Can I use a Wok ring on a gas range? I have just purchased a GE Cafe gas range. The user guide indicates:

  Do not use a wok on the cooking surface if the wok has a round metal ring that is placed over the burner grate to support the wok. This ring acts as a heat trap, which may damage the burner grate and burner head.
  Also, it may cause the burner to work improperly. This may cause a carbon monoxide level above that allowed by current standards, resulting in a health hazard.

However, I have read several times on the web that using a round bottom wok with a wok ring yields optimal results when cooking on a gas range.

What do you think?

Source: Use and Care Manual.

I find it amusing that your range warns you the cooking ring will work as intended.  It's supposed to be heat trap, and focus heat on the bottom of the wok.

That said, they are also correct that it may discolor the burner grate.  I can't really say what your grates are made from, and many cooking materials discolor at high temperatures.  I think the main idea behind this paragraph in your manual is to save them from warranty replacements for discolored grates.

I also find it highly suspect that a wok could damage the burner itself.  They are usually ceramic, in direct contact with open flame, and any pan traps heat to some degree.  Burners get HOT and have to be able to take it.  Although the little decorative cap on the burner might discolor as well.


Using sauce as a soup base I am wondering which, if any, prepared sauces would work as a soup base. After several experiments I have found that none of the many (mostly Asian) sauces I have on hand work for this (just an experiment folks-- I am not trying to live on sauce).  Is there a general property that makes a liquid (or powder) an effective soup base?  Is it just more intensely reduced?  Hopefully, it is not just a matter of salt.

I have noticed that in packages of ramen the soup base packet is tiny but packs a lot of flavor.  Recently I have gotten some ramen where the soup base is liquid in a tiny packet and that got me thinking about this.

Update: Based on an answer below I should add that my experiments showed that even a LOT of sauce still makes for an very weak soup.  The characteristic I am wondering about is how a tiny packet of liquid (much less than a teaspoon) can provide a strong flavor where say a 2 or 3 TABLEspoons of stir-fry, or other sauces make for a horribly weak soup for the same amount of liquid.

Very simply, all of them work.

The major driver of what tastes good to you is expectations. If you are accustomed to eating soup with a certain taste, and expect it to taste that way, then any time you prepare the soup with something different, it won't taste good to you.

But there is no rule to define that some liquids taste good as a soup base and others taste bad, universally. And without knowing how you like your soup, it is impossible to predict which ones you will like personally.

Update In the edit you mention that it is the concentration that is wrong for you, not the flavour profile altogether.

What gives the soup flavour is not the liquid part. In fact, the liquid in both sauces and commercially available "soup base" as well as fond, stock and other similar stuff is pure, tasteless water. The taste comes from whatever is dissolved in the water.

Whatever you are using as a soup base seems to be just much more concentrated than the sauce. It is very probable indeed that one of the things which don't have enough concentration for your taste in the sauce is salt, another one is probably MSG. But also other flavour bearing compounds are probably provided in less concentration in the sauce. After all, the sauce is supposed to be poured over solid food, and shouldn't taste bad when you lick it off the food surface, it is at a concentration which doesn't taste too bad when it comes in contact with your tongue. The soup base is at a concentration which after dilution falls in the commonly acceptable range (but at a lower concentration than undiluted sauce).


How do you tell if a cheese rind is edible? When I buy a cheese from a type I don't know, I usually discard the rind, just because I'm not sure it is edible. Is there a way to tell if it is edible, other than researching the cheese type?

So this link and this link suggest that there are 3 kinds of rinds.  Summary below:

Bloomy: Appears white, soft, maybe fuzzy.  Can also be reddish/brownish.  Comes on softer cheeses that have a more custard-like flavor.  Formed by a spray of penicillium candidum before aging.  Edible, but the flavor changes and may taste ammoniated over time (consume so long as it's palatable)

Washed: Color ranges from pinkish red to orange or brown.  Caused by bathing the cheese in some kind of solution, be it a salty brine, beer, brandy, wine or some other alcohol.  Contributes to the flavor in some cheeses, and tastes unpleasant in others.

Natural: Formed by letting the cheese age on its own, drying out and growing whatever molds might be present in the cheese or air.  Tends to have a concentrated flavor of the cheese, but may not be palatable.  Examples: Stilton, Montgomery Cheddar, Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Sometimes comes under a cloth cover.  Should be edible, minus the cloth.

Additionally, there are two other possibilities

No Rind: There should be no guessing here.  You've probably had cheeses with no rind...because they might come in a container.  Ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and creme fraiche come to mind.

Wax/Twig/Cloth: Inedible.  Should be discarded

My personal takeaway from this quick research is that I should learn to distinguish artificial covers (cloth/wax) from rinds.  It seems like those that separate from the cheese will either be an artificial cover or an old rind, both of which are undesirable.

If it's indeed a rind, then I'd taste it, both alone and with the cheese, to determine if it's palatable.  For Parmigiano-Reggiano specifically, I've read that it goes well in soup.  Perhaps this is because it's unpalatable-y hard, but still contains the concentrated flavor.

TLDR: look for cloth/wax.  If none, is it tasty?  Does it feel good in the mouth?


Ingredients to Get Started with Indian Cuisine I'm interested in slowly getting started with Indian cooking and building up my store of spices. However, I generally don't have as much time to cook as I would like and really don't have enough space to go out and binge spend on cooking materials for Indian food.

What are the bare minimum ingredients / spices / etc that I would need, to make some tasty  dishes for a wide array of palettes (in case I can convince friends to try my cooking).

Indian foods uses a lot of spices. Almost in a level that you will find one new spice in every new recipe.

Still the most common spices AFIK are the follows in the decreasing order of frequency of use

Turmeric powder
Coriander powder
Cumin powder and seeds
Chili powder (You can replace with green chilies if you must)
Garam masala
Dried red chilies
Black peppers

Also asafoetida, fresh coriander leaf, whole cumin seeds, whole mustard seeds. Also, if you can get some ajowan, get it: While not useful in every recipe, it is really great in eg samosas and tikka marinades.

Also, these are very commonly used ingredients

Garlic
Ginger
Onion
Green chili peppers
Tomato
...
Cashew nuts for added thickening (as a paste of boiled cashew nuts) or whole as an ingredient (or both - cashew-thickened real korma with sundry vegetables, dried fruits, and whole cashews added is mind blowing - bring on the saffron too!).

Also always make some yogurt (Unflavored and unsweetened) available

Most common vegetables are

Cauliflower
Cabbage
Potato
Bell peppers (Green)
Red Kidney Beans

Most common grains are

Rice (Basmati rice is considered as delicacy)
Dal (Many varieties, but you might need mung bean, lentil, toor daal, urid dal )
Whole wheat flour and normal flour

Traditionaly different kind of oils are used but now a days mostly vegitable oil is used. You will also need ghee (Similar to clarified butter) to make some complex and rich dishes.


What are good ingredients to put into a Scrapple soup stock? I'll try to make this as focused as possible, so that a reasonable answer can emerge. I have a (loaf?) of scrapple, which Wikipedia describes as:

  traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then panfried before serving.

I'm fairly new to cooking, so this is a question about soup stocks in general. Given the ingredients, is it possible to create an edible soup stock from it, as one would from other leftover meats? If so, what kind of ingredients would pair well?

I don't think it would work too well to just throw scrapple in a pot and make a soup. You'd be better off trying to make something "inspired" by it, trying to duplicate similar flavors in a soup. I'd try a thick pork soup, almost a stew, with chunks of pork shoulder and cornmeal-buckwheat dumplings, some sage and corriander and plenty of pepper. I'd definitely use a pork stock made from pork bones (and a pig's foot, sawn in half, for extra body), and ramp up the flavor with a ham hock. Maybe simmer some greens in there for the last few minutes to give it some color.

As for what to do with your existing loaf of scrapple, well, slice it, fry it up, and eat with fried eggs and ketchup for breakfast.


Which Type of Japanese Green Tea Has the Highest Amount of Caffeine? I am trying to find the best pick-me-up Japanese green tea and was wondering which type was the best to get from the assortment of Sencha, Gyokuro, Kabusecha, Bancha, etc.

From what I've read, caffeine content can be variable even within varieties. There are possibly seasonal variations, variations in harvesting and processing technique, variations in the original plants... Psychological effects (e.g. what smells perky to you) might be just as strong, and steeping for 10 minutes instead of 5 might make as much difference as any choice of variant. So take any answer with a grain of salt, and don't be afraid to simply go with what seems to subjectively work best for you.

That said, gyokuro is supposed to be stronger than other sencha teas, and I believe compared to other Japanese green teas as well. (I found similar information elsewhere; it's not just wikipedia.)


What are the pros/cons of serving the salad dish before/after the main dish? I have noticed that most people in the US serve the salad course before the main dinner course. However, my Italian relatives and my boyfriend's Italian relatives serve the salad course after the main dinner course. (I am assuming it is an Italian or European difference.)

What are the benefits to serving the salad dish either before or after the main course. Does it aid in digestion? Palate cleansing?

For a fairly typical thread on this, see:  http://www.thekitchn.com/cultural-differences-salad-bef-65008

The so-called reasons I see listed here are consistent with what I found in several different internet discussions of the issue, none of which are scientificially or academically credible:

Restaurants serve salad first because it is easiest to get out on the table
At home, eat the entrees first while they are hot
Eat salad last so that the roughage helps digestion
Eat salad last so that the stomach acids are not diluted for the entree

Note that the last two are kind of non-sensical.  They sound great as folk science, but in the course of a single meal, it will all end up together in the stomach, as the digestive process is not so fast that the courses end up moving through the system in sequence like cars in a railroad train in sequence over the track.

Then again, some like to serve it with the main part of the meal.

I am sure this is just a matter of cultural expectation.


Can I use cookie cutter shapes in a frying pan? Was thinking how to spice up our pancakes and eggs for the little ones and remember seeing pancakes in various shapes before.  Do people put them right in the pan or bring them out and then cut them after they've been already cooked?  I was thinking the same possibility for eggs too.  Then I got to thinking whether or not it was safe to put them in the pan.  Let's assume I have cheapo dollar store shapes and not the higher end stainless steel ones.

