How do I make prettier fried eggs? I have no problem cooking fried eggs to my desired doneness or keeping them intact while cooking and serving.

But eggs cooked by professional chefs and diner line cooks look like this:

The white is round and mostly white; the yolk is basically centered.

My fried eggs look like this:

The yolk won't stay in the center (even though I let the white firm a little before adding the yolk to the pan), and the white looks like the British coastline. (Ignoring, of course, the detritus of the leftover onions and peas - those are attributed simply to laziness of the cook.)

How do the pros get their eggs to stay so symmetrical and pretty?

One factor you may not be considering is the quality of the egg itself. The highest-grade eggs have firm whites and more regular shapes when cracked onto a flat surface. The fresher the egg, generally, the higher the grade. If you've ever cracked a grocery store egg next to a fresh-laid egg, the difference is clear. The hen's diet makes a big difference, too.

But judging by the pictures, I'd say your biggest problem is cooking with too much heat. Notice how much your whites have bubbled and that the edges are already browning while the inner albumen (the thick part of the white that surrounds the yolk) is still raw. In comparison, the albumen of the "prettier" egg has a visibly consistent cook on the whites.

Getting the right temperature

To get that consistent cook on a sunny side up egg you need to use less heat than you'd use for other fried eggs. The inner albumen cooks slower because it's sitting up higher than the outer albumen, farther from the heat. And you're not going to flip this egg, so it's a very uneven heat that you have to work with.

Imagine trying to cook a hamburger, entirely on one side! That's the challenge you have here, except with an egg, which is thinner than a hamburger but also less evenly-shaped and much more delicate. Some people like to loosely cover the pan for part of the cooking time, which reflects some heat and traps some steam to help cook the inner albumen from above. The risk there is that you're also cooking the yolk faster; if you cover the pan tightly, you can end up steaming the egg instead of frying it. You can use a plate, a lid of the wrong size, or another pan if you like.

Assuming you can get the temperature right, though, you don't need to cover the pan. To practice, start with the heat around medium-low and try to find the right balance of heat and time through trial and error. Crispy, brown edges means either too much time or too much heat. If you're practicing, try not to adjust the heat too much in the middle of cooking an egg. Cook one egg through, then assess the result and adjust your heat if necessary on the next one.

Getting the egg into the pan

Once you get the temperature right, assuming your eggs are decent quality, your only other challenge is getting it into and out of the pan gently. If you're rough with the egg, not only will it spread out unevenly, but you can break the membrane that separates the inner and outer albumen. This makes the white cook faster but it definitely doesn't lead to an attractive sunny side up egg.

Cracking the egg into a ramekin or small prep bowl rather than directly into the pan or pot makes it much easier to get a regular, attractive shape on your fried or poached egg. As far as centering the yolk, I suspect that's all about the grade of the egg; high-quality fresh eggs are just firmer and tend not to wander so much. I wouldn't recommend separating the yolk and adding it after the white -- I think that would do more harm than good. You want to keep that nested membrane structure, but separating the yolk requires breaking the inner albumen's membrane. What you get is a yolk that's just going to slide around on the raw surface of the white, instead of being held by the membrane in one place.

Other tips

Use oil rather than butter. Butter will brown the bottom and edges of your egg more quickly, and give it that browned butter flavor. A classic sunny side up egg is supposed to be evenly white and taste like egg. (Of course, if you like that flavor, go for it!)
Whether you're using oil or butter, only use enough to keep the egg from sticking. Too much butter can foam up around the edges and not look very nice. Too much oil can result in little splashes of oil on top of the egg and an unpleasant residue on the plate (and palate).

It takes some practice but cooking an egg every which way is a very basic technical skill that will stay with you forever once learned. As you get better you may start to notice how much of a difference the freshness of the egg makes, or how the color of the yolk indicates the quality of the hen's diet (and the flavor and nutrition in the egg as a result).

You don't have to go buy the fanciest eggs on the shelf -- plenty of restaurants get good results with whatever they order from their supplier -- but there's definitely a difference between brands. Hard to tell the gimmick from the real deal without cracking one open; I remember a story on the radio a couple years ago about a woman who resold grocery store eggs at a farmer's market when her hens weren't laying well, passing them off as fresh-laid. Best thing is to keep your own hens, but that's obviously not possible (or desirable) for everyone. Next best source is likely a CSA or farm stand.

Oh and by the way -- I never ate egg breakfast growing up. Couldn't stand them, especially the runny yolks! Tastes change; now I keep my own hens and I love a good runny poached egg. I don't claim to be any sort of professional in the kitchen; it's all about quality ingredients and practice, practice, practice.


What are some good resources for learning Knife Skills? What are some good resources for learning knife skills? Specifically, is there anywhere that I can see video demonstration of different slicing techniques and when those techniques are appropriate?

Why bother paying for instruction or books. The best way to learn is watching a video and practicing.

Youtube

Youtube has a great wealth of videos on knife skills. I'm more a visual learner. I like to see a video. A book are not going to help me squat.

Knife Skills: Julliene with Ann Burrell
Knife Skills: Chiffonade with Ann Burrell
Knife SKills: Slicing with Ann Burelle and Beau
Knife Skills: Bias Cuts with Ann Burrelle and Beau
Honing a knife with Gordon Ramsey (video is labeled as sharpening although he is showing a knife being honed)
Rick Theory, well respected on knife forums for good technique
Sundry old Martin Yan episodes across youtube. Cleaver centric technique that requires paying attention to do safely, but can achieve a lot.

Chowhound

Chowhound has a great wealth of knife skill videos.

How to make a chiffonade cut
How to chop
How to dice
How to hone a knife
Roll Cuts
Know your Knife Cuts
How to make julienne and batonnet cuts
How to cut with a chef's knife:
5 Simply knife safety tips
How to hold a knife
Not totally related but - Should i buy a knife set
Knife Skills troubleshooting
How to make a bias cut

Other

Wusthof Knife Skills Series


How to make pumpkin extract How do I make an extract to get the flavor of a pumpkin? Should I use pumpkin seeds or fresh pumpkin or maybe even the pumpkin skin? If I use pumpkin, should I dry it out or dehydrate it?

The pumpkin flavor you're likely looking for is nothing more than the spices that are added to pumpkin "stuff": cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc. If you attempt to do an extract to achieve "pumpkin essence", you will not be happy with the results.

I have been a home brewer (beer, wine, mead, etc.) for 20+ years and have seen many attempts from various brewers to make a "pumpkin beer".  Long story short (and you can do a search and verify what I'm saying on any beer brewing forum's out there), it's the spices that make the flavor, not the pumpkin squash fruit.

Bottom line is there is no "typical anticipated pumpkin flavor" imparted by just pumpkin. To make a great pumpkin beer, the guys who have made multiple batches of pumpkin beer using varied recipes (using chunked up pumpkin, cooked pumpkin, roasted pumpkin, etc.), all ended up finding the perfect pumpkin beer was made using only the spices and not even using any pumpkin at all.


How to tint powdered sugar (icing sugar)? I'm looking for a way to tint powdered sugar without wetting it.

I know that there are powdered food colors but I think that part of what activates the color is the fact that they get wet when you add them to an icing or batter.

I'm also afraid that they're so concentrated that, even if I get the color I want, I'll end up dyeing the mouths of the people who eat the cookies/cupcakes/whatever that I dust with the powdered sugar.

Is blending/processing colored sanding sugar and adding a bit of cornstarch an option? Will it ever mimic actual powdered sugar?

Edit: I've tried the above (sanding sugar with cornstarch) and it does not make a good solution.

From my experience coloring regular sugar with ordinary food coloring, drying it, and then crushing it in a mortar yields good results. Be careful to not use too much food coloring though, or it will never dry properly! I haven't tried to see if cornstarch might save it, but as long as you do the drying properly and don't overdo the amount of color it shouldn't be necessary.

As for the powdered food coloring option you suggested, I found a source that said they don't have to be wet to take effect, but it doesn't say anything about whether the eaters will be colored =)


Can I assume chicken internal temp rises 5 degrees while resting? With steak I've often read you should remove it from heat about 5 degrees before your target internal temp because it will continue to rise about that much as it rests.
Is the same true for chicken? If your target temp is 165, is it okay to remove from heat when the internal temp is a few degrees lower?

Yes 3C/5F is about right. Chicken is always tricky because you're try to get legs at 72C but breast only at 65C (or even a bit less). Several cooking techniques to achieve that but it's for another post... The thermal mass argument seems to make sense although there is also 'more to do' so I would stick to the general rule of thumb and experiment. Resting is essential (but you already know this) either under foil or in a warm area. If your bird gets a bit too cold, you can flash the cut portions for 2-3 minutes in a hot oven; no need to rest again.


Halloween Special: Glow in the dark food Halloween is just around the corner! Prepare to panic bake as many spooky sweets and tricky treats as you possibly can over the weekend!

I'm planning to bake a lemon tart, mainly because the filling is quite light and seems as though it would take colouring pretty well. Also because lemon tart is delicious and should never need justification.

My question is:
Is there anything that I can add to my filling that will make it glow in the dark?

The ingredient(s) must:

Make it glow (obviously)
Survive the baking process without breaking down into something that doesn't glow
Not make the lemon tart taste offensive

I must mention, as every google search has failed to make this distinction: I am looking for solution that glows in the dark, not a solution that glows only when exposed to UV light, although one that does both would be acceptable.

Use bioluminescence. Glow worms are edible and they are phosphorescent. You could make powder from organisms that have phosphorescence (glow worms). Crush them, sprinkle them on top of  lollipops or you could try crushing up GloFish:
https://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/features/featureglowing-sushi-experimenting-futuristic-food/  These will glow in a dark room, but only faintly. You can use blacklight to enhance the bioluminescent ingredients response.  Here's some nice pictures of fluorescent dye from glowing jellyfish for glow beer using a yeast that responds to "UV or blue light" according to gizmodo. No UV light needed.
 https://www.eater.com/2016/12/8/13886320/glow-in-the-dark-beer-jellyfish-genetic-engineering
Also check out the links at the bottom of that Eater article on glowing beer, glowing udon noodles, and glowing ice cream.

