Why running tap water over mussels not kill them, but soaking does? Why doesn't rinsing mussels with tap water kill them like soaking does? I know running water over mussels takes very little time, compared to soaking them, but the water is still entering the mussels.
For example, see this quote from Knorr UK: How to Clean Mussels:

Keep the cleaned mussels under the running water. It’s really important that the water stays moving over the mussels, but that they’re not soaking in it. If you leave them soaking in tap water, they’ll die and that’s not what you want.

This other quote from Serious Eats: How to Clean and Debeard Mussels implies that some mussels should be soaked--does soaking kill them or not?

[F]arm-raised mussels are held in tanks prior to packaging and shipping, which means that the purging step—soaking the mussels in clean water until they spit out impurities—has already been done for you

Rinsing them doesn't kill them because a small amount of fresh water isn't toxic to them and, even if it were, the mussels aren't going to absorb much from a quick rinse. I've not seen this instruction about keeping them under running water other than to clean them. It makes sense during the scrubbing process but not as much as a holding method since mussels are just fine out of water for a few days, let alone the time between cleaning and cooking.
The line in the Serious Eats quote doesn't mean that the mussels are soaked in fresh water. It's clean water - meaning water free of silt. But it's still saltwater and it's done professionally, knowing how to preserve the mussels - which someone in a home may not.
A company that sells mussels offers the following:

Don't soak in water
Don't immerse them in water - fresh or salt. Freshwater will kill them; if left for too long in static salt water the mussels will use up the oxygen and suffocate. This practice used to be done to purge the mussel of any grit, these days all commercial mussel have been purged and purified in a UV deputation system.

You'll note the emphasis here is static salt water. Moving, oxygenated salt water is fine but people don't generally have the ability to do this in their home (I suppose unless they have a saltwater fish tank).
The end result is - lots of people have different methodologies for cleaning mussels. What it sounds like from both Serious Eats and The Cornish Mussel Shack (and many other places on the web) is that soaking (whether in fresh- or salt-water) is an outdated practice unless you're using wild-caught mussels (presumably including ones you've collected yourself).


Raw vs Cooked Egg Yolk Color Why do egg yolks change color from orange or dark yellow to yellow or light yellow when cooked, esp. hard boiled?

This is due to the proteins in the yolk denaturing and aggregating - basically the same reason the white (albumen) turns white from clear.

Think about the color that would result if you mixed a dark yellow color with some of the color white (i.e. I'm not talking about mixing yolk with albumen here, just colors) - it would lighten to make a lighter yellow


When broths and stocks can't be used interchangeably? I have seen that sometimes stocks and broths can be used interchangeably in a recipe. I wonder - when can they NOT be used interchangeably?

From WIKI they seem to be the same thing.

  Stock versus broth

  Many cooks and food writers use the terms broth and stock
  interchangeably. In 1974, James Beard wrote emphatically that stock,
  broth, and bouillon "are all the same thing".

  While many draw a distinction between stock and broth, the details of
  the distinction often differ. One possibility is that stocks are made
  primarily from animal bones, as opposed to meat, and therefore contain
  more gelatin, giving them a thicker texture.[3] Another distinction
  that is sometimes made is that stock is cooked longer than broth and
  therefore has a more intense flavor. A third possible distinction is
  that stock is left unseasoned for use in other recipes, while broth is
  salted and otherwise seasoned and can be eaten alone.

  In Britain, "broth" can refer to a soup which includes solid pieces of
  meat, fish, or vegetables, whereas "stock" would refer to the purely
  liquid base. Traditionally, according to this definition, broth
  contained some form of meat or fish; however, nowadays it is
  acceptable to refer to a strictly vegetable soup as a broth.

A possible difference a broth is a byproduct of cooking and you make a stock.


Need faster reheating of frozen vacuum packed roast beef I totally agree with the sous vide process of reheating frozen vacuum packed pre-cooked roast beef. But if I require much faster reheating for immediate serving, is it possible to put the frozen vacuum (bpa free) packed pre-cooked roast beef in a pot, with boiling point 200F, and letting it boil for at least 15 minutes without turning off the burner?

My goal is to achieve the same quality of tenderness and moisture even for a much faster reheating by boiling.

That would almost certainly overcook the outside while leaving the inside still frozen, depending on how the package is shaped and the meat was originally cooked.

It takes time for the heat to penetrate the meat, which is why sous vide is classified as a "low and slow" method of cooking.  Because your package is frozen, in order to bring the meat up to temp it has to thaw first, which takes even more time.  Depending how thick the package is, if you pull it out in 15 minutes it is entirely possible that the inside will still be frozen.

If you cooked the meat sous vide in the first place, an merely wish to use 200 degree water to reheat it, you will over-cook at least the outside of the package, again depending on the size/thickness.  If you cooked it in a more conventional way, its still possible that you will overcook it by using such a high temperature, as even chicken (which is usually cooked very well done) is only cooked to an internal temp of 165F.

Regardless, I would definitely expect some loss of quality if you reheat by boiling.  In order to preserve the quality (tenderness, juiciness, flavor), your best bet is to reheat gently.  Water temperature of 140F is generally recommended for reheating via sous vide.  It will however still take time.


Is it necessary to follow the suggested order in this challah recipe? Came across a Challah recipe which called for adding ingredients in the following order: water, yeast, flour, eggs, sugar, salt and oil/butter. They highlighted the order is important. Why is this important? Or is this a myth? I've actually seen most recipes call to add the sugar and water first to "bloom" the yeast.

The order of operations/ingredients in many recipes is critically important, especially those where chemistry is involved and/or gluten development. Some ingredients, such as baking powder, will activate as soon as they get wet, so you may not want to wet them too early. Yeast development is affected by sugar and salt (in different ways). Gluten development is affected by fat and mixing (in different ways). So, for example, if you premix other ingredients before you add flour you can limit how much the gluten is developed in the dough, which is desirable for some breads and cakes. And most important in challah is to "take" the challah (remove a small piece and burn it before baking the rest into a loaf).


Can you freeze egg noodle pasta? I recently made fresh egg noodle pasta. I made too much! Can I freeze it? I have tried freezing other kinds of pasta but am skeptical of freezing egg noodle pasta. What should I do?

Yes, you can freeze it.  Per Eat By Date, it should last 6-8 months when frozen.

The eggs don't really change the ability to freeze it.  For example, you can also freeze raw cookie dough containing eggs.


How to store pancakes Can I just put a stack in the freezer, with some paper between each? Do I need to make any changes to my ingredients (Milk, Flour, Butter, Sugar, Salt, Eggs) for efficient storage?

When I reheat them in the pan, will they regain the same texture?

Pancakes behave like high-fat bread. They go stale rather quickly.

Your recipe doesn't need to be altered.

Let them cool completely so you don't freeze condensation. Wrap them tightly to keep out air. If you really care about them you can use the paper between layers but I haven't found it to be necessary. If they freeze together they can be easily pried apart.

I have never tried recooking them in the pan so I can't speak to how well that would work. I reheat mine either in the microwave or toaster depending on how much time I have. The texture is not exactly the same as fresh but not worse, just different.


Making Prosciutto with skin off (Wrapping in butcher paper?) Can I make prosciutto if my ham has no skin? Will this be a problem? I was going to try it anyway but the question becomes, do I just coat the whole ham in struto? And then do I wrap it in butcher paper or double wrap it in cheesecloth?

I don't want to discourage you, but given your other question on pancetta, it appears that you are both new to curing and lack the ideal curing conditions.  Making a prosciutto is much more challenging. Ideal conditions are necessary. To specifically answer your question, you definitely want the skin on.  Think about it.  A cured ham has to hang for a year or more.  You are going to want that layer of skin to help regulate the drying and protect the fat and meat. If it were me, I would either enjoy it fresh, or (depending on what you have) butcher it into smaller muscles, cure, tie, and hang those.


What is this clear liquid after braising? I just made braised short ribs with balsamic vinegar, and after taking it out of the oven all the liquid turned clear! Here is a picture of the result (sans a few ribs):

I suspect it is due to the rendering of the connective tissue and fat from the short ribs, but I don't understand why it is so clear, especially given that there was wine and beef broth in it.

Here is the recipe I followed: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/02/balsamic-brown-sugar-short-ribs-recipe.html

Additionally, is there anything I can do with this liquid? I'd rather use it than toss it if possible.

Edit:
The liquid has since congealed into a solidified opaque beige liquid, which looks to me like fat.

I believe the liquid looks like fat that has been rendered out of short ribs, which are quite fatty. Most of the water-based liquids you added (red wine, stock, vinegar, etc.) seem to have evaporated and/or burned, and what's left of them has sunk to the bottom of the pan. Naturally, oil would float on top.
As to what to do with it, you could use it to cook, but keep in mind it will carry some flavours of this dish.

Update: OP just edited the original question to say the liquid solidified, confirming that it is indeed fat.


Red Bean Cream puffs timing and filling I want to make this recipe for a luncheon tomorrow: http://eatnorth.com/eat-north/karine-moulins-red-bean-cream-puffs
I have three concerns.
First, the local Asian grocery store was closed early yesterday, so I didn't get adzuki beans in time to soak. If I get them today is there a safe way to skip the soak?
Second, to avoid the puffs getting soggy, what should my timing be like? Should I make the pastry and filling seperate tonight and fill them in the morning? How should I store everything? It's a work luncheon so I'd be able to fill them at 7 am at the latest, to be consumed at 12:30.
Third, I have mung beans and wet Tamarind. If I'm unable to secure Adzuki, would a direct substitution of mung taste alright? Or a tamarind flavored cream? If I went either of those routes, should I skip on any white chocolate topping ?

You do need to soak the beans unfortunately, you are not going to get good results without soaking them. There's really no substitute for adzuki beans which would work well in this recipe, I'd go for another type of filling.

Choux pastry (ie the puff) can be baked ahead of time but is best fresh as it gets soggy easily.You could make the pastry cream the night before, just remember to get it out of the fridge a good half hour or more before piping so it loosens up. If you absolutely have to make everything the night before don't pipe until the morning as your pastry will be very soggy by the time they are eaten.


