Is iron skillet seasoning a carcinogen I switched to cast-iron skillet/griddle (dont know what it's technically called) recently for my omelette because I read somewhere that non-stick coating can leak carcinogen during cooking
For cast-iron pan, I see how it is recommended to season it via the oil-bake method - the coating that will then help avoid food sticking to the pan and for its longer shelf life
I want to understand that, will the oil, when heated to high temperatures for the effect of seasoning, will that oil become a carcinogen? Am I borrowing (carcinogen) from peter(cast-iron) to pay paul(non-stick)?

So, after a quick literature search:
There is no published evidence of cast iron seasoning carrying any special carcinogenic elements, aside from those carried by any kind of high-heat cooking in any kind of cookware.  If there's a danger from cast iron, it's folks who season their cast iron in an unventilated kitchen, since the burnt oil fumes are not good for you, and the fact that folks sometimes heat cast iron to higher heats than they would other cookware, just because they can.
For that matter, quality modern nonstick cookware in many countries also lacks known carcinogens.  Teflon coatings used to consist of PTFE and PFOA, of which only the PFOA is a known cancer risk.  For that reason, most manufacturers in the US and Europe have made PFOA-free nonstick cookware since 2013.  PTFE, the substance that actually resists stickiness, is so inert and harmless it's used to coat medical instruments.  Like cast iron, the main danger is if you overheat the pan, which does release substances that are bad for your lungs (also ruins the pan).
Heck, you can even today choose from an array of pans that have a non-PTFE nonstick coating.
Given all this, there are many reasons for you to chose cast iron vs teflon cookware (or even carbon steel, or many other options), but cancer risk shouldn't be one of the reasons.


What is the purpose of salt in fermented vegetables? I'm trying to stay low on sodium so I limit salt intake to minimum wherever possible (most of it comes from bread, fermented vegetables or a tiny dash here and there for seasoning)

For vegetables I use 2% salt to water ratio brine as most fermentation recipes call for

Why the 2% and why at all? Is the salt just for seasoning or does it have anything to do with safety? If I get it right, the whole point of fermentation is for the good bacteria to grow, out-crowd the bad bacteria, and act as a natural preservative; So what purpose does salt serve in the ferment other than flavor?
How much of the salt/sodium is soaked into the vegetable during fermentation and storage? (7-10 days at room temp and then in the fridge for consumption in about a month)

Purposes of salt include

To draw liquids out of cells via osmosis (beating the vegetables up first also helps with this) which creates a brine. You want a liquid as the competitors to lactic acid bacteria like oxygen, so you minimize that by keeping the fermented material submerged in the brine the salt helped create.
Salt hardens pectin, which alters the texture of the vegetables (more crunch).
Lactic acid bacteria also like a slightly salty environment, and competitors do not.
Adding salt avoids putrefaction (preservative).
Adding salt limits booze-causing yeasts; if you do want alcohol production, that's a different discussion.

The salt percent can be as low as 0.8% but is more typically higher, perhaps 1.5%; too high a percentage of salt can inhibit lactic acid bacteria (a goldilocks problem). So in your case it may help to try lower percentages, perhaps 1% or 1.5%, depending on how accurate your measurements are.

High salt ferments (preserved lemons, etc) probably should be avoided.

A soak and rinse of the fermented materials may help reduce sodium, but could also wash away nutrients.

You could also try salt-free ferments, though these may or may not work out as the lactic acid bacteria will have more competitors and there will be more putrefaction (softer mushy texture).


How to clean a microwave? I usually clean my microwave with a surface kitchen spray and was wondering what other tips and tricks do people use to clean their microwaves. Is there anything that should be avoided to not contaminate the food or to not damage the microwave?

You can put a cup/bowl of water(you can also add some vinegar if you don't mind the smell) in there, heat it up to boiling, let the steam out. Then you should let it sit in the microwave without opening the door.
Wait for a few minutes, open the microwave, and wipe off the inside. All that steam should have soften any stains or food pieces left in there.
You may spray some natural cleaners or lemon/vinegar mixtures to wipe off the inside more.


What are those cakes called which don't have an icing on them? I have eaten some home made cakes which never had any icings, they still tasted brilliant.
What are those cakes called which don't need an icing on them? I heard they are called "Sponge cakes". Is that correct?

In English, all cakes are called just cake, no matter if iced or not. Sponge cake is a name for a cake made from a specific type of batter - it consists of one part fat, one part egg, one part sugar, and one part flour, made by foaming the fat and sugar (with creaming instead of foaming, a batter from the same proportions is called pound cake, at least if you follow the classification established by M. Ruhlmann). You can make other types of cake - angel food cake, chiffon, genoise, etc - and not add icing, they are differentiated by the type of batter only.
In other languages, there is a difference. In German, the ones without icing are called "Kuchen", and the ones with rich, decorated icing are called "Torte" (and usually seen as a subset of Kuchen"). But in German, a pie is also considered a type of "Kuchen", so this is more of an umbrella term, even though the standard thing someone pictures upon hearing the word "Kuchen" is some kind of iceless cake, usually on the lines of a marbled Gugglehupf. But in English, there is no special term for a cake without the icing.
In some sources, English speaking authors use a category for the opposite of what you are asking. However, it is not centered on the baking attributes of the cake, but rather on its purpose - I have seen authors create bookchapters called "celebration cakes", "wedding cakes", "birthday cakes" etc. It is implicit that they place the richly decorated cakes in these categories, while the plainer ones stay as "everyday cakes", in UK sources sometimes as "tea cakes" or even get no special name at all. In the end, the same cakes which fall on the "celebration" side in this categorization scheme tend to be the ones that are called "torte" in German.


Can cold-brew coffee be heated? Why? Apparently keeping coffee hot and reheating it both lead to bad flavors:

How can I reheat coffee without imparting bad flavor?

Why does coffee taste awful after reheating it in a microwave oven?

However, can you cold-brew coffee and then heat it (microwave or other) without ruining the flavors?  If so, why?

Yes, you can.

In fact, this is a specific technique known as a "coffee toddy" which is a good way to take liquid coffee camping with you if you don't want to take brewing equipment.  Some people even prefer coffee made this way to other methods of brewing.


Can you grind Cheerios and use it as flour? After reading this question, I was wondering if a similar procedure would work with something like Cheerios. Could I grind it up and use it as gluten-free flour for bread or Matzah? Or would it not hold?

This would behave like a literal gluten-free flour (as in, a flour that offers no glue proteins or other binders of any kind), NOT like a complete gluten-free flour substitute.

Also, unlike some raw starchy flours that have no gluten (eg rice flour), there is not much binding action from sticky starches that can still gelatinize, since whatever starches are in that kind of processed cereal are likely completely cooked - otherwise, the cereal would become thoroughly sticky when mixed with a liquid like milk. The only binding properties you could maybe expect would be from sugar getting dissolved and recrystallized or caramellized into a firm matrix.

So, this could act as a filler or flavour/texture addition, but not as the only constituent of a dough or batter.

BTW, grinding up broken product (when it is still hygienically acceptable, obviously!) and adding it to the next batch is a practice sometimes used in commercial (factory level) cookie making.


Can a disposable aluminium pan be used to bake a cake? I want to know if an aluminium lasagna pan can be used in an oven for baking a cake?

If you're asking if you can bake a cake in that aluminum tin because you're wondering if it's safe, then the answer is yes. It says Lasagna Pan on the label, as in you're meant to bake a lasagna in it. No reason why a cake would be dangerous. I imagine you'd be baking the cake at a lower temp than a lasagna.

You'd want to worry about the cake sticking to the sides maybe. You'd also want to account for the fact that the pan is thinner and heat transfer would be different (cooking times and temperatures might need to be adjusted).


Deep frying - taste difference in saturated vs. unsaturated oil In one of my questions I received answers that indicated using more saturated (Animal) fats would extend the life of my deep frying oil.

However - given proper maintenance / cleaning / good oil - how can the taste difference between fries made in saturated vs unsaturated oil be described?

(I use fries in the question as they are fairly neutral in flavor).

Fries cooked in animal fat will taste distinctly different than those fried in a neutral vegetable oil. They will be much richer in flavor and may make you weep with joy.

If you haven't had them, you must stop what you're doing and make some duck fat fries.

Here is a good recipe: http://hecooksshecooks.net/2009/03/duck-fat-french-fries/


Is it true that moldy jam/pickles are good to eat if you mix the mold into the rest of the mixture? Everyone in my family says that when you see white mold on jam or pickled goods, you shouldn't bother with throwing away or removing the mold. All you have to do is to mix it back into the rest of what's in the pot. Here is an example:

I would like to know if it's a myth, because I feel something evolutionary in me that tells me simply mixing it back into the water is a bad idea.

Unless there is good reason to assume it is not mold/bacterial colonization, but some other precipitate as explained in other answers:

There is no scientific reason at all to assume that such a method is safe, certainly not for any random pickle made by any random recipe spoiled by any random white mold found in any random environment. While some very acidic pickling liquids might kill the mold or bacteria, it will not deactivate existing aflatoxins or bacterial toxins.


Can you develop a gluten structure by kneading matzoh meal dough? I'm interested in applying principles of dough magic to Passover cooking and I have sort of a general understanding of how developing the gluten structure works when kneading a traditional wheat flour dough.

My question is whether there is any further development of the gluten structure possible when the "flour" is matzoh meal, which is basically flour that has been combined with water, baked quickly, and then ground back into flour. I assume there's a reason that there's no family recipe for "matzoh bread" but I don't know if that's religious (bc we're supposed to eat matzoh instead of bread and all the restrictions on yeast and all) or culinary (bc making bread-like food from matzoh meal just doesn't work).

Will a gluten structure develop at all within the matzoh meal dough? What's the chemistry of how matzoh meal doughs and batters stick together?

Matzah meal has already been cooked and so therefore is no longer flour and cannot possibly "rise" or become leavened.  That is why any passover cakes you will make need to have egg whites separated - that is what created the leavened texture.  Think of matzah meal like bread crumbs, whatever you could use breadcrumbs for, you can use matzah meal for and vice versa.  Whatever you could NOT use breadcrumbs for (baking bread for instance) you could not use matzah meal for.


