What to do with leftover crumb topping? After making an apple crostata, I was left with a lot of leftover crumb topping. The topping is delicious and I could eat it by itself ;) But since it includes raw flour, I'd rather find a more sophisticated and easy on my stomach solution. Do any of you have any creative ideas that involve using crumb topping without baking another pastry? :)

The ingredients of my topping are:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 stick cold unsalted butter

I probably have 1/3 left.

If you really don't want to bake anything else, you could bake the crumb on it's own. I'd be sure to put it on parchment or a silpat to avoid it sticking to the surface below. Bake it at 350F or so until it's browned. Once it's baked, it should last a while as long as it's stored in an airtight container. It would probably be good as an ice cream topping?


Are the rolls at 'Ryans' or 'Golden Corral' a style of bread? I've been looking for a recipe online to replicate the rolls you'd find at a 'Ryans' or 'Golden Corral'. I've tried several that sound promising, only to have them turn out tasting like another type of bread. Everyone seems to have the general consensus that they're yeast rolls, but those come in many forms.

I recently tried a recipe that sounded promising, because it had sugar in it and I know that they are a little sweet. However, when I cooked them, they tasted like the 'Parkerhouse' rolls and the texture wasn't correct. It's like if you squeezed these, they'd almost crumble, where they ones I want will almost mold into your hand when you squeeze them. I'll try to include a picture in this post.

My question is what makes this bread the way it is? Is it a style of bread, is it the manner in which its cooked, like with a water bath or something, or would it be the ingredients that affected this aspect.

These are delicious rolls, several restaurants have them, so it's not a secret recipe, and I'd like to narrow down my search for the correct recipe.

Here is a pic of the ones I'm talking about:

Here is a link to a page on Ellen's Kitchen  with copycat recipes for the rolls from Ryan's, Golden Corral, and Logan's Roadhouse.

I have not tried these recipes yet but I found it interesting how different they are.


Can you really keep feta for 3 months in a milk bath? I just came across some instructions on how to store feta cheese, mentioning you can keep it for about 3 months in the fridge in a brine or milk bath:

Store the cheese in a brine or milk bath if you do not intend to use it for a long period of time. A milk bath will result in a creamier, softer taste, while brine will add depth to the cheese and retain its pleasant saltiness. To make brine, mix 1 lb. of kosher salt in 1 gallon of water.

Place the feta into an airtight container and cover it with the brine or milk.

Cover the container with a lid and store it in the refrigerator to keep it fresh for up to three months.

From: http://www.ehow.com/how_6496964_store-feta-cheese.html

A similar claim is stated here:

If you will not be consuming it immediately, store feta cheese in a brine or milk bath. The milk bath will reduce the saltiness and help keep the cheese moist and mild in flavor. Properly stored in brine or milk and refrigerated, feta cheese will last up to 3 months. Feta cheese is not a candidate for freezing.
From: http://homecooking.about.com/od/cheeseinformation/a/fetatips.htm

I can believe the feta will keep that long in the brine, given the pound of salt that goes in. But I'm more skeptical about the milk bath. Wouldn't the milk spoil a lot sooner and affect the feta too? Or does enough salt leak out of the feta to act as a preservative for the milk as well? Or is the idea simply that you regularly replace the milk (though the instructions don't mention this)? Does anyone have any experience with this?

I'm not sure when that about.com article was written, but if it was posted less than about about 8 months ago, it may have plagarized The Culinarian: A Kitchen Desk Reference by Barbara Ann Kipfer. In that, Kipfer provides "Hints" after the description of what feta is (p. 224-225; you can view it on Google Books):

  Consumers who dislike feta's salty taste may soak the cheese in fresh water to leach out some of the salt...Feta cheese is best when eaten fresh, so always check the date. If you will not be consuming it immediately, store feta cheese in a brine or milk bath in the refrigerator. The milk bath will reduce the saltiness and help keep the cheese moist and mild in flavor. Properly stored in brine or milk and refrigerated, feta cheese will last for up to three months. Feta cheese is not a candidate for freezing. Barrel-aged feta sold straight from the barrel may be wrapped in lightweight paper, then wrapped in a plastic bag or plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator. Keep the feta in paper, even when the paper gets soggy from the cheese moisture.

Emphasis is mine to show you that the bit about the milk bath matches about.com's article word for word.

Since The Culinarian was published by Wiley & Sons, a reputable publisher that puts out a lot of textbooks and academic and trade journals, I would assume that it was properly fact-checked. Given that Kipfer talks about salt leaching out into regular water and the milk bath reducing the saltiness of the cheese, I would guess that there's a strong chance enough salt leaches into the milk bath to act as a preservative.

Take all this with a grain of salt, though (no pun intended); I've never tried keeping feta in a milk bath myself.


Stir fry sauce quantity I am trying to create written instructions for making stir fry for some rather inexperienced cooks to follow. One dilemma that I'm having is describing the amount of sauce to use. How would you quantify the best ratio of sauce to vegetables? For instance, how many cups of sauce to coat 10lbs of vegetables?

If we were going to keep the sauce to reuse at a later date, I would just make a big batch and then having the cooks use their judgement on how much to use. We can't really keep the sauce, however, and I'm not sure I necessarily trust the cooks' judgement either (sadly!)

The "best" ratio of sauce depends on:

The type of vegetables;
The type of sauce;
The quantity of solid food;
Time spent cooking;
Personal preference.

I've made some stir fries with no sauce at all (technically a stir-fry only needs oil) and some with extra sauce, particularly if they're intended to be eaten with bland white rice.  I know you say you can't trust their judgment, but to some degree, you're really going to have to, because there are too many variables to pin it down to a golden ratio.

At the end of the day you're trying to get an even coat on the vegetables (or meat, or whatever) - the thickness of that is again dependent on personal preference.  But even if you make that decision for them, the main ratio affecting the end result isn't based on the weight of the food, or even its volume - it's based on surface area, which is nigh on impossible to measure and guaranteed to be inconsistent between specific preparations.

Stir-fry sauce is extremely cheap to make.  It's pennies per cup.  If you make too much, you can always cook it down, so if you have to pick a number, it's better to err on the side of caution and make too much as opposed to too little.  You can always supplement the real sauce with soy sauce, teriyaki, etc., but that's not the same as a proper stir-fry sauce thickened with tapioca and flavoured with sesame oil and so on.

So pick a number that seems a little high, and instruct the cooks to let it reduce if it seems watery.  They'll be using high heat, so it won't take long to reduce, and the net effect is positive anyway (a stickier, more flavourful sauce).

Personally, I always find 1 generous cup of sauce to be more than enough for a standard-size (14") wok filled with meat and vegetables, assuming it's the kind of stir-fry that you want to be reasonably "saucy", and also assuming it is thickened properly; if you dump a full cup of pure soy sauce in there, you'll just end up with vegetable soup.  I literally use a coffee mug and never measure any of the ingredients, and the difference between one preparation and the next isn't particularly noticeable.

So start with that as a guideline and test the recipe yourself, if you can.  Unless you have extremely precise control over the quantity and quality of the raw ingredients in addition to a precise and well-tested sauce recipe, you won't be able to come up with a reliable ratio.  It's not a question of trust, just practicality; Asian cooking is (at least in my experience) very loosey-goosey and doesn't lend itself well to precise recipes - or inexperienced cooks.


What's the name of this Indian dish I had? I had a dish recently at an Indian restaurant called Andhra(?) chicken.
It was written in marker so I'm not sure about the h in there.

The dish consisted of breaded pieces of chicken that were fried and then seemingly cooked in some spice mixture definitely containing:

green chili
egg
curry leaves
fennel seed
cumin?

I tried looking up Andhra chicken online but all the recipes seem to have some sort of sauce component to it, while this dish was definitely dry.

Does anyone have any idea what that dish could have been, and where I can find a recipe online for it?

I guess that you have tasted chicken 65, which is a dish from Andhra Pradesh. Chicken 65 is also known as Andhra chicken. It is fried and coated with spices. You can Google chicken 65 recipe. I hope my guess for that may right.


Why does string cheese taste different when pulled apart than when bitten? I enjoy string cheese, and there's definite tactile enjoyment in pulling it apart into thin strands and then eating them. I've found, however, that the taste when I pull it apart is clearly different from the taste when I just bite off a hunk; the thin strands taste saltier than the bulk cheese, which in contrast is somewhat bland.

Why is there a difference in flavor when the basic material is exactly the same?

All your doing by seperating it into strands is exposing more surface area. So when you put it in your mouth you experience a sudden "big" taste sensation. If you chew it your exposure to the taste doesn't come in such a big "rush".


Can Chick Peas take over two hours to cook? I have been cooking Chick Peas for 2 hours, and they still feel too hard to enjoy. (I did soak them for 24 hours before that).

Can that be? They have been sitting in my pantry for some years, would that affect them? (They look and taste perfectly fine, just won't get soft)

Edit: I checked of course on the recipe and the internet - they all say 1 1/2 hours. So what could I have been doing wrong?

They sound like they've been around too long.  Check use by date on bag to be safe.


Fudge didn't set after doing it twice I cooked the fudge and it didn't set. I recooked it to the temperature it was suggested but I think I added too much cream when I recooked it. It's the consistency of soft caramel after letting it set overnight. What can I do?

Soft caramel fudge sounds totally edible to me. Enjoy it and try again another time. When you do, test the thermometer in boiling water to make sure that it's still accurate. And, double check the fudge using the "soft ball" test. Set up a juice glass of ice water. Dip your spoon in the heated chocolate, let a drop fall into the ice water and examine it. If the chocolate has reached "soft ball stage", the drop of chocolate will be sitting at the bottom like a little chocolate ball. If the chocolate has a teardrop shape, or seems "loose", then the chocolate is not hot enough yet.
Don't give up. Fudge can be finicky. Something as simple as the wrong pan can make things go awry. (note: My Father always used a heavy thick pan, like a porcelain coated cast iron, when he made fudge.)


