What kinds of beans are there and how to recognize them? I've been looking for nutrition facts for beans (bought in bulk, doesn't have a label) I bought but couldn't find which type there are. It took me quite a while to recognize them as pinto beans. Also different sources differ way too much when it comes to nutrition data, I'm sure they don't have 22 calories per 100grams, as some sources state.

So my primary question is:

How many basic types of beans are there and how do you distinguish them from one another?
Second question is: do they differ a lot nutritionally? And final one, can you freeze beans?

Thank you for reading.

How many basic types of beans are there

There are hundreds of different bean cultivars. Some countries sell predominantly 2-3 types of bean in the supermarket, but which type is sold varies from country to country. If you are eating beans from a farmer's market, all bets are off.

  How do you distinguish them

There are reference books for agriculturists and system biologists which contain detailed descriptions and pictures of different plant cultivars for a species. You could try finding a reference work for beans and looking them up there, but many cultivars look very much alike, and with only the seeds available, even the experts are likely to have a high error quote. Trying to do such a recognition requires lots of effort, has a low success rate, and serves no good purpose in the kitchen.

  Do they differ a lot nutritionally

It is hard to say, as the difference between closely related cultivars will be larger than the difference between less related ones. But if you are thinking that you can get a single calorie count per cultivar, forget it.

Sources state nutritional info based on a measurement they have made, and it is hopefully the average of many measurements made. But unprocessed foods vary a lot between batches. Did the bean grow in the sun or in the shade? What was the soil composition, how much fertilizer did it get, how much water and sun? How ripe is it? How much time has gone since it was picked? Water evaporates and vitamins get destroyed over time. Both the calorie content and the ratio of nutrients will vary considerably between exemplars of beans (or melons, or fish, or whatever natural food).

If you have found calorie counts which are a lot different from each other (say one is 3-4 times higher) then this is probably a difference in the state of the food and not between cultivars. It is possible that the 22 calories are for fresh beans or cooked beans and higher counts are for dried raw beans. Or with beans, it could even have been a number for green beans (picked unripe). Also, sometimes calorie databases contain mistakes, I have seen the same database give a higher calorie number per ounce of hazelnuts than per 100 gram of hazelnuts. But if the difference is not so much (up to 100% maybe), I'd assume that it is more of a matter of variance between batches.


What kind of knife is this? Found this knife in my Grandmother's collection. None of us can figure out what the semi-circle shape and slots are for (see attached picture).  Anyone have any ideas?

It is a multi-tool, which appear to have been given out as novelties. The bottle opener and serrated knife are obvious, the slits are there to act as a pot strainer, the semi-circle shape and flat surface allows you to hold it against the edge of a pot and pour out the liquid while keeping solid bits in. I found a few of them on Ebay, the good links (as of this answer) are:

Vintage Farmers Co-op Creamery 1967 Bread Knife

Vintage Multi-Purpose Knife Bottle Opener Strainer Stainless Wood Handle Japan -
Given the nature of Ebay I can't guarantee these links will be good for long

According to the inscriptions on some they were given out by a couple of different Farmer's Co-ops and a Drilling company...does yours have any writing on it?

...and here is a picture of a pot drainer (single purpose) as it would be used.


if you put a dead animal in the freezer, wrapped in a plastice bag, lay the dead animal on top of the other if you put a dead animal in the freezer, wrapped in a plastic bag, lay the dead animal on top of the other food in the freezer, can the smell of the dead animal contaminate the other food in the freezer just from the odor?
please help me!

Anything you store in the freezer needs to be airtight, or odors will propagate. And they'll linger in the freezer itself, not just the other food, so you really want to avoid this.

If you're using plastic bags to store things in your freezer (and they're not zip-seal bags), make sure they're thick and tied off airtight. No harm using multiple bags to make extra sure!


Is there a trick to turn old bread into almost-new bread? Whenever I buy bread, it's flavor and texture is amazing in the first day. The bread is humid and soft. In 2 or 3 days, it gets hard. Is there some trick to renew the bread to a nicer state?

While it is never possible to restore bread to its fresh baked glory, toasting can help.

The main staling mechanism in bread is the re-crystalization of the formerly gelatinized starches, making the bread seem hard and dry.

Toasting heats the bread up, and helps the starches re-gelatinize, and so can help mitigate the staleness, although it is not a complete cure.


I bought a cast iron skillet and after washing it and then heating it I got a color like rust I bought a cast iron skillet and after washing it and then heating it I got a color like rust from fire side

After washing by  Dishwashing soap I dry it by tissues, then heat it over a high temperature

Now I season it

Is healthy using it with this color ??!!

I have no experience dealing with this type of fryer

Now I season it but is healthy using it with this color

This has happened because you didn't dry it thoroughly enough.

I would advise starting the seasoning process again. This is a good visual guide from Joshua Weissman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDTCgxvmShc


Which type of blueberry for making jam? If I want to make blueberry jam, which type of blueberry should I use?

I just bought a pack of blueberry, but I found that the flesh/pulp of them is not blue, but light green in color. When people say "blue"berry, do they mean the color of the skin only?

How many type of blueberries can be bought in markets?

Common names of plants are a very unclear matter. There are big differences not only between languages, but also regional differences within a single language.

There are lots of (closely related) plants which are sold under the name blueberry. And probably not even the person who grew (or gathered) them can tell you the exact species. While it does matter when it comes to jam (for the same reason it matters whether you use Roma tomatoes or Cherry tomatoes for a sauce) it is highly improbable to find a source which can consistently provide you with a specific known variety. Also, you probably have to study some very specified botanical literature and be provided with parts of the plant other than the berries in order to be able to identify the type with some degree of accuracy.

On the other hand, don't let that come in the way of good jam. Blood orange marmelade may taste different than bitter orange marmelade, but both are good. The same goes for blueberries: you can use any variety, even if some of them would be a bit better on their own.

What you need for a jam is a good sweetness to acid ratio, the proper amount of pectin, and as much aroma as possible. A softer texture also helps to prevent unpleasant lumps. So generally, you want to go with the ripest fruit available. They are soft, and have the fullest aroma. This is something you might want to consider with your current source of berries: maybe they're not a special "green on the inside" variety, but only underripe. If they don't taste very sweet, and their aroma isn't very complex, I'd try to find other sources. Farmer's markets and organic stores are usually able to sell much better fruits (because they cater to a picky, price-inelastic clientelle), but of course they cost a lot too.

Sweet fruit is always good, but you need enough sugar added for food safety. A ratio of 2:1 (fruit to sugar) can still be kept in the pantry, more fruit than that and you need to refrigerate the unopened glasses too. With blueburries, you'll need to add both pectin (to get the jam to gel) and acid (to get the pectin to work). This is the part which will vary with fruit variety: more watery types will need more pectin, and less acidic types will need more acid. If you want a good quality jam, you'll need to do some experiments until you get the proportions right. If not, you can buy "jam sugar" or however it is called in your country - this is sugar with pectin and acid already added. It won't have the perfect ratio for your fruit, but it will more or less work. But then, if this quality is enough for you, you can skip buying the expensive berries and slaving at the stove, and buy manufactured jam.


I am trying to design a pie, but I'm not sure what to take into consideration I think a blueberry salmon pie with goat cheese would be delicious, but I am not a professional baker - just an amateur with a decent amount of experience and a good pie crust recipe.

So here are my questions:

Am I insane, or would that actually be tasty?
What things do I need to consider?
Chemistry.

Basically, if you were trying to make such a pie, what considerations would you take into account?

We can't answer #1, because it is simply a matter of opinion.  You need to consider two things: crust and filling.  Since you already have a good pie crust, this is just about filling.  Flavor aside (as that is personal preference), you are going to want to consider consistency, that is, how the filling will behave when you cut the pie.  You are probably going to need to experiment a bit.  Traditional thickeners are flour, tapioca, and corn starch. Other considerations include visual appeal and flavor, but again, that is a matter of opinion.


Is there any way to tell beforehand if you will get food poisoning from a meal? I was watching the news and saw an entire family of young kids on a road trip dying from food poisoning after they had stopped to grab lunch at a small diner. Could they have known this would happen within the first few bites?

While our senses can warn us of some potential problems, there are many pathogens that we can't detect by smelling, tasting, or feeling.  So, no, you generally can't tell from a bite or two of food.  Alternately, if you know how an establishment stores, processes, and prepares the food you are about to consume, you could probably make some meaningful assumptions about the safety of the food your are going to eat.  You are always taking a risk when you don't know how food was prepared and handled.  The risk may be very small most of the time, but sometimes even the finest restaurants in the world serve food that has been compromised.


How do I keep a hot meal fresh for several hours? In three days, I will be picking up two fully-prepared chicken dinners - with potatoes, cole slaw, and a pre-packaged dessert - from work to home for my wife and I.  I've done this before and it came out fairly well.

The problem is, I know for a fact that I will have to keep these dinners, which are cooked on-site shortly before pickup, in my office from 1pm to 5pm, and take them home on the bus, which could on a bad day mean that I won't be home with them until 6pm - a full 5 hours of sitting out at room temperature (or outdoor temperature, whatever that might wind up being in springtime).

I know that we can make these meals warm again in the oven or microwave, and that the Styrofoam container they'll be in will help too, but are they safe to eat after sitting out for such a long time?  And is there any superior way to transport them to eliminate spoilage?

Refrigeration! They should be cooled to refrigeration temperature as soon as possible after pick up.  You can do this in a cooler with ice, if you don't have a refrigerator.  A portable cooler will allow you to take the dinners home on the bus.


How do I get rid the yellow layer of oil that forms in my cream of mushroom soup? When making cream of mushroom, I sauté the chopped up wild mushrooms with unsalted butter until tender and add a little olive oil. After a while, I add the milk, cream, bay leaves and season it to taste. And it tastes great. ;-)

However, there's always this layer of oil that forms which gives the soup a yellowish tinge. I usually skim off that layer of oil with a spoon and all is well.

Is there a way of preventing it from forming in the first place? Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, cream soups are typically roux-based. If you add some flour (roughly an equal amount to the butter) to the fats, whisk and cook the flour for a couple minutes and then slowly whisk in the milk, it will be much less likely to separate. The soup will also be thicker, which I would imagine is a good thing.


