How to cook oily fish whilst minimising odour? I like fish.  But oily fish cooking smells differ tangibly from their taste.  As such, I never cook oily fish, I'll buy smoked mackerel or a tin of sardines.  Salmon is an exception.

I was wondering if anyone who had any tips to minimise oily fish cooking odour.

Is it the skin? Does removing the skin help?

My experience is that techniques which cause the oils to become aerosolised, microscopic droplets suspended in the air, are the most problematic.Those techniques tend to be those that use higher temperatures and shorter cooking times.

On that basis I avoid frying fillets of oily fish or cooking them under the grill/broiler. Instead I look for recipes where the fish is cooked more slowly and is enclosed or covered to reduce the degree to which aerosolised particles of oil can circulate in the home.

Techniques include:

poaching
Cooking en-papillote
roasting at lower temperature over a veg base.


Why do most sandwich makers have a triangular shape? I've seen many hundreds of sandwich making machines in my life, and I noticed that in the vast majority of them, there is a diagonal protrusion that makes sandwiches come up in triangular shapes.

This makes no sense to me, for the following reasons:

Most packaged sliced bread is square, not triangular.
Most grilled sandwich recipes don't call for triangular shapes
You're forced to a triangular shape
Non-square bread slices are difficult to use with this triangular shape
The protrusion itself is much more difficult to clean than a simple flat iron.

Yet for some reason these sandwich makers are extremely common, to the point that flat makers are somewhat of a specialty item, therefore costing more.

I think I'm missing something here. Why do most sandwich makers use this triangular shape? What are the advantages of such a shape?

Typically with these sandwiches you have some cheese inside along with some other ingredients such as tomatoes that get quite hot (325° F sometimes).

From what I've seen, if you have a square only shape, you don't necessarily get a good seal, plus you get a massive pocket of hot lava.  The fat from the cheese or butter concentrates in the center, soaks and can break through the bread releasing hot lava on shirts, pants, open toes, etc.

Even if it doesn't suffer a total failure, you don't get a consistent sandwich.  Center will end up much soggier than the crusty rim and eating it can get difficult and messy.  Certainly no longer hors d'oeuvres stuff.

The triangular shape essentially makes it bite-sized, so the stuffing doesn't run away after the first bite and becomes more manageable.

You can try using a grill or a panini press, but if you've noticed, those ones allow the oozing lava to escape and run away.  A calzone is similar to what you'd get, and a badly crafted calzone can be quite messy and again, not really an hors d'oeuvre.


Why can't I tighten my olive oil bottle? It seems every olive oil bottle I buy lately is not made to be tightened all the way.  Why?

Oil bottles tend to be opened and closed many times, and the caps deform. They're often made of very thin metal and every time you do them up the metal spreads a little until the screw threads don't engage properly. The oil itself doesn't help as it lubricates the thread so the normal cue that the cap is tight enough -- at least partly due to increased friction -- isn't as noticeable as on other bottles

Plastic caps seem better than metal but it's still easy to over tighten them.

You need to be more gentle, especially when they're new. The better oils I buy have a plastic stopper inside the metal cap that seals without much force. The cheaper ones have the same structure moulded into the plastic cap, so the seal isn't on the thread.


How to make Pumpkin Fries Sweet potato fries are one of my favorite sides.  I also love the taste of pumpkin, and thought it would be good to replace the sweet potato in sweet potato fries with pumpkin.  I am looking to make something very similar to sweet potato fries, but I am curious on a few things.

I would love for them to be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Should I fry them or bake them?  Other than salt and pepper, what spices would bring out the flavor of the pumpkin or pair well with it; would spices be necessary to make them tasty?

For maximum crispiness, you will want to fry, not bake. I've never tried this with pumpkin but I think it will be an interesting experiment. As far as spices go, I would highly recommend smoked paprika (pimenton de la vera or pimenton dulce). Another option would be some of the flavors from Thai curries, such ground coriander seed, black pepper, and red chili powder. Please let us know how these turn out!


Is ormer another name for abalone, or is it a related animal? I've seen a recipe for ormer that requires it to be beaten a lot before stewing for a long time, and I've seen abalone recipes that are quick and easy.

A quick search on google indicates that ormer is in the same grouping as abalone and sea snails, and is indeed a type of abalone.


How to pick avocadoes with small seeds? Two avocadoes may look the same size from the outside, but the one with a smaller seed will have more flesh and may thus be more desirable. So how do I tell which avocadoes have smaller seeds?

(Another fruit I can think of where the seed size can fluctuate significantly is the durian. Perhaps the trick for avocadoes and durians is similar.)

You must remember that studies have shown that a normal avocado will have between 60% to 70% flesh. According to this Mental Masala blog post

  The edible percentage is consistent across the span of weights, centered around 70%*, meaning that the amount of flesh you get from a Hass avocado is relatively independent of the total weight.  The 70% result is consistent with UC Riverside's Avocado Information site, which states that the seed, skin, and flesh percentages for Hass avocados are approximately 16%, 12% and 72%, respectively.

So, it presents that across a test group of 19 avocados, there exists a linear growth pattern. Therefore, you could say that you can go to a grocery store and pick out any random avocado and it will very likely have a 15:15:70 ratio of seed:skin:flesh. Now, there could be the odd outlier with 1:1:99 or something, but that would be rare.


Boned pork shoulder fridge life If a pork shoulder is sold from a butcher on Wednesday will it still be good to eat on Sunday? the butcher selling it says it will be but I've heard pork should be consumed with 1-2 days of purchase

Any food safety / quality experts have thoughts on this?

I'd trust the butcher if he is recommended; perhaps check on him by asking safe cooking temperature? 145°F by the way, it's been revised since old days 160°F. He isn't talking about all pork, he's talking about the specific cut from a specific source, that's been handled in a specific way.

Even if meat gets a smell, there are different smells and if it isn't sort of a fermented sour smell, it's good. Same for color.
Easiest way to deal with the situation is to marinate it wet or with a dry rub. I usually do this with most of my meats the day I purchase. Some thicker cuts, especially pork, can take 4-5 days to take the flavor. Salt, pepper, chilés, mustard and a host of other spices help as preservatives.

https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/fdoss/data/annual-summaries/2015-report-highlights.html

Single food categories associated with the most outbreaks:

Fish (34 outbreaks)
Chicken (22 outbreaks)
Pork (19 outbreaks)

Restaurants (469 outbreaks, 60% of outbreaks reporting a single location of preparation), specifically restaurants with sit-down dining (373, 48%), were the most commonly reported locations of food preparation.

There were 30 multistate outbreaks, including the following types of foods linked to them:
Vegetable row crops (4 outbreaks)
Seeded vegetables (3 outbreaks)
Grains, such as flour (2 outbreaks)
Herbs (2 outbreaks)
Mollusks (2 outbreaks)
What, no pork?

CDC reports salmonella in local sources as leading reason for illness from pork, but it's half as likely as getting it from vegetables.


How to scale Indian cooking? What are the best practices for scaling up Indian dishes such as chicken curry, butter chicken, palak paneer, etc. that follow these generic steps (albeit with different ingredients):
oil -> whole spices -> onions -> ginger garlic -> tomatoes -> chicken/veg
The process above yields extremely tasty & authentic dishes that serve 4-6 people and I have used various recipes with good success.
But when I double/triple/quadruple the quantity (i.e., the amount of chicken or spinach) things go awry. I increase the base curry ingredients (onions, ginger/garlic/tomatoes/spices) but not necessarily twofold, threefold, or fourfold, etc. The result is a dish that lacks flavor or balance.
The question is, should all ingredients proportionally increase?

Cooking is as a rule of thumb more forgiving when you tinker with the ratios than e.g. baking. That said, if you have a recipe that works and you want to increase the number of servings, the first step is to increase all ingredients by the same factor, keeping the ratios consistent. This should bring you at least into the vicinity of the desired results.
Unfortunately, this can still be somewhat off target, as recipes depend not only on ingredients, but on basic physics (and chemistry), e.g. evaporating a percentage of liquid, or heat transfer to and from a body of food, may it be a roast or a pot with a given volume. A shallow layer of something in a wide pan will cook differently than the same amount in a tall and narrow pot. Whenever you scale up or down, you need to take these factors into account. And yes, this can influence not only the cooking time, but also the flavor profile. Just think of frying a small amount vs a large amount in the same pan - there’s a reason some recipes recommend searing some ingredients in batches.
It’s almost impossible to give a generic answer, but if you follow the principles of

scale proportionally
determine cooking time by doneness or desired intermediate states, not time alone
optionally, adjust liquids according to surface area

you shouldn’t be too far off and only need minor tweaks. Everything beyond that would need looking into the specific recipe.


What is the white residue on pots after cooking beans or lentils? One of the most important maintenance items around the house is to keep the cooking pans in perfectly clean condition. I consider this to be by far the most important DIY item to stay healthy at home.

On occasion I find there is some particularly resilient residue.

The white layer you see in the picture has the habit of showing up after cooking beans or lentils. While boiling anything else, it's enough to make sure there is a reasonable amount of water left in the pot for it to remain easily cleanable, but beans and lentils leave this particular residue. This suggests that it is not caused by water hardness.

What is this residue and what is an effective way to get rid of it?

That white stuff is usually starch residue. If you put some hot water in the pot and some baking soda in it and let it soak overnight , it should be easier to clean, failng that,you could try cider vinegar and hot water


Should I season my paellera? I bought a carbon steel paella pan. I've looked up if people season it (link) but on Wikipedia I've read:

  As with other cast iron vessels, a seasoned pan or dutch oven should not regularly be used to cook foods containing tomatoes, vinegar or other acidic ingredients, as these foods will eventually remove the protective layer created during the seasoning process.

I think paella is pretty acidic food, so is it a good idea to season the pan?

You certainly should season it, else cooking in it will make it rust. Also, your iron intake will rise rapidly if it's not seasoned, which can become a problem if you're eating too frequently from it.

What Wikipedia is telling you is to not use reactive metal vessels (cast iron or carbon steel) for acidic dishes at all. Not to use them unseasoned.


grams of fat on nutrition facts label don't add up http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-general-mills-cinnamon-toast-crunch-i8272

2.8g of total fat. Of that 0.4g is saturated fat, 0.9g is polyunsaturated fat and 1g is monounsaturated fat. Adding saturated / polyunsaturated / monounsaturated yields 2.3g of total fat - not 2.8g. What's composing the remaining 0.5g of fat?

