How can I examine fruits or vegetables in a market, while minimizing mechanical damage? From this answer and the discussion in comments:

  [T]he problem is mechanical damage: every time someone picks up a
  piece of fruit and puts it down again it may cause small soft spots
  and local damage - And think about the shoppers that try to judge
  ripeness by pushing or pinching the produce. This will cause damage,
  invisible at first, but rotting soon, either in the store or at other
  unsuspecting customers’ homes – Stephie

I had considered the harms of pushing or pinching the produce before this, and tried to avoid doing either, but hadn't thought of the damage from simply picking up something and putting it back down. And now that I think of it, I can't come up with a way to examine fruit without causing such mechanical damage. Even rolling it around in-place could be just as, or more, harmful.

What can I do to examine fruit without causing avoidable damage?

The first step is to only pick up items you're likely to buy. Then you should only have to put down items that have an actual problem already.

For some things you want to check for ripeness, but under-ripe items are more robust, so it should be possible to pick them up gently without damage and put them down again. After all, it's handled by people and machines quite a lot before you ever see it. If on the other hand you're looking for something underripe so it keeps for longer (and you can't go by colour as with bananas) you will need to be very gentle indeed handling potentially ripe items.


Using heat to cook (mock) ceviche Although I love ceviche I'm worried about possible health issues caused by eating raw fish.

I know that freezing it at -20° C for at least 24 hours would be effective against Anisakiasis and reduce (but not eliminate) Salmonella. I'm also aware that the whole thing of "ceviche's cooked by the juice" is just a myth. Raw fish remains a risk.

Since ceviche's fish get de-naturated anyway by the lime (or other citrus), would the fish change considerably if I cook it at 60° C for some time?

What's the minimum amount of cooking time that would make the dish safe? Could this produce acceptable results? What fish would be the most appropriate here (that is, for being safe and tasty)?

The problem I see with cooking fish to dress as ceviche is achieving the texture.  Citrus juice firms the raw fish while baking, for example, will produce either tender, fall apart fish or dry overcooked fish.  Possibly bay scallops may survive in this substitution but I don't think so.  The reason I make or purchase ceviche is for the fresh, clean taste.  Not fishy.  Another suggestion would be using surimi which is already prepared to have a nice texture.  In the US it is called imitation crab or lobster usually made from pollack.  Just one final comment.  Consider the long history of this dish, and it goes back to before refrigeration.  It's unlikely there is any grave danger from using this process.  Buy a fresh, cold water fish, dice it, add the ingredients that you like, wait the required time and enjoy.  Relax!  Otherwise see www.trans-ocean.com for one surimi source.


Can I defrost chicken to separate then refreeze? If I buy a large quantity of chicken frozen together, can it be thawed, separated, then refrozen safely?

Technically if it was defrosted in safe conditions you could refreeze without too much fear of
contamination, but that's not the main issue - quality is. Refreezing meat usually results in a horrible, mushy texture, because of the cell damage caused by freezing. Look for individually vac-wrapped parts if you can find them.


What's the difference between natural honey and supermarket honey? Would either one affect glycemic index for consumption purpose?

Are they the same in terms of food safety for normal people and diabetics.

Both are natural honey - the difference is that commercial honey is often pasteurized to prevent growth of yeasts and the like. These growths are generally not nasty for you - it's how mead (alcoholic drink) is made, but honey can contain botulinum spores, which are bad for infants.

Honey comes in two forms - creamed and liquid. The difference is that creamed has had some water removed and microcrystallization initiated to form a semi-solid. Liquid may or may not have had water removed and may crystallize if left for long enough in the cupboard.

There is no difference chemically between commercial and that straight from the beehive so no difference in GI.


Will roasting ginger root give it a milder flavor? I just had a thought - garlic is very strongly flavoured, but turns nice and mild when roasted.

Can the same be done with ginger root? I can't find any recipes with a cursory search of google.

Is roasted ginger root a good idea?

The reason that roasted garlic tastes so much milder than raw garlic is that it contains a sulfur compound called allicin, which roasting breaks down.  Allicin is primarily what gives garlic its pungency.  Technically, raw garlic mostly contains a compound called allin, which reacts with the allinase enzyme to produce the allicin, and this reaction is greatly accelerated when garlic is "distressed", i.e. crushed or cut.

Ginger contains no allicin, so you're certainly not going to get an identical reaction.  What ginger does contain are two types of oil called gingerols and shogaols, which are primarily what gives ginger its pungency.  Cooking converts these into another compound called zingerone, which is far less pungent (it's described as "spicy-sweet").  It's actually slightly more complicated; the gingerols also convert into shogaols through cooking, and the shogaols are actually more pungent (160,000 SHU vs. 60,000), but on the whole, the ginger does become milder.

It will not become perfectly sweet as garlic does, just less pungent and more aromatic.  In fact, cooked (roasted) ginger tastes much like dried ginger; many of the same reactions happen during drying as during cooking.

So yes, you can try roasting ginger if you want it to be milder, but don't expect to be able to eat the whole root by itself if you don't already love the taste of ginger.  It doesn't do exactly the same thing that garlic does, it's just a little similar.

It's hard to find good references online, although you can find a lot of this in McGee.  For more information you can try:

Wikipedia: Ginger
Chemicalland21: Gingerol
Wikipedia: Shogaol
The All I Need: Raw Garlic


Why does my oil cake drop in the centre My cake initially rises perfectly, but after about 20 - 25 minutes, the cake starts to slightly droop with the cake also pulling away from the side of the pan.

I don't mind that too much, as the initial rising seemed to be a bit exaggerated anyway.  But once I remove the cake from the oven, it droops further - in fact, it collapses.

I take great care preparing the batter by sifting dry ingredients, and using eggs at room temperature.

The procedure I used to prepare the cake batter is:

I first cream egg yolks and sugar for about 1 minute
Then I add flour/baking powder mixture, oil, water, beat again for about 1 minute
Then beat and fold in the egg whites.

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

There are couple of reasons that causes a cake to collapse. One reason could be flour/baking powder ratio. As far as I understand from your description this applies to your case. Because the procedure that you follow is fine.

I suggest to use this ratio:

1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

If it does not work then try to use less baking powder.


Cleaning white bubbles on induction stove I recently moved into an apartment with an induction stove. After the first use with a designated pan, some white bubble marks have appeared. Has anyone had these types of stains? Any suggestions on how to clean it?

I have an induction stove and have had similar marks. I think rumtscho is right; these are mineral deposits from water. Water gets between the surface and the pan, most likely because the base of the pan was initially wet (spillage from the pan will mostly end up beside it, and only areas directly under the pan will get significantly hot), the heat of the pan evaporates the water, leaving dry deposits.

There is some good advice on cleaning glass stovetops from eHow, which suggests leaving a "[vinegar-drenched] paper towel on the stove top for an hour", and using ceramic cooktop cleaner if still present.

But I've found these marks can be mostly prevented by making sure the base of your pan is completely dry before putting it on the stove.


How could I cook industry like foie gras? I would like to learn the industrial skills that allow them to achieve such successful commercial products like the cheap and addictive foie gras.

I know that in many cases, it is required to have some special machinery.

Customers usually buy it without caring if it is not really foie gras.

Foie Gras is fatty goose or duck liver. There is no machine or process to make it. It is harvested from the animals themselves. Restaurants have providers for their product. You will have to find one for yourself.

I know of no legitimate substitute for Foie Gras that anyone would not care about. People pay a lot of money for Foie Gras and would be quite displeased if they found they were being fed a cheap alternative.

If you are refering to paté made from Foie Gras then you could stretch the final product with the use of chicken livers. I'm uncertain how much cheaper this is though and once again be careful you aren't deceiving anyone.


What happens if I brine my turkey for 2 days? I have a logistical problem that leaves me with no fridge room for 2 days before Thanksgiving...  I always brine my turkey, so I don't have any questions about that, but typically it's only an 8 - 10 hour brine.

Is it possible to "over brine" a turkey? Lets assume I keep it covered and keep it cold (so that we're not discussing food safety as it relates to the turkey getting warm).

It is possible to over brine meat. If you leave it in too long it will get too salty.

If you use a more dilute brine it won't get as salty but you will wash out more of the natural flavor into the water as well.

You could submerge your turkey in its packaging in ice water in a cooler for a day before brining. You could even thaw the turkey in this manner if you made sure to keep it in ice water so it didn't get to 40F.


How deep is a deep pie dish, traditionally? I have a recipe for a game pie, circa. 1973.

It calls for a "deep pie dish". Searching online for one to buy, I find deep pie dishes with different depths, and breadths.

Typical pie dishes seem to be about 26cm diameter and a depth of 5cm. Others look deeper and narrower. But I'd prefer to start with tradition.

The recipe, btw, has 1.5 lbs of venison, 1/2 lb mushrooms and 2 oz pickled pork.

There doesn't seem to a standard for pie dish sizes.  I'm betting they haven't changed much in size since 1973, or since 1900 for that matter.  If you look at modern deep pie dishes, they seem to mostly be in the range of 4 to 6 cm deep.  For the ingredients you mentioned, a 26 cm diameter by 5 cm deep pie dish should work.

Wolfram Alpha estimates that your mushrooms will take up 560 cm^3.  They'll shrink a lot if you cook them first, but we'll go with 560 for now.  I couldn't find a density for venison, but it's not that much denser than water.  1.5 lbs. of water takes up 680 cm^3.  The pickled pork may add another 60 cm^3.  Add those together and you get 1300 cm^3.  The ingredients may not be packed with 100% density, so let's bump the volume up by a liberal 50% to 1950 cm^3.

I'll estimate the volume of the pie dish as if it were a cylinder, which should be close enough.  A 26 cm diameter cylinder with a height of 5 cm has a volume of 2655 cm^3, which gives you plenty of room.


When using melted butter, is rendering (clarifying) always preferable? I was looking at this question:

How do I butter popcorn without making it soggy?

And it got me wondering: is there any instance, either using melted butter for popcorn or in some other application, where simply melted but not clarified/rendered butter should be used?

Essentially clarified butter is butter that has all it's water and milk solids removed. All that is left is butterfat.

