How do I make instant chocolate powder from a chocolate bar? I like the flavour of a certain brand of chocolate, is there a method to turn a chocolate bar into instant chocolate powder so I can quickly create a hot chocolate from it? I am aware I can make a hot chocolate drink from the bar, but I'm specifically asking if it possible to turn this bar into a powdered (not flakes/shaving) form.

You cannot easily create a powder from real chocolate, which contains a great deal of cocoa butter, making it very difficult to powder.   While you can chop it finely, that still may be less than ideal for quickly creating hot chocolate.

Instead, based on an idea from Cook's Illustrated, you can make a thick ganache to use as essentially a hot chocolate concentrate, that can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days, or the freezer for a couple of months:

Prepare a gancahe with 12 ounces of chocolate to 1 cup of heavy cream, with 1/4 tsp of salt.
Cool it and then scoop it into single serving portions (about 3 tablespoons) to store, wrapping each individually.
To make the hot chocolate, heat one portion with one cup of milk (microwaving is especially convenient) until it is hot.

More traditionally, for an instant powder mix, you would combine cocoa powder (often dutched), powdered sugar, and possibly other seasonings--if you want it to work with a water base, you would also include dried milk powder.   Many recipes are easily available on the internet.


Candy making in Dutch Oven when there is only one of you I’m trying to make fudge and other hard candies such as peanut brittle in my Lodge Dutch Oven.  The problem that I’m having is that I cannot hold the pot and scrape out the inside by myself.  Definitely a two-person job.  I can’t always depend on my roommate to be around for those three minutes that I need her there.
Is there any tool that can hold the pot by the handles so I can turn it out into my cooling pan with one hand while scraping with the other?
Fudge and especially brittles set up so fast that I end up wasting it in my fumbling. Not to mention how hot it is.

One option is to put the dutch oven on top of something next to your cooling pan then tip it on it's side, still on top, and scrape it from there.  You could probably use an upside down pot or tray, depending on the size of what you have.  This way you won't be holding the weight of the dutch oven so much as just keeping it from rolling side to side.


How do you decide what temperature to bake at? What is the logic behind the choice of temperature for baking?

Obviously if you're following a recipe it will say what temperature to use, but I'd like to understand the reasoning behind it.

Is it a matter of density (thicker foods need to be cooked lower to reach the inside without burning the outside), or are there other factors in play?

If we had a magical (or 4d) oven that could heat up the inside of the food all at once and uniformly, the baking rule would be simple:

bake batters and doughs at 100°C / 212°F until dough expands and dries, and
then increase to 150°C / 302°F to brown.

Any recipe that followed it would take way longer (several hours) than regular recipes, but the timings would be forgiving.  The rule works because baking consists of growing the dough bubbles with water vapor and after that browning for flavor.  Without a magical 4d oven and without hours to bake a dish, recipe authors have to experiment.

In ovens at higher temperatures the water near the surface of the dough or batter will first evaporate, keeping that region at 100°C. Once the surface dries its temperature starts to rise and eventually browns. While it browns, the region below goes into bubble growing mode and the process repeats. To get the whole dish cooked and browned at the same time requires an impossible balancing act because of how the bubble region moves depends on the dough's shape, its water content, its initial temperature, air flows in the oven ...  There are many solutions to the balancing act and therefore many possible baking temperatures.

The exact details of all this are still the subject of research, as a recent paper exemplifies.


Can I cook a pre-made meatloaf from frozen? Can I cook a pre-made meatloaf from frozen?  And if so, what temp, covered or not covered, and how long - how do I know when it is done?

Yes, you can cook a meatloaf from frozen. At 350F (175C), it will take about 1.5 times the length of time it would take to cook a non-frozen meatloaf of the same size. You will get more of a crust cooking a meatloaf from frozen, so consider that while considering whether to cook the loaf in a pan or not, also whether to glaze it. The crust will be somewhat inhibited by covering for the first half of cooking, so consider that as well, that's a matter of personal preference. If you use a glaze, let the meat cook for a half an hour or so before you apply the glaze. If you glaze before you put it in the oven, you'll risk burning the glaze.

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Use a thermometer, either instant read or leave-in - using both is even better. The meatloaf will be done when the thermometer(s) reading the very center of the loaf reads at least 160F (71C). Let it rest for a few minutes before serving.


Why did my almonds burn instead of caramelizing? I tried to make caramelized almonds yesterday with the following recipe: heat 300 grams of sugar with 80 grams water. When mixture reaches 125 degrees Celsius, add the almonds. The almonds would develop a sandy white coating that would turn to caramel. When mixture reaches 150 degrees Celsius, remove from heat. I used halved almonds which I toasted before, per the recipe, and did the cooking in a small saucepan.

What happened is the almonds did develop the sandy white coating but then burned before the it turned to caramel (they burned right after I added them and started stirring). Then I tried again, used a bit more water and a more accurate thermometer, thinking the temperature was the issue. The other thing I changed was using about two-thirds whole toasted hazelnuts since I ran out of almonds. It did turn out better, but I noticed the halved almonds still turned black, while the hazelnuts were OK. Also, I've tried the recipe before, using whole cashews, and it was fine.

So, my question is why did the almonds burn and how can I prevent this?

Right off the top of my head, I would have to say that it had to do with the toasting OR the size of the nut. If you toasted the halves longer than you normally would, if they were a darker brown color, then it would take less time for them to burn. Then you mentioned Whole cashews vs. halved almonds. The thickness of the individual pieces is also going to affect how fast they cook through (and then burn). Then there's the fact that your hazelnuts (also thicker than halved almonds) turned out ok.

If you REALLY REALLY want to make this recipe with almonds, I'd almost suggest not toasting them at all...or very, very lightly.


Trouble with Baked Chicken Wings I do not have a deep fryer (and do not plan to purchase one), but I have made chicken wings successfully in the oven. (My mom, --from Buffalo, NY-- even approves of this method.)

The problem is that my results are not consistent. The first time I made them, they were perfect - they tasted just as though they'd been fried. The second time, they were way over-cooked. And the third time, I could not get them done enough, even after nearly tripling the cook time.

Here's what I'm doing...

Remove wings from refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking.
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Pluck out any feather bits remaining in the wings.
Use a knife to separate the full wing into little drumstick pieces (one length of bone) and little wing pieces (remaining two lengths of bone).
Line up the pieces on a baking sheet. I didn't have very much space between them. (Is there recommended spacing?)
Bake for 45 minutes.
Toss with desired hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce).

Does the cook time change depending on how many wings you're cooking? Is there a certain size wing that works better? Should I be making sure the wings are room temperature before baking them? I can imagine endless factors that could be causing my poor results.

EDIT: I'm not deep frying b/c I don't want to buy another appliance - my kitchen is about as big as the monitor you're looking at. Maybe a little bigger, but not much. Anyway, it's about having space for appliances.

The key to oven-cooked chicken wings is, basically, don't rely on the oven to do all the cooking for you!  It won't get them anywhere near crispy enough.  Bake too long and they'll dry out, too short and they'll be soggy.  You can't win that way!

Here's how I prepare "baked" chicken wings.  Once I learned this preparation method I never went back, not even to frying!

Pull out your steamer or steaming basket.
While your steaming apparatus is coming up to temp, split and trim the wings as you normally would.
Steam the wings for 10 minutes.  Don't crowd them - make sure you allow for proper airflow.  Steam in batches if necessary.
Get out a cookie sheet and cover it with something to catch any drippings (paper towel is fine).  Then put one or two oven racks on top and lay the steamed wings on that.  You need this to allow the grease to fall, and you need the cookie sheet covered below the rack because if you let those juices fall directly onto the sheet, they'll boil and burn during the baking process and leave a nasty bitter taste.
Season the now-moist wings on both sides (while on the rack, on the covered cookie sheet).  A liberal amount of salt and pepper is the foundation.  For general flavour, I generally add garlic powder and paprika as well.  If you like a smokier flavour, substitute smoked paprika, and if you want hot wings, add some ground hot pepper or chili powder (I like to use approximately equal amounts of cayenne, ancho, and chipotle).
Place the entire rack as-is in the refrigerator and cool for at least one hour.  This is crucial, it will help to "set" the wings, locking in the juices and seasoning and making for a much crispier and juicier result at the very end.
Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).
Remove the rack from the refrigerator, remove the paper towel covering the cookie sheet (don't forget to do this!), and place in the oven.
Bake for 20 minutes, then turn and bake for another 20 minutes.  It may seem like this is going to dry them out.  It won't.  It will crisp them up perfectly.  You'll see.
While you're baking the wings on the second side, start making the sauce.  Your basic hot wing sauce (which should be hot "enough" but still tolerable for most palates) is equal amounts of Frank's red hot (not the wing sauce) and melted butter.  The butter serves two purposes; it cuts some of the heat (for those who can't stand it) and it helps to bind the sauce to the wings when you mix them, helping to bring together all the flavours and prevent sogginess.  For more heat, just up the ratio of Frank's to butter.
Add your own twists to the sauce as you like; I like to do this with additional garlic & smoked paprika, sage, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and a thickener (usually corn starch).  But that's just one of a thousand recipes; some people stick to the basic hot sauce, other people add an Asian twist... this is entirely up to you.
Make sure you've got the sauce up to a nice smooth emulsion and then toss the wings and sauce together.
Serve with chopped carrots and celery, blue cheese dip, and plenty of beer.


Acidity level not increasing when fermenting cauliflower I am currently part way through my first attempt at vegetable fermentation. Today marks the 4th day of fermenting some cauliflower, and things seem to be doing okay, I have some bubbles and no sign of any mould though it does smell a bit funky, though I think this is normal, it is a bit of a strong cauliflower smell.

My question is around the pH levels in the fermentation, I have read the usual beginners scare stuff about botulism, and that it isn't anything to be too concerned about, but for peace of mind, if your ferment reads at 4pH or lower you can be rest assured there isn't any botulism in your ferment.

