Vinegar Smell from Sourdough Starter I am in the process of creating my sour-dough starter.

I've been mixing in water and "strong bread flour" around a 1:1 ratio (100g of each, slightly more water to make the mixture wetter).

The mixture sits on the side between feeds (approximately every 24-36hrs), and has bubbled up, as can be seen on the side of its home (a cleaned out old 1ltr ice cream tub).

However in the last couple of days, I've noticed a distinct vinegar smell coming from it, and it seems to slightly separate: brown-ish water layer and a thick dough layer.

Do I need to worry? I could have contaminated it, as the kitchen is always all over the place. And the feeds are supposed to be every 24hrs or more often according to online sources, so I may not have fed it often enough.

I'm in the UK, so 15-20C in the kitchen.

TL:DR - vinegar smell from sour dough, is that a problem?

The vinegar smell is an indicator that your sourdough is growing up in a too cold environment. Without diving into the details of the various lactobacillae found in the average sourdough cultures, the simple rule is that a cooler environment favors the strains that produce more acetic acid while warmer temperatures are better for the production of lactic acid - the former being the acid in vinegar and the latter the much milder acid known from fermented milk products.

As immediate measure, find a warmer place for you starter. Caveat: warmer temperatures will also mean more yeast activity, i.e. more bubbles and in the worst case, a tendency to creep out of the container, so leave enough room just to be sure.

The separation of layers is a sign that the microorganisms in your sourdough are starving - which can coincidally favour the slightly more robust acetic acid producing strains. Once your starter has been somewhat established, meaning you get a reliable activity after each feed, it’s better to learn from your dough which feeding cycle works best. Remember that feeding simply means supplying a certain number of microorganisms with food so that they can multiply. Warmer temperatures will also increase their growth rates, so you should take that into account.

Depending on the ratio of (starter) : (flour and water), feeding time can be every few hours or once every day and a half. Ideally you start with a chosen ratio and measure the time until it just starts to collapse again. This is the ideal feeding time. (measuring means you don’t have to rely on visual clues alone, but get an idea when to plan the next feeding.) If you have a very active starter, you’ll probably want to reduce the amount of starter for a given amount of flour and thus extend times between feedings. Do not go below 10% of starter or you risk spoiling: There won’t be enough sourdough microorganisms to keep the nasty kinds in check for sure.


Why did my chicken fingers not brown? I used a boxed breading that called for dipping chicken in egg and milk then rolling in breading.  The chicken fingers still look kind of white with noticeable flour left on them after baking.  I did use parchment.  Is that why??

Try either a higher oven temperature or more time. Probably higher temperature, unless your chicken was undercooked. Browning occurs above 212F (the boiling point of water), so it won't start until the moisture (eggs and milk) has cooked off of the outside of the chicken.

You may also want to let the milk/egg mixture drip off of the chicken a little (so it isn't too thick) before rolling in the breading.


How does marinating with sugar improve cherry tomatoes jam? I am trying to make a cherry tomatoes jam.  All recipes ask to let the tomatoes marinate with sugar for a night, and I can't decide if it's just tradition or if it may have an actual positive influence.  I'm afraid it may moulder if there isn't enough sugar…

What would be the positive effect(s) of marinating with sugar ?

There could be a couple reasons for this:

Leaving the tomatoes in sugar allows them to macerate, which breaks down the cell walls and pulls water from the fruit, making them much softer.
If your recipe calls for pectin the sugar may be for gelling. Pectin needs sugar in order to gel properly, and the maceration probably introduces more sugar into the interior of the fruit than it would have normally.

If dietary restrictions prohibit the addition of sugar, it could probably be left out. If you do leave it out I would suggest replacing it with a non-sugar sweetener and a thickening agent besides pectin (or no sugar needed pectin).

However, if you are canning this and storing it for a long time I wouldn't recommend changing the recipe. Changing recipes that have been designed for canning and storage could lead to improper pH in the product and the development of botulism as it ages.


Is it possible to ferment milk Kefir using water Kefir liquid? Can I add water Kefir to cow milk to ferment milk Kefir?

No, you cannot do that. Unlike other cultured dairy products like yogurt, kefir needs both the right bacteria and a fungus to ferment. The liquid will have the bacteria, but the fungus "mother" - the kefir grains - will be missing. To make new kefir constantly, you really need to keep kefir grains, and specifically milk kefir grains.

If you only make kefir rarely, there is the option of buying dried kefir culture, which contains a sufficient amount of ground grains to give you fermented kefir without the need to breed a grain colony that needs to be kept alive permanently. But if you want a supply of kefir, the cost effective option is to breed the grains.


What is the correct mixing method for this kind of batter? I made a pie according to the following instructions. While it did turn out good, I'm not sure if the mixing method is sound.

It called for beating two eggs with sugar until white and fluffy. Then, I would carefuly fold in flour. After that, they wanted me to beat in liquid ingredients - milk and a bit of vegatable oil.

My question is does it make sense to incorporate more liquid ingredients after the flour is in? While folding in flour, you take extra care not to disturb the air capsules created in the first stage, why would you subject your batter to more rough handling after all that?

If changes are neede, what would be the correct procedure? What is the name for this type of batter?

In France, that is a classic dessert called a Gâteau Fondant Aux Poires. In American English we'd call it a Pear Cake. Who can figure out the French and their dang desserts? What I can say, is that your instructions are fairly typical. In America we would call that a cake batter and wouldn't change a thing, except maybe to make it less fussy.


Honey bubbles taste question What do honey bubbles taste like?
I'm asking because I've got almost no sense of smell or taste myself.
The answer is probably obvious though.

Assuming you're asking about what's pictured in this question, they're basically just bubbles made out of honey, so they'll taste like honey - sweet, and maybe with some fragrance depending on what kind of honey it is.


Where can I find left-handed serrated knives? I recently discovered that the reason I hate cheese knives (but love cheese) is because they are made to work for right-handed people.

So where can I buy a (reasonably priced) cheese knife, or other serrated knives?

We have been selling left handed products now for 50 years this year - supplying the vast majority of specialist left handed stores around the world.

I can confirm that Left handers do indeed need knives that are sharpened / scalloped / serrated on the opposite side to a right handed blade. So, holding the knife in your left hand - pointing it away from your body - the scallop / serration / etc should be on the right (nearest your body). This will dramatically improve the way that you cut meat / veg / etc - and be safer for you as well.

You should be able to find Paring / Vegetable / Cook's / Bread / Cheese knives - and many more at any good left handed specialist store.


Making meat balls in chicken marinade I have this marinade in with I usually make chicken legs. It consists mainly of maple syrup, soy sauce, and sometimes ketchup.

Is it reasonable to put meat balls in that marinade? Is it OK to put them together with the chicken legs in the same pot?

You can use whatever marinade you like for meatballs, though I would personally find that way too sweet.

No you should not ever mix different raw meats together, unless they are being cooked and served together. That is called cross-contamination; contaminating one product with another.


Why is it suggested to freeze Chimichurri Sauce? From a fresh herb garden I’ve made chimichurri sauce and when researching how to store the leftovers I’ve ran across several sites such as balls:

https://www.freshpreserving.com/chimichurri---ball-recipes-br3549.html

That suggest freezing but I don’t understand why? Is it because of the garlic and there are no acids to it from going bad? Didn’t see this asked in the eight questions I found.

There is a risk of botulism growth.  C. botulinum grows in the absence of oxygen (an anaerobic environment).  It is possible that botulinum spores are present on the garlic, as well as the herbs. The spores exist fairly widely in our environment, but they don't grow and develop toxins unless the conditions are right. The recipe results in a sauce that places these ingredients in an anaerobic environment, significantly raising the risk of botulinum growth.  Colder temperatures reduce the risk.  That is why freezing and refrigeration (and the associated time limits) are recommended.


Stuffed pumpkin on a burner I have been asked to make a main for a potluck this Halloween and I thought I would be "clever" and bake a lamb stew in a pumpkin. I plan to hollow out the pumpkin and add meat, veg, spices, etc. and then replace the top and poke a small hole in it to let air escape.

The main problem is that my oven isn't working properly and don't want to risk it failing halfway through.  Would it be possible to wrap the stuffed pumpkin in tinfoil, and put it over a gas burner on low?  I have plenty of time and could let it slow cook for hours, but I have my doubts on if the technique would work.

I don't think this will work very well. Burners are unidirectional heat sources; the bottom will overcook and the top will be raw. The constant rotating you will need to do will be annoying at best. Ovens provide heat surrounding the entire item, which is why roasting works. I suggest borrowing an oven.

Bear in mind that roasting the pumpkin will compromise its structural integrity. Not roasting seems like a wiser course if you intend it only as a serving vessel.


Removing Pesticides from Herbs like Cilantro Not too long ago I read a study saying that mixing baking soda and water and cleaning your fruits in this solution removed upwards of 90% of the pesticides from them. I was wondering if something like this would work when cleaning herbs.

Would it be safe to soak herbs with this same technique used for fruits to remove pesticides? I heard herbs are some of the most tainted with pesticides. Thanks!

Fruits are fairly easy to clean things off of, because they tend to have thick rinds and/or hard exteriors (apples, oranges, bananas, etc.); so pesticides sit on top, and we just have to wash them off.  Baking soda and water will do that to some extent (plus rubbing, which is quite important!).

Greens, though, don't have that kind of exterior.  Pesticides on the surface can be cleaned off, and should be, but to a large extent they're already inside the green.  Soaking them might remove some of the pesticides, but odds are you'll remove a lot of the flavor if you soak them long enough to help; and remember, pesticides are typically intended to not wash off too easily (or they'd be gone the next time it rained!).

That said, cilantro (and other herbs) are relatively low risk for pesticides, particularly if they're US-grown.  Consumer Reports rates them "Low" (Mexico) and "Very Low" (US) risk; I suspect it's not because Cilantro doesn't have pesticides (it does - search 'Cilantro Pesticide' and you'll find a lot), but because you just don't use that much of it in your food.  Much more concerning would be lettuce, broccoli, etc. - things you eat in large quantities - because you'll have a lot more of the pesticide along with it.


