How can I roast chicken bones (without meat)? I plan to make a sizable quantity of chicken stock this weekend.  Since I can't actually eat that much chicken, I just bought several pounds of bones, figuring I'd save the effort and expense of cleaning and butchering entire chickens.

But now I'm wondering: Can I roast the bones by themselves?

Most resources seem to agree that stock made from roasted bones is richer than stock made from bones that were boiled raw.  However, every "recipe" I've looked at assumes that whole chickens are being used.  I've never been taught or seen instructions on how to roast just the bones.

So I have a few questions related to roasting the bones:

First, is it actually practical?  Is there any reason I shouldn't consider this?
What would be the recommended oven temperature and cooking time for about 5 pounds of bones?
Assuming I use butter as the base, how much would I likely need?
Does it make any sense to brine the bones, or to season them at all before roasting?
Should I bother including vegetables or other flavours in the roast, knowing that it's just going into a stock afterward that will have its own separate flavours?

My intuition is that any special preparation, seasoning or additives would be pointless, but I'd prefer to go by facts rather than intuition.  And even if I'm correct I'd still like to get some rough guidelines as to the oven settings, because if I accidentally burn them then the whole endeavour is a bust.

Roasting the bones will give you a darker brown stock than using the raw bones.  To roast the bones, just stick them in an oven on high heat, around 450 for about 45 minutes, or until they are a nice golden caramelized color.  Though you will want to make sure to keep an eye on them the first time, I'd check every 5 minutes after half an hour.  Roasting the veggies with the bones will also add a slightly sweeter roasted flavor.  It's like the difference of putting slices of raw onions on a burger compared to caramelized onions. You get a slightly sweeter, richer roasted flavor.  Though it does turn down some of the other flavor notes, it's up to you which you'd rather have.  Without roasting, you'd have a clearer "white" stock.

If you are using the butter as a base to roast the bones, I would set it aside and go with a higher smoke point oil like a peanut or corn oil.  The low smoke point of the butter could leave a bitter, slightly burned flavor, especially with the longer roasting times.

I would leave the seasoning for the stock.  Most spices will burn at a lower temperature, and salting the bones before you make your stock, could make your stock overly salty.  It's easier to add more toward the end, than try to figure out what to do with salty stock.

I hope that helps!


How can I get my puff pastry to rise? When I made chicken pot pie, the filling was fine but the puff pastry on top didn't puff up though it did cook through.
How can I remedy this?

The pastry was the store-bought frozen variety. The temperature was 375 °F and I used and egg wash for the glaze.

Did at any point you crimp the puff pastry? If you press the layers together too hard you will cause the dough not to puff. I don't think temperature was the issue here if you said it cooked all the way through.


How to offset sweetness in a sauce? I recently tried a recipe for Mongolian BBQ that I found online.  The sauce consists of garlic, ginger, water, soy sauce, cornstarch, and the main ingredient is 2/3 cup of brown sugar.  While it tasted good, I was wondering what I could add to offset the sweetness, perhaps giving it a bit of heat?

The garlic and ginger are first sauteed in vegetable oil before the other ingredients are added.  Would using hot chili oil instead of vegetable oil give it any heat?

What other ideas would you recommend?

American versions of Mongolian BBQ are often pretty sweet (this doesn't sound like an authentic recipe). More soy sauce (or more of everything but the sugar) would cut the sweetness. Chili oil would certainly give it heat, but isn't going to temper the sweetness much. Any of the following would offset the sweetness and be appropriate for this type of dish:

Any tart apple (a common ingredient in the Japanese version of Mongolian BBQ)
Onions (not caramelized)
Rice wine vinegar


Do products derived from coconut need to be kept cool? I have something that's a mix of coconut oil and butter gee. How should I store it? It turned brick hard when I put it in the refrigerator. Here is a picture. UPDATE: I tried keeping it in the cupboard and it completely separated and liquefied :(

I also have something called coconut manna and am not sure if it should be refrigerated?

No need of refrigerating. We routinely use various forms of coconut oil for cooking and traditionally even for use as hair oil. Same applies to coconut manna. I'm speaking from experience. If you need more proof, there's this and this.


Is this sponge cake recipe correct? I found an old family recipe for a big size sponge cake. Are these measures correct?

10 eggs
6 heaped tablespoons of flour
3 heaped tablespoons of corn starch
10 heaped tablespoons of granulated sugar
1/2 heaped tablespoon of baking powder

The recipe uses the separated eggs method.

Different types of cakes are recognizable by their ratios. Recognizing the ratio of your recipe is very hard, because it is given in nonstandard volumetric measurements. In fact, the use of "flour" (without differentiation of the type) together with cornstarch, and the formulation "heaped tablespoon" suggests that this is a continental European recipe, where tablespoons are not a normed measure from a standardized measuring system. Your relatives probably used whichever spoon they had in the cupboard to measure the flour and sugar.

Still, unless they had some giant sized spoons, the cake is quite heavy on the eggs. A standardish sponge would be around 1:1 eggs to flour by weight, while my conversions give me less than 200 g flour and about 500 g egg for even generously heaped tablespoons. Home laid eggs would have been smaller, but not half of today's ones. Also, the lack of fat is suspicious. In comparison to standard Western cake recipe categories, it is closest to a genoise. The second best match is angel food cake, but the use of baking powder and the high egg ratio is quite off for it.

The unusual thing is that it uses baking powder, since both a traditional genoise and a traditional angel food cake are purely egg leavened. It is likely to be a home baker's addition to a more traditional recipe, either because of a misunderstanding (some people don't realize that you can make cakes without chemical leaveners) or because they had difficulty to get it rise without it and added it to get a rise.

If you are asking whether you should try it: you can, or you can try a different genoise recipe from somewhere else. The advantage of using a modern source is the reproducibility and better testing - when you heap your own spoons, you will likely end up using a very different amount of flour than whatever your relative used. Also, if you have never made a genoise before, it's a more difficult recipe than typical sponges. It is very sensitive to the proper ratio, proper duration of mixing, and proper baking time and temperature, and people usually need a few practice tries until they master it. It's not rocket science, more like throwing darts - invest your time and it's learnable, just don't expect perfect results the first time round.

The learning curve is another reason why I would suggest looking around for a different source for a genoise recipe. If you make this one and it goes well, great. If it doesn't, you won't be able to troubleshoot it well until you have learned how it's supposed to work, which is best learned with a tested recipe with good instructions, not a grandparent's notes to a process she knew by heart.

Still, the recipe does have a chance of working, it's not a totally unusual one. If you really insist, you can try making it. Just set your expectations properly and don't be disappointed if it isn't an instant success.


Lemon juice as drinking water preservative I drink water at work from a plastic bottle, refilled at cooler. I wonder if putting lemon cuts (0.25 lemon/L) in it will preserve it and decent way to keep water safe.
Is there a chance that lemon can go bad if left in bottle for two or three days?

This is more likely to introduce organic matter (the lemon cuts) that can induce spoilage than prevent it... common experience shows that food that has "some lemon juice" added (and the amount you are suggesting is in the same order of magnitude) is not significantly preserved by that, so we can assume the acid (which would be the preserving factor) is far too diluted in that mixture to keep either the water or the lemons from spoiling. Also, lemons as bought from a store or vegetable stand are far too widely variable in their acid content to make any statement on chemical potency - the only remotely safe way to preserve anything via the acid from natural produce would be to educate yourself on the suitable pH range, then after each preparation take a sample and examine it with a pH measuring device (pH meter, indicating paper - do not dip such devices directly into anything that still gets served as food or drink!).


Is reheating partially fried fish safe? A street side stall selling fish fries them two times for convenience.Initially they fry the fish for 70%, then keep it for 10 to 20 minutes. When a customer comes they fully fry that fish.

Is this safe?

It's absolutely safe, and many professional cooks do this sort of thing all the time. Check out the ordinances for your local health department— some require a variance for using time rather than temperature as a food safety measure– but most are fine with par cooked meats being in the danger zone, usually defined as 40 to 140, for up to 2 hours if they get thrown out right away. If you par fry and cool the fish, then you should be bacteriologically safe for much longer, but it would probably be of pretty poor quality when you fried it. Nobody wants to eat an oil sponge. Keeping your oil temp up will help you keep it less greasy.

  The Danger Zone... This refers to the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow - usually between 40° and 140° F (4° and 60° C). For food safety, keep food below or above the "danger zone." Remember the 2-Hour Rule: Discard any perishables (foods that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if unrefrigerated) left out at room temperature for longer than two hours. When temperatures are above 90° F (32° C), discard food after one hour.

Though it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, that 2 hour period usually starts over when the food is brought back up to finishing temperature... so if you par cooked it, held it for almost two hours and nobody got it, you could bring it up to temperature and then have another two complete hours to do something with it, or cool it and store it. Not sure what good prefried fish would be though.

You could avoid this whole thing if you had the extra time on hand for someone to butterfly the cuts so you could just fry them quickly to order.


Missing ingredient from Peach Salsa can I recan I made a batch of peach salsa last night but forgot the vinegar. Can I add the vinegar and recan the peach salsa. It has the sugar, just forgot the vinegar

The key here is really how long it sits out at room temperature before you realize. The vinegar is acidic, so presumably it's part of bringing the pH to a safe one for boiling water canning. Without it, the salsa won't be safe to can like this.

If you realize right away and recan immediately, it's basically just cooking it extra. It may not be as good with the extra cooking, but it'll be safe. Similarly, if you immediately refrigerate then reheat, it spends a bit longer in the danger zone, but it should be easily within a safe margin.

On the other hand, if it sits out for hours, all bets are off. You made something not safe to store at room temperature, then stored it at room temperature, so you really can't know it's still safe.


Defrosting Fish without Bag So I am trying to defrost some frozen fish using running water, but I do not have a bag to place the fish in. If I just put the fish directly into running water without a bag and thaw it this way, will I die or get very sick?

Thanks.

