dehydrating food with a vacuum chamber I've been considering buying a food dehydrator, mostly for fruit, maybe some jerky. I know that a conventional food dehydrator can take a while, 12-24 hours. I'm curious, can I use a vacuum chamber to dehydrate the fruit instead? Will it take less time? I imagine that making raisins may be problematic as they have a sealed skin and would explode, but I don't think that would happen with banana or apple slices.

You can certain lyophilize fruit. It's done commercially and there's no insurmountable barrier to doing it at home. Since water basically 'boils til it freezes' in a vacuum, then slowly sublimes, you're not likely to get much improvement on a dehydrator's  12-24 hour cycle. For some fruits however, product can be much better when freeze dried. Here's some examples of what you can get: Bananas, peas, tomato slices, carrot slices, spinach, beans, mango, whole berrys etc.


How to reduce the flavour of orange zest in chicken? I recently tried to make orange chicken and the recipe required  the zest of one orange. Well I added too much zest and the orange peel flavor is overpowering. How can I reduce that flavor?

rackandboneman has excellent suggestions. If I may add one more, I would suggest adding some fairly strong tastes to reduce the prominence of the orange. Some soy, garlic and honey would go a long way toward turning the orange into a passable teriyaki.


Technique to bake donair meat in an oven Every time I cook Donair at home, it seems to dry up a lot faster than when I do it in the restaurant. Granted I use the same spice mix and meat mixing method.

The difference is that at the restaurant, I bake the donair in a 600 degree oven where at home I do it in a 375 oven

I suspect the reasons for drying are:

Overcooking
Low fat content at the meat, perhaps I should use a higher fatted meat.

What suggestions would you give to cooking Donair at home?

Disclaimer: I have not made Donairs at home.  However, I think the same principles apply to döner kebabs, gyros, shawarma, and really almost any fast-food meat.

I rather suspect that the problem is that you're using an oven.  Donairs, döner kebab, gyros, are all similar and are all intended to be cooked on a vertical spit that puts out upwards of 50,000 BTU.  Although that cumulative heat is usually spread across a few individual broilers and designed to cook a very large amount of the stuff at a time, the fact remains that this type of meat does best with quick, high, direct heat.

The grill on a gryo machine is much closer to a BBQ or stovetop than it is to an oven.  Ovens impart heat very gradually by comparison, giving the meat plenty of time to dry out.  And the oven does dry meat out; so much so that it's actually possible and relatively straightforward to make jerky in an oven, but that's a topic for another day.

Meat starts to release all its juices at 130° F / 54.5° C.  If you hold it in an oven at 375° (F or C, hardly matters at that point) for an extended period of time then it is, quite literally, going to turn into jerky.  By the time it gets above 150° F it is way overdone.  Note that at 180° F or 82° C, the collagen breaks down and converts to gelatin, which gives that really succulent and tender texture found in slow cooking, but in order to accomplish that you need to find a way to preserve moisture while the temperature rises (i.e. by brining, braising, or steaming).  More on this at the Science of Slow Cooking, if you're interested.

But, I suspect that you're not shooting for slow-cooking, so I'm going to suggest the next-best thing, which is to grill the meat instead of baking/roasting it.  Just don't use the oven.  When you grill it you are just searing the outside; the inside will not have a chance to get overdone or eject too much moisture (although you will still lose some, but gyros/donair meat is supposed to be a little dry).  The cuts tend to be so thin that it should only require a couple of minutes on the grill.

Grilling the meat should get you very close to the kind of consistency you get with a high-heat spit.  Most "street meat" I've eaten (not that I eat a lot of it!) has the consistency of grilled meat; well-done on the outside, medium or medium-rare on the inside.

If you insist on using the oven then use the broiler, which is also very similar to the vertical spit (although it won't broil the meat as evenly).  And if you insist on using the oven but not the broiler then I can only recommend that you use the highest temperature possible and take it out a few minutes before it reaches the desired tenderness, because even thin slices of meat will continue to cook and dry out for a few minutes afterward.


How can I know if I'm purchasing "mild" chorizo or spicy chorizo? I have a recipe that calls for "mild ground chorizo". At my regular grocery today I saw three brands of ground chorizo, but all were simply labeled "chorizo". The listed ingredients included "spices" but no hints about the level of heat.

I've had chorizo dishes in restaurants that varied from mild to super spicy. The last time I purchased chorizo I believe it was very spicy out of the package.

How can I know if I'm purchasing mild chorizo or spicy chorizo? I plan to visit other grocery stores to see what they have. The recipe includes additional spices that will add some heat, so I would prefer not to start with chorizo that may already be too hot. Alternatively, would another variety of mild sausage be an acceptable substitute?

You realistically can't, unless they print it on the wrapper. If the manufacturer gives more detail in the ingredients, maybe. But if it just says "spices", it's trial and error, unfortunately.


I am unable to eat tomatoes. What can I use instead, especially in soups? My digestion doesn't like tomatoes, and all the soup recipes I like call for them.  Is there anything I could substitute?

There is an alternate product available that does not contain tomatoes. It is called  Nomato .
It is described on the home page as:

Nomato sauces are a delicious natural alternative to traditional tomato based products.

Additional info:

Nomato may be substituted in any recipe using tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup or salsa.
Nomato is made from vegetables and seasonings. It contains no soy, dairy, wheat, gluten, nuts and of course no tomatoes!

I am not promoting this product and, quite frankly, have not tried it. However, I did read several great reviews about it.


How do I calculate an increase in pan sizes for a cake recipe? How do I figure out what to increase in a cake recipe for bigger pan sizes? I have a cake recipe that uses two 8-inch round pans; how would I change the recipe to accommodate one 10-inch and one 14-inch round cake pans?

Assuming the depths of the pans are all the same, then the volume will vary as the square of their linear dimensions:

8^2 + 8^2 = 64 + 64 = 128
10^2 + 14^2 = 100 + 196 = 296
Ratio = 296/128 = 2.3125

Near enough, multiply original quantities by 2 1/3


Does red wine vinegar and red vinegar taste same? I am going to cook salad for my lunch, I checked a for recipes. I just eat halal food and wine is not halaf, so I am going to use red vinegar (which I don't know even exist) instead of red wine vinegar. Do they taste same?

This is one of the salads I decided to make; I want to make just vegetable and fruit salad.

Welcome to the site @User3176270. I'm not an expert in Halal but my understanding from my halal friends is that red wine vinegar is halal because the process of turning the wine into vinegar gets rid of all the alcohol. In fact, all vinegar is derived from alcohol, the sourness is created by bacteria that eats the alcohol and turns it into acetic acid, so all vinegar is halal unless alcohol was added afterwards, which is very rare. You should be fine, although I'm sure you would want to verify that with someone trusted on the subject.

Getting to the actual question, red vinegar is a rice vinegar which is colored and flavored by a fermented red rice. It is a different flavor from red wine vinegar, having less complexity and is also lighter. It may or may not work for you in that recipe, but there's no harm in trying.


chicken texture after precooking starts to break Sometimes when pre-cooking chicken for a curry week, the chicken cuts doesn't keep its shape. It starts to get a bit stringy and losing the "smooth" shape that it was cut with, what could I be doing wrong, given that my favourite indian restaurants always have the chicken in a nice shape?

p.s: I'm confident this is down to method, as I have had this before, but it was a one off, anyway.

Hi there is no need to pre-cook chicken. If you put pre-cooked chicken in curry it will become over cooked and chewy like rubber.

Put chicken pieces in the prepared curry base, make sure you do not add any water in it. Chicken releases its on water which gives a good flavor to the curry so let it cook own its own. Cover it with a lid while its cooking. Once chicken looks set add little water only if required. Remember chicken does not take much time to cook. Few minutes and it will be done to perfection. Once it looks tender turn it off. Don't let it fall apart.

Also I prefer to marinate raw chicken at-least an hour in advance with little yogurt and garlic ginger paste and kept in fridge ( my mom used to keep it overnight). It makes chicken nice and tender for cooking.


How do I get more flavor in the interior of a brisket? My brisket doesn't have a lot of flavor on the inside. The outside is full of flavor but when getting to the inside it doesn't have much flavor to wow my guests. How do I get more flavor to the interior?

I'm cooking it in the oven, by the way. BBQ is not my thing.

The simplest way would be to make the interior smaller, which could be accomplished in several ways, such as slicing the brisket ahead of time or cutting it in half vertically. This would give you a larger surface area to season, decreasing the amount of unflavored meat and shortening cooking time.


Is there a "color wheel" for spices Are there "models" proposing relationships between spices as there are between colors?
(I understand that color is based on the physics of light and that there is no (afaik) "physics of flavor". I am using it as a metaphor)

I'd like to get more creative and adventurous with mixing spices but I've blindly overspiced a few dishes and have grown cautious... I don't really understand what I am doing sometimes when I add spices: what I am trying to achieve.

Oregano and Marjoram  – next to each other on the "spice wheel". Marjoram is more polite.
Tarragon – has overnight dates with Cardamon but swears they are not
an "item"
Bay Leaves – no one knows what these taste like but they are really important!

I'm joking but I hope you get the gist. Is there a "model" or language with spices? ("Bay Leaves add DEPTH, damn it!!!") which informs how they can be used?

You are not the first to wonder about that and yes, there are “color wheels” approaches, two books for example are

The Science of Spice: Understand Flavour Connections and Revolutionize your Cooking by Dr. Stuart Farrimond
The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit

Not necessarily an endorsement of these specific books (there are more with a similar concept, some discussing spices, other flavors in general), but those two should get you started in the right direction - or at least give you an idea.


Why does my dough always need more water than the recipe calls for? It seems that every dough recipe that I try ends up needing more liquid than the recipe calls for. This applies to pasta dough as well as bread dough. I don't think I've made but one recipe where the ingredients worked out.

Typically, I'm using a recipe from something like a youtube video, so I know what the dough should look like. Theirs might be soft and pliable, where mine "tears" when I try to knead it and won't come together.

