How can I know if it's worth cooking a Very Old (10 Years) Chili Bean Mixture Containing Red Kidney Beans? I had 24-oz. bags of chili mix beans that consist of red kidney beans, navy beans, cranberry beans, and black beans, and which have been stored in our pantry in their original, unopened, plastic bag packages since I purchased them about 10 years ago. I just tried to prepare half (about 12 oz.) of one of the packages by:

Rinsing them thoroughly and repeatedly in a strainer,
Soaking them in plenty of water in a metal pot in my refrigerator for approximately 48 hours,
Draining off the soak water, and rinsing the beans in three to five batches of fresh water,
Boiling for a total of two to four hours, adding water as needed
Letting sit in the hot pot on the stove a while,
Another hour of boiling time
Adding 1/2 tsp of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to the pot of boiling beans during the last 10 minutes of that,
Another hour of boiling time, bringing the total number of hours the beans have boiled to four to six hours,

I decided to stop after testing a kidney bean and other smaller beans for softness again, and discovering that, although the bean skins started dissolving off of the beans after I added sodium bicarbonate to the bean and water mixture, the interior of the beans were still hard.

I have learned that very old beans, may never be cooked to softness due to chemical changes that have occurred within the beans's cell structures.  However, some people on the Internet advise that very old, dried beans can be cooked to a soft texture if, when you are soaking them prior to cooking them, you add 3/8 to 1/2 tsp of sodium bicarbonate to the soak water.  One person also said that, if your beans are very, very old, you may also have to add sodium bicarbonate to the cooking water.  I also learned that, if your cooking water is very hard, you will probably have to add sodium bicarbonate in order to be able to cook your beans to softness.

I have decided to throw away these long-boiled beans, as I am now convinced that they must be so old that they will never soften up, something I have read about during my Internet search.  However, I am wondering if I can salvage the remaining 1 1/2 bags of the same chili bean mixture by soaking the rinsed beans in water to which I have added sodium bicarbonate.  Maybe soaking them in sodium bicarbonate water for a very long time, say 24-28 hours, will work, whereas just boiling them in sodium bicarbonate water wasn't good enough.

Do you think trying this again but soaking the beans in sodium bicarbonate water prior to cooking could work?

I'm also concerned that red kidney beans must boil for a minimum of 10 - 15 minutes, and better yet, for 30 minutes, just to be on the safe side, in order to break down and rid them of the toxins that can make one very gastrointestinally ill.  If you have boiled red kidney beans for more than 30 minutes, yet the interiors of the beans are still hard, are they safe to eat, or are the toxin levels in them still too high?  In other words, are kidney beans safe to eat after they have boiled for a minimum of 30 minutes, no matter what, or do they still have high levels of toxins as long as the interiors seem uncooked because they are still hard?

I have had some luck cooking old beans in a pressure cooker. What have you got to lose by trying? if they don't get soft then toss them, which is what I assume you will do if you don't try.


How can I buy or make pasteurized eggs? Many recipes for the raw-egg yolk sauces and dressings suggest using pasteurized eggs for safety, and say they are available in stores.  I've never seen them for sale anywhere.  Generally I accept the 1 in 30,000 risk of salmonella (healthy, young, comfortable with calculated risks);  however, when I cook for others, I feel uncomfortable exposing them to the risk.

Now I'm wondering:

Where can I obtain pasteurized or irradiated eggs?
Are they only available in special stores, or in certain regions?  Just in big cities, or in Europe?
Is there an easy way to pasteurize your own eggs (preferably in the shell) without affecting texture?
How does using pasteurized eggs impact the shelf life of homemade mayonnaises and custards?

The theory is to pasteurize them sous-vide at 57ºC for 1:15'. You must be able to control the temperature, so specialized equipment is needed (ronner or similar).

The resulting egg has a different texture than ordinary (and I believe it tastes more 'yolky').

I've kept homemade mayo for more than two weeks without problem (off smell / taste).

Custards are heated, so no pasteurized eggs are needed, just like hollandaise sauce.


Is an oil-based roux cooked the same as one made with butter? I have experience making a roux with butter and flour. If I want to substitute a non-dairy fat (e.g. olive or sunflower oil), will there be any cooking or consistency differences that I need to watch out for? Does the fat/flour ratio stay consistent?

A roux is just cooking flour in an equal amount (or thereabouts) of fat. If you've already done it in butter, you already know what you are doing. Butter is tricky because there is some water left in the butter and the fat itself has a low smoke point. After making a roux with butter, another fat is easy.

Butter contains water, but it's not so picky that the small amount of water matters as far as measuring the butter; it's more about compensating for the butter's behavior and not allowing it to burn.

Do the same thing with any oil as you have with butter, and you will be fine.

If anything, you will find it easier with another fat. Just go roughly 50/50 and take your time.


How to prevent dry chicken in soup? I made chicken and vegetable soup the other day using standard ingredients (small cubes of chicken breasts, onions, carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, and stock). I sauteed the veggies in butter and olive oil for a few minutes, then added the chicken until it was no longer pink. I then added the chicken stock, brought it to a rolling boil, and turned it down to simmer for about an hour.

The result was really tasty soup with really dry chicken pieces. It was even drier when reheated the next day. Is there a way to avoid this? I'm making another pot tonight using boneless skinless chicken thighs and want to make sure I don't make the same mistake (whatever that may be)!

Don't cook the chicken pieces for so long. Add them ten or twenty minutes before serving. For that matter, I wouldn't simmer the aromatics for that long either.

Do the long simmer and cooking to make the chicken stock, then strain the now-tasteless and mushy expended bits from the flavorful stock. Heat the stock and add the sweated veggies, diced chicken, and any pasta/rice/dumplings desired but only cook briefly before serving.


What icing will stay stiff (even in tropical heat) after the cake has been decorated? I live in the tropics and every icing that I've used melts on the cake if it is not refrigerated. Is there any icing at all that will stay stiff once I ice the cake with it? I would like to be able to pipe borders, etc without the icing just melting off the cake. Traditional butter-cream and royal icings just don't work.

The ingredients that make icing creamy and give it the bulk for piped decorations, tend to be items that will go softer in heat (butter, shortening, egg whites, whipped cream).  A glaze might set up if you made it sufficiently thick, but it wouldn't allow you to do anything like pipe borders.

While I know it's not really a solution to what you want, your best options are probably to decorate with non-icing items like fruit or candy.  Probably the closest imitation would be to try using marzipan, which can be molded and coloured and I think would probably hold its shape better under heat.


Exact food category of a food item Can you point me to some good source where I can find exact food category of a food item.
Example;

Homestyle Potato Salad -> food|deli|ready_to_eat_meals|prepared_deli_salads|potato_salad
V/K Veggie Egg Rolls -> food|frozen_food|frozen_snacks|frozen_egg_rolls

There are many foods which are straightforward, but there are some which creates confusion.
For example, where should "Pre-Sliced Barbecue Chicken Breast" should go ?

This is impossible for most items.
If you're creating a shop, you have to choose how to categorise things to make the most sense (or the most sales); you also have to choose the categories. If you're not creating a shop but trying to match existing shops, realise that they don't all decide the same. For example in one supermarket granulated sugar is in the aisle labelled "tea and coffee", in another it's under "home baking", and those supermarkets' websites match their physical stores. Presumably you get to decide what categories are available. That doesn't make it any easier.
The question of whether a hamburger is a sandwich is not just a good example of the difficulty of categorising food, but of the fuzziness of categories in human life.


KitchenAid beater stuck on new machine I’ve used my machine twice.  I went to try to put a different attachment on it and the pin won’t move.

KitchenAid recommends that you compress a warm, wet towel around the top of the attachment for 10 minutes.  Reheat the towel and repeat for another couple of minutes.  The warmth will cause the aluminum to expand, and with some wiggling, should allow you to release the attachment.


What cheese to use for homemade Sicilian pizza so it does not dry in the oven? I followed the recipe from Serious Eats to make Sicialian Pizza at home.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/01/easy-no-roll-no-stretch-sicilian-style-square.html

Everything was good except for the cheese.

I baked the dough with most of of the tomato sauce at 525F at the beginning for 5 minutes, to then add some more sauce and the shredded cheese (typical shredded mozzarella cheese in bags). It was supposed to bake for another 10 minutes, but the cheese got very dry and with that brownish color of dried cheese. It was not pulling as it usually pizza cheese does.

Should I be using a different cheese for pizza at home? Maybe fresh mozzarella instead of shredded?

When your pizza is ready take it out of the oven, add the cheese. Put the pizza back in the oven, turn the heat off. Don't go anywhere, just keep an eye on the cheese unlit it melts, take it out and whala.. That way cheese is melted and not dry and you can basically use any taste of cheese you prefer . Its probably because your not using a pizza oven, and its getting to much heat from top. Best cheese for pizza in my opinion is mozzarella. :) Enjoy.


Is "blooming" cocoa necessary in baked goods? I've read that dissolving cocoa in hot liquids is supposed to make it release its flavors and make it taste more chocolate-y.  This sounds useful for things like frostings or no-bake cookies, but does it make a difference if you're going to cook the final product (eg. chocolate cake)?

I tried an A/B test with chocolate cupcakes, but none of the tasters could tell there was a difference.  Did I mess up my test or is there really no difference?

The interaction between the liquid and the cocoa during the blooming process and inside of the cupcake batter during baking is not the same.

During blooming, there is only the liquid and the cocoa interacting in a free-flowing liquid matrix, and in the baking, both liquid and cocoa are trapped in a coloidal matrix. If you bloom before you add to the batter, you make the aromatics in the cocoa more available for the taster.

Keep in mind that not everyone has the sensory acuity to notice the difference, so it is up to you if you want to invest the time for that


Mortar and Pestle: Granite vs Porcelain I want to get a mortar and pestle to make guacamole with, but no sure what the differences are between granite and porcelain. The porcelain ones are cheaper, but the granite variety have more weight (i think that might make it easier to grind/mash things). However, the granite sets are more porous, so i think they might be harder to clean. Does anyone have any advice they can lend?

Neither.

