Induction cookware not working with some induction cookers We have a Kitchen Aid cooktop and bought a 7 piece Kitchen Aid cookware set.  Six pieces work fine, one does not.  The 1.5 Q pan will not work on the cooktop.  But it works on the Panasonic induction hot plate that we had purchased prior to getting the cooktop.  It is magnetic and the concavity of the bottom is slightly less than the 2Q pan.  I am guessing it is a manufacturing defect, but I cannot figure what it might be.  Any ideas?

I have experienced something very similar, and it was because the pot was too small in diameter, so was not being sensed by the hob (range top).  Higher end, professional induction hobs do not turn off as easily if the pot is pulled away for a second.  Cheaper ones I have seen are almost on a hair trigger.  So if your pot is small, and not perfectly centered, the sensor will trip and the range will shut off.


Do I need to worry about marinade dripping in a gas grill? I bought a marinated flank steak that I’ll be grilling on a gas grill. When I purchased it, the butcher suggested I use aluminum foil while grilling it to avoid the marinade potentially causing huge flames as it drips.

When I researched this later, I found articles saying it’s dangerous to use foil while grilling.

Do I actually need to worry about fire or giant flames when grilling a marinated steak? If so, what can I use instead of foil?

Yah aluminum foil is considered a bad thing on grills, from what I have heard.

They sell grill grates for such things if you like, me, I just turn the flame on the grill down a touch and deal with the occasional flame-ups. They actually do no harm. And if you have a grill brush to apply the marinade while cooking with a l o n g handle (what I use) you can keep your hands farther away from the (potential) flame.

Anyway a little bit of char from the flame is a good thing and adds flavor to the meat!


Pressure Cooker suitable for traditional Indian dishes, available in Europe I would like to try recipes from Urvashi Pitre's Indian Instant Pot Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast. However, buying the original Instant Pot pressure cooker does not seem to be straightforward or convenient for customers in Europe (outside Britain).

Has anybody tried these recipes with a pressure cooker that is more readily available in Europe (Germany)? I'm still used to old-fashioned models without any electronic controls, so I am wondering what could be a good alternative option to acquire.

UPDATE Here is a sample recipe from the book (linked from this article in The New Yorker).

I don't see anything "special" about that recipe that depends on the particular pressure cooker. I don't think you need anything fancier than an old-fashioned pressure cooker and a timer, assuming you know how to use an old-fashioned pressure cooker. If you already own one, why buy another?

Figure time on "high" to be time on 15 PSI (or 1 bar) steam, and cook away.

A brief glance at the link shows a thing that seeks to be everything (pressure cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, really should have Ron Popeil do ads for it on late night TV...) some of which would be more difficult in a regular pressure cooker, though (for instance) we had a spot on the stove over a pilot light that could make any pot into a yogurt-maker if you set it there full of milk and culture. And you can certainly make rice in a pressure cooker under pressure, rather than trying to mimic a "rice cooker" at atmospheric pressure.


What caused my grass-fed beef to taste & smell ‘off’ this time? Not sure if gamey or barnyard-y is the right description So this relates to an expensive order I made from a local farm, that’s highly reviewed online by the few who know about it, and they check all the boxes for my standards in terms of their beef being a) 100% grass-fed & finished and b) certified organic. The owners seem like fantastic people from my interactions with them, and I can tell they’re quite knowledgable about the industry, and share many of the same views on nutrition and the benefits of grass-fed beef as I do.

Today I defrosted some striploin steaks I bought as part of my large order. Prior to putting them on the BBQ, I could tell they had quite a noticeable scent to them. I don’t know if “gamey” accurately describes what it was, or “barnyard-y” — but something just seemed off about the smell overall. I cooked them anyway, but that ‘off’ smell came out in the taste. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish it. I was frustrated and confused.

I’ve ordered & eaten organic, 100% grass-fed/finished steaks before while in another city (aka from other farms), yet there was no taste or smell issue for me.

These striploin steaks + the rest of my order were also very, very fresh and delivered to the farm by the butcher just a day before I went. I remember when I bought meat from this farm last year as well, that the butcher or slaughter date noted on the sticker was just 2 weeks prior. So really fresh stuff. If anything, I thought that the closer you are to the slaughter date of the animal, the more mild/lack of taste the beef will have? So what’s with this noticeable smell & taste I’m picking up this time around? Also, last year I made tartare from this same farm’s cut of tenderloin, and I know for sure I wouldn’t have eaten it if the smell was what I’m noticing now.

It’s also not exclusive to the striploin steaks I tried today, because I began defrosting some of the rib steaks and it seems like they have the same smell & could turn out the same. :(

What would you speculate the potential issue is? Could it be the breed of cow? The 'freshness' of the steak? Whether it was dry-aged or not? (I'm going to ask them, but if I had to guess I don't think it is).

Based on your explanation I can only speculate a bit. I have ordered beef and other meats including yak (which is from a bovine) online from various places.  I prefer grass fed and free range beef and also eat some game meats (venison, rabbit, ostrich, boar, etc) so am familiar with some variety of meats besides the farm raised packaged meat in most grocery stores.

Free range meat tends to be leaner, and a bit tougher and gamier, with stronger smell and flavor, than grocery store meat. The best way I'd describe "gamey" is a flavor somewhat like liver, and sometimes what seems like a slightly powdery texture or mouth feel. It can indeed smell a bit musky. The meat tends to be leaner and tougher and so depending on how you prepare it can be chewier. Not sure if this describes your experience? One person might find this appetizing while another might find it off-putting.

In my experience the fat on free-range meat often has a yellow color rather than pale white, has a stronger smell and flavor, and often a lot of the gaminess in the meat is actually in the fat. So if it is very well trimmed you can eliminate some of that.

Another possibility is that the meat wasn't handled well between slaughter and when you got it. The meat needs to be hung before it is processed, as short as 3-5 days and as long as 21, this varies based on the animal and how it is prepared, and this is where the experience and quality of your producer come into play. It is not true that fresher i.e. closer to the slaughter date is always better, the meat needs to hang for a while to become tender. A cattle is a huge animal, hundreds of pounds, and it takes a while for the meat to age before processing. It could also be that something went wrong with the shipping, maybe the steaks were allowed to thaw and refreeze or exposed to air.

I would take all of these questions to your beef producer and see if you can figure it out.


What is the "grain" in 45 grain brown rice vinegar? I'm completely lost as to the meaning of "grain" in 45 grain brown rice vinegar.  What does the grain number mean?

Grain is a measurement of the acidity of the vinegar. It is the acidity percentage multiplied by 10, so 45 grain vinegar would be 4.5% acidity.


Gelling agents closest to normal gelatin that set at room temperature Does anyone know of a gelling agent that is closest to normal gelatin but can set at room temperature, so that I don't need to put it in the fridge to set. I'm looking for something that when a gel has the same characteristics as normal gelatin eg. elasticity and strength. (I know about agar agar, carrageenan and gellan) I'm looking for others if there are any.
Thanks

There are lots of hydrocolloids, all with their own characteristics. To achieve the characteristics of gelatin you'll probably want to use a system that combines multiple hydrocolloids to take advantage of their synergies (as mentioned by @sourd'oh). Gelatin's hard to beat when it comes to flavor release.

A gelatin substitute system can be created by combining a relatively brittle gelling agent with gums to modify the texture. For example, use agar, a carageenan, an alginate, or gellan as your gelling agent, and locust bean gum(LBG) (and optionally xanthan gum) to modify the texture. This Gelatin Replacement [patent] by CP Kelco (hydrocolloid manufacturers/specialists) should be useful for you, it describes a system of an alginate, LBG and xanthan gum. It also discusses previous patents for other gelatin substitutes that you might find useful. One such alternative is the patent Low-Acyl Gellan Gum Blends [patent] that describes a system of gellan, LBG and xanthan gum.

The article Gelatin and its Hydrocolloid Alternatives describes various approaches to reproducing the characteristics of gelatin. The alternatives covered are: pectin mixtures, modified starch/wheat fiber, high-acyl gellan, and carageenans.

Here's some nice info on LBG. In particular it mentions the use of a 60/40 combination of kappa carageenan/LBG as a gelatin replacement. It also mentions the combination of agar and LBG, and the synergistic relationship between LBG and xanthan gum.

For more info on hydrocolloids:

Dave Arnold's Cooking Issues Blog and Podcast, he talks a lot about hydrocolloids, and his Hydrocolloids Primer is really good. You can also ask him questions on Twitter.
Martin Lersch's Khymos blog has his free ebook Texture: A Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection, it's awesome.
I've also heard good things about Andrew Hoefler's book, Hydrocolloids: Practical Guides for the Food Industry from Eagan Press, if you really want to get into it.
TIC Gums (another hydrocolloid manufacturer/specialist) also has a phone hotline for hydrocolloid advice, the phone number is listed on their website.


What does it mean when dough is referred to as "short"? I saw this term pop up in a quiche recipe concerning the crust - How can you tell if the problem is too little/too much shortening, or too little/too much liquid? If it's out of proportion, can it be "fixed" without creating an inedible cardboard thing?

"Shortness" in dough refers to its tenderness, which is influenced by the amount of fat as well as sugar. If your quiche recipe calls for a short dough, it would be referring to a higher ratio of fat to flour since pastry for quiche typically doesn't include sugar.

Both fat and sugar minimize and break down gluten development which results in "short" protein strands and thus a more tender result.  As the fat is rubbed into the flour, glutenin (providing strength) and gliadin (providing elasticity) are coated with the fat which acts as a lubricant to keep the two from being able to link together forming gluten when liquid is added to the mix.

The higher the amount of fat in a dough the more tender it will be.  If you want a dough to be flaky then you'd leave the fat in larger particles which will blister to form flakes.  If you want a dough that will be moisture resistant to fillings (such as a quiche) then work that fat in finely so that it will be less likely to absorb moisture during and after baking.

Quiche crusts (and crusts for other custard based pies... pumpkin, sweet potato, custard, etc) should first be blind-baked for the crispest crust in the finished result.

