Buckwheat raw pizza base This question is for a raw pizza base using sprouted buckwheat.

I love having something crunchy, savoury carb-rich to eat. This is why I am trying to get my sprouted buckwheat pizza base to a point where it's actually yummy.

I am failing. I mean, it's "OK" with lots of topping, raw tomato sauce, raw cheese, olives, capsicum, etc. But... in all honesty, the base in itself is just not very good, mainly because of the bitterish starchy-ish taste of buckwheat.

I am using:

1 cup buckwheat
1 cup linseeds
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
1 cup of dates
1 cup of water
Salt

What can I blend the taste of raw buckwheat with, so that it "works"? I thought the dates would help, but...

Let me approach the question in two parts 1) you want to flavor the buckwheat 2) you need a binder (currently you're using dates).
My suggestion 1* / use avocado and mash some dried spices (basil, oregano, etc) into it. The avocado is going to be the oil. Do not add any other oil.  2* / try de-seeded zucchini in your buckwheat blend - the idea is to experiment with mushy plants with low water content (thus you need to remove the seeds of the zucchini in this example).
These are theories as I'm not raw but still hope the direction helps :)


How do you know how much garlic to add to a dish and in what form? I always shy away from using garlic because it is such a wild card. It burns easily, and how you chop, dice or grate it has a MAJOR effect on flavor so there is not much reference experience from cooking recipes since every one chops the garlic differently. The cloves also differ in sizes so telling me to "put 2 cloves" seems too inaccurate. As a result I am too passive with my garlic usage and as a result it never shows on the dish so I just drop it altogether.

What should I do to take control over the garlic and master when and how it should be added to a dish?

Garlic is a wonderful vegetable that can add intense flavor, and is also praised by many people for its healthful benefits. But as is the case for most strongly flavored foods, personal preference varies widely.

You've already established one reference point, in that the amount you've used in the past was insufficient to result in a flavor that you personally found strong enough. So, the obvious next step is to increase that amount gradually each time you prepare that particular recipe until you reach a point you find most pleasing, or at least until the garlic flavor sounds a note that harmonizes with the dish.

Note that garlic cloves vary not merely in size, but also in intensity of flavor; depending on the source, age, and other factors. With experience, you'll gain a sense of this, partly from the aroma and "feel" of the garlic. As is the case with many cooking techniques, with practice you'll become better at judging this too.

Also to consider, is what form you're using the garlic in your recipe. For example, a meat roast recipe may call for whole cloves to be inserted, causing the flavor to disperse from the inside out. A sauté or sauce calling for minced garlic, distributes the flavor more evenly.

Using a garlic press goes even farther, releasing juice and making it almost like a paste — this works very good in a marinade, but it might be too strong for other things. You can also throw whole cloves of garlic in with potatoes while steaming them — the garlic will become buttery soft and blend in beautifully to make delicious garlic mashed potatoes.

If your garlic is burning, most likely the heat is too high, or else you're cooking it too long. At what point you add it to the dish, depends on what you're cooking, and what other ingredients are included. If I'm sautéing up a collections of vegetables, I'll usually begin with onions in the skillet first, and mince up the garlic while they're starting to cook. The onions will have "sweat" a bit, reducing the chance of the garlic burning.

Your task now is to experiment with all of these things, observing the differences in how it appeals to your own taste. If you only ever cook for yourself, you'll be all set. However, if you're cooking for others, you may wish to moderate the garlic level, to suit the tastes of your guests — for that, there's no rule of thumb.

If you're cooking for diners who normally eat bland or packaged food, a little garlic can go a long way. But for people who are used to ethic food where garlic is prominent, it might be impossible to use too much.

The key to seizing control of garlic and mastering it in your kitchen, is to explore and understand how it tastes to you. Doing so will give you the knowledge and skill to wield garlic with confidence. Have fun, enjoy garlic, and listen to feedback from your guests.


What happened to this pot I just bought a new cheap pot.  Put some water in it, boiled it and noticed the pot up to its water level turned dark.  I was thinking maybe the metal coating was peeling off and leaking into the water.
Boiled a second pot of water then poured it into a glass and the water looks clear as you can see in picture.
What happened to the pot and if I continue cooking with it will the water become contaminated?  The upper part of the pot is still clear silver if the water level goes higher might it cause something to leech in?
Not using the pot now but hope I can.
Thanks.

Best guess without knowing your water supply composition; it's not the pan contaminating the water, it's the water contaminating the pan.
Iif you live in an area with certified potable water, it's really mainly visual, it won't hurt.
After comments
Yup, London water - safe, potable… but ugly.
You can either

scrub after every use, or
ignore until it annoys you enough to do a full descale
Buy a Brita jug & never boil unfiltered water.

It is completely harmless, just unsightly.


How do I calculate the final acidity of homemade vinegar? I am making vinegar by mixing vinegar (containing the mother) and wine, and then allowing fermentation to occur.  I am wondering how to calculate the final % acidity.

Assume:

I know the initial concentration (by volume) of acetic acid, X, alcohol Y
All alcohol will be converted to acetic acid
No sugar is converted to acetic acid

How do I calculate the final acidity?

This is actually a great chemistry question! First off, you need the density and molecular weight of the acetic acid (1.039 g/mL, 60.05 g/mol) and alcohol (which is ethanol — 0.709 g/mL, 46.07 g/mol). Assuming 100% conversion of ethanol (y) to acetic acid (x), you will end up with the same number of moles of acetic acid as the amount of ethanol you started with.

So if you started with y mL ethanol, you would have 0.709/(46.07 * y) moles ethanol.

Since we are assuming 100% conversion to acetic acid, we end with the same number of moles acetic acid, which we can then convert back to mL. mL acetic acid = 60.05/(moles acetic acid/ethanol * 1.049).

If we condense all that into one calculation, you end up with: mL acetic acid = 1.753 * mL ethanol.

If you add the volume of acetic acid you made in the fermentation process and the amount you started with, you have the total volume of acetic acid in your vinegar. Simply divide this by the total volume of vinegar to get the % acetic acid!


How can you pre-bake coca (pizza)? The Spanish coca is related to the pizza, so I guess the question can apply for both.

Normally I bake it in about 20 minute, should I take it out after 10 minute or later or sooner?

If I freeze it, can it be popped straight into the oven or should it be thawed first?

Edit: I've posted an answer below. Still wondering if you can take the pizza out of the freezer, put the filling on and pop it straight into the oven...

Apparently, pizza's can be pre-baked up to 80% of the normal baking time. People recommend:

Baking without the filling (as this can make the base soggy).
The filling should be pre-baked (otherwise the base will burn when finishing).

I've pre-baked 10 individual coca's and they're frozen. I'll report back how they turn out of the oven.

Edit: I did two straight out of the freezer, fresh ingredients. It worked pretty well, but not perfect (a little bit soggy). I'm guessing this was because the coca's were only 50% pre-baked.


Black flakes from new cast iron pan I bought a brand new Lodge 12" cast iron pan, washed it in soap and warm water and dried it with a paper towel thoroughly. Then I applied a thin layer of canola oil with a paper towel (paper towel was clean - not black after this application) and then heated the empty pan on my electric stove for 15-20 minutes. The oil on the pan smoked a bit, some parts of the pan turned slightly ashy (grey). Mostly everything looked OK.

After I turned it off and cooled the pan, I now take a clean paper towel and rub the surface and I see black flakes! What is this? Is this the oil broken down? Can I cook in the pan or wash it with soap to eliminate the black flakes? Once washed and dried should I rub canola oil again? This is my first experience with cast iron. Any pointers will help.

It sounds to me like the washing process (and subsequent attempt to re-season) broke down the pre-seasoning and you are losing the oil coating on the pan. When you see the "ashy grey" color, what you are seeing is unseasoned cast iron.

The good news is that it's certainly not unsafe to cook with, even in this state. The black coating is just oil that has been baked onto the surface of the pan, giving it a low/nonstick surface. Totally safe for consumption.

To get your pan back to its best state, you'll need to re-season it. There are a number of good tutorials on the process (such as http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-season-a-cast-iron-skillet-cleaning-lessons-from-the-kitchn-107614), but it is really quite simple:

1.) Clean your pan well

2.) Apply a coating of fat to your pan - I prefer lard, flaxseed oil, crisco, or vegetable oil (in that order)

3.) Place your pan upside down on the top rack in a 350 degree oven, and bake it for at least 1 hr. I suggest putting a roasting pan or foil on the bottom rack to catch any oil that drips out of the pan during the process

4.) Let cool in the oven, and wipe down gently when done. Your pan is seasoned and ready to use!

After you've seasoned your pan, it's important to make sure you are using the proper cleaning approach to preserve your pan's surface. The ideal way to clean your cast iron is immediately after cooking in it, while it is still hot. Use warm water and a sponge, and then immediately dry it. If you need an abrasive to get stuck-on food off, use some salt and scrub gently.

Never use soap, or highly abrasive cleaning pads (brillo, metal scrubbers, etc). These will strip that non-stick, baked on oil surface and make your pan much less enjoyable to cook with. The good news is that if you ever slip up and notice that the surface has been stripped, you just need to repeat the seasoning process and you should be good to go again.

Hope that helps!


What meats are appropriate for dry-aging We know that dry-aging can be used for beef to evaporate water, concentrate flavor and let some of the enzymes break down the connective tissue in the meat, resulting in a tender & juicier steak.

But why is the dry-aging method not applied to pork, chicken, lamb or fish?

What meets are appropriate for dry-aging and why/why not?