What are the (most common) different ways to thicken sauces and gravies? I know of a few ways to thicken sauces and the like:

Egg (protein)
Flour (protein / starch)
Starch (cornstarch etc)
Reduction (reducing watery component)

Are these the only common ones, or what else should a cook keep in his repetoire?

Major ways of thickening a sauce -- or, for that matter, some other liquid:

Starch (e.g., flour, cornstarch, tapioca, arrowroot)
Emulsion (e.g., butter, cream, yolk, mustard, blending in lecithin-and-fat)
Coagulated protein (e.g., blood, egg, pureed seafood)
Gels/polysaccharides (gelatin, alginate, xanthan, pectin, agar agar, guar gum)
Suspension (general puree of solids)

Note that some of the examples of one category can also fit into another.


Improving tomato sauce in beef liver recipe Possible Duplicate:
  What kind of sauce can I make for beef liver?

I boil the liver in order to be healthier but a own variant is to heat it on a pan afterwards  or fry it with little oil from the beginning. I made sauce using garlic, a bit of onion and tomatoes. However, the tomato puree is too bland and I am not sure if the tomato puree is the best fit. Maybe I should use diced tomato. What can I do to improve my recipe in the sense already described?

A few finely diced mushrooms or olives can add a lot of extra flavour, Worcester Sauce is of course an option too for quickly adding flavour.

There are quite a few 'proper' recipes which recommend fried and blended celery but I've never found it to work that well, it can add body if thinly sliced but doesn't do much flavour wise.

Personally I'd add a good helping of coarse black pepper and some dried parsley. I've always found simply adding more garlic can add flavour too so you may want to experiment with that too.

If it's specifically more tomato flavour you want then really the only thing you can do is reduce it more.


What is the difference between cracked wheat and wheatgerm? What is the difference between cracked wheat and wheatgerm?

I have used both items in completely different contexts - cracked wheat in salad and wheatgerm in muesli - but would like to know what the difference is between them so that I can incorporate them into my cooking appropriately.

Cracked wheat is a whole wheat berry that has been crushed or cut into smaller pieces.

Wheat germ is a very small part (1.5 to 2.5%) of a whole wheat berry. It is rich in protein and dense with nutrients. It's hard to overstate how much wheat germ is a nutrition powerhouse. It has more protein than most meats (28%), contains more potassium and iron than any other food, and also is packed with riboflavin, calcium, zinc, magnesium, as well as vitamins A, B1, B3, and E.


Why wooden sticks for ice cream bars? Why are wooden sticks usually used for ice cream bars?

This seems to hold for every commercial ice cream bar I have ever had, yet I can't find the reason... Why not use plastic instead, for example?

I am not an expert, but I presume plastic can be cheaper to manufacture...

In terms of bulk price wood is about 3x cheaper than plastic. (I buy both plastic and wood materials for commercial and residential uses in my profession.) Also, wood is biodegradable which makes it safer for the environment if children toss away the stick after they eat the ice cream.


How should I adapt a recipe if using very new dried yeast versus slightly older dried yeast? I make bread and pizza bases using "fast action" dried yeast (like this: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1287396076254 ).

My bread recipe calls for one sachet, my pizza dough recipe for two sachets. I notice that when I have just purchased a packet that still has a few months to go on its "best before" date, I get really lovely fluffy bread and pizza. As the yeast approaches its "best before" date, it gets less and less effective, but simply adding more of it doesn't give the same results - should I change the recipe in some other way? For example, add more sugar, or less salt?

I saw this similar question: Does active dry yeast really expire? but it doesn't quite answer my query.

First off, how do you store your yeast?  Storing yeast in the fridge helps it to last longer; I've had some yeast in my fridge for a year that is still going strong.

As your yeast begins to become ineffective, I would personally get new yeast.  Once yeast looses its power, you're simply not going to get the same effect out of it.


What's the least messy way to prepare grapefruit? I usually cut it in half (through the equator) and eat it with a spoon but the juices tend to spray everywhere.  Is there a better way?

I'd say your best bet is segmenting the grapefruit before trying to eat it.

Here's a good video about it. How to Peel and Segment a Grapefruit

Downside: It's a lot more work, and you still wind up with a juice-covered cutting board that needs to be washed.


Orange juice preservation by chemical presevatives How much Sodium Benzoate should I add to preserve 200ml Orange juice?

According to this, the FDA (food&drug administration) allow up to 0.1% per weight.
"Concentration as a food preservative is limited by the FDA in the U.S. to 0.1% by weight"
So, m maximum of 0.1% per weight of the weight of your 200ml of orange juice.
Let's say 200ml of juice is at least 200g (more or less equivalent to water), you'd need to add at most 0.2g of Sodium Benzoate.


Marinating in yogurt I'm currently letting some wild turkey (the bird, not the whiskey) marinate in some plain yogurt.  I saw this somewhere on TV or online.  Does anyone know what's actually going on chemically when the meat is marinating in the yogurt?  Since it's a base I can't imagine that it will have much of an affect on breaking the meat do, although I could see the yogurt working its way in between muscle fibers.  Anyone with experience marinating with yogurt care to comment?

The two general purposes of marinating is to tenderize and add flavor. What is happening is that the acidic elements are penetrating the meat and breaking down connective tissue. This causes the meat to become tender. Depending on your marinating liquid it also infuses flavors into the meat. I make a tandoori chicken recipe that calls for plain yogurt and spices. The flavor change will be minimal if you are using only plain unflavored yogurt. Here is an article that I found that goes into a little detail.  Marinade Science Article


How to preserve home-made salad dressing, without using bad preservatives? I want to start making my own salad dressing because I don't like all of the stuff they put in processed food. However, I still would like my dressings to last more than just a few days in the fridge. What kinds of preservatives (hopefully natural ones) can I use to preserve home-made salad dressings?

What is a "bad preservative"?

The main additive preservatives used today are ascorbic acid, citric acid, ethanol, salt, sodium nitrate (pink salt), sugar, and vinegar - all of which have been used for centuries, and other than with excessive use, are not seen as harmful

Weird chemical preservatives are often only used with weird chemical ingredients, stick to basics and you'll be fine

Pasteurisation, electrical pulse, and other heat treatments are used commercially and give products those amazing shelf live times. Without specific equipment and monitoring systems they are hard to reliable reproduce at home

Your home made dressing will last long enough in the fridge for you to get bored with it and want a new flavour :-)


Is the aluminium foil usable in this condition? As the title says, is the aluminium foil still usable in this condition?

If you notice, there's a very obvious white portion in the center of the aluminum foil and the entire roll is like that. Usually when I buy it from the store, it is pure silver without the white line. However when I keep it for some time, this white line appears which appears to me that the foil could be "spoilt"?

May I also ask what is the name of the condition of this aluminum foil and what causes it to be like this.

That's just aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and it's harmless as:

it's insoluble in water
it's nearly insoluble in alcohol.
is very hard (Basically the same material as a ruby or a sapphire)
it's chemically nearly inert
Is basically the same substance as the non-shiny side of the Aluminium foil

So it's definitely useable for all intents and purposes. (including cooking ;-) )


What did European/American historical cooks do with the egg whites? I do some historical cooking out of old cookbooks, like Amelia Simmons' American Cookery or The Art Of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.  One thing I've noticed is that these cookbooks use way more egg yolks than whites.  For example, I prepared an 18th century feast one night and ended up with 10 leftover egg whites in a jar.
This left me wondering, what did they do with the egg whites?  Given the extreme frugality of cooks centuries ago, which included using every scrap of stale bread and every bit of a pig including the oink, I find it impossible to believe that they were wasted.  They must have used them for something ... but that's not in the recipes I have.  So, questions:

Are the cookbooks we have simply not representative of actual cookery of the 15th-18th century?  That is, are they purely posh cookery and as a result did actually waste the egg whites?
Or were the egg whites used for some other purpose that required a lot of whites, maybe even a non-culinary purpose?

Help me solve this mystery.  Thanks!

There were certainly uses for egg whites that didn't involve eating them:

Clearing beer and wine (using egg white as finings).  This isn't common any more, and anyway only uses one egg white to six gallons.

As an adhesive in bookbinding and gilding, and as a size.

In makeup:

Wikipedia - ancient nail polish
Royal Museums Greeenwich - as a skin treatment
also various sources say as a base for rouge, foundation and other preparations, or to conceal wrinkles.

None of these would use a lot, of course.
I suspect that most leftover whites would have been used up in cooking. Apart from the obvious meringues of various types, they can be used:

As an egg wash on pastry.
In place of whole egg before coating something in breadcrumbs
Finings are also used in clarifying stock (link is to an alternative method proposed by Heston Blumenthal).  Consommé was probably popular around that time; certainly Mrs Beeton, writing in England in the 19th century included several recipes.  While she mentioned that clarifying may be required, her consommé recipes don't call for the use of egg. Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896) does explain this method, though without quantities.
Or simply added to many things that use beaten egg (I use up half eggs, either half, in an omelette with whole eggs).  In fancy households that could mean servants' food - after all there are many low-effort ways of preparing egg.  In a smaller household, everyday meals could use them up, though quickly without refrigeration

They can also be fed to many domestic animals, but given that most animals probably lived on scraps, this is effectively discarding them.


Is induction cooktop supposed to heat with pauses? I came to think about this today. I was using my Prestige Induction for 1 year. When the power is upto 500, the heating doesn't work continuously. It heats for 4-5 seconds, then pauses for 1 second without any error message. This didn't irritate me actually, as I thought it is the function. Same doesn't happen when temperature is higher than 500. Heating works continuously.

So is it really a function/feature of induction cooktops? Or is it technical problem with induction or cookware?

It is normal for an induction burner to power cycle. I don't know about your brand specifically.


How do you fry chicken, so that oil doesn't explode on your shirt? I love chicken, and I love to fry it. The problem is that the hot oil explodes, and it gets on my clothes.

I already have a cover for my pan. The problem is that I need to turn chicken upside down and then I need to open it. That's when I get the oil on my shirt.

What do you do? Are there any tricks?

