What can I use instead of Sriracha if I only want to make a dish non-spicy, but similarly flavorful? The specific recipe I'm making is http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/08/spicy-noodles/ (copied at bottom for posterity).

I'm a big fan of the spice, but my guests and partner are often not. Since the sriracha is a critical part of the sauce, and makes the noodles quite spicy, I'd like to somehow avoid the spicy effect, while keeping the flavor, texture, and if possible color, reasonably similar. The dish is alright if you simply remove the sriracha and keep the soy sauce and brown sugar, but it's not as flavorful. Is there anything that is similarly flavorful that I could use, but that doesn't have the spice?

I've also tried an equal amount tomato paste, and holy crap was that a mistake. There might be some other way to use tomatoes, though.

  Ingredients

  4 oz. lo mein noodles $1.13
  2 Tbsp butter $0.20
  ¼ tsp crushed red pepper $0.02
  1 large egg $0.25
  1 Tbsp brown sugar $0.02
  1 Tbsp soy sauce $0.02
  1 Tbsp sriracha (rooster sauce) $0.08
  1 handful fresh cilantro $0.22
  1 sliced green onion $0.06

  Instructions

  Begin to boil water for the noodles. Once the water reaches a full boil, add the noodles and cook according to the package directions (boil for 5-7 minutes).
  While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the sauce. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar, soy sauce, and sriracha.
  In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Add the red pepper to the butter as it melts. Whisk an egg in a bowl and then add to the melted butter. Stir gently and cook through. Once the egg is done cooking, turn off the heat.
  When the noodles are tender, drain the water and then add them to the skillet with the cooked egg. Also add the prepared sauce. Turn the heat on to low to evaporate excess moisture, and stir until everything is coated well with the sauce. Sprinkle the sliced green onions and cilantro leaves (whole) on top and serve!
  ```

There are a lot of things you could add that would deliver a similar pepper and garlic flavor.  One thing that comes to mind is Ajvar.  It's a Serbian relish made primarily from red bell peppers, garlic, and eggplant.  I live in the US, and the local supermarket carries it in both mild and spicy versions.  Aside from being a lot milder, the flavor profile is pretty similar to sriracha sauce.

If you don't mind doing some more work, you could roast, skin, and mash some red bell peppers yourself.  Then add some garlic, a bit of something sweet (optional), and some hot pepper (also optional).


How to choose good quality Chinese slicer knives? Chinese slicer knives look like cleavers, but are very thin and meant to chop foods that are reasonably soft, e.g. not bone.

I've heard that Chan Chi Kee (CCK) is the best, but it's very difficult to compare since it is very difficult to find good Chinese knives to begin with, and then it's even more difficult to try them out at a store. In addition to CCK, I've also heard of Shuanghuan. Both of these brands are from Hong Kong. Can any professional cooks elaborate on their use and benefits? What are the advantages of each of these brands? Are there other good slicer knives I should consider?

Short answer:
 I've only heard good things about the CCK #1 small slicer, and would suggest that.  If you're new to the style of knife, pick up a cheap carbon-steel Dexter Russell one for like $20-25 at your local Chinatown.

Long answer: Chinese slicer knives (more commonly called Chinese cleavers) are multipurpose knives, so they fill the same niche as French-style chef knives.  They're common options for cheap restaurant knives, and I've seen them used professionally.  I now use a Dexter Chinese Cleaver as my primary knife at home.

The common features of Chinese cleavers are a squared-off, deep, often carbon steel blade, bamboo barrel-style handle, and pure awesomeness.  Generally the blades are around 200mm long x 75-90mm deep, or about 8" x 3".  As you note, the blades are not as heavy or thick as German-style cleavers, so they can't handle bone.

Although they get mentioned a lot for vegetable chopping, Chinese cleavers are remarkably flexible for both meat and vegetables. You can find videos of Chef Martin Yan deboning a chicken in under 30 seconds with a Chinese cleaver. The deep blade makes chopping thick objects simple, where the squared corner is remarkable for fine detail work.  The spine of the knife can be used to tenderize meat or scrape cutting boards. The broad blade is perfect for transferring cut product to a pan.  You can even use the handle for crushing spices!

The carbon steel blades can be love or hate for many people.  Personally, I love how mine takes and holds an edge comparable to the most expensive stainless steels.  The fly in the ointment is that they can rust right before your eyes if you cut lemons or acidic tomatoes.  They should always be cleaned and dried PROMPTLY after use, to avoid rust. Between use, I oil mine lightly with vegetable oil, as an extra precaution. Between this and the water-intolerance of the bamboo handle, they do need some special care.

Although stainless-steel cleavers are becoming more common, I really think it defeats the point if you use one.  They're supposed to be cheap and ugly, but workhorses. A good Chinese cleaver shouldn't set you back more than $50 in your local Chinatown or online... mine was about $25 and it does dang fine, though I will probably upgrade to a CCK #1 eventually.


How can you tell if a freezer rose above freezing? How can one tell, after a power failure, if the contents of a freezer warmed above freezing?   Knowing this, and knowing the actual temperature in the freezer, will help decide whether food can be kept, or must be discarded.

The University of Ohio extension publishes a clever tip:

  Place two or three ice cubes in a plastic freezer bag and seal. Keep this in the freezer at all times. In an upright freezer, you can have a test bag on each shelf. If there is a power outage you will know if the interior temperature was above 32°F if the cubes melt. If the cubes are melted, quickly determine the temperature of the water in the bag and you will know the temperature inside the freezer.

Of course, they also recommend having a proper freezer thermometer.


How do I use Cacao Nibs in the chocolate making recipe The chocolate making recipes usually say Cacao powder and Cacao butter. What if I have nibs?

I can process/blitz them, but do I substitute the nibs for powder, butter or both? What is the substitution rate?

Cocoa nibs are actually one step upstream in the chocolate making process from both cocoa powder and cocoa butter.  They are fragments of the fermented and roasted cocoa bean, before any other processing can occur.

Usually, to get chocolate from nibs - the nibs are ground to a powder, then a fine paste, then keep grinding until it is a liquid (known as chocolate liqueur) which can be pressed to separate the cocoa butter from the solids that become cocoa powder - which are stored more easily, used for different purposes, or combined in different proportions.  Add some sugar to the paste for dark chocolate, add some milk powder for milk chocolate - and you have chocolate!  In a crude and basic form, of course.  There's an article on the overall process, here, though this website here is aimed at serious home chocolate makers and has more information with detailed steps and resources.

This page has some ideas for substituting home-made chocolate liqueur (your nibs ground to liquid paste, recall) into other recipes if that, rather than chocolate bars, was your ultimate goal.  Your nib paste (or powder, fragments, even chunks) can be used to add texture to your recipe, depending on how fine you ground them - but you would be substituting for an equal weight of unsweetened baker's chocolate.  Add sugar for the right percentage of dark chocolate, and additional milk powder (~6oz per pound from that page, or to taste) if substituting for milk chocolate.  Remember to calculate the percentage of cocoa in milk chocolate against the combined measurement of milk powder and sugar.  That is pretty much the bulk of ingredients for chocolate, missing only stabilizers (like soy lecithin) or minor flavoring agents (a drop of vanilla, some soured milk, a dash of salt) which some companies might add to make their chocolate stand out.

Trying to substitute for either cocoa powder or cocoa butter specifically would be exceedingly difficult, since they are both included in your nibs, and substituting for the combined mass might not work if your nibs have a different percentage (which depends on the beans themselves, so, tricky).

Of course, commercial chocolate meant for bars is usually also conched (finely ground for silky texture) and tempered (heated for stability).  These might be a little trickier to do on a home-made or hobbyist scale - conching in particular takes hours of or even days of fine grinding - but something like an electric wet grinder used in Indian cooking might do the trick, if you already have one or are willing to shell out the cash for just this recipe.

But without that conching, your homemade chocolate will tend to be gritty and rough - which is fine if that's what you're going for, "Mexican-style" chocolate is a thing and you can add coarse sugar crystals to accentuate the texture - just be aware of the difference.  Tempering involves bringing your chocolate to specific temperatures to make it more heat stable,and give it a professional sheen and snap - it can be done at home (it is tricky, but doable), or even done without depending on what you're using it for, but again be aware of the difference.


Difference between Fleischkäse, Mortadella, and Parizer I am a great fan of some cold meats typical to Germany, Italy, and Romania. Surprisingly, I was unable to find a definition of how they are made which is sufficiently accurate to determine any significant difference. They are clearly different visually:

Fleischkäse is usually shaped in a cake form and often has a dark crust.
Mortadella is very large in diameter and has white (presumably fatty?) inclusions.
Parizer seems to be the most heterogeneous of the three, but is usually a bit smaller in diameter than Mortadella and has willful inclusions (olives, pistachios, mushrooms, etc.).

But to me it seems the pinkish substance which makes up most of these cold meats is exactly the same. Could you explain in how far these are regional variations of essentially the same product, or whether there's a more fundamental difference?

Your instinct is correct, all your favourites fall into one category of saussage: Brühwurst.

This means that they follow the same principle when made, which is

Mincing the raw meat and fat with ice or ice water, salt, often curing salt and various spices until a smooth paste forms. This is what you refer to as "pinkish mass".
Shaping the saussages (or loaf in case of Fleischkäse) and sometimes smoking them.
Heating the saussage until the core reaches around 68 C / 154 F, either by scalding in hot water, baking (for Fleischkäse) or roasting. Sometimes this step is left for the customer, e.g. in the case of Fleischkäse that can be baked in the home oven, raw Bratwurst for grilling or Weisswurst.

The differences are in the spices and additional ingredients (pistachios, mushrooms, cubed fat for Mortadella...) details in preparation (coarser chopping or smoother mass, smoking or no smoking, shape) and the percentages of meat / fat / water (typically around 50%/25%/25%).


Where can I find an extremely slim wooden stirring spoon? A friend of mine has this very slim wooden stirring spoon. It's handle is a little thicker than a pencil, and the spoon itself is about 1.5 inches wide.

It does any amazing job of stirring and mixing.

I asked my friend but she doesn't remember where she got it. I've been looking everywhere for something similar with no such luck.

