How does baking temperature affect kale chips? My ideal for kale chips would be to have the kale remain as green as possible, be crispy, but not have a burnt flavor.

In kale chip recipes around the internet, the cooking temperature varies wildly, from 220F to 420F.

How do these different baking temperature affect kale chips?

With kale crisps you are ideally trying to dehydrate instead of baking. This saves the chlorphyll from degradation. Depending on your green/veg chlorophyll starts to degrade between 100F-185F (40C-85C). Now, 220F-240F (100C-120C) is as low as most domestic ovens go. However, if you are able to use a lower temprature, that would give you a greener result and a cleaner flavour. But it will take longer to crisp as you lower the temprature.
Using a dehydrator would be ideal, running at around 140F (60C). Think of dryed fruit, herbs or even tomatoes, they are almost never baked, but rather dehydrated. You'll also find that commercial kale crisps use a very low temprature and they are promoted by it as it keeps nutrients intact and preserves chlorophyll.

A tip if you have to use your oven, keep checking and take them out before they crisp up completely. As they cool, the residual heat will dehydrate them a touch more.


Standardized symbols for marking food allergies / warnings? I was reading a blog posting about someone who visited Google's cafeteria and noticed the picture of a sign labeled 'Menu Labeling Symbols'.

As I occassionaly participate in pot lucks and similar, and end up bringing index cards or post-it notes & a sharpie so that I can mark whatever it is that people bring, I've often thought about need some standards for marking things.

There are some things that have been around for years, such as a capcicum (chilie pepper) to mark spicy, or a the various markings for Kosher food (in which most of the letters only are claims by the manufacturer/packager, unless there's also a certification group mark as well).

But are there standard symbols out there for 'contains dairy' or 'doesn't contain dairy' or any of the other items on this list?

I'm thinking that the assertion of 'this is safe' for a given group is generally more useful for potlucks and such than more controlled food sources (catered events, cafeterias), as you always have those unknown items where you can't make an assertion if it's safe or not.  (or it's put out without getting labeled).

So, the question is -- is anyone aware of any symbol standards for this sort of labeling, other than spelling it out (I'd like to avoid the "may contain nuts" and "processed in a facility that processes nuts" ... it's either safe, or it isn't) or the Kosher markings which may not be sufficient for allergies and intollerances?

update : okay, the question's a bit rambling ... take a look at this picture, and it'll hopefully make sense.

The only true specifications for allergies that I know of are medical ICD-9 diagnosis codes used for medical bracelets and billing at hospitals. However, these codes are not easy to understand, and therefore many people who have food sensitivities or allergies may not actually be aware of them. I would use a listing of common allergens and "-free" after them. (Ex: "gluten free"/GF, "dairy-free"/DF, "peanut-free"/PF, "nut free"/NF, "egg free"/EF, etc). As someone with severe food allergies, I would be able to comprehend this or any obvious images or icons. As long as you make it explicitly clear, you should be okay.

You can find the ICD-9 & 10 codes here:

Specific ICD-10 Codes for Allergies

Specific ICD-9 Codes for Allergies


What wines pair well with spicy, citrus chicken? I will be preparing a stir-fry entree, served with rice, consisting of:

Chicken, seared after applying the spice rub, then sauteed with citrus (lemon and lime).
Red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, and (possibly) baby corn
A sweet, thin chili sauce, applied sparingly; the stir fry will not be swimming in it
Spices (dry), used as a rub for the chicken and (lightly) applied to the vegetables during frying: salt, garlic (only a little), ginger, several different kinds of pepper (mostly hot)

This will be a substantially hot dish, enough so that the average restaurant patron would complain and send it back. The citrus also comes through quite strongly in the chicken. The dish works quite well, with the main tastes being hot and acid, accompanied by an undercurrent of sweetness.

I'm entertaining and a wine is required, but, as I don't often drink it with this style of cuisine or flavor profile, I don't know what would make a good accompaniment. I'm leaning towards something mildly sweet, dry and crisp, but I'm unsure how it would get along with the citrus.

In my experience, dry wines risk being completely killed by hot food.

The classical pairing would be an aromatic white, like Gewürztraminer or Riesling, with substantial sweetness. Germany is the role model here, especially the wines around Spätlese and Auslese levels, with Alsace a close second. (They're also great QPR, but that's a secondary concern.)

The sweetness will ease the heat of the food and lets you actually taste the wine, and good semi-sweet wines (especially Rieslings) will have very good acidity so the citrus won't be a problem.


What oil to use when cooking steak, and what difference does it make? When cooking steak, I have always been told groundnut oil is the best to use. But what difference does it make? Is it the best? And if it is the best, what's the next best?

For steaks I really prefer cooking butter instead of oils, I find that the flavor fits the meat better.


Can I make invert syrup in situ when making candy? There are a couple recipes out there for invert syrup that basically say add some acid (citric acid or cream of tartar) at 0.1% w/w bring it up to 240 °F/116 °C then let cool. However, is there a way I can be lazy when making candy and in one pot invert about a quarter of the sugar to avoid having to make and store invert syrup and worry about if I have any?

The fact that many of the invert syrup recipes also say to not go past whatever temperature, is a bit curious, will it begin to caramelize at a lower temperature (240 °F vs. 300 °C) or what's the issue?  I'm not sure if I could just add 0.025% w/w tartaric acid to straight table sugar and call it good when I go up to 280 °F or 300 °F for soft/hard crack.

Yes, you can do it. In fact, most recipes for candy I have followed suggest to do it that way. Just add your acid before starting to heat the syrup, and proceed with the candymaking as usual.

I suspect that the reason the recipes for inverted syrup specify an upper limit for the temperature is because they are recipes for syrup. If you overheat them, you will get, as you noted, soft or hard crack, but not syrup. If this is what you need, you can do it, it is just not the intention of the recipe author, so they warn against it.


How can I make shredded beef? In Australia, shredded beef is not something you can buy easily. I haven't seen it anywhere except in restaurants.

I would like to know how I can make my own restaurant quality shredded beef; the same kind that appears in "Mexican" restaurants. Please also provide information on which cut of beef I should be using along with the process.

You can use Chuck to make your shredded beef. Cook it for a long time, at a low temperature, until a probe slides in and out of it with no resistance. Braising in a liquid seasoned with spices like cumin, garlic, and chili powder will get you the flavor profile you want (I recommend either finding a recipe or some trial and error).


Meat juices can they be saved for recooking meat? Can I keep the dripping and meat juices to cook with at a later date?

Absolutely! There is a lot of flavor in juices and drippings and they can be used at a later time for soups, gravies, stews, braising meats, etc. You will need to store it in the refrigerator or, for longer storage, in the freezer.


Turtle Caramel Turns to sugar I just tried an outstanding turtle recipe. The caramel is brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt & sweetened condensed milk heated to 248 degrees. They started out great nice & chewy, not too hard BUT after a week the caramel is turning grainy, sugary & crumbly. What happened?

The sugar is crystallising. Try replacing the corn syrup with glucose syrup, or adding a little cream of tartar, both of which prevent crystallisation.


Cooking time for two identical pieces of beef I am cooking two identical 2 pound pieces of beef. It calls for 25 minutes per pound. Do I figure the cooking time for 2 or for 4 pounds? The cooking time for 2 pounds would be 50 minutes and for 4 pounds it would be 1 hr and 40 minutes.

If they are generally the same shape and size, be sure there is room between them for air to circulate and base your initial cook time on one piece.  Of course, time is not a very accurate measure when roasting in an oven.  So, your best bet is to use a thermometer to achieve your desired level of doneness.


How to keep cake soft when served frozen (Ice Cream Cake) I am a baker and want to offer ice cream cakes, consisting of actual cake with a layer of ice cream on top. I need the cake to stay as soft as possible when frozen. I know oil based cakes will do better than butter based cakes. Any other suggestions? What else I can do to help keep a cake soft when frozen? How do ice cream makers keep cake pieces soft in their ice cream? Thanks!

I don’t think you can achieve room temperature softness but, I think you can start with the following considerations:

Minimize the water content:
Eventually what will make your cake hard frozen is large ice crystals. For this you should experiment with the final water amount in your cake to minimize it. Resting the batter/dough overnight can help you hydrate the flour easier.

Increase the amount of ingredients that interfere with large crystal formation. To name a few:

Eggs (especially egg yolk) have various properties for  inhibiting  crystal formation.
Instead of sucrose (table sugar) use invert sugar syrup, which is pretty easy to make, that can help slow down the ice crystals forming.
Locust Bean Gum: this is a thickener known to reduce the ice crystals in ice-cream, and also has baking applications. This can be utilized as well.


Which type of oil/fat should I use for deep frying? I just got my first ever deep fryer yesterday. Looking round in the shops, I found that I can get bottled frying oil, or a white solid block type of fat which I've never used before, I guess it may be lard (but I'm not sure this is the right word, as I'm not a native speaker).

In terms of handling, is there any benefit of using the solid stuff over frying oil or sunflower oil? (For example, I'm not sure if the white stuff would get solid again when cooled ...)

For the very best tasting fries, onion rings and battered fish are fried in fat made from rendered beef fat. When I was a cook we rendered down a thousand pounds of beef fat a week, it took days to do. But it made the very best tasting savory deep fried foods. The burning temperature is lowish, so food needs to be cooked at 325 and changed more often. It's not good for things like doughnuts.

I'm not a fan of Canola, I find it often has a taste which I don't like. I don't use peanut mostly due to habit, too many people I've run into with allergies. I can't find rendered beef fat and I'm not going to render it at home.

At home I use a mixture of Sunflower and lard, about 1 part to 3 parts. The sunflower oil makes it easier to handle when filtering through a very fine mesh sieve (more liquid at a lower temperature) after use, then I put it in an old olive oil can which I refrigerate between uses. I leave out overnight before I use it then warm in hot water to pour it out. I don't usually use more then once a month. The more crumbs and batter bits you filter out the longer the fat will remain good. So filter, and don't pour the last bit into the can.

Refrigerated the oil mix doesn't go bad before it becomes no good to use. I get well over a years use. I love sunflower oil, it has almost no taste at all and a high smoke temp. It is pricey.


How do I know when quiche is finished cooking? Whenever I've cooked quiche, it's been in a round tin of around 10-12 cm diameter. I've used 5-6 eggs along with other ingredients like chicken and vegetables.