Dry aging creates a certain amount of inherent waste:

The weight of the cut being aged goes down significantly
The outer portions become dry, tough, leathery, may have mold, and are otherwise essentially spoiled and must be cut off

For this reason, it is only really practical to dry age fairly large cuts.  So this would exclude chicken and most fish, and so on even if their meat would benefit.
Tender meats like chicken and fish don't really require dry aging, however, whose main affect is enzymatic tenderization of the meat.   It applies more to red meats, more particularly, beef.
This article at Gizmodo says:

When we create [cool and humid] conditions, we allow enzymes to do their work. And we end up with a complexity of flavor—savoriness, sweetness, some bitterness-that just wasn't there before. There's no cooking method that can generate the depth of flavor of a dry-aged piece of meat.
What happens is that enzymes in the meat's muscle cells begin to break down the meat's proteins, fats, and glycogen—a carbohydrate—into amino acids, fatty acids, and sugars. One amino acid generated by dry-aging—the most important and flavorful one, in fact—is glutamate, which is part of MSG. other amino acids have flavors somewhat similar to MSG; others still are sweet.

So you want a meat whose flavor is strong enough to stand up to, and benefit from, these types of changes.
While not mainstream, one can actually locate dry aged pork, although I am not sure it needs the treatment.  One can even find dry aged lamb!


Get Grade A produce? A friend of mine told me that the top quality produce is sold to restaurants and that the produce found in supermarkets is B-grade. That is why, for example, you might see a bin of oranges at the supermarket and every single orange has a slight blemish--because it is a Grade B orange.

So, if this is true, how can I get high quality produce? By "high quality" produce, takes apples, for example. There are 4 different standard USDA grades:

Extra Fancy
Fancy
No. 1
Utility

Most supermarkets sell either Fancy or No. 1 apples, not extra fancy. By high quality, I mean the highest quality of produce, no ripeness problems, no blemishes.

In Boston where I am located I heard that there is an open market in Haymarket where you can get good quality produce. Is that the only way? Find large commercial open markets?

Given that US produce grading is voluntary (see:http://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/vegetables), I think your task of sourcing the highest quality produce would be one of searching, asking around...basically trial and error. It, of course, depends on how you define quality (as the comments above suggest).  If it is perfect cosmetic appearance, then yes, large commercial farms are the way to go.  If perfect is flavor, then perhaps small producers specializing in specific crops might be the way to go.


Using Pressure Cooker to Make Bone Broth I have always read that when making bone broth you should keep the heat to around 180F and do not let it get to an aggressive boil because it will emulsify the fat into the broth and also because you will lose flavor and nutrients through the boiling process. I always let mine simmer for about 2 days. I am considering opening up Bone Broth kiosk in my city and someone suggested using a pressure cooker to quicken the process.  I would think this would also be considered cooking at a very high temperature. Has anyone ever used a pressure cooker for making broth and would you consider this to be a decent way of keeping the nutrients and flavor intact while speeding up the process?

Like @Greybeard, I've had a great deal of success using a pressure cooker to make stocks and broths quickly. Pressure cooking is, by definition, at a higher temperature than normal simmering or boiling. In those methods, the upper temperature is limited to the boiling point of the liquid (212 degrees F, 100 degrees C for pure water, a bit higher for solutions with dissolved solids such as salt). The pressure buildup inside a sealed pressure cooker actually raises this boiling point; it's the opposite of why water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, and a higher temperature means generally faster cooking.

In the case of stocks and broths, this higher temperature increases the rate at which collagen hydrolyzes; basically, it untangles from its original tough, tightly-woven state and forms free-floating strands which then tangle and interconnect as the solution cools, producing the characteristic texture of gelatin.

So: a pressure cooker is good, in that it reduces the amount of time that this process takes. Rather than 8 hours of simmering, you can use a pressure cooker and get a similar amount of collagen extraction in perhaps 3-4 hours of cooking.

If you're like me, you'll take a look at this result and wonder: if I can make a great chicken stock in 3 hours, what happens if I let it cook for 12? The answer, unfortunately, is disappointing. Bones will crumble will barely any effort, but the resulting stock won't be any more viscous or tasty than a stock cooked for a shorter amount of time. What gives?

Howard McGee's classic tome On Food and Cooking offers a hint: gelatin isn't impervious; those long strands are delicate, and they can be denatured or damaged by acids or enzymes. McGee also notes what a lot of people seem to miss: at higher temperatures, collagen strands on their way to becoming a tightly-bonded network of gelatin can become damaged, or "cut" partway down their length. Instead of a dense network of long strands, you get fewer bonds between shorter strands, and we perceive this as a less "gelatinous" broth.

In other words, using a pressure cooker raises the temperature so much that it can actually damage the collagen you're trying to extract over a longer cooking time, even as it takes less time to extract in the first place. This happens much less with an extended simmer, even one measured in days, because the temperature isn't high enough cause much damage - indeed, it can't be, because it's limited by the boiling point.

There's a balance point here: a pressure cooker will allow you to produce stock comparatively quickly, but it introduces the risk of overcooking (in the sense of destroying some of the collagen you've worked to extract). 3-4 hours under pressure seems to be the sweet spot for chicken stock; turkey can go a little longer, maybe 6 hours. For a beef or pork stock, where there is much more collagen to be extracted, using a pressure cooker is still faster but almost counter-productive; you can't fully extract all the collagen you might want without damaging some. If you really want a full extraction of all the collagen present, a traditional simmer is the way to go, even though it takes longer.

That said, you may decide that the advantage of speed for a commercial enterprise is more important, and opt for something like a 6-8 hour pressure cook for pork or beef bones; I wouldn't go much more than 12 hours, personally. You might even decide on an initial extraction in a pressure cooker, followed by simmering the already-cooked bones in the traditional manner until you've extracted everything that's left. You'll want to experiment a bit as you try to make this a viable business, but I'd definitely advise being aware of this limitation before you run into some less-than-optimal batches of stock like I did. (Don't get me wrong - the end result was still good, just not any better than stock pressure-cooked for a shorter period of time.)

EDIT: Somehow I made it through this entire long-winded answer without noting that many modern electric pressure cookers are also designed to be used as slow cookers, holding a sub-boiling temperature for an extended period of time without pressure. This is great - you can safely maintain a lower-temperature extraction for an extended period of time (though you need to make sure you use the "high" setting to get above the hydrolyzation point of collagen). They can also be programmed to switch from one mode to another. I've started successfully experimenting with hybrid methods: pressure cooking for an hour to jump-start the extraction, letting the pressure release, then slow-cooking overnight before straining in the morning. If you're going to consider pressure-cooking at all, this may be a way to get the best of both worlds.


Adjusting yeast and rise times in recipes Is it possible to reduce the amount of yeast and increase the rise times for leavened doughs? If so, is there a simple method to calculate the changes? Does 1/2 the yeast mean twice the rise-time?

It is definitely possible. However, there are many, many factors that are going to guide yeast activity: sugar levels, water temperature, gluten development, etc. If I can, I normally cut back the yeast and just keep an eye on my dough, the less yeast, the more the flavor can develop.


How can I fix a mole sauce with excessive cinnamon? I made an Oaxacan-style mole and went too heavy with the cinnamon stick. That flavor is now too prevalent.  How can I fix this?

I was thinking about adding some chicken stock and tomato sauce. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Clove or allspice can take it nicely over the top; sage and oregano can tame it.

This approach means to simply adjust the flavors of the sauce. Basically, if the problem you are having is that cinnamon is to cinnamon-y and distinct relative to taste, you can apply a flavor blur with neighboring spices (the clove, allspice, coriander, cardamom, cumin etc). If the problem is that you are finding that neighborhood of flavor to intense, you can round the palate by adding the herbs.

The other route would be re-scaling the sauce. Adding stock, oil/fat, peppers/onions, chocolate disks/cocoa, or other ratio constituents means you would need to re-up on the other constituents as it may throw off the sauce's viscosity. This may be preferable if you simply can't stand the cinnamon or its neighbors; or if balancing the spice/herbs would make the sauce too noisy.


Rescuing a CUT but unripe avocado I've seen this Q&A

What can I do to help my avocados ripen?

And this one

Will avocado stay fresh longer if stored in the refrigerator?

and this one

What can I do to help my avocados ripen?

but none of them answers my question which is:

I have an avocado I cut open but it's not ripe yet. Being that it's already cut what if any are my options? For the moment I poured some lemon juice on the exposed parts, put them in a container and put them in the refrigerator but I kind of get the impression they'll never get ripe in there and I should just throw them away. Being already cut it doesn't seem like I can leave them out of the refrigerator in a paper bag.

Is there any way to rescue these already cut but unripe avocados?

If you don't want to use the unripened avocado right away, according to this site

  Store Cut Unripe Avocados - If you have cut open your... avocado and found it to be unripe, sprinkle the exposed flesh of the avocado with lemon or lime juice, place the two halves back together and cover tightly with clear plastic wrap before placing in the refrigerator. Check the avocado periodically to see if it has softened up enough to eat. Depending on firmness when the fruit was cut and temperature conditions, the ripening process will vary

Another user suggests to use vitamin C powder instead, as her experiments show the vinegar would darken the avocado.

Ironically enough, there's a solution to ripen the avocado (almost) instantly if you want to use it right away. This link talks about "instantly" ripening a foil wrapped avocado by baking it in an oven preheated to 95°C/200°F oven. Cooking time can start as low as 10 minutes. Keep checking every 10 minutes until it's soft enough for your use. After it's been in the oven, let cool and unwrap.

Note: that the taste and texture would be changed after thus heating the avocado, but it should be usable right away after baking.

There's also uses for the unripened avocado seen here


How long can you store sugar syrup? Recently, we made a variety of cocktails from Ottolenghi and Scully's NOPI book. Now, we are left with two sugar syrups. According to the book, they can be stored a few weeks in the fridge. Skip ahead a month or two, and we're now left with two bottles of syrup that I'm not sure whether they are still safe to consume. As far as I'm concerned, the sugar acts as a preservative (like in jams) and it should be no problem; however, I'm a bit reluctant to ignore the advice of a distinguished chef - but perhaps he was just referring a change in flavor.

The syrups in question are 50/50 water and sugar (in weight), infused with cloves or saffron, each boiled for about 10 minutes. There is also a recipe with fresh ginger that is not cooked but blitzed, which may be more of a problem than the others.

How long can a syrup be preserved? What, if any, are the signs of a spoiled syrup?