How can I achieve flavorful, gelatinous pork broth economically? It's that time of year, bean soup and split-pea soup are winter favorites of mine. I don't really care if the soups contain actual meat chunks, but I find the flavor absolutely essential to the soups. I also love what the gelatin does for the mouth feel. I've always been very happy to get such a broth as a by-product of cooking pork, but I've never set out to make pork broth. If I could afford all the bacon I could ever want it would be problem solved. Alas, I cannot. What products should I be looking for, and what techniques might be helpful with those perhaps less familiar products? I have all the time in the world, but not much money.

Edit: Specifically, I'd like especially to know about cuts that you might recommend. Of course I'm familiar with loin, ham and belly, but less so with neck, feet and jowls - that kind of thing. My local grocery occasionally has smoked neck. When I've seen it I wasn't thinking pork stock/broth at the time so I didn't really look at it or the price. But now that I want broth, I wonder about the lesser known (to an American) cuts. There are a few local butchers that might bag up "stuff" for me, if I knew enough to know what to ask for. Smoked products might be preferred (I like the smoky taste in bean soup and that's specifically why I would make such a broth) but I could always add at least some smoked product to the actual soup.

For what it's worth, "broth" or "stock" has always been a rather meaningless distinction to me. Is it liquid that adds the flavor of the meat to whatever I'm making? That's what I'm looking for.

Good home-made stock is easy and cheap to make. All you need is an old stock pot (no lid needed, you want the water to evaporate), and a bunch of pork bones and connective tissue. The bones will add the pork flavor, while the connective tissue will break down into gelatin.

The best way to get the pot is a thrift store (charity shop to UK types), and the best way to get the bones is to make friends with a butcher - they often have loads of bones and connective tissue that go into the garbage and are happy to sell it dirt cheap.

To make the stock all you need to do is add the bones and connective tissue to the pot with enough water to cover them completely, and cook it down for hours and hours. Many chefs would recommend adding stock vegetables like onions and carrots at the beginning, and straining them out after an hour. After a few hours you'll have all the good stuff out of the bones and connective stuff, so strain them out and then simmer the stock until you have the consistency and flavor concentration you want. You can cook it down until it's a syrup if you want, although that takes a long time. You can then freeze it for months.

If the amount of gelatin you want isn't there you can simply add unflavored gelatin, it's very inexpensive and easy to use.

EDIT: As for smoke, I wouldn't add it in to your broth. You won't always want the smoky flavor and if you do it's easy enough to add some smoked pork or liquid smoke later if you do. Leaving it out gives you more flexibility later.


How much dry ice should be used to keep this much dough frozen in a box of this size? I would like build a package with frozen food products (to -18 °C). The products are small balls of pizza dough (diameter of 4 cm). Total dough ball weight is 10 kg (333 balls, 30 grams each).

I'm going to put them into a styrofoam package with dry ice (sealed and insulated) that has inner dimensions 33 x 23 x 28 cm and a wall thickness of 3.5 cm. The dough balls will be stored from 2 to 5 days.

The data for the dry ice:

16 mm granules
Sublimation temperature: -78.5 °C
Density: 1.1 - 1.4 g / cm^3

External temperature where the box is stored:
 a) 10 °C.
 b) 21 °C.

My question:

How much dry ice should I include to have all balls still frozen, i.e. have them in a temp. around -2°C, in the case when:

a) time of storage = 3 days
b) time of storage = 5 days

Everything inside the sealed box will reach an equilibrium temperature of -78.5C for as long as there is dry ice inside. You are still missing a few assumptions such as the conductivity of the box (typically 3.3x10-3 W/m/K) and the heat capacity of your dough (assumed to be same as ice).

Once everything has reached that temperature, just to overcome "cold losses", at 10C outside, you need between 1.8 and 2.3 kg for 3 days and between 2.9 and 3.7g for 5 days. At 21C, between 1.9 and 2.5 kg at 10C, 3.3 and 4.2 kg at 21C. You will need an additional amount to chill all the contents (air included) down from -18C to -78.5C, which comes to at least 2.2 kg.

All of this is based on a simplified model and is likely an underestimate.

One problem as @keshlam pointed out is the sublimated dry ice in a sealed container and the pressure build up. Also, between 18% and 28% of your box will be filled with dry ice. 10kg of dough as a single lump will take up another 5% of your cavity, before you consider packing efficiency of spheres. All that leaves you with not a lot of room for gas expansion.

Without any dry ice, if everything is chilled to -18C first, your sealed box should just about keep the dough balls frozen for 3 days at 10C outside.


Why did my chocolate eclairs fail? I made chocolate eclairs, my second attempt copying exactly from Laura in the Kitchen on YouTube (full recipe here), and the pastry was not all well creamed and looked oily as I placed in oven. It looked as though it was frying.

Please can you kindly explain what I did wrong? I feel so frustrated as they baked over 30 minutes and came out rock hard, but completely moist in the middle. Just wasted so many ingredients, eggs and milk and flour and butter.

As the commenters have already said, it's hard to know exactly what happened from the information you've given but I'm going to try to give some direction.

First, I think the key is in this statement:
"the pastry was not all well creamed and looked oily as I placed in oven".

This sounds like either the oil (butter, in this case) separated out from the batter, or it wasn't well-mixed to begin with. Let's assume that you mixed it thoroughly to begin with until it seemed like a creamy, smooth batter and everything seemed well-incorporated.

So, what happened? I'm guessing that you left the eclairs-to-be resting on the pans for a while, maybe while you were piping out the rest of them.

If you let the batter sit for a while, oil can start to separate out, especially if your kitchen is pretty warm (which they can be, in summer when boiling water on the stove and pre-heating the oven). This shouldn't happen immediately, but I think it would explain what happened.

Next time, make sure everything is ready and laid out before you start. Start to pre-heat the oven before you start boiling the water. Once you start piping, move quickly, and if possible, work in a cooler part of the kitchen. Pop the trays directly into the oven as soon as you finish piping them all out.

There's a second thing you said that I think is significant. You said that the outside was rock-hard but the inside was too moist. I think the excess moisture is from steam.

It is normal for the eclair to have a bit of a crust to it (not rock-hard, of course, but there will be a crust) and this traps steam inside. You need to break a hole through the crust to let the steam out, and my guess is that either you may have missed this step, or the hole you made wasn't big enough.

BTW, it is also possible to have something get too hard and still be raw in the middle if you cook for too long at too low a temperature (it dries out instead of cooking) but you said you cooked for 30 minutes and that matches the recipe timing, so I don't think that was your problem here. But if you have a lot of problems with things not taking the right amount of time when you bake, you might want to invest in an oven thermometer and see if your oven is heating to the temperatures you expect. Not all recipes are very finicky about exact temperatures but some are.


What should I use to produce the hotness of Hong Kong-style borscht? I'm interested in attempting to make borscht similar to the type that gets sold in fast-food restaurants in Asia (or at least Hong Kong). I've found several recipes online, so the basic process seems straightforward (e.g. this, this, and this). Now, one of the things I've rather liked about the Hong Kong version of borscht is that (ideally speaking), the soup should be fairly hot.

One of the links lists paprika, whilst the other lists chili oil. Which/what seasoning would be more appropriate for reproducing the hotness of borscht (and the taste of the specific type I'd like to imitate)? I'm assuming chili oil would be more effective and more commonly used in Hong Kong, but I don't have too much experience with either ingredient (beyond occasional prodigious use of dried red pepper flakes) and so am looking for confirmation / tips.

Of the recipes you link to only one contains paprika, another one lists "Chinese chili paste, chili oil, hot sauce or dried red chili flakes to taste". The one that specifies paprika doesn't mention a specific type of paprika. Without further distinction, that generally means the sweet, non-smoked variety. Sweet paprika is just dried, powdered pimento, the type of pepper seen most often (here in the US anyway) stuffing cocktail olives. It's not hot at all. Hot paprika usually gets its heat by mixing in another, hotter, pepper. Even those paprikas are not generally overwhelmingly hot.

Paprika of any type (hot, sweet or smoked) from any country (Hungary is known for it, as is Spain) is going to bring you closer to a flavor profile more reminiscent of borscht's Eastern European roots. You may want that, but I wouldn't count on paprika to to provide the kind of heat you're talking about.

For Chinese hot and sour soup the best sources of heat are white pepper and chili oil. Nothing else tastes "right" in my opinion. With that in mind I lean toward those ingredients for your borscht as well. You can buy chili oil in any big grocery store, but Asian markets will have a greater variety at probably a much lower price. You can also make your own.

So I'd recommend starting there. White pepper, chili oil and paprika. Make a batch of soup with none of the above and add each spicy ingredient to samples of soup until you hit the combo you like. For best results, once you got the ratio of spicy ingredients figured out, scoop out a bit of your broth and simmer the spices for a good 30 minutes or so (the pepper and paprika especially, it doesn't matter so much with the oil), and add the simmered spices into your cooked soup. They're just better cooked a while. Next time you make the soup you can add the spices in the beginning, since at that point you'll know what you like.


Tips for making caramel with palm sugar The other day I was making flan and decided to try palm sugar instead of white sugar to make the caramel.

Although palm sugar is better than white in a lot of ways, the melting point of the sugar seems to be a lot closer to the burning point. Needless to say, I ended up with a black pool in seconds.

Does anyone have any suggestions to help control the temperature to keep it from burning?

I've used this palm sugar caramel recipe before without problems. It uses about 25% honey as well as the sugar.

17oz palm sugar
4.25 oz Honey
14 oz heavy cream

As soon as the sugars get to 320 ℉ (160 ℃), take the pan off the heat and deglaze it with the cream. If you let it sit on the heat any longer, it will burn. After adding the cream simply cook it again until it reaches 250 ℉ (122 ℃). Then, remove it from the heat, pour it into your prepared form, and let it cool to room temperature.


How do I use my lever press correctly? I have a lever press espresso machine and wondered how I can produce the optimal shot of espresso.

I am using the single serving sieve and try to fill it up to a point so that after compressing the grinds, it tightly fits in the machine. Then I pull the lever up, wait until some espresso pours out and start to gently pull the level down. I do this twice.