The traditional instrument for making guacamole, and other Mexican mashed and ground preparations, is the mocaljete, which is similar to a mortar & pestle, but made with a shorter pestle and out of black basalt, a rough volcanic stone:

A regular mortar and pestle out of ceramic or granite will not work for a fat, squishy fruit like avocado; it will just squish around and out of the bowl.  You need the rough, pitted texture of the volcanic stone to "grab" the avocado pulp.

Personally, I find that the ideal tool for making guacamole or avocado salsas is actually a regular mixing bowl and a heavy pastry blender:

... but even a large metal serving fork will work fairly well.  Better than a regular mortar and pestle will.


Can I save an undercooked loaf of pumpernickel? I made this pumpernickel recipe from YouTube (recipe below) and I think I underbaked it: it has a little of that unpleasant chalky taste of raw flour.

Can I rescue this loaf or do I need to start from scratch?

(For science, I plan to put it back in the oven wrapped in foil for a few more hours and I'll update with the results, but I'd like to see if anyone has other suggestions or experience.)

300 g rye flour
150 g wholemeal flour
 80 g bulgur wheat
  1 tsp salt

500 mL warm water
  1 tbsp molasses
  1 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Mix dry ingredients
2. Mix wet ingredients
3. Combine and stir until totally incorporated
4. Fill greased and lined loaf tin with dough
5. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight
6. Remove plastic wrap, cover tightly with aluminum foil
7. Bake 6 hours at 230°F over tray of water
8. Remove foil and bake 15 more minutes

When a loaf is baked the interior steams. The water in the dough reaches boiling point and gelatinizes the starches in the flour. After baking the dough has largely dried out. While this might be less true for very moist breads such as pumpernickel, I doubt that baking again will have much effect on the remaining uncooked flour. So I'm afraid there is not much you can do at this point.

Toasting may make the bread more palatable, but it won't make the essential chemical change that you need.


Can I still save my solid block of jam? So this morning I made some blackberry jam (just blackberries, lemon juice and sugar). But apparently I overcooked it, because after dropping it in the pot and sealing it, it cooled off and now it's rock-solid.

Is there anything I can do to save it? I was thinking about trying to scoop it out and re-cook it and see if it'd soften up, but considering how much work it'll be to get it out, I'd rather be sure it'd actually work.

If not, is there anything else I can use it for?

From the description "Rock-solid" you guess correctly that you have overcooked your jam mixture. The process of overcooking your jam mixture results in most of the water content evaporating. In candy terms, your jam is probably somewhere between Hard-Ball stage to Caramelized stage.

For jelly/jam you want the temperature around 220 degree F. Hard ball stage is about 250 degree F. Depending on how far your "jam" is into these stages you may be able to save your "jam" by introducing more water back into it. Try and out a small portion of it into a sauce pan and adding a little bit of water to it. If you are able to turn that mixture into something resembling jam by adding water, that means you haven't cooked it beyond saving and you can do that to the rest of your jam. Note that fruit flavors are volatile so cooking further will result in the blackberry flavors deteriorating.

Otherwise treat your jam mixture as a candy.


Gases used in packaging food? What's the difference between CO2 and N2 used in food packaging?

CO2 is carbon dioxide and N2 is Nitrogen gas.
In either case, this is referred to as "Modified atmosphere packaging", which means the food is packaged in something other than simply "air".
The point of doing this is that it increases the shelf life of the product.
From the website of a company who sells machines that do this:

When modifying the atmosphere inside of a package, the amount of oxygen can typically be reduced to 3% or less. Inert gases used for MAP are typically denser than oxygen. As such, the oxygen inside the package is forced out of the package. This results in extended product shelf life, product integrity, protection against discoloration, and for products like chips, a cushion-like buffer against damage (this is commonly referred to as a “pillow pack”).
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Carbon dioxide inhibits the growth of most aerobic bacteria and molds. Generally speaking, the higher the level of CO2 in the package, the longer the achievable shelf-life. However, CO2 is readily absorbed by fats and water - therefore, most foods will absorb CO2. Excess levels of CO2 in MAP can cause flavor tainting, drip loss and pack collapse. It is important, therefore, that a balance is struck between the commercially desirable shelf-life of a product and the degree to which any negative effects can be tolerated. When CO2 is required to control bacterial and mold growth, a minimum of 20% is recommended.
Nitrogen (N2)
Nitrogen is an inert gas and is used to exclude air and, in particular, oxygen. It is also used as a balance gas (filler gas) to make up the difference in a gas mixture, to prevent the collapse of packs containing high-moisture and fat-containing foods, caused by the tendency of these foods to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For modified atmosphere packaging of dried snack products 100% nitrogen is used to prevent oxidative rancidity.

And additional clarity from the Wikipedia article on the subject:

The modification process often tries to lower the amount of oxygen (O2), moving it from 20.9% to 0%, in order to slow down the growth of aerobic organisms and prevent oxidation reactions. The removed oxygen can be replaced with nitrogen (N2), commonly acknowledged as an inert gas, or carbon dioxide (CO2), which can lower the pH or inhibit the growth of bacteria. Carbon monoxide can be used for preserving the red color of meat.


Can I use a crêpe pan instead of a comal? I've recently been given a recipe for tortillas by a friend, but it calls for a Comal, and I only have a crêpe pan, or a non-stick frying pan.
Are either acceptable replacements for a Comal?

Based on personal experience: yes.  I'd recommend the frying pan over the crepe pan, because the frying pan likely has a thicker bottom and can just be left on low heat for an even heating surface.  Rolled steel crepe pans develop hot spots if not moved around.  In either case, you heat the pan dry.
Better than either of those, however, is a griddle.  You can cook up to five tortillas at a time on a large griddle, whether electric or cast iron.  I make corn tortillas at home, and I always use a nonstick electric griddle for them.  Since it takes just about as long to press out a new tortilla as it does to cook one long enough to need flipping, I can get a real production line set up, and make 20 tortillas in less than an hour.


How do I recover from overheating my cast-iron skillet? This morning, as with many, I let my skillet dry by leaving it on the burner. Unfortunately, my attention was drawn away and I forgot to take it off the burner! Of course, the moment I noticed, I moved it to another burner to cool, but this light-brown ring appeared.

After it cooled, touched the ring and discovered it was a powder, not merely a discoloration:

I'm not sure what this signifies. How do I recover the skillet?

Give it a good salt scrub and re-season. Cast iron is virtually indestructible. As long as it's not cracked, it can always be cleaned up and used again.


how to use CSA vegetables most efficiently I belong to a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) and get a basket of assorted vegetables every week.  I have very little cooking experience, and if I search the ingredients online I get a ton of recipes that have only 1 or 2 of the ingredients I need to use.  So far what I've been doing is putting most of the stuff together and making a stir fry (perhaps adding onions and mushrooms as a friend recently suggested) with spices.  Results have been mixed (no pun intended!).  Another idea I've tried is soup, but I'm not as comfortable with that as of yet.

Any general strategies (not necessarily recipes) besides just "stir fry"?  I'd prefer to be able to use all of it with a minimum number of recipes (preferably just 1 or 2)

Here are 2 examples of baskets I've gotten.

example from Oct:

Arugula
Beans
Beets
Carrots
Rainbow Chard
Garlic
Kale
Kohlrabi
Okra
Parsley
Peppers
Radishes
Tomatoes
Winter Squash (Butternut or Delicata)

example from Aug:

Fennel
Tomatoes
Summer Squash
Okra
Onions
Black Radishes or Purple Turnips
Peppers
Chard

Have you tried roasting the vegetables? For example, from your October basket, cutting up beets, carrots, and squash and then roasting at 400F until tender. Nestle in some bone-in chicken breasts, roast a pork tenderloin in the oven along with the vegetables, or another protein of your choice.

You could also stuff the peppers with ground beef or lamb along with sauteed garlic, parsley, kale, diced tomatoes, etc. Then roast the peppers for 10-15 minutes in the oven.

I'm not sure these count as strategies, but I'm hoping this helps.


How can I make vegan Chinese Sweet Corn Soup? Is it possible to make Vegan 玉米羹, e.g. without the chicken and eggs? I like the Chinese style of the soup, unlike Western Corn Soup that blends the corn. Source.

You can leave out the eggs, or replace them with tofu if you want some texture. Replace the chicken stock suggested for a meatless (!) version in the recipe you link to with vegetable stock.
If replacing the chicken stock changes the texture of the soup too much, you could add some (vegan) gelatin or similar gelling agent. However, the potato starch n the original recipe is the more effective thickener, so you might not need to add gelatin.


What are the basics and options of brining meat, for example chicken? What are the basics and options of brining meat, for example chicken?  I ate at a restaurant in Santa Fe that specialized in brining and the chicken was amazing.  Id like to know what the process is and how much variation there is.

I suggest reading this Cook's Illustrated - The Basics of Brining (PDF) article. I use their basic brine all the time.

This article taught me two cool things I didn't know about brining.

Adjust the amount of sugar & salt downward for high heat applications.

Decreasing the amount of sugar ensures that the exterior of the meat doesn't burn. Prior     to learning this I had a few "issues" with this mishap

Air drying chicken and turkey in the fridge after brining allows the skin to dry out, enabling it to crisp nicely when cooked.

If you aren't familiar with Cook's Illustrated, they bill themselves as America's Test Kitchen. They will take a recipe and beat on it with dozens or more variations tweaking and analyzing it as they go, until they come up with the "ideal" something or other. In this case, it's brining.

With this as a base you have a lot of opportunity for experimentation. I usually add very hearty aromatic spices to mine. Some possible additions and substitutions:

Whole peppercorns
Ancho chiles
Whole Allspice
Cinnamon
Cloves
Candied Ginger
Brown sugar in place of sugar
Substituting some vegetable stock for water **Use the lowest sodium stock possible, and adjust salt accordingly. I don't have a hard-and-fast rule here, but I tend to go with about 20% less salt than the "basic", more or less.

Another thing addressed by this article is what meats should and shouldn't be brined. The short version is lean mild meats are suitable for brining, fatty meats or those often cooked rare/med-rare do not benefit.

