What is the purpose of this footed glassware with a large round bowl and a decorative handle? I inherited a very large collection of glassware, most of it I recognised, some very esoteric (specific vessels for specific kinds of alcohol etc). I've been able to identify and understand the intended purpose of every piece except for a set of four unusual glass cups/bowls.

For perspective: A tennis ball would fit snugly inside.

The small glass spiral on the side does not feel strong enough to be used as a handle even when the vessel is empty so I was wondering if it was perhaps intended to hold some kind of spoon or something. Maybe entirely decorative?

Any information on what this is or what it's for would be greatly appreciated.

I think it's an artistically stylized ale glass.


Why are most enamelled cast iron dutch ovens only rated up to 400-450°F? I've been investigating getting an enamelled cast iron dutch oven and am surprised to find that most of them don't recommend going over 400-450°F (200-230°C) (most even on just the base, so the lid handle doesn't appear to be the only factor there).

Given that normal cast iron can go much higher and I wouldn't have expected that heat limitation on the enamel...what is it about the pots that causes that limitation?  What risks are there in going above it?

They sometimes have plastic (cast phenolic resin) knobs on them that are only rated for just over 200°C (400°F), or other decorative trim that is not suitable for high heat due to deformation etc.

They do tend to start crazing (surface cracking) at over 200°C too

The enamel (a special soft glass powder) is fused on at over 800°C (1470°F)

You cannot melt glass enamel on a domestic stove. It would have to get to over 1100°C (2000°F) to melt!


How to calculate optimal temperature to extract specific compounds from herbal teas? When making any kind of tea, I understand that water temperature can make a big difference with flavor. I'm wondering if we can also use precise water temperatures to selectively brew for specific compounds in herbal teas.

Is it possible to calculate an optimal water temperature for extracting a chemical compound in a plant/herb based on other chemical information; like density, melting point, etc? If so, how?

No, calculating is practically impossible, there are too many variables. It's not about density and melting point, it's about tons more.

The way you'd go about it is like everything else in biology: empirically. You'll have to brew your herbs with different temperatures (and ratios of herb to water! These are very important) and use some method for measuring the resulting solute. Sadly, you'll likely need expensive lab equipment for that, although some specific compounds may have characteristic reactions which allow for easy analytical chemistry.

If your compound is very interesting, there is a chance research on it has already been made. You can search Pubmed and Google scholar for phrases like "Extraction of X from Y" where X is the compound and Y the plant. Try doing it with an account which has access to scientific journals' paywalls, for example by becoming a subscriber to your nearest university's library - many will allow this for citizens who are not immatriculated.


What all spices and herbs can be used to flavor vinegar? What all spices/herbs can be included to flavor vinegar. Also want to know which spices/herbs can be paired together in this case.

Okay, here's a few suggestions - garlic and tarragon with white wine vinegar; basil, walnuts and garlic; sesame seeds and ginger with rice vinegar (I'd add some soy sauce to the dish too and use bean thread (transparent) noodles rather than wheat pasta; cinnamon and nutmeg with apple cider vinegar.

Do you want more combinations or are these enough?


What is the shelf life of unground coffee beans? I love coffee, in many of its forms, and have recently started playing around with grinding my own, brewing it and so on. When I grind beans, I usually use a specific amount by weight, and go from there.

The beans that are not ground are kept in the bag in which they came, which is kept sealed, with as much air squeezed out as possible. How long should the beans last?

Coffee beans will retain their essential oils and flavor compounds longest if stored in a dry, dark, airtight container.  Refrigeration and freezing are therefore not desirable options since they will almost always cause moisture to form on the surface of the beans.

Note that for the first couple weeks after the coffee has been roasted it will naturally release a lot of carbon dioxide, so the airtight container must have some sort of one-way vent valve to let the gas out.  Therefore, the pre-sealed coffee bags that are now ubiquitous in stores are ideal since they have a built-in one-way valve.  There are also some vacuum container devices specifically designed for storing coffee beans that have a small pump to pump out the air once or twice a day.

Once the beans are roasted, their essential flavor compounds immediately start to degrade.  Therefore, do not buy beans unless you know their roasting date.  If stored in ideal conditions, the beans should remain in peak condition for at most one month.


French equivalent of brisket I live in France and would like to know what cut of veal is equivalent to American brisket.

For adult beef, the area of the cow you're talking about is poitrine, though that covers the "brisket" as well as the front part of what in the U.S we'd call "plate" (i.e., into the "skirt").  If you ask for milieu de poitrine, that should get you closer to an American brisket cut.  That's typically for beef, though.

For veal, I believe poitrine de veau (veal breast) is a traditional cut that is probably close to what you want, though again the cut may go back a bit farther than the standard brisket.  I don't know whether it is common nowadays to debone the veal breast in France; in the U.S. (unlike adult beef brisket) it often comes with some ribs attached.


What are these dark green spots inside raw eggs? I bought a tray of eggs recently. They aren't old, I have them in the fridge, and the date stamped on the egg says they are good for another month.

In two eggs that I cracked open today, there were dark green spots inside the shell (looked like mold maybe?), and floating around the egg white.

Any idea what that is? Is it a sign that the whole tray may be contaminated with something??

I only noticed the green on the shell after I mixed one of the eggs into a bread dough, and now I need to know if I should throw the dough out or not (it's a huge batch of dough).

According to http://www.eggsafety.org/consumers/consumer-faqs, black or green spots inside the egg are the result of bacterial or fungal contamination of the egg.

The use by date is only an estimate, so if your eggs are moldy, I'd bin them.


What's the closest replacement for clam juice? I've been searching all over the stores in my area for clam juice so I can make some gumbo or clam chowder, and can't find a single can of it anywhere.

What's the closest replacement to clam juice that would keep roughly the same flavor?

Cook's Thesaurus recommends fish stock or 50:50 chicken stock & water.

As I don't tend to make fish stock, I'd probably either use shrimp stock (take the shells and heads, simmer in water for about an hour), or crab stock (just use the shells, and maybe the smaller legs if you didn't extract the meat from them)

If you can find it, some stores will carry 'seafood bullion' or 'shrimp bullion'.  As they tend to be salty, I'd probably only use them at half strength, like the recommendation for substituting chicken stock.

In a real pinch, you might be able to use water + fish sauce, but I have no idea what the proportions would be.  (I'd probably compare sodium levels, and try to match that.  So 1400mg/TB vs. 120-280mg/2oz ... so averages 800mg/cup, so about 1.5tsp fish sauce + water to replace a cup of clam juice).


What causes deviled eggs to 'weep'? I've made deviled eggs hundreds of times over the years. On rare occasion, after being refrigerated, they weep.

I always follow the same procedure, making sure that the egg whites are completely dry inside and out. I let my diced pickles drain thoroughly. Basically I take every step to ensure that there is no unnecessary liquid.

99 times out of 100, they don't weep. But there's that one time that they do. I made some yesterday, and today there was an unreal amount of water in the covered dish. (They've been refrigerated since immediately after I made them.)

I should mention that all ingredients were cool to cold. Everything but the eggs and salt came from the refrigerator, and the eggs were quite cool from being immersed in ice water after boiling.

Putting everything together is a pretty quick process, so they didn't sit out for any extended period of time.

As I always follow the same procedure, what factors could cause them to weep one out of a hundred times? Could humidity be a factor? (Wondering about that as the humidity in my area has been extremely high the last few days, ~85% inside.)

Assuming it isn't condensation, one thing that causes eggs to weep is the breakdown of the protein structures.

When you cook an egg, the heat causes the proteins to unfold, then refold into different shapes, capturing liquid in the process which is what allows the boiled egg to hold it's structure. These bonds are fairly weak and can be broken down with salt and acids--two things which you have in your deviled eggs.

One thing that might help is slowing down the unfolding/refolding process by putting the eggs in before the water is fully heated and not heating the water up to a full boil. By slowing down the process you are building stronger bonds that won't break as easily. You might also want to experiment with the cooking times, it could be that those times you encountered weeping they weren't cooked long enough to build strong bonds.


Reheating pork loin roast for a party I am having a party for 25 people and want to cook the pork loin roast a day before the party.  I bought gravy to go along with the pork loin.  When reheating the roast with the gravy should it be in the oven or on the stove and then put into the aluminum foil pans?  If I reheat in the oven at what temperature and for how long?  I don't want it to dry out.

What I personally do is the following:

Note: I assume you want it well done and not rare. I would not recommend cooking the loin in 2 shots if you want it rare.

First, when cooking the day before, stop cooking the peice before you consider it cook as you would eat it. i.e. If your cook time for done is 1h, cook it 50 minutes.

Note: for best flavor, I highly recommend you keep the fond

On the re-heat day:

Let the meat sit at room teperature for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven or bbq to 300f
In a large enough cookware with a lid or alluminium pan (I would double it up to prevent spill) and air thight foil as lid, put a layer of 1-2 cm of 50% sauce + 50% water + some butter or olive oil.
With a spoon, pour some liquid mixture you just created over the piece.
Oven it for 30 minutes, then redo the liquid pouring step while making sure it's wet enough, it not, add some more water.
Depending on the size of the piece it should take 1-2 hours to be perfect.


How do you clean a pizza stone? I have a charcoal grill (Big Green Egg) that has a ceramic insert that can be used as a heat shield or as a pizza stone.  My stone is black from drippings and smoke.  I'd like to cook some pizza on it, but I'm not sure what I should do to clean it.

Perfect.  Sounds like your pizza stone is nicely seasoned.  Scrub it with your stiffest brush, rinse with water, no soap, done.  If you're paranoid about germs, cook it before cooking on it.  Throw it in the oven at a few hundred degrees, for 15 minutes or so.

Ideally, you're supposed to heat the stone (thus sterilizing it) before slapping the pizza upon it anyway (although that requires a pizza peel).


Will soaking chicken in milk hurt the chicken I'm trying a new recipe and I was told to soak my boneless skinless chicken thighs in milk with a little spices. Let them soak for a while then take them out of the milk and then drop them in seasoned bread crumbs. Cook for about 20 minutes with foil on and another 10 without foil. It sounded good so I am going to try it. Does this sound like it should work?

