Cooking Time vs Burner Size on an electric smooth top stove Say I'm cooking using a smooth-top stove. A burner area has a small burner, which is surrounded by a larger burner area.

If I have a small pot on a large element, with a 1-2 inch radius of the large element not touching the small pot (the outer edge of the element)... does this extra heating area go to waste completely? Wouldn't the element heat up the glass cover, which would then be reabsorbed into the nearby pot's metal?

Or would the heat be mostly lost into the surrounding air?

I'm asking because I notice that my soups generally cook alot faster when they are using the large burner instead of the smaller burner, EVEN THOUGH the soup is in a small pot, that only covers the inner small burner area.

A small pan on an oversized burner wastes a lot of heat.  Some more may be coupled into the pan but much will go into the room (so not wasted completely).  It might damage the handle, especially with something low like a frying pan, as this heat is mainly radiated (the glass is meant to absorb very little).  The inner burner may be so much weaker than the outer that even a fraction of the power of the outer is a significant increase compared to just the inner.  I seem to recall using one with a 600W inner and 1200W outer - if even 1/4 of the power of the outer went into the pot it would be 50% more heat. The specs for yours don't go into quite enough detail but it looks like the inner might be 1200W and the outer 1800W, so not as marked as my example but it still makes a difference. As the heat is radiant, some heat will enter the sides of the pan, contributing to faster, if not very efficient, heating.

But when you say "cook quicker", how are you measuring cookedness? Is this a rate of reduction in volume (which would scale with power absorbed to a good approximation)?  Or is it a subjective done-ness (which has more to do with time-at-temperature, so quite strongly affected by how quickly it reaches temperature). Coming to the boil quicker means you could use both until it boils then simmer using the inner ring only (assuming it's not finished when it first comes to the boil). This is likely to be more marked if you're starting from cold, as the additional power of the outer will cover some of the losses involved in warming up the surrounding parts of the stove.


Help converting dry milk + milk in recipe I'm converting a cake recipe for a breadmaker that calls for 180g (3/4c) milk and some instant pudding mix.  Wanting to convert it all to basic ingredients, I found an instant pudding mix recipe that consists of sugar, cornstarch, salt, and.... dry milk powder. So my resulting recipe contains 180g milk and 21g dry milk powder (and no water, of course), which seems silly.  How can I convert to all milk (as I don't keep dry milk powder on hand) ?  Converting to dry milk powder would total out to (45+21=66)g dry milk powder + 180g water, which is like 150%-concentrated milk, which I don't know how to achieve with regular milk.

If it helps, the rum cake recipe is here and the instant pudding recipe is here.

You don't need to do this conversion. Most pudding mixes don't contain dry milk. And the mixture is in there to provide starch, not anything else.

The first and best way to make a cake is to start with a good existing recipe. Getting a substitution right is not trivial, it requires some theoretical knowledge and a few iterations of making the recipe and comparing it side-by-side. It can taste OK the first time, but a tested recipe will taste great from the first time, without giving you trouble. Moreover, this one has been converted from normal ingredients to substitutions for some reason. Back-converting it is unnecessary.

If you are absolutely decided to go with this recipe and make the substitution, you can use cake flour. Forget the pudding and its extraneous milk and sugar, and calculate the gluten content of your cake if made with cake flour (use roughly 10% for AP flour, 0% for pudding powder and whatever percentage is printed on your cake flour package, typically 6-7%). If replacing all the flour with cake flour does it, that's best. If the ratio is off, calculate how much pure starch to add to AP or cake flour to get the gluten amount right while keeping the total flour amount constant (which is the weight of your flour + the weight of the pudding from the original recipe).

If you think the original pudding made a difference in fat content, just use cream instead of the liquid milk. The more fat and less water you have in a recipe, the more cakelike it becomes, the most common types of cake use no water or dairy at all. Milk makes your cake more quickbread like. And if that's the effect you want, don't bother replacing anything there just because there might or might not have been dry milk in the author's pudding mix.


My Danish almond cake glaze just melted and never thickened. What went wrong? A cake recipe I was trying called for an almond glaze topping made up of butter, sugar and, yes, almonds, all heated over medium heat in a saucepan for 3 minutes. It was supposed to thicken, but instead, it just turned to almonds and liquid. It didn't come together at all. Any idea what happened? Why did the butter do that? Did I cook it too high?

At the point where it just turned to almonds and liquid, the almond most likely glaze wasn't ready; it required more cooking time to thicken.
If you can tell that it did thicken a little, it could be how it needs to cool for a while before it thickens, as that's what butter and sugar does when cooled.


Adjust salt (in mushrooms) My goal over the last year has been to reduce the amount of waste that comes out of my home. That means wasting less food and buying fewer items that come in any kind of packaging. When I can, I buy things in no packaging, but when that is not possible I buy either compostable packaging or reusable packaging (glass jars). Sometimes its unavoidable, of course, but I am trying. I also buy local and organic whenever possible.

I often come across recipes that call for a can of something. In the case today, it wants sliced mushrooms. Now, I know that if I am substituting fresh for canned, the mushrooms require a bit of preparation before I can add them, or else the texture will be off because the mushrooms need longer to cook. I have a little knowledge of the canning process, but I don't have the storage space in my small, city apartment so I try to do everything on an as-needed basis. I've never done it, but I know the canning process would be: wash and slice, cover with water in saucepan, boil for 5 minutes, transfer hot mushrooms to a jar, add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/8 tsp of ascorbic acid powder per pint and add fresh, hot water and then carry on with the canning process.

So because I am not preserving the mushrooms and am going to use them right away, I will obviously leave out the ascorbic acid, but should I leave out salt as well or should I reduce it? And will this same rule apply to other vegetables as well?

Consider looking at the situation from a different perspective. Canned mushrooms are an inferior substitute for fresh mushrooms. Whatever benefit they add to the recipe, would likely be improved by using fresh mushrooms.

Instead of attempting to pre-process your fresh mushrooms to make them more like canned mushrooms, why not simply adjust your recipe to use the fresh mushrooms directly?

Without the details of your recipe, it's impossible to know exactly what adjustments are needed — though, you might very well be able to substitute fresh mushrooms directly, with no pre-processing other than washing and slicing them.

Keep in mind the following:

Mushrooms cook very quickly. For example, if you are adding them to other sautéed vegetables, add them when the other vegetables are nearly cooked.
Fresh mushrooms contain a lot of moisture, which is released as they cook. This will add flavor to a sauce, but you may need to lengthen the reduction time.
Mushrooms can be eaten raw, though many people prefer them cooked. The longer you cook them, the more the texture changes. Cooked just until tender, mushrooms will be succulent and juicy, with lots of mushroom flavor. When cooked past that point, the mushroom juices are released and the mushrooms will absorb flavors from their companion ingredients.

Your proposal of boiling the mushrooms would just boil away the most of the mushroom flavor. Canned mushrooms add lots of salt, partly as a preservative, but also because the mushrooms are quite tasteless. Changing your recipe to take advantage of having fresh mushrooms will make it healthier and more delicious.


Why does some frozen food puff up when defrosting? I know freezing is supposed to make foods expand but it seems that two pre-packaged sealed food items that I have in my freezer seem a bit puffy (chicken curry and chicken dumplings with cabbage) after taking them out of the freezer.

I don't think they were that way when I bought them but not sure. My freezer seems to working well (although my fridge is a bit variable) and foods always seem well-frozen. And I only left them out less than half an hour.

Can sealed food packages expand when they defrost rather than the other way around? Thanks!

That's just the air in the package expanding, as it goes from freezer temperature to room temperature.

It sounds like you're thinking of the fact that water expands when it freezes (and shrinks when it melts) but that's not what's happening here. The air warms up long before the ice starts melting.

Some freezer packaging has small holes in it (or not so small holes, if you're unlucky), which prevents this from happening.


preparing lupini beans? Lupini beans are an ancient and delicious snack food widely consumed around the Mediterranean and elsewhere.  But they naturally contain high levels of toxic alkaloids, so they require special preparation.  Allegedly people used to suspend them in a cloth bag in a stream.  More usual these days is to soak them in water or brine for at least a week, frequently changing the liquid.  Some recipes recommend boiling them first.

What's the most efficient (nonetheless safe) way to remove the toxins from lupini beans?

The most efficient and safe way would be buying seeds from the newer cultivars of sweet lupins (e.g. "Australian Sweet Lupin") which contain so little alkaloids that they don't taste bitter any more - hence the name.

These cultivars are used as alternative protein source, especially in the vegetarian and vegan cuisine.


Curing pork belly for bacon - how much juice should come out? So I am curing some bacon - my third batch using small 1.5kg pieces of pork belly. The method is simple: cut skin off, rub in salt and a little brown sugar, put in a ziplock bag in the fridge and flip each day for five days then rinse thoroughly and then start the smoking process.

My first two were great, but very salty. Some googling suggested I was using too much salt. I really did pack in on and there was excess thrown in the bag too. For this current batch, I rubbed in what I could then let the excess shake off before bagging.

My question is: my latest method has extracted less than half of the juice of the first too. Is this normal and how can I tell if it's actually cured properly?

I make bacon and other cured meats frequently.  I find that the amount of liquid released from pork belly varies.  That is not a useful measure of how the cure is proceeding.  Bacon, in particular, is usually cooked after the cure, so I don't worry too much.  I use the salt-box method, coat the belly in cure mixture, place in large zip lock, place in container slightly larger than belly and put in fridge.  Flip every day or so for a week.  What I look for next is a firming up of the belly.  I pinch it.  If it has firmed up after a week, I move on to hot smoking (or you could use your oven).  If it still feels soft, I give it another day or two.


What is a julienne cut? I'm not familiar with the term "julienne" in cutting and knife skills. What is the purpose of it? How do I safely execute the cut?

Related question on applications of the cut: Julienne applications

The French have names for a lot of cuts,  not just 'dice' and 'mince'.  (and I don't mean 'large dice').  And that list is incomplete -- it's missing chiffonade ... I have no idea how many others.

Julienne is a cut where you have items looking like small sticks -- a few inches long (about 10 cm) , and about 1/8" (3mm) square.