From my experience, sugar syrups don't last too long (a month tops in the refrigerator). You may be able to prolong their shelf life by adding something acidic, or anti-microbial (I think some spices may work) but not by much. As for jams, I don't think it's the sugar that preserves them so much as the acidity or heat from canning/preserving.

Sucrose is actually something I've used in a laboratory to culture microbes. Many, including a lot of ones we're familiar with contributing to rotting foods in our kitchen, can use sucrose as an energy source.

That being said, if it passes the smell test, doesn't look cloudy (more than it initially was) it's worth trying a little if you're a home cook. I'd say the cloudiness is the best indicator, especially if it looks like there are strands/strings of cloudiness in the liquid.


What is a good subsitute for Mirliton (aka Chayote)? My daughter wants to cook a recipe that she found in a cookbook.  The main ingredient is Mirlitons, but I don't think I'm going to be able to find them where I live.  I've never had them myself, so I have no clue what would be a good subsitute.  Any suggestions?

If it matters, the recipe is basically cut them in to strips, season them, coat them with flour and fry them.

Mirltons are a member of the squash family, but have a traslucent, soft-crisp texture which isn't really exactly like any other squash.  In recipes where they are an incidental ingredient, you can generally substitute zucchini (especially if you peel and seed it) without too much trouble, but in recipes where they are a main flavor they are hard to substitute.

And, as Mien points out, it never really works to substitute the main ingredient in a recipe.  I suggest that your daughter wait for midsummer and check out Mexican or Indian groceries until she finds some.


Wood versus marble rolling pin 'performance' Is there any reason that a marble rolling pin would perform 'worse' than a wood rolling pin?

My roommates recently bought a visually appealing marble rolling pin; however, I've noticed a few problems, specifically that the marble doesn't seem to 'hold' flour and is thus much sticker when rolling.  I can't tell if this is a problem with my approach or if marble rolling pins are known to have this issue.

Does anyone have any insight on this issue?

Yes, in my experience it is almost impossible to coat a marble rolling pin with flour. However, like flour many doughs tend to stick less to the very smooth surface, and because a marble rolling pin can stay colder for a longer time than a wooden one, some doughs get much less sticky, e.g. if they contain lots of butter.

If you have problems with dough sticking to your rolling pin, try dusting the dough with a thin layer of flour instead of the rolling pin.


Is this a sneeze guard? I'm about to start selling my baked goods at a farmers market, and I want to purchase a clear, portable,  acrylic sneeze guard - like that:

The problem is, I can't find anywhere in the US/Canada that sells them. They are very common in the UK and Australia, but nowhere to be found here. I think I must have the wrong name.

Is somebody aware of a seller that has them, or if they go under a different name? I spent hours browsing the internet but can't find anything.

What you are looking for is a bent acrylic sheet, may be sold as perspex or more common in the us Lucite which are just brand names of acrylic. Doing a google search for "bent acrylic sneeze guard" brought up a wealth of choices. Another term I've seen are Sneeze Screen. Ebay is a good place to start, others are Manhattan Display and Hubert.

These aren't hard to make with the right equipment, many acrylic supply shops will have an acrylic bender just for this sort of thing, you might be able to get them custom made to your spec locally.


Best way to stabilize wedding cake tiers I am baking a 3 tier wedding cake for August. It will consist of 2 white layers and 1 chocolate layer in the middle. I am covering these layers with white fondant. Should I rather stabilize these layers with straws or rather wooden skewers?

I have done a couple of 3 tiered wedding cakes. I would recommend using something stronger than plastic straws, mainly for your peace of mind. You will be putting a lot of effort into the cakes and like @Joe said, the straws can be useless if crushed or deflected. If you want to use the straws so that the wooden skewer doesn't touch the cake, you can always use the straws and then insert them with the woden skewers for additional support. Straws and skewers are both easy to cut as well, so there's not much of a difference there either. There are heaps of videos and articles online and you can always ask your local cake shop for more tips and tricks.

Another thing to keep in mind is to use dense cakes like mud cakes to use for stacked cakes, otherwise your tiers will collapse. And please give ganaching a good thought as well. Even though there is extra cozt, effort and time involved, ganaching will make the cakes a bit tougher as the chocolate should harden once set and give very beautiful sharp edges when you fondant.


UV lamp to disinfect raw sushi fish slices I'm considering exposing raw fish slices to a UV lamp to kill bacteria before making it into sushi. Would this help? Is there a practice of doing this? And what could be the drawbacks, if any?
UPDATE
Thank you very much for your answers. A couple of points to clarify. I am talking about:

Using UV-C light wand
Using it on freshly defrosted fish, that is in addition to freezing, not instead of it
The goal is to further reduce risk of bacterial infection, not to completely sterilize the fish, as that wouldn't be possible

Furthermore, while digging on the Internet I found this:

For some types of food this [surface treatment] may well be sufficient, for example, muscle flesh from a healthy animal immediately after slaughter is, for all intents, sterile. Where contamination does occur, it will be as a result of contact with contaminated surfaces or fluids and this will initially manifest itself at the surface.
The efficacy of UV surface treatment will be strongly influenced by surface topography. Crevices, and similar features, of dimensions comparable to the size of microorganisms (i.e., a few microns) may shield microorganisms from potentially lethal UV rays and enable them to survive. This was cited in recent work as the reason why the UV treatment of fish fillets from a smooth-fleshed species was more effective than that of a rough-fleshed one.

This seems to imply  that what I proposed had been tried and even proven somewhat effective.
I have not however found any mentions that UV exposure can cause changes in raw fish that would make it harmful to eat. In other words to make fish less safe than before. If anyone saw such effects being mentioned, please let me know (preferably without a pay wall).
Thank you again.

That is an interesting idea, but I would not recommend it.

It is true that UV light is able to kill microorganisms, and it has been used to treat water for quite some time now. It has also been used to treat some types of juices, and is even used in the food industry (factories). It is an alternative to pasteurization, since it provides an alternative way to killing harmful bacteria without altering the food taste.

However, the uses of UV light in solid foods (and even liquids) do require extensive study about the food properties. This means that, in order to effectively use UV light to kill bacteria in fish, one would have to seriously study how it interacts with the specific type of fish you plan on using.

I am not sure if such study for fishes exists. So, it is best to avoid using this technique, since it could potentially make people sick.

A good read about this topic is this academic paper, entitled "Review: Advantages and Limitations on Processing Foods by UV Light".


Squishy raw pork - gone bad? I bought some pork loin chops and went to open the package and part of the meat was really squishy. I repackaged it and put it in the freezer to throw away later. I didn't notice any smell but didn't get too close to it and it looks fine otherwise. The best before date is three days from now. Is it common for meat to get squishy like this? I don't think it was tenderized. Thanks!

An important part of practicing food safety on your own kitchen, is looking out for any "red flags" in raw ingredients that may have the potential to sicken.

If something doesn't smell right, doesn't look right, or as in your case, doesn't feel right; it is a red flag that you should pay attention to. It might be safe to eat, but why take any chances?

Supermarkets have been known to treat expired meat with ammonia or bleach, and then repackage it with an extended expiration date. Such despicable practices are hopefully rare, but pre-seasoning soon-to-expire meats and poultry, and repackaging with a later date is quite common.

You don't need to save the meat itself, but keep the package label (and receipt if you still have it), and bring it back to your store for a refund. Most stores will give you your money back with no hassle.


Why is my quiche soggy? I have tried making the same quiche recipe twice, but both times it has turned out soggy. I whisked together 3 eggs, milk, half and half, and seasonings and poured it over the crust with ham and cheese sitting at the bottom. I put it in the oven at 375 for an hour. Everything was cooked, but there was liquid just coming out of it and the bottom crust was soggy. Any ideas why this sogginess is occurring?

It sounds like you've forgotten (or not been directed) to blind-bake the crust. Blind-baking is baking a crust without a filling so that it gets a head start, sealing it and preventing it going soggy.

To blind-bake, place the pastry in the dish as usual, dot the base with a fork in a few places, then cut a square of baking paper roughly the same size as the dish, place it on the pastry, and add some baking weights (small ceramic balls) or dry kidney beans. These stop the pastry from bubbling up.

Place in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes until the crust is lightly golden. Remove from the oven, remove the weights and paper (if using kidney beans, you can use them again, but don't cook them to eat!) and let the crust cool for 30 minutes before adding the filling and completing the baking process.


Baking a cake in a larger/smaller pan Is there a guide or rule of thumb about scaling a cake. If the recipe calls for an 8-inch square  pan and I use a 10-inch square pan, how will it behave in the oven? I expect the baking time will be longer but should I change the temperature for more even baking?

Note: I already realize that a 10-inch pan will requires roughly 1.5 times the batter than is called for for a recipe designed for an 8-inch pan.
for square pans: (10 * 10) / (8 * 8) = 100 / 64 ~ 3/2
for round pans: (pi * 5 * 5) / (pi * 4 * 4) = 25/16 ~ 3/2.

Within reasonable limits, baking time is proportional to the thickness of the cake.

If you scale your recipe proportionately to the change in surface area from the standard pan to the one you are going to use, the baking time will be approximately the same.  You can continue to use the base time as a guideline, but as always in successful cooking and baking, you will want to test when the layer is done with an appropriate method, such as the toothpick test.

On the other hand, thinner layers require less time, and counter-intuitively, higher temperatures; thicker layers more time and lower temperatures.   You should not see this requirement if you are scaling based on pan surface.

When you begin to make very large layers, as for a wedding cake, changes to leavening will also be required.


Cookie Dough Made From Pie Crust Can I use Pillsbury premade pie crust for cookie dough?  If so, does it need to be flatten and add a little sugar?  Want to make some fruit filled cookies without making cookie dough.  Thank you.

If you're located in a place where premade pie crusts are available, then you're located in a place where premade cookie dough should also be available.
Pie crusts contain no sugar, no eggs, no leavening, no flavoring. Adding any of these things after the fact is likely to result in a tough, uneven mess of a cookie. I wouldn't suggest it.
If you already have the pie crusts and need to use them up (for something other than pie), you can try rolling out the crusts pretty thin, cutting them into wedges, frying them, and immediately after they come out the oil, rolling them in powdered sugar. Serve with a nice fruit jam.