As for "fixing" a pastry dough...it's usually easiest and best to simply start over.  Water is added a little at a time to avoid adding too much.  If too much water is used then more flour needs to be added but with the excessive flour and water then comes additional gluten.  If you get a pastry dough too wet, I would be inclined to rub some additional fat into flour and then add that to the first dough rather than just flour alone.  Too little shortening will really only be noticed after baking and that's going to be determined through how tough or tender the dough is.

Keep in mind that toughness also depends on the amount you've handled it.  Short doughs typically can't be handled too much because the higher amount of fat means that they will warm and get sticky.  It is best to refrigerate to firm up the fat rather than add flour as the flour simply dries it out.  The tender nature of the dough from sugar means that in some cases they can be impossible to roll out and transfer to a pan.  In this case they are usually put into the bottom of the pan and then patted out across the bottom and up the side.


how to improve the consistency of my pizza sauce I'm trying to make homemade pizza sauce but end up with sauce that ends up drying up in the oven. Here's what im using:

1 can crushed roma tomatoes
3/4 cup garlic
3/4 cup basil
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper

Heat until thick

However when I smear the sauce onto the dough and bake it, it never turns out right. Any thoughts? Any suggestions on my recipe would also be great.

The key to good tomato sauce is the rate at which you heat it. The instinct is to just get it boiling and thicken it up in twenty minutes but this results in horrible tomato paste.

Instead, simmer the sauce very slowly for say four hours and you will get a much better result. You can do a big batch and it will keep very well in the freezer.

The long slow heating will make the tomatoes fall apart, but if it's still too chunky then you can always blend the sauce.


What do you use to get the vegetables out after steaming? When you put a steamer in a pot of boiling water and put vegetables inside the steamer, how do you get them out after they are done? What tool do you use?

I imagine you are asking about steamer baskets like this:

I think most people just reach in with an oven mitt or pot holder, and lift it out with our hand.  This particular image has a ring, but some have a knob to make gripping easier.

You can also lift out the food items themselves with tongs, and then wait until the steamer assembly cools and simply take it out with your hands.

If you are talking about oriental style steamers, traditionally used with a wok:

Again, just a tea towel or oven mitt is needed.  The bamboo ones don't tend to hold as much heat, but I would certainly not pick up the metal variant with a bare hand right after steaming.


Temperature of tandoor for making naan What is the temperature used in a tandoor for making naan or kulcha? I know it's higher than 500 deg. F [260 deg. C], but don't know the exact range of temperatures resestaurants use.

Update: Having baked my naan in a Big Green Egg knockoff for more than a year now, I can say that the ideal temperature seems to be between 600 deg. F and 700 deg. F. This may not be the range of temperature in a tandoor, but for baking naan on a pizza stone in a ceramic oven, the range I mentioned seems to work.

There isn't much detailed information for this online.  Even the various manufacturers don't generally cite desired temperatures.  Wikipedia says up to 480C/900F, but does not cite a source for this temperature.  The NY Times says that a traditional charcoal tandoor gets up to 750F, but does not mention a source either.  Homedoor, the one manufacturer who mentions a temperature, says that their units go up to 650F.

None of these sources mention a desired optimal temperature, though.  It seems likely that the temperature would be similar to the optimal temperature for Neopolitan pizza, between 600F and 700F.

Also, a tandoor is designed so that the clay walls will be hotter than the air inside the oven -- I'd assume probably 50-100F hotter, but that's basically a blind guess as I can't find any measurements anywhere.

The one thing I can tell you from personal experience is that you cannot make Indian naan with the proper texture in a home oven with a pizza stone which only gets up to 525F.  Believe me, I've tried.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandoor
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/dining/a-tandoor-oven-brings-indias-heat-to-the-backyard.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
https://homdoor.com/index.php/home/


Am I thawing this London Broil safely? I started thawing a thick cut of London Broil (maybe 1.5 lbs) in cold water and then I realized I didn’t want to start cooking it yet.  I’ve moved it to the fridge.

While thawing in cold water, I had not sealed the meat completely in a zipper bag,  but instead wrapped it in cling wrap.  It was pretty well covered (double wrapped), but some water may have gotten in and it wasn’t sealed off entirely from the air.  (Research has left me concerned that this may have been bad)

Is this a problem?

Background info:  In total it was out of the freezer in cold water for maybe 45 minutes, and the outside has begun to thaw.  I’ve put it back in the fridge after washing the container it was in with soap and hot water.
I plan to cook it in a crock pot for 8 hours after browning it on the stove top.

Safely?  Yes.

Cold water thaws are fine.  It's hot or warm water thawing that's bad.

Cold running water will thaw faster than cold still water, but cold still water is okay as you basically have a giant ice cube in the water (the thing you're thawing), so the water stays at a safe temperature until you're towards the end of the thaw ... it just takes a really long time compared to thaw running water.

The only issue here would be the meat getting wet.  If it's clean water, and you don't drip it on other things it shouldn't be a problem from a safety standpoint.  It can change the quality of the food being thawed (wash away flavors, cause the food to absorb too much water), so if you're going to do it intentionally, it can be worth adding salt to brine the item being thawed.

So, from a safety standpoint, what you're doing is fine ... so long as your fridge temp is set well.


After steaming for 5 mins, why are live PEI mussels shriveled, but PC's mussels plump? In both cases beneath, I steam the PEI mussels for 5 mins. on low heat, on a pan on my stove in 100 mL of white wine. I live in Toronto, Canada.
Case 1: Live mussels  from Pusateri's or Whole Foods Market.
They're individually picked as in the left picture beneath,  in a string bag like on the right.

or vacuum-packed. Most meat shrink and wither after the 5 mins. of cooking. The meat aren't clumps as they ought be, and can't be plucked. Rather, the meat has crumbled and dismantled, and I have to scoop the spindly slivers of meat with my spoon. See beneath.

Case 2: I've bought PC's Cooked then Frozen PEI Mussels weekly for the past year.
By comparison, every time that I steam these,  the edible meat is fleshy like the picture on the right.

The President's Choice mussels in sauce are (properly) fully cooked and then frozen in packages for your convenience. I can't find heating instructions for their products but, regardless of which method you use, they should be prepared from frozen with the goal being to heat them - not cook them.

Regarding the live PEI mussels, you are overcooking them. If the meat is shriveled, they are overcooked. You can't just assume that 5 minutes is the ticket for properly cooked mussels.

While there are different methods of cooking mussels and other shellfish such as grilling or baking, for steaming, there are some tips to help ensure that the mussels are fully cooked but not overdone.

Use a wide base pan so that the mussels are not overcrowded in the pan. Cook in more than one batch if necessary.
Use a proper amount of cooking liquid. (Personally, I usually aim for ~.5" - 1", depending on the size of the shellfish.)
Bring your cooking liquid to a boil, add the mussels to the cooking liquid (no steamer basket), and reduce the heat so that the cooking liquid is simmering - NOT BOILING. You want a gentle steam.
Cover the pan with a clear lid. That will allow you to see when they start to open and monitor the cooking.
If you have uniformly sized mussels they will cook more evenly. So, two methods for finishing:

If the mussels are not uniformly sized and smaller ones are opening before others, pluck them out as they open. When the last ones are open, remove the pan from the heat and put all of the mussels back in the pan and let them sit covered for a minute or two.
If the mussels are uniformly sized and are pretty much opening at the same time, as soon as they are all open, leave the pan covered and remove from the heat. Let them sit for a minute or two in the residual heat and they will be ready to serve.

The reason for letting them sit for a minute or two in the residual heat is that some mussels will open very quickly, ~3 minutes. That typically is not considered enough time for them to be fully cooked. And if they take longer, an extra minute or two in the residual heat is not enough to ruin them.

Last but not least, remember that time can vary. Even with mussels that take longer, it's still a quick process.  So it's important to keep your eye on things.


Safety: Keeping sous-vide cooked chicken in vacuum My Problem

I have sous-vide cooked some chicken breast, forgot about it, and kept it in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. The chicken breast was thoroughly cooked (63c for 1 hour) and kept in good vacuum.

I have re-cooked it in the sous vide at 63c for and additional 1.5 hour, and finished by frying it in the pan. I am not sure whether it is safe to eat or not.

What Have I Tried

Google Search
Meat and Poultry Charts at foodsafety.gov
Read How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?, but it features general rules, not sous-vide specific ones. I want to know whether sous-vide cooked chicken would last longer.

My Question

For how long can I safely keep cooked, vacuumed and refrigerated chicken breast?

Images

Refrigerated and vacuumed

Recooked and fried

I originally voted this question as a duplicate.  However, the OP is correct in that the proposed duplicate does not address the specific case of sous vide.  Here, I attempt to help in that regard.

The definitive source for the answer to your question is Douglas Baldwin. From the information you've supplied, it is difficult to make any safety claims. However, you can compare your product, and your practice, to the points made by Baldwin.

First, sous vide (true sous vide...in a vacuum) can indeed extend shelf life...

IF certain hurdles are cleared.

FIRST, your product is cooked to the pasteurization stage.  It is hard to tell how thick your chicken breasts are from the photos.  Baldwin has tables that cross reference thickness, temperature, and times so that you can achieve pasteurization.  You'll have to compare your practice to this chart to see if you met the threshold. So, once sealed in a vacuum, the first hurdle is to pasteurize your product.

THEN, your product must be cooled as quickly as possible for long term storage. This usually means in an ice bath, then immediately refrigerating or freezing.  The method is called "cook-chill." Baldwin cautions, however that "The danger with cook-chill is that pasteurizing does not reduce pathogenic spores to a safe level. If the food is not chilled rapidly enough or is refrigerated for too long, then pathogenic spores can outgrow and multiply to dangerous levels."

Cook-chill, done correctly, greatly reduces the risk from listeria, and spore forming pathogens. However, he goes on to write:

"spores of Clostridium botulinum, C. perfringens, and B. cereus can all survive the mild heat treatment of pasteurization. Therefore, after rapid chilling, the food must either be frozen or held at

below 36.5°F (2.5°C) for up to 90 days,
below 38°F (3.3°C) for less than 31 days,
below 41°F (5°C) for less than 10 days, or
below 44.5°F (7°C) for less than 5 days

to prevent spores of non-proteolytic C. botulinum from outgrowing and producing deadly neurotoxin (Gould, 1999; Peck, 1997)."