The problem is that you're using a lid.

Spatter screens keep the oil mostly contained, while still allowing any moisture to escape.

A lid, on the other hand, collects the moisture on the underside of the lid.  When you go to lift it, the water drops back into the oil, and causes increased spattering.

You're actually better off without a lid, if you don't have a spatter screen.  Yes, you'll likely have to clean everything in the vicinity of the vessel of hot oil, but you don't have the problems associated with the lid.


In the USA, does fish being served raw need to be frozen first? I read an article from NYT a while back that flabbergasted me. The author claims "Food and Drug Administration regulations stipulate that fish to be eaten raw -- whether as sushi, sashimi, seviche, or tartare -- must be frozen first, to kill parasites."

Here is the article in question: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/sushi-fresh-from-the-deep-the-deep-freeze.html

Is this true? Whenever I bust this fact out I get looked at like I stole something near and dear to them. Also, are the laws on this different in the USA and Japan?

Yes, it is true. Fish other than tuna must be frozen in the US to be called sushi grade. Only sushi grade fish can be sold raw in restaurants in most (if not all) jurisdictions. Freezing kills parasites that are common in fish. The FDA recommends that fish for raw consumption be frozen first, but state and local jurisdictions make and enforce the law. My understanding is that even in rare jurisdictions that don't have the law per se, no one risks the liability inherent in violating the recommendation.

  The only concern any inspectors have is referred to as the parasite destruction guarantee, which is accomplished by ‘freezing and storing seafood at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days (total time), or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or below for 15 hours, or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 24 hours’ which is sufficient to kill parasites.

Sushi FAQ

I'm not sure if Japan has any similar regulations, but I do know that fresh raw fish is frequently eaten in Japan, often in homes, and that Japan has a much bigger problem than the rest of the world with certain parasitic infections of their people.

  Anisakiasis has recently become a leading problem in Japan. Anisakiasis is a disease caused by an infection of Anisakinae larvae, which are the visceral larva migrants following an infection by Anisakis larvae or related nematodes. It occurs when the live larvae are taken into the human gastrointestinal tract by eating raw, infected fish, in which the larva is in either stage III or IV. It causes pain, and often the pain is so severe that the patient is treated for acute abdominal pain, although the disease is by no means fatal.

General Survey of Anisakis and Anisakiasis in Japan

If you follow that link you will see a map of Japan and the numbers of cases of anisakiasis reported by hospitals. It doesn't give a time frame for the reports in the free portion of the study, unfortunately.

  Japan alone accounts for 90% of all cases of anisakiasis described in the literature because of the widespread use of raw fish in traditional Japanese cuisine, with sushi and sashimi.

Abstract in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases

If you are a visual learner, you might be convinced to only eat raw fish after that fish has been frozen per the above FDA minimums by looking at this abstract with pictures from the Korean Journal of Parasitology.


Chocolate cake recipe requires both baking powder and baking soda? Here is the recipe I am using.

For batter:

2 cups Sugar
Flour 1 3/4 cups
Cocoa 3/4 cup
Baking Soda 1 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder 1 1/2 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
2 eggs
Milk 1 cup
Oil 1/2 cup
Vanilla Extract 2 tsp
Boiling Water 1 cup

For icing:

Butter 1 cup 227g
Cocoa 1 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar 2 cups
Milk 2/3 cup
Vanilla Extract 1 tsp

I can't find baking soda at the moment so can I just double the amount of baking powder? Could that make the cake taste too acidic?

As you have pointed out, baking powder is simply baking soda + acid. I've always, found recipes calling for both baking soda + baking powder a bit questionable.

Since you only have baking powder, you should try to cut down the acidity coming from the other ingredients, most specifically cocoa. Try using Dutch Processed (neutralized) cocoa powder; as cocoa is naturally acidic. I assume the recipe is calling for white sugar, but if you plan to use brown sugar, you should also not do it as that's also quite acidic as well...

Taking these into consideration, I think you can then simply substitute baking soda with slightly more baking powder.


Can I use a regular pan instead of a cast iron skillet? I am cooking chicken tonight and the recipe says to cook the chicken in a cast iron skillet, well I don't have one, will just a ordinary pan work?
I am just learning how to cook, so I don't know to much!

The answer is that it depends.  Is the recipe for the stovetop or for an oven?  If it is for an oven, make sure that your pan is oven safe to the appropriate temperature.

While your recipe will likely work fine with a normal pan, it won't develop the same kind of crispy exterior that it might with cast iron.


Can I freeze cranberry sauce? I made delicious cranberry sauce with fresh berries, sugar and brandy.  Can I freeze it?

It will certainly be safe to eat if you freeze it, but cranberry pectin is not freeze stable, so you will probably get a more watery product when it is thawed out.


Hungarian name for jam-walnut filling I used to know someone who was born in the 1910s and raised in Budapest, who made a filling for blintzes out of jam and ground walnuts.

I now know someone (unrelated to the first person) who was born in the 1920s and raised in Arad speaking Hungarian, who makes a filling for baked goods out of jam and ground walnuts.

So I guess that filling is an Hungarian specialty. What's it called in Hungarian? Google isn't helping, and the Arad person doesn't recall.

Dió lekvár (walnut jam). Usually made with green walnuts (Zöld dió lekvár). https://gasztroangyal.hu/receptek/zold-dio-lekvar/


Can I cook sous vide on a desk? So would it be possible with some insulation perhaps from home depot to use a sous vide cooker like cheffstep's Joule on a surface like a wooden office desk with a medium to small sized pot or even a round crock pot provided there's enough space during work? Or would this become an issue over time? Thanks.

This is not a problem at all.  Use a trivet, cutting board, or even a folded towel under your container.  If you are at Home Depot, you could also get one of those cork mats that go under a planter.  Really, anything will work.  You just want to protect the surface from any potential heat and/or water (occasional spillage) damage.


How do you saute anchovies in a flavor base? Once in a while an Italian recipe asks for dissolving a couple anchovy filets in the oil before adding other veggies.

Should you chop your anchovies before, or break them in the oil? Also what degree should the oil be in? I feel like I always burn my anchovies.

You can both chop or not chop the anchovies.

I do not: I just crush them in the pan, and thus do not have to clean up anchovy oil from my cutting board.

I usually use anchovies like that in combination with garlic or onion, so the heat is never high enough to burn anything.  If your anchovies get burnt, lower the heat.


Defrosting meat - broken freezer I have had to buy a new freezer as mine broke last night, a new one will be delivered tomorrow morning, but I have to unplug it tonight. Will it be safe to put the meat in the new freezer possibly 10 hours after turning freezer off? Or should I just bin it all and go shopping? (I love to shop so that's fine...lol) I hope someone can help me. I am 37 yrs old, you would think I would have had to do this before but no! - lol

You should be fine for 10 hours if the freezer was working fine (at the proper temperature) at the beginning of that 10 hour period. If you are past 10 hours when the new freezer is ready, you're still very unlikely to be over refrigeration temperatures.

Starting NOW, don't open the freezer until you're ready to transfer the food. If everything is still frozen when you go to transfer it, you're golden. If it's cold but has just started to thaw, you're still OK as far as for safety to just refreeze, but you may see some loss of quality. If your stuff is still cold to the touch but partially defrosted, pick the most expensive meat to cook that day, the rest of it is likely to face some quality issues if refrozen. If it's not cold anymore, consider it a lost cause, safety cannot be guaranteed.

Unopened vegetables aren't really a safety issue, but they might take a quality hit.


Funky taste - Oil or Fat? I cooked some Turkey sausage out of the casing in about 3/4 a tablespoon of canola oil (recipe called for olive oil).  I tried to drain out most of the grease. I added some soft cheese to it and served in a pizza roll.  When I bit into it, something tasted a little off.  I can't describe it, but I didn't care for it.  Was it the oil or the fat I was tasting?  I'm hesitant to just lick the canola oil to determine if that was it.

Oils and other fats can go rancid if old and not properly stored. Cooking oil should be kept in a cool, dry place with minimal exposure to air. In my experience, Canola oil goes rancid faster than many other oils.

One quick way to see -- smell your oil from the bottle. You could also try heating a small amount in a pan, dipping bread in it, and tasting it. It's best to isolate your components when searching for off flavors.


How do I deal with silverskin in a steak without trimming away all the fat? Below is an image of a steak I cooked the other night. It is a grass-fed New York Strip steak, I used medium-high heat in a cast-iron pan, seasoned with only salt and pepper and cooked for 3 minutes per side. The steak was roughly 1.5" thick, and it is cooked to roughly medium. (The image looks redder in the center than it was in actuality, but it's close.)

The fat was soft and delicious, as was the steak. But that streak of silverskin that attaches the two was impossible to chew. I have heard that when you're butchering other animals or large cuts of meat, the silverskin is always removed, but if I had done that there would be no fat left on my steak.

How do I deal with this silverskin without losing all the fat?

A good Sirloin (New York Strip steak) has a reasonable marble of fat, so you should not have to worry about edge fat

If you like your fat, pull/trim the silverskin and fat off and render the fat in a medium hot pan BEFORE putting the steak in. When enough fat has melted for your taste, cook the steak in the fat at the temperature and time you like

Add fresh herbs or garlic to the rendering fat for extra zing!


Avoiding foodborne botulism It's difficult to find information on the internet about botulism prevention that doesn't talk specifically about canning or jarring your own foods or using pressure cookers.

I'm wondering if it's possible to inactivate the botulin toxin itself and possibly kill the botulism spores that may be present in the food using simple methods such as boiling the food in a saucepan with some extra water.

My specific case is as follows: I opened a glass jar of white beans in tomato sauce 5 days ago, and left half of it in the fridge until today. As far as I know this is the sort of environment the botulinum bacteria would thrive in, however I hate wasting food and wanted to avoid doing so on a mere suspicion.

I placed the beans in a saucepan, added some boiling water and let them boil almost continuously for roughly 15 minutes. I placed a lid on the pan during the last 3-4 minutes of boiling, as I realized that might increase the internal temperature.

The only information I could find on the internet on how to avoid foodborne botulism risk involves high-temperature pasteurization processes or pressure cookers, both of which I have no access to.