However my ferment is currently reading at around 6pH and has been this way since I started it. Another thing I read about preventing botulism was that if you have enough lactobacillus bacteria, these guys will outcompete anything else in there, killing any nasties that might be trying to gain a hold on your veggies.

So I guess my question is, is the presence of fizzyness in the form of the bubbling (opening the jar is a bit like opening a fizzy bottle, and I have been burping the jar fairly regularly), evidence that there is good growth of the 'good' bacteria, meaning absence of any bad? And is 4 days too early to be hung up about acidity level, or should it have dropped to something lower by now?

I don't know that I can give a definitive answer about safety, knowing little about how clean your apparatus was to begin with, how exactly you have it set up (container type, how you are "burping," etc.).  Most importantly, I don't know what recipe you used and whether it was verified as safe through a scientific process.[*See note]

All of that said, your salt concentration of 2.5% per total weight sounds reasonable and is unlikely to allow botulism bacteria to grow very efficiently.  It's pretty unlikely that you're growing anything too nasty.  Also, botulism bacteria in particular like anaerobic environments.  The fact that you are "burping" your container likely means you are exposing the surface of the liquid to oxygen, and the bubbling action will be churning things around enough that you going to get gases moving within the liquid.  Bottom line is that you are unlikely to be growing botulism bacteria significantly, though you might be growing other types of bacteria or yeasts that may or may not be what you want.  (Listeria, for example, is a common bacteria that can survive somewhat acidic and higher salt environments, and it's more likely that you'd grow that in a fermentation than significant botulism bacteria.)

Natural fermentation can take quite a while to develop significant acidity.  A lot of recipes claim you can have something "fermented" in 3-4 days, but it's pretty rare to get a stable culture in that amount of time for most foods.  I don't know what your recipe claimed, but depending on temperature and other fermentation conditions, it could easily take a week or more to start developing significant acidity, and it could take 2-3 weeks until your pH level goes down as far as you want.  (At cooler temperatures, fermentation can go on even longer.)

Bubbling by itself doesn't mean you are growing lactic acid bacteria.  Bubbling can easily be the result of other common bacteria and/or yeasts, and it often is during the initial stages of a wild fermentation.  (And yes, some of them potentially could produce nasty things that could make you sick too.  Again, the salt mitigates this risk, but it's possible.)  Exposing the ferment to air during burping does risk growing mold and other surface yeast/bacteria, which is probably a greater concern for failure than botulism.  Most likely, you will just produce a little surface "scum" that most people don't worry about.  (Not saying you definitely shouldn't worry about it; it's most likely to be the worst thing you grow in a few days, and it rarely will produce illness.)

Bottom line is that the bubbles indicate something is going on, and likely part of that something is lactic acid bacteria starting to grow.  If you don't produce significant acidity in 7-10 days, I might consider throwing it out and starting over (particularly if it smells or looks weird).  At only four days, though, and not knowing your temperature and other fermentation conditions, it's difficult to say anything's wrong yet.  I know many online recipes will claim fermentation happens in just a few days, but wild fermentation is unpredictable and frequently can take longer.

*Important note: I know almost everyone these days just throws a bit of salt and some food in a jar and expects to produce safe fermented food, but designing safe and repeatable recipes is quite difficult.  It's easy to find thousands of recipes online now, but the vast majority of them have not been subjected to scientific testing for safety.  If you really want to guarantee safety in a pickling recipe, find a safe verified recipe from a reputable source, like the fermentation guidelines from the National Center for Home Food Preservation or the USDA.  Many states (particularly agricultural ones) also host sites and recipes that have been scientifically tested.  The Ball Blue Book is another traditional resource for home canning and preservation methods that were tested.  When I say tested, it means the process has been verified in multiple tests across a large number of samples (usually hundreds of trials) not to produce pathogenic bacteria or other harmful agents with the right proportions of water, salt, vegetables, etc. done under the right times and conditions.  Different vegetables release different quantities of liquid when subjected to salt.  Different vegetables absorb salt more or less efficiently depending on their size, and the salt is necessary to cure them properly.  Etc. Scientific recipes that are verified for safety have taken all these factors into account.  Unfortunately, though, it's harder to find consumer tested recipes for fermented pickles other than cucumbers and sauerkraut as for the past century or so (until the past decade) most people tended to pickle other foods with vinegar or other acids instead.

I'm not trying to scare anyone here.  The fact is that with a decent amount of salt, you're unlikely to grow anything bad.  But if you actually want to guarantee a safe fermentation (and be more likely to succeed consistently), follow a tested recipe, along with all the preparation it demands.


How did people transport food before aluminium foil was invented? I know this question does not concern cooking, however I wondered how people transported their food before aluminium foil was invented (circa 1900, which is not too long ago).

Did people in the middle ages only carry preserved food with them on long journeys? Did they transport it in cloth or ceramic?

This question is really naive, but I want a definite answer.

A complete answer to this question would require writing a primer on the history of food preservation and transport.  I'm not going to write one.  Instead, I'll focus on the most common methods of personal food transportation -- (that is, snacks, meals, and travel food) in the middle ages.

Transporting foods across the village would have been a daily or weekly event in most medieval European villages, because frequently villages had a common shared oven.  This oven belonged to the baker or to the village council, and after the bread was done, the residual oven heat was used to bake beans, casseroles, pot roasts and other slow-cook dishes.  Generally, the ceramic vessels for such dishes had lids (which were sometimes sealed with flour paste to retain moisture), and transported unopened in a basket.

For road food, one of the most common methods was as pies.  Contrary to modern hand-pies with flaky delicious crust, for many medieval pies the crust was thick, dense, and inedible.  The crust wasn't part of the food, it was a sealed wrapper to protect it (with indifferent success); you broke open the crust with a knife and ate the insides with a spoon, tossing the crust to the pigs or dogs (or the very poor).

Another method of sealing food was "potting", which involved putting meat, seafood, or other foods in a small pot and covering the top with a thick layer of fat or (for expensive dishes) wax.  The potted food would be cooked with the sealing layer on top, and thus survive for a couple of days until bacteria penetrated the protective grease layer.

References:

Bakehouses and community bread ovens (oldandinteresting.com)
Pie Crusts (medievalcookery.com)
Meat Potting (archived from waltonfeed.com)

Book References (where I got most of this):

Putting Food By
Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food
Victoria's Home Companion


How to clean a burnt cast iron pot? I have this cast iron pot that my friend completely burnt. I was wondering what might be done to save this pot. I realize that this question seems similar to this one but in that one his skillet is not burnt and it is seasoned.

Thanks for your help.

my 'nuclear option' for cast iron skillets is to put them in a basin of lye solution, and let the pan sit for a week or a month (depending on how fresh and how concentrated the lye solution is.) We keep a plastic basin out back for this. lye is bad stuff, so if you have kids or pets, do please be careful.  The lye, however, will take off anything organic, and bring the skillet back to bare metal (well, some scrubbing may be necessary. use a plastic scrubby). in this condition, the skillet will start to rust instantly. I work as follows: after the four weeks, take the skillet out of the bath, scrub it and hose it off, then immediately pour white vinegar on it: the acidity prevents rusting. Then put it in a 450 F preheated oven for half an hour. Then start the reseasoning process.

As I said, this is the method of last resort.

Here is a photo of a #3 cast iron pan, rolled back to 'year zero' after a few months in a lye solution, next to a seasoned #2 pan. The iron actually looks like metal. In this condition, you can check the surface for pitting, cracks, etc. The vinegar is on hand to prevent rust.


Pressure canner vs water bath at altitude OK, I know right of the start that asking which way to go is opinion based, and the both still likely have their pros and cons, but still asking, more for what are the pros and cons for each method as it pertains to those of us at altitude.  I personally am at about 4000 feet (1200 meters).

My personal goals are to remain safe in preserving foods while when appropriate to retain the freshest possible taste and character. My initial thoughts have been that needing to increase time to compensate for lower boiling point in a water bath will over process some items losing more of the fresh character than I would prefer.  Pressure canning just needs pressure up a notch to get then same temp as sea level, but, as someone who has always water bath canned, does the higher temps used in pressure canning really keep items as crisp and fresh tasting as water bath?

Thoughts and experiences appreciated as my freezer space will be limited and nee to make the call before my hard work in the garden starts coming to harvest.

Nothing opinion-based about it. If you are canning anything that's "low-acid" you need a pressure canner, regardless of altitude.

That's "higher pressure than at sea level."

Boiling water bath does not kill botulism spores, so you either need an acidic environment or you need to process under pressure to get sufficient temperature to kill the spores.

For "acid" products you can go either way, but you'll definitely see an advantage at altitude with a pressure canner.

Example for an acid food: 30-40 minutes .vs. 10 minutes http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/selecting_correct_process_time.html

Temperature ranges:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/food_pres_temps.html


Is it possible to have golden beef meat with normal spices? I wonder how a restaurant able to cook beef until golden colour with normal spices and cooking such in following picture?

What you are seeing here is the early stages of a 'Malliard Reaction' where beef is typically "browned". However, in the picture you provide the cook has managed to land on "golden brown" (stopping before the more common deep brown coloration). Another 30 seconds on the heat and this meat would be that darker brown that is more commonly associated with beef.

An additional factor is the hue of the photo, purely for artistic effect, the meat is placed next to yellow onions, white rice (?), on a white & blue plate. This creates a perception that it is more yellowish.

In this image I have taken a segment from your picture and dropped it on top  of a segment of a steak photo. Here, it looks (at least IMHO) more brownish and definitely fits the color pallet of the steak.

In short, it is partially how it's cooked and partially how it is staged. The Spices don't really play into it unless you are using too much spice to begin with.


Is it okay and safe to store pulses, grains, rice etc. in these containers? During coronavirus lockdown, I can't buy containers. But I've some empty boxes of Protinex powder like these: https://www.amazon.in/Protinex-400-g-Tasty-Chocolate/dp/B01MS489AE I guess it is made from metal.

So is it safe to store these things in it? Or it will be harmful to these things?

