What can I add to lactoferments? I love fermenting my own hot sauce and kimchi (sauerkraut). I’ve safely added all sorts of vegetables (carrots, garlic, onion, etc) but want to experiment with new flavors.

Can I put some fresh or dry mushrooms in a batch of kimchi? What about anchovies (not fresh, the salty kind packed in oil)

In The Art of Fermentation, Sandor Katz notes that he has fermented shiitake and some other mushrooms, but does not specify fresh or dried.

Christopher and Kristen Shockey, authors, owners of Mellonia Farm and the website Ferment Works, include a recipe for Pickled Shiitake in their book Fermented Vegetables that calls for dried shiitake. In the recipe notes they also suggest adding dried mushroom slices to sauerkraut.

Fish is often added to vegetables for kimchi, depending on the style of kimchi being made. Maangchi, cookbook author and blogger, has several recipes for kimchi, like Easy Kimchi with fish sauce and fresh squid and Traditional Napa Cabbage Kimchi with fish sauce and salted, fermented shrimp.

I have not seen recipes for oil-packed fish, but fresh, salt-packed, or dried anchovies would all be worth experimenting with.

I have heard of oil being used in certain applications in lacto-fermented vegetables, but I am not sure how an oil-packed ingredient would interact with the rest of the ferment. For example, I have read blog posts of people use a layer of oil on the top of their fermentation vessel as a type of airlock--the CO2 passes through the olive oil but oxygen cannot penetrate it. I have not used this method, though.

There are also traditional Indian pickles made in mustard oil in sunlight (whereas most lacto-ferments are kept out of direct light or even in darkness).

There have been cases of botulism forming in olive oils flavored with fresh garlic and herbs; botulism bacteria are introduced to the oil from the fresh produce and then thrive in the anaerobic environment of the oil. Acidification is required to treat the produce to prevent botulism. Lacto-ferments create an acidic environment unfriendly to botulism, so the situations are not identical, but caution should be used when introducing oil to lacto-ferments.


Converting between Egg sizes In the UK eggs are sized as, small, medium, large and extra large.

What weights/ratios do these correspond, so if a recipe calls for 1 large egg, how many small eggs could I use in its place?

I assume that other countries have similar sizing standards, so if we can aggregate non-UK information as well, that'd be a worthwhile addition to the site.


Sous vide meat without seasoning - strong flavor I tried the beer cooler sous vide hack just now. On both a veal entrecote and a piece of lean beef braising meat. Both turned out OK, but as the sous vide technique does not impart flavor, most people found the veal a bit underwhelming.

So - if I want to serve an unseasoned piece of meat using this technique: what animal, and what cut, should I take for maximum inherent taste?

The beer cooler hack is not ideal for meat. The issue is the cooking time. I don't find Sous Vide to be particularly good for meats with low fat content that require short cooking time. The meat comes out perfectly cooked, which is nice (i.e. a steak medium rare from edge to edge), but you don't get any real wow factor from the flavor or texture. Where meats start to get really interesting, in my opinion, is long cook times. Tougher cuts of meat that require longer cooking (short ribs, flank steak, ribs, roasts) come out meltingly tender with all the lovely meaty flavor of the cut and you can cook them medium rare. These take 12-24 hours though, and I don't think the beer cooler hack would work for that (at least not without a lot of tending).

However, the beer cooler hack should work very well for seafood, which has much shorter cooking times. Here the temperature control and the vacuum sealing is what really makes a difference. You can get some wonderfully novel textures out of seafood and very subtle complex tastes without anything being "fishy". I'd recommend you try one of the following:

Salmon Mi-Cuit - cook salmon at 113F / 45C for about 35 minutes. This is delicious. Somewhere between sashimi and cooked, great texture and a fantastic flavor.
Lobster - cook the tail meat (no shell) at 140F / 60C for 15 - 20 minutes. Do not let this one go long. The lobster will turn to mush and gets disgusting.
Halibut - cook at 140F / 60C for about 35 minutes. Great texture and flavor. Very moist. Essentially "perfectly cooked" fish.

Note that the first two do not reach pasteurization levels. You should use sushi grade fish and not serve to anyone who is immune compromised.

You could also try chicken breasts. I know a couple of people who rave about chicken because of how moist it comes out, but I've never had much luck with it (the few times I've tried).


Some recipies call for beer to be added, but why? I've seen some recipies that call for a can of beer to be added, but never have I seen them specify a specific kind or brand. That leads me to believe its less for flavor and more for chemical reaction.

My question: why is no type or brand specified? Is it left to the cook to decide what type/flavor beer would be best, or is it simply a chemical process that any beer can facilitate? If the latter, are there other ingredients which could be safely substituted?

Beer, like wine or coffee, is often used when a reduction over a long cooking time is called for but water would be sub-optimal. I make chili a lot. Water is not your friend there, especially if you incorporate a lot of elements that have water in them to begin with (undried/roasted tomatoes in particular). Beer doesn't add the acidity that coffee does, but it is great for adding sugars and the maltier flavors. The sugars aren't precisely 'sweeter' but rather add depth of flavor.

I'd be interested in the effect of carbonation on the cooking process, however since carbonation is supposedly lost faster at higher temperatures I'd imagine it's less than expected.

Beer can be used to de-glaze and so on; its lower alcohol makes it much less reactive (than marsala or liquor) and the sugars make it as likely to glaze over. Still it imparts some flavor depending on the context.

The type of beer you should use is largely up to you. They differ greatly in flavor and composition. For some suggestions on pairings check out this question. Another consideration is to look into Cicerones; it's a certification people get where (more for large scale operations than restaurants or personal use), in addition to knowledge of processing and manufacturing, they are sommeliers of beer.

An additional consideration is how long the beer will be cooking down. The longer the cook down, the more the flavors will be less distinct. However, there are flavors that are frequently only found in beer; hoppiness, roasted malt, and (the effects of open fermentation with) wild yeast can do amazing things in a dish. Creating a side reduction minimizes the cook down and can preserve the flavors.


How does gumbo spoil while still cooking? I'm new to new to New Orleans style of cooking. I heard that gumbo spoils while still cooking. Is this true. I'm confused. Any answer would help.

I believe in this context, spoil is not referring to food safety issues such as dangerous pathogens, but rather that the dish does not fulfill its culinary promise.

For example, any soup or stew that is cooked on too high a heat will become burnt on the bottom. You won't get sick from eating it, but from a flavor aspect, it's spoiled.

Not being an expert in cooking gumbo, I can't cite all the specifics, but there surely is an optimum heat and time that it should be cooked. Stray too far from the base recipe and technique, and you may spoil the gumbo.

From your comments, it sounds like the recipe calls for cooking the gumbo to a point of "doneness", and then turning down the heat so that it stays below the boiling point. In other words, if the fully cooked gumbo continues cooking at a full boil, the recipe will be spoiled.


What should I check when buying a pineapple? I live in middle Europe so pineapple (so called "ananas") is an exotic fruit for me.

What should I check when buying a pineapple to make sure it would taste well? Should it smell specific? Should it be soft or hard? Should it be big or small?

I believe this questions is valid for other regions as well. Is it?

you can test if a pineapple is ripe by trying to pluck out one of the leaves near the centre.  If it comes out fairly easily then the pineapple is good to go.  if its hard to get out its not ripe yet.


What's a microscoop? I've bought pure caffeine powder and its serving size is said to be a microscoop, but no measure of weight is given.

So what's/what size is a microscoop?

"Microscoops" can be found from the internet, but their size is 7-12mg. Is this reasonable for caffeine?

Yes, 7-12mg is a perfectly reasonable, very conservative amount. 12mg of caffeine is about equal to the amount of caffeine in a liquid ounce of 'average' coffee. (Source USDA)

Take care not to pack the scoop. Pure caffeine is a potentially dangerous ingredient. Microscoops vary even more than what is implied by your question, I've seen them as large as 50mg; a comment here tells of a 100mg microscoop.  Again, take care, and know exactly what you have.

For greater accuracy, consider a milligram scale which can be had for about $20 US.


As a consumer in the UK, how can I choose well marbled beef? In the USA beef marbling is graded by the USDA - and this grade labeling is enforced to be passed nearly to the end consumer (i.e. the labeling is on the cryovac). So if I wanted well marbled beef in the USA, I could either buy in cryovac, comparing unit prices between prime grade and premium select grade, or in the grocery store where the cryovac is opened, I can see the marbling myself and make a judgement.

I am living in the UK, and although we technically have access to EU beef and a number of non EU imports, most available beef is UK sourced. And most consumer education is around awareness of beef cuts, food safety and animal welfare, rather than any information about beef quality.

When I approach butchers at say, Smithfield Market, they conflate quality with country of origin, following I think the attitudes of shoppers here (UK citizens seem to think if the meat comes from a faraway country it will be swapped for horse meat).

Finally I find that in the UK we do have carcass grading - to identify females or age of the animal. But as far as I can tell this information is unavailable to the end consumer.

So if I don't care a whit about country of origin, and would simply like the most well marbled best tasting product for my budget... how to shop?

Since meat is heavy, I prefer to make my purchases online.

With online meat shopping in the UK you have to go with the reputation of the source, there's no grading system which you can refer to. Top end butchers and grocery stores carry top end beef, and most of the time you do get what you pay for. Many supermarket chains have premium labels, ie Tesco Finest and Sainsbury's Taste The Difference, which are definitely much better than their regular stuff, but I think the best mainstream grocery store premium brand for meat is Coop.

At the end of the day there's no substitute for getting your own eyes on the meat you are buying, so I would recommend you try local butcher shops. There's still plenty of them around in the UK, and the quality varies dramatically. There are some that will pawn off legs of lamb that are about to turn, and others which control their entire supply chain and have some of the best meat in the world. You just have to try a few and see.


How long can I leave an uncooked steak out? This is similar to This Question, but hopefully different enough.

I have 3 porterhouse steaks sitting in my refrigerator that I need to cook up tonight. I've been told leaving them out for an hour and salting them a half hour before cooking is the way to do it. However scheduling conflicts dictate that I either leave my steaks sitting out for an hour and a half to two hours, or eat at 9 o'clock at night.

Will the steaks be ok being left out that long? or will I need to just suck it up and eat a late dinner?

