Is "parboiling" chicken stupid (or wasteful)? I realize the question can be considered inflammatory - use the latter wording (wasteful) if it helps...

When I learned (taught myself) to cook and first figured out that meat does indeed have a flavor of its own, I struggled and finally learned how to retain those flavors - everything from making broth with bones to slow-cooking to release natural fats and connective tissues. However, a friend uses chicken that is "parboiled" in many dishes, and this seems quite wasteful to me.

I understand that parboiling can be done to reduce cooking time. However, help me either understand this preparation mentality, or explain to them how to do things better...

My friend puts chicken breasts into a ~3-6 qt saucepan on the stove in warm water, turning the burner to high. After the water is boiling, heat is reduced to medium (50%), and left to boil for 30 minutes or so. The pot is drained and the chicken either shredded or cubed for use in a pulled-chicken or similar dish (perhaps enchiladas or similar). The chicken is fully cooked, but usually lacks taste - as I figure, it was all boiled out of the chicken during cooking.

This seems wasteful (stupid) to me - as the friend often goes through extra effort to use high quality ingredients, spices, seasonings, fresh herbs, and selects healthier meals. The only potential gain I see to preparing the chicken in this fashion is that the cooking can be done relatively unsupervised (plop chicken in, adjust heat once, and walk away). However, taste is lost when instead there certainly must be a better way to prepare the chicken. Perhaps in the case of the aforementioned enchiladas, the chicken could be placed in a skillet, half-covered with a mix of enchilada sauce and water, covered and cooked on medium for just about the same amount of time. This would flavor the chicken more instead of removing the flavor, and with little additional touch-time.

This friend comes from a background of much prepared food and poor cooking habits growing up, but has taken the time to advance their skills greatly in other culinary areas aside from meat preparation. I'd like to encourage them with evidence (and gentle pressure if necessary) to improve this facet of their cooking as well. Perhaps they are used to canned chicken which is precooked, as I believe this method for cooking chicken originated out of one snack-dip-related dish, which was a staple for them previously.

Bonus points: is this technique even parboiling? Above-quoted answers cite parboiling to be boiling to speed-up preparation of the parboiled food, but don't mention the intention of completely cooking it.

Chicken breast is so lean and bland already that I'm not sure this method would really be that much worse than a different method especially when being shredded and mixed with strong flavors.

I don't think it's wasteful unless it is not eaten, but a far better way would be slow cooked and then shredded thigh meat. It is fattier, but in my opinion, a far more delicious part of the bird. It is stronger flavor wise, has an unctuous that chicken breast can't touch, and is cheaper.

Back on topic, if you really wanted to prove the value in either grilling or slow cooking the chicken breast. Do two batches next time: one half is yours and one half is theirs. You should definitely marinade yours if you want to win :)


Using a ceramic honing rod for Global knives? I just bought a Global knife (GF-33) and the literature that came with it suggests using a ceramic honing "steel" rather than a steel one. Apparently steel could be too abrasive for the type of metal Global uses. First of all, does this assertion have any merit? If so, I was looking at the rod that Global offers and it is one hundred dollars plus! I noticed that other brands run much much cheaper. Why such the big difference? Are all ceramic rods created equally? I just want to buy a thirty dollar one if it's all the same. What have other people done for their Global knives?

I can't speak to Global knives specifically, but my local knife sharpening specialist recommends maintaining newly sharpened knives with a ceramic honing tool instead of stainless, saying "A metal steel may be too aggressive in the first couple of months after I've sharpened your knives and can cause more harm than good." I haven't tried it, but basically I just don't seem to need to use the conventional honing steel that I have much until it's been a couple of months anyway. Ceramic should be somewhat less hard than steel, and it may be less likely that you'll apply so much force as to bend the edge too extremely if you're using something that is slightly less hard than the material of your knife.

The one that my local knife sharpener offers has a rubber tip on one end, which I could see providing stability if you keep the edge on the counter; a wet cloth could stand in for that. I'm not sure what other differentiating features a typical ceramic steel offers, but I didn't see many with the rubber tip feature. Why is Global's more expensive than others you looked at? If there are no features with obvious value, then the answer to why they charge more is probably "because they can."


How long can I keep green curry paste? I make green curry paste with green peppers as main ingredient. I put all ingredients in the processor, and keep the paste in a closed jar in the fridge. It stills smells fresh after 10 weeks.
Can it be kept for that long? Why (not)?

I would suggest 4-6 weeks. I buy all natural, preservative free green curry paste all the time. The packaging suggests refrigeration once opened up to one month. Most foods without the help of preservatives don't last much longer than a month under refrigeration. The curry paste may not spoil per se, but the quality does degrade significantly. Green curry paste is naturally very strong in the odor department, so it can smell fresh long after it is. I'd bet that if you compared it to a freshly made batch you'd tell the difference.


Does the snake method only work on circular grills? I have an aussie walkabout grill which is squared shape and wanted to know does the snake method only work for weber/circled shaped grills or for any type of grill?

The point of the snake method is to provide constant, indirect, heat and smoke for a extended period of time.

The burning charcoal lights just the next bit of fuel in the chain instead of the entire mass of fuel that would be consumed in a normal charcoal arrangement. By having only a little of the fuel and smoking wood burn at a time it makes the fuel last longer and keeps the smoke level low.

This method will work for any shape of grill/smoker. Depending on how big your grill is you may have to have more fuel in your snake to keep it at temperature. Depending on where you weave your snake you may have to move your meat around to keep it away from the direct heat.


Delaying Fermentation in Refrigerator Yesterday, I was on the cusp of baking my bread (I had just begun the final shaping process of the dough, putting it in banettons to rest at room temp. for 3-4 hours) when I had to leave for work. I remembered that my recipe said I could delay or "retard" the process by putting the banettons filled with the dough, in the refrigerator for up to twelve hours. Well, when I arrived home seven hours later, I took the dough-filled banettons out of the refrigerator, heated up my oven, filled pans with water and put them on the lowest shelf of the oven, tossed the dough into the Dutch Ovens, scored the tops of the dough and put the lids on the pots and waited twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, I took the lids off the Dutch Ovens and let the bread bake for another twenty five minutes.

I never got the "oven spring" out of these loaves and the crumb is rather dense. Should I have let the dough warm up after removing it from the refrigerator? How long should I wait in this situation?

Yes, you should have let the dough come to room temperature before baking.  Also, you might try pre-heating the Dutch oven so that it is really hot before adding in your loaves.


Sweet potato storage? I've purchased a bunch of sweet potatoes but was unable to prepare them.

How long can I store sweet potatoes before they spoil?

Also, what are the best methods or means of storing sweet potatoes?  Are there any differences between storing regular potatoes and sweet potatoes?

My parents stored them for months.  Sort them removing any damaged or bruised ones and eat those so that you are only storing ones that are not likely to rot quickly.  Get a large box - even a cardboard box.  Put a layer of fine sand, place the sweet potatoes then cover with sand and put in another layer.  Do it gently so you don't bruise any.  Exclude light, allow to breath, keep in a cool area and remove only those you want to eat.  I am trying to find the source of this method of storage - my grandfather was from Ireland and he used it.  My father says it was English when they had walled gardens.  We used it in Africa and I remember the sweetpotatoes storing for months.


What is inside the Prawn Cocktail crisps flavour? I'm looking to make something close-enough at home for a friend. I'm suspecting it doesn't actually have Prawns in it.

Assuming you're talking about Walker's brand, we can see the following ingredients list from Tesco.co.uk (should match what's on your bag):

Prawn Cocktail Seasoning contains: Flavouring, Sugar, Glucose, Salt, Citric Acid, Potassium Chloride, Dried Yeast, Dried Onion, Vale of Evesham Tomato Extract, Colour (Paprika Extract), Sweetener (Sucralose)

Nutritional yeast (which is what I assume the 'dried yeast' is) is often used in vegan recipes to simulate a cheesy flavor, so it's probably not that. You can imagine what sugar, glucose, salt, citric acid, tomato extract, and dried onion taste like. Potassium Chloride is commonly used as a salt replacement to lower the salt content of food without losing that salty flavor.
I suspect it's that first ingredient, 'flavoring'. You're probably talking about a product like this: http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/prawn-Flavor-O5557-used-in-puffed_1699947706.html?s=p

prawn Flavor O5557 used in puffed foods

Professional and mature R&D team, Application team.
Manufacturer of flavor

Origin: Jining city, Shandong Province, China.


How are black beans cooked for Mexican dishes? In the US, some Mexican restaurants and taco vans offer a choice of black beans served as a topping for tacos or tortilla salads. The black beans are not mashed, like refried beans, but served whole.

I bought some dry black beans, but they did not come in any easy-to-prepare can in sauce with instructions. How can I prepare them just as the restaurants do?

Dried legumes, including black benas, are generally soaked in water for at least 8 hours (or overnight) to begin softening them, then drained and simmered in fresh water until tender (usually at least 60-90 minutes). You can add stock or other seasonings during the cooking portion, or add the plain cooked beans into a sauce you've prepared separately.


Cooking vs Soaking Lentils for Falafel So most traditional falafel recipes call for "soaked chickpeas", and particularly warn against using the canned version. I've been experimenting with making falafel out of lentils (mostly because they are more likely to be in my house), but have mostly struggled.
One key difference between the two is that many lentil-based falafel recipes say to cook the lentils first, but of course this makes them very soft (much softer then soaked chickpeas), and they tend to dissolve when fried (although they can be baked this way).
So, I'm really interested in the difference between soaking and cooking for chickpeas vs lentils. Are they totally equivalent? Is there any danger in soaking lentils (but not cooking them further) before turning them into falafel? Does frying uncooked (but soaked) chickpeas result in "cooked" chickpeas, or are you basically just eating raw chickpeas?