When storing nonperishable dry foods, such as pulses or grains or protein powder, you want the container to be reasonably airtight and impermeable, which that container appears to be. There aren't any other major considerations. Should be fine.


How/when is salt added to commercial salted butter? This is surprisingly hard to find with Google. The Wikipedia article does say:

  Either granular salt or a strong brine are added to salted butter during processing.

but there's no citation provided, and no further details.

So: are both granular salt and brine actually sometimes used? At what stage in processing is each added? And if it's not obvious from that much information, how does the granular salt end up evenly dispersed, with no noticeable grains?

The full quoted information below provides much more detail. The simple answer:
Depending on the method of production used, either salt (presumably dairy salt) or a salt slurry is added to the butter at the point in the process when the butter and buttermilk have been separated, before the final working stage, which also helps distributes the salt.
From How Products Are Made:

Butter Manufacture Preparation
1 For many years the major creameries for butter manufacturing were located in the states of the Eastern seaboard, but the flourishing of a more industrialized agriculture in the Midwest led to the predominance of butter-making facilities there. The modern butter-making process begins when fresh cow's milk from dairy farms is brought into the facility. The product is inspected, classified into different groups according to its adjudged quality, and then filtered to remove impurities. Then the milk is separated by means of centrifugal force. It is pumped into a large, cylindrical, vertical rotator device. When turned on, this rotator spins the liquid until the cream rises to the top. The cream is then fed into large stainless steel vats and heated to 180°F (82°C) for about 30 minutes in the pasteurization process to remove any lingering bacteria. The pasteurized cream is then left to cool.
Churning
2 The cream is placed in a large, mechanical churn usually made of aluminum. Some of these industrial-sized churns can make 1,500-5,000 pounds (681-2270 kg) of butter at a time. When the churn is activated, it tumbles the cream, much like the motion of a clothes dryer, while a worker watches the process through a small glass window on the churn. After about 45 minutes, small granules of butter begin to form, and the butter and buttermilk are separated. Salt is added, and the mixture is churned further. When this process is completed, a stainless steel mobile device sometimes called a "boat" is placed adjacent to the opening of the mechanical churn. The door of the churn is opened, and the butter begins to spill out into the boat; activating the churn removes the rest. It is then wrapped into 64-pound (29 kg) cartons and sent to the distributor. There, the butter is repackaged for consumer and food-service industry use.

(Emphasis mine.)
There's also a good article (with a chart) on WebExhibits.
Also, from the University of Guelph.

Salt is used to improve the flavour and the shelf-life, as it acts as a preservative. If the butter is to be salted, salt (1-3%) is spread over its surface, in the case of batch production. In the continuous buttermaker, a salt slurry is added to the butter. The salt is all dissolved in the aqueous phase, so the effective salt concentration is approximately 10% in the water.
After salting, the butter must be worked vigorously to ensure even distribution of the salt. The working of the butter also influences the characteristics by which the product is judged - aroma, taste, keeping quality, appearance and colour. Working is required to obtain a homogenous blend of butter granules, water and salt. During working, fat moves from globular to free fat. Water droplets decrease in size during working and should not be visible in properly worked butter. Overworked butter will be too brittle or greasy depending on whether the fat is hard or soft. Some water may be added to standardize the moisture content. Precise control of composition is essential for maximum yield.

(Again, emphasis mine.)


Why can you not add herbs and spices powder at end? As far as I'm aware any herb or spice CAN be eaten raw and hence added at the end of cooking.

We cooked a stew with garam masala as we wanted to try something bland.  It wasnt very tasteful so I suggested adding the chill powder in hours after the garam masala stew had been cooked.

My friend told me it was too late and the curry would start to smell bad if we added it now.

This question is not about whether adding at the beginning or the end would add more flavour as I know certain herbs need to be cooked to extract flavour.

Rather why did she say the curry would smell and isn't this statement contrary to the idea that you can add any spice at the end of cooking?

That's absurd, imho.  You add spices generally to the earlier stages of a stew so they can meld in together, between themselves and with the main ingredients.  That takes time usually, more time than just cooking even.  It's why most stews are better the next day, when flavors have really had the opportunity to form a cohesive whole.

So if you add spices at the end, you run the risk of them not being totally well mixed.  But there's no way your curry would start to smell bad!  Especially from chili, which if anything would prevent any bad smell from its conservation powers. That's just superstition.  And I hope you added some and demonstrated that :-).  Or at least try it on your leftovers.


Getting Potato and Turnip Patties to hold together... how? So I just tried this recipe for fried potato and turnip patties and completely blew it.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, but the patties didn't hold together at all.  The outside burned and the inside remained uncooked.  When I tried to flip them, they fell apart.  What can I do to get them to hold together?  More egg and flour?  Higher Potato to Turnip ratio?  More or less oil?

How can I fix it?  They taste really good -- the parts that aren't burned -- I'd like to get them to hold together.

My guesses:

First, if you're burning the outside before the middle cooks, you need to reduce your heat some. The outside will still brown over time at a lower heat, and the inside will cook better. If you start in and it looks like they're browning real fast, just turn the heat down (and maybe take the pan off the heat) until things get back under control. Then resume cooking at the lower temp. Getting the middle more thoroughly cooked should really help with them staying together, as the egg needs to be cooked to be an effective binder.

Second, make sure you drain the veg thoroughly before mashing. Any excess liquid may make them tend to fall apart. When they're drier they're going to be a little more stick-together-y in the first place, and then the cooking with the egg should bind it.

If neither of these things helps, I'd probably go for more egg rather than more flour. But I bet the other two options will sort you.


Problem storing Kosher Dill pickles I have been putting up Kirby cucumbers following Grandma's recipe for over 30 years using just 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, garlic, spices, dill, alum and water (NO VINEGAR). I'm using dishwasher-cleaned wide-mouth Ball Quart jars stuffed with the ingredients above.

After boiling new lids and rings, my husband sealed them as tight as he could and we immediately put them in a crawl space for 6 weeks to 10 months before opening each jar.

This worked like a charm in the midwest. Since moving into an apartment in CA we have struggled to find a basement or crawl space to store opened jars, so I put all 26 quarts in my second refrigerator.

It's been a couple of weeks now, and I'm worried about fermentation and storage for the rest of the "pickling time."  Will my cucumbers still "pickle" in the refrigerator (turned up to 46 degrees?)Can I remove them to store in an above-ground dark closet or above-ground crawl-space at friends after having been in refrigerator for these weeks or longer?Note that we're having a heat wave right now.

Pickles will ferment at around 65 - 72F The temperature can go lower overnight but needs to rise during the day. Get a thermometer to test places like cupboards, kitchen for the temperature range you need. This worked for me. I keep a strip thermometer with my stash.


How do you barbeque a whole piece of fish? I tried having a visbraai this weekend and was a little bit dissapointed by the result. The skin of the fish sticked to the grill and the flesh stuck and crumbled on the grill. I suspect the weber was too hot. Any advice on barbequing a whole-piece of fish so that it does not crumble and the skin does stick on the grill?

I BBQ whole fish or fish filets with or without skin quite regularly. You suspect the BBQ was too hot, but usually BBQs are not hot enough (unless you were REALLY hot and over like 800F?). Make sure grill is clean and apply oil to the grill and to the fish. Put fish skin side down on the BBQ until crispy and flip fish until cook to your desired temp. It might stick a bit, but it should not stick so much that it causes problems.

Common problems might be:

Sticky grill because it is dirty and not oiled
Grill is not hot enough
Fish is flipped too soon and did not get a chance to cook enough to separate itself from the grill
Fish is flipped more than once
Fish surface is not oiled (I suggest also oiling the flesh side)
Using a thick spatula (thin metal is better)
Pushing spatula hard to get under the fish. You don't need to do this. Just slide the spatula slowly under the fish if you find it is a bit sticky and more progressively.
A dirty BBQ or applying to much oil could perhaps cause a flare up. You can usually listen for the flames and if you hear fire or see it then use a spray bottle with water to disrupt the flame.


Mexican Spiced Mocha Minus Chili Powder I like Mexican Spiced Mocha and want to make it at home. But every recipe that I go through has chili powder as an ingredient. I am quite apprehensive abt. it. Can I make this particular coffee leaving chili pwdr and substituting something else in its place?

If you like spiced mocha made elsewhere then you are already having chili powder, so chances are you will like the recipes you would make at home. Substituting something else will change the flavor of the result you get, instead I would modify the amount and type of chili powder you use to get the amount of heat you get. There's a huge variety of chili powders available from very mild to hotter than pain itself, so try a mild chili powder and add less of it than the recipe calls for, if you want more heat add more or use a hotter chili powder.


A substitution for pork in Swedish meatballs I am looking for a substitute for ground pork in Swedish meatballs. For religious reasons, I don't eat any kind of pork (I adhere to the Bible clean and unclean meat, fish, and fowl).

Would ground turkey or ground veal be the best substitute for the pork? Thank you for your answer.

Hello Cheryl and welcome to Seasoned Advice! Ground veal would be an excellent choice to substitute for ground pork. I think you will find that the flavor will be closer than turkey or chicken.


Ground beef smells slightly sweet? I opened up a package of ground beef today that I had bought the day before from a reputable grocery store.  I left it out about an hour to warm up a little.  It was grass-fed, which I don't normally buy but do sometimes.  This time I immediately noticed a slightly sweetish smell--possibly like Worcestershire sauce, but hard to place.  Not really bad, but slightly stronger than ground beef normally smells.  Could it be something in the cow's diet, or have I bought meat that's too old to eat?

Grass-fed beef does certainly smell different from corn-fed beef. I haven't noticed it smelling "sweeter", but it could smell gamey, earthy, or even sulfuric if the cow got in to some wild onions or garlic. And there's plenty of variation between different types of grass and even the same grass variety from season to season.

Corn-fed beef is not going to have that because, well, there isn't much variation in animal feed corn.

Rotten meat has a distinctive smell and it's going to be the same smell in grass-fed beef.