Note: my apartment is usually kept at around 70-75 degrees.

Even if you just pull them out for about 30 minutes once you get home that will be better than not letting sit out at all.   The main benefit is that it will cook easier and you'll have a natural gradation  from brown to pink on the inside rather than the gray color that often occurs.  I myself don't typically pull meat out an hour before cooking it.

But

As long as they haven't previously been sitting out for an extended period of time, most likely you'll be ok for 1 1/2 hours since the steaks will be cold when set out.  Make sure that they remain tightly wrapped/covered to minimize exposure to air.


Cookies end up Rubbery I've been trying to make cookies the usual way : All Purpose Flour + Eggs + Butter + Powdered Sugar + Chocolate Powder > Mix till Semi-Solid Batter > Put chunks of them in a baking tray and bake at about 180C for 15 minutes. However, my cookies always end up rubbery. If you attempt to break it asunder, it comes apart as if it were made up of rubber. The cookies have not been removed prematurely, in fact, a minute more burns them (but they still stay rubbery). I have already tried:

Using no eggs.
Changing proportions of flour and butter.
Increasing temperature too 200C for 12 minutes
Decreasing temperature to 160 for 20 minutes.

Nothing seems to help. Any help?

Powdered sugar is not an acceptable substitute to standard white (granulated) sugar.

During the creaming step, the hard sandy texture of granulated sugar creates small starter bubbles in the cookie dough.  These bubbles will expand during baking, and are integral to the finished cookie's texture.

Ideally, use the correct kind of sugar called for by the recipe.  Or, search for a recipe which specifically calls for powdered / confectioner's sugar instead of granulated sugar.


Why are savory crepes from some restaurants brown? I've gotten savory crepes made with a darker batter than sweet crepes. What ingredients/cooking technique produce this?

I suspect that you're lucky enough to have had the proper savoury pancake from some regions of France (e.g. Brittany). This isn't known as a crepe in French, but as a galette. This word also has other meanings, as a type of cake, tart or biscuit (British English)/ small crisp cookie (US English).
Wikipedia has an article discussing many types.  French Wikipedia lists many more. Here's a related picture from Wikipedia for comparison:

Breton galettes, i.e. those of the pancake variety, are made using buckwheat flour which itself has a mild savoury flavour, not exactly nutty but in that direction. They're a greyish brown rather than the golden colour of crepe. French names for buckwheat flour include farine de sarrasin and farine de blé noir, the latter meaning black wheat/grain/corn flour. Fillings are savoury (various cheeses, ham, etc.); occasionally nuts and honey are used together with savoury ingredients. Traditionally, galettes are paired with sparkling cider.

Galettes are not widely found outside France. In fact, even in France they are not easy to find outside Brittany, Normandy, the Loire region and the Vendee. I have been able to get them in the UK in the past. I've never seen them in the US (checking your profile), but haven't tried to find them either.


How can I pipe multicolored flowers? I've seen beautiful multi-color piping with buttercream frosting where the outer part of the flower is a different shade than the inner part. Here's an example:

How can this be achieved? Is there a way to make the colors change without using multiple piping bags?

There are a few different methods to achieve this. The end goal is to get layers of different colored frosting in rings in your piping bag. The method I ended up preferring uses a piece of cling film/plastic wrap along with your piping bag and tip. This method also makes it easy to have colors change as you progress.

Start by cutting off a square piece of cling film (about 12"x12" or 12"x15"). In the center of it, either pipe or spread a 1/2 inch thick layer of the color you want to appear on the outside in a rectangle about 4 inches wide and 9-10 inches long (be sure to leave an inch or two on either end of the rectangle. On top of that, make a narrower rectangle with your second color but going the full length of the first. Finally, put a very narrow rectangle or strip of the center color on top of that.

It should end up looking something like this:

At this point, carefully roll the three layers into a cylinder, making sure the ends of the largest rectangle meet completely. Twist the cylinder ends to close them and prepare your piping bag with the tip you want to use. Trim one end of the cling wrap and feed that end into the piping bag. Twist the end of the piping bag to close and you should be ready to start piping!

Part of why I like this method is that it's pretty simple to let your colors drift to change what the primary (outermost) color is by adjusting how you lay out the colors. So, if you want four colors and you want the outermost color to change from darkest to second darkest and the innermost color to also lighten from the third to fourth color, you could lay it out like this, instead:

In this case, the darkest blue stops where the second one is the full width of the frosting rectangle. I used the same shades of color in this example but you could use any collection of colors you want. As you pipe, it will muddy a bit but, all in all, it's pretty effective.

Different thicknesses of frosting layers and widths of bands will change which color predominates. A thin outermost layer with a thicker, wider middle layer will tend towards tips of the outer color with a predominance of the middle layer.


Is there any way to avoid fruit flies with my fruit on the counter rather than the fridge? I enjoy keeping bowls of fruits out at room temperature in my kitchen.

This has given me quite an annoying abundance of fruit flies in my apartment.

I've brought my fruit in the fridge to avoid this for now, but I was wondering if anyone has any success or tips to leave fruit out without any fruit flies present?

Note: I've tried leaving some apple cider vinegar nearby but that hasn't been successful in trapping them/distracting them.

You've described exactly me and my apartment.   I like bowls of fruit on the counter, but I don't like the inevitable fruit flies.  But I actually haven't had a fruit fly problem for about two years now.  The solution is to simply lay something over the bowl of fruit.  Make sure it's breathable, or your fruit will ripen really fast.  Cheesecloth, a towel, or piece of netting will all work fine.

This works because the fruit flies can't reach the fruit, so they can't use it to feed and reproduce.  That's same reason putting your fruit in the fridge works.

I have noticed that the fruit still ripen more quickly compared to an uncovered bowl.  This can be a benefit or a drawback, depending on your situation.  Also, a bowl with something over isn't as pretty as an open bowl full of fruit.  But given the choice, I prefer good fruit and no pests.


How to remove commercial seasoning from skillet? We bought a new skillet that was "pre-seasoned" a few years ago...but haven't really used it once yet because that seasoning is basically some black gunk that comes off into the food that's cooked in it. I don't know what this seasoning is - hopefully a food-grade oil that's been cooked into it like the usual seasoning process would involve, but I don't know - but regardless, I don't want flakes of charred...whatever...coming off in food I cook in it.

I know thoroughly washing it is a no-no (even though I desperately want to wash whatever that is off). Any advice on how I can get it clean and usable?

How to remove old seasoning and start over from scratch?

Very few cases actually require a full stripping of cast iron and restarting your seasoning from scratch. If you ruined your seasoning somehow, it can usually just be fixed by scrubbing and baking on a fresh layer of oil or two. However here are a few real reasons:

1) The pan is new, and you don't trust the manufacturer's pre-seasoning for whatever reason, is it really food grade, is it clean is it toxic, is it...whatever...
2) you got your cast iron from an antique store or other source where the seasoning is just unknown or otherwise not trustworthy (IOW, is that black paint?), same as #1, just not a brand new pan.
3) you are a purist and want to manage every layer of the seasoning from how the iron is treated prior to being coated with oil, or which choice of oil and how many coats to season with before the pan goes into production.

To begin, first you really want to scrub the heck out of your pan to break off loose dirt, burned food and anything that will just come free with a scotch brite. The next step does the real cleaning, but scrubbing off whatever you can first will reduce the amount of smell and smoke. if you have a number of pans you want to strip, it might be best to have a few of them ready to go at once to save your time. This is a time consuming process.

After you have scrubbed your pans clean, put them in your oven, and run the the oven through a clean cycel. At minimum thise should be two hours, but many ovens let you run it 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours. Depending on how hot your own gets during cleaning, 2 hours may not be enough, I personally run a 4 or 6 hour cleaning cycle. Do NOT leave your home during an oven cleaning cycle. The temperature of your oven will exceed 800 Degreed F. These temps are more than twice as hot as ordinary cooking temps, and you should never leave your house with the oven on anyway, but the cleaning cycle should absolutely never be left unattended.

The heat will burn everything off of your pan, once the oven has had a chance to cool off and you are able to look inside you will see your cast iron has turned a much brighter but dull grey. This is the natural color of iron when it is bare. As the iron cools, it will start to turn orange. That is caused from the iron oxidizing a fine layer of rust on it's surface, a process that is accelerated by the iron being so hot and exposed to cool air as it cools.

Once the pan is cool enough to pick up with your base hands, we are going to return to the sink, and we are going to scrub the rust away with a new clean scotch brite pad. Turn the oven on and set to 385 degrees F. Becareful, in contrast to seasoned cast iron, bare cast iron is VERY abrasive, and you can skin your knuckles if you aren't careful. Rinse it very well again, toss back into the oven and let the heat drive away the moisture. This time, because you aren't leaving the pan in their to get to full heat, it won't reoxidize so quickly. While it's hot, grab a clean unused dishtowel fresh from your laundry stack, and pickup the pan and put on your stove. Pour about a tablespoon or two of your favorite seasoning oil or fat. Despite what the science says, it doesn;t matter so much which one you choose. This is not because there is no difference. There IS a big difference, but from a practical standpoint, unless you are super super careful, you are going to ruin your seasoning from time to time and will have to fix it. So going with the super expensive flax seed oil really doesn't make any difference from a practicality point of view. I prefer Peanut Oil. It has a high smoke point, which means I can bake it on longer/hotter, making it more durable than other lower smoke point oils. Flaxseed oil is actually the most durable during the way the polymers develop along with the smoking, but again it doesn't matter for practical purposes because you will ruin it now and again. So I use a durable high smoke point oil that's cheaper. Peanut Oil.

With a paper towel folded over a few times until it's 2 inches x 2 inches, start smoothing that oil all around the inside of the pan. Once the paper towel has taken up all the oil and spread it around the inside, flip the pan over and coat the entire outside of the pan. Take special care to get oil into all the cracks, and dimples, and rings, and especially inside the eye of the handle. Get under and inside the front guard that lets you stack your pans. You want to make sure there is not one tiny iota of the pan left dry. Don't worry if the paper towel starts to break apart and leave lint behind. It makes no difference whatsoever.

