Shelf life of homemade self-rising flour? I have a recipe that uses self-rising flour which is not available where I live, so I make my own by sifting all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt together. This has always worked fine.

In a few days I will be needing a few cups, so I decided to make it today and store it in a closed plastic bag.

Could it be a problem that I have made the flour a few days in advance? Will it still work as expected?

I have always used the homemade self-rising flour immediately and never tried to store it.

Of course the  self-rising flour you buy in stores are the same three ingredients, but I don't know if the manufacture also uses some additives that makes it store well.

The shelf life is not a problem. This is one of the rare cases where mixing ingredients doesn't change their shelf life. All of them are shelf stable because of lack of moisture, and nothing is introducing moisture, so the mixture is shelf stable.

You could, however, run into problems if you try to make a large batch and scoop out of it for every baking session. The reason is that this kind of mixture rarely stays homogenous. Every shake encourages it to separate, with the larger grains (salt, baking powder) gathering on top of the smaller grains (flour). If you store it somewhere undisturbed, the effect won't be too strong the first few times you use it, but you will be on the safe side if you pre-mix the quantity for exactly one batch only.

As a side note, this seems like a strange way to go about it. If you either don't premix and just pour all ingredients into the bowl on baking day, or premix all dry ingredients at once (making your own baking mix, so to speak) you will be more efficient than just mixing a self rising flour separately.


Could cheese "halt" the tenderness of cooking lentils? I was cooking some lentils in chicken broth. When the lentils seemed almost done (they had been simmering for 30 minutes or so), on a whim, I added a fair amount of Gouda cheese. There was still plenty of broth left, the cheese barely thickened the liquid and the taste was nice. I was looking forward to the lentils being done so I could enjoy them.

It's been over an hour since I added the cheese. I've kept it at a simmer ever since but the lentils are still not done. If anything, they are tougher now than when I added the cheese.

Is there a reason cheese would have this effect? There is still plenty of liquid, I started with at least 4:1, and there is still at least a good half inch of liquid above the level of the lentils.

What's going on?

EDIT From this question: Can Calcium Chloride be Used to Prevent Lentils from Bursting? I gather that the calcium in the cheese may be the issue, but it seems that it shouldn't have that much of an effect.

I have always been told that high acid-yielding foods can cause dried legumes to stay hard. I can't say that I have ever added Gouda (although it sounds delectable) but I have had dried beans stay hard when adding tomatoes too early in the cooking process. Wondering about this, I looked up Gouda and was quite surprised to find that it is a high acid-yielding food.

Could be other reasons such as legumes that are old or a hard water situation but I suspect you have already considered and eliminated those as you are very thorough. :)


My lasagna sauce is too tart when I first set the sauce to simmer, it's fine, but after simmering for 2 hrs. it's more tart than I like.  How can I counteract this tartness?

Typically, the longer tomatoes cook down, the more tart they become. You can add sugar to counter this. Add a small pinch at a time, tasting after each addition, until you have the taste you want. Remember, you can always add more but you can't take it out.


Chewed artichoke turned blue I ate some cooked artichoke stems; some of the outermost skin is tough, so I just chewed it and then spit out the inedible bits. I left those bits in a container on my kitchen counter near the sink, still sealed. A day later, when I dumped the contents, the leftover bits were a bright blue color.  What does this mean? Something with saliva enzymes?

We eat artichoke often. We pressure cook them in an old one quart aluminum pot. I have seen the cut stem (not chewed) butt turn and ooze blue from the cut stem when left in the fridge too long. In that condition the stem has a sour fermentation, but no obvious mold. I have eaten it like this thinking, I am getting extra. I like artichoke stem a lot and have bought them with long stem in Oregon, USA. The blue appears to be in the nature inherent with the thistle flower that it is.


Making Souk. When do I add these Moroccan spices? I'm making black-eyed peas.  They've been washed, boiled for 2 minutes, set for 1 hour. Now I'm cooking them stovetop on low after bringing to a boil. The spice combination I have is used in making Souk, a Moroccan dish. When do I add the spices?

I cannot seem to find references to a Moroccan dish named "Souk". Rather, souk is the Arabic word for bazaar or marketplace. Perhaps it refers to the sellers of your spice mix and not a dish to use it in? I will assume you have your hands on a typical Moroccan spice blend such as ras el hanout.

In any case, to get the best flavor out of your spices, you need to bloom them in oil. Heat oil until shimmering and fry any aromatics you are using. Add the spices, and cook for a few second. Recipes usually tell you to cook "until fragrant", but really, a few seconds should do. It is very easy to burn ground spices. Immediately add the beans and the cooking liquid, simmering until tender.

A good inspiration would be this recipe for spiced black-eyed peas. Although it uses Indian spices, the basic technique would be the same.


scratched ceramic pan So I scratched my new ceramic pan by trying to cut something in it (definitely regretting that one) and was wondering if it can still be used? They are very small scratches. Can it even be restored?

I don't believe small, cosmetic scratches are a problem -- Those will happen over time and use anyway, and don't affect the cooking abilities of the pan. If you scratch through to the metal pan underneath (assuming it's cast iron), that would be a problem, and depending on the manufacturer you might be able to get it repaired/replaced.


What's the easiest dough for a Lemon Pie that still tastes good? What dough would you recommend for when you need to wrap up a lemon pie fairly quickly?

Well... Pie dough? Flour, fat, salt and water. I recommend lard for flavor and texture.

Alternately, a graham cracker crust can be had by putting the crackers into a plastic bag and rolling with a heavy rolling pin until fine crumbs. Then mix in butter, press into a pan, and bake until fragrant.


Is there any method to boil a cracked egg without making a mess? If we boil an egg which already has a crack on its shell before boiling, it will break and spread into the water. In many cases if we put an egg into hot water it will crack also. So, is there any safe method to boil an egg like that, or should it be fried or cooked in another way?

If an egg is already cracked then it will almost certainly split open when boiled, there's no way to avoid it, it would be best to cook them using another method. Be aware that once eggs are cracked they no longer have protection against microbes, if you don't know how long they have been cracked it may be best to throw them away.


How long can century eggs last refrigerated and unrefrigerated? How long can century eggs last for refrigerated and unrefrigerated? I have some slightly cracked eggs from a friend who has stored it for months in his refrigerator.

A few comments from this blog have suggested people have eaten unrefrigerated century eggs stored in a pantry for half a year with no ill effects.

Edit: It tasted great.

Was the limestone and hay wrapper cracked or the egg shells?
Century eggs are really only a few weeks-months old, actually. Though they do keep for long periods at room temperature. They're also damn tasty and have a lot of ammonia i.e. Very high PH (basic) so unlikely to spoil.


Washing oil off of hands I made a recipe that was more hands-on and the recipe had a decent amount of oil, so I was wondering what is the most efficient way to get the oil off? I tried wiping my hands before washing them, but there is still a feel of the oil.

Wipe your hands with a cloth. If there are still traces of oil, wash your hands but  use dish soap.
Otherwise, get gloves while doing hands-on baking next time.


What cultures can be added to pasteurized milk to allow it to clabber like raw milk? I have a dairy cow, and when I leave its raw milk on the counter for a couple of days, I end up with clabber (also called clabbered milk). However, I am not willing to take the risk of consuming non-pasteurized milk products during a global health pandemic. I want to try out some recipes that use uncooked clabber. And since there are cultures that can be added to pasteurized milk to make kefir, yogurt, and cheeses, I thought surely there must be some that can be added to make clabber! Alas, I have not been able to find any information on this.
What specific bacterial, fungal, or yeast cultures can be added to pasteurized milk to create clabber?

I have made something like a yoghurt using just kefir and pasteurized milk. One of the two bottles was in equilibrium. Sour and with bubbles. Not so lucky though with the other bottle as it was more like yeast in taste.


Getting over the taste of chili pepper I'm planning a chili pepper degustation together with some friends who are likewise interested in cooking.

We're planning to taste a number of different peppers both to better understand when to prefer one over the other and simply because it's a fun idea.
We'll be working our way up in hotness and inevitably everyone will reach their limit of acceptable hotness.

Is there any food or beverage that can be consumed to lessen the effects of chili pepper once someone has reached their limits?
As a counter example I've heard drinking water is a bad idea, as it helps break down remaining pieces of pepper which will in turn make you feel the taste more.

Not to be confused with this question that asks how to reduce chili pepper hotness prior to eating, I'm looking for a remedy for after eating the pepper.

Milk or milk-based products generally help lessen the hotness after eating chili peppers. At least it works for me.

Some people go for plain bread, I didn't try it yet so I can't say for sure if it helps.


What does the refrigerator crisper compartment actually do? In most refrigerators you will be able to find a compartment for your vegetables and fruits. This compartment is called the crisper and it is supposedly able to keep your vegetables and fruits fresh longer.

How do these crispers keep the vegetables fresh longer? I personally don't really notice much of a different between storing the vegetables in the crisper compared to the rest of the refrigerator.

Does the crisper provide a better environment for your vegetables to last longer? And if so what qualities of this environment is doing this?

The crisper provides a somewhat enclosed environment, which prevents moisture from escaping as rapidly. Vegetables keep best at a certain humidity, higher than that typically found in the rest of the fridge, but not so high that condensation starts accumulating on them. Vegetables kept in too-dry air in the rest of the fridge will tend to dry out and shrivel up faster; those kept in the crisper will retain their water and texture better, keeping them crisp.

Leafy vegetables are also much more prone to drying out, since they have much more surface area, while hardier vegetables with a decent skin on them (like bell peppers) don't dry out nearly as quickly. Fruits benefit somewhat from this as well, but don't generally need as high a humidity as vegetables.

Some crisper drawers have little sliders on them which vary the size of the opening to the rest of the fridge, letting you vary the amount of circulation and therefore the humidity; you can adjust this to suit what you tend to store in the drawer. If you have two crisper drawers, both adjustable, then it might be a good idea to put fruit and hardier vegetables in one, and more vulnerable vegetables in the other.


Is poaching a foie gras torchon really necessary? Is poaching the torchon really necessary?

Can't I skip the poaching and just wrap, chill, and serve?

