Questions about battering and frying chicken I like to fry up chicken occasionally and I've used a few different methods over the years.  Typically my recipe is something like:

Place milk or egg in one dish
Place a flour mixture in another
Drag chicken through liquid, then through flour, then fry up.

It usually turns out pretty well, but I was hoping to get some clarification on what some variations on this recipe do - so:

Some recipes call for dipping the chicken in egg before coating with flour while others call for milk (or butter milk).

What is the difference between these two?
Can I mix the two together and use that - if so, how would it be different than using just one?
Does it matter if I soak in the liquid for hours or do i just need to get it wet so the flour will stick?

I've seen some recipes that call for dipping in egg and flour twice.  I'm assuming this just makes the skin crustier?

If I want an even thicker crust could I go even more than twice or will the batter just start falling off while frying if there is too much on there?

It can be sort of a time consuming process and I've wondered about doing some of the prep work the night before I cook.

Is it possible to egg wash and dredge in flour and then store overnight?
If so, does this affect how the chicken fries up?
If so, what is the proper technique?  I'm concerned that if I had a bunch of battered chicken breasts that were stacked on top of each other the batter might peel off when I tried to separate them the next day.

I realize that I could probably figure this out through trial and error, but was hoping to figure it out without wasting any food.  Thanks for any help!

Some recipes call for dipping the chicken in egg before coating with flour while others call for milk (or butter milk).

Egg provides a lot more protein and will produce a thicker, more stable crust. Milk is obviously much thinner, contains much more water, and won't cling to the meat as much. Buttermilk is a cultured product that's thicker than plain regular milk (more like a thin yogurt) and clings more heavily to the meat than plain milk.

You should also consider other options for breading. Seasoned flour is fine if that's what you want, but various other ingredients are often used. Because wet ingredients like milk or egg don't stick well to moist meat directly, the meat is often dredged in flour first, then dunked in milk or egg, and then dredged in seasoned breadcrumbs, panko, cornmeal, crushed corn flakes, or other dry crunchy ingredients. The combination of flour and milk or egg creates a sticky layer that helps bind the breading to the meat.

  I've seen some recipes that call for dipping in egg and flour twice. I'm assuming this just makes the skin crustier?

Again, the order would be: flour, egg, flour. The first layer of flour helps the egg stick to the meat, and the second layer of flour creates the crust.

Harold McGee explains that the crust provides a bit of insulation that protects the meat from the high heat of the oil in which it's fried. Considering that, you can build up a thicker crust if you want to, but a thicker crust provide more insulation, and you might risk having the crust become too dark before the meat is sufficiently cooked.

Note that meat is sometimes floured even without milk or egg, especially for stewing or quick sautéing. In those cases the flour browns a bit in the fat and adds flavor, and some end up in the pan where it can be used to help make a pan sauce.

  It can be sort of a time consuming process and I've wondered about doing some of the prep work the night before I cook.

If you're cooking at home, you probably don't have capacity to deep fry more than a few pieces of chicken at any one time -- you don't want to overload the fryer because you don't want the oil temperature to drop too much. Frying is all about managing the oil temperature. What people usually do is to start breading the chicken pieces as the oil is heating up. Then you (gently!) drop a few pieces into the oil to cook, and continue breading while each batch cooks. With a little practice, you'll be done breading the parts well before you're ready to cook the last batch.

I've breaded meat ahead of time without trouble, and it seems to work well especially for thin cuts like pork or chicken cutlets. I'm not sure I'd do it a full day ahead though. The risk is mainly that the flour can become fully hydrated and may not stick to the meat as well, and then the breading may separate from the meat. If the meat releases enough liquid (remember, seasoned flour and breadcrumbs usually contain salt) the coating could be fall off before you even get it into the fryer.

If you need to stack pieces after they've been breaded for any length of time you should place a sheets of waxed paper between layers to keep them from sticking to each other.

  I realize that I could probably figure this out through trial and error, but was hoping to figure it out without wasting any food.

You don't have to do all your trials in one go -- try different recipes on different nights and make notes about the results you get each time. There's certainly no need to waste the food.


Are fresh, raw cashews different from store-bought? I have a pen pal in Brazil (is it still a pen pal if we e-mail? anyway...) and knowing that I like nuts sent me some cashews.  Apparently there is a cashew farm near enough to her that she went right to the source and procured me some raw nuts.  I've eaten a few handfuls; the taste is a little more sharp than I'm used to, but in a good way, I have however had some serious discomfort after eating them. I'm not allergic to nuts in general or cashews specifically so I thought I would ask about it before ingesting any more.  Anybody have any ideas or thoughts?

Nuts can go rancid. I've also had stale nuts, pecans or peanuts that were exposed to too much humidity. This adversely affects the texture. They need to be fresher than that.

Cashews, however, are in a slightly different boat. See Anacardium occidentale L.

Cashews have a toxin in their shells that resembles poison ivy. When harvested, cashews are roasted in their shells to reduce the toxin and make the shells brittle and easy to remove.

If these cashews were harvested by an amateur this process might have not been done correctly and you may be reacting to the toxin.


Does anyone know the name of the knife this ice cream seller is using? Here is an example of the knife being used.
ASMR - Energy Ice Cream Rolls Oreo | How To Make An Energy Drink Out Of Ice Cream || Chinese Food

Notice it is similar but like a cleaver. I have also been trying to find the name of this, but the closest I found was a Japanese menkiri.
Hope someone can answer this.
PS: it is similar to the knife that was used by BanBan from one piece anime, which was asked by another user.
What kind of cooking knife is this?
Updates:
I just found a clearer view of the knife at 3:58 in the video in the youtube link. Basically, it is like a cleaver, without the handle jutting out, but part of the blade it self.

It should look something like this:
I tried to use google image search, using this image, to find but no luck.

PS: The photo above is photoshop of what I think the cleaver looks like.

I also believe the style of knife you're looking for is called an "ulu" though the OP pix look to be a ulu cleaver.
Here is an ulu more similar to the OP pix: https://www.kitchenknivesonline.com/products/12-ulu-chef-knife-walnut


When should I use convection when baking? I think I understand what convection does, and (some) of the benefits, such as eliminating hot/cold spots, and being more efficient overall.  Does this mean that I should always take advantage of it?  If not, which circumstances are better for convection, and which are better for regular bake/broil?

Anytime you're in a rush, the convection oven's a big help.

Wikipedia had this to say:

  By moving fast hot air past the food,
  convection ovens can operate at a
  lower temperature than a standard
  conventional oven and yet cook food
  more quickly. The air circulation, or
  convection, tends to eliminate "hot
  spots" and thus food may bake more
  evenly.

  A convection oven will have a
  reduction in cooking temperature,
  compared to a conventional oven. This
  comparison will vary, depending on
  factors including, for example, how
  much food is being cooked at once or
  if airflow is being restricted by
  using an over sized baking
  tray.[citation needed] This difference
  in cooking temperature is offset by
  the fact that circulating air
  transfers heat more quickly than still
  air of the same temperature; in order
  to transfer the same amount of heat in
  the same time, then, one must lower
  the temperature to reduce the rate of
  heat transfer to compensate.

I sometimes feel like it dries things out a little more than a traditional oven, but that may just be a function of it being easier to overcook things due to the speed.


Skin oranges 24-h in advance? I want to squeeze oranges quickly using the screw-type motorized juicers (e.g. Hurom). It would be good if I can have them pre-supremed and ready to be put in the juicer.

Will removing the rind of the oranges the night before maintain at least the flavor?

No!! Not a good idea. The moment rand is removed. Oxidation starts to place. This will add more bitter to the fruit and when you rush the oranges into the machine. Your juice is definitely having that oxidized bitterness. Thumb rule, the moment you extract the juice it is ready to server or if not served immediately then you are betting on bitter taste.


How to remove every insect from romaine lettuce? How do I get rid of tiny insects on my lettuce, I know that there will always be insects on it but I'm so paranoid about it. I have a huge fear and I love lettuce so much. I get rid of most insects by first removing each leaf, soaking the lettuce in a vinegar water mix for 10 minutes or so, and running each individual lettuce leaf through water.
Usually this works, but I always get these little insects that don't seem to get off, I literally see them holding on to dear life when I run water through them.
I posted a pictures here too

Is there a way to get rid of these little insects? Also, what are they?

Meet the common aphid. These little insects suck sap from your salad and are totally harmless, should the occasional hitchhiker slip your attention.
To remove them, there are a few home remedies:

Soak the leaves in salted water (a tablespoon for a large bowl should do).
Or use a few dashes of vinegar instead.

Both soaking methods can be improved by gently agitating the leaves every now and then and if you use a bowl and let it overflow instead of dumping the lettuce in your kitchen sink, the aphids that float on the surface get carried away instead of reattaching themselves when you lift out the leaves.
Except for really heavy infestations (can happen to the most diligent the organic gardeners), I often simply rinse the little critters off the individual leaves under running water.  Think of your faucet as a “mini pressure washer”: Don’t hold the leaves right under the faucet, but lower and let gravity help you. Then even a little water is surprisingly effective. In my experience lukewarm water works better than cold water, but I can only speculate why. Maybe because cold water makes the aphids “stiff” and they can’t let go? The most stubborn ones come off with a gentle nudge with your finger, fingernail or (if you are especially squeamish) a knife tip.


Freezing fresh water fish Should fresh water fish (like crappie or bream) be frozen in a salt brine?

I grew up fishing and preserving the fish. We would only freeze and brine if we intended to smoke it later, we would would then re-brine it after it thawed (great way to make Northern Pike Jerky btw).

For smaller species like crappie, yellow perch and bream I wouldn't bother, as they freeze fast enough and consistent enough on their own. Key things to look out for would be ensure it's sealed tight, frozen flat (for easy storage and thawing), and descaled (if it's your preference) for some reason I am not sure why but descaling a previously frozen fish isn't terribly effective.

Good luck and tight lines.