Is it OK to let espresso pour out? Should it be dripping or flowing or is this a bad sign?
How often can I pull down the lever, does this change with the size of the sieve?

Because manual machines work under the same premise as automatic machines, you can follow the standards for a normal espresso. Id suggest looking at other guides to making a good espresso, or even watching how the espresso is poured at your favorite cafe.

Consistency

The ideal consistency for espresso should come out between a pour and a drip in what I'm coining a half-drip. It should look like this:

Brew Ratio

The standard brew ration for an espresso is 1:2 - 1:1.5, 1.5-2 grams of water for every gram of coffee. Since a double basket is usually about 18g of coffee, you should aim for about 27-36g of espresso.

Since every manual machine is different, you'll have to play around to see how many times you need to pull the lever to get the right amount of espresso. This also means if you have a bigger basket, you will need to pull the lever down more times to get a similar shot.


Can you use mascarpone in place of ricotta? Can you substitute mascarpone for ricotta cheese?

Welcome! You absolutely can substitute mascarpone for ricotta. I do it all the time with lasagna, pizza, etc. as many people don't like the texture of ricotta. I do add a pinch of salt to the mascarpone.


Can I prevent hot pepper sauce losing heat? I regularly make a few different condiments with hot peppers:

Pico de Gallo (tomato, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime, salt)
Pepper Sauce consisting of habanero, garlic, lime, culantro, salt
Variation on above using dry roasted chile de arbol in stead of the habanero

In every case I've noticed a significant decline in heat after the first day, then a slow and steady decline as time goes on The taste immediately after preparation can border on unbearably hot, while on the proceeding days it can become almost what I would call mild.

Why does this happen and can anything be done about it?  I'm wondering if it's possible that any of the ingredients I use are having a chemical reaction with the capsaicin causing the loss in heat.  Or is it storage related?  Or is this simply something that cannot be avoided once you cut and grind the peppers?

UPDATE:

For the record I think this is fairly reproducible:

Get the hottest peppers you can imagine.
Grind them up with some water, salt and lime juice.
Taste and experience the hopefully insane level of heat.
Refrigerate & taste again in a few days. Notice how it's not as hot as before?

The heat of your condiments isn't actually being lost. The condiments are marrying, meaning the heat becomes more homogenously distributed through the condiment. This means you don't have bits and pieces that have as high a spike in heat than the rest of the salsa, and therefore the condiment is more evenly hot (thought apparently cooler to the taster) throughout.

Pepper or chile sauces use vinegar and oil to retain and even accent their perceived heat. Neither actually increases it though. Vinegar helps clean the palate like strawberries for champagne, or ginger for sushi. It cleans the tongue so the heat can get to it better. Oil helps hold the heat to the tonque and other mouth parts making it seem hotter because it doesn't wash away as easily.

Keep in mind though that pico de gallo is really meant to be made and served fresh. You don't want to give it time to macerate and marry. You want to bite into and taste the individual components of this condiment. Leaving Pico to sit overnight in my opinion really turns it more into a chuncky but watery Salsa.


How can I mill / press sweet sorghum with household equipment? I grew sweet sorghum this year as it looked like the easiest way to grow "sugar" in New England. Now I've harvested it, but I'm hard pressed (ha ha) to find a way to mill it with generally available household equipement. Any suggestions or ideas of how I might cobble together something?

How about an old "Ringer" clothes washing machine? I was just at a sorghum making demo yesterday and the machine reminded me of a ringer washing machine - just bigger.


how long does chilling take for this icecream recipe The link at the bottom is for an icecream recipe without the machine. One part of it requires chilling a heated mixture. I was wondering if anyone knew how long the chilling will take since the other times mentioned there already total up to about 8.5 hours.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/07/vanilla-ice-cream-without-the-machine-recipe.html

Thanks in advance....

IMHO, there is no single answer to this question. It largely depends on the way you are "chilling". It ranges from:

Leave the pot on the counter until cooled to room temp, then stick it into the fridge until cold. Could be anywhere in the range of 2-6 hours, I guess.

with a bunch of variations up to:

Transfer custard from hot pot into a flat, pre-chilled metal bowl or baking tray, plunge bottom into a salted ice bath (or pile of snow if it's freezing outside) and stir constantly with a rubber spatula. Should be cold within minutes.

So what would I do? I'd make the custard a day in advance, let it cool somewhat, then freeze the cubes over night. Never bother about the given 4 hours first freeze, because I assume this is a minimum time to get the cubes frozen fully. Finish the ice cream  4-5 hours before planned serving time the next day, because it might get too hard if frozen too long, but this depends on the recipe and I can't say for sure what the texture would be in this case.


Should cheese be frozen? I just put a piece of parmesan cheese into the freezer part of a fridge. Is this practice good or bad? I did this because when I bought the cheese, I could not back to home immediately and the cheese stayed in room temperature (30 degree celsius maybe) for a day, I was afraid that the cheese would be soften, so I made a though of putting it into the freezer. Then I did it and haven't taken it out yet. In addition, the package of the cheese is not yet opened.

Also I was afraid the lower part of the fridge would be open frequently and some air will condense within the fridge, so I thought put the cheese into the freezer maybe better, because the cheese was frozen.

Any comment?

I freeze cheese all the time, mostly mozzarella. It keeps longer. (If I keep mozzarella or similar cheeses too long in the fridge it gets moldy, often even before its expiration date.) However, I usually use frozen cheese only for cooking - i.e. if it's going to be melted. Freezing cheese does change the texture. Parmesan, though, being a hard, aged cheese would probably be less affected by freezing. However, on the same token, aged cheeses keep very nicely in the fridge, so I wouldn't see much benefit in freezing it.


Is my blue glazed crock safe to make wine vinegar in? I have an urge to purchase a "vinegar mother" and make homemade vinegar with leftover red wine. According to what I have read, it is not a difficult process, and I have had great success with making kombucha, which is a similar technique, only uses tea and sugar rather than wine. I have a lovely dark blue glazed crock with a spigot at the bottom that would work charmingly, if I could verify that it would be safe to use.  Is there any risk of the acid of the vinegar reacting with the glaze? Is there any way to test whether it would or not?
Thanks, and any advise on vinegar making is appreciated, as well as good sources for buying a mother.

Acid promotes the leaching of lead from pottery glazes.
Of course, not all glazes contain lead.
The FDA claims that hardware-store lead test kits work on pottery:
How can I find out if my ceramicware are safe?


Butter Substitutions in the Quiche dough I used to make quiche very often, but I really have a problem with dough, I want to reduce the amount of butter in the dough without making it very hard and unpleasant.

Is there any way to replace or reduce quantity of butter in the dough ? (use of olive oil instead or smth like that)

Dough Ingredients: (for 500g)
190 g butter
4 g Of salt
5 ml of milk
250 g of flour.

The link is a video in french http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMI-btHsDc4

According to the title of the video, which is all I looked at (my French not being that good), you are making a pate brisee which is a particular kind of pastry crust.

This pastry relies on solid fat in its construction method, so that it can be in little clumps in the dough.  Then, it melts during baking forming a crumbly crust.

You will not achieve ideal results with any liquid shortening such as olive oil.  Some viable options (which may actually achieve better results, depending on your desires) to substitute for all or part of the butter include:

Hydrogenated vegetable shortening (such as the US brand Crisco)
Lard
Beef tallow

Basically, any fat which is solid at room temperature (almost always animal fats, since typically only saturated fats are solid at room temperature) will do.

If you google "olive oil pastry crust", you will find recipes such as this one from Fuss Free Cooking which are not based on butter or solid shortening.  You will get a different texture and outcome, but depending on your goals, you may find such as recipe to your liking.  I cannot vouch for their quality, as I have not tried them.  Obviously, they will have a different flavor from the oil rather than butter...


Problems with rapid melting ice cream. Making it without a machine I know this has been discussed before, but I am approaching the problem from another angle: I don't have an ice cream machine.

So I made Alton Browns Philedelphia style ice cream

I made the base, put into a freezer bag, froze it for approximately 7 hours, removed it from the freezer, into a food processor for 30 seconds or until the texture was creamy and then back into the freezer where I kept it overnight.

The result was a very delicious ice cream. However, it melted very easily and I am wondering what I can do to prevent that. It is my understanding that fast melting is a result of too much overrun. But I didn't have a machine so the only overrun is the result of my food processor breaking up the crystals?

I might have stored the base for too long in the freezer. After 7 hours, a lot of crystallization has taken place and I could hear the blade in the food processor beating the crystals while the mixture was in there. For next time, I thought about storing the mixture in the food processor container and just put it into the food processor every 30-60 minutes while it is being frozen.

What can I do to prevent the rapid melting of the Philadelphia style ice cream, given that I don't incorporate an ice cream machine in my process?

Most the time when ice cream is melting faster than it should, the problem is over-churning it. Like you said since that is eliminated due to the fact you don't have an ice cream machine.

I would suggest a method I use: keep an old coffee tin laying around (one of the metal ones). Wash it out and dry. Then stick it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes or until it's cooled. Then make your batter directly in the can, then back to the freezer for a few hours. The coffee can helps insulate the batter and keep it cold even when it is out of the freezer.

Then use the same food processor method as before. Scoop the ice cream mixture back into the coffee can and let it set in the freezer over night. The next day you will have perfectly scoopable ice cream that doesn't melt too fast.


Why is it recommended to blanch onions before pickling them? I was recently looking for a recipe to pickle onions, and among several others I found this one. Skimming through the comments I came across the same question as I'm asking now, but without any other answer than the musings of the author of the recipe:

Pouring water over the onions is something I've always done without quite knowing why. A quick internet research shows that most picked onion recipes call for this, but without explanation.
Hot water is often pour over onions (that aren't going to be pickled or cooked) in order to tame their sharpness and soften them a little. But a pickling brine is so intense and sharp itself, perhaps it isn't necessary.

So I started wondering myself whether or not the latter part of the quote is true; is it necessary to blanch the onions before pickling them, as the pickling solution is so sharp in taste anyway?
The recipe in question mixes:

1 medium red onion, about 5 ounces
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar

And then let it all rest in a jar for 30 min-2hrs before it is ready. It is supposed to keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. The blanching of the onions happens before it is all put in the jar.