Here's a snippet that I found:

  Normal thorough cooking (pasteurisation: 70°C 2min or equivalent) will kill Cl.botulinum bacteria but not its spores. To kill the spores of Cl.botulinum a sterilisation process equivalent to 121°C for 3 min is required. The botulinum toxin itself is inactivated (denatured) rapidly at temperatures greater than 80°C .

From https://www.fsai.ie/faq/botulism.html

Did I meet those requirements and inactivate the toxin (and possibly killed the spores, too) by boiling the beans as I did? If not, what should I have done differently?

Answers that don't require the use of advanced equipment or techniques would be very helpful.

Food-borne botulism is a risk mainly in homemade products which were not adequately sterilized before extended storage. The reason is that there must be live botulism spores in the product in the first place, which is not the case with store-bought products as long as these are undamaged and were prepared in accordance with hygiene regulations. For example, garlic oil should only be used in store-bought form, as garlic is a known carrier of botulism which thrives under anaerobic conditions. Of course, with the right procedure, garlic oil can also be made by oneself, but it is imperative to adhere to the right methods such as the pressure canner method described in the Modernist Cuisine Vol. 2.


How to make glowing Jello without Tonic Water? I found a note the other day, that said Tonic water glows under black light.  A quick check at Wikipedia, shows that it's the Quinine that flouresces.  B2 also flouresces.  Are there any other edible substances that flouresce?

We made some Jello with Tonic Water, and while the kids found it inedible, it did look cool under black light.  (Hint: use light coloured jello over dark colored to see this better.) Curious if there's a way to make glowing jello that tastes decent.

I've heard that you can extract oils from leafy greens and once concentrated will provide a reddish tint/glow under a black light. The problem is it may not be any more palatable over gelatin. Your best bet may be to go with mint, but I'm sure most aromatic herbs would work.

Start by blanching a couple of handfuls your chosen greens for a few minutes followed by an ice water bath. Once cooled dry the greens and blend with just barely enough light vegetable oil to make it bind. Think pesto. Keep blending, your goal here is to really break up the cell walls so that the greens will release their oils. Press and strain the mixture retaining the herb oil. Use as appropriate. Maybe mixed into a whipped cream topping for the jello.

It may also be possible to create a tincture of those herbs with a clear alcohol that will glow, but obviously you don't want to give that to the kids either.

Beyond that overripe bananas give off a slight blue glow, but probably not enough to be remarkable.


What is this teapot and where can I buy it? I recently watched this video and instantly fell in love with the shown teapot. As you can see, the strainer is movable and integrated in the handle very cleverly.

I tried searching for it with the little info that I have, but nothing came out. It looks like Bodum, but it's not. All search variations for "teapot with integrated strainer" return very interesting results, but none is the one I search for.

So if someone has any idea what brand it is I will be very grateful.

I think that I found the patent for the teapot, but was unable to find anything else about it.  Here is what I have found so far:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6655261.html


Butter crunch French bread topping Does anyone know what's in the topping that gets baked onto butter crunch French bread? I think that it is cheese but I'm not sure.

Does your bread look like this (photo)? From your comments, it seems that you think your bakery's "butter crunch French bread" may be the same bread which is called "Dutch crunch," among other names. Since no one else is answering this question, I'll take a stab at it even though I have never baked any of this bread, & tasted it for the first time just now.

In my supermarket, they call it "Dutch crust," and the topping's ingredients are called out separately: Rice Flour, Palm Shortening, Sugar, Active Dry Yeast.

Semifreddi's Bakery website   http://www.semifreddis.com/products   lists all the bread's ingredients:  Enriched Flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Water, Safflower and/or Sunflower and/or Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Sugar, Rice Flour, Sea Salt, and Yeast.

Wikipedia describes Dutch crunch bread as having sesame oil and rice flour in the topping, although neither of my examples mention the sesame oil, just the rice flour... But no cheese in any I see. Any cheesy topping is probably not the same as what I am thinking of.


Can plastic grocery store misters be used for oil? I’m really tired of buying oil spray cans. I know that there are relatively inexpensive misters out there, Misto currently being the most popular, it seems. But I’m seriously strapped at the moment, so even sixteen bucks is a lot!

Is there any reason two dollar supermarket plant misters won’t work with oil? Will they clog, or is the pressure not sufficient for thick fluids like oil?

No, they don't work well. I've tried them.

First, the viscosity of the oil seems to be wrong for them. Instead of producing a cloud of oil particles, they produce a stream which exits with some force, like a mini water pistol. Second, the plastic of mine got softer with time, and I had the feeling that it also lost some color, so I suspect that something from the plastic leached into the oil.

It might be that I had unusually bad luck with mine, but I suspect that the physical properties of oil and water require different pump head parameters and the problem will apply to any water-intended model. If you are really strapped for cash, it makes no sense to make such a risky investment, since the chance it will work is not good.


Can you make a sauce with beer? Usually when there is alcohol in a recipe, it's wine. Why isn't there more beer? I've only ever seen it used in beer batters. Can beer be made into sauces or other uses? Do ales, lagers, or stouts have different uses?

I have a fridge full of steak and Sam Adams. Can I turn this into something amazing?

Yes. Keep in mind though, that strong / bitter flavors may become unbearably strong / bitter in a reduction. That said, I use beer in sauces, marinades, as a braising liquid, mixed with broth in risotto, and as lubrication for the cook.

  I have a fridge full of steak and Sam Adams. Can I turn this into something amazing?

Marinate the steaks in beer for several hours. Pat dry, sear, slice thin, serve with pickled beets.

Fry up a couple of onions. Deglaze the pan with a bit of lightly-flavored beer, reduce, season, serve over steaks.

Bring the steaks to room temperature, lightly season, sear, and serve with frosty Sam Adams. Simple can be amazing...


Will yeast activate with equal I would like to use my artificial sweetener Equal to make yeast rolls. Will the yeast activate? I've never tried anything like this before. I would like to know before I invest in the time, effort and waste of ingredients.

No.  Yeast cannot use Equal (aspartame) to gain caloric energy any more than you can.

How much sugar is your recipe calling for to activate the yeast?  The calories in a teaspoon of sugar are insignificant compared to those in the rest of the ingredients, especially after the yeast has consumed some of them.


Vinegar softens the bite of raw onions? This seems to always be the case for me.  Any time I'm marinating a salad or pickling vegetables it always seems that the raw onion bite is very much diluted after soaking in vinegar.  Is the vinegar 'cooking' the onions in a way, or are the offending chemicals water soluble and just dissolving into the liquid?

I expect it's just the water. Soaking in water, after at least cutting the base off the onion to expose the core, is commonly recommended as a way to reduce the potency of onions to avoid crying. It should also reduce the potency of the flavor. If you're giving it enough time to marinate or pickle, the effect will be even larger than the shorter soaks people use to try to avoid crying.

Edit: I'm not sure how thoroughly you're marinating and pickling, but very generally, adding one strong flavor tends to reduce our perception of others, so you may also have some effects just because you're tasting the vinegar.


How to properly freeze calzones In an attempt to streamline my weeknights I plan on baking several mini calzones and freezing them for later. How would I go about this without ruining the crust? Should I bake them before I freeze them?

I have never had a problem freezing pastries and other dough dishes (inc. pot pies) in foil and saran wrap, however the trick is in reheating. If you are willing to give them another 3-6 mins at ~450 degrees F you should have a nice crispy crust (especially if you have an oven stone and flip the calzone* half way through).

*Assuming you make flat calzones rather than rolls, either way it's good stuff


Is it safe to eat a pork loin that has been refrigerated for 6 days? I've accidentally left a pork tenderloin marinating in the fridge for the past six days. Is it still safe to cook and eat? I'm not sure how it will taste, but I'd hate to waste a good tenderloin. The marinade is really more of a brine made of apple juice, sugar, soy sauce, salt and some spices. It was in the back of refrigerator, so it remained quite well chilled.

Update!

As many folks mentioned, I used the power of The Sniff Test and everything smelled fine. We ate it and no one died or fell ill. In fact, it was quite tasty. I was afraid the taste would be off, but it was great!

I once left a whole New York strip in the walk in cooler for two weeks and it was great. Chances are that the salt and acid in the marinade preserved the pork well enough it would still be safe to eat after six days. I would check for slime and foul odor. There are several other factors involved such as how it was handled before put in the refrigerator. For example, a piece of pork that was at room temp for one hour with a semi sterile knife trimming it might not last three days. I always go with whether it has an off odor or not. I find that meat which has aged a little in the fridge will have a more robust defined flavor. If you run your finger across it and feel any type of slime just get rid of it.


Why is supermarket bread soft? Nearly all "good" bread (from a traditional bakery, made at home by a competent baker) comes with a thick, hard crust. However in every supermarket there are shelves and shelves full of soft (white, brown and everything in between) bread. I want to know how they make such soft crusted bread, and why do they do it?

Is it much cheaper to produce soft bread on a large scale? I've noticed this kind of bread does not go stale, instead it eventually starts going mouldy (my homemade bread goes stale and loses all moisture before mould gets a chance to set in), is this related to the softness, or is this a separate phenomenon due to added preservatives? When did the public start demanding this kind of bread, and why did they move away from the more traditional crusty bread?

I don't know much of the science behind the super-soft bread on supermarket shelves, but I can give some insight into the history that led to it becoming so ubiquitous in the US.
The idea that whiter breads are classier than darker breads goes all the way back to the 5th century BC.

The belief that white bread was superior to dark bread, a common theme in many cultures over the ages, was already taking hold in Greece by the 5th century BC. Darker, denser breads made from barley or rye were the breads of the poor. White breads were believed to be pure, more refined, more cultured. They cost more too, since growing wheat was more labor-intensive than other grains. And on top of that, removing the bran and the germ to make wheat flour white instead of brown increased the work and the cost still further. Interestingly, up until the 17th century there were even separate baker's guilds for bakers of white breads and brown breads. This prejudice against darker breads generally continued all the way until the 1960's, when growing health consciousness finally seemed to turn the tide.