There are different compounds included in the "total fat" calculation, which do not belong to any of the three classifications. Most probably, the larger part of the missing 0.5g are some kinds of phospholipids.


Is MSG soluble in oil? I know that salt is not soluble in oil. I've tried seasoning oil with it and the salt never dissolved. I was wondering if MSG behaves the same way as salt in oil?

No. Monosodium glutamate is a salt, and like most salts is essentially insoluble in oil.


Can I cut up chicken and store it in the fridge until the use-by date? I often buy ~600g of chicken from the supermarket, then cut it all up in one go and use it in two different meals a few days apart. Half I'll cook immediately and the other half I'll put in an airtight container and store in the fridge (then use 2-4 ish days later). The best-before date on the packaging is usually 1-1.5 weeks from purchase, so I've always figured this was ok (and haven't gotten sick yet...). However, most advice online says to not keep raw poultry in the fridge longer than 1-2 days.

Is doing this unsafe? Does the best before date get invalidated when I remove it from the packaging and cut it up on the bench?

In general, assuming that the date on the package still applies after the package has been opened is not safe.

If an item is packaged under special conditions (sterile, low oxygen, the strange diaper thing, etc.), or treated after packaging (irradiated, pasteurized, etc.) then the time from when you break the seal on the package becomes more significant than the 'best by' date on the package.

As a comparison, we have bottled liquids like juice or various 'milk' (plant milks or UHT treated cow's milk) -- they might have a 'best by date' that's many months from packaging, but they'll often have a warning to use it within a given number of days from opening it.

If you buy cryovaced packages of meat, it will have some sort of a date (eg. 'sell by' or 'use or freeze by') on it that might be up to a month from when it was packaged ... but once you open the package, you should treat it like any other raw meat that hasn't been specially packaged.

Now, is there a bit of a safety factor built into the normal 1-2 day advice?  I would hope so ... to deal with the time that you're walking round the store with the chicken in your basket, time to get it home, etc.  So it's possible that it might be a little longer than the 1-2 days, so 2-4 days is likely acceptable provided that you've held at the proper temperature, you cook it thoroughly and it wasn't showing other problems signs (smells, slime, etc.) and you're not cooking for immune compromised people.

Much past that, and you're just compounding your risk.  Now, there might be extenuating circumstances (eg, you're trapped at home with no way to resupply because of mass quarantines) on why you'd be willing to take the risk, but in general, I wouldn't recommend consuming the chicken from a package that was opened a week ago, even if it was within the date on the original package.


prepared meals and storage time in fridge before delivering them to clients my daughter prepares meals for her small catering business. After she prepares them and stores them in plastic containers she stores them in our fridge which is taking up too mush space. They foods are cooked and vary from pasta to vegetables to seafood and other meats. Sometimes she does not deliver these prepared meals until the 2nd or 3rd days how soon must she deliver them to her clients before they spoil.

In catering, you do not use your home fridge because your family opens and closes it so many times that the temperature drops and the food in it that is cooked does not stay at a steady temperature.

For example, you said she may prepare seafood. That is a Big NO NO.  The seafood should be prepared and served within hours.

Think about it like this:

You prepare it.
You store it 2-3 days.
You deliver it or it gets picked up.
Then does it get put in the fridge again or put out?
Then, either way, it is served.

How many times is it in the fridge, opened with the air from the family, transported getting back to a lower temp, put back into storage or set out?

Sounds like someone might get sick to me.

When I did catering, our clients expected fresh food, not leftovers.  Some caterers freeze some of their products but anyone I have talked to does not store things unless it is being marinated, pickled, a desert made a day in advance, or sauces frozen and reheated.

Another thought, if you go to a restaurant, are you willing to pay money for food sitting in the fridge for 2 or 3 days?  My family and friends would not.

Regardless, getting sick is the biggest problem you have. Do you have a license from the Health Department to do this?  There are  cleanliness issues here also.


Why this cooking pot not working on my Induction? I just bought this Induction compatible Kadai (kind of wok) but surprised to know it's not working.

When I place it over my Induction cooker, it doesn't show any error (generally if a pot is not compatible or not placed properly shows error E0 in red text with a continuous beeping sound of delay 1-2 seconds) but heating starts and stops for 1 second alternatively. Also when it starts and stops next second, the display board of temperature blinks. For example, if the reading is 1000, it will show 1000 then next second it blinks with a cracking/glitch sound and it keeps on like that. It seems like it wants to heat but something is not working.

Here is the image of Prestige induction I'm using:

One thing I noticed with this wok is the base is slightly concave from bottom. I mean when you place a straight scale on base, it touches the edges only, not the central part. Same when I place it on induction. But outer ring touches it completely.

Can this concave thing be the reason for its not working?

Another possible problem can be because of size? I measured the following area of my wok:

It almost superimposes the circular mark made on Induction stove. If it is slightly bigger (which I may have not noticed), can this be the reason for it not working?

EDIT: I noticed a strange thing today. I ordered another Wok (bit smaller) today from a reputed brand in India. Sadly, same problem happened with it. But with this wok, I tried to boil water. And once water started heating (due to partial working it got heated), the error which wanted to show disappeared. Why would it happen? And once it is cold, the problem started again.

Here is the image of the same:

Here are two pots that work without any problem:
(Their base is plain/flat). Not patterns like the ones on Wok bottoms)

One of the pots' base is concave but still works. The other one is very flat.

An induction pan must be flat to work properly, if it is bowed up in the middle even if it does work you aren't going to have the right efficiency. Many pans say induction ready, some say it because they are made of steel or iron, but not all of them have been tested so you won't always know before you try it.


Best cut of meat to pair with Gorgonzola? I've often enjoyed lightly seasoned beef or venison steaks paired with Gorgonzola cheese. Is there any cut of meat that goes particularly well with that particular cheese, or does it not particularly matter?

I think this depends on the type of Gorgonzola.  A Gorgonzola Dolcé has a milder, sweeter, less-blue flavor, so it should probably be served with a milder steak, like a Filet Mignon.  A stronger, more traditional Gorgonzola should probably be served with a stronger flavored steak like a Skirt Steak or a Ribeye.  If you flip the combinations around, one of the flavors is going to be lost.

I'm not familiar enough with Venison or other game to comment on their compatibility with Gorgonzola.


What is the lowest temperature at which botulism spores are killed? I am wondering if it's possible to pressure can low-acid foods in my Instant Pot. Now hear me out. I know it's not recommended because the highest pressure that can be guaranteed on it is 10.2 PSI, and many low-acid foods require 15 PSI for a certain amount of time to reach the proper temperature (240-250 degrees fahrenheit, I believe). However, I have also read that killing spores is a function of temperature and time. So my question is, does anyone know if a lower temperature (possibly attainable by my Instant Pot) for a longer period of time would do? Does anyone know of a table that lists various times and temperatures a food must be held at to kill botulism spores (not bacteria)?

Additional information: I live at 4564 feet above sea level. I am most interested in canning chicken and beans. Here are the links I have found helpful in my search thus far.

USDA Recommendations for meat https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE05_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf
USDA recommendations for beans https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE04_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf
Instant Pot increase in cook times for altitude https://instantpot.com/cooking-tips/
Resource that says that spores are killed when food is held at 121 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) for three minutes. https://www.fsai.ie/faq/botulism.html

In all good conscience, the only recommendations I could follow would be USDA or an equally authoritative source, and they only recommend pressure canning at a minimum of 240F.  At 4000-6000 feet, that requires 13 lbs pressure for dial or 15 for weighted (as the weights are normally only 10 or 15 lbs).  They make no allowances for increasing time as you can for most cooking as they will not accept killing below that temperature.  Are they being overly cautious?  Possibly, but they are the ones which for years have done the scientific tests.

Now, I cannot find the articles, but I do recall that a couple years ago the USDA ordered a recall of a pressure canner built similar to an instant pot.  That canner was only rated to 2500 feet, and had a misleading label stating it was USDA compliant or some similar wording.  It was order recalled because the USDA statements were to the effect that it had never been approved, or even submitted for testing, and further, if it had been it would have failed.  That the USDA would not approve that low of a power supply as being able to maintain a consistent pressure and temperature to match what a heavy pressure canner on a stove burner can do, nor did it have a high enough heat reserve to meet those requirements.

I own both a pressure canner and an instant pot, not not for a minute would I personally think the instant pot could do the job I am afraid, and I also would not want to put that much strain on its heating element.  And frankly, except for the space it takes up, my pressure canner was cheaper so would not risk the more expensive tool that is not up to the job.


Vanilla Pudding: Could someone explain this recipe to me? Recipe in question

  Ingredients
  1/3 cup granulated sugar
  2 tablespoons cornstarch
  1/4 teaspoon fine salt
  2 1/4 cups whole milk
  3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
  3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  Preparation (relevant parts)

  Place a mesh strainer over a 4-cup measuring cup or bowl with a spout and set aside.
  (... cook the pudding ...)
  Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract until the butter is melted and completely incorporated. Pour the pudding through the prepared strainer. (...)

I was hoping someone could explain the methods to me, since in my eyes they are bizarre.

Firstly, why would one use sugar and salt together? Does the salt have some special needed properties?
Secondly, why cook the pudding until it is thick and then add the butter and vanilla extract? Wouldn't that make it harder for them to mix and why not add them before?
Lastly, why pour the pudding through a strainer at all?

I don't know why this pudding is especially "easy" -- it's similar to other pudding I've made. Perhaps I've always taken the easy road...

Salt is a flavor enhancer that makes nearly everything taste better (e.g., enhance sweetness, reduce perception of bitterness. There are many more links on that topic; that was the first reasonable one I saw.) I don't think salt is magical in any other way in this recipe.
Adding ingredients after cooking: For vanilla, it loses some of its volatile taste/aroma when cooked. Common to add vanilla and ilk near the end of stuff like this (and sugarwork, other cooked confections, etc.).
Sieve: For smoothness. To get out the lumps. Sometimes done for certain things like crème pât, and sauces or gravies. In this case, to ensure that no starch (etc.) lumps remain. Another question/answer suggests to use a blender (e.g., immersion blender) as a possibility also.