Storing cast iron in the oven We store a few cast iron pans in the oven, on the bottom rack. We leave the pans in there while cooking other things. Occasionally, I worry that this might affect oven performance, by interfering with radiation or convection in the oven. While investigating the subject today, I found several guides to cast iron guide that mention oven storage, but none of them answered that question. However, a few of them did advise against the practice for a different reason: cooking with empty cast iron might ruin the seasoning.
If you store cast iron in your oven, do you need to remove the empty pans before cooking? Will empty cast iron pans affect the oven performance? Will it harm the pans or ruin the seasoning?

Will this effect how the oven heats up/cooks food?

The greater thermal mass means the oven will take longer to heat up, which is undesirable if you want to cook quickly, but it will also lessen temperature fluctuations from opening the oven door or the heating element cycling, which can be desirable. The block of metal is performing one of the roles of a pizza stone in this regard.
Depending on where the heating elements in the oven are situated, the size of the oven and the size and positioning of your cast iron, it may impact how heat distributes, for example by 'shielding' food from a lower heating element, and blocking the flow of air. Each situation is likely to be different so it is hard to say whether this will be a serious impact in your case.

Will it harm the pans?

Very unlikely; your cast iron is designed to be happy at oven temperatures. If there is food residue on the pan you may find that repeatedly heating/burning it and letting it cool can make it very hard to clean off without a tough abrasive, so make sure you clean your pans thoroughly before storing them.
Similarly, the whole point of seasoning on a pan is that it is formed in high oven temperatures, so it should not be damaged by exposure to similarly high temperatures. As discussed in the answer here, seasoning can be damaged by high temperatures, with the temperature necessary varying depending on the seasoning itself. If your pans' seasoning has survived so far, I would not expect this to change with further time stored in the oven, but if you season a new pan and store it in the oven you should not be surprised if the seasoning is at times damaged as described in that question. (This is the point I am least confident about, so would be open to correction in the comments if it is from a reliable source.)


Truffle Errors - not enough chocolate How can I save a batch of truffles when I realized I only used 7 oz of chocolate instead of 9 oz and it doesn't seem to be thickening up enough?

Whether you are making the filling or the shell, this is recoverable.

If you are making the filling or center, just melt it down again, and add the additional chocolate. Let it cool and continue your recipe as normal.

If you are making the tempered shell, it is more difficult, but you can melt down, add the additional chocolate, and re-temper.  This may not be worth it since you would need one of the more difficult "from-scratch" tempering methods. Still, you can use this chocolate for another filling, where tempering is not required.


Soaked red split lentils overnight for tadka dal. Proportion water to boil them in by weight? Any way to prevent the foam-up? (Ya know, these guys.)

So I rinsed 1 kg of them and soaked them overnight.

Haven't made them in a while,
and I've had some trouble in the past
with not adding enough water and having them stick quickly and cook slowly,
or adding too much water and having to cook them down for ages.

I'd just like a general "for ever 1 kg of lentils, start with 2 kg of water" or 2.5, or 3, or 4, or whatever it is.

(And like... time? heat? just a normal tall stove pot here.)

The other thing is, in the past, I've always had a problem with a mass of foam building up on top and boiling over.
Is there any way to prevent that? I've already rinsed them very thoroughly...

I cook red lentils in two ways: an excess of water and drain, or top up the water until they're done. In the latter case add any stock/wine etc. at the beginning, then top up with water from the kettle as necessary. This works for anything from lentil and tomato soup to dhal. It reduces foaming but doesn't eliminate it completely, turning the heat down to a low simmer and using a large pan are the best ways to prevent the foam escaping. I usually use a lid which helps a lot by reducing evaporation, but I tend to be quite a hands-on cook so topping up suits me.

Red lentils don't need soaking, by the way (not that it does any harm).


active dry yeast and rapid rise yeast My recipe calls for 1 packet active dry yeast. All I have is rapid rise instant yeast. How much instant yeast do I use in substitution?

If you're making the dough by hand, you can substitute 1:1, expect the bread to rise a bit faster using rapid rise or instant. If you're using a bread machine, use 25% less (slightly over 1 3/4 tsp to substitute rapid rise or instant for one packet of active dry).

From King Arthur Flour:

  One time when you might not want to use instant and active dry yeasts interchangeably is when you're baking bread in a bread machine. Since bread machines use a higher temperature to raise dough, substituting instant for active dry yeast 1:1 may cause bread to over-rise, then collapse. When baking in the bread machine, and substituting instant yeast for active dry, reduce the amount of instant yeast by 25%.


Does eye contact with the cooking food make it more delicious? There's a belief in some cultures that if you look at your being-cooked food from the beginning till the end, you will have a more delicious food compared to when you leave the food to be cooked.
Is this scientifically real or just a cooking myth?

I can think of two potential things that might affect how delicious food is:

If you're the one cooking, constantly watching the food makes sure you don't burn it or do something else that might adversely affect it.

For everyone involved, cooking or not, it can help to build anticipation.  You'll smell the food cooking, and may trigger physiological changes (stomach rumbling, anticipatory salivation, etc.) as your body prepares for food.

As your body has an opportunity to start thinking about the food and there's a period of denial (as the food hasn't been served yet), the food may seem more delicious than food that's only set down before you just as you're preparing to eat.  (Although, if the food quality is lacking and doesn't match what you've been anticipating, it's possible that your enjoyment would be worse)
To know if it's truly eyesight that's required, you would probably have to do some experiments -- watching someone cook behind a glass window or via closed circuit TV so you can't smell it being cooked; being blindfolded so you're in the same place to get the smells but can't actually see the food being cooked, etc.


breading/crumbing: mixing the eggs and flour? i was wondering why the recipes for crumbed/breaded foods always say that we should dredge in flour first, then dip in eggs, then coat with crumbs. Would it work if I mixed the eggs and flour to make a kind of batter, and dip the item (chicken wing, for example) in this batter, and then coat with crumbs? Is there a reason for them being done as separate steps? Cos , by the time i get to the last few, the eggs are all full of flour anyway... so why not just mix them up from the start?

In general, when battering, wet sticks to dry and dry sticks to wet, but they don't stick to themselves.

Thus, if starting with wet food, like meat, the process is usually:

flour (dry, sticks to the meat, which is wet)
eggs (wet, sticks to the flour, which is dry)
crumbs (dry, sticks to the eggs, which are wet)

If you have a wet layer right next to wet food, the batter will fall off during cooking.  If you try to stick dry to dry or wet to wet, it just won't adhere well.

You don't need the whole process (you could just use flour and omit the other two layers, for example), but the wet-dry rule is important.

It would be possible to mix (e.g.) eggs and flour to make a wet batter, but that should still be applied to food which is dry.  If the food isn't dry, it would need to be floured.


Why does my home-made bread go mouldy? I've been using a Panasonic bread-maker for about 20 years; in fact, I'm on my second machine. I use stone-ground wholemeal flours from different mills and, as I can't easily find Stone-ground Strong White in London, use Organic Duchy White.

For a 300 gm loaf, I vary the amount of different flours, usually 100gm of white and the remainder wholemeal, with 270 ml good water, 1 tablespoon demerara sugar, 1.5 to 2 tablespoons light oil, and 3/4 tablespoon of dry quick-yeast.

For storage, I've been using a good wooden bread-bin with lift-off lid for years, but find that the bread now goes mouldy in about 3 days.

Should I try using less oil? Is there something else that would prevent the loaf moulding so quickly?

Well, I don't think you're doing anything wrong -- I think it's because you aren't using any preservatives in your bread (and that's a good thing, right?). I find my homemade bread has to be eaten in about a week, but I live in a dry climate. A more humid climate might result in it lasting 3-4 days.


How should I organize making a cake days ahead? My wife's birthday is coming up and I want to make a cake for her.

I was thinking of making a layer of sponge cake, amarena cherry sauce (cherries, wine and sugar), chocolate mousse, another layer of sponge cake with sauce, Diplomat cream and amarena cherries on top.

The problem is that I won't have time the day we eat the cake (Saturday) and the day before (Friday), so I need to make it in advance. I'm thinking of preparing the sponge cake, cherry sauce and chocolate mousse on Thursday and build the bottom layers and put it in the freezer. I can make the Diplomat cream on Friday morning, save it in the refrigerator, and build the rest on Saturday (after we'll arrive home).

Does this sounds like a good plan? is it better to just make the pastry cream on Friday and mixed it with the whipped cream on Saturday? Can the cake and the mousse wait for two days?

I wouldn't make the layers fully in the freezer.  It will be hard to seal up and may dry out.  Also, frozen layers are easier to work with.  The freezer will dry out unsealed cake extremely fast.

I'd bake all the cake, trim and level them, wrap tightly and freeze on Thursday.  Make the sauces and creams on Friday and put them in the fridge.  Assemble all on Saturday.


How to know if blackberries are safe to eat? I'm having a problem where the blackberries I buy from the store on Sunday seem to be spoiled on Monday. On Sunday, I specifically look around the outside of the box and check if any blackberries have white fluff on them. If I don't see it then, then when I actually open the berries on Monday I will see the fluff. This is irritating because I don't know whether I am supposed to throw these out, and I buy large quantities of these berries to last me the week.

So my 2 questions are:

How do I know whether a blackberry is safe to eat? If some blackberries have that white mold on it, but the others don't, can I throw that berry out and use adjacent berries?
How am I supposed to store blackberries to prevent it from molding after 1 day? I highly doubt my grocery store will be selling moldy berries deliberately so maybe I am storing it incorrectly.

As soon as you get them home, inspect for damaged berries & discard any that are not perfect. Wash the rest in a colander or sieve under cold running water. Drain well.

Spread on dry paper towel for 30 mins to fully drain & dry, then put them in a new box with paper towel under & over - don't seal them with a snap lid.

Place in the fridge, in the salad crisper if you have one.

Life-span should now be more like a week.

The rapid spread of mould is from possibly just one single damaged berry. If they are touching & sweating, that can spread like wildfire. If they are clean, dry & cold, in air that can circulate around them, then you should be fine.
You could possibly be OK eating ones from the opposite side of the original punnet, but I wouldn't really. Safe rather than sorry, so do the preventative work first.