Keeping a sugar solution in the fridge Based on a the coffee questions I've seen, it seems that hot beverage questions are in scope, so here goes mine:

We like keeping iced coffee in the fridge, particularly in the summer. It's easiest to add sugar to the entire batch, but we both like differing amounts of sugar to coffee. Sugar doesn't dissolve in cold liquid very well.

If I make a sugar suspension and put it in the fridge to sweeten the coffee as we drink it, will the mixture stay liquid or will the sugar crystals re-form? If this is impractical, can anyone offer another solution?

Edit: Here's a picture of sugar solution that we've been keeping in the fridge and using. I made it 8 days ago and it's staying in solution quite well.

I do exactly that.

I use a clear plastic squeeze bottles. I fill a mug 2/3 full with sugar, and top up with boiling water, stir, cool, funnel into the squeeze bottle, and keep in the fridge door. The squeeze bottle makes it easier to get the right amount of sugar into your beverage.

I don't even worry about keeping it sealed.  There's nothing much to oxidize. And the osmotic pressure of sugar solutions makes it very difficult for pathogens to live. This is why jams and jellies keep forever in your fridge. Like jams and jellies, the first thing you're probably going to see in the way of spoilage is mold.  In the case of simple syrup, we're talking dark thready stuff at the bottom of the bottle. This happens about a month out.  I chuck it, wash the bottle, and carry on.

On a related note, I have a blog post about iced coffee. And it's kind of a little wrong. Cold-brew coffee is pretty good for making iced coffee, but it's not better than leftover percolated coffee.  Seriously. We make hot coffee at my workplace using this cheapo percolator urn. We learned from the reviews on Amazon that we could just pour off the leftover coffee in the afternoon and have excellent iced coffee.  And that's exactly what we do. (To be fair, we use Gorilla coffee, so that might have something to do with it, but I think it'd be good with average coffee.)


What is this bean called? Please identify these. The beans are very large as you can see in relation to the iphone.

Inside:

They look a lot like fava beans (also commonly known as broad beans).

This link has some images to compare to.


Can I replace eggs, oil and water with apple sauce or just eggs? So I am wanting to make chocolate zucchini bread and I plan on buying muffin mix from the store. I generally use apple sauce to replace eggs but I know the muffin mix also asks for water and oil. Do I add extra apple sauce to replace those two as well? If so, how much?

You can replace any of the three with applesauce, or all of them - with the caveat that it will change the taste and texture of the final product, with more difference from more substitution.  You do not have to substitute all of them if you choose to substitute one of them - the substitutions would be independent of each other (other ingredient amounts stay the same), although the results will stack together.

Substituting eggs with applesauce is fairly common - the pectin replaces the binding action of the egg.  One egg can be substituted with a quarter cup of applesauce.  The effects on the recipe are usually minimal if only one egg is substituted in this fashion, the more eggs in the recipe that are replaced, the bigger the change (tending towards denser since egg lifts and fruit sauce weighs down).

Substituting applesauce for oil is apparently trickier, since they both inhibit gluten but oils additionally act as binding agents in the dough, while applesauce is largely watery and does not bind the dough.  It is usually recommended to substitute out only part of the oil - and not more than a quarter cup total (in a one-to-one ratio) per recipe unless tested.

Substituting applesauce for water is more easily done since the purpose of the water is only to provide moisture, which applesauce has.  It can be substituted one-to-one (though as it is thicker, more liquid might be needed depending on how wet the dough needs to be).  Again you might end up with a slightly denser product, since you are essentially adding solids (more mass) to the recipe and fruit tends to weigh the bread down.

Overall, if you replace all three with applesauce your final product will be heavily apple-flavored, a great deal sweeter, and probably very dense and crumbly.  It will not have the lift from the egg, or the binding from the oil.  It will dry faster, and will suffer more if over-baked.

In the end, I do not recommend replacing all three ingredients in the same recipe.  Replacing one will probably give you the best result, or the result most like the original recipe.

If you really want a recipe with all-apple-everything, you should probably look up a applesauce-bread recipe to begin with, or perhaps look at some of the recipes for banana bread that use a very high ratio of fruit to bread ingredients.


What made my veggie scrap broth turn very bitter? About once a week I cook up a lot of food and recently I've been inspired to make a vegetable broth out of the veggie scraps that you'd normally throw away. Tried it once with some broccoli stalks and onion and it turned out well.

Today I put in a whole bunch of veggies and the broth became really bitter, completely inedible. I'm not entirely sure what caused this though, so I'd like to know if you can identify what it could be?

Broccoli stem
carrot peels
onion stems
whole sugar snaps
one lemon (most of the juice had been squeezed out though)
fennel
scallion

Jus to clarify I'd say the amount of each ingredient was pretty even, about the same, one or two handfuls.

I feel as if either the zest of the lemon, carrot peel and sugar snaps has the potential to be the villain here but my number one bet is the sugar snaps?

Both the broccoli stem and the lemon are likely culprits - they probably accentuate each other in a bad way. The lemon (pith) will definitely add a bitter taste on its own - as Spagirl mentioned, the zest and the juice are the non-bitter parts that you would add if you wanted lemon flavor without the bitterness. The broccoli stems are surely not helping either, though - I have added broccoli stems to broth and it was inedibly bitter. Everybody has different bitterness acceptability thresholds, and these thresholds can be shifted for various foods. It's possible you're more accepting of broccoli bitterness on its own than I am, but when combined with the lemon bitterness, it may bring it past your tolerable level. Or perhaps you added too many this time, or the broccoli was more bitter than your previous batch.

I would definitely recommend eliminating the lemon pith from future recipes to be safe, and recognizing that different heads of broccoli can have differing bitterness strengths depending on growing conditions, and act accordingly (See links below). Everything else on your ingredient list are non-bittering soup ingredients (barring food that has gone bad). Fennel, carrots, and sugar snaps sweeten broths, and onions and scallions flavor them (without making them bitter).

Link that explains that broccoli grown in hot and dry conditions appears to taste more bitter: https://qr.ae/TDDHbt

And you could blanch the broccoli stems (in case they're a bitter batch) before adding them to a broth: https://www.livestrong.com/article/476765-how-to-remove-bitterness-from-cooked-broccoli/

Edit to add: if you want to use up lemon peels, you can toss them with sugar to make a non-heated, non-bitter lemon syrup. It's incredibly useful and one of the best kitchen discoveries I've made:

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/fresh-lemon-syrup-recipe.html


Can I boil water to temperature lower than 100 Celsius / 212 Fahrenheit to make a tea? For many years I had a typical electric kettle. Whenever I wanted a 75 Celsius / 167 Fahrenheit water to make a green tea, I had to boil it up to 100 Celsius / 212 Fahrenheit (because, that was the temperature, where each my kettle was stopping to heat) and wait.

Now, I've got an electric kettle with a thermometer. Can I boil the water only to 75 Celsius and stop? What is the typical temperature, in which all (most of) germs in water are killed and water becomes drinkable?

I've heard, that this is 70 Celsius / 158 Fahrenheit, so my idea would have a ground. Am I right?

You cannot boil water at 70 Celsius. Maybe this is a language problem; "boiling" means taking water to the state where there are lively bubbles popping on the surface all the time, and it is steaming profusely. It boils at 100 Celsius at sea level and a little bit below it when you get higher, but the difference isn't that much. Even in the highest towns in the world, at more than 5000 meters, water boils at just below 90 Celsius.

When you get your water to 75 Celsius, you are heating it, not boiling it. Heating water certainly kills bacteria - in fact it is the heat which desinfects water, not the boiling - but we cannot tell you which bacteria are killed and which are not. US/Western Europe guidelines for food safety suggest temperatures up to 70 Celsius for safe food preparation, but these suggestions are based on many things, such as the type of bacteria found in these parts of the world, statistics showing how many people get sick from underheated food, and so on. It is entirely possible that your water is contaminated with something different than whatever is present on US meat.

If you do not have access to tap water, or the water supply in your city is not considered safe, and there is a directive to boil water, then this is what you need to do to be officially safe. And it means real boiling, at 100 Celsius. Nobody is equipped to tell you whether 70 Celsius is sufficient for your case or not.

Update As the commenters suggested (and Wayfaring stranger linked an official source for it): The safety guidelines are not just to bring the water to boiling, but to hold it at a boil for one minute.

This means that the flash-kill temperature for the bacteria must be well over 100 Celsius. A small explanation about food safety: There is no temperature at which all individual cells in a bacterial colony keel over and die. Bacterial death is a function of temperature and time, and some hardy individual cells can withstand a lethal temperature for some seconds. This is why you either have to incinerate them outright with a really high temperature - which seems to not be possible to reach with boiling the water - or wait a bit on a somewhat lower temperature until every bacteria is dead, in this case 1 minute at 100 Celsius at low altitudes, or, because you cannot reach 100 Celsius when you are up in the mountain, 3 minutes boiling at high altitudes.


How to properly poach an egg? Possible Duplicate:
  How should I poach an egg?

What's the best method to poach an egg?

I copy / pasted this, as it is the guide I have used, and it is wonderful:

First: Lose the big pot of water. Instead, retrieve a medium-sized skillet (10-inch diameter) that has a lid. If your skillet doesn't have a matching lid, try on some of your other lids -- one of them is bound to do the job. If not, you can cover the skillet with a baking sheet or large dinner plate. All right, go to the sink and fill the skillet with about 3 inches of water -- that's all. Put the skillet on high heat. Cover it to speed up the heating time. Meanwhile, for 4 eggs, crack one each into four small cups or bowls. You can use coffee cups, little Asian tea cups, custard cups or the little poaching cups that from the poaching set you will no longer be using.