After it comes out of the oven, I find that the height is low (around 2cm) when I thought/expected it to be higher.

I find it hard to know when it's actually 'cooked' as the egg parts are runny when it's in the oven, only solidifying when I take it out.

How can I tell that the quiche is done?

Inferring that the question is, "How do I tell when the quiche is done?" The answer is to check the internal temperature, which should be between 165°F(74°C) and 185°F(85°C).


Microwave Surface Temperatures too hot I have a stainless cavity Microwave.  Most all microwaves I have ever used are cool to the touch after use.

This was gets extremely hot. I have measured over 80C, 179F on the front center of microwave.  This is only after a 2 minute and 20 second popcorn.  If I turn on with nothing it might be hotter.

If you touch the area when retrieving the bag of popcorn you can easily burn yourself.

This seems unsafe and not normal.  How hot should it get?  Is there a maximum for surfaces by an agency allowed?

It's a bad idea to run your microwave empty.

Microwave energy excites water molecules, a microwave oven heats food by heating the water inside it. If there's no water to excite then the energy ends up heating the components of the microwave instead, which is why it heats up when you run it empty, doing this can damage your microwave.

Popcorn is one of the tougher things you can cook in a microwave because it is very dry, so the microwaves again have little to work with and can end up heating the microwave instead. A popcorn kernel pops when the pressure of the expansion of the small amount of water in the kernel exceeds the ability of the skin to contain it, and when it fails the inside explosively expands, releasing some super-heated steam. The heat of the kernels and the steam released from the popping can heat up your microwave quite a bit, especially if you put too much in. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of popcorn is the maximum I've seen recommended.

Try heating up a full bowl of water for a 2-3 minutes and see if your door heats up until it's dangerous to touch. If it does then your microwave is faulty, if not then your microwave is probably fine and you need to understand its limitations better.


What's a good substitute for sport peppers? Sport peppers are a key ingredient in the Chicago-style hot dog.
From Tomato Growers Supply Company's page about Sport peppers:

Sport: This Capsicum annum type of pepper is popular for its use as a pickled pepper to go on hot dogs and other sandwiches. It is especially well known as an essential condiment in a Chicago-style hot dog. Peppers resemble Tabasco peppers, but the Sport pepper is larger, about 1-1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. They are medium-hot and produced in great abundance on sturdy plants. 75 days.

These are not readily available outside the US (at least in my region). What is a good substitute, particularly for making the hot dog?

Not sure where you're located, but any pickled pepper will work. In Europe and the Middle East, peppers like this are popular:

I personally use pickled jalapeños if I don't have sport peppers, but the ones in the images (Turkish pickled peppers) would be the most similar if you can find them.


How do I rid my new plastic appliance of its plastic smell? I've just purchased a new coffee maker, and it has a terrible plastic smell to it. It smells like something between new car and hot glue gun.

I've run two or three pots of water through it, but the smell lingers.

How do I get rid of this smell?

You could also try running white vinegar through the coffeemaker. It's a technique used to clean the coffeemaker. Vinegar in general is good for getting rid of smells, so I'm thinking it will be useful here.


Cleaning wax and pesticide from apple skin I love apples. I like to eat them with skin as it has plenty of fiber in the skin. But apples are famous for wax and pesticides on the skin which I don’t want to ingest. I have read many articles on the web and suggestions for removing the wax from the surface.

These suggestions include soaking in vinegar or hot water and other methods. They suggest that soaking apples in vinegar removes the wax that can be seen in the vinegar. I have done that, but never seen any residue of wax in the vinegar.

So I have set aside a new kitchen sink Scotch-Brite scrubber for this purpose and been scrubbing the apple skin under running water before eating. I think this method should remove most of the wax and pesticides. I would like to hear your input.

Just rinse them quickly with hot water, and afterward with cold water. That should melt the wax, and remove everything.


Dissolving Egg Shell I know that an egg shell is made up of approximately 92% Calcium Carbonate.  The remaining percentage of the mass is a protein matrix.  I know that vinegar (5% acetic acid) dissolves the Calcium Carbonate.  Does any other food (such as lemon juice or some other acid) dissolve the shell of an egg.  If so, how long does the process take?

I want to dissolve the shell of the egg before I soft-cook it.

Someone once had me on in a pub that you could pickle eggs by simply placing a raw egg in a jar of vinegar and the energy released by the shell dissolving would hard boil the egg.

When I got back home I put a raw egg in a vinegar filled jar. Immediately air bubbles appeared around the shell as some chemical reaction kicked off.

The shell was completely dissolved in about 3 days. The egg was raw and no doubt gone off since it had been denyed its naturally given vacuum pack, i.e. the shell.


Is it less bad to refeeze bones than meat? I heard it's bad to refeeze meat. Someone told me it's less bad to refeeze bones. I have the bones from a venison shoulder someone gave me and thought it would make a nice gallon or so of broth but not right now, got plenty of other stuff. The shoulder was frozen when we got it, whole, and I wasn't able to saw off pieces to put back in the freezer and had to defrost it for processing. We're making a stew and chili with the rest.

I don't think there is a big problem re-freezing bones themselves.

If you plan to use the meat attached to bones (not clear from your question), then, yes, re-freezing and re-thawing will cause the meat to become mushy, even for a stew.


What methods can be used to cook Skipjack tuna other than frying it in oil? First of all I must say that I'm not a fish person but a red meat person. However I'm currently on a diet and as such I've been looking for different ways to properly cook Tuna with low fat.

I know there are my recipes out there, I'm not looking for an specific one but rather a short summary of the methods used to cook fish without requiring much expertise and can be done quick and without much equipment. Therefore is there anyone who can help me with this?

Please don't say just boiling it in water or putting in the oven for who knows how long. I must add that I do not have access to an oven so the suggestion which would help me the most is one which does refrain from using it.

Maybe this can work but is not what I'm looking for. I'm aiming at something which has proved over the time to be easy to do and use little or almost no oil.

A few suggestions:

Raw. If your fish is great quality and very fresh, and you have  a good sharp knife (just look up the way to cut it for the nicest texture)
Ceviche. This cooks (denatures) the fish with acid, rather than heat. Lots of recipes out there for great marinades, some with no added oil at all.
Seared. You only need to add rub enough oil into the surface of the fish to prevent it from sticking, to a hot griddle or flat pan.
Steamed. Often with aromatics. In a bowl to catch the juices, or wrapped in a loose but well-sealed package of foil or greaseproof paper (en papillote).

Gently poached in good oil is very nice, but I don't think that would meet your dietary requirements!

En papillote Is often done in quite a hot oven: the package enforces steaming inside; the fish isn't exposed to fierce heat.

All of these methods will be enhanced by your choice of recipe for dipping sauces, dressings, marinades,  sides, etc. There's no difficult technique in most of them. The lucky thing about good fish is.. the less you do to it, the better it is. (Almost). Look up the methods, and you'll find the recipes.

The only real danger is overcooking. You'll have to get to know your preferred doneness.


dry garlic in oil --> botulism risk? My girlfriend and I are thinking of preparing some flavored oils for Christmas presents this year (don't tell anyone!). We've read online that fresh garlic presents a health hazard when stored at room temperature, because the low-acidity, oxygen-free environment is perfect for the botulism-causing spore to develop.

In order to avoid this, we've used dried, minced garlic (bought at the store). However, I haven't found any substantial evidence that this mixture is safe for storage at room-temperature. One site mentioned that the lack of water in the garlic removes the "food" for the spore, and therefore the risk.

Do you know if dried garlic (or any other easily available garlic type) can be stored for longer periods at room temperature?

The most common data point seems to be that any moisture level below 35% will inhibit growth of the C. Botulinum spores that cause botulism.  It's hard to point to true scientific sources because they tend to be protected, but if you spend a few minutes on Google (try this query) you'll see that it is in fact confirmed in several of the scientific journals.

I seem to be seeing snippets of references (which I can't view the full text of) that suggest possible growth at moisture levels  as low as 16%, but most garlic flakes have 6% moisture or lower, which is way too low for botulism.

If you are seriously concerned - perhaps you live in a very humid climate and don't have air conditioning - then toss a desiccant into the container to be sure that the moisture level stays down.  The most popular are those little packets of silica gel (don't open them!), but there are many more - see Wikipedia's list of desiccants.

Honestly though, chances are your flaked garlic is already free of C. Botulinum spores after the dehydrating process, and nothing's going to grow no matter how you store the dried stuff.  The above paragraph is only included for the hyper-paranoid.  Powdered/flaked garlic is safe to store at room temperature.

If you're actually storing this garlic in the oil (it's not entirely clear from your question) then that's another story, and theoretically you're making it possible for the spores to grow again.  So it comes down to a question of whether or not the garlic flakes are already clean.  That's extremely likely to be the case, but not a sure thing, and personally, I don't know if I'd chance it; best to follow the same precautions as those for fresh garlic and soak them in vinegar for 24 hours to kill any spores (although you might as well use fresh garlic in this case).


Why does my home made chilli sauce ferment? Good day all

My lovely wife makes a super sauce with chillies, olive oil, lemon juice, wine vinegar and garlic. Works a treat when we make a jarful for home use and one or two extra ones for friends. But when we try making a batch to bottle it ferments.

We have tried washing the bottles and caps with a teaspoon of bleach in water before filling, and also washing the chillies themselves with a similar dilution.

But after a few days the stuff has fermented.

How do we prevent this fermentation?

Thanks and regards,
Stan and Odete,
Johannesburg, South Africa

It ferments, like every other food mixture, because there's microorganisms (bacteria and yeast) in the air and the ingredients that reproduce and consume the sugars and starches in it. Any jarred vegetable, fruit, or herb will ferment unless there is something specifically to prevent microorganism growth.  You can't get rid of these just by washing the outsides of everything, since these organisms are present inside the peppers, in the air, and particularly in the garlic, which is practically a microorganism incubator.

For some sauces, the fermentation is desired and intended, but apparently for yours it isn't.  So let's look at the ways you can stop fermentation:

1) Canning: if you seal, and heat the jarred pepper sauce to a sufficient heat for enough time, that will prevent fermentation more-or-less indefinitely until it is opened.  Depending on the heat-treatment and canning process, it may be storable at room temperature, or it may need to be refrigerated. Note that, since you're cooking the sauce, this may change its taste and texture.