Uncooked peppers and garlic in olive oil fizzled when opened I put uncooked hot peppers in olive oil with garlic, onions, and seasoning. When I opened the jars, they fizzled. Is this safe to eat?

Without further ado, that’s an indication of biological activity. Both garlic and hot peppers are used for making fermented hot sauce, but using specific recipes known to (or designed to) stop pathogen growth.

I believe your intention was to infuse the olive oil with hot pepper and garlic aroma, it looks like it didn’t go well as some biological activity took place. I don’t think at this point you can be really sure what was growing inside the jars.

Taking the presence of raw garlic into consideration, and the oxygen-free environment created by the garlic being submerged in the oil, I’d be scared of a potential botulism pathogen growth as the olive oil itself won’t be enough to inhibit the growth of such pathogens. And raw garlic can host such bacteria.

And as a general rule:

  When in doubt, you should discard it.


How best to store steaks in the fridge (for taste) This question is not about preventing meat from going bad or about aesthetics due to oxidation etc. and is specifically about how best to store meat in the fridge for taste.

Depending on who I get my meat from (i.e. which butcher) sometimes it comes wrapped in paper (either individually or all together), sometimes in individual bags or sometimes all bundled together in a single bag like today.

How is it best to store them, for up to 3 days? Leave them all together in contact? Separate and individually cling wrap them? Put them together in Tupperware?

I guess what I'm really asking is does it make any difference to taste or texture depending on how it is stored in the fridge as long as the meat remains fresh and continuously refrigerated? *

*Not including uncovered storage in the fridge which would dry out the meat.

Beef ages, so it comes down to your preference, and the cut. As Tom Mylan, executive butcher and co-owner of the local, sustainable butcher shop The Meat Hook in Brooklyn, NY, explained in The Atlantic:

During wet aging, the plastic doesn't allow the meat to breathe, so it ages in contact with its own blood, which lends it "a more intense sour note and a more bloody/serumy flavor," according to the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota. This sounds a bit negative when you're talking about the flavor of a steak, but the fact that upwards of 90 percent of the beef taken home by American grocery store shoppers in plastic-wrapped foam trays is wet-aged seems to suggest that it can't be all bad.
Dry aging, on the other hand, allows the meat to breathe, lose water (which increases its "beefiness" since there is now less water and but the same amount of muscle fiber), and get acted upon by other microbes beside those of the muscle itself. Those other microbes are the long, threadlike mycelia of various airborne fungi that begin to digest the meat, giving an aged loin its distinctive flavor, aroma, and fuzzy exterior. So dry aging wins, right? It's complicated: while most meat snobs (myself included) prefer dry-aged beef, the American public actually prefers bagged beef according to a number of very expensive meat studies. Certainly you could chalk those results up to Americans preferring what they have become used to and choosing bagged meat over the funkier flavor of dry-aged beef.
Ultimately neither method of aging is the be-all-end-all: it is impossible to properly dry-age steaks like the flat iron, skirt steak, or chuck tenders because they lack the protective fat and bone that cover traditional aged cuts like rib and short loin. Once they are removed from the carcass, they simply begin to degrade and dry out, which is why I think everyone agrees they should go into plastic.


Cooking ribs weirdly? So my brother who's pretty inexperienced brined his ribs, smoked them for an hour, put it back in the brine/fridge, and plans on sous vide+searing them. Is there danger in putting the cooked pork back in the brine if he uses sous vide? I told him how unnecessary his steps/processes were, but he's stubborn. I ask this bc I worry for his health.

There is no problem with the brine, smoke, sous vide process as long as he pays attention to typical/safe temperatures. I would sous vide then smoke and probably return to a hot grill, rather than sear, but that is personal preference. What would be unusual would be a return to the brine after the smoking.  While it could be made safe from a food-safety standpoint (new brine...well-chilled...), I don't think that would be desirable or all that beneficial. Have him take a look here for detailed tips: https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/barbecue/#/dry-style-baby-back-ribs


Delayed Pressure Canning by 12 hours? OK? or no? We did a batch of canning the other day. We take our beans and blanch them then let them cool off. We take our mason jars and boil them as well as our lids. We take the jars out of the boiling water, add our beans, and then fill the jar with boiling water (leaving head room at the top). We then take the full and closed jars and put them in the pressure canner for 25 min with the top shaking/rocking. Then let them sit in the canner for probably another 30ish min until the pressure is gone and we then let them sit on the counter until they cool completely (hours later).

Here is the question. We did multiple batches that night and it got so late that our last batch we decided to wait until morning to pressure can them. So they sat on the counter for maybe 12 hours max before they were put into the pressure canner the next morning. The lids were on tight and they seemed to be sealed. The only variation from our normal canning procedure was waiting 12 hours before putting them in the pressure canner. Are these still safe to eat? We are concerned that by waiting bacteria could have grown and that it wont be killed from the pressure canning. If these were yours, would you throw them out? Or keep them?

Two problems - 12 hours sitting out at prime growth temperatures (not refrigerated 12 hours nor kept above 140° F for 12 hours) in anaerobic condtitons (sealed jars) and putting jars of room-temperature beans (rather than hot-packed beans) in the pressure canner. What you should have done would have been to either not process them at all and hold them refrigerated, or put the blanched beans in the refrigerator, dumping them out of the jars first (since you had jarred them.) Then you could re-pack them with boiling water in the morning and process them.

Both of those will offer the potential for bad things happening. Hot packing is very important since thermal gradients inside the jar can prevent the heating of all the stuff being canned, and is a common error when folks opt to re-process stuff that did not seal - which can be done, but needs to be done by dumping it into a pot and reheating it before repacking it and reprocessing it, not just tossing the unsealed jars back in the canner to have another go.

Toss them. They might not make you sick, but then again, they might.


Are any kind of wood-chips good enough for smoking? I was watching a Heston Blumenthal Show called "Cooking like Heston" the other day, the episode was on potatoes and he made doughnuts using them. one of the things he did to prepare the potatos for the doughnut mixture was to smoke them using wood-chips.

I have seen wood-chips be used by him, Jamie Oliver and on Iron Chef (Japan) and Master Chef (Australia) a few times and i've been wondering if any kind of wood-chips can be used to do smoking (ie. ones picked up from the gardening section of a hardware store or made by myself from junk off cuts from trees or building material) or if i should be looking out for a particular kind which is meant for cooking.

You can't just pick up any old wood chips but you can get ones for cooking at the hardware store. Even Home Depot or Lowes should have wood-for-smoking available.

You have to be careful since if you get chips made out of treated lumber for example the resulting smoke could be poisonous. Probably not something you want to eat. You also want to avoid poisonous wood or trees.

Warnings aside, you can use just about any non-poisonous hardwood to make woodchips.  Just make chunks or chips out of nice dry seasoned logs.  Usually, people use wood with interesting favors to add such as fruit tree woods (apple, pear, cherry). Other popular woods are mesquite, hickory, or maple.


How to cook a pork sirloin roast? I picked up a pork sirloin roast yesterday, it's a little over three pounds.  I've never cooked one of these before and I am not sure what to do.  My seasoning plan is salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, and I might poke a couple holes for cloves of garlic as well.  My cooking plan is 8+ hours in the crock pot on low, with about an inch of water in there.  Will this turn out OK?  I'd like a tender and moist result, obviously.  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I don't think a pork sirloin roast will stand up to that kind of cooking very well.  That is a very lean piece of meat, which does not lend itself to long cooking times at low temperatures.  That type of cooking is best reserved for cuts of meat with lots of fat and/or connective tissue.  If you put a pork sirloin roast in your cooker for 8 hours on low, you're going to have one tough, dry piece of meat when you are through.

You would be better served by cooking it in the oven at higher heat, for a relatively short period of time, like 400F for an hour or so.  Bear in mind, you're not going to get to a fall-apart tender state with a sirloin roast.  This isn't a pork butt with which you're dealing, which you'd take up to an internal temperature of 195F or more.  Rather, you're going to want to target the safe temperature, and no higher.  You want the meat to be juicy.  Cut into thinner slices to achieve maximum tenderness.


Should I preheat my bread baking containers? I have read that artisan breads turn out better when they are baked in a container that can trap the steam. Examples I have read are baking bread in a dutch oven, a ceramic, lidded bowl, or even a covered roasting pan.

The instructions that I have read for baking bread on a stone always call for the stone to be preheated with the oven to maximize the oven spring when the bread is introduced.

Should I do the same with other containers and preheat them with the oven? If so are there any tricks to getting the dough into the container without burning myself?

If you are using a additional containers or surfaces in the oven for baking, you should absolutely pre-heat it with the oven. Use an IR thermometer to measure the actual temperature of the container - a dutch oven or heavy stone will take longer to come up to temperature than the air in the oven will, so the oven will claim to be preheated sooner than it is actually ready.

Remember that temperature and heat are two different things - one of the benefits of using a baking stone or dutch oven or other "heavy" thing is that it stores a lot of HEAT. Air at 450F and Cast Iron at 450F contain very different amounts of heat, and it is heat that will bake your bread. You can tell that they have soaked up as much heat as they can when their temperature is close to your oven set-point, which will take a while.

The only possible exception to this would be if you are just using a thin sheet metal steam tray to cover your pizza stone to trap steam, since it has so little thermal mass. A thin tray could probably be put over the bread without preheating the tray since it won't absorb or store much thermal energy.

To prevent burning, choose containers with a good, solid handle, and get quality oven mitts, preferably with long-ish sleeves to protect your forearms.


Does the PH in your mouth affect taste? I’ve eaten plain whole-milk yogurt every day for over 10 yrs.  One 32 oz tub of the brand name I buy can taste sweet & mild one day; sour & acidic the next...or vice versa.

I’ve complained to yogurt makers so many times; even sending batch info & pics...and they’ve been so nice...thanking me & sending me coupons for free yogurt.

Now, however, I honestly think the perception of different tastes has to do with the changing chemistry in my mouth or on my tongue. Eating something sweet OR savory OR salty...that does NOT seem to matter. It’s just sour some days; sweet the next.

What’s going on??