Suitable

Cornish Hen
Chicken
Turkey
Pork
Some seafood

Whole side of salmon (grill roasted or smoked)
Shrimp

Unsuitable

Beef
Lamb
Goose
Duck


What can I substitute for eggs in a pancake recipe? I'd like to make pancakes. I have all the other ingredients that I'd normally use (flour, canola oil, sugar, salt, and corn starch) in a pancake mix, but I don't have any eggs.

Can I substitute milk, or more of one of the other ingredients, in lieu of the eggs?

What you need to substitute is the binding ability of the eggs. There are a few ways to do this...

There are a variety of seeds that produce mucilage when soaked in water. This sticky substance can work very well to bind baked goods together. To use, you soak the seeds or seed meal in water until the water becomes thick. If whole seeds are used, the water may be heated to speed up the process. Some of the most common seeds that have this characteristic are flax, chia, and buckwheat.

An alternate method that will change the characteristic of your pancakes a bit is to incorporate something that contains pectin. This includes many fruits: canned pumpkin, mashed banana, apple sauce, many jams and preserves, etc. The pectin will serve as your binder.

Some eggless pancake recipes also call for small amounts of corn starch (which has some mild binding abilities) or cider vinegar (which aids leavening and helps to tighten dough, but doesn't really bind on it's own).


How can I keep a slow roasted pork belly roll warm while roasting potatoes? I'm hosting a dinner at mine in two weekends time (a first for me!) and have already noticed where my main may not end up as tasty as I'd hope.

I'm looking to roast a roll of pork belly at around 170C/Gas 3, which isn't an appropriate temperature to achieve a nice, crispy roast potato. That means I'm going to have to cook them separately. Does anyone have a good tip on how to keep pork belly warm with a crunchy crackling whilst I roast the potatoes? I was thinking of putting back in the oven but worried it may dry out before that happens. Would it be a better idea to reheat the potatoes instead?

I've been over-reading and don't know what to believe anymore!

It's normal to rest meat before carving, sometimes for quite a long time.

The oven will already be hot after cooking the meat, even if not quite as hot as you'd use for potatoes. so I suggest you parboil the potatoes (often recommended anyway) and put the roasting tin and fat into the oven to preheat when the pork is nearly done. Then take the pork out of the oven, put the potatoes in and turn it up. The pork should rest under cover on the container in which it was cooked. A loose (tented) foil lid with a tea towel or two over the top is good insulation. If you want to speed things up further, you could turn up the oven a few minutes before taking the pork out. The effect on the pork will be minor (in most ovens) but the potatoes will cook quicker and may be more crispy.  I doubt you'll get very crunchy crackling at that temperature anyway.


How to emulate pike of Starbucks Recently, I have developed a taste for pike roast flavor of Starbucks. I was wondering if I can make coffee with the same taste in my home? What would be the coffee bean and an appropriate coffee maker for that?

The simplest answer is: buy the Pike coffee blend from Starbucks, they sell their beans.

Brew it at home with any method you prefer.  The coffee maker you use is a matter of preference.  Starbucks themselves use a large drip pot, which is the most common home type.

If you want to avoid using Starbucks beans, from the description of the roast (I haven't tasted it in quite a while, and it didn't make an impression), it sounds like a mountain grown coffee, something like Kenyan would be a good choice.  Since they describe it as low acidity, I am guessing that it might be somewhat less over-roasted than Starbucks coffee usually is, so I would suggest a Full City Roast, or perhaps a Vienna roast.

Its certainly a blend, so no single bean will replicate it.  I would suggest finding a blend from a reputable coffee roaster that you like, or simply buying the Pike blend from Starbucks.


Would carbonated water be a good substitute for two eggs in this cherry loaf recipe? I would like to replace the two eggs in this recipe with carbonated water:

Ingredients

1/3 cup shortening, butter, or margarine
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup milk, room temperature
1½ tbsp orange juice, room temperature
2½ tbsp maraschino cherry juice, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp almond flavouring
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup maraschino cherries, well-drained, blotted dry, and coarsely chopped

Is carbonated water a good substitute for this? If it is, how much should I use to replace two eggs? Or does anyone have any suggestions of what I should use instead?

It would be useful to see the whole recipe, but the answer is probably no. Egg whites are protein and water, and yolks are fat, protein, and water, and each contributes important things to cakes. There is complicated chemistry going on, and you can't just eliminate the eggs from a recipe like this. Carbonation does nothing. However, if your recipe calls for, e.g., whipping the whites to create a stable foam, you could replace this with whipped aquafaba. There are other similar vegan substitutions that could be made depending on how your recipe is using the egg.


Can ganache with butter be frozen, thawed and reused? I have made a batch of ganache with butter in it. The recipe was supposed to be for chocolates, but I want to now use it on top of a cake. Can I freeze it, then thaw and use it in about a weeks time?

I have frozen ganache and used it later as a topping with no problems. Just ensure that it is warmed enough to become semi-liquid before you use it for topping your cake.

As a note - it's also delicious scooped frozen from the container. Perfect with icecream.


Is aluminum foil porous? When cooking certain items in the oven, I line the baking pan or sheet with aluminum foil. Without fail, when cleaning up, I find oil or juices from the food between the foil and the pan.

I always use one piece of foil, meaning that I have not joined two pieces together, thus there is no seam. I use a large enough piece to extend past the edges of the pan. I use heavy duty foil with no apparent holes or other visible imperfections.

When researching, I have learned that there are porous aluminum foils produced specifically for other applications, and this is by design. But from everything I've read, foil sold for food use is not supposed to be porous.

So, how does this happen?

There are two questions here:

Is aluminum foil porous (particularly the types of foil sold for household cooking)?
Is foil's porosity responsible for the liquid that sometimes appears on the other side in cooking/baking applications?

I'd say the brief answers to these questions are (1) sometimes a bit, especially when not using "heavy duty" foil, and (2) perhaps responsible for a small part of the effect in some situations, though how much likely depends on the foil type/quality and how it is used.  More details below.

First, aluminum foil can be porous when it is sufficiently thin.  This is usually due to small holes left in the manufacturing process.  According to Gordon Robinson's Food Packaging: Principles and Practice (3rd ed.):

  Aluminum foil is essentially impermeable to gases and water vapor when
  it is thicker than 15 µm, but it is permeable at lower thicknesses due
  to the presence of minute pinholes.  For example 12 µm thick foil has
  a WVTR [water vapor transmission rate] of ≤0.01 g m-2 day -1, and 8-9 µm thick
  generally of 0.07-0.1 g m-2 day -1 (Lamberti and
  Escher, 2007).  These values are still far below those of most plastic
  films used for food packaging....

Other sources give slightly different numbers.  The Wiley Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology lists:

  0.001 in. (25.4 µm) and thicker is impermeable; 0.00035 in. (8.9 µm) has a WVTR of 0.02g/100in.2 (0.065m2); 24 h at
  100°F (37.8°C)

How thick is common household aluminum foil?  According to this link:

"Standard Duty" usually is between 0.0004" and 0.0007" thick.
Most foil labeled "Heavy Duty" is between .0008" and .001" thick.
Most foil labeled "Extra Heavy Duty" is between .0011" thick and .0016" thick.

The first source above lists the minimum thickness for impermeability to be about 0.0006" (15 µm, though this may only be for gases, not liquids), while the second source says 0.001".  Other sources seem to indicate liquid impermeability requires a minimum thickness of around 0.001".  Regardless, it seems likely the "standard duty" foil has some permeability in most cases.  On the other hand, "heavy duty" foil is likely completely impermeable (or very nearly so).

But how much is this permeability?  At room temperature, it would only allow something like a hundredth of a gram through per day in a pan, probably less.  At baking temperatures, permeability would increase, but you still would likely only see a fraction of a gram of liquid getting through during a typical baking period.  And for heavy duty foil, the amount should be zero or negligible... at least theoretically.

To move on to the second question, so where does this liquid come from?  I myself have seen such liquid even with a double layer of foil or with heavy duty foil.

Other answers have suggested one likely culprit, which is condensation.  Ovens often tend to be humid places when uncovered foods are cooking, and food that is in contact with the bottom surface of a pan (and the foil) is generally still cooler than the oven (often the coolest part of the food is on the bottom), which means that humidity will condense on the surface of the pan/foil.  It's usually a lot faster for molecules (even larger ones, which often "piggyback" on evaporating water) to move this way in a hot oven than through microscopic pores in the foil.

The other likely issue is imperfections created during the handling of the foil.  A perfectly smooth layer of foil removed carefully from the roll may theoretically be impermeable, but bending, crumpling, and otherwise shaping the foil may expand or fracture some tiny pinholes (or other thin sections).  All it takes is a few tiny holes (which may not even be visible) to significantly increase the permeability.

Actual leaking may be due to poor manufacture in modern foils or to the severe crumpling done in experiments like this one. (EDIT: See discussion in this thread, which responded to that link with several other experiments.  The conclusion was that is was likely design that caused the leak, and some brands of heavy duty foil do seem impermeable to water.)

In any case, it's clear that aluminum foil -- when used practically in home culinary applications -- can sometimes allow some liquid to flow through at a greater rate than the theoretical porosity would suggest.


Can you bake cornbread in enameled cast iron? I would really like to make a cornbread recipe, but I don't have a cast iron skillet. Could I bake it in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven without the lid and get a good result? If not, could a muffin tin (not cast iron) work instead? Thank you for any tips! I've never made cornbread before.

Yes and no.

Corn bread doesn't necessarily require cast iron. With the style that does require cast iron, an enameled pan shouldn't be used.

There are two styles of cornbread, northern style and southern style.

Southern style is cooked in a cast iron pan. The pan is preheated with oil in the oven until very hot. The batter is then poured in and the bread baked.

This style of cornbread is oilier, crispy on the edges, and typically less sweet.

Even though this style is made in cast iron, you shouldn't make it in an enameled Dutch oven because the preheating step gets too hot and could ruin your pan. https://www.lodgemfg.com/use-and-care/enameled-cast-iron-use-and-care.asp

Northern style cornbread is fluffier and often sweeter. The batter is poured into a cold pan and baked.

