When should I use lemon zest and not just juice? If you want to add lemon flavor, why not just add lemon juice?

For what type of dishes would you recommend using each one?

Lemon juice and lemon zest have a different taste. Lemon juice has obviously more water, is tart (adds fruitiness and freshness to the dish) and the aroma is not as intense as in the zest. If you bake a cake or cookies it's often more desirable to use lemon zest because it doesn't mess up the water-solids-ratio and what you often want is a rather sweet cake/cookie than a tart one. In contrast often the cookie glaze should be somewhat tart - you can use both zest and juice. I have the impression that the zest has a bitter component.

So you have to decide if you want to have a tart component in your dish and whether the dish tolerates additional liquid. Acid is not only important in taste but also in the further "food chemistry". As Jay pointed out, acid can make milk curdle. Also, cooking with acid in aluminium isn't good taste-wise (and probably health-wise, too, but that's another topic).

Someone else asked a question in the opposite direction: Are there any reasons not to include the zest when citrus juice is an ingredient?


Basil lookalike that tastes like aniseed. I bought a herb on the market, thinking it was fresh basil. What I know for sure now, is that this isn't basil. It has a taste that reminds me of anise and fennel. It stays a bit firmer than basil when put on spaghetti. What did I buy?

You bought thai basil. It's used a lot in south east Asia, and an anise-like taste is one of its qualities.

I don't use it often, but I always have some in stock in the freezer, for some thai or Vietnamese curries or soups.


how to clean calabaza made of pumpkin my yerba mate i drink with calabaza made of a real pumpkin, and i take care of it and clean it after each use. but during the time i see more and more stronger smell and inside looks like not clean, i guess a little bit of mold, or scum. i dont know what it is, maybe that just the smell of the remaining.
is there a safe way to clean it without damaging the calabaza?
i dont mind to keep using it, can it be dangerous in some way?

You cannot really clean it the way you would clean a porcelain cup.
If what you see is only tea buildup, then you don't have to worry about it. It is normal that it takes on some tea smell and discoloration. Because you continue making the same tea in it, there is no problem about that. Also, if you have mineral buildup (limescale), there isn't much you can do about it, maybe try scratching it off.
In case you have mold, there is again nothing you can do, since it has colonized the whole body of the gourd. Then there is no way to clean it, you will have to throw it away. To prevent mold in a new gourd, make sure it is always well drained after cleaning, and don' store it in a place with high humidity. If you have a persistent mold problem, try storing it with a rice sachet, or a silica gel sachet.


Damage to pan bottom I have a non stick Tramontina frying pan. Today, in an effort to remove the brown stains on the reverse (metallic) side, I put the pan in boiling water with baking soda for 30 min. After cleaning it with a sponge, I noticed that the outer bottom metallic layer seems to have come off quite a bit (see attached picture). I was surprised as I did not think that baking soda could do this--moreover the nonstick surface seems to be undamaged. So my questions are: What happened here? And what will be the effect on cooking?

Baking soda is a mild base (the opposite of being acidic). In the right concentration & environment, it can be a corrosive.

What happened is that in addition to taking the burned bits off your pan, it also took the shiny finish coat off the outside of the pan. What you're seeing is the unpolished aluminium, with a coating of aluminum oxide.

Since only the exterior of the pan is affected, you've not damaged the functionality of the pan, just the looks.


Can I substitute just yolks in a recipe that calls for a whole egg? I have a cookie recipe that only needs one whole egg. Since I have lots of yolks from other baking, can I use 1 yolk with something else (like a Tbsp. of water) or can I use 2 egg yolks?

From Cook's Thesaurus Eggs:

Substitute 2 egg yolks for each whole egg. This is higher in fat, but works wonders in sauces, custards, and cream fillings.

I suggest you use two egg yolks, and perhaps slightly, almost unnoticeably, lower the amount of fat you put in the dough.


Understanding the steps to prepare sushi rice I'm looking for the equivalent of Peter Reinhart's twelve steps for making bread applied to sushi. Basically, a detailed list of steps and the explanation of why are they important.

For example, most recipes mention that soaking the rice is essential to remove starch and avoid rice getting too sticky. That's good advice, but later, they give the exact time the pot must be on high heat and then on low heat, regardless of the type of kitchen. Even Serious Eats. Like it didn't  matter if you use gas or an electric stove...

I want to understand the role of the vinegar so I can use a different vinegar. Can I boil it or just heat it enough to dissolve the sugar and salt? Why? Why do I need a lid that fits? And so on.

I've tried to google and search in this site, where I found a good stove top method. I'd like to know the whys, so I know what to look for in a cooked rice (like the 205F temperature in bread).

There are recipes for rice cookers, but that's like saying you need a bread machine to get decent bread.

In short, I want to understand how to make sushi rice.

Rinsing rice

Simple - rinse off the extra starch so it's not too sticky. This isn't magic. You're just getting rid of some starch before you go on to the next step. Some people advocate soaking the rice here as well. It's perfectly possible to make sushi rice without doing that, though, just rinsing. The soaking just helps make it easier to get the layer of starch off. If the rice is well-rinsed without it (not sticky, translucent, not white on the surface), don't worry about it.

Steaming rice

This is really pretty simple - you want to bring the water to a simmer (not a rolling boil) in order to fill the closed vessel with steam, keep it there until the rice is cooked, then let it rest in order to take up any remaining water.

The Serious Eats article you linked to is really perfectly fine here - it does not give a time for high heat, but rather says to bring to a simmer over high heat (i.e. as fast as possible) then simmer for 15 minutes on low heat (i.e. only enough to make it simmer). It doesn't matter at all whether the heat is coming from electricity or gas, and it doesn't matter that much how powerful your stove is - it might make a difference of a minute or two in how long it takes for it to come to a simmer, but that's not a huge deal. If the total cooking time is a little longer, it just means it'll have absorbed all the water a bit sooner.

Of course if your stove is very far from normal, like say a backpacking stove that takes 30 minutes to heat the water to a simmer, that'd be different. And if your stove is so powerful that even on its lowest setting it cooks the rice dry on the bottom and it sticks to the pot, that's obviously a problem. But I doubt that's the case. It will pretty definitely work. If it's a little off, you can adjust the cooking time a little bit. But no author can tell you exactly how powerful your stove is, and I doubt anyone has a table that says "if your stove puts out X BTU, reduce cooking time by 30 seconds." If you've tried many times and had trouble, or are really this worried about it, just get a rice cooker.

You need a lid that fits well because if it's loose, steam will escape, preventing you from actually steaming the rice. There also won't be as much water left for the rice to take up.

What to look for? Immediately after cooking and resting, like Serious Eats says, the water should be all absorbed. If it's not, you didn't let it sit long enough, or maybe you even need to increase the cooking time a minute or two. (If it's way off, make sure your initial measurement of water was right.) The rice should also, well, look like cooked rice. If you try some it shouldn't still be hard in the middle. It should also not be mushy after absorbing way too much water. It should be, well, like sushi rice, except with a bit of extra moisture that you'll remove later.

Vinegar

Using a different vinegar would appear to be addressed by the question you linked to - as they say, it's just a matter of getting the same sweetness and acidity. Being off by a tiny bit will not hurt you, though. Taste it and see what you like. There's room for considerable variation in sushi rice anyway. I've had it with a very light touch of vinegar and sugar, and I've had it with more obvious flavor. So what to look for? It should taste right. "Right" is subjective, so no one can tell you exactly what it means for you, but it's something in the realm of slightly but noticeably sweet and tart.

Heating the vinegar is just in order to make it easy to dissolve the sugar and salt. There's no reason to bother bringing it to a boil - and if you do, it'll have a really intense (unpleasant to most people) smell from the vapors and you'll end up reducing and concentrating it.

Fanning/drying the rice

This is really pretty simple - you're just getting rid of excess moisture while gently mixing in the vinegar. If you destroy all the grains, you're mixing too vigorously. For the final product, again, look back at the Serious Eats article:

  If all goes well, your sumeshi should come out slightly sweet and tart, full of distinct grains, and have a texture that holds together when compressed, but is not overly sticky.

The fanning/drying is what helps bring it the rest of the way to that texture. The amount of drying it takes to get there will depend a lot on the conditions in your kitchen, and how much extra moisture was left in the rice, so just check on it now and then. Don't use it while it's still way too wet, and don't leave it for days and let it turn into hard little grains again.

Specifics for electric stoves

If your stove is strong and tends to retain heat, you do have to use a little more care when cooking. Electric stoves (including glass-ceramic ones) do this, but it should really be the same kind of thing you routinely deal with. So we're trying to steam rice, which means bringing the water in the pot up to a simmering/steaming temperature, and holding it there for a bit with the lid on. This is something which is quite possible on an electric stove (including a glass-ceramic one); you just have to know what you're doing. It's also not really at all specific to making sushi rice, but I'll go ahead and explain.

First, remember that you want to bring it to a simmer, not a rolling boil. This means there should be a few bubbles at the bottom of the pot, not a constant stream of large bubbles coming up everywhere, and the pot should be filling with steam with maybe a little leaking out, not spraying it everywhere and forcing it past the lid. If you're getting to a rolling boil, you've gone too far.

If your stove is absurdly powerful, you can start out by just not using it at full power. That'll make it easier to adjust down to low power later.

You should also be aware of roughly long it takes to come to a simmer (a little less than the time to come to a rolling boil), and reduce the heat to low before you get there. You should really be able to manage fine like this. If you still overshoot by a little, you can simply pull the pot off the burner then put it back on once it and the burner have cooled down a little. You can even repeat that a few times - just be careful not to leave it off so long that it's not at a simmer anymore. If you still can't manage to avoid boiling over, then you can just move the pot to another burner that's already on low.

These are the kinds of routine adjustments you should expect to have to make when using an electric stove, no matter what you're making. Rice is just one example. Your stove doesn't change temperatures instantly, so you have to help it out by changing the power early, so that when you want it at the lower temperature, it's there. To put it another way, when a recipe asks for low heat, it means low heat coming from the burner, not a low number on the control knob. So you turn the knob early, so that when you want low heat coming from the burner, that's what's happening.


