How can I tell whether my baking recipe has enough acid to activate the baking soda? I've been trying to modify my grandmother's oatmeal cookie recipe to use less brown sugar, but all of my batches are coming out with a slightly 'metallic' taste.
I've attributed this to the baking soda; the recipe contains molasses and brown sugar, but with the sugar cut back, I guess it's not enough to activate the baking soda. I've gone through a couple of batches trying to figure out the right balance of baking soda to molasses/sugar, but I can't get it right.
Are there any guidelines or ways to tell whether a recipe contains enough acidic ingredients to balance out baking soda?

Both brown sugar and molasses are slightly acidic, you are right that reducing them reduces the acidity. However you need to consider that baking soda's purpose is a leavening agent, not to neutralize acid, so if you take some baking soda away you need to replace it with baking powder or you won't have enough leavening agent.
I can think of 2 ways to go about this, there's the lab science way and the simple way.
The lab science way would be to dissolve the amount of sugar and molasses you plan to use into some water, and then add small amounts of baking soda to the mix until you have a neutral ph. You can measure acidity with an expensive electronic meter or by using paper strips. However much baking soda you add to get a neutral PH is the right amount. You'll need to measure things exactly for this to work, then replace the balance of the baking soda with baking powder to have the right leavening.
The simpler way is to look at proportions and adjust as a ratio. If 1 tsp of baking soda is good for 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of molasses then reducing the brown sugar and molasses by half means you need to reduce the baking soda by half. I personally would weight the molasses and brown sugar rather than using volume measurements, and adjust proportionally using weight of both added together. IF you reduce the combined weight or both by 25% you would reduce the baking soda by 25% and replace it with baking powder. This may need some tweaking, but it will get you pretty close. Be sure to take notes so you remember what you did.


What is the thick white substance in my pasta water? As you can see in the pic, the water in my pasta has a thick white substance.  All I did was water, pasta, salt, boil.

What is this substance?

Is it a sign of overcooking, should the well cooked pasta be in clear water only?

How do I avoid it?

Like MaxW said, it's starchy water. This happens because

  Pasta is made from flour, water, and sometimes egg—that means it’s basically just starch and protein rolled out into different shapes and dried. It’s the starch molecules that are important. Once they’re heated in a moist environment—like your pot of water—the starch will absorb more and more water until it finally bursts. That sends little starch molecules into your water, resulting in white foam.

It is not a sign of overcooking. But your picture is a visible sign that there is not enough water in the pot.

To avoid it, use a bigger pot and use more water. You haven't mentioned how much water you have used for how much pasta. The Culinary Institute of America teaches one gallon of water per pound of pasta. Also, make sure you don't skip the most important step of bringing your water to "boiling" stage before you add in your pasta. Stir as soon as you add the pasta because this is when the first layer of starch is released and pasta can clump together. If there is not enough water at this stage, starchy water will look something similar to your picture. Stir your pasta often while it's boiling.

Edit:
As it is kindly pointed out by Joe in comments, you may not necessarily need to use a full gallon of water per pound of pasta according to this article. However, you still need enough to cover the pasta and then pasta swells as well, as it cooks.


How can I fix my tasteless baked flounder? I fixed flounder fillets in a bed of yellow onions and mushrooms in a 425°F oven -- as the recipe says -- and the fish does not taste like anything. The Hollandaise sauce did not help either. Is there anything that I can do to improve the flavor or is trashing it the only option?

Most fish is pretty mild, and flounder is no exception. You shouldn't expect it to have a terribly strong flavor of its own; that's why you've made a recipe that cooks it with onions and mushrooms and adds Hollandaise sauce. If you eat it with all of that, it'll taste like mild fish with mushrooms, onions, and Hollandaise - hardly tasteless. If you think even with all the other stuff there's not enough flavor, you might want to add a bit of salt; salt increases our perception of flavors, and if you're used to it, undersalted food will taste bland. But otherwise, it sounds like you just don't like fish, mushrooms, onions, or Hollandaise sauce and you should make something different next time.

And maybe this is subjective, but I can't imagine that this could possibly be so tasteless that you'd rather throw it away than eat it, accepting that it's not your favorite food.


Sponge cake: excessive cooking time I haven't baked anything for over a decade. But the other day I decided to have a go at doing a Victoria sponge. As a result, I now have lots of questions. But I'll try to keep things focused.

All the recipies I've found are slightly different, but they all say essentially the same thing: Measure identical quantities of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Cream the butter and sugar together. Sift the flour, beat the eggs. Alternate between adding egg and adding flour until everything has been added.

The recipe suggests cooking for 20 minutes at 180°C. A similar recipe for fairy cakes suggests cooking for 8 to 10 minutes at 180°C. (Presumably fairy cakes, being smaller, cook through more quickly.)

So far, so good. The only trouble is... the cooking times seem to be miles off.

I tried cooking a large sponge. After 20 minutes, I pulled the tray out of the oven to take a look. The surface was dry, but given the way the whole cake was rippling, it was clearly just a thin skin over a fully liquid centre. The cake was actually cooked after a about 1 hour and 20 minutes. In other words, it took about 4 times longer to cook than the recipe says.

Similarly, when I made fairy cakes, they cook roughly an hour to cook.

Obviously cooking times are a guideline. All sorts of variables affect how long a given item will actually take to cook. But is it usual for something to require 4x as long as the recipe says? What might cause that?

(In case it matters, this is a gas oven. It's not fan-assisted or anything. And I'm placing the tray near but not at the top.)

A couple things:

Unless the recipe (or experience) says otherwise, place items in the middle. Putting something higher in a conventional (non-convection) oven should make the top cook quicker than the bottom. This may account for the top drying out when the rest isn't done yet.
As @ElendilTheTall says, check your oven temperature. Your oven is probably running much lower than it should be. On most ovens, you can adjust the dial so its right.
Make sure you're using the same size (and material) pan as the recipe. Thicker cakes take longer to cook, and some pan materials are slower than others.

I looked up several recipes, and all gave times under 30 minutes.


Does dirt sink or rise in boiling water? I need to clean a lot of sunchokes (for winter freezing), and was wondering if the dirt will fall off the tubers if I boil them long enough, before sending them through a potato ricer.

No, you can't clean your tubers by boiling them, you'll just end up cooking them in mud, which will stick to them when you take them out. You need to clean them first.


"elven slices" - What is the real name (if any)? In the video game "Sacred" (2004), the player can find recipes. They are usually written in a fantasy-like manner. In the German version I found a recipe called "Elfische Schnitten aus Tyr-Hadar" ("elven slices of/from Tyr-Hadar"). I was curious and tried it out. Here is the description, roughly translated from German:

  Take 8 tablespoonful of honey and heat it up to make it liquid. Add 12
  egg yolks of hard boiled eggs. Add pepper and 175g bread crumbs. Mix
  everything with an egg whisk until you get a homogeneous mass. Form a
  block and let it cool down. Cut it into slices. [...]

That's how it looks like (I used a bit too much bread crumbs / too little honey, so it's quite crumbly):

It tastes sweet, much like regular cake.

Is there any real-life recipe for this? If yes, how is this food called?

I think this has got to be a completely made up recipe.


How much citric acid is safe to use? I am using citric acid as a preservative for peanut sauce. The 1tsp per quart is not strong enough. Is it safe to use a higher concentration? My peanut sauce is currently at a pH of 4.5, I need <4.3. I don't want to water down the sauce any more than it already is. I will be hot pack bottling, maybe.

According to (US) Code of Federal Regulations on Citric acid:

  (c)  In  accordance  with  § 184.1(b)(1),  the  ingredient  is  used  in  food  with  no  limitations  other  than  current  good  manufacturing practice. (d) Prior sanctions for this ingredient different  from  the  uses  established  in  this  section  do  not  exist  or  have  been  waived.

Basically, you can eat the stuff by the spoon-full if you can stand the sour.
If you're adding a lot compared to how much you think you should have to add, you might consider Phosphoric acid instead. You get a little more bang per mole pH-wise with that, and it too, within limits, is generally regarded as safe (GRAS).


Why do Pocky and other "stick" biscuits have this distinct burn pattern? This is Pocky: (much larger image)

As you can see, the part that is not covered in chocolate has burn marks that form a distinct pattern that is also common for other kinds of "stick" biscuits. Is this just a traditional decoration, or does it serve some purpose?

While I cannot give an absolutely definitive answer, from visual observation of the picture you provided, that is simply the pattern that would develop when a small cylinder lies across parallel wires of a grill at an angle.  The contact surface is an ellipse where the biscuit was in contact with the grill, the width and length of which were determined by the angle at which the biscuit was oriented.

The biscuits are probably cooked twice, once to cook through and be strong enough for the second baking, and once to crisp up.  The markings would be a result for the second baking.

The one or two exceptional sticks with doubled markings probably rolled or shifted slightly during the baking.


Which cheaper cuts of beef are suitable for steak tartare? I am eating a lot of steak tartare, and usually making it from the tenderloin (called filet in some countries). But the tenderloin is expensive. I've made it from beef round once and it was fine too, and I read its also being made from sirloin.

Are there any other cuts of beef which would be suitable for steak tartare, especially focusing on the more inexpensive ones?

What makes a cut suitable for steak tartare or not?

What makes them suitable - You'd want to focus on cuts that are especially lean, without a lot of connective tissue or fat, marbled or otherwise.  Raw fat is probably unappealing, flavor-wise, and that's what often causes meat to go rancid, so focusing on cuts with just muscle tissue, and minimal marbling is what makes it good (and safe) for tartare, I'd think.

Cheaper cuts that are good for stews or slow-cooking often have a good bit of connective tissue in them, which would make them poor choices.  Unless you like a gristly tatare.  :D

Probably round or rump, and sirloin - all already mentioned by you -  would be decent choices for those reason.  I'm not sure you'd need to look further.  Of those, sirloin has the reputation for having more "beefy" flavor, but round and rump are often among the cheapest cuts.

EDIT - UK and USA cuts by the same name are not, apparently, identical cuts.  Please see the comments to this answer.


