Ground beef storage and use past sell-by date When I buy food it's at least a few weeks worth, and I bought some ground beef the other day with the intention of using it over a couple weeks. I have a couple questions regarding storage:

I use about a pound of it a time, so I took it out of its wrapping, cut it up, and put the pieces into sealable plastic bags, wrapped in foil, and then stuck them in the freezer. Is this an acceptable storage?
The sell-by date will be coming up very soon. However I was looking at this website which states ground beef can be frozen for 3-4 months. Is it safe to store past the sell-by date?
More generally, is sell-by meant to be different than "use by" dates I also see on certain items?

Thanks!

(1) Yes, that's fine. If you use freezer bags, you don't need foil even. For longer-term frozen storage, vacuum sealed bags work better.

(2) Frozen food stored at 0°F (or lower) is basically safe to eat forever. Eventually, the flavor will be affected and you won't want to eat it (but it won't make you sick). Three to four months is reasonable in tightly-sealed freezer bags. Longer in vacuum sealed bags. The storage time is entirely a flavor thing, so you can get away with a little longer for strongly-seasoned meat (e.g., tacos) vs. lightly seasoned (hamburger). The sell-by date assumes storage at around 30°F (normal for refrigerated meat)

(3) I believe so, stuff should still be good a few days after the sell by date.


Preventing oil burn when searing steak Recently got into cooking steak at home and overall been enjoying the results :)
That being said, it seems like my pan always smokes quite a bit and the oil looks to be burnt. I'm using refined avocado oil which has a high smoking point of 500F and a cast iron pan.

I was wondering if anyone could provide some tips to prevent the oil burning and control the pan temp. If I lower the heat I no longer hear a sizzle. Also perhaps the pan needs to be smaller to fit the steak?

I always do my steak in cast iron, but instead of oil I use salt. Yes, you read that right, no oil in the pan. At all. The salt provides seasoning and prevents the steak from 'sticking' to the skillet. You can preheat your skillet over a medium heat to cut down on the smoke, yes even without oil, there's still smoke. But what I found is that the hotter the cast iron, the smokier things get. So, I'll recap, omit the oil and heat the pan longer over a medium heat. (You won't miss out on the sizzle, and you won't have to open every window in the house.)

I'm adding a couple of recipes that recommend the opposite (searing hot pan that goes into a 500F oven!) but with a total cook time of 10minutes or less.
How to Cook the Perfect Steak in Cast Iron reccomends Avocado Oil.
Pan-Seared Rib-Eye uses Canola Oil.
oh! and... the Smoke Point of Oils lists Avocado oil heat/smoke point at 520F, Canola at 400F, and Coconut oil at 350F.


What's the best way to propagate baker's yeast? My neighbor who also bakes has run out of yeast and can't find any in the store. We went shopping this afternoon and couldn't find any either.

I have a fair-sized jar of the stuff in my fridge, but I'm also baking a lot. I'm worried about it running out, plus I'd like to share with my neighbor.

Is there a recommended technique for propagating it myself so I don't run out, and have enough to share?

Absolutely there is a way to propagate yeast, it's as simple as making a starter with it. Most of the time these days people create starters for sourdough using natural yeasts, but you can use them to feed any kind of yeast. All you would do is put flour and water in a container with some yeast, let it get to work and once you start to get bubbles put it in the fridge to slow it down. You would then use half of it for every batch of bread you make, replacing the flour and water to keep it at the same quantity.

If you don't use any of it for a few days you'd want to throw half away and refill in order to give the yeast a fresh supply of food. You can share this with as many people as you like, just split it into two, give each a fresh supply of flour and water, and repeat as many times as necessary. Using this technique a small amount of yeast could theoretically supply the entire planet.

NOTE: During the Coronavirus outbreak it's worth noting that corona can survive on surfaces for quite some time, so you should take great care to ensure that your yeast propagation does not lead to virus propagation!


What can I do with some whipped cream and egg yolk mix? I had a bit of a cooking disaster last night, where I was trying to make a tiramisu using a recipe I'd never used before.

The recipe called for mixing marscapone and egg yolks, but I  was using cream instead. I was hoping the cream would whip and be fluffy, but after 10 minutes beating it looks like it was never going get fluffy. So I've got a mixture of about 1 litre of cream, 5 egg yolks, 100gm sugar, and some Marsala. It's a light liquid.

It tastes quite nice, but isn't suitable for a tiramisu.

What can I do with it?

What you have sounds like a cross between a zabaione and a custard.

Depending on what equipment you have, you might consider:

heating it slowly in a double boiler while whipping it.
chill it, then use it to make ice cream.

It's likely too runny to use as a soufle base (fold it into whipped egg whites, then bake).  You might be able to augment it with more egg yolks, or try cooking it like in the first item, then adding it to the egg whites.

update: one more possiblity:

use it as the custard for french toast.


What should I look for in a new kitchen knife set? We've had the same knives for a very long time now, and we need a new set. What should I look for (or avoid) in a new kitchen knife set?

Typically, you don't want to buy a 'set' of knives.  You're better off buying the knives that you specifically want.  Often, you'll want to get a mix of knives from different manufacturers, so that you can get the best knife for each purpose.

As for what to look for ... I'd have to say that the main issues these days are weight, handle, and how the knife is made:

Most knives should balance near the front of the handle.  If it doesn't, you'll end up doing  more work at the wrist to keep the knife in control, which will tire you out.  (exceptions are small paring knives, cleavers, and maybe exceptionally long slicers).
The blade should be full tang.  This means that the blade continues all the way to the end of the handle, giving it a better connection to the handle while improving the balance.
The handle should be comfortable in your hand.  This will of course vary per person, as we all have different hand sizes.
The handle shouldn't be too slippery.  If it is, you increase the chance of cutting yourself.
You should avoid ceramic blades unless you're specifically going to be cooking a lot of food that will discolor when cut by steel.

Now, there are some issues that are personal choice:

Most home chefs should avoid carbon steel blades.  They have their advantages, but they need extra maintenance or they'll rust.  If you didn't grow up using them and are used to immediately cleaning & possibly oiling your knives and can sharpen your own or have a reasonably priced sharpening service nearby, I'd recommend steering clear of them.
Many people prefer forged vs. stamped blades.  Although the sign of a forged blade used to be the bolster (the thick bit of metal just before the handle), newer manufacturing techniques can add a bolster to a stamped blade.  Stamped blades are thinner and more flexible, which is an advantage in boning knives.  They also tend to be considerably cheaper, which is a huge advantage when you're starting out.  Not all stamped blades are bad; I believe that the the Victorinox Fibox chef's knife has won America's Test Kitchen's round of tests.  On the high end of forged blades are folded blades, which can be quite expensive but hold a great edge.
Knives for slicing should be fairly heavy.  They shouldn't be cleaver-heavy, but you want the weight of the knife to do the work, and not have to be pressing forward with your wrist as you slice.  But if you're going to be torting cakes, or other cases where you're slicing horizontally, you want the slicer to be much lighter.
The angle of the blade affects how sharp it is, but also how often it needs to be sharpened (aka. 'edge retention').  A very small angle creates a very, very sharp blade, but if you nick a bone or something hard, it's more likely to be damaged.  Even just leaving the knives in the sink is risky with some exceptionally sharp knives  (the weight of the knife itself can break off the tip).  Japanese knives tend to be a smaller angle than European blades, but some of the European manufacturers have started putting out sharper knives.  If you have the budget, you may want a variety of angles (a small angle for vegetables, a wider angle for meats)

These are all general characteritics.  It's take much longer to go into details about each type of knife.  See for instance What should I look for in a good, multi-purpose chef's knife? .  Serrated knives are getting trickier, as there are now different types of serrations (regular, micro, wavy, etc.); even micro serrated blades (eg, Ginsu) have their advantages.

Update: I forgot to mention the personal choice 'granton edge' (dimples) or holes along the side of the knife near the cutting surface.  It can reduce the amount of drag that you get when going through solid but moist foods (apples, firm cheeses, etc.) by breaking the adhesion between the food and the blade.

Also, when it comes time to buy knives, consider asking at the store if they'll allow you to test the knives; bring some carrots and apples just to get a feel for how the different knives feel in your hand when actually cutting.  (if they won't allow you to actually cut something, they might still let you try chopping and other tasks on an empty cutting board.


What is the meaning of the numbers on the back of green tea boxes? There are 4 or 5 digit numbers on the back of each green tea box. I know they are used to classify the type of tea and its quality, but I have never found how to read them. How do I figure out which one is higher quality than another one.
Here are examples:

Chunmee tea Series:
41022AAAA, 41022AAA, 41022AA, 41022, 4011, 9371, 9370, 9369, 9368, 3008, 34403

Gunpowder Tea Series:
3505A, 3505B, 3505C, 9372, 9373, 9374, 9375, 9475, 9575

Doesn't matter which brand. These numbers indicate exactly which tea and which grade of the tea has been used. It is part of the ISO9001 certified tea trading companies in China.

Similar to ingredient lists, the most used item comes first. This blend of green tea uses several grades and series of leaves of chunmee, from the highest grade to intermediate grades.

The same goes for the gunpowder tea.

The reason it's so hard to find info on the Internet is because it's chinese. But you can rest assured it means you are get good quality and reliable tea.


How to clean melted plastic from stove Coming home from grocery shopping, I ran out of space and put some plastic bags on my electric stove. As I was putting my groceries away, I accidentally bumped the dials on the stove and turned one of them on. I noticed and turned it off before a fire started or my groceries were ruined, but now I have some plastic melted onto a couple of my stoves.

How can I clean the plastic off?

While it may be possible to refine the exact tools when we know how the stove is structured, the main approach is always going to be physical labour.  You need to scrape/chip/peel it off.  If you're lucky, there was a layer of grease that stopped it sticking too badly.

On a glass-ceramic top you can use a scraper (a glass-scraper like a razor blade in a handle was actually supplied with mine when I fitted one, but this may not be tough enough). On the solid disc type you might be best using a screwdriver or an old paring knife.  Be careful of your hand and eyes of course.