An alternative to food that glows on is own is to use the more commonly available neon colored dyes could look like they glow. These super-bright hues won't give off their own light for a true glow, but will reflect lots of ambient light.

Disney has done a lot of research on making glowing food and they've gone with the LEDs or light-sticks inserted into food. The effect is food safe and dependable, or else they wouldn't use it: Disney's InfinityAide  or Fairy Floss or LightSaber Churros  Perhaps bake your pie in two pieces and then drop a glowing light cube inside your lemon filling and then plop  on the pre-baked top? Or maybe make a crust that has holes in it that you can poke a few small lightsticks into.

The most common way to get a glow in the dark effect is to use UV (fluorescent dyes) because many food safe ingredients (such as tonic water and caramel) respond to UV wavelengths. The UV causes the ingredient to give off its own light (fluoresce). However, I'm not sure if the quinine from tonic water will survive baking. Lots of websites show people using tonic water on their cup/cakes after covering them with jello, like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTh4K9Jmh0g  There is research about them at Rutgers. Apparently these edible fluorescent food colors are routinely added to food or pharmaceuticals: Allura Red, Sunset Yellow, Brilliant Blue, Fast Green and Tartrazine, a yellow-colored dye. Read more about fluorescent food dyes at: https://phys.org/news/2015-02-fluorescing-food-dyes-probes-quality.html#jCp

Anyway, you could avoid UV and go for blue light. Some things that will flourescen under UV will respond to blue or purple LED light.


Is it feasible to cook a gourmet tasting menu in a home kitchen? This is not a question about cooking per se, but about professional cooks outside their day jobs. I have seen a few movies where chefs have a restaurant-grade kitchen and kitchenware at home, all ready to use on a regular basis. For example, in Chef, the titular character quits his job at a fancy LA restaurant after an argument with the owner, then goes home and proceeds to cook the same gourmet tasting menu he was planning to cook at the restaurant.

Is this a realistic depiction? Could he likely cook that menu at home, or would he likely need things present only in a professional kitchen? I understand that chefs might want to invest on high-grade hardware for their own homes, but I wonder to what extent they actually need to have everything they would need in their work kitchen.

I agree it's quite believable. Most restaurant equipment is more about cooking in bulk than being particularly specialized things you can't get at home. So it's extra durable/stays sharp longer or is just big (like a fridge).

It really doesn't take much money to make good food though. A lot of the gadgets and gizmos that you see on TV can be replaced with 1 good knife kept sharp...and a lot of chefs prefer a knife for the control. For example I have a mandolin. It cuts my vegetables very rapidly and saves me a bunch of time when I make vegetable stew, which I make a lot-- but it doesn't cut my vegetables evenly, which in a gourmet restaurant could be a problem for presentation. (Actually I'm going to get rid of my mandolin soon, too. I've gotten faster with a knife by now from practice.)

Another thing to think about-- being a chef is a hard job. If you're a gourmet chef you're probably passionate about cooking, so it makes sense to spend money on that hobby for at home as well.


Defrosting at room temperature only one hour and then thaw in the refrigerator safe or not? I know that it is unsafe to defrost frozen items at room temperature longer than 2 hours, but is it okay to leave frozen meat at room temperature for 1-2 hours and then move to fridge to continue thawing safely? Trust leaving frozen meat at room temperature for less than 2 hours won't make the bacteria to grow yet and believe it is still out of Temperature Danger Zone.

I assume you're not in a commercial environment where you have to be compliant as well as safe.

What matters is the food temperature not the ambient temperature. The ambient temperature is used in guidelines because it's easy to measure and control, and because a piece of food doesn't have a uniform temperature. Here the warmest part is the surface. If that's as cold as it would be in a fridge, or colder, you have no problem at all. Don't forget tips and corners that will warm up quicker.

Now how to apply this in practice? If all parts of the meat are frozen or icy, you can treat them as fridge cold - safe for as long as that temperature is maintained (up to the few days it would be OK in a fridge). As soon as any part gets warmer yacc this, it needs to be in the fridge. More even defrosting is possible by putting the item to be defrosted in a closed container. My kitchen is cool, so something like a single chicken breast in a freezer bag, placed in a plastic box, will take a couple of hours before the thin bits start to soften. So check sooner. You could use a thermometer in a thin part, but if you can stick the thermometer in, you should put the meat in the fridge. The important thing is not to forget about it.


Tea taste changes if watered down after steeping Why does the taste of tea change after watering it down after it's ready for drinking?

If you use 100% of water to make a cup of tea and then add 50% more water, the taste is not the same as when you make a cup of tea with 150% of water from the start. Why does this happen?

It doesn't happen to granulated coffee, but it does happen with bagged or free-leaf teas. I'm not a big fan of ground coffee, so I can't say anything about it.

I also know that nobody recommends watering ready tea down, but I haven't heard why yet. What causes the change of taste?

Water extracts flavor and color compounds from the tea leaves. Water can only hold so much of these compounds before it reaches the saturation point, where it cannot hold any more. Any flavors left in the tea leaves are unable to be extracted by the water.

If you only add 50% of the water required to extract all the flavor and color from the tea you leave much of the flavor behind in the leaves, and the tea will taste strongest of the compounds that are extracted fastest. When you then add the other 50% of the water the tea will be weaker and taste different than tea that has been steeped in 100% of the water needed to extract all the flavor and color.


What are the effects of heavy cream and milk in ice making? I want to make ice cream at home with my simple ice curner. I found the NY Times article which states
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
⅔ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
6 large egg yolks

Now there have been claims about the ratio of milk and heavy cream that

More milk makes it smoother
More cream makes it smoother

I wanted to clarify what is true. Moreover in case the freezer temperature effects the consistency  my freezer is set to -18ºC.

The role of cream in ice cream is, well, to be the main ingredient. This glances over a lot of details, but that's the gist of it, to the point where frozen desserts made without cream are not considered "ice cream".
Getting the proper texture of ice cream is not easy, and it only goes well when you start out with the right conditions. Part of it is to have a proper ratio of liquid to total solids, and of fat solids to nonfat solids. Using cream only will give you too much fat, so milk's role is to adjust the fat content so it falls into the optimal range.
There is no such thing as "more milk makes it smoother" or "more cream makes it smoother". Each good recipe is engineered to have the optimal ratio of ingredients, and if you start changing it on your own, the results are likely to get worse, not better.
Freezer temperature certainly affects consistency, but I can't tell you the interaction between milk/cream content and temperature. In practical terms, if you don't have a dedicated freezer you can set to an optimal temperature (about -6 C for most ice cream types), the question is moot anyway.


What does baking time in oven depend on? Banana bread recipe requires 1 hour, and the banana muffins recipe require 20 minutes.

Both the recipes contain bananas, and flour. Why is the baking time so different among the two?

These are the things that popped up in my mind at first glance:

Volume

How bigger the thing, how longer it will take to be fully baked. This is the reason why you find such a difference in the baking times for banana bread and banana muffins.

Surface Area

The volume can be the same (ground surface x height), but the surface exposed to the heat can differ. If something is flatter, the center is more rapidly reached. If you would bake your bread in a normal bread mold, it would take a longer time than if you would flatten out a bread on a baking sheet (but note that the volume is the same).

Oven temperature

Something very obvious. If it's hotter, it won't have to bake as long. However, don't play too much with this. I would advice to use the temperature a recipe has recommended. If you put it too hot, the outer parts can burn, when the inner parts would not be baked fully.
This question is related.

Vessel Material

Some materials conduct heat better than others. As a consequence, some things will be faster done in metal than in glass for example. (But I believe this has a less important role than the other factors I've mentioned. I can't say much about it, since I don't know a lot about it.)


How does food cook differently on an open top grill than a covered one? The title pretty much says it all, how does food cook differently on an open top grill than a covered one?

I believe it is kind of like the difference between broiling and baking. "Open top grill" only cooks from underneath (kind of like broiling but not from above). Baked or "covered" grill will distribute the heat more evenly.

For more information see: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/howtocook/primers/grilling_lightingandgrilling

That's where I double checked my assumption and got the metaphor of broiling and baking.


How to cook scallops that will prevent them from becoming too rubbery? What will prevent pan seared scallops from becoming too rubbery? I find that cooking them in the cast iron skillet has not created a tender texture.

It sounds like maybe you cooked them too long.  Searing the perfect scallop requires a few steps, and some thought, but it is not difficult. ...and, a cast iron pan is very effective, so don't be put off by previous comments.  1.  Use only dry-pack scallops.  2.  Before searing, make sure that they are a dry as possible, by placing them on paper towel and drying all sides (you want them to sear, not steam). 3. Find a pan that is large enough so that the scallops are not touching.  Otherwise, use more than one pan. 4. Get said pan very hot (I use cast iron with great success, but try other pans to see what you like). 5.  Add clarified butter (so that the milk solids don't burn).  6.  Add scallops. 7. Don't move the scallops! 8. When you notice a brown crust forming after about a minute, flip the scallops. 9.  Cook another minute on side 2. (Alternately, cook most of the way on side one, creating a deep brown crust...so perhaps a minute and a half to two minutes...then flip for 30 seconds) 10.  Remove from pan to a paper towel.  Bottom line:  Dry, hot, fast.


Why do my teriyaki steaks come out hard and dry? I have tried to make Teriyaki steaks (beef) and they come out dry and hard. They have been marinated with the Teriyaki sauce as instructed by various recipes but in the end the steak has taste but no juicy texture and they are hard to chew. I have tasted in a restaurant a Temaki corn/cone that had sliced Teriyaki beef steak in it which was splendid. I am trying to achieve that.  I have tried frying and grilling but both come out hard. Marinating for 2-3hours each time.

What could I be doing wrong?

Any number of things can go wrong.

Is your flesh cut correctly, that is, against the grain? Hint: if you see a string, it's cut with the grain and will affect tenderness.
Has your flesh properly aged? Enzymes in the meat dissolve the tissue, making it naturally tender. 21 Days is recommended.
You marinade too long. 15-30 minutes is recommended here for your cuts.
You cook the meat too long. A thin slice should be fried on high heat for a short time.
Restaurants get better meat. Fact of life.

