Keep roast beef fresh? I find that roast beef in the refrigerator starts going bad within 24 hours and after a couple of days, it is noticeably bad smelling.

How can I keep the roast beef fresh? How do butcher's do it?

I'm going to assume you are talking about deli-style sliced roast beef here. There are a couple of ways to help preserve meat freshness better.

Wrap it in butcher paper. This type of food-grade wrapping paper is inexpensive and can be purchased at many general stores and office supply stores. It works great for all sorts of meat, poultry and even fish, and can be used in the refrigerator and freezer.
Keep it in the coldest section of your refrigerator. It is often near the top or the back, varies depending on refrigerator model.


Scary moments - what temperature for broiling? I have a significant problem - our broiler is flat out dangerous. The oven/broiler came with our house. Every single thing we've put under it has been burnt (it says it's 550, but I think it could be far hotter). A few minutes ago I put lobster mac and cheese under it for less than 90 seconds to brown up the top.

It started a fire, ruining the dish, filling the house with smoke, and causing us to dump some water we luckily had nearby on the dish to put out the foot high flames (cracking the glass dish, awesome!). If that hadn't worked, I would have had the fire extinguisher.

We're ok, but I will NEVER touch that damn broiler again.

So, that leaves me just using our oven, once I can get the smoke smell out. Should I just crank it as high as the oven can go (500 degrees)? Is it supposed to be lower? I know the addage is that a broiler is "an upside down grill" but grilling can be anywhere from 350 to 600 degrees depending on the grill, so that's a pretty bad comparison.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm kind of frazzled at the moment.

Assuming you cannot fix the oven (which would be my first recommendation as much for safety as anything else), then for browning things on the top I'd suggest using a cook's torch, which is the same thing as a plumbing torch except it's flashier.

Of course you'll want to make burgers, steaks, fish, etc as well. Baking these will not get you nice toasted brown bits no matter how hot you set your oven, so frying is your next best option although in some cases you could use the torch there as well.

You could your too-hot broiler question on the diy forum to get ideas on fixing it.


What types of snails are made into Escargot? I am aware that not all snails are edible. Generally speaking, what types of snails are used to make Escargot?

What qualities of the snail makes it a good candidate for Escargot.

In addition, what makes a dish Escargot? Is Escargot snail prepared in a specific way or is it any dish that contains snail?

For escargots, land snails are used. Most common are the species Helix pomatia, Helix aspersa and Helix lucorum*.

There are two restrictions: it should be edible (problem solved if you work with one of those three) and it should be large. Larger snails have more flesh to work with. You have to be a bit lucky for this. There's quite some variation. I think - for the dish that you mean - the snails should still have their house as well. However, I wouldn't advice you to go into the 'wild' and pick your own. Just buy them at the supermarket. It's safer, since snails can have digested toxins that take some time to leave their bodies.

The word "escargot" is French for "snail". You can find different preparations for snails, they would be called "escargots à la ..." with ... being the name of the sauce or preparation. The standard (at least here) drops the last part, since it's the basic preparation (herb butter with garlic).

There are other types of snails/slugs that are edible, for instance common whelks are also sold and eaten here, they live in the sea, not on land, but it's a whole different preparation.

*Source


How do you sharpen a serrated knife? I have some quality serrated knives but over time they get dull.

How do I sharpen them?

Take them to a professional. Nothing you can affordably buy in your home will work well.

Personally, I don't buy quality serrated knives. I buy cheap and replace when dull. Only my normal blades are quality, and these I have sharpened yearly.


Plastic on grill: is my family safe? I received an unwanted letter and, my county not allowing open-burning, I used my closed-top propane grill to burn it. After sticking it into the slots, I realized that this is imprudent, because of the plastic in the envelope (and possibly in the letter: I didn't open in, only rip it in half). The letter is now thoroughly burned, though the charred burnt paper is still in the bottom of the grill.

The only question now is how safe or unsafe is the grill? What should I do to clean the grill? Other than charred paper, there is no other visible residue.

I have read this question, but the linked question is about rust and concerns bacterial poisoning, not chemical.

Heat the grill, like good and hot (I have used the hottest setting). Once it is hot, just scrape it down with a brush or wooden scraper. After that, let it "cook" for a few minutes. Once all that is done, I would say you are good to go.


What is the appearance of expired brown sugar? I have a bag of brown sugar that I never noticed in my cupboard, and I needed it for a cookie recipe that I decided to make today. The brown sugar has been there for about a year, and it looks really packed together. Is it safe to use?

Any package date would be a "best by" date, which would indicate quality, rather than safety. Really, the only risk is that the flavor has degraded.  If the sugar is hard, you can put it in a microwave-safe bowl with a damp paper towel.  Cover the bowl and microwave in short bursts (10 - 15 seconds), breaking up the hard lumps with a fork in between bursts.  Be careful not to melt the sugar. Then use as you wish.


Achieve crosshatch on grilled pork chop? I know that putting a crosshatch on a pork chop won't increase its flavor but I like the presentation. Generally, I either rotate my chops too early or too late, resulting in torn meat or no crosshatch. How can I tell when is the right time to rotate the chop to achieve the crosshatch?

First, make sure your grill grates are brushed well to remove debris so that the food has complete contact with the grates.  After preheating the grill use a clean old towel to wipe the grates with a light coating of oil.  Additionally, a thin coating of oil on your pork chops or other protein item will be beneficial.

Once you've placed the meat on the grill it's really just a matter of paying attention to the meat.  Don't try turning too soon or you'll tear the meat and leave the grill marks behind.  If the meat resists, leave it alone.  It will release itself from the grill when it's ready to be rotated for the cross-hatch marks or to be turned over.

Of course there is no need to be concerned about grill marks on the second side as only one side will be the "presentation side" and the second side will never have marks as good as the first since there will likely be small bits of food debris keeping it from having complete contact with the grill.

Presentation side for other items would be the flattest surface (such as the skin side of a skinless chicken breast) or the nicer looking side (flesh side of a fish fillet).


How to reduce the masala taste from chicken roast We cooked chicken roast and we cooked it in three batches. this is for a party.
Good thing- OF the three batches two of them turned out to be pretty good.

Issue- The third one turned out to stand a bit front in masala. Is there a way to reduce the masala taste in this? We mixed all the three batches together (I know we shouldn't have however it was soo late in the night and bad decisions).

The pieces used are legs and thighs.

We are going to make another 3 more batches.

Does anyone have a suggestions?

Wanted to clarify that the spice level is ok. its the whole masala taste which is standing front.

I have used Olive Oil too in the past with Greek Yogurt with half table spoon honey and lemon and lime to taste. Mix to form paste and apply. Brush light to remove masala coating if you want to or reduce it. Also cool the chicken in fridge so masala is less. Hope I understood your question.


Why store food in an airtight container when it's in the fridge? The common wisdom for storing prepared food for later is to store it in an airtight container and put it in the fridge, the temperature of which should be at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celcius). I understand the purpose of the temperature is to slow the growth of bacteria to prolong the shelf life, but what about the airtight container? Is that also to slow bacteria growth, is it more about preservation of quality by preventing oxidation, or is it something else?
For the purposes of this question, I am more interested in the food I am storing itself, from a food safety and quality stand point. I get why you would want to store something pungent in an airtight container lest its odor get into any of your other items in the fridge or if you trying to prevent cross contamination between raw and cooked items. I simply would like to know what effect the airtight container has on the food itself vs. if I stored it in a non-airtight container.

Airtight packaging doesn't slow down bacteria growth. There are a few myths about them which don't apply in practice:

Bacteria are not kept out, despite popular belief – the air within the container has as many bacteria as the air outside. The food in the container also has bacteria – cooking doesn't sterilize food! – so you cannot keep the bacteria out that way.
The container is still full of oxygen. You don't get the effect of lowered-oxygen atmosphere that is sometimes used in packaging from industrial food producers.

These two hold whether your food is in the fridge or not – so storing the food in an airtight container outside of the fridge doesn't change anything about its safety either. *
The one way it helps with food safety is an edge case: if you forget something until it molds or spoils, the now-high levels of pathogens won't contaminate something else, exposing it to more than the normal "background" level.
The airtight container doesn't help with food safety, but it is quite good for food quality and has other convenience aspects:

if you put fresh fruit or vegetables in it, or cheese, you get a nice level of humidity, and vegetables stay crisp longer/cheese and other stuff doesn't dry out
many foods either emit or soak up smells. The airtight container prevents it.
if you have a mishap and drop something in the fridge, or a fermenting bottle of something spills over, it won't land in an open bowl of something else
modern containers have an almost-rectangular shape, which uses up the space in the fridge very efficiently, and allows stacking.
modern containers, as well as humble jars, are mostly transparent – so if you store the food in them as opposed to the pot in which you prepared it, it is easier to see what is where without opening lids
if you prepared food in a reactive pan (or even something not-very-reactive like seasoned cast iron) and store the leftovers in it, you are giving the pan time to react with the food and corrode and/or change the taste of the food. Food storage containers are nonreactive.

So the airtight containers are best practice for quality reasons. And non-air-tight containers, which have a loosely fitting lid (no visible holes, but also no gasket, such as a stock pot or a skillet covered with a lid) will give you about 80-90% of the desired effect.
* to be pedantic, it can interfere in one way: if you intend to store hot non-shelf-stable food outside for a short time, and are afraid it will enter the danger zone, a closed lid will slow down the time it cools down. But I suppose not many people keep a wireless temperature probe in their airtight container, so the point is quite moot in practice.


Sous Vide ribs -- can't eat for 2 days... best choice? Cooking ribs in the fairly new Sous Vide cooker seemed like a great idea, right up until the schedule changed and we can't eat dinner as a family tonight.  Right now, the ribs are about done with the 36 hours of cooking time we'd planned on (a couple hours left).  Tomorrow dinner is no good, so we're about 2 days away from being able to eat them.  We know that you can cook longer than planned without any problems with Sous Vide, but an extra 48 hours seems like we might be tempting fate.

Are we better off

letting the ribs cook for another 48 hours, or
pulling the ribs out on time and refrigerating/freezing them for the 2 days, and then finishing them in the oven right before we serve them, or
pull the ribs out tonight, finish them in the oven, then refrigerate them for 2 days, and reheat them?