It's also called 'matchstick cut' in English, if you don't want to use the loanword.

It's generally done with vegetables:

Peel the item if needed
Cut it down to length
Slice one side to flatten it
Place the flat side down, and slice into planks about 1/8" across.
Stack up some of the planks, and slice them every 1/8" to make sticks.

... and there are mandolines (food slicers) that can do this style of cut by just pushing the food through the blades.

As for purpose -- it's just one of many cuts that you can use to try to make sure that things are cut evenly.  (especially when you might have more than one person doing food prep).

It's useful for trying to make sure that items cook (or pickle) quickly.  It can also help make sure that harder vegetables (eg. carrots) are easier to eat (both to chew and to pick up with a fork).  It can be used to otherwise change texture in a dish.

It can also be decorative if you cut up things of a contracting color (or colors) and sprinkle them on top -- bell peppers, carrots, apple, etc.)


Does cooking nopales with a copper coin actually neutralize the mucilage, and if so, why? While looking around at different ways of cooking nopales and okra that dealt with the mucilage, I found a few references to cooking nopales with a copper coin. Some people seem uncertain whether it's an old wives tale or not, and I haven't found an explanation of why it would work yet, but it seems pretty wide-spread. Does it actually work? And if so, why?

I just came across to this website looking for an answer related to sushi rice. Then I started to look around to find out what is all this about, so I found this question about nopal cooking. It happens that I am mexican so I wanted to give some advice about it. I have never seen a person here in Mexico cooking nopal with a copper coin. It seems to me like a  way to do things on those days where people had only copper and "barro" pans and the so to cook. I am not saying there are no people out there who are not using them nowdays, of course, but they might be the least. As I have not done it nor seen it, I can not say if it works.
Maybe I can help by telling you the way I cook them, which is very simple actually. After the nopal has been peeled and washed, I put it directly in a hot pan just like that, let it cook for a moment at medium temperature, then turn it over to allow the other side to cook as well. That is it. No oil, salt, water, and nopal turns just mucilage free. I hope it helps.


Are black prawns safe to eat I bought some prawns yesterday at a supermarket. Although displayed on the fish counter with fresh fish, they were clearly frozen or partially frozen. I put them in the fridge over night.

Today, I've noted they've turned black. After a little research, it shows this could be due to oxidation, although others have commented they've never seen this before even if they've worked in "the" industry.

And one comment suggested that any black on prawns means they're spoiled and should be binned/destoryed. This is the part I'm sure of.

I have tried to wash with running water and can't remove this black colour.

There is no unexpected odour.

Sadly, I've also noted that the squid which I bought has released its link. Although all this fish was in the same outer bag, the squid was it its own bag and it doesn't appear to have leaked.

After taking the shell off, there isn't really any colouration to the flesh.

Is is possible to know if they are safe. Is this a known thing - that prawns turn black and it means either oxidation or that they're spoiled?

They look like they have been blanched. Or dipped in boiling water. The red.This is some times done if they have parisites on them. But froze? & shipped?  I am talking about prawn fresh of the boat at home. Then blanched & froze at home for later use.  I would avoid these if store bought. If I did not know they were boat fresh. How handled. Many prawn & shrimp are black in color. But not like that.


Why does fish broth made with frozen fish lack flavour? I do not know culinary terminology; so I use 'piscine' to mean 'with a positive flavour of fish' (because 'fishy' connotes negativity).

My friend drank some flavorous fish soup with a milky white colour at  his favourite Cantonese restaurant, one of whose chefs recommended using a fish called 黄鮨斑, which a laborious Google search revealed as yellowfin grouper (abbreviated as YFG).

My friend could not find live YFG to purchase; so he bought some frozen heads. He pan-fried/seared one head which turned a golden brown, then simmered it (over low heat and an electric oven) in around 4 litres of water for around 2 hours. The final product tasted like water (lacked any piscine flavour) and resembled water (lacked the desired milky white colour). The fish itself tenderised and still retained flavour though. How can my friend correct the problems?

I think it's not so much the fact that you're using frozen fish (which certainly isn't the best), but the fact that you've missed an important step: pan-frying the fish before making the soup. I can say that all fish soups I've had have always had the fish pan-fried before boiling, with ginger added, otherwise you just don't get the same flavour.

Another thing is, in a properly made soup, the fish should not have much fish flavour remaining as it should all be in the soup.

I would recommend retrying the soup with the same type of fish, but pan frying them and adding ginger. If the soup still does not taste great, it could be that the YFG you're buying just isn't very good, and you could consider using a different type of fish.

Here's a link I found supporting my assertion, with more detailed instructions:
http://www.chinesesouppot.com/4-soup-techniques/1195-how-to-make-milky-white-creamy-fish-soup


Removing hair from pork belly I bought some pork belly yesterday and I was just about to cook it when I saw thick hair on it. I tried to cut it with a sharp serrated knife but it didn't budge. I was really put off and put the pork back in the refrigerator. Can someone please save my pork belly and let me know how to get rid of the hair?

If you have a blow torch or a brûlée torch, just burn the hairs off.

If this is not an option, I've heard that you can use a normal safety razor. In this case I would definitely choose a razor without a lubricating strip along the top.


Slow-Carb or low-carb alternative to pita and similiar neutral tasting breads While I like grey or dark breads from whole grain, some recipies simply call for a white bread with less own taste. For example when you have hummus or aioli, you want a parisienne or a pita bread but (if you are like me) no pumpernickel.

What is a slow carb or low carb bread without an intensive own taste that fits well with these dishes?

In the US, a few national bakeries manufacture whole-wheat pitas that, while not as "neutral" as normal pitas, are more neutral than whole wheat bread.

Whole wheat bread can contain molasses or cane juice in order to mask bitterness, which can give it a strong flavor that's unwelcome. The whole-wheat pitas I've tried don't concern themselves overmuch with bitterness, and use ingredients like oatmeal flour and flax seed to give their product a more neutral taste.

I've got a package of "Joseph's Flax, Oat Bran and Whole Wheat Pitas" in my desk drawer as we speak - the texture is rougher and not as tender as a normal pita, and it's definitely more bitter, but when used as an accompaniment for soups, stews, hummus or grilled meat, it's more than acceptable. Each pita is 50cal, with 7g carbs, so definitely low-carb, but they are not slow-carb, as the main ingredients are wheat gluten and corn starch. The whole-wheat flour, flax seed and oat bran are used for flavor rather than as the main ingredients.


Why is my whipped cream dispenser stuck? I recently purchased a whipped cream dispenser (specifically, this one), but it's been giving me some trouble and I don't know if it's just this one or they're all like this.

What I do:

put in the prerequisite amount of whipping cream (1 cup), powdered sugar, and vanilla
mix them up
screw lid on
put the dispenser tip on
screw the N2O cartridge into place
shake the dispenser vigorously a few times, then squeeze the trigger

Every time, right after I do all this, it comes out really nice, and usually will stay this way for a good 24 hours.

The problem: The next day, when I try to use it again, I'd shake the dispenser again before using but nothing would come out, despite me hearing the hissing sound. There's no way I could have used all that whipped cream the day before, so my guess is that the mechanism is clogged somehow. But if that's the case, what's causing it to clog? My guess is that it could be because I shake it too much (but I think I'm just following the instructions), or maybe it's too cold and it's just hardened up, but all I do is put it in the fridge so the temperature can't be that extreme.

Can anyone else enlighten me on what's happening? Thank you.

I have several of these and what you are describing is a common occurrence.
As cream is either 'whipped' mechanically or put under pressure with a NO2 cartridge bubbles become trapped in the cream to 'fluff' it up. As the now whipped cream is allowed to rest the bubbles will slowly rise to the top and allow the gas to escape. While the pressure within the vessel remains mostly the same the gas is no longer suspended in the cream and does not get driven out of the container as you are expecting.

(note: do not 'just' add another cartridge of NO2 at this point. turn the canister upside-down and allow the pressure (and some of the cream) to escape (provide a bowl for the cream). Once depressurized you may open the canister and start over, I'm fairly sure you can reuse the cream if you choose)


Burned enameled cast iron stock pot I was boiling soapy water (to help clean it) in my Martha Stewart stock pot, and I forgot about it. It seems pretty burnt. Can it be cleaned and salvaged, or is it headed for trash? Thanks for your input.

Since the enamel on the outside is OK, it sounds like you didn't get it hot enough to damage the pan itself. So, its probably salvageable.

Check the manual for what they say you can clean it with. For example, if you can use steel wool, soak in soapy water overnight, then apply a lot of elbow grease, that will probably remove a lot of it. Even if you can't use steel wool on it, after a soak one of the non-scratch sponges will probably still help.

Google informs me there are specialty cleaners intended to remove carbon deposits from porcelain/vitreous enamel. You could give one a try if the long soak + elbow grease doesn't work. Make sure to thoroughly remove the cleaner after use, as of course you don't want to be eating it.

The pot may be permanently darkened. That shouldn't affect cooking performance.


How to remove the fuzzy innards from an artichoke? What is the best way to remove the fuzzy inner threads from on top of the artichoke heart, without losing too much delicious heart?

Is it easiest to cut out the choke (the fuzzy stuff) before or after steaming the artichoke?
Does anything work better than a spoon?
Is there any way to remove the choke without cutting out pieces of heart?

I believe, madam, that zanlok has the right of it-- a spoon.


How can I make fat-free whipped "cream" with a whipped cream dispenser? Does anyone have ideas to make fat-free or low-fat whipped "cream" in a whipped cream dispenser (I have an iSi one)?

There are any number of combinations of hydrocolloid agents that can be used to simulate the viscosity and other properties of dairy cream without the fat or even the dairy. "Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold includes a recipe for low fat "cream" which combines skim milk with l-carrageenan, cellulose gum, and whey powder; as well as a recipe for non-dairy whipping cream made from water, cellulose gum, proplene glycol alginate, agar, vegetable oil, and glycerin flake.  Other recipes are less complicated with only a single agent such as agar or xanthan gum


How do I safely caramelize honey without fully burning it? Background:
I am going to make a bochetomel, which is a type of mead that utilizes partly caramelized honey to impart a smokey/slightly burnt taste to the finished product.
The honey I have bought for this was expensive local produce, and I would like to avoid ruining it!