If it happens again even after you took proper care, pick a new store, or complain at the first one - though bear in mind that even with care, they are still fragile & won't last forever. Your sign of end-of-life when clean & dry should be shrinkage, they will eventually start to dry out & look wrinkled, rather than mould.

From comments under the OP [1] - it's possible that the mould spores are in the fridge not in the berries. The berries, if damaged in any way, simply provide a suitable breeding ground.
I'd recommend a fridge-sanitisation day. My method will prevent fast cross-contamination, but won't kill existing spores.

[1] "It's very strange since this problem started only in the last 2 months. I don't know if the grocery store is continuously selling moldy berries or not"


Substitute pork with beef I have a number of recipes that call for pork. Am I able to substitute with beef? And when it calls for chicken stock, do I use beef in place?

You can almost always adapt recipes to use other meats, but, obviously, the flavors are going to be different, so it might not turn out as you expected.

I'd be very careful about substituting beef stock or broth instead of chicken.  Beef broth is generally more assertively flavored, and usually carries a bit more salt as a counter-balance to that, so changing that flavoring might do a lot more than just alter the flavors slightly.

To illustrate my point, America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated, in their "best beef stew" recipe wound up using chicken instead of beef broth, because the beef broth was a bit too much.  And that was for a beef stew (the recipe is fantastic.  They were looking for more rich flavor than just using water, but using beef stock/broth wound up being too much).

EDIT/Addendum - What I was originally going for and lost track of is this - If you have a dish that has a lot of other seasonings or flavors that define the dish, you will probably have better success with a substitution.  If you have a dish where the other ingredients compliment the pork or the pork flavor is the key to the dish, you probably won't be as happy.


What's the FDA recommended sous vide temperature for in-shell egg pasteurization? My problem

I am trying to figure out the official FDA guideline for time and temperature of in-shell egg pasteurization process in heated water (sous vide).

What have I tried

Googled this site, including How to pasteurize eggs in a sous vide machine (in the shell)
Googled the FDA site for egg safety, but did not find a concrete answer.

My Question

What are official FDA guidelines for temperatures and times for home egg pasteurization in sous vide?

Here's an answer from the FDA website for pasteurizing whole eggs:

Egg pasteurization uses a water bath and motion to ensure that whole eggs are pasteurized without cooking the eggs.
Egg whites coagulate at 140 °F. Therefore, heating an egg above 140 °F would cook the egg, so processors pasteurize the egg in the shell at 130 °F for 45 minutes.


Are there any general rules which can be used when determining tasty food combinations? It seems like with all the recipes in the world there must be some guiding principles on creating new recipes, but nothing I've read suggests this is common knowledge. I'm hoping someone with more experience cooking knows of some general principles like this.

While hitchhiking from Portland to San Diego I shared the back of a pickup truck with two men who loved to cook. Their recommendation: Smell the food, smell the spice, if your mouth waters. add the spice. Same goes for combinations of foods. Just as simple as that.


Molasses and Honey with burned beef suggestions? Okay, so my lovely wife ("Plain Ol'Common Sense" here on the exchange) entrusted to me a mildly expensive roast as she left to spend a night with her sister.

Everything started out so well... I heated the cast iron skillet good and hot, browned the roast, poured a can of tomato paste onto it with a can of french onion soup and some fresh garlic and coarse pepper and popped the whole shebang into the oven at 375.

It all broke down when I let a project get me side-tracked and now I need to save my bacon (or beef as is the case now).

So, now I'm wondering something. I want to take this lovely, dry roast and crock-pot it with honey and molasses for a spicy-sweet fajita masterpiece before she gets home tomorrow and I'm looking for a recipe.

Now, mind you, I need to be at work 70 miles from home at 7:00 in the morning but I've got 2 teenage boys that can babysit the crock-pot. I'll have some time to put this together before heading out the door.

Any spicy-sweet ideas out there?

Thanks in advance!

Edit An excellent point was made in the comments: How bad is it?

The Roast pulls apart readily, is quite brown and very dry tasting. The french onion soup and tomato reduced down to a very caramelized reduction in the bottom of the pan leaving the top of the roast exposed for about an hour. Although, I did have a cast iron lid on the whole rig so it didn't 'burn' completely.

Bitter chocolate, lime juice, stock (chicken or beef doesn't matter), maybe a slosh of tequila. Cumin, a hot pepper of your favourite variety, perhaps some guava or agave? A little oregano, few cloves of garlic, a roughly chopped onion. Peppercorns--no salt, not at this stage.

Ensure enough liquid to just barely cover the meat, turn 'er on and leave 'er alone. When you get home, remove the meat from the pot, strain the liquid and set to reduce in a pot over high heat.

Shred the meat with forks while still warm--like making pulled pork. When the liquid is nicely reduced, add just enough to the shredded meat to keep it moist and luscious. Season at this stage, not before reduction. Eat in fajitas with, say, some nicely chopped avocado and buttery lettuce, maybe some pico de gallo.


Can quinoa be used instead of flour for cookies? I use a non-gluten flour combination of:

4 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup potato starch

Would it work to use quinoa in this combination as an addition or substitute for all of part of any of the ingredients?

I have used quinoa flour in various recipe and it would have a similar effect as the brown rice flour, though its taste would differ. I would recommend against substituting it (at least not 1:1) for the tapioca flour as that is likely working as a kind of binding agent to some extent. Experimentation may yield different results based on the ratio, but also tapioca has less flavor (which may be ideal as a balance).


How to soft and hard boil eggs in the same pot so they are ready at the same time? The method I usually follow is to place the eggs in cold water, then take the pot off heat once the water starts boiling and let the eggs sit in the water for X minutes. I usually do 4-5 min for soft boiled and 10-12 min for hard boiled.

This is fine when boiling all the eggs either soft or hard but not when I want them to be ready to eat at the same time. Do you know of method that allows both types to be ready at the same time?

You can do that by using a different method which puts eggs in boiling water.

Bring water to a boil in a large enough pot for all eggs.
Add those eggs that are to be hard-boiled, start timer.
Add the eggs that should be soft when the remaining time fits.
Remove all eggs together.
(Hope that you can tell soft and hardboiled eggs apart because you marked them prior to cooking. Else you have an egg lottery at the table.)

I personally cook them in two pots or keep hard boiled eggs warm until a second batch of soft boiled eggs is done for the reasons stated in the last bullet point. Or those prefering hard boiled eggs have to wait a few minutes longer.


What is safe/GMP prescribed limit of Sodium Benzoate in nacho dough? I've been cutting nacho triangles from rolled dough and then after lightly pan-roasting them I store them as ready-to-fry, which works and tastes very good but it devlops mould within a week. So, I purchased powdered Sodium Bemzoate, which should work considering the pH of my dough is slightly acidic, but I can't find reliable information about exact GMP limit.

I suspect it will depend a bit on where you live. However the limit in the USA is proscribed at 0.1% for foods, this is likely similar to the limits for most "western" countries.

This information was found by searching the FDA website for "sodium benzoate" and is found in statute here


Considerations for prepping breaded chicken for freezing I have chicken breasts. I want to cut into strips, bread, freeze and later bake or fry. The binder will be egg. The breading will be semolinia bread crumbs. There will be parmesan and italian herbs in the breading. Any special considerations compared to breading with the intention of cooking immediately?

I don't think there are special considerations for the actual breading procedure. I think the most important considering is to individually freeze the breaded chicken strips. I'd place them on parchment, on a sheet pan, and freeze them. Then after they are frozen, bag them for later use. IQF (individually quick frozen) pieces are less likely to stick together. This is particularly important with breaded chicken, where the breading will fall off if it sticks to another, leaving you with inconsistently breaded chicken strips.


Where did I go wrong with this pie? I baked this pie at 400F (200C) for 25 minutes on the bottom rack, then reduced temperature to 375F (190C) and moved pie to middle rack for 35 more minutes.

The crust doesn't look like CRUST, so to speak.  It looks wet or doughy. Like it'll be chewy.

Any thoughts?

This is the recipe I followed: 2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1 TBSP granulated sugar, 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, and cold water mixed with a little cider vinegar and ice in it. Mixed dry ingredients together then added the butter pieces. I used a pastry blender to cut the biter in. I then adds 1-2 TBSP at a time of the cold water mixture until the dough came together. Split the dough in half, shaped into discs, wrapped in plastic and put in the fridge overnight.

Simple: it's undercooked.

So what was the specific variable that caused this outcome? Who knows. Maybe 400 on your oven isn't the same as 400 on the oven of the person who wrote the recipe, or your pie started out with colder ingredients, or you opened the oven door too many times, or any number of other factors which could affect how long something takes to cook in an oven.

More important than where you went wrong, is how you can avoid doing this again in the future. As I sit here typing, I can hear my pastry instructor in school yelling "Put that back in the oven! Golden brown means brown, not gold!"

You should always cook a pie to the correct color/doneness, not to a specified time. In most cases in cooking, time is the least reliable indicator for doneness. To someone with experience, even smell by itself is more accurate than time.

Good luck with your future pie baking!


Are there any advantages to freshly ground salt? Recently, I've seen salt grinders sold in stores. I understand that freshly ground pepper has a plus over pre-ground pepper in terms of freshness and strength. However, salt to me seems like a mineral, as opposed to pepper which is, well, a pepper from a plant.
So, is there any plus in terms of taste and freshness to using freshly ground salt out of a salt grinder?
(I am obviously not talking about special flavored salts which contains other spices and herbs which would benefit from being freshly ground)

Not really in terms of flavor, no. Salt doesn't have a substantial number of volatile compounds that are released by grinding, in contrast to something like whole peppercorn, which releases a range of aromatics when the outer hull is breached. Even specially-sourced salts which contain a range of flavorful minerals don't really release them into the air, they dissolve into the foods they're added to instead, and/or are picked up by your tongue as you eat.