Tiny bit of mold on maple syrup—can I still bottle it? If there's a tiny bit of mold on nearly-finished maple syrup (like, a tiny patch in a pot of 1.5 gal), and it's removed and the syrup is brought back to a boil, is there any particular pathogen that would make it unsafe to bottle? Wikipedia says botulism toxin "is destroyed by heating to more than 85 °C (185 °F) for greater than 5 minutes." But is there any other information I'm missing?

I'm fully expecting a lot of "better safe than sorry" comments. Short answer to that is, "yeah I know."

Not many molds can live in a substance with such a low water activity. They call those things "xerophiles": they're the food equivalent of those bacteria that grow in cyanide and lava and crap like that...Foodie extremophiles.

These are probably some kind of wallemiomycetes. I can't find any information on whether or not they're toxic, but, generally if you have any kind of mold infestation, it will affect the taste.


Mysterious Disintegrating Udon noodles A few weeks ago, I had a very strange experience making udon noodles. Almost instantly after adding the dried noodles to boiling water, and giving a slight stir, they began to break apart. After a few minutes, there was not a single piece longer than one inch. They didn't taste much like udon either, as they were not in the least bit plump or firm.

This was a different brand than I've used before, and they were labeled "organic". We assumed they were just bad noodles (they tasted somewhat of soggy cardboard), and threw them out.

Last night, I was trying to make udon once again, from a different pack (of a different brand). The same thing happened: noodles broke up, and tasted bland and mushy. The only thing this brand had in common with the previous pack is that they are both labeled "organic", and they were both in a cabinet for several months. One brand was American, but the other label was mostly in Korean. Also, I think my wife bought both of these packages, whereas I've always bought them before.

So, my multipart question is:

Has anyone had this happen with any kind of noodle before? Any explanation?
Is there some difference in "organic" udon that makes it do this? Some additive that is omitted? I don't have another package in front of me right now to compare, but my two failed packages only contain wheat flour and salt. How could that be wrong?
Could the age of the noodles caused this? I've never seen old spaghetti noodles fall apart like this...
Should my wife be banned from buying udon noodles?

Organic merely tells you that the wheat that was grown, was grown in a more environmentally friendly way, ie. without the aid of pesticides.  That on its own will have no effect on noodle stability.

They may be poor quality noodles, have gluten level issues, are they also wholewheat, do your regular udon have some form of strengthening additive like with ramen?  Many noodles have kansui added, or whatever passes for that chemically (sodium carbonate) added to strengthen the dough.  Of course it may not have been kneaded enough, too old, too dry.


What happens to an acorn squash when its skin turns orange? I purchased an acorn squash at the farmer's market quite a while ago and its skin was initially dark green with a small patch of orange.  I have been keeping it in my pantry.  Over time the skin has turned completely orange like a ripe pumpkin.  I am assuming that the squash is ripening as well but it appears unchanged except for the color.

Is my squash still good and can I use it like I would a normal green acorn squash?

As long as it doesn't have soft spots, and when you cut it open there is no mold or rot inside, it is still fine.  I've often used acorn squash that have partially turned orange, and yes, that is just further (but unneeded) ripening.


Why would boiling milk in an electric kettle break the kettle? Or: is it safe for the electric kettle's integrity and overall functionality to be used to boil non-water liquids such as milk?

*note: I know milk may burn onto the element and be difficult to clean out after, or it may foam up and out of the spout and make a mess. For the purpose of this question, please ignore any mess that may be left behind by these kettle-adventures.

I read this question on the Workplace SE which states:

  I needed hot milk, so I boiled it in the nearest kettle to me, but I
  think I broke it, as water won't boil any more. I know this, because I
  tried it myself.

This has me wondering WHY boiling milk in a kettle would break it. Logically I think it should simply make a mess, not cause the kettle to cease functioning.

The electric kettle is (clearly) not designed for this. The main issue is that milk doesn't evaporate, whereas water (obviously) does. The secondary reason is that milk will burn.

Milk is a complex mixture of water, fats, and proteins. The fats and proteins will separate out from the water when heated, and form a layer on top. Unfortunately, this layer prevents the water from evaporating - it traps it. This is what causes milk to boil over. Incidentally, the reason potato or pasta water boils over is due to the starch.

The way kettles turn off is by steam reaching the top of the kettle, rushing down a tube and causing a bi-metallic plate to expand unevenly, tripping the switch.

No steam means the kettle will never turn off. Because the kettle doesn't turn off, the element continues to heat the milk next to it. With water, the hot water will rise, rather than stick to the element. This means leaving the lid open won't cause a fire - at least not until all your water has boiled away. Unfortunately, milk will burn, and this layer of burnt milk will prevent effective heat dissipation - the milk in contact with the element is not moving throughout the remainder of the liquid. This causes the element to get hotter than it is meant to.

However, kettle manufacturers have thought this through - they don't want their products to catch on fire (well, most don't) - even when they are misused like this. They will have built in a small (one time) temperature switch, like this one. This acts a little like a fuse, but for heat, not current. They are often called "thermal fuses" for this reason. When the element reaches a temperature which has been deemed "too hot" (probably around 190ºC, perhaps a little hotter) this switch is tripped, and current can no longer reach the element. I attempted to get a measure of the temperature of the heating element of a kettle, but I could not get good enough contact between the element and my probe.


Is it possible to cook semolina or rice with milk in the microwave? Is it possible to boil semolina or rice in milk in the microwave?

The problem is that milk will boil over, but I wonder if there are some adapted pots for this purpose or if there is some other trick.

You mean semolina or rice pudding? You can certainly make them in the microwave, the trick is simply to use a bowl that's big enough as well as to stop and stir every few minutes. Here's a recipe saying so, including a picture of the plain glass bowl the author used:

In a big bowl, put all the ingredients together and stir. Put in a microwave oven to bake at maximum power (I used 12 minutes for a 750 Watts oven). Stop every 3 min to stir and make sure the semolina is not stuck at the bottom. Let it cool down and store in the fridge.
From: http://www.cookingninja.com/174-Microwave-semolina-milk-pudding.html

Here's another recipe with similar instructions:

Put the rice into the bottom of a big glass microwave suitable bowl.  Use the largest bowl for your microwave as the milk will boil up the sides.
From: http://foodonabudget.com/content1a/2008/10/how_to_make_an_easy_rice_pudding/

You can find tons of other recipes for microwave rice or semolina pudding on Google, repeating pretty much these two points.


Baking at a lower temperature than the recipe calls for The recipe calls for 350 degrees for 10 minutes, yet my oven only goes up to 260 degrees. How long should the cake stay in the oven?

Convert 350°F to 175°C - I don't think there's any lower temperature issue here.

If your oven goes up to 260 degrees, I'm guessing that's 260°C, not 260°F. (260°C is 500°F, so that's not a surprising maximum temperature to see, whereas a max of 260°F would be a pretty useless oven.)

A cake recipe that calls for 350 degrees is most likely 350°F, especially if you happen to know it's an American recipe. 350°F is an extremely common temperature in American recipes, possibly the most common. (A baking temperature of 350°C is really high and pretty unlikely - pretty much just for things like pizza, and certainly not cake.)


How much meat is in one wild coconut? I'm asking in reference to this answer which I’m workin on in Worldbuilding.

I can look up the nutritional information on coconut and that gives vales for 100 gram portions.  But how many grams of that stuff is in one (wild!) coconut, on average?

Suppose you needed 1000 g of fresh shreaded coconut for a recipe. How many drupes would you buy?

I don't know how big wild coconuts typically are, but the USDA says that one medium coconut has 397 grams of meat. Good enough for back-of-the-envelope calculations, perhaps?


What temperature range is suitable for grill smoking? I've noticed when smoking on the grill that sometimes there is no visible smoke, though there's the clear smell of burning wood.

Once the wood has begun to smoke, what grill temperature will ensure the process continues and that the food is smoked?  Is the chosen temperature just a matter of maintaining this minimum temperature and stretching or shortening cooking time and smoke exposure?

Don't let the tail wag the dog. When smoking, you want to figure out time and temperature first and worry about smoke second. This can obviously vary widely. That said, there are things you can do to get more smoke going:

If you can smell it, you'll get some smoke flavor. If you can see it, you'll get more. If you're not getting (much) visible smoke then you need some combination of 1) wetter wood 2) lower temperature 3) larger wood. You get less smoke when the wood just goes up in flames. Chips are particularly prone to do this. Larger chunks smolder better. Things also smolder better when they're very wet or the fire isn't so hot. But again, you want to figure out your temperature and then get smoke, not make large temp changes just to get smoke.

If you're doing very low and slow (225F), sometimes that's not enough heat to get your wood smoking well. Smaller chips or higher temperature are the only things I've found that really solve this problem.


What material is best for cast iron handle covers? I recently obtained* my first cast iron skillet with a lid.  I cleaned it up, seasoned it and am so far happy with the cooking results.

However, it has rapidly become obvious that I need some kind of handle cover, as juggling oven mitts and towels is not really cutting it.

I see that covers are generally made out of one of:

leather
fabric (like oven mitts)
silicone

Which of these materials is best for everyday cooking?  Unsurprisingly, leather seems to be the most expensive.  I also like the look best, though that's not a deal breaker.  Does leather justify its higher price here?

*My neighbor was moving and was about to throw the skillet in a dumpster!

I would go with silicone or leather. I used fabric mitts before and the one I used became brittle with the heat.

If you can "obtain" a silicone sleeve for the handle, that would save you the effort of putting on mitts every time you need to handle it. Test the silicone before you purchase it by putting a fire to it. If it burns, it's not real pure silicone.

Good luck!


