Lasagne package says cook from frozen The package says cook from frozen, do not thaw first, but the lasagne is thawed (my daughter brought it up for us) and has been refrigerated for a couple of days.  Is it safe to cook and eat?

This issue has come up in our home.
 We did an experiment with a frozen homemade and a frozen store bought lasagna.  We defrosted both of them for 3 days in the refridgerator.  We did this to make the process of heating them easier, as it takes a much longer time to heat them up frozen.  They were both approximately 10 pounds each and took an oven each.  We heated them covered up at 325 degrees for about 90 minutes, and the last 15 minutes cranked up the heat to 400 degrees uncovered to give it a bit of a crust and also added more fresh cheese on the top.

Under no circumstances freeze it again just to cook it frozen, because it just ruins the texture of the cheese, the sauce gets watery and it's just not a good thing.

If you have leftovers, eat it the next day or two.  Remember, all components of the lasagna have been cooked already (unless you made it fresh and used the dry cooked lasagna layers) but a store bought one, most likely has been cooked already.

Now if you have smaller 1 or 3 pound ones, you can put them in the microwave and they will be just fine, and no, a few days defrosted is also okay, and most likely 5 to 15 minutes on high heat, rotating the lasagna will be all right.


Roasting Pork Butt at 215F If I wanted to roast a pork butt at 215 deg F, how long would I do this for?
In 600 pan, foiled, salt crusted on a rack.

I usually cook Pork Butt (or Boston Butt) for around 20 to 25 mins per pound

This link http://m.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--907/pork-cooking-times.asp has a list of suggested cooking times.

I usually do my pork at around 160f to 180f. And would worry that cooking at such a high temperature would mean the meat would be over cooked on the outer parts before the inner part was cooked, meaning some of the meat might be quite tough.


What does "do." mean in old recipes? I'm reading through a book of cocktails from 1865 and I often seen the measurement for a given ingredient listed as "do.". What does this mean?

Examples:

  40 1/2 ounces of roast and ground cocoa.
  6 2/3 do. ground cardamom seeds.
  6 2/3 do. ground Ceylon cinnamon.
  7 pints of alcohol, 95 per cent.
  20 do. water.

Or:

  2 gallons of ground malt.
  6 do. water, at 142° (degrees) heat.

Or, most bafflingly:

  1 pound = 16 ounces
  1/2 do. = 8 do.
  1/4 do. = 4 do.

I suspect it means "ditto (the above line)":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditto_mark seems to indicate that "do." was an old way of abbreviating before the ditto mark (") became widespread.


How to clean up spill? I've noticed some of the most difficult messes to cleanup happen in the kitchen. I opened the fridge and a large container of salsa fell out and spilled on the floor and beneath the fridge. It was chunky and a rag didn't absorb it well.

Lot's of things in the kitchen are partly solid and partly moist so it's not easy to pickup in one piece but to chunky to wipe up or wash away. Another example is spilled stew or cereal. Any advice on how to clean up things like this?

Dry stuff : vaccuum cleaner or broom.

Liquid stuff: rag, mop, paper towels,

Chunky stuff: rags, paper towels.

For chunky spills, you can use a food scrapper to help pickup the solid part of it, and after that use a mop to clean up the liquid part of it.

After that, just clean up floor with floor cleaner.


How to safely cook a lamb's head? I saw at the butcher's shop today that they sold the head of the lamb, cut in half down the middle. I became really interested because the brain was fresh, and I believed it to be really nutritious. However, when I told my family about it, they were rather freaked out. They argued that the brain portion could contain BSE (mad cow's disease), and that eating the head is inhumane. I have no idea whether the BSE part is true, and if it is, whether or not cooking will remove the BSE. I'm interested in a way to properly cook a lamb's head (ie boiled in soup, broiled, or something else), and convince my family to try it out. Thanks in advance.

My understanding is that no cooking method helps with BSE and that seems to be backed up by a U.S. Department of Agriculture fact sheet that states:

  Current scientific research indicates that cooking will not kill the BSE agent

However having a look around at a few references like BSE in sheep from the UK department of Agriculture and Rural Development while there's a theoretical risk of sheep contracting the disease it's never actually been detected. There is a related disease in sheep called Scrapie but from that Wikipedia page:

  Scrapie has been known since 1732, and does not appear to be transmissible to humans

I've never cooked a whole lamb's head but have cooked lamb brains and one word of caution is that they do cook quickly. Most recipes I've used seem to involve poaching for only five to ten minutes so it may be worth considering removing the brain while cooking the head and adding back late in the cooking process. Another idea might be to make two courses as a common theme, maybe a soup using the head and some crumbed brains.


How do you open a coconut? Without killing yourself or others?

The best way to open a brown hairy coconut, not a fresh green one (assuming you are right handed, I imagine that sinister people can reverse the instructions, but I've not tried it).

First image the coconut is a head, everything is related to this, so the visualization is important.  The three holes are the eyes and mouth of the face.  They naturally form an eyes/mouth thing.  you'll see that it only really looks like a eyes/mouth one way up.  stare into its eyes (this bit is not so important, but I like to do it).

Now hold it in your left palm, under its chin/where the neck would be, with the 3 holes in the coconut arranged like the eyes and mouth of a face looking out to the right, mouth below the eyes, with the hair pointing up.  There will be a slight 'seam' running between the eyes and back over the top of the head.

Then take a large, heavy knife and using the FLAT side of the knife (not the sharp edge), a meat cleaver works best, strike the coconut hard across the coconut's 'forehead', where its hair line would be, aiming to impact exactly on the 'seam'.  You might need a few goes to get the crack right open, but sometimes it can be done in a single strike.

Get this right and it will crack in a straight line from ear to ear along the hair line.  Works a treat.  And usually you can use the shell for something as you get a clean break.

Once you have the first crack you can either prise apart or rotate the coconut in your hand and hit it a couple more times on the uncracked parts, following the same line as the first crack, to completely separate the two pieces.

Alternatively you can stick it into the oven for 15 mins, @400F, after which the shell should have started to crack.  Then you can use the tool of choice to finish the cracking, rolling pin, hammer, wrench, flat of knife another coconut, whatever.  But where is the fun in that?


How long does grease take to go bad/rancid when sitting out? If I make a skillet full of bacon, how long can I leave the grease sitting out before it is unsafe/rancid?  Is the answer different for ground beef grease?

Fat doesn't spoil like other foods. No bacteria can live in fat. Going rancid is a chemical reaction in which the fat molecules break down. So "leaving out" is not a problem.

The major factors in going rancid are light and air. The more light hits your fat, the sooner it goes rancid. Also, rancidity occurs when the fat is oxidized, meaning that if you prevent contact with air, your fat will last longer.

Both factors are minimized by transferring the fat to a tightly closed opaque container. With liquid oils, you use a dark colored bottle. As bottles are impractical for solid fat, just strain your grease into a jar, close it, and put it in a cupboard. The shelf life should be many months, probably more than a year.

Also, don't worry that you can get something nasty when the grease goes bad unnoticed. Rancid fat isn't a big safety risk, and ingesting it in small amounts is not problematic. If it stinks, throw it out. Before that, there is no problem eating it.

The above assumes pure, well-strained fat. Pieces of fried meat left over in the fat are a safety risk, even tiny ones.


Less sweet / lower sugar alternative to icing? When making a cake as a base line I usually halve the recommended sugar as I find it too sweet. Now I want to ice the cake for appearance and colour I notice that icing recipes are loaded with sugar.  Is there a less sweet / lower sugar alternative that will allow me to decorate the cake

It's loaded with fat but less sweet: Cream cheese icing (example recipe) goes very well on some cakes (like a rich chocolate cake).  It does however need to be refrigerated so is best for use on cakes that are to be eaten up when they're served.  It can also be flavoured, e.g. with lemon/orange zest, with will further reduce the sweetness (and provide a nice contrast if the cake is too sweet for your tastes).

Another option is one of many variations on Cornflour buttercream (example). These use cornflour (UK)/cornstarch (US) and possibly flour, together with milk, to thicken a buttercream.  A simpler version is just to replace a little of the sugar in buttercream with cornflour, but I haven't tested whether you can significantly reduce the sweetness without affecting the texture.


Is it possible to have sushi pizza? I've found very few places that dare to combine those two in one dish. None of them succeeded, in my opinion.

At first I thought it was due to mixing rice and wheat, then thought it was due to the different temperatures. Whatever the reason, I still want to make something that combines both, something that could be considered pizza and that could also be considered sushi. Is it possible?

Circular bed of sticky sushi rice, topped with a drizzle of spicy mayo as the sauce and chunks of sashimi. cut into pizza slices.


What is a good ratio (range) of nut flour in Mandelkipferl dough? I want to make Mandelkipferl and similar cookies. For Vanillekipferl, I tend to use a 3:2:1 ratio of flour:butter:sugar, without an egg.

Is there a traditional ratio of nut flour in Mandelkipferl? Also, what is the highest ratio of nut flour which can be used without the cookies falling apart or becoming unrecognizable as Mandelkipferl? If there is no single ratio, what is the workable range?

I plan on rolling the dough out and cutting out shapes, not forming it with the fingers.

Note that Vanillekipferl use almonds or other nuts - so Mandelkipferl would be a specific kind of (Vanille)Kipferl. They are dusted with or rolled in a mixture of confectioners sugar and vanilla (vanilla sugar or scraped/ground bean, not liquid extract) while warm. The term "Kipferl" denotes a crescent-shaped bakeware, in this case a traditional Christmas cookie from the Austrian and German cuisine.

After checking multiple sources, amongst them Luise Haarer: Kochen und Backen nach Grundrezepten1, the 1:2:3 (by weight!) approach for Vanillekipferl seems about right:

  1 part (confectioners)/ sugar
  2 parts butter
  3 parts (flour and ground nuts combined) minus a bit

The highest ratio of ground nuts2 (sources vary whether almonds should be peeled or not, other nuts are also possible) I found in my trusted sources is around 1/3 ground nuts and 2/3 flour. Many recipes use less. Note that the flour/nut part is usually, but not always slightly less than a full three parts (more like 2.8 or 2.9 parts) for the shortcrust pastry listed above.