Done? Good. Now grab a fresh dry paper towel and remove all the oil, make it so the metal looks dry. If you touch it and you can feel the oil, then it's too much. Get it all off.

Once that's done, place a large cookie sheet on the bottom rack of your oven to catch drips...do not use aluminum foil as is often recommended, you'll regret that decision the next time you open the oven door when you are looking at half melted aluminum stuck to the bottom of you oven. Ok, so cookie sheet in place? Great. Place the cast iron pan on the top rack of your oven UPSIDE DOWN. This lets any errant drops of oil that will collect and coelesce together drip out of the pan rather than pooling in the bottom of it, which makes a stick gummy mess. Upside down right? Check!

Let your pan bake for 1 hour. Set the timer. After an hour, check it...It might be dried, it might not. If it's not completely dry, put it in for another 30 minutes. Take note of how long it takes, because that's how long you are going to bake it for again for the next steps, and again in the future if you ever have to repeat this process.

The pan when dried should look a little darker, but it will look like a yucky olive green. That's ok. We aren't done yet.

Put another layer of oil on your pan, being just as careful as before. Remove the oil with a paper towel, bake it...this time for as long as the pan needed for the first coat.

Do NOT be tempted to rush this by leaving extra oil on the pan. This does NOT work. It makes a gummy sticky mess, and even if you do get it to harden, it will chip off the pan at some point ruining your carefully developed seasoning just as it's starting to look nice and baby butt smooth.

So, repeat the above process at least 4 times, but as many as 9 times depending on how developed you want your initial seasoning to be. After 9 times, you reach the point of deminishing returns and it won't really get any better without real food being cooked in the pan and without it being scrubbed down gently from time to time.

Once your initial seasoning is complete, the pan should look really dark grey, but it won't become that jet black without time. There is no real way around this. Smooth jet black is the sign of great seasoning, but it can only be accomplished with time at this point. But here you have your starting point for getting the seasoning you want on your cast iron pots and pans.

Care from now on should be to clean the pan after each use, if it wipes out with a paper towel, that should be all you need to do. If it needs some help, use regular dish soap, and a green scotchbrite pad, and scrub gently...This doesn't hurt your seasoning. In fact it helps, because the scrubby will help smooth the seasoning down. After you rinse it out really well, return the pan to the stove and let it heat dry (don't burn it), just let it dry the water off. Once the water is dry, take a tablespoon of peanut oil, and push it around with a clean paper towel just like before, after wiping the oil on, wipe the oil off again and let the oil dry on the stove. As soon as the oil starts to turn into speckles (little bumps) on the bottom. Wipe it down with a clean towel once again, to knock those down and remove the pan from the heat.

You are done...keep it clean like this and your seasoning will become jet jet black, remain baby bottom smooth, non-stick, and be the greatest stove top cooking surface you own


Why do commercial chocolate/cocoa products often contain fat-reduced cocoa? I've noticed that many 'chocolate' or 'cocoa' products, such as chocolate cake, chocolate milk and cocoa cereal contain fat-reduced cocoa powder rather than normal full-fat cocoa powder.

Often the products also contain added fat, so in these cases presumably fat-reduced cocoa powder isn't used in order to reduce the product's overall fat content.

Is fat reduced cocoa powder cheaper than full-fat cocoa powder? Or perhaps the fat in cocoa powder behaves differently from other fat, necessitating its replacement?

Without getting arrested for loitering in the baking aisle of my local supermarket comparing weights, ingredients and prices, to me it is all down to price and processing method. The low starch, natural fat product performs better according to Cooks Illustrated.

Higher natural fat = premium product = better taste.

References:

Alice Medrich: https://food52.com/blog/9521-how-to-identify-good-cocoa-powder-and-not-so-good

Cooks illustrated: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/663-which-cocoa-powder-should-you-buy


Do people eat clotted cream AND butter at the same time? In The Hobbit, Gandalf is described as eating loaves with clotted cream, butter, and honey.  I'm familiar with clotted cream, but I always eat it with jam - clotted cream PLUS butter seems excessive.  Do people frequently eat these things together?

It's really a matter of preference. Some people like the salty dimension that butter gives along with clotted cream and jam, others think the cream is enough saturated fat to be going on with.


Unnecessary kitchen gadgets: a reference There are a lot of advertised tools and electronic gadgets for every field; the kitchen is no exception.

In my experience, there are a lot of useful tools for specific purposes (a garlic press, for example) but there are also a lot of seemingly useless ones.

A useless gadget or tool is defined as one that

does not actually help make the task it was designed for easier
may cost more than the proper tool or set of tools (or the technique)
unnecessarily complicates preparation
may incur injury or increase likelihood of injury
something that gathers dust and never gets used

So, list any that you have encountered and warn others to steer clear of, and include the reason why. This is a community wiki.

For reasons I have yet to understand, my parents once bought me what I would have to describe as a manual food processor.  I am not talking about a hand blender, nor am I talking about a chopper (which is what you'll find if you try to google "manual food processor").  It is literally a crank-operated, plastic-encased device that looks like a very small food processor.

To date, I have never found a use for it.  The only reason I even took it out of the box was because the box took up too much space in my cupboard.  I have no idea what this... thing... can do that an ordinary food processor or hand blender can't do about a thousand times better.  I guess, if I ever really need to purée some tuna in the middle of a nationwide blackout, I'll be prepared.

Because I no longer have the box, I have no idea what the name of this product is.
I received this gift over 5 years ago. The guard labels are still on the blades - a testament to just how useless this product turned out to be.


What happened, when I boiled this pot dry? I started boiling water in a small, stainless steel, copper-bottom pot. Old story: I forgot about it, the water boiled away, and the pot spent a couple hours on maximum heat from my electric stove.

I noticed it as I sat reading: a funny smell was coming from the pot, not unlike the smell of burning plastic. I opened the pot and saw the bottom covered with this dark grey matter that doesn't wash easily. What could it be?

Then, while washing the pot, the nice dark copper color seemed to wash away. Now I have this. What happened, here?

Lastly, now I have white spots on my cooktop where the pot sat. What could these be?

The first photo is of mineral deposits left behind when you boiled your water away. If you water is really hard (full of minerals) you may get these even in normal use. Barkeeper's Friend cleaner and some hard work can remove it.

The second photo is showing that you actually managed to clean the dark oxidation off some of the bottom, but not all of it. When copper is really clean (free of oxidation) it's quite bright and pinkish or orange. The way your pot was before, it had a fairly even layer of oxidation, which makes the copper brown. You could either clean it all the way--again, barkeeper's friend is a good bet--or leave it and it will soon be brown again.

The last one I'm just guessing about. I think it is probably mineral deposits too, if there was water underneath the pot, or if if boiled over. I do not know if something like Barkeeper's Friend would be appropriate for your cooker, though. It could also be oxidation or staining from the pot--something on the pot that burned off and left a residue or discolored the surface. It's also possible that the hot pot actually damaged the surface, in which case the discoloration may be permanent.

In any case, your pot is not damaged if the bottom is still flat (sometimes overheated pots warp). Cleaning it will make it look nicer, but none of the things you're seeing are likely to have an impact on how it cooks.


Is a cast iron wok too heavy? I want to buy a wok. Someone recommended I buy a cast iron wok, but I know it is very heavy.

That will be extremely heavy! Very cumbersome.
Traditionally, woks are not cast iron, but steel. They get really hot really fast. They are easy to flip stuff around in as you stir fry. Get one with a flat bottom so that it has maximum contact with your heat source as our stoves don't get anywhere close to as hot as a traditional heat source for a round bottom wok.
America's Test Kitchen does a wonderful video on the subject!


I accidentally dropped the lid from a can of diced tomatos in my crockpot of cabbage roll soup! I went to stir the cabbage roll soup and found the metal lid to the diced tomatoes in the soup. It's been in there for at least an hour with all the food in the crockpot cooking on high. I got it out and still have the food cooking. I'm not sure if we can eat this now or not?

When you can foods, even in a mass production setting, you're pouring near boiling contents into the cans. So heating it in your soup is no different than having used those tomatoes in the soup. If it wasn't food safe it wouldn't be used for canning. It would do no more harm to eat the soup than it would be to eat the tomatoes out of that can.

Addition:

While there may have been health risk in the past with the coating on many canned products, its incredibly rare in modern day. While trace amount of tin are generally safe, in a larger quantity they can cause nausea and vomiting, but generally no long term effects as these are mostly related to the inability to digest tin. In the UK some canned products are coated in a Bisphenol-A compound which is a known carcinogen. Though this is becoming less common, as BPA is generally avoided in food containment. Though the toxicity of BPA is still widely debated, its generally best to avoid it.

Most cans are made of steel, which if dissolved, even in relatively large quantities is not a health risk. For instance, many pans are made of steel or iron. Most commonly these cans are coated with aluminum as its much cheaper to plate steel with aluminum rather than tin. Aluminum can be toxic in large quantities, but aluminum is very resistant to corrosion, as it tends to form an oxidized coating which prevent most corrosion.

There are some minor safety hazard in consuming the coating on certain canned products, though its increasingly less common to find products canned in these containers that contain potentially hazardous materials. Tin coated cans have made people nauseous in the past, due to the tin dissolving from acidic contents like fruit. Though generally the can has to be rather old, and discoloration is a good indicator in this case to avoid consuming problematic amounts of tin.

I'd say being that there are no reports of people becoming ill from cooking a portion of a can, that its safe to assume that there are no major health implications. Though if you are worried, you may want to contact the company that packages the specific brand of canned goods you are using.

sources:

Wikipedia, Tin Can
Mount Sinai Hospital, Aluminum Toxicity


After I eat some foods beer tastes weird? I'm an obsessive home brewer.  So I'm always trying to critically evaluate the flavour of beers I make with a view to constantly improving their quality. In particular I am searching for off-flavours, like by-products of fermentation, or is some-ingredient too prominent in the flavour profile.

However I find that if I eat certain foods (like flavoured chips/crisps), before drinking beer, some parts of the malt taste profile (or the yeast?) flavours go weird, the sweetness becoming kind of saccharine (maybe).

Some foods do not prompt this at all, e.g.: unflavoured corn chips/crisps, salted peanuts.

Is this a known phenomenon?
Is there a way to "reset" one's palette?

