What would result from not adding fat to pastry dough? I'm preparing some form of pastry. The usual ingredients: flour, water, and shortening. What would happen if I don't add shortening?

You'd end up with something somewhere between unleavened bread, pasta & laminate flooring, depending on what else you did with it.
The first two are what you'd get if that's how you treated them, the last is what you'd get if you thought you were going to get shortcrust pastry ;)
Late edit
This started out as one of my more flippant short answers, but has since hit the HNQ* list so naturally falls under more scrutiny.
The point of the 'flooring' aspect is that simple flour & water can be used as anything from wallpaper paste raw, or heated & dried as 'hard tack' which really is hard enough to break your teeth.
Pasta can also be made this way, you can omit both egg & oil, then dry it. Try eating dried pasta without re-hydrating.
Of course, such as chapattis are also made simply with flour & water (a splash of oil is optional) This, rolled & dry-heated is of course, absolutely delicious - so it's the treatment after mixing that determines the end product… & its actual edibility.
What you will never get from omitting all fat is pastry… & we're back round to my flooring joke.
*Hot network questions - in the side bar on the right.
From Comments (Thank you PLL) - Glen Baxter said it best (even if he had a different flour in mind)


Making gelatin from scratch I found on Wikipedia that it is made from animals' skin and bones. The article describes the steps of gelatin production from a technical perspective:

The manufacturing processes of gelatin consists of three main stages:

Pretreatments to make the raw materials ready for the main extraction step and to remove impurities which may have negative effects on physiochemical properties of the final gelatin product,
The main extraction step, which is usually done with hot water or dilute acid solutions as a multi-stage extraction to hydrolyze collagen into gelatin, and finally,
The refining and recovering treatments including filtration, clarification, evaporation, sterilization, drying, rutting, grinding, and sifting to remove the water from the gelatin solution, to blend the gelatin extracted, and to obtain dried, blended and ground final product.

How can you make gelatin from scratch in your own kitchen?

It's the refinement that's the real issue: anyone who's braised a big joint of meat knows that a couple of hours of low-temperature stewing will net you large amounts of gelatin. Hooves and antlers were the preferred media, but anything that's got a bunch of collagen will work. Talk to your butchers shop, and see if you can buy some bones.

Refinement was done the old fashioned way: by hand. You skim the top to remove the scum, you add egg whites to degrease and to clarify the "broth", and then you strain and strain and strain and strain.

And strain. And strain. And strain. The skimming/straining process is similar to rendering sugar from sugar cane, if you've ever done it (slightly less esoteric, because people still like molasses). They obviously don't use egg whites in rendering sugar.

It's a huge amount of work (and OMG it stinks...do it outdoors if possible), and the end result is probably not going to be on par with the stuff you buy from the store. Unless you're hankering to re-invent an ancient technology just for the fun of it, I'd just buy it.

Edit: I dug around, and there are a number of products for straining jelly that might make it easier, and they should be able to deal with the viscosity of the gelatin soup. Unfortunately they seem to be made for smaller batches, and that may not be helpful if you're doing a huge kettle.


Should sharpening nicked knives with whetstones leave the nicks in the blade? This question is somewhat similar to How to sharpen knife with chunk missing?, but the knives I have are not ruined like the one in that question, and I doubt the answer here would be to just throw away the knives as in that question.

I have three different Classic Global knives – a G2, a G5, and a GSF22 – which are all somewhere between eight and ten years old. None of them have ever been sharpened before. Especially the G5 and the GSF22 have been frequently used, and the blades are showing the effects of that, so I’ve bought an MS5 ceramic whetstone to sharpen them.

I’m a complete novice when it comes to sharpening knives, especially with whetstones, so I did the usual thing first: watched some YouTube videos (Global have one themselves which was very instructional) and read up on it on the Internet.

The M5-OM whetstone I have is 1000 grit, which I realise is probably not really coarse enough to get efficiently rid of nicks very efficiently, but I didn’t feel like splurging on more than one whetstone to begin with, so I got the medium one to start with.

I’ve just sharpened all three knives now, and I admit the results are a bit underwhelming to me. The knives are decidedly sharper than they were before, but all the little nicks and chips in the blades that have developed over the years are still there – some of them actually look bigger now than they were before, which was rather the opposite of what I wanted to achieve.

For comparison, here are two superimposed images of the blade of the GSF22 before (top) and after (bottom) sharpening (click for full size to see the nicks better):

None of the nicks you see there are very big to begin with (the blade is 11 cm in total), but I would have thought sharpening the knife would at least have reduced them, taking material off the edge of the blade, but not where it’s nicked.

With this level of nicking, is it normal that sharpening the blade does not seem to affect the nick? Or does this level of nicking simply require a coarser grit than 1000 to even start getting rid of the nicks at all? Or is it evident from the photo that I did something very wrong when sharpening (over- or undersharpening, wrong angle, etc.), which may have exacerbated the nicks rather than getting rid of them?

You are indeed supposed to remove so much material from the blade that the nicks disappear completely. You'll have to lose what's probably a least a milimeter of the blade's width.

For that, the 1000er grit is indeed too fine. Go for something much coarser, and use finer grits for finishing. With the stone you're using, you'll have to spend days to get so much steel ground away. Something in the 150-300 range will do nicely for the task you have.


When to spray or when to use olive oil? So what's the basic rule of when to spray with PAM etc or when to use olive oil?

For ex, for making an omelet, I usually use the spray.

First of all, with omelettes--any sauteed eggs really--I much prefer butter. And with omelettes, less than a teaspoon is sufficient; swirl it around the pan until fully melted, then pour off the excess. In this case, you would be using the butter for flavour, not any specific physical properties. For scrambled, user rather more. Fried eggs are generally the only time I will use olive oil, and even then I will use a mix of olive oil (for the heat) and butter (for that flavour which goes so well with eggs).

In general I prefer to avoid sprays (unless you are talking about a pump-action spray bottle which you fill yourself) as there are propellants and such used in sprays to make them work. Personally I prefer to avoid multisyllabic synthetic chemicals in my food whenever possible.

But if you must... sprays are most useful when you need a very thin but even coating of oil. Omelettes are a good example, though honestly I cannot think of another use in cookery where I would find a spray advantageous.

In baking, however, sprays can be quite useful. Especially when baking tarts, pies, or cakes which call for the pan to be buttered and then floured. A quick spray makes things much simpler.


Why did mold develop on the top of my sourdough? I made some sourdough starter from scratch, using garden grapes, flour and water.  It was wonderful for the first few batches.  Today, I was going to get another bread batch going, and when I looked at the refrigerated starter, there was a good layer of fuzzy mold on top.

Of course, I threw it out.  But was it exposure to unwanted bacteria, or the temperature of my fridge (I kept it in our beverage fridge, which is warmer than our main fridge), or the length of time (two weeks) I let it sit unused that did it in?  Or does homemade sourdough keep less well than what you can get commercially?

There shouldn't be any significant difference between an established homemade sourdough culture and one that's seeded from something you bought (I'm assuming like the culture that King Arthur Flour Co sells online).  In fact, no matter where you bought your starter culture, over time the local bacterial flora would crowd out the bacteria that was in the culture you bought.  But, I'm sure the mold infection had nothing to do with rogue bacteria.  (Bad bacteria can spoil a starter too, but that would be a different set of symptoms from the green carpet on top.)  It could be that your starter didn't get well established, but it doesn't sound like that was the problem if you successfully made some bread from it.

In a sourdough culture, the acid produced by the bacteria and alcohol produced by the yeast make an environment that's somewhat resitant to bad bacteria (like salmonella) or mold.  But the culture needs to be fairly active to maintain its resistance.  After two weeks in a warm fridge, your yeast would be dormant and the bacteria would probably have run rampant for a while (after the yeast went dormant) and then started to also die off.

In a warm fridge you could maybe go a week without feeding the culture.  At room temperature it's one day optimally and two days max.  The best way to avoid infection is to have two small covered containers about 1½ to 2 cups in size.  To make a new generation of your starter, begin with a clean container, add equal parts by weight of the previous generation of starter, flour and water.  So for example, 25 grams of starter, plus 25 grams of flour and 25 of water.  Mix it up and put it in the fridge.  In one week, get the other container, clean it out, and do the same thing over again.

I always keep the old generation in its container as a backup (in case of a mold or other infection).  You just need to keep track of which container has the fresher starter, so you can clean out the old one when building the next gen.  I did this for more than 3 years with no infections of any kind.


Am i able use overripe bananas in pancakes? I'm trying to think of a different way to make pancakes and didn't want to throw away a banana I have, that's almost completely brown, but still has a little yellow. I heard you can use overripe bananas to bake, but wasn't sure if maybe i could cook it in a pancake. I'd really appreciate any advice and thank you.

Sounds delicious. The ripe banana would work great incorportated into a standard batter - maybe even with a dash of cinnamon/nutmeg (i'm so ready for fall flavours now), or some chocolate chips, or as is!

You can also create a simple "healthy" pancake, with mashed ripe banana and egg mixed together.

Go for it! Ripened bananas are very versatile, flexible and easy to incorporate into most sweet recipes (sugar and starch).


Why does meat coated in oil cook better than meat not coated in oil? I recently oven cooked some meat.  Half was coated in oil the other half not.  Other than that they had salt and no other ingredients.

After cooking for about an hour I found the one coated in oil had less crusty surface and wasnt tough whereas the one with no oil was tougher inside and had more crust on the surface.

Why exactly is the oil doing that made the food come out this way and basically cook better?

What meat ? (beef, lamb, pork, chicken ? )

Oil (fat) facilitate heat transfer.

If your meat does not have oil on it, I assume it will dry out when baking.

Sometimes drying out is a good result ( crispy chicken skin, pork crackling... )


What are unique properties or advantages of tagine? Recently I saw a tagine from Le Creuset and tried to gather more information about it (materials, usage, etc.). But I could not figure how it sets itself apart from Western pots (be it cast iron or other), slow cookers, or terracotta ware like a "Römertopf". All of these can be used to cook food with little to no added liquid and with the use of steam.

What exactly is its advantage over the mentioned alternatives, assuming there is one?

Also, does it really have to be Earthenware, or is cast iron also fine? How does glazing or enamel affects its cooking properties?