I occasionally have to add flour, but mostly I end up adding water which makes a slimy mess on my hand till it absorbs into the dough. I'd like to get the amount correct from the get go. I know that the amount of required liquid can vary with certain factors, like cooking times varying at different elevations, but it shouldn't be a problem where I live. I'm just tired of trying a recipe and following the directions to the letter, only to find out my dough needs more water.

Am I going to have to deal with this every time I make a dough recipe and write down my adjustments for the next time? Is there enough liquid there and I just need to let it absorb into the flour? What do you think is going on? I do realize that recipes usually need a little tweaking, but I don't run into this consistent problem with any other recipe I make.

EDIT: I live in the South East, USA. One recipe example is the one off of youtube.com from 'America's Test Kitchen' that if for pasta. I can't remember the recipe exactly, I don't even think it calls for water, just eggs and flour, but the issue with too little liquid happens every time I make it. If I can find a bread recipe that calls for water, I've used, I'll post it as well.

Edit: (5/12/2015) I tried to make a recipe I had for Ryan's Rolls. It wanted 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of honey for the liquid and wanted me to add 3 cups of flour and use the paddle attachment till it came together in a sticky mass, then add an additional 1 cup of flour. I did as instructed, and while it was a sticky mass, I'm not sure it came together in the way they were thinking. I went to add the additional flour and knew it wouldn't take it all, so I added half a cup. It was so dry I took a 1/2 cup of water and added it a little at a time. The dough finally started to do right, but was very tough. I ended up having to stop the kitchen aid a few times and kneed by had to help pull it together. It was easier to work after resting a couple of hours, but my rolls still ended up with weird layers where I was kneading and it wasn't coming together, because it was overly dry and/or tough, and that was leaving out flour and adding almost 1/3rd again the liquid. I also pulled out my scale for this and measured everything by weight to get it exactly right. It's a good example of what I was talking about.

There are at least four likely causes that could be factors:

I'd say the most common problem for your issue is measurement error.  If you aren't measuring flour by weight, it's nearly impossible to be consistent.  And many recipe sources will assume different methods for measuring flour by volume.  You could use the "spoon and level" method where you use a tablespoon or something to gradually add flour loosely to your measuring cup and then level off with a knife or straightedge.  You could use the "scoop and sweep" method where you stick the entire measuring cup into the flour and sweep it against the edge of the bag or bin of flour to level it.  The latter one will pack the flour more and result in more flour per cup.  Or, you might not be leveling the flour at all, or shaking it off until it's roughly level.  You could be packing the flour in tight or scooping it from a tightly settled bag, or you could be using flour that was loose after being poured or even put through a sifter to aerate it further.
In any case, different volume measuring techniques can produce an error of 30% or more in flour measurement, which can make the difference between a dough that's stiff and dry vs. a dough that's so sticky you can't handle it.  Most recipes that use volume measurements assume either a "spoon and level" or "scoop and sweep" method.  If your source doesn't specify, try using a measurement method that won't pack the flour down as much -- which might solve your dry dough problem.

As already mentioned by ElendilTheTall, flours can vary significantly in terms of the amount of water they absorb.  There's the issue of type: high-gluten vs. bread flour vs. "all-purpose" vs. pastry vs. cake.  If you are using a high-protein/high-gluten flour like bread flour but the recipe requests all-purpose, your flour will likely absorb too much water.  Similarly, some brands of flour are made from harder or softer wheats, even they are all termed "all-purpose."  In the U.S., for example, King Arthur all-purpose will absorb more water than Gold Medal all-purpose, and both will absorb a lot more than "southern" all-purpose flours like White Lily.  Flours in other countries may vary in their processing and content in other ways (ash content, extraction, milling size, etc.).  And even flours from the same company will vary by batch, age, etc.
In general, try using the type of flour recommended by the recipe.  If that isn't working, you might consider a different brand, a "softer flour," or simply use less.

Kitchen environment can make a big difference, particularly temperature and humidity.  Flour will absorb or lose moisture over time when stored in conditions with changing humidity.  Dough will also absorb or lose moisture at different rates depending on your kitchen conditions.  Thus, even if you measure flour by weight, you can sometimes see significant discrepancies from batch to batch.  If you're using recipes that were designed in a place which was much more humid than your kitchen, it could explain some differences in outcome.

Bad recipes.  It's perhaps obvious, but if you've mostly been using one or two sources for recipes, it's possible that there are consistent errors or problems.  (Or, it's possible that the cookbooks/chefs/sources assume specific measuring techniques, flour types, etc. from what you're using.)

Regardless of what the problem is, if you're noticing a consistent error, then the most obvious solution is to try to quantify how big that error is, and then plan for it.  For example, try reducing your flour measurement in every recipe by 10%, and see what happens.  As you point out, it's often more annoying to add water to a dough than to add flour, so it's better to start out a bit moist and continue adding flour until you get the right texture.
If the error is consistent, and you can always fix it by reducing your amounts by X proportion, you've solved the issue.  The alternative is to consider the various potential causes I mentioned above and see whether you can vary them until you find a solution.


When to apply a white egg wash on white wheat bread? My go to bread is a much appreciated result of many tips from this site. It is a basic 75% hydration high-protein wheat bread that proofs in total for about 4.5-5.5 hours. I think it qualifies as a no knead bread.
I wanted to get a shinier and softer surface so I tried to brush on a white egg wash with a 3:1 whites:water ratio. I can't imagine this to be an issue.
I applied the wash just before I tossed it in to the oven at 240C -> reduced to 200C after the initial steam (about 40 grams of water I threw in) wore off.
The result was disappointing in that I didn't get it as shiny as I'd hoped for and the brushing looked like it was painted on, not a part of the crust. The crust also has none of the softness I'd expect from something with egg-white protein in it.
I hope my question isn't too broad, my immediate concern is, should I brush on the egg white just after final shaping: 20 minutes before it goes in the oven or is it fine to brush it on immediately before?
After the answers:
This is a poor reference: My main problem was that my electronic scale was off in an unpredictable fashion.

You are trying to counteract the formation of a crust - which is the opposite of what a good hot bake works towards.

The key to this is to keep the surface of the dough as moist as possible and this starts already after the shaping during the second rise. Apply the first wash at this point. I personally go for a whole egg, mixed with a splash or two of milk. This will reduce the “skin” that tends to form on the surface. Repeat the egg-washing right before you bake your bread. A generous steaming will also slow down the crust formation.

If you don’t like the slight color caused by the egg yolks, using more milk or pure cream could be a start in the right direction.

But without eggs, it’s difficult to get a soft crust and that lacquer-like gloss. This is an enriched dough, twice brushed with cream and baked at 200 - 180 C for about 45 minutes:

The crust is super soft, though.

For hard crusts on bread, a quick spray or wipe down with water just a minute or two before you pull it out will be the simplest way.


Infusing Chilies in Alcohol I have been reading about infusing chilies in alcohol to create a liqueur,  and I'm not clear on how they should be infused (if at all). Various sources suggest various methods (whole vs. chopped, length of time, etc.), but I'm not clear on the influence of these factors.

How long should the chilies be infused?

Is there a known "upper bound" after which all of the spice gets transfered to the liquid? Can one infuse them indefinitely, or is there a botulism / spoilage risk?
Is there any problem with infusing them whole?

Would making a small hole in each suffice? I'd like to do so for aesthetic purposes, but I'm not sure the implications this will have on flavor / spoilage.
What, if any, are the advantages of cooking them prior to infusion?

I have seen that some people cook the chilies first, but I assumed the flavor would be imparted eventually, even without cooking. So, is there any point cooking them?

I've infused jalepenos for 1-2 weeks successfully, I don't know if there is an upper limit past that. The alcohol should prevent spoilage and the pH is too low for botulism to be a concern.
Infusing them whole is ok. There will be a lot more heat if you leave in the seeds and membranes.
Cooking them will change the flavor. Only do this if you want the flavor of a cooked chile.


What is the origin of spam musubi, a Hawaiian dish? I love spam musubi...basically spam sushi. It is made with some rice(some people use sushi rice)' a 1/4" slice of spam, and some teriyaki sauce...it is wrapped with a sheet of nori.  This is the basic recipe.

How was this first conceived? I know that the Hawaiians are the biggest consumers of spam (chicken/egg problem? Did the creation of spam musubi help the Hawaians become the second largest consumers (Guam is first) of spam? :) ). There's also a large presence of Japanese on the islands. You can see that the environment is essentially set up for some sort of fusion of the two cultures.

Who was the first to conceive this dish?

Spam became prevalent in the US occupied Pacific islands during World War 2 since fresh meat was difficult to procure at the time.  Since it was a primary food staple, it was incorporated into various dishes, and has remained a popular food.  Spam musubi is just an an extension of this.  Making do with the meat available to create a tasty dish, obviously influenced in this case by Japanese culture.


How to prevent bread sticking to cast iron pan? I have seasoned the bread pan, and generously apply oil before putting the dough in (note: I use no-knead method and let my bread rise in the pan, then put it straight into oven). The bread itself turns out great, and white bread does not stick. However my whole wheat honey bread sticks no matter what I do. I suspect this is due to sugar in the honey, but am not sure. Is there anything else I can do to prevent sticking?

If you are having trouble with honey-wheat bread sticking in your cast iron pan, there are several things worth trying:

Make sure the pan is well seasoned.   There should be a smooth, continuously black surface over the entire food contact area of the pan.
Spray the pan with oil before adding the bread.  This may or may not work but is probably worth a try.
Do not add the loaf directly to the cast iron pan.  Put it in on a parchment sheet, so that it is not in direct contact with the oven.  You will have to peel off the parchment afterwards, but it should reduce sticking.

In fact, in some versions of no-knead bread, this is the recommended method until the loaf is well set, then you remove the parchment for the latter part of the baking to facilitate bottom crust development.

Honey-wheat breads are going to be inherently more sticky than a pure white bread, especially because of the sugar, and because the whole wheat bran in the loaf tends to cut the gluten strands, making it hard to get a tightly stretched gluten network on the outside of your loaf, which is one of the things that makes it less likely to stick.