Beans Cultured with Yogurt Is the store-bought yogurt a good "starter" to culture cooked beans to reduce the gas-producing oligosaccharides? Does it contain the right kind of bacteria to ferment the beans or is it only good for dairy?

How long should I ferment? 24-48 hours at room temperature?

Thanks.

Lactobacillus acidophilus is the main culture contained in yogurt. Although it eats many types of sugars, it's biproduct is mainly lactic acid and whether it reduces oligosaccharides is largely unknown.

  "...little information is available on FOS transport and metabolism by lactic acid bacteria and other probiotic bacteria." http://aem.asm.org/content/69/4/2217.abstract

If you wanted to experiment with it you could try the traditional yogurt incubation method by mixing a few tablespoons of fresh yogurt into the beans around 110 degrees F and letting it incubate at that same temperature from 10-24 hours. Be careful though, the incubation could also bring about unwanted cultures as well.


What can I substitute for tomato paste to thicken a marinade? This recipe calls for 2 TB tomato paste in the marinade. I assume it is to thicken it so more stays on the meat and veggies. I don't want to open an entire can of tomato paste just to use 2 TB. Can I substitute anything else in its place?

In the future buy real Italian tomato paste in the tube. You'll use it all up, it lasts and lasts.


What is a good spicy potato wedges seasoning? I've taken a liking to the simple potato wedge as an alternate to mash potato when preparing meat and three vege. However, I'm trying to get a recipe that consistently deliveries tasty wedges.

My current method is:

Wash potatoes
Chop potatoes
place in plastic bag
Add a little oil and spice mix*
Shake
Bake

* The spice mix is the part I've been having problems with.

I was using:

1 part salt
2 parts pepper
3 parts paprika

But this wasn't giving consistent results.

I've stuck with Nandos Peri-peri seasoning for a while as a safeguard, but I'd like to go back to my own spice mix.

I'm looking for spicy Mexican flavours, but using only spices/herbs, and not salts or flavour enhancers, apart from sea salt (not garlic salt or onion salt).

Any suggestions?

Add cumin, chili powder and garlic powder to your salt and pepper. You might like a bit of curry powder or turmeric too, but I don't know if you'd call that a Mexican flavor.


Baker's Angel Flake Coconut I have an old recipe that calls for a large can of Baker's Angel Flake Coconut.
How many ounces were these cans; I need to substitute the bags that are available now.

A similar can 7 inches(17.78cm) high and 3 inches(7.62cm) dia had a labed tare weight of 7 ounces(198.45g)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pre-1963-Vintage-Bakers-Angel-Flake-Coconut-Tin-Can-Advertising-5-1-2-Height-/153154542442?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10


How do you keep turkey from getting too dry? It's Thanksgiving up here in Canada, and I'm wondering what can be done to keep the breast meat on a turkey from being too dry?

I suggest using a brine. Lots of brining details can be found in the answers to this question:

  What are the basics of brining meat?

Alton Brown has a really great recipe for brined roasted turkey. You can watch the Good Eats excerpt on YouTube in which he covers brining turkey.

I also suggest reading The Basics of Brining (PDF) from Cook's Illustrated.


How can I stop my eggs from cooking when I make lemon/lime curd? I used this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fresh-lime-curd/.  I added a lot of the hot liquid to temper the eggs and they looked good and then I added the mixture to the pot and whisked but the egg whites still cooked and I had to strain the curd to get it all out.

Is there a better way to avoid this from happening?

The general things to keep in mind are:

Don't mix a ton of the hot mixture into the eggs at once. Add a little at a time.
Don't use too high heat. It's better to be slow about this than to have scrambled eggs.
Don't overheat before you temper the eggs. Go only as far as the recipe says to. If it's too hot, you might be fine if you temper carefully, but then when you mix it all back together, push it over the edge and cook the egg.
Don't let the mixture in the double boiler get too hot while you're tempering the eggs. If you've got it running too hot, and you take out a lot of liquid, what's left can get hot fast, and then when you pour it back in, you might cook a bit of the egg before you can whisk and even out the temperature.

So in summary: err on the side of too slow and too cool. The worst that can happen is that you have to stir for a long time while it thickens.


Is this the centre of the stem of a mushroom or different kind of mushroom? This long skinny mushroom appeared on the cutting board. I'm not sure if it is from the centre of the stem in the picture or a different kind of mushroom. I'm a bit worried about a stray inedible mushroom but I think it's from the stem but not sure. It's a bit water-logged because I wash them. The other stems are white and woody and don't look like the brown one on the left. If it is from an inedible mushroom is it safe to eat the ones that touched it? (Sorry photo is so big).

This does look like the centre of the stem. Often when I separate the stems from the heads, the centre of the stem would stay attached to the head, It looks just like this.

In any case, if you're buying your mushrooms from a reputable source, you can be sure there are no poisonous mushrooms accidentally mixed in. Cases of mushroom poisoning occur mostly when people gather their own mushrooms and mis-identify them, (or buy from someone who gathers wild mushrooms and has erred with identification,) or, more rarely - when one allows mushrooms to go bad.


Can I still use my oven, even if it has melted aluminum foil stuck to the bottom? I have melted aluminum foil on the bottom of my oven.  Can I still use the oven for baking?

I doubt you have melted aluminum foil at the bottom of your oven.  The melting temperature of aluminum foil is 660 degrees Celsius (1,220 degrees Fahrenheit) at standard pressure.  It is possible that you have a layer of grease between some foil and your oven bottom.  This combination will likely char and burn.  I would clean your oven well, and use as normal.


Can I grill a whole octopus without pre-steaming or poaching? My local awesome fish market sells whole octopi, and my friend is having a BBQ. I figured nothing would be cooler than showing up with a whole octopus to throw on the grill, but most recipes I'm seeing are either for a "Greek-style" preparation that includes pre-steaming or poaching and tons of spicing, or else for baby octopi, which I'm assuming have a pretty different texture profile (being much tinier if nothing else).

I can of course poach the thing beforehand, but I've recently been in Cambodia and Thailand where I had lots of grilled octopus on the street, and I'm pretty sure they do no such thing. I'd prefer that to the Greek method which to me feels over-spiced and over-done for a BBQ.

Any tips? Can I not just clean, skewer and lightly salt/oil the tentacles and grill them whole? What about an overnight marinade? I had a hell of a time finding non-Greek, non-baby grilled octopus recipes.

Full-size octopus are tough and rubbery when cooked, so the purpose of pre-cooking is to tenderize.  According to some research, this can be done by hanging the octopus out to dry and then beating the crap out of it, but that sounds like more trouble than simply poaching.

If your octopus is already cleaned (i.e. ink sac, stomach, and beak removed) then all you need to do is pop it into a covered pot on high heat - after a few minutes, it will give up a lot of its liquid.  Turn the heat down to low, keep covered, and let it braise for at least an hour (or more - a restaurant I used to work in that served octopus cooked it sous vide for a good 10 hours).  If the pot starts to run dry, add a bit of water.  You can also add flavoring agents like garlic, wine, herbs, etc. to the braise if you like or just let the octopus hang out in its own juices.

After braising, you could either break down your octopus right away or bring it whole to the BBQ (somewhat diminished in size, but still impressive!) and cut it up there.  You will want to separate the tentacles from the body and cut the head sac into strips either way.  If you leave it whole, it will cook unevenly because of the varying thickness of the flesh.  Cook over the hottest part of the grill to finish, just to bring the flesh up to temperature and add a little char.

Skewering the tentacles with a little olive oil and salt will work just fine, but the flavor is fairly mild if you didn't add anything to the braise so a sauce or glaze is a fine idea.  That same restaurant got rave reviews with a simple sauce of olive oil, garlic, paprika, and a touch of sherry vinegar.


Is water necessary when cooking meat in a pressure cooker I recently bought packaged pork ribs, 3.5 lbs, preseasoned with whiskey black pepper. I was planning on cooking it in an instant pot, but I'm still a bit of a novice. Should I just throw the ribs in and cook it, or should I throw some liquid in the bottom?

After some research, I threw a trivet rack in the bottom with a cup of water and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar; they came out fantastic.


Could you air fry oxtail? Has anyone trying cooking oxtail in the air fryer? Is that even possible could you cook it in sauce / gravy or does air fryers not allow you to add liquid to the cooking vessel?

As @brhans mentioned, standard air fryers have a drip basket and by their very design will not hold a sufficient quantity of liquid to submerse an oxtail, which is an essential part of cooking such a tough joint successfully.

Oxtails are generally braised or stewed over a very long period to break down the meat fibres, the stock or liquid helping to keep the meat moist. Air frying will rapidly dry the meat out, and most of the fat will render out as part of the cooking process.

The best solution would be to find a small Pyrex or heatproof dish that fits inside your air fryer, brown the meat uncovered first, then add some stock and cover with a well fitting lid or some securely fixed foil. Provided you have at least a cup or two of stock in there (the oxtail doesn't need to be covered), this would be closest to the traditional method. You could always top the level up during cooking if required.


What kind of beer for beer bread? Beer bread is bread wherein beer is used for liquid and leavening. I tend to use a basic pilsner, but I'm a beer snob, and I've taken to wondering what would happen if I substituted something a little more exotic.

Has anyone tried this? I don't want to do trial-and-error with expensive beer if I don't have to.

I've used dark beer with good results. It just depends on what flavor you desire.  I often use Lion stout, for example, which imparts a strong, intense flavor and color, which I quite like, but it would not be appropriate for all applications.  Also Sierra Nevada porter has happily found its way into my bread. Keep in mind that these beers may be too strongly flavored for your taste, in which case you can add some lighter beer to balance it out (lager or pilsner).

Personally I don't like to add pale ales to bread as I don't enjoy the way the hop flavor comes through, but this comes down to personal preference.

In general, the flavor of the beer will come through in the bread, but you won't notice all of the subtleties of flavor that you do when drinking, so I wouldn't put too expensive a beer in bread--the bread will turn out fine, but you're not going to appreciate the beer to its fullest.


How to build steam in the oven for getting an oven spring? From: What makes a bread either close or open crumbed/textured?