Poaching a foie gras torchon is not necessary. Essentially, the liver is a cured charcuterie before the poaching step would occur. From this  Serious Eats  method of preparation:

To Cook or Not To Cook?
At this stage, the most classical of recipes will have you poach your torchon in a bath of sub-simmering hot water for about 20 minutes, long enough to bring the whole thing into the range of 130 to 140°F, effectively cooking it. More modern recipes, such as Thomas Keller's go for a much, much shorter cooking time—about 90 seconds. Tasted side by side, I've always preferred the shorter cooking time. The foie is denser, has a more buttery texture, and doesn't leak as much fat when you slice it or eat it.
I always wondered why this was until I came to what was a pretty obvious realization: Thomas Keller's 90-second poached torchon is essentially uncooked. I stuck a thermometer into a torchon during its simmer and measured the internal temperature. It started at around 40°F, and finished exactly where it started. Aside from the outer few millimeters, absolutely no cooking occurs in a 90-second poached foie. No wonder the texture is so significantly different—we're essentially eating raw cured liver here!
There is, however, a good reason to poach the foie, even if it's only for a brief period: The exterior layers soften enough that you can wrap the cheesecloth even tighter, giving you a better looking finished product. That Thomas Keller poach is really all about appearances!

For those not familiar, this article from  D'Artagnan  explains the differences in foie gras terrine and foie gras torchon. (No endorsement intended, just good info.)


How can I prepare freshwater fish without completely cooking it? Can I eat freshwater fish raw? Besides a complete cooking like frying, baking, BBQ or smoking is there any other way to prepare freshwater fish that would render it safe to eat in a sushi type application?

Other than catching it deep in the ocean, probably not.

The closer to land the fish is caught, the more likely it is to be carrying parasites. You can flash freeze fish to kill the parasites, but it is virtually impossible to achieve temperatures that low with noncommercial equipment.


How does one begin to create salsa? Let me start by saying that I am not a cook by any means.

Now, I love salsa and I always have, but mostly I just get store brands. I've had homemade salsa before and it tends to be a lot more flavorful, and for that reason I'd like to try my hand at making some.

What exactly is "salsa" defined as? What are the core ingredients? Is it cheaper to make it myself or to buy it from the store? If I make it myself, about how long is the shelf life?

I realize that salsa tends to be pretty simple to make, but I see so many variations, and internet searches bring me many different recipes.

What will I need to get started?

Recipes
As far as salsa recipes go, they're all over the web. Check sites like allrecipes.com or epicurious.com - - or justrightmenus.com!

Shelf Life

Refrigerator. With regard to shelf life, according to stilltasty.com, you're only going to get 5-7 days out of fresh salsa in the refrigerator.
Freezer. The same source says you can keep it for 1-2 months in the freezer. Use containers meant for storing frozen foods (they make plastic lidded containers for this very purpose), and leave "headspace" in the container (room for expansion as the liquid freezes). If you opt for freezing, you can use any recipe you'd like. Food safety won't be an issue so much as quality would. For example, I would not recommend freezing a melon salsa, though it's great fresh.
Canning. You also could pressure can your salsa. The National Center for Home Food Preservation is the best resource to learn to can. If you opt for canning, be sure to follow a trusted canning recipe - you can't just can any old recipe. I would use one off the National Center's site.

Cost Comparison
It all depends on what you make and the price of your ingredients, of course. If I can get cheap salsa at cost X and expensive, tasty salsa and cost 2X, my goal in making my own is to achieve great taste at a cost less than 2X. My homemade blueberry jam costs me about $2 per jar, much more expensive than generic jam; however, good blueberry jam is about $5 at the store.

Incidentally, I'll be making salsa this summer once I can get lots of cheap tomatoes. Keep an eye on jessica.mcrackan.com late in the summer if you'd like some real examples and cost comparisons.


Freezing a chicken in a bag I bought a chicken that you cook in the bag. I put it in the freezer, when I took it out to thaw, I read on bag "Do not freeze".
Will it be safe to eat?

As far as food safety is concerned you should be absolutely in the clear - frozen food lasts way longer than refrigerated.

But I see two points why the manufacturer might advise not to freeze the chicken:

Sometimes chicken is treated (aka infused) with water and spices which plumps up the meat. The excess water might increase the cell damage that is inevitable when freezing meat, leading to more water loss when thawing / cooking and ironically "drier" meat than untreated. This may or may not be the case. The manufacturer might just want to avoid the inevitable quality loss any meat faces when frozen. Especially as the "ready to cook" packages contain a lot of air, which may lead to freezer burn over time.
If the chicken is intended to be cooked in the bag, this means the bag is food-safe and heat-proof, but not necessarily freezer-proof. Plastic foils for freezing need special chemical / physical properties or they might become brittle at very low temperatures, causing them to develop small cracks or tears, which can favour freezer-burn or, in a later step, lead to a leaking package when preparing the chicken. You didn't post the instructions for cooking or roasting the chicken, just be aware of the fact that the package may leak a bit and use a tray below in the oven.

Note that some manufacturers / sellers give freezing instructions for their chicken packs:
Morrison supermarkets PLC writes

  Suitable for home freezing.
  Freeze on day of purchase and use within 1 month.
  Defrost in a refrigerator overnight.
  Once thawed do not refreeze.


Flank steak came out chewy this time. What's to blame? I have stir fried flank steak about 5 times now, but this time it came out really chewy.  Is this because I may have cooked it longer than usually?  Or is it the meat or some other factor?

Here is the procedure I followed:

Cut it across the fibers (perpendicular) into 1/4" wide slices.
Marinated the pieces for about 10 minutes in a little soy, wine, and aromatics.
Cooked on really high heat for 1 minutes, stir fried for another 2 minutes.
Took it out. Put it back in and stir fried for another 1-2 minutes.

Perhaps it's because you used grass-fed instead of corn-fed beef. Grass-fed beef tends to be more chewy and flank steaks aren't exactly the most tender of cuts when stir-fried.

It also seems that the slices may have been in the pan/wok a tad too long, especially when they aren't particularly thick.

You could try using a fruit-based marinade that includes pineapples or papayas. They're known to have enzymes which break down meat fibres exceptionally well. I've found that they're far more effective than purely acidic marinades when applied to meats.


What type of chocolate is in chocolate chip ice cream I want to make homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream but I'm not sure what type of chocolate to use.  It seems like the chips in most ice cream are actually chunks of a thin sheet of dark chocolate that's much crunchier than if you just chopped up a bar of chocolate.

Does anyone know what type of chocolate chips are used in most ice creams and where I can buy them or how I can make them?

If they are crunchy when frozen they are probably made from regular compound chocolate, not freezing grade chocolate

You should be able to buy compound chocolate "chips" from any food wholesaler or baking supply store. They are the same as used in chocolate muffins

For frozen chocolate to still have a chocolate feel and taste when eaten it needs to be made with peanut oil (or similar) so as to have a melt point more like chocolate at room temperature when frozen

Regular "Real" chocolate can end up being like eating crayons

Real chocolate with a low cocoa butter, but high cocoa solid level generally freeze much better

Chocolate chips often come in 3kg or 5 kg bags, if you are not using them in a hurry, keep the surplus in the freezer :-)


What is the best way to cook chicken if I plan on microwaving it a few days later? I'm going to start meal-prep sunday soon (in about a month). Basically I'm going to be making all of my meals on sunday and eating them throughout the week. I'm loving the idea but I'm a little worried about my chicken. I love chicken but whenever I broil it (I don't own a grill) and then microwave it a few days later, it's extremely dry. Marinating isn't an option (I'm going to be cooking with a lot of people who have a whole bunch of different allergies), so I'm stuck to salt/pepper.

I'll probably buy chicken breast most of the time but an answer about any kind of meat (other than ground) would be extremely helpful.

How should I cook so that it's not dry when I microwave it?

Under such tight restrictions, one step that might help is brining. This would apply to chicken breasts, pork loin, or pretty much any other lean meat; darker cuts such as chicken thighs will benefit less, but there's no reason you can't brine those if you want to.

You can find a quick primer about how and why this works here; in short, brining denatures some of the proteins that "squeeze" moisture out of the meat as it cooks, which reduces moisture loss in the finished product. You don't really need anything other than salt, water, and time, though many recipes will call for additional flavoring agents.

Make sure that you don't overcook to begin with. If you can, get a thermometer and measure the meat's internal temperature. Here is a decent guide to the recommended temperatures for various types of meat; remember that you want to cook to slightly below these temperatures to allow for carryover.

From personal experience I would advise you to vary your technique and try to cook different variations on the same basic food; this guards against boredom, and makes it easier to stick to a regimen of weekly meal prep. Instead of broiling, cook your chicken on the stove, then make a basic pan sauce to serve over it, which will add moisture and flavor. If chicken thighs are on sale, get some and braise them instead (you don't need to bother with brining if you do this). This takes some time to cook, but it's very easy, and they'll reheat well for days.


Tamales with rendered turkey fat and clarified butter - No pork? A friend of mine is coming back into town tomorrow and I have been planning a dinner for the occasion. I have been planning on making tamales out of leftover turkey. We talked earlier and she told me that she loves tamales, but she reminded me that she doesn't eat pork.

Oops, it's a good thing that I haven't made them yet, I would have used lard mixed with some bacon fat I have in the fridge. I don't have shortening, but I have about half the necessary rendered turkey fat, and I have plenty of butter.

For the tamale dough I plan to follow Rick Bayless's recipe.

Would a mixture of rendered turkey fat and clarified butter be an appropriate substitute for the lard in that recipe? Is clarifying the butter necessary step?

[Edit] after discussion in comments and in chat, I'd like to add one thing. I like tamales per Rick Bayless's method. I'm really not interested in reducing the fat, only in not using pork fat.

I recommend clarifying the butter first, and then using it for your tamales. Butter is about 16-18% water, which could significantly affect the fat content of the dish. If you do that, it should work fine from a mechanical perspective; the melting points and viscosity are similar enough. I think you may run the risk of being slightly distracted by the flavor. Maybe that's a good thing? I make butter/flour tortillas all the time and those are freaking delicious.

The safer bet, of course, would be to try and find some chicken fat. If you can't, I'd definitely use the clarified butter though. Who knows, it might be your new go-to secret ingredient for tamales!

::Columbo voice:: Just one more thing.
If this person is avoiding pork because she's eating kosher, using butter with meat is likely a no no as well!

Good luck!