We've got one or two that shape (perhaps with a slightly thicker handle but ergonomically that suits me). Without any particular reason to buy them, and knowing that they're quite light and very similar to some others we have I can be fairly confident that they came in a multi pack of cheap spoons. Maybe everywhere you've looked is too up-market


How to apply oil when seasoning wood cutting board? I used a fair amount of coconut oil to apply to a wood cutting board, but wasn't sure the best way to apply it. I used a butter knife and then followed up with a paper towel to remove some of the excess oil.

Is there a better way to apply it, for example, using a separate wooden tool, sham or even a spray? I thought applying the oil with a towel would absorb too much of the oil making it wasteful.

Also, after applying the oil to the cutting board and waiting a day or two, is it a good idea to clean it again with soap and water? Otherwise, it seems like it will cause a mess on the kitchen shelf.

No need for elaborate application techniques (brushes, spray, etc.).

When I worked in an old style restaurant, the Chef had me:

clean the block with a wire brush**, then wipe free of dust
pour any cheap vegetable based oil directly on the block
use one of the towels from the linen service and vigorously rub the oil in
@wumpus idea for a next day second coat is good, we didn't do that

At home, you could use a painters wire brush, or if you are really motivated: wire brush wheel on an electric drill. Or a stainless steel pot scrubbing brush.
The one I used in the restaurant was similar to this:

The same brush was also used to clean the grill grate.

You can use any rag you want for the oil application. Strong paper towels would even work.

  I thought applying the oil with a towel would absorb too much of the oil making it wasteful.

For a home block, I'd guess you'd have 1 tbps absorbed by the block (that's a good thing). You'd probably loose 1 tbsp in the towel--the cost of doing it right.

  Also, after applying the oil to the cutting board and waiting a day or two, is it a good idea to clean it again with soap and water?

We just used very hot water on a towel to clean. Soap was forbidden. If it was soiled and permeated by something nasty, we would do the entire wire brush cycle again.

** Cleaning with the block with brush: I did it with a dry block. Some of the others would oil the block first, then liberally salt for the abrasive property, then wire brush it. My way gave similar results, but was easier.


Can evaporated milk be converted to sweetened condensed? (Not a duplicate of this question, I don't believe)

If I have a recipe that calls for sweetened condensed milk but only have a can of evaporated milk, is there anything I can do to it to the evaporated milk to make it a suitable replacement for sweetened condensed milk?  Does the heating / sterilizing of evaporated milk ruin it as a replacement?

You may convert evaporated milk into condensed milk by adding sugar to it. For each cup of  evaporated milk add about 1 and 1/4 cups of sugar.  Pour the mixture in a pan, stir while heating on the stovetop until the sugar completely dissolves.  Let cool.  The heating of evaporated milk is similar to the treatment condensed milk undergoes, so the evaporated milk with sugar should be a perfect replacement.


How many minutes in the oven per pound: stuffed turkey My mom is asking. Not sure if she's brining the turkey, but probably. Also, she probably knows the answer but is just testing me.

Per Food Network, plan on 20 minutes per pound at 350F (177C), up to 30 minutes more for a stuffed turkey. Whatever you do, don't count on that silly pop-up thermometer thing, use a real thermometer. The thickest part of the thigh and the stuffing should register 165F (74C). Don't forget to let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

For what it's worth, stuffing a turkey is criminal. Check out what Serious Eats has to say.


Similar cheeses to Queso fresco in Belgium? I am a mexican~american living in Belgium, what would be the best substitute for the Fresco mexican cheese? Thank you!

I would say: soft cheeses, like here is a easy way to make instant cheese: 16oz. Cup organic farm milk, 4 oz. White. Vinegar, pour into a pot and boil on stove top 5 mins. Then turn off fire- and let sit uncovered, for a hour untell cold
Pour liquid milk into a cheese cloth in to a bowl.
The clumps be cream cheese - great for crackers.
I like to keep those cake spread small containers with blue lid and make cream cheese to carry along in back pack -with crackers - with a spoon.
Great for picnic or hiking also when one walks alot.


I saved the geletinious material from roasting the turkey. Is this appropriate for use in turkey soup? I saved the gelatinous material from roasting a turkey. Is it appropriate to use this when making turkey soup?

Yes it is appropriate, and should be used within five days for freshness.

The gelatinous material from roasting the turkey is often used to make homemade bone broth soup.


How can I get rid of garlic breath? I personally do not enjoy eating garlic, but some people in my family do. I really dislike the smell, and I care for them. I do not want to be rude, but if I can have some help on how to get rid of the smell, that would be great! Thanks!

Before answering directly to the quesiotn, a little forword is needed:

The garlic contains allicina (alliisina , glucoside solforato), an enzyme (alliinasi), vitamine A, B1, B2, C and niacina (another vitamin in B complex).

What happens is that there is a serie of chemical reactions when you chew the garlic, with the result of creating allile disolphour, which is what have the typical garlic smell.

The latter substance is very volatile and easily get in solution in liquid and gases.

So.... (this is the interesting part) when you ingest it, the propagate almost everywhere in your body. That's why you can smell it thorugh the organs which eliminate this substance, that is to say lungs, kidney, skin.
Hence, in conclusion, when you eat garlic, it is not only a problem of your breath, but your whole body smells of garlic (in fact if you make sport and you sweat, you'll see you smell of garlic).

This said, here are some remedies for the breath:

Chew sage leaves or prasley
Chew cofee grains
Drink a liquorice or mint decoction
Chew liquorice stick
Chew anice grains
Eat slowly a honey spoon
Eat slowly an apple
Drink slowly a grappa
Drink some milk or some yougurt spoon
Chew slowly some lemon slices
Drink some sodium bicarbonate.
last, use mouthwash prepared with cloramine solution at 1%; the clorite will get in contact with your body tissues, mitigating the garlic essential oil effect.

In any case, after a while (maybe hours) the smell will come up again.

So, apart from not eating it, another remedy is in the cooking:

If you make the garlic boil before using it, the high temperature will inibite the production of the smelling agent, and you'll not have this killing smell.

References:

http://www.placidasignora.com/2011/01/14/chi-laglio-mangia-daglio-sa-rimedi-contro-il-puteolare/

http://benessere.atuttonet.it/consigli/rimedi/alito-aglio-rimedi.php


How to keep flies away from curing meat I am in the process of making pinnekjøtt and skerpikjøt, two types of air-dried lamb (salted and unsalted, respectively).
I am aware of the risks, not only of bacterial contimination, but also of fly infestation (they will be dried outside, but in a very well-ventilated small shed, that is otherwise completely empty). I don't live in an area with serious fly problems, but they are nonetheless present, and will flock to raw meat like, well, flies round...

What methods could I use to deter flies? I have considered:

Keeping a large bowl of vinegar in the shed, next to the hanging meat
Putting the meat inside breathable bags that are completely sealed
Hanging flypaper in the shed

Previous questions have only dealt with deterring insects from cooked food or the general kitchen area. This deals with a specific, known, insect-attracting item.

Your second suggestion is best.  When hunting, we always brought cheesecloth game bags into which to place the quarters, etc.  They worked well at keeping flies off and allowing air circulation.  I prefer the cheesecloth ones as they allow better air circulation than the muslin ones; particularly important for long term hanging and drying.  You can also just wrap the sheep in cheesecloth if you prefer.

Also, keep a close eye on the sheep.  Making pinnekjøtt and skerpikjøt as on the Faroes is partly dependent on the micro-organisms available (or unavailable) due to the salty air as well as continuous air circulation (wind).


Is there a super close substitute for graham crackers? I'm from Canada (where there are multitudes of graham crackers!), but I'm currently living in Australia. They do not have anything like graham crackers here, and I could really use them for a couple recipes I'm developing.

Does anyone have a close substitute for graham crackers? I'm looking at making my own, but that seems like a tedious task just to crumble them up again.

First off, try digestive biscuits. They're really very similar cookies/crackers/biscuits, and it's a common enough substitution that it's even mentioned on Wikipedia. Cook's Thesaurus implies that they're called wheatmeal biscuits in Australia.

sourd'oh's suggestion of particularly crunchy gingersnaps might work too, but you'll also want to make sure they're not too spicy!

(Unfortunately, I don't know about specific varieties since I'm not Australian.)


Sourdough starter- should i start over? I am at day 10 of a new sourdough starter. I started using rye flour and all purpose flour but due to the COVID 19 pandemic I had to eventually only use rye flour because it is what was available. The starter isn't rising as much as I would expect.. usually it rises 1 or 2 centimeters, but it does bubble and seem active. When I start mixing it before feeding it seems like it smells like eggs. I feed it every 12 hours and keep it in a warm part of our home. I am not sure if I should start over (finally found unbleached all purpose flour!!) with an all purpose flour and rye flour mixture or if I should keep going.

Sourdough experts- please help!!!

Rye is fine for sourdough.  It's actually the main motivator for sourdough since rye's rather sticky doughs take considerably worse to yeast as leavening than wheat doughs do.  But while using sourdough is more relevant for raising rye, cultivating it works similarly well with wheat.


How to know whether a coconut is ripe or rancid before buying Buying the shrink-wrapped coconuts (in shell) at the store is similar to playing Russian Roulette.  All this trouble of getting the water out and breaking the shell only to find out the coconut is rancid (and sometimes unripe).

Sometimes you can see dark spots on the outside of the shell which seem to indicate mould on the inside of the shell, but there seems to be plenty of rancid ones that don't show any spots.

Here's what they generally look like:

Are there definitive signs of rancidity (and ripeness) one can detect at the store before the 'autopsy'?

If the eyes of the coconut feel dry and slightly soft, its a good coconut. If they look/feel damp/mouldy then the coconut has gone bad.. You may have issues with this though as the coconuts you buy are covered. Any cracks in the shell is also a good sign that the coconut flesh is mouldy.


Putting a solid chocolate bar inside cake dough: what's the outcome? Let's say I'm making a plain vanilla cake in a rectangular shape. If I were to put a solid chocolate bar in the middle of the dough before baking it, what would the outcome be when the cake is removed from the oven and has cooled down?

The bar will have dropped to the bottom and you now have a brown stain on the bottom of the cake
The bar will remain in place, but after melting it simply becomes solid again so you now have a very hard chocolate bar in the middle of your cake.
The bar will melt and become chocolate spread inside your cake. After cooling down, it will remain in its semi-liquid state and thus you have a deliciously filled cake.