How can i bake multiple kinds of cheesecake at the same time in a spring-form pan? I'm new to baking , so i was wondering how can i bake different kinds of cheesecakes in a spring-form pan at the same time?
Example:
i want to make NY cheesecakes with three different flavors in the same pan , say one is chocolate cheesecake , one is strawberry flavored and one is peanut flavored , how should i divide the pan into three different sections so the flavors don't mix?
(I want to bake them together in the same spring-form pan)

Before you start separating your pie, you need to be sure that your fillings all need the same baking time and temperature. If they are from the same basic recipe and just have some extra flavors, you should be ok, if they are smaller amounts of different recipes, check the instructions carefully or ideally, make them as full pies once and note the actual parameters - random recipes from the Internet can be quite different, not all bloggers use an oven thermometer etc.

But assuming that this is taken care of, you simply need something that has the right length (radius of your pie tin), is food safe, heat proof, and water resistant. For similar problems I have used:

Aluminum strips (fold a few times to get some stability)
Cardboard strips wrapped tightly in aluminum foil or baking parchment.
A pie divider (a special gadget that goes into a regular pan, separating it, similar to this pie pan, comes also in square).
Glass cut to match the shape of the tin - although that was a loaf tin.

Once you have the tool of your choice, the real challenge is to keep them upright during filling and getting the tin into the oven. A kitchen helper is highly recommended.


Why do the bottoms of my cookies look like cakes? What could possibly have gone wrong? I used only 1 egg yolk with no baking soda and Melted butter:

And this is what I got after beating sugar+melted butter+yolk:

After adding dry ingredients:

And here's what it looks like in the oven:

In which step do you think I could have done something wrong? I have no idea really.

These cookies look all right, there is no need to change anything in your technique to correct the looks.

If there is a problem with the texture, then this is a different question (which, as far as I can remember, we already helped you with in another thread). But the only viable answer to this question as stated is: no need to change anything here.


Can I preserve the shelf-life of a cannoli? I plan on purchasing some cannolis from a local bakery and will bring on a trip with me to some friends. Since my trip will span a few days, I want to try to preserve the cannolis until I can deliver them to my friends.

The one time I have tried this before (a half day's worth of driving), I placed the cannolis in an icebox to prevent the cream from spoiling but results in a slightly soggy and moist shell.

Is there a way to prevent the cream from spoiling but also keeping the shell hard and crunchy? The bakery I am getting the cannolis from makes them in-house daily (since it's a very popular local spot).

I think you've proved already there's only one way to do this - buy the shells "unloaded" and fill them when you get there.

Assuming the bakery people are nice, ask them to put the filling in an icing bag and refrigerate that until you arrive. Put the shells separately in a cake tin, load the shells when you get to your destination.

I'm sure that everyone concerned will understand why you want to do this...


What is the difference between pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce? Pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce are both tomato-based, have roughly the same seasoning (Italian) and look a like. However, I (and a friendly user here) think there is a difference between the two. So what is it? Or isn't there one and you can interchange the two without a weird feeling or taste?

Red pizza sauce is often (but not always) two things:

Thicker.  Thinner sauce will tend to run in the oven and also steam the pizza crust as it cooks - if loaded with toppings, otherwise thin is fine.  Depending on the crust, the heat of the oven, the toppings above sauce, and how watery it is, this may not be needed.  If you've just got some crushed tomatoes and a few bits of cheese in a super hot oven - the sauce should be fine without reducing beforehand.  If you've loaded up a bucket of sauce and a pound of cheese, precook and reduce the sauce.
It's often simpler.  Many pasta dishes like spaghetti highlight the sauce and hours of simmering happen for the sauce to bring it to perfection.  They're all about the sauce.  Pizza is really about the crust and what highlights it.  Many of the best pizzas are simply topped.  Crushed san marzano tomatoes (sometimes) reduced with a hint of salt is often all I do, and franky, it's enough. I'm not talking about the jarred varieties here, but what you might cook at home.  Jars in the store, the main difference is just how thick it is.


Refrigerated sugar cookie dough If my sugar cookie dough has been in the fridge for a few days how long should it sit out before I attempt to roll it out?

Assuming your sugar cookie dough is roughly like the one I make for cutting out cookies the be ideal and decorated: not very long.

A few minutes at room temperature should make it malleable enough to roll out this enough for cutting, and the process of working the dough with a rolling pin will warm it a bit more. The warmer the dough, the easier it is for the shapes to deform when moving to a baking sheet -- so you don't want to let it warm too much before you start to work with it.


transfer pizza onto stone without sticking After I have made my pizza and put the toppings onto it, I find that I am unable to transfer the pizza on to the pizza stone in the oven.

When I try to do it the pizza goes out of shape, gets folded, the toppings get messed up and sometimes it sticks or rips. I have tried putting lots of flour under the pizza before I add the toppings but it didn't really help.

I am having to make the pizza on a metal tray and then put the tray onto the stone. Put I think that doing this prevents my pizza base from crisping properly.

What am I doing wrong? Is there some technique I should use, or am making the dough to wet, or to thin or something?

I've worked as a pizza cook, so I can give you a hard-earned answer. Cornmeal, and plenty of it. If you aren't putting cornmeal (or flour, but cornmeal works better) on the peel before you put the pizza on it, start. If you are putting it on, use more. Then put the pizza on it and give it a shake and make sure the pizza is loose before you try to shove it in the oven. If it isn't, lift up the edge that is stuck and sprinkle more cornmeal under it, then try again. The pizza should be completely free-moving on the peel before you try to transfer it to the oven.


Baked Potatoes Cooked Over a Fire This weekend, my wife and went camping. I tried to impress her with a surprise meal (much more than the usual smokies or hotdogs roasted on a stick). I went for steak, potatoes, mushrooms, salad and a corn on the cob. Everything turned out great --- except for the potatoes.

ISSUE

Potatoes were only cooked after 4 hours in the coals.

TECHNIQUE

Got the fire food and hot (at least 350F, used an infrared thermometer to check). I put the potatoes (Yellow, baking potatoes if it matters) in the hot coals. I have made them like this before, and it typically took 2 hours. And I rotated them periodically (so as to not let the foil burn from prolonged contact). As I mentioned above, I've made potatoes like this before...but never had them take so long to cook.

By the way the rest of the food turned out just fine (actually better than fine, it was the best back country camping meal I had ever made). We ended up using the potatoes for hashbrowns the next morning because we didn't want to wait for them to finish before making/eating the rest of the dishes.

QUESTION

Given the above technique, why did my potatoes not cook like they should.

Two likely possibilities:

The potatoes had too much foil surface exposed and not enough in contact with hot coals, and as a result were just not getting hot enough.  Maybe it was a colder night (were you hiking at altitude?) maybe the coals had a lot of insulating ash, maybe the coals were already too cool (350F is not particularly hot for coals).   This is why burying the potatoes in the coals is more common.
The potatoes you bought were defectively dense.  Apparently potatoes can have a growing problem where the core of the potato is extra-dense due to weather changes, and that core takes forever to cook through.


Amount of food to prepare for bagel & lox brunch I'm putting on a bagel & lunch brunch this weekend for 40 people.

I figure 2 bagels per person. How much lox should I need? How much cream cheese?

@bikeboy389 was the closest!

I ended up ordering way too much food. When all was said and done, for 40 people, here's what people ate:

About 1 bagel each

Seems low, huh? Some people had already eaten, I guess.
About 2 ounces of lox each

There is a metric ton of leftover lox in my fridge. And Taco even snatched a couple of ounces off of somebody's bagel.

Picture of Taco:

Three big tubs of cream cheese
Three tomatoes and one red onion, sliced
4 lemons, sliced
2 gallons orange juice
1.5 gallons Apple Juice
6 bottles San Pellegrino
About 30 small (6-oz) cups of coffee
About a pint of tuna salad
Negligible amount of peanut butter
Assorted fruit and cheese platter
Three pies (one blueberry, one cherry, one pumpkin).


Why is rock sugar used in Chinese cooking? Why do some Chinese dishes, namely braises and soups often call for rock sugar instead of regular sugar. Does rock sugar have any properties that would make it behave differently than regular granulated sugar?

while all of the above answers are correct, I want to provide a perspective as a native Chinese. Rock sugar is better used (than granulated sugar) when you try to make dishes involving coloring the ingredient (by caramelization, dishes like braised pork belly (Hong Shao Rou need this step) mostly because of the shape difference. Rock sugar has less surface area touching the oil while granulated sugar immerses itself in, which makes it react faster, and more likely to get burnt.


Baking a pie in air grill / electrical convection oven? I got a following device, apparently not too common one. :) Marketed here as air grill, but also named electrical convection oven.

It took me a bit of trial and error to learn to cook meat in it (it dries out / overcooks at times meant for normal oven). Once I got that nailed I decided to try baking and results had been total meh. And instruction is of very meh quality and self-contradicting.

Recipe

Very simple apple pie, popular around here. 4 eggs, glass of sugar, glass of flour, sliced apple. Mix with mixer, pour on apple slices in metal form.

Attempt 1

30 min at 170C, following "pie with a crust" estimate from instruction.

Was firm on top, but completely liquid inside. Tried to keep more time at 170C, wasn't really doing it, cranked up to 210C and after like hour total of torturing got it more or less baked inside and burnt on top. Obviously with meh result.

Attempt 2

Cover with foil, 15 min at 210C, then 25 min at 180C, following "if you have trouble baking liquid dough through" in instructions.

Seemed a little more even inside, but still very raw, including on top. Kept for another 20 min at 180C for top to firm up and inside more or less baked. Also very meh.

Course of action for third attempt?

Any recommendations on time/temperature I should try?

Or should I just give up on baking in it? Marketing here tends to greatly overestimate what device is good for (on paper everything sold is miracle device, replacing rest of the kitchen).

I use a similar device. It was an unused wedding gift that I finally pulled out when my oven door hinge broke...

It does have a tendency to overcook the top before the rest is done. It also seems to cook quite unevenly. The way I get around the uneveness is to rotate the top as it's cooking.