There are no intrinsic advantages to using a traditional earthenware Tagine vs. a cast iron one or a dutch oven or a Römertopf or any other regular steel/cast iron or earthenware pot that people use to make stews.

Some/Most say the lid with its shape help the moisture drip down to the base, but so does my flat lid on my pot (or the small dimples on some cast iron lids).

There's a discussion on reddit and here about it.

iMO, if wanting to be traditional, use an unglazed earthenware Tagine, and use it often and be careful when using it; but if you cannot find one an use a enamel cast iron one, then there is no difference.


Placing a cookie sheet under my pyrex baking dish in a convection oven Can I place a cookie sheet under my Pyrex baking dish to catch drippings from my lasagna if I use a gas convection oven?  I wonder if it will bake in the same amount of time.

Yes.

The instructions with my oven say to always leave the grill pan/roasting dish [which is of course the full size of the oven area] on the bottom shelf rungs, even if you're not using it for any other purpose, simply to catch spills.
A cookie tray would certainly serve a similar purpose.

Assuming you will pre-heat the oven, then it will all heat up at the same time, before your lasagne goes in, so won't change your cooking times at all.


Run gas when outside of home I have some recipes, that took quite long to cook, for example 8 hours. I want to start cooking those in the morning, so it is ready after I come from work in the evening. Is it safe to cook it on the gas? I put it on the smallest flame, so the amount of gas is very low. Are there generally any risks of some accident, or is the amount of gas so low, that when I open a window, the gas will be dissolved (in case that it would stop burning at some point in the process of cooking)?

Assuming your're talking about natural gas (methane) then unlike some other gases such as LPG it is less dense than air and will tend to float up. While in the case of a leak much would probably go out the window I wouldn't consider leaving it unattended 100% safe and can think of a few situations that could occur:

The remaining gas could accumulate between the top of the window and the ceiling. You probably won't be able to smell it but air turbulence from opening doors etc could cause it to circulate downwards and cause a hazard. Things like a small spark in a light or ceiling fan could ignite it as well.
Gas regulators can fail open, so as the regulator ages or if defective a small surge in the gas pressure for example might cause the flame to become much larger than you set. That would't be a good thing if you're not around to keep your eye on it.

Instead I'd probably go with a slow cooker as a few people have suggested in comments. It will vary by brand / size but my slow cooker uses 120 watts on the low setting. Over the eight hours of cooking that would use around 1kWh of power, costing under 20 cents for most of the United States so they are quite economical as well.


Pie crust too soft to put in pan My pie pastry is too soft that I can't pick it up to put in pan after rolling it. The softness/pliable is like the butter/shortening too warm needs to be refrigerated. I tried refrigerating it overnight (this delayed the completion of my pie) but next day it was still too soft and I am still unable to put into pan. I ended up pressing it into the pan, making it less flaky but at that point was reaching I give up point.
Should I add more flour but isn't sticky? Or more cold water but won't that make it more soft and overly pliable?
I want to try again to make pie crust but want to figure out what I can do to fix it. Note: This pie crust comes from Joy of Cooking and uses shortening and butter.

Update:
I followed the recipe so here is the recipe. It's from Joy of cooking. I've never tried this recipe. I made pie with all butter crust and it worked well so thought I'd tried the more traditional one with shortening and it was very soft.
2.5 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3/4 c cold lard (155g) or vegetable shortening (145g)
3tbsp or 45g butter
Used food processor to blend the added
6 tbsp ice water mixed with 1 tbsp vinegar.
I put in fridge for 30min then tried to roll out but was too soft. Put it overnight, hoping would be better but still top soft.
One thing is that with all ingredients, I used cups except butter since 3 tbsp is hard for me to figure out amount and so I weighed that bit.
As I type this out, I notice the lard and vegetable shortening weights are different. I just used 3/4 cup vegetable shortening. Could that be the reason?

That's an unusual problem, rollable pie crust recipes will in my experience always get hard enough in the fridge and actually too hard/brittle after a full night there.
Troubleshooting should go in the following order:

Make sure you are using a recipe that was designed to be rolled. Pressing is a legitimate way of making a pie crust, and maybe you had a recipe intended for it.

Make sure is that you are working from a good quality recipe. You mention yours comes from a reputable book, so we could assume that it's good, but keep in mind that sometimes older sources have more elaborate/difficult recipes than newer ones.

Make sure that you are following the recipe exactly. Possible sources of error include

absentmindedly mismeasuring something, forgetting an ingredient or adding it twice
measuring by volume instead by weight (if your recipe is only given in volume, try to still measure accurately, but in the end you can't really be precise that way),
making a substitution in ingredients (maybe you substituted the fat, e.g. used some kind of plant-based spread when the recipe asked for butter?),
not following the steps to the letter,
using the ingredients at incorrect temperatures (although the fridge should have fixed this in your case),
if the recipe requires you to add something by feel (common with the water in German pie crust recipes) maybe your feel is off.

If the recipe still behaves weirdly, you can try workarounds. In your case, I see two possibilities. One, maybe you are rolling out using modern techniques (silicone or fibreglass mat, or on an oiled surface) while the recipe might assume that you will be rolling on a thick layer of flour, hardening your crust. If this is the case, roll on flour. Two, you can roll using the plastic wrap technique, then transfer to the pie dish while still on the wrap, then peel the wrap off.

If all else fails, just look for another recipe until you find one that functions.

Update: What you posted is an absolutely standard recipe with the most widely used ratio for American crusts. Typically, a recipe with this ratio will be not too soft, but too hard after a night in the fridge, being too brittle to place in the pie dish. This means that you can exclude points 1, 2 and 4 from my answer.
It is highly likely that it was a fluke that happened once, maybe because you made a mistake without noticing. I would give the recipe another try and see how it turns out, and measuring everything by weight. If it keeps turning out too soft in that case, you must be doing something very unexpected, or maybe using not classic shortening but some kind of modern product intended to stay soft at fridge temperatures.


Does a mix of cocktail sauce and tartare sauce have a special name? What does one get when one combines cocktail sauce and tartar sauce in equal parts?

Barring the thickening with finely sieved hard-boiled egg/egg-yolk, this combination is heading in the direction of Thousand Island dressing. Given that recipe is so variable, you could just about get away with calling it that.


Does food cooked in firewood taste different than that which is cooked in gas? Does this apply to food in general or just proteins or a few items? Also, does the taste vary depending on the type of wood you use i.e. using bamboo as firewood?

"Taste better" is entirely opinion based and unanswerable with anything but opinion.

As to does it taste different, absolute.  How different depends on application and technique.  Different woods taste and cook differently.  Some have high resin, some a harsh smoke, some a more gentle smoke.  They burn at different temperatures and different moisture.  Some may have toxins in there smoke.  One would not use a green oily wood and expect something palatable.  Smoking food is its own artform and people spend a lot of time trying  to match correct woods to specific applications and even that is largely opinion.

Left out non-proteins:  Certainly the same rules apply and it remains a matter of taste.  Some foods grab more of the potential flavors, some less.    One is not even limited to solids as soups could be done too.  As bob1 points out, there are ways to reduce the differences in taste, like making sure the wood is burned down to coals with no visible smoke.  I would also say you would want heat to be indirect and you may still have issues with differences in humidity, but you can certainly get at least close to oven flavors or the flavor of a gas grill if that is your goal.


Where did the thin, smooth plastic spatulas go? 20 years ago, the most common type of rigid spatula (or "turner") was smooth, thin (as in 3mm or less with a sharp edge), and generally made of nylon.  These spatulas were not very durable (leading edges tended to melt), but they were very very good for making eggs and other delicate non-stick-pan dishes.  And they were dirt cheap ($1 or so).

Here's pictures of the kind of spatula/turner I'm talking about:

By 10 years ago, these excellent egg turners had completely vanished from store shelves.  At this point, I can't find them, even at thrift stores.  Today's plastic turners are thick, blunt-edged, and rough ... absolutely terrible for crepes or omlettes.  I'm down to my last 2 hoarded smooth thin plastic turners.

I've searched online, and I can't find any kind of health scare, trend or other information on what would have caused manufacturers to universally change how they made plastic turners.   I also can't find anywhere to buy the old style.

So, this question is two-fold:

Why did manufacturers stop making thin, smooth plastic turner spatulas?
Where, if anywhere, can I buy this style of spatula?

AMENDED PER ANSWER BELOW: I am not talking about melamine spatulas, which are rigid.  Both of the spatulas in the picture are semi-flexable.

Amended for more clarity: Per the discussion below, I did some actual measuring. The spatulas in question are sharp edged at the front, around 1-1.5mm on the edge, and no more than 3mm in the center.

FOR THE BOUNTY: either tell me where I can buy a new spatula like the ones pictured, OR explain why they're no longer available ... with a reference.  Thanks!

The old thin utensils were made of Nylon.

The reasons they are hard to find is that traditional Nylon is difficult to manufacture within food standard guidelines for PAA (Primary Aromatic Amines) migration, and does not bio-degrade or burn safely. For relevant references, your local government health department will have papers on PAA migration.

Given that, many utensil manufactures have moved on to other plastics, mostly silicone. Though some use PA66 (Nylon 6,6), which is that thick chunky black plastic stuff.

Try wooden spatulas. They are simple, clean, disposable, and you can get them in thin wedge shapes (e.g. at Asian supply shops).


Does the LPG stove flame intensity reduces during winter? My LPG gas stove flame is little low now a days. I have cleaned all removable parts myself, but not helped. I suspect the low temperature on winter (~18°C in winter mornings, tropical region) might affect the LPG performance, may be I'm wrong.

Anyway, I'm trying to little heats up the cylinder under sunlight.

Is it true that the LPG stove performance reduces during winter?

If the cylinder is outside, it could well be too cold for the liquidified gas to evaporate fast enough. Propane is OK but butane is useless this cold. A mix of the two is often sold as propane is more expensive. A mixture can become richer in butane when used for prolonged cold periods, reducing its performance.

If this is the case, lifting the cylinder indoors for a few hours before cooking should help - take it out just before use and it should stay warm enough to get things going a bit better. Don't forget that the evaporation itself causes cooling, so it can get cooler than ambient.

This is a common problem in camping, searching for camping stove performance in the cold will give you more information.