I'm sure you have not expericed the same thing with products other than yoghurt. It is difficult to standardize the taste and consistency of yoghurt despite of climate controlled manufacturing facilities because there are numerous factors other than just temperature. Also, the milk is not always the same despite of homogenization process.

In other words, it's not your mouth, it's the product which comes out different every time. It is also the case with artisan wines.


What additions can I make to my basic white bread recipe to increase its fiber content? These are my ingredients for a one-loaf white bread recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 packet active dry yeast

I'd like to add an ingredient that will increase the loaf's fiber content without having to adjust or alter the other ingredients, but I don't know a) what to add, and b) how much of it to add.

You can buy wheat bran at health stores. Before adding to bread, soak for a while to rehydrate. It will change the character of the bread somewhat, but the recipe should still work with something like 1/3 cup. The bag I bought was fairly coarse, so I put it in the blender and pulsed to powder it.

You can also buy soluble fiber (i.e. benefiber in the USA), although some of what is sold might be a scam. I imagine something around 1/4 cup added wouldn't mess up the recipe.

King Arthur (and perhaps others) make a white wheat flour, made from an albino wheat with husk that is ground very finely, and can generally be subbed in for white flour yielding higher fiber product. You might want to start half and half white wheat and white.


Too much butter in pie crust My pie crust does not look right . I put in one and one half cups of butter instead of one and one half sticks.  I’ve already added the liquid. Can it be saved?

Six eight ounce sticks is enough butter for four regular crusts.
I'd add 3X all the other ingredients, mix, press into shape, divide into 4 pieces, freeze 3 of them, and make a pie with the remaining crust. After sitting at least a day, and perhaps freeze/thawing, you probably won't get the best crusts, but they should be usable.


Is ginger soluble In water, fat or both? Is ginger soluble/can it creates strong flavours in water, fat or both together?

No, by strict interpretation of your question, ginger itself is a plant. Plants are typically insoluble as they are composed of chemicals that are fat and water insoluble to a greater or lesser extent.
However, the major spice component in ginger is [6]-gingerol, this is a volatile ketone that is soluble in a range of organic solvents (oils/fats seem likely), but only very barely soluble in water. There are a range of other flavour/scent compounds found in ginger, some of which will be water soluble, some will be organic solvent soluble, that play a role in the taste of ginger, but these are too abundant to go into.
Note that water or fat solubility has only a partial influence on your ability to taste the ginger. You can make tea from ginger and taste and feel very strongly the gingerol, but this is because the gingerol is forming a fine layer of oil on the surface of the water and you can taste minute amounts of it. In addition, it scores 60,000 on the Scoville scale - similar in range to a cayenne pepper and much hotter than a jalapeno, so in a tea with nothing to cushion the effect, the heat is very obvious.


Dairy substitutes for various purposes I've been considering trying to reduce my dairy consumption for environmental reasons (I've long since reduced my meat consumption), but I'm not sure what to use for various substitutions.

I generally go through one to four gallons of whole milk per two weeks. Uses include:

A little bit in scrambled eggs
Pancakes, muffins, popovers, and the occasional custard or quiche
Yogurt (easier than buying separately, probably cheaper, and I strain it to be much thicker than anything I can find in bulk in stores)
Oatmeal, both cooked with milk and then supplemented with yogurt
Soda-bread, made with yogurt rather than buttermilk
Hot cocoa
Mac-and-cheese (not box mix, so milk and cheese and butter are all involved)
Milk-enriched yeast bread

And then there's butter and cheese for various things, but I buy those separately rather than making them from milk, so replacing dairy milk wouldn't affect that.

I would expect that the hot cocoa, the yeast bread and quickbreads, the scrambled eggs, and the oatmeal, could work simply replacing the dairy milk with almond or oat or soy milk, because all of those would work with water or with no liquid at all (just less tasty/nutritious). I am less confident that that would work for making custard, quiche, or a properly thick sauce for mac-and-cheese (even allowing dairy cheese), since I'm pretty sure the milk is relevant there chemically/structurally, but I'm not sure. I have a bad feeling that I could not make an acceptable yogurt (both for flavor and for adding sufficient acid to soda-bread) from nondairy milk, or at least not without significantly more effort than the fairly trivial process of making yogurt overnight in a slow cooker.

Is there a single replacement I could buy for dairy milk for all of these products? Lacking that, what replacements should I use for any given portion?

I’m a huge dairy lover but I recently found out a couple years ago that I am lactose intolerant and had to make the switch over to non-dairy almost everything.

If continuing to use butter isn’t a problem for you, keep that one. I bake a ton and butter is still the best option for popovers (my grandma was British, I make them every Christmas) and any sorts of breads. If not, subbing in margarine or a vegan butter (basically margarine) works well too.
For 90% of what’s on your list, unsweetened original flavor almond-milk is my go-to, oat milk would work well too. Both of those have the mildest flavor and bake well too. Any sauce that needs to be thicker or richer, sub out soy milk instead for chowders or say a bechamel sauce, which could work with almond-milk as well if you just added a little cornstarch and non-dairy or goat cheese, thickens it like a charm!
-Non-dairy yogurts and cheeses have come leaps and bounds in the last 10 years! For cooking I’d recommend using either goat-milk yogurt for the tangy-ness or a Kite hill, Silk, or Lavva (which has a really tangy unsweetened one I just used to make a tzatziki sauce the other day, came out great!). For non-dairy cheeses, the best are from Lisanatti Foods (almond-milk mozzarella block), VioLife (their cheddar slices and Parm block are great), or Chao (great slices of cheese for sandwiches).


How to counter bitterness in dal recipe I just made the recipe below for slow cooker dal and there is quite a bitter flavor. I'm wondering:
- what ingredient would cause this bitterness and why?
- is there something I can add to counter the bitterness?

2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
2 teaspoons whole mustard seeds
1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
2 cups split red lentils, rinsed
5 cups water
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, diced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Fresh cilantro leaves, for serving (optional)
Jasmine rice, for serving

Add the cumin, mustard, and fennel seeds to a small sauté pan, and place on the stove over low heat. Toast the seeds, using a wooden spoon to stir frequently, until fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the toasted spices, lentils, water, tomatoes, onion, ginger, turmeric, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a 6-quart slow cooker. Stir together. Cover the slow cooker with the lid, then set to low and cook for 4 to 6 hours, or high and cook for 2 to 3 hours, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the lentils are soft. Stir before serving.

In dal recipes I have made, the lentils and tempering are cooked separately, then combined later.  They generally begin by toasting spices (careful, mustard pops, but that is what you want), then caramelizing thinly sliced onion in the spices.  This brings out the sweetness of the onion, which can offset the bitterness of some of the spices.  Once the lentils are cooked, the tempering (onion and spices) is added and the seasoning is adjusted.


Morphy Richards new Intellichef, states boil at 240 degrees C? just bought an Intellichef by Morphy Richards,instructions state boil temperature is 240 degrees C,slow cook temp 120 degrees C;this seems to be too high for slow cooking;my old slow-cooker just bubbled away slowly,this one appears to be boiling almost straight away.I have contacted the company but not had a reply yet,does anyone else have one of these new multicookers?

You are correct that the indicated temperatures are too high.  240 C (480 F) is a very fast oven temperature, and inappropriate for almost all direct contact cooking methods.  Even 120 C is well past water's boiling point, and so not achievable in slow cooking.

A more typical an appropriate braising or slow cooking temperature would be 82 C (180 F).

Assuming this is the instruction booklet for the product you have, it appears the instructions for slow cooking are actually trying to get you to do a two part braise (they even seem close to identical to the braising instructions):  first searing the meat for flavor development through browning, and then a longer cooking period.  The higher temperature is intended for the searing phase; they then you have reduce the temperature to about 100-140 C.

This is still too high for braising, but that may be the temperature the device's thermometer will perceive at the bottom of the cooking insert.  You want the temperature in the actual food to be about 82 C—use an instant read thermometer to help learn where to set the dial.

Similarly, the boiling temperature is almost certainly again set too high (as water, by definition, boils at 100 C), with the intention of putting the device at its maximum power to bring the water to boil and keep it boiling rapidly.


How to stop cupcakes from collapsing? I made two kinds of cupcakes recently from Who You Callin' Cupcake? and both of them collapsed in the center.

The cupcake that collapsed the most was the Devil's Food Cupcake. This contained:

all-purpose flour
sugar
cocoa powder
baking soda
salt
canola oil
vinegar
vanilla
hot coffee

I baked them in a dark cupcake pan with white paper liners. Why did this collapse and how can I stop this?

One strong possibility is that the recipe is overleavened, which will cause it to blow up fast and then collapse. BakeWise (by Shirley Corriher) recommends 1 teaspoon baking powder or 1/4 teaspoon baking soda per cup of flour as a guideline. If your recipe is much beyond that, suspect that is the issue.


Does repeating freeze -> chill -> freeze -> chill spoil yogurt? I brought a 3 KG yogurt store in a container. The container mention to store it at temperature between 2 degree to 7 degree.

So, I put my 3 KG yogurt in the freezer. When I want to eat, I put to chill and later consume it, then I put it back to the freezer. This process repeat until the 3 KG yogurt is finished.

So, I was wondering if the whole process of freeze, chill, freeze, chill, ... may or will cause some "damage" (or spoil ) the yogurt?

I hate yoghurt which has been frozen even once, as the emulsion separates and makes the texture totally wrong.

But if you don't see any problem with that, the only problem you are left with is food safety. After many cycles, you don't know how much time your food has spent thawed and how much time it has spent frozen. The solution is simple: put the yogurt into smaller containers, freeze them, and take out a single container for each use.

By the way, 3 kg of yogurt isn't that much, seeing that yogurt keeps for many weeks in a fridge. With a few yogurt-heavy recipes, you could get it finished without the need for freezing at all.


Why is my pastry cream (custard) grainy? I made a simple pastry cream from a recipe that I've used once before uneventfully, and this time it turned out with a grainy texture.

The procedure was basically to: whisk together 3 egg yolks and an egg together with sugar and cornstarch in one bowl, separately bring milk with butter to a boil, temper the egg mixture with the hot milk, and then add the warm egg mixture to the milk and boiling for three minutes.