Any pro/con for those 3 options would be most helpful!

Edit & Follow-up:

Most. Tender. Ribs. EVER!
As suggested, took the ribs out on time, chilled, and then tonight they were warmed in the sous vide cooker for about 30 minutes then finished in the oven. The meat was sliding off the bones, fork tender (for those who didn't use their fingers) and the whole family was raving about how awesome they were.  This method is a keeper for sure!

Thanks for the advice!

Pull them out on time. Cool them rapidly in an ice bath. The rapid cooling is for food safety reasons rather than any affect on the cooking. Reheat them for cooking however you were going to finish them originally.

I wouldn't leave them cooking for 48 hours. I think you run the risk of affecting the texture of the meat negatively.

If you're planning on finishing in the oven, I'd do that just before eating as your reheat method. You're likely to get some nice effect on the outside in terms of texture by doing that. If you refrigerate immediately after, you'll lose that benefit. So pull it out when they're done, chill, and refrigerate. To eat, let them come up to room temp a bit and then finish in the oven.


Can I use a fondue bourguignonne set to make cheese fondue? I have a fondue bourguignonne set (this model). Can I use it to make cheese fondue? The manual explicitly says that it is not suitable for chocolate fondue, but it says nothing about cheese fondue.

(BTW, I am also curious to know why it is not suitable for making chocolate or possibly cheese fondue. Is the réchaud too powerful?)

For a fondue bourguignonne (oil) or Chinoise (broth), raw ingredients are cooked in the pot, which means you need to get the liquid at least close to a boil, i.e. in the 90-100 C range. The burner under your model should easily supply enough heat.

For chocolate fondue, this would mean the chocolate would burn almost instantly. If you serve a chocolate fondue with a heat source at all, you'd use probably a tea light (small candle) at a distance.

Cheese fondue can take more heat than chocolate, but less than broth or oil. The idea is to just keep the warm cheese liquid. If you can reduce the power of your burner a bit, e.g. by closing the outer holes, you should be ok. Just pre-melt the cheese mix gently on the stove, not over the flame of the rechaud and never forget the "stirring rule": each participant is to use his bread on the fork to stir once or so over the bottom, to ensure the cheese doesn't stick. If you use a heavy ceramic pot instead of a metal one, it would be even better, but your set should work, too.


When curing sausage, which is more important temperature or humidity? I am curing sausages, pork salami in hog casing to be precise.  I am having a hard time maintaining both the temperature and the humidity necessary.  I have no trouble controlling temperature 60F/15C. (I have a small wine refrigerator) however the relative humidity in it is getting up to the 85-89% range. (As measured by an admittedly uncalibrated hygrometer but which reads 67% when set in the room containing the refrigerator)

The relative humidity elsewhere is somewhere in the 50-70% range depending on the room and time of day.  However the temperature varies between 67F/19C and 76F/24C.

The recommended target range is 60F/15C for temperature and 70% for relative humidity.

So far I am not having bad mold problems, just a few tiny flecks of white(acceptable/good) mold. The smallest of the sheep casing test sausages in fact lost it's 30% in weight and seems done.  The hog casing sausages are losing weight, but at a much slower rate than expected (presumably due to higher humidity).

Everywhere I look there is a TON of information on raising the humidity in your curing chamber, not so much on lowering it.  Suggestions for lowering the humidity of the chamber would also be helpful.

Should I put the sausages in another hanging container with lower humidity and higher, uncontrolled/ambient temperatures?  Should I let them continue to poke along at the higher humidity and dry very slowly, and possibly not at all?

EDITED TO ADD:
Silica Gel, at least in the quantity I placed in the cooler had no measurable effect on the humidity. Possibly more silica gel would have done more.

You ned to get your hands on a computer fan (they are designed to run 24hrs a day).  I simply mounted one of these inside wall of my curing chamber (down low - as wet air drops), cut a hole in the wall of the fridge with a hole saw - which allows the fan to exhaust the moist air from within the curing chamber.  I also cut a similar sized hole at the top of the curing chamber on the opposite side which allows dry air to enter the chamber as the wet air is exhausted.  I have it rigged up to a cheap humidity controller I purchased off ebay, so when the controller detects high humidity (whatever you set it at), it exhausts the humid air.


Converting teaspoon/tablespoon measurements to mL? I have been looking at curry recipes on an American web site and it gives measurements in teaspoons and tablespoons.  I am not familiar with these measurements as we do not use them locally.

Does teaspoon/tablespoon refer to the size of the spoon or its purpose?

If I have spoons that measure only mL, how can I convert a teaspoon/tablespoon measurement to these?

It's actually understandable why this would be confusing to non-Americans, because the terms "teaspoon" and "tablespoon" actually have two meanings - one in cooking and one in dining.

Historically, teaspoons and tablespoons were simply two types of silverware.  Teaspoons were literally for stirring tea or other liquids.  Tablespoons were used for serving.  So yes, the terms actually do refer to the purpose of the spoon.

They are also now used as cooking measurements across most of North America and possibly other regions:

A standard teaspoon (1 tsp) is approximately 5 mL (4.9 mL)
A standard tablespoon (1 tbsp) is 3 tsp or approximately 15 mL (14.7 mL)

For future reference, I use Google as my go-to resource for unit conversions whenever I don't know or can't remember the exact ratios.  For example, you can type the phrase 2 tbsp in mL directly into the search box and it will give you the answer (29.57 mL).


Bread is too moist in a humid climate I live in Florida, it's extremely humid here. Store bought bread and home made (bread machine) bread is always too moist for our liking.

I've read on the internet to never keep bread in the refrigerator because it will make it get stale more quickly.

I'm wondering if this might actually help our situation. What do you think, will it dry out the bread somewhat?

Do you have any suggestions? I bought a linen bread bag, which was a mistake, as the bread got stale within one day (because it was sliced I guess).

Thanks in advance!

Flour-free breads are, in my experience, very hydroscopic: they absorb water from the air even faster than regular bread.  However, since the bread you're using is presliced, there's a simple solution: store the bread in the freezer.  Just separate the slices (so that you can pull them apart after it's frozen), and put it in a ziplock freezer bag.

This does mean that you'll need to toast, or at least thaw, the bread before using it. However, I've found that freezing bread results in less of a "stale" flavor than refrigerating it.


Which honey has higher quality I have bought two bottles of honey from a single honey producer. One bottle before, and one recently.

The honey I bought earlier is less viscous, has darker color, and has a smooth texture
The honey I bought recently is more viscous, has lighter color, and has a rough texture

Which honey is of higher quality? What might be the difference cause?

It is impossible to say which honey has higher quality. The difference is likely to be due to the honey coming from different plants. Other sources of difference is in the processing done to the honey after gathering, the one which crystallized has obviously not been treated against crystallization, while the other either has such treatment or is made from a plant which doesn't tend to crystallize.
It is entirely possible that the two honeys are off different quality, but all we can tell from your question is that they are two different types.


Drying uncured fresh sausage I make fresh sausage that I won't smoke. I don't add any cure. How do I dry them without the cure in them?

This is going to be tricky.
The problem is the fat. Cured and/or smoked meat is filled with delicious flavors and preservatives. In particular, smoke has antioxidants that keep fat from going rancid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_%28cooking%29#Preservation

Jerky is generally made with as lean meat as possible because the quantity of air and time to dry meat is a perfect recipe for rancid fat. The salt in the jerky will not help prevent the fat going off.

Sausage, on the other hand, is designed to be cured- or to be refrigerated and eaten fresh. It is made with quite a lot of fat. Drying sausage like you would jerky will result in a lot of nasty, oxidized fat. Not tasty and not good for you either.

You could use very lean ground meat and sausage spices, shape into thin strips, and dry the meat like jerky. It would not be like sausage but would dry to a meat stick style jerky that can be quite tasty.

Additionally, the shape of the meat will be an issue. Jerky is sliced thinly so that it can dry before bacteria have an opportunity to take hold. Sausages are thicker and would take a long time to dry. The salt in the recipe might be enough to inhibit bacteria while it dries but the recipe isn't intended for this purpose and it might be risky.

If you want your sausage to be similar to actual sausage then you will need to use traditional recipes which add cure and/or smoke and dry and/or ferment. This is really the only option if you want normal, thick, high fat, sausage.


Can I safely serve raw beef roasts that were left out to thaw for several hours? Possible Duplicate:
  Is it safe to cook a steak that was left out (raw) for 7 hours?

I left out 2 separate packages of unopened raw beef roasts overnight. They were frozen solid when left on the counter but unfortunately I only found them there 16 hours later. Can I now safely cook them for dinner?

No, you can not safely eat it.  See answers to "Can I safely cook a steak that was left out raw for 7 hours".

Thawing at room temperature in air allows the surface to reach and maintain an unsafe temperature for some time, even as the interior remains quite frozen.

The appropriate ways to thaw the roasts are to do it in the fridge, or fully immersed in a bowl of COLD water with a trickle of cold water running over it.  Thawing in water is the faster approach, and often takes under 30 minutes.  It is safe to use this method for thawing requiring for up to 2 hours, but if considerable preparation is required, an hour is a better rule of thumb.

These are the approaches endorsed by cooking schools and health boards.


How to cook squid to get rid of the 'urine' flavor? What causes that flavor? My brother-in-law and his buddy caught a big squid on a fishing trip awhile ago. They fired up a camp fire and proceeded to cook the squid. Once it was done, the took a bite and to their surprise it tasted horrible. They said it had a flavor like urine(I'm not sure why they would know what urine tastes like but since your sense of taste is connected to your sense of smell, when they tasted it it probably invoked memories of the scent of urine).

My question is, what is inside the squid that is causing this 'flavor' when cooked and how do you prepare squid to get rid of this flavor?

update

The squid was Humboldt Squid (aka jumbo squid) ~5 ft long. They were caught live and cleaned, I.e. guts removed. My brother-in-law confirmed the taste as "tasted like piss". :)

According to this site and confirmed by several others I found on the internet, the Humboldt Squid produces ammonia chloride as a defense mechanism, or as a side effect of asphixiation, or maybe both.