Maybe I should post this to the alcohol section.  But this is really a question about food & flavours.  I'd like to prepare meals (and snacks) that don't make beer taste weird.

EDIT: Cross-posted to Homebrewing

EDIT: I tested this out over the weekend.  I tasted beer - it's good, ate "Cheese & Onions Chips" (crisps), beer then tastes weird.

Rinsing my mouth with lots of water alleviated it quite a bit.
Drinking Milk didn't seem to do anything.
Eating plain bread (suggested elsewhere) didn't seem to do anything.

I will try the High Salt rinse next.

Even sugars can affect the flavour of the next mouthful or two. This includes the dextrose added to quite a lot of savoury snacks (and similar foods, often before cooking so it caramelises), which might explain why some crisps (chips) have this effect and others don't. I find that a couple of small sips are enough to restore taste to normal.

Without rigorous testing I find that this reduces the flavour of a malty beer. More hoppy beers tend to taste more bitter after certain foods, but mainly sweet foods, so I've always put that down to the contrast in flavours. Again this is a short-lived effect.


Will meat cook inside of a rice cooker? I would like to use my rice cooker to cook one of those pre-packaged jambalaya mixes, and I've had good success with using prepackaged rice packets in my rice cooker.  Sometimes there is a bit of sticking on the bottom but it comes right up and is never that bad.

My question is if it's safe to throw uncooked meat inside of the rice cooker.  I'm talking about average sized chunks, but can cut them smaller to make sure they cook through.

Since water boils at 212°F, and the contents of the cooker are kept warm afterwards, I'm guessing that any meat you put in there (granted its cut thin enough) will cook straight through.

To be more specific, in this instance I am thinking about throwing cubes of deer venison which require much less cooking than say pork or poultry.

Anything will cook in a rice cooker, eventually. You will need to experiment with the size of the meat chunks.  When the meal is done cooking, take them out and see if they are cooked and at the correct temperature. If not, finish cooking them and cut them up smaller next time.

What I would do however is cube the meat, sear it, and then throw it in to the cooker. You will end up with a better texture this way.


Is Italian style gelato achievable with standard home ice cream makers and home freezers? I've not had much success trying to make Italian style gelato at home though French style ice cream works very well.

I'm using the Cuisinart ICE-100 which comes with both an ice cream and a gelato paddle. The gelato paddle definitely does produce more dense results with less air though the Cuisinart doesn't allow you to control the churning speed (like most home ice cream makers).

My main problem is that if I make a litre of ice cream and store it in the home freezer it will freeze so solidly that it can't be scooped at all - it can just about be cut with some effort.

Any recommendations, tips, recipe books? I don't mind put in some more effort at the cooking stage and allowing some time in the fridge at the serving stage for the gelato to come up to the right serving temperature.

Since you say French-style ice cream works fine, but the gelato is freezing rock hard, I suspect the problem may simply be the serving temperature. Gelato needs to be served at a warmer temperature than ice cream. Unfortunately the temperatures I've found are pretty variable (some say 5F, some say 10-20F), but everyone consistently says gelato needs a higher temperature than ice cream.

So just try taking it out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to serve.

If you don't want to do that, then actual gelato recipes probably won't work well, and you'll have to modify them. You can try some of the usual tricks for softening ice cream: add alcohol, sugar, fat, or additives like guar gum or xanthan gum. But keep in mind that they may cause you to stray a bit from the original gelato flavor or texture!


Making Tomato Sauce from Tomato Paste I've been trying, on-and-off when I have time, to make tomato sauce from a 5 1/2 oz can of tomato paste, but haven't figured out the right proportions of ingredients.

I've been combining a can of tomato paste with about 16 oz of water and some sugar to cut the acidity, and reducing it a little, but all I end up with is watery tomato paste.

It's more likely that I am missing a key ingredient (like a can of diced tomatoes) than a critical preparation step, but I'm curious about other people's experience.

Edit

By "tomato sauce", I mean something functionally equivalent to a store-bought jar of pasta sauce.

Why would anyone want to do this? I honestly have no good reason. It is mere curiosity on my part. Is it possible to get edible results? Or is it guaranteed to be a complete waste of time, not worth even experimenting with?

I can give you the Italian answer - first of all, normally we don't use tomato paste to make sauce, but rather to add a tomato "kick" to recipes. Tomato paste is simply tomato puree that has been cooked down to a high degree of concentration.

A basic tomato sauce is made by

making a soffritto with onion, carrot and celery (plus other flavors)
adding tomato puree, or "pelati", more rarely fresh tomato
cooking the sauce down until the taste and thickness is what you want

If you want to use paste instead of puree, the third step has to be omitted or greatly reduced in duration. Keep in mind that tomato paste has its own taste, and that taste will remain in the final sauce.


Why is shrimp rubbery after reheating? How can I prevent this? I don't frequently use shrimp in my dishes (once a month at most) because I tend to shop my proteins based off what is the best deal and I'm not usually interested in shrimp unless it is large (at least 15-20 count) and under $7/lb.

Whether I make stir fry, fajitas, pasta, or anything else I can't figure out how to reheat it and have it not be rubbery.  Microwave is the worst culprit (even a few seconds in the microwave will ruin the shrimp for me), but even reheating on the stove changes the consistency.  When I eat it cold out of the fridge it is fine (other than being cold).

What makes the shrimp rubbery after reheating?  How can I reheat it and prevent (or at least reduce this)?  FWIW, this happens whether I saute, boil, or bake the shrimp for original preparation.

I agree with @Joe. It sounds like you are heating too much and overcooking the shrimp. Once things like shrimp are overcooked I am not sure that there is a way to make them tender other than to cook for a long time, similar to slow cooking. With squid the rule for cooking is less than 2 min or more than 20 min to ensure tenderness.

I think your best bet is to heat slowly and monitor as much as possible to make sure it is warmed but not heated fast so that it overcooks.

In the microwave I would spread the shrimp in a single layer on a plate and using a low power setting, heat in perhaps 20-30 second increments, testing for warmth after each step. You could play around with time and power settings to see what works best for you. The key is to make sure the shrimp do not get too hot, so make sure you turn them and shuffle positions on the plates.

You could also try heating in an oven, covered with foil at around 80-100 C for about 10 min (this is a guess on time, it will depend on the size of the shrimp).


Can I substitute Soy Milk when a recipe for cooking (not baking) calls for regular (or 2%) milk This question asks the question for baking.  For for regular stove-top cooking, will it work.  Other than minor adjustments for cooking time.

EDIT 3/22/11: the specific items I am making are white sauce for pasta, mashed potatoes, for example

You can almost always substitute soy milk for regular 2% milk in baking. Soy has almost as much protein as regular milk and slightly less fat that 2% milk.

You'll probably not notice any difference. I've used it in baking and had good results.

Here's the breakdown (according to the Silk Brand Vanilla Soy Milk from my Fridge):

Soy Milk Stats (per cup):
Protein: 6g, Total fat: 3.5g, Total Carbs: 11g

2% Milk Stats (per cup):
Protein: 8g, Total fat: 5g, Carbs: 12g


Why didn't my beer cake cook properly? I have a beer cake recipe which I've successfully cooked once.  Since then, I've had a new oven and just tried to bake it again.  It wasn't entirely successful.

It's baked in a 10", round, deep tin.  The base and sides were brown and a bit 'bendy'.  The edge of the top had foamed up and then crusted off.  The topping had crisped off properly.  The middle was nearly cooked and as you moved out towards the edge it seemed to get more cooked until about one-and-a-half inches from the edge when it was suddenly quite soggy.  So there is a ring of partially cooked cake-mix just before the outer crust.  I've done a picture of a cut through the middle of the cake (I'm a marginally better cook than I am an artist):

I cooked it 20°C below the recommended 180°C (350°F) because I was using the fan.  I put it on the middle shelf of the oven.

It was supposed to be cooked for 1hr 50 mins but after that long a skewer stuck into the middle was sticky so I stuck it back for another 20 mins.  The skewer was still a bit sticky but not as much and, as the outside was looking like it would soon burn, I risked it and took it out.  A bit longer might've cooked the middle better but what about the rest?

Next time, should I:

Stick to the recommended temperature?  Go lower still, or higher?
Try cooking it on a higher shelf?  Or a lower one?
Not use the fan?
Sing to it, shout at it or ignore it and hope it behaves?
Something else?

And, obviosuly, poke the skewer in all over, not just the middle, and trust it.

Turning down the temperature by 20C was a good idea because of the fan, however it may be too much in your oven's case as it sounds like the temperature was a bit too low.

What likely happened was that the fan blowing over the center of the bread cooked the center first, but the fan didn't blow on the sides of the bread as much. This has happened to me when I'm using a high sided baking tin where the bread was not up to the top. I find when baking breads and cakes that the fan tends to char the outside of things even if I turn it down, and then the inside doesn't cook so well, so I usually leave the fan off. I suggest you try the recommended temperature with the fan off and see how that works.


Can the duration of the whistle determine if food inside a pressure cooker is cooked Building upon this question, I was wondering if the duration of the whistle can be used to determine if the food inside a pressure cooker is cooked.

As suggested by a couple of answers in the question referenced above, certain things do not work:

The manufacture recommended two whistles in India, but in Germany it takes 6-7.
The aroma can not always help, for example in case of making plain rice.

I have been trying to observe this event for the past few days. As the time increases, the duration of the whistle decreases (I have not measured it per se...just an observation). Has anyone else observed this. If this observation is actually correct , can this be scientifically explained?

The short answer to that question is no. The whistling sound is just a signal to reduce the heat.

Here's an excerpt from the Hawkins Pressure Cooker Operating Guide:

  After the pressure regulator is placed on the steam vent, there is at first a very low hissing sound of steam from the pressure regulator. Then steam emission increases to full force and the pressure regulator lifts with a whistling sound. The cooker is now at full operating pressure. This is the point at which to reduce heat and start timing the recipe.

So, the timing or frequency of whistles is a function of how hot the pressure cooker is at any given time, and most importantly, a warning to turn down your stove, so that a catastrophe does not ensue.

As the Hawkins manual explains, start timing your recipe once the cooker has reached operating pressure. The actual timing of course, will vary, depending on the particular food you're cooking.