Edit: Basic sauté method.

Heat the pan. The pan is hot when a drop of water becomes steam instantly.
Add some oil and heat it. It should become very hot very quick. Look for wrinkles on the surface.
Add the meat.
When you see a drop of 'blood' (that's plasma) flip the meat.
Retire the meat.

[Optional]

Add cold liquid to pan (could be the marinade), clean the bottom of the pan.
Lower the heat and make a pan sauce.
Add the meat to the sauce for a minute and serve.


Will a small "breather tube" on my bottles harm the oil/vinegar/liquor inside? I have several glass bottles with speed pourers like this:

I am thinking of using these bottles to hold my oil/vinegar/soy sauce/etc as well as liquors for my home bar, for efficiency of pouring as well as consistency.

The bottles have a green plastic cap. But it doesn't cover the small "breather tube" or air hole (1mm diameter). For example, if I hold a capped bottle upside down, a few drops come through that tube. I don't know if it is a simple tube or not. Over a period of weeks/months, would this open air hole expose the liquids enough to affect the taste? Or is this so minor it will hardly make a difference?

(This website says that fruit flies can get in through the breather hole, but I wonder if that is a concern with my 1mm holes.)

The exposure to oxygen that you'll get with bottles like these will affect your ingredients, but that will vary depending on how long you're storing them.  If you go through enough oil, vinegar, etc. that you're refilling these every few weeks, I think you'd be just fine.  If storing for three months or more, you may start noticing your oil getting slightly rancid and your vinegar getting slightly oxidized, or you may not start noticing the difference until much later.  A lot of other factors will impact how quickly this progresses - exposure to light and a higher ambient temperature will result in faster quality declines.  If you're not refilling these any more often than every six months, any gains in efficiency likely won't be worth the impact on quality.

There's some evidence (see here) that leaving ethanol solutions (like liquours) exposed to air can result in evaporation and a change in the ABV, but I would think that exposure from a 1mm hole would be negligible and you could keep these bottled for multiple months without much impact on quality.  Again, if you're going through such limited quantity, your efficiency gains will be pretty minimal as compared to keeping your liquors in their original bottles.  I wouldn't recommend storing or pouring liqueurs from spouts like these; in my experience, the residual sugar can build up over time and restrict flow through the pouring spout.  Sugary liqueurs will also attract fruit flies, and it's possible that a particularly small and persistent bug could find its way down the air hole.  You can use plastic wrap or buy plastic covers to place over the top of your spout to help ward off flies - any reputable bar will cap their pour spouts overnight.

If you keep vermouth or other fortified wines in these, store them in the fridge.  Dry vermouth in particular will oxidize quickly and develop off flavors if exposed to air, like any white wine - lowering the temperature will help somewhat.  Sweet vermouths and sherries are a bit more stable but not indefinitely so, and their higher sugar content can lead to buildup like liqueurs.

If your ultimate goal is consistency, be warned that professional bartenders typically practice extensively before attempting to "free-pour" and hit accurate amounts with speed-pouring spouts like this.  The reason is because differences in ABV and viscosity cause differences in pouring speed, so you'll wind up with different volumes depending on what you're pouring.  Even if you're very accurate with your pouring times, you'll need to train yourself to deal with these differences.  The best way to be consistent in your home bar is to skip free-pouring and measure using a jigger or other device.


My freezer is filled with ice - is it safe to to use it as is? I have just discovered that my freezer has a significant amount of ice coating.
Is it safe to put meals in there for storage?
If so, what would be the recommended way for defrosting those meals?

In regards of food safety the ice layer should not do any harm. But be aware that the ice layer is working as an insulater and thus increases the amount of electricity consumed by the freezer. So it´s advisable to remove it from time to time for this reason alone. For details see: here and here.


Slight smell and slight bitter taste of the belly parts of grilled fish One of my favorite grilled fish is the Blackspot seabream

Unfortunately, now and then, the belly part of the grilled fish tastes slightly bitter and smells a bit, which makes me not to eat those parts (quite a waste).
Does this come from not cleaning/preparing the fish properly or, as I've been told by a local fish-restaurant owner, is this caused by the pheromones of the fish during certain times of the year?

From what I've been told, the bitterness around fish belly is caused mainly by spilled bile when the liver or gallbladder is punctured.
May be caused by improper handling, packaging, rough treatment, excessive pressure (too much weight during storage or transportation), or careless cleaning procedure.
Improper cleaning or removal of the guts may also play a secondary role, though I suspect bile to be the main culprit.
You can some times tell in advance if you notice mustard-yellow spots in the inner walls of the fish belly before or cooking, which tend to turn silvery-greenish after cooking, caused by the spilled bile tainting the meat.
These are usually a indication of bitterness.

You can see an example around the area where the finger is touching the fish. Image source
Food source of the fish may also play a significant role in belly taste.
I have noticed that aquaculture or farmed fish tend to have little to no bitter taste at all, as opposed to wild or free range ones, possibly due to different feeding habits. Farmed ones likely exclusively eat the provided feed (with controlled selection of ingredients for taste and growth), rather than whatever they can naturally find in their environment.
Specifically addressing the pheromone as a cause, I've never personally heard about it, but pork does get Boar Taint (which is pheromone based effect on taste), so it is not totally beyond the realms of possibility, thought I'd expect it to have a widespread effect of fish as well, rather than just around the belly.
I have recently had fresh grilled wild White Seabream (Sargo) and it is one of the worse fish in terms of bitterness, which contrasts strongly with the aquaculture Gilt-Head Bream I can buy at the same vendor, and has absolutely no bitter taste, supporting my food source hypothesis.


Why do small things taste better than big things? Small berries have more flavor than large berries, small scallops have more flavor than large scallops, cherry tomatoes have more flavor than beefsteak tomatoes. I can't think of any cases where the larger an ingredient was, the more flavor it had by weight. Why is that?

A few factors are in play here (and these probably aren't all of them). I'll stick mainly to fruits (in a rough botanical sense) but some of this will generalise more widely.
Many commercial varieties have been bred for yield (as expressed by weight) and appearance. This is likely to have come at the expense of other variables, such as flavour. This leaves room in the market for tastier varieties, even if smaller or a less attractive colour or shape.
For a given variety of some fruits, water uptake can make a big difference. I have wild blackberries at the bottom of my garden, and don't water them. In a wet year they're juicy but not very tasty. In a dry year, they've got plenty of flavour, but they're hard - good for cooking with apples but not for just eating. I'll try to track down an article I read on arid agriculture - careful minimal irrigation could produce a premium flavour but a low yield. In the mean time here's an article coincidentally published today saying the same for herbs.
Some fruits stop growing long before they ripen, while others don't. This, combined with the timing of water availability and sunshine when needed for ripening,  will affect the concentration of flavour compounds produced during ripening.


Higher calorie ice cream I make a weekly batch of homemade ice cream using:

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
salt / vanilla

I want to try including some nutritionally dense ingredients like butter, egg yolks, peanut butter, avocado, etc.

Is there an easy way to know how much of a given ingredient to add? I still want the ice cream to be enjoyable

Are there any other ways to increase the calories per batch?

I've tried using half and half instead of milk, but the texture is too "whipped."

Those ingredients you mentioned, you wanted to add, are all possible, i guess. Fat tends to make the ice cream creamier, even at low temperatures. There are many recipes out there involving egg yolk, though, because it has other properties as well. It serves as an emulsifier, which binds water to fat. This prevents separation. There are other emulsifier, too, but in my opinion egg yolk gives the best results.

As we are not a recipe sharing site and it is definitely a matter of opinion how much of what to add (my dad adds about ten egg yolks for each liter of ice cream, but that's too much for my taste in most cases), I leave you to find yourself the best recipe on the internet. :)

Edit: In order to stay safe, it is recommended to heat the egg yolks to at least 70°C, but do not cook it though! It shouldn't solidify! I always mix it with sugar and heavy cream first, to prevent premature clotting.


How do I get my chocolate chip cookies to turn out thick and soft? How can I get my chocolate chip cookies to come out thick and soft?  I always use real butter; is this a problem?

I've found the key to be chilling the dough. If you can get it really cold, put it on room temperature baking sheets, and put it in a well preheated oven, you get a lot less spread and therefore a considerably thicker, cakier cookie, which I also prefer. If I mix the batch in my KitchenAid, I'll put the metal bowl in the coldest part of the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour before portioning and baking, with great results.


What do I need to consider when upgrading to a 40 quart mixer? I have a cookie business. Currently I'm using a Kitchenaid 7 quart mixer and can only make 50 cookies at a time.
I'm thinking of upgrading to a Hobart HL-400 40 quart mixer. I selected this brand because they have a bowl scraper.

Do you think they will mix the dough as well as the small mixers?

Any advice on what useful accessories I could get for it? (other than beater + bowl + scraper)

If we assume that each of the mixers is as capable as your existing one, you'd have to consider how much it saves you, and compare that to the cost of the new mixer.

New, that model of mixer when new goes for US$10,000 to $15,000.  Accessories will increase the cost; the scraper blade you mentioned runs around $500.

We have two ways to calculate the value to you; we can base it off of time savings of using the new mixer, but those calculations can be a bit messy.  If you're planning on buying this to grow into it, and only going to be doubling recipes, your time savings from mixing may be lost from cleaning (if it doesn't fit in your sink), or just hauling it around (shipping weight for a replacement bowl is listed as 47lbs/21kg); even if the bowl is only half that, a full batch might be 60lbs or more).

If you value your time at $8/hr, at $11,0000, you'd need 1375 hours to start seeing a benefit.  If you only saved 1hr per day, working 5 days per week, this would take over 4 years to start seeing a benefit.  If the cost with accessories is near $16,000, you'd need 2000 hrs, or almost 6 years).

These time savings may seem low, but remember that you're not necessarily quadrupling your batches in the same time; you still have to consider time to scoop them out, bake them, etc.  If you don't have sufficient oven & cooling space, you may not be able to take full advantage of the larger mixer.

