Sugar syrup with orange juice foams excessively Today I made an orange chiffon cake with buttercream frosting. I used Rose Levi Beranbaum's Classical buttercream recipe, in which 100 g of sugar and 90 g of water are cooked to a softball-stage syrup (114.5 Celsius) and then added to the yolks.

After making the cake batter, I had 50 g of just-squeezed orange juice left over. So instead of using 90 g water, I used 50 g of orange juice and 40 g of water for the syrup, hoping to have a more fruity flavor in the buttercream.

Shortly after passing 100 Celsius, the syrup started to foam, throwing very large and stable bubbles. I was very busy beating them back, using both my stirrer and blowing on them to pop them. But the foam still almost managed to climb out of the pot, it did form a heap above the upper wall level (the actual syrup only covered about 1-2 cm at the bottom of the small pot). I was also afraid that I will get an uneven heating, as the syrup forming the cell walls, with all the air inside, was probably not at the same temperature as the syrup puddle at the bottom.

The moment I took the syrup off the heat and poured into a cold cup, the foam disappeared completely.

Is that foam really a problem? Could it have ruined the syrup, or do I simply take a deeper pot and live with it?

Also, what caused the foam? Was it the orange juice, or can it happen without it too? If it happens without, what is the most likely trigger for it (I have made syrup before, and cannot remember such strong foam-building).

Regardless of whether it affects the end result, I found it difficult to work with. Is there something I can do to prevent it?

I don't know what exactly it is about citrus - whether a particular combination of proteins, essential oils, lots of small particulates, or something else - but in my experience this is common to many citrus fruit.  It seems to be a general property that they capture gas bubbles very effectively, leading to froth.  Citrus froths impressively whenever it's heated, shaken, or carbonated, and it probably didn't help that your syrup would have been fairly viscous.

I suggested in another answer about excessive foaming that reducing the heat can reduce the amount of gas escaping from solution, and thus reduce frothing. (This is also recommended in the marmalade recipe provided by @Debbie in comments.) But I suspect this would slow or interfere with your attempts to reach a soft-ball consistency.

Another thing that helps is clarification - removing small particulates seems to reduce citrus' tendency to foam. There are several methods being used by leading bartenders to clarify juices for carbonation, the easiest of which is filtration.  You could run your juice through a fine coffee filter, which would take a while but be easy to do for small amounts at home. If you want to get really serious about it, you could also try something like agar clarification... but that's almost certainly overkill for a spontaneous decision to use a spare 50 g of juice. Maybe if you were producing this at commercial scales...

At any rate, the foaming probably won't ruin your syrup.  Any effects due to uneven heating are likely to come out in the wash of other factors, such as the added proteins and acids in the juice. Using a taller pot and stirring well are probably the simplest ways to deal with this as a minor annoyance, unless you need a more rigorous solution for working in larger amounts.


Is there an optimum (or minimum!) thickness for a steak when cooking on a BBQ? I've just purchased approximately 3kg of Ribeye steak (which has come in at about 30cm in length as a visual estimate) with the intention of cutting it into multiple steaks to be cooked on a BBQ. The primary reason I've done this is that I find that steaks which are available locally are too thin to allow for sufficient browning/searing whilst also being cooked to medium-rare.

What thickness should I look to cut steaks when the objectives are:

Medium-rare done-ness
A good level of browning/crust/caramelisation on the surface
Pockets of fat in the steak (the best bit!) have sufficient opportunity to cook to a soft, "melt in the mouth" texture

I can say definitively that 2cm, which is roughly the thickness of steaks purchased locally, is not thick enough, but whilst trial and error would be a mostly enjoyable experience, it would also be an expensive one!

It really depends on what temperature you'll be grilling these steaks and for how long.  You could do it with 2cm if the grill is hot enough. Honestly, the thicker the steak the better control you have over temperature changes (it takes longer to overcook a thick steak than a thin one, since more meat means more heat insulation).

Back when I followed the excellent Science & Cooking Harvard course they provided us with a tool created by MIT students for demonstrating heat diffusion through meat over time. You can use that tool to figure out steak thickness based on grill temperature, meat starting time, total time, desired doneness, flipping technique...

http://up.csail.mit.edu/science-of-cooking/home-screen.html

(According to the tool, for a 2cm steak starting at 23°C, grilling at 150°C, flipping every 30s for a total time of 3:30 you should get your steak brown on the outside and medium rare on the inside after you take it out of the grill and let it rest for a few minutes)


How is sassafras used in flavoring? I have several large sassafras trees that I would like to use for flavoring. What part of the tree is used? How is it prepared? How is it used?

According to Wikipedia, using sassafras root as a flavoring might not be a good idea. Leaves can be dried and ground to make filé powder, used to thicken gumbo.


Cooked whole chicken has congealed blood around joints and bones, should I worry? So I just roasted a whole chicken and finished carving/cleaning the carcass today.  I discovered a great deal of congealed red matter surrounding many of the joints and bones.  Looks like congealed blood.  Normally, I wouldn't worry about it, except that there's a lot more of it than there usually is.  And it's a brighter red, as opposed to the dark reddish brown I'm used to.  Should I be worried?  Did I undercook the chicken?  Was this chicken just not as well drained as ones I've gotten previously?

This exact thing happened to me about a month ago - roast whole chicken, bright red leaky blood around the bones and joints.

I looked it up back then.  I didn't find a truly authoritative source like the USDA, but I did find several instances of people saying that this happened even with highly overcooked chicken.  I also found several links similar to this one:

Bloody Chicken

The author (a Ph.D according to that page) did a number of experiments where he cooked a chicken and checked the internal temperature everywhere, ensuring that it was in fact pasteurized and thus free of any bacteria, and parts of it were still bloody on the inside.

According to him (and a few other sources I found), it's because the chickens are very young and their bones have not hardened properly; when you cook them, the marrow seeps out and ends up looking as you describe.

If you're using a meat thermometer to test the chicken for doneness, and you are certain that it got hot enough, then don't worry about the blood.  It's not appetizing, but it's not harmful either.

FWIW, I ate the chicken when it happened to me, and did not get the slightest bit sick.


How to cook frozen goose We were given about 8 lbs of frozen goose breasts in a bag. I would think we can defrost it and will then have to cook all of it; slow cooker to be the best option.
Is there a method of cooking this goose? as I understand it needs to be cooked a long time to be tender. Can this be refrozen afterwards into smaller packages. We were thinking about cooking this for Christmas.

EDIT - The goose is skinless

Please remember that you are talking about poultry breasts, which are always the leanest part. So no extra long cooking to tenderize, you'd be just making them tough and dry.

I'd also recommend not putting them in the slow cooker, because the skin is rather fatty and you'll want to render it to get the skin  nice and crisp, let the excess run off and moisturize the meat below. In a slow cooker, most fat stays in the skin, making it rather rubbery (and IMHO quite nasty).

You should be absolutely fine if you either

sear them skinside down in a pan, then finish in the oven or
just pop them in the oven for two hours (rough estimate, depends on weight and oven temperature)

Of course you can freeze the leftovers.


Why do we need ceramic pan if they serve for several months? As known ceramic pans serve 7 times less than teflon pans (they keep non-stick properties for 6-9 month). And teflon  is the third most slippery substance known to man. And teflon isn't that easy to damage. Why would I purchase a ceramic pan then?

For people who believe that Teflon causes health issues and ceramic does not, ceramic becomes the better choice.


Does cooking raw meat/poulty extend its shelf life? I pulled a chicken out of the freezer a couple of days ago with the intention of making stock/soup. It's defrosted now and ready to go, but I don't have the mirepoix ingredients and I'm too lazy to go to the store for just that. Since it's just now defrosted, I've got a few days, right?  What if I'm still too lazy to go to the store three days from now, so I roast the chicken close to its maximum expected "still fresh" time and then refrigerate the cooked chicken? Would that effectively "restart the clock"? Lets say I hold on to the cooked chicken for three days before finally getting around to making the stock. Would it be right to expect that stock to have the same shelf life as it would have had if I had made the stock with the freshly defrosted chicken?

For the sake of this question, assume that the chicken was frozen immediately upon purchase, defrosted in the refrigerator, roasted to an internal temperature of at least 165F, rested, then promptly refrigerated.

I could ask the same of a beef stew. Can I cook the meat to give me more time before I put together the stew?

In both of these cases I'd expect a certain quality loss, so I am more concerned about safety than optimum flavor or texture.

Shelf life for flavor...or for safety?  Two different issues.  Many variables.  How was it handled before freezing?  How was it defrosted?  How is it being stored after defrosting.  Those will all be factors impacting the safety issue.

Lets say to minimize the safety concerns you roast upon safe defrosting.  Now you have a safe product (from a bacteria standpoint), as long as you handle the chicken appropriately after cooking. Keep it out of the danger zone...even freeze it...it will be safe...but flavor probably begins to degrade over time (picks of fridge flavors...freezer burn if frozen).

Now you take that chicken and make stock.  You pull from fridge (or defrost appropriately) and cook to boiling while making stock.  That kills any bacteria that MIGHT be present (doubtful if you cooked well and handled appropriately after cooking)...so from a safety standpoint you are probably fine.  However, you probably have a stock that is not as flavorful as it could be because of the lengthy holding time.

In the end, I would say (nothing to back this up but my own experience) the final stock has the same shelf life as any stock, but it probably tastes different from one made with the freshest ingredients.


Oatmeal used in apple crisp topping The recipe I am looking at for Apple Crisp by Ina Garten calls for 1 cup of oatmeal.  It doesn't say prepared oatmeal, or rolled oats, just "Oatmeal".

Is the recipe asking for 1 cup of prepared oatmeal (rolled oats + water)?  1 cup of rolled oats and then prepared into oatmeal?

Or is it something else?

It's definitely asking for rolled oats, not prepared oats. It's just like oatmeal cookies.

It's up to you whether you use normal rolled oats, quick-cooking, or instant. I use normal in my crumbles, but you might choose quick or instant if you think the normal retain too much texture. Personal preference! They'll all work, though, so you can just use what you've got on hand.

(When I do oatmeal for breakfast, I prepare normal rolled oats as if they were instant - just add boiling water. I like some texture.)