As there is no preheating step, you can use any pan for this style, including your enameled pan.


What is crusty loaf bread? I have a recipe for garlic crack bread (pull apart bread) that calls for a crusty loaf, preferably sourdough or Vienna. I have looked in the bakery sections and can not find. Is there possibly a different name I should be looking for?

It's any loaf with a crispy crust. There's not much more to it than that. If you can't find sourdough or Vienna, just use a standard white loaf with a crisp crust.


How can I make my banana bread more moist? I've followed lots of standard recipes online, and the result is always more cake like: dark on the outside white and dryish in the middle.

When I go to the store and buy it it's always dark and moist in the middle.

What is the secret ingredient?!

Update: A lot better! Suggestions below helped a ton. But the perfect banana bread still eludes me.. Here's somes pointers I picked up:

Freezing bananas helps. It allows you to mix them in easier and gives it a more consistent texture. More bananas is better (try 4 small ones, or 3 big ones).
Try adding Sour Cream (instead of yoghurt). Maybe 1/4 cup for 1 loaf. I had much positive feedback after this experiment!
Molasses helps the color (be darker), but the flavour becomes a little too strong and maybe even bitter. Overall I don't recommend it.

Turn the oven down by about 25-50F. Quite often, ovens just blast the heck out of baked good, especially smaller apartment ovens. Larger, more expensive ovens tend to be better calibrated and will produce the proper 350F temperature usually required for banana bread. A cheap oven, which is still fine for banana bread, will overshoot the temperature and kill your banana bread. Turn the oven down a bit, and if necessary cook for longer. I have even turned my oven cooler AND cooked it for 15 minutes less time than the recipe required.
Check at 2/3 time. Don't let the bread run through the entire cooking time before checking it. Always check early. For some recipes, I take the banana bread out at 2/3 recommended time!
Don't over-beat the mixture. Despite being called banana "bread" it isn't a bread, it is a cake insomuch as it is made from a batter, not a long-kneaded dough. If you start mixing and it seems already too dry - STOP - and add a few tablespoons of milk to loosen the mixture up. If it's too dry in the initial stages, it will certainly be dry later, but a dry mixture also causes you to push harder, thereby causing the gluten to harden.
Don't cut down on butter/fat. This is really what prevents it drying out. Use creme fraiche, more butter, a bit less flour...


Are there any types of food that have magnetic properties? In terms of food presentation, I thought it would be spectacular to have it float or levitate above the table instead of being served on a plate. Hence I wonder whether there are any types of food that have magnetic properties. Or, put differently, I'm curious whether magnetic material exists that is (safely) edible.

The reason why the full word is "ferromagnetic" is that magnetic substances are typically made out of iron. Iron is not really edible - you can (and have to) consume it as a trace element, but the daily dose is a few milligrams. If you put enough magnetized iron in a dish to lift it visibly, you will damage a lot of your digestive tract eating it. And that's even before the question of how you are going to orient the magnet if you have dispersed the iron in your food as some kind of powder.
There are also other metals which can be magnetic, but they are even worse for eating than iron. If there is any kind of space-age material that is magnetic without being a metal compound (I'm not on the leading edge of material science and don't know if such a thing exists), it is practically certain that it is not a food.
Levitation for presentation purposes exists, but it is done by levitating the plate, or sometimes by hiding magnets within a larger food structure (typically in cake art).


Why arent my pancakes browning correctly? I am using a cast iron pan and all of my pancakes are coming out like this. I leave them on and they get crispy on the outside and cook through but they do not brown. I tried turning the heat up and that just burns them in splotches. Then I tried a lower heat and they turn golden in weird uneven patterns but they still cook through. Ive tried different oils, no oils, reheating my pan, waiting longer before flipping (which causes the pancake to have poppled bubbles and dark spots instead of a smooth surface). And when I flip them, the second side gets sort of a film on it when I take it out of the pan, the outer layer separates from the rest (it kind of looks like saltine crackers lol)
this is really frustrating. any tips?

You seem to be doing everything alright with the heat and pan. This sounds like a problem with the recipe.

Add more milk (or yogurt, or whatever dairy you are using) - you need lactose for browning, so soy milk or enzymatically treated cow milk won't work. Also consider replacing part of the sugar with fructose, HFCS or glucose syrup, they brown somewhat better. Third, make sure they are not too sour. If this is a baking powder recipe, consider using only milk instead of any buttermilk or yogurt. If it is a baking soda recipe, add some more baking soda. If nothing else helps, you can even add a pinch of baking soda to a baking powder recipe, not for leavening but just for browning.

The "makes a film and separates" part could disappear after changing the dairy and/or leavener. If it doesn't, make sure you are only lifting at the proper moment. The pancake will stick first, then become releasy, then burn. If it still sticks during the releasy part, reduce the heat (you should still get enough browning after the measures in the last paragraph). If that does not work either, the last step is to increase the egg.

An alternative would be to find a better working recipe and follow it instead of adjusting yours. You might have to test a few until you find a winner.


What would be a good substitute for coconut milk in curry sauces? Specifically, if I work from a started paste that require adding coconut milk, what would be a good substitute?

Half and half or heavy cream is a pretty good substitute.  It has similar fat/water suspension, reduces and thickens similarly, and emulsifies similarly.  You lose the coconut flavor, but it cooks similarly and you keep the texture.

You cannot substitute coconut cream, because it is too rich,  which changes the texture of the sauce greatly, and doesn't do as good a job of getting flavors out of spices.

Incidentally, I highly suggest you pick up a box of instant coconut milk powder. It's not as good as the canned stuff (needs whisking), but because it's nonperishable you don't have to use the whole container at a time.  This helps avoid the "oh crap, used the last can!" moments you get with canned coconut milk.


How do I get my homemade english muffins to taste like english muffins? I've finally mastered my technique for creating english muffins.  They come out light with lots of air bubbles.  Unfortunately, they don't taste like english muffins.  They taste like regular bread.

My recipe is 2 cups flour, 1 cup water, 7g yeast, and 1/2 cup scalded milk.  After mixing the dough/batter, I poor/scoop into english muffin rings on a bed of corn meal, letting them raise for about 90 minutes.  They then go right into the oven for about 20 minutes at 425°F (220 °C), flipped over halfway through.

Am I missing an ingredient to get that english muffin taste?  Or is my technique flawed?

English muffins are not usually baked.  Instead they are cooked in a skillet or on a griddle.  You can bake English muffin dough, but it will turn out like a holey white bread (as you describe).  To cook, heat a skillet or flat griddle to medium (temperature for a griddle would be 350 degrees F).  Also preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Brush the pan or griddle with vegetable oil or mist with spray oil, and place on pan 1 inch apart.  Cook 5 to 8 minutes or until the bottom would burn if cooked longer.  Carefully flip over and cook 5 to 8 more minutes.  Both sides will be flat.  Transfer pieces to a sheet pan and place in oven on middle shelf for 5 to 8 minutes, until center is cooked.

Also, the recipe that I have for English muffins (in Peter Reinharts' Bread Baker's Apprentice) describes it as an enriched dough, one that has fat added.  My recipe calls for .5 oz. of shortening or butter.


Mung bean sprouts developed a slight purple color on day 3? I've been sprouting my beans for three days now; yesterday I noticed some had developed a slight purple coloration while rinsing them, photo attached. One of them even went blue-ish, but there is no brown or signs of mold. Is this normal or should I worry?

Here's a picture of the sprouts:

The sprouts developing a purple tinge is fine, it's a sign that they were exposed to light - they will even start turning green if they recieve more light.

This is like with white asparagus: As long as the stalks remain completely covered in the soil, they stay white. If they start to break through the surface, they develop a purple tinge in a very short time.

See the picture below:
Some stalks are still white, some slighltly purple.


what happens when one mixes flour into batter? I have been mixing quite a bit of batter lately for various recipes, and I continue to see the same behaviour:

The flour clumps together as soon as it hits the fluid (beit milk, water, or anything else); using a sieve to sift the flour doesn't seem to matter;
Mixing longer does not make the clumps dissolve;
Adding more flour up to a critical amount while mixing will, all of a sudden, cause the clumps to grind apart and dissolve, mixing with the fluid, and create smooth batter.

This has led me to imagining that it's the grinding of the flour particles against each other that causes the smoothing of the batter, more than anything else, and that the mixing helps that effect.

Is this hypothesis correct? Or is there something else going on, that I missed?

Many, many things happen when flour flour is mixed into batter.  From your description, though, it sounds like you are interested in what leads to and relieves clumping.

When water (whether it is just plain water, in milk, in juice, or whatever) and flour are mixed, the water will begin to expand and penetrate the starch granules in the flour.  The starch will swell, and become sticky.

Now, imagine a small clump of flour, with water penetrating from the outside.  The outside surface of the flour clump will swell up as the starches become staturated with water.  They are also sticky, so they tend to not separate--the surface sticky flour tends to stick to its neighbors and the flour on the inside.

Once the outside surface of the clump is saturated with water, it is very hard for more water to penetrate the clump, so it tends to persist.

The main way to mitigate this clumping is to stir vigorously, immediately upon introducing the flour and liquid.   This will tend to distribute the flour particles throughout the liquid before significant swelling occurs.  This is why when making a flour slurry, you whisk or beat it quite briskly right away.

Additionally, slowly over time, water will also penetrate the clumps, slowly swelling and hydrating the starches in the center, but then you tend to have quite sticky lumps, like in lumpy gravy, and those are nearly impossible to dissolve, so you don't want that to happen.  Immediate agitation is the key.

In the batter you describe, it is probably the additional mixing more than the the additional flour that relieves the clumping.  You have said that it doesn't happen until the flour is added, but it may be that the additional volume just makes your mixer more efficient since it has more to work with.

Still, nothing is simple.   If you have a lot of water, and a little flour, stirring easily creates a slurry without lumps.

If you have a much larger ratio of flour to water, there isn't enough water to make a liquid phase, and so you get clumps.  Within limits, over time, the water will distribute itself throughout the flour phase, and you will get a continuous mass of dough.  This is what happens (ignoring the effects of shortening for flakiness) in a pie dough, for example, which is quite dry.  It needs the resting time for the water to hydrolyze the starches, and spread evenly throughout, so what you have is one moderately hydrated clump, as it were.