You may value your time as more than $8/hr, and that would improve your cost recovery time ... but also consider that if you value your time highly, you could instead hire extra help.  If you hired someone half time at $15/hr, it would take 10.5 to 15.25 months to recover the cost.

...

Your second alternative for calculations is in how much additional profits you could make.  So, if you could turn out an extra 400 cookies per day (and could actually manage to sell them all), you'd consider the cost recovery time to be the increased profits minus the increased costs (ingredients, extra sales staff, etc.)

...

And for both of these calculations when we're looking at long time-scales, you have to consider what they call the 'time value of money' ... or what your effective interest rate is.  If you have the money saved up, it may be near 1%, or whatever you can invest it at (with low risk).  If you have to borrow the money, it may be 15% or more if you're putting it on a credit card.  It should be somewhere in between with a bank loan.

So, that 6 year 'payback' value with a savings of 1 hr per day at $8/hr, if you had a 15% interest will actually take 27 years to pay off  (calculator), as you only make back $140/month.  If you were to save 1.25hrs/day ($160/month), we cut the time down to 13 years.

...

So, to summarize, some of the considerations:

can you fit the bowl in your sink to clean?
will you be able to manage the bowl when it's filled?  (may be able to get a dolly to move it around)
how expensive are all of the accessories you need?
would you be able to take advantage of the size, or should you consider a smaller (20qt, 30qt mixer)?
how much time will this save you per day/week/etc?
how much extra profit could you make if you had this?
are there other things you could do to expand other than the mixer? (eg, hire extra help)
how long would it take to recover the cost of the mixer?


Why is it important to add salt during cooking? This may seem like a silly question, but given that each persons' tastes are different why is it that salt is added during cooking?  It seems better to just allow the person eating the food to add their own salt to taste as opposed to forcing the same amount of saltiness on everyone equally.

A few general reasons:

As soegaard says, the salt is often better distributed through the food if it's added during cooking. This is especially true for foods which have been carefully assembled; you can't always just stir things up! Some foods also take a while for flavors to soak through; think about potatoes in a chunky soup. If you add salt only at the table, the liquid will benefit, but the potatoes will generally taste bland, like they were unsalted. Then there are things where it really needs to be cooked in - I doubt many people want to sprinkle salt on a chocolate chip cookie.
Sometimes the quantities need to be pretty small, so mixing a small amount into the whole recipe is doable, while if you tried to add it at the table, even a little sprinkle would be too much. Baked goods are a good example here too.
Virtually everyone likes at least a little salt, so it's usually quite safe to add at least a little. The food will end up tasting good to many people, and then some can add more. Often the groups of people that we eat with have similar enough tastes that it's a non-issue.
Sometimes salt actually affects the cooking process, not just the flavor. It can help draw moisture out of sweating vegetables, softening them faster. It's abrasive (before dissolving, of course), and can help denature proteins.

But of course, if you're eating with people who don't like much salt at all, and salt can easily be added at the table (a pureed soup, for example), then there's nothing wrong with waiting until then.


Is there a spreadsheet with recommended heating and pasteurization times for different meats and temperatures for sous vide? For example, if I have a cut of beef or salmon, and I want to sous-vide cook either unpasteurized (rare or medium-rare) or pasteurized (medium+), based on thickness and temperature, how long should I cook each for?

The best resource I know of for sous vide pasteurization times is Douglas Baldwin's A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking.

The recipes section has tables for pasteurization time as a function of temperature and thickness for fish, poultry, and red meat. Note that for red meat, there are pasteurization times down to 131F/55C, which is generally regarded as medium-rare, so you have the matchup between pasteurization and doneness slightly off.

In the basic technique/cooking section, there are also tables for heating times, starting from either refrigerator temperature (41F/5C) or frozen (0F/-18C), going to 1F/1C short of the water bath temperature, for various shapes of meat.

If you're aiming for pasteurization, you want to use both tables, to make sure that the meat is both pasteurized and heated through. You'll also be fine cooking for longer than that, since it's safely pasteurized.

If you're cooking something rare enough that it won't pasteurize, you can just use the heating times table. In that case, you'll want to try not to cook too much longer than the given time, since it's not getting any safer.


Baking (pizza) stone and effects on puff pastry My pizza stone basically "lives" in my oven and I will be baking on it tomorrow.

Also on tomorrow's kitchen agenda: small palmiers, sugared slices of puff pastry.

As the stone will be hot already, I'm wondering:

What would be the effect of baking the palmiers on the baking stone vs. baking on a classic cookie sheet?

(Assuming correct temperature settings and use of parchment to avoid burned in sugar in both cases.)

I did this, and it didn't turn out so well. My oven was just north of 200 degrees celsius, I didn't want to deal with having the hot stone out of the oven, so I just tossed some sausage rolls on the stone to bake.

By the time the top puffed and browned sufficiently, the bottom was, well, pretty burned. Now, these sausages were pretty big bangers (wrapped in puff pastry), and there was more than a bit of pastry that had to cook, so you might not run into the same issue.

I also didn't experiment further or try again; I just ate my burned rolls and sulked for a while. I have a feeling that if the oven was down in the 180 - 185 range, it probably would have come out quite nicely with a little extra crispness on the bottom.

I'd test one first, just to be on the safe side. Actually it's probably worth making two extra just in case you have to adjust the temperature again. You also might want to use a bit of foil (or parchment as you said), as you'll have some butter on your stone if you don't (and possibly a brown butter taste to it).


How to store chicken breasts for cooking I've been getting into preparing chicken sandwiches for lunch for my family. I've tried poaching them first then grilling the following day, only to find that the flavor has escaped and chicken dried out.

A cool, supple chicken breast is really the best way to have a flavorful chicken sandwich, since it would cook in its juices and thus keep moist.

Since a lot of burger joints serve chicken sandwiches, I was wondering if anyone knew how they kept their chicken breasts ready to cook day after day. However I would presume that they slice and prep the breasts in advance (maybe the night prior).

Ok, so I'm not really sure what you're saying here... are you looking for a cool chicken breast or a hot one? I'll try to cover both.

First things first, completely twice-cooking chicken breast, (unless the second cooking method is braising or stewing) is a road which only leads to dryness. You can try to mitigate this dryness by just barely heating the chicken through on the second cook, but the best you're probably going to do is get 'less dry' rather than 'juicy.'

If you're looking for a cool poached chicken breast but just want that nice grilled flavor, you should give it a hard sear on the grill without cooking it through immediately before you poach it, and then use the smallest amount of liquid that you can to avoid diluting the grilled flavor too much. This method ensures that you only completely cook it through once.

If you're looking for a hot chicken breast, the approach is different. Burger places that make grilled chicken sandwiches either a) grill them to order, b) grill them and then hold them at about 140 degrees until they're ordered, or c) par cook them and finish them to order. Some lower quality places might grab the cooked chicken they have as a salad condiment to put on a pizza or into a saute or
 on the griddle for a hot chicken sandwich— those are the kind of places that don't care if they serve you dry chicken.

Larger pieces— like spatchcocked grilled smaller chickens or half-roasted chickens— are often par cooked, which means they're partially cooked and finished to order. Any place I've seen that par cooks chicken well does so within an hour or two of when they expect to sell them and doesn't refrigerate them before cooking. The birds that are par cooked and not ordered generally get finished before they're supposed to be thrown away (2hrs according to the FDA food code) and repurposed (perhaps as chicken salad for the next day's lunch, chicken soup, or chicken pot pies.) Par cooking, cooling, and finishing is probably only marginally better than twice-cooking for the meat towards the outside.

Edit: Saw your comment above. I really do think your best bet for cooking chicken sandwiches on the grill is just doing it to order. If you need to do it fast, pound them out or butterfly them first, then grill them. If that's just not doable for you, I recommend trying sous-vide cooking the chicken, which can be MUCH gentler than poaching. You can pasteurize the breasts at a low enough temperature that you don't tighten up the muscle fiber much, cool them extremely rapidly for safety, and then keep them refrigerated for a few days until you're ready to use them.


How does the flavour from aromatics actually get into food? I've always wondered what the exact mechanism is which allows flavours from aromatics to permeate food. For instance, I bake chicken with sliced lemon, sliced garlic, and parsley (each in hefty amounts), and it doesn't really seem to matter where the aromatics are in the pan when I put it in the oven, as the chicken still comes out with some of the flavour.
I haven't been able to find an answer online, perhaps because it's simpler than I'm imagining. Is the chicken basting in a liquid flavoured with the aromatics? Are the flavours of the aromatics carried in evaporating water molecules through the air?
Also, what are the implications of this mechanism of flavour transfer? For instance, where should my aromatics be placed relative to my food in order to maximize flavour transfer, and what ingredients work best as aromatics?
If flavours are aerosolized and transfer to the food that way, is it a good idea to loosely cover the food with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven to "trap" the flavour particles?

There's lots of different ways to answer this question.

Is the chicken basting in a liquid flavoured with the aromatics? Are the flavours of the aromatics carried in evaporating water molecules through the air?