Why are croissants brushed twice with egg glaze? What is it about croissants that requires two coats of egg glaze? All the recipes for brioche buns for example just require one coat before baking. With croissants all the recipes require a coat before proofing and then a coat before baking.

In the baked goods where I double-brush, the first layer of eggwash is applied  before a long (cold) proofing. When proofing already formed buns, you don’t want the layer of foil or whatever you are using too tightly on top, both to ensure there’s enough room for expansion and to keep the top „pretty“. The wash will moisten the top of the buns and prevent (or at least reduce) the formation of a skin, which later may interfere with oven spring. It should also keep the crust soft. The second application right before baking is for more shine and extra humidity on the outside, again allowing for maximum oven spring and keeping the crust soft.

I can’t see why the double-brushing would be specific for croissants, in my experience it’s more about proofing and a soft crust.


How can I move from subscription boxes to recipes successfully? As a beginner baker, I find services where they deliver a box of pre-portioned ingredients with instructions how to bake a cake very useful (and fun!). However, I find that I get kind of lost when I have to bake a cake on my own. I just assume that is due to my beginner skills (or lack of). What techniques should I use when trying to bake a cake from a recipe rather than a pre-portioned box of ingredients?

What you will find helpful is the concept of "mise en place"

  Mise en place (MEEZ ahn plahs) is a French term for having all your ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before you start cooking. Pans are prepared. Mixing bowls, tools and equipment set out. It is a technique chefs use to assemble meals so quickly and effortlessly.

The subscription boxes you're using do this for you. They give you a list of equipment you need, detailed instructions, and they have all of the ingredients measured for you before you even begin. If you watch any cooking shows, you'll see that they often have all of the ingredients ready in small bowls or ramekins. It's the same concept.

So, if you want to move from a subscription box to a recipe, you'll want to do this. While many bakers (myself included) are able to work line by line in a recipe, it's actually better to measure out everything first and then simply add it when the recipe calls for it.

This makes cooking or baking a two-step process which is actually (usually) created in the recipe itself. Though, the absolutely first step you should always take is to really read the recipe completely to make sure you have all of the ingredients that you need and understand all of the steps you're going to take. If the recipe calls for a process you're unfamiliar with like "whip to firm peaks", look up what that means rather than guessing. Once you've read the recipe you're ready to start.

Collect all of the ingredients based on the ingredients list and equipment based on the recipe.
This means measure them and prepare them as the ingredients list directs.

If it calls for 1 cup butter in 1/2 inch cubes, softened, you cube the butter and let it soften.
If it calls for 1/2 cup chopped nuts, toasted, you chop your nuts, measure them and toast them and then put them in a bowl (note that there's a difference between "1/2 cup nuts, chopped" and "1/2 cup chopped nuts").
Prepare any equipment - grease/flour pans, line with parchment, preheat oven, etc.

After you've finished doing all of these things, clean up your work area and arrange your ingredients neatly. You can put them all in individual prep bowls or, as you get more comfortable baking, you may add together ingredients you know always go together, like spices. This is something you should be careful of, though, as the more you do things like that, the more you have to remember that you did it. It only takes one time forgetting the baking powder to make you regret skipping steps! Only once all of the ingredients are prepared do you move on to step two:

Assemble the recipe by following the directions for assembly.
Once you have your mise en place, you can easily assemble your recipe by following the instructions. You've already done most of the work - measuring, preparing for the recipe by researching the methods, so now you're just pulling it all together and actually putting that work into use.

Keep track of which ingredient is which and keep your recipe close at hand. Hopefully this will help you see that you can use these baking kits but you can also mimic them with any recipe on the web or in a book merely by doing a little extra work (which is what they've already done for you).

Here's a great image of mise en place for baking all set up and ready to go:

It comes from a blog article about mise en place when baking which I also recommend reading.


How to prevent a baby scoby from forming in bottled kombucha I am brewing kombucha at home.
Apart from pasteurizing the finished product, how does one prevent the kombucha from growing a new scoby?

I have a baby scoby forming in my glass bottles regardless of whether I do a single or a double fermentation.

Is refrigerating the end product the only solution? (I dont think GT and the likes have baby scobies forming in their bottles ;))

Thanks!

Pasteurisation would reduce viable cell count in your kombucha which is undesirable.

Refrigeration, as I just recently discovered, only slows the growth of the scoby but it would give you enough time to keep the liquid clear. Given enough time (>3 months in my case), you will see growth at 3C.

Whether it is a single or double ferment, there is really no difference unless your substrate is very different in the second fermentation. The yeast species are responsible for the fizz while bacteria like G.Xylinus is responsible for the formation of the cellulose mat you want to control. I have not yet looked into what makes G.Xylinus thrive, but even in a scoby there has to be some conditions that favour yeasts over bacteria, whether it is a pH threshold or nitrogen or some other micro nutrient.

You might want to experiment with it. What I do notice is that old scoby kept at low temperatures are less capable of producing gas, which suggests that the yeast population is harmed by high acidity or high acidity at low temperature.

G.Xylinus and other bacteria feed on ethanol from yeast to produce acids (primarily acetic and lactic). So, you might want to try a removing the new growth and rebottling without any further sugar addition.

Agitation also prevents mat formation but you will still find sediments and "scum" suspended in the liquid. If that is acceptable, you can just shade the bottles periodically to disrupt the mat.


How to achieve a flexible consistency on ice cream? (photos attached) I'm an amateur ice cream maker. I've tried to emulate this ice cream without success: it is thick and flexible; the texture reminds me of melted marshmallows yet it´s not overly sweet. It's so flexible it hangs from the spoon without dripping even when it was already soft. I bought it from a small shop downtown.

It is a dairy based ice cream. I've done ice creams with milk, cream and cream cheese but the resulting flavour is overly milky and barely creamy.

I don´t know what should I add/do to achieve this kind of consistency: more animal fat, vegetable fats, sugar, whipped egg whites, some special chemical?

I add photos for visual proof.

Ice cream is smooth because churning breaks up ice crystals, and sugar, fat and egg yolks prevent the ice crystals from re-forming. Pure ice cream can be relatively elastic when frozen just by having lots of sugar, fat, and egg yolks in it. However, you cannot achieve this sort of elasticity in ice cream when it's above freezing without stabilizers like Xanthan Gum and Guar Gum. These are more effective emulsifiers/stabilizers than eggs and work at a higher temperature than eggs do.

Many stabilizers are natural products, Xanthan gum is the product of bacterial formation and Guar gum is processed bean paste, so I personally have no problem with them and use them in my ice cream sometimes to improve the texture. Mostly I just use more egg yolks - my ice cream rarely last long enough to melt anyway.

I think in this case the creaminess you describe is more of a mouth feel thing rather than a flavor, if you want to replicate it I'd suggest getting more eggs in your recipe and consider adding some guar gum.


Can meat and cheese be stored together? My husband is constantly storing opened blocks of cheese in the same container as his summer sausage, also opened. He insists that they don't need to be separated and that I am being paranoid. I say he needs to dump his bachelor habits before we all get sick.

Who is right?

Summer sausage is cooked in the smoking process, and fermented, which kills bacteria and gives it a long fridge life.  Some summer sausages don't even require refrigeration until opened! Wet, raw sausage, on the other hand, is asking for trouble.

I'm sure your husband will forgive your fussiness when you bring him kielbasa and a nice chunk of aged cheddar, open in the same container, and ready to munch!


The Orange in Crispy Orange Beef Every time I try to make crispy orange beef, I try to integrate orange(juice, concentrate, zest) so that orange flavor stands out, but it never does.

Does the orange in crispy orange beef refer to it as a garnish only?

The orange in orange beef is actually a dried tangerine peel.  It is called Chen pi in mandarin, which literally is "aged peel or skin".  陳皮.  This is typically used in Traditional Chinese medicine to help keep desolve fats and oils.  I think it is what makes the dish, and gives it that intense orange taste that orange juice doesn't have.


Which method to use when making fruit powders? Searching online I found a lot of videos/ articles about making fruit powders, some of them dried the fruit itself then ground it. While other juiced the fruit, then ground it.

I am wondering which method will give me a better result regarding:

1) The taste;

2) The color.

The fruits that I am looking forward to try out: Mango, Orange, Lime, apple, grape, tomato, pepper and other fruits and veggies.

I will be using a cheap dehydrator if that is going to make a difference.

I tried drying lemon in a cheap dehydrator, and the flesh doesn't really dry well even when the skin /pith is hard and dry. The membranes of the flesh some too keep the moisture in.

For citrus at least, drying the juice/pulp would be worth a try, and is what I'll do next time I have some to try it on. I suggest drying the zest as well. The pulp or juice would have to be dried on something non-porous, like baking parchment.


How many pounds of fresh beef does it take to make a pound of beef jerky? Beef obviously loses water when you dehydrate it to make beef jerky.  What's the ratio here?  Does it take two pounds of fresh beef to make a pound of beef jerky?

It depends on how moist you like your jerky. A typical jerky loses half of its starting weight in moisture, so 2:1 is the proper ratio. "Low moisture" jerky can actually be 1/3 the starting weight, a 3:1 ratio.

So 2-3 pounds of beef will make 1 pound of jerky.


How Long Is Mint-Infused Water Safe to Drink? I like to leave a few sprigs of mint leaf in bottled water overnight to give it some extra flavor.  It's delicious, but recently I left one in the fridge while I was on vacation for five days.  I tasted the water and it still tastes great, but I'm curious how long something like mint needs to soak in (refrigerated) water before it becomes a safety concern?

I recently asked this question to my dietitian friend at work, and she advised fruit/herbs last about 3 to 5 days in water in the fridge before becoming soft and mushy. If your mint leaf still looks nice and pretty, you are most likely OK. She also recommended a website to me: www.infusedwaters.com/faq for recipes and advise.


Is wasabi considered to be spicy or to be a spice? I was just talking to a friend about what to eat for dinner and he said he didn't want anything spicy.

He then mentioned that Japanese food doesn't have anything spicy and I said "Wasabi".

Apparently he doesn't regard wasabi as spicy while I do.

So which one of us is right? Within the fields of gastronomy and the culinary arts is wasabi considered a spice, or something else? Is it right to describe it as "spicy"?