Is it possible to create this low calorie high fiber brownies? I have been looking at some of the low calorie brownie options online and have not found one I can sink my teeth into, without worrying about my hips. So I decided to think up a whole new recipe of my own:

Ingredients for your average Brownie

Soft Butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar , sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
1.25 cups cocoa sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Ingredients for my low calorie high fiber Brownie

Peanut vegetable oil for greasing the pan
Flour for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1/4 cup No Calorie sugar
1/4 cup wild honey
2 ounces melted I Can't believe it is not butter
1 ounce Peanut vegetable oil
1.25 cups cocoa, sifted
1/4 cup flour, sifted
1/4 cup Oatmeal, finely blended, and sifted/
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

I also thought of adding blended Cabbage(high fibre) to make more brownies and increase the fiber.

Please tell me what you think. Is this possible to make brownies with all the substitutions I made or will any of these substitutions adversely affect the results of what one would refer to as a normal brownie?

It depends a lot on what you expect. I wouldn't call it a mess. The result will be edible, and will have a similar flavor to a brownie. The texture will be very different from a brownie. It will be dry and dense. Personally, I wouldn't eat it.

First, the fat plays important roles in baked goods besides taste. I am surprised to see a recipe which uses melted fat (so no creaming) and no baking powder. This thing (the original one) is going to be denser than chewy cookies - maybe OK for you. If you reduce the fat from the original recipe, you will get a very dry result. An airy cake which is dry is not too good, but can be eaten when combined with e.g. yogurt or other wet things. Something which is both dense and dry will taste like chicken food mix run through a dehydrator. If you have a recipe for baking, don't reduce the fat. Also, never use spreads or margarines or anything else which is not real fat. It does not act like real fat, so it doesn't work the way it should. It is likely to contain lots of water and gums, and melt into them when baked. For baking, always use butter, lard or shortening. (It is OK to use vegetable oils for dense recipes which direct you to melt the butter). You will need your full share of fat. Some people replace part of the butter with applesauce, but you can't replace all of it. Also, I don't know how it will act in a non-leavened recipe.

Second, you need the sugar the same way you need the fat. It retains moisture and makes the brownies soft. Honey is already a risky proposition, but partial replacement will work. But do not reduce the sugar by half, it will make dry, unpleasant brownies. Also, I don't know what "no calorie sugar" is, but it sounds like some artificial sweetener dispersed in a filler. I don't know what the filler is made from, but it may not be good for baking.

You can't always replace wheat flour with other flours, but finelly milled oats should work for brownies and cakes.

Using a vegetable or fruit puree in place of the liquid is normally a good substitution, but your recipe doesn't have liquid. Just adding cabbage will destroy the liquid balance. You could theoretically replace part of the eggs with an equal amount of cabbage puree by weight, but because eggs also have important roles in baking (they lubricate and set the dough), you shouldn't nomrally replace them.

So, the replacement will bake into something you can bite and chew and swallow, but I wouldn't call it brownie. It also wouldn't be a tasty non-brownie, at least not in my eyes. Also, if you go ahead and make the stuff, you don't even win much in calories. Your original recipe is about 2950 kcal, and you get 820 g of brownies, resulting in 359 kcal/100 g. Your replacement recipe is 1610 kcal but only 530 g of brownies, which makes it 302 kcal/100 g (still a very caloriedense food) - and that if you use these substitution products, which are bad for baking. So, you only lose 15% of the calories overall, but you get something which tastes nowhere near the original. It will have cocoa flavor, but it won't be moist and creamy. I would rather eat 100 g of real brownies than 115 g of brownies made with your recipe.


How many times can vinegar (after soaking onions in it) be reused again for soaking the fresh onions? How many times can same vinegar (after soaking onions in it) be reused again for soaking the fresh onions?

Do I need to take any special care w.r.t Vinegar for maintaining its freshness?

From a safety point of view, assuming you are keeping the vinegar in the refrigerator while soaking...

I would make the conservative assumption that the water and nutrients from the onions is diluting the acidity of the vinegar, and making it a more hospital environment for pathogens.   Therefore, I would think of the vinegar as a fully perishable item, with a lifetime in the refrigerator of four or five days.

How many batches of onions could you soak in that time?

Of course, from the efficacy point of view, each batch of onions will flavor the vinegar more, and dilute it more--so at some point, you won't get the results you are looking for, whether that is a basic "velveting" of the onions from a quick soak, or a more pickling like change from a longer soak.  You will have to decide when the results are no longer good enough.

The thing is--vinegar is very inexpensive, at least in the US.  Is it worth reusing it, when you will get less consistent results?


How do I substitute a recipe that calls for yellow cornmeal for self rising corn meal mix I have a recipe that I am trying to make but it calls for regular yellow cornmeal. I have self rising yellow corn meal mix, so the question is how do I make the recipe turn out right? It calls for

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/4 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp of salt
2 cups of milk
3 extra large eggs
2 sticks of butter

It also calls for jalapenos, cheddar, and scallions.

It sounds like you're just making a cornbread (more of a sodabread with cornmeal in it) that has some "fun" things added to it. If that's the case, find whatever cornbread recipe is on the side of your self-rising cornmeal-and-flour container and add cheddar, jalapeno, and scallions.

Since we do not know the proportions that constitute the mixture, we have to guess. This recipe suggests that a traditional cornbread is approximately a 1:1:1 ratio (1c corn meal, 1c flour, 1 tbsp baking powder). I'll assume these are the proportions of your mixture.

I would take 2 cups (and a tablespoon) of self-rising cornmeal mixture, then add 2 cups of flour, and 1 tbsp of baking powder: in total that would make 1 cup of corn meal, 3 cups of flour, and 2 tablespoons of leavening cornmeal. The rest can be figured from there.

Then never buy self-rising anything again! It's much easier and more versatile to just stock baking soda and baking powder as pantry essentials.


Why boil rice first when steaming rice? Why do people suggest boiling rice before lowering the heat to low, when making steamed long grain rice? What happens if you don't wait for it to boil and go straight to simmer phase?

In cooking rice or many other grains (and even some grain based products such as pasta), two things actually happen:

The starches absorb water; they are hydrated.
Cooking.

The boiling phase does both at the same time, very efficiently, but sufficient hydration happens before the rice is fully cooked through.  So steaming to finish allows the rice to be fully cooked.

If you just simmer, things would simply take longer.  The reason to turn the heat down is to not burn the rice at the bottom during the steaming phase.


is it okay to freeze calamari after cooking, even though it was frozen at time of purchase? Is is safe to freeze calamari prepared as an appetizer if it was frozen earlier at the time of purchase?

All sorts of foods that were once frozen, are thawed, cooked, and then re-frozen for storage.  There is not a safety issue here, as long as the food was thawed, cooked, cooled, and re-frozen properly.  The long-term concern is quality.  There are two issues.  First, dehydration (commonly known as freezer burn) can occur with longer term freezer storage.  Secondly, freezing and thawing often degrades the cell structure of a product, impacting it's texture.  This is often undesirable. You can see other questions on this site about packaging for, and length of time for storage in, the freezer.


How to I prevent shortcrust cracking while using a tartet machine? I am using a tartlet machine to make tartshells for my bakery, but it keeps having little cracks and also pale in colour despite changing the recipe and baking temperature multiple times. What could be the problem?

My recipe is

600g Margarine

500g icing sugar

125 Corn flour

1375g flour (higher protein type)

4 eggs

I bake it for 12-15 mins in the machine, at 165 C top heat, and 115 C bottom heat.

I am not allowed to change the recipe as my boss only wants the ingredients in it (no butter).
Could I make the shells better by changing the baking temperature and timing instead?

Thank you for your help.  :)

Your shortcrust is a bit low on liquids. Here's why:

Icing sugar is more hygroscopic than regular sugar. This is generally good because helps in making water unavailable for gluten formation, but since there's a lot of it, it won't be
There isn't a lot of margarine
Assuming your eggs are in the 50g - 60g range, 240g of eggs is a bit on the low side.

There are also a few unclear things:

What is the exact weight of the eggs? You should weigh them!
Are you letting the dough rest in the fridge before using it? It should rest at least a couple of hours, ideally 12-24 hours.
How are you making the dough come together? Are you using a stand mixer, your hands, a spatula, a food processor?
In what order are you mixing the ingredients?
When are the cracks appearing? During the cooking process?

Since you can't change the ingredients, I would try adding another egg. It would add both liquids and color, and the dough should come together much better.

Color could improve vastly by using only yolks, and possibly by switching to a different egg vendor with more orange yolks. This would require rebalancing the entire recipe though.

Regarding the color, I have no experience in using a tartlet machine, but 165 °C seems low, and 115 °C seems very low. I would try higher temperatures (without exceeding 180 °C), keeping the time the same.

While not strictly related to the issues at hand, you should also really reconsider the high protein flour: it has no place in a shortcrust, which should use the lowest protein flour you can find.


When making risotto, why fry the rice? When making risotto one of the first steps is to saute the rice in some oil for a few minutes (or until the rice is translucent).

What is happening when the rice is fried? What effect does this have, and what would happen if this step was omitted?

As I understand it, it's down to the flavour you get from frying the rice. However, it does also break down some of the starch which reduces the thickening it can do when the risotto cooks, which might cause a problem. I can attest to the flavour, but I've not done experiments about thickening.

Serious Eats had a good article on the topic though, in which such experiments were described. The solution in that was to wash the rice in the stock, then fry the rice, then add the stock containing all that undamaged free rice starch during cooking, thus giving you toasty flavour and creamy risotto with no questions asked. I haven't tried that, but it seems like a fairly sound idea to me.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/10/the-food-lab-the-science-of-risotto.html


An extensive sausage making site I have been looking for a website that offers recipes for sausage making at home, at an encyclopaedic level if it exists.. thespicysausage.com has some popular ones, but is there anything out there that is more diverse? I mean Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, etc etc? It seems that typing 'sausage recipe' into the web engines only offers recipes to make with already made sausages! :s

There is no all-in-one sausage making site that I know of. However, many recipes can be found just by searching "home made sausage." You can further specify by searching individual types of sausage.  For example I recently searched for, and made, "home made Argentinian chorizo".