When dealing with a similar case (a friend put a plastic tray in an oven and we only realised he'd done it when we smelt it) it proved best to wait for it to go completely cold, at which point it would chip or peel; when still warm it tended to smear and stick.  That was stainless steel wire shelves and a cast iron base so a wire brush was useful for the last bits in fiddly places.  You may not be able to use one on (all of) your stove.  You really do need to get it all off before you get it hot again.


If I cook chicken breasts in instant pot for a "longer time" would they come out super tender? I'm thinking 12 minutes or so I would think pressure cooking chicken breasts in the instant pot for longer, and by that I mean 12 minutes or a little more, they would come out super tender. Am I wrong? Would the opposite happen? I may try it as an experiment.

Time in the pressure cooker will depend on the thickness of the chicken breasts. I'd say 12-15 min on high pressure should give you meat that can be shredded easily (I've cooked a few times following some variation of this recipe, which yields similar results).
Cooking any meat on high heat (or high pressure) for an extended period will both:

denature more the proteins / collagen making the meat more tender;
"squeeze" more water out of the meat, making it drier / chalkier in texture.

At 12-15 min range the chicken meat will dry out some, but let it rest in the cooking liquid for a few minutes before cutting and it should be able to re-absorb some of it (or not release more).


Pinholes in new cast iron pan I just received my new cast-iron skillet and noticed two little pinholes (1-2mm) in the inside bottom of the pan (see pic below). As I live outside the USA, it is a hassle getting it returned and replaced. Will the pinholes become a food contamination hazard? Are there specific things I should avoid doing or consider doing because of the pinholes?

Have you seasoned the pan yet?

https://www.southernliving.com/food/how-to/how-t0-season-a-cast-iron-skillet

I think the oil you use for seasoning will fill up those holes.  The other thing about a pan is that it gets hot and it is going to be hot in the holes.  No germs will survive down there.


How can I melt cheese for dipping? I love dipping things like pretzels in melted cheese.

I've done this lots of times at fairs and other places with 'pretzel carts', but I've never been able to replicate it myself at home.

Whenever I try it, I get really thick, stretchy cheese with a layer of liquid oil sitting on top of it. It's gross, and not good for dipping.

So, how can I melt cheese into a nice, smooth liquid that I can use for dipping in?
I'd love to learn if there's a particular type of cheese that will work best, how to heat the cheese, and any other tips that you can provide.

Normal cheese melts like that. It is made of proteins, fats, and water, and these separate when they are heated.

For dipping, you need processed cheese. It has additives which keep the fat, fluid and solids mixed in a smooth mass. Also, it really helps to use very slow and even heat. This is the easy option.

If you want to do it "for real", without processed cheese, you have to make a cheese fondue. It is traditionally made with Swiss cheese (I am fond of Appenzeller fondue), but you can use most types of semi-hard yellow cheese. It also contains some fluid, traditionaly white wine, and is emulsified with simple starch. It is preferable to have a special pan for this, as you can serve it heated. But if you make a big portion in a pan with a high thermal capacity, and make it immediately before serving, you can do without the special gear.


Why combine AP flour and bread flour? I've seen some recipes that call for AP flour and bread flour. What's the point of that?

Assume AP flour has 10.5% protein and bread flour has 11.5% protein. If a recipe calls for equal amounts of AP flour and bread flour, you'll end up with a mixture that is 11% protein. Why not just find 11% protein flour in the first place?

Also, since the protein amount of flour vastly differs by brand, region, etc. -- how can a recipe make any assumptions about the final protein amount in the flour mixture.

It could be as simple as a bare pantry shelf and an adventurous cook who combined them when there wasn't enough bread flour for her recipe. King Arthur Flour went above and beyond! Testing loaf after loaf to compare crust, crumb, and texture with a variety of flours. Are there differences? Certainly, but perhaps not as dramatic as we might think.

How to Substitute Bread Flour for All-Purpose Flour


Ingredient substitute for sriracha hot sauce Asian Glazed Chicken Drumsticks

I would like to try making this recipe. But I don't like anything super spicy. What could I use instead of the sriracha hot sauce and get a similar flavor with out the extra heat?

Ingredients

8 medium chicken drumsticks
1 cup water
1 tablespoon Sriracha hot sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons honey
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon fresh, grated ginger

the ingredient is only (mostly) for flavoring, just reduce the quantity; the recipe will still work and be less spicy.

If not wanting to be spicy at all, you could use a regular red bell pepper paste (blend/puree some red bell pepper with a little bit of olive oil (or no oil)), or maybe use a tablespoon of tomato paste.


Does frying a lot of oil out of Twice-Cooked Pork leave it with much less fat? Family had a small dispute about twice-cooked pork. Our grand chef said that she fried out a lot of the oil from the pork so there wouldn't be much fat left. However, if the oil that comes out from the fat (I think that's where it comes from at least) gets rid of all of the fat, then what is the "fatty part" left behind after this frying? Wouldn't it still be fat?

If you render out fat, there will be less fat in the final product...it figures.  Getting rid of all of the fat, is probably not possible, or desirable.


Can nutritional yeast flakes be used as a bread leavening? Can nutritional yeast flakes be used as a bread leavening, or is the yeast really dead (is that what deactivated means?)?

Well, your own link states clearly:

  When the yeast is ready, it is killed (deactivated) with heat and then harvested, washed, dried and packaged.

So no, you can not use nutritional yeast to leaven your dough.

Only live yeast manages to create CO2 bubbles as byproduct of its digestion. Many novice or careless bakers inadvertantly kill their yeast by using too-warm liquid - and end up with a dough that never rises.


Using Canned San Marzano Tomatoes Vs. Regular Canned Tomatoes I have never used San Marzano tomatoes yet. I recently bought a cookbook and most of the recipes call for San Marzano Tomatoes. They are more expensive. Is it really worth paying the extra money for them?

USA Prices

$3.82 28 oz. can Centos brand D.O.P. Certified San Marzano tomatoes From my local market. D.O.P. Certified is guaranteed they are grown in the Mount Vesuvius Volcanic soil.

$1.44 28 oz. can Contadina brand tomatoes from local market.

What is so special about these? I get mixed reviews on the net. One person says it is a bunch of high brow people showing off and others say you can take a can of these and grind them in a food processor and drink it like tomato juice.

I would like a concrete answer from somebody that has used San Marzano tomatoes enough times to say definitely worth it or not. I will be making Pizza Sauce and Spaghetti Sauces.

San Marzano tomatoes are generally preferred for Italian tomato sauces because they are denser, fruitier, have a slightly lower acidity, and break down well when cooked.  I've made both fresh and fresh-cooked tomato sauces from the San Marzanos my mother-in-law grows, and would prefer these over just about any other tomato variety for sauce-making (dry-farmed Early Girls are also pretty good).

However, in my personal experience trying several of the canned and boxed varieties of San Marzanos available to me, they're not worth paying more than double what more common varieties of tomatoes cost.  For example, last week I made my standard "quick tomato pasta sauce" using boxed San Marzanos, and did not find it notably better than other high-quality boxed tomatoes (such as ones from Pomi) which cost $2 less. My judgement is that many of the qualities which make them a superior tomato when cooked fresh are destroyed in the canning process.

On the other hand, you're comparing them to Contadina, a rather low-quality brand.  Given that specific comparison, I would expect the San Marzanos, even the mass-market Italian brands, to be notably superior in quality.  So if that's your actual comparison, I would say go for the San Marzanos.

According to an article in Cook's Illustrated from several years ago (CI archives are behind a paywall, so no link), this is partly because San Marzanos, like other imported tomatoes, need to be canned at higher temperatures in tomato puree instead of at lower temperatures in tomato juice due to obscure US produce import restrictions.  So it's also possible that canned San Marzanos can, in fact, be excellent, just not the ones commonly available in the USA.


Parchment paper around a cheesecake? I recently made a pumpkin cheesecake in a springform pan. The instructions say to run a knife around the outside immediately after removing the cake from the oven, and then allow it to cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge to prevent cracking. Following these instructions produced a cake that had a rough outer edge, and there was still a crack in the middle of the cake.

What I'm wondering is if it would be wise to cut a strip of parchment paper to go all around the inside of my springform pan before baking the cake next time. My thinking being that as the cake cooled the parchment paper would be pulled inwards with it, thereby preventing any cracks, and I'd be able to pull the strip off the outside once the cake was fully cooled thereby keeping a smooth outer edge.

Has anyone tried this before? Is there a reason that cookbooks don't recommend doing it?

With a properly non-stick springform pan, the cake should shrink and pull slightly away from the edges as it cools. Don't do anything to it until it's fully cooled (to refrigerator temperature). At that point a spatula might help release, but probably wouldn't be necessary.

I would expect parchment paper to be counterproductive. It would absorb some liquid during cooking and become more adhesive than your non-stick pan. Also, it would make forming the crust against the sides trickier.


What is the shelf life of Pylsusinnep (Icelandic mustard)? Does it need to be kept refrigerated before opening? I'd like to purchase a case of Pylsusinnep mustard to save on expensive shipping costs versus buying a small number of bottles, but I'm unable to find any information about its shelf life.

After receiving my first batch, it appears that 6 months is the "best fyrir" ("best until") date.  It didn't come in any special refrigerated packaging, but I agree with Ecnerwal that it should be kept someplace cool to help extend the shelf life.


Should I maintain a carbon steel knife with oil? I just got a new All Clad chef's knife that is carbon steel. I've read that carbon steel knives require a lot of maintenance like wiping twice after every single use(once with a damp cloth and again with a dry cloth) and not leaving it in the sink for even a minute. I was thinking of buying an oil for carbon steel, but I've read that carbon steel SHOULD develop a patina. So should I buy this oil? Is that patina really a good thing?

I write it as a seasoned carbon steel knife user and a hobbyist knifemaker.

Use edible oil or nothing

Safety first. You can use any oil as long as you are really, really sure you wouldn't mind it added to your food.

Patina is good.

There are two kinds of iron oxide. Let's call them red (rust) and black (patina). Black one is good.

It mitigates red rust
It's less sticky
It's mostly tasteless

It's main drawback - it's ugly.