And while I'm at it, general advice: crumble topping is something you can easily do without a recipe, just throwing in the ingredients until it holds together a bit, but is nice and crumbly. So don't worry too much about exactness here. It'll come out great.


Why didn't my mustard sauce emulsify? I was making mustard croutons. I whisked together 2 parts warm melted butter, 2 parts olive oil, 1 part Dijon mustard, 1 part brown mustard (with whole seeds), 1 part sherry vinegar and table salt.

Since I had so much mustard I didn't think it would be necessary to do anything gradually (mustard being a great emulsifier), so I just dumped it all together and started whisking. Is that likely to have been the problem? Could it have been the warmth of the butter (not quite hot)?

Is there such a thing as too much emulsifier? The sauce never did emulsify by whisking, it just stubbornly stayed completely separated, albeit with ever smaller droplets of mustard/vinegar.

It probably wouldn't have mattered much since I was just planning to toss bread chunks in it anyway, to bake for croutons, but it bugged me so I whipped out the food processor. After processing the sauce looked emulsified, but it separated within perhaps 2 minutes. The croutons turned out great anyway, but for future reference I'd still like to know why I never did achieve an emulsion. I've made mayonnaise pretty much the same way, and it always turns out. What gives?

You really need to add the oil slowly at first, especially if whisking. You are trying to disperse the fat into tiny droplets suspended in the water phase (the water from the butter and the vinegar). You can't whisk fast or hard enough, especially by hand, to break up 3.7 parts fat in 1.3 parts water when all the fat is trying to combine into a single mass floating on the water, no matter how much mustard you have.

I would have whisked the mustard into the vinegar, then slowly added the butter, then the oil.


How can I remove whole peppercorns from a sauce after cooking? I've heard that whole black pepper is put in sauces for flavour, but it is not supposed to stay there in a finished dish, because it's quite unpleasant to bite on one during a meal. But how does one remove all of it from a sauce / gravy, especially a thick one?

Strain it, or put the peppercorns in cheesecloth which you can easily remove. Obviously both ideas would work better if the sauce was thin then thickened after the peppercorns were removed.


Non-stick spray substitute What would be good substitutes for non-stick spray? I've heard butter or vegetable oil. Would something like Crisco work?

Non-stick spray is mostly canola oil plus some water and an emulsifier. So canola oil would work well as would most vegetable oils.

To get an application closer to non-stick spray you can pour some on a paper towel and rub it on your cooking surface. You can also buy misters that are made especially for this purpose.

Crisco is mostly soy bean oil and palm oil. It will technically work well, but personally I find the flavor of palm oil to be a little stronger and not as appetizing as other vegetable oils.


Cooks Illustrated recipe too Salty The other night I made the "Bejing-Style Meat Sauce and Noodles" from the most recent (May-June 2018) issue of Cooks Illustrated. Usually their recipes come out quite good, even if they are often a bit involved.

I've done Asian-style food before but it is not something I do a lot. It's a basic recipe where you brown some ground pork, add some scallions, garlic and mushrooms (ground up in a food processor) to the mix and once browned add the sauce:

5 Tbsp red miso paste
5 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp molasses
1/2 cup water

I've never cooked with miso before but everything else is familiar. Unfortunately the resultant sauce, especially when cooked down a bit as the recipe calls for is just much to salty. Not to the point of being inedible but still just too much.

Wondering if anyone has some thoughts on what to do with this sauce mixture to lessen  or dilute the saltiness without losing the umami that the sauce ingredients provide?

The first thing that caught my eye was the soy sauce. However, I think the real culprit here is the miso.

From Wikipedia:

  Typically, miso is salty, but its flavor and aroma depend on various factors in the ingredients and fermentation process. Different varieties of miso have been described as salty, sweet, earthy, fruity, and savory.

About red miso, from the same article:

  Akamiso (赤味噌) or red miso is aged, sometimes for more than one year. Therefore, due to the Maillard reaction, the color changes gradually from white to red or black, thus giving it the name red miso. Characteristics of the flavor are saltiness and some astringency with umami. It is often a much stronger-tasting miso. Factors in the depth of color are the formula of the soybeans and the quantity used. Generally, steamed soybeans are more deeply colored than boiled soybeans.

(Emphasis mine.)

The base ingredients for miso can vary widely. Also from the Wikipedia article:

  The ingredients used to produce miso may include any mix of soybeans, barley, rice, buckwheat, millet, rye, wheat, hemp seed, and cycad, among others. Lately, producers in other countries have also begun selling miso made from chickpeas, corn, azuki beans, amaranth, and quinoa. Fermentation time ranges from as little as five days to several years. The wide variety of Japanese miso is difficult to
  classify, but is commonly done by grain type, color, taste, and background.

  mugi (麦): barley
  tsubu (粒): whole wheat/barley
  genmai (玄米): brown rice
  moromi (醪): chunky, healthy (kōji is unblended)
  nanban (南蛮): mixed with hot chili pepper for dipping sauce
  taima (大麻): hemp seed
  sobamugi (蕎麦): buckwheat
  hadakamugi (裸麦): Highland barley
  nari (蘇鉄): made from cycad pulp, Buddhist temple diet
  gokoku (五穀): "five-grain": soy, wheat, barley, proso millet, and foxtail millet

I would try a different variety or a mixture of more than one. An example from the Wikipedia article:

  Chougou (調合) or 'Awase' (合わせ) miso, or "mixed miso" comes in many types, because it is a mixture or compound of other varieties of miso. This may improve the weak points of each type of miso. For example, mame miso is very salty, but when combined with kome miso the finished product has a mild taste.

Do a little research and find one or more varieties of miso that suit your taste.


Getting correct baking consistency when using stevia as sugar substitute When replacing sugar fully or partially with stevia powder it seems that baked goods like biscuits do not spread as much and are often dryer. Is there anything that can be done to make the dough with stevia behave more like dough with sugar when baking?

Not really, unless you go for a different carbohydrate with physical properties similar to refined sucrose. And if you are removing the sugar for dietary reasons, you're probably not winning anything by doing the substitution.

Artificial sweeteners and stevia are just that - a sweetener, not a sugar. They can only be successfully used as a substitute where table sugar is used as a sweeteners. For example, they work well in a coffee or a homemade lemonade.

In baking, sugar is not used primarily to make the batter sweet, in fact it often makes it too sweet for my own taste. Its purpose is to provide structure. It has unique physical properties it shares with other short carbohydrates, but not with non-sugar sweeteners. You cannot substitute sugar for something which is completely unlike sugar and expect to get the same result.

If you are very adventurous, you can try using soluble fibre in place of sugar. But it's hard for a home cook to 1) get a supply of it, and 2) tweak a recipe such that it works well enough texturewise.

If my assumption is wrong and you are not counting calories, it becomes easier. Adding pure glucose or fructose will produce a recipe which still needs a tweaking, but can potentially be made similar to a sugar-containing one. Then you should also leave out the stevia, because it will make the bisquits overly sweet.


What type of frying pan does not warp? I have a glass smooth-top stove. Every large frying pan that I have bought so far has almost immediately warped so that the bottom is no longer flat. They all end up concave -- like a wok but less pronounced -- so that they perch with a small spot in the center of the pan touching the burner surface.

My lazy side prefers non-stick, dishwashable pans, but all ideas are appreciated.

You have to make sure to buy a heavy duty, preferrably professional grade pan.  Thick base.  Most important.   I have owned my pans for about five years, and nary a warp.  Completely flat.  I also have a glass top stove.   Note to the wise, do not use a dishwasher to clean good cookware.  Always clean pans, pots, knives, etc. by hand.

Any good restaurant supply house will have good quality non stick pans.  Also, I' m not sure where you live, but many large department stores (JC Penny in the States, the Bay here in Canada) have good quality wares.  Be aware, they do not come cheap, but they will not have to soon be replaced.


What is the best way to clean bulk blueberries? This question has been asked before but only with respect to washing a small container.

We have a friend who runs fruit stands in the summer and we typically get 10 pounds of blueberries at a time from him.  Before freezing or eating, they need to be washed, and I always struggle to find an efficient way to get rid of the squished berries, the stems, the leaves, etc.

I'll post what I do as an answer, but I wonder if there is a better way, or some equipment that would make it easier.

When I was a kid, we picked tons of blueberries. We had a frame made out of 1" x 4" boards, 2'+ wide and about 4' to 5' long. At the far end, the frame was angled towards the middle (narrow side) with a space for the berries to drop into a bucket placed below (maybe 4" to 6"). On the bottom of the frame we had metal window screen stapled down (no cloth screen back then, not sure if cloth would work). Place a bucket at the one end (narrow tapered end), dump berries at the opposite end, raise the frame on the far end (away from the bucket) enough so that when you gently shake the frame, the berries start rolling towards the bucket. The screen will help hold the smaller leaves in place. Some you will have to raise the frame higher for, some you will have to remove leaves directly attached to the berries. Once the berries are in the bucket, dump the leaves left on the screen and start with the next batch. Always worked well and was very fast. Best with fresh picked berries, unwashed.


How many ceramic knives do I want? I've heard that ceramic knives are the new thing. It's far easier, though, to find metal knives that look and feel nice.

So, budget notwithstanding (within reason) and assuming that I have to buy a whole knife set (which I do), how many ceramic knives do I "need"? Do I want a full set if I can get one? Do I only need one? What sort? (big, small, serrated...)

Yes, ceramic knives are the "new thing," but that doesn't make them superior. The problem with ceramic knives is that you can never sharpen them, and, as mentioned in the comments, they may chip. Don't get a ceramic chef's knife or paring knife; the answer to your question is zero.

If you really want a ceramic knife, then buy a ceramic bread knife, although you won't be getting any extra performance for the money.

Ceramic blade mandolines, however, are great.  The ceramic blade will be sharper and hold the edge longer than a steel mandoline, and since you don't sharpen a mandoline anyway, it doesn't matter that ceramic doesn't sharpen.

Note, a separate, and good, question would be "what knives do I need?"  The answer is it depends, but I concur that you should not buy a "set" of knives.


Can I re-process homemade applesauce canned in a boiling water canner that is too thick and pasty? The lids sealed well, but I think the apples were not juicy enough (maybe too tart) and the color of the applesauce after canning is slightly green. It's been less than 24 hrs. Maybe I didn't heat it hot enough before canning, since it was so thick.  I am thinking of starting over, adding some apple juice, and re-canning.  Will that work?