  Oven spring

  Yeasts continue producing CO2 until they die at 60C/140F. Also, gasses
  expand with heat, so it will also help holes to grow a bit (if I
  remember well, up to 30%). But that grown will stop when dough gets
  baked and strengthens, and when crust begins to form. To retard this 2
  tricks are used:

Use steam in the oven the fist 1/3 or 1/4 of baking time.

Steam will keep the "outer skin" of the bread humid, so it will prevent it from getting dry and forming the crust.

How to use steam in the oven for getting an oven spring?

Well, by steam the only thing I understand is the "vapors". How do you get them in oven? By boiling uncovered water in the oven? How much steam is needed? What is the exact procedure to get the required steam?

The most common method of getting steam into the oven during the first five minutes of baking when it is critical for crust formation, at least for a home style oven is:

Place a pan at the bottom of your oven, and pre-heat as well it while pre-heating your oven.  An empty metal loaf pan or even a cast iron skillet would be suitable.  The pan should be metal (ceramic or glass may not fare well with this kind of treatment).
Bring some water to a boil separately, a couple of cups worth.
When you put the loaf into the oven, pour the hot water into the pre-heated pan, which will result in immediate steam production (this is why the pan was preheated, to help it immediately transfer energy to the water, and produce a burst of steam).

In previous questions, you have indicated that you have a toaster oven, not a full sized home oven, at least as we would think of it in the US.  There may not be enough room for this method in such as small oven.

Another method, which may be more suitable to your oven, although possibly less effective:

Obtain a spray mist bottle, such as the kind used for misting plants.  Fill it with clean water.
Preheat your oven thoroughly.
Immediately before putting the loaf in the oven, mist the oven floor and walls.  This will cause a small burst of steam.

The downside of this method is that it only produces a little steam, and it also cools your oven slightly.


Where in the US can I purchase Turkish Coffee/Cafe Botz/Mud Coffee When I visited Israel I became a big fan of something they called "cafe botz" or mud coffee. It tasted real good, and you sort of poured warm water over it, stirred and waited for all the coffee material to sediment, I gues that is why its called botz in herbrew. It was marketed in the shops as "Turkish Coffee". I havent been able to get it in the Unites States. Where can I get, preferably online, good quality of this Turkish coffe.

Turkish coffee is simply a very, very fine grind - basically ground into a powder - prepared by boiling it and subsequently waiting for sedimentation, more or less as you describe in the question.

There is no particular kind of coffee you need for it - any will do.

Just buy whole coffee beans in any coffee shop or bulk food store and ask for a very fine (Turkish) grind.  Most burr grinders can handle this; as Michael says, you can also buy your own burr grinder or use a specialized Turkish grinder.  Either one will tend to run you around $100.

(Note that you probably won't be able to get the right grind with the majority of blade grinders.  They're just too imprecise.)

Commenter Martha also points out that many coffees marketed as Turkish coffee will also contain a certain amount of cardamom or cloves, which is confirmed by several internet sources. If you try it with pure coffee and it doesn't taste right, try adding a small amount.


Is Serrano an acceptable substitute for jalapeno I am making butter chicken tonight. My recipe calls for 2 jalapenos, but the store was out and I am too cranky to go across town to another store. Can I substitute a Serrano pepper? I believe Serrano are quite a bit hotter, and I don't want to burn everyone's mouths.

Jalapenos vary widely in heat, but, yes, Serrano is usually thought of as a bit hotter.  If it were me, I would use one.  I would also remove the seeds and the internal membranes to cut the heat further.  Maybe even start with 1/2...you can always add more.


How does substituting yogurt into a cake change the texture and why can it be used? I've read about using yogurt in cake recipes to make them healthier. I was wondering how and why does replacing the fat by yogurt work, in particular whether the cake becomes rubbery and how to avoid this.

I am always reminded of a quotation from one of the early episodes of "Two Fat Ladies" the BBC cooking show that yogurt is NOT a substitute for cream. I found that if I needed to address the dietary concerns of a guest, I found it easier to cook recipes that called for yogurt as a base rather than experimenting with an existing recipe that required cream or cheese.

The recipes often depend of the fat content of cream or creamed cheese to provide moisture to your baking etc.

If we are talking about baked deserts, there are a wonderful range of Indian desserts that start with a yogurt dairy base instead of needing cream and milk.

I find that a useful dessert is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrikhand


how to seal a pizza stone Possible Duplicate:
  How do I season my new pizza stone?

I have a ceramic pizza stone, but ive heard it needs to be "sealed" with a coat of oil before I can use it. Any thoughts on how to do this? So far I've coated the stone with a thin layer of vegetable oil and added some garlic and rosemary. I feel like I should bake it in the oven now, but for how long? Any help would be great.

I recently seasoned my new stone by lightly oiling it and heating it at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. The biggest thing to remember is placing the stone in a cold oven, and removing it from the oven only after its cooled back down. Taking the stone in or out of the oven while the oven is hot can cause the stone to thermal shock and break.


Adjusting baking time and temp for small cupcakes? Is there a good rule of thumb for adjusting temp and time when using batter from a cake recipe in cupcakes, especially very small bite size cupcakes?

I will be using a gingerbread cake batter that was meant for a bundt pan but will be using small cupcake cups to bake it in.

The general rule of thumb with cakes and quick breads is that within certain limits:

The larger the cake the lower the temperature
The smaller the cake, the higher the temperature

The reason is that you want to get nice crust formation and browning in the time in takes the muffin or cupcake to cook through.  However, mini-muffins or cupcakes have so little mass that they will bake through quite quickly, and may be easy to over bake at higher temperatures.

This article at Baking Bites, in regards to converting standard cupcakes to mini-cupcakes recommends:

  While most cupcakes take about 15-20 minutes to bake, most mini
  cupcakes take from 9-14 minutes or so to reach donenss. Check your
  minis at 9 or 10 minutes with a toothpick and bake longer as needed.
  The only thing you really need to look out for is the fact that it is
  easy to overbake these miniature cakes, so keep a close eye on them
  while they’re baking and check them at very short intervals when
  they’re close to being done.

This matches my experience for full sized muffins and cupcakes:  full sized muffins should bake in about 18-22 minutes—if they take longer, raise the oven temperature on the next batch slightly.

They do not suggest changing the temperature for minis.  The tips at Cupcakes Take the Cake concur:

  If recipes don't specify mini baking times, note that minis will take
  more than half of the baking time recommended for standard size
  cupcakes.

My survey of a number of mini-cupcake recipes shows the general consensus is about 10 minutes, or half the time of a regular cupcake.

Remember, however, the smaller the cake, the more little factors like your actual oven temperature, how much batter you put in the tin (and how consistently you fill each cup), the moisture level of your batter, and so on affect the outcome.

All of my experience is with standard sized cupcakes and muffins, or muffin tops.  If I had a mini, pan, I would determine the best baking time by:

Doing a half-tray, and checking it when they start to smell done (if you are an experienced baker, you will know what this means), or at about 8 minutes.
Continue checking every minute or so, until you find they are done with the toothpick test.
Bake a second half-tray to that time without all of the door opening, to confirm your findings.
Adjust as necessary, and you will then know the best time for your oven and that particular recipe—assuming you fill the tins consistently.  (I use a food disher—like an ice cream scoop—for this purpose.)

Note:  the purpose of the half tray is to have less cakes with a less than perfect bake.  Once you dial in the ideal baking time, go for full trays for less work.

I also suggest not doing multiple trays at the same time, as they will change the way the air circulates in the oven, and mask the radiant heat from each other.  This makes for less consistent results.


Corned Beef, Cabbage vs. Reuben - Multipurpose? Good evening, all.  Quick, specific question here (something too esoteric for most cooking sites I checked):

I have ~2.25lb of Corned Beef Brisket (Point Cut)", fresh &  vacuum-sealed with spices and all that.  I bought it with the intention of making Reuben sandwiches (R's) for my waifu and I...  But then simultaneously bought a head of cabbage, thinking "Ah, Easter; corned beef & cabbage (CB&C)!"  Aaaaand they have sat in the fridge, since I cannot figure out if I can do both.

My lack of culinary initiative aside, I am trying to determine:

Is the "Corned Beef" used in CB&C the same as used in R's?
Is the above a matter of preparation (i.e. my plans to slow-cooker it would be perfect for CB&C but bad for R's?)
If no to the above, can it be made so?

To further complicate things, I purchased a can of the very same substance ("Corned Beef"); is that useful for either CB&C, R's, or both (or neither; I'm not sure it's not just glorified SPAM)?

Anyway, thanks for reading my overly-complicated question.  Any help would be appreciated!

Canned corned beef is sort of Spam, but with different meat and flavoring. It's also more like hash, and doesn't always cleanly slice the same way Spam does. I definitely wouldn't put it on a Reuben sandwich, but it could work with cabbage. (Not great with cabbage, but that's an opinion issue -- I'm not a big fan of canned meat in general.)

In contrast, a cooked corned beef brisket can be used either in Reuben sandwiches or on a plate of corned beef & cabbage. The only particular difference is the thickness of the slices. In a sandwich, one generally wants thin-sliced meat that is easier to bite through. Thicker slices work well next to cabbage, when eating the dish with a knife and fork.


What was the mysterious ingredient in making of Japanese sweet bean paste (an or あん) from the movie? The Japanese movie Sweet Bean (あん) shows the process of making red bean paste in one of the scenes. The cook uses a clear gelatinous substance which presumably is the sweetener for this paste. What is it exactly?

The ingredient is Mizuame (水飴), a Japanese sweetener. It adds sweetness and gives a luster.

When they need large amount, professional cooks usually scoops it with their bare hands, as she does in the movie.  I'm not sure of the reason, but Mizuame is very sticky and it is troublesome to handle with tools.

And this behavior explains that she has long experiences in making read bean paste.


What is the maximum temperature to use when cooking with flavor oils? I'm using standard LorAnn's flavoring oils, which are supposed to be for 'high temperature' cooking with candy.

So far 275 degrees F works as far as the flavor goes, but it's bad for efficiency, as much of the candy is lost to waste due to cooling and cleaning.