From  indiacurry.com :

  Blanching Vegetables for freezing or pickling

  Vegetables have a natural enzyme that continues to effect texture, color and flavor. Blanching stops the enzyme action
  The natural enzymes help vegetable to grow and mature until they are harvested. After the vegetables have been harvested, they continue to remain active even when frozen or pickled making the pickles to be tough, effect the color and flavor. Blanching stops the action of the enzymes.
  The purpose of blanching is not to sterilize or pasteurize vegetables. It may kill some but not all the surface micro-organisms

  Blanching is done by either scalding vegetables in rapidly boiling water, or in a steamer for a short time period. The vegetables must be scalded just long enough to stop the enzyme reaction, but not too long to make them soft and mushy by breaking up the cell-walls.
  Under-blanching stimulates enzyme activity and is worse than not blanching
  Over-blanching causes loss of texture, color, flavor and vitamins.
  Vegetables are blanched for freezing or making Indian pickles.


Why does the shrimp stick to the shells? I made some NoLa bbq shrimp last night, using the same recipe I’ve used countless times; the only difference is that, on Alton Brown’s advice, I brined the shrimp in a salt/sugar bath for 15 minutes before I cooked them. The dish was delicious, especially since I found some heads-on shrimp, but the shrimp were inexplicably hard to peel. The flesh and the peel were bonded, and it was like peeling a cooked egg when it just goes wrong.

Could this be because of the species of shrimp, or how long it’s been sitting in the display case, or did I make an error in cooking?

This is most likely caused by the sugar in the brine you used. There must have some sugar left on the shrimp (especially between the shrimp and the shell), even if just a bit.

When you grilled your shrimp, the high temperature of your barbecue caused the sugar to get caramelized and delicious, but also very sticky. It more or less "glued" the shells to the meat of the shrimp as they cooled to eating temperature.

You could prevent this next time by peeling the shrimp pre-cooking, but be sure to oil the grate well to prevent them from sticking to the grill and to watch carefully that they don't burn or overcook.


Should an enameled cast iron pan be seasoned? Should I season my Michael Symon Home enameled cast iron frying pan?

Short answer: No, you cannot season enameled cast iron cookware.

Enamel does not take seasoning in the same sense as cast iron or carbon steel.

I don't know if seasoning would *hurt" the pan, but I've never heard of anyone seasoning their enamel cookware. So if you do try it though, let us know how it goes.

If you’re gonna season, just buy cast iron and save a lot of money.


Chicken: take meat off bone before or after cooking? When cooking chicken bought in pieces (quarters), what is the best way to achieve a dish that is without the bones?

Should you pull the meat off the bones before or after cooking?

It depends what you are making and how you are cooking the chicken:

If what you intend to create is some sort of long-cooked "pieces of meat in sauce" then leave the meat on the bones and simmer for an hour or so. The bones will give much more flavour. When the meat is tender, remove it from the bones, which will be easy, cut it up and put it back in the sauce, and keep going. I do this for curry, stew, and the like.

If you intend to give each person a recognizable piece of chicken, such as a grilled breast or a grilled leg, leave the bones in, serve it on the bone, and let the person deal with it.

If your plan is to cook the chicken for a very short time, such as a stir fry, then remove it from the bones first and cut it up. It will have less flavour but it will cook quickly.

Chicken breast is easiest to debone, and legs are harder - I use legs for the long-cooking and leave the bones in, and breasts for the short cooking and debone and cut them up first.


Is there any way to store hollandaise sauce? I've just made hollandaise sauce following Alton Brown method. I used only about 4 tablespoons and I have about 1 cup left.

Using google I found that I shouldn't put it on the fridge, doesn't freeze well and shouldn't be more than 4 hours without use. That leaves little margin.

Is there anything I can do?

Not really. The sauce must be refrigerated but the butter will solidify when it cools. When you warm it up the sauce will break.

What I do is warm it very very gently in the microwave until it is liquid. Then reemulsify it into a single egg yolk. It costs an egg yolk but the sauce is good as new.


Are California veggies bigger? A recipe might call for one large onion or two small eggplants. When cut as directed it seems to yield way more than the recipe intended. I got the two smallest eggplants in the store and after cutting one I had more than enough for the recipe. It almost seems like the people who write the recipes only have access to veggies that are smaller than average. Is there a reason why their large onion is equivalent to my small to medium onion?

The size of the veggies can be due to location only to an extent. If their seasons are longer for cultivation to harvest then the plants may experience better growth.

Other factors can also contribute. The use of fertilizer for example, or if using hormones and pesticides, etc... all effect the outcome in size, quality, taste and possibly even firmness or even color.


Why should I prefer tea dust over crumbled tea leaves at home? I just noticed that the red coloured packet of tea contains the tea dust!

This is very surprising. Tea dust available in that kind of packet means that it is available for home use, otherwise it would have been in a tea bag. For commercial use, I don't think selling such small packets makes sense.

How am I supposed to use this tea dust at home? Why should I prefer it over the normal crumbled leaves of tea?

You don't necessarily want tea dust. The reason commercial producers grind it so fine is to maximize the flavor output and steep speed with the least amount of tea, but and this is my opinion only, I think that makes an inferior tea.

Good tea just uses more leaf so it can reach the desired richness in less than 5 minutes.

Steeping for longer draws more tannins out of the leaf and woody bits and makes tea more astringent, and so does grinding the tea too finely.


How much gluten should I add to maida flour for bread, and how? Flour you get in India needs additional gluten. My question is whether I need to add 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon of gluten to 1 cup of flour in a bread machine.

Also, how do I add it? Do I place the gluten along with the yeast in a hollow in the centre of the flour?

You can, but you'll likely get better results if you mix it together with the flour before you put it into the machine. As soon as gluten is exposed to moisture it will start to uncoil, mixing ahead of time will make sure it's evenly distributed when that happens.

As for how much to add I am not sure, it depends on the product and how much protein is in the flour already. I'd start with a teaspoon and add more if it is needed in future recipes.


Why doesn't my cookie recipe work in the US? This may sound like a stupid question, but I am not sure what to do. Even though I am not a professional, I was on a course and I am not allowed to post any recipe [copyrights thing].

I relocated from Israel to the States (California) and I have some recipes with me, all using accurate units of measurement in grams.

When I decided to bake some cookies, I noticed the dough was not even close to what I know... it was really dry and instead of it to be 1 piece at the end of mixing, it was still powder, no matter how long it was processed [and it shouldn't be processed a lot at all].

Reading a bit online, sounds like these results are usually because of too much flour, but as I said I know this recipe and it is working in my home country.

I wonder if people in the US know the differences in ingredients between [I assume] Europe to the US [I think butter and flour mainly], if I need to do some conversions or maybe to buy a different brands?

The reason I'm not sure it is that important is because we are talking in "bakers percentage", so in general flour is 100% and in cookies case, the fat is ~50%, I can tell the rest of ingredients which are: almond flour [ground almonds basically], shredded coconut, ground sugar, eggs, butter and salt.

Since its' all measured in grams, I feel like ingredients [mainly flour, butter] are different here than in Israel, but no idea how : )

I don't do anything differently as some people suggested... I made them several times and what I did here is no different than the way I made them back in my home country :)

UPDATE:

Thanks all! Will try to provide all answers again :)

Before that..Please don't modify my post unless it is inappropriate [which usually means inappropriate language]

This is a community not an English class - I barely recognized my own post....If the person is not an American, having English mistakes is understandable

In addition, the "UPDATE" titles is easier to manage when you can't just post in your own thread

Anyhow.....I mentioned the ingredients in one of the small post, which probably makes it hard to notice - I know you all want the exact recipe, but I can't and I know the recipe works, so it is not the way I do it but with what ingredients - This is why I'm focusing on the differences than the quantity

Flour 100% - Don't have the brand cause I moved it into a box, but it is an AP one, which I think is mistake #1 - I will try a white flour instead

[The rest are relative to the flour]

Butter ~90% - I used an UNSALTED one. Tried "Lake Lands" & Kerrygold - Both are not that far from the Israeli one, so TBH i'm not that worried here -I also changed the quantity to match the Israeli values

Eggs ~5%

Almond Flour + Coconut + Granulated Sugar - ~85%

Almond Flour - Bob'd Red Mill super-fine almond flour - kind of yellow package which says that this is "simply skinless, blanched almonds that have been ground to a super-fine texture"

UNSWEETENED shredded coconut - blue\green "Let's Do organic" package - One thing I said is that I haven't noticed the reduced fat - 36% lass fat according to package - Not sure this is what we have in Israel

Granulated  Sugar - I think this is another mistake I already saw in one of the comments. I have "Wholesome" Organic Powdered Confectioners Sugar - looks like a purple package to me..some will say purple-pink

Also have salt but that not a lot at all

I can't tell you exact differences, but it is known that differences do exist.

US flour is frequently bleached. This is illegal in the EU, I don't know how it is in Israel.
I don't know what flour your recipes are made for. In the US, "all purpose" flour tends to be closest to German 550 flour, and cake recipes in Europe may have been made with German 405 flour (or the local equivalent) in mind, which has a lower protein content.
US flour can be made from different cultivars than those used in Europe. The best known difference shouldn't make a difference to your cakes - in North America, they grow a lot of hard winter wheat and make so-called bread flour out of it. But even with soft wheat, which is used for all-purpose flour, there is no reason to use the same cultivars, so they probably differ.
Israel is hot and arid. Flour absorbs a little bit of humidity from the air during storage, and it is possible that, if you are now living in a more humid area, this "prehydration" differs. I cannot tell you what the exact effect is on the final binding power of the flour, my intuition actually would expect the effect to go in the other direction - but I have seen (I think even researched) in another question on the site the difference when flour is stored at different humidities and it is mathematically significant.
the growth conditions are different between Israel and the surrounding countries, and the USA. While wheat is a global commodity, I wouldn't be surprised if producers gear their blend towards a binding capacity that is traditionally expected in a locale, else they risk selling flour which gains reputation for "not working".