Chocolate seized during dipping, how to prevent it? I used a double boiler (two pots) to melt chocolate for truffles but half way into dipping the truffles in the chocolate, the chocolate hardened and became very clumpy.

How do I keep the melted chocolate from hardening?

There are two things to keep in mind while melting chocolate:

Keep a low uniform heat

I start off the melting process with low to medium heat. Once the chocolate fully melts, I reduce the heat to low and keep gently stirring all the while.

If you allow the chocolate to cool, it separates out into non-uniform areas of heat, and the cooler pockets start crystallizing. This causes lumps or spikes to form. However, if you go too high, the chocolate may burn.

Keep the chocolate absolutely dry

This also includes steam and condensation from the boiler. The water in the boiler should not splash over or steam into the chocolate. Also make sure that the dipped materials (truffles in your case) are totally dry.

Presence of water causes rapid cooling of parts of the chocolate, which again causes lumps to form. It also causes sugar to crystallize out of the fine chocolate mix.  This is called "seizing", and such chocolate is very brittle and difficult to melt.

EDIT:
Here's a nicely written article on the different methods of melting chocolate: How to Melt Chocolate for Dipping


Do all yogurts have live active cultures? Most homemade yogurt recipes/protocols call for yogurt products that have "Live Active Cultures" printed on its box.

I would like to ask if regular, snack yogurt will suffice for making homemade yogurt?

Also, are the snack yogurt products pasteurized/heat treated AFTER fermentation, thereby lowering the concentration of yogurt-related microorganisms?

There are different yogurt products on the market and many are heat-treated for stability.

If you make yogurt with active bacteria, they will continue to live and digest the lactose in the milk you started with. This also means the flavour profile of the yoghurt will change over time - most significantly during the first hours or days, but the process won't really stop. This is something yogurt manufacturers have to deal with as well. An easy solution is to kill the bacteria with heat, but of course that means you won't be able to use that yogurt to make more yogurt - there are no live yogurt bacteria present any more.

Laws vary between countries, but for example in Germany, manufacturers are allowed to heat the yogurt to kill the bacteria (but must write "heat treated"1 on the label). They may or may not choose to do so. On the other hand, keeping the bacteria alive and active allows for marketing the yogurt as especially healthy. Organic manufacturers are generally forbidden to heat their product.

If you want to try your hand at making yogurt, I strongly suggest you stay away from any snack or convenience products that have a long shelf life and additives, even if they don't have any hint about heat treatment on the label. Especially if the product doesn't need refrigeration - then it's certainly pasteurized or similar. Your best bet would be a pot of non-flavoured organic yogurt (choose a brand/product you like to get the bacteria type for your batch) or, if you want a specific kind and be really sure, a special starter culture, available in some "health food" stores or online.

1 Obviously they have to use a German term, which is "wärmebehandelt".


How can I get the most smoke flavor from Lapsang Souchong tea? When I open a bag of Lapsang Souchong tea, it has an overpowering aroma of pine smoke. After brewing, there is still a smokiness in my drink but it is far more subtle, and in particular seems to vary fairly widely from cup to cup.

I wonder what factors would cause this inconsistent extraction, and, more to the point, how I could focus my efforts to tweak the final product. For example, if I steep hotter, or cooler, or longer, or shorter, or covered, or stirred, etc.

For overall full-flavor, these instructions produce the best cup:

  Use a teapot and cup made from glass, or other material like
  porcelain. Use soft water for preparation of tea. This is suitable to
  effectively extract most of the substances from the tea leaves. Hard
  water is not suitable because it contains higher levels of mineral
  ions which suppress extraction of substances from leaves,
  subsequently, the taste become very flat and thin. Besides, mineral
  ions react with polyphenols substances which will give a dark brown
  color. Use fresh water which has not boiled before. Bring the cold
  water to boil, and then pour in boiling water that has been freshly
  drawn which the temperature is > 95˚C.=Boiling Temparature. Warm the
  teapot and cups well by rinsing it out with boiling water. This should
  be done just before adding the tea leaves, so that the leaves benefit
  from a gentle humid heat. For black tea, the main component is tannin
  which required high temperature for efficacious extraction. It is
  necessary to keep container warm in order to maintain* adequate
  temperature in brewing water.

Got that off this site promoting their LS tea from the Wuyi Mountain area of Fujian where I have toured and sampled: http://hojotea.com/item_e/b02e.htm
The part about only boiling once should not be underestimated: tea needs the oxygen to react and release those magical substances.

Have you experimented with second brewing? Drink the first cuppa after a short brew and cover with water again and see if that is indeed smokier.


Can I cool my toffee in the fridge? I'm making some treacle toffee for tonight but think I've left it too late to cool naturally - will cooling it In the fridge affect the result too much, or just speed the process up nicely?

Leaving any sort of sugar confection in the fridge (as it will out of the fridge also, but to a lesser extent) will soften the sugar after a prolonged period due to the moisture in the air. However, putting it in the fridge for a short period of time will simply speed up the cooling process as you put in your question.


Comparable ingredients in butter and mayonaise What ingredients (all) are shared between butter and mayonaise?

Normally, there are no ingredients shared between butter and mayonnaise. The only ingredient in butter is milk, either fresh or cultured. The ingredients of mayonnaise are egg yolks, vegetable oil, mustard, water and acid. As you can see, there is nothing in common between the two.

There are two exceptions when they may share something.

First, you can get salted butter, and many mayonnaise recipes also incorporate some salt. Then the salt is the shared ingredient.

Second, fats are interchangeable in the making of emulsified sauces, and home cooks will frequently call their sauce "mayonnaise" when made with butter instead of oil. Technically, this makes it a hollandaise derivative and not a mayonnaise, but many people won't know the difference. If you happen to eat "mayonnaise" made with butter, then the shared ingredient is the butter itself. With commercially bought mayonnaise, you can be practically sure that there is no butter in it.


Oxtail soup, what is the normal simmer time? I have recently made two very successful attempts at an oxtail soup.

First boil/simmer:

1.2 kgs oxtail
Yellow onion about equal in volume, maybe slightly less
Carrots about 1/4 the onions, so 2 - 4 carrots depending on size.

I Brown the meat and precook the onions and the carrot.

My first attempt simmered for about 5 1/2 hours. (The "recipe" called for three) and when I got the tailbones out I had to use my hands a lot to get the meat off of the tails. Digging in good. I had to use a knife to get the gristle off.

My next attempt I added celery root and tomato puree in the first boil. After  3.5 hours I could easily get the gristle off by just thumbing it off. The meat came off the bone like pork cooked to well done + 5 hours.

They both tasted awesome, but behaved very differently. This does not seem to be a fire and forget dish.

Why did they come out so differently?

The soup is completed by using the broth from the first cooking, a good idea is to sift with a cloth. Add the meat, some veggies that you like, celery, mushrooms, carrot, season to taste and you have an amazing soup.

There is no single expected time when you are using agricultural products like oxtail.   Each one will be different.  They may be cut to slightly different sizes.  The animals may have exercised their tails more or less.  One may be younger or older at the time of slaughter.

Every recipe is a guideline.  You are looking for an outcome, not a duration.  You cook until done, not for a specific duration.

The test for oxtail soup mostly is that the texture of the oxtail has reached your desired level of tenderness.   Then you can stop simmering.

I suspect your two batches straddle the line, though; 3 hours is probably on the order of what you can expect most of the time, and 5 hours much longer than normal.   I surveyed the top google results for "oxtail soup recipe" and most indicate a simmering time of between 2 1/2 and 3 hours, with a couple of outliers.


How do I care for a carbon steel knife? I recently purchased a Dexter-Russell carbon steel Chinese cleaver, because they're supposed to be amazingly useful.

I'm used to caring for good stainless steel knives, but don't know what special things I should do for carbon steel.  So far, I always wash and dry it immediately after use, and do normal honing/sharpening.

The problem is that after a week or two of use, it is developing spots of rust, deepening to slight pitting.  The rust appears as an orange sheen, and does not disappear readily with scrubbing.

Is this slight rusting normal with use, and will it turn into the patina I've seen on other people's carbon steel cutlery?  What else does one need to do to care for a carbon steel?  I've heard something about oiling and am not sure how that works...

Picture of of edge below, to demonstrate:

Wipe your blade along the flats with a clean, damp towel (or sponge) - set upon the counter or cutting board - frequently when cutting acidic items like onions, tomatoes or fruit. Japanese sushi chefs will have a wet kitchen towel folded into a neat pad on a lower corner of their cutting board for this purpose. When you are done with one cutting chore and not yet ready to move on to the next or wash the knife, wipe with the damp towel, and then with a dry one similarly folded. Do not delay washing the knife once you're done using it. Wash and dry it before the meal, not after.
Work on your knife's patina. It's a layer of mottled gray oxidized metal that develops on your blade, but will protect the steel from full blown rust or pitting. Gray is good, rust is murder. You can force a patina (search online for "mustard patina" or "hot vinegar patina" for various schools of thought on the topic), or encourage it to develop naturally - the easiest way to do the latter is to scrub your blade with baking soda and a disposable kitchen scouring towel (like a Scotch Brite cloth) to remove stains after washing the knife - be sure to watch your fingers, and rinse and dry when done. After a few weeks or months of this, the metal will dull, and dark stains will come off in the wash rather than requiring to be scrubbed off. This is the patina at work. Japanese chefs will often scrub their knives to a mirror finish nightly with a scouring powder and rust-eraser rather than let a patina form - but this is a lot of work, and can damage the blade if done improperly. Many European and American chefs find patina appealing aesthetically - the mark of a quality knife used well.
Wash the knife with warm soapy water using a dish-mop or a sponge-on-a-stick now popular in the cleaning aisle of most grocery stores, and rinse briefly but completely. Do not use a dishwasher, or immerse the knife entire into the dishwater. Dry carefully with a towel - folding the towel on the counter, and pulling the flats and spine of the blade across to dry, and then move to the handle, holding the blade securely at the spine, before storing.
If possible, store the knife away from sources of humidity: the sink, dishwasher and cooktop. A drawer block in a drawer with a few silica gel packets would be ideal. If the knife isn't used frequently, a very light oiling with mineral oil (available over the counter from any pharmacy) will keep it from rusting. Barely dampen a paper napkin with the oil, and brush lightly over the knife, wiping away any excess with a paper towel. Some wood handles (non-stabilized olivewood and walnut especially) are better off with occasional oiling as well.
Steel the blade frequently using a ceramic hone to take advantage of the edge-holding ability of carbon steel. Asian knives are typically sharpened briefly on very high-grit stones in lieu of steeling before use, due to asymmetrical or highly acute edge geometry - most cleavers, gyutos and santokus may be steeled on a ceramic hone, though. Check with the manufacturer or reseller.