Fill a clean bowl with cold water.  Place in sink.  Place fish in bowl under the tap.  Turn on cold water so that it slowly trickles into the bowl. This is safe in the short term, or just until the fish is thawed.  Of course, a firmer fleshed fish will handle this better than, say, a skate wing or some thin flounder.  A plastic bag is basically irrelevant for safety.  It will not keep you from getting sick if the fish remains in the danger zone for enough time...that is, unless your fish is floating in contaminated water, which is probably unlikely in your situation.


difference between pan-cooking with and without oil So lately I've been pan-cooking single chicken thigh fillets as a snack of sorts. Heat the non-stick pan, and toss a chicken fillet in there, turn around a few times while making cuts to make them even etc..

I haven't been using oil, and usually the chicken thigh fillet isn't very oily. I mean, the only seasoning I use is a mixed garlic salt with some herbs. However, the thigh fillet still puts out plenty of oil, as the pan is sizzling with them by the end of the cooking time usually.

Now, just yesterday, the thigh fillets I've bought were quite a bit larger than average, and a lot oilier with more fat. The pan was sizzling with oils. I didn't use any timer, but I'm wodering.. does more oil cause the cooking to get more even? That is, would the oil have helped seep the heat into the parts of the chicken that doesn't touch the pan?

Sure. Oil gets quite hot, and it'll cook areas that aren't in direct contact with the bottom of the pan, which will certainly speed cooking time. The technical term for cooking with a small amount of oil is Sautéing. Without oil, you might call it grilling or searing? With more oil, frying.


Way too much lemon in my basting liquid Let me start by saying, I am a good home cook.
I have been cooking for a while with positive review.

I decided to try something I had never done before.  I made a Greek Inspired Pork Roulade.  It required making a filling with spinach, cream cheese, feta, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, lemon zest, and garlic.
I tasted the filling and it was great.  I pounded the pork to about 1/4 inch thin and spread the filling and rolled it into a Roulade.  I didn't have twine so I rolled it in parchment paper.  The final step was to baste the Roulade with mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and oregano sauce.
So, after baked it for 15 -20 minutes, I basted. Everything looked and smelled amazing, but looks and smells can be deceiving...it wasn't great!!
But, neither myself or my husband could finish it due to the tartness.

Can anyone give me tips on how to fix this...I hate wasting food but can't seem to be able to figure this one out.

It won't look as nice, but it should be possible to rescue the flavour.

As you've also got lemon in the filling, and feta is quite tart as well, I suggest you first remove the filling and dilute with extra cream cheese (and possibly olives and cooked garlic). Reheat enough  to have with the pork and chill the rest too have with something else within a couple of days.

Wipe the meat with kitchen roll (paper towel) while the filling is removed. If you're desperate you could even quickly rinse it (in boiling water if hot, chilled water if cold).

Then reroll and reheat, or serve deconstructed.


Botulism from *uncooked* potatoes wrapped in foil? Recently I've seen uncooked, prewrapped-in-foil potatoes at the store, meant for baking. But I've always read that keeping potatoes wrapped tightly in foil at room temperature is one of the ways that botulism can occur. Is this a safe product? Is it only after cooking that botulism can grow?

One of the nicer things about botulism (there are not many) is that heat does neutralize the toxin. So unless you are licking the raw potatoes, not likely to be a problem.

The odds of the foil-wrapping being actually airtight are also about zero, so it's unlikely that you'd actually get botulism, as that requires an anaerobic environment.

Now, why you'd buy foil-wrapped potatoes in the first place is beyond me, but I'm not seeing a safety issue here.


What is levure equivalant in America? We have a chocolate cake (brownie) recipe from France and calls for a packet of levure.  We have been putting in yeast but not sure if it is wrong or right.  Yeast, baking powder, other?

We metropolitan French distinguish "levure chimique" and "levure organique" (also called "levure de boulanger"). The first one is baking powder (the carbonated molecule), the latter is yeast (the fungi).

If there is only "levure" written, it generally means "levure chimique" (baking powder), as it is more readily available, rises faster, and doesn't need to be carefully kept alive.


How to get the most chili flavour out of a chili pepper? I always find myself enjoying someone else's chili dish whether its curry, Mexicana pizza etc, more than my own. It's not the burning sensation that's lacking but more the chili flavour.

What are the guidelines to getting the most flavour out of a chili pepper in any spicy dish?

One technique, especially in Mexican foods, for recipes that use dried chilies, is to toast the pods before using them.
Toast them over medium heat until the pod blisters, but don't blacken too much. They are very thin, so going from done to ruined takes only a few seconds of in attention. Be careful!


Fastest way for cloning Milk Kefir Grains It's about two weeks that I make Kefir at home. I started with three mid-size Kefir grains, and now I have six ones (three of them are really big)

Now my friends get interested in making Kefir too. But I don't have enough Kefir grains to share with them.

Is there any quick method for cloning Kefir grains? For example, keeping them in warmer place, giving them richer milk, or something like that?

The kefir grains are a culture of bacteria and yeast that are active at near-room temperatures. Their ideal temperature is 71F (22C). Below this and they will grow too slowly. Above this temperature, up to 86F, for extensive periods the grains will be damaged.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir-faq.html#temperature

Building the grains takes time- there's no way around it.

You can keep the grains at exactly 71F to maximize their growth. You can also change the milk often and keep the milk to grain ratio high to ensure that the milk doesn't acidify too quickly and the grains stay active.

You may see an improvement using organic milk as it won't have residual antibiotics in it.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir-faq.html#growthrate

I have not read anywhere of a way to modify the milk itself to encourage growth. You might experiment with adding a small amount of milk powder to make the milk more nutritionally dense but my gut feeling is that this would have a negligible effect if any.

I'm afraid your friends are just going to have to wait patiently.


Getting the flavor of honey without the sweetness Honey has an interesting flavor, but it's very sweet.

Is there any way to get the flavor of honey without it being sweet?

What comes to mind immediately is to experiment with different varieties. Honeys vary a lot in sweetness and strength of flavor.

From About.com

Acacia honey is very sweet with a clean, pure, classic honey flavor.
Alfalfa is a light honey but with a nice mild spicy note and floral aroma.
Blueberry honey has a slight tang and a fruity flavor.
Buckwheat is tasty on toast, but its strong and spicy flavor makes it perfect for marinades.
Clover is the classic honey - light, sweet, floral.
Coffee honey tends to be quite dark, with a rich, deep flavor that matches its color.
Eucalyptus honey has just a hint of menthol flavor in it, making it perfect for stirring into tea.
Fireweed honey has a markedly complex flavor and a slightly buttery texture. Like buckwheat honey, it can stand up to meats, marinades, glazes, and grilling
Heather is pungent and almost bitter, in a good way. It's great with smoky things, or on wholesome baked goods.
Linden honey is quite delicate and has a fresh, woodsy aroma perfect with tea
Orange Blossom is widely available but watch out, much of the orange blossom honey on the market is artificially flavored. Real orange blossom honey is mild and citrus-scented.
Palmetto is a mild honey with balanced sweetness.
Sage is a lot like palmetto honey - mild, sweet, flexible.
Sourwood is caramel-like and buttery and delicious on toast, biscuits, muffins, and any other vehicle you can think of.
Tupelo honey is somehow sweeter than other honeys, but with a lovely balanced mild flavor.
Wildflower honey is light and fruity yet richly flavored at the same time.

Based on that, perhaps heather honey would be a good place to start.


Can the freshness of butter affect taste of cooking? Recently I made paneer (cottage cheese) butter masala following the recipe here.

However the taste was a bit off with the smell of butter. The butter had 3 months expiry date and I used it within one month from the date of manufacture.

I have to admit that as I was away from home I did not have proper measuring devices so I approximated the quantity.

I have experienced the same smell when butter gets old by a few weeks. So my questions are:

How does the "oldness of cooking butter" alter the taste of the recipe?
How does the quantity of butter (especially more than that in the recipe) alter the taste of the recipe?
If there is a change, can you please explain the reason or point to a link where such reasons can be found?
What is the best time to use butter so as to avoid any taste change? Or how "fresh" should the butter be to avoid any taste change?

Thank you community so much!

Butter can/will turn rancid if not stored properly; using rancid butter will completely destroy a recipe as it will have a strong smell and taste; probably why people use ghee instead of butter; smell it before using it.
In that particular recipe, I would imagine using more butter will not change much in term of taste or texture; unless you really messed up measurements from 2tsps.
This would be somewhat impossible to explain, adding butter will add more fat and some additional unctuosity to a dish; in that case, I imagine not much change will happen since there is also a lot of water and the cashew paste in the recipe.
As in any recipe, using fresh ingredient is the key to making a recipe work; even fats like butter or oils.

To keep butter fresh as long as possible:

Buy only what you need (if you cannot store it properly)
Keep it cold in the refrigerator. (and properly wrapped).
Freeze unused butter (cut it in smaller chunks before, so you can only take out small amount at a time).
Use a butter "bell" that will keep the butter in water (don't forget to change water regularly).


What were the popular cookbooks of the 1950s? What were the most popular cookbooks in the 1950s in the US?  I have seen lists that cite the many Betty Crocker cookbooks, but what about other authors (or companies)?

Elizabeth David (or was it davies) is another classic author who is is often credited with the food revolution in the UK.  She may have been slightly later than 1950s however.

Her books include "Mediterranean Food", "French Country Cooking" and "Summer Cooking".


Factory canned grape juice Is grape juice ok to drink in an unopened can with the expiration date 5 years ago. It has also been refrigerated though unopened.

As long as the can is undamaged, and in good condition, it is safe.  Expiration dates are typically used to define a period of time when the product is of the best quality, rather than to define safety.  Since this was very likely a pasteurized product, it most certainly did not turn into wine or vinegar. It might not taste great, but if the can remained sealed it will not be unsafe either.


Marinate sundried tomatoes with ethanol overnight? One of my favorite meals is an oil pasta with sundried tomato, pork belly, and broccoli. When I make it, I put a cap or two of scotch after adding the tomatoes and it really makes it shine.

