When should or shouldn't you use pasta water? Every sauced pasta dish recipe I ever read calls for using the water in which the pasta was cooked for the purpose of thickening the sauce, as the water contains a lot of starch which helps the pasta adhere to the sauce

In this recipe, this step is skipped and the pasta is added without any water/starch

What was the reason for not using the pasta water? Or in other words, when should you not want to add pasta water? (other than in cold pasta dishes like salads)

The simplest answer is, if you need to dilute the pasta sauce, it’s better to use the cooking water.


Sous-vide - What does circulation accomplish? Sous-vide has been on my radar for a while, but there is no way I am going to spend $500 for a new kitchen toy, nor have I been terribly excited about the do-it-yourself projects that I've seen over the last few years. Now I see a plug-n-play unit that's reasonably priced (not to mention cutely named) dorkfood, so I'm looking at sous-vide again. I notice that many of the more expensive units are "circulators", others are "ovens". Is the circulation just a way to heat water as it passes through the heating unit, or does movement of the water affect the cooking process? If it does have an effect, what is it?

Since temperature control is so vital to sous vide cooking, the circulation serves to make sure that all of the water is moving and of an even temperature. If you just had a heating element submerged without a circulator, you would get some convection currents, but there would be hot and cold spots in your water bath. If these differences were even just a few degrees, you could end up with proteins not hitting their coagulation temperatures, connective tissues not softening, pectin not broken down, etc. All in all, it would defeat the purpose of this cooking method!

As for the differentiation between "circulators" and "water ovens", there may not be one. Frequently the actual thermal unit and pump is referred to as the "circulator" and the whole assembly with a vessel and water is referred to as the "oven", but I'd check the specs of each model to see whether it has all the parts you're looking for.


Does seasoned cast iron still need to be oven dried? I have a new, twice-seasoned (to 250C), (non-enameled) cast iron pan. Does the seasoning/coating remove the need to have it oven dried at the end of the day? Or it still has to be done no matter the seasoning?

Any exposed, non-coated part of a cast iron pan will be subject to rusting. Oven drying drives off the water before the reaction can happen to a noticeable amount.

The seemingly smart alec, but actually serious answer is: try to not oven dry it. If it does not generate rust, then it is seasoned enough. If it rusts, then rub again with light oil and oven dry. I tend to lightly wipe all over my cast iron a bunch of times until I get the entire pan nicely seasoned.


How do you make a cake with soft fillings baked inside? I've seen cakes baked with soft fillings inside like a cream cheese of chocolate buttercream type filling that were obviously baked in there, rather than baking and filling when cold. What are the general techniques for doing this, and do they work with all kinds of fillings?

I have a few recipes that are made like that, and the general technique is:

1) Fill the cake tin with half of the batter you would use for a cake;
2) Spoon or pipe the required quantity of filling;
3) Fill the tin with the rest of the batter;
4) PROFIT!

It doesn't work with all fillings, considering that you need to have a filling that is heat resistant (buttercream is a no-no) and that doesn't expand when heated (nothing too airy).

The recipes I have call for brigadeiro (which is a kind of chocolate fudge made with condensed milk, powdered cocoa and butter, previously cooked), dulce de leche, fruit jam and one of them uses a mix of cream cheese, sugar and Bailey's, and all of them work very well.


How to prevent shitakes from sticking to pan when sauteeing? Is there any way to prevent shitakes from sticking to the stainless steel pan when sauteeing in olive oil? I cook with many different kinds of mushrooms and only shitakes, and to some degree portobellos, do this.

You need to use more oil, and fry at a higher temperature. The oil in your picture is not nearly enough to lubricate the sticky parts, and at the low temperature, the mushrooms are producing quite of bit of wet gunk. Also, you should be stirring (or jumping) them a lot, not leaving them to sweat alone.


What spike is this? Identifying some utensils I moved into a new home and found these spikes left behind in different drawers in the kitchen. I assume they are for cooking, but they are not items that I have come across in my limited culinary experience. Can you help me identify them and maybe suggest a recipe that uses them?

In the background is a large spike-stand.

The foreground, is a bunch of six individual spikes with two 90 degree bends, and a sharp point on the long side.

They may have been supplied with the oven (gas stove, electric oven) or the combination microwave/grill, or maybe have nothing to do with them at all (or cooking in general) and may have nothing to do with each other.

I have a definitive answer. I found a manual to the combination microwave oven, which is a Samsung C108STBC or similar.
The accessories to this oven (which can grill and/or microwave) include:

a roasting spit (also referred to as "roasting stand") which is the larger spike.

The roasting spit is a convenient way of barbecuing a chicken, as the meat does not have to be turned over. It can be used for grill combination cooking.

the skewers that fit into a plastic "coupler" that I found in another cupboard drawer (it looks a little like a cotton reel and I would have never picked it as something to be put in an oven). Together, the skewers are mounted vertically in a circle to form a "multi-spit".

Using the multi-spit with 6 kebab skewers you can easily barbecue meat, poultry, fish, vegetables (like onions, peppers or courgettes) and fruit which have been cut into pieces.


Are chilies in olive oil dangerous? In Portugal, chilies in olive oil are a very typical form of spicy sauce, in both commercial  and artisan forms. Different types, amounts, and mixes of chillies result in different flavours and it can be very nice.

However, I worry about botulism. I have googled for this and find many warnings against preserving garlic or other spices in oil, but nothing related to chilies in particular.

Are chilies different?

Or are the commercial chili olive oils prepared in a way that makes them safe? Any way to achieve the same at home or should I just stick to the industrially prepared products?

There's nothing magical about garlic that causes it to be especially prone to botulism - it's just commonly found as an example because it's commonly used to prepare flavoured oils.

All low-acid foods must be acidified or pressure-canned before long-term storage. Storage in oil creates an anaerobic environment which further promotes botulism, and room-temperature storage is even more risky.

Chili peppers are low acid, like all peppers, so yes, they're a risk.


A Substitute for beef shanks? I'm from Mexico, and a very popular dish over there is "Caldo de Res" (Beef broth), and it's made with beef shanks, but I haven't been able to get it where I live, not even in local butcheries.

I have been wondering if there's a good substitue for shanks? I've also tried to look for cow's tail but still no luck.

Some people have recommended prime rib, but the taste and the texture is not the same.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

Oxtail would be your most likely substitute, but you have indicated you cannot obtain it.

The next best choice (of those widely available) is probably chuck, which is the shoulder muscle, and is well worked and flavored.   It requires low and slow cooking for best results, much like shanks and tail do.

Some stores—even the chain grocery stores—will special order for you if you ask them to, so you might be able to get shank.  Depending on where you live, you may also try butchers at farmers' markets, Dutch markets, or similar.


How long can I keep cannoli shells with no filling and how should I store them How long can I store cannoli shells with no filling?  What is the best way to do this?  I am traveling 5 days to my destination.

I’m assuming you mean just the shells unfilled. If you made the shells yourself, line a cardboard box with paper bag material (cut up some) then just lay them in. They’ll be fine for a couple of weeks, probably longer. If you bought them, don’t worry about it they last just as long if not longer.  Just leave them in their original container.


How to make homemade ice cream with a chocolate swirl My favorite ice cream flavor has swirls of gooey chocolate running through vanilla ice cream.

What do I have to do to reproduce this effect with homemade ice cream?

I tried adding chocolate sauce near the end of churning but it was too thoroughly churned in. I have tried swirling the chocolate sauce in manually with a spoon after the churn but before freezing but the syrup mostly just floated on top.

I am using a simple syrup based chocolate sauce.
What technique should I use to produce my chocolate swirls? Does the consistency of the syrup play a role? Would some other chocolate sauce work better- such as hot fudge?

When I've done this in the past, I did two things differently.

I used more of a fudge sauce that would thicken and get somewhat firmer when cold.  Like a fudge sauce or such.  Syrup just mixes too easy.
Mixing a swirl into a deeper container like the churning tub proved somewhat diffcult.  As I tried to swirl, it would mix instead.  Instead, I spread the ice cream in a large cake pan, poured the fudge over, swirled in a bit with the knife and then set it in the freezer for about 1 hour.  Then when everything was pretty firm, I scooped it up into the final container in as large of sections as possible.  It worked great.


Are there food safety issues with sous-vide cooking? As I understand the technique, you put a food item in a plastic bag and dump it into warm water for some amount of time.

What happens to bacteria growth inside the bag?

If you do it properly, no there are no health issues.

A combination of two things are required to kill beasties: heat and time. The higher the heat you expose them to, the faster they die. Generally any temperature above 130 F is enough to kill most beasties, it just requires a significantly larger amount of time compared to a higher temperature.

I go into a lot of detail regarding Salmonella in this answer of mine:

Is it safe to eat a cooked steak that (briefly) touched the plate that was holding the raw meat?

I have several tables there to show exact timings, etc.

If you think I should copy/paste that here, then let me know in a comment


How to incorporate alcohol (rum) into a cake recipe? How can I incorporate alcohol (rum, in this case) into an existing cake recipe (pumpkin cake, for example)? Can I simply replace the water with rum?

You can also try, rather than putting it in during the baking process, to pour the rum into a pan big enough to fit te cake or loaf and have it soak up the alcohol. Additionally, rum is a very strong flavour, and might overpower or conflict with the pumpkin, so be careful not to use too much or you might end up with pumpkin flavoured rum cake as opposed ot rum hinted pumpkin cake.


Why is my bread falling flat? I've tried baking bread several times and I seem to always have the same problem. The dough seems fine, until I shape it and let it rise a second time, and then when it rises, instead of forming a nice tall round shape, it flows outward into a pancake shape. It bakes fine, not the best bread but reasonably fluffy crumb with a crisp crust.

Yesterday's recipe:

150 g whole wheat flour
350 g white AP flour
300 g water
10 g salt
2 tsp dry yeast

I mixed it with a dough hook on speeds 2-4 for a few minutes, then covered the bowl with a warm wet dish towel and let it rise for about 6 hours at room temperature. Then I lightly reshaped it by hand into 2 long strips and put it on a baking sheet into a warmed oven (turned the broiler on for about 30 seconds). When it came out of this proofing 2 hours later they were shaped like long pancakes, about 5 inches wide but only an inch tall.