I've baked a few times in it (bread loaves, scones, muffins and quick breads) and haven't really had any disasters but you do need to keep an eye on it.

What you want is to put the item being baked as far away from the element as possible. I always try to cook on the bottom shelf which is fine for things like scones and muffins but bread / quick breads still reach a little high up.

My suggestion is to get an extender ring which pushes up the lid somewhat giving you a greater distance between the heating element and the food, hopefully leading to a more even cook.

I haven't actually tried the extender ring because my version didn't come with one and I haven't had much luck finding one in Australia for a reasonable price.


What is the best substitute for eggs when baking cookies? I do a lot of vegan baking and I was wondering what the best substitute is for eggs in cookies? Lately I have been using aquafaba and extra baking soda, but maybe using that is just as effective as using water?

I don't know much about the science of baking, but I would really like to learn it as I find it very interesting. Maybe if I know more about it I will find substitutions easier.

I've read many places that applesauce and carbonated water are good substitutes too; is that true?

If I were to replace the eggs in the following recipe, what substitution would be best?

Ingredients
3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups (247 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (340 grams) semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
If time permits, wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. This allows the dough to “marinate” and makes the cookies thicker, chewier, and more flavorful. Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.
Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

There is no substitute when it comes to cookies. Aquafaba is an egg white substitute that can be whipped into peaks, but it would make cookies too runny without any benefit. Vegan cookie recipes make up for the lack of eggs with a bit of extra margarine or coconut oil and maybe a spoon or two of milk substitute. Rather than trying to adapt a recipe I would suggest looking for a vegan cookie recipe and using the proportions from that.


Why do you warm a Dutch oven up before baking bread? I want to attempt to make bread in my Dutch oven. Most of the recipes that I have found say to warm your Dutch oven up before putting the dough in. I have found a few recipes that say you don't have to warm it up first. Why should you warm it up first, and will it make a big difference in the bread? And what breads are best for baking in a Dutch oven?

The point is you are actually using the dutch oven as the oven itself here--so you warm the dutch oven for the same reason that you would pre-heat your conventional oven: you want the bread to immediately go into the hot oven, instead of slowly raising the temperature.

With a hot dutch oven, you get the "oven spring" that you would get from putting the loaf into a hot oven, and the dutch oven traps the steam that the bread gives off, so it helps keep the crust soft while the bread expands.  This is a great way to bake bread at home in ovens that don't have steam injection.


What happens when you add warm water to yeast? I understand that the yeast activates, but why does this happen? Is the water simply absorbed into the yeast?

I presume you're talking about active dried yeast.  In that case, the granules of packaged yeast have some nutritive content to them, so what you observe when you add warm water is a weak form of priming.  Priming is the addition of both warm water and a food source, typically sugar or flour, to dried yeast with the goal of 'waking-up' the yeast from their dormant, packaged state.  The warm water dissolves some of the food in the granules and warms the yeast up to a temperature which is favourable to fermentation.


Name of a cheese they prepare in Switzerland When I was in Switzerland, the cooks prepared a special Swiss type of cheese and I've been wondering how this was called. It looks a bit like doner kebab(in the sense it is on a stick and they used some flame on it) and it smells a lot. Just in case this helps - this was in Zurich(the meal may be local for there).

Can anyone help me in pointing the name of that cheese(or maybe the meal name)?

If I ignore the "on a spit" part I immediately think of Raclette, which is melted, roasted cheese served typically with bread or boiled potato.

In household settings the cheese is often heated in small individual pans under a table-top broiler, each guest gets his or her own pan and prepares his food.
Traditionally (and in larger settings) halved wheels of cheese are turned with the cut side towards a heat source and servings of molten cheese scratched off. The heating can be done either at a fireplace (embers) or on a special "machine" consisting of a heat source and a (often movable) tray for the cheese(s). The melting and serving is done by one cook for all participants. In Switzerland, but also sometimes in neighbourung countries, traditional Raclette is sold on food fairs, festivals and markets.


What made my pancakes taste fizzy? I made pancakes a couple times recently, and they had a strange reaction to some frozen raspberries we had. When we put the raspberries onto the pancakes, they had a strange fizzy and sour taste. We could still taste the sweetness of the pancake and toppings as well, but this fizz kept coming back. It was erratic, but probably due to not being evenly mixed.

The raspberries ingredient list just say that they're 100% raspberries. There were also blueberries from the same brand that didn't at all have this effect.

The pancakes contained:

Flour
Baking soda
Salt
Sugar
Vanilla sugar
Oil
Soy milk

We used two different recipes but it happened both times. The second time we purposefully chose a recipe with less baking soda in case that mattered but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Also I live in Ireland if the locality affects how the frozen berries might be stored.

I am willing to bet the high acidity of the berries reacted with the baking powder component of the pancakes.

Pancakes are just barely cooked batter and the carbonates are still pretty active, which is what makes good swiftly fried pancakes fluffy while pancakes cooked on too low a heat become rubbery and floppy.

It's also why if you replace fresh milk with fresh butter milk  (not buttermilk pancake mixes), it makes fabulous fluffy and tastier pancakes.

I am willing to bet your pancakes are pretty darn good aren't they?


Chocolate bars - Actual shelflife vs expiration date The owner of a local chocolate store made me an offer I actually can't refuse: For a price that's really a bargain, I get one bar of every bar chocolate he as on stock - that would be about 40 bars.

I know how to store chocolate for baking (mostly Callebaut callets) and from my own experience I can tell that when stored in an airtight container in a dry, dark and cool place away from things with a strong smell (e.g. coffee) most chocolate can be used even after expiration date (only for private use of course).

But what about chocolate bars - is it the same?

I don't care about blooming, I just don't want the the chocolate goes bad before I can try them.

If we're referring to plain chocolate bars, I say go for it.  Plain chocolate (unsweetened, milk, or dark) lasts, if unopened, for years.  The most that will happen is that the outside turns whitish in color, but this does not affect taste or quality.  If there is any sort of filling, though, I, personally, would not eat it more than a month or two past the expiration date.


Can I add seasoning to the beurre manie? I want to thicken my curry but I also want it to have a lot of gravy/liquid - yet flavoured, not watered.

I'm going to make some beurre manie. Can I add curry to the mixture and then add it to the pan?

Maybe even cook some garlic and ginger in oil, then add curry, then buttter and flour. Is that ok? :P

Using roux - flavoured with curry powder and aromatics - is a well known, often used technique for japanese and chinese style curries. Your mileage may vary with beurre manie (known to be finicky), if results are not satisfactory try cooking the powder/aromatics in oil/butter and only then adding flour and whisking (classic roux technique).

Mind that indian and thai style curries use combinations of nut and seed pastes, coconut milk, yoghurt, cream, or just plain rich onion sauces/tomato stews to achieve thickness, sometimes helping things along with small amounts of cornstarch slurry - but rarely ever with roux and related techniques.


I want to make normal sandwich bread. What's the yeast called in an Italian supermarket? I'm going crazy because Lievito Madre won't raise (half whole grain / half white wheat 00) my dough. Which yeast should I buy in Italy to finish with normal sandwich bread?

Apparently you're a foreigner living in Italy¹ and what you got was sour dough but if you want something that you're used to already you should get:

"Lievito di birra2 secco" if you want dry yeast
"Lievito di birra" if you want the real stuff that you have to keep in the fridge.

Note¹: If you fill in a bit more about yourself in your user profile, we'll have to assume less.
Note²: Yes,  "Beer yeast"...  don't worry: It's a cultural thing...


Is there an authoritative source on whether salt affects pasta stickiness? The Seasoned Advice answer to Why add salt to the water when cooking pasta? is that it makes the pasta less sticky by inhibiting starch gelation. This seems to be a controversial question, with lots of improperly sourced answers spreading.

Is there an authoritative source, such as published experiments, chemical treatises or work by famous cooks, that gives a final verdict on whether adding salt really does affect the starch gelation, thus making the pasta less sticky?

(I was thinking about posting this on skeptics.SE, but I think this is where the expertise is.)

Starch is extensively well-researched in food science, so the short answer is yes, there is an authoritative source; there are a myriad of authoritative sources.
The caveat (there's always a caveat) is that food scientists are doing controlled experiments using far more sophisticated methods than pasta and a boiling pot, and they tend to be primarily interested in more theoretical questions than this, because there are an absurd number of variables at work in your own kitchen:

Type and quantity of pasta;
Purity and quantity of the water;
Type, purity, and quantity of salt;
Water temperature;
Cooking time;
And so on...

So, really, to a scientist, the question "does adding salt to pasta water reduce sticking?" is bordering on ridiculous.  The answer is, as the answer often is, it depends.
The following is taken from Starch: Chemistry and Technology, an academic tome that is all about - you guessed it - starch.

Effects of salts on gelatinization are more complex than those of nonionic solutes, as they are solute-specific and concentration-dependent. For most electrolytes, an increase in gelatinization temperature, Tm, is found at low salt concentrations.  At high salt concentrations, Tm decreases and can even drop below the initial value.
[...] In general, the effect of neutral salts on starch gelatinization follows the order of the classical Hofmeister (lyotropic) series, particularly in the case of anions. [...but] cations of different chloride salts exhibit a more complicated behavior as evidenced with polarizing microscopy.
(Source)

In plain English: Adding a little salt might reduce the gelation and thus sticking.  Adding a lot of salt might increase gelation and sticking.  The definition of "a little" and "a lot" depends on how much and what kinds of starch are in the pasta, what else might be in the pasta (some already have salt!), how dispersed the starch already is in the water, what kind of salt you're using... you get the idea.
Incidentally, here's the Hofmeister series that the above refers to:

(Source)
Table salt is sodium chloride - NaCl. You'll notice that Na+ is about halfway to the "salt out" side and Cl- is right smack in the middle.  So, even with my limited understanding of all the mechanics at work, it does stand to reason that the effects of having both would be unpredictable.  It's easier to predict the effects when you have something like calcium perchlorate, i.e. Ca(ClO4)2, where both the anions and cations are on the "salt in" side.  Obviously, those kinds of salts are not in your average home kitchen and I doubt that they're even used in commercial food plants.
...although there are other well-known culinary salts other than sodium chloride, including ammonium chloride AKA salmiac, the (in)famous "salty liquorice" salt.  That is technically still "salt".  Which salt you choose will of course have wildly different effects on chemical properties including starch interaction.
So hopefully this helps explain some of the wildly opposing anecdotal reports you've read.  There is no simple answer because your kitchen is not controlled conditions.  However, there is some truth to the statement that salt inhibits starch gelation.  It might have that effect, at the right concentration and with the right set of ingredients.


