Did I underbake my bread? I tried making bread today, and overall, I enjoyed it!

However, there seems to be something weird going on. Right between the crust and the basic white section of the bread, there's a line of dense bread that is a little bit darker. It does not seem to taste too different (although I did not rigorously taste test it/I don't have much experience with bread).

Image of the bread. What I'm referencing above is the strip of dough that seems more dough like than bread like.

Another thing I did not like as much was how dense the bread felt overall.

Are these signs of undercooking my bread?

Notes: I accidentally doubled the amount of yeast, and I used all purpose instead of bread. Not sure if those would play a difference, but wanted to include them. One thing that I did notice is a relatively strong scent of yeast when it first came out of the oven (although the bread had no taste of it at all). Would that indicate over-leavening as some commenters suggested?

Here is the recipe I used: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-homemade-bread/. I halved the recipe, except for yeast like I mentioned above. The smoosh factor is most likely me slicing when it was hot (I really wanted to taste it fresh out of the oven).

This question is a bit hard to answer because there are just so many variables. Let's do some troubleshooting.

There are two ways I could see your problem: badly proofed bread or underbaked bread. It's fairly easy to tell which.

When your bread is rising it should double in volume. If it doesn't rise enough then your bread will be dense and won't blow up with stream as it bakes. This will result in a loaf that is doughy much as you described. If the dough rises too much the protein bubbles can tear and the bread will fall. The dough will be limp and the bread will come out similarly to it being under proofed.

If your bread is under baked it will go into the oven puffy and full. It will puff up with steam but the proteins won't be set. It might fall as it cools or just be a bit mushy inside when you cut it. Especially when just learning to bake bread, it's helpful to take your bread's temperature with a probe thermometer while it is baking. When the bread is done the interior temperature will be just barely under the boiling point of water at your altitude.

You said you doubled the yeast and used AP flour instead of bread flour. Doubling the yeast doesn't guarantee failed bread, it will speed up the rise time and change the flavor to be more yeasty but less complex. Using lower protein flour will make the bread more dense and less able to hold bubbles.

This would imply to me that your bread over proofed but without pictures of the dough it's impossible to say for sure.

When bread comes out of the oven, even when it baked completely, the starches aren't set. The bread needs to cool, out of a bread pan, for steam to escape and starches to set. If the bread is sliced before this happens then the interior of the loaf will a gummy mess. While this could also be the cause of your issues, you'd notice as the texture would be noticably improved when you slice again after the loaf has cooled.

I suspect your bread may have suffered from a combination of these problems.

Don't be discouraged! It doesn't take that much practice to be able to recognize how the dough should look and behave at each stage.


Savory Cotton Candy? One thing I've always wanted to do is make savory cotton candy, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I understand that cotton candy is spun sugar so that introduces a challenge. I have a cotton candy machine but I'd be willing to try any technique that would result in the texture being that of cotton candy. I'd like to go as savory as physically possible, (ham flavored cotton candy would be one of my goals).

This may sound unusual but this is not a joke. I sincerely want to taste savory cotton candy. It's an experience I can't even imagine.

After researching this, I think there are a few possibly options you could try (though I haven't personally tried any of them, they seem worth experimenting with).
Isomalt
Apparently isomalt can be used in place of sugar in most cotton candy machines - though it should be ground and sifted so it doesn't damage your machine. Isomalt may be a better starting point than sugar to get you in the direction of savoury, as it has only 50-60% of the sweetening power of sugar.
Lactisole
This is an interesting chemical that interferes with your tastebuds and inhibits sweet flavours (it blocks the TAS1R3 sweet protein receptor). Apparently adding this at a concentration of 100 parts per million will block sweet flavours. In that same link it discusses Domino's Pizza using this so they could add sugar to their pizza crust for aesthetic reasons - to encourage browning while it baked, but inhibit the sweet flavour as obviously that isn't what most people are after in a pizza.
Adding Flavour
There seems to be a few ways people do this. The easiest option seems to be flavouring the isomalt or sugar using flavour extracts or essences. A quick google search seemed to indicate that pork essences/extracts exist, so this could be an option if you're after ham. One important note I saw in a few places was if it is a liquid essence, add slowly to prevent clumping, and ensure it is completely dry before attempting to use it. If you're adding a flavour that naturally has a lot of umami flavour, you could also try adding some MSG to bring this out even further.
Another approach to flavouring the isomalt/sugar seem to be simply mixing the sugar with other ingredients and letting it infuse over an extended period of time (this seems to work with things with strong flavours, e.g. herbs, spices, coffee beans, chillies, fruits, and other whole ingredients). You could also try blending more delicate ingredients directly into the sugar directly (those approaches are described here).
Though I don't have any references to support it, I have seen some discussion of further enhancing the flavour of infused sugar by heating the infused sugar to hard crack stage (146 to 154 °C, or 295 to 309 °F), then breaking this back down into a powder. I'm not sure if this does work, or how it would work with isomalt, but another potential experiment to try.
A quick warning: All of the suggestions I've given should work in a cotton candy machine in theory. In researching this I spotted a lot of discussion of different ingredients burning/damaging machines cotton candy machines in some way, but couldn't spot a consistent pattern of what caused this damage and what didn't. You might have to take a risk if you want to experiment enough! I'd love to hear your results if you do try it.


Is poultry suitable for dry aging like beef is? In "The Science of Good Cooking" it is said that the reason why a roast at a restaurant tastes so well is because they age their meat for days. Enzymes break down the protein (not collagen) and make the muscles more tender.

I wonder if that same process is applicable to poultry. Is there a point to dry aging (or cooking on a very low temp for long time. Not slow cooking) a chicken roast or a chicken breast?

Putting health and safety concerns aside, there are a few reasons why dry-ageing chicken or other poultry is unheard of (or at least very rare):

Poultry is usually tender meat by nature
Poultry easily dries out when roasting/pan frying/baking. Dry ageing would mean the meat starts off drier to begin with
The flavour profile of aged beef is more gamey and overall stronger. This would generally not be considered a desirable taste in chicken

There are white meats that do often undergo an ageing process (pheasant, partridge etc.), but this is done before plucking and gutting, meaning the meat does not lose as much moisture, and there is less risk of introducing infection.


Chunky Peanut Butter So I'm at home and unable to go out to the store to buy Chunky Peanut Butter for a almost instant no-bake cookies. Does anyone know if there is a possible substitute to use?

One solution is to make your own peanut butter.

If you have peanuts (preferably roasted; if you have raw peanuts, toss them in the oven on a baking sheet in a single layer at around 350 F for about 10 minutes, maybe with a tbsp of peanut/vegetable/canola oil), throw them in a food processor or blender and let it rip. Scrape the sides of the bowl periodically. You'll (eventually) end up with peanut butter.

If you want chunky, run the food processor until the peanuts are chopped, reserve a portion of them and then run the food processor until the rest is smooth. then, put the chopped peanuts in and pulse to combine (or just stir them in).

Season with salt and sweetener (e.g. honey) to taste.

For more details, just find a recipe like this one from The Kitchn or this one from Alton Brown.

Note that this is going to be relatively expensive versus just buying a jar of peanut butter.

The usual substitutes for peanut butter are other nut butters like almond butter. See this question for some common substitutions. Or, make a different type of cookie.


What happens when butter stops foaming? Recipes using butter as a fat to sauté sometimes call for you to wait until the foaming has subsided. What causes the foaming? Why do you wait for it to subside? What's the difference if you don't wait, but just melt the butter and press forward?

The foaming is caused by the water in the butter boiling away. The main reason you wait for it to subside is simply because that means the butter has had long enough to reach a proper temperature for cooking: too cold and the food will absorb the butter rather than fry in it. However, this usually applies more to recipes that require relatively fast cooking. You'd sweat onions or scramble eggs when the foaming starts, for example.


How long should I cook a carvery shoulder of lamb, and at what temperature? I have a carvery shoulder of lamb joint weighing 1.906 kg. How long and at what temperature should I cook it?

As long and as slowly as possible. In practical terms, place the shoulder in a roasting tin with some sliced onions, whole, unpeeled garlic cloves and rosemary. Cover the tin tightly with foil. Preheat your oven to its maximum temperature, place the lamb in, then turn it down to 150°C/300°F and cook for 4-5 hours. It should come out so tender that you can pull the bone out easily.


Correct temperature to serve a chocolate gateau (cake) This is not so much a cooking question but a serving question.

The cake consists of layers of almond sponge, coffee butter cream, and chocolate ganache. At what (serving) temperature would I get the best flavour and texture?

Most cakes should be served at room temperature, to maximize their flavor.  This one does not sound like an exception.  The ganache and buttercream should both hold well at room temperature on the day the cake is assembled (from its description, this is not a gateau that should be stored for a long time).

Don't take the common restaurant practice of serving cakes chilled as an indicator of good practice.   They do so because they don't want to store it at room temperature, and they usually wait to take it out of the refrigerator until the portion is ordered.


How can I make McDonald's type French Fries I have eaten french fries from most popular fast food joints. McDonald's has been the best by far.

Crisp & crunchy on the outside yet moist inside, still maintaining the potato taste. Also it does not go soggy after taking it out of the deep-frier. I have tried my best to recreate what they do, I even went to great lengths to get their pre-fried fries from their outlet.

Anyone have any idea how to make this?

What you want is Kenji Lopez-Alt. Here.

Summary:

Cut fries 1/4 inch thick to maximize crispiness
Blanch fries with a little vinegar in the water
The vinegar preserves the potatoes' pectin and keeps them from disintegrating in the water
Briefly fry
Freeze the fries
This opens up their internal structure and allows more crispification
Before serving, fry for the last time

Another advantage of doing fries this way is that the blanching, pre-frying, and freezing can be done in large batches in advance.


Good ways to store brownies? A friend is planning her wedding and wants to do a lot of brownies, rather than cake, for dessert. She's planning on making it herself, with the help of friends, but would like to make it at least a few days, if not a week or more, in advance. What would be a good way to store a lot of brownies? How long will they last?

Freezing is non-ideal, as freezer space is often tight at all of our homes and dealing with thawing/reheating lots of brownies evenly on the day may be problematic.