Is this because of the whole wheat flour? I'm seeing other posts about it destroying gluten / surface tension. I tried to use little enough to minimize any problems. Do I need to knead longer?

Ok, this is going to be a long post, so patience, please.

Ratios and gluten
Your dough has a pretty mainstream ingredient list, meaning average hydration and a rather high yeast content. Whith the whole wheat you could go a notch wetter, but that is a question for another day.
As you are not using any slow-raise / stretch-and-fold method, you need to develop your gluten by mechanical kneading. A few minutes in a machine sounds like the minimum of time, not like overkneading. Go by the appearance of the dough: It should go from lumpy to homogenous to very smooth, or at least mostly so if your whole wheat is very coarse. (How to handle this would be another question.) Only after that stage would you get to "overknead" and the dough tears. An overkneaded dough would have serious trouble rising at all, because the glutem strands are torn and can't hold the CO2.
Timing
I'm actually surprised that your dough is even willing and able to rise after a six hour first raise. My gut feeling, reading your ratios and with regard to the fact that you put the bowl in warm water, would be one hour maximum for the first rise. Whether such a fast rise is desirable is again another question. The general rule with yeast is to use visual clues, not a timer. Unless your recipe states otherwise, go for

first raise = double volume.

As I am currently baking, let me share a few photos:

(Please ignore the bad quality, I had originally snapped the first photo only as visual reminder for me...)

This is also true for the second rise:

Ideally you want to bake your bread when it's slightly underproofed to maximize oven spring. Oven spring is not only a funny show to watch, but it means a light and fluffy loaf.

If you greatly exceed raising times, two things will happen: First, your yeast will be "spent", loosing the ability to "lift" your dough, second, the gluten structure that you created while kneading, can weaken, causing the dough to fall flat.
Tension
When shaping your loaf, you want to keep the gas bubbles mainly intact. This does not mean that you can't touch the dough, just that you shouldn't knead in the sense of "mixing thoroughly" (there are exceptions).
What you do want, though, is a taut surface of your loaf: Just like with a balloon, this will help your loaf to expand in all directions instead of flowing outwards. You are not destroing gluten here, but actually using it.

There are many techniques, most are either based on a round "ball" which can then be pushed into a longish loaf, if desired, or start with a "roulade" of dough. The latter is typically used for baguette.

For a boule (round loaf):

First fold the dough towards the middle or slightly off-center (above: after three folds) until the surface (= the underside) of the loaf is taut. Then turn it over and rotate the loaf a few times on a non-floured surface, pressing the edges "down and under" with the edge of your hand.

For a baguette:

First gently flatten the dough in a somewhat rectangular shape. Pull the far end up and push hard with all ten fingers down to seal. Repeat until all dough is rolled up. Hold your thumb parallel to the long axis and pull the dough over your thumb towards you. Work your way along the loaf, creating mainly crosswise tension. Roll gently to smooth out and shape the edges.

Normally I use this only for real baguette, which is way thinner than the loaf here, but for the sake of a better explanation, I used the "baguette technique".
Tools
Note that I am using two different bannetons here - basically because I have them and because I can maneuver the loaves easily. If you look at the photos of the second proofing, you will notice that the loaves are quite "stable" per se. For (softer) baguette, a couche or, in a pinch, a floured linnen towel helps keeping them in shape. Place the baguettes between raised folds like I did with these breakfast buns:


Is it true that all salt is sea salt? I heard Alton Brown say that on Next Food Network Star. Is it true? What about salt that is mined, or salt from salty lakes?

In a very real sense, yes, that is a true statement. Virtually all sodium chloride on earth was formed in the ocean. It’s a bit of a misnomer to consider “ocean” to be synonymous with “sea”; technically, and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration there is a difference:

  Many people use the terms "ocean" and "sea" interchangeably when speaking about the ocean, but there is a difference between the two terms when speaking of geography (the study of the Earth's surface).
  Seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land and ocean meet. Typically, seas are partially enclosed by land.

Since many manufacturers of “sea salt” evaporate ocean water independent of any actual “sea”, I’ll use that small misnomer too, and equate “sea” to “ocean”.

Salt (sodium chloride) deposits were born in ancient oceans in a process that started over four billion years ago. At one point in time or another, almost all of the planet (exactly how much and when is still a matter of debate) has been under an ocean. Rivers flow into the oceans, bringing with them minerals from erosion including positively charged sodium. Volcanic eruptions from the ocean floor spew gasses into the ocean including negatively charged chlorine.

Salt lakes share a quality with oceans in that they don’t have an outflow, the volume of water is balanced by evaporation and rainfall. Water evaporates, but salt does not. So the salt created (and is still being created, but at a much slower rate) by the oceans concentrates in an ongoing process in salt lakes.

Salt mines are just dried up oceans.

So, marketing sea salt as special because it’s from the sea is a bit disingenuous. There are many reasons to choose one type of salt over another, but that it comes from the sea isn’t one of them. Other questions here address trace minerals found in certain mined salt, the addition of iodine in some table salt, crystal size and refinement methods; but the original source of all salt is the same.

There is a kind of fun exception: Some salt on earth comes from asteroids and meteorites. Garnish with that, Thomas Keller.


Question on freezing lobster meat Can cooked lobster meat (which I bought in a fish market the other day) be frozen and, if so, how?  Was thinking just placing it in a Zip-loc bag and placing in the freezer.

This is just a small amount - at $30.00/pound, definitely not going overboard here, but much cheaper than restaurants!

So we're only talking about 1/2 pound but even so, wanted to know if I could freeze it until next week or so.

Thanks-
Randy

Sure, freeze away. It's not going to be as good as eating it fresh but it's better than throwing it away.


How do you make 'Rabri'? It's an Indian, or to be more specific, Bengali pudding. Its milky with sheets/pieces of something akin to 'hard milk'. I've never seen a recipe for it and the Wikipedia article is vague indeed.

There's a recipe at Indian Food Forever, although I've never made it, tried it, or even heard of it before, so I cannot attest to the validity of the recipe. A quick Google search for "rabri" will turn up a few more links to recipes in the first page of results.


Why should i add the butter after i knead the main ingredients when making a bread? Why should i add the butter after i knead the main ingredients when making a bread? i saying this because from this recipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDAznRsfPjo and many others that i have seen, they have added the butter after kneading (or mixing though), i just realized this in few bread recipes like that one, so which its the purpose of mixing it like that, this kinda reminds me of when you make puff pastry dough.

In a yeast-risen bread, like the banana bread video you linked to, it's important that the liquids in the recipe are allowed to properly hydrate the flour particles. This is so that the gluten proteins present in wheat flour can start to develop the gluten network needed to contain the gases produced by the yeast. If you add fats such as oil or butter along with the other wet ingredients, they can coat the flour particles and prevent them from getting the moisture they need.


Commercial yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in a sourdough culture I would like to know a good reason for adding commercial yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to a sourdough culture and would it survive?

I think the question could refer to two somewhat different practices: (1) adding some commercial yeast to a particular sourdough recipe during the initial mix, or (2) adding commercial yeast to the sourdough culture itself, intending it to propagate from batch to batch.

The first -- mixing in commercial yeast along with sourdough starter in a recipe -- is commonly used by bakers for a few different reasons:

Enhance rising, particularly in heavy doughs (e.g., with lots of non-wheat whole grains or seeds, or with a lot of other added "stuff" like fruit, vegetables, nuts, meats, etc. to weigh it down).  It also tends to be used in very rich doughs where sourdough yeast may not be as "happy" as commercial yeast.
Provide a more reliable fermentation timetable: sourdough can sometimes be finicky and unpredictable, but commercial bakers often need to bake on an exact schedule.  Commercial yeast is pretty dependable.
Avoid an overly sour taste: natural (sourdough) yeast can be used for basically any type of bread, and for sweeter breads or standard (non-"sour") white breads, a pungent taste may be undesirable.  In some cases, though, it may be difficult to achieve adequate rising before the dough turns too sour, so commercial yeast can give the dough a boost.

The second possibility -- adding commercial yeast to the sourdough culture directly -- is pretty rare and ultimately not very helpful in the long run.  Some sourdough recipes suggest adding commercial yeast to "get a starter going" initially, but this is NOT a good practice, since it tends to delay the establishment of the natural yeast you actually want and need to propagate the starter longterm.  When added to an established starter, commercial yeast will generally die off within a few feeding cycles.  The acidic environment is not conducive to yeast growth in general, and commercial yeast will have a much harder time with it than the natural yeasts of established starters -- so the commercial yeast will decrease population significantly with each feeding.

All of that said, actual studies of sourdough cultures from commercial bakeries often show some baker's yeast as a minor component.  This is likely due to contamination from bakers' hands and equipment where commercial yeast-based doughs are also handled and mixed.  In controlled lab environments, the commercial yeast populations in those starters have been shown to die off pretty quickly after the starters were removed from their "native" bakery environment.


What is the source of the very strong flavour in some bad fats (or dairy products?) that only some people can taste? It's a very, very strong flavour (like hot chili peppers in potency and ability to linger).

It tastes nothing like any food I know - I've thought of it as kind of "chalky" (not sure why I know what chalk tastes like, maybe I ate some chalk as a child?).

It is very unpleasant and nauseating. I imagine no amount of willpower could keep down a mouthful of a food that has it (only managed to swallow small doses in company where it would be very embarassing to spit out food).

It seems to occur in fats, or maybe dairy products. I imagine it's some kind of contamination, maybe bacteria. I've tasted it in:

Blue cheese (don't think it's ever been absent the few times I've tried a bit)
The "creme" in little twinkie-style "swiss rolls" (occasionally)
Once in a home-made pizza (maybe in the cheese?)
Some indian sweets left out for too long (occasionally)

The weird thing is that often, I seem to be the only person that can taste it. This has often got me into trouble (I am not a fussy eater at all, and feel very embarrassed explaining I'm unable to eat something that everyone else thinks is fine).

Anyone have any idea what this flavour could be from?

I've wondered for years...