This is only a the tip of the iceberg of complexity that is just flour and water.   The ratio, the temperature, the type of flour, the way it is treated all matter.

The interaction of starch and water is only one important interaction.

Another very important and complex interaction is the formation of glutin (a strong, stretchy protein that forms the primary structure in yeast-raised breads, among may other things) over time in the presence of water, and with agitation (as in kneading bread).


Why didn't my brioche rise? This weekend I attempted to make this recipe for brioche.  I did the first step and combined the the milk, yeast, 1 egg and 1 cup of flour which caused very big clumps and then I added the sugar.

I then did the 2nd through the 5th steps but the clumps stayed and the dough was really wet (like pancake batter) so I tried adding more flour until I got something like the right consistency. I then covered the dough and put it in a draft free area that was warm for 2.5 hours but my yeast did not rise and the dough still had clumps in it. I waited longer but nothing so I had to throw it away.

I really wanted to try this recipe again so I would appreciate any insight into what I did wrong.

First, try proofing your yeast (mix 110°F water, a little sugar, and a little yeast in a small container; confirm that it foams). It may be that your yeast is (well) past its prime. That's the most likely reason I can think of that your dough didn't rise.

Second reason could be that while mixing, the dough got too hot—heat will kill yeast. Yeast dies somewhere around 130°F, but really you want to keep it much cooler than that. If its getting too hot, consider starting with colder ingredients (e.g., ignore the instruction to warm the milk).

Finally, I'd suggest using recipes that are by weight; flour is much easier to measure by weight. You may be using a different scooping technique than the recipe author.

Also—there is something weird about that recipe. It lists 3½ cups flour in the ingredients, but then only has you add 2½ cups in the steps. I suspect that is a mistake, and explains the batter-like consistency you got.


Can I use extra virgin olive oil for cooking steak? According to this: What oil or fat to use for different purposes?

For general pan cooking: olive oil (any kind), butter..

I see video from youtube such as How to Cook Steak by Jamie Oliver, he also used olive oil in a pan, but I am not sure if extra virgin is being used.

Since for steak cooking, the temperature should be high, or should I use extra light olive oil instead?

No. Steak needs be seared at a high, high temperature. Not only would extra virgin olive oil lose everything that makes it special at such a high temperature (so not worth the expense anyway), it would also burn. The smoke point of EVOO is 350F, 180C (give or take). That's simply way too low for searing steak.

There is no such thing as a cooking oil that's hot enough to heat to what I would consider ideal steak steak searing temperature.

:

(I just used this picture in another answer, that's Celsius by the way)

No cooking oil can withstand that kind of heat. So how can you get away with it? Well, when I do it, first I remove the batteries from every smoke detector in my apartment and open my kitchen windows. Secondly, I choose a very refined (read that tasteless) oil with a high smoke point. By using a refined, tasteless oil, there's really nothing left after it burns to taste nasty; it just tastes like char, something I want anyway. Third, I don't put oil in the pan, I just lightly oil the steak. The method works great, but it requires a cast-iron pan and a high smoke point, neutral oil.

I'm not crazy about Jamie Oliver's method because I like a serious char. You can tell he's not using extreme heat, because he's using a non-stick pan. I assume he doesn't throw away the pan with every steak. Even with his method, EVOO would be a bad choice of oil. The point at which extra virgin olive oil gets nasty is significantly lower than the temperature that will ruin a non-stick pan 400F+ (200C+), and much lower than the temperature necessary to get a decent char on a steak. Refined (pure, or extra light) olive oil would be an OK choice, as would canola, safflower, refined avocado, grapeseed or soybean.


Freezing boiled octopus I've bought a frozen fresh octopus. As most recipes suggest I'm planning to boil it, and then char it on the grill.

The problem is that it's pretty huge and we are only 2 people.
Would it be ok if I was to freeze part of the boiled octopus to grill at a later time?

You can most certainly freeze some of it for cooking later. I have heard that this actually improves texture by tenderizing it. I'd suggest doing so in a freezer-safe bag with as much air removed as possible. Depending on portion size, lay it flat or in pieces that will be easy for you to portion later if you won't eat the rest at once. That will make it easier to use without having to partially re-thaw.


What's the Effect of Browning Butter From a taste perspective, I love the nutty flavor of browned butter.  From a culinary perspective, I'm curious what the process does to the butter.

I used browned and cooled butter in cookies yesterday.  The cookbook I was working with had another recipe for cookies with melted butter (not browned) and suggested using egg yolks to add some extra fat because melted butter is different than softened butter, but did not explain.

I followed the tips for adding egg yolks and the cookies came out well, but I'm curious if I could have skipped the egg yolks and cooled the butter until it was the temperature of butter for creaming (which I've read is around 70 degrees F) and creamed it as normal softened butter, or if browning it altered it permanently.

Your recipe is suspect. Melted butter is the same in chemical composition as softened butter. The two react a bit differently in recipes due to the way that they interact with the other ingredients to impart textures: in short, the creamed butter will hold microscopic bubbles that the fully melted butter will not. Adding egg yolks will help the melted butter incorporate, and probably lead to more cakey cookies (compensating for the flatness you get from melted butter), but the effect is hard to isolate.

As for brown butter, what happens is that as moisture evaporates from the butter, the boiling point increases (similar to what happens when making caramel or candy). As the boiling point of the butterfat increases, the temperature of the butter solids (which consist of lactose and milk proteins) begin to caramelize (the sugars) and undergo a maillard reaction (the protein). Both of these reactions will impart unique flavors to the butter, yielding the distinctive brown butter taste.

As the butter heats, the integrity of the fat is damaged. This occurs to all fats, which is why you can only use a batch of fat for deep frying a few times before it needs to be discarded.


Is hot water bath canning really necessary? I made a barbecue sauce that I want to send to a friend (internationally). I bought some mason jars, and was planning to just put the barbecue sauce in there, tighten the lids back on, and ship it off. Then I started seeing people say things about hot water bath canning and etc, and I am concerned. I don't want my friend to get sick, but this is also not intended to be some long-term barbecue sauce. She should begin using it soon after receiving it.

I also don't want to spend a ton of money on those fancy canner things. Is this safe? I appreciate any feedback, this is the first time I've made my own barbecue sauce.

Edit:
Barbecue sauce contains:
3/4 cup bourbon
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 tsp tobasco
+ salt, diced onions, diced garlic (both cooked)

I'll leave the question of food safety and mandatory canning or not with regard to ingredients to others, but frankly, if you have a large pot in your kitchen you have a canner. For small batches and only very occasional use, there is no need to buy a separate canner.

Place a small metal rack (if you have one small enough) or a folded towel on the bottom of the pot (I like to use my pasta pot with the insert), put jars on top and fill with water until almost to the top of the tallest jar.  Yes, you can process jars of different sizes in one batch. Rule of thumb: cold jars go in cold water, hot jars in hot water. This setup is equivalent to a separate canner minus the extra gadgets like timer, thermometer / thermostat and other features that are for your comfort and ease of use, not essential for the physical process of heating and sealing the jars.

So if you want to play it safe, put your sauce in the jars1, add lids and screw them on with the bands "fingertip tight". Place them in the water bath and slowly bring to a boil. Once your water is simmering, "canning time" starts. Off the cuff, ten to fifteen minutes should be fine for a cooked BBQ sauce, longer isn't a problem either. After that, lift the jars out and cool slowly in a drought-free area. If done correctly the lid will stick to the jar even without the bands, so you get an extra safety mechanism: If your sauce should spoil, the lid will come off, being a clear indication of trouble.

But my main reason why I suggest canning the jars is this:
If you ship your sauce, you have no control over the storage conditions of your jars during transit and - depending on the destination - constant refrigeration or similar might not be possible everywhere on this world. That alone would be reason enough to do the extra step, which is surprisingly easy once you give it a try. I suggest leaving the rings on during shipping and instructing the recipient to remove them on arrival to notice any signs of spoilage.

1 This includes the usual steps done even without canning, e.g. cleaning the jars and lids, "sterilizing" them in your oven or in boiling water, keeping the rims of the jars clean and filling the hot food immediately into the jars. In short, what you would normally do to ensure general cleanliness and food safety.


Grilling duck - How can I get the fat? I'm going to grill a whole duck tomorrow.  I am going to steam the duck before so the fat will render off.  When that's complete, I am going to have a pot full of duck fat and leftover water.

What's the best way to get the fat off?  Refrigerate the water till the fat separates?  Boil the pot until the water evaporates?

Refrigerate it and the fat will get on top of the water.


How to clean cauliflower? I have asked many people about "best to way to clean cauliflower" before cooking. I got several answers, like keeping in salt water or add soak in turmeric mixed water.
And also how do you remove worms from cauliflower?

A bucket of salty water is the best way to get rid of bugs. That said, I've never had a problem with bugs in store-bought cauliflower.

You need to completely submerge the head in water, so a bucket that can fit the whole head is best. Add about 2 Tbsp salt per quart warm water to get it nice and salty. Submerge the head, florets down (they float, so a weight to keep it submerged will help). Let sit 5-10 minutes, remove, rinse, and eat as you please.

The salt in the water helps to kill the bugs and encourage them to let go. It also might kill some surface contamination if it exists, but this isn't really the point. You should see bugs either floating or at the bottom when you remove the cauliflower.

If you don't need the head whole when cooking, core and cut into desired size prior to soaking.


Do sprats need to be gutted? Do you need to gut sprats before cooking & eating them?

i.e.

is it safe to eat them (so long as they're cooked).
do they taste ok (to the average non-squeamish person happy with a bit of fish offal).

Research so far

I've searched online but can mostly find the question asked without answer, or with people stating that they've only had them gutted; but with no advice on whether ungutted is acceptable.

e.g. There's a recipe for Grilled Sprats about halfway down the page here where it's advised that you can eat the heads, but the recommendation to remove the guts and gills remains (gills so they don't get stuck in your teeth; guts aren't explained).  Since this chef is known for eating most things, I assume there's a good reason to avoid the guys; though perhaps he's tweaked his recipe for the paper's audience: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/oct/07/features.food7

It is safe to consume the guts.
Many people do.