We store them at room temperature. If only for 3-4 few days: under plastic wrap or in the microwave. If about a week: in sealed Tupperware to keep the humidity from getting to them. I don't know if the humidity is an issue for everyone or only for those of us in a very humid climate. The refrigerator will make them last even longer but they won't taste as fresh after refrigeration. Freezer: 4-6 months.

The absolute best place I've found to store brownies though is in my stomach.


How do I cook a steak well-done without it drying out? My wife and I typically eat our steaks on the rarer side of medium rare. However, since she is pregnant she's not supposed to eat steak cooked to a temperature under 160 degrees. Is there a way to cook a steak well done while keeping it tender and juicy?

UPDATE: For anyone curious, we ended up going with a combination of sous vide skirt steak (in a homemade Styrofoam cooler), and home-ground burgers with extra fat added to the mix in the form of trimmings from the butcher, and strips of bacon. It definitely did the trick, but I'm glad we're back to medium-rare again. We ate a whole bunch of Omaha steaks that I had been saving after our daughter was born. The baby won't have an opinion on her red meat preferences for some time.

sous vide is an excellent technique to use, for your situation.  You can cook any number of foods to your desired doneness while also pasteurizing the product.  So, you can have your cake and eat it too, so to speak.  With sous vide there is no problem with a rare steak, because you can pasteurize.  Remember, pasteurization is not simply a result of temperature...but, temperature + time.  For example, with sous vide, you can cook a raw egg at 57C (134.6 F) for two hours...it will appear raw and behave as raw, but will be pasteurized and safe to eat.  Why give up steak the way you like it?


How to cook beef shank so that it is fall-off-the-bone tender? I bought several one-inch beef shank cross-sections from the local supermarket.
It looks like concentric circles, with a inner circle of bone and an innermost circle of marrow.
I put the shanks in a pot, covered it with water, and braised it for 12 hours at 200 F in the oven.
At the end, the collagen had converted into gelatin, but the meat seemed quite tough and chewy.

Is it possible for beef shanks to be super tender?
If so, how do you cook them that way?

If your beef shank is chewy, it's undercooked. Period. Whatever the amount of time is, even if it seems like a lot to you, it's not enough. Overcooking will cause meat cuts with a lot of connective tissue (like shank) to dry, and even fall apart because it is too tender. But it will not still be chewy.


Help me fix my flatbread I’m not much of a bread maker

Found a recipe for quick flatbread:
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp baking powder

I did the above but used 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup AP.

The dough was very sticky so I kept adding 1 tbsp of AP until it would not stick to my hands much and could be rolled out.

The bread was not pillowy or soft as the pictures on the website implied. Of course next time I could use 100% AP flour but I don’t think that would solve the issue entirely. Also, in the end, I probably added at least 3 additional tbsp of AP flour so by what amount should I have increased the baking powder? I didn’t get many bubbles.  What else could help this recipe so the flatbread would be pliable and pillowy?

Thank!

You shouldn't have kept adding flour. Baking powder recipes don't get kneaded, so they don't stop sticking.

For troubleshooting, do follow the recipe exactly as given. Don't do any substitutions until you can recreate the original well. Even after that, if you want fluffy bread, the whole wheat flour will be a disappointment.

And I doubt that you should be rolling it out at all. 1/2 cup of flour is 60 g, and 1/2 cup of yogurt is almost 120 g, resulting in 200% hydration. This sounds like a liquid batter more than like a formable dough, which is also consistent with the usage of baking powder. So, just pour it into a wide tin (well oiled, or lined with paper) and bake that way.

If you really insist on rolling, you have to live with the fact that it is a very wet dough with little gluten development and it will stick a lot. So use techniques for rolling sticky dough, instead of adding more flour.


Exactly how much is "one glass", in Russian recipes? In many many Russian recipes, measurements call for one glass or this one glass of that.

One glass in Russia, appears to be a similar concept to what one cup is in United States.

But here lies a problem, I will run down the list:

USSR mass-produced a certain type of faceted glass that pretty much everyone had in Russia.  The facets on the glass ended before reaching the top of the glass, thus marking a natural edge.

Pouring water into glass up to that edge == 200 milliliters
Pouring water till the top of the glass = 250 milliliters

It is NEVER specified if you are to fill up till the edge or to the top.

Now Russia produces all kinds of "glasses".  Looking around Russian native sites, I see that one glass can be anywhere from 180g, 200g, 250g.  Also, measuring water, sugar, and flour by volume this way, will produce different weight.

Does anyone have an experience in this?

I have a recipe that calls for "approximately 4 glasses of flour".  How much do I put?

I suppose I can use "one US cup" measure, but I know that one US cup, as a measurement vessel/quantity, did not exist in the recipe originator's minds in Soviet Russia.

Question:  how much is 1 glass?  Is it safe to use one cup?

Hello dennismv and welcome to Seasoned Advice! This  page  gives information and history on the faceted glass, so popular in Russia.

From what I could glean from other sites your measurements are correct. For use in recipes you would fill to the top of the facets or, as you say, the natural edge. This would be 200 ml.

**EDIT

Update -- The recipe below, found  here , translates 1 glāze (glass) to 1 cup. I found the same to be true in many other recipes.

Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

  Gingerbread
  December 5, 2011

  en/cz/est/lat

  2 eggs/vajíčka/muna/jajka/olas
  3 cups flour/ šálky mouky/ klaasi jahu / kubki maki / glāzes miltu
  2 cups of sugar/ šálky cukru/ klaasi suhkrut / szklanki cukru / glāzes cukura
  Baking powder – 1. Teaspoon / prášek na pečení – jedna lžíce/ 1 tl küpsetuspulbrit / lyzeczka proszku do pieczenia / tējkarote cepamā pulvera
  2 spoons of cocoa / lžíce kakaa / 2 spl kakaod / lyzki kakao / karotes kakao
  1 cup of milk/ šálky mléka /klaas piima / szklanka mleka / glāze piena
  1 cup of oil / šálky oleje / klaas õli / szklanka oleju / glāze ellas
  2 spoons of Jam / lžíce jamu / stl moosi / lyzki dzemu / karote ievārijums
  1 tea spoon of honey / lžíce medu / stl mett / lyzeczka miodu / karote medus
  Gingerbread spicies / perníkové koření /piparkoogi maitseained / przyprawy korzenne / piparkūku garšvielas ( kanēlis)


Substitutions for vegetable oil in cornbread I am out of vegetable oil and need to make cornbread. I think you can substitute peanut oil but want to make sure (only need 1/4 cup). I think you can also use olive oil but I only have extra virgin and I'm afraid the flavor would be weird. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Peanut oil is fine to use for vegetable oil. Since both are neutral with a high smoke point, they can be used interchangeably.


Substitutions for Wheat Flour in Pie Crust I am trying not to use wheat flour in my pie crust but nothing seems to come close to the flaky crust I get with wheat. I tried all oat and cashew flour and the crust was more like a crumbly crust if that makes sense. Like a cookie. Tasted great but not that flaky crust that I want. This morning I am going to try a combo with quinoa flour, oat flour, cashew flour and whatever else I can find in the pantry. The quinoa flour is new to me, can anyone tell me how this might bake up? Flaky, heavy, crumbly? The recipe I use is 2.5 cups flour, 2 sticks butter .5 cup + 3tbs ice water and 1 tsp salt. Or if anyone has a recipe that uses all butter and does not use wheat would you share it? Thank you!!!

I'm going to assume that the primary question is "How can I make a flaky pie crust without wheat flour?" Note that recipe requests are off-topic on this site, but substitution questions are on-topic.

The key thing which wheat flour gives you is gluten. Quinoa is gluten-free, so it's not going to help you much. However, there are ways of making gluten-free breads, cakes, etc. The first hit which Google gives me uses cornstarch, xanthan gum, and gluten-free flours. The second uses arrowroot starch, xanthan, and gluten-free flours. Xanthan isn't the only way of substituting for gluten, but it seems promising.


When you cook spaghetti, do you add olive oil to the boiling water? Many people (at least in Germany) think that Italians add olive oil to the boiling water for spaghetti. However, Italians tend to tell the opposite (from my experience).

So, can you please state objective reasons for or against adding olive oil to the boiling water for spaghetti?

Yes, it is true that we don't add oil to the boiling water. I'm not aware of any good reason to waste extra-virgin olive oil that way! Some oil is always added at the end, over the sauce, when the pasta is already in the plate! It has to be raw, so that it retains its fruit nuances and texture.

If you are doing cold pasta salad and want to avoid sticky pasta, adding oil in advance won't help. You have instead to wash pasta under cold water to wash the starch away (you can put the pasta in the colander directly under the running cold tap).


Besides salmon, what other meats can be grilled on a cedar plank? I've fallen in love with this wonderful Cedar Planked Salmon recipe - the two times I've made it have turned out excellently!

What other meats (or meat substitutes) can be grilled on cedar and not take on too much of the distinctive wood flavor?

Everything. Chicken works well. Pork and brisket taste great after taking on the smokey flavor. A ham steak would be good too.


How do I stop my pans from boiling over? Yesterday the wife and I decided to boil some potatoes in a normal non-stick pan.

We added salt,  potatoes and boiling water.  We put this on an electric hob, with no lid at maximum heat (marked at 6, which is ~10 times hotter than our 5 setting.  From experience, the remaining settings decrease operating temperature linearly). When come to the boil we cover with a lid.

Almost immediately they boil over,  spilling water across the hob. We remove the pan from heat, remove the lid, put the pan back on heat, turn down to setting 3, and wait.  Once at the lower temperature,  we replace lid. The pan boils over.

I know the basic mechanism behind boiling over.  Some agent increases the surface tension of the bubbles, causing many bubbles to form and then boil over. I am guessing that it is the starch. I don't know what factor the lid plays,  as occasionally the pan boils over without the lid on.

Is there anything I can do? Are the pans not clean enough? Not enough/too much salt?  Wrong type of salt?

I've heard of the wooden spoon trick, but I actually want to tackle the root cause.  Plus most of my spoons are silicone, and the trick doesn't work with them.

So what can I do to prevent boiling over?