Create a water + baking soda solution? I was wondering if there is a way I can mix the two and put it in a spray bottle? I would like to use water + baking soda in some cases to spray a little rather than have large amounts. Is it possible? I've tried, but the nozzle always ends up clogged.

Baking soda is soluble in water at up to 90 grams per liter. If you add more than that to water, you'll end up with a saturated solution at 90 g/L plus some crystalline baking soda on the bottom of the container.

A teaspoon of baking soda has a mass of about 4.8 grams, so it'll take 53 ml of your saturated soda solution to deliver 1 teaspoon baking soda. In Fully metric terms, that's 11.1 ml of solution per gram baking soda.


The ultimate chapati Most of indian housewives make chapatis like a boss! My wife misses her mom's chapatis, so I want to surprise her with "the ultimate chapati", so I would like to ask some questions about the process.

I've seen her mom make chapatis, and I can assure this are the ingredients she uses:

Atta flour of a brand I have.
Mineral water
Salt
Sunflower Oil

That's it. I know many recipes call for ghee instead of oil. What would be the difference?

What do you think is the perfect dough hidration to make a soft but also thin chapati? I've tried a few times, and sometimes my chapati becomes hard and crispy, so I have to make it thicker, just what I'm trying to avoid.

Mom doesn't let the dough rest for a long time, just half and hour tops. So if I want only 30 mins dough rest, it should be more or less hydrated? Also she does not knead a lot, the dough is kneaded in 10 mins, so what you think? Is soft and thin chapatis possible with 10 mins knead and 30 mins rest, or is mom a magician?

Then comes shaping.. what's better to let the dough rest before cutting? or cut the portions for each chapati and then let it rest? Mom lets the full dough rest, and makes the portions just when she starts rolling.

Rolling a perfect shape is just a question of practise, but I always find that putting dough portion into flour before rolling helps. Mom uses very little extra flour when rolling, only at the begining. Altough She puts few drops of oil, folds the portion, and the shapes it, round and thin. So what's better for rolling? Only flour or Oil? Do we put oil during kneading? How much, does it count into the hidration percent?

OK, once rolled, time too cook it. We have a "tawa" which is a flat pan. Guess gas stove is better but, can we do it with vitroceramic?. Just so you know, mom does not use the direct cook on the flame method, she only cooks on top of the hot tawa. Is it better to have tawa at medium high or at max temp? I think sometimes it became hard and crispy for me because of the high temp. Mom uses max temp on gas stove.

Mom's chapatis bubble up like a baloon.. Mine don't. Whats the secret of bubbling? I guess this is what makes the chapati soft, with those 2 layers. Why doesn't my chapati bubble?

Finally preserving softness. I eat mom's chapati half an hour later and it's still soft. Mine get's Harder after a few minutes. Why?

Please help me make the Ultimate chapati.

Partial answer here: Water temperature has a definite influence, a few recipes use boiling water, and I found the chapati made that way excellent. What boiling water will do:

(definitely) inhibit formation of long gluten strands, so you get a texture that bites through more easily (that effect is drastic - try making seitan from a dough that has been mixed with boiling water...). This is a well known method for some types of chinese pancakes and wrappers, too.
(likely) partially cook the flour so you can get away with a short time on the griddle, without drying the bread out too much.


How can I remove surface rust from a cleaver and keep it off I was in Amish country in Ohio last weekend and found this in an antique shop. It seemed interesting and reasonably priced so I bought it. I did notice the surface rust. The cleaver is 9" from heel to toe on the blade and weighs almost 3 pounds.

Can someone tell me how to remove the surface rust and how to keep it from rusting? Does anyone know what kind of cleaver it is and what it is good for?

Thanks

For the rust you can try an oxalic acid cleaner like Barkeeper's Friend (try it on a small spot first!).  It's worked great for my bakeware's cooked-on spots, and should be useful for rust as well.  Using it will be a bit of trial-and-error, because leaving the metal exposed for too long will etch it, and not long enough won't clean much.

For rust prevention, just clean the cleaver after each use and thoroughly dry it.  I'm not sure what it's made of, but those steps should suffice to prevent rust formation.  If you're obsessive about this, or don't cleave often, you can coat it in petroleum jelly afterwards (I do this with my straight razor.  It's probably not feasible for a kitchen tool unless you're storing it away).


How do I duplicate these chips? Fell in love with some green bean chips I found at the local health food store.  It doesn't have any info on the packaging about how they're made, but they're just green beans that look full (not shriveled) and are crunchy.

I've tried baking at high temps, baking at low temps and dehydrating.  The first two got me shriveled but soft results, and dehydrating got me crunchy and shriveled results.  Any idea how chips like these are made, and how I might be able to duplicate them?

Wanted to try a convection approach, but we don't have a convection oven.

Here is a pretty good looking description:
http://www.twirlandtaste.com/2012/07/crispy-green-bean-chips-la-low-carb.html
They suggest the following procedure:

Wash the fresh, small green beans in cold water.
Cut off and tough ends.
Steam blanches the beans by placing a few inches of water in the bottom of a pot and bringing to a boil. Make sure the water is not high enough to get inside the steamer pan. Place beans in steamer pan or wire basket and steam for three to four minutes.
Remove beans from steamer and plunge into cold or ice water for five minutes to stop the cooking process. Drain beans with strainer.
Place green beans on a cookie sheet in single layer. Freeze for 45 minutes.
Cook in the oven on the cookie sheet at 140 degrees until the beans are crisp and all moisture has been removed. Cooking times vary and may take 8 -14 hours.
If using a food dehydrator, place beans on dehydrator tray and cook at 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 -12 hours until crisp.


How much gluten for soft, airy, enriched dough? I'm making brioche, which are turning out OK, but not at the softness/airiness that I want. I've been trying to research what exactly I need to do to improve the crumb structure to get to my desired texture.

I thought I needed a lot of gluten. I've been using bread flour that is 14% protein. I've also been doing everything I can to make sure the gluten develops well: I add the sugar and salt after most of my gluten has developed (as sugar and salt inhibit gluten development), and I add the fat last (as fat coating flour apparently also inhibits gluten development). I've even went as fast as separating my eggs so that I can add the egg whites early in the process (since it's mostly water), then add egg yolks last (e.g. along with my other fat).

However, some articles I've been reading seem to suggest that too much gluten is the culprit to not-so-soft crumb. Should I be using flour with a lower protein content? Should I not care what order I add my ingredients? Should I replace the sugar with glucose, corn syrup, or honey since they apparently retain more moisture? Should I just add more yeast? Or do something else?

Any suggestions are highly appreciated. I do enjoy learning about the technical and scientific aspects of baking, so including those in answers would be even better.

You certainly don't need that much gluten for a brioche. A brioche is in fact somewhere between bread and cake, and very different in crumb from high gluten breads. 14% is not even typical bread flour, it is probably bagel flour. It will give you a gummy, resilient crumb even if you manage to bake large holes into it, while for the brioche you want cottony softness with just a hint of springiness so it is not like chomping down on а low quality sheet cake.

First, the amount of gluten in the flour. I have successfully made great brioche style bread (kozunak) with AP flour in the 8-10% range. Kozunak is supposed to have well-developed gluten, which in my experience cannot be substituted by using a flour with high gluten content. It is achieved simply by long kneading by hand, using a good stretch-and-fold for optimal alignment. This is less needed in a French brioche, so you can knead by machine.

Salt does not inhibit gluten, on the contrary it makes it tougher. And sugar is probably difficult to incorporate later and still have it dissolve well. So I would say that you should follow a standard recipe instead of tinkering with the process, so you will probably end up dissolving the sugar in the milk, or foaming it with the eggs, and adding the salt from the beginning. No need for separating the eggs either. You can even use a yolk only recipe for maximum tenderness, but note that the combination of high fat and pure yolk results in a very squishy bread that kinda disappears in the mouth cotton candy style. Start with a good recipe and then experiment with the ratio of egg to yolk from there, if you want to go in that direction.

For extra tenderness, you can try using lard or other solid fats instead of butter, but you will be changing the aroma too, getting something which is still a very tasty bread, but not a classic brioche. Using a liquid sweetener is also possible, but not entirely necessary.

In short, the big change you have to make is to indeed use the proper flour, which would be a very finely milled AP flour. That would overshadow the effect of tweaks in process or ingredient substitution. Once you have gotten the baseline right, you can go into these tweaks to get your recipe to perfection.


What are the transparent strands in this salad? What are the transparent, irregularly winding strands at the bottom of the following picture? They can obviously be had cold together with salad. They are very crispy.

They are much firmer and crisper than any "pudding jelly" I have met. They do not seem to be made in a mould but have a more "natural" shape.

I had this in Thailand and when I ask what it is, people have told me wun (jelly) and buk (which I don't know what it is). I am not sure this is correct.
(The staff preparing the salad buffet called it "buk", like English "book".)

What is it and how is it made?

In China I had somewhat similar food but warm and not completely transparent. I was told that was jellyfish. The only transparent things I come to think of are jellyfish (cut in strips) and konnyaku. Could this maybe be jellyfish?

Two more pictures:
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320xq90/r/908/B0O23n.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320xq90/r/537/3Sc643.jpg

I think what you are looking for is kelp noodles. They are considered a type of glass noodle. They can be eaten raw or cooked in other dishes. In their raw state they are crunchy. Please see this link for a picture and some info.

Hope this helps! :)


Kosher butter substitute for baking (flavour and mouthfeel) I'm looking to find a pareve (non-dairy, non-meat) substitute for butter which lends a similar flavour and mouthfeel for baking. I would be using it to make something along the lines of a brioche (French, not the so-called American version).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

The classic substitute is margarine.

Most brands are vegan, which would meet your non-dairy /non-meat requirements.

As far as taste and mouthfeel goes, I suggest either trying out a few brands or checking some vegan blogs from your country or region, there is a difference between brands but some are reported to be remarkably close - whatever that means.


How do I cook radicchio to make it taste less bitter? Although I like the basic taste of radicchio a lot, I frequently get heads that are so bitter as to be basically inedible. Can you suggest some cooking techniques that are particularly effective at reducing the bitterness without masking the other flavors too much?