More Info:

After digging deeper into the above article I spotted it contains the answer.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/oct/07/features.food7

  They're so small (only up to 12cm long) that they're often cooked whole - head, guts and all. If you prefer, however, you can open up the belly with your thumb and rinse out the innards, and prise out the gills with your thumb and forefinger.

Regarding their association with brisling, it seems that the two terms are synonymous (though somewhat contextual):

  Sprats are sometimes also known by their Scandinavian name, brisling, especially if they've been smoked and canned.


How long will it take for yeast culture to adapt to new flour My starter is made from organic whole wheat. I feed it twice a day every 12 hours with 1:1 ratio of flour to water.

It almost triples in volume each feed.

I started it on April 12/2020

I decided to change my feeding to 50% white all purpose and 50% whole wheat. (Both organic/unbleached). That was 2 days ago. Now my starter is barely doubling but i see plenty of bubbles.

Is my starter slowly dying? Or just getting used to the new flour? If so how long will this take?

Here is an image of "Meredith"

Thanks

1:

  How long will it take for yeast culture to adapt to new flour

Starter will adapt to the new flour ratio with 3-5 feeds (if you feed it daily, it should change to the new flour within 7 days).

2:

  Is my starter slowly dying? Or just getting used to the new flour? If so how long will this take?

Add some rye or wholewheat flour for a couple of feeds.
If you wish to add white flour - that should increase the gas pockets in your starter.

I'd give it three to four feeds before you see some hyper activity.

The thing is - depending on your temperature - the starter should be active the closer its is to ~30C.

I'd say, unless there's pink spots or or mould, then you should give up.

Re: Giving up: can be checked in this other starter question.
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/107641/83535


Will heat cause a silicone scraper to harden? I like to use a flexible silicone scraper to stir my eggs in the pan when scrambling them. I know silicone is heat resistant so it won't melt, but will prolonged exposure to heat gradually cause the silicone to harden and become less flexible?

First, you need to be sure that the scraper or spatula you are using is heat resistant and suitable for cooking.

Assuming it is, heat should not make the silicone hard over time. I have several that I have been using almost daily for over ten years. They are as flexible today as when they were new.


Make seitan "fattier" Any idea how to incorporate more fat into seitan? With the purpose to bind flavor for richer and more complex taste, similar to beef.

I have been experimenting with this very thing, which is how I stumbled on this conversation. Real meat (I'm not a vegetarian so I can easily compare) has a different mouth feel. Deli meat feels stretchy and fatty, which seitan never does. It's just stretchy. Adding oil to the mix just seems to make the seitan more brittle. My best luck so far is using the Chicago Diner (famous old vegetarian place) method which is to make the seitan straight, cook it, and THEN modify it. So they make and simmer their basic seitan, then slice and THEN marinade based on how they want it to come out. Different marinades for gyros, corned beef, or turkey. I'm having decent luck marinading my veggie ham (that's been cooked and sliced) in oil.


Cooking "purple sweet potatoes" or "purple yams" I recently bought something that was labelled at the grocery store as a "purple sweet potato". They were larger than what I am used to for sweet potatoes, but looked similar, although they had a purple skin on the outside and white flesh on the inside. I figured since they were  labelled as "sweet potatoes", I would prepare them the same way I like to prepare regular sweet potatoes, by boiling them first (for about 40 minutes), then removing the skin, slicing it into wedges and then pan frying them. I have done this many times with normal sweet potatoes, and it works quite well.

However, after I boiled the purple sweet potatoes for 45 minutes, I pulled them out to take the skins off, and they were soft and stringy and incredibly off putting - they felt the same way as a gummy mashed potato would feel, and they fell apart all over the place.

Are they more like a potato, requiring less boiling time? Or is there something else going on here that I am missing?

Edit: I went to the grocery store today, and they are now labelled as "purple yams". I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I also got a picture of them, to make my description a bit clearer.

I used to cook plenty of purple sweet potatoes when I was living in africa:) Sounds like you maybe cooked them too long...

They can be extremely tasty, sweet with a "perfumy" hint if you are lucky. They are best boiled with the skin on like you did and peeled afterwards (as the taste is preserved better that way). As for cooking time it really depends on the size (which means the potatoes are likely done at different times) but you can always feel when they are done by pressing on the potato with a fork - it should give slightly/be soft. I think it usually took me about 30min but I didn't use a clock. It may shorten the cooking time slightly to make holes in the potatoes with a fork (this also adds to the "creaminess").

I guess they do sometimes get a softer, more "creamy" consistency than your usual potato when well done. However the taste is richer and in my opinion far superior to orange sweet potato. If you prefer a firmer potato, just let your potatoes stay on the firm side (in my experience, though, the taste is enhanced by letting them go soft). But boiled ones would anyways mainly be for puddings as it gets rather sweet.

For panfrying I would suggest avoiding boiling the sweet pots first. Simply peel/wedge them raw, fry them as chips until done and serve with a spicy/hot dip - yum.


Soft bones in smoked chicken For lunch today, a coworker and I went to a neighborhood southern-style BBQ joint. I usually wind up with fried catfish and he fried chicken, but today we both sprung for the smoked goods, and I found myself ordering a barbecue chicken leg sandwich.

After ordering, I thought "I wonder how that works... legs on a sandwich?" I figured that meant is was leg meat. When Mabel brought it ought I was a bit surprised (and slightly disappointed) to find that this was whole chicken legs on top of two slices of white bread. Oh well, I'll just pull out the bones.

Then the strange part happened. I picked up a leg to start pulling on the bone, and it collapsed under its own weight. Well that was the exposed part of the bone... it must have just disintegrated. So I started picking the meat apart to get to the bone, and when I found it in the middle and squeezed it to give it a yank, it collapsed under the pressure of my fingers.

As I worked my way through all the bones in the legs, I found this pattern continued: all of the bones were not just brittle, but downright soft! It was a bit hard to pick it all out, and I think some even got left behind in the meat--and even still it was barely even noticeable when chomping down.

What would cause bones to become so utterly soft?

I assumed Mabel must cook these things for a week, but when I asked, she said it was an hour or two in the smoker. Does smoke really do this, or is there some other treatment.

Boiling chicken bones for an extended period of time (4+ hours) will cause bones to go squishy.  I'm assuming any long duration slow cook method will do the same.


How does a typical electric rice cooker work? I have a cheap $15 rice cooker from my undergrad days (link). It has a metal pad on the bottom attached to a spring, a "Cook" switch (feels like a toaster lever), a "Cooking" light and a "Warm" light.

Generally speaking, how does a low-tech, electronic rice cooker work? Clearly the spring on the bottom is at play, as is the "Cook" switch.

Specifically:

How does it know when the rice is "done"?
What is the role of the spring pad on the bottom?
How do the amounts (not just the ratio) of water and rice affect the timing?
Is there a timing mechanism? Is there a temperature probe?

Bonus (since this isn't the main question): How can I use this knowledge to cook different amounts of rice or other things, such as lentils or beans, without resorting to directions online?

Inside the rice cooker, there's a thermostat monitoring the bowl's temperature (and kept in firm contact with the bowl via the spring).  As long as the temperature doesn't go above the boiling point of water, the rice cooker keeps cooking.  Once it goes slightly above that point, the water must have all boiled off or been absorbed, and that means the rice is done, so the cooker switches to a much lower "keep warm" setting.  This approach works only for foods that start wet and are done once the standing water is gone, which is why automatic rice cookers are common but there's no comparably simple way to automatically cook pasta.

Fancy rice cookers can be far more elaborate (with microprocessors and whatnot), but simple rice cookers are very simple indeed, with no timing mechanism at all.  This means they rely on putting in an appropriate amount of water for how much rice you are cooking.  If you put in too little water, the rice cooker will stop when it's gone but the rice won't be done.  If you put in too much, you'll get overcooked rice.  Fortunately, rice is not super sensitive and you don't have to measure carefully, but you need to get it approximately right.

For different amounts of rice, you just have to scale the water accordingly.  For lentils or beans, you'll have to use a different water ratio, and you should look it up for the beans you have in mind (and to make sure they can be cooked reasonably in a rice cooker in the first place); I don't know how to predict it from first principles.


When's the best time to buy a Thanksgiving turkey? I know this is about buying, not cooking, but gathering your ingredients is the first step, and right now this is the one worrying me most.

I'll be cooking the Thanksgiving bird this year, due to my wife's work schedule. I know that in the past she's had issues with getting to the store after the entire selection is picked over, and having trouble finding any left that are the right size.

The tempting thing to do is just go buy one now and stick it in the freezer, but this early I'd worry about it getting frostburn in the intervening month.

So when is the best time to go pick out a turkey?

It all depends what you want:

Best quality: Fresh, organic, heritage turkey. Order now, pick up maximum 1 week beforehand
Good quality, reasonable price: Frozen organic turkey. Buy now
Good quality, normal price: Fresh turkey. Order now, pick up maximum 1 week beforehand
OK price: Frozen turkey. Buy now
Best price: Buy a large chicken and tell everyone it's a small turkey!  :-)

When buying fresh, store in the coolest part of the fridge.


Where can I buy American style bread flour in Europe I live in Germany, and all the flour here is made from soft winter wheat. I can get some durum semolina imported from Italy and sold as "hardwheat flour" (Hartweizenmehl), and that's about it. But most of the ressources on bred baking I read are of American origin, and they are all optimized for American style bread flour, made from the endosperm of spring wheat.

Is there a source within the Schengen zone which produces high-gluten flour and ships it to Germany? I think I read a comment somewhere on the site that Sweden has such flour, so maybe there is a producer who ships to Germany there. But I don't speak Swedish, so I can't research that. But I don't care if it comes from Sweden or another country, as long as I don't have to pay import taxes.