Edit:
Added some interesting points suggested by answers so far

Let me start by saying that I'm not familiar with the problem taste you're describing in dairy foods.
I am, however, quite sensitive to bitter tastes in many other foods, which is linked to a phenomenon often studied in genetics classes: The ability or inability to taste PTC, PROP or thiourea, chemical compounds associated with bitter flavors.
The ability to taste them or not, and whether you're a "supertaster" who's very sensitive, is genetic, and appears to have a significant impact on food preferences.
Here's an article that explains it better than I can: Supertaster
I don't know that this is associated with dairy products at all, but it's worth a look in. And for what it's worth as a strong--if not super--taster, I have a hard time dealing with some blue cheeses that my wife who is a weak to non-taster doesn't find strong at all. So maybe there's something in it.


Good ways to store coffee? What are some key points to store coffee to preserve freshness?

Different methods for whole beans vs ground?

You definitely want to keep beans whole as long as possible. Ideally, grind just the amount you need right before you brew the coffee. Keep the whole beans airtight, and freezing probably isn't necessary unless you buy a month of beans in advance.


How long should you cook anchovy and anchovy paste to extract the most flavor? Like with garlic, I always feel like I either overcook or undercook my anchovies when I add them to a flavor paste.

I guess the first question is if when using a paste instead of whole or chopped do you need to lower the heat or cook less time, and the second question is how can you tell you properly extracted the flavor from the anchovies?

This is completely personal opinion, but I do not believe it is possible to overcook anchovies when they are being used to add flavor to a dish. The optimal situation is that you cook the food long enough for the anchovies to completely break down. It is an entirely different issue when you actually want to serve them as a featured ingredient instead of a seasoning.

With either paste or whole/ chopped, it is impossible to undercook as both are ready to eat as sold, unless your anchovy can was ready to burst due to a little Gram-positive bowling-pin shaped spore-forming rod called Clostridium botulinum having some fun.

Getting to the actual questions, when using a paste it doesn't actually need any cooking, just stir it in and you are ready once it's incorporated. If you can't see the lump of paste you have successfully extracted the flavor.


How much star anise should I add to a stew? I’m making a stew with about 700 grams of meat and it will have a lower rather than higher amount of water.  I will be using star anise for first time and I hear a little bit can over power the whole stew so you should start small.

I’m guessing with a stew you should add the whole star rather than ground powder?  How many stars would be ok to begin with considering the ingredients above?

Star anise is fairly potent.  For me, it is in the same category as cloves, in terms of potency.  I would use one "star" for starters.  Adjust from there.


Black stains on aluminium+teflon griddle I have an old aluminium griddle with teflon siding. The griddle is covered with black stains that look like grease stains but won't go away by washing. I can scrape them away but I am afraid that this would damage the griddle. Is it safe to use it? Is there a way to remove the stains?

Its not ideal, but it's fine. It's burned on oil or grease. If you haven't used it for a while, it can impart a slightly musty flavour to your food.

A suggestion for cleaning - heat the pan whilst dry, then lightly spray with a cleaner & use a bristled brush to clean it whilst very hot.


Cooking minced/ground beef with a jar of sauce Backstory: I've never really lived independently before (even during college) and I've never really had to fend for myself much, so please forgive this elementary cooking question.

I have about 1kg of ground/minced beef, I also have a large (~700g) jar of "spaghetti sauce".

I asked my parents what to do, but they were too busy to give anything more than fleeting advice. I understand I have to simmer the beef in the sauce for about an hour or two?

...but the beef's packaging label says it only needs about 7 minutes of cooking in a skillet or saucepan at 70degC/160degF (which seems a bit low to me - I thought all cooking was done at 100degC or above?). There are no instructions given on the jar of sauce.

What do I do? Who is correct, the beef packaging or my mother?

Fry the mince in a saucepan big enough to hold the sauce until it's brown all over, add the sauce and simmer for an hour or two.

Mince is usually made from cheap cuts of meat. This means, while it will technically be cooked after a few minutes, it will also be tough and chewy. Browning it in the pan then simmering it slowly in the sauce will result in nice tender, tasty mince.

Incidentally, 1kg of meat is a lot for one person, so be prepared to portion it out into freezer bags or tubs. All you have to do then is defrost it overnight in the fridge then reheat in the pan for a quick meal.

You might also consider bulking it up a little with some diced onions and carrots; there might be some in the sauce jar but they will be mush. Fry them in the pan for 10 minutes on a medium heat before adding the mince and proceeding as above.


How can two pies made and baked identically have differing flavor qualities? Two pies were baked at the same time, in the same oven, on the same cookie sheet. They seemed to be equally close to the center of the oven. There was a third pie on the rack beneath them. That pie was pretty much in the center of the oven, also on a cookie sheet.
After baking the same amount of time several people who sampled both pies all noted that the tastes were different. How could this be? The filling came from the same mixing bowl. The filling was ladled in, not poured, and when filling the two crusts I ladled in alternately so I do not think there was a difference in the composition of the filling going into the pies before baking.

The filling was a melange and it was meant for the flavors to blend but still be recognizable individually or notable as undertones. Everyone had the same comments; one pie had flavors which seemed "crisper", more "distinct", and more "alive". The flavor combination in the other pie seemed more "muddy" and "muddled".
The only difference I am aware of is the pie crusts. Each crust was a crumb crust made from Sweetzel's Spice Wafers crushed with a rolling pin (If you're not from Philly the closest thing to compare to is a ginger snap)  and combined with melted margarine, orange and pineapple juice, and vanilla and baked at 325 for 10 minutes.

For Pie A (the "crisper", more "alive" flavor) the crust slumped on the sides and puffed a bit while baking. So when I made the crust for Pie B I added more crumbs to the mixture and after pressing the mixture into place in the pie tin I placed another pie tin filled with water inside it to try to keep the crust from slumping/puffing while it baked. I left that inner pie tin in place after baking and during cooling while I prepared the filling.
The filling is largely from the pumpkin pie recipe on the canned pumpkin label (Libby's I think). The changes are no sugar is added but rather orange-pineapple juice is substituted at 1/2 the volume. Also added are mashed bananas, mashed canned sweet potatoes, raisins, and minute tapioca.

When it came time to ladle the filling mixture in the baked crusts I observed that crust B was definitely moister than A, I presume because the inner pie tin prevented it from drying as much during baking and cooling. Crust A obviously had a longer cooling time and didn't extend as far up the sides of the pie tin (though I certainly think B's cooling time was adequate).

Other than the above I can think of no differences in the two pies and I am not at all clear how even those differences could account for differences in the quality of the flavor that were consistently noted by multiple tasters. What is the explanation? This is my first post so please tell me if I've presented this case properly or if more or less is needed.

Because I had more filling left over I ladled the remainder into a store-bought shortbread crust and that could be called Pie C and it baked concurrently on the rack below Pies A and B. Being slightly less full it was removed a few minutes earlier than the other two. Pie C has not been sampled yet but I could provide updates when it is if that will help confirm or refute hypothesis testing.

I appreciate the thoughts and help from the community on this.

After reading your full accounting, the pies were after all, not really identical. My best guess is that the moister pie crust leeched softened crumbs into your pie filling, giving the pie an overall muddier quality.  I've had similar experiences with apple pies going muddy from either the thickener not gelling or the crust not holding up to the liquid filling. (Your filling sounds very interesting though! Yum!)


Can yogurt be used as a substitute for yeast in pizza dough? I am making some pizza dough, but I don't have the yeast, is there a way to substitute it with yogurt? If so what proportions would I use, to keep the dough at the same consistency.

No, the bacteria in yogurt will not serve as the primary leavening agent for dough.


Easiest way to strain fry oil? What is the easiest way to strain fry oil?

I strain fry oil so it can be reused.

I've been using cheesecloth put inside a funnel.

It works but it's a bit messy and a hassle.  Is there a better way?

Can you use a coffee filter or something like that?

You can buy really large filters for this purpose.  It's how some restaurants filter their fry oil on the cheap.  We had two conical strainers and put the huge coffee-like filter between the two so it wouldn't slip down as much, also so we could skim out the large bits easier.  If you have a laddle you can sorta force it through faster by agitating in a plunger like motion but be careful the oil isn't too hot because it will splash at you.

Places that do alot of frying have a machine that will filter the oil while still really hot and pump it back into the fryer.

For home use I use coffee filters, the biggest I can find, and have a plastic 4 litre storage tub for holding the oil.  It takes awhile for it to pass but it keeps it cleaner than a cheese cloth I find.

The more particals you filter out the longer the oil will last before you have to toss it in your diesel truck ;-).


What would happen if I dehydrated fresh sausages for a couple hours? I want to make sausages, likely following a fresh sausage chorizo recipe. I can't dry and cure them in the traditional way since I lack the equipment, so my plan is to make regular fresh sausages using either Spanish or Mexican-style recipes (still undecided, and they'll be fresh/non-cured either way).

I was toying with the idea of putting the fresh sausages in my oven on the dehydration setting, which I think takes many hours. However I've learned that this is a bad idea. Apparently the fat in the sausages wouldn't respond well to dehydration in this way and the product wouldn't resemble the dry cured sausage I would desire.

But what if I put the sausage in the oven on the dehydration setting for maybe 2-3 hours? I would likely use a temperature around 150F, which would cook them thoroughly with enough time. I'm thinking this would have a few advantages:

It would cook the whole batch at once. This means I could freeze them after they've been cooked and simply warm them up in the future to eat them.

It would dry them a bit, which would in my opinion improve the texture and flavour.

What would happen if I dehydrated fresh sausages for a couple hours?

You would potentially grow bacteria that would make you sick.  The production of cured sausage has to follow a specific process that makes use of the correct balance of salt, water activity, and acidity (often, along with the addition of nitrates) to create a safe product.  You can certainly make fresh sausage and cook fully, or refrigerate for a few days, or freeze for a much longer time.  Alternately, you can make beef jerky, and fully dehydrate thin slices of meat. However, I would not recommend playing with the age-old, tried and true, processes that have been proven effective for properly producing cured sausages.

