Making caramel: how the ingredients effect the outcome? I was making a simple caramel with sugar, water, and lemon, and salt. How do the ratio of these ingredients affect each other? What does a longer cooking time change?

Here's the function of each ingredient, as I understand them:

Sugar - Obviously, this is the thing that caramelizes.  You need it.  The amount of sugar determines the amount of caramel.
Water - The water helps early in the cooking process by causing the mixture to heat evenly without burning.  Most of it boils off.  As the water evaporates, the boiling point of the mixture increases.  So, you can determine the ratio of water to sugar by measuring the temperature while it's boiling.  Once enough water has boiled off to reach the temperature specified in the recipe, then you know that the ratio of water to sugar is right.  Too much water and the caramel will be too soft.  If you add extra water, it will take longer to reach the target temperature, but you'll still have the same amount in the end as long as you get it to the right temperature.
Lemon - A bit of acid helps the caramelization to occur faster and at a lower temperature.  This can be useful if you want a soft caramel because you won't have to boil off as much water.  It can also reduce the risk of burning because you don't have to get the caramel quite as hot.
Salt - This is just for flavor.  In the small quantity normally found in caramel, I wouldn't expect it to make a difference to the cooking time, target temperature, or texture.

A longer cooking time allows more water to boil off, resulting in a harder (or possibly burnt) caramel.  Otherwise, it doesn't affect the outcome that much, unless you're making a low temperature caramel.  There are some dulce de leche recipes, for example, that require cooking for 13 hours.  At higher temperatures, the reactions happen a lot faster.  At 350 F, for example, the caramelization happens so quickly that there's no need to hold it at that temperature for any significant time.


How much fresh lovage in soup? My friend just gave me two lovage leaves and I am planning on making chicken soup (from bouillon crystals) with it. My question is how much lovage should I put in? Also should I leave them whole, chop them or crush them....

Update: I was thinking about throwing it in the soup like I understand you would a bay leaf. How long should it be in the soup. What ratio lovage to broth amount. Should the leaves be whole, chopped, crushed..

Lovage is used like parsley, not like bay leaf. Just season with the fresh leaves, minced or roughly chopped, towards the end of cooking.

As for an amount, I can't give you that much guidance. It is a strong-smelling herb, so use it more sparingly than parsley or mint. You can always add more if you don't find it enough.


Are potatoes ever used in Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes? In various Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants in the US, all of the dishes seem to be made from a limited selection of ingredients. Although potatoes originated America, I never see potatoes in any of the dishes.

Are there any Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes that call for potatoes?
Is there a reason why potatoes are seldom used with these dishes?

Potatoes are very popular in some parts of Mexico.  When I lived in Guadalajara, potato tacos were common, usually deep-fried.  Diced (and possibly pre-cooked) potatoes with some seasoning added to a soft taco shell, then the entire thing fried together until crispy.  After frying, such tacos (whether with potatoes or other filling) were cracked open to add lettuce or salsa or whatever other toppings/fillings might be desired, or salsa might be poured over the top, and eaten with a fork.

One of my favorite local dishes was gorditas, which are basically a double-thick tortilla split at the middle (like pita bread) and stuffed with a filling of choice, and grilled.  Diced and cooked potatoes were a common choice, often with beans or cheese as well.

Potatoes are also common in Mexico prepared much the same as they are in the U.S.: Baked, or as french fries, or the ever-popular potato chip.  Always with a Mexican flair, usually in the form of extra spicy seasoning or sauces added.

I also had a "Breakfast taco" in Austin, Texas a couple months ago, which had potatoes.  So there is some tex-mex food with potatoes, but I think this is probably not as common as it is in true Mexican cuisine.  But then, Tex-Mex has never been a very close substitute for true Mexican food :)

My best guess as for why potatoes are not common in Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants in the U.S. is that potatoes are not considered an exotic/exciting enough food/flavor to be considered "special" by most people who frequent such places.


Substituting barley for pasta I want to substitute barley for 1/2 cup of macaroni in a soup. How much barley should I use?

The pasta in the soup is only there to add substance and calories, so the amount is not really fixed. You can change it according to your preference.

Without any further information about how you like your soup, I'd say go for a volume replacement, and add 1/2 cup of barley. When you pour a spoon of soup into your mouth, it is mostly the volume of the barley which you perceive as "amount" in relation to the volume of the vegetables and liquid. So if you were to start consider densities and try replacing by weight, the final soup will appear to have less starch than the original.

This is only a starting point, if you find out that you don't like the amount, you can always adjust it for the next batch to whatever you like it to be, without fearing interactions with the rest of the soup.


Instructions on making Japanese fish sauce? (Shottsuru) Would anyone happen to have step-by-step instructions to make Japanese fish sauce?

This is something to buy, not make.

Hatahata (or similar like mackerel, fresh anchovies etc) are placed in a barrel with salt (enough to cover the fish) for over a year. Then drain the sauce from the barrel. Longer periods of maturation result in a more complex flavour.

Use a clean barrel. Put in a layer of fish and cover with salt. The fish should look as if it has been snowing.  Hatahata are quite small and can be used whole but if using larger fish like mackerel you may need to cut them up. Repeat with another layer of fish and salt and continue until the barrel is full. Put a weighted lid on top, cover and place the barrel somewhere cool, where it will not be subject to extremes of temperature. A pickle cellar or wine cellar are ideal. You want don't want the barrel to freeze, but you also don't want it to reach summer temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees should suffice.  Leave for about 18 months. The fish will ferment and break down into a solid part (bones, scales) that falls to the bottom of the barrel, a white fatty layer on top, and a liquid sauce.  Remove the fat and solids and filter the liquid through cheesecloth. Pasteurise the resulting liquid (bring to the boil, then allow to cool) and bottle in sterilised bottles or jars.

Nothing is required except the two ingredients, time, and careful control of temperature and cleanliness.


Vanilla fudge attempts turn into caramel I am absolutely addicted to making my own candies and confections, and I just adore making all kinds of fudge and truffles.  However, I seem to have this issue whenever I go with a very simple recipe: vanilla fudge.  I get caramel. Every. Single. Time.  Don't get me wrong - it's delicious!  But it's definitely soft caramels, not creamy vanilla fudge.  Where am I going wrong?

Heat ingredients to soft ball stage *about 235.  Remove from heat and pour into kitchenaid mixing bowl.  Let sit til cooled to 110.  Add vanilla and beat on low until mixed.  Step up a speed, a minute at a time, until at medium high.  Beat until no longer shiny.  Pour into sheet pan to rest and set up.

Caramels.  Every. Single. Time.

Help?

It's a somewhat long shot, but if I were you, I'd give it a try again, using another form of vanilla (maybe precook a pod in the milk, then scrape out the seeds and add them), no corn syrup at all, and pay attention to using sweet butter, not cultured butter.

Fudge is all about forming the right size crystals in the supersaturated sugar solution. From your description, no crystals form at all. This could happen if you inadverently invert your sugar (= split it into glucose and fructose). In home cooking, this is usually done on purpose with acid when making non-crystalized candy. So, just in case that either your butter or your vanilla extract contains some acid, I'd use the versions guaranteed not to have any, vanilla pods and sweet butter. It's not sure that they are doing something wrong, because butter in the supermarket is rarely cultured, and vanilla extract doesn't contain acid normally, but it's better to make sure.

On an industrial level, invert sugar is created with enzymes. While corn syrup starts out as starch and not sucrose, I can imagine their enzymes being able to split the fructose off the sucrose in your sugar too. I don't know what they do to the syrup exactly, and maybe the heat will deactivate the enzymes anyway, but I think it is worth a try to make it with pure sugar, so there is no source for enzymes to land in your fudge and invert it.

If none of these is the culprit, then I'm afraid the next likely explanation is the mechanics of the beating. But maybe it's not about the hand vs. mixer beating as such. It's possible that you've been stopping too early, or that changing the attachment used for beating will change the outcome.


What does it mean when chia seeds are bitter? I have bough some chia seeds in bulk and when I add liquid their gel have a bitter, almost chemical taste. What does it mean (bad quality? stale?) and how can I get rid of it (if that's safe)?

This might be the reason that last bunch were nasty bitter: they can go rancid. I smelled them: OFF! http://www.chiaseedspot.com/do-chia-seeds-go-rancid/

I purchased from bulk and consumed just now.  Yuck!!! I've NEVER had chia with any bitter chemical taste before, and now I must discard a big bag of it bought at a Smart & Final' Superstore's bulk section, on sale at a good price, but sold at 1/2 the normal price because  being so substandard in truth. Wish I had tasted it first, because I didn't save the receipt. :(


Will searing meat before braising it improve the flavor? I have been making this simple brisket recipe for years and it usually comes out great.
Marinate with lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper.  Then cover with water and cook slowly for a couple of hours (not fully cooked at this stage).  Cool.  Slice.  Place in oven-proof serving dish and cover with a BBQ type sauce.  Cover the dish and finish cooking in a moderate oven.
My questions are:
Would searing the meat before cooking in water improve the flavor of the meat?
Does one take the meat out of the cooking water before OR after chilling for the best meat flavor?

Generally, yes.  Searing the meat will improve the flavor on the outermost layer of your brisket due to a process known as the Maillard Reaction.  It's the process of using heat to chemically transform proteins and sugars into new complex flavors.  This process creates the "crispy" layer found on steaks and burgers and releases the smells that make your mouth water.
While this flavor will only be present on the outside of the meat, it will help to season the broth/liquid which will penetrate the brisket as it cooks, flavoring more of the meat.
I would be cautious when searing after using a mostly mustard based marinade, as the mustard could possibly burn before getting the desired level of sear.
As far as removing the meat from the braising liquid, the flavor will not be affected as much as the juiciness of the brisket as well as the continued cooking time.  Air cooling a brisket will cause the meat to cool much more rapidly compared to cooling the brisket and liquid together (since the liquid must cool as well, it will take longer).  This continued "cooking" during the cooling process will help to break down the tough connective tissue, which briskets contain much of (hence the reason that most briskets are cooked/smoked for 10-12 hours).  If the brisket turns out a little tough after after air cooling, you can braise for a longer period to overcome the toughness.
If you do choose to remove the brisket from the liquid to cool, I would recommend to wrap the brisket with plastic wrap to help the meat keep all of its precious liquids!