If you want to make "falafel" out of lentils, then you should look to folks who actually make deep-fried lentil balls regularly, and that's Indians.  Dal Vada, balls of lentils that are deep fried in vegetable oil, are always made with lentils of some kind that have been soaked by not cooked.  Cooked lentils, like cooked peas, will not hold together.
My suggestion is that you look through the various dal vada recipes online, and change the spicing on them to match falafel spices (cumin, onion, garlic, parsley, and Aleppo pepper).
However, one thing to notice is that most recipes use chana dal (black chickpeas), moong dal (mung beans), or black-eyed peas. So it may still be the case that trying to get patties to hold together using grey/red lentils is very difficult, even if you don't cook them.


What makes rice come out chewy and how do you prevent it? I find that sometimes my rice will come out chewy no matter how much water/more cooking time I add. What makes rice come out chewy and how do you prevent it?

I use par-boiled long grain rice, and DO NOT pre-soak or rinse it.  Put your rice into a good heavy based pan, add about three times as much cold water and bring to the boil, yes, you can stir it once or twice if you want.  Boil for about a minute or two, turn off the heat, leave the lid on and wait about 30 mins (some times it might be up to 45 mins), the rice cooks very nicely.  Strain and use as required.  This always for me makes perfect fluffy non sticky rice - I have never had an issue with rice with this method. Of course this is for par-boiled long grain rice, other types of rice might act differently.


How to reduce cracking and increase browning in sourdough loaves? Lately I've been learning how to make these delicious sourdough breads and I have managed to create very flavorful breads but I always get very ugly results...

The picture below is my latest try. Notice how my scores seem totally useless, since the bread just ruptured. Also, it's really hard to get even the slightest browning (I'm using only wheat flour with a bit of sugar hoping it would help in this regard) without burning the bottom.

I didn't follow any specific recipe but a combination of techniques I found around the internet:

Mix flour, water, salt, sugar (about 80% hydration) . Autolyse for 1h +-
Add starter and work the dough.
Stretch and fold method 3 times with 15 min rest in between.
Shape and (try to) build surface tension.
Bulk fermentation in fridge for around 10h
Score and bake for 45 min @ 250°C (no Dutch oven, but sprayed some water inside to make crust crisper)

Anyone have any tips to improve the appearance of my sourdough?

For the scoring, you didn't score deep enough. You need a lot more depth to allow for enough expansion.

For the browning, you cannot expect much from a sourdough in a home oven. Both the ingredients and the temperature are wrong for a dark crust. The best you can do is to work with washes, milk should brown well, yolk is also OK but not as usual on sourdough.


Plain chocolate Chips same as semi sweet chips I live in the UK and am having trouble obtaining semi-sweet chocolate chips in grocery stores.  Today I spotted De.Oetker (brand) plain chocolate chips.   Would that be the same as semi-sweet, say Nestle' or Hershey's?  Package states Cocoa solids 44% minimum.

Yes, dark chocolate of around 35-60% cocoa is essentially semisweet. Higher cocoa percentages are bittersweet.


Is it safe to eat moldy cheese if you slice off the edges? Whenever my cheese gets too old and has a bit of blue/white mold on the side, I'm not sure whether I should throw it completely out or not. Is it safe to eat if I cut off the edge? Should I cut a bit off of all the sides just to be safe?

I'm particularly interested in the answer for cheddar cheese, but answers about other cheese are welcome.

I think it would depend on the cheese.

For a reasonably hard cheese, like cheddar, I have done it, and never gotten sick (your results may vary).
If it's pre-grated, then I would not touch it anymore.
For a softer cheese, like a brie, I would not risk it.


How to tell if cheese is vegetarian? I do not eat farmed animals, including animal rennet, which is used in making many kinds of cheese.  Cheeses here in the U.S. vary in what they use as curdling agent and I have seen the following labels listed in ingredients:

Animal Rennet
Rennet
Microbial Rennet
Cheese Cultures (does this mean animal rennet?)
Vegetarian Rennet

Unless the ingredient list makes is explicit that it is of animal origin, such as the first or probably the second bullet point above, is there any way to guess which origin the Cheese Cultures connotes? Is there a special marking on the product (like a kosher label) that denotes that it is safe for consumption by non-meat eaters?

Unfortunately, as you suggest, this is tricky. The short answer is: if it's labeled "vegetarian rennet," "vegetable rennet," or "microbial rennet," it is probably, but not necessarily, vegetarian. Otherwise, it is probably not vegetarian.

If you're willing to substitute different "cheeses:" Consider cheese types (or cheese-like products) made without rennet in the first place, such as acid-set cheeses or bacterially-cultured cheeses, like quark, cream cheese, queso blanco, paneer, certain types of ricotta, crème fraîche, marscarpone, etc. Clearly some of those are more traditional "cheeses" than others.

As for more mainstream cheeses: There are various guides, such as this one from The Vegetarian Society with a little more detail, including nuggets like that proper Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano) cheese is never vegetarian -- i.e., DOP/PDO certification guidelines specify the use of calf rennet. Whey cheeses like mysost or traditional ricotta are also unlikely to be rennet-free, because the whey used is often a by-product of "conventionally" processed cheese.

Some places around the world have better markings; e.g., in India there is the vegetarian mark, which is required on certain packaged foods. In the US, for instance, there is no federal, legal definition of "vegetarian," though there are now some certification bodies (akin to Kosher or Organic) as noted in this Vegetarian Resource Group article. Other companies and markets have their own hieroglyphics (e.g., vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, low-sodium, ...), but they're not always clear nor are they standardized.

A couple other sites have guidance, such as Vegetarian Times, or lists such as Joyous Living.

For completeness: Make sure to understand the source of microbial rennet to make sure you're okay with the possible sources, but this wasn't really your question. Similar problems exist for determining the vegetarian-suitability of "natural flavours" or other additives, but that's a different question also!


regulating temperature in cheap offset smokers I recently acquired a cheaply made offset smoker, and-- ahead of the big event-- did a 'dry run' to get a feel for how it behaves.  I think my biggest issue will be regulating temperature; the smoker is made out of thin-gauged metal that just doesn't have enough thermal mass to avoid quick swings out of my ideal zone.

I'm thinking about adding some thermal mass to the bottom of the cooking chamber... possibly rocks or man-made bricks.  But obviously I don't want to add anything that will out-gas toxic gases when heated.

Am I on to a good idea here?  And if so, what kinds of materials are recommended?  I've seen 'refractory fire bricks', however I think the point of those is that they don't store much heat themselves, which means they aren't really helpful for my needs.

One idea I just had: 2 heavy cast-iron skillets.  (These will also be handy for keeping some water in the smoker, which is a common recommendation when cooking low-and-slow.)


Does adding un chopped garlic add any flavor at all? In  Italian cuisine, garlic is put un chopped if not cut in small pieces. I personally doubt it could give a lot of taste during a short Sautee.
Is that correct and what are the actual differences of adding garlic in different conditions like chopped fine or with or without peeling?

Garlic is an ingredient whose impact you can fine tune, depending on how you handle it.  A clove used unpeeled, peeled and left whole, crushed, sliced, chopped, minced, or turned into a paste, all yield slightly different results, and depend on the impact you are looking for.  So, yes, a whole, peeled clove, cooked in some olive oil, for example, does impart flavor (as well as cooking the clove of garlic...which changes its flavor).  It really depends on the desired impact of the garlic in your dish. In general, the more surface area, the stronger the flavor...but also the easier it is to burn and ruin the flavor of the whole dish.


How would you make a roux efficiently? Making a big batch of roux is a hassle, so I'm investigating how to make my life a bit easier.

According to 'Ideas in food', you can make roux in a jar in a pressure cooker. Nice, but the quantity is too little for my needs.

In the Cajun cuisine you can make roux for gumbo in the oven. That won't work for me as I need it to work as a thickening agent. Maybe it would work at a lower temperature.

The problem is to lose the raw flour taste. I'm thinking of mixing the butter-flour as always, on the stove-top. Then transfer the batter to a sous vide bag and let it bathe for 12 h at 85ºC (at which point the starches should be gelatinized).

What do you think? Is 12h too long or too short? Is 85ºC high enough to lose the raw flavour?

In a roux, the starches are not normally gelatinized during the production of the roux--in fact, if you make your roux with oil rather than butter, there is no water present (other than latent moisture from the flour) to do so.

Roux thickened sauces must normally be brought to the boil; this is when the actual gelatinization takes place.

. . .

Roux is easy to prepare in larger batches, stove top.  Simple use a larger pan, such as a six quart dutch oven.

Melt your butter or add your oil, then whisk in the flour.  Cook for a couple of minutes (after the bubbling subsides if using butter), and you are good to go.  Don't be afraid to turn the heat up as long as you are standing by, watching and stirring to prevent burning from hot spots.

Butter can foam up considerably, so use a large pot in comparison to the quantity of roux.

For dark roux, I would start stove top, and finish in the oven to reduce the likelihood of taking the browning too far, and reduce the labor of stirring required.

The roux can be refrigerated.  You can scoop it with a spoon and add it to sauce at the simmer and whisk, and it will thicken almost instantly.

See also:  Is there a technique for making larger batches of roux?


Adding cold water during cooking of beans and cooking time After soaking dry beans, I place beans on heat, so they boil for couple of hours, and they cook pretty well. But if I add just one cup of cold water (at room temperature) during boiling, temperature of the mixture would drops for some minutes. But then the cooking time of the beans would increase significantly, and it seems they wouldn't cook well ever.

For most of the beans I experienced this process, but I can't figure out why?

If you want to speed up the cooking time and need to add more water, heat it on stovetop or in microwave till steaming, then add.  Cook at lower heat just at or below simmer to keep beans more intact and with a cover on to avoid water loss in the first place. NEVER add salt at the beginning of the cooking process, only once desired doneness has been reached.  If they just won't get soft (really hard water), add a tablespoon of baking soda to the cooking water, but then they will get soft really fast so watch carefully.


Chemically, what happens when you temper an egg? Chemically speaking, what happens when you temper an egg? Why doesn't it simply cause the eggs to solidify or scramble?