Given your edits, and your focus on fresh sausage, dehydration has no advantage, and as @rumtscho clarifies, poses a safety risk.  Either cook fully right away, or chill below 40F (4.5C) immediately.  When I make fresh sausage, I vacuum seal in bags and freeze what I am not using immediately.  This preserves the quality for several months.


Unopened shredded cheese gets soggy in the fridge I just moved out of my parents house and I'm fairly new to cooking and how to store stuff.

I bought a package of shredded mozzarella like a week or so ago and put it in the fridge. Today I was planning to do something with it but I realized that the inside of the package it wet and some part of the cheese is soggy. There is still 4 months to the expiration date so I don't think it is spoiled and it kinda make sense that it's wet because of the condensation in a cold environment. I just wanted to make sure if it is safe.

Is this normal? If it is, is it safe to use the soggy parts? and how can I prevent this from happening? How should I store these shredded cheeses if I want to buy them when they are on sale and use them later on?

Thanks in advance and sorry if I'm asking something stupid or so obvious, as I said I'm fairly new.

Traditionally, mozzarella is  sold extremely fresh - as in made that day or the day before. If it's held for more than a day or so, it comes packaged in a brine. Most of the American stuff is just too soft to be held for packaging like other shredded cheese in the mega-mart.

In the US, being extreme gluttons for convenience, we tend to make do with part-skim shredded mozzarella instead of the good stuff. Slight temperature variations can make the shreds stick together in a globby mass. It's harmless from a safety point of view, and the expiry date can be long after the occurrence of perfectly safe globbiness.

Pro-Tip: Put the globby pieces in the freezer for 20 minutes, and then shred it like a block of harder cheese. Upon heating, it will melt (almost) as if the the globbiness had never happened. I have taken advantage of a few good sales that way. Mozzarella will become... ehem... colorful before it becomes unsafe.

While this answer is more for mozzerella than for other types of cheese; the last paragraph works for any mega-mart shredded cheese.


Is there a quick, easy, mess-free way to peel an orange (or grapefruit)? Just what the title says, I don't enjoy getting my fingers all messy and I don't like getting a lot of pith. Is there a better way than just...peeling?

Yes!

I just came across this, and it just so happens I could use an orange in a slaw I'm making right now.

Tablespoon Orange Hack

  Simply lop off the ends, make a small incision in the side and carefully open to reveal easy-to-eat orange segments. (Or as I prefer to call it, an orange caterpillar.)

I did it with my orange, and I had never peeled an orange so quickly:

Now if you just want to eat the orange, you can just pluck off the segments as you pop them into your mouth. If you roll the orange around a bit first, before you lop off the ends (as in @Barry Staes' answer), it should make it even easier and more pith-free.

But what was really neat is that by prepping it that way, I had a pretty close approximation to supremes, supremely easily! (haha)

With two passes of the knife and 5 seconds of picking at it, this is close enough for my slaw.

Just flatten the "caterpillar" as much as you can with one hand, and with one slice (or two), cut between the peel and the segments. I just picked away most of the remaining connective "stuff" and membranes with the knife and my fingers at this point, but a pair of kitchen shears would  make even quicker work out of it. It's not absolutely perfect, the traditional method of supreming seen here would be the way to go if you're gunning for a Michelin Star, but this is fine for more casual applications.

With the practice of a couple more oranges, I think I could go from an intact orange to "cheater" supremed segments in less than a minute (and without getting my hands sticky!)

Pretty cool.

BTW, there is a pretty neat animated GIF on the linked page that will make it all clear if the pictures don't.

EDIT:

It works even better with grapefruit!

Open the grapefruit just enough to use a pair of kitchen shears to cut away the the connective membrane from the "points" of the segments (what would be at the center of intact fruit). While you're at it, remove any seeds.

Be careful when you roll out the "caterpillar" to separate every segment and to put pressure evenly on all parts of the peel. The peel is a bit more prone to tearing than orange peel.

Since the membranes between the segments are more like leather and less fragile than the membranes on orange segments, they are very easy to pluck away. This makes the supremed segments perfect. This gives better results even than the traditional method of supreming!


Ball Shaper for Batter Does anyone know of any ball shaper for Falafel Batter?
I was looking for a shaper, that could i could load with some falafel batter and directly load it into the fryer in a shape of a ball.
-AFM

Most restaurants that I have seen that make falafel use a little plunger thing like this:

You load the cavity with the falafel mix, then push the plunger and it pushes the ball out.

If you can't find that, I'd think that any appropriately sized portion scoop would do (probably something like a #24).


Why use citric acid and sodium hexametaphosphate in cheese sauce? I was watching a YouTube video from ChefSteps on how to make cheese sauce. They used sodium citrate and sodium hexametaphosphate. What are the reasons for including these in the recipe? What are the alternatives to using these ingredients?

Citric acid and sodium hexametaphosphate are often used in processed cheese as emulsifier. These kinds of salts improve the protein's swelling capacity and emulsification and thus inhibits the leakage of water or fat from the product (forms metal complexes). Some salts are also acid buffers. 1 In this wikipedia article  (in German, but chemical names are quite similiar to the Engish ones) is a list of possible substitutes of citric acid and sodium hexametaphosphate. Or just look here (in English) for E 325, E 326, E 327, E 331, E 332, E 333, E 339, E 340, E 341, E 450, E 451, E 452.

The receipe of the cheese sauce has the same ingredients of common processed cheese2.

1  Source: Wikipedia: Schmelzsalz. My bad attempt to translate this article :-\
2 "Processed cheese [...] is a food product made from cheese (and sometimes other, unfermented, dairy by-product ingredients); plus emulsifiers [note from me: the mentioned salts], saturated vegetable oils, extra salt, food colorings, and/or whey [note from me: or watery liquids like water or milk] or sugar. "


Does the yogurt set from 500 ml milk result in 500 g yogurt? I want to prepare 500 g yogurt. I have 500 ml skimmed milk.
So, will the resultant yogurt be of 500 g?

If not, then how much skimmed milk do I need to get 500 g yogurt?

Making yogurt means letting lactic acid bacteria alter the texture and chemical composition of milk by digesting lactose and producing lactic acid, which in turn interacts with the proteins in the milk, causing the milk to thicken and taste sour.

Unlike in cheese making you are not separating curds and whey, so you are not "losing" significant amounts of substance.

Yes, there might be some fluctuation - an increasing number of lactobacillae and them eating lactose - but on a very small level.

For our general kitchen precision, 500 g milk makes 500 g yogurt.

 Side note: 500 ml milk is not exactly 500 g, in fact, it's 510 g according to my sources, but I consider these values precise enough for general cooking purposes. Otherwise, you can't even stir, as minute amounts will remain on spooons or in your pots and pans. This is a kitchen, not a lab.


Can I dump Jello into a pan and boil it to get it to set? My jello isn't setting, probably because my 4 year old was angry about having to wait for the water to boil and I just gave in. Anyway, can I dump it all in a pan and boil the whole? Or is there a way to fix this problem?

Yes, you can boil the whole thing. You need to get the temperature high enough for the gelatine to activate. The reason jello reserves half the water is to cool it down faster and reduce set time, there's no issues adding all the water in the first place other than taking longer to cool down enough to set.

If you are in a hurry you can cool it down afterwards by putting it in an ice bath and stirring it for awhile.


How to keep boudin (blood sausage) slices from disintegrating when pan-frying? I want to pan-fry some boudin slices and then put them on slices of baguette with some apple compote.

I have cooked boudin before and often, the boudin was at least a bit disintegrated by the end. I really need those slices to stay together and I was wandering what can I do to prevent it.

It's best to cook the whole sausage, but you might get away with it

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Sauté sausage until browned all over

Put in oven to finish

Make Apple sauce

Combine the sauce with the warm boudin


Pizza Dough Seasoning King Arthur sells pizza dough flavoring on their website. I'm looking to try to homemake some since my dough is a little bland. The ingredients listed include cheese (maybe Parmesan or Romano,) garlic and spices. Any suggestions on what spices would make a good blend?

Sure. Dried oregano, basil, marjoram (probably no more than two out of three of those), onion powder and red pepper flakes would all go just fine.


Batter. Cross contamination by I would like to know
Whilst cooking and serving in a fish and chip shop can i
Serve food, All dipped in same batter and rice cone containers, using
beef and chicken made sausages
Fish
Chips
Cod roe
Burgers
Or do i need to use separate batter and rice cone containers?
Thanks.

If your question is about hygiene (dont get people sick from raw meat), if you're frying it fully and making sure the meat is cooked then you should be fine to use the same batter. If you're talking about keeping allergens separate for health or religious reasons you should use separate batters.


Bread Machine Loaf does not Dome When baking a standard loaf in my Bread Machine, the top of the loaf seemed to collapse back in at some point, and instead of coming out with a nice rounded top, it looks like this:

I've tried:

More yeast
Mixing in some self raising flour
2 tsp Lemon Juice
Avoiding the timer settings
Chopping butter into really small pieces

The standard setting is a four hour bake, the machine is windowless so I can't tell if a particular stage is at fault. The bread is still edible and tastes fine.
The recipe is the most basic from the book that came with the machine

3/4 tsp yeast
400g strong white flour
1 tsp sugar
15g butter
1 tsp salt
280ml water

I was about to ask in a comment as to where in the world you were, as there are a few factors that can play into this. However I spied packages in the background and with a bit of sleuthing deduced that you bought Allinsons products, probably from Tesco and were hence likely in the UK, so high altitude isn't likely to be one of your problems.
I bake pretty much all my bread in a bread machine, mostly because I was living somewhere where bread was terrible in taste and texture, but have continued since moving away from there.
I find that bread machine recipes tend to be a little off how the recipes work. This might be something as simple as different flour brands used or the fact that tests are done in controlled conditions in labs with stable temperature and humidity.
The problems that cause bread to collapse like this generally fall into 4 categories

Too much water/too little flour
Additive missing
Too much yeast
Machine timing issues

1 and 3 are fairly self explanatory. My first guess would be water:flour ratio. Too much water (or too little flour) results in dough that is too wet and ends up in a more open texture. Your recipe has a hydration of 70% (280/400 *100). This is at the upper end of what you would want to use in a bread machine. For comparison, I use a recipe that has 300 ml water with 480 ml flour (62.5%). As a general rule you want 60-65% water for an all-purpose loaf.
Too much yeast will cause the bread to rise too fast and become too open, leading to collapse. Your recipe looks like the right amount.
I have come across a problem, in countries where the flour is not bleached, that you need to add some "bread improver", which is just some vitamin C and a bit of soy lecithin.  I surmise the following is happening, but have no certainty on this: Without the improver the dough tends to rise slowly once the yeast has used up the added/free sugars in the flour - so the second rise fails to work well, leaving the heating from the cooking expanding the few bubbles remaining after knock-down too much, so the bread then collapses. If you are buying "bread machine" specific yeast it may have added improver already (if the UK needs it). You can tell this is the case as it will look like a mix of flour-like substance (improver) with small cylindrical granules (yeast). Plain yeast is a just the granules.
I find that bread machines (at least my one) don't knock down the dough properly or have a long second rise, which results in the upper part of the loaf being more open than I would like. I think this is a function of the timing of the rises, with the second rise being too long (or the element heating too slowly), so the loaves tend to rise, then collapse as there are too many bubbles in the dough.