In my book, this is pretty trivial. Wasabi is absolutely a spice - it's something with a very specific flavor, derived from a plant, that can be used in fairly small quantities to add flavor to something.

It's not spicy (spicy hot, piquant) in the normal sense, though. It doesn't contain capsaicin. It is hot in some sense: it contains allyl isothiocyanate, which we obviously have a very strong reaction to. This is the same compound that's in horseradish and hot mustard. The reaction is very different from capsaicin, though. Capsaicin causes you to register heat at a much lower temperature than you normally would, so you're actually feeling heat, like you would if you were burning your tongue. It's quite literally hot, as far as your body is concerned. It's also an oil, so it can't be washed away easily with liquid, and the burning tends to linger. Wasabi, on the other hand, doesn't produce an actual sensation of heat, you feel it mostly in your nasal passages, and can easily be washed away with liquid, so it tends to be a brief sensation. So sure, "hot" is a reasonable way to describe it, mostly because we don't have a word for the actual sensation, but it's definitely not the same thing as a hot pepper.

I'm sure you can find plenty of people who would say that these are just two different kinds of spicy hot (piquancy), but arguing over definitions isn't going to get us anywhere. The important thing is that there's a fundamental difference, and there's no way you could substitute one for the other. If you want to understand why I think this (and it's not just a personal definition), go to any recipe site, search for "spicy", and see how many things with wasabi/horseradish/mustard supplying "spiciness" you find.

Edit: To stave off further debate in the comments, let me just repeat: arguing over definitions is not useful. There are probably a lot of people who think "spicy hot" should include this, and a lot who don't. I wouldn't generally expect anyone to think of wasabi without context when you say spicy hot, but you're welcome to use the terms however you and the people you talk with understand them.


Microwave Asparagus? I have a ton of asparagus but no time to cook it the traditional steamer way. Is there a recommended microwave method someone would recommend? Earlier today I sliced some into 2 inch bits, put them in a bowl together with lemon juice, butter, and garlic. It was DECENT at best.

Any ideas?

I would not recommend using the microwave for two reasons:

It does not scale up well as you add mass to the cooking chamber
The shape and size of asparagus is almost designed to fit into the fact that microwave ovens tend to cook unevenly

Instead, if you wish to cook a large amount of asparagus in a reasonably short period of time, I recommend roasting.  The method is very forgiving, but an approach similar to this will give you good results:

Preheat your oven to approximately 400 F / 200 C.
Clean and trim your asparagus.
Please the asparagus in a shallow layer on a sheet pan, and season with salt, pepper, herbs, olive oil, and/or lemon juice as you desire.
Roast approximately 10-15 minutes until it is slightly browned, and cooked through to your liking

While this technique does not cook a small amount of asaparagus terribly quickly, it does not get any slower for larger batches, and so is probably your most effective method.

Also, many people consider the outcome especially delicious, more so than steaming or microwaving.


How to coat gummies with beeswax/carnauba wax and coconut oil/palm oil? I tried coating my gummies with beeswax but it was a failure. First, I melted beeswax and tried to pour it in a spray bottle but it hardened so fast. Also, I tried coating them by just putting them in the beeswax but the gummies dissolved with the wax because of the heat. I tried to coat them with a mix of olive oil and wax (2/3+1/3) but it wasn't perfect, there were some little pieces of wax on the gummies.

From what I understand the way waxy coatings are applied is actually by adding your candies and powdered wax to a tumbler.
Claire from bon appetit tried to accomplish it by abusing a salad spinner to make gourmet jelly beans and m&ms. Ann Reason from How to Cook That used a children's toy rock tumbler to apply a cocoa butter coating to some jelly beans.
https://youtu.be/Vn8-p_Gi2fU


How to thicken a raw fruit relish? I have a raw fruit relish that I'd like to like to thicken into more of a jam consistency.  I'm thinking about heating in a saucepan with some cornstarch or syrup, but I don't have any idea how much cornstarch to use, and I don't want to mess this up.  What approach should I take to thicken this relish?

Here is the recipe for the relish:

  2 pounds fresh cranberries
  1 cup sugar
  1/4 cup Grand Marnier liqueur
  1 orange, zested and juiced

  Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, pulse
  several times to breakdown the cranberries and incorporate the
  ingredients; it should still be a bit chunky. Allow the cranberry
  relish to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, so the
  flavors can marry.

From Fresh Cranberry Relish by Tyler Florence and JoAnn Cianciulli.

If I need one, I usually use guar gum as thickening agent in raw dishes. The result is similar to using corn starch, it is more or less without flavour, but does not need heat to activate. I would probably dissolve some in the orange juice and then mix with the other ingredients.


My Baba Ghanoush is too watery I tried cooking Baba Ghanoush for the first time and though tasty I didn't quite get the expected results.

It was watery instead of creamy like the ones I had had.

I used equal parts of eggplant and tahini and a bit of lemon juice and garlic.

Now I wonder if I used too much eggplant or I didn't cook the eggplant enough as it was like a sponge full of water when I cut it.

How much time and at which temperature should I bake the eggplant? Or is there some external sign to know it's ready to be used for Baba ganoush? To me it looked and tasted "well done" as it was.

Sounds like you didn't roast sufficiently or not sufficiently hot. The outside should be really charred, and the inside will be not so watery.


How do you cook lasagne noodles? Do you throw it all out in a tall pan at once or by batches? In what pan should you cook it?
Do you put them on top of each other in the pan?
Do you place them horizontally or vertically?
With oil in the water or not?
How do you drain them in the colander without everything sticking?
Should you boil, par-boil, or let them soak in water before layering (concerning run of the mill DeCeco lasagne)?

I mainly use freshly made egg pasta and cook two or three sheets at a time. I build the lasagna as I go. So...
Bring water to boil.  Add a couple of tablespoons of salt.  Do not add oil. Drop in a couple of sheets of pasta.  Fresh takes a minute or two.  Remove to a towel on counter top with a spider.  When cool enough to handle, transfer to lasagna pan and add condiments.  Drop a few more sheets of pasta into water and continue layering.  Then bake.

For dry pasta, use a large pot and add all of the pasta.  Salted water...no oil in water.  Cook for a couple of minutes below the package recommendation.  Drain.  You could use a little bit of oil here to keep pasta from sticking together...or refresh in cool water bath.  I would blot dry before layering.  Build your lasagna.  Bake.


How to fry meat without spattering oil? Possible Duplicate:
  Is there any way to avoid grease splatter?

Tonight I cooked dinner, which involved sausages for me, and chicken drumsticks for my partner. The sausages went great, then I proceeded to add some more oil and start the chicken.

This is where my pain started. Soon after, the juices from the meat started coming out and caused the oil to spatter all over my arm. I'm only guessing that this is the cause, but it did seem related. I'm now sporting some minor oil burns and wondering if there's any way to reduce the spattering caused by the juices in the meat when cooking this way, as we both enjoy the taste.

While the above suggestions would get rid of the oil splatter problem, they would also result in overcooked meat with a soggy exterior, as all the water created during frying (for example, chicken releases a lot of juice) would remain in the pan and steam the meat instead of frying it.

Your best bet is to get something called a splatter screen. I've seen one at ikea

, and at walmart, and I would assume kitchen supply stores would carry it too. A splatter screen is basically a fine metal mesh lid with a handle that fits over a variety of pans/pots and while it allows the steam to escape it also prevents the oil from splattering everywhere by catching in it the fine mesh. The best $10 you'll ever spend.


How to reduce sugar in chocolate chip cookies without losing the texture I have my chocolate chip cookie recipe which uses a 1 to 1 sugar to flour ratio. The texture is chewy because I under-cook them on purpose. When cooked golden brown they are snappy like the supermarket chocolate chip cookies. (like pepperidge farm)

I'm trying to reduce the sugar in this recipe for taste and health reason. (I know that chocolate chip cookies are not celery and carrots :D )

I reduced the sugar to reach a ratio of 75% sugar to flour ratio. The cookies need more cooking time, and come out bready/cakey.

Here is the final low-sugar recipe for reference (my original recipe is based on the one on the back of the Tollhouse chocolate chip packages):

250g butter
110g granulated sugar
100g brown sugar
1 pack vanilla sugar
2 eggs
1 pack of baking soda
1 pinch of salt
270g flour
300g chocolate chips
Bake 12 minutes at 190°C

My understanding is that the sugar contributes to some kind of caramelization of the cookie, making it chewy/snappy.

Is there a way to substitute the sugar? Change the ingredients ratio so that we still have a not-too-sweet and not-too-unhealthy cookie?

You can toast your sugar. Stella Parks on Serious Eats and in her cookbook Bravetart explains that toasted sugar undergoes thermal decomposition that make a more complex, less sweet flavor and (importantly to your question) is lower in the glycemic index:

  Not only does toasted sugar taste less sweet, it has less sucrose, fewer calories, and a lower glycemic index than plain sugar. How much lower would depend on the extent of thermal decomposition

Toast sugar by putting white sugar on a baking sheet in the oven at 300°F for one to five hours. Stir occasionally. You will likely need to place the resulting toasted sugar mass in a food processor to break it up. It can be used 1:1 for the sugar in the original recipe.


Is canned “tomato sauce” already cooked? The can says the ingredients are tomato puree, garlic, etc.  I suspect that cooking turns puree into sauce.  But then why does it change again when simmered for half an hour with ground meat and chili seasonings?

The meat's already browned prior to adding the tomato sauce, so I was thinking that we wait until the tomato is cooked. But my wife says the tomato is already cooked.  So what is happening, and what do we call this when cooking?

To reiterate, suppose the components are not “raw”.  But you still have to simmer it all together for 30 minutes.  What do you call that, since you’re not moving from a state of being uncooked to being cooked?

Yes, in some sense, the contents of a can of tomato sauce are already cooked. But "cooked" is a pretty vague term, and we know that there are different degrees of it. Did you cook your onion on a low heat until it was soft, or until golden, or until caramelised? Did you cook your steak until it was rare, or medium, or well done?

Likewise with tomatoes, if you blend them up and then cook them for ten minutes they're not going to taste the same as when you've cooked them for three hours in a low oven with the lid off. Lots of chemical reactions are going on inside the food as it's cooking, and some of them only happen over rather long time periods.