I'm hoping for outome #3, but I'm pretty sure it won't be that easy. What If I were to put actual chocolate spread inside the cake dough rather than a chocolate bar?

As other answers have said, the result will NOT be (3).  The chocolate may melt somewhat during baking, but it will solidify again as it cools.  How much it sinks will depend on the thickness of the cake batter -- in some cases it may end up on the bottom, and in other cases it may not sink very much.

To achieve your desired result (a "semi-liquid state"), you should probably begin with a chocolate spread or sauce or whatever that has your desired final consistency.  I've seen recipes that use everything from ganache to fudge or even a cream cheese-based chocolate filling.  But the majority of recipes out there intend to result in a fairly solid state when cooled.

In any case, by using a thinner spread/sauce, you may be able to get close to your desired result.  But you might still encounter some problems:

The vanilla cake batter must be thick enough so the chocolate layer doesn't spread too much or sink.
The chocolate spread/sauce might behave erratically when baked, depending on what its ingredients are.  It could end up more solid than it initially was after baking (or otherwise change texture), it could partially mix with the surrounding batter (which may or may not produce desirable flavor/texture), it could disrupt baking by producing excess steam or bubbling (perhaps breaking through the surface or producing unstable "bubbles" that could cause the cake to collapse after baking), or it could have other unpredictable effects on the batter immediately surrounding it.
One option for a thinner spread/sauce, as mentioned in comments, might be to chill it beforehand.  This would likely also allow the filling to maintain a better shape rather than spreading unpredictably.  On the other hand, it could also cause further baking problems if the batter adjacent to the filling takes too long to bake properly.  You could end up with an underdone layer around the filling, or you could dry out the outer layers too much before the interior is done.
If you do try this, I'd suggest making smaller cakes (individual sized cakes, cupcakes, or perhaps a slightly larger cake with just a few servings).  A layer of filling in a large sheet cake is even more likely to disrupt baking and make it difficult to get the sides and center done at the same time.  I suppose it might also work in a bundt or ring pan.

In sum, fillings behave unpredictably during baking, and they generally make it much more difficult to achieve uniform doneness.  Interior fillings are thus best reserved for situations where the interior layer is intended to have a similar texture and doneness threshold to the cake as a whole.

For these reasons, professional bakers often prefer to fill cakes with soft or "semi-liquid" things after baking.  Obviously the simplest and most common solution is a layer cake with a spread in between the layers.  If you prefer something more elegant, professional bakers often slice a single layer in half, perhaps cut out some of the interior if desired, and add the filling before reassembling.  For smaller (individual-sized) cakes or cupcakes, a syringe can also be used to fill the interior, though how much filling can be inserted will depend on the interior texture of the final cake.  These techniques allow you to determine more precisely where the filling ends up and provides a better separation between the filling and the cake textures.  If the final cake is to be frosted, it is possible to disguise such things and make the process of filling fairly undetectable in the final product.

That's not to say your desired outcome is impossible to achieve, but it may take some experimentation and the result is likely to be temperamental or inconsistent in baking.  I'd personally try to find a reputable recipe to use as a starting point.

By the way, a "molten lava" cake recipe, as suggested by another answer, is also probably not what you're after.  Lava cakes are almost always chocolate cakes that are slightly underbaked, so the center does not set completely.  How "molten" they remain after cooling varies from recipe to recipe, but they are also usually meant to be served immediately after baking.  To achieve your goal, you'd need two cake batters instead of one: a vanilla cake for the exterior and a "molten" chocolate center batter.  It's difficult to get the proportions and timing right to succeed with a single "molten" batter; mixing two different batters together while trying to keep one liquid and the other cooked will likely be very difficult.  A quick internet search for "lava cakes" uncovered some recipes that claim to do what you want by inserting a piece of ganache or something into the center of a vanilla cake batter, but these recipes mostly seem to rely on being served warm to maintain that gooey center.


How to cook extremely soft chicken? I had this chicken that was extremely soft at a thai restaurant in Portland, Or.  The cashew nut chicken dish had small strips of extremely soft chicken.

As you can see, the chicken is not cripsy or seared, it is just cooked in some fashion that makes it extremely soft.

Any ideas on how to reproduce?

That chicken has been "velveted". The technique is to briefly marinate the chicken chunks in a mixture of egg whites and cornstarch. The result is delicious, very soft chicken. It's a simple technique, great for stir-fried dishes and soups. There are several variations, so here are a bunch of them.

The simplest is to mix 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into 1 egg white. Marinate thin slices of chicken (breast meat is most commonly used) in the mixture for 30 minutes. Drain the chicken by just letting the marinade slip through your fingers. Now just treat the chicken however you care to cook it; stir-fried, deep-fried or poached are all commonly seen. For something so simple, the result is really quite dramatic.


Why does the grated coconut "float" to the top of quindim while baking? Quindim is a typical Brazilian dessert made from sugar, egg yolks, butter and grated coconut.

All those ingredients are mixed (yolks and sugar first, then the butter, then the grated coconut, in my experience), then bain-marie baked in a pudding mold or in muffin tray slots. And, somehow, the grated coconut is all at the top (which ends being the bottom) of the mixture at the end of the baking process.

Also, I've read that the quindim's ancestor recipe from Portugal, brisas do Lis, exhibits a similar phenomenon, where small almond pieces float to the top of the mixture while baking.

What causes the grated coconut or the almond pieces to move to the top of the mixture during the baking process? Does this occur in other recipes (maybe in less noticeable ways)?

(My ultimate point is to know how to cause such an effect in similar recipes.)

While the mixture is raw, the density of the batter is more or less equivalent to the density of the grated coconut, and the batter is fluid, allowing movement.

During cooking, the egg protein in the batter denatures and coagulates, generating a dense colloidal matrix that doesn't allow movement. As this process is happening, the proteins are aggregating to themselves and pushing the coconut to the top (it is pushed up since it is less dense than the newly-forming colloid).

A similar phenomenon happens with you put raisins, other dried fruit in batter (like in fruit cake or panettone), but they are pushed DOWN instead of up. Coating them in flour prevents them from sinking not because of the change in density, but because it gives anchoring points to the matrix to form around the fruit instead of pushing it.


How to cut the wax from this cheese? (I am new to Europe so please forgive me for being not knowing).

I have this cheese

I asked here before how to eat it and people answered me, but when it comes to real life I had a problem removing the wax, because it really stuck to the cheese!

I like the taste and I want to try it again, but this time I want to ask you how to remove this wax. What I did before is but it rounded, but that removes cheese and obvious my way was wrong.

I hope you can show me a video or something to make it easier for me because my English is not so good. Thanks you.

I usually cut the wheel of cheese, wax and all. So cut a quarter or a half off, depending on how much you want to eat. Then, you can simply peel the wax off. Clean the knife of wax before using it again to cut cheese you'll be eating.

EDIT:

Another solution (upon a quick Googling to search for an answer to @Joe's issue in the comment) could be to use a vegetable peeler to peel layers of problematic wax off until getting to cheese goodness: http://nomenu.com/?p=43877


How to not buy the bad apple? I eat 2-3 apples a day and use them in various recipes - usually desert or pork related.

I have found that I am literally terrible at picking out apples though and seem to be getting no better.

What I am looking for:

Crisp - this is a deal-breaker for me.  If it is mushy, I don't want it.  I have a hard time eating a slightly mangy apple no matter the actual taste of it.  These have to get mashed up into a dish.
Sour - I would like the apples to be as sour as possible - within reason.  I have never had an apple be too sour so I going with the assumption that anything goes here.
Sweet - Not overly sweet and not overpowering honey taste but sweet.
Thin skin - I like the skin.  I however don't like to be able to measure the thickness of the skin.

I am looking for what type of apples (I have a few favorites but even in those it is hit or miss), season, size, coloring, or anything else that helps identify a good from a bad apple.

When I buy apples I also like to go for the most crispy ones.
To find these, what I do is I flick the apples with my finger and listen to the sound it makes. You will be looking for a clear, 'high pitch' sound. Try flicking different apples and you will notice the difference between the sounds. The ones that are more mushy make a soft, 'low pitch' sound.
Hope this helps!


Is the scum skimming really necessary in pho broth? In nearly every pho recipe that makes claims on "authenticity" there are some steps in bone treatment (some recipes go even further with salt rubs and long cold water soaks etc)

Cover bones in water and boil for 15 minutes.
Scrub and rinse bones under running water to remove all scum (i.e. blood proteins).
Clean pot and add fresh water.
Bring back to boil and meticulously skim scum every 5 minutes during initial hour of cooking.
Skim every 30 minutes thereafter.

That is a lot of work.  I've always had suspicions that pho restaurants aren't doing all of this.  And since that's the bar I'm trying to meat(get it?), is all of this work really necessary?

Also this seems to be throwing away a lot of good flavor in the water along with the scum?

Two points of reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPbwOcE6UCU

This is a restaurant making pho in huge quantities.  They just put meat in bags and call it a day.  In fact the pot is overflowing with meat and veg that they couldn't skim even if they wanted to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auqu2U5XdsI

This is a no non-sense video that cuts through a lot of known bullshit (MSG avoidance, etc).  Also no scum skimming, and the broth looks clear enough in the end.

It is not necessary in the sense that if you like the finished product then why do the extra work? That said, the scum that you get from boiling bones/meat isn't really the good stuff. The good stuff is soluble flavor compounds that wind up incorporated into the (liquid) broth.

Recipes from test kitchen folks (Cook Illustrated and Serious Eats) usually call for ONE skim. These usually go

Add meat/bones and boil for 15-30 minutes.
Skim.
Add spices and carry on with rest of recipe.

I can't vouch for how pho restaurants do it but in my experience one skim after the initial boil does the trick (and isn't too fussy).


How much sorrel is safe to eat, and does cooking affect this amount? I have been given different accounts on the edible-ness of sorrel. Some people/sellers/books do not give you any information about how much it is safe to eat, whilst others tell you to just use a few leaves in a salad.

In addition to this, sorrel soup was apparently the bane of my father's poor childhood, so I wondered if cooking it (as a soup or otherwise) neutralised the semi-poisonous chemical it may or may not contain.

