Is there a way to freeze herbs without losing freshness? I often use herbs in daily cooking, e.g. parsley, dill, basil etc.  The problem is, I like to eat fresh homemade food yet cleaning and cutting herbs takes a good bit of time for me, I already I spend way too much time cooking (my life is packed with reponsibilities) and I need to reduce that time.

Let's say a bunch of parsley lasts me four meals.  That means, I will clean a quarter of a bunch every time, meaning pluck the leaves off the stems (I remove stems), clean them and chop them. The process takes 10 min easily. It would be faster if I cleaned the whole bunch all at once and froze it or I could even hire a maid to come in and do herb cleaning and other menial kitchen works a few hours a month.

However, I don't want to compromise freshness.  Is there a way to freeze ready-to-cook herbs yet not lose much freshness?

I am not aware of any method of freezing herbs that will maintain their freshness, in the general case, especially for delicate herbs such as basil.

The best method I know of to freeze herbs, which I personally would not do and have never tried, is to mince or puree the herbs, then freeze them with water.  You might do the freezing in an ice cube tray to have small quantities available.  The water is to help prevent the volatile flavors from evaporating, which will happen slowly even at freezer temperatures.  Of course, this is still very different than fresh.

I will try to answer the alternate question which is probably what you really want to know:  what is the best way to hold fresh herbs to maintain their quality?

The best way to hold fresh herbs is to treat them like a bouquet of flowers.  Trim the bottom of the stem ends, so there is a fresh, clean cut.  Then put them in a small drinking glass, measuring cup, or other container with water, much like you would put flowers in a vase.  The entire thing can then be put in the refrigerator (florist storage rooms are refrigerated, too!).  With this technique, you will often be able to get a week or more.  (BTW, it also works wonders with celery, which is essentially a giant big herb.)

Probably the second best way is to layer the herbs in a single layer in paper towels, then roll or fold that up so you can put it in a zip lock bag that is not completely sealed (you don't want the moisture from their respiration--herbs are still alive on the stem--to be stuck inside).  This too would go into the fridge.  You should get at least a few days with this method.

With either method, you can wash the herbs before storage, but with the paper towel method, they should be thoroughly dried after being washed.


Steaks taste horrid in the center? I followed in this answer to How do you properly cook a steak?,
but I ended up with one problem. After cooking in the oven for 10 minutes, my steaks were soggy and flavorless in the center, yet okay on the outside. I cooked a few minutes longer in the oven and the steaks started turning white and firm, obviously overcooked.

Should I flatten the steaks first; is thickness the problem? I had 1-1.5 inch thick ribeyes from Whole Foods.

One thing: after searing the steak in the pan, my oven wasn't fully heated yet. So I stuck the steak in at around 267° F and it sat there for about 5-7 minutes before reaching 425° F, after which I cooked it for 10 minutes. Could this have messed it up?

If your steaks were soggy and flavorless then the steak wasn't good to begin with. It's possible it was old as well, or had been frozen and thawed. It doesn't sound like your method was wrong (except not having your oven to temperature but that shouldn't make them soggy and flavorless), but meat itself wasn't good. You paid $6 per steak, I'd expect to pay triple that for decent meat to be honest.


Is there a substitute for port wine in a dessert risotto? I am looking for a substitute for port wine in a "dessert risotto" that I would like to make. It's not that I'm worried about the alcohol (I would actually prefer to use the port), I just can't purchase alcohol since I'm under 21 and living in the US.

Since context is everything, here is the recipe for the Port Raspberries & Cream Risotto I plan to cook. .

Again, I am unable to purchase alcohol (except for cooking wines), so please do not suggest alcoholic alternatives.

Please do not use a cooking wine. Those are awful. Pick a juice, any juice. I'd say cranberry. You probably don't want anything too sweet.


Can I halve the Amish Friendship Bread recipe? If you're not familiar with Amish Friendship Bread, or if it's been a while:
Basically you mush the bag of starter every day for ten days. On days 5 and 10 you add one cup of milk, one cup of flour, and one cup of sugar. On day 10 you again add one cup each of milk, flour, and sugar and then divide it into four equal parts.

Theoretically that is enough to make one loaf of Amish Friendship, share a portion of starter with two friends, and still have one portion of starter left over to keep it going. Of course, in the real world you run out of willing friends pretty quickly. Then you start making more than one loaf at a time. Then you get burned out and throw the starter away. Sounds like fun to me!

So I was thinking: Surely we could add less sugar/flour/milk and end up with only two portions of starter at the end. Then you could just make one loaf every cycle. It would be a lot less burdensome!

Okay, I usually don't answer my own questions but by the time I got done writing up my question the answer came to me:

On day 1 take your one portion of starter and divide it in half. The other half can either be shared with a friend or thrown away. (I promise I won't tell!)
On day 5, instead of adding 1 cup of milk/flour/sugar just add 1/2 a cup of each.
On day 10, instead of adding 1 cup of milk/flour/sugar just add 1/2 a cup of each.
Don't forget to mush/mix the bag each day.

Now on day 10 you'll have two regular sized portions of starter. You could use it to make two loaves of bread. Or you could use one portion to make one loaf, take the other portion and start again with step 1 above.


Can I safely freeze my yogurt marinated chicken? I marinated chicken thigh fillets 2 and a half days ago in a Turkish marinade (Yogurt, chili paste, garlic, ginger, dried mint and salt), and its been sitting in my fridge ever since. I don't think that I'll be cooking it anytime soon, but I don't want to throw it away because it's a lot of chicken. Can someone please tell me:

If yogurt or chili help it marinate and keep for longer or do they have an adverse affect.
If the chicken might still be good to cook if I was to freeze it for a couple of days and then defrost it and cook it. I know once defrosted, I will have to cook all of it.

I have been in this situation before and I did try freezing it. When I used it later on, it did taste and feel OK, but as you would expect, not the real fresh taste.

I do not think the ingredients in the marinade will have any effect while it is frozen. While thawing, the yogurt might split, leaving more than usual water, but that shouldnt alter much of the outcome. It will be still good after defrosting; I would normally defrost by leaving the item in the refrigerator overnight, rather than quick methods like microwaving or even leaving at room temperature on the kitchen counter.


Cooking a whole 30lb sturgeon on a spit I have a custom made charcoal spit and I've done a whole pig on a spit at least 10 times, so I have some experience doing this thing, however, this will be my first year cooking a sturgeon, or any fish for that matter, on a spit. I need help with and how long to cook it for.

The spit automatically rotates 3.5 rotations/minute. I plan on wrapping the whole fish in wire... will that be enough or will it be too tender/start falling apart? I'm also worried about overcooking it and making it too tough. Any other advice?

Based on my experience as a chef I wouldn't recommend spit-roasting your sturgeon. It's a rather large fish for that technique although smaller fish may work. Your idea to wrap it in wire albeit a good idea, give a moment to consider what would the wire do to your fish as it cooks. Proteins shrink when they cook and although  you may wrap the fish in wire while it is still uncooked the wire will not shrink to accommodate the shrinkage of the fish.A 30 lb. sturgeon would probably be roasted and there will be less complications when it comes serving it whole (given you have a big oven!)


What happens if I use vegetable oil in a cake? I want to bake a cake out of baking mix bought at a shop. The mix already contains flour, baking soda, vanillin, other minor components. The manual says I need to add butter.

I'd like to use vegetable oil instead of butter - most likely sunflower seed oil. Is that a good idea? Should I expect any problems? Will the result likely be a decent cake or something to just throw away?

The major difference between butter and oil is that butter is only 80% oil, with the rest being milk solids and water (source).  This means that using oil you will lose some of the water content that your cake should have, possibly resulting in a dryer cake.  On the plus side, cakes made with oil tend to dry out slower than those made with butter.

The other possible different, but one that is unlikely with a mix I'd think, is that it depends on the method of mixing in your fat.  If the butter is to be whipped or creamed while softened this creates a different texture than one you could get with oil or melted butter.  Whipped butter or especially butter creamed with sugar provides a network of air bubbles that act as a raising agent during cooking, and the result is a pound cake like crumb.  If your recipe calls for melted butter, though, this is not a concern - the result is more like a traditional muffin or quick bread crumb.

Finally, a vegetable oil has a fairly neutral taste.  Usually when a vegetable oil is called for, this is desirable.  Butter on the other hand has a more interesting flavor.  Your cake may be a bit bland without it.


Safety of adding dried hot pepper to opened jar of pickles I have a particular brand of jarred pickles I buy from a local supplier. They're some kind of beer pickle, and the brine has a vinegar and IPA type of taste, and it's loaded with garlic and dill. Very tasty indeed.

I also have a fondness for hot peppers. I recently bought some dried powdered hot peppers, including smoked ghost pepper (which tastes awesome) and dried Trinidad Mogura Scorpion pepper, which is mostly heat, and not too much flavor.

Would it be safe to add a teaspoon of each of these powders to a 700mL jar of pickles (yes, I love them obscenely hot) and store the result in the fridge for up to a couple weeks? My primary concern is the hot peppers causing spoilage by adding them.

Thank you.

This shouldn't be a safety concern.  Bacteria could certainly be introduced (if you use your hands to add the pepper or a cross-contaminated utensil), however, the acidic environment of the pickling liquid should keep any possible bacterial growth in check.  The other contaminant to consider would be botulism, but again, in a pickling environment (high acidity, high salt) this is not a concern.  So...make your pickles as spicy as you like.


Cookbook on Odisha cuisine Do there exist cookbooks, possibly in English, about food from the state of Odisha, India -- preferably written by an author from that region?

I don't have any such cookbooks, but a google search turned up a lot of blogs with recipes. If you search, include Orissa and Oriya as well as Odisha.

I also found several English-language cookbooks through searching on Amazon.in (best search term was oriya cooking). Some of them are also available on their other sites. I have not seen or cooked from any of these cookbooks to give any personal recommendation.

Purba: Feasts from the East: Oriya Cuisine from Eastern India

Classic Cooking of Orissa

Healthy Oriya Cuisine


If you boil cumin or other seeds, do the volatile oils get released into the sauce? As above, if you use fennel, cumin or other seeds whole, will the oils get released into the pot liquid or must one ground the seed then add for the oils to come out?