I would recommend that you read the PDF.


What To Do With Blueberry Hot Sauce I bought some blueberry hot sauce while on vacation in Maine. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I have no clue what to pair it with. Any suggestions would be welcome.

I bet it would be delicious with beef. Beef and berries are great together.

Other ideas I just thought of -- use it like you would use jalapeno jelly -- to top baked brie or in a sandwich or spread with cream cheese.


Super soft fried shrimp in a light batter I dined at a sushi restaurant recently that had an appetizer called buffalo rock shrimp. Essentially its fried shrimp in a buffalo sauce.

To describe the dish more specifically. The shrimp itself is the most soft, the batter almost has the same consistency as the shrimp itself. The batter is really light and fluffy with a soft crunch on the outside.

I am determined to figuring out how to create such a dish. What is the secret to making batter fried shrimp turn out so soft? Also, what is the secret to making a light fluffy batter for shrimp that is slightly crispy on the outside and does not turn soggy when sauce is added?

I appreciate any advice on how to accomplish this.

It will be hard to say for certain without the recipe, but my guess is that you are describing the effect of using Tempura batter instead of the flour based batters typically encountered in Western countries. Tempura batter is much lighter, and while crispy, it can be softer in the center. This is mainly because cornstarch is used in place of some (or all) of the flour in western batters (or potato starch or a tempura mix). These starches have less gluten than wheat flower, which yields a lighter batter (gluten in batter makes the batter sticky, doughy, and heavy). You can find many tempura batter recipes online.


Corn/Potato/Rice/Flour starches in deep frying Lately, I've been looking at a few deep fried recipes and have noticed different types of refined starches being used.

As far as cornstarch goes, I've seen a sweet potato and Idaho/Russet (normal) potato fry recipes that used cornstarch for crispiness. This bon apetit recipe uses a light coating of cornstarch as well. In this Chinese recipe, the egg plant is coated with cornstarch for crispiness as well. It would appear, that cornstarch seems to be favored for light coating.

Flour, seems to be much more widely used for heavier battering. Flour seems to be paired with baking powder in a lot of buttermilk fried chicken or fish recipes.

I also found a un-cited forum post on chow-hound which claims:

  Corn starch is a bit crispier than flour, but if you want best results fro a single-layer fry coating then rice flour is the best. -RealMenJulienne

My question is what would happen if you subbed cornstarch for the flour dredging in something like buttermilk chicken? More crispiness? What about rice flour, is that the crispiest?

How do you choose the best starch/flour when choosing to deep fry foods?

*Note, if the scope is too wide, let's answer this question in the context of fried chickens dredged vs. lightly coated.

Imagine you fry it as a whole

If you want potato starch. Think, what it is like to fry a whole potato because potato starch come from potato. People cook base on recipe and lost interest in how the ingredient is made.

If you want crisp imaging what it like to deep fried rice. So, rice flour will make your food crispy.


Samovar Tea: Let it brew the whole day? I recently got a samovar tea kettle and am not sure about how to use it. For those of you confused about what I am talking about, this is my samovar (electric):

The metal part is a kettle for boiling water and keeping it warm. On top, there is an opening, on which you put your pot. You make very strong tea in the pot and keep it warm throughout the day by placing it on top of the samovar. When you want to drink a cup of tea you first pour in 1/10 to 1/3 tea from the pot and mix it with water from the samovar.

The point of the whole system is to have tea on demand all day for many people. By having only water in the metal part and strong concentrated tea in the pot every person can mix their own tea and make it as strong as they want to. In addition, you only need to clean the pot, the samovar is only used for water.

With this kind of kettle, you are supposed to brew the tea for a long time, and you need to choose a tea with low bitterness.

What I don't understand:

Isn't it a bad idea to have tea brew for so long? Am I even doing this right? Does the long-brewing provide any kind of benefit? Isn't it also a bad idea to continuously keep your tea warm throughout the day? I ended up removing the tea from the pot after several hours. It ended up so strong, that even when mixed 1:10 it was pretty much undrinkable for most people. But I guess I probably used too much tea, so this could have been avoided.

Also, would it be OK to put the tea in the samovar, or is the "svarka" (the tea concentrate) an integral part of the whole thing?

For reference, here is a samovar, without a pot on top:

Presumably, in this case, the tea is in the samovar and there is no concentrate?

The problem with black tea is that after a few minutes of brewing, the leaves release very bitter substances. There are 2 general ways to deal with this:

Short brewing time: remove the tea leaves or bag after about 3 - 4 minutes.
Saturation: if the tea water is saturated with non-bitter substances at 3 minutes of brewing time, it cannot take up much of the bitter stuff. Traditional turkish tea is brewed like that as well, so I suppose it should also work in a samovar.

The concentrated tea is an integral part of the system. You should not add any water to the svarka pot after initially brewing the tea or you give the bitter substances a chance to solve into the tea.

The tea brand is important, too. I'd propose to try an Earl Grey or another tea with a light taste. Ask a tea shop for advice, if you have one nearby.

The ratio of 1:10 sound about right. Most people have to get used to the idea that barely covering the bottom of the cup is enough.

Putting the diluted tea into the big kettle is a very bad idea and probably won't solve your problem. Every green and black tea will get more bitter over time, no matter how it was brewed. I think keeping the concentrate for a whole day is simply too long. 3 - 4 hours is the longest I would keep brewed black tea. You could make smaller portions to use up the concentrate in time.

Experiment with different brands and different amounts of tea, always keeping in mind that you're making a concentrate to keep the bitterness out of the tea. A splash of milk can neutralize a little of the bitterness, but the milk has to be very cold for it to work. If all else fails, brew peppermint tea instead ;)


Can microwave with convection replace an actual oven? cross posted from diy -- people suggested I ask the question here.

I live in a townhouse with a small kitchen and I am wondering if something like this item: http://www.kitchenaid.com/shop/major-appliances-1/microwaves-2/microwaves-3/-[KMBP107ESS]-407653/KMBP107ESS/

implies that it can be used as a microwave and as a conventional oven where you would bake things.

I understand the space inside it is limited but as my kitchen is very small if it can serve both roles, that would be a life saver. I understand I wouldn't be cooking with ovens much, but could you do the basic things, like baking, etc...

You need to ask yourself what are you going to use more.

If you truly will never use the oven except for occasional baking, then go for the conventional/microwave combo, but if you are like me and use the microwave mostly as a tool to warm something or reheat something in quick order, then go for a proper oven instead, even if it's only a half size single rack oven.

I am not a big fan of microwaves. I use ours occasionally to soften butter or reheat left overs quickly and don't want to bother pulling out the skillet to do so, but those are both rather uncommon for me. I almost always heat up a skillet to reheat food under normal circumstances. I never actually cook in a microwave so take those as caveats to my answer.


What does it mean when powdered ingredients get thin strings? I have found some strange strings in powdered ingredients in my kitchen. First time I noticed it in my instant coffee jar and I thought it maybe some kind of worm so I discarded the jar.

Today I was very surprised to find the same type of thin string in my very small paprika jar (powdered paprika).

What can cause this? Am I right to assume its worms? What else could it be? How do I deal with a situation like that?

Image of what I mean:

I think you are right to figure it is some kind of insect. Little thin threads of cocoonish material in containers of stored food are a pretty clear sign. The strings make themselves noticeable by catching the dust particles from the food. Although it might seem strange to find insect activity in instant coffee, there are tons of different kinds of insects, each one with its own set of tastes. I have found little tiny crawly beige bugs in baking soda even, really.

When this happens, you need to go through everything, discard every infestation you find, and completely re-do your pantry storage system. Lots of advice available on this site and elsewhere on how to rid yourself of these pests.E.g.:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/search?q=How+to+get+rid+of+weevils%3F  ,
and many others. Even though your bugs may not match the exact insect species addressed (maybe they aren't really weevils for example), bugs are bugs, and you don't need a precise id to get some good advice on extermination.


Dried and Salted Fish Fillets (e.g. cod) Sous Vide I don't have much experience cooking with dried and salted fish, but as far as I have read traditional recipes start with a long soaking time in water (and also changing the water multiple times) to get rid of the excess salt, followed by poaching or confiting in olive oil.

I have cooked fresh fish many times sous-vide with excellent results at around 50C. I suspect due to an extensive amount of salt, probably, changing the protein structure of the fish; this temperature might not work for rehydrated and desalted fish.

As per this question confiting is covered and another recipe for confiting sous vide also suggests 65C. However in these recipes, next to confiting, the main aim is to extract the gelatin from the fish to be later used in the sauce.

However I wasn't able to find much information on replicating poaching results with sous vide.

Does anyone have experience or resources regarding cooking temperatures for rehydrated and desalted fish.

The purpose for salting fish is to cure it (originally for preservation). It does not need to be cooked. The reason for soaking and/or boiling salted fish is to remove the excess salt and to rehydrate the fish for consumption. Sous vide probably doesn't make sense in the preparation of salted fish, but I'd be curious how it comes out. You should soak to remove salt to taste. Be sure to taste the inner flesh when testing for saltiness.

For sous vide preparation, I would suggest soaking in cold water to remove enough salt and then cooking at a lower temperature. 50°C is a good temperature, but you can go even lower for salted fish. You might experiment as low as 40°.


Substituting meyer lemons for sour oranges Many Cuban recipes use the juice of sour oranges as an ingredient, such as mojo sauce.  Unfortunately, sour oranges are hard to find in the Western USA.

The standard substitutions offered include, depending on the cookbook:

a 1:1 ratio of sweet orange and lemon juice
a 1:2 ratio of sweet orange and lemon juice
a 2:1 ratio of sweet orange and lime juice
various combinations of orange juice and vinegar

It occured to me today that Meyer lemons are a cross between mandarin oranges and lemons, and as such might have a flavor close to sour oranges.  Questions:

Are Meyer lemons actually close in flavor to sour oranges?
What substitution ratio should I use for meyer lemon juice (plus possibly sweet orange and/or lime juice) to sour orange juice?

Looking for answers with documentation and/or direct experience here, please, rather than guesses.  Thanks!