This is my everyday carbon steel knife. It's scrached and developed patina. It does not mind being used for cooking. It no longer requires wiping every minute, it can well be washed and dried after few hours.

How to develop good patina?

First, the less patina you already have, the slower you need to go. Don't keep virgin steel wet too long. Only after it begins to darken you can allow it to stay wet longer.

Remove red rust when you see it. But don't just use scrubber. If you want to develop patina fast, you should boil your knfe's blade for ten or twenty minutes when you see it getting red. This will convert some red to black. Then gently scrub the rest of red from your blade. If you don't want to boil, just gently remove rust, carefully not destroying patina.

If you want to artificially develop patina, dijon mustard is especially good for that. Few hours in warm place should do the job. Lemon juice is not half bad, either.


Why do I need over ripe bananas for banana muffins? Okay, I won't use prefer to use raw bananas for sure.

But, I wish to understand why are over ripe bananas required for the muffins. Why won't ripe (yellow) bananas do?

From: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/24652/6168

  You want to wait until they're so ripe you wouldn't want to eat them - blackening skin, very very soft.

They are easier to mash (so that they incorporate more smoothly into the batter), sweeter (more starch has converted to sugar), and more aromatic when overripe.

Still, you can get quite a good muffin or banana bread from fully ripe, but not overripe, bananas.


How can I prevent pan fried chicken from becoming too chewy? Every time I cook boneless/skinless chicken breast in a pan over the stove-top it seems to end up slightly chewy. What am I doing wrong?

Simple - you're just overcooking it. A very common fate for chicken breast.


what is [flavor-wise] the closest nonalcoholic substitute for white wine and red wine? White wine and red wine have great flavors when added to a dish. But because I'm on medication, I'm not able to use wine (my body would have odd reactions when I consume food cooked in white wine) I wonder what is flavor-wise the closest nonalcoholic substitute for white wine and red wine?

I have looked at What is a substitute for red or white wine in a recipe? But the answers were not satisfactory. For example, chicken stock has a completely different flavor when substituted for white wine and so does white grape juice. What is [flavor-wise] the closest nonalcoholic substitute for white wine and red wine? Thank you!

I depends on the recipe, but generally no, white wine vinegar is a very different product than white wine. Vinegar is produced when bacteria eat alcohol and produce acid which changes the flavor dramatically. If the recipe calls for acid already (for instance lemon juice) then it can work, you just reduce the additional acid. The result will still be different though.


Why does my knife leave grey streaks in the butter? Sometimes my flatware leaves grey streaks in butter.  I've only seen this with knives in cold butter.  They claim to be stainless steel which I would think wouldn't do this. If I recall they were the very best flatware Target had to offer ;) Is something leaching into my food?

The photo suggests you are using a knife that has serrations.  Dirt can get trapped between the serrations. This is not likely to be metal from the knife, but the dirt.


Japanese steak house menu item? A few years ago in Chicago I had a dish called egg yolk shrimp at a Japanese steak house.  Has anyone else had this dish?  Where would I be able to find this dish again?

I think you're looking for shrimp with egg yolk sauce. Egg yolk sauce is simply a kind of thick mayonnaise which gets dropped on fried (or deep fried, or grilled) shrimp. The yolk sauce usually has some yellow food coloring in it to make it look more eggy. Using canola (rapeseed) oil helps with getting a nice color too.

It should be dead simple to do at home, you can make the yolk sauce ahead of time, then simply pan fry some shrimp and spoon it on the top. If you are going to bread the shrimp I'd suggest putting the sauce on the side so the shrimp stays nice and crispy.


What happens if bread is made with sparkling water? I am making a white bread with 500g regular flour, about 300g water, sourdough starter, yeast and salt. It will rest and raise some time before being baked. Pretty basic.

Now I was wondering, what would happen if I used sparkling water. Will the bubbles do something to the chemical reaction that builds gluten? Or maybe create additional holes in the bread when it's done? Will the bread be significantly different from using plain water?

I am not a chemist, but my grandma always used to make bread (and similar stuff) with sparkling water instead of still water. She always mentioned that the result will be more fluffy and airy. This only addresses the question about the (important) consistency though, but I guess you should just try it out yourself.

Edit:

Some benefits of using sparkling water in the kitchen

As this answer got downvoted to zero I guess my grandma was not convincing enough. So I asked a befriended chef who works at a luxury hotel chain in Germany. Here's what he explained:

Desserts can be made more creamy without actually adding cream. Here he gave examples of pudding/mousse-ish desserts
Vegetables steamed with sparkling water results in less loss of color (i.e. brighter colors), more crispyness, and stronger taste. He particularly recommended to try it with carrots, broccoli or cauliflower.
You can add sparkling water to thick soups shortly before serving to get them more foamy.
Similar with Salad dressings
Last but not least he confirmed precisely what my grandma said. For doughs and similar stuff (for salty or sweet dishes) you would get a nice fluffy texture. Kudos to my grandma at this point.


What does "combine dry ingredients through cloves" mean? I see in several recipes for spice cake to do things like "combine dry ingredients through cloves" or "add flour through cloves". What does that mean? I'm looking at this recipe. It calls for 1/2 tsp - can I use ground cloves instead of whole cloves?

It means to combine the things listed up to and including the cloves, as in "combine ingredients 4 through 11". In that recipe it's just a helpful hint to tell you where the dry ingredients stop.

The recipe is already calling for ground cloves - it mixes them into dry ingredients as-is. When using whole cloves, if you don't immediately just grind them, you generally cook them in something liquid then strain them out later. (Similar to cinnamon sticks or whole allspice.) The cinnamon and nutmeg in the recipe are also ground, not whole. If a recipe wants whole cloves, it will explicitly say, and often count them: 10 [whole] cloves.


What to do with 10 liters Heinz BBQ sauce? I just got a 10 liter bucket of Heinz BBQ sauce for free, and the expiration date is next week. Any ideas how to properly utilize it?

'Expiration' dates on anything that's not baby formula aren't.  They're 'best used by' or 'sell by', but many restaurants will get rid of it for liability issues.

Although it should be good for many months past that date, it'd be better stored refrigerated, and I suspect most people don't have the fridge space for that sort of thing.

What I'd recommend is finding a soup kitchen or similar near you and donating it.  They could slow cook chicken or pork  in it for a very easy meal, or even glaze and grill it.  If any of the churches near you do big dinners as fund raisers, that's another possibility.


I boiled dry my 18/10 ss pot, is it damaged and unsafe to cook with now I was boiling eggs and fell asleep. I think it was boiling dry for about an hour, would the pot be unsafe to cook with now?

It was clean inside but the outside is now slightly yellow tinged. Does stainless steel have any kind of coating in it that might of burnt off? I don't really want to throw the pot away as it is 18/10 and pretty expensive, but I don't want to risk my health.

Thanks

Stainless steel pots are pretty much indestructable and it should be safe to cook with. Just give it a good cleaning. Some hardwarevstores (lowes) have a ss cleaner that might get rid of the yellow tinge. Otherwise, it'll look like every other well used ss pot.

18/10 ss is 18% chromium, 10% nickel, and balance in iron and stable
to higher temperatures. If you didn't drop the hot pot in cold water, or the bottom is really thick, you shouldn't have warping issues either.

An egg timer might be handy next time ;)


Why doesn't milk create gluten when combined with flour? I wanted to make a simple pizza, but as I read the recipe, I began to wonder about the chemistry behind it.

When flour and water come together, gluten starts to form. We know that.
But why doesn't gluten form when only flour and milk come together? 87 percent of the milk consists of water. When I whip the milk and flour, there is no elastic structure.

Milk does create gluten1 when combined with flour.  The water in the milk does create a gluten structure.  If it didn't, any bread made with milk would be dense and flat.  But the dinner rolls I made yesterday (with no water, only milk) were light and airy.  Milk clearly creates gluten.

Note that gluten isn't only about elasticity.  Beginning bread makers often associate gluten with stretchiness, but gluten is also necessary for the structure of bread.  Without gluten development, bread won't rise high.  Without gluten, gases will escape and bubble out, rather than stay in the dough.  Without gluten, the final risen loaf of bread could collapse into a flat, dense pancake.  Different doughs may be easier or harder to stretch into long strands, but that's not all that gluten development is about.

The other ingredients in milk will tend to alter how gluten behaves.  As Jeffrey Hamelman notes in his book Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes:

  Although the lactic acid in milk tightens the gluten structure, the
  fats present soften the structure, and the result is baked products
  that have less elasticity and an even grain.  [...] When milk is used
  in yeast breads, it should be heated to about 190°F, a temperature
  higher than pasteurization, in order to denature the serum protein.
  Unheated, the serum is active and has a weakening effect on the
  structure of the gluten.  Bakers often replace whole milk in formulas
  with dried milk, first for convenience, and second because the serum
  protein is deactivated in dry milk.

A couple takeaways from that:

Milk tightens the gluten structure (which means it won't stretch as easily)
The fats in milk soften the structure, leading to more fine-grained bonding
Some milk proteins can weaken the gluten structure (which will make the dough easier to tear and bread won't rise quite as high; as Hamelman mentions, a remedy for this is using heated milk or dried milk, but bakers often also just use a high-protein flour that generates more gluten to begin with)

The question specifically mentions pizza, and the above issues are one reason that milk is less commonly found in pizza doughs than in things like soft rolls or soft white bread.  Pizza dough needs to stretch easily, and it needs a very strong gluten structure to be stretched thinly.  (Also, the sugars in milk will cause faster browning, which for pizza baked at high temperature may result in a crust that's quite dark.)

1 In response to a comment, I should clarify what I mean as the word gluten is used in modern English in several different ways.  Gluten comes from a Latin word for "glue" and, when used in the context of preparing dough, generally refers to a network created when certain proteins combine with liquid to form a sticky and elastic mass.  The properties of the combined liquid and protein mixture are different from the protein alone, so most cooks use the word gluten to make reference to this specific mixture and its properties.