How to place nuts on top of the cake so that they stay symmetrically? I am making a Christmas plum cake and I like to decorate the top of the cake with cashew nuts. I place them in a circle, touching each other and touching the wall of the pan. But after baking is done, nuts have moved about, destroying the nice circle. I also tried by arranging them in circle touching the wall but not touching each other. Still not maintaining circle. And I can see factory made cakes of same type having cashew nut decorations. How can I get the decorations proper?

Many cakes have the nuts applied after cooking, held down with some sort of glaze. That will keep them where you put them so long as the top is reasonably flat. It will also prevent them burning, as nuts are often used to top cakes that cook for quite a long time.

If nuts are going to be baked on top of a cake, I'd expect to need a dense recipe that doesn't rise much, as the rising will be what causes them to move. The classic Dundee cake (which uses almonds) is such a cake.

This Dundee cake recipe takes an interesting approach: the nuts are added when the cake is part way through cooking. You couldn't do this with a sponge cake, or it would sink, but a more robust cake, cooked slowly, apparently works.


How efficient is stock for protein extraction? Proteins from collagen and tissues thicken stock. Fat is rendered too. Since fat settles to the surface after refrigeration, I assume that you can extract most or all of the fat through skimming chilled stock or with a gravy separator. That means that stock can be mostly a liquid protein, like a low calorie protein shake substitute.

My question is how efficient this extraction should be. If I made stock from 2kg of chicken thighs which have Xg protein and Xg fat, what fraction of that protein actually winds up in the stock if cooked in an optimal fashion? (and what is such an optimal fashion?) Are certain fats emulsified in the stock which cannot be skimmed? I have consulted online guides to stock nutrition facts and looked at supermarket varieties, but as we all know, those are thin soupy broths that don't congeal.

From Harlod McGee's "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen":

  The muscles that make up meat are mainly water and the protein fibers
  that do the work of contraction, which are not dispersable in water.
  The soluble and dispersable materials in muscle include about 1% by
  weight of collagen, 5% other cell proteins, 2% amino acids and other
  savory molecules, 1% sugars and other carbohydates, and 1% minerals,
  mainly phosphorus and potassium. Bones are around 20% collagen, pig
  skin around 30%, and cartilaginous veal knuckles up to 40%. Bones and
  skin are thus much better sources of gelatin and thickening power than
  meat. However, they carry only a small fraction of the other soluble
  molecules that provide flavor. (pg 598)

Accordingly, that 7% (5% + 2%) may be considered the upper bound for protein extraction, which will obviously depend on the specifics of the meat and cooking process. McGee then goes on to discuss the proper process for extraction, starting with cold water gradually heated:

  The cold start and slow heating allow the soluble proteins to escape
  the solids and coagulate slowly, forming large aggregates that either
  rise to the surface and are easily skimmed off, or settle onto the
  sides and bottom. A hot start produces many separate and tiny protein
  particles that reamin suspended and cloud the stock; and a boil churns
  particles and fat droplets into a cloudy suspension and emulsion. (pg 599)

This also indicates that the the amount of emulsified fat will depend greatly on on the cooking process in addition to the fat content of the original ingredients. (I haven't been able to find much on differences in the extraction process for different animal fats.)


How do you make General Tso's chicken as generally found in the Eastern USA? I realize this is a recipe request, but I'm hoping that the supplemental information will be enough to let it through. I also realize it's rather localized and apologize to all of those who don't know what I'm on about.

So, I am a huge fan of General Tso's chicken. I grew up on the east coast of the USA in the DC/VA area. Every dish of General Tso's was more or less the same: breaded deep fried chicken, a spicy, thick, reddish brown sauce with a hint of sweetness, chili peppers, sesame seed, and  broccoli.

Since moving to Chicago I have been unable to find this style of General Tso's. Out here the sauce is runny, brown, sickly sweet, and barely spicy. They also put all kinds of random crap (vegetables) that I don't want in there. I've tried this dish in L.A., Seattle, and Phoenix and it's all similarly gross. I've even had one where the chicken wasn't breaded!

The dish I want to know how to make looks like this:

I realize D.C./VA is a rather specific area, but since this dish originated in New York City, I imagine that it didn't get butchered much migrating 200 miles south. So, while I haven't had NYC General Tso's I imagine that it's quite similar, or at least much closer than the mess I have out here in the midwest.

Update

I'd prefer first-hand knowledge to a top 3 Google hit.

Many restaurants actually serve a "light" version of the Tso sauce, and I have a pretty strong feeling that's what you're used to.

To make the light version, you use 3x the corn starch and add 1/2 cup of the base liquid (usually chicken broth).

The hint of sesame almost certainly came from toasted sesame oil, my favourite "secret ingredient" that goes into just about every Asian stir-fry.

To get a more consistent flavour for the sauce, instead of using "minced" garlic, you might want to grate it using a fine rasp, if you have one.  This will definitely help to bring out the flavour of the garlic and subsequently the spiciness of the sauce.

Grated orange zest is another common additive, and although it's traditionally labeled as a different recipe ("General Tso's Chicken with Orange"), some restaurants sneak it into the regular recipe.  If you remember any hint of orange, try adding about 1 tsp of this.

Finally, if we're trying to recreate a recipe from an American Chinese restaurant, it's very likely they used some MSG.  You can leave it out, but we all know how much of a flavour enhancer it is.

I don't actually have an exact recipe kicking around, but adapting these changes to the "traditional" recipe, it should look something like this:

1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 tbsp rice wine or sherry (to taste)
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp MSG (optional)
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp tapioca flour or corn starch
6-10 dried red chilies
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp grated or finely minced garlic

I'm going to skip the ingredients and preparation for the fried chicken itself, since that's pretty straightforward and no different from any of the "normal" Tso recipes.  So let's assume that part has already been done.  Here's how I'd make the sauce and finish it off:

Combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, sugar, [MSG], and rice vinegar.  Make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved.
Add tapioca to the soy sauce mix and dissolve.
Heat a few tbsp of oil in your wok and start frying up the chilies.  The longer you fry them, the hotter the final dish will be, so adjust the timing to taste.  Many restaurants skimp here, and either don't use enough chilies or don't fry for anywhere near long enough.  You're looking for a deep, dark red, almost black colour for optimum heat.
Add the soy sauce / tapioca mix, garlic and ginger, and stir.
Once thickened, add the chicken and serve with the broccoli.  (You most likely got it steamed, that's how it looks in the picture, although my choice would be to stir-fry it with some red pepper flakes.)

I can't promise you that this will be identical to what you got in the restaurants, as I haven't been to those restaurants, but hopefully this sounds a lot closer to what you had than the garbage you traditionally find in lower-end restaurants and on recipe sites.

Update: After reading some of the results of this experiment, I would add the following (better late than never, right?):

The above ratio of starch to water will result in a very thick, almost paste-like consistency.  That's intentional, but if you want something more "saucy", i.e. to put on rice, then don't triple the starch, especially if you're using tapioca.  2 tbsp should be sufficient.  At the same time, keep in mind that it's always easier to dilute a sauce that's too thick than it is to thicken it in the wok once it's already hot.
If you're finding that it's still not spicy enough (I, too, like my spicy dishes blazing hot), then try including any or all of the following in the sauce:

1 tsp chili oil
1 tsp hot chili sauce (proper chili sauce like sriracha, not tabasco)
2-3 fresh red chilies, cut into rings, with seeds (caution: very hot)


How to use Bones in Soups? I have now a pile of chicken bones and I have heard they can be useful in making some food. How should I preserve them and where can I use them? Should I cut them into pieces and throw them into a new soup? What is their purpose in the soup? Flavor or something else? I am always looking for ways to cut my costs so any budget-cooking ideas welcomed!

I will outline here ways how I can cut my costs with bones:

According to Wikipedia, bones are a good source of calcium with acid boiling:

  A study determined that "prolonged cooking of a bone in soup increases
  the calcium content of the soup when cooked at an acidic, but not at a
  neutral pH".

so putting some acid there (lemon juice or something else?) I can cut my milk costs, sounds great.

more ideas like this? How should the internals be handled?

Notice how dogs enjoy gnawing on bones?  Ever been to a restaurant where they serve bone marrow?

Boiling bones in water draws flavor out of them.  Most canned broth and stock you buy--beef stock, chicken stock, etc--is just this--water boiled with bones for hours.

Most literature I've read suggests using raw bones, but some recipes call for roasted bones--the ones I've seen most often involve roasted veal bones.

I've also made stock from roasted chicken bones.  The stock does still take on flavor.  It's easier to get good flavor from unused bones, though.

Additionally, I've found another pitfall.  I've tried to make stock from the leftover bones of bbq'd ribs.  This was not a good idea.  The broth had a savory flavor, as intended.  Unfortunately it also had the background taste of bbq sauce.  Now, when I do make stocks, I'd consider using leftover bones, but

there have to be enough bones leftover (otherwise I get very little stock for my time or it's weak on flavor)
the bones can't be "tainted" by other flavors (like bbq sauce)

To answer your original question, try this:

start with a pot of plain water
put about 4 lb of bones in per gallon of water while it's still cold, add ~1 tsp of vinegar per gallon of water
Once the water comes to a boil, lower the heat so that it's just simmering

this keeps the stock from getting cloudy/white (which doesn't taste bad, just looks worse)

leave boiling for about 6-8 hours, minimum.  Longer is fine, but you won't get too much more at this point.
turn off heat, allow stock to cool fully, strain it for the bones, refrigerate

you can speed up this step by putting the pot in a sink full of cool water
do NOT put a hot pot in your fridge.  It will heat up the fridge significantly and just make the food in there go bad.

Use this to

make soups
make sauces (reduce it first)
as a substitute for water in savory dish preparations (i.e. make rice with stock instead of water.  Be creative here)

The main benefits here are flavor and nutrients, but I just do it for the flavor.  Cutting bones up does improve the extraction process, but if the marrow is exposed already (most beef/veal bones will be) you're fine.  If you save old bones, freeze them until you have enough.  Don't bother trying to make stock with the bones from one chicken.