If there are different varieties of sorrel, mine grows leaves up to about 20-30cm long, and the plant is about 30-40cm high before making flower stalks, the tallest of which gets to maybe 1.5m.

There are indeed different varieties of sorrel,* but they're both/all high (though I can't determine how high) in the substance of concern, which is oxalic acid. This acid is found in lots of other green leafy vegetables, notably spinach and parsley, and is the reason that you shouldn't eat rhubarb leaves.**

It seems to have a reasonably high expected lethal dose; the internet echo chamber puts it at 600 mg/kg, which would mean eating pounds and pounds of whatever leaf you've got. The necessary amount to cause sickness is obviously much lower, however. There's also a long-term risk for kidney stones -- oxalic acid combines or reacts with calcium to form calcium oxalate, which is a major component of those stones (and this is the mechanism for more immediate poisoning, whether lethal or not). I have also seen reports of simple mouth and digestive irritation, again caused by the calcium salt.

Unfortunately, it seems that cooking does not destroy oxalic acid. It may be possible to reduce its presence by boiling and discarding the water, however. It's unclear to me whether this is because the acid itself dissolves into the water, or whether the oxalates (Harold McGee says that the potassium and sodium salts are water-soluble) form during cooking and are dissolved.

In all, I think the only recommendation that can be made is simple moderation. It's incredibly unlikely that you'll kill anyone with a salad, but don't eat the stuff in large amounts every day.

*"Common" (looks like elongated spinach) and "wood" (looks a bit like clover, but the leaves are cardiod) are the two that I'm most familiar with.

**Although it seems that there's possibly at least one other poisonous substance in the leaves.


Subsitute in this kale and grape recipe In this recipe, they list grapeseed oil. I don't have grapeseed oil and if I were to purchase it, I don't think I would use it that often. I have safflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, and extra virgin olive oil.

Do any of those make for a good substitute?

Almost any fat, oil, butter, or lard will be fine for sauteing, although each may bring its own specific flavor.

If you are looking to most closely resemble grapeseed oil, choose a neutral flavored vegetable oil.  Any of the ones on your list other than olive oil will do just fine.


Equivalence between fresh coconut and coconut cream? I've been enjoying my cookbook Fish Indian Style which I won in the Question-of-the-Week contest here on Seasoned Advice.  However, I'm having difficulty with one common ingredient used in Atul Kochhar's recipes.

Many of his recipes include pureeing fresh coconut meat with water or stock as a base for curry.  As extracting coconut meat is rather ... labor-intensive, I'd like to simply use some spoonfuls of canned coconut cream, which is after all made from coconut meat and water.

Two questions:

How equivalent is this substitution?
If a recipe calls for 250g of coconut meat pureed with 200ml of stock, what would be the equivalent volume of coconut cream?

Sadly, Kitchen Companion does not have this particular substitution documented.

You should look for some coconut cream which is a semi solid block of very fine coconut puree found in asian food stores, it's more of a paste.  Coconut cream from a can in my experience has been a combination of coconut milk and the "cream" (fats) which seperates out from the milk.  Generally a less intensive mixture compared to the paste.
In Canada Coconut Cream is tough to find but every store has coconut milk in cans with different amounts of "cream" content which explains the price differences.
In the UK coconut cream is a common place item in the asian stores and probably the grocery stores now. ( I lived there in the early 90's so it's probably gone more main stream by now.)
Recipes could call for coconut milk, coconut cream or both for curry.


Getting the bowl out of the mold This is the "Cook's Choice, Better Baker Edible Bowl Maker" which I received as a gift.

Now the idea appears clever enough, but everything I try to do with it either comes out too hard to be enjoyable (not 'Good Eats') or it comes out like this: (the finished product won't come out in one usable piece.

I've greased/floured the bowls, I've allowed the product to cool thoroughly...

What techniques or recipe adjustments will help me get a usable cake out of the mold?
(note: I would also like to be able to use this for breads, but I'll settle for getting a usable cake out of the mold for now...)

[Follow-up]: With thanks to all who contributed..

So I found some Pam Baking spray (yea, right next to the stuff I always get, just hadn't noticed it before...) and tried releasing the cakes before they were fully cooled:

Search for recipes for 'cake release', which is typically a mixture of equal parts solid shortening, flour and oil.  You can then paint it on with a pastry brush.

You also don't always want items to cool fully before removing from the pan; you might need to warm the pan back up some for the item to release.


The best way to clean a French Press coffee maker I have been using a French Press coffee maker for quite some time now, and I have tried a few methods for removing the spent coffee grinds from the vessel.  It is always a bit of a chore to this in an efficient manner without making too much of a mess.  I am hoping to find a way that is quick, but does not result in grinds all over my hands or excess grinds going down the drain.  I wonder if there are any accepted or creative methods for this action.

I have a small sieve (like the one pictured) that I use for this purpose and it is very quick and easy. Slosh water in the press, pour through the sieve and dump grinds in the trash!


How to bring eggs to room temperature fast while baking? Some recipes call for eggs at room temperature. How can I bring the egg to room temperature quickly? I have seen suggestions to place it in hot water for five minutes, will that affect the texture of the egg?

Serious Eats recommends three minutes in a bowl of hot tap water. The article doesn't mention any unfortunate effect on texture - and given that the whole article is based on making the textures of baking projects work, I think it's safe to assume there's no problem.


Food safety of China-imported kitchen utensils I am considering ordering a few silicone kitchen utensils from China (like this). However, I am concerned about their food safety. The seller assures that the tools are made of "100% Food Grade Silicone" and food safe symbol (fork and wine glass icon) is there - however anyone can print anything on their products... The seller also assures that their products are certified by a number of agencies ("CIQ,EEC,FDA,LFGB,CE / EU,SGS", of which for certain I can recognize only FDA, EU may possibly mean European Union).

Do you have any experiences with this producer or is there any official online resource (e.g. published by FDA or EU) that can be used to confirm food safety of products offered by a given producer?

"100% something" can mean "nothing else was intentionally added", while the material might still be contaminated, eg by using raw materials (or auxiliary chemicals that are not considered part of the product) that were neither of food grade purity nor processed to ensure they are. It can also be a rounded up value - 99.6% silicone, 0.4% of Satan's earwax. Actually, it HAS to be since 100% silicone does not come in various fancy colours unless a pigment or dye - which is not made of any silicone - is added.

"Black list" systems like recall systems will only list things known unsafe. Iit is very unlikely that everything else that is not on the list has been comprehensively tested and found known safe. Also, OEM manufacturers and raw material suppliers can change without the brand/order number of the product changing.

What can help is researching (unfortunately, tiresome work) whether any reputable local supplier OEMs the exact same item - an (eg) European importer has some interest in not being in the focus of a product recall, so there is a chance they will have commissioned laboratory tests or taken other steps to make such problems unlikely, or their product might have even been the subject of a published safety test (eg in test magazines). This would speak for the quality of the manufacturer.


How can I keep saffron fresh for longer? We don't use saffron that often. The last batch we got went stale. Is there anything I can do to preserve it for longer? (For example, our spice rack gets a lot of direct sunlight, is that bad?) How long can I expect it to last?

There are special glass jars made to protect herbs from damaging uva/b rays, proven to maintain freshness.  Granted, these little jars are designed for a "different" kind of herb, I, on the other hand, use them for my ultra expensive, direct from the middle east saffron.  Keep an open mind and enjoy your saffron!!!

www.herbpreserve.com


Why should milk boil to the rim? In some cases hot milk is needed.
My example is a ready made mixture for milk rice.
The direction says I should heat the milk until it shows foam raising, which often raises up to the rim (or more).
I would think it is enough to heat to 2 °C below boiling should be ok, for example? Or to when it almost boils, from experience?

Why is this needed?
Just to assure the milk is heated to it's boiling point?
Or maybe to have some specific reactions taking place?

There are some applications where actually boiling the milk is needed, for example when you want to precipitate out some of the proteins - they build that fuzzy film on the bottom and the skin on top during cooling. In other cases, it is about sterilization - for example for yogurt, you keep the milk boiling for longer time, and it is almost impossible to keep it at just under boiling, unless you make a sophisticated thermoregulated setup and take the extra time needed to heat it slowly so you don't overshoot.

You also have to consider whether the temperature is needed by ingredients other than the milk and the starch. For example, if you are making a pudding with both starch and yolks, you have to hold it a couple of minutes at boiling to deactivate the amylase.

For milk rice, you don't strictly need boiling, but you have to get really close. Different starches thicken at different temperatures, but practivally all I have read about are between 94 and 100 Celsius. So if your starch hits the sweet spot at 97.2 C, then just watching it and noticing that it is very close to a boil is not of much help. First, you run the risk of stopping too early, which will ruin the milk rice(as opposed to stopping after it boils, which will result in good milk rice). Second, the last few degrees of milk boiling go so fast, you may not manage to remove it from the heat before boiling anyway.

If you know the exact temperature for the starch you are using, you could in principle get away with making milk rice a couple of degrees lower. It is rather impractical, but possible.


How to mask the taste of cumin I strongly dislike cumin. Now that I accidentally bought bread that contains it, I wondered if there are any ways to mask the taste.

This question is meant to find out general ways to mask cumin, in dishes hot and cold. I'm aware that the options might be heavily limited in cold dishes, so the main focus presumably lies on hot meals.

Please note that while the cumin-contaminated bread was my incentive to write this question, answers should not focus on it too much. A general approach for hot (and cold) dishes is sought for.

The only existing question concerning cumin was "How do I save curry with too much cumin?", which has two answers related to indian cuisine. Since these are only concerned with curry, this question looking for a general approach is not a duplicate.

You'll never mask it completely, so the aim is mainly to dilute it to an acceptable level.  If you can't stand even the faintest hint, I suggest you give the bread to someone who will enjoy it while it's still fresh (or freeze it to turn into croutons for someone who will enjoy them; they'd go nicely with some winter soups).

What masking you will get is mostly from spice, especially heat (as suggested at the "curry" question linked above).

For bread specifically: I would crumb it, then mix those crumbs with with plain breadcrumbs, and probably some cayenne pepper, black pepper and herbs, to use as a coating (e.g. for chicken pieces) or topping (I make a sort of bean stew out of an old vegetarian recipe book, with a crumb and cheese crust on top).