One of the reasons is what cantido probably meant: you can overheat the eggs quickly if you pour them into the hot milk. Heat transfer is proportional to the distance from the boundary between the two materials. If you pour a thin stream of hot milk into tepid eggs, most of the eggs don't get heated, because they are far away from the boundary. They only come into contact with the milk after it has cooled down a bit. Also, the milk you pour is somewhat cooled down before it hits the eggs because 1) there is no burner underneath it (which may still be on, or, if you are not on gas, will give off considerable heat even after turning off) and 2) it cools down while being poured through the air. Thus tempering prevents the localized overheating which would happen if you would add small amounts of egg to hot milk.

But there is also some magic that I can't explain, although I've seen it referenced in reliable books (Cookwise). The temperature at which eggs overcoagulate is dependent on the speed with which they are heated. The coagulation of an egg is a slow process, and there are many intermediate stages along it, from absolutely liquid to absolute rubbery. But the weird thing is that this process's speed depends on the rate of heating - eggs which have been heated from 25 Celsius to 80 Celsius slowly can create a pleasant soft custard, while eggs which have been heated from 4 Celsius to 80 Celsius quickly can curdle the mixture. I wish I knew why this is so, and hope that somebody else will provide this final piece of the puzzle in another answer.

So, by tempering, you achieve a slower, more even heating, which extends the temperature interval between raw and curdled, and gives you a pleasant texture overall.

As for the chemical process of thickening-and-curdling in eggs, Chef Code explains it well. It starts with a soft web of coagulated protein which loosely holds the liquid trapped (tasty custard) and ends up with a very strong web of very deformed protein which expels liquid (curdling).


What takes over the functions of gluten in gluten-free bread mixes? Gluten has many effects on bread doughs, as explained in this beautiful answer. I think the main effects for bread doughs are the first three mentioned there:

Provide elasticity, presumably because of the network of links it creates in the dough;
Trap and retain gas, again with the network of crosslinks;
Absorb moisture.

As the answer linked to above explains, hydrocolloids such as xanthan or guar gum can mimic the effect of 2. to a certain extent by forming a very thin gel. I was wondering which ingredients take over which specific function of gluten.

More specifically: is it possible to indicate specific ingredients that take over some of the other functions? Are there other classes of ingredients that take over the function of trapping gas bubbles - maybe other proteins? And are there other functions that hydrocolloids have in gluten-free bread mixes?

To summarize the points of Aaronut's answer and provide a framework for answering:

  'Gluten is responsible for elasticity of dough, which is perceived as chewiness','The "rising" in baked goods is essentially just
  stretching of the gluten network', 'Gluten is also exceptionally good
  at both absorbing and retaining moisture'

Dough's rising is catalyzed by the yeast eating sugar and giving off gas, the gas becomes suspended in the gluten network which has body from absorbed moisture and is restrained and stregthened by the salt. The end.
In the absence of gluten, there is no network for the gas to lift. However, when you add xanthum or guar gum, their qualities as hydrocolloids allow them to swell with moisture and rise with the gas.

Modified rice starch imitates gelatin in some applications, gelatin also produces flex and supports a smoother texture (common complaints about gluten-free breads refer to their grainy texture).
If you remove the gums and hydrocolloids from the gluten free dough you'll get a sopping wet mess that does nothing; using flax and chia seed will pull it back into shape. Both seeds, when milled will gel andprovide the meringue-type (though not as effective or durable) effect.
Tapioca starch also gives body and accommodates a smoother texture, hence it's addition to the King Arthur's gluten free flour mix.

  'When baking without gluten, you will have to be very precise about all of your measurements', as gluten is more forgiving due to its
  slow-acting nature

Yep.
In gluten-free baking one must substitute precision for not precision. Over kneading can be fatal especially in recipes with flax and chia.

  'Its coagulation action is actually very similar to that of egg whites... gluten is basically doing the same thing inside of whatever
  you're baking'

Gluten allows you to replicates the function of eggs in some use cases.
Flax and chia eggs as well as Ener-G egg replacer are common vegan replacements to eggs, but as this question is simply about gluten-free baking the answer is to just use an egg; some recipes call for one, some don't. However, there is no likely use case where the functionality of an egg being replicated by gluten would preclude using an egg.

  'Finally, it provides nutritive protein when eaten. Wheat gluten is about 75% protein':

Yep.
Get protein somewhere else. There are 2 grams of protein in a slice of white bread, have an ounce of black beans.

  'In short: Gluten does a lot of things. Keep in mind when doing
  gluten-free baking that a lot of the substitutes only replicate one or
  two of the effects.':

The combination of multiple agents is generally necessary to provide the same functions. If you look at this methodology for high-rising gluten-free dough from King Arthur's, you'll see that the bread flour alone contains a super-fine flour, potato starch and tapioca starch. The recipe calls for xanthum gum and an egg in addition to the tapioca and potato starches. There you already have four ingredients doing the work of the gluten.


What is the minimal set of ingredients that English rice pudding can be made with? While reading the Wikipedia article on rice pudding, my curiosity has gotten the better of me. Clearly, any flavourings, spices, toppings or sweeteners will be optional and the article also explicitly states that eggs are optional.

Referring specifically to their section on the UK variants, it seems to be the case that the minimal set of ingredients is either milk, rice, and cream or milk, rice, and butter. This has me quite surprised, as both experience and the earlier parts of the article have suggested that milk is normally a good enough substitute for cream, so I see no reason why it wouldn't be possible to make rice pudding with either just milk and rice or just rice and cream.

However, I've yet to see a recipe for either of these two minimalist options. Is there any practical reason why this wouldn't work?

The absolute minimalist version needs 2 ingredients:

1 part short-grain rice, cooked in
4 parts milk

If cooked long enough and especially when stirred diligently, the rice will release enough starch to create a creamy, mushy texture, like risotto. But for rice pudding, the rice is usually cooked softer than risotto, which should have a bit of a “bite”.

You can stop at this point and will have a perfectly fine dish, but probably a bit on the bland side, with just a hint of sweetness from the starch and milk. But it can be a neutral base for fresh fruit, applesauce, ...

I personally would always add a pinch of salt and, if going for an especially rich taste, a splash of cream when fully cooked.

All spices are optional, they change the flavor profile and that’s where the cook’s creativity can shine. Roughly the same is true for sugar or other sweeteners. (I like to add sugar after cooking, sometimes even as topping for each serving, because I feel that cooking without sugar reduces the risk of sticking/burning and because it seems that I need to add less for the same perceived sweetness.)


Can I use ground beef meatballs in stews like Boeuf Bourgogne? "Marbled" stewing beef is hard to come by where I live, beef is either steak or ground beef.  Steak is expensive whilst ground beef is not.  It's a shame I have to choose between these two poles.  I'd like to use ground beef meatballs instead of stewing beef to save money.  Any advice?

It would be a different  dish, but that's no reason not to try it. Unless they're very picky, I'd  make it as a family meal first  before trying it on anyone else. You may need to make some adjustments. I suggest  browning the meatballs first then not cooking them for as long in the stew, in the hopes that they don't fall apart. The rest of the ingredients may still need a long cooking time, so you might want to add the browned meatballs  partway through cooking if you cook the stew in an oven or on top of the stove. A slow cooker is much gentler and shouldn't be opened during  cooking, so I'd put them in at the beginning as normal  in that case.


carrot and potato dumplings question My question is for potato and carrot dumplings as follows, what sort of binder would you recommend to make it more stable for frying or boiling? I've tried eggs myself, would you recommend flour? if so what kind of flour?

Potato and carrot dumpling recipe

Add 1 TBSP of water to 1 TBSP of (AP) flour and mix to form a paste. Brush the edges with a thin layer of the mixture, which was what a chef on a TV cooking show recommended.


Adding spices before or after frying? If I fry chicken strips for my salad, should I spice them before or after I fry them? I've heard contradicting opinions.

Do you mean sautee? Or deep fry?

Typical deep fry recipe would be to incorporate spices into the flour: add your salt, pepper, paprika, etc to the batter, then fry.

If you sautee, your chicken strips should be seasoned like follows: first, rub in a small to medium amount of kosher salt (not table salt). Let sit for 15+ minutes to season / brine the meat. Best would be a water brine, but I'm guessing that's too fussy for you.

Now, cook up the chicken strips in the pan. Most dry spices I could imagine adding could go in towards the end of the sautee, stuff like cayenne and so on. Garlic or onions would be added first before the chicken, and cooked until soft, but not too brown.


What are the categories of fish? It seems like there are a few broad categories of fish, and I can easily substitute any fish of a given category for any other most of the time. The one I'm most familiar with is whitefish: a recipe for cod comes out just as well with halibut or tilapia. Are there other such categories? What are they?

Oh yes. Different people use different categories, no one system is canon, but this bit from Cooking Light is helpful; I wouldn't hesitate to substitute within these categories.

Dark and oil rich: anchovies, bluefin tuna, grey mullet, herring, mackerel (Atlantic, Boston, or King), Salmon, farmed or King (Chinook), sardines, skipjack tuna

White, lean, and firm: Alaska pollock, catfish, grouper, haddock, Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, Pacific rockfish, Pacific sand dab & sole, striped bass (wild and hybrid), swordfish

Medium color and oil rich: amberjack, Arctic char, Coho salmon, Hawaiian kampachi, mahimahi, paddlefish, pompano, Sockeye Salmon, wahoo, yellowfin tuna

White, lean, and flaky: Atlantic croaker, black sea bass, branzino, flounder, rainbow smelt, red snapper, tilapia, rainbow trout, weakfish (sea trout), whiting

White, firm, and oil rich: Atlantic shad, albacore tuna, California white sea bass, Chilean sea bass, cobia, lake trout, lake whitefish, Pacific escolar, Pacific sablefish, white sturgeon

You mention that you have successfully substituted halibut or tilapia for cod. This list puts tilapia in a different category than the other two. That illustrates that fish species substitution is a fuzzy thing, and a cook shouldn't feel bound by any list. Even within categories, any change in the choice of fish is going to change the final taste of the dish, either slightly or dramatically. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact it can be a very good thing.
Just as an aside, sustainability is a very good reason to substitute one species within a category for another. In the US these are to good sites to help choose a species: Monterey Bay Aquarium; NOAA If anyone knows of good sites that provide good information about other parts of the world, please leave a comment.
From leon, 2 good sites to help make sustainable choices in Australia: Good Fish Bad Fish or Sustainable Seafood


What does an overnight chill do to cookie dough, that a 4 hour chill doesn't? I have a high-fat cookie dough (see What ingredient changes will make this cookie dough more workable?) which wants to be chilled in the refrigerator overnight before shaping.  I tried to cheat by chilling it for only 4 hours, which I figured would be more than enough time for the dough to get as cold as the fridge could make it.