I couldn't find terribly reliable advice on how to avoid the contamination, but two points were repeatedly suggested on various bulletin boards:

When you catch the humboldt squid, cut its head off, clean and ice it immediately (on the boat).
when cleaning it, be careful not to puncture the swim bladder.

The other suggestion repeatedly offered was to catch some other kind of squid.

Hope that helps.  For more 3rd-hand advice, search the internet for "squid ammonia flavor" and you'll see lots of bulletin boards and similar sources.


I refrigerated fresh baked chocolate chip cookies over night. Will they recover? I refrigerated 6 dozen fresh baked chocolate chip cookies over night, then discovered that baked cookies should not be refrigerated. They are at room temp now, but my question is, will they recover?

The reasons I know of to avoid refrigerating cooked cookies (there may be more):

Odors: If there are stray smells, like savory aromatics, the cookies may grab these and hold them.  Some may dissipate, but in general, if you absorb unwanted flavors you are stuck with them.
Hardness:  Chewy, jelly, candy, and oily cookies may turn hard when cold.  This might well apply, but should normally go away when you return to room temp unless it causes something to actually set up.
Chocolate Bloom: Chocolate that has been heated, cooled, change humidity, etc. can be subject to bloom, discoloration from sugar crystals forming.  You all three of those with fresh baked to cold chocolate chip.  It might not occur that fast and you might not even notice it for cookies, but I have certainly seen it in fudge for instance.  Mostly just unsightly though.
Moisture: This is a bad one for cookies and will be worse if they are not fully cooled before going to cold.  But even going from room temp to cold you are likely to get condensation giving you anywhere from a cooking that may stale more quickly to one that is soggy.  This one is unlikely to be fixed and would seem like the biggest caution.


How long could a meat-based broth be held safely near 180F/82C? This question is the flip-side of the commonly asked food temperature safety concerns. I'd like to know, if a meat-based soup stock (chicken/pork/beef/etc) were to be held constantly at a safe hot temperature of 165F/73C-180F/82C, how long could it stay at this temperature and still be considered safe to eat?

Obviously, it would reduce over time, but suppose it's reconstituted with water regularly so that it could continue being held... Is there ANY sort of time limit (even completely unreasonable spans like, months, years, etc)?

Just to provide an official source, the USDA's National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) says this (unit conversion added):

  Question 4:  What minimum time/temperature parameters for hot holding
  would ensure food safety?

  . . . For non-continuous temperature and time monitoring, a minimum
  hot holding temperature of 130°F / 54.4°C for a maximum time
  of 4 hours, based on information provided by FDA regarding the
  limitation of growth of Clostridium perfringens to no more than 1
  log_10 in food, would be adequate to ensure food safety.  In addition,
  the Committee concluded that a minimum temperature of 135°F / 57°C for
  a maximum of 8 hours, or a minimum temperature of 140°F / 60°C indefinitely also would be adequate to ensure food safety.
  . . .

You can read further details in the link and the detailed report which is linked on that page.  But, basically as long as your food stays above 140°F / 60°C, according to this report, it should remain safe "indefinitely."

I would say that the main issue arises in the fact that you might add things to this endless soup/stock.  It would only become potentially dangerous if the additions are below 140°F / 60°C when added (and thus cool parts of the food into the danger zone before they recover) or if the additions already contain toxins that might then be concentrated as the liquid evaporates off.  Food above 140°F / 60°C should not be producing new toxins (from bacteria at least), but whatever is in there already may not necessarily be destroyed.  Adding water though shouldn't pose a problem as long as it's heated before adding or is only added in a small quantity which wouldn't reduce the temperature below 140°F / 60°C.

My main other concern would be that any cooking vessel or utensils used be VERY non-reactive.  Elevated temperatures will make it easier for metals or other substances to dissolve more quickly.  A pot or pan or other vessel that might be fine for simmering for a few hours could leach more significant quantities of metals or coatings over days or weeks.  If your cooking vessel AT ALL reacts with the liquid inside of it, this could pose a long-term issue.

(It's possible that some foods themselves might break down into less desirable components, but this will mostly be a quality issue than a safety issue at temperatures below boiling.  At much higher temperatures -- which would be impossible in a liquid stock -- you could also potentially produce carcinogens over time as things break down, but this is probably unlikely for food kept in your proposed temperature range.  If you were to let the stock reduce at some point to the point that it went past the demi-glace stage and became drier and temperature began to rise significantly, this could theoretically pose a problem.  But in that case you'd probably get smoke and bad smells that would be a clue that your endless soup should be tossed because it had... well, met its end.)


What does the "bold" setting on my Cuisinart coffee maker do? I recently bought a Cuisinart coffee maker.

It has a button to switch between "regular" and "bold" when brewing.  I have no idea what this actually does.  I thought that usually bold coffee came from different beans or from the amount you used, not from a setting on the coffee maker.

What does this function do and when would I use it?

"Bold" appears to be a flavor term in general, usually referring to a type of bean; however, on coffee makers, it appears that the water drips more slowly, which allows more flavor to be extracted from the beans. This source confirms that this appears to be the case on at least one Cuisinart model.


How can I approximate a Starbucks latte at home? I'd like to save a little money by making my morning latte at home instead of buying it.  But it seems like the barista does something beyond just mixing coffee and warm milk to result in that perfect latte.

What ingredients go into a coffee-shop latte, such as those made at Starbucks?  What techniques do I need to approximate one at home, with common household equipment?

Espresso, steamed milk.

It isn't a complicated recipe at all, but it does require some equipment and technique.

Espresso:
You need to use an espresso roast coffee that is finely ground.  If you like Starbucks, then buy a pound from them.

Milk:
There are a whole bunch of beverages made out of coffee and steamed milk.  My joke about Italians is that every time they make one tiny little change in the preparation of something, they give it a brand new name.

You need to steam the milk to introduce air and to warm it up, subtly changing the flavour.  If you watch the barristas at starbucks, you'll see that they end up with a steel pitcher of warm milk with a thick foam on top.

I'll define a cappuccino as the base beverage.

A Cappuccino is 1 measure of Espresso, 1 measure of the warm milk from the bottom of the pitcter (Use a spoon to stop the foam from pouring out) and then one measure of the dry foam spooned on top.

A Macchiato is a DRY cappuccino.  Omit the milk.  Just spoon the dry foam on top.

A Latte is a WET cappuccino. Omit the foam.  You can spoon a little on top for appearances.

I've used the terms wet and dry.  If you were to actually order a wet cappuccino, you'd get something between the Latte and Cappucino.  If you were to order it dry, you'd get something between the Cappuccino and the Macchiato.

The French Cafe Au Lait is strong coffee (brewed, not expressed), with almost boiled milk.  If you don't have a steamer available, this might be the route to take. It's similar to a Latte, but without the equipment.


Which cuts of beef are suitable for slow cooking methods? If I want to simmer or braise a piece of beef for a few hours, how do I choose suitable meat? Which of the usual cuts are great, which are adequate, and which ones will just turn tough? It would be great if you could, beside giving a list of the good cuts, also give some advice on visually recognizing the good meat, in case I am faced with a supermarket selection with no labels (or misleading labels) and no qualified personnel.

Beef for Slow cooking methods:

When shopping for beef that will be cooked long and slow, price per pound within a grade will be a helpful guide. Less tender cuts that will be best cooked long with liquid will be much less expensive than the naturally tender cuts that require less cooking i.e. filet mignon.

From http://life.familyeducation.com/

  When shopping in the supermarket for meat destined for your slow cooker, here are the cuts to look for:

  Shanks - Shoulder - Round - Rump

  Even if they are not labeled as such, you'll know you've selected the
  proper slow cooker cuts when you compare the price of these cuts with
  cuts such as tenderloin, sirloin, and rib. And there is no need to go
  for the high-priced Prime grade meats. Choice and Standard quality are
  just fine.

To visually find the right cuts of beef for slow cooking look for:

Multiple muscle groups within the cut. In between each muscle is where you find the connective tissue that will break down. This shank has several.

Course grain is found in the working muscles of the animal. You can see the long fibers in this flank steak.

Fat - good marbling within the cut, but not too much on the exterior, like this pot roast.

A great guide to beef cuts can be found at chefsteps.com


How long to cook a 150 lb. pig in the ground? I am cooking a 150 lb pig in the ground for Cinco de Mayo.
I am using a Kalua Hawaiian method but using taco Al pastor flavoring.

Feeding over 100 people street tacos. I have researched and have read different times on how long to leave the pig in the ground.

I will have two wireless thermometers. One in the shoulder and one in the butt.
The pig's cavity will be stuffed with room temperatured whole pineapple.
Very very hot dry rocks will be placed in the pig's joints. Four corners, before tieing up and laid to rest. One true cord of apple wood will be burning, so a solid foot of hot coals. Old cabbage and water will be applied to create steam to help with the cooking process. The pig will be butchered appropriate and accordingly. Wrapped in banana leaves and aluminum foil.

Two Questions:

•If I want the pig done by 4pm (food on the table by 5pm), when should I have the pig in the IMU, covered, cooking? I would rather have the pig finished early and held hot rather than have 100+ hungry people staring at me, waiting.

•What temperature do I want the shoulder and butt to be? Different temperatures? I have experience in braising pork shoulder, chuck beef, etc.

Last time I did one it was an overnight proposition, sources I find recommend planning on 24 Hours for a 150lb Kalu-a-que.

  A pig roasted in the ground, Hawaiian or Kalua style, can take 12
  hours if done right and if it is filled with fruits and vegetables it
  can take 16 hours or longer.

If your pig is a purchased commercially (from a local farmer or reputable butcher) internal temps above 145°F are considered 'safe' but some people are still not comfortable with pork that is still that pink...so you should probably aim for 155°F (some will still be pinkish, others will have moved onto whitish, without (hopefully) drying out too much.

If you are serving up a wild pig/boar... (IMHO) Nothing less than 180°F will do.

I would recommend giving yourself at least two hours of 'slack' to pull the pig out of the hole two hours before scheduled feed time and start slicing (and storing in a couple of ice chests (no ice...insulated to keep the meat warm) so that serving goes faster. Slicing/chopping 'to order' will create a bottleneck in your festivities.