Soaking chicken in milk or buttermilk in the refrigerator overnight is a common practice when making Southern-style fried chicken.  This practice supposedly tenderizes the chicken through the actions of enzymes naturally present in the milk.  Yoghurt is used in a similar way in many Middle Eastern and southern Asian food ways.

The milk can be used alone, but is often seasoned with onions, garlic, or spices.


What is a good side dish for a freshly boiled lobster? I plan to boil a fresh lobster.
Serving it only with melted butter and lemon seems like not enough.
What would be a good side dish for it?

You will want side dishes that will not overcome the taste of the lobster.  Steamed or grilled asparagus with just the barest drizzle of olive oil and coarse salt immediately come to my mind. Add a nice risotto (mushroom?) then send me an invitation.


Chocolate mousse without eggs I've a friend who is allergic to egg protein, and my wife inadvertently raved about my chocolate mousse to her, causing some food borne awkwardness that I'd like to erase with an eggless mousse.

I've done some experimenting though, and I'm not happy with the results. Can anyone think of a substitution that would hold air and provide the light mousse-y texture, but not be an egg? Can't be corn-based either, due to an additional corn allergy.

Try Hervé This's chocolate Chantilly.  Water plus chocolate.  Quite stunning.


Why is honey heated and filtered for normal markets? The honey which we get in the markets is of utterly low price as compared to raw honey. As we all know that this honey is heated at great temperatures and filtered.

My question is then why is honey heated and filtered and then sold in the markets?

The price of heating and filtering should make more expensive than raw honey. Why is it of so low cost as compared to raw honey?

From: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/#.VvuBK3oaabl

  It’s no secret to anyone in the business that the only reason all the pollen is filtered out is to hide where it initially came from and the fact is that in almost all cases, that is China,” Adee added.

Why would they want to hide where it came from? In India, big companies like Dabur, Patanjali etc. sell such filtered and heated honey. What and why do they want to hide?

Filtering
The filtering reduces crystallization. It also is desirable because most people don't like random bits of wax, bee parts, or really any foreign-looking material in their honey. For better or worse, people like clear, clean-looking honey. The visible particles could be filtered without removing the much smaller pollen, but that'd still leave the crystallization issue. Burleson's has a page explaining filtering, including addressing the claim that it's about hiding the origin of the honey. This NPR article also addresses it pretty well.
Note that some people have made some pretty wild claims about filtered honey not even being honey anymore. This is not true, at least as far as the USDA is concerned:

Filtered. Filtered honey is honey of any type defined in these standards that has been filtered to the extent that all or most of the fine particles, pollen grains, air bubbles, or other materials normally found in suspension, have been removed.
Strained. Strained honey is honey of any type defined in these standards that has been strained to the extent that most of the particles, including comb, propolis, or other defects normally found in honey, have been removed. Grains of pollen, small air bubbles, and very fine particles would not normally be removed.

So if you prefer strained/unfiltered honey for whatever reason, go for it. But filtered honey is still honey.

Pasteurization (heating)
The heating is better known as pasteurization, and it serves to kill yeast (reducing chances of fermentation) and prevent crystallization/granulation. Pasteurization does kill bacteria too, but bacteria can't generally survive in honey so that's not one of the reasons for it here.
It's pretty easy to find more information about this by searching for honey pasteurization. For example,  BeeMaid has a page about pasteurization.
I'm not really sure about the disguising origin theory, given that there are real reasons for this processing that don't sound like a conspiracy theory. I'm sure the processing does disguise the origin, but that doesn't mean that's why they do it. Besides, if you told the whole US that all their honey was from China, I doubt they'd stop buying it.

You also asked about cost difference. That doesn't really have an interesting answer; it's just that raw honey is not as widely sold and tends to be locally produced so it ends up more expensive, while non-raw honey is mass-produced and sold everywhere and ends up cheaper. Sure, it costs more to process than to not process, but mass-production is cheap. This isn't an unusual occurence; white flour is often cheaper than whole wheat, white bread is often cheaper than whole wheat, and so on.


How to Prepare Chickpea Purée from a Can? I got a can of "chickpea purée with sesame paste" (though the English name on the can seems to be "chickpeas with sesame purée"), produced by Baktat, as a gift. It is this product.

The can specifies the ingredients in various languages, but fails to provide any preparation instructions. How can I prepare it?

Do I have to cook it, or fry it (as is possible with potato purée)? For how long exactly/until what state is reached? Do I have to add anything, or will it dissolve in water? Can I microwave it instead?

There are loads of online recipes to create your own chickpea purée, but that's not what I'm looking for; I'm looking for preparation instructions specifically for the indicated (or a comparable) product.

Chickpea puree with sesame paste would be hummus. Hummus can be served warm or cold, so you could serve it straight out of the can if you wanted. To warm it up, I'd avoid heating it with any kind of direct heat, but it should be fine microwaved briefly. When it is served warm, it's not hot by any means, so a gentle heating is all that's needed.


Why aren't my chocolate chip cookies coming out the way I'd like them? I'm making chocolate chip cookies. Am I doing something wrong if my cookies look flat on top, and soft, and brown on the bottom. They're soft on top and are crunchier at the bottom. They taste fully cooked and good, but not exactly like cookies should right? Am I undercooking them or preparing them a wrong way? Or is this normal?

Here's the recipe I used, and the picture that's on the page.

Ingredients:

1 1/4
    cups granulated sugar

1 1/4
    cups packed brown sugar

1 1/2
    cups butter or margarine, softened

2
    teaspoons vanilla

3
    eggs

4 1/4
    cups all-purpose flour

2
    teaspoons baking soda

1/2
    teaspoon salt

1
    to 2 bags (12 oz each) semisweet chocolate chips (2 to 4 cups)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl with electric mixer, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and eggs until well blended. Beat in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.
On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

What you're describing is something that I'd consider normal in a cookie. Some cookies are more cake-like, some are chewy, some are crunchy, some are flatter than others - but they're all good. Almost any factor - from the type of fat, to the type of liquid, to the leavener, to the temperature of both the oven and the dough can affect the cookie's texture. I'd make two recommendations if you want your cookie less flat: 1) chill the dough for a few hours, or overnight. Then, form them and get them into the oven quickly, while the dough is stone cold. 2) Try a different recipe. Do a visual internet search for the type of cookie that you're after. Good recipes are hard to find, and sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs...


How to make my graham cracker bites crispy/crunchy? I am attempting to make crunchy graham cracker bites (think granola but made from graham crackers).  I wanted to use the recipe below as a base:

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup mashed banana
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and mashed banana in large bowl to blend. Add unsalted butter and stir to moisten evenly. Press onto bottom and up sides of 10-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
Bake crust until set and pale golden, about 15 minutes. Cool completely.

and then crumble it up.  My problem is that when I used this recipe before the crust came out incredibly hard and almost impossible to eat.
I was contemplating bumping up the heat and cooking it for a shorter amount of time, but this would be total experimentation.
Can anyone suggest any methods for taking the above ingredients and making them into a crispy (but not tough) sheet that can then be crumbled up into granola sized bites?

Two suggestions:

Try making your crumbs larger.
Mix the other ingredients together before adding the crumbs - you want to coat 'em, not soak 'em.


how to clean my enameled cast iron pot I burned soup dry in A week ago, I left soup simmering in my new Staub cast-iron pot (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/2507416/) for too long, and all the liquid evaporated and what was left burned on the bottom. I've scrubbed and soaked in hot water overnight for a week but there are still black, charred remains stuck to the bottom (see photo).

My questions:

Based on the photo, can you tell what is on the bottom? Is it burned food, or the enamel, or "seasoning" (I've never seasoned it myself...), or rust, or something else?
How do I clean and restore my precious pot to full health?

As this is an enameled pot, there is a difference to "standard" cast iron. First, if you really damaged the enamel, you cannot restore it. You can continue using it, but you'll have to deal with rust. From the picture, I cannot tell if that's the case - some spots are rust-colored, but they could be organic residue burnt onto the enamel.

Second, in trying to clean it, you cannot use the typical cast-iron methods for renewing, which are intended to strip the seasoning so you can rebuild it. So no self-cleaning ovens, no lye baths, etc. You have to treat it like stubborn dirt on semi-delicate surface.

The enamel can take some amount of rough physical treatment, but it has easier time withstanding chemical methods. So I'd try soaking it for a few hours with an organic acid, for example liquid citric acid. Alternatively, soak in dissolved dishwasher powder, that's quite aggressive as detergents go (but not a tab since the finisher in it will counteract the detergent). The Americans here are probably going to suggest Barkeeper's friend, I have no personal experience with it.

A short boil after the soaking can sometimes be quite good. You can use your acid solution (it should be on the bottom only, so no danger from spilling over anyway) or fill some clean water. Then let it boil vigorously for a couple of minutes. The water bubbles tend to be effective in dislodging softened pieces of char.

You can scrub after the soaking, it will work better than without the soak. I wouldn't go as far as taking steel wool to enamel, but the plastic net equivalents should be OK. The rough side of a dish sponge is also OK. The use of abrasive cleaners like Cif is somewhat questionable, you might try them in a low concentration if you don't succeed with other methods.

It is possible that you have either naked spots which have rusted over, or that your dirt is so baked-on that it doesn't fall even with quite a bit of elbow grease. I'm not sure how to tell you to recognize the difference if the char happens to be reddish-brown - I guess I would call rust harder and scratchier than char. If you try cleaning it once and don't succeed, it is still worth it to try it with 3-4 more soaking cycles, with maybe 15 to 20 minutes of scrubbing every cycle (if you see some progress being done during that). These types of burn-on are very difficult to clean.


Can I get a haze off of ceramic cooking pans I have 2 baking pans that are clean but have a haze on the bottom and sides. these are Rival roaster ovens and I think they are ceramic inserts. Can I get this haze off?

Two opposite things to try, depending on what the haze is (or what works.)

Barkeepers Friend (mostly oxalic acid) or vinegar (acetic acid, not
quite as strong as oxalic.)
Baking soda and water paste (alkaline) or soak in hot water with
baking soda.
Actually, that brings a third to mind - mechanical - Bon-Ami -
feldspar - abrasive but softer than glass (which is what ceramic
glaze is, more or less.)