2) Salting: if there's enough salt in your pepper sauce, it does not ferment because nothing can live in it; that's the secret to shelf-storable pepper pastes you can buy at the store.

3) Acid: on the opposite end, if the pepper sauce is sufficiently acidic, this will also stop fermentation; this is how shelf-stable pepper sauces like Tabasco work.  You'll also need to strain out the solids, though.  You need to be careful to add acids, like vinegar and citric acid, that don't come with too much additional sugar (like lemon juice does).

4) Artificial preservatives, like sodium benzoate, are strong anti-microbial substances that can prevent fermentation.

5) Combination: because peppers and garlic are difficult from a preservation perspective (peppers are low-acid and high-sugar, and I've already mentioned garlic), it can help to do a combination of methods.  When I make jarred salsa, I add vinegar and can it, and preserved lemons use both acid and salt.

Anyway, the Ball site has lots more advice about canning and preserving, you can find pretty much everything you want to know there, and you can also look at the answers to this question.


How many peppercorns to a 2 litre Beef Casserole? In slow cooking I would like to know the amount of peppercorns to add to a meat stew or casserole please, I don't like it too peppery.

There's no real right or wrong answer here, it's totally subjective as I have no idea what you'd consider "too peppery". I like pepper so too peppery for me is a lot, whereas some of my family can't tolerate any heat, so too peppery is basically the merest hint. I'll try and scale it for you depending on how much heat tolerance you (or your guests) will have:

Likes it hot, real hot. Eats spicy food often and adds hot sauce to everything: don't just add peppercorns, add chili peppers as well. Probably not you
Likes a bit of heat occasionally, gets spicy dishes when going out to a mexican or thai restaurant but doesn't subscribe to hot sauces weekly: 7-8 whole peppercorns plus one whole chili. You pick the chili out whole, and try to keep it from bursting. Adding a whole chili gives a bit of chili flavor but without the heat
Occasionally will go out on a limb and have medium salsa on a chip, but that's where it ends: 5 peppercorns
Mild salsa only, picks the jalapenos off nachos and gives them away: 2 peppercorns
Won't touch anything that even has a chili in the same proximity: 0 peppercorns

I like pepper and spicy food, but I don't like dishes with too much pepper flavor, it can be way too strong. I stop at maybe 7-8 peppercorns and if I want more heat add chili.


How to marinate cheese In the answers to this question Jerk vegetable?
one of the suggestions is to marinate some cheese.

This is not something I have heard of before. I was wondering what cheeses are suitable, and are there any special considerations that need to be made?

A lot of cheeses are naturally brined (feta, for example), and marinating cheese is not much different.  For the best effect:

Pick a porous cheese
Cut off the edges if the cheese has a skin
Cut into smaller pieces to increase the penetration
Press it dry with towels (or paper towels)
You can inject the cheese to get more flavour in it
Marinate in flavours that compliment the cheese
Let the cheese soak for at least 4 hours (more for less porous cheeses)

If the cheese is really wet (like feta), add weights to the drying process (like a pot or heavy plate), and let it drain until the surface feels dry.

Note that many cheeses are already salty, so balance your marinade with this in mind.


How to store pizza dough in the fridge? I’m making about 12 pizza doughs. Typically when I make a few, I store each one in a ziplock and try to reduce air. But in this case I was wondering if I can just get away with a full size baking sheet and store as many dough with enough space between. Then wrap in cling wrap to secure it from drying.

From this site

  Make Ahead Tips

  The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. After 2
  days, tightly cover the dough in its bowl with plastic wrap to keep
  the surface of the dough from drying out. You can also freeze the
  dough in well-wrapped 1/2-lb. balls for up to 3 weeks. Thaw overnight
  in the refrigerator before using.


What kind of rice is used in Chinese cooking? I love the Chinese food we get from takeaway shops, and often to save on the cost we will cook our own rice at home. This is good, but the rice never seems to have the same texture as takeaway rice - it's less sticky, and much harder to eat with chopsticks. I usually use plain long grain rice as that's what I have in the cupboard. Does anyone know what kind they would use in a Chinese restaurant or takeaway?

Also, out of interest, what kind is used in authentic Chinese cooking? (I am well aware that this is vastly different from what we eat as "Chinese food" in the West!)

Well in Chinese cooking we use a wide variety actually. Typically speaking...

Medium or Long Grain Rice

White Rice
Fried Rice

Sweet Rice or Glutinous Rice

Sticky Rice (You commonly see this at Dim Sum places in the sticky rice dishes wrapped in lotus leaves, among other places.)

There are others of course, but those are the common ones you'll find since you were asking about Chinese Takeout. The shorter the grain, the more "sticky" it will be. However, that doesn't mean that long grain rice should come out grainy either. I suppose different restaurants will do it differently, around here they generally use long grain rice for "white rice". This is how my mother taught me to make rice:

Wash Rice a few times till there isn't any more murkiness.
Add water till it reaches your first knuckle on your pointer finger when the tip is just barely touching the rice (should generally work for any amount of rice).
Bring to boil, turn to simmer (covered). Check back in 10 to 15 minutes If the water is mostly gone, and it isn't at the texture you like, you can always add a bit more water.
Let it sit for a few minutes after the heat is off.

In China, you'll find all different grains. I've seen both short and long grains, and have seen plain white, long grain rice served as well.


Mason jar stuck inside another I need help!  I just finished making sauerkraut and was using a mason jar inside of a larger mason jar to weigh down the cabbage. Now, I can't get the inner mason jar out.

I've tried soap around the rim of the jars.

Any suggestions?

Ok, first you had me wondering "How did he get the small jar inside?", but having kids I quickly realized this is a futile question. (For those w/o children, read Douglas Adams...)

The standard procedure for detaching two jars / glasses that are stuck, would be putting ice cubes in the inner one and then placing the outer one in hot water. But you said you can't open the inner one which is full of water?

Well, ice is frozen water. So freeze the entire contraption until you have one large ice cube in the inner jar. Proceed as usual.

Your inner jar might break due to expanding ice or the outer due to thermal shock, but currently you have two unusuable jars, after this, you might have at least one good one...


What's wrong with if you only sharpen, and never hone, your knives? Pretend that whenever a knife feels dull (even if it isn't), you sharpen it on a whetstone, and never hone it. What do you squander if you only sharpen, and never hone? What are the drawbacks?
I'm guessing that only sharpening curtails or docks your knife's edge, and wastes your knife's length? Because you're wastefully removing the bent steel, rather than straightening it?
Top picture below. Bottom.

A kitchen knife has two different structures of steel in it; hard steel in the edge so that it can be sharp, and soft steel in the spine so that it can be flexible and tough. The real danger of too much abrasive sharpening is removing all of the hard steel from the edge of the knife, at which point it will become impossible to give it a good edge.
Where I've seen this happen in practice is cheap stamped steel knives (many of which have a fairly thin layer of hard steel to begin with) sharpened using an electric sharpener for years. My mother has some that are basically butter knives now.  Forged knives tend to have more hard steel, so it takes a lot more over-sharpening to remove it (still, my mother-in-law has managed, after grinding off 4mm of the edge over 30 years).


Are 'sweet' and 'mild' - Italian Sausage - the same thing? Do they refer to the same kind? Or is there a subtle difference?

And what essentially encapsulates the concept of a sausage being sweet? Is it typical sucrose driven sweetness inherent to the product...or the resultant chemical aftertaste on consuming it?

Cooking geeks unite! We have a problem.

Both sweet and mild refers to the sausages without hot red pepper flakes. The fact they are called sweet Italian sausages doesn't mean they contain sugar.


Steelhead Salmon's Mercury content How does Steelhead salmon compare with Atlantic farm raised salmon when it comes to mercury content?

Sorry, I know that this is old, but I wanted to follow up with some related data.

Caveat: I'm not a scientist, but my dad was a biochemist who worked in the aquatic biology field for more than 50 years, and I picked up a few things.

In 2001, a multi-species study was done on several species of fish including two types of local salmonid trout - cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki) and kokanee (O. nerka) in a large freshwater lake in Washington State (Lake Whatcom). Both of these fish are morphologically similar to Steelhead Trout (O. mykiss) in its non-anadromous form (also known as rainbow trout).

What all this means is, these are good marker-species to use because they are a lot like steelhead.

In a nutshell - even though these fish were raised in the wild and ate whatever they could catch (insects, small crustaceans and the like), their mercury levels were lower than most commercially-caught fish.

The cutthroat trout showed a mean of 0.08mg/kg mercury and the kokanee showed a mean of 0.12mg/kg mercury. This is pretty low. The paper that I used for my research is here: Mercury in Sportfishes of Lake
Whatcom, Washington, Including a
Review of Potential Impacts to
Aquatic Resources and People

Farmed steelhead/rainbow trout from the Columbia River and Washington and British Columbia coastal waters are very environmentally sound, having earned a "Best Choice" rating from Seafood Watch (https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-recommendations/groups/trout?method=farmed&q=Trout,%20Farmed&t=farmed%20steelhead%20trout&type=rainbow&location=domestic&o=1327878260).

There are two sub-cultivars of this species - those that are raised in pens which are truly anadromous (i.e., they smolt, and spend half their lives in freshwater and the other half in saltwater), and those that are raised in raceways on one of the coastal river systems such as the Columbia, which are not anadromous and would technically be called rainbow rather than steelhead.

It is arguable that their flavor is not as strong in a salmon-y, fishy way as wild-caught fish. Those that are raised in pens are closer to wild-caught, because pens do not restrict the passing of small crustaceans and other species and thus allow the pen-raised fish to have a diet much closer to their natural one.

While I do prefer wild-caught fish for their flavor, I have often purchased and prepared locally-farmed steelhead.

I fundamentally have a problem with invasive-species that are farmed here in the Pacific Northwest (such as, for example, Atlantic Salmon). I do not have any issues with farmed steelehad, because it is a local species anyway and it seems to be a sustainable food source.

Lastly, here's a picture of some smoked steelhead I made in December of last year:


What are good ways to flavor water? I'm having a hard time to keep hydrated... and really, I think a good part of it is that straight water is really meh.
I know of ways to flavor water, but I find fruits to be a bother (you then have just soggy fruit  at the end of your bottle, not always have access to some trashcan to throw them into) and most flavor powders are stupidly high in sugar.
So is there other good ways to flavor water that do not create a waste product and are not super high in sugars?