From Zingerman's.com
The desire for soft came a bit later (same source):

I've often wondered why bread baking in this country-descended as it is from the great European traditions-turned so . . . let's say. . . soft. The decline of good bread baking may have had its roots in the 18th century. The introduction of pan baking made bread softer and puffier. In the 19th century a distaste for "sourness" (ironically the same "sourness" that makes San Francisco sourdough and other sourdoughs so great) led to the introduction of baking soda to bread, which made it puffier still. In the 1870's industrial milling techniques were introduced. Flour became whiter and whiter, and "deader"-bakers began adding sugar to get yeasts to react as they had in the past, and bread got puffier still. Bread continued to get sweeter and puffier, until finally in the 1920's, we reached the pinnacle of puffiness-Wonder Bread.

It's with the birth of Wonder Bread things really take a turn for the insiped. Did you know you can squeeze an entire loaf into a ball the size of a tennis ball? I once know a guy who never missed an opportunity to show off that little stupid-human-trick...but I digress...
Alexander Taggart, the founder of Wonder Bread, was a marketing genius. In the 1890s he sold the first company that he had built to The United States Baking Company and he accepted stock in The United States Baking Company as a part of the purchase price. The United States Baking Company subsequently became a part of the National Biscuit Company. You might know that company by another name, Nabisco. So at this point he owned a chunk of Nabisco, but he sold that to start another baking company, the Taggart Baking Company, out of Indianapolis, Indiana.
At first he zeroed in on the large number of German immigrants in the area, and prior to WWI he advertised heavily in German language newspapers using a Puritan logo:

From Cluster Mag
This was a good time to own a baking company in the USA. Between the start of the century and the end of WWI, the market was burgeoning.

between 1899 and 1919 the value of bread and bakery products produced in Indiana grew 620%. Americans were rapidly growing richer, and they could afford to replace labor-intensive homemade goods with manufactured alternatives. -Cluster Mag

But events of the era were causing a shift in the attitudes of American consumers. The war and its aftermath caused a tremendous amount of discrimination against German immigrants, and in Indiana, Germans were plentiful enough that there was a significant backlash to those attitudes. To make matters worse, Protestants in Indiana were banding together against Catholics, and the KKK was getting hugely powerful in state politics (an interesting bit of history in its own right Wiki-Indiana Klan). Our marketing genius knew just how to capitalize on the social unrest.

In 1921 the Taggart Company had a new wrapping technique that could keep bread fresh for several days, and set about to rebrand the product.The new Taggart bread wouldn’t carry religious or ethnic connotations that could hinder it’s sales, or even falsely identify itself with the work of Puritan mothers – it was going to be better. It was going to be from the mechanized world of the future, a utopian world with factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts… and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propellers sound like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds – a vision outlined in Filippo Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, published in 1909.
The new Wonder Bread didn’t suggest hearth and home. On the contrary, the unnaturally vibrant colors of the logo and visual purity of this new, virgin white, 1.5 pound loaf perfectly evoked the otherworldliness of the enormous manufacturing system that was seen as America’s future. -Cluster Mag

It was the right place and right time for the birth of a product so lacking in character that its very name has become synonymous with lackluster conformity. Wonder Bread's timing was more fortuitous (for them) than even they knew at the time.
When was the last time you heard that something new was "the greatest thing since sliced bread"? At that time, the greatest thing since sliced bread was, well, sliced bread. On November 26,
1928 a patent was filed by Otto Rohwedder of Iowa for a commercial loaf-at-a-time bread slicer.

picture from Mental Floss
The new invention was first used by Chillicothe Baking Company, in Chillicothe, Missouri, for their Kleen Maid sliced bread. But it was Wonder Bread (now owned by Continental Baking) that took it nationwide in 1930. Consumers were intrigued by pre-sliced bread, but were concerned that it would quickly go stale. HA! Wonder Bread, the amazing never-staling bread. How perfect is that?? Incidentally, for a time during WWII commercial bread slicing was banned (only whole loaves could be found on store shelves) due to the steel shortage. The ban caused such outrage that it was lifted only two months later.
During the 1940s it was becoming clear that by being so nutritionally bankrupt, Wonder Bread and its clones were actually causing great harm to the health of the American public. Wonder bread became "enriched" as a part of a government sponsored program to combat certain diseases. It worked, incidents of Beriberi and Pellagra were quickly significantly reduced. Never slow to take advantage of a good marketing angle, Wonder Bread was now advertised as a health food. "Wonder Bread builds strong bodies 8 ways. Look for the red, yellow and blue balloons printed on the wrapper!"
Vintage Wonder Bread Commercial
Once again, the marketing worked.

during the late '50s and early '60s, Americans ate a lot of it. Across race, class, and generational divides, Americans consumed an average of a pound and a half of white bread per person, every week. Indeed, until the late '60s, Americans got from 25 to 30 percent of their daily calories from the stuff, more than from any other single item in their diet (and far more than any single item contributes to the American diet today—even high-fructose corn syrup).

From The Believer
Thankfully, the trend is reversing. Wonder Bread, the big daddy of them all, has been in financial difficulty for 20 years.

In 1995, Continental Baking was bought by Interstate Bakeries Corporation, now known as Hostess Brands. In 2004, Interstate Bakeries declared bankruptcy, putting the future of Wonder Bread in some doubt. In February 2009 Interstate Bakeries emerged from bankruptcy marking a "new beginning" for the baking company.  In 2012, Hostess Brands declared Chapter 11.

From wherefoodcomesfrom.com
Whole grain breads are just now starting to outsell white bread (by dollar amount), and have nearly closed the gap by unit.

In August 2010, for the first time,  annual whole wheat bread sales outpaced white bread sales – at $2.6 billion vs $2.5 billion. Of course part of that was because whole grain breads often cost a bit more than white bread. Even looking at volume, however, whole grain was closing the gap. From August 2009 to August 2010, Americans bought 1.5 billion packages of white bread, and 1.3 billion packages of wheat.

From The Whole Grains Council
Whole grain, multi-grain, Artisan and old-style European breads are back in fashion; cookie-cutter, pillow-soft, white breads slowly losing their grip. Halleluiah!
Epilog
The tastes of the American public are fickle, but those Taggarts are wily. They always come always come out smelling like a rose.

From Cluster Mag


How to evenly fry cubes? I have long struggled with pan-frying cube-shaped foods to try to get them evenly browned on all sides.

I have this struggle with potatoes and tofu, and there are likely other foods it applies equally well too.

I typically start out frying on one side for a while, until it's starting to brown on that side and heated through, then toss and fry for a few minutes, toss and fry for a few minutes, etc. until either everything looks perfect (never happens) or I start to see some sides getting waaaaay overdone and burnt (at which point there are always others who haven't been browned at all).

Sometimes I hover and pick at individual cubes after tossing, manually flipping them so that the least-done side is at the bottom, but this is a huge pain.

Is there some technique I'm missing, or do I need to resign myself to a life of hovering over hot potato pans, burning the tips of my fingers flipping them one by one?

I'm going to assume you're not considering deep frying, which would generally be the easiest way to fry evenly on all sides (at once).

If you want something similar to pan frying, probably the simplest solution to get evenly browned cubes, assuming you have sufficient time, is to roast the food in the oven instead with a little oil or fat (which some people call "oven fried").  I'd particularly recommend this for "intermediate" sized cubes, which are too small and numerous to bother turning individually with tongs, but large enough that you care about all sides getting done.

Be sure the food is tossed well in your fat before putting in oven, space it out well in a single layer, and turn periodically.  As long as you don't roast at a ridiculously high temperature, it's much harder to burn food this way, and the browning will be more even.  It may take a little longer.  But it's also lower maintenance, since you're less tempted to hover over the pan and can do other things without worrying about food burning.

If you have to do it in a pan (to achieve the texture you want or to do it faster), the most important thing is not to crowd the pan and have a single layer (but it sounds like you may already be doing that).  The other general advice is to fry the first side the longest: it's always tempting to start turning early if you want to get it done fast, but it's important to get good color on the first side before starting the flipping.  After the first toss, try your best to get most of the food with new sides down, and again wait a long enough time to get the second side cooked.  After that, it's probably going to become much more difficult to always have a "new side" down, so decrease the time between subsequent tosses.

If you do the first two sides well, with small cubes this will often be enough to create the appearance of relative evenness (combined with the uneven later tosses).  With larger cubes, you'll have to use tongs.

A few other factors may come into play which have to do with how easily and evenly the food will cook in general.  For example, choose the right fat and the right pan temperature.  If you're using only unclarified butter, the burning will start much earlier.  It may be worthwhile either clarifying the butter and/or mixing butter with some fat that has a higher burning/smoke point (most oils, or bacon grease, etc.).  Using an oil that is stable to higher temperatures will help to prevent burning.  Pan type and surface can also play a role: a dark pan that food sticks to will burn more quickly, but it can also be helpful for cooking the first couple sides quickly, so it's a toss-up for quick cooking vs. higher maintenance.

Also, with some foods like potatoes, the way you prepare the cubes can make a difference in how easily they brown.  For example, many recipes recommend blanching diced potatoes for a minute or so before cooking and then shocking with cold water before frying them in a preheated pan.  This "precooking" will alter the starch characteristics on the exterior of the potatoes and make it easier to brown them faster (and more evenly).


What is the best oil to use when cooking in a wok? I like cooking a lot of stir-fry which I generally cook in a wok at high temperature. I generally use vegetable oil but I've also heard peanut oil is better for wok cooking because of it's high smoking point.

Is peanut oil the best option for wok cooking or are there better oils to use?

Frying in a wok doesn't necessarily imply a single particular oil for all foods you cook. It may vary up to the ingredients, the technique (yes, there is more than one wok technique), the recipe, personal preferences, price etc.

As a general rule, as you've mentioned in your question, wok techniques require relatively high temperatures so oils with reasonably high smoking points should be preferred, for sure. Depending on its type and the temperature you want to reach, peanut oil may be or may not be suitable for the task.

This table and this list reveals that peanut oil is not the one with the highest smoking point and there are significant differences between the smoking points of the types of peanut oils.