Interesting idea.  I use Meyer lemons regularly, but wouldn't have thought to substitute them directly for sour oranges.  My usual substitution would be more your 2:1 ratio of sweet orange and lime juice (certainly not vinegar, eeeck!).  Unless your Meyer lemons are exceptionally sweet, I'd add a bit of sweet orange juice to them.


How to open a can of olive oil? I have a 900 ml can of Saloio olive oil. I lack any idea of how to open it.

The top of the tin is more-or-less seamless (see photo), and lacks any sort of indicator as to how this may be accomplished. At the rim, the metal on the top folds over the outside of the tin, and I've tried wedging flat instruments of all manner in there to no avail.

So, I'm wondering: what is the best way to open a container like this?

I would suggest using a can punch. Punch a hole on both of the shorter sides on top, one to pour with and the other to allow air flow.

If you are unsure what a can punch is.... here is a pic

Hope this helps.


Which is better, baking in glass or metal? How does baking in glass differ from
Baking in metal?

Because glass is an insulator, it takes longer to heat up, but then stays at the temprature longer. Metal heats up quicker but also doesn't stay warm for as long a time. Here are several interesting links that are helpful for deciding what to pick for each situation.

  chow.com: Rushing says glass is best for foods like cakes, which
  bake for a relatively long time at lower temperatures. As in a thick
  cast iron pan, cornbread baked in glass will brown more evenly than if
  you use a thin metal dish. However, glass bakeware cannot be made in
  large sizes and is generally unavailable with a nonstick
  coating—Teflon is very hard to apply to glass. Other disadvantages of
  glass are that it is more expensive and much heavier than metal, and
  it can shatter if its temperature changes too quickly.

  yumsugar.com: According to Lauren Chattman, author of The Baking
  Answer Book, clear glass, much like dark metal, absorbs heat, making
  it ideal for crisp-crusted pies but much less so for bar cookies,
  quick breads, and fruit crisps, which can easily become burnt.


Is there a substitute for Dijon mustard and if so, what is it? Can I substitute a small amount of say, hot english mustard for Dijon, or is there some other alternative. (Of course I will get some soon, but right now i have none, and was wondering if i can make do with something else)

Dijon has a strong taste from the liquid they use in it (it's not quite vinegar, not quite wine).  I'd probably try a blend of some other mustard + a little white wine vinegar (not white vinegar; white wine vinegar) or champaigne vinegar or apple cider vinegar.  (Maybe even a dry white wine, if you have that on hand).

If you have dry mustard powder, and some time to let it sit, you could also try making your own; most of the recipes online seem to use a dry white wine as their base, a few use white wine vinegar.


How to reheat without compromising quality Not always, but more often than not, I am able to perfectly cook our dinner protein (meat). This also includes my husband when he B.B.Q.s.  The problem is, how can the meat be reheated the next day and not compromise the quality.  No matter what different types of gentle heat sources I try, the meat always cooks a bit more.  I even take the meat out of the fridge a couple of hours ahead of time so it's not ice cold.  I always like to cook lots so we can have leftovers, and I know fresh is best, but there must be some sort of middle ground!  Any tips?

I've never reheated meat or fish to the same flavor and texture that it originally had. I use a small convection oven on a low temperature to bring steaks / ribs / chicken back up to temperature but:

Even though I manage to keep close to the same doneness of the steaks, they're not as juicy. When I tried reheating them in au jus, I lost the doneness.
Ribs that fell off the bone the night before come out a tad bit tougher.
Chicken holds up okay, but it's not as good as when it was first served.
Delicate fish like dory or sole gets .. well .. not good. Same with shrimp.
Roasted vegetables come out fine.

In other words, I haven't really gotten better results with more work and care. I don't use my microwave very much after purchasing the small convection oven. I've seen people talking about using a sous vide setup to reheat things; I don't own one and can't speak to how effective it is. There's a convenience factor of leftovers to consider as well (though I'm not saying a sous vide would be any less convenient).

What I try to do is plan the week a bit ahead. If I'm cooking barbeque ribs on Wednesday, then I'll plan on cooking sloppy joe on Thursday with pulled pork using some fresh bell pepper, onion and chili. In other words I try to reuse leftovers rather than just reheat them. So steak, for instance, I'd slice thinly and incorporate it into a pasta. Or I'll dice up some leftover prawns and use them in a salad. I try to always use leftovers in conjunction with something fresh. Why not puree those carrots instead of serving the same thing twice? :)

It's definitely not easy to always plan ahead like that, I'm certainly very guilty of failing to do it and sometimes allowing food to go to waste because I simply don't know what to do with it. It's something you have to think about from the time you put your grocery list together to the time you're putting away the leftovers and doing any prep you'll need for the next day.

I think the most fun is using leftovers in dishes where there aren't that many rules - like tacos, nachos, salads, frittatas, pasta, casseroles and even soups. Some of the stuff I'm most proud of has come out of doing that :)


How to remove most water from food when cooling them down before putting to a refrigerator? Today I baked some liquid eggs, see the picture below. After baking, there was no liquid in the eggs any more. I waited till them became lukewarm, and put them inside a plastic bag used for packaging frozen vegetables before. I continue to keep the bag of baked eggs at the room temperature, and after a while, I found a lot of water dripping from the outside of the bag.

I doubt that the bag is leaking. But why is there so much water?
The liquid eggs are no longer liquid, why give off so much water when cooling down?

Shall I avoid the water before putting the baked eggs into the freezer?

How can I deal the water from cooked food better than letting the water dripping from the bag?

I remember after I baked a turkey and put its pieces in plastic bags into the freezer, I found some ice in the same bags. Did the ice also come into being for the same reason as the water from the baked eggs?

The answer to your question is pure and simple. Condensation. Anytime you put anything into plastic that is not cold it will cause it to sweat. The best way to freeze anything is to place it in your freezer, uncovered and unwrapped immediately or within 5 to 10 minutes after removing it from the oven. Once it is frozen, and that should take anywhere from1 to 2 hours depending on what you are freezing, remove it from freezer and wrap quickly and immediately, making sure it remains well frozen, then return to freezer.This is called flash freezing and is the best way to keep the integrity of your food intact.  When defrosting your food, especially if it is something like a piece of frosted cake, unwrap the item as soon as you remove it from your freezer, then let it defrost. Hope this helps!


Why is there a 2 step heating process for making custard for ice cream I make ice cream frequently, with pretty good results, and I follow the same basic process for making the custard. This is the method I've seen repeated in many different recipes which involves:

Heating the milk and cream, plus about 2/3 of the sugar in a pan until it starts to steam (about 130F) and the sugar is dissolved
Whipping the remaining sugar with the egg yolks until pale yellow
Gradually adding some of the hot milk/cream mixture to the yolks
Adding the yolks and cream back into the pan with the rest of the cream
Gently heating the mix until it forms a custard (I usually heat until 155F or so using a thermometer)
Remove from heat, add flavors, then chill the mix

Now this works for me and is very reliable, but as I was making a batch of mint base last night I couldn't help but think why step 1, and therefore 3 and 4 is necessary.

Why pre-heat the milk, cream and sugar, then heat again after the yolks are added?  I know that you add a bit of hot cream to the yolks so that they don't get shocked, that's not my question. Why not whip the yolks and some of the sugar, then put them into cold milk and cream and heat the whole mix?

These steps are done to ensure that the custard in the end is the best it can be. The best custard has a smooth, and creamy consistency.

Warming the milk/cream with the sugar will ensure that the dairy and sugar are completely incorporated. This could be done with cold dairy, but you would have a higher likelihood of having sugar granules that do not dissolve, heading toward a gritty custard.

Whipping the yolks and sugar to a pale yellow does a similar thing. Well incorporated ingredients will be a recurring theme here.

Step 3 and 4 are more related than one might think. Step 3 is the first step in incorporating the diary and the egg mixture. By adding part of the warm dairy to the egg mixture, you are tempering the egg mixture. This means you are bring the temperature of the egg mixture a little closer to the temperature of the dairy. So, when you add the rest of the dairy to the egg mixture it won’t cook the eggs, leaving you with a lumpy, or grainy custard. If you were to add all the warm dairy right into the egg mixture up front, you may end up with a large amount of very sweet scrambled eggs. Not that appealing, really.

You already know that part since you mentioned it in the question; just trying to be thorough.

Step 5 cooks the custard. Since we are dealing with eggs, we want a minimum temperature: 155/160F. You don’t want to go any higher, though (sweet scramble eggs).

As you already know from experience, following these steps will give you great results every time.

To answer your final question…

You could just put all ingredients together and come up with a decent custard, and that would probably work when dealing with small batches. It could be worth experimenting with. If you are like me when it comes to baking, or delicate cooking… if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

Time wise, it may take a little longer. The reason I say that is because, in my experience, when you do the steps separately, you can do a couple steps in parallel. You can whip the yolks and sugar while the milk/cream and sugar come up to temperature. Also, you may be starting with a cooler mixture when you start to bring everything up to temperature if you do this all at once, that could slow you down a bit. Not that there is a race. But, if you are a professional cook, time may be a consideration.

Why did I mention this could work for small batches? Well, I have made custard in larger batches (3 to 5 gallons), and I just don’t think that doing it all at once would be any fun at all. Stirring 5 gallons of already mixed custard batter until it comes to temp seems like it would take forever, and almost guarantees I end up scorching something. There is some fun in preparation, but that is pushing it a bit. The recipe you have may have been adapted from somewhere they were typically worked in large batches (total guess on my part).

I think I covered everything. Hope this helps you!


How to make beet kvass in Winter? I often make fermented beet kvass.  This was going well in summer, but now in the colder weather the environment is too cold for the kvass to ferment properly.  The home temperature is 60F, but the kvass needs 72F-75F.

What is the best way to keep the kvass jar warm?  A heating pad with a thermostat?

If you are handy with electrics and electronics, linking a heating element to a PID controller is probably your best bet for stability.

This will give you quite stable temperatures.

You can find many sets of instructions by googling homemade sous vide pid,which is a very similar application, although higher temperature ranges are usually the goal.


Would Annatto mixed with oleoresin paprika cause an allergic reaction? Is it safe to mix annatto powder with oleoresin paprika to get a better color.