So what you're doing when you're putting the "cooked" canned tomato sauce in with your "cooked" meat and leaving it for a while is... cooking. The combination of ingredients plus more heat and more time will cause further changes and different flavours to emerge.

Also, canned tomato sauce will only be cooked enough to preserve it in the can - it's not been cooked to the point where it's going to be at its best for eating. That part's up to you.


Getting Crisp Bacon In A Gas Oven I have been cooking bacon in ovens for several years. Our new house has a gas oven, a new experience for me, and while I've generally mastered it, I'm struggling with cooking bacon in there. It certainly cooks, but it doesn't seem to get that charred, crispy taste we used to have. I imagine this has to do with the extra moisture in gas ovens? Either way, does anyone have a solution? I would also appreciate the scientific reasoning behind the phenomena.

I've cooked plenty of crispy bacon in plenty of ovens— gas and electric, commercial and home, with and without convection— and I really doubt the browning of bacon could be noticeably retarded by trace amounts of moisture from the gas. A common trick to getting crispier bacon involves generously sprinkling water on the tray before cooking so it will render out more fat (which happens at sub-boiling temps) before it starts to brown. (Personally, I haven't seen enough of a difference to do it consistently, but I've known chefs that have sworn by it.)

I've heard people say that it can affect the browning of bread, which makes sense considering how much more readily starches absorb water than protein. This might be relevant for recipes which use time rather than appearance/smell/texture/internal temperature to determine when to stop cooking something, but I'd blame lack of more accurate measurements to consider whether the bread was done and/or needed the heat adjusted before I blamed the heat source. I've also baked plenty of bread, pizzas, and other starchy foods in gas ovens without a problem.

If you're using the same bacon you used in your old oven, the problem is almost certainly an inaccurate oven thermostat in one or both of your ovens. Oven thermostats are notoriously inaccurate. I'd recommend purchasing an oven thermometer so you can more accurately gauge the temperature of your oven, and cranking up the heat until you achieve your perfect bacon. Even if I'm totally wrong and you've got a gas oven which is nearly steamer-level moist, the answer is probably more heat.

Good luck!

Edit: Are you sure your oven is properly vented?


Who knows what this fruit is called? It has a slightly thick skin like an apple, semi-dry and grainy texture, with a slight apple flavor, about the size of a large grape, with one pit, reminiscent of that of a date.

Those look like jujubes (not to be confused with the candy). They're also known as Chinese dates, and are frequently found dried.


Preventing discoloration when making fresh mint liqueur Twice I have tried to make a fresh mint liqueur (flavored vodka), and both times it has turned a very unpleasant brown/black color.  I'd like to figure out how to do this while keeping the nice bright green color, or even no color.  The discoloration is also associated with a change in smell - not completely unpleasant, but not the same mint.

The method I tried is just the standard that you read on the first 10 google hits, or the question found on seasoned advice.  Wash the mint leaves, put in alcohol, let sit, add sugar syrup, possibly glycerin, and enjoy.

The first time I did this, I left the stems in the mix out of laziness.  I let it steep for a week or two, and it was completely brown/black.

This second time I removed the stems, and I also only steeped the leaves for 24 hours.  I also used a glass weight to keep the leaves completely submerged.  After the 24 hours, I strained the flavored vodka into a clean jar and put it in the cupboard.  The mint vodka was always kept in the dark cupboard, at room temperature.  24 hours later, the top half of the vodka had already discolored, and an additional 24 hours later, all of the vodka had browned.

I had hoped that the discoloration was due to something in the leaves oxidizing(?), and that by removing the leaves after a short time, I'd remove what was causing the browning.  Sadly, the alcohol appears to have extracted whatever is browning.  Note: the leaves themselves also browned in a similar timeframe, and from the top down (they were compacted in the original jar).

The mint is a spearmint variety, for what that's worth.  I've not tried it on a different mint, b/c the variety I used is my favorite.

Any ideas on how to prevent the discoloration?

Idea 1:  Assuming the leaves are oxidizing: you could add an antioxidant.  Vitamin C is handy and will scrounge up oxygen radicals.  Crush up some pills and shake them in.  It will make it a little sour too - ascorbic acid is vitamin c.

Idea 2: deplete your alcohol solution of dissolved oxygen first.  When you heat something to near boiling, the first wave of bubbles is gas coming out of solution.  Do that with your alcohol.  Add it steaming hot to your steeping vessel (maybe heat up vessel first with warm water so it doesn't crack!), put in mint and then cover it airtight.  Maybe that will exclude enough O2 to keep things green.  Also would serve as the blanching step in linked article.

I was pleased to see the vitamin C idea was listed in the linked article about keeping pesto from turning black.

https://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-w-4-12832

Pesto is made with basil which is a mint so the same issue as you have.  The other recommendations from that article are blanching the basil (yah!) and adding lemon juice (vitamin C!).


What are the major causes of food poisoning? People may die due to food poisoning. What are the major dangers? Sometimes in restaurants people eat a meal and get sick. How can we see that the food is dangerous?

Welcome to the forum! Food poisoning may be due to many reasons, some of which are restaurants leaving food unrefrigerated, not washing produce thoroughly or not cooking meats and eggs to a high enough temperature ( varies among meats, poultry and eggs). Sometimes you can tell it's moldy from smell or color, but  other times, unfortunately, like in the case of E. coli, you can't tell whether  the food is contaminated by the way it looks, smells, or tastes. Try to make sure all food is fully cooked, do not eat dishes with uncooked meats, all raw vegetables should be washed, and do not eat dishes with uncooked eggs. Good luck!


What's this "pucker" style hole on my cheese grater for? Ok, this picture has two sort of weird looking holes, but the one I'm asking about is on the left side of the picture - the metal sort-of puckers up, like it's been punched through from the back side.

I've tried this kind of grater to zest things before, with no success, and it clearly mauls cheeses... I can't figure out what it's for!

It is designed for the likes of hard cheeses, nutmeg, or zesting lemon and orange skin. As you mentioned,  a lot of what you want to grate or zest gets stuck between the puckers and it clogs easily.

I would really recommend getting a micro plane as it gives the same fine result without becoming clogged.


Can chicken skeleton be made edible? I like to preserve as much as possible from my cooking and trash as little as possible.

With that in mind:

can chicken skeleton be made edible?
or is there a way for the bone marrow to be extracted and cooked?

Or does it exist a reason for why it is a bad idea to consume chicken skeleton?

Chicken bones have a tendency to 'splinter' when 'mashed' (as in chewed upon), which is why you never give chicken bones to a dog. This applies equally to humans, if we gnaw on a chicken bone it is more like to create a harmful splinter that may find itself lodged in any number of places in your digestive system.

That said, as has been commented above, extracting the flavorful marrow and those 'last little bits' from the carcass can be achieved by making stock. If you are wanting to reduce the waste, I would then recommend drying and grinding the remaining bones to provide calcium into your compost.

[Edit] Interesting comments from @JohnEye & @Molot prompted a bit of research.
Here is an article from WebMD that supports my original statement.

Is Eating Chicken Bones Bad For Our Health

Other articles suggest that some people do this, but I would still conclude that it is not safe to do so, though apparently it can be done.


Reduce the watering from tomatoes in a dish or sauce There are many questions asking on how to reduce the watering from (fresh) tomatoes in a dish or a sauce (most likely baked):

How do I prevent tomato making quiche soggy (mentioned in comments by SAJ14SAJ)
How to avoid getting the pizza all watery?
Can I turn my marinara sauce recipe into "pizza sauce"?
how to improve the consistency of my pizza sauce
How to thicken marinara sauce?
My tomato sauce is very watery
etc.

There are several ways to do that, but what are the pros and cons of each technique?

Simmering

Let tomatoes simmer slowly for hours.

Pros: probably the tastiest solution.

Cons: time consuming, energy (gas/power) consuming, loss of "fresh" tomato flavor, if you want that.

Adding thickener

Add flour/bread/carrots/potatoes/whatever to add consistency.

Pros: quick and easy.

Cons: may change the flavour.  May require heating to near-boil to activate the starch.

Seeding

Remove seeds and gel/pulp with fingers or a spoon.

Pros: quick, and removes seeds, which may give a bitter taste.

Cons: removes pulp (which gives most of the 'umami' flavor) and juice.

Filtering

Use a strainer to remove the watery part.

Pros: ?

Cons: removes part of the juice.

Draining

Drain (without seeding) tomatoes before to bake them - a (very) light salting helps to draw out excess liquid.

Pros: Removing liquid before allows for less cooking time and preservation of fresh tomato flavor

Cons: waiting time, and removes part of the juice.

Roasting

Halve and place on a sheet pan, then bake until sufficiently dewatered for your purposes.  May have to leave oven door cracked open.

Pros : Easy.  Skins are easy to peel after roasting.  Adds some caramel/roasted flavors where the sugars burned.

Cons : Not quick.  Not good if you want skins on.  Loses the 'fresh tomato' flavor.

Dehydrating

Bake as you would to create a sun dried tomato (at low heat) but don't put it in olive oil.  Can reduce the time to not remove as much moisture.

Pros : Easy.

Cons : Very slow (we're talking most of the day slow).  Loss of the fresh tomato flavor.

Tomato Selection

Use a plum tomato, or other variant that has a higher flesh to gel ratio.

Pros : Extremely easy (if you can get them at your market)

Cons : Often have less flavor than beefsteak, heirloom and other varieties (but may not be noticeable if you're buying from a grocery store)


Does it matter if I heat water and mik together and pour it in the instant coffee altogether? Often I have heard that first we need to add little hot water and then mix the coffee properly and then add hot water and then add milk to taste.

Since instant coffee can be mixed easily, will it make a difference if I heat water and milk together and put it all at once in the cup and coffee and then mix everything?

You can mix instant coffee with water, milk, cream, or any mixture of those, to your taste. It doesn't matter, and you don't have to do it in multiple steps.

This is different from fresh ground coffee. In ground coffee, you are making an extraction, which is a complicated chemical process. Your solvent has to get behind cell walls and get out again, this time with the solute in it. You never get full extraction anyway. Many factors such as heat, other stuff dissolved or dispersed in the solvent, etc. can hinder this already problematic process and give you a much weaker or different-tasting result.