As a result, I don't think that a "best oil" can be named, but I believe -some type(s) of- peanut oil would be fine for many purposes --and it is a must for some recipes. Still, some other oils can be used in the light of what I mentioned above. For example, I prefer sunflower oil in many cases.


What is the best way to get rid of the ants from the box of clarified butter? The clarified butter is in a semi solid state in a transparent plastic box covered with a screw type lid.

I don't know how the ants went inside but now I can see those ants roaming inside the box - over and inside the clarified butter.

I was thinking of heating the butter and thus melting it down and then I could simply use a tea strainer to filter the ants out, but I think that this process will kill the ants and then I'll have dead bodies of ants and probably the juices from their bodies inside the butter which I find disgusting.

What is the way to get rid of them?

The best way to get rid of the ants? Toss the ants and the butter in the trash or a trash bag that you can quickly seal to prevent the ants from spreading around your house. Then, wash the container and check it for any holes or openings where the ants could have gotten in through (can do a water test - fill it with water and see if any water escapes). Then, go out and buy fresh butter.


Aged steaks cooked as medium but came out looking well done My partner and I always go to steak restaurants, tonight we went to a pub for a steak, I ordered a medium fillet mignon which is what I always order.
The steak came out and it was dark brown the whole way through, no pink inside at all, so it was more well done than medium cooked.
The colour was not medium and the taste wasn't medium.

I sent it back and the Chef claimed that due to the steak being aged its darker in colour when its cooked, so you wont get the pink medium look.

His 2nd cooking attempt resulted in my steak looking like medium normally looks like, it was pink in the middle and juicy not dry like the first steak I was given.

Is the chef correct in his statement about the aged steak or is this just an excuse  ????

That sounds ridiculous. I've eaten more than my share of steak and never heard that one. I also live in a city with lots of good beef and steak. The following should hold true whether it's aged or not.

Rare

120 to 125 degrees F
center is bright red, pinkish toward the exterior portion, and warm throughout
soft to touch

Medium Rare

130 to 135 degrees F
center is very pink, slightly brown toward the exterior portion, and slightly hot
yields only slightly to the touch, beginning to firm up

Medium

140 to 145 degrees F
center is light pink, outer portion is brown, and hot throughout
yields only slightly to the touch, beginning to firm up

Well Done

160 degrees F and above
steak is uniformly brown or grey throughout
firm or hard to touch

Taken from here.

I'd probably accept a steak that was medium rather than medium rare, but if it was brown all the way through, then he overcooked it. You could send him to our multiple related questions...

Edit: I should clarify, an aged steak will be darker, but not so much that your meat doesn't have "ANY" red in it when cooked less than well done.


How to keep fruits and vegetables fresh I enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables, but the problem is that they seem to go back extremely quickly.  It isn't realistic for me to go shopping multiple times a week.  Are there any tricks to keeping fruits and vegetables fresh for a longer period of time?

As for fruits (including, for example, tomatoes), ethylene gas is released by fruits and causes them to ripen. You can buy "produce bags" that absorb ethylene gas, and slow the process of ripening. (Some fridges have drawers that absorb ethylene gas, but I doubt you feel like buying a new fridge.)

Update: See Vicky's answer and my comment for a couple links to examples of the "produce bags."  In addition to removing  the ethylene, the bags claim to also work by "breathing" and "reducing moisture formation."

For vegetables, it sort of depends. If you have root vegetables like carrots and beets, put them in water in the fridge (with the stems cut off), changing the water regularly. The roots will absorb the water (as they do in the ground) and thus stay quite turgid.


How to clean an all-clad stainless steel pan I accidentally left one of my all-clad stainless steel saucepans on the stove & the water in it boiled off... I used Bar Keeper's Friend(BKF) & I was able to remove all the spots in the interior of the pan but the shiny finish on the exterior is yellowed now and BKF did not remove this stain.
It almost looks like when sterling silver starts to tarnish.
Any ideas?

Brillo/S.O.S pads (the real metal ones) and Barkeepers Friend.Recently I found a liquid Barkeepers Friend that works well also.

Use the Barkeepers Friend first or just trade off.  Brillo/S.O.S last.

There has never been crud or discoloration that has survived these two products. There have never been scratches with Brillo/S.O.S on my stainless steel both inside and out All Clad.

I think that Brillo/S.O.S works to really put a shine on the interior of the pan.  Eggs do just slide around.  Not too shabby.


Why using both baking powder and sodium bicarbonate? I have a few recipes at home that call for adding both baking powder and sodium bicarbonate to flour in a cake. Given that the latter is the main ingredient to the former (along with some starch), what's the purpose of using a bit of both?

There are two reasons (that have also been discussed in many other questions)

Baking powder isn't just sodium bicarbonate + acid. It often also contains aluminum compounds that release gas when they are heated. That means they will make bubbles not just when the batter is mixed but also when it is baking.

Baking powder is ph neutral while baking soda is basic. Recipes will often include mostly baking powder with some soda to neutralize acidic ingredients.

See also:
What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?


Tiny beads/flecks of uncooked dough all through my bread I'm not sure exactly what aspect of my bread-making is at fault here, but this is close to my tenth loaf, and each one has turned out a bit differently as I've tried to work on my technique to produce better results. A couple of times the loaves have been perfect but the last three have consistently had these little doughy flecks all through the loaf, surrounded by a nice well-cooked texture.

Here is a picture of today's loaf:

I live in Brisbane, Australia, and most days during this learning curve have been at the very least in the high 20's, and often around the 30-31C mark (85-90F). The humidity can get quite high too, often 60-90%.

I'm using a crusty white bread mix from Laucke Mills, which is basically bread flour with some kind of bread improver mixed in. Here are the steps I take:

I activate the yeast by adding it to the specified quantity of water (tepid, roughly lukewarm) along with a teaspoon or so of sugar, mix it up and let the yeast activate (5-10 mins)
I add the specified quantity of flour to the mixing bowl and add the activated yeast and water mix a well in the middle, then mix with a large metal mixing spoon until a have a sticky hunk of unkneaded dough. It generally looks like the pictures in other guides I have read.
I flour the breadboard with a thin-ish layer of flour (I have a really large breadboard, so there's enough space), spread the flour around with my hands and then tip the rough, sticky doughy ball into the middle.
I start kneading, and have been trying to speed up the rate at which i fold, knead and turn, because, despite using the exact quantities of flour and water specified, I find the stickiness of the dough makes it stick to my hands really quickly, and if that happens, I end up having to rub my hands to uncake the dough onto the side (I'm not letting the caked bits get back into the dough, so that can't be the issue). Even then, it's hard to knead the dough to a point where I get that thin gluten window every guide out there claims that I should be able to see after 10-15 minutes of kneading.
Eventually the dough ball seems consistent enough, so I then proof it in a lightly oiled mixing bowl for 40 minutes or so, as that's how long it takes in this weather to roughly double in size.
Next I punch the dough down a bit and then upend it back onto the now-clean breadboard, flatten it out a bit to try and release the gas, then shape it into a roughly bread-like shape.
I allow it to rise in the tin (with baking paper) for roughly 30 minutes, as that's how long it seems to take to get a significant rise, then I put it in the oven, which supposedly should be around 220C by now. I also put a tray of boiling water at the bottom of the oven, as various guides seem to recommend.

After about 40 minutes, the result is what you see in the picture. On this occasion I tried to put it back and each time I pulled it out, I cut off a test slice to see if the extra time had been the issue. The doughy bits did cook a bit more by the third replacement, but eventually the crust got too brown and hard and I knew it was time for a postmortem.

Would greatly appreciate any advice.

I think the real answer is this: cutting into the loaf too soon is the problem. When it's straight out of the oven it's still very moist and soft inside. A bread knife hooks tiny bits of the bread and squishes them together into beads because it's still very moist and malleable until it's had a chance to cool properly. Once it's cooled, the bread knife will saw through it properly, but until then, it doesn't have enough strength in the texture to properly separate while being cut. On top of that, during the cooling, it's still finishing cooking a bit on the inside, and the cooling allows that process to complete properly.

Edit: I verified this yesterday when I cooked two loaves of bread together. The first loaf I cut into almost immediately after removing it from the oven and encountered the exact problem I described in the original question. Later on after it had cooled I cut further into the bread and there were no beads of dough. In addition, the other loaf, which I gave to someone else and so was able to cool before being cut, was also devoid of doughy beads.

Also, it may have helped that these two loaves were the first two that I forced myself to stop being afraid of stickiness in the dough, and which I improved my kneading to stop squashing the dough so much (it's not a pancake!) and instead tended toward rolling and massaging it, with some lift-and-slap thrown in due to the stickiness. The stickiness eventually lessened, especially as I added a little more flour over time, and the texture of the final dough ball was fine.


Preventing heavy top layer of cake from crushing cream layer I'm making a flourless cake with almond meal, thus quite dense, and it's also covered completely with whole cherries.

I thought I'd slice the cake horizontally and put a layer of cream in. The top layer will be quite heavy and I fear the cream will be squeezed out the sides. I wouldn't mind this too much normally, however I'll be transporting it in the springform tin I baked it in and suspect the squeezed out cream will smudge everywhere.

Just beat the cream until it's stiffer? Is there some additive that makes the cream firmer? The cream I was just planning on whipping it with confectioner's (icing) sugar and vanilla extract.

Update:

Gelatine method below worked perfectly with Australian Thickened Cream(35%, pre-thickened with Carrageenan and guar gum--I thought Aussie stuff was pre-thickened with gelatine?). Cream came out thick and did not squeeze out the sides when the heavy top layer was put on.

To make the whipped cream firmer, you could set it with gelatine or agar (which I think would be better unless the cake is being refrigerated until just before serving). For the recipe, I refer you to http://video.about.com/southernfood/How-to-Stabilize-Whipped-Cream.htm (video).
Having looked at the video, you might even want to add a half more of the gelatine/agar so it is really set (much like a pastry cream in a fraisier).
Also, if a creamy filling is required could a pastry cream be used instead of whipped cream? It would set and cut much better (although would lose the lightness of whipped cream which you may be after - you could fold whipped egg whites or cream into it but then you have the same problem of it squeezing out).