How to preserve herbal syrup or herbs that will be used to make syrup? I want to preserve my windowsill herbs before the plants die back, and my idea is to make herbal syrups for lemonades or cocktails. (Possibly even meat sauces.) The method I'll use is a cold, dry maceration - bruising herbs in sugar and leaving them in the fridge for a day or two for the sugar to absorb the flavour, and only using enough heat to dissolve the sugar later.

While this makes for superior flavour, the lack of boiling makes this prone to spoiling - my previous batches had weird gunk floating in them eventually.

I've read in other questions that freezing herbs alone can diminish their flavours. Can I, say freeze 1:1 or 2:1 syrup without this happening as well? Or maybe just freeze the sugar-herb mush once it's done macerating? (I'm hoping the flavours being bound in the sugar might help.)

Remember that whatever method of preservation you use you will always lose some flavor, there's no way to keep it all.

If you want to make a syrup for long term preservation then freezing them is your best bet unless you want to add preservatives which you don't really need to do if you have a freezer. A smart way to do it would be to pour the syrups into ice cube trays, then once frozen pop them out into zip lock freezer bags so you can use the trays for other things, and keep the ice from sublimating. I'm in favor of straining the syrup first, that way the cubes are ready as soon as they come out of the freezer.

Depending on the herb it may be more efficient to simply freeze the herbs directly. Thick herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme will do just fine while others like basil and parsley will turn to mush and you'll lose flavor.

Have you considered drying them? It's not hard to do, and there's plenty of how-tos out there, may be the best solution for thin herbs.


Anyone know of any completely flavorless syrups? I'm looking for a syrup that has absolutely no flavor... not even the sweetness you find. Just as bland as you can get it (think water). I need this syrup to absorb other flavors as I'm trying to make something savory but the natural sweetness in corn syrup or vegetable glycerin is destroying it. Anyone know of any?

Thanks

A syrup is by definition a thick sweet liquid made using sugar. If you are looking to make a thick savory liquid, perhaps you want to look into thickening agents. Starches and plant-based gums are the most common thickening agents. Some examples include:

Starches: arrowroot, cornstarch, potato starch, tapioca
Plant-base gums: guar gum, xanthum gum, alginin

Each of these will have its own unique qualities so you might want to research further into which meets your need best.

The two thickener that will most likely result in a clear, "smooth" thickness that is slightly similar to a syrup would be likely gelatin or pectin. However both of these will be much thicker at cooler temperatures. So depending on your application you will need to alter the concentration. Meaning, if your savory liquid is suppose to be consumed at room temperature or cooler, make sure not to added too much of gelatin or pectin. Try to test the thickness of your savory solution by taking a small sample aside and chilling it to room temperature.


What pot size for 150 servings of sauce? I am cooking spaghetti meat sauce for approximately 150 people. I can cook the sauce, but I have never cooked for such a large group before, what size pot is recommended?

I would make up a small test batch and measure the amount of sauce you think is sufficient per person.  It will vary significantly on the type of sauce, how "hearty" or rich it is, and whether you'll have a lot of side dishes or whether spaghetti is the only main dish.

Anyhow, once you decide on a typical portion, then just multiply the amount by 150 to see the total volume.  For a typical example:

If you assume 1/2 cup (4 ounces) per person (probably the absolute minimum you'd need), that would be 4*150 = 600 ounces.  Since there's 32 ounces per quart, that comes to 18.75 quarts
.
If you assume 2/3 cup per person, that's 5.33 ounces*150 = 800 ounces/32 = 25 quarts.  That might be a reasonable assumption for many sauces if there's just a single measured serving given to everyone.

If it's self-serve or "all-you-can-eat" or whatever, you might need a LOT more.

Always remember with a large pot that you'll need to allow space for headroom.  If you want to cook 25 quarts of sauce, I'd use at least a 30-quart pot.

All of that said, unless you have experience cooking with large pots and have access to a stove with sufficient power and room (large pots are very wide and often quite tall), I'd recommend using multiple smaller pots.  Sauce often needs frequent stirring, and that can be difficult with a very tall stockpot or something.  Also, with a very large pot, it can often take a long time for the food to get to an appropriate hot temperature, so be sure your meat sauce is "safe" and heats fast enough.

(EDIT: I would clarify that the above is assuming an "American-style" spaghetti dinner.  Traditional pasta in Italy served with red sauce usually has much less sauce, probably half of the above amounts.  Again, I'd recommend making a test batch and measuring the amount you think is "correct" for your style of dish.)


What is the "porky" taste in certain types of pork? I recently made a simple pasta dish with minced pork and I noticed that the taste was very "porky" or I think some people call it "gamey," and I found it quite unpleasant.

I rarely cook with pork mince, so this surprised me. I'm used to pork flavours from dishes with cuts like tenderloin, or the classic loin porkchops (cuts which don't tend to have a lot of thick fat, or are not super close to skin). These usually have that funky smell when cooking (frying in a pan) that I'm used to, but the minced meat retained a lot of that unpleasant flavour. It's a little difficult to find words to describe it.

I read up about lamb potentially tasting "gamey" from ChefSteps (due to oxidising), and they solved this by introducing a lot of antioxidants - mustard powder, black pepper, salt. Could this be related?

Is there a word for this? Is it porky, gamey, etc?

How would I go on about preventing this porky flavour? Is it possible with things like minced pork meat?

As I am sure you know, different species have different flavors...beef tastes like beef...chicken tastes like chicken...and, well, pork tastes like pork.  Further, when animals are butchered, we find that different parts of the same animal have different flavors.  Further still, the animals diet before slaughter greatly impacts the flavor we perceive.  Finally, after butchering and during storage and transportation decay begins, and meats can pick up flavors from storage settings.  Then there is cooking, where method and seasoning impact flavor.

All of this is to say, that it would be fairly difficult to pinpoint your particular version of "porky", what that means, and what to do about it.  I think the best advice I might come up with is to try a different producer of pork mince...or purchase a larger cut and mince your own.  Maybe, it will turn out, that you just don't like pork...so move on and use something else.


monster egg . how to I recently found a recipe for making a monster egg... i think it may have been medieval. The recipe required 6 eggs for yolk and white. the yolk and whites would be separated into 2 pigs bladders and respectively poached.

I would like to attempt recreating the recipe.

I don't have access to pigs bladders, or at least I have no desire to use one. Is there anything anyone could recommend? I wondered about sausage casings but they aren't circular/egg shaped.

It would also be very cool if I could make the egg a shell. I am unsure what material I could do this with... I’m imagining a savoury version of a thin meringue... is there even such a thing? or is there something better suited? and how might this casing be cooked or attached? (In my mind I'm imagining blowtorching the meringue, baked alaska style... however, I don't think this results in a crisp casing.)

On request from Jefromi, here is an edit:
 I would like to discuss how a giant egg might be created in the simplest way possible, that looks and tastes like an egg, albeit large.

I would suggest finding a heat-resistant balloon of some sort, or a relatively spherical plastic bag, or even a round bag made from linen muslin. You steam the yolks in a small balloon, then cut it away once they're set.  Then you immerse this yolk in the whites, in a bigger balloon, and once again steam/boil this until set, and cut away the outer balloon.  This is based on one version of the Giant Egg recipe, where the egg parts were cooked in bottles which were then broken away.

If you want a shell, then your instinct for meringue, probably cooked with a blowtorch, might work, although it would be hard to avoid browning.  If you want something white, I'd suggest piping (and smoothing) royal icing in coils until you shell the whole egg.  This will dry quite hard and then can be cracked away for dramatic effect.

Note, though, that the monster egg won't be terribly good to eat.  The yolk will be way overcooked, as will the outer layers of the white, and pretty much certainly the yolk will have sunk to the bottom of the whites before they set.  And, ultimately, it's just a giant boiled egg. The purpose of this dish, like many other showpieces, is to be seen and not necessarily eaten.

Thanks for a fun and very original question, though!  And if you make it, send me a picture.


Consistently getting cannoli shells off their molds easily When I fry cannoli shells, I find that about a quarter of them -- apparently at random -- stick to their molds so that they are hard or impossible to remove without breaking.

The two tactics I use to combat this -- which do make a difference, but not 100% -- are to spray the molds fairly heavily with vegetable oil before wrapping the sheets, and to wrap loosely. I don't roll the sheet tightly around the mold.

When unmolding, I've found it best to wait until the shells are completely cool. Then, for the ones that stick, gripping the shell (as firmly as possible without immediately shattering it) and gently twisting either it or the mold often helps it break free. Sometimes the shell is damaged in the process, though, and sometimes it won't come off at all without being smashed.

The dough is made with vegetable shortening (lard isn't an option, unfortunately: they need to be vegetarian), all-purpose flour, wine, and sugar, and rolled out to translucency on a pasta machine. I'm extremely happy with the product, but I'm open to changing the formulation if evidence suggests that e.g., there's too much moisture. (Although on that point, I've tried making the dough as dry as possible while still coming together, and it didn't seem to have an effect.)

What other possibilities am I missing? What can I do to make unmolding more reliable?

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. I've found that simply increasing the amount of oil on the molds makes the shells slip off cleanly every time.

There needs to be a visibly thick layer of oil on the parts of the mold that the sheet touches. I've taken to using pourable vegetable (canola) oil rather than spray. I have the molds in a pan, pour the oil over them, and then take care to roll each mold in the oil to coat it thoroughly before wrapping a sheet around it.

It's surprising to me that so much oil is required when the thing is about to be submerged in oil, but it does make a considerable difference, and doesn't seem to affect the texture of the shell.


How many different varieties of 'pancake' are there? I'm not talking about ingredient differences like adding blueberries or chocolate chips, or even buttermilk or cooked pumpkin to the batter ...

How many fundamentally different regional types of 'pancake' are there?  Either stuff called a 'pancake' or 'pan cake' in English, or where the literal translation to English is 'pan cake', even if it's qualified in some way (eg, a 'potato pancake')

(I'm not interested solely in wheat batter based pancakes ... I'm actually interested in finding items that are the furthest away from American pancakes, but that some group would still call a 'pancake')

update : oddly enough, this is indirectly a followup to my question on overpressurizing whipped cream.  It was for a contest at my place of work called "Your Science as Food", and well, I won, so I'm trying to come up with a follow-up for next year.  I've done the heliophysics theme for the last two years, by "my science" is actually information science, so I was thinking about having an exhibit with lots of 'pancake' items, and having a little survey of 'is it a pancake?' similar to this But Is It a Sandwich? survey, and want to find things that people will have to think about for a while if it's a 'pancake' or not.