Roasting and grilling seem to help.  You can also lessen the harshness by using ingredients with a sweet flavor profile in conjunction with it.

Years ago I tried a Radicchio appetizer (basically a radicchio bruschetta...but this was mid to late 80's and bruschetta wasn't something that was as common then!) I believe it came from Sunset Magazine or Better Homes & Gardens:

Dice up the radicchio and place into a baking dish.  Infuse some olive oil with garlic and dry herbs of choice (I think it had thyme, pepper, and oregano).  Drizzle the oil over the diced radicchio and roast until radicchio is tender.  Then crumble goat cheese over the top and bake until cheese is softened.  Serve the roasted radicchio and goat cheese piled onto crostini.


With what can you maximise energy from an induction stove? This question concerns only an induction stove, which I abbreviate to IS (and not an electric oven with coiled elements).
I already know that the energy from a Chinese Wok Range exceeds, and so is impossible to reproduce, with an IS  at home, but can anything be done to maximise the energy of an IS? Please correct me if I erred in my terminology; I know no physics.
This states the impropriety of woks for IS, but does it imply that certain cookware can convey and realise more energy from IS? If so, which cookware?  This comment mentions 'cast iron skillet':

Throw out the wok. They are worthless with electric ranges. Even home gas ranges don't do a whole lot better. The gas burners in Chinese places are crazy!!! Get a big cast iron skillet and use that instead. Lots of heat, preheat for a while. Cook in batches.
If you velvet and cook at a higher heat you will get much closer.

An induction cooktop is already more efficient than a conventional electric range, but there are some "gotchas" due to the way it works. The way an induction heating element works is via magnetic induction (hence the name), which means it's causing electrical currents to flow within the pan itself, which heats the metal (but don't worry, there's no way these currents can shock you). This is a very efficient way to heat the pan, but it requires two things. First, the pan has to be made of a "ferromagnetic" material (which basically means iron or most steels), and second, that the pan bottom be VERY close to the cooktop surface. It's that last part that makes a wok, with its curved bottom, generally unusable with this sort of cooktop. And this also means that copper and aluminum cookware doesn't work well at all, unless you put a disc of iron or steel between the bottom of such cookware and the induction element surface (in which case, that intermediate disc is basically acting as a hot plate).

If you really want to use a wok - and there are certain lots of reasons to - you pretty much have to get a high-BTU gas burner.


Adjusting cooking time and temperature when making smaller portions I'm perfecting a recipe for queijadas de leite - a traditional Portuguese custard/pastry. It's a mixture of eggs/sugar/milk/flour, very liquid in its raw form. The original instructions call for 30 minutes baking at 350 ºF, and this works quite well when using full sized muffin pans.

I'm trying to adapt it to mini-muffin pans (which are about 1/3 the volume of the full sized), and find that without any modifications they get overdone. Any suggestions on how to adjust the temperature (and perhaps duration) without having to do 10 different batches?

Part of the difficulty is that milk is added at near boiling temperature. If I make lots of batter and try different settings for smaller batches, I'm afraid the cooling of the second, third, etc batches prior to baking will affect the results.

There is no good formula to calculate the time needed for baking custards. It depends on way too many variables, most of which you cannot know, and the calculations would be way too complicated too (a system of differential equations, IIRC). So the sensible way to go is to monitor when it is done and remove it exactly then, not to try to predict the time.

The easiest way to monitor it is by using a thermometer. Without flour, you aim for 83 Celsius final temperature. With flour, it is something higher, maybe 90 Celsius, it will depend a bit on the proportions. Simply stick a roast thermometer into it and bake until it's there, then remove from the oven.

As for the temperature of the oven setting, the lower you can go for a custard, the better. Depends on your patience. I've made creme caramel at 120 Celsius, took close to 3 hours, but the result was great. Setting it around 150 is more common, no matter the amount you are baking. But try not bake a single very deep dish, either make it flat and wide, or use multiple dishes.


Renewing a whetstone? I think my whetstone has smoothed over by constant use at work, is there a way to repair it or should I just go buy another?

Use a nagura flattening stone to remove as much material as required.


Can you cook a digorno's pizza after its been thawed for 1 day is the pizza still ok to eat  after being thawed for 1 day

Yes, it should be.

That is - if it has been thawed, and safely stored (refrigerated, or in safe temperatures in whatever way), then it should still be safe to eat.  If it has been left out on a counter, or in otherwise unsafe conditions for more than a few hours - then it is as unsafe as the conditions have made it, and it is your decision what you will risk.  But safety-wise, while being frozen is safe, not being frozen doesn't automatically make it unsafe - not any more than any other kind of food that might be defrosted before cooking.

You might notice some changes in texture, and you will have to alter your cooking times, if you're cooking from thawed instead of frozen.  Your baking time will be shorter, for one, since the pizza doesn't have to come up to temperature.  You might want a lower temp and slower cooking method, so it is easier to keep checking when it's done (I usually do 350 and keep checking, while some frozen ask for 400 and specific times).  It might be easy to over-bake, since the instructions are expecting the pizza to be thawing.  It might come out a little differently - if it was intended to be baked in the bare rack, but now must have a baking sheet underneath because it's floppy, or perhaps if it was self-rising, and spent a little of that rise in the thawing - but I would expect changes to be relatively minor, or directly related to the change in baking method (crisper/softer crust from baking sheet or moister/dryer cheese from temp and time change).

I believe many manufacturers include instructions not to thaw the pizza because the results are more consistent if the process is, it is one less variable for them to worry about - and so thawing the pizza means it is one more for you to worry about.

If it helps, I've done this - thawed and baked a frozen pizza (it was thawed so it could be divided and baked over a couple days, and so was 'fresh baked' each time instead of dried from reheating).  I didn't have any particular issues with it, beyond having to change the cooking method to one suited to a non-frozen pizza.  Then again, I planned to do this - so you might have more issues with a rising pizza or if you're pickier about the outcome being precise or predictable.


How to stop steel cut oats from burning? I started making steel cut oats. 2 out of the 3 times I made it, I ended up with a layer of burnt oats lining the bottom of the pan.

When preparing, I bring the milk to a boil and then add the oats. I then let it simmer for about 25 minutes until the consistency is right.

They turn out well, but the layer of burnt oats is a pain to clean. What am I doing wrong?

There are three factors when cooking oats or similar like cooked pudding or flan:

Stirring
You have to be fairly diligent because if you do not stir constantly or at least in quite short intervals, the starchy mix near the bottom will stick. You need to "scrape" the entire bottom, not forgetting the outer areas or some streaks in the middle. This is somewhat connected to:
Heat
The lower your heat, the lesser the risk of burning - simply because you have a bit more time until you need to stir up the layer closest to the pot's bottom. Less splatter is a nice side effect, too. If you initially bring your milk to a vigourous boil, you might still have too much residual heat even if you turn down your stove.
Sugar
Yes, you didn't mention it, but in my observation adding sugar early during the cooking process might sweeten "the inner parts" of your oats better, but it heightens the risk of burning. Adding sugar at the end allows me to use less sugar for the same percieved sweetness as well.

You could also consider a non-stove technique like cooking them in a microwave, but you need to watch it closely the first few times to figure out the ideal power / timing combination for your serving sizes and microwave power, otherwise the oats have a tendency to "creep out" of your bowl and we're back at the "a pain to clean" stage. Soaking the oats overnight (-> overnight oats) can reduce the cooking time, because they are already soft.


How do I make rotisserie chicken less moist? I bought a rotisserie attachment for my gas grill & I've used it to roast a couple of chickens. It works really well & I love it - the chicken comes out very moist and flavorful. And therein lies the problem...

The chicken comes out perhaps too moist. I mean, I like it this way and my sons like it this way, but my wife feels it's a little too moist. I can't really argue with her - it is very moist and I would enjoy it just as much if it were a little drier.

So how to I make the chicken a little drier?

Here are the details:

I've roasted three chickens this way so far.

I brined the chicken for several hours before roasting at approx 350-400 degrees F. While cooking, I basted it periodically with an herbed button mixture. It tasted great, but it was definitely too wet.
I used a dry brine (1/3 cup salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp pepper) overnight and washed off the salt before cooking. This time I roasted at approximately 425-450 degrees F and basted as before. The results were better this time - not so wet - but pretty salty (perhaps I didn't remove enough of the dry brine)
Just like #2, but dry brined for about 3 1/2 hours only and washed off the dry brine more carefully. I roasted at around 475-500 degrees F and basted as before. The results were pretty much the same as #2, although the skin did come out a little browner & crunchier. But again it was a little moister than my wife would have liked.

We use our rotisserie on our BBQ and love how our chicken and turkey comes out. I suggest you not brine the poultry as it is constantly basted by its own juices as it turns on the rotisserie.


Would one use holy basil to make pesto sauce? Are there other culinary uses? I got some holy basil seeds (via mail) from a guy on an internet forum. I planted them and they are growing nicely. They taste similar to thai basil. Would one use holy basil to make pesto sauce? Are there other culinary uses for holy basil?

Use it the same as you would thai basil, or even "normal" basil.   It's a little more strongly on the licorice flavor side of things than lettuce leaf basil, but it still works nicely in conjunction with tomatoes, garlic, and other "italian" flavors.


Can I compensate for non-working yeast with baking powder in bread? I am used to baking with fresh yeast like this:

Where I live now I can't buy this, so I have to make do with this:

In accordance with the instructions I use 2 g of the "yeast" per 500 g flour.

How I tried using it:

Mix it with the dry flour before adding water
Dissolve it in water before mixing with the flour
Dissolve it in water with a teaspoon of sugar before mixing with the flour

I none of my attempts I got the dough to rise.

So before I bake my next brick bread, I wanted to ask: is it worth trying to add some baking powder?

No, it is not worth trying baking powder. If your yeast is not working, it won't start working because you added baking powder, so you will get the same result as leaving out the yeast and using pure baking powder. Recipes meant for yeast cannot work properly with baking powder, so this is not a solution. You need a source for working yeast.