The answer is yes to both, and it really depends on what you're cooking and how you're cooking it. I'll try to think of a couple examples, but before I dive into that, there's some plant science we need to discuss.
When the aromatics heat up, they release their own oils, and the oils are part of what flavours the food (there is still flavour in the leaves/spices/fruit itself, so not all the flavour is coming from these oils). For example; when you cut into, say, an orange peel, you (typically) smell a strong orange scent. What you're actually smelling isn't the fruit inside (because you haven't made it to the fruit just yet), but the oils of the peel that get released because when you broke the peel, you broke the cell walls of the plant and released the oil into the air (sometimes you can even see the spray of oils depending on the lighting). This is also why some recipes tell you to "bruise" your herbs, because doing so breaks the cell walls and allows the oils to escape easier/faster (side note but this is especially true of dried herbs! Whenever I add dried herbs to food, I always pour them into my hand and rub them as I sprinkle them to bring out the flavours more). These oils then dissolve into water, fat, or alcohol, and thus flavour the water/fat/alcohol. Typically, these oils dissolve best in fat.
Let's talk about the example you gave of chicken with sliced lemon, sliced garlic, and parsley. For this example, I'm assuming this is chicken breast baked on a sheet tray, and I will also be assuming you're using olive oil (or any oil/fat). When the chicken and aromatics get heated in the oven, the chicken will start to release fat and the aromatics will start to release their oils. Some of the flavour of the oils will be released into the steam and will lightly flavour your chicken, which is why your chicken has "some of the flavour" of the aromatics. However, the majority of your flavour (in this case) has actually dissolved into the fat that you see on the sheet tray. There will probably be brown bits on your sheet tray as well - this is called "fond" and it is basically concentrated flavour. If you were to remove the chicken and aromatics from the sheet tray and make a gravy/pan sauce using the fat and scraping those brown bits off, the flavours of your aromatics will be much more intense in the sauce than the meat.
Another example I can think of is pho broth. Pho broth is perfumed with star anise, cloves, and cinnamon. To get the best flavour from these aromatics, you would heat them up before adding them to the broth to release their oils. From there, the aromatics simmer with the broth for a few days. This allows the aromatics to release more oils, and allow the oils to dissolve into the broth, thus adding their flavours into the mix.

Also, what are the implications of this mechanism of flavour transfer? For instance, where should my aromatics be placed relative to my food in order to maximize flavour transfer, and what ingredients work best as aromatics?

Typically you'll want to place your aromatics as close to the meat as possible, and sometimes inside the meat (in the case of things like whole poultry). Again, it kind of depends on what you're cooking and how. If you're roasting in the oven it's not a huge deal so long as you don't open your oven a bunch of times during the cooking process. The steam generated doesn't really have anywhere to go in the oven until the door is open, so keeping it shut helps trap the steam and the oils inside.
As far as ingredients that work best as aromatics? That entirely depends on what flavours you like. You could get a notebook and jot down what flavours you put into a dish, then when you're done eating make a few notes about how it tasted (ex. 'needed more glaric', 'too much thyme', 'didn't like the taste of star anise and dill together'). You'll get to know your preferred flavours and find combos you love. If that's too much hassle, try to find cooks/chefs on YouTube or Instagram and follow their recipes, especially if it's a new food or flavour you're trying out. Josh Weissman, Binging with Babish, Sohla El-Waylly, and Alison Roman are a few of my personal favourites. Buzzfeed/Tasty recipes are typically pretty easy to follow and great intros if you're very new to cooking.

If flavours are aerosolized and transfer to the food that way, is it a good idea to loosely cover the food with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven to "trap" the flavour particles?

I wouldn't recommend covering your food to "trap" the flavours, unless otherwise stated by a recipe, because you risk either overcooking your meat or making your food soggy, and no one wants that.
I hope that helped!


Extrusion pasta maker versus roller: which one makes the best pasta? Roller pasta makers require you to work the dough by hand and then run it through the roller multiple times. Some extrusion pasta makers don't even require mixing the ingredients before placing them in the machine. I have a hard time believing that the extrusion models can produce the same quality pasta because the dough is not kneaded or sent through the roller. What is the difference between the noodles produced by each method?

I am absolutely of the opinion that the roller type makes better pasta unless you're considering hugely expensive commercial extruders.

This is my pasta maker:

I think I spent about $30 on it. I make my pasta dough in my food processor, and the pasta is as good as I have ever had. Yes, it requires that you knead; that's half the fun and it produces much, much better pasta.

I had one like this once:

I did not like the pasta. I found it to always have a grainy texture, even if I used 00 flour or followed the recipes that came with the machine. The machine just doesn't knead enough or right or something. That one cost $250 I think. The only reasons to prefer this one to the other is if you want shapes (I prefer noodles and ravioli anyway to macaroni), or if you really, really hate kneading.

See: Can anybody help make homemade pasta foolproof? for two different, both excellent, methods.

Since you had me looking on amazon anyway, I'll show you the one I would buy if I was in the market and didn't mind the idea of spending a little extra money: Marcato Pasta Machine with Attatchments. This one is the bestseller for good reason: Marcato Pasta Machine. This very inexpensive option has been fine for me, but I sometimes wish I had one of the higher quality Marcato rollers. It's a bit rough around the edges, especially cutting, but it's functional. Norpro Pasta Maker.


Using baking powder versus self rising flours and corn meal Everything I bake with baking powder is bitter.  If I use self rising flour or corn meal there is no bitter taste.  So why do so many recipes call for baking powder?

Baking powder is a mix of a powdered acid and base. It's stable when dry and cool, but in the presence of heat and moisture they will react with each other, creating gas. This gas gets trapped in the structure of a dough or batter as it is baked, causing it to rise.

Self-raising flour has baking powder mixed in it, so when you use self-raising flour you are using baking powder. I suspect your problem comes from one of two things, you either have bad baking powder, or you are using way too much. I would buy fresh baking powder of a different brand, and check to make sure you are using the right amount for your recipes. Check to make sure you have the right measuring equipment. 1 teaspoon (tsp) is 5ml volume, and 1 tablespoon (tbsp) is 15ml. If you added 1 tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon of baking powder you would get a result exactly as you describe.


Substitute sugar free maple syrup in baking? We're trying to make trailmix chunks. Is it alright to replace sugar free maple syrup (springtree low calorie maple syrup) in baking for this case?

My concern is that the sugar free syrup would break down and isn't a real replacement for the real syrup.

Update:

  Recipe (roughly; as it was just eyeballed previously):

  1 lb pepitas
  1 lb raw diced almonds
  1/2 lb of flaxseeds
  3 cups of cranberries
  2 cups of maple syrup
  Several tablespoons of honey

Honey is your real binding agent here, not maple syrup.  You can substitute the sugar-free syrup but be aware of what's in it - according to the ingredients, it's mostly Sorbitol, which is both a humectant and a laxative.

Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't tell people to worry about the digestive effects of sorbitol, but that's a seriously large quantity you'd be adding, so if any of you have sensitive stomachs, beware of eating too much of that trail mix at once.  The other property - humectancy - means that what you end up with is going to be moister than what you'd get with pure maple syrup.  That may or may not be a good thing depending on your tastes.

Since your issue seems to be a lack of availability rather than a problem with sugar itself, I'd personally substitute generic pancake syrup, sugar syrup or even corn syrup instead.  Or, if you're really keen on the sugar-free stuff, you can use less of it and add more honey because the sorbitol will help keep the whole product moist.

If you really want to cut down on the sugar, you can also use agave nectar, which is a fairly close substitute for honey (a bit thinner), and could also stand in for maple syrup if used in combination with another syrup and perhaps some maple extract or maple flavouring. It won't be the same flavour, but, texture-wise, it should be a pretty close match.


How much is "a ladleful"? I have a recipe that asks for "a ladleful" of something. The recipe book usually uses imperial weights and volumes, that I can convert to my metric units that I hold so dear.

As I understand it, a ladleful is the volume necessary to fill a ladle - but how much is it? A ladle can take on various sizes, so I guess it wouldn't make much sense to not normalize it in any way (like, a cup is eight ounces).

EDIT:
As suggested in the comments, I want to mention it is "a ladleful of sourdough starter" that I should add to 2 pounds 7 ounces / 1.1 kg of rye flour and 2.5 cups of water. I'd normally go with about 500g of starter, but that seems like a big ladle to me.

Every sourdough starter has different characteristics, a ladleful of one will give a different result from the same amount of another. The recipe is right in that there's no way to say what result you are going to get, so why be exact.

The point I would make is that you want repeatibility, and the capability to adjust your amounts over time to suit your taste. So whatever you use to get it out (ladle, spoon, measuring cup, hand) I would weigh and record how much starter you use, you can add more or less and see how you get. As long as you keep using the same starter you can adjust to your taste.


Can you season skewers after cooking them? Firstly, I write, not cook. A character in my story drugs some honey chicken skewers, saying it's seasoning in front of my protagonist. Would it be okay if he was called out about it or are there actual recipes that add spices after the meat is done grilling?

It's very common to season steaks or other meats with salt and pepper after cooking, there would be nothing unusual about that. There are also seasoned salt mixes which people may use as well, that's also common. Using other spices is less common, there are finishing spice mixes which could be sprinkled on, which is less common.
As a writer myself I would say it will work any way you want it to. I would think nothing of seeing someone sprinkle some salt on food after cooking, unless I had reasons to be suspicious to begin with, and then I would touch and smell. Or I might not have suspicions until I smell the food and detect something odd.


KitchenAid Mixers, which one to pick? I am planning to buy a KitchenAid mixer for my wife as a birthday present. However, there are multiple models and I am not sure which one to pick. My wife will be using the mixer for making cookies, cake, pizza dough, and possibly bread.

One of the main differences between the models is the wattage, with some models having 325 watts while others having 575 watts. How important is the increase in wattage for my wife's uses?

Another difference that I found is that some model has a burnished metal dough hook while the other model has a nylon covered dough hook. Would this be a big advantage/disadvantage for either models?

Thanks.

I would recommend against gatting the models below 325 watt. The 325W models is easily strong enough for breads, cakes, and cookies. Although it does sound a bit tortured on heavier dough and doesn't like mixing tough stuff for extended lengths and gets warm.

The higher power models tend to have a different release mechanism where the bowl lifts into position and the mixing head doesn't tilt. This is generally handy (less dripping, and no wobbling of the mixing head). If you plan on using it multiple times a day, the pro models with higher wattage are the way to go.

I personally find the metal dough hook just fine, I believe the other one you refer to has a spatuala attached to scrape the dough off the sides during mixing.  Sometimes useful, but not the end of the world without it.


How might I roast coffee at home without investing in an expensive roasting machine? Tired of the bland supermarket beans and too poor to sate my thirst at the local roaster, so I've ordered 20lbs of green coffee beans online...

But, now what do I need to do to turn them into The Life-Giving Elixir? Not interested in crowding my kitchen with yet another special-purpose device, even for such an important task! I have a gas oven/range, cast iron pans, dutch oven, etc. - Is there a way to get a good roast without specialty equipment?