What is this Ceramic Container? What is this Ceramic Container?

I found this at a goodwill and have no clue what it is ??

Its a butter bell / butter keeper.  My parents have one.  You put water in the bottom, butter in the bell under the top/lid and that forms an airtight seal allowing you to keep the butter at room temperature.

Here's one for sale showing both parts clearly.

http://www.kitchenandcompany.com/Storage-And-Cleaning/Countertop-Organization/Butter-Dishes/_/Norpro-4-Butter-Keeper?tc=gfs13&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Norpro%204%22%20Butter%20Bell%20Butter%20Keeper&gclid=CM2C1ZSRmroCFSpk7Aodt3kAgw


Whipped cream without a mixer? Is it possible to make whipped cream without a power mixer? How? Can it be made with a stick blender?

Whipped cream was made for centuries before the mixer was invented. :)

You can do it with simply a balloon whisk. Things that may help though:

Very cold cream (not freezing)
Very cold bowl and whisk (put them in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to using)
Copper bowl

The process is simply to start slow until you see bubbles form, then speed up until you see the whisk begin to leave trails in the cream, then go full speed ahead until just before it starts to look soft and billowy. At this point you can add your sugar and continue whipping until thickens and firms up to form soft peaks.

Advice: Buy a hand-mixer at least! :)

Update - Yes you can whip it with a stick blender. I would be careful to avoid over- whipping with this method though. It might be easy to over-do it, and you'll start to make butter.


Bacon Buns: How to make them softer Recently I tried using this recipe to make bacon buns:

Bacon Buns Recipe - Lithuanian Lasineciai

The buns flavor turned out fantastic, however they were too hard and dry. How would you go about making these buns look more like the picture in the link? i.e., how would you get the bread to become very fluffy?

A few ideas I had in mind, and I could be wrong:

Add more bacon/fat?
Mix the dough longer/shorter?

I mixed mine long enough to combine ingredients, however the dough was very wet and was barely workable after the second time the dough was mixed after rising.

Also as a general rule of thumb, before putting dough in the oven, is it safe to assume that hard dough will create hard buns and soft dough will create soft fluffy buns, or is there a different way to measure/assume this?

I tend to agree with SAJ14SAJ here. Enriched doughs such as this quickly overcook. The size of your buns, which unfortunately are not in the recipe, will vary your cooking time greatly. Try a higher temp oven for a shorter period of time or try larger rolls. Use a thermometer and shoot for no more than 190 degrees Fahrenheit.


How can you tell when a roast is done? How can you tell when a roast is done?  How long should they roast for?

Trying to predict when a roast is done based on time is a very poor method.  Many factors can change how long a particular roast takes to cook to your preference, including:

Size and shape of the roast--generally the thickest dimension primarily affects how long it takes
Initial temperature of the roast
What temperature you cook it at
The doneness you are aiming for (most important for beef or lamb)

Furthermore, there are two types of cooking commonly called roasts:  pot roasts, which are a more properly a braised dish, and regular roasts.   Finally, while not always called roasting, some oven cooked meats which are cooked for a very long time at low temperatures are in fact more similar in their chemistry to braising than to higher temperature roasting.

Short Answer

For braised dishes and low-and-slow barbecue type roasting, you can tell when the cooking is done because the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender.

For all other roasts, the best way to know it is done is to take the internal temperature with a probe or instant read thermometer.

The time guideline in recipes is to help you plan your cooking day logistics, and so that you know approximately how long to wait before checking for doneness.  As in all but a few forms of cooking, the recipe times are not the final arbiter.

Pot Roasts and Braising

Pot roasts are cooked with liquid in the roasting pan, typically coming up about 1/3 to 1/2 the height of the meat.   This is actually a type of braising, despite sometimes being called a roast dish, and is suitable for tougher cuts of meat like beef chuck, turkey thighs, or leg of lamb.

This is a moist cooking method intended to bring the temperature up high enough, long enough to convert the tough connective tissue to succulent gelatin.

These dishes are always well done.   You know they are finished when the meat comes off the bone easily, and (when appropriate) shreds with little effort.

These dishes often braise for 45-60 minutes for dark meat poultry, or for 2-3 hours (or even more) for pork, beef, lamb, goat, and so on.

Low and Slow Roasting

Low and slow roasting, done with oven temperatures of approximately 250-300 F (120-150 C) on tougher meats--typically pork shoulder, beef chuck, brisket, and so on--has the same purpose as braising:  it slowly converts the collagen to gelatin to create an unctuous dish.  The difference is this roasting is done dry, not in liquid.

The test for doneness is also the same:  when the meat comes off the bone easily, and shreds with little effort.  The internal temperature will be at least about 180 F (82 C) and as high as 205 F (96 C)  but this is not the primary indicator in low-and-slow.

The time to roast is very sensitive to the thickness of the cut, and the temperature at which the roasting is done.  The roasting times can be very long, as the heat transfer is not as effective as with braising, up to 12 hours and even more depending on the item.

Regular Roasting

The remainder of this answer will concentrate on regular, high temperature roasting (as opposed to low-and-slow).  In general the temperature will be at least 300 F (150 C), but usually 350 F (180 C) or higher.

In regular roasting, there may be a searing period of very high heat at the beginning or end of the roasting period to help brown and crisp the exterior of the cut.

The main indicator for when meat is done roasting is temperature.   This is because the highest temperature achieved in the meat indicates how well it is cooked.

How to Measure

To measure the temperature of the roast, use an instant read or probe type thermometer in the thickest part of the meat.  Try to aim the probe for the center, without touching bone.

For larger roasts, you want to aim for a measured temperature about 5 degrees F (about 2-3 degrees C) below your final target temperature.  This is because the outside of the meat will be much hotter than the inside, and as the roast sits, the temperature will even out, raising the temperature at the center--this is called "carry over cooking."

Some tips:

Take the temperature in several places, and use the lowest one as your result
Leave the thermometer in until the result stops changing--depending on the quality and type of thermometer you have, this could take from 2-10 seconds or so.

What Temperature should I look for?

The temperature you are looking for depends on the type of meat you are cooking.

Red Meat

Red meat, including beef and lamb, can be roasted to different donenesses depending on how you prefer it.

125 F    49 C    Rare
130 F    55 C    Medium-rare
140 F    60 C    Medium
155 F    68 C    Medium-well
165 F    74 C    Very well done

Poultry

Most people expect most poultry to be thoroughly cooked (with the exception of duck breasts).

White meat should be cooked to about 155 F (68 C).  Dark meat should be cooked, depending on your preference to at least 160 F (71 C) to as high as 180 F (82 C).  It is far more resistant to overcooking than is white meat.

Note that duck breast is very unique among common types of poultry, in that it is a very heavily worked slow-twitch muscle:  it is in fact, dark meat.  Many people prefer it cooked medium rare or so.   You can use the beef temperature chart above for duck breast.

Pork

Historically, especially in the US, pork has been cooked extremely well done because it was very fatty (which helps it seem moist), and to ensure it was cooked enough to prevent any food-born illness.

With leaner pork on the market, and far, far less risk of food born illness, it is becoming common to roast pork to lower temperatures.

It is safe after about 150 F (65 C), but many people find it more to their preference roasted to 155 or 160 F (68-72 C).

For more information, see:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)?


How do bakeries get smooth jam to top their cheesecakes with? Every brand of jam or preserves I’ve bought has a coagulated consistency. While it’s shiny, the surface isn’t smooth when either spread or spooned or piped.

Every cheesecake I’ve purchased from a bakery has been topped with, say, this smooth strawberry jam. The consistency is really smooth and gel like. Even on my tongue it feels so smooth. How do bakeries get their jam like that?

You are thinking of jelly like actual jelly in a can: Sweetened fruit juice thickened with pectin. While some bakeries use special pectin to make glazes (look at LM pectins) most jelly fillings and glazes are made with starch. In the US, usually corn starch.

Jelly donut filling is like canned pie filling: a sugar syrup that is thickened with starch. This is an example recipe.

Fruit glaze toppings are similar but have a bit more starch so they set up more firm. Here is a commercial example. Notice the ingredients, corn syrup and corn starch are prominent.

Starch is cheap, sets up firm and is less sweet than sugar. Pectin has a better texture and flavor, in my opinion. When making glazes at home, boiling down jams and jellies produces superior results.


Is it better to freeze crepe batter or cooked crepes? I sometimes make crepe pancakes with the following recipe: 200g of flour, 350ml of milk, 2 eggs and a table spoon of vegetable oil.

I was wondering whether it was better to store the crepe batter in the freezer and cook some when I want it, or to cook the crepes then store them in the freezer.

Which way will last longer and which way will ensure that the crepes are fresh when I eat them?

It is a compromise either way.  Neither will be as good as freshly made, but both methods will work.  As far as frozen batter, you will either need to plan ahead, or be willing to wait for it to thaw.  If you go this route, I would suggest zip style freezer bags, and freeze flat, so that it will thaw more quickly.  Also, some of the leavening power will be reduced.  So, if you enjoy fluffy pancakes, you might not be able to achieve that.  On the other hand, frozen pancakes are fine too.  However, you also lose some quality here as well.  The issue is reheating...unless you have a combi-oven, where you can use steam to bring them back to life.  In terms of length of storage, as long as they well packaged, the shelf life is about the same.


Potato for a purpose I noticed that my super market sells packaged potatoes for different purposes, for example they sell:

potatoes for a salad
potatoes for baking
potatoes for frying etc..