Default assumption would be that it's a hard water deposit, so start with the acid approach, but all three gives you options if that doesn't work.

Another mostly-mechanical option that won't require shopping for a special cleaning product - try scrubbing with toothpaste.


Is there a multipurpose cooking appliance that can be used to make natto? I want to try making some of my own natto, since it is a bit pricey getting it from the store.

Looking at online recipes (such as this and this) it appears that at one point it is necessary to maintain the mix at slightly over body temperature (100-115 F) for about 24 hours. I'm not sure if I have the equipment for this at home.

My oven's dial goes from 200 to 550, although there is a "warm" setting for gentle warmth. I'm not sure what temperature the "warm" actually is, but it seems like something between 50-80 C. Also this oven is gas-powered, and isn't too great at keeping temperature stable, in the past I've had it deviate by 25 or even 50 degrees (especially when trying to reach 500). My oven thermometer is cheap and low quality as well, so I'm not confident about maintaining proper fermentation conditions for natto in the oven - but perhaps I'm being too cautious.

Nattodad on Youtube shows in one of his videos a simple device he built by wiring together a hot plate and thermostat. I've actually constructed similar circuits before, but DIY-wiring electrical devices makes me nervous due to the potential fire hazard - although I could set up a special area in my house to minimize the danger. The other issue is that I don't happen to have a hot plate or thermostat on hand, I would have to spend time and money to obtain them.

It seems to me that I'd be much better off getting some general purpose cooking appliance capable of maintaining low temperatures long-term, that is useful for things besides making natto. That way I'm not spending a bunch of money on something that can only make natto. For instance, this video apparently uses a programmable pressure cooker. That sounds great, since a pressure cooker is pretty useful - but it's not clear to me how exactly this works for natto.

What are my options here? What is a practical way of setting up the natto fermentation temperature? Is there a way to do it without buying a dedicated hot plate with thermostat?

A programmable pressure cooker only works for natto if it has a natto specific setting. Then it doesn't turn on the pressure, or heat up to high temperatures, but keeps the needed temperature range over the specified time.

If you want to buy a pressure cooker, look for a model which has a natto setting - consult the user manual if you need to, since I don't think it is listed very prominently on feature comparisons. It can be hidden as part of some other function, I think mine lists it as a subset of the yogurt making function, and then the button which usually chooses between high and low pressure in the standard programm chooses between a yogurt (43C) and natto (35C) setting.

Getting a programmable pressure cooker is a good choice in principle, since it is indeed a useful tool. While all the things it does (except some niche functions like that natto) are also doable on stovetop, it does these things with more convenience and less energy expenditure than the stovetop. So, if you pick a model with a natto function, it should hit your other criteria of usefulness too.

If you prefer the DIY solution, you don't have to solder your own temperature controller. There are inexpensive thermostats with sufficient precision for home use. I switched my yogurt making from the Instant Pot (the programmable pressure cooker mentioned) to a ITC-308 controlling a cheap water boiling stick in a gastronorm tub, with an aquarium pump for added circulation. The combination is somewhat cheaper than a prepackaged noname sous vide stick, and gives you more flexibility in the temperature range, also you could even use it somewhere else around the house if needed. I think the accuracy might be slightly lower than that of a good quality sous vide apparatus, but it is sufficient for the sous vide preparations I have tried so far, and will certainly do for a traditional process such as natto.


What is the difference between more expensive cocoa powder and regular one? After a lifetime of buying regular dutch process cocoa powder, I have purchased a more expensive Valrhona cocoa powder. It may be just me, but it seems like the more expensive one makes much better cocoa drink. Is there a principal difference between those two products that could account for the perceived taste difference? I can see the Valrhona powder is darker.

Just as with other agricultural products, there are different grades and qualities of cocoa beans, and the resulting product is also affected by handling. Valrhona does use very high quality sources and has high standards for processing, but it isn't the only high quality chocolate producer out there, so you may want to give a few other brands a try and compare. There are also different methods of processing the cocoa powder that affect how it works as a drinking chocolate or in different recipes.

On the topic of taste, Serious Eats did a taste test of bar chocolates and found Trader Joe's compared favorably with Valrhona (although they gave the prize to Valrhona). But the comments about the flavors of others in their top 10 may also give you some ideas as to other chocolates to try. They also did a taste-test for drinking chocolates. They were specifically looking at things marketed as drinking chocolate and Valrhona seems not to have been compared here, but again, the notes about the different chocolates might be of interest.

King Arthur Flour also has several articles about cocoa powders and what type works well in what sort of recipe. Of course, they want you to buy the ones they sell, but it's still interesting reading. :-)

This one compares 5 different dutched cocoa types and ghirardelli natural cocoa and how each one affects a specific brownie recipe.


Can you put whole eggs in a blender? So, a bit of an odd question, but it's been bugging me for a while; could you put whole eggs (shell and all) into a blender if you're making something like scrambled eggs?  In a sufficiently powerful blender, would the shell bits damage the blender at all?  What about your digestive tract?  Is there anything in egg shells that could nutritionally help/harm you?  I know it only takes 5 seconds to crack eggs, but I'm curious.

First off, the blender should not be damaged by the shells; if it is, it should have been replaced anyway. The mass of the shells is simply not enough to damage the blender in any significant way.

I would not, however, recommend eating the product, for a few reasons:

You cannot be confident that the egg shell has been completely pulverised. At some point, the blades stop chopping the shell, and simply spins it around
Whenever using egg shells for presentation, they should be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized, because you don't know what is coating it. You may very conceivably contract diseases from bacteria on the shell.


Something dark gray coming off of sheet pan after scouring I've been using a stainless steel sheet pan and an aluminum sheet pan for baking/roasting for the last year (new to cooking). I used the steel one regularly, so it accumulated a lot of brown stains. Eventually I started lining it with aluminum foil until I found a way to clean it. On a friend's advice, I got steel wool, and with some vigor, dish soap, and time, I scrubbed all that grime off. Also scrubbed off the little bit of grime on my aluminum pan.
Felt pretty proud of myself until I noticed that the fingers of my dishwashing gloves were stained DARK GRAY. I used wet paper towels and wiped the steel wool, the steel pan, and the aluminum pan, and it appears the gray color is mostly coming off the steel pan. A little bit of gray is also coming off the aluminum pan.
What on earth is this stuff? Is it no longer safe to use either of these sheet pans for cooking? If not, can I make it safe or do I have to toss them?

It is oxidised aluminium (Al2O3). This is formed by oxidising with the oxygen in the air to form the aluminium oxide. Al2O3 forms a very thin (4 nm) impermeable layer on your Al, which prevents further oxidation and appears as a dull grey on the surface. Polished Al is shiny and can be highly reflective.
Al2O3 appears as a dark grey/black colour when you scrape it and some of the underlying Al off the sheet with your steel wool. It is likely that your "steel" sheets are actually aluminized steel, as the steel itself is not rust-resistant. The aluminium coating on the steel prevents corrosion from the air by forming the aforementioned oxide layer.


Is there an open list comparing food gums and their viscosity/usages? Couldn't find a good index for gums/emulsifiers with potency/viscosity comparison.

Most of the scientific papers I've found must be purchased, but this one is interesting:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3551143/


Do I need to adjust recipes when using hard water Our well water tastes very good but is extremely hard (220 mg/L). Do I need to make any adjustments when cooking or baking or will it work fine?

The only food I know for certain which will be strongly affected by your hard water is dried beans.  At the level of hardness you describe, you may find that they never soften no matter how long you cook them; I've seen reports of up to 12 hours for cooking beans with very hard water.  So use soft water for cooking the beans.

There are probably other foods which are chemically affected by hard water, but several Google searches have turned up no general guides on the topic.


Why is my home-made feta cheese bland? I tried making feta cheese yesterday. I used a mesophilic culture from a well-known cheese supply house and it doesn’t have the “bite” I like with feta. The company I ordered my original kit from is no longer in business. What culture is recommended for a feta cheese, or what did I do wrong?

Just one day?

Feta is assembled in one day but it is pickled in a brine for at least a week. Recipes I've used call for 10 days.

This time gives bacteria extra time to work and make the product more sour.

I've had good success just using buttermilk as my mesophilic starter. I suspect your starter will be better than mine.

Just give it time.


How do you accompany other veggies with caramelized onions? I assume that when you caramelize onions and would want your dish to also have caramelized carrots it would have to be more complex than just throw the carrots along the onions to the pot.

Any idea on how to pair carrots (or any other veggies) to a flavor base made of caramelized onions?

Carrots and onions have different cooking times, so no, you can't throw them together.

What I would do is cut the carrots as small as the onions (just for aesthetic purposes), start stewing the carrots in a closed pot first and season them as you like, and when they're nearly done, add the onions and caramelise them normally while they're stewing together with the carrots and you'll end up with caramelised carrot-onion stew.

Obviously, you can always cook them separately and then mix them just before serving, but that would take an additional pot and I don't like doing dishes...  ;-)


Does pasta continue cooking after being drained if left in the pot? After a pasta is boiled to a desired texture, my friend and I agreed that, if we leave it in the water without adding heat, it would cook longer. We could not agree on what would happen if we drain the water but leave the pasta in the hot pot whether the cooking process would continue.

Is it a good idea to leave pasta in the hot pot to keep it hot while preparing other parts of the meal?

Does the pasta texture change significantly when exposed to low heat without water to absorb?

Many people consider the "extra" steps overkill, but the classic method is to boil the pasta to al dente, not fully done, then quench it in cold water as you would with blanched vegetables to stop the cooking process and wash off any excess starch.  Then add the pasta back to sauce or other heating parts for the dish and let it heat back up to temperature.  This gets to the desired temp without over-cooking and much less clumping more easily.

Using the hot pan, which I have done before, without the quenching will typically result in either not enough heat retained, or some areas over cooked, others allowed to cool, and sticky, starchy pasta all possible to likely.  I have done the finish heating when doing as simple of a "sauce" as a small amount of reserved starch water with salt, pepper and herbs and a touch of olive oil.  Just enough to keep the pasta lubricated and moving in a hot pan as it heats and evenly distributes the spices. You get your warm pasta without it being overcooked or uneven, sticky and clumped.