One advantage grinders offer is that a lot of them are adjustable, and can be tweaked for everything from a very fine grind to large crystals. This can be helpful depending on the effect that you're going for - seasoning popcorn with very fine salt vs. garnishing a steak with large crunchy chunks, for example. Smaller crystals with more surface area will generally tend to be perceived as saltier due to more taste bud contact, and will also dissolve into liquids (i.e. soups or stews) more quickly. I like using larger crystals sometimes for flavor/texture contrast and visual appeal for some dishes.

Another advantage mentioned by others is that finely pre-ground salt may also contain anti-caking agents to keep it from clumping together. If that bothers you, a grinder gets around this because larger pieces won't stick together as much before being pulverized by the grinding mechanism.

Some producers package salt in disposable grinders just as they do with pepper, and they share the same problems: cheap grinders simply aren't very good at getting a consistent grind size, or they have mechanisms which wear down quickly. Reusable grinders are often much better, and as you've seen they're getting very easy to find even in non-specialty stores. I like ceramic grinding mechanisms personally, because I feel that they get a better "grip" on the particles and are better at consistency, but good steel mechanisms will do well too. Here are some suggestions for care to help you get the most out of them.


Precook or raw when chilling meat? I currently have an unopened package of raw sausages in the fridge (with several days left before expiration).

I also have a recipe to use all of the sausages, but due to the other ingredients in the recipe (mostly pasta) I know I can't cook it all at once (due to pot size, mostly).  So I will have to make half of it at a time.

Is it better to pre-cook all the sausages and put half back in the fridge for a couple days until the second batch, or leave them raw?  And should I leave them in the original (now opened) packaging (if raw; I know I shouldn't do that if cooked) or transfer them to another container (which can be sealed)?

Either way should be ok for a couple of days.

Either keep them raw and cook them in a couple of days, or cook them now and re-heat them in a couple of days.


How can one make dry fine hazelnut flour? How can one make a hazelnut flour that is as dry and fine as coconut flour? What is sold as "ground hazelnut" or "hazelnut meal" is coarse and moist.

Over half of the weight of hazelnuts consists of oil.  So just:

buy / pick the hazelnuts yourself
buy yourself a decent nut oil press, (the higher the pressure the more oil you will remove)
press the nuts

and whatever is left after you've pressed all the oil out of the nuts is very dry though still coarse so the only thing left to do is just use a grain grinder to grind that into the smoothest most wonderful flour you've ever seen and tasted.

Tip: if you're only interested in the nut flour, start selling the hazelnut oil as it's a fantastic product to make all kinds of fried desserts like fried chocolate to offset the 2 new items you had to buy


Charcoal grill not getting hot enough I purchased a cheap kettle charcoal grill a few weeks ago, and I feel like it's not getting hot enough. I'm using a charcoal chimney which takes about 40 minutes to get the coals ashy. I've read it should only takes 15 minutes to light. Once I dump the charcoal into the grill it gets cold fast. When I first put my hand over it the grill is hot, and I can barely keep my hand over it for a few seconds. After closing the lid and letting the grill warm up for 5-10 minutes I can typically keep my hand over the coals much longer. I also never see any smoke coming from my grill after I initially light the chimney.
I'm currently using briquettes as lump charcoal was even colder. The bottom and side vents are fully open, so there should be plenty of air flow in my grill.

It really sounds as if you're just getting the tail-end of the fuel left in the charcoal.. that you've let it burn too far in the chimney .. 40 minutes does sound like a long time .. the right time to start cooking on charcoal is when any self-sustained flames have gone down, and the surface appears grey-white in daylight.. if you fan it, there should be a clearly perceptible glow.

If you want to use your chimney, give the charcoal just enough time in there to propagate its own burn.. don't spread it too thin in the grill after transfer, and let it settle to a glow in the grill, not the chimney. That will also help the metalof the grill heat up.

Or, light the charcoal in the grill by fanning it gently, and later, not so gently, with whatever comes to hand, or an electric fan.


What is a substitute for Miso Dressing? I got a recipe coming up for Thai Fish Cakes. The recipe calls for Miso Dressing to be put on top of the fish cakes. Problem is, I can't find Miso Dressing in the stores I shop at ( I live in Central AZ ), and getting it from Amazon is too expensive or too large for something I infrequently use.

Nothing really spicy, please. My roommate can't handle the spice.

To replace miso, you can use soy sauce, tahini or fish sauce for that umami and savoury flavour.


Should I keep the microwave turntable and plastic turntable support ring in the microwave oven when using convection mode? I am trying to operate a microwave convection oven for the first time. It is a GE Profile convection/microwave oven.  I am wondering if I am supposed to keep the glass microwave turntable and plastic microwave turntable support ring in the unit when I am operating in convection mode.  I know the first thing people will say is to read the owners manual, but the owners manual is extremely unclear.

Here is a manual I found online, which is for a model very similar to the one I have.

On page 8 of this manual, as well as on page 8 of the manual that came with my model,  they discussed that the metal shelves should not be in the unit when microwaving food, but they don’t mention anything about the glass turntable and plastic turntable support ring  being used in convection mode. You might ask: why don’t I just remove these two items anyway when using convection mode just to be safe? The answer is that the support ring sits on a piece of plastic, and that piece of plastic seemingly can’t be removed, so I will still have to worry about plastic in the unit while using convection mode. So is that piece of plastic that’s part of the unit safe for the convection oven?

I cannot vouch for your specific GE oven, but I've been using my combination oven with the turntable and turntable support in Microwave, Convection Bake, Convection Roast and Combination Fast Bake for the last >10 years with no ill effects.

As your oven has the same technical capabilities as mine:

  Combination Fast Cooking
  Your oven also offers the option of Combination Fast Cook, using microwave energy along with convection cooking. You cook with speed and accuracy, while browning and crisping to perfection.

I'm led to believe you're safe to use the turntable in convection only mode like I do as my round shelf fits perfectly on the glass turntable, so I never asked myself the question and have just used it like that since the first time I turned on the oven.


Sugar in canned sweet potatoes. can I remove it simply at home? I have canned sweet potatoes that have sugar added.

Can I boil / bake / soak / ANYTHING to remove the added sugar?

If these are canned whole sweet potato, or pieces/slices in syrup or sugar then yes, you can remove the sugar by rinsing the pieces in water. Whole pieces of sweet potato don't absorb sugar, it stays on the surface. The sugar is there as a preservative, believe it or not, not to make the potatoes sweeter. They could use salt but then that would clash with the flavor of the potatoes. You may get a little bit of sugar remaining but it will be very small.

On the other hand if it is some sort of processed sweet potato mash then there's no way to get rid of the sugar, it's there for good.


How can I troubleshoot unsuccessful knife-sharpening? I wanted to sharpen my knives, so I took a cheap whetstone, watched a YouTube video for guidance, and got to work. The results are unsatisfying. Is the next step to buy a better whetstone (if there's no point trying with the cheap one I have) or to develop better technique (without which no whetstone will do me any good)? If the latter, what should I do to develop better technique?

Take a marker to your knife edge so you can actually see how you're removing material from your knife.

Additionally you probably need to get another cheap stone and soak it either in water or oil, depending on what the stone calls for. You want to make sure the stone is producing a paste for you, and you want to make sure your stone is flat. Getting better stones won't really help if you're using the stones incorrectly in the first place. Get a one dollar knife you don't really care about and then sharpen the knife till you develop a burr on one side of the knife. Then Do the same thing on the other side of the knife. Then you want to strop your knife on some news paper or on the edge of some cardboard. The actually motion for stropping a knife is the same as sharpening it only stropping is more forgiving than sharpening is.

Additionally, you want make sure you're stop sharpening your knife at the right grit for what you want it to do. I typically sharpen with sandpaper so I can't really give you grit numbers because natural stones have different grits than sand paper and diamond stones. The general rule of thumb is to start on a lower grit to remove material faster and move to a higher grit to get a more refined edge, then strop to further refined edge and to clean up the blade/remove the burr.

Generally speaking, if you're using a general purpose chef knife, you want to keep a consistent angle of around 20 degrees when you sharpen a knife. The marker you paint the edge with will help show you where you're not doing that. it will also show you where you're removing too much material from the blade and where you're not removing enough material from the blade.

A final thing you want to do is to check your blade for nicks. If your blade has nicks in the edge then you're going to have to remove material till you remove the nick in your blade. That could be the issue you're running into. orient the blades edge towards a source of light above you. If you see any reflection then your knife is not sharp there.

Finally, don't put your knives in the sink, dishwasher, or drawer. These environments are all terrible for your knife edges. You're guaranteed to dull your knives considerably if you do any of these things.

Let me know if something still isn't making sense to you and I'll explain it. I know too much about knives.


underfilled whipper canisters I see a lot of info on overfilled whippers but what about underfilled. Let's say I have a 1/2 liter whipper which is 500cc. I know I can get away with just putting in 250cc of liquid but what if I put in 125cc of liquid and then charge it. Will it hurt the whipper? Will the liquid be overcharged (too much n2o for the liquid) or undercharged (decreased pressure because N2o is spread over a larger non-liquid volume)? If undercharged, would I just have to add a second charge? Thanks. Whipping expands to several times the original volume and for some things, several cups is leading to a lot of waste.

I do it all the time it should work fine with a single charger. But keep in mind that, you always have an (almost) fix amount of waste of cream (or other product); the lower your starting volume is, the higher will be the ratio of wasting the product.


Smoking with chips after sous vide I am planning on cooking a pork rack (pork crown). I like the precision of sous-vide, but I also like having a smokey flavor by using smoking chips.

So I am faced with a dilemma: Either grill the rack the traditional way, adding smoking chips throughout the process or cooking sous-vide, cooling down in an ice bath and making the crust on a grill for say 30min while also smoking some chips.

Would 30 min on the grill be enough for the smokey flavor? Or should I dispense sous-vide in this situation favoring thoroughly smoking the meat? Or should I try to compromise, by having very low heat in the gas grill, turning on only one burner and using indirect heat to have a sort of slow cook?