How long does ceviche keep? We just made ceviche with ahi tuna, lots of lime juice, avocado, onion, cilantro and jalapeño. It's wonderful. Unfortunately we made too much. Now, I've never made it before and want to know about how long I should keep it in the fridge, if at all?

Note: this is not super high quality sashimi grade fish. Nor is it the freshest fish in the world.

Drain as much of the "cooking" solution (lime etc) off as possible, and store separately

Both parts will keep a day or two

After draining you can briefly rinse the fish to stop the "cooking" process, otherwise it may go a little mushy, but not unappetising


Brown line in back of shrimp What could be a brown line in the back of an already peeled shrimp?

That is the gastrointestinal tract of the shrimp. It is commonly called a vein or sand vein. It is often removed, but this is not required since it is not harmful and is mostly tasteless.

To devein a shrimp  you would make a shallow cut from head to tail and then wipe or rinse out the vein under running water.


How to salt and roast pistachios? I have a bunch of raw pistachios, in their shells, and I want to roast them and also have them be lightly salted.

I presume I would do this in a conventional oven. I like to roast them a few pounds at a time.

At what temperature and for how long, and what is the best way to lightly salt them?

I have a perforated pizza pan which might be good for roasting them since it would allow air to flow around the pistachios, providing even heat.

To get the salty effect you're looking for, soak the pistachios in a brine before roasting.


Dough(s) to hold moist oven dish contents I have a recipe at home that creates an oven dish with fairly moist contents (curry sauce, creme fraiche, cherries from a can). This specific recipe calls for ready-to-use croissant dough, which I use, and the recipe works fine.

At one point, I made this recipe with plain old puff pastry, and it turned into a soggy mess. Thus, I concluded that pre-made croissant dough is suitable for wettish oven dishes, and I've been able to use it as such. However, it has a slightly sweet innate flavor, which isn't always appropriate.

Thus: what other dough(s) can be used to create oven dishes with fairly moist contents?

Canned biscuit dough might be a good neutral substitute (you'd have to roll/cut/tear it as appropriate), or just make your own equivalent (flour + butter + milk = tasty).


Milk alternative in pancake batter What could I use in place of milk in pancake batter?  Would rice milk or soya milk work?  What about in scotch pancakes?

Soy milk works great in pancakes. My basic recipe for pancakes is about a cup of flour, about a cup of soy milk, a tablespoon or two of sugar and veg oil, and a few teaspoons of baking powder. Works great, makes nice, fluffy pancakes. (I know, not a "recipe" so much as list of ingredients with approximate proportions, but that's how I tend to cook, experimenting and learning from experience as I go...)

Edit: I don't know about scotch pancakes; I've never made them, but upon looking up a couple recipes, I don't see why it wouldn't... Soy milk behaves much like milk in these kinds of recipes, the only difference being that soya adds a bit of binding that dairy milk doesn't (and perhaps a smidge of a taste difference?)

Edit2: Haha, ok, so my "pancakes" are much more like your "scotch pancakes" -- there is such a wide spectrum of "pancakes", from crepe-y types to big, fluffy types... So then, yes, I'd say soya'd certainly work fine for scotch pancakes; for your "pancakes", I still suspect it'd be alright. With crepes mainly you just need liquid (hence the mixing with water in your posted recipe) -- the milk is mainly for some added flavour; I'd conjure that soya would work just fine.


Chemistry of maple butter I've recently tried to make maple butter with the following recipe:

Heat maple syrup to about 110 - 115°C
Cool to about 20°C (by putting the pot in an ice/water bath)
Stir manually for 20-30mins

I have the following questions:

Most of the recipes that I've seen warned that you have to keep it as still as possible during cooling...otherwise the result will be grainy. Why? (I'm guessing the "grains" would be sugar crystals?)
What is the chemical transformation taking place here? Why is the result "creamy" (and only after lots of stirring)? My best guess is that the sugar is crystallizing...and by stirring it, you're keeping the crystals tiny (preventing them from forming larger masses)?
Why do these precise temperatures start the change (115°C heat, then cool <40°C)? I've tried it twice, and both times I must have taken it off the heat just before reaching the right temperature...it stayed very thin after cooling, and didn't change with stirring (but worked after re-heating to the right temperature).
Many recipes say to use light maple syrup (not dark). Why? I tried it with Amber and it came out fine...

You are correct.  The graininess that occurs if you agitate the candy while it cools comes from sugar crystals.
You are correct again.  The stirring creates crystals, which are what causes the change in texture.  Stirring at this point in time in particular ensures that they are micro-crystals (too small for the human tongue to feel) rather than big grainy crystals.
The high and low temperature are needed to remove enough water from the syrup so that the cooled liquid is super-saturated with dissolved sugar.

Here is the nerdy, science-y explanation.  When you heat sugar + water to a high temperature you are first dissolving all the sugar crystals (maple syrup's sugars are all already dissolved at room temperature), then creating a more and more saturated solution.  The higher you take the solution above 100°C, the more saturated the solution gets.  Then by cooling without agitation to a lower temperature, you are create a super-saturated solution.  A super-saturated solution is an essential step in these types of candies (the same basic technique is used for fudge and fondant as well as maple creams).

At the point where you have the solution cooled down enough for it to be super-saturated, that is when you need to start agitating it.  This agitation allows crystals to start forming, but as you guessed in your second question, it also prevents them from getting too large. The precise temperatures used also contribute to the final possible crystal size. This candy is ultimately going to be made of micro-crystals suspended in syrup.  If you don't heat it high enough to begin with, the solution won't be saturated enough and the crystals will just dissolve back into the syrup.  If you don't cool it enough before starting to beat it, the instability before the solution is super-saturated will cause larger crystals to precipitate out of the solution, causing the graininess (like how rock candy works, but at a much smaller scale).

While I haven't made this recipe before, I suspect that because the end result of this recipe is still liquid, that you could wait until it's even cooler before beating it.  I am also pretty certain that if you did cool it for longer, that the whole "beat manually for 20 minutes" step could be replaced with a quick spin in the food processor (if you have one).  By comparison, fondant is traditionally made in a similar way by cooling on a marble slab and then agitating it manually.  This method that uses a food processor gives identical result (or better, to be honest) with much less physical effort.  I suspect your maple butter recipe could have a similar labor-saving update made to it.  The one thing you don't want to mess around with is not heating it enough initially, which you've already found by testing, or not cooling it enough before starting to agitate.

The grade of maple syrup has nothing to do with this crystal formation.  I can only guess on this specification in the recipe, and my guess is that because the boiling will concentrate the flavor, they suggest starting with a lighter syrup so the end result won't be too dark.  I also use amber grade in the boiled maple candies I make, with no issues.  I've personally never thought that "too maple-y" could be a problem.

Reference: Chocolates and Confections by Peter J. Greweling.


Gluten tester; simple and fast I am looking for a simple and fast gluten level tester (electronic is fine)

There are the testers available for people with Coeliac's which require making a solution from a food sample, and then adding a drop of that to a test strip and waiting some time. They don't tend to actually say how much gluten is present, just that there is

I am hoping for something that uses a very small sample and can perform a test in less than a minute. This ideally can be done at the food wholesalers premises. The result should indicate the amount of gluten in the sample

Edit:

Found a 16Kg machine that takes more than 5 minutes per test, getting closer http://factory.dhgate.com/electronic-measuring-instruments/gluten-tester-mj-iii-p38573988.html

You would probably want to create something like an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), similar to the home pregnancy tests you can buy at the pharmacy. The machine you linked to is to test large quantities of gluten in wheat flour, much more than what it would take to cause illness in someone who is gluten-sensitive.

Doing this at home would probably be rather challenging without a "kitchen lab" that is better equipped than that of the Modernist Cuisine folks as you need to do the following:

1) Create an antibody to gluten. Bind the antibody to your test substrate.

2) Create an antibody to the antibody-gluten complex. Add a marker to this antibody.

3) Put the sample through your test substrate, add the antibody-marker to develop.

It's expensive to do the first time but once you do it you can start to see economies of scale when you ramp it to mass-production.


Is thicker Gai Lan less chewable and piercable? How does thickness of Gai Lan correlate with chewability? All 4 pictures of 薑汁生炒芥蘭 were taken at Tasting Court restaurant, Happy Valley, HK.
Thinner 1, 2

Thicker 3, 4

Thickest

Course #6: Stir-fried Kale with Ginger Essence
Good-ol-veggie dish with a touch of gingery kick. The restaurant peels the skin and trims the tops and bottoms of the each stalk in order to offer uniformity and the softest parts of the kale.

Simple answer, the thicker the vegetable the older it is. The older it is the tougher and especially more fibrous, the skin and the stalk in general is. You'll see the same with any green stalky vegetable (eg: Broccoli). It's peeled especially with the older plant, as if it's old enough it could be quite fibrous. It looks like the first picture isn't peeled. Likely because it's young enough, that the skin is still very tender.


Why do apples bleed after soaking in boiling water for 10 seconds and what substance is it? I was trying to remove the wax. I don't really know what kind of wax is used. It is not listed as an ingredient. That's a mystery for another day. Nor do I know if it is harmful to eat but I thought I would remove it and enjoy an apple. I read a 10 second soak in boiling water and then I scrubbed with baking soda.
The apple skin felt dull and slightly able to be shifted so I assume all the wax was gone. I put the apple aside for an hour or so and it was bleeding a tear shapped sticky substance that I rinsed off with hot water. I sat the apple down and a few hours latter the same thing, Bleeding a sticky substance. I washed it off again and finally ate the apple. Does anyone know what the substance might be and why is it bleeding out?
A word of warning, You will need a heavy duty scrub pad for your pot if you boil apples in it. After the pot dried there was a sticky substance which I asssume is some unknown type of wax that covers the sides of the pot. I was able to get most of it off but not all of itf. The pot is stainless steel with copper bottom.