They all look pretty similar to me. Are these labels just for marketing, or is there an actual difference?
I usually just go for whatever is cheapest at the time. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong if, for example, I buy potatoes for a salad and use them to make fries.

Yes, there are differences.  Unfortunately, many potatoes have been bred for crop yield and storage over flavor ... and so the flavor differences that you might see in South America don't tend to be so prevalent in the US and Europe.
"Factory farming" in many ways started because of potatoes.  McDonalds wanted to get rid of regional differences in their french fries, and so contracted with farmers in Idaho to grow a single variety of potato for them so they could get the uniformity that they wanted.
Starch:
The main difference for those sold in the US is the type of starch in the potato -- most potatoes can be sorted into 'floury' vs. 'waxy' types:

Floury potatoes (also called 'baking potatoes', 'mealy potatoes', or 'starchy potatoes') will fall apart after cooking.  This means that they disintegrate if you try to use them for soups and stews, but they make a lump-free mashed potato or a "fluffy" baked potato.  Russets are in this category.

Waxy potatoes (also called 'boiling potatoes') will soften but stay a little bit firm and mostly stay in one piece after cooking if you don't agitate them too much.  This makes them better for stews or potato salad where you want distinct chunks of potatoes, but worse for really fluffy mashed potatoes.  "Red" potatoes tend to fall into this category.

There are also in-between types, such as "Yukon Gold" (some people put "white" potatoes in this category) -- they'll mash up okay (maybe with a few lumps), and if you use them in stews, they'll have firm chunks but the outsides will start to break up if you stir too vigorously.  This is actually a benefit in some recipes.

As the starches change over time, "new" potatoes tend to behave more like waxy/boiling potatoes even when they come from a baking-type potato.
Sugar:
Some potatoes are sweeter than other varieties, although this can also change during storage.  (Cold storage will get many varieties of potatoes to change their starches into sugars ... but it may happen unevenly).  Sweeter potatoes will brown more, which can cause problems if they brown too quickly or unevenly when subjected to high heat (frying, roasting), which means the potato is either undercooked while looking pretty, or too dark when it's fully cooked through.
If you're working with a recipe that calls for a specific variety of the potato, sugar levels can often be the reason.  There's at least one recipe out there that relies on cold-induced sweetening to try to convert American potatoes to more closely match an Austrian variety.
When starting out, you might not worry so much about the facet, other than considerations about long-term cold storage.
Water/Moisture Content:
How wet a potato is affects how it cooks and how well it stores.  It can also affect how much liquid it'll absorb when making mashed potatoes or similar, so a drier potato will allow you to add more flavorful liquid.
But I can never remember which varieties are dryer than others, so I rarely use this as a consideration.  It's often more important to know that when a recipe calls for letting the potatoes to steam after cooking but before mixing in other ingredients, it might be about moisture release, not just cooling.
Shape/Size:
"New" potatoes and "fingerling" potatoes have a large surface area for their volume.  This makes them a complete waste if you're going to be pealing them.  They're better for skin-on, whole or mostly whole (halved / quartered) preparations.
If I'm going to be doing some sort of peeled and cut up preparation, then I want larger potatoes so I don't spend so much time peeling them (and waste so much volume compared to what's left).
Even if I'm leaving the skin on, I tend to favor slightly larger potatoes as I don't have to spend as much time scrubbing them.  I'd rather quarter larger potatoes for roasting instead of dealing with the tiny potatoes.
If I'm baking potatoes, then I'll try to select ones that are uniformly sized, and a reasonable portion for what I'm preparing.  (larger if it's the main thing, like chili over a baked potato ... but smaller if it's intended as a side).  If I'm selecting loose potatoes, I might try to get some variety of size (so that people have a choice), but I try to stick with ones that are roughly the same circumference but different lengths so they cook up in roughly the same time.
Skins:
For applications where you're not peeling the potatoes, especially when they're an important part of the dish such as potato skins or twice-baked potatoes, you may want to consider the texture of the skins.  "New" and "Red" potatoes tend to have thinner skins, while Russet potatoes tend to have a thicker, rougher skin.
Color:
As the colors come from chemicals produced by the plant, there can be distinctive flavors associated with them, but they also provide variety on a plate.  (although beware of mixing your own, as they'll cook up differently.  Stick to small "new" potatoes.
Also note that skin color is independent of the flesh color.  Most "Red" potatoes in the US such as "Red Bliss" are stark white on the inside ... but there are some varieties that have red flesh.
Flavor:
Flavor is a bit of a weird thing, as everyone processes flavors a little bit differently.  I like the various yellow potatoes, as I find them to be more "buttery", but I've never done a blind taste test so I have no idea if it's the yellow color that's tricking me.
If you're serving the potatoes with a fairly plain preparation, then the potato flavors are going to come through better... but if you're covering it with vinegary pulled pork or sour cream and chives, then it's probably not worth paying extra for an exceptionally flavored potato.
Packaging/Processing:
You can get pre-washed, microwave-in-the-bag potatoes if you're willing to pay more.  For smaller potatoes, they may not be vastly overpriced compared to loose potatoes of a similar size (and smaller potatoes are a PITA, so they can sometimes be worth it)
Bagged potatoes are a cost-savings, but they're also a bit of a gamble -- are the potatoes all the right size/shape for what I'm cooking?  Is there going to be an off/weird/sprouting potato hiding in the bottom of the bag?  Am I buying the right amount for what I need?  (ie. I going to eat 5lbs of potatoes before I have to worry about sprouting?)  Are the potatoes fairly smooth, or will they have lots of wrinkles or shovel damage that I have to scrub at?
In general, potatoes in grocery stores tend to be cleaner than in the past, but not all processors have the same equipment to wash & dry their potatoes before sale, so some are just ... dirtier.  Usually, there won't be as much variation within a store, but you might see it from store-to-store.  (or store-to-farmstand)


Pimientos de Padron equivalent In Spain I had a wonderful tapa called Pimiento de Padron. Green chiles fried in olive oil and salted. What type of chile could I find in the US to replicate this dish? The chiles should be mild, with the odd spicy one.

Russian roulette peppers!

Not sure if there is a good substitute you can buy already grown?

If you live near a warm coast try growing your own. Good seed suppliers (Johnnyseeds, LocalHarvest etc - Peperone Padron in NZ from italianseedspronto) should be able to help, or check Ebay or Amazon


Should I take the cake out of oven immediately after it is baked or leave it in oven for some time I follow all the recipe guidelines, but very often my cakes crumble and tend to be either moist of heavy inside although they appear nice brown and light outside and the tester comes out clean. I have a doubt that it is because I remove the cakes from the oven immediately as they are cooked.

Most cake recipes I have seen give an approximate baking time and also instructions for determining doneness by observation (the "toothpick comes out clean" sort of guideline). When the criteria for doneness are met, it is assumed you will take the cake out of the oven immediately.

Very often there are further instructions about cooling, removing from the cake pans, frosting, etc. But they don't expect you to leave the cake in the oven (whether turned "off" or "on") past when it is done. Leaving it in the oven while the oven is cooling down would just introduce too much variability as ovens would cool at different rates.

I agree with your speculation that cake problems must be from some other cause.


Can I substitute whole eggs for egg whites in cake mix? A box of white cake mix needs three egg whites.  If substituting whole eggs for egg whites, how many whole eggs would I use?

If you truly desire a white cake, you don't want to make this substitution.

The reason the white cake mix directs you to add egg whites only is to to avoid the yellow color from the yolks, which will tint your cake yellowish.

Cake mixes are highly engineered wonders, and are very tolerant of almost everything a home cook can do to go wrong within reason.  Still, substituting in the yolks increases the amount of fat—and more importantly, the emulsifier lecithin, and so will change the texture of the outcome.  This will probably not be bad, but still will not be the optimal result from your mix.


How to identify a fresh meat? I live in a big city, and there are not many fresh butcher shops here. Meats are found on supermarkets and they are passed by a frozen proccess to be able to stay longer on shelfs.
I would like to know how to identify a fresh meat ?

Thanks to science, it has become very hard to determine the actual quality of meat these days. Packaged meat is flushed with a gas that has a high concentration of oxygen (60-85% or so) to oxidize the myoglobin in meat, which keeps the meat red.

What this means is that you cannot visibly determine if the meat is good, ever. It could've been "only" refigerated for a time and then frozen, without any optical change due to the gas that's in the package. Indicators of bad meat, however, are a bad smell (of course, you can only determine this at home) or if the container seems to be under pressure, which indicates that microbes produced additional gas that can't get out of the container.

Sadly, I have given up on trying to find out if meat from the supermarket is fresh or not, as there doesn't seem to be a way of knowing. While still having a lot of tricks at their disposal, going directly to a butcher seems to be the only option that gives you at least a better chance of getting fresh meat.


What type of bread buns do premium burger restaurants use? If you have a hamburger at a fancy deli they'll often have a very fancy bun. However, I have never seen these buns for sale at bakeries or grocery stores.

What kind of different buns exist for "high end" (15$) hamburgers? I'd like to get a list of as many of them as possible and then I'll narrow my search to the ones I can reasonably make or buy.

I don't think there is one answer to your question. Every restaurant makes a choice about what it thinks a high end bun is. I would personally say either a brioche bun or an onion roll.

I think the key is that the bread is fresh, it's different from a white bread bun, and it gets a little TLC itself.

I would choose one of the two buns I did, because there is an obvious taste/texture difference between them and a standard bun. Also, what I meant by TLC is that most places just treat the bun like something to keep the burger grease off your fingers.

You'd be surprise at how it changes the bun if you put a thin coat of butter on it and slap it on the grill/flat top to crisp up. Steaming the bun also really ramps it up in my opinion. We've started steaming our plain white hotdog and hamburger buns and they're awesome. Another technique that's pretty much exclusive to the flat top, unless you have an add-on for your grill, is cooking the patty and/or bun on top of a pile of chopped onions. The onions caramelize, but the onion juices that cook out, steam up and get inside the bun to a certain extent.