I'm preparing this in advance and wondering if there was anything wrong with letting tomatoes sit in alcohol for an extended period? There's some magic involved with tomato and alcohol, but I've only ever done it while cooking, not letting it sit.

There are certain flavor components of foods that are more or less soluble in various liquids.  It turns out that some of the flavor components of tomatoes are, indeed, soluble in alcohol.  That is the genesis of recipes that add a small amount of vodka to tomato sauce.  Vodka is flavorless, the alcohol evaporates, and you are left with a more intense sauce.  I suspect that is what you are experiencing, though you may enjoy the added flavor that the scotch contributes.  I don't think that soaking the tomatoes will increase the intensity.  In fact, you might lose these soluble flavor components to the alcohol. In other words, you will make tomato flavored scotch.  Perhaps not what you want, and these tomato flavors may get lost in the already strong flavors present in scotch. But, I could see value in tomato flavored vodka, for example.  For your recipe, I would maintain your current practice of adding the alcohol to the dish as you prepare it.


How to make safe sushi I'd always assumed that if you start with safe fish (appropriately stored/frozen), stay with "normal" fish (i.e. don't try to prepare poisonous puffer fish at home), and follow normal food hygiene practices, it was "safe".

And indeed, for years I've been going to the local Japanese market fish counter, and asking for "fish for sushi". The gentleman behind the counter then recommends some fish, optionally slices it for me,  wraps it up and I take it home and make various types of sushi.

Is this correct, or am I missing something? Is there some special technique that I need to follow at home to make safe-sushi?

To be clear, I'm not asking about the safety of the fish itself, I trust the Japanese market fish counter to sell me sushi-safe fish.

The safety of making sushi at home really boils down to

Ensuring that your fish meets the criteria for sushi-suitable fish, and
Following standard food safety practices for everything else.

There are regulations meant for businesses which confirm that, you can find them under Guidance for Processing Sushi in Retail Operations. You cannot apply them 1:1 as a consumer (for example, I don't know of a way to ensure that your fish was not "harvested from known or designated areas that are problematic for ciguatera"), but they give you a maximum framework you can try to reach. You can see that there are no gotchas there, just what you'd expect for any food, plus fish advice.

For getting fish that is as safe as possible, please refer to this question: Can store bought salmon be used for sashimi?. For standard food safety practices beyond that, pleases see our writeup on food safety, https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info.

There is one deviation which is allowed by the guidance above: if you are willing to measure the pH of your rice-and-vinegar mixture, you are allowed to keep the rice inside the danger zone. However, this is not an extra safety restriction, but rather a kind of special dispensation - if you refrigerate the rice promptly as per standard food safety rules, it becomes irrelevant. For home cooking, there is no need to keep a tub of rice on the counter all the time.


What flavorings do you use for sour pickles? I'm making sour pickles (salt water brine, no vinegar) and do not have dill, so I've got garlic and black pepper.

What other suggestions do you have for flavorings?

Depending on the main ingredient, some additional flavours can be added using the following:

Coriander Seed
Yellow or Black Mustard Seeds
Dried Chillies
Allspice
Ginger
Black Peppercorns
Bay Leaves
Juniper berries
Cinnamon stick
Fennel seed
Cloves
Celery seed

Combinations of the above can provide some really great flavours.


potential cereulide on plastic container, can it be washed off? I recently saw a video of a person who died from eating 5 day old unrefrigerated pasta. The cause was cereulide toxin from Bacillus cereus bacteria in the food. I recently left pasta unrefrigerated in a plastic container for 3 days accidentally, and it smelled kind of like vinegar when I opened it to put in the dishwasher. I assumed that washing the plastic container in the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle would be fine to remove any potential cereulide toxins, but then started researching cereulide (because I'm paranoid) and came across some scientific data mentioning that

  "Cereulide is moreover hydrophobic, so it can attach to contact
  materials. This means that cereulide cannot be easily eliminated in
  industrial installations. Cereulide can thus not be eliminated with
  usual cleaning protocols and when the heat sterilization of 15 minutes
  at 121◦C is not strict enough (Rajkovic et al., 2008)."

So, is my plastic container permanently toxic now or am I just being paranoid? Can you get food poisoning from even a washed plastic container because of this toxin?

Chubbyemu keeps me up at a night too.

But remember, when you're looking up case studies and very rare stories and situations, they will always be as crazy as possible. If people do get sick from clean containers, they would have used that as the basis for the story, not eating 5 day old pasta. Remember, the point of both internet clickbait stories and chubbyemu stories is to take rare situations from billions of people, and use it to contrast how serious death is vs how "benign" his mistake was, which would be more pronounced if they could find this theoretical clean plastic container illness story. But if 5 day old pasta and chugging ridiculous amounts of soy sauce is the best he could do, then you're fine as you don't do anything equally as ridiculous, and even if you do a rediculous thing, you're still probably fine. As he mentioned at the end of the video, eating 5 day old pasta will not usually end like this in the vast vast majority of cases, and he only mentioned a handful of case studies afterwards. And even after noting the sickness, it was highly propagated by other ridiculous things like the stomach pills (It should be common knowledge that for any type of poisoning, your goal is vomiting as much as possible. It's on the back of every bleach or ammonia container). I mean, don't ever eat 5 day old pasta, but the container will certainly be fine.

To answer the question:

If the pasta was a dry pasta you can end right there because the toxin will only be inside the pasta anyway, not in any sauce that would spread over the container.

If it's a wet pasta, look here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12197882&ved=2ahUKEwjvu-21xJriAhXCmuAKHWuaCdUQFjABegQIBxAK&usg=AOvVaw36q0A0hxu_OK8sVUn_vFtl

So, it's lipophilic, ie, oil soluble. Soap will do just fine. Or if you're very scared just fill the container with oil and mix to dilute it, and then drain it out and wash with soap.

Similarly: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC127581/

The above discussing that B. Cereus is consumed in high quantities regularly without illness. Strains that are dangerous are exceedingly rare, we only know about them because of the incredible information exchange of the modern world in combination with the absurdly high 7 billion population.

Googling: "The CDC estimates that there are over 63,000 cases of Bacillus cereus illness each year in this country, and that 100% of the cases are caused by eating contaminated food."

Note the important deduction, 0% caused by eating washed containers.

At 6 million car accidents per year in the US, commiting to a strict no-car lifestyle will be hundreds of times more important to your safety than worrying about plastic containers.

Also, there are on average 0 deaths per year. See https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/Animal_Health/PHR250/2007/25007BcerMH__2_.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiAz-DuwZriAhUQVN8KHesJAcgQFjAGegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0FiJ9aLhm4a1t4H2isHES3

So, even if you get ill, you'll be fine within 3 days. 1 in 60000 odds at worst, not including the many unreported contracts of the illness that were too mild to be seen. Since googling describes getting sick as "mild and transient", it's probably only serious enough to be reported 1 in 10 times, so after you hit the very rare situation of getting ill, you're STILL 1 in 1 million to die from it (1 in 1 million is a bit handwavy as seen, but 1 in 100,000 is very certain as odds of death after getting sick).

At the miniscule but still but still much worse than B Cereus, total of 50 lightening strike fatalities per year in the US, you have more pressing fears, as being outside is millions of times more potent of a killer than the idea of eating out of washed containers, for which I cannot find any case studies for. Despite how case studies in the US can utilize situations that occur in 1 in 300 million people, where your average astrophysist can go on for days about how big that number is, they still involve gross negligence such as eating an entire bowl of pasta sitting at room temperature for 3 days that then smelt poorly.


How to grill portabello mushrooms properly Recently my girlfriend and I tried grilling (over an open flame, like BBQ) some portabello mushrooms for burgers.

We failed miserably :( The mushrooms were soggy and raw at first. After grilling them for a while, they were dry on the outside and a bit raw inside. How can I grill them so that they are cooked evenly throughout, without being too soggy or too dry?

I read this post, but I am particularly interested in grilling of mushrooms.

I have found marinating in some sort of olive oil/vinegar type of liquid for about an hour ahead works well.  They feel a little soggy/slippery when you put them on the grill but firm up right away and taste pretty good.

Key is to make sure your fire is hot and direct (don't "smoke" them) - I'd say 350 degrees or so - and pause a moment to ensure the grate is hot as well.  Then I would take them off as soon as you start seeing the grill marks on both sides.  Like 1 minute per side. I personally use equal parts Olive Oil and Red Balsamic.  Sometimes I have also used Worcestershire and it makes them taste even more like a "burger".


How long can I keep unleavened dough at room temperature? Can a dough of only flour and water stay usable indefinitely (as in between a few days and a few weeks) when stored covered at room temperature?

I made a batch of dough last week and ended up with a good portion of it unused. Today, I finally managed to finish it off by turning it into flatbread. Having the dough on hand throughout the week was convenient, but is there anything that I should watch out for in terms of food safety or taste?

A mixture of flour and water at room temperature is a very hospitable growth medium for many bacteria, yeasts, and molds; and indefinitely is a long time.... Even if you are extremely vigilant when it comes to kitchen hygiene, the mixture will eventually start to grow some form of microbes. This process could take a week or more to become obvious.

If you use the batch up within a week or so it is unlikely to cause any problems.  For longer storage you should refrigerate the dough and/or add salt (in the proportional amount you would use for bread).  If it develops an off smell or visible mold you are better off throwing it away.

Keep in mind that hydrating flour, especially whole grain flours, activates amylase enzymes that break down starches into simple sugars.  This process, called autolysis, improves browning and flavor, but if allowed to go on too long it leads to a gummy crumb or poor overall structure.


How do you prepare and grill blackened salmon? I've never grilled blackened salmon before, but is there anything more involved than simply sprinkling blackened seasoning on both sides and grilling it for 5-7 minutes on each side?

That's all there is to it. It seems you already know this, but just to be sure, be aware that "blackened" refers to the spice and not any burning or charring that is done. Burnt spices taste horrendous.