There are two types of wax on apples, both of them are from natural sources and are safe to eat. Occasionally other types of sprays are used on apples, including polyethylene (a type of plastic), which is derived from ethanol made from fermenting corn.
The first type of wax is produced by the apples themselves, and is called a bloom. These natural waxes are produced by the apple to protect it from drying out and from allowing fungal spores to penetrate and cause rot in the apple (this would damage the seeds and hence the chance of the plant reproducing successfully).  The wax in blooms contain a bunch of chemicals (as one might expect), including ones found in petroleum.
Sometimes these waxes are removed from the apple by washing at the producer/growers after the apple is picked. In order to preserve the apple so that it appears on the shelf in a manner that most people like to eat, the apples are sprayed with the second type - a very fine wax coat which consists of about 3 milligrams of wax (3/1000ths of a gram, or 0.0001 oz) per apple. The waxes used here are from natural sources such as carnuba oil, candelilla wax or even shellac from the lac scale bug.
Boiling the apples as you did probably resulted in partial cooking of the apple (if the skin was loose at all, cooking is certain), this could result in releasing some of the fruit juice, much as you would when making apple sauce. As I am sure you know, apple sauce is sticky from the sugars in it, and this is likely the source of the sticky droplet - every time you picked up the apple or applied pressure to it, it squashed out some of the sticky sugar sauce.
Exactly what needs to be declared as a food additive is dependent on where in the world you are and often on the amount of additive added. It is quite likely that what you washed off the apple is a natural coating.
There is a basic description and some explanation of apple waxes at McGill University


Better kinds of knives for elderly persons? I'm doing research for my culminating undergrad project on what kind of knives are appropriate for elderly persons, aged about 65-75 years old, and I've got three main questions:

A gerontologist told me that the elderly usually prefer smaller knives, but why would that be? I would have thought bigger ones have more balance and more weight to cut through things.
I'm focusing on arthritis as well, because about 50% of people aged 65 and older have some form of it. I've seen those kinds of knives that look like an upside-down scythe where the blade is below the handle. What other kinds of handles are ergonomic like this?
Most importantly! I need advice on what kind of blade is high quality but long lasting (and keeps sharp for a long time). I've read that ceramic knives can break easily, so stainless steel is probably the way to go. Is carbon steel better, or a different material? And what about bevels? Do certain kinds stay sharper for longer than others?

Thank you!!

Being in that age group & my wife also;

Steel;
I prefer high carbon steel to hold an edge,
 whether high carbon stainless or not.

Edge shape;
I shape the blade and sharpen the cutting edge myself,
 it's the only way to control the quality.
Highly polished for smooth nonstick cutting.
Sharp enough to not feel it, if accidentally cutting yourself.
When young I liked symmetrical convex edge,
 as I've lived and learned,
I now prefer one side flat, and the other convex,
 because they track straight while cutting.

Cross section angle;
Very keen for all knifes.
Large angle for meat cleaver.

Knife profile & size;
Sharp serrations on stake knifes (4” blade).
Wavy serrations on bread knife (13.5” blade, very long).
Slightly curve edge on vegetable cleaver (6.5” blade, 1mm thick).
Slightly curve edge  on oriental kitchen knife (6.5” blade, 2mm thick, 3” deep).
Several chef knifes (8” blade).
Mezzaluna curve on a ulu knife (6.5” blade, 1mm thick).

Full tang whenever possible.
End grain cutting board.
Smooth sharpening steel (no ridges),
 I want to remove any wire edge, not create one.
Chicago Cutlery standard riveted wooden handle,
 with no burs or tang overhang.
Blade taper, I have found Messer is great.
Only my wife gets to cut with my knifes.


Why might a cake collapse after cooking I have successfuly made a Lemon Drizzle cake (recipe at end) several times, but the last 3 attempts have all collapsed in the middle to some extent.

One of the attempts collapsed in such a way it almost ended up like a ring, with a 6 cm chasm in the middle.

The ingredients and techniques have mostly been consistent

mixer: kitchen aid
oven: Aga
fat: originally used butter, 2 of the failed cakes used soft margarine. The last used butter. Uncertain whether any of the butter was salted.
flour. last techniques have used a new brand of Self Raising flour

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter , softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
finely grated zest 1 lemon
225g self raising flour

topping (although it collapses before this)

juice 11⁄2 lemon
85g caster sugar

Recipe

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then add the eggs, one at a time, slowly mixing through. Sift in the flour, then add the lemon zest and mix until well combined. Line a loaf tin (8 x 21cm) with greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture and level the top.

Bake @ 180 c for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. While the cake is cooling in its tin, mix together the lemon juice and sugar to make the drizzle. Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then pour over the drizzle - the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping. Leave in the tin until completely cool, then serve.

Note it collapses while cooling in its tin and isn't directly related to pricking the cake.

It's possible that your new brand of self raising flower has more raising agent. This causes a initial raise to happen faster resulting in large 'bubbles' that are less stable. The cake rises higher and then is more prone to falls.

Fast changes in temperature or air pressure will cause the cake to collapse. That means every time you open the oven, or if your oven isn't very air tight every time you open an close the kitchen door. Loud slams of doors are especially bad.

Higher levels of raising agent are especially an issue if you live at a higher elevation or if there is low air pressure that day.


What's the purpose of clarifying butter? Seriously, if it's just an ingredient in something larger, is it going to make a difference if the butter's been clarified or not?

You can heat clarified butter to a higher temperature for two reasons -- you remove the milk solids, which can burn, and you remove the water, which will boil at 100°C and cause spattering.

In baking, clarified butter's lack of water means that it can't develop gluten as you would with simple melted butter.  It's actually more similar to other oils than it is to melted butter when baking.

In the case of ghee, my understanding is that because it's from a warm country, part of the reason for making it was as a preservative, as the ghee would have a longer shelf-life  (months) than standard butter in the local climate.


Can I increase cooking time of bread to make it less gooey? I've been experimenting with gluten-free baking (due to Celiac, not because I think it will make me skinny). I've made great cakes and cookies, but recently tried to make rolls. In the process I've discovered how to make waffles and muffins, completely by accident. Today while "playing around" with my muffin recipe, hoping to make delicious oat bran muffins, I noticed that the insides didn't quite get done. Eventually they did sort of solidify.

So, what does any of this have to do with bread? Well, for some reason the "muffins" turned out instead to be bread. I don't mean "bread-like" I mean "bread" except in muffin tins. So, using this exact recipe I should be able make bread, but I'm worried about the bread not getting done all the way through since the cross section in a bread pan (which I'd have to buy) is larger than the muffin tins I was using.

My thought on how to "solve" this problem would be to lower the temperature a bit, and then extend the cooking time. The current muffins were cooked for about 30 minutes at 375 °F. I was thinking maybe 325 °F for 40?

I bake a lot of sourdough bread, and I find that the higher the hydration percentage (the ratio of water to flour) the "gooier" the bread. You might want to try using less water in your recipe.


How to make central/south american "arroz con pollo" In Belize, Peru, and the Dominican Republic I absolutely loved the perfectly moist and delicious arroz con pollo. Always flavorful and simple, it was my fall back anywhere I was anytime I was too tired to try something new.

Can anybody here share with me the way to make this simple delicious style, my wife knows how to make it with a tomato base mexican style the way she grew up with it, but as we've had it without the tomato base she's not sure what to do to get that same moist light delicious flavor.

We searched for recipes, but all of them were the mexican tomato base kind. Please help anyone who has had this same dish I'm referring to.

To be more specific, I'm looking for the various types of ingredients used for flavoring this dish around central/south America, not a specific recipe. I am rather interested to the variety of ways this dish is seasoned when made without a tomato base.

Use Chicken Broth for about 1/2 of the water needed for the rice, and then use a can of beer for the rest.  This will give it a great flavor for the recipe.


what makes red tomato sauce turn orange in colour? I have noticed that tomato sauce (having started with deep red tomatoes) can turn orange.

The colour change isn't from mixing in an ingredient of different colour such as cream. It seems to occur in these observed circumstances:

Blended using a blender or an immersion blender (boat motor).  The colour change is noticeable quickly (30 seconds or so)
Cooked tomato sauce for a long time (hours)

The sauce stays nice and red if taken off the heat quickly and not blended.

Some of the ideas are:

Oxidization: the immersion blender doesn't incorporate much air so this is unlikely.
pH change: this usually requires adding of other items such as vinegar.
Breakdown of seeds or something else in the tomatoes releasing something that causes the change in colour.  Although I think I've seen seedless tomato sauce also go orange.

This question also seems to have been asked on the serious eats forum without a substantive answer.

Update:

It's been a few years but there now is a definite answer to this question.

@PegDat is correct.  The Tomatoes Oxidize when they are exposed to air and turn orange.

This was proved using an experiment with vacuum blender  blending tomatoes with air and with most of the air pumped out.

When you reduce the air in the blender chamber, the tomatoes remain bright red.


How do I dissolve chunky powder completely in milk? I am talking especially about Cadbury Bournvita.

That powder has tiny and somewhat hard chunks in it which don't get dissolved easily. How do dissolve it completely in milk?

I think the Q&A linked by @Joe has most of the tricks in it. Hot, paste, make syrup, blender, etc. Mixing stuff into cold milk (unless specially prepped for that) is not a good scene. Surprising they haven't done better at that given the marketing, but corporate competence is a rare thing - they may be too big to get someone that knows how to make a powder dissolve in cold milk working where they need to work - Nestle solved that one (at least) 50 years ago. Too many vice presidents, and not enough food science engineers? Puzzling.

If you have "small hard chunks" either pre-grind dry in a mortar and pestle, or grind the paste step suggested in the other answer in a mortar and pestle with a little liquid.

Or contact Cadbury all wide eyed and innocent and ask why you get little hard chunks when you mix their product (I assume, as instructed on the package) 8-)


Egg replacement for fried chicken I often make fried chicken fingers the traditional way with an egg and milk covered cutlet dredged in seasoned flour, however my girlfriend is now on not only a gluten-free diet, but also a hypo-allergenic one which excludes eggs and dairy as well.