What temperature have you found you can put in oil based flavors into sugar candy without the oil hitting its smoking point?

There is a huge difference in using oil in a pan to cook something and mixing it into a sugar solution for candy-making. I have been using that brand of oils (and others) for decades when making candy and, depending on the end-product (i.e., soft caramel at 246F and a hard-crack candy like toffee at 300F) have never encountered a "smoke-point" problem.

Hope this helps!


What are the uses for a roasting pan? Do I really need a roasting pan? We registered for a roasting pan and it has been sitting around taking up a lot of space. Do I really need this or is this a "one-tasker" as Alton Brown would say?

I understand that the roasting rack allows the juices to drip down. I've had lots of success roasting chickens just in a baking pan with 2" high sides.

I use my roasting pan (either with or without a rack) at least once a week to roast vegetables - either for salads, for sides, or (for instance with pumpkin for soup) to get a slightly different and more concentrated flavour before blending the veges.  I find the vegetables cook more evenly in a roasting pan than a baking pan - perhaps the higher sides help to create a kind of microclimate around the veges??  Not sure about that one.

When making roast vege salads, you can take the pan straight out of the oven and take advantage of the high sides to mix your other ingredients in (pasta, greens, dressing etc) then serve from there if no one is looking at your serving dish!

I also use it as a water bath when cooking souffles, puddings etc.


How to determine if canning is safe? How can I tell if it is safe to can a particular homemade sauce? Is it just a function of pH and technique (pressure vs boiling water) or are there any other factors in play?

Specifically, I would like to can a tomato sauce that I use as a base for pasta dishes. I do not have an exact recipe but it's basically:

cook down loads of tomatoes until there's very little liquid left
whisk olive oil in to tomatoes
saute some garlic, anchovies, and red pepper flake
stir in to tomatoes

The tomatoes are obviously acidic, and I assume this intensifies as they cook down. Does adding the olive oil, garlic, or fish create issues though?

In regards to your particular tomato sauce. I don't think its acidic enough (a pH of 4.6 that is), and according to this page - the answer is no.  Even when canning fresh tomatoes or other tomato sauces you need to add some lemon juice.  Now you could try lowering the ph, but it would drastically change your recipe probably - whether or not you want to do this is up to you.

If you have a pressure canner, you likely can do it.

Generally, yes - it is a function of temperature and acidity. You need to either sterilize the food through temperature, or create an environment in which the bacteria won't grow - normally a higher acidity.  Pressure canners work by sterilizing, so recipes that are low in acid can still be canned.


Why heat soup in a blender? Several times lately I have seen people recommend a particular brand of (very expensive) high powered blender.

Each time one of the main selling points for them is that the blender is so powerful that you can heat pureed soup in it.

Why would a person want to do this? It seems less efficient, more expensive, and more difficult to clean than using the stove or microwave.

I think you're misunderstanding the claim slightly. You do not heat an already pureed soup, you puree and heat in one step. You can indeed make a hot soup from cold ingredients using certain high end blenders. The only one I've verified this with is the vita-mix.  To do this, you put your ingredients in to the blender, turn it on, and let it run about 5 minutes. The friction from the blades heats the soup while chopping the ingredients. The soup will get piping hot.

Why would you do it? It's easy. It takes about 2 mins to get the soup really smooth, so it's 3 more minutes to get it hot. That's faster than you would be able to do with a stove, although maybe slower than a microwave. Is it more efficient? I don't know, but I doubt the difference in electrical efficiency is really sufficient to drive a choice one way or the other.

In terms of cleaning, you already need to clean the blender because you pureed the soup. There's no additional cleaning to do if you cook it there too, versus additional cleaning for stove or microwave. And the blender is easy to clean as it's one piece; you just add soap and water and turn it on for 30 seconds, then rinse.

Personally, I do not think this is "one of the main selling points". It's a neat trick, and it's useful. However, I think that it's more interesting as an indication of the blenders power. You can use these blenders to make exceptionally smooth soup, make peanut butter, properly crush ice for frozen drinks, etc. They do this much better than a 'normal' home blender, but just saying 'better' probably wouldn't sell a lot of these things at 4x the price, so they focus on something that the standard home blender most certainly cannot do.


How to increase the temperature of my double boiler? I have a double boiler that I wish to use to prepare a batch of fudge. The recipe I am using calls for heating to 240°F (=116°C), but a double boiler is limited to the boiling point of the working fluid used, so plain water, boiling at only 100°C, won't work.

I know that one can increase the boiling point of a liquid by dissolving material in it, governed by ∆T = Kb m, where Kb is the boiling point elevation coefficient and m is the molal concentration of solute.

Using this, to get the boiling point of water to 116°C requires a ∆T=16 K, and Kb = 0.512 K / m, so that would require a 31.25 molal solution. Using NaCl, that would mean about 1.8 kg of salt per kg of water, which is around 5 times as much salt as will even dissolve at all.

What can I do to increase the temperature of my double boiler?

While I personally appreciate your scientific approach to this, I think this concept is fraught with peril. :)

For the acute application of a double-boiler to fudge: don't. Fudge is sugarwork/candy! Managing the heat and temperature over direct heat is part of the fun and peril of sugarwork in general! logophobe's "why" is on-point. You want to boil-off a fair amount of water in making fudge; indirect heat like a double-boiler probably isn't a good choice for that.

If you're interested in another take on the science of fudge, I recommend the fudge episode of Good Eats.

For the actual question of making a double-boiler work at much higher temperatures: I think you'll want a different (non-water) substrate. But unless you've got something with exactly the right boiling point, it's not going to automatically regulate the temperature any better than direct heat, and that entirely defeats the purpose of a double-boiler. You could try regulating something like vegetable oil at the correct temperature; perhaps there's an electronically-regulated temperature-controlled deep fryer or something that has a temperature setting in the low-100C/200F range, but most frying is in the 175C+/350F+ range.

As an aside: As pertains to Wayfaring's recommendation from comments to use sucrose syrup: Keep in mind that fudge is in fact itself candy / sugarwork at soft ball stage. Unless I misunderstand, I strongly believe that you do not want to use sugar syrup in the bottom vessel of a double-boiler. While clever, this solution will soon exceed the temperature you want to achieve, then in the worst case boil-off all the water and burn. Wayfaring's link is a good one and does contain percentages: sugar temperature chart; another from FAO has a more concise percentage chart by weight. Kb for water is 0.512°C/m ; more here. For any substance in the bottom of a double-boiler, you're going to be boiling-off some of the water, making higher concentration of whatever solute. That is, your boiling point is going to keep creeping up.


Why should a stock be simmered and not boiled? Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook says that a stock should NEVER be boiled, why is this?  Does the higher heat extract bitterness or something else undesirable?

It seems a little strange because the bones used to make the stock were previously roasted in a hot oven.

I've only made stock once, well I guess it was a broth (see this post) but would like to improve on my technique.

Well there's a few things.

First, higher temperatures mean more volatile aroma and flavour compounds will be released, leaving a flatter-tasting stock.

Second, boiling means more motion within the liquid, which makes it harder to skim off the protein scum which forms on the surface while a stock is cooking. In addition, some of the scum will just become reincorporated into the stock via a process similar to emulsion.

Third, boiling induces faster breakdown of proteins and other particulate matter, leaving you with a cloudier end product. This is of course of very little concern for stocks which will end up incorporated into (opaque) soups or sauces.

Of the three, only the first is of any real concern to home cooks. The other two issues aren't a huge deal at the restaurant level (modulo need for clarity in consomme etc), particularly if the restaurant uses Superbags or algae filtration for clarifying stocks.


How do I prepare arabic coffee in a stone Dallah? I purchased a lovely stone Dallah from Jordan.

.

The first and obvious question is: is it safe to prepare coffee in?

However, once that question is answered, the pot certainly looks functional. Therefore, using the resources of an Australian household, how do I prepare coffee in one of these strange pots from a different continent?

This is the result of experimentation with Daniele's answer and the resources of a normal Australian household.

Be prepared with a tea towel or other holding-item. Marble has a huge thermal inertia and insulation is a decadent western invention.

On the other hand electric kettles are awesome.

First: Wash everything thoroughly. I boiled a couple litres of water and poured them through the dallah. I then washed everything with soap and hot water, then rinsed with more boiling water. This told me two things: 1) The marble can handle boiling water. (Which was likely... but good to test), and 2) I wasn't going to be drinking any marble dust.

Then, from a good coffee shop that roasts their own beans, get very very very finely ground coffee. Their espresso blend is a good start. While single origin can be better, it requires fine-tuning to find the right single-origin for this taste, especially as...

Buy a satchet of cardamom. If you're going to do true Jordanian coffee (instead of Saudi or Turkish) it's a function of which spice you combine. I've heard of cinnamon and saffron also being acceptable, but the "everyday" spice is cardamom. This is where single-origin will get you if you choose a bean that isn't compatible.

Now here is where I cheated. I've got an electric stovetop (boo, hiss... rental apartment. I kind of have to deal with it unless I want to ask a colleague for a bunsen burner.) I also own an electric kettle. I boiled water in the kettle, then measured 250 mils into the dallah, which I placed on a "hob" on my electric stove. I then turned the stove to medium.

After about 5 minutes of watching, the marble was very warm, but the water never boiled. Technically, this is a good thing. I then added 2 heaping
"standard" scoopfuls (about 20 grams, the scoop that comes with a bodium french press) of coffee mixed with about half a scoop of cardamom. I let that sit on the stove for 4 minutes, stirring the coffee every minute until the crema recombined.

Pour (holding it with a tea-towel) gently into the marble tinytiny cups.

I have to take mine with a few dollops of condensed milk because my word this coffee is strong. Good, but strong.


My overnight sour dough went slack, could my 'starter' have eaten too much gluten? Was reading this question and reply, and wondering if it may pertain to my last night's effort for a good 'artisan' style sourdough loaf today: How does a sourdough sponge work?

At the end of the question, and answer, it was said that too much gluten could have been used- dough too weak, to round into a good loaf. I am completely new to sourdough, but have a good, strong starter going, and now, have been trying to learn how to use it.