I'm not going to accept this as an answer, but as Community has decided to give it a nudge.

I wrote up my little 'experiment' after I did it.

Although culinarily, a pancake would be something from a batter that is self-leveling, there seem to be a few other categories that many people may not consider 'pancakes' based on their upbringing :

Items made from shredded vegetables, with starch or an egg as a binder : latkes (Jewish; aka 'potato pancakes'), okonomiyaki (Japan), jeon (Korea), kartoffelpuffer (Germany)
Dough that is rolled out very thin and then cooked on a griddle or in a pan: roti (India), some varieties of bing (China, eg. 'scallion pancakes' (cong you bing) and 'mandarin pancakes' (bao bing)).  Note that this would also include South American tortillas and many flatbreads.  (although not classic preparations of naan (India) which is made in a tandoor)
Batter or gruel that is spread out, rather than self-leveling: crêpes (France), dosa (India), matafan (France), some styles of jonnycakes (USA), some styles of hoecakes (USA)

For the self-leveling batter-based pancakes, we can still divide them up into a few categories, as not everyone considered all of them pancakes:

large, thin, and unleavened: pancakes (England), pannekoeken (Netherlands), pannkakor (Sweden), pannekaken (Norway), pfannkuchen (Germany)
Leavened, cooked in a depression (not a flat griddle or pan), may be rotated during cooking: poffertjes (Netherlands), æbleskiver (Denmark), takoyaki (Japan)
Unleavened (other than whipped air & steam) cooked in a vessel in the oven: Dutch babies (USA), pannukakku (Finland), Yorkshire pudding (England).  May include other popovers.
Leavened, cooked on a pan or griddle: drop scone (UK), pancakes (USA; aka flapjacks, griddlecakes), pancakes (Scotland; aka 'Scotch pancake'), pikelet (Australia), some styles of jonnycakes (USA), some styles of hoecakes (USA)

I'm not sure how to classify the following:

injera (Ethiopia); might be self-leveling, but is poured in a spiral (so either pancake variety 4 or non-pancake variety 3).  Also not flipped, which is abnormal for griddle-cooked pancakes.
kanom krok (Thailand); cooked in a depression like pancake variety 3, but assembled like a sandwich rather than being individually flipped.
kaiserschmarrn (Austria); either mixed during cooking or cut up after making a pancake of variety 4.


Changing a vegan cookie recipe? I am tyring to cut refined sugar from my diet and I have Celiac disease so no gluten is a must. Both of these things make baking a challenge. I have been using a mixture of coconut palm sugar and pure maple syrup and am liking both the flavor and the results.

So, I find a pumpkin oatmeal cookie recipe and get to making it before I realize it has no eggs.  The resulting cookie is okay, not bad really, but not "cookie texture" to say the least.  I want to add an egg next time to add structure and chewiness but since the batter is already quite wet, what should I add (more flour? more oats?) so that the cookie dough isn't a gummy mess?

1 cup quick cooking (GF) oats,
3/4 cup flour (GF),
1/4 tsp sea salt,
1 tsp cinnamon,
1/4 tsp nutmeg,
1/4 tsp ginger,
1-1/2 tsp baking powder,
3/4 cup pumpkin puree,
1/2 cup maple syrup,
3 Tbs coconut oil (melted and cooled),
1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then stir to combine.
Bake on in a pre-heated, 350 degree oven for 11-15 minutes.  Use parchment paper to avoid cookies sticking to the pan.

NOTE: I do not need exact measurements to try - I have baked all my life.  Just an idea of what to increase, add or subtract.

There are a couple of things in that recipe that appear to be used as an egg replacement:

Pumpkin puree - usual rule (as far as I'm aware) is to use 1/4 cup per egg. This is particularly good for adding moisture, so reducing this would be a good start. Baking powder can also be used in conjunction with this to leaven the mixture.
Coconut oil can also used as an egg substitute in the right context. Honey (or, as this is a vegan recipe, maple syrup) can also be used in conjunction with this, as can baking powder. However, baking powder and to a lesser extent, honey/maple syrup could still appear in a recipe before the egg has been substituted.

All in all, my suggestion would be to first reduce the amount of pumpkin puree (or possibly even remove the pumpkin puree entirely).

An alternative (although possibly a less effective one) to this, or if removing the pumpkin puree doesn't manage the job, would be to cut down on the amount of coconut oil. As you've mentioned that you like maple syrup, cutting down on that would be the last resort.

There is a question of whether the baking powder is also used to help with the lack of eggs, but baking powder often appears in recipes with eggs as well, so qualifying whether or not to get rid of baking powder is more likely to be dependent on the flour (self raising or not) used.


Why is my homemade pork sausage rubbery? We just made some pork sausage and fryed up a patty to check the spicing.  The taste is fine but the patty is rubbery in texture.  What did we do wrong or not add to the mix?

You may have ground your pork too fine (or over mixed it) -- you want to use a relatively coarse grind with a lot of fat when you are making pork sausage.


How much acid to use for stabilizing meringue? After reading up on the proper books, I started adding some acid when beating meringues. At home, I use cream of tartar, but when I am baking at somebody else's kitchen, I am lucky if they have at least some citric acid; cream of tartar is a huge rarity here.

The trouble is that the books don't specify a ratio. They speak of throwing in "a pinch", suggesting that the exact amount is not that important. In my experience, this is not true.

I have had meringues fail despite cream of tartar. They went from a runny mess to an overtightened stiff layer floating on water without a noticeable sweet spot inbetween. I admit that I may have used the wrong whipping speed (this happens especially often when I whip by hand), but 1) I can't attribute it to speed alone, and 2) this is exactly the kind of problem I hope the acid works against.

Then again, I have whipped beautiful meringues with acid. Cream of tartar helps there too, but citric acid frequently gives me a great texture from a single pinch (maybe 1.5 g) per 2-3 eggwhites. The meringue gets smooth and glossy, with robust little bubbles, and holds without deflating when folded into other ingredients, even during a not-so-gentle macaronage. The problem: at this concentration, the sour taste is already very noticeable. In some very sweet applications, this still works, but most times it adulterates the taste.

So, what is the minimal ratio at which acid works (given a sensible technique - forget hand whipping for now?) And what is the maximum ratio at which acid is still undetectable in taste? I am interested in both cream of tartar and citric acid here.

As there are multiple types of meringues, I imagine the core of this question is really the effect of acid on egg white foaming.

According to KATERYNA LOMAKINA and KAMILA MÍKOVÁ writing in the Czeck Journal of Food Science, there is a moderately complex relationship between pH of the egg whites, and its foaming capacity (overrun) and the stability of the foam:

  By the addition of a small amount
  of 1N H2 SO4  or NaOH to  the liquid egg white (pH values: 9.5, 8.6,
  6.3, 4.7,
  3.1, 1.0), NAKAMURA and SATO (1964b) obtained  a great foaming capacity at the neutral and acidic  pHs except at the exceedingly
  acidic pH (pH 1.0).  The foam stability was high at pH 8.6, the pH of
  the natural egg white, and decreased with changing pH.

  With an aqueous
  egg albumen solution, HAMMERSHØJ and LARSEN (1999) established that
  the foam overrun was the highest at pH 4.8 and  the lowest at pH 10.7.
  The foam stability against  drainage was the best at pH 7.0 after 30
  min, but  on a long-term scale the foam at pH 4.8 was the  most
  resistant to drainage. This is the result of the  more rigid behaviour
  of the surface at pH 4.8 and  the formation of small bubbles,
  therefore a slow  drainage of liquid from the foam, lower dynamic
  surface tension causing the high overrun.

The conclusion is that you will get the most volume of foam at moderately acidic pH around 4.8, but the best stability of the foam once created at the alkaline pH of egg whites.

The moral seems to be that for stable egg foam, not to add acid.

Later in the article, they also indicate that volume can be increased without ill effects by adding up to 40% more water to the egg whites.

Also, adding sugar to the egg whites inhibits foaming, requiring more agitation to form the foam.


How do you prepare a steak to be rare and very rare (blue)? I really enjoy steak, and the lowest I've gone is medium rare in terms of how it's prepared.

My questions are:

How do you prepare a steak to be rare?

How do you prepare a steak to be very rare (blue)?

Can these be prepared with any kind of steak from a supermarket?  Or is there someplace special these kinds of steaks should be purchased from?

I'm interested in trying rare and maybe even very rare, but it's 1-2 steps away from raw, which I find a little uneasy.

The only real bacterial problem you have to worry about with steak is e. coli, which lives on the outside. Since even in a blue application the outside is cooked sufficiently to kill any bacteria, you should be fine. (Presuming you are using fresh steak, naturally).

For blue: get a pan screaming--and I mean screaming--hot. Toss the steak in to sear, flip to sear the other side. Do edges if needed. Serve immediately.

For rare, just do the steak in a normal pan or grill, flip once, about two minutes per side (less if the steak is very thin).

For both blue and rare applications you will want steaks that are on the thick side, and with not much marbling (intramuscular fat), as the short cooking time won't melt the fats. I suggest tenderloin/filet.


substitute for tuna in Poke I like Poke, but prefer to avoid tuna (due to sustainability concerns).

I tried with salmon and it was a mixed result. The taste was good, but too many bones and hard stuff, at least in the particular piece I got. Is there a way to avoid that with salmon, maybe a particular cut?

Otherwise, what would be a good meaty fish alternative? Halibut, perhaps?

short answer: octopus, salmon, shellfish

long answer:

Traditional forms are aku (an oily tuna) and he'e (octopus)... (aka)"Tako" Poke...

ahi poke is generally made with yellowfin tuna... raw salmon or various shellfish as a main ingredient...


How do I calculate the nutritional values of a recipe? I love to cook and experiment with recipes. While I'm aware that calories are not a perfect measure of what makes you gain weight and what doesn't, I would still love to have a rough idea of the energy values of the dishes I'm preparing, and ideally be able to fiddle with the ingredients just to see what happens to the calorie count.

How would I best approach this?

My vision is that of a tool that

lets you enter a recipe's ingredients and amounts, and can calculate an approximate calorie count for the most common ingredients
ideally, lets you add other ingredients and their energy values?

I know for a fact there is software like this, but all the good products I've seen are for professional diet advisors, nutritional consultants and the like, and tend to be very expensive.