Which types of fish in sushi must be cooked? Sushi fish is raw... except for eel, which is a fish but is cooked. Are there other types of fish that are cooked in sushi? Is this a food safety issue? (e.g. shrimp/crab/seafood which aren't served raw either)

All of the following are generally cooked items:

Shrimp, ebi, available raw in sashimi, but almost always lightly poached.  The poaching brings out sweet and subtle flavors otherwise masked by a metallic tang.  It also prevents the highly perishable shrimp from losing texture to spoilage.
Octopus, tako, available raw in sashimi when sliced very thinly, but otherwise poached lightly. The poaching reduces toughness and brings out additional flavors in an otherwise bland meat.
Eel, unagi, as you noted, is ALWAYS grilled, and steamed. This is necessary to achieve the truly transcendent flavor and texture of unagi.  In fact, the cooking of eel is such a challenge that it is generally a whole separate chef profession in Japan.  Most eel comes from one of the professionals, because sushi cooks know they will never be able to match the quality themselves.  Improperly cooked eel becomes tough and has unpleasant flavors.  Raw, the blood of eels is even toxic!
Sweet egg omelet, tamago, is by definition cooked.  This is not to say that raw egg doesn't have a place in Japanese food though; tamago kake gohan is a dish of raw egg on rice, with soy sauce.
Cockle is lightly poached
Crab, kani is always cooked because... well eating raw crab meat is just vile.

For further reading, I highly suggest the online sushi encyclopedia.

Food Safety:

Sushi is only prepared from the very freshest and highest quality seafood, and sushi chefs are trained to identify parasites and signs of spoilage.  In addition, some areas (including the EU) require sushi to be frozen for 24 hours to kill parasites.

If that wasn't enough to help settle  your stomach, the pickled ginger and wasabi served along with sushi are more than garnish or simple condiments!   Both ginger and wasabi have potent and documented anti-microbial and anti-parasite properties.  Ginger is also well-known for combatting nausea.  Source: the CRC Handbook of Medicinal Spices, page 310 for wasabi and 316 for ginger. (links are to Google Books copy).


What can I do with the meat and fat trimmed from the top of lamb ribs? I'm making rack of lamb tonight. I got the rack at a local farmer's market and it was a bit less butchered than I expected. I can (and did) trim it myself, but there seems to be a lot of meat embedded in the large amount of fat I trimmed off the top of the ribs. I'm not really sure what its proper name is ("rib meat"?), so here's a couple pictures to make it clear:

I'm talking about the large slab of fat and meat in my hand in the second picture. As far as I can tell, it's usually just discarded, but there seems to be a good deal of meat there, and it was expensive, so I'd hate to just toss it.  I'm fairly patient and good at separating the fat and meat on membranes, so I can probably isolate a good portion of the meat, if necessary.

Is there anything I can do/make to avoid throwing out so much good meat?

For the record, I got about 12 oz of usable meat out of this. Didn't weigh the fat, but probably 20-24 oz.

I always save all my scraps to make stock.  I'm not sure what you would do with lamb stock, but it would probably make a good sauce to use on lamb.  The fat that renders out is also useful for future cooking of whatever it came from (duck fat for duck confit, for example).

I just throw all the scraps into a slow cooker with celery, carrot, and onion (veggies are optional) and let it cook for a day (or two).  You can pick out the meat if you like (after a day it will be easy to separate) and use it for anything you might use shredded lamb for (pot pie, shepherd's pie, etc.).

I use rendered chicken or turkey fat instead of butter for making pot pie dough, to cook more chicken in, or for matzo balls, and beef fat instead of butter for making gravy, replacing the butter in a beurre manié (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_mani%C3%A9).


What makes black pepper strong or mild? I ate black pepper with chips from the shop and it tasted very strong(a good thing for me).  I bought some black pepper from the shop however it didn’t taste the same and the label also read ‘mild’.  If it’s black pepper then it should all be the same.

What is different about mild and strong black peppers in how they are processed that makes one stronger or milder than the other? How can I ensure I get a strong one?

Does it have anything to do with the number of black to white bits, it seems to me the more black bits the stronger the taste though I could be wrong.

There are really only two main varieties of black pepper, Tellicherry and Malabar.  They are processed the same, and in general (though you might tell a difference in a side by side comparison) have the same flavor profile.  What could easily change the flavor and/or "spiciness" is freshness of the spice, and the grind (both how coarse/fine, and how recently the pepper was ground).  Further, heating the pepper in a pan before grinding, also brings out more flavor.  It also turns out that terroir is a factor in the flavor and aroma of pepper.  So, where your pepper comes from certainly impacts your experience.  The coloration is simply a composition of the inside and outside of the seed itself when it is ground and mixed.


Dicing roasted pumpkin instead of puréeing it? I have a memory of reading somewhere (but I can’t seem to find the source) that when making a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin, you could beneficially dice the pumpkin after roasting it instead of puréeing it. Is this true, or will it ruin the pie if I try that?
Also, does dicing the roasted pumpkin instead of puréeing it make it easier to deep freeze it?

If you are trying to make a classic, traditional, American Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, use pumpkin puree. If you dice the roasted pumpkin instead of pureeing it, it will be somewhat chunky. If you make a regular pumpkin pie and it has chunks in it, it will not come across as a creative twist on a classic. It will come across as, "Ew, this pie has lumps in it." Even mature adults turn into children when you start messing with the recipes their mom and grandma used to make for the holidays.
That's not to say there's no way to make a good pie with chunks of chopped, roasted pumpkin. It just won't be traditional. My rule of thumb when putting a creative twist on a traditional recipe, is to make the new version different enough from the original that I can call it something else. That way the people I feed it to are expecting something new and different.
For example, you could make a savory pie with caramelized onion and spinach and chopped roasted pumpkin. Make sure the top of it doesn't look like a regular pumpkin pie, or someone will try to eat it for dessert and be very disappointed. A crumbly or crunchy topping would do the trick.
It also helps to have a good name for your creation. Something that references the chunkiness and makes it seem like an feature, not a bug. Also something that makes it clear that it's different from the traditional. Notice that I didn't describe my savory example as a pumpkin pie. I can't wrap my brain around calling something savory a pumpkin pie, even though that's a technically accurate description.


Chocolate cake baked from recipe is too delicate/fragile I tried baking a chocolate espresso cake from this recipe. The idea was to produce a cake that could be used for a layered cake, similar to the entire recipe itself.

I baked a single layer as a test, using a third of each ingredient. I used the toothpick test and found the cake to be done around 28 minutes, which is considerably earlier than the recipe called for. However, the cake came out almost sponge-like, very light and delicate. Removing the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake without causing it to crumble proved nearly impossible.

The cake didn't come out with the domed, cracked top which I suspect has to do with the oven time. My question is whether this alone answers for why the cake turned out as it did. In the video the cake seems much sturdier than the one I ended up with. My ingredients were weighted, except for the coffee which was measured to 180ml.

Is it a matter of letting the cake sit out longer in the oven, or is there something else I'm missing?

For reference, the scaled recipe was as follows.

Cream together in a bowl 115g softened unsalted butter and 150g light brown sugar using a handheld mixer.
Add one egg and mix with the beater.
In a separate bowl, sift 120g all-purpose flour and add 25g Dutch-processed cocoa, 1.4g fine sea salt, and 3.4g baking soda. Mix them well.
Add 80ml brewed strong espresso coffee (cooled) and half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and mix with the beater.
Add 100ml brewed strong espresso coffee (cooled) and the other half of the dry ingredients to the mixture, and mix with the beater.
Pour into the prepared circular 20cm light aluminum baking pan, smooth out the top, and place into the preheated oven (175°C).

With a batter like this there are several things that can go wrong. My first guess would be, that the cake would have come out much different had you made the full recipe. When using only a third of the batter you have an increase in surface area compared to the inside of the cake. Not knowing the exact circumstances, I assume your cake dried out a bit too much while baking, especially around the edge. Higher cakes tend to be a bit more moist and also a bit more dense, which makes them more stable.

Another thing could be, that you didn't let the cake cool enough, before removing the parchment.


Yeast dough won't go "stretchy" I am getting the feeling yeast-dough just hates me...

I have been using a basic pizza recipe:

500g flour
1/2 cube of fresh yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
4 tablespoons of olive oil
250ml water

make well in flour
add crumbled yeast and some water
mix up a bit, dust with flour, rest 10 to 15 minutes
add salt to remaining flour, then bit by bit add the water and mix up.
knead for 10 to 20 minutes till it is stretchy....

It does not go stretchy, it keeps tearing.
I found advice that I don't have enough water -> so I added water.
The dough after kneading keeps returning to the previous state... but doesn't get stretchy!

How do I get the gluten freed to get the stretchy consistency it should eventually have?
It is resting (and rising) now - will kneading again after some rest and rising get me the stretchyness I would like? Have I overkneaded?
Or did SOMEthing mess up the gluten already?

PS: I am using German 405-flour, wich seems to translate to pastry flour in American types, or (the already mentioned in an answer) 00-flour in Italian types. (source)

PPS: Here are some pictures: The one on the left is the ball I get from the dough. The one on the right is what happens when I pull it apart. Click on them for full size close-up.

It should not get this tearing if kneaded properly, I believe, but stretch. Or am I misinterpreting what I see?

PPPS: as requested, more details on kneading and water:
I started out with 250 ml. Looking at my measuring cup I have by now added somewhere between 50 and 100 ml more. Strangely it does seem to make NO difference to the texture... the dough happily absorbed the additional water with some kneading.
I have been kneading by hand (embarassingly, I lost the kneading-hooks for my machine...).

What I did after getting the answer below:
Added a bit if 1050 flour (about 2 spoonfuls)
Used only about 1/4 of a cube of yeast (10g)
350ml of water (and ignore the feeling that is HAS to be too much)
Mixed up, let rest for about 10 minutes.
10 minutes kneading.
30 minutes rest and rising.
A bit more kneading.

-> Put it in the fridge for 6 hours, flattening it once.
And now I used it not to make pizza but little cinnamon-rolls (already had lunch ^^).
And they turned out GREAT, and while my dough may not have the expert-stretchyness yet, it FINALLY beats the store-bought stuff :).

Ok, this is going to be long. And you just wanted to fire up your oven and slap the sauce on the dough...but bear with me.