In general places that do this with pancakes do not cut-out, but indeed use a mold or the like.  The scrambled eggs would likely look fine "cut", but part of a pancake is the edge, even if it is modified by touching the edge of the mold.

So long as the mold is metal, your dollar-store purchases should be fine.

You will likely need to oil/butter them in some way so that the product - batter or egg - does not stick to the metal itself.

I have myself used clean old tuna tins to make round "self-contained" fried eggs for a home version of a McMuffin.


How to eat raw brown rice, yellow peas, black beans The USDA nutrition data says these foods have much better nutrition raw than cooked.

Can I make them safe to eat without cooking?

Expand them and soften with water so they don't grow after being eaten
Remove anti-nutrients and indigestible parts.

Can they be sprouted? Or soaked with lemon juice?

Or if I boil them, does the water contain the removed nutrients and can I eat that?

Assuming you don't cook in excess water then drain it away, there's not a difference in nutritional value here, you're just not comparing the same amount of rice.

Raw, uncooked rice and beans are dry. When you cook them you add water. So if say you start with 100g of raw brown rice, you might end up with 330g of cooked brown rice. If you then take just 100g of it, it'll have less than 1/3 of the original nutritional value - you're basically eating 30g of rice and 70g of water. But if you eat all of it, it'll have the same nutritional value it started with.

Same idea applies if you start with one cup. It expands when you cook it, to perhaps a bit over 3 cups of rice, so if you take one cup to eat, it's just less rice.

The ratios of cooked weight to raw weight, and cooked volume to raw volume, depend a bit on exactly how you cook the rice. The nutrition facts are based on some average of "properly" cooked rice.

If you do cook things in excess water, then yes, there is some very small amount of nutrients in the water (it's still water, not a protein shake), hard to say exactly how much, and if you're determined to get every last bit of nutrition you can eat it. For rice it's generally a non-issue, since you don't need excess water - just use the right amount and it'll all boil away or be absorbed. Beans are generally cooked with a bit of excess water, but they don't need an insane amount, so it's not hard to turn that into a soup/sauce for the beans, and so there's still nothing to throw out.


How to best prepare Sukimono I am trying to make Sukimono, which is a Japanese type of fermented green cabbage.

I'm completely new to fermenting and my first batch came out a bit too salty. I weighted the cabbage down in salt (no water) for a little over one day and rinsed out thoroughly when it was done.

I used a thin sea salt, which I'm guessing might have been too salty for it and wondered if there was a better salt to use or if any other part of the process I used could be improved.

I'm glad the kosher worked for you. I wouldn't say "avoid sea salt", I'd say "avoid fine salt". When you get right down to it, All salt is sea salt. It's mined from oceans dried up millennia ago, or taken from current oceans and evaporated. Kosher worked better for you because the crystals were larger. Some sea salt crystals are huge, Maldon, for example. It's a lovely finishing salt, you'd never want to use it for an application like this.

I would avoid iodized salt in anything involving fermentation, some people can taste it (or swear they can), plus the iodine can inhibit some beneficial bacteria. Here's a nice short article all about choosing a salt for fermenting.

Fermentation opens all kinds of doors to really good eats. Enjoy!


Can I infuse my own raisins? I quite like lime-infused raisins (like these), but they're kind of pricey compared to regular raisins. Are they made by some process I can emulate at home? Is it just a matter of soaking and then drying? Or adding small amounts of liquid? Or is this an industrial process I can't easily replicate?

I am not sure what you mean by lime-infused raisins but let me explain what I do to my raisins for scones.  I usually soak them in Gran Marnier Liquour, anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours.  I put the raisins in a glass bowl or big cup, covering the raisins with the Liquour.  It depends on how much flavor I want the raisins to have.  Then I strain the raisins and set aside the liquour for either another receipe or someone usually wants to drink it.  I put the raisins in the scones.  My nieces and nephews just love them, their moms tell me because it's just like eating booze, and of course, when I make it for them, I do use more raisins and soak them more than 24 hours for the flavor. I use the white raisins.   Now for your question.

YES I do believe that if you squeeze enough fresh lime juice to cover the raisins, you will achieve your goal.  My only tiny problem is that the lime juice might break down the raisins because of the acidity in the lime juice. So, what I would do is try one cup of raisins, cover with fresh lime juice and check in 2 hours, if ok continue, if you want more flavor wait 2 more hours and check again and make sure not only for flavor but for the break down of the raisins due to the acidity.  What raisins did you eat?  White, red, concord, there are so many types, that I am not sure which would hold up to the acidity.

Now for the drying. Put them in a very low temp oven, 200 degrees about one hour, checking every 20 minutes, checking to make sure that they do not burn or put in a food dehydrator. Then let them cool. Look this up on Google also.  I am giving you my own experience.  My Auntie used to soak her raisins for some of her cookies in Brandy, Whiskey, Vodka and whatever liquour she thought would be interesting.  She was an excellent cook and baker and owned a restaurant.  Her booze soaked rice raisin pudding was awesome.

The old way and even today is to put outside on mesh, covered on both side with cheesecloth so insects and birds or other undesirables will not get to.  This might take a little while,  a few days to a week or two depending on hot it is outside. I would check this every day or so also.

You could also let them stay plump, leave in the fridge, and take out and eat what you want as you want it.  A little juicy but still tasty.  Sounds delicious and in a fruit salad.  I bet this would be awesome.  I have a lemon tree and white raisins and will try this out myself this week.  I bet this will be a big hit!  Good Balance with sweet fruit.  Hope this info helps you.


What is the danger in cross contamination? This question was prompted by this one on how to clean tools to prevent cross contamination. I wanted to ask it in the comments but realized it might be better as a separate question.

Do I need to be worried about cross contamination if everything is being cooked together? For example, is there a problem if I'm making a stew and I cut the meat and vegetables on the same board with the same knife without washing them in between if I then throw it all into the same pot? I've never really worried about cross contamination between foods that I was going to cook together anyways - is this a serious faux paus?

This mostly applies to foods that were going to be cooked at high temperatures where I figured any bacteria would be killed anyways, like stews, stir frys,  or casseroles.

Whilst you'll probably be fine using the same knife and chopping board to prepare everything that's going in an "all in one" meal such as a stew, here's the reasons I have for never doing so:

It's a bad habit to get into. It's very easy to slip-up and forget that you're not making an "all in one" meal and thus chop some lettuce on a board you've already used for slicing raw bacon when making a salad, if most of the meals you make are "all in one" and you usually don't have to "worry" about cross-contamination
It doesn't take that long. Washing your chopping board down with hot soapy water and a clean sponge/scourer takes literally a few minutes, the same can be said for a knife. If you're pressed for time you could turn the board over and use a fresh knife. That assumes that the work surface was clean beforehand and the food being prepared on the "first" side was dry and thus won't have liquid run-off that's contaminated the underside of the board
It's not worth getting wrong. If you make a mistake and get food poisoning, or worse - give someone else food poisoning, you'll really wish you'd done your utmost to prevent cross-contamination.


How can I maximize the caffeine content of my coffee? Like many people, I rely on coffee in the morning to really get me going for the day. I always use more than the directions require to get more caffeine for that extra morning jolt.

How much ground coffee should I use to reach caffeine critical mass in my brew? Is there a formula for volume of grounds per unit of water that I can use so I can get the maximum caffeine experience without wasting coffee?

Use lighter roast coffee: caffeine burns off as the roast darkens.  All other things equal, though, the stronger the cup of coffee, the more caffeine will be in it.  You aren't going to reach caffeine saturation just by brewing (even very) strong coffee.  So brew coffee with lighter roasted beans to your maximum desired strength.


Why Is My White Sweet Potato Turning Black? I started cutting a white sweet potato. But within minutes an area on the outside of the potato started turning black/brown. Other sides of the cubed chunks didn't seem as affected. Here's a photo with the black and better bits separated. Even the good ones were rapidly browning and oxidizing in a speckled fashion.

It is, as you said, oxidation. As soon as you cut them, put them in a bowl under water. Kills the oxygen supply/reaction.


How can I cultivate and store yeast? I am often making a basic leavened bread for some basic recipes, like naan, burek, focaccia, pizza, etc. However, I find that dry active yeast is prohibitively expensive, considering it is a self-replicating living organism. Is there a way to effectively create and store yeast for a reasonable period of time (~3 months) from a mother spore?

In order to store yeast for that period of time it has to be make inactive, and the process to do that yourself is challenging, time consuming, and you'd need specialist equipment. It would be prohibitive in both time and cost, far above just buying yeast.

You can of course make a starter by mixing equal amounts of flour and water plus some yeast, this will keep the yeast alive by feeding it, and you can keep it alive indefinitely by feeding it once per week. You add some of the starter to your bread and it supplies active yeast.


How and when should I use a bread knife? I know the answer is "it's for cutting bread" but what I really want to know is when does its uniqueness actually help?

What I've noticed is that it's sooooooooo much easier to use the santoku knives to cut breads with a harder crust like french bread or sourdough or a batard. They require no pressure, they easily cut all the way through, and they don't make a giant mess of crumbs. Where as when I try using the bread knife, since what I'm cutting is bread, it requires much more effort to cut, there is always a big pile of crumbs and the last cut, the cut needed to separate the slice from the rest of the bread is always very difficult without feeling like I'm going to accidentally saw the cutting board instead of the bread.

Am I doing it wrong or is the bread knife really not designed for hard breads but maybe only soft breads (the kinds that are usually bought already sliced?)

The "problem" with using your Santoku knives is that they dull fast when you use them on bread.

If you keep your knives well sharpened, you can do without the bread-knife.

Other uses for bread-knives, is cutting tomatoes, for instance. Another thing you can use a well sharpened Santoku knife for.


What beans can I use to make refried beans? Refried beans are traditionally made with pinto beans. However, I'm having trouble finding them; what other beans can I use to make refried beans?

I have made refried beans out of pinto, small red, black, and even navy beans. I almost tried using kidney beans once but it seemed wasteful.