I found one quote that vaguely claimed equal parts of nuts and flours as good ratio, but without giving a recipe. As I couldn't verify this with other sources, I'm questioning the feasibility.

Now note that to accieve the full crumbly mouthfeel of the "Kipferl", the pastry is made without egg3 and the "Kipferl" shaped by hand out of little lumps of dough. Chilling them again before baking is optional, but I usually do it.
Rolling the dough and using a cookie cutter requires careful resting, chilling and handling of the dough which may lead to overworking, especially if scraps are re-rolled. The ground nuts cause less stability than a flour only dough and can cause crumbling during the cutting.

Adding up to three yolk per 300g flour/nuts leads to a more pliable dough and many recipes for Kipferl recommend this. Still they often suggest shaping the cookies by hand.

Luise Haarer gives a very similar recipe explicitly for cutout cookies with the same ingredients, but one egg and a slightly skewed ratio, here the pastry consists of:

  250g butter
  200g sugar
  125g ground almonds
  450g flour
  1 egg

1 German cook book that was in use for decades in schools in SW Germany. My trusted source for "basic" recipes and techniques.
First edition from 1932, now (2015) 32th edition in print.

2 Note that I use the term "ground nuts / almonds", not "nut flour", which is ambiguous and can mean either "(very finely) ground nuts" or "the leftovers from extracting oil from the kernels". While the latter is a common ingredient in gluten-free baking, we want the former for our cookies.

3 The choice of nuts and the egg / no egg Kipferl is much debated in many households in Germany and Austria. Just like with many recipes the quest for the "right" version may resemble a religious dispute. Do not get involved, unless you mean it. ^_^ Apparently the oldest written Vanillekipferl recipe was egg-less. (in German).

Someone who really is devoted to the Vanillekipferl and made a very elaborate website (in German, sorry), is Reiner Bernhardt, a professional baker.


Reusing oil containers I generally buy large containers of oil (olive, canola, peanut, etc.) and just refill a handful of smaller oil bottles.  That way it's cheaper in the long run, and the smaller bottles are easier to deal with.

I generally just add more oil when a bottle starts getting low.  I imagine this could have some bad effects:

Oil remaining in bottle could go rancid (though it's getting diluted each time, so I imagine very little remains over time)
If any bacteria/contaminants get it, they'll just remain in there forever.

Are these realistic concerns?  Are there things that could start growing in pure oil?  Would it be worth the hassle to periodically let the bottles run empty and wash them out / replace them?

Yes these are realistic concerns.

the tiniest amount of rancid oil can make your dish taste bad.
mold can grow on fat (e.g. penicillium in cheese).
oil only has residual amount of water, so it will not accelerate most bacterial growth.
shelf life for oil is about 6 months to a year in a dark cool cupboard
shelf life is about a year and more in fridge (but the oil clouds and solidifies).

my suggestion would be that when your container is empty, just wash it with a natural degreaser (e.g. vinegar) instead of topping it off. Or top it off, but wash the smaller bottles every 6 months.

UPDATE

Be very careful about what kind of oil you use, in particular if it is not commercial-grade. In this other question you will see that oil or other canned products that provide anaerobic environment (=without oxygen) can be good conditions for some bacteria. Some of them are specifically bad. See also the wiki page for the C. Botulinum for an example.


Can I eat beans that have had weeevils in it? I put two cups of beans to soak overnight. The morning after, I realized there were dead weevils floating in the water.

Should I eat the beans after cleaning them or is it better to just throw them away?

Per Alan Munn, Quora, and Iowa State, grain weevils are medically harmless and carry no human diseases.

That said, most people find the thought of eating weevil larvae in their beans disgusting, and beans are pretty cheap to replace.  So unless you're on a ship or a camping trip, just throw them out and start over.

If necessary, you can use the 1-hour hydration method for your beans to cook them today.


Potato and Macaroni Salads soak up all the mayo when I store them When I make either potato or macaroni salad, I always have a problem the next day with the salad soaking up the mayo so it looks like there was no mayo added.  I DO feel that I add a good amount of mayo.

I don't add a lot of ingredients, just a little salt and black pepper, chopped onion and celery and maybe a little parsley, never any eggs or mustard.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong because I always let the potatoes cool before making the salad, and I always rinse my pasta in cold water after cooking and let drain for a while before mixing.

A deli near me makes potato salad and I'll have it for days and it will still look like it was just mixed with mayo; the potatoes in their salad (macaroni too) never absorb the mayo.  Does anyone have a remedy to this problem?

It is highly likely that they simply add enough mayonnaise and other ingredients of their sauce that even after the macaroni or potatoes absorb their maximum amount, there is enough left.


Duck curry with pineapple pieces Should I use panang paste or red paste when making a duck curry. I have tried red.

Panang paste usually contains peanuts and tastes sweeter, so it depends on how you feel they go with duck.


I am looking for a vegan substitute for cream cheese for use in a white chocolate/cream cheese icing I tried one recipe with silken tofu, but it didn't set enough and just ran off the carrot cake.

I would suggest tofutti or follow your heart vegan cream cheeses which are excellent substitutes in terms of taste and texture. They work great in baked goods.


Why roast beets in vinegar? I have always roasted my beets in a bit of vinegar in the bottom of the pan like 1/4" or so.  It is how I was taught. But why do it?  What does the vinegar do for the beets?

I think it is mostly for the taste. It certainly isn't necessary - I roast beets without any vinegar all the time, and they turn out great. I just roast them in their skins, without any oil or anything added. It takes a long time, over an hour depending on how big they are. When they are completely tender, let 'em cool, and the jacket slips right off. Roasting intensifies the flavor by caramelizing some of the sugars and removing moisture. You can always season with vinegar after roasting, depending on what you plan to do with them.


Egg used for breaded poultry added to other parts of the dish. Is this a health hazard? I often make breaded poultry (chicken, turkey) or pork. To do that, I dump the cut in a bowl of scrambled egg then coat it with flour/breading etc in another plate. The recipe after that varies but thats not important.

I sometimes think tossing the rest of the egg is a waste, so if I'm also cooking rice I put the rest of the egg on the rice in the rice cooker and let it there until im done cooking. This is either during the final stages of the rice cooking or when its done and the cooker keeps it warm. Do you think the heat there is enough to remove whatever possible salmonella contamination from the moment the poultry came in contact with the scrambled egg?

As long as the egg is cooked to the doneness necessary to safely cook the pork, this is a fine process.

Someone will surely say that if the egg sits out it will be unsafe. In fact, you have a window of several hours, especially if it was cold to start.

The scenario of putting the egg in while the rice is in the 'Hold' phase DOES sound a little risky, though, as that stage probably does not go above 140 F

If adding to the rice do it with several minutes of full heat still to come, or scramble the egg in the frying pan and add it like that.


What kind of equipment do I need to turn dried chilli flakes into powder? What kind of equipment do I Need to turn dried chilli flakes into powder?

You need a bladed spice grinder, also branded as bladed coffee grinders.

To have a consistent result, sift the result.


Underside of dough in proofing basket pulls apart When I form a loaf out of dough and put it upside-down into a proofing basket, the bottom of the loaf sometimes begins to pull apart from itself, as if the dough isn't sticking to itself as much as it should. I'm using a sourdough starter and white bread flour at about 70% hydration, and I proof the bread after a 6 hour bulk ferment with folds every half hour.

This doesn't seem to affect the final bread, but I'm wondering if there's some way to avoid it?

Here are a few photos of what is happening:

An initial thought would be that if it doesn't affect the final outcome, then is there actually a problem(?). But still, an immediate fix would be: it should be possible to "stitch" the dough - by pulling, stretching and then pinching strategic parts of the dough.

Maybe what you're seeking is to be achieved during the forming and tightening stage where there are the two steps / actions of:

Rounding the dough, via a cupping and turning motion
Tension pulls, to create a "skin" and seal the seam

This can be done more than once with a 10 minute bench rest between each stage. Normally the initial rounding and tension pull stage followed by a second such stage, with the 10 minutes in between is sufficient.

And so ultimately, and not discounting the nature of the dough you're working with, the rounding action and the tension pulls.


Will it wreck the dish if I pre-soak beef in brine, and then slow roast with Marsala? I've found that pre-soaking my beef in brine helps to break down the fibres, making the subsequent roast tender.

I've found a recipe for slow-roasting beef with Marsala. I'm wondering if I can combine the two, or if that will be a terrible idea.

My question is: Will it wreck the dish if I pre-soak beef in brine, and then slow roast with marsala?

Clarifications:

This will be roasted in a ceramic dish, with a glass lid for eight hours.

By 'wreck' I mean the saltiness of the brine is pleasant during eating, as is the sweetness of the Marsala. My concern is that the two tastes (salty and sweet) will clash, making the dish inedible.

Do it! Marsala is sweet, brine is salty. You may be on to something here...

Really though, I always brine anything I roast or sous-vide. No issues here.

EDIT: I would recommend using olive oil instead of butter if you are still worried. Not to mention Marsala + olive is delicious.


Is there a milk-free sour cream? Is there some kind of milk-free sour cream available, to use as substitute due to an allergy?

There are cultured soy and coconut milk products (generally sold with yogurt) which can be used as a sour cream substitute; it's frequently advisable to add a little extra vinegar or lemon juice as these products don't generally provide as much kick as real sour cream.


How to remove soil smell from beetroots? I buy veggies from local store (not organic). When I cook, I get the soil smell from it. How can I avoid it? any precooking process can help?

Thanks in advance.

Beetroots do have an earthy smell, that's normal and can get stronger if you just cook them in water. I can think of two approaches to work with this:

Try roasting them in an oven (optional: wrapped in some aluminum foil) until tender. They will develop a sweetness whith perhaps some earthy undertones.
Add an acidic component like vinager or lemon juice to the cooked beets and let rest for a few hours (or pickle them).

But you might consider how/where the beets were grown: If the "soil" smell is too strong, it might be because there was too much fertilizer or manure in the soil, which beets tend to absorb.


How to declog coffee maker clogged by milk I have a coffee maker which I used milk in it rather than water. Now milk has clogged its tubes as shown here:

Can anybody help me with a simple and easy trick to clean and declog the coffee maker tubes? Thanks =)

Make and model

When you ran milk though the machine you cooked a lot of fat and protein into the components, which isn't good. The only "easy" thing I could recommend is to try to run some clear vinegar through it, the acidity may break down the milk residue and clear the machine.