If you are allergic to neither Annatto nor Oleoresin Paparika(paprika extract), there is no reason you should be allergic to the mixture of the two.

This site even mentions the mixture of the two to get a reddish orange hue.

  Annatto blends with turmeric or paprika oleoresin expand the possibilities of the yellow to reddish-orange range.


Is it safe to use a disposable microwave-safe lunch box to cook raw rice with hot water directly in a microwave for 15 minutes? I have for a long period cooked raw rice directly with hot water in a porcelain bowl for 15 minutes in a microwave, totally open without a lid. The water does boil a little bit but not that severely, maybe because of the rice rich in starch which holds the water calm, so that the water doesn’t leak. It works perfectly despite the side which becomes a little bit dry. I usually resolve it by adding some water at the last 2 minutes, or removing the side.

While water boils only a little bit and doesn’t leak, milk does quite a lot, so water and milk must be different in some way.

I am concerned about whether the material, plastic, is problematic. Although disposable microwave-safe lunch box can bear up to 130℃, and a microwave can heat things maximally up to 100℃, any way, 15 minutes is apparently a quite long duration, so I am not sure if it would be harmful, e.g. releasing some chemicals, especially if it releases "secretly" that I cannot taste or smell it.

added:

After use I will discard it. One box'd be used only once.

I've just come up with "instant soup" found in supermarkets, which should be heated as liquid for quite a few minutes in a microwave, and the plastic is disposable. I am not sure if normal disposable microwave-safe lunch boxes sold in dozens online could be the same type.

It very much depends on the type of plastic,the thickness, and the manufacturing process. I highly recommend that if it's not . It's best to just learn about the company and see if they are FDA/ISO/ASTM approved or just some cheap Chinese company (nothing against Chinese things, however, there are good things made there too).

Here's a simple test that can be done: Put the box in the microwave, put a mug with water in the box, and microwave it for 30 seconds. If the box is warm, it probably isn't microwave safe (ESPECIALLY if the water is not). If the box is cool and the water is hot, you should be good. I can't provide a proof that this will work 100% of the time, however.

But may I also urge you to switch to glass? It'll save you money, it'll spread less plastic on our planet, and it feels better too.


Chicken has a strong, offensive chemical odor when boiled. I purchase grocery store chicken and boil it for chicken and dumplings, as well as to feed my dog.  It has a strong chemical odor that doesn't go away in spite of seasonings, etc.  How do I get rid of that odor?  I tried soaking it in vinegar, but that didn't help.

I would identify the source of the smell before consuming it. That said, I would certainly not consume any product (or wear it for that matter) that had a strong chemical smell, even if I were able to identify it.

If it's a recurring issue, perhaps it's the allegedly benign carbon monoxide used at some of the bigger stores to preserve meat for lengthier shelf life.  CO itself does not have an odor, but perhaps the meat develops a scent after being on the shelf that long.  I prefer to go to a smaller food chain in my area that does not prepackage the meat. I would find another meat source. There is no reason to have to perform detective work prior to eating food you just paid for. I don't think anything you eat should have an uncertain and questionable smell or taste.


Why adding soda without vinegar to the cake batter? I have this well-rated chocolate cake recipe that I have not baked yet.
It's ingredients (among others) are

175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

My understanding is that soda is needed to make the cake fulffier, and it only works when it is dissolved in vinegar (or there is something acid in the batter, e.g. kefir). And there are no acidic ingredients in this recipe (sunflower oil, self-raising flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar, golden syrup, eggs, semi-skimmed milk).
So what's its purpose here?

Both cocoa powder and milk are acidic, and will be reacting with the soda here. Bicarbonate of soda will react with any acid, not only vinegar.
There is also a process called thermal decomposition, where the soda releases CO2 under high temperature without needing an acid, although less than it would in a reaction with an acid and leaving a compound with an unpleasant flavour. See Wikipedia for more detail:

Heat can also by itself cause sodium bicarbonate to act as a raising
agent in baking because of thermal decomposition, releasing carbon
dioxide at temperatures above 80 °C (180 °F), as follows:[16]
2 NaHCO3 → Na2CO3 + H2O + CO2
When used this way on its own, without
the presence of an acidic component (whether in the batter or by the
use of a baking powder containing acid), only half the available CO2
is released (one CO2 molecule is formed for every two equivalents of
NaHCO3). Additionally, in the absence of acid, thermal decomposition
of sodium bicarbonate also produces sodium carbonate, which is
strongly alkaline and gives the baked product a bitter, "soapy" taste
and a yellow color.

In your recipe, I imagine the soda reacts with the acidic ingredients to avoid this important taste.


First slicing, then cooking, or the other way around? I would like to try out a recipe for a gratin of beets and potatoes. For this I will need sliced potatoes and beets. I always like to cook vegetables for a bit before putting them in the oven to make sure they're done.

Should I first slice the beets and potatoes and then cook them, or the other way around? On the one hand, first slicing feels kind of weird. On the other hand, I'm worried that after cooking, they will be too soft to slice properly. I can't cut the beets in small pieces before cooking (because then the slices will be too small), so the inside will be much harder than the outside as well.

Is there a clever way to do this?

With a gratin, the idea is that the vegetables (traditionally just potatoes) are sliced so thinly that they cook very easily in the cream/cooking liquid while retaining some texture. If you pre-cook the vegetables, they will just disintegrate into a mush during baking.


What causes water to boil over? What are the mechanics of water boiling over? How can you stop it from happening? Is it more likely to happen with certain ingredients? Which? How does the amount of water effect the likelihood of water boiling over? What role does burner temperature have? Will it only occur during a rolling boil?

This is brought up by this comment by MeltedPez in one of the cooking pasta questions:

  The only other argument for using more
  water is that less water is more
  likely to cause the pot to boil over.
  Basically the starch in the pasta
  makes it easier for the water to form
  bubbles that collect and spill over
  when not paying attention. I've found
  that with a very low pasta to water
  ratio can end in a messy kitchen.

This seems very counter intuitive to me initially, as I feel less water should make it harder to boil over the edges.

Adding a starchy substance such as rice or noodles to boiling water increases the surface tension of the water. When it's just plain water boiling the surface tension of the water can't hold back the force of the steam rising and the bubbles burst. Starches increase this surface tension making the bubbles more elastic/pliable (essentially creating a foam), thus requiring more force for them to burst. This makes the bubbles last longer which allows them to build up and eventually boil over.

It's more likely to occur with anything starchy like rice and pasta.

A lower temperature should help to control a boil over as it will allow the water to cool somewhat and slow the boil.

I'd assume that, from your quoted text, that if you use less water you're still imparting the same amount of starch making a thicker solution. More water would dilute this and bring it closer to normal water. In my own experience, small amounts of water allow lots of bubbles to form but nothing really boils over, it just splatters a bit. But reducing temperature and tilting the lid to let some air in has helped me in the past.


For equal volumes water and sugar, what is the ratio of separated volume vs. combined? I'm making a simple syrup with equal parts sugar and water in a glass measuring cup and want to avoid dirtying two measuring cups.

I want to measure one (say standard table sugar,) then add the water.  What should the resulting volume of both be?

Well, after this came up in another question and after realizing data on this was hard to find online, I pulled out my graduated cylinder and tried it myself.

As noted in comments, measuring sugar by volume is very inexact.  I found that simply by pouring sugar into the graduated cylinder and tapping it, I could start with about 110mL and tap it down to about 90mL.  Even without considering other problems like possible clumps in sugar or the fact that different brands of granulated sugar may have different particle size (and thus different densities), this is already a huge source of potential variation.

So, I tried getting a volume of sugar that was about 100mL on average (that is, tapped down to settle slightly, but not completely).  Using 100mL of water and adding this volume of sugar gave me a solution of approximately 158mL.

That means the combined volume of the dissolved sugar-water mixture was about 79% of the combined volume of the original sugar plus water.  Again, I note about a +/-10% variance in sugar density depending on how it is measured, which means the possible range here should be around 76% to 82%, depending on how "settled" the sugar was when I measured it.  This is in close agreement with widebandit's post here that found a ratio of 25 fluid oz. solution to 32 fl. oz. of original ingredients, or about 78%, though just a bit higher than Jeff Axelrod's ratio of 75%.

Maybe someday I'll try this with a few different brands of sugar, but I just thought I'd add one more datapoint that's close to the other answers here, with some information on how much variance to expect.


How to grill eggplant and tomato? I have a infrared oven. I want to use it to grill eggplant and tomato. I have no clue why restaurants can do that so good. Every time I do grill them, it just like to put them into reheat. Any advice?

If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail...  ;-)

You have an infra-red oven and that is great to broil eggplant and tomato, but will not give you anything close to a grilled effect so:

If you want to broil:

slice up the veggies
add a sprinkle of oil and some nice fresh herbs on top
put them in the infra-red oven

If you want to grill them:

buy a grill

Please don't kill the messenger?  Pretty please???


Pros and cons of a brass hip flask I have been considering buying a hip flask for some time now. I have been holding off from getting the cheap varieties because I hear they impart a metallic taste to the alcohol. If I had my druthers, I would get a pewter flask, but I can't justify the cost.

A couple of weeks ago I happened upon a brass flask. The cost is between the cheaper ones and a pewter flask. From this price point, I would assume the quality to be somewhere between the two. I have not been able to find any literature about brass flasks.

Does anyone have some information on them?

I think a lot depends on your use of the flask, but there are some considerations.

Aesthetics: Brass is likely to corrode and/or get a nice patina, so that could be a nice effect. You're not going to get the same effect from a chrome-plated or stainless flask.

Health: Copper, a major compoenent of brass, can be toxic in quantity -- especially with acid contact. You certainly don't want to put anything acidic in the thing -- certainly keep your margaritas and daiquiris away from it! In any case, I wouldn't store beverages of any kind in brass for an extended period due to oxidation or other corrosion. Copper [lined] stills are still common, so it's unlikely that alcohol itself is particularly bad for copper. Further, nothing besides booze is meant for the inside of a flask anyway. :)

Maintenance: Brass will corrode and you'll need to keep it more well-maintained (specifically on the inside) than other materials.