They were all different in texture but they were all good. Black beans, for example, have a much more fibrous skin so the refried beans are not as smooth- I actually prefer it to the homogeneous pinto mash. Obviously their color is also more interesting.

There are a lot of different bean varieties and I don't know what is available to you. In general I would say to just try whatever you have- it will probably taste good even if it isn't exactly like pintos.


Steam "nature" of cappuccino steamers Is there a difference in the "nature" of the steam being produced by the steamers in the espresso machines?

I have a decent espresso machine, but apparently even a professional barista who I know can't make the foam needed for cappuccino art - so I was wondering if professional espresso machines produce a steam that is different in nature compared to home ones (at least, midrange ones).

There are two major differences between frothing with a home machine versus a professional machine.

1- A professional machine will have hotter and more forceful steam.
2- A home machine will often have a "froth assistor" on the wand.

The composition of the steam, though, should be the same and you should be able to create a decent approximation of the correct kind of foam for latte art with a mid-range home machine.

There's a very nice tutorial about halfway down this page on CoffeeGeek.


How does one cook Banh Su Xue? I just got this from the Asian supermarket:

It says on the back "product requires cooking before consuming!", but nothing else.  How does one cook frozen Ban Su Xue?

It's hard to tell from your photo but if the báhn xu xê cakes were cooked, the outer green part would be fairly translucent since it's mainly composed of tapioca flour. Tapioca cooks clear. Yours looks cloudy still.

Báhn xu xê cakes are steamed for 15 minutes and then cooled. I've seen places where they're steamed in plastic wraps and I suppose that's safe but not what I'd consider appetizing. I honestly can't say how well they would hold together without some kind of wrapping while steaming. Traditionally, they were wrapped in pandan leaf folded into a box shape. Pandan leaves are used for flavouring as well as wrapping. My best suggestion is to rewrap them in double thickness parchment baking paper if you don't wish to use plastic wrap and tie with string to hold together. The paper will get soggy, of course, but should hold their shape.

By the way,  báhn xu xê translates as "husband-wife cakes" and is traditionally served at weddings.


Chicken curry in a slow cooker turns out watery My first question on here, so please go easy on me.

I have recently got a slow cooker and have been very pleased with the results, but that was using ready-made sachets of cooking mixes.

I am now trying to cook things properly from scratch but I think I'm missing something important.

This is the recipe I have used for chicken curry:-

4 chicken thighs
3 garlic cloves
2 large onions
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
handful chopped spinach
100g mushrooms
400g tin chopped tomatoes
250ml chicken stock
3 heaped tsp of curry spice

I put everything in the slow cooker, give it a good stir, and then leave it to cook. It tastes nice, but the sauce is very watery.

I have used the same recipe in a pan and the sauce thickens after I simmer it for about 20 mins.

Do I need to change the recipe to use the slow cooker? Or am I doing something fundamentally wrong?

A slow cooker needs a lot less water for the same recipe than something you simmer in a pan for 20 minutes. The sauce thickens in the pan because a lot of the water evaporates.

In this case, most your water is in the chicken stock. To get all of the flavor, but less moisture, drastically reduce, or even eliminate the stock. You've got plenty of water without it. Use a tsp of chicken base to keep the flavor without the water (recommended: Better Than Bouillon).

That alone will probably solve your problem. If it doesn't, come back to this question and edit it to tell us what you tried and any problems that remain, or ask a new question if the problem is different.

Welcome to Seasoned Advice.


How do you reduce static in a coffee grinder? Is there a way to reduce/eliminate the static buildup in a burr grinder?  I've tried a few different coffee grinders and inevitably on removing the grinds bin, I get a spray of coffee all over the counter.

My grounds bin has a lid. So while the grounds still collect static, they don't fly all over the place when I remove the bin from the grinder.

Giving the bin few sharp taps on the counter top prior to opening seems to shake off most of what clings to the top and sides. Then I tap out the grounds, wipe out the bin with a napkin, and I'm ready for the next morning.

Beyond that, try switching up your coffee. The cheap "8 O'Clock" stuff I keep on reserve is terribly staticy, while the beans I roast myself don't have nearly the trouble. I tend to enjoy a lighter roast, so keep that in mind - you might benefit from grinding beans with just a bit higher moisture content (of course, if you have a strong preference for dark roasts, this doesn't help much).


Does tiramisu firm up in the fridge? I am making my first tiramisu, using this recipe from Gourmet (with high ratings on Epicurious). My mascarpone mixture looks terribly soft to me.

As per recipe, I foamed 4 yolks with 80 ml sherry (I had no Marsala) and 95 g sugar at 55°C. The yolks were from recently bought M-sized eggs, there were no L-size in the supermarket. The volume increased a lot, but the foam itself was runny. I mixed in the 450 g mascarpone (the egg mass was still warmish), and it seemed to dissolve (I hope I didn't melt it). The result was still foamy and runny. Then I folded in the 240 g whipped cream. The final consistency is similar to egg whites beaten to stiff peaks. It is a foam, and not runny, but very aerated, and I suspect that, if left on a heap (instead of a bowl), it will flow flat over time. It is very unlike the cream layer in tiramisu I've had before.

Is this normal? Will the cream harden in the fridge? Will the ladyfingers soak up some moisture? (They are coffee-dipped in this recipe). Or should I put in some gelatine to make sure it will keep shape? Or some other thickener? I have xanthan, but don't know how to incorporate it, the mass won't survive a mixer on full speed, and it will clump if not perfectly dispersed.

Your recipe doesn't specify 55°C, and I'd be surprised if 5–8 minutes over barely simmering water only gets that hot. Indeed, checking for sources:

McGee, in On Food and Cooking, says:

  When the temperature reaches 120°F/50°C, high enough to unfold some of the yolk proteins, the mix thickens, traps air more efficiently, and begins to expand. As the proteins continue to unfold and then bond to each other, the foam rises into fluffy mounds. The key to maximally light zabaglione is to stop the heating just when the foam teeters on the cusp between liquid and solid. Further cooking will produce a stiffer, denser, eventually tough sponge as the proteins over-coagulate

so that leads to the conclusion that 55°C wasn't hot enough, as it hadn't yet reached "the cusp between liquid and solid".
Hans-Dieter Belitz, Werner Grosch, and Peter Schieberle say in Food Chemistry:

  Egg yolk can be whipped into stable foam only at higher temperatures (optimum 72°C), the volume increasing about sixfold in the process. Above the critical temperature, the volume falls and the proteins coagulate. The protein coagulation is prevented by reducing the pH value, e.g., by the addition of acetic acid. This effect is used in the production of highly stable sauces

so that'd imply you want 72°C, or maybe higher due to the acid (wine) present. As a side benefit, that'd also pasteurize the eggs.

In summary, I think you should have cooked it hotter.

I doubt it is going to firm much in the fridge, hopefully it is stable enough to not further liquify.


Can I cook a thawed turkey? I bought a PC stuffed turkey roll. It said keep frozen but I accidently left it in the fridge for two days. Is it still safe to cook from its defrosted state? It is small and stuffed.

Check the cooking instructions - if it says to cook from frozen, and doesn't mention defrosting as an option, it probably isn't safe. Some foods are meant to be placed in the oven frozen, and defrosting them increases the risk of stomach upset because of various bacteria levels. If, on the other hand, it gives defrosting instructions as well as, or instead of, saying cook from frozen, it should be okay.


How do you season and cook to palates and preferences different than yours? Often times the dishes I am the most disappointed with end up being a hit with my family. It is almost as if our tastes contrast each other.

Given that, how can I cook something that appeases a palate which is not my own, and especially one that appreciates flavors and textures I do not like? A major part of cooking is adjusting things along the way according to a preference, and it is hard when whatever preference you are working with (your own) is not relevant (when cooking for others).

I have (nearly) no sense of taste and smell, and what sense I do have is heavily distorted. As a result, my senses are non-indicative of dish quality. Nearly every meal I cook is shared with at least one person, though, so I've had to adapt.

I iterate over the same recipe over and over varying the spice mixtures and ratios, and ask for comment every time. I write down said comments with the recipe, and then adjust from there. Usually my recipes stop evolving by the time I've written iteration #4-5 (less for newer recipes, as I can now "play" the flavors by ear).

When I'm cooking for people I don't see often, I use my well-rehearsed recipes. I also select foods where the cooking is more of a science, where it's hard to mess up the flavor, or where people take a self-seasoning approach (e.g. baking bread, grilling steak, baking potatoes).

Edit: Here's some simple spice trends from my personal recipes. These have been calibrated almost exclusively on Southern U.S. guests:

Mild Spanish Paprika (Pimentón) is great for grilling and pan-frying pork (along with the usual suspects like salt and pepper).
Add 1/person dried bay leaves (whole ones, not chopped or ground) and 1/person garlic cloves to your rice when cooking it. Remove them after cooking. Do the same for stews, and really anything that cooks in water (other than pasta and potatoes).
Add some granulated garlic (which is basically powdered garlic without the dust issues) to nearly everything. It's quick, mess-free, and I think most people (at least near me) harbor a terrible addiction for garlic. Use actual garlic when doing stews, sauces, or you just have the extra time to peel it.
Substitute bacon fat for butter when cooking things other than bread and pork. Only thing people are more addicted to than garlic would be bacon. Use both garlic and bacon fat when making mashed potatoes, watch them cry happy tears while they ask for additional helpings.
Instead of plain vegetable/frying oil, get a bottle of non-virgin olive oil and a bottle of peanut oil. After cooking with them a few times you'll get a feel for which is right for each dish (rule of thumb: higher temperatures means peanut).
I have yet to find a dish that wasn't improved by sprinkling some parsley on top at the very end. It adds color (specially to anything that doesn't have green otherwise), and everyone either loves it or is neutral to it.


How do you season/prepare a wood plank for Plank Grilling? I wanted to Plank Grill a Salmon, after hearing about how much Jarrod enjoyed it:

Besides salmon, what other meats can be grilled on a cedar plank?

How do I season a cedar plank in order to use it for grilling?  After it's seasoned any tips on the actual grilling technique?