Second: Put all cups of eggs on a plate, and have them convenient to the stove. When the water in the skillet boils, remove the cover. Add one tablespoon of plain vinegar to the water, and some salt. Vinegar helps the egg to hold its shape. Without it, the eggs will become skeins of protein tangling up in the water. When the salt goes in, it will actually raise the temperature of the water. Watch the bubbles. I happen to like the vinegar taste on the finished egg. If you don't, put the finished poached eggs in a bowl of water. This stops the cooking and washes away the vinegar. If you like the vinegar, try a splash of herbal, apple cider, or sherry vinegar.

Third: Lower the lip of each egg-cup 1/2-inch below the surface of the water. Let the eggs flow out. Immediately return the lid to the pan and turn off the heat. Set a timer for exactly three minutes for medium-firm yolks. Adjust the time up or down for runnier or firmer yolks. While the eggs cook, you have the time to make four pieces of toast, set the table, wash the empty cups, and put the buttered toast on plates. When the timer goes off, remove the cover. Ah! Lift each perfectly poached egg from the water with a slotted spoon, but hold it over the skillet briefly to let any water clinging to the egg drain off. Gently lay an egg on each piece of toast. And there you have it. Perfect poached eggs actually cooked in residual heat and not in the literal sense of the term, poached at all.


Fan oven temperatures I have had installed two new Neff top of the range ovens. My question is : if you cook cakes in a fan oven at 20 degrees less than you would in a conventional oven ie 170 instead of 190 (as instructed in recipes) does the temperature in the oven rise to 190 even though you have it set 170 fan?
Thank you
Anne Edgley

No, the temperature remains at 170C, fan ovens heat faster because the air is kept moving. It's the opposite to wind chill, where it feels colder because the wind is blowing more cold air molecules over you than if it was calm. In an oven the fan is blowing hot air over the food, making more hot air molecules touching the food per second than without the fan.


Gelatin powder vs Gelatin leaf when and why When preparing jelly type recipes there seem to be two options gelatin leaf and gelatin powder.

When looking around I found explanations for the ratio of powder to leaf such as here how much powdered gelatin to one gelatin leaf? but I'm struggling to find any good explanation of the difference and when one is preferable over the other.

The only difference I've noticed personally is that it can be a little tricky to get powder right in that if I put it in and don't mix it quickly it can become a separate ball.

So as for the question, Gelatin leaf vs gelatin powder when and why?

I have never personally noticed a difference. I saw that there are other answers which say that a difference exists, but the points made are not inherent in the form (powder or leaf). The difference (which is already slight in itself) is more likely to appear between different brands of gelatine, and it can simply happen that in some market, the available leaves have a quality which the powder doesn't, or vice versa. It is like filling olive oil in square or round bottles: the final shape is different, but it has no effect on the content.

There can be some slight personal preferences in handling one over the other - as you said, for you blooming the powder sometimes fails. There is nothing universal about that, I suspect that every cook makes fewer mistakes with whichever they are more familiar with. I remember how comically I failed when I tried to bloom leaves for the first time.

For me, there is no culinary reason to choose one over the other.


Sticky, messy sourdough: overfermented, or ambient factors? I've made the same sourdough bread a dozen times before, with small variations in parameters:

360g white flour
240g whole wheat flour
390g water

That's a 65% dough with 60% white and 40% whole wheat flour. I've been using the sponge method wherein the night before baking, I'm mixing half the flour (300g) with the water and 60g stiff (100%) sourdough starter.
The next morning I mix in the rest of the flour, 2% salt, and knead by hand.
This has worked well throughout March-May, but the last two times I attempted it I'm having trouble with dough that is sticky, stretchy, and a nightmare to handle.
Last time I ventured for 70% hydration and 1:1 white to whole wheat flour and it got very messy and I abandoned it.
Now, when I'm sticking to my tried recipe, I'm still having the same issue:

No matter how much extra flour I incorporate, the dough will not become more manageable... it seems it's ready to swallow an entire pack!
Do you think it could be:

the sponge, which was left at room temp. for about 10hrs, is overfermented? (I don't have a picture, but it looked normal, bubbles like a tapioca pudding, no signs of hooch)
the ambient humidity has messed up the recipe in a major way?
a combination of both?

It's warmer (25C) and wetter (55-65%) here this rainy June as opposed to ~22C / 40%.
If the sponge is overfermented, does halving the starter help in any meaningful way? Or should I give it less time?
If the flour has been soaking up water in the pantry, how much water should you add to get a predictable result? Do I just weigh a pack of flour and work out how much extra water it holds?
As for The Blob, do I continue to incorporate flour into it and hope it starts holding shape, or does an overfermented sponge preclude me from getting a decent loaf?
Update
I've been using the same brand of white and whole wheat flours throughout. Nothing substantial about the technique has changed. I knead the bread by hand 10-15 mins through a series of smear-scrape-twist motions, as shown below in the River Cottage Bread Handbook:

65% hydration with 60-40% flour mix was my safe space, and the dough just doesn't seem to come together as of late.

This is a bit unusual, but from your picture, I think your long rise at a high temperature (25C) has indeed overfermented your sponge. It's not so much that the yeast is used up: in fact it might still be active. The problem is that the gluten that developed in the first few hours has been broken down in the long fermentation. Hence the lack of structure. You can't fix this by adding any small amount of flour.
Instead you could use this dough as preferment. Then you will need to add plenty more flour and water (maybe matching the amounts already used) and knead again, or use a no-knead rise (but not 10 hours) to develop gluten.
A method for finding the moisture content of flour that's practical in a home kitchen is suggested here: https://bakerpedia.com/processes/moisture-in-flour/.


Do I need the turntable in a combi microwave when using convection mode? I have question. I bought a microwave oven that has a grill and convection oven function. It comes with a grill rack and turntable.

2 days ago, I tried to cook frozen pizza with the grill rack without the turntable and while it is cook, the center of the pizza is not really cooked. Yesterday I tried frozen fried calamari with the grill rack on the turntable and it doesn't brown as much. I read somewhere that convection oven cooks faster but in my case, it seems slower.

The question I need help with would be do I put the grill rack on top of the turntable while using the convection mode?
So I am not sure if I should cook with the grill rack on or off the turntable.

I hope the moderators will allow me to go off tangent and contribute my own notes of my personal experience. As per your observation,

  "...the center of the pizza is not really cooked."

So will other foods you put in to bake in convection mode. It does not work as well as a industrial turntable oven.

So because the center of the cake will cook slower, you probably need to lower the temperature even further and hence a usual size cake may take up to 1-1/2 hours to bake.

Worse for cookies. Those that are lined near the rim of the round baking pan have their outer halves more baked than the inner halves. So at the half way mark of the baking time, I have to take them out and rotate each and every cookie 180º. Since I bake them on three levels, I also switch the bottom tray with the center one as the heat is not even for these two levels.

Lesson learned. I will get a normal oven for my kind of bakes. For anyone out there interested to get a turntable oven, make sure the one you are interested has a blast of heat directing at the center.


How do you tell if pickles/cucumbers have gone bad We're in the process of making 4-day sweet gerkins and after the second day of soaking overnight the brine solution was foamy and has an unpleasant odor.  Does this mean the pickles have gone bad?

It certainly sounds like they have gone bad yes. A bad smell is a dead give away. As with any such situation, a few cucumbers (or whatever you're unsure about the safety of eating) are not worth getting food poisoning over: if in doubt, throw it out.


Can I re-whip whipped cream? I whipped some cream with soft peaks and put it in the fridge. A few days most of it has collapsed and is liquid. Can I re-whip it effectively without adding more cream?

If you try to re-whip the cream now, it'll likely turn into butter, not whipped cream. The initial whipping process has already caused the fat in the cream to coalesce; further whipping now will complete that process, similar to if you had over-whipped the cream in the first place.


What is the Function of Gelatine I have a recipe that calls for leaf gelatine but I have none. What does gelatine do in a recipe?

It really depends on how much of it you're using.

If it's only a small amount, it might be for mouthfeel -- it'll make the liquid more viscous and less 'watery'.  Consider a good chicken soup, where the broth has a bit of body to it.

If it's a large amount, it's to get the liquid to set up.  In something like a panna cotta, aspics, mousse, or a no-bake pie, it's to get the liquid to firm up and become either solid or at least scoopable.

And gelatin doesn't need to be used in solely liquid dishes -- America's Test Kitchen used in a meatloaf recipe for what was most likely mouthfeel.

... but it's possible that there are other uses.  I seem to recall hearing that it can be used to clarify broths as well.


How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers? I've heard touching stainless steel after chopping and handling garlic helps but I haven't found it to work all that well.

The smell of garlic is due to sulfur compounds.  When you rub your hands against stainless steel, the iron of the stainless steel will react with some small volume of those compounds, but much more will remain in your hands.  Rubbing your hands against an iron object does not work.

The sulfur smell compounds are water soluble to slightly water soluble, so rinsing your hands in cold water and then soap and water should work as well as the recipes suggesting Noxzema, lemon juice, salt, baking soda, raw potatoes, tomato paste solutions, or mouthwash.


What causing royal icing to get stringy? When I try to make small dots on my cookie decorations, sometimes the royal or syrup icing gets stringy so it leaves a trail instead of coming off the dot clean.

As Escoce mentioned, it's partially technique.

After you finish your dot, you want to move the tip in a quick circle while keeping the tip against the dot, then lift off.  This will help to minimize the peak created.

If it's only a peak, and hasn't put icing all over the place, you can take a damp brush and knock down the peak.

'Threads' might be too fine for this, but typically if icing has gotten where you don't want it (eg, typos in words), it's often better to wait for it to harden, gently break it free with a toothpick, and then brush it away with a soft brush.  If you really mar the surface in the process, cover it up with a flower or other decoration.


Soaked chickpeas overnight 12 hours not plump The dried chickpeas had two methods for soaking. Boiling and soaking, about 2hrs, and soaking overnight.

I placed chickpeas in bowl of water overnight in fridge for about 12 hrs. They still seam "hard". How soft are chickpeas to get when soaked overnight? Can chickpeas get "old"?

Chickpeas can get old, however, after an overnight soak, though they may be hydrated they are still not yet cooked.
That means they will still be firm, possibly very firm.