Soaking legumes and cooking another day If you soak legumes (in this case split chickpeas, aka chana dal), but end up not cooking them when they would be "finished", what is the best way to store them? In water or without? And how long can you store them? Soaking time for my chickpeas are only 3 hours.

If your soaking time is 3 hours, and after 3 hours you are not going to cook them....
then you should take them out of the water and put them in an air tight container and keep them in the refrigerator.
I usually do this and use my soaked pulses for over 3-4 days.
In case you leave them in the water even after their soaking time.. they get extra soft and won't taste good.


How can I store truffles? My husband will bring home some fresh white truffles from Italy. I never had truffles in my kitchen and I don't know how to store them. Any advice?

Subquestion suggested by casperOne: It would be interesting to hear answers both about long-term storage in the kitchen and storage options for transporting them on a long flight.

You can store fresh truffles in a kitchen towel and close it in a glass jar. Here (http://www.truffle-shop.com/storing-truffles) I even read that you can store the truffle with rice or eggs. The perfume will penetrate the egg shell and later you can eat truffle scrambled eggs without putting truffles on :-)


Alternative to cream for fried chicken recipe I've recently gotten a fried chicken recipe that I really enjoy. However, the coating (seasoned flour) is held on with egg and cream (mix 1 egg and 1/4 cup heavy cream, dip the chicken in the flour and then in the flour, fry). One of my family members is allergic to milk so cream is not an option for a family meal.

What can I use instead of cream to ensure a nice thick coating? I have tried soy milk instead, which tasted fine, but the breading was thin...

In the case of the breading recipe that you have mentioned, I believe that you can continue to use soy milk (or almond milk, or even water) mixed with the egg in your breading.  Instead, a small change to technique should give you a thicker and crunchier coating.

You may need to increase the amount of egg/soy milk mixture you create.

Try adapting the breading method as follows:

Dip the chicken in the egg/soy milk mixture.
Sprinkle your flour mixture with droplets of the egg mixture, and mix so that begins to form small clumps, as if you had already been using it for many chicken pieces.
Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture again, creating a second layer with bits and clumps sticking to the chicken pieces.

This should provide a crunchier, more satisfying crust than a simple single dredge in pristine flour due to the lumps and clumps which will fry up and be crunchy and toothsome.

This advise is based on a the method described by Cooks Illustrated and Kenji Alt of Serious Eats Food lab among others.  This picture is from the Food Lab article on replicating Chic-Fil-A chicken sandwiches at home:


Help with seasoning cast iron wok I recently bought a cast iron wok and attempted to season twice.

The first time i seasoned it i think i overheated the wok and it started to smoke when i added oil and some shiny black stains which looks like patina formed.

I tried seasoning a second time but after seasoning, it didn't seem that non stick to me.

Here are the steps i took to season the wok.

1) Scrub thoroughly with hot water and soap

2) on low to medium heat evaporate all the water

3) add in oil and stir fry some onions (some videos say it gets rid of the initial metallic taste)

4) after 5-10 mins i took it off the heat and let it cool

5) i rinsed it with water after and applied a thin layer of oil

This is the first time i'm seasoning a wok and i have no idea if is working out but i noticed that everytime i wipe it with some tissue paper, the tissue paper turns black! I'm considering throwing it away and any help would be appreciated.

Cast iron is has pours. Oil sinks into them. So oil. let set- Heat till smoking in oven is best. Remove & reoil let set to cool. Never use soap on cast iron. It removes the oil that has sunk in. The more you use them the deeper the oil soaks into them. To clean. While hot add water. scrape out. Or wipe out. Dry reoil with salted rag or paper just wipe with oil salt on rag. It will remove some carbon. The black you see.  let set. This is not the advised way. But works for me.


What is the optimal method for making box macaroni and cheese? I have two young children (3 and 4.5), who both love Kraft Macaroni And Cheese, or similar variants.  As a child, I also loved it, and between the two I've made a few hundred batches, at least.

However, I don't know that I have found the optimal method for making the sauce at the end, despite all of that practice.  I've at different times thought that each of the following was correct:

Add the milk, then the powder, combine, then add softened butter
Add the butter, mix thoroughly until melted, then the poweder, combine, then the milk
Add some milk, then the powder, then some more milk, then some more milk, then softened or melted butter
Remove the macaroni, just add butter to the warm pan (but not on the burner) until melted, add the powder, combine thoroughly, then the milk, then the macaroni (This is the "Annie's" box method)

Yet, I don't think ultimately it's ever really made a significant difference.  You always end up with a sauce that's so-so at first, a bit grainy and liquidy, and only after it's sat for a while (10-15 minutes) does it end up perfect - which for a 3 or 4 year old is eternity when faced with their favorite dish.

Is there an optimal way to make Macaroni and Cheese box mix?  If the ingredients need to be altered slightly, I'm fine with that, though it needs to stay close still to the original - no adding significant amounts of cheese or Velveeta.

The 4th version you gave is optimal from a chemistry standpoint; the process of using heat to melt a soft fat and dissolve a powder into a liquid by stirring is going to be at it's most efficient when the ingredients can fully interact with each other without all that pasta in the way.

It seems the main issue at hand here is the 10-15 minute wait for perfection that you mentioned. The thickening agents in the cheese powder need a few minutes to do their molecular bonding magic, and there's nothing we can do to speed that up. All 4 methods you mentioned are going to force this wait for creamy goodness because you aren't starting the sauce until after the macaroni is done.

While I don't have impatient kids to cook for, I do have an occasionally 'hangry' wife so I understand the value of efficiency here. What I would highly reccomend you try (and the method I use at home) for Kraft mac & cheese is basically the 4th one in your question, but instead of waiting until the macaroni is done and using the same pan for the sauce, just grab a second pan and prepare the sauce while the macaroni is cooking.

Put the second pan over med-low heat and throw in your butter (hard or soft, doesn't matter). After the butter has melted, add the cheese powder and stir until it's mostly wet clumps instead of dry powder. Then add your milk and stir everything together until the powder is dissolved. Just keep an eye on it and occasionally stir while the macaroni finishes cooking. You'll definitely notice it thickening up after a few minutes. When the macaroni is done, drain it and return it to the pot like normal, and stir in your sauce; by this time it should be the perfect consistency or very close. Voila, mac & cheese "aged to perfection" without actually having to wait.


What to do when too much shortening is added to flour? I was trying to make some homemade flour tortillas, but I made a mistake and I added ~9oz of shortening to 4.5 cups of flour.

I'm unsure what to do with the flour mixture because I do not want just to throw it away.

I also added a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of baking powder and around of 1 1/2 cups of water.

Is the mixture still good for flour tortillas?

Your best bet it to divide the dough into two batches, freezing half for later.

With the half you are working with, add 1/2 recipe worth of all the other ingredients again, except the lard.  This will bring you into balance.

The tortillas may be somewhat tougher than you would get if they were made to specification the first time, but that will avoid wasting your ingredients.

Still, given that the ingredients in a tortilla are generally inexpensive, you may decide it is not worth it, and simply discard the spoiled batch and start again.


Is it possible (and if so, how) to convert a store bought "pickles in vinegar" to "pickles in sweetened vinegar"? In the past I've bought many pickled cucumbers and other veg, but a few weeks ago I bought pickled 'sandwich' cucumber slices (similar to this) which were in sweetened vinegar and liked them much better; the key thing about these pickles is that they are in "sweet" vinegar rather than normal pickling vinegar which is quite sour.

I would like to know whether it's possible, and if so how I can do it, to take a jar of pickles I've bought in normal (sour, not sweetened) vinegar and sweeten it? Can I just add sugar to the vinegar they are in, in the jar? Will that have any effect? If it would have an effect, how long would I need to leave the sugar in there before eating them?

As far as I'm aware, the difference between 'regular' pickles & 'Jewish' pickles is sugar & dill. [I honestly don't know what makes them Jewish, but my partner grew up in the Jewish community & that's what she calls them, so that's about as much research as I've done ;-)

So - you'd think that adding sugar & dill & leaving them for a while after that would be just fine… except that once opened, those pickles only have a 5-day fridge life. A 'regular' pickle has about 6 weeks, by comparison.

I think your best shot, in that case, would be to over-sugar a bit & see what they're like by tomorrow or the day after. Mainly the sugar will be on the outside. Some fresh dill might just infuse the liquid a bit overnight, but you don't really have the time to experiment much after that before they're no longer safe.


After baking, bread coated with shiny residue Started making sourdough bread at home. Baked last night in non-stick pans (Cuisinart, Xylan coating, I think) and left to cool off overnight.

This morning, I took a look at the bread, and it's coated in metallic-like shiny gray residue.

What's going on here?

Are the pans defective and shouldn't have done that, so we should return them for new ones?
Am I an idiot for putting somewhat acidic (sourdough, after all) food into a non-stick (steel-base) baking pan?
Something else?

It looks indeed like the Sourdough and the anti-stick disagree with each other... though the extent of it is something I have neither seen nor heard about yet! May be the non-stick version you do have. If the dough was left in the pan to rise for a while, that may have been part of it.
But I have to say, except for the issue with your pan, the bread looks amazing!!!


Powdered milk in bread recipe I have a book with several bread recipes that call for 1-2 tablespoons of powdered milk. This isn't something I usually use and I was thinking substituting it with normal milk, and putting less water to compensate for the added liquid. Would this be ok? And if yes, how much milk should I put for one tablespoon of powdered milk?

A general reconstitution of milk with dried powder is 1/4 dry milk and 1 cup water to reconstitute milk.  So 2 tablespoons is 1/8 cup to 1/2 cup of water.

If you want to replace 2 tablespoons, replace 1/2 cup water with milk.  1 Tablespoon is 1/4 cup milk instead of water.

I have done this as a replacement for dried milk in bread many times with success.


What to add to the batter of the cake to avoid hardening when the gluten formation can't be avoided? So, over mixing batter forms gluten, which in turn hardens the cake. Fine.

The problem is that I don't want lumps in the cakes, and the above statement prevents me from fine mixing the batter. So, is there something which I can add to the batter (more milk?) to make the outcome soft despite Gluten?