Can you eat the seeds of Tamarind if you roast them or boil them? I just bought some fresh Tamarind & was told that I can eat the Tamarind seeds. Are they really edible? How would I prepare them if so?

They're certainly edible, but you might have to work for it.

A Western view from Purdue CropINDEX:

  Tamarind seeds have been used in a limited way as emergency food. They are roasted, soaked to remove the seedcoat, then boiled or fried, or ground to a flour or starch. Roasted seeds are ground and used as a substitute for, or adulterant of, coffee.

People from more native cultures are perhaps more willing to put in the effort:

  ... But I was surprised to find those semi-charred seeds tasting wonderful. They were a little like well-roasted peanuts without their disadvantages, and gave me both the challenge and company I seek of suparis!

I also found a few other mentions of them being a snack food, something people had eaten at home, like this one, which also mentions roasting and de-shelling in bulk with a grinding stone.

As for how to prepare them, I think your best bet might be to roast them, peel with the aid of a mortar and pestle (to crack them open), then soak for overnight or for a day in buttermilk like this recipe suggests. It's worth looking at the full recipe - there's more detail and a little background.

You can certainly try them before soaking as well, if you're looking for something that takes work to eat - you might have to suck and chew a while. As the recipe SAJ14SAJ found says, and says "This is the real test for teeth as it is very hard and crunchy."


Baking flour and sour cream -US /UK terms What is the UK equivalent of US 'baking flour' and does the term 'sour cream' describe the same product in both countries?

Typically referred to as "soured cream" in the UK, it is the same as "sour cream" in the US.

While there are many different types of flour, Baking flour is the same in the UK as it is in the US.


Why don't we make coffee in the same way we make tea? In tea, also there is tea powder, which we use. In coffee also, there is coffee powder. Why don't we make coffee in exactly the same way we make tea?

I do make coffee the same way as tea.  I just did this morning, in fact.  It's called a "French press".  Which can also be used for tea ...


Does adding vinegar to rice while while boiling reduce stickyness or improve hardness? I'm trying to make chinese fried rice, for which I chose long grain basmati rice.
I wash the rice thoroughly before cooking.
I'm able to get separate grains (non-mushy) .
But when I stir-fry or cook the rice, the grains tend to break easily, are probably too delicate and at times tend to get lumpy when I add tiny quantities of vinegar, soy etc while tossing.
I absolutely avoid sprinkling water onto the rice even though some recipes recommend it.
I was suggested adding vinegar while boiling the rice. Does it really help?

No, it does not.
I was pretty sure from the theory of it that it won't help. Acid makes cell walls harder, so you can use it e.g. when you are cooking potatoes. But in rice kernels, you have basically no cell walls to harden, everything is starch granules. So I saw no reason why it would work.
Theory is nice, but not always enough for writing answers. There can always be an effect I don't know about - just because the mechanism I am thinking of doesn't apply here, it doesn't mean there isn't a different one. But it so happens that I recently bought a package of rice from a new brand, and I hate it. It always cooks up mushy. So today, I decided to give it a try. I simply used the rice cooking program of the instant pot with the usually-mushy jasmine rice, and added citric acid. The rice had an obvious sour taste to it, but it was as soft and mushy as ever. I didn't see any difference in texture. Even though it's a single data point, I still feel confident enough to write the answer - you will not get any more hardness, and you will confuse the eaters with sour rice.


How do I replace sugar with golden syrup in a cookie recipe? I made Toll House Cookies using this recipe this recipe. They turned out fine, but you could feel the sugar crunching under your teeth (I used half brown, half normal granulated sugar). Next time I want to try for a more chewy texture and I read that this can be achieved by using golden syrup instead of sugar. What is a good ratio for replacing sugar in my recipe? I'm assuming that by adding syrup (= more liquid), I could be throwing off the balance between wet and dry ingredients. Also, should I use powdered sugar instead of granulated. Or maybe I just didn't cream my butter with sugar properly?

If you use golden syrup to make biscuits, they come out harder than they would with sugar, they don't come out chewy.

That's why most recipes for ginger nuts include syrup.

Corn syrup would give you the chewy texture you are seeking.


Substituting lime juice for lemon juice in hollandaise/mayonnaise? If I have fresh limes on hand but not fresh lemons, can I use the limes to make hollandaise and mayonnaise?  Assuming it works, what effect will the lime juice have on flavor and texture?

Yes, it will work. The texture won't be different but the flavor will be significantly different. It will taste like lime hollandaise. :-P

I imagine a lime hollandaise would taste great on fish and other seafood. I'm not entirely sure what you would do with  lime mayonnaise though.


Why have a stainless steel griddle instead of simply a stainless steel pan? I've seen a lot of gas cooktops that have stainless steel griddles built into them. This seemed like a useful feature, but it occurred to me that I could just throw on a stainless steel pan, presumably to the same effect.

Are there any advantages to having a stainless steel griddle like this vs. a good stainless steel pan?

A built-in griddle has much more area to work with, and is stationary relative to the cooktop, so wouldn't shift when you move food around on it.


How heavy should a Chinese chef's knife be? What weight should a Chinese chef's knife be and for what purpose?

All around, i.e. one knife for most cooking
Slicing
Chopping vegetables
Meat without bones
Chicken or fish with bones

Chinese chef's knife is left-most in the picture below.

A chinese style chef's knife, also known as the cai dow, or vegetable cleaver(trial subscription required, but an excellent article), is superficially similar to a western cleaver. The cleaver is typically a very robust blade, thick and weighty, meant for separating meat at the joint, splitting ribs and chops, and other tasks that require a lot of weight and a stiff blade.

The chinese chef's knife will be much thinner and lighter, comparable to a western chef's knife or Japanese nakiri. The broad face is for scooping up ingredients from the cutting board and controllability rather than mass and strength. From a brief blog entry from Kitchn on the knife -

  In her book Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of
  Eating in China, Fuchsia Dunlop explains, “The Chinese cleaver is not
  a butcher’s knife...The everyday cleaver, the cai dao or vegetable
  knife, is unexpectedly light and dexterous, as suitable for slicing a
  small shallot as a great hunk of meat, and used by everyone from the
  most macho chef to the frailest old lady.”


Salt-crust bass tasted really bitter I'm trying to figure out why a fish I cooked tasted pretty nasty.

I bought a whole farm raised striped bass from the Asian seafood market. It was US farm raised. The eyes were bright and not cloudy or desiccated. It didn't have much fishy-smell, so I assumed it was good.

My first mistake is that I didn't put it on ice when I brought it home. It just went straight into the fridge inside its package, bottom shelf. It smelled fine when I brought it out.

I cleaned the fish by scissoring around the anus up to the gills, drawing out the viscera and discarding, then I cut out the gills by snipping wherever I could until they came out. Head stayed on. I cut out the fins. I did not descale it. Another possible problem.

I rinsed it copiously, getting all the blood off. I laid spring onions, garlic, and lemon slices into the cavity as aromatics. I then built a salt crust around it and baked 450F/225C for 30 mins. The center temp was well over 130 (came up to like 180-190 actually) which was overcooked. That might have been my third mistake.

My question to you:

Was it possibly a crappy fish? Can fish just taste bad even though it's fresh because it was fed a bad diet and/or improperly handled?
Was the storage/cleaning process wrong?
Was the cooking process wrong?

If the fish is left with guts inside for a long time, the biliary fluids may seep from the gall bladder into the meat, causing a bitter taste, this can also happen if you break the gall bladder while cleaning the fish.


How to cook whitebait without overcooking? I think I keep on overcooking whitebait. Here is what I am doing:

Quickly bring water to a boil, lower to simmer,
Add whitebait(which may remove simmer since food lowers temp),
move heat to high until water is starts simmering again,
simmer for 1 minute,
turn whitebait over.
simmer for 1 minute.

Basically fish should spend  1 minute in poached water and 2 minutes in simmering water.

My problem is that even after the above I notice the overcooked fish smell which tastes nasty.
I know people say look at the texture for measure of doneness however I think the cooking time is so short and when i check it it is done.

Can you see where im going wrong?  Is it that the two minutes are on a simmer, but it should be on a poach?
Should it only be two minutes from the time the fish is added and not more?

So, I am not sure whether this is a satisfactory answer as it suggests a different cooking method but here goes

In Greece whitebait (mostly anchovies) is either flash fried after being coated in strong flour or cooked low in the oven covered in lemon, oregano and oil. This latter method matches yours closely - essentially you want to confit it in olive oil in less than 100˚C and make sure you add plenty of oregano or thyme and - if you don't like the sourness of lemon (I do!) use lemon rind. If olive oil isn't plentiful where you are, you can get away with using sunflower oil although the result won't be as tasty. The cooking time is forgiving as it is really low heat.

In any case, the rule of thumb in Greece is to never boil small fish: either fry or oven cook.


Sushi using brown rice I want to make sushi but I'm not going to buy any more rice then I already have, which is brown. my first couple experiments didn't work. What should I do to roll sushi using brown rice?

Normal brown rice just isn't sticky enough (not enough available starch) . Risotto rice might work if you have some anyway, though the texture will be a little different. Apart from the fact that rice keeps forever, if you've got sushi rice to use up, it makes a perfectly acceptable risotto, or fried rice balls. It doesn't need to go to waste.

Where you're going wrong is thinking that rice is rice. It isn't. There are several major categories of rice which behave differently in cooking. Trying to substitute one variety for another, even though they're the same species, is like trying to substitute sweet peppers and chillies.


What is the most time efficient way to serve food fairly to ~100 people? I'm the food manager at a student cooperative residence with 140 residents. A cook crew of 5 residents cook dinner every night, and usually 60-100 people attend dinner on a given night. Right now, people line up to serve themselves from a large table that has all the dishes. This method is very slow and it can take 30 minutes for someone at the end of the line to get food.

Since we are a cooperative community, we need a method that is equitable to residents. Our current method is accessible, but not time efficient at all.

In comparison, a different house but of similar size to ours uses a "mad rush" method to serve food, which essentially results in residents forming a mob and grabbing the food until it runs out. In this method, the food is usually distributed unevenly; some residents get more popular food items, (such as meat) and some get very little or none of the popular items at all. This method privileges members that are physically stronger and bigger and is very obviously not accessible to residents with physical disabilities or residents that are claustrophobic/have social anxieties. Their method is very time efficient though, with food being served in under 5 minutes.