All this is only a list of possible causes, but it doesn't help you predict how the dough will differ. Luckily, this is a problem which can easily be addressed empirically. Try just cutting the flour back from your recipes and see what the results are. I would go for  maybe 10% less the first time and then continue in smaller increments in the desired direction. Another potential solution is to switch to pastry flour if you have been using all purpose - but it has lower protein content than 405, so if the result is too loose, you might have to start mixing pastry flour and all purpose flour.

As a final note, pay attention not to buy self-rising flour (unless your recipe calls for it). It won't lead to the dry results you described, but it will give you other problems.


Is it possible to preserve color in steamed vegetables? When I steam green vegetables, like broccoli, they come out bright green. A few minutes later though, and they have darkened and dulled. Is this a symptom of cooking them for too long or is there some other way to preserve the bright green color?

Typically, vegetables will lose their colour if they are over-cooked, so it's probably worthwhile cooking them for a shorter period of time.

Usually steaming is a great way to preserve the nutrients and colour of vegetables, as is stir-frying rapidly.

Different kinds of vegetables contain various pigments in their skins. Green vegetables contain chlorophyll; red and white vegetables contain flavonoids; orange vegetables contain keratin. Each of these pigments requires a different approach when cooking to preserve colour.

When cooking green vegetables, never add an acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, as this will cause the vegetables to discolour quickly. Always cook green vegetables rapidly and preferably without a lid.

With red and white vegetables, which contain flavonoids, the converse to green vegetables is true. Adding an acid during the cooking process will retain and even restore the colour. For red vegetables use a red or white wind vinegar. For white vegetables use a slice of lemon.

Orange vegetables, which contain keratin and are generally fairly robust, for the most part can be cooked with or without the addition of an acid, and they will usually retain their colour.

Another way to preserve the colour is to blanch the vegetable in boiling water for a minute or so, then plunge them into ice water. Doing this stops the cooking process instantly. Using the method is useful if you intend to freeze vegetables.


How important is it to roast nuts in a single layer? In every recipe I see for roasting peanuts/walnuts they tell you to put only a single layer of nuts on the plate that goes in the oven. How important this instruction really is?

If you have a large amount of nuts it's much more efficient to pile them all up on the plate and be done with it.

If you pile them up, the nuts on the outside will burn before the nuts in the middle are properly roast. It's as simple as that.

As with most things, spreading nuts out in a single layer before roasting means that they will all roast at the same rate and brown evenly.


What's an efficient way of removing seeds from citrus fruits? My application is for juicing but I guess it would apply to fruit salads as well.

I have an auger-style crushing juicer and roughly remove seeds I see before ramming the orange/lemon/... pieces down the juicer chute. Unfortunately a few seeds escape detection and as I like to put the pulp back into the juice, I get a few crushed seeds in the juice. Not nice.

Are there any accepted utensils/techniques for removing the seeds beyond probing each piece?

We have a twin-screw masticating juicer (an older model Angel juicer) and although the seeds come out quite chewed up, I wouldn't want to drink them and we've never put the pulp back into the juice.

One possibility that comes to mind is to cut the oranges, etc., into pieces and separate out the pieces that have seeds from those that don't.  Run the seedless ones through first and save that pulp to put into the juice.  Then run the pieces with seeds through and toss that pulp.


How hard is it to make fudge? Fudge is arguably the most delicious substance known to man. With its rich, creamy taste and seemingly endless variety of flavours, I can't be the only person who really likes this stuff. Oddly enough though, it's very difficult to find anybody who sells it, and it's usually pretty damned expensive.

I had no idea what fudge is actually made of. But when I looked it up, the recipe says, basically, throw three ingredients in a pan, boil it for a while, let it cool, done. As recipies go, that's pretty damned simple!

So I gave it a try. And it... didn't really work. The result was like fudge... but no, not really.

So then I went and did some more research, and found this other site that claims that you have to do all these complicated rituals and that you mustn't try to make fudge on a cold day and the moon has to be in the right phase and... seriously?? It's this hard?

The long and short of it is this: How hard is it to make good fudge? Is this something that an average person, with no expert training, working in a normal domestic kitching, should be able to pull off relatively easily? Or is this for the hardcore experts only? Is it realistic for me to be attempting this?

I honestly can't tell whether I just need a little more practise to get this right, or whether I'm attempting something so hopelessly difficult that I'm doomed to eternal disappointment.

(FWIW, my first batch was nearly inedable. I changed a few things, and my second batch was better, but still not quite right. If there's some hope that this could work, I can ask more specific questions. Right now I just want to know whether what I'm trying to do is feasible in the first place.)

Like so many things, if you know what you are trying to do, fudge is not difficult to get right.

Fudge is a high fat candy. In the US chocolate is implied but the addition of chocolate doesn't change the process.

You want a solid, creamy candy with a smooth texture.

As Elendil wrote, it is important to ensure that you cook the candy to the correct temperature- but that is only half of the problem.

As the candy cools it will form crystals. In order to have a smooth texture you have to make those crystals as small as possible. The bigger they are the grainier the candy will be. The slower the crystals form the larger they will be able to grow.

For a smooth texture we want to form crystals as quickly as possible.

Crystals require a trigger to set them off- such as a seed crystal or agitation. If the candy is allowed to cool undisturbed and with no seed sugar crystals in the pot no crystals will form. It will be like a bomb ready to go off at the slightest provocation- this is what we want. After it is cooled we stir it like mad to form all our crystals all at once- fast and small.

Fudge is very forgiving in that it is easy to start over. Unlike an egg custard that when it breaks is unrecoverable- the sugar crystals that ruin fudge are easy to fix. You just add a little water, melt the candy back down, and start over.

Tricks to prevent premature crystallization

Prevent errant crystals!
A lid is placed on the pot for the last few minutes of cooking. This causes condensation to wash any errant sugar crystals off of the sides of the pot. A single errant crystal can ruin your fudge.
Don't agitate the candy
When the candy is cooling it can't be stirred or bumped.
Add distractions
I consider this cheating and it is unnecessary but some recipes reduce the risk of premature crystallization by adding things like corn syrup or marshmallow creme.


Cutting marbled pork without it falling apart I have a pork butt that is seared quickly then simmered on the stove in marinade for hours. I like to choose very marbled pork because it's just so much juicier. Anyway, the pork turns out real nice, melt-in-your-mouth texture, the problem is it's really hard to cut a slice without it crumbling to pieces because it's so soft. (Yes, I did wait until it cools down to room temp)

Is there a way to solve this?

You need a slicing knife - a very thin, very long, very sharp blade, with kullens. Thin (measured top to bottom), because you don't need the heft or maneuverability of a chef's knife, and the less metal in contact with the meat as you cut it, the better. Long, because you don't want to saw at the meat - the metal that is in contact will pull a small amount as you slice, and changing direction will pull tender meat apart. The less back-and-forth, the better, and that means longer strokes, which means a longer knife. Kullens, as they "release" the blade's hold on the meat as you slice: you're reducing the surface area of the knife in contact with the meat, essentially (tho how much they actually help is somewhat in debate.)

It may be instructive to google "slicing brisket" - as BBQ brisket is a similarly tender and delicate dish, and the very active BBQ community have experience with the various slicing options to keep the slices intact. There are a number of messageboard posts and videos on the subject.


How to Remove Garlic Ginger Paste smell from refrigerator When I put paste of garlic and ginger in the fridge the smell of paste spread in all the fridge and the other things too which are in the fridge.Kindly help me how to get rid of this to avoid the smell spreading in other products

For the future, the only effective way I know of is to seal it doubly. That is, take two containers that promise to be airtight (such as glasslock style containers with gaskets), keep the paste in the inner one, and the inner one in the outer one. I know this is very tedious, but I have not found any other way that works for garlic smells in a fridge. Try using glass or steel containers, since plastic is permeable after some time, and also binds with the smell.

If your fridge stinks now, you have to clean it out thoroughly. Throw out whatever food has taken on the smell, you cannot remove it. Wash the shelves, preferably in a dishwasher at a "pots" cycle. Turn off the refrigerator, wash it with something strong - I suggest 12% hydrogen peroxide, this also kills mold spores if there are any - and let it air for half a day until you return the shelves and food and turn it on again.


How to flambe my roast meat platter I want to have flames coming off my roast meat platter when I serve it to guests.
What liquid would I use to light up?

The technique is called flambé in kitchen/restaurant lingo and means pouring a liquid containing alcohol over food and igniting it.

You need somehing:

flamable
non-toxic
tasty

-> High-proof drinking alcohol, like brandy, vodka, rum, whiskey kirsch, himbergeist, pastis, Grand Marnier... whatever fits your dish. The higher the proof, the better, generally 40% (80 proof in the US) or up is a typical choice. Below that, it may be hard or impossible to ignite and not burn constantly. Some sources advise against too high, because these spirits need careful handling and no or limited pre-warming.

Pre-warm1 the liquor, then

Method 1
scoop a small amount into a small laddle or large spoon, ignite with a long match or stick lighter, pour over or around the food.

or

Method 2
pour a small amount over or around the food, then ignite with a long (fireplace) match or stick lighter.

Serve immediately after igniting and make sure you (or your servers) have hair tied back and wear no loose scarves or other flamable clothing.

Alcohol flames are hard to see in bright light, but quite impressive in a dark environment. So don't do this at a summer lunch outside, but at an evening affair and try to dim the lights, if possible (but not so much that the servers stumble!).

Consider doing a test run before serving guests to get an idea on the timing. Flames will die down after a minute or so, but trying to extend that time with more alcohol isn't a good idea. Too much liquor will overpower (some would say: spoil) the taste of the dish and may produce charring.

If it's only the flames you are after, you might burn some alcohol in a small heatproof(!) bowl or dish on the platter, but this will most likely not give the desired effect and carrying this is very dangerous in case you trip and spill the burning liquid. I strongly advise against it!

And:
Never, ever pour alcohol straight from the bottle towards a flame.

If you want to search for videos, look for flambé dishes that are typically prepared at the table, like crêpe suzette, not the dishes that are flambé at an earlier stage of the cooking process in the kitchen.