Advice for Rice balls in bulk I have my own variant of japanese rice balls that I was hoping for some advice on.

One thing to keep in mind is that I'm a college graduate student and put a high priority on minimizing costs and preparation time (and prefer to make things in bulk).

I buy all my ingredients in bulk and try to make a weeks worth of meals in advance.

First I cook a variant of Chicken Adobo. In addition to the normal ingredients, I add about a quarter of a cup of capers and a half a cup of green olives. Additionally, I cut-up the chicken thighs in advance (because I'm guessing this will help get more flavor into the center of the meat, and also cut down on cooking time).

I then wrap saran-wrap around a small plastic cup, cover the walls with about a quarter of an inch of rice, and insert about 2 tablespoons of chicken/capers/olives. Then I cover the top with rice and tie up the saran-wrap for a completed rice ball.

So I have two questions:

What do you think is the best way to make and store these riceballs in bulk? Am I forced to make them daily, or can I make them in bulk on a weekly basis without affecting the quality too much?

I've considered making the chicken-adobo in bulk and then freezing or refrigerating it, but the chicken-adobo's sauce gelatinizes and reheating it is fairly awkward and affects the quality of the meat.
I've considered storing the riceballs saran-wrapped individually in my fridge/freezer, but they begin to dry out in the fridge and have weird consistency when coming out of the freezer.

Do you have any suggestions for a more refined chicken recipe? I'm pretty happy with the mixture of sweet&sour from the capers and soysauce - but I really just threw together chicken adobo and added capers to it. I tried cooking the capers and olives with the chicken and ended up with too much flavor from the olives (it just made the whole thing taste like olive water).
Additionally, I end up throwing away a lot of extra vinegar+soy sauce at the end of the day, and it might be better if I chose a chicken recipe that didn't end up with a hefty amount of sauce when finished.

Onigiri (rice balls) can be frozen; that's probably your best bet for long-term storage. They can be simply tossed into the fridge the night before consumption for defrosting, or you can microwave them using the defrost setting if you have microwave-safe plastic wrap. The rice gets dried out pretty fast if you try to store them without freezing them. Note that if you want to wrap nori (dried seaweed) around them, you should do so moments before consuming, as the nori gets soggy REALLY fast even on a fresh onigiri, and crispy nori is much tastier :)

You mention a "weird consistency", but I'm not sure what you mean by this. If it's the filling getting rubbery, that'll be the microwave; try the fridge-defrost method instead. If the rice is drying out, you need to freeze them faster or wrap them more tightly.

I don't know about the recipe, but if you have a lot of sauce left over, have you tried using it as a dipping sauce, either for the filled onigiri or for some plain-rice onigiri?


Watery liquid on top of homemade yogurt I made homemade yogurt tonight, except it didn't turn out as I expected. I followed this recipe with a few exceptions.

I made it with three quarts of milk instead of 4 (or two). I modified the amount of "culture" I used accordingly.

I also added flavorings after the milk had cooled and the new culture extracted. I added some lemon juice (thought it was lime, mixed up the bottle). And added some Jelly Belly Green Apple Syrup for icicle pops or something.

I also put it in 8 oz jars instead of 32 oz jars.

The jar with the new culture/start in it, turned out fine. Nice and solid. However, the other jars are about half liquid and half solid. Did adding an acid (lemon juice) mess something up? Is this expected?

What do I need to do next time to make sure this doesn't happen. I haven't tasted it yet so I don't know if it's good or not.

We also faced the same problem and found that when the quantity of water is more, the problem persits. The solution is very simple. Boil the milk as long as you wish. (Make sure you dont evaporate the liquid part).  Depending on the consistency of the thickness of the milk, stop the heating and proceed with subsequent steps.

Also, make sure that the extracts that you add, should have low water content.


Granola - how to reduce sugar I make a mean granola. It's full of inclusions (dried fruit, seeds, nuts) and oats, rice crisps, etc. I bind it all together with oil, sugar and honey.

I want to reduce the sugar content of my granola, but when I do so, it turns more into a muesli where it's all kinda free-flowing instead of having irregular sized chunks/sheets that I can break up.

I understand why reducing sugar has this effect, but what else can I do to make and give me those larger binded pieces?

One good method that can help you get solid  results is grinding some of the oats in your recipe into oat flour.

Grinding the oats allows the starches in the oats to absorb liquids, which then swell and solidify when baked. This is the same way that all cookies and the like get their solidity, by starches that set.

My suggestion is to take a portion of the oats that you are using in the recipe and grind it in the food processor until it resembles coarse flour. After mixing together your wet ingredients (oil, sugar, honey), add  the oat flour and mix well before adding in your inclusions (whole oats, nuts, dried fruit, etc).

In addition, don't stir during baking, as this will allow the clusters to form better.

I personally make granola bars with this method, and they come out quite good.


Why would pumpkin pie form a clear custard layer? My PA Dutch grandma's pumpkin pie always had a thin layer of  custard on the bottom.  We have her recipe but none of us has been able to get the filling to separate... Anyone have any idea what might cause this?  We've experimented with cooking temps, ingredient temps, amount of mixing, beating the eggs more or less etc....  Any ideas????

I believe that your aunt is right and Grandma added cornstarch. Quite a few times in the past when I've made sauces using cornstarch in a saucepan, bubbles of clear gel have formed when I've neglected to stir constantly. It seems quite possible to me that a thin layer of this gel would form when making a pie, rather than the bubbles that I have seen.

I understand that you want to come as close to Grandma's recipe as possible and keep this layer. Bearing in mind that I've not tried this, I would mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with just enough milk to make a pourable, non-lumpy paste and whisk it gently into the custard  . If the recipe involves any heating of the custard before baking, be sure to incorporate the cornstarch mixture only after heating.


Furthering the dry aging process post purchase? I am thinking of buying a 45 - 50 day dry aged Prime Rib and attempt to continue the dry aging process for another 30 days on my own with a "UMAi Dry Bag".Are there any precautions I should take in this experiment, should I continue the process with the exterior rind/shell of the meat still on? Any advice is appreciated.

I don't have experience with the "UMAi Dry Bag", but I have read about mixed results.  I did just finish a 45-day dry prime rib, however.  It worked out very well.  My set up was a refrigerator, with a small office fan inside.  Air circulation is very important, in my experience.  You don't mention how large a cut you have, but you are not going to want to do this if you are talking about individual steaks.  You really need a primal cut.  The more outside protection you have on your cut, the better.  So, don't trim it.  The already dried exterior will protect the interior, and allow the enzymes to do their work.  If it were me, I would avoid the bag, and try to create a space where you can control the temperature and the airflow.


How do I substitute canned pumpkin for canned pumpkin pie filling? I have a recipe for a pumpkin french toast bake (think pumpkin bread pudding) that calls for 30oz. canned pumpkin pie filling.  I have all of the ingredients for making a pumpkin pie from scratch, including canned pumpkin.  How do I doctor the canned pumpkin in order to substitute for the pie filling?

I figure that I'll need to add spices and sugar, but I'm unsure if there is any egg or dairy products in the pie filling that I'd need to account for.

The most common, almost canonical brand of canned "Pumpkin Pie Filling" in the US is Libby brand. While the canned pumpkin puree is just canned pumpkin, the Libby "Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling" also has sugar syrup, natural flavoring, salt and spices. So I would add the spices, salt and condensed milk in @Phrancis's recommendation to 30 ounces of pumpkin puree (probably without the cornstarch, there is probably cornstarch or other thickener in the rest of the recipe, if not, consider adding it as a part of the next step I am recommending here), more or less of the spices and sweetener to taste. The eggs and dairy (other than the sweetened condensed milk, which would serve in the substitution as the sweetener) are most likely in your recipe, not expected to be in the can of "Pumpkin Pie Filling").

You want a texture pretty similar to the unadulterated canned pumpkin product. If your substitution is a bit thinner than the the canned pumpkin was (as it should be, with the addition of sweetened condensed milk) simmer it a while to reduce. That can get your volume down to 30 ounces and intensify the pumpkin flavor, making your substitution probably better than the stuff for which you are substituting. Libby sells the pumpkin puree in 15, 29 and 106 ounce cans.

BTW, America's Test Kitchen does that reducing trick to canned pumpkin just routinely to give it a more intense pumpkin flavor and to eliminate "the taste of the can".


I would like to try grilling fruit - any suggestions? I had a catered lunch the other day that had grilled fruit (apples, pineapples) it was great and I wanted to try it at home.  Are there any tips as far as preparation or what to glaze them with or basic techniques?

Usually I cut a peach in half, put a bit of salt and honey on the non skinned end, and grill it (cavity down) for a minute or two then rotate it to get good grill marks. I then add a scoop of ice cream in the cavity and sprinkle with cut fresh mint.
Another fruit I like grilled are apricots, although really put them on for 20 seconds or so.

My rule of thumb is that, if it's a harder fruit then it can be grilled, and usually it can only be grilled on the non-skin side.


Why does my canned enchilada sauce smell and taste like dog food? So I bought the ingredients for a terribly unhealthy microwave burrito enchilada-style casserole recipe today. The recipe, of course, called for enchilada sauce. So I went out and bought Las Palmas brand mild enchilada sauce along with the other ingredients. When I popped open the sauce, the kitchen was immediately filled with the pungent smell of dog food. Having no idea what the sauce was supposed to smell like, I put it in anyway, thinking the smell would go away.

After an hour in the oven, the smell was still there, and the heat made it stronger than ever. And when I tasted it, the sauce tasted of dog food. I've checked the can (the expiration date wasn't for another two years) and scoured the Internet, but I can't figure out any reason the enchilada sauce would take on this particular smell and taste.

Could anyone help me figure out why? It won't improve the casserole, but it will assure that I'm not insane for having this apparently unique experience.

It's because the enchilada container was mis-labeled at the factory :)

All kidding aside, if you purchased a sauce in metal cans instead of glass jars you may have picked up added flavors.