So I think the choice of bread is secondary to what you do with it to jazz it up, because to be honest, a high end hamburger is more about the person eating it's perception of it being high end. I've eaten high end hamburgers cheapo hamburgers. I don't taste enough of a difference in the actual meat and bread to make me wanna pay a high price. Typically, the difference is in any seasonings, sauces, or preparations they do with it.


How to prevent homemade soy milk separating in hot tea? How to stop my homemade soy milk separating in my hot cup of tea. I'm not giving up my lovely hot sweet one cup a day black tea!

What do I need to do to make the ideal organic soy milk for hot beverages?

Please don't advise me to cool the tea. That is NOT what I want.

The problem you encounter is that soy milk curdles when coming in contact with high acidity and high temperatures. Sadly, it's a chemical reaction that will almost always happen when soy milk comes in contact with high temperatures and acidity. If you want your soy milk to incorporate nicely, try finding a way to lower the acidity, or try to lower the temperature of the tea before you pour the soy milk into it.
You can also try pouring the soy milk first or add a sprinkle of salt.

Please note that no matter what, high temperatures usually result in coagulation when in contact with acidity.

Source:
https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/425/how-to-avoid-soya-milk-curdling-in-coffee


Is it safe to prepare Chicken Tartare? I know that raw chicken generally has a lot of safety concerns. Is there anyway that I can source the chicken to minimize these worries? What are the general concerns? How can I combat them? Are there any other safety concerns I should be worried about?

I'd suggest Consumer Reports as a starting point.  They specifically investigated the food safety of chicken in 2010 and found that (among other things):

Campylobacter was in 62 percent of the chickens, salmonella was in 14 percent, and both bacteria were in 9 percent. Only 34 percent of the birds were clear of both pathogens. That's double the percentage of clean birds we found in our 2007 report but far less than the 51 percent in our 2003 report.

Store-brand organic chickens had no salmonella at all, showing that it's possible for chicken to arrive in stores without that bacterium riding along. But as our tests showed, banishing one bug doesn't mean banishing both: 57 percent of those birds harbored campylobacter.

Among all brands and types of broilers tested, 68 percent of the salmonella and 60 percent of the campylobacter organisms we analyzed showed resistance to one or more antibiotics.

The same issue seems to come up over and over again in food safety questions, and I really can't stress this enough: Salmonella is not the only dangerous bacteria in food. Campylobacter is just one of many others and produces heat-resistant enterotoxins that simply put, can make you very, very sick.  Perfringens is also common, and raw chicken has also been found to harbour Listeria.
I've seen a number of articles and blogs claiming that people "worry too much" and most of them cite Ippuku in SF, which generated quite a stir by serving chicken tartare. It's legal in many countries for a restaurant to serve raw or undercooked food, provided that there is informed consent (the customer is specifically informed or specifically orders that their food be undercooked). However, legal is a very long way from safe, especially when we're talking about raw meat.
Steak tartare is more acceptable because, for some reason, Campylobacter don't like it and the incidence of E.coli is extremely low at only 0.26%.  Raw beef isn't totally safe but most healthy people who eat it will not have complications afterward.
So, to summarize:

Raw chicken: ~20% salmonella (depending on source), ~60% campylobacter (any source)
Raw beef: Less than 0.1% e.coli, ~2% campylobacter (any source)

Conclusion: If you eat raw beef (steak tartare), you're a risk-taker. If you eat raw chicken, you have a death wish. Just say no.
At an absolute minimum, please don't serve this to your dinner guests with assurances that it will be safe. What you do to your own body is your decision to make, but it would be grossly irresponsible to serve anything made with raw chicken to anyone who hasn't been made fully aware of the risks.

P.S. Some of this data may be U.S. specific, but the problem is worldwide. For example:

A New Zealand study showed a 36.7% contamination rate for salmonella and 84.3% for campylobacter,  (thanks TFD!).
A Canadian study showed a 37.5% incidence rate for salmonella and 75% for campylobacter.

So don't expect to be safer simply because you don't live in the U.S. If you're planning on doing this, you should check what your country's regulations and current statistics are regarding salmonella, campylobacter, C. perfringens, and listeria, for farms and plants producing chicken meat. That is your actual risk.
Buying "organic" might help, or might not, since organic is currently not a true legal or regulatory category in most regions.


What doneness is this steak? I just cooked a thin rib eye steak. I took its temperature 40 sec after removing it from the pan (all cooked outside) and it registered 135 degrees F. However, due to it being quite thin, it was hard to find the middle. I aimed for med-rare, but I think it may have been too rare. Here are some pictures.
Could anyone please indicate how done this stake was?

I am particularly concerned this last piece was too rare.

It's impossible to address your concern of whether or not your steak is "too rare."  Steak is safely eaten in a range of raw to well done.  Safety depends on product quality and safe handling procedures.  I would say your pictures range from "looking" rare to medium rare. The only way to be more explicit is to know the exact temperature, as sometimes color is not an accurate indicator.


How do I get the smell of burnt food off of the inside of my microwave oven? Someone reheated a stick of barbecued pork on too high a setting and/or for far too long.  Now the inside of my microwave oven smells like burnt something.  It gets worse when I actually try to cook something in it.  How do I get the smell out?  I've already tried washing the inside with a little soap and water.

Working in restaurants similar things to this happened a lot. Our quick fix that usually did the trick was 50/50 vinegar and water and boil it off as mentioned above. Lemon juice or even orange should work instead of vinegar for a better scent.
At a guess, the more acidy fluids help break down any splatter that may have gone into the vents.

Hint: this is also great to do just before cleaning the microwave, even baked on splatter comes off easily after the steam.


Black spots in porcelain coffee mug I bought a (fine china) coffee mug a couple of months ago and started using it recently. I saw 3 black spots in the inside of the mug and a lot more speck-like scattered on the outside.Initially, I assumed it to be just dust and tried washing with dishwashing liquid. It still remained and so,I tried my luck by soaking it in baking soda.Rinsed out the baking soda and filled with diluted vinegar. And then I tried scrubbing it with an brush but the spots do not seem to go away. What are these spots?

This is something that can happen during the manufacture of porcelain. It is due to iron particles in the clay used to make the porcelain, they get this look after being fired. It is part of the mug itself and cannot be removed.

Customers don't like isolated black dots on white porcelain, so high end manufacturers only sell items without these dots. But if you bought something in the mid- or low-price range, or B-ware from the high end brands, these specks are common enough.

It is only an optical defect, the mug itself is clean and you don't have to do anything more about it.


Can I use a Dutch oven for cooking sauces? Could a large enameled cast iron pot be used as a saucepan?

Most recipes I cook usually involve a sauce being cooked low and slow in a 20cm saucepan.

I was thinking of buying a 20cm enameled cast iron saucepan but now I'm wondering whether I should just buy a slightly larger 24cm Dutch oven style pot.

The main concern I have is the pot lacking a long non-conductive handle to stabilise it while stirring.

You can certainly use a Dutch oven (DO) for cooking sauce.  A good DO is probably one of the most versatile pieces of equipment in the kitchen.  It cooks, it bakes, it even fries!  It will certainly make sauce and the high sides will even help prevent splatters.  I wouldn't worry about the lack of a long handle, the weight of the DO will keep it stable.

If anything, the weight is its primary fault.  A good DO is also a heavy DO.  It can be a bit daunting to lug out every time.

Since you mentioned Le Creuset, I'm assuming you're talking about enameled cast iron - not 'normal' cast iron.  And hence haven't addressed that you certain sauces and such may not be well suited to 'normal' cast iron, but enameled is fine all around.

Can you use a enameled Dutch oven for sauces?  Absolutely.  Should you?  There are less weighty options, but at the end of the day it will make the same sauce.


Is there a typical ratio for Herbes de Provence? I know that Herbes de Provence generally contains savory, fennel, basil and thyme. Unfortunately, pre-packaged mixtures in the US usually also contain lavender. I hate lavender, it smells like my grandmother's underwear drawer. I need Herbes de Provence for a recipe I'm making soon, so I'll just make my own sans lavender. So, simple question: Typically is the mixture equal amounts of the other herbs, or should I use more or less of some of the herbs?

Wiki's cited entry on Herbes de Provence is interesting. The ready-made spice blend "Herbes de Provence" did not come into existence until the 1970's, as a product marketed by the French company Ducros. If there's a standard blend ratio, it would therefore be what's in the Ducros' product - though since it is a generic term rather than a trademarked one, other manufacturers and cooks have their own recipes and interpretations.

Ducros' own blend breaks down like this, according to the "My French Cuisine" blog (who also has the McCormick blend breakdown and a home-made alternative blend sourced from a French cookbook):

Rosemary (romarin) – 26%
Savory (sariette) – 26%
Oregano (origan) – 26%
Thyme (thym) – 19%
Basil (basilic) – 3%


how to make "Creme Caramel" coffee flavored? I tried it Vietnam 3 years ago.
I prefer the Vietnamese version, there they made it with coffee flavored liquid on top
Thanks!

Your question suggests you want to make the caramel syrup part coffee-flavoured.  I'd simply replace the water used in making that with espresso (if you can get real espresso).  You don't need much so if you can't make it at home, perhaps get a takeaway from a coffee bar. If you can't get real espresso, something close like aeropress espresso  or moka (stove-top espresso), in both cases using a lot of coffee to the amount of water.  Instant espresso powder is a last resort, or for reinforcing the flavour if it turns out too weak.
If you want to make the custard part coffee flavoured, I've had success in the past infused hot milk with ground coffee before filtering.  I was going for very strongly flavoured to make a latte buttercream, but you wouldn't need to.  Instead as the milk starts to warm, stir in ground coffee, continue heating, then filter (through a coffee filter paper, which you can put in a sieve for a one-off if you don't have a filter cone) before you add it to the egg.   Again, avoid instant coffee.  Strength will be hard to get right.  My best guess would be something like a tablespoon of ground coffee to 250ml of milk, but I'd suggest aiming for subtle rather than overpowering on the first attempt, and use a little less.
I referred to this recipe; you may need to modify my steps slightly if yours works differently.