Question(s):
What is the best way to go about caramelizing honey? If I were to make an uninformed attempt, I'd just whack it in a saucepan and gradually heat it...
Is there a better method? Is it worth adding a little water to help stop it burning?

Finally, how will I know when the honey is caramelized? I have heard rumors of a 'soft ball stage' of caramelization that is ideal for brewing... does anyone have any experience with this that can confirm this exists?

A candy thermometer is pretty much always the answer when it comes to candymaking, which includes caramelizing sugar.

Assuming the soft ball stage is indeed the best for brewing, all you have to do is keep track of the temperature: the soft ball stage is at 112-116C/234-241F.

While you can certainly buy specialized candy thermometers (they often have clips to attach to the pot), all you really need is a thermometer that's accurate in that range and can be easily dipped into your pot. (That is, don't use some old glass thermometer not meant for candy, but a kitchen thermometer with a metal probe is fine, whether or not it was sold as a candy thermometer.) Make sure that you have it in the liquid, not touching the bottom of the pot.

Note that this is well short of burning; there are several other stages hotter than that. So just don't use excessive heat, and keep an eye on it, and you won't have any disasters. This is also likely why people are a bit suspicious that this is the right stage to aim for: table sugar doesn't start browning until you're past all the candymaking stages, up to ~170C/338F. However, table sugar is pure sucrose, while honey has a lot of imperfections and is monosaccharide fructose and glucose, so it likely caramelizes much faster, so this may well be a good stage/temperature range.

There's also a way to test without a thermometer, but it's more difficult to get right on the first try. The stage is named the soft ball stage because if you take a bit of the syrup at that stage and drop it into cool water to quickly cool it, you'll end up with a soft, smooth ball/lump.

Adding water doesn't really help here. The temperatures are well above boiling, so the water is really just there to help get things going initially; the water helps ensure that there's something in contact with the whole bottom of the pot (no hot spots to form), and lets things flow around a bit, so you get to melted sugar with less fuss. Since you're starting with honey, you're already fine. Even if it starts out thick, it'll rapidly get thinner as it heats. All that will happen if you add water is that it'll take longer for all the water to cook off so that the temperature can rise to where you want.

Finally, this isn't what you asked, but if your goal is flavor, you can also simply heat slowly until it starts to brown/darken a bit and smell good, and then immediately remove the pot from the heat. The "slowly" is really important, because  once the water is gone, the temperature will rise rapidly. You can still use a thermometer to help out with this plan, by watching for the temperature to pass 100C and start to increase more quickly; at that point you want to make sure the heat is very low and you're ready to move the pot.


I have clay tajines from Morocco that I've always cooked in and suddenly new stove is smoking? When I lived in Morocco I purchased small clay tajines to bring home and I've been cooking in them ever since; several years. Mostly on convection ovens, and once on a flat surface stove. I've just bought a house with a flat surface electric stove and this first time I've used the tajine here, the stove is smoking and smells really strong of plastic burning! My husband had just cleaned the stove (with chemicals) which I was claiming HAD to be the reason, but really? Burning plastic smell? Any ideas here??

You're not using the induction stove-top properly. Induction cooking works by inducting a magnetic field in the cooking vessel. Practically this means that a cooking vessel must be made of, or contain, a ferromagnetic metal such as cast iron or some stainless steels. If you want to use a ceramic or glass cooking disk then you should use a ferromagnetic interface disk (essentially an iron plate) which functions as a conventional hotplate.

See page 17 of the pdf file for an Electrolux range which describes the cookware type to use. Basically you want a magnet to be able to stick to the cookware.


How to calculate mixing ingredients to a certain fat percentage? Given two ingredients, one with 42% fat and one with 3% fat, how can I calculate how much I will need of each to get 9% fat?

As a matter of arithmetic, what you want is for the weighted average fat content to be 9%.  We can say
42X + 3Y = 9
where X and Y are the fractions of the whole that are from each of the two components.
X+Y=1
as the parts add up to the whole, so
42X+3(1-X)=9
leading to
39X=6
This means that a mixture of 2/13 42% fat plus 11/13 3% fat will make 9%.
It's important to be consistent.  If your fat percentage of both ingredients is by weight, then work in weight throughout, if by volume, work in volume.
To put this into practice, let's say both are by weight, and we want 100g in total.
2/13×100g = 15.4g
11/13×100 = 84.6g
You can't measure that accurately, so round to 15g of 42% fat and 85g of 3%, and you'll have 100g of 9%


On the topic of eating raw fish and sashimi So it has been widely accepted that raw fish or "Sushi-graded" fish must be frozen below $-37C$ for a certain period before they can be defrosted and eaten raw. I have heard that even fresh fish must go through the freezing process to ensure bacteria are killed

I am just wondering can't we do this with just regular frozen fish in the supermarket provided it doesn't have other preservatives?

I mean in ancient times, the Japanese people didn't have commercial freezers and thermoeters to make all these measurements, so what did they do to ensure that their fish is "sushi-graded"? Something tells me the answer is simply just eating it fresh and raw.

Any sushi-chefs or someone who prepares a lot of sashimi can help?

Present day Japanese chefs are taught which sea foods are affected by which particular parasites during their apprenticeship. So they handle those accordingly. In ancient times Sushi wasn't made out of raw fish. The fish was cured and cooked before being consumed. Using Salmon for sushi is a new concept dating back around 30-40 years. Which is why Sushi was all that safe in ancient Japan.

You can find a consuming discussion on the same topic on Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sushi/comments/2g5mhe/noob_question_how_did_the_japanese_of_old_not_get/


Can I safely thaw and refreeze sorbet? A month ago I made a mango/lime/cilantro sorbet that is delicious.  The problem is I put the sorbet into a quart sized container and it's frozen solid (I keep my freezer very cold).  Can I safely thaw (or partially thaw) the sorbet and put it into popsicle molds and then refreeze the popsicles?  The ingredients are mango, lime juice, cilantro, sugar, and possibly a little water (I can't remember).

The recipe I used was from http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/very-basic-mango-lime-sorbet-224706.  The only thing I changed was I added one bunch of cilantro chopped in the food processor with the mango.  And I used my ice cream maker.

Ingredients

2  lbs mangoes, chopped (frozen is fine)

1⁄2 cup lime juice (fresh is best)

2⁄3 cup sugar (super-fine is recommended)

1  cup water

Directions

Make simple syrup: Add sugar to water in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved. Raise heat and bring syrup to a boil; boil one minute, then remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Puree thawed mango and lime juice in a food processor.

Stir simple syrup into mango puree. Refrigerate a few hours to be certain puree is cool.

Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your ice cream maker at this point. If you don't have one, pour into a pan and put in freezer; pull out every hour and stir (for 3-4 hours).

Sorbet are typically acidic(from the fruit juices) and contain sugar. Both of these act as preservatives in addition to the extremely cold temperatures that sorbets are kept at. So it is perfectly okay to melt your sorbet ice block. However when you melt the sorbet block, you will want to do it slowly. Fruit/herb flavors are very volatile so if the mixture is over heated, the flavoring will break down and the taste will deteriorate.

When refreezing your mixture, you might want to consider adding a little more sugar into the mixture to prevent it from freezing so hard in the future. Sorbet sugar by concentration is usually around 20-30%. If your sorbet is sweet enough, then you may also add a little tasteless alcohol like vodka to prevent the sorbet from freezing too hard.


Less sticky rice and lentils I have a recipe that calls for rice and green lentils to be cooked at the same time in a rice cooker. I do this and everything cooks nicely, then I add the rest of the ingredients and things taste good.

The problem is that the rice and lentils end up very 'sticky' and the recipe I'm replicating has them being very separate and nice.   Once or twice, as if my magic, they have come out great, but I have NO idea what is being changed when I do that.

How do I make 'unsticky' rice and lentils in a rice cooker?

Will more water help?
Less Water?
salt?
sugar?
oil?

There is a couple of possible reasons I can think of.

Over stirring the mixture could be breaking the rice down releasing more of the starches which will be making the sauce thicker and sticking the rice into clumps.

Over cooked rice again making the rice overly sticky.

Like you've mentioned, lack of liquid. If the sauce is getting far too thick the starches will be more concentrated again sticking the grains together.

If the sauce is thick then certainly adding more water should help loosen it up a bit. Soaking the rice in cold water for half an hour before and then rinsing a few times will help get rid of some excess starch.

Also a possible factor is your choice of rice type. Some are more "sticky" than others.

Without tasting it myself it's hard to give a 100% reason but hopefully you will get a better result by paying attention to all the above.

If after all the above methods one last ditched effort might be as follow. 12 years ago when I was just starting out in my first kitchen I remember my head chef telling me "when you pour you're rice into boiling water, you must make sure they all fall freely and hit the water individually". Now I've remembered this ever since and thought about it every time I've cooked rice since, I've never done it though and can see NO reason why it would work or make any difference.

It's also worth noting I've never used a rice cooker in my life, not even sure what they are or do...


Why does boiling cream have such a drastic effect on my salted caramel? We have a recipe for a salted caramel spread that is basically a big pan of sugar, glucose, milk and butter, cooked until it becomes a thick paste, then mixed with double cream to achieve a smooth consistency and a glossy finish. Our only problem was that we kept having big variations between batches -- some ended up as thick, sticky spreads (like we intended), others were runny and sauce-like.

After some experiments we discovered that the final stage of the process -- pouring the double cream in -- was responsible. Pour the cream cold and the caramel would come out runny; heat the cream before pouring and the final result would be thick and rich.

Although we feel we're in control of the process now, I was wondering if anyone could explain to us why does heating or not heating the cream have such a big impact on the thickness of our spread.

You don't tell us neither the ratio of double cream to caramel, nor the time you heat the completed mix, so this is just a guess. But it sounds logical that your problem is evaporation.