Lemon juice
This one is fairly obvious and self-explanatory. Although the idea is mainly associated with highly sugarey lemonade, just a few drops of juice in a bottle of water and no extra sugar gives it a nice touch.
Vinegar
A matter of taste. Many will find this just gross, but it has of course a similar tartiness as lemon and less sugar.
Cucumber
This surprised me a lot when I first tasted it: you'd think cucumbers hardly taste of anything at all. But put a few fresh slices in a jug of water for half an hour, and they'll impart a subtle, but astonishingly interesting and really quite refreshing flavour.


Does the quality of garlic degrades if I chopped, fried then use it after a week? Here in the Philippines, most of the viands uses garlic, specially whenever we sauteing. Due to this I've found a shortcut in order to reduce the time I need whenever I cook. Instead of peeling the garlic, chopping it in bits then frying it, I've managed to do those things then preserve it.

It will look like this, then I will use it for 1 whole week, sometimes even for a month.

Question: Does the quality of a fried garlic degrades if I preserved it then use it some other day?

Does the quality degrade?  Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.  Garlic (like onions and other members of the allium family) begins to undergo chemical changes the moment you cut into it.  It's the same phenomenon that causes you to tear up when you cut into an onion.

Quoting liberally from Wikipedia's article here...

  The phytochemicals responsible for the sharp flavor of garlic are produced when the plant's cells are damaged [...] The resultant compounds are responsible for the sharp or hot taste and strong smell of garlic. Some of the compounds are unstable and continue to react over time.

Ever notice how garlic becomes sweeter and far less pungent with even a brief sautee?  That's due to the instability of these flavorful compounds and how they break down when cooked.

  A large number of sulfur compounds contribute to the smell and taste of garlic. Allicin has been found to be the compound most responsible for the "hot" sensation of raw garlic [...] The process of cooking garlic removes allicin, thus mellowing its spiciness.

If you're defining "quality" as how well the preserved product maintains the same characteristics and flavors as the fresh version, this is already quite degraded.  It may still have its uses but don't expect this to be even remotely substitutable for fresh garlic.

Is it safe to eat after a full week?  Possibly, but very difficult to verify at home.  @rumtscho's comment nails it: if this was sufficiently dehydrated, it might be okay (in which case it will be even further from fresh garlic in terms of flavor and usage) but that is unlikely, and this should be treated like any other cooked food.

If you want to maximize the shelf life of your garlic, just keep it whole!  Unpeeled garlic will keep for weeks if kept cool and dry, and you can break off individual cloves as you need them.  All that it takes to ready one for cooking is a heavy pot to smash the clove with and a quick pass with a knife.


What is the purpose of nutmeg in apple zucchini bread? I have looked up Apple Zucchini Bread recipes and most of them call for nutmeg. Does this make a big difference in the taste? I have not used nutmeg very much in my cooking or baking. All of my other zucchini bread recipes do not call for nutmeg, not even my apple sauce zucchini bread. Can this be left out and not affect the taste?

Of course the apple zucchini bread will taste different with nutmeg as opposed to without. As the nutmeg is added solely to add nutmeg flavor, the bread will otherwise be fine.

It just comes down to your personal taste as to whether you choose to use it or not.


Storing Bao Overnight--to steam and refrigerate? I am making roasted duck bao for a dinner tomorrow night.

I will form them all tonight and then refrigerate them until tomorrow. Is it best to steam bao before refrigerating and then steam again before dinner or just wait to steam tomorrow? Will they still have the slightly cakey, slightly chewy consistency of good bao dough? Or will they come out hard and gummy?

EDIT! The recipe I use does call for yeast which I happily use. I have tried two methods now: retarded rise (refrigerator method) and double steam. I am much happier with the freshness of making the bun right before eating. Double steam works best for keeping longer, but nothing beats making it right before eating. If you have the time and room, try the retarded rise.

As Jefromi mentioned in the comments, what you do is highly dependent on the recipe for the Bao you are making. Traditionally Bao is made with yeast but if your recipe includes baking powder as the main leavener, then you would need to steam the Bao as your recipe indicates. Otherwise the leavening will expend itself and you will get tough Bao.

If the Bao recipe you are using have yeast as the main leavening agent, then you can do either.

If you want to steam it the next day then you can leave the dough in the refrigerator to rise the first time overnight. You might want to decrease the amount of yeast used in your recipe in this case. The next day, take the dough out 2 hours before you want to steam it and let the dough sit for about 1 hr to get to room temperature. Then cut and form the dough into the Bao shapes and let it rise for another 45 minutes at room temperature. Then you can steam it.

Resteaming Bao is not an issue if thats the route you want to go. A lot of places that sell Bao actually premakes it, steams it and then refrigerates the Bao. Then it is resteamed when it is needed. You can even freeze the Bao if you make a particularly large batch. The quality of the Bao won't degrade too much as long as you resteam the Bao.


What should I do with my leftover bench flour? I make bread/pizza quite often, up to a few times per week. I work on a wooden surface for forming the dough and use a flour dredge to spread about 1 cup of flour per session on my surface. I would like to use more flour but don't like wasting the fairly expensive 00 flour I work with.  When I'm done making the pizza, I usually just scrape all of the leftover bench flour into the trash.

I would like to know if I can consider reusing the bench flour after it has come into contact with my dough, hands, and work surface. Would I be introducing bacteria or other unpleasant things into my flour bag if I put the flour back into it? Is there a different method I should use to keep the bench flour around for the next session?

The main problem I see is humidity - the bench flour can be lumpy, have bits of dough in it and will be partly moist. I would therefore not put it back in the main bag of flour.

If you use it like flour, it might leave dry lumps, so it depends on your technique whether it will work or not.
But there are techniques in bread baking that use leftover dough or even dry ground and soaked bread in new loaves - that's where I'd put it.

It can go into pre-ferments (even without yeast or starter), improving gluten development and dough texture. Unless it's absolutely dry, I recommend storing it in the freezer until your next baking day.

Apart from that: unless you are actively working the bench flour into your dough (vs. using just a bit to prevent sticking), have you considered using a "cheaper" flour?


Prevent spattering oil when pan frying How would I prevent from spattering oil everywhere when pan frying?
I was shallow-frying breaded chicken breasts for a General Tso's and got boiling hot oil EVERYWHERE in my kitchen, even burning myself multiple times. I would definitely prefer avoiding this in the future.

Here is one solution, a spatter guard:

It has a mesh screen that holds most oil, but air moves freely. This is just one, Amazon has many: Spatter Guard.

For what it is worth, they don't have to be uni-taskers. They are great as steamers as well. Awesome for sticky rice or to steam veggies. Just put an inverted bowl on top. Most are stainless steel and dishwasher safe.


What is a "soup chicken" How is "soup chicken" different from "cooking chicken". Is it a different breed or just old chicken? Can I eat its meat?

I have always made soup from the bones of boneless chicken I cook. Today I got a chicken specifically for soup, whose packing said "ideal for broth". So I broke its bones and put the entire thing to boil for an hour. Now my normal chicken's flesh just fells apart after boiling for an hour. This one was still firm and a bit hard and leathery. It was actually hard to remove the flesh from the bone after all this boiling. And the flesh itself was kinda unappetizing. I still cut it up in cubes and put it in the soup(because, protein!).

So is it a different kind of chicken, or just old chicken (I know the meat of old cows becomes leathery). Is it safe to eat the meat?

You've already guessed it correctly, soup chickens are basically old codgers that are too tough to roast or fry up. They may get tender enough to eat if you cook them slow for 2-3 hours but often even that won't make them palatable. The only reason I'd ever use them is if I wanted to make loads of chicken stock and didn't plan to use the meat.


What damage is caused to kefir when it comes into contact with metal? Advice differs. And what about contact with stainless steel, which was only invented in the 19th century, when kefir had already been consumed in the North Caucasus for centuries?

The damage is not so much as to the kefir but to the consumer of the kefir if it was made in a reactive metal. Kefir, being acidic, should not be in aluminum, brass, iron or copper as they react to acid. Stainless steel is preferred because it is inert to the milk kefir is made from. However, when first made stainless was unknown.

Unless you have a real goat skin, about the best thing to make kefir in is glass. The "grains" are really a mix of yeasts and bacteria, and those can live in as much as a very light scratch in plastic. For this reason you should use glass to ferment it, and you can use a stainless spoon to stir.


Undercooked eggs that were in the pot plenty long I'm seeking information because oddly this has recently also happened to several of my friends.

I cooked my hard-boiled eggs like I normally would; they were in the pot until the water boiled and I even left the burner on low while I ate dinner. I tend to over-cook them anyway, so they were in there at least 20 minutes. I pulled one out of the refrigerator this morning and it was very soft-boiled; even the white was gooey. What could be causing this? These eggs are not old, but could they be spoiled?

If your eggs came out soft boiled then that means they weren't exposed to enough heat - something in your method went wrong. I suspect that when you turned it down low the water temperature dropped below 140-150 degrees F, which is the temperature that egg white will cook. It doesn't matter how long you cook eggs below 140F, they will never get done below that temperature.

To fully cook egg white it must be heated to 150F, egg yolk to 160F. If your eggs were cold when you put them in and the water boiled quickly the inside of the egg would still be fridge temperature, so when you turned the heat down low the eggs cooled the water below 140F, and the amount of heat the burner was producing wasn't enough to heat the water and eggs above 140-150F.

I use a similar method, however I put a lid on the pot which makes a big difference. If you don't want or have the right lid simply keep the heat turned up to where the eggs bounce around a bit.


If salt dehydrates the meat, then why would brining make it more juicy as a whole? As the title says, why does brining work?

If salting, by osmosis, pulls the water out of the meat, then why is meat considered more juicy after it's cooked?