Nevertheless, as the proteins that occur in flour were isolated historically, the term gluten (or glutens, in plural; in wheat specifically called glutenins and gliadins) also came to refer to the specific proteins generally involved in creating this structure.  Hence, one may also use the word "gluten" sometimes to refer to proteins in flour even when it is dry.  And this dry substance can be isolated and sold separately as "wheat gluten."  (Important note: occasionally, one sees people using the word "gluten" as a synonym for "protein content" of flour.  However, other proteins that are non-glutinous may be found in flour as well, so the total protein content -- often found on labels -- is often different from the fractional amount of that which is gluten.)

This ambiguity of usage -- a wet, elastic substance vs. the dry ingredient that enables its creation -- can be found in many sources.  For a few examples, Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking writes:

  Gluten is a complex mixture of certain wheat proteins that can't
  dissolve in water, but do form associations with water molecules and
  with each other.  When the proteins are dry, they're immobile and
  inert.  When wetted with water, they can change their shape, move
  relative to each other, and form and break bonds with each other.

Here McGee tends toward the second usage, but in subsequent paragraphs he switches nomenclature to refer to the dry components as "glutenins" and concludes by noting: "The result [of bonding and stretching of glutenins] is an extensive interconnected network of coiled proteins, the gluten."  Thus, in McGee's usage, "the gluten" only comes into being in the presence of liquids, conforming to the first usage.

Michel Suas in Advanced Bread and Pastry tends toward the first usage, stating:

  The two primary proteins in wheat -- glutenin [...] and
  gliadin [...] -- are responsible for the formation of the dough.  Depending on their quality, these proteins can absorb 200 to 250
  percent of their weight in water.  As they inflate, they become
  attracted to each other and form chains of proteins called gluten.

Some sources go further and even deny the existence of dry gluten (a view conflicting with the standard second English usage and product labeling). For example, Modernist Cuisine states:

  Gluten is formed when two of wheat’s native proteins, glutenin and
  gliadin, come into contact with water. That’s why it’s more accurate
  to talk about the gluten potential of a particular flour, rather than
  its gluten content.

In any case, it's important to note the distinct meanings of the two uses of the word gluten in English, which can usually be understood from context.  In dough formation, as here, it's quite common to talk about the "formation of gluten" through the addition of liquid, which is what I assume OP was referring to by the phrase "create gluten," a phrase I also incorporated into my answer.


Traditional panettone size & volume? I'm planning to bake an "full size" panettone.  Does anyone know, for a full size panettone:

What is the diameter of the paper mould ?
What is the height of the paper mould  ?
How much dough (weight) goes in it ?
Extra question if 1-3 are not known, how much dough (weight) do you put per liter of mould capacity ?

I found a document somewhere on the internet last year in Italian explaining in detail the panettone process.  Think it was from the application when Italy wanted EU to give them trademark rights to the name 'Panettone'.  Sadly I can't find that doc anymore.

For big (standard) panettoni typical values are:

Mould diameter of 17 cm (6.7 in).
Mould height of 11~13 cm (4.3~5.1 in).
Dough weight about 800 gr (1.7 lb).

Albeit those values are not defined in the Italian "standard", nor in the howto. You can also find wider and lower moulds for the same dough sizes (or upt to 1 kg / 2.2 lb).

You can find those measures in most webs in italian. Also, if you buy an already made panettone it will quite probably have those or very similar measures.
In general, you can use the formula:

  Dough weight (gr) = 1,45 x Mould volume (cm3)

Formula calculated empirically. You can check some values in this italian forum.

When you pour the dough in the mould it will only be filled up to ¼ or ⅓. It needs to rise a lot: above the upper part of the mould.

Here you have a Youtube video on making a homemade mould.
And this page shows you how to do the mould yourself. It's in Spanish, but you can translate it automatically.

Sidenote: Orthodox stress they should be done with lievito naturale (sourdough), not yeasts. Non orthodox italian standard accept only up to 0.01% of yeast.


How to deal with overproofed pizza dough? I’ve been making pizzas on the go with a portable pizza oven and it’s been going really well but sometimes if I don’t time things right I’ll end up with huge seemingly overproofed doughs that become harder to work with as they keep rising. When this happens should I knock them back down again and let the dough proof again in the box?

Over-proofed dough can be saved.  So, if your dough is truly over-proofed.  Degas it, reshape it (in a ball for pizza), and allow it to proof again.


How do I decrease the saltiness in pork meatballs? If I simmer salty pork meatballs in low sodium tomato juice or sauce would it decrease the saltiness in the meatball?

The easiest way to make the taste of the meatball less salty is to make the tomato sauce a bit sweeter than you normally want it.

Another option is to make the sauce a bit spicy. Both sweetness and spiciness will lower your tongue's perception of saltiness.

Note that it will not make the meatballs noticeably less salty themselves. This only hides the saltiness, so if you are trying to lower the sodium due to dietary restrictions, this will not help in that regard.

If the meatball is so salty that the sweet/spicy sauce doesn't mask it, you can re-purpose the meatball in other ways. Some ideas include:

Break them up into little pieces and sprinkle on top of a salad (treat it like how some people treat bacon bits in a salad).
Try eating the meatballs in a sandwich with the sweet/spicy tomato sauce. Sandwich bread is very neutral in taste and can help with the saltiness.
Break into bits and add into a baked pasta dish.
Add it into a vegetable or noodle soup.


Macarons...Why not color the syrup? Much to the amusement of @ElendilTheTall, I'm working on French macarons. I'm using the method that makes an Italian meringue, so I pour hot sugar syrup into the partially whipped egg whites.

The final result is supposed to look like this:

I'm not there yet :/. The recipes that I have consulted add powdered color to the unwhipped egg white and almond flour mixture (I don't have powdered color), or they add gel to the final mixture before folding. One of the recipes warns against that, that the liquid in the color will affect the consistency of the batter.

So why not add the color (and for that matter, any liquid flavoring you might be using) to the syrup? Just before it reaches soft ball stage (the stage at which it is added to the meringue)? The syrup has water in it anyway. It seems that you could even use ordinary liquid food coloring, three drops isn't going to affect the water measurement, kitchen scales are not accurate to fractions of a gram.

If, at the final stage, the color looks a bit too timid, I still can a drop of gel color (less than I would use otherwise) to the final mix.

Why would this be a bad idea?

My actual recipe is paywalled, but this method is close.

I wouldn't do it. One of the hardest things about macarons is to stop just when everything is perfectly mixed together, not a stroke earlier or later.

When you have a small blob of gel color just before you start the macaronage, you will know when everything is mixed well: at the point at which your color is dispersed evenly, you are ready. It is a good indicator, helping you make better macarons.

If you color your syrup (and thus your meringue) evenly, you will lose the important indicator function. I guess you could pull it off once you are a macaron master who can sense the moment to stop, but especially at the beginning, why give the benefits up?


How can I avoid getting swindled? How can I detect polyphosphates in fish fillets? Fish fillets are treated with polyphosphates for several reasons, but mainly to increase their weight (and hence the profit).

According to this FAO paper:

The first and universal effect of all polyphosphate treatment is to
increase the weight of the fish by retaining water
Application of polyphosphate to ...(high quality fish) ... is generally
only of slight value
The dull surface of poor quality fillets from stale fish can also be
given a gloss by treatment with polyphosphate.
Excessive treatment of small products such as shellfish or thin
fillets can even result in undesirable flavour changes and sloppy
texture.

So ... is there a way to know if a fillet has been treated with polyphosphate without buying it first and lending it to your chemist cousin?

Put the fish under a blacklight and dab a bit of 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole stain on it. If it changes glow from blue to green, its been treated with polyphosphate.

You can purchase DAPI stain here: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/d9542?lang=en&region=US

I would suggest cutting a piece of the fish that you will not be eating, dabbing the stain on that piece and tossing it in the bin after.

Or lend it to your chemist cousin :)


What are properties of good whole bean coffee? I'm in search of a great new (commercially-available) brand of coffee for home-use in making both espresso and drip coffee. I used to frequent a local roaster, but I'm a poor grad student and I have to start finding something less artisanal that fits better in my budget.

I know what coffees I like in terms of taste, but I thought I would ask the foodie experts what some "rules of thumb" or properties are of a good whole bean coffee.

Roast Date

Coffee starts to degrade fairly quickly. If you can find someone who roasts locally, that's ideal. The closer you are to the roaster, the less shipping and handling and the more likely you are to get quality coffee. If a company is roasting something to be shipped nation wide, they have to make certain sacrifices. So like @Max said, look for a Roast Date. Within the last week or two is ideal, a couple months is decent.

Origin

For places like Tim Hortons (Canada), McDonalds or Starbucks, they are looking for a very consistent taste every time. This is easier to do with a Darker Roast as you hide some of the nuances of specific crops. Often these will be from multiple origins to "blend" to a consistent taste. There are still many acceptable coffees that are blended like this. However, if you look at many of the Artisianal Coffee Places, they often tend to go for a light or medium Roast. They'll also tend to advertise a specifc farm and country. The reason for this is that with a lighter roast you can taste more of those specific notes in the bean. Some places in my opinion go to far and under roast it. I find in this case it actually comes across as overly sour. So this is entirely up to you what you prefer or are used to.

Packaging

You want something that was vacuum sealed at the roaster. Coffee reacts with oxygen and degrades as soon as it's roasted. Vacuum sealing it immediately, slows down that process. So this means avoid anything in a bulk bin in a coffee shop or grocery store. You also want to buy something that is a whole bean. As soon as you grind it, it also starts to degrade (within minutes). You can find a ceramic burr hand grinder for about $30.

Personal Notes...

For me, I have a few local roasters that I really like, but for my daily cup I can't afford to buy them regularly either. So basically, I look semi-local (for me it's anything in western Canada) for a medium roast  from a company that can tell me where they got their bean. I look for words like "single origin" and "fair trade" and yes, even "organic". I don't actually care if it's Organic, but I've found these companies often care about their product more. When I get the coffee I like to be able to taste something unique in it. I'm not sitting here looking for "hmmm this tastes of elderberries and caramel by the ocean in the fall..." that's a little too much for me. That said, if it just tastes like generic "coffee", then I'm not really interested. Not to say that any of this guarantees their quality... so buyer beware.