Can i brine chicken in seawater? I have been smoking meat recently, and I found out that in Maine people brine lobster in seawater. Can I do the same in Florida with a chicken?

Some considerations:

Typical chicken brines range from 5 - 10% salinity.

The sea averages 3.5% salinity (there are variables such as region, distance from estuaries, and weather that also impact ocean salinity).  Further, sea water is not just salt and water, but has other dissolved minerals, not to mention potential pollutants.

Can you do it?  Sure, but what's your goal, and is the the way to achieve that goal?


What type of bowl is best for a fruit salad? I am planning on making a fruit salad for coworkers and want to make sure that none of the fruit start to go bad because of the contact with the bowl.

I am planning on using apples, oranges, grapes, pine apple, and possibly bananas.

What would be the best type of bowl to transport and serve this in: metal, glass, plastic, etc?

I don't think the bowl has anything to do with it, unless it is some sort of reactive metal, but you don't normally find food grade bowls made of a reactive metal?

To stop surface oxidation of non-acidic fruit (apples, bananas etc.) coat them with a suitable weak acid. See this previous answer  How to Prevent Apples from turning Brown


Why not use cornstarch instead of flour for pastries? If when baking cakes, and especially pastries, you want less gluten formation, why not use something that has even less gluten than cake flour?
What would happen if I tried to make a cake or pastry with cornstarch instead of flour?

You still need some gluten, otherwise the cake will crumble. Any recipe that is gluten free has to use a number of different additives to mimic the structure provided by the gluten. If you just replaced the flour with cornstarch, your cake or pastry would not be able to rise (it would lack the internal structure to "inflate") and likely crumble as soon as you tried to move it.


Weird-shaped jelly doughnuts I tried making Sufganiot (a kind of jelly doughnut) this Hanukkah, and ran into a problem. I've let the dough rise, made balls, then let them rise again. However, all balls split along the seam lines (where I've rolled a piece of dough that wasn't originally ball-shaped into a ball), resulting in doughnuts that were very far from round.

What did I do wrong, and how can I prevent this from happening in the future?

When you roll balls out of dough you want to roll/knead them until the seam lines vanish. Otherwise, as you noticed, they will split along the lines.


Why is it so rare in the US to get kidney bean poisoning? Background:

Do canned kidney beans contain Toxins?

BBB - Phytohaemagglutinin

Question:

From my searching around the Internet I've found that there's a lot of warnings about poisoning but hardly anyone (or in some cases no one) having been effected by the toxin in those that comment.*

This seems odd. Assuming each person in the US ate beans at least once a year and 98% effectiveness in the warnings I'd expect ~6 million cases in the US (roughly equivalent to car accidents) which should get some news I would think.

I saw on Reddit once (I don't know where and they had no supporting links) that beans in the US are mandated to be cooked before they get to consumers to remove toxins, so it's only raw beans (like from a garden) that would put people at risk. Which would make a lot more sense, with how safe they are to eat.

Can anyone substantiate this?

*I'm aware this is sampling bias, but still strikes me as odd that there isn't someone with a compelling story about it.

As the question you linked to says, canned beans are cooked thoroughly, so there's no issue. Pretty much the point of canned food is that it's ready to eat; if something required further cooking it would absolutely say on the label. (And given that people eat canned kidney beans without thorough extra cooking all the time, including in salads, clearly they're safe.) Ready-to-eat canned goods are presumably far more popular than anything else, so, most people aren't at risk at all.
It's also not a terribly likely issue with dried beans; it takes ten minutes at boiling to make them safe. Most people end up boiling when they cook beans, since it's usually easier to boil than it is to manage to hold a temperature below boiling that's still sufficient to cook. You have to deliberately get your stove to the right setting to hold below boiling, while if you err on the high side it'll boil. And seeing boiling liquid is a natural indicator of "this is cooking" that a lot of people will naively look for.
The main source of issues is slow cookers; warnings say not to use them at all, because they don't get hot enough, but in fact a lot of slow cookers do end up at a low boil anyway, so a slow cooker isn't actually a guarantee of poisoning even for someone unaware. (This isn't a guarantee, please don't try it!)
So kidney bean poisoning is a combination of several unlikely things: someone has to decide to cook dry beans themselves, they have to pick kidney beans over more popular varieties, they have to have not been warned, they have to have a slow cooker, it has to be one that doesn't end up boiling, and they have to decide to use it. Estimate what you like for the odds, but it's going to come out a lot lower than the 1/50 you guessed in your question.
As for how likely it is, the Bad Bug Book doesn't actually have specifics:

Reports of this syndrome in the United States are anecdotal and have not been formally published.
Several outbreaks have been associated with beans cooked in slow cookers
(i.e., countertop appliances that cook foods at low temperatures for several hours) or in casseroles that had not reached an internal temperature high enough to destroy the glycoprotein lectin.

So it does happen, just not terribly frequently, and it may be underreported since the symptoms are pretty generic.


onion puree thickness From times to times, I make this soup that consists of 90% onions and 10% green pepper/garlic/white cabbage/carrots. Not matter how much water I add to it, it always ends up quite thick after blending. I own 2 different (Though not particularly priced) hand blenders and normally try to blend the onion stock with both and sieve it, however after blending the soup, there is a thick layer with a paste-like consistency in the sieve that no matter how much I try to scrape using a soup, it just won't strain through. Could I be undercooking the stock?

My method is normally: 1.5kg - 2kg of onions, 1 green pepper, 2 carrots, 1 piece of cabage same weight as carrots. I put it all in the pressure cooker and boil it for about 20 - 40 mins after it peaks pressure in a low heat. On another note, I also notice this puree/stock/soup never really gets very sweet as I would hope it to. Perhaps I need to simmer it longer so as to help the onion and other veg to break?

Thanks.

For starters, the pasty stuff in your sieve is most likely just fiber from the vegetables. Cabbage and carrots in particular have a lot of fiber and unless you have a really high powered blender, you're not going to break it down enough to pass through a sieve. Most immersion blenders certainly won't be able to do it.

As for the sweetness, usually to bring out the sweetness in vegetables, they are roasted before the liquid is added to make the base of the soup. You could try roasting the carrots and peppers or caramelizing the onions as a prior step.


The chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookies dont rise to the top Why does my chocolate chip cookies look "ugly"? The chocolate chips stay insdie the cookies, unlike other chocolate chip cookies, the choco chips go are on top of the cookies and look so good. I just followed the recipe. What am I doing wrong?

I don't think they are supposed to rise to the top. If you are looking at a picture in a recipe or book, the chips were probably placed in that position for appeal. You can do the same before cooking by placing a few chips on top. Advertising is a deceptive busines!


frozen blueberries kept thawed Had a couple bags of frozen blueberries.  Put them in the fridge to thaw.  They've been in the fridge for several weeks.  Can I still cook with them?

Trust your nose.

But I suspect they will be long dead - fermented/rotted


Cut food with fork and sharp knife - metal in food? I cut up some sausages with a fork and a fairly sharp knife then wondered if the knife cut the fork and tiny bits of metal got in the food. The fork looks a little scratched/barely gouged but may be partially from regular wear and tear.

Should I never use a fork when cutting up food with a cutting knife? Or is this a non-issue? It's sort of like this question but a bit different I think. Metal dust/shavings in food from knife wear?

This shouldn't be an issue.

From a practical perspective you need a fork to hold food in place, without one the food would slide around. You aren't going to get metal in your food if the knife contacts the fork when cutting, no matter how sharp it is, unless your fork is made of a soft metal of some kind. If your fork is that soft it may be leaching into your food anyway whether you use a knife or not, in which case you should replace it with something like stainless steel.


Storage of cheese starter cultures I have decided to give a go at home cheesemaking.

I got a nice book by Mary Karlin, which seems to explain things relatively well. Now, most recipes would call for something like 1/4 tsp of starter for a gallons milk (=3.7l milk)

So I proceeded to find some starters... and here comes the problem.

Obviously I don't intend to produce tons of cheese, and the smallest packaging I've found is freeze-dried sachets of ~10g, which most vendors say is good for 100 to 300l milk!

Some websites tell you to dilute the whole pack into 1l milk, then aliquot it and freeze it for storage. Is this a viable option (the microbiologist in me says a big yes)? Or would I be better at taking a little bit of freeze-dried product everytime (hmmmm)?

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

I was told by a cheese merchant who sold me the culture and rennet, to store the culture in the freezer, and the rennet in the fridge.

I hadn't used it in more than two years and it's still alive and working. (as tested a few weeks ago)


Can quinoa be used as a soup thickener? The normal method for preparing quinoa is to boil water, drop the quinoa, wait until it "sprouts", then strain.

My question is about the last part: the straining.

Suppose you are making a soup (lentils, bean soup, ...) and it turns out there is too much water. You do not want to discard liquid, and you do not have patience for reducing by simmering. Is dropping quinoa in, partly as a method for thickening, reasonable?