Can black pudding be stored long-term? A local restaurateur and friend of mine is making black puddings, and I am trading him a christmas pudding for one of his black puddings. I was considering saving it for a month or two.

Can I freeze it? Is it shelf stable like a hard sausage or bologna would be?

Black pudding freezes very well and should keep for a couple of months easily. It is not cured like salamis or other hard sausages, it's just boiled in the skin, so it does not keep as well at ambient temperatures.

When you do cook it, try it with pork tenderloin, mashed potato and fresh apple sauce. Just fry half-inch slices. Fantastic.


How do I get the burnt aroma off burnt food? I sometimes burn the bottom of the pan due to carelessness or not stirring enough. The burnt smell tends to persist even after I seperate out the un-burnt bits. Is there any way to fix this?

Well, if the aroma is truly in the food then there's not much you can do. However, you can take steps to make sure that the aroma is subdued as much as possible. It's quite possible that a large portion of the burnt aroma is merely in the air.

Turn exhaust fans on to get the aroma out of your kitchen asap
Submerge the burnt surface in water as soon as possible to prevent the aroma from spreading
Be very careful "separating" the unburnt from the burnt
Inhale something very strongly scented. Why? It's quite likely that a significant portion of the burnt smell is merely stuck in your nose. If you can somehow nullify that source of the burning aroma, you can perhaps more accurately gauge if the food itself actually has it.
Possibly you could overpower it by adding something very fragrant to your dish that fits. If your dish would work with lemon or lime this could help. If it's a desert maybe cinnamon or cloves might be useful.

The best thing though is prevention. Use lower heat when possible if you find yourself being regularly careless. Using a better pot/pan may help also depending on what you are currently using. Also, don't turn down help if your guests offer. Make them stir! :D

P.S. Don't inhale something dangerous like bleach or ammonia.


Is it possible to make taste of raw oily salmon less pronounced? Some varieties of salmon like Oncorhynchus gorbusha are preferable to consume raw, they have great flavor even without any seasoning. Other varieties with dark flesh and high fat content when raw seem almost intolerable to me. Is to possible by some curing process to make their taste closer to neutral?

My suggestion would be if you don't like the taste don't buy the fish in the first place, however if you have bought fish and then found out it's too strong a flavor there are a few things you can do:

A squeeze of lemon: acidity is a well known and frequently used way to cut fatty, oily flavors
Sugar rub: coating the flesh with some sugar and letting it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour draws out moisture and the sugar will impart some flavor, just get rid of the excess before you eat it
Salt rub: similar to sugar you can do the same thing with salt, I do a mix

You could do a full cure as well but it seems overkill and isn't likely to do more than a shorter rub. I'd suggest starting with lemon and seeing if that helps, if it doesn't I'd be tempted to cook it instead of spending a lot of time and effort making it more palatable raw.


How should I adjust the baking temperature? I just baked a sponge cake, its sides are fluffy and fine but in the middle it's a bit stiff. When I stick a toothpick in the center it comes out clean and when I cut the cake up, it's not wet. So how should I adjust the baking temperature/time for this case? Thanks!

The very first thing to do is to put an oven thermometer in your oven and find out if your thermostat is accurate. It will take a little while to do this test, because the oven will first overheat then cool then overheat, etc. After 20-30 minutes, you should get a good reading as the interior heats up and the temperatures fluctuations subside. If your reading on the thermometer is different from the t-stat setting, then you will be able to compensate.If it won't hold a steady temp, you should replace the thermostat Sometimes you can recalibrate a home oven t-stat, but it might cost more than it's worth as long as you allow for the discrepancy.


Is there a measurable difference between fresh and dried minced garlic? For example, I just tried a recipe for Rosemary Potatoes last night that called for a tablespoon of minced garlic. I believe the recipe may have referred to it being freshly minced, but I have some dried minced garlic on hand (in a little shaker, like from the isle at Walmart, etc) and used that instead.

The next day, my kitchen still smells of garlic, and the potatoes taste like it.

If I don't have 'fresh' on hand, is there an approximate ratio I should have used?

A standard ratio of dried seasoning to fresh is 1 part dried to 3 parts fresh.

For garlic specifically the ratios are slightly different:

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic      1/4 teaspoon dried garlic
1 clove garlic                  1/8 teaspoon garlic powder


Can I use nut meal or nut butter as a curry base? Does anyone have experience trying to form a curry with nut starch?

Can I make it work at all? Will I need less oil because the nut carries some of it's own?

Background for this:

For the last few years I've been making a Japanese style curry using the "fry flour and spices, then slowly add liquid while stirring" approach, and I have found the results very satisfying, and would like to share them around.

One possible target for this largess is trying to avoid flour in her diet, and my better half suggested substituting nut meal.

I'm a little worried about nut meal being too course to form the proper emulsion, but if I blend it down too much I'll have nut butter instead.

I think it may work in some sense, but the results will be pretty different. Nut butters don't have a lot of starch in them. They thicken a liquid just by dispersing their solids. So 1 tablespoon of nut butter isn't going to have near the same thickening power as 1 tablespoon of flour. If you add enough to thicken it substantially, it will taste strongly of whatever nut you use (which may be good).

If your friend is specifically trying to avoid gluten, there are many other things you could use to thicken your curry. Rice flour would be an excellent choice, or cornstarch, or xanthan gum.


Wine reduction sauce a little too rich I made a wine reduction sauce using a great merlot and some low sodium broth (onions and fond too!). I started by making a roux and then reduced the sauce. It has great consistency and tastes great but I'm afraid its a little too rich. Is there a way to brighten it up? I was thinking red-wine vinegar but I'm not sure.

TIA

Adding an acid is indeed the way to brighten a sauce.  You could go with vinegar (red wine, sherry, champagne, rice) depending on the ingredients in the sauce. Alternately, a squeeze of lemon is often used.  Start with a small amount...you can alays add more.


How to mix cream to increase its fat percentage? In my area the typical type of cream you can get is the one for whipped cream. It contains a fat percentage of about 35%. Some recipes call for higher fat percentages like 50% and up, so I'd like to mix in other things to up the percentage. The things I seem to have available are:

Regular cream (35% fat), this is probably my base ingredient
Milk (0,5% through about 3,5% fat)
Mon Chou or Philedelphia cream cheese
Mascarpone cheese
Crème fraîche
Many different types of Quark (Dutch, Greek, Bulgarian, etc)

As well as perhaps a few others that I wouldn't consider at first (like Huttekase) for my purpose, though as long as it's readily available (in the Netherlands) I'm happy to accept unconventional alternatives, as long as they work.

The above ingredients mostly don't list their fat percentage, which makes things more difficult. In addition, I worry that these may also differ a lot between regions (that is, if an English recipe suggests using cream cheese, it intends use of a different kind with a specific fat percentage). Is there any way to compensate for that issue?

I've checked the English "Double Cream" Wikipedia entry, but it redirects to the plain "Cream" entry. This in turn (obviously) links to this Dutch page for generic cream, which mentions

  "Double Cream - A variant from Great Britain, with higher fat percentage, can not be substituted by [regular] cream."

Which isn't very helpful.

The intended usage would be sweet dishes, in this particular case ice cream.

Bottom line: which of these ingredients should I mix together to get e.g. a 50% fat cream?

I think it is quite difficult to increase the fat content of the cream with your proposed ingredients.

Philedelphia cream cheese has about 35% fat.
Mascarpone cheese is made from curdled cream. It has a higher fat content than cream due to the removal of whey. There can be about 44g fat in 100g mascarpone. The real fat content might differ. The only thing that I know for sure is that mascarpone has a fat content of 80% in the dry product.
Crème fraîche is just soured cream and has the same fat content as cream - 35% (see also the wiki article in Dutch).
Quark (full fat) in Germany has 52 - 68% fat but I think the regular quark has less than 10%.

Have you seen double cream / crème double (40% - 60% fat) in a grocery store? It's just cream with higher fat content. This could suit to your ice cream.

EDIT: I found an older question here on cooking.SE: Is there any way to make single cream to double cream? and Could I add butter to single cream to make whipped/double cream?

I'm wondering if it's possible to increase the fat content of cream if the cream is drained in a cheesecloth...


How do I make spicy mayonnaise like Japanese restaurants use for sushi? I've tried mixing mayonnaise and hot sauce together and it didn't taste right at all. Any Suggestions?

Japanese spicy mayo is made with Kewpie mayo and Shichimi tōgarashi. You really just mix them to taste.


How to make omelettes extremely quickly When you hear of people making extreme quantities of omelettes in record time (think: contests), is there a special technique one needs to master in order to do this? Or is it simply a matter of being really good and efficient with the standard technique? If there is such a technique, what is it?

I can't say much for how professionals would do this, but I have found just about the quickest omelette is the Julia Child (French) version of one.

By her method, you cook the eggs (mixed with just a bit of water) over fairly high heat in a bit of melted butter, shaking the pan the whole time. At the end, you jerk the pan to get the eggs to roll up on themselves.

See a video here. It takes her about 30 seconds.


Is this ground beef safe to eat? A few days ago I purchased a pound of ground beef from the supermarket, it was already on clearance when purchased. Since then, the beef has turned grey all throughout, and has a slight scent to it. I wouldn't say that the scent is necessarily unpleasant, but it's slightly sour, and has an almost buttery or "farm" smell to it. I can't quite explain it well. I am currently cooking the meat, and it still has that smell, and it's since permeated throughout the house. I really have no idea if it's good or not, because it certainly doesn't smell unpleasant, though it does have a smell. As well, it didn't feel slimey, or anything of the sort. The only troubles are that the smell is there, whether it's bad or not, and the entirety of the beef has turned gray with very little red left remaining inside, and mostly dispersed. I am wondering if this is safe to eat or not, or if it's perhaps best to throw it away?