You can also add cheese, especially if using as a topping.  You might be doing this for some time, as you'll probably need at least 5:1 dilution even with additional flavour, so mix up small quantities.  You can freeze breadcrumbs so this doesn't have to be done quickly.


Coating fruit before adding to a cake I recently had an apple cake at a restaurant that was delicious.  It tasted like a gooey-er version of a spice cake with apples and coconuts.  I think I can recreate this at home using a box spice cake mix.  I have three questions.  I know to keep the fruit spaced through-out the cake, I want to dust it with flour.  Since it's a box mix, I'll probably use either plain or create a spiced flour to dust the apple bits.  Will that flour cause me to increase the liquid in the cake?  Will it make the apples taste flour-y?  And should I cook the apples (at least partially) before dusting and adding or will the cook enough when baking the cake?

As commented by SAJ14SAJ, you can dust the apple pieces with some of the cake mix. There is no need to change the proportions asked for by the cake mix box. You also do not need to cook the apples ahead, but you can slice them quite thinly or cut in small pieces to ensure that they are cooked enough.


How should I prepare an excellent sauce from sous vide juices? Reading the other posts on this, I realize I should have coagulated the myoglobin and removed it before attempting to make a sauce with what's left over. Anyone have a good trick to do that simply?

The issue is that there really isn't much left over. Typically, from 2 prime strip steaks cooked at 130F for 2.5 hours, I'll get 4-5 tablespoons of juice, and that's with the myoglobin. (I also cook the steak with some olive oil.)

I sear the steaks with a good butane torch rather than a pan (primarily so my kitchen doesn't get smoke-filled), so there's no pan fond available.

What do you sous vide steak folks do for a good sauce?

Finely mince shallots, garlic and parsley (or whatever fresh herb you have on hand)
Mix into softened butter
Spoon butter mixture over hot steak
Feel good about the decisions you have made in your life


Best way to remove seeds when making jam and still have it called jam When making jams and/or preserves using berries, sometimes you want the jam to be seedless (especially when using raspberries or blackberries).  I know often times people use a food mill or strain the fruit through a fine mess sieve, but would you get the same effect using a masticating juicer?  Or would that take too much of the fruit to still be considered jam?

Basically I'm asking if I use my masticating juicer to get the juice and pulp from blackberries or raspberries and can them, would it be considered seedless jam or is it now jelly?  And if it is now jelly, how using a masticating juicer makes it jelly when straining through a sieve still allows it to be jam?

I use a cheesecloth.  you can get the seeds out of the berries


What is the easiest way to remove the papery covers from the peanuts? Intention is to make peanut butter. What is the easiest way to achieve the said aim?

Here's someone with a lot of experience doing it! video

Dropping the peanuts into boiling water for a couple of minutes, then draining and rinsing in cold water is supposed to make them easier and quicker to peel.

I've heard freezing them overnight helps.

One method method that I have actually done is to peel them by rubbing them with a towel while they are still warm from being roasted. The trick there is to only roast small batches at a time so you can get to them all before they cool.


Sourdough starters with different smells - is this normal? I am very new to sourdough baking and gaining an interest in the subject so please forgive what may seem like newbie question.

I have two starters on the go at the moment. The first starter came as part of a "sourdough kit" which I was given as a present. It seems to be quite mature off the bat and has a somewhat 'yeasty' smell.

The second starter I got going from scratch. Just flour, water, a jam-jar and my daughters heat pad from the snake tank. (The snake died so the heat pad was going spare). I am running the heat pad at about 25 degrees celcius. Both starters are being fed daily and stored on the pad. The second starter has a more sour smell - almost stomach-acid in aroma.

Both have similar properties - they bubble up in the same way although the second starter has patches where the bubbles are a lot smaller. The second starter started life in a small plastic cup and was transferred to a jam-jar as it grew.

So I am wondering what is 'normal'. The 'stomach-acid' smell or the 'yeasty' smell? Or is there variations on what is considered normal?

Feeding at the moment is morning and night with about 70g/70ml flour/water.

One is on the heat pad and the other is...where?  Different temps will facilitate the growth of different yeast and bacteria.  Also, your kit is likely populated with different micro flora than the starter you created.  Finally, which "smell" would you rather use to bake bread?  I would go with yeasty.  Starters get acidic fairly quickly.  This inhibits the growth of micro flora.  That is why feeding requires you to remove a significant amount before replenishing.  If you want to play, remove most of the "stomach-acid" starter, and feed the rest with flour and water (maybe remove it from the heating pad as an experiment...or try two small versions...on on and one off).  Build up again, and see if you can achieve a more pleasant aroma.


How do I stop all the sauce from being absorbed and the pasta going soggy? I have to make a pasta bake for 20 people take it to the meeting 6 hours before it will be reheated  for dinner. How do I stop all the sauce from being absorbed and the pasta going soggy.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. As a trial I have made a tomato based bake I cooled the pasta and sauce put it together and will heat it again in a few hours. If it is fine then I will make a bigger version next week.If not I will try again and my husband will be eating my trial pastas for the next week. Again thanks for the help.

The secrets to a good pasta bake are:

Pick the right pasta: unless you are making Lasagna, tube shaped pasta is the best choice because it holds sauce, and tends to be thicker. Thicker pasta is better than thin in a bake, because thin pasta will get soggy way too easily. Penne works fine, so does macaroni. I think rigatoni is best, because it has ridges on the outside which help hold sauce on.
Undercook the pasta: if you cook the pasta until it's done and then bake it with a sauce, it will keep right on cooking and get mushy. What you want do to is cook the pasta until it starts to soften, but isn't quite edible yet. A minute before you reach al dente would be how I describe it. This way it cooks perfectly as it bakes.
Right amount of liquid in the sauce: the ideal result is to have a bake that holds together well without being dry. The pasta will absorb water as it cooks, so you need enough liquid to allow it to rehydrate, but not so much the dish comes out runny. Once it's all mixed and in the baking dish, check to make sure there's some liquid on the bottom. You want enough loose liquid to cover the bottom. If there isn't enough add some of the pasta water or stock - slowly, don't overdo it - then bake it covered for the first 15-20 minutes. If there's too much liquid in the bottom, bake it uncovered so more evaporates.

As for what type of sauce to use and what to put on the top, it really depends on taste. Some people use a tomato sauce, others a white sauce (mac and cheese is a white sauce with cheese in it), some people use both, typically layered. You can do a meat sauce or vegetarian - chunky or smooth, there's too many possibilities to list and it's opinion based on what is best. You need to consider the audience and what their dietary needs/preferences are and choose a combination that satisfies as many as possible.


Keeping left-over pan sauces longer? Am getting sick of adding the wine, then waiting for it to reduce, then adding the broth and waiting for it to reduce, and then adding the butter and waiting for it to do its job thickening...

Actually instead of wine I'm using vermouth because it lasts longer in the fridge.  And I'm using a whole milk/corn starch slurry instead of butter because it's lower in fat.  But above is the general idea.

So, noticing a bottle of barbecue sauce in my fridge and how easy that is to use, I'm now looking for guidelines on how long I can keep pan sauces I make this way, any tips on how to prepare them so they last longer in the fridge?

Barbecue sauce has vinegar in it, that because of it's acidity, is supposed to make that sauce last longer.  But my pan sauces have wine in them that should help longevity?

I know Wikipedia is no expert on cooking, but I noticed on the demi-glace page they claim that stuff lasts 6 months in the fridge or almost indefinitely frozen.  It can't possibly last that long, can it?

First thing to try is freezing, possibly in ice cube trays (once frozen, transfer to freezer bag). Freezing has the advantage that you can be confident the food is still safe to consume.

Unfortunately, cornstarch-thickened sauces often don't hold up to freezing. A couple of approaches:

Thicken only after thawing. Takes more time reheating, but not much.
Try arrowroot or tapioca starch. You'll get a different look and slightly different texture than you're used to.
Use "modernist" ingredients for thickening, such as guar gum and/or xanthan gum. The texture is probably going to be different than what you're used to.

Your BBQ sauce is not only low-pH it is also high-sugar. Both reduce microbial growth. It'd be difficult to know how long your pan sauce would last in the fridge without measuring those, and possibly doing lab work.


Will a pork shoulder be dry after 16 hours at 110C I'm intending to do the following recipe with an 8lb (3.6kg) bone in shoulder (Essentially 30mins @230C/450F, 16hours @ 110C/230F, 45mins@230C/450F).

I'm concerned that such a long cooking time will dry out the meat and my shoulder is below the 5-8kg range that the recipe suggests. I've looked around on the web for advice and I haven't found anything conclusive

Cooked boneless 3kg for 6 hours
unclear what size shoulder and whether the bone was in or not, says cooking time was too long

Most of the posts on this site use a slightly higher cooking temperature for much less time (250F for 6-8 hours seems to be the consensus).

There seems to be two concerns:

Safe meat, this seems pretty easy to achieve (140F+)
Tasty, melty, delicious meat (195F to melt the collagen)

I'm inclined to just give it a try but a decent pork shoulder runs at least $70 in Canada and I don't want to blow thanksgiving.

Any thoughts on how/if I should adjust he cooking time/temperature?

Pork shoulder is extremely forgiving.

You are looking for an outcome, not a time, and not an absolute temperature.  Cook it until it is tender, which indicates the collagen is sufficiently converted to gelatin.  That may or may not have happened at a particular temperature, because the conversion process is time dependent, and the rate is temperature sensitive.

Meathead describes testing for this in his comprehensive recipe for smoking pork shoulders:

  If there is a bone, use a glove or paper towel to protect your fingers
  and wiggle the bone. If it turns easily and comes out of the meat, the
  collagens have melted and you are done. If there is no bone, use the
  "stick a fork in it method". Insert a fork and try to rotate it 90
  degrees. If it turns with only a little torque, you're done. If it's
  not done, close the lid and go drink a mint julep for 30 minutes. If
  the internal temp hits 195°F but the meat is still not tender, push on
  up to 203°F, my new favorite target.

See also:

Pork butt roast: slicing temp vs pulling temp
What makes a moist steak (or roast)? (which is not just about steak)


Food safety with broken glass in dried tomatoes I have a very large jar of dried tomatoes and somehow the lid broke so that broken glass fell into the tomatoes. Is there any safe way to be able to eat them?