Double cream consists mainly of fat and water. I don't remember the exact percentages, but more than half of it is water. So, if you heat cream, part of it evaporates during the heating, and it continues evaporating after being added to the pan with bubbling caramel. But if you use cold cream, its water hasn't evaporated during a heating phase, and if you add a large amount of cream to a hot caramel mixture, the whole mixture cools considerably. If you don't heat it and let it simmer for long enough afterwards, the water content of the cream continues thinning the spread. You end up with a runny sauce instead of a sticky spread.

Instead of pre-boiling, you should be able to just simmer for longer time after adding the cream, if you find it more convenient. But you'll have to try it a few times until you have found the cooking time which gives you optimal consistency.


Ice Cream Sugar Substitutes - Applesauce? Can I replace the sugar in ice cream with (very smooth) applesauce. I do not enjoy my desserts to be super sweet and I always have tons of homemade applesauce sitting in the fridge. How much would this affect the texture?

Ice cream needs a certain ratio of solids to liquids to work. Sugar is an important solid in ice cream. As applesauce is mostly water, you can't replace all, or even most of the sugar.

The amount of carbohydrates in applesauce will vary depending on how much you cooked it down, but based on a few nutrition data results for the commercial variety, it seems that 40% carbohydrates is a reasonable assumption. So you want to remove some sugar and milk and add the applesauce and some butter (to compensate the missing fat). Calculating with 8% non-fat solids and 4% fat in the milk, and 83/17 fat/water ratio in the butter, we get following substitution: for each 10 g of sugar you remove, you also have to remove 20 g of milk, and add 29 g of applesauce and 1 g of butter. You probably need a recipe with emulsifiers to get the butter into it.

Most ice cream recipes will have much more cream than milk, and so not much milk available to remove. You'll have to recalculate to get the amount of butter needed when you are replacing cream. But the more dairy you remove, the more you are changing the flavor. While the texture is likely to keep up well (the pectin from the applesauce will probably do a good job to reduce ice crystals), the taste will move in direction sorbet. Depending on your expectations, this might be OK for you, or it might be a problem.

As for reducing sweetness, I am not sure this will happen. At very cold temperatures, sugar loses much of its perceived sweetness. Fructose loses some, but not all. And apples are very high in fructose. So, even though not all carbohydrates in applesauce are sugars, you might end up with a quite sweet ice cream. On the other hand, if you used sour-ish apples, the perceived sweetness will be low. There is no way to tell but try it out.


Why is my sherbet loosing flavour? I have recently been mixing batches of sherbet using Malic acid, colour, flavouring and granulated sugar. I add all the ingredients and mix it for 10 minutes in a stainless steel drum.
The flavor is very strong to start with, but over a period of 2 weeks it loses all its flavoring.

I am unsure of the reason why, and wonder if anyone could help?

I haven't tried this myself, but this website has some good tips:

"Simple to prepare because all the quality comes from the quality of fruit used: the better the fruit is, the better your sorbet will be. In others words, if you use tasteless fruits, you will have a tasteless sorbet."
"...fruit purées lose their flavour, vitamins and colour quickly in the air. If possible, make the fruit purée in your blender at the last minute, then 30 minutes in the freezer, and finally into the machine"

This website simply states:

"Sorbets are water ices and at their best when freshly made, as they lose flavour in the freezer."


What is the difference in flavour between the zest of an orange vs lemon vs lime I am anosmic (do not have a sense of smell) and therefore am reduced in my perception of flavours to the flavours my tongue can detect, every time I zest a citrus fruit I always hear everyone talk of the smells released and how full of lovely flavours they are, however when I asked them what the distinct flavour each zest gives off I am generally given vague answers that don't help me much, such as

"Orange is generally a full flavour with sweetness, lemons is sharp and lime is sharp and sour"

The reason for asking this question is as a follow up from my previous question on homemade lemonade flavour enhancing, I would like to know what (if any) is the difference in flavour released by the essential oils within the zest of different citrus fruits (lemon, lime and orange). So maybe phrasing it in terms of what flavours they enhance within a lemonade may help hone your answer to my goal of balancing my lemonade even further; though I will probably find it super useful for the rest of my cooking.

If you can't taste it, but others can, chemical composition of the essential oils might prove a useful guide for you.

Ingredients of Orange, Lemon and Lime oils:

First line shows components common to two or more of the fruits. Second line shows components unique to each fruit.

lemon oil

a-pinene, b-pinene, myrcene, limonene, linalool, sabinene, neral

camphene, a-terpinene,  b-bisabolene, trans-a-bergamotene, nerol

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Lime oil

a-pinene, b-pinene, myrcene, limonene, linalool,

terpinolene, 1,8-ceneole, borneol, citral and traces of neral acetate and geranyl acetate.
––––––––––––––––––––––––

orange oil

a-pinene, myrcene, limonene, linalool,  sabinene, neral

citronellal, gerania

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Looking up the flavors of the unique ingredients should provide a better, more useful answer than
"full flavour with sweetness" or "sharp and sour". Looks like the Handbook of Fruit and Vegetable Flavors would be a good place to find this information, but it's a bit on the pricey side.


What is a good use for lots of fresh cilantro? I have a few recipes I like to make which call for fresh cilantro, but when I buy it at the store it's usually in large bunches and I have a ton left over.  What's a good use for the leftovers?

I've found it freezes quite well — I simply wash it, chop it roughly, and then freeze it in a small plastic bag.


How long can coconut milk last in the fridge? I opened up a can of coconut milk the other day and was unable to use it all. I placed the remainder of the coconut milk into a sealed container in the fridge. I was wondering how long this would be good for?

There are 2 ways of looking at it; how long it will be safe to eat (ie from food poisoning) and how long it will still be appetizing and taste alright (ie not gone rancid).

As you've taken it from the tin it won't get that tinny flavour but as time goes on may absorb other flavours from the fridge so make sure you keep it away from anything that is strongly smelling. Also as around 87% of the coconut milk is fats it will soon go rancid, so keep that in mind, (you'll know when it does by giving it a quick sniff).

In terms of food safety, if it's UHT which most are, then it could probably last for a long time (as long as UHT milk) so about 2 1/2 weeks I'd say. Otherwise if it's not UHT then not as long. I would say about the same time as fresh milk so around a week as it contains sugars and fats and so is a very compelling proposition for any bacteria.

Other sites discussing this: http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=14563, http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/291163 and http://forums.lowcarber.org/archive/index.php/t-418419.html.

Hope this helps!


How can I pick the correct avocados for guacamole? I tried to make guacamole the other day and it completely failed because some of the avocados that I bought were not ripe. How can I know which avocados to pick in order to make good guacamole?

I find it super difficult to make guacamole without ripe avocados, as I like a dip with no huge avocado chunks in it. Thus, as you mentioned, ripe avocados work best.

Ripe?

To deem if an avocado is ripe or not, give the avocado a gentle squeeze. If it is firm but gives a little (is a little squishy) then it is ripe.

It is interesting to note that avocados do their ripening after they are harvested, so each avocado goes through this process of getting softer until it is eaten. If the avocado doesn't squeeze to your desire, time will allow the avocado to ripen more until it is the desired squishiness to be eaten.

On how to squeeze an avocado: here

Ripening Avocados

I have found that the best way to ripen an avocado (for example you bought an avocado from the store and it isn't ripe enough for guacamole yet) is to leave the avocado in a room temperature area, by fruits like bananas, which are also ripening.

Just like any food, putting avocados in the refrigerator will prolong the freshness of the food. Thus, refrigerating avocados won't help the avocado ripen (it does however preserve the state of the avocado, and slows the ripening period by about a week to two weeks, from my experience)

On Ripening avocados faster: here


How do professional chefs keep food thermometers clean between uses? Assuming there will always be some occasion where the food tested will not be cooked properly, what method is used to prevent cross contamination?

Most of the time, an instant read thermometer is wiped with a towel.  Remember, these folks do this every day, all day.  In kitchens where they are used (they are not used everywhere...they are required in some kitchens), the tested product is probably in the ball park. Most pathogens are reduced to safe levels once a product hits 140F (60C) using traditional cooking methods. They are generally testing cooked food. Though, on the occasion (and it is probably rare) when raw protein is tested, the end of the instant read thermometer can and should be washed in hot soapy water. In a professional kitchen, it should also take a dip in a sterilizing solution.


What grains and/or technique will result in a thin pancake with a artisan bread type structure? I have tried whole wheat flour, using more fat, using more liquid, but not
getting good texture - usually just a weaker pancake. I'm trying to get a thin pancake with texture that is hearty,somewhat porous and tender.

I think you cannot have both thin and bread-like structure.

AFAIK, To have a bread-like structure the batter/dough needs to develop some gluten in it.

Usually pancakes do not have a bread texture, they are, erm, a pan cake.

The batter is just mixed, and most recipes say to not over mix the batter.

You can try buckwheat, it has a rustic quality to it that can be seen as "bread-like".


How to reduce the sour taste in gravy? When the gravy becomes sour due to adding too much tomatoes, lemon juice or yougurt etc. What are the ways to get rid of its sourness(Pulupu)?

The primary balancing factor for sourness is sweetness - so gradually adding sugar (plain sugar, rock sugar, honey, palm sugar...) and tasting should yield good results here. "Whereever you add tamarind, you can add jaggery", one well known indian chef tends to say in his videos.

The combination of strong sourness (vinegar!) and strong sweetness (plenty of sugar!) is not uncommon in chinese (sweet-sour) and italian (agrodolce) cuisines. Also, western tomato sauces almost always have sugar added unless exceptionally good and sweet tomatoes are used.

As strange as it sounds, giving the sourness a bit more depth with vinegar (for anything with indian or thai spices in it, yellow rice wine vinegar is great; avoid distilled or white wine vinegar!) while also sweetening the dish can help here also. You got a sour dish, make it a great sour dish.

Also, make sure your salt, fat (butter, ghee, coconut oil, oil), and bitterness (spices) are balanced.


How do you safely bring ingredients normally stored cold to room temperature? Many recipes call for ingredients that are normally stored cold to be at room temperature at the time of use. One example is a cake recipe, which often calls for all ingredients (milk, eggs, etc) to be at room temperature.

What is the safe method of bringing these ingredients to room temperature? Do you just leave them out for a few hours?