I guess the basic functionality could be achieved with an Excel sheet, but where to get high-quality nutritional data from? Are there industry-standard databases for this?

This question matches mine in the title, but seems to be more about the calorie differences between cooked and raw food, which is not my concern.

Lose It!, a free weight-loss site, has this feature. To use it I think you need to start an account. To access it, you hit the Settings tab and then select Recipes in the left-hand column. Then select "New" and follow the prompts. This calculator allows you to enter the ingredients of a dish you are preparing. Most common ingredients will pop-up in the site's list with their respective caloric values. You can also manually enter in the values if you know them or if the ingredient is not in their list. You then set the "serving size" of your dish as its total volume. Then, when you enter in the amount you are eating into your daily food log, the site automatically shows you the caloric value of your portion.

The fifth screenshot here, shows you what it looks like.


Why does pasta dough need to be kneaded for such a long time? Some dough recipes caution that we shouldn't knead the dough for too long, lest it become too tough to be rolled as thin and wide as the recipe calls for. Why isn't the same thing true about pasta dough, which needs to be kneaded for more than 10 minutes?

Kneading aids gluten development, which does facilitate dough stretch-ability.  You do need to let the dough rest, after kneading.  This allows for hydration, but also lets the gluten structure "relax" so that the dough can be stretched. Gluten development also impacts crumb texture.  So, for, say biscuits, you would not want to knead and develop gluten. For pasta and pizza you are looking for a different final texture/chew.


How to improve my Lemon Pepper Tuna? I am a tuna fan. I usually pour it from a tin onto a sandwich without cooking it. Yet there is one kind of tuna that is a problem for me: tinned "lemon pepper" tuna. I don't mind a bit of pepper kick. But a certain well known brand makes lemon pepper tuna that to me is uneatable; the pepper is so strong and abrasive that my mouth is on fire but in a really nasty way.

In my kitchen cupboard I must have about 20 tins of this stuff. I have a tin in my hand now. Ingredients: skipjack tuna, 59%, water. lemon juice, 10%, sunflower oil, black pepper, salt, traces of wheat, milk, egg, crustacea, soy and sesame. [yes, I know I also wonder what formed the 31%]

Is there any way of making this stuff less of a nuclear bomb taste? I have to have any one tin at the time for food safety; I don't keep anything from a tin stored in a fridge. So any idea of having a little bit with something else doesn't work. Is there any strategy? Reducing the taste somehow? Masking it with something else? Reducing acidity if that helps?

I can't throw it to the birds or cats. I have found that animals don't touch tinned fish of any type. Don't know why.

Create a patè by mixing it with a good store bought mayo (or cream cheese), scallions and parsley. Or drop directly into a big bowl of pasta with some fresh tomatoes&basil and let the steam do it's job.

I don't know, but usually that's how I eat tuna.


Why is salt sometimes ingredient of otherwise sweet cookies? In some recipes for muffins, biscuits or cakes I find small amounts of salt as an ingredient (Chocolate cake, Banana muffin). Why? What can a pinch of salt add to the bowl of chocolate?

Great question.  the salt is not there for the taste of salt. A pinch of salt helps with the ionization process so your taste buds can pick up the tsate of the chocolate, ice cream, etc, better.

I think this was discussed in an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats as well.


What is "pizza crust yeast"? Someone gave me a bunch of envelopes of pizza crust yeast, "specially formulated for pizza crust". The packets also say that no rise time or proofing is needed, and that it's "NOT recommended for bread baking." The ingredients are yeast, enzymes, sorbitan monostearate, l-cysteine, and ascorbic acid. It does provide a recipe for pizza crust, with just mixing and a bit of kneading.

What has actually been done to this yeast to make it work like this? (What are those enzymes?) And is there any way I can use it for other things, or is it really only good for things like pizza crust?

It sounds like you have Fleischman's Pizza Crust Yeast (or a no-doubt quite similar product if from another manufacturer).  The relevant phrase from the Fleischman marketing web site is:

  Pizza Crust Yeast is specially-formulated with dough relaxers that
  keep the dough from pulling or snapping back when shaping it.

It is intended to make it easier to stretch the pizza dough into shape.

The yeast itself is normal instant yeast, to the best of my knowledge—the additives in the packet are what make it "pizza crust yeast".

Researching the additional ingredients other than yeast:

Sorbitan monostearate—According to Sci Toys is an emulsifier with a polar and non-polar ends:

  Sorbitan monostearate is used as an emulsifying agent in cake mixes,
  icings, baked goods, puddings, imitation whipped cream, hemorrhoid
  creams, and creams to treat dry skin.

Cooking for Engineers mentions that this helps the dough absorb the water.
l-cysteine*—is an amino acid, which is naturally occurring, and often extracted from hair or feathers.  This article from LALLEMAND explains the science in bread dough, where it acts as a reducing agent:

  During mixing the gluten in the ﬂour is stretched and pulled apart so
  that it can be reformed during prooﬁng and baking to provide the
  needed strength and structure. Reducing agents act like mixing to
  reversibly break down gluten so that once they have been used up the
  gluten reforms. This mechanism is the opposite of oxidizing agents,
  which build up gluten. Reducing and oxidizing agent

ascorbic acid*—is of course Vitamin C, and a fairly strong acid.  According to Effect of Ascorbic Acid on the Rheological Properties
of Wheat Fermented Dough in Czeck Journal of Food Sciences, at concentrations under 0.6% it has little effect on wheat flour, so it is unlikely to have any practical effect in a full batch of pizza dough.  Its inclusion is probably (as mentioned in Cooking for Engineers) as an anti-oxidant and preservative in the packet, rather than as an active ingredient in the bread dough.
enzymes—no doubt the particular enzymes and their ratios are proprietary to the brand you have, but according to the Wikipedia article on flour treatment agents, they are used to increase transformation of starch into sugars to facilitate the action of the live yeast.  Common enzymes used include:

  Amylases break down the starch in flours into simple sugars, thereby
  letting yeast ferment quickly.
  Malt is a natural source of amylase.
  Proteases improve extensibility of the dough by degrading some of the
  gluten.
  Lipoxygenases oxidize the flour.

See also this Baker's Yeast article from Cooking for Engineers which discusses various commercially available forms of yeast.

My personal opinion is that I would not buy "pizza crust yeast," since recipes are not designed for the presence of its dough conditioners.  I would rather control my dough's ingredients myself.  However, since you have the product, why not try it using the vendor's recipe?  I would be fascinated to hear how it performs.


Lamb ribs - how to cook them I frequently buy a half or a whole lamb and always get a rack of ribs with this - but I never really know what to do with them.  I've tried roasting them (which does kind of work), and I've tried some of the recipes that you see around for pork ribs which don't seem to work with lamb.

Can anyone give me any suggestions for what to do with them?

My local lamb (grass paddock raised) just doesn't have enough fat on it to survive a "rack in the oven" experience. Hogget & mutton is fine. This may be your problem too?

So for lamb I would cleave the rack into individual ribs and BBQ on medium-high till the surface has crisped (typically twice as long as a similar beef cut). All the fat should have run. Most people I know don't like eating visible lamb fat

I lightly coat the cut meat surface with oil just before placing on BBQ to ensure an instant sear. You want the lamb to crisp without drying out

If using a wood fired BBQ drop a bunch of fresh lavender (leaf and flowers) under the grill to slightly smoke the lamb


Can I turn my marinara sauce recipe into "pizza sauce"? We're making pizza for dinner tonight, and instead of buying sauce, I'd prefer to make my own. I've never made sauce specifically for pizza before, but I often make marinara/bolognese sauces for pasta.

The base of my sauces (without any extra veggies or meat for the bolognese) is a can of tomatoes, some tomato paste, white wine, onion, garlic, chili pepper, and herbs. If I made my normal sauce and then just puréed it, would it work for my pizza? I am concerned it might not be thick enough - any suggestions?

You will need to be careful about extra liquid in your sauce.   Your base recipe should be adaptable.  Go ahead and use the garlic and onion, but I would omit the white wine.  If you are using canned whole tomatoes, drain liquid before using them.  Simmer it to reduce it down until it is "spreadable" rather than "pour-able".

We make a lot of home-made pizza sauce with canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, drained and puree'd in blender.  Salt, pepper, garlic and a few spices.  My husband loves bright red color in the sauce so a bit of citric acid does the trick.

Enjoy your pizza.


What can I use to strain gritty bloody mary mix? I like Zing Zang bloody mary mix, but it's very gritty with seasoning.  I like to pour it into a strainer to filter out the grit, but the mix is so thick that it takes forever to strain.  Not only that, it doesn't get all the grit.  A strainer with smaller holes would help keep out more grit, but the thickness of the mix would make it impossible.

I've thought of adding a cup of water to the mix to thin it out, but then I'd have to boil out the water and I don't know how to measure how much water I've boiled out nor do I know what effect boiling would have on the flavor of the bloody mary.

Any ideas?

Update: It's looking like my only option so far is to get a high-grade blender that I can use to pulverize a entire bottle of premade mix.

Line a salad spinner with cheese cloth or another lightweight cloth. Fill and spin.


How to infuse flavours in alcohol? When making lemon lime and bitters at home, I decided to try the bitters by itself (the one with the classic oversized label, I think it's Angostura).

It tastes heavily of what seemed like cloves and cinnamon, or aniseed-ish flavours and wondered "Could I somehow make a similar thing myself?"
So say I had some ratio of those dry ingredients and wanted to infuse them into some alcohol, what alcohol should I use? Would using say vodka not be a great idea due to it potentially changing the flavour?

Can you make bitters and spice-flavored tinctures at home?  Absolutely you can!  I do all the time - in fact, I've successfully engineered a couple of bitters recipes, and even gave a homemade "holiday" bitters to friends as a Christmas favor last year.  The process itself is simple and easy; what is not easy is duplicating a commercial product such as Angostura.  If you're going to try, there are a few things you need to consider.

First, extracted spice flavors will be different than the dry version.  While many flavors in various spices and herbs are alcohol-soluble, not all of them are, or at least not to the same degree.  You'll also experience the flavor differently in a liquid form, backed up by the burning sensation of alcohol.  Although you can expect to extract a very similar flavor to the raw spice, or similar to the flavor you'd get in cooking or baking, it won't be exactly the same, and thus your palate isn't always the best guide to figuring out a precise blend of dry ingredients.