You seem to have concluded that dry yeast never works, but this is not true. You must have happened upon a bad brand, or maybe even a bad batch from an otherwise OK brand. Dry yeast works very well, and is even lower risk than fresh yeast, because it is less sensitive to bad storage. Just try a different source of dry yeast.


How can I concentrate citrus juice at home? I used to make no-bake pies as a kid that consisted of whipped topping, condensed sweetened milk, and frozen lemon- or lime-aid concentrate (thawed) mixed together and poured into a graham cracker pie crust then chilled to set.

The recipe I learned called for a small can of frozen concentrate, a can of sweetened condensed milk, a 12-16 ounce container of whipped topping and a 9 inch pie crust.  But lately all I can find are large cans that result in a runny pie filling that doesnt set well.

I would like to try with homemade lime or lemon concentrate but how would I go about concentrating the juice?

Some fruit juices can be heated to drive off excess water (especially those with a higher sugar content) but citrus doesn't tolerate this well.  Fresh-squeezed citrus will get bitter and acrid if reduced.

Instead, squeeze your citrus as normal and freeze the juice in an open container.  Once it's set into a solid block, place it into a funnel or strainer over a collection vessel.  The juice itself will run off more quickly and collect in the vessel, while the ice crystals stay in the strainer (until they melt, at least - don't let them melt all the way, or you're back to the beginning).  Once the ice looks very lightly colored, discard it and enjoy your concentrated juice.  You can repeat this process if you want further concentration, though eventually there will come a point where the juice is so concentrated that it won't freeze at conventional freezer temperatures.

Good instructions for this process here - it's really quite simple!


What all fruits/crops can be stored in natural temperature for a long time? I want to know about foods (fruits/crops) which can be stored in room temperature or natural temperature (20 degree centigrade) for long time (for a year)?.

Nature has designed some food-stuff to last a long time.  Grains (wheat, rice, corn, oats, ...), which are the seeds of grasses, will last the longest, often more than one year.  Seeds need a long shelf-life if the plant is going to make it to the next growing season.  Next come roots (onions, potatoes, ...), which need to last from one year to the next.  Nuts, in the cooking sense, are seeds surrounded by a shell, will also last several years if they are dry.  So almonds, peanuts, pine nuts will keep, but not coconuts or chestnuts.  Other food types are going to need some help, which basically means getting rid of the water in the food-stuff (lentils, beans, peas, chick peas, soybean, ...) or slowing down bacterial growth (through dehydration, freezing, irradiation, canning, cooling, ...)

I have cooked grains and dried beans and lentils from my pantry that were over a year old.  They all made good meals.


Meringue - Dry Crisp And Impossibly Delicate I am looking for a recipe for an impossibly dry/crisp baked meringue.  The baked meringue medallions, once cooled, are almost like oak log ash, and the medallions cannot be picked up by their edges, that's how delicate they are.  If you touch the dry meringue with your finger, it dents.  I'm talking about a white, dry crisp meringue cookie that is dry/crisp all the way through, and barely holds its form/shape when you pick it up, and melts on the tongue.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?  Am I crazy?

As far as the meringue goes, you're probably aware there are several kinds, hard, soft, and italian. These are described here: https://www.incredibleegg.org/eggcyclopedia/m/meringue/.

Obviously you want a hard meringue, which is the driest kind. Beyond that, the article says the main factor affecting dryness is the humidity of the baking environment. If you live in a desert your dessert will be drier. A dehumidifier would probably help. It states that the moisture is primarily absorbed into the sugar so reducing the amount of sugar might also help.

Finally, the article also states that baking at a low temperature for a longer time dries the meringue more thoroughly and evenly.


How to make a firm loaf from pancake batter mix? I have two questions. One specific. One general.

First:
I am a beginner at cooking. But, I have learned a few things. I try to experiment without going crazy. I have found that altering a recipe can be a good thing at times. Here is one thing that I have tried recently that I'd like a little bit of help with:

I have some boxed pancake batter mix. It is pretty good. (Sometimes you have to get out of the house quickly and early in the morning. Sometimes convenience is more important that making something from scratch. That is one of the trade-offs with cooking, right?)
I made a loaf with the box mix. It came out soft, like pancakes. No surprise. That result is fine. It tastes good when I pop a slice in the toaster oven in the morning. And, the toasted crust that forms is kind of nice.

Like I mentioned before: I am a bit new to cooking. I don't know all the nuances. What can I add to the batter mix to firm it up? I think it is eggs. But, I'm not sure.

Edit/Added: The loaf mixes and "from scratch" muffin batter loafs I have made in the past were denser. This loaf from the pancake mix was more cake-like. I want it a bit denser like the muffin batter loaves.

Secondly:
Where can I learn about things like this? I have what I think is a big good basic cookbook. It has instructions about all the different cookware and utensils. It has listings of cooking terms and what to expect with different herbs and spices. It also has a section at the end of each chapter about how to cook things like different cuts of meat and how to choose the right baking pan. But, I can't find out how to firm up batter.

Just use less liquid, that should work.  Since you didn't mention the brand, you have to wing it at first.  If you want to be a good cook, get am old cookbook and follow the directions, you can experiment after you've learned how.


What is the right moment to add sugar to make my own coffee liqueur? I've been looking for a good coffee liqueur recipe. In some places they add sugar and water before you store the liqueur for a few days or weeks, and others say to add the sugar and water after it.

The 'before' ones use instant coffee which I think it's not in the 'original' (old) recipe.

Does adding the sugar before or after make any difference in the outcome? The liqueurs I have bought usually get thicker as time goes by.

I'll try to answer this.

Concerning the first recipe you linked, it doesn't matter at all whether you add it first or not, since there is no extraction going on. Theres no fresh coffee, no fresh vanilla. Just extract, which of course is already extracted, so no extended wait time is needed! There might still be room for improvement, letting flavors 'marry' and so, but I'd say a day should be enough.

The second recipe is different. It steeps fresh coffee in alcohol, and here it's going to need time. One month is however an extreme amount of time. Usually, hot water and coffee is steeped for seconds, and cold water and coffee is often steeped for 12 hours. Consider that alcohol is a stronger solvent than water.
But if going for a true alcoholic extraction, pure is better / faster, so you should steep before adding water, and the sugar probably doesn't make much difference.

This said, I'm not sure you should actually let it steep in alcohol at all, and I'm not sure you should dilute it either.

If I was doing this, I would go for water cold extraction. I'd be concerned that alcohol would extract too much, the same as too long hot water steeping leads to bitter, sour, pungent coffee. I'm not sure why you would want to dilute it with alot of water either. Water adds nothing to the party. Dilute it when using it instead, this leaves you free to choose each time. Perhaps you'd like to mix it with milk instead, sometime?

Do you have a french press? Let 1 part coursely ground coffee steep in 3 parts cold water over night. Use the filter / top to filter it, and pour it into your vodka. I'm not completely sure, but I think 1 part  extract to 4 parts vodka would be fine. Use the same ratio of sugar as in the recipes you linked, or after taste.

UPDATE:

I didn't completely read the second recipe before I answered. It says to boil the vodka-mixture. Sure, the alcohol doesn't vanish in an hour, but I'd still say it's an unacceptable waste (spirits are expensive where I'm from!). Also, the effect is the inverse of destillation, so you are left with a weaker, but sweeter, drink. I'm not sure why it says to boil it. It says that it's to 'thicken the liqueur', but they could just use less water instead.

Good luck!


How to measure a cup of "solid" ingredient? I was reading a recipe in which it was mentioned among the ingredients "8 cups of broccoli florets". Measuring by "cups" is for liquids, right? For solid ingredients, are we measuring the "weight" of the ingredient?

How to convert "8 cups of broccoli florets" into kilograms/grams?

It's asking for exactly what it says: 8 cups of broccoli. Measuring by volume is certainly best-defined for liquids, but it works fine for solids too. It works best if you have a large measuring bowl - or just a bowl that you happen to know is around 8 cups (two quarts, about two liters). Or you can just guess by eye, knowing how much volume that is. A recipe with broccoli isn't going to fail if you're off by a bit.

(If you really prefer weight, this nutrition data says a cup chopped is 91 grams, so 8 cups might be a bit over 700 grams.)


Condensation inside packed, refrigerated food I've got a bit of a problem with my... refrigerator? I'm not sure.

Basically, after a single night in the fridge packed food develops severe condensation on the inside on the top-lid.

I wouldn't find this THAT strange if it happened only to packages that were opened... but this also happens to food I haven't open yet as well! Also I don't recall such a problem with my family home fridge.

I think it's a case of incorrectly set temperature, but I don't know if the current setting is too high or too low (and all I've got to work with is a single knob with relatively meaningless numbers 0-7). That said, the temperature inside the fridge seems fine (I haven't actually measured it, but it feels cool, and things like butter are as hard as I'd expect them to be). Or, perhaps, it's something else entirely, like some other fault with the fridge.

Any idea what could be wrong?

There is something wrong with your refrigerator, and you need to get it fixed.

Most likely, the temperature inside is rising into the danger zone (>40F), and subsequently falling as the fridge cools. This change in temperature causes the condensation.

In a discussion on ChowHound, there were many potential issues discussed that could be causing your problem. Take a look at my list below and determine how comfortable you are inspecting each issue. If you find one of the problems and can fix it, great.

Most likely, you need to call the manufacturer if the fridge is under warranty, or call an appliance repair specialist to come take a look. Don't wait too long, it's quite possible some of your food is spoiled because of the issue.

Possible problems causing the issue:

bad thermometer inside fridge
door isn't sealing tightly enough
freezer needs to be defrosted
drain is clogged
could be something else entirely


Can potassium sorbate (E202) be tasted and smelled by everyone or just a few people? Potassium sorbate (in Europe: E202, or 'Kaliumsorbat' in German) spoils a lot of the packaged food for me – I clearly smell and taste it. I can also clearly smell it e.g. in a medicinal cream I bought at the pharmacy. The smell/taste is very specific, a kind of organic 'sweetish-sour', remotely reminding me of wax when it is stronger, and I don't really like it. The taste also doesn't disappear after cooking as I just experienced with a pack of fresh potato dumpling dough from the supermarket (Germany) – after kneading the dough I could still smell the additive in my hand palms for a few hours.