Fennel and cumin will release their flavors if cooked long enough in a sauce. I usually fry them in oil before adding other ingredients as I like the result, but that's not a required step. If you have a short cooking time use powdered. You can also crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle to speed up flavor release.


Why are chicken thighs sold as bone-in skin-on or boneless skinless but never boneless skin-on? Chicken thighs are fantastic pan fried skin down for that crispy texture. The bones tend to get in the way of eating them however, and they are a hassle to remove (though quick with good knife/shear technique). I'd love to be able to buy boneless skin-on thighs as they seem like the ultimate easy/juicy/flavourful cut of chicken.

Is there just such a small demand for boneless skin-on thighs that they don't bother producing them, or is there a butchery processing reason (e.g. does industrial-scale deboning damage the skin)?

Actually while they are not easily found everywhere, some stores do sell the boneless skin-on chicken thighs and breasts. In fact, I just bought some of the thighs this past week. (I'm in the US, mid-atlantic region.)

The reason most stores don't sell them that way is because it's a less popular option and therefore in less demand than bone-in,skin-on or boneless/skinless. That said, if you shop in stores that have butchers on premise, you can ask them to bone the thighs and leave the skin on.

Back many years ago before boneless/skinless pieces became popular, it was quite easy to find the boneless thighs and breasts with the skin on.


substituting vinegars I have a recipe that calls for Wanjashan naturally brewed organic rice vinegar and I do not have this ingredient.  Is there another vinegar I can used instead?  I have white vinegar, red wine vinegar, and malt vinegar.  The recipe is for sweet and sour pork ribs with honey.

First choice: go out and buy any other rice vinegar - it doesn't have to be that exact brand. Almost any grocery store will have the Marukan brand, for example. Rice vinegar has a somewhat unique, mild taste that there is no exact substitute for. In a pinch, I'd maybe use 80% white vinegar 20% sherry.


tomato-substitute for sausage and spaghetti squash? I just got diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and have to avoid both grains and tomatoes. I was wondering if there is a way to substitute tomatoes to create a nice sauce that would go well with sausages and spaghetti squash?
If a non-tomato sauce isn't feasible, how does one make the dish not dry without a sauce? I can have (cooked) alcohol-based sauces. Is there a particular alcoholic drink that could be a good base for a sauce for sweet pork sausage and spaghetti squash?

Try it with butter, salt and pepper. That's my favorite way to eat spaghetti squash!


Clementine ice cream I made this clementine cake a while back, and very much appreciated the fact that it uses the entire fruit. I found a good deal on clementines today, and was thinking of trying to do something similar with ice cream or sherbet or even sorbet!

I'm fairly confident with sorbets - some sugar, water until it's the right consistency, and you're just about done. I'm not so sure about an ice cream, though; I know acid and milk can cause problems, and the high water content of boiled pureed clementines sounds like it could turn creamy to icy.

I don't want to directly ask for a recipe or anything - not that I expect there to be any use-the-whole-orange recipes out there anyway - but I would love some advice about starting points. What kind of recipe would you use as a base for a clementine ice cream or sherbet, using the whole fruit? Or am I over-worrying, and I can just swap orange juice/zest for clementines in an orange sherbet recipe, or add clementines to a plain ice cream base, and get away with it with minimal modification?

I would probably go the sherbet route.  I think it would be more forgiving for you with the juice.  You don't really see that much citrus ice cream.  I think the juice coming from it would just be icy as you said.

Also, you could probably use the zest just fine, but I don't think the rest of the peel will work well.

I would start off by looking at an orange sherbet recipe and go from there.


Ideal pressure cooker size for cooking a pound (454g) of beans I'm shopping for a pressure cooker. Could anyone advise me on what size of pressure cooker is sufficient for cooking a pound of beans? I don't want to buy one that is too small and overcrowd it.

A pound of beans should be 4-5 cups (about 1L) when cooked. I think it's pretty hard to find pressure cookers smaller than 4 quarts (16 cups or 3.8L), so you shouldn't have any worries at all. Even the smallest one you can find will have plenty of extra space.


what table material is electric oven safe to place on to? we have very limited space in the kitchen and the electric oven could not fit into it. Our only option is to put it on top of our glass dining table or buy a new table to the sides. I can't find any information on what are the best materials of the table top to put on the electric oven.

Thanks in advance. =)

Same problem here. I went to the hardware store and bought a nice, wide ceramic tile in the flooring section.  I put some dollar-store felt feet on the underside to prevent scratching, so I can put it anywhere. That is what I set under my little oven when I use it, and it has given me no problems in five years.


Wood for a cutting board, will sanding make it food safe? I would like to make a cutting board from some hardwood I have. I'm pretty sure it has been imported, so I think it might have been fumigated or treated for insects/pests at some point. I've tried researching about this but I found very little, but the little I did find suggested sanding it as the fumigation process would only leave chemicals on the surface. Does anyone have any input? It looks like a good beginners project but I want it to be as food safe as possible.

If you think the wood was treated or fumigated, I wouldn't trust sanding to make the wood food-safe. As another answer notes, wood is porous and could very well have absorbed the chemicals deeper than you'll sand out.

I would definitely err on the side of caution here and only use wood that you know is safe to begin with. There is no finish that you can use on a cutting board that will keep the base wood completely out of contact with the food, due to knives being used on it.

I would recommend starting with hard maple. It makes durable, great-looking cutting boards, and is completely food-safe.


Marinade then cook or cook then marinade? For pork, does it matter if you marinade first, then sear + braise vs sear + braise first then marinade?

More details: I'm trying to cook pork chashu using pork butt. The marinade is mostly soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar. So far, I sear it then I either:

Braise for 3 hours, then marinade for 12. Or...
Sous Vide in marinade for 12 hours at 170ºF (not vacuum sealed)

It turns out dry :( So I am gonna try with lower temp next. But I am also curious if the marinade could be the cause (because of the curing effect), and if doing it before or after matters.

If your issue is with the meat being too tough and dry, then your best bet is to marinate beforehand. Marination is the process of soaking food in seasoning before hand to flavor meat and also to cause the marinade to break down some of the tissues in the meat. This will cause more moisture to be absorbed into the end result. This will likely solve your too dry issues rather than cure your meat and dry it out.

If you "marinate" it afterwards, it will likely only flavor the meat but not have the secondary effect of making the meat more moist. The proteins in the meat have already denatured so the marinade will not be able to break down the tissues that it would in a raw product.

If you want to sous vide the meat, I would suggest a lower temperature. 170 degree F is beyond the well done temperature. If you are cooking your pork sous vide at 170 degree F, then the pork will reach a internal temperature of 170 which will result in dry tough meat. Try between 150-160 degree F.

Also traditionally it is marinated before hand rather than afterward.


Use any part of an animal for making stock/broth? I got a whole leg of lamb, removed all the big parts of meat for another dish, then scraped down the remaining pieces around the bones and the fat. Should I use all of it for stock or does the pure fat parts for instance make the stock too greasy?

Stock is made from bones only and broth is the liquid that meat has been simmered in.
A well made stock should be clear without particles or cloudiness.  Broth will usually be somewhat cloudy due to containing more dissolved proteins.

Bones for lamb stock (and any brown stock - veal can be made white or brown but lamb is usually brown) are typically first roasted.  The roasting will melt fat that may still be intact.  After roasting bones for stocks such as lamb, veal, and duck you would then remove the bones from the roasting pan and roast the vegetables.  You can use the residual fat for coating the vegetables prior to roasting. (Just put vegetables in roasting pan and toss to coat with the fat).  Fat from the bones will congeal on the top once the stock is chilled and you can then easily remove it.

I wouldn't add or purposely leave chunks of fat attached to the bone as you just have to remove it later but what is there isn't a problem.


What's the difference between peas in the UK and in the US? I grew up in Britain, where one of my standard meals (as a fussy eater with a number of allergies) was some form of meat with peas and mashed potato. Now I'm living in the US, and to my dismay the peas here taste completely different, and I'm trying to figure out why.

I don't think it's a brand difference; I'm wondering if it's in the variety of peas, or how the peas are treated after picking. I'd like to grow my own, if I could be sure I'd get the right results.

Here is a link to the product page for a representative sample. They seem to be being referred to now as "Garden peas", though I'm not sure if that's a description or a variety.

So, British and American chefs - what's the difference between peas on different sides of the Pond?

I've lived on both sides of the Atlantic and I've never noticed much difference in peas, but then I'm not a connoisseur. The UK generally has 2 kids of peas on sale on the store, regular peas (aka garden peas) and petit pois, which are smaller, younger peas. The petit pois are much sweeter than garden peas, which are bigger and less flavorful. I've never seen petit pois in the states as far as I can remember, but there are generally peas and "sweet peas", and sweet peas tend to be sweeter than regular peas. The UK also has a product called mushy peas where the peas are mashed up and served as more of a liquid - not as bad as it sounds, it can be tasty if done right. This would often be out of a can if served at home.

As for how to get your peas how you like them I'd ask whomever makes dinner in your family what type of peas are used and how long they are cooked. People in the UK used to boil vegetables until they practically disintegrated but cuisine has improved dramatically in the past decade and nowadays it's much rarer to get that.


Does simple syrup require refrigeration? I'm curious about plain simple syrup and simple syrup with other ingredients. For instance, cardamon simply syrup. Do other ingredients make a difference?

The key factor in syrup's shelf life is the water activity in the syrup, rather than the ingredients used to make it. Generally, the water is all 'bound up' with dissolved sugar so microorganisms can't use it to grow, but the lighter the syrup, the more available water it will have.

In my experience, simple syrup is usually kept refrigerated except for small portions that will be used within a day or two.

For a chart of water activity (aW) of related foods, check here: Water Activity Table


Why should I cook the flour first when making bechamel sauce? Why should I cook the flour first with butter, instead of just combining all the ingredients until I get the desired consistency when making a bechamel sauce?

This link explains the science behind what is known as "the mother sauce", béchamel.  Essentially, the steps of first creating a roux, then adding cold milk, are about manipulating the glucose chains in the flour.  Done correctly, the sauce is smooth and flavorful.  Done incorrectly and you have a grainy mixture that tastes of raw flour.