I mixed it last night per a recipe that called for: 300 g. starter, 570-600g cold water, mixed into starter, then, 1 kilogram bread flour and 18g. salt., and I converted all measurements, if I did it correctly, to: -1c. starter, 2 1/3 c. ice water, 4 1/4 c. bread flour, and I used less salt, because we do not like salt much. there were explicit directions, plus pictures, at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial...(if I'm allowed to let you see the recipe I used), but mine appeared wrong from the start.

Questions are: 1.  Did I convert the recipe correctly? 2. Was recipe too 'weak' to begin with? 3. Could I have over-proofed it, to where there was no structure left? (too long, too much eaten by starter action?) FYI: I mixed it at 9:30 PM, and attempted to make it into loaves at 10:30 AM. 4. Could I have just not known how to create a 'skin', a tight skin, for making this artisan type loaf? 5.I began emergency procedures to bake SOMETHING out of this...(I made 2 separate batches), and I did salvage it into bread and pizza dough, but after much folding and some flour being worked in. So, question 5: What would be a good 'emergency' procedure if dough is just too slack to hold any shape?

I have images, but will wait to post any, since I am new here, until I am or if I am asked. Totally appreciate any feedback, advice!!! Thank You.

Not sure if I worded this correctly, as I am new here, but if anyone can answer any part of the above questions, that would sure be helpful!! Maybe I should have put each question into a separate post? Thanks!

There is no way to answer all you questions definitively.
I can say your conversion most probably off because cups are not a precise way to measure flour by weight.

First and foremost if you want to bake bread on a regular basis learn to use the bakers percentages and the metric system. Buy a quality kitchen scale.

bakers percentages (BP) are what professional bakers use and for good reason. Dependable, repeatable results. You can scale up or down a formula with precision.

Basically the BP system is based on the amount flour always being 100%  in the formula  and all other ingredients are a percentage of that. For example a bread dough that has a hydration level ( amount of liquid in the dough ) of 70%

1000g. of flour so a hydration level of 70% would be
700g. of water   - 1000 x .70 = 700

Every ingredients percentage is multiplied into the amount of flour.
Salt is generally around 2%

1000 x .02  = 20g

Once you learn this system you can change the amount of flour and calculate all the other ingredients with precision. double it, triple it, cut by 67% whatever you want.
Once you understand it you can develop your own formulas, you can backward engineer recipes in cups with the help of some conversion charts and math and/or your scale.
if you go crazy like me you can make an excel spread sheet so all you have to do is enter a number of loaves you want and it will calculate the whole formula for you.

  WE DO NOT KNOW THE HYDRATION OF YOUR STARTER.
  lets say it was 100% -
  150g flour to 150g of water =300g

your formula called for

flour 100%--   1 kilogram   (1000g) of flour

water  60%--   600g water  60%

salt   18%--   18g salt     (1000 x .018 = 18g )  18%

starter 30%--  300g starter (1000 x .30  = 300g ) 30%

Adding the starter changes things but because we assumed it 50%  it is not much.
starter and preferment's complicate the BP system but its all math it can be figured out, i will not go into here.
your formula shows a overall hydration level with starter at 65.2% that should be a rather firm dough not wet and slack as you described. thus my saying your conversion was off. Also changing the salt % as you did will have effects on the leavening time. ( salt is an inhibitor, slows down yeast or starters )

Sourdoughs or starters or yeast do not "eat gluten"  they feed on the sugars and enzymes in the flour.  I will let you do your homework on that. Gluten is developed partly by this process and partly by kneading.

Learning to do a "window pane" test will help you to know when gluten is developed enough. I suspect that is what you meant by "create a 'skin', a tight skin, for making this artisan type loaf". Learn what the autolyze process is.

You "mixed it at 9:30 PM, and attempted to make it into loaves at 10:30 AM" That is  long time to proof at room temps and would allow the leavening agents to exhaust themselves.  did you proof in the fridge? Sourdough breads are more temperamental and finicky then commercial yeast breads and you have to be able to recognize when to bake them, it is easy to let them to far.

A sourdough mother can be any hydration you want and it will behave and taste differently depending that hydration level. You have feed it on a regular basis, you pull some of it make a starter, sponge, preferment, always feed/replenish it. NEVER feed it more than 50% of its total weight. lets say it is a 100% hydration mother and you have 1000 grams after pulling some to build a sponge, you would then feed it 250g water and 250g flour = 500g which is 50% of its weight.

A healthy mother will be forgiving, you let it go for a while and bring back to life with a few feedings, you freeze it for a while.

Have fun and enjoy a fresh loaf of bread soon.


Indian cooking - How do I get the consistent taste I am a grown-up man who has developed an interest in the art of cooking. I have been spending time in the kitchen with my wife and mother-in-law to learn their ways of cooking. Here are the questions I don't seem to be able to get definite answers from them.

1. How do I ensure that a dish has the same consistent taste every time I prepare it? These women don't use any measuring cups/proportions (it an art and not a science!) and use whatever spices/things at hand. I am worried that their method is not going to help me in ensuring a consistent taste.

2. How do I determine the minimum number of things required to get a certain taste? My wife adds at least 10-12 condiments /spices in her curry. My questions is are they all required? What all spices we can avoid and still get the taste I like? Just adding everything from the Masala Dabba doesn't make any sense to me. It is about efficiency for me.

Also, is there a book or website that can help me get the answers to these questions?

Thanks

Perhaps you couldn't get definite answers because there aren't any...

You can't get a consistent taste every time: your basic ingredients won't be the same (different stage of development for vegetables, possibly different varieties, not always the same freshness, etc.), and neither will the fresh spices like ginger and garlic, or things like yoghurt. With experience, you can somewhat correct for this, but never completely.
You probably don't need all the 12 spices, but they each add something to the final taste (or appearance: turmeric and dried sweet pepper come to mind). Leaving out some of the minor ones won't do much harm, but might make you wonder what's missing.

Also, the same spice might get added twice: e.g. cumin: once whole, and fried in the hot oil, then ground just before the simmering stage. And that will give two different "notes" from the same spice.


How to make wafer balls I would like to make a homemade ferrero balls, but I am struggling with figuring out how to bake the wafer balls. I was looking on some wafer makers or even if I could directly buy the wafer balls without any success. Any ideas ?

I believe they're made as half-balls and sandwiched together with the filling.

If your recipe comes out of the oven pliable they could be baked in a similar way to brandy baskets and moulded before they cool. Otherwise you'd need to bake the half shells over or in a mould.  That's a matter of finding a food- and oven-safe item of the right shape and size.   Cake pop moulds are available; you'd probably need to fill the wafer with something like rice as in blind baking pastry.

It will take some trial and error, and after you've done that you're still left with the task of assembly.
Some recipes can be moulded after baking, others don't seem like they can.  You could use the same tools after baking to mould the former sort (or over the end of a large test tube).

For my own personal consumption I could also be tempted to try baking over large clear glass marbles, having put them through the dishwasher and then the oven (to make reasonably sure thermal stresses won't crack them) beforehand.  Even better if I coudl get the relative size right, use the marbles to blind bake in the cake pop mould.  I wouldn't use coloured (even internally-coloured) marbles.


Is sambal generally more, or less spicy than the pepper it's made of? I recently bought some Sambal Jolokia Badjak, which is made from the Bhut Jolokia and thus quite spicy.

I couldn't find any Scoville rating for it, but the Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) is rated at somewhere from 855,000 - 1,041,427 SHUs, according to WikiPedia.

So I was wondering, how does the Scoville rating of sambal compare to the peppers it's made of? Is it generally more, or less spicy?

By logic, I would assume the Scoville rating of any sambal to be at most the same as the peppers it's made of. It can never get hotter than it was, and in general, and certainly for store-bought sambals, there will always be stuff added, lowering the (perceived) hotness.

Badjak always implies fried peppers.
It also tends to include onion and garlic, and whatever else the local tradition or family recipe dictates. And it tends to be milder than the Oelek (or Ulek) variant, both because of the frying, and because of the additions.

The Oelek/Ulek variety is plain, hardcore, grounded peppers, with most likely a touch of salt and a souring agent for preservation. Oelekan/Ulekan actually is the "pestle" part of a mortar and pestle. For store bought oeleks, I simply look at the ingredient list and percentages, and take the one with the highest amount of peppers, and least amount of additions. Current record is 96%, with salt and vinegar making up the remaining 4.

Wikipedia actually has a very nice article on sambal.


Tips for Removing Fuzz from Peaches? I like to use peaches with the skin on when possible, but I'm not a big fan of all that fuzz.

Does anyone have a fuzz-removal method that works particularly well? Currently, I just rub the peaches with a rough cloth. I didn't know if I was missing out on some other, great method.

I've never heard of anyone trying to de-fuzz a peach, so this isn't a direct answer:

It might be simpler to just use nectarines.

It's a myth that it's a cross between a peach and a plum. They are the exact same species, the nectarine is just a peach with the fuzzless recessive genes.


Windowpane test - Why does my dough fail it, and what is it good for? I am very new to pizza making, but after only 5 tries I am pretty pleased with the results.  (I get passable Neapolitan-style and thin-crust pies.)

However, one thing I've noticed is that my dough has never passed the "Windowpane test," even after kneading (hand-kneading) my dough for much more than 10 minutes.

I have two questions:

What am I doing wrong?
What do I gain by getting my dough to the point where it does pass the test?

I had this exact same problem for years.  And it was all about letting the dough relax.  I'd get beautiful crusts, but never EVER pass the windowpane test.  I was so confused.

Turns out, all I had to do was leave it alone for about 10 minutes, much less and I'd still run into issues.  The window pane test is intended to show that enough gluten has been formed that you can stretch the dough.  It's a completely non-exact test.  It's just to ballpark if there is 'enough' gluten.  By leaving it alone for 10 minutes or more, the gluten has relaxed and can be stretched to form the window pane.

This relaxing is the same thing that you may need to do while forming your pizza.  If you find that your pizza dough will stretch out some, and then pull back constantly - its good because you've probably got enough gluten.  Let it relax for several minutes and then pull it back - go too far and you'll likely accidentally form a window pane!