Milk won't help you - it's mostly water, and gluten develops from flour (more accurately, specific proteins in flour) and water.

The way to reduce gluten development is to incorporate more fat into the batter. Lipids are hydrophobic and will prevent further hydration of the glutenin.

Using a lower-protein flour will also help. If you're not already using cake flour, the reason it's called cake flour is because of the lower protein content.

That being said, have you actually tried leaving the batter coarse? Just because the batter is lumpy does not mean that the cake will have big lumps. The entire mixture is wet, so unless you leave huge lumps of dry flour in the batter, you won't end up with a lumpy cake. There's a difference between "don't overmix" and "don't mix" - you're supposed to mix enough to incorporate, just don't try homogenize it.


Is there a reason to NOT use no-stick spray (Pam) for handling dough? I've just started branching out into the more interesting and challenging breads. I'm not particularly skilled at handling dough and I don't have great coordination in my hands. To avoid using too much flour to keep dough from sticking, I've taken to using Pam. It doesn't take much at all and it works like a charm. It makes me wonder why it's never recommended in recipes or cooking shows. Is there some reason I'm not seeing? Maybe something about the lecithin? For what it's worth, I've made maybe 10 loaves since starting to use Pam instead of flour, and so far it seems to be working fine.

The only potential reasons not to use spray oil to help handle dough are:

There is a small amount of lecithin in most spray oils
The oil may not be of the highest quality, and thus not have the best taste
The propellants may leave an off-taste

You are using it in such tiny quantities, however, that I don't think either of these are a practical concern, except possibly in the face of an extreme soy allergy (if the lecithin is from soy).


Is sour cream in olde recipes the same as sour cream today? I have a really old cookbook (about 1890) that calls for soured cream or sour cream in some recipes. Is this the same as the stuff you get in a tub at the store or is it like sour milk where you put vinegar in say, heavy cream??

In a cookbook that old, the sour cream referenced is probably a home-fermented variety, used as a preservation method in the days before widespread home refrigeration. You can still do this with the appropriate bacterial cultures, but most of us now buy our sour cream at the store instead. That product is similar, but made in much larger batches with a highly standardized, refined bacterial culture, producing a product with a predictable sourness and texture. Home-cultured versions are more variable, but they use similar processes on a much smaller scale.

Whether you want to call this the "same" is partly a linguistic distinction that depends on how much you want to consider the differences in scale and equipment between pre-refrigeration and modern methods.

In contrast, the addition of something sour to cream is really a substitute, used when you don't have a proper sour cream available. A cook back in the 1890s could use the same substitution then as we might today. But the production of sour cream (and all sorts of fermented milk products, such as yogurt and kefir) is much older than that, and there would have been some variety of "traditional" sour cream available, though not universally or year-round in the days before mechanized food distribution systems.


making a sourdough starter in desert like conditions It's finally summer and the daily temperature here is between 75-85 - which I figure is finally good for making my first starter. My concern, though, is that the overnight temperature drops to the 50s. Can I still make a starter on my counter?

My kitchen tends to stay pretty cool until later in the afternoon/evening, if that is useful to know.

Well every yeast strain is a bit different but normally the range is fairly forgiving.  Speaking from homebrew side; killing yeast from cold is almost impossible.

Homebrew side; they make electric thermostat controlled blankets to control temperatures; if you are going repeat this a couple times might be worth investment.  In beer world; changing the yeast reproduction rates and brew temp can have significant effect on flavour; not sure this applies to sourdough starters at all.

Temperatures:

above 108F - yeast start to die

140F - all yeast dies

below 32F - yeast can die

40F-65F - most yeast strands will be sleeping / dormant

78F - usually optimized production

Now I see optimized production of CO2 change from 10-15 degrees depending yeast strain; some being as high as 100; others being low as 70; but gives a good idea.


How do you properly drain the grease after browning ground beef? Whenever I try to drain the grease from the pan after I have browned ground beef, I always end up spilling a little here and there. I usually just take a spoon and "spoon out" the grease into a bowl.

Another technique my mother use to use, but only a few times, was to take a baster and remove the grease that way. But, the downside to this is that the grease is extremely hot and the rubber part of the baster would get really hot.

Is there an easier or better way to do this?

I have always found a glass bowl and a metal colander works best. I pour it in the sink to handle any splashes that occur.


What is the liquid that forms after chicken goes through the freeze-thaw cycle, and how can I extract it more efficiently? When I vacuum seal chicken pieces, freeze them, and then thaw them again, there is always a small amount of liquid in the bag after the thaw. When this liquid hits hot oil, it forms a crispy, airy puff that is absolutely delicious. I'm trying to figure out what the liquid is, and how I can extract more of it, so that I can make crispy fried chicken liquid for garnishes.

When you freeze meat the water in the cells crystallizes into ice, and in some case ruptures the cell walls. When you thaw the chicken again, the contents of the ruptured cells' are free. These are mostly the water, and the cells proteins.

Additionally, processed meats often have some water and additives added to the at the factory.

The "juice" you are seeing is probably a combination of these things.


Will adding lemon juice to non-wheat pastas make them starchier? I read in this question: Why add salt to the water when cooking pasta? that adding an acid like lemon juice to water you're cooking pasta in will help keep it from getting waterlogged and having the starch form a gel.

My wife is gluten intolerant, so we make quinoa pasta. Will this same trick work for non-wheat pasta?

I'm not a chemist but I'm pretty sure it has to do with the things that happen to starches in general. In particular, the chemistry isn't about the wheat gluten, it's about starch. Thus, if you feel your quinoa pasta is coming out too gummy or mushy on the outside, you might try it. (If your pasta is already mushy or gummy, how much worse could it get?)

I use vinegar in pasta water with Barilla Plus, which has a lot of wheat but also other stuff, and it causes no problems. I will also say that with really good pasta like that it's a little hard to tell the difference. I have a box of fancy Italian super-starchy pasta that I should try it on.

edit — whoa I just re-read the last line of your question, and now I'm confused. "Keep it starchy"?  No, that's not what acid does. The intent is to keep the pasta "pasta-like" in the water; to make sure that the outer layers of the pasta don't get "waterlogged" before they firm up from the heat. Is that what you mean by "keep it starchy"?


Is it safe to use a tea kettle with black dots on the bottom? My tea kettle has a bunch of black dots all over the inside bottom part of it.  I tried washing it and using a scrub sponge to scrub it off but it won't come off.  Is it safe to continue using it or am I drinking stuff that's leaching from the kettle?

To better describe this, the black dots are small dots, like if you used a pen to "dot" a piece of paper.  The dots are only on the inside of the kettle, the part that touches the water.  It doesn't show up on the outside bottom of the kettle.  The dots are all over the bottom, there's no one part where it clusters up.

I highly doubt it's mold.  It could be rust but I'd think (but have been wrong many times) it would have scrubbed off with the scrub sponge.  Thanks in advance for your help.

EDIT: Newly attached picture below

Those are mineral deposits. You can remove them with either vinegar or citric acid. Personally, I use citric acid:

Fill the kettle with some water.
Heat the water (doesn't need to boil).
Sprinkle a little citric acid in (use food-grade, also sometimes called "sour salt").
Let it sit for a few minutes.
The spots should vanish.
Dump the water out, rinse it a few times.

Works about the same with distilled vinegar, except you'll want some ventilation when you heat the vinegar (again, not to a boil), as the acetic acid vaporizes.

The heating isn't actually required for either approach, it just speeds the process up.


Does cooking one month expired canned goods render it edible? Sometimes when preparing to eat canned goods, I realized that it has already expired. I am hesitant to throw it away because it may still be edible.

Question: Does cooking expired canned goods make them edible? Assume that it expired no more than one month ago. Some say yes, because it only affects the quality of the product. Some says no, because it is very dangerous and not worth risking.

I want to hear this from experts. :)

If the food is spoiled, no, it's still unsafe, because cooking may not destroy toxins that have built up over time.  Botulism is a particularly nasty one that will not be destroyed without pressure cooking, and can really, really mess you up.

... but in the case of canned goods, if the cans are still intact (no punctures, rust, etc), and the canning process was done correctly, the food inside will remain safe even if the quality of the food may have changed, which is what the 'use by' or 'best buy' dates typically signify for canned goods.  (some will argue it may change for the better).

In the scope of storage lifetime for canned goods, one month is relatively nothing.  It's more significant what temperature it had been stored at up until now, as canned goods age significantly faster at warmer temperatures.  I personally wouldn't hesitate to eat stuff in a one-month past 'use by' date can (or even a year past), but I'm in a more moderate climate than you are.

If the cans have been in a relatively cool place (not in direct sunlight, or stored near a heat source), it's probably okay.  Look for obvious signs of puffiness, and listen for air escaping then you open the can  (entering is okay ... escaping is bad).  If you hear lots of hissing after breaking the seal on the can or if it smells or looks off, just pitch it and don't risk it. (as would be true for canned goods still within their 'best by' date ... although then you might be able to get a refund from the company if you contact them)

And, to cover myself from potential litigious behavior : If you're immune supressed, I wouldn't suggest you take the risk.  I also wouldn't suggest serving it to others ... although the risk may be low, other people should get to make an informed choice if they wish to risk it.  (older people and small children are more likely to have issues)


Lasagna won't cook properly in oven with no lower exposed element :( My new wall oven with the hidden lower element will not bake lasagna properly, no matter what I do. The cheeses and sauce don't meld into the pasta well. It takes forever to get the center of the lasagna hot but the pasta noodles toward outer pan are cooked to mush. The middle remains cold for entirely too long. The edges of the lasagna turn very dark before middle gets warm. This is so upsetting because I make a wonderful lasagna but can't cook it correctly as I have many times before in double exposed element ovens. The instructions in the manual simply say you may need to turn up the temp alittle when using pyrex. Does anyone have any advise on rack placement and temperature adjustment with this type of oven? I cooked it according to recipe which calls for 30-40 mins, covered at 375. Then uncovered for 15-20 mins. I've been using the middle rack. I miss my old school oven! Thank you in advance.