I only have a gas grill and smoke chips, I don't actually have a smoker.

A small shot of liquid smoke added to the bag before cooking the rack sous vide will give it a mild smokiness that captures most of the flavors of real outdoor cooking.

With a grill and wood chips you can still impart some flavor. Try to keep the temperature low (say 300°F) to avoid negating the effect of low and slow sous vide. To avoid drying it out, don't post-sous vide smoke it for more than 3 hours.

If you want the deepest smoke flavor you would want to smoke the meat from raw and could use the sous vide to finish it off (the flavorful compounds in smoke will adhere to and penetrate raw meat much better than they will cooked meat).


How to Convert Blueberry Muffin Recipe to Vanilla Muffin Recipe I tried this recipe with good results.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/blueberry-coffee-cake-muffins-recipe/index.html

So I decided to make plain vanilla muffins using the same recipe except for adding blueberries. However, the texture was not the same - I am guessing this is because of the reduced moisture content from the missing blueberries.

Can someone please guide me as to what I should modify to make up for the reduced moisture (assuming that is the cause)?

Many thanks

Blueberries are mostly water (~74%) and your recipe calls for a pint of them. Blueberries are roughly spherical, so they will pack into a container with a density of around 64%.

The recipe comes from a site in the US, so a pint is, presumably, ~473ml. One thing I don't know is how much liquid blueberries transfer to the batter while they are cooking. If they transfer somewhere between 25% and 75% of their water content, then you are looking to replace between 56ml and 168ml of liquid (i.e. roughly between a quarter and three quarters of a US cup).

Since there is already milk in the recipe, you might just as well add extra milk.


Cabbage rolls question Can I make cabbage rolls (I use ground beef, rice, seasons, egg and sour cream as the filling) the night before I am going to cook them at 11 the next morning.  Will it be safe?

As long as you chill them quickly and properly you should be ok.

If I remember correctly, the fill must be at least at room temperature when you roll it in the cabbage leaves; and the leaves themselves will also be at room temperature.

So that will cool down nicely in the fridge without stay in the "danger zone" too long.


What are the options when looking for gluten free chapati? Hi does anyone know where I can buy gluten free chapatis or what is the best method of making them and storing them without any preservatives?

I use ivory teff tortillas from La Tortilla Factory as a gluten-free substitute for chapati. They are sometimes available at my local grocery store, but I've also bought them online. They are similar in texture and mouthfeel to wheat chapatis. When heated on a griddle, they brown and puff up just like the real stuff, and they then taste delicious with a little ghee. I don't miss wheat chapatis at all since I discovered these. They are much closer to wheat chapatis than gluten-free sandwich bread is to the genuine article. They freeze well and also keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.

If you're interested in making a gluten free Indian roti, I would suggest not trying to make something that approximates chapati. Instead, make some traditional preparation that uses other flours. For example, there's bhakri, which can be made with any of various flours like jowar (sorghum), bajri (finger millet), or even rice flour.

Or there's one of my all time personal favorite foods, a multigrain flatbread called thalipeeth. Most recipes online include wheat as one of the ingredients, but you can just leave it out and increase the amount of the other flours proportionately. There's also a sabudana (sago) version which is a lot simpler as it just uses whatever flour you have lying around in addition to sago.

Finally, the site Spice Up The Curry has a section on Indian Breads that includes recipes for rotis made with exotic flours such as rajgira (amaranth), singhara (water chestnut), and kuttu (buckwheat). I've never made any of those, so YMMV. In general I've had good success with recipes from that site, though.


I need a good substitute for applesauce in a gumdrop recipe I need applesauce for a gumdrop recipe but I am out of it. what can i use as a substitute? I have seen people saying oil, but what kind? And just the same amount as applesauce, or what?

When substituting applesauce for oil in baking, it is a 1:1 ratio. 1/4 cup applesauce for 1/4 cup oil (except for cookies).

The rationale behind using applesauce as an oil replacement is that applesauce is high in pectin, and pectin can form a film around individual grains of flour, just like oil does.

In general purée of any other high-pectin fruit should work such as banana. Basically fruit high in pectin and no watery.

As for what kind of oil, most cooking oils should work. I tend to use canola oil opposed to almond, grape or olive. The reason is the flavors of these oils, to me, tend to alter the flavor too much for my liking.


How to safely refreeze cooked beans? I have cooked a kilo of black eye beans and made a meal with half of them. I intend to freeze the rest (the other half) to make another meal next week and freeze them for later meals. This last step means that the frozen beans are going to be cooked and refreeze them again.
Is this procedure a safe one to take? I regularly cook full meals and freeze them in portions for later meals but not from already frozen ones.

Sure.
I have done this dozens of times.  Beans are durable and super forgiving.  They might get a little mushy but that is fine for black beans.
For other kinds of food the risk is that the might get overcooked the second time and lose character you want.


how can i make 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour to 1 1/2 cup of self'rising flour? I am making a coffee cake it requires *self-rising flou*r but I only have all purpose flour. I do know how to make ap flour to self-rising yet i dnt the measurments for 1/2 a cup ?

This article has a pretty typical ratio:

1 c. flour : 1 1/2 tsp baking powder : 1/4 tsp salt

so for 1 1/2 cup, you would want:

1.2 c. flour, 2 1/4 tsp baking powder : 3/8 tsp salt

Alternatively, you could make a fairly large batch, whisk it together well, then measure normally.


How to make dutch pannekoek? How can I make those Dutch pannekoek, specially those salty ones that have cheese and mushrooms? Every time I try, I end up burning those "toppings".

You pour in the batter, wait for the underside to be cooked (some brown patches), flip it, then put cheese on the (browned) top. With spek (bacon), you don't need to do this, you can just put the spek into the pan, fry it until done, then pour batter over it, and proceed as normal. Dutch pancakes are fairly thin, so they don't take very long to cook. Spek won't get properly crisp if you pour the batter on it immediately, also because the watery batter cools it down. Apple pieces won't burn either, so you can put those in first (I hate those, they will make your pancake break!).


Heating Margarine in Pan = loss of calories? Does heating up margarine in a pan makes it lose calories since more than half of it evaporates? Ex: using 1/4 of margarine and heating it up with onions. Will the dish still have 210 cals from margarine or will that number be lower?

No, because what is evaporating is water.


Kobe beef in the U.S? Recently moved to the bay area, and it seems that everyone is advertising "Kobe beef burgers" on their menus. As someone who has been in Japan and tasted the real thing, it's quite clear to me that this isn't in any way related to Wagyū  cattle especially considering the low pricing (<15$ per burger).

So, does anyone here know why Americans are calling this meat "Kobe"?

It's for the same reason that all sparkling wine is in America is called 'champagne'.  We don't participate in PDO / PGI / DOP / etc. agreements with most foreign countries.  We do have requirements for specifically American-made items to have similar tules, such as Bourbon (so Jack Daniels is Tennessee Whiskey, not Bourbon).  But just as America doesn't recognize the European protection for parmesean, champagne, etc, European countries don't recognize the American protections.

I've talked to a local Wagyu farmer, and he said that true Kobe has to be processed in Japan (and he said it in an ambigous enough way suggesting that it might be possible for American-raised cattle to be shipped back to Japan for processing), and they're given a specific diet and treatment that doesn't happen in the US.  (I also tried to talk him into selling me 1/2 a cow, and at the time (3-4 years ago?) he said it was in such high demand that all of his cows were sold before he even started raising them.  At that time, Wagyu was still pretty rare in the US, and it was being sold as Wagyu ... it only seems to be more recently (last 1-2 years) that I've people selling it in the US as 'Kobe'.

Most of the "American Wagyu" has also been cross-bred with an American cattle.  (The story I've heard is that the sperm was brought over, not live cattle, so they had to start with American heffers).  So it's going to have some percentage of Longhorn or Angus in it.


Keep temperature at exact 62C/143F for an hour Is there an appliance with which I can keep something at a specific temperature, in this case 62C, without constantly checking manually? I have been looking at thermostat controlled induction plates but haven't found any that go that low.

Edit for more information:

the temparature should stay within 2 or 3 degrees of the target, it's less of a problem if it goes too low, but too high chemically alters some key ingredients.
it should be able to do at least about 500ml of volume.

Are we talking liquid or solids? Water has a high specific heat, meaning you need a lot of energy to change their temperature. That being said, I'd either go for a sous-vide approach, seal whatever you want to keep at that temperature in bags and toss it into a pre-warmed 62° C water bath, or buy/rent a medium/upper quality range dehydrator. These usually work for temperatures between 50-90° C, and are quite accurate.


How long does it take to smoke a chicken? I have tried to smoke chicken twice now and both times have taken at least 6 hours. I put the chicken (about 6 lbs) in my smoker with about 40 coals and add some wood. I also periodically add coals and wood.

Does it really take 6 hours to smoke a chicken of that size?

While cooking low and slow has its advantages, 6 hours is a bit too long. You should be able to complete a 6 pound chicken in 1 1/2 - 2 hours @ 275°F [135°C].

Some things to remember that might help you out:

You are going for an internal temp of 160°F [70°C] in the breast
meat and 170°F [75°C] at the thigh.
Every time you open the smoker you are allowing an ENORMOUS amount
of heat to escape, this prolongs the cooking time. (If I were to
bet, it would be that you are checking it too often)
Almost all the flavor your going to achieve from smoking is reached
in the first 30 minutes. You may want to smoke it for 30minute - 1
hour and then transfer it to a 275°F oven if you are having issues
maintaining the heat in your smoker.


Roasting more than 1 meat in using one oven How do I manage the roasting time and temperature for roasting/baking more than 1 beef wellington using the same oven and at the same time.

Thanks.

If you have room to place the Wellingtons on the same shelf, you simply cook them in the same way as you would a single one. Conventional ovens do not work like microwaves - the amount of stuff in the oven makes no difference, providing air flow is maintained and you don't have something large right up at the top or bottom blocking an element.

Fan ovens are especially useful as they actively circulate the heat around the oven cavity, so you can cook things on two different levels with fairly good consistency.