Actually, it's a popular misconception that brining works because of osmosis. If it was really osmosis at work, plain water would work better than salted water. Kenji over at The Food Lab went into this a few months ago: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/the-food-lab-the-truth-about-brining-turkey-thanksgiving.html
Here's the relevant bit:

To understand what's really happening, you have to look at the structure of turkey muscles. Muscles are made up of long, bundled fibers, each one housed in a tough protein sheath. As the turkey heats, the proteins that make up this sheath will contract. Just like a squeezing a tube of toothpaste, this causes juices to be forced out of the bird. Heat them to much above 150°F or so, and you end up with dry, stringy meat.
Salt helps mitigate this shrinkage by dissolving some of the muscle proteins (mainly myosin). The muscle fibers loosen up, allowing them to absorb more moisture, and more importantly, they don't contract as much when they cook, making sure that more of that moisture stays in-place as the turkey cooks.

In the article he discusses the downsides (flavor dilution) and alternatives to brining (salting). I'd check it out, it's a good read.


What device should I use for pressing/fermenting I regularly make a Japanese side dish of fermented cabbage that's simply pressed down for a day and salted. I'd just jury rigged something up, but it finally broke so now I'm looking to see if there is an actual device I can buy. I'd like to steer clear of plastics too.

The device needs to apply a good amount of pressure and I'd like to make the pressed cabbage in large amounts, but it doesn't have to be huge (say enough for a single cabbage).

In Asian style ferments where the juices are discarded you can omit the weights completely. My kimchi process looks something like this:

Salt and massage cabbage in mixing bowl. Let sit for an hour.
Massage again and let sit for an hour or longer.
At this point the cabbage has pretty much given up all its juices and is ready to be drained and rinsed.
Rub the cabbage with your seasonings and stuff into hermetic jars.

A hermetic jar such as this, combined with the steps above provide a consistently vigorous and healthy fermentation, without the cost of the German stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Italian-Hermetic-Recycled-Canning/dp/B001QYMMSW

Weights serve a number of purposes, many of which are negated when using a hermetic or airlocked fermenter and pre-sweating your vegetables.


Pickles (cucumbers) came out a little soggy after canning I was very excited to use my water bath for the first time, as so far I have only made refrigerator (cucumber) pickles. This was also the first time I did not use sugar in the brine (just wanted to see the taste difference) but they came out NOT as crispy as my refrigerator pickles. Is this because maybe the water was too hot in the water bath? I only left them in for 10 or 15 minutes. Or is this because I did not use sugar this time? Also is there anything I can do at this point? By that I mean can I add something like pickle crisp to the now opened jar or is it too late?

First off, processed and canned pickles are almost always going to be less crisp than refrigerator (acidified) pickles or those fermented at room temperature.  If you really like crisp pickles, I'd recommend against canning.  Recipes with proper levels of salt and acidity can keep for several months in the fridge without noticeable quality degradation.  Also, reputable traditional brined/fermented pickle recipes should maintain safety for a year or more in the fridge, though they too can begin to soften after a few months, depending on the exact processing and storage conditions.

If you don't have room to store in the fridge or want to can for some other reason, this page has some tips on maintaining crispness.  The lack of sugar in your batch should not have made a significant difference.  The temperature of the water is, however, important.  If you want to maintain crispness as much as possible, I'd recommend trying a low-temperature pasteurization bath (as described, for example, here), where you process for 30 minutes at 180F.  Please note that this method should only be used with recipes from reputable sources and is only recommended for people experienced in pickling; it does require very careful monitoring and exact temperature control to prevent spoilage.

As for what you can do now?  Not much.  Soft processed pickles have essentially been "cooked" by the processing.  There's no way to restore their crispness.  Personally, if the lack of crispness was bothersome, I'd consider slicing them up in smaller pieces where the lack of crispness would be less noticeable or chopping them and using them for relish or something.


Can you and how do you melt quark cheese into bechamel? I would like to try to make quark cheese sauce for pasta, but I'm not confident I can make the cheese melt properly as I've never done it before. What I would like to use specifically is the Polish version, twaróg, ~8% fat. Is it doable? What proportions should I use? How should I add the cheese in order for it to melt properly into the bechamel?

Quark doesn't melt at all. What you can do is to stir it into the sauce.

From there on, it depends on the version you have available. I haven't seen the Polish one. If it is firm and crumbly like some of the quarks I've had, it will remain that way in the sauce, and you will have a grainy texture. The German type is similar to yogurt in texture, and it will blend with a sauce perfectly (but not melt). Polish cuisine borrows from both Russian (which has firm quark) and German (which has the aforementioned yogurty quark) so I can't predict what will happen with what you have.

Note that having a somewhat crumbly texture in a sauce is not necessarily a bad thing. Personally, I like a lot a sauce/dip made from 50% mayonnaise and 50% firm quark, stirred together and served with black olives. It depends purely on your taste. My advice is to make the sauce and see if you like eating it.


Making gravy without drippings or butter? Long story short: I made a bunch of meatloaf and I forgot to buy butter. I need to make gravy.

The way I usually make gravy is to melt some butter, to supplement whatever drippings I have, make a roux and add some broth – chicken or beef, depending on what the gravy is to be served with – to get to the desired viscosity.

But I forgot to buy enough butter. Can I use olive oil? Is there another way to make gravy from scratch without drippings?

You can make a roux with any fat.  Olive oil will certainly work.  There are also other methods for thickening a gravy, such as the addition of cornstarch or arrowroot.


Using baking strips vs. submerging in a water bath I've just recently become aware of baking strips, which are strips of fabric submerged in water and wrapped around a baking pan to reduce the heat transfer to the sides of a cake, preventing the sides from browning and eventually having a perfectly flat cake.

If the purpose of the baking strip is to reduce heat transfer to the sides, it seems to me that submerging the pan in a water bath higher than the height of the cake would have the same effect.

Will this work the same way, and if not what is the difference?

Cake tins aren't necessarily sealed. Springform tins in particular can leak in a water bath, leaving you with a boiled mess (foil can be used to cover the bottom, if it's big enough in a single sheet without tearing). Some other loose bottom tins can also leak even if well greased.

In addition to these leakage issues (thanks to @Spagirl in the comments) the baking strips are likely to dry out partway through cooking. This means that the outside of the cake reaches (almost) the temperature it would otherwise, but does so more slowly, i.e. at a more similar rate to the rest of the cake. This means it they should allow the expected crust to form (though it may be a little thinner or less brown). This crust is desirable for strength, especially if you plan on applying icing. A sponge (for example) cooked in a water bath has a much weaker crust the same colour as the interior.

All this is because the water, whether soaked into fabric or in a bath, can't get hotter than 100°C. The water bath is unlikely to boil dry in a sensible cooking time, but the fabric holds much less water. So if you want to avoid browning the water bath might work, but the cake will take a very long time to cook through as heat transfer from the base is also restricted. There will be a degree of steaming going on, much more so in the case of the water bath, but that's not necessarily a problem (sponge cooked on top of fruit steams more than that and is good).

By all means experiment, but be prepared for long cooking times and some possible failures (the exposed top could end up cooking very much faster than the rest, for example.


Best preservation of parma ham? We were recently in Italy and bought a large piece of parma ham, which we'd like to use over a protracted period. It is vacuum packed at the moment, what is the best way to preserve it once opened?

To best preserve it's texture, especially that slightly moist part a good ham is supposed to have, I've found wrapping cured meats in plastic foil and keeping them in the fridge at a temperature where there is little condensation (not extremely cold, but you have to know your fridge) works for a decently long time (couple of weeks at least, if not months).

However things wrapped in plastic in the fridge tend to get moldy over time, there is no escaping that. And dried salted meats are after all a product of ancient preservation techniques. So if you really need it to last storing it in a dark and a bit chilly area, wrapped in a clean dry cloth or paper it should also stay good for long, although it will dry up some after it is cut and not vacuum sealed.

Last option is to wrap it in some paper and leave it on the bench. The paper should protect against dust and moisture, but at that point I would suggest that just eating it is a better way of storing it if it is a really good piece you spent some effort in acquiring.


Will fresh strawberries make a cake soggy? I'm decorating a two layer butter cake and I was thinking of adding a layer of sliced fresh strawberries in between the two layers together with some strawberry flavored Bavarian cream.  I will be serving the cake in two days.  Will the strawberries give out too much liquid and make the cake soggy?

I also think that the strawberries won't be much of a problem. But if you use lots of them, or if they are frozen, or if you want to use other, moister, fruit in the future, you could run into problems. And you would be relieved that there is a solution.

The solution against cake getting soggy from fruit is to simply seal the cake layers against moisture. The traditional way is to glaze with apricot jam - you brush a very thin layer of melted apricot jam on the cake layer, and put the fruit on it after it has cooled. The amount is so small that the taste is not noticeable, and it is also practically invisible. Alternatively, you can use other glazes, such as slightly thickened simple syrup (cooled, so it won't seep into the layer itself), starch cooked in water (evtl. with some sugar), other jams, or commercially available sealers (Dr Oetker sells them in sachets).


Halving cassoulet recipe cooking time I have a recipe for cassoulet which takes 45mins plus 30 mins extra when you put the beans in. How long would it take when recipe is halved?

As several comments have said already: halving a recipe generally doesn't affect the cooking time very much. Depending on the recipe you may have to keep an eye to ensure that the increased surface area (relative to volume) doesn't cause it to evaporate too quickly or develop too much crust, but for the most part the time it takes to make something hot and allow chemical reactions to occur is about the same regardless of volume.

You're probably thinking of larger things like roasts and whole birds, where there is a minutes-per-pound estimate in cooking. That's a matter of radius, where you're just trying to get the thing to heat all the way through. Even there, minutes-per-pound is not a very good estimate.

For a casserole, braise, etc., it will reach temperature fairly quickly, and you're waiting for chemical reactions to occur (collagen gelatinizing, starches breaking down). That's the category your cassoulet fits in.


Can dried shrimp be used as a substitute for shrimp paste in a recipe for thai curry paste? I'd like to make my own thai red curry and green curry pastes but both of these call for shrimp paste which isn't widely available in my country.  I do have a packet of small dried shrimp (with heads/legs on). Can I use these to subsitute for the shrimp paste, or should I use fish sauce instead? or perhaps both?

Your dried shrimp are fresh, then dried. The taste belachan imparts has more to do with the fact that it is fermented, than is shrimp. Fish sauce is fermented, so you really would be better off adding both :)

Rehydrating the shrimp in some fish sauce with water, then adding it to your mix for blending would work best. You may not be able to blend your paste properly if the shrimp is still dried.