Hot Air Popper

The cheapest and simplest is to use a (cheap) electric hot air popper. The old favorite is the West Bend Poppery, but you can use anything as long as the vent holes (where the hot air comes in) are on the sides rather than the bottom.

I've roasted a lot of coffee this way. It works, but there are a few downsides. The biggest problems:

The circuation is designed for popcorn, which expands a lot more than roasted coffee beans. I've needed to stir the beans manually in order to get an even roast. They don't have to be stirred constantly, but you can't just drop the beans in and walk away.
The capacity is pretty low, especially when you take the circulation into account. I can only roast a half a cup at a time, which is pretty slow.
The temperature doesn't get quite high enough to really bring the flavors out. The roast is good, but it's really mellow.

[source: Chris g Collision, Flickr Creative Commons]

I've read about modifications you can make that will improve these: changing out resistors, modifying the airflow, and even hooking up an Arduino to control the heat a lot more closely, but it seems like more work than I've wanted to invest in the process.

Heat gun / metal dog bowl method

My brother's moved on to this approach, and I'm soon to follow. The benefit of a heat gun is that the temperature is high enough to get a good roast, and the airflow is high enough that you can roast a few cups of coffee at a time.

[source: Ocell, Flickr Creative Commons]

More Insanity
Sweet Maria's sells green coffee beans, and lists a huge amount of home roasting methods, including Weber Kettle conversions. The sky's the limit, but I'd start small with the air popper or the heat gun first.

I'd do this outside
Some methods have you roasting the coffee in your kitchen - in the oven, on the stove, etc. I wouldn't want to do this myself, for two reasons. The beans have thin husks on them, which come off as the beans are roasted. They're messy, and I wouldn't want them flying around my kitchen. Also, roasting coffee doesn't smell as good as you'd think it would.

Sources of more info:

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/section/roasting/
http://www.sweetmarias.com/articles.php#roastAndBrew
http://www.sweetmarias.com/homemade-homeroasters.php


How to get a smooth paste from ground chickpeas? I make Hummus quite often, and use my food processor to chop the chickpeas. This yields a sort of coarse paste, which is a little better if I peel the chickpeas first. Adding liquid to the mixture doesn't seem to help much, but only leads to watered down Hummus.

I would like to get a much smoother paste, that resembles restaurant Hummus more closely. How can this smoother paste be achieved?

You cannot make good hummus from canned chickpeas, you should make it from fresh dried beans
The beans need plenty of soaking and rinsing
When cooking, add one tsp of baking soda per cup of beans. Baking soda chemically softens the bean proteins. Never add salt or other flavourings during the bean cooking stage

Traditional hummus is somewhat coarse, but very soft (due to baking soda). It is made with a minimal amount of olive oil, but drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of cooked, and still warm chick peas when served
Restaurant hummus is often just over processed junk made in a factory with a commercial grinder (like a peanut butter grinder)
Also, see How should I prepare dried chickpeas? if your chickpeas never go soft


Sugar cookie dough is dry and real hard I used my moms sugar cookie recipe that our family and I have used for years. For some reason the dough was real dry and crumbly. I took it out and formed it and it was real hard. It calls for at least 3 hours refrigeration. Well now it is even harder. It usually is on the stickier side. Is there a way to save it?

Did you measure by cups or otherwise by volume, as opposed to by weight? I'd bet that this is the issue, too much flour compared to the rest of the ingredients. Have you made these cookies often enough that you can feel when they're right? You can still save them by adding everything else a bit at a time, and feel for the right texture. Feel, don't look, and let your fingers tell you the answers. Take your time and listen to your fingers. It sounds cliche, but I think it is your best shot.


What's the worst that could happen when fermenting sauerkraut? I've been wanting to make "REAL" Sauerkraut for awhile now but im really averse to food borne illnesses.

So obviously fermenting something is sorta scary to me! But tons of people make sauerkraut all the time. So I guess im asking what's the worst thing that could happen?

I mean is there anything that could kill me? or would something that would get that bad smell so foul that there is no way I could eat it?

If you follow proper procedures, it's safe. The correct amount of salt (initially) and the acid developed by the desirable bacteria population prevent the process being taken over by non-desirable bacteria. It works. Right around 2% by weight salt to cabbage (or cabbage and...) is a good number, with Stephie's German sources suggesting that possibly even 0.75% would be sufficient. More than 2% is NOT better (I have experimental results, even.) There should be no need to add water.

I personally prefer to use some red cabbage when fermenting in a clear container, as it gives me a visual clue to acidification progress. If using an opaque crock, no point in that (other than if you happen to like pink sauerkraut), as you should not open the crock to check (letting air in is bad practice.) I keep my clear containers in the dark.

IMHO after a lot of research before I dove in last summer, you should absolutely use an airlocked or watersealed container and leave it alone for 6-8 weeks. The "open crock method" that for some reason seems to be "traditional USA methodology" (why, I can't imagine, we had plenty of immigrants who knew better) is best avoided, as it pretty much ensures a mold battle. Properly tightened (not overtightened, not loose) canning jar lids are one form of airlock (do not loosen them - but keep the jar in a bucket just in case you over-tightened them, as it will contain the mess.) The nutty folks who are checking on it every few days are making something vaguely fermented, but it's not (IMHO) sauerkraut, which takes time; and they raise the odds of mold hugely. "Traditional fermentation crocks" with a water-sealed lid are another approach which works well, albeit generally with a commitment to a larger batch.

I've made 4-5 batches by now, all done under airlock; one (with insufficient weight) did poke cabbage above the liquid line and develop "kahm" yeast - I saw it, I left it alone, I tossed the top layer into the compost when I opened the jar, the rest is fine. With sufficient weight, that should not be a problem.

So, for the first time ever, I'll plant cabbage next year (I dislike cabbage, but I like sauerkraut.)


Bread going stale in enamel breadbasket I store my bread in an enamel breadbasket like this one (different decor, though). In the bottom of the basket, there are some small holes, I think to let the air circulate. But bread stored in this basket goes stale in a matter of two or three days.

Any hints as to why and how to prevent it?

EDIT:

As I was made aware only later, my bread isn't going stale, rather it takes on too much moisture. Cross-language problems...

Ordinary everyday bread made from flour, salt, yeast and water from a bakery should be stale by the third day. That is what happens to it naturally, unless it is packed with preservatives and kept in a polythene bag. A larger loaf will possibly stay fresher longer, but looks like your container only holds fairly small loaves and rolls (which will dry out and go stale quickest).

A "natural" or artisan-made loaf will no longer be "fresh" from the day after purchase. By day two it is best for making toast, then from day three: toast, bread crumbs, stuffing, dumplings, rissoles, bread puddings and all the other luscious food and creative uses our grandmothers had for using up the stale bread in their pantries.

A good or rather a well designed bread bin (or bread box in the USA) will be well ventilated and will allow bread to dry out without becoming mouldy. Sounds like yours is just right.


What to do with dried vegetables that feel like a chewing gum? Several months ago I dried some vegetables, mainly cabbage and carrot. I cut them to thin small slices using a slicer, dried them in about 50 C, and stored in glass jars.

Now, I opened the jars and tried eating them. Their look and taste is OK, but their texture has become hard and chewy, like a chewing gum. When I eat them, I need to chew them for a very long time before I can swallow.

What can I do with these vegetables?

Of course they will be the texture of thinly sliced rubber tires when eaten raw.

What you want to do is rehydrate them. Probably the easiest way would be adding them to a stew and simmer / boil them until the entire dish is done. You will need some extra water, though.

You could also try soaking them in water over night like one does for dried fruit / muesli, then drain and use them.


How can I separate the lid from a can that has a pull-tab/ring without flinging food everywhere? When I try to separate the lid from a can that has a pull-tab, the moment the lid separates from the can, the lid flings food everywhere. It's not always a lot, but it goes far because the lid has so much spring-tension.
I'd keep the last bit of the lid on the can, but sometimes I need the lid off to get everything out or to fully clean the can. (I don't want any remaining food in the can afterwards. My house pets will try to steal the can, and wild animals will try to steal the can from my recycling bin.
What methods can be used to avoid the mess and keep the kitchen clean?

(Image from self.com)

For most of the removal, leverage rather than brute force will give more control, so you don't accidentally pull the last bit off.
At the end while pulling gently on the ring, rock the lid from side to side, so you're only trying to open one side of the remaining seam.  It's much less likely to flick that way.  While my right hand does that, my left hold the can in such a way that it would probably be in the way of  anything flying, but it rarely needs to.
Another approach is to open the lid most of the way, remove most of the contents, then push the lid inwards to finish breaking it off (or in/out until the metal fatigues and it breaks easily).  This works well for things like beans or custard, that come out easily with a pour/scrape.


How to make the best of tough meat while camping? The problem is my buddies like to buy cheap steaks to take camping (usually from the 5 for $5 bin), then they hand them to me like I could work some miracle other than adding cracked pepper and trying not to overcook them on an open fire.  I'll leave the result to your imagination.

Is there something I could do or add to this meat to make it less tough, but also something I could do while camping and having no access to a kitchen?

Cheap, tough meat is a puzzle cooks have dealt with through the ages. The common solutions are as follows:

1) Low and Slow - cook at the edge of the fire, or atop a bed of coals, for a looooooooong time. Braising and stewing is also part of this method - adding a flavorful liquid to keep the meat moist while time and heat tenderize it. A cast-iron dutch oven is your friend. Steak chili!

2) Mechanical Tenderization - Whack the heck out of it with something heavy (back end of a hatchet or the underside of a piece of cast-iron cookware), poke dozens of little holes in it, and/or slice it thin. Beef roulade would work well roasted over an open fire, or shaved steak/italian beef/philly cheesesteak whacked and sliced on site and pan-fried in a skillet.

3) Chemical Tenderization - Acid, salt, sugar and time can make the strongest steak yield. A cheap bottle of italian dressing, a zip-lock bag, and a some quality time in the ice chest, and you have marinated steak kabob ready to be cubed, skewered and roasted over an open fire like meat marshmallows.

4) All of the above. Swiss steak! Actually, all of the above dish suggestions only work in concert with another. But seriously, Swiss. Steak.