How do I recognize whether a Gorgonzola has gone bad? Is there any way to know when moldy cheese (in my case, Gorgonzola) is no longer good to eat, without trying it?  Mine is about three weeks old and I really can't tell any difference.

If it grows a grey or pink mold around the edges, or a black mold, throw it out. That's an undesirable mold. Those molds aren't usually dangerous, but they can make the cheese taste bad. With gorgonzola cheese specifically, the mold is injected in to the cheese via needle-like things, and then it grows veins from there. If a mold is a different color and it's coming from somewhere other than the veins, that is probably not a good mold. See also this question.
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Durable loaf pans for quick breads? I'm a quick bread kind of guy (pumpkin bread is my fave). I love my teflon-coated steel pans, until they start to flake and rust and I have to buy new ones so I don't get schmutz on my crusts. Two just bit the big one on me, so it's time for new ones, and I'd like to buy ones that won't need replacing in two or three years.

(An aside: I'm not worried about health effects here. Aluminum does not cause cancer or Alzheimer's; teflon coatings don't emit dangerous gasses at standard oven temperatures. In general, I trust the FDA and the legions of tort lawyers to protect me.)

Here are the alternatives I'm considering:

More teflon-coated steel pans. They're relatively cheap, they release easily without needing to be greased-and-floured, and give me good results. If there were a type that didn't decay over time I'd be very interested.
Pyrex pans. They're extremely durable, but they're heavy, and I wonder how they'll do with quick breads. Would need to be greased-and-floured.
Silicone pans. They look interesting, although I've never owned one. I'm worried about the floppiness, how they'll bake, and whether the bread will show lines from heat conducted from the supporting oven rack.
Anodized aluminum pans. My thirty-year-old Calphalon saucepans have served me well, so I'd hope similar (probably much thinner) loaf pans would also last. I assume that (if greased-and-floured) they'd bake similarly to the teflon-coated steel pans.
Uncoated aluminum pans. They would need to be greased-and-floured, and I'd wonder about corrosion in the long term.
Ceramic loaf pans. They're heavy, would need to be greased-and-floured, and I'd wonder about their heat-capacity slowing down the baking.

So, which of these would give me good quick-bread loaves, and last a long time?

I used to use "bakers secret" ("Grey non-stick silicone based coating" on a steel pan) but my sloth always caught up with me eventually (left too long in the sink they will rust) - once the coating is toast those are still (IME) as good as a regular steel pan of the "use lots of grease or grease and flour" variety.

Quite some time ago I bit on full-silicone pans. I wish I could recall exactly how long ago, as the heavily used ones are just starting to crack now (Just one pan cracked so far, and still usable, but the writing is on the wall), but it's been more years than it took me to ruin the "bakers secret" version, for certain. Likely more than 10 years.

They are (or the ones I have, from however many years ago, are) wicked floppy. Plan on using a cookie sheet under them. You won't get away with putting them right on the oven rack, IME. Properly supported on a sheet, they are fine despite that. Current designs look a bit different (perhaps more solid) than what I have, but they are not a rigid pan...

They work best with a little oil on them - does not take much - manufacturer recommended oiling them if they had been run through the dishwasher, otherwise not bothering. You can get stuck stuff unstuck if you don't do that, but there's the potential of tearing the pan if you get stuff REALLY stuck and are not careful enough removing it. I put a bit on if they don't feel oily.

Cooking-wise, they are fine - I have not seen any odd marks from the "support legs" molded into the sides of my pans and things seem to brown fine in them. Shape can be a bit bulgy between supports, but not distressingly so.

When they finally crack beyond use I'll get new ones. For me that's high praise for something that cracks in use, even if it does take 10 years or more. I prefer stuff that lasts forever, but these have enough advantages that occasional replacement seems worthwhile.


Is it a good idea to grind dried oregano with a mortar and pestle? Someone explained to me that I could increase the surface area of my herbs significantly when grinding them in a mortar with a bit of salt. It is indeed quite easy to grind them down to a powder. I do have the impression though that my sauces get more bitter when using powdered oregano. Is there any basis to this? Am I just using to much oregano given its increased "aromatising efficiency"? Or am I indeed releasing some substance that would otherwise be locked in the leaves?

By grinding it, you are also increasing the surface are of the herb when it reaches the tongue, and you are exposing the raw/inner (bitter) flavors of the herb to the mouth. When cooking with it "un-ground", the cooking process extracts just the oils from the herb, and leaves the leaf in tact which does not taste unpleasant to the senses.

I would certainly use less of a ground herb, but my preference would be to leave it in it's natural dried state, and if you want more taste just increase the quantity. The only exception I have for this is when making rubs, where the fat of the meat (or oil for a bread dip) typically complements the bitter flavor of the ground herb.


Does allowing apples to brown before long cooking affect the final flavour? While making an apple and smoked chilli chutney yesterday (based on the one in Jocasta Innes' Country Kitchen p.266 but hotter) I was thinking about the browning of apple flesh when exposed to air.  It's easily prevented by adding acid, but the way I was weighing the fruit as I cut it meant that I didn't want to add the vinegar to the pan, and the small windfalls I was using took a while to peel/chop/pick over.

The answers to a previous question "Why prevent apples from turning brown?" suggests that the flavour is affected:

  In addition to the brown color they also become mushy and have a bruised flavor -- Sobachatina

but I'm cooking them to mush anyway, and there's enough brown sugar in the recipe to change the colour, so would this negate any benefit of dipping the cut apples in acid?

Browning is oxidation. Oxidation has a distasteful affect to the flavor of many fruit where the star flavor profiles are acidic in nature. In apples, the two acids are malic acid and tartaric acid. Oxidation in combination with these two acids gives apples an artificial candy flavor.

Now I realize this isn't an apple example, but it is a good way to really taste what oxidation can do to fruit and fruit flavors. If you can, find some good strawberry wine (yes it does exist), and then try some cheap strawberry wine. Cheap strawberry wine tastes like strawberry candy, while good strawberry wine tastes like the refined version of the fruit. The difference is the amount of care given to avoid oxidation of the fruit and wine at all stages of the process. Strawberry wine is so easily oxidized that you need to fill chambers with nitrogen gas to keep air away from it. Cheap winemakers don't go to the trouble or additional cost since they are selling at a thinner margin.


Golden Syrup best before date I have some golden syrup in a plastic bottle, all looks normal. It has a best before date Feb 2010. Is it still ok to feed to kids on pancake day February 2015??

A best before date does not specify how long a food item will last. It merely gives a time frame within which an optimum quality can be assumed ( as given by the manufacturer).

Food does not automatically spoil after the best before date, so use common sense.

My gut feeling with golden syrup would be that it's fine unless a change in smell, consistency, color.... can be noticed. That stuff is so high in sugar, that bacteria would really have a hard time there. At my last move, I unearthed a few forgotten bottles of elderberry blossom syrup from (I'd better not tell here), that are still perfectly fine... I tried.

But: If you are planning to serve your syrup outside your family, that is, to kids that aren't your kids, other rules concerning food safety may apply. Check with your local authorities or play it safe and get a new bottle.


Safe to buy food baked in plastic containers: I recently bought some baked goods (corn break I think) from Fred Meyers, and it seesm to be baked right in the plastic container it came in.

Is this safe?

This question makes it seems like this is unsafe?
How dangerous is it to bake food with plastic?

There are plastic oven bags like this

Source http://lamiacucina.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/saumon-en-papillote-au-citron-vert-lachs-in-folie/
that can be used at temperatures at least up to 200°C. I am sure that there should be equivalent baking pans with similar properties for baking goods.
In conclusion, referring to your link to another question: It depends on whether the plastic is supposed to be baked or not. The questioner of the other thread said he had forgotton to remove a piece of plastic that he had been supposed to. In your case: It is very likely safe.


What is Balkan bread? A few years ago, I went to a restaurant on the water in Tel Aviv-Yafo called Manta Ray. They served this most exceptional bread they called Balkan bread. It reminded me a little of a focaccia in texture, but I don't think it was focaccia. I have a student from the Balkans whom I asked about it, and she didn't recognize any such kind of bread. Anyone have any idea what this Balkan bread might be?

It's almost certainly a type of pogacha, or possibly kruh.
Originally, "pogacha" basically meant "bread baked on a hearth", or in other words, "bread" (when the word was invented, almost all bread was baked on a hearth).  Thus, there are as many different kinds of pogacha as there are of bread.

The word derives ultimately from the Latin panis focacius, i.e. bread (panis) baked on the hearth or fireplace (focus), via the Italian focaccia and, more directly, south Slavic languages (cf. pogača / погача).

However, the true Balkan/Turkish pogacha is said to be quite similar to focaccia:

The Pogača or Pogacha (Hungarian: Pogácsa, Greek: Μπουγάτσα, Cyrillic: погача, Turkish: poğaça, Albanian: pogaçe) is a type of bread baked in the ashes of the fireplace, and later on in the oven, similar to focaccia, with which it shares the name (through Byzantine Greek: Πογάτσα), found in the cuisines of the Balkans, Hungary and Turkey.

Pogacha (Balkan/Turkish traditional bread)

Pogacha topped with rosemary

Video (thumbnail above) of a focaccia-like pogacha recipe

Belokranjska Pogača (Slovenia's answer to focaccia)

Kruh (Traditional Croatian bread, baked in a “peke”)
Again, "kruh" just means "bread", so the term itself is very broad - you'll need to search through different kinds of kruh (and pogacha) to find the one that looks like what you have in mind.  A "peke" is a cooking vessel, somewhat like a dutch oven, usually made from cast iron.


Why does my steak turn out well done when the temperature probe says it's only rare? Is it because I used a poor cut of meat?  Did I not cook it fast enough?  Should I have removed it from the heat sooner?  Is my cut too thick?  Is my temperature probe too conservative?

This question is a little vague, but probably your temperature probe is lying to you, or you're not accounting for resting your meat. I would suggest a legit thermometer rather than one that gives you hints about the meat -- you'll have more control over the final product.