Durability: In my opinion and experience, I have seen cheaper (e.g., chrome-plated) flasks corrode at joints/seams and get at least unsightly and perhaps unhealthy. Brass should be more durable than that, especially if properly joined/brazed.

For my money, I personally like high-quality formed stainless steel... though there are certainly pro/con tradeoffs for stainless also.


How long should I blanch baby peas? I have a recipe which calls for a cup of blanched baby peas.

Now, I know what blanching is. It concerns cooking the outer layer of green vegetables (James Peterson), but how long should I blanch baby peas?

It seems that even a few seconds would cook them all the way through.

15-20 seconds seems to be all it needs for me, and then scoop them up and shock them in iced water to stop them cooking.


How can non-hydrogenated shortening exist? I'm having a hard time looking up this question, but I have some palm oil shortening and I see some coconut oil shortening that are both non-hydrogenated. I thought the oils would be more liquid than solid at room temperature, if they aren't hydrogenated.

Am I confused?

Most vegetable oils are predominantly some type of unsaturated fatty acid - that is, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. This type of fatty acid is a liquid at room temperature ("oil"). On the other hand, saturated fat is a solid at room temperature, which is easily demonstrated with butter or animal fat (lard) - which are primarily what vegetable shortening is supposed to substitute for.

Wikipedia has a breakdown of the various types of oils and the proportions of fat types. What's important to note is that while the majority of oils have little to no saturated fat, palm oil in particular is approximately on par with butter, and coconut oil is actually higher than margarine (the most common hydrogenated vegetable oil product).

In fact I've actually never heard of "coconut [oil] shortening" - the idea baffles me because coconut oil is already quite solid at room temperature. It doesn't need to be processed any further to be used as a substitute for butter or vegetable shortening. It's not quite so simple with palm oil though, and there is a "palm shortening" which is different from palm oil.

Hydrogenation is, in a nutshell, converting unsaturated fat to saturated fat by adding hydrogen. Most of the time the hydrogenation is not 100% complete which also leaves trans fats. Palm oil isn't quite as solid as coconut oil so it does need processing in order to be used as a shortening, but hydrogenation is not required; all that needs to be done is to separate the saturated (solid / stearin) fats from the unsaturated (liquid / olein) fats. This is done through crystallization, which is completely different from hydrogenation.

Some companies may indeed also put the coconut or palm oil products through an emulsification process to add volume or make it easier to work with, but that is entirely incidental; these products are made solid due to the very high amount of pre-existing saturated fat and the removal of all or most of the unsaturated fat.

To sum it all up, it's not hydrogenation that makes fat solid at room temperature, it's saturation (of hydrogen atoms), and hydrogenation just happens to be one way to achieve saturation. For products already containing plenty of saturated fat, hydrogenation would be redundant.


How to deseed a guava? I found guavas in the local Asian store and bought one out of curiosity. While I have had guava juice, I've never eaten the fruit before.

I bit into the fruit only to find my mouth full of hard seeds, which were somehow less convenient to spit out than, say, watermelon seeds.

Seeing that most of the fruit is taken up by the seed-interspersed portion, I don't want to throw it out and only eat the small seedless part between the center and the rind. But spitting everything out is tedious.

Assuming that I want to eat raw guava, is there any trick to getting rid of the seeds more easily?

The only ways I've figured to use the inter-seed pulp is to juice it or mechanically sieve it, such as in a food mill, coarse stainer, or colander.

This article from EHow suggests to blend or process the seed-pulp mixture, possibly with a bit of water, then sieve or strain. It might be possible to blend slowly enough to disrupt the seeds without pulverizing them. It sounds like guava seeds are edible, so if you damage them it's not harmful, but may make straining more tedious or less effective. I use a manual food mill and it works adequately.

If you're going the pure juicing route, see also this previous SA question on how to make guava juice.

I have the same problem with other fruits with similarly tricky seeds, like prickly pear cactus fruit. Pages like this one a rather brute-force (or perhaps "scorched earth") sounding policy of juicing the whole thing.

However, all of those are a little dissatisfying (to me) because they destroy the texture of the flesh, and oxidise even more quickly.


Are carrots safe to eat after they have turned black? I recently got a bag of carrots out of the fridge, and find that most of them had turned black.  What causes this, and are they safe to eat (with or without peeling)?

When carrots turn black, it is almost always caused by rot. I would definitely not eat them.


Can I use an electric smoker without wood chips as an oven to cook a ham? I'm cooking a big dinner. I am wondering if I can use my electric smoker without woods chips like a second oven so I can free up space in oven inside. Will it cook my ham well? I don't want to smoke my ham.

I wouldn't recommend it, but that said your ham by definition has already been cured and all you are really doing is heating it.

Smokers are optimized for smoking meats at a lower temperature than a traditional oven or fire. They use a combination of smoke and water moisture to make great moist smoked meat. You could easily make your own ham by taking a pig's leg bone and "smoking" it with or without wood chips.

You should always use a smoker outside, and not indoors. Why can I have an indoor pizza/wood oven, but not a BBQ or smoker? (or can I...?)

Happy Easter!


What is this powder served with fried dango? While in Japan, my husband got some dango from a street vendor. It was dipped in some kind of sesame-based sauce, and served with a little powder to dip it in on the side:

What is that powder?

There are all kinds of powders served with dango to give them different flavors.  The image you have included looks like kinako (roasted soybean flour) which is traditional, but it could also be peanut butter powder which is a more modern addition to dango.


Drying beef to preserve it without any equipment I have high quality beef muscle meat, beef liver and beef heart. All completely grass fed from healthy animals with clean practices thus I am not that worried about botulism ("Botulism outbreaks occur when animals eat improperly stored or spoiled silage, decaying vegetation, poultry manure, or feed and water contaminated with bird or rodent carcasses.").

Is it possible to air dry thin slices of this meat at home without dehydrator or an oven, in order to preserve it? It's in my apartment so I can't really smoke it.

Simply hanging meat likely won't result in a safe drying environment. The moist, room temperature surface is the environment that bacteria and mold thrive in, which is why holding food at room temperature is considered unsafe.

Alton Brown offers a method for homemade beef jerky without any specialized equipment, but does make use of a box fan and air conditioning filters:

  Evenly distribute the [thinly sliced, marinaded] strips of meat on 3 of the air filters, laying them in the grooves and then stacking the filters on top of one another. Top these with 1 empty filter. Next, lay the box fan on its side and lay the filters on top of it. Strap the filters to the fan with 2 bungee cords. Stand the fan upright, plug it in, and set it to medium. Dry the meat for 8 to 12 hours. (If using a commercial dehydrator, follow the manufacturer’s directions.)

  Once dry, store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 3 months.

Note that deviation from Alton's recipe & method may require additional changes to compensate to make it food safe. For example, changing the marinade may affect cure & dry times.


Homemade fresh garlic dressing fridge life In my dressing I use fresh pressed garlic cloves, apple cider vinegar,  extra virgin olive oil , salt & pepper in a quart jar. How long can I store this safely in the fridge? There is absolutely no mayonnaise.

Really it is dependent on the acidity of the mixture. For example if you were pickling the garlic you could have a shelf life of several months. However using olive oil changes the acidity lowering the shelf life. If I remember correctly, at the last restaurant I worked at we only kept our house made vinaigrette for 7 days.

On a side note, keeping your mixture in the fridge is extremely important in order to avoid botulism which is found in soil and on the surfaces of certain produce.


How long can I keep bread dough in the refrigerator? If I've made some dough and want to bake it later, how long can I store it in the refrigerator? Do I need to do anything special to make that work out? Are there any types of bread it won't work well for?

You can refrigerate all kinds of yeast-bread dough. Right after kneading, before the dough has had a chance to rise, oil the dough lightly, cover with plastic wrap or use a ziplock, and place in the refrigerator. As the dough cools in the refrigerator the action of the yeast will slow down until the dough has reached refrigeration temperature. At that point the yeast is still working, but at a snail's pace. So, during the first few hours in the fridge it may require a punch down or two, as there may still be enough warmth in the dough for the yeast to show active signs of life.

After the dough is completely cool, it may not need anything from you, but still check it at least every 12 hours or so - it may need another punch down. If at any point it grows to close to double it's original size, go ahead and punch it down. Most doughs will be fine if babysat like this for up to 3 or 4 days. When you're ready to bake, punch down the dough again (if necessary), shape, and allow to rise as if it had never taken its little nap in the refrigerator. Of course this rise is going to take longer than non-refrigerated dough as it reaches room temperature, but it should be ready to bake when it looks like a non-refrigerated dough of the same type would look when it's ready to bake. Bake as usual.

I'm sure there are exceptions to the basic rules I've set out, but I've never had a problem doing this with any yeast-bread dough.


Jicama moldy on the outside but white inside, is this safe to eat? My jicama has mold on the outside.
If I cut off the outside part, the inside part looks okay.

Can I still eat it?

Rinse it off after skinning it and you will be fine. mold won't be able to penetrate jicama very far.


How to add alkaline to a drink? I've recently become fascinated by the use of butterfly pea blossoms to add colour to alcoholic drinks. (Yes, I've been watching How To Drink on Youtube). It acts as a natural pH indicator--add lemon juice to blossom-infused gin, and it'll go from purplish-blue to pink.

The thing is, for Reasons I want to do the reverse! I'd like to make a slightly acidic beverage, then elevate the pH, so it turns purple in the glass.

I'm familiar with using e.g. bicarb to elevate pH in savoury cooking--for caramelizing onions, that sort of thing. But I'm concerned about the flavour effects on an alcoholic drink. Are there any edible ways to elevate pH that are flavourless, or would be easily masked by a cocktail?

If there aren't, would an Alka-Seltzer tab provide the right pH reaction? I'm not a chemistry person at all so I'm not sure if the acid-base reaction would provide colour change as well as the bubbles.

ETA: TLDR what I want to do is dye a spirit with butterfly pea blossom, add acid to turn it pink, then at the moment of service add (ideally flavourless) ____________ to turn it purple/blue again.

Thanks in advance, all!