All the online info sources suggest that potassium sorbate wouldn't impart its own taste to the food, but the opposite is the case in my experience. Now I wonder if it's possible that not everyone can smell/taste it, e.g., for genetic reasons? Otherwise the Internet should be full of comments to this effect.

Exercise.com and Moonsharvest.com say potassium sorbate can have a sweet odor.

According to Wikipedia, some yeasts can change potassium sorbate into pentadiene, which has a typical odor of kerosene or petroleum.


can ice help with spicy food? This is more just out of curiosity then anything. I just wondered could eating ice or somehow making you mouth colder before eating spicy foods, such as chill peppers or such, help lessen the spiciness?

No.

The chemical action of capsaicin (the compound that triggers the burning sensation) is an effect on chemical receptors in your taste buds. It's perceived to a degree as temperature but it's entirely independent, so making your mouth colder wouldn't help.

The only way cold would minimize a spice burn is if you made your tongue/mouth cold enough to freeze, numb, and damage your taste buds, which would be a really bad idea.

Ice won't really help relieve the burn after you start feeling the spice either, because capsaicin isn't water-soluble. Here are some better suggestions for relief.


Other ways to preserve red cabbage We have 3 nice heads of red cabbage to pick soon. We are most likely going to can it all as sweet and sour cabbage but before we do that I was wondering if there are other ways to preserve it using the canning method.

We most commonly braise it under some confit duck legs. That recipe is altogether more complicated than the method we use (usually just a bunch of herbs, an onion or two and some red wine, not red wine vinegar) but I'd start with theirs and simplify.

Like a lot of fresh veg, it can be frozen if you blanch it first. Essentially cut it up, boil a portion for 90 seconds, cool it rapidly, dry it and then seal each portion in a vac-pack bag before freezing it. This is great if you have unlimited freezer space... And you really like cabbage.

If you're desperate to can something —per the question tags— I'd either confit some duck thighs in duck fat in some cans (what the French do, seriously though you need to try duck and cabbage together), or do some pickled cabbage. It needs quite a sweet pickle and it's not as nice as pickled beetroot (that'll probably attract a downvote) but it's still a worthy sandwich stuffer.

If you get really bored of pickled cabbage, you could throw the rest of the allotment in, and make a piccalilli. Great way to hide some cauliflower and it keeps forever.


How do Blue potatoes differ from Yukon Gold potatoes? In what ways do Blue potatoes differ from Yukon Golds?  (Other than the color.)

Do they have comparable amounts of starch and water?
Do they have a different flavor or texture?
How should I be prepared adjust my cooking method if substituting Blues for Yukons?

There definitely is a difference in flavor, although it is rather subtle. I find that the blue potatoes are a touch richer or more "potato-y" than Yukon Golds. However, in cooking with them I've had plenty of success doing direct substitutions. Other than the blue color being a little odd-looking in some recipes I think you'd be safe just swapping one for the other in most cases.


Home-made fermented/ cured sausages numbing sensation I have two questions regarding my home made sausages.
1- They were great after the normal time-period, fermented well and were a great taste. Now, after another 2 months, all of them taste strongly perfumed, not nice at all and I have to throw them away. How come?
2- In the beginning a bit, but now a lot, they give me a numb sensation in my mouth. What is causing that?

I used color salt for fermenting and ensuring I wouldn't get botulism, but I believe that never is a guarantee?

Thanks for your answers!

B

The name or chemical compound responsible for a specific quality of some spices (numbness) Should answer your question concerning numbness pretty handily. Eugenol can intensify over time. It just so happens that I have been playing with that particular phenomenon quite a bit lately.


Roasting an eggplant for "Neapolitan Eggplant Parmesan" I found this Neapolitan Eggplant Parmesan recipe, which lists roasted eggplant slices as an ingredient. I'm guessing that I wouldn't want to roast it so that it is all mushy as one might do for other dishes (e.g. baba ghanoush).

Does anybody have a roasting technique they would suggest here?

As a side note/question, it appears with the classic Eggplant Parmesan recipe (like this one here), you would fry the eggplant, which starts with thin slices being salted and drained. I'm guessing such treatment isn't necessary for roasting in an oven?

For a recipe like this, that uses roasted eggplant slices, that you then top with some extra stuff, does not require much additional preparation. If you do it like the recipe you link to, you can just:

slice the eggplant 1/2-1  inch thick, place it on oiled baking sheet (you can brush the slices with some oil on top too, sprinkle with some sea salt - ifyou haven't salted them earlier - and add some finely chopped garlic if you want)
put in the 400 F preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until they start slightly change color (thicker sclicew will take a bit longer) - you definitely want to preserve the texture (as you already guess you don't want them to turn mushy, but rather a bit crispy - so a broiler is a good way to go)
then top with the stuff from recipe and bake for another 5-10 mins

Note: The texture of the cooked eggplant also depends on the variety - many Asian varieties tend to get softer and creamy, where most European varieties stay firmer and meaty (McGee, Food&Cooking).

For my eggplant parmigiana I usually flour and panfry the eggplant with a tiny amount of olive oil until golden on both sides, top with tomato sauce and cheese and broil for 5 minutes, sprinkle with fresh parmigiano and serve.

Salting and draining/washing usually helps getting rid of some bitterness. However, I have grilled and baked eggplants for years without doing that and it never tasted bitter ... I think many modern varieties are already way less bitter than eggplants used to be decades ago. But that might also be a matter of taste. So this procedure is always optional and mostly depends on the bitterness of the variety.

Bon appetit!


How do I keep the rice cooker from boiling over? I am having epic rice-cooker failure here.

I measure out the amount of rice suggested by the little cup thingy. I rinse it with a bowl and a strainer until the water is clear while rinsing. Then I put the rice in and fill it to the appropriate line in my Rice Cooker with fresh water. After cooking for a little while, it immediately begins to boil over and nasty bubbles start popping out of the little hole in the top, dumping yucky, sticky water all over the place.

The Rice, when all is said and done, is alright but it's a hell of a mess! What am I doing wrong?

I've heard that adding a little olive oil (any kind) can help with bubbling over.

Otherwise if you don't get any answers, consider that your rice cooker might be broken. If you get that far, try to borrow someone else's and repeat your method.


What's the secret ingredient in beef jerky? I've been making beef jerky using various marinade recipes I found on the WWW. The results have been mixed, but always lack that one distinct flavor that seems so prevalent in store-bought jerky. If I had to describe it, I'd say "protein-y". It's not a spice I recognize, and doesn't seem to be present in any combination of soy sauce, Worcestershire, etc.

Recently I found an old seasoning packet that came with my dehydrator, took a little taste, and recognized that same flavor immediately. Unfortunately there is no ingredient list printed on the packet. Where is that flavor is coming from?

"Proteiny" usually indicates "umami", the so-called "fifth flavor" after sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.  It's triggered by glutamates.  Common sources of umami include beef, mushrooms, some seaweeds (most especially nori), rinds of some hard cheeses (most especially pecorino romano) and tomato paste.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if the store-bought jerkies you are comparing it to include monosodium glutamate, a common food additive that is essentially concentrated umami flavor.


gluten free gnocchi tasting too much like potato I made my first batch of gnocchi this weekend and after quite a bit of work, I got gnocchi that didn't taste great.  The consistency was ok; they did not disintegrate when I boiled them for a couple of minutes. BUT it felt like I was eating potatoes, nothing less, nothing more...

So I know... gnocchi are essentially potatoes.  But still all the gnocchi I have tasted over the years, "regular" and gluten-free, all had a taste quite distinct from potatoes.  I am wondering what I am missing.

I used red potatoes, which I had steamed in a pressure cooker, and mixed them with potato starch and rice flour.  (Some of our family members are gluten free.)  I let them dry for 30 mn to an hour before throwing them in boiling water in small batches and taking them out as soon as they floated, which was quick (1-2 minutes).

Any thoughts on improving on the taste of the gnocchi itself (as opposed to "cheating" by overloading them with butter, cheese and tomato sauce)?

Is it cheating to put the cheese inside the gnocchi?

I've used grated hard cheeses to help take up some of the moisture from gnocchi before.  If you use cheese, plus some herbs or spices (nutmeg is pretty classic, a bit of rosemary might be nice as an alternative, or even lemon zest), it shouldn't taste like a baked potato.

I'd also be concerned with your choice of potatoes -- red potatoes around here tend to be a waxy potato.  I typically use a mealy (aka floury aka starchy) potato such as a russet for gnocchi, or an in-between potato, such as a yukon gold.


Why is a glaze applied to the top of a hot cross bun? I am making hot cross buns and wondering why the buns have to have a glaze...
Any scientific answer or is it just because it's nicer?

I would say that it's not required for any scientific reason. I believe that, traditionally, it's common to put a sweet topping to add an extra hint of sweetness to the buns, which are generally not very sweet themselves.

It may be in the US that it's more common to make the cross out of the glaze rather than creating a cross in the dough using a paste. When I found recipes from England (along with the one you linked from Australia), they both use the flour paste with a light glaze over the entire bun. This BBC recipe, specifically, uses a glaze made from apricot jam, which sounds very nice.

The American recipes tend to not have an all-over glaze, preferring to simplify the preparation process by making the cross with a white sugar icing after the baking process is completed, though (as seen as an option in this Martha Stewart recipe) you could certainly glaze the entire thing, as if it were a doughnut... though this would leave it without the traditional white "cross" on top.

But, as you can see from the images of the American recipes, provided there's a good eggwash before baking to make the buns golden, they should also get a nice shine, so the glaze shouldn't be necessary for that reason... and without, I'd think it would make them easier to handle, as they're not as sticky all over.


What happens if I add corn before bringing the water to a boil? I accidentally added vegetables and water to the pot from the beginning instead of bringing water to a boil then adding the fresh corn kernels

What happens if I do this? Will my end result be ruined?

What happens is not so different than when you do add at boil.  You just have less control over the perfectly cooked point.

At sea level, water boils at 100°C and 212°F.  However, when you add your room temperature (or from the fridge at 4°C temperature), the water temperature drops.