The only other way to get it working isn't as easy as it requires manually removing the residue using brushes. Inter-dental brushes are thin and bendable, you should be able to get them into those holes on the top picture. If you can get at the heating element with an old toothbrush that would be good too. Other than that the only thing I could think to try is a complete tear-down of the coffee machine, which may or may not be something within your skills or worth your time. Just remember to unplug it before you attempt any invasive repairs!


Why do microwave ovens make bread rubbery? Why does heating bread (cinnamon buns) in a microwave give it a rubbery texture, when a regular oven doesn't?  What are the chemical or structural changes?

It is simply that the microwave heats primarily the water molecules, causing the bread to steam. A normal oven heats all of the molecules of the bread, and by the time the water is heavily steaming you will have pulled it out of the oven.


Name of a greek spice that sounds like "bakari" Many years ago, we brought back from Greece a spice that was suggested to us for preparing the Moussaka. The greek who sold it to us called it "bakari". Now we have used all our stock and I've tried to buy it from Belgium, but I can't find it. Anyone knows the name of this spice in English (I've tried to google it with different spellings, but I didn't find it on the Web).

By the way, it looks like small (0.5 cm) brown balls.

The spice you are looking for is called Allspice or Piment, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allspice.

The Greek name is μπαχάρι, pronounced bakhari.


Maintaining pressure on Pressure Cooker I used to cook a lot of beans on regular pots before I switched to a Pressure cooker.
On regular pots once the water is boiling I'd turn it down to simmering temperature where there are only few bubbles appearing.

My question is how much should I reduce the heat once it reaches the desired pressure? Since I can't see through the pressure cooker it is a little hard to determine.
Should the water be having several bubbles like it would do if it was simmering?
Or is having more than that enough?
I am using Tefal Secure 5 pressure cooker if it helps
Basically I do NOT wanna waste energy nor compromise the performance of the cooker.

So, at what rate should the steam escape for me to know that it is maintaining pressure without wasting unnecessary amounts of energy?

In many electric pressure cookers, you have (at least) two options: "High Pressure" or "Low Pressure".  This effectively controls the heat at which your food is cooked.  That's due to how a pressure cooker operates.  It cooks by raising the temperature of water to create steam, and then continues creating steam, which raises the pressure inside the vessel, thus raising the temperature at which water boils significantly.  (See this article for some information about the science behind pressure cooking).

Now, in a stovetop pressure cooker, if you follow the instructions you'll find out that exactly what you're asking does happen: you need to reduce the heat on the stovetop once your cooker has come to the pressure you're aiming for in order to stay at that pressure.  Your pressure cooker's manual should cover how to tell this; exactly what that heat is will depend on your stove's capacity.  Your pressure cooker should have some variety of pressure gauge; most will have at least a ball that sits in the steam exhaust vent which, when it is at pressure, sits at the top of the vent.  Once that's at the top of the vent, you are at low pressure; then you lower the heat as low as possible such that the ball stays at the top of the vent, and that's cooking at low pressure.  If you need to cook at higher pressure, which will cook faster (and is necessary for some foods), you have the heat up some from that (and make sure to include enough water to produce enough steam).  Here is an article that covers these basics.

For beans, you don't have to cook them very long - a couple of minutes - and you should use high pressure (whatever the 'high' pressure is for your cooker).  Assuming you pre-soak, one or two minutes is long enough to cook them (at high pressure) - so you won't really need to lower the heat for very long, and in my experience it's usually hard to be there at exactly the right time to lower it (if you have a couple of toddlers underfoot in particular); don't worry if you forget or miss it, as long as you stop the cooking at the right time; overcooked beans are no fun.  The higher heat isn't going to burn them (as long as you included plenty of water), it's just going to waste energy, as your pressure cooker will just give off the excess steam.  (This is based on normal ranges - if you have something unusually heat-additive, including an induction burner, I don't know if it's reasonably possible to do something dangerous in one or two minutes.)

You're basically right, though, that 'simmering' is roughly what you're doing when you are using the pressure cooker; reducing the boil from high rolling boil (which produces lots of steam) to a lower boil (which produces just enough steam to offset the loss from the exhaust port).  It's just a higher heat setting than normal simmering, since pressure is increasing the temperature at which water boils.

Your manual should cover how to do this; I'm not sure which product you exactly have, but look here for one example.


Where is a good place to buy food coloring in bulk? We use a lot of food coloring, not so much for cooking but for activities with my little one. Do you know of a good place to buy food coloring in bulk (either in store or online)? It can be quite pricey at the grocery store.

School art and craft supply outlets sell colourings safe for children's consumption in liquid and powder forms

Powder based colour works fine in many bakery products


How can I achieve an even heat across a large paella pan? I just used a 20" paella pan to make a large paella for 10 people.  The pan covers 4 burners.  The problem that I had was that the center of the pan never reached the temperature of the parts of the pan under the burners. If I raise the gas levels enough for the center to get to a boil, the outside areas get too hot and burn.  Difficult to make an even paella.  Any suggestions?  I have looked for, but not found any heat diffusers that are large enough for this pan.

The oven can work, however, if you have the option, I would suggest outdoors over fire.  Paella is a festive occasion, and this adds to the spectacle.  For your 20 inch pan, you could construct a temporary brick fire pit sort of like the one below, as a friend of mine regularly does.  Alternately, you can place your pan over a charcoal grill, provided it fits. Mine, for example, fits into the opening of my Big Green Egg smoker/grill.  If you don't have those options, using the stove top will mean a constant rotation of the pan.  That gets messy and potentially dangerous once liquid is added. So, I would agree with the oven recommendation...if it fits.


Pyrex pie plate on hearthstone I recently read that one of the methods for keeping the (non-blind-baked) bottom crust of a pie from getting soggy is to preheat a baking pan with the oven and bake the pie on it so the bottom crust essentially bakes before it has a chance to absorb too much liquid (http://www.thekitchn.com/5-ways-to-prevent-soggy-pie-crust-tips-from-the-kitchn-212434).

The article is mum on whether this necessitates using a metal pie pan.  I only own Pyrex pans and I generally keep a hearthstone in my oven due to all the bread I bake, so first, do I risk cracking the Pyrex by immediately placing it on such a hot surface and will my hearthstone work just as well as the pan or should I use a pan for some other reason?

The stone should work just as well. And you'd presumably put the pyrex dish on a preheated oven shelf without worrying. That would give more thermal stress because some parts of the dish would be heated much more than others.

Of course there are no guarantees. And (domestic) pyrex literally isn't what it used to be at least in some countries.


homemade mint extract I've got some mint in the yard (I think it's apple mint, as the leaves are very fuzzy and rounded) from which I'd like to make mint extract. No specific use in mind (except perhaps insect repellent), just a kind of home chemistry experiment.

I've read that there are basically two ways to do this. One involves boiling the leaves, condensing the steam, and separating the oil. But the simplest way seems to be to steep the leaves in 80-proof vodka for about a month.

I have some questions:

Is there something special (chemistry-wise) about alcohol that makes it more effective than other substances for extracting the oil?
How strong would this "mint extract" be? It seems to me like I'd end up with mint-flavored vodka. Would the result be drinkable straight?
After doing this, could I then freeze the result to separate the oil from the vodka?

Why Alcohol?
Alcohol is used for extracts because the flavor compounds (plant oils) you are trying to extract do not easily dissolve in water. Alcohol (typically bourbon or vodka) will do the trick. Make sure you use +80 proof because it also acts as a preservative.
Making Mint Extract
To make an extract, tear up or coarsely chop and bruise washed mint leaves into a measuring cup (you'll end up with about twice the volume of extract as you have leaves). Transfer the leaves to a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Add about twice the alcohol (by volume) as you had leaves. Cover and shake.
The mint leaves will tend to float to the top, but give it a chance. After a few days, they'll start to bog down with alcohol and sink. Shake it every few days or so. After a month, you'll have mint extract. Strain the leaves and store.
Adjusting the Strength of Your Extract
The longer you let the leaves steep, the stronger the extract will become until all the oils are essentially spent. You can sample the extract along the way until you get something to your liking. If you want something stronger, you can add fresh leaves to your strained extract and continue the process. There's a limit though; as the alcohol become saturated, you'll get diminishing returns by adding more leaves.
Freezing the extract will not congeal the oils for further separation. They're essentially dissolved in the alcohol (unlike water + oil) and the alcohol will not freeze. Extracts are typically too concentrated to drink straight. For all that effort, it's better just to crush a few leaves directly into a drink with whatever ingredients will make it a proper cocktail.
Boiled Leaves isn't Really Mint Extract
The boiling water method you mentioned above wont achieve the same results. Even if concentrated, the flavor compounds in extracts are typically somewhat volatile (which is why you add them near the end of cooking). You're basically making concentrated, flavored mint tea… but it isn't really an extract. And without the alcohol acting as a preservative, you're mint tea will have a somewhat limited shelf life. Even distilling the volatile oils by boiling and condensing into a liquid might get you pure mint oil, but that would likely need very specialized equipment.


Corelle Visions Covered Versa Pot 1.25 L Can the Corelle Visions Covered Versa Pot 1.25 L be used on an induction cooker?

No, Visions cookware is made of glass, which does not conduct electricity.  Induction cookers require conductive cookware.


Does store-bought Kombucha spoil? If so, how can I tell? I recently bought Ginger Kombucha for the first time in a reputable health food store. I'd never heard of it, but my doctor feels the probiotics will help my chronic digestive problem. Because of the strong taste, I only drank a small amount each day. I did this by pouring some out, not by drinking from the bottle. On the fifth day, it smelled and tasted so much like alcohol I was afraid it was rancid. I took it back to the store for advice. One clerk told me it was supposed to smell like that, just to use it for seven days and discard any remainder. Another clerk said it can't spoil, and as long as I keep it refrigerated it will last indefinitely. Can someone with experience please help me? It's expensive, so I don't want to throw it away if I don't have to, however I don't want to poison myself or use something that's no longer effective. Thank you!

When they say "probiotic", what they mean is that there are microbe cultures present in the kombucha.  It's really nothing more than a sweetened tea which has been fermented by a symbiotic mix of yeast and bacteria.  The odor and distinctive flavor is the result of a low alcohol content and acetic acid (the same acid found in vinegar) produced by the fermentation process.