Enough gluten means that you've formed an efficent 'net' of gluten that will trap gases from the yeast and also provide some 'chew'.  You'll get better rise and your bread will have a better crumb.  Yeast breads without much gluten development are often denser.

When hand kneading, an autolyse will also help (well, it always helps, just especially when you have to do the work manually). By giving the dough a short rest after initial mixing, you let the dough fully hydrate and some gluten will start to form on its own.  When you come back to knead the dough, you should find the dough more workable and a little easier to get to the 'kneaded' point.

 What's going on with 'relaxing' gluten?  Kneading forms gluten, but it often also tangles them up a bit.  With a short rest, they untangle a bit and will pull out into long strands easier.


Is there another way to prove dough? My dough is not proving because the room temperature is too cold in my house. Is there another method to make my dough rise without over-proving it?

Yeast are alive. They eat sugar and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide and flavor. The warmer they are the faster they eat and grow until it is to hot and they start to die.

When it gets colder they slow down but don't stop until frozen.

The answer to your question is therefore: either find some way to warm them up or schedule enough time for them to work slowly.

Using warm water in your dough and putting it in a draft free spot works well. Letting them work slowly results in more flavorful bread, so you might consider just making your dough the night before.


Why does my baked custard form a skin on it? I baked my custard in a slow oven for an hour, placing my ramekins in
a roasting pan filled half with water. The taste and consistency were
good but after it was baked, it had a skin on it. Where did I go wrong?

You did absolutely nothing wrong; this is completely normal.

When exposed to the air, custards (and other hot milk products, like real hot chocolate made with actual milk) will form a skin as the proteins irreversibly polymerize.   This is analogous to the way a skin will form on the top of a paint can left open.

You can prevent the skin by pressing film wrap or parchment directly onto the surface of the custard, preventing air contact after it is cool enough (tough to do with baked custards, but you can peel the skin if you do not wish to serve it).   Of course, this is a trade off, as you will affect the surface appearance of the custard when you remove the covering.

Side note:  the skin is perfectly edible; some people like it, others do not.


Thai lava chili: how could I reproduce this? I realize this is a bit off of a question, and I apologize if it's not all that great. But here goes.

There is a Thai place near where I live that makes this amazing dish entitled "lava chili". It's spicy, filled with garlic, and absolutely delicious. I have absolutely no idea how I would even begin to try to cook something like it. Here are some properties of this dish:

In some sense of the word, it's like an American chili. It's not runny like a curry, it's more viscous.
It has a lot of garlic and a bit of ginger, I suspect.
Definitely some red pepper flakes and a couple other types of spicy, well, spices.
It has some type of oil in it, I can see it.
It's a bit tangy, too, and a little sweet.

I'm looking for some help recreating or approximating this dish. I love Thai food and I love Thai cooking, but I only do it for fun and really am not sure where to start on this.

Edit:
It looks similar to this image.

The website I found that image from describes it as:

  This historically highly rustic Thai dish is a very quick stir-fry with Thai chilli jam, normally accompanied with Thai vegetables and rice.

How would I go about trying to recreate that?

I generally associate the phrase "chili jam" (also known as chili paste) with store-bought sauces, like this one.

It wouldn't surprise me if they were using a very similar ready-made sauce - perhaps they get it from a distributor or perhaps they even make it themselves in large quantities and store it, but I doubt that they make it from scratch for every meal - few Asian restaurants do.

If the dish you were served doesn't contain ground beef or any of the things you'd traditionally associate with American chili (other than the thick consistency) then this might be as simple as whipping up a stir-fry using a store-bought chili paste.  If it's too thick, add a little soy sauce.  If you want more tanginess, add some lime juice.  If you want more sweetness, add brown sugar.  And if it still seems to be missing that certain je ne sais quoi, you might need Thai fish sauce, which you find in almost every Thai dish.

I hope that helps.  If it doesn't get you where you want then feel free to report back and explain how it turned out differently from what you expected - one of us can surely take it from there.


Calcium chloride as substitute for sodium chloride My husband is on a low sodium diet. I have been thinking that Calcium chloride might work for making pickles, smoked fish, etc, because the sodium is the bad actor, not the chloride. Who knows about this?

This is an interesting idea.  I have heard of using some potassium chloride to make reduced sodium pickles, but never calcium chloride.  So I did some googling:

Here is a PDF from OragonState that says you can use potassium chloride it for quick pickles, but not brined pickles. I'm assuming calcium chloride can technically do the same, but I don't know what the conversion ratio from table salt is.  They say:

  Reduced-sodium salts (such as potassium chloride) may be used in quick
  pickle recipes. However, the pickles may have a slightly different
  taste.  Don't use reduced-sodium salt in brined pickles or sauerkraut -
  these products need a specific amount of sodium to control bacterial
  growth and to give a firm texture.

Also, I found several recipes for "no salt pickles" that are just brined with pickling spices with no salt at all.

As for smoking fish: it should work but I would be VERY CAREFUL.  Calcium chloride is extremely hygroscopic.  It is used as an industrial desiccant.  You may end up with petrified fish.


Should eggnog be chunky? So I was making a little holiday drink. Little nutmeg, cinnamon, a shot of brandy, and eggnog.

The eggnog was brand new, but when I poured it, I noticed it was chunky =/

I did not shake it before first pouring. Was this the cause of the chunky eggnog? Is the eggnog bad? What causes eggnog to be chunky?

End result for those curious: I threw it out and bought more without trying any. Why bother, right? Not worth getting sick. Am now happily enjoying non chunky eggnog.

No, eggnog should not be chunky.  Yours has probably gone off.


Why is freshness more important for fish than beef? I know that freshness has a big impact on the flavor of fish. Flash-frozen sushi-grade fish tastes great raw, and you're supposed to seek out fresher cuts when cooking fish rare (ahi tuna steak, etc).

But I've never seen someone emphasize freshness with beef. Expensive beef is usually well-marbled rather than fresh, so it seems like the raising process is more important.

Why is this? Is freshness simply more important for flavor in foods that are consumed raw  (is beef tartare flash-frozen)? Or is there something about seafood that makes it fundamentally tastier when it's freshly caught?

Once an animal is dead, the enzymes in its own cells start degrading its tissue. Enzymatic reactions are complicated, and only work well within a narrow temperature range.

Land animals have a body temperature similar to humans. When they are slaughtered and the flesh is chilled, the enzymes slow down their work a lot.

Fish are "cold blooded" animals. This is usually a misnomer - a snake lounging on a sunlit rock can get quite warm. But fish live in water, which tends to be cold. Their enzymes are very active in the temperature range found in refrigerators. So non frozen fish starts to spoil, and this can't be halted.

People generally use spoilage as an indicator for unsafe food, and are probably not aware that it doesn't apply in this specific case. Also, the decomposition of fish produces some amines which are usually perceived as a very objectionable smell. So people just prefer eating their fish before this decomposition process has progressed much.

Beef's decomposition is slowed down a lot in a refrigerator, and it takes different chemical pathways which do not produce a fishy smell. People even like some of the smells which appear during early decomposition (the gaminess of aged beef). Also, specifically for beef, aging provides tenderization. This is not needed for fish, whose muscles fall apart easily without aging.


Can I cook couscous for a chicken dish in my crock pot at the same time as the chicken? I'm wanted to make a lemon garlic chicken in a crockpot and I'd like to serve it with couscous. Is there a way to cook the two together? I know I can cook the couscous and then add it in the crockpot at the end but I'd prefer to avoid using an extra pot. Can I just add extra liquid (broth) and then add it in halfway, or add it in with the chicken right from the start?

I think this is going to be a bad idea; you'll go from ideal couscous texture (fluffy and light) to mush. I have an article (on my blog) about how to make fluffy couscous. The crux is simply to put it, with the appropriate amount boiling water, in a wide, shallow vessel and cover it for 5 minutes. You can even set that up ahead of time, and when you are ready to serve the food from your crockpot, just add the boiling water from a teakettle and you'll be good to go.


Is it safe to keep dried out egg noodles? I've read a few sites explaining how to dry your noodles, and I know the store bought ones are not made with eggs.  I tried experimenting with no-egg noodles though and they just came out too gummy.  I've not seen any site explicitly saying it's ok to dry egg noodles.  Raw egg is kind of a scary thing; I know they do end up cooked eventually, but in the meantime can they get all nasty so they make you sick and/or taste like ash?

My italian grandma does it, but says to really make sure they dry out.

You can dry them out and then freeze them, if it makes you feel any less hesitant.


Why pasta keeps always damp and moist when I cook it? Boiling pasta in itself is easy - however, there's a problem I could never avoid or solve. When I judge the pasta is ready, I pour the unnecessary water out of the vessel, though even if I use a colander, the pasta keeps damp and moist, and even if I put it back to the fridge for a night or two, it keeps like that. Even adding salt and oil to the water did not help it.

What can I do against it?

Refrigeration does not improve pasta texture; on that front my advice is to cook only as much as you are going to eat each time.

Other than that, it sounds like you are overcooking the pasta, so "when you judge it done" appears to be in error, and you should alter your judgement to an earlier point if you find the pasta too wet/soft they way you have been doing it. The time needed varies depending on the shape. When it is done it should be removed from the water (or the water removed from it) immediately.

I find no benefit to adding oil to the water - save the oil for adding just after it's been drained if you want it to do something useful.


Does Lodge A-SPRAY provide any useful benefit over canola oil spray or bottled canola oil? I know there are many oils that can be recommended/used for seasoning a cast iron. Recently I ran across Lodge A-SPRAY Seasoning Spray which is described as 100% canola oil. I am confused why this is product exists.

How is this significantly different than PAM canola oil spray? Will the aerosol in PAM ruin the seasoning somehow? Why buy the spray if I could just pour canola oil into the pan?

As you pointed out in your question, Lodge A-Spray is 100% canola oil. It is also in a non-aerosol container. Those two things mean that you have no added propellants or ingredients.