Alternatively, what is a quick way to accomplish this? Heat them up? Place them in room temperature or warm water baths?

Eggs are actually pretty safe to leave at room temperature anyway; supermarkets don't bother refrigerating them, and you can be damn sure they're not going to risk losing any money through spoilage. I keep mine in a ceramic bowl on the counter top.

In general, simply take the required ingredient out of the fridge a couple of hours before use, keep it away from heat sources and out of direct sunlight.


Is it ok to use milk that incubated for 12 hours but did not set for yogurt in baked goods? I had a fail when making yogurt in an instant pot. Milk did not "take" as yogurt after a 12 hour incubation.  It smelled fine.  I was hoping because I refrigerated right away I could use to make bread or some other baked good that cook/bake at a high temp 350 or higher in an oven for a long period of time.

From a conservative food safety perspective, the answer is no. The USDA suggests you discard any milk in your fridge after a 4 hour power outage -- surely your 12 hour incubation has more potential for bacterial growth. Baking is not a sufficient substitute for sterilization. Although the internal temperature of your baked good will probably reach boiling, it will not stay there long enough to guarantee all harmful bacteria are destroyed.
In yogurt making, you rely on cultured bacteria to acidify your milk. This acidity not only "sets" the yogurt, but protects it from the growth of further harmful bacteria. If your yogurt did not set, it is likely that the cultured bacteria is dead; perhaps you got a bad starter, or maybe you overheated it. In any case, there is not sufficient acid in your old milk to protect from harmful bacteria.
Some cooks regularly use slightly spoiled or soured milk, like Dan Barber in this interview. Pasturized milk goes bad in a fairly consistent way: according to this National Geographic article, first it goes through a souring processes with the growth of Streptococci and Lactobacilli. Only then do yeasts, molds, and Bacillus bacteria begin to grow, usually resulting in a strong smell of ammonia. The Streptococci and Lactobacilli are safe to consume (in fact, they are the same bacteria you tried to introduce to your yogurt), but the Bacillus can cause foodborne illness. This supports the idea that "slightly" spoiled milk could be relatively safe.
However, I would highly recommend you simply discard spoiled or possibly spoiled milk. It is a shame to waste milk, but hopefully once you perfect your yogurt making process this will be a rare occurrence. Ultimately, milk is pretty cheap and foodborne illness is pretty unpleasant. If you want to use a fermented milk product in your baking, just buy some: store-bought cultured buttermilk is safe, cheap, consistent, and delicious.


What is the best method for stick-free cooking of bacon in a stainless steel pan? I recently made the switch from the non-stick pans to stainless steel. If it helps, I also have a natural gas stove-top.

I began cooking bacon and did not add any oil to the pan as I figured the bacon grease would be enough to prevent any sticking. Knowing sticking is a problem with stainless, I started out with a lower temperature. But as the bacon started to cook, more and more 'residue' built up on the bottom of the pan. I tried to frequently move the bacon around, but between that and the low temperature, it was taking forever to cook.

I should also add that as the bacon was close to being finished cooking, there was a good amount of grease in the pan, so I threw in some thinly sliced potatoes, onion, and pierogies. Have done this before in the non-stick without any issues. What ended up happening in the stainless was that the residue began to build up more and more, and it was tough to get the food to cook. I managed to get the food to turn out pretty good, but I was left with a thick layer of stuck on food. It was at the point where the food was cooked just enough to my liking, but if it needed more cooking the residue would have burnt and probably ruined the food.

So, I know throwing all that other stuff in the pan didn't do me any favours, but even still if I had just cooked bacon there would have been stuck on food. What could I have done to avoid that?

First of all, it is difficult to get right. Don't be disappointed if you need some time to learn how to do it well.

As for your method, there are two things in your description you can improve on. One is the fat. You need a lot of fat to fry in a stainless steel pan. The bacon grease is unreliable even if you have the rest of the process perfected, and makes it much more harder at the beginning. So adding fat will be a good place to start. And you probably need more than you think - at least 3 mm thick, better 5 (assuming we are talking thin slices of bacon and not cubes or slabs).

The other thing is that you lowered the temperature. This was the wrong thing to do. You want a heating rate at which your bacon's proteins start shriveling up as soon as they hit the fat, as opposed to slowly gumming up against the bottom. This tends to be higher than most people first try, and certainly higher than the heat you can use with a nonstick. Sadly, you can also overshoot and have the bacon burn and stick at the same time - that's one of the major difficulties with getting it right, learning how to recognize if you are in the proper range of heat - but if in doubt, you probably have to go up rather than down. And preheat for a good long time before laying the first strip in.

Another thing to consider is the bacon itself. Some brands are sweetened, and the sugars stick like crazy. They also burn at temperatures where the meat does just right. So, look at the ingredients, and if you notice any kind of sugar - could be fructose, corn syrup, maple syrup, or something else - choose another brand. Also get something which is packaged dry, these which are wet enough to have something marinade-like in the package will stick more.


Looking for a specific type of pasta to go with pesto I was half-listening to a cooking show on TV the other day and heard that pesto sauce should be served with a type of pasta that's made just for pesto. The pasta itself has some potato in it (or was it the dish?) and it's pronounced pro-fee? I have no idea and I around at my local market, and they all just suggested regular spaghetti.

I might have heard wrong from the television, but does anyone know what this pasta might actually be?

Trofie.

Pesto originated from Liguria (the region). If you google liguria pesto potato you get recipe's like this Martha Stewart.  Though I'm by no means endorsing her recipe.

The pasta itself is durum wheat flower, the dish you describe is from Genova (in Liguria) and has potato in it.


How long is it safe to store rice horchata for? I have a recipe for Mexican horchata, which is a kind of smoothie made with rice. However, it doesn't specify how long I can store it for, and as rice can be dangerous if stored incorrectly I don't want to risk it. Any ideas how long I can keep it for?

At least one recipe specifies “horchata will keep in the fridge for up to 7 days,” another “up to four days,” others more vaguely “a few days” or “several days.” Note that it also depends on whether the recipe you're using adds milk or not, if it “is made without milk it will keep in the frig for various days.” Probably the best piece of advice is this one:

Horchata will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days; use common sense.
From: http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/03/homemade-horchata.html


How to calculate the calorie content of cooked food? I like to cook from scratch, and I'm currently trying to loose a few pounds. I know that cooked food is generally more calorific than raw food, so if I add up the calories of the ingredients I know it won't give an accurate result.

So my questions are two-fold:

How much difference is there between a raw food item and a cooked food item?

Is there a method to deduce the calorie content of cooked food (given the know values of its raw form) ?

If you are concerned about the impact of whatever difference in calorie count cooked vs. raw makes, you are cutting it pretty fine. The margin for error is likely very small--probably smaller than your measuring errors, or the inaccuracy of your kitchen (or bathroom) scale.

Keeping an eye on calories is fine for weight loss. Reducing calorie intake and/or increasing calorie burning is the only proven way to do it. But looking out to avoid that 20 calorie margin of error suggests that either you're not cutting enough calories in the first place that 20 matters, or you're tormenting yourself over things you shouldn't be worried about. Cut yourself some slack, and don't sweat the small stuff. The simple act of realistically monitoring how much you eat is more likely to help you than obsessing over every single calorie.


Do some fish smell "fishier"? Why? I've heard some say that fish only smells offensive if it's old. But my experience suggests that some fish, like salmon, are simply "fishier" and that the smell can put some people off. Is that right? If so, is there a simple explanation for the smell, or does it vary according to species? And which fish smell the least and most fishy?

Certain people who are "super smellers" who have a heightened sensitivity to smells. Assuming you aren't one of them: fish smells "fishy" when it's starts to age. If you can find a reputable fish monger, that would help.

That said, if you're sure you have fresh fish, and some fish just simply smell more, you can cut down on the smell, by a quick rinse and a marinade with an lemon juice.

As for why fish smell fishy... it has to do with amines contained in the fish. Amines get released as bacteria work to release them. Salmon, Tuna, others... are higher in amines, while fresh white fish, tend to be lower. You'd have to do a bit more research to find out more specific species...


What happens to lemon juice when boiled? Does anyone know what happens to the flavor of lemon juice when it's boiled?

When lemon juice is boiled, it reduces, which means that water evaporates.  This concentrates the flavor.  This concentration and cooking also changes the flavor.  The now cooked juice, while still clearly identifiable as lemon, will be much less bright. Keep going, and eventually you will get a syrup.  Soon after that it will burn.


How long can milk products be frozen before spoiling? I made a sauce for macaroni and cheese about 6 months ago and froze the excess sauce. It is basically a bechamel sauce with a fair amount of cheese melted in.

I realize that if I thaw and re-heat this sauce there may be taste or texture differences - the cheese may seize, etc. But I'm mostly concerned with whether this will be safe to eat.

Is it possible for the sauce to have spoiled? If so, will reheating make it safe to eat or not?

Your sauce won't spoil when frozen, but the quality will decline. Not knowing how much time exactly there was between making it and it being totally frozen, there is a possibility that this is an issue. If it was chilled rather quickly, your sauce is safe to eat.


Kitchen utensil identification - tong of some sort My wife got this from a thrift store for a good price; and hey, it would be good for something. The bottom plate has several long slender slots.

Any ideas?

This looks like fish tongs. Basically, it's a flat, broad spatula on one side, and a smaller facing surface that can hold a fillet intact while turning it over.


What is the butter for in a jam recipe? I made plum jam at the weekend. The recipe I had (from my Good Housekeeping cookbook) wanted me to simmer the plums in water, add sugar and a knob of butter, then boil until a set was reached.

I realised too late that I was out of butter, so I quickly looked up another jam recipe online and discovered what seemed like a 50/50 split between recipes with and without the knob of butter.

I made it without and it came out beautifully - clear, well-textured, lovely flavour. So what was the knob of butter meant to add?

The usual explanation given is that adding butter to the fruit and sugar before you cook it will reduce (or even eliminate) the foaming.

My guess is that the small amount of proteins in the fruits create the foam.  As you heat the fruit, the proteins open up into strands that get tangled up and help stabilize the bubbles into a foam. Adding the butter (a fat) helps prevent this tangling.