Preserving Nerds / Pop Rocks so they activate in the mouth and not in the food I want to be able to use Nerds and/or Pop rocks in cooking. However, unless the food is ultra dry, the food itself activates / dissolves it; I want it activated in the mouth.

a) Is there a way to do this that does not involve coating them with something that must be bitten through, i.e. so that it is saliva activated but not activated by the other liquids (water, milk, oil, egg …) in the food?

E.g. to use them in ice cream, it'd be preferable not to require biting.

b) What can I coat them with that will not activated them but will preserve them for bitten activation? They're extremely reactive. (Water, oil…)

One plausible suggestion I've gotten so far and not yet tried is vegetable wax. Anything else?

c) How can I make a pop rock type sensation myself?

[ETA: instructables has a recipe for making poprocks per se, but it has the same issue. I'm wondering if there's something that'd work for mouthfeel but be less volatile during the cooking process for embedding in other things.]

Coat them in bee's wax or cocoa butter. You can actually buy them from MSK with the coating on.

You likely won't be able to make them yourself without a huge amount of equipment. As far as I'm aware, they require carbon-dioxide to be pumped in, as the sugar mixture cools. This is what makes them crackle, as the gas is released when the small pockets of air dissolve.


I've put too much onion on my macaroni salad and it overwhelms other ingredients. Is there a way to tame down the onion taste? I made the mistake of putting all of the chopped onion in my macaroni salad before testing it. Now the onion taste overwhelms all the other ingredients. Any easy way to tame down the onion taste?

If it goes well with the other ingredients of your salad, you can add some mint of fresh parsley, it will balance a bit the strong onion taste.


How do I substitute rehydrated garbanzo beans for garbanzo beans from a can? Possible Duplicate:
  How should I prepare dried chickpeas?

When making food like falafel and hummus, recipes typically ask for canned garbanzo beans (also known as chickpeas). I have on hand a bag of dried garbanzo beans. In the past I have tried to soak these beans over night yet they still never seem to come to the same soft/creamy consistancy that the beans in the cans have.

What steps must I take to rehydrate these beans so that they are similar enough in texture to the canned beans so that I can use the rehydrated beans in its place for the recipes I have?

Additionally, are there any other differences that should be noted between rehydrated garbanzo beans and canned garbanzo beans?

I'd assumed the beans were cooked, not just soaked. Assuming they are cooked and not just soaked, the difference in taste could be due to canned beans' higher sodium content. Salt preference differs wildly across individuals and even across time for the same individual. There is a rich literature on this, including (sorry new user, so had to remove the URLs):
http://www.ijpp.com/vol49_1/99_102.pdf.

It may be the case that you have a high salt preference. In that case, just add some extra salt to your hummus from dried beans.

Opinions on the quality of hummus from canned vs. dried garbanzo beans are a personal matter, but note that some (myself included) prefer the latter.

There are, in fact, differences in the hummus from dried vs canned beans, nutrition being one:
http://humus101.com/EN/2007/03/28/hummus-nutritional-value-dried-vs-canned-chickpeas/.


When to cook week old moose meat? I have obtained a large chunk of approximately week old moose meat that has been never stored in a freezer. I'm planning to eat it during the next week or two.

I cut it to 8 smaller steak-sized chunks, and cut 4 of those into small bits of which I'm going to make moose stew with carrots and onions. I'm just fried the small bits in my frying pan, and am currently making the stew in my pot.

The trouble is, I don't have a large frying pan or a large pot. I only have one small pot which I have free to use for the moose stew. The small bits of half of the moose meat fit in there with carrots and onions.

What should I do for the 4 other steak-sized chunks?

Should I just store them unfried in the refrigerator and cook when I need to, which will be approximately week from now? (Currently they are in the refrigerator, but I can always fry them in my frying pan that is free now.)
Should I fry them in my frying pan and store them in the refrigerator after frying them?

I want to maximize the amount of time the meat stays edible. If it stays edible for only one week from now, I have to eat moose meat every day. If it stays edible for two weeks, I can eat moose meat only every other day.

I of course theoretically have the option of just storing the rest in my freezer, but my freezer (or actually two freezers) are half full with frozen moose meat!

Do you know what part of the animal is included in your cuts?

If you intend to cook it all as stew meat, then I would advise to cut it now and freeze (wherever you can find space).

If you coat the steaks in salt, they will probably last a bit longer in the fridge without getting too smelly.

The only way I would recommend pre-cooking to extend life, is a roast, which should enable meat to last an extra week in the refrigerator. But, if your cuts of meat are not suitable to roasting, then that might be terrible to eat.

The final option - which is again, a waste of good moose meat - would be jerky. I can't advise on jerky techniques. Never made it.


Papaya ripe or over ripe Please let me know when would we consume payaya. What is the difference between ripe and overripe papaya? I do not like soft but hard papayas which taste sweet. Please advice.Thanks

All you need to do is test the fruit by pressing on the surface and see how much resistance the fruit offers. The less resistance the more ripe. Also skin and smell determines if the fruit is ready to go for a cut. I would do a couple of experiments and whola you will be the master in no time.


Does the size of capers influence their taste? I read in several (non scientific) sources that smaller capers have a more "refined taste". I was not able to find an explanation what this "refined taste" is supposed to be. In supermarkets the smaller ones are more expensive.

Is there really a reason to prefer the smaller ones or is it just that: Smaller carps are lighter -> lower harvest yield by weight -> higher price to compensate -> perceived higher value/taste by customer?

I hadn't really thought about this until I saw your question. I don't use capers all that often, so I usually end up with the smaller ones as that's what I usually find at the market.
Interestingly enough, most of the sites I looked at said that said that there wasn't any difference and that it was a myth that seemed to perpetuate the idea that the smaller capers had a better taste. And your idea about price could also be a factor.
But then I ran across this from The Splendid Table:

SS: What about sizes? Should we be going for the smaller ones or the bigger ones?
DR: On the Internet, almost everybody says, "Get the smaller ones. They are better." But that is one of those food myths that just won't go away. The only reason that you hear it is because that's what everybody has always said, and nobody has really taken the trouble to really research it.
When I was in Pantelleria I kept asking, "What size do I want?" Everybody I spoke to -- from producers and chefs to local food writers -- all said the big ones are much more flavorful.
They usually come in three sizes: small, medium and large. The downside with the larger ones is these are closer to springing open and becoming flowers. They are not quite as tight in texture, they're not quite as firm, they have a flower inside them waiting to break out. However, they have developed to the most gorgeous flavor.

So, size does make a difference in the taste. As far as what is better, I would say it's a matter of personal preference.


How to dry royal icing fast? I'm going to lead a workshop for kids about decorating gingerbread cookies with royal icing. It will take place at a cafe, so I need the icing to be as dry as possible as fast as possible, otherwise the kids will not be able to take the cookies home or the icing might get broken on the way.

The problem is that I have very limited space and resources, for example, the cafe doesn't have an oven, so I can't dry the icing like meringues. There is a microwave, but I haven't got one at home, so I don't know if it will work or how to set it. I could bring a fan, but will a fan be enough? Nobody I know has a dehydrator, so this option is also out of question.

I plan on making the icing as stiff as possible while keeping it liquid enough for the kids to pipe on the cookies, but my experience says it will still need 2-3 hours before it's hard enough to be carried home more-or-less intact. Is there anything more I could do?

The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle outline using a fan and says that is speeds up the process and gives the cookies a nice sheen:

http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2011/04/my-1-fan-wfmw/

Hope that helps!


Flambéing wine to cook off alcohol I was watching Bruno Albouze's video on Beef Bourguignon, and I noticed that in order to get rid of the alcohol, he flambés the wine (https://youtu.be/DPB4jvHiVec?t=38) . I always thought that wine couldn't be flambé'd, so how does he do that ?
I'm curious about this method because last time I made Beef Bourguignon, I found the sauce to be a bit too "alcoholy" to my taste.

I am from Burgundy and I have never heard of flambéing the beef bourguignon! But after all why not. It is definitely possible to flambé wine, and it does make the process of "burning" the alcohol faster, and it will give it a stronger taste.
Regarding your last beef bourguignon you made, if it was too "alcoholy", how long did you let it cook? Maybe it was not long enough. I see that the chef recommends 2.5 hours, but I have never known anyone cooking a bourguignon so quickly, even with marinated meat, we generally leave it from 3 to 4 hours (you can actually let it cook for a couple of hours, let it rest, and then finish the cooking process later, or the day after). I also depends of course of the type of wine you used, some are stronger than others. Did you use for example a light Pinot noir, or a stronger syrah or cabernet sauvignon ? You can add a pinch of sugar in your sauce to balance the acidity of your wine sauce if you feel that the alcohol hasn't evaporated correctly.


How should I clean this mess at the bottom of my wok? I've been using my wok for about a year now, and recently it's developed a kind of patina around the bottom of the cooking surface.

I've tried to follow the care instructions as best I can, taking care to wipe it down after use, and only scrubbing it with cleaning fluid when it gets really dirty. If I have to scrub it down I typically wipe some oil over it whilst heating very gently in order to "re coat" the wok. I don't know if this is typical wok care procedure, but I'm following the care guide that came with this particular wok.

The wok is made of cast iron, and is sold by Le Creusset, information here.

The patina has gradually become more noticeable over time, but it is not flaky, cannot be removed easily by scrubbing and/or washing up liquid. It doesn't impart any kind of negative flavour into the cooking, so it hasn't put me off using it.

Does anyone know what this is, and how best to remove it?

A patina is expected in this type of cookware.  Even the Le Creuset web site discusses it at this link:

http://www.lecreuset.co.uk/Help-Advice/Care--Use/Care--Use-Cast-Iron-Satin-Black-Enamel/

Don't try to remove it. It's the sign of a seasoned pan and is helping, not hurting.

If you really feel the need to try to remove it, Le Creuset makes a cleaner for their enamel cookware you could try.  We've used it on our pots and it works quite well.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/le-creuset-enameled-cast-iron-cookware-cleaner/s242309


Common term for "roughly-grind Semolina" (as used to make couscous) A course common in all North-African coast cuisines is Couscous, which is made of "roughly-grind Semolina" lightly cooked or steamed with a bit of water and salt;
Very often, a vegetable based stew is poured upon the Couscous and then served.