What might I have done wrong that would cause a grainy temperature? Did I not get the eggs warm enough before adding to the boiling milk? Did I boil for too long or too short a time? Are there any other potential culprits I'm not considering.

I think it all got too hot, but there might be other problems.

Did you mix the cornstarch in completely? Leaving undissolved cornstarch is a sure way to obtain 'blobs'.
Did you pour the hot milk onto the egg-mixture? You should do that very slowly and whisk vigorously (while trying to splash everything). If the eggs get too hot, they will coagulate.
Did you use a double boiler? Putting the pan on an open flame will make the bottom too hot and the eggs will coagulate.
Even if you did use a double boiler, did you whisk regularly while heating? The eggs at the bottom will become far warmer than the eggs in the center...

As rumtscho mentioned, a thermometer will be useful for monitoring the done-ness of the custard.

  Generally, a fully cooked custard should not exceed 80 °C; it begins setting at 70 °C.

Source: Wikipedia


Enameled cast iron vs stainless steel for acids Are enameled cast iron pans or stainless steel pans better for cooking with acids like tomatoes? I am wondering if I can use all cast iron/enameled cast iron pans, or if I need a stainless steel pan also.

Enameled cast iron usually means porcelain enamel, a type of glass. It's resistant to both acidic and alkaline foods. It is fine to cook and even store tomato sauces, etc. in enameled cast iron.

Stainless steel is also resistant to acidic foods, but not as much as porcelain enamel. Storing tomato sauce in it may eventually discolor the pot.

Both stainless and enameled iron are perfectly good options for cooking with acids. Whether you need a stainless pan depends on what cooking you're doing. In brief, cast iron has very slow heat response (e.g., you raise or lower the burner, it takes a while for the pan to cool or heat); stainless is much faster. That's a drawback too, iron gives a very nice steady heat, perfect for braising.

Stainless is also almost always lighter. I have a 12 qt stainless stock pot, its several pounds. My enameled iron dutch oven, at less than half the capacity, is closer to 15 lbs.


How firm a bite should Ptitim (pearl couscous) have? I've made Ptitim for my family a couple of times without any prior experience of how it should taste. After about 25 mins of simmering, the pearls remained quite firm (a little like pasta that needs a couple of minutes more). I wonder if this is correct, or if I should have continued simmering.

I used Ptitim with rather large pearls (spheres of about 5mm diameter). I used enough liquid that the pearls were still coated when I had stopped cooking.

The results were edible, even tasty. Still I wonder if the pearls should have been quite so chewy.

I'm used (since childhood) to eat ptitim that are only a little firmer than al dente. I've never had 5mm ones, though.


Can refrigerator pickles be processed? I have a made refrigerator pickles and put them in jars with lids sealed. Can I now process them?

Generally, no. The reason recipes get advertised as "refrigerator pickles" is that they don't fulfill the requirements for being shelf-stable after canning. If you want shelf-stable pickles, follow a standard recipe which includes canning instructions, not a recipe for refrigerator pickles.


Can one be "taste blind" to the sweetness of stevia? I bought some stevia powder today and tried to make waffles with it, replacing the sugar. However, no matter how much stevia I poured into the dough (carefully adding tea spoon by tea spoon, tasting it each time), I couldn't really taste any sweetness.

Other family members said the dough was already very sweet.

Then I tried a pinch of stevia powder purely, and it tasted slightly bitter at first and minimally sweet after a few seconds.

From the description, stevia should be magnitudes sweeter than sugar though.

Is it possible that some people don't have the necessary taste receptors that would react on stevia and are therefore "taste blind" to its sweetness? If so, are there any numbers or guesses how many people are unable to taste it? I could not find any online resources about that, but it would be useful to know how likely e.g. a guest will not be able to taste it.

Additionally, might there be any "workarounds", like adding something to make the stevia sweetness available?

Update: I just checked the product I bought again, it's actually a mixture (proportions not mentioned in the ingredients list) of maltodextrin and steviol glycosides.

There's some variation in how people respond to Stevia:

From 2013: Multiple genes manage how people taste sweeteners

  another study recently published in the journal Chemosensory Perception, Allen had 122 participants taste two stevia extracts, RebA -- Rebaudioside A -- and RebD -- Rebaudioside D. Stevia is a South American plant that has served as a sweetener for centuries, according to the researchers. While the plant is becoming more popular as a natural non-nutritive sweetener, consumers have reported a variety of tastes from stevia-based sweeteners, including bitterness.

No mention of people not tasting the sweet at all, but it is a big gene pool.
In me, the stuff is a slow,tight binder. It takes a while for the sweet to come on once I've eaten the stevia, and it takes a minute or two for the sweet to wear off after I've had it.


Which is a typically American way of seasoning spaghetti and other pasta? When I visit the States I see a lot of pasta and spaghetti in the supermarkets. I wonder which is the typical seasoning (sauce or similar) used by Americans when they cook spaghetti. Of course, when they don't cook Italian-style.

I might refer you to this video, where Malcolm Gladwell talks (a little bit) about spaghetti, and how Americans prefer to eat it.

Apparently, companies doing market research found that Americans say they want "real Italian pasta sauce," which is somewhat thinner than "American style," but actually prefer eating the chunkier, heartier sauces now common on supermarket shelves.


What does adding butter to toffee do? Some recipes for toffee call for butter, some don't. I'd like to know please what adding butter does, and if I do add butter, will I still be able to make the stickjaw type toffee?
Thanks in advance.

Butter largely acts to prevent the crystallization of sugar in toffee. This leaves the toffee smooth and breakable.

  Fats in candy serve a similar purpose. Fatty ingredients such as
  butter help interfere with crystallization—again, by getting in the
  way of the sucrose molecules that are trying to lock together into
  crystals. Toffee owes its smooth texture and easy breakability to an
  absence of sugar crystals, thanks to a large amount of butter in the
  mix.
  There's more about the role of ingredients in candies here.

You should still be able to make stickjaw (or, if not authentic stickjaw, at least a more sticky) toffee. The consistency of toffee has more to do with the temperature you bring the toffee to while cooking. Here's a chart detailing the various stages of candy temperatures. For a sticky toffee you'd most likely want to bring your toffee to the soft-crack stage.

Here is a recipe for authentic, old-fashioned, stickjaw toffee but without butter.


When spicing rice, should you add the spices in the water beforehand or after the rice has cooked? Newbie cook here. I use a small inexpensive rice cooker to cook my rice.

Are you supposed to add your various spices to the water when you put the rice in the pot? Or should you add the spices in at the end when the rice is fully cooked and stir them in?

Does it matter what kinds of spices you are using?

Edit: Please explain why. Is this only for aesthetics or does it actually affect taste?

I can only answer from a perspective of the Indonesian kitchen, and my own personal experience, but in general the answer is:

In the water, with the rice

I quite often use saffron, turmeric, cloves, daun salam (The English Wiki entry links to bay leaf, which, completely, utterly, is not the same thing), and lemongrass, and they all go in while cooking the rice.

Possible exceptions would be green leafy herbs, (coriander / cilantro for instance), which you put in the end. Not so much to flavor the rice, but more to "scent" the bowl of rice.

[Edit]

In answer to your edit:

There is no preferred way. The preferred way depends on the herb, as observed by thrig in his/her answer. Going by experience, and the herbs I use myself, the answer is in the water with the rice. Putting a bay leaf in after the fact, is not going to do much for a dish. Putting it in while cooking the dish is. This goes for a lot of herbs: Turmeric, ginger and laos (galangal?) can flavor rice, but not if you put it in the end. On the other hand: Putting cilantro while cooking the rice will just destroy the cilantro, and leave nothing to show for it. I lack the knowledge of what is water-soluble, and what is fat-soluble, but as a general guideline I use my highly personal "is-this-going-to-survive-the-15-to-20-minute-cooking-process-or-not?" guideline, and the even more personal "did-it-work?" guideline.

In addition, and perhaps also supporting thrig's answer, Indonesians are not shy of cooking their rice in santen (again: English wiki does not do justice, creamed coconut is not quite the same), adding a mildy greasy layer to the grains, aiding in flavor absorption, although I have to say it's not a common practice, but more often used for festive occasions.


How to pop a tiny champagne cork? I know how to uncork champagne. However, I just got a bottle of prosecco with a tiny cork, and I'm not sure how to pop it. I can't grab it like with a normal cork, and I'm worried about putting a cork screw in there if everything is under pressure.

Here's a picture of what the cork looks like:

According to CA Wine Merchants and Ask Meta Filter, you simply open it with a corkscrew, as per regular wine.

Evidently, it is not so effevescent or pressurized that it needs the special cork that true champaign requires.


Do you add frozen peas directly to flavor bases or you have to boil them? Im asking since I have directly added frozen peas to a flavor base with water. Its been over 30 minutes in simmering temperature with a lid and the peas are still not tender. They also stuck to the bottom of the pan.

There's no point in boiling peas separately if you can cook them in whatever dish you are making, it's an extra pan to clean up and you lose whatever flavor gets leached out in the cooking process. I think where you went wrong is adding them frozen as you caused the base to cool and they sank. If you add a lot of peas the base can take a long time to get back up to cooking temperature, which is why they haven't cooked.

Next time thaw them in hot water before you add them to the pot, this will make them cook much faster and it will get rid of any excess water from ice (some companies pack water with their frozen vegetables to bulk them out) which can dilute your food. The peas don't have to be warm or even up to room temperature, just not frozen anymore. Once you add them give them a stir or two every couple of minutes to keep them from sinking and burning on the bottom.

If you do want to add them to the pot frozen then you need to crank the heat up until the pot is back up to temperature.


Would these ingredients work for a Gift In a Jar? I am planning on making a Gift In a Jar for a cake. An example of a Gift In a Jar can be found here. Basically I would be putting the following ingredients in the jar:

Flour
Cocoa
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Cinnamon
White sugar
Brown sugar
Chopped Almonds

The recipe just calls for me to put all the ingredients into a bowl, mix and pour into a pan. No seperation of dry and wet ingredients here. The other ingredients that aren't included in this list is shredded zucchini, orange zest, milk, vanilla, eggs and oil.

Would this work together?? Are there any specific ingredients that I should leave out? How far in advance could I put it all together?