How do I make my sourdough bread dough stretchy and not have it tear? I've been trying to make chewy sourdough bread and it's not going as planned. I read somewhere that if you mix and knead the bread a lot and avoid adding a lot of sugar and use a lot of water that should aid gluten development to make the dough chewy. Also I read that the dough should be stretchy and  if you pull two pieces apart it's supposed to be transparent. Well, I don't have anything anywhere near that.

My starter was super fluffy. I took 2 cups of starter, added about 1 cup of water with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tea spoon of brown sugar already dissolved. Then I kept adding flour and mixing in one direction until it didn't mix with a spoon anymore. Then I kneaded it for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. I tried to avoid adding too much flour to keep the water percentage up, but that's hard to do when you are kneading on a wooden board and the dough keeps sticking. I finally got it to where there was an even layer of dough stuck to the pen so the piece I was kneading didn't stick to it too much anymore, but the dough still refuses to be stretchy. I pull on a piece and it tears with a ragged edge. That's after 1/2-3/4 hour of non-stop kneading. Finally I gave up because it wasn't getting better.

I let it rise for 1 1/2 hours between a heating pad and covered with electric blanket on top. Then I kneaded it again. At first it was slightly more stretchy, but the more I kneaded it the less stretchy it got. I didn't add a lot of flour at this stage either so it kept sticking to the board. Now it's back to the original non-stretchy, tearing consistency.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Edit: I should mention that I'm using King Arthur bread flour, so the protein content is most likely not a problem.

Your recipe is to blame.

Your dough is stiff and tears because it isn't wet enough.  While different types of flour do absorb different quantities of water, I think most of the issues you're experiencing are due to the ambiguousness of the recipe and instructions you're using.  Most sourdough recipes yield dough around 80% hydration (the weight of water/the weight of flour).  The  recipe you've cited relies on the starter providing all the hydration for the dough.  Doing the math, following the feeding instructions, you would have a starter that is 55% hydration. Adding all the flour called for in the dough recipe, you would end up with a dough that is about 45% hydration... stiffer than bagels (50-55%).

While it is possible to make dough that doesn't have any added water, it is not common, especially with such a stiff starter. Also, the volume of flour would be much smaller than the volume of starter.

Try using a tried and true recipe that doesn't rely on the starter to provide all of the hydration.

Don't worry so much about gluten production and how sugar or fat will affect it.  Small amounts of these enrichments, like those in the recipe you linked to, will soften the interior of the bread and help the crust brown nicely.  Just look at brioche if you want an example of how far you can push enrichment and still get a well structured bread.


What should I do with a turkey after roasting but hours before dinner? I work overnight, from 12 AM to 8 AM. When I got in, my only instruction was to check the turkey by 1 AM. I was also told by the co-worker I was relieving that she put the turkey in at 9 PM. And the temperature was set for 350°.

I researched online and read that it should be 165° at the thigh without touching the bone. It's now 2:30 AM and it's still at 160°.

I don't know what to do when the turkey is done, where do I put it, what should I do to it? It's not going to be eaten for at least 12 hours.

I don't even know how big it is. It looks like a 20 pound turkey, but I don't know. It's in a disposable pan, covered in foil.

If this happened to me, I probably would not refrigerate it, since I think it would tend to create both food safety and quality issues.  Basically, one should not attempt to make two extra trips through the "danger zone" of bacteria growth for 20 lbs. of food unless it's absolutely necessary.

You should NOT refrigerate a large whole hot turkey; that is a serious food safety hazard.  It will take too long for the interior of the turkey to cool in the fridge, which could potentially make it unsafe to eat.  You absolutely should NOT attempt to reheat a whole bird like that; you'd have to carve it into pieces before reheating anyway.

You could carve it into pieces before refrigerating, separate them in the fridge (put in shallow containers) so they can cool quickly, and then reheat relatively quickly (no more than 2 hours maximum to reheat to 165F), but that could lead to drying out if you're not careful.  You could carve it into smaller pieces and reheat in gravy or something, but that's not ideal unless your plan was to have "leftover turkey"-style dinner, instead of "roasted turkey."

Another viable option, from my perspective, would be to hold the turkey above 140F until ready to serve.  Remove the turkey from the oven immediately (if your probe is reading 160F, the turkey will continue to "coast" upward to at least 165F), and cover tightly with at least a couple layers of foil.  Turn the oven off, open the oven door, and let the oven cool as quickly as you can (which may only take a few minutes with the door open).  Once the oven gets below 200F or so, place the turkey back into the oven, and turn the oven down to its lowest setting -- which should always be at least 140F, but probably will be in the 150-175F range.  Also, place a pan of water in the oven to keep the humidity high.  Then just wait for 12 hours or whatever until serving.  As long as the turkey stays above 140F, it will remain safe to eat.  You will not need to rest the turkey, since heat will be evenly distributed when it is removed from the oven.

(Important note: do NOT just turn the oven off.  You need to maintain the turkey temperature at a minimum of 140F; the safest course is to monitor the turkey temperature periodically to ensure this, and turn the oven up a few degrees if necessary.  Most ovens are designed so that their lowest setting will safely maintain food above 140F, but it's always good to double-check.)

Turkey kept in the 150-160F range will generally not dry out with prolonged holding.  Instead, the meat will gradually get softer and softer, while connective tissue and fats will break down, giving the meat a very tender and succulent texture.  It may even taste "juicier" at the end than it would if you ate it right away, due to further breakdown of the meat, like a well-done pot roast.  (Those store-bought roast chickens which fall apart when you try to carve them are often held for many hours in low ovens just this way.)  The main problem with the texture is that it may actually be "too" tender, for those who like firmer poultry.

It's better to hold a turkey this way when it was already cooked slowly, but you have no option now.  No matter what you do, you're going to dry out the meat somewhat and change its texture.  Carving, cooling, and reheating -- if done in a safe manner -- may preserve texture somewhat, but it will be easy to dry out and will taste more like "reheated" meat.  Holding above 140F will soften the meat texture significantly, but I think it's more likely to preserve flavor and perceived juiciness.


How much flavor do you lose when you clarify a stock with an egg raft? I have heard conflicting things with stock clarification.  One thing I have heard is that your stock will maintain its same depth of flavor but with clarity.  Another source says that you have to start with a really high quality stock or your clarified stock will come out tasting like water.

I have noticed that while some clarification methods use just egg whites, others use egg whites, mirepoix, and ground meat.  This leads me to think that in addition to clarification, the method is trying to put something back into the stock that is being lost.

My motivation for the question is that I just finished a gallon and a half of stock that came out perfect.  While most of the things it will be going into won't need clarification, there are a few dishes that would look nicer with a clarified stock.  If it doesn't affect the flavor, my instinct would be to just put in a couple extra hours and clarify the whole batch before storing it.

I'm open to correction, but in my opinion,the main reason for clarifying a stock, assuming gross impurities have been removed,  is aesthetic. Not forgetting that the the appearance of food does change the impression of flavor. Floating ingredients can be shown off in clear soups -  a sufficiently concentrated consommé, made with a large amount of meat per helping, can have knock-your-head-off intensity. In my experience, I have never clarified a stock, by whatever method, without a sort of 'thinning' or 'flattening' of the flavor. Not so much a loss of intensity or aroma (that has more to do with the reduction) as a loss of 'roundness' I think that is probably due to a loss of fat in suspension.

If I'm clarifying a stock by the egg-white method, I add a mirepoix (celery, carrots, leek are obvious candidates) but I shred or grate the vegetables rather than dicing them. This means that they can create a sort of fibrous mat with the egg-white when it rises, holding it together in quite a strong raft. You can then make a hole in the middle of the raft. At a very low simmer, convection then causes the stock to rise through the hole, spread across the raft, and sink again at its edges. If you're very careful, the raft can be removed in large pieces.

An alternative is Heston Blumenthal's freezing method, which he claims does not reduce flavor at all ( who am I to disagree? ... but I do..). It is very convenient. Chill the stock, remove solidified fat, freeze the stock, and then let it thaw through coffee filter, or tripled muslin. There is less waste, so you could clarify part of your stock that way, without so much of the loss that follows from clarifying small quantities by the egg-white method.

If it was me, I would clarify only the amount I needed clear stock for, and I'd go for the second method. That way, if you freeze your stock anyway, you can make your mind up whether or not you want it clear closer to the time you use it.


Do I need baking powder/baking soda for my flourless corn bread? So I completely forgot to add the flour into this corn bread recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

Fold wet ingredients into dry until just moistened,
bake in an 8x8 pan at 400F for 20-25 minutes

Everyone liked it and wants me to make it exactly the same way going forward.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My questions is: Do I still need the baking powder and baking soda?

I assume from the ingredients you didn't end up making a corn flatbread. The raising agents will give some rise even without gluten from the flour to form a structure, and the egg will help bind the cornmeal into its raised shape. But its probably rather crumbly (the similar cornbread I make is quite crumbly even with the flour).

One important point though: if they (and you) liked what you made before, I suggest you don't change it.


Meat alternative for tempura? I am having friends over and plan to make tempuras. Two of them don't like seafood in general so my choice of shrimps and squid might not please them so I was looking for a meat alternative for them and everyone to enjoy as well.

As I have never made meat tempura I am full of doubts about which type and which part of meat to chose for that. Nothing substential can be found on the internet (just recipes about using the batter to do something else, but nothing about puting something else with the rest that will be good in association).

Beef feels weird, chicken could work but the fast cooking of tempura might not suit poultry, pork is not as light as seafood. I am also totally open to something a bit unusual.

AFAIK, meat is not really used for Tempura.

Do vegetables. (I assume you already do that).

If you want to do fried battered meats, I would suggest cutting them as small as possible.

Cut the meat into thin strips.

You could also use cheese, look for grilling cheese like Halloumi.


Removing ramekins from a bain marie So you've just cooked your creme caramels in a water bath/bain marie/double boiler with only about a quarter of the ramekin appearing above water level.