While these cultures do tend to edge out other bacteria that would spoil the drink and potentially cause illness, it can eventually go bad like anything else.  More to the point, because the cultures are still alive, they'll continue the fermentation process as long as they can, especially once you open the container and start introducing oxygen.  This can throw off the balance of the culture, but it can also just make the kombucha unpleasantly acidic.  Once it gets to that point, it might still be effective from a probiotic stance, but the acid could have an adverse effect on your digestion.

If you keep it sealed and refrigerated, it'll last a couple weeks, but a week or so is probably the effective maximum when you're opening the container frequently. You'll want to stick to purchasing an amount that you can drink within a week or so, but don't worry overmuch if it has a slightly vinegary tang and odor.


Fish and cheese: An unbreakable rule? I always wondered about this seemingly static rule:

  Never add cheese (especially, but not limited to parmigiano reggiano) to a dish with fish.

Italians would never, ever add parmigiano reggiano to a pasta with fish. But they have many other fixed views on food (e.g. sweet and savoury is a no-no, which is allowed at least in Austria and Japan).

I obliged until now, but I wonder where this rule comes from. To be honest, I would never add cheese to frutti di mare, but I'm open to trying other combinations. Is there some evidence that the two ingredients don't mix well? I hear there are some exceptions: Tuna with parmigiano reggiano is okay, but I only tried that as a salad and it was good. Also, I once saw a recipe of fish with mascarpone.

  Did you ever have a professional cook serving you fish with cheese?

Please, I'm not interested in your personal opinion, but I'm trying to understand the rule and the exceptions.

EDIT:

Status update: Thanks for the brainstorming so far. I'm collecting the intermediate results:

Most importantly: It seems to be a regional thing (w/ Italy at its heart)
@Walter, @TFD and @Joe all agree on tuna as the prime counter example.
However, they disagree on the reason: We have @TFD's opinion, that tuna is strong and thus is not outplayed by strong cheese and @Walter's italo-centric opinion, that tuna is a particularly 'unfishy' fish.
@Carmi mentions umami as one/the possible reason.
@Todd has entered the discussion and disputes the highest voted answer: The umami claim by @Carmi. I'm delighted, because I'm still cautions about umami.
If you provide further examples, please include a detailed descriptions and a reason why you think the particular combination is a "allowed".

I would be extremely interested in opinions that favour the motion/rule. Is there anybody willing to take a stance and (maybe even) explain the origin?

And what about seafood with cheese? Is it unthinkable?

Disagree with the umami analysis from @Carmi, even if it was a good attempt.  You have some basic facts wrong though.

Cooked tomato sauce is high in umami, and is often combined with mushrooms, however, a sauce with mushrooms would not take parmigiano (also extremely high in umami)
Mozarella is high in umami, like most fresh young cheeses.  So is tuna.
Caesar salad has both anchovies and parmigiano (both high in umami).

But you are sort of on the right track.  Baked fish in Italy is not strong in flavor. It's delicate and calls for the following: fresh lemon.  That's it. Maybe some fresh parsley.  Usually cooked with no herbs and served with no sauce.  The fish should be extremely fresh and appreciated for it's delicate flavor.  Something like parmigiano would easily overpower the taste of the fresh fish and by putting it on fish you are telling the cook "this is fish gone bad and I need to cover the taste with something". Or if it was served that way, maybe better to avoid it because what is the cook trying to hide?  While there I never encountered a fish dish served with cheese.

Being a curious foodie and having lived in Italy for 5 years, I can also add the following:

There are a LOT of rules that might seem strange to an outsider. No cappuccino after 10am.  You don't mix salty and sweet in the same dish, or even during the same course.  Beer with pizza, not wine. You would never drink coffee before or during desert, it's served after.
While I was there I did a lot of thinking about the basis of some of these rules and concluded it's usually either 1) health, 2) taste, or 3) regional cultural rules.
I asked the fish and cheese question a few times.  The answer was always "That's gross, you just don't put cheese on fish".  My guess is this one falls under 2 and 3.

The health angle from @Walter I think has a lot of validity in general.  Italians often complain of their liver hurting after eating especially 'heavy' meals. Heavy meaning something very specific in Italian: difficult to digest.  So a fresh salad with too much raw garlic could be considered heavy because garlic sometimes causes indigestion.  A huge chunk of parmigiano is not considered heavy because parmigiano is very digestable.  My guess is some of the rules come out of the particulars of the Italian digestive system.  Much like you will not find many Asians joining me when I chug my glass of milk.


Why does my ricotta cheese go bad in a few days? No matter if I buy my ricotta by weight or by package it goes bad (funky smell, the puddle of cheese water gets grainy, some yellow tint on the sides of the cheese, losing its mellow sweet taste) within 2-3 days. I know it could have a fridge life of 1 to 2 weeks - why is it not the case with me?

Pasteurized ricotta should last 2-4 weeks in the fridge, unpastuerized 1-2 weeks.

So, A Few Possibilities:

Your fridge is way too warm, like close to room temperature.  Ricotta will spoil if left out at room temperature or warmer in a few days.  Have you checked fridge temp?  Where in the fridge are you storing the ricotta?

You have a lot of spoiled milk bacteria in your fridge.  If you've had dairy products go "off" many times in your fridge (or only once, but you spilled it), and not cleaned it, then you may have cultures of dairy-eating bacteria living in your fridge.  Do other dairy products spoil quickly for you?

Your ricotta vendor is contaminated.  If you've been getting all of this ricotta from the same store or the same maker, it's possible that their equipment/storage is contaminated.  Try a different source/store.

You are buying ricotta which is already old. When was this ricotta made?  How close is it to the expiration date when you buy it?


How do I color an egg black? My friend and I are trying to make 'ninja black eggs' which are essentially hollowed eggs filled with powdered material.

We have two questions:

Is there a way to thicken the egg shell? My current idea is basking the eggs in some-sort of calcium. Would this work, or is there a better way?
How can we make the eggs black? We've tried making egg dye; and we have used 1 tsp of red, and 1/2 tsp of blue, but somehow the eggs turned brown.

Why do you need to thicken the shells? Some bird's eggs have thicker walls than others, and it also seems that younger hens form thicker shells than older ones. However, it is doubtful that a thicker eggshell is available commercially. Your best bet may be to poke holes in the eggs, let them drain and dry, and then paint them with a strengthening varnish. A water-based polyurethane maybe? You should probably color them first, and then varnish them.

You can buy black food coloring. Buy it online if you haven't seen it at your local stores. You will probably have to use more than suggested to get full, deep color coverage. If that doesn't work, you could try clothes dye, Rit is a good brand, but I don't see evidence it is recommended for use on eggs. However, since it appears you won't be eating the eggs, just throwing them at each other, it is probably safe, and you could dye a bunch of eggs at once.


Is there a substitute for aluminum foil? Is there a replacement that can be used for aluminum foil in the oven?

I don't want to foil in my kitchen. Is there an alternative which can be used in the same way as aluminum foil, but has no risk of transferring aluminum to the food?

For example, what can I use to cover a meatloaf when baking it in the oven? Or in a slow cooker?

The reason you put aluminum foil on something you bake is to block some of the heat. More specifically, you want to block the heat transfer by radiation. This is, you only want some kind of infrared-opaque shield between the heating elements and the food. Of course, it has to be also non-flammable at oven temperatures and either washable or environmentally friendly and cheap, making it one-use.

The best solution is to bake like generations of people did before there was freshly milled aluminum foil available in the supermarket: Get a clay bräter, or a tagine, or a dutch oven. Anything with a lid that is big enough to fit in your oven. Bake your food in it. It is slower, but gives you a much better taste due to slower, more even heating.

The second best solution would be to get some other stuff intended for baking, and use it as a cover. The problem is that baking paper as per Rikon's suggestion is probably not opaque enough in the infrared range - at least it is translucent in the visible spectrum. Maybe two layers of it will do, but it will get hard to work with, because it doesn't hold shape as well as aluminum foil. You could try it if you think it will help. I think that a silicone mat is more promising. It is preferable to use a  light colored one of the light glossy platinum silicone - I have a black matte one which is great for rolling dough, but it will probably absorb and re-radiate too much heat.

Both solutions can't beat aluminum in one application: targeted charring protection. For a cake baked in an oven which overheats one corner there is still a chance - if your mat can be cut, you can cover half the cake with the piece (some mats shouldn't be cut because they are internally reinforced with something which shouldn't come into contact with food - if in doubt, contact the manufacturer). But if you are baking a whole bird and the protruding wings are getting overcooked, I don't see a good way to pack them in silicone or baking paper and get it to stay on them while the rest of the bird cooks. There, you will probably have to pack them in bread dough and then just break off the dough when the bird is ready.

I have never made meatloaf in a slow cooker - I didn't even know that you can bake in one - so I won't comment on that part.


Bread dough only rises once I'm new at baking bread but had a very experienced coach. The dough rises well one time but very little the 2nd time. If I put the dough into the baking pan to rise I get a good result, meaning it at least doubles in volume and makes a tasty loaf. If I punch it down it maybe only rises 20% or so. Is this a sign that the yeast is getting old?

I agree with rfusca that you are overproofing. However, if your yeast is too old, your symptoms would be different. You'd either get a normal(ish) rise with bad tasting dough (because of molds in the fresh yeast), or your first rise will be too slow or won't happen at all. If you get a rise at first and then it slows, your problem is not caused by the yeast being too old.

Yeast consists of living cells. They multiply exponentionally in the right condition, just like any other cells. When they multiply, they use up sugars (and are capable of breaking down starch to sugars before feeding) and produce CO2 as well as less wholesome waste (alcohol, and a compound which stinks of ammonia). The amount of byproducts after a certain time of rising is proportional to the cumulated amount of yeast cells which lived in the dough. The amount of yeast cells which lived in the dough depends on the amount of yeast you started with (duh), time spent proofing, and temperature (rule of thumb: the time you need to proof doubles for every 17°F drop in temperature). And remember, we are talking exponential here: first you have the amount increase slowly, then it explodes pretty quickly.