Pros and Cons of Clarified/Rendered butter:

Pros:

It can be stored longer than regular butter
It has a higher smoke point so can be heated higher without burning
Does contain negligible lactose for those lactose-intolerant

Cons:

Effort. It requires so time to melt the butter, boil off the water, filter out the milk fat, and resolidify the butter again.
Taste. Because the milk solids are filtered out, it has a milder "butter" taste than unclarified butter. Of course it will still be much more rich and buttery compared to regular vegetable oil.

With this information in mind, I will leave it to yourself to decide when you should and should not use clarified butter.


Storing cooked food in ziploc I am planning to go on an outdoors day trip with no way to heat up food.

Is it safe to heat up a packaged, fully cooked sausage in the early morning (4:00 AM) and wrap it with bread and store it in a plastic ziploc bag for consumption in the afternoon (2:00 pm)? (around 10 hours)

I am ok with eating cold food.

Considering the time of 10 hours in a food without being in the fridge, that can be in danger zone (of bacteria reproduction), so i would recommend you to prepare your lunch a few hours about 2-4 earlier to avoid bacteria reproduction as posible, if the temperature in where you live its cold rather than warm, that can help to maintain a little bit more. if you cant prepare it less late until time of consumption, then it will get some ugly smell in the sausage rather than the bread (if the bread has moisture on it then it will too) tho you can still eat it, but likely or not it will upset your stomach a little.


Are there any cons to heating orange and grape juice? Very simply I'd like to offer guests mixed heated orange and grape juice in the winter. I'm not sure why this isn't more common since hot lemonade and hot cider exist.

Are there any nutritional cons to heating grape or orange juice?

That's actually pretty a pretty common thing. Add a few cloves and a cinnamon stick and you'll have Mulled Orange Juice, or the same with grape juice. That recipe adds orange zest, lemon juice, cloves, nutmeg and a cinnamon stick. This one starts with grapes.

I can't speak to the nutritional effects of heating the juices, but mulled juices sound nice on a cold, winter day. There certainly isn't anything toxic to be nervous about.


preserving leftover cooked rice from Chinese takeaway for processing in a cold salad afterwards When getting Chinese takeaway, We never eat much of the normal cooked rice that goes with it, always opting for an extra dish of fried rice and/or noodles. My mother usually makes a cold salad the day after with some Cocktail sauce (with ketchup as the tomato sauce), a few varieties of canned fish (mackerel, sardines and anchovy) and some boiled eggs.

The problem is that this rice always turns out somewhat dry, somewhat detracting from the overal quality of the product. It's still edible and tastes good, but the textures are somewhat lacking in my opinion.

I have read "Instant" leftover rice? Making leftover-like rice without the wait? (as in for fried rice), but that's not what I need: I don't have control over the cooking process, and it's not for reheating afterwards. I also don't think this falls under the generic shelf live question, because this isn't about how long it will last, but how to store it short-term so certain negative effects don't occur, for which I cannot find a question (nor a tag).

I'm looking for a method to cool the rice without it turning dry that doesn't involve special attention immediately afterwards or changing the cooking process. With "doesn't involve special attention", I'm talking about something someone can do while unpacking the rest of the food and maybe putting a bit of the rice aside for those that don't like the fried kind.

We often do the same thing, saving the rice for another use the next day. Or sometimes I will ask my husband to pick up takeout that I can heat up for lunch the next day. Here's what I recommend.

Immediately upon returning home with your takeout, remove the rice from the take out container, placing in an equal size airtight container. E.g., if you have one pint of rice, place in a pint container. Don't break the rice apart any more than necessary. Press the rice so that it holds tight together in the container just as it was when you removed it from the takeout container. Put the lid on right away. Refrigerate to store.

By placing in an airtight container right away, you are shortening the amount of time that moisture can evaporate. By using the same size container there shouldn't be an excessive amount of airspace in the container.

I follow this procedure and the rice comes out the next day just like it went in, still moist. Plus it doesn't really require any excessive time or effort.


if a chicken has been in the freezer from November 18 till now July 2 is it safe to cook it and eat it? if a chicken has been in the freezer from November 18 till now July 2 is it safe to cook it and eat it??I'm old and I don't understand

Frozen foods will remain safe for a very long time, provided that they were treated with care before being frozen.  If your chicken was kept refrigerated before freezing and frozen before spoilage, or purchased frozen...AND, you thaw it in a safe manner (in the refrigerator is best), it will be safe to cook and eat. Freezer temperature matters, as does the temperature cycling that most home freezers do to maintain a "frost free" environment. This impacts quality, rather than safety. In the end, it is more likely that the quality has degraded, especially if it is not vacuum packaged.  A lot depends on the packaging.  There is a good chance that it has freezer burn (dehydration); with that comes the potential of off-flavors and textures.  However, that is not a safety issue.


Using dark rum instead of white rum If my recipe calls for white rum and I only have Jamaican rum can I still use the same measurements?

Yes, but you may get a slightly different flavor, and certainly a different color in the final dish.

Many times, white rum is specified so as not to change the color, so you have to decide if this is an acceptable change for whatever you are making.


What were the main ingredients of the Thai cuisine before global trade? The traditional Thai cuisine was very different than the current one in a holistic perspective.

At some point in history the Thai nation started trading globally, directly or indirectly with Indians, Iranians, Arabs and also Portuguese who brought several plant species to Thailand which today some of their plant parts use as fundamental ingredients in Modern Thai Cuisine; for example, from the Americas:

Chilles
Pappaya
Corn
Tomato
Green eggplants
Tapioca
Taro
Potato

And from other places:

Japanese teas
Roses (Gulab in Thai, as in Indian and Persian)
Indian spices and legumes (as well as legume flours)
Wheat flour (probably from China or Arabia) uses to make Thai breads
Date palms used in cookies (probably from west China or Muslim states)

My problem

I didn't find a lot of clear information about the main ingredients of non globally influenced cuisine (before the Thais entered global trade).

I assume that this cuisine was overall cuisine was more similar to modern Cambodian and Vietnamese cuisine but it might be hard to prove it.

My question

What were the main ingredients of the Thai cuisine before global trade (before Thailand traded with any country outside south east Asia)?
I thought Pad Thai was one but it feels to me controversial.

Thailand, if you define it as the country where Thai is the dominant language, is a relatively new nation. Sukhothai was established in 1238 and from the beginning there was international trade. As soon as ingredients from the new world started to spread to the old world they would have arrived in "Siam/Thailand" and all other parts of Southeast Asia. It doesn't take much to spread new plant ingredients, just a few seeds and it would be quickly cultivated in mass and dispersed everywhere. It doesn't even require ongoing trade.

Of course the land was always there before the Thai arrived so if by "Thai nation" you are also talking about the Khmer, Mon, Malays and other groups that lived in and controlled the territory of modern-day Thailand, then your question does not pertain stricly to Thailand or "Thai cuisine."

Even if you look only at the Thai-speaking peoples, what do you consider "traditional Thai cuisine?" Have you considered that there is not one Thai group but multiple? Chiang Mai and northern Thailand was its own kingdom and has its own cuisine. Northeast Thailand was part of the Lao kingdoms. There are also some Shan and other tribal upland Thai groups. All are "Thai" and all have their own cusine.


How to make Brie En Croute less rich/cheesy? I prepared Brie En Croute using 1/2 of a 16.9oz/480g round of Brie and a single layer of frozen puff pastry dough. I also added a few dollops of apricot preserves inside. When wrapped, the pastry mostly just had one layer of dough but some was double-layered.

After baking, the pastry was beautiful but was too rich and creamy. I have had Brie En Croute before and the sweetness of the preserves, richness of the cheese, and savory pastry flavor were balanced well. This however, was definitely just CHEESE.

question

How can I make Brie En Croute but balance the flavors better? How do I make the cheese less... cheesy?

In the future...

I will definitely cut off the rind a bit! It was very pungent in the Brie En Croute.

Use younger Brie.

You can get Brie in various ages, all the way from barely a week old - which is clean & white all the way through, & almost dry & crumbly, mild as cream cheese [Philadelphia etc]; right up to a year or more - dark yellow & pretty much a gooey liquid with a slightly more solid centre.

Obviously, the older/more ripe, the stronger the flavour.


Do roasted and unroasted peppers taste different after slow cooking in soup all day? I love red bell peppers. Is there a taste difference if I roast them before chopping and adding them to soup or beans that slow cook for 4-6 hours? Am I just cooking them before cooking them again or does roasting (under my broiler, then peeling) produce a unique taste that I wouldn't get from just simmering them for hours?

The roasting process doesn't just heat the peppers, but the high, dry heat also causes a bit of both scorching and carmelization of the sugars, so I would expect there to be a bit of different flavor, even if both get cooked to the same consistency in a subsequent process.


Can I refreeze gravlax made from previously frozen salmon Can I refreeze gravlax made from previously frozen salmon?

Yes, it's even recommended to use salmon that has been frozen for at least 24 hours to make gravadlax as a precaution against parasites, since the salmon isn't cooked. (Of course I'm assuming that you want some right away!)

Prepared gravadlax freezes very well. As Jenna says, wrap it individually in cling wrap, and freeze for up to a couple of months for best quality. Refrigerate it for a few hours to thaw before serving.


How to get puff pastry to cook right through I often use bought puff pastry to make a topping for a chicken pie. However, I tend to find that the pastry is fully cooked on the top but the underside of the pastry remains almost raw. How can I avoid this?

A few points to consider...

Try docking the pastry.

  Docking means to pierce lightly with a fork, or a docker (looks like a spiked paint roller), to make small holes in dough that will let steam escape during baking. This helps the dough to remain flat and even.

ref: http://powerhungry.com/2009/02/puff-pastry-docking/
In general, to cook food more evenly, one should cook longer at a lower temperature. The problem is that the dough on the bottom of your crust is not reaching a high enough temperature by the time the top of your crust is done cooking.
Puff Pastry is notoriously finicky. Be sure to handle the dough according to puff pastry best practices to ensure the layers do not collapse and stick together.

Pepperidge Farm has a tutorial website (http://www.puffpastry.com/videos-and-tips#howto-demos) to help people with puff pastry issues, but it doesn't appear to cover much detail.

You must be very gentle when rolling out the pastry because it is
multiple layers of dough with fat between each.
Do not mangle the dough, cut clean lines and try not to apply pressure except where the knife is cutting
Do not let the dough get warm before you are ready to cook. The fat melts and the layers will stick and not puff properly.