Edit: Also I should note, I noticed that the blood has also turned brown, and the sell-by date was yesterday.

When in doubt, throw it out.

There are three main indicators to spoiled beef:

Texture: beef becomes slimy as it spoils.
Color: beef will go gray as it spoils, BUT, it will also go gray due to it oxidizing. This makes it a somewhat unreliable measure without the other indicators.
Smell: as beef spoils it will start to smell sour. Note that you did mention the smell being sour in your description.

Your beef has hit two out of three boxes. It may just be starting to spoil.
I would consider it potentially unsafe to eat.

But why take the risk?


Proper use of a honing steel This question is similar to Honing Steel Forward or Backward, however the answers to that question don't really get to what I want to know.

When honing a knife I see many places online indicate you move the knife into the steel as if you are cutting it (where the knife moves toward the edge of the blade). When I watch Gordon Ramsay's video on how to hone a knife (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBn1i9YqN1k) he moves the knife out of the steel (where the knife moves toward the spine of the blade). This makes more sense to me as the purpose of honing a knife is to straighten out the "bent" edges of the blade... moving toward the edge could further "bend" the blade whereas moving away would only be able to pull the blade back inline.

So the question here is: when honing a knife, do you move the knife along the steel toward the blade or the spine?

As a quick clarification, honing is going edge first, stropping is going heel first.

Honing will help to straighten the edge. Stropping will help to polish the edge (after honing).

In every other video I've seen (and on the Wüsthof website) they say to hone the blade. Stropping is more of a finishing method, so I would say to hone the blade first, and, if desired, strop the blade after.


Refrigerating warm potato salad 13 hours after dinner I prepared warm potato salad last night for dinner. We finished around 7:00 pm and I forgot to refrigerate it until 8:30 this am. Therefore, it was left out for approx. 13 and1/2 hours. When I felt it this am; it wasn't warm and actually a little on the cool side. My AC was turned down low so the house was around 63- 67 degrees all night.

So, Is it ok to eat or should I throw it out due to bacteria and/or etc..??

Please let me know as soon as you can....now would be good...just kidding kinda... I'm just really worried because I have a son that loves it and I need to know whether we will be having that potato salad for dinner tonight or a bunch of guilt-ridden banana splits? ....hmmmm? Tough decision...

Thank you to whoever answers... It will be greatly appreciated!!   :•)  8•)

Throw it away! Warm potato salad is a breeding ground for all sorts of food-borne illnesses, and 13+ hours is far too long at room temperature.


Proper Order to Incorporate Ingredients in Pound Cake When making a pound cake, this is the usual order I use:

(1) Cream butter
(2) Add sugar and beat it in
(3) Gradually add eggs and beat them in
(4) Gently fold in flour, alternating with liquid (if there is liquid in the recipe)

I would like to try separating the egg yolks and whites. In what order should I then add the ingredients? Please include an answer for recipes with and without liquid.

What you're probably looking for is a hybrid between your pound cake and a seperated sponge cake, in which you'd probably want to cream the yolks, butter, and sugar, mix your egg white foam with flour, and then fold the flour/foam into the yolk/butter/egg mixture. My gut says the amount of butter in a pound cake will kill the foam structure of the egg whites immediately, but what the heck... experimenting is always fun.

Another option would be to make a regular separated sponge cake, and then use melted butter as kind of a soaking liquid like you would with a genoise. Might provide the fluffier, yet super buttery texture you're looking for. You could also just make genoise, but it's certainly not as rich as pound cake.


Why did my ricotta cheese did not completely melt in the Alfredo? Today I sauteed a quarter cup mushrooms in 3 tbsp butter and added 250ml cream. Everything was set for me to add the ricotta and finish the Alfredo, but it only partly melted. Beyond a certain point, there were some "cheese crumbs" that no amount of heat could dissolve, thus robbing me of a velvety textured Alfredo.

I have successfully made Alfredo with ricotta cheese before. Is there any reason as to why the ricotta did not completely melt? The ricotta package was only opened a few days, so it couldn't have gone bad.

Some ricotta uses gums and stabilizers (usually cheaper ricottas) whereas good ricottas are made with just milk and a bit of acid and a bit of salt. The stabilizers and gums allow the ricotta to hold water rather than proper draining done for better ricottas. The stabilized ricottas often leave a grainy texture after cooking (since the stabilizers don't hold up to heat).

Check the ingredients of your old brand versus a new brand. If your old one uses just milk, acid and salt versus your new one using gums and stabilizers, that could make the difference.

Aside: If you're short on good ricottas, cottage cheese (full fat) often is a good replacement depending on context.


How to fry crispy bananas? I've fried bananas in a pot with some butter, but they remain soft and I would like to make them more crispy. Should I use oil instead?

I assume you are referring to standard, grocery store, cavendish bananas-

They have a ton of water and sugar and have a very delicate texture. This makes them easily disintegrate and get gummy instead of crisp. The key is to deep fry them at a fairly high heat until they are dark and crisp. It also helps to use greener bananas that will hold together better.

Butter is not well suited to this because of the necessary oil depth and high heat. Not only would it take a fair bit of butter but the butter would start to burn. Even clarified butter wouldn't be ideal.

Vegetable oil or shortening would be the way to go.

Additional notes:

To make frying them easier bananas are often coated in something starchy- like a tempura batter. Recipes abound and they are, in my opinion, much better than frying the bananas on their own.

Plantains are more often fried because they are much more starchy than Cavendish bananas. Plaintains actually become sweeter when fried.


Should raisins be washed before eating? I saw someone washing raisins before serving them in a bowl. I had never seen that before. Just wondering if raisins need to be washed before eating.

Raisins do not need to be washed.  However, there are plenty of applications where a soak in water, wine, or other alcohol is called for.  This plumps the raisins a bit.


How do I make sure I don't overheat my teflon pan? I cook in my teflon wok pans all the time. I recently saw an answer here suggesting to preheat a pan to a high temperature and cook in small batches when preparing stir-fry food. I would like to try that, and several other things like roasting peanuts or spices. However, I know that teflon pans do not handle high heat well.

I do not want to ruin my pans and I prefer to err on the side of caution, but I think that maybe some of my dishes could taste better if I preheated the pan to a higher temperature than I do now. I'm afraid that I will overdo it though.

How do I preheat a teflon pan without having to worry about overheating it? Is there a technique that would help me find the sweet spot?

To best check temperature, you need a thermometer, and if you can, use a non-contact thermometer (infrared thermometer).

Teflon start degrading at around 260 °C (500 °F).

So check the pan temperature, adjust the heat of your range (electric, gas...) so that the temperature stay below that.

If you want to use high temperature for some applications, then invest in a carbon steel pan or cast iron pan or a stainless steel pan

PTFE Safety


Smoking whole chicken without skin I smoked a whole chicken with the skin on it and it did not have a smoky taste.

My question is whether removing the skin will improve the depth of the smoke flavour the next time I smoke a whole chicken.

I wouldn't recommend smoking any whole poultry without the skin as it may dry out the meat. You would have to be constantly basting it and that would throw off your cooking time and temperatures due to keeping the lid open to often.

Not knowing your cooking technique, I can only guess at a few things. Either you're not cooking it slow enough to allow the smoke to set in or you're not using enough smoke. I like to cook very low at about 185 to 250 for a few hours with plenty of visible smoke then I raise the temperature to about 350 to 375 to finish it off keeping the bird close to the heat source so that it crisps the skin slightly.

Some other advice would be to avoid checking the bird often. It's tempting to see what's going on under that lid but if you lift the lid to often you're letting all that good smoke out and losing the flavor.


Toasting sandwich bread before packing a lunch - when is it appropriate? When I make a sandwich to eat fresh, I pretty much always toast the bread. When I pack a sandwich to eat later, however, I don't. I've always thought that eating cold toast would be gross. Recently though I'm starting to rethink this position. What would happen if I toasted bread, made a sandwich, and then ate it hours later?

If I did this, does it work better for certain kinds of bread, or certain sandwich fillings? Does it matter if the sandwich is stored in a chilled cooler, or in a room-temperature brown bag? In short, is it ever a good idea to toast a sandwich that won't be eaten until hours later, and if so, when?

I usually toast most of my sandwiches (or the grilled cheese kind) for hikes and picnics. My general rules are: no filling that releases water (fresh tomato, for example) and wrap in paper (tissue or napkin) and then plastic or foil (or a cooler/plastic container). Keep in the fridge until needed or when packing your bag. The paper will prevent most of the moisture from condensation making your bread mushy. It won't have the crispness of fresh made toast, but it's pretty good.


Why not pork stock/gravy? Why is it that you make stock (and/or gravy) from a roast chicken or beef or fish, but you don't do the same for pork?

Ham bone soup and red eye gravy are some common preparations (in the southern US, at least) made from pork leftovers. We'll also make sawmill (white) gravy with cooked sausage. It's delicious over biscuits.


White sugar vs refined sugar What's the difference between white sugar and (pure) refined sugar and which one is better for baking?

These are technical terms that are meaningful only in the original Thai. The English translations are meaningless and have no relevance to cooking.
http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2552/E/132/15.PDF
So you should say 'น้ำตาลทรายขาว' ('white sugar') and 'น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ' ('refined sugar')
น้ำตาลทรายขาว is further divided into 3 classes.
This results in 4 grades:

น้ำตาลทรายขาว grade 3 99.0% sucrose by ISS standard, 0.2% max reducing sugars
น้ำตาลทรายขาว grade 2 99.5%, 0.1% max reducing sugars
น้ำตาลทรายขาว grade 1 99.5%, 0.1% max reducing sugars
น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ  99.8%, 0.04% max reducing sugars

Max humidity and conductivity ash each then then 0.1% for น้ำตาลทรายขาว, and 0.04% for น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ.
These numbers are almost certainly useless to the cook.
The FAO has more useful standard names:
http://www.fao.org/input/download/standards/338/CXS_212e_u.pdf

white sugar - 99.7% pure sucrose
Plantation or mill white sugar - 99.5% pure sucrose
icing sugar - white sugar which has been finely powdered
soft white sugar - Fine grain purified moist sugar, white in colour with a
sucrose plus invert sugar content of not less than 97.0%
Soft brown sugar Fine grain purified moist sugar, light to dark brown in
colour with a sucrose plus invert sugar content of not less
than 88.0% m/m
Raw cane sugar Partially purified sucrose, which is crystallised from
partially purified cane juice, without further purification,
but which does not preclude centrifugation or drying, and
which is characterised by sucrose crystals covered with a
film of cane molasses.