I was wrong.  When I pulled the dough from the fridge after only 4 hours, it was not nearly as stiff as it needed to be. The next morning, the dough was much stiffer and more workable.

What is it about an overnight (or longer) refrigeration that transforms the dough into something workable?

The rest period hydrates the starches in flour, giving the dough a firmer and more workable texture (there is some very minor gluten development, but its mostly the expansion of the starch bundles with water).  In many cookies, the flavors will also mature and improve, especially with cocoa in the recipe.

In many recipes, the cooling from refrigeration is itself part of the point--doughs may be easier to roll and cut when they are cool due to chilling of the fat.  Most dietary fats are waxy, which means they don't have a single set freezing/melting point, but rather get more viscous or eventually firmer then hard as temperature drops.

For example, linzer cookie dough is very frangible, and the chilling and hydration make rolling and cutting much easier.

Generally, most of this affect is going to happen in the first 8 hours or so.  The overnight thing is simply for convenience in most cases.  In fact, 4 hours is often enough, although obviously not in your case.

If the major effect is chilling in your recipe, by flattening the dough to a disk, or lengthening it to a log (thus increasing surface area) compared to a ball, it will chill more rapidly.   You mentioned this is a high fat recipe--if that fat is butter (as it so often is with cookies), that may help.


Pros and Cons of cream whippers? I did not know pressurized cream whippers existed until just seeing a reference to one, which led me to do a Google search.
I own a manual cream whipper, which I rarely use, because it is exceedingly difficult to remove the cream from the canister.  So I just use the whip attachment on my mixer.
I'm very interested in hearing  people's opinions on pressurized whippers, and whether they can be used for more than cream.

Cream whippers cleaning is not difficult, but rather heavy going, as what you usually fill them with are thick liquids. But you can clean the canister with a bottle brush and then follow the tips given in this answer on cleaning flasks.

You'd also have to clean the tip and the o-ring joints, but it's easy to do so with the pressure of a normal water tap.

If you are planning to get one think that you might not use it many often but it will occupy space, and they can be expensive to get (albeit this is something relative to each person/kitchen).

They are useful for making really quick whipps or mousses. But for some non conventional foods (see below) you might not find people willing to try them.

There are many recipes that use pressurized whippers, not just for sweet whipped creams. Some of them can be as innovative and surprising as the deconstructed tortilla de patatas. It's one of the utensils introduced in modernist/deconstructive cuisine, such as Ferran Adrià's espumas. You can get many recipes in this page from one manufacturer.


How to wash fresh fish properly to reduce its smell? I want to know how can we reduce the smell of fresh fish(may be caught 5-6 hour before). It smells really bad and after deep fry its remain in it. Some people use wheat flour mixed with white vinegar to wash it. But that does not works, we tried.

The smell is caused by a substance called trimethylamine. You can remove the trimethylamine by rinsing the fish under cold water, or use acids. A bit of vinegar or lemon juice throughout the cooking process makes for less fishy fish (this is why lemon pairs so well with seafood). Consider finishing with an acidic sauce (such as tartar sauce).


Can I substitute brown or confectioner's sugar for granulated sugar in sugar cookies? I'm making sugar cookies and I have ran out of granulated sugar. I only have confectioner's sugar and dark brown sugar left.

Can I substitute one of these for white granulated sugar? Which would be the better substitute?

I've done this before, and you won't get exactly the same cookie as you got before.

Confectioner's sugar is a total bomb. Don't bother.

Dark brown sugar makes darker cookies, with a chewier texture, which keeps longer.

This isn't always a bad thing. Several of my cookie recipes I thought were a bit dry were saved by DBS. It added a nice depth to the flavor, as well.


What are some alternative sources of calcium (to milk) for the lactose-intolerant? Are there any food products that can be used for cooking/baking that have high calcium as an alternative for milk - not necessarily liquid alternatives...

Green vegetables are a good source of calcium, in particular, artichokes, broccoli, and greens (like turnip greens). Other sources of dietary calcium include sardines, canned salmon, raisins, almonds, sesame seeds, and soy beans.

ETA: The daily recommended intake of calcium for an adult is 500-1000 mg. If you're curious about how much calcium a particular foodstuff has, you can look it up on the USDA National Nutrient Database.


Is it better to add roasted vegetables into beef stew? Hoping to create a heartiest stew, I was thinking of roasting my carrots, okra, and sweet potatoes. Will it create any substantial change in flavor?

You will get the roasty, caramelized flavors; how much influence they will have on the overall flavor of your stew will depend on several factors including:

How deeply you roast the them
How much you add, proportionately, into the stew
How strongly flavored the other items in the stew are

Roasting the vegetables will also cook them, so you will want to add them to the stew much later, so they don't overcook.

If you google roasted vegetable stew, you will find several recipes for inspiration.

As to whether this is a superior, or heartier flavor, that would be a matter of opinion.  You don't mention roasting celery or onions (partners with carrots in the classic mire poix), but these are also excellent candidates for roasting, as are all types of root vegetable.


Why do my onions keep burning? Twice now, I have burned my onions while heating them in a pan. I was just trying to caramelize them, and they burned every time.

They were on medium heat, and I put olive oil at the bottom of the pan (which may or may not have been a mistake), and they just burned, sticking to the bottom with a fervor I've never seen before (except the other time I tried to heat up onions).

What am I doing wrong?

To clarify a little, there are several ways you can cook onions.

You could be trying to get them to turn translucent. In which case, you can cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. This will take somewhere around 5 minutes. Preheating the pan isn't really required (especially if using a non-stick pan). If they start to brown, turn down the heat.
You could be trying to get them to turn translucent, with brown edges. Proceed as with translucent, but make sure to preheat the pan, and also use medium-high heat (but if they get too brown, turn down the heat).
You could be trying to caramelize them, turning them brown throughout. Cook them on low heat. At first, you can stir infrequently, but as they turn translucent and begin to brown, you'll have to speed up your stirring. This takes 30+ minutes.

So, if you were actually caramelizing onions, your heat was much too high.

In general, when something is browning too much (or outright burning) before the center is cooked, you need to turn down the heat or if only the pan-contact parts are browning then stir more frequently. To some extent when cooking in a pan, there is a trade-off you can make: low heat, infrequent stirring, long cooking time vs. high heat, constant stirring, quick cooking.


How to make a strong mug of filter coffee without any Coffee machine? The filter coffee that I have purchased contains 53% Coffee and 47% Chicory.

Since I don't have a machine yet, what I did is as follows:

Spoon measure: 6 ml

I put heaped Coffee spoon in a steel glass.
Added 60ml boiling water to the same, stirred and kept in untouched for 6 minutes.
Then I added 200ml hot milk to the same with 2 spoons sugar.
Filtered the mixture using a strainer.

The result was NOT strong Coffee.

Questions:

Do I need a Coffee with less amount of Chicory?
Do I need to add more Coffee OR steep the same amount of Coffee for a much longer duration?

Chicory is completely a matter of personal taste.

Trying to make a coffee concentrate and then dilute it with milk is a very unusual practice (at least without an espresso machine).  I don't know if the water will become saturated, but you might try brewing in a much larger volume of water, and then adding cream after which is a more typical practice.

6 minutes is a little long for most peoples' tastes; 4 minutes is more typical.  You may be getting a more bitter cup than necessary due to overbrewing.

6 ml to 260 ml total beverage is very weak; you may try closer to 30 ml to 200 ml as a more typical starting ratio, which you can then adjust according to your taste.

Other than that, make sure your water is at appropriate brewing temperature (without a thermometer, bring it to a boil, then turn it off for a few seconds).  Don't use metal glasses, which lose heat  quickly; use something glass or ceramic.

See also:  Coffee Geek discussion on rations (in metric)


Can red wine vinegar replace white wine vinegar? I have a recipe for broiled swordfish steak that uses the following ingredients for the baste:
olive oil, butter, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, and black pepper.

I only have garlic-flavored red wine vinegar (no lemon either).  Can I use that or would it be better to skip the vinegar altogether?

Vinegar, in general, has distinct acidic characteristics that will affect a recipe; it's often used for this reason. For instance, in marinades, the acid is used to break down muscle fiber and help flavor penetrate. In Cevice, the acid component is used to "cook" the fish.

Additionally, the different types of vinegar have different flavor characteristics. I, personally, don't much like red wine vinegar as I find it kind of bland. I much prefer balsamic or champagne. So the question you really need to ask yourself is, "will the flavor of the red wine over the white wine adversely affect my dish?" You might ask the same question about the garlic.

So subbing one type of vinegar for another is fine if you're looking to replace the role of the acid in a recipe (also why you can sub lemon juice). Whether or not you feel the flavor can be substituted is really just a matter of personal preference. If you don't know ahead of time about the flavor, try it and find out for sure.

To specifically answer the flavor characteristic for your question, I'd say yes. Red wine is OK. As pointed out, swordfish is a hearty fish and should hold up fine. I probably wouldn't sub balsamic, would use champagne as a priority, would think long and hard about apple cider. If it was a lighter fish, I'd be much more wary about red wine.


Substituting some sugar for stevia I understand that sugar serves several different purposes in cooking so it's often not okay to replace with natural sweeteners like stevia.  However, when significant amounts of sugar are required, is it alright to substitute a proportion of the sugar required with a natural sweetener?