Temperature Guide:

Medium Rare Beef has an internal temp of 145F / 60 Celsius
Medium Beef has an internal temp of 160F / 70 Celsius
Well Done (ruined) has a temp of 170F / 75 Celsius

Remember that on resting your beef will rise roughly 10F / 12C in the middle as the heat distributes. So, if you pull the beef out at 160F / 70C, it will be well done by the time you eat it.

If you want Medium Rare, pull it out at 135F / 55C.


Why would a baking recipe call for both cake and bread flour? I recently encountered a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that mixes both cake and bread flour. Why would a baker want to do this? Cake flour, after all, is typically used for its low gluten content, and bread flour is often used for its high gluten content. Mixing the two would seem to defeat the purpose of using either.

The author of this recipe probably happens to keep in his pantry (or more professionally speaking, dry store) just those two types of flour, and so has specified a mix to get a mid-level flour with moderate protein levels, tailored to his preferences.  Given that the author is Jacques Torres, this is almost certainly a scaled down translation of a professional recipe, where that is not an uncommon practice (the very odd measurements support the idea of scaling and rounding; the weird flour measurements are probably the closest volume equivalent to a weight based scaled recipe).

Two commercial varieties (all purpose, and the less common pastry flour) also have protein levels in between cake flour and bread flour, with pastry flour being somewhere between cake flour and all purpose, typically.

If you happen to have all purpose (and you almost certainly do) I would suggest using it in the recipe for the total of both specialty flours.  Very few cookie recipes are so fussy that it will actually matter very much.


Lemons and oranges coated with imazalil I scrub waxed citrus fruit under hot water with a little washing up liquid added as I have been advised.  Can I clean up unwaxed citrus fruit coated with imazalil in a similar way please?  I use a lot of citrus zest in my baking so this question is important to have an answer.

No, you can't wash it off. Part of it is probably that washing methods are not fully effective, another part is that there is diffusion into the fruit, and the diffusion is strongest in the uppermost cell layers. In oranges, this is the peel.

From Kruve, A., Lamos, A., Kirillova, J., & Herodes, K. (2007, September). Pesticide residues in commercially available oranges and evaluation of potential washing methods. In Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Chemistry (Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 134-141).

The same paper found 0.64 mg/kg imazalil content in orange peel and 0.04 mg/kg in orange pulp before washing. The regulatory allowed limit is 5 mg/kg. So if your fruit starts out with more pesticide than theirs - and it can legally be sold with 8 times more - the residue will be even higher.

If you want to follow safe food preparation practices, you have to use organic citrus fruit for zest. Non organic fruit can have pesticide residue from the growing period and still be labelled as "untreated" because it was not treated post-harvest.

If you are eating only the zest, you can happen to stay under the WHO acceptable daily dose, which is 0.05 mg/kg (human weight, not fruit weight). So if you're a 75 kg man1, you can eat a bit over half a kilogram of orange peel (if it doesn't exceed regulatory limits) and stay under the limit. But 1) you're also taking in the pesticide from the pulp, and while there's less in it, you're eating much more pulp than zest, 2) regulatory limits might be laxer where you live than in the EU, and 3) you're still poisoning yourself, even if it's not enough to become alarmed about it. Why consume one more carcinogen when you can avoid it?

1 it's less for women of childbearing age and children


What is the reason my veggies cook unevenly? Today I sauteed some onions and in some spots they were caramelizing nicely while in others they were slightly burnt.

Anyone knows who could be the possible culprit? I am betting on the frying pan but I wish to get some second opinion before buying something fancy.

Let's see how to GUARANTEE this undesired effect happening (if you do/have all or most of the things on the list):

-Unevenly cut onions

-Onions from different varieties mixed

-Pan very hot

-Not frequently stirring (or saute throwing)

-Thin bottomed pan on a hob plate with low thermal mass and weak heat coupling (glass ceramic or electric coil would be best, induction or gas in the middle since they couple harder, massive electric might make it hard)

-Bent bottomed pan on a massive electric hob plate

-Too little oil, leading to part of the onion being waterlogged and thus kept cool, part lying straight on the pan

-Stovetop is out of balance, leading to oil pooling on one side and being unavailable on the other

-Sugar in the pan

-Underestimating how much salt changes water evaporation and accelerates browning

If a couple of these conditions match, try making less of them match.


Does pizza need yeast? I have been looking into some recipe without yeast. Jamie Oliver has a recipe in his 30 minute book that does not need yeast.

Will pizza have less crunch or flavour without yeast?

Many kinds of pizza base are made from a yeast-raised bread dough. As with other breads (and beer, and wine, and cider etc.) the yeast, while it feeds and gives off the gas that causes the dough to rise, produces other substances which contribute to the flavour. So, a dough used as a pizza base which was not leavened with yeast isn't going to taste the same because it's not going to have these yeasty byproducts in it.

Texturally, it's also likely to be different. One of the other things that happens while the yeast is working at making the dough rise, and during any kneading that is part of the process, is the formation of gluten, which is essential to the structure of many risen breads. Anything else is unlikely to have the same behaviour. Take for example soda bread, which, despite being made from wheat flour, is made in such a way as to minimise gluten development and thus has a very, very different texture to a yeasted loaf made from the exact same flour.

So, your non-yeast pizza recipe is likely to be quite different to yeast-risen pizza. That doesn't necessarily mean it won't be nice, but you'll have to make it in order to find out.

I once made a pizza with a base made from scone dough, which has the advantage of being fast, as would a pizza based on a soda bread base. Yeast takes a while to work, so there's no way you're going to get a good yeasty base inside 30 minutes. It'd be hard to do it inside an hour. My usual strategy involves a no-knead dough recipe set up the night before, so actual preparation of the pizza takes perhaps three quarters of an hour, with the yeast doing most of the work while I'm at work or asleep.

But I'm just airily speculating. The only way to know for sure what this recipe is like is to make it and find out.


How to make potato wheel not stick to mold I used a spiralizer on a potato and wrapped it tightly around the outside of a metal ring mold. When I deep fry it, it sticks to the mold, even after using non-stick spray. I am going for something like in the photo.

Any ideas of how I can solve this?
Many thanks :)

I suggest removing the metal frame before frying. Then lower the potato wheel in the fryer slowly with a basket.
If your potato wheel doesn't hold the shape on its own, put it in the freezer until it hardens then remove the ring and fry it (the potato ring, not the metal one :P)


Can mashed bananas be bagged and then frozen? Our family goes in spirts in the banana department.  It seems the only time they want them is when there isn't any, leaving the ones in the fruit bowl very lonely.  Can they be mashed into recipe portions and then stored in the freezer in freezer bags? I know they will turn black and need to reduce the extra liquid, but will the quality suffer?  I know you can freeze them whole, but freezer bags take up less freezer space.

It depends on the recipe.  Freezing and thawing bananas will result in a softer banana purée, significant separation of liquid, and browning. The longer they are in the freezer, the more pronounced each of these effects. For some uses (smoothies, banana bread), they should be fine for up to a few months, though the color will be affected if you care about that. You may want to just break them up into chunks rather than puréeing them before freezing, as chunks are much easier to separate than a big block of frozen purée, and much easier to portion out than full (peeled, of,course) bananas.


Why are dark roast beans usually used for espresso? Do other roasts not taste good if they're made in an espresso machine?

Bitter taste is not from the degree of roast. It is from the oils produced when you pass second crack.

There is a way to enjoy a dark roast espresso without the bitter taste: On your machine allow ½ a second of liquid to come out before placing the cup. Done, simple.

The oils are the first thing that comes out of the machine and for only about half a second.


How to make hot dog buns or sandwich rolls with a soft crust? Whenever I make sandwich rolls, the crust ends up too thick and too crispy. I've tried a few things, such as a moister dough, but I can't seem to get a combination of a hearty bread and a soft crust. Questions: I'm baking at 425, is this too hot/cold? Will it help to add more/less fat to the dough? Will it help to add more/less water to the dough? Do I need to do a slower rise? How do you control the crustiness of a bread, anyway?

Normally, a bun for a hotdog or hamburger is going to be made of a softer, sweeter dough.  It will have higher egg, milk, fat, and sugar content.  It is a slightly softer (more water) dough than a white bread dough (and a lot softer than a crusty, lean loaf like french).  You will definitely want to bake it at a lower temperature, 425 is far too high.  I would not usually bake too many breads higher than 400.  A softer, sweeter dough such as this should be baked no higher than 375.  If you are looking for a good pointer towards the type of dough to use, I use the same dough for hotdog and hamburger buns as I use to make cinnamon buns/sweet rolls.


Using Pam on a Gas Grill Is there anything wrong with spraying PAM (cooking oil in a can) on real hot grill grates in a gas grill to prevent meat from sticking?

My Dad practices this and I think it's crazy, as it undoubtedly imparts the taste of burnt PAM into the food. I just brush my meat with canola oil before I season and grill it, and this always prevents sticking. Someone help me settle this argument.

Burnt PAM can't be good, right?

Non-stick spray is just oil with a little added emulsifiers to make it extra non-sticky. It isn't any more dangerous when burnt than the oil you apply to your meat.

Spraying oil on the grate will also help season it and keep it from rusting.

The biggest reason not to do it when the grate is hot is that the atomized oil is quite flammable. That said, I spray non-stick spray on the grill and enjoy the pyrotechnics.


How to make tomatoes last longer? Some people say that you shouldn't keep your tomatoes on the fridge, while others say that this is the best way to make them last longer. I have tried both ways and I couldn't find the difference.

So, how to make tomatoes last longer?

In my experience, tomatoes last longer in the fridge, in the sense of not getting molds and rotten, but the quality decreases a bit. Tomatoes seem to like the last bit of ripening outside of the fridge. Than you get the most flavor and the best texture.

When I eat tomatoes directly from the fridge, the tomatoes are too hard and tend to be a bit more sour. If they are softer because they are already older, the texture is more wattery and often there isn't much flavor left.

So if you have too much tomatoes to consume in a week, I would advice storing some tomatoes in the fridge for later. The ones that you are going to eat, I would always put them in room temperature a few days before.