Are MSG and Accent (Seasoning) the same thing? Can the seasoning Accent be substituted for MSG, for example in General Tso's Chicken?

MSG is the primary ingredient in Accent. The full ingredient list for Accent "original flavor" is as follows:

  Monosodium Glutamate, Salt, Chili Pepper, Tricalcium Phosphate (As Anticaking Agent), Spice (Cumin, Oregano), Paprika Extractives(color), Garlic Extractives, Onion Extractives, Yellow No.6 Lake, Yellow No.5 Lake.


Why braise pork in milk? Just reading how a high end caterer is fielding requests for pork in milk for Christmas dinner.  I've never heard of that.  What advantage does braising pork in milk give?

Maiale al latte, or milk-braised pork, is a classic northern Italian preparation, with variations in Tuscany, Veneto, Bologna, among other locales.  Some claim the lactic acid tenderizes the pork. I don't know about that, but when done correctly (IMHO), the milk caramelizes, often curdles, and becomes a delicious, albeit broken, sauce.


Halving Cake Recipe- Baking Time I want to make a chocolate cake for my birthday BUT since it's only for me I want to halve the recipe: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/04/08/triple-chocolate-layer-cake/comment-page-8/#comments
Just wondering how the baking time differs when it's halved and in this recipe it calls for a 9-inch round cake pan but I only have an around 7-inch cake pan...

What really matters is the thickness of the cake, i.e. the depth of the batter in the pans. If you use two 7 inch pans instead of two 9 inch pans, you have 7^2/9^2 or about 60% the area, and you're putting in 50% as much batter, so you'll end up with the batter about 5/6 as deep. That means the baking time will end up slightly shorter, but in the same ballpark - and just as important, you'll still have layers of a reasonable thickness! The recipe says 23-27 minutes, so you might start checking around 18-20 minutes to be safe.

(If it were giant you might to worry about the diameter/width of the cake too, but not for something like this.)


Coffee Grounds and Gritty Butter Cream Icing Is there any way to dissolve coffee grinds once added to a butter cream frosting?

I used instant coffee crystals in the past and they have always dissolved when simply added to the butter cream during the mixing stage — without having to dissolve in any sort of hot liquid prior to adding.

I have made this mocha butter cream frosting several times in the past, but didn’t think it through when I decided to use regular coffee instead of instant, which I discovered — albeit too late — that I was out of.

Instant coffee is "soluble solids of ground coffee" - ie, they made coffee, then they dried the result.

Actual ground coffee will never dissolve.

When you make 'real' coffee you run/pour/pass water through the ground coffee, then throw away the solids. There's no getting around the 'throwing away' part.


Could adding oil to boil benefit the taste and texture of the pasta? Note to mods: this is not a duplicate.  I am not concerned about pasta sticking.
Note to anyone who wants to stand on their heritage and say only their way is best: I am Italian, I am 45, I have been cooking for my family for my entire adult life, as well as various jobs in food service.

A point of contention between myself and my wife is how we cook pasta.  The main differences are: she adds a little oil to the water, I drizzle it in the colander after rinsing; she adds the salt to cold water, I add the salt after the water has boiled.

She prepared the pasta the other night.  She had me finish to al dente.  It was obvious to the eye that there was a bit of oil swirling in the water.

She hadn't prepared pasta in quite some time (I am a Fascist about some food prep).  And since I haven't tasted it prepared her way in some time, I have to say: it was really good.  The pasta (cavatappi) seemed softer somehow.  I even had some the next day, after having sat in the fridge overnight.  It was still very soft and flavorful.

I only rinsed the pasta (didn't also drizzle oil post-rinse).  Putting the leftovers away after dinner, the pasta was not sticking terribly.

So, again, I know this is not the traditional way of preparing a pot of pasta.  But I have to say, it was delicious.

I guess what I'm looking to find out is whether anyone has some science to back up why adding oil to the boil would improve taste and texture.

Thanks.

It's very unlikely that adding oil is improving the taste or texture of the pasta, the amount people added is incidental to the process. Olive oil is mildly acidic, and if your water alkaline that acidity may neutralize it somewhat, however a tablespoon or two of oil in gallons of water is simply not enough to make a noticeable difference

What is likely to make a difference is salt, as seen in this answer:

  The salt adds flavor, but it also helps reduce the gelation of the
  starch in the pasta. The starch in food is the form of microscopic
  grains. When these grains come into contact with water, they will trap
  some of it (think cornstarch in cold water), but when the water is hot
  they swell up like balloons and merge with each other, and you have
  starch gelation.

When you add the salt is immaterial as long as it dissolves in the water before you add the pasta.


How much coffee do I need to grind per 4 cups of coffee? If I want to make 4 cups of coffee (in the pot), which is actually 2.5 cups if I put it in a regular liquid measuring cup, how much coffee should I start with?

The answer is that it will depend on your personal preference for the strength of your coffee, the beans themselves, the type of brewing, and so on.  Many coffee bean bags have a reference on the side of them.

The standard guideline for most medium roast coffee bean bags is 2 tablespoons per 6 fl. oz. (3/4 cup in your 8oz liquid measuring cup).

The Specialty Coffee Association of America has some interesting info on this, per this link.

  What the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has to say:

  A cup is defined as 6 ounces of water before brewing. This will produce 5.33 ounces of brewed coffee. Or 125 ml & 110 ml for Euro style coffee makers

  The SCAA defines 10 grams or .36 oz per cup as the proper measure for brewed coffee if using the American standards. If using Euro standards the measure is 7 grams per 125 ml.

  To further confuse things I will add a few more measures:

  3.75 oz per 1/2 gallon

  55 grams per liter

  2.25 gallons per 1 lb.

  If you want to know more check the SCAA's web page at www.scaa.org.


Brewed vs regular soy sauce : phytochemical content I love soy sauce, but I'm trying to minimize my consumption of phytochemicals.

Is there any difference between "brewed" and "regular" soy sauce as far as their phytochemical content?

AFAIK, "brewed" is the term used for naturally fermented soy sauce compare to faster fermentation using chemicals; remember that using chemicals is not automatically bad.

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/how-to-buy-soy-sauce-like-a-pro-article

As for the phytochemicals (stuff in plants) I don't have a clue.


What to do with soft chicken bones after making bone broth? I have chicken bones after being boiled down to mush.

Can they be crushed? Then what can I use them for?

Worm bin.

Worms need calcium and sometimes they struggle to get enough.  People recommend eggshells in the worm bin for that reason.  You are not supposed to put meat in the worm bin (because of rats) but I think these bones are ok.  They will fall apart pretty quick.

If you don't have a worm bin you could bury them in your garden.  I am told tomatoes like extra calcium in their soil.  Do an experiment and put them all by one tomato plant and see if that one is bigger.  If you have kids the right age, show them what you are doing and maybe they will make it into a science fair project for next year.


How should chicken breasts for a chicken salad be cooked? Most of the recipes I've seen for Chicken Salad simply call for "cooked chicken".  ...okay, but how?  Should I bake it?  Blanch it? Sautee it?  Grill it?

What is the preferred way to cook Chicken Breasts prior to use in Chicken Salad?

It really depends on the texture you are looking for in your finished product. If you want a chunky chicken salad then bake your chicken breasts seasoned or not, I season mine, and then cube them. If you want something a little more exciting pan grill the breasts to the point of a little char and then dice. If you want your chicken to be flavorless and get all of your flavor from the mix you are tossing your chicken into, boil it or put it in a slow cooker if you are cooking up a big batch.

It all really comes down to how you like to eat your chicken salad, and more importantly how pretty you want it to look in your serving method, because a cajun blackened chicken salad sandwich can look down right homely. I say try them all until you fall in love with one temporarily and when that has lost its passion try a different version.

Also as a side note if I am preparing it for me and not for someone else, so it doesn't have to be all white and pretty, I use thighs instead of breasts since they are more forgiving and generally cheaper. If I am not just breaking down a whole chicken and using the leftovers.


Is it okay for oil to smoke in stir-fry? I've always been taught that when frying anything at all, it's of the utmost importance keep the oil below its smoke point. Once the oil starts smoking, I've heard, it's game over-- the oil is denatured and everything in it will have its flavor ruined. And, from limited experience pan frying and deep frying things (I'm still working on the basics), I've seen that this is true. Once the temperature climbs too high, the oil starts to stink and the food ends up tasting like rancid oil.

But, when I watch stir-fry video tutorials, there's almost always smoke. Not just a little bit, either-- it looks like they're thoroughly burning their oil. For example, here's Chef Hiroyuki Terada making chicken fried rice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzbRwICWODk (he adds the oil to his wok at 3:45). I have no doubt that Hiro knows how to make a delicious stir-fry, but would it be better if he didn't let the oil smoke? Is the high temperature more important than the integrity of the oil? Or, am I completely missing something, and the oil isn't being denatured at all?

Yes, there's smoke coming off the oil, but it's not heavy, black smoke.

If you're frying things, when I see that, it's a sign to either get the pan off the heat, or to get food into the pan to cool it down.

When you're stir-frying, you want very high heat, so you're often working right at the smoke point.  Whereas, for sautéing, I always learned to put the food in when it shimmers, but before it starts to smoke.

So, should you let the oil smoke?  Generally, no, but it's okay if you use it as an indicator for when to put in food if you're quick about it.

update: To answer the culinary questions in your comment :

The oil does denature, but it's not all denaturing at once, just like when you boil water, it doesn't all evaporate at once.  Or if you burn an item, the whole thing doesn't instantly turn to ash.  It's not a boolean (yes/no) answer, it's a question of the degree to which it's denatured. Letting it smoke so you know when to put in the food isn't the same as if you let it sit there an smoke for 5 minutes because you don't have your food ready.
Moist food will cool off the oil because the water will turn to steam, resulting in evaporative cooling.  This process ends up sucking energy (heat) out of the oil in the process.  Flipping the food repeatedly (as you would with a sauté and some people do with a stirfry) can also cool down the pan, as you have more heat transfering to the air (more surface exposed while it's being flipped), and you typically lift the pan off the burner so there isn't as much new heat entering the system.


How to avoid excessive steam build up in oven When cooking things like a whole chicken or chips (fries) my oven builds up a lot of steam. So much that it comes out as a huge cloud when opening the oven door. I think this leads to a lack of crispness because it's so wet inside.
Is there a way to avoid this? Or is it a design flaw of the oven?