A second related point is that of relative concentration and change over time.  Some flavors will extract very quickly, and very strongly; others take a while longer to mature.  Cinnamon and clove are two very potent spices that come to mind; use too much, or infuse too long, and they'll completely dominate. (Some bitters-makers get around this by infusing each of their spices separately, and blending them together until they get a desired combined flavor.)  Some spices will also develop a distinctly bitter note when infused.  Since this is in fact bitters, that's not a bad thing; but again, it will be different from what you experience in the raw version.

A third point is familiarity.  Many of the spices used to create commercial and craft bitters are quite foreign to home cooks, even those who are pretty spice-savvy.  Peppercorns, cinnamon, and dried citrus peels are all pretty common.  But I bet you don't have quassia chips, orris root, horehound, or scores of others found in bitters recipes.  So here you've got the problem that you simply may not be able to identify many or most of the constituent ingredients.  Angostura reputedly has over 30 spices and botanicals that go into the mix.  If your palate is sharp enough even to untangle them all, I salute you; if you can identify them all too, you may be superhuman.

In point of fact, it's really difficult to duplicate Angostura at home.  What you can do more easily is create similarly-styled "aromatic" bitters, or entirely original creations (I've got an apple-cranberry bitters that I'm quite proud of).  All you really need to do is add your spices to a strongly-alcoholic base and let them sit for a couple of weeks in a cool, dark place, agitating them every once in a while.  Easy, but lengthy, so trial-and-error also takes a while.  Many people start from a pre-existing recipe and that's what I would recommend to get started.  You can find good recipes in many craft cocktail books (including one I'd recommend that is devoted to bitters) or by scouring online.  This will give you a good base to start with, and you can then start tweaking recipes that you like to branch out.

Having done this myself, I'll offer a couple of tips based on my own experience:

You can use any spirit, but higher proof will produce a better extraction.  Vodka is actually the best to use if you want a "cleaner" extraction - it will mask the flavor of the spices less than brown spirits.  A lot of recipes use whiskey or brandy for the flavor that they add.  In any case, I typically use spirits that are at least 100-proof (or 50% alcohol by volume).  They help grab those alcohol-soluble flavors more effectively.
Pay careful attention to quantity, whether you're working from a recipe or developing your own.  If your recipe calls for grams, don't approximate - break out the scale.  Remember the interaction of extraction time and relative concentration.  Deviate too much and you can totally throw off the balance of your bitters, especially with stronger spices.  The result probably wont be bad, but it will be different and probably not quite as good.  This is why good bitters recipes are to be prized.
Find a good source for your spices.  The better product you start with, the better your result will be.  You can find a lot of the less common ingredients in co-ops, health food grocers, and herbal-medicine shops.  Usually you can buy these in bulk for a pretty good price.  There are lots of online vendors, but I haven't found a single one yet to strongly recommend; some have great prices but poor selection, others it's the other way around.
There is no better infusion vessel than wide-mouth mason jars.  Don't infuse in plastic, or  flavors will leach their way into the vessel as well.  Glass mason jars don't have this problem, they are cheap, and they are ubiquitous.

Keep in mind that all of this applies primarily to how I'm interpreting your question: regarding the infusion of dried spices, herbs, or other botanicals.  Infusing liquor with fruits is also a worthy project, but a whole different one.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that as mentioned in comments, there are other, more technologically advanced ways to infuse too.  Using a sous-vide bath, you can infuse rather quickly, although the heat involved in the process will change how the flavors are extracted.  I have also seen techniques that use a cream whipper to produce "rapid bitters"; the idea is that high pressure and tiny nitrogen bubbles penetrate the spices, and extract flavors when the pressure is released.  Pretty cool, but I haven't tried this yet.  Start simple, instead.  Get yourself a basic recipe that sounds good and have a go.


How to make vegetarian meat substitute that's more firm and browned on the outside? I've eaten in some vegetarian places where they use what I guess are TVP (textured vegetable protein, i.e. soya) chunks as a substitute for meat, which was quite convincing. One place made them into 'gyros' chunks:

Other place made it into 'duck' that was somewhat similar, but more dry, which was appropriate as a substitute for poultry, it had kind of a stringy texture inside and a crispy dark outside 'crust'
I've bought some TVP (chunks) to make at home, the recipe says to boil them with some water or stock for 15-20min, press out the excess liquid and use in a dish. However, when prepared this way they are still pretty soggy and too soft. I've tried marinading them in teriyaki + spices, but the marinade also makes them soggy. Frying in oil doesn't make them crusty (just kind of burnt in places and untouched elsewhere), and as soon as I put them in any dish, they soak up the moisture back and become just bland squishy bits.
I've heard you can bake the chunks, but I'm not sure if it's true, or what the parameters could be.
Also, I guess it's possible that what I'm looking for is not soy TVP, but some other meat substitute instead.

In my experience, you will not get TVP nuggets by themselves to ever have a chewy, crispy, or meaty texture.  However, there are some other products you can use that allow you to have better texture.
One thing you can do is to mix rehydrated TVP with wheat gluten, and then knead it to develop texture.  Wheat gluten is the chewy part of bread, and when kneaded develops into long, tough strands, adding chew and texture to your meat substitute.  Many of the "vegetarian meat" items that you find in Asian grocery stores are primarily wheat gluten.  The ultimate form of of fermented and kneaded wheat gluten is seitan, and you can also buy this directly to make things from it.
The other product that has been very popular for a better texture is soy curls.  These are a soy protein product that has been processed differently, and they have a much denser texture than TVP.  They also fry up nicely, browning a lot better than TVP or tofu does.
My own experiments with making fake breakfast sausage show that a combination of products is generally necessary for best texture.  Currently I'm using TVP, wheat gluten, and dried and rehydrated mushrooms.  I may experiment with adding oats soon.  Good luck with your vegetarian experiments.


Can I put a layer of almond paste in my tart that will not be baked? All the recipes I'm finding are for pies where you put the layer of thinly rolled almond paste on the pie shell, add the filling and then bake.  I'm wanting to blind bake my pie shell, lay down the almond paste, add pastry cream and top with fresh strawberries.  Would this be a problem?

Almond paste is a finished product. It can be eaten without cooking.

In fact, one of my favorite tart recipes is Julia Child's "Pear and Almond Tart" from her Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  The four parts of the tart (crust, almond filling, poached pears and currant glaze) are cooked separately and it is assembled without being baked afterwards. It uses a "frangipane" that cooks the eggs rather than leaving them raw as many almond pastes do.  I don't have a copy of the book to confirm but this looks like the correct version of the recipe.

  1/2 cup almonds
  1 large egg
  1 large egg yolk
  3/4 cups sugar
  1/3 cup flour
  1 cup whole milk
  3 tbs butter
  2 tsp vanilla extract
  1/4 tsp almond extract

  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast almonds until brown (about 10 minutes), then pulverize in a bender, food processor, or with a mortar and pestle.

  Whisk egg and egg yolk in a large mixing bowl until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until mixture is pale yellow – about 3 minutes. Beat in the flour.

  Heat milk on the stove over moderate heat until it reaches the boiling point. Beat a small amount of milk into the egg mixture, to temper the eggs. Then pour in the rest of the milk and whisk vigorously.

  Pour milk mixture into a sauce pan and heat over moderate heat. Stir slowly, until mixture begins to thicken and coagulate into a stiff paste. Beat vigorously over low heat for 2-3 minutes to cook the flour. Off the heat add the butter, vanilla and almond extracts, and almonds. Let cool. To prevent a skin from forming, cover custard with buttered parchment paper.

If you're making the almond paste on your own, you might consider substituting this one for it. It's really amazing and was hard to stop eating.


What defines a "roll"? I have some cut up chicken placed in a hotdog bun with sauce and veggies. Can it be called a "roll"?

Since I saw a photo of a lobster roll, and it's lobster meat also placed in a hotdog bun.

"Roll" is an extremely broad culinary term without a single canonical definition. You can very likely call your preparation a "chicken roll" and nobody would object.

In American cuisine, the term "roll" used on its own is often short for "dinner roll", a type of leavened single-serving bread:

Used in combination with another food ("[x] roll") the term usually denotes some form of sandwich, although confusingly few of these use a dinner roll as the bread. Here's the "lobster roll" that you reference, which usually uses a hot dog bun or similar:

Similar terms often denote sandwich-like foods where the bread is "rolled" around the fillings, like this "chicken roll":

There's also the "pepperoni roll", which takes this even further into a tightly rolled spiral which is then baked:

The term "roll-up" is also sometimes used for this kind of spiral roll, especially when the result is sliced and served as an appetizer or finger food:

New Jersey also has a local specialty called a "pork roll", which isn't rolled at all:

So as you can see, "roll" can be used to describe a wide variety of foods that involve bread, and sometimes fillings, which are sometimes rolled, and sometimes not. If you want to call your creation a roll, there's nothing stopping you.


Salmon turned green - is it safe to eat? I left a meal with salmon in the refrigerator for 3 days. The salmon skin is turning green.
Is it safe to consume it? If not, is it salvageable at all?

I would strongly recommend against consuming this fish.
In general you should cook fresh fish on the same day you bought it and not store cooked fish in the fridge for longer than a maximum of two days. Changes in colour, smell or texture are commonly a strong indicator that the fish has gone bad and eating it comes with a risk of a scombroid food poisoning.


Almond essence substitute Can you substitute Almond liqueur or use ground almonds, instead of  using Almond essence in a Christmas Cake recipe? I can't find Almond Essence in Spain.

If you can find almond extract, that would probably be the best substitute. It is generally stronger than almond essence, so you may want to decrease the amount you use. You could use almond liqueur, but it will likely be less strong, so you may want to use a bit more. Ground almonds will change the characteristics of your batter and final cake, so you would need to adapt the recipe to compensate.


Dried fruit and calcium levels My daughter suffers from lactose intolerance and/or milk protein allergy (this has yet to be confirmed by a paediatrician due to the way the NHS works in the UK).

I tend to bake fruit cakes and mix dried fruit in my cereal. My little lass likes dried fruit, too, including dates, raisins; mixed fruit generally, really.

My wife is quite adamant that she read something somewhere regarding dried fruit 'taking the calcium' from other foods that it's mixed with, or reducing calcium levels in the blood stream.