Which is the most caloric, edible, single ingredient by weight? There is a lot of articles among the Internet talking about the most caloric meals you can eat, but just out of curiosity, I would like to know which is the most caloric single ingredient you can add to you recipes.

At first I thought about sugar, but Wolfram Alpha gives an average result of 378 kcal/100 gr. So I tried with some other options and the winner so far is the extra virgin olive oil (very well known in my country, Spain), with an average result of 884 kcal/100 gr(1). Other similar products are sunflower oil, palm oil, and I suppose any similar oil.

So, is this the most caloric, edible ingredient? Or does anybody know of a more caloric one(2)?

(1) WA miscalculates the amount of fat in extra virgin olive oil, I don't know why. It says that there are 107 grams of fat in 100 grams of product, so I had to do a correction.
(2) According to the calculations in SZCZERZO KŁY's answer and following a clue given by MSalters's comment, lard has a bit more calories (902 kcal) per 100 grams of product. That should be (almost) the limit. These values seem to be taken from the National Nutrient Database made by the United States Department of Agriculture (olive oil, lard).

Your question goes near the  answer. As you can read on those nifty tables on products, calories come from mainly three sources: Fats, sugars and protein. There are also fibres, alcohol (that are not counted as carbs)  like ethanol and organic acids but the first three is packed with them.
So fat have 9 kcal/g, carbs 4kcal/g and proteins also 4 kcal/g (ethanol have 7 kcal/g but you can't consume it in large quantity like fat).
And from simple math you can deduce that clean fat, like olive oil, is the most caloric, edible ingredient".

PS. Wolfram made a slight change to your question changing the "100 grams" to "107 grams" so that's why it's not "900 kcal/100 g"

Edit: I think the kcal of 1 gram of fat is not exactly 9. It may be around 9,0132 or something like that. That's why WA recalculate the amount and round up, and that's why lard seems to have more. Generally we say that fat is 9cal/gram

Lard can be considered "cleaner" fat as it is processed fat. So it's not contaminated with all those vitamins and micro and macro elements like olive oil.


Is cast iron cookware from China safe? I recently purchased a cast iron bread pan, and didn't see that it was made in China on the Amazon sales page. Oops. I saw it on the box and haven't opened it yet. I know there is a lot of concern when it comes to Chinese goods and heavy metals. I like heavy metal { \m/...(>.<)…\m/ }, but not in my food. So, is something like this safe? I Googled the question, but like with so many things it looks more like uninformed fear than anything else.

I should have spent a bit more time searching. One of the searched results that looked like a fear video was actually the opposite. Here is some stuff from that video and comments.

First: Lead boils at about half the temperature that iron melts. So even if you start out with a mix of lead and iron, it won't last long. Second:

  A bit of arithmetic: - Cast Iron Assay can expect Lead content to be 0.001 to 0.15%. (By weight or volume is not significant, see below) My 26.5 cm Chinese skillet, as yet unused (which is why I am researching) weighs 2.1 kg. At 0.15% that is a total lead content of 3.15g. Realistically, how much of that can ever get into the food? Cast iron density is around 6800 - 7800 kg/m3. At the higher figure this works out to a volume for my skillet of 2.1/7800 m^3 = 2.7 x 10^-4 m^3= 270cc. Ignoring the handle and sides, let us consider only the flat cooking surface diameter 20cm, and assume a depth of say 1mm available to leach the lead. Volume of a cylinder = pi r^2 x h = 3.14 x 10cm^2 x 0.1 = 31.4cc. Thus 31.4/270 x 100 = roughly 11.6%. 11.6/100x3.15 = 0.37g = 370μg of lead available. Lead toxicity is at about 10 μg/dL of blood. Average human blood volume is 500dL. So, if ALL the available lead in the pan was taken out AT ONCE, and you managed to absorb it ALL, just into your blood, , you would have a blood level of 370/500 = 0.74μg/dL, about 1/14th the toxic level, before your system kicked it out at around half per 30 days. Go figure.

--flamencoprof

So no, I don't need to worry.

edit: Hmm. The video's figures were wrong. Iron melts at about 1811K and lead boils at about 1749. Close but not quite. Still, from this source it seems that a typical blast furnace should still boil lead.


Is zesting lemons effective when making lemonade? It's too hot. The air is oppressive and sticky, and it just keeps getting hotter... I need a nice, cold glass of lemonade.

Fortunately, I have a bag of lemons and plenty of ice! So now the question becomes one of technique. Keeping in mind that I'm hot (and consequently lazy), is it worth taking the time to zest the lemons before adding sugar and ice, or will the sugar alone suffice to extract those refreshing oils from the rind?

You'll get a strong/different flavor using the lemon zest.  I personally like it.

That said, if you mash/muddle the lemons you'll probably get much the same flavor as zesting.


Is it possible to improve one's taste palette through practice or other methods? Good day, this seems more of a biology question rather than a cooking question, however, I don't know where else to ask. My question is simple? Is it possible to train someones tongue to be more sensitive to flavours with practice? I've noticed that my palette isn't that sensitive to flavours at times and I was wondering if there's a way to improve it. It really would help in cooking since I can fine tune my flavours more.

Sure...well, almost.  I don't believe you will be training your actual taste sensors to become more sensitive (biologists or flavor chemists can correct me), but you can learn to improve your recognition and understanding of flavor. So, it is a matter of training your brain, not your tongue.  It's how chef's, sommeiliers, food/taste chemists, and even home cooks get better and become experts.  Taste a lot...observe...take notes...practice.  I would start with one food, one cuisine, or one beverage (like wine), and learn as much as possible about it, by which I mainly mean lots of tasting. You will find that you begin to recognize aroma and flavor profiles, variation and even imperfections.  Of course, this takes time, but the journey can be very rewarding.


I left a non-stick pan on the stove for an hour I was boiling something and I left them on the stove for about 1 hour. The pan was full and starting to boil at the start of the time, and when I got down and realised it was totally empty. The gas was on full heat, and since it's gas it does get really quite hot. There is still fumes 3hrs later - I don't think the brand was Teflon, but would it still have been using the same material? And basically, should I be worried, or is most of the internet stuff mostly scaremongering?
Hope this isn't too off-topic!

When heated to a high enough temperature (260C - 350C) Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) degrades into fumes that can cause flu-like symptoms. If you haven't experienced these symptoms and have aired out the room you should be fine. Even if you had these symptoms, they should clear up by themselves fairly quickly.


How do I season an iron griddle on an induction hob? I have an induction hob but no oven, how do I season a new cast iron pan I'm thinking of getting?

You don't.

I've tried to do this. It doesn't work.

The problem is that the induction hob heats a cast iron pan to very hot temperatures, even on the lowest setting. And when it doesn this, it doesn't heat evenly, you get a coil-shaped hot spot.

We have had a question about seasoning cast iron on stovetop, and somebody reported good results provided that it is done "low and slow". I can imagine this working. But on the induction, there is no way to go low and slow. The pan gets too hot after half an hour at the latest, the oil burns on the hot spot and stays liquid outside of it.

The easiest version might be to season it at somebody else's place (parents, friends) and then use it normally at home. Once the seasoning is done, there is no problem with that. I haven't done that; I started seasoning in my toaster oven. Even when the pan is too large to close it, the results are still better than on the induction hob.


How to grease a pan without shortening or butter I need to grease a baking pan (which I don't have) for brownies. I also don't have butter or shortening. I do have one of those pyrex oven safe glass pans and something like a small dutch oven, but with a glass top instead. Could either of these substitute for baking pan instead? And in lieu of the butter, could I use vegetable oil and a paper towel to grease one of the pans that I do have (without affecting the final results of the brownies)?

Vegetable oil will be fine - that's what's in commercial nonstick spray oils anyway.

A pyrex oven safe glass pan is a baking pan. The baking time might be slightly different than with a metal pan, but it will work perfectly fine. Just make sure it's the same size pan the recipe called for, or scale the recipe to match the area - if you change the thickness, the results are going to change.

The dutch oven (uncovered) would also work, though it will take a lot longer to heat up, so it will probably affect the baking time substantially, and you may have to be careful not to overcook the top.


Is it safe to warm bread in the oven with plastic wrap? I bought a loaf of Italian bread that came with plastic wrapping. Not sure if it was made intentional for toasting in the oven. Should I just get rid of plastic and put bread in the oven (I ran out of foil)?

Unless the plastic specifically states that it's ovenproof, do not heat it in the oven.

You can just heat the unwrapped loaf in the oven (I usually do), but it will make the crust crustier.  Placing the loaf in a paper bag will reduce this (crusting) effect.  The paper bag can be dampened to reduce the effect even further.


Looking for a good text on science of grilling and barbecue I am looking for a good scientific text about grilling and barbecue.

I am looking for something that scientifically goes into the thermal decomposition process of wood when heat is applied to it, what chemicals are exactly responsible for color and flavor, etc. and how we can use that information to produce better flavor and texture during cooking.

Although it isn't extremely detailed, there is some good information on this topic in Nathan Myrhvold's Modernist Cuisine: Vol. 2 Pages 7-17 are dedicated to grilling and there is some relevant information in the sections on smoking in both Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 as well.

Harold McGee's food science classic On Food and Cooking has most of the information on this topic that can be found in Myrhvold's tome at significantly less cost.  Most of the information specifically about wood and flavor production can be found at the end of chapter 8 "Flavorings from Plants"


When a Recipe Calls for Expensive Liquor, What's the Purpose and What Are the Substitutes? As I begin cooking more advanced recipes, I've stumbled across a few that required small amounts (tablespoons) of (expensive) spirits such as Cognac, vodka, etc. The problem is that I don't keep that kind of stuff lying around (Oh God, that would end SO badly). My question is this: When a recipe calls for small amounts of something expensive (like Cognac), what does it (generally) add to the dish? Also, what non-spirit related food items are good substitutes?