What settings does your oven offer? Usually an oven should have proper venting of excessive moisture. Are you maybe using a special "steaming" setting instead of regular heating? If it's a regular setting that you're using, your oven might have a technical problem with ventilation that a service mechanic might be able to fix.
As a meantime band-aid fix, you might want to quickly open your oven door ever so often to let out excessive steam. If this does nothing to reduce the amount of steam, it might indeed be a steaming setting that somehow traps or even injects moisture into your oven chamber.


What dough recipes are suitable for "shaping" with a piping bag? I have made cookies based on this recipe, and we have really liked the taste. The appearance was not ok but not perfect, partly because my make-a-ball-and-flatten technique is not great (the outcome is not 100% round), but also because the dough started to stick to my hands 5 minutes after it was out of the fridge.
I wonder if it is possible/reasonable to "shape" these cookies using the piping bag, or maybe you would suggest another way to "shape" them nicely?
Is there a way to tell if the dough will be suitable for a piping bag "shaping", other than try-and-see-if-it-works method?

I can't answer the question about piping so much (but see my comment about recipes meant for cookie presses), but I think I can help you with your problem.
Depending on how firm the dough is, you might be able to reduce the time that it takes to shape the balls, and thus increase the number of balls that you can shape before the dough gets to be sticky:
First, I would chill the dough in logs, rather than just the whole bowl.  Place it over waxed paper or plastic wrap in a bit of a line, then roll the paper (or wrap) around the dough.  You can sometimes tighten it up the log by folding the wrap in half, then pushing on the log with the edge of a sheet pan or cutting board before you roll it up.
Then, you can take a single log out of the fridge, unwrap it, and cut it into bits, and then roll each one.  For more problematic dough, you can cut up half of the log, and then return the uncut half to the fridge while you shape the others.  I've even cut up a log (using a table knife, so I didn't cut through the paper/wrap), then put the whole thing back in the fridge to cool back down.
As moscafj has mentioned, gloves might help.  But because the dough might not stick to them as well, but they'll also insulate your hands so the warmth doesn't affect the dough.  You can also try rolling the balls in your fingers, rather than the palms of your hands, as your palms are warmer.  Depending on how sticky the dough is, you can sometimes roll balls out on the counter or cutting board, using just one hand, which might also help reduce how much you warm them.


Safety of Egg Yolk Glaze Yesterday I baked a special loaf of bread with an egg yolk glaze.  After it was mostly cooled I covered it with plastic wrap and set it on the counter to be served today. I am now concerned that I should have refrigerated it, because of the egg glaze.  There is some condensation that formed and the crust is a little damp.  Is it safe to eat?

The safety issue isn't so much the egg glaze, it is the fact that your bread was not cooled properly before covering it. This left a warm, humid environment for bacteria to grow. Because of this, I would not serve it. However, the best way to judge whether there is a problem or not is to use sight and smell. If you weren't the one to make it, would you want to eat it?

The solution would not necessarily have been to refrigerate it, but to make sure it was cooled before wrapping. Refrigerating would have also caused condensation, although it would have reduced the amount of time the bread was warm. Next time, allow the bread to cool uncovered inside or outside of the refrigerator. You could partially cover it, leaving a hole in the top for the humid air to escape. When you think it is cooled and OK to cover, check back in a half hour to look for condensation. If there is condensation, uncover it and allow it to cool a little bit longer before rewrapping.


Bread question regarding malt I'm looking at a bread recipe that doesn't have any diastatic malt powder in it, but does have a small amount of regular malt syrup. I'm going to add some diastatic malt powder to the recipe, so I was wondering if that should replace the malt syrup or should I just leave it in and have both?

Two different substances here.
Non-diastatic malt powder is mostly used for flavor.
Diastatic malt contains the diastase enzyme used to promote more of the starches to be broken down into sugars that yeasts can use as food. Too much Diastatic malt will make your bread come out gummy inside. For flours that do not have barley malt already incorporated in them (i.e rye flours) a recommended amounts of diastatic malt powder is less than 2.0% of the total flour weight.


Is it okay to eat silver One of my friends recently went to India and brought back some sweets today. These sweets have a silver layer on top. Therefore, I'm quite curious as to whether or not it is safe to eat silver.

As far as I know, there is no processing mechanism for heavy metal in the human body. I think that these sweets probably do not contain real silver metal, otherwise they could be really expensive... I guess it could be aluminium or some other less expensive metal.

Anyone have any idea?

This is a reasonably common practice in South Asian cuisine. Some reasonably credibly information can be found in the Wikipedia article on vark. Quoting from the section on safety:

  Gold and silver are approved food foils in the European Union, as E175 and E174 additives respectively. The independent European food-safety certification agency, TÜV Rheinland, has deemed gold leaf safe for consumption. Gold and silver leaf are also certified as kosher. These inert precious metal foils are neither considered as toxic to human beings nor to broader ecosystems

and

  The total silver metal intake per kilogram of sweets eaten, from vark, is less than one milligram.


What are some methods to deal with cleanliness when working with raw chicken, pork, etc.? I'm super paranoid when prepping/cooking chicken, pork, etc...especially now that we have an 11 month old crawling around. So, I'm constantly trying to be vigilant about keeping the raw meat prep area confined and I'm constantly washing my hands with hot soapy water.

When you watch chefs on TV, they basically wipe their hands on their aprons, wipe down cutting surfaces with a cloth, etc. I don't see any system or methodology for keeping things sanitary.

Any recommendations on methods, techniques, etc.?

Commercial kitchens use a few methods that are hidden from the camera during kitchen shows. First, there are cutting boards for meats, and separate cutting boards for vegetables. These are often color coded so they aren't mixed up. If there is room, raw meats use an entirely different table. Any possibly contaminated board is sanitized before reuse.
Second, the cloths you see are stored in a bucket of sanitizing fluid which kills microbes on contact. When a surface is wiped down, or hands are cleaned, they are being sanitized by the liquid on the cloth. Finally, there is usually more than one person working behind the scenes and labor is divided so the raw meat people are not the same as the green salad people.

At home, planning is the key. Try to do all of your non-meat prep first. Then you can contaminate your cutting board without having to wash it again. Then try to take care of all of your meat prep, so you only have to wash your hands once. And remember that if you drop a vegetable on your raw chicken, it's not a big deal if it's all going to be cooked.


How to deal with small batches on a KitchenAid? We recently got a Kitchenaid pro 450 stand mixer. It’s lovely, but when we just want to mix a small amount of things the mixing head doesn’t reach the bottom and nothing happens.

What’s the solution? Do we need to spend $60 to buy the 3-quart bowl? Would that even work?

I would first make sure the beater to bowl clearance is set correctly. The manual (which I linked) shows you how to do it.  However, there is a minimum amount of ingredients that will mix well.  For those cases, maybe a whisk is a better tool.


What to look for in a mandoline? I've bought two mandolines recently and I've returned the first and will return the second. The first was a stainless steel contraption that:

Broke my food instead of slicing it.
Was ever so hard to clean. At first I thought this was because the blade was perpendicular to the food and so wouldn't slice it correctly. But on closer examination, it was because the food would bump against the plastic casing of the knife.

The second mandoline has a V-shaped knife. The blades are not adjustable. My issues with this apparatus are:

The smallest blade will not cut straw potatoes.
The next blade will cut French fries but won't cut through so I have to waste time loosening the cuts.
On cleaning, the V-shaped knife will cut a slice of the sponge and it will stick there, and I don't want to find sponge in my next batch of cuts.

So, for my next mandoline, I'll be looking for a mandoline that's:

Easy to clean.
Has adjustable blades.
Made of dishwasher-proof plastic (as opposed to stainless steel?).
Safe.
Durable.
Economical in a sense that you don't end up with leftover cuts.
Extractable blades so they can be sharpened.
Size, I just got the Benriner and I should have bought the super. Three sizes, small = too small, medium (super) is good I hope.
...

What else should I be looking for?

Edit: Economical. The current mandoline doesn't cut the last slice so I end up throwing pieces of food away (recycle for other dishes, really).

Edit (update): Thanks for all the input. As only one answer can be accepted, I've accepted the Benriner, I bought it. Too small for me. I'll have to buy another one. :)

Every professional kitchen I've been in uses the simple Japanese Benriner brand mandolines. They are sharp, efficient, and reasonably priced. It is indeed good advice to use a kevlar glove. Microplane sells this one: Microplane 34007 Kitchen Cut-Protection Glove, which I've found works fine.


Cooking techniques for venison neck I recently received a venison neck. I've never cooked this cut before and I haven't found a lot of helpful recipes. I want to keep it as whole as possible, not simply grind it into sausage.

I am assuming this cut has a lot of connective tissue, so I was thinking a low & slow method (braise or stewing). What I've found is mostly grilling (hotter and faster) than I expected.

What would be recommended cooking techniques for this cut of meat?

There are really two issues here. First is temperature, second is time, and they are somewhat inversely proportional to each other. Looking at AmazingRibs, one of my favorite online references, you can see some of the simplified data regarding both general information and elsewhere there are some venison specific cooking recommendations. The neck, in the second reference, due to the connective tissue is recommended to be cooked to a much higher temperature, similar to smoking a pork butt or brisket. So you either cook to a high internal temperature for a relatively short time (still many hours), or cook to a lower internal temperature for a very extended time.

Now, the issue is what cooking technique do you want to use? Smoking? I'd Traeger it at 225 until it hits 195-ish degrees like pulled pork. The meat itself will definitely be well done but the connective tissue will have broken down sufficiently. Sous vide? How about 135-140 degrees for 72 hours like short ribs?

From the food safety standpoint, cooking to less than 140 degrees requires much more care and preparation, and it does require you to understand a lot more about the potential risks in order to make an informed decision since you are the one putting the food into your mouth. Do I think everyone should cook sous vide? Absolutely not. You have to be willing to accept a certain degree of risk, or learn ways to mitigate that risk. In this particular case, unlike store-purchased meat the cut you have may or may not have unusual pathogens (parasites) that cooking (or freezing) techniques would have to account for.


How long should I bake a whole sweet potato for? How long should I bake a whole sweet potato in the oven for versus an 'ordinary' potato of the same size?