You are doing precisely the opposite of 'normal' procedure, which is to put the lid on the pan until the water starts boiling, then remove the lid (either partially or completely) to prevent boiling over. A reduction in the hob temperature will also probably be necessary, and is in any case desirable - mercilessly boiling any vegetable is rarely a good thing.

With the lid off, heat is lost at the top of the pan at a rate which is usually sufficient to prevent boiling over. With the lid on, much of the heat is retained, which A) helps the water come up to a boil quicker and B) causes it to boil over much more easily.

See this answer for more information.


What Kind of Pan is This? This is a screen-shot of "Chopped", a show on the Food Network that I watch a lot. Most of the pans on the show are stainless steel, but it seems that these pans are always the ones the chefs grab when I would grab Teflon. They don't seem as non-stick as Teflon, eggs especially seem to stick to these pans, the show doesn't seem to have any Teflon pans. What surface is this?

EDIT:

The cookware used is by Zwilling JA Henckels. They are Thermolon-coated, which is why I mistook it for a Green Pan--they are the same coating (ceramic.)

You can see the cookware used in the show here:

http://shop.foodnetworkstore.com/nav/department/cookware/show/chopped/0

My original guesstimation:

This looks like a Green Pan, an attempt to make an alternative type of non-stick pan (does not use PFOA to create PTFE [Teflon])

They use ceramic to try to re-create a non-stick-ish feeling, but they definitely are not as non-stick as PTFE pans are.

http://www.green-pan.com.au/en/technology-3592.htm

I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any other pans with that colour of surface, so I'm pretty sure it's a Green Pan.


Keeping pre-cooked asparagus crisp I would like to pre-blanch some asparagus to dress and serve later as a salad. Will it stay crisp?

Just make sure that you shock the asparagus in iced water after you blanch it. The reason some/most vegetables become limp after blanching is because they have been heated and continue to cook on residual heat. An ice bath, or just running it under cold tap water will stop the cooking process and preserve the crispness.


Can I keep chillies in alcohol long term without continuing to affect the flavour? I want to make jalapeno or habanero infused tequila for a friend's Christmas present. I'd like to leave them in the bottle for presentation.

I've seen recipes only recommend a 24 hour maximum infusion time. Is there a way to leave them in without causing the flavour to develop in undesirable ways from over-infusion? Is over-infusion even possible in this circumstance?

The hotter the pepper, the shorter the infusion time, and the less time for the tequila to pick up any unwanted green vegetal flavor the thick skin of a jalapeño can impart (serious eats)

For presentation you could possibly get away with one nice-looking, thin-skinned (and not too hot) red chilli in the bottle, after straining the tequila off the real habañeros.  I'd give this a go (or even make 3 small bottles: strained; unstrained; strained with decorative chilli) it if it was for drinking myself, but for a gift I'd probably either:

say it's for drinking soon, or
decorate the outside of the bottle with a couple of nice-looking dried chillies tied on.

I have found that in some infused spirits, leaving the fruit in too long can cause unwanted flavours (e.g. rhubarb, which picked up just the vegetable flavour my link warns about) while in others you can leave it as long as you like (e.g. blackcurrant).


What can I do to dry out my marshmallows? The recipe that I used did not call for cornstarch or corn syrup. The result is that they are slightly wet. Can I do anything to dry them up, such as dusting them with corn flour?

I did dredge them in a mixture of confectioners sugar and corn flour; it helped a little, but I think I will find a recipe that has corn starch in it for next time!

I don't think I've ever seen a marshmallow recipe without corn syrup, except maybe for methocel marshmallows.  But assuming these are standard gelatin marshmallows, you can dredge them in confectioner's sugar and that will make them easier to work with.

Don't "dust" them, actually dredge them, otherwise you'll just end up with globs of wet sugar attached to the exterior.  This might happen anyway if your marshmallows are particularly watery, so you might need to dredge them a few times.

Also, don't cover them; it's important to let any moisture evaporate.  Gelatin is pretty stable as a gelling agent, but fresh marshmallows are still prone to syneresis, and if you leave them in an enclosed container, the condensation will cause more problems.

If worse comes to worst and the sugar doesn't help, just leave them out in the open for a longer period.  The water will continue to evaporate over time and eventually they will reach the consistency you want - although they might shrink a fair amount before then.


Why does my English muffins package say to use a fork or fingers instead of a knife to open them? I bought some Thomas English muffins and on the back it says for "Toasted perfection" the muffin should be split apart by hand or with a fork. Why does it not suggest to use a knife?

If you cut it with a knife, you'll tend to get a very smooth surface. If you tear it open, whether by hand or with the aid of a fork, it'll tend to break on more natural places in the crumb, giving a bit rougher surface. When toasted, that tends to result in more contrast of texture - the bits sticking up will brown more and get crunchier.


pan to bake a pound cake I have a recipe for pound cake that I love, but I make it in a tube pan.  I would like to make it in a 9x13 oblong pan, but don't know how long the cake should bake or if the recipe I use in the tube pan would fit into the oblong pan.  Any help would be appreciated.

Will it will fit is an easy one. Go here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html.
All but the biggest tube pan is less volume than a 9X13X2 pan.

As for how long it will bake- I don't have the ability to compute the exact new bake time; however, the rectangular pan will produce a thinner cake so the baking time will be reduced.

I would put it in for 3/4 the recipe time and then start checking it at 10 minutes intervals.


Can Brussels sprouts be eaten raw? I am not sure if this is too lame a question.
Can brussels sprouts be eaten raw, or do I need to boil them for 20 minutes or use some other form of cooking?

Yes, they can be eaten raw, and I do so frequently when they're in season.

I find them much more convenient for sandwich greens and salads when cooking for one than a whole large cabbage; I just chop up what I need (1-2, depending on size), and add 'em to the sandwich, or whatever I might be making.

...and I agree with Jennifer -- don't boil them.  (I like quartering them, and saute in bacon fat 'til they've browned, then a heavy dose of salt.)


Is my biga supposed to be liquid? I'm trying my hand at Ciabatta bread and have just made the biga in preparation for making the bread tomorrow.
I  followed this recipe, which calls for the following proportion of ingredients for the biga:

250g/9oz Italian type '00' bread flour
190ml/7fl oz water
15g/½oz yeast

and the preparation (emphasis mine):

For the overnight preparation, mix the flour with the water in a large bowl and add the yeast. Whisk for three minutes and leave to rise overnight (or at least eight hours).

I measured out the ingredients using the metric quantities and mixed as per the instructions, but my biga turned out to be much too solid and dough-like to whisk:

I measured out the weight of flour with a scale and the water with a liquid measuring cup and used bread flour.
Looking at another recipe, I see the same proportion of dry to wet ingredients:

4 ounce (1/2 cup) water
1/2 teaspoon active-dry yeast
5 ounce (1 cup) all-purpose flour
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the flour and stir to form a thick, gloppy paste. Give it a good fifty or so brisk stirs to build up the gluten. Cover and let sit at room temperature eight hours or overnight.

This one also has a flour:water ratio of 2:1 and indicates that the result should be a gloppy paste. Surely more water is needed in order to get this kind of consistency?  Is a more solid consistency okay or did I do something wrong?
Attempt #2:
I tried again making a half batch of the biga, documenting step-by-step with photos, to ensure that the measurements were all 100% correct.
Here's a whole bunch of photos I took in an imgur album. This time the dough was very slightly wetter, but my whisk still got very much clogged very quickly. I put a weight on my scale of 1kg and it measured 1017g, however this could be due to inaccuracies in both the weight and the scale so isn't a hugely conclusive test. At least we can be sure my scale isn't wildly out ;)
I managed to easily shape the final result into a ball very similarly to the original attempt with all the flour combined.
EDIT #3:
Checked my scale using coins. I used 7x R5 coins and it gave a reading of 65g. 9g/coin x 7 coins = 63g in reality which gives a 2g difference.
EDIT #4:
After several hours, it's definitely quite a bit sloppier and way more sticky. I'm going to see how it handles tomorrow morning when I make the dough.

To compare, I made exactly half that recipe, also measured in grams. It wasn't liquid, it was dough-like, but it was absolutely whisk-able. As a matter of fact, I only used a whisk to mix this. For what it's worth, I have a lot of trust in Paul Hollywood. I imagine this biga will be much more liquid in the morning. I'll let you know when I get up.

EDIT I want to mention too that I used 00 flour (Caputo Rosso red), filtered water and instant yeast.

2nd EDIT As I thought I remembered, the biga loosened considerably overnight. It's now easily mixed with a fork. Not liquid, but much, much looser. And a bit bubbly.


Why is there no pork on the Indian take-away menu? The standard Indian takeout menu does not represent the kind of food eaten in India. India is a large country and "Real Indian food" is little more meaningful than "Real European food". Dishes commonly eaten in the North might be foreign to people living in the South and vice-versa. Takeout favourites (tikka masala, madras, rogan josh) don't exist in India in that form. Those dishes are European inventions inspired by Indian dishes.

When I open an Indian take-away menu I see chicken, beef, lamb, seafood and vegetarian dishes. But there is no pork. India is a predominately vegetarian country. When the modern take-out menu was invented, common European meats were added to the menu. Except for pork. How come?

The Chinese takeaway is a similar story. You will find chicken, beef, pork, seafood and vegetarian dishes that don't resemble anything eaten in China. Now we have pork but no lamb. I suspect that is because lamb is expensive in Europe. But it goes to show pork dishes sell. So why not pork Indian dishes?

Edit: Comments mention that Goan cuisine features pork from Portuegese influence. This is interesting because some dishes, for example Vindaloo, are an Indian take on a European dish, rather than for example Tikka Masala which is a European take on an Indian dish. However the question is only about the extent to which pork is eaten in India, insofar as it influences why pork never made its way onto Indian takeout menus in Europe.

In the UK you see lamb and chicken on "Indian" restaurant menus, but not beef or pork. I suspect that in the colonial era when the English wanted meat there were goats (near enough the same as sheep) and chickens because both are kept for food but not meat. So are cattle but they're special. There simply wouldn't have been a supply of pigs or the habit of rearing them - and English breeds brought by the colonists wouldn't do too well in the climate of much of India. Maintaining a supply of pork would have been hard. The English in India also used to exploit and increase religious divisions - at times and in places they relied on Muslims. Rumours of pig (and cow) fat being used as grease on rifle cartridges (which had to be bitten) were a factor in the rebellion of 1857, indicating the depth of feeling about forbidden food.

