil in there while it preheats, though, is likely to affect the finished bread since the extra water/oil will coat the bottom.  On the other hand, the reasons it is unwise to heat pots empty might not even apply to a tagine, since it is a thck clay dish, kept on very low heat, is supposed to absorb a lot of heat slowly, and is a largely sealed environment anyway - if anyone knows, that would be helpful.

The alternative to preheating the tagine, would be to put the dough in it while still cold, and let the dough be heated up at the same, slow rate. I'm not sure what all of the effects would be - it might create a final rising before it reaches baking temperatures, so I would maybe avoid those recipes where the timing has to be precise... actually, figuring out timing is likely to be difficult for tagine baking anyway, most of the recipes for stews and such are really flexible.  I think it's unlikely to burn or something equally dramatic, but it will probably affect the texture, and I'm not sure which kinds of dough might be able to tolerate the technique.

So, in case that was too long and chatty, what I am looking for is any techniques that might be helpful in either baking in a stovetop tagine, like how to preheat the dish, or in adapting the recipes to work with the limitations of the tagine, ie, perhaps a drier dough because less moisture escapes, or because there's a little left from preheating with water in the container.

This isn't urgent, since I do have an oven capable of baking - but I've wanted to bake bread in it since I got the tagine, if I can figure out how.  It might have the beneficial side effect of letting me make bread with thinner, softer crust, since mine tends to come out rather crusty.

As per request, here's an example tagine picture, so it's clear what kind of pot I'm talking about.  A short article on how to cook in a tagine can be found here, so there's an idea of what kind of adaptations might be useful.

I've cooked bread on the stove many times. My setup was a cast iron pan with a metal trivet inside and a small pot inside that, which is what the bread dough was placed in. I then had an old rice cooker pot inverted over the pan. That essentially created a small stovetop oven. The small pot was on the trivet so the pot didn't get direct heat from the cast iron pan - otherwise, the bread would burn on the bottom. I did this for many years to make one or two servings of bread every morning for breakfast.

You could likely do something similar in your tagine. Figuring out the timing for the bread was trial and error. There's just no other effective way.

As for flat breads, I cook them using my cast iron or carbon steel frying pan. I've tried baking naan, but we don't like the texture of it, so frying is the way to go for us.


How to warm ham and keep it moist If I bought a pre~cooked ham from the store and sliced it and put 3 lbs in a glass dish how long and at what Temperature should I use, so it doesn't dry out?~

For a fully cooked, spiral sliced or sliced ham, I usually wrap the ham in foil and heat in a slow cooker on low for 2-3 hours depending on the size of the ham.  Otherwise, there should be heating instructions on the package concerning the temperature and length of time to cook per pound.


How do I make candy apples not sticky? When I candy-coat apples and let them sit out, the candy coating becomes sticky. I live in the Southern U.S., so humidity is usually pretty high, but other people in my area make them as well.

You may not be getting your candy to the right temperature. If you go too low, the candy never hardens completely. Are you using a candy thermometer?

If they're fine at first, but turn sticky later, you could try storing them in a drier place (don't put them in the refrigerator, of course). You might also want to try rolling them on sugar (if the issue is with the entire coating) or setting them on a layer of sugar (if the issue is presentation), which can help reduce the stickiness (and doesn't look bad).


How to saute without oil on stainless steel pots/pans? In an effort to reduce oils from my diet, I've been trying to saute without oil, but I'm not sure how to do it. In doing so, my pans now have a brown residue that is impossible to wash off.

I have read that it is possible to saute in a dry pan and also in broth or water. I've looked up videos, but they all show non-stick pans.

I've also had a look at a few relevant links, such as this, but they don't explain how to do it. Could some please explain how to saute on a stainless steel pan using water or broth, and also on a dry pan?

I wonder where you have read it. Your link doesn't help, maybe you linked the wrong question? It talks about using a stainless pan with oil.

If you are talking about true saute (very quick movement of bite-sized pieces of food on a very hot pan), it is completely impossible without oil. If you are misusing the term to mean shallow frying, you can do it without oil in a coated pan, if you take care not to overheat to the point of damaging the coating. Stainless steel pans have to always be used with oil or other fats, else they will stick. The taste of food browned without fat (in a coated pan) will also be different from that of food browned in fat, because fat is needed for important flavor-producing reactions. It is up to you if you like the different taste or not.

You can braise food in a broth, meaning that you put a small amount of broth in the pan, add the food and wait for it to cook through. This works with stainless steel pans too. But this is not comparable to either sauteeing or shallow frying. The temperature does not exceed 100 Celsius, which is way too low for Maillard and other flavor-developing reactions. So, if your recipe calls for sauteeing, browning, grilling or frying the food, you cannot use this method as a substitute.

In summary, you seem to have been misinformed. This is not possible, frying always requires oil, and browning without oil requires a PTFE coated pan (or a fresh ceramic coated one - they tend to lose their antistick properties with time).

Update You can sweat vegetables without oil, as mentioned in the corrected link. This is very different from both the true sauteeing you will find in textbooks and the quick browning usually meant in recipes which call to start with sauteing the ingredients. The result are softened vegetable pieces suitable for e.g. stir frying or mixing into chunky sauces. If you are going to make a soup or stew, don't bother using it instead of browning, as it doesn't add flavor and a soup doesn't mind the vegetables weeping into it. For other applications, you can try it and decide if the taste is good enough for your purposes.