How much you say? well it depends mostly on the weight of water and the weight of your vegetables.  If you add 1lb of vegetable from the fridge to 4 quart of boiling water, you'll end up with a mix that is maybe around 85°C (185°F).

At this point the stove tries to take the new mix back up to boiling point and your vegetables  continue to cook.

By adding the vegetables before boiling point, you'll reduced the mixed temperature even further.

At any given temperature, different vegetables will take a certain amount of time to cook.  Since the temperature here is going up and down, knowing exactly when they're prefect gets much harder, that's why the recipes try to standardize on the boiling water at x minutes thing.

That said, some food when taken through a range of temperature (say cold to hot) will have different components in them denature at different times and some things dissolving into the water before cooking begins.  This sequence might end up with unpleasant and unsightly things released into the water and the food not holding together well.

the bottom line:

If you were close to boiling when you added food, don't worry about it.  If you put the food in cold water then brought to boil, you're looking at a different recipe :)


Why are Zucchini's refrigerated, but not acorn and spaghetti squash? I stock food and follow this procedure, but can see that these are not only the same family - the gourd family, but also the same species.

Both have a hard outer shell.  Why does one ( Zucchini ) require refrigeration but not the others?

I would assume the answer holds true for cucumbers as well.

The short answer is that they are different types of squash, although both are squash.

Zucchini is a summer squash, which has soft flesh and a malleable rind.

Both acorn and spaghetti squash, much like pumpkins, are winter squash, with harder flesh and a tough rind.  If cured, they can be stored for months at cool root cellar temperatures, and for a reasonable amount of time at regular room temperature.


Why does coconut milk separate when it is placed in the fridge? I have noticed that for many coconut whipped cream recipes, you are supposed to put the can in the fridge overnight to separate the fat and the liquid.  Can anyone explain the food science behind why this separation happens?

Coconut milk is made of different components, like water, fat, minerals and protein. All those components have a different mass and when let sit in the fridge for some time, the components with higher mass (protein) tend to sink to the bottom as they are pulled by gravity and the components with lower mass float to the top (water, fat).

The same happens with regular cow milk, which is the reason cow milk is being homogenized to prevent the fat from floating to the top. The reason is that apparently people don't like it when fat floats on top of their milk.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homogenization_(chemistry) for reference:

  One of the oldest applications of homogenization is in milk
  processing. It is normally preceded by "standardization" (the mixing
  of several different milking herds and/or dairies to produce a more
  consistent raw milk prior to processing and to prevent, reduce and
  delay natural separation of cream from the rest of the emulsion). The
  fat in milk normally separates from the water and collects at the top.
  Homogenization breaks the fat into smaller sizes so it no longer
  separates, allowing the sale of non-separating milk at any fat
  specification.


Are there any health risks when making vegetable stock from kitchen leftovers? I have seen, that many people use kitchen scraps for making broth (eg. onion root and scraps) or that they just crush garlic, but still keep it in its skin or that people even do not peel carrots.
I am using slow cooking, but when I would be using these 'leftovers', is not there a risk of bacteria (from garlic skin maybe)?
Is it recommended to bring it to boil every time for a while? And even if it is boiled, there can still be toxins, that do not breakdown by boiling.
So is there any advice concerning that?
Is there a procedure, that should always be taken into consideration?

Simple washing (for carrots, or veg. you might peel) is fine, if you don't want to peel.  There is no problem using root vegetables without peeling either.  Stocks are typically brought to a simmer.  So, you easily mitigate any bacterial concerns.  Botulism toxins form in an anaerobic environment.  So, you don't really have to worry about using fresh, even unpeeled, root vegetables.   Of course, you need to adhere to general food safety, and have an awareness of "the danger zone."  So your stock needs to at least cook above 140F (60C), and then be cooled below 40F (4C) with two hours of completion.


How to turn sugar syrup into sugaring wax? I would like to know how I can make sugar syrup of 1-2 tar consistency and when it cools, it is neither crystallized nor too thin syrup?

What quantity of citric acid or liquid glucose should I use in 1KG of sugar? How much water?

I have tried at least 5 times, but the result is either crystallized or too thin. I need a syrup which is sticky, so as to be used as wax as well.

I think if you start with regular sugar syrup, you have too much liquid. I make sugaring wax by putting 8 parts sugar, 1 part water and 1 part lemon juice in a sauce pan and let that simmer for about 10-15 minutes until you have an amber colour.

It will take a couple of times to judge the mixture on thickness and colour. Once it's set, you should be able to push a finger in it and that mark should stay there for a couple of minutes.

If your mixture is too pale, it's going to be too liquid and the finger mark will disappear too quickly. You can just put it back on the stove and let it boil for a bit longer.
If your mixture is too dark, it's going to be too hard. You will be able to make the finger mark, but it's gonna be hard to do. You can reheat the mixture in the microwave and use it warm.

Depending on how you want to use it, cooking times are more or less forgiving.


How to keep frozen French fries crispy? There are a lot of frozen French fry recipes on Google and YouTube, but none stay crispy after defrost. I have tried many. After 2-4 month they become soft and pale. I doubt there are some chemicals which can keep their taste and crispy texture. Such as potatopro or McCain supplier.
Any suggestions?

Most likely, your issue is that your fries don't freeze quickly enough!
First of all, potatoes are VERY tricky for freezing anyway: their cell-structure takes REALLY badly to freezing, making them change texture and sometimes taste a lot.
The problem is reduced, but not removed, by cooking them first, but even then, they tend to react badly.
Now, what do commercial fries have that you don't? They can actually do shock-freezing! This means they can freeze their fries REALLY quickly, which highly reduces the damage to the cells. So, sadly your best shot may be: buy some dry ice to use for freezing your fries.


What is the ratio of curing salt versus table salt in a recipe? My soppressatta recipe calls for 2.50 lbs. of table salt for every 100 lbs. of meat. How much curing salt would I use in place of table salt?

I agree with Athanasius, it's best to follow a reputable recipe and not mess with substitutions when curing meats. You're playing with fire. The very fact that you would ask in that way tells me you don't have the background to even be thinking about it, since there is more than one type of curing salt.

From Wiki

  Curing salts are used in food preservation to prevent or slow spoilage by bacteria or fungus. Generally they are used for pickling meats as part of the process to make sausage or cured meat. Curing salts are generally a mixture of table salt and sodium nitrate. Common types of curing salts are Prague powder #1, which is 6% sodium nitrite and 94% table salt, and Prague powder #2 which also includes sodium nitrate

It doesn't get much more reputable than Michael Ruhlman, and he's written a Bible on the subject of Charcuterie: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. Wow, it's even available for the Kindle, I might have to get that.

On-line, he goes specifically into soppressata.


Can I use my dehydrator to raise bread? I bought a dehydrator about a year ago and the product manual says that a dehydrator is great for leavening bread. I have tried this a number of times with (seemingly) good results, but I am unsure if the dehydrator is having an adverse affect on the final product.

I have the 9 Tray Excalibur, and I usually place a bowl of warm water at the bottom, then place a large mixing bowl with a dish cloth over the top on the third tray (just above the bowl of water). I'll turn the dehydrator to 95°F (35°C), and let the dough rise according to the recipe.

When dehydrating fruit/vegetables or making trail mixes, etc., the dehydration time is usually measured in days rather than hours.  From that perspective, I don't think that my breads should be significantly dehydrated during the rising process, but I don't know for sure.

Also, the Excalibur works by 'fanning' the moist air away from the trays inside.  The fan is not forceful, and is not powerful enough to shift a damp dish towel, but it will easily lift a piece of paper towel or similar. As I typically use a damp towel to cover the bowl, I don't think air flow is an issue either.

Are my assumptions correct that this is a safe thing to do, or am I setting myself up for failure and dooming some would-be delicious breads?

Sounds like it's working for you. As long as the dough doesn't form a skin, inhibiting rising, then looks like it ain't drying out.

Very even heating too, I imagine; that's critical: with the hot and cold patches of some big ovens, uneven fermentation and rising could ruin a loaf especially the final proofing. Cracks in the sides of the crust can be blamed on this.


What is the difference between grape and cherry tomatoes? What is the flavor difference between grape and cherry tomatoes? The store had both and they looked rather similar.

The difference in their name is - not surprisingly - because of their form. Cherry tomatoes are round, while grape tomatoes are more oblong. Wikipedia mentions that grape tomatoes are 'sweet as cherry tomatoes', so not much difference in flavour according to this. Perhaps grape tomatoes are more similar to small plum tomatoes.

This site claims grape tomatoes to be sweeter, having a thicker skin and a lower water content than cherry tomatoes. Interestingly, it also says that grape tomatoes are a cross between cherry tomatoes and other tomatoes.

The claims of the second site are in agreement with this site ("grape tomatoes have thicker skin, lower water content and intense sweetness"). It also states "a grape tomato is half the size of a cherry tomato", so perhaps they are smaller. Due to the lower water content, grape tomatoes have less chance of 'squirting' when being bitten into.


How can I make and store multiple pizzas before a potluck? My job is having a potluck soon.
I plan on making 2 Buffalo NY style pizzas, 2 Papa Johns clones, and 2 Traditional NY style pizzas.
How should I store the pizza once i'm done cooking it?

Once finished making the pizzas, should I put them straight in the fridge?

Luckily, I work at a restaurant, so microwave ovens  and hot air ovens  are at our own use if anyone wants to reheat their pizza.
How far ahead of time should I bake the pizzas? It will take me 15 mins to get to my job with my bicycle and me hauling pizzas on a trailer.
Should I buy pizza boxes to transport them in?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

I totally want to blow everyone away and show them homemade pizza is the truth.

If you really want to blow them away, the best option is to cook them on-site, at least partially. If you can prepare and partially bake the crusts in advance, the rest of the process won't take as long to cook and the results will be better.

If that isn't practical, 2 hours is a long time for the pizza to sit out before you transport it to a party where it will sit out even more, especially the one with chicken on it. Refrigeration would be a good idea.

You may also want to try your recipes in advance and see how well they hold up to reheating.