In other words, what is undesirable about the water one normally boils quinoa in, for one to discard that water? Is there anything undesirable?

Update (Long comment to GdD's nice answer and pointer to saponin)

I didn't wait for an answer. I ran two experiments (on only myself). The result on both occasions is that quinoa is indeed an excellent soup thickener, on account of the amount of water it absorbs. But on both occasions the meal required a few (5 the first time, 2 the second) tablets of Tums to neutralize the stomach acidity (a rare occurence for the foolish volunteer in question). This doesn't establish that saponin, or even the quinoa, is the cause, but that's perfectly plausible. Incidentally, on both occasions the quinoa was carefully rinsed in a fine mesh strainer. That didn't help.

Cooking grains in soup is an effective way to thicken it, but quinoa is probably not the best choice. Quinoa has saponin in it, a bitter tasting phytochemical which has been known to irritate the stomach. Much of the quinoa sold has been presoaked to get rid of much of the saponin, but some may remain which is why you boil it separately and discard the water. If you put quinoa in the soup any traces of saponin could ruin or at least add off flavors to the dish.

Rice or barley would be my first choice for that sort of thickening, they take longer but they don't impart much flavor to the food. Couscous is faster, but would give the soup a grainy texture. Giant couscous may work okay, I've never tried it in a soup myself.


Identify mark on cast iron skillet I have an old skillet (about 10 inches) with a solid ring on the bottom and a straight raised mark about 4 inches in the middle of the bottom.  There is also a capital B R on the bottom.  No other identifying marks.  My mother gave it to me  and said it was her great grandmother's. I have had it for 49 years.
I have not been able to identify maker. Any help from anyone?

I am by no means a cast iron expert, but I like mysteries.  So, I have been doing a little research about your question.  As @Max points out, a picture would be very helpful, but a raised straight mark on the bottom of your pan is known as a "gate mark". Gate mark casting was used in the 1800s, and could very well signify that you have quite an old piece.  The line comes from the piece actually "breaking the mold".  The ring, if it is also raised, is known as a heat ring.  Since these pans were made to work with wood fired stoves, the ring was meant to raise the piece slightly above the surface.
I have been unable to locate a reference to "BR".  Is it possible that the B is actually an 8?  Numbers were often cast into vintage pieces to indicate size. Some companies added letters, known as "pattern letters", to indicate the mold pattern.  Could it be 8 R?
There is lots of good information here.
From your brief description, it appears possible you might have a piece that is quite old, perhaps from the early 1800's.
Given your photos in the update, it's tough for me to tell if it is an 8 or a B.  I've been unable to locate any images that match your pan.  However, using the link above you can work your way through a list of foundrys.  Many do not have pictures, unfortunately.  I've scanned the most obvious ones, thinking that if it is a "B" it might be related to the name of the producer.  No luck.
However, that site has a link to a discussion forum.  Perhaps you could post your pics there.  That way, a real expert could point you in the right direction.
By the way, if you do identify it, please return to add your answer here.


Flavor notes or profile of truffles? What do truffles (the fungi) taste like?

I'm just curious. I saw it on television the other day.

I just know that they're expensive and i know i probably won't buy any anytime soon. I don't know much about them either.

Uncooked?  I was shocked at how unimpressive the flavor of raw shaved truffle was.  It was kind of earthy, not particularly strong in flavor; in this case the truffle was probably not fresh enough.  When heated and allowed to release their full flavor and aroma into food though, they are phenomenal.  There's a rich, luscious taste and smell, with an almost petrol pungency to it. The latter is primarily from the 2,4-dithiapentane, which truffle oil replicates, although it has a harsher and less complex flavor.  Truffle oil will give you this top note, but without any of the additional layered complexity.

All this said, different people have different reactions, and freshness matters greatly for raw truffles.  If you really want to try truffle, canned or jarred truffle can be had in small quantities for under $20.  The flavor is quite distinctive, unique, and pairs well with cream, milk, cheese, and butter.


What is the difference between chocolate flavor cocoa powder and drinking chocolate? Both contain low fat cocoa and chocolate flavor as ingredients.

What would be the real difference between them in terms of taste and usage?

Drinking Chocolate is whole chocolate which will often also contain sugar and milk Solids.
To make cocoa powder you could put the drinking chocolate in a hydrolic press. and the cocoa buter from the chocolate would separate out. and you would be left with what's called a "cake" which you could then smash and sift into cocoa powder.

although cocoa powder would usually be produced before sugar or milk solids were added to the chocolate making process. one would call the unsweetened chocolate mixture "liquor" with is effectively made in the same process nut butter is made.  in the case of chocolate if you let the nut butter like "liquor" fat mass sit to long it would set rock hard into unsweetened chocolate.

for cocoa powder you are simply removing the cocoa Butter and only leaving cocoa powder.
the Chocolate maker can then sell the cocoa Butter for much more than you payed for the powder as there is always a higher demand for cocoa butter, ether in expensive blocks of chocolate or in the case of cadburys they were selling there butter to the cometic industry and replacing it with palm oil for there own chocolate production


Is eating olive pits a problem? I have been eating fresh and brined olives for years. I like the olives with the pits and usually consume the whole pit without removing it. It was recently pointed out to me that this is not a healthy practice, and even though I have been doing this for some time, I began to wonder whether it is 1)abnormal to eat the whole olive, pit and all, and 2) will the pits have a long term adverse effect? I have never met anyone who ate olive pits, and I find the with-pit olives to be the best, so I thought I would ask. Note that I do not grind up and chew the pits, as I am sure that my teeth would not like that!

I'd avoid this practice.

  The olive pit husk is very hard and should not be eaten, however, as it is indigestible and might injure the intestinal wall if sharp edges are present.  Also, do not chew the husk, as it is so hard it could break a tooth. Swallowing the husk is also a bad idea, as it has sharp ends that could be dangerous.  It is also quite indigestible and will come out just as it went in. (source)


Alternative to Food Grade Silicone I recently bought a new meat grinder and they recommend washing it with hot water, drying it completely, and spraying a food grade silicone to prevent the stainless steel parts from rusting. Can I just use a light coating of oil like I do my cast iron to prevent rust?

Dry stainless steel parts should not rust, and should not need any oil for storage

For non-stainless steel parts, use any food grade oil as a rust preventative coasting. You can wash this off before use

Most meat grinders need a drop or two of oil on the bearing surfaces before you start grinding. Use any food oil you have handy as you will be washing it off when finished


Why does a white sauce (bechamel,veloute) sometimes turn grey? I usually see this happen with bechamel. Sometimes as the sauce cooks, it starts to get a faint grey tint.

I don't believe I am cooking the roux too long. I think that would tend to brown rather than turn grey in color.  Am I simply cooking it too long, or could it be something else?

Cook ware is the number one item to look at.  Aluminum pots/pans will cause a greying to your sauce if they are not clad in stainless steel.  You'll get a reaction with acids and the aluminum that will cause disclouration to a light coloured sauce.

Aluminum gives great heat conduction for the dollar but is reactive.  That's why you'll see so many present day aluminum pans will be aluminum cored with a steel outer to stop that reaction but give the rapid heat transfer.


Multitasking with oven ( roast and potatoes) I am trying to roast potatoes to a crisp skin texture while making a roast in the same oven.

When I am making a meat roast, I want to make a potato side dish with it. However, when I put the potatoes in the same tray as the meat, the meat juices cover the potatoes and they will not form a crispy skin when surrounded by liquid.

I have tried (on my old oven) to utilize another roasting tray, exclusively for the potatoes, and located that tray underneath the 'meat tray' but in that case, barely any heat was conducted to the lower part of the meat.

On my current oven, I've got two settings, Bake and Broil, my heat convection capabilities are limited - I think.

How do you cook your meat perfectly and serve with crisp-skinned roast potatoes that have been cooked in the same oven? How do you usually achieve this?

Here's what I'd suggest:

Reverse your food positions. Roast the meat toward the bottom
of the oven and the potatoes toward the top.
Place the potatoes on a jelly-roll sheet, not in a
roasting pan.
Stagger the pan positions. The less that they are exactly on top of
one another the better. Yet, at the same time, no pan can be so
close to any oven wall that it cuts off circulation. So, choose pans
sizes that will allow for this. During baking, rotate each pan 180
degrees.
It takes more energy to heat more items. When you put more
items into the oven than called for by the recipe, you must increase
either the heat, or the time, or both.


Food Safety - Infused oil with dried herbs I know using fresh herbs to infuse oil can be dangerous as the oil might become a breeding ground for botulism. I was wondering, if I first rinse my herbs (or peppers for that matter) and then dry them for several weeks/months, would it be safe to make an infused oil with these dried herbs compared to fresh ones?

Per the University of Ohio Extension, yes, it does reduce the risk (emphasis added):

  Flavored oils also can be a concern if not prepared  correctly. When
  herbs, garlic, or tomatoes are placed in  oils, the botulism spores on
  the plant material can start  to produce the toxin in this anaerobic
  mixture. To be  safe, keep these flavored oils refrigerated and make
  only  the amount of herbal oils and butters that will be used  in a
  few days. Using dried herbs and vegetables will also  reduce the risk.

Still, reduce is not eliminate.   The guidelines to not can or hold the oil for long term continue to apply.


How best to cook frozen (homemade, not store-bought) blintzes? I made some blintzes from this recipe, and froze them as indicated in the note at the end. You'll notice that the recipe only gives instructions for cooking fresh blintzes, not frozen. When it comes time to eat them, should I thaw them and then fry them, or put them in the pan while they're still frozen and just cook them for longer?

Thaw them longer and be sure they are thawed to the core before cooking; if you made them properly they will not break apart or unfold.

I wouldn't recommend warming them in the oven because most oven's lowest temp still cooks slightly and deteriorates the dish.

Once thawed FULLY cook as if it was freshly made (it, of course, will clearly have a minor difference in taste because you froze it and the best course of action would be to make less but if you have excess there's not much you can do besides add fresh ingredients regularly to refresh the old.)


What are the secrets to a good fond? A lot of western recipes call for developing a generous, nicely browned fond on a cooking surface after browning meat. Sometimes I get none, sometimes i can tear the surface of the meat off altogether.