Are there any vegetarian-friendly egg substitutes that can be used in cakes? I spent about 2 1/2 years as a lacto-ovo vegetarian but, I gave up eggs in October. The problem is that I really like cake. Unfortunately, the cake recipes that I've found that don't use eggs produce very dense cakes. Is there a way around this?

Yes, there are multiple substitutes.
I can't explain it myself any better than here, but I have tried to summarize it:

The best substitute for egg in a dish depends on the dish itself (because the function of the egg isn't the same in every dish). As a general rule, the fewer eggs a recipe calls for, the easier they will be to substitute. Also consider how the substitute will affect the overall taste of the finished dish.

Possible substitutes:

Bananas and/or apple sauce (not flavourless, baked goods such as muffins, pancakes or yeast-free quick breads, especially banana bread; if you want something fluffy, make sure to add a bit of baking powder)
(Silken) Tofu (flavourless, best* substitute for quiche, fritatta or egg salad, can work in 'heavy baked goods' such as brownies or pancakes, doesn't work well in fluffy dishes; add bit of mustard, turmeric or nutritional yeast if you want the same colour as you would have used real eggs; I advice you to search for recipes that use tofu in stead of egg in the first place, as other recipe adaptations can be required)
Ener-G egg replacer (flavourless, works best* in baked goods, it can also act as a binder; if you chose to use a different brand, be careful to read the ingredient list, as some may contain egg white)

Less common substitutes (though I'm not sure if/how they work):

Flax seeds
Soda
Bread crumbs or oats (for savory dishes)

*) In the opinion of the site, I have no experience with it.


Quantity of rapid rise yeast vs regular yeast in bread machine How much instant, rapid rise yeast should I use when my bread machine recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons of regular dry yeast?

Google returned this link with the following conversion:

"...1 tsp Active Dry = 2/3 tsp Instant (100% Active Dry = 66% Instant)

1 tsp Instant = 1 1/2 tsp Active Dry (100% Instant = 150% Active Dry)

You can substitute one for the other in any recipe. Remember that active dry must be dissolved in a small amount of lukewarm water before you use it...."


How to do English breakfast at home I have been a week in London and I enjoyed the English breakfast: scrambled egg, bacon, sausage, toasted bread, warm tomato (I skipped the beans as I shouldn't eat them).

Now, how can I do it at home, in Italy (with local bacon and sausages), for a single serving? I really need a step by step comprehensive guide, as I tried to do a couple of time egg and bacon with an awful result. I assume that people doing it every day will know a lot of tips and secrets, such things that may seem obvious to you but are obscure to a foreign.

Of course, being a breakfast, it should be reasonably fast to prepare, so "logistic" tips are appreciated as well!

PS: please don't give me the recipe for "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam".

Great answers, thanks to all of you. I really appreciated (and upvoted) the step by step guide provided by Aaronut, but I market as accepted Sam's answer for its reference to Italian availability of ingredients.

This may not be a perfect answer, since I'm Canadian - but our breakfast is pretty close to what you refer to as the English breakfast, minus the tomato.  I think an "authentic" English breakfast is rather different, but that's another question entirely!

If I understand correctly, you're hung up on two things, the first being timing and the second being specific preparations.  So I'll tell you what I do; mine's ready in about 20 minutes and always comes out terrific.

Lay the bacon strips and sausages in a cold pan and turn the heat up to medium.  I'm assuming the use of those thin breakfast sausages, which have approximately the same cooking time as bacon (slightly longer).
While the heat's coming up, crack 2-3 eggs into a bowl.  Add some cream (this makes them fluffier), and whatever seasonings you prefer; most people use salt and pepper, I occasionally use garlic or onion salt/powder.  Lightly beat the mixture with a fork.
At this stage, I like to get a second, small skillet for the eggs.  Turn the heat up to medium and let the pan heat up until you can flick some water at it and see it form droplets (and evaporate).  Now turn the heat on the egg skillet down to medium-low.
While the skillet's heating up, the bacon and sausage should be starting to sizzle.  You'll want to flip the bacon and turn the sausages every 2-3 minutes from now on, until you see the bacon starting to crisp.  Also constantly tilt the pan around so that the sausages actually fry in the bacon fat - this makes them cook faster and makes them tastier.
Get a large serving plate ready and line it with some paper towel.
At about 10 minutes in, the bacon should be just starting to crisp and turn brown in parts.  You'll want to leave it on for just a couple of minutes longer, depending on how crisp you like your bacon (I like it a little bit tender).
While you're finishing off the bacon, melt about a tablespoon of butter in the smaller skillet.  In the other pan, flip the bacon one last time.
As soon as the butter is melted (don't let it turn brown), pour the eggs into the small skillet.  You can let them sit for a moment - the bacon should be about done now, so take the strips out and lay them on the plate with paper towels so the fat drains.  The sausages will usually take a few minutes longer; turn the heat up to medium-high to speed this process up.
Now the eggs should be starting to set.  For a twist here, I like to sprinkle some paprika and/or dill weed onto the partially-set eggs, but you can skip that if you like.  Either way, start scrambling; use a spatula to break apart any areas that are set, push the edges into the center, and flip most of the pieces over.  Keep doing this for about 2-3 more minutes.
While you're doing the eggs (you can take them off the heat for a few seconds if you're slow), put the toast on.
The bacon should be drained by now, so remove the paper towel.  Remove the eggs to the same plate.  The sausages should be just about done as well; if they're still not fully cooked, I usually start to "sauté" them at this point to get them cooked as evenly as possible.  This should take a few more minutes at most; once done, remove them to the plate.  (You can drain them too if you like; I usually don't bother.)
Toast is done.  Butter it if you're into that.  Slice it along the diagonal and remove to the plate.

And there you are.  If you've followed all these steps correctly, you should already be able to feel your arteries hardening simply by looking at it.  Serve with tea (if you're English) or coffee (if you're anyone else).

Total preparation/cooking time: About 20 minutes.

P.S. Don't forget the spam and baked beans.


What do I do with all this cheese? Last week, a friend helped us out with a trip to Costco (long story, we didn't have time to cook, or grocery shop for a couple of days), and while she got us some really good stuff, one of the things I'm questioning is the purchase of a package of american cheese.  Can anyone suggest what to do with 120 slices of cheese?  We don't eat this often, and our church isn't having any bbq's anytime soon, so we're kinda at a loss as to what we should do with all this.  Thanks.

To answer the question -- grilled cheese.

To not answer the question -- freeze it.  My neighbor has an account at BJ's (another similar wholesale club), and she buys it, then freezes it in more managable portions, and just thaws it out in her fridge as she needs it.  I can't do American cheese (dairy issues), so I don't know if there's any loss of quality from the freezing, but I'm guessing in melted applications such as grilled cheese, it'd be less significant.


Is there a single source for the basics of cooking (sauces, herbs, oil usage, etc)? I'm a decent cook but I know that there are huge gaps in my knowledge of the fundamentals of cooking.  I assume that aspiring chefs learn a great deal of this in culinary school but I was hoping that there might be a book or resource for explaining not only the "hows" of making things like a good mayonnaise but also the "whys".

So is there a book or cookbook thats considered best in class for the basics of cooking?

I find that anything Cooks Illustrated puts out usually has a decent list of "whys" and have been garnering them up over the years.  Unfortunately this can leave you something of a specialist with deep knowledge on whatever their articles cover, but if you want to learn the why of something, they are a great source.

For baking in particular Ratio is an excellent book.


My sourdough starter has turned yellow is it still good? I have two sourdough starters going one I keep in the frig. the other on the counter. The one on the counter has all of a sudden turned yellow. It was fine yesterday and when I went to feed it today it had a crusty film on top and it is a pale yellow. Is it still good?

Neither one of my starters has hooch is that normal?  They have been going for about 3 to 4 weeks. They also are not very sour smelling. Will this just mean the bread wont be very sour? I got the start from a friend I used it and the bread was great. I saved some to do the two starters I have.
Thank you for any help

Sounds like your starter has dried. Keep the starter in a cool place (fridge is too cold). Feed it every few days with flour and some water. Before adding the flour and water, discard maybe even half of the starter (best option is to bake every few days). Otherwise you'll end up with several pounds of starter... As with all food, use your senses. If it tastes and smells OK (for sourdough starter...), it's OK.
So, to save your yellow starter, add a little moisture and fresh flour and see what happens. It takes a few days for the right growth and bubbles to appear.


What is the name for the 'sweetness' of cooling roast pork? I did a slow roast pork today putting pork knuckles on the bone cooking for 8 hours in a dash of apple juice.

After cooking, I left it to cool for an hour with the lid on.

When I lifted the lid, I noticed a 'lightness' to the smell of the pork, almost the lightness you might get when smelling a bouquet of flowers. (Sorry to those who feel this description is overdone - I'm trying to capture an idea in words).

It almost reminded me of the caramelisation of onion when cooked on a frying pan.

Help me out here - what is the term I'm looking for? Is it caramelisation?

My question is: What is the name for the 'sweetness' of cooling roast pork?

I don't think there is a word specific to the "sweetness of cooling roast pork" in the English language. This is simply an "aroma", and more specifically, the "aroma of roasted pork". (Or, in my house, "the smell of porky goodness") It is produced by caramelization of the sugars and the Maillard reaction that occurs during roasting.  These are the same mechanisms at work when you caramelize onions, as you point out.


Why has the meat turned out to be hard like rubber? I was following this recipe for Chinese Stir-Fired Steak with Peppers.

I think I messed it up by cooking this for too long. The meat (I used lamb's meat) turned out very hard, like rubber.

I suspect this was because I cooked it for too long. Can someone confirm this? I will be much obliged.

I like to add some extra comments to this post and also may give some criticism of the recipe.