Both น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ and น้ำตาลทรายขาว are in fact highly refined.
Tesco Lotus charges 22THB for น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ and 21THB for น้ำตาลทรายขาว
However if you refer to

น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ this is 22THB/kg
and this is 34THB/kg

I believe that legally this is also  'น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ' under Thai classification
Caster sugar may also be referred to as 'superfine' sugar. This is quite different from powdered/icing sugar as it is a process of making small crystals, not of grinding sugar to a powder. The smaller crystal size makes it very good for baking as it blends with butter etc. more easily than larger crystals.
Highly refined sugars as all those mentioned here are not necessarily good in that there are lots of flavours in sugar cane (all Thai sugar is obviously cane sugar), and personally I prefer to make for example banana bread (which is cake, not bread) using completely unrefined aren sugar made from arenga pinnata, which is around 0.5% ash, typically slightly fermented, and contains numerous impurities. The taste of the cake is far better than using highly refined sucrose. I'd probably use dark brown sugar if it were cheaper, but where I live aren is the cheapest so I use that.
In Thailand, Indonesia and probably quite a few other neighbouring countries sugar prices are highly regulated, and the terms น้ำตาลทรายขาว and น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ are likely to reflect political issues both as a key grower and exporter, but also consumer prices. Unregulated sugars for rich consumers could be much more expensive.
It does follow that น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ is slightly higher quality than น้ำตาลทรายขาว, in that the goal of both is simply to be pure sucrose (which actually varies slightly because cane sugar and beet sugar, due to different carbon isotopes), and if you were to choose only one, you might as well have the one with the smallest crystals and highest purity (in that order). But the purity is much less important than crystal size.


Could I substitute peanut butter in place of butter or crisco for cookies? In the ever-present attempt to be healthier, I've started using peanut butter in place of crisco to keep the sugars together for my cookie dough snack (sans egg.)

How would the same substitute hold up if I made a normal batch for baking?  I'm particularly curious about the melting point and the final consistency.

sometimes i'll replace 1/2 the butter in my cookies with peanutbutter and will cut the sugar a little. they still turn out pretty well. replacing all the butter would be bad, but some of it won't make much of a difference.


What can I do with whole wheat pastry dough? I used soft whole wheat flour to make pasta dough, following the recommendation here that soft wheat flour is a traditional pasta ingredient. However, it's crumbling apart when I try to roll it thin enough. I'm looking for a plan B. Any idea what can I do with this whole wheat low-gluten dough, for dinner or dessert?

You can make it into tart crust or biscuits and cookies. Of course, you need to know how much flour is in the dough and add the required other ingredients according to recipes.


Is there a technique to making Caramel in a Microwave oven? I've made it on the stove top: sugar, corn syrup ect..but wanted to try it in the microwave - any tips on cooking times, techniques?

Microwave candy recipes are very fast and easy. They tend to be only a little different in flavor than the stove top versions in my experience. There seems to be a little less depth of flavor.

The recipes usually call for short periods of microwaving and frequent stirring. As far as the cooking times- I have to follow the recipe as I have no way of measuring the temperature in the microwave.

I personally have had great success with peanut brittle recipes (which get hotter than caramel):

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/microwave-peanut-brittle-2/Detail.aspx

A cursory google search found several recipes for caramel but I have not tried them personally.


Does this Oat Milk have added sugar? The label says all 7g sugar are added but there is no sugar in the ingredients.
I know oats do have naturally occurring sugars.
The brand is oat from Costco:

I've noticed the Califia Barista Oat milk brand has only 3g sugar / 240 ml.

So is there added sugar ?

Edit

Seems like this is a thing in the Oat Milk world, these guys went even further:

They are from the oats, which contain no sugar as a raw ingredient. Processing them to make milk converts some of the starch to sugar, so it is counted as added sugar as it does not appear in the raw ingredient.

From an article entitled Oatly challenged over “no added sugars” claim:

  ... the enzymatic process it uses to create its base oat milk (water + oats) effectively “creates sugars in situ” by breaking down oat starch into simple sugars. ... All oats in an oat beverage are processed, therefore all the naturally occurring sugars in the final product are considered added.

The same article provides an update about this from the FDA specific to the Nutrition Facts Label:

  In our Nutrition Facts Label Q&A guidance issued in November 2017, we addressed sugars created through processes such as hydrolysis: When an ingredient containing mono- and disaccharides that are created through controlled hydrolosys... is added to a food during processing, those mono- and disaccharides contributed by the ingredient need to be declared as added sugars on the label.


Substituting Diced Canned Tomatoes for Fresh The recipe calls for 1.25Lbs of fresh plum tomatoes. They are to be simmered with hydrated whole dried chiles and other seasonings for 20 minutes, then pureed and strained.

This time of year it's nearly impossible to find fresh tomatoes (plum or otherwise) that have any flavor at all and I can't see any reason not to use what I already have on hand - all the Hunts Diced Tomatoes I could possibly need before spring. As most diced tomatoes do, these contain calcium chloride to preserve the shape of the dice, but it won't matter since the sauce/marinade is to be simmered, pureed and strained anyway. What concerns me is the second ingredient after tomatoes - tomato juice.

EDIT: The core of the question is how much "extra" liquid is typically used to can tomatoes? It would seem that lightly (as in no "pushing" on the solids) strained tomatoes would have approximately the same liquid to solid ratio as fresh, is that right?

Most savory cooking simply isn't exact enough to worry about this in any level of detail.  Tomatoes are extremely high in water to start with, even whole, about 94%.

Savory recipes can be adjusted easily by adding liquid or reducing in most cases, if it does matter.

Simply use the entire weight of the can content in substitution for the weight of fresh tomatoes, and adjust the recipe as needed based on the outcome.

This is educated speculation, but note that while tomato packers may pack the diced tomatoes in juice, that juice almost certainly comes from the core of the very same tomatoes whose flesh was diced.  Otherwise it would be less economical to pack them that way, and they would pack them in water.


How long can you keep whiskey in the freezer? Jack Daniels Tennessee honey,  in the freezer for over a year. Is it okay to drink?

You have no problem at all.

Whisky doesn't spoil, it doesn't need to be kept in the refrigerator or freezer to preserve it, the same is true for many other spirits like gin, vodka, tequila, etc. Some like to keep spirits in the freezer because they like to drink them cold, it doesn't make them last longer
Storing spirits in the freezer won't damage them because alcohol freezes at a much lower temperature than water. 80 proof spirits will freeze at about -16F (-26C), freezer temperature is usually about 0F (-18C), so unless your freezer is extremely cold your booze won't freeze. If your whisky did freeze it could ruin it, but it's very unlikely


Raw liver keeping time in alcohol I want to make some chicken liver pate and have some raw livers soaking in my fridge. They’ve been soaking in the brandy and port and some sage and rosemary for about 2 weeks. They smell and taste fine but does anyone know how long the alcohol will preserve them? How would I know if they’re no longer edible? Thank you

There is no tested safe method for home conserving meat with alcohol. This means thata your safety time is as unpreserved meat, which is up to 5 days in the fridge.


Emulsifier: is it safe to cook mayonnaise? I'm making some Buffalo wings sauce that calls for cayenne pepper sauce, butter, and oil to be heated together. I'd like to add a bit of mayonnaise (not sure how much -- suggestions?) as an emulsifier.

Is it safe to cook mayonnaise?

I can't readily find Soy Lecithin, which I am thinking alternatives. I don't think I should consider mustard as that seem out of place for wing sauce? Or is that less out of place than mayo?

The mayonnaise itself is only a stable emulsion in certain temperature ranges. If you are talking about standard mayonnaise (made with egg yolk), it will split when heated, and won't help your new sauce at all.

If you are planning to use one of those vinegar-oil emulsions sold in supermarkets under the name mayonnaise, I cannot predict how they will handle. They may or may not split. But they are not in principle supposed to be heated, so you can experience weird results. And the emulsifiers in them are calculated to be in the proper ratio for the mayonnaise as sold, so there will liekly be too little of them to sufficiently emulsify a sauce when added to it.

Mustard won't help you at all. It is only a physical emulsifier, so only works with limited success. The cayenne flesh is already doing some physical emuslification, if that's not enough, mustard won't make it better.

All in all, if you plan to heat your mixture (why?) then mayonnaise is unlikely to help you as an emulsifier.


How do I prevent stickiness in a rice cooker? I have a Cuisinart dedicated rice cooker and I love the benefits.

However I get a little bit of stickiness around the sides of the cooker. A friend recommends a capful of oil while cooking the rice to prevent it from sticking, but I am not sure if that's a good idea?

The rice is sticking to side of the pot itself but it doesn't get burnt per se, just enough to make clean up a hassle.

One thing to try is to let the cooked rice rest for a while.  My rice cooker's pot is non-Teflon and scratched, but I've found that if I remove it from the heating element and let it rest 15-30 minutes, there is virtually no sticking.  If I try to remove the rice immediately, there is significant sticking.


I cannot understand how to properly fry seafood I don't understand how to properly fry something.
I tried the basics: Use a shallow pan (ceramic), place it on the stove (induction), add oil (sunflower), wait until it gets hot and add something (thawed seafood in my case).
In the advertisements the chefs just swirl the mussels, shrimps, and octopus pieces around and produce some tasty browned pieces. In my case the seafood leaked a lot of water and the oil disappeared somehow. Since the pieces were stuck on the pan I needed to stir with a scraper. All I got were some barely made pieces with a thick brown layer sticking on the pan.

What did I do wrong and how can I improve?
Update
Your suggestions worked.
Yesterday I made about half a kilo of seafood. I dried the seafood, used a bit more oil and prepared it in batches in a non-stick pan.
Thank you all!

Given your picture, I think the correct term here is saute; that is, to quickly fry in a little bit of hot fat. Pan frying uses more fat, and a lower temperature, to create a deeper crust. Probably an overkill for mussels.
For a saute, you want relatively dry (pat dry with towel if necessary - frozen seafood can release a lot of water) ingredients, relatively high heat, and a solid pan that is not over-crowded.  Heat the pan, add the fat, then the ingredients.  Then generally keep the ingredients moving during the cooking. Here is some further direction that details the process.
See also this for a discussion of the origin and use of term/technique.