I've tried the follow methods in the past and feel there must be a more efficient, more secure or less dangerous way:

tea towel/oven mitt: not enough ramekin to grab onto without dipping the towel/mitt and your hands into boiling water.
Tongs: very unstable grip, ramekin can easily slip.
Lifting out with an egg flip: flips bends due to weight of ramekin.
Scooping water out: too much manual labor, often awkward as little room to scoop from.

A true bain-marie actually has a fitted rack or platform that allows water through, which you can lift out with handles. It's very convenient.

If you're just using a baking dish filled with water, I'd suggest getting yourself a mesh roasting pan with handles, like this one:

Then you can put all your ramekins on top and just lift out the whole rack when you're done.

If I don't have one of these on hand, I usually use a wide shallow bowl to scoop water out; you don't need to scoop it all out, just enough to firmly grip the top of the ramekins.

Some silicone oven mitts might also help; they don't get "wet" like regular oven mitts and so they'll protect your hands from the hot/boiling water just fine.


Butter melted then soften If butter is melted then refrigerated to soften consistency will it have the proper results if recipe calls for soften butter?

No, it will not. Butter which has melted once will never again be the same after it resolidifies, so recipes assume you use butter which has never been melted. Also, when you try to warm up cold butter or also cool down warm butter quickly, the result seldom do well in baking, you get some weird behaviors like butter which smears instead of creaming well.

When the recipe needs softened butter, you should leave it on the counter at least overnight, if not longer. Shorter timespans can work, but get progressively harder to deal with, and placing the butter in an even warmer place to speed it up is counterproductive.


Can you freeze whole pomegranates to save them? I recently purchased a whole case of pomegranates, and it's getting hard to stand after doing 10 in a day, so can I safely freeze them whole to preserve the quality of the fruit?

You cannot freeze them whole; the large fruit pod will turn into a disgusting mush when you thaw it.
You can, however, freeze the pips quite well, and they are the part you eat anyway.


What are the different parts of a zester called? Earlier I was trying to describe which part of a zester to use and realized I have no idea what the different parts are called. I fell back on google, and was surprised to find nothing, there are plenty of zesters for sale, and plenty of people incorrectly calling microplane graters zesters but no terminology.

What are these parts of a zester called?

#1 is the zester.
#2 is called a channel knife, and is used to create a wider strip of zest for garnish.


Infrared thermometer for oven temperatures IR Thermometers read surface temperatures. Can they accurately read the interior temperature of my oven through the glass panel? Or will it be reading the surface temperature of the glass rather than the interior?

It will measure the temperature of the glass itself, but not necessarily in an accurate way. Most glass is largely opaque to IR, but will radiate IR of it's own based on temperature.

The trick with IR thermometers is that they are guessing the temperature of an object by making an assumption about how much IR (Infrared Radiation) that object will radiate when it is a certain temperature. Cheaper IR thermometers have what is called "fixed emissivity", which means that they always assume that the object you are measuring is radiating 95% of the radiation that it would theoretically emit if it were a perfect black-body object. An emissivity of 95% (or 0.95) is a good start for most household objects - cloth, painted surfaces, etc.

Where it breaks down is with things like shiny metal, glass, liquids, etc. For those objects, the amount of radiation released at a given temperature is more or less than the expected 0.95. Shiny metal pans, for instance, can be as low as 0.2, meaning the displayed temperature will be much lower than the actual temperature.

You can use tables of emissivity values to correct your temperature reading, like here:
http://www.tnp-instruments.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/Infrared%20Thermometer%20and%20Emissivity.pdf (Note, for this table, use the 8-14 micron column).

That takes away most of the convenience of the thermometer, but it is a useful reference. The closer an object's emissivity is to 0.95, the more accurate your thermometer will be. You can improve accuracy by painting an area flat black, or even using a piece of masking tape stuck on the object to make a good "reading point". Fancier thermometers allow you to set the emissivity, and even fancier ones allow you to auto-calibrate with a contact-thermometer add-on.

To get back to the original question, glass has an emissivity of around 0.75-0.85, meaning the measured temperature will be a little lower than the actual temperature. Of course, even an accurate glass temperature doesn't tell you a lot about the actual oven temperature. My favorite surface for taking the measurement is my pizza stone, which is just about 0.95, perfect for accurate readings.


What other Italian cheese(s) could be substituted for parmesan in most recipes? I seem to be unable to tolerate Parmesan cheese (not the processed "parmesan-flavored" cheese, but the real Italian Parmesan) - as a topping it makes me gag, and if included in a recipe either nauseates me or gives me a stomach ache.  I have no trouble with Romano, Asiago, Auribella, etc.  Just the Parmesan.  What cheese (or combination of cheeses) could I substitute for Parmesan in most recipes and still get a good result?  thanx much!

Pecorino Romano has a similar texture and umami, but slighly different flavor profile.  It is used in many Italian dishes like Parmesan is used.  You could also look for Grana Padano as a less complex substitute for Parm.


Macarons are wrinkled, cracked and have no feet I've tried to make French macarons 4 times, but despite succeeding in the past, I just can't seem to get it right. I have no clue what I am doing wrong, despite watching many Youtube videos and "macaron faqs". Would anyone know what I'm doing wrong? As the title states, they are wrinkled and have no feet. I did leave them out to dry for some time- in tray one I used a hairdryer. I'm somewhat tempted now to give up on the recipe (I can't post a link, but Google "Good food chocolate macaroons" and it's the first one) and use an Italian macaron recipe. Here are some pictures. Thanks!

Tray one

Tray two

As well as the answer I gave in the question @Catija referred to in her comment, I suspect you are not beating your meringue enough. In total you should be beating the initial meringue for a good ten or eleven minutes.

There are a lot of myths and complications around macarons. The Internet would have you believe that you must used aged egg whites from French hens, almond flour with grains individually measured for the correct size, and a hundred other things. It's mostly nonsense. Use this recipe, follow it exactly, and you will be much closer to success without all the fuss.

In my experience the three critical factors are:

beat the meringue sufficiently. It should be super-stiff.
macaronage correctly - this is the trickiest part, but the description of the correct consistency in the recipe I linked is a good one.
ensure your oven dial is accurate with an oven thermometer. It almost certainly isn't.
use powdered food colouring. Gel food colours are intended for use in icing and are not oven safe. They brown at relatively low temperatures and ruin the appearance of your macarons.

Good luck.


What are the differences between various types of paprika, and which have the most flavor? I've tried various different brands of paprika but none seem to have any flavor.

Can anyone recommend a kind of paprika that is less bland?  For example, I've seen certain "special" varieties such as Hungarian Paprika... how do these taste compared to the regular kind?

I don't know about brands, but there are six different types. Hot, Hungarian, Plain, Smoked, Spanish, Sweet.

Paprika releases its flavor with heat, but burns easily. So mix it in with liquid, and make sure it gets hot.

Sprinkled onto a cold dish (like deviled eggs), it remains quite bland. Add it to browned hamburger meat, and you're halfway to taco heaven.


Cooking food directly on oven rack Is it common to cook food directly on the oven racks?  I often do this (with a container for drippings) and was wondering if this is common or if there is a better solution.  It has worked out fine for me, but sometimes replacing these racks can be costly.  I do not replace them often, and they are not very hard to clean, but I would like to get some ideas on if I am doing this wrong.

Presumably the reason you're cooking directly on the oven rack is to let the fat drip down.  If so, do yourself a favour and get yourself a roasting rack.  It's an inexpensive piece of equipment that you place in a baking pan or on a cookie sheet; the food cooks on the rack and the pan/sheet catches all the drippings.  Way better than trying to replace an entire oven rack.

And if you really hate cleanup, you can line the pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and just throw the rack in the dishwasher when you're done.


May I add whole wheat flour/Chickpea flour to garlic chicken soup? http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-garlic-soup-32282

They haven't mentioned which flour are they using.
Because I am health conscious, may I add whole wheat flour/Chickpea flour to garlic chicken soup?

What will be the side effects?

This gets simple when you consider what the flour is used for:

You create a roux, which then thickens the soup. The starch in the flour is altered during the cooking process and then binds the liquid.

You can use any kind of flour that contains starch, but depending on the starch-to-other-components ratio, you might have to use a bit more for the same thickness. Unlike for baking (gluten!), chickpea flour will work fine in a roux. Also, a non-white flour might be visually less appealing because the external parts of the grain may give the soup a greyish or speckled appearance. Note that the less refined your flour is, the more it might influence the taste of the soup. But whether this matters obviously is a question of personal taste.

The choice is yours:
A few tablespoons of white flour in a pot of soup probably won't compromise your dietary regimen, but it's probably not worth going out to buy a whole bag for a single use.


Gas grill flames very high cooking chicked wings and vegetables I have a gas grill which I use once a week or so.

Today I put some peppers and onions as usual, but I also put chicken wings (first time).

After a few minutes of cooking, the fire went super high, it seems it was getting enhanced by something (either the oil from the veggies marinate or the wings).

Note that I turned off all burners but fire was still there and flames stayed for longer (around 2 more mins).

Is this something normal? It cooked super fast as the flames were reaching the food.

That's pretty typical for any sort of fatty meats -- as you cook them, the fat renders out, dripping into the flames below and igniting.

This is often referred to as 'flare ups', and some people recommend using a water bottle when grilling -- but don't do it, as this is actually a grease fire.

You'll typically want to move the food to another area until the flames die down, as there's not much else you can do unless you want your food to taste like a fire extinguisher.

You can take some preventative steps on a charcoal grill, by putting a container of water on the grate beneath the food being cooked (you'll be cooking using indirect heat), so that the grease drips into the water and doesn't flare up.


Can one get sick from drinking too much home made Water Kefir? Using well water and some Odwalla orange juice..  What is the maximum amount that is safe for consumption daily?

Like most fermented beverages made at home, water kefir is safe to drink as long as you take proper sanitation precautions. If mold is growing, don't drink it, throw it out, and sanitize your vessels. Learn to look for signs of mold.

Fermented beverages like kefir and kombucha can become quite acidic and leech minerals from their container. Store them in glass.