First, purchase an oven thermometer so that you can verify your oven temp.  Ovens can easily be off by 50 degrees or more.  Lasagna is pretty forgiving.  So exact temperature and time is not all that important. My process is similar...cook covered, then uncover.  Pasta turning to mush might be a result of overcooked noodles before the bake, or the lasagna being too wet. It also sounds like you might be getting uneven heating.  Try rotating the pan halfway through the bake.


How long does pizza dough keep in the fridge? The recipe is 500g flour, 325g water, 20g cake yeast, 10g salt and 20g of olive oil. After kneading I split it into 4 and store them individually in oiled freezer bags and store in the fridge at 1C.

Usually I eat them within a week but sometimes it happens that the last dough gets baked after up to 2 weeks of refrigeration. Today was one of those days and it got me wondering, how long can it really last?

Googling gave me the answer of 3 days... yikes

I've probably made over a hundred pizzas well past the 3 day mark though and even at 2 weeks they come out perfectly good.

The flavor peaks at around 48h of refrigeration IMO, after that it keeps getting  more sour and yeasty but not to the point where I'd consider it bad. Also the rise that goes into the edge of the crust isn't as impressive after 72h but pizza is mostly flat anyway!

So.. whats the real limit?

As long as there's no mold in it your dough should be ok. Flavour and texture will start to degrade due to the yeast dying out (as you found already).

Technically, you'd get better results if you feed that dough regularly with more flour like a sourdough - which can last virtually forever!

Other than that you could also freeze the dough balls and just defrost a day before you use it. Frozen dough should last for months with no change in texture or flavor if there's no freezer burn.


What temperature should I serve salami at? I have recently found out that certain foods are meant to be served at certain temperatures. I really enjoy salami, but I normally eat it from the fridge.

Is it meant to be served chilled, at room temperature, or at a higher temperature?

Room temperature for sure!

Eating something like salami chilled detracts from its flavour. Obviously you want to be a bit careful about leaving it out for a really long time, but I usually take anything I want to eat out of the fridge well before consumption.


Can regular sugar be substituted for maple sugar? I found a cake recipe that wants maple sugar in it, but I don't have maple sugar.  Can regular sugar be substituted?

If maple is intended to be a significant flavor in the cake (i.e. you're making a maple cake, or a maple rum cake) it's not going to be the same without it. The best substitutions would be maple syrup, or white sugar plus maple extract, so that you still get that wonderful flavor.

As for quantities, looking around online, the common recommendations for replacing 1/2 cup of maple sugar seem to be:

3/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon maple extract; or
1 cup maple syrup, and reducing other liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup.

If you can do without the maple flavor, then you could just use the 3/4 cup white sugar, but I suspect it wasn't a superfluous ingredient!

In the case of this recipe, it looks like the maple is important, but there aren't liquids to reduce. That probably means that the easiest option is the maple extract, but you could also take the recommended amount of maple syrup, and boil it down until you've lost the right amount of water. (For example, for 1 cup of maple sugar, take 2 cups maple syrup and reduce it to 1.5 cups.)


Fish balls aren't bouncy and fall apart easily So I tried making fish balls using the recipe at https://thishungrykitten.com/2013/11/14/homemade-chinese-fish-balls-the-way-they-should-be-made/ and I don't think I did anything wrong, but the result is certainly not what I had been hoping for or what was described. Specifically, the fish balls fell apart extremely easily (basically dissolved in very lightly boiling water) and weren't bouncy (the only fish balls I've had have been frozen fish balls from the local asian market used in hot pot). So I'll just describe what I did and ask what I may have done wrong.

I went to Walmart and got 2 pounds of frozen cod fillets, with the bones and skin already removed. I kept them in the freezer for a few days (under a week). After thawing the cod in the sink for an hour or two, I took 3 of the fillets (relatively small, total weight between all 3 probably around a pound) and chopped them into 1-inch cubes. Then I put them in the food processor and turned it on for 2 minutes. I removed them, added 1/4 tsp salt and some black pepper (since I didn't have any white pepper) and started throwing the paste (into a metal bowl so that it wouldn't go flying everywhere). I slammed it probably around 100 times in there, then added a tablespoon of corn starch (with a little water), mixed it in, shaped a fishball, and put it into some very lightly boiling water. The water quickly turned a cloudy white and started foaming, and when I tried to scoop it back up it slipped through the slots of the spoon and dissolved entirely. I tried to thicken up the paste and help it hold together by adding more corn starch, but every time it just dissolved rapidly. Eventually I switched to deep frying, where it managed to stay together, but when I bit into the ball it wasn't bouncy at all.

In addition to asking a general "what did I do wrong / what should I have done?", I have some specific questions:

Can frozen fish be used for fish balls? I understand the recipes all call for fresh fish, but my search-engine-fu has failed to tell me whether frozen fish is an acceptable substitute (I live in Nebraska, "fresh saltwater fish" as a requirement has some logistical difficulties)
Does it work to use cod for fish balls?
Do properly-made fish balls have issues with falling apart during cooking?
Roughly how hard should fish paste be slammed (I wasn't exactly going pitching speed, just "toss across the room speed", if that makes sense)? Are there effective alternatives to slamming?

The most likely cause was this part:

  slammed it probably around 100 times in there, then added a tablespoon of corn starch (with a little water), mixed it in, shaped a fishball, and put it into some very lightly boiling water.

You need to blend the water with the fish paste thoroughly. What I do is I dump all ingredients into the food processor and blend for about eight to ten minutes, excluding the time taken to scrape down the sides, or until the paste becomes a little elastic. When you push it with a finger tip and release, there is a little resistance.

There is no need to slam the fish paste at all.

For bounciness, add either baking powder or egg white. In my case, I add 1g of baking powder per 100g of fish. Alternatively, 0.4g of baking powder and 5g of egg white.

Also, add at least 44-50g of ice-cold water and 1g of potato starch. Commercial fish balls contain even more water for more bounciness.


Theoretical: why there's no gradient of doneness in bread? I was always wondering, why there's no gradient of doneness visible on the cuts of bigger breads. For example:

This one was made in the baking form, it has a thin visible crust, but after that the texture is absolutely uniform. How is that happens that temperature is distributed so evenly in the bread mass? Dough is not circulating like liquids do, so I'm puzzled. Could anybody shed the light on that?

Essentially, the exterior crust and the interior evenness are both side effects of the distribution of water.

The Maillard Reaction - the chemical reaction responsible for the brown crust - happens at about 150° C.  Generally you're baking at a much higher temperature than this - say 200° C.

The first question one might ask is, why is the crust only on the outside?  And the answer is because only the outside gets dry enough; as the small amount of water on the surface evaporates, the temperature is allowed to rise to ambient oven temperature.

The reason it doesn't happen on the inside is precisely the opposite; water boils at 100° C, so as long as there's still water in liquid form (and bread is, to a large extent, water), the temperature can't get any higher than that.  The interior of the bread is always regulated at approximately 100° C, and since the baking temperature is uniform, so is the finished product.  It's almost like poaching an egg or a piece of meat; no part of it is able to get any hotter than the liquid around it, so the longer you cook it, the more uniform the temperature gets.

If you continued to bake the bread until all of the interior water evaporated into steam, then it would eventually start to undergo the same process as the steam slowly escaped.  But we usually don't bake bread that long, so it doesn't happen.  As commenter Ray points out, there are some types of darker bread such as pumpernickel which involve intentional "overbaking", but obviously not to the point of burning it.

Note: There may also be a certain element of the process that is due to steam being trapped inside; the water vapor, like any gas, expands and distributes itself fairly uniformly throughout its container.  However, the bread is porous, so this steam eventually has to escape; if it didn't, you'd end up with a very damp interior after cooldown from all the condensation.  If you measure, you'll also notice that the weight of a fully-baked bread is about 10% less than the original dough weight.  So the steam doesn't stick around indefinitely, but the continuous evaporation coupled with the temperature self-regulation (due to the boiling point) keeps the temperature relatively constant.


What's the formula for cutting vinegar acidity? I have a vinegar based bar-b-que sauce recipe that calls for 3% acidity vinegar which cannot be found. How do I cut 5% vinegar to 3%?

Cut it with water.

Commercial white vinegar is basically nothing but water and acetic acid.

3 units of 5% vinegar and 2 units of plain water give 5 units of 3% vinegar.


Salt 'n pizza (how much salt should be in the dough) I've made a pizza today and thought the dough could use a little more salt. I've looked at this answer and have a question about the salt ratio. How is it calculated? The percentage of flour, or the percentage of dough?

My pizza recipe calls for 300 g flour, 150 ml water and 3 g salt. That is 1% of the flour weight, but less of the total weight. If 3% is the recommended salt level for bread, I should be using 9 gr for the flour, or 13,5 g for total weight. That is a huge difference.

Edit: The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 bag of dry yeast (but I use my own mother dough), and 60 ml oil.

Edit: I believe I measured one tablespoon to be 3g :-(

Ratios are always by weight. In bread-making, percentages are made from the amount of flour (if you see a 70% hydration bread, the weight of the water is 70% of that from the flour). So it was meant to say "3% of the flour weight". So it should be 9 grams in your recipe for pizza dough.


Reducing the moisture in cooked rice for making fried rice I am aware that in order for fried rice in Asian dishes to have the typical consistency and texture, it is best to use rice that has been cooked and stored for at least 24 hours.

However, it's often difficult for me to plan anything a day in advance for certain reasons, and so I was wondering if there are any tricks to either improve the texture, or to speed up the process that happens to the rice, that reduces the moisture?

(Should it be relevant, I cook the rice in a rice cooker, using a cup of rice and 1.5 cups water. I have tried using less water than advised, but understandably this produces an unpleasant result.)

Kenji López-Alt from Serious Eats dealt with the exact same issue (section Rule #2: plan in advance if you can, but don't worry if you don't). To sum up his findings:

Rice only need to be dry, not stale (hence making rice one day in advance is not necessary)
Drying the freshly cooked rice by spreading it on a tray and putting it under a fan for one hour does the trick. Kenji's recommends this method (even more than day old rice!)
If you don't have an hour to wait, you can spread still hot rice on a tray and let the surface moisture evaporate.
Day old rice makes excellent fried rice (stored at least 12 hours are ideal) but it tends to clump. Internally it is dryer than fresh rice which makes stir-frying at bit more difficult because you have to be faster to ensure the rice does not dry out.