My questions is, what are some ideas for an egg-less batter for fried chicken?

For the dry mix, I'm mostly using rice flour as a GF alternative to standard all purpose flour, which is okay.

My concern is with the wet mix, some things I have already tried for the wet potion of the mix:

3 parts cornstarch to 1 part water to replace the same quantity of eggs: This resulted in a good flavor, but lacked the flaky texture I was going for, the batter was very crunchy but smooth on the outside.
A mixture of prepared mustard and water thickened up a bit with some of the dry mix: This resulted in the perfect flaky texture that I wanted, but I dislike the taste of the mustard in the batter.
A mixture of apple sauce and water, thickened up with some of the dry mix: This resulted in a flavor that was better then the mustard, and a texture that was better then  just the cornstarch, but I feel as though the apple flavor makes this option better suited to something like a pork schnitzel than a chicken cutlet.

I do have gluten free bread crumbs as a last resort to help get the texture I want, but I usually prefer to have a bread crumb free batter in my chicken fingers.

What might be a good egg alternative or a good wet mix substitute that will allow for a flaky texture with either a neutral flavor, or one that lends itself well to chicken.

It is not necessary to have any egg to make a breading.

You should instead take a step back:  rather than trying to create a substitution for egg in  a breading which relies on their unique properties, instead use one of the many breading methods which does not.

Among them are:

Simply dredging in an acceptable starchy flour (such as corn meal)
Using a (gluten free) tempura type batter
Using a (gluten free) beer batter without egg

All of them can be enhanced with spices or seasonings that you prefer such as chili powder, garlic powder, and so on.  The latter two can even accommodate wet prepared condiments (in reasonable quantities) like prepared mustard or soy sauce.

While the result will not be identical to the classic triple-layered French breading, it can be very good in its own right.


How can I create this coconut milk, fruit, and veggie snack at home? My baby and I both enjoy Happy Creamies.  I don't enjoy the price, however, and I do enjoy making food for my family.  I'm trying to figure out what the basics of a similar homemade item would be.

The snacks are about U. S. quarter sized around and shaped like large chocolate chips.  I imagine that's easy enough to re-create using a pastry bag or even a plastic bag.  The texture of the snack is similar to a vanilla wafer, only it melts a little easier in the mouth (similar to a Puff, only without the distinct rice puff texture).

The ingredient lists for the three different types of Happy Creamies are as follows

  organic sweet potato, organic apple puree concentrate, organic sweet pea, organic white grape juice concentrate, organic coconut milk, organic guar gum, organic tapioca starch, organic spinach, natural flavor, xanthan gum, malic acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), B. coagulans, pre and probiotics, organic kiwi, organic cinnamon

(apple, spinach, pea, and kiwi))

  organic sweet potato, organic mango, organic carrot juice concentrate, organic guar gum, organic orange juice concentrate, organic white grape juice concentrate, organic tapioca starch, natural flavor, xanthan gum, citric acid, B. coagulans, organic coconut milk, pre and probiotics

(carrot, mango, and orange)

  organic butternut squash, organic apple, organic strawberry, organic coconut milk, organic guar gum, organic carrot juice concentrate, organic white grape juice concentrate, organic raspberry, organic tapioca starch, natural flavor, citric acid, xanthan gum, B. coagulans, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), pre and probiotics

(strawberry, raspberry, and carrot)

It looks like the essential elements are some sort of starchy puree (butternut squash or sweet potato), coconut milk, guar gum, and tapioca starch.  Am I right?  How can I go from this information to a recipe, or at least a start on a recipe?

Ok I'm going to give this a shot by helping you understand why the ingredients are in there. At it's core this seems to be a very aerated meringue with stabilizers to help avoid using dairy products and eggs.

  organic sweet potato, organic apple puree concentrate, organic sweet
  pea, organic white grape juice concentrate

These ingredients are your base flavors, they seem to be a pretty simple mix of naturally sweet ingredients to bring the sugar content up.

  organic coconut milk, organic guar gum, organic tapioca starch, xanthan gum

These ingredients are going to likely be added together first to hydrate the gum and the tapioca starch is going to act as a bulking agent to make it have more volume without being dense. The guar gum and xanthan gum are going to give a more consistent mouthfeel and flavor release and add some stability to the meringue. These two hydrocolloids together have a synergistic effect and will strengthen the overall product, allowing it to take on more air without collapsing.

  organic spinach, natural flavor, malic acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin
  C), B. coagulans, pre and probiotics, organic kiwi, organic cinnamon

These final ingredients appear to be flavor enhancing or balancing. Malic acid is very tart as is kiwi, the cinnamon likely helps to balance this. Ascorbic is likely in there as an antioxidant to prevent discoloration and the rest look to be the pro-biotics that are touted in the packaging but really probably play very little part in the making of the food.

I believe the process of making this will be very similar to this recipe here
http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2007/04/whipped_yogurt_.html


Making juice from fresh fruit I bought pineapple and mango with the intention of making some juice out of them. I tried puréeing the fruit in the food processor and then mixed it with some water and lemon juice in the blender. The result was a really pulpy mess, yielded maybe a liter, if that, and was mostly flavourless.

I have two mangoes and a cored pineapple (like they sell in the grocery store in a container). What can I do this time to make my juice work out better?

The easiest way would be to use an actual juicing machine. Instead of just blending everything together, a juicer will separate the juice from the pulp.

You're looking for something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-67650-Mouth-Extractor/dp/B000FHQJ6C/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1292255706&sr=8-7

Juice goes out one end, pulp out the other.


Why do we soak and squeeze gelatine? I can only assume we use gelatine with liquids (or at least the majority of time it's to set a liquid) - so why soak it first? And why do we then squeeze it? I would assume it's to get rid of something but my searches return no results.

Gelatin sheets are soaked in cold-to-room-temp water in order to soften and rehydrate them slightly before stirring them into the (often hot) food. If you were to try to stir a sheet of gelatin directly into hot liquid, you'd find that it behaves a lot like cornstarch. It clumps up immediately and produces unpleasant-to-eat chunks that only a blender and a chinois have a hope of removing.

You squeeze it after soaking to remove excess (unflavored) water from the exterior. Otherwise, each sheet might bring along quite a bit of water, which will seriously affect the consistency of a product you expect to set up, and might affect the taste of even something like a braise to which you are adding the gelatin just for body.


What are those spices? I was organizing and labeling my spices cabinet when I run into those two spices that I cannot recognize. I'm assuming one of them is fenugreek. I'm quite sure I bought them when I had 'Indian cuisine' phase.
Cropped & sharpened

Original - click for full size.

The left item seems looks and feels like a chopped peanuts or bark. However it has a onion-like/garlic-like smell with some earth or bark component.

Agree that stuff on the right is fenugreek.
The stuff on the left is asafoetida.

source
Asafoetida is a resin and is sometimes sold in chips as depicted.  It smells strongly like onions or garlic which would not be true for any nut.


bread flour strength? I know nothing about bread making and I'm a novice. I've got a new recipe that I really want to try, but it calls for bread flour and doesn't mention the bread flour strength.

I have strong bread flour, is that what they meant? If not, will that work anyway? Is there some way of converting strong bread flour to make it weaker?

"Strong flour" and "Bread flour" generally mean the same thing -- lots of gluten, so the dough can stretch and incorporate lots of bubbles.

Not all bread demands high-gluten flour, but the traditional airy loaf of Western Europe and most of the USA does.

If what you're making is bread of that kind, "strong bread flour" is what you want.

If you're making a cake or a sauce, things will probably be fine -- try it. It might not be perfect but it won't be a disaster. It's worth having some less strong flour (often labelled as "plain flour") in your store cupboard.


What varities of chili peppers are most commonly used in Italy I've been reading some Italian (written in Italian, by Italians) cook books and web sites and I find that many recipes call for peperoncini.  I thought I knew what these are, but according to this article in Wikipedia:

  While called peperoncini in American English, peppers of this
  particular kind, in Italy, are called friggitello (plural friggitelli)
  or more generally peperone (plural peperoni) like other sweet
  varieties of peppers, while the term peperoncini (singular
  peperoncino) is used for hotter varieties of chili peppers.

There are, of course, many varieties of hot chili peppers.  My question is, what variety of peppers would most commonly be used by a cook in southern Italy when a recipe calls for peperoncini?

What varities of chili peppers are most commonly used in Italy

Peperoncini (=literally little big peppers)

Grown and used in all Italy

The green ones - Peperoncini verdi

Used in north Italy, made under vinagre, typical Milano's recipe.
They make it in airtight glass jars and open them in December for Christmas (or whenever)

The red ones - Peperoncini rossi

Grown and used most af all in shouth of Italy. They are put to dry, then made in powder, like chili. Can be from medium hot to high hot. Used for seasoning many recipes in all Italy. Many types of red small peppers are used to be dried and for seasoning recipes.

Peperoncini verdi fritti

http://www.cookaround.com/yabbse1/showthread.php?t=8358 (see the photo 1 and 2)

Typical of south Italy.
They are fried in oil, then dried on a cooking paper, then seasoned with salt.

"Pepperoncini" is a contaminated word by a wrong spelling pronunciation of southern Italy, and "friggitelli" (like "puparuolilli do’ sciumm", in the text) is a local/dialectal denomination, not even known in north Italy.

Peperoncini rossi corti ripieni (=red short filled pepper)
Typical of South, filled with tuna and other ingredients.

Peperoni = (literally = big peppers)

Used in all Italy (the two varieties = the shorter are sweeter) - but any color changes the flavor, so the result, depending on the blend color, changes.

They are used most commonly used to make "peperonata", made with onions, oil and tomatoes (some like a ratatouille). With celery in north of Italy. They can be from sweet to hot.

Can be made in oven also, usually filled. Or passed on any fire to burn the skin, then peeled from the burned skin, reduced in large stripes, put into a container, seasoned with garlic, oil and salt and covered with oil. They let rest at least 24 hours for the flavors to blend.


cheese fondue not binding I am planning on making a cheese fondue this weekend.