I doubt there is any safety hazard from drinking too much if it is properly prepared. I suppose if it's acidic enough and you drink too much you could get a stomach ache.


peeling black eyed peas for acaraje (fritters) Acaraje (similar to vada or vadai etc) are fritters from a batter of soaked ground black eyed peas.

The hard part is removing the peels.
I gave up rubbing + rinsing at 75% peeled and the result was tasty just a bit gray.

Is there an easier way?

Soaking with baking soda? Parboil a minute?

AfricanBites.com offers these instructions but I don't know if it will make the job easier:

Soak them for about 15 minutes, pulse in the blender or food processor to break the peas (about 5- 10 times or about 10 to 15 seconds) you should do this in small quantities. In a large bowl soak the beans with warm water for about 2 hours or up to 24hours, cover with water until tender.
Rub the peas between your hands to take the skin off. The skins will float to the top. Pour off the skins, into a colander; you may have to do this process several times. Most of the skin will come off the peas; Sort through the remaining peas to remove all the skin.

Ottolenghi calls for soaked chickpeas to be drained and cooked 5min in a hot pan while stirring before the simmer phase to get the skins tender. That step worth a try?

It seems that there are specific machines for de-hulling beans; that'd be the easiest way.

Other than that you should soak for 24h, the beans will expand and rip the hulls more easily, but I suppose you still have to peel them by hand - Most of the time I've seen people making acarajé they peel it one by one...

The traditional acarajé is made without the shell, some say the shell will make it bitter. Honestly, it's a ton of work to peel it one by one, I'd give it a try with the shell and compare.


What is the difference between small vs large loose leaf tea? I have two oolong teas of the same type (dong fang mei ren). One has long leaves that barely fit in a teaspoon. The other has much smaller leaves that are easily scooped up, and it has a weaker taste. However they seem to expand more when it's steeped.

Are smaller leaves generally an indication of lower quality?

Smaller leaves typically  but not always would mean younger leaves and is associated with higher quality. However this is not always the case and especially by this particular tea I don't know how true this is.

This tea is supposed to be made by growing tea in Taiwan without pesticides. Having a particular bug chew on the leaves causing the plant to produce certain chemicals that give this tea its flavor.

Additionally it's supposed to only use the top two leaves.

All these things together could make this potentially a pretty expensive tea. So some manufacturers take various shortcuts life chopping the leaves so it looks like a smaller tip leaf but actually being a older leaf.
Also being grown in Taiwan which has somewhat unstable weather and being dependent on those bugs makes this a very seasonal product that may be great some years and bland the next.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_leaf_grading

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongfang_Meiren


How do get the "caramelized juices" from yams This is hard to ask, but you know how when you bake a yam for long enough it will ooze the caramelized sugars? It's like... it's leaking sap.

BUT The most delicious sap ever. So wondering, is there a way to cook the yam so that it entirely becomes the caramelized sugars, and then how would you store this?

Seriously so amazingly good.

It seems that the best answer to your needs will be making a treacle. It may be challenging to do it with yams, it's typically done with less starchy plants. But I don't think it's impossible, it should be worth a try.

Making a treacle basically involves taking a fruit juice, and slowly evaporating and caramelizing it. So, your first step will be to somehow juice the raw yams. Treacles are messy to make and lots of effort, so if you don't already own a juicer, it's probably better to not get one until you've done it a few times and are committed to continue. Especially seeing that it might turn out to not work well with yams. You could ask somebody to loan you a juicer (many people don't use theirs), or, if you can't find any, use the old method of pureeing the yams and then pressing them through a cheesecloth. Adding a bit of sugar should help both the juice flow and the later caramelization.

In the second step, you reduce the juice to a treacle. For that, pour the juice into a wide pan or pot. Place it on a very low flame, so low that it doesn't even simmer (but it should be hot, not just warm). Leave it there for as long as it needs, controlling it occasionally and giving it a stir. It's ready when it has the consistency of uncrystalized honey. It'll take many hours to reach that stage, but be aware that, with the hob set to the same setting, the liquid will get hotter towards the end after most of it has evaporated. So, in the final stage, you have to monitor it constantly (and also reduce the temperature a bit), or you will end up with sticky charcoal, and might even ruin a sensitive pan coating such as PTFE. (It's probably best to do this in a thick bottomed stainless steel pot/pan).

A properly reduced treacle is shelf stable, like jam. It can be used in most places where people use jams, honey, or strong syrups like maple syrup or sugar beet syrup.


Is there a "safe" way to cook ghost chili? I may want plant some ghost chili pepper, but I am afraid it will be too hot to eat.

Is there any safe method to prepare/cook ghost chili which will not reproduce insanely hot heat from the throat to stomach?

What about habanero chili pepper? Is it safer to eat?

Dilute heavily by using a very small portion of peppers per dish
Allow cooking time for the pepper flavor to permeate the dish before adding more.  It's not like black pepper where the taste spreads instantly.
Remove the seeds and membranes holding them, as this reduces spiciness considerably
Cut peppers very finely or puree so there aren't any large pieces to deliver a shocker in the final dish
Wear gloves when handling the peppers
If you don't use gloves, wash your hands well before touching your eyes, mouth, or other "sensitive regions."
AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, DO NOT FRY OR SAUTE THE PEPPERS.

No, seriously.  The last one is a mistake you only make once, and should be on a warning label with all store-bought chilis.  The capsaicin somehow becomes volatile when heated enough, and the result is like filling your entire domicile with pepper spray.

I am ashamed to say that the last two cautions are drawn purely from personal experience.  It's not the kind of "hot date" you want to share with an (un)lucky person, believe me.


Why are wire beaters becoming more common in hand mixers? It seemed to me that most hand mixers in the past used centre post beaters.  They seemed more sturdy and durable, thicker construction.  I saw one recently by Kitchen aid and the wire beaters seem very minimal, thin, with little surface area compared to the centre post beaters of the past.

However I was wondering why most are now moving towards wire beaters?

I don't know if this is a manufacturing issue - perhaps it is cheaper and easier to build the wire beaters. Perhaps it is a cost savings approach? Or is there some other reason like some benefit to mixing with the wire beaters?

Different beaters are used to achieve distinct  effects.  We ask a lot of our electric home mixers: they have to aerate cream, knead dough, mix cakes, among many operations.  Various forces and mixing patterns are needed for these operations.  To aerate air needs to be mixed into a liquid.  A fast moving, half immersed wire forms vortices that mix the air and the liquids.  Thin blades, some parallel and others perpendicular to the beater's motion will break clumps of solids and disperse them among the mixing liquids.  Dough needs to be stretched and folded and for that a single pole into the dough following some planetary motion seems to do the job.

When compared to wire beaters, those with a central post have larger surfaces demanding a stronger motor to rotate them.  A wire beater, while not ideal to mix a cake batter, can get the job done given more time. The central post also collects material, so better designs have been developed for cake mixing.

The type of beaters sold with a mixer are more likely a function of the motor strength and the price category.


How to pan sear a thin steak? I'm doing something really simple right now, sprinkling pepper over one side of a half-inch thick steak and throwing it in a pan of butter.

But by the time it's cooked through (I want medium rare), the outside is just a sickly grey.

How can I get the steak to look good?

Edit:

They're actually even thinner, maybe less than half an inch. And they keep cooking through to well done and grey on the inside almost immediately!

I would actually recommend the opposite of what was said above. Since the meat is so thin you may have much better results pan searing it in an extremely hot pan from slightly frozen. This way the outermost layer will start to undergo the maillard reaction long before the inside of the steak reaches a medium-rare temp and will give you a better chance of preventing it from overcooking.

This link provides an overview of the process for a much larger piece of meat then your using but the searing process is what your concerned most with since your steaks are so thin. You will likely have to play with the timing a little bit with regards to how frozen the steak needs to start out but I figure erring on the side of too frozen is best since you can then heat them in the oven to the internal temp your looking for.

http://www.thekitchn.com/for-the-perfect-steak-first-freeze-it-solid-then-cook-for-an-hour-165793


Is pasteurized milk safe to drink? The word pasteurized is written on the milk packets (like the ones shown here). They have a use before date.

Assuming it's been refrigerated the whole time, and it's still before the use before date, is it safe to drink the milk straight away from the packet? Or does it still have to be boiled to kill bacteria and make it safe?

Pasteurized milk is the standard way milk is sold in industrialized countries.  How it's packaged can depend on the country but it's perfectly safe to drink provided it's consumed by the "use by" date.
Pasteurization is a heat-treating process:

Pasteurization (American English) or pasteurisation (British English) is a process invented by French scientist Louis Pasteur during the nineteenth century. In 1864 Pasteur discovered that heating beer and wine just enough to kill most of the bacteria that caused spoilage prevented these beverages from turning sour. This was achieved by eliminating pathogenic microbes and lowering microbial numbers to prolong the quality of the beverage. Today the process of pasteurization is used widely in the dairy and food industries for microbial control and preservation of the food we consume.
Pasteurization is the reason for milk's extended shelf life. High-temperature, short-time (HTST) pasteurized milk typically has a refrigerated shelf life of two to three weeks, whereas ultra-pasteurized milk can last much longer, sometimes two to three months. When ultra-heat treatment (UHT) is combined with sterile handling and container technology (such as aseptic packaging), it can even be stored unrefrigerated for up to 9 months.

This means that most of the microbes in the milk are killed and the milk is perfectly safe to drink right out of the carton. In fact, there are many jokes in the US about chastising teenage boys and young men about drinking directly from the carton/jug of milk.
Milk in the US is regularly consumed direct from the gallon jug, see the note under Vitamin D that says "Pasteurized & Homogenized":

Milk in Europe is often in Tetra Pak cartons which don't have to be stored in the fridge until opened and generally have a longer shelf life due to the UHT handling (see definition above):


How are "salmon mesh" made? I heard in British Columbia, sometimes salmon are made into mesh-like meat product that looks like the following:

How are they made?