@David Richerby's comment below prompted me to investigate further.  So, I turned to Harold McGee's classic, On Food and Cooking.  He writes, on page 617, that:

  in addition to coating flour particles with fat, making them easier to disperse in a hot liquid, roux making has three other useful effects on flour....it cooks out the raw cereal flavor, and develops a round, toasty flavor...second, the color itself...and third, heat causes some of the starch chains to split, and then to form new bonds with each other.

He goes on to explain the importance of this step, but it generally achieves the desired texture and means the sauce is less likely to congeal on the plate.

From Wikipedia's page on starch:

  Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds.

...and, yes, this correlates with gelatinization.


How to assemble a springform pan? The bottom sheet of a springform pan typically has bumps and a raised lip. Should the lip go up or down?

I've probably done it both ways in the past. Is it just a matter of personal preference?

It's personal preference.

However, it's easier to cover the base of the pan in grease-proof paper when the lip is downward.  When the lip is upwards, it can be difficult to get the lining paper into the edges at the bottom without it crinkling a lot.

You get slightly less mix into the pan, but it's not really noticeable.  For me, it's easier to handle a downward lip.


Are accidentally fermented foods safe to eat I grew tomatoes this year and then made sauce out of them about 3 weeks ago (tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt).  When I opened the jar I heard the distinct sound of C02 releasing.  I looked in the jar and saw a good amount of bubbling. No visible mold in the jar.  It doesn't smell bad, just fermented.

I've made a variety of pickled and fermented foods before and never had a problem eating those.  Kimchi comes to mind as a similar food where the fermentation comes without adding any starters, just salt, cabbage, and spices.  For some reason the fact that i didn't intend to ferment the sauce is making me second guess eating it.  Is it possible to use salt/vinegar to kill off any bad bacteria lingering in the sauce? What if I were to convert the sauce into a fermented ketchup?

Do.
Not.
Eat.

The assumption that it fermented enough to be safe because it fermented some is likely incorrect. Lacto fermented food recipes are specifically formulated to encourage the rapid and significant growth of lactic acid producing bacteria which lowers the ph so quickly that it overwhelms pathogens which are also trying to grow. Even then, consuming lacto fermented vegetables before they hit a ph level of 4.6 is still not safe. Almost no tomato sauces would be acidic enough to discourage pathogen growth on their own.

Even if the lactic acid in the sauce slowly built up enough to kill all of the live pathogens with acid alone, many food pathogens create toxins (Shiga, Botulism Toxin, etc,) and those could still harm or kill you, even if you heated the sauce up to serving temperature. Though botulism toxin can be neutralized by boiling for some amount of time, after looking around for a bit, I haven't seen anything that guarantees Shiga or other common toxins do too. Is it worth it?

There are lots of pathogens which thrive in that very environment, and plenty that produce gas as waste. You don't know what was growing in there, or what it left behind.


Roughly chopping large batches of hard nuts For my breakfast oatmeal, I use a variety of nuts. I tend to make large batches beforehand. My biggest issue with the way I do it now, is how to prepare large batches of hard nuts that I'd like to chop roughly.

I have tried several methods:

A blender, or food processor, which grinds the nuts into a paste
Smashing them (covered with a cloth or in a bag) with a rolling pin, which completely pulverizes some and tends to skip a bunch as well
Chopping them with a chef's knife

Chopping them with a knife gives the best results, but it's very laborious and I can only do a handful or two at a time.

I've been trying to search online for suitable methods, but they all seem to use nuts like pecans or walnuts, which really aren't an issue at all. My problems are with Brazil nuts, macadamia nut or even peanuts, for example.

Is there any other tool or technique I can use to get roughly chopped nuts (they don't need to be perfectly even) suitable for an oatmeal mix?

A chopping jar:

(photo from Etsy)

should be exactly what you need.

(You may also want to look at multi-blade mezzalunas, but they're really meant for mincing herbs.)


Can tilapia replace sole? I discovered tilapia, and started to like it. Could I use tilapia for recipes that require sole?

Yes, the flavor and texture are a bit different but from a technical perspective it would work.

Fillets of sole are typically a bit thinner and more flexible than tilapia so if it's a recipe where the sole is to be wrapped into a paupiette (rolled package) the tilapia would have to be shaped differently (such as layer the filling on top of the tilapia fillet instead of wrapping it, or sandwich the filling between two smaller pieces of tilapia.)

Besides the fact that you like Tilapia, the other benefit is that it's less expensive than sole.


Butter made out of pasteurized cream? I got a pat of "butter" today at a restaurant and the wrapper said that it contained "pasteurized cream" and salt. Is pasteurized cream the same thing as butter?

No, cream and butter are not the same thing. Butter is made by agitating cream, causing the fat to clump up and separate from the rest of the cream. The butter is then washed, optionally salted, and pressed. So the “ingredients” of butter are cream and optionally salt.
Pasteurization is a process for inactivating microorganisms in foods  like milk and cream by heating them to a fairly high temperature for a short period of time. It has the effect of increasing shelf life and reducing the risk of food-borne illness. All dairy products you buy at the grocery store, with the possible exception of some fancy cheeses, have been pasteurized.


Is there a decent way to rehydrate and sauté dried chili peppers? I saw the answer at https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/23560/49643, which makes me think it won't be great. My goals are (in this order):

Retain flavor
Obtain good enough texture for sautéing
Retain heat (capsaicin)

Most of the time, I'll probably be putting said chilis on a burger. Just had a burger with fresh habaneros that I sautéed and really liked the flavor (though I admit it caused profuse sweating), but would like to go a little more spicy. Short of growing my own peppers (which I may do some), there isn't a great way to buy spicier peppers, such as chocolate or Red Savina habaneros or ghost peppers, etc.

For point 3, I was wondering if anyone has tried steaming peppers? I suppose it is possible the steam might carry away some of the capsaicin and other flavor chemicals. Doing this in an enclosed environment with a small amount of water might help though.

Frankly drying is not the way to go if you want to retain flavor and texture. When you dry fruit (chilis are fruits, not vegetables) you make a load of irreversible changes in texture and flavor. A chili is made of tiny cells filled with liquid, the drying process ruptures these so the water can escape. Rehydrating a dried chili doesn't make it plump up again, really you get more of a soggy mess.

Flavor-wise you'll lose some of that chili essence, the non heat flavor. Heat-wise you'll retain the spice, if anything it gets more concentrated.

You can steam peppers, it's a good way to cook them without losing flavor, and no the steam won't carry flavor away. It won't concentrate the chili flavor though or make them spicier somehow.

Growing your own really spicy chilis can be done, depending on the climate you may need a greenhouse.

If heat is your goal your best bet is to shop around for the spiciest peppers you can and then eat them raw rather than cooking them first, or turn them into a hot sauce. Include the seeds and the pith if you really want to feel it. If you can't find them fresh often then freeze them, they keep for years if they're sealed up properly, and although their texture isn't as good as fresh it's the closest you'll get.


Woodfire oven how to get crust soft and tasty Hi I've just built a wood fire oven at home and I want to know how to get he pizza crust soft?  Any tips for success with traditional Italian-style bread?  Some people say to put sugar in and other people say not to.

Italian pizza crumb must be soft (morbida, as Italians say) in its inner part (the one below the tomato sauce), and its outer rim can be more or less crispy.

You can check the requisite for being soft at this link from the Vera Pizza Napolitana association (check the "Description of the product"):

  The consistency of the " Verace Pizza Napoletana " - (Vera Pizza Napoletana) should be
  soft, elastic, easy to manipulate and fold. The centre should be particularly soft to the
  touch and taste,

  ...

  The crust should deliver the flavour of well-prepared, baked bread.

The outer part can be crunchier or softer, depending on your taste. It will depend on the strength (W value) of the flour. You can check it in this Italian pizza flour manufacturer.

Using a longer fermentation time will extract more taste from the flour. That's why a crunchier outer rim is usually associated with tastier pizzas.

That long fermentation also helps the dough been extensible and not stretching back, which is desirable when you are shaping the pizza. I wrote more details on it in this answer on pizza flours.

In order to achieve a soft center, the pizza is done in a very little time (from 60 to 90 seconds). To get this, you need a very hot oven (over 450ºC / 900ºF).

It is difficult to get a thermometer that measures that temperature (most infrared ones usually can't measure over 350ºC). You can check if the oven is too hot throwing flour in it. If it catches fire (in less than 5 seconds) then it's too hot. If it just gets dark, then it's ok. After using this method, remember to remove the burnt flour, or it will give a bitter taste to the pizzas you'll later put on it.

To get the outer rim of the pizza rise like bread, you should have some flames in the oven. They will radiate a lot of heat, so you have to rotate the pizza 180º during its baking, so it will get done equally in all the border.

The flames should be in one side of the oven, never at the back. This way the air that enters to feed the flame will induce a rotating whirpool that helps the air in the oven to be hotter.

As the floor surface of the oven is very hot (>400ºC), the pizza you put in it won't actually be touching it: it will be floating on its own steam. That's why the bottom of the pizzas are not burnt.

You are asking about adding sugar or not.

Sugar is the food yeasts eat.

Flour has no sugar. But it has starches, which are molecules made of many sugar molecules together. Flour also has enzymes that can break the starches in sugar molecules. That happens when you add water to the flour, and the enzymes can move easily to do their work. But they need time to do so.

When you add flour, water and yeasts, the late ones have to wait a bit for their food. If you add sugar, they'll have food since the beginning (the sugar you added) to the end (the sugar from broken starches): sugar is added to make the dough fermentation in less time.

So, if you want a quick risen dough, add (a small quantity of) sugar. If you want a tasty one, don't.


Purpose of cooking oil What is the purpose of cooking oils in a recipe? What does it add to a dish? If we remove it from a dish, what does it detract. Is it creaminess, flavour or something else? What was used by people when there were no vegetable oils?

I'm going to only answer the bit about oils in cooking, rather than all the uses of oil in the kitchen.

When frying or sautéing, oil acts in several capacities:

First, and most critically, the oil in a pan conducts heat from the hot pan to the food being cooked. The oil greatly increases the surface are of the food in contact with heat, rather than have just the bits directly in contact with the pan get hot.
The oil prevents (sort of) food from sticking to the pan or pot.
The oil (indeed any type of fat), is an important flavour carrier. It makes food taste better by bringing out the flavours.
Oil facilitates the Maillard reaction, which is how we get the lovely fried crust on the outer surface of fried foods.