The process is simple. Cut your vegetables finely (in the 4-7 mm range). Pour 3-5 mm of water into the pan and add a level layer of vegetables, up to 1.5 cm thick. Turn on the stove on slow to medium heat and leave them largely undisturbed. Wait until they are done - they will have softened and lost some moisture. As you are not using oil, you have to watch the food closely, because if all the liquid evaporates, the food will heat enough to stick and scorch. But don't stir much, because the vegetables need time in contact with the pan/broth to heat through, not to get a new side exposed to the heat each second. You could do it with constant stirring, this is the risotto method, but you will end up with preparation times similar to risotto (> 40 min) while waiting for the vegetables to heat through despite the stir. So it takes a little experience to know when the bottom of the vegetables is done but the liquid is not yet evaporated, without stirring to take a look at what is happening on the bottom.

In the end, it is up to you to decide if you really want to bother. You get a higher probability of failure (risk of scorching it), higher effort (the need to watch it closely) and less taste. If you feel that the fat reduction makes up for it, do it.


800g of peanuts give 700g of peanut butter – why? I’m making my own peanut butter from roasted peanuts that I’m buying. I just got a wet grinder in order to make a larger amount at the same time.
From the packaging I know that I used 800g of peanuts. But the end result was 692g of peanut butter. I expected it to be the same as what I started with, but am I simply wrong in this assumption? Or does that loss come from leftover peanut butter on the sides and floor, plus the small amount that I tasted during the making?

About 100 grams of peanut butter will fit into about 6 tablespoons, or slightly under 1/2 cup.  If you tasted, and there was peanut butter left on the sides and floor of wet grinder, that could certainly explain the difference. There is really nowhere else for it to go.


Can I brine a self-basting turkey? I was planning to brine my turkey but I realise that I bought a self-basting turkey.
According to most websites, brining a self-basting turkey is a big "no".

But has anyone brine a self-basting turkey before?
What were your results?
Did you decrease the salt in the brine to accommodate the existing salt in the turkey?

Short answer, if you trust the brining job of the manufacturer, you won't gain much by rebrining.

In brining you're looking to get a certain amount of moisture "trapped" by the salt in the turkey, which they have, in essence, done for you already with the brining solution.  However, that brining solution is usually injected rather than soaked in, so I wonder about the dispersion.  Add to that that I actually throw a little sugar into my brining solution (not a lot) and some pickling spice and you can see why you'd want to brine it, but without getting it too salty.

The answer is to go with a longer soak (12 hour or overnight) versus a 4 hour brine, with the lower salt content that you'd use for a long soak.  That will balance out the salt levels as the solution's osmotic pressure equalizes.  I use 1/2 Cup of table salt per gallon of water.  You can leave a turkey in that solution for...a long, long time and it won't be too salty.  It's all about equalizing the salt/liquid level inside the turkey.

If you are REALLY concerned about it and have the time, you could soak your turkey in plain water overnight, which would pull out some/most of the brining solution, then brine normally the next day, to put your salt and spices back in.  However, I would be concerned about losing some flavor from the turkey that way.


Why doesn't my cheese cake rise when cooked in a water bath? When I cook a cheesecake using the water bath method, the cheesecake does not rise. It stays flat.  How do I make my cheesecake rise?

The water bath is doing exactly what it should. Most recipes are designed to make your cheesecake rise as little as possible.

Baking a cheesecake is kind of like baking a souffle, except instead of encouraging rise, you combat it.

Cheesecake doesn't have the structure to sustain rising. Cream cheese can't hold the air, so when it rises, it eventually collapses & cracks.

Overmixing can incorporate too much air, which expands when it gets hot and collapses when it cools. Most recipes therefore advise against over mixing. A too-high temperature can have a similar result, converting too much liquid to steam, which expands, then collapses. A water bath insulates against the heat, allowing the cheesecake to cook more gently to combat that "too hot rise"


How long will a sourdough starter last between feedings? I'm using a sourdough starter from the recipe in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and I have gone through several of the rebuilding cycles with it.  It's been working fairly well for me and I have been refreshing it every week.  It is stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

How long can the starter be left in the fridge without being refreshed before it's un-salvageable and would need to be thrown out?

The following is paraphrased from Andrew Whitley's excellent book Bread Matters

Wheat leaven

If you intend to use within 2 days, store the it at ambient temperature
For 2-14 days, store it in the fridge. Optionally refresh it before use.
For longer, refresh then freeze. Refresh again after thawing.

Rye sourdough

0-3 days -- ambient temperature
3-30 days -- fridge, no need to refresh
Longer -- refresh then freeze. Refresh again after thawing.

Whitley describes "constructive neglect". He keeps a rye sourdough in his fridge that's several months old, so that he can demonstrate to students how easily he can take 50g of it and produce a lovely sourdough from it within 16 hours.

It's a great book.


Does cooking olive oil remove bacteria? I think some water got into my olive oil bottle, which can make bacteria grow. I'm thinking of using that bottle for frying or baking, would that make using it safe?