Within the slow increase of cells, you are allowed to tweak the parameters to suit you. Don't have the time to proof for a long time? Proof at 35°C instead of the 24°C usual in a kitchen. But mostly, you would prefer the slowest rise possible. This comes from the fact that the fermentation of the dough produces tasty compounds in a roughly linear manner. Proof half the time (by choosing a high temperature), and you get the same amount of rise, but half the amount of aroma. But still, you have the options to play around as you want.

However, once you get past the bend in your exponential function, your bread fails. You have altogether too much yeast cells competing for food and producing waste in your dough. They overuse their ressources and die from their own pollution. The missing starches lead to a dough with a certain unhealthy spring to it (if you can degas it at all, because the CO2 pockets in overproofed dough are too numerous and too evenly dispersed, the dough looks like a spiderweb). The dough has some noticeable acetic acid, the sharp taste of alcohol and the harsh smell of ammonia. You should never let it get to that point. (And don't ask why I have such a good knowledge of that dough state).

What you can do is to limit your proofing. First, you can indeed shorten your time at these temperatures. Rfusca's suggestion of a graduated container is good. If you don't have one of the size needed, just stick a small plastic ruler in the dough. Second, forget the sugar. Your dough will rise without it. Sugar gives too big a boost to the yeast at the beginning, because they don't have to waste time breaking down starch for food. And you can imagine what happens to exponential growth if the initial, slow part of the growth is boosted. If you are in the US, chances are that your bread flour already contains small amounts of malt to boost yeast growth anyway. Third, and probably most important, watch your yeast ratio. For a standard yeast bread, it is enough to use 2% live yeast (that's weight percentage relative to the amount of flour, not to the whole) or 1/3 of that amount in active dry yeast. Theoretically, you can go as high as 9% yeast and still handle it, but the dough gets extremly finicky and you need lots of experience to proof it right. Plus, you can't avoid a strong yeasty taste at such concentrations. As for using newer yeast, it won't solve your problem, but old yeast can give you different problems, so if you suspect it's old, replace it. In a lean bread dough (no fat and other additions) your yeast will start just fine when mixed in the flour (active dry yeast) or in the water (fresh yeast), no need to start it with sugar or make a sponge.


Is horseradish and Wasabi the same thing? Is horseradish and Wasabi the same thing or are they different, what are the differences in taste and texture, if there are indeed any?

They are different plants -- two different members of the mustard/cabbage family. Both have a similar sharp, pungent flavor and penetrating aroma, but wasabi is generally considered to be  more potent. In prepared form, horseradish is somewhat coarsely grated, while wasabi is ground to the finest possible paste. Some (but not all) cultivars of wasabi are green; for others, green coloring is often added during processing.


Baking granbarksost (spruce bark cheese) (Brie) with little mould We have this amazing cheese from Sweden just like Brie cheese but surrounded by tree bark and meant for baking.  Should I remove the little bits of green mould from the outside of the cheese before baking for 10 mins - or will the heat kill any nasties in the mold? Temperature recommended is 150 degrees C for 10 mins.

Some mold spores can withstand high temps and the toxins produced by "bad" mold don't break down into something safe because they are heated.  Brie and brie-like cheeses are supposed to have white mold, but green is a different mold, and unless you know that particular green mold is safe to eat, I'd cut it off.


Jalapeno condiment for pho There is a little pho place right around the corner that I just love. They have condiments on the tables including what appear to be just fresh sliced jalapenos in vinegar. They don't seem to be cooked nor do they seem to have been given any time to "pickle". The proprietor's English goes south every time I try to ask about their recipes, so I've been on my own for this one. I've tried distilled vinegar and rice vinegar. I've tried adding sugar, salt and a combination of both. I've tried diluting the vinegar with water. I've tried adding the jalapenos to hot vinegar. So far, they have never been "right". Even though my peppers are perfectly fresh, the ones at the restaurant seem somehow crisper and less aggressively hot, even though the seeds and ribs are intact. I suspect that there is a "secret ingredient" that I'm missing, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it could be. Can anyone help?

Edit: 8/2015 Answer (from over 1 year ago) follows.

Through experimentation, I got the answer. The answer is rice vinegar, a little sugar, a little salt (not so much salt and sugar as to make the vinegar seem like "seasoned rice vinegar" as for sushi, just a pinch of each) and time. After two days in the fridge the sliced fresh jalapenos mellow a bit, but they seem even a little crunchier than when they were first sliced. To me they are superior in every way to any jarred jalapenos I've ever had. After four days, they seem more like "pickled" jalapenos and start to lose some of the crunch that makes them so nice. I suspect that they might use a different vinegar, but the slightly seasoned rice vinegar works just fine.


Must bread dough clear the side of the mixer using the hook? I can get it to clear just fine with the paddle, but I can't reliably do so with the hook attachment, even after ten minutes at the fastest setting. My flour is fairly strong, autolysed, and the hydration is ~70%. I find myself adding way too much flour to have it clear the bowl.

Often, higher hydration doughs don't need to be mixed in a mixer at all.  However, when using a mixer, it is more important to get the hydration correct, than to have all of the dough come away from the side of the bowl.  I would say to use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients, and don't worry about whether or not the dough comes away from the side of the mixing bowl.


What is 'Bread Improver'? I purchased a bread maker years ago and am happy with the bread I make with it. I was at a cooking supply store and saw Bread Improver for sale in a jar, apparently for bread makers.

What is it? Does anyone else use it, and what does it do?

Bread Improver is a mix of various acids and enzymes that serve to strengthen the gluten in the flour and feed the yeast, both of which yield a better loaf. The idea is to give bread a similar texture and taste to sourdough-based loaves, without having to go through the laborious feeding process usually involved with that method.

For more information, look at this Wikipedia article.


Does 2% milk make decent cheese? I ended up with a gallon (almost 4 L) of 2% milk that I don't really need. I was thinking of making it into some kind of fresh cheese (i.e., farmer cheese or panir or something) to extend its life a bit. Will this milk make decent cheese, or do you really need full fat milk for that?

Yes, you absolutely can.

A couple of times I've had 1% or 2% milk left over after having guests, and not had any trouble turning it into ricotta or farmer's cheese.


Baileys best before date I'm the bar manager at Taj Bengal, Kolkata, India.

Just wanted to enquire if it's okay to serve Baileys Irish Cream after the "best before" date listed on the bottle.

I would be glad if I can get the answer soon, as a complete batch is about to pass its "best before" date tomorrow.

Considering even the possibility of litigation, that is, if someone were to get sick and then make the correlation, I think the wiser move as an entrepreneur would be to simply give the stuff away before it expires. I'm sure the regulars would enjoy it. Plus, if you think quick enough on your feet you may be able to come up with a way to use the giveaway as a promo for something that actually brings in revenue ...perhaps a DIY Irish Car Bomb with Bailey's provided at no charge, worth the sale of Guiness and Jameson's.


How would I produce (stable) foamy bechamel sauce? I recently ate a dish that was topped with a foamy bechamel sauce. It had the same creamy taste a traditional bechamel has but was much fluffier and less set, a bit like a mousse. I would like to reproduce this but I am not sure whether a foamer would be enough or I'd need some stabiliser on top. Has anyone got experience with foaming bechamel and/or does someone have a recipe for this sort of thing?

I ended up getting the recipe from the chef himself! It turns out that gelatin makes little sense at the temperatures involved unless you up the quantity in which case the texture gets altered for the worse (I experimented only twice so I can't really be sure that it wouldn't work at all).

The recipe itself calls for a bechamel with a very light roux simmered for a very long time (~3 hours) and stirred occasionally so that the milk doesn't burn. At the end of the process it becomes thick enough to foam in exactly the right texture. Strangely the guy doesn't use any seasoning aside from salt and pepper but I'd think this is so that the particular dish is in balance.


Is there any trick to make a palindrome-cocktail? I'm trying to make a palindrome cocktail:

made by building the components, like for example the classic B52; and also
having the same ingredients going from top to bottom as it has going from bottom to top.

At first I thought it was surface tension that separated the layers of a built cocktail. However, it seems it is density that determines where a particular component will go. One of the resources on density I found was this spirits density chart. Now, of course: no particular spirit is found twice on that chart! This makes the palindrome cocktail quite a challenge.

The Question: Are there any products, tricks or techniques available to separate layers in a built cocktail without relying on density?

Some brainstorm-ideas I came up with but have no faith (yet) in trying:

Separate layers with a sort-off crême-brûlée-style crust. However this will most not seall off completely on the edges, plus I risk setting the spirits on fire.
Use some kind of gelatine product?

As a side note, even though my question is about a true palindrome drink (with the exact same spirits top-down as bottom-up), if there are no real tricks, I'd also be interested to see some added suggestions on a "fake" palindrome where it's just "looks" like a palindrome (color/transparancy wise). I tried this, but given the above density chart that felt as a hard-enough challenge in itself.

Logged attempts

I'll update this section as I experiment with provided answers (but the question above won't change, of course).

A Cointreau + Baileys + butterscotch liquor. An attempt to make a color-based palindrome (a cheat!), but the colors are obviously not similar enough.
B Dark Rum + Cointreau + Dark Rum. The bottom dark rum was mixed with gome syrup and even more sugar (as much as would dissolve) to make it sink to the bottom. Based on this answer below. Still have to work on color though.

J1 Cherry-butterscotch-jello + lemon liquor + cherry-butterscotch-jello. The top jello kind-of sunk inside the middle melon layer.
J2 Cherry-butterscotch-jello + lemon liquor + cherry-butterscotch-jello. Same as J1, only more careful sliding the top jello in on the back of a spoon.
J3, the proof of concept! Melon-liquor + cherry-butterscotch-jello + lemon liquor. First I put the bottom liquor in the freezer, then the jello on top (wiggle it in place), then more liqour on top, and wait a few minutes for the bottom layer to melt.

Footnote

Although I'd accept any tricks that allow a basic palindrome-cocktail, I'd be extra happy if they allow for palindromes above 3 layers (so 5 layers and up).

You could, of course, create gel layers, and the determining factor in stability would be the firmness of those gels. However - and I suppose this is just a hunch - I seriously doubt that a gel firm enough to hold the weight of all the heavier layers above it (and you are asking for at least 3) would really be drinkable, unless you're aiming for the consistency of a "Jello shot".