What happens if I wash my baker's couche? I have heard from several sources (some of them including people from SA chat) to not wash a baker's couche. They do not need to be washed because generally they are dry and have nothing the bacteria can feed on/grow on.

Is the advice to not wash the couche due solely to the fact that it isn't necessary or is it also because it will degrade the couche somehow?

I had accidentally spilled apple juice on my bakers couche. My baker's couche is made out of untreated, unbleached flax linen. How would I clean my baker's couche without deteriorating it in anyway?

Flax is a very problematic fabric to wash, and even more problematic to dry. You risk ending up with stiff, wrinkled, and/or shrunk fabric.

I would never machine wash the flax couche. Actually, I wouldn't wash it after regular use, when it doesn't come into contact with anything but flour and lean dough. But if it accidentally got dirtied with something else, you are obviously better off washing it than throwing it away.

In this case, I would hand-wash it in room-temperature water, neven in a washing machine (not even the wool cycle). Use wool detergent (no fabric softener), and don't crumple the fabric while washing. Instead, try to let it soak a bit (maybe 15-20 min) and then gently "shake off" the dirt under water. You can add a bit of food grade citric acid for the last rinse, because acid acts somewhat similar to fabric softener.

When it is washed, don't wring it. Shake off as much water as you can, then lay it between two frotee towels. It should be spread out, not wrinkled or folded. Keep it at room temperature, not near sun, wind or a heater. Change the towels after 6 to 8 hours (the first time you may have to change them sooner). Repeat until it is only moist, not wet. Then spread it somewhere to dry without towels, again away from sun, wind, or excessive heat. Turn it every few hours. It will probably be stiffer than when you started with it, but I think it will be still usable.


What is the temperature range for food not to burn your mouth? I'm trying to get a temperature range for knowing when food is too hot to eat.  Most of what I am finding is temperature ranges for food to kill bacteria instead.

For example, if I'm serving a hot drink or a soup/stew which was recently simmering or boiling, what temperature should I let it cool to before serving?

I made myself some spicy chicken and macaroni soup, and put it in a bowl while it was still boiling. I put a thermometer in it as it cooled and I started to eat. I figured the soup was a good thing to test as I could take big bites that included liquid and solids that required chewing.
I took a bite every minute or so and noted the temperature, and I repeated with boiling soup after it had reached "too cool to enjoy".
At temperatures over 190F (87.8C) I couldn't put it in my mouth without giving it time to cool on the spoon and "blowing on it".
At 180F (82.2C) I was still "blowing on it", but not in an unpleasant way for the first bites of soup. I would consider that to be the optimum serving temperature for this kind of soup (see quote concerning Chinese noodle soup below).
At 170F (76.7C) I could put the bite straight into my mouth without pausing or "blowing on it" but it was still a bit hot, if I were eating without paying attention to the temperature, I would have "blown on it"
At 160F (71.1C) I can and did eat comfortably. It was just pleasantly hot.
At 150F (65.5C) it was still pleasantly hot.
At 145F (62.7C) It was still quite warm, pleasant for soup.
At 140F (60C) it was still fine, but not hot at all.
At 135F (57.2C) it was still OK, but definitely getting on the cool side for soup.
At 130F (54.4C) I was glad to be almost done.
At 125F (51.7C) I was thinking seriously about the microwave.
At 120F (48.9C) It was too cool to enjoy this particular soup.
Obviously, different foods are going to have different optimal temperatures. I wouldn't want steak to have ever hit over 130F (45.4C).
Also, consider that I have been cooking for 35 years. I am accustomed to sticking a spoon into something boiling on the stove in order to taste it.
Consider too that there is (at least there is for me) something fun and vaguely comforting about soup that's still a bit too hot to eat. Some of us blow on it, noodles are often slurped for that reason:

Slurping is de rigueur among the Chinese, for practical reasons. “It’s a way of introducing cool air into your mouth to cool off the noodles and the broth if it’s a noodle soup. … Chinese food is generally served hot, often served piping hot.” -Chow.com

So, I don't think there is really such a thing as too hot to serve soup to "consenting adults".
Other types of food are cooled or rested before serving for other reasons. Meat should always be rested to allow the fibers to relax so that the juices stay in the meat instead of running all over the plate. Cheesy things like pizza are easier to cut and serve after they have cooled a bit. Some things are just (subjectively) better after cooling (I prefer fried chicken barely warm, for instance).
So, that's my $.02 on the subject, the answer of "best temperature" is largely subjective.


Black residue inside frying pan I left my stainless steel frying pan on the hob empty for a while by mistake. It got very hot indeed, I ran it carefully under the tap to cool it down, which took a while - lots of steam. Now, there's a kind of black residue inside, that wasn't there before (it was clean while it was on the hob). I can't remove it even with the toughest of detergents and pan scourers, is it safe to cook with this pan any more?

What you are seeing is almost certainly a form of firescale, and it should be completely harmless.  If the discoloration bothers you, you can try to remove it using the aforementioned Barkeeper's friend or a mixture of boric acid and denatured alcohol (which are non-toxic).

With regard to cooling off the pan, you should never put a hot, empty pan into a cold, wet sink: The temperature change can cause the pan to warp.


How do I get softer peanut butter cup ice cream? This is similar to this question, but a very different base so I'm asking this separately. I make ice cream fairly often, I have a very reliable base I add flavorings to, like mint extract, chocolate, nutella, strawberries, etc and I always get a nice, scoopable result after hardening in the freezer.

The base is:

650ml whole milk
225ml double cream (UK cream with 50% fat content)
170g sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp salt

I make the base by heating the milk and 2/3 of the sugar until steamy, whipping the yolks with the rest of the sugar, then drizzling the hot milk into the egg-sugar mix so it doesn't cook before heating it all up to make the custard. I then add flavorings, for example 200g of nutella, and the guar gum, leaving the salt out if I'm adding anything which is salty already like Nutella or peanut butter. I use a stick blender to mix it all thoroughly.

After chilling in the refrigerator I churn it in a kitchen aid attachment which is a frozen bowl with a dasher, usually about 16-18 minutes, adding any drizzles or chunky ingredients in the last minute. Then I scoop it all out into a plastic container and freeze it to harden up.

I've used this recipe and method many times and I've never had a hard ice cream yet, this time I decided to do peanut butter cup ice cream. I did my usual base and blended 200g of salted smooth 40% fat peanut butter into it. Towards the end of churning the kitchen aid started to struggle as the mix got very thick, much thicker than usual. After hardening up in the freezer I had to practically chisel the stuff out into bowls, and even after warming up again it's still not pliable like ice cream should be.

What's causing my ice cream to be so hard, and what can I do to fix it? I thought it may not have enough fat, but the peanut butter is nearly 50% fat so that doesn't make sense. I added more sugar than usual to offset the unsweetened peanut butter, and 5 egg yolks should be plenty. Should I be adding more stabilizers or different types of additives? I churned it for the same amount of time as I always do, but it only seemed to get really hard towards the end, should I churn it less?

I believe your base has a butterfat of 11.6%, which is fairly low, at least for home recipes that're usually closer to 19%.

I agree that it seems like the fat in the peanut butter should offset that, but maybe it's not. Maybe the low butterfat content is causing the peanut butter to essentially freeze the same way it would if you just put the jar in the freezer, and you actually need more butterfat to emulsify with the peanut butter to help prevent it from freezing so hard.

Obviously, this is a guess, but otherwise the amount and type of peanut butter you're adding seems fine compared to other recipes. Also, you should be able to skip the guar gum with all that peanut butter, especially if you increase the butterfat.

You might try changing the base to be 400 ml double cream and 475 ml whole milk, which would be the same amount of liquid but with a butterfat of 18.6%.

Ice Cream Butterfat Calculator


Is it bad to double freeze seafood? I like to buy 11 lb boxes of squid at my local fish market.  They come frozen so, in order to process them (clean and package into smaller units), I have to defrost them.  Once I prepare individual packages (about 13 9 oz packages after cleaning), I put them in the freezer.  I never have had any problems (been doing this several years) but some people told me it is bad to refreeze any kind of meat.  What do you think?

Refreezing food, assuming it has been treated appropriately while thawed, and not held overly long at thawed temperatures, is fine from a safety point of view.  This is as true for squid as it is for any other food.

You may have some loss of quality from the thawing and refreezing cycle.  Home freezers are not as cold and do not freeze as rapidly as some commercial freezers or blast chillers.  The ice crystals that form within the will have time to grow larger under home freezing conditions, leading to a greater loss of moisture and possibly deterioration of texture.

Since you have been doing this a while, you know how your particular squid is affected by the process.  If you find the quality in the acceptable range--and it probably is, especially if they were blast frozen aboard the ship that caught them originally--then no worries on that front.

See also:  How dangerous is it to refreeze meat that has been thawed?


Cheaper alternative to parmesan cheese? The parmesan cheese in pasta recipe is quite expensive.....do we have cheaper alternative??

Are there are cheddar cheese which can replace parmesan cheese?

Grana padano and pecorino romano are two other very savory, hard grating cheeses that work well on pasta. They taste a bit different than Parmigiano-Reggiano, but are quite good in their own right and often less expensive. You can also look at parmesan type cheeses that are not actually Parmigiano-Reggiano. For example, Whole Foods often has one from Argentina that offers a reasonable price/performance tradeoff. All of that said, in many people's opinion, nothing is really quite as delicious as true Parmigiano-Reggiano.


How are Belgian fries different than the average French fries found in North America? How do Belgian fries differ from the French fries we are accustomed to eat in the US and Canada in such places as McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and so on? Is it the variety of potato, the preparation involved or something totally different? What oil do they use in Belgium?

I remember having them while I was visiting family in Belgium. The fries were somewhat crispy and thicker than over here.

All of the sources I read say the same thing... what makes them different is that they're fried twice.