The simple answer is yes you can re-process. Follow standard processing procedure for applesauce once you get your applesauce to the taste and consistency you want. (Personally I like very thick applesauce.)

You said Maybe I didn't heat it hot enough before canning, since it was so thick. Did you bring it to boiling before putting it in the jars? If it was not hot at the time of packing you could possibly have a safety issue, depending on how long the jars were in the water bath.
The applesauce being thick is only a canning/safety issue if there are large trapped air bubbles in the jar.

The color of the applesauce is not an indication of a problem. If you used tart apples they just didn't oxidize much. If you want to change the color you could add a bit of cinnamon. (it is possible it will darken up a little on it's own over time)


Can pumpkin pie be made apple pie way? If I put thinly sliced raw pumpkin between two pie crusts, will the filling be cooked enough by the time the crust is golden?

Not only is this possible, I have done it. One of my favorites, in fact. But the most palatable version I've made varies a little bit from apple pie - rather than just tossing cinnamon sugar with the filling all willie nillie, I slice the squash very thin, line it against the edge of the crust, and keep working to the center. Think of it as like a tarte tatine - all lined up in a row (only this is not upside down like a tarte tatine).
Also, instead of just relying on caramelization on its own, I make a raw egg custard (just 4-5 egg yolks, a volume of sugar roughly equal to the quantity of the eggs, and some cream whipped together), add my nutmeg and cinnamon and other warm spices, and pour the raw custard all over the sliced sweet potatoes. I like to garnish with some additional nutmeg. Sometimes I like to add a splash of rum to the custard. It is so delicious, especially with a gingersnap based crust.
It's also possible (and encouraged) to brulee the top when the custard is done, and line the edge with some candied pecans.


How to gauge orzo's change in volume from dry to cooked for a soup? I am working on a scratch chicken, vegetable orzo soup. I'm not following any particular recipe, just shooting from the hip. I usually come up with a good meal but the problem I always run into though is with gauging how much pasta (or barley or rice) to add to a soup and keep it at all balanced.

Protein and veggies are easy since those ingredients usually do not change in size during cooking but whenever I use a starch that changes in volume while cooking I end up with a soup that is either starch heavy (too much grain or pasta) or starch light (too much veggie and protein in relation to the starch.)

So my basic question is: I have a half cup of dry orzo sitting at the ready. How many cups will that half cup turn into after cooking in soup stock? I am using orzo right now but would also be interested in seeing similar information for other types of pasta and any soup-suitable grains. Any rules of thumb or ideas for different approaches would be appreciated as well.

Thanks!

It will double in size when it is cooked, however the longer it is kept in the liquid the bigger it will grow until ultimately all liquid has been absorbed.

A trick is to cook it separately, drain it, and toss with olive oil so it doesn't clump. Then, add it to the rest of the soup, stirring well just before serving.


How do I stop my brownies from rising? I have been trying out brownie recipes baked in a muffin tin. I am using the muffin tin so that I can get all edges. (And I have been decorating the tops!)

My brownies tend to rise, in my opinion, too much. This rising is also not quite uniform for all the brownies. Some are flatter than others. The result tastes fine, but is not dense like other brownies.

Other than maybe air that I beat in, there are no rising agents. How do I stop the brownies rising to get denser brownies?

Edit, recipe ingredients:
Butter
Cooking chocolate
Sugar
Eggs
Regular flour
Vanilla essence
Cocoa powder
Salt

Edit, some of the process: melt butter and choc together, let cool, mix in the eggs, then the sugar, then everything else.

Well, if air is the only raising agent, simply add less of it by not beating the mixture as much. Failing that, beat as normal, then give the mixing bowl a couple of (careful) bangs on the counter top to knock the air out it again.

A bit of experimentation will be necessary to get the right results, I think: perhaps pour some of the mixture into the tin as is, then knock the air out of the remaining mixture and compare the results.


Create my own high-gluten flour by mixing vital wheat gluten and bread/AP flour? Has anyone had success with giving their bread or all-purpose flour an extra gluten kick by adding vital wheat gluten?  I would like to know what ratio to mix the the two ingredients with, or perhaps some hints at a formula that can help me accomplish this, assuming it is feasible (i.e. mixing will produce a close substitute for high-gluten flour).  I'm also interested in any quality differences with this mixed approach vs. just using high-gluten flour in recipes.

You can assume I'm using King Arthur bread flour and King Arthur vital wheat gluten (or analogously King Arthur AP flour and vital wheat gluten), and that I'll be baking bread with the flours.

Note: this related question (When adding vital wheat gluten to a bread recipe, should one reduce the amount of flour equal to it?) mentions mixing, but doesn't go into details on ratios, etc.

Yes, and it is very easy. I do it all the time.

You only need a very simple calculation. You don't even have to be precise.

If you do want precision, you will have to find out 1) how much of your flour protein is gluten, 2) how much of your "vital wheat gluten" is gluten, and 3) how much gluten content you need for your recipe. Then use a simple rule-of-three calculation to get the amount needed to add.

I usually don't bother, because 1) and 2) is information which is very hard to find, and due to the large difference in gluten weight and complete weight, imprecision from not using true proportions is minimal. What I do is:

Look up the protein content of your flour (usually printed on the package), for example 9.6 grams per 100 grams
Look up the gluten content needed for your bread recipe. If it is not specified, 12.5% is usual for bread flour.
Add the difference in vital wheat gluten. In the example above, add 2.9 g of vital wheat gluten per 100 g of flour.

This doesn't produce exactly 12.5% gluten content, but I think that it is within the tolerance of most recipes; indeed, not all commercial flours are exactly 12.5%, they vary with brand and season.

I add the powder to the flour and mix it well before making the bread. If I am using a preferment, I add all the gluten to the preferment and make the non-fermenting part with AP flour only, so my gluten can benefit from longer autolysis.

I have no direct comparison with "true" bread flour, as I have never used it. But my breads requiring bread flour turn out good for my standards. There is no problem with bad distribution, the dough turns out very smooth and evenly elastic. There is a pronounced difference to using AP flour only.


Can I use a yoghurt marinade in sous-vide cooking? I want to cook a Indian-inspired chicken dish. The recipe calls for yoghurt in a marinade for the chicken. I am fine with the marinade, but I also want to cook the chicken sous-vide.

I now wonder whether the yoghurt will generate any problems when cooked sous-vide. I plan to cook it for approximately 1 hour at 60° C (but will look up in the tables to confirm). I am worried about off-smell and poor safety.

Is it safe to use a yoghurt marinade in a sous-vide recipe?

It is safe.  In fact, the website for the Sous Vide Supreme has a recipe for tandoori chicken that uses yogurt.  http://blog.sousvidesupreme.com/2012/06/tandoori-chicken-sous-vide/


Is there anything wrong with rubbing a stick of butter on the pan? I find it easier to just rub the stick of butter onto a hot pan to grease the pan instead of cutting off a piece and putting it in.

However this would heat up some of the butter on the stick. Would this have any adverse effects?

It would depend on how quickly you use the butter, how thoroughly the pan was cleaned, and how long the pan was stored between uses/washes, and how clean your hands were when rubbing the butter in the pan. The more contaminates you introduce the butter and the longer you store it, the more likely the butter will spoil.

Refrigerated butter is good for about a month after the sell-by date. Generally, butter that has been handled loses half its shelf life or more (generally succumbing to mould infestation).

If your hands and pan are clean, the risk is greatly reduced. Despite this, I find handled butter's shelf life is much lower than sealed butter (1-2 weeks versus 3-4).


Length of cooking time for stews and sauces Let's say you're cooking a beef stew. The tough cut of beef needs time to soften and the onions and carrots will need time to soften. What other processes take place that require time? Or once each ingredient has had enough time to break down enough is that complete?
As an example this recipe for curries instructs a total simmering time of 1.5 hours? Given that the ingredients are just spices and vegetables, does anything take place beyond the first 10-15 minutes?

Sure, a few things happen (or, rather, continue to happen) after the first 10-15 minutes.

Spices continue to release their flavor. Not a big consideration for finely ground spices, but something like whole coriander, cracked black pepper, or cinnamon bark will definitely have more to give at that point.
Vegetables will continue to cook. More cell walls will break, softening the texture and releasing more flavor. Starches will break down into simpler carbohydrates, becoming sweeter. Various other compounds will break down as well.
Water will boil off, concentrating the flavor.
Flavors will diffuse in and out of the vegetables, making the broth taste more like the vegetables and the vegetables taste more like the spices.
On the bottom of the pot, the high temperature may lead to a small amount of caramelization or Maillard browning.

Whether those are important or not depends on what you're going for. Fresh, summery vegetable stews don't need to cook for long, and benefit from careful texture control, while a smooth, melty ragout can't be rushed. Often you'll cook some of the stew for hours, then toss in more ingredients scant minutes before serving.


How to mark yogurt jars? I have started making homemade yogurt, and I usually keep two types at the same time. One is a lactobacillicus bulgaricus strain, the other is a bifidus strain. They taste differently and look exactly the same - so I usually want to know which one I am taking out of the fridge, but can't tell by looking. I make the yogurt in small jars meant for home canning, and they only come in a single color.

.

Unlike jam, the turnaround time is short, I only make 6 jars per batch of any type, and eat at least one of each type per day. So I want something which survives washing the jars (so not paper labels). I also don't want to make permanent marks on my jars. I have been thinking to start putting something foodsafe in each jar such that it is visible from the outside, but don't have ideas of what this thing should be.

Ideally, the solution should also work for glass clip-lid containers, like these, because I might switch to them:

What is a practical and aesthetically pleasing solution for distinguishing the yogurt types?

Some permanent markers (sharpies for example) can take multiple passes through the dishwasher while still being legible, but a quick wipe with alcohol of any kind will take it off.

For truly permanent marking on glass, engraving is the way to go. A vibrating engraver is more precise and more expensive than a rotary tool (dremel or cheap equivalent), but the latter is perfectly fine and makes wider lines. The downside is that this isn't particularly visible against a white background such as yoghurt unless you go over it with marker.

Simply twisting a bit of coloured wire around the clip might do the trick.