A better idea, in my opinion, would be to simply change the densities of certain layers, and an effective (and tasty) way to do that is with sugar, or more accurately, sugar syrup. There's a type of syrup used in bartending called Gomme Syrup, which is a thick sugar syrup with Gum Arabic added to prevent crystallization (among other things).

Sugar, by itself, has very poor solubility in alcohol, but sugar syrups and gomme syrup in particular will have few problems, considering that's already how many mixed drinks are made (like Whiskey Sour). If you're feeling really adventurous, you could also use sugar alcohols such as sorbitol or xylitol, which dissolve readily in ethyl alcohol in solid form. However, these are much more potent (sweetness-wise) than sucrose and some people report gastrointestinal reactions, so use at your own risk.

Sugar syrups are very dense, so if you mix them thoroughly with a particular spirit, you'll end up with a heavier (and sweeter) version of that spirit. So to make your palindrome, start with what you'd normally put at the top (say GM for the B52), mix it with syrup (it shouldn't take an excessive amount - maybe 20-30% by volume, but you'll have to experiment), and layer that on the bottom. Then take the next-lightest, mix it with slightly less syrup, and continue. Once you reach what would normally be the densest liquid, layer the drink as normal up to the top with the "pure" spirits.

The more layers, the more math you'll have to do, because you'll need to make sure that you add just enough syrup to layer 2 so that it's lighter than layer 1 (bottom) but still heavier than layer 3, and so on. Unless you're prepared to make the drink very sweet, you'll need to be fairly precise in your calculations.

Disclaimer: I haven't yet tried this myself, as it's the first I've heard of anyone trying to do this. However, I see no reason why it wouldn't work with proper (careful) layering technique. In fact, I remember doing something very similar all the way back in primary school, called rainbow in a glass.


My toasted couscous didn't soften properly. Why? My wife bought some toasted Israeli couscous at a specialty store recently, and we decided to cook it last night. Unfortunately, it did not seem to cook like we are used to, and some of it was still uncooked after other bits were breaking down from overcooking.

We used a recipe that we'd previously had success with using regular Israeli couscous: cook a little shallot in butter, toss couscous in the butter when the shallot is soft, add some chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for a few minutes, finish with toasted pine nuts and golden raisins.

The couscous itself was a little odd--some pieces were very dark, and they all seemed very rough on the outside, not smooth like I'm used to.

So the questions are:

Is uneven cooking likely to happen with toasted couscous? Does toasted couscous need different cooking techniques from what we used (recipes I'm seeing don't seem to say so)?

Is it possible that the uneven toasting/roasting caused the uneven cooking (the darker ones cooked less, for the most part)?

Was this even actually couscous, or something else that isn't meant to be cooked the same way (wish I had a photo of the raw item)?

It sounds like it might have been fregola, a toasted pasta from Sardinia. It is quite similar to Israeli couscous. There is nothing wrong with the cooking technique you are using, I think you just might have found a brand/batch that isn't very well made. If there is a lot of unevenness in the toasting or size of the pieces, then that will likely result in an uneven cooking in the liquid. As you can imagine, the darkly toasted pieces have more of a shell that makes it slower for them to absorb water. Don't give up on fregola though, it can be delicious stuff. You can also buy regular Israeli couscous and dry-toast it in the pan for awhile before adding the other ingredients.


dealing with curved ribs in a flat rib recipe I'm trying to make a pork rib ragu, and the ribs I have got are rather... curled. the recipe doesn't really specify which ribs to get, but in the video they're rather flat, making browning them, and then simmering them in stock look much easier.

Should I just roll with my curled ribs, or should I be trying to crack them down to a flat state before browning them?

Different cuts of ribs have different degrees of curve to them. In my experience, baby back ribs are the most curved, and St. Louis cut spareribs are the flatest (although that is a relative term). This page has a chart showing where the different cuts of ribs come from in the rib cage in case you're interested.

I wouldn't try to flatten the ribs; I can't imagine of any way to do that other than breaking the bones.


Why did my cake go Offsided? Not sure where I went wrong

3 layers cake, cutted the top (levelled)

Cooled overnight

Did buttercream in between and on the sides

Fridge for 3hrs

It's offside!

Any future suggestions?

You might want to include your recipe for the buttercream. That could help people figure out one of the reasons for your cake layers sliding around.

My thoughts from looking at your luscious cake photo are:

3 layers is a pretty tall cake! 2 layers would be more likely to stay stable. If you want 3, you could make them thinner, or even cut one of them in half. As long as you don't have a sliced edge at the very top, it doesn't matter that frosting will kick up crumbs from the sliced edges.
Layers don't look quite level (i.e. flat). You mentioned leveling the top layer. Maybe more important to level the bottom layers, if you don't want the upper stories sliding around.
Is buttercream a little too liquid and slippery? Knowing your recipe might help people determine this.
Possibly a little tooo much buttercream in between layers. I don't mean too much to be delectable; I mean too much for mechanical stability. It's hard to tell how much is in between the layers, but it does look like a pretty thick coating on the outside, so I'm guessing you were also generous in-between.

All that said, this cake looks terrific, and very rich!


Can dry roasted squash be used effectively for gnocchi? I roasted an entire pumpkin (specifically, a triamble variety). It was cut into large pieces and roasted with oil in an oven. I ended up leaving it to cool in the oven which I guess was a mistake because the pumpkin dried out considerably. I'd say it resembles in texture roasted chestnut: dense, a little chewy, and definitely flour-y.

That said, it has great flavor and a vibrant color. It's just that it can't be used in many recipes that expect a squash with more moisture.

I was thinking of perhaps using it to make gnocchi but most recipes I've found for squash gnocchi assume that it will be providing most of the moisture for the dough.

I've already used it successfully in chunks over a salad but would like to incorporate it into gnocchi.

Some ideas:

I like to do do pumpkin gnocchi. The dryer the pumpkin, the better, since you will need to add less flour and get a lighter result. It has a lovely sweet taste compared to potato gnocchi and goes really well with sage and butter or blue cheese sauce. The recipe in the link is just suggestive. My approach is to add an egg yolk and to keep adding flour just to the point where the mix gets together. The reason is because the less flour, the better the final result (however flour is important, otherwise you get a sticky mess that you won't manage to roll and cut).
Also on the pasta side, you can make ravioli filled with pumpkin and again serve with sage and butter sauce.
Pumpkin bread. You could incorporate your pumpkin puree in a bread dough and proceed as usual for bread (you can do sourdough, tin bread, etc). The sweetness of the pumpkin works great when serving the bread with cheese, and the pumpkin gives a nice orange colour.
If you have not salted it, pumpkin sponge cake or pudding.
Pumpkin soufflé, goes well sweet or savoury.


How to scale chicken recipe that requires cooking in a single layer? There's one adapted recipe I like a lot, but I've been struggling with how to make it scale better so I can double the recipe to make more leftovers/feed more people. The basic technique is to cook chicken breast tenders uncovered over medium/medium-high heat in oil and balsamic vinegar (and dry spices), adding some apricot preserves about halfway through. So in the end you end up reducing the sauce into an balsamic apricot glaze/sauce, and the chicken having marinated the whole time in the sauce imparting flavor on the chicken compared to making the sauce in a saucepan and adding after the chicken is cooked.

But in order for the chicken to cook evenly and well, the chicken needs to be laid out in a single layer in the pan, which is a bit of a limiting factor in how much chicken I can fit in the largest pan we own. Short of just making it in multiple batches, are there ways I could modify the preparation technique to come up with fairly similar tasting chicken, but in a way that I could scale the quantities larger? Would baking the chicken in the marinade achieve a similar result? Cook the sauce first, and pour over the raw chicken that's not in a single layer in a pan with the lid on? Something else?

Short answer, no. If you're going to saute something in a pan it's going to have a different flavor than if you were to bake it in the oven (and you don't get the same reduction effect that you'll get by using a pan over a medium-high heat). that said, there's nothing that says you can't bake it, it just won't taste exactly the same, and will be thinner. If you want identical results, you need an identical process. You could always put another pan on the stove


Pan fried chicken taste like pan? I just got some canned chicken and fried it with a little water I.e. pan fried without oil and just adding little bits of water as I go.
The chicken tasted like the metal pan itself if you know what I mean?  Why did this happen and how can it be avoided?

I suspect that's what going on is this:

There is an metallic flavor in the canned meat
Browning the meat either reduces that flavor, or masks it with other flavors

Steaming, poaching, or other water-based cooking method isn't going to allow it to come to a sufficient temperature to brown it.  Grilling or frying (in oil) will cause the Maillard reaction (protein browning) which creates new chemical compounds.
If you have a microwave, try heating up a slice in there, as I suspect that it'll still taste metallic.  If you don't have a microwave, you could try steaming it, or just sampling it at room temperature.


Can I use freeze dried fruit in a Sangria mix? I want to make a few little gifts for some friends, and I had the idea of creating little bottles of all the things needed for different drinks. I was hoping that people would be able to hold on to these until they wanted to make them. So far I have mulled wine.

I want to include a recipe and the ingredients for a homemade Sangria. I was wondering if I could replace the normal fresh fruit normally found with freeze-dried fruit instead.

Any help or other ideas would be much appreciated!

It depends on the fruit you use and whether you mind exactly how the end result turns out! freeze dried normally means berries, but they will turn to mush as they rehydrate, which is fine if you put some in a glass and drink quickly, but not good if you want them in a jug to soak up all the wine.

From personal experience, I find frozen(rather than freeze dried) oranges, apples , lemons etc work well as they stay structured, but I'd always go for fresh berries.


How do you know if cookies are undercooked? How can one tell if cookies are under baked?

Cookies are a kind of an informal treat. Tastes vary on the degree of done-ness that is best.

If your cookies won't hold together well enough to take them off the baking sheet with a spatula, or if parts of them are obviously still very gooey/runny, then they are undercooked. Otherwise, the best way to tell is to sample one (after it has cooled enough to eat). If you feel it is undercooked, then leave the next batch in a little longer.

Some people like their cookies "rare" (still a little soft and moist in the middle), and others prefer them well browned and fully cooked until they are firm all the way through. It's an individual judgement with no officially correct standard.