1.Background of the problem

As @rfusca said, cooking  too long is a bad thing, which is true in some way. However, I think it's too broad to conclude cooking too long is the ultimate reason. There are parts of beef that they get tender as you cooking longer such as beef brisket.

Two things to remember

Without going into too much science, the general rule of cooking is
that meat get hard as it loses its moisture and arguably its fat. The
art of Chinese cooking  is to try keeping the moisture in the meat
and the cornflour in the recipe was to seal moisture in the meat.
Cut across the grain, don't cut along it.  I am not sure if I am
using the correct terminology, but you will see the very long beef
grain (texture)  when you look at the beef surface. To explain it a
bit more clear, I have drawn up a image to explain what I mean.

Please see the diagram

(A) The diagram (A) shows how you should slice / cut beef if you have a chunk of beef like skirt or round steak. You should cut through the grain.

(B) Typically the steak buy are not like what I drew in diagram (A) as butchers usually cut through beef texture to make pieces of steak. If you slice your beef like diagram (B), then you will end up with beef slices with very long grain (texture). Longer the grain (texture) is, the chewer you will find as it's harder for us to tear apart the long texture.

As @rfusca said, "When you cut across the grain, its a bunch of very short proteins."

(C) To resolve the issue in diagram (B), you can slice beef on the bigger side which you will cut through the texture.

2.Choice of beef - there is no doubt sirloin steak is premium steak and it's perfect for western cooking. However, I believe it's too lean for stir-fried, although I have used sirloin using the diagram (C) method which also worked fine. I would suggest to try using different steaks such as round steak, skirt steak or rib eye. Rib eye is actually pretty ideal and the fat content will help cook and it will come out very tender, but it's probably too pricey. Skirt and Round steaks are cheaper and they are always the forgotten choices. I found skirt and round steaks tend to have more moisture inside the meat and they will turn out quite well. In fact, they are quite close to what Chinese would use in stir-fired.

3.Change of the recipe

i. Slice the steak into (1cm in the recipe is too thick) 0.3 or 0.5 cm thick slices across the grain. The thinner the beef, the easier you can control your cooking.

ii. Don't whisk with your ingredients. Put them in following the order below.

Put all the beef in a big bowl
Add soy sauce, sugar, ginger & maybe 20ml of (water or rice wine).
Please note that the amount of water depends on your beef and how
you mix it. When you put in soy sauce and sugar, you should stir it
through the beef and you will notice the sauce will get absorbed by
the beef. If you notice all the sauce get absorbed straight away, it
will be good idea to get some extra water but don't over do it!!
Don't end up with too much liquid in your beef marinade. You want to
see all your sauce get absorbed and should take out any excessive
liquid.
Once you have a good mixture of beef marinade, you then add in the corn flour. You want the cornflour to coat the beef very nicely.
(This is what was missing in the original recipe) Put about 1.5
table spoons vegetable oil and stir the oil through the beef. The
oil will help to seal the moisture  in the meats.
Then you follow the original recipe to cook your beef 1/3 a time for
2-3 mins depending on how thin your beef is. Please don't cook over 3 mins.
Once you set aside your beef, then don't follow your recipe to put
your beef in the wok again with peppers.
Cook your peppers and onions. ONLY put your beef in when the peppers
and onions are cooked, then put your beef in to toss it up with
peppers and onions for 30 seconds.

iii. You should now have a very nice beef stir fried.


Remove Cilantro Stems? Is it necessary to first remove the stems from fresh cilantro when chopping it for a recipe? If so, how much of the stem should be removed?

The stems are edible and flavorful, with a crunch that may or may not be desirable in your dish,  but the lower portion of them tends to be a little stringy.  I always trim off the bottom,  but as for the rest of the stem,  it depends on what I am making.

For raw dishes where it is chopped quite finely (koshimbir, pico de gallo) or even ground to a paste (chutney), or if there are other crunchy textured ingredients,  I will chop and include the stem (the middle to upper part, where there are also leaves branching off, or as much of it seems tender).

If I am cooking it (as a seasoning in a soup or dal) or if it will be wilted and steamed as it is tossed with a hot dish, then it is also fine to include it (chopped).

For other things (raw, where a crunch will be out of place), I only use the very tender parts of the stem with the leaves. Or if the leaves will be more visible as a garnish or accent,  I might strip the leaves from the stems more carefully and not use any (or much) stem.

This is generally how I treat most herbs that don't have a woody stem,  at least,  if the stem has a nice flavor like the leaves.


Presentation - How to make a Tiramisu to be photogenic? Sorry if this is the wrong forum. I can make a nice Tiramisu but the photo does not look good. I make Tiramisu, get a slice of it and photograph it. Challenge is that we have zero control over how the sides are going to look. It looks messy

Mind what you cut the tiramisu with - your knife might not be sharp enough, or even too sharp, or of the wrong kind, or using the wrong kind of technique (pull vs push vs rock cut give different results here).

Exactly the same, of course, applies to the camera equipment used.

But what matters most is how to light the texture of the cut - light it head on and in a nearly collinear to the camera fashion and you will suppress a lot of the texture since highs and lows will be equally lit. Light it from the side and you will emphasize the texture. A combination of both will probably work best. Mind what shadows (of the whole piece of tiramisu) you will cast, and also consider these shadows in the plating and background you use. Mind that white plates can act as a reflector lighting textural features from below (which might be desired or undesired) - but be aware that unwanted hard shadows (moreso if they pick up a color cast) on white backgrounds can be easily overlooked when framing the picture but can look atrocious in the final result. Consider polarizing filters or even using cross polarized lighting if reflections from shiny crockery or shiny, glazed parts of the dessert give you problems.


Pumpkin substitutes for lasagne I have a lasagne recipe that has pumpkin, sausage and collard greens in it. Is there another vegetable that will replace the pumpkin as I do not like pumpkin?

(simple answer) I suggest finding a lasagna recipe without pumpkin in it.

Lasagna is a simple recipe and easily adaptable.

You can add and remove ingredients to your liking as long as you keep the basic structure of the lasagna (pasta/sauce layers).

Make certain that if you add ingredients to the lasagna, that they will be already cooked or can be baked in with the lasagna.


How to bake burger buns so that they expand horizontally instead of expanding vertically? We are trying to bake burger buns and we usually play the rounded individual dough on the baking tray and use another baking tray to press it down to flatten it.

Now our hands are so sore after months of doing it. The only reason why we did that in the first place is because our the dough (imagine just a circular ball dough) will expand upwards more than going sideways, making it not wide enough to be a burger bun.

How else can we fix this? Temperature? The way we roll our buns?

Your buns are likely sticking to the bottom of the tray. If they stick, they will expand vertically because they can't expand horizontally. They're stuck.

Dust the trays with semolina flour, rice flour, and/or fine corn meal. You can even lightly dust them with white or rye flour, but the aforementioned flours are preferable.

If you're retarding the buns, consider placing parchment paper on the tray, lightly dusting the parchment with the aforementioned flours, and then panning the buns.

You could also use non-stick Silpats or silicone mats, but that's expensive if you have to buy a lot of them.

I don't know the composition of your dough, how you are shaping them, how much you are working the dough, etc. These could contribute the problem as well. Buns are usually enriched dough (they have butter, milk, etc.) made with low-protein AP flour. They don't need a lot of gluten development or shaping. If you develop the dough too much, it'll hold something close to the original shape (in this case, of a ball of dough instead of a disc).


Can I create cream of tartar with tartaric acid and potassium hydroxide? Here in Poland, I have no trouble buying both tartaric acid and potassium hydroxide. I'm having trouble sourcing cream of tartar though, so would it be enough to mix the acid and potassium hydroxide? Or do I need to get them to react in non-powder form and then dehydrate it back down to a powder for storage?

Potassium hydroxide is not something you'd want to eat.  It's caustic (the base form of corrosive), and you ABSOLUTELY should not mix an anhydrous (pellet or powdered) form of it directly into food, whether or not you mix it with another powder first.  Also, if you get the proportions off and the acid and base do not fully react, you could end up with a corrosive result.  That's not something you want in food.

The chemical synthesis of potassium bitartrate (otherwise known as "cream of tartar") is relatively straightforward.  Usually, you'd have a solution with a high concentration of tartaric acid, to which you'd add a solution of potassium hydroxide until the salt (potassium bitartrate) begins to precipitate out.  You'd then continue to titrate to obtain maximum precipitate.  Lastly, you'd filter out this precipitate and dry it to have powdered cream of tartar.

But I cannot advise you to attempt this on your own unless you have chemistry training.  First, as another answer points out, industrial chemicals are not generally designed to be "food safe," and although they are relatively pure, the small impurities may not be something you'd want to ingest, depending on how they were manufactured.

Second -- and more important -- it's potentially DANGEROUS unless you know what you are doing.  Read the MSDS sheet on potassium hydroxide, particularly the section on acute health effects.  (Note that the health hazard rating is '3', which is on a scale of 0 to 4, with 4 being the most hazardous.)  You should generally wear gloves and goggles when making a potassium hydroxide solution to begin with.  And even if you safely handle the stuff, you need to ensure it is properly reacted and the resulting cream of tartar properly filtered and dried, or else you could be putting a caustic agent into your food.

Basically, the potential for injury is high if you don't know what you're doing and mess something up.  I wouldn't recommend it for home food applications unless you're a trained chemist.


Food Timing: Keeping Bacon Warm While Cooking With Bacon Fat Made from Said Bacon The Situation:

Guy decides he wants to make bacon and potato cubes (I can't think of a better term) for breakfast.
Guy wants to cook potatoes in bacon fat
Guy cooks bacon and places bacon on paper towels to dry off
Guy cooks potatoes in left over bacon fat
By the time potatoes are done (20 mins or so), the bacon is cold :(

What can be done to remedy this? Should I just wrap the bacon in tin-foil? I've yet to fully master "timing" when it comes to cooking two different parts of a meal at the same time

I render off the necessary fat over low heat, then remove the bacon strips, increase the heat, and fry using the rendered fat. When nearly done, I return the bacon to the pan to crisp it before serving.