What is the proper smell of Basa? I buy basa frozen (note, not the same as bass). It's not something readily available here but I like it because it's affordable and easy to prepare.

I go through the appropriate steps of fish prep by defrosting it in the fridge and rinsing the filets before use.

I've made it in many different ways and even purchased it from different places but my husband says it still tastes strongly of mold. I can't taste that in it at all.

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

Note, I know it's not the same as getting fresh fish but I wonder is there an extra cleansing step I missed? Does mold survive the cooking process to rain in taste?

Basa is in the catfish family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basa_fish), so it shouldn't require any special treatment.

Buying frozen fish, even from different stores, you may be getting it from the same supplier.  Perhaps it's something the supplier is doing, some kind of preservative treatment or something of that nature that your husband can taste, but you can't.  Check the ingredient label on one brand that you've purchased before and look for what was used, if anything, to treat the fish.  Then, assuming something was used, seek out a different brand and check its label to see if they used something different.

Now, all that being said, I've purchased Basa from the seafood counter before.  Coming from Vietnam, it had to have been previously frozen, but it had no real scent at all.  After you defrost the fish, it should have very little scent.  A strong "fishy" odor just means you have old fish, and perhaps he's picking up on some funky compounds in the old fish (some people are much more sensitive to bitter flavors than others).


Baked food and Bacilus Cereus Is there a difference between baked and cooked food?

As I know cooked food has to be in fridge within 2 hours after the preparation to avoid creating appropriate condition for the Bacilus Cereus spreading, while bread, cake, pie and other baked food we store several days at room temperature.

Does baking destroy Bacilus Cereus and its spores?

One of the largest misconceptions in food safety is that safe food does not have bacteria. Safe food is, like all other food, always contaminated with bacteria. The difference is that safe food has been kept under conditions which have not allowed the bacteria to grow to dangerous levels.

Cooking and baking both kills some bacteria, but does not sterilize the food. And even if it did, it gets recontaminated immediately anyway (exception: canned food in airtight containers). The difference in shelf stable food and perishable food is not that shelf stable food has no bacteria, it is that shelf stable food does not grow bacteria at room temperature.

The items which you listed - bread, pies, etc. - simply don't have enough moisture to sustain a bacterial colony. This is what makes them shelf stable. Other shelf-stable foods are preserved in other ways, for example some kinds of pickle contain enough acid that bacteria cannot multiply in them. But there is nothing inherent in baking as a heating method that creates this result. If you fry some dough into a donut, it is also shelf stable. If you bake a casserole, it is not shelf stable and needs refrigeration. Depending on what you put in it, it will develop some pathogenic colonies if left outside, with B. Cereus a common possibility.

If you want to think about food safety, you always have to think in terms of "which factor necessary for bacterial growth am I missing in this food". This is what prevents the most frequent misconceptions which people automatically come up with when starting from other assumptions.


What rules should I follow for improvised food recipes that aren't dangerous? Sometimes when we arrive home, we are so tired and hungry and I am at a loss in terms of what to make. Often, I just want to mix all the things in the refrigerator and boil them or fry them and mix with spice and lemon. Without concerning answers too much with the taste or anything, I'm most interested in MacGuyvering dinner without also ending up with food poinsoning.

What are the major, bold-faced beginner guidelines I should follow to ensure the safety of doing this?

I've never heard of any two things which are safe to eat separately, but poisonous when combined.  When you consider everything gets mixed in the stomach anyway, I find it unlikely to ever find things like that.

Daniel's question about your food safety knowledge is an important one.  Make sure to use separate tools for raw meats, clean your tools, cook to appropriate temperatures, and not leave food out either thawing or cooling.  I wouldn't feel bad if -everyone- took a food safety class at least once in their life.  I mean, it's typically a few hour workshop.

In the long run, I would encourage you to aim for a diverse diet.  Make sure to include starches, green and root vegetables, and other oddities.  The underlying attitude of "I'll eat whatever is quickest to throw in a pot" can lead to frequently finding the same thing "quick to throw in a pot" and a less healthy diet.


Is it possible to mature shop-bought hard cheese? Is there a way in which I can continue the maturation process for blocks of shop-bought cheddar (or other hard) cheese of around 190g "packed in a protective atmosphere". The cheese is too bland for my taste.

Yes you can mature cheeses, most hard cheeses can be matured either in the refridgerator or elsewhere.  Remove from the plastic packaging, the cheese will need to breathe, but not dry out - a cardboard box, paper towels, parchment paper would work.  Just be careful on the amount of moisture & bacteria/mold growth.

You'll find a lot more helpful information if you search on "maturing cheeses" or "maturing cheeses at home".


Steaming with oil instead of water Can you cook some foods just placing them in a metal frame above hot oil? In the same way as steaming vegetables, but with oil. Is that a thing?

That really wouldn't work.

With steaming the water is heated to boiling which creates steam. Since the food is colder, the steam condenses on the food which transfers heat to the food.

With hot oil there is no boiling and vapor of the oil. So in an enclosed container it would be more akin to baking, the hot oil heating the air, than steaming. (There would be some oil in the vapor above hot oil, but not enough to transfer much heat.)

(1) Another factor here is pointed out by user "Lorel C" in another answer. Cooking oils tend to decompose and smoke before reaching their boiling point. If you could get oil to boil without smoking, then "steaming" in the boiling oil vapor would be very close to frying in oil, but at a temperature much above what is normally used.

(2) Also as user "yo" points out in a comment below, the bubbling that you see when frying something isn't the oil boiling. Rather it is the water coming from the food that is vaporizing.


Can my syrupy jelly be processed again to make it set, or do I need to start over? I have a blackberry watermelon jelly that I made and it didn't set up.  I waited about 3 weeks for it to set up and then reprocessed it, adding more pectin.  I added 1 1/2 packages of pectin (it was a large batch) and it still didn't set up.  I've looked on-line but can't find anyone who's actually reprocessed a second time.  People have asked but no one has done it to answer.

Can I reprocess it or do I just have to resign myself to having syrup?

You can use a chilled plate to test your batch before canning it next time. Pectin does not firms up with time, just temperature.

I would suspect that the watermelon juice has made your jelly too dilute, and you'll need to boil your jelly down further.


Why is my green tea brown? As Crystal Gale once wrote, "You're gonna make my green tea, brown."  Or something like that.

When I typically order (the free or close-to-free) green tea at Japanese restaurants, it's usually noticeably green.  At home, regardless of brand and time on the shelf, it's typically brownish.  I follow good guidelines for making green tea: 170 degrees for about 90 seconds.

Am I buying the wrong kind of tea; or are restaurants using food coloring?

UPDATE: I'm pretty sure the Japanese or sushi restaurant green tea I'm used to is either partially or fully matcha, giving it the distinctive green color.  After trying out many different green teas, some Japanese, some not, it seems that Japanese green teas are generally greener in color than non-japanese, and the matcha powder provides the greenest color by far.  Some green tea bags come with matcha powder mixed into the tea bags, including Costco's green tea.  I found it to be better than any of the many bagged green teas I bought at the asian grocer.

Hojicha is a green tea which is made from bancha, a low grade green tea, and cooked slightly; this very inexpensive green tea often comes out brown because it is discolored by oxidation. Other than this variety, and some very stale bancha, I can't think of a Japanese green tea that comes out brown. Some stale kukicha might come out brown, and low quality genmaicha made with poor quality kukicha could be brownish from the combination of excess oxidation and the toasted rice.

Most of the non-Japanese green teas I've seen sold as "green tea" and some lower quality teabags marked as "sencha" are broken down tea leaves that can easily oxidize in the packaging to the point where they are, at best, yellowish.

However, if you use even a moderate quality sencha, and it isn't stale, it should come out green. Most good quality kukicha and genmaicha will at least come out greenish-yellow. Since most Japanese restaurants use a fairly inexpensive second-harvest sencha, I imagine you're either buying hojicha or simply using a very stale, low-quality sencha.

Chinese green teas are sometimes slightly yellow, but if they're actually yielding a brown brew, they, too are either stale or are simply mislabeled oolong.

I used to sell a fair amount of green tea when I ran a small scale import business. I do recall even matcha products turning brown after being exposed to excessive sunlight; one of the bakeries I know was constantly running into issues with their matcha pound cake slices on sunny days, especially those pieces in the front of their pastry case. So it's reasonably possible you simply have tea which has been stored improperly; you're best off with a nitrogen flushed tea and it should be used within about 6 months of opening the sealed package. If your tea comes unsealed, it probably isn't in very good shape to begin with.

In any event, my recommendation is to try a first-harvest high-mountain grown sencha that is sold in nitrogen-flushed aluminum packages. Depending on the style, the brewed color will be either very green or slightly yellowish if brewed in the typical way. You can either do a very brief, several second infusion at near-boiling, or a longer infusion at around 80 celsius. I like it both ways.

Gyokuro, if you can afford it, is extraordinarily green, but is unlikely to be served at a restaurant without an additional charge (it's essentially the same leaves used to make matcha, except rolled instead of being milled).


Replicating commercial gluten-free/non-gebrokts matzo -- where to start? I'm on a somewhat restricted diet right now in which I'm not allowed to eat any grains of any kind. It turns out that the Yehuda gluten-free matzo and Manischewitz gluten-free matzo-style crackers are entirely grain-free, being made of tapioca and potato and eggs.

Unfortunately, they're only available during Passover, and even then they're somewhat hard to find and somewhat expensive. Therefore I'd like to make my own. I'm not expecting a perfect clone, but any kind of approximation would be fine as long as it tastes good.

All of the gluten-free/grain-free matzo recipes I found online are made of nut flour, which I don't like much and I'd rather not use.

Obviously it's good to "just experiment," but in this case I have no clue where to start. What should I try first? How would one go about trying to "clone" a product like this?

Here's a recipe from Joy of Kosher. The flours and starches may be a bit hard to find in stores, but they'll be on Amazon. As a matter of fact, the matzo is on Amazon too, but you're right, it's pretty spendy.