Using Frozen Fries as a Component: How to Dress Them Up? I often have to use frozen (potato) fries as a component in dishes. Usually, I douse them in garlic sauce and ketchup, but that doesn't really add much to them.

What can I do to dress them up and make them a stronger component in dishes?

They're also usually soggy and soft, and don't crisp well at all (they usually end up burned if I try to crisp them).

I always find that frozen fries get much crisper if you heat the baking sheet before you put the fries on it.

Personally I just like to season my fries with salt (I try and use a decent sea or rock salt rather than the cheap table stuff as it does make a big difference), but you could also sprinkle other spices and seasonings onto the fries before you bake them to make them taste a bit more exciting. Paprika, cayenne or garlic salt would all work nicely.


How to prevent dumplings from sticking together I tried cooking dumplings for the first time a while back. Now I am trying for the second time.

Last time I made them, I used fresh pasta wonton wrappers. I set the edges of the wrappers and then folder them over. There was water getting all over the dumplings.

Then I put them in a pile when they were done.....they glued completely together. This time I want to prevent any chance of them sticking to each other.

Obviously the first step is not to pile the wet dumplings on top of each other. But I am also concerned they might stick when I boil them. They wrappers seems very thin a delicate and I don't want them to tear.

Should I use liberal amounts of flour on them at all stages? Or should I oil them instead before I boil them?

You can't let the dumplings touch after you make them, just keep them spaced apart until you cook them. I'm not a fan of boiling, I prefer steaming them or frying/steaming as described by @user245427 instead, however if you do boil them you can keep them from sticking using this method:

Use a big pan with plenty of water, that way the dumplings have plenty of space
Drop the dumplings in 2 at a time on opposite sides of the pot so they don't hit and stick together right away
Stir them around often, I use a wire strainer I got from an Asian supermarket, it's perfect for the job and you can lift them out very easily with the same tool. See the pic below

I wouldn't bother oiling them before boiling them because the oil will wash off in a couple of seconds and you're just wasting a good ingredient without getting any benefit. Also, don't flour them, you won't solve the sticking problem without using a lot, and the flour will just be a gooey mess later that doesn't taste very nice.


Does bacon exists that is shelf stable, but has to be cooked for safety? I have come across a website in the UK which delivers bacon through the normal post. They claim that their bacon is cured by a process that does not require refrigeration.

  Bacon through the post? Does it not need to be chilled?
  In a word - No. Bacon by its very nature was created to preserve pork long before we had refrigeration, however as today's modern process of manufacture is very much an industrial one most bacon needs to be refrigerated or it just won't keep. Cure & Simple bacon is handmade using an old fashioned process and has water actively removed which means if the seal remains intact on the packet our bacon doesn't need to be refrigerated. However we bow our heads to modern practise and choose to keep our products chilled, so that you have the peace of mind that when our bacon goes through your door it's in the best possible condition.

I am confused by this, since I understand that their bacon is not 'ready to eat' - it still requires cooking before you can consume it hence to my mind it is not a true cure (like for example Iberico Ham). Is there a way of curing bacon which still requires cooking before consumption but renders the product shelf stable?

By USDA's own standards, dry cure bacon is room temperature safe, if sliced for 10 days, slab up to 3 weeks (see here).  Would I do it, probably not, but it is classed as safe without refrigeration.  The salt and nitrite levels in the product are high enough to keep pathogens killed for that long at levels the USDA calls safe and likely UK agencies are similar. Quality is another mater, and having cured plenty of my own bacon, I frankly would not do it.  Posting it in sealed packages, sure, no problem, but once I received it, it would be refrigerated both to extend the safe life, and quality.

In the US, and I would assume in the UK as well, most streaky bacon sold today is not dry cured, it is injected with the curing agents and fast cured.  These products are in no way shelf stable in the uncooked state.

These products are both fully cured, and may have been fully smoked or at least heated to safe temperatures.  In the US, I cannot say the label is required, but I have seem plenty packaged with the label "fully cooked" meaning that through either smoking or other heating they have been taken to safe temperature.  Not labeled this way they may not have been heated and only had liquid smoke applied so are still raw.  Curing kills most pathogens, but cooking to temp is still needed to finish the job so without that labeling I would consider it unsafe to eat, but none would readily be considered ready to eat.  This would be from a palatable standard though, not a safety standard.  Most consumers would not find the un-rendered fat and chewiness of streaky bacon straight from a pack good.

There also remains many other definitions for bacon, some of which are hard cured and aged for months which are shelf stable, but by your quoted description, this product is most likely dry cured streaky bacon.


Quick bread formula? Hi it seems the recipes for quick breads like banana bread, pumpkin bread etc are all very similar.  Is there a good guide for a general quick bread recipe where you just fold in the unique characteristic?

Ie: a recipe where you can just fold in 1 cup of bananas to make banana bread, or 1 cup of pumpkin to make pumpkin bread, etc.

Yes, from the book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman

  Quick Bread = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part butter...Recipes vary considerably on how much baking powder to use. I've found that a good working rule is one teaspoon per 4 ounces of flour (a scant cup), or 5 grams for every 110 grams of flour.


How do I smoke on a propane grill that has a separate smoker attached? My friend has a propane grill that has a separate smoker attached to it, and there is a rack that can be raised or lowered under it. It is a huge grill with the smoker compartment on the side. How do I use it? I want to smoke a brisket but she doesn't have instructions on the grill. Do the wood chips and water go on the rack? Does the meat go on the grill or smoking compartment? Help me please!

Generally speaking you should soak the wood chips overnight, for at least a few hours, then place them over a flame in a metal container.

Basically there are 2 types of smoking. "Cold smoking" uses really low heat while keeping the food away from direct flames/heat. With the other, "hot smoking," you're cooking the food while you're smoking it.

You probably want to hot smoke brisket, but you still need to keep the flame low or else the outside will be done long before the inside.

In case it's not obvious, the wood chips need to go into a metal container without water. Wet wood chips smoke better then dry, but you don't want to boil the wood chips.


Rice Variety for Puerto Rican Rice? I recently visited Puerto Rico and was blown away by how consistently good the rice was at restaurants.  It appeared to be a medium grain rice very similar in consistency and texture to East Asian rices that have a certain degree of stickiness while maintaining its shape and grain integrity. Later, I was very surprised to learn that Puerto Rico imports nearly all of its rice, but that gave me hope that I might be able to find the same variety back home. I visited a supermarket while there, however, all of the rice I found was labeled "Long Grain" (despite appearing to be medium or even short grain).

What variety of rice is typically used in Puerto Rican cuisine?

Wikipedia suggests that longer grain rice is often used in the Puerto Rican diaspora; I am specifically interested in the type of rice used today in Puerto Rico, and what typical varieties I can use to mimic it.

Pan Am imports  Company.   Imports 80% of the rice into Puerto Rico. Majority comes from California. I have had California rice in the Philippines.  Also called American rice here. Sold here also. A lighter fluffy rice with mid starch. Does this sound like it? Long grain rice. Used here for special traditional Spanish dish's.  Also imports some rice from China to Puerto Rico. It is a different rice than your Midwest rices I have had that also. On the guessing side. California rice. Most from there is exported. Not sold in much of America.


Is there a difference between tepid water and lukewarm water? Is there a difference between tepid water and lukewarm water? Are the terms interchangeable?


What kind of meat is used in cheese steak? I want to do some cheese steak at home. I was wondering what kind of meat  should I buy.
What part?

There is no single cut of meat that is universally used in Philadelphia.  Top round is common, and it may actually be the most traditional given the sandwich's Italian origins (top round is what is used in braciole and Italian beef sandwiches).  It is becoming more and more common to use rib-eye, though, which is what is used in some of the most popular Philadelphian establishments (e.g., John's Roast Pork and Tony Luke's), which makes sense given its higher fat content.

As lazoDev mentioned, you should be able to get your butcher to slice the meat into thin (~1mm) pieces.  If that is not possible, though, you can put an entire rib-eye roast into the freezer for a half hour or so.  This will harden the meat without actually freezing it solid, and will make thinly slicing by hand much easier.


What kind of glass is this? I would like to sell a pair of stemmed glasses, but do not know what to call them.  They are quite large (7.5" tall, and the bowl is 5.75" wide) and say "0.5 deru" on them, but have no other makers mark.  They seem too big to be called Margarita glasses or cocktail glasses, but I can't find any other suitable name for them. I am unable to post a picture of them. If anyone knows what they are called, I would sincerely appreciate it!

Thank you!!

This(I guess you mean these glasses)  is a glass used to serve Berliner Weisse , in Berlin(where this drink comes from), we  simply call it "Berliner Weisse Glass".


Microwave-safe cups becoming less safe For a couple of years we have been using a microwave-safe cup to heat up milk. The milk is whipped until it's creamy, then we add coffee on top of it and we have a sort of cappuccino. Until recently this has worked well, but for the last few weeks we have found that the cup itself is heating up in the microwave. I burnt my fingers while taking out the mug by its handle this morning.
Is it possible that ceramic mugs take up more energy from microwaves over time? Or are there other explanations for our findings?

Whenever something gets hot in a microwave, it indicates the presence of water. If something that used to stay cool suddenly heats up, you have water present where previously there was none.

I assume you are using a glazed ceramic mug or jar, not one made of glass. Your glazing must have tiny cracks in it, that allow water to reach the clay underneath and collect there. Basically the wear and tear of long use. These cracks may be so tiny that, especially if no discoloration is present, they are virtually invisible. Each time you use the cup in the microwave again, the expanding water will actually aggravate the problem. The same is true for running the cup in a dishwasher, which in my experience allows for more water to seep through the cracks than a quick hand wash.

Time to get a new mug. Consider one made of glass or porcelain (china) this time.


What difference does it make if I substitute low-fat milk for water in bread recipes? I'd like to know whether is it possible to always substitute milk with water (or the other way around) in bread recipes and what difference does it make? For example, in the following recipe that I found here:

Honey-Oat Pain de Mie

255g lukewarm water
361g AP Flour
85g old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
64g honey
57g melted butter
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Off the top of my head, the added sugar from the milk may cause the yeast to over-leaven the bread.  The opposite is true when substituting water for milk, you may need to add sugar.