I am looking for any ideas (no matter how novel) on how to serve food to the house, as long as it is accessible, equitable (all residents get a fair share) and time efficient.

Edit:
To clarify, we usually have ~4 dishes per meal and served in steel insert pans (or if it is a soup, straight out of a pot). Meals consist of at least one starch item, one vegan protein, and one vegetable dish. Meals may additionally have a meat dish, a soup, a dessert or additional starch/vegetarian dishes.

Seems like a good use for "family style". Bring platters or bowls of each dish to each table. Then at that table expect decent behaviour such as passing the platters around so everyone gets some. It shouldn't take long to fill and distribute bowls or plates of things. Carving meat into slices might take a while but would have to be done even if people were lining up to get their individual portions.

If some people weren't good sharers you could use assigned seating and put the non sharers at a table that gets its platters last.


Can I use any sort of pumpkin for pumpkin pie? When I'm making a pumpkin pie, does it matter what sort of pumpkin I use? Are the specific varieties that are more suited to pies or can I just use any pumpkin?

You may use all sorts of pumpkins and squashes (a Cucurbita moschata or Cucurbita pepo may be called either, depending on variety) to make a pie.  The Halloween types may not be the best choice: they tend to be stringy, not very sweet, and sometimes over treated with pesticides. Instead look for the small varieties (around 5 lbs.) called Sugar, Long Pie, or Trickster.

When making the pumpkin purée for a pie from scratch it is important to deal with the water content of the pumpkin.  After you bake, cool, and purée the pumpkin, you may need to use a cheesecloth to wring the purée.


How to de-seed a watermelon? It’s summer and watermelon time. I know how to pick a good one (pro tip: a good greengrocer who has preselected the best batch on wholesale market). Then I cut myself a nice fat slice - and the problem starts. I am not a fan of watermelon seeds.
I grew up with watermelon served in wedges and then eaten by slicing off bite-sized chunks with a paring knife, removing the seeds as they appeared. But I would prefer to pre-cut the whole fruit in chunks, ready for portioning and then eating with just a fork or spoon.
No matter how I cut, there will always be seeds in the chunks and by the time I am done poking around with a paring knife, the pieces look like a crater landscape and there will still be some seeds left. Or I get small pieces floating in a lot of juice. Now, at home I can spit out the remaining seeds, but in the office, I’d rather spare my desk neighbor.
So how can watermelon be cut and deseeded cleanly and efficiently?

“Buy a seedless watermelon.” is explicitly excluded as an answer. Let’s focus on handling watermelons with seeds.

There are several hits on google, and many videos illustrating how to de-seed a watermelon.  Most have you cut the watermelon length-wise to expose the rows of seeds, which are generally in a circle down the center of the melon (imagining the pattern if you were to look through the end).  When you cut lengthwise, you expose the rows of seeds.  I prefer to remove both ends, and the rind first.  Then, slice in length-wise wedges.  You can often hold a wedge in both hands and gently break it along the line of seeds.  You can also cut the seeds out fairly easily this way, and create seed free pieces closer to the peel.  However, there is quite a bit of melon surrounding the seeds.  That, you just have to work at.


How to get "burned" effect on cheesecake? I've eaten hot cheesecake in restaurant. It looked like the cheesecake was properly baked and then only a slice of it, which was going to the plate, was fried or baked or I don't know what so it was all warm and crispy and looked like it was slightly burned on the sides.

Any idea how to get this effect? I mean consider I have cheesecake done and I want have just a slice which looks like that. How can I do that?

That's a really good question. I imagine it was probably stabilized with something that stays solid at high heat, b/c hot cheesecake would be fairly soft. Was it warm all the way through? My wild guess would be they rewarmed it in the oven, then (if needed) blasted with a blowtorch for crispiness.


What is the best type of wood for a French rolling pin? I'm looking at getting a French rolling pin but I want to make sure that I get a good one. I've seen them made from various woods such as oak, cherry, maple, and bamboo. I'd imagine that a harder less porous wood would work better but I'm not certain what wood would work best. So, what's the best wood for a french rolling pin?

I am not a wood expert, but I have done a fair bit of carpentry as well as cookery. I agree that the key is having nice hard wood with fine grain; you don't want to damage a delicate dough or provide places to stick. Bamboo "wood" is usually a composite material, with the thickness built with layers glued together and then carved/lathed down to shape; so, I imagine it would have little lines that might open over time with use. Oak seems too heavily grained for this application. My french pin is maple. It came from a wood turner who does primarily pens and pencils. He makes pens from a variety of wood but the rolling pins are all maple.


Can handmade pasta be more than just flour + eggs? I'm getting into making my own pasta, and the recipes I see are basically:

  Mix eggs and flour together, roll/cut/cook

I'm wondering if there are ways to make the pasta any fancier/tastier? Or do we simply stick to flour and eggs, and put the flavours into the sauce instead?

Traditional pasta such as you describe uses semolina flour and eggs, but many recipes also call for milk. Buttermilk or sour cream is often used in vareniki. Spaetzle recipes often call for nutmeg. Rice noodle recipes don't use either wheat flour or eggs, but use rice flour, water, and an additional starch such as tapioca. Some recipes call for butter or oils, some use different kinds of flour, some include leavening agents like baking powder. There are even recipes for sweet pastas.

In short, there are many different ingredients used in pastas around the world, and you should feel free to experiment with your own choices. The key is to maintain the correct dough consistency. if you add a liquid ingredient, you may need a bit more starch, and vice versa.


Is it safe to eat raw fish? Raw chicken is generally considered not safe to eat. A lot of people eat sushi/sashimi though, and they are made from raw fish. So, how come that's safe (if it is)?

I discussed a similar subject in this question: What exactly is "Sushi Grade" fish?

Raw fish isn't safe to eat if it's just been sitting around.  However, the raw fish used in sushi/sashimi has been frozen (typically flash-frozen) in order to kill any parasites, making it as safe as any other food.

Most distributors of sashimi also have their own methods and internal regulations to ensure food safety, but specifics are understandably hard to come by.  Suffice it to say, it's far safer to eat properly-prepared nigiri or sashimi than it is to eat an undercooked hamburger.


Are chilies a common ingredient in Italian cooking? I just read this article in CNN "Eating chilies cuts risk of death from heart attack and stroke, study says" and when I read this line:

  Carried out in Italy, where chili is a common ingredient, the study
  compared the risk of death among 23,000 people, some of whom ate chili
  and some of whom didn't.

I've seen that some Italian dishes call for the addition of dried chili flakes, but a common ingredient? I'm married to a Malay - chili peppers are a common ingredient. It seems as common as salt.

Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong types of chili peppers. We always have a supply of Thai chilies around, but no pepperoncinis.
So what have I missed in Italian cooking where chilies are a common ingredient?

Or is what we have here in America as Italian cooking just isn't the real deal?

Disclosure: I am Italian but no professional, so what I will say is based on my own experience and could be inaccurate/wrong.

There is sure plenty of use for chili peppers in italian cousine. It is really traditional in the southern region of Calabria and close ones, but it is used throughout the whole country.

Together with the already mentioned Arrabbiata pasta sauce, in which spicy chili peppers is the main ingredient, there are several other dishes and cured meat product (sausages and such) that contains or, sometimes, heavily rely on that spicyness ( for example Nduja ).

Also, plenty of other plates can be adjusted to become spicy using dried chili flakes, especially for tomato based dishes, if it is of your taste.


How to convert a muffin/cupcake recipe to a large muffin recipe I'm looking at the side of my "breakfast - O - meal" box at a recipe for 12 muffins. The kind you would use with a standard muffin tin. What kind of variation should can I use to make the recipe work in a larger 6 large muffin tin?

I tried this once before with corn bread muffins and they never seemed to be able to bake all the way though. Ideally I would like to try this with some other cupcake / muffin recipes I have too.

So what's the secret? Less liquid? More Egg? My underused large muffin tin needs to know.

This table comes from the front of the muffin section in Bread, by Beth Hensperger:

Muffin size          Baking time     Yield
Mini/gem (1 5/8")    10-15 minutes   18-20
Regular (2 3/4")     20-25 minutes   9-10
Oversized (3 1/4")   25-30 minutes   6-7
Muffin cake (8-9")   55-65 minutes   1

The baking times are for 375-400°F; most recipes will fall around that range. Note that the yields don't necessarily match up to typical pan sizes; for example, if you take a recipe meant for 12 regular muffins, you'll probably have more batter than you need for a pan of 6 oversized muffins. Perhaps this is your problem - you could be overfilling. If even after scaling the volumes appropriately, you still have problems, you could try reducing the temperature by 25°F and increasing the baking time.

("Muffin cake" refers to baking in an 8-9" pan of some sort - the author says that you can get away with it for any muffin recipe, but I've never tried it!)


What temperature is 'High' in a 950 watt microwave? A recipe asks for a teensy cake to be cooked on High for 70 secs in a 950 watt microwave.

What temperature would 'High' be? like in Celsius or Farenhite

It is impossible to convert Microwaves into Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Temperature(Celsius):

  Temperature is a measure of the average translational kinetic energy of the molecules of a system. Heat is commonly expressed in either of two units: the calorie, an older metric unit, and the British thermal unit (Btu), an English unit commonly used in the United States.

Energy(Watt):

  Power is the rate at which energy is generated or consumed and hence is measured in units (e.g. watts) that represent 'energy per unit time'. For example, when a light bulb with a power rating of 100W is turned on for one hour, the energy used is 100 watt hours (W.

Microwaves are essentially radiation bombarding your food and causing the water molecules inside to get excited/vibrate, this in turn causes heat (Think rubbing your hands together).

If you are told to put something in a Microwave oven for 70 seconds, it is just a tried and tested method of getting the food to the correct internal temperature. You can't compare it to a standard oven.


How can I eliminate icicles from homemade ice cream? When we make homemade Coffee Ice Cream, using instant coffee dissolved in hotwater, we always have icicles form. Is this avoidable?

With respect to the coffee: Rather than dissolving the coffee granules in water, try dissolving them directly in the cream.


Can yeast be used without water If the dough only has flour and oil instead of water will it proof? And should I use the same amount of yeast as I would if using water? In the case that water is needed, what is the minimum proportion that will make the dough proof?