Plastic stickers (widely available aimed at children) can survive being washed many times as evidenced by my daughter's water bottles, but you're a bit restricted as to design - is one yoghurt a good match to pirates and the other better for princesses?


Do I need to put blood in a vacuum sealed bag to cook it sous vide in this type of appliance? If I used this type of appliance...
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01N1PQTIV/
... to pasteurise blood at 60°C for 45 minutes (as per these instructions: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/blood-sauce), would I have to put the blood in a vacuum sealed bag or could I just pour it directly into that pot?

If doing the latter is possible as well, how would it affect the blood's consistency and taste by comparison to cooking it in a bag?

Looking at the photos in the webshop it's pretty clear to me that you're still supposed to bag whatever food goes in it. It will make clean up of the machine easier and you don't want blood residues on it for your next batch of food.

Perhaps you don't need to vacuum seal it, just squeeze out as much air as possible with the vacuum displacement method and trap the edge of the bag between the pot and the lid.


If the supermarket farmed salmon says "Not for raw consumption" on the label, can I still use it to make sushi? I have done my homework and read several reputable sources on this (e.g. this). The consensus on sushi-grade fish seems to be

There is no real "sushi grade". It is a myth.
Follow certain guidelines
Stick to tuna and farmed salmon
Freeze for 7 days at home to kill potential parasites

I just bought some fresh, never frozen farmed salmon, but the label says "not for raw consumption". Can I still use it for sushi/sashimi?

Can I still use it for sushi/sashimi?

Assuming you mean the standard raw-fish preparation method, no.
When the label points out clearly not for raw consumption, believe it or not, it's not even worth the risk.
Take my advice: Make some golden-brown crusted seared salmon!


What features should I consider when getting an ice cream or gelato machine? Obviously, there's the amount that it can make in one batch, and there seem to be three basic types (ones you freeze the bowl ahead of time; ones you pack it with salt and ice, and ones that refrigerates themselves).

... and I know I'm looking for one that I don't have to hand-crank ... (I did more than enough of that as a kid)

... but beyond that, are there any features I should be looking for when buying a machine?

If it makes a difference ... I'd mostly be making sorbet with it, as I don't handle dairy well, but I might make ice cream or gelato to share with other people.

You covered the big differences. Everything else is going to be brand and manufacturing quality.

My opinion on the different types:

For small amounts and small budgets I really like my cuisinart with the prefrozen bowl. The bowl gets so cold in my chest freezer that I don't even have to take the time to chill my mixture if I'm in a hurry. It always has plenty of cold leftover.

The ice/salt type either hand cranked (that's what kids are for) or electric are nice if you need to make batches back to back. You can obviously refill them instead of refreezing a bowl.

I don't have experience with the self refrigerating variety as they are out of my budget for the occasional homemade ice cream.


Another crockpot error I accidentally set my crockpot, with raw chicken and broth, on warm for a little less than one hour. I read answers to a similar question, but since this is chicken and only for 1 hour, I thought I'd ask if it's likely okay or not.

If we go with the 2 hour rule, then you have about an hour to get it back up to a safe temperature.

So either turn the crockpot on high 'til you get it back over 140°F, or remove some of the broth and use another method to heat it and then re-combine the two.


Cake flour or all-purpose for shortbread? The recipe calls for either, and I have both.

What difference am I likely to see in the final product using one or the other?

Would there be an advantage to going halvsies?

What you really need is "in the middle". Shortbread cookies are not very different from shortbread pie crust, they use the same principle, but a different shape. So the optimal flour would be pastry flour, at 6-7% gluten, which is between cake flour (4-5%) and AP (7-8%).

If you are not aiming for five-star-perfection according to century-old traditional tastes, either of your flours will do well. AP is probably a bit safer, in the sense that the cookies won't fall apart too easily.


How can I make my kefir milk smooth and creamy instead of watery and grainy? Just started making kefir last week.  My kefir comes out grainy and watery.

Here is what I'm doing:

I have about 2 tablespoon of kefir
I add about 4 cups of 2% organic milk
Leave it for a day on the counter (26 degrees centigrade)
It separates by this time (clear liquid at the bottom) but not much
I run it through a plastic sieve.

The resulting kefir compared to store bought kefir (my only point of reference) is:

seems watery instead of creamy
seems grainy: tiny grains almost like yogurt particles
has a sharp taste/smell

I still drink it and enjoy it.  But I was wondering how I can improve it...

Update

I haven't gotten the timing right yet...however switching to whole milk is producing much better kefir.

I've been making kefir for about 2 years now and I've noticed a few things one of which is what you mentioned - kefir not thick and creamy.
I've found when you use too many grains that's what happens.
I make a pint (2 cups) so not as much as you but I only use two little pea sized grains.
If they start to grow larger than that, the kefir starts to come out thin.
Mine comes out nearly as thick as yogurt, but a little stir and it's drinkable.

The other person who responded is right as well, over fermentation: the result is little tiny curds.

The more you make it, the more you'll find out how to get it just like you like it.
For example I like mine really thick and also really carbonated and I've figured out if I put a tight lid on it (even though most sites say to only put a breathable top on it like a napkin or cheesecloth) when it's fermenting it comes out like a milk soda. :)

So maybe try only using 1 tablespoon for your quart (4 cups) and see if that helps?

oh yeah, and I use whole milk - using skim or low fat milk might make it thin.


How to not dry out precooked meat in a recipe Certain types of meat like chicken breast seem to have such a short window of being done. Cooking too little can be unhealthy and cooking too much can dry it out. So it seems most cooks are very careful with not overcooking these types of meats.

Yet, I see all kinds of recipes about how to reuse leftover roast chicken, or chicken pot pie recipes where you're supposed to cook the chicken first (or use leftover cooked chicken) and then put it in the oven for another 15 - 45 minutes (depending on the recipe).

I just can't understand how we're expected not to severely dry out and overcook the meat in these types of recipes. Is there some kind of a trick I'm missing? If there is enough liquid, are we able to drastically slow the cooking process? But even braised chicken breast can be overcooked without too much extra time. Can we optimize for this second cooking by using large pieces or trying to not completely cook the meat in the first cooking?

You're not expecting the same texture if you re-cook, that's why many re-cook recipes involve shredding the meat before the second part of the process - separating it as long fibres.
Chicken Tinga, Pulled Pork, etc use this as the basis of the texture of the dish.
Using fattier cuts can mitigate the drying out.

Personally, if I have a long cook that's going to be using chicken breast, I often don't put the chicken in until near the end, so I can get it 'first time' rather than second. It will affect absorption of other flavours though. Something like a curry you can tweak this approach by marinating the chicken in a similar spice blend. Sometimes I just make the call based on experience with a particular dish, or try it both ways & see which I prefer.

If you par-cook the meat, you will then have an extended period where the centre is in a completely unsafe temperature zone.
Don't do this.

From comments
For a pie - so long as it's going straight in the oven, you can flash-fry chicken chunks to get some good colour then finish in the oven, in the pie-mix. So long as the mix doesn't start from cold, temperatures ought to remain in the safe zone throughout.


Can I make ciabatta with corn flour? This is my ciabatta recipe:

4 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon yeast

Mix water and yeast
Add flour and salt
Stir into a heavy batter
Set aside covered at least 8 hours
Heat oven to 400
Bake on a flour dusting for 30 minutes

What would happen if I substituted corn flour for wheat flour?  Perhaps half and half?

As jolenealaska pointed out in a comment, corn flour has no gluten, which is essential to the texture of most breads and many other baked goods. Unless you replace the gluten with vital wheat gluten or some kind of gluten substitute, your corn flour loaf would have a crumbly texture very uncharacteristic of ciabatta.

rumtscho added:

  If by "corn flour" you mean the white starch from inside the corn, you
  probably won't notice much difference in the ciabatta if you use a
  bread dough like gluten to starch ratio, and if you do, it'll be some
  lack of flavor. If you mean to use whole milled corn, it will be more
  interesting, but also give you texture problems, similar to whole
  wheat ciabatta.

The texture problems you'll get with whole milled corn (commonly sold as "corn meal") will be less if the meal is ground finely and more if the meal is ground coarsely (as for polenta).

Stephen Eure gave this suggestion:

  You might consult a few recipes for Anadama bread - a bread that is
  popular in New England - made with some corn meal and wheat flour. It
  is usually sweetened with molasses. Two things that are common to
  recipes for Anadama bread are cooking the corn meal first (and
  allowing it to cool) to soften the corn and adding sweetener to
  amplify the taste of the corn. ... You might also find you need more
  yeast or a longer fermentation time.


What can replace coconut oil in a chocolate cookie coating? For cookies I cover in chocolate I usually use add coconut oil to the liquefying chocolate to get a smooth mass. However, here it is really hard to get and even big supermarkets usually don't have it.

I tried with butter and cream instead but usually the outcome are squishy - or at least not really crunchy - cookies. What is another substitute? What are other oils that do not have a taste on their own that may be a proper replacement?

If really want to substitute for that coconut oil in this particular application, you want a pure, relatively flavorless, saturated fat.  This will be one that is solid at room temperature. That means commercial shortening, such as the US brand Crisco.

Update:  cocoa butter itself, of course would be ideal, if you can get it.  But, then you would want to temper it.  In that case, well, see below...

However, in my opinion:

Your best bet, if you are willing to do the necessary work, for a crisp true chocolate coating is to use... pure chocolate.  Nothing else.

The trick is to ensure that your chocolate is in temper.  (You can read more about it within the Wikipedia article on chocolate).  This means that it is melted and then cooled in such as way as to ensure the cocoa butter forms the most desirable crystals, which have a melting point near mouth temperature, and a smooth, crisp bite.

You can google many detailed articles on how to temper chocolate, with many variant methods.  For example, here is one from Serious Eats.

For small batches at home, I have found the following method to be very successful, using 100% real chocolate such as Merkens or Ghirardelli (or many other brands).  That is, chocolate that is made of nothing but cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar, flavoring, and maybe some lecithen.  You don't want other fats.  In general, you should avoid chocolate chips (which may not be true chocolate) unless you know your manufacturer actually uses 100% true chocolate in their chips (a small number do).