It depends on the context and the role that sugar is playing in the recipe, and the chemistry or properties of the particular sweetener you anticipate substituting.

In something like a jelly, where the sugar, acid, and pectin must be in the proper ratio in order to thicken the product, no you cannot simply make this substitution.

In most sugar-based candies, including hard candies like lemon drops, lollipops, or candy canes as well as softer sugar based candies like caramels, fondants, nougats, divinities, fudges, and so on, you cannot make the substitution because the sugar is the body of the candy, and its form and texture are critically dependent on the crystallization properties of sugar.

Similarly, many icings are critically dependent on the detailed properties of sugars.  Glazes and seven minute frostings would be difficult to substitute.  The type of so-called butter cream which is just butter or shortening beaten with powdered sugar might allow a partial substitution, but it would be tricky to get the right texture.

Meringues specifically require hot syrup to help set their texture, so it might work with a syrup made with alternate sugars like honey or maple syrup but not with other substitutes like stevia which do not provide the bulk and form syrups.

In a recipe like lemonade, where the only purpose of the sugar is to sweeten, yes, you can.  It will change the mouth-feel and yield, however.

In cakes and other baked goods, you can probably do a portion, but you sugar also performs a role as part of the structure and helps with moisture retention, so you don't want to go overboard in a recipe not specifically designed for alternate sweeteners.

See also:  When baking what works well as a sugar substitute?


Does sputtering butter mean that water is present? When I place a pat of butter in a hot pan, the butter melts and begins to sputter and steam. Then steam bubbles pop which sends tiny grease drops flying out of the pan. This happens consistently whereas oil into a hot pan does not show the same behavior.

Does this mean that the butter has been cut with water?
Is it humidity being incorporated during the churning?
Does a pure cream emulsion break down in a hot pan?
Is this a sign of the quality of butter?

Yes, your butter contains water - which is perfectly normal.

While oil is 100% fat, butter is only around 80%1 fat plus some protein and ca. 15% water.

Regarding your question where the water comes from -
If you look at how butter is made, it becomes obvious that the water was there from the beginning:

You start with cow's milk, which has a natural fat content of (roughly) 4% and almost 90% water.
The cream that rises to the top or is separated by centrifuges contains about 1/3 of fat, some protein and still about 60% water. The other result of this separation is skim milk - with only very little fat left. (Values vary quite a bit, depending on the process and desired result.)
Churning the cream (or in some processes, the milk) further concentrates the fat content in the 80% fat / 15% water butter and separating it from the traditional buttermilk, which contains mostly water and proteins.

And yes, if you heat the butter, this water will start to boil and sputter, especially if you use a hot pan. Heating the butter on low heat first can somewhat mitigate the effect as it allows the water to evaporate more slowly.

If you want a pure fat butter product, you could choose clarified butter, which has the water and milk solids removed.

1 This may vary, depending on national laws, customs and quality grades. Between 80% and 85% is a good ballpark number.


Removing white Corrosion on my rice cooker heating element How do I remove it or is it safe to just leave it?

From your brief description, it appears that you have a deposit of (lime)scale on your heating element.  Scale is mainly calcium carbonate and is commonly formed due to hard water.  It is often found in kettles, coffee makers, etc. which use hard water.
The usual way of dealing with it is to run the appliance with vinegar in place of or in addition to the water.
If what you have is actually corrosion of the element, indicated by dissolution of the element, then I would be hesitant to use the rice maker.


using cooking propane torch held sideways I have acquired a Benzomatic torch to attach to a propane tank to use as a cooking torch. There is a warning that the tank must be kept upright during its use. The explanation is that if tilted the liquid below the gas contributes to the flame making it extra hot and adds non-combusted hydrocarbons to the food which can be tasted and may be unhealthy. Can anyone give me some guidance? It is extremely difficult to try to use the torch in an upright position for cooking.

Practically speaking, you can tilt the torch down about 60degrees.  Beyond that, it will tend to either cut off or flare.  However, tilting it down that far is good enough for most purposes.  Wanting a better angle is one of the reasons why more expensive "kitchen torches" exist.

So, if tilting some isn't good enough for you, you can buy a kitchen torch, a gun-shaped propane torch (which isn't less expensive, but is more powerful), a gun-shaped butane torch, or even a propane torch with a hose attachment.


Why does rice get sticky as it cools off? So I have noticed rice go from fluffy and easy to separate to sticky and coming off as several masses. I have a hypothesis as to why that happens. Also, I have noticed this most in long grain rice that it is sticky when it has been cooked and cooled off.

Here is my hypothesis as to why:

As you add the cold water or broth, the starch on the surface of the rice starts to dissolve. As the temperature rises, this solubility increases and the amount of liquid decreases because some is turned into steam and the rest is absorbed by the rice. While the rice is hot, it is fluffy and you can easily separate the grains. But as it cools, the starch starts coming out of solution and forming complexes between the rice grains causing them to stick together. Once it is completely cooled off, only a small amount of the rice stays as separate grains and the rest stays as masses of rice.

But is this why my long grain rice gets sticky as it cools whereas my medium grain rice stays as separate grains hot or cold?

The reason is simple, starch will first hydrate in water and then it will gelatinize with heat. Once it cools down it will set causing it to stick.


Hot Sauce: margarine versus butter http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Pizza-Hut-WingStreet-Traditional-Chicken-Wings-Copycat-Recipe.html has a copycat recipe for Pizza Hut's hot sauce (you can't see the recipe anymore as it was free to the public only until July 21).

Anyway, the instructions says to use margarine to really get close to the original recipe, but butter is an OK substitute. What exactly is the difference between margarine and butter when making sauces? Is one better than the other (it seems to me that margarine is supposedly better -- but always thought that I should stay away from it)?

There are two differences, taste and texture.

First, texture. Some margarines behave very similarly to butter in a sauce. But others, especially the reduced fat varieties, can contain gums. They tend to separate when heated, and if this happens, your sauce will probably break. This is a good reason to stay away from margarine in cooking and use it as a cold spread only.

Second, taste. The taste is different, and most people find that butter tastes better. Margarine is a substitute which can't quite reach it. Classical recipes are always made with butter, most of them predate the margarine era.

In your case, we can hope that the author tested margarine in the recipe and found that it won't split in that particular process. Or maybe they were lucky to use a margarine brand not prone to splitting. Also, this is a recipe which tries to emulate an existing thing. If Pizza Hut are not using butter in their original recipe, but margarine or vegetable oil, then the margarine will get you closer to the original taste. So, this is a case where margarine and not butter will give you the taste you are after.

You can probably substitute without much trouble, but if the recipe specifies margarine, I'd try the margarine first and only switch to butter if there are problems.


White bristles on carrots I've had carrots in a plastic bag in the fridge for a few weeks and when I went to use them today, I noticed there are what I can best describe as white bristles or whiskers coming out of them. I've never seen this before. What are they and have the carrots spoiled ?

They're just roots.

Don't forget that carrots are a taproot and this one seems to be trying to grow.

The carrots are still fine to eat, though they use the internal sugars to grow the roots, so they may not taste as sweet. They'll also get soft really quickly, so if you're going to eat them, do it soon.

Related question here.


What makes carrot bits turn green in carrot pineapple bread? (And are they safe?) Sometimes, a couple of days after its cooked, the carrot bits inside a carrot pineapple bread turn green.

Normally, I'd assume that a food that doesn't start green and winds up that way is moldy, but, A) it's only happening to the carrots, and B) it's happening inside the loaf, not on the outside, and it doesn't look like mold- more like the carrots themselves are changing color.

What's causing this, and is it still ok to eat?

In case it matters, the other ingredients are vegetable oil, cinnamon, salt, eggs, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and vanilla.

Here is a super in-depth analysis of what may cause the carrot to turn green:

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/turngreen.html

Unfortunately, it doesn't come to any hard conclusions. It does make it clear that it's not simply pH though, as a carrot will remain green even in a 0.1 M solution of sodium hydroxide.

It does provide an anecdote about a baker that had a similar issue, and how they solved it:

  [they overcame] it with a change in formula of baking powder and a good clean out of equipment.

Perhaps this could apply in your case? It might be a reaction from your cookware in combination with other factors? What if you remove the pineapple? Does it still happen? Perhaps trying a different brand of baking powder may work.

One thing is for sure, it's definitely not mold, and I'm very confident that it's harmless.


Failed pan sauce didn't thicken and tasted far too much of wine I'm teaching myself to cook and I just tried to make a pan sauce to go with my turkey breast. This failed pretty much completely and I decided to abandon the sauce and eat the turkey breast without it.

I used a stainless steel pan, added some canola oil and put the turkey breast in until it was brownish on both sides. I removed the turkey breast and added a 1:1 mixture of white wine and water (I don't have any stock). I did want to put some minced onions in there, but I forgot to put them in before the wine.

I did abort the sauce at that point, I had planned to add some butter, some dried herbs and maybe some mustard.

Even after reducing the sauce a lot it didn't really thicken. The taste was also pretty off, the wine was far too strong and it tasted a bit too oily for me.

I assume that the oily taste is because I didn't spoon off any oil before adding the wine, I though it wasn't too much but obviously I misjudged. But I don't know why it didn't thicken and how I can fix that. Some recipes add thickening agents, but many I found do not, so I assumed this would work. I'm also not sure how to avoid the wine to taste too strong except for using less in the mixture.

Any ideas on what went wrong and how I can do it better the next time?

The biggest reason your sauce didn't thicken is that you didn't have much of anything at all in the pan that will gelatinize and help trap the water molecules present in the sauce.  Starches (flour, cornstarch) will provide some of this, as will a liquid like stock that contains some dissolved collagens.  But wine and water by themselves will have very little thickening power.  At minimum, you'll want to add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch to your wine/water mix and shake in a covered vessel - this is called a slurry and will thicken fairly quickly, but you need to be careful not to overcook it.

For a more traditional (and in my opinion, much tastier) pan sauce, try the following steps:

First, make sure that you pour off any excess oil - you want no more than about a tablespoon or so left in the pan, less if you're adding butter.