I believe the image you are showing is of fresh-caught salmon which is on racks being air dryed or smoked. The pattern you see are cuts made in the flesh to aid in the process. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has an information sheet on smoking and drying fish.

Cutting is done so that the fish will dry quickly by exposing as much surface area as possible to the air. In Alaska, a traditional method is to cut the flesh away from the backbone, scoring it so that folds of flesh hang exposed to the air.

This method of fish drying has a strong tradition among the peoples in the Pacific Northwest within Canada's First Nation and Alaska's Native Communities, with each group having its own unique cutting technique. This University of Alaska at Anchorage publication has an excellent overview of the process of cutting and drying fish.


When is a noodle finished cooking How do you tell when a noodle is done cooking? I have tried throwing it at the ceiling but I don't know if that works can someone please help me find out.

I have heard about throwing it at the ceiling too, but not sure how that is supposed to work. It sounds a little bit too objective as a yes/no answer to "is it a good noodle?" Different people have slightly different ideas how well done they want their noodles.
Simple to determine experimentally how long is perfect. As the noodles cook, just pull one out of the boiling water at frequent intervals and sample it. Be prepared to quickly drain the water off when the sample noodle reaches the level of doneness that you want. As soon as the noodles get to that point, act.  Drain off the water immediately, voila.


Can I microwave cooked and peeled prawns? I brought these marinated cooked and peeled prawns from Tesco for my lunch at work. Can I heat these up in the microwave so I can enjoy them warm/hot, and if so how long will they take to heat?

My best method for reheating frozen prawns is to cover them with hot liquid.  Broth is good, but water works.  I even just use hot tap water.  In a few minutes they are ready to eat.  Even if I am adding them to a dish, I thaw them in warm water and add after I have taken the pot off the flame.  Frozen shrimp just get rubbery too easily.


How to make use of old apples? I have many apples, but the insides are already brown. The outside is slightly soft, perhaps bruised. The inside appearance is the same as if you cut an apple and let it sit out for 1 hour, but this is the appearance immediately after cutting.

Can these still be used for apple sauce or apple pie or some other dish, with good results?

The apples have shriveled slightly owing to dehydration.    When the apples dry out air is admitted through the core then the fruit will oxidise from the inside out.    I would not use these apples for eating.


Proportions for improvised cran-apple juice I'm making a beverage that calls for cran-apple juice (the marketed name by Ocean's Spray's cranberry+apple juice blend). My local grocers have a very limited product offering which rules out buying the blend off-the-shelf.

I do, however, have access to generic cranberry juice and apple juice. So, what I'm stuck at is basically the proportion of how to mix them. I suppose there is some "secret sauce" element to the recipe, so understandably there was nothing on the Ocean Spray website that was of any use for mixing my own. I tried some other search engine queries, but could only find making recipes where its made from actual cranberries (not juice). Such recipes made it difficult to distinguish the proportion from the volumes of water and juiced cranberries.

Question

Can anyone weigh in on what is a reasonable approximation of the cran-apple blend using only cranberry juice and apple juice? If other ingredients are needed, feel free to include them in your recipe and I'll try to incorporate them (as long as they are also readily available).

Note: Bit of a race against the clock, otherwise I'd happily order a bottle online or trial and error until I'm satisfied.

Searching for "substitute fresh cranberry for cranberry juice" (because that's the actual substitution you need to make) gives you this nifty recipe for cranberry juice.

Proportion is 1:2 w/v ratio on fresh or frozen berries as juice equivalent (100g berries = 200mL juice).

CHECK THE LABEL of your juice to verify the ingredients just to be safe - if you have pure cranberry juice, I'd stick with 1:1 w/v ratio and then add more if necessary.


How to maintain oil temperature when deep frying at home? I was frying chicken and I noticed the amount of time needed to fry the chicken and how dark the batter will end up depends largely on the temperature of the oil.

The problem is, the oil temperature when it reaches equilibrium (or almost constant temperature) will vary depending on the amount of chicken inside, the volume of oil, and the heat outputted by the stove. For home cooking, this is a disaster and very variable way of cooking.

The only way I can think of becoming consistent is buying a thermometer that will constantly monitor the oil temperature. I had one where I had to place a meat thermometer on the oil and hold it just so it won't touch the metal portion of the pan, but this is tiring and the heat tends to go all the way up the thermometer--and to my hands and it gets too hot. It may also damage the thermometer this way.

Is there a more industrial (and heat resistant) but affordable thermometer where I can just leave it on top of the oil so I can adjust the heat element to achieve desired temperature for deep frying at home? If none, how to properly deep fry at home to get consistent results?

My meat thermometer can bear temperatures above deep frying ones so I just use that and I keep the tip "suspended" in the oil with the help of the pot's handle and the thermometer's own cable.
An alarm at 170 Celsius helped me last time to keep the temp under control. For the record, I was frying this
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struffoli

Since I don't deep fry more often than once a year, I can totally live with this solution.


What kind of paste do I use to form shapes to decorate a cake? What do I use to create forms and decorate a cake? Like the minions seen here:

Not really healthy, but you should use "Fondant" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fondant_icing)

It is used for most/all cake decoration; it shapes well, and is stable at room temperature; and you can color it.


Is storing homeade dressing with garlic powder safe? I would like to make a salad dressing with apple cider vinegar, evoo, maple syrup, mustard, onion and garlic powder, cayenne, and italian seasoning. I know nothing about food safety, is it safe to store this in the fridge for a week or two? Is there any risk for botulism?

Thanks!

Short answer:  Homemade salad dressing, even with garlic, is generally considered safe, for a time frame of up to a week.

While some strains of botulism can grow slowly at refrigerator temperatures, in general botulism requires three things to grow in addition to having spores present:

Low salt, low acid environment
Low oxygen environment
Temperatures above about 35 to 40 F (depending on the strain)

Garlic is one of the foods at risk for having botulism spores present.

Your recipe is vinegar based, and so is acidic.  With the olive oil, the total dressing may be under the 3% threshold that completely inhibits botulism growth—especially when the dressing loses its emulsification and separates into layers, some layers may be less acidic.

Still, your strongest protection is the refrigeration, combined with the acid, and the short time frame.

Health Canada specifies that plain garlic and oil (much more at risk due to the lack of acid) can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week.

You can therefore infer that with the additional acid, you will get at least the same week of safety, although I would hesitate to go longer as safety issues always warrant conservative assumptions.


old electric Farberware wok I don't know how old it is, but I inherited it from my mother-in-law and she always bought good quality stuff, so it could be 40 years old, but it is still in great shape. I am trying to learn some Chinese cooking and I have a recipe that calls for heating sesame oil over high heat. The heating element goes from 100 dig F to 400 dig F. I set it to 350 dig F, added the sesame oil heated it for less than a minute then added the garlic. The garlic burned almost instantly (within 10 seconds). Is the temperature too high? Or could it be the heating element is just getting old?

I don't think there is anything wrong with the wok. Chinese wok cooking requires some seriously high heat, if it was really too hot, you'd be complaining of the oil smoking so much that your eyes sting, or even seeing the wok bottom glow if the kitchen is somewhat dim.

The more probable explanation is that, as you are not accustomed to this type of cooking, you did not know that the garlic will burn so quickly. I would suggest that you go through the options in the answer to this question about burning garlic (it's a known issue when you use high heat frying) or start with easier recipes.


Can you sub collagen protein for whey protein isolate in baking? I have Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Unflavored, which is 90% protein (9g protein per 10 g serving).

The whey protein isolates I've seen are also approximately 90% protein. Because I already have the collagen, I'd like to substitute it for whey protein isolate in recipes for gluten-free baked goods. I've searched this topic online and am coming up blank. I have yet to find a GF baked recipe that uses collagen in the same way that they're using the WPI. Anyone out there have any experience/knowledge with subbing collagen for the isolate? Thanks for the help, Mary

Note: I am specifically asking about isolate, not just whey protein.

Referring to whey protein, not specifically whey protein isolate, Carolyn Ketchum writes as follows:  "I do not recommend using collagen peptides or collagen protein powder as a replacement for why or egg white protein....the baked goods always become quite gummy and difficult to cook through."  Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking


How can I control the heat when cooking on a campfire? In a few weeks a group of us will be camping and rafting.  My wife and I have been assigned dinner responsibility. I've done the hamburger/hot-dog thing on campfires, but I was looking for something more. We are thinking about Carne Asada, and Beef/Chicken Kabobs, but I'm concerned about controlling the heat so the kabobs don't burn.  Any suggestions?

The key is mostly to cook over coals rather than open flame if you want decent control. This is a principle you find all over slow smoking/BBQ. You start the fire with plenty of wood and let it burn down to a pile of red coals, which you then can cook over with nice control.

Personally, when I want to cook over an open fire, I treat the fire pit as 2 zones: fire and coals. I use the "fire" side for anything where I want an open flame, like roasting marshmallows or hot dogs. As a chunk of wood on that side of the pit burns down to coals, I move it over to the other side, for more controlled cooking.

Another way to handle the variability in campfires is to cook with things with a lot of thermal mass to even the heat out. In practical terms, that boils down to cast iron and clay/ceramics. Whether it's a dutch oven or a little "cave" of fire bricks, these materials spread the heat out so nicely you can often just bury them in the coals and "bake" or "roast" a lot of options that you might not have considered as "camping foods".

The same is true of other cast iron pans and much of the stoneware from places like Pampered Chef, meaning you can pan fry, saute, and do many of the other more typical "kitchen" tasks over a campfire.

One word of warning regarding this principle though is that it might seem like collecting rocks from a nearby stream to use as the thermal mass is a good idea. It is not. Rocks that have spent long periods under water can crack and/or explode when suddenly heated up.


Caramel with sugar granules I made caramel with condensed milk one month ago. Now I want to use it again, but it has sugar granules on it. So what should I do to make it smooth again?

If the crystals have formed in the same way the crystals form in Honey, then you could try warming the caramel. Honey forms crystals over time, and these are removed by placing the honey in hot water for an hour (you will need to keep the water hot, above body temperature but not boiling).