While many Indians are vegetarian, there are plenty who aren't, and that means there are plenty of dishes using the meats that are available.

Many if not most "Indian" restaurants in the UK are run by people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage, who tend to be Muslims. This further explains the absence of pork as it's forbidden for Muslims (including just handling it I believe).

Goa is an exception in several ways. It was a Portuguese colony not a British one. Iberian pig breeds should tolerate the Indian climate better than British breeds. More importantly, Goa doesn't have a large Muslim population (8%, compare with the UK at 4%). Goa was ruled by the Portuguese before and during the Mughal empire, which had a huge influence on Islam in the rest of India.


What is this slicing (?) tool? I saw this tool at a yard sale today. It appears to be some sort of slicing or cutting device.
The construction however seemed fairly lightweight, I couldn't picture putting something dense, heavy, etc. through it.

That tool is indeed a slicer for cutting cabbage in preparation for fermenting it in a large pottery crock for sauerkraut. My mother used one very similar to make a five gallon and a ten gallon of crock full of sauerkraut every year back in the 50's and 60's.


Beef discoloration on parts not in contact with air I have bought a pack of sliced beef and opened it up as soon as I got home. Judging by the date on a package, it was packed on the same day I bought it. It was red on the outside, but dark and brown-ish where individual peaces touched each other.

Having read
these
two
questions, I would guess it should be safe to eat it, but I'm not sure what happened in the first place.

When meat is first cut, it is purplish in color.  If it is exposed to enough oxygen, it can turn a bright red.  Eventually it will turn brown.

If the meat is cut and exposed to air, but then deprived of enough oxygen to turn red, the color will go from purplish directly to brownish.  (See this USDA FAQ, which was also quoted in the answer to a similar question here on ground beef.)

Also, many meat packers make use of small amounts of carbon monoxide during the packaging process.  Exposing fresh meat to carbon monoxide will retain the bright red color on the exterior for a longer period.

In the past, the interior browning with exterior redness was mostly visible in heavily processed meat (like ground beef), where the grinding exposes a lot of meat surface to air, but then deprives it of oxygen.  I assume that the carbon monoxide processing now makes it possible to see meats with less cutting involved (like sliced meats or steaks) where the exterior stays red for much longer, even as the cuts that are stacked or overlap may sometimes turn brown on the surface.


Scaling up water for cooking soup I'm cooking soup as a starter for Christmas dinner. I've made this soup before and I used 1.5 litres of water for 4 servings. I'm making 12 servings for Christmas day so that should be 4.5 litres of water required if I just put in 3 times as much of everything.

I'm not sure if I've correctly scaled up the water needed, 4.5 litres sounds like a lot of water. Maybe when cooking 4 servings 1.5 litres of water is used but 0.5 litres boils off, then with 12 servings 3.5 litres is used and still 0.5 litres boils off. Is this a smarter way to scale up the water needed?

Edit: To make 4 servings I add 6 tomatoes, a leek and 3 potatoes; I simmer it for 30 minutes with the lid on.

1.5 litres for 4 servings is 375ml per serving (plus some volume from the veg which I'll ignore) assuming no water boils off. That's a sensible portion. I reckon my soup bowls hold just a little less than that, but you'll leave some in the pan when serving . So I doubt you lose a lot of water when you normally cook it.

That said, I'd err on the side of caution and (i)  measure the bowls (both the normal ones and the ones you plan to serve it in if they're not the same); and (ii)  start with a little less water than you think you need - adding water is quick, boiling it off less so and you don't need the hassle of your soup taking too long.


Yolks flat and breaking We have had our own chickens for over 20 years and feed them on crushed grain and laying pellets and they eat greens in the fields. The fresh eggs have always been plump in the centre when cracked. Lately the yolks are flat and even if carefully broken into the pan they tend to rupture and leak as the egg is frying. Just like old eggs. what could be the explanation?

Age, pure and simple. I used to be a free range egg producer and our chickens were retired to homes happy to have them as pets and occasional layers by the time they were two years of age.

Eggs become larger as they age but as they get beyond two, most hens lay a lot less and quite frequently the eggs can show their age on the inside as well as outside.

Like humans, hens have only so many eggs they are born with and once those have all been released everything starts to slow right down until it stops completely.


Are all slugs edible? I've heard about people eating escargot, but are slugs just as edible?

I live in MN USA, and came across some all tan ones, but had no camera at the time.

Slugs are not poisonous, but in the wild can pick up the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis, also known as rat lungworm, from rodent scat. The parasites can produce a toxic reaction that causes eosinophilic meningitis in humans.


Making a dark, suspended chocolate sauce I melted some dark chocolate at a low temperature and added whipping cream to keep it liquid at room temperature. I added more whipping cream after the mixture was at room temperature, but it thickened the mixture, rather than thinning it. It also reduced how dark the chocolate was to a large degree.

I understand the fat in the milk/cream helps to keep the solid chocolate particles in suspension to keep it from settling.

My goal is to make a very dark chocolate sauce at room temperature in which the solid chocolate particles remain suspended, and I would prefer also to not use starches or gums as they change the flavor. I would also like the consistency to be "squirtable," but a maybe a little thicker than Hershey's syrup. I also don't want a sweet sauce.

My questions are these: 1. Why did the sauce thicken instead of thin and 2. What means should I use to achieve the goals of the sauce and 3. If I reduce the fat content of the liquefier by using milk or water, does it reduce the suspension qualities?

1) Well, it happened because you used something that is rich in saturated fat.

Saturated fat liquefies when heated and solidifies when cool (this is why some places call the type of confectioner's chocolate that doesn't need to go to the fridge to solidify "hydrogenated chocolate", because it is rich in artificially saturated - hydrogenated - fat)

2) My recommendation for you would be adding milk or if you don't want to lose the "darkness" of your sauce, you could add in vegetable oil and food emulsifier (or if you have it on hand, pasteurized egg yolks)

3) You could also change the type of fat you're using, hence the vegetable oil (unsaturated fat) suggestion


Is honey considered vegan? I was thinking of following a vegan diet for health reasons. I tried it for a week during a "cleanse" and it wasn't so bad, even though I love steak and eggs. I was just curious though if honey is considered vegan or not. It's an animal (bee) byproduct, right? The only difference maybe is that it's something bee's make naturally, although if we farm them for the honey it's not exactly humane (see A Bee Movie).

Honey is not vegan.  In short, the core tenet of veganism is living without exploiting anything in the animal kingdom, and most (if not all) vegans consider taking honey from bees a form of exploitation.


Why doesn't any of the Instant Pot recipes I find use the preset buttons (Rice, Bean/Chili, etc.)? I bought an Instant Pot pressure cooker recently. One of the features is its "Smart Cooking Programs" that can program the settings with the touch of a button. I haven't seen any recipes the use of these buttons, and even the book that came with the Instant Pot uses "Manual" for everything. Should I use them?

For the most part, the buttons just have pre-set cooking times.  For other times, then it's best to just use manual modes.  A few of the programs are particular, like the bean, multi-grain and porridge programs have a long pre-soak before pressure cooking.  And newer models (SMART, DUO-ENW) have the rice program pre-set to cook at "low" pressure.

Instant Pot made nice little charts of these programs and posted them online.

In my personal experience, the extra soaking time of these programs just takes longer - especially if you're already using pre-soaked beans.

That's why I always use manual mode - and the recipes I wrote for their recipe booklet always call for it as well.


What will happen to my cake if I don't cream the butter enough? I am preparing for a cake decorating party for some 8-year-olds and was testing a simple butter cake recipe.

I made a small-ish batch of batter (just over a stick of butter, just under 1/2 lb of flour), but I have a large stand mixer and I don't think I really creamed the butter enough.  (This isn't the first time I've run into the issue of the large mixer not being ideal for small batches.)

The test cakes seemed to come out fine - they certainly aren't terrible - but I was wondering what, in general, happens to a cake when you're using the creaming method but don't really cream the butter enough?  Does the cake come out heavier?

The idea of creaming is definitely to incorporate some air into the fat-sugar mixture, which should give the final product a lighter texture. So perhaps your cake was a little heavier than it was supposed to be. Good creaming also helps distribute the fat well.

But maybe you managed to mix some more air in later in the recipe - certainly I imagine you could do better beating the batter with a stand mixer than I can by hand! And with a stand mixer I'm sure it was all mixed fine, too. So if the cakes weren't too heavy for you, it's not anything to worry about.


how to store rice for 12 hours so it doesn't dry out I have bad experiences with packing rice for lunch, and having it dry out and get gross overnight (like, I'll steam twice as much rice as I want to eat for dinner and pack half of it away).

But it always ends up crusty and hard. When I pack it with a lid on, there's just a bunch of condensed water on the lid, and my rice are still hard and crusty.

What's the best way to keep it from losing its moisture?

I've tried to search for this, but all the results are just tips on food safety, nothing about quality.

For eating rice cold, I find it best to cool it by rinsing with cold water as soon as it's cooked. Then drain well, pack into a close fitting container, and refrigerate. It also works well if you plan to reheat the rice.

You may find that you want it a little softer than at dinner the previous night. In that case let it sit hot and wet while you eat dinner, then drain before the cold rinse.

This rapid cooling, apart from preventing the rice from steaming in the box, is also good from the point of view of food safety.


How do Chinese restaurants tenderize their meat? I eat at a lot of Chinese restaurants now and also while growing up. I often wondered how is it that the chicken, pork, and beef in dishes are always so tender. I can never replicate it when I cook.
What do the Chinese chefs use to tenderize their meat?

One technique, but not the only, is velveting. Here the meat is tenderized in an egg-white/cornstarch mixture for 20+ minutes, then cooked briefly (a minute) in oil or simmering water with a small amount of oil prior to using in stir fries.

I've never velveted in straight oil but water/oil definitely gives the chicken that smoothness that Chinese Restaurants obtain and the shorter stir fry cooking time makes it much more tender.