Are Chia Powder and Ground Chia the same product? I've found a few recipes involving Chia powder, but locally, I've only found Ground Chia. I want to know if these are the same, and if it's safe to use ground chia in these aforementioned recipes (and vice versa).

I want to know if these are the same, and if it's safe to use ground chia in these aforementioned recipes (and vice versa).

The particle size may be different, and for some recipes that will be significant.

I am not aware of any regulations (US, EU or other) that regulate chia labeling with regard to ground or powdered chia. I believe manufacturers can do what they want with those two words.

An example of labelling standards (which I don't know exist for chia):

10x powdered sugar passes through a 200 mesh sieve
granulated sugar, 100 mesh

One person's grind nomenclature:

a fine grind, 80 mesh
medium grind, 28 mesh
coarse gring, 14 mesh

If your recipe is dependent on chia gelling properties (which are affected by particle size), that could be a concern.

If chia is in the recipe for nutritional factors, you should be in good shape with either.

I checked customer comments on Amazon. Someone said a ground chia product was granular. Another customer said chia powder was fine and prone to clumpiness.

Also: if you are using volumetric measures (not weight), you may experience large differences between a teaspoon of ground versus a teaspoon of powdered chia.


Where to purchase sushi-grade ahi tuna in Arizona? (or purchase online overnight shipping) I was looking around and I couldn't find any good options for buying ahi tuna for sushi/sashimi in Arizona and was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction.

I've also tried online at Honolulu Fishing Market, Seattle Fish Company and Catalina. No luck here.

BONUS: If I go to Costco or the like is the fish here also acceptable for sushi/sashimi/nigiri?

If you mean sushi grade ahi tuna, you can’t buy it or consume it fresh, because of parasites in the flesh. All sushi grade fish is held frozen at 0°F for at least forty eight hours to kill the parasites.

If you don’t have a local source for sushi grade tuna, you can find a variety of reliable shippers on-line, although they can be a bit pricey.


What vegetarian substitute for prosciutto could I use in Carbonara? Instead of prosciutto, I used capers to try and maintain the salty aspect.  It worked ok, but something about the capers and cheese didn't seem right.  Any other suggestions?

Also, to round out the dish with a bit more substance, I also added some diced zucchini, sauteed with garlic and shallots.

I'd recommend thinly sliced and seared shiitake mushrooms for an umami boost and appropriate texture. Really get a nice brown crust on them.


How to best store scallions? They always get wilted in the crisper pretty quickly.  Is there a better way to store them?

I always stand them upright in a narrow glass, with a little water in the bottom. I the keep the glass either on the top shelf or the door of the refrigerator.


Can I substitute white wine vinegar for balsamic vinegar in a steak marinade? I am following a recipe for a beef marinade. It calls for 1/4th cup of balsamic vinegar. However, I only have red and white wine vinegar and cider vinegar.

Balsamic vinegar is quite sweet, fruity and tangy, and not easily compared to other types of vinegar.  The substitutes will work better if you're replacing a relatively little bit, especially in a recipe that uses other strong flavors... but the more important the balsamic flavor is to the end result, the more the substitution will show through.  It still might be pretty good, just expect it to be different than the original.

One substitution I found that's a little more specific is one tablespoon red wine vinegar and half a teaspoon sugar, for one tablespoon balsamic, another one is a tablespoon of cider vinegar and half a teaspoon of honey.  It could be substituted with sherry vinegar and a little honey (though this recipe was "to taste" instead of specific ratios).  Your choice might depend on which vinegar or sweetener you have on hand, which one you like more, or which goes better with the rest of the recipe.

I also saw a substitute with equal parts lemon juice and molasses (or brown rice syrup) with a dash of soy sauce.  This is a little more work, but because of that I expect it's a closer match to the flavor profile (or else it wouldn't be worth the extra effort).


Substituting margarine for butter in cookies I want to make cookies but I am allergic to dairy. Is margarine an acceptable substitute for butter in cookie recipes, and if so, how do I substitute it?

I have a family member who is lactose intolerant, and we often substitute margarine (or various oils) for butter in cooking. We've found that this is mostly interchangeable, but can be unpredictable in baking due to different melting properties. Also, as Marti noted in a comment below, it's a challenge to find unsalted margarine (important if directly substituting for unsalted butter).

I'd love to see any answers on strategies for adapting recipes to account for butter-margarine differences, but in my experience it is easier to either settle for slightly sub-par cookies — or (preferably) to try non-dairy or vegan recipes instead, which are designed with a non-butter fat in mind and therefore have better results.


How can I add a strong orange flavor to my dishes? I love the taste of oranges, and I'm looking for ways to introduce that flavor into some of my cooking.

I've tried adding orange juice and pieces of orange when frying or baking, but I find that these only add a hint of orange to the dish, and of course it is really easy to drown something in orange juice without adding much flavor.

Orange zest is where most of the oil is. This can be removed with a grater and some patience, or a peeler if you have a light touch, but the best way is a zester. They are fairly expensive and only do one thing, but they are the best tool for the job. Mircoplane makes a nice line, and I have no complains about mine.

You want to avoid scraping the white pith from under the colored part of the skin, as it is bitter and doesn't contain the flavor oils.


Gochugaru powder vs paste? I'm making Korean pork bulgogi and the recipe I am using calls for gochugaru powder but all I could find was a paste.
Can I use it and would it still be the same amount? The recipe asks for 4 tbsp. of the powder.

If you are referring to gochujang, gochugaru and gochujang have significantly different flavors (gochugaru is thought to impart a "cleaner" hotness to dishes, while gochujang tends to be a bit more complex due to aspects like added sugar and grain e.g. rice flour (which adds a thickening element) and some fermentation.
Thus Korean recipes will often use both, and as a rule of thumb gochugaru is the more flexible of the two (due to being mainly used for only hotness and color). In addition, while gochujang is reasonably replaceable with gochugaru + some sweeteners and thickeners, trying to replace gochugaru with gochujang is generally a bad idea. I'd recommend trying a different kind of relatively fine red pepper flakes - preferably a less spicy and less "aromatic" (i.e. one that has few flavors and aromas outside of "hot") variety, although your mileage may very depending on the type your local market has.


What is Black Vinegar? I get this truly awesome vinegar, BLack Vinegar, at some Asian grocery stores around Los Angeles. I have been saying its similar to Bragg liquid Aminos.

I have no idea what it's made out of,  does anyone know for a fact what it is?

Black Vinegar is basically what it's called, and has a smoky and mellow flavor. It is made from rice, sometimes from glutinous rice and is sometimes used as a full-flavored but much cheaper balsamic vinegar.
Hope this helps! :)


What is the proper ratio of heavy cream to chocolate for a thick ganache? Most recipes on the internet call for a 1:1 ratio that I've seen but this ends up being rather watery. I want a thick chocolaty ganache.

Is there anything special that needs to be done to achieve this other than adjusting the ratios? Right now I'm basically doing the "mix simmering heavy cream with chocolate" recipe.

Normal ganache is 1:1 indeed. You can make a more caramelly one by adding honey and butter:
try 14 oz cream, 12 oz chocolate, 2 oz honey, 6 oz butter diced into small cubes.

Boil the cream and honey together, pour over the chocolate, stir until melted, melt in the butter.


What is the fastest/easiest way to prepare potatoes for mashing? I've always thought that mashed potatoes should be a really simple thing to make.  But I find that with all the peeling, quartering, boiling, not to mention the incredibly messy cleanup, it's actually quite an arduous and tedious process.

Assuming I plan to use a ricer to actually do the mashing, is there any faster or at least less messy way to soften the potatoes than boiling them?  Any shortcuts I can use?

If you're going to be using a ricer, just halve the potatoes -- you can then put them cut side-down into the ricer, and then press -- the skin will be left behind.  (I'd still give them a quick scrub before boiling them, though).  Of course, this is easier, but not necessarily faster as it'll take longer for the potatoes to cook through.

If you bake them, just clean, bake, then cut in half, and put through the ricer.  (Again, not really that much faster).

If you're cooking red potatoes, even if you're not using a ricer, there's no need to peel them beforehand, as you can boil them whole, then rub the skin off with a dry towel.  (of course, for red potatoes, they're always going to be lumpy, and have texture, so in that case, I tend to leave the skins on).

To reduce the overall time, if I'm going to be going for a smooth mash:

Only use large potatoes.  Save the smaller ones for applications where you don't need to peel potatoes.
Cut the potatoes into slabs.  There's no need to get them to cubes.  I tend to go to about 2cm (~3/4") thick.  Any extra cooking time is made up for by reduced cutting / transfering bits to the pot / dealing with the chunk that fell and rolled under the cabinet / etc.
Start the water warming while you're peeling.  You don't want to place the potatoes into boiling water, but you can take some of the chill off it.
Toss a few cloves of garlic (whole, but paper removed, end trimmed off) in with the potatoes, so you don't have to season afterwards.
Use stock rather than milk.  I keep boxed vegetable and chicken stocks at room temp, not chilled, so I don't have to heat it up first to deal with the issues of it cooling down the starches too fast.
Decide if the ricer's really worth it -- I get good results just tossing everything back into the same pot after straining, hit 'em with a potato masher, add some liquid, then go through a few more times.  It saves a lot of cleanup, but it might not be exactly the texture you're used to,


How can I make granola that clumps? I am trying to make granola that holds together in small clumps. I have had limited success. Any hints or suggestions?

I have used rolled oats, but had better luck with instant or cut oats along with some whole wheat flour mixed through it. I use butter, half honey and half brown sugar, some flax seed and bits of pecans. I bake the mix in an over-sized metal roasting pan as I make a very large batch at once (turkey sized roaster) in a slow 300* oven stirring every 30 minutes until golden brown and moister has left the batch.  Dried fruit is added after baking.

Contrary to what some people seem to be saying, fat will reduce the clumping effect, same way it does in almost every other baking recipe.  The clumping behaviour comes mainly from sugar (syrup) and protein content.