Is it possible to fry vegetables in cream? Cream A: The fat that gathers on the top of boiled milk.
Cream B: The cream available in packets: http://www.amul.com/products/amul-freshcream-info.php

Can vegetables be actually "fried" in these types of cream? Any precautions need to be taken in this case?

Short answer:  cream is far from ideal as a frying medium.

In the US at least, heavy cream is about 35% milkfat.   Recently, I have learned the UK has a product called double cream which is closer to 50% milkfat.

So what is the rest of the cream, if it is only 50% milkfat at the high end?   It is water, with dissolved milk solids and minerals.

Even butter is only about 80% milkfat--the rest is an emulsion of water and milk solids in the main milkfat phase.   When butter is made, one by product is buttermilk (the old fashioned kind, as opposed to the modern cultured milk product) which is the remainder of the liquid components in the cream after the butter precipitates.  The essence of making ghee is separating the milkfat from the other components.

What does all of this mean?  Cream would be far from an ideal medium for frying, as the water would have to evaporate before the temperature could rise to frying levels.

It may be possible in some way by reducing the cream until only essentially the fat is left, and then frying in that, but it doesn't seem very practical.  I am not sure how you would do it without introducing many off flavors from scorching or burning the milk solids.   I could not find any references to such a thing when googling, although the results for fried ice cream did tend to predominate.

If you want to fry in cream--use ghee.  It is highly concentrated milkfat.


Can you mix raw chicken and French fries dip them in the same flour batter? I thought it was cross-contamination when you mix raw food with any food. So, can you use the same flour batter next and dip the chicken in along with French fries together and then fry them?

As long as you are cooking both, as you suggest in your question, there is no danger. Any potential hazard will not survive the heat of cooking.


How to recognize mold? I am looking for criteria to tell whether food has mold on it. Some classic cases are easy to distinguish (unbaked flour vs bread mold). However in case I don't know what the product is supposed to look like, it is almost impossible to tell. Here is a recent example, mold or crystallized sugar?

This is not an exhaustive list, but it's what I use to tell mold on unevenly colored foods.

Obviously oddly colored spots are suspect, especially if the difference in appearance is very great.  If the food has spots for some other reason, this can be harder to see - but it at least tells you where to focus in on to catch other little details.

Mold forms on the surface of food (of course).  This means it will rise up above the surface of the food, usually in a vague dome shape.  Oftentimes, you can see the edges as distinct from the food they're sitting on - usually when looking slantwise or sidewise, not straight up and down.  A lumpy texture can make this harder to spot, but it helps to look at the spots as relative to what they're sitting on.  Mold spots generally don't dip down into a food, they rise up above it, and all the similar spots should have a same-ish construction - like color changes around the edges, texture, or mounding up in the same way, since they would be colonies of the same mold.

Mold also has a, hm, furry or fuzzy texture.  This sort of texture is not very common in foods, their upper edges might be moist, or shiny, or smooth, rough or flecked... but "furry" is not common.  So, again looking slantwise or sideways, if you can see thin little hairs, or something that looks like fluff, on your oddly colored spot - it is likely mold.

And, a mold spot is a single colony.  They spread out from a center, you usually don't get streaks, or squared off shapes, or folds (like inflated bubbles deflating have sags and wrinkles and folds) - they can be  irregularly roundish, but they will be roundish.  Also, if the dish is moist or wet, probing with a knife-tip or similar will have the whole colony move as a flat disc or even lift cleanly out.  Foods that wet rarely have spots move that cleanly otherwise.

So, in your picture, the greenish spots you're talking about are the duller, matte areas, yeah?  if you look at an angle or sideways, you should be able to tell if there's a fuzzy texture to the areas or if they're all mounding up the same way.  Also, just focus in real close on one spot and see of you can tell what is going on - like all the high points got browned more, or dried patches, or there are little flat puddles of fat on the surface, or those are actually fuzzy little molds.


Why did my nougat burn? I attempted to make nougat today and it was an epic failure. The instructions for the sugar and honey solution was to mix it together with 2 tablespoons of water and stir it over heat without boiling until the sugar dissolved. Then wipe any granules on the sides of the pan into the solution and bring it to the boil without stirring at all until it reached 164'C. However the solution smelt burnt before it became of temperature. When we beat it into the egg whites it was in deed burnt and resulted in a rather brown looking charged gooey mess.

I am wondering if it is possible to get the sugar and honey to that temperature without it in fact burning. We did note that it took quite some time (12ish minutes) on a moderate heat to reach the 164° C and even seemed to plateau and dip slightly in temperature while cooking. Would it help if we tried to reach the targeted temperature faster?

I have the ingredients and want to try again tomorrow. Hopefully someone here will be able to prevent a further failure!

Your recipe is broken. If it actually gave you that temperature then discard it and find a new one.

Nougat is made, depending on the recipe, by heating the syrup to "hard ball" or "soft crack" temperatures before beating it into the egg whites.

Candy temperatures are categorized by the behavior of the syrup when dripped into ice water.

Hard ball is around 250F (121C) and looks like this:

Your temperature of 327F (164C) is actually off the chart and is categorized as "caramel" because the syrup has started to break down and the sugars are burning. Caramels have a lovely flavor but it is not going to create the correct texture for nougat. There is also a very fine line between "light caramel" and "horribly burnt" that is best avoided.

I recommend you find a more reasonable recipe.


Cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes? Chili powder? Sorry for the double questions. I'm looking at two recipes of chicken tikka masala and one has both cayenne pepper (1/4tsp) and red pepper flakes (1/2tsp) I can only find red pepper flakes where I live. My understanding is that they're both made of the same kind of pepper. So, for this recipe would it be okay if I just add extra pepper flakes in place of cayenne?

The other chicken tikka masala recipe calls for chili powder (2tsp), which I think for Americans means a mix of several spices. (Where I live chili powder and red pepper flakes are the same thing) They don't have it here either. I found some recipes for chili powder blend but they require cayenne (again!) and onion powder, neither of which I have. So, what's a recipe for chili powder that has neither but still would taste similar to the original?

So, what should I do and which recipe should I use between the two that would yield a better result despite my lack of ingredients? Thank you in advance for your answer.

I've never come across anywhere where powder and flakes mean the same, but substituting one for the other should work in terms of flavour (the appearance and texture might be a bit different).

More specifically, in some places chilli powder means powdered chillies (like cayenne), in others it means chilli spice blend. Here in the UK it's even worse - both meanings can be found in the same shop.

Red pepper flakes aren't as common here as chilli flakes, but I wouldn't expect red pepper flakes to be hot, unlike chilli flakes. Sweet/mild paprika would be the substitute in that case.

So you have to be careful of where the recipe comes from as well as where you are. I suggest you have some form of mild pepper in powder or flake form, and some form of hot pepper, and adjust to taste when the dish is nearly cooked. This isn't perfect as (especially with flakes) the flavour needs to cook into the dish a bit.


Can I boil eggs in the same pot I'm boiling something else? I know cooking the eggs kills the salmonella and that the risk is small even for raw eggs. However, I stopped boiling the eggs in the same pot I'm boiling something else, like potatoes, when I learnt the salmonella is in the shell.

Obviously, I'm not eating the shell and the eggs are washed. I wonder if I can boil everything in the same pot or not.

Salmonella can't survive boiling water, it would get killed at that temperature. It should be fine to boil everything in the same pot.


Could I use a blast chiller to make modern frozen meals at home? Over the last decade or so I have noticed that the quality of store-bought frozen meals has increased. And after heating, the quality of the frozen food is better than my own prepared meals that I freeze and reheat later. Vegetables, while usually not exactly crisp, are far less mushy than my leftovers even if they're vacuum-sealed. Pasta is pretty tender, sauces are pretty flavorful, and in pretty much every way my leftovers are outclassed after any length of time in the freezer.
As I understand, there is a fair bit involved in preparing those frozen meals at the factory but the most important element is rapid freezing in an extremely low-temperature freezer.
I recently saw a listing for a blast chiller small enough that it might reasonably fit in a residential kitchen, which led me to wonder: could I prepare food, freeze it in the blast chiller, and then heat it later, essentially making my own frozen meals with quality comparable to the mass-produced frozen meals available today?
For reference, here is a link to the type of frozen meal I'm describing (this is not intended to be an endorsement of or advertisement for this brand). Even if it worked as I imagine I'm not convinced that this is an economical practice for a home cook, but I am interested enough in whether or not it would work and if the flash-frozen food would last longer (or be more palatable for longer) than conventionally frozen leftover food.

Supermarket frozen food is not leftovers.
Aside from the fact that some things freeze well - chilli is almost impossible to break - & some things freeze badly … don't freeze leftover risotto, it is not a joyous reheat candidate … I think the significant difference is not in how fast they're frozen, but in the preparation method itself.
Supermarket chilled & frozen food is not leftovers, it's specifically cooked to be able to survive that last 15 mins in the oven or 3 mins in the nukerowave.
Pasta isn't cooked to be edible in the factory, it's cooked to be edible after having been chilled, then had some cold, half-cooked sauce dribbled over it, stored for 6 weeks, then nuked to death.
Rice, for instance, whether 'Chinese fried', 'Indian byriani', or 'Uncle Ben's plain boiled' never sticks because it was par-cooked (likely from already polished quick rice, then chilled & surface-dried whilst being separated further (see any online fried rice recipes for how this works to separate the grains) & not until then mixed with whatever 'chunks' or sauce are required for the final dish.
This then has been cold for most of its life already. It wasn't made to eat now.
Vegetables will be given little more than a par-boil (or microwave) so that they don't fall apart by the time they're married to whatever sauce. They're not fully cooked until the consumer has finished heating them. Can you even imagine giving garden peas an extra 5 mins in boiling water… no, so they won't even go in heated at all, they'll just go in raw, cooked only by you.
So, in short, your chilli will never need that kind of care & attention; your delicate broccoli florets will not survive having first been cooked sufficiently to eat.
Personally, I portion & freeze things that freeze well with no special requirements. Chilli, curries, stews are all completely unaffected by 3 months in the freezer (if they ever last me that long). Raw burgers, if a little more likely to get surface water whilst cooking don't suffer much. Pasta, no; rice, no (unless it was a 'dry' rice, plain boiled or similar, never in any kind of sauce) pastry, only uncooked… etc.
One thing I would say, as a home cook with nothing but "life experience" to tell me all this is…
"if it will freeze for a week, it will freeze for 6 months"
This is not a health recommendation, merely a guide as to what will ruin by the time it's frozen compared to what is indestructible. Compare frozen chilli to frozen beansprouts for a lesson you could learn in 24 hours ;)
(I realised I cannot comment on supermarket sauces, as I've never really found any that aren't just as bland as all heck compared to home-cooked.)