I'm working on a pastry recipe which ingredients are:

500 g flour
250 g sugar
250 ml EVOO
5 g ADY or 25 g fresh yeast
1 tbsp aniseed
1 tbsp cinnamon
Almonds

The “Tortas de Algarrobo” are andalusian olive oil cookies. The traditional recipe is the same the Arabs brought with them hundreds of years ago: sugar, cinnamon, aniseed, almonds, flour and oil, without any additives.
The list of ingredients for the ones I buy which are the ones I like and want to do is: flour, sugar, EVOO, aniseed, cinnamon, almonds and yeast.
When I do them I get a crunchy cookie but the ones I buy are tender, which makes me wonder if the yeast I use is working.

Yeast is a living organism that has basically been put into suspended animation by being dried out. Like all living organisms, water is critical to support life.

Trying to use yeast without water will not work.


What are the pros and cons of coarse and fine coffee ground? Coffee can be bought either as whole beans or as coarsely or finely grounded coffee.

What are the pros and cons of the coarse and fine coffee ground? Are there different applications for coarsely and finely grounded coffee?

Mainly the grind types have to do with how long the grounds are going to be in contact with the water during the brewing of the coffee. Finer grinds for espresso (quick brewing) and medium grinds for drip, etc. This chart will give you an idea of what grinds go with which preparations http://www.ineedcoffee.com/03/coffeegrind/


Does preferment add sourness to taste of bread? I have made bread using both sponge and preferments. The sponge bread does not taste as sour as preferment bread.

Does preferment add sourness to taste? What other flavors can we expect? What can I do to obtain other flavors excluding sourness?

Preferment (this is what I do): I raise a part of the total dough over night (12 -16 hours). The dough contains only yeast (nothing more). There is no special process. Just letting it sit in a pot overnight or during day for 12 - 16 hours.

I thought sponge is kept for a smaller amount of time as compared with pre-ferment. Other than that I don't know any difference.

Your question has a couple layers, so I'll peel those away one at a time!

What causes sourness?
Sourness (the taste, speaking generally) is caused by acidity. The acid (i.e., sourness) in sourdough is created by bacteria (e.g., Lactobacillus spp. which are generally benign and sometimes beneficial, such as inhibiting the growth of some harmful bacteria). More bacteria makes more acid, and more time permits bacteria to make more of the acid, and to multiply. Hence, more time (generally) makes more bacteria and more acid.

Fundamentally, pre-ferment does add sourness to the taste bread, for the aforementioned reason: the extra fermentation time (of the pre-ferment portion of the dough) permits additional time for bacteria to cultivate and produce acid.

The other part of your question makes a distinction between time: The time duration of pre-fermentation does have an effect on sourness. This is for the same reason: More time permits more acids to be produced by the critters in the dough, which makes the bread more sour. This is supported by your experience: What you're calling "preferment bread" has a longer first (pre-)fermentation stage, and you report it as more sour; in contrast, your "sponge bread" has a shorter pre-fermentation, and you report it as less sour.

I'm using some hedge-words ("generally", "basically", ...) because there's undoubtedly a lot more happening with interactions of starches, acids, enzymes, bacteria, yeast, etc. than I'm discussing here.

I hope it helps! Have fun with your sourdough. Let me know if I've missed the point, or missed part of your question.

More musings below the cut...

Your question (and associated dialog) got me to think about the connotations of terms. This glossary includes some definitions and examples of terms, and how certain types of pre-ferment (e.g., biga, poolish, sponge, pre-ferment) have subtly different connotations. But basically a pre-ferment by any name consists of flour, water, and some source of yeast: either a previous pre-ferment, commercial yeast (e.g., active dry), or some other source (e.g., grape skin).

Other SA questions for additional reading... This question discusses sponges and pre-ferments as pertains to sourdough. This question discusses the soaker as a non-yeast-containing portion of dough, which permits more autolysis ("self-digestion" by enzymes that exist in the flour/grain itself) without necessarily much fermentation.

Other sourness musings...  Even straight dough ("single stage" mixing all ingredients together at one time; i.e., without using any pre-ferment technique) can become (desirably) sour; using less yeast and a correspondingly longer fermentation time will produce a similar (albeit less pronounced) effect. Separately, actual acid could be added directly to the dough, as suggested by this KAF recipe, but that's not necessary or common.


Does Boiling Water, Instead of Warm Water, Hurt the Flavor of Tea/Hot Chocolate I have a counter-top water kettle that I frequently use to boil water for tea, hot chocolate, and powdered drinks (e.g. chai).  I don't think anything of it when the water starts boiling and keeps on boiling for 20 to 30 seconds before the kettle automatically shuts off, then I almost immediately use the water.  Should I be worried about:

The taste of my water changing from boiling and thus changing the taste of the drink?
The boiling water altering the drink's compounds and thus changing its taste?

Finally, if I should be worried about these, what method should I use to heat my water and what temperature should I aim for?  Specifically, I most often make tea (mint, earl grey, etc.) and chai lattes (from a powdered mix).

Hotter water leads to more caffeine release and a more bitter flavor as it cooks the leaves. If you're serious about the taste of tea, set up four cups and pour water into them: The first boiling, the next after 30 seconds, and on down. Use a cracker between each sip; the later teas should taste slightly lighter and sweeter, and the middle two especially should have a distinct delicate green tea taste. For loose-leaf you normally use a slightly lower temp, while typical teabags need more coaxing to get the flavor out. There are websites that actually list perfect temperatures and steep times for each individual variety, but it's also a matter of taste.

Green tea snobbery can be a little like wine snobbery, the sky's the limit for how sublime you want to go, but at the same time anyone can drink and enjoy it.

Black tea on the other hand doesn't have such delicate taste because it's already pre-cooked. (Oolong retains a little of each nature.) How hot you should make it depends only on how much you like the taste of Bergamot (for Earl Grey) or whatever additives are in your tea, how bitter you can stand it, and how much caffeine you want out of it. The hotter and more bitter it is, the more the tea will cover up the flavor of any additives. Steeping time affects bitterness as well, of course. I'm not entirely certain, but I believe that bergamot oil will also start to evaporate if it's boiled, but I assume you don't boil your tea.

I have no idea how it would change the taste of chai, as I've never made a really good one myself. I typically make them from the powders, and I've seen no difference at all in taste between hot, warm, or even cold water, though the texture changes slightly - it doesn't mix perfectly in cold water. Those powders probably have most of the variability processed out of them. I assume this goes double for hot chocolate, since most of the mixes don't even have real cocoa anymore.

Aside from the possibility of boiling off oils or partially burning green leaves into black, I don't believe the water can get hot enough to change the chemistry of the drinks.


Preserving colour of mixed beans I'd like to make a colourful dish from mixed dried beans. After soaking the beans overnight they still have rich and varied colours and patterns, but I'm told that beans should always be cooked before eating, and after simmering for 30min or so the beans all just turn brown. Is there any way to safely serve dried beans which keeps them visually interesting, such as for a legume salad?

The beans are probably a mix of borlotti beans, green split peas, black eyed beans, red kidney beans, various lentils, cannellini beans and chickpeas.

I've recently changed from tinned beans to dried in my mixed bean chilli, which I slow cook. White (cannellini or black eyed) beans stay fairly white if starting from tinned, but dried beans absorb some colour in soaking/cooking. This is reduced by soaking the kidney beans separately (it makes it easier to boil them hard to remove phytohemagglutinin) and would be further reduced by soaking and pre-cooking the white beans on their own (as demonstrated by the tinned.

To minimise the darkening you need to minimise the amount of coloured liquid they absorb. This means minimising the time they spend in contact with the sauce, and making sure they're fully hydrated when added. Cooking then completely separately and stirring them in just before serving is the obvious end point. I wouldn't consider that myself, preferring to optimise for flavour, energy consumption, and effort over a minor aspect of appearance, but I rarely serve it to others, and when I do they're too hungry to care! All of this means starting with separate beans. I find them much cheaper that way anyway.


Leaving empty cast iron pot on a gas stove I left empty enameled cast iron pot on medium high flame on gas stove top for about half an hour to an hour. It was actually filled with water which should be brought to a boil but i forgot about it, so after water evaporated it stood empty on a stove top. I don't see any cracks or any other signs of physical damage, it only darkened and it smelled burnt. I washed it with regular dish soap and use abrasive sponge (which I usually don't) but and enamel is still dark grey inside (it was white before).

I've read about other users similar experiences and it turned out not to be a big deal, but those pots weren't enameled inside. Since mine is I wonder is it health safe to continue using it for cooking. Any chances of something toxic could leak into food or something similar that could be health hazard.

I think you should be safe, but depending on the abrasive pad (plastic or metal?), you might have scratched the enamel.

Try the different methods to clean a burned enamel cast iron; most methods used boiling water with baking soda.

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-clean-burnt-stains-off-enameled-cookware-cleaning-lessons-from-the-kitchn-217457

or

https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-clean-stained-enameled-cast-iron-pot-article


Additional Cooking Time When baking more than one loaf of quick bread How much time would I need to increase cooking banana quick bread if I am cooking three loaves together.  Time for one is 40 -45 minutes at 350 degrees. I am a baking novice.  Advice would be greatly appreciated.

See:

Additional Time Needed for Baking Two Loaves of Bread at same time?

Banana bread and beer bread are the same in this aspect.  Multiple loaves will not require a change in baking time if your oven has reasonable total heat output.


Is it okay to wash a plate at a later point? After reading:
Do the dishes: Why you should keep up with the washing up - ABC News
And especially:

"You will end up with a lovely bacteria soup, then you will stick your
hand in the sink to pull the plug out and do the dishes, and if you
don't wash your hands properly you are going to cross-contaminate the
kitchen."

I started wondering if it's okay if I leave a plate unwashed in the sink (the sink itself, not filled with water or anything like that, as described/hinted at in the quote), before leaving/rushing for work; in order to save time and wash it later with some next plate, when I return back from work (can be a bit late sometimes).
I usually always clean/wash things that have stains right away, but I only eat oats and milk for breakfast, which perhaps might make this seem like a non-issue; though I've honestly had this on my mind, for way too long at this point. Hopefully it is indeed a non-issue, but I'd love to hear what people think...
EDIT:
Basically my primary concern is the bacteria spread on the plate/invisible bacteria becoming harder to wash off, in regards to my prior use case...