Second, heat the pan by itself for a few moments, which will help dissolve the fond (little flavorful brown bits left in the pan) during the next steps.  If you want to add your onions, this would be the time to do so.

At this point, if you want a really thick sauce, add your butter, and sprinkle in a very small amount (no more than the amount of butter you've added) of regular flour.  Whisk this well for about a minute until it seems to thin slightly.  What you're doing here is creating a quick roux that will help thicken the final mixture.  You can skip this step if you like.

Next, carefully add your wine and wait a moment to help burn off some of the alcohol flavor.  Whisk or stir with a fork for few seconds to help dissolve the flavorful fond.  Then, add stock - this is very advisable especially if you didn't create a roux.  Stock both has more flavor than water and (especially with meat stocks) contains collagen, producing a more velvety-tasting final sauce.  Store-bought stocks are fine, and are a great pantry item to keep around; you don't have to make your own.

At this point, stir in your other flavorings (herbs, etc.) and reduce the sauce over medium-low heat until you're happy with the texture.  A good way of checking is to dip in a spoon, flip it over, and run your finger across the back.  If the sauce doesn't fill in the track left by your finger, it's good to go.


Besides soy, can other types of beans be fermented? Besides soy beans, can other types of beans be fermented?

Yes, any bean can be fermented.  Black bean is common, for example, but you can certainly experiment.  This site might be a good starting point. They recommend rehydration, then cooking, prior to fermentation. They recommend using yogurt, a commercial starter culture, or a brine from lacto-fermented vegetables to get the process going.


Angel Food Cake: crushed pineapple instead of sugar? For my mom's birthday, I want to make an angel food cake.

I am against using any type of processed sugar (even cane sugar) but I am okay with fruit so I am looking for a way to substitute sugar with fruit.

The only thing I could come up with was crushed pineapple. I found a recipe for a pineapple angel food cake online but it requires Betty Crocker cake mix, and I am planning to make mine from scratch.

Do you think it would work if I use a basic angel food cake recipe, but add crushed/ pureed pineapple chunks instead of sugar and add more flour so it's not too wet?

Has anyone tried adding crushed pineapple as a sugar substitute?

Also, is a tube pan necessary? Cause I don't own one.

Thank you.

Sugar is not used as a sweetener in cakes, it is a major component which creates the needed texture. As such, it is very difficult to impossible to replace.

In angel food cake, you absolutely cannot replace it. Angel food is a fragile cake without chemical leaveners, and depends on a very well balanced ingredient list. Using a fruit puree instead of the sugar will create a mess. Also, the tube pan is important for angel food cake, unless you are willing to bake very thin separate layers, else the cake won't bake properly.

If you really insist on replacing the sugar, the least risky base would be a pound cake, since it is relatively insensitive to extra moisture. The basic ratio there is 1:1:1:1 of eggs, sugar, flour and butter by weight. If you are extra careful in reducing the moisture of your puree - maybe drying the pineapple in a low oven for several hours after it has been pureed - you will likely end up with something edible. It will be quite far from the original, and it would be better classified as a fruitbread than as a cake, but at least it is likely that it won't bake into a brick or remain a sticky underbaked mess. Other types of cake won't be as forgiving.


Why do my nonstick fry pans 'bow up' and not make good contact with my flat top stove We recently bought a flat top (glass top) stove to replace our standard electric stove with the coiled "eye" heating elements. The flat top is certainly easy to clean, and if you have a boil-over, it does not fill the pan under the burner and spill into the interior of the stove - all pluses. However, I find that every nonstick fry pan I have has developed a 'bow' or curvature. That is, the center of the pan is bowed out, so that when the pan rests on the flat top stove surface it does not make great contact anywhere except right in the center. All the edges of the pan curve up, away from the heat. Thus it takes awhile to heat up, and probably wastes lots of heat. This bow may have been present with the regular "eye" coiled heating elements, but it wasn't as noticeable because they were not as absolutely flat at the glass. I even bought a new nonstick skillet, and swore to never use it on more than medium high, to keep this bow from forming. Still, it has bowed over a few months use, so even on the new skillet this problem remains.

My question is, what can I do to avoid or fix this problem? I keep wishing for some high heat tolerant and conductive thing to put between the stove surface and the pan so I get good thermal contact (something like a thin bag of sand, but with the bag made out of a material that would not be destroyed by the heat). Or am I just buying cheap nonstick cookware, and if I really spend a lot on a frying pan, the problem would not occur. This last part is really my question. I have spent $30 on a frying pan, only to see this same thing occur. If I spend $200 on a frying pan, will that solve the problem (will it not do this bowing thing), or will I get the same results in a few months? In case it's relevant, I live in the US (North Carolina).

The reason that cookware warps is that it is has too thin of a base.  When it has been heated to a high temperature, it warps upon cooldown.  The only way to avoid this is to buy very sturdy, heavy duty cookware.  You need to look for something with a very thick and heavy base, then you will have no issue.

And don't think that it will put you in the poor-house.  I bought new pans 6 years ago, and they are still fine.  The most I paid was $30 for my 14 inch pan.  Every other pan I bought on sale for 10-15 dollars.

As for pots, you should be able to get a good set of Lagostina (or comparable brand) which are certainly not professional, but they will do the job.  They will not run too much money.

Just reread your post, originally missed the bit on the end.  You absolutely do not need to spend 200 dollars on a pan.  Just do your homework on the brand you are buying.  Where do you live (country, I mean.  Not trying to be too personal)? I may be able to suggest some places if you live in North America.


Soaking salted anchovies & umami Does soaking salted anchovies in water to reduce the saltiness, also reduce their umami component?

Yes, it does, as both salt and glutamate (which provides the umami flavor) are water-soluble.

However, salt has a solubility in water of 359 g/L whereas monosodium glutamate's is 740 g/L so the resulting anchovies will have drained about twice as much taste than salt for any given amount of soaking.


Stop marzipan drying out during storage (eg. on Battenberg) I bought a Battenberg cake and ate it over the course of a couple of weeks.  To try and stop the marzipan wrapping drying out I stored it in clingfilm; however, after a week, the marzipan had still somewhat dried out and become more brittle.  Am I missing a trick?  Is there a better way to store it that will help keep it in its original state?

Chill it in the fridge for an hour or two (aids slicing) before you open it, then slice it all immediately.
Wrap each slice separately & freeze.
I'm not sure I'd want to eat 2-week-old sponge cake whether it was wrapped in marzipan or not, kept anywhere except a freezer. This type of product is only shelf-stable until it's opened, after that its life-span is short.


Opening wine bottle with rounded top using a waiter's friend For opening non-screw-cap wine bottles I tend to use a "waiter's friend" style corkscrew (i.e. one with a lever that you push against the top of the bottle in order to extract the cork).  I recently tried using this on a bottle that has a more rounded than usual top, with the result that every time I tried it, the lever slipped off the side of the bottle.  Eventually I opened the cork by clamping the bottle and pulling on the body of the corkscrew, but for future reference is there either a technique for using such a corkscrew on this kind of bottle, or an alternative design of corkscrew that does not suffer from this problem?  Do the variants of the waiter's friend that have a hinge in the middle of the lever help prevent this, for example?

Just as a prelude, I've heard these referred to by a huge number of terms: "waiter's friend", wine opener, combination corkscrew... on and on.  I'm going to call it a wine key below simply because that's how I first heard it described.

I have always found hinged versions to be much easier to use, and they do help with rounded tops as you describe here.  It's actually fairly easy to illustrate why.

Here's opening a bottle with a "single-piece" wine key:

Notice how the lever contacts the lip of the bottle at an angle?  For most bottles, that's not a huge problem, but if that lip is significantly rounded, the lever won't be able to "catch" properly and will slip off when you try to extract the cork.  Sometimes you can manually hold it into place (as this guy appears to be doing) but that's tricky at best.

This is a less significant issue with hinged wine keys, because the hinge allows you to press the first lever into an angle much closer to 90 degrees:

That helps the lever stay mounted while you pull up on the handle to partially extract the cork, and once you've made it this far there's typically much less resistance.

The hinged version is also just easier to use - because the levers are shorter, the actual corkscrew can be placed closer to them.  The entire wine key is really just a second-class lever, and what this does is move the load closer to the fulcrum, which increases the effectiveness of the handle's motion.

For what it's worth, nearly all the professional waiters and sommeliers I've known have carried and used double-hinged wine keys (most bartenders too, but at places which serve primarily beer and where there's little use for a corkscrew, many will opt for a simple flat bar instead).  There were only a couple of exceptions, and in nearly all of them the corkscrew was a gift and used more for sentimental value than ultimate practicality.

In fact, the overwhelming number of those people carried this exact model, which is simple, cheap, and very durable.  I myself have at least two of them (probably three) floating around the house; at least one of those is over 15 years old, and shows little signs of wear even after being used for years during my stints as a waiter and behind the bar.  I can't think of a single other service tool that I'd recommend so highly.


Types of vinegars used for salads I was told by someone that rice vinegar was not suitable to be used in a salad dressing.

Can only certain types of vinegars be used for salads?

Ignore someone.

One of my favorite dressings is made with a base of rice vinegar, sesame oil, and ginger. There is nothing besides your personal taste to rule out what vinegar should be used for salads.

That said, I'd personally avoid malt vinegar.


How to stop sweet/sugary dressings from ruining a baking dish? Through trial and error I've discovered that squeezing a fresh lime over roast parsnips (prior to roasting) make the end product absoutely sublime.

The problem however is that the sticky sweet lime juice can make the baking tray hell to clean, or in one pectacular instance of 'over cooking' ruined the non-stick baking tray.

Any suggestions to help stop honey glaze and other sweet / sugary dressings from ruining roast dishes?

Thanks.

P.S. Free free to close if this is off topic :)

You could cover the baking tray with a sheet of parchment paper.


Is it recommended to put frozen fruit in a food processor? I have a decent Kithchen Aid food processor, and I am wondering if using it on frozen fruit would cause undue damage to the blade.