Of course, you could also just save the grease from one batch to use with the next, thereby ensuring you always have both fresh-cooked bacon and (reasonably-fresh) grease to use without having to produce the former before the latter.


Improvised self-raising flour Say I just ran out of self-raising flour. What can I add to plain flour to make the equivalent?

According to http://southernfood.about.com/cs/breads/ht/self_rise_flour.htm, you would add 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt to each cup of flour.

Salt is only added to US self-rising flour. In the UK, where it's called self-raising flour there is no salt added to the flour itself.


Baking lots of bread - keeping a yeast starter Like many people sheltering-at-home, I'm baking more bread than usual. My yeast supply is running low, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get more on demand. I'd like a simple way to make sure I have yeast on hand for my next batch. Could you all recommend a method for storing a starter culture?

Specifically:

How should I store it (how much? where? I have a fridge ~4C and a
wine cooler ~13C)
How often should I feed it? With what? Should I
divide the culture when feeding?
How much should I use when baking?
Can I treat it like dry active yeast, or does it need more/less
time?

For some other context, I'm a novice at making bread (I've made it a few times, and others in my family make it more often). I see lots of advice on sourdough starters, but am interested in something that's a replacement for dry active yeast (unless sourdough starters are actually easier to maintain). I found a prior question that was similar, but it focused on long-term storage of yeast and the answers did not describe how to use the starter.

Your advice is appreciated.

Making a starter. I suggest you make a sourdough starter but add yeast at the first stage. I would begin with 50g wholemeal flour, 50g water, and 1tsp instant yeast, and then feed it twice a day, maintaining equal weights of flour and water and discarding (or otherwise using) half the starter each time. Keep this going for at least five days.

Once you have an active starter it will survive unfed at fridge temperature for up to a week. Make sure to use a clean container and a clean fridge to avoid contamination with mould.

Incidentally, your starter might also pick up wild yeast. I would expect wild yeasts to be out-competed by the commercial yeast and for the yeast strain to remain stable, but this isn't guaranteed. Either way you get an active starter.

Checking for yeast activity.
You can get some idea whether your starter has active yeast by looking for bubbles on its surface or an increase in volume after feeding. But I've had sourdough starters that barely grew after feeding but could still raise a loaf.

Another quick way to check that your starter has active yeast is to fry a tablespoon of starter on a high heat. I find there is just enough time for the yeast to develop a matrix of bubbles in the top surface before it dies. If there is an acidic smell and no bubbles then I'm afraid the yeast is dead and you'll have to try again.

A much better way to gauge the activity of a starter is to use it to make a loaf. I expect you will find your starter has less activity than instant yeast (or active dry yeast) but you will still get good bread. In fact because your starter will pick up natural bacteria (like a true sourdough starter) you might even get better results.

Using your starter.
I typically give my dough a long first rise in the fridge: this allows for some variation in yeast activity since the whole process happens much more slowly. It also gives a deeper flavour. One sourdough rye starter I maintained for several years had relatively little yeast activity but was still able to raise a good loaf given 48 hours in the fridge.


Is there such a thing as unsteamed rolled oats? Is there such a thing as truly raw (unsteamed) rolled oats? Why are rolled oats usually lightly steamed?

Rolled uncooked groats will shatter. You can get uncooked, unrolled oats though. Food coops and organic grocery stores/coops have them. $1.49 a pound is a good price. You want hulled oat groats, as it takes considerable technology to get the hulls off. Sold in bulk, or one pound bags. You can get 50Lb bags online. They'll last a year or more.It takes about 2 hours to cook them in a rice cooker. Brown rice 2X. Add just enough water to cover on the second cycle. Let them sit on warm fir half an hour to reduce stickiness. Chicken broth and brown sesame seed oil are good additives. Dirty oats, Mexican style, or Stroganoff style, with sour cream, mushrooms and onions added at end are both pretty tasty. Of course, you can eat them plain too.


How to fix a sauce that is too sweet? A while ago I attempted to make the Better than Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce from food.com.
One of the ingredients it calls for is heavy cream and as I live in Canada where they don't sell heavy cream I decided to substitute it for equal amounts whipping cream. The other ingredients called for are sweet butter (I used unsalted butter), minced garlic cloves, white pepper, grated parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and pasta.

The finished sauce was way to sweet and we didn't finish our plates let alone keep the leftovers. The only sweet ingredient I can see is the heavy cream so I am guessing the problem lies with that ingredient so I ask... Did I substitute the right ingredient for the heavy cream? Should I have changed the portions? What do you recommend.

Whipping cream is sold in versions that contain sugar and versions that don't contain sugar. Did you use a version that contains sugar? If so, try the version without.


Can I use ocean water to cook my pasta? It is said, that the water you use to cook pasta should be as salty as ocean water. So can I simply use ocean water to cook my pasta without adding salt to it?

You certainly can. There are a few things to consider before popping down to the beach and grabbing a bucket.

Some areas of the sea are highly contaminated with toxins. Look for some sort of signage to give you a hint, OR look for fishermen. If they feel safe with the fish they are catching I'd be inclined to think the water was also fine.
Sea water is, as you know, very VERY salty. On average around 35g per Liter. So you may benefit from using half tap and half sea water.
Be sure to boil the water for a few minutes before adding any food, just to be sure any harmful "biological organisms that might contaminate the water".

Another consideration, you may be interested in, would be harvesting your own salt from the sea water. That way you have more control over the amount penetrating your food/blood stream.


Microwave oven first time use — "10 minutes with water"? My Samsung ME731K microwave oven just arrived. There is this instruction (in less than perfect English) and I'm not sure how to interpret it.

  Before using the your oven first time, oven should be operated with the water during 10 minute and then used.

Does it mean I should put a bowl of water inside and let the oven run for 10 minutes?

The directions are in fact asking you to place a bowl of water in the Microwave Oven and run it for 10mins.

The reason is, it allows things to "break-in" and assures that you don't have any direct issues with the device and that all nasty solvents are given proper time to "burn off." This is so you don't end up with nasty plastic smells and flavors in your first meal.

For safety reasons, I would recommend placing a wooden spoon in the bowl. This provides plenty of nucleations sites and will prevent "super-heating" of the water.

Always use microwave appropriate containers, and allow the bowl to come to reasonable (warm to room temp) prior to handling.


What can i use instead of molasses? I have an American recipe for molasses cookies but I live in Germany. I have not been able to find molasses in the grocery stores near me. Are there any good substitutes?

Thanks for any help.

Both http://www.germanyexpat.org/p/finding-food-items.html and https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/29436-where-to-buy-treaclemolassescornstarch/ recommend "Zuckerrübensirup," possibly brand "Grafschafter Goldsaft."

I have no experience with using this or how it compares to molasses.


Food to bring to work and heat with a microwave As I'll be soon moving from a small town in which I can come back home for lunch everyday to a bigger city in which it would be best to bring lunch from home to work, I was wondering: do you know some good recipes that are easy to transport and also are microwave-able or reheatable?

Pretty much everything.

Pasta and Rice dishes are the easiest to bring to work

Vegetable dishes can also be fun (either cooked or raw (salads)

Cooked chicken is also very easy to prepare in advance and can be eaten cold or hot; other meat.

Fish/seafood is maybe an exception, I tend to prepare and under cook a portion the night before to finish cooking the the office microwave.

If you have a fridge at the office it make things easier (and safer); and if allowed, you can keep things like condiments, sauces for a few days.


I need melted butter Today I am supposed to make a chocolate mousse for dinner and I need butter (melted).The shops are closed. Can I use vegetable oil instead of melted butter?

I would say no for two main reasons, the butter will change texture as the dessert cools, and I don't think the oil will, so the mousse will split. Also the tastes will be off.

You could try margarine, or at a real push lard (you would need to play around with the sugars to keep the sweetness)

However I have seen recipies that exclude butter,  here is a link to one possibility.

http://www.sarahcooks.com.au/2012/07/perfect-chocolate-mousse.html

Good luck


Frying pan width - from base or rim? I have a recipe that calls for a frying pan about 20cm across - should I measure from the base, or the top rim?

Manufacrurers measure the rim, so I guess the recipe calls for a pan which is 20 cm across the rim.

It may seem counterintuitive that the recipe specifies such a small pan (that's less than 8 inch for you Americans). But it can have good reasons.

Most recipes aren't dependent on pan size (much). But if you make a small quantity of some sauces, you want it to be thick enough in the pan to heat evenly, instead of a thin smearing of stuff on the bottom of the pan which will overheat quickly. So if you suspect that this is the case, it makes sense to actually use a small pan.

For many other recipes, overcrowding the pan is not too good. If you say what you are trying to make, we could give you an indication whether the size is important in your case.


Can I make a sourdough boule, freeze it then thaw it and bake it? I think sourdough yeasts don’t do well with being frozen normally, but if I’ve let the dough go through all of its rises and shaped it into the final loaf can I freeze it before baking since the air bubbles that will provide the rise in the finished loaf have already formed?

Alternatively, are there any good ways to create a sourdough bread dough that I can take and throw into the oven without having to go through the long process of bulk rising, shaping, etc... immediately before baking? Ideally I’d like to make a lot of loaves all at once and have them on hand so I can have freshly baked bread whenever I want.

I think the closest solution you will find to this is baking the loaves, slicing, and then freezing the slices.

This is pretty convenient. You can throw frozen bread slices directly into the toaster, defrost in the microwave, or just let them sit on the counter for a while.


Alcohol free & sugar free fruit cake How would you fine people replace the alcohol and sugar in a fruit cake with? I personally don’t like alcohol at all, so I’d like to try a alcohol & sugar free fruit cake as I’m diabetic and a tea totalar.