I don't season the wood at all. I buy the planks from the local grocery store or hardware store and soak in water for 8 hours. The planks often say 1 hour is enough, but I think this is just marketing, it never seems to be enough. Weighting the plank down to keep it fully submerged will help the process.

When you're ready to cook, put the plank on a hot grill and leave it for 3-5 minutes. Once the plank starts smoking, then it's ready for your food. Don't leave it too long or it will catch fire and not smoke well as the bottom gets charred.

You need to cook this with the lid down in order to keep the smoke contained around the food and also to keep the plank smoking rather than just catching fire. You might need to play with your airflow on a charcoal grill to get maximum smoke.

Depending on what you cook, you can sometimes use the plank a second time. Although this doesn't work with Salmon, as the skin often gets left on the plate.


How to grate cinnamon using a microplane What is the best way (force/position/type of cinnamon) to grate cinnamon sticks using a microplane? I've tried several times, and although I get a finely ground, very aromatic powder, it took me five minutes to get a quarter of a teaspoon--and took serious elbow grease/constant repositioning. Is there any way to grate cinnamon more efficiently? Is it dependent on the type of cinnamon stick?

I think using a microplane to grate hard spice is only useful for small amount, either it will take you a long time (as you experienced) or will damage your microplane (render it blunt).

The best way to grind spices is with a electric grinder (coffee grinder), even with that, grinding harder spices like cinnamon is difficult.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2018/02/the-best-spice-grinders.html


Was too much oil used, or not enough when seasoning? I went about trying to reseason my cast-iron pan yesterday. I used some recycled canola oil at 400F for 60 minutes right-side up. After that I checked on it (before it was completely cooled), and noticed that most of the surface was a matte black with a web of a glossy material.

I was under the assumption that the surface was supposed to be a uniform color, so I put it in for another 30 minutes, thinking that I had pulled it out too early. When I checked on it afterwards, I noticed that more of the surface area was glossy, and not matte. So before I threw it in for more time or added more oil, I figured I'd ask here.

Should I strip the surface and do something different? Should I use brand new flaxseed oil instead of recycled canola oil? Should I flip it upside-down and set the oven to 350F?

You used far far too much oil. And you definitely used the wrong oil.

Ever notice how oil moves around the surface when you pour some in a hot pan? It doesn't spread out uniformly flat like water does but seems to be moving in a changing pattern. I don't know what this oil fluid dynamics is called but I'm sure you've seen this too.

When you oiled your pan, this pattern is what started to form and then from the high heat - and it doesn't take long - it baked on with thicker and thinner layers of hardened oil. Rather than trying to bake on a layer of fat in one sitting, you'd do better to laminate your seasoning so it lasts.

What you want to use is a "drying oil" that will form a hard slick film that fried food will slide off with the addition of a little cooking oil. What's the drying oil painters use? Linseed oil. The food grade and safe equivalent is 100% pure unadulterated flax  oil. So your second choice is what you need to use.

But remember, you should laminate your seasoning. By repeatedly adding a thin layer of flaxseed oil and then heating it for an hour, letting it cool for a couple and repeating this 4 or 5 times, you'll end up with an almost glass-like smooth finish to your pan that's more nonstick than Teflon could be.

It's important when you coat your pan for seasoning, you wipe off any excess before baking it. You want a barely there film. Why? Because doing so, enables the oil to absorb oxygen in the air evenly (a thicker layer would prevent oxygen reaching the oil next to the pan's surface) which is necessary. It also lets the iron function as a catalyst that speeds the process. What you get is polymerization of the flaxseed oil (the actual chemical change) from a liquid to a hard solid, not a thick sticky layer of half-baked oil.

Before you can properly season your pan though, you'll need to remove that previous attempt. The easiest method is to place your pan, face down, in a self-cleaning oven to thoroughly burn the old oil off. Then, you can brush off the ash, wipe your pan clean and begin seasoning it correctly.

Just a tip about maintaining the finish. Use your pan for frying only, not stewing or ever cooking with acidic foods. The best way to clean residue on your pan after frying is with salt and oil. I scrape the worse off and then add about 1/2 teaspoon oil to my pan and pour some ordinary table salt on the oil. With a bunched up paper  towel, I use the lubricated salt to scrub off any food residue. The salt doesn't scratch the seasoned finishing and really cleans well. I usually rinse it under water before drying the pan and putting it on the heated element just to be sure it's completely dry.


Purpose of low-humidity crisper? My refrigerator has two crispers, with humidity sliders from low to high. A high-humidity crisper is pretty easy to understand: it traps the moisture inside, preventing leafy greens from wilting. On the other hand, when you slide it to low humidity, a vent opens allowing air to pass through. How is that any different from storing food outside the crisper?

If you set it to high humidity (no air flow) and add plenty of water fruits, f.e. water melon halves, then moisture will gather on the bottom of the box, where it leads to mold, where the fruits and vegetables touch it.

So you keep the slider somewhere where you have great greens/fruits without too much moisture on the bottom and sides of the box.


How to know if frozen clams are good when cooked I have some live clams in the refrigerator that I would like to freeze because I will not be able to use them in time. My question is, how will I know which are good when I steam them later. Will they open up like live clams even if frozen and will the bad ones stay closed? Otherwise, how can I tell which are good when cooked? Thank you.

Per

http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodstorage/a/clamstorage.htm

  Do not freeze clams in their shells. To freeze clams, shuck them,
  being careful to save their liquid. Rinse with salt water (1
  tablespoon of salt to 1 quart of water), and place in a container with
  the reserved clam liquid and additional salt water so they are
  completely covered. Frozen clams will last up to 3 months at 0 degrees
  F. Thaw frozen clams in the refrigerator before using, and never
  refreeze them.

While About.com is not always the best, in this case their information passes the gut test.  Frozen clams certainly would be killed, and so wouldn't open upon steaming.

The thing about never refreeze is almost certainly a palatability issue, not a safety issue, as long as they stay in the safe zone (under 40 degrees F) and are not unfrozen for very long--but clams are highly perishable. I would exercise considerable safety.

Sadly, I found conflicting information saying freezing them in the shell is okay--but they didn't offer any detail at all, so I its hard to give credence to:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/clams.html

despite their being a university sponsored site.

Being conservative, I would cook then freeze.


Why is the texture of the pasta in a store-bought pasta salad different to the texture of pasta I've cooked at home? So I've bought a store-made pasta salad and I've tried to recreate it at home.

It consists of Penne and a tomato dressing, fairly simple, however no matter how hard I try I can't emulate the exact texture of the pasta of the store-bought salad.

At first I thought it was because I overcooked the pasta, but I was pretty certain I didn't. But to be sure I tried several different cooking times on several different batches of the same pasta. To no avail, the texture I am after still eludes me. The texture of the store bought is soft, yet slightly firm and has a pleasant chewiness to it.

I checked the ingredients on the back of the pasta salad and it says the pasta is made out of Durum Wheat Semolina (and water), this is the same ingredient as the pasta I used is made from.

So now I am left wondering what the difference in texture could be down to; any ideas?

Expanded from the comments...

Use properly salted water when cooking the pasta.

Slightly undercook the pasta a little bit; the pasta will continue to cook as you prepare the salad.

Do not rinse the pasta.

Mix the ingredients while the pasta are hot; they will absorb more flavour; I would try to season the pasta before adding oil; since oil will tend to coat the pasta and will block the seasoning from being absorbed.

Use a little bit more salt and spices than usual (cold dishes need more "punch".

Good luck and have fun experimenting.


Can I mail jars of mole sauce? I'd love to send my friends and family homemade mole sauce in jars for Christmas because we can't be together over the holidays thanks to covid.  Has anyone done this before?  I'm worried about the sauce going bad in the mail.

Most mole sauces are not particularly perishable, and would be fine for several days at room temperature.  If it has a high salt content, it could be fine for weeks.  Further, in the Northern Hemisphere it's currently winter, so if you live on this side of the planet you don't really have to worry about the jar being exposed to high temperatures.  Tips:

Ship using a carrier who will reliably deliver in 3 days or less
Make sure there is "headroom" in the jars, so that if the mole freezes it doesn't crack the jar
Pad the jar with at least two layers of distinct padding, for example bubble wrap surrounded by crushed paper.
If it's not winter where you are, then you'll want to line the box with insulation and enclosed some ice packs to make sure that the mole doesn't heat up, which could cause it to go bad in less than a day
Avoid mole recipes that include fresh, uncooked fruit purees or pastes; a mole where all ingredients are cooked together for an hour or more is ideal
Label the box "perishble, open and refrigerate immediately"


Gluten-free Carrot Cake batter mixed with normal Carrot Cake batter Yesterday I wanted to make 2 small carrot cakes (1 gluten-free for a celiac friend, and a regular one). For the gluten-free one, I literally just swapped regular wheat flour for corn flour (same quantities), and the texture of the batter looked alright (don´t know if I had to do any kind of conversion though).

The thing is, I ended up baking only the regular one (in a small mold), and there was some batter left. As I am not gonna see my celiac friend for a week or so, I was planning on just mixing the gluten-free batter and the little left of normal batter to eat the cake myself and my family (no celiacs here, don't worry).

Will that mess anything up?  Like flavour, timing in the oven, etc? Or will both batter types mix properly?

EDIT:

I guess I'll try this evening and write the result in here, but wanted to know the result beforehand to know if doing it or not in case it was a terrible idea!

Well, it went quite well. The flavour was really nice (I guess corn flour did not change the overall carrot cake flavour that much), and the texture (which was what I was most scared of) was as a normal carrot cake.

The timing in the oven was more or less the same (as I used the same mold several times, I did not measure the grams I was pouring). So my conclusion (not scientifically tested) is that it did not change, or if it did, it was minimal.

Just to state constancy, the final mix was more or less:

1/4 of all the mix: Normal Carrot Cake batter (wheat flour)
3/4 of all the mix: Gluten-free Carrot Cake batter (corn flour).

I also mixed some blue coloring but in the end it turned out green, but it did not change the flavour nor texture!

Final results: As I needed to transport the cake for 30 minutes by car, the frosting went a bit ugly, and in the fridge later, it was hard to re-shape it properly. But flavour was good.