How ever last time I made it the cheese (Emmental and gruyere) wouldn't fully disolve into the wine base. It basically was a winey sauce with stringy cheese in it. Aside from the wine (reisling) and cheese the pot was rubbed with a garlic clove and it called for a little lemon and kirsh and a bit of corn flour for thickening.

When I had fondue at a restaurant last time the sauce was a lovely consistency and stuck to the bread nicely without stringy pieces of cheese.

Stringy or seized cheese in a fondue can often be caused by overheating or too little acid.  Using a dry wine may reduce the need for any additional acid.

A good method for a simple cheese fondue is as follows:

prepare the pot
mix the wine and starch then bring to temperature over medium heat.
add cheese and stir continuously for 10-15 minutes until smooth.
season with lemon juice (optional), nutmeg, etc.
keep warm, but do not boil.


What is processed meat? There is inconsistent terminology surrounding what is considered "processed meat". Some take any meat that has been smoked, cured, or possibly dried to be "processed", while others are consider "deli meats" that have added preservatives (nitrates, eg) for longer shelf-life, stability, and color to be processed. Can someone clarify what is a "processed meat" in the context of dietary health recommendations for reduced intake as well as any other contexts in which "processed meat" is a term that is frequently used?

Despite the fashion of using "processed" as if it is a derogatory term, and processed foods are dangerous, almost all foods are processed in some way(s).   Most of us, for example, do not chew wheat berries directly off the stalks, but prefer them threshed, hulled, ground into flour, and then baked into breads or other foods.  What is that, if not processing?

Of course, cooking itself is a form of processing, since most of us no longer eat our meat raw from the carcass.

There are a number of common ways that meat is processed, after being butchered, some of which are more extreme than others.  Some foods have several of these processes applied.  Among the more common are:

Cooking
Grinding (as in hamburger, and many sausages)
Curing with salt or other curing agents (as in bacon)
Canning (as in the infamous Spam, or Vienna sausages)
Drying or dehydrating (jerky)
Pickling (pickled pigs feet)
Smoking (which is often combined with curing, cooking, or drying, such as Virginia ham)
Freezing
Injection of brine or other flavorings or enhancements (many ham products)

I don't think there is any universal measure by which you can consider processing good or bad.  You have to consider each within the context of the particular food product, and its outcome.


Exactly what is "low heat" for making cheese sauce? Having a poor track record of making cheese sauces, I'm determined to do it right at least once in this decade.   I read that one should use "low heat" only.  Too much heat causes the cheese to go stringy or clumpy.  Okay - but just what is "low heat"?  Warm but not beyond what I can stick my finger in comfortably?  Can someone put a number on it, degrees centigrade?

Cheese have enzymes. Enzymes break quickly and easily at 150F/65 C. 50 Celsius for a short period of time should suffice to melt you cheese without breaking the protein structures.

I have committed the same mistake many times. Actually the fist day my in laws where over i tried to impress them with homemade pasta and cheese sauce. My Cheese sauce clumped.   My back up plan is to add milk tomato sauce put it on the blender until it liquifies.


How to make rendang beef with a smooth and consistent texture? New to Malaysian cuisine, I recently tried rendang beef and really liked it. In my attempt to reproduce it at home, I followed several online recipes, mostly this BBC recipe. My end result was somewhat disappointing, being very chunky. How can I improve the texture and make it smooth and consistent? I used a generic food processor, one of the cheapest ones in the store. I don't know if a more expensive one would help, but it seems to me there will bound to be chili flakes, lemongrass chunks, galangal chunks in the puree that I prepare in the first step.

Is all galangal super firm and rigid? This was the first time I have used galangal in my cooking, and it was a solid mass of stone that was difficult to cut.

Also, my rendang beef turned out very tart. I wonder if I should cut back on tamarind paste. (I couldn't find kaffir lime leaves anywhere in Atlanta, so I used the zest and juiceof an ordinary lime.)

A cheap food processor is usually just fine for this type of application, I used a stick blender for years to make curry pastes with good results. Although, if it's a really cheap and nasty one it may not do much for you.

The trick is to chop hard ingredients before blending. Galangal is very hard and will take forever to blend unless you cut it into pieces first. For lemongrass I suggest cutting it lengthways and then cutting into 1 inch or so pieces - bash the fat end with the back of a knife and throw away the pithy hard plug that comes out first.

As for sourness tamarind is not a universal product, you get different intensities throughout the world so you may need to add less. However, it sounds like you overdid the lime a bit, lime leaves aren't that sour so zest and juice from a lime is a bit much. However, you can add more sugar (palm sugar is great) to balance it out. It all depends on how sweet and sour you want it.


How to replace chicken with tofu in a curry I've never cooked tofu before and I appreciate that using a store-bought jar of curry sauce and expecting it to work nicely may be a little optimistic.

However, what cooking method should I use to cook the tofu before placing it in the sauce (Korma/Tikka Massala) (presumably not for very long, it'd already be cooked) and serving with rice?

I'd hazard a guess that frying it is the best option but should I just fry it and leave it at that or ought I use some herbs and spices?

If you're going to be adding a curry sauce, there's no need to just throw on some extra herbs and spices.

Use an extra-firm tofu, and make sure you drain/press out any extra water before frying. Wrap your tofu block in paper/kitchen towels, place a plate with some additional weight (not too much, a few pounds will do), and let it sit up to an hour before slicing and frying.


Corn syrup alternative Many sugar candy recipes ask for corn syrup to add polymerization to the final candy and prevent crystallization.  Body sugaring recipes call for lemon juice to prevent crystallization and maintain plasticity. When corn syrup is not available, would it work to use lemon juice instead?

Try Glucose syrup, usually (in the UK at least) its sold in tubes in the baking aisle.


What can make a gluten free sponge light and fluffy? I've tried 5 recipes for gluten free lemon cake and all of them have a tight brick like texture.

What would make a cake fluffy if it is gluten-free? How do I recognize a recipe which produces a good cake?

I have no trouble making lovely light lemon cake gluten free, and many other gluten free cakes too, I make them for a living.  There is a substitute for gluten and it's called Xanthan Gum. You can buy this separately to add to your flour (about a teaspoonful for every 250g), or in a ready mixed flour blend, at least you can in the UK.  A mixture of flours such as rice, potato starch, tapioca and maize/cornstarch works much better than a single flour when substituting for wheat flour. Each flour has its own unique characteristics and brings different properties to the cake. The combination of these, if got right, makes a light, moist and tasty cake, often better than wheat flour ones - this is feedback from my customers who are not coeliac!

There are recipes to be found on the web for making one's own flour blends if needed, but look for a recipe that contains Xanthan Gum and it will not turn out like a brick.  And there's no need to cream the fat with the sugar and whisk the eggs separately etc. I just use an all-in-one everything in the mixer bowl and mix.


When should or shouldn't you toss pasta with sauce? Tossing pasta with the sauce saves the need to unstick it with starch water. But I have a theory that if the pasta sits in the moisture of the sauce for too long (fridge) it gets soggy and loses it's al dente kick.

How does tossing the pasta with the sauce affect the texture and taste? Should I do that to increase fridge life?

It really depends on what your goal is; that is, what you are doing with the pasta.  If you are making most authentic Italian pasta dishes, the slightly under cooked pasta is transferred to the pan in which the condiment was prepared.  It is then tossed with some water from the pot that that the pasta was cooked in, along with some butter or olive oil (depending on the region of the dish).  This finishes the cooking, emulsifies the sauce, and mixes in the the condiment.  The final dish is not about pasta or the condiment in isolation, but rather the combination.  Just like a salad is not about the lettuce, per se, but the combination of lettuce and dressing.  It is true that pasta will potentially absorb the sauce and get mushy if stored in fridge.  This is less of a problem if sauced appropriately, but still, it is possible.

First choice, prepare only enough pasta for the meal.  Depending on the type of pasta, you are only looking at a maximum of 10 - 12 minutes of cooking and often less. So, it's not really about convenience. If you find you have cooked more than you need, you could always chill and reserve non-sauced pasta, then reheat it in condiment at another time.  But, in my opinion, this would be inferior to freshly cooked, and take almost as much time.

If your goal is a cold pasta salad, by all means, cook, chill, then mix with dressing whenever you need it.


Can you substitute capers for green peppercorn? Can you substitute capers for green peppercorn? I'm making a sauce for a roast.

Capers are generally very salty, and not what you want as a peppercorn substitute.

I think that black/white/red/madagascar peppercorn would be a fine substitute. The distinction between the different pepper flavours is very subtle, and not one to worry about much.


blood in cooked chicken I roasted a chicken at 180 using the fan for 1 1/2 hours, when I got it out of the oven, I pierced it and the juices were clear, I ate some slices of the breast, and the first ones looked fine, but a later one had blood or what looked like blood in it, will I be ok or do I need a doctor?

More than likely you'll be fine as long as you don't start to feel ill. The recommended cooking temperature for meats is based on the temp required to kill the yucky things in the meat.

Sometimes chicken (especially near the bone) cooks a dark red color, nothing dangerous about it.


Frozen Fruits Effectivenss? I've got a variety of frozen fruits in a freezer that I've been neglecting...For 12 months or so, at this point. At this point I'm wondering whether I should bother with the fruit at all or if there's a receipe that works better with aged produce? Part of my stock is fruit that was already frozen and part were cranberries that started fresh and then got the freeze. Any tips?

I have used frozen fruits in syrups and smoothies after over a year in the freezer with good results. They will likely not keep their shape when they thaw, so something where you want a fruit puree will work best.


Blender makes burning smell after liquid spilled on (maybe into) it There is a slight burning like smell when I use my blender now. While making a smoothie, the bottom seal was broken and the drink spilled/poored everywhere. When I use the blender now, I smell this burning type smell. It's a good blender (Osterizer). Should I buy a new one?