What kinds of metals are good for a salt shaker? What kinds of kinds metals are good for a salt shaker? Are there metals which will react with the salt in them to cause either the shaker to corrode or ruin the salt (eg. cause caking etc.)

Stainless steel is usually best, as it won't react with salt or salty water.  It's best to avoid other steels, although you may have some luck with aluminium as long as the shaker remains dry.

High-end salt grinders use ceramic grinding elements rather than steel ones to minimise the erosion caused by the salt.


How to prevent egg muffins sticking to non-stick muffin pan? I have good quality non-stick mini-muffin pans that are in perfect condition, and I spray them very thoroughly with canola cooking spray.  I don't have a problem with sticking with anything except my egg muffins, but every single one has to be pried out, leaving bits stuck to the pan no matter how careful I am.

The recipe is:

1 lb. breakfast sausage,
8 oz. finely chopped mushrooms,
1 diced onion,
2 T. diced red pepper,
15 eggs,
1 c. heavy cream,
(spices), and
2 c. shredded cheese

Each well holds 1 T., and I bake them at 350 for about 14 minutes.

We will soon be making about 750 of these little muffins for an event, and I don't want to burn out all my volunteers or be serving ragged quiche muffins!  Any ideas?

Non stick only goes so far, and eggs are some of the stickiest ingredients you can have. My advice would be if you can to heat the pans up first before spraying with oil and adding eggs, that way the egg won't adhere. If that's not an option then use cake release or butter and flour the pans, spraying oil isn't good enough, you need more of a barrier.

There's a related question on the site here.


How to make cornbread less crumbly? I have a pretty basic cornbread recipe that I make very occasionally (with a bit of canned creamed corn added).  The taste seems fine, but the texture is more crumbly than I want.

I've tried backing off the milk a bit because I'm adding liquid with the creamed corn, but that hasn't made much of a difference.

Because I don't make it often and it still tastes good, I keep failing to change things up when I make it the next time.  Is there one thing I should try next that is most likely to help?

I was hesitating to include the recipe as I am away from it, but since I just made it, I'm pretty confident in

Dry mixed together
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1 beaten egg
~1/2 cup milk, plus more later if batter is too dry
1/4 cup melted butter
~6 oz canned cream corn
small bell pepper, diced

Wet into dry, stir until moist.  Bake 20-25min at 425F

Two things hold cornbread together:
Egg and gluten.

Gluten forms from the wheat flour interacting with the liquid. In general you don't want too much gluten or the bread will be tough and chewy instead of the characteristic tenderness of cornbread.

The egg in your recipe is similar to other recipes that call for 1 egg and 2 cups of flour. The 1/2 cup of milk is about half of the low end of what is typical.

Many recipes, especially those that add interfering ingredients like canned corn, add an extra egg for binding.

Browsing recipes online, it is common to see more liquid than you are listing here. Even if you get another half cup of water from the canned corn it would still be the low end of liquid. More liquid in the batter will give the flour more binding ability.
Don't overdo it. A good way to get tough cornbread is to mix it well and make a lot of gluten.

Some well rated examples:

This recipe with creamed corn, after scaling it to two cups of flour+cornmeal, calls for both more milk and butter than yours.
This very popular recipe, while not including creamed corn, contains an extra egg and more liquid.

I would add an extra egg and increase your milk to 1 cup in your recipe.


How to thin Chicken Alfredo sauce? I wanted to try something new with chicken breasts, came across Chicken Alfredo which seems pretty simple. However, the two times I've cooked Chicken Alfredo the sauce seems to come out rather thick and the pasta is glue-ey, but still very much edible.

I'd like to make the sauce thinner so that the pasta isn't sticking together as much. First thought that comes to mind is cook the sauce for less, but in all honesty it does look too watery to leave.

Here's my steps to making the sauce:

Medium/low heat
2 Tbsp butter
3 Finely chopped medium-sized garlic cloves. Wait until start of browning
Add 1 1/2 Tbsp plain flour
Keep stirring until garlic and flour become incorporated
Repeat steps 4 and 5
Immediately pour up to a glass of milk
Keep stirring and gradually add another glass of milk until sauce thickens
Keep stirring and finally turn off heat
Place cooked diced chicken into the pasta pan and stir.

I realise how thick the sauce gets in the last step, which may be due to the drop in pressure from multi-tasking :P. Can someone share some wisdom about sauce making, or even specifically Chicken Alfredo sauce making?

The thickening agent in your recipe is flour. If you want to have thinner sauce then you need to add less flour when cooking the garlic. If a total of 6 to 7.5 Tbsp of flour is too much then maybe you should try adding a total of 4 Tbsp.


Uses for fondue broth? I had meat fondue last night: beef, chicken, and shrimp cooked in a simple vegetable broth at the table. When we were finished eating, the broth was thrown away. I could only help but wonder: are there any typical dishes made with the used broth?

I would use this broth to make soups. It would make a great base for a number of soups such as scotch broth, but also for using for the stock for making other soups such as lentil or whatever you fancy.

Good luck!


How do I sweeten a mulled or spiced wine that is too tart? I prepared a spiced wine according to a recipe last night using Cabernet with a mix of Pinot Grigio and Rum. I suspect the Cabernet caused it to come out on the tart side after reading this question.

The recipe called for brown sugar, which I used, but it doesn't seem sweet enough. Should I add more brown sugar or is there a better way to sweeten the wine and temper the tartness?

Thanks in advance.

I've used both sugar and orange juice to sweeten mulled wine in the past, but obviously orange juice would change the flavour significantly. Add more sugar slowly, tasting as you go.


Is a smoked pork shoulder a suitable substitute for ham hocks? In reference to a recipe for ham hocks and beans, can I use smoked pork shoulder instead of ham hocks and still get a good result? What will be the difference in end product, if any?

Ham hocks are used to add a variety of properties to beans as well as other vegetable dishes like greens and stews.  Ham hocks predominantly add smoky flavor and salt. In dishes where the ham is cooked for a prolonged period with water you also get an improved mouth-feel from gelatin that dissolves into the stew.  Aged hams also add the distinct flavors that accumulate from the curing salts and the aging process.

Using a smoked shoulder will provide the smoky flavor as well as some gelatin (provided you use a prolonged cooking method) but you may need to increase the amount of salt you use and you will be missing some of the "ham-y" flavor that you get from using a real aged ham hock.

Other options include bacon (especially dry-cured), ham base, or bouillon.  I have gotten a few free prosciutto hocks from the local deli (they were just going to throw it away) that added great ham flavor but no smokiness.


Cacao percentages and aromas developed in chocolate from different origins About chocolate:

I tasted a 66% cocoa chocolate bar origin of Caribbean coast. And then, I tasted a 66% cocoa chocolate origin of Alpaco (Ecuador).

The only thing I've noticed it, that the Ecuadorian was stronger. The cacao taste last for long minutes in my mouth. But the Caraiban one, was subtle and delight.

The both have the same cocoa percentages.

On the manufacturer site they wrote:

  This "Mariage de Grands Crus" from a small plantation along the
  Caribbean Sea has an exceptionally long nose and the soft aromas of
  nuts on the palate. CARAÏBE 66% is a perfect balance of smooth
  chocolate and roasted dried fruit notes with a slight oaky finish. Its
  opulent and soft, melody unveils subtle almond and roasted coffee
  flavors.

And:

  A Grand Cru whose subtle floral aromas melt exquisitely into supremely
  intense chocolatey notes. The majority of the cocoa used for ALPACO
  66% comes from the Ecuadorian Arriba bean. It combines strength and
  sophistication, and offers delicate floral aromas of jasmine and
  orange blossom, intimately and intricately intertwined with deep cocoa
  notes. The subtleness of floral aromas exquisitely melting into
  supremely intense chocolaty notes. Pure Ecuador.

How could I improve my tasting skills. I couldn't taste the orange blossom and jasmine aromas from the Alpaco. How chefs knows that a cacao has nutty or dried fruit notices ? And how just by changing the planting soil and environment will produce the same nibs but with different aromas ?

After all, if a meat cut coming from Australia, will taste the same as the one coming from America right ??

The cocoa plants/grains were grown in different areas, the soil they grow in will have different mineral content; the heat and humidity will be different, the plant will grow in different ways resulting in cocoa pods and grains will be different.

They will have different flavors, sometime it is subtle, sometimes it is obvious.

This is what people, in mostly wine countries, call terroir.

The only way to train yourself tasting chocolate is to taste more and more chocolate and taking notes.

The most difficult thing when tasting is to find the proper words; sometime you will taste of smell something subtle, but you cannot make the connection with the actual corresponding word.

You will smell something that smell like nutmeg, but your brain is not trained enough to make the connection.

You can find Wine Aroma kits containing small vials of "flavors" that you can use to train your nose. This can be used even for chocolate, just as a training tool.

(Anecdotal) I'm part of a wine tasting group, most of the other attendants are translators, writers, and they are better than I am in finding words corresponding to what they smell and taste.


roast duck leg with plum sauce I'm thinking of roasting some duck legs on a bed of plums, much like the recipe here does with breast. However, it suggests simply blending the bed of plums once the roasting is over - will legs produce too much additional fat to do this?

I was also thinking of adding in additional spices similar to this to the roasting dish, and reducing the resultant sauce down afterwards to make it nice thick and sticky. Will that work? What's the best way to keep the legs warm while I reduce the sauce down? I imagine it'll take a little while.

Duck generally has a considerable amount of fat, so there will probably be a good deal of fat in the pan drippings.

That's not going to be a problem if you just blend the plums themselves; they're already full of water (i.e. juice), so they're not going to actually absorb a significant amount of the fat, they just might have a little fat film on the part that was touching the pan, which you can brush or wipe off.  I personally wouldn't bother, just toss 'em right in.

Just don't throw the pan drippings in the blender with the plums, because those will be chock-full of fat and you'll end up with a very cloudy and greasy sauce.  Instead, very carefully pour off the fat (but not the juices!) from the pan, or better yet, while you're blending the plums, pass the drippings through a fat separator (AKA gravy separator).  Also be sure to deglaze the pan if you see any burned-on bits, because those will add a ton of flavour.