From Saveur:

  Frites are the supercharged cousin to paltry American-style fries: made from soft Belgian potatoes called bintjes, they're thick-cut and—this is key—double-fried (in the olden days, in molten horse or ox fat, though modern options range from lard to vegetable oil). Served in a paper cone with mayo and ketchup, properly executed frites—the ones that have been fried, dried, then carefully fried again—are an addictive riot of textures: soft and fluffy on the inside, surrounded by a crunchy, greaseless crust, dipped in luxuriously flavorful sauces.

From Epicurious:

  There is no fancy skill involved in making these crispy fries, but there is a trick. The potatoes are fried twice. The first time cooks them through and makes them tender. The second time, which can be done hours later just before serving, turns them golden brown and deliciously crisp.

From a site dedicated to the Belgian Fry:

  So high time time for a (simple) definition of what makes fries Belgian Fries:

  freshly cut, irregularly shaped
  cooked (fried) twice
  fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside
  a distinct potato taste
  at least 10 mm thick
  preferably served in a paper cone

Some sites mention the importance of certain fats or types of potato but the one similarity for all sites is the fact that they're double fried.


Is there a way to make compressed watermelon without a vacuum machine? I've got in mind to make a dish with compressed watermelon, but I don't have access to a vacuum machine. I've tried once using weight, but it just cracks because the pressure is all from one side. Thoughts? If not, can it be done with a home vacuum food-saver type device instead of a restaurant quality vacuum machine? What about denser foods such as canteloupe or cucumber?

Haven't tried it but here:
http://newmountaincookery.typepad.com/a_new_mountain_cookery/2008/06/compressed-wate.html

The link suggests the following technique:

Vacuum seal pieces of watermelon (if
you don't have one, just put it in a
ziploc bag and take out as much as
the air as possible)
Freeze it overnight
Take it out and thaw


where can I purchase a "wonder pot"? The "wonder pot" is a type of stovetop bakeware that seems to have been popular in Israel during a period of austerity. I'm looking for a (preferably USA based) supplier for a new one.

Here's a link to a page with a photo of the item in question.

My mother had a similarly shaped pan with a lid that she'd use for baking coffee cake and such when camping.  It was all aluminum and much less complicated (and likely not as useful) as what your talking about.  The closest thing I found is the Omnia Oven.

It looks they may be had for about $50.


My Fudge Is Crunchy! Where Did I Go Wrong? This is the recipe I'm trying to follow, but from what I've seen it's a fairly standard fudge recipe. I watched a few videos online and I felt like I had the general idea of what to do.

The fudge came out pretty good except there are a few very small, very crunchy 'bits' mixed in. It's not that the entire thing is 'grainy', the texture is pretty much what I'd expect...it's just a few small crunchy bits mixed it.

I want to try the recipe again, but I don't know what I could have done wrong. So I'm afraid I'll repeat the mistake. Can anyone speculate what might have gone wrong? I've come up with the following....

The Mixture Wasn't Smooth

When I first mixed the milk, sugar and cocoa, even after a fair bit of stirring I could see small clumps of sugar. Could this has been the cause? Do I just need to stir it more?

I Burned It

After bringing the fudge to boil, I reduced the heat to simmer. The temperature was 212F and I was aiming for 238F. I have a gas stove, but I struggled to get the flame set correctly....it would either boil or stop simmering. After 10 minutes or so of simmering it was still at 212F. I ended up with a 'very light boil' and the temperature started rising again. In total, I probably spent 30 minutes heating it. Right before it hit 238, I thought I smelled 'burning'. I turned off the heat, moved it, and went along as normal.

Or possibly something else?

The most likely culprit is how well you beat the mixture just before pouring it into the pan.  I really like Alton Brown's explanation of the fudge-making process.  What you're trying to do is form very small sugar crystals which provide fudge with its fine texture.  Those crunchy bits you describe are larger crystal formations which can happen if you have a "seed crystal" remaining in the fudge as it sets.  The purpose of stirring the fudge very well before pouring it into the pan is to deliberately form small crystals and break up any larger ones.  If you didn't really thoroughly stir even just a few small patches of the fudge, some seed crystals may have developed there.

The clumps you describe in the initial mixture should have dissolved, but working them out would make sure that everything is evenly distributed.  You can add the butter to the original mixture for the same reason instead of waiting until the end like the linked recipe recommends.  A little bit of corn syrup will help control crystals too.  Lastly, stir the fudge like crazy and scrape down as much of the work bowl as you can while you go.  If your arms don't feel like they're about to fall off afterwards, you probably should have mixed it more.

Regarding temperature, remember that when simmering your fudge will carry over a couple degrees even after you turn off the heat.  So you can kill the burner when your thermometer reaches 235F and monitor until you hit the target temp of 238F.

Quite honestly, fudge-making is a pretty sensitive process, so don't be too broken up if it takes a few tries and a lot of attention to detail before it's perfect.


How can you achieve the glazed top in a mille-feuille? A mille-feuille (or tompouce) is a pastry, consisting of layers of puff pastry with pastry cream in-between (see this if you don't know it).

If you buy it in a pastry store, I find that the glazed top is unique for this pastry. Recipes online tell me that it's confectioner sugar and egg whites, but I think it's something else. It's solid, yet soft. You can see your tooth print in it. It's white and sweet. I can't exactly explain how it differs from regular egg white/sugar icing, but in my opinion it does.

Does anybody have a clue what I'm talking about? Do you know what's in it? Or is it just a basic egg white/sugar icing, and is my mind playing tricks on me?

The dessert discribed is not truley a "Tom Pouce", that is a different pastry.  What is discribed in the question is a "Napoleon" dessert pastry.  The Mille Feuille or Puff Pastry is topped with an icing called "Fondant".  Fondant in it's simplest (shortcut) form is made by mixed powdered sugar and water until the desired thickness is reached.  Some time in the open air will harden it a little further beacause of the water drying out.  Fondant made correctly is by making a simple syrup (water and sugar cooked together), cooking it to the "soft ball" stage or temperature of simple syrup, then dispursing it onto a marble slab (to cool it quickly) and with 2 baker knives (one in each hand) fold and kneed the sugar until it frosts from transluscent color to the frosty and shyny white color.  This is an old skill which has been taken over by machines.  Fontdant is now purchased from larger makers in 5 gal. buckets for a cost of appr. $25.00.


Schichttorte; a 20 layer German broiled cake I am making the cake named above, which I found on a British baking site. It call s for 5 1/2 oz of reg flour-sifted, and 2 1/4 oz of sifted corn flour. ? Does anyone know if this recipe in this context is calling for actual corn "flour" or is it cornstarch?
  Hope someone has the correct answer for me.  Thanks so much!

Actual corn "flour" is not a traditional ingredient in Schichttorte. The common translation of corn flour translates to the German equivalent of "corn starch".

To be sure, you can have a look at different recipes for "Baumkuchen". It's the same batter as for Schichttorte, but baked on a stake instead of a flat surface.


Do I need to seal the food with food wrap before put them in the fridge? I've always seen friends putting leftover, cooked food in the fridge with food wrap. I asked them why they are doing it and they don't even know why they are doing it. It is necessary to put just cooked food in the fridge with food wrap?

Wrapping food in plastic wrap before refrigerating has a few obvious benefits:

1) keeps the food from drying out in the fridge.

2) prevents odors (garlic, onions, fish, etc.) from transferring between the item in question and everything else in the fridge.

3) keeps crumbs, extraneous particles from falling into the food. If there were a lot of mold/microbe life already proliferating in the other refrigerated goodies, it might even serve to slow down slightly their penetration into your new leftover food on intra-fridge air currents (...ovbviously I'm reaching here)

But no, you don't have to use the plastic wrap; it's just a custom.


Expiration Date on Milk What does the expiration date on milk cartons mean?

I have different experiences with the date:

There is still about a week before the expiration date but the milk has gone bad
It is 1-2 days after the expiration date but the milk doesn't smell or taste bad

In both case, the milk was kept in the fridge.

There is a lot of variability in how fast milk will go bad.

How long the milk has been opened
Pasteurized vs ultra-pasteurized
Temperature the milk is kept at
Thermal cycling: how long and how often is it kept above 40º
Where in the fridge it is kept. The door will have more thermal cycling than a shelf, higher shelves tend to be warmer than lower ones.

All of these influence how long milk stays good. The big date on the top is used by grocers to determine when it can't be sold. If you look closer there will be text to the effect of, "Use within 7 days after opening". This isn't a guarantee. Leaving the carton out while you cook will allow it to go bad faster, as will keeping it in the door. Also if your fridge is too warm for some reason, things will spoil faster.


Steeping green tea leaves - how many times can I steep them, and do they lose flavanoids over steeps? I order my green tea leaves in small vacuum sealed baggies from China.  They are crumbled up, but expand out once they become saturated.  I typically use maybe half a teaspoon of these dried tea leaves, and I usually steep them around 5-7 times.  Each time I steep my leaves (I use a personal french press for this) and I pour the tea into my cup, the tea is colored (obviously).  The color of the tea never seems to fade between steeps.

2 questions:

When I pour my tea, if it's colored still, does that mean I am still getting flavanoids from the leaves?
How many times can I steep my tea before it starts to lose the flavanoids?

Nutrition itself is off-topic.  However, keep in mind the following:

There are many compounds in tea leaves and some dissolve early, and some a little later.  At some point (around 5-10 minutes of steeping at ~95°C), you will lose majority of the 'good stuff' and continue picking up less desirable compounds.

You will notice that while colour might persist, the taste will be come less and less desirable.  In some cultures re-using tea leaves is considered a faux-pas because of this.

If you find your tea to be too strong after steeping, the best thing is to reduce the amount of leaves for the next time; as opposed to steeping them multiple times.


Sous Vide effectiveness of trapping residual air above water bath? (Note: this is a continuation of this question: Sous vide effectiveness without using a vacuum sealer?)

What is the scientific impact of trapping small amounts of residual air in a pocket above the water bath?  This assumes that there is still a very strong thermal coupling between the water bath and sous vide item.

In the photo below, you can see at least a 2-inch gap between the air pockets above water level and the actual short ribs. The food does not float.

From a heat transfer perspective, I can't imagine that a vacuum sealed bag can perform significantly better—certainly not relative to a 48hr cook time.