A fruit cake would not be sugar free strictly speaking, since fruits have sugars, but you can make a fruit cake without adding extra sugar by using lots of very sweet dried fruits like dates, raisins and figs.
A cafe I know has a "famous" vegan no sugar no oil cake which is made of about 50% mixed dried fruits. They use dried dates, raisins and apricots. I would guess that they soak the fruits in hot water for a few hours to get some of the sugar to come out and sweeten the batter.
One of the best cakes I have tried has no added sugar as such - it's sweetened by soaking stoneless dates, then grinding that into a smooth paste to use in the batter. Here's a recipe for that (though I made that recipe vegan using water for soaking and cashew almond yogurt instead of dairy yogurt, so have not tested it as written). If you prefer something like a traditional dried fruits cake, you can always add raisins to that recipe and skip the walnuts.
I never use alcohol for anything, so when I make a fruit cake recipe that is supposed to have alcohol, I just skip it. Alcohol is used for soaking fruits to get better extraction than with plain water. Grinding some of the soaked fruits to a paste, as in the dates cake recipe, gets around the problem of water not extracting enough sugar from the fruit to sweeten the batter.


Shelf life of items stored in vacuum containers vs airtight non-vacuum ones? I was planning in investing in a set of vacuum food containers, something like these with the pump to remove excess air.

It took me a while to find the ones I wanted, and in the process I started questioning the benefits.

I've found references that it prolongs the time food can remain good for up to 3-5x times as opposed to storing at just in a fridge. However I haven't found any references related to what are the benefits compared to just using an air sealed container without pumping out the air out.

Sure, there would be some air left in the regular one, but does it provide that much of a difference? Would like to hear your thoughts/experiences :)

It's true that keeping air away from most foods will increase their shelf-life, but so-called "vacuum" food containers can't possibly create a powerful enough vacuum to remove all the air. I would be suspicious of glowing reviews with wild claims of their effectiveness.

For the purpose you described, I think you would be much better off using a good quality plastic wrap. Pressed tight against the food all the air is removed and the cling-wrap plastic makes an air-tight seal.

For a fraction the cost of what you're considering, invest in a heavy plastic wrap box that has a sliding cutter.

Because you don't have to struggle with this kind of box, the plastic wrap doesn't get tangled up. You can cut off exactly the amount you need, so it makes sealing up foods very fast and efficient. You can refill such a box with inexpensive store-brand, but it's worth paying a few cents extra to buy professional grade plastic wrap because it stretches and seals much more effectively.

Plastic wrap can be used to seal or augment the seal of most any container you already own, so your choice of size and shape is limited only by the width of the plastic wrap roll.

You can also do things like line a bowl or cup with plastic wrap to hold it while you add the food. Sealing the plastic will form an air-tight, liquid-tight seal that can often stand on its own for refrigerating or freezing.

Although it can sometimes be reused, there's also the big advantage of being able to simply toss the plastic wrap in the trash or recycling bin instead of washing it. Plastic storage containers ("vacuum" or otherwise) are notorious for retaining food odors, and attempting to sanitize them in the dishwasher doesn't always end well.

As Catija points out in the comments, a vacuum sealer is another option to know about.

While it may not be cost effective or practical for everyday leftovers, vacuum sealing in plastic with a machine is beneficial when freezing, marinating, and for sous vide cooking.


Potatoes that have been in proximity to a really bad potato This is not about potatoes sprouting. I had a large bunch of potatoes in the plastic tray I keep them in and with one thing an another, they got overlooked until I realized they'd been there a long time. I decided to make soup out of them and started to get them out of the tray - only to find that one of them was completely rotten and had ugly looking black (!) juice under it and it was frothing. YIKES! Obviously I threw it away and cleaned all the potatoes around it, first in hot water, then in cold water. I thoroughly cleaned the tray, too. YUK. Then I peeled the potatoes until they were printine and white. A couple of them were a bit soft, but no green bits on them no sign of spoilage.

I'm assuming these are okay to eat? I'm making potato and onion soup, as I hate to waste them (but will if there is still any danger of poison). What do you think?

The general rule with food is: If in doubt, throw it out.

Having said that, hot water is unlikely to kill any bacteria or fungi that came from the rotting potato. Washing will remove most of the contaminants that are on the surface. However - the problem here is that you generally can't see how far a contaminant has penetrated the food that you are eating. For example, in the case of moldy bread - the blue or white bits that sprout out are the fruiting bodies (produce the fungal spores) of the underlying fungus, the actual fungal mass will be many times larger and hidden inside the bread.

It's the same with your potatoes, while you may have removed all the infected bits, you may also not have. Will the infected stuff kill you? Probably not, but it sure won't taste very good and will make everything it is with taste bad too. To avoid wasting all the other ingredients as well as the potatoes, you are best of discarding any you think might be contaminated.

Long story short - throw out the ones that were touching the liquid and rotting potato. The rest should be fine.


Preparing pork belly: Odd barn yard flavor This might be a very silly question, but I'm sort a pork newbie.

Anyway, I recently went to the butchers and bought a big slab of pork belly, to make crackling.

Immediately, I noticed it had a very "farm-y" smell. I rinsed the pork belly but the smell was still there, mostly in the skin. I prepared it by steam cooking it in the oven for about three or four hours. But the smell made it impossible to eat, as the barn yard stench permeated the entire pork belly. It was nothing like what I'm used to when eating pork belly in a restaurant for example.

My question then is: Did I screw something up in the preparation, or did I get a bad piece of meat or what happened?

Having raised hogs I can say that the actual feed can make a difference on the taste and  smell of the finished product.  Clean feed and a clean lot can make a difference.  There is also a difference in hogs fed on an open lot (grassy) v.s. a confinement.

Corn blend with soy protein - one flavor.  Alphalfa pellets, another flavor.   Open lot with wild onions or other strong products, another.   Wood lots (acorns etc) another.  It depends on what is desired, as these also will impact the texture and fat content percentage.


Adjusting baking powder to work with almond milk A family member has a dairy allergy so we often substitute non-dairy milk in recipes. Most often, this is almond (it's what we have in the house for the kids to drink, and is therefore always on hand). However, if a recipe involves baking soda or baking powder, almond milk produces a less satisfying rise and there's a bitter aftertaste.

I think this means that the baking soda is not reacting fully with the almond milk. Soy milk does provide the same "lift" and eliminates the bitterness the same way that dairy milk would. What's causing this? Is it possible to adjust our baking powder recipes to use almond milk, or do we need to buy two kinds of milk (one to bake with, one to drink)?

While I'm hoping to get a general rule of thumb, here are a couple of the recipes we have noticed this with for reference. Pancakes:

1 c. flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1 egg

and muffins:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins, plumped
1 egg
1 cup milk

I did find a Question about almond milk in pancakes, but I'm hoping to get a more general answer about how baking soda/powder and almond milk work together (or, more accurately, fail to work together).

Baking soda reacts with acid to create CO2 and lift.
Baking powder already has the necessary acid included.

Cow's milk is slightly acidic. Almond milk is slightly alkaline.
It may be that there is just a little bit less of the necessary acid to make your leavening react.

Experiment adding a little acid. Cream of tartar would be nice because it wouldn't throw off your liquid ratios or change the flavor. Lemon juice could also be used. I would start with 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar.

However, browsing around there are plenty of people online who don't seem to be having any trouble using almond milk in baking. It may be that the almond milk is a red herring and there are other variables that aren't controlled.
For example: Maybe the leavening was stale? Maybe the temperature of your oven was off?


Dehydration in Fridge vs Outdoor My (leftover) food in the fridge dries out quickly, and comes out in a pretty bad shape by the next mealtime. The weather here is pretty cold, hovering between 0-5 centigrade. Is it better to just leave my food on the windowsill (covered ofcourse), in terms of avoiding dehydration?

No the best option here is to cover food better in the fridge. Invest in some storage jars, or tubs, or better plastic wrap. If the food is in an air tight container it shouldn't dry out.

If you leave food outside you'll find you attract rats, mice and other vermin which will be very hard to get rid of.


Should I "sponge" tea? I went to a tea shop for Chinese New Year and the owner was incredible adamant about rinsing, sponging and reusing the tea. Is this a normal thing? Should I be doing it? What teas should I be doing this with and what shouldn't I?

Sponging tea to my observation seemed to be like steeping but more for the refreshing and "waking up" the leaves rather than steeping which is more focused on the water and to flavour the water.

How many times should I wash my tea and should I sponge it before washing it, before drinking it or both?

How long should I "sponge" it?

How do I determine when to do this and when not too

When should I stop reusing tea?

Rinsing tea is normal in a ceremonial preparation of tea. There can be several reasons for rinsing:

To wake up the leaves: Especially with tightly rolled teas, the infusion is more optimal when you let them unfurl a bit during a short rinse.
Remove unpleasant flavor on the surface: With some roasted oolong teas or pile fermented teas, the earthy or smokey flavor on the surface can be unpleasant. So people like to rinse the first layer of flavour away.
Remove impurities: There's a lot of processing steps involved to produce a tea. And when the environment isn't kept clean, the final tea may not be clean. I personally always rinse ripe pu erh tea and oolong tea. These teas have the most chance of being 'dirty'. I don't rinse green, black, raw pu erh and white teas.


How long should I steam Artichokes? I know that it should steam until the leaves pull off easily. But how long does that take?

I found steaming artichokes to require a very unpredictable about of time, and have fallen in love with the microwave method.

Cut off the stem so it can sit flat
Cut off a little of the top of the thistle.
Pour about 1 tablespoon or a few milliliters of water into the middle.
Wrap securely in plastic film
Microwave on high for about 10 minutes. Test the base for softness with a toothpick. Use about two minutes extra if needed.
When done, open the wrapping and carefully pour out any remaining water.

They can still be unpredictable, but at least the variation is a little less.


Why peel tomatoes when making salsa? I'm making salsa. Do I really need to peel the tomatoes? I've canned salsa and stewed tomatoes for years. Peeling is such a messy process. If I chop the tomatoes in my food processor do I really need to peel them?