The primary purpose is for flavor.  If it's the expense of a large bottle for a few tablespoons here and there you should be able to buy the mini bottles (as are served on airplanes) from a local liquor store.

If you don't want to use or have it around due to issues with alcohol then look for other items that have as similar flavor to substitute.  Sherry has a sweet nutty flavor to it and apple juice can often work suitably well.  Keep in mind you'll probably not find an exact flavor match but it can be close.  A small amount of orange extract could be used in place of grand marnier. Depending on the item, you might also try flavored syrups that are used for coffee drinks.  Remember that these have a lot of sugar in them so you'll need to compensate by cutting back on sugar elsewhere in the recipe and obviously don't use them where the sweet flavor wouldn't be welcome.


Advantages of using a non-glass teapot? I currently have a borosilicate glass teapot.  Glass seems to have the advantage that it will not absorb flavours and so can be used for all styles of tea.

What are some of the advantages of using a clay or ceramic teapot over glass?  I am not interested in the differences in style or size, just the material used.

Edit: anyone with information on clay teapots, such as the Yixing, and its (dis)advantages?

It depends on personal tastes (both aesthetic and flavour). Ceramic pots certainly retain heat longer which suits black tea as a pot can be on the go for a while. Clay is for the connoisseur and should be kept for one specific tea. These ideally need to be used regularly so don't suit most households (including me).

I'd personally have:

A western style ceramic pot  (or two, one small, one large) for black teas like Kenyan,
Ceylon or Assam based teas which I'd only rinse out (unless it got forgotten and grew mold! in which case it gets a good scrub)
A glass pot for strongly flavoured teas or heavy tannin tea like Lapsang Souchong
or chai (if i make it in a pot) which would be cleaned each time
An eastern style ceramic pot for green tea as they generally keep the larger leaves back.

The biggest difference I've found is that warming the pot is more significant when using ceramic or clay over glass as the material absorbs more heat.


What is the rule of thumb for mixing doughs? Without delving too deeply into specialty doughs, but addressing more than just cakes and bread, what concerns can I evaluate when calculating the technique for approaching a dough?

For instance, some recipes say not to mix too much, others would imply that beating every bit of air out of the dough is the best thing for it.
What I am looking for is a set of criteria, maybe a flowchart, that outlines how to deal with having a well-reasoned technique (as opposed to just following a recipe).

Crumble, cream, or melt the fat first? Paddle or hook? Beat, fold or whisk? Knead once and rest or knead three times and throw? I would assume that to some extent getting air in or out, activating and mixing ingredients, distributing fats more or less evenly, and so forth play a factor in any decision. However, I have no idea what those different things do, or the food science behind them.
What general principles would help me understand what each factor does, so that I can have more confidence when staring down the ingredients, whether for some cookies or pizza crusts or muffins?

Once you start thinking in terms of techniques, it shouldn't be that hard.  The book Ratio has an excellent overview of different methods for cakes.  The blog pastrychefonline.com does as well.  You can see an overview of the:

Creaming method in which softened but not melted butter and sugar are whipped together first to create a network of air bubbles for structure, then eggs, if called for, and other liquid ingredients added, then (or alternated with) solid ingredients.  Overmixing after a certain point destroys the air bubble network, but you need to build it up well first.  An alternative is the Two-Stage Mixing Method in which eggs and flavoring go in with some of the liquid, then softened fat and solids all get added in, then the rest of the liquid in parts with little mixing.
Foaming method, or sponge cake in which egg yolks and whites and sugar are whipped together to form the air bubbles, then dry ingredients are added, then melted butter is added at the end if called for.  I believe in Ratio butter is added before dry ingredients, but I don't remember if that is the case.  Again, you don't want to start popping your air bubbles.
Biscuit Method or pastry method for pie crusts and biscuits, in which it is important to keep your fat very cold and leave some larger pieces of it for flakiness and usually over mixing after liquid has been added causes a dense biscuit or crust because it activates the gluten.
Muffin Method or quick cake/bread method in which all the dry ingredients are added to all the wet ingredients and the fat is melted or liquid as opposed to softened or cold.  In this case leavening comes from commercial leaveners instead of mixing so at no point do you want to overmix and activate the gluten.

There is an exception for batters like crepe batter where there is simply so much liquid that the gluten will never be activated.  You can mix a high liquid content batter all day if you want.

And not covered on that blog are:

Yet another technique uses whipped egg whites only for structure, much like making a meringue.  I have a waffle recipe that uses whipped egg whites at the end for additional structure after using the muffin method for the rest of the batter.
For bread I personally love the explanations in Peter Reinhart's books, both that on regular bread and also whole grain bread.  You WANT to activate the gluten, so that's why you knead it after mixing (or in the case of the no-knead bread movement let the yeast activate it over a very long time), which is basically more mixing.  The structure of bread is a combination of the bubbles from the yeast and the gluten that is partially activated by kneading.  After rising you want to handle even bread gently, though, so as not to degas the yeast bubbles.

There may be more and different recipes use different variations, but these are the ones that spring to mind.  The key is to figure out:

How is leavening happening - from chemical leaveners, a mixing method, steam during baking, yeast, or a combination of these?
How much do I want to activate the gluten?

The answers to these two questions largely determine the temperature of your fats and eggs and how much you mix.


Fried flour tortilla from scratch cook first or just fry I'm working on my chicken flauta recipe skills today, I like to make everything from scratch but all I can find are recipes with store bought tortillas.   Knowing how much better homemade corn tortillas are I'm thinking of trying this with scratch made flour tortillas, stuffing and then frying.   My question is should I first cook the flour tortillas in a pan, then fill and fry?  Or fill and fry with the raw dough after pressing it?

According to this page... neither your first option. You should toast them in a pan without oil.

  After rest period, heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Roll each
  dough piece into a rough circle, about 6-7 inches in diameter, keep
  work surface and rolling pin lightly floured. Don’t stack uncooked
  tortillas on top of each other or they will get soggy.

  When pan is very hot, place one dough circle into pan and allow to
  cook about 1 minute or until bottom surface has a few pale brown
  spots. The uncooked surface will begin to show a few little bubbles.
  If tortilla is browning too fast, reduced heat a bit. If it’s taking
  longer than a minute to see a few pale golden brown spots on underside
  of tortillas, increase heat a bit. Flip to other side and cook for
  about 30 seconds. You want the tortilla to be soft but have a few
  small pale golden brown spots on surface. Remove from pan with tongs
  and stack in a covered container or zippered bag till all tortillas
  are cooked. This will keep them soft and pliable.

You can view the complete recipe following the above link.


Why won't my butter and milk mix when trying to make cream? I wanted to make a heavy cream substitute.

Here's what I tried:

Melted butter and stored it in a cup.

The pot I melted it in was not washed.

Used the same pot to boil milk.

Afterward, the milk looked yellowish with bubbles on it.

Strained the milk and put it in the refrigerator until it's cool.
Added the melted butter to the milk.

They wouldn't mix. They stayed separate like oil and water.

 My questions:

Why wouldn't they mix? And how do I get them to mix?
Why did the milk look that way? Was it because of the remaining butter in the pot?
How can I make use out of this milk and butter?

I was thinking that this is a duplicate, but I can't find an original, and somebody edited it to be readable, so I will answer.

They didn't mix, because they can't mix. You can't get them to mix. There is no way to make whipping cream out of milk and butter.
The milk looked that way because there were bubbles of melted butter swimming in it.
Use it in any recipe which requires some milk and some butter without caring about the order. Pancake batter, casserole topping, etc.


Why did my Chiffon Cake collapse? Recipe used:

75g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
80g sugar + 15g sugar (for the meringue)
2 eggs (60g each)
35g oil
60g water

Instructions:

Place all ingredients except egg whites and 15g sugar in a bowl.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks. Slowly add the sugar while continuing beating to firm peaks.
Using the same beaters, mix the egg yolk mixture until just combined.
Fold the meringue into the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches.
Pour into the prepared cake pans then bake in a preheated 160°C oven for 55-60 minutes.

I've noticed that the cake sets up on the sides very early into the bake. It then continues to rise in the middle to create a dome.
Around the 40 minute mark the dome flattens.
It further flattens once cooled and un-molded. When I flip the deflated cake upside down it looks like the cake sunk in the middle.

Does anyone know what I did wrong? Could it possibly the recipe that is failing me?

Chiffon cake, like it's cousin angel food cake, is mostly air. A big pile of protein bubbles stiffened with a little starch.

One very important step is not reflected in your recipe:

When the cake is completely baked the proteins have set and the starches have gelatinized but the starches are still very soft. The cake won't have its firm structure until the starches have been able to cool and set.

All recipes call for inverting the cake immediately when it comes out of the oven. The cake is allowed to cool, inverted and still in the pan, for a good hour to ensure the starches have set.

Special pans with legs or a long tube center are used for this:

Notice that in addition to the feet that it is a tube pan. This is important because the interior of these cakes is very insulated and won't be able to cook completely before the outside is overcooked.

When my angel food cake pans were packed I had good success using a pot with a mason jar in the middle. I was surprised it came out perfectly.

TL;DR -
Use a cake pan with a tube,
Invert the cake right when it comes out of the oven and let it cool completely.

*Note
Catija is correct that these amounts look way too small for a full cake. If you are trying to bake that in a full sized cake pan it could possibly be over rising and not have enough structure to support itself when it comes out.


Why are egg yolks beaten in a bowl above a pot of hot water? Why would you beat egg yolks in a bowl above a pot full of hot water? I've seen this technique used in recipes on YouTube. Sometimes they add sugar. Does the heat help increase the volume or is it something else?

Egg yolks are often cooked in a bowl above simmering water (also known as a double boiler), so that the egg yolks can cook/thicken without solidifying and scrambling.  This is a common technique used when making custard, for example.


Am I overcooking whitebait in water by using scum as a measure for doneness? I understand that small fish like whitebait should be cooked in two minutes and anything above is probably overcooking. Of course a better guide is to go by temperature and the fish being opaque.

Well I understand that once the fish is at 145f/63c it is done however this is also the temperature at which those white bubbles(scum?) come out of the fish?
Therefore I went with the ide that once the scum starts rising to the top the water the fish is cooked.