Most cooking sprays are not 100% oil. Most contain a additional ingredients, some of which would actually be a negative in trying to build your seasoning. Soy lecithin, for example, would create a quite tacky/sticky surface if allowed to build up. That would be quite the opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

As you note, there are many oils that work well in seasoning cast iron. Those sold in bottles work just as well as a 100% oil spray. And while typically the sprays are much more expensive, they are convenient.

Just remember that if you choose to use a spray, you always check the ingredient list to be sure it's 100% oil.


4 tablespoons of butter is how many tablespoons of coconut oil I am making macaroni and I need 4 tablespoons of butter, but I don't have any butter. I am going to use coconut oil as a substitute but do I use the same amount of oil as butter? Or should I use something else as a substitute?

In almost all contexts, you can substitute these items on equal amounts, by weight or volume, and be well within the tolerance of the recipe.

This is true for almost all baked goods, for example.

If you want to be absolutely accurate, butter is only about 80% fat, and 20% water (this is an approximation), so you would use 4/5 the amount of coconut oil as butter.


Will these mince pies still be good and/or safe to consume? I've discovered some home made mince pies (frozen after production, un-cooked) which were made by following Delia's Traditional Mince Pie recipe this time last year (lard & butter based pastry and shop bought mincemeat). They've lived in the freezer at -20°C in an airtight container since production.

Will they have suffered any quality degradation / no longer be safe to eat?

They will certainly be safe assuming your freezer has operated properly throughout the last year.

Some quality degradation is possible, especially freezer burn on the outside if they were not wrapped extremely well.  A buildup of visible frost inside the wrapping is a sign this is extremely likely, although it can happen even without the buildup.

Rancidity of the butter in the pie crust is also possible, but not terribly likely.

Still, since you have the pies, there is no harm in baking one and seeing how they turned out.


Why does whole leaf tea leave a residue in the cup? I purchased this nice whole-leaf oolong tea this afternoon.

I steeped it in 200 F water for 3 minutes (as directed) in my tea steeping basket:

And when I pulled out the basket, there were some uninvited guests remaining:

Did I do something wrong? I thought this was the kind of results to expect from tea "dust" that might be expected in a bag, but this is whole-leaf tea. Do I need to pre-sift my tea, or something? I'm afraid that as these remnant sit in the tea, they will make it bitter.

This is normal. Even with whole leaf tea, it's a dried (and cooked) product. You're going to experience some "crumbling," and, in my experience, these grounds are more common with loose leafed tea than with dust-in-a-bag. Just pour out the last of your cup--or get used to the texture.


Are these bacteria colonies in my canned sardines? Sometimes I open sardine tins and the tomato sauce is pure smooth red and every now and then there are cans with what looks like plaques where bacteria colonies might be growing. What are these specs? Can I eat this?

The white specs are not colonies of bacteria, but in fact, crystallized oils. This phenomena is common in many tinned fish rich in fatty oils. This is normal and completely safe to eat.

If it bothers you too much, you can try reheating it, which should dissolve the crystallized oils back into the sauce. Just remember not to microwave anything metal.

This link provides some information about it too.
http://ayambrand.com.sg/mackerel/46-about/frequently-asked-questions/about-our-quality/37-what-to-do-with-the-fish-oil-white-particles.html


Skills that are only learned by professional chefs? I always liked cooking as a hobby, however, I am sure that a professional chef that has been trained well has aquired many skills that are hard to learn for a layman. As I don't have respective experience, I can only speculate, but I would assume that, among others, such skills are: speed, the ability to cook for many people at once and the ability to deal with pressure while cooking.

But this is only my guess and I would like to know from someone with respective experience which skills are learned by professional chefs that laymen often don't learn.

I don't think the skills are any different. The same basic skills apply and can be put to use at home or in a restaurant.  It's just that pros have a lot more practice, repetition, and refinement of those skills, and can thus execute at a  higher level, and consistently. Additionally, they have access to tools that might be too costly for most people to keep in their own kitchen...like a pacojet, or quality extrusion past maker...etc.

They also accumulate more tacit knowledge accumulated from time in the industry, so that the skills can be employed in creative ways.  There are what you might call tips and tricks that are employed...something minor like placing a wet paper towel on top of herbs that have been prepped for a garnish comes to mind as a simple example...but I really can't think of anything out of reach for a curious home cook in terms of skills.

However, the other thing to know is that pro chefs also must consider efficiency to a much higher degree than home cooks.  Not only efficiency in terms of speed and reduction of wasted steps, but also economic efficiency. I suppose many home cooks have to consider this as well.

Maybe the bottom line is that pro chefs learn skills because they have to.  Home cooks can learn the same skills, often because they want to, but they aren't out of reach.


Does cooking reset the expiry date of ingredients? Assume I have the following ingredient all expiring tomorrow:

Mushrooms
Paneer (Cottage cheese)
Basmati rice

If I make a dish with these 3 ingredients (basically put rice, chopped mushroom,chopped paneer, water and some spices in a pressure cooker and wait for 2 whistles), is the expiry of these items somehow extended? Can I now keep this cooked dish in my fridge for another 1-2 days without going bad?

The expiring date of the cooked food has nothing to do with the expiring date of the ingredients. They are considered separately. A cooked food has a shelf life of 3-5 days, and this assumes that you followed a safe cooking process, which includes using ingredients which were not expired at the time of cooking.

Cooking does not sterilize food, but it reduces the bacteria currently alive in it. It doesn't kill them all, and it doesn't remove toxins, so it is not a "reset" and you cannot make unsafe food safe by cooking it. But the expiry date is calculated with such a margin that the bacteria which are left after cooking cannot get to dangerous levels too fast, so you still have the regular 3-5 days.

On the other hand, if you have two different ingredients with a long expiry date and cook them together, the new expiry date is not determined by the date of the ingredients, not even by the date of the shortest lived ingredient. It is still 3-5 days.


Burned / black pizza stone Placed pizza stone in 525f oven to preheat.  Smoke pouring out.  Opened window, exhaust & even the bathroom exhaust.  Thought it would quit eventually.  Put pizza in oven for approx 8 min.  Smoke still billowing... removed pizza with stone.  Stone as black as charcoal. Inside of oven, including window on door, soot coated everything.  Pizza turned out great!  Read on Pinterest & other sights, to put stone in oven on self cleaning cycle would work.  Was going to shower when I saw blue flames through the oven door. The damn stone was on fire!  Shut the self cleaning cycle off.  Scared the crap out of me!  What happened?

You can usually scrub it off with steel/copper wool or some other soft abrasive. You're likely just burning off stuff that got stuck on it. Honestly, if its not flecking off with your finger, you can just cook with it. avoid water however


How to ship holiday cookies? I like to give my friends boxes of cookies for Christmas. How can I ship boxes to those living across the country or in neighboring countries without them getting damaged or going stale in transit? Would vacuum-sealing help? Do certain types of baked goods ship better than others? Should I use a certain type of box?

Choose Wisely

Cookie selection is key.  You want to ship cookies that are going to stand up to the journey well.

Hard, dry cookies like biscotti or Mexican Wedding Cake cookies ship well.

Denser bar cookies, like brownies or blondies, packed well, should also stand up to shipping, and their rectangular shape makes it easier to fit them into the shipping container.

Moist, chewy cookies like Snickerdoodles or Chocolate Crinkles may dry out if the shipping time is extended, so only ship them to people you know can receive the shipment quickly.

Avoid filled cookies or those that are only at their peak for a day or so, like most sandwich cookies or French macarons (Coconut macaroons actually ship quite well).

Avoid any cookie requiring refrigeration.

Avoid cookies with small points (from cookie cutters) or delicate decorations which may break off during shipping.

Packing

Optionally, wrap pairs of cookies together back to back, in film wrap.  This will help them stay whole, and provide a little extra padding.

Pack the cookies well in an airtight container, neither under nor overfilling it (perhaps using some loose crumpled food safe plastic or aluminum foil to fill any voids in the container, so that the cookies don't jumble around in the container.

Avoid mixing moist and dry cookies in the same container.

Use good cushioning such as bubble wrap or packing peanuts when you pack the cookie container into the shipping box.

Shipping

Ship by the fastest means that isn't prohibitively expensive.

Milk

Do not include milk in the package.

See Also

Land O Lakes
AllRecipes
Betty Crocker


How to dry out rehydrated dried mangos? I have been making spiced dried mangoes lately by purchasing a package of dried mangoes, placing them into a bowl, splashing some lime juice on them, and then adding paprika, cayenne, ancho, and crushed red pepper.

While the process works nicely to get the spice in place, the acidity of the lime seems to rehydrate the mango pretty thoroughly. I have tried using as minimal of an amount as possible, but it doesn't seem to matter much if I drench it or use it sparingly.

Once the process is complete, I will leave the mangoes out in the open, however it can take several days for them to gain rigidity and stop being sticky to the touch from the lime juice.

How can I speed up the process of getting them back to the similar dried fruit nature they were when I purchased them without losing the new flavors?

Doug has the right idea, but ovens trap the moisture, increasing the humidity around the food, decreasing the efficiency of the oven as a drying machine.

For detailed information regarding the physics of drying foodstuffs, I found the following helpful: http://www.nzifst.org.nz/unitoperations/drying1.htm

From these ideas, I would suggest placing the mangoes in a dry ventilated room, with some sort of heat source applied (doesn't have to be much). The combination of the dry air and the heat will speed the evaporation.


Why is my sassafrass root bark tea always so bitter? I've been on a quest for a while now to make my own root beer. I've tried all sorts of recipes using all sorts of ingredients, and I now have this huge collection of spices and roots and leaves... but no root beer to show for it. It always comes out bitter and kind of gross.

I tried to get down to basics. From what I've read, sassafrass is the key ingredient, so I thought I'd make a tea out of just that and see how that goes. (Yes, I know there are claims that sassafrass has a cancer causing agent, and that it's not used anymore, and people use wintergreen or sarsaparilla instead. But, health concerns aside, everything I've read seems to have a consensus that sassafrass is the original flavour for root beer.)