According to KitchenAid's food processor users' manual:

  Never process any food that is so hard or firmly frozen that it cannot
  be pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Hard food can cause damage
  to the blade or motor. If a piece of hard food, such as carrot,
  becomes wedged or stuck on the blade, stop the processor and remove
  the blade. Carefully remove food from the blade.

KitchenAid 12-cup Food Processor Manual

That being said, I've also used my food processor for frozen fruit, hard nuts, etc.  My blades have never worn out in 18 years of use (though the bowl has been replaced once due to cracking).


Amount of time boiling gnocchi When boiling potato gnocchi, I'm told that they should remain in the water until they float to the top.

My question is, what happens to them the longer they remain in the boiling water?

If they stay too long, they soak up water, get soggy or mushy and finally disintegrate, leaving you with a rather weird kind of lumpy potato soup.


Can I replace Lard with Ghee in tortillas? I am trying to make home made tortillas and I was wondering if I can substitute Lard with Ghee as I am not too keen about the taste of lard. My understanding is that ghee, like lard doesn't have lot of moisture and hence it can be used. But I hope I can get a better answer from more experienced cooks.

You could try substituting leaf lard for regular lard.

Lard has characteristics that make it perfect for tortillas.  But the big square bricks of MANTECA sometimes taste piggy even to me.

Leaf lard is super premium lard from a particular part of the pig.  I have found it only at farmers markets and occasionally at specialty butchers but of course you could order on line.  It is expensive.  It is essentially tasteless.  I bought a tub and my daughter used the entire thing for pie crust, which my lardophobic wife ate merrily.


Poured boiling water over pork belly and then refrigerated I read about a method of preparing pork belly in the below article that involved pouring boiling water over the rind of belly pork, then refrigerating it over night(so it has a chance to dry before cooking). It's supposed to make the crackling nicer.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/apr/15/how-to-make-perfect-crackling

I placed the pork belly slab in a roasting tray in the sink and poured boiling water over it from a kettle. It was in a pool of boiled water for a good 10 seconds before i managed to lift it out(I didn't think this through properly). It looked like the outside of the meat was starting to cook, but I'm not sure if this is the case or not.

I then placed it in the fridge in some marinade, where it will sit over night.

I plan on cooking it tomorrow at 200C(fan oven) for 30mins, then 160C for 2-3 hours. but I'm worried. Will we be at risk of food poisoning?

Assuming the marinade itself was room temperature or cooler, I wouldn't worry about it. The cooked/heated portions of the belly will chill quickly enough.


I Need to Cook Duchess Potatoes but the Oven Cannot go Above 135C or 275F Thanks for the view. This question follows on from this one (Why Did the Duchess Potato Collapse), I have now prepared the mashed potato with egg yolks and do not expect it to collapse. The piped duchess potatoes are now shaped on a baking tray waiting overnight for cooking tomorrow. Here is this times effort so far for reference:

I am updating my skill level from home cook to bad after the last post.
I am planning to cook these tomorrow but only have one oven that will be slow cooking / braising beef short ribs which will be set to 135 Centigrade or 275 Fahrenheit from approximately 0900 to 1400, aiming to have 14 served by 1410 and I can't change the temperature as the meat is the main part of the meal.
How can I cook the Duchess potatoes when I can't change the temperature of the oven and the recipe says to do them at 220 Celsius or 430 Fahrenheit for 20 mins to be served immediately?
Options I've thought of are:

Put them in with the meat for longer and accept they will take longer. This is my preferred option but when I reached out to family the response was that they may not brown correctly. It was suggested this could be corrected under the grill right at the end when the meat is removed and being served
Cook them at the proper temperature for the full time before the meat to achieve the browning and let them stand for four hours before returning them to the oven to warm them up again at the meat temperature.
Cook the meat and then turn the oven up at the end to cook the Duchess potatoes to their recipe (20 mins at 220C or 430F) while the meat stands, maybe returning it to the oven just before serving if the temperature drops.
Cook the Duchess Potatoes before and reheat in the microwave while serving the meat

I'd like to know if any of the options above are the correct approach or definitely not going to work or if there's an option I haven't thought of yet that's a better way.
As I've stated I haven't much experience in this area so there may be an obvious trick I'm yet to  learn.

You are missing an option, which is to let the meat rest before serving and bake the potatoes at the right temperature. Most meats, especially beef, become more tender if they have a chance to rest, as it lets the fibers relax. This is true of slow cooked meat as well. So, your best option is to take the beef out, keep it covered and crank up the oven for your potatoes. If you keep the beef covered or wrapped up in foil it will still be hot enough to serve.


How does the glue of bamboo cutting boards get in the food and how to prevent this? http://food.thefuntimesguide.com/2010/07/bamboo_cutting_board.php

  Some bamboo cutting boards are glued together with adhesives that have formaldehyde in them — which could eventually leak into and contaminate food. When buying a bamboo cutting board, make sure that it has a non-toxic label on it in order to avoid this.

Safety of glues in wooden chopping boards

  Bamboo and other wood boards from China are probably glued using cheap phenol formaldehyde resin, which is highly toxic until cured. Once cured, you would have to ingest are large amount of it to get sick, or breath the smoke from burning it. Incidentally, it DOES cause immediate pain, and may also cause long term cancer. The amount you would ingest from a cutting board would be insignificant, if at all, and the toxins do not bio-accumulate

The bamboo cutting board I have seems to have 3 layers of wood. The thickness is around 1.2 cms.

What is about "curing"? How does that help in reducing the impact of the glue?

I wanted to understand that how does the glue get in the food in this case and what can be done to prevent or minimize this from happening?

While it is impossible to prove a negative, I am unable to locate any credible evidence that there is actual danger from glue in bamboo cutting boards.

Consider that even if (and this seems unlikely) there were formaldehyde in the glue in a cutting board that in order to pose a danger it would have to:

Not be bound permanently or chemically modified as the glue cures,
somehow diffuse through the bamboo to the surface,
transfer into the food in the brief time the food is in contact with the board, and
do so in sufficient quantities as to cause harm.

I would not worry about this in the slightest.


What's the proper procedure of making ghee? I'm often making ghee for my cooking. However, I've never seen how it's done, I've only read how to do it, I'm having some doubts about its preparation.

Should heat butter slowly or fast? I saw both directions in recipes and I don't know which one is better. Or does either of them have some advantages?
When I know ghee is ready? When cooking it, it goes roughly through these phases:

Foam is forming (and I'm collecting it and putting away).
Foam gradually stops forming, but white pieces are floating in the liquid, I cannot see the bottom of the pot.
The liquid becomes clear, solid whitish pieces are lying on the bottom. Small bubbles are still forming.
As the pieces on the bottom turn dark, small bubbles eventually stop forming.

I believe the proper time is somewhere just after 3., but I'm not sure about that. I don't want it to get burned, but at the time I want it to be really pure. Some sources claim that ghee is ready when the surface becomes completely still. But this doesn't happen until all the pieces on the bottom turn dark, and I feel at this time it's like a bit burned.
If I want to keep ghee for a long time (I've read that the older the better), what is important to be aware of in order it doesn't go bad?

I couldn't add  tag ghee to the post, if someone has enough points, feel free to do it.

You can start it on high, until it is completely melted, and foaming, to save time.  Then reduce to a slow simmer to evaporate the water.
You want all of the water to be evaporated—this is critical to the shelf life of your ghee.

This is indicated by the solids beginning to brown and the cessation of bubbles as you noted; the milk solids cannot brown until all of the water is evaporated.  This is because as long as water is present, it will prevent the temperature from rising to the threshold required to brown the milk solids.  Once the water is evaporated, the temperature in the pot will rise past 212 F / 100 C, and the browning can begin starting around 250 F / 120 C (IIRC).

Side note: Although I have not seen a traditional recipe recommend it, I imagine it would be very effective to use a candy or deep fry thermometer to monitor when the temperature passes 212 F / 100 C by a reasonable margin.

You will be leaving the browned milk solids behind, so they will not be in your final ghee.

This typical recipe describes this part of the process as follows:

  Let the butter simmer for up to one hour. Keep an eye on it and keep
  the flame on your stove as low as possible. The ghee is done when you
  see browned butterfat caramelized on the bottom of the pan and the top
  portion of the ghee is clear.

To completely remove the water, you want to continue to heat, until no bubbles remain.  As sarge_smith kindly points out, once the agitation from major boiling completes, and the solids settle, local conditions directly in contact with the bottom of the pan may allow some browning, while a small amount of water remains in the ghee.
Store your ghee in a sealed container not exposed to oxygen, preferably opaque or in a cabinet to prevent ultraviolet light from reaching it, both of which contribute to rancidity.  Refrigerating smaller quantities doesn't hurt, but when sealed for long term storage, ghee should be shelf stable for at least a year, assuming you evaporated all of the water.  Even if you are worried that some water remains, you should still easily get a month of shelf life, longer in the refrigerator.

See also:
Should ghee be kept out of light?


Can I brine chicken in buttermilk after I boil the chicken? I want to make crispy fried chicken and waffles. I have had great luck boiling chicken wings and then deep frying them. Can I do the same thing for fried chicken? Boil, brine in buttermilk mixture, coat and then fry? Or is there a better way?

Short answer: Brining after boiling won't do much (if anything), and you probably don't want to boil all parts of the chicken anyway.

One primary purpose of brining is to hydrate the cells of the muscle tissue before cooking, which allows the cells to hold on to more moisture during the cooking process via denaturation of the proteins.  If you cook the meat first, then the heat will permanently denature the proteins first, so the brine will essentially be useless.

The reason why you want to pre-cook chicken wings is that (a) they have a lot of fat which melts off into the cooking liquid, and (b) they have a good amount of connective tissue (collagen) which needs to be cooked low and slow to soften into delicious gelatin.  Most of the other parts of the chicken don't have nearly as much fat and collagen, so boiling them would likely only serve to overcook them.