Super thin slicing (you'll need to cut the meat semi-frozen to get such thin slices), plus cutting across the grain also lead to tenderness.


Is there a formula for converting pancake batter to waffle batter? I have a wonderful pancake recipe that I would like to convert into a waffle recipe.  Is there a generally accepted formula for doing this?  Based on other recipes I've seen, it looks like the amount of oil is the main difference.  Would more flour or other ingredients need to be added to compensate for additional oil?  Are there any specific pitfalls to avoid?

Add an extra egg and 1/3 cup oil, my waffle recipe uses half baking powder, half baking soda while my pancakes only use baking powder (but when converting a mix I usually just do the egg and oil).


What is the best way to filter Turkish coffee? I wish to get rid of the remains of the coffee in a Turkish coffee cup.
I tried using the tea strainer, it didn't help much. I used cloth. The
results were better but still I could feel the particles in my mouth
while drinking the Turkish coffee.

What is the best practical way to filter Turkish coffee?

I think you got something mixed up there. It is normal to have noticeable particles while drinking Turkish coffee. Everybody uses a strainer for it, and it does result in a slightly "muddy" drink.

I guess you could pass the prepared Turkish coffee through a paper coffee filter before drinking, but this would be a very unusual way to do it. People who don't want to taste the particles just use a different brewing method in the first place. Making it with particles and then removing them is twice the work, and I can't imagine it giving you any taste advantage.

If you do any filtering, the coffee will end up less strong, both in taste and caffeine. It is the particles you taste which are the actual coffee. Another method which achieves strong coffee is true espresso. It needs an expensive machine which passes the water vapor through the grounds under pressure though.


Can I add peanut butter to cook and serve pudding to make peanut butter pie? If so, do I use less liquid? I'm wanting to make a peanut butter pie using vanilla cook and serve pudding. Can I do this and would I need to use less liquid?

Welcome! Per allrecipes , yes you can, and no change liquid is needed. The recipe in the link calls for a pre-made graham cracker crust and uses 1 cup of peanut butter.

The instructions read as:

  Prepare cook and serve pudding as directed on package. Stir in peanut butter. Bring mixture to a boil and pour into graham cracker crust. Allow to cool.

If you do a Google search, there are also many recipes available that use instant pudding.


What flavour can cut through salt? I'm putting together an asian sauce to throw over some steamed greens & have made it a bit too salty (it contains soy, fish & oyster sauce).

What can I add to cut back the saltiness?

The classic way to compensate for saltiness (especially in Asian cuisine) is to add something sweet (usually sugar), which tricks one's taste-buds into thinking that the food is both less salty and less sweet.  (Ever wonder why a can of cola has 45+ mg of sodium?  It's there partially to mask all the sweetness which gives you a sugar rush, and simultaneously make you thirstier!)  I seem to recall reading a section on this phenomenon in On Food and Cooking, but my copy is back home.  I'll try and post an excerpt later today.  Update #2: I can't seem to find any mention of saltiness inhibitors in OFaC, however, there is a section on sweetness inhibitors (cf. page 663) so I must have been confusing it with that.

Update #1: I haven't gotten a chance to look at OFaC yet, however, I did find this study:

An overview of binary taste–taste interactions by Keast and Breslin.  Journal of Food Quality and Preference, 14 (2) 111–124.  March, 2003. Elsevier.

It is a survey of research on both perceived and chemical reactions between different tastes.

  When compounds eliciting tastes are mixed many outcomes are possible, including perceptual enhancement and suppression, unmasking of a taste not initially observed, or possibly chemical synthesis of a new taste.

The survey notes (see Sections 3.2 and 3.3):

  At medium and high intensities/concentrations
  sweetness was generally suppressive of other basic tastes.

and also

  Sweetness suppressed salty taste at moderate intensities.

It goes on to note that at even higher concentrations sweetness and other tastes are symmetrically suppressive (i.e., their tastes cancel each other out).


What is a good substitute for Barramundi fish? I am cooking a recipe that uses Barramundi fish:

https://www.blueapron.com/recipes/honey-butter-barramundi-with-za-atar-roasted-vegetables

Unfortunately I have never seen this species of fish in a grocery store and so I need some help. What is a good substitute for Barramundi fish?

Barramundi is an Asian fish also commonly eaten in Australia deep fried in dishes like fish and chips. It is very similar not only in shape but also in consistency and taste to perch.

Any type of perch like Egyptian Nile Perch which can be easily found in most markets (depending on your location) is a good substitute.

Grouper can also make a good substitute although it has slightly higher fat content and may be a bit more expensive fish.

Most Sea Bass being the same family and providing similar firmness can probably constitute a good alternative too.


Nuke TV Dinner and then renuke it 3 hours later? I need to feed 10 people a Hungry Man TV Dinner each (please don't ask why--it's too long a story) and I have only 1 microwave oven. I need everyone to eat pretty much at the same time, but this is not possible since it will take 8 minutes for each TV Dinner to heat up. So, my solution is to to spend 80 minutes heating all the frozen meals, and leaving it for three to four hours until mealtime comes. My question is: Would reheating an already heated TV dinner alter the taste and texture (like get dry and hard)?

I would try pre thawing them all so they don't take so long to nuke when the time comes. So maybe defrost them in the fridge a few hours before so you aren't microwaving from frozen. And just stack them in the oven to stay warm while you nuke the rest.

The crazy part of me would disassemble the meals.
1: all veg in a pot.
2: all mash potato in a pot.
3: all meats on an oven tray
4: heat it all up on the stove and oven
5: re assemble all meals onto clean trays or clean plates.

But I'm kinda crazy. And it might not be easy if there is gravy involved.

Also if you haven't already purchased said meals why not just get a bag of frozen veg, a box of instant mash potato and a frugally priced meat option of your choice to just make dinner for all at once. (But maybe not an option for you)

That's all my ideas :) good luck!


How do I tell guar gum from xanthan? I purchased both guar gum and xanthan gum in little unmarked baggies from the bulk section of my local health foods store.

This was months ago and since I foolishly forgot to label them, now I have no idea which is which. How can I tell? Are there any experiments I can do? Taste tests?

One is slightly darker, but that's the only obvious visual difference.

Guar gum has a particular grassy/earthy/beany smell, whereas xanthan gum is much closer to odorless.


What styles of barbeque exist in American cuisine? I'm originally from the Michigan thus i don't know much about barbeque due to the lack of barbeque establishments.

From my understanding (correct me if i'm wrong), there are several regional variations or styles of BBQ in the US. Each of type is defined by a BBQ technique or method: Texas (Brisket style), St. Louis, etc.

Thus my question; what other types of BBQ currently exist and what defines it?

There's a great YouTube video by Rhett & Link called the The BBQ Song (A Review of BBQ in the Southern United States) that is actually a really good starting point for answering this question.

Here are the lyrics to the song:

  In the mountains of Tennessee, they like a smoky sauce;
  But over there in ol' Memphis, a dry-rubbed rib is boss.

  The folks down in Georgia can't make up their mind.
  You can give it to 'em sweet or spicy, and they'll say "that tastes alright."

  You might think that South Carolinians are just a little bit off.
  Would you believe their barbecue's yellow—with a mustard sauce?

  Pork shoulder is the cut of choice in Mississippi
  And they pride themselves on barbecue that's totally vinegary.

  And Louisiana, them Cajuns,
  They like to spice it up. They like to spice it up.

  This is our review of barbecue,
  In the southern United States.
  And when my life is through,
  Bury me in barbecue,
  But make sure it's vinegar-based,
  'Cause you know that slows decay,
  And it's the style from our home state—North Carolina! (Solo!)

  Mutton is big in west Kentucky, that's a fancy name for sheep.
  But in the rest of the state, sliced pork butt is what they eat.

  Arkansas is kinda like Georgia, a barbecue meltin' pot,
  And when you ain't looking, them good ol' boys'll make that barbecue hot!

  Alabama's got the strangest thing I've seen in my barbecue days,
  'Cause their barbecue sauce is white, made out of mayonnaise!

  Down in Texas, where the long-horn steer roam free,
  They love to smoke their brisket—that's a big ol' slab of beef.

  And down in Florida . . .
  Is Florida a southern State?
  No, it ain't.

  This is our review of barbecue,
  In the southern United States.
  And when my life is through,
  Bury me in barbecue . . .

  People not from the South
  Think barbecue means "cookout,"
  And that's something they're wrong about.

  (Spoken outro:)
  Barbecue is NOT a verb, barbecue is NOT a grill.
  Barbecue is MEAT prepared in a very special way,
  Which varies depending on where you go.


What is the quickest way to evenly slice chicken breasts for jerky? I am using a dehydrator to make jerky from boneless skinless chicken breasts.  Cutting these by hand is too time-consuming and produces uneven pieces which finish dehydrating at various times.  What is the quickest way to remove the fat from and evenly slice chicken breasts for jerky?

Freeze the breasts, then use a mandoline to make even slices. (If you have access to a deli slicer with its rotary blade, that would be even faster; however, a mandoline slicer is more typical in a home kitchen.)

The freezing keeps the relatively small pieces of meat stable so they will slice more evenly. Frozen breasts slice more evenly even by hand in my experience.


How do I flavor popcorn with a minimal amount of fat? I have a popcorn machine that produces popcorn without using fat. It basically blows hot air over the kernels, and after 2 minutes they start popping.

You're not supposed to add any flavoring agent (salt, sugar, ...) in the machines as it's not made for that. So when I want to add flavor, I spray water onto the popcorn right after it has popped, and then scatter the flavoring agent. This works relatively well.

The downside:

the popcorn can become damp (I solve this by leaving the machine on, which blows hot air over the popcorn)
you can waste some flavoring agent (not all of it sticks to the popcorn, some of it falls on the bottom of the bowl)

The upside:

no fat used, healthier and your fingers will be less "greasy"

Any other ideas how to flavor your popcorn using no fat or a minimal amount of fat?

Don't spray with water with a standard squirt bottle. Get an olive oil spritzer. It's pressurized, so you get an almost aerosol-fine mist, which prevents the kernels from getting soggy. It also adds flavor, in addition to the powdered seasonings you add with it. Or you could use an infused oil and skip the powdered seasoning altogether.