You can't absolutely guarantee that it's safe. Botulism spores can survive to pretty high temperatures. (The botulism toxin itself is generally inactivated at cooking temperatures, but the spores are also dangerous.)

That said... the water will separate from the oil, so if you don't see a layer of water at the bottom, then it's fine. And although there is some risk if it is there, the odds are fairly low, and I personally wouldn't worry too much about it. (If the lid has been sealed, though, and you get off-gassing when you open it, then it's probably best to chuck it.)


How should I store leftover rice noodles? I seem to recall reading somewhere that you should store leftover cooked rice noodles in water.  Is this right?  I don't want them to bloat and become ruined.

I also seem to recall reading somewhere you could revive stuck pasta by running it in (cold?) water.

How should I store leftover cooked rice noodles to best preserve them for a day or two?

UPDATE: I tried storing them in cold water, and that's definitely not the way to go; the rice noodles bloated to about double their original thickness.  They taste fine, just not what I was looking to accomplish.

From the point of view of someone who used to work in a Chinese restaurant, we used to prepare vermicelli which are really thin rice noodles by soaking the uncooked dry noodles in cold water for about 1 hour or until it is flexible. We then can store this soaked, but uncooked noodle covered with a plastic wrap in the refrigerator for several days. They don't need to be oiled. To cook it, we just submerge it in boiling water for about a minute and then prepare it however we need it. With the soak it takes practically no time to cook at all.

Perhaps in the future you can follow this method and pre-soak your noodles. Then you can use however much noodles you need from that batch and save the rest for later. Plus it'll save on cooking time.


At what point is eating left-overs or perishables not just daring but dumb? I am a college student who is sometimes a foodie, sometimes a garbage disposal. There is plenty of good food that some of my peers would turn their noses up at. But sometimes I wonder if this is not just disgusting, but actually bad for my health.

Food service standards are not what I am looking for here. Those are already clearly too stringent to me. Rather, I am looking for some rules of thumb about when I should not just cut or scrape the bad parts but trash the whole thing.

When in doubt, throw it out. It's cheaper than a hospital visit.

If you are wanting to save money, be proactive and find out the best way to store each food, and how long it can be stored.

Some things lose taste and texture as they age (even in the proper environment), while some things begin to grow dangerous kinds of bacteria or molds. For example, hard dry bread gets turned into french toast. Moldy bread gets thrown away.


Hard and brittle fat as cocoa butter alternative What are some hard and brittle fats, similar to cocoa butter, that could be used as an alternative?
Taste is secondary but the more neutral the better. Preferably the fat should also be reasonably easily accessible and not extraordinarily expensive.

Such a thing doesn't exist. Cocoa butter is absolutely unique in that respect, to the point where even thinking of cocoa butter only is not sufficient - only two of its six crystal forms give you the desirable texture, that's why we temper chocolate. With anything else, every halfway mindful eater will easily recognize that what they are eating is not real chocolate, and has a quite different texture.
The closest you can get are commercial replacements. They are sold under names such as "baking chocolate", usually in the baking aisle. If you have never used them yourself, you probably know them from eating commercially prepared foods with them, for example they make up the chocolate glaze on ice cream, or on the packaged marble cake in supermarkets, or on other products such as jaffa cakes. They contain a high percentage of real cocoa powder, the fat is specially formulated vegetable fat, and at freezing temperatures, they do have a satisfying snap (see the ice cream case), while at room temperature, a thin layer of them is somewhat comparable to a dry ganache. They do work well as a cheaper alternative of adding a bit of chocolate to baked goods, but not for pure chocolate work.
The cocoa fat somebody else mentioned is hard at room temperature, but has a completely different texture. It also has the unique quality of melting at body temperature, taking its energy from the mouth. This is why it is used in "ice confections", candies which cool down your mouth when you hold them on your tongue. Beside this very noticeable effect, it has no snap, and while it does make solid confections, they won't be mistaken for being made with actual cocoa butter.
The third option you can use, if you are trying to save money and not to work around an allergy, is to work with the cheapest unfilled chocolate bars you can buy. They use a mixture of cocoa butter, heavier fractions of vegetable fats, and special emulsifiers which make the texture somewhat closer to real chocolate. They do have a slightly different, waxy consistency, but in some parts of the world (e.g. the USA), this is what people actually associate with chocolate, due to the use of these emulsifiers in the most popular brands of chocolate bars. You can melt and shape these bars reasonably well, as well as make ganaches and similar with them, and the taste and texture is not worse than when you bite into the bar as-is. If you like the taste, it should be a viable option for you.


Seasoning a carbon steel wok I have a carbon steel wok but it became rusty recently when I forgot something in it for a day.

I decided to scrub everything off and re-season it. The problem is I can't get the center of the wok to be seasoned. No matter how much oil I add, it burns and disappears leaving the center as bare metal...

My method is applying a very thin layer of oil and making it burn on the gas, then when it's dry (and not seasoned...) I rub more oil. It worked for everywhere except the middle.

Should I scrub off everything again and start over? If not, what should I do?

It sounds to me like you are using too much heat to allow the seasoning process to work, instead the oil is burning off before it can polymerize and form the seasoning layer.

The bits that are already seasoned probably don't need to be re-seasoned; you can add seasoning to the areas where it is not seasoned. You may want to do multiple layers to ensure that the coatings are even across the whole pan.