That quote sounds like they're assuming you fill the sink with water and leave dirty dishes sitting in the water. That seems gross. And of course you should wash your hands after doing the dishes, regardless of whether you washed your dishes immediately or let them soak first.
I frequently leave dishes to soak and wash them later, but I don't fill the sink. Just fill the dish with water and let it sit in the sink. When you come back to wash it, dump out the soaking water, and wash as normal with soap and hot water.
Some dishes work best if you rinse them right away, then let them soak after rinsing. Oats tend to dry on rock-hard, so be sure to wipe off any smears that are above the water level before leaving it to soak.


Can a combination of Grilling and Baking be used for Chicken? I was wondering If 1st Grilling the chicken to chrisp up the outer surface and then baking it to get is cooked all over and retain the Moistness will work .

Can this give me a Moist and Chrispy chicken ? For how much time should each method be applied ?

To answer the question about cooking technique...yes, you can sear chicken on the grill and then finish cooking by baking in the oven.  You can also do the reverse (oven then grill). There are plenty of recipes floating around the internet (recipe requests are off topic for this site).


How can I clean frozen (raw) chicken juice out of my freezer? I am currently storing raw chicken sealed in plastic bags in my freezer.

I suspect that raw chicken juice may be on the outside of some of the bags, contaminating my freezer.

Is there a way to clean the area without having to thaw the entire freezer? What would you all recommend for cleaning a freezer after storing chicken in there?

Thanks!

It seems that your concern is just that the chicken will defrost before you can finish cleaning the freezer. It won't. Just put the chicken and anything else from the freezer that you want to save in the fridge. Wipe the inside of the empty freezer down with warm soapy water. You can also add bleach in the concentration of 1 TBS per gallon (16ml to 4 liters) to water to disinfect, at that concentration you don't need to rinse. The whole process should take less than 10 minutes. Wrap the chicken a bit better this time, and replace the contents of the freezer. Start to finish, it should only take 10 minutes or so. Even if you don't have room in the fridge, your freezer contents won't defrost on the counter if you hurry.

If you need to defrost, that's a different story. Your best bet then would be to borrow a friend's freezer or use a cooler. You can speed up the process of defrosting with rubbing alcohol. Since manual defrosting would require unplugging the unit, you'll want to move as quickly as you can to protect the contents of the refrigerator, if it's a single unit.


Loose-leaf tea: specifics of re-steeping multiple times? I'm an avid tea drinker who drinks several cups of loose-leaf tea every day. My usual steeping technique is to fill a teapot with about 3 cups of boiling water, wait for it to cool to the correct temperature depending on the tea, and then steep about 3 tsp of tea in a very large infuser for 1-3 minutes. The first cup usually turns out great. However, despite the fact that many tea drinkers talk about how they can re-steep their teas 2-5 times with great results, I have not had any success in this regard. No matter how I adjust the time, amount of water, or temperature, the second steeping inevitably comes out fairly bland in comparison to the first.

Does re-steeping require a different technique to begin with? I've read some casual accounts of tea drinkers starting out with something like 2x the tea leaves and 1/2x the time that you would normally use, and then gradually increasing the brew temperature and time with each steeping. However, I have not been able to find any explanation of the specific differences between "normal" steeping and steeping for multiple infusions, if they even exist.
Which teas are more susceptible to multiple infusions? I've heard that pu-erh is the best, but I've also heard people talk about green tea in this regard.
Am I "wasting" tea by brewing it in one go and then throwing out the leaves after one batch? Instead of 3 tsp for 3 cups, should I instead be using 1-2 tsp for 1 cup (depending on the answer to Q1) and infusing 3-5 times?

As you've noted in your description of your experiments, there are many variables (e.g., amount of tea, type of tea, steeping times for each infusion, etc.). Fundamentally, the type (green/oolong/pu-erh/etc., quality, nature) of tea is a huge factor, and personal preference is a factor but not the only factor (what you describe as "bland" or weak might not be to someone else). I think there are some objective generalizations, though.

The tea you start with matters. A specialty tea dealer will often annotate a given offering with brewing recommendations (e.g., commonly temperature, time, quantity of leaves per cup, as you note); some dealers will also suggest that the tea can be enjoyed through 2-3 or multiple infusions. Such a tea is a great place to start for your own experiments.  I find that some teas (e.g., darjeeling, broken orange pekoe) simply infuse too quickly and to fully in the first infusion that they are totally spent. Further infusions are weak and bitter.

Some teas that I find work well for multiple infusions:

good quality green-oolongs (multiple infusions; tung ting or formosa)
green-white blends like white peony (2 infusions)
lightly roasted/toasted green teas, like long jing (dragon well) or gunpowder green (aside: this is probably a good place to start as it can be inexpensive and enjoyable)
higher quality pu-erh teas.

Techniques. This varies per the type of tea; but in general, I personally do the following when I intend to infuse loose tea multiple times:

Infuse slightly more tea (perhaps 50% (1.5 times) more; certainly not 2-3 times);
Infuse for a shorter period of time (perhaps 1/2 to 2/3 as long) on the first infusion;
Infuse for progressively longer amounts of time for subsequent infusions.
If anything, slightly lower temperature on subsequent infusions.

That tends to make the resulting brew (to my taste) slightly more uniform in result, though there is significant difference in flavour.

Other things to keep in mind: if you're using tea with caffeine, most will come out in the first infusion; if you're using 2-3x the tea, this is significant! As you also note, the character of the brew can be very different through the several infusions. This can be part of the enjoyment, as each infusion will extract different ratios of "stuff" into the resulting brew. For lower-quality gunpowder green teas, for instance, I actually prefer the second brew over the first.

Instead of multiple infusions, you might also simply

consider brewing a larger pot all at once into a thermal carafe, then enjoying it a cup at a time.
consider brewing just a cup at a time, which will have a better result for certain teas (a pathological example: bags)

I would not recommend some things that you said: most specifically, I don't think you'll get benefit from infusing at a higher temperature for subsequent brews; this is likely to give you bitter or off-tastes; you're "burning" the tea and extracting stuff you don't want.


Do plastic cutting boards dull knives faster than wood boards? I've heard on numerous occasions that plastic cutting boards dull knives faster than wood boards. I use a large wooden cutting board often, but recently I've been finding it heavy and it sometimes leaves behind a flavour on food despite good cleaning.
Is there any objective evidence that plastic cutting boards dull knives faster than good wood cutting boards? I'm hoping there have been experiments with sharpness measuring instruments such as the Edge-On-Up Industrial Edge Tester.
I've heard anecdotes and I've seen people provide plausible explanations why wood would be better for keeping knives sharp, but I haven't seen any hard data.

There is such a report, but you're not going to like the result.  According to KnifeGrinder's scientific test(PDF), plastic board materials other than low-density polypropylene are the least edge-wearing board materials you can get.  Wood wears the edge more than plastic, as a rule.


Is soy milk in America similar to the type in East Asia? Finding soy milk in the States isn't very difficult - it's generally stocked in supermarkets and used as an alternative to dairy. However, I'm not sure if the flavour of typical American soy milk (even the "unsweetened" variety) is sufficiently similar in taste to the soy milk I've had in East Asia.

As an example - in Hong Kong, if I remember correctly, Vitasoy sells unsweetened soy milk with the ingredients listed as:

  Water, soy beans

Comparatively, the Silk brand that sells non-dairy alternatives lists additional ingredients on their soy milk (even the "original" variety or the "unsweetened" one), such as additional vitamins and sea salt.

Is the soy milk commonly sold in supermarkets in the US (outside of places such as Asian supermarkets) similar in taste to the type found in East Asia? I've heard that there might be some differences, but I don't have enough "experience" with this to judge if those accounts are correct.

East Asian soy milk and American soy milk taste very different, and not just because of added ingredients like sugar and emulsifiers.

Soy beans contain an enzyme called lipoxidase, which breaks down unsaturated fatty acids into shorter chain lipids. For American markets, manufacturers presoak the beans in solvents such as calcium hydroxide in order to destroy this enzyme. After the enzyme is gone, the solvent is deactivated with an acid to form a neutral pH product. In East Asian markets, no one bothers with this added step, and just leave the lipoxidase in there.

Why the difference? Taste, mostly. Remember The shorter chain lipids mentioned before? They taste, well, bean-y. Soy milk manufacturers like Silk found through trial and error that Americans want their soybean milk to taste more like milk, and less like soybean, so this bean taste must be neutralized.

For East Asian people who grew up drinking soybean milk, soybean milk needs to taste like, well, soybean.


What's the difference between carob powder, flour, and kibbled carob? The whole carob pod, the pulp and the seeds are all edible, but which parts are used for the different core products? Does carob powder contain the entire pod, or just the seeds? Is kibbled carob the same as powdered, just coarser? Is the pulp used for anything? (And what is carob syrup!?)

Almost 90% of the carob is pulp, and the rest is the seeds. From the seeds, you get Locust Bean Gum, or Carob Gum.

The pulp can be used either as:

Carob Powder/Carob Flour, which has sweet and chocolate-like taste.

Carob Kibble, which is basically much coarser pieces of the pulp.

Carob Syrup, if you extract the sugar from the pods, you get the syrup.


Is it okay to keep flour in the freezer? Years ago I noticed I was getting little bugs in the flour that I kept in the pantry.  To prevent this, I started keeping my flour in the freezer.  I don't do a lot of baking, but I was wondering what effects this might have on anything I do bake.

Do baked goods turn out any differently when flour is kept in the freezer vs flour kept at room temperature?  Also, if it's okay to freeze flour, how long will it last this way?

Yes, of course you can keep flour in the freezer.  For whole wheat flour, which is susceptible to rancidity due to the fat from the whole grain being included, it is even recommended.

For white flour, according to the University of Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County (emphasis added):

  For longer storage, keep white flours in the refrigerator in an
  airtight container. All-purpose and bread flour will keep up to two
  years at 40 F in your refrigerator, according to the Wheat Foods
  Council. They can be stored indefinitely in the
  freezer.


straining methods for liquids to be used in whipping siphon I'm starting to use a whipping siphon and in a previous question some comments mentioned that "it's really easy to clog the dispenser" and "if you can perceive particulate when the mix is on your tongue, it's still too chunky for the whipper."