Do you cook in oven before dehydrating venison jerky to kill possible bacteria? I am getting mixed advice on preparing venison jerky at home. Some people/sites advise to cook venison to internal 160 degrees in oven prior to dehydrating to kill any potential bacteria that may be present. Please advise who does/does not cook prior to dehyrating

Jerky does not need to be pre-cooked, in fact the process of making jerky probably predates the invention of cooking.

The process of salting and drying (and additionally adding sugar, acid, and/or smoke) inherently kills or inhibits growth of bacteria and mold. As long as your meat is cut thin, evenly salted, and well dried you do not need to pre-cook it.

Since the meat is thin, cooking it beforehand will just result in overcooked, stringy meat. If you are using the oven method or a food dehydrator with a heating element the meat will end up cooked.


My microwave sparked I put my mug which has a golden handle by mistake in the microwave. Then the microwave sparked so I disconnected the microwave. Is the microwave still safe to use? The microwave is only 3 months old.

In the past I made such a mistake multiple times with the same microwave... the one I still use to this day.
So if the sparks from the golden part of your mug was the only incident, I believe your microwave is just fine.


How do you properly soak and cook barley? I am going to be making a beef barley soup and need to soak the pearl barley overnight. There are no directions on the back of the package and so I am unclear on what to do. There is a recipe for a barley and bean type soup and it says to soak the barley overnight in water and then drain it in the morning. Is that all that needs to be done?

Also, once the barley is all done soaking, do I add it into the broth and let everything cook or are there more steps?

You probably misread the recipe. It's suggested that dry beans soak overnight so that they cook in a reasonable amount of time the next day (unless you use a pressure cooker.)

There is no need to soak barley, pearled or not. It's my guess that you mistook the bean soaking for barley in the recipe. That, or it's a typo.


Can I use a saucepan to cook non-liquid things, like making omelets? I know that saucepans are good for cooking things in a liquid or with decent liquid content, but are they good for sauteing or making omelets, just things that don't involve little liquid?

Yes you can.

BUT.

Saucepans have high walls and will make handling something like an omelet more difficult; spatulas will have a hard time getting under the omelet.

The small surface area compared to a frying pan will not make it perfect if wanting to sautée vegetables (for example); if you put too many ingredients in the pan, then it will steam instead of browning.


Tiramisu tips tricks and variants Tiramisu is a well-known dessert based on mascarpone and coffee, and I love it :)
What are tips to have a compact mousse instead of a soft/liquid cream?

Do you have any special derivative from tiramisu that you experimented?
I tried a tiramisu with a forest fruit mix instead of coffee/cacao and that was delicious.

Any other variant?
Different alcohol?
Maybe even different biscuits?

In the US, traditional Tiramisu needs to be made at home because it uses raw eggs and it would be too risky for a restaurant or bakery to sell.

For years I have been making the Williams Sonoma recipe.  To get the tiramisu to come out firm I had to:

Soak the lady fingers just so.  Pour a thin layer of coffee onto a plate.  Practice rolling the lady fingers by rolling one in the coffee as fast as you can, another for little slower, and one two seconds on each side.  Let them sit for half an hour and cut them in half.  The coffee should have made it half way to the core of the biscuit and should not be mushy.
When recipes call for eggs, they mean large eggs, not extra large or jumbo.  Larger eggs have more water.
The mascarpone should be at room temperature. Before you mix it in with the other ingredients, whip it in a separate bowl with a whisk.
Add some cream of tartar to the eggs whites.  Make sure you whip them to stiff peaks.
If it still comes runny after those adjustments, lower the amount of cream and coffee you add to the dish.

Ever since I learned to bake a Genoise (French sponge) cake, I use it instead of the lady fingers.  It took me several attempts to master the Genoise, but it makes a prettier tiramisu.

For flavor variants, the next most popular combination must be limoncello (a popular Italian liqueur) with lemon zest.  I have also used left over poached spiced pears in a tiramisu.


How to shred carrots without them getting mushy My goal is to shred carrots to use in a green salad. I've used graters with differently-sized holes, but it seems whenever I shred carrots, the shredded bits are very mushy and clump together. How do I get the nice, dry shredded results like I find in restaurants or in the salad packs at the grocery store?

The best method I've found for this is to use a vegetable peeler. This results in nice, beautiful ribbons with no mush at all.

I recently used this method when making homemade cole slaw and it gave a wonderful texture and presentation. I'm not sure if it's the size you're looking for, but given how well it worked with the cole slaw I made, I can't imagine it couldn't be used successfully for a salad.

To do this, you'd simply peel the carrot, discard any dirty peels, and then continue to "peel" the carrot. The strips you get will be even, clean, and without any mush at all.

If this method is not to your liking, certain food processors have attachments which may be able to give you results similar to the shredded carrot you can find pre-packaged in the store. Yet, I couldn't say if this would result in a mushy consistency, as I haven't used that method myself.

Update: Note my comment below. There is a device known as a "carrot shredder" which may be what you're looking for. It looks like a vegetable peeler, but has notches on it. This results in shreds instead of ribbons.


Can I use low fat greek yogurt to substitute mayo in sauce that is going to be heated up (broiled)? I'm planning on making like a crab dynamite crusted salmon. Usually, the dynamite sauce is made with kewpie mayo or regular mayo. I try to stay away from mayo, so I thought about subbing the mayo for low fat greek yogurt. But, is it okay to heat greek yogurt up? Because I plan on putting the crab mixture on top of the salmon and broiling it but I wasn't sure if heating greek yogurt would cause some issues? I don't normally cook with it.

The yogurt will most likely separate and become watery under the broiler. Perhaps Mascarpone would be a good alternative. I use it whisked with a little half & half and a pinch of salt. It holds together better than mayo or other substitutes and doesn't overwhelm the flavor.


What is better for chilled cheesecake - pectin or gelatin? I am currently doing my food technology GCSE coursework and need a Lemon Cheesecake recipe for next week.

I was planning on having an enriched shortcrust base, with a chilled lemon cheesecake filling. It will also have raspberry coulis and meringue peaks as a garnish.

I saw a picture on Instagram of a cheesecake with clear, strawberry jelly (I don't know if it was jello [American word for 'jelly' in British English], or jelly [a clear conserve]). I want to know what it was, 'jello' or 'jelly' because jelly requires pectin (thus heat) to set but jello just requires gelatin.

What is my best course of action, because in my eyes, if I make jelly, it would set too quickly, therefore I would need to pour it onto the cheesecake whilst it's hot, thus melting the filling; but jello wouldn't need any heat?

Probably the jelly is something like the brand Oetker which comes clear or fruit-flavoured. It is indeed poured warm; cheesecake will survive if it's a cm or less layer.

Alternatively, boil up some apricot jam (or strawberry), take off heat a few minutes and sieve through a tea strainer over cheesecake.
Keep stirring the pot if you are slow.


Please suggest a substitute for espresso powder which is not made from coffee I see Espresso Powder frequently in chocolate-based baking recipes. I've done some searching here (and elsewhere online) for potential substitutes, but have only been able to find other coffee-based substitutions.

For religious reasons I would like to avoid coffee products. To clarify - caffeine is not the issue, but rather the coffee bean itself.

What are some effective substitutes for espresso powder in chocolate-based baking recipes (e.g. brownies) that do not contain the coffee bean?

You can pretty much substitute coffee with roasted grain coffee-like powder of any brand you like. It works as a drop-in replacement in drinks and foods really well. After all, coffee is just a roasted grain, too.

If you need instant coffee, one that dissolve in water or baked goods, I know for a fact that Inka brand makes instant roasted grain "coffee" that can be used as substitute. I don't know about other brands quality, but you can try ones found on Amazon.

I personally prefer ones with sugar beet and chicory, some brands also use dandelion. Additions are there to emulate coffee better, to make taste more rich and complicated. Basically, if it tastes good and is bitterish enough, it'll work.

I'm not affiliated with linked sellers. It is just an example.


Raw garlic in Sunflower oil So I wanted to infuse garlic flavour to my sunflower oil. I sliced one full garlic and added it to cold sunflower oil and let it be for a week. When I opened it, the flavour seemed to have infused well but I saw a few bubbles of air in the oil. I got a bit worried and put the glass jar in the refrigerator.

Can you please tell me if:-

I can use the oil safely if I continue to refrigerate it. Or should I just throw it all away?
Can I do something to the oil to make it safe to consume?

Make fresh or refrigerate for up to 1 week is what is generally recommended for garlic-in-oil mixtures.

Marketed garlic oils are extremely controlled as garlic generally represents a risk of Clostridium botulinum presence in the food.

According to this link,

  The FDA recommends that if you want to make your own infused garlic oil, you should prepare it fresh and use it right away. If you are saving any leftovers, you must refrigerate it right away and use within a week.

A link to the FDA document PDF download containing the following:

  "Oil products that can create anaerobic sites of sufficient aw favorable for C. botulinum growth and toxin production are problematic; for example, the addition of fresh garlic to oil. The moisture surrounding the garlic fragments coupled with no acidulant creates the conditions necessary for C. botulinum growth and toxin production. To maintain a pH that precludes growth and toxin production, an acidulant is required in these products"

This spore-forming anaerobic bacteria is known to be extremely dangerous and lethal in small doses.

I am not saying to not play with garlic-in-oils at all, or trying to scare you out of it, but it is definitely a topic in culinary pleasure that requires research and preparation.


How to prepare soup for an office potluck? My office does a weekly "Soup Group", where each week there is a team of four people assigned to bringing in dishes for a potluck-style lunch hour. I have the intention of bringing a kimchi-tofu stew in, but am unsure about the easiet/most food safe way of going about this. My original intention was to prepare the stew the night before, and then let it cool and refrigerate it. This way, I can bring the stew to the office in a sealed container easily, and then transfer it to a slow-cooker once at the office, where it can reheat and maintain temperature until the lunch hour.

My question is, is this the most efficient way to do this? Are there any concerns with food safety when reheating a stew in the crockpot? I feel as though this may be the best method, but am looking for some input. Thanks!

As suggested in comments (and in the USDA quotation below), the best option if you are cooking the soup ahead of time would be to cool it rapidly, then bring it to work and reheat it with a microwave if one is available.  Then add it to the slow cooker to keep it hot until serving time.  Most slow cookers are not equipped to reheat food within a safe timeframe.