Making Cream cheese and Mascarpone cheese at home I’ve been trying to make Mascarpone cheese and Cream cheese and I’ve tried various recipes but all have failed. I think the problem is with my starting ingredients.

All my cream cheese/mascarpone end up too stiff and rubbery along with some grains. Its not velvety/creamy like store brought versions.

For cream cheese i’m using whole milk/lemon juice and straining it. For mascarpone i’m using 25% cream.

The recipes I am referring call for 35% cream, but I don’t have those here where I live. Will adding butter and a bit of Xanthan gum to emulsify it (have that already) increase it to 35?

I have tried playing around with the acid contents (lemon juice, citric acid and varying them up and down by 20%)

Whats always missing is the velvety texture for both the items. Any clues would be greatly appreciated.

Also I have tried warming them to soften them up a bit before using but to no avail.

Note - recipes I’ve tried for making the mascarpone and cream cheese.

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/mascarpone-cheese-recipe/

https://food52.com/blog/12319-homemade-mascarpone-cheese

https://fankhauserblog.wordpress.com/2003/05/29/making-mascarpone-at-home/

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/how-to-make-cream-cheese/

For your biggerbolderbaking cream cheese recipe, you aren't making cream cheese, you're making paneer - whole milk that's curdled by lemon juice that makes a grainy cheese, which is often strains quite firm, and it doesn't melt or stretch well.

That blog is making something else, a soft cheese substitute that's just very soft unstrained and blended paneer.  I suppose that can match texture if carefully curdled (I must imagine), and thoroughly blended with some water and whey to mechanically break up the curds, but it isn't cream cheese any more than scrambled tofu is scrambled eggs.

Cream cheese is made with cream (stretched with milk, often, but it does need the extra fat and the more cream, the better the flavor), and it's fermented much like yogurt is... you can often buy the cultures in the same place, and the procedure is much the same, and even sub them for the other in a pinch, though the flavors will be just a bit off.  I've made it before, it's pretty fun and tasty.

In truth, most cheese is cultured - cheeses curdled with just lemon juice are rarer and mostly of the grainy firm curds variety like paneer.  Cheeses often requires specific strains (the basics being mesophilic or thermophillic cultures for cheeses, and yogurt culture being the other major option), and often further curdled with rennet.  You can find these ingredients online most anywhere.

If you're really interested in making a cream cheese substitute, with what's easily available, I'd suggest making yogurt cheese or greek yogurt - heat and cool the milk, culture with a spoonful of yogurt, then strain very well so the result is thick and creamy.  You can find recipes all over the place with amounts, precise instructions, etc - and you can culture yogurt with storebought yogurt (with live cultures), so you don't need to be buying and shipping culture from all over the place.  It would be creamy, thick, and fresh-tasting, if somewhat leaner that a true cream cheese... a decent substitute if you just want something approximate.

I am much less familiar with marscapone cheese, it looks like it's closer to thickened cream than curdled cheese.  It looks some of the major factors are the fat content, the proportion of acid, and the handling.

Heavier cream apparently won't curdle like milk, since the proportion of fats to proteins is way off, so I'd guess the percentage would make a really big difference in this recipe.  This may be aggravated by the acid content.

The other thing is, the proportion of acid needs to be quite low - one of your recipes calls for 2 1/2 tbs lemon for two and a half cups cream, the other for just 1 tbs per two cups, that's a really big difference.  I'd guess lower fat content plus extra acid would make the cheese much grainier.

The third factor from what I can tell, is handling.  One recipe mentions the cheese becoming grainy when using active, rather than passive straining, another mentions graininess when the cream is mixed too hard or too much.  I'd guess it should be very gently or occasionally mixed once the lemon juice is introduced.  It may help to add less acid but let it have more time to thicken so the process goes more gently.

You might be able to  get a softer texture my mechanically breaking up the curds, mixing or blending, though there's no guarentee.

ps - you can't really "enrich" milk or cream with butter for higher fat content when it comes to recipes requiring cream, etc, they just doesn't combine on their own and emulsifiers are likely to mess with the curdling process.  You can often make do with a lower fat content, it will just taste a bit differently, a bit less rich, but it's often tasty in its own right.  You might, if you really want to try it, fold very soft butter into the cream cheese right when it's ready to store/serve/etc for a richer flavor... but I've no idea how it'd turn out and there may be other unexpected changes.


Leftover Dough Made to Bread My question is this: Can you reuse the left over scone dough to make a loaf of bread? And how would you go about doing so?

Scones are a very different type of product than yeast raised breads: scones rely on chemical leavening such as baking soda and/or baking powder for their rise, whereas regular breads are yeast leavened.

Converting one to the other would be far from trivial, even at the recipe level; trying to do so with dough already made is going to be counter-productive.

Instead, you can make more scones or quick breads, although these doughs don't tend to like extra manipulation or waiting around before being baked.  To extend the usefulness or variety of your products, you could make the basic mixture and then add the compliments like berries or chocolate chips to only part of the dough.

They should also freeze beautifully, and reheat quite well.


Can I swap soy milk for cream in a chicken pot pie? I'm going to be making a chicken pot pie for a friend who is trying to eliminate dairy. Part of the instructions call for making a roux, then adding chicken stock (5 cups) and heavy cream (1/4 cup) to create the sauce for the filling.

I can substitute an oil for the butter, and I think that the relatively small amount of cream is more for appearance than flavor or thickening. If I use soy milk instead of heavy cream, will the consistency stay essentially the same? Are there going to be any impacts on the flavor?

Yes, you can use soy milk, but it will definitely affect the flavor. If you like the flavor of soy milk, go ahead, but I don't find it that appealing.

Instead, I suggest using full fat coconut milk or coconut cream (you can find it in the international foods aisle in most grocery stores). I have used this subsitution several times before, and it will give a hint of coconut taste, but I think the overall flavor for your recipe would be richer.

Another alternative is to just use an additional 1/4 c. of broth and leave out the cream or any dairy substitute all together.

Edit: I'm not 100% sure on the texture, but soy milk is fairly "watery" compared to cream, so, again, I think a richer/fattier "milk" would be better.


How to learn to cook? Possible Duplicate:
  Resources for a beginner learning to cook

What's a good way to learn cooking and avoid the current trend of my life that is best summarized by this xkcd comic: http://xkcd.com/854/ ?

1) Watch Good Eats.
2) Practice
3) Goto 1)

In order to learn how to cook one must practice. This is self evident.
But - what to cook and where to begin?

Well, I'd recommmend watching a few episodes of Good Eats (pick a few
episodes on food you enjoy). Pay notice not only to the steps he use, but
also his explanations on why he has chosen the various steps.

(Concrete suggestions: Episodes on eggs.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=good+eats+eggs

)

The why is important, because in due time, you'll be able to modify
recipes based on previous experience.


When do I add the chicken stock in this recipe? The author doesn't specify I've found a bunch of morels this weekend and wanted to make a simple sauce with them.  The simplest one I want to try directs me to cook a medium shallot in butter until translucent, then add morels and a pinch of salt stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.  Follow this with 1/2 cup of white wine and reduce by two thirds.  Finally add heavy cream and simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce coats a spoon.

However the ingredients list also includes chicken stock, but there is no mention of it in the directions.  When would be the right time to add the stock?

After the wine.

Let the wine almost reduce, then add the stock. Follow the recipe then from "reduce by two thirds", reducing the now wine-flavored stock.

You might as well be quoting any of 1000 recipes for mushroom risotto. It's basically a typo, the author has seen it so many times before that he doesn't see it.

I can't know exactly the author's intentions, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that those are pretty close.


Ok to sear beef short ribs from frozen? I have some frozen rib-eye steaks which I am confident about searing while frozen and then bringing up to temperature in the oven. They turn out great.

But I also have short ribs which I intend to sear and then braise them with veg and wine for a few hours.

I am not sure if I'll be able to sear them from frozen. Is the shape to awkward? Any safety conferences?

Any advice would be great

Searing frozen meat is fine, and is a useful way to get a good sear without overcooking the inside (since you can sear for longer, and at a lower temperature). There are no food safety issues I can think of which would apply to short ribs but not steaks, particularly since the former are cooked for longer at a higher internal temperature.

The only problem I can think of is if the ribs are frozen into an irregular shape. You want good, broad contact between the surface of the meat and the pan. If the frozen meat only contacts the pan in a few small places, those areas can burn long before the rest of the surface is properly seared. Adding a bit of oil can help with this if the surface is nearly flat. Alternatively, if you have a powerful enough broiler (aka grill), you can use that to sear instead.


1/4 cup of whiskey in cupcake batter substitute what type of liquid? And use the same amount? I'm making chocolate coffee cupcakes with pecan praline centers. 1/4 cup of whiskey to batter. I don't want alcohol and don't know what the purpose of the alcohol is. Can I use some other liquid and the same amount?

The whiskey is there to add flavor. If it were in the praline centers it might have some texture effect too, but in the batter, especially in this small an amount, it's really only going to matter for flavor.

You should be able to substitute water, plus an appropriate amount of some kind of flavored extract you do want - vanilla, rum, or anything that sounds good to you. (If alcohol is a problem I guess you'll need an alcohol-free one.) You could also simply find another recipe that doesn't use it.

That said, if it's just that you don't want to buy a whole bottle of whiskey, you can likely get a tiny bottle to use just for this recipe, and not have a ton left over. If you suspect you wouldn't like the flavor, do keep in mind that a quarter cup of whiskey is a pretty small amount of alcohol when spread across a whole batch of cupcakes, so it could be worth giving it a try. But if you really just don't want to consume any alcohol, water should be fine.


Is it safe to consume microwaved Campbell’s chicken stock? I often pour a bowl of frozen veggies and a cup of chicken stock (straight from those 1 litre boxes) in a bowl and microwave it for 12 minutes. It comes out fairly hot.

Is this safe to do? Or am I risking food poisoning by not boiling the chicken stock?

Aseptic packaging which is what the Swanson's and anyother brands products in those coated carboard-like packing 9a.K.a Tetrapaks) broth are safe. The aseptic processing has killed thhe harmful bacteria. So long as it was kept refrigerated below 40 deg F after opening it is still safe.

Your frozen veggies if notdefrosted then refrozen are safe.

Combining the two and heating in the microwave in a clean vessel is safe so long as you've not introduced bacteria from another source, your food is as safe as it is going to be.