Cheddar equivalents as far as amount of flavor I read on a website that cheddar can be aged for 12 years

I suspect that 12 year old cheddar is so strong that a small amount may be equivalent in flavor to a much larger amount of mild cheddar (3 months old)

Assuming that all ages of cheddar are made the same way, how much of each one from 1 year old to 12 years old would be equivalent in flavor to 1 cup of mild cheddar in flavour?

Cheese isn't just used for flavor; it generally contributes greatly to the texture, whether via a crispy browned layer on top, or thick goopy texture inside a dish, or even just background richness. If you change the total amount of cheese, even if you have the same amount of cheddar flavor, you won't have the same dish.

So I would suggest that if you like cheddar, just use the quantity that's called for, and replace mild with medium or sharp. You'll get more flavor, and you'll probably like it.

Otherwise, if you want to keep the flavor of the dish roughly the same intensity but replace mild with sharp, then make up the rest with another mild cheese. Obviously it won't be the same flavor but it'll be roughly similar strength; if all you have is sharp cheddar, this will be better than using all sharp cheddar (too strong a flavor) or using half as much (upsetting the balance of the dish). For example, you might replace a cup of mild cheddar with half a cup of sharp cheddar and half a cup of mozzarella.  (See rumtscho's answer for a good explanation of exactly how not the same it will be.)

But the ratio depends on the particular cheddar; you can get a pretty good variety of things marketed as "sharp cheddar". I think the half and half ratio will be a good starting point for nice strong, sharp cheddar, and I personally would just use medium instead of mild without changing any quantities. So experiment with the cheese you have and see what you like.

And remember, it'll never be the same, it'll just keep the sharp flavor from being overpowering. I'm not saying this is an exact substitute, just what I'd do if I only had sharp cheddar around.

Finally if you're asking this because you're planning on making and aging cheddar yourself... don't get ahead of yourself. See how well you do at the basic cheesemaking before you worry about aging it.


Chicken in Tin Foil in the Oven: Any tips or advices on spices or wrapping? [I'm an amateur that experiments.]

I recently realized I like chicken wrapped in tin foil after using salt, pepper and oregano on it, in 250C for up to 2 hours.

Also, I used sliced lemon on parts of it [during cooking].

However, I wonder if any other spices would be suitable and if any other wrapping would be better.

I heard the roumor that tin foil is unhealthy compared to cooking paper but I don't know if it's correct.

If you're worried about the aluminum foil, you can always just use a covered casserole dish ... it might not hold all of the steam in, though.  (there are methods, like mixing a pough of flour and water, then using that to seal the lid on the pot).

Also, if you're worried, I'd just consider not using acids, like lemon; aluminum pots and pans react to acids, and I'd only assume aluminum foil would to.

You could also switch to parchment paper, which is the original for cooking 'en papillote' (in paper).

But 'better' is subjective -- easier to clean up (aluminum foil wins, I think), cheap (maybe the casserole dish, as it's reusable), more impressive (probably the parchment paper).

As for spicing ... search for 'chicken en papillote' on any internet serch engine and you'll find lots of recipes.


Has the oil started to smoke here? Following the question posted here concerning the safety of cooking with olive oil
Is cooking with olive oil bad or toxic?

I wasn't quite sure how to tell when the oil actually starts to smoke especially when cooking with liquid

https://youtu.be/VOBihHeZuXE?t=1m35s

What is smoking/vaporizing when he adds the wine? The oil or the
added liquid?
He later adds a vegetable chicken stock (at 1:45) and brings to a
boil; Can the oil smoke while the water is boiling?

https://youtu.be/TYmDpxY9_hM?t=3m20s

The smoke point of extra virgin olive oil is about 375F (190C), which is above the boiling point of water. Most likely the pan temperature is close to 350 or so for sauteing in the first recipe, or at least above 300F, so when wine (which is mostly water) hits the pan it starts to boil off, so what you are seeing is water vapor. When stock is added later it's still just water vapor. Once you add liquid the oil will typically sit on the top, which is the coolest place to be because of evaporation.

A big reason to avoid burning oil is that is creates off flavors which are undesirable, and the smoke itself is unpleasant smelling. For that reason if you want to do high temperature sauteing (think wok) or deep frying you would want to use an oil with a high smoke point, for instance peanut or canola (rapeseed).


When thawing meat in cold water, why must one change the water regularly? When thawing meat in cold water, why must one change the water regularly? I've heard two contradictory explanations:

The water warms to match room temperature, which is unsafe.
The water cools to match the meat, and no longer thaws it efficiently.

Which is true? Or is it something else entirely?

The second one.

If you tried it, you'd see ... it becomes ice water


What are the consequences of dishwashering a cast iron skillet? I know that with cast iron skillets, one isn't supposed to put them in a dishwasher to allow bits of what was cooked (called seasoning) to build up, since some people think that that produces better tasting food (maybe it does, I'm not taking a stance on this), but what would happen if one dishwashered it? Can it then be used like a stainless steel skillet (meaning spray some olive oil cooking spray to prevent sticking at each use) that isn't so sensitive to overheating and can be put in the oven, or does it cause some sort of problem, like a release of toxins or rust?

A cast iron skillet which is regularly washed in the dishwasher will be progressively stripped down to bare metal, which will quickly and consistently rust. It will not be usable for cooking until you clean it of the rust and re-season it.
Incidentally, I think you might be confused by the term "seasoning". Seasoning consists of polymerized oil, not "bits of food", and its purpose is to protect the skillet and reduce sticking, not to produce better tasting food. If you don't want to use a seasoned pan, for whatever reason, you should not use cast iron.


Revive sourdough starter after 2 months in fridge I have a sourdough starter in fridge for nearly two months and have not fed it.  Haven't even looked at it.  So two questions: if it smells ok, for a starter, that is, can I use it if I feed it and let it sit out for a few hours?
2nd question: it's made with spelt flour.  Does that make a difference?

Yes, many of us (me included) have brought long-forgotten starters back to life.

Just take a small portion, feed as usual and see what happens. It will likely take a bit longer than usual to start bubbling, perhaps even a day or so, but if your yeast and bacteria are alive, they will be active at some point.

I do recommend you baby your starter a bit before baking, a few feed cycles help to get its full activity back.

Spelt flour is not an issue, it behaves quite like wheat. I have used both wheat and rye in the past.

Good luck!


How to use lemon or other fruit acid in Brigadeiro without curdling? Here in Brazil it is customary to make Brigadeiro of varied flavors. The basic recipe is sweetened condensed milk and butter cooked until sticking to the pan.

It is known that, when the acidic fruit juice comes into contact with the milk, it curdles. This is the problem.

How can I cook 395g of sweetened condensed milk + 15g butter + 25ml lemon juice (or any other acid fruit juice) without it curdling?

PS.: I do not want to use essences or anything with artificial lemon flavor.

As someone pointed out, key lime pie (or "torta de limão com merengue" as we know it) shouldn't curdle, but it is a different type of heat we're talking about, so bear with me for a while.

A few tips:

1) Add less zest at the end of the cooking. If you add everything together, the essential oils evaporate during cooking and you lose the flavor;
2) If you want to use juice, make a white brigadeiro and add the lime juice (our "limão taiti" is actually called lime) after cooking so it doesn't curdle and preserves the flavor


Is is safe to use a stainless steel pan that has been cleaned with bleach (Comet)? I have been cleaning my stainless steel pan with Comet for quite some time now and have only now come to know that I shouldn't be using bleach on stainless steel. If I clean it with dish soap and hot water, will that be enough? Is there anyway to make it reusable?

Can you smell bleach?
If yes, rinse it & use it.
If not, just use it.
Is it stained?
If not, just use it.
If yes, you can remove the staining with bicarbonate paste made with water or Barkeeper's Friend.

Once any staining is gone, the natural coating [chromium oxide passive layer] will reform.
Just cook with it as normal.


Hand operated can sealer Do hand operated can sealing machines work as well as commercial automatic machines in terms of seal quality and storage life?

Keen to give it a go, but can't locate any hand can sealing machines. Are there any suppliers of these that ship outside of North Amercia for order less than $1000?

It's called a dry pack canner and the hand crank's seal just as well as the motorized versions. Electric ones go faster and your arm doesn't get as tired.

They are very expensive, especially if you are wanting to seal #10 cans.
http://www.storeitfoods.com/page/drypack


Can fresh pasta sheets be used to assemble a lasagne, then left in the fridge overnight before baking? Or will this make them mushy or otherwise degrade them?

I have recently gotten into making fresh pasta, and I want to prep a lasagne the night before. I have done this before with store-bough dried noodles, but I'm not sure if doing this will have a negative effect on fresh, more delicate pasta.

It can be done (my mom does it every year for Christmas Eve).

One thing to note, however -- you must boil the noodles before assembly -- it doesn't take long, maybe a minute or less (although, work in batches).

This will prevent the noodles from turning into paste as they sit.


Can I avoid overcooking my candied lemon decorations? I've been tweaking my grandmother's fruitcake recipe all month, and as part of this adventure I tried to make it a little fancier by adding some candied orange and lemon slices on top.

This looked really cute and decorative when I put the candied slices on the raw batter before going in the oven. But this has to bake for 2.5 hours at 275°F. After that amount of time, the candied citrus was significantly darker (not burnt black, but definitely brown) and crunchy rather than chewy. It's not quite as unpleasant as I expected, but over-caramelized lemon crunches is not what I wanted.

I had previously tried just dropping candied lemon slices on the baked fruitcake, but it is not a moist cake and they fall off (in transport, when slicing, etc.).

Is there a way to affix the candied citrus slices to my cake without putting them through an apparently brutal baking process?

Try gluing them to the cooked cake with a sugar syrup or caramel.  Caramel is quite sticky, so it should hold the candied citrus on the cake with no problems, at least during transport.  How hard your caramel is will probably affect how well it cuts, but I think a somewhat softer caramel (or a thicker sugar syrup) would probably cut just fine with a reasonably sharp knife.

Alternatively, you could always try standing them up vertically in the cake, depending on how stiff your slices are and whether that's a look you're interested in for the assembled cake.