More details: Most crockpots and slow cookers contain advice in their instructions explicitly against reheating food in them.  Major food safety organizations say similar things (see here for example). Instead, the USDA says:

  Reheating leftovers in a slow cooker is not recommended. Cooked food
  should be reheated on the stove, in a microwave, or in a conventional
  oven until it reaches 165 °F. Then the hot food can be placed in a
  preheated slow cooker to keep it hot for serving—at least 140 °F as
  measured with a food thermometer.

Soup is usually a good growth medium for bacteria.  And even soup that is boiled is not usually completely sterile: some bacteria can survive very high temperatures, often by going into a dormant state (e.g., a "spore" form) but then can reactivate when the soup is cooler and grow again.  That's why commercial food codes (like the FDA) have very strict regulations on cooling and reheating.  While those guidelines vary depending on the exact situation, one thing that is required for commercially reheated food is that it be heated to at least 165°F within 2 hours.  Most crockpots and slow cookers will not be able to achieve that with any significant quantity of cold food.

And that part of the food code is dependent on code-compliant practices for rapid cooling after initial cooking, as well as storage.  Presumably you will be transporting the soup to work, during which time it will also be unrefrigerated, which removes some time from that 2-hour clock as well.

For consumer recommendations, the FDA and USDA have a general procedure that you don't tend to want cooked food to remain in the temperature range from about 40°F to 140°F for more than 2 hours total.  And here "total" would mean adding both the time to cool the soup AND to reheat it.  It's very unlikely you could cool soup (even in an ice bath) and then reheat it to 140°F in a slow cooker all while spending less than 2 hours in that temperature range.

Some may see this as being overly cautious [See NOTE below], but the FDA has regulations for commercial cooking to avoid making large numbers of people sick.  I'd be extra cautious and follow the same recommendations that commercial kitchens follow when serving lots of other people.

NOTE: Now, I know some who read this will say, "I reheat food all the time in my slow cooker and never got sick."  Okay.  But first consider that many instances of food poisoning are minor gastrointestinal distress that may not appear for a couple days after you've eaten something that was off.  If that happens, you may be lucky that it wasn't worse.  Most cases of food poisoning luckily are minor, but they tend to happen more frequently than most people think.

But even if you're willing to take the chance for yourself at home, consider the unlikely scenario where a cooked dish makes a bunch of coworkers ill.  I personally wouldn't take that risk.


How long to defrost 11 1bs. of chicken in the fridge? We made 11 1bs. of chicken breast into kebobs and then froze it.  How long will it take to defrost in the fridge?

To a first approximation, heat exchange occurs on the surface of an object, and then the heat must conduct through the object. So, again, continuing the approximation, the time for something to heat (or cool) completely depends on how thick it is.

Other things that matter a good deal are: the temperature difference (the colder your fridge, the longer it'll take); the amount of airflow (moving = faster); and finally how fast the air gives up heat. (You can't change how fast the air does, but you can defrost under cold running water instead, water gives up heat much better than air).

How cold your freezer is doesn't actually matter that much. This is because water's transition from solid to liquid actually takes a lot of energy; it dwarfs any difference from a -5F freezer v. a +5F freezer. (Also why ice cools so well.)

So, if you have frozen them in a thin layer, and your fridge is close to 40F (the hottest it should be, for safety reasons), it'll defrost fairly quickly. Probably within an hour or two.

If you have a 11 lb block of chicken, it'll take a long time, I'd suggest looking up turkey defrosting times for comparison. 11 lb block of chicken in a 34F fridge would take days.

Remember that since defrosting in the fridge keeps the kebobs out of the "danger zone" for the entire time, you can safely hold the defrosted kebobs in the fridge for a day or two. So if they defrost a day before you need them, it's not a problem.


Freezing lasagne made with previously frozen meat It has always been assumed at our house that if you make a meal with previously frozen meat that the meal cannot then be frozen itself and reheated at a later date.  Is this true?

So, just to be clear, I've got some frozen mince, I defrost it, cook it in a lasagne then want to freeze the left-overs.

Advice would be most welcome.

Broadly this is OK.

By broadly, I mean a couple of things. First, I'm assuming you are cooking the meat very thoroughly. That both means for long enough time to be completely thorough and hitting high enough temperatures to kill the main nasties off. Second, it naturally assumes you observe good practice with regard to not letting it sit for long periods, not co-mingling uncooked and cooked meet, yada-yada-yada.

I do what you're describing lots of the time myself incidentally, and have done for years without incident.

Of course, as I'm sure you know, one thing that is certainly a really bad idea is to freeze defrosted meat without cooking it.


How long can boiled eggs be stored in the fridge? I boiled some eggs one week ago and forgot to eat them, so they stayed in the fridge. How long will they stay consumable in there?

The USDA recommends storing hard boiled eggs, whether peeled or not, for 1 week. I personally have kept & eaten them after 2-3 weeks. I have also cracked one open that was no longer edible & believe me - You will know when that happens! The egg will will smell rotten & you will have no question as to whether or not to eat it!
Some additional Info on storing eggs:

Eggs should be stored in a refrigerator at about 40 degrees F, mainly to reduce the chances that any bacteria on the shell will multiply and cause a risk of illness.

Buy refrigerated eggs and store them in the refrigerator as soon as your get home. However, even under refrigeration, eggs slowly lose carbon dioxide, which enlarges the size of the air cell and causes the yolk to flatten and the white to spread.

                  **Storage Times**

Fresh Egg - Refrigerated raw shell eggs will keep without significant quality loss for about 4 -  5 weeks beyond the "sell by" date or about 3 weeks after you bring them home.
Fresh egg whites - 2 to 4 days
Fresh egg yolks (unbroken and covered with water) - 2 to 4 days
Deviled eggs - 2 to 3 days
Leftover egg dishes - 3 to 4 days


Is it more effective to add yeast before or after kneading? Let's say I want to make bread.  In this case, kneading is what develops more gluten.

So would it make any difference if I fully developed the gluten first (until it passes the "windowpane" test) by kneading the dough and then adding the yeast vs just kneading with the yeast already mixed into the dough?

The whole idea of adding the yeast before kneading is to be able to mix it uniformly. By adding the yeast after the dough is formed, it will be mechanically more difficult to combine it and you might end up with lumps of yeastless dough. Those lumps won't rise.

I suspect your bread will have a denser, non uniform crumb.


Why is carrot juice so sweet? Certain brands of carrot juice taste sweeter than any raw carrot I've ever eaten, yet are made only with carrots, with no added sweeteners. Are carrots sold in supermarkets just not ripe enough?

If you juice your own carrots you would see how sweet carrots actually are.

When you juice a carrot, you are extracting the liquid portion (which contains the majority of the sugars) from the cellulose. Since the cellulose is somewhat flavorless — it tastes pretty much like paper pulp — you are essentially creating "concentrated carrot" flavor, which is why it tastes so much sweeter than when you eat it whole.

You can also roast a carrot and see how sweet it is. Roasting drives off a lot of the water and breaks down the fiber. Try it; you'll see just how sweet a carrot actually is.


Commercial Bakery to Provide Dough We want to approach a commercial bakery to provide me with dough for a restaurant's use (so the restaurant can bake the buns in house). The restaurant will handle the shaping and adding the filling to the bun.

The idea here is for a commercial bakery to provide the dough so the restaurant can bake it in house and serve fresh buns. We need to develop some sort of process to support this.

Questions:

In what stage should the dough be delivered?

I'm guessing it should be after the first rise. The commercial bakery can chill the dough after the first rise,then deliver it. The restaurant can then shape it from a chilled state, then put it in a proofer for second rise, then bake it.

How to store the dough? Temperature & duration.

Assuming the commercial bakery delivers the dough after the first rise, at what temperature should should the dough be kept in (presumably to prevent the second rise?)? And how long will dough generally last in storage?

What's a better process?

Maybe getting the dough after first rise is not the optimal process. Should the dough be delivered prior to the first rise? Would the restaurant be better off shaping it, then chilling it to prevent second rise, then put in proofer for about an hour prior to baking?

The best solution would probably be to get the buns par-baked, or to get frozen dough.
The problem with buns is that they're small and they rise very quickly. At a commercial bakery where I worked, most of our buns would be ready to bake within 2 hours tops, even if they spent their entire second rise refrigerated.
Frozen dough can be easier to work with, if it's frozen correctly. If it's mixed cold and frozen as soon as possible after mixing, it can work pretty well. If it's frozen too late, the yeast will be too active and cause a boozy flavor when they're baked, and the extra yeast die-off can make the dough go extremely slack when it thaws. Getting frozen dough leaves you with the problem of keeping enough dough thawed (and then being sure you can get the thawed dough molded, proofed, and baked in time, which you'd have anyway, frozen or not).


Graham cracker crust too salty for cheesecake My first cheesecake was too salty, particularly around the crust, and I want to know what could have caused it.

One possibility is that I mismeasured the salt, although I do not make that mistake often. I doubt it was the use of sea salt as it is usually less salty.

So I got to wondering if it could be that I used salted butter. (I buy salted butter because the ingredients are salt and butter, whereas the unsalted has natural flavors added.) Is this something I should adjust for?

Yes!  Try to avoid salted butter in cooking and baking.  If you must use it you will need to adjust, but I am not sure there is a consistent way to do this.  Different brands probably have different salt content.


How can I fry leftover mashed potato? Today I need some tips on reusing mash potato. And not the "don't do it" tip. I mean, how can I fry it?

So far I've pretty much limited my reuse of mash potato to fried pattie-type things, but I found this doesn't work so great with every mash potato I come across. Sometimes it's either too dry or too wet. How can I fix that?

I usually sneak some cheese into mine when I make it, but the people I live with make it very plain, and anything from crumbly to watery. The crumbly ones to me have been essentially useless because I don't know what I can do to it after it's been made to make it okay again. For instance could I later add cheese or even an egg or some other bonding agent so it stays together in the pan long enough to seal and survive being manipulated a little with an egg-flip?