Then combine the blended plums and the fond (meat juices and deglazed bits) and reduce it.  You can and should reduce it to thicken it - that's how most pan sauces are made.

As for keeping the meat hot - you should be able to reduce the sauce fairly quickly since there isn't much in it that will burn at higher temperatures, but if that's still not quick enough, then I would just cover the meat and pan with foil and keep it in a warm (150° F / 65° C) oven.  Leave the lid to your oven open while you start preparing the sauce so that the temperature can come down to "warm" quicker.


is it safe to be behind a microwave while it's on? In our restaurant we have the microwaves in the open where you can be behind it while it's on. Usually in normal houses you don't see the back, only the front. Is it safe to be behind it while it's on? I know it sounds like a dumb question, but I heard someone say once that it wasn't safe, because of radiation or something. just wanna be safe.

A home grade (or dual use unit), unless defective beyond reason (eg if there is a hole in it or an interlock is broken) will be always safe from all directions, since any risk of harming persons or animals and/or creating radio interference (Microwave ovens share a frequency band with WiFI!) behind a wall or in the room below or above is unacceptable.

Same can be expected to apply to a commercial unit, unless it would be some very special device not intended to be used as a normal microwave oven (eg one meant to be operated on a conveyor), which can be expected to come with very clear warnings attached in that case.


What is the food chemistry of aquafaba? Aquafaba is the water that chickpeas are cooked in. It can be made from dried chickpeas or obtained by draining a can of cooked chickpeas. Aquafaba is widely recommended as a substitute for eggs in vegan baking. It can also be used to thicken sauces.

  What is the food science of aquafaba's remarkable properties?

Aquafaba in cooking generally refers to chickpea aquafaba, but the term generally applies to the liquid in which any legume seeds have been cooked. It contains starches and proteins which allow it to foam when whipped. I have seen aquafaba mostly used for foams in cooking, but it can serve as a replacement for egg whites in many recipes. Adding cream of tartar will greatly stabilize the foam.

Here is a scientific description of aquafaba from wikipedia.

  Legume seeds, or pulses, are primarily composed of carbohydrates (starch, sugars, and fiber), proteins (albumins and globulins), and water. The carbohydrates are found in greater quantities than the proteins, while the starches consist mostly of amylose and amylopectin. A typical nutritional composition of chickpeas, is listed as 19% protein, 61% carbohydrate, 6% lipids, and 14% water. However, these amounts are approximate and can vary by variety.[22] During the process of cooking legume seeds, the starches in the seed are gelatinized, allowing the soluble parts of the seed to leach out into the cooking water. More material can be extracted from the seeds, if both the cooking temperature and pressure are increased, as well as extending the cooking period.

  Whipped aquafaba

  Once the legumes are cooked and filtered out, the water-soluble part left is aquafaba. Comparing the final composition of a cooked seed with a raw seed shows that under normal cooking conditions, approximately 5% of the initial dry weight has been transferred to the cooking water. The dry matter consisted mainly of carbohydrates (sugars, soluble and insoluble fibre) and protein. That ratio of soluble material is approximately the same ratio as found in the raw seed, However, fat and starch were not detected. A concentration of 5% dry weight to water is typical for aquafaba, but the solution can also be reduced to increase the concentration to 10% or more, depending on the application. This can be especially useful for applications where emulsification and viscosity are more important than foaming capabilities. The concentration can also be tailored to produce a more stable foam using less aquafaba by carefully filtering non-soluble material from the solution and adjusting the concentration to the application.

  The first peer-reviewed publication using the term "aquafaba" was recently published by Martin Reaney's group at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada). In this research, they have found that chickpea aquafaba from different commercial sources produces foams that vary in both properties (volume and stability of foam) and chemical composition. 1H-NMR was used to analyze the composition of aquafaba. NMR analysis revealed that the foam contained mainly polysaccharides, sucrose and protein. Protein separations by membrane filtration followed by SDS-PAGE and peptide mass fingerprinting were used to identify aquafaba proteins contributing to foaming properties. Reaney's group research showed that most of aquafaba proteins belonged to known heat soluble proteins such as late embryogenesis abundant proteins and dehydrins. Identified proteins also included heat shock protein, defensin, histone, nonspecific lipid transfer protein and superoxide dismutase. Major storage proteins provicillin and leguminin were also present. In 2015, it was theorized that the most likely agent that caused the liquid to foam was saponins. However, the group's research has shown that aquafaba foaming property is a result of the presence of saponins, carbohydrates and protein fractions.[citation needed]

  In general, the composition of aquafaba depend on: 1. processing methods (soaking, cooking and industrial dehydration), 2. conditions (pH, temperature, pressure and treatment duration), 3. genotype (Kabuli or Desi chickpeas), 4. additives, 5. protein concentration, and 6. carbohydrate type and concentration.


Is this broccoli crown safe to eat? Was cutting up broccoli crowns and this bug appeared (I'm pretty sure it was from the crown). Is the broccoli still safe to eat? I checked every single piece I chopped up to make sure.

Luckily you caught it before it finished the whole crown :)

What you've got there is an earwig (probably one of the most creepy names possible for such a thing) and they're not known to be contaminants (they don't carry or transmit diseases to humans).

Hard to tell from the picture, but that one seems to either have just begun (or finished) a molting cycle - wash the broccoli well or (ideally) blanch it prior to eating.


How to make a proper scone? I love to eat scones, they are my guilty pleasure, but I can never cook them right, They just become Hockey Pucks, because they are too hard and the size of a puck. Is there any tips with making scones?

I use this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1729/ultimate-scones but I tried buttermilk, soy milk, lite milk, rice milk and even 2% milk but nothing works.

I would wager, however, that you are doing two things wrong and if you stopped them, your scones would be as delicious as the biscuits I regularly serve.

The most likely culprit is that your butter is too warm. You want that butter to be as icy cold as a witches heart. All the flaky and delicious is because that butter is going melt once the gluten is set and not before. You can facilitate that melting by sticking the cubed butter in the freezer for a few minutes so it's as firm as possible. Once you have it in the dough, you also want to get into the oven as quick as possible.

The second most likely thing is over mixing. With any quickbread like scones, the less you touch, the better it will come out. You want to mix the milk, butter and flour until the dough just comes together and minimize the amount of rolling out that you do. The less you handle, the less gluten build up you will have, and more tender and flaky your final product is.

Update
Okay, now that we have a recipe, I'm going to double down and say you have a combination of both the above problems. On step 1, do not use your fingers. Fingers are great mixing tools for a lot of things, but scones are not one. You should instead cut the butter into the flour. If you have a tool like this:

then use that, otherwise you can use a fork. The resulting mixture should look sort of flaky and crumbly. The big thing is, you should have no un-buttered flour when you get done. If the butter seems really soft by this point, just toss the whole thing into the freezer for five minutes, otherwise continue. Add the buttermilk (and you should use the buttermilk for a lot of chemical reasons that I just don't feel you will be interested in, but it is important to the amount of rise you get), making sure to mix as little as you need to get the whole thing to come together.

We are going to ignore the last sentence of step three, because whom ever wrote this recipe hates new cooks with the fiery passion. Instead, you are just going to plop the dough down and form it into a sheet suitable for cutting. You should be mere moments away from sexy British scones and tea. The last and final bit of advice comes with a nod to GdD, as your oven temp can probably be adjusted to maximize your rise. I won't really worry about it, though, as the temp in the recipe should yield decent results.


Thai Curry seems more watery over the last year? I've made Thai Penang Curry probably ONE THOUSAND TIMES.  Not quite weekly for 25 years.  No joke.

Over the last year or so, I've noticed it's surprisingly watery, however I haven't changed my method or my brands of ingredients so what could it be?  Has the world standard for coconut milk simply changed, I wonder?  (Something similar happened in the US when wheat varieties were changed practically nationwide over a few years; I hear they planned the switchover to be gradual so as not to surprise people.)

I've always used Mae Ploy Panang Curry Paste, usually in envelopes but sometimes in the big plastic tub when I had a bigger refrigerator.

I've always used Chaokoh or Aroy-D coconut milk.  Sometimes I've used western brands and never noticed a difference up or down.  One time by mistake I used LITE coconut milk and it sucked big-time.  The difference I'm seeing now isn't that difference.  (Aside: in Hong Kong, they don't allow the product term "lite" and when an importer brings in products labelled for other countries, which is quite common, they paint over the "lite" part of the label.  That's good as it doesn't fool people into thinking it's low-calorie, but it's bad that the taste is utterly different.

My method varies a little bit but doesn't affect the results.  I always use chicken breast, same day I bought it if possible, sliced and fried in vegetable oil or sometimes the cream from the can.  It doesn't seem to matter which.  I used to always add a thin-sliced garlic and 5 or so Thai chilis and fry until fragrant  before adding chicken, but now that I have kids I don't bother.  I've NEVER fried the paste as is often recommended; I just pour in a can of coconut milk and put in the envelope of roux and squash the lumps out for a few minutes.  Oh: also julienne 10 lime leaves as finely as possible after removing their spine.  Also I boil a dozen pea eggplants 10 min in water separately, then add them to the curry.

OK so for the last 12-18 months, it just seems more watery than I remember.  Either my memory is somehow slipping, and it's always been like this, or something has changed (such as the world standard for how much fat coconut milk has).  I've actually taken to sprinkling just a tiny bit of flour as a thickener and boiling briefly.  Any ideas?

UPDATE: I've now tried Merito brand "Certified Organic" Coconut Milk in Japan.  Ingredients include only processed coconut and guar gum (the thickener missing from Chaokoh brand coconut milk, at least now in Japan, not sure about the past or in other countries).  I added a whole small can of coconut cream (I forget brand and size) but no joy.  Still seemed watery.  And I've verified there's no water in the pan from the chicken that would be watering it down.  I'll try a different brand of cream next time and report volume and brand.

You're not alone, I've noticed coconut milk being watery too, it used to have a decent layer of cream on top and now there is practically none. When I make thai curries, I use coconut cream and coconut milk (half and half) to get a nice creamy taste.