When I open my bag of sassafrass root bark, it has a smell lightly evocative of root beer, but also kind of earthy (I'm bad at describing smells). Most recipes I've seen call for steeping the sassafrass for about 20 to 25 minutes, with a ratio of about one tablespoon of sassafrass for each cup of water.

Starting with that basis, I've tried various combinations of adjusting times and ratios, and also two different brands of sassafrass, but the fundamental problem remains. It's always bitter. Too bitter to cover up with any amount sweetener or other ingredients. Sweetener and other ingredients (cinnamon, vanilla, star anise, allspice...) don't cover bitterness, they just exist alongside it.

When I look on Amazon at reviews by people who have bought the same sassafrass root bark that I did, there are all these statements saying "we made root beer and it was great!" or "brought back childhood memories of home made root beer!" and that sort of thing, accompanied by five stars. But all I have is a brown liquid that is on one level a pale imitation of root beer, and on another level has a bitterness that won't go away.

Where am I going wrong?

Sassafras tea will naturally taste a little bitter. When I was younger, a friend of mine used to bring us some sassafras root in order for us to make this tea. He always recommended never to make it too strong because of the affects of the bitterness on the stomach. Try using smaller doses of sassafras in your tea. It should be more on the pale shade of color rather than too dark. Here is how to make sassafras tea.

It is true that the original root beer was derived from the sassafras root, however the modern root beer does not contain any sassafras in it confection.


Do restaurants always cook chicken to 165F throughout when frying on cast iron? I'm new to frying chicken. When I grill it, I use an instant thermometer to check the temperature and get it to an internal temp of 165.
However. When trying this on a cast iron pan it gets way too tough. I filet the chicken so it's not too thick.
If I were frying by simply looking at the chicken (as I imagine most people do) then I would take it out much sooner.
So this question is for anyone who actually has measured the internal temp as they cook, and ends up with a delicious product. Did you actually get the chicken to 165 throughout?

Serious eats has a detailed explanation of chicken cooking temperatures available https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast.html
The short answer: if you are pan frying, grilling, or roasting a chicken  to 165F, it will be guaranteed to be pasteurized to US safety standards, no matter what else you do, and entirely over cooked in the process.
Lower temperatures for longer times also meet US safety standards without overcooking, but are not as easy to measure.
I've sous vide cooked chicken to 136F infusing flavors and making it safe, then finished on an open flame for less than 30 seconds. Besides the very surface, the great bulk of the meat was never anywhere near 165F.


Difference between different brands of same oil I was at the supermarket just now, and there were 2 types of refined canola oil, with very different pricing. Is there any reason to believe that the cheaper one is of different quality? I mean both are oils refined from canola seeds, so I'm wondering if the pricing is only as a result of different brands.

I'm aware that for non-refined oils which are valued for taste, such as olive oil, then the answer is obvious - different olive oils give very different taste, and usually the higher the price the better the quality. As canola oil should (theoretically) be more or less tasteless, I'm wondering if this is still the case.

In practice, the major refined oils are commodity products, and the two different brands may even come from the same factory, but with different labels applied.

Still, it is possible that they are from different producers, and have a different quality standard of refining applied; one may be more aromatic than the other (which is a defect in a refined neutral oil).

The only way to know for sure is to try the less expensive brand.  If it has no off-putting aroma, you have a good value.


Correct knife to use for portioning raw salmon? I recently bought a relatively large (~2lbs) filet of salmon. In order to portion it out I placed it skin side up on a cutting board and used a bread knife to essentially saw through the skin as it seemed pretty tough.

Is a bread knife the best option in this case? Is this something that should be done with a kitchen knife?

I think a bread knife would shred the skin and flesh.  I would place skin side down and, ideally, use a sharp slicing knife.  Sharp is the key.  I have also used a chef's knife and a fillet knife for this task.  The goal is to achieve a clean cut.


Pizza crust too hard in home oven, how to make it softer? I got my recipe down pretty much, tested in wood fired oven it worked great. But at home in the oven at 520F (270C), the edge crust is just unbelievably hard. I bake it on pizza stone at the bottom for about 4-5 minutes. Everything works out great except the crust. I tried pulling it out half way to soak with water but it didn't help.

You can try high hydration flour. go to 75 percent hydration dough. It will be harder to handle but will be more fluffy. Another thing, heat your oven as high temp as possible. use around 2% yeast as well.


What is the proper serving temperature for Turkish coffee? Turkish coffee is prepared by boiling the grounds (and sugar / spices as desired) in an ibrik three, sometimes four times. On each boil, you bring the coffee just to a boil, and then remove it from the heat for a short time before boiling it again.

What I can not find, anywhere, is a reference to the actual serving temperature; all I have found on the matter is 'hot'.

I know that it's served hotter than espresso, but (in efforts to try and prepare some to sample that is close to authentic) how hot is 'hot', precisely? I've found mentions that cold water is often served with the coffee to help cleanse the pallet, but not as a means to sooth a singed tongue.

I do realize that I can serve it as hot or as cold as I'd like, but I'd like to try it prepared the traditional way (or, how one would expect it to be served at a restaurant).

The temperature at the time of serving doesn't matter.

The Ottomans knew how to enjoy life. Coffee was served on social occasions, which happened at a slow pace in that part of the world. The ottoman effendi would spend hours sitting there, smoking a nargileh, endlessly turning the beads of a rosary, and taking a sip of coffee now and then. Even though it is served in tiny cups (which don't hold as many sips as your typical US mug), it would cool down considerably until it was drunk.

Note that hot food is a cultural tradition typical of Western cuisine. Being hot is not a quality attribute of food in Turkish cuisine in general, many dishes are eaten at room temperature. Coffee is still preferred to be hot, but this requirement is viewed with a much more relaxed attitude than in the West. If the coffee has gotten cold, it is still considered good enough to be drunk to the end. Or rather to the sludge, you don't drink Turkish coffee to the end.


How do I know the lentils have gone bad? I brought brown lentil two months ago. Now when I cooked them under pressure they remained in the same form as before and did not even slightly swell the way normally brown lentils swell up slightly. The gravy was watery and the lentils weren’t looking as they normally look when cooked nor smelled the same as they normally do. First I cooked under pressure for 18 minutes, then it kept cooking on normal flame with the cap on top for almost an hour and it still didn’t change texture, what should I do ?

Dried lentils don't go bad as such if stored sensibly (i.e. dry), but they do go hard and take longer to cook.  It's always possible they were stored for some time before you cought them.  An overnight soak before cooking can help. Other tips include:

not adding salt/acid/sugar until they've softened,
avoiding hard water
making the water slightly alkaline with some baking soda (slightly at odds with the previous point, but I suspect calcium in hard water may have something to do with it given the use of calcium compounds as firming agents)

It's not definitive, so you need to apply common sense, but when pulses do spoil they smell terrible as soon as you open the container.  They'd also be slimy, because they have to be wet to spoil.


Does one really need to add sodium bicarbonate if one already uses baking powder? I find that sodium bicarbonate ruins the taste of many cakes and cookies. If I'm using double acting baking powder, do I need to add the sodium bicarbonate as well? I have come accross so many recipes that require both ingredients.

If the recipe calls for both (and it's a good recipe), it actually needs both. A common reason is that the baking powder provides leavening and the baking soda helps neutralize a bit of the acid.

It's a little surprising you're finding that baking soda ruins the taste and not baking powder; baking powder contains baking soda. I wonder if "ruins the taste" is an exaggeration or if you had a bad experience with baking soda and are a little more sensitive to it now. But if it's really ruining the taste, it's just a bad recipe. There are a couple possibilities:

the total amount of chemical leavening is too large in the recipe (it doesn't matter whether it's soda or powder) - make sure teaspoon hasn't been changed to tablespoon by accident!
there's not enough acid in the recipe to react with the baking soda so you actually have baking soda left over


Can too hot water cause the mate gourd to break? I just got back from Argentina with three mate gourds and started to prepare them for first use (put the yerba, add cold water and leave for ~1 day, I was told, is the first thing to do).

To my surprise, the first one started leaking right during that first day, and the other two cracked during the first session - one of them is wooden, the other one made of actual gourd.

So my question is, is this just bad luck or could it be because of some mistake in the how I prepared it - for instance, using water that's too hot?

I don't think it's your fault. Mates don't break that often. Besides, I've seen a lot of people drink it hotter than me without any problems.

As for preparation, it was recommended to me the following:

Place the leaves in the mate
Add a little bit of cold water
Add hot water

When and how you put the straw is a whole other chapter!


Is it safe/sensible to store utensils above the hob? I have a rack of hooks that sit on the wall that my cooker backs on to, and on this I hang a crowded collection various utensils:

The space is fairly contained, as there are cupboards on either side and the fan/extractor unit directly above. While cooking some pasta earlier they were getting a heavy steaming, which got me thinking... is this storage location safe and/or sensible in terms of hygiene and degradation of the tools? Or any other considerations?

For those without access to the image, or want more info without guessing, the rack holds (in order):

Two metal handle/clip things for the oven's grill tray
Metal/Plastic potato masher
Metal/Plastic spatula
Plastic spatula
Plastic slotted spoon
Plastic spoon
Metal whisk
Wooden spatula
Metal tongs
Metal/Plastic tongs
Metal/Plastic Can opener

This really should be a comment, as it doesn't directly answer the question, but it's kinda long ...

I do the same thing, but I'll admit there are a couple of disadvantages:

When you stir-fry, you will aresolize oils which will end up depositing on the utensils (and pot racks above your stove).
Some things will splatter (eg, a long-simmering tomato sauce), which again means the need to wash the utensils.

As for the degredation issues -- if they can't even handle the temperature of steaming, you probably don't want them in the kitchen at all.  I haven't notice any problems with my wooden or wood-handled utensils.

I don't have any better space, as my cabinets are so low that hanging utensils can't really fit anywhere else in the kitchen, and I find hanging so much more convenient than everything in a drawer or a container on the counter that I'm not willing to switch.

Are there safety issues?  Maybe if there were a fire on the stove, but so long as it isn't the fire extinguisher being stored there, I don't think it's that big of an issue.  (that's not to say that I know for sure there aren't any ... I just don't know of any)