All of those ingredients should be fine.  The only thing you really have to worry about is shelf life, so make sure to buy fresh ingredients and check your expiration dates, especially on the baking powder and baking soda and the almonds.  I would just tell them to use it within a year (or the earliest expiration date).

Oh yeah, and don't put the baking powder and baking soda next to the brown sugar.  There isn't a lot of water in it, but it might be enough to cause issue.


What is a useful search term for the sensation of flavor progression in a spoonful? That's "progression" as in flavor changes happening over time (like the few seconds to chew). As a rough analogy, in music theory a chord is made up of different notes played simultaneously (and where the individual notes become difficult to isolate), but there is also chord progression, which has different chords played after the other, and the dynamic makes a tune that's different from simply playing all the notes in all the chords at the same time. I see in a lot of recipe discussion "melding" or flavors coming together, and here and there there's mention of specific ingredients or flavor combos popping out, but I want to focus specifically on the latter, and specifically on flavors being "phrasal", with individual "words" but also a "phrase" more than its sum parts.

I ask mainly because I once had a chili that did a great job at having a flavorful  base flavor, but with every spoonful, as I chewed, distinct flavors were "emerging" from the base one after the other (along with textural variation), and with a consistency per spoonful with how the flavors came out in order. I've also had stews with similarly stable bases, but distinct flavors "fell out" or "abruptly showed up" more in a raw way and/or with less consistent ordering. Then I've had stews that basically tasted like undifferentiated protein mush (it had a flavor, but each spoonful was as non-dynamic as the one before).

The thing is, as I try to look up tips on how to do this flavor progression, I don't seem to have a clear term to disambiguate from other aspects of cooking. This isn't a question about how to get flavor progression, but a question about a specific searchable term to assist my research.

I've tried to look up "preserving distinct flavors" as well, but I'm still getting nonspecific results. I guess similar concepts would be flavor highlights and isolation, as well as flavor contrasting. It'd be great to have an analogue to "chord progression" though.

Your music theory analogy is apropos, because one of the common terms for what it seems you're after is flavor "notes."

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of standardization in terminology for the temporal perception of flavor.  The most common term is of course aftertaste, which is sometimes also known as the "finish" of a beverage or food.  The link gives a bit more detail on temporal perception and flavor dynamics.

The succession of taste perceptions is more commonly discussed in beverage tasting (particularly alcoholic beverages, though I've occasionally seen it mentioned regarding coffee or tea).  The first part of perception often occurs before you even put the food or drink into your mouth, since volatile aromatic compounds are a large part of what we think of as "taste" (but which are actually smell).  Those components are sometimes referred to as "the nose" or "bouquet," again particularly in beverages, those I've sometimes heard of the term applied to foods with distinctive smell profiles like chocolate.

Once the food or drink is inside your mouth, you experience the immediate taste sensations on your tongue, but the volatile compounds also waft up through the back of your mouth into your nasal cavities.  There are various technical terms for these components of flavor, including "sapictive" for flavor notes sensed in the mouth, "olfactive" or "olfactory" for notes sensed in the nasal cavities, as well as other elements that influence taste perception like hot/cold sensations or texture/chewing sensations.  Most of these terms are not commonly encountered in food writing in general, but you sometimes see them in technical studies of flavor or food science.

In some cases, as you chew, other flavor components are released (by evaporation of more volatile compounds or breaking down of the food mechanically through chewing or chemically by saliva), which again may be sensed in the mouth or the nose.  The only term I've commonly heard for these in casual food writing is "middle notes," and I don't know that people consistently use that term to mean the same thing.  The process of changing flavors during this part of tasting can be referred to as flavor "structure," "depth," or "development," among other things.  There's not really a standard term that I know of.  Once the food is swallowed, as I've already mentioned, the terms "aftertaste" or "finish" are used to describe any further taste experiences.  In technical literature, the overall progression is sometimes referred to as a "temporal profile" of flavor sensations for a particular food.

I know that this answer probably isn't particular helpful or specific, but that's partly because your question is discussing a relatively new area of research in food science.  There are a few books published just in the past couple years that deal with flavor science and the psychology of flavor perception.  While some of them deal with the temporal succession of flavor perception (and the nerve pathways and sensations that create them), I don't think there are common terms yet that have emerged which you could search for, other than the somewhat imprecise and casual terminology I've mentioned here.

EDIT: I realized after reading the comments that you mentioned that you may be interested in more technical terminology from food science; when I originally read your question, I assumed you were looking for more casual terms that average culinary folk actually use.  In any case, there are a number of terms for specific analytical techniques that reference the order of sensations, some of which are relatively new:

Time-intensity flavor profiling (TI)
Progressive profiling
Temporal dominance of sensations (TDS)
Temporal order of sensations (TOS)
Multiple attribute time intensity (MATI)

These tend only to be mentioned in the technical food science literature, and each has a different "protocol" for evaluating the interaction of flavor sensations over time.  Most are, as I said, relatively new -- older literature will usually employ a more generic term like "flavor profile" or perhaps "temporal profile."  Anyhow, searching for any of these terms is likely to turn up more technical articles on the kind of information you're discussing.


converting cups of rice to kilos Planning to cook rice for 200 people--will be using long grain rice and slow cooking in the oven.  How many cups of rice do I need?  How many kilos of long grain rice do I need.

If you cook rice for 200 people you could consider 100 grams per person so a total of 20kg.
I'm making a lot of assumptions here, I know, like I have no idea what your other servings look like.

As a general piece of advice and as semi-professional chef, I'd recommend to use grams at all times. Cups is a volume-based measurements and rice has a lot of air around it, and its volume will depend on the type of rice, temperature of the environment in which you measure and even humidity! If you go pro, you should resort to using accurate weight-measurements rather than volume-units.


what are these darker stains in radish? We have some radish that have these darker areas in the flesh. Currently, we are on the island of Malta where food ingredients are very low quality in general, so anything out of the ordinary immediately becomes suspicious :)

Click for larger size image.

It's a fungal infection. If you google Aphanomyces raphani you will see much more serious examples but that how it looks usually when the outside is not affected (so also not thrown out by seller)


What is the best way to store stock in the freezer? What is the best way to store stock in the freezer?

I can think of ice cubes and plastic bags, but am looking for other ideas.

Also, what would be the optimal portion size?

When I want to freeze portions of almost anything liquid (including stocks and sauces), I use a covered ice cube tray like OXO Good Grips.  Just spoon it into the tray and throw it in the freezer.  Easy!  Keeps very well, and makes it very easy to portion out later.

The OXO product is my favourite, but it's not too hard to find generic substitutes at any superstore.  Try to find one with a soft bottom so you don't struggle for 5 minutes trying to get the cubes out and then scraping the sides for all the bits you left behind.


Can you make fish broth with just fish flesh — no bones or heads? When I ate a fish stew some years ago in a Hong Kong restaurant, the dish had no bones. The broth was made from giant grouper. Do you know if bones were used?
No local grocers sell fish bones. And I don't want to buy fish heads...the appearance of fish heads just dismays me. I live in the U.S.

Fish broth, like most stocks (except vegetarian), is almost always made from bones, and usually includes other parts of the fish like heads, tails, and fins. In addition to the flavor and protein from the fish bits, you need the gelatin from the bones to give the stock "body" and texture.
I also live in the US, and there's a very simple way to get the heads, frames (bones), and tails: buy a whole fish and fillet it yourself.  You make a stock from the frame and use the meat for the soup.
If that freaks you out, or you live in one of those midwestern towns where you can't get whole fish, here's a workaround.  It has decent flavor, even if it lacks some of the body of a proper fish stock: make a broth using dried scallops.  You'll probably have to order them online, but they ship well.


What is it that makes bacon so delicious? I am aware of many of things that bacon has going for it. It is high in fat, high in salt, and smoked.

But taking a potato, frying it, covering it in salt, and sprinkling on liquid smoke, does not taste like bacon. (Yes I've tried. I try liquid smoke on everything.)

So what is it that yields that characteristic bacony flavor? Obviously it can be isolated since there are a plethora of products that are marketed with a bacon flavor.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/whereisit.cgi?t=bacon&x=0&y=0

How can I impart some quantity of beautiful bacony flavor to other dishes while avoiding all the saturated fat and nitrates? I am asking specifically about isolating the flavor- not more healthy bacon substitutes.

The big missing thing in your description (fat, salt, smoke) is umami. You can see this in bacon-flavored products. For example, bacon salt (click on a "nutritional info" link) contains monosodium glutamate.

So if you want to make something bacon-flavored, short of using bacon (and possibly draining away a lot of fat), you're generally going to be looking for source of umami; see "What foods are high in umami?" or "What is a good vegetarian source of umami flavour?".

Also, bacon is definitely not acidic, and perhaps slightly sweet. This means, for example, tomatoes are probably not a good way to get the umami, and that whatever you do, you might try adding a tiny touch of sugar to bring out the flavor a little more. Things like shitake mushrooms and nori seem like better flavor matches. (If you've had furikake this shouldn't be too surprising.)


How much of "wasabi" is actually wasabi in the United States? After looking at wasabi's Wikipedia page I was shocked to find out that real wasabi loses the majority of its flavor in 15 minutes if left uncovered and that in the United States "wasabi" is actually horseradish, mustard, starch, and green food coloring.

This made me wonder about much of the wasabi-flavored foods I have had such as wasabi peas, and the ingredients list of Trader Joe's Wasabi Peas confirms that their "wasabi" is nothing more than mustard. However, another brand of wasabi peas simply lists "wasabi" in their ingredients list which makes me wonder if it is legal in the US to label horseradish, mustard, and other things that clearly are not wasabi as wasabi. It also makes me wonder if I have ever had real wasabi in my lifetime living in the United States.

Does anyone have any insight into how much of the wasabi-flavored foods in the United States are authentic and how to know what is the real thing? I am also very interested in knowing more about the regulations that pertain to foods being labelled as "wasabi" when there is no actual wasabi in them.

The vast majority of wasabi in the US is mostly horseradish.

Some brands like this one, contain no wasabi at all. That one is the #1 seller on Amazon.