Also my salsa is quite runny. Is that why I should core and seed them? Just what is the core?

My opinion is that it is a personal preference, but many people are very off-put by the texture of the skins.  Probably more in a smoother salsa than in a chunkier one.  Also, the skins can often be bitter and peeling eliminates that.


Belgian Frites - French Fries In Belgium fries are super popular. They taste really amazing and are very different than the common American french fry. My question is, what is the secret to replicate a Belgian style french fry. They have a perfectly crispy golden shell, about 1inch wide, 1/3 inch thick, soft on the inside and totally different than your average American style french fry.

To my understanding, frites are double fried. You wash, peel, and cut the potatoes (thicker, as you noted)*, then fry the potatoes at a lower temperature (325F is what I usually do). Then you let them drip the excess oil off on a wire rack or stack of paper towels, toss to coat them in cornstarch and fry again in hotter oil (400F). They're also usually fried in smaller batches in shallower oil than tradition shoestring fires.
The really cool thing with them is that you can freeze them between the two fry times, so you can basically have your own frozen fries ready to go at any time.

*Drop the cut potatoes in water to prevent discoloration and then dry them a bit before frying if you're cutting a lot.


Is panko just pretentious breadcrumbs? My local grocery store actually currently sells panko crumbs for more money than beef mince, which to me is incredible. Is there any sort of justification for this or is it just expensive because it is foreign?
Maybe there is some culinary justification in using it that I'm unaware of, but to me its inflated price seems rather ridiculous for something that is still in essence breadcrumbs.

The big difference between panko and "regular" breadcrumbs is that panko is more like flakes, so it creates a much different texture when used as a breading.
It's more similar to using cracker or cereal crumbs than regular bread in terms of shape, but the texture is more bread-like.
For a picture comparison, and explanation of how panko is made, see UpperCrustents's how panko is made.
The difference is lost when using it as a binder in something like meatballs ... similar to using flake salt vs. other shapes of salt.  So in some cases, using it might be considered pretentious.  (or just using whatever's on hand).


How to salt whole potatoes before roasting or cooking in the microwave? Is there a way to salt a whole potato before microwaving or baking it, I was thinking of soaking it in salty water but I doubt that would work, I need it to be seasoned on the inside not just the skin.

You cannot season a whole potato from the outside when baking or microwaving, the flavor may penetrate a small amount but most of the potato will be unseasoned. Boiling potatoes in salty water will give you a better result, however the skin of a whole potato will still block much of the flavor.

The only way I could think of to salt the inside of a whole potato would be so inject a salt solution into it with a syringe, which seems excessive. You'd probably be better off simply cutting the potato open after it's cooked and seasoning it then.


How much "buffer" or margin of error is in food safety guidelines? When I read food safety guidelines, I always get the sense that I should run for the decon shower if I even look at a piece of raw meat. I have to fight the urge to sprint home with my groceries lest the eggs become poisonous on the way. If I thaw meat from the freezer, I worry that one misstep will kill me.

But rationally, I know none of that is true. Aside from the fact that I've been cooking for myself for decades, and I'm still here, we simply wouldn't be here as a species if it were that hard to cook safely. And then there's this thread from a couple of years ago, which seems to say that there's a fair amount of subjectivity in food safety procedures. (But this thread takes a stricter line.)

So: how much difference is there between official food safety doctrine and actual danger? Are there rules that are just oversimplifications in order to minimize human error?

Update

This is not a duplicate of this question. More specifically, the question is similar, but the accepted answer on the other thread doesn't actually address the question of fault tolerance.

A lot of the "time out of fridge" and similar guidelines must have quite a lot of buffer in a cool domestic kitchen compared to a hot commercial kitchen for which they're written. This is because the temperature is the food is what matters and that will change much more slowly is the ambient temperature is closer to fridge temperature. There's less margin for error in the temperature something must reach to be safe, and even less in things like hand washing and not preparing salad with the same tools as raw chicken.A lot of the commercial rules are about proving it's safe as well, even if shifts change.

Much of the advice given here quotes US FDA rules, which go further than many other countries. Recently we had a discussion about Australian guidelines on cooling hot food, which allowed considerably longer. The US still has a higher incidence of food poisoning and especially botulism than many other developed countries, even though it had some of the strictest rules.


tarry deposit in wok I've cooked maybe a dozen times with my flat-bottom wok (carbon steel, uncoated).  A layer of ‘tar’ has developed in the bottom, which I've been unable to clean out. The ‘tar’ doesn't seem to affect flavor, but recently when I cooked tofu for the first time I saw unsightly black flakes on the tofu.

What can I do short of scraping? Can I loosen the ‘tar’ by boiling water in the wok?  Or should I just live with it?

Next day: I woke up late and found that the elves had taken off most of the ‘tar’ with oil, kosher salt and paper towels. Now for the boiling water.

If your wok is coating-free, use oven cleaner. Spray it on, place it in a plastic bag, & give it a few hours/overnight (best) to work. It should all wash out easily the next day. Wash well, dry, & re-oil w/olive oil, etc.

PS: this also works wonderfully with those enamel-on-steel pots & similar stovetops.


Homemade mac and cheese always loses its creaminess and gets dry after sitting out a short while How do I keep the pasta from absorbing all the liquid?

Honestly, you either eat it fresh, or accept it will congeal.

There are 2 factors going on,

the pasts will keep absorbing water until there's almost none left
the cheese will set as it cools.

The upside is 'yesterday's mac cheese' is great in & of itself.

Your only 'fix' is make it wetter or eat it sooner.


Prosciutto and Cantaloupe Here's a pic of an appetizer I'd like to replicate. Can you tell me how to slice the prosciutto and cantaloupe and plate it? Thanks

Normally, your deli/charcuterie store will slice the prosciutto for you, either manually or with a meat slicer (more often).

The melon, is thinly sliced manually, just pick a ripe melon, halve it and slice it up and remove the rind.

Depending on the thickness of the slices, you will be able to make fancy folds like in the picture, or maybe not, then you will just have nice slices.

Melon and Prosciutto is a simple dish where ingredients is more important than presentation.

i personally, just slice the melon in wedges and drape the ham over it, or roll the ham around pieces of melon.


Culinary use for the green parts of lemongrass? In most recipes/applications I've seen only the white part of lemongrass is used. Is there any culinary use for the upper/outer green parts?

The outer green leaves are a bit tough, and not a lot of flavor, but the upper section of the inner green stalk you can use for infusing in soups, curries, broths, etc.

Rough it up a bit, so to speak, bruise it and make a few slits with a paring knife, then let it sit in your broth or curry until you've zapped the last bit of flavor from it. Just remember to remove it before serving to your guests since it isn't exactly edible on its own.


How to season iron cookware on gas stove? Often I hear that after applying oil on the cookware you need to bake it in the oven on a certain temperature.
What precautions need to be taken if I intend to season the cookware on gas stove?

UPDATE 1:
http://www.wikihow.com/Season-Cast-Iron-Cookware
The seventh and eighth point in the above link talk about repeated seasoning on the gas stove after every use. How viable is that?

UPDATE 2:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/29647/6168

Wait until it starts smoking, and remove from heat.

How to season iron cookware on gas stove?

You can season a pan fine on a stove top, just watch out for thick unbreathable smoke and potential of flames (which may ruin oil surface).

Do I actually have to wait for the smoke to appear? Or can I test the heat of the pan by sprinkling water drops on it and seeing them hop around?

I strongly advise against doing it. I tried stovetop seasoning at home and got terrible results.

A stove gives you hot spots - on gas, this will be the ring where the flame touches the metal. The temperature of the metal in this hot spot is way too high, and the oil burns instead of polymerizing. You get some oil-charcoal in this place, which doesn't have non-stick properties, and flakes off after a few uses.

Outside of the hot spots, the temperature is not high enough. The oil doesn't polymerize thoroughly, and forms a sticky paste instead of a smooth one. Your food will stick to these parts of the pan even worse than to the charcoaled parts.

Conclusion: use an oven. If your oven is too small for a pan (I only have a toaster oven, 30x30 cm, and my pan+handle is way too long even for the diagonal), leave the door cracked and seal the crack with alu foil. This is not very energy efficient, but you only do it once per pan. It worked for me, and I got a real, non-stick seasoning after multiple failures on stovetop.


What can we do if we accidentally buy tamarind puree instead of paste? My wife was planning to make us pad thai, but accidentally bought tamarind puree instead of tamarind paste.

We would like to still use the puree if possible - is there any way we could use the puree instead?  Is the difference noticeable enough that our recipe can't be made with the puree?

The only difference between the two is that puree has a little more liquid.

You should add more puree than the recipe calls for paste to compensate for it being more dilute.

In some recipes, the extra liquid could be a problem, however, I don't think it will make any difference in pad thai in the quantities that it is used.


Substuting Fresh Milk for Dry Milk What is a good ratio to use when substituting dry milk with fresh milk?
When would it be inappropriate to use fresh milk instead of dry milk?

It depends on the type of dry milk—there are several processes for making it, and the density varies.

But a good place to start is to read the package of dry milk for the reconstituting instructions. For example, it if tells you 5 tbsp + 1 cup water to make 1 cup reconstituted milk, then you'd substitute 1 cup (possibly scalded) fresh milk for 5 tbsp dry milk. If you don't have a package of dry milk, ⅓ cup dry milk + 1 cup water is given by the USDA. Other places say ¼ cup. Wikipedia says 10% by weight, citing Wayne Gisslen's Professional Baking.

Keep in mind that you must reduce the amount of water in the recipe to compensate. Within epsilon, reduce the water by the amount of liquid milk you added.

For temperature-sensitive recipes, you may need to warm your milk somewhat, as the recipe probably was designed for room-temperature water, not refrigerator-temperature milk.

Note: According to a random site on teh Interwebs, scalding pasteurized milk apparently slightly improves bread. In pretty much everything else, scalding pasteurized milk has no effect.