Instant coffee is specifically made to be 100% soluble in water, so you only have a solution happening, not extraction. The process happens to be not very dependent on temperature (this is different for all combinations of solvent and solute). Maybe it is a bit slower in cold water, but the difference is not really noticeable in practice. The fat content in milk or cream is also not high enough to disturb the solution. So you can just do it any old way you want and you'll end up with 100% dissolved coffee.


Eating with silvered cutlery I have a set of silvered cutlery with which i often eat.
I recently heard that the handles of a lot of older silvered cutlery is filled with lead or they are even made out lead. Am i safe to eat with them or should i switch out my cutlery?

It's very likely to that the base metal is some kind of alloy, and not simply lead, but if you're in doubt then you should probably stop using them.

Unless solid silver, most within the last 100+ years made in the US, UK and Germany will likely be some mixture of copper / nickel / tin. Some might have pewter detail and decoration which might contain lead, but typically not on the tines / blade / etc. Pewter as a base for silver-plating saw its real beginning after antimony was predominately used to make it, but you can only really guess unless the company is still around and confirms it, or you have it tested. Most which is still in use today would likely be made of a nickel alloy under the plating.

If you're at all in doubt, or get an odd taste, you can send them out to a plating shop, or just polish and display them and get something you know to be safe. Odd metal 'tangy' tastes are probably coming not from lead, but copper in the alloy, but always go on the safe side here.

You can, as folks noted in comments, have them tested. However, unless you're really keen on their continued use due to monetary or sentimental value, the cost / reward ratio could get lopsided quickly.

If they have a maker's mark (or other markings), you might be able to get some more information from an antique dealer, which could at least get you an appraisal in addition to knowing more about their makeup.


Prime Rib w/ bacon wrap My butcher prepared our Christmas prime rib with a bacon wrap. He suggested 325° roast until internal temperature, but I’m skeptical of that method. I was going to do this 200° slow roast with a quick 550° finish technique.

However, I’m unsure how to integrate the bacon wrap. Should I remove the bacon wrap for the 200° slow roast and reapply for the 550° finish? Should I leave it on throughout? Or should I keep the bacon for flavor during the 200° roast and remove for the 550° sear so the beef itself gets browned?

One of the points of the serious eats article is to help you achieve a crust on your roast.  It seems to me, that if your roast is wrapped in bacon, your roast will not have a crust, rather, the bacon will be the crusty (possibly burned if you are not careful) part.  I think this depends on what you want as the exterior of your roast.  If you are going for crispy bacon, no crust on the meat, leave it on.  If you want the crust to be the meat itself, take the bacon off for the finish.


How Long is the Shelf Life of Refrigerated Eggless Mayonnaise? I have learned to make mayonnaise using only oil, milk, and lemon juice. If I store this in the refrigerator, how long will it remain safe to eat?

According to the recipe here, Milk Mayonnaise will last about a week in the fridge.


The Perfect Smoothie - Liquid Milk versus Powdered Milk I recently attempted to make myself a Strawberry Milkshake Smoothie (as what is defined here, that is, no ice cream used) and failed miserably. This made me wonder about two things regarding this drink.

This time I tried to make it using powdered milk instead of the liquid one usually contained in Cartons. What I did was to put all those three ingredients (water, powder and strawberries) into the blender and then blended it until it had the desired consistency and color. The result was not as I expected, as the drink was not too flavored (tasted like water mostly, and seemed like it did not blended properly).

Could the order of preparation have affected the quality of my Beverage? I am no master chef at all, but I have at least prepared Lemonade to know that order sometimes matters here.

Also, that made me wonder if using powdered milk versus liquid milk could affect somehow the preparation of drinks like Milkshakes or Smoothies? I tried this time the powdered option, as I think I saw my favorite Milkshake seller use it instead of Carton milk so I thought it could be worth the try.

Other possibly important details on my failed attempt: The Strawberries were cold (not frozen but considerably cold), powdered milk was whole and fresh and used "standard" measure and added at most 2 cups of water (was a drink for one).

I've never heard of Powdered Milk being used in a Milkshake, personally.

When I worked at a restaurant, majority of our shakes were made from a Soft Serve machine. Having had shakes at other locations, I gather most use Soft Serve unless they specify "hand-scooped" or "real ice cream", etc.

We'd pour the Soft Serve into a tall metal cup, and add some milk (not too much at first, you don't want it too runny), and then blended with a milkshake blender (can be imitated at home using an immersion blender).

We also had Simple Syrup to add on occasion (can be made at home, or found in your local grocery store, usually in the alcohol/bar isle). You can add flavors, like strawberries, bananas, pineapple (chopped or diced and then thrown in before blending), chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, etc. Top with whipped cream and candied/maraschino cherries.

We also offered hand-scooped shakes, which were made exactly the same way, except we used real ice cream instead of soft serve.

The trick was to not put too much milk in, you can always add more and blend again. Blending will thin it out too, if you do it too much - so be careful.


How did I screw up this rice pudding recipe? I've never made rice pudding before so I tried this recipe, exactly (no frills like raisins or anything).

Ingredients:

  2 eggs
  1/2 cup sugar
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  2 1/4 cups milk
  1 teaspoon vanilla
  2 cups steamed rice
  1 dash nutmeg

Steps:

  Separate eggs, beat yolks.
  Add sugar, salt, milk, vanilla, and rice.
  Stiffly beat egg whites and fold into mixture.
  Turn into baking dish.
  Sprinkle with nutmeg.
  Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 45 minutes.

What I did:

It doesn't really specify short or long grain so I made it with basmati rice (the way I make it is about 1 1/2 cups dry rice boiled in 8 cups of water for 12 minutes then drain and rinse with hot water, it's very fluffy this way).
Separate eggs, beat yolks, dump everything including rice into a bowl and mix well.
Beat egg whites then dump into bowl and mix well. I don't know what "stiffly beat egg whites" means. Pour it into a glass baking dish.
Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Put it in the oven.

I used white sugar, 2% milk, himalayan pink salt, and medium-sized (US) eggs.

But it came out pretty gross. It had a film on top like milk gets immediately after pulling it out, but I mixed that all in. Mostly it had a lot of puddles of yellow, cloudy, watery liquid in it, and the whole thing had a pretty watery texture.

It tasted like... salty eggs or something (and like like commenters, I am confused by the saltiness; it wasn't strong but it was there). Sort of like if I washed a bowl of eggs then dumped some day old rice in the dirty dishwater. Yum.

I don't understand what happened here. Does anything here scream anything out to anybody with some experience?

Was it the type of rice? The way I made it? How I mixed/beat things together? Something I don't understand about the ingredients? Incorrect cooking temperature or time? Just a bad recipe (but it got OK reviews)? Is there anything that could've been wrong with any of my steps or ingredients that would make it turn out so poorly in this way?

I've never made a baked rice pudding before but I have a couple of guesses at what went wrong...
1. Chosen rice preparation method caused loss of needed starch.
First, I don't think the type of rice matters much but I will say that your method differs from the standard method in the US for cooking rice. Generally, we boil the rice with about twice the volume of water as rice until all of the water is absorbed. There's no dumping out extra water or rinsing.
This may not make the best rice for direct consumption but it concentrates the starches because none of them escape when you drain off the water or, worse, rinse it.
This starch is probably at least some of what helps the rice thicken while being baked... so your soupy result is because there wasn't enough thickening agent.
2. Stiffly beaten egg whites means something special.
I can't stress enough, when cooking, if you want to be successful, look up any terms you don't understand... or come and ask us here... that's what we're here for.
Regular egg whites look like this (all images taken from the Joe Pastry link below):

Egg whites that have been "stiffly beaten" look like whipped cream. They have peaks that stand up on their own when the whisk is removed from the bowl. This Joe Pastry page has a guide to the method for achieving this.
The ones below are soft peaks - see how they fold over at the tips?

And here is your target, "stiff peaks". No folding tips, dense foam.

If your egg whites looked more like the first picture, they won't do their job of adding structure to your pudding.

Stiffly beat egg whites and fold into mixture.

The word "fold" is important here. To avoid breaking the egg whites back down into mush, you gently fold them into the pudding so that they retain their structure for their time in the oven.
So, I think that these two issues will be your main culprits for why this recipe failed on you.

Additional possible but less troublesome issues:

Milk percentage - The milk percentage probably didn't matter but it's probably going to be better in the end if you use whole milk. My go-to recipe uses whole milk and half and half (and no eggs), so it's much richer than this one... it's also a stovetop method and it's amazing.

Egg size - The standard for eggs in recipes in the US is usually "large" sized eggs (~2 oz/~56 g) unless otherwise noted, so if you used medium in the US or Canada (~1.75 oz/~49 g), that will make a bit of difference as the egg is your main thickening agent in addition to the starch - but if you're in the UK or Europe, I believe the equivalent for that is "medium", so that shouldn't be an issue. Info on egg sizes in different countries on Wikipedia.

Oven temperature - Your oven could be off but if you find it generally performs well, this likely isn't the issue, particularly considering all of the other issues.


Sourdough recipe with vinegar I use a sourdough starter to bake my breads. I read somewhere that adding a touch of vinegar will help with the oven rise.
What are the implications of adding vinegar to my recipe?

There are several conversations about this on The Fresh Loaf, which you can search.  Issues raised include (a) acetic acid used as a preservative in manufactured bread (lowering the pH), (b) yeast performing best in a neutral to slightly acid environment, suggesting vinegar might be helpful when using instant yeast, (c) vinegar helping the rise in gluten free situations, and (d) the idea of vinegar, not for help in fermentation, but to strengthen the dough, thus creating a better structure for capturing fermentation gasses.  All of these use vinegar in small amounts (1 - 1.5% of flour).

My concern, in sourdough situations, would be too much acid.  Starter is typically acidic to start with. When feeding, much of the starter is removed and replaced with fresh flour and water.  In part, this keeps acidity in check.  Too much acid inhibits yeast and bacterial activity.

If you bake often, why not try an experiment?  Use the same recipe and baking conditions, except add 1% vinegar to one.  Let us know what happens!