Can't seem to get my rye sourdough starter really going I've been trying to get a rye sourdough starter going so that I can make all-rye sourdough bread. I've been at it for two weeks, with a 1:1:1 of water, starter and rye at 50g (the first two days I added organic honey and didn't start discarding starter until the 4th day).

At one point the recipe I was following said 50:100:100 of starter, water and rye flour, and it did a little better that day than the previous if I'm remembering right. The main issue is it isn't bubbly enough. Some days I get some good bubbles, but I can't seem to link it to anything. I've been keeping the starter in the oven with the light on because I think our house is too cold, (we keep our house at 68 at night and 75 during the day) but I don't know if that's the right way to do it. I live in hot, humid New Orleans, so that could be affecting it (or our A/C).

I tried to make a loaf last night and it actually hasn't risen at all, which is why I am turning for help. The starter passed the float test before I made the loaf, and smells sweet and sour like sourdough, but is pretty dense and thick, and the bubbles aren't at the level I see in pictures.

Help please! Not sure what to fix, if it could be moisture, temp, or the flour I'm using (bulk section rye flour for the first week and Red's dark rye once I ran out). I want to get a good robust one going so I can keep it for a while but it hasn't gone anywhere promising so far.

Your problem likely has little to do with moisture or temperature -- starters can actually be established in a wide variety of conditions, from a dry dough ball to very wet, and can from very cool temperatures to quite warm ones.  It may take more or less time to establish in some conditions, but your parameters sound well within range.  I would check the "oven with light on" temperature if possible, just to see what it is, but I doubt it's high enough to cause problems.  (You probably don't want to go much above 85-90F when trying to establish a wild-yeast starter, and a little lower than that is probably ideal.)

As FuzzyChef said, it's possible that chlorinated water or old flour can cause problems.

But my guess from your description that your starter rose significantly with greater feeding is that it's simply starving.  Once yeast begins to be established (usually 3-4 days after beginning a starter, with 24-hour feedings, but can be anywhere from about 2 to 7 days depending on conditions), you should increase the frequency of feedings.  I generally prefer twice per day, but it depends on temperature and amount fed.  For 1:1:1, every 12 hours or so is reasonable.

The problem with letting the starter sit for 24 hours at a time while trying to get established is that the yeast usually have peak growth pretty early on (within a few hours of a feeding), but after several hours, mostly you're just growing lactic acid bacteria, which makes the starter acidic ("sour").  That's good, up to a point.  The problem is when the starter begins to get too sour, yeast die off, and they run out of food without feedings.

A 12-hour cycle might be enough of a shift to jumpstart the yeast growth and catch them before they start dying off every day.  (Some people with so-called "sluggish" starters or starters that have become too acidic will even try more frequent feedings for a limited time.)  I think at this point you might have a relatively small amount of yeast that just isn't growing much from day-to-day.  Try feeding more frequently for several days and see what happens.  For a 100% hydration starter (which you have), you usually want to see a starter that can consistently double or even triple in size within 2-4 hours after a feeding before you start trying to bake bread with it.


Do oven door liners commonly need replacing? The first time I used the "self clean" setting on this oven, the strip of padding around the oven door ... puffed out?  Heat leaks out ever since, even to the point where the oven light will sometimes pop on with the door closed.  I bought an oven thermometer, and if I wedge the door closed with a drawer, it seems to hold the correct temperature.

Is it simple & common to replace that liner? Or am I overreacting and there's nothing really wrong with the drawer method?  I'll admit, it IS handy to be able to blame the gimpy oven door any time a baking project doesn't turn out quite right.  ;)

I have never known anyone to replace them. Not me, not my mother (who used hers every other day almost). So no, that does not seem to be a normal thing. Contact the store!


Question about chiffon cake My wife has been working on making a chiffon cake.  The picture below is attempt number 10.  She has varied the temperature of the oven, used a metal tray or no metal tray in the oven, and other factors.   The cake rises and looks ok from the top, but it always has this weird form on the bottom.  To me, it seems that a steam / gas pocket is forming possibly because the heat is too hot on the bottom.  She says she has lowered the bottom temperature and the results are similar.

My question is what causes this to happen and what are some solutions?

I was just looking into trying this myself (after a disastrous attempt at bundt cake - tasted fine but broke in half coming out of the pan) anyway, I found a great site with lots of tips https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/perfect-chiffon-cake/ but what I also found, were other chiffon cakes where this had happened, and rather than it being a failure, people would decorate the groove with fresh fruit and icing sugar. So as long as it tastes good, just embellish it.


What is this glass object for? I inherited a bar set. It has a wide variety of glassware, all of which I recognize except this piece

The bottom portion holds a 1/2 cup. There is a small hole connecting the top and bottom. The top section is about 2in in diameter with a 3/4 inch opening between the top and the bottom. It is awkward to pour out of it and impossible to drink out of it. There are 12 of them, along with all the other glassware.

There are no markings on the glassware or the bar itself. The bar only contains liquor glasses (Collins glass, cordial glass, old fashion glass, shot glass) and no wine glasses or beer glasses.

What is its purpose?

It's a double bubble shot glass designed for a shot (on top) and the chaser of your choice on the bottom.  It is just a novelty and fancy way of presenting special drinks.

Here's a video showing how it's used.


Are kidney beans that split and wrinkle during soaking process safe to consume? After 5 hours of soaking I find my dried kidney beans' skin wrinkled and some split in two, however my main concern is phytohaemagglutinin and the fact now that some beans are split open and lost their skin (shell) microbes have access to inside.

Safe as in not causing any illnesses, upset stomach and life threatening situations.

Phytohaemagglutinin is found in the highest concentrations in uncooked red kidney beans and white kidney beans (also known as cannellini), and it is also found in lower quantities in many other types of green beans and other common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), as well as broad beans (Vicia faba) such as fava beans. Poisoning can be induced from as few as five raw beans. The amount of phytohaemagglutinin can be reduced to safe levels by correct cooking (boiling for at least 30 minutes at 100 °C/ 212 °F). Insufficient cooking, such as in a slow cooker at 80 °C/ 176 °F can increase this danger and raise the available haemagglutinating units (hau) up to fivefold.
Most microorganism, or microbes, can be greatly reduced by proper cooking.
Low acid foods, such as beans that have been stored incorrectly, can be a source of botulism.

The above information is sourced from Wikipedia. The blog article: "Crockpots, Slow Cooking Dried Beans & Phytohaemagglutinin" suggests:

Soak the dried beans in water for at least five hours (some recommend soaking the beans for at least twelve hours)
Discard the soaking water which will contain leached out toxins
Rinse the beans and cover them with fresh water
Boil the beans (rapid boil) for at least ten minutes
It is then safe to add the beans to the slow cooker and proceed with the recipe

It is important to do your own research and not rely on any single source of advice.


Replace or reduce sugar in milk? Is there any company that produces milk with the sugar removed or replaced? If not, is there any way to do this on your own?

I love skim milk and mostly buy Fair Life Skim Milk, which is filtered to improve nutritional value, but it still has way too much sugar.

So, there's no method to get sugar out of milk, as far as I know.  You can look for milk products where some of the sugar is used up (fermented, like Chris H mentioned), but this will significantly change taste and texture - sugar is a major part of what milk is, fats and sugars and proteins, and you're removing most of the actual substance.

You're likely to do better with an unsweetened nut milk or rice milk, especially if you make your own so you can tweak to taste.  These may have more fats, depending on your choice of recipe, but will likely have sugar closer to your desired range

One thing you might try, if you're really determined, is to dilute your milk (maybe up to half) and add artificial sweeteners.  You'll still get some of the flavor components from the added milk, and some sweetening to make up the difference in taste, but there will be less sugar because the actual amount of milk is less. Hopefully the added artificial sweetener might make it taste less watery, but maybe add just a half a pinch of salt if it still tastes too thin.  in the end, ~6g sugar per cup, I guess?

Another possibility is to use unflavored whey powder to flavor the diluting water (again, probably no more than half of your "milk"), then adding artificial sweetener to taste.  The whey should have some of the flavors from the proteins in milk, and at least from the powder I checked it doesn't have much of the sugar or fat you're objecting to.  It might help the diluted milk taste less watery. ~7g sugar, because I think the whey powder has a gram and a half per serving.

Final possibility I thought of - you can maybe grab some creamer powder and use that to flavor your diluted milk (again, not more than half and sweeten to taste).  Or even use it on its own, if the flavor works for you.  The amount of sugar isn't stated, but it has to be under 1g because that's all the carbs there are per serving - though it does add a half gram of fat back in.


Cream Cheese vs Yogurt Cheese: what / how much difference does the bacteria make? This recipe for homemade cream cheese looks extremely similar to making yogurt and then straining it.
In fact, the final step for culturing the milk goes:

After 12 to 18 hours, the cheese should look like yogurt (solid if tipped but still relatively soft). You may see some whey separating from the cheese. The whey is a mostly clear liquid.

The 'main ingredient' in both cultures are again, just different varieties of Lactic Acid Bacteria (plus sugars and rennet for cream cheese)

Cream Cheese Starter Culture: Sucrose, maltodextrins, lactic bacteria (Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis, Lactococcus lactis supsp. cremoris), Rennet
Yogurt Starter Culture: Bifidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus

Upon following the same procedure as given for creation of cream cheese, with yoghurt culture +/- Rennet, what exactly would be the difference in the two cheeses as compared to each other?
I ask instead of experimenting because I'm having a hard time getting my hands on some cream cheese starter culture, so I'm hoping to get a voice of experience on this subject.
Note: There's a related question asking about usability of 'yoghurt cheese in cheese cake', but I'm more interested in knowing what the differences in the resulting cheeses would be, rather than just substitutability.

Just as important as the bacterial culture is the use of rennet in cream cheese, which aids in the removal of liquid whey.  When making cream cheese, the point is to drain much of the whey, resulting in a semi-solid texture.  Rennet helps encourage the solids to curdle and squeeze out liquid.  Yogurt doesn't necessarily include the draining step, though it can be done if you're looking for a thicker Greek-style yogurt.  In this case, the acid produced during fermentation while making yogurt aids curdling and helps produce the final texture.