I suspect that what you need to do, as you have been rubbing thin layers of oil over the surface, but then use a lower heat setting and ensure that the pan is fully heated through over as much of the pan as you can get hot and at constant temperature. One way to do this is to heat it in an oven, rather than over a flame.


How to properly store mushrooms I recently bought some mushrooms from the farmers market and have kept them in a brown paper bag on top of the fridge.  4 days later, they have started to have a slight odor between a mixture of dirt and dogs droppings.  I suspect I have stored the mushrooms improperly, so it begs the question:  What's the best way to store fresh mushrooms?

Mushrooms should be stored in the refrigerator in a breathable container. A paper bag works great. Mushrooms stored in this manner should last at least 4-5 days.

For the record, the top of the fridge is one of the worst places to store foods. Depending on the model it can actually be a few degrees higher than ambient temperature, thus accelerating spoilage.


Is it safe to eat ice cream that was left in a refrigerator overnight? A pint of dairy ice cream was accidentally left in the refrigerator overnight. It was then placed back in the freezer. Is there any risk in eating it now?

There's a high risk of frosty and/or hard ice cream. If it's not ice cream, and most of it is actually "frozen dairy dessert", it will likely fare better than real "ice cream".
In either case, it won't be harmful health-wise, as milk and derivatives last several days in refrigeration, so overnight won't hurt. Also keep in mind that overnight is not much time for too many bacteria generations to multiply, especially under refrigeration, so if the ice cream makes you sick, it very likely would have even if it had been frozen the whole time.


Toasting chopped almonds I want to add chopped toasted pecans to my stove top stuffing.  How do I toast 1/4 cup of chopped almonds?

The main difference to the linked question is that we are talking about chopped nuts (pecans or almonds isn't much of a difference, the same principle applies) and only a small amount.

You could fire up your oven, but chopped nuts tend to dry and burn much quicker and for a tiny amount like 1/4 cup, heating up the oven sounds like overkill. You can use the oven method described here, but need to watch like a hawk to prevent scorching them. But for a small amount, a pan is just fine.

So get a small frying pan (non-stick would be good here but not mandatory) and heat it on medium heat on the stove. Do not add oil or anything else.
Add the copped nuts and keep stirring or flipping until they are fragrant and some start getting darker. Use your nose and eyes to determine when they are done.
As soon as your nuts have reached the desired roasting stage, remove them from the pan and pour them on a cool plate.


How to Pair for Beer Tastings I am no sommelier, however I understand that while drinking or tasting wines a suitable matching food-stuff (be it a cheese, herb, etc) should be paired to fully engage the drink.

Is there a similar practice to observe with respect to beers? If so, are there any informational resources for the various beers and beer styles? One brewery in particular has some amazing flavor profiles for their beers; but what do you couple with coriander, grains of paradise, and leather?

Beer pairing dinners in my area seem to be on the rise as more craft beer-centric establishments show up.  This may not be true across the world, but I see this practice becoming increasingly common.

BeerAdvocate, a noted resource amongst all the beer fanatics I know, has a guide to pairing and another specific guide for pairing with cheese.

Epicurious, home of magazine content from Gourmet, Bon Appetite, and others, has a guide to how to pair that relates beer to wine.

Brewers Association, a group of craft brewers and organization to advocate for craft breweries, has a guide to pairings with information from a published cookbook.  Their online store has several titles that may provide interesting resources.


Is the hairy skin below a chestnut’s tough skin poisonous? Disclaimer: As I live in a tropical country, I have never seen chestnuts before.

I was experimenting with chestnuts, after i roasted and peeled them, I read that you’re not supposed to eat the hairy skin of the chestnut. Is it poisonous?

There are two reasons chestnuts are usually eaten fully peeled:

The thin fuzzy membrane can be bitter, especially in raw nuts. Cooking and roasting mellows it a bit.
The membrane is hard, fibrous and unpleasant, especially compared with the soft interior.

Note that the skin is not poisonous, but depending on the intended use1 of the chestnuts, it’s probably a good idea to really take the time to clean the nuts properly. If prepared right and still hot, the skin should come off easily.

1 Think purée, desserts or marrons glacés. If I buy roasted chestnuts on the street, I just peel as good as I can and don’t bother with tiny pieces of skin.


How to clean a "plastic" chopping board? The problem is that the sharp knives have caused many cuts all over on my plastic chopping board. Now, I can see the minute vegetable remains in the cuts on board.

What's the way to "easily" get the dirt out of those cuts?

Stick it in the dishwasher.
A short soak and a stiff brush.  Then some disinfectant of what kind you use, let it soak for a bit, then rinse off.

If you're not able to get your plastic clean reliably, you're better off with a good wood board. Some research shows that they're more naturally anti microbial.

Based on your comment

It sounds like a good 'wooden endgrain board' may be in your future.  When well cared for, they 'self heal'.  The knives don't leave deep groves when used properly and they're somewhat anti-microbial according to the earlier link.


How much time is required to bake? How much time should the oven be preheated to reach the desired temperature?
To bake cupcake recipes that say 180 C, how long should the oven be preheated and which level must be set among LOW, MED-LOW, MED, MED-HIGH, and HIGH?