There is no real difference in the timing - a good hour, hour and a quarter in a hot oven does the trick.


Is it bad to use lids that do not fit on pot? I was told it's bad to use glass lids on pots that don't fit because the metal against the glass could shatter it. Is this true?

In general (wrong size lid) isn't an issue ... the glass lids, however, could be.

The main issue is when you're boiling stuff, the lid jiggles as the pressure builds up and releases.  This results in the lid getting hit over and over again.  At the edge of most glass lids, there's a metal ring, so the metal can help to absorb some of the hit and spread it out; also at the edge, the shape of most glass lids will help it to take the force.

With it on a smaller pot, the hit's not on the edge where it could be more easily absorbed, and you have uneven heating (the stuff outside the pot not heating up) which would cause additional stresses in the lid ... and with enough repeated strikes could cause it to fail.  Depending on the type of glass it's made of, it could simply crack, or if could completely shatter if it's tempered.  And shattering is just a mess -- you basically have to scrap all exposed food, for fear that some glass bits might've gotten in there.

That's not to say that a glass lid can't shatter under normal usage, but most companies test them, and wouldn't sell them if there was a high risk of breakage under normal use.  I don't know how much testing goes into mis-use, but they can always claim that's not their fault, and have a possible defense against lawsuits should anyone get injured from using the lid on the wrong sized pot.

.... all of that being said, I do have a pot with a glass lid ... and I have used it on the wrong sized pan before ... but it was an oversized pan.  (if you're wondering how, it was steaming stuff in a wok), so the issues aren't the same as in using it on an undersized pot.


Can I ferment black garlic intermittently? Following this black garlic tutorial and in reference to this SA question, I would like to try making myself black garlic, and to try fermenting the garlic to different time to test out difference in flavor

The tutorial suggest that garlic has to be fermented for 40 days continuously to become black garlic. It would be difficult to leave my oven, slow cooker, or a rice cooker unused for other cooking for a month. So my question is: can I ferment it intermittently - take out the garlic, use the cooker for something else, then restore the garlic and resume the heating.

Would that still give me black garlic?

YES. Yes, you can. I just did.

My first attempt in my rice cooker had uncovered garlic heads in it for 10 continuous days-- the result was black but dried hard as rocks (and the process stank up the entire house the whole time).

My second attempt involved wrapping each head in two layers of foil, then putting the garlic in a much lower temperature warming oven (no thermostat at all, just a light bulb) for 10 days, which resulted in beige garlic. I then switched it over to the rice cooker for 2 days, turned it off, checked them, then another 2 days, turned it off, forgot about it for a day, checked them... another 2 days, turned it off, checked them... and found DELICIOUSNESS.

It needs more time, I think, it's not as sweet as I'd like yet and could be a little darker. I've seen some Koreans mention finishing the batch by just hanging the garlic in a bag for a week, so that's what I'm going to do.


Trouble Measuring the Temperature of Meat My wife recently bought me a thermapen and I have used it a number of times to achieve perfectly roasted chicken and turkey, but I have trouble whenever I pan sear meat.
For example, tonight I tried to pan sear a NY strip using a cast iron skillet while basting with butter and herbs. I cooked the steak for about 10 minutes and the thermapen never registered a temperature above 105 degrees. When I cut the steak open it was dry and very well done.

I've also had this problem with chicken breast. I can pan sear it, flip it after 6 minutes, observe a beautiful golden brown crust and when I insert the thermapen just below the surface of the chicken it reads less the 100 degrees. Surely the chicken is not cooling down rapidly?

If I wait until the thermapen registers 160 to stop cooking the chicken, it's totally dry inside. The fact that this happens with both chicken and steak makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. I've followed the technique from Grilling Perfect Steaks Every Time, Every Steak , and I've also observed that the temperature will drop continuously as I pull the thermapen through the meat after it's been flipped once.
In other words, the minimum temperature is not at the center but on the side of the meat not in contact with the pan, even if it looks perfectly seared.

I know it isn't possible for the meat to cool down that quickly, so I don't understand what's happening. What's going on? Does anyone have any suggestions or know what I might be doing wrong?

I don't have enough reputation to put this as a comment.

Have you checked the calibration on your thermopen?

The instructions are here

Briefly:

in ice water your thermopen should read 32F
in boiling water your thermopen should read about 212F (depends on altitude)

Additionally, very thin meats will be difficult to measure.


Peanut-Butter Treat - Using Less Sugar and Less Butter I'm making a chocolate covered peanut-butter treat this weekend.  I'm going to play with the recipe, to have less fat and calories, and I'd like some suggestions.

3 lbs. confectioners sugar
1 lb. butter
2 lbs. peanut-butter
3 tbsp. vanilla

Reducing the amount of butter and sugar comes to mind, but I'm wondering how it will affect the taste and texture.

Well, from the look of things, reducing the butter and sugar will just result in a smaller recipe--that's almost all there is!

You might be able to substitute some kind of starch for some of the sugar. I wouldn't use flour, since you won't be cooking these and it would leave them tasting strongly of raw flour. I don't know what starch would work, but that's my best guess. Apart from that, I would think you could cut back on the butter a little (but not too much, or they'll become crumbly).

For my money, though, I think if you're worrying about sugar and fat, or calories in general, you need to find something else to make. These are nothing but sugar and fat (seeing as PB is mostly fat).


Why did my idli looked cooked from outside but was still mushy inside? I sometimes try using Homemade batter for making idlis and dosas as I live in the perfect temperate climate which is required for fermenting the batter properly and wish to cut down on the preservatives which are found in ready to use batter packets.

Usually it comes nice and fluffy, sometimes a little hard due to more urad in it. But this time when I thought the batter was all perfect, my idlis totally disappointed me. In the steamer it looked as if it had cooked perfectly although it did not rise much, but to my disbelief when I removed it from the steamer's plate, and opened it up it was uncooked inside.

Can anyone suggest what am I doing wrong here? I ferment the batter overnight. Is it less? Will it not become rotten if I keep it outside for 24 hours? I know its like a rocket science which either one gets it or not, but I am looking for a desi method here which will not disappoint me everytime!

P.S. I just realised that I also changed my steaming process. Do you think that could have changed something?

Earlier I was using a pot like this over the flame:

Now I use an electric steamer and keep the idli plate in the steamer section, something like this:

If you are in a "perfect temperate climate" then the batter should not "go rotten" as the method is from southern India, which is very hot. It does not rot there, so it will certainly not in a cooler climate. You may not, however, have the same rate of success for the same reason.

You imply you are an experienced idli and dosa maker, so you will have to experiment with fermentation and cooking times. If they did not rise, it would suggest you are not fermenting long enough. And denser batter will take longer to cook. You already have a genuine desi (Indian) recipe and methodology, you just need to tweak it to your local conditions.


How to replace booze in eggnog? I have been relegated to bringing "drinks" for a work holiday potluck. Fair enough. I love eggnog and would like to bring some. However, my recipe includes two jiggers of bourbon or brandy. It might be tempting to carry on as-is and feign ignorance, but my conscience says otherwise.

So I resolve to making a virgin eggnog. While it's tempting to merely leave the booze out, the booze adds a lot of flavor and sweetness. Is there an accepted way to substitute a brown spirit without losing all the goodness it imparts (apart from the ethanol)?

The easiest way is rum or brandy extract. The flavor is milder, but satisfactory enough. (Rum extract is far easier to find than brandy extract.)

Most brands still have some alcohol (significantly less than the real deal, but still present), so it's important to consider whether you're just avoiding the intoxicating effects or trying to completely eliminate the alcohol (e.g. for medical or religious reasons). If work rules mean it needs to be completely alcohol-free, you'll need to get more creative.

A side note inspired by a comment asking if eliminating alcohol increases Salmonella risk: Alcohol isn't guaranteed to kill harmful bacteria, so nog should either use pasteurized eggs or be (lightly) cooked for food safety... regardless of how much booze is or is not in your recipe.


Are egg rolls supposed to be eaten with chopsticks or hands? Are egg rolls, common in Asian restaurants, such as Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese (at least in America), supposed to be eaten with chopsticks or hands?

It's a matter of personal preference when referring to restaurants in the United States. Some egg rolls are too large to be easily handled with chopsticks, and they can be eaten using your hands; smaller ones and similar preparations such as spring rolls can too, but you may find it preferable to use chopsticks. When choosing your own egg roll from a common platter or service station, it's generally considered polite to use a provided utensil.

Note again that this applies only to Asian-American cuisine and American cultural norms. Etiquette may differ in other countries; when in doubt, watch what those around you do and follow their lead.


Is Spaetzle a pasta or a dumpling? Is it a pasta or a dumpling and what is the difference?

To me, a pasta is smooth and shaped and doesn't have any "filling" (but can have ingredients added to color or flavor it before it is shaped)  and a dumpling is either a dough of some sort either cooked in a stew-like liquid or filled with something and then cooked.
When I saw spaetzle prepared,it seemed like a pasta to me. What distinguishes pasta from dumplings?

Spätzle originates from a region spanning Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany. I can tell you that here in southern Germany, Spätzle is definitely considered a sort of pasta. You can buy premade, prepackaged dried Spätzle, and it is always on the pasta shelf. So I'd say it is correct to refer to it as pasta, at least for historical/traditional reasons, even if it doesn't meet some technical criteria for pasta (or does meet some for dumplings).

As for technical criteria, I don't know of any decision criteria for either category both are loosely defined in my head by enumeration of their elements. Maybe there are some official criteria, but kitchen taxonomy isn't as hard defined as e.g. biological taxonomy, and it varies by region/country. Consider for example, the German word Braten, which is generally translated as a roast. But while a German cook may consider a piece of meat cooked in a dutch oven on a stovetop a kind of Braten, any cook from the Balkans will tell you that this is not a roast, as it wasn't made in a "real" oven, but in what is, in his eyes, a pot. So would you define the meat as a roast or not? I'd say that here regional tradition is best. If it was a German recipe, you are free to call it a roast. If it was a Balkan recipe, you'll have to call it something else, depending on the exact recipe. Similarly, for Spätzle, I'd say just go with the tradition and call it a pasta.


Skillet warps when hot -- Is it toast? A griddle I've had recently appears to have adopted a strange behavior -- It's flat when cold, but after being on the stove for a little while it bows upward away from the burner. This makes doing much with it nearly impossible -- At this point is it pretty much toast?