Besides the time factor: Make sure to rinse the rice well to remove as much surface starch as possible to prevent clumping.

  But here's the thing: even freshly cooked rice worked great. In fact,
  it worked better than rice that had been stored loosely covered in the
  refrigerator for 1 to 6 hours.

  [...] Freshly cooked rice spread out on a plate will steam a great
  deal as its surface moisture is evaporated. That's the important part.
  It's the surface moisture that is going to cause your rice to rapidly
  suppress the temperature of the wok. It's the surface moisture that's
  going to cause your rice to stick together.

  That explains why fresh rice and rice that's been placed underneath a
  fan work well. With rice placed in the refrigerator, on the other
  hand, you slow down the evaporation process. Meanwhile, internal
  moisture from the grains will start to move outwards, adding moisture
  to the surface of each grain and making them more difficult to fry.
  Eventually that surface moisture will evaporate again and the rice
  will become easier to fry.

If you use much less water than actually needed to cook the rice, you'll rather end with dry undercooked rice than just with dry rice.


Can we preserve garlic and ginger paste? Its mostly said that we should use fresh garlic and ginger paste as after some time the paste loses its taste? So what’s the best way to preserve it, so that its taste is not lost?

I've had success freezing it in an ice cube tray. The tray should then be sealed in a bag or box, and you won't want to use it for anything else afterwards - I've never found a way of getting rid of the smell.

If you always use it in larger quantities than one or two ice cubes, by all means freeze it in larger containers, but expect to defrost and use the entire container.


Ice cream technique - what should I mix into what? I have a homemade non-dairy ice cream recipe that involves a snow of egg whites and sugars, whip, and the egg yolks. At this point, the recipe says "mix together slowly with yolks". In which order should I mix the 3 components? I assume that I should be folding the egg whites into the whip... What is the "correct" way to do this? (That will ensure that the yolks don't sink to the bottom in the freezer :) )

I usually beat two whole eggs with an electric mixer and then slowly mix the sugar into the eggs before adding the cream, milk, and flavoring. I've never had a problem with the egg whites that way. In your case I'd do the same but treat the beaten egg whites and Rich Whip as the "additional dairy" to be added after the egg yolks and sugar are slowly mixed together.

I've never actually tried whipping egg whites for an ice cream recipe -- my guess is that any air it contributed would be immediately removed once the ice cream machine started turning. It's the ice cream machine's job to incorporate air into the mix anyway. But it might be worth a try.


Considerations for frying a Turkey in Arctic Weather How does extreme cold (think wind chill of -40°F (-40°C) to maybe -80°F (-62°C) affect deep frying a turkey? Can it be done, and if so what do I need to keep in mind?

I'm assuming you are using a turkey deep fryer and your question is what are the considerations in doing so in extreme cold. You can fry a turkey in extreme cold temperatures,  you just need to crank up the burner to make up for the heat loss. Your oil temperature is going to be 350°F, if you were cooking it in +40°F you'd be adding heat to raise the temperature 310°F, in -40°F you need to raise the temperature 390°F instead, 390 is 125% of 310, so a rough approximation would be you need to add 25% more heat from the flame. It's the same principle in barbecuing, I've barbecued in -30°F and you just need more heat, and to get the food inside asap when you're done!

It would make sense to build in extra time if your equipment is going to be outside temperature as you will be handling things with gloves, and you have to heat up the pot more. If you can, keep the oil inside, or at least keep it above -10 so it doesn't gel.

Also, you need to be sheltered from the wind when you deep fry outside in any temperature as wind will blow the burner heat away and disrupt the flame, it's even more important when it's that cold as wind will make the heat gap even higher, possibly to the point your burner can't make it up.


Uses for stale bread? Community wiki question. I'd like to compile an index of uses for stale bread. Here's a couple off the top of my head. Feel free to just go ahead and edit this list:

Bread galette (soften with eggs, cook into a sort of omelette)
Breadcrumbs, fresh or dried
Breadcrumbs as coating or panade for Schnitzels, etc.
Breadcrumbs as a filler in Rissoles, Fish Cakes, Meat Balls, Meatloaf, etc.
Breadcrumbs as a thickener in soup, sauce or gravy
Bread and butter pudding
Bread pudding
Bread Sauce
Brown Betty
Brown Bread Ice Cream
Bruschetta
Christmas Pudding and others such as Figgy Duff made with dried fruit and breadcrumbs then steamed in a cloth.
Croutons
Fondue
French onion soup
French toast aka Pain Perdu, Eggy Bread
Fried bread
Gazpacho
Panzanella salad (with tomatoes, olive oil, onions)
Queen of Puddings and all the other similar ones made with bread crumbs, such as Manchester and Monmouth Pudding.
Sophie Grigson's Tunisian Orange Cake
Steamed Puddings such as Cabinet, Chancellor's, Chocolate, Marmalade, Raspberry, Syrup or Treacle Pudding
Stuffing
Summer Pudding
Toast, toasted sandwich


How can I get crispy skin when pan frying fish? I struggle to get crispy skin when pan frying fillets. What's the secret?

You need a hot pan. Use either clarified butter or an oil that can withstand high temperatures without burning. The oil should be quite hot but not at smoking point otherwise the fish closest to the skin will be overcooked and the skin will be charred as well as crispy.

The pan shouldn't be quite as hot when it comes time to cook the fish skin-up.


What’s wrong with my sweet potatoes? Please help I hope the picture is clear enough!

Using a Google image search for 'sweet potato disease', it looks like Streptomyces ipomoea:

  Host range and distribution:
  Sweet potatoes; Ipomoea batatas; found in all major sweet potato production regions in the U.S. and Japan.
  Streptomyces soil rot or pox is a widespread disease of sweet potato in North Carolina that results in a reduction in plant growth and severe yield losses.  It is caused by the soilborne filamentous bacterium, Steptomyces ipomoea, and is able to persist in soil for many years in the absence of sweet potatoes.   Fibrous roots and storage roots are infected in the field and symptom development varies based on the timing of root infection [...].  Disease is favored by dry soils with pH above 5.2.

If you are cultivating your own, this is what that article recommends under 'Management':

  Disease development is favored at high pH.  Have field soil tested regularly and select fields with pH 5.2 or lower.  Develop long-range crop rotation (3-4 years) in infested fields.  Treat soil with a broad spectrum soil fumigant containing chloropicrin 2-4 weeks prior to planting.


Smoke detector goes off when baking chicken breast Smoke comes out of my oven when I bake chicken breast fillets. As soon as I open the oven door I can see some smoke escaping, and 30 seconds later both fire alarms are going off. This has never happened when baking other foods (pies, cakes, etc..).

I've been trying to figure out what it is that's causing all the smoke. The ingredients are...

1kg frozen chicken breast fillets
4 teaspoons soy sauce
8 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
granulated garlic
italian spice

I bake the chicken on two baking sheets lined with foil. I set the oven to 375 and let it bake for about 23 minutes. I don't bother letting the oven preheat.

Last week I came across some information that said extra virgin olive oil smokes at 375, so today I dropped the temperature down to 350 and tried to cook for a few minutes longer. The fire alarms still went off.

Just in case, is it just something that dripped into the oven? Unless you've baked something else since you started having problems with the chicken, just preheat it and see if there's any smoke. (Or inspect the bottom, but you might miss something.) If there's any smoke heating an empty oven, then you need to clean it.

Assuming that's not it, most likely it's still the olive oil. Depending on the oil, some of it will indeed smoke at 350F, and on top of that, it's possible that your oven is actually hotter than it thinks. Unless you've checked the temperature with a thermometer, it's quite possible the temperature is 25-50 degrees higher than it claims, especially if it's old. You could try lowering the temperature further.

But really, there's not really much point cooking this with extra virgin olive oil. It loses its flavor when you heat it to those temperatures, even if it doesn't smoke. You'd be better off just using a neutral oil (vegetable oil or whatever you prefer), and if you want olive oil flavor, add a bit after you're done baking. You probably don't actually need very much oil when baking, so you could reduce the oil there, and make up for it with olive oil at the end.


How long can melted salted caramel last? I melted the salted caramel today and I need it in school on friday. Today is Sunday. I wonder how long can it last beacause I'm scared it wont last more than 3 days.

Do you mean that you made salted caramel today or melted it into a sauce?

If you mean made it, keep it loosely covered in a cool, very dry place, not the fridge. Moisture is the enemy of caramel and if it's salted, the salt will attract even more moisture.

Or, you can wrap them really well and freeze them.

If it is a melted, salted caramel sauce, just keep it in a jar in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before serving it. Caramel will generally last a month in the fridge.


How to tenderizing chicken with soy sauce instead wet brining? Since brining is about how much salt/water you use, how do I switch to a soy sauce marinade?
If the standard brine for 2lbs of meat is 1/4 Cup of Table Salt and 1 quart of water, then that means that is 28320mg of sodium. For 30 minutes to an 1hr. 1 tbsp of Kikoman Soy Sauce is 920mg.
So 28320/920 is 30.7. That means I have to marinate 15 to 30.7 hrs instead of 30 mins to 1 hr?
Or increase the amount of soy sauce up to 1 cup?

To use soy sauce as a substitute for salt in a brine, you need to calculate the concentration of salt to water. Since we can accurately calculate grams of salt per volume of soy sauce by using the nutritional information on the label, and 1/4 cup of salt per quart of water is a down and dirty way to make a 5% salt brine, let's simplify things by just using grams of salt/metric volume of liquid.

According to the label, Kikkoman Soy Sauce has 920mg of sodium in 15ml of sauce, so 500mls of soy sauce has 30.7 grams of sodium. NaCl (salt) is 40% sodium by weight, so 500mls of soy sauce has the equivalent of 76.75 grams of salt.

By definition, a 5% salt brine would have 25 grams of salt per 500mls of water.

So, Kikkoman Soy Sauce is almost three times as salty as a 5% salt brine. To roughly approximate a 5% salt brine with soy sauce, mix 1 part soy sauce with 2 parts water.