Just warm, not hot! This is to increase the "cloud" of alcohol which will be lit in the next step, making it easier. If you heat too much, you'll end up with a "ball of fire" and all the alcohol burns off in a big "pouf!" instead of giving a nice flame.


Ultra thick and fluffy pudding I recently traveled to NY and tried Magnolia's banana pudding. Long story short, it was amazing :D

When I came back home I tried to create the next best version. Having seen the below video, I combined vanilla pudding, whipped from a combination of heavy whipping cream and 2% milk, about a cup of each) and stabilized whipped cream, made from about a cup of heavy whipping cream, confectioners sugar and half a teaspoon of gelatin.

Whipped cream was perfectly stable and pudding also has a pretty good texture. While I am overall happy with my first attempt, I feel like my texture fell short. I want almost a cake frosting / ice cream texture. I want a texture that is more firm and fluffy and am not sure how to accomplish this.

Can anyone offer some advice? To get a better idea of the texture I am after, checkout magnolia's video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8468bpqWeIQ&t=7s (7 second mark)

I suspect that their banana pudding, even if made from off-the-shelf pudding mix, was made with significantly less liquid than called for on the box. The whipped cream will lend looseness to the mixture even if the starch gel in the pudding is quite thick.

Note the cleanly-defined scoops taken out of the bucket on the left. That pudding is thick.

BTW, I don't think it's necessary or advisable to use much cream in the pudding. The milkfat will break up the gel, but you want a strong gel to maintain the texture. Likewise, while I see your motivation for stabilizing the whipped cream with gelatin, I actually doubt it's necessary because of the starch gel. I could be wrong here, though -- I don't have very good instincts for these complicated emulsions.


Cream separates to oil when heated When I heat 35% cooking cream on the stove, a layer of oil separates. I tried heating in the microwave and still observed the same. Is that normal in the process of heating cream? Should I use a lower heat level?

Thanks.

Generally if the cream separates, that means you've heated it too much -- either too hot, or too long.

Also, if you're making a cream-based pasta sauce, the standard method is to add the cream last to the other cooked ingredients in the sauce.  That way you're less likely to overcook the cream.  Most cream-based pasta sauces start with a base that has solids and oil, such as a white roux or a pesto, which further helps the cream hold together.


Does the par-boiling first then frying work for sweet potatoes as well? I want to make sweet potato wedges. Is it the same process as using russet potatoes? Does the par-boiling first then frying work for sweet potatoes as well?

I have done this with boiling and then baking sweet potato fries. They turned out alright, but didn't come out as crispy due to the baking having more moisture to pull out (that's my post-facto hypothesis, anyways). I have to admit I'm not a fan of this method for french-fries either – I find that some restaurants who use it tend to give soggy or mushy fries.

If I recall correctly, it cut the baking time from ~50 minutes to ~25 minutes to get enough of a crust to make them worth eating. For frying, I would expect a similar reduction in cooking time as par boiling cuts for russet potato frying.


What effect does removing previously-dried peppers from a sauce have? I have a recipe for a basic enchilada sauce, in which I bring tomato sauce and chicken stock to a boil with some spices. It is then simmered for 15 minutes. It calls for using diced dried Chipotle peppers, which worked great - until we bit into one of the pieces of pepper. The heat was a bit too intense for my wife.

I thought about using big pieces of the  dried Chipotle peppers next time, and then picking them out after the simmer. I assume it will take away some of the heat (which is the goal), but will I still get the flavors this way? What other changes could I expect?

Chilis supply 2 things, chili flavor and heat. The flavor comes from the flesh while the heat comes from the seeds and especially the membrane that connects the seeds to the flesh. Ordinarily when someone wants to reduce the heat of a pepper I would suggest cutting it open and removing the seeds and membrane, however that's pretty much impossible with a dried pepper.

My recommendation in this case would be to put the chipotles in whole, then remove them after cooking is done. Put the peppers in after all the other ingredients, just before simmering, then try to avoid stirring it if you can avoid it - be gentle so you don't burst the peppers open. Once the cooking is done you fish them out with a spoon and you can serve them as a side to the heat lovers if you like.


Troubleshooting my Bavarian Creme Yesterday I tried to make Bavarian Cream for the first time - it was a disaster. I think I know where I went wrong, but maybe someone with a bit of experience can still help me out.

So I got this recipe consisting of some egg yolks, sugar, gelatin, milk, heavy cream and some oil, syrup or liquor for flavor.

The recipe states to whisk the yolks together with the sugar until the mixture is pale - no problem for me.

Then it says to put the milk together with the flavor giving component into a bowl and bring it to a simmer. To temper the yolks, you then have to pour a bit of the hot liquid to the yolks, whisk it together and then pour it back into the pan to the rest of the hot liquid. I think I've also done this right - I had no scrambled eggs.

Now it says to cook it over low heat while stirring constantly until the custard thickens. As a test for it, the recipe states to dip a spoon into the custard, then run you finger about it's back. If the custard stays in place and does not run back into line, its alright.
I've done this test and although I had the feeling it's still really runny, it passed this test after about 3 min of cooking (Is this too short?) over really low heat not above 85 °C.

Then I took the pan from the heat like stated in the recipe and stirred in the gelatin sheets I had previously soaked in cold water. After that, I let it cool completely, but the consistency was still too runny, a bit like milk.

Here are the two things that went wrong it guess:
Maybe you noticed it, I haven't written anything about the cream, because the cream is listed as an ingredient, but isn't used in the whole recipe. I think thats an error in my recipe book, so I brought the cream together with the milk to a simmer.

Another thing that caused the wrong consistency is the amount of gelatin I guess. The recipe says to use 5 sheets, so I used 5 sheets. On the package it says that 6 sheets are needed to thicken 500 ml liquid. As I have used 350 ml heavy cream an 250 ml milk and some tablespoons of rosewater and syrup, I haven't used enough gelatin I believe.

So what do you think, have I identified the right components that caused my attempt to fail? Or do you notice another thing that strikes you? Do you have any tips for me?

I think the problem is your cream, but not your fault if your recipe didn't mention it anymore. For a Bavarian cream, you normally whip cream and put it in the mixture in the end, to make it more light and also less liquid.

In that case, I think your amount of gelatin would be enough, since you'd only have a good 250 ml of liquid (but not all gelatin sheets are as large as others etc.).

I can't say if you let it boil long enough or not. The "back of a wooden spoon test" doesn't work for me. I normally let it cook till I see it has thickened a bit.


Chicken thighs that don't seem right I bought chicken thighs from a large super market, portioned them and froze them for future use. (bought 2 weeks ago) I defrosted a pound in the fridge today, and as I was getting ready to trim the fat and dice the thighs, I noticed bright red blood "forming" a gritty film on top. These are boneless, skinless mind you, and there wasn't blood on or in the chicken (that I saw) when I froze, then thawed them.
To make it more unusual, it was like a film that I could peel and scrub off. As I was scrubbing the blood off under running water, I noticed one of the thighs looked like it had a rash maybe? I don't know now to explain it.. Like it had blisters that have been sloughed off or healed? Divots in the skin, in round circles, in a couple of patches.

If I scrub or cut away that part of the chicken, is it still ok to eat? I've honestly never seen this before in my 35 years.

Thanks!

It's probably safe, but I wouldn't want to eat it! You aren't facing starvation, so throw it away.


If I mix rum, gin, vodka and scotch whisky, put it in a water bottle, and leave it for a month will it be safe to drink? I mixed gin, vodka, rum and scotch whisky together, put it into a water bottle, and left it for about 1 month, would it make me sick If I drank it?

Gin, vodka, rum and whisky are all distilled spirits, so you'd be essentially mixing up essentially four versions of same thing and get to a different version of the same thing. Individually the alcohol content in these spirits more than high enough to prevent microorganisms from growing when stored for years in a closed container, including the the plastic bottles they're sometimes sold in. When mixed together this will remain true and there's nothing about any normal water bottle that would change this.


Preventing Crystalised Dairy Ice Cream Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a magic ingredient that keeps ice-cream soft?

I'm making real dairy ice cream at home, without any sort of machine (which I have no intention of buying). The problem is that it becomes crystalised. I have tried stirring it more and less regularly when freezing, freezing it colder and quicker, adding some glycerine, and whisking the mixture more vigorously to introduce more air. The ingredients I'm using are egg whites and sugar, egg yolks and cream. That combination, from Mary Berry herself, produces a marvelous flavour, whilst maintaining a simple recipe, which I don't want to spoil with things like guam gum. Does anyone know how else to prevent large amounts of crystalisation?

You don't want to 'spoil' it by adding guar gum but you'll use glycerine? I don't see the problem with using a plant extract like guar gum but if you're adamant there was a great feature on Serious Eats (too long to quote in entirety but worth reading in full) about making ice cream without an ice cream machine which goes into great detail on preventing excess ice formation:
http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2010/07/how-to-make-ice-cream-without-an-ice-cream-maker-the-food-lab.html

So how could I reduce both crystal formation and overrun even further?
A thought struck me: I knew that when freezing meat or fish, the more rapidly the food is frozen, the less cell damage there is due to ice crystal formation. Would speeding up the rate at which the ice cream base froze help me minimize crystal formation as well?
The rate at which a given volume changes temperature is dependent on the temperature of its surrounding environment, as well as the amount of surface area exposed to it. There's no way for me to get my freezer to get any colder, but as it turns out, there's a simple device that is custom designed to freeze liquids in your freezer as fast as possible: an ice cube tray.
The only problem that remained was: who the hell wants to eat ice-cube shaped ice cream?
The solution was as simple as throwing the cubes into a food processor:
In fact, whirling it in the Cuisinart gave me another distinct advantage. I could save the unwhipped portion, freezing just a base of eggs, sugar, evaporated milk, and whipped cream. This cut back on the water content of the mix, further reducing crystal formation. I could then add the cream and the cubes of ice cream directly to the food processor. By doing this, ice crystal formation went down to virtually zero...

The actual recipe is here:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/07/vanilla-ice-cream-without-the-machine-recipe.html


Soaking fruit in alcohol I thought that soaking fruit in whiskey would be tasty so last night, I filled a mason jar with pear pieces and filled it up with Jack Daniels.