Edit: According to this site, Glutathione in the milk must be destroyed by heating it first, otherwise it tends to inhibit yeast.  Also, allegedly lactose doesn't contribute as much to the yeast activity as I thought, as it doesn't break down as fast as raw sugars.

Other sources seem to corroborate the fact that the bread is softer with milk.

Some others may be able to add more insight ...


Multiple layer toasting in Microwave I want to toast some peanuts in a microwave (just a microwave - it does not have a grill (broiler) or convection mode). Can I put multiple layers of peanut in a container and toast it? I am not sure as many places I read, they say to toast single layer. But why should that matter?

Microwaves don't toast.

The pass high energy microwaves through food. These waves struggle to penetrate high density materials, causing them to heat. It's (mostly) the water within the microwaved food that is heated up, and that cooks (or defrosts) your stuff.

Toasting is an external application of usually radiated (but conducted will do) dry heat.

You might be able to heat the oil within the peanuts to the point where they fry... It'd probably work on multiple levels before turning into a smokey mess or combusting. But even then, frying really isn't the same thing as toasting them.

You want a dry frying pan on a hob, or a grill.


Temperature probe recommendations? I am looking for a temperature probe. Specifically the kind you put in meat before putting it in the oven and the display is outside of the oven. I've purchased three in as many months and each one has died or started reading incorrectly.

What should I look for in terms of a temperature probe that will last?

The one piece of advice I can offer, and it is the most essential as far as I am concerned, is to buy a thermometer with a detachable, moreover replaceable, probe.

Some models have the cord and probe permanently attached. Some configure the hardware to allow for replacement of the cord and probe in the (inevitable) event of a failure. Think of it in terms of a DVD/TV combo; one of them will die, don't force the other to carry around a conjoined limb.

I recommend you look for a well rated device (shop around) that has a detachable probe. When the cord gets a short or the probe goes bad, you can swap it out for less than the cost of the whole unit. Aside from that, brand and cost and features are up to you.


How to cook in olive oil There are plenty of recipes regarding how to cook fish, and other foods, in olive oil.

This puzzles me because olive oil has a very low smoking point. So I'll burn it if I cook fish at 350 degrees. If I set the temp to 200 degrees, the fish will cook for ages and will basically boil in it's own juices.

So how do seasoned cooks deal with this? How do you cook in olive oil?

It sounds like you feel that 350 is too low a temperature to effectively cook fish and some other foods.

In fact many of the foods that people saute in olive oil are vegetables which could also be cooked just fine on top of the stove immersed in water. By that method, the vegetables would not exceed 212°F, since the temperature of water can't go above its boiling point. You may decide this isn't the tastiest way to prepare vegetables, but they would certainly cook and become "done" at that temperature.

Likewise for fish and other meats, as I look up the internal temperature required for "done-ness" on this site and other internet locations like kitchn, etc., various meats are considered done when their temperature reaches a level somewhere between 145°F for fish, and up to 170°F or so that someone recommends for well done beef.

So it shouldn't be necessary to exceed olive-oil temperatures in order to get most foods to cook. It might be puzzling that sometimes you do use much higher temperatures than that in cooking, like in the oven. But the food itself doesn't get as hot as the oven setting.

When you preheat your oven to a nice hot temperature (above 350), and put in some raw food to bake, it takes a while for the hot air in the oven to bring the food up to a fully done temperature, since hot air doesn't transfer heat very efficiently. However the food won't reach an internal temperature the same as your oven setting before burning. It will be done before its temp. gets that high.

On top of the stove, olive oil in a pan transfers heat to the surface of your fish, vegetables, or chicken etc. faster than the air in the oven. But either way will successfully get the temperature of the food up to the level of doneness, and well below the smoke-point of olive oil.


What is it about milk that makes it go well with cookies? I don't drink milk myself, but among my friends that do, the one application where they find soymilk a poor substitute is the classic dish "milk and cookies". What is it about cow's milk that makes it go well with fresh-baked cookies that soymilk cannot replicate? It can't be the fat content alone, because my roommate drinks exclusively fat-free skim  milk.

I haven't been able to find any empirical data, but here are my theories:

Most cookies contain butter which has similar proteins as milk and the combination of the two resonates on that level. Soy milk does not share those protein profiles, so there is no sensory resonance.
Cookies are generally quite sweet and rich.  Milk helps blunt that sweetness by washing away some of the sugar and coating the tongue.  Many soy milks have  sweeter taste than dairy milk which would make the overall sweetness of the combination excessive.  (For comparison's sake does your roommate use soy milk on sweetened cereals or more neutral-tasting cereals? I would suspect the latter.)
In addition to the natural "grassy" flavors that soy milks can have, they may also have other flavorants like vanilla that make them less neutral flavored than dairy milk which competes with the flavor of the cookies.


How can I render bacon fat without frying it? I wanted to render the fat from some bacon to produce bacon grease.
The usual advice that you see on the internet is to simply fry whole strips of bacon at a low heat, for a longer period, and the fat will melt away from the meat proper. That normally works for me.
The other day I wanted to try someting different. I have previously rendered other fats in different ways. I've tried a 'wet render', by simmering at a very low temperature in water. That worked well for lamb fat. And I tried a 'dry render' by putting the fat in the oven at a lowish temperature (gas mark 3 = 160C), which worked well for chicken skin.
I tried these methods with some bacon fat, that I had cut off from the meat of back bacon strips. So it was just 16 white strips of cold fat. But they didn't work. With the wet render, no matter how long I simmered for, the water didn't get more than a tiny bit oily. The dry render behaved similarly, except that it did give a tiny bit of fat, but nearly all of the fat was still whole, the bits hadn't reduced in size at all after I baked for about 5 hours.
Why didn't it work? At first I thought the temperature might be too high, but it's not like the bits were getting blackened or anything. And surely a higher temperature would also show signs of rendering the fat, it wouldn't just arrest the entire process.

Chop bacon finely...or even use a food processor.  Place in a pot.  Add just enough water to cover the bottom of pan and prevent initial sticking.  Place on very low heat.  You might even need a heat diffuser.  You don't want frying, just low, gentle heat. Too much heat produces off flavors. It might take a few hours.  You will have rendered fat, but also the cracklings (the stuff that doesn't render).  Strain.  Use both the fat and the cracklings.  Really, it's the same process for rendering beef, pork, duck...any type of fat rendering.


How to reduce smokey BBQ liquid flavor in a Mexican soup I have Mexican soup with BBQ smokey sauce, but the flavor of it is to intense. I am trying to reduce the intensity, but I don't want to add more tomatoes. Is there a way?

Dilution is the solution to pollution.
There is no way to cover that smoke flavor.  But you can thin out the Mexican soup with some other bland soup and that might turn out good.  You could use tomato soup, or cheese soup or really any soup with flavors you think might be complemented by the Mexican soup.  I am thinking clam chowder with smoky Mexican soup might be pretty good.
That said, I think some liquid smoke flavor is just bad.  I never use it because I am scared of it.  If the problem with the Mexican soup is not just too much smoke flavor but bad smoke flavor, throw out the soup.  That bad smoke flavor comes out your pores after you eat it which is freaky.


Can vegetable oil be used in place of butter? I just happen to have one of those Betty Crocker cookie mixes on hand today, and the ingredients list at the back calls for 1/2 a stick of softened butter. I don't have any butter to spare today, but I do have a bit of vegetable oil, and I know that the two can be substituted sometimes without incident.

Can I do so here, or should I do as the package recommends and use butter?

The cooking snobs will say that butter is better, and even my fading taste buds can sometimes detect the difference.  But much of the time you can make the substitute.  BTW the reason for the 7/8 figure is that butter runs about 1/8 water.  So you may have to use 7/8 cup of oil and 1-2 tablespoons of water.

The biggest difference between solid fat and oil will occur when you see lines like, "Blend together with a pastry blender until you have crumbs the size of a pea.  A pie crust made with oil will not be a tender flaky crust.

However for bannock making in the bush, corn oil works fine as a substitute for lard. and it's a heck of a lot easier to keep.

A comment below mentions cookie recipes.  For this to be successful, the flour to fat ratio has to be fairly high.  Bannock is 1 cup of flour to 1-2 tbs of fat.  This is small enough that the flour absorbs all the oil.

Another signal:  If the directions call for chilling the dough then there is enough fat in the mix that using oil would make the recipe way too liquid.  I suspect this is the case with many cookies.

Cake recipes usually don't have as high a fat:flour ratio as many cookies, but cakes are often very fussy about ingredient ratios.

So:  Test before counting on it.  It does work for bannock.

1 cup flour
1 to 3 tbs fat or oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Tiny amount of water.

If you are going to fry the bannock, go light on the oil.

Mix flour and salt and baking powder.
Mix in fat.
Mix in just enough water to make a stiff dough that holds together.  It is very easy to overdo.  Knead only long enough to mix.

Cooking:
1.  Shape into long strips about 3/8" thick, wrap around smooth pole and bake over a 10 second fire for 15 minutes rotating slowly. (A 10 second fire:  YOu can hold your hand where the cooking happens for 10 seconds)

Pat out into 3/8 to half inch slabs.  Cook in a frying pan over a 20 second fire for 5-10 minutes on a side.
Pat out to 1/8" thick.  Drop into a bucket with 2 inches of smoking hot lard in the bottom.  Lift out with tongs after 30 seconds.

Method 1 will keep campers busy for a long time.
Method 2 makes bannock you can use for a meal later.
Method 3 is the fastest method, but it is dangerous.


Technical reasons against chocolate-coated shortbread It is possible to find chocolate-coated shortbread (as in, the Scottish biscuit made of flour, sugar and butter, coated with chocolate) as a product in the UK, but it's very rare. Chocolate-coated shortcake -- which is similar, but different -- is much more common. "Millionaire's shortbread" is easy to find, but it's not completely coated in chocolate and has a thick caramel layer, making it quite a different product.

Given that shortbread is very popular -- and, presumably, very cheap to make -- and that chocolate is very popular, I'm led to believe that there must be some technical reason why it's so hard to find. Does anyone have any ideas?