A more accurate description of "roughly-grind Semolina" would be in my opinion:

Level 2 grinding of Wheat grains which is named:

Samid(un) [سميد] in Arabic
Solet [סולת] in Hebrew
Both Arabic and Hebrew terms brings Google translate English translation as simply Semolina
In Berber/Amazigh it is called SOMETHING; as of December 2019, Berber/Amazigh isn't supported in Google translate; it's a bit ironic because Berber translation should appear first in the above list

If one accepts the grinding level description in its full form:

Level 1 is Bulgur; Bou[rgh]oul (برغل in Arabic)
Level 2 is SOMETHING (in Berber)
Level 3 is Semolina ("thinly-grind Semolina")
Level 4 is Flour

The question remains: What is the standardized name for the level 2 product?

The question seems to confuse some terminology.  Let's first clear some things up.

Bulgur is NOT a grind size.  It is a process.  "Bulgur wheat" (in English anyway) refers to whole or cracked or crushed wheat berries that are parboiled and then dried.  There are various sizes of bulgur sometimes available (e.g., coarse, medium, fine, etc., or sometimes numbers for different sizes).
Couscous is a pasta, not a flour grain size.  Couscous is typically made from semolina flour that is shaped into small pieces of pasta.  If the question is what size flour grind is used to make couscous, then the answer is typically a semolina-size grind.

Okay, now that that's clear, let's address the other issue in the question about size of grind for wheat flour.

Raw whole wheat berries are the largest pieces of wheat and are simply called wheat berries in English.  They refer to the raw, unmilled berries with bran and germ intact, only with the (inedible) husk removed.  They can sometimes be referred to as groats too, though that word is often reserved in English for whole oats.  But technically it means any whole, unmilled grain, including wheat berries.
The next stage down in English is referred to as cracked wheat (or sometimes cracked wheat berries).  This involves either cutting or crushing the wheat berries, but leaving large particles (which I suppose could be the size of bulgur or couscous).  Cracked wheat is sometimes labeled coarse, medium, or fine, etc. or sometimes with numbers to indicate the size.  Sometimes these can be referred to as cut groats too (sometimes also indicated with coarse, fine, etc.), though I don't know that name is commonly used with wheat.

It's important to note that names of the finer grinds of wheat beyond "fine cracked wheat" are dependent on the type of wheat and the extraction level (i.e., whether the bran and germ remain in the flour or not).  While semolina typically refers to a somewhat coarsely ground flour (usually made specifically with durum wheat), it does not typically contain the bran and germ that wheat berries and cracked wheat retain.  If you want a coarsely ground flour that contains the same ingredients as whole wheat berries, you might need to search for a coarsely ground wholemeal or whole-wheat or graham flour (each of which has somewhat different connotations in terms of how it is processed, the extraction rate, etc.).

Once we're in the range of normal flours (and out of the cracked wheat size), the names vary for different grind sizes and are pretty inconsistent.  For example, one flour company may use the term stone ground to specifically indicate a coarser grind, but another company may use the term differently.  Some mills allow a wider range of particle size for a given flour, but others may have a more narrow specification.


Sourcing El Rey chocolate (or substitute) in the UK I used to buy El Rey Gran Saman (70%) and Mijao (61%) Venezuelan chocolate in the UK in 5kg boxes of discs. My previous supplier is delisting El Rey and selling off -- albeit not at a reduced price -- their remaining stock. They have no Mijao left and the best they can do is 20kg of Gran Saman with a use by date of the end of September (i.e., three weeks)! El Rey have a US site -- and I've found other US stockists -- but they don't deliver to the UK (besides, the shipping would likely make it unviable).

This is perhaps not suitable for Seasoned Advice, but does anyone know where I can get some Mijao and/or Gran Saman? (I don't really need that much: 500g would be plenty.) Alternatively, can anyone recommend a substitute Venezuelan couverture in the 64% cocoa range that is readily available in the UK and is of a similar quality? (e.g., I'm not a fan of Belcolade or Callebaut. I guess, as I need a relatively small amount, I could pay over the odds for retail bars and use them as a last resort.)

I eventually found Michel Cluizel's Los Ancones, a 67% cocoa couverture sourced from the Caribbean and easily available in the UK in 1kg bags. I remember having tried this before in its retail form and it has a very fruity flavour profile, which is exactly what I'm looking for.


What is the correct term for this method of cooking? I'm a reluctant cook at the best of times but I'm interested to know what I just did.
I got a massive bone for the dog from the butcher. There was quite a lot of meat on it so I thought the dog and I should both have some benefit.
I placed the entire bone (I can't identify what it was anatomically maybe backbone) in my non-stick frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. I heated it up to max to brown it and then turned it down to the lowest setting and left it for the whole evening with a Pyrex lid on.
It was thoroughly cooked through and tasted good.
So what did I do? Did I fry it? Roast it? What would you call this?

NOTE: I didn't add anything at all, not even salt or spices. There was a teaspoon of olive oil to lubricate the pan and then I stuck the lid on and left it.

I'd say "slow pan roasted stove top".
It's not stewed, it's not braised, it's not pan fried, it's not oven roasted.


Is it okay to use aluminium foil instead of parchment paper while baking cookies? I don't have access to parchment paper or even butter paper for that matter. I just read on a website that it'd be okay to use aluminium foil as long as I apply a coating of grease on it. And also since aluminium conducts heat faster, will I need to reduce the baking time?

You CAN bake cookies on aluminum foil, but you should be aware that they will cook faster and the bottoms will brown more and get crispy.  I would suggest using a slightly lower temperature and briefer baking time.

Coincidentally, King Arthur Flour just posted an image of cookies baked on a bare, dark-metal baking sheet (cookies on the LEFT), which will heat similarly to aluminum foil, vs. parchment on a lighter sheet (cookies on the right).

These cookies were cooked with exactly the same time and temperature.

Why does this happen?
With parchment, the bottoms of the cookies get heated less than if they're on metal, and more of the heat comes from hot air passing over the top.  Aluminum and metal in general are excellent heat conductors, so they will pass a lot of heat to the bottoms of the cookies. Parchment is a reasonably effective insulator, so it will slow conduction of heat to the cookies' bottoms.


Can you substitute Asian red chili paste (e.g. Thai Kitchen's Roasted Red Chili Paste) for Sambal Oelek? The recipe you will find here: http://runningonbrie.com/2014/04/28/korean-inspired-pork-rice-bowl/ (Korean Pork Rice Bowl recipe)

The author of the linked recipe appears to be substituting in turn for gochujang, which in addition to spice has a bit of a yeasty, fermented flavor not unlike miso (no surprise, since both include fermented soybean).  Sambal oelek will be brighter, generally hotter, and looser in texture.  It's less of a paste than the chili stuff used here, so the resulting sauce will be a bit thinner once mixed and may not adhere to the pork as well.

If it's all you've got, then substitute away!  You'll probably still enjoy the end result.  However, if you'd like to get a bit closer, here are a couple things you could try, in descending order of effort:

Add about 1/2 teaspoon or so of cornstarch to the sauce to thicken and balance the texture of the sambal oelek.
Add a small dab of miso paste to the sauce (hard to measure exactly, but I'd say 1/2 to 1 teaspoon depending on your brand of miso).  This will have a similar thickening effect and get you a little closer to the flavor of the original gochujang paste.
Head to a local asian market and find yourself some gochujang, then substitute for equal quantity for the chili paste in the recipe.  Don't worry about having extra, you could use this in a huge range of asian-inspired marinades or other sauces.

As a final aside that has nothing to do with your question, I just noticed that the author of the linked recipe lists one of the last steps as sauteeing the carrots and bean sprouts together.  I'd suggest that you definitely not do this to your poor bean sprouts.  Go and cook the carrots, or you could cheat and use the coarse side of a box grater to serve them raw with a much nicer texture.  That's what I'd do with a dish like this.


Dough Sticking to Guillotine Knife I am new to this forum. I work in a commercial bakery where we use a guillotine cutter to cut different kinds of pastry dough on a conveyor line. We have a problem with the dough sticking to the blade. Our temporary solution right now is to flour the top of the products before entering the guillotine mechanism, but this is messy, costly and flour gets in the air so we'd rather avoid this band-aid solution.

Realistically, what could we do to prevent the dough from sticking? Would ideas such as spraying the blade with mist every cycle, or using compressed air to give a quick blow on the blade be feasible solutions? What has worked in your experience?

Thank you to anyone who replies.

I wonder, if you don't like the effects of dusting the top of the dough with flour, if you might not get better results with oil.

Pastry dough tends to be rich to begin with so the added oil might not be obvious, and a little brush shouldn't hurt the dough, and can be controlled fairly easily - nothing in the air or running off the sides.  You might apply a thin layer to the top of your dough, or to the knife itself (either as a brush every now and then, or something like the mist idea).  You probably won't need much extra (for cost purposes), and you will also avoid the dough drying too much around the edges.  I think it might work.

Otherwise, I second Muriel Katz's answer - you should check the temperature.  Cooler dough (and a cooler blade) will probably cut more cleanly than warm and soft dough.  Depending on your process, you might get some improvement if you are able to change the temperature of the room, the dough, or the knife - whatever suits your setup.

Using water - may or may not be a good idea.  It will depend on how wet your dough is, the temperature, and host of other factors.  I have had dough which could be separated and moved quite cleanly, using water instead of flour to prevent sticking - I have also had dough all but melt because it became too wet with puddled water.  With misters to keep adding moisture, it makes me feel like you would sometimes get the latter result, once the layer of water has a chance to soak into the dough.

Also, I have no idea how compressed air would or would not work.  It depends on what you want to achieve with it, I guess - it might briefly chill the blade or the dough to cut more cleanly, but I don't think it would clean the blade or form a layer against sticking.  Maybe someone with more experience with compressed air can answer.


Was my bone marrow broth boiled too long? I've been making beef broth regularly but last night I forgot to turn my crock pot to low and the bones boiled all night. Does anyone know if this is ok or should I toss the broth And start over? I've read somewhere that after your stock reaches a boil it then should be simmered not boiled!!!

Ideally it is simmered, but the proof is in the taste really as there's no safety issue. If it tastes good then use it, if it doesn't chuck it.