Gluten
The Holy Grail of elastic dough that can trap all these nice bubbles: CO2 from the yeast and steam from evaporating water. Fact is, gluten is basically a protein (ok, scientifically speaking not exactly, but close enough). If you use a low-protein flour, there simply isn't much gluten that could develop. So American cake flour isn't a good choice, but German 405 not necessarily either. Unlike the mineral content, protein content is not fixed for 405, it largely depends on the used wheat. Some mills have a higher content, some a lower. Apart from explicitly asking the manufacturer or simply trying out brands, there is no surefire way to tell. The reason the Italian tipo 00 contains more protein (and it does) is that most Italian wheats are high-protein breeds. So yes, using Italian flour can help. But so can changing the flour brand, switching to a slightly higher type (550 or adding a few spoons of 1050) or simply adding some gluten. The latter is available over the Internet or at your trusted local mill. No need to go "super-high" though. Patience and good technique are essential.
Humidity
Gluten needs water to develop. (Apart from the kneading etc., but more on that later.) A higher hydration dough1  means more water is available and the gluten strands form more easily. The math: with 500g flour and 250g water, you have a hydration of only 50%. Another 50g bump it up to 60%, 100g to 80%. As a ballpark figure, that's a good range for 405 or 550 flour. The second secret of the Italian tipo 00 comes into play here: it's milled somewhat finer than 405; due to the smaller particle size the dough can absorb even more water, following the old adage of "wetter is better" (not set in stone, but still...). You might want to check out the "stretch and fold" technique, which makes softer doughs easier to handle.
Time
Gluten develops over time. So a good, long kneading helps. But there is a another factor: resting (or proofing) time. Even with very little kneading gluten will develop over time, given sufficient humidity. You can do some light kneading, then let the dough rest for a long time at a rather low temperature with the occasional "fold".

So what can you do? Looking at your dough, yes, it is a tad dry and flaky and it tears a bit. But while you perhaps won't get an award-winning pizza crust, you'll probably be ok this time. But even while your recipe is pretty mainstream, a few tweaks might be advisable:

Ensure sufficient protein content. (See 1.)
Aim for a hydration of 65% or higher (way higher, if you dare), especially if using tipo 00. (See 2.)
Significantly lower your yeast content. This reduces the "yeasty" taste your recipe should have. Yes, this means that your dough won't mature in half an hour, but the dough for the pizza you had today at your favourite pizza place probably was made yesterday, too. Simply let it rest and rise in your fridge. A handy side effect is that the enzymes in your flour get activated and the gluten develops, too. Good for texture and flavour. Bad for an impromptu pizza party, though. (See 3.)

1 Water-to-flour-ratio. See baker's percentage. In Germany "Teigausbeute"/"TA" (all-ingredients-to-flour-ratio) is more common.


Is there a guide to traditional culinary knives by cuisine? I went to a nearby supermarket that caters to a Spanish South American and Brazilian/Portuguese clientele. In addition to their excellent onsite fishmonger and butcher, the cookware section had a broad array of culinary knives in patterns I had never seen before. I know about the various patterns of French and German knives, and about the wide array of Japanese knives and their various uses, and about the Chinese chef's cleaver, and about the Indian bonti (with and without coconut scrapers) and chakku and gandasa...

Is there a guide to traditional culinary cutlery patterns? I can recognize a number of Thai knives, but I don't have names for them. Google is failing me. Help?

Knife nerd in trouble!

A good start is probably wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_knife.
There you will see the main types of knives and their name. If you recognize one, I'd suggest you to google it.
I haven't found a comprehensive guide for all of them.


My gravy turned to jello overnight. How can I make it last for leftovers? I slow cooked a pork shoulder with some veggies (carrots, onions, celery). When it was finished, I strained out the solids and proceeded to make gravy with the liquids:

Start separating liquids (I used a fat separator)
Brown some flour
Add some butter and whisk until lumps are gone
Keep whisking and add juices (now separated, less fat) and seasoning
Simmer to desired thickness

The gravy was delicious that night, despite having developed a skin fairly quickly. After refrigerating it overnight, however, it was a gelatinous mess, and wouldn't melt back down.

What happened? How can I make gravy last for leftovers?

I think you probably used too much flour for the amount of liquid in your gravy — instead of gravy, you made pudding. You might be able to thin it down by whisking in some additional liquid such as milk or water before reheating it.

However, next time use half (or even less) percentage of flour to liquid, and you'll have better results.


How to make mint syrup with minimum water? Serious Eats recently ran a recipe for essentially water-free lemon syrup.

Is there a way to achieve something similar with mint as the flavour? The quality I'm ultimately looking for is "can be used to flavour whipped cream / cream cheese without making it break."

Well - not exactly. The reason that this technique works with lemons is that they actually do contain quite a bit of water. It's not so much "water-free" as it is using the residual water from the rinds and un-squeezed pips. Mint contains a lot less water by weight, so if you tried it in similar portions you'd wind up not with mint syrup, but with slightly-damp mint-flavored sugar.

However, that might actually work pretty well for your intended purpose. The flavorful oils in mint will dissolve very well in sugar or in something with a lot of fats, like cream. You could try gently muddling fresh mint in a small amount of sugar and letting it sit until the mint looks ragged, dissolve the mixture in cream, filter out any little bits of mint, and then using that to make your whipped cream.

You could also try breaking up the mint a bit and letting it sit in your cream for a while to extract the essential oils, but my suspicion is that you won't get quite as intense an extraction that way.

The other option that bears mentioning is using an essential oil or extract to flavor your cream or cream cheese instead.


Cold / cooked pasta safe to eat? If I cook a pan full of pasta and then put it in the fridge, is it safe to eat it cold over the space of several days?

I'm all about the convenience and don't want to have to rely on putting boiling water back over it when it's already cooked.

According to Still Tasty, a site that utilizes FDA, CDC and USDA data, cooked pasta should be fine for 3-5 days in the refrigerator.

Use a shallow container or a Ziplock bag to store the pasta, and get it in the fridge within 2 hours of cooking. To keep it from sticking, toss it with a bit of oil. You can reheat it or eat it cold.

You can freeze pasta too, which Still Tasty claims will maintain quality for 1-2 months. Pasta with sauce is somewhat better for freezing than plain. As always, freezing for longer may affect quality, but not safety. Food that is continually kept frozen at normal freezer temperatures will stay safe indefinitely.


What is the easiest way to measure bread's rising? How can I easily measure the volume of my bread as it rises?  I usually eyeball it or test for feel, but this isn't very accurate, and definitely isn't getting the full rising potential out of it.

Proofing buckets seem like one possibility, but I don't want to buy a large uni-task kitchen item if possible.  I'm also not sure what volumes to expect from a pound of dough.

Do you have a large plastic container? Something like this:
.

Use a non-permanent marker on the outside to mark the initial volume.

A small diameter will make it easier to monitor the volume.


Steak dropped in soapy dish water I accidentally dropped my steak in soapy dish water for a couple of seconds then rinsed it off and now I'm marinating it. Will it be safe to eat?

Dish soap won't kill you. You probably eat it, in traces, with every meal.

If you can't smell it or taste it, then no real harm done.


How do I fix my dough after I did not activate the yeast properly? This is my first time making anything using yeast, but I decided to try making Dominique Ansel's At-Home Cronut recipe. Everything was going fine, but I realized that I had bought rapid-rise yeast instead of instant yeast. I tried subbing the rapid-rise anyways, using the same amount that was designated for the instant yeast. I added warm water and other liquid ingredients in order to activate the yeast, but instead of putting it in a warm moist place to rise I simply left it on my kitchen counter at room temperature. Now the dough has been sitting in my refrigerator since last night. I'd like to finish this tonight, but the dough didn't really rise for reasons that are now obvious to me. What is the best approach for salvaging this situation? I really don't want to start over since I need these cronuts for tomorrow, but I'm willing to go buy more yeast if I have to.

Would appreciate a reply on this ASAP so I can get moving on finishing this.

Thoughts?
Thanks!

Putting it in the fridge probably didn't help matters any. If you had left it on the counter overnight it would probably have gotten its act in gear without further help. Yeast works slower when cool than when warm, but it does work, given time.

IMPE, dry packet yeast going bad is somewhere between rare and unheard of - unless it's stored somewhere that is too hot, or the "warm liquid" is over 115F, and that's not going bad, that's killing the yeast. Stored in the fridge, it lives effectively forever, certainly years past the expiration date.

If you have some yeast left, or buy a new packet, rehydrate it in a little water (a tablespoon/15ml or so is plenty) at about 100 degrees F (38C), give it 5-15 minutes of undisturbed soaking time, and mix into the dough - add a little flour if needed to compensate for the additional liquid.


Is it not possible to can some species of fish without adding oil? Some canned fish is available in oil or brine (e.g. tuna, salmon, saury), while other types of canned fish are only available with oil (e.g. sardines, mackerel). If I were to home can some of the latter, would it be completely necessary to add vegetable oil?

The reason sardines and mackerel are generally packed in oil is due to the naturally high amounts of fat/oil in the fish. If you cook a raw mackerel thoroughly you will soon notice the large amounts of oil left in the tray.

On the other hand when cooking Tuna you will notice the opposite and almost no matter how much oil you put in your frying pan the tuna will just keep sucking it up.

For this reason, as canning involves cooking, the oily fish are either packed in their own oil (more could be added) or something like a tomato sauce which, with it's acidity will emulsify with the fat.

If canned in brine/water you would still be left with a layer of fat floating.

Edit

In response to the comment below.

Mackerel - 100g - Raw - Fat Content: 13.9g
Sardine - 100g - Raw - Fat Content: 4.2g
Tuna - 100g - Raw - Fat Content: 1g
Saury/Pike - 100g - Raw - Fat Content: 0.7g


Can I add body to vegan stock with carrageenan? Carrageenan, a seaweed extract, is used frequently in vegan cheese and other vegan and vegetarian preparations as a thickening agent.
However, I have never seen it recommended as a way to add "body" and texture to a vegan stock, as a replacement for the collagen in meat stocks.  Particularly, I'd like to experiment with it for vegetable stocks intended to be thickened into a sauce.
Is this because it works poorly for that purpose, or just because few cooks have tried it? Or some other reason?

Carrageenan is not suitable for the application you propose.
First, you need iota carrageenan, since the kappa variety is inhibited by salt.
Second, you need a source of calcium ions for the iota carrageenan to form a gel (kappa needs potassium). I doubt that it will be sufficient to chuck a piece of kale in there, you will probably need something more. I don't know for sure how it is done in vegan cheeses, but this type of preparation is frequently firmed up with inorganic salts. If you were to add calcium sulfate to a stock, you would end up with something rather unpleasant, I imagine.
Third, the carrageenan action is also inhibited by long heating at low pH. A stock is usually not too low in pH, but it is lower than neutral.
In short, my suggestion is to pick a better suited thickener.