In fact, it's possible to take the draining process even further with yogurt, resulting in what's often called yogurt cheese or labneh.  The final texture can vary a bit depending on how long it's drained, and whether you use weights to encourage the process.

In my experience labneh still never gets quite as solid as cream cheese, but it's pretty close when sufficiently weighted and drained.  Labneh also retains yogurt's tangy flavor, which is mostly an effect of the bacterial culture.  Though I haven't measured, I would expect that the pH of labneh is lower, so it's probably not always appropriate as a direct substitution for sensitive applications like baking.  In other places, you could definitely use labneh instead of cream cheese.  If you're having difficulty locating cream cheese cultures, this would be the easiest tack to take.

I haven't tried (or seen) both rennet and yogurt culture used together, but my suspicion is that it would take the curdling action a bit too far for the result to be smooth and spreadable.

So, tl;dr: the major difference is that yogurt culture is calibrated to produce a higher level of acid, resulting in a tangier flavor and reducing the need for rennet to curdle the solids.  If you follow the same procedure, varying only the culture used, you'll have a reasonably similar end result.


Partially tough pulled pork after 12 hours So, after grilling a half picnic roast of pork (about 5lbs) for around 12 hours at about 200 - 250 (F) I found half of the final product to be tender and half tough. I sprinkled it with salt the night before, and then put on a dry rub over a splash of water a few minutes before it went onto the grill. I had planned to keep it on the grill (propane) until the internal temperature to had risen to about 200.  10 hours into the cook I kicked the temp up to about 300.  The internal temp was about 192 when I took it off.

In the end, a large part of the roast pulled apart nicely like I expected, but some sections would not and seemed to be very dry. Only about half of the final pulled pork was edible.

I was monitoring the temperature with a dual probe thermometer, one probe in the meat and one in the nearby grill air. Unfortunately due to lax attention and some shifting weather that day, the grill temp did drop below 200 several times during the day, once for over an hour (I know thanks to the fancy history chart in my thermometer).  The internal temp stalled at about 140 for over an hour but for the most part it was progressing nicely.

Did I overcook this by letting the grill run too cool for too long?  Or was it from spiking the temp to 300 at the end?

Always try to avoid spiking the temp. It's good to monitor and adjust, but consistency in temp is the most important thing with that method. Much like braising, meat reaches a point of no return where it starts to expel moisture during slow cooking, and that may very well be due to cranking it up.

Next time, just cover the meat and allow it to cook until it's time to rest, and allow it to rest covered for an additional 30 minutes if you had difficulties with even cooking. It's actually better to go a little lower and a little longer than crank up the heat.


Does pressure cooking preserve alcohol? I use my pressure cooker a lot and for one recipe I'm practically bathing a few pork loins in white wine. I know that pressure cooking only reduces liquid by less than five percent, and I know that cooking only reduces alcohol by evaporation not breaking down of molecules (or at least I think so). So does pressure cooking only reduce alcohol content by ~5% (since the stuff that evaporates will probably be mostly alcohol? Or will the alcohol content in the steam be much higher? Even in that case, if I let it sit before releasing pressure, most of the steam will turn back into liquid.

Basically, can I add "helps get you tipsy" to the list of my InstantPot's many features?

Since a pressure cooker does not release any vapors, all of the alcohol will remain in the pot until you open the lid. In fact, even when cooking in an open pot, a large amount of alcohol will remain in your liquid(Wikipedia:Cooking_with_alcohol). While it is true that alcohol has a lower boiling point than water in their pure forms, a mixture of water and ethanol will boil together, with both water and alcohol vaporizing. Wikipedia: Raoult's Law


Why is my pumpkin pie filling separating from my cake mix? I decided to mix pumpkin pie filling into a mixture of spice cake mix. I mixed the filling in well and in every try, the filling stays in the middle, with the cake moving to the outside.

I am wondering why this happens and if there is a way to control this separation, since I am seeing more cake moving to the top and just a thin layer on the bottom.

Update:
I did not alter the cake recipe and i just pored the pie filling directly from the can into the completely mixed cake mix. Mixed them together and pored into the pan. I did not change the baking time or temperature.

I wonder if this has something to do with the density of the cake vs the pie filling. This may be a similar phenomenon as when chocolate chips or nuts sink to the bottom of a brownie during cooking.

I am not entirely sure how to solve this but one thing to try would be to mix the pie filling with the wet ingredients for the spice cake mix and then mix it all together. My hypothesis is that the pie filling isn't incorporated into the cake mix well enough (even though it may look well incorporated) and mixing it with the wet ingredients thoroughly may allow the eggs (i'm assuming eggs were involved) to set the mixture as a whole more evenly.


Potatoes boiled with skin on makes less gluey mash? So I have been reading and hearing a lot about Robuchon (to name one) boiling his potatoes skin on to counteract gluey mashed potatoes. When I make my mash though I think it's way easier to peel them pre boiling and simmer the potato skin in the milk that I'm later gonna use to emulsify the butter and potatoes.
Normally I have to add quite a lot of milk (2 parts potatoes to 1 part butter and almost 1 part milk) before I end up with a mash that isn't gluey. This makes for quite a loose mash though.
Would it be correct to say that boiling the potatoes with the skin on would lower the risk of having a gluey mash with less milk? And if so, then why?

To give some reference to where I found the habit of using the ratios mentioned above I put a link here to a transcript of a Joel Robuchon mashed potatoes recipe. http://greenmarketrecipes.com/vegetables/robuchons_mashed_pototoes.htm

Also I include a link to a youtube video of Tom Aikens, a former chef under Joel Robuchon, who speaks about the question I am posting here. This is the reason for my question in the first place.
https://youtu.be/S-Gkne6skXc?t=25m19s

I've never heard that boiling potatoes skin on makes a difference in consistency, but it's possible. The skin will act a as a barrier to moisture, letting the potatoes cook while absorbing less water. That will only work if you keep the potatoes whole though, cutting them up will negate that somewhat.

While skin in may make a difference the choice of potato makes a bigger difference. Waxy potatoes are not a good choice, neither are dry ones like russets. A medium starch potato is best, like a yukon gold or a maris piper.

Also very important is preparation after cooking. I find using a mixer tends to overwork the potatoes and make things gluey, while most chefs would recommend using a ricer. A ricer does give a great result but it is messy and lots of work. I use a potato masher and do it by hand, which to me is a good balance between speed and cleanup while giving a good result.


Why did my banana catch fire in the microwave? Wow, that sounds like a silly question, but really! My wife froze bananas in the freezer with the peel still on. You can't peel them frozen. I put it in the microwave for one minute at 50% power. After 30 seconds the thin end of the peel (where a bunch connect to each other) was on fire, with a visible flame (about the size of a lighter). What on earth happened?

It's caused by the high amount of potassium in the banana. Microwaves react with metals, bouncing off and cause arcing. You can even create a cool light show by putting a raw peeled banana in the microwave. Don't worry, it won't explode, but it will make a mess, it's also harmless.

This can also happen in some frozen vegetables depending on the soil conditions they grew in. As noted in the linked article, other high concentrations of metals such as magnesium, iron, and zinc can be the responsible mineral.

Momentary brief sparking is harmless and won't harm your microwave, but the USDA recommends turning off your microwave if you see sparks nonetheless. If it does start a fire, unless it's a very small fire, do not open your microwave door. The safest thing is to turn off the microwave and let the fire burn itself out by consuming all the oxygen. Opening the door could create a dangerous backdraft induced fireball.

See Also:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/1697458/USDA-Microwave-Ovens-and-Food-Safety
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/specif/veglegmicroe.shtml


Does it make sense to take out the cake from the oven few times just to check whether it is done or not? Does it make sense to take out the cake from the oven few times just to check whether it is done or not, before its total time completes?

Is there some other way out to check the same, in order to avoid a miserable failure at the end?

It's never the best of an idea taking the cake out of the oven during its cooking as you'll probably knock it a bit and knock the air out and then it'll cool down a bit and so take longer too cook. Saying that, the whole thing is when you take the cake out. As a rule don't take your cake out until at least half-way through the cooking time, that way the starch will have started to set. If you take your cake out multiple times 5 minutes before, say, it don't make to much of a difference as by then the cake is practically cooked.

Some cakes are more susceptible: foam cakes (genoise, chiffon, etc) are the most likely to feel the full force of you taking the cake out of the oven as it will likely deflate all of the air you've worked so hard to create, however, butter cakes (pound, fruit, etc) wil not be so effected as these are a lot denser and rely more on chemical leaveners.

There are lots of ways to check if your cakes done. If its a cake with quite a thin batter, open the oven door and give it a tiny wobble (not a great big shake to deflate it) and if it wobbles its definitely not done, if it doesn't wobble you can progress to the next step which is poking in a skewer or knife and if it comes out clean it's done, use this technique for all cake types. Another way is when the cake looks golden (unless it's a chocolate cake), press your finger down on the cake and if it springs back it's done. A lot is made about not opening your oven door, in modern ovens today, this doesn't make much of a difference as they can quickly get back up to temperature, particularly if you just open the door a crack. On a final point having a reliable oven temperature is one of the most important steps. Buying a little oven thermometer is a good investment, they're very cheap and will save a lot of hastle


Patty Integrity and Seasoning? Should you season the meat of a patty before or after it's formed? I've heard that it allows for more flavour if you were to add salt and pepper from the start, but I'm told doing that will cause the patty to fall apart more likely into just ground beef and that you should always season it AFTER the patty is formed.

Kenji Lopez-Alt wrote about this issue on the website, Serious Eats. Salting the meat before making the patty does not cause it to fall apart, rather it creates a more bouncy, sausage-like texture.  His conclusion is that most people prefer a patty that has a loose, open structure. His advice is to salt immediately before cooking.


Accidentally used salted butter I'm making some brownies for my nieces church school and I accidentally used salted butter and my batter is incredibly salty. Is there any way I can counter the saltiness of it? I'd hate to waste a it.

I use salted butter all the time in my baking and never "incredibly salty" results.  I think you must have used salt instead of sugar perhaps in your recipe to get that result.  Try it again with salted butter and make sure you use "sugar" that is called for in the recipe and it will be just fine.