Is there (scientifically) something fundamental about vacuum pressure with sous vide, or is it only continuous, stable heat-transfer? What kind of "oxidation causing off flavors or promote spoilage" is possible in the described scenario?

Is there a possibility of bacterial contamination?

What would happen if I cut a small hole in the bag above the water level and let the trapped air escape--as long as the food does not float and water does not leak in?

That bubble doesn't make any difference at all for cooking time. The air isn't touching the food. It's pretty much the same as if you had a tiny bag of air attached to a fully-sealed bag.

As you've already seen on other questions, vacuum sealing vs a good non-vacuum seal doesn't make any difference. The quote about excess air and oxidation was referring to storage and marination (presumably with the air in contact with the food) and mentions water displacement as a method that avoids those issues, so it does not apply here.

I suppose theoretically there could be a bacteria issue, but it wouldn't be contamination and wouldn't really be due to the air either. There can be bacteria in the bag with or without air - indeed, probably most of it is on the meat. The issue would be that the bag isn't fully immersed, and the part of the bag above the water isn't at the same temperature, so while you're cooking the meat at a safe temperature/time, bacteria might be able to grow in the lower temperature. But the solution there is just to make sure the bag is submerged, with or without a little bubble.

Cutting a hole to let the air escape doesn't really make much sense to me. If the hole is above the water level, the air isn't going to escape, you'll just have a slightly-open bag. If it's below the water level water will get in. If you really want to try to get more air out, just redo the water displacement method: open the top corner of the bag, pull it down to let the water push the air out the top, and close again.


Convection microwave oven capable of only 200C I am thinking of getting my first convection microwave oven but the specs indicate it's only capable of a maximum of 200C in convection mode. Is this good enough for roasting chicken and baking pizza, breads and cakes?

Convection microwaves are a bad solution for baking. In the worst case, you get one which cannot turn off the microwave part, which means you can forget baking at all. In the best case, you get a compromise solution which is not as good quality as a dedicated tool. This is quite independent of the temperature setting.

If you want to bake, buy an oven. Toaster ovens of the appropriate size and strength (1500 to 1800 watt) do quite well, and are easy to get on a budget. If the dial only goes to 200, that's OK. You won't get optimal results with some breads and pizzas, but for those you need a bigger investment than most home cooks have anyway.

A microwave is a luxury item with limited usefulness (it doesn't do anything that can't be done with a stove, adds a bit of convenience), but if you want one and have the resources (money and counter space), buy it separately from the oven.


Lumps in pancake batter It seems pretty well understood that you shouldn't stir pancake batter until there are no lumps, cause that will create a tough batter. I'm curious as to what "lumps" exactly are. Are they unincorporated dough lumps? That's the only idea that comes to mind, but seems like it would have some negative result on the final batter.

Bob1's answer has some of the basics -- "lumps" are mostly caused by bits of starch that don't dissolve completely in the liquid to blend with the rest of the batter.

But the potential "downsides" depend on the size of the lumps.  It is true that if they are excessively large, you can end up with loose dry flour in your pancakes, which is unpleasant.  But I usually have only found that to happen when I haven't sufficiently mixed in flour on the bottom of a mixing bowl or something.  Unless you have an exceptionally thick batter or haven't mixed up large "streaks" of flour in the batter, it's more rare to find a large free lump of dry flour floating in the middle of the batter that is big enough not to be "dissolved" during cooking.

Small lumps will usually be broken up in the cooking process as air from the leavening rises and causes circulation in the batter.  The warmer temperatures during cooking will also allow liquid to penetrate dry flour bits more readily.  (Note that most small lumps in batter that sits for any length of time won't even have dry flour at all: they'll just be "goopy" bits of dough where some moisture has penetrated, kind of like "lumps" in gravy, which won't be very noticeable in the final cooked pancakes.)

Just a note about why many sources recommend "lumpy" batter: it has to do with gluten.  If you beat your batter for a long time, more gluten chains will form.  This is great if you're trying to build up strength in a batter to make bread or something, but undesirable if you want a tender cake or pancake.  Hence, many sources will tell you to mix pancake batter only until dry flour and other dry ingredients are incorporated (i.e., no longer with dry streaks), but small lumps are still acceptable.  If you beat the batter long enough to get rid of ALL lumps, you may be toughening the batter too much, so your pancakes will be rubbery, flat, and less tender, rather than high-rising, light, and fluffy.  You will also likely be causing some of the bubbles produced by the initial burst of gas from the leavening to burst and leave the batter, which will leave the pancakes more flat and dense.

So, yes, you want to mix enough that you don't actually have huge lumps containing dry flour, but any other negative impact of small lumps is unnoticeable in the final product.  On the other hand, overmixing will generally result in dense, rubbery pancakes, probably not a desirable result.

If you're truly worried about the lumps, I can recommend a couple suggestions to mitigate them:

Mix with a whisk or similar utensil rather than a spoon.  You want a utensil that will break up bits of flour most effectively, so something with multiple strands that cuts through the dry ingredients will facilitate that.
Use lower-gluten flour, like cake flour or pastry flour.  Often cake flour is milled more finely, making it easier to dissolve small lumps in liquid.  Less gluten makes it less likely for lumps to stick together.  In addition, your final pancakes will be guaranteed to be more tender.
Let pancake batter rest.  Many recipes recommend a rest of around 15-20 minutes at room temperature, or up to an hour (or more) in the refrigerator.  This will allow time for the flour to dissolve more completely and allow most of the lumps to dissipate or at least soften before you cook the batter.  (The fridge is recommended for longer rests, as eventually gases from the leavening will start to bubble out, and the fridge will slow this process.)  A rest usually also results in more tender pancakes with a smoother texture, though be careful to add enough liquid as rested batter will generally thicken a bit.


Drying of basil leaf and other herbs I often saw my grandma drying basil leaves in direct sunlight by spreading them  on a clean cloth for several days. Is this a good method? I feel like placing the herbs in the open air like this will contaminate them with dust. Is there any other method I can use to dry fresh herbs?

Many of us lack sufficiently reliable sunlight and use a food dehydrator. These may be electric, but can also be solar, accelerating the process compared to open sun-drying. They have to be ventilated, to allow the moisture to get out, but still significantly reduce exposure to dust (and also stop the herbs blowing away).

Solar dehydrators can easily be made from readily available materials, even scrap, and there are plenty of plans online. All you really need is a clear plastic container with holes in the sides (holes low and high on all sides will improve airflow) and to spread the herbs in a thin layer. If drying thicker things they may need to be raised on a grid to allow the bottom to dry out.


What is the difference between normal salt and salt of guérande? What is the difference between the salt of guérande sel de guérande and normal salt ?

I have a truffle flavored sel de guérande, which have nearly the same taste of normal salt if it doesn't contain truffle flavor.

Salt is salt is salt.

That being said, most regular salt comes from salt mining, which tend to be neutral as there is no (or lot less) additional minerals (or other stuff) in the salt that will change the taste.

Sel the Guérande is a sea salt, it comes from evaporation of sea water, since the sea water contains a lot more minerals and "stuff", like algae.

Depending on the production method, the resulting salt can have different shapes and texture (e.g. guerande is flaky, Maldon is like a "pyramid").

The resulting taste will be subtly different, and will have a different feeling in the mouth when used as a finishing touch on a dish.


Blending a smoothie without changing the taste I am interested in making a mango smoothie. So I purchased frozen mangos and made some ice cubes. However I believe while blending you need a liquid so that all cubes can be blended, however if I add water it tastes, and if I add milk it tastes weird. So I am wondering if there are any other ways to fully blend the mangos and ice cubes without adding liquid?

You actually made me look up „smoothie“ because I wanted to double-check for some kind of definition.
^_^

Your current ingredient list is

Mango, frozen
Ice cubes

If you throw that in a blender (provided yours is powerful enough, many are), you get some kind of ice slush - like a frozen smoothie. The trivial suggestion would be to use water instead of ice (substituting all or some of the ice cubes), but you ruled that out as tasting too watery - unless this already solves your problem. Using (softened/thawed) mango alone will probably be too thick, but it’s a matter of taste.

Personally, I am not the greatest fan of adding plain water or too much ice, simply for the reasons you stated: it can be a too prominent taste, especially if the water isn’t “tasteless” from the beginning, which is the case in some places of the world, either because it’s chlorinated or very mineral-rich, or it can dilute the fruit flavor. My standard approach is to use parts whole fruit, parts juice, either from the same fruit or something  that goes well together. The options are endless and I feel smoothies are a good area for experimenting with flavor combinations. If you feel adventurous and don’t like dairy, you may consider coconut water as liquid, for example.


What is the best way to toast pecans? Amongst other things, I'm making a chocolate & bourbon pecan pie for Christmas in my capacity as family pastry chef. The recipe calls for toasted pecan halves.

What is the best way to toast nuts evenly? I assume a low oven is best to avoid scorching, but what temperature and for how long?

An oven is the way to go.

Toasting on a frying pan is a pain because you have to stand there shaking it for so long and it is far to easy to scorch if you pause.

I have seen some recipes call for low oven temps but I use 350F (175C) for 10 to 15 minutes stirring a few times. Some sources online recommend as low as 5 minutes but I personally have not ever had them done that quickly. They still have to be checked or they will burn.

I like to use my toaster oven because it heats up faster and is cheaper to run.

I have used an air popcorn popper with good results. Don't overfill it and remove them when they smell nutty. It goes very fast but you have to do them in batches if you have many.

For a pie or other sweet applications, I like to toss the nuts in butter and brown sugar and let them candy in the oven. The fat makes it harder to burn them. Obviously this won't fit for all recipes.

I personally have not had good results using the microwave. Some people swear by it but it seems to me to make them a little gummy.


Replacement for Appenzeller? A recipe for a spinach casserole / gratin calls for topping it off with Appenzeller before putting it in the oven. I cannot find Appenzeller in the store.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appenzeller_cheese distinguishes between classic, surchoix, and extra Appenzeller, but the recipe doesn't give that much detail; it just says Appenzeller.

What cheese would you recommend instead?

Cook's Thesaurus calls Appenzeller creamy and pleasantly stinky :) As a substitute they recommend  Emmentaler, Gruyère, Raclette, or Fontina so I'd just pick one of those you really like.