Rather than trying to guess at this point whether or not they are old, just cook them to instructions & see how they come out.
It's really not that easy to tell old beans/pulses before you cook them. Even if a bit old, you can often cook them down given sufficient time.


Can I use red wine instead of white wine for chicken scallops? There's dry white wine used in chicken scallops , is it possible to substitute it with red wine ?

I would avoid using red wine in a recipe that calls for white. Whites and Reds taste different, so you should expect a switch from white to red to be reflected in the finished dish. And, it will also change the color/presentation.
I was taught that white wine can be substituted with water and vinegar mixed in equal amounts, along with a small amount of sugar in recipes. I think they taste better with the vinegar/sugar combo than with actual white wine. Here's why: When you add alcohol to a recipe that is cooked, the heat evaporates the alcohol. In the case of white wine, the remaining flavor is tangy and tart. When you use vinegar/sugar in your recipe as a substitute for the wine, your recipe tastes like there is wine in it.  Now, we know that white wine isn't made from vinegar and sugar - so there isn't any alcohol in finished dish. It just has a flavor similar to the white wine. Whether you are out of white wine, or prefer to cook without alcohol, (and IMHO) the best substitution is vinegar and sugar.


Tricks for removing sausage casing? I often find myself making a sauce or a garnish for pasta using sausage meat that I am really just using more as a cured/seasoned ground meat - I remove the casing, then break up the sausage in a skillet until it returns to the formless chuck from whence it came.

Lately however, I've had huge amounts of trouble with the de-casing - it shreds, sticks to the meat, and just is a pain in general to remove.

I realize that this technique is easier with uncooked sausage than with pre-cooked, but does anybody have any overall tricks or tips for an easy way to de-case the sausages without broiling or cooking them first?

I usually just slice down the whole length with the tip of a sharp knife, and peel the casing back in one piece.


How does the power setting on a microwave work? In general, how does the microwave power setting work? Is it a straight percentage of the maximum wattage or is it something less precise?

For example, would the time to cook something in a 700 watt microwave be the same as a 1000 watt at .7 power?

Is there any other major deciding factor in how one microwave cooks compared to another besides the power? (Assuming it is actually running at its listed power. Is it even possible for a microwave to drift off its posted power due to age or some other factor?)

The majority of microwaves cannot modulate their power output. The power setting in most microwaves simply turns the magnetron (microwave generator) off and in in cycles. So a power setting of .5 for 10 minutes would simply cycle the magnetron on and off every few seconds, with a total on time of 5 minutes. You can actually hear this occurring.

According to wikipedia, some newer microwaves can actually achieve a more or less constant level of reduced power using a technique called pulse-width modulation. I have never seen or used one of these though.

Microwave cooking is never very exact, so cooking something at 700 W vs 1000 W at .7 power would yield very different results. The only reliable way I've found in cooking things properly in different wattage microwave ovens is simple observation.


Do professional cooks use measuring cups and spoons? I watched some TV shows showing cooks working in their restaurants. I use measuring cups and spoons when cooking almost everything, but do not see any of the TV cooks measure anything. They mostly just grab things and throw them in.

Do skilled cooks have no need for these tools?

Much more often, expert chefs will use an accurate digital scale, particularly for baking. Cups are OK for liquids, and most people use spoons for small measurments like salt or yeast, but scales are accurate for everything from flour, to honey, to water, to softened butter.

Plus, since you can generally tare scales, you don't have to wash anything out but the big bowl you're mixing everything in! Trust me on this one, a good digital scale is an awesome way to spend $16 - $25.

If you're not baking, chances are you don't need precision. You rarely need to measure ingredients, except for baking, once you're pretty competent.

EDIT: Just a note, I bake all my own bread and I always do it by weight. I use spoons for the yeast and salt, the scale for everything else. I have a habit of using a Pyrex measuring cup to nuke cold water, I stick a thermometer in it as it cools, and start mixing when it reaches 110F. So at that point, it gets poured from the cup to the mixing bowl. That has given me many opportunities to note the accuracy of the cups (my scale is very, very accurate, I test it all the time). Even standard Pyrex measuring cups, used properly (eye level, on a level surface) will give erroneous results. For 1 cup (237ml), you can do everything right with a measuring cup and still be off by as much as 20ml either way. That's over 8%. So I recommend weighing everything but tiny spoon quantities. Sometimes, I'll even break out my gram scale to weigh salt, but I have to find the recipe pretty intimidating to go that far.


Sponge That Keeps Vegetables Fresh? This sponge is meant to be put into refridgerator's vegetables compartment at the bottom and said to keep vegetables fresh:

Sorry, the package is in hebrew, but is this true? How can it keep vegetables fresh?

I have seen two sorts: a polymer felt-type pad and a natural clay version sandwiched between synthetic fabric. Both are meant to regulate humidity. Soak up excess moisture and expire it back as needed.

Both claim to be anti-microbial in design.
The clay, I suspect, is near in structure to montmorillonite which is micro-crystalline; actually bursts bacteria! The synthetic would be engineered to discourage growth of mold such as some sport socks do.

Neither need to touch veggies directly to function. Potatoes, I would place directly as I peel them anyway. Bamboo washcloth can be dampened and used as a cover over delicate greens similarly -bamboo is naturally anti-microbial.


Polymerized Oil or Burned Oil? I bought a carbon steel frying pan. Now I need to season it.
I think i messed up the first time. So I scrubbed it clean again.
Now how do I now if my oil is polymerized or actually burned?

I heated a thin layer of flaxseed oil until it reached its smoking point and then let it cool and repeat. The coating was really black in the center of the pan and not so smooth. The edges around the center were smooth and golden brown and had a glossy finish.

Did I burn oil in the center and polymerized the edges?

There is no clear cut border between polymerized and burnt, it is a continuum. The center went clearly farther than the sides, which is common enough in stovetop seasoning.

If the coating in the middle of the pan doesn't work well for you, you can strip and reseason to a lighter state, preferably in an oven. If food cooks well on it, you can keep it as it is.


Why does my cookbook want me to drain my tomatoes for a pasta sauce? I have an excellent recipe for pasta sauce, but I'm having trouble convincing people to try it because it contains a counter-intuitive and potentially wasteful instruction.

The gist of it is this:

Take a tin of plum tomatoes
Pour the tomatoes into a seive and smush up the tomatoes themselves, draining away the tomato juice
Heat with a teaspoon of sugar and a generous pinch of sea salt

The resulting sauce is extremely addictive, but why do I have to drain the tomatoes? Tins of plum tomatoes aren't hugely expensive, but neither are they cheap, and I don't know why we'd want to waste tomato juice. Is it for the sake of taste (perhaps the juice is bitter?), or for texture instead?

The main purpose is to allow you to get a thick, hearty sauce more quickly.  By pre-draining the liquid, you lose a a very small amount of flavor, but save time and energy in reducing the sauce.  Otherwise, you would simply have to boil away the excess liquid to get the desired consistency.


Icing a cake with meringue: can it be done in advance? I have an event this Saturday for which I'm preparing a layered cake to take.
I was planning to ice it with meringue (Italian, for best stability) and then torching it.
The event begins in the morning, and the cake should be eaten in the early afternoon.

After the event begins, I won't have the opportunity to finish the cake or otherwise modify it.
My idea was to torch the meringue just before leaving for the event.

  Is it reasonable to prepare the Italian meringue at Friday night and frost the cake or would it not hold well until Saturday afternoon? If I make it early in the morning, would it be okay? Or should I look into alternative kinds of icing (e.g. buttercream or ganache)?

EDIT: I went ahead and tried it. What I did was I covered the cake with meringue and torched it, then stored it chilled in airtight cake box. The meringue held well (and the cake turned out great :D).

This is a pretty tricky question to answer without knowing what the climate is like in your area.

Meringue is hygroscopic (absorbs water easily) due to the high concentration of sugars in the mixture. This means that any available source of water, including the air and the cake underneath, will donate water to the mix and make it soft fairly quickly and perhaps add a layer of liquified meringue between the cake and meringue if the cake is very moist. However, Italian meringue is fairly common as a topping on filled pies and is used as a base for buttercream icing, so it is quite stable as a mixture compared to some other types

If you can find some way to contain the cake in a sealed container, then it should last a reasonable time - overnight should be OK I think. I would make sure it is chilled if possible, for food safety purposes.

If you are somewhere where the air is dry, you will probably find that the meringue will hold fairly well outside a container for a few hours, however if the climate is humid, then the meringue will absorb moisture from the air quite rapidly and soften. How fast this happens depends on the relative humidity and airflow around the cake.


Should I cook my pot roast on high or low? My pot roast recipe says to cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 3-4 hours.  However, the instructions for my new Crockpot say that the low setting is just for warming, and should never be used for cooking. Many recipes I've found online do give instructions for cooking on low. Many people seem to think that the low setting produces more tender meat...but I don't want to do anything unsafe. Can I safely cook on low?

Without any other information, it sounds like you have to assume that your slow cooker has only a warm setting (labeled "low") and a high setting, and use high for cooking. (Usually they have warm, low, and high.)

But it's possible that they're just being overly paranoid in the manual. I would personally try heating something on low (possibly just water, as a test), and seeing whether it boils or at least reaches and maintains a decent temperature.

The thing you're trying to avoid is the food spending too long in the "danger zone", below 140F (60C). If the low setting only just brings it above that, then it's going to take forever to heat up past it, and your food will be unsafe because all that time it wasn't hot enough. But on most slow cookers, the low setting brings it up to at least around 180F and on many, it even very slowly boils. If your heats that well, you can certainly use it for cooking. The one thing to keep in mind is that if it still takes a long time to come up to temperature, you may want to start it on high to get it all heated, and then switch to low for the rest of the cooking time.


Can I freeze left over Shake & Bake coating mix after it's used? After coating my chicken with Shake & Bake, I transfer the remainder into a container and freeze it until I need it again. Is this an unsafe practice? I figure if I'm freezing meat so it won't spoil, then the Shake & Bake coating mix should be safe in the freezer until I need it again.