What ingredients do you add to your meat to help to reduce (bad) bacteria? I've heard that adding lemon juice to your cooked meat can help to reduce bad bacteria. Is that true? What other ingredients that one can add to meat to reduce bacteria?

Meats that have been properly stored (refrigerated for short-term storage of up to several days, frozen or canned for long-term storage) and cooked to safe internal temperatures should be free of harmful levels of bacteria, bacterial toxins, and parasites. From the USDA FS&IS "Is It Done Yet?" brochure:

Cook all raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops, and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F as measured with a food thermometer before removing meat from the heat source. For safety and quality, allow meat to rest for at least three minutes before carving or consuming. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook meat to higher temperatures.
Cook all raw ground beef, pork, lamb, and veal to an internal temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer.
Cook all poultry to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer.

The USDA site has a wealth of information on food safety, including proper storage and special considerations for at-risk populations (e.g., diabetes, cancer, HIIV/AIDS, organ transplant recipients).

Other concerns are probably best addressed with a health-care professional.


Substituting fresh shitake mushrooms for dried My question is exactly the reverse of this one:
Substituting Dried Shiitake Mushrooms for Fresh

I have a recipe for vegetarian gravy which calls for 8 dried shitake mushrooms, but I only have fresh shitake mushrooms. How much should I use?

For reference, the recipe was found here:
http://umamigirl.com/2011/11/best-vegetarian-gravy-recipe.html

Based on my experience with dried and fresh shiitake mushrooms, and the guidance from Gaku Homma in his book Japanese Country Cooking, I'd say that you will simply get different results with fresh shiitake.

There's actually a fair amount of flavor concentration that happens as a side effect of dehydrating mushrooms, and this is particularly pronounced with shiitake (and, for example, porcini). It's not possible to extract these flavors by boiling/simmering fresh shiitake in a way that will match the results of dried. Fresh shiitake will have a superior texture (especially if you are grilling or frying the mushrooms) to the dried ones, but for the purposes of extracting flavor, there is actually a functional advantage to dried ones. This is true for other common Japanese soup stock ingredients, too; nobody I know would use fresh kombu for a soup stock, but they'd consider using it for a salad or salt pickles; dried kombu is more useful for developing flavors in simmered dishes. You'd also get a very different result from fresh skipjack tuna than you'd get from the smoked, fermented, dried katsuobushi.

Any chance you have any other dried mushrooms? I think dried porcini work really nicely for sauces and even Japanese-style soup stock.

In any event, you may get a perfectly serviceable brown sauce with fresh shiitake, but I don't think it will have the same flavor as the version using dried mushrooms. You may be able to simulate drying putting fresh shiitake directly over a gas flame to char, then sauteeing with a flavorful fat. Butter or perhaps a gently heated pumpkin seed oil could work nicely. I don't think there's a simple ratio conversion that you could use for this purpose; I'd use a much larger number of fresh ones than I'd use dried if I wanted to maximize flavor and aroma.


Ramen with Egg :: Screwed Up Something I was using some variant Veg. Ramen Noodles (The one with the noodle brick and the TasteMaker) and wished to add some "real" protein in the form of egg.

I cooked the Ramen as follows:

I got the water to a boil and added the brick
After about a minute, I added the TasteMaker and stirred
I added 1 egg and stirred.

However, once I added the egg, the whole noodle mixture got congealed and semi-solid and no matter how long I let it be, it didn't change form.

I inferred that I should have added the egg just before I was ready to take it off. This reinforced my inference. However, I tried again and this time, I added the egg 30 seconds before I was ready to take it off but now it tasted weird.

I wanted something more like scrambled eggs in Noodles.

Note: As always, I am on a student budget.

EDIT: A minute ago, I found a video on youtube which stated that I should throw away the extra water a minute after I add the egg. This doesn't seem right, does it?

Here are two really good, really easy ways to make ramen with eggs:

The easiest way is to just boil an egg and toss it in.  If you eat this a lot, you can boil a few and keep them in the fridge. They should stay good for about 3-5 days. If you like liquid yolk in your soup, soft boil the eggs (boiled between about 3 and 9 minutes, to taste). Just cook your ramen, peel the egg, and drop it in for about 90 seconds right before you eat it. Cut the egg in half if you like. It is best to use older eggs for this. What I like to do personally (and remember this comes from the internet, so listen to me at your own risk) is use them for boiling if they have passed the expiration date, since that date (in the US) is based on the thickness of the egg white, not food safety. Older eggs don't stick to the shell when they are boiled, but new eggs do.

The slightly harder (but tastier) way is to poach the egg in the ramen. To do that, cook your ramen, and make sure you have tasted your broth and you like it. If you don't like the seasoning pack from the ramen, you can add any combination of soy sauce, grated ginger, crushed garlic, oyster sauce, miso paste, sriracha, etc. There are lots of tasty, cheap things to add depending on where you live. Try them! Anyway, back to the eggs... You want to cook the ramen until is is soft but not cooked all the way. Turn the heat down to almost nothing. Crack a very fresh egg (fresh eggs have a nice thick white) into the pan once it stops bubbling. Give it a few minutes. If you want to feel busy, you can spoon the hot broth onto the top of the egg to cook it faster. If you are particular about how cooked it is, jab a knife into the middle of the yolk and check it out.

Here is the last egg and ramen tip: My friends and I just called this noodle slop, but it tastes good, uses fresh at least a few fresh ingredients, and is super cheap. Cook some ramen noodles and drain them. In a big skillet, add some oil and fry some combination of celery, onions, chopped cabbage, ginger, fresh chili peppers, garlic, matchstick carrots, bell peppers, chopped scallions, cucumber, zucchini, etc. You want to cut them to the size you get in Chinese takeout and cook them until they get a bit soft. Then, scramble one egg per ramen package in with the veggies. When the egg is cooked, add the noodles and mix it all together. Add some salt and pepper, or the seasoning from the ramen if you are into the whole MSG thing. It is like cheap chow mein.


What can I do with solid cocoa? Someone game me a lump of solid cocoa (from Samoa, if that matters).

What can I do with it that I cannot do with cocoa powder?

I'm no expert in the matter, but the only use I was really able to find is to make Koko Samoa.

This blog I found to be very informative on the subject: https://chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/koko-samoa-simple-recipe-complex-history/

Basically, you shave the cocoa in small pieces, and infuse in hot water, add some sweetness, and you get a nice drink that you serve hot!

Here's a video explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3wjufJUBhI

And according to this company, that sells that product, you can make large batches and reheat the next day: http://www.kingkoko.com/recipes.html

Interestingly, their website have a "recipes" section containing only a single recipe for koko samoa. Which encourages me to say that product doesn't have a lot other practical uses.


Wedding Cake Questions for Hot Weather I have a Wedding Cake and Groom Cake to decorate for the middle of August.  The Bride's cake is a 5 tier and the groom cake is Chocolate.  The Wedding will be outside under a Barn Shed with no electricity for cool air.  What frosting is the best to hold up in the humidity?  The bride doesn't want any fondant.  And need some ideas as to keep the cakes cool when I don't have enough refrigerator space to hold all these layers up to transporting to the wedding.

In August you will have not one, but two "enemies" to keep in check:
Heat and humidity.

Heat gives you trouble with every kind of food that gets runny when not cooled, so for some frostings refrigeration or at least a cool space to store is crucial.

But as soon as you take your cool cake out (to be displayed or transported) without cooling...

Humidity can cause condensation on the surface, which can range from "dull" surfaces to "beads" of condensation to bleeding of colours or even affect the consistency of the icing itself if it reacts with lots of liquid on the surface.

So if I read your post correctly, there certainly will be at least one, possibly many stretches of time where the cake can't be cooled And that inevitably will lead to condensation and it's side effects if it is cooled inbetween.

-> There is one alternative, though: Don't refrigerate at all.

Cakes are not "spoils-super-fast-and-needs-constant-refrigeration" foods if certain restrictions are kept in mind:

The cake itself isn't critical. But unless you plan on doing a night-shift (bad idea...) you will want to bake the layers some time in advance. Either freeze or choose something that doesn't get stale quickly. Thaw completely before use.
The filling must be stable and safe without refrigeration, so whipped cream, light ganache or those "dairy-with-gelatine" types are out. A heavy ganache will work (think "truffles") and so will cooked fruit fillings like jam. Shortening-based "buttercreams" could be ok, but I have no personal experience with these; I suppose it depends a bit on the temperature on the day of the event. "Fruit-and-gelatine" should be ok if made quite freshly, i.e. early enough to set properly but late enough to be still fresh. Whatever you choose, don't use too much.
For the outer layer, fondant, marzipan and royal icing are the obvious choices. All of them can remain unrefrigerated. All of them have their pros and cons.

Your bride doesn't want fondant. Ok, never mess with the bride... (and admittedly I detest the stuff myself).
Marzipan is a love-hate-food, not everyone likes it. And - main disadvantage - it isn't pure white. And even tinted marzipan typically has a somewhat muted colour. Not necessarily bad, though, just with some restrictions.
Royal icing can be a bit tricky to work with to get a smooth surface (pouring, drying for a day, light sanding, next layer, dry again...) and absolutely needs a cake-plus-filling base that can "survive" for a few days. In very high humidity, RI can be hygroscopic, that is, it "soaks up" moisture from the air and starts to get soft. Especially small details and decorations are at risk. So it needs to be stored in a dry place until display. But that is often easier to manage than cooling - unless you expect heavy rain or thunderstorms. But the cake in this case would be the least of your worries, IMHO.

So if I were in your position I'd suggest a very traditional (British?) fruitcake or a carrot cake (choose a recipe on the drier side, not too wet), filled with layers of jam or lemon curd or similar. Then brushed with a thin layer of jam (as glue) and a covering layer of marzipan to seal the inner cake for freshness and finally a double or triple covering of royal icing. Have fun!