Why are Cinnabons so soft and moist? This is a question about the science of baking. What factors contribute to the softness and moistness of the Cinnabon® brand cinnamon rolls? Particularly, I'm interested in:

The type of flour to use (e.g. cake, AP, bread, etc.)
The amount of water and other liquids (i.e. the effects of hydration)
Leaveners
Cooking temperature and time
Additives
Process/technique

I'm not sure whether you meant cinnamon rolls. If so: These are made of yeast-leavened dough which is quite soft. (Yeast-leavened dough is also part of toast, pizza, bagels, some kinds of donuts etc.)
In addition, it's a kind of not-so-fine puff pastry (Danish pastry): Between two layers of dough there is a layer of solid fat (like butter). I think that the fat will make the yeast-leavened dough "extra" moist.

To make a simple yeast-leavened dough you need water, (plain wheat) flour, salt and yeast. Some other pastries require sugar, fat (e.g. butter), replace water with milk, et cetera ...
The flour needs to have gluten otherwise the dough cannot hold the tiny air bubbles that the yeast produces and the dough won't be able to rise. Plain wheat flour suits perfectly for this purpose. But it has a disadvantage: If you store the pastry wrongly, the pastry will be frumpy. (1)

Just pick a nice receipe of cinnamon rolls and you'll see :D

If you want to know more about cooking and stuff: "Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food" by Jeff Potter (O'Reilly & Associates). Seems to be a nice book for geeks :D

(1) Source: "Kochen für Geeks" - somehow I could not find the chapter about yeast in the English pendant.


What makes molten chocolate so much more filling? I love chocolate. (I'm sure I'm not the only one). Today I made some cookies, which I dipped in molten chocolate (basically dark chocolate + a bit of butter, molten au-bain-marie) and I had a bit left over. Since it'd be a waste of chocolate to throw it out, I decided to eat it with a bit of banana for desert.

Basically I had three slices of banana with warm, molten chocolate, and then I felt pretty stuffed. Which is weird; as I would normally have little problem eating a whole bar of chocolate for dessert (which should be about 10x as much chocolate, if not more). And this isn't the first time I had some left-over molten chocolate and immediately felt stuffed from it.

Is there something about the melting of chocolate that makes it come down so much harder than ordinary chocolate? Or is this just in my head?

Having done something very similar the other day, I think the banana  accounts for more than you think (you don't say how big your slices were, but 3 big slices could easily add up to the whole very small banana I coated in chocolate left over from dipping  these biscotti).  The butter will make a tiny bit of difference unless you used loads.  I don't add any when dipping, and chocolate is mostly fat anyway. Fibre in the banana is filling, and fat from the chocolate is satisfying, so the combination makes you really feel like you've eaten.

Another factor is that dipping cookies uses up surprisingly little chocolate, and chocolate looks like less when liquid so you may well have had more chocolate than you thought.  By the time you dipped the banana it might have thickened a little so you could scoop a nice thick layer.

You didn't by any chance have a few mishapen/broken cookies in the batch that needed "testing", did you?


How much water in potato-leek soup (Vichyssoise)? Larousse De La Cuisine (American Edition) has the following recipe for vichyssoise:

250g leeks
250g potatos
50g butter
1.75L water
200mL crème fraîche

I was cooking 3 times as much soup, so I multiplied the amount of leeks, potatos, and butter by 3. However, 5.25L was just way too much. I ended up eyeballing it and using ~3L. Still, the end result was a bit too watery for me.

It seems that even the above recipe has too much water. Is this a typo?

Or was it in the scaling up? I can imagine that you do not simply multiply by 3, even if you use a bigger pot than you'd use for the non-scaled version.

I'm not sure if it's a typo but the recipe surprises me, traditionally (as far as a 100ish year old dish can be "traditional") vichyssoise would have chicken stock or seasoned milk as the liquid base.

For that quantity of potato and leek I would estimate 0.6->0.75L of liquid so it is possible it is a typo.


How to keep cake topper from toppling over I have a wedding cake to do this weekend and the bride wants each cake tiers on separate tree stump.  The top tier will be a 6 inch layer with a 4 inch layer.  The tree stump for this top layer the bride wants the tree stump height to be 20 inches tall.  But the cake topper is a Burlap heart shape with the base of 2 1/2 inches wide.

The topper is 6" tall and I'm using buttercream frosting for the cake.

What can I do so that the cake topper will not topple over?  I thought about using white chocolate to adhere it to, but don't have any way to heat the chocolate when setting it up.  It's an outdoor wedding with no electricity.  I suggested to the bride that she let me glue the topper to a dowel rod but the bride doesn't want anything screwed or glued to the base.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciate.

You can make the base wider with white chocolate. No glue, and you can do it in advance so you don't need to have any electricity at the site.

Put a parchment paper round into an appropriately sized cake pan or a plate or shallow bowl. Stand the cake topper in the middle of the parchment paper. Carefully pour or pipe melted chocolate around the edge of the base and build it up, coating the base and widening it. Allow the chocolate to cool,  carefully peel away the parchment paper.

If the weather is likely to be warm, you may want to make the additional chocolate layer thicker so that it will not melt quickly and release the topper.

You could also widen the base with some other material (cardboard covered with foil, for example -- make a large cardboard disc, cut a hole in the middle for the stem of the topper, cut a slit on one side of the hole the size of the base, slide the base through and center it) and cover that with chocolate or frosting, but I think plain white chocolate would work well and it sounds like the bride wants to keep everything touching the cake edible (except the topper itself, of course).


How do I keep a custard from breaking? I have a recipe for a steamed egg and ginger pudding. It can be eaten hot or cold, and I prefer it cold. The problem is that it starts to separate in the fridge (liquid accumulating where I've scooped pudding out, or sometimes around the edge of the bowl). How do I prevent that?

I did look at this discussion, but I can't tell whether it's relevant.

Recipe, in case it's relevant

2 C water
4 oz. ginger root
4 oz. Chinese rock sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
2/3 C milk
a few drops vegetable oil

Set up a stovetop steamer.
Slice ginger.
Bring water to a boil; boil ginger 2 min. Discard ginger slices.
Dissolve rock sugar in boiling water.
Remove pot from heat.
Add milk to the pot; whisk in eggs and vegetable oil.
Pour into bowl or bowls and steam 12 min.

A weeping custard is practically always an overheated custard. First wait that your pot has cooled down sufficiently before adding the eggs (somewhere below 70 C is good), temper them instead of throwing them into the pot, and steam using a thermometer, not a clock. Try 85 C as the first goal and see if it works well or needs adjustment.


Should I clean all of my cooking utensils after being exposed to mothballs (naphthalene) for over a week? While I was away on vacation my roommate put mothballs in the kitchen cabinets where the pots and pans and cutlery are stored. I have removed them and thrown them out ( not sure if I was overreacting or not). Should I wash the utensils that were in the cabinets or should it be fine?

I doubt that there's enough naphthalene deposited on the cutlery to give you severe poisoning, although it may taste bad. Based on the rat/mouse lethal doses, you would need to ingest ~50 gr of the stuff to die from it (of course, you would experience adverse effects at much smaller amounts). It seems like chronic exposure to naphthalene is where you really start getting problems - so definitely don't mothball cutlery as a regular thing in the future! Nevertheless, it is a harmful chemical so I would wash them just to be sure.

Naphthalene is an organic compound and has very poor solubility in water (32 mg/l at room temperature) so regular washing might not remove it effectively. Meanwhile, alcohol can dissolve 11.3 g/l (1000 times more!) and acetic acid (vinegar) can do 13.1 g/l. Granted, soap is supposed to solubilize things, and since you would wash with soap and not just water, solubility shouldn't be as big a problem in reality, but it's worth taking care to ensure it actually gets removed. So my needlessly complicated procedure that I would suggest to you is:

Thoroughly wash with vinegar, as warm as possible (use rubber gloves)
Thoroughly wash with soapy water, as warm as possible. Remember to also wash the gloves and your sink to remove residue on them.
Thoroughly wipe with alcohol. I think ideally you want close to 100% (if you have Everclear that would be about perfect), but in a pinch rubbing alcohol (typically 60-70%) would do or even a strong spirit like vodka. After wiping the alcohol off, leave to dry as alcohol will quickly evaporate.

At the end, ventilate the room, wait an hour or so, and see if you smell any of it from sink/cutlery. Hopefully the answer is no and you'll be good to go. This method is probably overkill and will REALLY get the naphthalene out, but it would only take a few minutes (excluding the drying and checking for smell) and you don't have to worry afterwards.

For cutlery, I don't think it's worth throwing them out for something like this. Naphthalene is pretty volatile, so even leaving them in a warm, well-ventilated place for a few days without the above washing would probably get rid of most of it as the napthalene evaporates (technically, sublimates) and dissipates in the air. With pans, I'm not so sure. My guess that there's no difference and the pans can be used after cleaning just like cutlery, but then since you heat those, small amounts of it conceivably might react with the teflon or itself and make something nasty. I would throw away if it's a very cheap pan, if not just wash with vinegar, soap and alcohol as I say above and you should be fine.


Avoid butter in puff pastry dough from melting while baking in the oven I made puff pastry dough. I rolled it out and cut into 8 rectangles. Then I put a stick of chocolate in the middle of each piece and rolled the dough to form a semi-cookie. As I put them in the preheated oven (200 C), the butter melted and cookies were swimming in the butter! Is it normally so? If not, how should I avoid this problem? I thought preheating the oven would help but it did not.

There are a few things that may be wrong here:

Oven not pre-heated enough: how long you need to preheat depends on the oven, but for 200 degrees C I'd give it 20 minutes. If your oven has not pre-heated enough it will be at too low a temperature the butter and will melt rather than turn to steam, which is what gives you lift
Oven at too low a temperature: often the temperature you set on an oven and the actual temperature is different, sometimes these differences can be really big, I've seen 35C (70F) difference in the past. It may be worth investing in an over thermometer to see whether your temperature is right. An oven thermometer will also tell you whether your oven has pre-heated as well
Dough too warm: it's important to keep your dough cold throughout the process, if butter gets too warm you will lose the lamination (layering) in the dough. When it comes to baking it if your butter is too warm it may melt, so you could try chilling your pastry in the fridge. How long to chill them depends on the size and the thickness of each pastry, the important thing is that the thickest part of the pastry stabilizes at the refrigerators's temperature. That could take 10 minutes, it could take an hour or more. For the cookies you describe try at least 20-30 minutes, or up to an hour if you have the time.