This is difficult without knowing what sort of oven you have but here are some basic notes that will help you get started.

Many modern ovens will alert you to when they are at temperature. Every oven is different. My oven takes about 5 minutes to preheat but my dad's takes about 10.

If your oven doesn't have an alert, - and, honestly, even if it does - you should get an oven thermometer so that you can see when the oven is at temperature as many ovens do not run at the temperatures they claim to.

If your oven doesn't have specific temperature settings, only levels, it's essential to get an oven thermometer. If I had to guess, I'd say that you'd probably want medium... or possibly medium-low but only a thermometer (or possibly your oven's user pamphlet) will be able to tell you with any reliability. Also, if you only have five options, you may not be able to get it to exactly 180 C but if you're within 5 degrees on either side, you'll be fine, just watch the clock.

Something like this:


Does injera require a starter? I want to make Ethiopian injera bread at home, but the recipes I've seen are inconsistent about whether a bread starter is needed. Do I need to use a sourdough starter? Can I use baker's yeast, or perhaps make due without a starter?

The traditional Injera is made with wild yeast. Basically, you mix the ingredients and let it sit for 2-3 days to ferment. The wild yeast just finds it, and it works fine. However, the time it takes to ferment changes based on the average presence of yeast in the air and things like that, so it changes from batch to batch.

As a shortcut, and mostly for consistency of results, you can use a sourdough starter. In fact, once you've made your first batch, you can keep an Injera starter, so that you're still just using Teff flour.

To be fair, the biggest factor in fermentation time is usually the ambient temperature, rather than the source of the yeast.


Cooking a mix of raw and cooked meat I have cooked meat that is fully prepared, I like its taste but not its texture. I want to mince it, add it to some raw minced meat and prepare something from the entire mass.
What is the correct way to do it?

Safety concerns, the meat will be cooked thoroughly, but still are there any concerns regarding mixing the meats pre cooking.

Texture and taste, what is the best way to cook the entire mass without overcooking the already cooked meat?

Should the raw meat be pre cooked separately and only combined when cooked? What is the best way to do it?

Once the meat is cooked, there really isn't a way to turn it into minced meat without there being a noticeable difference in texture. However, it is not unusual to see fully cooked meat getting finely chopped (in fact) to become, for example, filling, and used in ways sort of like how one would use fried minced meat.
Also, from The BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS:

You can grind cooked meat, no problem. Some sausage recipes, actually call for ground cooked meat.

You best bet is to cook the raw minced meat as you would usually cook it, and dump in the cooked meat, that's all chopped up, at the last moment to heat it up.


What is the best method/product for cleaning pasta's starch residue from colander and cooking pot? After cooking pasta, I typically drain it in a colander.  I have found the starch residue in both the cooking pot and particularly the colander is difficult to clean without hand scrubbing it.  I am curious if anyone knows a solution - either a method or product that makes clean-up quicker and easier.  Thanks for any ideas you may have!

Soaking in water works for me. Put the colander in the pot, fill it with water - preferably before it dries out in the first place - and then leave it alone until you are ready to do the dishes, whether that's after dinner or (gasp!) in the morning. Either way the starch will slip off easily.


Cocoa nibs used for cooking or baking? From my understanding, a cocoa nib is unprocessed cocoa (correct me if i'm wrong please).

Are cocoa nibs ever used for cooking or baking? My assumption is that they need to be processed in order to be utilized.

Cocoa nibs are the result of fermenting the seeds from the cocoa fruit (the size of a large   grapefruit), and then roasting the whole cocoa beans, and then de-shelling them

The de-shelling process tends to gently crack the contents into large pieces. Unlike other seeds and nuts this is acceptable as the product is going to be finely ground anyway

You can also buy "raw cocoa nibs", which are fermented, de-shelled, but not roasted. These have a different taste, and do not make good chocolate

Roasted or not they taste interesting and are useful as a whole flavour item in salads, baking, drinks etc. They are very high in fat so use with caution. The fat also has a very low melting point, so will make any warm liquid dish look oily

They are not to everyone's taste, unlike chocolate compound :-)

In both these case the beans have been fermented on the ground for a few weeks. Non-fermented cocoa beans are not very nice (I haven't ever had any though). From what I understand they compare to fermented beans like non-pickled olives are too pickled olives :-/

Roasted cocoa bean nibs, and roasted cocoa beans

Non-roasted cocoa bean nibs


How do I remove bitterness from zucchini? I have thin-sliced zucchini and steamed it for use in my soup. One of the zucchini turns out to be bitter. I have saved half of it for use on the next day. Is there a cooking method that will remove the bitterness from that same zucchini, preferably with a presentation that is similar to steaming?

Mild bitterness in zucchini, like that found in cucumber, may be
  result from environmental factors such as high temperature, low
  moisture, low soil nutrients, etc. The bitterness is caused by
  compounds called cucurbitacins. There is also a rare condition which
  can cause extreme bitterness in zucchini. A compound called
  Cucurbitacin E is found in wild species of squash, but is extremely
  rare in cultivated species. (Univ. of Arizona)

Having bounced around to the various other sites I basically had what I've heard anecdotally before confirmed; salt and lay out to drain liquid. I suppose the implication is that by dessicating the zuke a little bit, it can remove the Cucurbitacin (which is a steroid developed to ward off herbivores). Putting the zukes in salt water is also recommended by some.