You can freeze any shake&bake coating if it has not been used.I would think there would be a strong possibility of bacterial contamination (which is not killed in the freezing process.)


Why would fresh tuna be salted? I bought a big piece of tuna about a week ago. I carved it up and put most in the freezer. However, as I am the proud owner of a vacuum sealer (as of a week ago), the worst part of the tuna got vacuum sealed and put into the fridge.

Six days later, I took it out of the fridge to cook, and found that the vacuum was gone (it had been the first item I had sealed). I made a fish-pie out of the tuna. As this was the worst part, I didn't expect anything great of it, but it was salted, apart from having a strong flavor. I attribute the strong flavor to the cut (the dark part, mostly) and from having been in the fridge for a week).

One piece of prime cut that I had sealed in with the other meat, I reserved and grilled the next day. It was also salted.

Would this be because I salted it too heavily, or can it be because it had been sitting during one week? Is tuna meat salty on it's own? Any other suggestion?

As far as I know, raw tuna is not usually salted and/or pre-treated.

What may be happening is a case of perceived salinity.  For example, there are numerous studies that suggest foods with certain odors can be perceived as much saltier than they actually are.  If you have access to that second article (it is copyrighted and behind a paywall, so I can't post it here), it has a great figure on page 3 depicting the perceived sourness, bitterness, sweetness, and saltiness of a number of common foods, including tuna.  The aroma of plain tuna alone ranked higher than soy sauce on the saltiness scale, for example.  Tuna is relatively high in fat, and other studies suggest that high fat foods can also increase perceived saltiness.  Perhaps you were using a fattier part of the fish?

Finally, there is evidence that dehydration increases the saltiness of tuna (which actually seems somewhat intuitive), especially if extra salt is added before cooking.  Was your tuna previously frozen?  Freezing—especially if done improperly and/or if there are multiple freeze/thaw cycles—can act like dehydration.


substitute for shiso leaf in umeboshi makizushi I would like to make umeboshi makizushi, but I don't have access to shiso leaf which is traditionally paired with the umeboshi. Is there any acceptable substitute for the shiso that is more readily accessible in the US?

Shiso is in the mint family. Stick to that area and you'll be fine, even though nothing will be exactly right.

Peppermint leaves, lemon basil or Thai basil will all give a nice look and a pleasant flavor, even if it won't be quite the same. A combination of mint and and Thai or Holy basil might be your best bet. A tiny, tiny drop of toasted sesame oil will get you even a little bit closer.

I just read from a totally unknown (to me) source that lemon thyme hits a lot of the same notes, but obviously that would look completely different. Again, perhaps a combination will get you closest.


Our oven consistently undercooks food Our home oven consistently undercooks food when we follow the recommended cooking directions.

Case and point: We just bought some chicken skewers from Costco. The directions say to cook them at 350F for 25-35 minutes. I just took them out after 35 minutes, and our digital probe thermometer read ~45C; well below the required 76C.

To measure, I found the thickest piece of meat I could find, and pushed the probe in, taking care not to go all the way through and touch the metal container that they're being cooked in.

I know it's likely not the oven not getting to temperature. It's a fairly new oven with a digital display that shows the current oven temperature (it was at 350F when I put them in). We also have a little bi-metal thermometer that goes in the oven itself. Last time we tested it, it agreed with the reading on the front of the oven.

It's also not likely the probe thermometers. We had 2 old bi-metal probes. I didn't trust them though (since apparently they can lose accuracy as the metal ages), so I went out and bought a new digital probe (mentioned above). After calibrating the 2 old ones one via the ice-water method and testing them on some chicken, all 3 probes agreed with each other within 2C.

We do live at a fairly high altitude (Calgary, Alberta, Canada [1,045 m, according to Google]), which if I recall, can mess with cooking times. I can't see that having this much of an effect though.

What are the possible problems here?

The oven:

Checking the temperature after it had been in for 45 minutes (10 minutes extra). Note it's only at 47.9C:

I just took them out again after 55 minutes, and it was only at 56C. I put them in for another 10 (which in total will have been an extra half an hour).

Oven temperatures are conventions and really mean little.  Plus, typical home ovens vary widely, so that when you set the dial to 350, the interior can easily fluctuate between 330 and 370, and that is when your oven is correctly calibrated, which few are! So, it is probably not getting to the temperature that the readout says.  An oven thermometer can help get you in the ball park...but...no big deal...You are on the right track using a thermometer to measure the internal temperature of your food. Be sure to calibrate your probe thermometer to make sure it is accurate.  Then, you are just going to have to get a feel for your particular oven, by setting the temperature a little higher and/or leaving food in a bit longer.  Take note, and you should soon recognize a pattern that you can work with.


Why can't I get my new Misto Olive Oil Sprayer to spray? I received a Misto for Christmas. I cleaned and waited for it to dry. When I put the oil in it and pumped per the instructions, nothing happened when I went to spray it.

The soaking in hot water is typically to deal with oil that's congealed inside the mister after use.   Soap shouldn't have the same problem unless you were using bar soap.

There are two main things that can go wrong :

The vessel won't pressurize
The pressurized vessel won't spray.

First, we need to figure out which one it is.  To check pressurization:

Fill the container half-full with liquid (oil or water).  There might be a 'max fill' line (I haven't used a misto in over a decade), but if there is, you'd likely need a flashlight to see it well.
Reassemble the mister.
Make sure the ring around the top is tightened down well.  After it spins down freely, you want to try to get it another quarter turn or so.
Put the top on, and pump it up about 10 times.

After the first few pumps, you shouldn't hear any hissing.  If it's hissing after 10 pumps, it's a sign that it's likely not holding sufficient pressure to spray well (or spray at all)

Pump it about 30 more times.

If things are working correctly, it should get harder to pump after a while.
Towards the end, you should hear a bit of hissing after each pump.  You can stop when this happens.  It's a sign that the pump is pressurized, and the safety valve is working.

Remove the top and slowly unscrew the ring.

You should hear a hiss once you've loosened it enough to let air escape.
If you do not hear a hiss, the vessel isn't holding air.  Repeat the process, but try to crank down the ring a bit harder, and try to pump 60 times this time (and make sure they're complete strokes).
If it's still not pressurizing the second time, you can take a look at the gasket attaching the pump portion to the bottom.  Check for any damage or bumpiness that would prevent a good seal.

If the vessel did hiss, re-tighten the ring and pump it back up to the same level as the last time.
Remove the top, point the nozzle towards something that you don't mind getting wet or oily, and press the button down.

The button should actually move some.  If it doesn't, that's a problem.  There might be something physically obstructing it that can be removed through scraping or cutting, but be careful.
If the button moves, but nothing comes out ... loosen the ring again.  If there's hissing, it means that there's a blockage somewhere in the spray mechanism.

You could try taking a pin and making sure  the business end of the nozzle is clear.  If you can pull the nozzle from the stem (which I can't on mine), you can also make sure it looks okay inside where it attaches to the pump part, and there's nothing in the tube coming from the pump.
You can also try looking for blockages in the feed tube that gets inserted into the liquid to be sprayed.  (which also can't be done on mine, as there's a filter at the bottom to reduce the chance of blockages)

If none of that works, you'll have to look into returning it as defective.


Can I make any modern improvements to this Russian cake recipe from 1971? I found a recipe in a 1971 Russian booklet on holiday recipes, (see it below).  I translated it to English.  My questions about the recipe will be these:

are there any advancements known to culinary science that will bring this recipe to 21st century?
(I am thinking of things like mixing egg yolks and egg whites separately, mixing liquid and dry ingredients separately, use of baking soda vs baking powder, when to put ingredients together in what order, baking it at what temperature and so on, or is it fine as-is?)
there is no temperature listed at which it is to be baked, but I am guessing 180C
it mentions crushing star anise and cloves.  Do I use the old methods and crush them in a mortar and pestle?  Or do I use ... a blender?  I do have the spices in whole uncrushed form.
in a word, can I make improvements to this cake, to make it better, without changing its authenticity?

The Recipe

3 eggs
200 grams of butter or margarine (1 cup or vegetable oil, better
corn)
2 cups sugar
1 cup of thick (candied) jam
2 cups of buttermilk or yogurt
1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, star anise (crushed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
about 4 cups flour

Mix eggs with sugar, add the butter, jam, crushed spices, sour milk.

Pour baking soda and flour (flour pour as much as necessary to achieve consistency similar to a thick porridge).

Prepare the form (line bottom with oiled parchment, well-lubricate the entire form and sprinkle it with flour), put it in the mix, filling in the form only as much as 3/4 since the cake will rises.

Bake the cake on low heat in the oven.

Note. You can add chopped and sugared lemon and orange peel, raisins, nuts. If you do not have all of these spices, you can restrict it to 1 1/2 teaspoon of crushed cloves. Instead of jam you can try putting in the same amount honey or preserves. This cake should be kept in cool place, wrapped in a wet cloth and a plastic bag. Thus it can be stored even 2 weeks, but when it is necessary to change the cloth.

UPDATE

I tried baking it today with brown sugar, butter, plum jam and I put just a tad much flour (just under 4 cups which I put in right away), which I compensates with half a cup more buttermilk since the dough was too dense. Then I had it in the oven for about an hour at 180F, but it turned out heavy soggy and a little bit tasteless, despite me pulling it out after a toothpic stuck in the center of cake came out dry.

Next time I will try less flour and white sugar, or maybe even splenda, and olive oil instead of butter.  And I will bake it for longer and I might just bake it at something closer to 350F.

You do not need to update the recipe ;-)

Please remember that the way the ingredients are mixed / prepared might significantly influence the outcome: It does make a difference whether eggs are separated or not or whether eggs are beaten with butter first, butter with sugar or eggs with sugar or even everything dumped in the bowl at once (yes, there are examples for all these types!).

An anecdote: My mom - a proficient baker - had major trouble with a recipe she'd gotten from my dad's family. Should have been light and tall, was always only half the height as the ones the other family members served. It took her years to figure that it did not require separating the eggs and incorporating the stiff whites at the end. Well, it didn't say so in the recipe, but as she always did it that way, she'd just assumed...