Can't get my Puff Pastry shells to rise I baked Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Shells according to what I thought were the directions.
Temperature set at 425 degrees.  I brushed the top with egg wash -- and only the top.
When they baked, there were a beautiful brown, but only 1 rose like the picture on the box.

The others were beautiful golden brown, but either flat or lop-sided.  They were cooked all the way through -- just not puffed up into a shell.

I put the pastry in the oven after I had thawed them in the refrigerator overnight.

What is my problem.  Why did only one of the shells rise??

Please Please help.....

The Pepperidge Farm site offers some tips for baking related to the rise:

Always preheat your oven for a minimum of 15-20 minutes before baking, because Puff Pastry depends on even heat to rise and puff. Place pastries 1 inch apart.
If you want a flaky thin and crispy pastry that's not very puffy, prick the unbaked Puff Pastry all over with a fork, which lets steam escape while baking.
To create a tart with an extra puffy crust: take a knife and score two lines around the edge, then prick the area inside this border with a fork.

I would begin by verifying that these tips were observed. Also, I would verify that your oven bakes consistently (i.e. no hot/cold spots). Preheating can be very helpful in resolving this. Also, you can put in a pizza stone or other heat regulating product, and monitor the temperature with a probe thermometer in water in different areas of the oven.


Why does my skillet burn even when using peanut oil? When I use peanut oil which is one of the highest smoke point oils the oil still burns. Why is this happening? Is it the burner that's too hot? I have used the burner mainly on high

Just because peanut oil has a higher smoke point than other oils doesn't mean your pan won't get hotter.

Don't leave your pan on high for so long.


Is the grey stuff the thing we make fond out of When cooking minced meat in particular (and most meat as far as I know), some grey, gooey stuff usually turn up on one side.

Its also apparent when doing certain sous vide things and chicken (in that case white).

As I've understood it, that's denatured proteins that are forced out of the meat. But in that case - shouldn't it always be like that, just that we often don't see it because we brown it immediately?

So my hypothesis is that the good brown stuff in the bottom of the pan that we use when deglazing, really just is browned "grey stuff". And not to any large extent "parts of the meat that gets stuck", since when it happens, it is very annoying, and i cant imagine how it can get stuck "a little".

Is this correct?

EDIT:
I'll rephrase it:
What approximate proportions are between

browned protein scum
browned small stuck pieces of meat

In the bottom of the pan right before deglazing?

And could I scrape off the grey stuff from say a meatloaf and fry it separately to get an awesome sauce?

Fond isn't just browned protein scum. There really are small bits of meat/fat that get stuck on the pan, and you should be able to see them before they're thoroughly browned/burned if you pay close attention.

That kind of sticking isn't the same as when meat sticks really obviously and badly. When that happens, you'll naturally notice when you try to move the meat, and be aware of what's sticking to the pan. But even without that kind of awful sticking, you can have tiny little pieces that stick, then tear away from the bulk of the meat when you turn it. You won't notice nearly as easily, because most of the meat isn't stuck.

The exact details depend on the type and cut of meat, I suppose, but in general it's quite easy for this to happen.

As for the additional questions... proportions probably vary a lot, but I'm guessing in terms of protein and fat (i.e. without the water that you're just going to cook off) there may actually be a lot more in the stuck bits than in the juices and protein scum. I know that the really good fonds come from pans that have a lot of obvious stuck bits, not just an even coating of cooked-down liquid across the pan. I'm sure you could make something without any stuck bits, but you probably won't be able to make nearly as much as you'd get from the normal process.


How much evaporated milk do I use for a half a cup of milk I'm trying to make peanut butter fudge and it's calling for a half a cup of milk I don't have milk I'd like to know if I can substitute evaporated milk

In order to substitute evaporated milk for regular milk, you need to reconstitute the milk according to package instructions. Usually, that's a 1 to 1 ratio. So you would use 1/4 cup each of evaporated milk and water. (double check the label, other concentrations may exist)

See: Can evaporated milk be converted to "regular" milk?


Does natural {peanut, cashew, almond} butter require refrigeration? I have purchased a few different types of natural peanut butter and all have stated that refrigeration is required after opening. However, I recently purchased Archer's Farms Almond, Peanut & Cashew Butter from Target which doesn't say anything about refrigeration after opening. From what I've read on other sites (anecdotal) and some .edu sites, raw/natural nut butters can grow mold and do require refrigeration. Any ideas on why Archer's Farms butter doesn't say anything about refrigeration?

Peanut butter
unopened           6-9 months    Refrigeration not needed. Keeps
opened             2-3 months    longer if refrigerated. Natural
                                   peanut butter must be
                                   refrigerated after opening.

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn579-2.htm

I don't think I've ever seen peanut butter grow mold, natural or commercial, refrigerated or not. What will happen with natural peanut butter is that the fat (of which there's plenty) will go rancid over time.

The oxidation process that leads to rancidity requires heat, light, and usually oxygen; keeping it in the refrigerator will therefore slow the process down significantly.

Manufacturers are probably not required to put the "keep refrigerated" warning on nut butters because eating rancid food technically won't kill you or make you seriously ill. When a product says to keep refrigerated, sometimes that's for safety, sometimes it's just for quality - in the case of peanut butter it's typically the latter.

Commercial peanut butter has a ton of sugar and other preservatives, which is why refrigeration is not necessary, even for quality purposes.


Are there cheeses with less saturated fat? I like cheese, but I'd like to find ones with better fat ratios.

Do all cheeses have high amounts of saturated fat? More importantly, are there any natural cheeses that have a high mono- and polyunsaturated fat to saturated fat ratio?

I know for instance that nuts can vary in this regard. Some nuts can be high in saturated fat while others aren't. I'm looking for something similar with cheeses.

Finally, if such cheeses exist, are any of them suitable for pizza?

No, there aren't such cheeses. All cheeses are made from the same basic product - milk - and there are no changes to the fat happening in the cheesemaking process. Whatever ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats goes in, the same ratio goes out.

There are cheeses made from milk of different animals, and they do have a different ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat:

cow: 55% saturated
sheep: 65% saturated
goat: 65% saturated

As you see, the difference is very small. Besides, the majority of cheeses you get in the West are made with cow's milk, which has the lowest saturation of the three. If this is too much for your dietary goals, then you don't have alternatives with less saturated fat.


Does turmeric have a definitive taste? I’ve made recipes that included turmeric, and I’ve read articles about its health benefits, but I’ve made the same recipes without turmeric without any noticeable taste difference - the lovely color was missing, but that’s about it. Is this because I’m using powdered turmeric from the grocery spice rack? Or does turmeric lack a definitive taste?

Turmeric does have its own flavour, even dried.  However it's commonly used with other, stronger, spices.  This means that it adds a bit of depth to the flavour but in a subtle way.

The flavour of turmeric also cooks out to some extent (as does ginger, to which it's related) so adding it towards the end of cooking retains more flavour.  For a highly-coloured dish I make (a mild curry using Quorn or chicken with a yoghurt- and almond-based sauce) I add some early, and some more after the yoghurt.  Without the latter, the flavour isn't as good; without the former the colour isn't as good.

If you want to get an idea of the taste of turmeric on its own, try steeping some in a little vodka, straining, and sipping.  I did this recently for other reasons and the taste is quite pleasant, if unexpected in a drink.


Deep frying without schnitzels sticking to each other How do I avoid the phenomenon of pieces of breaded schnitzel sticking together inside the deep fryer

Sometimes it's better to say: Don't put them in the deep fryer: add some pepper, paprika and butter on top of them and put them in the oven at 175°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.

If you insist on using a deep fryer:

Ensure you have a fryer large enough so they don't touch one another

OR

Deep fry them one by one in a small fryer and then microwave them all together for 1 minute at 750W just before serving them.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯


What do eggs do in enriching and glazing I have got thinking about this and now I want to know an answer.

In most functions of eggs (coating, thickening etc) all are from coagulation but glazing and enriching do not.

What is the function of the egg in those egg uses because the egg doesn't coagulate.

Glazing has something to do with browning (a.k.a the Maillard reaction) and also the fats and perhaps other substances in the yolk.

When you bake a pastry covered with eggwash, the high heat cooks the egg to an extent that changes the chemical properties of the sugars and proteins in it. The result is golden-brown, lightly shiny and quite falvorful coating. The chemistry behind it is the same one that browns steaks and toasts in high-heat. I'm not sure about the fat's role in the glazing, but eggwash made from whole eggs or just the "fatfull) yolk produce shinyer glazes than what the low-fat eggwhite produces (but it still does!)

As for "enriching": as rumstcho commented,"enriching" is a loose name for many different things. In mayonnaise, for example (a vinigrette sauce with up to 10 times the amount of oil, "enriched" but to be more percise emulsified with eggyolk), the egg just gives its lecitin - an organic chemical that binds oil and water. It's thanks to the lecitin that mayonnaise is so rich. Without it you'd have a glass of oil with a cup of water in it.

But in other cases the "enriching" is indeed made by coagulation. I'll take another example from the world of sauces: when you make hollandaise sauce, the creamy texture is achieved by beating the eggs while you lightly heat them, and thus partially coagulating the proteins.

Eggs are a true magic. I'd mention that it's one of nature's few original, dedicated foods, but the last time I wrote that I was oddly trolled. But do ask further.


Impastata Ricotta for Cannoli I have been trying to make homemade cannoli filling, but I can not find Impastata Ricotta anywhere. I have tried using regular Ricotta, leaving it to drain in a cheesecloth overnight and then food processes it, and I've also tried with powdered sugar but it is very runny, and very little moisture comes out in the cheesecloth.

Does anyone know:

How to make Impastata Ricotta?
Where I can buy it in Phoenix, AZ
How to treat regular Ricotta so it is similar to impastata? And also which brand to start with.

Thanks!

I use regular Whole Milk Ricotta. Spread the Ricotta out on 1/2 of a white terry towel. Fold the other half of the towel over the cheese. Smooth it out and let it sit, inverting the folded towel after 15-20 minutes to dry the other side. This the best method to dry Ricotta cheese.


Does using a larger slow cooker than called for by the recipe make a difference? I have a recipe that specifically calls for a 4-quart slow cooker, however the slow cooker that I own is a 6-quart. Will using a 6-quart slow cooker make a difference, or does it not matter?