Other brands, including this one, contain a small amount of wasabi, presumably just so they can put wasabi on the list of ingredients. Incidentally, that brand is made in Japan.

Real wasabi can be found without too much trouble. This brand is in the powdered form, you can also get it in a tube. I understand that real wasabi loses its heat very quickly after being grated, which may explain why I actually prefer the fake stuff. I've tried real wasabi in a tube, and I found it disappointingly mild. If I ever see a fresh wasabi stem I will buy it just to satisfy my curiosity. (Originally I called it "wasabi root", the wiki article linked to in the OP tells me it's actually a stem. Hmmm, learn something new every day.)

I have read that most of the wasabi in Japanese sushi bars is the same stuff we get here. Even in Japan, real wasabi is the exception, not the rule.

You bring up an interesting point about the legality of labeling a product "wasabi" when it doesn't contain any real wasabi. Our labeling laws usually wouldn't allow that. My guess is that it's a loophole just for wasabi, maybe written especially for Japanese exporters.

HA! There is even an on-line petition to ban the practice of labeling horseradish "wasabi".


Can you use a convection oven to make a Soufflé? I separated this question from the original as there were no answers.

Yes, you can. In professional kitchens, virtually all ovens are convection, and they work just fine. You may need to reduce the heat about 25 degrees.


Can I store fish sauce at room temperature, and how do I know when it's gone bad? For a long time, I believed this advice:

  Don't refrigerate your fish sauce. Whatever can happen to this brew
  has already happened; it's not going to go bad. You can pass your
  half-empty bottle down as a family heirloom, and your grandchildren
  will enjoy the same golden liquid that you have on your shelf today.

And then one day I noticed what was clearly white mold growing in the bottle; so much for sharing it with my grandchildren.  For reference, this was one of those standard big one-liter bottles from an Asian grocery, and I use the stuff maybe every couple of weeks.

So is it generally OK to keep fish sauce at room temperature, and how do I know it's gone bad?  The sniff test obviously isn't of much use.  I get the feeling that fish sauce gets darker as it ages, but that's hard to measure.

That advice isn't "wrong" and millions of people keep keep fish sauce in a cabinet for decades. Regarding safety, it's generally OK to store fish sauce at room temperature for years, but that isn't recommended by government worrywarts for best quality. Still Tasty. Pathogens run in fear faced with this stuff, but it can (rarely) develop "offness".
It is conservative to even bring up this article from Slate:

The fish-sauce-making process is carefully controlled to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria. First, whole, tiny fish (predominantly anchovies) are combined with salt in roughly a three-to-one ratio. The mixture is then tossed into either concrete or wooden tanks. Enzymes contained within the cells of the fish flesh degrade the proteins, fats, and other molecules into amino acids (compounds responsible for the deeply savory flavor in fish sauce), eventually liquifying the solid tissue. The salt accelerates this process, known as protein hydrolysis, by causing the fish cells to open up, which releases the enzymes.
The briny conditions in the tank keep most microbes and all pathogens at bay, but some harmless, extremely salt-tolerant bacteria, known as halophilic bacteria, survive. These occur naturally in the guts, mouth, and skin of the decomposing anchovies. They too break down the fish proteins, yielding various acids, alcohols, and nitrogen compounds that give fish sauce its characteristic cheesy, meaty flavors. But by the end of fish sauce’s six- to twelve-month fermentation period, the salt has managed to kill even the hardiest halophilic bacteria. At this point, the clear, amber liquid in the tanks is filtered, and any sediment is discarded. The fermentation process does such a good job of killing off bacteria that no pasteurization is required.
There is no legal requirement in the U.S. for fish sauce to bear an expiration date, but most manufacturers put dates on the label anyway, since people are more inclined to trust foods that tell us when they should be discarded. These dates tend to be three to four years from the date of manufacture, which is actually on the conservative side in light of industry guidelines. The Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Foods in the ASCA Countries (published by the Association for Science Cooperation in Asia, a science-policy organization) ascribes to the condiment a shelf life of five years.
This is isn’t to say fish sauce will always be good, either before or after the use-by date (though you should always refrigerate it after opening). It can deteriorate in quality over an extended period of time due to chemical reactions, resulting in color changes or the development of “off” flavors. On rare occasions mold or yeast might develop on the inside surface or lip of the bottle where there’s excess moisture and less salt. These growths are usually innocuous, but as with any food, if it looks strange, smells strange, or tastes strange, you should throw it out.

So, grudgingly, I say throw this batch out 'cause it's fuzzy. But don't lose any sleep over it.
Next time buy a bottle that you're likely to use within a couple of years and keep it in the fridge after opening.


The secret to crispy sourdough waffles? This is my first post so forgive me if I break etiquette! I am trying to figure out why I can't seem to achieve crispy waffles. I've been working with the King Arthur recipe: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-sourdough-waffles-or-pancakes-recipe
And I've also tried: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/246917/sams-sourdough-waffles/
These are pretty different recipes. I preferred the King Arthur in terms of flavor, but they both just came out... soft. Could it be the recipe, or the waffle iron (mine is old and cheap), or maybe the process? Ideas?

We regularly use the King Arthur Flour recipe, and consistently get waffles that are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. A couple suggestions:

Make sure the waffle iron is completely preheated before adding the batter.
This recipe does need the waffles to cook for long enough; they'll be slightly dark. If you're only cooking them to a light golden, they aren't done enough.
Don't stack the waffles between cooking and serving, or the steam will make them soggy - put them in a single layer, and if you can't serve them immediately put them in a very low oven while you're making the rest of the waffles.


Is it safe to eat Raw Corn? I saw a recipe for a Summer Salad that said to sprinkle raw corn on top for a "crunch" effect - I've never eaten raw corn and was wondering if it was safe.  I'm guessing hard to digest at the least....

Unless you have an allergy to corn, raw corn is safe to eat; it might pass through you with vigor (especially if you don't chew it thoroughly before swallowing it), but it won't hurt you.


Adding parsley at the beginning of making chicken stock I've heard that parsley is supposed to be added at the end of cooking, but this article mentions using it in making chicken stock, and I can't imagine adding it at the end since it would just be strained out. Does it make sense to add parsley at the beginning when making chicken stock?

It certainly does make sense - adding herbs at the beginning of the process (not just parsley) gives them ample time to infuse their flavor into the stock. I regularly do so along with other herbs: rosemary, thyme, or whatever else is on hand.

This is an optimal place to use up dried herbs (I'm fairly sure a lot of kitchens have a sad, half-used container of dried parsley stuffed in a cupboard; might as well gets some mileage out of it). There's really no need to use fresh parsley when cooking for an extended period, as much of the light, fresh, grassy flavors will be destroyed during the long simmering. In fact, some fresh herbs can even develop a pronounced bitterness after lengthy cooking; I haven't noticed this with parsley, but you might if using a lot of it.

So sure - add your parsley right when you start making your stock, and feel free to use the dried stuff that you can't readily substitute for fresh in other places. The only exception is if you really want to get those lighter, fresher flavors; then there's really no substitute for fresh parsley. You'll have to add it toward the end of cooking, and plenty of it to make sure you get ample infusion.


How important is washing produce? It seems to me that you don't need to wash vegetables you're going to peel. If toxins are on the surface, peeling solves the problem; if toxins have been absorbed into the flesh of the vegetable, washing won't help.

Is that right, or am I missing something?

First, I always rinse produce well with tap water even before putting it into the refer. I grew up on a farm and witnessed what it may be exposed to even when the farm hands care. I would also wash anything that is being peeled as the peeling process requires--at least for me--my fingers to touch the peeling, and then the peeled veggie as I am peeling the rest of it.


Does Sugar Cook Eggs? There's a old wives tale of sugar cooking eggs. I was wondering if there's any substance to that or if it's merely a concentration of the egg as the sugars absorb water.

I was watching The Try Guys and on this pie episode the guest chef explains the various pitfalls of making a pecan pie. She goes on to say how letting eggs and sugar sit together too long will cause the eggs to cook the yolk and possibly ruin the dish. I've never heard of eggs being "cooked" from sugar so I did a brief overview.

Overall, I'm curious if this has any real validity or if it's just a misconception.

The episode is linked along with an article about it.
Try Guy Pie Ep @ 7:39
Article

It's not really chemistry¹, but simple physics:  you can have the same result with salt. (and an experiment you can easily replicate at home: salt is much cheaper than sugar).

What happens is that the salt and the sugar and a whole lot of other things indeed absorb the water in the egg, which makes the proteins in the egg unfold, hook into one another and make these dehydrated eggs look just like cooked eggs where the heat does the same thing: unfold proteins.

Even if you add water again, these polymerized proteins will not re-absorb the water as they cannot unfold just like with a cooked egg: you can easily boil an egg, but it's hard to melt it again afterwards...  ;-)

So it's a common misconception as the cooked and the dehydrated versions both look very similar, even under a microscope.

Note¹: To all the chemists and physicists out there: yes, it's an endless debate whether boiling an egg is chemistry or physics... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Recipes for cookie cutters vs drop cookies Today I made a batch of sugar cookies using my new snowflake-shaped cookie cutters; when I pulled them out, they had puffed so much they became flower-shaped instead. What should I look for in a recipe to use cookie cutters on versus one that would be better for drop cookies or a sliced log? Specifically, I suppose I don't want them to rise much after cutting - do I want less leavening? Smaller flour to butter ratio? How much?

A couple of things will lead to less spreading:

Shortening instead of butter - butter contains up to 20% water. When it reaches 212F/100C, it turns to steam, expands, and causes things to rise/puff. Also, shortening, as a more processed/refined fat, has a more even melting point, which would cause it to spread less. If you want the flavor of butter, consider butter-flavored shortening. If you must use butter, use clarified butter instead, as it has most of the moisture removed.

Refrigerate the dough -- the fat will melt later, causing less spreading by the time the starches and proteins set.

Egg whites -- stiffens a dough.

White vs. brown sugar - brown sugar contains more moisture than refined white sugar.


Close the lid of unsealed jar with pop-up lid I bought a cheese spread bottle last night and I opened it today. It said in the bottle to refrigerate after opening, it came with a pop up lid.