Does oil/butter help rise the dough? When I'm baking regular white bread: wheat flour+water+yeast.  I often find my first rise to do well, but my second rise halts prematurely. It does not double.

I think/guess the reason is mostly because of a drying out effect on the outer layer, impeding the rise. I don't think it is the yeast running out of steam; when I cut the loaves before the oven, the cuts makes a significant change in the rise.

Would the drying out effect be lessened if I added oil or butter to the mix?

If so, how does this effect the wetness of the dough?

This is the result of 2 hours for the first rise, 50 minutes for the second.

Update: Following the advice provided gave me a wonderfully light and smooth giant loaf of bread. I used oil and cling wrap instead of kitchen towels for both proofings.

Oil or butter are dough enrichments, and they will change the quality of your loaf.  This may be a positive change in flavor and texture, as well as making it stale more slowly, but it is a change.   They will also slow the action of the yeast slightly.

Instead, if the cause of your failure to get a second proofing is that the outside of the loaf is drying out (which from the edited in picture appears to be the case), coat just the outside very lightly with oil or butter, then cover loosely with cling wrap.  I like to spray cling wrap with spray oil, then lay it over the surface of the loaf.

You may also want to improvise a proofing box with your microwave, by boiling some water in the chamber for a few minutes, then using the cavity as the proof box. You still want to oil and cover the loaf while it rises.

This will keep the outside from drying out and losing its elasticity, so that the proofing can continue.

A second possible cause is that the yeast are running out of readily available sugars to digest, and so their action is just slowing down considerably.  You might try adding a teaspoon of sugar to the liquid when you are first making the dough to provide some extra food for the yeast.


Cooking slow-roasted pork to 190F? I got a recipe from America's Test Kitchen for "slow-roasted pork" using a bone-in pork shoulder.  They say to cook it at 325F until it's 190F internal temperature.

However: you normally need to cook pork only until 160F to kill microorganisms. Wouldn't cooking it until 190F dry it out? Why would they say to cook it until 190F if 160F is normally sufficient?

They say to cook until 190F because that's the temperature at which the stuff that actually makes your slow-roasted pork moist, the collagen, fat, etc. is breaking down and coating the meat.  Less than that and you'll have all those bits still intact in your shoulder, which you don't want.
ATK explains this in their footnote on the recipe:

LOW OVEN
Just like in a pot roast, cooking the pork low and slow (325 degrees for 5 to 6 hours) pushes the meat well beyond its “done” mark into the 190-degree range, encouraging intramuscular fat to melt, collagen to break down and tenderize the meat, and the fat cap to render and crisp.

ATK's foot and header notes have taught me a lot over the years and I highly recommend them.


What fish have deliciously edible skins? I love salmon skins, especially when fried or oven roasted. I also always eat the skin when I have a filet.

What other fish have deliciously yummy skins that can stand on their own like a salmon skin can?
Are there fish whose skins are generally avoided? Examples?

The skin of all the small fish I have tried is delicious. I have never tried, e.g. tuna skin, and I imagine that it is too tough and I also wouldn't eat shark skin.  Back when I used to eat fish, I always ate the skin, and found it to be the best part. Beware, though, as while the skin concentrates the deliciousness, it also concentrates the mercury and other contaminants, so you may consider limiting your intake.


How to prevent homemade butter from melting/separating under hot conditions Please, I'm making homemade butter that will be kept and served at an outdoor event. What process/additive/ingredient can I add to preparation that will prevent the butter from separating or melting in the outdoor heat(or under direct sunlight). Thanks.

You can't.

fat is fat and will melt under hot conditions.

Keep it cool, put it over some ice.


How do I avoid microwave-safe covers melting in the microwave? I've twice now had a microwave cover that was advertised as microwave safe melt while heating food.
The first time, I was reheating Chinese leftovers (3 minutes on 950W, like I usually reheat my foot) and the cover melted above the rice. I ended up eating the rest of the food and not eating the rice.
The second time, my mother was heating a casserole pot with rotisserie chicken (5-6 minutes on 650W, though I'm not sure if that's the actual heat we use for that) and again part of the cover melted. We ended up not eating the skin, assuming that the rest of the chicken would be fine.
These weren't the first times we used these covers either: both of these covers were tall (the first one was as tall as a 4-5" smartphone, the second one slightly taller than an IKEA Dinera bowl) and already in use for several years before they melted. We didn't accidentally use non-microwave settings either.
We still have 2 lower covers (about 3/4 the height of a Dinera bowl), but we'd rather not have these melt as well. Problem is I think these are the same material as the one that just melted, and while they're still intact, they're about the same age as the second one that melted. All of our covers were marketed as microwave friendly.
Is there anything specific that can be done to avoid microwave covers melting in the microwave?
Example:-

I'm no plastics expert but a general rule of thumb is the softer the plastic initially, the more likely it is to melt (I know that sound too obvious, but hey;) Something to do with thermoset vs thermoplastic.
The trouble with plastics being advertised as microwave-safe is it is a limited claim. If you microwave a bowl of water covered by the lid, then you're fine… forever.
However, if you get food, especially fat, on it then that will create a local heat spot far in excess of what the plastic can stand.
I've found that it's not worth spending money on heat-proof covers when in fact far more heat-resistant plastics are readily available - for free.
Your take-away food will come in one - both container & lid are quite likely to survive being nuked with a really greasy curry inside, with little ill effect except perhaps some staining.

Likewise, those supermarket dishes containing ready meals are even more resilient. I have some of those still in use from probably 20 years ago. They can get a bit bashed & the edges will chip after a time until you decide they're no longer worth keeping.

They all go through the dishwasher with no worries too [so long as you make sure they don't flip over, they're very light.]
I have actually been known to buy supermarket ready meal products like this just for the dish ;)


I would like to know how to thicken sauces with blood and is it safe? I saw a recipe (French) that involved thickening with blood (they also said puréed liver would work) - is this safe?  I've eaten blood sausage and black pudding, but still am curious about a sauce?

It should be safe, you would want to follow the same precautions you would when preparing meat. I personally like thickening my stews with bone marrow.


How to store seeds so that they will not get full of insects? I am trying to use my seeds in fruits, but when I store them they become very soon full of insects. Because I do not get a lot of seeds at once, I am not going to dry individual seeds in oven.

What is the best way to store the seeds? Could I freeze them?

Related question about eating seeds: Are seeds in melons and other fruits good to eat?

The rules are the same as keeping rice, beans, or lentils: keep them in a container that the insects can't chew through, and do not allow them access.  This means glass, thick plastic (not a bag), or metal.  I would do my best to dry off the seeds to prevent mold growth, beforehand.  Even laying them on a paper towel for 15-20 minutes should help.

If you have problems with mold, try using something like a canning jar and use fine cloth in place of the lid.  It should keep bugs out and allow moisture to escape.

Refrigeration will greatly extend the life of your seeds; if bugs do not have a chance to lay eggs on them, and the seeds are sufficiently dry to prevent mold, they should refrigerate for months.

Freezing is also good idea, as this will kill any bug larvae and prevent microbial spoilage; I'd try freezing a small batch of seeds first to make sure the moisture doesn't split them open.


How would I quickly defrost chicken if it's going to be cooked in a crock pot? I've read that it is O.K. to defrost chicken via the microwave or in a sink of cold water, but only if you're planning to cook the chicken right away. (How to quickly and safely defrost chicken?)

I'm putting my chicken in a crock pot to cook it, would these methods still be safe, or is there another method to which I would go about this?

Thanks in advance for all suggestions! :)

Either microwave or the running water method should be perfectly acceptable, since you are going to begin cooking right away.  Modern slow cookers should come up to temperature within no more than an hour or so, so you aren't leaving the food at ambient temperature for very long.

Note that for the water method, the water should be running--it doesn't have to be fast, just a thin stream--but this makes sure there is enough circulation in the water to substantially reduce the defrosting time.

Your best, safest bet, if you have the time is always to defrost in the refrigerator.   The other methods are for when you don't have time to do that.


non-grain options in sourdough starter Is there any reason not to try adding dried fruit to a sourdough starter? The reason I'm imagining is that different sorts of yeast live on dried fruit vs on grains. This could turn out to be delicious or terrible. As well I've never seen sugar added to a starter so I'm curious what the dried fruit sugars would do. Is there any info on this?

It is not uncommon to use pineapple juice, grapes...berries...really all sorts of fruits,  as a source of yeast/bacteria for a sourdough starter.  Dried fruit, such as apricot is also used. So, there is no reason you can't give it a go.


Extracting flavor of ginger in cooking I have noticed and tried the practice of frying the combination of ginger and garlic pieces in oil/ghee at the very beginning, prominently in Indian cuisines. However, pungent taste from the uncooked pieces tends to sting at times.

I've also tried boiling the ginger and garlic pieces in small quantity of water and then used the reduced mixture (along with the liquid) during the preparation.

I want to know if it is effective way to extract the flavor or am I doing it wrong in either or both the ways?

For extracting (to water / ghee / oil), the best way I've found is to slice long slivers of ginger paper thin, as thin as you can. The extra surface area provides better saturation, and being extra thin promotes optimal extraction. Remove the ginger after 10 or so minutes, or once you pick up a strong smell of it.

For flavoring where you leave it in, I like to use a micro plane and grate it very finely, while being careful not to burn it. It does get bitter if overcooked or burned so timing and temperature are important. That might be the slightly acrid / pungent taste you're picking up.

In soups and stuff, I generally just follow the recipe the first few times and then adjust if I feel like I could use less ginger to get the same result. A few slivers can give the same taste as a 1cm square chunk.


Is it ok to freeze miso paste? Recently, I bought a pack of miso paste. It contains 1kg, far more than I actually need. Is it ok to freeze what I don't need? If so, how long could I keep it frozen?

You can freeze it, however using it will be a problem as you will have to chip out what you want on demand rather than thaw and re-freeze it.

Miso paste lasts ages in the fridge as long as you put it in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out, you're better off just doing that.