Simple, the answer is no. Throw them right in the trash.


Shelf life of open jarred anchovies and anchovy paste in the fridge? I like having anchovies in some form or another around, and whenever I buy them (in paste or jarred form), I end up with extras and store them in the fridge.  Searching around on the Web has a mix of opinions on their shelf life, with some saying days or weeks, and other saying months or years. The longer recommendations attribute the jarred anchovies lasting longer because of the oil ("as long as they're completely covered") and the paste being safe because of the salt, along with metal tubing not allowing air to ruin it.

These seem like reasonable claims, but I'd prefer a bit more information on this. Thanks!

I would assume there is enough salt content to render these fairly stable in the fridge.  I would just avoid fingers in the jar to avoid any potential surface contamination.  In the long run, I would go with whole, salted anchovy, which have an indefinite shelf life.  I keep an 800 gram can (opened, but covered with foil) in the fridge, using one or two anchovies at a time.  It lasts me 8 - 12 months easily.


How to avoid herbs getting burnt in the oven I was making baked pita chips as a healthy snack. What I do is mix olive oil and a dried herb seasoning blend, spread that on the pita bread, cut it into triangles and put them in the oven at 400 F for 7 min (I got the temperature and the time from an online recipe).

What always happens is that the herb blend gets burnt black and the chips get done perfectly. I tried reducing the time in the oven, but that just results in chewy rather than crispy chips.

I thought I could add the herb blend after the chips get done by sprinkling it on the chips, but it always falls off when I store it.

How can I get the pita bread to become crispy while not burning the herbs?My instinct would be to reduce the temperature of the oven, and bake for longer, but by how much?

Also, I had the oven on the 'Bake' setting instead of 'Broil' would that make a difference?

Add the flavouring later in the cooking process

e.g. For a 7 minute cook; at the 4 minute mark, remove from oven, brush/spray with oil and sprinkle on flavouring (herbs etc), and quickly return to oven to finish cooking

Experiment with the time point, you are trying to crisp the bread, and bake on oil/herb mix

Commercially each flavouring is applied at it's own time point. Salts early, soft herbs and spices later


What other meat can I use instead of pork in a Spaghetti Carbonara? I don't want to eat pancetta (or pork) but I want to be able to recreate a similar taste and texture.

What can I substitute for the pancetta?

Bacon is often substituted for pancetta. While bacon is also traditionally made from pork, there are companies that produce bacon from turkey, beef, lamb, venison, elk, buffalo and even seitan. If you could find one of these bacons in your area, then you could substitute one of them for the pancetta.


Precise cooking time: how to figure it out How do you figure out the exact time how long to cook something?

Do you use binary search?

It is very simple.

Note the time you start cooking it, and the flame/power setting/temperature.
Check periodically to see if food is cooked
When food is done: record time and subtract from start time.

If you cook the same dish a few times, you can average it out.  A lot of cook times are approximate anyway; you have to check the dish a bit before it should be done to make sure it hasn't cooked faster than expected.


If a cheese sold as pasta-cheese does not melt, is it "cheese"? This might sound like a dumb question:

Back in the day I cooked some pasta for some friends and they bought this cheap grated cheese in the supermarket. I remember my shock because the cheese did not melt no matter how much time we heated it (not with the hot pasta, neither in the microwave nor oven).

Months later I learned that not all cheeses melt: halloumi, kasseri, manouri, queso blanco, and paneer become a tad creamier, but don't melt the way cheddar, Swiss, and Gruyere do.

Those made with rennet and not acid, those with higher moister and higher fat are the ones to melt (or melt better).

But as far as I know, pasta cheese (the cheese used in pasta, it can be parmesan, emmental or even mozarella), are cheeses that might have the melting qualities, to give texture or good looks to the dish (as well as flavour).

So, is it "right" to sell a "pasta-cheese" which does not melt nor change any physical property (at least visually) when heat is applied?

The cheese's ingredients, translated to english, just in case, are:

  CHEESE, concentrated DAIRY serum, MILK proteins, dietary fiber (corn dextrine) (4.5%), BUTTER, salt, melting salts(polyphosphates, sodium citrates), modified starch, acidic corrector (citric acid), conservator(potassic sorbate)

That's a processed cheese product. It may be allowed to be called cheese in some places, but that's a matter of product labelling regulations where you happen to be.

The melting is a different issue. I'd expect that product to melt, though possibly not if it has the texture of parmesan - parmesan doesn't really melt on its own though it melts into sauces. And parmesan is commonly served on pasta, so a non-melting (or not really melting) pasta cheese is a thing.


Red v White wine in cooking with a stomach issue As with many people, my husband has an issue with red wine, it gives him an acid stomach.  So, he drinks white.  However, not wanting to irritate the issue, but wanting to continue to cook with wine on occasion, is there a difference (apart from taste and color) to cooking with red opposed to white wine?

The way red wine is produced vs the way white wine is produced might give you some insight.

Red wine is produced from red grapes where the "mosto" (grape juice) macerates together with the skin of the grapes. This releases the typical red pigments and tannins.

White wine is produced from red or white grapes where the mosto does not usually macerate. If it's from white grapes, it can macerate with the skin.

This means the wine has less tannins (and pigments).

Basically, the only difference between the wines is the amount of tannins.

For some info about marinating meat in red wine, this post is interesting. Hint: it doesn't do much.


How can I specify the correct type of bacon in the US? I'm in the US, looking for bacon like they have in the UK and (possibly?) Canada. However, if I ask for Canadian Bacon, I receive what is basically a processed ham product that I find far less tasty. How can I specify the cut of meat I'm looking for?

In Canada, we have lots of different types of bacon. I believe in the states, "Canadian" Bacon, as far as I know generally refers to back bacon. Standard Bacon (Also called, side Bacon, Strip Bacon; which comes from the belly), is usually just known as "Bacon". I believe this is true in the states.

What happens when you just ask for "Bacon, please!"?

Wikipedia link of different cuts of bacon. The link also includes the different local terms for bacon.


Carrot Pie: custard or stew? So I have a plan to experiment with making a carrot pie. I can think of two approaches to this.

One would be to create a custard. Carrots aren't very starchy, so that may be a bit of a problem, but not one that some corn starch wouldn't solve.

The other is to make a fruit style pie "stew", maybe with raisins.

What direction would use the characteristics of carrots to their best advantage?

I can see this as being similar to a sweet potato pie.  Best bet in that case would be to cook the carrots, then puree and mix with eggs, milk, etc. just as if it were a sweet potato or pumpkin pie.

Two alternatives that come to mind would be to treat it like a fruit pie, as you say.  Because of the texture of the carrots, I would grate them with the large holes on a box grater, toss with sugar, raisins, some tapioca and whatever spices your heart leads you toward.

An alternative would be to make a molded gelatin like pie, similar to a refrigerator lime pie.  Lots of gelatin and grated carrots.  I, personally, wouldn't like it, but I am not fond of jello with carrots in it either.

Happy experimenting.


Guidelines for marinating vs seasoning steak based on grade and/or cut? Are there general rules of thumb for when to marinade a steak vs seasoning with a little salt before cooking? Should marinades be reserved for grades select and choice or can they be used on prime grade too (eg. a ribeye or NY strip rated USDA prime)? Is it ever recommended to marinade a tender cut like prime rib? Does cooking method (grilling vs broiling) influence whether a marinade should be used?

Why marinate?

Marination is used to add flavor and seasoning (if the marinade contains salt).  Some marinades, which contain active enzymes (as from fresh pineapple or papaya) or acid (as from yogurt, lemon juice, or vinegar) can soften meat as well (although they should not used for too long, as they will turn it to an unpalatable mushy texture).

Contrary to myth, marination does not penetrate more than a few millimeters into meat, so it does not flavor the interior, although salt may penetrate further if given time.

Does the grade matter?

No, the grade of the beef is not relevant to whether you choose to use a marinade.  Higher grades of beef simply have more internal marbling.

The real question is whether you wish to compliment the meat with the flavors in the marinade.    Dry rubs are another technique for adding flavor.  Finally, simply salting is just for seasoning, but doesn't add any distinctive flavor.

Broiling versus grilling

Broiling and grilling are essentially the same technique.  Both are primarily radiant heat methods:  the infrared from the fire or element is what cooks the food.  With grilling, the fire is under the food; with broiling, it is above.  There are even restaurant appliances called salamanders which have elements both above and below.

If there is any practical difference, it is easier to get more intense heat on an outdoor grill than it is with an indoor oven.

None of this affects whether you choose to use a marinade on a particular piece of meat or not.


How can I clean my peeler? I have a peeler that I've been using for a while. It's gotten quite rusty and dirty. Of course, I can toss it at this point and start with a new peeler... But is there any way to clean it? Anything I can soak it in that would remove the rust?

Soak in a mild borax solution. fill the sink and throw in gummed up juicers, colanders and tea-stained spoons as well.

If your kitchen is humid, a bit of an oil rub after thorough drying should slow down the rust.


Is there an alternative to spreading flour when rolling the dough? Today, when I was rolling the dough for my Podpłomyk, I noticed that I actually need to use quite a lot of flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and the board. Is there a way around that, for example some substitute for flour that would work?

Traditionally one could use a rolling pin cover and pastry cloth that have been floured or dusted with powdered starch like cornstarch.  For sweet pastries you can combine cornstarch and confectioners sugar. You can also lightly oil your rolling pin and rolling board.

Other alternative rolling surfaces that are commonly used for pastry doughs include using a marble slab, a silpat mat, or plastic bag as your rolling surface


Sous-vide without a pump using convection? I'm currently planning on creating a sous-vide setup using an induction cooktop and a PID controller. I will be an Arduino micro-controller setup similar to this openschemes.com-manual control of induction cooktop

Most sous-vide setups use circulators that circulate and mix the water in the bath to keep uniform temperatures throughout the bath. I was wondering if a pump is required if I'll be using a pot on top of an induction cooktop. Since the heat source is at the bottom, won't the water rise naturally through convection and keep a constant temperature throughout the bath?

I made a sous-vide setup that uses a slow cooker and no pump.