To be safe I allowed the scum to rise to the top(which started after 5 minutes of simmering) then switched the heat off and removed the scum.  I noticed the water still tastes unusual i.e. perhaps I had overcooked it.

Am I still overcooking it?  Why would using the scum rise to the top not be a good way of assuring that the heat reached the required temperature?

Substantial visible albumin is generally a sign of overcooking. As fish cooks, it contracts and squeezes out protein (and moisture), so if you've done a lot of that, you're heading in the direction of dry, tight fish, not tender, flaky fish.

This should be obvious from eating the fish; I doubt it was fully tender and flaky. It's also obvious from what you describe: it took five minutes, which is a pretty long time for fish that small. I wouldn't be surprised if your fish were pretty much at the water's temperature after five minutes.

As for your argument about temperature, well, yes, albumin is released in the 140-150F range, and that's pretty close to the "done" temperature.

But it takes some time for protein to work its way out of the fish into the water; it's not like it all jumps out at once as soon as it hits a high enough temperature. Cooking in water delays things even more: the protein gets diluted, and it takes takes time for it to all get to the top and collect into scum, so it might take even more released protein for it to be visible. During that time, the temperature of the fish is still increasing.

Bottom line, if you're unsure how done is done enough, test the fish. Use a thermometer, or just flake it open with a fork or knife to see the texture.


What emulsifier will help my (nearly carb free) Milk Chocolate? I'm a Type 2 diabetic and maintain ~ 20g carbs per day. This is great on my numbers, but hard on my sweet tooth :)

One of my favorite treats to make is a simple mix of Virgin Coconut oil, unsweetened coco powder, and Splenda. This combines into a surprisingly smooth thick chocolate sauce that in the fridge hardens into the consistency of a chocolate bar. Yummy!

Recently, I tried to up this to "milk chocolate", simply by adding a bit of whipping cream to the mix. This actually tasted quite amazing, BUT the oil and milk separated like crazy.

I believe I need an Emulsifier to resolve this. Can anyone suggest an Emulsifiers that I can buy in a store and use for this blend? Ideally it should be carb free and mostly flavorless. It can't be egg yolks because this isn't cooked. I read that in real Chocolate making, Lecithin is used, but I also read that Lecithin isn't actually an emulsifier...

Anyways, if anyone knows the chemistry of what I should do here, I'd really appreciate it. Also if you can guess at an amount of Emulsifier (to Roughly 3 to 4 tablespoons of chocolate "goo") to start with, that would be awesome as well.

Yes, an emulsifier is the way to go. Lecithine is an emulsifier, and will work. The downside is that it might impart a slight eggy taste, I don't know if this will be a problem for you. Also, it is a bit harder to store than the other emulsifiers, it tends to lump from ambient humidity.

The more common emulsifiers for your case would be xanthan or guar gum. They are not carried that often by stores, although I've seen guar in a health store. But they are quite easy to purchase online. Any of them will work well. The biggest challenge is to disperse them evenly in the food. I would recommend taking a teaspoon out of the cocoa powder, mixing the emulsifier with it (dry), then mixing that teaspoon back into the complete amount of cocoa, then proceed as usual.

You don't have to fear the carbohydrates from emulsifiers. All three will work when used in tiny amounts, about 0.5% - so you can get away with 0.5 g emulsifier per 100 gr "chocolate bar", which shouldn't be much even if they are pure carbohydrates. (Xanthan and guar are carbs, but they are polysaccharides, and I have no idea whether they are insulin-active).

This will help you make your chocolate bars. On the other hand, I don't know if making them is helping you at all. Cocoa powder is 60% carbs, and splenda is 90% carbs. A true chocolate bar (the good brands) consists of cocoa solids (which is cocoa powder + cocoa butter before being separated), and sugar. If you are using the same proportions as in a typical chocolate bar, you are getting about the same amount of carbs from your mixture. It may be a tastier way to temper pure chocolate (unsweetened chocolate) together with some fat until you have reached a carb-to-fat ratio sufficiently good for you. Adding cream is also a possibility, as well as other flavors (vanilla, orange essence, whatever you want - basically unsweetened truffle making). You can also add pure artificial sweeteners to your mixture, which are not bulked up with carbs the way splenda is. This way will be more expensive and time consuming, but will give you a better quality end product.


How to make authentic black Russian bread? I'm trying to re-create the authentic black Russian bread that was first mass produced during soviet times. Nowadays you can find it in any Russian market and many international supermarkets in the US.
The problem is most recipes I can find online either:

Use a lot of additives such as cacao powder and coffee to color the bread, which don't seem historically plausible

or

Don't achieve nearly the same dark shade as the pre-packaged store variants

Anecdotally, my dad claims that this bread was sold in the Soviet Union in his youth as the cheapest bread available, for those who couldn't afford bread made from finely milled wheat. At its initial inception it was mass produced by the state and supposedly didn't taste great (although it did have that dark black color). Considering it was the cheapest bread around, it seems highly unlikely it was created with cacao or espresso powder in soviet times.
Eventually, people started prizing this bread more and recipes evolved until we got the modern variant which most people (at least in Russia) find appetizing. It's possible the modern variant uses the more expensive color impacting ingredients, but it seems more likely that some trick that was used to make the original "dirt cheap" black bread is still employed or borrowed from today.
I’ve made a number of different variants following the recipes online and overall I’m happy with the results in terms of taste, but it’s driving me crazy that I can’t figure out how to make the loaf authentically black.

There are two elements responsible for the darkness of “black bread”, which is a term used for different breads all over East, North and Central Europe

Whole grain flour, typically rye, but sometimes with a part wheat or spelt.
A low and slow bake, the probably most extreme example is Pumpernickel, which needs almost a day at 100-120 C and is more steamed than baked. Other recipes aim for 2.5 hours at 150 C. Above that, you will still get a good and dark bread, but more brown-grey than dark “black”.

The lower and slower, the darker will the bread turn out. Some sources claim that the darkness is caused by the Maillard reaction, but I am not sure whether this is the whole truth. Considering the temperature range, other factors like enzymes out of the grain are at least involved. The only “traditional” colorant I could find at a quick research was molasses or similar, which is used in some recipes.


Can I fix a chewy beef joint after it's already cooked and sliced? Now I have cooked the beef joint & it's cut up into thin slices is there anything I can do to make it less chewy.

Editor's note: let's assume this is some kind of cut meant for roasting, presumably something with a fair amount of connective tissue.

Stack the slices up neatly, tie them together with some string and either use a slow-cooker (crockpot), or steamer to finish the cooking

Cook for at least the amount of time it missed on plus about 5 to 10 minutes for it to get back up to cooking temperature

The other option is to cut it up and add use it to make a new stew or casserole


Chocolate coating for truffles shrinks as it sets - What to do? I've been making chocolate truffles recently, and I'm pretty pleased with the result, with one exception.

I make a ganache (different mixtures of cream, butter, chocolate and flavourings) and form into balls. I chill them, and dip in tempered chocolate, and letting is set at room temperature. (I'm tempering the chocolate in a sous-vide water bath at ~33°C, according to Jeff Potter's 'Cooking for Geeks')

The chocolate has great snap, and a good shine, but the chocolate shrinks while it sets, which often causes the coat to crack or a small puncture appears through which the ganache seeps out.

I understand the physics behind it (chocolate shrinks as it sets), but I'm wondering what to do about it. Surely I can't be the first person to have this problem.

Maybe use slightly less filling?

You're forming the ganache balls freehand, you mentioned, so it might be possible to form a little pocket or gap somewhere in the filling as you roll it (maybe with a toothpick), so that when the chocolate shrinks there's space for the extra filling to go instead of bursting the shell.  I think it would work better if there was a way for the air to get out - a pinprick through the chocolate to the air pocket, which can be covered over after the fact by a dab of chocolate or decoration.  But if the difference in volume is small, it may work without that.

Alternately, you could control the effect by piercing the truffle through the chocolate coating, say, on what will be the bottom as it sits.  A little filling will probably leak out when it cools, but that can be scraped off, the hole will be small and controllable, and again - covered up with just a dab of melted chocolate or other decoration, if you want.  Much less chance of cracking or other visible damage.

Finally, you might try dipping in two layers.  If there's a gap, however small, for the filling to equalize out of your first shell won't crack or puncture - and a larger gap will have a smoother curve.  A second thin shell, overlapping and smoothing over the first gap, should render it nearly invisible.  You could dip about half at a time, or three quarters for a bit more overlap, or almost the whole truffle twice over for more chocolate per truffle, as you prefer.


How to do icing swirl effect (a bit like marbling)? The cake above is from this website and I was wondering how the swirl effect is done on top of the cake? At first, I thought it may be done using a similar method to latte art, but am really unsure. Is it just a cocktail stick pulled through the icing in a curve? The bit that confused me most was how there was milk chocolate in the white chocolate half and white chocolate in the milk chocolate half for the same swirl.
The cake in the image below (which is from the same website) seems to have used a similar technique:

I can't be sure, but it looks like there are two different things going on here.
For the ice cream cake, notice that there is no white chocolate in the bottom swirl (the white there is a reflection of the light). So I expect they are using an implement (quite possibly the tip of a spoon) and swirling it from the dark side to the light side. Then they lift the spoon and let it trail across and then smear from dark to light again, leaving behind some of the white on each successive row.
For the rectangular cake, I think they've iced the entire thing in the light color, then added a thin layer of dark to half of the cake. Using a two pronged tool, they can then smear from dark to light and reveal the lighter color on the dark side before trailing the dark across the white side.


What is the advantage to crushed garlic over minced garlic beyond texture? I use a lot of garlic in my cooking, especially minced garlic.  But lately I've been doing some more recipes with crushed garlic and while I love the texture of cooked garlic, I can't see how it could be better than minced garlic for the overall taste.

Is there an advantage to crushed garlic over minced garlic, beyond texture?

Yes. The more finely you process your garlic, the more of the flavour-bearing liquid is released from ruptured cells.


How long does tahini last past expiration date? I have a jar of organic tahini which expired one year ago.

It smells good and tastes ok. I don't know how it was stored, it was however always sealed (but already opened).