In other baking recipes, gluten does a lot of the "clumping"; oats are naturally gluten-free, but the instant oats you buy are probably processed in the same plants as other wheat products and are therefore contaminated with gluten, which may explain why they clump more in your granola.

So I'd recommend any or all of the following for you:

If your recipe contains any oil or other fat, reduce or eliminate it; the primary purpose of that ingredient is to reduce the natural clumping.
Increase the quantity of flour or starch.  More gluten means more clumping and a generally chewier texture.
Increase the quantity of sugar or honey.  A denser syrup is going to be "stickier" and therefore clump more.  Note that this can interfere with gluten development so you might want to do this in addition to increasing the starch.
Substitute the oil/fat with applesauce.  This is a common substitution in low-fat baking, although its applications are limited.  It's perfect in your case though, because it not only lowers the fat content, it also adds natural sugar and pectin, the latter of which is a gelling agent (albeit a weak one).
Add an egg white.  That's very good at binding ingredients and is common in granola recipes.
As a last resort, use an actual gelling agent such as pectin crystals, gelatin, or agar.  You shouldn't have to do this, but if you have a recipe you really adore except for its texture, then that's the best way to change the texture without altering the flavour at all.


A question on the level of water when making tea in an electic kettle? Suppose I boil water in an electric kettle in order to add hot water in a cup containing a tea bag. Should I cover the metal ring with water or is it ok if the level of water is halfway through the metal ring (the one which heats)? Suppose you only make a small amount of tea (say one cup).

You should completely cover the metal ring, otherwise you risk burning the element out. You should only boil as much water as you need above this minimum though, to save electricity. Check inside your kettle, they often have minimum and maximum levels marked somehow.


Accidentally baked flatbread with oxygen absorber -- is flatbread safe to eat? We just accidentally baked some trader joes flatbread and didn't notice the oxygen absorber went in the oven with it. If you're unfamiliar, this is the little packet that preserves the food with big words "DO NOT EAT" printed on the side. The packet didn't open, just stayed stuck to the bottom of the flatbread while it baked. However I'm wondering if anything poisonous might have out gassed and been absorbed into the pizza dough? Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't feel quite safe eating it now.

Oxygen absorber only lists a brand name: AGELESS. From this link its the "ZPT" type. The first one listed on the page.

The flatbread (and the oxygen absorber) was cooked at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes.

Given that you have identified the oxygen scavenger as a ZPT-type AGELESS device, I believe the active ingredient is mainly iron oxide, rust, which isn't inherently harmful.  However I do not know what the packaging material is made from.

AGELESS ZPT-type:

I did find some data on the Mitsuibishi website for AGELESS, stating that some types are alright when microwaved, but there were no direct references to direct heating.

If it were me, I would remove the area around the patch and eat it, but I am not an expert and I would recommend that you contact them directly to be sure.

Tel: 212-687-9030 (US)
Email: AGELESS@mgc-a.com


Proper way to add marshmallows to brownies? I've had brownies with gooey marshmallow swirled in and find them delicious. However, when I try to duplicate this by adding miniature marshmallows to my brownie mix, I find that they just turn into overcooked sugar clumps which don't have a very good flavor or texture.

What's the proper way to add marshmallow to brownies?

Store-bought marshmallows (and most homemade marshmallows) are gelatin-based, which means they'll melt above 40° C.  No chance of surviving a bake.

I have, on occasion, seen "rocky road" type brownies with actual marshmallows and I suspect that they are either not conventional brownies or not conventional marshmallows.

You could probably create a bake-stable marshmallow by adding methyl cellulose along with the gelatin.  MC is the typical additive in a vegan marshmallow; it gels when hot and "melts" when cool.  Using both of the above additives (and perhaps several more) could theoretically render a marshmallow with a continuous gel temperature range.  I'm not even going to try to speculate what the ratios or other additives would be - this is generally the domain of commercial food packaging, food scientists, etc. - it's pretty complicated even if you're familiar with the main molecular gastronomy concepts.

Another alternative would be to bake the brownies plain, possibly overbake them a little, then grind them up to the consistency of large crumbs, mix them in with the marshmallows (and nuts and any other additions you want), and put them back together with water and/or corn syrup.  I've made rum balls from ground-up brownies this way and they hold together surprisingly well, although they obviously won't pass for fresh-from-the-oven brownies.

As a last resort I'd go with JSBangs' suggestion and go with a marshmallow creme product (e.g. Marshmallow Fluff).  It's basically just syrup, vanilla, and egg whites as a thickener.  It won't have the texture of a real marshmallow, but because it's based on egg, the texture that it does have will withstand the heat.


What kind of rice should I use for frying? Which properties should I look for or avoid in rice when I'm planning to fry it (the day after cooking)?

It depends how you like your rice. Personally I like my fried rice to have a few sticky lumps through it to add texture. Others may like it completely 'separated'. It's really up to you. I usually use a combination of long grain and Basmati.

Another point is to make sure your rice is safe - it needs to be cooled relatively quickly, and kept cool, to prevent the growth of Bacillus cereus, which can cause serious (no pun intended) food poisoning.

As it happens, fried rice is much better when cooked with cold rice and very hot oil anyway, so it's a good idea to keep it cool in any case.


Mexican ceviche vs. Japanese sashimi Except for the different flavours, how similar is Mexican ceviche to the Japanese sashimi. Do they have the same basis and the same fish types?

Even with the same fish, sashimi and ceviche are very different dishes:

Sashimi is sliced, raw fish that is in its natural state.  Note the glossy, translucent nature of the slices:

Sashimi is also just the fish, although the plate may have additional garnishes.

Ceviche is technically uncooked, but has been marinated in citrus juice which coagulates proteins and turns the flesh opaque in a manner similar to cooking.  Ceviche is often combined with onions or other complimentary vegetables.

Note the opaque, white color of the flesh:

In terms of the fish used, sashimi is often made with oily fish like tuna, yellowtail, or snapper; ceviche is more often made from white fish, or even shrimp or squid.  However, there is considerable variation in both cases.

See also:  Food Lab article on ceviche


What is a Bamboo shoot called in Hindi? I haven't seen these things in the markets here. How do I ask for them in the local market?

"Baans" (बांस) is the Hindi word for bamboo - there does not appear to be one for the edible shoot. Instead, there are a number of words used in Indian cuisine for bamboo shoots, depending on region.

  In Mizoram, they are called 'Mau Tuai/Raw Tuai'. In Manipur, the fresh
  bamboo shoots are called 'Uusoi' and the fermented bamboo shoots are
  known as "Soibum". In Nagaland they are called bas-tanga. In Assam,
  they are referred to as gaz and in Nepal as tama (Nepali: तामा). In
  western orissa region of India, people call it kardi and it is the
  most famous dish there. In Jharkhand, they are known as sandhna

Wikipedia article on Bamboo Shoots.

  Bamboo shoot tips are called salad or simply sunjian in Chinese and
  juk sun in Korean, mang in Vietnamese, take no ko in Japanese, gaz in
  Assam, tama in Nepal and kardi in western orissa. Bamboo shoots are
  eaten in Goa usually during the monsoon season and are commonly known
  as Kill. Bamboo shoots are used in preparing curries and pickle in the
  state of Jharkhand, India. In Western Orissa or the Kosal region of
  India, it is a common ingredient. Since this region is dominated by
  the tribal population, bamboo shoots (or “kardi” as it is known), is
  believed to have been in use for hundred of years. In this region,
  “kardi achar” (pickled bamboo shoots) and “kardi baja” (fried bamboo
  shoot strands) are also popular.

"Bamboo Shoots" - by Sanjay Summa on the Vah Reh Vah site.

  Keerl (bamboo shoots) is something you will either love or hate.

"Keerl Ani Moog Sukho" - by Shireen Sequeira on her Ruchik Randhap blog, devoted to Mangalorean cuisine.

Kalale and Kanile are the names given by the Bhakshya Bhojana blog.


what made the juice/water of the beans turned black I have 3 new pre-seasoned cast iron pots as gifts   I cleaned as instructed before using.  But when I tried simmering a nice pot of beans in one the broth turned really black.  I had to throw away everything   now I am afraid to use them   what can I do

It sounds you ended up with magnetite in your broth. That is the black stuff you want to use to season cast iron pans by binding it with fats. Sounds like that went wrong with your pans. If you really want to use them for boiling, you need to season them again, and test if that was successful...(water with a drop of lemon juice or two or three as a test). It is not poisonous.
If you don't know how to season a pan, this is the method I like to use: guide for seasoning a pan


Cooking ground beef without the fat rendering off I like to cook ground beef by putting it in an oven safe dish and baking it at 350 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. This works great for my purposes, but so much of the delicious fat is rendered to a liquid, e.g. there is a little island of beef in a pool of fat.
I would very much like to consume this fat rather than waste it. I do not fare very well directly eating the liquid/(semi-liquid after cooling) fat.
Can you think of any way to cook ground beef that does not result in rendering the fat? Maybe what I am asking for is impossible - if the ground beef needs to reach an internal temperature of 165, and fat starts to render at 135-140, ..
Alternately: can you suggest a method of cooking that results in smaller fat loss?

Counterintuitively enough, cooking it at a higher temperature will help. The longer you spend cooking it, the more fat will render out. Cooking it faster means more fat will still be in the meat, even if the temperature in the oven is higher.


Does tea play a significant role in kombucha fermentation? I was reading about different types of fermented beverages, and it struck me that kombucha and water kefir are remarkably similar: water + simple granulated sugar + SCOBY. I'm skeptical that the addition of tea significantly contributes to or changes the fermentation process, so without the tea they seem very similar. I'm curious if a superior tea flavor could be achieved by brewing the kombucha like a water kefir (ie omitting tea) and adding a freshly brewed tea concentrate later.

Other than the cultures specific to each process, though they likely both share S. cerevisiae

You do not have to use tea to make kombucha. For example, the Noma Guide to Fermentation contains seven kombucha recipes, none of which use actual tea. A recommended way of storing SCOBYs when not brewing is to store them in a water + sugar solution, which needs to be refreshed every so often. Thus, your suggested method of making "kombucha" from water + sugar, then mixing with a strong tea would work in principle.

That said, I would expect the result of this method to be essentially a mix of tea and acetic acid, with little to no added complexity of flavour. For me, that complexity is most of the fun of making kombucha.