I was able to observe as much as a 5 degree temperature gradient from the bottom to the top of the cooker. A big part of the problem was that my target food almost fills the cooker and impedes convection. I didn't measure the temperature gradient with an empty bath.

My setup worked passably well as long as my food was small and my thermometer was positioned at the same depth. I didn't enjoy the precision that commercial products have.

Obviously your setup will have a lot more power than mine. If your bath is much bigger than your target food you would have less of a temperature gradient than I did.
If your bath is much larger than your target food then convection will give you enough water circulation. Even a 5 degree drift will let you do some interesting things, however, It is one more variable to keep track of.

I was not satisfied with my setup and my next attempt will have a stronger heater as well as a circulation pump. Water pumps are cheap.


Can I save the seasoning on my cast iron skillet or do I need to strip it and start anew? I have a Lodge 12" cast iron skillet that I have been cooking in almost every night for about 6 months. I recently scrubbed a little to hard and created a "bald" spot into he middle of my pan. I wanted to know if I can save it or do I need to strip it and reason it. Thanks!

I've had success in restoring bald spots in my cast iron skillet.  After cooking and cleaning, I add oil when the skillet is warm.  Eventually the "bald" spot fills in.  Mine took about 3 months of 1-2 weekly uses.


Will cooking meat with the thermometer in affect the cooking time? Last night I cooked 3 pounds of chicken breast tenders using my preferred "set it and forget it" method:

Preheat the oven to ~350°F
Lay out tenders in an oiled baking dish & season as desired
Insert meat thermometer probe into side of thickest piece
Stick in the oven and set the meat thermometer to beep when internal temperature hits 165°F (15 minutes or so, depending on the size of the pieces)

I like this method, especially when I'm cooking for leftover purposes and not a meal, because it saves me the trouble of the "timer beeps > check temp > reset timer" song and dance. But last night I got to thinking: Does keeping the probe in the meat throughout the cooking process affect the cooking time of that piece? I imagine the probe would conduct more heat into the center of the meat, cooking that piece faster than the others around it.

If it does, the effect is negligible at short cooking times and relatively low temperatures like this. All of my chicken pieces come out perfectly done through this method. But I would imagine the effect could be much more pronounced at a longer cooking time, or with smaller cuts of meat.

There are "potato nails" marketed for speeding up cooking of baked potatoes by conducting heat into the center of the potato. This testing showed about a 10% reduction in cooking time. Cooks's Illustrated also tested potato nails, and showed a 7-minute reduction over a 75-minute control. They also tested a potato with five potato nails, which reduced cooking time by 11 minutes.

Obviously potatoes aren't meat, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to extrapolate.


Question about consistency of homemade ice cream My family has been making homemade ice cream for years. I run the machine, but usually there are many other hands that want to make it. I know their is the custard less variety, containing milk, condensed milk, vanilla, and any other flavoring or fruit they want.

Recently, I found a recipe for 'banana pudding ice cream'. I decided to give it a go. Unlike the other ice creams we make, it has a custard base of milk, cream, sugar, and a pinch of salt. You add in pureed banana, a little lemon juice, and a little nutmeg. So I tried this recipe, doubling everything to get 3 quarts.

It really didn't want to get made as first, the custard foamed up on me and ran over in about 3 seconds, then when I was blending the mixture, the bottom didn't come out with the rest of the blender and I lost some there. I persevered and got the mixture done and in the fridge over night. I put it in the machine the next morning, because it called for making it, folding in the crushed/frozen vanilla wafer cookies, and letting it set for 4hrs.

I did this and it turned out great. It came out of the machine at the consistency of soft serve. I folded in the vanilla wafers and it froze from ~9-10am on to around 5pm. When we pulled it out of the freezer, it was a similar consistency and everyone liked it.

However, the next day I didn't go back to the river and the rest of the family did. They ate more of my ice cream and while one person said it was really good and tasted the same, my dad said it had frozen funny. I couldn't figure out if he meant it crystalized or just froze up harder than soft serve.

To be honest, I don't really eat leftover ice cream, because there are usually enough people to polish it off, so I don't know how either version turns out when left to freeze over night. What I'd like to know is what can I expect if I make another batch. I have a trip to the mountains this weekend to see more family and after hearing about it, they want to try it. I plan to make the mix and churn it up there, because I'm worried it'll do something funny if I freeze it too long. Is custard based ice cream supposed to be set up hard or can the soft serve consistency be what I expect? Is it prone to getting too hard or forming crystals when frozen over night? That's the kind of thing I need to know. I'd just like to repeat my experience with the good ice cream and I don't want to disappoint them by making a hard icy ice cream instead of the soft smooth goodness I made last time. Thanks for the help.

It may freeze hard, that depends upon the sugar and salt content and any other ingredients, like alcohol, that don't freeze solidly. If it does freeze hard it should be like store-bought ice cream, not icy. Ice cream that seems like softserve before it goes into the freezer should not crystallize. If it does, that usually means that it wasn't packed properly. Be sure that you pack the ice cream in an airtight container, with as little air as possible in the container, and that it isn't allowed to melt before packing.


Which cooking device allows flexible temperature programming? A typical electric oven seems both an overkill and insufficient to make baked milk or a home made diary product like joghurt or matzoon.

overkill: too big, energy consumption, might be needed for many other things if blocked for ours
insufficient: rarely can be set to support say 25°C to sustain bacterial life, mine anyway not.

Do you have an idea how is a better suited, autoclave like, cooking device actually device called?!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baked_milk

P.S. for diary products only, I didn't know there are indeed autoclave-like kitchen joghurt makers, they mostly support fixed temperatures, but typically not beyond 45°C. For baked milk, you need 70°C.

You can easily (and very accurately) do this with an immersion circulator, such as Joule or Anova.  In fact, your application is an excellent one for what has become known as cooking "sous vide."


cooking time for chicken-pesto in the oven I love to make chicken stuffed with pesto. I cut the chicken breast in half, and then fill them with pesto and make a roll of it.

I first bake the chicken in a frying pan to give them a nice color, and then put them in the oven to cook until it's done.

However here comes my problem, I want the chicken to be totally done, because I am very afraid to eat raw chicken. However, I now cook them too long to be sure it is not raw anymore. I cook them for at least 20 minutes on 175 degrees Celsius.

I was wondering, can anybody tell me how long I should cook them in the oven on which temperature to be sure it is not raw anymore, but not cook them overdone?

There is no definitive time or temperature that would 100% guarantee your chicken was done without it having a 99% chance of being over cooked and dry.

It's quite hard to use a meat thermometer with stuffed chicken breasts but if your meat/filling has got up to 74°C in the center and there is no pink in the meat you'll be fine.


Is it necessary to add vegetables to slow cooker pot roast? I like slow cooked roast for tenderness but hate the taste of 'pot roast' vegetables. Is it really necessary to cook vegetables with the roast?

If you're doing it as a pot roast, the vegetables are mainly there to deliver flavour (unlike in a stew, where they're a major part of the dish). Sometimes they're eaten, sometimes discarded (which seems like a waste to me, so I would choose vegetables I'd want to eat).  They take on a role similar to stock or a flavoured rub or oil when roasting in an oven.

On that basis you can generally omit them. One thing to watch out for though is that the vegetables can be used to lift the joint slightly, so it doesn't sit in a pool of fat*. In that case you'd want to replace them with something inert, or use them but discard them.

If you then find that the meat wants a little more flavour, you can always add a little of a suitable herb and some black peppercorns, to be discarded.

* Note that the term "pot roast" is used broadly, sometimes adding significant amounts of liquid  and sometimes not. I don't know if this is a regional thing, but my answer is meant to cover both types.


Is it safe to cook chicken soup if the water doesn't quite cover it? So, being dumb, I got my chicken all thawed out before I remembered that my friend still has my soup pot. I got the chicken crammed into a smaller pot, but I can't get the water to quite cover it. I hoped it would cook down enough for the water to cover it, and it did cook down a little bit, but there is still a teeny bit above the water. I took a picture of it:

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2629/img0053qm.jpg

Should I be ok with that? Maybe cook it a bit longer? I'd hate to throw it out but heck I don't want Salmonella.

You will be fine.  As the chicken softens, and with a bit of a stir, it will all get cooked.  the steam and conductive heat will cook and keep safe even the minuscule portion above the water line.


Making how much batter will result in over-mixing? This page, tip #9 "Don’t Double the Recipe"  suggests that making too much batter results in over-mixing, and, consequently, in a dense (as opposed to fluffy) cake.
Is it correct? Could you give some guidelines on how much batter is too much? E.g. for crepes mixture? Or for flour:sugar:sunflower oil:milk 1:1:1:1 batter, 1 egg per 50g of flour, batter?

The amount is only restricted by the capacity of the tools you have at hand.  The point is, don't mix too much.  If you have a bowl, filled to the brim, you will have to mix a lot more to get all of the ingredients incorporated.  If that same bowl is half full, a few quick strokes is all it takes to mix. Over-mixing risks building the gluten structure too much, which results in a "tougher", less light, final product. Bakeries, restaurants, and catering services probably do more at once than most people do at home...it is just that they have larger capacity tools.


Can I use icing sugar instead of caster sugar? Are they the same thing? So there is a cupcake recipe I wanna make and it's my first time making it also one of my first time making any dessert like this. I got some icing sugar but the recipe asked for caster sugar. Are they both the same? If not can I use icing sugar to replace it? I see they're both powdered sugar.

Icing sugar is much finer than caster sugar.  However this way round you can probably get away with it ("probably" because without the exact recipe it's hard to tell).  I have recipes for butter biscuits that differ only in one using caster sugar and the other using icing sugar, for example, and cake recipes that use icing sugar. Icing sugar clumps badly so can be less convenient, plus it used to be more expensive though these days there's nothing in it.

You must work by weight when substituting between coarse and fine sugar, as they pack very differently into volume measures.  If your recipe works by volume, you shoudl go out and get the right sugar.

What you can't do is use caster instead of icing sugar in icing, as there's not enough liquid for it to dissolve.


Best variety of garlic for slow cooking? Take a couple of heads of garlic, sit them in some oil with spices, and cook for an hour or two, then spread it on bread. It's great...with the right kind of garlic. With the wrong kind, you'll be praying for death, and so will everyone around you.