Is it safe to eat in large ammount ?

For what it's worth, you can safely store opened sesame oil in a refrigerator for one year (stilltasty.com).

Peanut butter can be kept for 3 months in the cupboard, then another 3-4 months in the refrigerator.

To be safe, I'd say keep it refrigerated once it's been opened, and use it within 6 months. I've had some for about that long, and it's just fine still.

Remember: bad odors indicate bad food.


How long do I sous-vide a 5.5lb veal breast? How long and at what temperature should I sous-vide a 5.5lb veal breast?

It depends on the thickness of the meat and how well done you like it.  There's an excellent reference here: http://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Beef


How should I improve my chopping flow? I already know basic cutting skills. But I am confused about the order of things and thus while I have an OK technique, my board and the surroundings are in anarchy.
Do you chop from left to right or right to left? Should you pick up the diced veggies with the knife or push them from the board into the pan (in which case, the order in which you cut is important)?

Although this is partially personal preference, in general you should have the uncut ingredients on the side of your non-cutting hand. This will set up a logical flow of material which keeps you from having to reach over your cutting hand.

If you chop with your right then you'd have the uncut ingredients on your left, as after knife work your chopped ingredients will be on the right of the knife. Everything else comes from this. If you are chopping a lot of ingredients it makes sense to have a few bowls handy to put the chopped ingredients into so you can keep your board clear.

My workflow is based on the assembly line principle - that is do all of one type of task before moving onto another to limit the amount you have to move: before chopping I get bowls for each of the chopped ingredients (stackable stainless steel bowls from a kitchen supply store are great for this as they clean easy and take up little space), and array the bowls to the right of the board. Then I wash all the ingredients, peel them, and prep them at once rather than doing it individually per ingredient and place them to the left of the board, so I have all my ingredients ready to chop. Then I take each type of ingredient and chop them one at a time, saving any messy (tomatoes, cheeses) or possibly contaminating ones (meat, seafood) for last, as I will have to clean the board, my hands, and the knife after possible contaminators to prevent cross-contamination. As the board fills for each ingredient I will transfer the chopped ingredients to the bowls, but I wait until I need the space to continue cutting - if you move the chopped ingredients each time you finish chopping one of them then you waste time moving your arms and body around.

This is the fastest way I have found to get a lot of ingredients processed. If you wash, prep, peel, chop and move each ingredient individually you spend a lot of extra time moving around the kitchen.


How can I prevent the odor in my dishwasher? My dishwasher is emitting a strong bad odor when its door is open. It's a settled odor resulting from a mix of the accumulated dishes together with the plastic material inside. Even if the machine stays empty, the odor is always there.

What can I do to destroy this odor?

Try throwing some baking soda and lemon juice in it and run an empty load without soap. Repeat as needed.

I'd try about half a normal sized box of baking soda and half to a whole cup of lemon juice.


How can I make mocktails that actually taste like non-fruity cocktails? My partner is a teetotaler and I have oral allergy syndrome, which means I am allergic to almost all raw fruit juices.

We want to try making some mocktails that we can both drink that actually resemble cocktails along the lines of an Old Fashioned, rather than glorified fruit punch. However most resources I've been able to find only discuss making very sweet, simple drinks, often using fruit juice as the major ingredient.

What ingredients and techniques that fit our restrictions (non-alcoholic, no raw fruit) will produce mocktails that are on the complex/sharp end of the flavor spectrum?

You're going to want to look for classic cocktail recipes and mixers. Get a base of cocktail knowledge, then fill in the alcohol with a nuetral filler. Teas and smokey coffees can replace the flavor profile of some bourbon or scotches. Club sodas or flat tonics can replace some grain spirits. Angostura, orange bitters, vermouth, tinctures, demerara syrups are all classic mixers you'll want to use... usually Imbibe Magazine has some pretty good resources and make-your-own bitters and mixers. Sometimes Bon Appetit has a good classic drink. I know a couple months ago they explained how to make your own vermouth.

Another good resource is to find a local cocktail bar that simple specializes in high end cocktails and just talk to a bartender. They'll have lots of knowledge and resources to share!

A website I like to use sometimes is Cocktail Codex.


What's a good vegan substitute for sour cream? There's a recipe I grew up with, that I would like to try to make a vegan version of.
Basically, it's mushrooms sauteed with onion and paprika, and then sour cream.

Since my kitchen is now vegan, I'm wondering what would work as a substitute for the sour cream.

I'm happy for ideas to be composite, and include something for flavour and something else for texture.

You can thin vegan mayo with lemon juice -- it gives you the blend of creamy and sour that you expect from sour cream.

I don't know how it behaves if you heat it too much, but it works well for sauces that are added at the end.


Good qualities of ovens/microwaves for baking cake My aunt wants to start her own bakery where she is planning to sell different kinds of biscuits, cakes, and desserts. But she cannot afford to buy an industrial oven right now as she wants to start small.

So my questions are,

What types of oven (traditional, convection, convection-microwave, etc.) are best for commercial scale baking (especially cakes)?
What are the most important qualities of a commercially available oven/microwave for good, consistent baking results?

I'm not going to claim this is an exhaustive list, especially as I'm not a commercial baker, but a few things that I would personally consider:

What is she baking?  What size vessels does it need?  How tall does it rise? This will affect how can she fit in the oven at one time (how many per shelf, how many shelves for the height it needs).  Note that you don't want to pack them too closely, as you need space around them, even for convection.

What is the largest sheet pan it can fit with a couple of inches (5+ cm) around each side?

If electric, how much power does she have available?  (will it require getting an electrician in to run heavier wire?)

I'd also look to see if there are any places that deal in used restaurant equipment.  In the US, restaurants have a rather high failure rate, and there are places that specialize in liquidating restaurants / auctioning off everything in them.


Is it safe to use unwashed barbeque grill utensils? I had a fit when my husband said he never washes the tongs spatula or meat fork after cooking on the outside barbeque grill. He just let's them hang out there dirty (ugh) & uses them again without washing. Please help me explain to him why that is not only gross but dangerous.

You know I attended the BBQ Camp at Texas A&M, which was sponsored by Foodways Texas and conducted by the faculty of the Meat Science Department, and the first module of the workshop was food safety.  One of the faculty discussed an experience he had when he was invited to a friends house for dinner.  His host made steaks on the grill and carried the uncooked steaks to the grill on a plate, and when he finished he put the cooked steaks back on the same plate.  Bad idea, exposing cooked food to a surface contaminated with raw juices.

Leaving the tongs and/or forks in an unclean state is very similar.  While there may not be as big a risk in handling or placing raw foods onto the grilling surface, since they will be exposed to the germ killing temperature while cooking, there is a problem in handling the cooked foods with the utensils that have been exposed to raw foods and may have remnants of older bacteria.  In addition a bigger problem occurs when using a fork, as the fork pierces the skin and can carry bacteria inside the meat which may or may not reach a germ killing temperature.

So clean your utensils, clean your dishware, avoid cross contamination, and keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

I stuck a food safety link to the Texas A&M website for more information.  Cheers.

http://bbq.tamu.edu/food-safety/


How to freeze & reheat quiche What is the best way to freeze & reheat a quiche?
I've tried it twice, and both times the bottom of the quiche became watery as it defrosted in the oven. I took the pre-baked quiche straight from the freezer to the hot oven. Note that both times I tried it, there were a few pieces missing from the quiche where most of the liquid collected. Also, I used a frozen ready made pie crust instead of one made by scratch.

I would use a pizza stone (preferred) or preheated baking sheet underneath the quiche, similar to the method sometimes used to make the bottom of pie crusts crisper. Put the stone or baking sheet in the cold oven and preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes before adding the quiche. This probably won't completely solve your problem, though. Unless the quiche is whole, I'm sure you'll still have weeping/leaking.


Leaving the food out to cool off after cooking After cooking, if the food is hot I heard it is better to leave it out until it cools. Why? Because if you place it hot in the refrigerator, the bacteria will grow there.
On the other hand, I think that leaving it out too much on the shelf would also attract bacteria.
So what is the truth? What should I do, leaving it out to cool off or placing it hot in the refrigerator?

Some facts seem to be getting mixed up here.

Hot food is going to remain "warm" (i.e. in the danger zone) much longer if you leave it on the counter rather than in the fridge. That's basic physics. If the ambient temperature is colder, then the food will stay warm for less time, leaving less time for bacteria to grow.

There are reasons not to pop a huge boiling pot directly into the refrigerator, or more importantly the freezer, but they mostly revolve around the side effects - notably, that it will warm up other food, accelerating spoilage of everything else in there, and in some cases be very hard on your appliance (which needs to run at full tilt in order to handle all the heat).

Assuming you've got your food divided into small portions, you'll want to refrigerate them as soon as possible, or use an ice bath to cool them even faster as Jason mentions.


What is the name of this Chinese Fish Soup where guests cook their own fish in broth? One of my friends tells about some kind of a delicious fish soup that he ate in china. But he doesn't know the name of the dish.

It was served in a big bowl in the center of the table (in a restaurant). The bowl is heating, and it's a soup that does not contain any fish. Some pieces of fresh cleaned fish are in front of each person, so he can put it in the soup, and after a minute, the fish is ready to be eaten.

Do you know the name of this food?

Sounds like hot pot.

There are a zillion variations, with different kinds of broths and different things to cook in it, so I don't think there's any one recipe name you could search for to duplicate exactly what your friend had. It's possible that knowing the region he was in would allow some informed guesses from folks with some local knowledge (not me). Note that it's common to cook a lot of different things in the broth all at the same time, not just one thing per meal.

So if you want to try to make something similar without a lot of work, I suspect you'd just want to a broth you like (or a soup base from a Chinese grocery store - hot pot is popular!) and whatever simple fish sounds good to you. If you want more elaborate things, try Google; there's too much variety for us to try to cover it here.