On the other hand, when it's really watery, what can I do about that? The limits of my knowledge of thickeners available in your average kitchen are flour and gravox, but I haven't been game enough to mix either with mash potato and fry it since one time when I had dry mash potato and some leftover gravy I just mixed it all together and fried it thinking, surely it will all just mix together and be wonderful. But it was terrible. Not to mention it kept almost burning because the gravy seems to seal a lot quicker.

Edit. I am indeed after any suggestion, not limited to frying. @Jefromi decided to edit my question to make it sound like I'm only interested in how to fry it.

For one half of your problem: You can add a little bit of milk to dry mashed potato to make it moister, if it's too dry to use in a given application. The other half is a little more difficult, but instant mashed potato can be used to sort of "soak up" some of the moisture to make it drier.


Can I cook 2 very different things at same time in the oven? I want to bake Chicken and Chocolate Chip Muffins in an overlapping time period, at the same temperature, in separate pans, of course.

I think it saves time, oven energy, and just is more convenient because both recipes happen to require the same temperature.

Is this ok / safe to do? Is it bad to bake meat with muffins?

Will the flavours meld wierdly?

Is there a certain arrangement the trays should be in?

Notes:

The chicken is covered with tin foil with some holes forked through for steam.
I don't think this is a duplicate because it's related to 2 different types of dishes. One is an meat dish, the other is Muffins - instead of 2 baked goods.

It is absolutely safe to do so...

For most foods, I would say that there is no reason not to.  If they are savory muffins like corn muffins to be served with the roast, I would not hesitate at all.

For sweet goods, with a high amount of butter or oil, there is some small risk of absorbing aromas.  I would generally segregating strongly aromatic foods for baked goods.  The foil should mitigate most of the possible transfer, but I wouldn't try it for the first time with guests.


What is an alternative to oil in layered paratha? When cooking layered paratha, what can I use as an alternative to oil?


What is the difference between rock sugar and raw sugar? What's the difference between rock sugar & raw sugar? I'm looking for the general difference as well as calories, usage, and taste.

Rock sugar would be chemically the same as regular granulated sugar, but in the form of huge crystals. Some people call it "rock candy", and you can make it, slowly, at home by growing crystals in a syrup made of granulated sugar and water. How it is made at large scale, commercially, I have no idea.

See wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_candy. They have a picture:


Freezing potato mash made with root and fresh vegetables I regularly make homemade mash using the following ingredients

Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Cabbage (2 varieties)
Onion
Leek
Butter
Cream
Cayenne Pepper / Paprika

This is the first time I have made a 4-5 litre batch and would like to freeze it.  Will it be safe to eat despite having fresh cabbage mashed into the recipe?

There isn't much you can't safely freeze, and your mash looks pretty straightforward to me. As long as you're following USDA safe freezing/thawing methods, I say, yes, freeze on!


Can I include carrots in Tortilla de Patatas and can I use a casserole dish to make it taller? I want to make Tortilla de Patatas but I have extra carrots that I would like to use somewhere. Can I include them in the frying phase? And can the dish be cooked in a casserole dish in the oven to make a very tall 'omelet'?

If you would like to add carrots, make sure you cut them small enough (since it takes quite a while to get them soft). I'm not 100% sure it would be a good fit, but that's up to you.

You certainly can make a tortilla in the oven, I've done so in a spring form. I think I did it for about 45 min in an oven of 180°C/350°F. But this depends of course on how much food you use and how big your form is. Just keep an eye on it, the egg should be fully cooked and the potatoes soft.


Optimal shape to cut apples for apple pie I have always enjoyed a slice of apple pie... in the morning... afternoon... and after dinner. Or anytime actually. And as such, I had to learn to bake my own apple pie to satisfy my deep affinity with them.

When I bake apple pies, I make sure to use the best apples I can find. I typically always go for Honey Crisp for its sweetness/slight tang and firmness to stand up to the baking. For the longest time, I have been cutting the apple by first peeling the apple, cutting the apple into 4 pieces down the middle and coring each piece. I then cut the apple pieces into slices in the shape of the apple so I get crescent shaped slices.

I have alway had success with my pie and I'm actually quite proud of it. Recently however, I shared a slice with one of my roommates. He enjoyed it but he made a passing comment about how strange it was that I cut the apple in crescent slices(that ungrate... haha jk). That bruised my ego a bit.

So now I want know how other people cut their apples when they bake their apple pie?
And has anyone tried the crescent shaped method and a different method and found that one worked better?

I've eaten plenty of apple pies with crescent slices. Nothing wrong with it at all. If you don't have any special tools, it's probably the best way to get slices that are the full length of the apple. It's probably what I'd do if I made a pie tonight.

A lot of people probably slice differently, though. In particular, if you have a corer (which doesn't also slice) you can peel, core, and halve the apple, then cut thin slices perpendicular to where the core was. It's easier to get thin slices this way, since you're making parallel vertical cuts. Of course, it's a pain to core a whole or half apple without a special tool.

Perhaps some people out there, especially if using very large apples, peel, quarter, core, and then slice, getting quarter-circle slices. Some people prefer small pieces; they might use a corer/slicer to get get 8 wedges, then slice those further.

People who make a lot of apple pies might have a device like this peeler/corer/slicer. It does all three simultaneously, rotating the apple to peel it, pulling it across the corer, and slicing in a spiral as the apple rotates and moves horizontally. Theoretically you end up with a peeled, cored apple that's thinly spiral-sliced the whole way through. At that point you can just cut it straight down the middle, and end up with half-circle slices.

I expect your friend was simply used to one of those methods. But any kind of apple pie you can think of is being made out there. Slice them how you like!


How to prepare gnocchi dough for mixed ingredients? After reading a recent post on incorporating vegetables into gnocchi (and presumably of potato/flour based pastas), I tried my own mixture of veggies and it came out great.

Here is where the consternation fits in - balancing the potato/vegetable:flour ratio to compensate for moisture while mixing. It took what seemed to be a lot longer than I thought it should, and I believe this was due to the moisture. Unfortunately, I do not have a stand mixer and hope someone can contribute a nice rule of thumb for dough and handmixing.

I started with even 1:1 ratio of pureed veggies (moisture squeezed out) to russet potatoes. for the sake of illustration lets say that came to about 6 cups of mix, I began adding all-purpose flour by the 1/2 cup, gradually folding each in with a wooden spoon in a bowl. Around the 4 cups mark I pulled the mix out and put it down on the counter and started adding it more aggressively while kneading the dough by hand (it was still sitcky enough that it left quite a cleanup). All told I think there was about a 6:8 cup ratio of potato/veggie:flour before i could start cutting and forking the little guys.

I know it's loosely based around how much and which veggies are added, but does that 6:8 sound about right?
Although stirring in some of the flour before putting it on the counter (to stiffen the initial mixture) seems necessary, once it holds together is folding the flour in necessary?
What options do I have for playing around with the types of flour to cut back on moisture and minimize the amount of flour needed? (particularly, would it be better to move away from all-purpose?)
Does it really just take forever to mix this stuff by hand?

You're on the right track!  Start adding your flour in the bowl as you did and when you can remove it without it being too tacky then start working it on a cutting board or countertop as you continue adding more flour.  Sounds like maybe you pulled it out of the bowl too soon.

As for a specific ratio of flour to potatoes/veg. that's going to depend not only on the items you're using, but also cooking method (for instance I recommend baking potatoes for making gnocchi rather than boiling as they will be drier and need less flour added, thus making for a lighter dumpling).

Once you have enough flour in the mix so that you can knead it and work it, I usually do a "stretch" or "tug" test but holding the dough up in the air and with my hands at each end and then kind of pull and push the dough from the ends (hard to explain in text but imagine the push and pull of two magnets you're trying to push together).  If it has a bit of tug and a little elasticity you should be fine.  If it doesn't, then either knead it a bit more, adding flour only if it is sticky.  If it still doesn't have any tug after kneading more, then you probably don't have enough flour.  The gluten in the flour is what's going to help hold it all together so that you don't just end up with disintegrating mashed potato/vegetable blobs in your poaching water.  If you're making a big batch it will probably take longer than you expect to get it to the right consistency.

As for types of flour, the more protein a flour contains the more liquid it can absorb.  While I have not made gnocchi with bread flour, it would take less bread flour than all-purpose to absorb the moisture in the mix.  It will also have a more distinct flavor from the add'l protein.  One caveat is that it could end up making them too tough due to the extra gluten.


Is it possible to avoid smoking when seasoning a cast iron pan after using it for deep-frying? I have a cast-iron dutch oven similar to this one, which I infrequently use for deep frying. I tend to use what tends to be generically described here in the UK as "vegetable oil" for the deep frying, which I understand is often a blend of oils.
When I'm done with the deep frying, I filter and pour out most of the oil for potential reuse, but there is always a thin film inside the pot. My understanding for cast iron surfaces has always been that I should not use dishsoap or similar on the pot before putting it away, so instead what I tend to do is wipe off as much oil as possible using a paper towel, and then put in the oven as hot as possible (250C/480F) to give it a 'free' season.
However, this generates a lot of smoky smells (even inside the oven with the lid on), and my partner finds it deeply unpleasant.
Am I doing this wrong? Should I be using a different oil for the frying? Alternatively, is there another way to clean the residual oil off the pan before putting it away?

You never want to get all the oil off, which is why a bath in Fairy Liquid is not considered a good idea.
You can, however, get most of it off with hot water & salt & a scrub round with your dish-washing brush. This has for centuries been considered 'good enough'.
After which, a quick heat up back on the stove top until you're sure it's completely dry & you can put it back in the rack (once cooled if your storage demands it).
Smoking out your partner is not conducive to good relationships, nor really a 'better' non-stick surface. Normal usage should be enough to preserve both ;)


Squeezing as much liquid as possible out of a stock: a practical approach? When making stock at home (i.e. with a combination of chicken parts and vegetables), I am often at a loss for how to get the last bits of liquid out of the stock. I often use a mesh strainer, but this doesn't let me apply force to squeeze the liquid out of all the vegetables.

I'm making homestyle stock, so I'm not interested in coagulating proteins or making the stock as clear as possible (e.g. What's the best way to strain stock?) Instead, I'm interested in extracting every last bit of liquid for use later.