Chicken texture: Store Rotisserie v. Pressure Cooker I just cooked my first hen in a pressure cooker. As you might guess, it didn't come out nicely browned and attractive--because that isn't a characteristic of pressure cookers.

But the meat was incredibly moist, with a texture that is hard to describe (but it was good, maybe free-range like). It had discernable grain or strands, or strings of meat, and I now have some great chicken stock.

Which brings me to Rotisserie from the store: Yes, they look and smell great, and are wonderful economics--but the texture is off, for my taste at least. The last few had a breast texture hard to describe, I'll try these words: balsa wood like, pulpy, mushy, rubbery. In any event, it wasn't going to convey well into an enchilada.

Is my store doing it wrong? Will the rotisserie I get be like that more often than not? I really do like the cost and convenience, but the texture was a turn off.

You're comparing two completely different cooking methods, so it's no surprise that there would be a difference.  A pressure cooker is a sealed vessel which retains the moisture in the cooked food, except for any steam that's vented off.  By contrast, rotisserie is a form of roasting, done by definition over a heat source or within an oven, but not sealed.

Rotisserie roasting is great in that it allows the food to baste itself, but there is inevitably some moisture loss as juices drip away from the meat, certainly much more so than in pressure cooking.  That's what contributes to the drier texture of the rotisserie chicken.  The breast meat will also dry out more quickly than the darker thighs and legs, but big markets want to minimize any food safety concerns, so they're probably playing it safe and cooking the chicken to a point above its minimum internal temperature.

So no, they're not doing anything wrong, but they are using a different cooking method than your pressure-cooked chicken, with predictably different results.


Lamian (Hand Pulled Noodles) Technique Question I have been learning and working on creating Lamian (拉麵) for a year now, and it has been quite
an adventure! I had little experience working with dough coming into this, so despite many failed attempts, I've been learning a lot. But I'm not quite there yet. Let me explain my problem and I will then get to my question.

I've looked at many tutorials for hand pulled noodles, many with wildly different recipes. Some say lye water, some say baking soda, some say just plain flour and water, some say oil, some say high gluten flour, some say low gluten flour etc. One person online even claims to have succeeded with lamian using 00 flour (link here)! I have noticed that all these recipes have achieved success for the people making them, so it occurred to me that there really is no "correct" lamian recipe; instead, it's all in the technique.

After many completely failed attempts, I've managed to be able to create dough that will stretch evenly and easily at first. However, after just one or two stretches, the dough will start to resist the stretch, even pulling back. Resting the dough after a stretch helps some, but after a while, even that doesn't really cut it. My main question is: Why does this happen? The followup question is: What can I do to prevent this from happening?

The following are just some references that I used to help develop my technique or generally better understand what's going on in the dough in the lamian making process. NOTE: Unfortunately due to being new here I can't put more than two links, so I'll just describe a few of the sites

Uyghur Method, linked above.

Luke Rymarz's website, which is pretty well known among people who have tried to make lamian

I did look through previous Seasoned Advice questions on hand pulled noodles, none of them seem to directly address the problem I'm having. However, some of the answers have given helpful insight into ways that I can try to improve my technique.

This thread in a cooking forum has also been very helpful to me.

I have not made these noodles, but what you describe is normal. What are you seeing is gluten production happening. And you don't want to prevent it, it's why you put the whole alkali stuff in there in the first place!

Gluten is a very elastic stuff. Dough behaves (and tastes) very differently before it's formed. Pulled noodles need stronger gluten than other doughs like bread, that's why they use lye (typically) or a baking soda substitute (much weaker, but some cooks are uncomfortable around lye). Simple flour + water or even flour+acid doesn't create strong enough gluten for that. Rested gluten does indeed allow for easier pulling, but while you work it, it behaves exactly as you described it: pulling back, and then even seizing.

From my experience with pulling other doughs (e.g. pizza shaping by hand), I'd say that 1) if there is a resting step in your recipe before you start the pulling, take it seriously, and 2) a lot of it is simple experience. You continue doing it until you learn the motor skill properly. The first few dozens of tries will be battles resulting in irregularly shaped dough, there is nothing unusual in that.


Clear cauliflower and blue cheese soup - how to get it clear I am trying to recreate a Cauliflower and Blue Cheese soup I had many years ago (at a ski resort - the private chef wouldn't tell/sell me the secret recipe).

All the recipes I have tried end up being thick cauliflower 'glue'. They're more towards a paste/sauce dish rather than liquid soup side I am trying to reproduce.

Donna Hey's
Food.com's
HealthyFoodGuide, etc etc

Essentially the Cauliflower must be blended or perhaps grated because the soup is a slightly yellowish transparent colour with 1 to 2mm bits of cauliflower swimming.

I have a gut feeling the chef must have somehow used the Cauliflower in a broth method.

Basically I am asking how would you make a dish so it ends up as a nice clear watery soup dish that is cauliflowered and blue cheese flavoured not as a liquid paste?

If it is clear, it must be broth-based, with the cauliflower being reserved for another purpose, I would assume that a light sprinkling of perhaps less cooked cauliflower is used (rather than the cauliflower used for the broth) so that it retains its shape while sprinkled in the soup.


What is the traditional accompaniment for Duck Confit? I have a few duck legs that I made a confit from earlier this week. I'm thinking of serving them with Parmesan Dauphinoise and some beans from the garden tonight. I was wonderring though, what would be the traditional accompaniment for duck confit?

In southwest of France, we serve confit with "pommes sarladaises", which are more or less fries cooked in duck fat in a pan. There is also garlic and parsley.

You can use confit in "cassoulet" as well. This is something like chili con carne with white beans instead of red ones, onion, carrot, tomato, garlic (and many other secrets which change from home to home).

EDIT: A variant of "pommes de terre sarladaises" includes mushrooms, in particular "cèpes" (Boletus edulis) together with potatoes.


What is the difference between bread dough and pizza dough? Our local supermarket sells bread dough, and I was wondering whether I could use it for a pizza base, or whether it would rise too much.

At present we've been using frozen pizza bases, but something fresh would really be nice, -I just don't always have a chance to make it myself.

You can use frozen bread dough, just fine.  You'll often see it suggested in recipes.  Pizza dough sometimes is made from higher gluten flour, or goes through a slower rise to make it more chewey and stretchy, but bread dough is definitely a major upgrade over pre-cooked crusts.

Another option is call around to some local pizza shops (national chains usually won't do this) - many of them will sell their dough for about $1 a ball (good for about a 14" pizza).


How to separate peanut oil from roasted peanuts at home? I want to enjoy peanuts' protein without as many calories, so I want to separate some oil from peanuts with simple home equipment. Is this possible?

How much oil can I separate? Can I remove 50-60% of the oil just by removing the top layer of oil from the peanut butter?

Disclaimer: I did not try it, but it should work from a chemical point of view.

Put the ground peanuts or peanut butter into a pot and add the same amount of water*, stir well and bring to a boil.
Pour it in a Fat Separator to separate oil and peanuts. Pour the peanut water mix into a heat resistant form and put in the oven to dry at low temperature.

If you want to use the peanuts minus oil for baking you could use milk instead of water, that way you don't have to dry it after separation.

*if the mixture is too thick for the fat separator use more water.

As an alternative you can use the method used when making paneer or potato dumplings: Put the ground peanuts or peanut butter in a dry cloth. Take the four corners together and spin to squeeze oil out. This is much easier but less efficient as well.


Can I use granulated sugar instead of demerara sugar I need demerera sugar for the outside layer of my shortbread cookies. I have none. Will regular granulated sugar work? Will it burn?

Note: not actually my question, was posted as a now-deleted answer to another question.

Yes, it will work just fine, but it won't have the same color or the slightly molasses flavor of demerarra.  It also has a finer crystal size, usually, so the texture will be a little less distinctive.

The closest substitute for this purpose, if you happen to have it, is sanding sugar--but I imagine that not everyone keeps that on hand.  It has a large crystal size, and so presents a nice crunchy topping on muffins or shortbread or similar.


Bulging product info Is packaged chunky guacamole: Ingredients: avocados, tomatoes & tomato juice, salt, onions, red onions, cilantro, lime juice,sea salt, jalapeno peppers & garlic. Plastic packed and bulging, okay to eat?  It's not expired and kept refrigerated

Probably not; I wouldn't chance it. So: NO.

Something is producing gas, thus there is unexpected fermentation (by microbe action).  It is more likely to be bad than good.  Guacamole should not be fermenting.


Oven Temperature: How to be sure the selected temperature is correct. I suspect that my - fairly new - oven gets too hot, so I bought an oven thermometer, which confirmed this.  So I called the supplier.  They say that in order to obtain the correct actual  oven temperature, for any setting, you take the highest reading on the thermometer, and the lowest, and then divide both readings.   Is this correct?

The "correct" temperature is determined by using a properly calibrated thermometer. This will likely not match the 'setting' which you have dialed up on your stove because oven thermostats are notoriously unreliable. You should be able to arrive a correlation between the setting you use and watching the thermometer you bought. Remember that each time you open the oven a significant amount of heat is lost.

If you can place the thermometer where you can read it through a window into your oven and make note of the setting/actual you should be able to arrive at a useful guide to your oven.

That said, there is often very little difference between cooking something at 325F vs. 335F. But I would recommend you depend on time@temp less than internal temperature (using an instant read thermometer) to correctly gauge the 'doneness' of your dish.


Clean fridge shelves which can't be removed? What's the best way to clean out the parts of a fridge that can't be removed? I found that on my fridge, for whatever reason, some shelves on the inside of the door can't be taken out.  Is there a cleaner that can be used that's food safe that I can use in the fridge without washing it off?