You can also use a stronger solution for less time, but it will take some tweaking. I recommend that you try it the first time as I recommend for replicating a 5% brine, and then tweak from there. Or use a recipe that calls for a 10% salt brine and use half soy sauce, half water which will cause the chicken (especially the skin) to darken nicely.


What is the use of a convection broiler? My oven has a convection broil setting. Why? Under what circumstances is it useful to have a breeze blowing over food under the broiler?

You might be warming something under the dish you are broiling


unused drink packets So I have a lot of those drink packets that you just add into a bottle of water and shake.  It's pretty much adult kool-aid.  A while ago my wife and I went a little overboard and bought way too many, which is making me wonder if they have any other uses.  I've used them for making cheap drinks (for those who don't deserve the good booze), but haven't really come up with other uses, so I'm turning to you!

Can anyone come up with any good culinary uses for these things?  They come in all kinds of flavors. I know I have: Lemonade, Strawberry, Orange, Blueberry, Daquiri, and a host of other flavors I can't think of.

Thanks!

I have mixed them with unflavored gelatin to get some really interesting flavored deserts.

Additionally, they are a nice addition to a pitcher of iced tea, making it a flavored iced tea.  I use at about 1/2 the recommended strength in addition to the tea, two tubes/packets of the flavored stuff for a 1/2 gallon of tea.


Unstretchable Dough problem What could be the problem of mixed dough( maida, baking powder, salt, butter and cool water) refusal to stretch? I.e it's not stretching out at all. It's just stayed like bread crumbs . Please how can I save such a dough? Urgent help needed.
Thank you

It stayed like bread crumbs? After you mixed all your ingredients together fully? If you added water, and your product is like bread crumbs (separate small particles that do not stick together), then you did not add enough water. I would not even call it dough until you can clump it together into a cohesive ball of material which you can then roll out, pat out into a flat patty, shape or manipulate in some way.

There may also be other problems with your dough than just not enough water. If you list the actual quantities of the ingredients you used, and say what sort of finished product you are trying for, people will be able to give you more precise advice on this.


Will cannes food tops melt if dropped in boiling soup? I may have dropped a can food top in my soup but i am not sure. It's not in the soup but could it have melted ?

No, it won't melt to the point where it becomes liquid and mixes evenly with the soup. You cannot have consumed a melted top without knowing it.

There are very few "everyday" metals which melt at below 500 C. Even tin (which I doubt is actually used for food packaging any longer) needs 231 C, while soup is at 100 C max (boiling point of water). If your top was metal, it wouldn't even have softened.

Plastics have a lower melting point, but they are amorphous materials with a very wide transition range. This means, even though they can get quite soft at 100 Celsius, they will remain in one piece. A plastic top could not have melted and mixed with the liquid.

Also, neither metal nor plastic is soup soluble. If you had had some material which melted into the soup (and that's purely hypothetical, after all nobody makes food cans out of gallium), it would have coalesced into visible hard lumps after the soup cooled down.

If there is indeed a can top in the soup, you'll be able to find it, practically in its original state. And the food is still edible.


When to add salt to dosa batter? Just wondering when you add salt to dosa batter? I guess it depends on where you live (eg climate) - for example I live in not hot nor cold city, and I would generally add salt after fermentation. I know that in hot places, people would usually add it before so the batter doesn't go bad. Is there any difference in taste if adding before or after?

My belief is that the salt can inhibit the bacteria and yeast growth that is necessary for fermentation, so I add the salt after fermentation and just before cooking.


What is the difference between butterscotch, caramel, and toffee? I've always thought they were the same. Tonight I noticed a slight taste difference as compared to caramel when I had some "butterscotch" for the first time in a while. Now my assumptions have been thrown to the wind. Is butterscotch essentially caramel plus some liquor?

Butterscotch and caramel are very different things. The taste difference between the two is far from 'slight' in my opinion.

Caramel is typically made with granulated sugar, milk and/or cream, butter, and sometimes vanilla. The primary flavors of caramel are the sugar and milk/cream.

Butterscotch on the other hand is made with brown sugar. It's primary flavors are brown sugar and butter. It typically also contains milk/cream but they are not as prominent as caramel.

Toffee is butterscotch that has been cooked to the hard-crack stage.

There is no liquor in butterscotch.

There is a lot of leeway in what things get called caramel, butterscotch, and toffee. The important differences to keep in mind are that caramel is made with granulated sugar, whereas toffee and butterscotch are made with brown sugar and much more butter.


Dragon Beard caramel too soft I had a few attempts at making Dragon Beard candy, and I can't seem to get a handle on the consistency of the caramel.

Here's the recipe I use:

200g sugar
13g dextrose
1g lemon juice
130g water

- mix ingredients
- heat up to 135°C
- immediately remove from heat
- pour into silicone containers
- let cool until solid

Now from my understanding, there is quite a bit of chemistry involved, so the ingredients have to be measured precisely and the target temperature is very important, as it decides on the hardness of the caramel when solid. Too soft and the dragon beard will fall apart during pulling. Too hard and it will break.

I had a few previous attempts that turned out fine, so I thought I had the temperature figured out for this recipe, but recently another batch failed (too soft). I am using a digital thermometer, but it's a hand-held device, so I can't control precisely whether it touches the bottom of the pot or not, which might be a problem.

Also I wonder whether the time until the temperature reached is important. I am aware that the temperature plateaus for a time while the sugar does its transformation thing, and then starts to go up again, but I might be losing too much water during boiling if I wait too long.

There seem to be multiple factors that could potentially fail the process, so can anyone with experience on the matter help me out? Are there any tricks I may be missing?

The time to reach the given temperature is not particularly important. When making sugar candy like this, the target temperature determines the amount of water remaining in the mixture; as long as it gets to the target temperature, it doesn't matter what it did along the way. (With one exception: If you cooked it to too high a temperature, letting it cool back down won't bring the water back.)

It's probable that you're seeing the results of a temperature differential. I'm not sure what you mean by "it's a hand-held device, so I can't control precisely whether it touches the bottom of the pot or not" -- can't you just hold it so it doesn't? -- but if you were measuring the bottom of the pot rather than the syrup then the readings will be inaccurately high, and you're likely to get a result that's too soft.

EDIT: So, I should mention one aspect of time/temperature that might matter to some candy-making. If you were to heat a mixture of white sugar and water to 135 degrees extremely quickly, the mixture would be likely to crystallize rather than remaining as a syrup. Heating it slower would allow the sugar time to split into fructose and glucose (known as "invert sugar"), which would not crystallize. In this recipe, though, the lemon juice accelerates the inversion, and in any case the dextrose will prevent crystallization. So while there is a bit of chemistry going on, the precise measurements are not especially important and most of what's happening is just physics. (The temperature is very important.)


Is mold on quartered artichokes bad? I found some dark mold on a bottle of quartered artichokes in the packing solution, and accidentally ate one before realizing there was a problem with them. Should I be worried?

You shouldn't be very worried at the moment because mold usually isn't too harmful, and common symptoms are a stomach ache. If you feel worrying symptoms going to the doctor or the hospital (If necessary) may be a good idea. Still, keep in mind that it is rare to become very sick from eating mold and that you will probably be okay.


How to clean molten plastic from a pizza stone? I have a pizza stone, which has molten plastic on it (it touched the edge of a plastic chopping board briefly, while hot). I cleaned as best as I could with water, but when I put it in the oven it fumes very strongly.

My idea was to try to burn the plastic off in the oven, but oven doesn't appear to have the pyrolyze function or programme.

Should I try and pyrolyze the stone in the oven anyway, even though my oven doesn't have a specific pyrolyze function? Is it safe?

What program should I set and for how long?

This is my stove: https://manualscollection.com/?fid=9dc6ab1d73e58b75a2c28e6625e3b9db&read=online&page=28

For anyone interested: I ended up scraping the stone with a butter knife and some steel wool, removing all visible plastic, after which I put it in the oven and heated it up to about 275°C. After about an hour it stopped fuming, and from what I can tell there was not much left on it, although it was still kind of black, but not as black as it was when I put it in the oven.

There were no problems with the oven, as for the plastic, I am still not sure if there isn't some plastic in the pores of the stone, but since it is not fuming I guess that most of it is gone. I will use the bottom side of the stone in the future and hope not to poison myself with plastic.


Coating/skin on Quorn Sausage - is it edible? I bought some frozen Quorn Hot Dogs (Frankfurter style). After boiling some there was a transparent, filmy outer skin/coating that came off when I was cutting them. It felt plastic/rubber/paper-like but I wasn't able to distinguish it properly. I had a look at some of the frozen ones in the pack and was able to peel the skin off some of them but not with others.

There is no mention of this skin on the package or in the ingredients. I searched online but only found a few posts/comments mentioning the skin peeling off the sausage.

My question is, what is this coating and is it edible?

Here's what the packaging looks like if anyone else wants to check: http://www.ocado.com/productImages/840/84090011_0_640x640.jpg?identifier=a6c3b6a50e16995b0ceea7cecdca4490

They are edible I eat them all the time they are the same ones on the regular Quorn sausages.
I prefer to microwave mine though it keeps the skin on and cooks quicker, also it keeps in more of the flavour.


Why did my red chili powder turn brown? When fresh , it was pure red in color. But after a couple of months it turned brown. Its home made so no case of adulteration.

What you are seeing is called oxidation (in most vegetable matter this is the enzyme breakdown of the phenols into melanin)

Some of the chemicals in the chilli powder have reacted with oxygen in the air, and over time have therefore changed colour. This is quite normal, and many foods exhibit this change

It most foods it does indicate a loss of flavour as well. This can be a good thing, as it may take away sharp tannin tastes for instance

In my experience chilli, whole or powder, changes in a good way with aging

The only way to reduce this effect is to pack the chilli powder in air tight containers, and use oxygen absorbers (pure iron) and a vacuum pump or flood it with nitrogen gas. Another way is to store it in the freezer, but this may have other undesirable side effects

Commercially some powdered foods are protected by coating them with a preservative, in this case citric acid. To be effective the surface of each grain of the chilli powder needs to be coated in a citric acid "film". The techniques for doing this are not generally possible, and may involve "secret" machines using ion-deposition, or centrifuge drying