Can anyone confirm or refute this, as my wife can't remember where she read this? (I'm not looking for personal opinion, here, more hard fact).

(I've tried to tag this question to the best of my ability, but there's no dried-fruit tag).

The only thing of note I've ever taken from commercially available dried fruit is that sulphur dioxide is almost universally used as a preservative. Some people are sensitive to this. There are various limits on how much you are allowed to use, but no outright bans in preservation.

You can buy fruit that has no added sulphur dioxide. This tends to be in the organic section and therefore tends to be that much more expensive.

But remember that dried fruit is essentially concentrated sugar. There's a reason young children like it. So for the same reason you don't let them eat as much chocolate as they'd probably like, I'd encourage some moderation. Perhaps try some fresh fruit in your baking.

In relation to calcium, it's sulphur dioxide that makes "acid rain", which leaches away limestone and other calcium carbonate rock sources. I can't find anything reputable that makes a link here but there's a big pile of "health" blogs out there that seem to think "because acid rain" is an answer enough, who has time to do the science? I'm certainly not saying you should avoid sulphites (unless you medically need to) but they can be avoided.

Dried prunes are apparently well recognised for their benefits to bone health.


What's happens at temperatures in both the 'pasteurisation' and 'danger' zone? I am new to cooking and even newer to sous vide cooking. I have been trying to find as much information as I can with regards to cooking steak in the sous vide. One thing I am particularly confused by is certain temperatures in the 'danger' zone, between 40f-140f.
I have seen multiple youtube videos and articles stating not to go over a certain cooking time (usually 2.5h) in a sous vide when cooking under a certain temperature in the danger zone (usually 135f). The claim is for food safety reasons. However, I also found a document (by googling 'usda pasteurisation chart') for which it states that at 130f, for example, you can pasteurise or get a significant reduction in salmonella bacteria by cooking for about 2 hours.
I'm really confused by this as it seems to be that there are certain temperatures at which you can achieve 'pasteurisation', but which fall in the danger zone and so should apparently have way more bacteria and food safety concerns. Can anyone explain what's going on in these temperature ranges? Particularly in the 130f to 140f range where steaks are often sous vide?
I've read through this but I'm still not exactly clear on what's happening in this particular case Can I sous-vide meat (at a temperature between 40ºF and 140ºF) for more than four hours?.
Thank you!

What you need to understand is that making raw proteins safe for consumption is not simply a function of temperature.  It is a function of time plus temperature.  Because of the precise temperature control of sous vide, one can cook at lower temperatures IF one understands that a longer time at those temperatures renders food safe.  There is no better explanation than the work of Douglas Baldwin.  I would recommend reading that for starters.
Most food pathogens stop growing at 122F (50C).  However, clostridium perfringens can grow up to 126.1F (52.3C).  So, in general sous vide cooking is done above these temperatures.  However, there are exceptions to that.  You would likely not want to cook a steak at that temperature.


What difference does oxygen content of tea water make? I've heard the advice that water should be boiled for tea only one--that when boiled it loses dissolved oxygen, and if there is insufficient oxygen in the water, the flavor of the tea is (somehow) affected.

This doesn't seem to make sense to me. If the water loses oxygen when it is boiled, it would have lost it before tea ever touched it anyway.

Does this really make a difference, or is it just a commonly perpetuated kitchen myth? If there is one, what affect does the oxygen (or lack) have on the finished product?

All moving water has dissolved oxygen in it. That is what fish breath

Dissolved oxygen is reactive, and will most likely extract more substances from the tea leaf, than without it. If these are the good flavour parts of tea, I do not know?

When you heat water it starts to release the dissolved oxygen. The more you heat water the more oxygen escapes

You can buy tea making kettles that bring water up to 95°C (203°F), but not boiling, so as to decrease the amount of dissolved oxygen lost, but still making the water hot enough to brew tea. They also save energy :-) I use one of these, and am happy with it

Example Kettle

Some people "watch" their kettle, and switch it off just before the water boils!

It is a personal taste preference if tea tastes better when brewed in water with more dissolved oxygen or not


What are common/traditional uses for merguez? I found today something new in the supermarket and decided to try it. They are called "traditional french merguez", and seem to be raw sausages made from lamb and beef, moderately spicy. I have no idea how to use them (except to use them just like any other sausage, but I think that it would be a missed opportunity). Is there a traditional way to prepare them, and what are the usual combinations?

I already found a ton of recipes on Google, but I'd prefer to hear some more on their traditional use, and also about combinations you have tried and found to work well.

Edit Having slept over the question, I think I can make it a bit more specific.

Preparation methods: Are merguez usually boiled, grilled, fried, roasted, or something else?
 What are the typical combinations? Currently, I only know about couscous. Are they eaten with certain veggies, or herbs, or other things?
 Eating occasion. Are they considered a snack, a breakfast, a main course, or something else?

I am aware that anything I listed is possible, but I am asking about the traditional way they are used. If the answers still tend to sound like "undefinable", "all of the above" and "any way the cook feels like", please vote to close the question.

Favourably, we put them on the barbecue.
You can also just fry them in the pan like a chipolata.

I wouldn't eat them in combo's where you use normal sausages.
It doesn't go well with apple sauce for example.
But this is of course a question of taste.
I prefer them (when not on the BBQ) with food which doesn't contain a lot of spices, like lettuce and tomatoes with boiled potatoes.


How did people make bread before sugar was 'discovered' Modern recipes (as far as I know) for bread includes sugar.  Sugar gives the yeast a food source, which supports it growth and allows yeast to give bread many of its qualities.  It hit me the other day that sugar (produced from sugar cane) is a relatively new commodity.  People did not have this kind of sugar 1000 years ago in Europe, the middle east, etc.  How did they manage to make bread without it?

Making bread without sugar is nothing strange - I do so several times a week! The wheat flour (or whatever you're using) contains enzymes which, when you blend it with water, breaks down starch to sugars which fermenting agents such as yeast or lactobacilli can feed off. The Wikipedia page on sourdough has more info.


Sourdough in Bread Maker? Are there any bread machines that would allow making a sourdough rye bread?
If not, could a bread maker simplify the process of making a sourdough loaf?

There are three courses of action for producing sourdough with a bread machine:

Use the bread machine just for mixing dough, then rise and bake it separately.  This will produce the best result, defined as the best texture and strongest sourdough flavor.  In this case, you get to monitor the progress of the sourdough as it is rising, which gives you better control over the results.   With this course, make sure to  start preheating your oven early, because it has to be fully ready when the dough is.  It's heartbreaking to watch helplessly as beautiful sourdough loaves collapse while your oven preheats.  Also, you can throw a handful of icecubes into the oven a minute or two before the bread, to get steam, which gives maximum oven spring and a softer crust. This helps prevent the common problem of dense sourdough.
Do a "cheater" sourdough that incorporates both yeast and sourdough starter.  This is the most hands-off approach, but it won't yield as strong a sourdough flavor results as option one.  Basically, you take a standard bread recipe that uses a poolish preferment, and you replace the poolish with equivalent-hydration sourdough starter, but retain the yeast.  So, you're getting leavening primarily from the yeast, but flavor from the sourdough.  Up to half the flour can come from the starter.  You can gradually reduce the yeast amounts and increase rise time until it's approaching a true sourdough. See recipe below!
Do true sourdough with a bread machine that allows you to program VERY long rise/proofing times.  This is the worst option, because sourdough rise times vary greatly, even with the same starter.  The leavening power of starters also varies from almost as fast as instant yeast, to over 12 hours for a full rise.  I think you'll have a hard time finding a bread maker that can be programmed for the longest times, and because you're relying on a fixed timer, the dough will inevitably be either under-risen or collapsing.   Sourdough can go from under-risen to over-risen and collapsing in as little as 30 minutes.

Cheater Sourdough Recipe derived from Pain Sur Poolish:

Ingredients:

425g/15 oz sourdough starter, fed the night before with equal volumes all purpose flour and water (or about 6.7 oz flour per 8 oz water)
227g/8 oz bread ("Strong") flour
227g/8 oz all purpose flour
200 g/7 oz warm water
1 tsp instant yeast (SAF Red Label)
2 tsp salt
Optional: 1 tsp diastatic malt powder
Optional: 1/4 cup dry milk powder

Procedure:

Mix together dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients until incorporated.
Knead about 8-10 minutes on stand mixer speed 2, or until the dough is soft and stretchy. It should be a little wet, but not too much.
Rise dough for ~45 min-1.5 hours, or until doubled.  If using a bread machine, rise an extra 30 minutes or so, and skip to step 9.
If using oven: start preheating to 500F/260C with a pizza stone in the lower rack
Divide dough in half, and shape into two loaves, making sure not to handle too much as this will remove gas.
If using oven: coat an inverted aluminum 1/2 sheet pan with pan spray and corn meal, then transfer loaves to pan.  Cover with plastic wrap with the bottom coated in pan spray.
Proof bread 45 minutes to 1 hour, until it stops rising and a finger leaves a dent in the loaf.
If using oven: throw a handful of ice cubes into the oven to generate steam, then slash the loaves and load into oven.
In oven: Bake @ 500F/260C for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 435F/225C and bake for a further 15 minutes.  In bread machine: bake at about 375F/190C for about 30 minutes.  If not using diastatic malt, crust may still be somewhat pale.

This recipe (with slight modifications) is now my standard bread, which I bake frequently.  I'm still tweaking the exact time to bake at the reduced temperature; if the top is browning excessively but the interior is underdone, it may help to flip the loves over for the last few minutes of cooking.


Must rice always be cooked with some oil or lard? I'm a totally amateur "cook" and I was always taught that before I cook rice, I have to add some oil or lard to it and cook in that.

But why is it necessary? Once I forgot it and everything was the same. Only the bottom layer was burnt just a bit, but I think that was not necessarily because I forgot the oil. Also, I didn't have much left at the time and I needed that to fry.

Oil or fat is absolutely not necessary to cook rice.

I suspect you may have been taught the pilaf method where the rice is first sauteed in oil or butter, and then liquid is added and the rice is fully cooked.  The purpose of the pilaf method is to add depth of flavor.  When making pilafs, additional herbs, spices, or aromatics (such as onions) are often included.

If you have been taught to add oil without the sauteeing, then the only purpose of it would be to add flavor.  It won't really help prevent sticking, and isn't needed for the rice to cook properly.