You can do all of this in the field with a sharp knife, cheap plastic cutting board and a dutch oven or covered skillet (cast iron preferred, make your buddies pack it for you).


Does chopping vegetables remove vitamins? I hear some chefs saying on TV: "Don't cut your vegetables in the salad too small, because the smaller you cut them the more vitamins are lost."

Is that true?
and if it was really true, what is a way to make vegetables keep their vitamins while being cut into small pieces, becasue I like salads to be eaten when each vegetable slice is around a bite in size.

This phenomenon affects fruits much worse than vegetables actually. The FDA published a report that cut or peeled fruits will lose half their vitamin C content in 1-2 weeks. Over 10-25% of this loss will occur in fruits in only 5 days.

For vegetables there exists a similar, albeit less pronounced effect. When cut the flesh inside of the vegetable is exposed to oxygen and the protection provided by the peel or covering is lost.

That being said, the process of these vegetables losing nutrients is not an immediate one. Realistically the loss that occurs between you cutting the vegetables and placing them in a salad is probably distinctly minimal. I wouldn't worry too much about the nutrient loss as long as you aren't cutting the vegetables and then storing them for a long period of time.

See: http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/cutveg.htm


Tips on tossing a frying pan I see it done by TV chefs, or just people who are more experienced at me with cooking; as they're cooking they rarely use a spatula to turn or mix the contents of their frying pan, but rather toss the contents of the pan instead.

Are there any techniques to tossing food in a frying pan well? I'm talking about food in general – be that vegetables, bits of meat, rice (not necessarily something obvious like pancakes).

I guess the main outcomes you want from tossing a frying pan include:

Turning the food and doing so that it is cooked on both sides.
If there is a lot of contents in the pan, moving it about so different parts of it are in contact with the surface of the pan.
Moving different parts of the food from hotter bits to cooler bits within the pan so they are all fairly evenly cooked.

Is there a technique to it, or am I over-analysing the process?

Perhaps a bit of over-analysis going on yes. Generally I'd toss the pan if I was frying a lot of small items such as croutons, or toasting nuts, in order to turn a lot of them over at once.

To toss the pan, first tilt it up so that some of the contents slide to the opposite end and rest against the lip of the pan. Then tilt it back level while simultaneously drawing your arm back. The food should flick up and land back in the middle of the pan (approximately). Practice with a cold pan and a couple of dry ingredients like nuts or pulses.

Bear in mind that tossing the pan generally means the pan loses heat, as you are raising it off the heat source, so if you're cooking something like steak or chicken breast that needs quick cooking, you're probably better off simply stirring it or using tongs.


How to keep fresh-made soft pretzels from getting soggy or stale? I've recently learned how to make fresh pretzels and they are quite good. However, they start to get hard and chewy after about four hours. If I store them in a plastic container before that then they get soggy.

If it matters, the recipe uses active yeast and a baking soda wash.

Unfortunately you're fighting bread-physics... Bread with a high crust:crumb ratio become stale faster than those with low crust:crumb ratios like large boules or miches. Their large surface area allows moisture to evaporate quickly and the starches dry up and harden.  This is why thin breads like baguettes are traditionally "daily" breads, i.e. made/purchased to be consumed that day.  Soft pretzels have an even higher crust:crumb ratio than baguettes.

Breads with extremely high crust:crumb ratios like hard pretzels, crackers, and hardtack are usually cooked to the point of being dry to prolong their storage capacity.  These bread actually "stale" in the opposite direction by becoming more moist.

There are a couple of things you could try that might help a little. It might take a lot of experimenting to get something that helps, and you will likely still need to reheat the pretzels just prior to serving them to have the soft texture you're looking for. Without re-baking or light toasting there really isn't a way to bring back the original crust texture.

Use pre-ferments to increase the concentration of a-amylase in your pretzels.  Using a prolonged autolyse and/or sourdough starter can increase the amount of a-amylase in your bread which has been shown to slow staling.
Incorporate conditioning ingredients like fat, sugar, malt, or honey into your dough.  All of these slow staling.
Try baking the pretzels at a lower temperature.  The article linked above also mentioned that higher temperature baking leads to faster staling.

For storage, your best option is probably to allow them to cool completely (15-30 minutes) then place them in a sealed container at room temperature.  Placing them in a sealed container before they are cool fills the container with humidity, which then coalesces and makes the crust soggy.


Can I use stainless steel scrub to clean regular dishes? I know stainless steel scrubs are usually for cleaning tough spots out of stainless steel woks and pans. I use a regular kitchen sponge for my bowls and plates. However, sometimes the dishes get crusty, and a stainless steel scrub works best for getting those off.

My question: will this in any way damage the bowls and plates? These are regular, microwave-safe, dishwasher-safe porcelain dishes. Will the scrub scratch the surface, making it harmful to ingest from those dishes?

You can but you probably shouldn't. Stainless steel scrubs are quite coarse, rough and with sharp edges. They are  particularly abrasive, suited for scrubbing the pan's metal surface and removing the outer oxidized or grimy layers and achieve a "shiny finish".

Used on ceramics I imagine they will scratch the glossy surface quite easily; with continued use it will eventually lead a faded finish and loss of gloss.

It will largely depend on the hardness of the specific ceramic type. I would assume average quality ceramic dishes, but even for a finer quality porcelain over a longer term it will probably eventually wear out the vitreous coating, and on extreme cases even reach the more crumbly inner substrate.

On a more expensive/high quality porcelain service I imagine you would want to use something softer anyway, to prevent premature wear, particularly if it is some sort of antique, heirloom, has any sentimental or monetary value.

Decorated items with paint or enamels will be particularly sensitive to abrasion, since even continued use in a dish washer will lead to faded colors over time, especially on over-glaze decorations.


Is this coconut spoiled? Just cracked open fresh coconut.  Water is sweet, meat is thin, bland and soft.  As a kid years ago, coconut meat was very firm and thick.  Is this soft, bland coconut safe to eat?

Exactly. No harm will be done and if it was off, the smell would knock you over so you wouldn't dare drink it anyway. This coconut was picked too early, or in the wrong season and so had developed no flesh to speak of. Its very frustrating when this happens as you have usually paid good money for it. In Far North Queensland, Aus, they sell them in the markets with their tops lopped off in front of you and and a straw stuck in to drink the water, then they chop them in half and give you the 'lid' to eat the flesh. With coconut water so in demand, all sorts of rubbish ends up in the shops in major cities (Melbourne) where you have no comeback for a dud.Nectar of the gods when fresh and full of flesh. A meal in a sitting.


Can you use coffee or tea instead of water in a sourdough starter? Can I use coffee or tea instead of water when making a sourdough starter?

Well no-one will shoot you if you do. But there are obvious downsides: yeast is killed at 55C to 60C, and slightly higher temperature will kill many lactic acid bacteria. So unless you cool the tea or coffee you'll simply kill the starter. Moreover caffeine has an inhibiting effect on yeast growth (see Figure 5), so your feeding regime will be less effective.

If you want to make tea or coffee flavoured bread, I would instead add instant espresso powder to the dough, or replace some of the water with (cold) strong tea. Given the article above, it might also be a good idea to use extra starter/yeast.


How do I prevent smoke problems indoors? I live in a small apartment, and the kitchen is tucked away in a corner without any outside ventilation (windows or stovetop exhaust). Every once in a while I'll be cooking and something will start to smoke (a different problem, I know!) and the smoke detector will go off. How do I eliminate or reduce the amount of ambient smoke? I don't have access to external ventilation.

As SAJ14SAJ said, the best solution is to simply not live in a place like that - it can be a bit dangerous.

But since you're there, about the only thing you can do is get a decent fan and use it to direct air out of the kitchen toward rooms with open windows. Depending on the layout (and the fans) you may need multiple fans, and might want one of them to be a box fan in the window helping push air out.

For things you think may be smoky, you might also consider cooking outside if possible, on a hot plate, a camping stove, or a small grill. (Or you could just not do them at all.)


How to make sweet potatoes disintegrate in stew I'm working on recreating a curry-like stew which is based on a thick sauce made out of disintegrated/dissolved sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Is it enough to just let the sweet potatoes cook to get them to disintegrate, or is there some other step to this that will make them "melt" into the sauce?

This depends a bit on the kind of result you are aiming for, generally speaking most people struggle to keep their sweet potatoes "in shape" and prevent disintegrating:

For a slightly textured result, cooking your peeled and cubed sweet potatoes long enough should suffice, just make sure you have enough liquid in your dish and stir every now and then to help them break them up a bit.
If you want smoother results, stir vigurously or use a potato masher and "stab" your stew a bit once everything is very soft - stop when you reach the desired "chunkyness"/"smoothness".
But for a totally creamy and homogenous sauce you will need a food mill, a food processor or - even simpler - an imersion blender.


Maintaining sizzler plate i purchased sizzler plate last month. I am using it once or twice in a week. However it is getting lots of rust on it. within 5 minutes of washing plate, it turns back to rust one. I am using lemon juice for a while and it does the trick.

But i am looking for some permanent solution for this.

Thanks for stopping by....!!!

It is actually quite simple. After you have cleaned it, simply coat it lightly with vegetable oil. You can rub it on with your fingertips or a paper towel.


What are ways to extract the juice from a pomegranate? Is there an efficient way to extract the juice from a fresh pomegranate?

Luckily you asked for an efficient way and not a clean way!

My brother in California has numerous mature pomegranate trees on his property and squeezes the majority of the fruit each year to use for jelly.  He uses a manual Hamilton Beach Orange juicer which he says does the best job of anything he's tried.  He usually has between 16-20 gallons of juice a year so he has definitely put it to the test.  His local restaurant supply wanted around $250 for one but he got his on ebay for $150.

To minimize the mess he does it on an old table outside and covers himself with a large garbage bag by cutting a hole in the bottom for his head and the sides for his arms.


homemade pizza - getting the dough crispy When I put my pizza in the hot oven, the top crust gets blackened, but the bottom crust doesn't really cook enough. I want the bottom crust, the part that is underneath the cheese and tomato sauce, I'd like that to cook well and the very bottom of the crust to be CRUSTY. It's always too limp for me and even a little raw, but if I keep it in the oven longer, the top gets black and is not good.