Size does matter in a slow cooker. In order for it to cook effectively a slow cooker has to be at least 2/3 full, other wise it cooks hot and will generally dry out faster. If you are cooking at less than 2/3 full you need to adjust your heat settings and/or depending on the recipe adjust the amount of liquid. Cooking meats becomes especially troublesome when underfilling because they tend to dry out and end up a lot tougher than expected. If you are cooking stews or chilis then simply adding more liquid to your recipe will generally work.


What to call this utensil I'd like to know how to call this cooking utensil, great for stirring soup and sauces. Origin eastern european, this particular one is Polish. Am trying to buy more but do not know what name to look for.

I'm unsure about an English term, but in German it is a "Quirl", related to the "whorl" of twigs on a stem it was originally made of - for example from old Christmas trees:

(source)

Later versions mimicked this with a star-shaped wooden or porcelain "head" on a wooden handle,

(source / source)

the plastic head is a more modern twist:

(source)

In Central Europe you should be able to buy them from either kitchen stores or - if regionally less common - from various online retailers.


chocolate fudge not having harder or sticky consistency how to make a proper chocolate fudge, which is as shown in picture?
I followed a recipe shown online, where condensed milk and chocolate chips have put in Microwave oven for 3 mins; and after refrigerating; it was perfect fudge.

When I followed the same recipe; after refrigerating; it became so watery as a sweet chocolate sauce, Please help;

If condensed milk and chocolate chips are, basically, your only ingredients, make sure you are using sweetened condensed milk and not just evaporated milk.  The 5-minute fudge recipe has been a staple of bake sales and church socials for as long as I can remember and should work on a 3-minute microwave cycle. Some recipes mix the types of chips (milk chocolate + semi-sweet chocolate) - some recipes throw in a couple tablespoons of butter into the mix (Eagle Brand's recipe is more purist, though). But sweetened condensed milk and a LOT of chocolate chips should do the trick.

http://www.eaglebrand.com/recipes/details/?RecipeId=3968

The only other problem I can think of would be if you microwaved your chips alone first and they got so hot that the chocolate seized - or if you used some kind of chocolate flavored chips that were made from mystery materials.

I don't like to use the microwave to melt chocolate - ever.  For a recipe like this, I would melt the chocolate into the sweetened condensed milk over a double boiler or in a heavy saucepan over low heat - sometimes slow and steady wins the race.


Pot selection for fudge Is there a particular kind/size of pot recommended for making fudge?

You should use a large, heavy pan with a thick metal base, definitely not non-stick.


Where to source Tapioca balls for Homemade Milk Tea? Looking to make some bubble tea at home, not sure where to source the tapioca balls from.

Local grocery stores don't seem to have them.

Are these generally "balled" at home, or bought already in ball form?

I'm in the Toronto, Canada area.

I would personally go buy them at an Asian grocery or online (Amazon or something similar), but you can make them. It seems fairly straightforward if you have the tapioca powder.

Recipe One

Recipe Two


How do eggs relate to the texture of the cake? But to answer your last question, eggs role in cakes isn't necessarily
  to contribute flavor, but more as a binding agent, which ultimately
  determines the texture of your cake (e.g. light and airy, or thick and
  dense).

http://www.chowhound.com/post/eggs-put-cake-700653?commentId=5538121

So, does lots of eggs mean light cake or dense cake? How does this work? What can happen if I put too many eggs in the cake?

I'll take a stab at this broad question, because I think it deserves at least an attempt at a general answer.

Eggs are very important to the texture of many cakes, but as noted in comments, the effects of changing the amount of eggs are really dependent on the type of cake.  To generalize:

For cakes that are intended to be light in texture already, the quantity of eggs is generally pretty well calibrated to maximize lightness -- adding or subtracting a significant amount of egg is unlikely to improve the texture.
For dense cakes, the exact amount of eggs is frequently more about richness and flavor than creating a precise texture.  However, shifting the number of eggs appreciably could change baking time and how the cake sets.

Unbeaten eggs are (as the question notes) mostly for binding, rather than lightness.  They also provide a richness to the flavor and can soften the texture.  Yolks alone (or using more yolks than whites) are also often used for richness, as in very dense or velvety cakes (like flourless chocolate cakes).  Whites even unbeaten will bulk up the cake a bit and can help support the cake's structure through earlier coagulation during baking.  However, having more unbeaten eggs doesn't necessarily mean a "lighter" or "denser" cake: that will depend more on the other proportions of ingredients and how high the cake rises before the eggs coagulate.

Beaten eggs are generally used to add lightness.  Beaten whites provide the most lift and lightness (as in angel food cakes).  Beaten whole eggs or beaten yolks can also contribute something to lightness, particularly when they are beaten together with something else to stabilize them (most commonly sugar) and/or heated gently until they become "ribbon-like" and thick (but not so hot as to coagulate).  Often whites and yolks are added separately, with the beaten whites sometimes folded in toward the end to add extra lightness.  In general, the foam from whole eggs is a lot less stable, so whole eggs are frequently beaten into recipes after the primary bubbles are created (e.g., through creaming butter with sugar, or other possible methods).

So, in general, it's not so much that "more eggs" means lighter or denser or whatever -- it really depends on the detailed mixing methods and how the eggs are used.

When eggs are used for lightness (for example, when whites are beaten separately and folded in), the addition of another egg or two may sometimes be useful for increasing lightness, while removing some egg will likely make the cake more dense (and somewhat less rich).  But again, this really depends on the exact composition of the cake already.  For most recipes, there is often a "sweet spot" where the right amount of eggs will stabilize the structure and keep the cake light, whereas less might result in a denser and drier texture with a tougher crumb (more like a sweet bread than a cake, or perhaps more crumbly given the low gluten content of many cakes), and more will provide no further benefit and will eventually begin to weigh the cake down (and will start to create a noticeable "eggy" flavor).

By adding even more eggs, eventually the cake texture will begin to change significantly as it becomes more dense.  Without sufficient flour to balance the eggs, eventually the cake will have a custard-like texture and flavor, first likely resembling "French toast" and then with a huge excess of eggs becoming essentially a custard OR developing curds and clumps of egg protein and becoming more of an odd "baked omelet" (depending on proportions of other ingredients).

A final factor is balancing other leaveners and moisture if adding or reducing eggs, since a final contribution of eggs is simply their liquid content.  Significantly reducing eggs will impact the moisture of the cake and in extreme cases could result in a heavy dry crumbly mass or a wet mess that won't set.  The thickness of the batter is also generally calibrated to the amount of leavening (e.g., baking powder).  Too much leavening in a thin batter, and the bubbles will be too big and will rise to the top of the batter and burst.  Too little leavening, and the cake will never rise.  Either way, you could end up with a dense final product if things are out of balance.


Will a fishmonger or bait shop clean a fish you caught for a fee? I love fishing, especially saltwater surfcasting, but up until now it's been mostly "catch and release" - this summer I would like to try fresh-caught striped bass or bluefish. I am terrible at cleaning and gutting fish, and I would prefer not to hack my catch into inedibility. Do independent fishmongers clean and fillet fish brought in by customers for a fee? How about bait shops?

It depends upon where you plan to fish. Communities that have a big fishing tradition will certainly have people that will do that. The bait shops near the fishing spot will know who to ask.


How do you get a sear on chicken breast without overcooking it? Since chicken breast does not have much fat, it can overcook (and thus get dry) very quickly in the temperatures required for a sear. Therefore I always end with either flavorful (but dry) chicken, or juicy (but flavorless) chicken.

What is the way to get the best of the both worlds, which is to have browned chicken that is juicy and moist?*

*No sous vie please

You have two options:

A very hot sear on both sides, then move it to a cooler oven (about 350 to 400°F (175 to 205°C) or indirect heat on a  grill) to finish.
Cook it in an oven at a lower temperature (350 to 400°F again) until the middle is cooked through (or a few degrees off for carry-over), then sear on a hot pan or grill.

I can't remember who did it, but there was some testing for how thick the overcooked portion was on steaks, and they found it better to sear after.  I would assume the same would be true for poultry.


How to get the texture of commercial ketchup? This has some relation to my previous question. Though I have managed to successfully blend xanthan gum with my home-made tomato mixture, I am unable to achieve a texture close to Hienz, or Hunt's ketchup, or any commercial sauce for that matter.

My xanthan gum-added ketchup does not have the same buttery, smooth texture of Hienz. No matter what I do, the resulting sauce is too mucus-like.

My question is, besides xanthan gum, do ketchup manufacturers add anything else to achieve the buttery, smooth texture?

Below is my ketchup recipe:

Boil 1kg of canned San Marzano tomatoes for 5 mins, until soft.
Press the mixture through a sieve to get a clear juice and filter out any pulp or skin. Ketch
I would then simmer this juice with 200ml of vinegar on a pot for 3- 4 hours until it reduces from 900ml to 300ml. Note that at this point, the sauce is still watery.
I added xanthan gum at this step, 1/8 of a teaspoon at a time. The resulting mixture after adding around 3/8 teaspoons was that the ketchup was still thin, but already mucus-like in mouth feel. Adding more xanthan gum at this point thickened the sauce considerably, but also made it more disgusting in mouth feel.

Try sugar.

Per Heinz' website, the ingredients in their ketchup are:

  TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES, DISTILLED VINEGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICE, ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVORING

I notice that they do not include xanthan gum at all, but they do include sugar in the form of various corn syrups.  Cooking plain sugar can can harden it (think the ball stages of candy-making).  I think that what happens in commercial ketchup is not so much a "thickening" as a "hardening" of the tomato syrup, for lack of a better word.  It is likely that during the reducing stage of ketchup making, the sugar reaches what would be at least soft-ball stage if the ratio of sugar to everything else was correct, thus leading to a ketchup that is "thick" but not hard or mucus-y.

Edited to add:  As noted in the comments by @Ecnerwal, Heinz also seems to be using a tomato concentrate, which would include the flesh of the tomatoes.  When I initially read the question, I seem to have missed that you're straining out the solids.  Try leaving them in as you reduce-- the addition of solid matter will also help thicken while providing a better mouthfeel.