Break the chocolate up into small chunks (maybe 1/2 inch or 1 cm in size)
Place in a glass microwave safe bowl.  The purpose of the glass bowl is to absorb the heat from the chocolate, and then keep it relatively stable and warm.
Place the chocolate in the microwave at very low power.  I use level 2 on my microwave.  It will take a very long time, maybe 8-10 minutes, even to be partially melted.  This is okay.
Every so often, stir the chocolate so it is heating fairly evenly.  (The glass bowl also helps by adding thermal mass...)
Keep microwaving on low, until the chocolate is almost all melted, checking more and more frequently as you get close.
When the chocolate is about 90% melted, take it out and let the residual heat from the bowl and the chocolate melt the rest.
Do one last stir, so that the various crystal types and seeds are evenly distributed, just in case some small part of the chocolate went out temper in this process.

Again, I emphasize, patience and going slow here is the key.  This method trades time for complexity.

The key to this method is:  commercial chocolate is already in temper.  By barely melting it (and I mean barely), we keep it temper.  We don't have to do all the hard stuff with thermometers and carefully regulating the temperature up to melt the bad crystals, then down to seed the good ones and so on.

Once you have your tempered melted chocolate, you can use it to coat candies, cookies, or (one of my favorites) stir in a crunchy breakfast cereal, coconut flakes, or nuts to make little candies....    the applications are endless.


Do pre-packaged chocolate truffles (e.g., Lindt) remain flavorful months after their best by date? I often prepare mini chocolate fruit puddings (in shot glasses), by combining fresh fruit and a melted truffle for guests; as a quick hors-d'oeuvre.
I found a bulk package available, but they're short-dated to ~2 months from now, and it'd probably take 6 months to use all of them.  Will my guests care/is there any downside to using the truffles as ingredient post-expiry?

I used to be quite fond of Lindt balls, and I was also a candy hoarder, so I ate many a Lindt ball past its "best by" date. If the Lindt ball has cracked, the filling will start to leak out and be unsightly. The leaked filling may have dried hard or crystalized, so the texture may not be good. If you have leaked filling on a Lindt ball, you can scrape a bit of it off with your fingernail for a taste test. They're usually fine to eat, though. Unless the package has been roughly handled, almost all the truffles should still in intact.
Undamaged Lindt balls a few months past their "best by" date are fine to eat. At worst, the chocolate shell will "bloom". Chocolate bloom is visually unappealing, and can have a waxy or crystalline texture which will may be noticeable on the tongue. However, it's still fine to eat.
The above mentioned issues are only cosmetic. When you melt the truffles, the cosmetic issues will probably disappear. This sounds like an excellent use for truffles that are slightly past their date.


What differences are there between Chia and Flax Eggs? In substituting Flax Eggs (milled/ground flax seeds in a water slurry, after they congeal) for regular eggs, I have found them to be a versatile aide in baking and thickening any number of dishes.

I have begun to hear tell of using chia seeds instead of flax or something like Ener-G egg replacer. Can chia be used in the same fashion once the seeds are ground as flax?

Is the chia composition the same as a flax egg (1 part milled flax seed to 3 parts water, in slurry)?
Do they set the same, i.e. congeal in the same time?
Can they be mixed for super supplement-y egg substitutes?
What differences are there in how you make or use them, and which is preferred for different uses (if either)?

With flax seeds I like using 1T of seed (ends up being 2.5T of powder) to 3T of water, and use it for thing that are suppose to be light like cake or something that needs a nutty flavor.

But with chia seeds I use exactly 1T of powder to 3T of water (ends up looking like egg whites) and use it in brownies, cookies and so on. Also chia doesn't add flavor like flax does.

**For me chia is definitely stronger.

The first time I used a chia egg I thought it was like a flax (1T seed = 2.5T powder) but I was wrong, my baked good came out very dense in the middle and tasted raw. You can still use a chia but you have to be exact.

Also a chia egg will become very thick and gloppy once it's mixed with water whereas a flax just get gooey.


Timing cooking: methods / workflow I'm looking for methods to improve timing or workflow during cooking. How to multi-task effectively, getting the maximal amount of differing dishes on the table, for each course, etc. A multitasking / scheduling problem.

Of course, practise makes perfect (and I've been practising: certainly not perfect yet though). Say you reach the level where you can dissect a recipe (which, if written correctly, should be a straight arrow in time, tell you when to multitask, and not surprise you with 'combine the current result with that other recipe from the next page you should have started on an hour ago') and plan out your strategy. How do you improve at this point? What tools can help you?

I imagine professional chefs, with the additional complication of also having to instruct multiple souschefs, will have insight or even formal training on this - but what about us amateurs?

EDIT:

After a bunch of good answers, I feel I need to add that I've been cooking with pleasure almost 17 years now. People enjoy coming to our house for dinner (or at least they say so). Many answers tell me stuff I already know (which doesn't make them bad answers!).

Say you were in my shoes, and looking to stretch yourself - what would you reach for?

I came up with a technique one Thanksgiving that I've used for complex meals ever since.

I have three Digital Cooking Thermometer/Timers and a dry-erase board on my refrigerator.

On my dry erase board I draw a table something like this (I don't use the actual headings, they're here for clarity):

Task 1            | Task 2                | Task 3
Baste turkey (60) | Prep green beans (30) | Prep pie (15)
Baste turkey (60) | Prep potatoes (20)    | Turn down oven to 350 (20)
Baste turkey (60) | Cook green beans (10) | Cook potatoes (20)

The numbers in parentheses are the time in minutes. I set each timer to the appropriate time, and cross out each item as I go. The thermometers are positioned directly above each column.

(You can use any timer really, I just like mine to serve two purposes)

It's flexible enough that you can do just about anything this way. You shouldn't feel obliged to use a single column for a specific item, it's unnecessary. Notice that potatoes span columns 2 and 3.

Clearly this requires thorough planning, but your question states that this is assumed.

I had tried other methods where I planned everything meticulously using the wall time (e.g. 4:30 start potatoes, 4:45 start beans, 4:50 baste turkey, 4:55 resume beans) but this was chaos and you will inevitably lag somewhere which means you're having to adjust your times in  your head on the fly. Not fun.

Update

I didn't make this clear, but you don't need to set the timer to time exactly how long each task will take to complete. You can (and should) include any appropriate buffer time before the next task needs to begin. e.g. In my example above "prep green beans" would never take 30 minutes, likely just 10, but for the timing of my meal I don't want to start my potatoes until 30 minutes later, hence 30m for the green beans.

I'll sometimes also have a timer set for an "idle" task. (e.g. if I don't need three timers for most of the meal prep, but I'll need three towards the end (dessert), then I may set timer 3 for a 60m "idle" task to let me know when to start dessert) I initially overused idle tasks when starting this out (e.g. Task 2: prep gb (10), idle(20), prep potato (10), idle(10), cook gb (10), ...), but this confused the hell out of me and I had timers going off that had me scrambling to see that the next thing to do was... nothing. That's why I started bundling idle time into the previous task.


A steak story: dry crust I followed all of the tips.  Prime sirloin, taken out an hour before cooking.  Salted thoroughly 30 minutes prior.  Patted dry with paper towels.  Thrown on a high (650) degree grill for two minutes per side, finished on low for 3 minutes per side (internal temp was still about 400).  Rested 10 minutes.

Results:  Good sear, beautiful medium-rate insides.  Plenty of juice.  Enough salt.

Problem: the exterior was almost like bark.  It wasn't scorched or burnt, but just really really dry.

What was the misstep?

Since you note that the inside was nice and juicy, I doubt that salting 30 minutes in advance was the culprit.  Either sear at a slightly lower temp or do it for less time.  I just got a new grill and the "high" setting was much hotter than I expected and my first steaks seared much quicker than I expected.

A note on the salting in advance:  Cook's Illustrated highly recommends the practice of liberally salting and then allowing to sit for an extended time. Provided that the meat sits long enough it actually acts like a "dry brine".  The salt initially draws out moisture but due to the high concentration of salt on the exterior of the meat, the salt is drawn into the tissue through osmosis (same as brining) and the juice re-enters the tissue at which point it retains the juiciness from the moisture retention capabilities of the salt.

You might try salting the meat immediately upon removing from the refrigerator to provide additional time for the "brine" that forms to be reabsorbed by the meat.


Why most chocolate bars have trans fat? Most chocolate bars have trans fat, usually less than 1g per 100g of chocolate. Even dark chocolate and even expensive brands such as Lindt. Where is this trans fat coming from?

Short answer: I'd look at the ingredient list.  If any sort of partially hydrogenated oil or random fats appear, they are the likely source.  If not, I'd look to see if the chocolate contains cow's milk or butter (sometimes labeled "milkfat" or "butter oil" on chocolate ingredients), since that may also be a small source of trans fat.  Almost all oils/fats, even cocoa butter, will contain trace amounts of trans fat.  Processing can affect amounts of trans fat too, since heating fats will cause large fat chains in molecules to move and sometimes convert to trans versions.

More details:

There are trace amounts of trans fat found in most oils.  Labeling laws tend to make this issue confusing, as in the U.S. where FDA regulations allow nutritional labeling to state "0 grams" when the amount per serving is less than 0.5 grams.  (In fact, that link implies that manufacturers are actually required to state "0g" when the amount is less than 0.5 grams per serving, presumably rather than saying "0.1g" or whatever.  I don't know if that's true.)

A decade or more ago, many foods (including chocolate) often contained significant amounts of partially hydrogenated oils (often as high as 50% trans fats by weight).  Many US manufacturers have since dropped the usage of hydrogenated oils or lowered the amounts so that the serving size ends up under the 0.5g threshold for reporting.

Chocolate may still sometimes contain partially hydrogenated oils, which may be the source for trans fat in some brands.  However, when you're talking about amounts like 1g or less per 100g of chocolate, there are plenty of other possible sources.  For example, cow's milk contains small but not insignificant amounts of trans fats, as does butter (about 5% trans fat).  This is true of all milk and meat from ruminants.  You may not know it from many labels, because the serving size may fall below the reporting threshold, but it is there.

Moreover, it's important to note than "trans fat" is a very general chemical category.  While the majority of added trans fats in processed foods are regarded as problematic, there are natural trans fats (such as those found in milk) which do not have the same effects on humans.  One notable example is conjugated linoleic acid, naturally found in ruminant milk (in both cis and trans fat forms), which some claim actually has beneficial effects.