There are many methods to cook rice in addition to the pilaf method, and many to do not require any fat.  Simply boiling or steaming in water is completely traditional in many Asian cuisines.

In some cuisines, the crusty rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot or rice cooker is actually highly prized (see Wikipedia's nurunji article).

You can mitigate the crusting of the rice by making sure to use the lowest flame or heat setting that will keep the rice steaming.  I actually prefer to put the whole pot in a moderate oven, rather than do it on the stove top.

You can also use the pasta method of simply boiling the rice in water, and then draining it when it is done to your liking, to completely avoid the crust.  This will result in less sticky rice since the surface starches will be left in the boiling water.  I understand this method is popular in some parts of India and Pakistan.


Ruined balsamic salad dressing, how to recover? My favorite balsamic salad dressing seems to have been discontinued, so I decided to make my own. In doing so I added far, far too much xanthan gum and am now left with 350ml of oily herbed balsamic gel. I tried adding oil to thin it out, but of course had no luck. I have not yet tried an immersion blender (it's too late at night here to run it).

How can I recover from this, either moving ahead with the salad dressing or finding an alternate use for the gel, or should I just cut my losses and start over?

Well, adding more of everything but xanthan gum would of course have the effect of diluting the xanthan gum. The problem is, it's possible that you used way, way too much xanthan gum (easy to do, the amount you need to slightly thicken a dressing is minuscule), so unless you've got a few 50-gallon drums of balsamic vinegar lying around, I wouldn't advise that you go that route. Instead, I'd suggest that you make a new dressing with no xanthan gum, then add the old dressing a bit at a time until you like the result.

As for finding an alternate use for (the rest of) your balsamic xanthan slime: I wouldn't. Xanthan gum is texturally quite unpleasant except at very low concentrations.


What are the preferred uses for different sharpness of cheddar cheese? As I eat nachos and cheese with some medium cheddar (dipping the nachos into melted cheese,) I notice the cheese is congealing differently than sharp cheese does and seems to be more elastic, not to mention the flavor difference.

What tasks are the different sharpnesses of cheddar cheese best suited to? Examples: dipping, eating with wine, quesadillas, etc.  Bonus if you provide scientific explanations.

Milder cheddars are for melting. They get used in things such as grilled cheese sandwiches, grating into chili, nachos, or in quesadillas.  In these uses, they don't need the full-bodied flavor of a sharp cheddar, but they do need to melt down into soft, gooey, creamy deliciousness.

Sharper cheddars are for flavor.  I commonly see them in sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, topping salads, and as part of cheese boards.

The reason it works like this is that "sharper" cheddars get their bite from additional aging, which develops a richer flavor but makes the cheese drier and increases the melting point.

That said, there are no hard and fast rules for how to use mild vs. sharp cheddar. In my house we always use extra sharp cheddar because even everyday cheese should be a gustatory delight. It's a little trickier to make into a quesadilla or melt on a cheeseburger, but the extra tang is worth it!


By `1 tbsp of x` should I assume heaped tablespoon or leveled tablespoon? When they (recipes) say 1 tbsp of flour (example), do they mean heaped or leveled?

What's the standard guess?

Unless the recipe specifies "heaping", read spoon measurements as level. That goes for cup measurements as well. Unless the recipe specifies another method to fill your measuring spoon or cup, use yet another implement to fill the spoon or cup, then level it by scraping with a knife. That is the most precisely repeatable way to measure (especially flour) with a cup or spoon.

The one exception to the "spooned and leveled" technique is in the measurement of brown sugar. Recipes will usually call for brown sugar to be "packed", which is just as at sounds. Press the brown sugar into the spoon or cup to squeeze in as much as you can and still have a level top.

It's far more accurate to measure by weight but most non-professional recipes in the US are written with volumetric measurements. For baking especially, consider converting volumetric measurements to weight using sources like this: Master Weight Chart, and measuring with an accurate digital scale. Depending upon the methods used in developing the recipe, measuring by weight the first time you make a recipe may not get you any closer to the measurements the author of the recipe intends, but at least your results will be accurately repeatable and tweakable.


Meat and fruit dessert I'm having an event where one of the rules is that every dish has to contain both fruit and meat. I've spent the last half hour pondering as to what should I prepare as dessert.

Question: What makes us consider a food "appropriate" as a dessert?

(Subquestions: Has anyone studied it methodically? Would it be the absence of umami flavor or is that irrelevant? Is there some technique I can use to make these flavors blend better together?)

The only thing which makes food considered appropriate as a dessert is cultural convention. This is obvious once you observe the differences between cultures.

In some cases, the difference is very clear-cut. The only tastes acceptable for desserts are sweet and sour, with sweet being banned from all other courses. This is common in cuisines inheriting Ottoman traditions. Desserts there are very sweet, and the addition of a sweet taste to a main dish (e.g. duck with oranges) or non-sweet to a dessert (e.g. salty caramel) is considered very strange and unpleasant. Other modern cultures are more permissive. There are well-known sweet-and-savory pairings even in Western cuisine (the abovementioned salty caramel, melon with ham, sugar-glazed carrots), and Asian and South American cuisines seem to be even more prone to such mixes (e.g. a meat pie in a plantain crust). Then there are cases where no sweet dessert is eaten at all, for example the French tradition of viewing a cheese plate as a dessert. And historically, there was no distinction at all, with nobility eating everything expensive they had mixed in a single dish, so that you had rose water mixed with black pepepr, rice and honey served to meat, for example. There is a reason why older books on English cuisine list "savoury puddings", even though today "pudding" in its broad sense has come to mean "dessert". For further reading, also see this article - it is mostly on food pairings, but you can see how North American cuisine builds two clusters of food combinations, one centered on baked desserts (flour, eggs, vanilla) and the other one on savory ingredients, while in Asian pairings, the effect is much less pronounced.

That said, I suspect that if you are serving your dessert to people with predominantly Western upbringing, they would have hard time accepting something very meaty as a dessert. While ham with apricot and almonds is an acceptable combination by Anglo-Saxon standards, it is not served for dessert. I would make something with a strong fruit component, and combine with a small amount of delicate meat. A fruit salad with a few shreds of proscuito should work. Alternatively, you could take some meat without much taste on its own, like chicken breast, include it in some kind of filling, and combine with lots of fruit.


How do you put out a grease fire? I recently had a grease fire - the pan caught on fire from a little fat that spilled over the skillet. Is there a safe, quick way to put out a fire like this?

Steps to put out a grease fire

Turn off source of heat (burner / element)
Do NOT pour water on it
let me say that again, Do NOT pour water on it
Attempt to remove all oxygen from the flame. You can cover with another pot, or baking pan
If you can't cover it, dump baking soda on it. (lots of it)
Secret step number 6, if all else fails, use a fire extinguisher


Is gelatin vegetarian? I understand that vegetarians are against meat, and gelatin is derived from meat and bones. So the obvious answer is "no."

But I'm not entirely sure. What constitutes an ingredient as "vegetarian" or "vegan?"

Without further qualification, if someone refers to themselves as vegetarian (in America), the general assumption is that they are lacto-ovo vegetarian. That means they don't eat animal products that require killing the animal, but eggs and dairy are fine. Gelatin comes from a dead animal (unless they start harvesting it with arthroscopic probes :), so it is not a vegetarian ingredient. There are many other hydrocolloids, such as agar, that can be used to produce similar textures if needed.


Why does my Victoria sandwich have a hole in the base? I've made the same cake recipe for years, no changes but suddenly my cakes look fine on top but when I turn them out there's a big hollow underneath! Help!

Guessing there was an accumulation of trapped air, either during the preparation of the batter/sponge cake mix, or when pouring into the pan/tin.


How do I adjust cooking time for an under-powered microwave? Example:

I have an 800-Watt microwave.  Cooking instructions for a certain product say to cook on HIGH for 4 minutes in a 1,100-Watt microwave.

How do I properly adjust the cooking time so that my microwave will properly cook the product?  Is it simple math (such as 4*{1100/800}=5.5, or 5 minutes, 30 seconds), or are there more factors involved?

For the purposes of my application, presume altitude is at or near sea level.

1100 Watt means 1100 Joules per second (energy over time). 1100 Watt over a period of 240 seconds therefore is 264000 Joules. To deliver 264000 Joules of energy with only 800 Watt takes 330 seconds (5.5 minutes), as you expected.

As KatieK noticed, there are some additional concerns. A good recipe will tell you to let the cooked product stand for a while. This allows heat diffusion, so all those Joules of heat will be distributed well. But if you cook at lower power, then the heat will already be diffused more. I.e. at lower power, you don't need to rest the product as long.

Another difference might be that you're not just heating the product, but you're relying on a secondary effect such as killing germs. For that, you'll need to have the entire product above a critical temperature for a certain time. This in general means that you don't need to adjust the times as much as you'd expect by the simple formula.

On the other hand, a warm product will lose heat to the environment over time. I.e. not all of those 264000 Joules will stay in the product you're heating. And with more time spent at medium temperatures, there's more heat loss in a low-powered microwave.


Benefit to covering pasta while cooking? Taking a quick poll of several bags of pasta in my kitchen, about half recommend keeping the pot covered while cooking1.
This is not very convenient for me, as I don't have a good tightly fitting lid and the pasta often foams and boils over and cleaning the stove takes longer than cleaning the pot and plates.
So what are the benefits to keeping the lid on while cooking pasta? The main ones I could imagine are less heat loss (but my stove even on min setting maintains a boil, so I can't save any gas) and hotter air above the water (but the pasta is full submerged, so this wouldn't seem to matter).

1 Admittedly, some of the packages were fairly ambiguous as to whether the covering should be done only for the initial heat-to-boil or for the entire cooking process.

I see a benefit to covering the pot while bringing the water to a boil, as you will reduce evaporative cooling and get to temperature quicker.  I might also allow, that in some cases (maybe frozen pasta or too much pasta to water), when you add the pasta (thus cooling the water) replacing the lid will help return it to the boil quicker.  However, boiling pasta with a lid simply invites a boil-over situation.  Once boiling, covering is not influencing the cooking of the pasta.  Just leave it off.


Scallops purchased in super market I have tried making scallops at home from the super market..They have so much water retained they never seem to be able to be seared correctly.. How do you correct for this problem..

Maybe salting them like you would eggplant would help draw out some moisture.