It is not toast if it gets flat afterwards. It is just too large for the burner on which you are using it.

The general rule is: if a skillet wraps with the center bending up, re-bend it (if possible - coated ones can crack the coating) and use on a larger burner. If it wraps center-down, rebend and use on a smaller burner.


Fish from local chip shops smells fishy, but not from one shop? As per the title, we have tried fish and chips from several local fish and chip shops, and whenever we get in the car to drive home with them we instantly smell the fish.

However a new fish and chip shop opened recently, and the fish has no smell at all. Haddock or Cod it doesn't matter.

The fish from the none smelly shop possibly seems a little softer too.

What could be causing this?

very very fresh fish won't smell fishy, and the fishy smell comes from proteins breaking down with age. Texture also degrades and becomes softer with fish that isn't fresh, so what you're describing fits perfectly with this new shop just serving fresher fish.


black stain on my glass stove top i have a black stain on one of my stove tops there were some smaller ones on the other three but they came off fairly easy. this has taken up almost the entire top and looks almost as if the pattern was peeled off leaving a black bottom but you cannot see the burner when it is on. Is there a way I can remove this stain?

Try oven cleaner spray, let it sit for 30min. Wipe off and clean with water. A razor blade scrape might also be tried if its charcoal burnt in.


How to make bread improver? For unknown reasons, but probably related to the covid pandemic, we are unable to buy bread improver.
Related question - What is 'Bread Improver'?
Our daily bread is made in a bread machine, and our recipe is approximately 50% rye, 50% white (or sometimes wholemeal), salt, water and yeast.  Without the bread improver, it's still OK, but is about 30% larger "loaf~ier" with the improver included.
Is there some way of making your own bread-improver?  I found these suggestions, but I would have preferred more of the science behind the actions of the ingredient.
I think the main ingredient in our improver is Soy Lecithin.
Since lecithin is found in egg yolk, milk and soy beans.  I'd be happy to add all these to the bread, but I'm after a few hints before I go wasting good flour on ill-informed experimentation.
My current thought is to start with maybe a tablespoon (20ml) of skim milk-power added to the flour.  Does that sound reasonable?
EDIT: found a recipe: http://www.breadmachinedigest.com/recipes/enhancer-recipes/bread-freshtm-dough-enhancer.php I'm by no means a vegetarian, but I am also not particularly keen on adding gelatine to my bread.

Vitamin C is probably the most critical of the components of most bread improvers. It helps the yeast grow essentially - just like you need vitamins, so does the yeast. Apparently it also strengthens the gluten through a chemical reaction.
Lecithin is also good to add. At the quantities provided in a typical lecithin additive to bread it acts as an emulsifier - breaking down fats/oils supplied in the bread mixture and making them more available to the yeast, thereby enhancing metabolism, as well as improving moisture retention through better mixing of the fat/oil and water within the loaf.


How should I prepare kola nuts for creating a soft drink? I have recently gotten into making my own soft drinks, and I would like to attempt making a cola.   I found an online spice retailer that sells Kola Nut and bought some, but I have no real idea how to prepare them for use.   I also don't know how much I should use for a liter or two of soda, but I can figure that out via experimentation if I have to.

But what should I do with the kola nuts?   Do they need to be ground before I boil them in a simple syrup, or should the pieces just be dropped in as-is?   How much time does it take to extract the flavor from them?

Edit:  I have made my own ginger ale using fresh ginger and my own berry soda using a bag of frozen berries, and I am a homebrewer and have a kegging system and a carbonator cap for soda bottles.   I really just want to know if there are special considerations for how to treat kola nuts.

There are several cola recipes on this site.
Recipe 2.6 references a kola extract recipe from the following book: Food Flavourings, by Joseph Merory, AVI Publishing Company, 1960.

I'd assume that the kola nuts are added as in pieces, similar to how they are consumed - Kola nuts are consumed by breaking them open and into pieces.


In the light of the confirmed case of BSE in Scotland, is it safe to eat beef? There have been a number of recent news reports of a case of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or 'mad cow disease') being confirmed in Scotland.

I was wondering if there are any potential risks to human health from eating beef, either in the UK or elsewhere in the world.

From the linked article, there is a non-zero risk to human health if eating beef infected with the Mad Cow disease.

"There was nationwide alarm following the confirmation of the first deaths caused by transmission of BSE to humans in 1996. At the time there were fears that hundreds of thousands of people might die as a result of eating infected beef.

As it turned out 178 people have died of the human form of mad cow disease, known as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD). It is believed that these individuals were genetically more sensitive to succumbing to the disease than the wider population.
"

If uncertain, make certain your butcher shop has verifiable traceability of all the meat he/she sell, so you can know where the meat comes from.

I think the information should be publicly available at your butcher shop.

Elsewhere, well, in Europe and North America, the standards are very high, so I would not worry that much; I can't say anything about the rest of the world as I don't know enough.


Why is there a watery run-off after cooking my bolognese? It's a fairly standard recipe with passata and wine, simmering on a low heat for a couple of hours.  After stirring and putting the bolognese onto the pasta, after a couple of minutes the sauce separates a watery run off onto the bottom of the plate.  The pasta is fully drained, and the bolognese seems good in the pot.  How can I reduce the wateryness, simply cook the bolognese for much longer?  I haven't wanted to risk drying it out/burning.

A few things that can help, if it's not an issue with fat like @Aaronut suggested:

Tomato paste.  Yes, I know it's a sacrelige, but it'll act as a thickener.
Take the pasta out before it's gotten to al dente, and finish cooking it in the sauce; the pasta will absorb any extra liquid, and help to thicken the sauce.
Do not rinse off the pasta after you drain it.  Way too many people do, and it washes off the starch that you want for the sauce to bind to the pasta properly, and may introduce extra water.


How can I clean chia seeds? I'm wondering about how to properly clean chia seeds since they cannot be washed in water as other seeds.
I've read that they need not to be washed, but then how to clean them?

Three main methods of cleaning dry seed:

Blow on it with a fan to remove chaff, dust and some leaf bits.
Sieve it to remove both the stuff that's too course or too fine.
Run it slowly down an inclined plane, like a breadboard. Seeds tend to bounce, crud doesn't and will stick to the board.


Can I use "spent" lemons (juiced) to preserve? I'm about to juice 5 or 6 lemons, I'll zest maybe 2 of them. (I'm making a lemon cheesecake). Lemon isn't something I care to use very often, but I'm intrigued by 'preserved lemons', something I've never done (always a plus). It was cheaper to buy a five pound bag of lemons (11 total) than to buy 6 lemons individually, so I'll have 5 or 6 left over. Obviously the juiced and zested lemons are trash, but what about the intact rinds of the juiced lemons? Can I shove those in the jar with the salt too, along with my 5 or 6 remaining lemons? Or will that throw off some kind of magic ratio?

Here is a recipe that i tried a while back. I wasnt too impressed with the spicy one. But overall good method and clear explanation. And sure get your extra zest in there too!

http://awesomepickle.com/make-pickled-lemons-two-ways/


What is the "Kamchin" can on the photo and what can I do with its contents? I found this can in my pantry - I don't recall buying it, but the date seems valid and I like the ingredients on the label (chives, coriander, parsley, fenugreek, vegetarian oil (?) and salt). Googling for "Kamchin" does not return anything interesting (sounds like it's a brand, not the name of the stuff?), I don't speak swedish so looking for ortgryta is useless. There is more information on the can in a script that I can't read (looks Arabic?).

My questions are:
 - how should it be used "properly"? I mean, what is the intended way to prepare and eat it?
 - what could be a good (=simple) way to use it, not necessarily foreseen by the producer? Would it work instead of pesto on some pasta?

Kamchin is a mixture of herbs, used for making Persian stews such as Ghormeh Sabzi. In Farsi, Ghormeh means stew and Sabzi means herbs. A basic recipe for Ghormeh Sabzi is:

INGREDIENTS 500g of Beef or Lamb I cup kidney beans 2 onions 500g Kamchin – these are Persian herbs, a mix that is mostly parsley and spinach
METHOD Fry onions Add Kamchin Fry beef 5 – 10 minutes Add 4 cups of water Cook for 2 – 2 ½ hours over low flame. The end result is a thick stew of meat, vegetable and beans. Serve over rice. In this case it was decorated rice.

I found many variations of this basic recipe. Some had a dark green such as spinach or kale while others used potatoes. A Google search will give you a ton of results for Ghormeh Sabzi, and while some don't specify Kamchin, they do call for the same ingredients found in Kamchin.
I would think that the Kamchin could be used for other Persian or Iranian stews, or really in any hearty lamb or beef stew, as it is a nice blend of herbs.


How can I control humidity levels when curing salami? I have a problem with a fridge I am converting to a curer, namely high humidity. I have read a similar question on this forum, however my problem is slightly more complicated. I will start off by saying I live in the UK, where humidity is on the whole higher than in the States.

I am successfully controlling my temperature by turning the fridge on and off via a temperature controller, but the humidity is driving me mad.I cannot seem to get it lower than 85-80%, even with a humidity controller turning a light on to raise the temperature, so the compressor runs more frequently. This does lower the humidity, but as soon as the compressor turns off, the humidity is straight back up to 85%, and this is with no food in it.

I'm guessing that as a salami dries it will release moisture it loses into the atmosphere of the fridge, increasing the humidity.  If I open my door the humidity immediately rises to 100% every time without fail, so I figure putting any sort of vent in the side will be counter productive.  Ive got a 3kg tray of salt in the bottom which I swap daily and dry the removed tray in the oven.  I'd really appreciate any help on this.

Instead of salt, you could get silica gel. These crystals can be found by the bucket, not just in tiny packets. They also make a variety with an indicator that turns pink when they need to be changed.  Bake to refresh them.

Silica gel is amazing stuff.  There is no way you'll not be able to keep the air dry with a mass of absorber tye same scale as the salami.   It's just a matter of how often you'll need to change it.


How do I coat popcorn with flavor? There are commercial flavored popcorn (i.e. BetterMade) that aren't topped with flavor but coated like a potato chip.  How do I re-create that coating at home?  Specifically, I'm a fan or the 'hot' style coating (bbq, buffalo chicken, jalapeno, flame).  I've tried oils, tossing in a bowl, spraying from a bottle, but no luck  - it's just regular popcorn with a little chili powder sticking to each kernel.