I've tried this a couple of times, and trial and error is not cutting it. Does anyone know a variety of garlic that is mild enough for this sort of thing, but still possible to find in a store?

Almost all readily available garlic is of the softneck variety. The mildest of true softnecks is artichoke garlic. Aside from a true softneck garlic, you may also want to try Elephant garlic. This is milder than true garlic, as it is actually part of the leek family, and might be too mild for what you're attempting to do here. Try both!


Thaw / Brine partially frozen turkey at the same time I’ve found sites that say it’s ok to start a brine for a partially frozen turkey. My question is, when you thaw a turkey using the cold water method, they say to change the water every 30 minutes. If you’re brining a partially frozen turkey, do you have to change the brine (including all the herbs and whatnot) every 30 minutes as well?

I believe the reasoning for changing the water every 30 minutes is to speed up defrosting.   I imagine the defrost time would be reduced drastically. However, that seems like a mess and a lot of work. If you're brining a partially frozen turkey, from a safety perspective, I would not change the water out. I'd just leave it in the water. The main thing you are looking for is that the water temp never goes above 4C/40F. You can do this by doing in the fridge, or cooler, or outside if you live in the right place.
See these related questions for more info:

How can I effectively time a short thawing and brining of a a turkey?
How cold can a brining turkey get before freezing?


What flavors work well within a splenda-sweetened strawberry-rhubarb cobbler? Cobbler filling is simple - strawberries, rhubarb, splenda (sucralose) and some orange zest. Are there any other spices or ingredients that would work well with the artificial sweetener and amplify or compliment the flavors?

The classic flavour pairing with rhubarb is vanilla: rhubarb and vanilla custard is a British staple. Fresh custard (Creme Anglaise, as the French call it) is easy to make and delicious.

Almond also pairs well with rhubarb. You could incorporate ground almonds into the cobbler mix, or perhaps fold some amaretto liqueur into lightly whipped cream to serve with the cobbler.

As Splenda has no real flavour, just a sweet taste, both of these will work with it easily.


Two different gynostemma teas taste completely different, why? So i've ordered 2 different brands of gynostemma (or jiaogulan in chinese) and they each taste very differently. The first one I've ordered tastes extremely bitter, the second one I've ordered tastes light and sweet, even though I can detect somewhat of a similar bitter after taste.

According to the boxes they are both 100% gynostemma leaf, and the tea bags appear to be exactly the same in size. Why does one taste very bitter why the other one doesn't? Is it possible the leaves from the first box were older when i ordered them?

If they come from 2 different brands, there can be many reason why they taste different.

Could be harvested from different areas; picked at different time/season and/or mishandled.

Could have been badly stored and packaged.


How can I replace apples with peaches? I have a recipe for a dutch apple pancake (basically sauté apples, make batter and place in pan, add apples, bake) that I wanted to try with peaches. However, my sister thinks it'll turn out too wet/soggy with the peaches. My thought is to use less ripe peaches or sauté them for less time. Will that work? How can I replace the apples with peaches?

I just skip the sautéing for peaches entirely. The primary benefit of sautéing the apples is to make sure that they are tender by the time baking completes, which isn't necessary for a fruit that's already soft.


Foil over cookie sheet over broiling pan? My wife was cooking a recipe and was confused by instructions to put foil over a cookie sheet which should sit on a broiling pan. Foil is pretty standard in recipes, but why have the sheet on top of the broiling pan? She was cooking shrimp.

It's possible that the recipe author was going for insulation from the heat of the oven's element/flames on the bottom.  This would give you more cooking by convection - or baking without the browning on the bottom (conduction) where the food touched the thin pan.

Another way around this is insulated baking sheets - two layers with air in the middle.  On cookies, they take longer and reduce browning.  So this seems to me to be an approach to the insulated baking sheet, creating a workaround on the assumption that people have the other equipment at hand.


Home made popsicles sticking to mold We had some great organic popsicles made from pineapple. They were a bit pricey so we decided to make some ourselves. The problem is that we can't get them to release from the plastic molds very well. Other than running them under hot water, is there a trick we can use to get these things to release a little easier?

Try silicone molds, I use them for ice cubes and they are much easier to release ice from than plastic trays.


How do I make sugar-free ice cream without a machine? I want to make ice cream at home for diabetics without a machine. I'd want it to be sugar-free. What kind of base ingredients should I use? Will the any of the no machine methods here be better or worse, or require modification, since I'm not using sugar?

You could use sugar substitutes but you should take care to use one that is heat stable.

Sugar Substitute with Stevia as main ingredient can be used but you need to inquire to what ratios you would need to use your specific brand with.

Acesulfame Potassium is heat stable but is 200 times sweeter than regular sugar. The general rule of thumb I was taught is 1 gram per quarter cup of sugar.

Sucralose: Granulated sucralose can be used as an equal-volume substitute for sugar. (Raw sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar, so you'd use less, but the granulated form contains fillers to bring it up to the normal volume.) There may be some considerations in making ice cream with this as when using this for baking the baking process is accelerated to a certain degree. Be careful with this one.

Saccharin and Aspartame should be avoided because they are heat sensitive.

Other more natural sugar substitutes include honey, fruit juice concentrates and refined fructose.


What can I do about scratched pots? I have a pot that is really nice, and I was silly enough to use a metallic spatula. It is not Teflon but looked ceramic, and it has scratches now. Can any repair be done?

Edit: I am including an image below

I realize that this is an older post, but from the photo posted, these don't look like scratches at all. Instead, the marks look very much like the marks you would see on a ceramic sharpening rod.

Because ceramic is usually much harder than the mild steel used in your average metal spatula, your ceramic coating is actually putting scratches in your spatula instead of the reverse. So those marks that you see are probably microscopic bits of mild steel that were scraped out of the spatula and deposited into the tiny pores in your ceramic coating.

Since that mild steel was probably very quickly converted to iron oxide (rust), I would suggest using something acidic, but food-safe to dissolve out the particles. Oxalic acid should be perfect for the job, making a product like "Bar Keeper's Friend"  a good choice.


Why is my blueberry jam grainy? I recently made and canned blueberry jam for the first time, using this recipe and canning instructions.

I filled all my jars & canned them, but there was a little jam left in the pot. It was a bit grainy, but I thought it was just from being the last bit in the pot.

I just opened one of the jars, though, and the jam inside is grainy as well.

Does anyone have any idea what I might have done wrong?

EDIT: I don't think it's the sugar. Could something about the pectic make it grainy?

Were your blueberries grainy? I occasionally get a pint that have a grainy texture. I've heard that this means they aren't quite fresh, but they usually taste just fine despite the texture. I'm not sure if this particular graininess translates to a jam though.

Jam can also get grainy from sugar that isn't fully dissolved. This can happen more easily with larger batches, since the fruit can start to boil before the sugar is fully dissolved.

For your particular recipe, perhaps a more thorough stirring after adding the sugar would help. You should be able to turn the heat down once you add the sugar so that you can stir it thoroughly before going back to high heat to boil for that 1 minute.


How should I cook pigs cheeks? I like the idea of eating pigs cheeks, I've heard they are delicious, but difficult to cook so they are not chewy.  How should I cook them so they are succulent and delicious?

Restaurants quite often cook pigs cheeks 'sous vide', but unless you have, or fancy investing in a water bath, you can do things the old fashioned way.

How you prepare the cheeks for cooking will, to some extent, depend on which part you're cooking. If you're going to cook the whole cheek, you really should think about soaking in a brine of sugar, salt, vinegar and spices for 24 to 48 hours. If you're just cooking the 'pad' that part can be skipped.

The thing to remember with cheeks, is they are quite a fatty meat and the muscle fibres are very dense, so whichever method you choose, it's going to take time.

One classic method is braising the cheeks with a variety of vegetables and something slightly sweet and sharp as a counter for the fat and cook in the oven for 2 to 3 hours at around 180c (350f)

Basically dust the cheeks in a little flour and season, then brown in some olive oil. remove form the pan and lightly sauté your vegetables, use leeks, baby onions, carrots, apples, garlic etc. add the cheeks pack to the pan, add some stock or stock/cider mix and cook. You could also do this on the hob (cooker top) in a heavy bottomed pan, but cook for 4 hours on a low heat.


How to set runny paté? Due to a shortage of ingredients I made pate using odd proportions of ingredients and my pate hasn't set at all. Can anyone suggest ways to help it set? Would heating it up and evaporating off some moisture work?

Butter and cream are what I lacked... I used mascarpone instead thinking that would do as the substitute saturated fat. I don't have any exact measurements but probably around 300g of chicken liver, 1 onion, maybe 150-200g of mascarpone, and a good glug of marsala.

Assuming it’s chicken liver pate, have you tried adding butter, cream or other saturated fat? This can thicken and so firm pate quite well. Or you could use some kind of meal - oat flour or matzo meal, breadcrumbs etc  that would absorb the liquid. Difficult to know without the recipe - many use mushrooms but I find livers, leeks and herbs and spice plus some good sherry or port and a tablespoon or so of melted butter /and / or thick cream makes lovely pate which spread very easily and thickens nicely in the fridge. It freezes well too.


Can I make a hollandaise sauce from mix the day before? I would like to make a hollandaise sauce from a McCormick mix a day ahead. Will I be able to reheat it and is it safe?

I don't think it will work... at least reliably work.

Point of reference: I once worked in a restaurant under a frugal French Chef (I know, a redundant term). The only thing that was always thrown out at the end of the night was the Hollandaise, no matter how much was left.

Hollandaise is a delicate chemistry of proteins, fats, carefully applied heat and whisking. Surviving the create with heat, cool down/store, reheat cycle is a long shot. ..and, as you suggest, there may be safety issues.

Of course the restaurant made Hollandaise from scratch. But I doubt package mix is much more robust. Note these ingredients on McCormick mix:

Those egg solids are going to be delicate, and maybe unpredictable. The lecithin may also bring surprises. The citric acid may also cause issues in storage--maybe breaking protein/fat bonds.

Or, I could be wrong. Maybe the high amount of starch will make the sauce robust. Example: you don't hear of many fruit pie fillings breaking overnight.

I'd spend the money and do a trial run to know for sure.

End Note: Consider Knorr brand Hollandaise mix. I never used McCormick, but I have used Knorr and liked it.