It appears that people can become ill from incredibly bitter zukes, so be wary of eating extremely bitter ones. In this case, you may want to follow the wisdom of your taste buds and drop the zucchini in the trash.


What should I look for in a cooking pan for Risotto? I just moved across country and basically sold everything I own including my cooking pans. I used to use a medium-high sided two handled pan that I cannot find an image for to show you. It worked for my purposes but I am generally cooking risotto for six and it never held enough and I would end up with some of my grains still on the crunchy side. I tried a larger around pan and it would not heat evenly enough on a conventional range. In a moment of desperation I tried using a wok, that was not a good idea. In any case I find myself on the hunt for a good pan to use that will handle six servings and heat evenly, I know I could cook in batches but I am generally just trying to get dinner on the table.

I am also aware that pans are subjective but with such a price range difference out there I don't have the money to experiment.

I suggest getting a quality stainless clad saute pan or saucier. For years I made risotto in the All-Clad 3 qt. saute pan shown here:

Unless you're serving huge portions this is plenty of room for 6 servings of risotto. There are larger options available though, including a mammoth 14" 6 quart one.
This pan easily does 90% of the work in my kitchen, so at any price it carries its weight in the kitchen.
That said, this past Christmas I got the All-Clad 3 qt. copper-core saucier shown here:

It's a very close matchup, but this pan is perfect for making risotto. The higher sides are a definite benefit, but you don't sacrifice much in flat surface area. The copper core is amazingly responsive, noticeably more so than aluminum. It's obviously rather expensive, so if you're uncomfortable spending that much on a pan I'd suggest getting one of their regular 3 qt sauciers -- you'll spend at least half as much.
If I only had one pan in my kitchen though, I think I'd still go back to the saute pan above. Its versatility is just unmatched.

Regarding your concerns that a wider pan won't heat as evenly, this is generally true for a cheaper pan. However, All-Clad pans use magic to bond a layer of aluminum (or copper) between a layer of magnetic stainless (exterior) and 18/10 stainless (interior). The end result is a very even heat which you can actually confirm with an infrared thermometer.


How do I measure the ripeness of my tomatoes? In my quest for a perfect shakeshouka (eggs in poultry) I figured out I need less acidity in the dish, and have read that acidity in tomatoes varies widely. I have read that very ripe tomatoes have lower acidity, but how do you know it is ripe? Most are picked before ripening before they are shipped. Does the ripening that follows after shipping matter in acidity?

Smell and touch your tomato. The softer it is, the riper. Also, the more it smells like a sun-ripened tomato, the riper. The smell is not only stronger, it is different from the smell of a badly ripened (but still red) tomato, or worse, previously refrigerated tomato. If you don't know how a good tomato smells, you'll have to learn it by smelling tomatoes before cutting them and remembering how they smell compared to their taste. Or go to somebody with a tomato garden in a reasonably sunny location, pick the ripest tomato and smell it before eating. I doubt that anybody in the world has developed the vocabulary to simply describe what you're looking for in the taste, so you have to experience it for yourself.

Don't go by color, that depends more on variety and can also be created with artificial ripening without imparting sweetness.


Pectin vs Agar Agar vs Gelatin for Pate de Fruits I was reading up on the difference between Pectin, Agar Agar and Gelatin.
From what I read for use in cooking as thickening or gellatinizing agents there isn't any real or significant difference.

So if I were to make Pate de Fruits or jam or anything that usually would require any one of those three, would it be OK to substitute it for any of the others?

There are plenty of high-sugar-content sweets that use gelatine, so it would be a reasonable substitute, but won't match the texture that pectin would normally provide in a pate de fruit or jam.

I don't know of any recipes using agar-agar that are designed for long-term storage, it is more often used in desserts, and again has a very distinctive (slightly crunchy to me) texture


How can I bake Cannelés more evenely with a big silicon pan? I purchased this cannelés pan which lets me cooks a whopping 77 mini cannelés at once.

I have tried it multiple times, with multiple recipes but no matter what I try, I have this result:

The outer ones are overcooked (often on one side only) an the inner ones are undercooked. This is clearly because the pan is too large and the heat isn't being distributed equally, but I'm not sure how I can solve this?

I do not have a convection oven, so this is not an option. I put the pan on a cookie sheet as the molds are too small and become unstable if put on my oven's grid.

Is there a better way to distribute the heat, place it in the oven, or change the baking time/temp to make it more even? I'm willing to buy additional tools to make it work.

Thanks!

It's the cookie sheet that's the problem as it impedes air circulation to the middle of the form. The hot air circulates around the outside but it can't get to the middle, so the outer ones get over-baked and the inner ones under-baked. Changing the baking time or temperature isn't going to help.

As for the solution you have 2 choices (other than a fan oven):

Get a supporting pan below that allows air circulation, you can buy mesh sheets instead of cookie sheets
Cut the form into pieces. Air can't circulate well to the center of that large sheet, so cut it in half and place them apart. They seem to be made of silicone, so a box cutter will go through it no problem. If you cut carefully you won't lose any of the forms, or you could cut through the middle of a line of them


How/Why Does Broth Burn? When simmering a basic chicken or beef broth (bones/meat/onion/carrot/spices) the result generally improves with time until, often, after a long time (on the order of 12-24 hours) the broth and solids change color significantly in the 'dark' direction and it smells a bit, well, burnt. Not 'gross throw it out', but definitely a 'darker' aroma and appearance.