I've had reason to make large quantities of personal pizzas in the past and found that making the crusts in advance, freezing them, then at the time of the party baking with the toppings to heat it and cook the toppings worked well.

As for the transportation question, if you don't use pizza boxes to transport them, do you have some other way to keep the pizzas from getting smashed up and sticking to each other? This is another thing that will probably be easier to manage if you assemble and bake the pizzas at the party instead of transporting them fully prepared.


How to clean a copper kettle? My GF bought a kettle with copper finish. Looked really nice until water stains started to leave marks on it. It is now almost entirely covered with those darker gray-ish marks which I assume are some sort of oxidation. Is there a safe way to clean this?

Lemon juice or diluted vinegar (say 1:1), a rag and patience. Gentle and light scrubbing. Rinse afterwards and dry thoroughly.

The bad news is that it is not going to last very long. Even if you are not using at all, depending on your ambient humidity and temperature, it will tarnish again, albeit perhaps uniformly. It is still better to remove the oxide spots early. The longer you leave them, the deeper the oxidation goes. Every time you get rid of the oxide, you are actually removing a tiny layer of metal. So, if you have a copper plated kettle, at some point, you will expose the underlying metal. If it is solid copper, that does not matter too much.

Other than greyish black oxide, you can also have greenish carbonates too.

You can meticulously dry off all the water on the the copper surface especially before you heat it, and store it in a dry cool place, you can slow down the oxidation process.

Alternatively, let it tarnish and develop some character.

Is it an electric kettle or a manual one? A manual one on an open flame (electrical stove is fine) will make things harder for you because of water and carbon dioxide from the combustion products.


Should there be any problem cooling Mysore Pak outside a refrigerator? I am interested to make Mysore Pak, the Indian sub-continent lightly-roasted Besan (Chickpea flour) based cake.

I can indeed lightly-roast one cup of Besan, add one cup of sugar directly together with one cup of water, stir all three ingredients to a fine smooth batter and and then add about one cup of coconut and/or sunflower oil and mix well a few minutes to get an extremely unified batter (with no "lumps" or "chunks").

My problem is with cooling off the batter until solidification (which is how the batter is made into a cake):
The refrigerator in the apartment I rent is a bit small for the pan in the sense that even if it is well situated it will probably touch plastic surface, walls and dishes and that I want to avoid.

Should there be any problem cooling Mysore Pak outside a refrigerator?

Batters are not shelf stable. It doesn't matter if their ingredients are shelf stable by themselves or not. So you have to follow the basic food safety rules for non-shelf-stable food. In particular, you have to ensure (no matter by what means) that it doesn't spend more than 4 hours with an internal temperature between 4 and 60 degrees Celsius.

If you can prove that your cooling procedure does that, you are fine. If you don't know, then it is unsafe.


Should I put yeast in sweet bread? Do you put yeast in sweet bread? Thanks!

What kind of sweet bread? If it’s a “quick” bread, like banana-nut bread, no yeast. The leavening is done chemically by baking powder or baking soda. If you’re referring to enriched breads, like brioche or pain au lait, you won’t get a rise unless you add yeast! About a half teaspoon per cup of flour. Less if you’re using a preferment or a cold rise.


Does wine go bad or just taste bad? Does wine left in the fridge more than the recommended time of up to a week (?) before it goes "off" go bad in terms of bacterial or mold overgrowth? Or is it safe to drink but just doesn't taste as good? I don't know if wine is as acidic as vinegar. And how long is really too long food safety-wise? I would probably just cook with it. I don't mind if it's vinegary, just asking from a food safety perspective. I hope this question is not too much like this one. Can wine gone bad be bad for you?

Dos wine can go bad? It can't have mold (because alcohol), it's shouldn't have any EXTRA bacteria (because of alcohol).
In fact - the bacteria that turn vine into vinegar is acetobacter. So spotting that one in the brew is pretty easy. You start to have acid.

Wine (depending on type of course) is pretty safe to store for a long time. That's the added value to it. You store wine  for 200 years and cash a fat check afterwards.
The "best before after opening and store in fridge" date is usually there for two reasons:

The cork is not real one. And the alcohol will start to reacts with it.
The wine was made in such manner that the yeast didn't die (so not enough alcohol content and with that extra air after opening they will start to digest carbs again).

What can change the taste of wine is storage type. Like in the answer you provided. Bad storage will lead to bad wine. Or not bad WINE but some bad liquid.


Have I ruined my chicken by marinating it in milk and lemon? So I wanted to make Gordon Ramsay's buttermilk fried chicken Recipe. Although I didn't have any buttermilk so I found online you can use milk with lemon as a replacement for buttermilk. Sounded perfect. Gordon recommends in the video that you marinade it over night. So I try that. I have come back the next day and the milk has separated. Have I ruined the chicken?

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: Yes its been in the fridge. very little lemon juice was included, so it doesn't appear to have cooked.

EDIT 2: OK, I will try it and then answer my own question with the result.

I would be surprised if your milk didn't curdle. The entire point of adding the lemon is to induce this to at least a certain extent. Buttermilk is already somewhat curdled so as long as it wasn't so acidic that the chicken was chemically cooked, everything should turn out fine.


Will uncooked meat tenderise or toughen while stored in a refrigerator? In an effort to make fewer food shopping trips, I want to store meat in the fridge for a few days before cooking.
However, if I'm entertaining guests I want the meat to be as tender as possible.
Will storing meat in the fridge for a couple of days affect the tenderness to any noticeable degree?

While dry aging does impact texture, storing a portion that you might purchase for yourself, or a small number of people, in the refrigerator for a few days will not impact the final texture.  Instead, consider purchasing high quality cuts, and the correct cut for your application.  Consider a tenderizing pre-treatment (some marinades are intended for tenderization).  Finally, of course, cooking process will greatly impact the final texture.


Butter storage lifetime Going out to bulk buy tomorrow and stock up on a few things Butter being one of many. How long can butter be stored in the refrigerator? We want to maximize our stock but not waste anything.

We store all butter other that what's currently in use in the freezer, where the shelf life closely approximates "forever." Can't recall ever having a bad or rancid stick from the freezer. Many folks in moderate climates keep the currently in use butter on the counter, not in the fridge (spreads easy, spoils a bit faster, don't try in hot climates.)

Depending what you are using your butter for, you can also increase effective storage life considerably by making it into clarified butter (or ghee, same thing, different names in different parts of the world.)


Homemade pop tarts coming out too dry / crumbly So I just recently attempted to make my own pop tarts using the recipe found here: http://rampantcuisine.com/cuisine/homemade-pop-tarts/

But the tarts came out rather dry and crumbly like shortbread, as opposed to the "flaky" that you see in the pictures. I'm not quite sure what went wrong here, but I'm guessing that it had something to do with the amount of liquid I used. Any ideas on what might have caused it or how to fix it?

It sounds like your pastry dough was overworked, so that the butter was too incorporated.

To get the flakiness you desire, when the dough is rolled flat, there should be layers of whole butter sandwiching floury layers.

If the butter is worked too far into the dough, instead you will get a sandy or crumbly texture.


Are coffee mugs oven safe? Is a coffee mug oven safe? I'd like to make French Onion soup au gratin in a mug. My concern is the mug shattering while the food is being served.

I currently bake the french onion soup at 450°F, but I'm curious about broiling as well.

Hello Justin,
First of all, a question like this should be answered by an expert in materials science, and I’m not. Bear that in mind when you read the following.
Generally, you should not take it for granted that coffee mugs are oven safe. Quite simply, some are and some are not.
However, high quality coffee mugs produced for the catering industry; especially the white ones with no decor, are normally oven safe. Nevertheless, I will not give you any guarantee.
Basically, coffee mugs cannot be regarded as oven safe, unless the manufacturer have stated so with a stamp underneath or otherwise have published some kind of guarantee, and the manufacturer is a respected and well-known entity within the industry.
Why coffee mugs aren’t always oven safe
A coffee mug isn’t always what it seems. Coffee mugs come in many varieties, are made from different materials, differ in decoration, and so on.
Moreover, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and other hot drinks commonly served in mugs, are seldom; read never, served at temperatures above 100 ºC / 212 ºF. However, due to competition, special on sale items, and so on, coffee mugs of low quality might not be able to withstand temperatures much higher than this. The reason is simply that manufacturers, or the manufacturers’ customers, want to save a few pennies to gain a market advantage. There might also be a consumer demand for cheap low quality coffee mugs.
Materials
Most coffee mugs are made from some kind of ceramic.  Others are made from wood, plastic, clay, pewter, steel, and a long list of other materials. Obviously, some of these materials will never be reckoned as oven safe. To keep it simple, I’ll stick to ceramic for the reminding part of this answer, although other materials might be oven safe.
Ceramics commonly found in a kitchen environment include Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain, and Bone china. Of these Earthenware and Bone china are seldom, read never, reckoned as oven safe, although this isn’t completely true as far as Bone china is concerned. Nevertheless, only a complete idiot would use a Bone china mug to make French Onion soup au gratin, cup cakes or any other kind of food.
That leaves us with Stoneware and Porcelain. Both Stoneware and porcelain are normally oven safe, unless decor elements have been added after the finale glaze is applied and the coffee mug is baked in a furnace.
One final remark needs to be added about coffee mugs made out of thin porcelain. Although these mugs might very well withstand the heat, it’s advisable to ensure that they are not exposed to any other kind of force while hot, e.g. handled without care.
Further information about Coffee Mugs, and links to other resources, can be found at Wikipedia: Coffee Mug.


How do you prepare Soft Shell Crabs? I purchased "Live" Soft Shell Crabs and wanted to make a recipe that calls for frying them - what are the steps involved?

First, clean them. You basically just remove the stuff that you don't (normally) eat from a hard shell crab.

Using some kitchen shears just remove the following:

Their face. Just one snip should take off their mouth and eyes. You have to cut it at an angle.
Their gills. Peel back their shells and cut the gills off. There is a set per side.
The apron. This is the triangular tail like thing under the crab. Just turn it over and cut it off.

Then you can just dredge them in seasoned flour and fry in hot oil (375 F).