I had a look at the actual scientific paper describing the use of this substance as a pH indicator and a few other blogs, this is the overall advice:

1 - Please make sure that the FINAL pH of the solution is NOT basic-ish. This will not sit well in your customer's stomachs if they consume a full dose of a cocktail (120-150mL) with a final pH of more than 7.5. As I mentioned in the comments, there is a reason why you don't ingest toothpaste. Basic substances also leave a very unpleasant mouthfeel - it is a mix between a very tannin-ish feel and corrosive irritation.

2 - Do NOT add Alka-setzer. One person tried to do that and it ended-up being a gray-white shade, very unappealing for food and/or drinks

3 - There is not enough documentation on the REVERSIBILITY of this process (not all pH indicators are reversible), so you're going to need to experiment with it

4 - Aim for a final pH level of  5-6, this is where the blue color is at its optimal level. I suggest using CaOH (pickling lime / limewater) because that's easy to handle and nearly flavorless. Note that this is used in a lot of clarification processes, so you need to choose mixers that are low in protein so you don't get nasty precipitation when you add your limewater.

Reference:

The Butterfly Pea Flower as a pH Indicator


Unrefrigerated Mashed Bananas: Are they safe to bake with? If mashed bananas are accidentally left on the counter overnight can they still be used for baking?

I hate wasting, so I get why you are asking this, lol!

I agree with "osp"... SMELL it. Sour or fishy or not like banana, well, then your banana bread might taste like something sour or fishy or not like banana.

Easiest solution is to just scoop off the top layer of the mashed banana that was exposed to the air!


Does anyone know the name of this Mexican Breakfast / Brunch dish? I remember eating this delicious breakfast while traveling a long time ago and since it was a to go order, I never really remembered the name.

The dish had eggs (scrambled style) mixed with rice. There may have been tortilla chips but I don't remember if they were mixed or on the side.

There may have been other ingredients and I can't remember them but if someone can point them out it may jog my memory.

Migas possibly?

Scrambled egg fried with strips of tortilla, chopped vegetables, sometimes chopped meats.  Sometimes served with refried beans, that sort of thing.

It is of Spanish origin originally, rather than Mexican - probably the Tex-Mex variant, which is a bit different is what you would encounter.  Rice is included in the recipe in some regions, so entirely possible.


Why is my pizza dough so tough? I'm using Ramsay's recipe from the US version of his Home Cooking book. The recipe is:
4 cups bread or 00 flour
Two 1/4 oz packets of yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp fine sea salt
1/4 cup EV olive oil
1 and 1/3 cup warm water for the yeast

The first few times I've made this I just used AP flour because that was what I had on hand. I bought some bread flour to see how much of a difference I noticed. With the AP flour after about 10 minutes of kneading it gets nice and smooth. But with the bread flour it was tough, rough, and just wouldn't get into a nice consistency. I added water little by little to try to get it right, but it still never became smooth.

Does one need to use more water with bread flour?

(I've only been cooking for about a year, so when things aren't consistent I get confused.)

If I'm understanding correctly, the crust came out okay when you used AP flour, but was more difficult to work with and came out tough when you used bread flour.
So to answer your question, yes, you do need more water when working with bread flour than when working with AP flour. From  Serious Eats  regarding bread flour:

Will it produce a traditional Neapolitan pizza with a super-crisp, airy, and delicate crust? No. But the pizza it does produce is great for its own merits.
Bread flour requires a little more water than most other flours to produce doughs of equivalent viscosity. Because of its high protein content, some people may find bread flour doughs a little difficult to stretch — it has a tendency to bounce back. The key is to make sure that it's well-rested before you being to stretch it.

You may find that the linked article has a lot of good information about different types of flours.
From what I've read, because bread flour is a strong flour, it requires less kneading that AP flour. And a personal observation, regardless of what I am making - biscuits, a loaf of bread, a pizza dough - when I need to add more liquid later in the process rather that at the beginning, it somehow affects the results.
I would say that if you're happy with the results using AP flour, keep using AP flour. If you want to experiment using bread flour, add extra liquid at the beginning and knead less, making sure to rest the dough before forming the crust for baking.
You may also want to try other recipes. The pizza dough (for a thin crust) I make doesn't use any sugar and a very small amount of oil. And I've read that traditional Neapolitan crust uses only flour, water, yeast, and salt.


Bread: Higher rise/coarser crumb I tend to make a starter for my bread, typically a poolish. Sometimes I make ciabatta without a starter. I tend to see the same results either way. I give the starter 10-12 hours, then rise the dough to double(4-8hrs), then form the loaf, then proof to double(30min-2hrs) it before baking at 475F with a few ice cubes in the bottom of the oven.

A few things I suspect:

The flour I use
The temperature of my kitchen(though I always rise to double, not by time)
Not using enough yeast(~1/4tsp in starter + 1/8tsp in dough)
Over proofing
Under proofing
I need to adjust my level of hydration(I noticed my loafs tend to rise out more than up)
Living at high altitude(9,000ft), though I hear this is supposed to increase speed of the rise.
Too little gluten

What would cause my bread to always have a fine crumb? With my ciabatta I feel like its not really ciabatta because its crumb isn't coarse enough. Its more like a dense american style bread with a ciabatta crust. My french bread has the same exact crumb. Its very consistent through out the whole loaf, and I rarely(almost never) find any large holes in the bread.

My bread recipes:

Note: I measure to consistency, so any measurements are going to be crude.

Cibatta:

4c flour
2c water
1/4tsp yeast

Mix warm water (~175-180F), yeast, and a dash of sugar to feed the yeast. Sit for 15min(until water froths). Mix remaining ingredients together. Wet knead dough in bowl till consistent and gluteny. Rise overnight(10-12hrs). Punch down, pour dough out and shape by pulling to a crude oval shape. Proof till doubled(~1-2hrs), rises out not up due to high moisture and no added surface tension. Bake at 500F drop to 475F. Bake until bottom produces a hallow knock.

French bread:

Starter/Poolish

1 1/3C flour
1/4tsp yeast
1C water

Dough

3C flour
1/8tsp yeast
pinch of salt(1/8tsp)

starter:
Mix warm water(175-180F), yeast, and dash of sugar. Sit for 15min(until water froths). Add remaining ingredients. Let stand for 10min to hydrate completely. Mix until smooth. Let sit overnight(10-12hrs).

dough:
Mix flour, yeast, and salt. Add poolish. Mix until consistent. Adjust hydration if to wet/dry(add flour or water). Knead until consistent, firm, and gluteny.

The french bread is a much less hydrated dough. It's not firm like pasta dough, but it can hold its shape unlike the ciabatta. The ciabatta just spreads out on its own, but holds together enough to be picked up(carefully).

A few rules for bread with big holes:

You need a good gluten network, so:

Use bread/strong flour or add a spoonful gluten to all-purpose and be generous with the water.
Do not knead (or at least as little as possible) after the first rise. Consider the stretch-and-fold technique instead. Give the gluten time to develop. (The alternative to mechanical kneading). There is a reason baguette dough is made one or more days prior to baking - a refrigerator is your friend here.

You want to keep the bubbles that have formed during the first rise, so:

Do not punch down your dough. Punching down is done to ensure even, small holes, exactly the opposite if what you want in this case.
For baguette, you need surface tension without much "rolling with flat hands" (like you would for a log of cookie dough). So shape it by first rolling it up to a fat cylinder (seal the seam), resting a bit to relax, then stretching the dough carefully over your thumb (positioned along the long edge) and sealing. Rest in a floured linnen cloth pulled up between the loaves. This video shows a few different methods.
For chiabatta, you simply pour the dough on your well-floured work surface, cut into pieces, rest and bake. Chiabatta is typically flat - not higher that two or three fingers wide. Lack of surface tension doesn't allow it to go higher.


What's a good substitute for onion for someone with an onion allergy? I am an allium lover with a strong allergy to all alliums. It is technically a sensitivity, as it isn't an instant reaction, but spending an hour in the bathroom because of one stray piece of red onion warrants a scarier word then "sensitivity". For those not familiar with plant taxonomy, alliums are the plant family that holds garlic, onions, chives, and leeks.

My allergy is progressively getting stronger and I can no longer lie to myself. I need a good substitute for that fantastic allium taste. Right now I can still eat garlic in reasonable amounts (thank god), but red onions are out, and everything else from white onions to leeks is somewhere in between. Any and all preparations of allium trigger the allergy, so no onion powder.

I am desperately looking for a non-allium onion substitute. My hope and dream is something that tastes like onion but isn't an allium. I would accept any strongly flavoured class of plants to switch addictions to.

The perfect solution to you - Use the Indian spice called "Asafoetida" or "Hing". It gives a taste which is very much like Onion and Garlic - In fact, stricter practitioners of Hinduism are not allowed to eat onion and garlic (as supposedly they cause mental agitation). Thus, traditional Hindu (Vedic) cooking uses Asafoetida as a subsitute for onion in Indian recipes which almost invariably call for the use of onions.

The spice gives off a slightly funky smell (I like it, but most people describe it as bad), but tastes great. It is easily available in powdered form in Indian grocery stores - and usually comes in small containters such as this:

It has a VERY strong taste, so put a very small amount of it - about a 1/4 of a teaspoon for a dish that's meant or 4 people. Usually in Indian cooking it is quickly fried to get rid of the "raw" taste. I am not sure how well it tastes in salads, you'd have to experiment with it.


Does a long marinade time matter for chicken, shrimp, etc? I have no doubt that a long marinade makes a difference for coarsely striated meats like beef, pork, lamb and some fish.  But I've got my doubts that marinating, say, chicken or (peeled) shrimp for several hours makes any substantial improvement over a brief marinating of 15 minutes or so.  It doesn't seem to me that the marinade penetrates the meat deeply and rather simply coats it.  If you use a dark marinade you can see this with beef, pork and lamb.  The longer you marinate, the deeper you can see it penetrate.  But not so with chicken and shrimp.  I see no evidence a long marinade makes any difference.

Am I wrong?

No marinade penetrates very deeply in unless:

The marinade is quite salty, as the salt can diffuse past cell membranes into the meat
The marinade contains an active enzyme or acidic component which will denature the meat over time, allowing deeper penetration

Marination is by its very nature a surface treatment, although one that can add considerable flavor.