I don't think specific brands fits with this site, as it's too specialized/localized, but hopefully that gives you something to look out for.


How to determine quantity of baking powder for baking simple cake? Do I need to double the quantity of baking powder,when all other ingredients are doubled for preparing simple sponge cake?

For doubling a recipe, yes, you double the amount of baking powder.  Issues with increasing a recipe rarely cause trouble until you get to 4x or more.

For baking though, you do want to make sure the depth of the cake is the same as for the original recipe though so that it bakes properly in about the same amount of time.

This recipe from Bon Appetit is a sponge cake for a 13"x 9" pan or a 9" round cake pan.  It mentions that you can double it for a two-layer cake with no other adjustment for the baking powder.

A common mistake may be to also double mixing time -- which you do not want to do since that can cause gluten development.


Is this batch of sauerkraut salvageable? In researching sauerkraut recipes, I saw one could make it in a crock pot or jar covered with cheesecloth. Not having a suitable jar & not wanting to use my crock pot, I'm using a bowl & cheese cloth, checking for mold every day. I got on this site to find out why it doesn't like any fermentation is happening & if I can rinse it because is very salty. It's been 11 days, the cabbage is still crunchy & there is no foam. After reading various posts (thank you, all!) I'm wondering if it's an experimental batch I should throw out.

My kraut doesn't always show signs of foaming, and, even though it is fermenting, it is relatively crisp. Further, 11 days is not very long. The container you use is not that important.  What is important is salt (and if you say it is "very salty" you probably have enough) and keeping the cabbage submerged. You will need to weigh it down so that all of the cabbage is under the liquid.  When you remove some with a clean utensil, what do your senses tell you?  If it feels slimy discard it.  If it smells bad, discard it. If you see fuzzy mold, you are better off starting over.  Otherwise, give it a taste.  My guess is that it is not very fermented after only a week and a half, so I would keep the experiment going.


Is it possible to ferment fresh coconut or its water? Has anyone ever fermented fresh coconut or its water and produced an edible probiotic that tasted good and did not make you sick?

In a word, yes.

According to MakeSauerkraut.com (of all places)

  To make fermented coconut water, the sweet water is mixed with a
  culture (milk kefir grains, water kefir grains, whey from yogurt or a
  powdered starter) and left to ferment for 18 to 48 hours in a warm
  place.

There seems to be a lot of recipes out there for such a thing, a quick internet search for "ferment coconut water" should yield more recipes, methods and the like.


How can I make macarons with "feet" in my oven at home? I've tried many macaron recipes, and all have tasted very good.  The problem is they always end up as a meringue, or looking like cookies.  They usually don't have the "feet" that macarons are known for.  My success rate on every recipe I've tried is about 1 in 6.

Does anyone known what my mistakes are or know a recipe that easily makes macarons with "feet"?

http://joepastry.com/index.php?title=troubleshooting_macarons&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

The point of leaving the cookies to sit on the pan is to dry out the skin so it'll solidify better. I'd suggest resting longer (up to 50 minutes) or using a hotter oven.


What is the ideal hydration for bread dough? I made a bread that called for 1kg of flour and 700ml of water. That is a 70% hydration.

The problem was that the dough became absolutely soaked, so in the end I added more than 500g more flour. Which meant that my salt ratio was off...

The resulting bread was not too bad, but it wasn't great neither.

What is the 'proper' flour to water ratio? I've made bread with 55% water and that was OK. I know this depends on the flour, but some kind of rule of thumb must exist.

Edit I've made the same bread again. This time with 60% hydration as I'm using all purpose flour (11% proteins) and I don't have a mechanic mixer. It turned out alright, but a little bit low. I guess bread flour is really needed here.

Bread hydration varies widely.  The "standard" bread using all-purpose (plain) flour has a ratio of water to flour weight (hydration) 60-65%.  Flour with a higher protein level, labelled as bread, strong, or high-gluten, tend to use 65% hydration.  Ciabatta and rustic breads generally use more water than normal.  The extra water gives them more large, uneven holes in the interior of the bread (called the crumb), and generally leads to a higher-rising bread. These wetter doughs are often referred to as "slack" doughs in baker's parlance.

Here are a couple sample hydrations from Hammelman's bread baking:

Baguettes with poolish, 66% hydration, all bread flour
Ciabatta, 73% hydration, all bread flour
Pain Rustique (rustic bread), 69% hydration, all bread flour
Country Bread, 68% hydration, all bread flour
Roasted Potato bread, 61% hydration, 85% bread flour / 15% whole wheat flour / 25% roasted potatoes
Whole wheat bread, 68% hydration, 50/50 whole wheat and bread flour
Semolina (Durum) bread, 62% hydration, 50/50 durum and bread flours

Mind you, it is quite possible to make a bread with even higher water content, if one is a skilled baker.  Wetter breads (70% hydration and up) generally cannot be hand-kneaded normally, and require a mechanical mixer, stretch-and-fold kneading with a spatula, or autolysis. Autolysis is when you mix water and flour before adding yeast, and then allow it to sit.  This allows enzymes in the flour to develop gluten before the rising begins, and can supplement or replace normal kneading.

Another approach, called double-hydration, is to add only part of the water before kneading.  This allows you to knead the bread to develop gluten structure before it becomes too wet to knead.

For extremely wet breads, these methods may all be combined.  I'm looking right now at a double-hydration, mechanically mixed, autolyzed, poolish-using ciabatta recipe that sits at 76% hydration.


Culinary term for non-flavor defining ingredients In a strongly flavoured soup/stew, curry, or sauce, or salad, you sometimes add other ingredients (eg mixed vegetables) that do not strongly influence the flavor of the end result, but are chosen for color/looks, nutrition, texture or bulk. The flavor/character of the dish itself gets defined/dominated by the spices, aromatics, broths used. They can be, within limits, replaced to make a variation of the same dish.

Is there a proper term to describe that class of ingredients in a recipe?

"Toppings" seems to be specific to salad and pizza, AND sometimes refers to something that defines the flavor/character a lot.

"bulk ingredients" is ambigous, could also refer to how they were procured.

"main ingredients" seems ambigous too.

"mixins" sounds too informal.

"garnish" appears specific to things added to the mostly-cooked dish.

I am going to go with ... Drumroll please ... Fillers

credit to my girlfriend who helped me figure out the word I was looking for.

Examples like you stated...starchy root veg in beef stews or the rice in black beans and rice.

Though ingredients used to add color I would really call a garnish even if it's not placed on top of the finished product.


Keeping crushed ice from melting, without it joining back together You've got a cocktail party and need a supply of crushed ice through the night without having to continually bring out the blender.

Leave it out and it melts quickly.

Put it in the freezer and it joins back together.

Is there some cheap way of keeping it crushed like those super-expensive, super-unreliable Iced-Coke/Slurpee machines do?

As far as I know: No, there isn't. Because is some cases that is the purpose of crushed ice: Melting faster than an ice cube.

I don't know how many guest you have, but I would just keep ice cubes in the freezer. When making a drink, just take some out, hold it in your hand and hit it hard with the back of your bar spoon. Voila, crushed ice.

Please note that this only works with heavy bar spoons, so not every spoon available is made for this purpose.

On another note: You can also buy crushed ice. It comes in large bags. Of course the pieces also join a bit together, but here is a trick. Just throw the closed bag on the floor so the pieces separate. Then take a champagne cooler or something and put your ice in there. Put it in the freezer. It will join a bit of course, but somehow you can still take some out with an ice shovel. This how some bartenders I know do it all summer long during outdoor-events.


Egg wash with no yolks or reduced yolks I am making a recipe today that is basically fried mashed potato bites:

Take cold mashed potatoes and mix in a whole egg.
Form a little ball of potato around a little cube of cheese.
Coat in an egg wash and bread crumbs to make a crust.
Pan-fry the mashed potato ball until crispy.
Bake for a few minutes to finish.

However there is an issue that I did not consider until just now, a few hours before dinner: a guest is allergic to egg yolks. If it were just one egg per four cups of potatoes to help bind them or a little egg wash he might be okay, but the recipe as written has too many yolks. Based on experience, this will cause an allergic reaction.

What can I do to get the same binding effect in the recipe with fewer or no egg yolks?

Is there something I can substitute? So far my Google-fu brings up many alternatives... for brushing on top of bread, not breading and frying.
Could I dilute the egg yolks and still have enough of an effect? For example, if I make a double portion and use one full egg plus the white from a second egg for both mixing in as well as the egg wash. That would likely be dilute enough not to trigger an allergic reaction, but would there be enough yolk to get the job done?

There are no other dietary restrictions relevant to this question.

The recipe: Loaded Cheese-Stuffed Mashed Potato Balls

Four cups of cold mashed potatoes mixed with another cup of toppings and one egg, and another egg used as an egg wash.

The main binding ingredient in eggs is the protein-rich albumen (the white). The yolk generally imparts flavour and richness. So you should be able to simply leave out the yolks entirely and still get pretty good results. You might add some butter at step one (if you haven't already) to substitute the fat in the egg yolk.


Can you add alcohol to chocolate being tempered? I want to make a tempered white chocolate coating with brandy flavour. Will adding the alcohol ruin the tempering process, or is there another way of going about this.

There are two issues, both of which make this a bad idea:

You temper chocolate to give it a hard, snappy texture.  Adding any liquid would be counter-productive to this goal.
All normal alcohol has some percentage of water in it (as much as 60%, for example, for a typical vodka).  Small quantities of water will make chocolate seize turning into a grainy, paste-like mess.

If you really want to flavor chocolate that is to be tempered, you should use a pure essential oil.  These have no water, and are used in very small quantities.

Still, the better bet is to flavor the filling or other ingredients in whatever you are making.


Is there a non-alcoholic beverage that has bubbles like champagne? When drinking champagne, my favorite aspect of the drink, is the endless bubbles floating in tiny streams to the surface along the edge of a champagne flute.   I have very nice champagne flutes, but most sparkling fruit juices just don't have the same bubble action as any champagne.
Is there a non-alcoholic alternative to champagne, that has bubble action similar to champagne?
I ask, because I am physically unable to drink alcohol anymore.