Which devices (e.g. "cheesecloth" or "strainer of Brand X/style Y") would be best to use to make sure that the mix is smooth enough to minimize or eliminate the risk of it clogging the whipping siphon?

For the non-professional coffee filters are the best bet. If you want to go a bit further get some disposable laboratory filters, they can trap smaller particles. You wanna go below 25 microns for the food to be imperceptible in the tongue.


Altering cake batter amount- how to adjust oven temp/baking time? I'm planning to bake this cake.

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2015/03/23/my-favorite-carrot-cake-recipe/

BUT...Instead of making a two layer cake, I would like to make a one layer cake in a 9-inch round cake tin. I was thinking that I could make 3/4 of the recipe, which would give me one layer that is a little bit thicker than in the recipe.

Other than baking for a longer amount of time, do I have to make any adjustments to the oven temperature? Am I risking having a dense cake that doesn't bake through?

Whenever you make a cake deeper you risk of a denser cake for a couple of reasons. The first is because the lift you get from the action of the leavening agents and expansion of air and steam will be partially offset by the increased weight that needs to be pushed up. Second, you may lose more lift than a thinner cake because the center of the cake will take longer to crystallize - it may start to sag back down before it hardens up.

Because it takes longer to cook the center of a thicker cake the outside of your cake might be more overcooked than it would with a thinner cake.

How much of a difference this actually makes is very hard to say, it depends on the recipe and other factors. Most cake recipes are pretty flexible, so there's no reason you can't make it thicker and get a good result. You'll want to reduce temperature and increase cooking time, how much is hard to say, I'd try decreasing your temperature by 15F, and as a guide add at least 10 minutes to the cooking time.

To take the guesswork out of it I would suggest using an instant read thermometer to check if it is done rather than a toothpick or skewer, the cake will be done between 205-210F.


(How) can I store and cook leftover rice so it isn't soggy? My wife and I like Asian meals (Curry, Niku Jaga, et cetera) and without fail we tend to make more rice than we need.

I would encourage her to cook less rice, but a preferable solution would be to use the rice with the meal - since we tend to have leftovers anyway, and it would be more convenient to cook the amount of rice needed to go with the meal and leftovers.

However, rice in the microwave always comes out either soggy, grainy, or both at once.  This is hardly appetizing, and I suspect the reason for it is an improper method of storing leftover rice.

Normally we simply put the rice in a plastic Tupperware container in our refrigerator and then microwave it when we want to use it.  Is there a better way to store or cook our leftover rice so that we don't wind up with soggy, unappetizing rice leftovers?

It seems that the secret to re-heating rice is to use a little bit of liquid during the re-heating process.  StillTasty suggests adding 2 tbsp. of liquid per cup of cooked rice, and about 1 minute on high for each cup in a microwave (5 minutes flat for stovetop re-heating).

Another thing it hints at, though doesn't outright state, is that cooked rice should be stored in an airtight container separate from the food it is meant to go with - this is likely where I went wrong, and why my rice is always soggy and unpalatable.

It also suggests that 2 hours is the maximum allowable time for cooked rice to be kept at room temperature, and that it can stay stored in the refrigerator between 4-6 days, or up to 6 months if frozen under ideal conditions.


Salvage my turkey chili? Cinnamon fail! Making turkey chili for the week's dinners. Three tablespoons of chili powder: one, two, CRUD THAT"S CINNAMON!

I now have a slow cooker holding 1.5 pounds of turkey meat, cooked onion and two green peppers, and two TABLESPOONS of cinnamon. I have read recipes with cinnamon in chili, but never so much. Can anyone make a recommendation to save this dish?

Other items I have on hand and was expecting to use include chili powder, cocoa powder, other spices, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, several times of canned beans (pinto - black or brown; chickpeas). And a few other things around the house.
Thank you!

Would love to see what others think, but I think I found a solution that works for our palate! Used a tiny bit of cocoa powder, 1/3 the usual chili powder. Just a little black pepper for hot, but we don't like hot generally. I used the usual stewed and diced tomatoes, but eliminated the tomato paste to allow the cinnamon musty to dominate. This also allowed me to skip the honey too. And I used richer flavored beans than I usually do - pintos instead of white kidney beans.


How to make stronger colors in three part pannacotta? This weekend I tried to make a three part pannacotta. It was one layer of rasberry pannacotta, one layer of vanilla and one layer of mango/lime.

The taste was a positive surprise but I was not very happy with the colors. The yellow color of mango/lime was almost white and the rasberry layer was not very intense in the color.

I'm looking for more natural colors. Anyone got any ideas?

If there is some kind of fruit with very compact color or something would be awesome.

All of these are natural colorants but also impart a bit of flavor with them.

For the raspberry layer you could use a tiny amount of beet juice to really kick the red.

For yellow colors you have a few options. Saffron can work really well though I'm not sure what mango/lime/saffron tastes like.  Another organic single ingredient is Achiote, which has an extremely mild sweet flavor. It's used for coloring mac and cheese and most processed cheese.

Hope these ideas help.


Can I still use my Worcestershire sauce? So we have this Lea&Perrins Worcestershire Sauce from the past 6-7 years ago. And I would like to really know if it is still safe to consume?

I've done my research but I'm still not sure if I could consume it because I do not know how it actually tastes.

It is kinda dusty on the top, but it was last opened years ago and it was just in our cabinet so i don't know if it is still safe to consume

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire is shelf stable.  As long as it's been in the cupboard with the cap on, it is safe.  The flavor may have degraded, but it won't make you sick.


How do I tone down onion sharpness already in the chicken salad? How do I tone down onion sharpness already in the chicken salad?  It asked for red onion, which I didn't have so I used the only thing I had, shallot.  I used far less than indicated.  I have already added an avocado and a packet of stevia to the chicken salad but it is still too oniony for my taste.

As much vinegar as the salad will take might help a bit. Salt too, but your window there will be even narrower. Obviously, too much of either of those ingredients will ruin the salad.

Basically, I'm hoping for a bit of a 'pickling' effect. Onions become dramatically less sharp after even the briefest of pickling. So I'm hopeful that a reasonable amount of extra salt and vinegar plus time will help.

Of course, making a bigger salad by adding more of everything else is your safest option, but I'm sure you have already thought of that. Also, time alone will help some.


Forgot the crockpot lid I was cooking BBQ chicken in the crockpot and didn't put the lid back on . Left to run errands about 3 1/2 hours. And came home to see I left the lid off. Is the chicken ruined?

Yes. Crockpots are carefully calibrated to come to temperature quickly in the beginning of cooking (this is why they need to be 1/2 to 3/4 full of liquid). Without the lid on it would not come to a safe temperature and you will be at risk of foodborne illness if you eat the chicken or serve it to someone. Sorry! I know that's frustrating to waste good food, but it's better safe than sorry.


Are purple spots in freezer safe? There are purple spots inside the freezer that look like mold, but I'm not sure. Is it safe to store food in there?

Thanks for the picture. (Worth 1000 words.) Those spots aren't what I was imagining when you said purple. They look just like what I was imagining when you said mold, though. Or maybe I would call it "mildew".

Anyhow, my advice: do clean it, with wet baking soda & rinse with water, like people say you should clean a refrigerator. If the stains remain, which I bet some will, try and remove them with a bleach solution, then rinse that off. If stains still remain, which I bet some will, then they're just stains at that point. Don't pay any attention to them....Don't put food in direct contact with the floor or walls of the freezer (of course). Wrap food well or enclose in proper containers when you freeze it, and it will be OK. The situation sounds temporary anyhow.

FYI: Because it had been unplugged and left outside for a few months before we got it, our refrigerator retained a slight musty smell inside even after we cleaned it as best we could. Our food however was fine. We just stored it wrapped as we normally would, and we had no issues with off-odors or spoilage in the food. The smell in the fridge's atmosphere persisted for many weeks though, until one day, we realized it was gone. No, we didn't just get used to it; the smell had completely dissipated. But it took a while.


How can I maximize Wasabi flavor? A few months ago, I went to dinner with my brother-in-law, and he introduced me to Sushi. I was skeptical (I've gone nearly 40 years without trying it), but I enjoyed it. My favorite part, however, was the Wasabi. It's like horseradish but hotter.

I can tolerate very hot foods, but I don't like the lingering afterburn. This is why I've taken a liking to Wasabi - it is hot, but without the afterburn.

I found a tube of Wasabi at my local Piggly Wiggly, it's basically the same stuff they had at the sushi place. However, after a few weeks of putting it on crackers, pita chips, and carrots, I've developed a bit of a tolerance and, as a whole, I don't feel that it's providing enough hot. I would prefer more.

I found on-line that they have Wasabi powder, but I'm not sure if it will be very hot or not. Also, I'm not sure how to make a dip from it.

How can I maximize the Wasabi flavor? Is there a "pure" Wasabi flavor I can buy? Is there a "nuclear hot sauce" made with Wasabi?

Prepared wasabi that you can buy in a common grocery store (both powdered and paste) is basically just horseradish with green dye in it. Really, you've acquired a taste for horseradish. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I would recommend seeking out other horseradish-based sauces and condiments. You'll probably enjoy them better than the fake wasabi.

If you're interested in finding real wasabi, you'll need to look for it in a specialty grocery store (or online). It's traditionally prepared by grating the fresh root on a sharkskin grater. However, what you had with your sushi was most likely the fake stuff, unless you were in Japan or a very high-end sushi restaurant here in the states.


How well does it work to just throw in all the ingredients and boil? I'm wondering about this recipe.

It tempts me because I'm really lazy. But I'm skeptical because I've always been taught to sauté onions first, then progressively add other ingredients, starting with those that take longer to cook, and saving water for the end. For example when I cook lentil curry, it's onions, garlic, carrots, wait a bit, tomatoes, wait a bit, and finally lentils, water, and perhaps potatoes. This way the onions (and to varying degrees carrots and tomatoes) get a nice 'roasted' flavour which they wouldn't get just being boiled from raw. Is my intuition correct? Does the linked recipe work anyway because of a specific combination of ingredients?

Ah, One Pot Pasta....