How you are popping your corn makes a difference.

Air popped corn with flavoring added afterwards may be healthier but it is difficult to make flavorings adhere.

Using an agitated oil popper and putting the flavoring infused in the oil will make the difference. The flavors will be part of the kernel and not just stuck to the outside.

Lately I've seen several table top, agitated oil poppers at places like costco for reasonable prices.


Pure maple syrup wedding favors i want to give 4oz jars of syrup to my wedding guests as favors. Due to the cost I'm buying it in bulk and filling the jars myself. How far in advance can I fill the mason jars and not have the mold issue?  I obviously can't keep 100 4oz jars in my fridge.

If you sterilise the jars before and after sealing, it should easily last a year if not more. Sterilising will involve boiling the jars in a large pan of water for 15 minutes, filling and sealing them, then boiling for 15 minutes again.


Home-made Burger buns food safety How can I make burger buns that I can  keep for a long time?

I have tried making some, but fungus starts growing on them after just two days...

Best way to keep bread for a long time, more than 1 day, especially burger buns, which are more fragile than regular bread is to freeze them.

Slice them open and freeze them as quickly as possible, but in a freeze bag.

(edit)
If your buns start having fungus after just a couple of days, maybe there is something wrong with your recipe; could you share the recipe?


Canning for couple of days to one week of low acidic cooked food without pressure canning? I would like can low acidic cooked food like vegetables or meat (chicken) to use with in couple of days to one week during summer vacations.

I dont have pressure canner so, can I do it using Hot bath canning procedure?

NO! Using your method you have created the perfect environment to grow Clostridium botulinum, so within a couple of days you very well could have a thriving colony of botulism rich food.

From USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

  Ensuring safe canned foods

  Growth of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum in canned food may cause botulism—a deadly
  form of food poisoning. These bacteria exist either as spores or as vegetative cells. The spores,
  which are comparable to plant seeds, can survive harmlessly in soil and water for many years.
  When ideal conditions exist for growth, the spores produce vegetative cells which multiply
  rapidly and may produce a deadly toxin within 3 to 4 days of growth in an environment
  consisting of:

  • a moist, low-acid food

  • a temperature between 40° and 120°F

  •  less than 2 percent oxygen.

  Botulinum spores are on most fresh food surfaces. Because they grow only in the absence of air,
  they are harmless on fresh foods.

  Most bacteria, yeasts, and molds are difficult to remove from food surfaces. Washing fresh food
  reduces their numbers only slightly. Peeling root crops, underground stem crops, and tomatoes
  reduces their numbers greatly. Blanching also helps, but the vital controls are the method of
  canning and making sure the recommended research-based process times, found in these
  guides, are used.

  The processing times in these guides ensure destruction of the largest expected number of heatresistant microorganisms in home-canned foods. Properly sterilized canned food will be free of
  spoilage if lids seal and jars are stored below 95°F. Storing jars at 50° to 70°F
  enhances retention of quality.


The consistency of my hot chocolate is off, what do I do? I've made hot chocolate before however it's only ever been the instant powdered variant by Cadbury's, however today I bought some hot chocolate by "Charbonnel et Walker", I don't know if anyone knows about this drinking chocolate but it isn't powdered instead it's comprised of really fine and small flakes of chocolate and you're meant to mix them with the milk I guess? I did so but the consistency of the hot chocolate was off; that is to say that although the flakes melted a little they congealed/massed on the surface of the hot milk rather than assimilate and no matter how much I stirred they'd still rise back to the top.

My steps were: I microwaved some full fat milk till it was a hot, mixed the recommended amount of chocolate flakes in and some brown sugar, gave it a good stir and put it back in the microwave.

I've probably made this wrong, was I meant to make this in a sauce pan?
Could anyone help me with this?
Thank you.

At Marriott hotel, where I worked for a while, we used similar flakes. Our technique was to add a good splash of boiling water first, incorporate the chocolate flakes by mixing it into a smooth paste (more or less), and only then add hot milk. I guess the idea is that it is much more of a challenge to incorporate a small amount of solid into a large amount of liquid, however if you turn that solid into a paste first, its almost like your mixing two liquids. You'll find that the same technique is used for making a bachamel sauce. For convenience sake, try using a small amount of hot milk, instead of water. Also, having your liquid boiling might help, which is hard to achieve in a microwave. e.g. when making a classic chocolate sauce which contains butter and cream, the chocolate is only fully dissolved when the liquid is boiled.


Why pressure cook rasmalai? My wife loves rasmalai and we make it often.

I have used several different recipes and both made the paneer from scratch as well as using paneer purchased at a local Indian grocery store.

Some recipes call for the paneer balls to be cooked in the syrup for some time, sometimes even in a pressure cooker. Any time that I have tried to do this my paneer has completely melted into a sweet, foamy, butter slick. I stopped trying the pressure cooker recipes because it was too wasteful.

Other recipes, including those from Indian coworkers, don't pressure cook the cheese and only briefly simmer it before chilling the dish.

Is rasmalai traditionally cooked in a pressure cooker? If so what does it accomplish and how do I keep my paneer from melting?

Not something I've ever come across, but you have to remember that paneer is a vague word meaning cheese, not very specific, and it runs through a range of IndoAsian languages with slight variations in meaning - like in parts of the US "gravy" means any kind of sauce, but in UK gravy is always brown.

Go to the end of my street and ask for paneer, you will be given a prepacked piece of something with a texture somewhere between soap and parmesan that tastes like cheddar. That's what you get in West Yorkshire, which is like the Punjab/Kashmir border with buses.
Cut into cubes, serve with sauce and peas, it makes a perfect motar paneer.

I did a search for recipes and the first one I found used a pressure cooker, and made the paneer from scratch, with a video. I could see that the process worked for those cooks. But it doesn't work for you, and I think the reason is that you don't have a local herd of buffaloes.

Buffalo milk is preferred in most parts of India, they use it without specifying it. You will not get the same results with cows' milk. You might get good results if you start from mozarella, the best types of which are also made with buffalo milk. Remember how hard it is to get mozarella to melt when you put it on pizza, and you might begin to understand why I'm suggesting it.

Referring to the pressure cooker - that is used to establish a high starting temperature for the syrup. The cooks I saw made a syrup, added the pieces of paneer, heated the cooker until the weight lifted, then switched off the heat and left the pieces to soak for exactly five minutes before removing them. I would guess that the start temperature would be around 122 degC, but that really is a guess. You just have to establish a procedure that gets enough syrup into the pieces without them falling apart - trial and error must be your guide, because it is evident that there is a big variation from the source of the curd.

Once you've established something that works, you might find it interesting to try flavouring that "soaking syrup" by adding rose cordial or similar ...

Postscript: I went past the end of my street to the supermarket around the corner. They cater for Indoasian tastes and Jamaican tastes. The cheese selection is very boring, the best pick is a very expensive mature red cheddar/dunlop cheese from Jamaica, and they sell the "soapy" paneer pre-cut into cubes in packets. They also sell half a dozen forms of mozarella style paneer, mostly canned in brine, and a strange French product in rectangular cartons labelled in squiggle - Arabic or Urdu, you guess, but it shows the product being sliced on the pack. Most are labelled as being made from cows' milk, one is goats' milk, but nothing marked explicitly as buffalo milk - then again, that doesn't surprise me.

You can buy pre-prepared rasmalai, rassmalai, and rasomalai in there. I bought the rassmalai because it is locally produced by Mumtaz, a company who have a restaurant I have visited without being poisoned. The rasomalai is produced by Royal, who have a nationwide reputation as a supplier of Indoasian sweets.

I was disappointed - the cardamom and saffron were undetectable, there were only two pieces of swollen curd in a sauce of condensed milk and cream with just enough pistachios added to give visual evidence, as opposed to flavour. £1.85 might be a fair price in a restaurant, as a street price it was a rip-off.

I can see why Sobachatina's wife would like the stuff, but I know I could do better, so I understand why he wants to put some effort into the dish. I don't have the time right now, but I will put some exertion into this in the future.


Is a little oven less hot than a bigger oven? Some months ago, I found a recipe for cookies and made them in a big oven; they were delicious and cooked very well (soft cookies) at 180 °C (356 °F) for 7 minutes.

I recently tried the recipe again, but I have no longer a big oven, so I used my little one (with heat source at the top and bottom).
The cookies were still almost liquid after 15 minutes, and I though that was my oven that was too old and not keeping a good temperature; I tested on another oven that is new, and I got the same result.

Does the little oven heat less than the big one? If yes, what do I need to do to adjust the temperature and/or the time? If not, what am I doing wrong?

The recipe is:

  125 grams of soft butter
  125 grams of brown sugar
  175 grams of white flour
  one egg
  1 cc of baking powder
  100 grams of chocolate chip

  Mix all except chocolate chip. When you have a homogeneous substance, add the chocolate chip.
  Bake them 7 minutes at 180 °C. they're still very soft after that delay but they will harden.

It could be that your oven's temperature control is off somewhat. Ovens aren't exactly scientific instruments, so you can't be sure how accurate they are with this kind of thing.

Get a decent oven thermometer and go by that rather than the temperature knob. You might be surprised. Mine runs about 10-15 degrees less: when I set it to 180 on the dial, it's often about 165 on the thermometer.


Making fried pickles ahead of time I want to deep fry some pickles, but I want to have them ready ahead of time.  The coating I like is a sort of cornmeal buttermilk batter. How can I freeze these without it all coming off?

I am assuming you mean freeze after frying. The bad news is that there is probably no foolproof way of retaining the crispness of fresh-fried pickles through freezing. A few tips to prevent them from being limp/soggy:

After frying, please make sure each of them are cooled out in open air (like in a cooling rack on baking sheet etc) instead of a locked container and/or stacked on top of each other. This prevents them from being all soggy from the slow-releasing steam.
You need to thaw them/slightly bake them in a oven to bring back some of the crispiness. Microwave thawing will turn them mushy.


*Cannot* get that "Oven Spring" I cannot, for the life of me (no matter what recipe I try), ever get the bread to rise that last bit in the oven. It always falls a bit instead.