So when you see a trace amount of trans fat showing up from milk or butter as an ingredient, it may not have the same stigma as the "partially hydrogenated" types of trans fats.  I would assume this may be one reason behind the FDA's rule about trans fat labeling: putting tiny amounts of trans fat would show all of these random trans fats (some of which are thought to be harmful, some perhaps even beneficial) in all sorts of foods. The "bad" trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils were the main target of the regulation.  (Some countries only require labeling for trans fats which come from "artificial" or "industrial processed" ingredients.)

Again, the chemical composition of most oils/fats have some trace amounts of trans fats.  (See the table in this pamphlet from a chocolate manufacturer.)  Even cocoa butter has some tiny amount like 0.1g of trans fat per 100g.  That's unlikely to be significant source of trans fat in a chocolate bar, but if you're measuring tiny amounts (as asked in the question), it's a possible contributor to a fraction of a gram amount in a large chocolate bar.


Sous Vide Frustrations I recently purchased an Anova Precision Cooker circulator and have been unsuccessful in both attempts to cook meat using the sous vide technique, and I'd like to figure out why.

Attempt #1 - Ribeye Steaks

Setup
2 1.75" thick ribeye steaks, salted, vacuum-sealed and in the bath for about 2 hours at 115 F - the meat was quite gray when it came out. I then finished with a sear on screaming hot cast iron, flipping once a minute and basting with a mixture of animal fats. After 5 minutes on the grill, I started using a Thermapen to probe the internal temperature

Result
There was quite a bit of banding and the center of the meat turned out to be closer to medium than medium rare. I've since learned salting before is a bad idea when using sous vide, and these particular ribeye cuts were relatively poor quality.

Attempt 2 - Pub-Style burgers

Setup
2 3/4" thick burger patties made from 1 lb of food-processed sirloin steak. The patties contained melted butter and pepper (not salt), were ziploc bag-sealed, and left in a 133 F water bath for 50 minutes. They were then finished in a very hot stainless steel pan and bacon fat, about 1 minute (perhaps a bit more) on each side.

Result
Awful - completely dry and lacking flavor. One of the patties happened to break up slightly when removing it from the ziploc bags and I noticed it was completely gray throughout. The burger that remained intact also turned out entirely gray.

I tend to favor the reverse-sear method for cooking meat, and have successfully cooked both of the above recipes many times by starting the meat in a 225 F oven, raising its internal temperature to 115 F, and finishing with a sear and frequent flipping until medium rare is achieved. So far, sous vide has failed to replace my favored approach, and I don't understand why.

What I've tested
- The Anova is working correctly, verified the same temperature as measured by my Thermapen in an empty pot of water.
- The burgers were not salted, so no more moisture was pulled out than necessary.

Unknowns
- The bags tend to move around quite a bit and one of them usually winds up wedged against the Anova. Could this inadvertently cause the circulator to have a false reading? I didn't test the water temperature during the cook, but I was able to put my hand in the water for a few seconds before it started to hurt.
- What's the recommended size for a pot of water? I'm using what I thought was a good-sized stock pot (at least 2 gallons).

For your steaks, 5 minutes of searing seems like a pretty long time, easily enough to go from medium-rare to medium, or even more than that, depending on thickness and exactly how hot the pan is. It's definitely normal for the meat to be gray before the sear, so if your pan was indeed as hot as you can get it and you needed the whole 5 minutes to get the level of sear you want, you may want to deliberately undershoot more with the sous vide. You may also want to pat the steaks dry, if the liquid from the bag is possible taking you too long to cook off.

For the burgers, you don't mention ever salting them, which would certainly make them bland. You shouldn't mix salt into the patties, but salting just before bagging should be fine, or at least before searing. J. Kenji López-Alt suggests salting before bagging and before searing. On top of that, sirloin steak is pretty lean, which would account for the dryness and maybe some blandness. You might want to try a fattier cut, or part sirloin and part something fatty. People have all kinds of opinions about what's best, but I don't think many people like it as lean as pure sirloin.

In general, salting before bagging is totally fine and often recommended - yes, it might pull a little more liquid out, but if you want salt for flavor, it's going to be a lot more effective in the bag than added at the end. And you're going to get a lot of liquid in the bag no matter what you do. It doesn't mean the meat won't be good, although you can make a great pan sauce out of it and get even more flavor.

Poor circulation, including bags getting stuck against one side without water getting around the other side, definitely isn't ideal. It's hard to tell how big an issue it is for you, though. The best way to check would be just to sneak a thermometer probe to the places you think may not be getting good circulation and see how big a difference there is.

The pot size depends a bit on what you're making. A big stock pot is definitely big enough for a lot of things. I think the one I use is 10-12 quarts, and I do big stuff like pork shoulders. If all you're doing is a couple steaks or fish filets, you can get away with smaller.


Is a black coating dangerous when cooking on cast iron? A lot of times when I use my cast iron pan, I'll sometimes get some "black stuff" which I assume is gristle on my food. It doesn't taste bad, it's not a "TON" - I'm assuming it's a combo of burnt+black stuff from the cast iron pan.

Is this in any way dangerous?

Black stuff on a cast iron skillet is most likely just a thin layer of burned food. It's not horribly dangerous (I'm sure you've eaten some charred things before) but it does make your food look worse, so you may as well just keep your skillet clean and well-seasoned and avoid it.


When to bring eggs whites to room temperature? I’m looking over a recipe for angel food cake that calls for twelve egg whites at room temperature and it got me wondering about what’s the best way to do it. Is it best to bring the dozen of eggs to room temperature on the counter, crack them, separate them, and then put the yolks back in the fridge for another recipe? Or is it best to crack and separate the eggs while cold, throw the yolks back in the fridge, and let the egg whites warm up in a sealed container on the counter?
Just curious and figured I’d ask in case there’s a good reason for either of these or something else.

It doesn't make much difference to the end product whether you separate them cold or warm as long as the egg whites are room temperature when you whip them. Cold whites won't get as fluffy and therefore you'll get a denser cake. Oxygen will cause chemical changes in the white as it warms up to temperature, but that's minor.
It is easier to separate eggs that are at room temperature as the whites run much more easily, so if my eggs are refrigerated I would bring them up to room temperature first, then separate and put the yolks in the fridge. You can do this quickly by putting the eggs in a bowl of tepid water.


What ingredients can I add to no-knead bread to extend its life? Is there anything I can add to a standard no-knead bread recipe to allow the bread to stay softer for longer? Bread baked the night before, while still edible, is not as pliable the next midday.

I currently use bread flour, yeast, salt and water but was thinking of adding milk, butter or eggs. If there is a single food additive I can add I would consider this, but I don't want to adulterate the recipe too much.

Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast has a brief note on storing baked bread (page 77).

  I got over my aversion to storing bread in plastic bags many years ago, after trying all the alternatives and realizing nothing else keeps the bread as well. The crust will soften, but the bread won't dry out. The straight dough breads will keep for two or three days. The breads made with pre-ferments will keep a day longer than that, and the levain [meaning sourdough] breads from this book will keep for five to six days, if you don't eat it all before then!

I propose sourdough starter as an additive that should almost double the life of your bread. Unlike the fatty enriching agents you suggest, using a sourdough starter should minimally impact the type of loaf you are baking. The process for making sourdough bread is quite similar to the "no-knead" method you are familiar with, and the result is similar, albeit with a more complex flavor. The downside, of course, is the work involved in maintaining a starter.

With respect to using a plastic bag, I usually split the difference: I store the bread uncovered for the first day to enjoy the crunch of the crust, and move it to plastic after to keep it moist. Do make sure the bread is completely cool before putting it in plastic.

I would also encourage you to embrace stale bread as a wonderful ingredient. When I bake, I count on a portion of the bread going stale, and use it for toast, croutons, french toast, stuffing, panzanella, or bread pudding.


Canned tomatoes for fresh Can I substitute canned tomatoes for fresh ones when making soft tacos?  Should tomatoes be drained, seasoned, added to meat mixture or served with lettuce, sour cream, and shredded cheese?

It really depends on how you're using them.

If you want them for a topping along with your lettuce, cheese etc... they must be fresh.

If you're adding them to your ground meat and cooking them, you're probably better off with a drained can of peeled, chopped/diced tomatoes (convenience wise).

Doing both isn't uncommon.

You could also possibly use the canned tomatoes to make the base of some sort of cooked salsa (more similar to a jarred picante sauce than a fresh salsa).


Can cake batter sit before using? I'm making a sour cream pound cake for an event. I would ideally like to make the batter in the morning. I have something else I have to do around 11:30, though, and I won't be home for about an hour.

Would it be ok to mix the batter together around 11, cover it, leave and come back? Would my cake be messed up in any way? Should the batter be refrigerated if I let it sit?

Usually cake batter does spoil or become unmixed if allowed to sit for long periods of time. After all, most of it is physically, not chemically combined. That being said, if you need to walk away, you definitely want to refrigerate the batter, esp. if there are raw eggs in the batter.  Best to mix a cake batter and bake immediately.


Homemade Teriyaki Sauce I would like to process (in glass jars or bottles for shelf life) teriyaki sauce/marinade.
My recipe calls for vinegar. I'm leaning towards pressure cooking for safety reasons but am
Unable to find somewhere to purchase bottles with tops that seal. Can you recommend somewhere or should I stick with my canning jars? These will not be for resale only home use or gifts. Thanks

I use canning jars for my teriyaki which I seal in a boiling bath for 15 minutes. You can find canning jars and lids at many grocery stores as well as some hardware stores and variety stores such as Walmart.


Is it possible to infuse piperine of Black pepper into oil? Is this possible?  From my understanding one would need to freshly grind the black pepper into an oil and heat it, however due to the volatility of piperine it would be lost during the heating and so wouldn’t infuse.

Is there any way to infuse piperine from black pepper or maybe another spice into an oil?

Oil is used to extract pepper flavor, as piperine is relatively non-polar. Its solubility in water (a polar solvent) is only 0.04 grams per liter. It is more soluble in less polar solvents (67 grams per liter in alcohol, for example).

A related post:
How to infuse black layer of peppercorn into an oil?