In general, getting a crispy bottom crust for home made pizza with typical home ovens can be very, very challenging, as home ovens do not generally get much hotter than 500-550 F (260-285 C).

In side the home oven, you have several options to improve your crust:

Use a pizza stone
Use a "pizza steel", essentially a slab of food grade steel used much the same way a pizza stone is used.  Kenji alt of Serious Eats rates this very highly.

In either case, you pre-heat your oven to its maximum temperature with the stone or steel in it, and then slide the pizza (from a peel) onto the preheated surface.  The absorbed heat in the stone or steel helps cook and crisp your bottom crust.

See also:  How to cook a thin crispy pizza on a pizza stone

If you have a grill, you can also make grilled pizza outside.

Taking it even further, you can buy accessories for some grills that turn them into improvised pizza ovens.

Lastly, there are other styles of pizza where you allow the crust to essentially fry in olive oil in the bottom of the pan, to crisp up.  This is a very different pizza experience, but can be hugely enjoyable.


Can I mix a lot of different smoking woods together? Due to planting some trees in an unfortunate location, I lost them due to root-rot.

I have about eight small dead trees with trunks about 3/4" thick, and am wanting to cut them up for smoking woodchips for grilling. Since each tree doesn't have much wood - maybe three to five pounds each - and since I'm just a very casual grill cook not an enthusiast, I was hoping I could just mix all the chips together in one bag.

The trees are: two cherries, an almond, something that might be pecan, another that is possibly a plum, and a nectarine.

If you had a bag of "assorted" wood chips like those above all mixed together, would it taste terrible to smoke with, for a casual cook who just grills chicken, porkchops, and hamburgers?

I also have a copious amount of mulberry, but I was leaving that seperate since it's of a significant quantity. I wouldn't mind mixing in some to the assorted bag if advised to, though.

Yes, you may mix different species of wood together for smoking. If the combination tastes unbalanced or muddled to you, just pretend the wood chips are from a rare Amazonian hardwood species, and it will suddenly taste amazing, even to the fussiest of "experts". Better to obsess about the quality of the meat itself, or maybe even the characteristics of the wine.

P.S. sorry about your trees, that must have hurt.


Fixing a beef broth with too much celery seed I cooked a large crock pot of beef bone broth. I didn't have any veggies so I used garlic salt, onion powder, celery seed and bay leaves with my beef bones and about 4 quarts of water.  I didn't measure anything, just poured spices in.

It has been simmering now for 18+ hours. I decided to taste and it is very bitter from all the celery seed. Now what can I do to try and fix the taste from all,the celery seed? I really hate for the broth to go to waste.

Bitterness is generally corrected with a combination of salt, sweetness and/or fats.

You mention that don't have any veg at the moment -- perhaps put the stock aside or freeze until you can pick some up. Some sweet veg like parsnip and carrots could probably rescue this stock for you. Sweet herbs like basil or spices like cloves might also work, depending on what you like.

References for flavor balancing:
 - http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/nov/19/balance-flavours-salt-sweet-bitter-sour-umami
 - http://lifehacker.com/learn-to-make-any-dish-you-cook-better-with-the-science-1477864259
 - http://academiewines.com/blog/2010/05/14/strategies-for-fixing-your-dish/

A herb and spice reference that might give you some ideas:
 - http://www.thekitchn.com/quick-guide-to-every-herb-and-spice-in-the-cupboard-108770


Does store bought barbecue sauce need to be heated/cooked before consumption? I have been thinking about buying barbecue sauce to use as a condiment (to use as a dipping sauce). A local store has many different brands, such as Jack Daniels and others.

Is it safe to consume this sort of pre-made barbecue sauces uncooked (similar to e.g. ketchup or mustard)?

(None of the bottles say that the sauce needs to be heated up before consumption but I thought that I better ask here.)

These products are generally made to be shelf stable and do not require heating.  Once opened, you should keep in the refrigerator.


What pros and cons two-sided grill has if compare to pan? There two-sided (both sided heating up) electric grills with non-stick surface. I understand cooking gonna be a little more expensive because electricity instead of gas, but what else except that?

The double-sided grills are pretty much a one-trick pony. Add food in the middle, close, wait, remove food again. Admittedly you can subject various foods to the treatment, but in the end, you get similar results, hot food with sear marks.

As soon as you want something slightly different, you are outside the thingy’s capacity. Just a few things you can do with a pan, but not with a panini / contact grill:

Stir-fry (meat or veggies quickly tossed around to flash-cook)
Deglazing (to use the searing residue in sauces)
Braising (adding liquid to finish cooking your dish in wet heat)
Frying/scrambling an egg (maybe possible if you can lay the grill flat and it has flat plates)
Cooking foods with different thicknesses and cooking times.
...

You probably get the idea. Now, I am not saying that a grill like the one in your question is useless. But remember that it’s the way more specialized tool in comparison to something as basic and versatile as a regular pan. If you are going to serve steak or grilled sandwiches on a very regular basis and if you don’t mind the cleanup (one word: grooves...), it may be an interesting investment. But I would guess that most cooks will rather reach for their trusty pan.


Why did my French onion soup with 'red' onions come out tasteless and bland? I usually make the French onion soup with white onions. The prodecure I normally use is as followed:

I slowly caramelize them on a low heat for around 40min.
Then I add some sugar, salt and oil before finally adding broth.
I let this come to a boil.

I followed the same procedure with the red onions expecting something sweeter, but the end result was a tasteless soup. Since all the ingredients and steps were the same except for the red onion, why did my French onion soup come out tasteless and bland?

Typically you should use yellow onions for cooking. They have a higher sulphur content and are more flavorful after cooking. Raw, a red onion will taste more pungent. However, once cooked it is more mild and sweet than a soup would require. Red, as well as other sweeter onions, have more sugar and water than their yellow counterparts. For more details on the profile, seriouseats has good primur.

If you wish to improve your results, you might slice more thinly and add  some salt in advance of sweating (rather than before adding broth) to draw out the excess moisture, as the onion's moisture (more prevalent with red onions) will inhibit browning, ergo inhibiting caramelization and the maillard reaction that break the bigger sugars into little ones and lend flavor through browning. The explanation at norecipes also adds that deglazing with sherry can slow down the process if you are experiencing uneven browning. Another possible tactic would be adding a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per pound chopped onion; this will speed up browning.

Ultimately, unless the recipe calls for red onions, you are going to get better results with yellow onions in terms of raw, "sweet and tangy" onion-y flavor. You can use the tips above to try to overcome that, but a nice big bag of yellow onions are going to do you better in the long run, and if you put the same effort into the it will take less time, taste better and be less expensive.


How to thicken buttercream without adding more sugar I made some buttercream frosting for brownies using this recipe.  Because The frosting is going on brownies, it needs to be thicker than what it would be on something like a cupcake.  We typically frost the entire pan of brownies and then cut the brownies into bite sized squares.

But this recipe comes out thinner than I would like for the brownies.  Our usual recipe calls for twice the amount of sugar, but that makes it really sweet.  With this recipe, the sweetness is overpowering.

Is there anything else that I can use to thicken the frosting without making it overly sweet?

It looks like a couple of similar recipes in your link there, but you could make it a teensy bit thicker without increasing the sweetness by 1) diminishing slightly the amount of liqueur, or 2) adding a little bit of unsweetened cocoa powder [but of course it will then become brown and chocolatey], or 3) adding a little more cornstarch [since confectioners sugar does contain cornstarch anyway]... or some combination of above.  Go easy at first of course.


Flavored Vegetable Cooking Oil Can I flavor cooking oil with black pepper?  I had French fries from a restaurant that tasted like they black pepper.  Delicious.  I asked the person serving them if they used a flavored oil, but he had no clue.

Whenever I make fries, I tend to leave them in water for anywhere between 120 to 160 minutes as it tends to leave them crispier.

This presents a perfect opportunity to "marinate" the fries. Oftentimes, I'll add rosemary or garlic, however I would imagine adding finely ground white pepper would have the same effect.

To fry, simply drain the fries in a colander, and lay them out on a dry (and clean) towel or paper towel for 5 minutes to allow excess water to drain. Heat lard to 330F - 340F until slightly tinged golden. Remove and let cool. Then, heat the lard up to 365F - 375F and fry the cooled fries again until golden. Remove, drain excess oil (on paper towel or dry colander), salt then serve.


When is it best to do stretch and fold versus mechanical kneading? I have recently starting making bread using the stretch and fold technique, getting much better results in terms of crumb than previously using my kitchen aid and mechanical kneading. I'm wondering what doughs/products this technique is NOT well suited to. Of particular interest are things like bagels, boiled fruit dumplings, hamburger buns and doughs rich in eggs and fat in general.

Are there particular types of products that benefit from SaF and some that inherently do not? I already suppose one indicator for SaF suitability would be high hydration and desirability of larger holes in the crumb.

I can think of one case where yeast doughs shouldn't suffer from mechanical mixing:

If you're going to be rolling out the dough (eg, for filling & making dumpling-like products, or rolling balls for monkey bread), you'd normally end up compressing the air bubbles when rolling it.  Mechanical mixing has the same problem, so the difference between hand-kneaded and mechanical-kneaded shouldn't be noticeable.

I also tend to use a mixer on doughs that have so high of a hydration that they're more batter-like ... but I'm starting to question that practice after your question.  (they're not that hard to stir with a wooden spoon ... it just takes a little time).

Most of the breads that I make in my mixer are enriched breads (lots of butter or milk), and have small bubbles. (what rumtscho refers to as 'cakelike crumb').

I also use a mixer on breads that take so long to knead that I wouldn't make them without a mixer -- it might result in an inferior loaf, but it's either a fresh slightly sub-par loaf, store-bought (which is likely also machine mixed), or no bread at all.  You can work some larger air bubbles back into the mix by not punching it down (or doing it gently), but using a more gentle stretch and fold before shaping and the final proofing.