What is the optimal amount of time this should be soaking?
Is it better to soak it refrigerated or at room temperature?
Are some types of liquor better than others for this? Clear (vodka) or colored (whiskey)? Should I use higher proof liquor (e.g. 90-100 proof whiskey).

The optimum amount of time depends on what you want to achieve:

If you aim for alcohol-infused fruit, you should be fine with a short time. The taste of the fruit will start to change after only a few hours (think of soaking fruit for a punch), from then the extraction of fruit flavours into the alcohol continues. For this approach, choose a liquor that complements your fruit because it will remain quite discernible.
A good middle ground is usually reached after two (soft fruit) to eight (harder fruit) weeks. The alcohol should have absorbed a good amount of fruit flavour but the fruit keep enough to be still tasty. Just sample a bit occasionally until you reach the desired state.
For flavoring alcohol you want to soak for a minimum of six weeks, but here often longer is better. The taste will change over time, usually getting "rounder" or even change significantly from the original taste of the chosen fruit + alcohol combination. The fruit may or may not be tasty after this time, but usually should have given up most aromatic compounds into the alcohol - alcohol is a solvent, after all. Because you aim to take the flavour from the fruit, you can go with a "neutral" kind of liquor here, but you may just as well use something with more character. I currently have a batch of quince liquor made with only the peels and cores (in Korn) in my storage area that has been there for four(!) years. It has developed beautiful undertones of almond, vanilla and honey and is ready to be strained whenever I have a bit of free time.

Another element to consider is the fruit-to-alcohol ratio:

The less alcohol is present, the less solvent is there to draw the aromatics from the fruit. This means, for flavoured fruit, barely covering them is enough while to "fully" extract the fruit you might go for a liquid level that is up to twice as high as the fruit in your container.

For longer soaking times, the alcohol content is crucial. I learned that everything over 40 %vol (= 80 proof) should be fine to keep the fruit from spoiling during extraction even at room temperature. Use higher proof if using a higher (soft) fruit content w/o sugar if you plan on soaking long term. But always use unblemished fruit. Not only to ensure the shelf life of your product, but also because even slight traces of an "off" taste can be amplified and and spoil your whole batch.

The addition of sugar is optional, keep in mind that your fruit bring sugar, too. Sugar may speed up the extraction process a bit because it helps breaking down the cells. This may or may not be desired. Also, sugar acts as a preservative, so it's recommended for lower-alcohol concoctions.

If you like the results of your pear experiment, you might consider setting up a "Rumtopf" as an ongoing project for summer:

Starting in June with strawberries, layer about 1/2 to 1 pound of fruit with 1/2 the weight of sugar in a large jar, cover with rum (preferably 110 proof) and weigh down with a plate. Rum should be always 1 inch above fruit level. Close the pot and store in a dark space if the pot is not opaque. During summer, top up with more fruit and sugar whenever they are ripe (cheries, peaches, raspberries, pears, plum...). Start serving 6 weeks after the addition of the last fruits.


High hydration breads end up with gummy/undercooked interior Whenever I make bread with hydration from 80%-120% the interior is always gummy and undercooked. They have a decent hole structure, but collapse easily when pressed.

I typically use

Whole Wheat Chakki Atta or Maida
Filter Water
Instant dry yeast (1 tsp per kg of flour)
Salt

Following recipes like  https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/recipe-for-80-hydration-baguette/

Tried kneading (by hand), no knead, normal rise, refrigerator rise, varying rise/rest durations etc. all with similar results. Atta breads are gummier.

Bake to 205° F interior temperature. Excess ß-amylase enzyme can also cause gummy.


heating ham at 200 degrees versus 325 degrees If I am heating a fully cooked ham that directs me to cook at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes per pound (ham is 3.38#) and I want to heat it through at a 200 degree F temp. How long should I put the ham in the oven for?

Not knowing what kind of oven you have or what cut the ham is, bone in or bone out etc., I would recommend that you simply buy an inexpensive meat thermometer (less than $10 in most places) and check the ham's internal temperature every two hours or so.


Does chocolate ice cream tend to have more salt than strawberry or vanilla? To the question Why does chocolate ice cream melt faster than others? I wrote an answer that suggests that it's not because of chocolate ice cream's dark color, but instead because of a lower melting point of chocolate ice cream due to more salt.

Salt depresses the melting point which is why it is put on roads and sidewalks in the winter in some cold parts of the world, and why salt is added to the ice water bath when making ice cream.

I'm wondering if there could be some truth to this theory, so I'd like to ask chocolate ice cream tend to have more salt than strawberry or vanilla?

Not at the supermarket I'd buy mine from. I've checked a couple of chocolate and a couple of vanilla ice creams (one cheap and one mid range of each). They all have about 0.1% salt, and most of this will come from the cow's milk (that contains some naturally occurring salt). Only one has salt on the ingredients list. It's a chocolate one but has no more salt in the nutrition information than any of the others - probably because there's less milk in that one.

This is in the UK, and you may not be, so I suggest you check the brands available to you. I wouldn't be at all surprised if American ice cream, for example, was more likely to have added salt


How to clean a whetstone? I prefer a whetstone to a "steel" for knife sharpening. Over the years my whetstone has become loaded with steel particles from the knives. As it is basically 13 % chrome stainless steel it is not easy to dissolve. It is immune to nitric acid and hydrochloric is very slow , if at all . Any ideas for cleaning a whetstone ?

If this is an oilstone (which is considered old fashioned exactly because of these issues), an oft-mentioned ultima ratio remedy is boiling it in soapy water. YMMV, this could destroy the stone. If you know what exact type (eg arkansas) your oilstone is, research instructions specific to that stone type.

If it is a waterstone, abrading the stone - with a flattening plate, diamond stone, another waterstone until unaffected material is brought to the surface is the recommended method.


Why does salt and seasoning stick better to hot foods? In every recipe I see for fries, popcorn, churros, and other foods where I normally want to add the salt/sugar/seasoning at the end, everybody says to make sure to do it while the food is still hot so the seasoning sticks. Why is this? Is this just something people say, or does it really matter a lot?

It's really not about temperature at all.
"While it's still hot" is a great description of when to do it, but it's not why.
You want to salt fried food when it's straight from the oil, because the surface is still wet with oil. This ensures that the salt sticks to the surface of the food. As the food sits, the surface will dry (it cools off at the same time-- which is where the "while it's hot" advice comes from).
Even with non-fried foods, heat often comes with surface moisture, either from the cooking process or from the steam being released by the hot food.
Salt sticks to "wet" surfaces. Freshly cooked, still-hot food usually has a "wet" surface (either from water, steam, or oil).


Is it possible to churn butter in a food processor or blender? I would really like to make some homemade butter. Can you make it with a food processor or blender?

Sure, why not? It probably won't turn out quite like the stuff you get at the store, but all you need is cream, a way to churn air into it, and enough agitation that the milk fat molecules start to clump together.

It will require some manual work once you've got the butter and buttercream separated. But the food processor will get you most of the way there without too much of an arm workout.

Check out this PBS article on DIY butter with a food processor.


Physical method to season steaks When seasoning steaks I use many different dry spices etc.  What is the best method to apply spices to the meat without having to flip the steaks many times or have to wash my hands many times?

Use the fact that you have two hands*.

If you don't want to pre-mix your spices, open all containers you intend to use.
Assign one hand to be the "clean" one, one the "contaminated" hand.
Use the clean hand to shake or pinch spices or salt from their jars (onto the other hand, the meat or your work surface, depending on your preferred method of seasoning).
Use the contaminated hand to apply spices to the meat, rub them in, turn as needed, move the meat aside....
Wash hands, put close spice containers and put them away.

This system is largely independent on the method of seasoning (oil or not, sprinkling on or rubbing in, individual spices or mix...)

The only exception might be your pepper mill, which usually needs two hands. You can pre-grind the pepper, enlist the help of a second person (hint: kids love pepper mills!), invest in a battery-operated model or wash your hands.

If you know that you won't be touching your meat, you can use tongs to flip and turn your meat, eliminating the need to wash your hands in between steps. But that would render your question somewhat moot.

* For the sake of simplicity, I assume you do have a full set of two healthy and functional hands. In case of physical limitations, seasoning your steak might be a minor issue anyway and you probably have developed hacks for a lot of things already.


ratio of non diastatic malt powder to one pound of flour. So I have to make bagels tomorrow. For 50 lbs of flour the recipe calls for 2.5 lbs of this super bagel mix which my boss forgot to order. Tasting it its most likely salt sugar and malt...maybe something else too.I can figure out the salt and sugar but have never used malt in baking.I am assuming that it is non diastatic only because it is mixed in with flour. Hopefully not assuming to much.
 So the question is what is the ratio or rule for non diastatic malt powder to flour.

The King Arthur Flour bagel recipe, the only one I could find that used non-diastatic malt power instead of malt syrup, has a ratio of 5.75 cups of flour to 1/4 cup malt powder to 2Tbs sugar and 1 Tbs salt.

By weight, that works out to a Flour:Malt:Sugar:Salt ratio of 25:1.4:0.8:0.6.  So for 50lbs of flour, you'd want:

2.8lbs malt powder
1.6lbs sugar
1.2lbs salt

... which is a bit more than the "super bagel mix" of 2.5 lbs, in fact more that twice as much.  You can cut the amounts in half, but I'm not sure that will work out.  Good luck!


Glass cooktop safety I recently had a grease fire on my glass cooktop. thankfully I had a B/C class fire extinguisher handy but now I'm worried that my cooktop is no longer safe to use.
does anybody have any advice for me on the subject?

Edit:
Sorry for not being more specific.
Yes I've cleaned the stove. My main concern is that the glass may be damaged in some way and might crack or explode when is use.

All cook top safety is the same:

Keep it clean and pay attention!

Glass ranges aren't inherently any more unsafe than a gas or normal electric range. Ranges are just a tool, one that generates a large amount of heat in a small area. Like any tool, you can hurt yourself or others if you don't follow the basic rules of use. Luckily, those rules are pretty easy to follow once you train yourself.