Piperine has amide and benzodioxole functional groups, and would be chemically reactive, so it might lose flavor if heated too hot or too long.

A little chemical background on solubility:  It all comes down to “like dissolves like”.

Atoms are made of bits with electrical charges, both positive and negative.  These opposite charges attract each other, and hold atoms and chemical compounds together.  Compounds are made from two or more (can be 100s or even more) atoms joined together.  If the electrical charges are evenly distributed in a molecule, then its surface is neutral everywhere.  That's “non-polar”.  But some chemical compounds have the electrical charge unevenly distributed, so there are areas on the surface with + and - charge.  That's “polar”.  Some atoms or groups of atoms can also gain or lose charges to become ions.  Ions are electrically charged by nature.

Water is very polar.  The + and - charges on the surface are attracted to opposite charges on other water molecules, so it sticks to itself really well.  This is why it has such a high boiling point for such a small molecule.  Also, because it sticks using + and - charges, it can also dissolve compounds that have plenty of those surface +/- charges, like sugars, or ionic compounds like salt.  But it's hard for anything that doesn't have those charges (non-polar molecules like piperine) to dissolve, because they would get in the way of the strong +/- attractions.

But piperine can mix with other non-polar or low-polarity molecules, like oil.  When they mix with each other, there aren't very strong forces holding them together.  It's mostly just the forces of disorder.  And they aren't blocking electrically charged molecules from finding opposite charges to stick to.

Lots of molecules have both polar (electrically charged) parts and also non-polar (electrically neutral) parts.  These can then dissolve/mix with both kinds of molecules (the best examples of these, like lecithin and other emulsifiers, can help fats and water stick together).  Alcohol is one of these in-between molecules.  It can dissolve the piperine, but also mix with water.  It's also very volatile, so it could be used to efficiently dissolve out a molecule like piperine, and then be evaporated away to leave a more concentrated mixture, or even deposit the piperine into an oil in more concentrated form. Lately a lot of people are flavoring vodka with black pepper.


microwaving scrambled eggs Has anyone come up with a way to cook beaten eggs via microwave?

My attempts to do so have resulted in a off-coloured mess with the consistency of rubber.

Microwave scrambled eggs will never be like real scrambled eggs.

That said, I've obtained decent results when only a microwave is available by beating the eggs first, microwaving for 30 seconds, stirring, and then microwaving in 10 second bursts, stirring after each one until desired doneness is achieved.

If you are just looking for ways to cook eggs in the microwave, and you don't care about the style, try doing a microwave poached egg:
Put 1/3c of water in a mug. Crack an egg into the water. Stab the yolk with a fork/toothpick/etc (shouldn't break the yolk, just pierce it. This is so that it won't explode, which apparently is a risk, although I've never had it happen, personally.) Microwave for about a minute, remove egg with slotted spoon. Adjust timing up/down 5 seconds, depending on your microwave and how you like your egg (e.g. I like mine kind of runny: in one microwave I use, that's 55 seconds, in another it's 1min even.)


Pulled pork cooking time I have always made pulled pork with the shoulder, but this time I want to make it with the leg of pork.

Will turn out dry, does it need less cooking time?

Pork leg (fresh ham) is quite amenable to the low and slow techniques used to make pulled pork, such as braising, slow roasting, or barbecuing, just like pork shoulder (butt).

The final product may have a slightly different texture, as the ham is a little leaner than the shoulder.

Questions of cooking time are very difficult to answer, as they depend on the specific temperature, shape of the cut being cooked, method, and the individual characteristics of the individual cut.   You are looking for an outcome, which is that the connective collagen is fully gelatinized.  This means holding at internal temperatures of around 180 F for some time.  You will know that it is done when it pulls apart easily with a fork.  Fortunately, low and slow techniques tend to be very forgiving, and while possible, it is difficult to overcook using them.

I would recommend checking the fresh ham about the same time you would check a pork butt of the same thickness in your recipe or technique.  Pulled pork also holds and reheats exceptionally well.


What is the black, slightly sweet, flavour in some Asian food? It seems to be a popular ingredient in Asian (esp. Chinese?) food. I encountered them on pork spareribs, and some side dishes. Apparently it turns everything completely black when it is added.

I can rule out soy sauce (which is too salty and tastes entirely different) and I realise that this question is rather vague. What additional information could I provide?

Edit: I can rule out oyster sauce. I asked in a restaurant what the black stuff was, but either she didn't understand me or she didn't want to (all she told me was that it contained salt). Finally she said she made it herself. Anyway, I bought Hoisin sauce:

and I think it's as close as it gets (perhaps the restaurant uses a slightly different version of the one I bought, as mine is a bit saltier and a bit less sweet).

Update: I finally discovered the exact sauce I was looking for. It turned out to be Black Bean Garlic Sauce.

Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, and black bean paste seem to be the most likely culprits.  What is the texture of the sauce? If it's smooth, it's hoisin; but hoisin tends to be salty. If it's not smooth, it's black bean paste. Oyster sauce is a little oilier than the other two, and is used in almost every Asian sautee.


What are the limits on baking at 400F/200C? I recently saw this video and the accompanying article on the New York Times website, which describes cooking a Thanksgiving dinner (including turkey, a crumble, dressing, and a sweet potato gratin) in a 400 degree oven, plus some things on the stove. It made me wonder whether you could apply the same principle to, say, cooking for the whole week on a Sunday morning: set the oven to one temp and just move pans in and out as needed.

So here's the question: what are the limits of what you can do at 400F/200C? I know I can roast meats and veg at that heat. Can you do breads? desserts? casseroles? When is that heat too high to be practical?

That temp will cook many, many things with no problems. You would simply have to adjust cooking time.  Also, regarding your article and video, many Thanksgiving items are simply casseroles that need to be heated through (other than the turkey), so one temperature makes sense.  Speaking more broadly, oven temperatures are wildly inaccurate.  So, a setting of 400F is often meaningless, unless you are carefully monitoring your temperature with an oven thermometer placed inside. It would be fairly common for your oven temperature to be significantly (as much as 50 F or more) different from your oven setting. If you have the time and energy, an oven set at 400F could cook things that need a much lower temperature, provided you shuffle your items in and out of the oven with the correct timing. Perhaps not so convenient, if you needed to set a custard in a water bath at a low temperature.  You may also be limited in cooking that requires very high heat.  For example, while you could bake an edible Neapolitan pizza, on a stone, in a 400F oven, you would simply get a better result in an 550 degree oven (and in less time).  So, practically speaking, I think the bottom line is that, with the exception of some specialty items, the limits here are mostly time and convenience, rather than temperature.  You could eat well using an oven that only had a 400F setting. I would say 475 - 500F would be less practical, but then again, if you only had one setting, you would adjust your cooking to the heat source.


What's the best way to cook brown rice? Apparently the ratio of water to rice for brown rice is 1.5:1. I simmered my rice for about half an hour with the lid on the pan and the rice was still hard and the water nearly all gone. What am I doing wrong?

The recipe on my bag of brown rice says:

1:2 ratio of rice and water
No salt in the water
Cook for 35 minutes
Rest for 5 minutes
Remove any surplus water

They always come out good and soft :-)


What is a non-alcoholic substitute for rum in a glaze? I want to make an orange cake and its recipe calls for rum in the glaze. Rum, anything alcoholic, rum extract, etc. are not an option for me. Is there a way to substitute with vanilla extract? If so, in what proportion?

According to the recipe, for glaze we need:

½ cup strained fresh orange juice
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp. dark rum
1 cup confectioners' sugar, divided

I have looked at the answers to What is substitute for rum in baking?, but they focus mostly on dough/batter and aren't very specific about method of proportion.

The rum is just for flavor so you can skip it entirely if you like, just make up the liquid with more orange juice. If you want to use vanilla, just try 1/8 - 1/4 tsp. If you'd like the flavor of rum without the alcohol, non-alcoholic "rum" does exist (spiced rum here, which would be nice with orange). Non-alcoholic "Liquors" Just in case you'd like to know, these products are Halal certified. Halal Certificate


Fastest Way To Cook Bottom Round Roast I have a 2.7 pound block of Angus beef bottom round roast that I need to cook expediently (meaning not 7-8 hrs in the slow cooker). What's the fastest way to prepare this meat without it tasting too chewy or tough? Ideally, I would like to be able to use it in beef tacos or burritos of some sort, but I'm open to other ideas.

I'm looking for an answer that contains a cooking technique which takes less than 2 hours total.

You can cook bottom round quickly, but not as a roast.

Cut into thick about 1 to 2" (2.5 to 5 cm) thick, with the grain.  (depending on thickness, either split it in half / thirds / quarters ... you just want them of similar thickness), cut them thinner if you like it more towards medium than medium rare)
Salt, and let it sit out to come up to room temp for about 30 min.
While waiting, adjust oven rack so the steaks on a broiler tray will sit about 1" (2.5cm) from the broiler, or pre-heat your grill (if using propane ... if you're on charcoal ... well, you really need a chimney starer, or take a propane torch to 'em to get 'em going well in a short time)
Start heating the broiler (only takes 3-5 minutes, typically)
Pat dry the steaks, both sides.
Broil for about 6 min per side; if griiling, might have to go a little longer, depending on how hot your grill gets.
Remove from heat and let rest for about 5 to 10 minutes.
Slice thinly across the grain into strips.
Toss with whatever spices (cumin, garlic, etc.), squeeze some lime over it.

You can get extra flavor into it, but don't use a dry rub.  As we're going for high heat, if you want extra flavor, after cutting your steaks, pierce them liberally with a fork or one of those spiky meat tenderizers (not the mallet ones), then toss in a bag with a marinade, (a mix of lime juice and italian dressing works pretty well for mexican applications, as it's pretty quick.  Worcestershire or soy sauce also work for just about any treatment).