Can whole milk be used to make fresh cheeses like marscapone? All the recipes for homemade marscapone cheese I have seen use some type of cream with at least 35% fat.  Whereas other fresh cheeses can be made with lower fat % milk.

I'm not sure how much fat percentage is in whole milk (I never see it stated on the bottle) but it looks pretty fatty (I can see the fat separate a bit on top before you shake the bottle)

Can this type of milk be used to make marscapone cheese? If not why?

Practically all dairy starts with full fat milk, this is all that comes out of a cow.

The process of cheesemaking centers around separating the curds from the whey (except for making true ricotta, which is made from whey). The fat stays with the curds. So the fat content of your cheese goes sharply up compared to the liquid you started with, because you are throwing out most of the water, as well as some proteins and carbohydrates, but keeping all the fat.

There are cheeses which start with cream. In theory, they can also be said to be started from milk, because cream itself is made from milk. In practice, if you want to make them at home, you will start with store-bought cream.

As far as I'm aware, it is not possible to make mascarpone or cream cheese when starting from milk. If there is a way, it would require a recipe different from the one starting from cream. So, if you have a recipe which asks for cream, you should follow it with cream and not with milk. Else, even if you manage to get the correct fat percentage, the ratio of proteins to fat or water to fat won't be right.

But if you just have the milk and want to make any fresh cheese, you can make one of the many fresh cheeses which are not started with cream. Tvorog, paneer and quark are all milk based fresh cheeses, and delicious in their own right.


Black Diamond cheddar, wedge not wheel I bought some Black Diamond cheddar today and it came in a large wedge of black wax. By large I mean it was maybe 12" x 8" x 8" thick. A really big wedge. Also, it looked like it was not cut from a wheel, but was actually aged in a wedge-shaped form.

I went to the Black Diamond web site to find out what kind of cheddar it was, but I could not find it described on the web site (they only had the cheap supermarket-style cheeses on their web site, not the premium cheeses).

Does anybody know what kind of reserve this might have been? 5 year, 10 year, what?

I think I may have figured it out. They seem to have a product called Grand Reserve Triad, or something like that which is a 2-year cheddar:


How to tell when fish is done baking? I've been told that the top should easily flake with a fork (this is when baking skin-side down). Is there any fish for which that is not the case? And what should the middle look like with which types of fish? Or would it be better to go by thermometer? In which case is it usually, "Once the middle hits 140F, it's done"?

I have a simple way to do this for all types of fish.

You simple find a chopstick and insert the chopstick in the middle of the fish toward to the fish head, which means it's usually thickest part of the fish.

If you can easily insert the chopstick through the fish, it is usually fully cooked. If you find it difficult to insert the chopstick or feel your chopstick is stuck when there bone is, it generally means uncooked. Otherwise, you can also feel the temp of the chopstick and it should be warm in the middle the part you insert into the fish.

Inserting the chopstick shouldn't damage your fish as the hole is small.


Looking for a rice cooker, steamer, deep fryer, slow cooker combo that can cook rice and steam at the same time I know this is slightly crazy, but I am a minimalist.

I try to get by on as little "stuff" as possible.

Basically I want a rice cooker that can steam my vegetables and chicken for a meal all at the same time, and it would be nice if the same appliance could be a deep fryer the few times I need one or a slow cooker.

Anything like this?

I want a car that can fly. :P

I say you have two options:

A quality dutch oven
. This can do it all, although steaming might be difficult unless you can find a steamer insert for your dutch oven. It's certainly the closest you're gonna get to a slow cooker.
A quality stock pot with a steamer insert (or two). I have a great 12 qt stock pot
with 2 steamer inserts. I deep fry in it often, the high sides contain spatter. The only thing it doesn't do well is slow cook.


Is there any advantage to resting (banana) bread batter? I make several different types of breads (apple, banana, etc.). All of them have some commonalities, which includes that they start out life as a batter, don't require yeast (baking soda and hot water does it), and use normal (not gluten-free) flours.

What I can't quite figure out is whether resting the bread will have any impact on it. I know (from sources including this question that gluten makes many flour-based dishes (like crepes) gummy.

But does that apply to breads? Is there any significant difference if I actually rest the batter before baking?

If it matters, I mix aggressively with a KitchenAid mixer (so I expect there to be lots of gluten).

The leavening action of baking soda begins as soon as it is moistened - that is as soon as you mix your wet and dry ingredients your baking soda begins the chemical reaction that creates the carbon dioxide which causes the rise in your quick bread. Because of this I would say that there is no advantage, but in fact a disadvantage to resting a quick bread. Also, it is usually recommended to mix quick breads as little as possible and over mixing them can cause them to be tough.


Can lettuce wraps be less messy? Tonight's dinner was a beef with rice wrapped in lettuce leaves. It was tasty, but very messy and time-consuming to wrap. Is there some trick to this that makes it easier?

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but rather than trying to solve the problem, you can also just accept it. Bring it all to the table, and just make wraps as you eat them. It won't make it less messy, but it won't be much slower than eating pre-made wraps, and you'll be spending that time at the table with people instead of waiting to eat.

To reduce the mess at least a bit, go for leafier lettuce, avoiding the parts with thick, stiff ribs, and definitely avoiding varieties like iceberg. (I've seen people recommend iceberg for wraps, but it seems like an awful choice to me.)

You can also potentially use other greens. There's napa cabbage and blanched cabbage, but also things with a bit more flavor that you might find in an Asian grocery like perilla (shiso, kaenip, ...) - I'm not sure I've had all of them, but the leaves used for ssam are probably good ideas.


Should I preheat a pan, or start the cooking timer immediately? I'm getting ready to heat up a pre-prepared meal (the ones that are kept in the freezer), and the instructions say to place in a pan and cook on high heat for three minutes.

When should the three minute timer start? As soon as I turn on the heat, or after the pan is nice and hot?

If you cook (or bake) using a timer, you should always use preheated equipment.  Your stove top may differ from my stove top in terms of the length of time it would take to get to high heat (hell, my stove top wouldn't even hit high heat in three minutes), and this would greatly effect the final quality.

Always preheat, the instructions expect it.  Otherwise, it would tell you to put a pan on the stove top, place in pan, and turn on to high heat.  Leave for three minutes and remove.


What is this Italian Cookie called? I'm looking for a recipe for an Italian cookie that I remember having as a child. The cookie is shaped like a gnocchi or cavatelli but is much bigger, about 1.5 inches long and slightly larger than a quarter in diameter.  It is distinctly 'C' shaped, though.  The cookie was fried, probably deep fried, and then soaked in honey.  The color is a very deep, dark brown.

The cookie is very dense but flaky.  There was not a very strong flavor other than the honey that I recall (i.e. not anise-flavored or something strong like that).  The texture is what I'm really after, I think.

It is not a Zeppole (it doesn't puff up) or a Bow Tie (not as brittle in texture, certainly not as thin) or the little pea-shaped cookies (Struffoli?).

Based on our family tree these are probably going to be a Southern Italian cookie, from Calabria.  But that's just a guess/hint.

Gnocchi shaped?  I am pretty sure they are  Turdilli! .

It's a traditional Calabrian recipe:

They are deep-fried:

And hot-soaked in honey too:

Same biscotti, slightly different shapes:

Bear in mind that fried cookies soaked in honey are a traditional treat for carnival and Christmas seasons all over Italy, so you may find many, many similar recipes. From  http://www.marinacepedafuentes.com/2010_02_01_archive.html :

Evviva i Dolci di Carnevale rigorosamente fritti, che ricevono nomi diversi secondo i luoghi.
In Toscana chiacchiere o trecce, e poi frappe laziali, castagnole romane, frittelle di riso molisane, fritole triestine, nigelan altoatesini, sfincitelle siciliane, tortelli romagnoli, bomboloni fiorentini, cicerchiata umbra e chi più ne ha più ne metta!

At left with figs syrup, at right with honey:

A full blown italian fritti feast:

Turdilli recipes in Italian

Turdilli recipes in English

Video: Making Turdilli

A shop near my house sells turdilli (hold your envy)


Why don't dry aged/hung sausages go bad? I was just watching this program on the food network here and they were talking about the Spanish fermented pork sausages. It made me think of sausages that are hung to dry and even though its raw meat (which would go bad very very quickly if not refrigerated properly), it doesn't go bad. Why is that? Is it because no air touches the meat inside the casings?

It is due to a combination of several factor, depending on how the particular sausage was made:

Dry cured sausages contain curing salts, a mixture of regular salt and sodium nitrate (which breaks down into sodium nitrite), which prevents the growth of botulism while the sausage cures.
Meat for dry cures sausage is also often frozen to specific temperatures for prescribed periods of time to kill any trichinosis which may be present.
As the sausage cures, it becomes too dry and concentrated in salt to foster pathogens, as well as too acidic from the action of friendly bacteria, and thus is relatively shelf stable.  It may also simply have acid ingredients as part of the initial recipe.
Modern cured sausages may also be subjected to irradiation, cooking, or another "kill step" to satisfy the needs of regulatory agencies, according to the New York Times.

See also:

FSIS
Food Safety News


How can I approximate wasabi taste? I want to obtain a taste very similar to wasabi, but without wasabi ingredients. How do I do it?

A good portion of the "wasabi" that you buy is a mixture of western horseradish, mustard, green food coloring, and occasionally, a token amount of actual wasabi.

So if that's the experience you're trying to replicate, use western freshly grated (or prepared) horseradish and a small amount of powdered mustard.

Having eaten fresh wasabi, I can say that the sensation is more pronounced than the taste. If you're trying to mimic freshly grated wasabi, you're going to have a harder task ahead of you, but the primary objective will be to find ingredients that have a clean aroma but have a marked pungency. Freshly grated western horseradish comes pretty close, though there is a difference.


Liquid sloshing around in vacuum-packed mussels? Loblaws sells these vaccuum-sealed mussels. When I pick them up with hand, I see much liquid sloshing inside.  Is this normal? Or something wrong with mussels?

It's hard to see how much liquid is there. It could just be brine or seawater which would be ok, but considering the date of mid 2018 and the fact the the packet says "live" and "do not freeze" I would have to assume that they were frozen slowly by the retailer and the resulting large ice crystals damaged the flesh, causing the mussels to weep liquid upon thawing.
These would have to have been in quite a deep deep freeze to have a hope of being surely safe.