How to polish wine glasses if my hand cannot reach in? Washing leaves some stains, which I want to get rid of.
It's easy to do with paper towel on the outside, but inside the glass it's a problem.

Wine Enthusiast (and probably many other places) sells a couple of sizes of very soft brush for cleaning wine glasses.

I'd say your best bet is a soft brush or maybe just a piece of soft foam glued to a stick. Nothing very abrasive, and squishy enough that you can reach any small nooks inside if there are any.


Pork sausage - difference in food guidelines I'm wondering why Still Tasty says that fresh pork breakfast sausage lasts 1-2 days refrigerated but the company that I talked to that makes sausages say eight days from the packing date. http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18275

Still Tasty also says that ground pork can last 3-4 days, I'm not sure why sausages wouldn't last as long as ground pork. http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18065

I called the company that makes the sausage and they said it's fine for up to eight days. I hate to throw it away after four days but not sure which source to believe. Thanks!

The StillTasty link you give for the sausages is for all types of fresh, raw sausages, not just pork. That's why it's labeled "SAUSAGES (INCLUDING PORK, BEEF, CHICKEN OR TURKEY) — FRESH, RAW".

Most likely, they're getting the 1–2-day limit from the chicken sausages (which are likely to have a higher initial bacteria load than pork or beef). Note that they give the same 1–2-day limit for raw ground chicken.

That said, if the manufacturer gives you specific advice, it overrides the general advice from sites like StillTasty. They know their specific product. Their specific formulation probably includes things (salt, acids, preservatives, various spices) which slow bacterial growth, thus keeping it good longer.


How can I get my defrosted pizza dough to transfer from peel to oven? My defrosted dough hard to handle once I put stuff on it. I make a horrible mess getting onto the pizza stone. I wind up with at least part of the pizza dough folded over on itself. I never used to have quite so much trouble. I was using a wooden pizza peel; I just tried a metal one for the first time and still have the same problems.
what am I doing wrong

Keeping a pizza from sticking is a process; the spot that sticks on the peel probably developed before it was on the peel.  Use plenty of flour on the counter while forming the crust. Make sure to move the crust around frequently, and work fast when assembling the pizza. While stretching the dough and between pizzas, occasionally feel the counter. If flour is sticking to it, scrub it away with your fingers and sprinkle on more flour.
Once the pizza is on the peel, shake it frequently to test it and to keep redistributing the dry flour underneath it. If you see a spot sticking and shaking doesn’t dislodge it, don’t be shy about lifting it up and sprinkling flour underneath: if it sticks a little bit when you shake it, it will stick, and more severely, when you transfer the pizza.


Do vegans eat honey? We all know that besides what vegetarians don't eat (meat and fish), vegans also don't eat eggs. But do vegans eat honey, and, if not, then what do they consume in place of honey when they have a throat problem? And what if they happen to be also diabetic?

Most people who identify as vegan do not eat honey. Some do.

Hopefully when faced with a throat problem, they consume medicine (which typically is not a problem for diabetics).


How can you judge whether juice is really freshly squeezed? I already know that boxed or cartoned juice is less likely to have been freshly squeezed, but what about transparent bottled juice especially in the refrigerated section of supermarkets?

This article from the Atlantic and Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice evidence that modifiers like 'freshly squeezed' and/or '100%' and/or 'pure' can mislead and prove false.

This isn't exactly scientific but..

Taste.
Specifically looking for the taste difference between pasteurized and un-pasteurized juice. Pasteurized orange juice has a  distinct tart taste that just isn't there with fresh juice.

I guess it depends on your exact meaning of "fresh", but if it hasn't been pasteurized then it will have a shelf-life of only a few days.

The legal specifics of the terms will vary from country to country, so if you have one in mind then you might have to mention that. Although as you hinted at, the legally defined terms are often side-stepped and might not be much use.


How to make crackle top chocolate chip cookies? Is it sugar, leavening agents or amount of flour used that will promote the crack on top of cookies?

The crackled texture on top of cookies is more common on softer, moister, cake like cookies such as chocolate crinkles or ginger bread cookies.  Here, in this image, it is accentuated because the raw dough was rolled in powdered sugar:

This affect is achieved by balancing the baking temperature and amount of moisture in the recipe so that the outside of the cookie will set firmly enough that it cannot expand before the inside of the cookie heats through.

When the inside of the cookie heats gets hot enough to activate its leavening and it expands, the outer shell cannot expand with it, and so it cracks.  The fissures are from where the inner cookie shows that the broken shell of the inner surface.

A second, different phenomenon occurs in other types of cookies.  In one of your other questions, you linked to a recipe with this image:

This is achieved by allowing the cookie to over-rise, and then collapse back upon itself.  There are two ways to do this:

Over-leaven the cookie with baking powder.   They will rise up and then collapse in the oven.  This requires a moderate baking temperature so that they don't set before collapsing.
Under-bake the cookies, so that they are not fully set when they come out of the oven, and then collapse under their own weight as they cool.


Can you ferment tomatoes in a fermenting crock with water seal? Going all the way, fermenting everything...

Can tomatoes be fermented in fermentation crock?

Ripe Tomatoes

I've fermented ripe tomatoes, not on their own but in mixed vegetables. They get very soft. I used a mason jar, but I imagine a crock would have similar results.

Note that this was a brine style ferment (submerged in salt water), not a kraut-style ferment (mashed with salt and submerged in its own liquid).

Personally, I won't do it again—but then I prefer ferments that are on the crisp side, so maybe it's a matter of preference. I feel fermentation works best with hardier vegetables, though it's possible that some salsa and chutney recipes may involve fermenting red tomatoes.

Green Tomatoes

Green tomatoes, however, are a different story and ferment wonderfully. With garlic, dill, bay leaves, coriander, and black peppercorns, kosher green tomatoes are one of my favorite ferments.

The only catch is that they can be hard to find, even at farmer's markets. But at this time of year (fall), I always have some left on our tomato vines, and I find fermenting is easier than fried green tomatoes. If you don't have tomato plants, maybe friends or neighbors do.

"Undecided" Tomatoes

This is completely anecdotal and includes some guesswork, but may still be helpful:

This fall I put up four jars of green tomatoes to ferment. Three had major problems with kahm (benign yeast). Even though I aggressively managed the kahm, removing it at least daily, those jars ended up with an off-putting taste and I ended up discarding them... tears in my eyes.

I used the same procedure for all four jars that I've used several times before, But in the three failed jars I included a few tomatoes that were half ripe. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that the extra sugar in the ripe tomatoes made the kahm more likely. So it's possible that ripe tomatoes, as a relatively high-sugar item, could risk more yeast issues.

Safety

I can only say that I've had no foodborne illness problems, and I'm aware of nothing that makes tomatoes more susceptible to these issues than other vegetables when properly fermented (enough salt, kept below the liquid, etc.).


To chop or to blend? Many dishes start off by finely chopping and then frying vegetables (usually onions, carrots, celery and maybe garlic) to get a good flavour base.

If you want to get the maximum flavour would it not be better to blend them all into a paste and then fry off the paste? (Assuming of course that they would cook away completely during the cooking anyway)

There's nothing stopping you blitzing a mirepoix in a food processor, but what tends to happen is that the onions especially release a lot of water which can prevent them, and the rest of the mix, browning nicely.

For this reason, a nice small dice is usually the best way to proceed.


Substituting Chicken Breast for Chicken Legs in Korma I am looking at Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken Korma recipe as given at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/creamychickenkormawi_90196; however I only have chicken breasts. In what manner should I modify the final simmering process or the spice/flavor balance or make up for this discrepancy?

If a recipe calls for assorted chicken parts, you can swap out all white meat or all dark meat to your liking safely. I do it fairly often, depending what cut is on sale or what I have lying around in my freezer. It shouldn't change much.


How to make a brittler, harder chocolate coating? I'm not sure whether this is a duplicate of this question partly because that question seems to be dealing with making your own chocolate. Which I'm not doing.

In my case I want to add a thin coating of chocolate to flapjacks or homemade biscuits or similar for a sweeter treat. I melt some cooking chocolate then add it to the biscuit base. Then chill in the fridge.

This works fine. However I may want to remove from the fridge, transport the treat to school or workplace, and if left out of the fridge long enough the chocolate can get pretty squidgy.

Is there any trick that'll result in a chocolate coating which stays brittler and harder at room temperature?

You'll want to temper the melted chocolate.  This means holding it at 88° F (31° C) while it cools until it is completely hardened, then finally allowing it to return to room temperature (or lower) afterward.

If you temper the chocolate this way, it will be much harder and last indefinitely at room temperature.

The easiest way to temper chocolate is the "seed method", which means adding a piece of solid (never-melted) chocolate to the fully-melted chocolate after removing it from the heat source and stirring thoroughly until the temperature reaches 88° F / 31° C, and then keeping it at that temperature until you're ready to use it.

(Note that this is for dark chocolate; for temperatures for other types of chocolate and for a more detailed guide to tempering, I suggest you check out the tempering page at Cooking for Engineers.)

The technical explanation for this is that the temperature at which melted chocolate hardens determines its final consistency as a solid.  If chocolate hardens at room temperature, it ends up forming a very weak crystalline structure that begins to melt at even the slightest rise in temperature (i.e. in your hand).  Allowing it to solidify at the highest possible temperature below the actual melting point ensures that it forms a denser crystalline structure and will not melt at room temperature.


Barbequeing with a charcoal grill Today I headed to a nearby camp ground which had some charcoal barbecue stands. I put in around 2 pounds of charcoal and put a thin slice of pork meat on the grill. After 40 mins, it was well...lukewarm. Also after around 10 min of burning, the charcoal had a layer of ash deposited on the surface and after that it hardly gave off any heat. My question is :
To cook 1 or 2 pieces of pork or steak how much charcoal should I put? Also what can I do to make the flames rise a bit like in a campfire so that the flames actually touch the grill.

You should first set fire to your coals.
When they are really hot (red/white), but the flam is out, put the meat on top on the grill. Really, you should avoid flames in a barbecue to prepare the meat.

The amount of coals isn't that important. Just make sure the ground is well covered. The more coals, the longer you'll have heat. Since you only want to grill a few pieces, your two pounds was certainly enough.