You still want to pat them dry, or else you risk causing the steaks to cook unevenly  (the edges evaporate first, then curl up holding in the liquid ... but the curling places them closer to the broiler and the liquid means the middle can't get above 100°C, making the edges char way before the middle's cooked).

update : and to make sure I'm clear on this -- it's very important that you slice the strips in the end thinly, and across the grain.  That's the only thing that's going to keep it from being overly chewy with this technique.  (and keeping it fairly rare; otherwise it could start to get tough).  Don't bother w/ slicing diagonally if it's going into tacos or burritos (as that's mostly to make it look like a thicker steak), it'll be more tender if you slice straight across.  If you insist on cooking it to medium or further, I'd heat up some salsa or other flavorful liquid in a pot, and drop the cooked sliced strips in there to cook 'em a bit further without it drying them out)


Should I use a base to offset the sour in overripe sourdough starter? My starter is active and mature, but sometimes I don't have time to check and feed it at its optimal activity for my preferred sour (very slight).  This means by the time I get to feeding it, it's getting too sour.

I don't like to discard (ie 'remove').  And I would like to bake bread every day, so it doesn't make sense to make something else while not being able to bake bread.

Should I use baking soda or another base to offset the lactic acid?  (Is there a better way?  Are there any caveats?)

Just remove 1/2 to 3/4 of the starter and feed the remaining starter as usual.  The process of feeding should reduce the sour and normalize the ph level.

You don't need a lot of starter to keep it going. Sometimes I'll just keep a tablespoon and feed it 2 oz. water and 2 oz. of flour (100% hydration).  If I know I won't tend to it for a while (e.g. 3 to 4 weeks), then I'll make the starter a bit stiffer by adding a bit more flour.

As far as what to do with the excess, if your not going to toss it...
I vote pancakes or English muffins.  These are usually served with something that'll mask or lessen the sour taste (butter,syrup,jam).

Where do you keep your starter between baking?


Are trace amounts of lead in seasoned bakeware safe? I want to order a custom-cut steel plate to use like baking steel in the oven, and I read that in common raw steels the trace amount of lead can get up to 0.36%.

If I season the steel like I would cast iron, and only use it to make pizza and bread on it, could that trace amount of lead be harmful?

Edit: I just found out that 0.35% is the allowed amount of added lead to machinable steels. The maximum amount found in common raw steels is limited to 0.1%, and in practice probably a lot lower than that.

I, and in general we, cannot answer if something is safe.  There are instances where we can say something is clearly unsafe, but when dealing with things like is this piece of metal safe for cooking we are not equipped to give anything but anecdotal answers and partially informed opinions.

The only safety answer that is actually reliable would come from lab testing and that is why we shell out tax dollars and public funding for organizations like UL and USDA in the US and similar organizations in other countries.  They do testing and declare metal products, glass, plastics, etc. to be food grade or not food grade according to their composition and reactivity to normal food products.  They are not always correct, but their declarations are made from testing results, not guesses and partially informed opinions, mine or anyone else's.

Also an opinion, but one that I think is really the only prudent and reasonable one to make is get a product that is rated food grade, not a custom made item you or others think is safe.  The amount of toxins in the metal may well be low, well within standards, but that does not say it is not in a reactive form which will enter you food on first contact with a slightly acid item, and lead may even be one of your least concerns.  A piece of steal which was not manufactured under food grade conditions could have many other toxins that are not permitted in food grade manufacturing, permitted because they are in low amounts that are safe for the intended use but become readily transferred to food.


Should I use raw beets in my smoothie recipe? I have a smoothie recipe which requires beets, and having never prepared raw beets, but only ever pulled the, from a pre-canned jar, I'm wondering how to proceed.

I'm reading the cookbook  "100 Best Smoothies & Juices" and making Beet, Pear and Spinach juice from page 96.

The part I don't understand is the ingredient named 1 beet, trimmed, peeled and chopped.

No where does it say to cook the beets; but everyone I've asked about this has said that you have to biol them first.

It sounds like this a juice recipe, not a smoothie recipe. It may work if you put it in your blender, as I've seen recipes for smoothies with similar ingredients like this one but it will probably need some more liquid.

When you juice, you definitely use raw fruits and vegetables but you need to run it through a juicer which will remove most of the solids, which is why you generally don't see any liquids added to the recipe.

We use raw beets in our juices all the time and, while they sometimes have a very earthy flavor, they do add a lot of sweetness. I've found the earthiness can be balanced with a little lemon juice.

... Anyway, if you want to make a smoothie with these ingredients (though I can't see the entire recipe), you can certainly follow the one I linked to earlier, which very clearly states that you use raw beets.

If you do want to follow this recipe, I can tell you that it pretty much is guaranteed to be calling for raw beets, simply because it doesn't say to cook them. Canned beets are generally already trimmed and peeled, if not chopped, so these steps don't make much sense to list.

While I wouldn't want to eat a raw beet like an apple, you don't need to cook it to consume it in a liquid form.


Heston Blumenthal roast chicken I just watched Heston Blumenthal - Perfect Roast Chicken where he does a few thing unconventionally.

He roasts the chicken at approximately 200 F and stops the roasting process when the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches 140 F.

Has anyone tried this method? I don't think I have seen chicken roasted at such a low temperature. For a 5-6 lbs chicken, the cooking time might even reach 4 hours in the "danger-zone"

I am also curious if anyone verified his metric of ending the roasting process at internal temperature of 140 F. I am not sure juices run clear at that temperature.

The USDA FSIS puts out Time-Temperature Tables for Cooking Ready-To-Eat Poultry Products (PDF). They recommend holding the fattest parts of a chicken at 140°F/60°C for 35 minutes to ensure safety.

The time is increased greatly as you lower the temperature only a little (for example, it becomes 53 minutes 138°F, a mere 2°F lower). If you raise the temperature a little, it's much shorter (23.5 minutes at 142°F). As he says in the video, the food safety agencies recommend a higher temperature—the normal recommendation is 165°F.

The 165°F is to allow a safety margin, in case:

Your thermometer is off. As you can see, a few degrees make a lot of difference.
The spot you probed wasn't actually the coolest part of the bird.

The recommended times in the tables are for the worst-contaminated bird the USDA believes you could run into, which is probably far worse than the bird you're actually preparing.

As to the juices, its doubtful they run clear at 140°F. But the color of the juices is not a reliable way to determine if chicken is safely cooked.

It's up to you (and the people you're feeding) how much safety margin you're willing to remove. But note that if you use an accurate & calibrated thermometer, probed in several spots to find the coolest, and take the bird to 151°F, then leave the thermometer in as it rests, as long as it stays ≥150 for 4.2 minutes (≥149 for 5.4 minutes, or…), FSIS says its safe. That's still going to leave you pretty juicy chicken, though not quite as much as at 140°F.

Beware, it will not have the texture you expect!


Roasted Hazelnut soil? I had a really creative dish at a local restaurant that was radishes that where dipped in butter and then rolled in hazelnuts that looked like dirt. Obviously it wasn't dirt but hazelnuts that had been ground up and then cooked some way to make it look like dirt.

Any ideas on how to replicate this?

Here is a pic

Dry roast the nuts in a pan or skillet until golden, keep them moving at all times. Let them cool completely on a paper towel. Grind them to the right particle size you need. Spread them thinly and evenly on an oven tray and bake at somewhere around 140-160C. You will likely end up with some parts a little burnt. Or do whole nuts in a coffee roaster.


Using melted butter when making shortbread I almost always forget to take the butter out to soften,  and inevitably end up over microwaving it and then putting it back in the fridge for 5 min.

Today it occurred to me: why not mix in the sugar and then put it back?  mixing is easier and I still am adding the flour to a solid so it doesn't develop as much gluten.

What do you think? is there any harm in adding the sugar to melted butt and then cooling before flour?

If your recipe calls for the creaming method, then what you are doing, both with or without sugar, is harmful.

Creaming the butter means to mix softened butter with crystal sugar, using a paddle mixer attachment or vigorously stirring with a spatula (warning, sore arms!). The sugar crystals beat tiny air bubbles into the butter, which make the shortbread rise later during backing. Neither cold butter nor melted butter work here. If you melt the butter first, your result will still be a shortbread, but will rise less and have a denser, heavier texture. Melting the butter first, then cooling it back and adding it is also bad; melting the butter breaks the emulsion and melted butter (which is actually an uneven mixture of butterfat and unstrained milk solids) behaves completely differently than "normal" butter.

If your recipe already prescribes the muffin method, there is no need to mix the sugar with the butter, or to cool the melted butter at all. You mix the sugar with the dry ingredients, and add the butter together with the wet ingredients.


What kind of chocolate should I use to coat homemade turtles? I am making chocolate treats with mini Presley's caramel and chocolate. Can I use a regular Hershey's bar or use baking chocolate or can I mix them to make a harder coating or will the regular harden?

There are certain kinds of chocolate that are formulated for coating. Couverture is one of the names.  My local grocery store has discs of chocolate that come in packages that are meant for this.  Here's a link to a good explanation of the differences.
http://gourmetcandymaker.com/select-the-best-chocolate/


Cooking Brown Rice on a Portable Induction Burner Are there any tips on how to properly cook brown rice using a portable induction burner? I use my standard ratio of 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cup water bring to a boil, cover and reduce to low for 20 minutes, let stand for 10 minutes on the regular electric stove top. However my induction burner is labeled warm, simmer, boil and I have yet to achieve satisfactory results.

For what it's worth, I find it difficult to get brown rice cooked properly using any sort of regimented process. It seems sensitive to the variables involved, and it doesn't come out right without me being more involved in the cooking process.

So, I follow the procedure which (if I recall correctly) I found in Cook's Illustrated: cook the rice in a much larger volume of water than is needed (two-to-one, or even three-to-one if you can spare the room in the pot), stirring occasionally, monitor done-ness by tasting the rice periodically, and when the rice has the desired consistency (different people prefer different degrees of firmness), take it off the heat and drain it (e.g. in a chinois).

Even using this approach, it's important to maintain the heat relatively low, at a simmer. But it's a lot more forgiving than techniques that demand you get the rice-to-water ratio perfect, because you never run out of water, and the rice never sticks to the bottom of the pot.

The "simmer" setting on your hob should work well with this approach, but if the hob is so underpowered that "simmer" doesn't simmer, the "boil" setting might work out okay, if that setting doesn't in fact result in a very vigorous boil.

At the end of the day though, if your hob has only two cooking levels (plus the "warm" setting), it might just not be a hob worth using. There are plenty of other hob choices out there, which allow a more fine-grained control than choosing between "not quite warm enough to simmer" and "rolling boil", and with a better hob, cooking rice should be very easy, whatever technique you prefer.