I'm confused about how this happens. There's still significant liquid in the pot so why is anything burning? The temperature should still be hanging out close to 100C/212F. If color wasn't developing before, why does it eventually develop now? Does it have to do with any solid pieces poking up above the waterline? I wouldn't expect those to have such a different temperature.

Any tips to prevent this? Or is this normal/expected/desired for long 'bone broth' type soups? (Or does this only happen to me?)

Brown meat broth is a traditional recipe in Brazil, where bones and vegetables are roasted in the oven with some olive oil, before they are used in making the broth. This "caramelizing" effect turns the broth brown.
In your case, and as observed in the comments above, when the brothgets "thicker", some pieces of vegetable and bones have reacted at the bottom of the pot with the strong direct heat, getting a bit roasted/burned, which gives you the same "caramelizing" effect as in the Brazilian brown broth recipe described above.
hence you describe in your question:

and it smells a bit, well, burnt.

stirring regularly, to make sure no heavier parts of the broth stay in direct contact with the bottom of the pot for too long, avoid the broth "burning".

photo credit: https://www.temperando.com


Are all these ingredients edible? I'm cooking a Chinese soup base kit that I found in my local Asian supermarket (an amazing place!) But I'm not familiar with the ingredients. As some of them look strange and 'woody' I wanted to check if I'm supposed to fish them out like a bay leaf (or rather, strain the soup) or leave them in and eat them? I've checked Google but I'm not sure.

Chinese yam <- pretty sure I can eat this

Fox nuts <- these too

Lotus seed

Changium

Red Medeberry

Longan Pulp

Astragali

Regardless, it smells amazing and has chicken in it too :)

Edit: Now that it's been cooking for a couple of hours and things have opened up/softened I'm pretty sure it's all edible. Even the twiggy looking things are now soft and easy to bite into

I think the medeberry is goji, so that's edible. You can eat lotus seed and Longan pulp. I am familiar with those "packs of dried things" and usually you can eat all of the stuff, but I usually leave the twig-looking stuff.


Is it safe to eat expired hollandaise sauce mix I have a really old packet of McCormick Hollandaise sauce mix - it's 5 years expired.  Is it safe to use and eat?  Main ingredients are Wheat starch, maltodextrin, egg solids, soy lecithin, etc..

If it's a powdered mix, it's still powder (not clumped) and the pack is sealed, I'd go for it. Dried foods here are most likely to have a best before date, rather than a use by (real expiry) date. If it's clumped or the packet is damaged it may have absorbed water which wouldn't be good. It's possible that the flavour will have deteriorated a little. For example, powdered egg keeps for 5-10 years, most foods don't have longer than a nominal year on the label.

A wet sauce mix may also keep that long if it's packed in a way equivalent to canning (i.e. sealed then cooked in the packet).

If anything seems wrong about it, avoid it.


cake shrinks when it cools, becomes smaller than cake board Is it normal for a baked cake to be smaller than the cake board after it is baked? My cakes are very good and moist, after they have cooled, I always have to trim the cake board not a little bit but a lot. Should I be using a smaller cake board? For instance should I use a 7 inch board for a 8 inch cake?

Often times the cake boards are a little larger. The reason is to allow room for icing and a border of decorated piped icing along the base. Otherwise use undersized rounds. Also plain cake rounds are right at the same size as the pan so unless you have mass shrinkage they should be fine and allow you to handle the cake without actually touching the cake.


Why isnt my salt about 39% Sodium? I'm looking at the nutritional information on a pack of salt, as per the panel, 33.5g/100g is Sodium, everything else is in mg, totaling up to less than 1gm.

The Ingredients section lists Salt as the sole ingredient

However, atomic mass of Na = 23 , Cl = 35.5 (approx)

As per this, Na should be around 39% of the total, not 33.5%

Any idea what accounts for the difference?

Minerals, naturally found in salt whether it's mined or evaporated; and believe it or not, water. Infosa In the US, the FDA requires that salt must not contain more than 2.5% minerals other than NaCl and still call itself salt. That 2.5% does not include water. HowStuffWorks Your numbers for sodium content seem a bit low, but not extremely so, especially for a very unrefined, wet salt. The more refined the salt, the less trace minerals it will contain.

Outside the US, it's possible that your salt also contains added iodine, fluoride, folic acid and/or anti-caking agents, but in the US those would be listed among the ingredients, and would be included in that 2.5%. Only iodine and anti-caking agents are common in the US.

Plus, nutritional information labels have legal margins of error. If and when they can, they'll be slick. Lower sodium looks good on a nutritional label.


What's a good fondue alternative that would fit in a social gathering of fondue eaters for someone who dislikes all kinds of cheese? We're hosting a fondue-gluttony outside in the snow with friends, and one of them doesn't like cheese at all. Do you have any ideas what we could offer him instead and still would fit in the concept of the event? That would be people in thick clothing snuggling up outside around the warm pots of fondue.