See if you can locate the source of the smell.  Blenders are generally designed so that a simple spill doesn't cause permanent damage, but if the connection between the cannister and the motor came partially apart when the seal broke, it is possible that the little doodad they use to interface was damaged.

I've had a burning smell before when using a cheap blender with a high-wattage motor; where the drive shaft connected to the canister was rubber or plastic and stripped, producing a burning smell and lots of little black pieces.

Edit: Burning smell common to Oster blenders

A casual Google search shows that a lot of the Oster blenders and immersion blenders will produce burnt-insulation smells in use, some from the first day.  In your case, it may be coincidence that it started when it did, or if there was ice in your smoothie that could have been enough strain to jiggle something out of alignment and start problems.

I'd start shopping for a new blender.  The burning smell generally means your blender's days are numbered; that smell is the motor or its insulation overheating, and death is soon to follow.  Repairing a burned-out motor will cost around the same amount as a new blender.


Sushi / sashimi knives I've been making sushi for a while at home and now decided to get a set of knives specifically for this purpose (as I have only a couple of general-purpose knives which are horrendous).

The question is - which types of knives should I get? Is there a one universal knife for cutting rolls & carving fish & making sashimi or there are several and what are their names? Maybe there is a standard set for this?

The traditional knife for sushi and sashimi is the yanagi sashimi.  It features a long blade (approx 10in or 270mm) that has a chisel ground blade which is often hollow ground on the back, called urasaki.  The long blade allows you to cut thin slices in one continuous motion so that you don't you don't have slashes marks from changing direction.  There are also other traditional Japanese knives for specific food preparation tasks such as vegetable chopping and meat preparation.  If you already have European-style knives you are comfortable with, there is no need to purchase Japanese-style knives for those tasks.


What vegetables should I add to a japanese curry? I am preparing my first Japenese Curry (cheating incredibly by using the S&B Golden Curry Medium Hot box) and it suggests adding "vegetables" without actually indicating what veggies to add other than onions.

Assuming access to acceptable supermarkets (Asian and normal Australian) what vegetables (normal and/or exotic) make the best compliment to a curry like this?

The most common ones simmered along with curry are onions, carrots, and potatoes. You could even add some sliced apples. Root vegetables are frequently simmered with the curry, and you could consider using variants like sweet potato or squash, kabu, daikon, etc.

As a "topping", the sky is the limit; I've seen blanched okra, cooked renkon, roasted or simmered slices of kabocha squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower.

As non-vegetable toppings added after simmering, I've seen cheese, katsu-style tofu, tonkatsu or menchi katsu.

Edited to add: as Japanese curry is one of the easiest ways of encouraging our children to eat vegetables, my wife and I now both add anything from blanched spinach (near the end of cooking) to (typically canned) tomatoes; the younger one loves it when there are plenty of green peas or even corn in the mix. I like to add cauliflower.


Stewing Tomatoes for a Purée(sauce) Aside from water, are there any other liquids I can use to stew tomatoes to make a purée?

I was thinking maybe chicken stock or vegetable but don't know how that would taste or if it would even be worth wasting stock unless the flavor would be very significant.

Has anyone tried?

If your goal is indeed a sauce or purée, you will want to reduce the total amount of liquid in your tomatoes, typically by reducing the sauce, i.e. boiling the liquid off.

Any additional liquid simply extends the time required unless you add a liquid explicitly for taste, e.g. red wine, a dash of (balsamic) vinegar or broth. Wine for example does influence the flavour profile even in small quantities, stock (depending on concentration) might require quite a large amount to be noticeable and therefore you need to reduce the sauce much longer. Whether this is good for your final product (long simmering to melt flavours) or bad (loosing the "freshness" of your tomatoes) is impossible to say without a recipe or knowledge about the expected results.

If your recipe (or your cook's experience) doesn't call for any addition of this kind, you may use a very small amount or omit the water altogether.
You want to chop (optional: de-seed or peel) your tomatoes and heat them slowly at the beginning. This gives them time to release enough juice to prevent burning. Once you have enough liquid in your pan, proceed as usual.


Saving seasoned flour used for dredging chicken I love to make (and eat) buttermilk fried chicken but I always get carried away with the amount of flour I use.  I am fully aware of contamination due to raw chicken, but is it safe to keep the excess seasoned flour used to coat the raw chickens in an airtight container and use it solely for this purpose?  Before storing the flour I sift out any larger pieces.

It is not a good idea.

You can certainly prepare your seasoned flour mixture and keep it in bulk.  Just transfer it as you need it to the container where you do the actual breading or dredging; then you don't need to discard the entire amount.


Are all dark chocolates with the same amount of cocoa equal? I've noticed 3 ingredients in all dark chocolates:

cocoa mass
cocoa butter
cocoa powder.

This made me wonder if someone could have different ratios of these ingredients (like more cocoa powder than cocoa mass) and still have "dark" chocolate with X% of cocoa while being inferior to some other chocolate.

Another thing I've noticed is that many chocolates have approximately the same mass and amount of cocoa while having very different amounts of sugar (from 15g to 45g), if they have approximate amount of cocoa and mass, how did they stuff additional sugar in it?

There's just a ton of different types of dark chocolates out there that cater to all kinds of needs:

Chocolatiers
Bakers
Gourmets
...

To answer your questions:

Yes, it's rather easy to have a "more fluid" dark chocolate that still contains a high % of pure cocoa and cocoa mass by adding more cocoa butter.

Cocoa mass is a raw ingredient that comes straight out of the beans and cocoa powder and cocoa butter are the separated products from cocoa mass, so to add more sugar, Chocolate producers use the same amount of cocoa mass and powder but a bit less cocoa butter.

One additional factor to consider is the chocolate bean roast and quality. Like coffee, the roasting process can affect the taste.


What quantity of coconut oil should be substituted for butter in a brownie mix? I want to substitute coconut oil for the butter in a brownie mix but I don't know how much to use. The recipe calls for 3/4 stick of melted butter. How much coconut oil should I use?

Butter is about 80% milkfat, and 20% water, more or less.

3/4 stick is 6 tablespoons.

You should be able to substitute six tablespoons of coconut oil one to one.  It should be well within the tolerance of the recipe.

If you really want to account for the water, you would do about 5 tbl of coconut oil, and 1 tbl of liquid.


Cleaning chicken with corn starch? YouTube recently started recommending Chinese cooking videos.  This particular cook has a curious habit of rubbing cornstarch all over the chicken breasts before washing them off.  Is there an advantage to cleaning chicken with cornstarch? Or perhaps an alternate explanation? Some people have suggested it's for tenderizing or velveting but those aren't particularly satisfying answers.

Some asian cultures clean meats with flour and/or cornstarch to remove the game-y smell from it. Since it's being washed off, I don't think it for the velveting.


Why would a pressure cooker shorten a braise time? Say I'm braising a pork shoulder. As i understand it, the point is to maintain a temperature that will melt collagen, while staying below a temperature that would toughen the meat. A good temp for this would be 200 - 250.

I understand that the additional pressure raises the temp inside the cooker to 250 as opposed to normal 212 boiling point, but how is this different then simply setting the oven to 250?

furthermore, if it takes several hours to melt the collagen in the oven at 250, what is it about the pressure cooker that can melt collagen in 1/3 the time at the same temp?

There really are a couple separate issues that come together here:

What is collagen to gelatin conversion?

When collagen converts to gelatin, it is not melting (which is the same type of molecule, just as ice and liquid water are the same thing).

Instead, it is being hydrated which is a chemical conversion process, where water is actually being added into the overall structure of the protein molecule, converting it into a different protein molecule.

This does not happen just because of temperature, but rather because a water molecule with the right level of energy to power the process (that is, moving fast enough) hits the collagen molecule at the exactly proper spot to interact with it and become part of the molecule.

The new molecule is called gelatin.

Why does a pressure cooker facilitate effectively higher temperatures than an oven?

Most foods contain a great deal of water.  On of the fundamental properties of water is that it takes a relatively large amount of energy to convert it from liquid water just at the boiling point (100 C / 212 F at sea level pressure) to vapor just at the same temperature.  This is called the enthalpy of vaporization.

When a food containing water is heated in air at normal pressure, even if the air temperature is much hotter than the boiling point of water, the surface of the food cannot get hotter than the boiling point, because any additional energy goes into converting the water into steam, and drying the surface.

Only once the surface is dry can browning and other processes that happen above 100 C begin.

However, in the inside of the food, which is still wet, the temperature continues to never be able to exceed the boiling point.  Very few foods are normally cooked to the point where the interiors are dry enough to get hotter than this.

In a pressure cooker, the boiling point of water is higher once the pressure is achieved (for brevity, I will not discuss why this is so).   For example, at 15 bar (typical of a pressure cooker, one additional atmosphere of pressure above normal sea level pressure), water will not boil until about 250 F / 121 C.

This permits both the surface and the interior of the food to reach higher temperatures than at normal pressure.  Some cooking processes are accelerated due to this difference.

Why does collagen convert faster?

Collagen conversion to gelatin is a time/temperature dependent process.

That is, the higher the temperature (within reasonable limits, before it burns or decomposes otherwise), the faster the conversion.

Collagen will convert to gelatin at 140 F, but it will take literally several days.  At 170 - 180 F (typical internal temperatures in sea level braising), it takes several hours.

In a pressure cooker, this time can be reduced, because the internal temperature can go higher than it can at sea level temperature.

The reason for this is that collagen to gelatin conversion is a stochastic process.  What this means is that it is essentially random.   As a gross over simplification, imagine that the collagen molecule is a giant molecule (it is) with a button on it.

All of the water molecules are moving around randomly, bouncing off one another.  The higher the temperature, the faster they move on average.   That is, at a low temperature, most molecules are moving relatively slowly, but some are almost stopped, and a very few are very fast.   At a higher temperature, they move faster on average, and a slightly larger number are moving relatively very fast.

Now imagine that the button will not be pressed until a water molecule happens to hit it while going fast enough to hit the button hard enough.   The higher the temperature, the less time it will take for this to happen on average, because more of the water molecules are moving fast.