How do I ensure my puff pastry top stays puffed and crisp on my chicken mushroom pie? I have read many questions and answers on puff pastry but I still need to know what happened to mine:
My pastry did puff up nicely but deflated as soon as I removed it from the oven. Worse, the layers become soggy when cooled.

I bake it at 425 deg F for 25-30 minutes.
The filling I have is moist though not runny.
I make my own short crust pastry as the base lining the tin foil pastry cup.
I line the top with a standard puff pastry bought from the supermarket. I had to roll out that puff pastry a bit as I needed it slightly larger than the size it came as i.e. 4" square. I did try to be careful to not overdo it.
I try to keep the raw pastry as cool as possible before it goes into the oven but it's difficult with our humid weather here.

Do any of these cause my pastry to turn soggy? Is there something that I shouldn't be doing at all?

Puff pastry puffs because of little pockets of gas form between very thin sheets of lean dough. In handmade (and better-quality commercial) puff pastry, these gas pockets are filled with steam, which forms when the butter (which is about 16% water) heats up. In a typical commercial puff, the pockets are filled with c02 released from a chemical leavener like baking powder. For this structure to be stable, some internal rigidity needs to form before it cools; that rigidity comes from the sheets of lean dough being cooked enough to become crispy. If you open the oven before this happens, or take your dish out too soon, the thin sheets of lean dough won't have had a chance to crisp up enough to hold their shape, the gas inside the pockets will contract, the pastry will collapse, and you'll be left with a greasy, gummy mess. Short answer? Make sure it's fully cooked before you take it out.

More specific advice:

Make sure that you don't open the oven during cooking, and make sure that you don't take it out too soon. If you have a window on your oven, try gauging the doneness before opening the door. If it looks like it's going to be far too brown for your taste by the time it's cooked inside, turn the oven off and let it sit in the hot-ish oven to crisp up a little without getting blasted by heat.
If you haven't tested your oven's temperature, get an oven thermometer to make sure that you're at the temperature you think you are. Internal oven thermostats are notoriously inaccurate.

As an aside, you CAN overdo it when rolling out commercial puff, but if it puffed up in the oven initially and didn't collapse until you took it out, you can rest assured that this wasn't the problem.


Can I safely run the microwave for an extended time with just a bowl of water? I would like to leave a microwave running for several minutes (2-5, the longer the better) as part of a research project (I'm measuring the microwave emissions).

Is it safe to put a bowl of water in the microwave to prevent the magnetron from overheating? If not is there something else I could put in.

To answer the obvious question, I do not want to put food in the microwave because I intend to be running the microwave frequently, and it is not sustainable to buy a frozen pizza every time I want to run the microwave.

Sure you can - heating water is essentially what microwaves are built for. They heat food by heating the water inside. So skip the pizza and use plain old tap water.

You want to take two small precautions, though:

Use a microwave-safe container, e.g. a heat-proof glass or porcelain bowl.
Take precautions against overheating - a small stone or toothpick should do the trick.


How does black rice cook? I bought black rice for the first time, and I am unsure what to use it for. It would be helpful if I knew how it behaves when cooked. The info I'm looking for is: (assume fully cooked corns)

Stickiness. Do the corns stick to each other, or remain separate?
Corn structure. Does it feel mealy, or smooth to the tooth?
Hardness. How hard is the fully-cooked grain as compared to other rice types (including wild rice)?
General use. I assume it can be used as white rice, so I am not asking you to list how to use it. But are there uses for which it can't be used? Risoto is probably a no-brain example, are there other dishes where the use of black rice will be so bad as to cause the dish to fail?
Taste. Is there something very specific about its taste, or is it within the usual variety to be expected from rice?
Misc. If there is something important I forgot to include, feel free to include it in your answer.

I already went through Wikipedia and the highest Google results for black rice. I'd like some more information, preferably based on personal experience or not-so-obvious sources.

I used black rice in different recipes. It clearly take longer to cook than normal rice, the grains remain separate and its generally harder than normal rice (I would say something similar to wild rice, but more mealy).
As you said, it's not suitable for risotto per se, but I once made a risotto with normal rice and almost at the end of the cooking I added some (already cooked) black rice, which added a nice color and texture.
The taste is quite strong, so you might want to avoid foods that are too mild in taste. A good combination for me is with peppers, olives and feta cheese, possibly mixed together in a cold rice salad.


Thawed frozen fresh strawberries, can i refreeze them I left fresh strawberries, which I cleaned and froze, on the counter to thaw for 5 hrs by mistake. They mostly thawed. I want to know if I can refreeze them. I use them to blend them up in a meal replacement shake. They are less than a week old.

Refreeze them if you aren't using right away

Your strawberries started out well below freezing point of water. Home freezers operate at close to 0 F. Cooling is a function of temperature difference between substance and surroundings. Your strawberries are in no danger, unless they were absolutely covered in bacteria before freezing, like you had rubbed rotten halibut on them for some reason.

Any texture will be changed with freezing and blending, so don't worry about that.

I like frozen fruit in smoothies, as it gives thick texture without ice addition.


Rinse the salt off a steak before cooking? I've been trying to perfect my technique for cooking a steak indoors.

It was recommended to salt the steak about 30 minutes before cooking. I used kosher salt, and cooked the steak on cast iron. Everything came out spectacularly, in fact it was the best steak I've ever made myself. However, the outer layer of the steak was significantly saltier than I think is normal. It didn't ruin the steak, but it was more than I would have liked. I would simply assume that I over-salted, but given the language people use when they recommend the technique, and the amount I actually applied, I am unsure. I fear that if I use less salt next time I will lose the perfect sear/crust and the incredible flavor of the interior meat that I achieved.

So, given the similarity to brining poultry (in which case the meat is rinsed before cooking), I wonder if the salt should be rinsed off before cooking? I didn't get this impression from any of the recommendations, but now I am not so sure.

Definitely don't rinse the salt off. One of the nice things the salt does is pull juices to the surface of the meat--not enough to dry things out, but enough so that when the steak hits the hot pan you have a nice protein-laden coating (it's called a pellicle when talking about smoked fish--not sure about steaks) on the outside to caramelize. If you rinse it, you're rinsing that right off.

If your steak was too salty, then just salt more lightly. You don't need a ton, as what you get on there will melt some and mix with the juices and spread out. I think I probably use 1/4 tsp or less per side, and some of that bounces off/misses. And you won't lose the crust with less salt--you won't even lose it with NO salt. It's just easier to get if you use the salt to pull some juices to the surface.

If you have trouble getting good salt distribution, use your fingers and sprinkle it from a little farther up--like 8 inches from the steak. That'll make it easier to get an even sprinkle without dousing it.


French culinary terminology for dicing vegetables The French language has many specific words for cooking.  What is the term used for food which is diced into tiny pieces?

The name depends on the sice of the dices. There are:

Brunoise as the smallest one with up to 1.5 mm
Jardiniere ~5 mm
Macédoine 5 to 7 mm
Parmentier 0.8 to 1 cm
Carré ~2cm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_knife_cuts


I don't know what candy to use for gingerbread windows I am looking for a candy to use for windows.What should I use!

Hard Candy would be your best bet, like this recipe, if you want to make 'custom' windows. The presence and concentration of food coloring can get you from 'clearish' to solid colors. If you want to go 'off the shelf' There are a variety of lollipops that are translucent which might give you a nice effect.

If you want to get 'real fancy' break up some Jolly Ranchers and use a little frosting to go "stained glass" :o)


Is it wise to use vinegar to handle rust for cooking utensils? Sometime, the cooking utensils can be damaged by minerals in the food and cause some rust. Would it be wise to use vinegar to remove rust for cooking utensils or are there are better methods?

If you want to clean rust from steel utensils, I recommend Barkeeper's Friend. I find it works well on stainless steel … not so well on carbon steel.

And always rinse with water and dry by hand to ensure no rust in the future.


Does 100% rye sourdough bread always have a sticky crumb? How do I make it stick to the knife less? Every time I make a 100% rye sourdough, it sticks to the knife when I cut it even after letting it sit for a day before cutting. Is this normal? I have tried to vary the hydration ratio a bit, but it still behaves the same way. Is there some "additive" to make it less sticky? Is it a must to add wheat for that?

The sourdough starter I maintain is simple: 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of water.

I dissolve malt syrup, molasses, salt, and spices in a warm .5-1 cup of water. Then I add starter, 4 cups of flour, mix it and transfer right away into loaf pan. AFAIK there is no need to fold 100% rye bread and it raises fast. I bake it at 350˚F for slightly over an hour. I sometimes use Nu Wave infrared oven (40 min), but the very bottom is not quite crispy.

The final bread looks and tastes good. But that stickiness on the knife and rolled "crumbs" are driving me crazy. Is there something I can do to minimize it?

I heard that an over-proofed starter can help lower pH; helping pentosans keep bread structure and making them absorb less water. I tried making the bread with a well proofed starter, but it made no difference. Do I have not enough starter for that amount of flour? Shall I move some flour there to prevent pH from raising much?

Here is the pic to get an idea. It is not the best one to show the issue. The bread is almost a week old and the issue is not as acute. For 1 day old bread, it sticks incredibly.

One cause of gumminess in 100% rye breads is excessive starch degradation related to amylase enzyme actions.  Amylase action is slowed down by increasing acidity.  You can increase the acidity by adding a small amount of lemon juice or cream of tartar to your dough as described here.

In his books "Whole Grain Breads" and "Crust and Crumb", Peter Reinhart comments that you can use ascorbic acid (1/8 tsp / 125 mg per loaf) to increase acidity and inhibit both amylase and protease activity.

Since rye bread doesn't have significant gluten for structure, but instead relies completely on starches and pentosans, it is imperative to let the loaf cool completely before cutting it so that the starches crystallize and the gums solidify.


How should I deal with "thawed frozen puff pastry"? A cookie recipe asks for:

  14 ounces good-quality thawed frozen puff pastry, such as Dufour

So, does puff pastry mean this? http://nishamadhulika.com/baking/homemade-puff-pastry-recipe.html

Secondly, how long do I have to freeze that stuff?

Thirdly, Google says that "thawed" means "Become liquid or soft as a result of warming".
So, what is the way to make it soft?
Do I have to add warm water and crush it?
Or do I have to heat it in an oven?