Kenji Alt at Serious Eats says (in regards to flank steak):

  In reality, a marinade is mostly a surface treatment, and not much
  benefit lies in marinating for more than half a day or so. If you'd
  like the flavor of the marinade to completely coat your meat, your
  best bet is to reserve some marinade and simply toss your meat with it
  after it has been cooked and sliced.

I am more partial to the dry rub or wet rub myself.

See also:

Washington Post article
New York Times Article
UGA Thesis on Vacuum Marination Penetration
Amazing Ribs with experiment showing limited penetration into beef


up scaling cake recipe and increasing pan size How is baking time and/or temperature adjusted when scaling up a cake recipe from a 9x13 pan to a full sheet pan?

For 9x13 cakes, typically the batter is thicker. So you want to cook a little longer at a lower temperature to make sure that the inside gets cooked without burning the outside.

For a sheet pan, typically cooking is done at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time. If you cook too long at the lower temp it runs the risk of drying out.

If you were using the same amount of batter and just making a thinner cake, like I do, I would recommend increasing the temperature of the over by 25 to 50F (depending on the recipe you use), and start checking after about 15 minutes in the oven.

However, if the sheet pan batter ends up with the same thickness as the 9x13, don't change the temp or cooking time.

Time is tricky - since there can be hot/cold spots, I would cook 5-7 minutes, rotate the pan 180 degree, then cook another 5-7 and start checking. Make sure the cake springs back, and isn't doughy in the middle (no wiggling).

Best resource I have for cakes: Baking, by James Peterson


How should I prepare dried chickpeas? I've never used dried chickpeas before, but I'm not wanting for chickpea recipes. The bag of dried chickpeas I got contains no instructions for cooking. I know that I need to soak them in water for a period X and then cook them for a period Y. I could not find conclusive answers for what X (varies from 4 to 24 hours) and Y (varies from 40m to 2h) should be.

So what I need to know is:

how long should I soak them before cooking?
how long should I cook them?
are there other things to take into account (like adding salt when soaking, but not when cooking, or the other way around)?

Chick peas (garbanzo beans) are amongst the slowest of pulses to soak and cook I find.

It depends what is happening to them afterwards and how old they are as to the required process.  If you need them in a canned state, then I would suggest a long soak, 24 hours is not unreasonable and I think at least an hour and a half cooking time.  Longer soaks do bring down the cooking time till soft, if you only soak them for a few hours they would need a lot longer cooking.

An issue is that they tend to split if overcooked heavily, so it may be worth trying a few towards the end of cooking time, at least in your fingers for texture.

Certain dishes like falafel I have seen asking for slightly undercooked chick peas, but generally you want them holding their shape and providing slight resistance, not mushy.

Some people advocate adding bicarbonate of soda to the soaking water, as this speeds up the process.  It does, you can get away with 12 hours, but imparts a bitterness to them which I think is worth avoiding with a longer soak.

As for salt, there are many schools of thought on this, most people advocate adding salt right at the end to avoid undue hardness.  That's all very well, but then they do not benefit that much from it.  I would suggest a happy medium, half way through cooking perhaps.  As I say, it depends what you are doing with them, sometimes a more firm bean is desirable with chick pea dishes.

Having said all that, chick peas are one of the beans that I almost always buy tinned, though it is worth trying different brands to find a good one.


How can I cook a perfect deep-fried Mars bar? I've seen on Internet the description of deep-fried Mars bar (dish originated at chip shops in Scotland), and I wonder how can I do it at home.

The trick is to chill the Mars bar in a fridge for a few hours before cooking.

Prepare a batter mix (the kind you deep fry fish in) and get your oil heated to temperature. Here's a batter recipe I've used before:

  Basic Fish Batter (Delia Smith Online)

(You can't fault Delia!)

You can use sparkling water to introduce more bubbles into the batter which gives it a nice texture.

Remove the Mars Bar from the fridge and immediately coat in the batter and cook in the oil right away. Cook until the batter is golden and serve with a scoop of ice-cream.

You can also do this with Snickers bars. It's also worth trying with miniature Mars and Snickers bars.

As a Scotsman I must apologise for inflicting this culinary delight on the rest of the world :)


Why using low temperature cooking for potatoes? I saw somewhere a recipe for using souse vide at 90C for potatoes. I understand low temperature/long time  cooking technics are for tenderizing meat. What is the rationale of using low temperature cooking with potatoes?

Cooking times are related to the type of tissue. A potato is a part of a plant, but an unusual one, an asexual bud.

A potato is not a stem or leafy part of a plant, so it's not a vegetable. It contains no seeds, so it is not a fruit.  It lacks the protection of an external fruit sheath, and it isn't a fertilized ovum, so it isn't an underground seed like a peanut (legume) even though it can grow into a plant separated from it's parent.  It isn't a thickened root like a carrot. It's a thin-skinned tuber with a very high and available starch content and low cellulose content compared to vegetables, fruits, stems, root and seeds.

The low cellulose content means that less heat is needed to break down the cell walls. The high starch content means that there is a short time between the cell walls breaking down, the starch quickly becoming available in large quantity and the starch binding with water to link into longer molecules, the reverse of what happens to meat protein that is gradually broken down during cooked.

Lowering the cooking temperature increases the cooking time and the brief window of opportunity for removing the product from heat at the desired texture.


Prevent brioche buns from spreading during rise I am trying to work out how to make the perfect brioche bun for burgers.

I followed the Pink Whisk recipe, but that had a few problems.

The main one was that the buns spread wide during the rise, rather than up. This is a problem I have had before with bread bun recipes.

How can I ensure that my buns rise up, and not sideways?

If you had the same problem with different recipes, it's probably caused by technique. The key to round buns is surface tension. If the skin is taut, the expanding gas will cause the bun to expand like a balloon instead of "flowing" sideways.

When shaping your buns, make sure you create tension by either repeatedly folding the outer edge inwards or by using a rotating movement with a cupped hand - the base of your thumb and your pinky press lightly onto the dough ball while swirling it around. Do not use much flour (if any at all), because the dough should stick ever so slightly to the work surface. If you turn the now round bun over, you should ideally see a "spiral" on the bottom and the skin of the bun is pretty tight:

A video incuding slow-motion can be found here, for example.

If you find this too complicated, use your standard "fold under" method and repeat until the skin is taut.


Why is orange juice or apple juice added in a smoothie? I currently have strawberries, bananas and yogurt in my fridge and this got me thinking about the Strawberry-Banana Julius from Orange Julius. Previously I've made smoothies with strawberries, bananas, yogurt, milk and a light dash of sugar.

I know most places add in some orange juice or apple juice. What does the addition of orange juice or apple juice do to the smoothie? Does it amplify the flavor of the strawberries and/or bananas?

How much would someone suggest adding if I do not want the juice flavor to overpower the smoothie?

Thank you!

Apple juice will give you very little additional taste, but it will sweeten your smoothie. Especially filtered apple juice has a rather subtle flavor which is easily covered by other fruit flavors. Juice producers use this to make their juices cheaper - if a juice advertises 100% fruit, and a flavor from an expensive, non-juicy fruit like strawberries, it is usually a blend of a small amount of strawberry juice and a large amount of apple juice (this is not fraud, the ingredients are listed on the package if you care to read it). Apple juice is normally made from low-acid apples, and it tastes quite sweet, so it is useful not only for bulking, but also for sweetening blends made with sour juices like elderberry, cranberry, etc. In a smoothie, it will have the same effect as in a juice blend, plus a diluting effect, as it is less viscous than your other ingredients. It won't amplify the flavor of the smoothie, it will even reduce it, as sugar tends to suppress other flavors in general. But the reduction won't be too big, and you might find the overall result better if you are accustomed to heavily sweetened food. You can also remove the sugar if you use apple juice - I wouldn't put it there anyway, even without juice.

Orange juice is much more acidic than apple juice, and it has a stronger aroma. It will add an orange flavor to your smoothie. I would count this as an advantage, because orange flavor goes especially well with bananas and is OK with strawberries too. It will also make the smoothie taste more sour, and again dilute it. Overall, the effect will be pleasant. As for what constitutes "overpowering" the taste, I think this is subjective. You should just experiment, adding a the juice in small proportions, until you have achieved the ratio which tastes good for you.


Why does soda bread preserve less well than sourdough or yeast based bread? Most soda bread recipes I've come across (for example, this one) say something along the lines of "best eaten the day it's prepared", "will keep for a day" or similar. This is not the case for most sourdough or yeast based breads. So, why does soda bread preserve less well than other bread types?

The only major difference between the two is moisture, soda bread tends to be wetter than yeast breads, more like a cake than a yeast bread in many ways. Bread gets stale partly because of the action of moisture, and mold needs moisture as well, so because soda bread is more moist than many yeast breads it will get stale and moldy faster than most yeast breads.

Keep in mind that just about all breads no matter how they are leavened are best eaten fresh, although they will keep for several days. This includes soda breads, which will keep for much longer than a single day. Stored properly you should get 3-4 days out of it. So the recipes saying that soda bread will keep for a day are not really that accurate.


Substituted for Angustura bitters in a lentil recipe? I have a recipe for Lentil Soup that calls for 3 drops Angustura bitters.  What can I use as a substitute?

If you are keen on incorporating the flavor profiles of the Angostura bitters try putting a bit of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. When cooking the alcohol content will evaporate either way, so the only thing you're really after is the herbal taste of the beverage. Hope that helps :)


What's the difference between a souffle and a mousse? I thought souffles would be baked, while mousses would be only whipped, but I've seen recipes for cooked mousses before. Is this just a case of using the wrong name for the wrong recipe or are there important differences between them?

There is no strict delineation between these two terms.  Either can be savory or sweet.

Some common differences are:

Mousses may get their foaminess from  from plain whipped egg whites, a meringue, whole eggs, whipped cream, or  something else; a souffle is always leavened by whipped egg whites.
Mousses (except for some seafood mousses, which are gently poached) are rarely cooked as a whole dish; souffles are always baked to get additional rise.
Mousses are almost always served cold; souffles are usually served hot, immediately out of the oven to retain the additional rise they get in the heat of the oven.

One might consider souffles a type of baked mousse, much as quiches are a specific type of tart, but that terminology is rarely used.

See also:

Ochef