Here, on the east coast of the US, there is a widely available, non-alcoholic, sparkling apple cider.  The producer is Martinelli & Co.


Best way to rehydrate dry black beans so the skins are not hard but beans are soft? I have a recipe for rehydrating red beans that says you should boil them briefly (2 min) then soak them overnight (6-8 hrs) to rehydrate them so that the skins aren't hard.

Is this advisable? Is there a better option?
Does it make any difference?

If you soak your beans in brine (3tbsp table salt per gallon of water, or 1.5% salt by weight) it'll help soften the skins by replacing calcium and magnesium ions in the skin. After soaking for 8–24 hours, drain and rinse. (Source: Cooks Illustrated, login required). Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking also mentions this (p. 488–489) and suggests 1% salt by weight. McGee also mentions that 0.5% baking soda will further reduce cooking times (but may lead to unpleasant taste & mouth feel).

Alternatively, Cook's Illustrated also reports that dried kombu can be used to similar effect, without needing the soak.

Even after brining, taste them when nearly done cooking: you may need to add some salt—it doesn't always penetrate that far into the beans. At least, that's been my experience.

Quick summary:

Create 1–1.5% salt (by weight) brine, approx 3tbsp table salt per gallon of water.
Sort (remove rocks, deformed and damaged beans, etc.) and rinse dried beans. Drain rinse water.
Soak rinsed beans in brine for 8–24 hours. Beans will noticeably swell.
Drain brine, rinse beans again.
Cook beans normally. Towards the end of cooking, season to taste.

You want to season towards the end of the cooking because it results in creamier texture and also eating some beans which haven't been heated to boiling for 10 minutes is ill-advised due to phytohaemagglutinin.


How to make crumbly cookies? I am trying to make alfajores, following this recipe. What steps should I take to make them more crumbly?

You want to minimize gluten formation, like in making pastry. So, use a low-gluten (pastry) flour. That recipe uses cornstarch alongside flour, which makes sense. You also want to, as much as possible, minimize water and coat the starch granules with fat. So, you might try spinning the flour and fat in a food processor before mixing in the wet ingredients. Definitely use the brandy -- same idea as vodka in a pie crust which helps to prevent gluten formation!


To lid or not to lid? I'm currently making a plain chicken broth with the carcasses. It's currently at a low simmer and will be for the next few hours.

If I place a lid on the pot, will it affect the clarity of the broth somehow? I have in the back of my mind that placing a lid can make it cloudy for some reason, but I'm not sure if my mind is making up things or if this is a cooking myth or if it is actually the case somehow.

Leaning towards either cooking myth or my brain making things up again.

What makes it cloudy is a vigorous boil. You want to have a gentle simmer. If you put a lid, it can certainly make it boil (the temperature will be higher, as it has less heat exchange), so it's not a myth.

You are the one who knows what temperature your pot reaches after hours with and without lid. If your temperature is so high that a lid will cause it to boil, leave without the lead. If the temperature is so low that without a lid, it might get too cold to simmer and head towards the danger zone, use the lid. Only your experience with the exact same setting on the exact same stove, the pot you are using and the amount of liquid in it can help you predict how hot it will be.

If you are there to watch the pot and adjust it now and then, then just adjust as needed.


Why is my bread dough rising this quickly? I've been making Jim Lahey's no-knead bread pretty much since the recipe first appeared in the New York Times. In the last year or so, I've noticed a strange phenomenon: the recipe says to let the dough rise for 12-18 hrs., but the dough looks ready after 10 hrs, and sometimes as little as 8. Here's today's dough after 10 hrs:

Lahey's advice is: "Dough is ready when it's dotted with small bubbles," and there they are. And that's fine, but I'm wondering why my dough is rising so much more quickly than the recipe specifies. My kitchen isn't unusually warm, so that can't be it, and I'm not using too much yeast. I'm also using active dry yeast, not instant. Here's the recipe for reference:

420g flour
345g water
8g salt
1g yeast

Combine ingredients and mix to form a soft dough. Cover and let rise
12-18 hrs. Turn out onto a floured surface, fold over on itself, and
let rest 15 mins. Shape into ball, cover, and let rise 2 hrs. Preheat
oven to 450F/220C with cast iron Dutch oven inside. Bake dough in
Dutch oven, covered, for 30 mins, then uncover and bake another 15
mins.

My kitchen isn't unusually warm, so that can't be it

That may be so, but what is the environment of your kitchen like in comparison with Jim Lahey's when he originally produced/tested the recipe? Two major variables in fermentation are temperature and humidity (https://www.polygongroup.com/en-US/blog/the-importance-of-humidity-control-in-bakeries). All other things being equal (e.g. ingredients, technique etc.) these would appear to be the most obvious culprits.
The YouTube baker Bake with Jack (https://youtube.com/c/BakewithjackUk) stresses this point in his training videos to the extent that he states the temperature in his kitchen for all of his recipes, so that people may compensate accordingly. I don't recall any else going as far as actually stating that, but it has certainly helped me achieve more consistent results as a result.


Why is my Mango Pickle foaming with Gas after 3 days, it is beginning to overflow, even though I left 2" from the cap We made a mango pickle with green mangoes. Below is the typical recipe that was used:

20 small tender green mangoes
200g salt
2tsp. turmeric powder
2” asafoetida (rock type)
1 tbsp. peppercorns
3 tbsps. Mustard seeds
¼ tsp. fenutgreekseeds
2 tbsps. Mustard dal
100g red chilli powder
1 sp. Turmeric powder
500ml sesame seed oil

Preparation :
Wash and wipe the mangoes thoroughly. Slit them into fours. Chop 4 or 5 mangoes into cubes.
Sprinkle the salt and turmeric powder on all the mangoes, mix them well ands place in a plastic or wooden vessel. Keep heavy weight over the mangoes and leave them for 4 days.
Daily, turn the mangoes gently, upside down to ensure that the natural green colour of the mangoes has changed. Drain out the grime and salt if any into a pan and boil it. Cool.
Meanwhile remove the soft seeds from each of the mangoes carefully. Remove the black skin too if any. Should there be any hard seed, do not remove it. Next, heat a tablespoon of oil in a small pan, keep the flame low and toss in the asafoetida. Remove it after a minute. Repeat with peppercorns, mustard and fenugreek seeds. Cool the spices and grind fine. Do not use nay water. Heat the remaining oil in another pan and cool thoroughly. Now mix the chilli powder with mustard dal, turmeric powder and the ground spice, add salt (the mixture should be slightly salty). Mix some cooled oil into spice mixture. Stuff each mango with a small lump of the spice paste. Place all the stuffed mangoes in a wide mouthed jar. Pour the grime and the remaining heated and cooled oil.

Now 3 days later this pickle is foaming with gas.  How can I prevent this from happening.  What am I doing wrong.  I have seen some of your posts and you seem to have a lot of experience in this area.

This "pickle" has no acid whatsoever, which is needed to pickle preserve the mangoes.

I can only infer that it is intended to be a fermented pickle (perhaps akin to saurkraut, given the high level of salt), where bacteria break down the sugars in the mangoes and produce acid (typically lactic and acetic), and carbon dioxide.   The off gassing of the carbon dioxide can be seen as bubbling as the mangoes ferment, and would be a normal part of the process.

The fermentation process would normally take several days to a couple of weeks (depending on temperature, mostly, and the size of the mangoes).   Is that what your recipe suggests?

If this is not meant to be a fermented pickle, then you are seeing signs of very aggressive spoilage.


How can I determine how powerful certain herbs and spices are? Is there a list? I am trying to determine the relative strength or potency of flavour that comes from different spices and herbs. I often find myself lost when trying to blend recipes since certain spices can be quite potent and it is easy to ruin a recipe with a powerful spice from another recipe. The best solution is to divide the weight of the spices by the total weight of the recipe in order to apply a similar ratio in my own recipe, but this is extremely cumbersome.

A simple way to address this issue would be to add spices based on their relative potency. For example: if I have 10g of dried thyme and I want to add nutmeg to the recipe, and I know that nutmeg is roughly 10x more potent (just a guess!), then I can add 1g of nutmeg and I can be assured I haven't ruined the recipe.

I know spices vary in their flavourfulness based on their age, different parts of the world, how they're processed, etc., but there's also no doubt that some are far more potent than others. I know the relative potency of certain herbs and spices offhand, but there are many others I am ignorant about.

Is there a list or resource that ranks the potency of herbs or spices? Some numerical indices would be fantastic, but even just categorization (e.g., very strong, strong, moderate, weak, very weak) would be helpful.

I doubt you could even do this for different brands of hot chilli powder (for example). Never mind trying to come up with an equivalent between things that aren't equivalent. Fresh chillies are even more variable. Strong flavours like herbs and spices interact with the other flavours in a dish, so something you find equivalent in one dish won't be right in another. Example: cumin can overpower a mild curry if you're not careful, but a large batch of my slow cooked chilli could handle a huge amount, while too much cinnamon in either wouldn't taste right, and the curry could take a decent bit of ginger while the chilli would cease to taste like chilli.

Ginger, mustard and chilli are all hot spices, but the difference is one of kind, not just degree. You even feel the heat in different places (chilli more in the throat, mustard in the nose). Further, one person's perception of these different kinds of heat will be very different to another's - I could say that a sample of mustard is hotter than a sample of chilli sauce. You could say the opposite, and we could both be right.

The solution, to a large extent, is to test when making an unfamiliar dish or using unfamiliar ingredients. Accepting some variability is also necessary. Most herbs and many spices can be adjusted towards the end of cooking, sometimes by using a different form. Of course you need a rough idea of how much to start with, but you won't get that by replacing some amount of thyme with basil.


Do I need to cook the meat filling before stuffing ravioli? I been making ravioli this past week (3 types, butternut squash, various fungi, and spinach  for those interested).

Now I'm onto the meat. Its a pork, beef, and veal mixture.