No, you don't have to freeze it at all.

The recipe you linked is indeed for puff pastry. It is rather tedious to create it, so it is available in supermarkets as a pre-fabricated food, just like pizza dough and other doughs. But it doesn't have a long shelf life in the fridge, so it is sold frozen. The recipe assumes that you will buy it frozen, and warns you to let it come to room temperature before you start baking.

If you are making your own, the end product can be used in cookies immediately. Just pay attention to follow proper technique and work with a very cold dough and butter while making the puff pastry. The link you posted probably explains it - if not, search for better instructions.


How important are eggs for a muffin recipe? I have not actually read Michael Ruhlman's Ratio.  I know that he describes a basic muffin as 2:2:1:1 of flour, liquid, egg and fat.  Prior to discovering Ratio, I only ever thought of a muffin in terms of dry:wet ratios, fat as adding richness, and egg (depending on recipe) as adding richness or structure, so this is new to me.

I am asking because I have not had much success with muffins in the past and am wondering if it is because I have been using recipes without eggs for convenience (because we have usually been out of eggs in this house).

How essential a part do eggs play in a muffin recipe?

There's no simple answer to this other than "it depends". Ratios like the Ruhlman chart are a good jumping off point, but for a lot of chemically leavened things there's a lot more to it. I would highly recommend reading the section on balancing recipes from Cookwise by Shirley Corriher and using it in conjunction with this chart.

The amount of eggs needed will depend on the type of liquid and the type of flour used. The liquids and flour will also alter how important the eggs are. A good example would be things like banana and pumpkin. In banana or pumpkin muffins, the pureed fruit would be used in place of most of the liquid, but since both of those also contain a lot of pectin, they can also replace the eggs. If the liquid is something acidic like sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, or cider vinegar, that can also reduce the amount of eggs needed. Some dry ingredients like buckwheat, flax, and chia will also replace eggs.

In short, the importance of eggs really depends on the specific recipe used. While there may be a good ratio for a plain muffin base, it will definitely need tweaking depending on other ingredients used.


Why was my bread mix really dry and take ages to knead properly? I have been unable to find bread flour in my local grocery store, but did find a bread mix that contained three ingredients (wheat flour, salt and raising agent). Judging by the instructions on the pack to leave the dough to rise, I figured the raising agent was yeast and that it would be a decent substitute for bread flour.

My usual recipe is 750g flour, 1pkt yeast, some salt, couple tb sugar, 100ml oil and 600ml water. I treated this flour in the same way and immediately ran into issues:

It was extremely dry. I usually like a higher hydration loaf and expect it to be quite sticky and it was behaving like a much lower hydration dough. I ended up having to add another 75ish ml to get it to be the way it should be.
It took ages to knead. I usually knead by hand 10-ish minutes, and it must have taken a good 25 minutes to knead, and even then it didn't pass a proper window pane test, but I'd given up by that point.

Apart from the above, the rest of the process went fine, I did a doubled-in-size rise, shaped into pans and then a 30 min rise, and then into the oven at 200C for 45ish minutes. The crumb was tighter than I'm used to but it was still a decent enough loaf.

So now I'm curious what exactly this bread mix is, and exactly why this behaved so differently. My current hypotheses:

Perhaps a lower gluten content bread.
Perhaps a quickbread mix that actually had a chemical leavened. (but then why do they instruct to leave the bread to rise?)

Would either of these cause my mix to be really dry and take ages to knead properly? Or something else?

The product:

FLours differ in their ability to bind water. The reason why our recipes work with the AP flour in the supermarket is that the mills adjust the flour int he supermarket to behave in roughly the same way - and by "adjust", I mean they really measure several parameters of different grains and blend it until it performs in the usual way. (They have to change the actual blend frequently, because even with the same wheat cultivar, growing condition differences due to location and weather mean that each batch will behave differently).

I don't think there is some kind of deeper explanation here than just saying what you already observed - this flour is not formulated to behave like the typical AP flour, it produces a different amount/strength of gluten for the same amount of hydration. You might want to try baking the recipe from the package and see if you prefer it.


Can I substitute salted for unsalted butter in chocolate fudge? My recipe calls for unsalted butter but I only have salted butter on hand.  Will this be a problem in the taste or consistency of my fudge?

Provided the butter is not too salty, it should not affect the consistency or setting, but it will add an extra flavour dimension to the fudge. I don't know what ratios you will be using, but salt and sometimes chilli is added to chocolate to add extra flavour. Personally, I would not find a little bit of salt to balance out the sweetness unpleasant, but that would very much depend on the amount in the butter. Too much would be overpowering.


Matzah meal as a binder in veggie burgers I'm experimenting with veggie burgers, and I keep seeing rolled oats and breadcrumbs in recipes such as this one. However, I grew up in a Jewish home where the binder in recipes such as this one would be eggs and matzah meal. In what ratio can I replace the rolled oats and breadcrumbs with eggs and matzah meal?

I'd say the matzah meal is the equivalent of finer grain breadcrumbs. So what ever ratio you would usually use for breadcrumbs + eggs I'd do the same for matzah meal.


Nutrient loss when baking in roasting pan To retain the most nutrition, steaming is the suggested method of cooking

How much worse is it to bake, say potatoes, in a roasting pan with some water? Is it that much different? I'm more interesting in roasting as it allows the adding of other food, sauces, flavors, etc.

There are two major causes of nutrient loss during cooking:

Nutrients dissolving in liquid, when the liquid is then discarded.
Destruction of nutrients based on heat.

The first is not related to the cooking method directly, but rather to factors like time in and temperature in contact with the liquid.

The second is related to the temperature which the food obtains.

Neither steaming nor roasting have a lot of liquid in contact with the target food, so that modality is essentially out of play.

Roasting can conceivably achieve higher temperatures than steaming, which may in some cases result in higher nutrient loss.  In other cases, it would result in higher availability of nutrients.

There is no simple way to answer a question like "what is the best way to cook foods to retain nutrition."  It depends on the specific food, and how you treat it, and which nutrients you are interested in.


Can I cook chicken in the over after leaving them sitting in the oven all night? I put some wings in the oven last night and then forgot about them and my roommate turned the oven off. They weren't fully cooked but is it still okay to fully cook them now and eat them or would it be better to throw them out?


Do bakeries generally knead dough for bread by hand or use a machine? Question is in the title - if anyone has experience working in a bakery that would be great. Thanks!

Most small bakeries use small rotary mixers (like a Kenwood that stands as high as a man) that handle batches up to about 100lb - using a dough hook for bread.

The really big bakeries use trough mixers with blades that turn along the length of the trough. A typical batch is around 600lb.


How to get rid of extra flour on homemade pizza dough and tortillas I make my own pizza dough and I just made my own tortillas for the first time.  Both are great, my family and friends like them.

However in both cases I roll them out on a floured cloth and they all wind up still having flour on them at the time of baking or cooking. I blow them off but there is still flour on them after cooking.

Am I using to much flour?

OR should I just spray them with a little water mist?

Although they are generally advertised as being for clearing one’s bench of flour, I’ve seen bakers use a flour brush of this sort to remove excess flour from scones etc.


Does a mayonnaise have longer shelf life with egg white only as opposed to yolk? I am working on a mayonnaise recipe, that could have at least 2 -3 weeks shelf life (refrigerated).
I have access to pasteurized egg yolk, and white.

I believe there will be a longer shelf life using egg white only, but how to evaluate it accurately?

Thanks in Advance

There is no difference in the shelf life of mayonnaise made with egg whites, or egg yolks, or whole eggs. Since you are using pasteurized eggs, this counts as a standard cooked dish, and the shelf life is 3-5 days in the fridge. It would be 1-2 days for raw eggs.

You cannot evaluate the safe shelf life of a food by yourself. In principle, one could commission a microbiological study to prove that a given recipe is somehow longer lasting than one would expect from its general category. That is likely to cost more than hiring a cook to make you a daily batch of mayonnaise for the next few years.

For more information on food safety, I would suggest that you also look at the extensive information we have compiled on the topic: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info


what shall I do about this ground meat? I left some ground meat in the refrigerator on a plate uncovered for 2 days, would it still be good to use it doesn't look like there is anything wrong with it? Answer asap please.

Ground meat is safe for 1 - 2 days in the fridge. Ground meat is prone to spoil fast due to the larger surface per unit of measure compared to non-ground meat.


What is the New Zealand white sponge cake, is it a white cake here in the U.S? My friend is from New Zealand and us asking for a white sponge cake. Is that the same as a white cake in the U.S.? or does she really mean sponge cake?

The New Zealand Edmonds cook book has a sponge cake recipe something like this. It's the only cook book we are allowed to use :-)

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup Edmonds Fielder's cornflour
1 tablespoon Edmonds plain baking flour
1 teaspoon Edmonds baking powder
2 teaspoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon boiling water

Method

Beat egg whites until stiff
Beat in sugar then yolks
Sift cornflour, flour and baking powder into egg mixture
Add golden syrup dissolved in boiling water and mix gently with a metal spoon
Pour into two greased and lined 20 cm sandwich tins
Bake at 190°C for 20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched
Leave in tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack


Why is the nutrition information for these two items so different? (In the UK)

I have a packet of custard, which has the following ingredients: Maize starch, salt, Flavouring and Colour.  The salt content on the nutrition information is 0.17% so I assume that the custard is almost entirely Maize Starch.
Wikipedia tells me that Maize Starch is the same as (in the UK) Cornflour. I have some of that in the cuboard and its nutritional information looks like this:

My question is: why is the nutritional information so different? Where did the Sugars come from? Why is there more protein? What's going on?

You are comparing (100 g of custard made with some of this powder and some milk) to (100g of this powder) -- ignoring the salt, anyway.
The magic words are

As prepared with semi-skimmed milk

That's where the sugars and proteins come from, among other things.


is there a blender/food processor combo still made? A long long time ago I had one--I think it was a sunbeam. one base unit worked for both the blender and the food processor. I could really use that now, but haven't had any luck finding one.
it doesn't have to be a sunbeam, just one which uses one base for two functions.
help?

Yes, several companies are selling these blender/food processor combos. A quick search found this Oster and this Cuisinart, as well as several others.