It proofs nicely, but it just won't rise more in the oven. This time, I tried cutting little slits in the top (in case there was some sort of dried crust on top... even though I covered it with a clear shower cap), and I also preheated the oven for 45 minutes with a cast iron pan of water in the bottom of the oven, and a pizza stone. I placed the bread pan directly on the pizza stone.

The theory for oven spring is that the bubbles in the dough heat rapidly and expand. So there needs to be room for expansion (humid oven, no solid "crust" preventing it from expanding), and rapid heat transfer (pre-heated pizza stone).

It. Just. Won't. Work.

Any ideas?

P.S. - This is for gluten-free bread-making, but it should work just the same. All the recipes I try all assume that you'll get that oven spring. But I never do. Ugh. In case anyone is wondering, the latest recipe I have tried is this one: http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2014/04/light-fluffy-gluten-free-bread-recipe.html

I've since figured it out. Gluten free bread is very particular, and the moisture has to be just right. If there's not enough water, the dough is too dense and won't rise. If there's too much water, it will rise, but in the oven, the bubbles bubble through the too, causing the loaf to collapse (I sat and stared and watched it happen). I've since learned what the dough must look like. It looks like thick cake batter. Should be smooth looking, but not soupy.


Whats causing odd flavour in reheated chicken? I make some chicken soup and it tastes fine.  However I notice that when I reheat it again it taste like sulfur or something other chemicals, not really sure what it is.

Chemically speaking can anyone tell me what is happening, and what this is?
I've read that it may be fat oxidizing.  Does that mean it, it doesn't matter whether the chicken is reheated, or eaten again when cold, they same chemical will form and be noticeable?

I don't just want to mask the smell, but would prefer to whats going on and how it can be avoided to begin with. Does one really have to cook a fresh batch twice in one day to avoid this?

Also if possible, please tell me chemically speaking what specifically is happening.

I will assume you mean you are microwaving your soup when reheating.

Microwaving effectively boils the water within food, mostly at the surface, and will at a minimum leave it dryer than it was before.

As for the smell, the water removed from the chicken could be unmasking a certain smell in the food or even carrying it out and delivering the smell to your nose.


Can I substitute dehydrated veggies for freeze dried in recipes? I've been looking at pre-made mason-jar meals recently and notice a lot of recipes use freeze dried food. Namely, Cheff Tess' (presumably a spokesperson for Honeyville Foods) meal-in-a-jar mixes. I can dehydrate my own fruits, veggies and spices, and would rather add those to my stored meals than purchased freeze dried food.  Are dehydrated foods equivalent to freeze dried when it comes to cooking? Will I need to modify anything to make this substitution?

I think the issue here is long term storage.  If you are only going to keep the food for weeks to a couple of months, I think your home dehydrated products should be perfectly acceptable.

Depending on your application—and I make no value judgements here—if you need to store the food for considerably longer for whatever reason, then you want to be sure nearly all of the water has been removed, and commercially freeze-dried products are going to be more reliable.

Also, according to wikipedia:

  Freeze-dried products can be rehydrated [sic] (reconstituted) much more
  quickly and easily because the process leaves microscopic pores. The
  pores are created by the ice crystals that sublimate, leaving gaps or
  pores in their place.

For another perspective, the vendor Rainy Day Foods says:

  When comparing freeze dried foods to dehydrated foods, there are
  advantages to both. Some advantages of freeze dried foods are that
  they are light in weight and reconstitute quickly and will have the
  appearance of fresh foods when reconstituted. A disadvantage to freeze
  dried foods is that they will take up more space for storage because
  they are lighter and more space is needed to store the same amount (in
  weight) as dehydrated foods. Advantages to dehydrated foods are less
  space is needed to store a large amount of food and it is economical
  to purchase. Freeze dried foods can be a great deal more expensive
  than dehydrated foods.

  So in answer to the ongoing question of whether freeze dried foods or
  dehydrated foods are better – only the consumer can determine which is
  best depending on his or her own personal needs and preferences.

However, they are addressing commercially dehydrated or freeze-dried products, not home prepared products.

Your home dehydrated foods will probably retain more moisture and have less even quality control than commercial processes.  For this reason, they may not be as shelf stable.

For most uses, though, especially if you are making "meals in a jar" for convenience or short term emergency preparedness, not long term (years) of storage, your home dehydrated fruits and vegetables should be just fine.


What is the difference between crepes and Swedish pancakes? We just made the Swedish recipe this morning, and it seems like crepes...

Looking at individual recipes, there is a great deal of overlap between Crêpes and Swedish pancakes. If, however, you compare hundreds of recipes, some clear differences emerge. There are also differences between the English interpretations of these recipes and those written in French or Swedish.

In the chart above, each cohort consists of at least 100 distinct recipe ratios, except for Ruhlman's Crêpes ratio which is provided for comparison.

A taste test of the Swedish recipe Pannkakor with French recipe Crêpes revealed the following differences:

Batter: The increased liquid content of the Swedish pancakes made the batter much thinner than the Crêpes batter. Swedish pancakes are made in a pan with a raised lip around the edge. This allows the thin batter to be sloshed around, evenly coating the pan surface without running over the edge.

Crêpes, on the other hand, are made on a Crêpe maker. The batter must be thick enough that it will not run over the edge. A T-shaped spreader is used to evenly coat the crêpe maker surface in a perfect disk shape.

Frying: Crêpes fried up extremely easily, unsticking themselves from the skillet (I had neither a pancake pan, nor a crêpe maker available at the time) making it possible to toss the Crêpes instead of flipping with a spatula. Swedish pancakes, on the other hand, require a bit of fiddling with a spatula to flip them.

Crêpes had a slight tendency to curl up at the sides after flipping so they cooked less evenly than the pancakes which stayed perfectly flat after flipping.

 Flip side of a Crêpe (French recipe)

 Flip side of a Swedish pancake (Swedish recipe)

I also tested Michael Ruhlman's Crêpes ratio. These curled up to a much greater extent than French recipe Crêpes after flipping and were, consequently, quite unevenly browned on one side.

 Flip side of a Ruhlman's Crêpe

Taste and consistency: Both French recipe Crêpes and Swedish recipe pancakes hit caramel and butterscotch notes. In short, they both tasted great. The Crêpe consistency was a little tough together with traditional Swedish accompaniments (Whipped cream and Strawberry jam) whereas the Swedish pancakes were light and fluffy; this worked perfectly with the filling. I tested again with lemon juice and sugar and this time the Crêpes won through, holding up well to the additional liquid while the Swedish pancakes became a bit soggy. Ruhlman's Crêpe recipe didn't perform nearly as well. The caramel flavour was much less pronounced, they had a dry mouth-feel and they were tougher than French recipe Crêpes.

For anyone who wants to form their own opinion, here are the ratios and ingredients I used in the tests:

Swedish Pancakes (based on 200 Swedish recipes with distinct ingredient proportions)

Ingredient weight ratios: 1:3.5:1:0.16 (all purpose flour:milk:medium egg:butter)

79g or 150ml all purpose flour
278g or 278ml milk
80g, 68ml or 2 medium egg(s) where each medium egg is 53g
13g or 13ml butter
1/4 tsp salt

Crêpes (based on 119 French recipes with distinct ingredient proportions)

Ingredient weight ratios: 1:1.97:0.75:0.17 (all purpose flour:milk:medium egg:butter)

116g or 219ml all purpose flour
228g or 228ml milk
86g, 73ml or 2 medium egg(s) where each medium egg is 53g
20g or 20ml unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt

Update:

Joe's comment prompted me to chart the ingredient proportions as a Baker's Percentage.


How can I preserve yogurt for at least 2 weeks without preservatives? How can I preserve a creamy yogurt for at least two weeks without using any preservatives?

Stored in the refrigerator, homemade yogurt can keep for up to 2 weeks. If you're planning to use it for re-culturing a new batch, you'd want to do that within about a week. You can also put active yogurt in the freezer to save it to culture future batches.  For this, one trick is to freeze in small amounts of about a tablespoon each using an ice cube tray (I use a ravioli mold).


What is a good way to roast hazelnuts? I need to roast some hazelnuts to use later for other preparations.
How do you do it?
In a cooking pan or in the oven, and for how much time?

While using a pan on the stove top can result in roasted hazelnuts (or any nut), it does require constant movement and attention.  It can be quick, but it can also go wrong quickly if your heat is too high...or you stop shaking the pan for too long.

Alternately, roasting in a 325 to 350 F (163 to 177 C) oven, on a sheet pan, in a single layer, results in a much more predictable outcome and requires less direct attention.

Ten to 15 minutes would do the trick, but use your nose and eyes for guidance.  Once nuts begin to roast, they can quickly go from perfect to burnt.  Start checking after 8 or 9 minutes.

If you are working with hazelnuts that have the skins on them, after roasting, you can dump them onto a clean kitchen towel.  Fold the sides over and rub the nuts between the towel.  This should quickly remove most of the outer skins. I remove the cleaned ones to a bowl, and give the remaining ones another rubbing.  You may have to work at (or ignore) the few stubborn ones.


Can I freeze my selfmade focaccia? In my family I am well known for baking a great focaccia bread, but soon I won't be able to bake for some time, so my idea was to bake a big batch and put it into the freezer. Will that work or will the texture and taste of the focaccia change big time?

I know some people freeze their bread, but the one time I tasted such bread (wholemeal) it wasn't that nice, but I am not sure if it was because of the freezing or because the bread was just rubbish. Also, a focaccia is not a wholemeal bread, so I guess any conclusions based on that experience would be wrong.

You can freeze (as < 0 °C / 32 °F) bread and it will last longer. As @FuzzyChef answered, there's even a whole "just baked bread" industry using that method.

The main problem with taking a piece of bread at room temperature and freeze it, is that it must go through the 0~5 °C / 32~41 °F zone. That is the temperature at which bread stales faster (as starches degelation). So, one should try the bread to be at that temperature the least possible time (maybe having small pieces of bread, or having a freezer at the lowest temperature as possible).

The same applies when you defrost the bread. Luckly, that degelation is, up to a point, reversible: If heated above 60 °C / 140 °F it will gelate again. So, better than letting warm up at room temperature, you can put it in an oven or a toaster.

Side note 1: remember to cut the focaccia before freezing it.

Side note 2: frozen bread industry helps itself with this.