The canonical bread flour is France's Type 55, which should be roughly equivalent to German type 550.  Both are defined by ash content, with the German measures being 10x the French ones.  Now, the King Arthur Flour website lists 11.5% protein content for their equivalent of French Type 55 flour.  So, I'm thinking you want a higher-gluten German type 550... which should be obtainable if you can find protein information for your national brands.  If I were dead set on matching French T55, I would experiment with adding small amounts of vital wheat gluten to German Type 550 to get equivalent protein content.

American bread flour is slightly different.  It is a paler flour with 12-15% protein content.  To duplicate the strength of this, you want German flour type 812, possibly with a little type 1050 or Dinkel Mehl 630 added for extra strength.   For a less whole-wheat flavor, use type 550 or even type 405 plus vital wheat gluten.

The breakdown on german flour types is:

American Cake/pastry flour = German type 405, 8-10% gluten
American All-Purpose flour = German type 550, 9-11% gluten.
American Bread flour = German type 812, 11-13% gluten.  Dinkel Mehl 630 may be in this range too (I find a note that it is commonly used in bread and has a high gluten level)
American High-gluten flour = German type 1050, 13-14.5% gluten
Whole wheat flour = type 1600
Rye flour, type 1150

Frankly, I'd find a bakery that makes a baguette like you want, and ask which brand and type of flour they use for their baguettes.  Bakers like to talk about their work, and they'll probably be more than happy to tell you.

Source: http://www.germanfoodguide.com/flours.cfm


How should I keep the vegetables from flying off the board when I cut them? Whenever I chop veggies like onions or carrots they sometimes just fly off the chopping board into the open space of the kitchen. Carrots do that especially often – I cannot chop them (dicing is also problematic) without the occasional pieces flying off the board.

What am I missing here? I try to imitate Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay chopping videos bit by bit.

Use a sharp knife, dull knives don't slice, they split the same way an axe splits logs and that will generate that sideways force that throws carrot bits.

Also learn to practice your slicing and chopping technique. You shouldn't be dropping the blade straight down like a axe or guillotine. You should be moving the blade in a orbital movement, so that you are slicing in a forward direction while the blade is on its way down to and through the carrot. By slicing properly much less of your veg will have that energy buildup because they won't "snap" apart but will be sliced apart neatly.

Search YouTube for Basic Knife Skills and watch several videos, then practice, and start slowly. You will get faster with time and time only, don't rush it or you'll get sloppy and may hurt yourself.


How to thicken a Yoghurt based cold sauce? I have a yoghurt-based sauce, e.g. yoghurt with garlic, pepper and salt, and I want to thicken it. Basically I don't want to change the taste, although minor changes are fine but I'd like to adjust its consistency.

How can I achieve that? What should I add to thicken cold sauce?

Potato flour is not an option as I don't want to warm the sauce.

The usual way is to use a thickener. Some of them require warming, but others do not. Guar or xanthan gum will work if used in the cold sauce. It is the easiest way. If you don't have them, yuo can use gelatine, but you'll have to dissolve it in warm liquid first and then add to the cold sauce, then wait to thicken. None of these will change the taste.

If you are from the "no additives" fraction, you can just use a thicker dairy product. I don't think the heavy whipping cream would be a particularly good fit to yogurt. The best choice would be a fermented product thicker than yogurt, e.g. sour cream or creme fraiche. But you can also use a cheese, although this will change the taste (without making it bad or too different from the original). Good choices would be cream cheese, ricotta, quark, tvorog or mascarpone.


Why were my sous vide sausages dry? I cooked some sausages sous vide at about 158F for a few hours. Usually I cook sausage in my pan until it hits an internal temperature of about 155 and it climbs to 165 and they are incredibly juicy. They are 30% fat and I made them myself, so fat is not an issue here. I subsequently used a torch to brown them.

I cooked them sous vide due to convenience rather than wanting the sous vide experience. I expected them to be very juicy because they would be less cooked than in the pan (158 all the way through, and not just in the centre), but they turned out significantly more dry.

Why were my sous vide sausages drier than my pan sausages?

I have two hypotheses, and am open to others:
1. Cooking sous vide resulted in an overall lower temperature, but cooking the sausages longer forced out more fat.
2. When I browned them with the torch, the outside skin shrivelled a bit and some holes appeared because the torch is so hot. I don't think this cooked the sausages any more, but perhaps rupturing the membrane and slightly constricting the casing may have pushed out some of the fat.

Any other ideas?

Sous vide is an excellent way to cook sausages, particularly those that are lower in fat, because you can avoid over cooking. I find pork sausages cooked at 140 F (60C) to be ideal. One theory is that you may have cooked them to a higher than necessary temperature.  However, sausage making technique can also contribute to dry or crumbly texture.  So, you will want to consider that as well.  For starters, try 140F for an hour (if not frozen), then sear or grill quickly.  More than two hours in the water bath could also begin to degrade the texture.


What are the safety considerations in making pine needle tea? Living in a northerly climate, I have often speculated about how aboriginal people avoided diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies like scurvy (no imported citrus in those days.)

According to wikipedia,  the French explorer Jacques Cartier and his men were saved by the natives showing them how to

  boil the needles of the arbor vitae tree (Eastern White Cedar) to make
  a tea that was later shown to contain 50 mg of vitamin C per 100
  grams.

Has any one ever made this concoction? The instructions at eHow seem pretty straight forward, but I am still a bit nervous about the whole thing. After reading a passage like

  If you have access to fresh, bright-green pine needles, you too can
  enjoy this unusual tea

questions that occur to me like "will any kind of pine's needles do, or are some poisonous" have prevented me from experimenting.

Inquiring minds need to know!

The most obvious and significant conifer species to be concerned about is Yew. Most yew is shrubby but I'm familiar with at least a couple individuals that are large enough to resemble a small hemlock tree if you're less familiar. Yew is extremely toxic. If you wish to forage conifer needles it's worth learning its characteristics, as it's not hard to identify once you do. Useful reference: http://aspcapro.org/sites/pro/files/zk_vetm0905_646_650.pdf

All the hemlocks (the tree kind, not the flowers) are safe. Further information- http://www.foodasmedicine.ca/2011/western-hemlock/ Link mostly discusses Western Hemlock but Eastern Hemlock is functionally identical aside from having a different set of folklore and somewhat thinner cambium.

The junipers and cedars are safe for most people in moderate amounts; that said, many of them do contain relatively powerful compounds. Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) for example is one of the richest sources of thujone, which is a stimulant at low doses but at higher doses toxic to the nervous system and liver. Consequently some sources state that it is toxic, but this is not the whole story. Thujone is also found in culinary herbs like sage and rosemary and brewing herbs like wormwood. The dose is the question. Essential oil of wormwood contains more than enough thujone to kill you, but liqueurs made with wormwood benefit from their much lower dose. The levels available from White Cedar may indeed be risky for those pregnant or nursing, for example. For myself, on the other hand, there's no reason not to enjoy some cedar tea from time to time. Or to brew mead with it, as I like to do. This site contains a good discussion of thujone: http://ec.europa.eu/food/fs/sc/scf/out162_en.pdf.
More on junipers: http://www.eattheweeds.com/junipers/

For regular consumption across a range of constitutions the true pines are the best, though. Almost all of them are quite benign, except perhaps (again) if you're pregnant, as they are reputed to be able to induce miscarriage (also probably dose-dependent, but who would want to mess around with a risk like that?) Ponderosa Pine, also called yellow pine, is the only one that I am aware of being potentially harmful, and this seems to be usually connected with pregnancy risks as well, but to a much greater degree, at least based on its well-known toxicity to cattle. Clearly there are plenty who use it, but if you have multiple pine species around it may be best to concentrate on the others. Couldn't hurt. White Pine in particular is pretty much unimpeachable. It's easy to positively identify by the needles, which are attached in clusters of 5. White pine is the only pine with this characteristic. A good primer on pine tea: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3126/#b
Anyone further interested in the ethnobotany and chemistry of human use of pine products for nutrition will find this paper a treat: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443//handle/1828/3248

Pine-needle tea is measured to have several times the vitamin C content of citrus fruits. Well worth it in my opinion!


Brining a kosher bird How should I adjust the salinity of a brine when using a kosher turkey? Some reccomendations suggest decreasing the salinity of the brine, but how much?

My recipe is two quarts of water with 1 c. of each salt and sugar.

I'll try to weigh on in this as much as possible with a non-authoritative answer:

First of all, I simply can't state this emphatically enough: kashering is not brining! A kosher bird is not "pre-brined", and professional chefs who claim that it is are either misinforming their audiences or simply misinformed themselves.

Kashering (sometimes called koshering) has the principal aim of drawing blood out of the meat. This page explains the process but to summarize: first the unkosher parts are removed (feathers, blood vessels, etc.), then it is soaked without salt for 30 minutes, then it is coated in kosher salt (AKA kashering salt) and left to rest for 1 hour, and then finally it is thoroughly washed again to remove the salt crystals (in theory, anyway - sometimes the salt is not thoroughly washed off).

This could not possibly be more different from brining! In the kashering process, moisture is drawn out and the meat generally ends up tougher. This is especially noticeable with red meats as opposed to birds; ask anybody who's ever tried to cook a moderately-priced kosher steak from the supermarket and they will likely tell you without a hint of irony that not even a strong acid marinade, several minutes with a mallet and several hours in the crock pot can turn it into anything other than shoe leather.

But I digress. Brining is a long, slow, steady process which adds moisture to the meat. Its aim is both to add flavour and to tenderize. According to McGee, brining increases the weight of the bird by 10% or more; of course, moisture is still lost during the cooking process, but the same amount of moisture is lost whether it is brined or not, so a brined bird will be 10% more moist after cooking.

Kashering is roughly equivalent to "dry brining" when the meat is simply coated in salt. In my opinion this "dry brining" has absolutely no business being called a "brine" at all, which is defined as:

  a : water saturated or strongly impregnated with common salt
  b : a strong saline solution (as of calcium chloride)

Proponents of this method argue that it's technically a brine because once it starts to draw out moisture from the bird then it creates a solution (brine). While not wanting to sound overly nit-picky, I think it's very obvious that when people talk about "brining" a bird in the traditional sense, that isn't what they mean. It's a vastly different method that produces a vastly different result - imparting a different flavour and leading to a very different texture.