My only thought is that it may be due to the fat interface between the layers (i.e., butter against cocoa butter) not playing together nicely, reducing shelf-stability.

I doubt there's a reason for commercial factories, as they'll have temperatures and everything perfect.  For the home cook, there are some issues with making it as bar cookies:

The shortbread is crumbly by nature, so chocolate sticking to it will actually pull crumbs off the top, not really sticking all that well if you don't have the chocolate hot enough to catch the crumbs that flake off.
Cutting it is a bit of a challenge: you have to let it cool so that the
chocolate is solid enough, but you risk the cookie crumbling as you cut it.  You also risk the chocolate and cookie layers separating.

You can avoid #2 by cutting the shortbread first, then dipping it in chocolate, spooning it on top, or otherwise coating it after cutting ... but it's much more tedious and time consuming.  Automated process could use other techniques to avoid this problem (eg, perfectly aligned blades so they can score the cookie while it's warm, then again after the chocolate has set ... and maybe even heat the blades.)

I've been making a shortbread + chocolate + walnut bar for the last decade or so as christmas cookies, and it only seems to have gotten more difficult through the years.  (the recipe calls for placing the chocolate on top of the baked cookies, then back in the oven to melt ... and I don't know if it's because I'm using a vegan chocolate (no dairy) or what, but it hasn't melted quite right for me for years.  I'm also using shortening in place of butter so this year I added a teaspoon of water to replace what would've been in the butter.  I then melted the chocolate separately and I also used parchment, so I could pull it out of the pan to cut it (so it had space to move, rather than shattering).  I'm not sure what helped the most, but I'm having closer to 5-10% loss (still have to cut up the rest of it), vs. last year's 50-60% loss.

I've never made the 'millionaire' ones, so I don't know if the caramel helps the situation or not.  I suspect you could still have problem #1, but as you're working by temperature it's less likely.  I also suspect #2 wouldn't be as bad as the caramel would have a little bit of give to it (ie, slightly soft).


Know if a turkey is done cooking I am making a turkey in a bag this weekend and I was wondering if there is a sure fire way to know when your turkey is done cooking. I don't have a meat (or any other) thermometer.

Go get a $15 probe thermometer. There is really no point in cooking turkey or any other roast without one.

The actual answer is- there is no good way without measuring the internal temperature.
Any time-based approach will be a guess at best.

The built in thermometer in some turkeys is a spring with some epoxy that melts a specific temperature. They are somewhat unreliable and either way they spring at 180F or so. This is well overdone for white meat but covers the turkey seller's liability.

Really- it's worth it to just get the thermometer and take the guess work out.


Crispy sweet potato (yam) fries in a deep fryer? I bought a roto deep fryer recently. But everytime I make yam fries, they end up being soggy.

My process: I cut the sweet potato fries to about 1/4 inch. I follow deep fryer instructions of preheating to 370'F before dropping the basket. From there, I fry a full basket for about 12-14 minutes.

The yam fries always come out soggy.

Any suggestions to improve the process?

I would also cut down on the "Full Basket" to lessen the Oil Temp Recovery. Try just a few handfuls at a time to keep the temp above 325'F. Frying time per batch should only be between 1 - 2 minutes.


What are Chicken Paws? Although I haven't purchased them, I've recently noticed more than one supermarket chain selling packages of "Chicken Paws".

To me, they look exactly like chicken feet, though I've never purchased those either. The definition of "paw" generally refers to the foot of an animal with four feet, but I've never known a chicken to have more than two.

I thought perhaps it's just a marketing ploy to make chicken feet sound more cute and cuddly by calling them paws, but that could also be counterproductive towards encouraging people to eat them.

What is the difference between chicken paws and chicken feet? If there is no difference, why are chicken feet now being sold as chicken paws?

Well, live and learn! — As Sue's answer correctly points out, the United States Department of Agriculture does indeed make a distinction between chicken feet and chicken paws:

The chicken paw on the left does not have as much of the lower leg as the chicken foot on the right.

While the difference may seem subtle to many people, it's apparently very important to consumers in China:

  Most premium jumbo paws are sold in wholesale markets and eventually make their way into high-end restaurants.  Smaller paws, chicken wings, and wing tips, in addition to being sold at wholesale markets, end up at wet markets and processing plants, which use them in finished food products.

  The market for chicken feet is more varied than that of premium chicken paws; larger chicken feet are sold to both wholesale and retail markets and are more commonly used for family consumption (and in barbecue stores), small feet are typically further cooked in processing plants.  Chinese consumers in the Northwest and Northeast tend to favor chicken feet over chicken paws.

There actually seems to be a difference between a chicken paw and a chicken foot. According to a 23-page publication from the University of Pennsylvania:

Chicken Feet = feet and shank
Chicken Paws = feet cut off at the ankle

Though most of that publication is a study of the health conditions for breeding chickens, it does list a few of the types of dishes the parts are used in, including soups and satays.
Food and Beverage Online is a frozen food supplying site. Chicken paws and feet are listed as separate entities there also. This page describes the characteristics of each product.
The USDA International Egg and Poultry report from 2013 lists export statistics separately for paws and feet.
In America, where I live, I couldn't find any recipes specifically calling for chicken paws rather than chicken feet. Since the export sites list them as being distributed largely to China and other Asian countries, maybe some of you who come from there, or have expertise in that kind of cooking, might be able to find something more specific!


Does marinating fish actually help the spices get in its flesh? We fry fish after applying Mustard seed paste, turmeric, and salt to it.

So, if now we apply the three ingredients and keep the fish for certain hours aside, will marinating affect the "taste" of the fish?

Yes, marinating, or letting sit with a rub (which is what you're doing) does help fish flavor.

However, for most fish, there's no point in marinating filets or steaks "for hours", since fish flesh is very porous and spices, acids, oils and other flavorings achieve maximum penetration in less than an hour.  The exception to this is dense-fleshed fish, such as swordfish, tuna, and opah, which can be marinated for longer -- up to 8 hours.  Also, if you're applying a rub to whole, skin-on fish, you do want to wait an hour for the spices to "soak in".

The other exception is salt.  There are recipes where you want to salt fish, and let it sit and drain for between 2 and 8 hours to firm up the flesh or change the flavor.

The above is paraphrased and summarized from Jay Harlow's West Coast Fish, and confirmed by my own experience.


How should I pre-cook a burger to be micrwaveable? Start with a generic 1/3rd lb patty of ground beef, either frozen or fresh.

Normally I follow the advice from How do you grill a perfect burger?, however, I want to make many. How can I cook and store the extra patties for lunch the next day or more? Given that at work, I only have a microwave to reheat the meaty goodness.

Step 1. Cook beef patty
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit

I think a microwaved, reheated burger is probably not going to compare favorably to a freshly-cooked burger. With that said, I think the main thing for the pre-cooking is that it would need to be start off a little undercooked, otherwise the heating process is going to result in it being overcooked (since you're saying you're looking for some pink in the middle).

Other than that, I think the key is more in how you microwave it. Obviously, you want it to cook evenly. I'm assuming you're starting from refrigerator-cold. If you start from frozen it is going to have a lot more trouble heating evenly. Also, it might go without saying, but I'd cook the meat on its own (no bun or condiments).

Most microwaves tend to have hot spots in certain areas. There is a pretty interesting (IMO) blog post that demonstrates this using papadam (those crispy lentil crackers you get at many Indian restaurants). The ones tested in that experiment, seemed to mostly be good directly in the center of the tray, so that might be the best placement. If you want to be really super-scientific about it, you can try to replicate that method and figure out how to arrange your food in your microwave.

But if you don't have any papadam handy and you don't know what your office microwave is doing, you may want to find a supposedly-microwave-safe plate that still tends to get hot in the microwave and heat your burger on that. I think the plate is going to transfer heat more evenly to the burger than the microwave would. (On the other hand, I sometimes question whether dishes that get really super hot in the microwave are, indeed, as microwave-safe as they claim to be, so use caution....) Using a real plate, though, instead of a paper plate should help with the evenness of the heating.

I'd also suggest cooking it in short bursts (15s at a time) and letting it rest in between, or cooking it on low if your microwave has power settings (which just does the same intermittent power thing anyway).


What does this chart mean when it says "lbs per round" or "lbs per sqare/rectangle"? From http://howtocakeit.com/blogs/cakes/48185153-how-to-make-ice-and-decorate-yo-yo-s-chocolate-cake-like-a-pro:

What do the different columns mean?

It is a scalable recipe. First, you decide in which pan you want to bake the cake. You take your pan and measure it. Let's say you have a 9" round pan. You go into the column "lbs per round" and find out that your pan takes 3 1/2 lbs of batter. Then you go to the other table with ingredients measurements, multiply the column "6 lbs" by 7/12, and have your ingredient measurements. Alternatively, you can bake a slightly thinner cake, and divide the amounts in the 6 lbs cake by 2.

Alternatively, if you want the tall kind of cake shown in the pictures, first decide what amount you want to bake, then use the table to calculate how many pans you will need to get that amount of batter baked. For example, for a 8 lb cake with a square base, you could use 4 6" square pans.

When you have made your batter, the last column tells you how much time you should expect, roughly, for the cake to bake through. For the 9" round cake, it would be 1 hour 10 min. Don't forget that this is only an estimate, you should take the cake out when it is done, not when the timer goes off.


White wine v cider vinegar I am about to use a recently viewed tv recipe for Rhubarb ketchup. Official ingredients include white wine vinegar but does say any vinegar 'will do'. I have some cider vinegar, will this dramatically alter the flavour or sweetness? Might I have to alter sugar quantity?

Cider vinegar is generally a little bit sweeter and not quite as sharp as white wine vinegar. With the other flavors you're adding, the difference isn't likely to be major. A good approach might be to hold back about a quarter of the sugar in the recipe, taste, and adjust to preference.

One thing in the cider vinegar's favor is that most of the acid present in the rhubarb is malic acid, the same compound that gives green apples their tartness. Apple and rhubarb typically get along quite nicely and I see no reason why they wouldn't here as well.