You have to wash cleaners off, there's no other way to remove the dirt. The gunk is not going to magically evaporate, you will have to wipe. If your fridge is really dirty then I suggest a tub of soapy (dish soap) water, a sponge to clean and wipe, and a towel to dry. If it's not that bad then a kitchen safe spray cleaner and a sponge or paper towels will do fine. A pair of rubber kitchen gloves would be a good idea.


Ways to bar-b-que and smoke Kangaroo Kangaroo is an unusual meat for most of the world. From reputation, it's quite hard to cook right as it tends to dry out:

  Kangaroo meat is very low in fat, usually less than 2%. This is lower than most other red meats. This makes Kangaroo very healthy but also means it must be cooked carefully. Kangaroo is also very high in protein and iron. Fat contains a lot of moisture, hence meats like beef which is very high in fat can be cooked to very well done. However because kangaroo has virtually no fat it can easily dry out during cooking. Because of this it's important to follow a few simple steps to retain the moisture in the meat.

In light of this, what smoking and BBQ techniques are appropriate for kangaroo?

I have neither cooked nor eaten kangaroo, but I think the information that it is very lean should be sufficient to answer this question. Smoking is a low and slow technique that is used to make tough cuts of meat tender. This works by using a low temperature to break down the tough connective tissues which makes the end result both tender and moist. This would not work with a lean cut of meat like a filet. You'd just end up with a tough piece of meat. So unless you really go after the toughest bits of the 'roo, I'd advise against smoking.

As ESultanik says in a comment, to attack the lean parts of the animal, treat it like any other piece of non-fatty meat (filet / tenderloin for example). Use a very hot grill and shoot for an internal temperature of rare to medium-rare depending on preference. The exact technique for cooking is up to you. I tend to do a two level fire for searing and then finishing, but the exact method depends on the type of grill, thickness of the cut, etc. If you would like some smoke flavor, you can throw some wood chips on while cooking like this and see what you get. The short time and frequency with which you tend the meat / open the grill may make this completely ineffective, but it's worth trying to see if you get some smoke flavor, if that's what you really want.


Navigating the different types of cookware - new kitchen advice I am looking to buy new cookware and I am confused by all the choices I have. I am trying to balance healthyness vs. ease of use vs. taste of prepared food vs. total cost of ownership (in that order).

My setup is 3-burner gass range, gas grill and convection oven. The cooking I do is most often stir-frying, sautéing, steaming, stewing, pan-roasting and making sauces (my wife does baking, but she is mostly happy with her gear).

So far, for the last 10 years I have been using Teflon non-stick pots and skillets and I've been fairly happy with them. My last set lasted for 6 years, but by now most of them have developed small spots of "anti-seasoning" (caramelized burnt stuff bound with the teflon), that cause everything to stick and give off-taste to food.

Initially, I was considering to buy high-grade Teflon cookware (Scanpan, Fissler or Swiss Diamond), but we got concerns about the Teflon becoming unstable at high temperature and contaminating the food (that is becoming important with a toddler in the house). As a side note, I am not sure how can I measure the temperature of a gas burner and the temperature of the pan, but I also believe it is all a matter of degree anyway (i.e. it is not safe at 259C and then suddenly becoming dangerous at 260C) - any informed opinions on that matter are welcome.

Next I was looking at aluminum pans with ceramic non-stick coating, but I can not find reliable sources of pros and cons - it still looks like a novelty and possibly immature technology. In particular I am concerned about its non-stickiness, cracking when heating without food in it (or deglazing), and risk of denting while cleaning. That, and the concern that if the ceramic coating is anything like the La Creuset enamel, I wouldn't exactly call it "non-stick".

Next I was recommended stainless-steel, which is more expensive than the other options and comes in way too many flavors - with and without core, aluminum vs. copper core, differences in thickness, etc. I am not sure what difference do these make and why are the prices varying so much (I've seen them ranging from 12,000 to 60,000 JPY).

Finally, to round it off, it would be nice if somebody is comparing all these options to include cast iron and earthenware. Any links to useful articles (not shopping reviews) would be appreciated.

What makes a good pan?

The main properties of a metal pan that are of interest to a cook are:

Evenness of heat distribution. Every burner produces more heat in some spots than others. The better the pan conduct heat, the more this heat is evened out before it is conducted into the food being cooked, which is important to prevent local hotspots in the pan, and resultant burning or uneven cooking of the food. The metals that provide the best heat conduction, in descending order, are silver, copper, aluminum, and finally steel or iron.
Heat retention This can be an advantage or a disadvantage. High heat retention is great for searing, as the pan will not immediately cool when food is placed into as much as a less retentive pan. Highly responsive pans, which change temperature quickly in response to changes in burner level or when taken off the heat are also desirable in other applications as it gives the cook more control.
Ease of maintenance and cleaning You want a pan that is easy to clean and does not require special treatment.
Durability Will the pan stand up to heavy use over many years?
Chemical activity Does the interior surface of the pan interact with food chemically, changing its flavor? Active metals include aluminum and iron, especially in the presence of acid. aluminum can be rendered inactive through anodization (as is used in the famous Calphalon line).
How much does it weigh?  Many folks find very heavy cookware exceptionally inconvenient. However, weight is also related to heat retention, and more mass of metal simply provides more material to retain heat.
Non-stick Is it easy or difficult for food to stick?
Aesthetics Is it pretty?  Or even attractive enough to put out onto a serving table?   This is a personal opinion, so I will not address it further.
Is it ferrous? If you use an induction cook top, only ferrous (iron or steel) pans will interact with the magnetic field to generate heat. The "magnet test"--does a kitchen magnet stick to the pan--will tell you if a pan is ferrous.

Metals commonly used in pots and pans

The various metals used in pots and pans have different advantages and disadvantages under these criteria:

Stainless Steel. Very durable, moderately low conductivity of heat, very maintainable (can go in the dishwasher, for example, if you choose.)
Carbon steel Much rarer than stainless, except perhaps in large stock pots or woks.  Inexpensive, moderately low conductivity of heat, more chemically active than stainless.
Iron. Chemically active (especially with acids), low conductivity of heat, very high heat retention (due to cast iron pans having a lot of mass of metal), heavy.
Copper. Best conductivity of heat of typical metals used in pans, very chemically active with foods, requires maintenance as it will tarnish.
Aluminum. Second best conductivity of heat of typical metals used in pans, chemically active in some circumstances unless anodized.

Construction Methods

Due to the different properties of these metals, in order to take advantage of their strengths, and mitigate their weaknesses, pans are made from one or a combination of metals. The most common are:

Cast iron. Inexpensive, heavy, exceptional heat retention, requires seasoning and careful maintenance. When properly seasoned, food will not stick easily, even eggs. Can rust.
Enamelled cast iron. Expensive, heavy, exceptional heat retention, easier maintenance.  Must be handled with some care as crazing of the enamel can occur, which will reduce the non-stick properties of the lining, and is not attractive. Not chemically active with food due to lining.
Carbon steel. Inexpensive, poor heat distribution (an advantage in woks which desire a hot spot at the centre), requires seasoning and careful maintenance. Can rust.
Aluminum. Excellent conductivity, chemically active with acid foods. Not usually seen in the retail environment, but may be found in restaurant supply stores, especially for large stock pots or pasta boiling pots.
Anodized Aluminum. Moderately heavy, excellent heat conductivity and retention, unique aesthetic, pricey.
Plain stainless steel, not layered. Poor conductivity, excellent maintainability, moderate price.
Copper (lined). Very best conductivity, cannot go in dishwasher, very expensive, unique color (some people find copper pans very attractive). If lined with tin, as is traditional, rather than steel or some other material, must be treated with care and the lining will eventually wear and have to be redone.
Layered or "sandwich" stainless steel with an aluminum or copper disk or core.   Advantages from the steel are excellent maintainability, and from the core, very good conductivity. An excellent compromise, but can be moderately expensive.

On layered pans

There are two ways the layered pans from the last bullet item are produced:

Disk at the bottom. A disk at the bottom of the pan, which only gives good conductivity on the area the disk covers, which may not be the entire bottom.
Entire pan is layered, up the sides. Gives better conductivity across the entire bottom of the pan, and up the sides.

This is a quality differentiator in the market. A poor pan will have a disk that doesn't cover the entire bottom, so the cooking will not be even at the edges.

A quality pan will have a disk that covers to the edge, or even entire pan construction, although for cooktop use, the most important issue is covering the entire bottom of the pan.

Finally, very large pots (stock pots, or for boiling pasta water), the layering makes very little difference, as conductivity is not the key issue--the convection of the water or stock evens out the heat. For stock pots, price is the major issue.

On Non-stick coatings (Teflon or PTFE)

Teflon (a trademark name) or PTFE (the generic name) lined pans are often available for any of the construction materials and methods outlined above. They range in levels of quality, from light cheap pans that are nearly disposable to high quality pans.

They offer the following advantages and disadvantages, in addition to the properties inherent in the base pan construction:

Non-stick. Amazing non-stick properties.  PTFE is one of the lowest friction materials known to mankind at this time.
Care Must be handled with care, such as not abusing them with hard metal utensils which would scratch or damage the non-stick coating.
Cannot be overheated At temperatures above about 500°F (260°C), as the PTFE break down and some of the components are volatile (will vaporize) and are toxic. PTFE coated pans are not broiler-safe for this reason. (Note that PTFE itself is non-toxic, as it reacts chemically with almost nothing, the same reason it is extremely non-stick.)
Cleaning They are very, very easy to clean since nothing will stick to the PTFE.
Durability The PTFE coating will eventually break down, and so the pan will lose its non-stick properties.
Fond development The browned bits at the bottom of the pan, which in in classic French cooking are called the fond, do not develop in a PTFE coated pan, since there is nothing for the fond to stick to. This may be an advantage or disadvantage.

Lids and Handles

The material the lid (if there is one), and handles is made from or covered with is also important.

It is highly desirable that the pot or pan be able to be used on the cooktop, in the oven, and even under the broiler (grill, I believe the British would say).