Keeping It Clean

When you are cooking, there is no reason to have anything around the range that you don't need to cook. No papers, no cutting boards, no wine glasses, no anything else. Anything extra is an invitation to spill or something to catch on fire. Nothing good can come of it. Cook with a towel and when you spill, clean it immediately. A clean range can't catch on fire because there is nothing to burn!

Paying Attention

Don't walk away from a range that is on! Almost every kitchen fire could be stopped by the simply having someone looking at the range when the fire started. You should be prepared with the failure signs for the type of cooking you are doing (like if your oil is smoking, you need less heat, or an open flame can ignite even low alcohol content if it's boiling).

If you follow those rules, you will almost never actually need this last one. I've worked professionally in kitchens for 14 years and I've only dealt with one fire that wouldn't have been stopped by the rules above. The final rule?

ALWAYS HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER  But it sounds like you already have that one covered.

In case SAJ in the comments is correct and I misinterpreted the question, your range is safe to continue using as long as you didn't crack the cook top or short the burners. The top is sealed, so you shouldn't see any particulate under the glass. If you do, you need to clean the burner assemblies before running current to them. That means wires and the infrared bulbs. Some brands will require this to be done by a trained technician. If the top is cracked, you need a new top, as the crack can redirect the heat or shatter.


Can you cut cucumbers when you make them in brine? I'm trying to make Polish style cucumbers in brine (ogórki kiszone) but my jars are too small to fit cucumbers I can get in the supermarket. Can I just cut them or the lack of skin will change the fermentation process significantly?

I don't see how it would change the process. Besides, I've seen the same pickled fermented cucumbers cut, although lengthwise. However you cut them, it will be fine.


Is there a good, clean way to pit black olives? I wanted to pit a black olive, like a Kalamata, and retain the shape - is there a good clean way to take the pit out?

Two Options which work for both olives and cherries:

Use a drinking straw and push through one end until you hit the pit and keep pushing until the pit comes out.
Use a large paper clip partially opened so that the end can be used for inserting and pushing the pit through.


Why is spicy food less spicy when it's allowed to cool? I've noticed over the years that when my food, which was initially very spicy, has cooled down, it doesn't seem as spicy anymore.

Why is that?

Capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers spicy, activates a sensory receptor which can also be activated by heat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin#Mechanism_of_action)

That means that when a food is spicy and hot, you feel both types of heat using the same sense! When the food has cooled and you're not feeling the heat (temperature) any more, it no longer adds to the feeling of spicyness.


Distinguishing the size of tablecloths when folded? Has anyone figured out a clever system for distinguishing the size of a tablecloth when folded?  Our dining room table is extendable with several leaves, so we have plain white tablecloths of three sizes. When the cloths are folded, they all look alike. So every time we entertain, we spend several minutes unfolding and re-folding until we find a tablecloth of the right size. An annoying waste of time.

Organizing them by shelf (in the closet) doesn't work because they invariably get moved around by whoever does the laundry that week. Personally I'd like to write a big "1", "2", or "3" on each cloth in indelible black marker, but my wife objects for some reason. :-)

Looking for a simple, out-of-the-box idea. Thanks.

I would fold them into a different shape that reflects the size of the cloth.  For example, if you were to do a flag fold, the smallest triangle should be the smallest table cloth.


Sirloin Tip Kebab cooking times I want to make some Beef Kebabs with onion, sirloin and peppers. I'm using metal skewers (if that helps). How long should I let the Sirloin cook on the kebabs? There is bite size pieces on a grill at 350 degrees F. I want to cook 6 kebabs. Any ideas?

Edit:

I like my meat medium-rare.
My grill itself is 6 inches from the heat.
The pieces are no bigger than 2x2 inches.

There is no way for us to give you absolute cooking times. There are too many variables, among them:

How do you like your meat cooked?
How hot is your fire?
How far are the kabobs from the fire (since kabob cooking is essentially 100% radiation heating, distance is a huge factor)
What is the size of your meat chunks?
What is the starting temperature of your meat chunks?

You will note that the number of kabobs is not a factor.

Instead, you need to learn to check for when they are done to your liking. This will come from experience.  Kabobs are generally too small to use a thermometer on; you would need a very high quality one like a Thermapen in order to get a reasonable reading.

All that said, it is likely that you want something on the order of 2-3 minutes per side, but there are far too many factors to make that a concrete recommendation.

You can start by cooking just one kabob, or even one chunk.   When you think it looks good, try it.  Of it is overcooked, do the next one for less time; undercooked, cook a little longer.  After a couple, you will know about how long you will need for your particular set of circumstances.


Slow cooker meat recipe We live at elevation 7000 ft up. How long should I cook swiss steak for tender thin sliced beef? I have never used a slow cooker in this altitude.

I'm not sure the altitude is a concern when cooking Swiss steak. You're essentially doing most of the cooking when you sear it on the stove top. You finish the cooking by raising the internal temperature gradually in a Crock Pot. The reason for using a Crock Pot as opposed to the oven is because the lower temperature setting slows down the rate at which the internal temperature of the meat increases and allows time for flavors to fuse and develop in the meat, and to some extent tenderize it a little.

If tenderizing the meat is the concern, the longer you cook it, the more tender it becomes. But longer cooking does not necessarily imply better tasting, as the flavors can become too pronounced and the meat itself can dry out. But this is in extreme cases and any negative effect to the taste will be negligible if it happens to be cooked an hour or even two hours longer than necessary to bring up the internal temperature to USDA recommended temperature of 160F.

If you have a recipe that gives you a specific amount of time to cook the meat but does not mention adjustments for higher altitudes, a fail-safe method would be to cook for time x 1.5. So if the recipe says to cook it for 2 hours, cook it for 3 hours. If you're in a hurry, just sear it on the stove for a few minutes each side to lock in the moisture and flavor and then throw it in the oven with some vegetables in a pot, cover it, and let cook for 20 more minutes for every pound of meat at 400F and bon appetit!


How long can deep fried chicken kebab be stored in freezer not fridge How long a kabab of following mixture that
Tomatoes,onions, lemon and minced chicken be stored in freezer rigth after deep frying it to maintain its taste and free of bacteria

Usually a couple of weeks if well packaged (maybe more if put in vacuum bags)

Try freezing them as fast as possible; put them in a single layer on a cooking sheet with space between each kebab.

Once frozen, put them in plastic bags.

Be careful when thawing, vegetables tend to get soggy.


Help in identifying a Thai condiment At my favorite local Thai restaurant, they have a trio of spicy condiments available to add to your food. Of the three, one is chile-garlic sauce, one is a crushed dried red pepper of some kind, and the third is very mysterious to me.

It is a thick, dark (nearly black) chunky "paste" (ok, to chunky to be a paste, but I don't have a better word for it... 'jam' maybe?).

It is clearly made primarily of chilis, and I believe some kind of oil, but I'm not sure what else might be in it.

It has a very interesting flavour -- kind of roasty and spicy? Maybe some garlic in there too?

Any ideas as to what this mysterious roasty black chili "jam" might be?

In googling for Thai condiments, I keep finding several standard condiments, but none of them are this.

(I guess I could ask at the restaurant, but where's the fun in that? Plus I always forget when I am there...)

Is it roasted chili paste (น้ำพริกเผา in Thai)?


Alternative to Marsala? Is there a good alternative to Marsala wine?  particularly in this recipe

Consider using:

1/4 c. white wine + 1 tsp brandy ... or go as high as a 2:1 wine to brandy ratio. I like this substitution best personally.
1/4 c. white grape juice + 1 tsp brandy
Madeira wine - I've heard you can use this, but I never have
Port - again, I've heard it but not used it
Brandy alone, though I find this to be a bit strong


What exactly are Bamboo shoots? http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/vegetable-hot-and-sour-soup.aspx

Are we here talking about Bamboo trees?
Can we have a picture of Bamboo shoot? In what forms is it available?

Bamboo isn't a tree, it's a grass ;)

A bamboo shoot is just the budding new bamboo that's harvested before it grows and becomes hard and stringy.

Bamboo shoots are generally available in 2 forms, fresh and canned.
Fresh ones are sold whole and generally used in stir fries.

Canned bamboo shoots are precooked and packed in water. You can find canned bamboo shoots sold whole, shredded, or sliced. For hot and sour soup (which I assume you're making) you'll probably want the shredded ones.

There are also jarred bamboo shoots. You probably don't want these as they are often fermented and add different seasonings to the shoots.

I'm not sure where you are so I don't know how available they would be, but you can generally find canned ones in the asian section of major supermarkets.  Fresh ones are a little harder to come by and I believe only seasonal


What I can use to replace black beer on roast recipe? I have a "basic" recipe for roast beef that uses 1 bottle of black beer as an ingredient.

I am looking for a non-alcoholic ingredient to replace it because my parents don't drink alcohol and I usually don't have alcohol on hand.

Non-alcoholic beer makes sense. If you can't find any you could simmer alcoholic beer for about 3 hours, which should remove the vast majority of the alcohol. You might need to add a little water afterwards if it has reduced too much.


Essenial cookware/utensils to buy from scratch for sustanence in the US? I am a guy from India going to settle in the US(Houghton, MI) for higher education for a period of 2 years.
I have been bombarded by a variety of stereotypes for cooking (You won't get this and that in the US, etc).

Since my university is located in such a remote area, I don't think there would be any shops selling cookware/utensils locally. So I have to rely on Amazon/Walmart only.

So my cardinal question is, for a student creating his kitchen from scratch, what are the essentials that should be bought and from where i.e. locally or online.

I am not going to recreate Indian food there, rather would be interested in learning local cuisine and preparing the food prepared in households in the US.

I would also like get some advice on this topic i.e. whether I should bring some utensils from India or I can totally rely on Amazon/Walmart for my cooking needs?

PS: I am getting an oven and an electric stove in the apartment I would be living in.
Sorry if this question is off-topic here, please redirect me to the correct location.

Remember you have to be able to get all you stuff there. Is it worth lugging a pressure cooker half way across the world to save 10$. I would bring any local seasoning that you use. Your gonna be in for some culture shock when you get there.