What are the factors behind reliably achieving a great fond?

Avoid non-stick pans.  Heat the pan before you place the meat or fat in the pan.  Use medium to medium high heat.  Add fat (oil, butter, for example).  Add the meat (pat dry), but don't crowd the pan.  Cook in batches if necessary, but too many (more than 2 or 3?) will mean that the fond will burn, so you may need a bigger pan, or two pans.  Place meat in pan.  Don't move it until you notice browning and it releases naturally from the bottom...or with very gentle pressure.  By the way, vegetables can also produce a fond.  Same rules apply.


Is it safe to microwave Pyrex containers immediately after removing them from the freezer and removing the plastic lid? I am attempting to bulk prep some frozen convenience food and have determined that a standard Pyrex glass container would be ideal for freezing (non-liquid) meals (think burritos or tacos), but I want to ensure it is safe to induce a huge temperature swing, or if there is a better way to do this.

It not huge, it's just the difference from freezer to room temperature you are worrying about

E.g. -20°C to 20°C, is A 40°C shift. The shift was going to be 20°C to 100+°C anyway. There is no physical reasons why this would be anymore stressful

From room temperature you are raising it 80°C, from frozen you are raising it 120°C. Not a problem in the normal temperature range for glass

The freezing temperature of water (most common item in food) has no relation to the freezing temperature of glass etc

Pyrex and other glasses can be damaged if one part of them is instantly heated or cooled by a 100°C or so


Crockpot recipe when converting temperature from low to high? I have a crockpot recipe for burritos, located here, that I really want to make. It says to cook the mixture on low heat for 6-10 hours but that is too long/short. I really want to convert the recipe to a high heat so I can cook it quicker. Do you think it is possible to cook this on high? If so would the recipe itself change and how (more/less water required)? How long should I cook it on high?

You can probably get away with high heat, but you need to watch the liquid content. Since you're not cooking something that is liquid and can circulate to heat evenly, you risk burning the food or having it dry out.

I can't see any reason this needs to cook for such a long time. Ground beef is finely divided, so cooking for extended times won't benefit it that much. I'd say bring it to a boil either on high in the crock pot or on the stove, then transfer to the crockpot for 2+ hours (as long as you have).


Homemade mustard is bland I've tried two somewhat improvised recipes for mustard, and so far they've both seemed pretty lacking. I did small batches to prevent waste.

#1 was:

1 tbsp water
1 tsp white wine
1 tbsp cracked brown mustard seed
1 tbsp mustard powder
(wait 10 minutes for heat reaction)
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp grated horseradish
salt

#2 was:

2 tsp water
2 tsp white wine
1 tbsp cracked brown mustard seed
4 tsp mustard powder
(wait 5 minutes for heat reaction)
1 tsp cider vinegar
1.5 tsp grated horseradish
salt

Both times, after about 6-12 hours in the fridge, they tasted like almost nothing. I got a bit of the horseradish heat, but very little of anything else. It was plenty thick, so it's not like a too high liquid / mustard ratio.

I really just wanted to check here, but I have a strong suspicion that 12 hours is not long enough to wait to judge the true flavor. I've heard that it can take a few days for it to be good, but I've never read anything about what's bad about it right away (too hot, bitter, etc). Is that my only problem here or does my recipe need further tweaking?

When you make an acidic mustard paste it can take a long time before you get the pungency of mustard, but the benefit is it will last longer in the fridge.

If you used just cold water and not wine or vinegar, it will get mustardy more quickly, but the product will also have a shorter shelf life.


How do you deal with the hight heat of propane? I have only cooked with natural gas in the past and now have a propane stove.

I find that it burns very hot and it is difficult to control the heat.

I have it turned down to the minimum, almost flickering out, and have stacked a second trestle iron below the pan and it is still difficult to manage the heat.

What can I do?

The cooktop looks similar, but not exactly like this:

The answer to this might be to get a heat diffuser - this is basically a metal disc with holes in it that moderates the temperature by only letting some of the direct heat pass through. These sometimes come with handles so that you can move them on/off the element while cooking.

google: gas stove heat diffuser for options in your region. In the US I can get them for about $5-10


Removing oil bubbles from bolognese sauce I am making bolognese for dinner tonight. In the past I have had trouble with oil in the sauce  giving it a not very nice oily texture. I tried to limit the amount of oil I used, but I still have oil bubbles on the surface of the sauce.

Is there an easy way to remove the excess oil from the sauce?

For the future how do I prevent the excess?

my recipe is:

teaspoon garlic paste
250gm lean beef mince
teaspoon of peanut oil
handful chopped onion
tin crushed tomato's
one tub of tomato paste
mixed herbs, salt and pepper to taste

brown onions, garlic and mince
add crushed tomato's; fill can with water add to sauce
add salt, pepper and herbs
simmer for a few hours stirring occasionally
add tomato paste
stir and simmer for at least 30 mins

serve with preferred pasta

I eventually tried to soak up as much as possible with some paper towel. But I hope there is a better solution.

There is only one significant source of fat in the recipe that you have shared:  the ground (or minced) meat.  The single teaspoon of oil is a fairly trivial amount.

You might wish to drain the ground meat after browning and prior to continuing with the recipe to minimize the amount of fat that ends up in the final sauce.


How long should I wait for my gas oven to heat up? My cheap rental apartment comes with a (presumably cheap) gas oven. Although this oven has a temperature control, it lacks any sort of indicator to tell me when it has reached the desired temperature. I have reason to believe this oven is relatively new, but I do not know the model or brand.

Understanding that every oven is different, what is the longest reasonable amount of time I should wait when preheating my oven for 300, 350, 400, and 500 degrees?

You wait until it's hot... if it doesn't have a built-in indicator, buy an inexpensive oven thermometer - they can either sit on a shelf or hang from one, usually. And see when it gets to the right temperature.

If you're dealing with an old and inexpensive oven, it may be miscalibrated anyway, so you'll want the thermometer to tell you if setting it to 350F is actually making it 350F in the first place... this will allow you to adjust if necessary (may need to adjust either up or down, depending).

How long it takes will depend on the oven's efficiency and how well it's insulated, so it's impossible for us to guess. It could be anything from 5 to 30 minutes, which is why the thermometer is necessary.

If you don't want to buy a thermometer (though I strongly suggest that you do), I'd wait at least 20 minutes. There's nothing wrong with leaving your oven preheating "too" long.


8x12 vs 9x13 for casserole dish? Will I need to make adjustments for cook times on something like a casserole or lasagna if using a 8x12 baking dish instead of 9x13?

Thanks

You may need to cook for a little longer because your ingredients are piled a bit deeper, but it should work more or less unmodified.


How much to heat mustard oil before cooking? We use mustard oil.

How do I know if the oil is ready for cooking?

My mother always waits till the pungent smell goes off.
I can't put my finger to know if the oil is ready.

To check if mustard oil is ready to use, add onion peel: if it browns immediately, the oil is ready to use.
You can also notice the change in fluidity of the oil.


How to prevent the breading residue sticking in chicken fry? Recently I have been trying to fry chicken in KFC style.

I marinate the chicken for over 3 hours or more. I bread the chicken just before frying.

First 2-3 batch of chicken i.e 12-15 pieces turned really good in colour and texture but after that residue started building in the bottom of the pan and started sticking in the chicken crunchy surface. I usually use amount of oil that lets chicken float. So what am I missing here?

You aren't missing anything, it's completely normal for parts of the breading to come off food while it's frying. This residue will keep cooking, leading to blackened breading bit buildup.

If pieces of breading are sticking then the answer is to fish them out, you can use a metal strainer to do this, there are strainers designed just for that purpose. You could also buy frying baskets (provided you find ones that fit your pan) and cook your chicken in those, the beauty of them is that when you lift them out you take all of the breading pieces that have fallen off with it.

If it is smaller particles that are the problem then you can get them out by pouring the oil through a fine mesh strainer. This is a bit slow, so you'd want to build a few extra minutes into your cooking process.


How to properly clean a bundt mold without ruining the surface I usually do the suggestions in my previous question for seasoning the Teflon coated (non stick) bundt pan (buttering and flouring) and I have no problem with that. The problem is with leftover residue,I cannot clean the pan properly. After a few times of cleaning, the surface is hurt and since it is a fairly expensive, I am a little worried. I gave it a long soak in hot water and it didn't work. I also found this question which seems to ask the same thing but the answers are not about cleaning but the other part of the question.

I hope you're using cake release! And you've never actually "seasoned" it (as in covering it with oil and baking it in a very hot oven). If you did season it, that's a problem. I'll get to that in just a second.

Otherwise, all you need is to wash the pan right away in hot soapy water (use a high-quality dish soap, ultra-cheap ones don't work as well) after each use. If necessary, soak it for a half-hour or so in hot soapy water (as in for hand washing, not machine-dishwashing detergent). Then wash it with a dishcloth. If you still have stuff stuck in crannies, use a soft toothbrush. Dry thoroughly. That's it. If you still have stuff stuck on, use a plastic scrubby sponge-like this (my favorite), or this.

Do you absolutely know what surface it is? Unless it says otherwise, don't season it. If it is made by Nordic Ware, look for any model number or anything it says on the box about seasoning or not seasoning. If this is your pan, don't season it. I've got their number. I'll call them if you still have questions, and if this is, in fact, your pan. If you seasoned it, please don't do anything else until we contact the manufacturers. Just catch me in chat, you know I'm almost always there.

There is an answer somewhere on this site (Seasoned Advice) that says that Nordic Ware tells you to season their pans. Please note that that answer refers to pans that DO NOT have a non-stick coating.


Substitutes for wheat flour and their challenges in baking What are the flours that can be substituted for wheat flour in baking, specifically for breads, pastries and cakes?

I found a few here: Top 10 alternatives to wheat

What sort of challenges have you, experienced or novice bakers, faced while using substitutes? In terms of taste, texture and aroma, is there a better compromise? Are the baking temperatures higher or lower and is making the dough easier or more difficult when using substitutes?

There is no universal substitute for wheat flour.