I don't have the facility to use a refrigerator. How long it can be fresh without refrigerating and can I able to seal it back if yes how?

After a couple of hours it will be unsafe if it was below 140 °F/60 °C during that time.

Even if you resealed it, it wouldn't "undo" the bacterial growth that occurred during the time it was unsealed.  So, no, it would not be safe to do this even if you could.


Is it possible to cook a meatloaf using clear glass Pyrex containers? Still trying to restock my kitchen pans after my recent move and am on a budget, but what I do have is as set of clear pyrex, that looks about like this set: http://www.amazon.com/Pyrex-6021224-Storage-10-Piece-Clear/dp/B00005B8K5/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285775513&sr=8-1

My question is can I use it to cook a meatloaf? If I cannot use it to cook a meatloaf then have you ever cooked a meatloaf on a cookie sheet without it falling to pieces and/or burning on the bottom?

I see no reason you couldn't use that Pyrex set for a meatloaf - I've used glass casseroles for meatloaf before (so glass in general is no problem), and that set says the bowls are oven safe.

As for the cookie sheet method, I would be afraid of it falling apart as you described, but if you were to go that route, I'd recommend wrapping it in aluminum foil to help it keep its shape.


Does putting knives in a wooden block blade down wear out the blade? I'd always wondered.  The blocks usually seemed designed to have the knives go in blade down, so that the blade touched wood coming in and out.  But I know that when I whittle, cutting the wood wears the blade of a knife down very, very quickly.  I'd always wondered if that regular contact with the wood from sliding into and out of the blocks could be wearing my knives down.  Does it?  If so, does putting them in blade up (against the design of the block - it would seem) do any better for them?

Wooden blocks are ideal for knife storage because they keep the blades dry (the wood absorbs some of the humidity in the air), preventing rusting.

The motion of inserting and withdrawing blades over wood will not noticeably dull them, because you're not actually cutting the wood or indeed even applying any pressure as you do so.

A good tip is to use a good quality steel to sharpen your knives with just one or two passes on each side before each use. Wash them with hot water by hand, avoiding dishwashers unless you like replacing your knives annually, then return them to the block once they're fully dried.


too many hot chilli peppers in my Italian Beef! I put way too many hot chilli peppers in my Italian Beef!  What can I do to tame it down?

The only things that could really work without modifying the recipe:

pick out the peppers, if they're whole and not thoroughly cooked in
add a lot more beef, so it's diluted down to a reasonable heat level

Otherwise, a couple options, which can be combined:

add something creamy/fatty to cut the heat, e.g. sour cream, yogurt, coconut milk, or some kind of creamy sauce
add enough of something else to get to a reasonable heat level, e.g. make a stew, make sandwiches with other ingredients, make pasta or rice, put it in baked potatoes, etc.

See also: How can you make a sauce less spicy/hot? and How can I wash down spicy food?


What type of noodle and sauce is used to making Thai Drunken Noodles? I LOVE drunken noodles from Thai food restaurants, but am never able to find those wide, thin noodles in the markets and don't know what they're called to ask. Also, what sauce is used in drunken noodles? I assume there is some type of alcohol in it, but am not sure what.

So, my questions are:

What are the wide, thin noodles called that are served in Thai "drunken noodle" dishes?
What's in the Thai "drunken noodle" sauce?

They are simply wide rice noodles.
Fish sauce (nam pla), soy sauce, sugar, chilli, garlic, thai basil.

There are any number of recipes online.


Why use milk in scrambled eggs? I've seen many recipes for scrambled eggs with and without milk / cream / half and half

So what does the milk do?  The only difference I can see is color - without the milk the eggs are a brighter yellow.

What am I missing?

Well, it makes the eggs go further for one...

But it also produces softer, creamier results. You're moving toward something like a custard or quiche. If you like your eggs very stiff, this is probably a bad idea.


Can I make chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes inside? I want to make a homemade chicken pot pie but I would like to top it with mashed potatoes and then put a regular crust on top of that can that be done what would be the cooking temperature or time difference if any

Generally such a concoction (topped with mashed potatoes) is called a Shepherds Pie, but adding a crust... I have no idea what to call that ;-)

When cooking a pot pie everything is already cooked prior to putting it in the baking dish, except the crust.

So all you really need to do is make sure your crust is cooked to your desired done-ness. The mashed potatoes might keep the bottom of the crust a little wetter but really it should not require much more than you usually would bake it for, if any. It depends on how hot you bake your pot-pies.

I usually cook them at 425F so I get a nice brown on my crust and it is about 15 - 20 minutes, but that will depend on your crust recipe. I would follow the crust recipe baking instructions and add maybe 5 minutes.

You can then try the pot pie and adjust the backing duration according to your personal preference.


Does salt-seasoned pasta and starchy water in my sauce have to yield a salty sauce? When cooking pasta, there are a couple of techniques that I like to follow--individually they yield great results, but when combined they interfere with one another to produce an inferior product.

Salting the pasta water. I've learned this trick some time ago and it has been critical to producing the best-tasting pasta. I really want the pasta to be the point of the dish, with the sauce an accompaniment, and the getting salt in the water from the start is the way I get the best flavor in my pasta. In fact, I find that salting the water quite generously works very well as long as I am fulling draining the pasta after boiling.
Adding starchy pasta water to my sauce. The starchy water really brings everything together. You could say it thickens it, but not like a roux, as some have speculated--rather, the starch emulsifies the fats into the sauce (consider if I have, say, tomato sauce, cheese, and olive oil) and it also adds a rich mouthfeel. I've really had great success adding some of the starchy pasta water to the sauce and don't want to give that up.

The problem is that when I've salted the pasta water, it means adding it to my sauce brings along all that salt--to the point where it can be unpalatable.

So to my question: Are these two techniques mutually exclusive? Or is there a way to get the salt into the pasta without getting it into the sauce?

To prime the pump, I've considered a couple of options:

Brine the pasta prior to boiling
Start the pasta in boiling salt-water, then move to fresh water (use the latter in the sauce)
Start the pasta in fresh water, then move to salt water (use the former in the sauce)
Boil a whole bunch of pasta (say, ditalini, for the large surface area) without salt for an extra-starchy water. Jar it, and use it in future sauces.
Forget the starchy water, and just use, say, cornstarch.

Since cooking the pasta in salted water is essential, and switching to fresh water or whatever is a PITA, I'd just use less water and thicken with something else.

The standard ratio for salting pasta water is 1:10:100 - 1 litre of water for 10g salt and 100g pasta - perhaps you're over-salting the water?


How to tell when a turkey burger is fully cooked? I had a BBQ this weekend, and I've come to pride myself on my BBQ'ing skills... except turkey burgers. Cook them too short and you're endangering your guests. Cook them too long and they get really dry.

I can visually tell when to flip a burger (because the juices come to the surface), but are there any visual clues for when to flip a turkey burger, and when to take it off the grill?

I use an instant-read thermometer. It's by far the simplest method.

I use the Taylor 9842 Commercial Waterproof Digital Thermometer. As Darin states, you're shooting for 165℉ for turkey.

My old Taylor died a few weeks ago. After reading rave reviews from Cooks Illustrated, and Alton Brown's recommendation, I splurged and got a Thermoworks Thermapen. It is amazing!


is it ok to store quinoa, rice, lentils, barley, farro, kasha, black beans in the fridge? Is it ok to store beans, rice, grains in fridge? I've been doing this method for years....lots of rotation as I use these regularly. Is there any nutritional loss?

If you have the space there's no reason not to, and some good reasons to.
For one thing, it reduces odds of various bugs infesting (or hatching out if the eggs are already present.) For things like ground whole grains (whole wheat flour) it also slows rancidity - though that should not be a problem for the whole grain.

Personally, I'd need a walk in fridge (which I'd love to have anyway) to manage to have space to store dry goods in it.


What kind of mussels are these? These are the mussels we bought:

3

I'm pretty sure those are Arc Clams. See this link, they look the same.


In brewing coffee, do I need to use filtered water and what kind of filter should I use? In brewing coffee, is it important to use filtered water?  If so, why?

Is there a particular type of filter that is most effective for water to be used in brewing coffee?

There is variable here. It depends on what water your filtering and what filter you're using. Depending on your location the mineral density of water will vary. Hard water being rich in mineral and soft water being poor. The harder the water the weaker your extraction will be. Extremely soft water like distilled or reverse osmosis water will leave you with a over extracted cup of coffee.

In general it is good practice to use a carbon filter system which removes impurities but retains minerals. However if you believe your water is too hard and you're under-extracting, try using a home filtering system that removes (some) minerals.


How to properly clean raw chicken cut in pieces? In the country where I live, whole chicken is the cheapest protein you can buy and I cook it every week at home. I always ask the butcher to cut it into pieces for me and I use it for stews, grilled, fried, cooked in the oven, anyway you can imagine. It is cheap and incredibly versatile, selling for around 1,6€/kg. The closest meat product would be pork chops selling for around 3,5€/kg.
Because the chicken is cut in pieces it comes with small bits of fat and chicken insides that don't taste or look good in my dishes. I remove these with a knife and then wash chicken under running water to remove the smaller bits. If I don't wash the chicken I get smaller bits of fat and blood vessels in my food. But I was horrified to stumble into articles that say washing raw chicken isn't safe. It spreads bacteria into the countertops and the sink and there's evidence that the bacteria can remain after the kitchen is washed. Everyone agrees washing raw chicken isn't safe. The alternative is patting the chicken with kitchen paper, but this will make it hard to remove the small bits of blood and whatnot that are holding on to the chicken. What can I do to safely clean my chicken?

There are several studies published on the presence of campylobacter (which is the bacteria of concern) in chicken. You didn't specify where you are, but the findings are fairly consistent worldwide.  Chicken has a much higher incidence than other poultry products, and other proteins, though campylobacter can be present there too.  Of course, this is all made safe when cooked.  So, the concern with washing is cross-contamination, as you correctly point out.
I would use a paper or cloth towel to remove any bone fragments that might be dangerous if chewed or swallowed. Then dispose of the paper towel or wash the cloth thoroughly. Bits of fat can be removed this way as well, or cut off with a knife.
As for any remaining blood or parts that are not easily wiped away, just leave them.  Try it.  See if you think they make a difference in the final product.  I assume that you will not even notice them... or you can scrape that away after cooking.  If that is not possible for you, perhaps search out another butcher who will prepare it the way you like... or give your current a butcher another try, but this time ask him or her to remove the parts you don't like.
This all might be a bit of extra work, but you will soon find a rhythm... and, for the money you are saving, it might be well worth it.