My question is, do I need to cook the mixture before stuffing into the ravioli? If I do cook it, I'm worried the fat in the meat will make it so that everything won't stick together and therefore be harder to stuff.

On the other hand If I don't cook the meat, I'm worried the raviolis will have to cook too long for the filling to be cooked and the pasta will be way overcooked.

Which is the proper way?

Yes, cook the meat before stuffing into the ravioli.  If you are worried about your mixture being too fatty (which I didn't experience with a non-traditional beef and bacon ravioli), make sure to drain the meat well after cooking, perhaps patting it with clean paper towels to remove excess grease.


How to bake a chicken? I've been using a rotisserie oven to bake my chickens for a while now. However, it's no longer available to me.

My first attempt at baking a chicken in a long time:

Purchase a chicken that's approximately 5 LBS.
Removed the innards of the chicken and washed it.
Marinaded the chicken with Johnny's Seasoning.
Place the chicken on a deep baking tray, resting on a grill.
Let the chicken sit for 2 hours at room temperature.
Baked the chicken at preheated 400 degrees on middle rack for 1:20:00.
Allow the chicken to sit for 20 minutes, then cut it into pieces for consumption.

My results: The chicken was nearly done, but one thigh was a little bloody at the joint.  The other was very bloody at the joint.  I microwaved the bloodier pieces and ate them anyway. The rest of the chicken was cooked pretty well.

My questions: How can I improve upon my process?  Should I be baking the chicken at a lower temperature (350 degrees) for longer?  Should I be baking at 400 degrees for longer?  Should I raise the temperature to 425 degrees?

I've considered using a meat thermometer, but it seems daunting to me and I haven't had a lot of lucky in the past. Maybe my thermometer is just bad?

Any advice is appreciated, but if you can provide reasons for why you advise things, I would be most grateful.

Update:

I've tried some variations with lower temperature and higher temperatures.  The method that has worked best for me is a simpler one adapted from this link:

http://thepauperedchef.com/2006/06/kafkas_simple_r.html

Purchase a chicken that's approximately 5 LBS.
Removed the innards of the chicken and washed it.
Marinaded the chicken with Johnny's Seasoning.
Let the chicken sit for 2 hours at room temperature.
Place the chicken on a deep baking tray, resting breast-side down on a grill.
Baked the chicken at preheated **500** degrees on middle rack for 50 minutes (10 min/lb).
Allow the chicken to sit for 10 minutes, then cut it into pieces for consumption.

As the link warns, there is lots of smoke.  The breast is tender, the thighs are juicy and cooked.  It's the best chicken I've ever made.

One thing I wonder is if your oven temperature is accurate? An oven thermometer helps there. As well as a pizza stone to maintain a steady temperature. Also, how big was your chicken? Maybe you didn't cook long enough for the weight.

The method I use is this: Pre-heat the oven to 450. Clean bird, remove innards, truss. Salt (Tbls or so) and pepper or otherwise rub on marinade. Place the bird on a large cast iron skillet and cook for 1 hour. Remove bird and let rest for 10 minutes and meanwhile make a sauce utilizing the remnants in the pan. The skin is brown and the meat is juicy. This method is in Michael Ruhlman's, 'Ratio'. I find it to be a great method for basic roasted chicken.

I usually use a 4 - 5 lb chicken and haven't checked the internal temps since the first few times of using this recipe except for when I'm at or over the upper end.


When used for measuring ingredients in cooking what is the difference between a "dry ounce" and a "liquid ounce"? I've seen numerous recipes that call for measuring "liquid ounce" but at the same time telling you to measure something like flour as "dry ounce" - I've even seen references to "fluid ounces".  Are they interchangeable when measuring ingredients?  If not why, if so why separate the two types of measurements?

Both liquid ounces and fluid ounces are the same. They are a measure of volume. These are commonly called liquid measurements. These include: teaspoon, tablespoon, fluid ounce, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. Why fluid? Because it's measuring volume.

The term "dry ounce" is one I have never encountered. It's rather confusing and misleading. Technically a dry ounce would imply a measurement of weight. 1 oz = 28g.

Your recipe could be calling for a measurement by weight of flour, or it could be using a terrible phrase "dry ounce" to imply that you should measure the flour with a measuring cup used for dry measure, as opposed to a measuring cup used for liquids.


Can half cooked pork chops be cooled then fully cooked later? I started baking pork chops at about 2pm. 30 mins into cooking I had to leave. I turned off oven and left. It's now 640pm and I'm just getting home. The pan is still slightly warm. Are the pork chops still good to continue cooking?

Even though you turned the oven off when you left, there was still likely enough residual heat to continue cooking the chops.  Rather than a half-cooked chop that sat out for 4 hours, you've got mostly or fully-cooked chops that sat in a warm environment for 2-3 hours.  Whether they hit the recommended internal temperature (which is now actually 145F with a 3-minute rest for fresh pork, rather than the 165F quoted in other answers, at least according to the USDA) is anyone's guess.
From a culinary standpoint, since they've been pretty well cooked, baking them back up to that temperature (or more likely to 165F, which is the recommended temp for leftovers) will probably dry them into leathery little pucks.  If you're going to risk re-cooking and eating these, I'd recommend a higher-moisture cooking method like braising; chops stand up pretty well to this treatment.
As mentioned in comments, these have been sitting at near-room temperature for longer than is generally considered safe.  And without knowing what temperature the interior of the chops reached, it's unknown how safe they would have been even if you returned before they cooled into the dreaded "danger zone".  There are a lot of questions here from a safety standpoint.  I'll quote another answer here, as I think this says it best:

The safe limit for raw or cooked food is 2 hours in the danger zone (40-140° F or 4.4-60° C).
If you're a restaurant owner or cook, you must follow this rule [...] If you are not working in a professional capacity then you are not legally required to follow it, but if you are serving guests then it would be irresponsible (and possibly actionable, if someone gets sick) to do otherwise.
If you're an individual serving only yourself, then take whatever liberties and break whatever rules you want; it's your food, and your body.

I personally would probably write these off as a loss, but I tend to be fairly risk-averse.


Refrigerator pickles in plastic? This year I'm going to try my hand at pickling. I've found recipes for asparagus refrigerator pickles that sound good, but they all say to use mason jars. I have a number of plastic containers that are of a perfect size and shape. Is there a good reason to use glass rather than plastic for refrigerator pickles?

Advantages of glass:  you can see the product....the container does not pick up any flavor or color from the product...other than that, in this case (refrigerator pickle) there is no reason not to use your plastic.  In fact, the only reason to use glass, that I can think of, is if you we going to can your pickles for extended shelf life. Then, of course, would would need Mason jars or equivalent.  Fermenting, doesn't have much to do with this question either.  I often store homemade sauerkraut and kimchee in plastic quart containers without issue.


How long should you cook lamb steaks? I saw some posts about lamb. but they were related to lamb leg steaks, etc.

Any way, how long should i grill these lamb steaks?

I want them to be a medium? Or should they be served rare (i'm not sure how they're typically served in restaurants) ?

They're about 1/2" thick and they're  (two) both about 0.7 lbs each.

I think they usually make them medium at the restaurants, but you could get rare if you like.

Anyway, with a .7 pound lamb, you could probably warm the oven up at 120C for 10 minutes, then put in the lamb, and turn the thermometer up to 180C for round about half an hour, and it should done to a turn.

Leastways, that's what I did.


Soy sauce substitute I'm cooking for a friend that, for medical reasons, must eat vegan, and soy-free.  I was really wanting to make a vegetarian stir-fry for her, but I can't come up with or find any sauce that would be good in a stir-fry without meat nor soy-sauce.  Must be too dependent on butter+soy sauce myself. =P

I was thinking, I'd add mushrooms to the stir-fry to get the umami, use sherry+veggie broth to create the liquid, and using ginger+garlic+salt for flavor, but that seems like it'd be too light. There must be some way to get that dark rich flavor of soy sauce without soy?

You can caramelise onions for making the rich sweet-savoury flavour, but you have to caramelise it slowly, and be very patient...it doesn't get made in 5 minutes.

Also, for something ready-made, Coconut Secret makes a coconut-based liquid aminos that contain no soy, and we got it at Whole Foods.


Can Freshly Caught Fish Remain "Fresh" for 2 to 3 Days in Refrigerator? I have often heard that fresh-caught fish, properly stored in a refrigerator, will remain fresh for 2-3 days.  Does this mean that the fish can be considered fresh, stored in this manner, by counting the number of days from when it was removed from the water? Also, what conditions need to be met in order for fish to truly be considered fresh?

As far as I am aware, even "fresh" fish purchased from fishmongers has already been out of the water for a few days.

In my opinion 2-3 days is really just a guide to remind people that fish is highly perishable, more so than most animal proteins.  Do not toss it in the refrigerator and expect to wait a week to get around to cooking it and expect it to still be edible.

From time out of water to cooking, it will greatly depend on variety, size, etc., but if it is properly cared for you will normally have longer than 2-3 days from catch.  But, the longer it is from catch to cleaning, time is reduced, that is offal will deteriorate faster than flesh but damage the flesh if not promptly removed.  Poor cleaning deteriorates the flesh.  Any time out of optimal temperature storage, reduces useful time.  You have no idea really how long any of these periods are, unless you harvested the fish yourself, so you assume reasonable handling and that from the time the merchant makes it available, you probably have 2-3 days before you risk spoilage and try to be familiar enough with your merchant that they have not already had it sitting for 2-3 days.

All of this though is non-optimal.  Fish, and all seafood deteriorates fast.  It is not like beef that often benefits from aging.  Seafood quality goes down by the hour after harvest.  If any seafood that begins to smell like anything other that fresh is past its prime at best.  Sliminess, dullness of the surface, any loss of firmness, weeping of fluids, these are almost always signs that the fish is either past its prime or simply beyond usefulness.  Some fish are soft to begin with such as salmon, but comparing two fish of the same variety, the firmer fish will almost always be get fresher or better handled fish.