The challenges are, roughly, that recipes will often completely fail if you replace wheat flour with something else. The particular questions you've asked aren't really answerable in a concise way. Yes, taste, texture and aroma can all suffer; yes, baking temperatures can change; yes, making (bread) dough is harder (in that you have to completely change the recipe). Cakes and pastries will tend to fare better than bread, but it's still not just a direct substitution question.

There are some cases where you might get pretty close on the first try (e.g. brownies), but if you're trying to be able to bake everything, there's really no way around this. The list of possibilities and ways to fix them is something many people have written books about, after doing tons of research. Starting from good recipes will save you from having to repeat all that work.

So, why is this all so much trouble?

Along with all the nice starches, wheat has gluten, which is (to oversimplify) a bit magical and difficult to replace. Essentially, the more the original recipe depends on the flour for structure/texture, the more trouble you'll have without using wheat. Specifically, good wheat-free bread is pretty difficult, since gluten (from wheat) forms the basic structure. If you naively try a flour substitute, no matter what it is, you'll probably end up with something absolutely nothing like the original recipe.

You'll have much better luck with the cakes and pastries, where the flour still provides structure, but a lot of it comes from starches, not gluten. (Indeed, cake flour and pastry flour have lower protein content - less gluten!) But still, baked goods can be pretty sensitive, so something as drastic as swapping out all the flour can still derail things.

You can find a lot of suggestions for gluten/wheat-free flour substitutes, which will likely work fairly well in most things where the wheat doesn't provide a ton of structure, i.e. not bread. Generally the best substitutes are blends of flours, not a single flour. For example, America's Test Kitchen came up with this blend of white rice flour, brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and dry milk. You can also simply purchase something that's marketed as a gluten-free flour - but note that not all are created equal, and if you can make a well-tested blend yourself (like the ATK one) it will likely serve you better. Unfortunately if you're somewhere where some of those things are difficult to find, you may have to do a bit more research (and experimentation) to find something that'll work for you.

Some recipes will require modification - tweaking other ingredients or the preparation - and for others you will be able to simply use a wheat-free blend like the one I mentioned without changing anything else.

But if you're trying to wholly avoid wheat, rather than trying to ask what all the challenges are, I would recommend specifically seeking out gluten-free recipes for things you want to make. You can even find entire cookbooks for this. For what it's worth, while I haven't seen it, the recipes in the America's Test Kitchen one are definitely really well-tested. This will help you make things that work right on the first try, not the tenth try.

Another great reference is King Arthur Flour. When you're in the US, you'll find their products everywhere, and they ship. Outside the US you'll probably find buying their products problematic, but the website is still outstanding. All of their thousands of recipes have reviews and comments. If you're having trouble, you'll get a response from one of their professional bakers. They do a lot of gluten-free applications, not just bread.


How to know potato is done without poking it to check softness? I can never get potatoes boiled just right. They're either over or under cooked.  When I think they could be about done, I poke one or two with a knife but then that one splits and cooks faster than others.  It also spills the potato juices in the water, and I don't like to do that, which is why I boil whole potatoes and not sliced.
Is there a way to know potatoes have attained just the right level of doneness without poking them with a knife or fork?

Great question easy fix as I had the same issue. Set aside or add  a couple extra  chunks or potatoes that is just for testing. When you test a chunk toss it, the test potatoe will be representative of how the other potatoes are cooking, it allows you to puncture without compromising the rest of the batch.


Which average weight % of the banana is edible? i.e. Which % of the banana is not peel? I got ~1 Kg of bananas and I want to calculate the calories in it. Provided that the peel is discarded, which is the remaining mass of bananas from the original Kg?

Since I have no weight measuring equipment at hand I looked up for the info, but couldn't find anything.

I had an application not long ago for which I needed the answer to the question as written.

America's Test Kitchen (sorry, paywalled) has a recipe for banana bread that I love. I save over-ripe banana chunks in the freezer until I feel like making banana bread. The recipe calls for "6 large very ripe bananas (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled". My bananas were already peeled and chunked. I wanted to follow the recipe very precisely because the recipe and particular methods were new to me.

So how much peeled banana equals 2.25 pounds of unpeeled banana?

My doctor has been nagging me to eat breakfast, so most days I manage to eat a banana early in my day. For one week I weighed the banana unpeeled and peeled. Then I struck an average.

My average banana weighed 183 grams unpeeled, 116 grams peeled. 185/116=1.58.

So, 2.25 pounds (1021 grams) of unpeeled banana = 1.43 pounds (647 grams) of peeled banana.

My average banana (very average in the store, Dole brand) was 62.4% edible.


What is the difference between a macaron and an amaretti biscuit? Other than differing in origin (Italian (amaretti) and France (Macaron)), what is the difference between these two biscuits?

According to this article the main difference is that French macaroons are usually sandwiched together and enjoyed alone while amaretti (pre-cursor to French macaroons) are used both as a cookie and often as an ingredient.  Both are prepared from almond paste and meringue.


Should I use dried or fresh chilli/ginger in chai tea? Well, the question is in the title really. What are the pros/cons? I'm making some concentrate by cooking it for a long time.

It depends on how they are dried.  Though if they're properly dehydrated or freeze-dried then you're just rehydrating them in the tea and they'll taste ok.

Ginger: I prefer fresh ginger and find that there are some taste notes that aren't present in the dried tea, it makes more pleasant with fresh ginger, but it's more work.

Chili: While I haven't tried fresh chili in tea, I'd imagine dried would work better and you wouldn't get interference from oils in the chili.  Also maybe easier to control the amount.


When baking a cake that calls for butter, should you use salted or unsalted? I'm baking a cake using a cake mix and extra ingredients. It calls for 5 tbsp of butter, but I'm not sure which to use, salted or unsalted.  What difference would it make??

Generally, you'll want to use unsalted. The amount of salt in salted butter can vary, so most recipes call for unsalted, and then have you add the exact amount of salt. Cake mixes have salt in them, so this would still apply.


Overnight oatmeal still underwater? So this is a little embarrassing, but following the standard overnight oatmeal instructions on a can of McCann steel cut oats isn't yielding the expected result. I'm simply bringing four cups of water to a boil, dropping in one cup of oats, and letting it simmer for a minute or two. I then place the covered pot in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, the oatmeal is still submerged in water.

I figure I could use less water to reduce the risk of this happening, but why aren't the standard instructions giving me a standard result?

The instructions on www.mymccanns.com that I can find read:

Quick Soak Method
One of the quickest and easiest ways to prepare McCann’s® Steel Cut Irish Oats is to soak the oats overnight. Before going to bed, boil 4 cups of water in a pot. Then add one cup of oats and simmer for 1 minute. Cover the pot, cool, and store overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning reheat over low heat, stirring occasionally.

Although these are instructions for overnight soaking, they aren’t instructions for ‘overnight oats’ that are popular to eat cold. Was that what you were aiming for? I read this as a process to reduce the 30 minute cooking time they suggest for ‘Irish porridge’ further down the page. As you can see the final sentence tells you reheat the oats next morning. Presumably at that stage the oats will swell and thicken the remaining liquid to form porridge.
If these are the instructions you were following, they will not yield ‘overnight oats’. I think you really need rolled oats for that.


How to not burn the sugars in veggies when simmering in a dutch oven for a long time? I cooked a vegetable stew (onions, carrots, cabbage, potatoes) in a dutch oven on the stovetop for about 30-40 minutes on medium heat.  The food turned out fine, but there's a thick layer of black residue in the bottom of the dutch oven when I'm done cooking (which I am able to clean off).  Is this the burned sugars from within the veggies?  Is there a better way to cook for a long time with a dutch oven on a stovetop without leaving blackened residue on the bottom?

It sounds like either your heat is too high, or there is not enough liquid in your stew. If you can't reduce the flame, consider a heat diffuser.


Which part of green onions can we use in recipes? For recipes calling for green onions, how do we know that whether we have to use the white root of the onion in recipe  or green leaves?

Both the green top and the white bulb are edible, so once you've discarded any dirty or yellow bits, it's up to you, but here are some suggestions.

If it's something like a stir fry, use all of it. Generally if it's going to be cooked in with other ingredients this works, but you might have to chop very finely is some cases. I sometimes use spring onions in place of bulb onions as I grow them, and then of course use all of them.

If it's used as a garnish, or added raw to something like a salad, just use the green bits, as the flavour is milder. This is true even if stirred into hot food but not cooked further (like mashed potato, or some sauces). Raw (bulb) onion is added to salads, but it's very much an acquired taste.

In between is a grey area - I would use all of it in an omelette, for example, a chef probably wouldn't.

It also depends just how bulbous the bulb is. If the whole onion is about the same thickness, less than that of a pencil, you can use the (small) white part more readily than if you've got a sphere on the bottom.


How to trim a cake so it's level? If you cake is too domed, you can just cut the top off, right?

Thing is, I tried this, and now my cake is taller on one side than the other. So it's still not flat! ;-)

Does anybody have any good tips for keeping the cut level?

(I already know you need a knife long enough to go right through the cake. I have that. It's just difficult to cut in a straight line by hand.)

Mostly it comes down to practice. However there are some tips and tools that can make it a lot easier. If you have a cake stand (the kind that spins) then you set the cake on the stand and slowly turn it with one hand while cutting forward and back with the other (trying to keep the cutting hand as level as possible). Another option is to buy a cake leveler http://m.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=415-815 - if you make a lot of cakes it can be very handy.


Is the second rise step neccesary for no-knead bread? In the classic no-knead bread recipe, it calls for letting the dough rise once for 12-18 hours, then folding it on a work surface and letting it rise again for two hours. Why is this second rise necessary? Could I just let the bread rise once for 14-20 hours with the same effect?

The second rising is quite necessary for good, light, airy bread.

When you fold the bread and then shape it into a proper loaf, you compress it, pushing out some of the air pockets that grew when it was rising. If you don't let it rise a second time after shaping, the bread won't have the proper airy-ness and it will be very dense.

You can't shape the bread properly at the beginning, so you must do it in two steps.

I suppose that if you're OK with dense bread, you can fold and shape it and then put it right in the oven but I don't think you'll like the outcome.