Catering event for 1st time. How should I prepare? I'm just starting a catering service for my cooking.

I'm not into too fancy style yet, like using metal silverware or china plates, but more casual version like paper plates and plastic-ware.

The events will be about for 40 people, the menu is:

curry & rice
Karaage (Japanese chicken nuggets)
veggie sticks & dips
sandwiches
bite-sized pastries
drinks    (tea, beer)

I have 1 chafing dish, I rice cooker, plastic plates/bowls/spoons/cups, aluminium foil baking trays, and paper napkins. I'm thinking to do set-ups and let people help themselves (I may stand-by and help them if they need help).

What am I missing? What should I prepare more?

The most important thing is to check everything and then check it again.

Test your recipes and figure out what can be done in advance without reducing the quality.

You should have checklists of everything that needs to come with you (food, cooking utensils, serving utensils, eating utensils, decoration, cleanup gear, etc.)

You must pre-scout the location and make sure you have thought through how your logistics are going to work - do you have the refrigerator and burner space you need, for example?

Think through how everything will be transported as well. Will you be able to keep everything at safe temperatures? Make sure all containers are thoroughly sealed, and if there is any risk of spills, add a layer of masking tape.

Bring extras of everything. Inevitably, something is going to spill or there will be more guests than anticipated.

Then check everything again.

Also, keep good records of what you made and what got eaten so you'll be ready to do it next time.


Alternatives to serve with a tomato salad This weekend we are making a Tomato and Chorizo salad. The recipie suggests serving it with goats cheese and ham, but we don't really fancy that. We are trying to think of alternatives to serve it with and we just can't think past Mozzerella. Does anyone have any good ideas of what we can serve with it?

halloumi or feta for cheese substitutes, especially if you can get the mint halloumi cheese.

as for ham substitute, I'd recommend toasted pita (served on top of the salad where you let the eater crush the bread themselves) or smoked salmon


Is it safe to eat cod that has a pink color? I recently purchased cod from the market and it sat in my fridge for a couple days and i'm not sure if it was spoiled before i froze it.

I left it in the freezer for about two weeks. Yesterday, I started thawing the fish and it has a pink color to it.

What causes this and is it safe to eat ?

I've touched and it wasn't slimy and it smelled like fish without any stink to it.

I plan on cooking it on high heat (400F) and cooking it through

Update:
I updated and stated that i wasn't sure if it was spoiled before i froze it.

It is very difficult to tell someone else it a food item is good or safe, and the normal advice, especially with meats and seafood, is when in doubt, throw it out.  In this case, there honestly is too many unknowns.  The wording of the question:

  it sat in my fridge for a couple days and spoiled i froze it

Sounds as if they fish spoiled, and then you froze it.  Freezing will not reverse spoilage, it will only slow it.  If the fish had already gone bad, it is bad.

On the pink color, you do not know if it was pink before you froze it or not.  That makes it tougher still.  Right off, I really do not know of a reason freezing would cause it to turn pink unless the freezing/thawing help highlight an already existing condition.  I do know though of two conditions which will commonly cause a normally white fleshed fish to be more pink, spoilage, especially in a fish which was not cleaned promptly, is not stored at proper temperatures, and especially if it repeatedly goes from thawed to frozen or partially frozen and only to a soft freeze rather that recommended hard freeze temperatures.  This would be a fish I would consider bad, even if the flesh remained firm with not other normal signs of spoilage.  The second reason is poor bleeding at the time of harvest, which can be an issue with fish like cod.  It really does not have a major effect on taste, but is considered a lower quality fish due to ascetics and likely will spoil faster than a fish which was correctly bled.  These fish would normally be sorted out and sold at a lower price or to processors that will do something like make breaded fish from them.

There may also be other causes, but those are two common ones I know.  Between those, it would simply be wild speculation to guess without the fish in hand to examine it.


Blending pastry cream right after cooking: does it change final consistency? I prepared some pastry cream to use as pie filling.
Right after it had been cooked, and while still hot, I passed it through a sieve onto a bowl with chopped white chocolate.
As I tried to fold the chocolate onto the pastry cream, it would not melt properly, and pieces of it would remain in the cream even while I mixed.
I think next time I'll try and pre-melt the chocolate, at least partially, before incorporating.
Either way, and this was not part of the recipe, I decided to use the immersion blender to smooth out the cream and incorporate the stubborn white chocolate bits.
It worked for incorporating the chocolate, but I fear it may have worked too well for smoothing out the cream, and it became fairly liquid as it was blended.
It did become a little firmer as it cooled (to be expected, if only from the chocolate), but not enough so to be a satisfying pie filling.

Does blending hot pastry cream, after it's gelled, alter its final consistency?
Or is the result of my 'not firm enough' cream due to ratios in the recipe?

For record, the ingredients used were (converted from ounces):

227g Light brown sugar
43g Cornstarch
142g Egg yolk
794g Whole milk
125g White chocolate
9g Vanilla essence
57g Malted milk powder

Trace amounts of salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Yes. Yes it does. Unfortunately, I did something similar once, and it basically gave my pastry cream the consistency of creme anglaise. It made a delicious ice cream base, but failed as a cream puff filling.
My best explanation is that the blender destroyed the protein structure of the partially cooked egg, but my attempts to look into it in the past haven't been successful. However I also know that an immersion blender cannot be used to whip egg whites, and in fact makes it much harder to do so. (They did whip somewhat, but still had a kind of slimy texture.)
Having said that, it's hard to comment on your recipe ratios when they aren't included, but the use of a blender definitely changes the texture of cooked custard/pastry cream and makes it much thinner.
If something like this happens again, keep a pan of warm water in reserve. Chocolate will melt at far lower temperatures than would damage your cream. Just place the bowl of cream and stubborn chocolate back over the low heat and stir until melted.


Can I use agar as a coagulant to make homemade tofu? Good tofu is really hard to come by where I live, especially silken tofu.
I want to try making my own tofu. There are tons of recipes online.
BUT, some of the coagulants (gypsum, or nigari) are also a bit hard to come by. I don't want to use epsom salts because they can cause a grainy tofu.

Will it be possible to use agar in this instance?

Agar is a gelling agent and will not work as a coagulant.  Give epsom salts a try.  I have not experienced the graininess that you suggest.


How do you halve a recipe that calls for 1 egg? How do you halve a recipe that calls for 1 egg?

Clarification: I do not want to have to make the full recipe just to use half and I don't have powdered egg substitute.

Crack the egg into a cup or bowl, whisk it, and measure out half of the contents. If you use eggs frequently, you could probably save the other half for a day or two – otherwise, it's like 8 cents out of your pocket.


How to bake ground beef I have 3.5 pounds of 93% lean ground beef. I want to easily cook it like this:

Put tinfoil on a pan.
Put all of the ground beef on it.
Put it in the oven preheated to 450F for 30 minutes.

Is this safe?

Any remaining questions:

Why should it be covered? When is it necessary to cover food with aluminum foil during baking/roasting?
Is there a problem with letting it cook in the fat?

Make sure you use a pan with high enough sides so that fat doesn't overflow. If it's a thin baking sheet with only short edges, especially one that tends to curve/warp in the oven, you could easily dump fat all over the bottom of the oven. But as long as it's a sturdy pan, the fat isn't going to get any higher than the beef itself started out (except for splattering), so if the beef itself all fits in with a bit of space at the top, you'll be fine. If it seems like you're cutting it close, split it into two batches.

Make sure also not to cover too tightly; you want steam to be able to escape. You want it to be covered well enough to keep fat from splattering everywhere, and to keep it from drying out fast and burning on the top or bottom, but you also don't want all the water to get stuck in there until it boils over.

Letting it cook in the fat is really just a personal preference. If you want the final result to be super lean and maybe a bit dry, don't do it; if you want to keep it moist and juicy and don't mind some fat, cooking it in the fat is good for it.

For food safety issues...

All that matters is what temperature the beef reaches. The FDA recommends that it reach 160F. You don't really need a thermometer to check in this case, though: if it's all obviously brown it's fine.

So, yes, that general idea is probably safe, but I wouldn't try to pin the time down now. Just put it in the oven and check periodically until it's done. Exactly how long it takes will depend on how thick the beef is in the pan (i.e. how big the pan is).


Should I BBQ chicken on foil? My wife tells me I should be putting aluminum foil on the grill and BBQing the chicken kebob on that and not the naked flame. She cites that it won't get burnt, easy to clean the grill and the marinade won't drip off. I tell her that the whole point of putting it on the BBQ is for the naked flame otherwise we might as well do it in a pan on the stove.

Should chicken be BBQ'd on foil?

Grilling vs BBQ semantics aside.

A gas grill doesn't add any flavor of it's own. Some of the food will sear, char, or even drip and catch on fire. These will produce a variety of new flavors that range from delicious, maillard goodness to sooty, bitter, death. These new flavors are not a function of the open flame but of the very high, direct heat.

In this regard, the only advantage of a gas grill over the broiler in your oven is that it is:

more accessible to work with and
located outside of your house so you don't have to deal with smoke or excess heat.

Maillard reactions require the food to be dry. You don't want your marinade to pool around your meat because that isn't grilling- that's braising. Delicious for ribs but not so great for chicken.

Her other argument for the foil was ease of cleaning. Just leave your grill on high for 10 minutes after you finish cooking and any food particles will disintegrate easily under your brush.

In my opinion, unless you do intend to actually braise your meat, the foil is completely unnecessary.


How to correctly use a whisk? I've tried many times to whip some cream or egg whites with a simple whisk, but I feel tired after about a minute of whipping, and I do not obtain good results also after whipping for sometime. I suspect that I'm doing it wrong.

Is there a correct way to use a whisk? How to avoid so much fatigue? About the quantity of the food to whip?

Use a larger bowl than you'd think (or less starting product); you want your product to be able to move around. Hold the bowl on an angle so your whisk can shear through the liquid as much as possible. Other than that, you want to go in a fast circular motion, dipping in and out of the liquid in order to incorporate air.

Only way to avoid the fatigue is practice. You should see one of our prep cooks! She used to be patissier for a very rustic chef--no electric mixers in that kitchen. I've seen her whisk meringue by hand and then move on to making aioli without blinking. Girl's got pipes I tell you.