Update

I found a video showing how: http://www.chow.com/stories/11245 He uses his hands for the apron and gills.

As far as "putting it out of it's misery", I'd go with the face cut first. It still twitches afterwards, but that's as good as it gets. If it really bothers you, I suggest eating something else, or having someone else prepare it for you.


What are "Honey Bubbles" and how are they made? I recently had the thrilling privilige of eating a Kaiseki meal at Kichisen in Kyoto. One of the meal's many highlights was a desert course consisting of a large citrus fruit filled with jelly and topped with what the apprentice chef serving us called "honey bubbles" (see the attached picture). The bubbles tasted sweet and did not pop of their own accord but turned to air when consumed.

Does anyone know how this foam is made and what it is made of? It was delicious, and if I could even come close to replicating it at home I would love to give it a go.

You can do this with an air pump, egg white powder and xanthan gum :)

http://www.molecularrecipes.com/culinary-foams-class/bubbles-air-pump/

  The “bubbles with air pump” technique consists of injecting air using a fish tank air pump into a liquid with some viscosity. It works great with light syrups and juices by just adding a little egg white powder and Xanthan gum.

Otherwise check out airs: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/category/emulsification/airs-emulsification/

  Airs are usually made by adding soy lecithin powder to a liquid and incorporating air using an immersion blender on the surface of the liquid.

Airs will make smaller bubbles, but you can do it with an immersion blender (stick blender) so you don’t need to find an air pump.


Do liquids continue to "boil" when full-pressure cooking is reached? Liquids in a pressure cooker can reach higher temperatures because the boiling point increase as the internal pressure rises.

But do those liquids continue that "rolling boil" once the cooker is up to full pressure? Or does the increase in pressure keep the liquids from continuing to actively boil?

Background: When I cook meats in a pressure cooker, I place them on a cooking rack to keep them from being submerged. I was wondering if the liquid is boiling enough internally to effectively baste the meats in that froth.

I am using an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker which reaches about 12 psi.

For as long as it is plugged in and the power setting is appropriate, it should keep boiling as if it was in a normal pot. Imagine if you were to take a normal pot deep underground where you get the same atmospheric pressure and watch it boil, it would look the same as boiling as sea level.

It is the water vapor that sustains the higher-than-outside pressure inside the pot. The lid has a valve that impedes the release of vapor. So, without continuous boiling, pressure would decline gradually (like once you turn off the pot).


Charring veg without gas burners/grill Without having a gas burner or a grill, is there still a way I can char vegetables such as a red pepper or corn on the cob? I have a glass-ceramic range and an oven - would I have to do it under the broiler?

Coat the vegetables with a bit of oil and then place them in a hot oven. Your broiler should also work.


What is the best way to rehydrate dried cherries for a sauce if it has absorbed surrounding flavors? I tried making a cherry sauce for meatballs with dried morello cherries, but the final sauce had a weird taste despite the dried cherries being nice and tarty, but the water/sugar mixture from the cherries after rehydrating it wasn't as tasty. I added a stick of cinnamon to the boiling mixture and boiled the cherries in them. How much flavor do the dried cherries add to the syrup? The packaging says its 100% organic Morello cherries so I don't think its been treated with anything. Any suggestions?

We can't speak to you perception of any off flavors, but the best way to re-hydrate (and perhaps is obvious) is to soak in water or liquid.


Why boil octopus with wine cork? I saw a recipe (in Croatian, check out if you understand) for making octopus salad that says boil the octopus with a piece of wine cork.  The article doesn't explain what effect the cork gives.  Do you know what the purpose of it may be when added to boiling octopus?

The muscle fibers of octopus are very thin compared to other species, arranged in multiple layers and alternating rings, which are then even further reinforced with collagen, 3-5 times more than regular fish muscle fiber. It's basically the reinforced concrete in the world of muscle fibers.

There are exactly two ways to get tender octopus:

Destroy the collagen by force or to cook it for a very long time like a stew
Barely cook it to a core temperature of not more than 130-135°F/55-57°C. At 140°/60° temperature the collagen layers will contract and you are screwed.

Note that these two methods generate edible octopus, but with different texture.

The wine cork serves no purpose. If it has any effect at all, it will negatively affect the destruction of the collagen, as tannin is actually used to cross-link, a process to make the collagen stable and durable, which is the complete opposite of what you want, when you want tender octopus.

References:
[1]: On Food and Cooking
[2]: Stabilization of Collagen by Its Interaction with Tannin
[3]: Tannin used for the conservation of leather by stabilizing collagen

As an unrelated side note, octopus and squids have the least flavorful flesh of all fish and molluscs, as they use Trimethylamine N-oxide for osmotic balance; which happens to be completely tasteless. Other species use tasty amino acids. Unless you happen to have one as free by-catch on your own fisherboat, there is not much reason to invest the time and costs to make a dish out of it.


When using puff pastry in the base of a savoury pie, do you need to blind bake it? I am making a chicken pie. I've made it before with just a pastry shell on top but I'd like to line the dish with pastry this time.
Will I need to blind bake the base of my pastry first? Is it then also necessary to seal the pastry with egg?

A Google search led to Pepperidge Farm's recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. Since they are the big name in the US for puff pastry, I tend to trust them.

They recommend lining the pan with a defrosted, lightly rolled sheet of puff pastry and pricking it with a fork before blind baking covered with aluminum foil for 25 minutes at 400F (~200C). Don't use pie weights, that will interfere with the 'puff'. They don't call for any egg wash or seal, and I can say from experience with the stuff that it isn't necessary.

They fill the baked bottom layer with the chicken filling, add a lattice top of puff pastry, then bake the whole thing (on a sheet pan or cookie sheet) for 45 minutes (or until the filling is bubbly and the lattice top is brown and puffy).

Be ready to put aluminum foil along the edge if it seems to be getting too brown.


temperature and time to cook a 9" round frozen Chicken Pot pie What is the best temperature and time to cook a 9" round frozen chicken pot pie.

375 degrees F for 1.5 Hours should be good.

Get foil ready for the top if it starts to brown too much.

Bake until internal Temp is 165 degrees F. I make pot pies and freeze them and this is the temp I use and it comes out perfect.

Good Luck


Balance out lemon juice in a smoothie, stinging my throat I make smoothies for breakfast, and I prepare the contents each weekend for the following week (so I can prepare them as quickly as possible before I catch my train). I have a tiny container for dry contents, and bigger containers for refrigerated and frozen contents.

I started getting a sore throat a couple of days before smoothie prep day, two weeks ago, and felt my throat severely stinging. The following week I kept out the lemon juice, and it was much better. The following weekend, my throat had been better for a few days, so I put the Lemon juice back in. But by the end of that day, my sore throat came back! And I'd just made up six containers of liquid contents including the lemon juice!

What can I do to neutralize the acidity? (I'm assuming that's why the lemon juice burns my throat while the pomegranate juice doesn't). I add the lemon juice in the first place, because it cuts the bitter flavor of the kale. I almost don't care what it ends up tasting like – without the lemon juice, it was awful, and I dealt with it. With the lemon juice, it's excruciating, so I'm chugging it anyway.

These are the contents of each container (to which I can add anything you suggest):

Refrigerated

1 kale leaf
A chunk of raw Ginger
Juice from 1 half lemon
2/3 cup almond milk
2/3 cup POM juice

Dry

1/4 cup walnuts
3 tsp. Metamucil
2 tbsp Chia seeds
1/4 scoop protein powder
1 packet Emergen-C

Frozen

1 cup of frozen fruit

You can add some sugar, but if you want to watch your sugar intake you can try using baking soda. You need only a small amount of baking soda. Roughly 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for 1 cup of liquid should be enough. Too much baking soda can lead to a soapy taste, so use it sparingly.


Are Non-Stick Bread Pans Destined to Fail? Bought a pair of generic non-stick bread pans (Ecko or Good-Chef or some such).
After 100 to 150 loaves, and gentle care, they're now more prone to sticking bread than the non-coated pans they were meant to replace, even when liberally oiled.
Is the problem a bad coating technology, or does this short lifespan apply to all non-stick breadpan coatings?
Are uncoated bread pans fundamentally better for long term use?

If they have a Teflon coating, they may be building up a patina of partially polymerized oil. Oils that sit in contact with Teflon while being heated will gum up and form a layer on top of the coating that is a bit sticky, and prevents the Teflon from working properly. Interestingly the polymerization process is similar to what occurs on a seasoned cast-iron pan, but in its incomplete state, it is sticky rather than slippery!

All-Clad recommends scrubbing their non-stick pans periodically with baking soda to remove the polymer layer, which would be good advice for any non-stick pans.

That said, I'm not sure that it will entirely fix your problem, but it is worth trying before you replace the pans. Micro-scratches and other things will make non-stick surfaces more sticky over time as well.


chestnut puree quantity My recipe called for 250g of chestnuts, blended with 125ml of cream and 125ml of milk that you then blended together to make a puree. When i went to the supermarket I discovered they had tinned "Chestnut puree" so I grabbed that instead I am now wondering how much of that I should add ?

Assuming the chestnut puree is just chestnuts, well, use 250g of it.

If it has other ingredients... I guess you'll have to try to figure out how much of them. You might be able to deduce it from the nutrition facts and the nutritional content of the chestnuts themselves, especially it's just chestnuts and water.

Edit: To be clear, I'm telling you how to replace the chestnuts. You still need the rest.

Given that it's chestnuts and water, it's trivial to figure out how much of it is chestnuts.  (It would be difficult if there were other ingredients providing nutritional content.) Just use enough paste to account for 250g of chestnuts, then remove a mL of milk for every extra gram of paste you've added. If it's a substantial amount, replace some of the remaining milk with cream to keep it as rich as the original, if you like.

For example, according to the data I linked to, chestnuts are about 10% sugar, so you want enough paste to provide the 25g of sugar your 250g of chestnuts would've provided. So if the paste contains only 8g of sugar per 100g of paste, then you'll want about 300g of paste, and you can remove 50 mL of milk to balance the extra water you'll have added as part of the paste. (At that point it probably wouldn't be worth bothering to rebalance the milk and cream, since it's such a tiny difference.)