Edit: I meant more an alternative, that fits into the event (e.g. friend makes cheeseless mini pizzas in a raclette set) , than a literal alternative in terms of consistency and manner of consumption (even tough those suggestions are great as well).

Chocolate fondue is well known but not really an alternative, more like a dessert (if there is any appetite left!)

There are other dishes which involve having the guests dip some solid food in a mostly liquid component themselves and immediately eat the result:

Chinese hot pot (incidentally called “fondue chinoise” in French)
Fondue bourguignonne (beef) and bressane (turkey) use more or less the same principle but with hot oil instead of broth. Because hot oil can be dangerous, you need another type of fondue vessel.
Another type of meat-based “fondue” involves cooking meat in hot spiced white or red wine (I've personally never tried it and just found out about it while researching this answer), cf. the French-language Wikipedia articles on red wine fondue (usually with red meat) and white wine fondue (with fish) and some info in English.

While they are very different in terms of taste and ingredients, it could fit the concept of the event and offer an alternative for people who cannot or do not want to eat cheese. The setup is somewhat more complex than a cheese fondue though.


Super tiny bugs in store bought raspberries For a while now, I've been seeing incredibly tiny bugs in store bought raspberries. They survive refrigeration and I can rinse them off (I think, can't be sure due to their size). They are really really small so I can't take a picture. They look like a little dot and do not fly.

I'm a bit concerned if they may be damaging to health. Does anyone know what they are and is rinsing the raspberries enough?

Its probably pretty natural for there to be tiny little bugs in the fruit. One thing you can do is soak them in a bath of cold water, lemon juice and maybe a splash of white vinegar, but not too much as you don't want them to take on that vinegar taste. You can spray them down with baking soda and lemon mixed with water as well. This will help draw the bugs out.


What to do with left over rejuvelac grains I have been making rejuvelac from wheat berries in order to make vegan cheese. After I am through with the rejuvelac, I have been throwing away the wheat berries. I tried to find something else I could do with them. The only things I saw were to grow wheat grass or dehydrate them.

I don't wish to grow wheat grass and do not have a dehydrator.

Is there anything else I could do?

I love croutons in my salad, but I don't want to use refined flour products. I mix sprouted grains with a cashew cream blend, add some miso, kimchi, veggie mix left from my juicer, nutritional yeast flakes and herbs, mix it all together and dehydrate at under 104 degrees for a day, flip it over to dh another day and then crumble it up in a zip lock bag with a food grade desiccant packet.  The chunks make awesome croutons!


How to replace large eggs for medium in a recipe? The cookie recipe calls for 2 large eggs and I only have medium. Is there a way to make up for the egg loss or substitutions?

There’s a good chance that the difference of what will be perhaps half a tablespoon just won’t matter in the final product. You don’t say what exactly you are going to make, but if your recipe was so sensitive to minute inaccuracies, it would probably be weight-based for all ingredients, including the eggs.

If you really feel your batter is too dry, add a small amount of liquid (milk or whatever fits your recipe) and you should be fine.


Do restaurants regularly disinfect baskets and trays? I certainly hope the answer to this question is yes, but do restaurants regularly disinfect baskets and trays?  Even if they are covered with paper wrappers or placemats?

Are there fairly universal state laws requiring this?  Any data on noncompliance rates?

I run a restaurant in California and every multi-use item touched by a customer in any way gets washed and sanitized, even if we use wax/paper wrappers.

The actual law is in Chapter 5 of the Cal Code (for California, obviously): http://www.cdph.ca.gov/services/Documents/fdbRFC.pdf

No idea if there's noncompliance rates out there though. (I also don't want to think about that, ewwwww. I hope that means that the restaurant's permits get suspended.)

The actual relevant quote is from Chapter 5:

  114097 . Equipment food-contact surfaces and multiservice utensils shall be effectively  washed to remove or completely loosen soils by
  the use of manual or mechanical methods  necessary, such as the
  application of detergents containing wetting agents and emulsifiers,
  acid, alkaline, or abrasive cleaners, hot water, brushes, scouring
  pads, high pressure sprays, or  ultrasonic devices.


hard crack candy coming out too sticky I've made a few batches of hard crack candy, but so far every batch i've made has come out stickier than I'd like. by too sticky, i mean that the candies will stick to the parchment paper i store them in so hard that the two become inseparable. this happens even in the freezer.

So far I've tried

letting the temperature go up a little higher on the candy thermometer (310-320)
adding powdered sugar after the candies have cooled down

as experiments but to no avail.
what can people recommend? is there an additive i could add to the mix?

Get another thermometer and check that your thermometer is calibrated correctly. Many of the candy thermometers from China are ± 20 C


What oils are suitable for Indian cooking (i.e. extended frying duration)? Indian cooking basically uses oil from the beginning of the process, typically starting with sautéing ginger and garlic, then adding shallots, chillies and onions. So the oil is on the fire for quite some time.

I would like to know whether any type of olive oil will be suitable for this type of cooking. Extra virgin olive oil seems to be out of the question from what I have read.

Indian food is commonly cooked with ghee (clarified butter), for both religious and flavor reasons.  Where ghee is not used, coconut or refined palm oil are common.

I can also tell you from experience that Indian food can be made with unflavored vegetable oils (canola, sunflower or soy), without a deleterious effect on flavor or texture.