What's a practical way, using items that would normally be found in my kitchen, to squeeze my stock remnants as much as possible? I'm imagining something that actually resembles juicing a fruit. Currently I pour the stock into a colander and press on the top with a wide bowl, but I'm worried about breaking the colander and think I could do better.

Possible approaches I've considered, that aren't optimal:

Filling this 'milk bag' and twisting it. I'm be afraid of ripping the bag by twisting it too hard.
Using a potato ricer. But it would take forever to process a large pot of stock this way.

Not difficult at all if you truly want to get every possible last drop. Choose a large clean tea towel for this purpose only. After you've drained most of the liquids out, line your colander with the tea towel and pour the last bit with meat and vegetables in. I found using clothespins to the towel in place is best. Gather the corners up and you can either use a heavy thick elastic to secure the contents into a bagged ball or use heavy twine tied around it. I prefer twine. Less risk of breaking and you've got a long end to hang the ball.

I've done similar but not with soup stock as I always use meat with bones. If you tie one end of the twine up (on a cupboard door handle, for instance),you can put a bowl under it to catch the stock. Start at the top of the ball so when you squeeze, ut runs down lower. Work your way to the bottom. I doubt you'll be able to extract much more after that.

Make sure you scrape the remains off the tea towel right afterward and rinse off any bits left on. Then rinse well and include in the laundry. Otherwise, it's just about impossible to clean later. I know as I got busy with other things and forgot.


Sauerkraut/sourkraut - ratio of grams of salt to grams of raw cabbage? Yes, obviously it can vary. I'm just looking for an approximate range, as a good place to start for my first time making a batch.

A good answer would be something along the lines of:

  10 to 20 grams of salt per 100 grams of raw cabbage

Or something like that.

[EDIT: that was just the format of answer I wanted. That actual ratio would probably be about ten times too much salt.]

2% (20g per 1000g) would be my default recommendation based on sources local to me, but with care less salt may work if sanitation is extremely good (to minimize introduction of undesirable bacteria which the salt helps to supress.)

On the high end, I can say that 4% seems to slow things down, but work, and 8% seems to be simply too much. The pictured jars are 2%, 4% and 8% salt, using red cabbage, which acts as a pH indicator. The 8% jar (rightmost) has not turned pink (and is growing mold on the surface) while the other two are successfully acidifying (the 2% somewhat faster than the 4%) and mold-free. The lids are put on "fingertip-tight" as in canning, so they form a crude but effective airlock seal (they "burp" themselves as needed, just as in canning - they are not loosened manually to relieve pressure.)

Actually 75% red cabbage and 25% apples for these. And the stuff on top is some ceramic tile as improvised weights. Other than for pictures, they are kept in the dark.


When braising, how deep should I fill a single pot? Mark Bittman's recipe for chicken Adobo says: "Combine the [ingredients] in a covered skillet or saucepan large enough to hold the chicken in one layer". The recipe calls for 3-4 pounds of chicken.

I'm wondering what is the reason that the chicken must fit in one layer. Is it to ensure that the cooking temperature does not vary too much from the bottom of the pot to the top?

I'm also wondering in general, for most recipes that involve stovetop cooking in liquid like braises, stews, chili, arroz con pollo, stroganoff, etc., is there a limit to how deep I should pile it in one pot? when it exceeds a certain depth, should I split it in 2 pots?

Extra info: My biggest cooking pot is 5.5 inches deep, has a 10 inch diameter, and has a fairly thick base. My stovetop has gas burners.

If you are simmering, boiling or poaching something, the depth does not matter. As long as your food is completely immersed in liquid, all the liquid has a sufficiently regular temperature due to convection, and it cooks well. So the stews you mention are no problem, you can fill the pot up to the brim.

Braising is a different beast entirely. In braising, you want the liquid to reach to the half of the food or a bit lower. Obviously, you can't do that if you stack your food. When you braise, the heat penetrates into the meat from all sides, but much quicker from below than from the sides (which are only steamed). The upper half still gets done early enough because of heat conducted from the hot bottom half. If you put a piece of meat on top of the first layer, 1) a much larger height (100% of it) is getting heated by steam only, not liquid, 2) the boundary between the two pieces of meat slows down conduction considerably, and 3) the heat which gets transferred bottom-up is much lower, as it is in contact with a piece of meat and not the pan bottom. So, a piece of meat on top will get much later to the desired temperature.

You can get away with it, if you are not after perfection and if you are cooking for long enough for both layers to cook through, but the degree of tenderness will still vary within the stew. So, if you are braising large chunks of meat or vegetables, do a single layer only.

If you are cooking a rice dish, or something with finely diced ingredients, it is again OK to make it deep, even if you are not covering them in liquid. In this case, you'll want to stir them a few times during the cooking. Don't stand there stirring all the time, it's counterproductive. Do it 2-3 times during the whole cook, but do it thoroughly, exchanging the "layers" as good as you can.


How can I hold a chefs knife for efficiency and safety? How specifically can I hold a chefs knife properly to increase efficiency and safety? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each style?

The chefs knife in my kitchen is a workhorse that I use for everything from chopping vegetables to slicing meats, and mincing herbs. If how I can hold a chefs knife changes based on the cut involved I am interested in learning the basics of that.

There are a couple ways I hold a knife.

One, my go-to grip, is a thumbs-up grip - with my thumb braced against the back of the knife blade, and my fingers wrapped around the hilt.  Usually, I'm using my other hand curved over the blade, to move the food on either side, or add additional pressure to the knife as it cuts.  I am using the blade like an extension of my thumb, pressing down with weight behind it - and it is really good for rocking cuts.

Another grip is with my forefinger along the length of the blade - this gives a bit more precision in placing the knife, but less force behind it.  This would work for making long rocking cuts, where I need the length of the blade (it extends line of control further), or for slicing, and also for making delicate cuts, or teasing things apart with the tip of the knife.  This grip it really helps to use the other hand to give extra pressure along the back of the knife blade.

And the third, is very nearly a pinch grip - except moved back about an inch, so my grip is wrapped around the handle, not the blade.  I am pinching the handle, just behind the blade, between my thumb and the side of my forefinger, with that finger curled along the side and slanting under the handle, and my other fingers wrapped loosely around the hilt.  It's possible to edge the grip forward just a bit, so that the side of the forefinger edges into the gap where the blade falls away from the handle - but the finger is still far enough back that it can wrap under and behind the blade, and the thumb is still on the handle.  This can make a very secure grip.

The pinch grip is kind terrible, I agree with @Joe, it pulls the knife out of balance and makes the grip weak.  The difference between the width of the blade and the width of the handle weakens the grip, since the pressure has to be variable, and the majority of the index finger is kinda hanging out into space, not involved in the grip at all.  The whole thing is kinda awkward, and the videos show the thumb pointed across the blade, while to control the cut it needs to be nearly horizontal along the blade, which pulls the forefinger out of alignment unless you pinch against the side of the finger, not the pad - in which case it's more comfortable and controllable to move the grip back along the hilt to the handle.


Do I have to adjust anything to add seeds to bread? I have a go-to recipe for Honey-Oat Pain de Mie. I'd like to add about 1/2 cup total of combined sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Since I do bake it in a Pain de Mie pan,

I'll pull a small dinner roll's worth of dough just to make up for the increased overall volume.

Do I need to adjust anything else? Will the seeds affect how the bread bakes?

I think the substitution should be straightforward.  From the recipe, the dough should be able to handle that amount of seeds.

My main concern would be with hydration level.  Seeds can pull some moisture out of dough, which might make the bread a little dry or stiff.  But the type of seeds you're talking about shouldn't absorb that much water, so it may not be a huge issue.  (This probably needs a couple tablespoons of extra liquid, roughly within the "error range" of the recipe already.)

I'd "play it by ear" and see if the dough seems drier than usual.  If you plan to do this substitution more than once, you can see what happens the first time and add a little water if necessary in future batches.  (You could also try soaking the seeds first, but that seems unnecessary to me with these types of seeds -- nevertheless, that can give you a sense of how much water they might absorb if you measure the water and then measure the amount your pour off after soaking, before adding the seeds to the dough.)

The other issue is that you'll simultaneously be adding weight to the dough while removing some gluten (by removing a bit of the dough).  Now the bread has to support more weight, so you need to ensure the gluten structure is strong.  I personally would consider substituting some bread flour rather than just AP, which will help support the extra weight.  (That could also affect the moisture level of the dough.)  And/or you might add a "stretch-and-fold" maneuver halfway through the first rise (or maybe two), just to ensure the gluten has maximum development.

Finally, oven spring will be a bit less, so you'll want to wait until the dough is clearly risen enough before baking.  You also want to be careful not to remove too much excess dough when substituting the seeds, or you may not fill the pan to the top during the bake.

But these are all rather "picky" things.  Chances are if you just did the substitution you suggest without any other modification, things will turn out OK -- maybe somewhat dry, and maybe with the loaf a little denser in the crumb toward the bottom.


Adding melted butter to cold milk in baking I've seen a lot of recipes, particularly for things like quick breads, that call for combining melted butter with milk and eggs before mixing with dry ingredients.

Of course, if the milk and eggs are cool the melted butter will immediately solidify. Is there a technique for this that recipe writers are assuming I know? Or is it just intended that there be little droplets of solid butter suspended in the batter or dough?

Melting the butter and mixing it with milk or other liquid ingredients is almost always done as part of the muffin method, where a muffin, cake or quick bread batter is formed by mixing dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together, and then quickly combining the two.

In practice, the butter is not going to mix with the milk.  It is going to mostly float on top, and stay liquid.   You will have sufficient time to combine the wet and dry mixes, and create the batter.

Putting them together just makes it easier to form the final batter.  It would work just as well if you made a dry mix, then added the remaining liquid ingredients (usually milk, eggs, and maybe some flavoring), and then the melted butter.  When you stir the dry and wet mixes together, the butter is going to become fairly uniformly mixed into the batter.

Note that many quick breads are made with oil, which is treated the exact same way, even though melting is not an issue.  The only reason to use butter is because the flavor is desired for whatever item is being made.