Non-metal materials that are not oven/broiler safe are a disadvantage. Plastic is especially problematic.  Note that some hard phenolic type plastic materials can go into a moderate (up to about 450°F (230°C)) oven; read the manuals, but I recommend true metal handles.

Earthenware

Earthenware cookware, such as a tagine, is a speciality item that is good for cooking braises, rice and couscous type dishes, and other slow cooking dishes.  It is not a good general purpose item, as it cannot be used for high temperature frying, sautéing, and so on. They are generally used in the oven, although some small number of them are safe on top of the cook top.

Conclusion

Different pan constructions are ideal for different applications.

A typical cook will want an assortment for different applications, although layered stainless steel from a quality manufacturer is often a good compromise across many applications.

Eggs and delicate foods A PTFE coated pan, or a well seasoned cast iron pan.
Searing. Cast iron (enamelled or not), or heavy stainless.
Sautéing Layered stainless, possibly coated with PTFE depending on your desires, or cast iron.
Stir frying. If using a wok, carbon steel is traditional, and is often the best, but this is a unique application.
Braising. Layered stainless or cast iron (see searing for this, as well, as that is often the first step in braising).
Roasting. Stainless, but price and weight tend to be the big factors.
Stock pot or pasta boiler. Big. Inexpensive.
Butter melter Cute. Okay, I own two of these, but I never use them. :-)


What temperature to cook a pork tenderloin at? What temperature do you normally cook a pork tenderloin at?  I was searching on the internet and saw anywhere from 325°F (165°C) to 450°F (230°C) and couldn't seem to find a good answer.

Also, does it depend on how long you want to cook it or in how you prepare it before cooking?

Despite the currently accepted answer, there is no single best method to cook pork tenderloin.  The main issue is getting it to a final internal temperature of about 145 F to 155 F (63 C to 68 C) depending on your preferences.  If cooked to well done (above about 165 F, 74 C), it will be tough and rubbery as it has very little internal fat or collagen.

The actual temperature you cook it at can vary considerably depending on the method.  In all cases, you want to check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer.

In all cases, a resting period (which empirically allows more of the juices to be retained) of about 5-10 minutes is a good idea before serving or slicing.

The method advised in the current accepted answer is certainly effective, and can be delicious, but any method which gets the pork to the desired internal temperature without overcooking it will also work.

This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including:

Pan roasting. Pan searing and then finishing in a moderate oven (about 350 F, 175 C although there is flexibility here if you have other dishes to finish) is certainly one very effective method for cooking a pork tenderloin, but any method that brings it to the desired temperature will work.
Roasting then searing.  The reverse technique, which may give more tender results, would be to cook it in a slow oven (95 C) until it reaches the desired internal temperature, and then pan sear it for browning and deliciousness—the initial cooking dries the surface and allows the sear to develop flavor rapidly with minimal over cooking of the exterior.
Grilling, first searing then indirect.  While more difficult to control, this idea can be applied on the grill:  sear the tenderloin over the hot part of the coals until it has a nice golden crust, then move it to indirect heat to cook through to the desired temperature.  On a grill, controlling the absolute temperature is more difficult so I am not mentioning them, although you can take the oven method temperatures as a guide.
Sous-vide. Some modernists might suggest putting it in a sous-vide water bath at 145 F (63 C)  or even 135 F (57 C) for 2 1/2 to three hours (or until convenient to serve, although Yossarian recommends no more than 4 hours for lean meats like pork tenderloin to prevent it becoming mushy), and then finishing it with a torch or by pan searing.  This allows complete control of the final internal temperature, but makes the final sear more difficult as the exterior is not dried.
Sauteed medallions. Pork tenderloin is also often cut into medallions and then sauteed, which promotes considerable fond, allows a nice pan sauce, and makes for a nice presentation.  Medallions are thin, and so more difficult to measure the temperature of directly with an instant read thermometer, but with experience (to avoid overcooking), this is another extremely effective technique.


Are oven bags anything more than disposable dutch ovens? A few months back, on a whim, I bought plastic oven bags. I'd never seen them before so I was curious. According to notes on the packaging I can cook chicken, beef and pretty much anything else in them, but the notes don't hint at why I would chose to do so.

A little post-purchase reflection has lead me to believe that these bags are essentially disposable dutch ovens. Since I already have a dutch oven I wonder if I've wasted my money. Can anyone tell me?

There are differences between baking in a plastic bag and in a Dutch oven. If you have access to both, I prefer the Dutch oven.

What both do is to

Trap steam
This makes your food a bit moister, and keeps pan juices and additions to the roast, like a dry rub or mirepoix, from drying out into an unappetizing, carbonized spot. It is not as important for meat as for bread. I haven't tried baking bread in a bag, but maybe it will work.
Change the mix of heating processes
Baking in an oven involves heating by conduction, convection and radiation at the same time. The heating elements emit a lot of infrared radiation, which cooks the surface of the food, giving it a nice crust, but does not penetrate it to cook the inside. When you put the food in a small closed space, the material shields it from that radiation. Althought there is some secondary radiation from the shielding material itself, the amount of conduction heating goes up a lot. This gives you more even heating and the inside will be well cooked before the crust burns.

Be aware that if your bags are transparent or translucent in the visible spectrum, chances are that they let at least some infrared waves through and a Dutch oven will perform better.

Where bags and Dutch ovens differ is that only a Dutch oven gives you a buffer for temperature changes. Its large thermal mass and relatively low heat conductivity make sure that there are no rapid temperature changes when you open the oven. Using a Dutch oven will also help if your oven heats unevenly. As the oven heats the Dutch oven, the heat travels throughout the Dutch oven, and only then it heats the food on the inside.

This gives you a more even roasting process. In a logistically problematic situation, you can hold the food longer in the Dutch oven without it cooling on the counter or drying out in the oven. Remember to allow for residual heat transfer and turn off the heat 4-5°C earlier than usual.


What do I do with trout slime? The trout is covered with slime. I am going to bake it. Should I remove the slime?

If it's fresh Trout with the skin on then yes, rinse the slime off. If it was frozen then you might have another problem...


Do the cup cakes bake faster in a 24 hole cup cake tray rather than a 12 hole cup cake tray? The cupcakes cook faster than the big one piece cakes, so does it make sense to assume that the cup cakes bake faster in a 24 hole cup cake tray rather than a 12 hole cup cake tray?

My oven has a convection fan.

I immediately thought of this table, from the front of the muffin section in Bread, by Beth Hensperger*:

Muffin size          Baking time     Yield
Mini/gem (1 5/8")    10-15 minutes   18-20
Regular (2 3/4")     20-25 minutes   9-10
Oversized (3 1/4")   25-30 minutes   6-7
Muffin cake (8-9")   55-65 minutes   1

The baking times are for 375-400F; most recipes will fall around that range. Note that the yields don't necessarily match up to typical pan sizes; for example, if you take a recipe meant for 12 regular muffins, you'll probably have more batter than you need for a pan of 6 oversized muffins. Similarly, if your recipe says to bake regular muffins for 30 minutes, you might have to bake miniature ones a bit over 15 minutes. "Muffin cake" refers to baking in an 8-9" pan of some sort - the author says that you can get away with it for any muffin recipe, but I've never tried it!

P.S. I know this is for muffins, but cupcakes are fairly similar, so I think it'll be about right!

* At least, I'm pretty sure it is. I have a copy of just this page (for the recipe next to the table, actually), from a book my mom has. I recognize the cover, I know we had that book, I think this was in it, and Google book search somehow found it when I searched for "fresh-lemon muffins".


Preserved Lemons: is it ok if they are above the liquid I started a jar of preserved lemons yesterday and today I noticed that the top of one lemon is above the liquid, is this ok? Should I try to press it down, or add water?

For the process to occur, the lemons should be covered by the sugar/salt/liquid. There is a little time frame where being partially exposed is OK, and the other lemon pieces will start to soften and break down, but the lemon should be pushed down a little to be covered.

The preservation happens because the sugar and/or salt 'dry out' the cells of the lemon through osmosis, causing water to be expelled from the lemon's cells. This both creates the desired texture change and prevents bacteria from spoiling the lemon while this process occurs.

There is also fermentation by desirable bacteria, that can survive in these conditions, so the entire quantity should be covered.


Whipped cream running permanently from siphon I have a Kayser siphon of whipped cream. I filled it with whipped cream (not fully though), added some sugar and swung it. It works perfectly, only today it wouldn't stop. But once Ive used, it won't stop flowing grom the siphon even though i stopped using it.

your gasket is probably not clean enough. try taking it apart and giving everything a thorough cleaning and it should work again.


Is "high" on a slow-cooker supposed to mean 300 F? I was following a recipe for slow-cooked meat and potatoes.  The directions say to cook on "high" for 4 hours.

My slow-cooker, however, has a temperature range which ranges from "warm", to "150", to all the way beyond "500" degrees Fahrenheit.  After some internet research, I determined that "high" usually translates to the 300 F setting, while "low" is less than 200 F.

So I set the temperature to 300 F, but within an hour, I could smell that it was starting to burn!  Does this simply mean my slow-cooker runs hotter than others?  Moreover, is there a definitive answer to the difference between "high" and "low"?  I can't see how any recipe would actually exceed 212 F if the food is cooking in a liquid (water-based) broth.

When I started researching sous vide cooking some years ago, I created a little database of slow cookers on the market and researched the temperatures of different devices. Interestingly, slow cookers are wildly different: low temperatures ranged from 190F to 275F and high temperatures were correspondingly wacky. There is no "industry standard" and depends entirely upon what the manufacturer thinks is a good idea.

One issue you may find interesting is what the real difference between "low" and "high" switch is: it governs the speed with which the cooker gets up to temperature (whatever the manufacturer thinks is a good, poorly-controlled temperature). If you're planning dinner in 5 hours then "high" is the appropriate switch, whereas if you're planning dinner in 9 hours then "low" is the appropriate switch. In both cases, the cooker will get up to the same temperature.

Note that I have been speaking about both the "low" and "high" switch on the slow cooker AND the range (low and high) of temperature which the cooker produces.