Take this process over many, many, many collagen molecules, and you have the time/temperature conversion curve:  the hotter the temperature, the faster the conversion overall.

Conclusion

Collagen to gelatin conversion is faster in a pressure cooker because the internal temperature of the food gets higher than is possible at atmospheric pressure, and this higher temperature speeds the stochastic gelatinization process.


Search terms for potatoes inside of a bun So, while traveling in Japan, I found that a lot of European-style bakeries have a dish that's essentially a baked potato inside of a bun.  Like, it's a small potato wrapped in bread dough which is pinched closed over top of it, with bacon, green onion, and cheese on top.  Now that I'm home, I'd like to recreate it.  For the life of me, however, I can't find any kind of recipe.  Since I don't remember what it was called, I'm stuck rehashing fairly generic Google searches for "baked potato in bun with cheese" or the like.  What is this dish called?

I'm pretty sure what you are talking about is simply a stuffed or filled bun.  They come stuffed with a wide variety of sweet and savory fillings.  Often they will be named by what they are filled with followed by the word "pan", denoting bread.

Examples can be seen here and here


Is roasting the same thing as broiling? My electric oven just has two settings: broil and bake.

I have a recipe that calls for "roasting" a duck at 400 degrees. Is that the same thing as broiling or is it baking?

Assuming an electric oven as typically seen in the US:

Roasting is the same setting as baking. The words mean slightly different things, but not to your electric oven.

Using the baking setting has the heat coming from the bottom of the oven, broiling has it coming from the top. The temperature is usually set very high to broil (if it can be set at all, some ovens only broil on the highest setting). Baking can be done at any temperature within the range of the oven.

What is called broiling in the US is called grilling in the UK.


Problems deep frying on induction stove I recently bought an Aga Rangemaster 90cm range cooker with induction cook top. The oven and hob are great except when attempting deep frying, which seems not to work. I have nothing but induction compatible cookware.
The pans initially heat up fine, but refuse to come up to anything above approximately 150C (300F). Monitoring the temperature with a remote thermometer I can see the temperature cycling as the element comes on and off, but I am never able to get the pan up to say 180C.
I have reviewed the operating instructions and no mention is made of it not being possible to deep fry, so I wondered if this is something that others have experienced, or if there is some workaround.

While I can't say exactly what the issue is there are some possibilities:

Induction compatible doesn't mean ideal for induction. I've had pans which are compatible, as in they work, but they don't heat up well. Only ferrous metals will get heated by induction, many pans are a sandwich of metals with a ferrous base, how well the pans heat up depends in part how thick the base is, if it's too thin it won't be able to convert all the energy. You want something with a nice thick ferrous base, or even better cast iron
Your induction top may not be powerful enough. In the same way gas ranges are limited by the size of their burners induction is limited by the underlying electronics. A big pot full of oil is a lot of mass, the cooktop's electronics need to be able to create a large enough magnetic field to heat it


Autolyse with milk or substitute the milk? I have a sweet dough recipe that calls for milk powder, heavy whipping cream, and whole milk. It also calls for water, but all of it is used in a tangzhong formulation. I would still like to autolyse the remaining flour, but I'm not sure how to do that since I don't have any water left. How can I autolyse?

Combine flour, heavy whipping cream, and whole milk - then let it rest for 20-60 minutes?
Scald the heavy whipping cream and whole milk, combine with flour - then let it rest 20-60 minutes?
Replace the heavy whipping cream and whole milk with UHT milk, combine with flour - then let it rest for 20-60 minutes?
Replace heavy whipping cream and whole milk with powdered milk, then combine the water that should be added to the powdered milk to the flour instead - then let it rest for 20-60 minutes?
Should I add the tangzhong during the autolyze? I'm concerned that there won't be enough hydration unless I do so.

BONUS QUESTIONS:

Generally, what is the hydration level when doing an autolyse?
When a recipe calls for milk powder, is it asking for non-fat milk
powder?
Why would a bread recipe call for heavy whipping cream? Does it have something to do with fat content?

Your sweet bread recipe is similar to a milk bread recipe I have seen recently. An autolyse does require liquid in order to 'start'. It is safe to use a portion of your liquid milk to autolyse the remaining flour as you'd like.

Milk powder generally is ideal for adding lactic sugars for the maillard reaction. The higher the milk fat content, the greater the maillard reaction will be and therefore your bread will be darker and nuttier in flavour. Heavy cream will have the same affect, and it will create a really pleasant crumb and mouthfeel of the bread because of the high fat content.

What is your recipe?


while canning jam or jelly can you put peanut butter inside the jar with it? can both together? I like to give jam as gifts and it would be neat if i could put peanut butter with it inside the jar. Is this safe or not? Thank you for your time. :)

Commercial peanut butter is shelf stable for several months in your pantry, however it is not acidic enough for home canning. When you remove most of the air in home canned goods you are actually setting up a good environment for botulism to grow. Botulism can’t thrive in an acidic conditions, that is why a low ph is essential for safe home canning.


Does it matter if I add cornstarch to my sauce instead of pasta water? Since it is starch in hot water in both cases, I wonder why starchy pasta water is so prized over adding (trigger warning for Italians) warm water and cornstarch when tossing pasta.

Flavor, that is all. The water left over from boiled pasta tends to have the flavor of the pasta, and a salty flavor. If you season your pasta water with salt, and I always do, why not bring some of that flavor into the sauce you are preparing? Better than just tossing it all down the drain.

Does it really matter? No, not really. But, if you want to use some of that water for something, add your starch to it.


Cooking with rancid flour I baked some cookies and did not realize the flour might have been too old.  It has been stored in my canister on the counter.  Can rancid flour make anyone sick?

How "old" are we talking about?

If the flour was white all purpose flour, was stocked in an airtight container, and your house gets not too hot in the summer I doubt the flour could have gone rancid. Rancidity is the deterioration of fats, and in wheat only the germ contains fat; white flour has been stripped off of wheat germ and therefore is very unlikely that it becomes rancid (anyway rancid flour is unlikely to make you sick)

Most flour deterioration comes from pests like meal moths, but you cannot miss them.

Nevertheless, if the cookies smell and/or taste bad you should throw them


Can someone please give an explanation of different egg preparations? When we go to a restaurant for breakfast and order eggs, we are often asked how we want them.  I have a handful of ways that I will eat them (I often prefer over-medium) and I am sure there a large number of ways to prepare eggs I am unfamiliar with.

I have a question then on the various technical definitions of these preparations if I were to go into the kitchen and prepare eggs for someone else.  Sorry if this question is too open-ended such that it would require pages and pages for a proper response. Like a good start would be the difference in over-{insert proper word} preparations or distinctions between some of the more popular methods.

Fried Eggs:

Sunny Side Up -- Not flipped, unbroken yolk. The top of the egg is just barely set.

Basted -- Sunny Side Up, hot fat spooned over until the white surrounding the yolk is opaque.

Over Easy / lite -- Flipped,  whites  fully cooked, unbroken yolk, yolk runny.

Over medium -- flipped, whites fully cooked, unbroken yolk, yolk creamy (not completely runny).

Over Medium Well -- Flipped, unbroken yolk, yolk cooked to have a firm but wet-appearing center.

Over Hard -- Flipped, broken, fully-cooked yolk.

Over Well -- Flipped, intact, fully-cooked yolk.

Broken / Lightly Scrambled -- Broken in pan and gently stirred while cooking - yolk and whites should not be mixed entirely.

Scrambled Eggs -- Made in many different ways. Generally the eggs are mixed in a bowl before being put into the pan, and often stirred while cooking. Some recipes add fat to the eggs in the form of milk, cream, butter, or oil. A distinction can be made between Wet/Loose or Dry, which refers to the degree of doneness.

Omelettes:

Filled Omelette -- Eggs mixed before cooking, possibly with added fat as in Scrambled Eggs. Cooked in fat in a saute pan; when set but the interior still wet, previously-cooked fillings (cheese, onions, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes...) are added, and the eggs folded over into a half-moon shape.

Spanish Omelette / Western Omelette -- Same as filled, but the egg mixture is poured over the fillings in a hot pan and cooked, thus incorporating the fillings into the egg.

Fluffy Omelette -- Whites and yolks beaten separately. Yolks are gently folded into the whites without breaking the structure of the whites. Optional toppings are added. Cooked slowly in a pan, or baked (an electric frying pan with a lid works well for this preparation).

French Omelette -- Cooked soft & creamy with no color on the egg. Omelette is folded 1/3 in the pan, knocked to the edge so it can be rolled out onto the plate. It ends up being folded into thirds and is very creamy and soft.

Boiled:

Cooked in shell in water for a timed period. Some people will refer to degree of doneness by cooking time, i.e., a "3-minute egg" is soft-boiled with some runny white around the yolk. Some recipes call for eggs to be added to boiling water, others to be started in cold water. In the cold-water start, the pot may be left on the heat or removed when the water reaches a boil. The eggs may be shocked in ice water when removed.

Soft -- Yolk runny, potentially with slight unset white around the yolk.

Medium -- White completely set, yolk firm but with a dark, wet appearance.

Hard -- Yolk completely set and pale yellow.

Poached:

Egg cooked, out of shell, in water, stock, or other liquid --  excluding fats or oils -- at a temperature in the range of 160-180˚F (70-82˚C). There are possible degrees of doneness, however the typical poached egg has a runny but warm and thickened yolk and fully-set white.

Coddled:

An egg that has been very lightly cooked (poached eggs are sometimes considered coddled). This can either be accomplished with an egg coddler or cooking an egg in its shell with water that is slightly below boiling point.

Shirred:

An egg cooked in an oven at the low-mid 300's˚F (~160˚C), contained in a ramekin, until the whites are just set and the yolk is runny but thickened. Often butter or another fat is placed on top before cooking.

Steamed:

Very similar to shirred eggs, but the ramekin is covered with some aluminum foil and put in a steamer for 7-15 minutes.

In a basket:
Eggs fried in a hole made in a slice of bread