As loads of bloggers, authors and cooks - possibly inspired by Martha Stewart and her team - have confirmed: dumping the pasta, sauce ingredients and a carefully meassured amount of liquid in one pot or pan will give you a "pasta and sauce" dish in ten to fifteen minutes.

And it works. Sort of.

Your instinct matches my experience: when you omit the sautéing or slow roasting of ingredients you are missing the flavour compounds that this step creates, likewise if your recipe stews the sauce for a long time. So while all ingredients in one pot pasta will be cooked, due to cutting everything to the appropriate size, the flavour will be different from what your traditional method creates.

If you expect one pot pasta to taste like your traditional recipe, you will probably be disappointed. If you are simply aiming for a creative, hassle-free quick dish, go for it.


White stains & muddy deposits in stainless steel pots I use stainless steel pots on an induction cooker for boiling water for preparing food for an infant. I use bottled and supposedly clear and soft water.

When I pour the water into the pot it is crystal clear. I noticed that after boiling it's not that clear anymore. It's somewhat muddy and has visible whitish deposits.

I also noticed that there are white round spots on the bottom of the pot. When the water is boiling, apparently those spots are where the bubbles appear. I bought a brand new and not-so-cheap pot today and after the first use the same spots appeared.

I am not absolutely sure, but I think the two issues are related.

What is happening? How to prevent it? All I'm interested in is boiling water that is as clear after boiling as it was before.

Boiling water leads to evaporation, which leads to concentration of anything dissolved in the water (and there will, unless your water is distilled, always be something dissolved in it); that concentration can lead the water to be supersaturated and for trace minerals to precipitate out of solution. If you are getting water from your municipal mains, chances are it's perfectly safe either way.

The appearance of 'muddiness,' however, seems very weird to me. Water can't become muddy on its own; by 'muddy' do you mean 'cloudy'?


Best internal temperature for chicken? I understand that, in order to cook chicken safely, the chicken has to be 175f or 79c.

But is there a temperature for the different cuts of chicken that improves the flavour of the chicken?

The USDA recommendation for a safe internal temperature is 165 degrees for chicken.  The breast, being leaner, shouldn't be cooked to any higher than that or it will dry out and be tough.

The thigh can be cooked to a slightly higher temperature (165-175).  That is the Kitchen Network's preference for taste and texture (link here).  Getting the thigh to a slightly higher temperature (and keeping it there for longer) helps the collagen break down, which will make it more tender and taste more moist.


Why does the carbs / fiber ratio decrease after cooking? According to USDA, medium grain raw brown rice has carbs and fiber at a ratio of  76g / 3.4g = 22.4.

When cooked, the ratio changes to 24g / 1.8g = 13.3.

Are these numbers wrong, and if not, why does this ratio change in favor of fiber? Mere dilution shouldn't change this ratio.

EDIT: The missing 0 hypothesis seems to be the most plausible explanation so far, but I'd like to find sources completely independent from USDA to be sure. All of the sources I found just copy USDA directly or indirectly.

When you cook things using water you add mass that have 0 calories. Some food, like rice, absorb that water. Hence boiling 100 grams of rice increase final mass to around 300 grams.
Then again you measure the 100 grams carbs and it's 3 times less than your starting points because you never added additional carbs in the process.

The fiber amount is IMHO wrongly calculated because 3,4 gram divided by 3,16 (ratio of carbs in 100 grams before and after cooking) is 1,075. Probably someone rounded up the 75 wrong and had 1,8 instead of 1,08.


Sourdough Starter isnt rising I've been working on a sourdough starter for almost 3 weeks and I can't seem to get any rise out of it.  I feel like I've tried every trick I've read online and nothing has worked.

I started with wheat flour and then switched to white after the first feeding.  After a few days of measuring with cups I've since been measuring by weight.  I had some hooch early on (maybe day 3-5?) but only small amount, if any, since.  I get a varying level of bubbles but no rise.  I've done the float test and failed.  I've tried everything...feeding every 12 hours, feeding every 24 hours, doing one feeding with wheat flour, feeding 1:2:2, feeding 1:1:1, you name it.  I've tried keeping it in a pyrex bowl with a towel on it, pyrex bowl with lid, in a mason jar with saran wrap, mason jar with lid tight, etc.  I tried each of these for a few days before modifying.

The only thing that seems to have gotten any rise was when I put it in the microwave with a cup of hot water - I've done this twice and the 1st time I got some decent rise out of it, the 2nd time nothing really.  I live in Florida and its very hot/humid so temp shouldn't be the issue.

Consistency is normally very thick after I feed but when it comes time to the next feeding its very runny and thin.

Does anyone have any tips on what else I should do?  Am I just trying too many things?  HELP!

How exactly are you feeding the starter? Are you just adding new flour and water or are you discarding?

What I do (based on recipes I've seen) is discard 2/3 of the starter and add 1/3 of each new flour and water. So if I have 100g of starter, when I feed it, I discard 67g of it and add 33g of each flour and water.

The reason for this is that it gives the starter a lot more "food". If you start with 50g and add 50g, you've added 100% and then have 100g. If you then add 50g more, you're only adding 50% and have 150g. If you add 50g again, you've only added 33% and have 200g. Because you're adding progressively smaller amounts of food, you will get progressively less activity.

Instead if you discard 1/3 and add 2/3, you'll add 200%, and if you do it again, you'll add another 200%, etc. After a few days of this you should have a very active starter.

This does require discarding some of the starter which is why I keep it relatively small. I use 75g of starter for a loaf of bread, so with 100g I have enough for loaf and then enough to re-make the starter.

The discard can be used in other recipes such as pancakes, banana bread, etc. It is 50/50 flour and water so easy to substitute into other recipes.

Aside from that, you will get more activity at a warmer temperature.  Room temp is usually about 65-70F but the yeast is more active at 85-90F.  But don't go much higher than this or you can make the yeast so active it will produce alcohol or kill it completely.  You can get to this temp a bunch of different ways.  The space above or behind your fridge is often warmer.  If you have an oven with a light, the closed oven with the light on is often warmer.  If you have an aquarium heater those usually hold this temp.  Many electronic devices like computers or wireless access points generate a little bit of heat.

You should not microwave the starter, this will warm it up but you'll probably kill the yeast.  When you are about to feed it you can microwave the water you're using to warm it up first, but don't microwave the starter or flour.

If your water has a lot of chlorine in it, that can inhibit yeast growth. You can either use bottled or filtered water, or leave some water sitting out for a few days to let the chlorine dissipate.


How to make less salty Fermented Black Bean Stir Fry I recently tried a variant of chinese stir fry using Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Garlic Sauce. I liked the flavor, but the end result was significantly saltier than I prefer.

The rough recipe I used was:

2 Tbsp black bean garlic sauce
5 dried peppers
1 Tbsp garlic
1 Tbsp ginger
5oz baked tofu
Various veggies
1 tsp Sesame oil, drizzled after cooking

It seems like maybe I need to modify the sauce by adding something. However, soy sauce seems like the wrong direction since I'm trying to get less salty.

There are two ways to reduce the saltiness of the finished dish: reduce the amount of salt you put in (in this case difficult, as it is in the sauce, so you'd have to put in less sauce) or increase the amount of water that stays in the finished dish. For the second option I personally have the following strategies which may or may not suit your taste:

add more veggies or tofu or other watery ingredients without salt
add yoghurt or any other fresh topping that contains no salt
also make sure that the tofu you add is not too salty, if possible add plain tofu

or as mentioned in the comment to your question you could make your own sauce, one good recipe I found was here: http://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-make-homemade-black-bean-sauce-or-black-bean-paste/ It tells you how to transform fermented black (soy!) beans into a sauce and also has some interesting examples how you can use it and it doesn't seem very complicated to do.

Of course if you are adventurous you could also try fermenting soy beans yourself, but that's another story.


What is a good technique for making candy floss (cotton candy)? I have a candy floss machine, but I'm struggling to get the floss all together. It just flies around and makes a mess of the bowl.

It looks like this:

What is a good technique for making a stick of candy floss?

It's been decades since I've done it, and it was with a full size professional machine (from a party rental store).  From what I remember:

Wait for it to accumulate on the sides
Reach in with a stick or a paper cone, down to the bottom of the spun sugar
Pull up while scraping the stick along the side of the machine.

There was spinning involved, too.  I want to say that you spun the stick after you had the candy clear of the machine, not while it was in the machine, but my memory of that part is a bit hazy.

Never put your hand into the machine.  I don't know if it was the hot sugar getting flung off, or some sort of a straw nozzle flailing about, but whatever it is, it hurts.  (that much I remember).

It's possible that the procedure is different for smaller, personal machines.  For one, they don't tend to have as much space to accumulate the floss to make a full cone in one pass.


Accidentally wolfed down a rare burger I got an Angus burger patty from the meat counter at my local Kroger. I cooked it for about 5 minutes on each side on medium heat with a lid on the pan. The burger was a bit thicker. I was so hungry and ate it really fast and didn't realize that it was somewhat undercooked in the middle. Here is a picture of what was left. Am i going to be okay or should I worry about E.Coli? Is it worth puking it out?

There is no way of knowing, from your picture, if there is E. Coli present in your burger, nor is there any way for us to let you know if you will get sick.  However, we can identify the risks and what increases or decreases the risk of infection.  If E. Coli is present, it is typically present on the exterior of a whole muscle.  So, you can decrease your risk of infection by purchasing quality whole muscles from a reputable source, and grinding the beef yourself.  Purchasing pre-ground beef, or pre-made patties, increases your risk, because you don't know the quality of the original cut, or how it was treated during processing.  You can, of course kill E.Coli by cooking, however, you need the relatively high, and generally recommended temperature of 160F (71C), and we now know that some E.Coli survive that.  I don't enjoy my burgers that well done, so I purchase quality whole muscle and grind my own.  Since we don't offer health advice, I can't comment on whether or not you should vomit.


How to Make Home-made Flour Tortilla Bowls for Salads? I have tried a couple ways to do this and they have been OK.  Of course, when I worked in industrial kitchens, using a deep fryer and a stainless steel potato masher (but larger) was ideal, but neither of these tools are available in my home kitchen.

So basically, I have a 12-15 inch flour tortilla I want to make into a fried bowl for a nice salad.  Any ideas?

Try brushing the tortilla with oil, and baking it upside down over a steel bowl.