Which kind of cream do I use for creme brulee? I'm following this recipe to make cream brulee: http://www.masterchef.com.au/creme-brulee.htm

I'm a little confused over the correct type of cream to use. They list "thickened cream" but because this mixure will be heated, should I be using "cooking thickened cream", and is it possible to use a light version of the cream, or will this alter the cooking process?

What you want is cream with 35%-40% milkfat, and no gelatine or other stabilizers for whipping.  If you use a lighter cream, then it will not have the rich, creamy texture, and evenly thick consistency you seek.  In fact, if you use a light enough cream, it will not thicken properly.

Now we enter the murky realm of regional naming differences, trying to find the appropriate kind of cream!

In Australia, this would be called pure cream (35-56% milkfat)... which might be the same as "cooking thickened cream."  Read the label and make sure it is just cream, not gelatin or foam stabilizers like "thickened cream".  It could also be labelled "single cream" too (~35% milkfat).

In America, we call it heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream, and it is defined as 35%+ milkfat, and is generally around 38%.

In the UK, a recipe I found the uses a mixture of milk and "double cream" (cream with 48%+ milkfat).  They mix 100 mL whole fat milk + 426 mL of double cream. The final milkfat content is somewhere around 40%.

In the rest of the EU, the same procedure appears to be the best bet, since I can't find clear names for heavier creams besides double cream (which appears to be the same as the UK).

Edit: You may also be able to get a good result using straight double cream.  I'm looking at a French recipe that uses it.  The catch is, of course, that while the minimum fat content is specified, actual fat content in double cream can vary considerably, potentially giving erratic results.


Impossible to Roll Croissant Dough I'm planning to make croissants for thanksgiving this year, I've made them before but found it nearly impossible to roll out after keeping the laminated dough in the fridge over night.  The dough was impossibly hard and I probably spent around an hour literally banging on the dough with a rolling pin before it would be ready to fold again.

Is there an ideal temperature that the fridge should be at? Or maybe am I supposed to let the dough warm up before rolling it out again?  Or is there something else I'm missing?

Let the dough warm back up. You put it in the fridge to firm up and develop glutens between folding in more butter, but once you are done, you make your croissants right then and there or if refrigerating your pastry dough, you need to bring it back up to workable temp.

I use a cooling rack for this, well I use it for anything I need to cool or thaw, it helps prevent the heat or cold from being stored in the surface its sitting on and lets more air move around it which speeds up cooling and thawing.


Why does fruit from a particular market go bad so quickly? I live near several produce vendors, including a supermarket, small grocers, and a semi-open-air market. The open-air market carries more local produce, but some items are imported to Canada from the U.S. The other stores source their fruit more internationally, but still have a great deal of local fruit.

The fruit from the open-air market seems to go bad much more quickly than fruit from any other store. A box of blueberries will have mold in it a day after I bring it home. Peaches shrivel and develop mold within 3 days. This occurs whether or not I keep the fruit in the refrigerator. Does the market, which is a permanent structure (not a collection of stalls), possibly have more mold circulating? Is this just how fast fruit goes bad on certain supply chains? Could it be that the fruit at the market is older?

Shelf life and taste of fruit are inversely correlated. A few factors off the top of my head are:

It is extremely difficult to breed a fruit variety that's good at two things at once. The varieties that are bred for long life are not bred for taste.
It is "very expensive" for a plant (metabolically) to produce aroma, it's also expensive to produce color, and it's expensive to produce sugar. All three at once are really rare.
fruit that has been picked earlier (less ripe) lasts longer and looks better, and is less tasty.
fruit that has been stored under refrigeration lasts longer, and is less tasty.
fruit that has more aroma is more attractive to insects, whose bite sites spoil a fruit directly and also create openings for bacteria and mold to enter
fruit that is riper (and tastes better) is easier damaged during handling, which makes it easy for bacteria and mold to enter

Combine that with a segmented market. On the one side, you have the buyers who are not very sensitive to taste, and are sensitive to convenience and price. They buy at supermarkets, and tend to choose their fruit by looks. Then you have farmers who corner the "high-taste" market niche with fruit that is optimized for taste, and they find buyers who are willing to pay more and give up the convenience of shopping at a supermarket in order to get the best taste. These farmers don't have the incentive or resources to optimize for traits that diminish taste, and sometimes are against it because of personal conviction. These farmers tend to sell at open-air markets.

Bottom line, if you value shelf life very highly, the best strategy for you is to buy your fruit from suppliers who optimize for it, in that case the supermarkets.


How to cut a cooked chicken, including the bones, with a cleaver? I'm interested to know the proper way to cut a chicken into pieces using a cleaver, without cutting around the bone.

When I go to Chinese restaurants, they often serve chicken neatly cut with a cleaver into pieces including the bone.  However, when I search for videos about carving chickens, they all say the same thing:

Cut off the drumstick
Cut up the middle of the breast bone, pull the breast off and slice it into pieces.
Cut off the wing

I'd like to know how to cut it, using a cleaver, with the bones in tact.  Thanks everyone, and any advice will be greatly appreciated!

I think what you want to do is this, cribbed from this book, which has an excellent step by step guide with pictures:

Remove the wings. Stand the chicken on its neck, legs point to the ceiling and breasts pointing away from you. slide the cleaver between the body and wing, cutting through the joint close to the body.  You should slide the knife between the joint cutting only the tendons, not the bone.
Remove the legs.  lie the chicken on its back one leg near you, one leg away from you.  slide the knife between the joint near the body, again cutting only tendon not bone and remove the leg.
Separate the thigh from the drumstick, again go for the joint.  If you want the legs to be in smaller pieces then you can cut each thigh and drumstick in two with a firm action.  You have 2 choices for technique

Start with the cleaver tip furthest from you on the board, place the thigh under the blade and push down firmly and quickly.  you should cut through the bone.
Chop through the bone by lifting the cleaver in the air and bringing down hard and fast.  This has better chance of a cleaner cut through the bone, but you need to be a better aim.

Split the carcass in half.  Stand in the same position as 1. and with the blade parallel to to your body cut down through the carcass so you have the back and the breast in separate pieces
Remove the breast from the bone by sliding the knife (might want to use a smaller knife here) between the meat and the bone.
Remove the backbone out of the back, kitchen scissors are easiest.  you can skip this if the back doesn't have much meat.
Cut the back pieces into nice size pieces across the length.
Slice the breast pieces crosswise into nice size pieces
Reassemble the chicken on the plate with the breast meat on top of the back pieces

this picture doesn't really do it justice, but until I can find a better one...

this video shows it being done with a bit more force and not for presentation, but might be more what you are after


What is the setting for the strongest brew on my coffee maker? My coffee maker has settings for strong, gourmet, and bold.  Which would brew the strongest coffee?

That depends on what you mean for strong.

Straing in flavor:

If you mean strong in flavor than you need to set the machine to a "fast" brew (Espresso in Italian).

The flavor gets extracted almost immediately from the grounds upon contact with water. You can visually judge how strong it is by the color: the darker the stronger. So the settings on your machine should be to use little water.

High in coffein:

If you mean high in coffein, than you need longer brew-time to extract this substance. As a rule of thumb the extraction is proportional to the time water stays in contact with coffee.

For coffee machines this means more water running through the grounds.

Note on "Fast Brew":

By "fast" I mean that it takes little time to make the coffee and not that the water runs faster through the grounds. The water runs always with same velocity, therefore if you use more water you'll wait more for your coffee. It takes less to make an espresso than to make an american coffee, obvioulsly.

Espresso vs American Coffee:

Italian Espresso: strong in flavor
Cup of american coffee: taste is deluted compared to Espresso but amount of coffein can be 8-10 times higher.


What is the best way to cook pasta made from quinoa,amaranth, and brown rice? I am not sure if this is on topic but was wondering if there is some "trick" to cooking this pasta. That is my question in a nutshell.
The package direction say to boil for 10 min. which I did, however, as I was cooking the pasta it was foaming very heavy and I could not see the actual pasta. I stirred it in order to keep the foaming down which seemed to help.
When the time was up and I drained the pasta it was about a third of the amount I originally started with. There was a heavy film of what seemed to be melted pasta at the bottom of the pan.
I assume these ingredients just melt. So maybe this is why wheat is the most used ingredient for making pasta.

I've been gluten free for two decades and have probably cooked every kind of GF pasta available. The first challenge is to not expect it to look, behave or taste like wheat pasta ;-)
Use a big enough pot. Like wheat pasta it needs space. Add a little oil to the boiling water to keep it from sticking together.
If the water is boiling like crazy, bring the heat to a gentler boil. GF pasta can be fragile. If it's spaghetti the ends are probably sticking out of the water so patiently and gently immerse it.
Once it's swimming in the pot, stir a bit with a wooden spoon or silicone utensil to make sure it's not sticking together, same as with regular pasta.
Usually the package says 8-10 minutes. You have to taste it to know. Remember it will cook a bit after drained so keep it a little bit on the chewy side.
Personally I prefer combinations of quinoa and corn as opposed to rice. "Ancient Harvest" in a turquoise box is my favorite, with Barilla a close second. Just my opinion.
There is definitely a learning curve with GF cooking. You will succeed, even if it takes more than once to attain perfection!