I'm sorry to have dwelled on this point for so long, but I think that background is necessary to really understand the question. Kosher birds may come out with a similar flavour to non-kosher brined birds in the absence of any other preparation - emphasis on similar because no sugar is involved in kashering - but brining a bird is not simply about adding salt, it's about adding brine. Brine, by definition, includes water.

So what do you do if you have a bird that's already been salted but not actually brined, and you want to achieve a result that's somewhere in the vicinity of a real brining?

Add water.

That's really the only missing ingredient here - that and sugar, if you like to use that in your brine. You've already got the salt. You might want to add some salt as well because kashering does not increase the salinity of the bird as much as brining due to the extremely short exposure. Exactly how salty the kosher bird will be is anyone's guess, because it depends on the exact amount (and consistency) of salt that was added during the kashering process, how long it was left to rest, and how thoroughly it was washed afterward. A traditional process like kashering doesn't lend itself well to automation which means there is going to be a lot of inconsistency from distributor to distributor and even from bird to bird.

My best suggestion would be to err on the side of caution. A kosher bird doesn't need to be brined for flavour - that point is not in dispute. I've seen "rules of thumb" that suggests using half as much salt and brining for half as long. I think that's a good starting point, but if you know for a fact that the kosher birds you buy are already fairly salty (in the sense that you could roast one straight out of the package and never need to reach for the salt shaker) then use less - say 1/4 of the amount that you would normally use. But don't reduce the sugar, because the kosher bird definitely hasn't been exposed to any; and additionally, a generous amount of sugar in the brine will help to prevent the weaker brine from drawing salt out of the bird.

But all told, it's way easier to add salt to a slightly bland bird than it is to try to save an over-salted bird. So use as little salt as possible if you plan to brine a kosher bird, at least for your first attempt. Again, my rule of thumb would be 25% of the normal salt and 100% of the normal sugar, and follow the usual advice to brine for only 50% of the usual time. If you find that it comes out a little bland, then next time you can let it brine for a little longer or increase the salt to as much as 50% of normal.

50% salinity should probably be your upper limit; kashering (or dry-brining), despite its shorter duration, tends to incorporate a good deal more salt, proportional to the time. As per the link that Jefromi posted, some people claim that the salinity of a kosher bird is already approximately equal to that of a brined bird; another 15-25% increase won't make a huge difference but another 30-50% almost certainly will - and not in a good way.

If you want to be really scientific about this, get yourself a salinity meter such as this one, start with a mild brine, and measure both its volume and its exact salinity before and after the brining process. That will tell you without bias exactly how much additional salt is actually being added to (or removed from) the bird. Obviously I don't have time to do this experiment myself right now, but if anyone owns a salinity meter and wants to try this out, feel free to report the results and I'll do the number crunching and edit this answer with the findings.


Do frozen Lima Beans contain Cyanide? I often buy frozen vegetables, defrost and eat them.

Recently, I came across an article that says Lima Beans contain Cyanide, should be thoroughly cooked and then eaten.

Do frozen Lima Beans come precooked or are they supposed to be cooked before consuming them?

Location: CanadaIf you need product information, please do let me know.

Raw lima beans do contain a compound, a cyanogenic glycoside, which would release cyanide if ingested raw.

(1) http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp8-c1.pdf

(2) http://www.foodsafety.govt.nz/elibrary/industry/Cyanogenic_Glycosides-Toxin_Which.pdf

(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24863488

(4) http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jfns.20140204.21.pdf

Frozen lima beans are typically uncooked. The usual stories about cooking many varieties of lima beans quote boiling for at least 15 minutes and discarding the cooking water.

Now trying to unwind the folklore....

(A) What is the toxicity of cyanide?

Cyanide in the body is an anion, which has a negative charge. In order to balance the charge a cation, a positive charged ion must be present too. Since beans would be eaten let's look at the toxicity of sodium cyanide.

The dose of sodium cyanide which would kill 50% of the subjects (LD-50) is about 15 mg/kg of body weight for mammals. But by weight sodium cyanide is 47% sodium and 53% cyanide. So the lethal dose for cyanide itself would be about 7mg/kg.

So a 154 pound person weighs 70 kg (2.2 lbs per kg). 70*7 is approximately 500 mg or 0.5 grams.

(B) Does the cyanide content of lima beans vary?

Yes. Supposedly the varieties of lima beans consumed in the US (and presumably Canada) are specifically chosen to be low in cyanide.

Cyanide in "lima  beans [varies]  between  15  and  500  mg  HCN/kg  fresh  weight  (Bickerstaff,  2003)" quoted from:

(5) http://members.ecetoc.org/Documents/Document/JACC%20053%20Vol%20I.pdf

But I can find the original source by Bickerstaff in the article.

(C) How much does cooking reduce the cyanide?

There is a paper which notes that in other foods the cyanogenic glycosides are 100% destroyed by cooking.

(6) http://www.onlineresearchjournals.org/JBFSR/pdf/2013/jan/Onyeike%20et%20al..pdf

(D) How does the bean produce cyanide?

The cyanide in lima beans is present as "pure" cyanide, but a cyanide compound called a cyanogenic glycoside. Lima beans contain two such compounds, linamarin and lotaustralin

    Linamarin

    Lotaustralin

I'll quote Dr. G. Speijers of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, Laboratory for Toxicology, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

(7) http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v30je18.htm

    The first aspect is the processing of plant products containing
    cyanogenic glycosides. When the edible parts of the plants are
    macerated, the catabolic intracellular enzyme ß-glucosidase can be
    released, coming into contact with the glycosides. This enzyme
    hydrolyzes the cyanogenic glycosides to produce hydrogen cyanide and
    glucose and ketones or benzaldehyde.

It seems that the human gut also has bacteria which are capable of hydrolyzing the cyanogenic glycosides to produce hydrogen cyanide.


How to preserve fermented bean sauce How can I can and preserve my fermented bean sauce so it has a long shelf life preferably one year or longer. I ferment the beans in smoke and in low heat and then stir fry them in mustard oil, garlic, sesame seeds, turmaric, salt and ginger. I am the only one in the house who eats this yummy smelly sauce. If I can't prolong its shelf life I will have to throw away a lot of it.
Thanks

not sure what you mean by 'fermenting in smoke'. Fermenting is generally accepted as being encouraging natural lacto-bacillus production in the food by using brine and controlling the temperature of your jar or crock within a certain (coolish) range for days/weeks. This process preserves the food to an extent, but must then be kept in the fridge which slows down decay but doesn't halt it like pickling in vinegar, canning or freezing food does. A tip with fermented foods is that the significant health benefits are lost if you heat them, better to add them on top of heated food at the end.

If what you're actually doing is smoking (rather than fermenting), then shelf-life will depend on a) whether it is a cold smoking or hot smoking process you are using; b)how long you are smoking for and c) how you store it (under oil, in a sterile jar, etc).


What type of rum to use when making vanilla extract? My mom just bought me some vanilla beans from Tahiti and said that the person she bought them from suggested using rum to make an extract. What type of rum should be used, white or dark rum, and is there a certain alcohol content that is needed to keep the extract stable and safe at room temperature?

I've been making rum-based vanilla extract successfully at home for years. Here are my recommendations. Your basic ingredients are 80 proof rum, sugar and vanilla beans. At the recommended proportions, the rum and sugar are plenty effective preservatives.

You can use either light or dark rum, but it should be a good "call" 80 proof rum and not a bargain bottom shelf rum. I most often use Ron Rico. If you use a golden rum, your extract will have a warmer taste suitable for spicy treats such as pumpkin pie or spice cookies. If you use a silver rum, your vanilla will have a purer taste suitable for whipped cream or custard sauces. I get rum that is bottled in glass, because I think plastic imparts an off flavor.

Your basic recipe will use a fifth less about a 1/2 cup of rum, four vanilla beans and 1/2 cup of organic sugar. We'll go through that first, and then talk about variations.

Place your vanilla beans on a clean, flat cutting surface. Using a small, sharp knife, cut them first in 1/2 crosswise at the middle. Then take each 1/2 bean and insert the knife tip just 1/2 to an inch below the uncut end and carefully slice lengthwise to the send. Repeat this process gently and carefully on each piece unti each piece  has four lengthwise quarters attached at the uncut end. Some recipes will tell you to scrape some or all of the paste out of the beans, but this is not necessary. The simply split beans will infuse the rum just fine.

Pour out about a cup of rum from your fifth and set aside. Put your sliced vanilla beans into the rum. Use a funnel to add 1/2 cup of organic sugar. Use the reserved rum you set aside to top the bottle back up. Recap the bottle and give it about 20 shakes to encourage the sugar to dissolve. Set aside in a dark cabinet or pantry. Take it out and give it a few shakes every week or so. Your vanilla will be usable but not fully extracted in about two months. It will continue to strengthen in flavor out to about 6 months of age.

Once you are satisfied with your extract, you can decant some and bottle it up in smaller bottles. It's a very popular gift for bakers.

Once you have tried vanilla extract made this way, you will never want to go back to store-bought. The difference is indescribable.

You can vary the type of rum you use, silver or gold, and you can vary the sugar. I mostly stick with light organic sugar, because I think the taste is better. I like the combination of dark rum and brown organic sugar very well. You can also increase the sugar up to about 2/3 cup in a fifth bottle, but I wouldn't go above that. Sugar gives the extract more body and mellows the flavor.

Check out Wikipedia to learn more about the various kinds of vanilla beans available. I use the organic ones from my food coop, but different kinds can be ordered online or found at specialty food stores.

A number of cooking blogs have instructions on making extracts or tinctures of other spices. There is no reason not to create combination flavors.


can I make my own powdered gluten I know how to make gluten from wheat flour. I've made my own by adding water to wheat flour until it was a stretchy dough. I washed it until the water ran clear. What I was left with after the starch was washed away was a glob of very stretchy protein  Is there a way to use this to make my own powdered gluten?

I would imagine you could cut your gluten dough into small pieces, dehydrate them, and then grind them. You would just have to be sure that you were getting it completely dry and grinding it very finely. This should work, though I don't know how practical it would be.