How tight should the lid be when braising? Much of the braising guidance I've read emphasizes the importance of a tight-fitting lid.  For example, in All About Braising, pp. 18-19, Molly Stevens provides instructions for sealing a braising pot with parchment paper.  The goal is to reinforce the seal since "much of the success of braising depends on trapping moisture in the pot."

On the other hand, Harold McGee, in his "Guidelines for Succulent Braises and Stews," advises braising with "the pot lid ajar to allow some evaporation" (On Food and Cooking, p. 163).  J. Kenji López-Alt, in his Food Lab article on Great Chile Verde Without Hatch Chiles, notes that a pot with its lid left slightly ajar "stays a good 20°F lower, keeping the meat inside at a temperature far closer to the ideal."

How do I make sense of this seemingly contradictory advice?

The advice isn't necessarily contradictory, both methods are valid depending on what you want to achieve. Running out of moisture in a braise is a bad thing, so if I'm braising something with limited moisture then a tight lid keeps the liquid from evaporating. A good example would be when I cook beef shin, I add a cup of water and a cup of wine, and that's all, so I don't want to lose any of it.

In some recipes you start off with more moisture than you need, or there are ingredients which are going add to the moisture in the pot as they cook (think peppers, zucchini, cauliflower). In these cases keeping the lid off a bit allows the excess water to evaporate, thickening up the cooking liquid.


Thermo bottle for impromptu sous vide? I would like to try out sous vide, but I don't want to invest in the gadgets, until I have tried it and decided I want to keep using it. So I have thought about the best way to try it with no budget. Online, one of the method suggested is to use a beer cooler and zip bags. Would it also work to use a thermo bottle (a bottle, which keeps your tea / coffee warm) for this? I recently used my thermo bottle for 12 hours+, in the winter, and even after 12 hours it provided fairly hot tea. Would this work or would it be too small as container? I am pretty sure, that it could hold the temperature well. Or would it be better to simply use a pot on the stove and stir occasionally? I am not trying to achieve amazing results here, just to get a taste of the technique and see if it really is beneficial for me.

I don't think a thermos bottle will give you enough room to cook much of anything.  However in principle, it could work.  It would be better to use a cooler.  This old Serious Eats article explains everything.  Of course, that was written 8 or 9 years ago, when immersion circulators were very pricey.  You can get them now for as low as $99 US.

You won't need 12 hours (and I wouldn't recommend any long duration cooks without an actual circulator).  You can easily cook a steak (even in a pot in the kitchen sink with running hot water if your water heater puts out high enough heat) in an hour.  You could also do this on the stove top, controlling the burner and monitoring the water temperature, but a cooler will retain the heat and you will be pretty good for a cook of an hour or so.

I've been using sous vide for at least 10 years.  I don't use it for everything.  It's one of a set of kitchen tools.  However, I do find it useful.  Given the current price point, I would say it is worth the purchase.  Plus, then you have the most control, with less monitoring...plus the ability to experiment with much longer cooking times (which impacts texture of proteins).


How to keep opened coconut safely? Once the coconut is opened , it is attracting fruit flies and other flies. Also, the white color changes to brownish, rendering it unusable.

Is there any way we can "save" an opened coconut. I do not have a  refrigerator yet, so techniques that don't involve a fridge are appreciated.

I would suggest just put some plastic foil around it, so the bugs aren't on it. And don't put it in direct sunlight. Since you have no fridge, maybe search for a 'cooler' place (cellar, cabinet, a place where the sun never comes etc.) to put it.

I myself take out all the meat of the coconut, put plastic foil around it and put it in the fridge. That way, it's good for a couple of days.

Do you have a freezer? You can also put some in there. It will be good for longer than a couple of days (up to a couple of months if you preserved it well). I have no idea how it turns out afterwards. I'm guessing it will be a bit less 'juicy'.

Another way to preserve it, is to dry the coconut. But this will of course damage the flavour.


What is the name of the middle eastern salad containing Tomato and Cucumber? Not sure if there is an proper name, had it in Israel but have seen it (or similar variations) in Moroccan restaurants (in the US).  Comprised of primarily diced cucumbers and tomatoes, that have been seasoned.

Not too surprisingly given where you found it, it's called an Israeli Salad in most parts of the world.

In Israel, it's just called a chopped salad or (according to the wiki article - I never personally encountered this) an Arab salad.


How to keep Indian curry made with condensed milk from separating The Chicken Korma recipe that I've been making always seems to separate near the end of preparation. This ranges from small lumps forming too yellow water raising to the surface.
I read through the advice at How do I prevent coconut milk from separating in Thai curry? and was careful to keep a low simmer.

The recipe is basically:

Fry butter, onions & spices in stages
Add cubed chicken breasts and let fry
Add 1 cup tap water (perhaps the culprit?) and plain yogurt (not low fat) let fry
Add 1 can 2% Condensed Milk reduce heat and simmer

I'm using a coated steel wok on a large element. For steps 1-3 I use just over medium heat and switch to medium-low, low for 4. After 2-3 minutes, the sauce starts to break.

Try
1. adding the milk after the curry cools down or
2. Adding milk before adding salt


Can Ice Cream Maker Wall be Too Cold? There seems to be a recommended minimum temperature for making ice cream of about -30C.  But, the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-200C),
which is often used for the same purpose, is much lower.
So, what is the harm in making ice cream using an outer freeze wall below -30C?

During freezing, you care about two parameters - crystal size and overrun. While people making ice cream at home will frequently tell you that smaller crystals equal softer ice cream, that's not exactly correct, especially when you can control the two parameters over a wider range. In reality, smaller crystals make smoother ice cream, while more overrun makes softer ice cream.
In the context of commercial ice cream freezing with a conventional freezer (not liquid nitrogen), if your ice cream freezes too quickly, it will be frozen before it has been properly frothed by the dasher, and you will end up with too dense ice cream. This is why commercial freezers are made on purpose in the -23 to -29C range. They could build them colder, but that is not desirable. This seems to be true over a wide range of technologies, since both batch freezers and continuous freezers operate at these temperatures. The amount of overrun is then controlled by dasher speed and dasher design.
I don't know the exact physics of liquid nitrogen ice cream and why it works well. I could imagine different scenarios: maybe people consuming it prefer low-overrun ice cream, maybe the boiling nitrogen introduces sufficient aeration, or maybe the dasher breaks it up into very fine pieces because it is so incredibly brittle. Possibly somebody with first-hand experience will comment on this. But it is a different principle than conventional ice cream preparation where you want to give your ice cream time to get churned properly before it freezes too much.


Making Southern style chicken in the oven I've been trying to make southern style chicken in the oven. I firstly soak my chicken in buttermilk, I then dredge it in flour, leave to stand for half an hour to dry a bit. I then dredge it again in the seasoned flour again. I've tried a egg wash and missing the egg wash out.  I then place the chicken on a quality non stick roasting dish and spray it with a butter/oil cooking mist. Every time I make this, the batter sticks to the roasting dish leaving one side of the chicken with no batter. Any ideas what I'm not doing correctly?

I've tried parchment paper and it sticks like crazy. I'm delicate about removing it from the pan. Would using a nonstick spray help?

Try raising the chicken above the roasting pan, with something like a grill grate or roasting rack. Having air flow to the bottom of the chicken pieces will help crisp up the batter on that surface, and the surface area of anything that can stick to your chicken will be limited as well. You will also want to use very high heat (~450F) when cooking, so that the batter will get to the proper texture.


How to prepare mint for use? I have mint growing in the garden, and I'd like to use it in cooking and in drinks (like hot chocolate).  Are you supposed to dry the mint and then crumble/ground it up?

For something like a drink, I generally bruise the mint and use the whole leaves fresh - rub it between your fingers a bit to release the oils and then just drop it in the drink.  The main benefit of this method for me is that a bunch of dry, crumbled mint in a drink is going to make it look very muddled and hard to drink, as you're constantly getting a mouthful of dried leaves (you could get around this by steeping it with the dried herbs and then straining it, but that's too much work!).  As a bonus, fresh picked herbs in a nice glass of lemonade, for example, just looks so fresh and tasty!

If I'm cooking with it and I have a supply of fresh on hand, I prefer to use that.  Depending on the dish, it might be whole leaves, but more likely chopped - I actually use kitchen scissors for a lot of fresh herb preparation as it can be easier than a knife in many cases.

You certainly can dry it, especially at the end of season when you need to harvest, and use the dried leaves in place of fresh.  The main benefit to drying is that it stores really well; dry also seems to be a bit more powerful, at least when first dried.  Over time the flavor of dried herbs will degrade.  You usually use a 3 to 1 ratio replacement - if a dish calls for 1 tablespoon of fresh mint, you'd use 1 teaspoon of dried, though as the dried herbs age you'll have to increase the amount used over time.


Making cake and added oil at end instead of at the beginning I forgot to add the oil at the beginning of my zucchini cake and had to add it at the end, after all the flour was in.  So I had to beat it in a little.  Do you think it will still turn out?

It's been a while since I've done it (mine were mostly with muffins, although I might've done it with some zucchini brownies this past spring), but I want to say it'll come out, but it might be different.
You'll have developed more gluten, as oil coating the flour prevents the water from getting to it as quickly.  And there's the extra beating to get it all in there.  So it probably won't come out as light as you were hoping.
But I find zucchini bread & cake recipes to be highly variable anyway -- as how much liquid you squeeze out of it (and by extension, how finely you grate it), has a huge impact on the final result.


Botulism risk with oil I've been reading about oil infused with raw veg and herbs and how it can give you botulism, and now I'm worried that when I use oil when preparing any vegetables I will contaminate my oil with bacteria, for example if I chop up some potatoes and then use the oil bottle to pour it over them without washing my hands. Am I crazy or not? Does there need to be a substantial amount of raw veg to cause problems or could any particles with the bacteria on it get in there hurt someone? As the bacteria is everywhere it seems like it could easily make its way in there and the oil is the perfect environment for it to survive.

The bottom line: yes, you are crazy.

Botulism arises when you have a substance which carries clostridium botulinum and keep it for a while (timescales of days rather than hours or minutes) in an anaerobic environment (like a bottle of oil).

The bacteria cannot burrow into the bottle from the outside, nor can it swim against gravity from your vegetables into the oil. The problem arises only if you end up with some of the vegetable matter inside the bottle.

If you are still concerned about this, you can decant some oil into a measuring cup and pour from there.