How to measure the temperature of a pan? When I need to know if a pan is above or below 100 Celsius but don't have a thermometer handy, I squirt some water on it. Say I want to check for another temperature, e.g. for the Maillard reaction or killing Trichinella parasites.

What are some ways for estimating other specific temperatures? How accurate are they?

You can get a remote-sensing thermometer (they have a laser that shines on the object to show you where you're pointing it). They read reasonably accurately without touching the heated object, and come in various sensitivities. Mine reads as high as 700 degrees F, but there are cheaper ones that don't go as high.

Apart from that, I would think you'll always be just estimating and not very accurately at that.

Don't forget also that the temperature of your cooking surface must be higher than strictly required for the Maillard reaction. If the meat needs to get to 155C for it to occur, you will probably need to heat your pan higher to account for heat lost to the meat on contact.

And for killing bacteria, you may also need to get the entire piece of food to the required temp, so a regular food thermometer is a better bet than trying to measure the heat of the pan.


Is there any substitute for saltpeter / sodium nitrate in corned beef brine? I realize there is another question about corned beef from scratch, but the answers don't really cover my question. Many recipes for making your own corned beef still refer to the use of saltpeter (potassium nitrate) or sodium nitrate.  From what I've been able to find out saltpeter is never used anymore nor available to the home cook, and sodium nitrate is  not commonly available.

Sodium nitrate in the brine gives cooked corned beef its classic reddish color (without it corned beef comes out gray), and it kills botulism spores. I like my corned beef pink (the gray color is somewhat unappetizing), but more than that I'm concerned about the flavor of the corned beef. The last time I made corned beef I tried to use Morton Tender Quick. The cooked brisket turned out beautifully pink and almost inedible. It was terribly salty and actually made my tongue numb.

So, is there anything that can be used in place of the sodium nitrate, if used in the proper quantities does its absence or presence have any effect on the flavor of the corned beef, and is there any good place to get it?

Saltpeter is potassium nitrate, which does not directly cure meats. Bacteria convert nitrate into nitrite, which is the real preservative. Saltpeter can be replaced by a smaller amount of nitrite to get the same curing effect (most commercial cured meats do this), though a prolonged cure that converts nitrate into nitrite can develop more flavor.

Tender Quick is not a direct substitute because it contains mostly salt. I've heard that you can replace the salt in your recipe with Tender Quick, and drop the saltpeter, and have a success. You would have better luck finding a recipe that was meant to use Tender Quick, though.

It is definitely possible to buy (food-grade!) saltpeter. I would check online, or at specialty stores. It's a little more difficult than picking it up at your local grocery store, of course.

(Chemistry lesson, courtesy of McGee: nitrate (NO3) is converted to nitrite (NO2), which then reacts to form nitric oxide (NO), which bonds to myoglobin in the meat, which turns it pink and prevents oxidation.  Nitric oxide is also present in smoke, which gives that "pink ring" around the outside of smoked meats.)


Why would gluten-free chicken meatballs involve pre-cooking 1/3 of the chicken before frying the formed meatballs? I am looking at this recipe for gluten-free chicken meatballs and found this step to be odd.  Anyone know what the purpose is?  Is it related to the lack of gluten or somehow helping the balls to stay bound together?  If so, how does it work?

  Add 1/3 of ground chicken and cook just until cooked through, breaking up any clumps. Transfer to a medium bowl and let cool slightly. Add remaining chicken meat, salt, and several grindings of black pepper. Mix just to combine. Wipe out pot and add remaining Tbsp. oil. Heat over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Form meat mixture into 8 meatballs each about 2–2 1⁄2-inch in diameter and add to pot (mixture will be soft). Cook until light golden brown on all sides, 6–8 minutes total. Remove meatballs to a plate; set aside.

Thanks very much!

Ground chicken can be very soft and sticky, and difficult to form into balls without everything sticking together or going "squish". If you tried to make balls from completely cooked chicken, though, the balls wouldn't stay together. So, cooking part of the chicken gives the mixture some structure so they can be formed, and will stay together when you put them in the pot.


What is this kitchen device? What is the kitchen device shown here? I found it in the kitchen and it is about 18 inches long.

I actually think that is an old-style duster handle, not a food processing tool. Used with disposable dusting units with a tube that slides over then handle.  It is clearly not for cooking IMHO.
Something like this more modern unit. I could be wrong, but that's certainly what it looks like>


Does it matter how fast you crank up your blender? Cars aren't blenders, but I wonder if this analogy assists. "[W]hen you floor the gas pedal, your transmission will try to turn the axle abruptly just like trying to throw a bowling ball with the maximum force.". So you oughtn't constantly floor your car's accelerator pedal that can strain the drive train and fatigue the material.

So ought your notch up your blender slowly? Ought you always start at 1 and slowly notch up to 10? Will you damage your blender if "floor" your blender by starting the dial at 10?

If so, what's the safest "acceleration rate"? 1 integer/s (e.g. for the Vitamix below, you'd need 10 s to throttle up to 10)?

Full disclosure : I'm not affiliated with Vitamix.

I opened the first Vitamix manual that came up on an internet search, which is for the Vitamix 5200, available here. It says (on page 11):

Always start the machine with the left switch down in the Variable ( ) position and with the center Variable Speed Dial on 1. Slowly turn the Variable Speed Dial to the desired speed depending on the recipe used. If a recipe calls for processing on High ( ), slowly rotate the Variable Speed Dial to 10 and then push the High/Variable Switch up into the High ( ) position. Do not begin processing on Variable 10 or directly
on the High ( ) setting.

(The spaces in brackets here contain a triangle symbol in the manual).
It also warns not to use the machine for too long at a low setting as this increases the risk of overheating, and not to start on a speed above 1 with hot liquids to avoid the risk of burns.
To answer your questions:

Yes, you should start on a low setting and gradually increase to your desired speed.
No particular rate of progression is suggested.
I would speculate that the analogy with a car isn't quite accurate: for a car the issue is about torque (because the car is heavy and starts stationary) and metal fatigue, whereas for the blender the issue is risk of splattering hot liquid, and (I think) that starting to blend food requires more torque than blending food that is already partially blended. I imagine you could start an empty blender on high speed with no issues, but I don't have evidence to back up that claim.


Can you make sourdough starter without throwing any away? I'm curious if you can make the sourdough starter by adding flour to it, in a sense doubling the volume each time.  So many recipes I see in books and online require you to throw almost half of it in the garbage on each refresh.  If you are buying organic stone ground flour this is incredibly wasteful and expensive.

I just asked the exact same question here!:
Why throw away so much sourdough starter? Tartine Book no. 3

I found a pretty good answer online. It actually would be easier and cheaper for you to throw it out, as you don't have to buy as much organic flour in the future to feed your starter. Imagine buying 5 cups each day to feed your starter when you could just use 100 grams!:

  During the "initial" development - and by this I assume we're talking
  the first several days of your brand spanking new starter, what you'll
  be throwing away is likely not even "starter" but rather flour soup
  wherein there's a fairly good chance you're also growing a few
  less-than-desirable cohabitants. This would explain why you'd want to
  chuck it out rather than use it.  You also cut back on your starter so
  you don't end up with gallons of it since quite early on you do begin
  to make your feeds at a ratio of 1:1:1 or 1:2:2.  For illustrative
  purposes, let's follow the 1:2:2 ratio and just assume we're using
  cups (easier to visualize) although you really would be weighing, of
  course. So let's say  on day 1 morning feed, we begin with a half cup
  of starter. Half a cup sounds like nearly nothing, right? To that we'd
  then need to add twice that amount of each water and flour, so we add
  1 cup water and 1 cup flour for a total of 2.5 cups. Still not that
  bad. Day 1 evening feed, we're not reducing so we need to add to our
  2.5 cups of starter 5 cups water and 5 cups flour for a total of 11 cups. Set it on the counter, hope it doesn't overflow everywhere and
  go to bed. Day 2 morning feed, we're still not tossing away so to our
  11 cups we have to add 22 cups of water and 22 cups of flour. We now
  have 55 cups of starter or about 3.5 gallons. Remember, this is only
  the third feed and we started with just a measly half cup yesterday
  morning. At tonight's feed, we'll have 312 cups or 19.5 gallons of
  starter. Just enough to fill up four of those white Home Depot buckets
  although you'll want at least eight of 'em so the starter can double
  in size. By morning of day three, you can fill your bathtub, if it
  holds 97 gallons; it very well may not, and definitely won't hold the
  expanded starter. By afternoon, you'll also be borrowing an additional
  four neighbour's tubs for your 488 gallons.  How soon before you need
  to move this out to a local swimming pool to continue? Well, by the
  end of day five, you'd be the proud owner of 305,175.8 gallons of
  starter. Or 4.8 million cups. Seriously. An Olympic size pool is about
  600,000 gallons. By the morning of day six, you can fill two and a
  half of them, with leftovers. And it hasn't even been a full week yet.
  And that's why you cut your starter back down to a manageable amount
  each time. It's a lot cheaper to toss a little bit out than to keep it
  and feed it.

Source: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12467/throw-away-half


Callebaut callets vs. block? So I know that one should never substitute chocolate chips for chocolate in a recipe, but I'm new to the game and don't really know what the deal with these callets is. Are they essentially the same as chocolate chips, or can I buy a massive bag of them and use interchangeable with chocolate chips as well as bar chocolate?

Sorry if this is a rookie question.

Low quality chocolate chips often have additives in them that help them keep shape and shelf life, that's why they're not recommended.  Callebaut callets are pure 100% chocolate according to Callebaut.  I'd use them anywhere for bar or chips with great results.  They might not come out of the oven looking exactly like a traditional chocolate chip cookie (for example) but they should taste fantastic!