Are these Red Beans or Red Kidney beans? Hello
I would like to ask the community, if this the kidney beans are (which are good for rajma) or these are the red beans. The package says RED BEANS only..
Thank you

Though people seem to consider them 'the same thing' they are actually not. There is a 'red bean' distinct from a kidney bean.
What you have there, though, are kidney beans.
I found a couple of sources of comparison. The first, in text, from an actual bean company, Randall, which I thought gave it some added authority.

Kidney Beans
Of the three [they were including pintos, which we don't need here], kidney beans are noticeably the
biggest and plumpest. Looked at side-by-side with other beans,
kidney beans also have a much more distinct shape that isn’t as round
and oblong and looks more like a kidney. Go figure! Their thicker dark
red skin makes them ideal for and commonly used in lots of dishes that
are cooked over long periods of time like chili, baked beans, and
jambalaya where they are great at soaking up and absorbing other
flavors in the dish. But, they are also a great hearty and healthy
protein topper for salad too.
Red Beans
While many people think kidney beans and red beans are the same, they are actually two different kinds of beans! When you put
one next to the other, the visual differences are immediately
apparent. Where kidney beans are one of the largest beans, red beans
are much smaller and retain the classic oblong shape. And while both
are red, kidney beans have a darker, more crimson shade while red
beans are much brighter, almost pinkish, shade of red and have a much
“beanier” taste. Despite their differences, red beans do often go in
similar rice and stew recipes as kidney beans and pinto beans.

…and another source with pictures… Difference Guru
Kidney beans

Red beans


How careful do you have to be with adding flour for kneading? When you're working a dough (kneading or rolling out), instructions often say to flour the surface you're working on and your rolling pin or hands. This helps the dough to stick less. However, I always am very careful that I don't use too much flour, because I'm afraid this will change the recipe. Is this fear irrational or would I need to use a lot to have an effect on the result? Is there a certain percentage of original amount of flour that you can't surpass?

I'm particularly asking about bread dough, but I think this will also apply to other doughs. I guess it would have more rapidly an effect on wetter doughs in general, but I'm not sure. So feel free to include broader answers.

Don't worry too much about it.

Be careful that some doughs are wet (high hydration - look at my question here), so they tend to stick more and are harder to manage.

If a dough is hard to manage, just let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. It will become tougher and easier to handle.

If you keep on adding flour, this will alter the bread formula (affecting the salt content and hydration), an additional percent or two flour won't make much of a difference.


How to deconstruct a pumpkin In a fit of pumpkin-bread-craving I bought a pumpkin (labelled "for cooking" instead of "show"), only to realize I have no idea what to do with it. I already plan on scraping the seeds out and roasting them, but how can I convert the vegetable in front of me into something like canned pumpkin for use in bread, pancakes, etc?

Edit: Thanks, everyone! Your suggestions worked wonderfully. I removed the seeds/stringy stuff, roasted it at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 1hr, then dropped it down to 300 for the last 15 minutes. I then let it cool, peeled the skin, and blended the daylights out of it (I added a little water to help the process, as I like having a working blender). The result was a smooth, flavorful pumpkin mash that I plan on nomming on for awhile :)

You have to get the skin off and the flesh cooked.

The easiest way is to cut the gourd into chunks and steam it. When cooled the peel can be easily removed.

Roasting takes longer but results in a far more flavorful product. The pumpkin is more concentrated and if it browns it has more depth of flavor as well.

I have sometimes peeled the pumpkin with a peeler before cooking because I didn't want to wait for it to cool (and I'm not a huge fan of handling slimy cooked pumpkin more than I have to.)

After cooking the flesh can be mashed.

Avoid boiling. The flesh will be waterlogged and in order to make it useful for baking it would have to be reduced/settled+drained, etc. Not good eats.

Hmmm. I'm afraid one of my kids' jack-o-lanterns is going to find itself in a pumpkin curry soon.

** Edit **

I should also note that I have never produced cooked pumpkin that was overly similar to canned pumpkin. I haven't tried. The homemade pumpkin is still recognizable as having natural origins. Canned pumpkin has its place, I prefer it in pie for example, but I wouldn't consider canned pumpkin to be the goal.

** Edit part deux **

Derobert has written a beautiful blog post on this subject that puts this answer to shame:
comestible-orange-goo-making-puree-from-fresh-pumpkins


UK versus US expiration dates on diet sodas I took a trip to the UK last week, and as an avid Coke Zero drinker, was surprised to find that my Coke Zero supposedly expired in March 2016 in most places I went.

Surprised, because in the US, diet sodas are typically dated 3-4 months from production, and actually do taste noticeably less sweet at that point (to the point that some brands of soda, including Coke Zero, are undrinkable for me if they're at the expiration date).  March 2016, even assuming they were produced next door and stocked that day, was almost 6 months out, and considering about 75% of the sodas I found were that date (I did see some Jan and Dec, but almost all Mar) it sounds like they're dated at least six months out.  But even the Dec dated sodas tasted fine (Which, if they were 3 months old, would start tasting off to me normally in the US).

Why is that? Does the UK have different regulations, or are there different formulas that explain it, or different storage, or ... something else?  The base sweeteners were the same (Aspartame and Ace-K), though of course it's impossible to tell %s in the US so who knows if they're the same; and I think it all tasted differently there than in the US, so it's hard to say if there's more/less in there.

First of all, sweeteners like Aspartame lose their sweetening property over time, as you have noticed yourself. This is very strongly tied to the pH level they are in.

US and UK/EU coke (or any country) is different, but you usually only notice the difference if you have them available for direct comparison. Coca Cola issues licenses and the plant managers produce the coke, but they do have a certain bandwidth they can operate in - usually to cater to local issues, like component availability, price, water quality. You can even taste differences in different batches of the same production plant, if you have them available for direct comparison and if you have a trained taste.

So, the deviation of the pH level in the different products results in different best before dates. The US coke pH level deviates more from the optimal level for Aspartame than the UK coke, so the US coke has a shorter best before date.

Whether the different pH level is on purpose or a necessity: no idea.


How to check if baking powder is fresh? How do I know if my baking powder and baking soda are still fresh?

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, a mineral. Left to itself in a clean and dry place, it will remain unchanged for billions of years. In particularly wet or polluted environments it may react with chemicals in the air and become unpleasant for use in food, which you can detect by smell.

Baking powder is a combination of baking soda and tartaric acid, which react in the presence of water. Eventually, even the moisture in the atmosphere is enough to cause this to happen. Checking whether your powder is still active is easy...just add a drop of water to a small bit. If it bubbles and reacts, it's still good.


Is the appetizer of a three-course meal always a salad? A dictionary says

  A three-course meal in a local restaurant will not cost more than $10.
  The three-course meal includes an appetizer, entrée, and dessert.
  The first course of the three-course meal is a salad.

It seems to indicate the appetizer of a three-course meal is always a salad, is it true? Is it true just in the U.S.?

The three sentences you quote are example usage of the phrase, and not part of the definition. These are simply sentences that demonstrate usage of the defined phrase, but are not part of the definition.

The definition, which is always true, is this part:

  A three-course meal is a meal that consists of three parts served one after the other.

Other statements that could be true of a three-course meal:

A three-course meal can cost significantly more than $10.
The three-course meal could include courses of a salami, a pasta, and a meat.
The last course of a three-course meal could be a salad


White sauce without roux Recently I have been making white sauce by:

heating the milk in a pan until nearly boiling
mixing corn flour with a small amount of cold milk
removing milk from stove
add corn flour mix to hot milk
stir until thick.

This is very fast and never produces lumps, but what are the disadvantages versus using the traditional roux approach?

If it works for you (you like the results), there really isn't a disadvantage unless you have leftovers. Cornstarch (cornflour) thickened sauces tend to thin upon reheating more than roux thickened sauces. Depending upon what you are making, you may or may not notice it much if at all.


What kind of mushroom goes well with Tandoori Chicken on a pizza? I was thinking of making a pizza with the following ingredients which I found on reddit.com.  I'm looking for a dream team of herbs, spices and mushrooms to complete this.

Sun dried tomato and garlic sauce
Extra Cheese
Onions
Mushroom
Roquito Peppers
Tandoori Chicken
Chorizo (Optional)
Herbs

What kind of mushrooms would you use?  I was also wondering if anyone had any ideas for the herbs besides fresh basil, and oregano?

Not the question you asked, but properly done tandoori chicken or Mexican chorizo will completely mask all of the other flavors you list.  Subbing a simple grilled chicken and Spanish chorizo makes for a nice savory pizza (indeed, I had just that pizza last night, without chorizo).  In that case, simple white, button, or crimini mushrooms (the latter sometime sold as "baby portabello") will give a nice earthy note without breaking the bank.   Saute' them before putting them on the pizza for maximal flavor and minimal chewiness.

As for herbs, basil and oregano are obvious, and nothing else is required.  Marjoram and/or nutmeg would be okay. Lemongrass would be interesting but maybe overkill.


Modernist / molecular cuisine with a microwave? The microwave is usually frowned upon by ambitious chefs. It provides a convenient way to quickly heat ready made meals or the leftovers from the day before, but it is usually not regarded as a serious kitchen utensil (as is testified by one of the answers below).

However, it seems to me that the unique way in which a microwave delivers heat should open up possibilities for food preparation that simply did not exist before the introduction of this device.

Not being an experienced "microwave chef" myself (in fact I never had access to one until very recently) I ask myself:

Aren't there any crazy avantgardistic or molecular cuisine type ways of preparing food that exploit the specifics of a microwave oven in an unconventional way?

One creative invention that requires the use of a microwave oven is the Frozen Florida - a reverse Baked Alaska. And seeing as this was invented by Nicholas Kurti, it surely counts as Molecular Cuisine. (see https://blog.khymos.org/molecular-gastronomy/history/ )

  The inverted baked Alaska, described as a Frozen Florida, consists of a container made out of meringue. The container is filled with an alcoholic liquor and put in the freezer. After a couple of hours, the container is taken from the freezer and put into a microwave oven. The result is a dessert which is hot inside, but remains cold on the outside

I just found something else - a Vacquelin is an egg-white foam stabilized in the microwave oven. I haven't tried it, but it sounds a bit like a cross between warm ice-cream and meringue.