Have you tried the recipe yet? If you did and have hings you'd like different, we might come up with more ideas.

As for the spices:
If you are grinding up whole spices (method doesn't matter much), be aware that the flavour might be much more intense than with pre-ground ones. And a teaspoon of cloves and star anise sounds a bit much - IMHO. I'd probaply aim for 1tsp cinnamon, 1/4-1/2 tsp of anise and not more than 1/4 tsp of cloves.

Regarding temperature:
In baking lingo, a "cool" oven is usually around 150-160 °C - that would be about 300-320 °F


Sugar in custard cookie dough. I completely forgot to add the sugar in my custard cookie dough. I've already baked them, anything I can do with them?

you can heat up a cup of water and dissolve sugar into it until you reach a thick consistency, and put then spread or pour it over your cookies as a glaze.


Need Help on Cooking Thick Pork Chops to Temperature Recently I attempted once again to pan-saute bone-in pork chops.
I have a recipe which calls for 1" thick such chops.
I had a choice between selecting 1/3", or 1.5" chops.
I chose the 1.5" ones.

The recipe calls for sauteing on each side for 3 minutes, turning only once.
I waited about 4 minutes before the turn, and cooked for another 2 mins before using a meat thermometer.  To say it was nowhere near the safe zone for pork is an understatement.

I cooked them for what seemed like a half-hour.

Given the time and temp, does this sounds like appropriate cooking instructions for sauteing pork chops?  With the chops being as thick as they were, should I have chosen another cooking method?

To answer what may be a follow-up question, I've never cooked chops well.  Pork loin I can do OK, though.

You're almost there! Yes, start with a good hot pan and get a good sear. You might even want to get the sides, render some of that fat. Incidentally, the biggest mistake most people make when searing chops is to move them too soon. Give them at least 3 minutes before you sneak in to check the color. Get them good and brown.

For chops an inch or less thick, that might be enough after resting if you're OK with medium to medium-rare (and you really should be). More than an inch thick? You're going to need some oven time after browning, 350F for 20-40 minutes. Aim for 140F internal temperature before resting. Ideally, you should be able estimate by feel before you go poking around with a sharp thermometer, but that kind of comes with experience. When in doubt, poke with a sharp thermometer.

When you've reached 140F, allow to rest for 7-9 minutes before serving. That will bring them up to 145F.

Finally, consider brining. This is a good recipe for the brine, and a great basic recipe for thick pork chops.Thick Pork Chops by Tyler Florence.


Do I need to baste an injected turkey? This evening I intend to grill a 3 pound turkey breast over indirect heat. I've brined the turkey and am intending to inject it with a butter injection concoction. Does a brined and injected turkey breast need to be basted?

I generally find that basting while grilling is less about keeping the internal meat moist and more about preventing outside from scorching. If you've brined and injected the turkey breast, I'd say you are fine as long as the exterior isn't browning too quickly.


Can I leave a cake / cupcakes frosted with cream cheese frosting out on the counter? I need to frost a cake and cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting for a late morning party tomorrow. I do not do a lot of baking so I'm concerned about when I should frost the cakes. For the sake of time tomorrow I'd prefer to frost the cakes this evening, but am worried about overnight storage of a cream cheese frosting.

Can I frost the cakes tonight and leave them frosted on the counter?
If left on the counter do they need to be covered?
Would it be better to place the cakes in the refrigerator?
Is my best bet to wait until tomorrow before frosting?

Because of the dairy products, you shouldn't leave it un-chilled for more than 4 hours.

It's always best to cover your food to prevent dust (or cat fur, for example) from covering it.

Unless the frosting is really wet and gooey (which might run into the cake), it's OK to frost now.


Can beef bourguignon be halal? I'm preparing for the next master chef and want to show off. But I only eat halal. Can it be prepared without alcohol, bacon and cream?

By definition, Boeuf Bourguignon contains wine. However, non-alcoholic wine can work just fine. Bacon and cream are optional. You can tweak the recipes to make the final product exceptional.


What are the options for thawing a frozen turkey? I'm aware of a few methods (many days in the refrigerator, hours under cold water, etc.) for thawing a whole turkey before cooking it. However, I don't know how these methods balance against each other for,

Speed (do we have days or hours to thaw this turkey?),
Safety (something about bacterial growth),
Ease (is there a trick to this that makes it way more convenient?)
...?

What are the options?

Let's start with the assumption that Safety is never in the balance.  Safety has to be taken into account for any method that we use and that means that we want to keep any food that is time and temperature sensitive out of the danger zone.  The danger zone is the temperature range from 40 degrees F to 140 degrees F.

If you have plenty of time, letting the turkey defrost in the refrigerator is safest and easiest, since there is little that you have to do.  The turkey is always out of the danger zone and all you have to do is put it in the refrigerator.  However, it can take a very long time, 24 hours for each 5 pounds of turkey weight...4 days for a 20 pound turkey.

Assuming you haven't planned that far ahead, the other safe method is to defrost in the sink with cold running water.  The water doesn't need to be pouring out, just a steady stream so the water turns over regularly.  Water is a better conductor of heat than air, so the turkey will defrost more rapidly than in the refrigerator.

The danger zone is why you don't want to defrost the turkey using warm water, or just sitting on the counter.  In either of those cases, the outside meat is warmed into the danger zone before the inside defrosts, so you have some of the meat (the part that is most likely to have come into contact with contaminants) in a temperature range that promotes bacterial growth.


We're trying to make hard crack candy,the humidity in the house is 50% Is there any way we can make it without it becoming sticky?

50% RH does not sound so bad actually.

In a hot-humid climate, chilling the food will only exacerbate the problem of condensation.

There are a few options. Put them into an air tight container with some food grade silica gel desiccant. Alternatively, a bowl of salt (you can pre-heat the salt slightly) will do a similar job.

Use a food dehydrator, but you will still have a wetting/sticky problem during storage.


Unopened unrefrigerated kraft shredded cheese Unopened kraft shredded cheese left in dark and unrefrigerated for 2 weeks. Is it safe to eat?

The cheese will not be safe to eat if it has been at room temperature for two weeks. On the package, it should say "KEEP REFRIGERATED". Hy-Vee states the food should be refrigerated here. The  note is there for a reason, the cheese will spoil if at room temperature for too long.

Kraft includes the note because they know it is likely if someone doesn't keep the shredded cheese refrigerated, the person could get sick and sue them for not disclosing it needs to be refrigerated.

It's certainly possible you won't get sick if you eat it. But two weeks is a long time and I recommend not eating it.


What is 'Musk' as used in this recipe I recently made this truffle ravioli dish, it was an easy enough recipe, but I was confused about one thing: it calls for 'musk'. I didn't know what this was, my research only turned up musk melon, which I think is probably different.  So, I skipped it.

So, my question is, what is 'musk' as used in this recipe, and what sort of flavor would it have imparted to the dish?

It's nutmeg.

The author of that blog is from Switzerland, so I imagine that term is used there, but I had never heard used culinarily until now. I Googled "Grated Musk", and still had to look around to be sure. Thanks for teaching me something.

EDIT As of an hour after the question was posted: Click the "Grated Musk" link now! This question is now the top result :) You're famous, Tom!


Can I use a waffle iron as a Panini press? I have a basic but serviceable waffle iron I bought at a charity shop for a fiver. If I don't mind a waffle pattern on my sandwich, is there any real need for a Panini press?

Maybe! There's one big potential issue: panini presses are hinged differently. There's a bit of variation exactly how, but the effect is that the entire top can lift up, so that it can press down flat on whatever you stick in there. Waffle irons are just designed to be filled, so they hinge at the back. If your sandwich is much smaller than the waffle iron, you can put it in the front part (as far from the hinge as possible), and it won't matter too much, but if it takes up a decent fraction of the area, it'll be squeezed pretty tight at the back compared to the front. This will probably make it cook unevenly, and depending on what you've got in there, might squeeze things out.

Some panini presses also have better temperature controls than waffle irons, but that's probably not as much of a concern.

So I'd give it a shot and see how it works, plan on possibly flipping your sandwich around halfway through, and don't be too upset if it's not pretty!

(rfusca's comment above is also good - if you're able to take off the hinge, you'd avoid the whole problem.)


How to store fresh peaches? I bought fresh, ripe peaches, and I don't eat them super fast. I want them to last fresh for as long as possible. How should I store them?

Helpful details would address:

Under what parameters would I use plastic? Should I seal it? Can the peaches touch the plastic?
If I refrigerate, what drawer should they go in?
What other foods should or should they not be near?
Should I store them submerged, moist, dry, or with absorbent material?

For ripe peaches the main thing is avoid handling them.  They bruise very easily.  I leave them in the box and just slide the box in a shelf in the fridge.  You are only going to get a few days out of them.

Never in a drawer as too much handling.  Don't stack.  Dry.  I would never wrap or seal to keep mold down but that part is more opinion than hard evidence.


Procedure for sous vide potato salad prep For the upcoming christmas eve I need to prepare a large quantity of Czech/German style potato salad. That involves preparing a lot of diced cooked root vegetables (carrot, celery root, parsnips) and potatoes. My question is how can I use sous vide to achieve a potentially superior result and time savings. Is using sous vide practical at all in this case?

Carrot and potato can work well using sous vide.  In fact, sous vide carrots are delicious.  Cook at 90C.  The issue will be timing, because it depends on the size of your veg.  You are just going to have to check them until you achieve the result you like.  Too long, and they will get mushy.  For me, a whole carrot usually takes 45 min to an hour.  So, a diced carrot could take substantially less time.  The same holds true for potatoes...thin slices can take less than 30 minutes, for example.

I have not done them myself, but I assume parsnip and celery root would behave similarly.  Use the same temperature, but time will have to be assessed as you go.

Additionally, all of these vegetables will float given that they contain a lot of air.  Vacuum sealing will help, but may not keep them under water, as air is expelled during cooking.  You will need to weigh down the bags or keep them submerged by placing something on top of them.

In the end, cooking them traditionally might just be the better way to go.