Adding/substituting non-flour ingredients in bread I have a basic bread recipe that works well in my automatic breadmaker. The recipe is:

1 & 7/8 cup water
5 cups whole wheat flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp dry milk
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp active dry yeast

I'd like to make variations on it by adding some of the following ingredients (not all at once, I'll probably pick one item from that list for any one loaf):

oat or wheat bran
multi-grain cereal
chia seeds
corn meal

Is there a general principle for how to do it, or do I just have to try and see what works? Say I want to add 1 cup of wheat bran. Do I just add it to the mix above? Or should I subtract 1 cup of flour in this case, to make it 4 cups flour + 1 cup bran? Should I increase gluten or any other ingredients? What is the maximum amount of these ingredients that can be added?

I'm not much of a cook. If these things are described in some book already (as I suspect they are), recommendations for books to read would also be helpful.

The big question you have to ask yourself is, "How absorbent is what you want to add?" For instance Chia seeds are not going to affect your hydration much. Those you can probably just add. Corn meal on the other hand will absorb water, but it won't create gluten. You'd want to replace some of the flour with corn meal and perhaps a bit more vital wheat gluten. Wheat bran contains gluten, oat bran does not. Both will be absorbent so should replace flour. Any cereal will be absorbent, the question of gluten will depend upon the grains used. Because you're using a bread maker you're probably not as intimately aware of the hydration of your dough as you would be if you did your kneading by hand. For your next few loaves, take the dough out of the machine when it is done kneading. Give it a few kneads to get a feel for it. You'll feel it if your hydration is off.

You're right in that you want to try adding one ingredient at a time. Also start small, you might just be surprised at how much 1/4 cup of corn meal will affect your loaf.

I find it helpful to look at recipes that include the ingredient I want to add and compare that recipe to similar loaves that don't contain the ingredient. In what other ways are the recipes different?

2 websites come to mind that you might find helpful.

The Fresh Loaf and King Arthur Flour


When *brewing* Irish coffee in a drip coffeemaker or French press, do I need to use more Irish whiskey? Back in the early 1980's I received a very nice coffeemaker as a gift. (Okay - it was very nice for the 1980's.) There was a small recipe booklet that came with it that had a great recipe for Irish coffee in which the Irish whiskey was put into the carafe along with superfine sugar and then the coffee was brewed into it. After the coffee finished brewing you would stir it and let it sit on the hot plate for about 10 minutes and then pour, top with whipped cream, and serve.

It was so good! It seemed to have more depth to the flavor and no hard edge on the whiskey. Smooth but not lacking in any way.

The recipe booklet is long gone and I can't remember the details of the recipe. When making Irish coffee the standard (for lack of a better word) way, adding Irish whiskey to a cup of coffee, I usually add 1-1/2 oz to 2 oz whiskey to 6 oz of coffee. (Depends on what mood I'm in or who I'm serving it to.)

I want to try the brewing method again so I'm wondering if I need to use more Irish whiskey to get the same flavor. I hope someone has an answer. If not, this could be a fun experiment!

I don't think you'd need to increase the proportion.  You could, but I'd probably advise against it mostly because of sobriety concerns.  It's much easier to over-serve someone with a more potent cocktail than it is a milder one - especially after the first couple.

This is kind of an interesting method, and I think the key to success is the gentle heating of the whiskey over the heating element before the coffee is dripped in.  Ethanol is pretty potent stuff (ever seen a Molotov Cocktail in action?) and will evaporate more readily than water will.  This is why when adding wine, vermouth, etc. to a dish, you can drive off most of the alcohol at stovetop temperature well before the water evaporates.  Adding the whiskey to a warm carafe is likely driving off a small percentage of the alcohol, reducing its bite (and its punch as well, but this seems like a reasonable tradeoff for something generally considered a dessert drink).

Some of the depth of flavor could also come from volatile flavor compounds (things like esters which develop as spirits age) being driven off or changing composition.  Heating spirits or setting them on fire isn't a common trick these days, but historically bartenders often used it to transform how the flavor of spirits is sensed by the drinker's palate.  It's the flip side of chilling and diluting drinks through stirring or shaking, and it's a good substitute for those in the middle of winter, when more ice is the last thing you want.

I think it's also worth pointing out that the brand and variety of both coffee and whiskey will do a lot to change the end result.  Coffee obviously has a huge number of origins and roast levels, plus myriad other factors that can affect its flavor.  Irish whiskey varies too; it's often seen as a monolithic category, but it'll differ as much as scotch or bourbon depending on the quality of the mash, how it was distilled, and the aging process.  Powers is unapologetically brash and spicy; Knappogue Castle is a much more subtle product that would be really well-suited to this type of application.


How can I use Rosemary bulbs in cooking? I pulled out a rosemary plant today and found a number of bulbs amongst the root system.   Can these be used for cooking, such as with a roast lamb?  How?

I also have lots of leaves, so if the bulbs are no good I don't need to use them but I thought it was interesting to try.

I don’t know what you dug up, but rosemary doesn’t have bulbs so do not eat this!

For plant id questions (which is outside the scope of this site), I recommend our sister site Gardening SE.


What's the difference between black currants and red currants? I've noticed different stores carrying "currants" where some are red and others are black. What's the difference? Do they go by any other names?

For putting in cereal and making museli does anyone recommend one over the other?

Blackcurrants and redcurrants are simply subspecies of the same berry-producing shrub.  Besides their color, they differ only slightly in flavor; red are somewhat more tart than black.  For most purposes, such as in jams or baking, they're basically interchangeable.  When dried they're also easily substituted for raisins or sultanas.

There's really no basis for recommending one over the other beyond personal preference.  For your cereal, museli, granola, whatever, try both and see what you like.


Do potatoes and rice lose significant amount of fiber when overcooked? I overcooked both brown rice and potatoes today, both boiling. The skin on the potatoes was intact even though I overcooked it but too soft. Does that mean the fiber is significantly reduced in both foods?  Does the fiber leech out into the water?

No, fiber is a very hardy beast chemically. There is no fiber lost at all, no matter how much you overcook them in a dish. You would have to throw them into a furnace and take out crisps of carbon no longer recognizable as food to change the fiber.


Remove tannins from tea without removing caffeine I have a lovely black tea that is fairly high in caffeine, which I'd like to keep.
Unfortunately though, I'm not a fan of the bitterness caused by tannins, and I'd like to remove them if possible without leaching the caffeine as well.
I was thinking pre-rinsing the leaves with cold water for example, considering the solubility figures below:

Tannic acid solubility at 25 degees C:  2850 g/Ll
Caffeine solubility at 25 degrees C:  20 g/l
Caffeine solubility at 100 degrees C:  660 g/l

Are there any experimentally verified methods of doing this?

In response to the answer posted by @James, I've run the following experiment:

Ingredients:

Black tea by "Tea Merchant", flavor = "Ship Ahoy"
Colorless and flavorless gelatin powder, bought from the baking isle in a supermarket.

Process:

1) I made 4 cups of tea, each with 1 tea spoon of tea leaves straight into the cup:

Control cup, no addition
1/4 teaspoon of gelatin powder
1/2 teaspoon of gelatin powder
full teaspoon of gelatin powder

2)  I thoroughly stirred the tea and left the cups to sit for 4 minutes.

3)  Poured each cup through a strainer into a fresh receptacle to remove the tea leaves.

4)  I left the tea to cool, such that I could take large gulps at a time in order to maximize tannin taste.

Results:

a) The colour was noticeably lighter the more gelatin was added.  Below is a photo, where each label indicates amount of gelatin in each cup (as fractions of a teaspoon, where left is full spoon, right is control).

b) A large gulp of the control tea was unpleasantly bitter.

c) Each subsequent concentration removed more bitterness, indicating that a relatively large amount of gelatin is required to completely remove all tannins.

d) 1/4 teaspoon was sufficient to remove the unpleasant sharpness

e) The full teaspoon removed most of the tanniny flavor, allowing the more subtle flavors to be tasted.

f) Although I find the full teaspoon left the tea a bit bland as well.  I prefer the 1/2 teaspoon ratio.

g) I am slightly disappointed that I did not create tea-jelly.  Will just have to add more.  For science.

h) I cannot comment on the effect of gelatin on the caffeine levels since I am quite caffeine insensitive.

Conclusion:

Gelatin definitely reduces tannin concentrations which removes the sharpness out of black teas.
I am unable to comment on caffeine levels from "feel", however, this paper models caffeine release from a gelatin matrix.  I only gave the paper a quick scan, and I find no mention of gelatin reacting with the caffeine in any way.

EDIT:

Over the course of the weekend I was able to feed a caffeine sensitive friend some tea.  Everyone was weirdly suspicious.

Process:

5)  I created two 1l batches containing 3 teaspoons of tea leaves, soaked for 10 minutes.  The control batch was left untouched and gelatin batch contained 10g of gelatin.

6)  Saturday morning at 10 am the subject was given the control tea.  He finished it by 10:45, and by 11 am his symptoms were:  Elevated heart rate (110 bpm compared to 60 at rest), headache, shakiness and a general feel of ill ease.  By 11:30 the symptoms seemed to have passed.

7)  Sunday morning at 10 am the subject was given the gelatin tea.  To my great pleasure the tea had partially jellified.  The subject was not pleased.  He finished the tea by 10:45 and reported no symptoms at all, apart from feeling "a bit better".  It seems that the subject had somehow ingested some alcohol the previous evening, thereby bringing these results into question.

Results:

f)  The gelatin heavy tea didn't really taste that great.  The control was expectantly very bitter.

g)  We created tea-jelly!

h)  Based on the results from subject Friend, gelatin does in fact seem to lower the caffeine levels.  Although it may be possible that the jelly caused the caffeine to be released slower (or something).  Will have to repeat with much less gelatin, and again with much more gelatin.

i)  This would make a really good masters research project.


Can fresh citrus juice be reduced to concentrate flavor? Does reducing fresh citrus juice increase its flavor and will the flavor be damaged if it is reduced too far?

Heating citrus changes its flavor quite dramatically.  When and how much to heat and reduce citrus depends on the outcome you are looking to achieve.  If you want to preserve the fresh squeezed flavor, heating is not advisable.  If you are looking for a more reduced, cooked down flavor, heating can be good. Certainly, the flavor will be concentrated, but it will be different from the fresh juice. Ultimately, it is the application that matters.